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OPINION-EDITORIAL — A very subtle change in the words coming out of the Russian Foreign Ministry signals the FINAL step before the annihilation of the United States. We have now reached the final step . . .

The wording used by the Russian Foreign Ministry was very subtle, but its implications are anything but. See if you can pick-up the subtle change in this excerpt from RT:

The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs who were killed last week when the Russian Il-76 military aircraft transporting them was shot down by Kiev’s troops, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has said.

On Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee released a report stating that the cargo plane was destroyed using two US-made MIM-104A missiles fired by a Patriot air-defense system. The Il-76 came down in Russia’s Belgorod Region last Wednesday. All of those on board – 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian troops, and six crew members – were killed.

Russian investigators stated that Ukrainian troops fired the missiles from a staging area in Kharkov Region, not far from the village of Liptsy, some 10km from the Russian border. They based their conclusion on 116 missile fragments found at the crash site bearing inscriptions in English.

Responding to the report, Zakharova said in a Telegram post that US citizens “need to know where their money is going,” arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.”

Did you catch it? Did you pick up the subtle change in the language they used? It’s right there in front of you!

Here, let me focus it for you:

“The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs . . .”

Then again, in a later paragraph:

” . . .arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.” “”

This tiny and subtle change points the finger not just at the US Government, it also points the finger at . . . . YOU. And me! Individually. Personally.

This is a point I have made repeatedly on my radio shows in the past two years. I have earnestly pointed out that what our GOVERNMENT does, is being done IN OUR NAME.

Remember, this nation celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address wherein he posited that we have “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Ergo, when the US Government does something, it does it in OUR name. You and me.

The Russians have now made clear who it is they hold responsible for what the US Government is doing: YOU and ME.

You see, we . . . . you and me . . . . ARE in fact, to blame!

We sit back and do nothing while our government runs roughshod over the whole world. Sanctions on this one and that one. Military action here. Military action there. And whenever our Government engage in that activity, people we don’t know, in lands we’ve never been to or maybe haven’t even heard of . . . . die.

Oh, and while our government is doing all this crap to people all over the world, you and I sit back and do . . . . nothing. We don’t make a phone call to our members of Congress or the Senate. We don’t write a letter or send a fax. We don’t even fire-off an email. We sit on our asses and do absolutely . . . . nothing.

The Russians are now making clear it is YOU and I who are doing this. YOU and I who are to blame. Directly. Personally.

You know what? They’re right.

WE are to blame. We elect these people then sit back and tacitly approve of what they’re doing by our own, personal inaction. They slaughter people all over the world. They bomb countries back into the Stone Age. You and I sit back and do absolutely nothing. Or worse, we sing idiotic Beach Boys Parody songs like “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran . . . .” as if somehow what we’re doing is good. It isn’t.

A Russian guy I know cited US Senator Lindsey Graham the other day to make a very valid point to me. He showed me what Lindsey Graham, posted on “X” (formerly Twitter) wherein he said the following:

Then the Russian guy asked me “What if some member of the Russian Federation COuncil (i.e. a Russian “Senator”) Posted this exact message on VKontake (Russian Social Media) only changed the countries involved, like this FAKE SAMPLE:

FAKE RUSSIA SENATOR

In case the Putin Administration is wondering, it is abundantly clear to the United States and everyone else in the region, that the Administration doesn’t want war. But it will be difficult to tell the families of the fallen soldiers that the United States is not at war with us.

The United States is at war with Russia on multiple fronts through their proxies (Ukraine). Weak talk and weak action are putting our service members [in Ukraine], at risk. If the United States doesn’t pay a heavy price after the deaths of our service members, and the wounding of many more, then the Putin Administration is derelict in their duties to protect Russian personnel in harm’s way.

To the Putin Administration: Stop the weak rhetoric and respond with strength to protect Russian interests and lives. Your current approach to United States/NATO aggression is not working. Change while you can.”

Same words as Lindsey Graham. Same logic.

So I have to ask YOU, the Reader, if Lindsey Grahams words about Iran are good enough to warrant the US attacking Iran, would the FAKE Russian Senator’s exact same words about Ukraine, justify Russia hitting us?

Why not. Same situation!

You see, this is a big problem for my fellow Americans. We view the world as being ours to do with as we please. We never once stop to think how other powerful nations, might decide to use OUR logic, when dealing with . . . . us.

Now, some of you will react by saying “They wouldn’t dare.” Oh no? Why not?

And you would respond “Because we would nuke the living shit out of them.”

Really?

Because they can also do that to us.

Oh.

Yes.

Reality sets in.

And those same reactionary Americans who would say “They wouldn’t dare” would then likely say “They won’t, it would mean the end of the world.”

Yes. It would. And we would have done it to ourselves by the way we are behaving around the world.

Why should Russia sit back and allow us to supply arms to Ukraine, which are now clearly being used to kill Russians?

Why shouldn’t Russia tell the United States (again) to stop supplying weapons that are killing Russians and then add, or Russia will start hitting the United States?

Why shouldn’t Russia make it direct? Blunt?

Well . . . . turns out, they just began making it blunt. At the top of this Op-Ed, they have now begun blaming “American citizens.” You and me.

Where is this leading? Let me explain it this way:

What is the difference between “Killing” and “murder?”

Murder is the unlawful killing of an innocent. But “Killing” is allowable if it is “justified.”

For instance, if a guy is aiming a gun at you, and you do something which kills him, that is “self defense” and not murder, even though the guy is now dead.

So there is a difference between killing and murder. One may be allowed while the other is not.

Same thing with countries.

The U.S. is supplying weapons for Ukraine to use to kill Russians. Russia has repeatedly told the US and NATO to stop, but we are not stopping. ERGO, it would be “justified” for Russia to kill us in self defense.

Thankfully, the Russians have good morals and they know that perhaps the innocent American people ought not be harmed because of our evil government. SO thus far, they have not killed us.

I think the change in Russian Foreign Ministry wording mentioned at the start of this Op-Ed, tells us that’s about to change.

The official Diplomatic Corps of the Russian Federation is now openly, and publicly, laying the blame for the deaths of Russians, upon “the American people.” Me and you.

Having repeatedly told us to stop, the only thing left for Russia to do is to make us stop – by killing us.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has now begun laying the historical groundwork to justify exactly that.

By changing their statements to lay blame upon “the American people” they are building a record to justify killing . . . us.

Wise-up folks.

Unless we reign-in our wayward government, and stop them from running roughshod over the whole world, you and I __can__ be held accountable. You and I __can__ be stopped.

The clock seems to be ticking.

Now, you can either step up and start being an active and engaged citizen, and start telling your elected public servants to knock it off, or you can go right back to sitting on your ass and doing nothing until the brilliant white flashes start. Then you can feel sorry for yourself as you vaporize, except God already knows: You brought this on yourself by not getting off your lazy ass and stopping your own government while you still could.

No pity for you and me.

Have you ever seen a workplace bully picking the wrong target? What happened?

Kevin is the gentlest man I’ve ever known, and we go back nearly four decades. He’s tall, well-built, and strong, yet he talks with a soft voice and always speaks kindly.

Kevin worked in a small, cramped Capitol Hill office with a Class A bully. This guy continually said nasty things to his colleagues. He was especially abusive to the women and, because of his kind demeanor, Kevin was one of the favorite targets. A bully loves attacking anyone s/he perceives to be weak.

One day, Kevin had enough. During a verbal attack, Kevin jumped up, grabbed this guy by the lapels, and pulled him from his desk chair. He then pushed the guy against a wall and put his face very close. Kevin told the guy that he could shut up, immediately, or that Kevin would shut his mouth for him. Kevin went on to explain that there’d be no more office abuse; if the behavior happened again, the consequences would be much more severe.

The guy turned bright red, then ghostly white. He had nothing to say. He sat down and spent the rest of the day looking terrified and shaking uncontrollably. He never bullied anyone again, and he left his job shortly after. Nobody was sorry to see him go.’

My 23-year-old son got a DUI last night and is asking for me to help financially. I can but I want him to learn his lesson. What should I do?

I’m going to give you a different perspective.

It was Dec 1982. I had just turned 16 in October. My two friends and I were walking home from the Christmas dance at the high school when I was hit by a drunk driver. She was driving home from a company Christmas party. I was the one closest to the street on the sidewalk and somehow she clipped me without hitting either of my friends. Best we can figure, I rolled up the windshield and off the side of her car.

I was knocked unconscious and woke up laying facedown on the street. People were already gathered by me, holding me down, telling me not to move. I was terrified that they knew something about my “condition” that I didn’t know. Fortunately, I had only minor injuries and a concussion. Sprained pinky finger, road-rash scrapes over the whole right side of my body from my ear to my knee, swollen knee and elbow, and that pesky concussion. No doubt, I was lucky.

Then there was another little “gift” that I didn’t realize I had for years. PTSD. I had to quit the school wrestling team after I had a panic attack and blacked out during practice. In the first few months after, I literally dove into bushes and onto lawns when I heard sharp sounds behind me – tires squealing, engine revving, door slamming – all sent me flying away from the road. I would get up and brush off the leaves while mentally chastising myself for being weak. Eventually, it got to the point where I’d just flinch and not actually leap, and months later where I’d just startle.

This was 1982, before MADD, before strict DUI laws, and in many cases, before any DUI laws. I was told she spent the night in the “drunk tank” and was released the next day. Her insurance paid the medical expenses minus the PTSD therapy because I didn’t know I had that. Insurance also paid for clothing that was torn or cut off, and I believe an additional $600 for “pain and suffering.” My PTSD lasted over two years.

I never drink and drive. Because I know the real cost. Because I know I got a small dose and some families pay a much larger cost. Because I couldn’t imagine sitting in a cell knowing I killed someone.

Evolution

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UAih8qZnbsM?feature=share

Have you ever caught a police officer lying in court?

Yes, as a 16 year old!

I had my fairly new license and was driving my parents car when a deer darted out in front of me. I swerved and put the car into a ditch. Not hurt.

I find a phone and call a tow truck. Get back to the car and there is a police car there. I explained I’d stayed with the car for 15 minutes but knew there was a gas station nearby.

He gives me a ticket for speeding because in his opinion that’s the only way this could have happened.

Now this is a small municipal court for traffic tickets. My license was from my parents home 3 hours away. He was expecting me to just mail in the fine rather than contest it. He approached me before court to “refresh his memory about the event” and naively I did. He gets called and testifies that I was speeding.

So, I asked him where he was when the accident happened and was able to witness me speeding. He said he passed me going in the opposite direction.

So, I asked: if you saw me speeding in the opposite direction & saw me wreck my car, why did I have to walk 20 minutes to the phone, call police headquarters to report the accident, and walk back before you wrote the ticket?

The judge stopped things at that point & dismissed the charges.

What was the one incident in your life when you knew in an instant that your life was about to change? What did you do and how are things now?

One morning as I was waking up, I looked at my 27 year old wife as she was sleeping and noticed the veins in her neck were throbbing. A few days later she was in the hospital getting excess fluid drained from her pericardium (sac around the heart) that was built up and putting pressure on her heart, and causing the veins to protrude. She had recently recovered from a stomach virus and doctors attributed this to a viral infection.

A few days later, it was happening again. That’s when the whirlwind began. She was put back in the local hospital for tests, within a day sent to John’s Hopkins for more tests, within another day sent right to the oncology unit. Her diagnosis was Angiosarcoma; the tumor was on her heart.

The outlook wasn’t good and I was getting a lot of percentages: “if we do this there’s x percent of this happening and if that happens there’s x percent that we can do this”, etc. I asked to speak with someone who could just tell me what the deal was, what to expect, what the reality of the situation was. They sent the head of oncology to speak with me, and I’ll never forget it:

“The tumor is on her heart…we can’t just remove the tumor because of the location, and because angiosarcoma has an almost liquid consistency operating is rarely successful. It’s extremely aggressive and once it gets into the bloodstream, if it hasn’t already, will spread throughout her body. You’ve asked me to be completely frank with you about your wife’s condition, and because you asked I am going to honor your request: the reality of the situation is that your wife is going to die, and the life you had together as you know it is over. It could be within six months, or because of the pressure on her heart she could go into cardiac arrest at any time. Now, I’m an aggressive realist, which means I’m going to aggressively try to change the reality of the situation. But the fact is that if this kind of cancerous tumor appeared in her leg, we would immediately amputate, and she would still not survive more than two years”.

He was right.

Leftists need to learn

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XRjVNiv0M5M?feature=share

Ukraine – The Power Scuffle Continues

The scuffle in Kiev over replacing the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Valeri Zaluzny continues.

CNN reports that he will be fired within the next 48 hours.

Zelensky set to announce dismissal of Ukraine’s top commander within days as rift grows over war, source says – CNN, Jan 31, 2024

This will not go down well with the electorate and, moreover, with the soldiers of the Ukrainian forces:

A poll published by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology in December found 88% of Ukrainians supported the top general. Zelensky’s approval rating, though also high, was considerably lower at 62%.

Or, as the Washington Post provides:

It is far from clear that any new commander will be able to improve Ukraine’s difficult situation on the battlefield without significantly more forces and weapons — precisely what Zaluzhny has demanded of Zelensky, adding tension to what was already a fraying relationship.

Zaluzhny’s popularity — both within the military and among ordinary citizens — makes his removal a political gamble for Zelensky. It also poses strategic risks at a time when Russia has intensified its attacks and Western security assistance for Kyiv has slowed. The general has built strong rapport with his Western counterparts and has often been able to advocate directly for certain materiel and seek counsel on battlefield strategy.
…
Both Budanov and Syrsky are considered favorites of Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, the chief of the presidential office and Zelensky’s closest adviser. Nearer the front, however, there seems to be little appetite for change.

“My personal opinion is you can’t do something like this right now — Zaluzhny is someone 80 percent of the military considers a good authority,” said Oleksandr, a battalion commander fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“For what is he being removed? It’s not clear. And who will replace him? Syrsky? God, I hope not. No one in the army likes Syrsky,” Oleksandr added.

The German boulevard broadsheet Bild names one of the plausible reasons for the current conflict:

The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.

So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.

Avdeevka is nearly surrounded and any attempts to hold onto it will cost many valuable lives of soldiers for no discernible advantage. But, just like with Bakhmut, Zelenski wants to hold on to the city to be be able point his western sponsors to some ‘successes’.

My hunch is that, after Monday’s kerfuffle in Kiev, the decision to fire Zaluzny was still hanging in balance.

The change now only happened after the noeconservative destroyer of Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, had landed in Kiev.

She made some awkward predictions:

When asked by a journalist whether Nuland had learned about Kyiv’s plans on the battlefield, she replied that, in her opinion, Ukraine would achieve great success.

“I have to say that I leave Kyiv tonight more encouraged about the unity and the resolve, about 2024 and its absolute strategic importance for Ukraine. I also leave more confident that, even as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success,” the U.S. Under Secretary of State emphasized.

This hint does not foresee success on the ground but asymmetric operations within Russia or the Black Sea. More to the like of this which has happen last night:

Ukraine sinks Russian ship.

During a night attack by drones in the Donuzlav area, the Black Sea Fleet lost the Ivanovets MRK, built in 1989, 493 tons of displacement, armed with Moskit missiles.

Sinking that ship will do nothing to change the outcome at the battlefront. Nor would any attacks on Russia oil and gas infrastructure change anything.

Nuland’s remark also hints that the replacement of General Zaluzny will not come in the form of Army General Alexander Syrski, who is disliked by the troops for unsuccessfully holding grounds in Bakhmut and elsewhere at too high costs in men and material.

Nuland’s hint towards asymmetric operations points to the elevation of the Chief of Military Intelligence Directorate Major-General Kyrylo Budanov as a incoming replacement for Zaluzny.

Budanov has been responsible for some daring, if mostly unsuccessful, terror attacks on Russian land and interests.

Back in June 2023 the Economist explained why Zelenski might seek to elevate Bundanov:

Aides huddle close when the general speaks. Under his leadership, Ukraine’s main directorate of intelligence—HUR—has become a plucky, autonomous authority that punches above its weight. It resembles a gang. “Before we had managers, now we have a leader,” says one veteran officer. Oleg, an operative who has known General Budanov for decades, speaks approvingly of his ability to infect others with his fervour, comparing him to a snake “hypnotising you before he comes in for the kill. Restrained, measured, never panicked. You do anything he asks.”
…
As a confidant of the president—those in government call them kindred spirits—General Budanov is understood to be playing an ever-bigger role in behind-the-scenes peace negotiations. Sources say he is a conduit to secret talks with the Chinese, and he has also been in contact with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner outfit.

In conversation it is clear that General Budanov has been thinking hard about post-war Ukraine. Last winter there was talk of him becoming defence minister. He insists his only ambition is victory. Yet secret polls conducted by Mr Zelensky’s office show they are thinking about using the cult of their hero spymaster to counterbalance a perceived rivalry emanating from Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s likeable and independent commander-in-chief. General Budanov’s colleagues say they are convinced he is destined for a big political role once peace comes—if he lives that long.

To the TV producers (Yermak) around the former comedian actor Zelenski it is all about ratings.

Budanov may be good at marketing his image as a successful terrorist.

But he has zero experience of leading any size of unit in combat. You can not lead a company, battalion, brigade or army by ‘huddling close’ with aides. It needs long term strategic thinking just as detailed attention to all kinds of day to day logistics.

Leading an army is like conducting a huge orchestra through a four year long Wagner epos. Having played the first fiddle in a chamber quartet does not qualify for that.

I am sure that U.S. military is not happy about this move. While there were some disagreements with Zaluzny about the right strategies those were between military professional who allowed for diverting opinions. Zaluzny was seen as an experienced professional soldier. Budanov is seen as a spook who had never been in command of any real military. He well not be talked to at the same level.

When Zaluzny goes the experienced people in his staff are likely to follow:

According to one source, Zaluzhnyi’s senior staff are also expected to be removed from their positions.

With the new inexperienced leadership the situation on the ground will soon become a catastrophic mess for forces of Ukraine. There will be wrong priorities, miss-allocations of resources and large scale losses of men and ground.

On the other side terror attacks on Russian targets, industrial equipment as well as population centers, are likely to sharply increase.

The larger U.S. aim of all this, first announced as a 2019 RAND study, is still unchanged:

Overextending and Unbalancing Russia – RAND, 2019

The study at that time recommended the arming of Ukrainian’s army as the best way to unbalance Russia. We have since seen the escalation of that strategy. The move from the battlefield to the realm of terror is a response to the degradation of the first by empathizing the psychological effects of the second.

The foreseeable outcome though is unchanged. Ukraine will be smashed, Russia’s power will increase and the global view of the U.S. as a reliable partner will be diminished.

Posted by b on February 1, 2024 at 14:48 UTC | Permalink

How strict was the dress code of the strictest company you’ve ever worked for?

One of the first casinos I ever worked in had a policy that you had to wear black pants, a tuxedo shirt, a bow tie, black dress shoes, and black socks. The only thing they didn’t demand was the colour of your underwear (as long as a bra couldn’t be seen under your white shirt). The bosses were so strict that “uniform checks” were part of the norm – every couple of days a delegated supervisor would check everyone to see that they were wearing the right clothing. What stood out to me was when they’d ask you to pull up the leg of your pants to check your socks – sometimes both legs… just to make sure both socks matched and we’re all black (no stripes at the top).

This particular casino was an anomaly in the industry – it was many years ago and a small place so they didn’t have security cameras – none! One day I was on a game that required two dealers to operate and it happened that he was one of my best friends. There were no patrons in the casino at all – not unusual for an early day shift there. An older female supervisor came around announcing a “sock check”. I looked at my friend, he looked at me, we both unbuckled our belts and let our pants drop to the floor exposing the tops of our socks.

Neither of us ever had a sock check again.

No, we weren’t fired either… there was nobody in the casino at the time and the older female supervisor was a very nice lady with a great sense of humour – she (of course) told us to never do it again and almost stayed red-faced for the rest of the shift.

Is American JEALOUS of China?! YES! This is Why…

https://youtu.be/DmkP2a8TSUg

Positive Tiktok

Did you foil or dodge someone else’s attempt to cheat or deceive you?

I exposed a huge scam by my local gas distributor (cooking gas).

This is a typical cooking gas cylinder in India.

As you can see (not very clearly though), on the neck of the cylinder, net weight and gross weight are clearly mentioned.

Recently, I read an article in ‘The Hindu’ that revealed that a lot of gas agencies/distributors/delivery persons in India are stealing cooking gas. They take out about 1–2 kg of gas from each cylinder and sell it separately in black. The loss in weight is too small for an unsuspecting buyer to notice. But in terms of money, this translates into a loss of about 60 INR per cylinder. The article cautioned everybody to get their gas cylinders weighed before paying the delivery person (Delivery persons are mandated to carry a portable weighing scale along with them by the Govt.)

At first I laughed it off. My agency was trusted. It would never do that. But then on a whim, I decided to try it out. When the next cylinder was delivered to my home, I casually asked the delivery boy to weigh it. The color on his face instantly changed. He started stammering, started insisting that there was no need for this because the bond of trust we shared! I immediately grew suspicious. I pressed him. He then started making excuses that he forgot to bring along his portable weighing-scale.

Luckily, I had my own weighing scale at home. I immediately brought it out and weighed the cylinder myself. The gross weight printed on the cylinder was 29.5 kg, whereas the scale read 27 kg. A difference of bloody 2.5 kgs.

The delivery boy started begging me not to register a complaint against him. And that he wouldn’t repeat the mistake ever again.

Apparently, this is a huge scam going on all over India. If you are reading this answer, please get your gas cylinder duly weighed before paying for it.

What is the weirdest you have come across as a lawyer?

Once, many years ago, as a young lawyer, I was asked to help a family member, a crazy uncle, with his disability case. He was literally homeless, living on the street and crazy beyond description. His grip on reality was severely distorted, he was schizophrenic and had lost his job as a NYC sanitation worker.

Surely, you can get him SOME benefits to live on? This was the family’s charge to me as a brand new baby lawyer. Help Uncle X! He’s desperate. You gotta do this.

Okay, I’ll give it a try. How do you say no to something like that? I had never handled a disability case and really had no idea where to start. So, let’s start with interviewing the client and see what he can tell me. I didn’t expect much in the way of cooperation from a man who I knew was thoroughly and completely insane and off his rocker. I had heard the family stories.

I set up an appointment, nevertheless, and I prayed to God for wisdom to help me save this man from roaming half-naked on the streets of NY. I figured it might even be a public service.

One fine day he did actually show up in my office. At the time, I was working for an older gentleman lawyer who had a massively busy local general practice, the type you really don’t see anymore and before the days of “legal specialization.” This office truly tried to handle EVERYTHING! It was great experience.

The waiting room was full of people in need of one form of legal advice or another when my prospective client showed up. As I greeted him in the office full of these other waiting clients the first words literally out of his mouth are “Hi, you have nice lips!” Lol. Oh boy, this was going to be a real experience. I quickly and quietly shuffled him off to my basement office so we could get to work. My office didn’t even have a window.

Well, my client had brought a sheaf of disorganized, crumpled papers and, after organizing and unfolding them I started reading them. They consisted of his employment file and the stated reasons for his termination. He was quite literally unfit for employment. His record consisted of bizarre hallucinations, reports of “voices” and other strange phenomenon which he was experiencing which rendered him totally unfit for any gainful employment. There were also stacks of medical records indicating that he was suffering from a severe mental disorder (which was nothing but obvious to anyone spending one minute in his presence). He was very much totally out of his mind.

I felt sorry for him. I knew he would qualify for Social Security Disability benefits and would also be entitled to a sizable retroactive payment. All we had to do was apply and possibly have a hearing. I was confident I could win it. I started preparing the application, starting with the claim for “disability based on mental illness.”

Well, my uncle/client took one look at the application and said (I swear that I’m not making this up) “my disability is for hemorrhoids, not that!”). I was astonished! I expected anything but resistance. What was your disability?

HEMORRHOIDS!

Well, the medical records clearly stated that he DID have hemorrhoids but that was hardly his disability or his reason for not being able to work. The records were replete with references to paranoid schizophrenia and wild hallucinations. THAT was the problem, not hemorrhoids!

I tried to persuade him. I tried to convince him to proceed but he became agitated and uncooperative. Finally, he grabbed his papers and ran out of my office. I couldn’t stop him. He was gone.

My aunt, his sister, wanted to know how we did. I told her that the case went nowhere and that he was uncooperative. Back on the streets he went for another year or so. I couldn’t help him since he wouldn’t cooperate.

Then something amazing happened (after about a year). He returned to my office, looking for help, insisting once again that his HEMORRHOIDS were his difficulty. This time I agreed.

I applied for Social Security Disability ON THE BASIS OF HEMORRHOIDS. Of course, we were going to be denied but I had an idea brewing in my young lawyer head. Let’s see if this works.

After receiving the expected denial of our application I filed an appeal and asked for a hearing with a judge. It was granted as a routine matter, as I knew it would be. Now what to do?

Well, the date of the hearing arrived and we went to court in Brooklyn. I showed up with my uncle and the case was called. The judge (I still remember his name!) looked at the hearing application and said “this is an application for disability benefits based on…. what? Hemorrhoids? Really? Okay, counsel proceed.” He was shaking his head in disbelief the entire time he said this.

I politely asked the judge to exclude my client from the room. He looked at me and said “young man, this is a most unusual request.” Yes, judge but I have my reasons. “Okay,” he said, “please exclude the claimant from the courtroom. This had better be good, counselor!”

Oh, it’s gonna be good. I promise!

As soon as my uncle left the courtroom I gushed “judge, this guy is my uncle and he’s completely nuts.” I then proceeded to tell him the entire story and told him that the real claim was for mental illness disability but the client wouldn’t let me proceed on that basis, insisting that his hemorrhoids were the issue. The judge seemed to understand.

“Okay, bring the claimant back into the courtroom. You may inquire, counselor.”

I stood up and literally asked my client ONE QUESTION. It was truly only one question… no more. I said “Uncle X, please tell the judge what’s bothering you.” Then I sat down fully knowing what was coming next.

For the next ten minutes, until the judge could no longer stand it, the client rambled about “wires being crossed” and “Ring Dings and Yankee Doodles” and how the police were stalking him and many other bizarre and colorful statements. It was very clear that his grip on reality was non-existent. I doubt he could have told you who the President was at the time or what month it was. After hearing enough, the judge stopped him, clearly having heard enough to realize this wasn’t a put on, or a fraud. It would have actually been funny if it wasn’t so sad.

“Decision reserved,” the judge said and dismissed us from his court. I left feeling confident.

A few weeks later we got a decision granting 100% disability to my uncle with a retroactive payment of over forty thousand dollars plus monthly benefits of about $2500 for life, plus Medicare. It was a grand slam win! I was a family hero.

Years later I ran into the judge on the street outside the courts. I greeted him and thanked him for his help and understanding. He told me “I will never forget that case… It was textbooks!”

Yeah, for sure.

Am I a Traitor to My Motherland?

https://youtu.be/nAJhWEuAhuM

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

Not exactly fired, but we thought it was a great reaction.

After a recent merger between two rather large companies, it was necessary to reduce personnel, so each department was asked to cut staffing by a certain percentage.

To encourage volunteers, management offered to give a full week worth of salary and paid medical benefits for each full year a person had worked at the company if they took early retirement. And anyone who qualified for a pension also got the full pension as if they had not retired early.

One member of our team was about 14 months away from his planned retirement date when he would start receiving full Social Security and pension payments.

He had worked for the company for 45 years. After some simple math, we all strongly encouraged him to take the deal.

He got 45 weeks of full pay, a whole year of benefits coverage (negotiated with HR), his full pension, and they also bought out the almost two months of accrued vacation time that he had been saving up in order to retire a few months early.

He basically got a 12+ month paid vacation with full benefits. We will be having a retirement party for him on his original planned retirement date in a couple of months. 😀

I imagine that wasn’t what management had in mind when they made the offer, but everyone on our team was very happy for him to get it!

In the restaurant industry, what are some of the most outrageous complaints you’ve heard customers make?

When I worked as a commis chef in a 5-star hotel, we had some guy come in and eat on his own, which was a bit unusual. He ordered some expensive food, but strangely finished with a starter which involved some salad. A waiter came through shortly after serving the salad to tell me that the customer was complaining as he’d found a slug in his salad, so I went out to speak with him. I explained to him that I was terribly sorry, but it just was not possible. The man was being quite rude with me, but I maintained my calm and he demanded to speak with the head chef.

The head chef came out and apologised to the man and stated that the slug was not in the salad when it was served to him. The man became outraged and the implication that he was a liar and asked how we could be so sure. The head chef said “If you would please follow me sir. There’s something I would like you to see.” The man stood up, shaking his head looking a bit smug. He seemed adamant that there was nothing we could do that would ever change his mind or prove that he put the slug there. As the head chef and I led him into the kitchen, the head chef explained the sections of the kitchen as he passed through and their function. Finally, he reached the garnish section on the other side of the kitchen and pointed. “We put the lettuce for your salad through this machine. We call this ‘a shredder’”

The man took a little time to think, clearly realising that there was just no way anything short of a small bug could have made it through there alive, and started to look a little panicked. He then started to grow embarrassed by the second, and finally apologised profusely. He said that he did not have the money to pay for the meal. As we called the police, he suddenly remembered that he did have the money and paid for the meal in cash. We never saw him again.

The Duran: NATO Crossed Putin’s Red Line and Russia is Ready to FINISH It

https://youtu.be/-Q4iDLhUjuk

What is the greatest lie ever told?

Rich people : Money can’t buy happiness.
Boy: I’ll come home in just 5 minutes.
Girl: Wait!! I’ll be ready in just 10 minutes.
Coaching Institutes : You are all are now a part of one of the best institutes of this city.
Parents : Son, It is the hardwork of a just a couple of years, after that your life will be set.
Mother in law to daughter in law : You’re like my own daughter.
Everybody : I’m fine.
Company : Our product is no. 1
When relatives give you money and then your parents/grandparents say : “Let me keep the money right now, take it from me whenever you need it”.
Now the chief guest will say a “few” words.
Complete 10th STD with good marks then take rest.
Complete 12th STD with good marks then life is set.
PCB is easier than PCM.
10th Std and 12th Std are the most important things in life.
If you don’t do anything bad, nothing bad will happen to you.
Swallowing seeds whole will make plants grow in your stomach.
“Maggie in two minutes “…Am I the only one who takes more than 2 minutes ??

18. Everything happens for a reason.

19. We will be friends forever.

20. Complan increases height.

21. If your leg slips when you start from home, something bad is about to happen.

22. If you get hiccups, someone is thinking about you.

23. “ Fair and lovely gives you fairness “…Ohh, may be for 15 minutes or even less ??

24. One day, everything is going to be fine.

25. “ I don’t need upvotes “…Some people write to express but everyone needs upvotes like a form of appreciation or encouragement.

As a housekeeper, what is the most “F-that” situation you’ve had in your career?

Many years ago, while working as a housekeeper, l had one very dirty client that always left notes about what they’d like me to clean that visit.

One week l arrived to a note stating that, they’d like me to clean out the bathroom cupboard.

When l opened the cupboard l found it to be full to overflowing with used sanity pads. The whole cupboard, not one or two. Not half a dozen, but hundreds of uses sanity items. A lifetimes worth.

The note stated…clean out bathroom cupboard and as this was the only cupboard in the room, l empied it and scrubbed it out, only to be met with a nasty phone call the following day stating l should not have thrown out anything. They were being saved. Hmm. Not what the not implied. But sure.

The following visit, another note, please clean out the kitchen party. So l put all like food together, such as 10 or so open packs of pasta together, sauces together, etc, wiped out all the shelves. It looked great.

Yup another phone call. How dare l mix up the food in the cupboards. There were other instances, so l stopped working for them. The house was always filthy and they would never employ me long enough to clean the house completely. It was always left dirty, with just a small area cleaned, which would be very dirty again by next visit.

It wasn’t that it was a messy house, it was filthy to the point of being unsanitary, so l was happy to never go back.l was always worried ld get sick just for being inside there.

So l did, l disposed of

Open conversation

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LCr9nIvV_BE?feature=share

Did you ever beat up the high school bully in front of everyone?

I got in one fight in my life

I was an odd duck, partly because I spent five years overseas in a private school that catered about 50/50 to children of government workers stationed there and half to people working for various corporations also stationed there, all from English speaking countries looking for a school in English in the middle of Brazil.

Also, in retrospect, partly because I’m on the autism spectrum, although I had no idea that that was the case for some decades to come. Still, I knew, everyone knew, that I was a weirdo.

Well, I got to this new school (it had just been built, because town had expanded so fast that the original school had gotten overcrowded) and of course that meant so had all the other kids. And… I’m reconstructing this, mind you, and it’s just a guess, I’m really not great at understanding how people think, see “Autism” above… they didn’t know what the “pecking order” was. So they settled it with fights. You saw someone weaker than yourself, you beat him up, and that meant you were better than him, or he beat you up and then he was better than you, and it was all sorted.

Except I didn’t want to fight. Had no reason to. Didn’t make any sense to me. Wasn’t afraid, just, well, weirdo.

It seems one kid got it in his head that this was his ticket. If he beat me up, he had it made. So my turning him down, that was maddening. He kept after me about it for weeks. Finally, I agreed. Stay in the classroom when everyone goes to recess. The teacher wasn’t all that good about policing things, it was simple enough for us both to stay behind.

He said “all right, let’s fight!” I asked him “are you sure? I don’t want to fight you. Are you sure?” “Sure” he said. So I picked up one of those desk/chair things and hit him with it. Then I asked him if he wanted to continue. He said no.

Don’t try this. It’s probably “assault with a deadly weapon” now. I guess I’m lucky he didn’t get hurt bad enough for anyone to find out, although in the 1970s I might not have gotten in trouble anyway.

Dad always told me not to fight, but if I had to fight, be sure to win, no rules.

That’s the first and last fight of my life. Maybe word got around? Maybe I just don’t have the look in my eyes of someone you should fight with. It could be the autism, sending weird signals. I don’t know.

That was in 6th grade.

So I never got in a fight in high school, sorry.

Have you ever tried to annoy a scammer who called you? If so, what happened?

No. But may I highlight a dirty trick by a phone soliciter?

I’ll take that as a yes.

A neighbor of mine was a saleman for Sam’s Club. The guy who makes a pitch to your boss, offering a discount to any of his/her employees who’d like the group membership, put on sales presentations at state fairs etc., cold-calling as well.

Then I moved halfway across the state. He calls me one afternoon, disguising his voice and acting as if he’s calling on behalf of some worthless telemarketing offer. Of course I, not recognizing him, utter some choice words before hanging up. He calls me right back, identifies himself and proceeds to ask me why I couldn’t be more polite in declining whatever it is that’s being offered.

I told him why. Said my peace and then we chatted about whatever he had really needed to talk to me about.

WF?

Have https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MzYMi0o_ZOI?feature=share

you ever called in a “welfare check” to the police? Did it turn out there was a real need? Officers, how often are “welfare checks” something where a person does need assistance?

Many years ago I was in a chat room of a group with hundreds of members. Predominantly adults but, there were older teens. I don’t remember what was being discussed but, this kid (older teen) started making rude comments then started making bizarre comments about school shootings,violence and basically hinting he was going to do something. Quite a few people ignored it or told him he was being inappropriate and that he would be reported to moderator. Most in the discussion didn’t take it seriously. I went to his profile which fortunately wasn’t locked down. So concerning posts and was able to figure out the state, town and high school he attended. And his actual name. So I called the police in that town. Explained what I had seen, sent screenshots etc. While I was on the phone with a detective they got a call from one other man who had done the same as me. Surprisingly, the detective called me back a few hours later and while he didn’t give me many details he did say, that between myself and the other man they were able to locate the boy and that everyone was safe. I confess to stalking the FB profiles later and saw that he had been hospitalized so hopefully he got the help he needed. I worried I was doing the wrong thing but, I just kept thinking how hard it would be to live with myself if I saw news the next day of a school shooting and HADN’T called.

Nuclear Boy Scout

Now known as the “Nuclear Boy Scout,” David Hahn was 17 when he decided to earn an Atomic Energy merit badge by building a working nuclear reactor — right in the backyard of his Michigan home.

In the mid-1990s, Hahn painstakingly collected tiny amounts of radioactive material from everyday objects around his house.

Image: David’s nuclear reactor can be seen

He almost had a working “breeder” reactor in his back shed when he caught the attention of local and federal authorities, prompting an FBI and Nuclear Regulatory Commission response with the evacuation of more than 40,000 people in the locality.

With the level of radiation in his basement 1000 times higher than normal; David declined to see a doctor despite having had significant radiation exposure (the skin burn seen in the image above came as a result).

Footnotes:

The Boy Who Built A Nuclear Reactor in His Basement

The USA is totally and completely fucked up

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CCDmfIq94UQ?feature=share

What trivial knowledge might save your life one day?

1. Encountering an aggressive bear

Of course, it’s best to avoid bears in the wild, but if an encounter happens, you should know that the weakest skill of this animal is its maneuverability. Bears run very fast and crawl really well — but moving quickly around an object like a car or a tree is much harder for them. Sooner or later, the animal will give up trying to catch you seeing that this smart food (you) is not worth its energy.

However, don’t panic before a bear starts to act aggressively. If it’s just looking at you, standstill. There is a chance it won’t even understand who you are and what you are going to do. If it starts walking toward you slowly, walk backward slowly. Bears rarely attack people. Most likely, it will back off once it realizes you are a human.

2. Rip current

If you accidentally find yourself in a rip current, it is completely useless to swim against it to the shore — you will only waste your energy. Try to swim parallel to the shore until you exit the current, and only then swim toward the shore.

3. Aspirin during a heart attack

Just one pill of aspirin can seriously improve how you feel. The person having a heart attack should lie down immediately and put something under their head or sit down and then take the pill. In order for it to work sooner, it should be chewed very well.

4. Diagnosing a heat stroke

The most obvious symptoms of a heat stroke are dizziness and nausea, but they can appear for other reasons too. In order to know for sure, you should eat something sweet, like candy. If the taste seems unpleasant, this is a heat stroke. For people who have any cardiovascular disorders, it is vital to determine the reason as soon as possible and get the right help.

5. A simple maneuver that will bring someone back to consciousness

If you really need to bring someone back to consciousness, you should put them on their back and push their knees to their chest. This will make the blood flow to their brain and the person will wake up. But first, make sure the person doesn’t have any leg or body injuries, otherwise, the situation may only get worse.

6. Help in case of a venomous snake bite

Unlike some popular misconceptions, you shouldn’t suck out the venom, apply cold, apply bandages, or burn the wound. Before the experts arrive, the victim has to drink a lot and take an antihistamine. The area around the bite should not be touched because otherwise, the venom will just spread around the body faster.

7. Saving a drowning person

If you were able to save a drowned person, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the woods yet. You should take them to the hospital immediately, otherwise, they could die within several days if there is some leftover water in their lungs.

8. How to break car glass in case of an accident

If you are in a situation where you can only get out of a car through the window and the door is impossible to open, remember that it is much easier to break a window by hitting it, not on the center but on the edges. By the way, if you can remove the headrest from the seat, you can use it to break the window. In different cars, headrests are different, so make sure you know how to remove the ones in your car.

9. Antihistamines should always be with you.

It may happen that you are allergic to something that you have never encountered before. And it could be such a severe allergic reaction that it might just be lethal unless you get qualified help. This is especially important on trips when people try new foods, see new plants, and go to completely new places.

10. Water on the beach is too far from the shoreline.

When the waterline is abnormally far from the shore, this is a sign of a tsunami. If you notice this somewhere, you should warn everyone around and run.

Unfortunately, in 2004, people didn’t pay attention to this sign before a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Almost on the entire shore was exposed and people went out to collect fish and shells. And children were the most interested. However, there were people on 2 beaches that knew about this fact: a 10-year-old English girl named Tilly Smith and biology teacher John Chroston. They managed to save the lives of many people that day.

11. The rule of 3

If you ever find yourself in a critical situation, you should remember these numbers that can be used to describe the survival abilities of an average person:

3 minutes without air;
3 hours in extreme temperature;
3 days without water;
3 weeks without food.

So, if you can’t get your priorities straight, the chances of surviving are much lower.

As a parent, what did your child’s school do that made you say “you can’t be serious…”?

My son has anaphylaxis inducing food allergies. The kind of food allergies where we had benadryl and epi pens in the nurses office and his backpack. In order to prevent an exposure I carefully packed his lunch every day. He had some money on his school lunch account so that on Fridays when they offered icy pops he could get one. Other than that, no birthday celebrations snacks, no school holiday celebrations, etc were allowed. The nursing staff knew, the teachers knew, even the principal knew this.

Apparently the stinking lunch aide didn’t know and didn’t care. One day my 7 year old son forgot to grab his lunch kit before heading to lunch. He told the lunch aide but she refused to let him go back for it. He begged but she instead marched him to the hot lunch line and made him buy his lunch. He came home covered in a rash, beet red and with severe stomach issues that kept him out of school for 5 days. When I asked him he told me what had happened. Fortunately he ate something off the minor allergy list so not an anaphylactic reaction.

I called every person I could think of and demanded answers. I went to school and demanded to talk to the lunch staff supervisor. That woman was re-trained and put on probation. I wish they had fired her but she claimed she had no knowledge about allergies and was just doing her job. Oh, and she avoided my son completely the whole rest of the year.

Young Wife Hid The Truth About How She REALLY Made $ In College, Now Hubby’s Family Has Video Proof

This is a great video that I will show to my daughter when she gets older. Learn from the mistakes of others.

https://youtu.be/k1KDBCpxW8A

Have you ever said yes to someone instead of no, and still think that was the biggest mistake you did?

Every Thursday night, a bunch of us university students would meet in the local pub. One night one of my closest friends says, that they are going to Hawaii for reading week (spring break) and asked if I would like to come.

Being drunk, I said that sounds awesome, he said ,sign a blank cheque and give it to me, and I will make all the reservations. I gave him the cheque and forgot about it. It was never mentioned again. Two months later I get home from the bar, on the Friday of reading week, and the phone is ringing, ( before cell phones) I answer it, and my friend says,”Where are you, the plane leaves in an hour and a half, and we are all at the airport lounge”

I lived 15 minutes from the airport. I threw my notes and text books, some jeans, underwear, socks and long sleeve shirts in a suitcase. I had no clean T-shirts, gym shorts or swim wear. I drove, parked in long term parking and just made it to drop off my luggage, at the last second. I met my friends in the lounge, and walked to the gate. If I had gotten home from the bar 10 minutes later I would have missed it.

I asked him why he hadn’t mentioned the trip in two months, and told him I had nothing to wear in Hawaii, and I needed to study for exams that followed reading week.

He looked stunned, he had completely forgot to tell me that he had booked the trip. Because the others had all been talking about it.

I had a great time in Hawaii, bought cheap T-shirts, shorts and swim wear, and never cracked a book.

I failed my first test, the day that I got back to university, and had to spend an extra semester in school to catch up. I should have said NO

As a flight attendant, is it annoying or insulting when people don’t pay attention to the safety presentation before a flight?

I remember an incident in the late 1990s that happened on a Boeing 757 during a flight from Orlando to San Francisco.

As we were taxiing for take-off, we were enacting the required safety demonstration. A passenger seated in the over-wing exit row was talking loudly to his seatmate, creating such a distraction that some near him were having trouble hearing.

I leaned over and quietly asked him to hold his conversation until we were finished. He replied, somewhat condescendingly, “Look, I fly a lot. I know what to do. I’ve seen this so much that I already know it by heart.” And with that, he launched rudely back into his conversation.

I politely suggested that our demonstration was an excellent chance for him to review his knowledge, but he interrupted me, snarling for me to leave him alone because he didn’t need a review; he knew exactly what to do. I then flatly stated that his conversation was a distraction for others, and again asked him to hold until we were done, assuring him that it would be only another minute or two.

“FINE!” he snapped, heaving a melodramatic sigh, and glaring sullenly at me, he muttered something incomprehensible (and undoubtedly unpleasant) before continuing his conversation anyway, though quietly.

We achieved our cruising altitude at 35,000 feet and the ride was smooth. But about 90 minutes into the flight, we experienced an emergency when the cockpit was alerted by a sensor that there was a fire in one of the wheel wells. The proper procedure was to immediately lower the landing gear to extinguish the fire. But after the gear was lowered, the sensor still indicated the presence of fire. The Captain called to advise us that we would be making an emergency landing at the nearest airport, an Air Force Base in Meridian, Mississippi, and instructed us to prepare the cabin for evacuation.

Our descent was rapid, and we had only minutes to prepare. We advised the passengers on the situation, and began to prepare them for an emergency landing, including the possibility of a crash, and subsequent evacuation. The fear was palpable in the cabin, and everyone was paying very close attention to our instructions.

Our final action was a visual inspection of the cabin as we made our way to our jump-seats to strap in. As I hurried down the aisle, checking to see that passengers were prepared, I came to the window exit and noticed that the loud-mouthed passenger appeared rigid with terror. So I stopped and I asked, “Sir, are you OK? Do you know what to do when we land?”

He didn’t respond, and so I grasped his shoulder and with a shake, I said loudly, “SIR, CAN YOU DO THIS?”

He turned his gaze on me and I could see that he was in absolute shock. His terror-stricken eyes began to tear up, and the color drained from his face, turning it white as his mouth opened and closed, over and over, like a fish out of water. He couldn’t answer me. His mouth made little bleating sounds as he tried to force air through his larynx, but couldn’t seem to form words.

Time was running out, and others around could see that there was a problem. I pointed to the man sitting in the row behind and asked, “Can you do this?”

He fairly leapt to his feet, nodding and saying loudly, “Yes ma’am, I can.”

“Do you know what to do?” I demanded of him, and he replied with full confidence, “Yes ma’am. I look out the window first, and if it’s safe, I pull the cover off, and pull the handle down until the window opens, then lift it in, roll it onto the seats, step through and get off the back of the wing.”

“Then you and him change places… NOW!” I fairly shouted. I only had moments left; we were nearly landing. But the man in the exit was frozen with fear, unable to even comprehend what we were doing, let alone move himself.

At my shouted instructions, the second passenger and I, along with two other passengers, grabbed the terrified man by his arms and physically lifted him up, out and into the row behind. I yelled to the passengers next to him to buckle him in as the second passenger jumped into the exit seat. I fled for the back of the plane just as the Captain came onto the PA shouting “BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!” Diving for my jump-seat, I strapped in, pulling the last harness tight and snapping my body into the brace position just as the wheels touched down.

Fortunately for us, the landing was smooth, and before the plane came to a stop, the Captain announced, “REMAIN SEATED, REMAIN SEATED!” The fire was out, and we taxied to a stop. (We later learned that it was a malfunctioning sensor; there had been no fire in the first place.)

Air Force personnel brought stairs to the airplane, and all the passengers got off to stretch their legs and recover from the excitement. Inside the small terminal, someone tapped my shoulder. It was the man who had been so rude during our safety demonstration, who had frozen up when the actual emergency came.

“I want to apologize to you,” he said. “I was being an ass. I thought something like this would never happen to me, and when it did, I was terrified because I didn’t know what to do. Despite my rudeness to you, you still did your best to save my life.

“I was wrong, and I make this promise to you that I will never again ignore the safety demonstration, regardless of how many times I’ve seen it, and regardless of where I’m seated on the plane. I’ve learned a valuable lesson, and I have you to thank for it. I hope you accept my apology.”

What was the nail in the coffin for an employee or a co-worker?

When I first started working at Wolf Camera, I had a coworker that I’ll call John Doe. He was the type who was friendly enough, but didn’t have a particularly great work ethic.

Once, I was printing some photos. He was in the back taking a break. The phone rang. After a few rings, I answered the phone. When I was done with the call, I asked why John hadn’t answered the phone. He said something like, “Oh. I thought you liked answering the phone.”

Another time, he left work to take care of personal business. He said he’d be back in an hour or two to help close up. My brother and I were the only ones there. I didn’t have a key to lock up and I don’t think my brother did, either.

I was new enough at that point that I didn’t feel comfortable shutting down the machines by myself. We had to call someone to help close the store. I’m not sure if that ever made it back to the manager, as that incident didn’t get him fired.

One day, a camera goes missing. Our store had been flagged by corporate because we had enough inventory go missing, so we had to count the cameras every morning and every night. We also had them tagged, so we knew which camera went missing. A few days later, it appeared in the back again.

Shortly thereafter, we get a visit from corporate. Then, John Doe is suddenly no longer with the company. Officially, this is all I know.

It later came out that John had taken the camera and used it for photos on a dating site. How do we know? He left the pictures (of himself) on the camera’s internal memory.

Reclaim my virginity

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1LWvK3X4VuA?feature=share

What did you find out about your teacher that shocked you?

Once upon a time, in a small suburban town, there was a high school named Elmwood High. Among the teachers at Elmwood High, there was one who stood out, Mrs. Anderson. She was known for her warm smile, her passion for teaching, and her impeccable professionalism. Students admired her dedication to her job and respected her greatly.

One sunny afternoon, a group of students was gathered in the school library, studying for an upcoming history exam. As they pored over textbooks and notes, a hushed conversation began about Mrs. Anderson. The students wondered about her personal life beyond the classroom, as she was known to be quite reserved about her own affairs.

Curiosity got the best of them, and they decided to do some sleuthing. They began by searching for her on social media, hoping to uncover tidbits of information about her life outside of school. It wasn’t long before they stumbled upon a social media profile that belonged to Mrs. Anderson.

To their surprise, her profile revealed a secret passion that none of the students had ever imagined. Scrolling through her posts and pictures, they discovered that Mrs. Anderson was an avid extreme sports enthusiast. There were breathtaking photos of her skydiving from high altitudes, snowboarding down steep slopes, and even bungee jumping off towering bridges.

The students couldn’t believe their eyes. The teacher they had always seen as reserved and composed was, in her free time, a fearless adrenaline junkie. They were in awe of the stark contrast between her adventurous hobbies and her calm, composed demeanor in the classroom.

As the students shared their discovery with their classmates, the news spread like wildfire throughout the school. Everyone was astonished by the double life their beloved teacher led. The revelation added a new layer of intrigue to Mrs. Anderson’s personality, and she became even more respected and admired for her unexpected passions.

One day, a curious student couldn’t resist asking Mrs. Anderson about her extreme sports adventures. She smiled and confessed to her secret hobby, explaining how it provided her with a sense of thrill and freedom that balanced the structure and responsibility of teaching.

Her revelation served as a valuable lesson to her students, reminding them that even those who appear to be one-dimensional may have hidden depths and interests that defy expectations. It was a moment of connection and mutual understanding that brought the teacher and her students closer together, deepening their respect and admiration for one another.

1920’s General Store OPENED After Decades of Closure: Exploring a long-Abandoned General Store

https://youtu.be/3dhYzl0bcwE

If we stopped launching satellites and rockets, how long will it take for Earth to be cleansed of all the space junk orbiting it?

If we stopped launching satellites and rockets (I’m against this), how long will it take for Earth to be cleansed of all the space junk orbiting it?

The densest concentration of space junk – using the word “dense” very loosely – is in low Earth orbit and would mostly clean up after 10–20 years due to orbital drag. On the other hand, the debris in higher orbits might last thousands or millions of years.

On the gripping hand, space junk isn’t all that dense. The carefully guarded ISS has to dodge debris about once per year (and is armored for the very little stuff that is missed). Pictures like the following diagram incorrectly portray space junk that is the size of nuts and bolts as being the size of cities.

60 years of space launches have put a grand total of 7,500 tons of junk into orbit, which is equivalent to one day’s worth of domestic trash from a big city. Space junk, of course, is spread over a volume thousands of times greater than all the skies, waters, and lands of Earth.

Further, positive steps are being taken to control debris. Starlink, for example, had to demonstrate to the US government

that 95% or more of its satellites would de-orbit in a controlled fashion at their end of lives, and their low orbit means the rest will drop in a few years if they can’t make de-orbit burns.

Abandoned upper stages

used to be a major source of space junk because after some years in orbit their batteries or residual fuel would explode. They are now usually built to vent their tanks and batteries after releasing their payloads, while some operators try to set them up on atmosphere-skimming orbits or outright de-orbit them.

Geosynchronous satellites, which are far too high to de-orbit, now reserve fuel to kick themselves up to Graveyard orbits, which are a bit higher than geosynchronous and aren’t useful for anything except dead satellites.

Did you learn a lesson from a person you judged to be below you?

So I was waiting on the check out line today at a grocery store, when this teenage girl clearly cuts in front of me. She sees that I’m there and just stridently moves in front of me. I want to say something but decide that it’s not worth it, but I have some fairly nasty thoughts about her being an entitled and rude brat.

Then I see her look back worriedly, looking really stressed. What must be her mother is leaning against the wall, looking quite ill. The mother has a cane and is barely able to walk. She’s telling the girl to hurry up already.

The teenager wasn’t cutting in front of me because she’s a nasty person, but because she’s stressed and a caretaker. She just wants to get her mother home.

I felt grateful I didn’t make a scene.

I realized that when people are cruel, many times, they have their own problems and you don’t have to take it so personally.

Be different from the rest

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/k3WuDNNdokI?feature=share

What are the things we’ll only understand when we get old/older?

I was 16 and used to visit my boyfriend who lived in a large apartment building close to my house.

We’d hang out with a small group of friends in the parking lot listening to music, talking and loitering.

There was a lot of loitering.

(Wait. If you feel like this answer needs a soundtrack, play Raspberry Beret by Prince.)

One of my boyfriend’s neighbors would always come down and ask us to turn the music down. Her request was made with distaste, contempt.

It was like we had no right to occupy the space we did, like everything, including sound waves, belonged to her.

We never turned the music down. We didn’t mean to be rude but needed to stake a claim over our fundamental right to exist.

Today I live in San Francisco in a busy neighborhood. Sometimes teenagers park in the street right below my apartment. They listen to music and honestly, I don’t understand why they have to play such shitty music so very loud.

At least once a week I sigh and scrunch up my face and open the window, lean out and catch myself right before words pour out of my mouth.

It’s inevitable. You get old and become all the things you were sure you’d never be.

Has someone ever been fired because of you?

Yes. It was shortly after 9/11. I was a teenage girl, going to my dad’s job like I always had(we lived right around the corner). I pulled in, saw a guy waving at me, so I waved back and keep.goimg thinking it was one of his coworkers.

Well, it wasn’t a coworker, it was security trying to flag me down. I parked next to my dad’s car and was waiting for him to come out on lunch. This was before every teenager had a cell phone so I was just sitting in my car.

The security guy flew up to me, blocked me in and started screaming at me to get out of the car. They’d never had security before so I had no clue what was going on. I thought it was just some crazy guy. I got out the car(stupid, I know but teenage girl) and asked him what was going on. He yelled that he was calling the police and I was going to jail. I started crying and trying to explain that I was just coming to see my dad. He called me a liar and kept telling me I was going to jail.

One of my dad’s coworkers came over to see what was happening and saw it was me, he radioed in to my dad and a supervisor to come out right now. I was explaining to the coworker what happened and the guy kept calling me a liar. My dad and the supervisor came out and I kept trying to tell them what happened and the security guy kept saying I was lying and I was disrespectful and didn’t listen to his commands. I never even heard any commands except get out of the car.

The supervisor advised that they had cameras so he’d review them. The guy and the entire security company were let go the next day.

I still sometimes go to my dad’s work for different things and it’s been over 20 years since this happened.

Men need this advice

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o3XfukCgkcU?feature=share

What makes people become instantly likable to everyone they meet?

Secrets of the Charmers’ Codex

Have you ever encountered someone who walks into a room and sunshine erupts from their pores? They crack a joke, and the room erupts in laughter. They ask a question, and everyone leans in, eager to share their pearls of wisdom. You leave the interaction feeling like you’ve known them for years, vowing to unlock the secret to their magical, instant likability.

Fear not, dear human, for today we delve into the Secrets of the Charmers’ Codex, a tome whispered through the ages amongst the effortlessly popular. Forget potions and magic spells (though a well-placed confetti cannon adds a certain je ne sais quoi); these are secrets of the soul, crafted from genuine human interaction and a dash of hilarious self-awareness.

Rule #1: Be the Human Sunshine: Let’s face it, negativity is the emotional equivalent of a rogue sock in the dryer – loud, obnoxious, and best left at home. Smile, not just with your lips, but with your eyes. Exude the warmth of a freshly baked croissant, the enthusiasm of a puppy greeting its long-lost chew toy. Remember, people gravitate towards light, so become a walking lighthouse of joy.

Rule #2: Listen Like a Ninja: Master the art of the attentive ear. Put away your phone, silence your inner monologue (unless it’s particularly witty), and focus on the person speaking. Nod like a bobblehead on caffeine, ask insightful questions (avoiding “Is that all?” like the plague), and remember details. Make them feel like they’re the most fascinating documentary on Netflix, and watch their walls melt away.

Rule #3: Humor is Your Weapon (But Use it Wisely): A well-timed joke can disarm tension, bridge awkward silences, and earn you eternal brownie points. However, wielding humor is like handling a spork (useful, but potentially dangerous). Know your audience, avoid offensive jabs, and embrace the power of self-deprecation. Remember, laughing at yourself is like wearing mismatched socks – quirky, endearing, and strangely captivating.

Rule #4: Empathy is Your Superpower: Step into someone else’s shoes (provided they’re not covered in questionable substances). Acknowledge their feelings, validate their concerns, and offer support without judgment. Show them you’re not just a charming surface, but a deep well of understanding. Think of yourself as a human empathy sponge, soaking up emotions and leaving behind a trail of emotional comfort.

Rule #5: Authenticity is Your Shield: Ditch the masks, the personas, the inflatable T-Rex costume (unless it’s thematically appropriate). Be your wonderfully weird, flawed, and fabulous self. Embrace your quirks, celebrate your passions, and let your genuine personality shine through. People connect with the real you, not some airbrushed version. Think of yourself as a delicious, homemade pizza (flaws and all) – infinitely more interesting than a frozen pepperoni disc.

Rule #6: Master the Art of Conversational Ping Pong: Conversations aren’t monologues; they’re a delightful dance of ideas. Share your thoughts, but don’t hog the spotlight. Ask open-ended questions, volley back engaging responses, and keep the rally going strong. Remember, the best conversationalists make others feel heard and valued, not like a spectator at a tennis match.

Rule #7: Sprinkle Compliments Like Confetti: Everyone appreciates a genuine compliment, so scatter them like glitter on a unicorn’s birthday cake. But remember, specificity is key. Instead of “You look nice,” try “That shade of blue makes your eyes sparkle like sapphires.” Or instead of “You’re funny,” share, “I almost snorted my coffee when you told that story about the talking parrot and the cheese wheel.”

Rule #8: Embrace the Power of Vulnerability: Sharing your flaws and fears isn’t weakness; it’s magnetic. It shows you’re human, relatable, and courageous enough to let others see the real you. Vulnerability builds trust, strengthens bonds, and makes you instantly more likable. Think of it as social kryptonite: It disarms defenses and reveals your authentic awesomeness.

Rule #9: Be a Name Magician: Remembering names is like casting a spell of instant connection. Use repetition, association techniques, or even write it down discreetly if needed. When you address someone by name, it shows you care and value their individuality. It’s like a verbal hug, without the awkward body contact (unless you’re into that, then by all means, hug away).

Rule #10: Radiate Passion: When you talk about something you love, your eyes light up like a Christmas tree on energy drinks. Passion is contagious, so share your enthusiasm for your hobbies, dreams, or that weird obsession with collecting vintage teacups. People are drawn to those who exude passion; it’s like a beacon of excitement in a sea of blasé conversations.

Bonus Tip: Embrace the Unexpected: Sprinkle your interactions with a dash of the extraordinary. Offer a stranger a high five for no reason, compliment someone’s shoelace-tying skills, break into a spontaneous interpretive dance (bonus points for air guitar solo). Remember, life’s a stage, and you’re the star of your own one-person show. Make it memorable, make it yours, and watch the world become your captivated audience.

So there you have it; the secrets of the Charmers’ Codex. Remember, instant likability isn’t about manipulation or trickery. It’s about embracing your genuine self, radiating warmth, and treating others with the kindness and respect you deserve. Go forth, spread your sunshine, and remember, the world needs more laughter, not more rogue socks in the dryer.

To delve deeper into this topic, you don’t need anything short of an intriguing book. Articles are not enough. Crack the code for instant likeability and charm. See my comment below.

Do not let this aspect be under-rated

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mugNpA0sNLg?feature=share

What are some pretty messed up things you see parents do to their children in public?

The worst thing I have ever seen a parent do to their child in public is something that breaks my heart and makes my blood boil at the same time.:

I was working at a local gym and saw a woman carrying her infant child through the lobby toward the parking lot. I can only assume the baby became fussy because the woman became angry and stopped in the space between two sets of windowed doors, placed the baby on the floor, and began to hit the child (which of course made it cry, and did nothing to help whatever was the matter). This only lasted a few seconds, otherwise I might have dropped what I was doing and confronted her. My co-workers and I were stunned and horrified. We wondered in quiet conversation, “What kind of a monster does that to her baby?”

I have never forgotten this incident because it was so terrible, and because I would give everything I own to have a child of my own.

On the flip-side, one of the best things I have ever seen a parent do in public is this:

A little boy was with his mother in the grocery store, and he wanted a doughnut. I overheard his mother giving him a choice: “You can have a doughnut now, and skip (whatever it was) later, or you can have (whatever it was) later and not have the doughnut now.

I thought to myself, “This is a great way to teach good decision-making while instilling the importance of forethought and delayed gratification!”

The little boy chose the doughnut, and then said he still wanted the other item. To the mother’s credit she followed through with, a firm but gentle, “No.” He cried bitter tears, and I’ll bet he has never forgotten his choice and consequence. What a difficult but important lesson! I felt for the child, but silently applauded the mother.

Beef Braciole

The tomato-wine pan sauce is divine. Always serve spaghetti or other pasta on the side to complete the presentation.

Braciole is a classic Italian favourite that’s sure to please the whole family. Tender slices of beef or pork are rolled up with savory fillings like Parmesan cheese, parsley and garlic before being braised in an irresistible tomato-based sauce. Serve it over pasta, or Polenta with a side of sauteed vegetables. Either way there’ll be no leftovers!

Slices of the top round (topside) can be quite large so if they are, you’ll want to cut them to make it the perfect size to accommodate two slices of prosciutto. It needs to be pounded to be thin and tenderised.

Braciole offers something special for any occasion; whether you’re looking for a hearty weeknight dinner idea or prepping ahead of time for entertaining guests this traditional dish packs all sorts delicious flavours into one impressive main course.

Ingredients

1 (2 1/2 pound) round steak
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 1/2 cups dry red wine (I use Chianti)
1 (16 ounce) can plum tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf

Instructions

Trim all fat from steak. Cut into 8 equal pieces, then pound thin.
Remove casing from Italian sausage. Break up in medium bowl. Add parsley, Parmesan cheese, garlic, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt and the lemon-pepper seasoning; mix thoroughly. Spread each steak with 2 heaping tablespoonsful of sausage mixture. Roll up jellyroll fashion; fasten with wooden picks.
Brown rolls 3 to 4 at a time in hot oil in Dutch oven. Add onion and carrot to pot. Cook until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.
Stir in wine, tomatoes, tomato paste, remaining 1 teaspoon salt and bay leaf. Bring mixture to boil; lower heat. Add beef rolls. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Remove from heat.
Remove wooden picks before serving. Serve with sauce and spaghetti or other pasta on the side.

Have you ever called in a “welfare check” to the police? Did it turn out there was a real need? Officers, how often are “welfare checks” something where a person does need assistance?

3 times actually. Nobody died fortunately.

First one:

We had a South American migrant as a sales guy. Fresh into the country. Great salesman. His product knowledge was excellent & customer rapport was brilliant. The only negative was he needed help planning his routes, as he had yet to learn the geography – but that was something we were willing to do for him. He never had a day off. He had no family in Australia, and never spoke about friends – only the occasional mention of a neighbour who he would have a beer with on weekends.

One Monday, he didn’t show. This was normal for most sales guys, as they hit the road – but not him. He liked to plan on Monday, spent Tu-We-Th on the road, and Friday back in the office to wrap up the loose ends from the week. He also lived only 5 minutes from the office, so it was convenient for him too (unlike those of us who lived 1.5 hours away!). Some of the guys would stay back on Fridays so they could go for a few beers, and he would join them – they were probably the closest to friends that he had at the time – remembering he’d only been in the country some 2 months by now.

I called his mobile phone, and got no answer. We decided at lunch time to go around to his apartment and knock. No response. The neighbour who came out said he saw him Saturday morning, and that was it. We got real worried. So we went to the local Police station to ask what could be done. They said they’d do a welfare check, but we told them we’d already been. They promised to call us back with anything they found. We did get a call shortly after – not from those cops, but another station, to let us know the company car he drove was parked in a M-F clearway lane, and was towed that morning. The location was the other side of the city to where he lived. By late afternoon the mystery was solved. He’d met a girl on the Friday night. She invited him to her party on the Saturday night. He drove over there, parked in a (legal on weekends) roadside spot. When he was crossing the road, he looked to his left (coming from a LHD country) to make sure the traffic was clear. He didn’t look to his right (we are a RHD country) and stepped out in front of a bus. He was in hospital, and survived with surprisingly few injuries beyond a couple of broken bones, fractures & bruising.

Second one:

Same company, couple of years later. Ironically the car that the guy above had was passed down to this salesman, as he’d been promoted and got an upgrade. It wasn’t unusual for this new salesman to have days off – particularly Monday. He would usually call in sick. If he didn’t, I would text him, and he’d reply that he was sick, and apologise for not calling. One week it went 2 days with no call and no text response. We feared a similar problem, so we drove the 1/2 hour to his house to see if he was OK. Car was in the driveway – a good sign. No answer on the door though. Called the cops and explained it. They went into the backyard and could see in through a window. He was passed out on the lounge in the back room. Turns out his father passed away (overseas) and he only found out Sunday night. He drank himself silly over 2 days.

Third one.

I didn’t call this in, but a neighbour did. Many houses in suburban Australia have a separate room for the toilet. Usually around 1500–1800mm long by 800–1000mm wide (5–6 feet x 3 feet). Most have a swinging door, that opens into the room. This particular house had one like this.

A lovely older lady lived by herself a few houses down from me. He first name was Mabel. Everyone called her Mrs Mabel. She was always friendly and everyone knew her. Her neighbour Ken would help her a lot, and came to get me for “big jobs” that needed 2 people. She was often in the garden, and had a little dog she’d bring out on a lead to enjoy the outdoors – sitting on the grass for hours watching her tend to the plants and flowers.

One day Ken said to me he hadn’t seen her all of the prior day. Also, overnight, none of the usual lights went on in the house. He was scared she might have died. I suggested she might have gone to visit one of her children and the grandkids, but he said he still heard the dog when it went out into the back yard (via a doggy door). I then felt a huge amount of dread too. So he called the cops. They came. No response. They tracked down one of her children and called them. Funny story about that – I knew the numberplate of her son’s car (I really liked the car) and the cops were able to find him from that.

Her son confirmed she had no travel plans, and he hadn’t heard from her for a few days. He feared the worst, and asked the cops to break in. Before they did any damage, they decided to jump the fence and check the back of the house. Back door was unlocked, so they entered.

They found her inside, but couldn’t help her. She’d fallen when getting off the toilet, and was stuck against the door. She couldn’t get up, and she was trapped in the room. Apparently she’d called for help all afternoon the day before, but nobody could hear her. The outside of the toilet door was very well shredded where her little dog had tried in vain to “dig” her out. They got the Fire/Rescue guys in, and they cut the door into pieces to remove it enough to get to her. After a stay in hospital, which was quite long (she developed a blood poisoning problem from the pooled blood trapped in her leg) she returned home.

Ken & I took the remains of the broken door off the hinges and cut it up so she could dispose of it in the household bin over a couple of weeks. Ken told her she doesn’t need a toilet door as she’s the only one in the house. She replied with “It’s a habit, and even at my age, I still maintain my modesty, but after a kind lecture from the Fire/Rescue team, I now realise that my safety is more important than modesty.”

Some time later she asked if we could fit a new door if she paid for it. This was puzzling, as we knew she didn’t need it. But she explained that with grandchildren in the house of a certain age, it was very difficult to stop the grandson from teasing the granddaughter when she needed to use the toilet! She promised to only use the door when they came to visit. One of her children also got her a necklace that has a button you can press in an emergency. They also feared she may fall in the garden and not be able to get up.

We have had the same worry for my mother-in-law, so last year we got her an Apple watch so she can at least call, or give an SOS signal. She now proudly calls us from it, out in the garden, saying how great it is that she doesn’t miss any messages (she would leave her phone inside, or on silent in her pocket)! She’s good with tech though, and uses the watch and phone like someone half her age. It has put our minds at ease, knowing she won’t be all alone & helpless like Mrs Mabel was. She wants to renovate the bathroom and toilet soon, so I have suggested she get the door jamb for the toilet turned around so the door can open outwards, and replace the round knob (that’s hard to grip) with a lever style handle. Fortunately she has agreed with me.

Incredible Civil War Collection Hidden 50 Years in Secret Room Behind Steel Doors, REVEALED!

https://youtu.be/aO96TZYTaFM

The old man

When I was a teenager and working in the mines and the supermarket, I was once approached by a very old man. It was a very odd visit.

I was sitting outside on the bench (outside the local laundrymat) which it was next to the supermarket where I worked. I had just finished eating my lunch. At that time, I was greatly enamored with a local “phillycheese sandwich”. So I was eating it, finished up and was ready to go back in and finish my shift.

Then, this older man slowly walked up to me.

He was old. He wore old-man clothes. Was short and hunched over, and came up to me and sat down besides me. I have never seen him before. He didn’t look like anyone that I knew, nor related to anyone. Just a strange old, old man.

He was quiet for the entire time.

But, as I started to get up to go, he lightly touched me on the arm. And then he said…

“Listen to me young man”.

So, I paused (out of respect) and stood there in front of him.

He continued.

“You are young. You have the whole world in front of you.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Be careful. Don’t get married early. Go to school. Work on yourself. Everything will come to you. This is a difficult time for you in this life.”

I said thank you, and started to leave.

He touched me again. Softly.

“I only wish that someone told me back then, what I am telling you now.”

I told him “thank you”.

I then walked back to the store, and about ten steps toward the door, I looked back.

He wasn’t there. He had disappeared.

I don’t know what happened.

For the longest time, I forgot about the event and the old man. Who was it? I don’t know. Was it time travel mm? Maybe… Who knows?

Today…

Did a co-worker ever try to hide their wealth or poverty from those at work? How did they do it and what happened after?

Loretta was working as an underwriter at a large insurance company in Los Angeles where I had a summer job.

She was an older lady from the South, wore her blonde hair in a beehive, and was always attired in polyester slacks, very colorful overblouses and matching costume jewelry, all from the Sears catalog.

She was polite with others but pretty much kept to herself. At company functions, she engaged in courteous conversation that gave no insight into whom she was.

Her desk was tidy with a few, forgettable personal items.

She was respected by the other underwriters and the bosses. We heard that she had refused promotions, being quite happy where she was.

I was sitting in front of her desk when the Personnel Manager strode in purposefully. As he drew nearer to Loretta’s desk, his confidence waned.

“Miss Loretta, may I speak to you and Bernard (the unit supervisor) for just a moment?” (Yes, he really called her ‘Miss Loretta’. . .no one else was addressed in such a way.)

“Why, of course.” (It sounds much better with a southern accent applied.)

Loretta’s desk was opposite Bernard’s office, so since they did not close the door, I heard everything.

“Miss Loretta, we’ve been through this before. You must cash your paychecks. The Finance Department can’t clear the books until you do.”

Loretta looked somewhat chastened, one hand fluttering to her throat.

“Why, I am so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to put anyone out. It just slipped my mind. I will take care of that today at lunch time!”

“You have the checks with you today?”

“Why, yes, I do. I believe they are in my desk.”

Mr. Personnel Manager gulped and then thanked her. Loretta went to the break room for coffee.

As I waited for her, I heard Bernard ask how many checks were outstanding.

Twenty-three monthly paychecks had not yet been cashed.

Think You Want To Get Married? 25 Wives Reveal Dark Secrets That They’ve Kept From Their Husbands

https://youtu.be/ERS-oF1KrKI

If you order a meal at a restaurant and don’t like the taste of it, is it bad etiquette to send it back and request something else instead?

Years ago I was trying a fancy Italian restaurant for the first time. My wife and I ordered. My wife’s meal arrived and she didn’t care for it. Moreover, it wasn’t as described in the menu. She flagged the waiter and he asked what he could help her with. She noticed that her dish didn’t have sun-dried tomatoes like the menu said and the waiter explained that the kitchen was out of them. She asked about another item that the menu said was in the dish but wasn’t and the waiter replied that they were out of that item as well.

She said she didn’t really like her dish and that she tried my dish and it was delicious and asked for what I was having instead. Our waiter heavily sighed gave us a very pained expression like we were being ridiculous and took her plate away. He returned with another plate of what I was having. What my wife originally ordered was more expensive than my dish and on the check she was still charged for the more expensive dish. At this point I wasn’t going to argue with the waiter so I just subtracted the amount we were overcharged from the waiter’s tip and left.

We never went back to that restaurant and told everyone who asked about our experience. Now if the restaurant apologized for the dish not being right, cheerfully changed my wife’s order and didn’t overcharge us we would have come back and had a much more positive experience to report to anyone who asked.

More recently when dining with my family my daughter ordered the special. She really didn’t like it. She tends to be a pretty picky eater so I tried it and I have to say I didn’t blame her because I didn’t like it either. The waiter came by and saw that my daughter hardly touched it and asked if it was OK. My daughter said yes. I told our waiter that my daughter didn’t like her dish but was too polite to say anything and that I tried it and didn’t think it was very good either. He apologized and said that the dish was a bit unusual and people usually either loved or hated it and that he would be happy to bring her something she would enjoy. After dinner our waiter said dessert was on him because of our inconvenience; we explained that we were all too full and our waiter offered to box it up for us to enjoy later. We sometimes do go back to that restaurant when we are in that area.

Many things in life can either be a problem or an opportunity. In the first case not liking a dish was a problem. In the second case it was an opportunity for the restaurant to give good service.

A good restaurant would rather exchange a meal than lose a customer.

Funny

The inventor Arthur Davidson, of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Corporation, died and went to heaven. At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, “Since you’ve been such a good man and your Motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven.” Arthur thought about it for a minute and then said, “I want to hang out with God.” St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room, and introduced him to God. Arthur then asked God, “Hey, aren’t you the inventor of women? “God said, “Ah, yes. ” “Well, ” said Arthur, “professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention.” God was somewhat taken back, and when He asked what the flaws might be, Arthur Davidson produced a list for Him to read.

1. There’s too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusions.

2. It chatters constantly at high speeds.

3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much.

4. The intake is placed way to close to the exhaust and finally,

5. The maintenance costs are outrageous. “Hmmmm, you may have some good points there and it may be true that My invention is flawed… ” God said to Arthur. “But the last time that I checked, more men are riding My invention than yours.”

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

This happened to me at one of the companies i worked for. It was time for appraisal and promotion. I got a call from my boss; he wanted to discuss my promotion with me. I got to his office and he started to talk about how he wasn’t sure of my strength, etc.

I had surpassed my sales and product development target for the year and I was shocked to hear this. He wanted me to tell him what I was good at. Without a doubt, I did but I wasn’t comfortable with why he was asking that question.

I had never failed to meet my sales target or deliver on a project that was assigned to me. I got recommendations for promotion from HR, my colleagues, and other managers in the company.

I thought he wasn’t being honest with me. He wanted to critique my effort in order to not give me what I deserved as stated in the company’s career path. I felt bad for a couple of weeks and a colleague of mine said something that brought strength into me.

“If the boss doesn’t appreciate your effort, another company will” he said.

I connected with that statement, dusted my resumé off and started looking for a new job. I got recommended to a company by my friend, got an interview and secured the job.

It was time to break the news to my boss. On a Sunday evening, I submitted my resignation with a two weeks notice. Monday morning, I got to the office and got a call from my boss asking to see me immediately. He expressed how displeased he was about my resignation. He pleaded for six weeks notice instead of two weeks as stated in my employment letter. He said he would be in trouble if I left and that it would be difficult to get a quick replacement considering that I had so much responsibility in the office. He started saying things as they ought to have been said during the promotion interview. While I would have loved to wait for six weeks before leaving, I had committed to starting at the new office after two weeks. I made a promise that I would ensure whomever replaces me is well-equipped with all the information and documentation he or she needs and I was willing to provide assistance if needed.

He wanted to negotiate but I rejected the offer. If I have to explain my contribution to the development of the company only during promotions, then it’s obvious he wasn’t being honest with me.

It was time to move on.

An Egg McMuffin Was Once Just 99 Cents. Can You Guess How Much One Costs Today?

January 31, 2024by Michael

The days of the 99 cent Egg McMuffin are never coming back. Our central bank has been treating our currency like toilet paper, and our politicians in Washington have been borrowing and spending trillions of dollars that we do not have. As a result, we are in the midst of an inflation crisis that seemingly has no end.

Of course the mainstream media insists that inflation is “low”, but literally just about everything that we shell out money for on a regular basis costs a lot more these days. For example, just check out what it will cost you to get a single Egg McMuffin at one McDonald’s location in Connecticut…

A McDonald’s customer was left astounded after paying $7.29 for a single Egg McMuffin in a Connecticut drive through.

Bespoke Investment Group posted a picture of the customer’s receipt with the caption ‘$7.29 for one McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. What has the world come to?? These were 2 for $2 pretty recently.’

The bill records the purchase of two Egg McMuffins for $14.58 and one Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddle without two half-strips of bacon for $7.19.

$7.29 for just one Egg McMuffin?

Are you serious?

So that means that the price of an Egg MucMuffin in Connecticut is now more than 7 times higher than it was during the Reagan administration… https://www.youtube.com/embed/f-8rcPOs9r4?si=8taFsKsT0T34m2Y7Watching old commercials like that makes me sad, because our country has become a completely different place since that time.

Of course it isn’t just the Egg McMuffin that has become ridiculously expensive.

One customer in Idaho was stunned when he recently had to shell out $16.10 for his value meal…

Another customer in Idaho was also shocked to discover the prices of combo deal in December.

Topher Olive, was visiting one of the restaurant’s locations in Post Falls when he picked up a Smoky BLT Quarter Pounder with Cheese, a large fry, and a large Sprite setting him back $16.10.

He shared a video of his meal on, where he has more than 334,000 followers, admitting that he was shocked over the price.

I clearly remember when I could get a combo at McDonald’s for just five bucks.

Now only the wealthy can afford to eat at McDonald’s on a regular basis.

Needless to say, the definition of “wealthy” has changed too.

Once upon a time, if you had a million dollars you were set for life.

But now Kevin O’Leary says that you need at least five million dollars in the bank…

Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank star and investor, sparked significant discussion with his assertion that individuals need $5 million in their bank accounts to ensure lifelong financial stability.

In an August 2023 YouTube video, O’Leary said, “You have to get to a place where you have $5 million in the bank,” emphasizing the importance of this amount to “survive the rest of your life, no matter what happens.” This statement, along with his detailed financial advice, has been a subject of both support and criticism among viewers and financial experts.

Only a tiny percentage of the population has that kind of money.

In fact, one recent survey found that 60 percent of the U.S. population has 500 dollars or less in their checking accounts.

And only 12 percent of the U.S. population has $2,001 dollars or more in their checking accounts.

Just 12 percent.

We are a nation that is literally living on the edge.

Amazingly, in this very tight economic environment there is a campaign to increase the salaries of members of Congress by 70 percent…

A campaign has started to raise the salaries of House and Senate members by 70% to $294,000 from the current $174,000 in return for better “performance.”

Federal analyst Steven Kopits, the president of Princeton Policy Advisors, argued that since most members are lawyers, salaries should at least be equal to what first-year associates in Manhattan receive, plus a 20% bump up.

“Most legislators are lawyers by trade, and we — or at least I — would hope that the public would prefer the best and the brightest to become members of Congress. First year law associates in New York are the best and brightest of their year, typically from Ivy League universities, and their salaries are tied to the market for premium legal services in the U.S. Therefore, if we believe we would like to recruit top-line legal professionals to serve in Congress, then first year associate salaries are a plausible comparable,” Kopits said in a memo.

Just like the rest of us, they are also being crushed by the terrible inflation that they played a major role in creating.

Considering how poorly they have performed, there is no way in the world that they should be getting a raise.

It is the rest of the country that needs help. The middle class is shrinking, food banks are facing unprecedented demand all over the nation, and homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded.

And our politicians are making things even worse by bringing in vast numbers of extremely desperate people from other countries.

In Denver, 40,000 new migrants have arrived during the past year, and they are absolutely overwhelming the city’s social services…

Nearly 40,000 migrants have arrived in Denver over the past year, making a city with a population of just over 710,000 the top destination per capita for newly arrived migrants crossing the U.S. southern border and traveling north in buses from Texas.

The influx is taking a toll on the city’s public safety net. Starting Feb. 5, Denver will limit the number of days migrants can stay in shelters and send those who exceed their stay out onto the streets.

One Venezuelan family, a mother, father and their three daughters, told NBC News they’ve been staying at a hotel paid for by the city, but they’ve just received notice that they’ll be evicted.

“Just yesterday they started throwing away the toys, the bicycles in the common area,” the mother said. “We don’t know where we will go next.”

This is happening all over the nation, and there is no end to this crisis in sight.

Meanwhile, we are being warned that the economy will “cool considerably” during the months ahead…

The U.S. economy is set to cool considerably in the coming months as once-rampant spending by American consumers finally comes to an end, according to Wells Fargo.

In a recent note to clients, Wells Fargo senior global market strategist Scott Wren warned that retail spending is likely to slow over the course of 2024 as the job market eases and layoffs start to rise.

“Americans with jobs and money in their pockets are going to spend,” Wren wrote. “However, as the economy slows as we move through the middle portion of this year and the labor market softens, we continue to believe the holiday spending that occurred last year was a bit of a last hurrah for the consumer.”

Of course there are lots of signs that the economy is already heading in the wrong direction quite rapidly.

Sales of iPhones are typically a very good indicator of where things are going, and right now projections for 2024 are quite dismal…

Apple stock, which on any given day is either the most or 2nd most valuable company in the world, rotating with MSFT, reversed earlier gains and slumped to session lows after widely-read TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (best known for gathering intelligence from his contacts in Apple’s Asian supply chain) reported that Apple has lowered its 2024 iPhone shipments of key upstream semiconductor components to about 200 million units, which correspondents to a decline of 15% year-on-year.

As a result, he notes that iPhone 15 series and new iPhone 16 series shipments will decline by 10–15% year-on-year in 1H 2024 and 2H 2024, respectively (compared to iPhone 14 series shipments in 1H 2023 and iPhone 15 series shipments in 2H 2023, respectively). Even worse, Apple’s weekly shipments in China have declined by 30–40% year-on-year in recent weeks, and this downward trend is expected to continue.

And layoff announcements continue to roll in from coast to coast.

This week, we learned that UPS will be laying off approximately 12,000 workers…

UPS plans to layoff nearly 12,000 employees following a massive year-over-year decline in revenue, company officials told USA TODAY Tuesday morning.

The workforce reduction is part of an effort to align resources in 2024 and will save the company nearly $1 billion, the Atlanta-based company’s CEO Carole Tomé said on a company earnings call.

A slow-motion train wreck is playing out day after day right in front of our eyes.

So many of the things that we have been warning about are literally happening right now.

But most of the population still appears to be in a deep state of sleep.

What will it take for them to finally wake up?

Have you ever had to go without period products because you couldn’t afford them?

Yep.

It was well-known at my middle school and high school that the school nurse didn’t have free pads for the students.

In middle school, we had to call our parents to pick us up. My mother worked out of town, and my father certainly wouldn’t have picked me up or bought me period supplies even if I had asked him. For him, that was always the mother’s job. That wasn’t something that fathers did. I shudder to think of what would’ve happened if I didn’t have enough pads with me during his visitation. He probably would have sent me home to my mother.

In high school, the school nurse had pads for purchase. The price was 50 cents per pad (about $2 apiece today), and while that doesn’t sound like much, the high school nurse wouldn’t just give you a pad if you didn’t have money and found yourself with a nasty visit from Aunt Flo. If you didn’t have money, the nurse wouldn’t budge. She would let you bleed through your clothes and make you call your parents to pick you up rather than give out a free pad. There were no vending machines for pads or tampons in the girl’s restroom at school. The only way she would give you one is if you had the money in your hand.

I understand that the nurse probably had to pay for them out of her own pocket, and she wanted to be reimbursed, but I never had any money. Ever. My mother was one of those parents who had zero problems with helping herself to her children’s savings. She also held the same job out of town, and didn’t have transportation back until the end of the workday, anyway. I usually carried plenty of backup pads and tampons all the time, but sometimes I ran out.

I also had extremely heavy, long-lasting periods even as a teenager. That meant that even wearing both a tampon and a pad, sometimes they were both soaked within 2 hours, sometimes less. I stained my clothes a few times. Did the school nurse care? Not a bit. She refused to give up any of her precious pads without money. She still got paid either way.

Which is why, when I found out that my kids’ school gave out free menstrual supplies, no matter what the economic status of their students, I almost cried.

Do you think China and Russia can truly challenge Western dominance in the Middle East?

China certainly can

China is the largest customer for the Oil Producing Countries in the Middle East

China is also the largest trader and exporter with the Middle East

From Cooking Ranges to Crockery to Clothing to Hikvision Cameras to Machinery to Stationery to Cutlery to Consumer Electronics to Bridges to Roads to Factory Construction to Industrial Air Conditioning

China thus has irreplaceable clout in the Middle East

Impossible to get alternative suppliers for all those products at that affordable cost and quality that China can deliver

Plus the latest exports include Commercial Drones, Trainer Aircraft, Advanced Drills & Gas Platform Drilling Equipment and Rigs

It’s ECONOMIC CLOUT in a Win Win relationship

Tomorrow if Saudi wants Nuclear Energy, China can fully and completely build Nuclear Energy Plants for Saudi and build completely Indigenous Reactors for the Saudis even the latest Thorium Salt Reactors

Meanwhile what clout does the West have?

In the last 75 years, the West has turned the middle East into a war zone begining in 1948

They provoke wars within Arab Nations using Israel as the pawn and then sell weapons to the Arab Nations to defend themselves
They threaten every Nation to use Dollars as transaction currency even if it’s a loss to them

The West has not helped a single Middle Eastern Nation beyond forcing them to kowtow to it’s Agenda like an Evil Demented Emperor

US was Saudis largest trading partner until the Mid 2000s

The nature of exports?

Weapons!!!!!!!

Weapons and Spares formed a whopping 37% of all exports to Saudi Arabia

Saudi was primitive for a long time and US didn’t care in the least

In 2003, Colin Powell literally forced the entire middle East to turn on Saddam Hussein even though he was a fellow Arab and everyone knew he was not guilty of 90% of the things, he was being accused of

Today?

Can Blinken Try?

They will ask him to go f*** himself if he goes too far

Egypt already said this many times recently

So did Qatar

So did Jordan

They didn’t turn on Assad even though the US demanded they do

And that was because of Uncle Vlad

That’s Russia

Russia doesn’t have Chinas clout

However they have Military power next only to the US and in terms of land fighting capability even better

They also have Food that the Middle East could use in an emergency, if US sanctions them

So Yes

The West no longer has the dominance in the middle East

They have to DELIVER to maintain even minimum influence

The normal threats and bullying won’t work

Sanctions will drive the Middle East into Chinas arms in nanoseconds

The US is now like ANY OTHER CUSTOMER

HIGH VALUE CUSTOMER yes but no longer the only Bull Elephant in the herd

Those days are gone

Trump even if he becomes President cannot change anything unless he offers a lot to the Saudis for their friendship and delivers Nuclear Technology and also other concessions including modification of the Bretton Woods system to accept multiple currencies

Joe Rogan is shocked to learn about Thomas Sowell’s Wisdom

https://youtu.be/OtBsyvpjjL8

The 10 Reasons Why Men Need a Men’s Coach to Breakthrough in their Life and Relationships

Last Updated On September 8, 2023

by Andrew Ferebee

Let me get this straight – you did everything right according to society’s rules and you’re telling me you’re not happy with the results?

You excelled in school, worked your butt off and built a successful career, live in a good neighborhood, drive a nice car and aren’t worried about monthly bills but despite the picture perfect life on the outside, there’s an empty feeling, a sense of unease like something deeper is missing.

Remember that inner fire that once drove you, the one that used to consume your soul like a wildfire to be all you can be? It’s diminished now, isn’t it? Doused and replaced by the cold, biting reality of a life lived for material possessions, putting others needs first and social constructs. A life of half awake work and mind-numbing monotony. Doesn’t exactly spark a flame of joy in your bones, does it?

Pause for a moment and let this sink in.

You might be doing well on the surface layer, but here’s the cold, hard truth: amidst that seemingly picture perfect facade, you’re unknowingly missing the very essence of life itself. I’m talking about those profound, soul-stirring connections that leave you breathless, the magnetic friendships that push the boundaries beyond the status quo, the intoxicating romance that sets your world ablaze, and that relentless thirst for adventure and purpose that has propelled men to move mountains for millennia.

Thoreau once wrote,

“The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.”

Look around you – this is as true today as it was then. Perhaps even more so!

We all enter into this world as a blank slate. An empty canvas to be filled with rich experiences, connections, passion filled romances and adventures to enrich our lives.

Men have always longed to…

Explore the world alongside his soulmate. He dreams of heart-pounding adventures, immersing himself in vibrant cultures, and cherishing those rare, life-altering moments. But alas, his reality is far from idyllic. Instead, he finds himself relentlessly toiling, desperately grasping for a taste of true “freedom.” Every day, he deceives himself, clutching onto the false notion that once he completes that next project or seals that elusive deal, he’ll finally have the time and worthiness to embrace romance, chase adventure, and authentically align with his deepest values
Ravish his beautiful lover nightly, yet he’s been fed the cliché advice to toil relentlessly before he can, striving to amplify his worth as a man. So he takes it to heart, dedicating his life to arduous work in the pursuit of being worthy of love. But what does he get in return? A love life that fails to provide pleasure, instead leaving him feeling abandoned and disrespected. His partner’s apathetic response to his romantic endeavors akin to a contractual obligation rather than an outpouring of raw passion, reducing their connection to the status of mere roommates. Isolated, he clings to his smartphone, its somber blue light a haunting symbol of the all-consuming void that torments his manhood.
Discover a purpose so mighty, so unyielding, that he’d lay down his very existence without hesitation to witness its breathtaking realization. But here’s the chilling truth: his days are shackled to a career, forced to coexist with similar zombie like colleagues, all for the sake of financing an unceasing cascade of hollow possessions that provide fleeting value, pass time and hold no genuine meaning.
Catapult out of bed each morning, brimming with an unwavering energy for the day. But alas, that is not the tale that unfolds. Instead, fatigue clings to his bones, sapping his vitality, as he traverses the exhausting grind of a never-ending pursuit of money, ensnared in the perpetual race to keep pace with the elusive peers around him. Determined to prove his worth, he yearns for validation, yearns for the recognition of his true capabilities, all in the hopes that it will rekindle the flickering flame of a passionless existence and breathe life into the barren landscapes of his love life
Deepen his connection with his masculinity, not only ‘finding’ himself, but actively sculpting himself into the confident, charming and alive man he’s always aspired to be or once was…But instead, he settles for society’s warped version of success, repressing his masculine fire, and sacrificing his most profound aspirations, dreams, and desires on the altar of social accolades, as he selflessly serves the needs of others.

Ah, what’s interesting is that he meticulously followed society’s script, constructing a life that was meant to be extraordinary, unforgettable, and full of success. Yet, here he sits, his eyes fixed on the glowing screen of a computer, ceaselessly treading away, trapped in the clutches of a whispering desperation that lingers within.

We live in a world where men are now more afraid than ever to be masculine, alive and act like strong grounded men. Men, like caged king lions, suppress their power and authenticity, concealing their truth behind a smokescreen of professional accomplishments and shiny toys.

And so it begins, a treacherous game, one that threatens to swallow them whole. With each move, their once vibrant social connections and intimate relationships plummet into a harrowing abyss. A descent into darkness unfolds, gripping their souls like a serpent’s squeeze. In a desperate scramble, the man succumbs to the alluring mirage of “more,” effectively ignoring the real problem while immersing himself in the superficial trappings of societal success.

Just consider that..

The suicide rate for men is 3.5x higher than that of women (iconic men who surpassed society’s version of “success”: like Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, Avicci, Chester Bennington, Mac Miller, Junior Seau, Chris Cornell and Heath Ledger fell victim to this horrible act)
The divorce rate in the U.S hovers above 51% with family courts often siding with the mother
Men are 3x more likely to become alcohol and drug dependent (not to mention adult website usage is at all time highs) – masking their problems and hiding rather than getting support and solving them.

You can be forgiven for assuming that, at this point, men would reach out for help in droves. But because of society’s mandate that “Real men” are somehow capable of handling everything by themselves, men are less likely to reach out for help.

Instead, men numb themselves to reality with pleasure inducing addictions. Porn, social media, video games, Netflix originals, and even “work”, have become the sources of our respite. But their shallow promises only exacerbate the issue. These vices do little to further what matters most in our lives and nothing to solve the deeper problems men increasingly face.

So let’s clear something up right now…

Men’s coaching does not mean a man is weak or incapable of achieving results himself.

Coaching is strategic investment that allows men to grow faster by leveraging the guidance of a seasoned expert with the perspective, experience and know-how to breakthrough limiting beliefs that keep men lost for decades faster.

Someone to hold you accountable – to speak to you like no other man will and guide you in your life and relationships or lack thereof. To finally free you of the BS story that’s been holding you back from experiencing the life and relationship you truly want.

Let’s be honest here:

Warren Buffet wouldn’t be the greatest investor of our time without Benjamin Graham…
Marcus Aurelius wouldn’t be one of the greatest philosophers in history, the Emperor of Rome, and one of the most successful generals in military history without Epictetus…
Michael Jordan wouldn’t be the greatest basketball player and (arguably) the greatest athlete of our time without Phil Jackson and you could say the same for Kobe.

And to believe that you’re the exception to the rule is nothing more than nonsense!

If you want to live an exceptional life…a life filled with joy, adventure, romance, deep connection, control over the direction of your life and a sense of true masculine power…getting help by someone who is a results driven coach is the smartest thing you can do to get ahead of the masses.

Men must bravely enlist the help of other men who have “been there, done that”, and can share their wisdom, guidance and insight for living a remarkable life and cultivating real relationships beyond societies surface layer.

And today, I’m going to share the ten reasons why men’s coaching is the “secret edge” you’ve been searching for. The “missing link” that will help men reclaim their masculine power, end the “Nice Guy” behaviors, and become more attractive to and respected by the highest quality women and most successful men in their community.

There’s no time to waste. Let’s dive in.

1. You Lack a Powerful Results Driven Mentor Who Listens Carefully and Inspires Relentless Action

Therapy can be great. And for some men, necessary. But it’s not the end all solution it’s been made out to be.

Sure, they’ll listen intently (they’re paid to). But do not confuse a good listener with actual progress in reality. They don’t push you to challenge yourself, eschew the status quo of mediocrity, and step into your role as the king and creator of your own life. They know very little about reclaiming your masculine power and creating a life that makes you proud of the man you are becoming. Instead, they enable you to play small. Encourage it even for longer than necessary.

A men’s coach doesn’t.

When you enlist the help of other like-minded men who have been where you are today, they can spot your B.S. before you even open your mouth. They will hold you to a higher standard, demand that you play at a higher level, and challenge you in a way that others wouldn’t dare.

Granted there are well-meaning mental health professionals that exist, yet few and far between. And after working with 1000s of men their feedback on the results of therapy vs. coaching were all but ubiquitous and mostly time consuming and costly.

With therapy, they spent years (some of them decades) digging through their past to identify all of the ways in which their parents, teachers, friends, and high school crushes screwed them up for life.

They myopically focused on the trauma (real or perceived) of the past in hopes that somehow…by realizing that their anger issues stemmed from their broken relationship with their father…they would magically heal themselves and fix the problems with how they were showing up in the present..

Therapy doesn’t empower you to move forward, it only helps you resolve that which is already in your rear view mirror. It won’t help you show up to your relationships in a more grounded way that women naturally respond to, build a social lifestyle that excites you, or contend with the very real challenges you are facing in the present. It simply keeps you trapped by the challenges you’ve already overcome.

With coaching, it’s an entirely different story.

Yes, coaches will still address the implications of your past and how unresolved trauma might be manifesting itself as negative behaviors today.

But they don’t let you live there indefinitely and damn well don’t let you use it as an excuse!

With a men’s coach, the entire conversation is centered around growth, about learning from the challenges you’ve experienced in the past to become stronger and move forward today.

It isn’t based on theory. It’s based on action, results and experience. Experience from your coach’s own life or the lives of those they’ve worked with and gotten the end result you seek.

They’ll listen to you deeply, yes. But they’ll also have the courage and wisdom to speak to you directly like a man in a bold, masculine and direct way that is severely lacking today. Calling you out on the b.s. stories to which you’ve given away your power…giving you the facts of why your life isn’t working effectively in this new era for men…and being brutally honest in their feedback.

They’ll hit you upside the head with a no-holds barred reality check and hold you accountable to breaking the patterns and behaviors that are holing you back from the life, social status, and relationships you want.

With a therapist, you talk about the past. With a coach, you march courageously into the future.

They won’t let you hide from your challenges or outsource responsibility for your life to some traumatic episode of the past.

They will challenge you to level up today. To be real, raw, and honest with yourself and take concrete bold action toward solving the challenges holding you back from the life you want – on your very first session.

2. You’re Trapped by “Nice Guy” Behaviors Because You Lack Strong Masculine Role Models

Like me, your father probably wasn’t the best role model.

He wasn’t the Strong Grounded Man you aspire to be. He didn’t live a passionate, courageous and exciting life, he wasn’t a part of a strong community of men, he likely gave his power away to your mother and unintentionally taught you, through his example, that, to be a man, is to resign yourself to a life of serving and pleasing others…void of true purpose, power, and adventure.

Like most men, your father was either a quintessential “Nice Guy”–who trained you to adopt those same patterns and behaviors–or the opposite, a “Bad Boy”–who inadvertently trained you to be a nice guy because you wanted to rebel and be nothing like him.

This isn’t meant to denigrate your father – he likely did the best he could with what he was given from his father.

You may struggle with how to treat women (especially attractive women)
You may struggle standing up for yourself during conflict
You may avoid or put off conflicts to not “upset” anyone or cause any problems
You don’t know how to respectfully get your needs met and because of this hide a deep frustration inside– where sometimes it uncontrollably explodes in an anger fueled outburst
You are a nice guy who does things in order to get people to validate your worth

In our modern society, healthy and authentic masculinity has become vilified. Because of the real problems with toxic masculinity, we’ve instructed men to be submissive.

We’ve trained men to eschew their masculine edge…to rely only on the feminine elements of their nature instead of bringing together both energies to become complete, fully integrated, Grounded Men.

Today, it is more important than ever for men to regain their masculine energy because it is the missing link to get to the next level in life – especially romantic relationships.

Too many men allow their “Nice Guy” tendencies to undermine their life…putting the needs of others first…struggling to assert themselves to avoid tension…being unable to set and maintain healthy boundaries…and refusing to prioritize their own goals, ambitions and dreams.

And the end result is always a life filled with regret, a decrease in the man’s value and incognito resentment to those who take advantage of you with little to no appreciation.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the “Over Achiever”. Men who use their professional ambitions to mask the pain they feel inside and achieve some modicum of validation through their external accomplishments and accolades to outwardly prove their self worth to society and of course, women.

While there’s nothing wrong with success, money, or achievement, these men are not pursuing these things from a place of wholeness…using them as tools and resources to magnify a fulfilled life…instead they pursue them from the lens of scarcity, ego and desperation. In hopes that the next milestone, promotion, or product launch will somehow give them the feeling that they are enough and others will suddenly validate them and place them on a higher arbitrary pedestal of life. That they finally belong, yet the problem is this can go on for the rest of the man’s life… meanwhile the clock is ticking.

But when you leverage a men’s coach, when you surround yourself with strong masculine men tempered by virtue and a sense of purpose and honor, you can begin the process of eradicating these dark tendencies once and for all.

You’ll learn how to develop your confidence in a healthy way free of ego, how to set boundaries, prioritize yourself (while still being valued and respected by others) and your desires, speak the truth even when it’s hard, and cultivate a strong sense of self worth.

And from this place, you can finally be at peace with yourself and the world around you. You will be able to show up to life and relationships as your true self like never before.

You will be enough.

3. You Give Away Your Masculine Power To Women then Lose All Respect, Value and Romance

Woody Allen said, “90% of success is showing up.” But men today are not showing up for the women in their lives.

Men have lost the strength of their masculine edge and women are starving for it.

Today, men are terrified by their own masculinity. They are petrified by their darkness and aggression and, instead of embracing and learning to harness it, they suppress it and embrace what is easier and more acceptable – nice guy, people pleasing and approval seeking behaviors. Both in their lives and in their interactions with women

The modern man often feels weak, spineless and powerless; castrated by a hyper feminist society and emasculated by the women they yearn connection and intimacy for.

If he’s single, he struggles to be present in his interactions, suppressing his desire for romantic intimacy and acting disingenuously out of fear of rejection with the hopes of being “liked” for being a nice guy who will wait his turn.

And if he’s married or in a committed relationship?

He gives away his power to his partner, marking the death of connection, deep intimacy and allowing her to lead the relationship and indeed his life. Instead of showing up as a leader, confidant, protector for her, he’s little more than a walking ATM. A cash dispenser whom she begrudgingly settles for in return for an infrequent lackluster romantic life.

And these behaviors put you at the mercy of women!

She owns you – and loses all respect for you, and therefore attraction and romantic desire cannot exist. You have no power in the relationship, and you both know it.

When this happens, women, even faithful and loving women, become susceptible to the allure of infidelity. Not because they are bad corrupt people. Because the man is not showing up the way he needs to and is incapable of doing the things he needs to do to keep a high quality woman engaged and excited in his life.

She treats you like a little boy because that’s exactly how you’re acting. A physically big man with little inner backbone (one of the biggest turn offs to women), unconsciously telling her that he is a weak man who cannot be trusted which makes her feel unsafe and unhappy.

And when she’s finally had enough of the weak needy behavior? She leaves him, alone and heart broken. You don’t need me to tell you how painful a serious breakup or divorce can be for a man (especially a successful man of worth). Beyond the stress and financial burden of possibly losing (half) or more of your net worth and everything you bled for, these events are often a setback from which a man will rarely fully recover.

They extinguish what little fire was left in his soul and snuff out the glimmer of hope that still twinkled in his eye.

The financial and emotional cost of exuding weak “Nice Guy” behaviors in a relationship is higher than most men realize until it’s too late. Much higher than doing the work required to become a strong grounded man capable of attracting and keeping his partner among many other life benefits.

And, what most men don’t realize is that women are just as confused, frustrated, and exhausted by this charade as you are. Women don’t want a doormat for a partner. They don’t want someone who spinelessly defers to and subjugates themselves at the altar of the feminine as to not upset her.

They want a man they can trust. A man with power, vision, and aliveness who gives her butterflies in her stomach and keeps her daydreaming when she will get to go out with and bed her king again.

And when you work with a men’s coach, you can become this man.

You’ll regain your masculine power, boost your confidence, and show up to the relationship as a whole, fulfilled, and complete man…a man who doesn’t need a woman to feel validated or worthy…but who chooses a woman with whom he can build his kingdom. A woman to love, support, and challenge and who loves, supports, and challenges him.

A men’s coach not only helps you reclaim your power… you multiply it and go from the masses of men who are approval seeking nice guys to “omg who is THAT guy?”

4. You Chase Money Endlessly without a Clear Definite Purpose Bigger than Oneself

Most men believe that their purpose in life is relegated to doing whatever will make the most money. That their self worth is contingent on their net worth and that the only appropriate answer to the question “What do you want?” is “More.”

Sure, you make money. Maybe even great money. But beyond the base level of success the income doesn’t excite or inspire you like it once did. It simply assuages your growing sense of a lack of purpose, allowing you to go through the motions, numbing yourself with vices without any idea as to what you’re doing or WHY you’re doing it.

You follow the crowd aimlessly moving through life unconsciously. Working long hours, giving up your personal life, saying “No” to the experiences and life you really want to make more money…and for what?

Extra bedrooms? More horses in the car? A mini vacation where you spend your time sequestered in your hotel room responding to emails and putting out fires?

Most men aren’t willing to take a step back, look inwardly, and ask themselves, “Beyond financial success…What do I really want out of my life and relationships?”

Because you haven’t done this work you grind even harder thinking “more” is the solution, desperately pouring your soul and finite time into work in hopes that one day…the money you earn will finally validate your worth as a man and make you feel “enough”.

And when it doesn’t?

You seek instant gratification in the forms of vices like alcohol, drugs, porn, binging social media/tv, and excessive consumerism to numb the pain of a purposeless life.

You spend money on lavish external things like cars, clothes, and unnecessary household gadgets in the hopes of finding just a niggle of temporary excitement – But the fleeting and superficial nature of these purchases leave you no more content, joyful, or alive than the month prior, keeping you in a perpetual cycle of consumption.

Indeed, there has been major shifts in society – men today have no Great War. No cause. No purpose. And feel utterly lost because of it.

Every man needs a fight. Not necessarily physical, but a greater mission to fight for.

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” – Gautama Buddha

Something that’s greater than yourself and for some men possibly noble enough that it’s worth sacrificing everything for.

By plugging yourself into a community of like minded men led by the guidance of a team of expert men’s coach who can open your eyes up to a new possibility, you’ll gain clarity on your path and purpose and unlock a new level of meaning and significance in your life that supersedes the purely materialistic of the unconscious masses.

5. You Need Someone Other Than Your Divorced or Single Friends with Whom You Can Get Effective Feedback on Your Intimate Relationships

Men’s coaches specialize in relationships in many ways. The masculine-feminine dynamic is likely why they became men’s coaches in the first place. Often many men’s coaches have backgrounds in dating, seduction and relationship coaching.

However, they’ve evolved into a healthier and more mature form of supporting men beyond the superficial “pick up” tactics.

Your men’s coach is to relationships what a Navy SEAL is to combat.

He will teach you the proven strategies and mental frameworks (that none of your family, friends, and peers have the slightest clue about) so that you can transform into the type of man that women respect, admire, and brag about to their friends and family.

If the intense satisfaction that comes from a deeper level of connection, intimacy and romance with women is what you want… you are not going to get it by listening to your friend whose own relationship history is a stage 4 natural disaster who’s got divorce attorneys on speed dial.

Most men are bitter, jaded, and angry with women. After a stream of failed relationships, they buy into the lie that there must be something fundamentally wrong with women (instead of admitting to themselves that the problem might lie in how they are showing up to women).

The simple truth of the matter is that you cannot take advice from someone who has not achieved the results you want to achieve.

The right men’s coach has already walked the walk. He knows how to achieve lasting success, intimacy, and passion inside of your relationship and will teach you how to lay the foundation of self-love, confidence, and masculine power required to make your relationship thrive.

He’ll help you either find the perfect woman with whom you will build your kingdom, OR enhance your existing relationship with the woman you’ve under-prioritized for years (maybe even decades) to new heights.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, will have a greater impact on your happiness, success, and fulfillment than the woman with whom you choose to share your life. Happiness is not found in another ‘0’ in the bank account…but in a deep well of shared experiences with someone whom you love and feel deeply connected to – and who feels the same

And with the help of a results driven men’s coach, you’ll finally have access to the mindsets, strategies and tactics that you need to solve the most challenging relationship struggles in your life.

6. You Do Not Have Real Masculine Accountability in Your Life that Calls You Out on Your BS (and likely never have)

When a strong grounded man with absolute conviction asks you to do something – you do it.

When you tell someone whom you deeply respect that you are going to take a specific action, you will do everything in your power to keep your word because you do not want to let someone you respect down.

It’s in our masculine nature to be a man of our word. If you tell a strong grounded man you’ll do something and don’t – you’re breaking your word and bond with your coach.

It’s not about the money with the men’s coach; it’s about being a man of integrity.

If your word means nothing… then are you a man to be trusted? Can women even trust this man?

When a man is held accountable by someone he deeply respects, then he focuses harder and takes the right actions to get stellar results, even when it’s scary and seems damn near impossible.

You can’t hide. You can’t play small. You can’t live with the excuses that you’ve suppressed for years anymore.

More importantly, you can’t ignore the parts of your life that aren’t working and rely on superficial external successes to hide behind an unhappy and un-lived life. It’s very easy for a men’s coach to see behind the facade you’ve created to feel safe.

The disappointment you feel when you let down someone you greatly respect will propel you into action. It’s a big reality check for you at that moment when your men’s coach is not buying into your b.s. story that everyone else believes.

You’ll be thinking in the back of your head, “He can see through my BS. I can’t believe I’ve gotten away with this for this long and it’s time to change.”

“Good men are bound by conscience and liberated by accountability.” ~Wes Fessler

Any man can shy away from help because he’s afraid to look foolish yet it’s the truly courageous and brave man who stands up and asks for support.

You probably surround yourself with high achieving men already.

While they mean well and care about you and your success, just like crabs in a bucket pulling any escaping crabs back down they are terrified of watching you outgrow and outperform your existing social group

Having a men’s coach and being a part of a community, a brotherhood, of men who truly stand for your greatness doesn’t make you weak or incapable. It’s where you can get your “secret” edge against the masses who are unaware such a solution exists.

7. You Don’t Have the Freedom To Fearlessly Express Your Truth Fully, So You Remain Silent and Don’t get Your Needs Met (in work and relationships)

At the core of every man is the desire to be free, yet ironically men often confine themselves to a cage to appear like they are okay.

You’ve locked your emotions up and pretend to be a “strong man” when at times, you’re struggling inside and barely holding it together.

Other people don’t see this…

All they see is the success…the external accolades…the fake smile…the “picture-perfect life”.

They see what you allow them to see, but they don’t see the truth. They don’t see the struggle that you’re experiencing…the inescapable sense of inadequacy…the fear that you’re on the brink of divorce, breaking up or suffering from chronic loneliness or an existential crisis.

You bought into the B.S. story that “Big boys don’t cry”, and so you stoically ignore and suppress your emotions and desires, convincing yourself that the only solution is to be silent in the face of abject fear.

When a man does this he shuts down a piece of his heart and becomes less human and more of a robot programmed by society with few signs of life becoming a shell of what he could be.

Expressing your emotions in a healthy way is a natural thing humans do, no different than urinating. If you don’t urinate you’re in pain. When you urinate the pain is gone – it’s that simple.

It’s a release that is a necessary requirement for healthy living.

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” – Jim Morrison

Emotionally handicapped men become distant, angry, frustrated and cynical (in extreme cases, even violent).

Friendships and relationships slowly feel more like chores. When someone asks how you’re doing you reply with perfunctory bland responses to avoid expressing how you really feel.

“I’m alright, good, great, fine”… then you quickly turn the conversation back to them or something superficial to avoid anything, but the truth.

When a man is disconnected from his heart, he becomes disconnected from the rest of the world and lives in a silent prison where it’s just him and his dark thoughts shielded by his external successes.

He’s trapped in a mind-made prison without ever realizing that he is both the inmate and the warden of the prison. He holds the key to his own liberation, but years of societal conditioning have blinded him to this possibility.

Like an elephant kept in place by a feeble rope, he fails to realize that he’s outgrown the confines in which he has placed himself and that, at any moment, he can unlock the door and find his freedom.

Through men’s coaching and a strong community, you’ll discover how to express your emotions in a healthy way that doesn’t make you weak, but courageous and respected. How to connect with the deepest parts of yourself and be authentic, raw, and honest with other men. You’ll learn how to experience the depths of true connection, friendship, and intimacy, and step into your role as the vibrant and expressive king of your life.

Your men’s coach unlocks your emotional cage so you can release the heavy feeling in your gut and finally experience what true personal freedom means.

8. You’re Going Through Life Without Strong Male Support And Quality Friendships that Last and Go Beyond the Surface Layer

I’m not talking about your business associates or clients with whom you occasionally share a drink or over-priced steak dinner…but men with whom you can speak your truth and who support you. Life can be so much more than working, going to the gym and watching television/social media/adult websites.

The greatest paradox of the human experience is that, even in a sea of surface layer connections and acquaintances we can still feel desperately and soul-wrenchingly alone.

Most men, especially successful men like yourself, go through their entire lives without true male friendships.

They have plenty of acquaintances…golf buddies… beer hangouts… gym partners…business colleagues to do more deals with…but they lack meaningful, unfiltered, masculine connection.

They fear judgment and invalidation and, as a result, smother their truth until its voice is so faint they themselves can barely hear it.

Show me a man who fears authentic connection and real friendships with other quality men, and I’ll show you a man who is broken…alone…isolated…and void of life.

Humans need to connect at a deep level to be emotionally free, alive and healthy.

Women do this more naturally than men (likely because there are fewer stigmas around opening up and sharing the truth) but it is also essential for men’s well being.

And it’s no wonder that according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention the suicide rate for men is 3.5x higher than women and rising! This statistic isn’t relegated to low life’s in society but even the most successful men, celebrities, musicians, actors and those who have “made it” at high levels in society.

Men are more alone than ever today. There are few people with whom they can speak honestly and candidly without fear of judgment and ridicule. No one to support them, to challenge them, to share in their struggle and success and act as a brother in arms during good times and bad.

This is a very real social problem that people aren’t talking about and most men aren’t even aware of themselves because it’s so commonplace and men are too busy chasing “more”.

Do you have men in your life that you can share the good, the bad and the ugly with who will listen and support you?

Can you be vulnerable and share what’s really going on with other men without being scrutinized?

Men who live in a world of truths are more connected to the world and those around them and find more joy, happiness, and inner fulfillment.

With a men’s coach, you’ll be forced to live in a world of truth. There’s no room for deceit or dishonesty in a coaching relationship. The very nature of the relationship demands no b.s. honesty.

And when you get real with yourself and the other men in your life, you will tap into a deeper level of the human experience.

Your interactions will deepen, other men will respect you more, women will be more connected and attracted to you. As the saying goes, “The truth will set you free.” And a men’s coach will help you find, speak, and live in your truth.

9. You are Settling and Playing Small in the Game of Life Because You are Doing Better than Your Peers Growing Up

Our society has convinced men that…so long as they are making good money and can keep pace with the Jones’…they are playing the game of life well.

But what most men forget is that the concept of “Playing Small” is not relegated to only the financial realm! That’s one piece of the pie of life…

You can be a leader of your industry…a multimillionaire…the best in the world at what you do professionally…and still be playing the game of life grossly below your potential.

But if you aren’t going for the life you really want…if you aren’t fostering love, connection, intimacy…if you aren’t injecting adventure, aliveness, and risk into your life…if you wake up doing the same damn thing day in day out.

If you don’t love the life you have while you pursue your grand vision then you’re missing out on a whole lot of life. If you’re not excited for the day, alive in your social interactions and fulfilled in your relationships then…

You are winning the career battle, but you’re losing the war for your life, freedom and happiness.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank or how many positions you’ve held that are prefixed by the letter ‘C’ or ‘Senior” or ‘VP’. If you aren’t excited about your life and filled with passion, purpose, and an ineffable sense of inner power…you’re playing small.

If your life report looks like this then what’s your overall GPA on life?

Career: A+
Physical Health: C
Emotional Health: C
Social Life: F
Romantic relationships: F
Purpose/mission/contribution: F
Adventure/passions/hobbies: F
Masculinity/backbone: F
Self confidence/self image/self worth: F

Oh how exciting would it be to fall in love with this guy and spend the rest of your life with him?

Now can you see the problem here? Most men pour all the energy into career and wonder why they’re unhappy outside of work with the results in their life and relationships.

And a men’s coach will not only call out this b.s. behavior when he sees it…but he will enable you to do the hard deep work required to address the other critical areas of life that are being ignored.

When you’re a part of the right community all the doing the same and assisted by a team of expert coaches, playing small is no longer an option.

You may hate us at times because we push you outside of your comfort zone…you may despise our brutal honesty and no-holds barred tirades…you may tell us to “Screw off!” and consider reverting back to your old ways.

But you’ll come to realize that we’re the only ones in your life pushing you forward. You are playing small and it’s time to end that.

You have 2 options:

1. You can stay safe and retreat into your old habits of chasing career success, pursuing external validation, masking pain with vices and relying on your accomplishments to fuel your self worth.

2. You can embrace the call to adventure into the life and relationships you’ve always wanted!

Accept that your professional accomplishments, however impressive, do not define your worth as a man and that, to live without regret, to not waste the rest of your life, you need more out of yourself and your life than another promotion, zero in the account or deal closed.

You can decide to take a stand for your own life and vision and pour your heart and soul into becoming the Strong Grounded Man you know you can be. To living the life you want. To eschewing society’s values and living a life based on your own vision, your own aspirations, and your own rules.

You can make this decision today.

But to make it stick, you’ll need support and guidance.

And I can promise you…when you accept that you cannot do it alone…when you decide to go all in on your life and recruit a team of expert coaches, mentors, and likeminded brothers you can make it happen a lot faster than you think.

That is the moment you will look back on years from today and say “That is when everything changed!”

Would it be helpful to discuss your unique situation, goals and challenges on the phone with a men’s coach in the next few days? Click to learn about the best men’s coaching service available

10. If You Keep Doing What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Miss the Best Years of Life

Now, you have a decision to make.

You made it to the end of this article for one simple reason. This conversation has deeply resonated with you.

Maybe your relationship is on the brink of ending and the woman you once promised to love and cherish has become the very source of your unhappiness, discontentment and frustration.

Maybe you’re chronically single and tired of being friend-zoned by the quality women you desire and are beginning to give up on dating altogether and embrace a life of single-hood.

Maybe your life is working…on the outside. But you no longer feel the fire, passion, and power you once had. You’ve become sedated…unaware of how much more your life could be.

Maybe workaholism and the constant pursuit of “more” has left you empty, depleted, and alone. You’ve spent years, maybe even decades, pursuing “success” and now you find yourself wondering when you go to bed at night… “is this really it?”

The simple truth is, I don’t know what pain you’re experiencing. I don’t know what challenges and frustrations you’re facing today.

But what I do know is this…

The price of inaction…of settling for a life you don’t love…of ignoring the real challenges in your life…of continuing to operate under the same dysfunctional paradigm and strategy that brought you here in the first place…is an un-lived life, a life of regret.

If you don’t make a change and decide to take new actions today, nothing will change tomorrow. Years will go by and the problems you are facing now will be amplified.

Your happiness, relationships, family, and sanity will slowly start to dwindle until you find yourself years later, wishing you could turn back the clock and do it YOUR WAY all over again.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can do it your way starting today and take a stand.

Over the past ten years, I’ve been quietly helping men at the highest levels achieve the things that money can’t buy…the happiness, purpose, passion, fulfillment, and romance they’ve craved for all along.

You’ve read the entire article which tells me you are serious about making big changes in your life so, I want to invite you into my brotherhood as the ideal next step…

…An elite coaching system unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before that will spark a personal revolution in your life, relationships and fundamentally change the man you are today.

I invite you to answer the call to adventure, to unleash the “powerful, successful, attractive man” you’ve kept caged inside of you for far too long, to take a stand for your life and your future and say “Enough is enough, I’m ready to reclaim my power and make this a reality!”

You know as well as I do that if you continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always had.

And if this article has not resonated with you…if you’re still convinced that you can do it all alone…

Then I wish you all the best, but I can’t help you and honestly no one can. You are not ready for the transformational work we mastered.

But if you’re courageous enough to accept that there are challenges in your life for which you don’t have the solutions…that there’s more to your existence as a man than simply making more money and living like a robot…that you CAN become the strong Grounded Man with deeper connections, fulfillment and relationships that you’ve always wanted… then you’re going to love what I’ve created for you.

However, I must be blunt, I do not offer cheap solutions to serious life and relationship problems. And to be honest, when has the cheapest solution to a serious problem of this magnitude ever worked? It’s usually a waste of time and that’s not what we’re about.

You wouldn’t look for the cheapest and least experienced doctor if you or a loved one were to undergo a life threatening surgery. And this problem should be treated at the same level since there are serious consequences if these problems continue to be ignored.

Through heavy research and development, we have learned that to solve the problem for good, it requires a team of talented and experienced experts who love what they do, in-depth high level training, actionable systems and exercises to achieve lifelong results. The good news is we have the solution and we’ve perfected it over the last decade with over 1000 clients, you must stop resisting help when it’s right in front of you and prioritize what matters most.

Chicken Cacciatore

What is Chicken Cacciatore?

Chicken Cacciatore is a rustic Italian dish made of bone-in chicken portions that have been browned then braised, along with sauteed vegetables, in crushed tomatoes, wine and herbs. Cacciatore is pronounced kah-chuh-taw-ree.

What to Serve with It

It is the coziest dish and it’s perfect paired with pasta, rustic bread, polenta, or mashed potatoes. It’s basically a meal in one so you really don’t need a whole lot more with it.

This makes for the perfect homestyle dinner to sit down to after a hectic day or long week. Such delicious Italian comfort food that’s well worth the process!

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) broiler-fryer chicken
2 cups water
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Bring chicken to boil in a pot of water. Simmer chicken for 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool. Pour stock into a measuring cup to make 2 cups and refrigerate.
Skim any fat from top of reserved stock when cooled.
De-bone the chicken. Discard bones and skin. Cut chicken into chunks.
Place all ingredients in a pot and cover. Bring to a boil, turning heat down immediately. Simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, or until sauce has thickened.
Serve on a bed of rice.

How to Make Chicken Cacciatore

Brown chicken thighs: Heat olive oil in an extra large saute pan over medium-high heat.
Dab thighs dry with paper towels, season both sides with salt. Sear thighs until browned about 5 minutes, turn and sear about 3 – 4 minutes longer. Transfer thighs to a plate, set aside.
Saute mushrooms: Carefully drain off all but about 2 Tbsp fat in pan. Return to medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and saute, only tossing every minute or two, until browned, about 4 minutes total.
Saute other vegetables: Add bell peppers and onions and saute 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute longer.
Add wine, reduce: Remove from heat, pour in wine. Return to heat and let simmer over medium-low heat until reduced by about half, about 3 minutes.
Add liquids, and flavorings: Mix in crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, half the parsley, half the basil, the thyme, oregano and parmesan rind. Season with salt and pepper to taste (take it easy on the salt as sauce will reduce some and parmesan will season the sauce).
Simmer chicken with cacciatore sauce until cooked through: Nestle chicken thighs into the sauce, bring to a simmer and reduce to medium-low. Cover while leaving lid just lightly ajar for some steam to escape. Simmer 15 minutes.
Turn thighs. Cover fully and continue to simmer until all of the thighs have cooked through (175 degrees in center), about 15 minutes longer.
Finish with olives and herb garnish: If using olives sprinkle over. Finish with remaining half of the parsley and basil. Serve warm with cooked pasta if desired.

Have you ever literally face-palmed in court?

Oh yeah. It was when we were in court, seeking an Order of Protection to get my daughter’s ex-boyfriend to stop intimidating her (Garrett Murphy’s answer to As 2016 has come to an end, what is the saddest thing that happened in your life in this year?).

One of the key things in that story was a day when the ex rode my daughter’s bus home from school, saying, out loud, that he was going to try to get her to have a panic attack.

This charming, precious boy had obviously been telling his parents how nice he’d been to my daughter. One of the things he’d must have told them was that he’d been keeping his distance from her.

So, in court, after we’d laid out our complaints, including the bus ride, he had his chance to question us (his rebuttal), then he told his side of the story.

He explained that when he rode the bus that day, he sat in the front row of the bus, as far from my daughter as possible, because he was trying to be nice to her, and this made it impossible for him to be actively antagonizing her.

So, when my daughter did her rebuttal, she asked where he remembered her sitting, he responded “between the back seat and the middle”, which would put about 10-12 rows of seats between them.

“So, why would you come sit within three rows of me, knowing the effects it would have on me?” My daughter had forgotten his claim that he sat in the very first seat on the bus.

“Well, the front of the bus was full, so I sat down in the first available seat. I’m sorry it was so close to you.” Holy crap, HE forgot his claim as well.

I interrupted (the judge had said he’d allow it at the onset): “Wait, didn’t you say, just a few minutes ago, that you sat in the front seat?”

“Yeah.”

“But, she sat in the back half of the bus…and you just admitted to sitting three rows in front of her.”

The judge’s face was already in his hands. Same with his mom’s. As he began stammering and trying to explain, I couldn’t help myself. Head…hands….

It Begins…All 50 States Fight For Protection (WARNING)

https://youtu.be/S3LSAnUg180

What should I do when my boss always makes other co-workers try to reach me and do work right away when I don’t respond to him on my off-hours and days?

I had this problem with several bosses at different jobs.

I did not take calls from work if I was off duty. My boss would blow up my phone, message me on social media and when that did not work, he would get my coworkers to do the same.

I ignored them as well.

When my boss couldn’t get me on the phone and my coworkers were unsuccessful, the boss would show up at my house and bang on my door like he was the police.

I cursed out one boss, slammed the door in the face of another and got into a screaming match with the other. I could not believe how disrespectful they were being; they violated so many boundaries by showing up at my house.

It wasn’t long before I found another job and split.

You have to stress this and be clear with the boss about not contacting you when off duty. I once had a boss blow up my phone until I answered and when I answered, I said, “If you’re calling me like this at 4:45am, this state better be on fire and you’re telling me I need to evacuate.”

Boss said, “We had several call offs and no call shows for third shift and first shift. We need help and wanted to know if you could come in.”

“No, I am not coming in to work,” I said. “I work like crazy and I want to rest and enjoy life outside of work.”

Then comes the bullshit about how I need to be a team player and I need to step up and help the situation.

“Okay, why do I have to step up at all?” I asked. “Why don’t you say something to the people who call off or don’t show up for their shift instead of putting pressure on me to come in all the time?”

“Shannon, everyone knows you will come in,” said Boss. “No one can count on the others to show up.”

“And yet, they are still employed,” I said. “I’m not coming in. I’m exhausted and want to rest. I am always the one everyone calls on to come in and help; I work 80, 90, and sometimes 100 hours a week because of this and I’m sick and damn tired of it. Call someone else and stop calling me on my off time; I am allowed to have a life outside of work.”

I hung up.

Boss got all pissy because I wouldn’t come in and then all of a sudden I was the laziest employee. I lost all motivation for that job because the boss was mad that I wouldn’t come in to help.

Boss went on and on about how lazy I was. Forgot about the thousand times I did step up and focused on the one time I didn’t.

I eventually had to escalate the matter up the chain of command to get results. It shouldn’t even have had to come to that, but the boss was resentful and petty and passive aggressive and of course I had to go deal with that.

In the end, it took going to the administrator several times over the course of several weeks before I got satisfaction. But by then it was too late; I just found a new job and quit because it was fucking ridiculous for the boss to expect me to make the job the center of my life to the exclusion of all else. They even blew me up when I was at my daughter’s graduation and I made it clear I wanted to be left alone. Ended up going in afterward and then get there and find that I was the only one who showed up…and I was expected to work and do it all, on my own and with no help.

Nursing homes jobs will absolutely fuck your soul.

What is the most inappropriate thing you have done during a serious moment?

We were arguing… and this time, it was serious.

We had a complex relationship: We were dance partners, business partners, and dating each other.

Couple that with the new condo we just moved into and there was no escaping this firestorm.

Like most nights, our dance rehearsal time went long into the night, and considering our sport requires two humans to move in harmony together, there was plenty of discord in the process.

On this night, a bit of dance feedback hit with a pang of frustration and made impact like lemon juice in the eye.

It wasn’t intended to cause harm but it sure as hell did.

The feedback devolved quickly into a blaming cluster bomb which included dance, business, and relationship “feedback”.

We lobbed these verbal weapons back and forth at each other.

At that time we had two separate dance floors divided by a sliding glass door, so, in an effort to simmer things down, I moved into the other room to practice on my own and clear my head.

But this was one of those arguments with frustration residue, it seeped into the pores of our egos and made for a difficult recovery.

I needed to do something because the car ride to our home and everything afterward wouldn’t get any better unless something changed.

She looked over at me with daggers in her eyes.

I stopped practicing.

She said something I couldn’t make out (probably for the best).

So I treated the sliding glass door like it was completely soundproof.

Me: “what?!”

Her: (angry) “I said, this is a waste of time!”

Me: (playing deaf) “you want me to do what?”

Her: (angrier/enunciating) “I said, this is a waste of time!!”

Me: (stunned) “you want me to take my pants off?!”

Her: (puzzled/angry) “what are you talking about!”

Me: (undoing my belt) “really my pants?! Okay if that’s what you want.”

I drop my pants.

She stands there in shock and then, like a sneeze you’re trying your best to fight off, she involuntarily smiled, laughed, and we made up.

It was one of the best moves of my dance, business, and personal life.

(We were married 18 months later)

What Happened To Marriage?

https://youtu.be/eSYNwf7Pets

What’s the most lame excuse your boss has ever offered for not giving you an expected raise?

I have three stories about this one. But I’m going to share the lamest excuse I was given.

I’d been working for this employer for about two years and then later left. I was earning the same wage as when I started; this was a year before I asked for a raise and I was earning the same when I left after this event, about a year later.

I’d been the go-to person at this job. I mean, I was called upon to do so much; I was even called away from one client to go take care of another one (home health) and expected to drive back and forth between the clients’ homes, which was 30 minutes apart. So I was expected to drive back and forth to care for two clients rather than just get someone else to pick up one of the cases.

My boss didn’t see any point in hiring more help; in fact he always said, “Why should I hire more people when I have you here? It’s not a big deal; it’s just some extra driving. You can handle it,” and left it at that.

So after a year of this insanity, I finally went to the boss and asked for a raise.

“A raise? Just what have you done to earn one?” the boss asked.

Incredulous, I ticked off all the things I’d done to help out: I gave up my holidays and days off to pick up a new client, I juggled two clients for three months (one of them eventually passed away), commuting and working a total of 18 hours a day, I spent two weeks driving all over town to care for clients during the Hurricane Ike windstorm that passed through, knocking out power. I’d even packed up clients’ laundry and took it to my house to wash it since I still had power and even cooked meals to carry to the clients so they could have a hot meal. I brought my butane campstove cook top so I could heat water to wash them up.

Now you’d think that would have been enough to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But apparently that wasn’t impressive to my boss.

“Shannon, that isn’t going beyond the call of duty. That’s just doing the job you’re paid to do,” he said.

“Really? So what would I have to do to earn a raise? Give you a kidney or lung? I’m busting my ass here and I deserve a raise for my efforts.” I said.

“Well, Shannon, I can’t afford to give you a raise. Don’t have the money,” said the boss.

“Really? I notice that you and your wife have brand-new cars, bought after you returned from your vacation in Hawaii,” I said testily.

“Shannon, that’s why I don’t have the money to give you a raise. Besides, you can always go get foodstamps or go to a food pantry. I can’t do that,” he said.

“Dude, bottom line here, I deserve a raise and you need to give it to me,” I said.

“Shannon, I have to keep my family in the lifestyle they’re accustomed to. Now being poor is a huge issue for me, but it’s not a problem for you. It’s okay for you to not have enough money coming in. I have to be able to pay for my children’s activities and the nanny, I have to make sure my wife gets her cosmetic surgery and that I have a decent vehicle to get around in. If it’s that much of an issue, just go get a second job,” said the boss.

I walked out of the office, questioning my work performance. Was I not doing enough? Was I really doing enough to earn a raise?

So I resolved to earn a raise. And I busted it out. I went over, above and beyond the call of duty for the next year.

So I go back to my boss and tell him I deserve a raise. This time he laughed at me.

“Shannon, what makes you think you deserve a raise just for doing your job? Why do you keep running in here looking for handouts?” said the boss.

I got to my feet slowly. Lean over the desk.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I said. “I earn every nickel of every paycheck I draw on this job; you do not hand me a goddamn thing. I don’t know what seems to be the problem here, but I’ve been busting my ass for you for two years now and I’m still earning the same as when I started here,” I said, furious at his remarks.

“Well, I had to pay for my children’s school, my wife’s shit and I had to remodel the kitchen and finish my basement so I can turn it into a game room for my children. Plus, we’re going on vacation soon and I have to pay for that, so I can’t give you a raise,” the boss said.

I rose and stormed out. The boss actually had the nerve to say, “Don’t ask for a raise again. You’re not getting one,” got up and slammed the office door.

I got in my car and went to the library. I got on the computer and looked for a new job. I filled out applications and actually got a call back within a few minutes. Scheduled an interview.

I attended the interview and was offered the job. I accepted; it was paying 50% more than my current job, offered real benefits and perks and were reasonable when it came to workloads.

I went back to my other job and just waited.

Then my boss announced he was going on vacation in two weeks or so. This was my chance.

I put in my notice. I even set it up to make my last day the day before his vacation. When he learned that I given notice, he was furious and tried to make me stay until he got back. I stood my ground and said No.

The boss offered me raises, bonuses, paid time off, anything to get me to stay. I asked him, “What have you done to deserve to have me stay on so you can go on a vacation? Every time I put in a request for PTO, it’s always denied. Every time I try to call off, you call me over and over, blowing up my phone, coming around to my house to get me to go to work. I’ve been killing myself on this job, generating enough money for you to take vacations and buy new cars and shit, but not enough for a raise. I’m not staying on for you. Don’t ask me about it again,” and left his office.

On my last day, I turned in everything that had been issued to me: keys, phone and such. The office manager mentioned that I had a ton of PTO I never used; well, that’s because the boss never approved any vacation for anyone except himself.

So due to all the overtime I worked over those two years, the office manager had to cut me a check for damn near eight months’ PTO since it rolled over each year. I took my check, thanked the office manager and left that office for the last time.

My boss lost out on his vacation, I learned later. He wasn’t able to get a refund on such short notice. His family went without him because he had to stay back and cover all the work I had been doing. No one would do the shit I was doing and they would quit when he tried to force them to do it. Pretty soon he had about a handful of workers.

I went on to a better job. I feel no sympathy for my old boss and I have no regrets.

Screw that job. Screw that boss. He deserved all that he got.

Why do many foreigners who come to China think what they saw is so much different from what they heard at home?

Nixon wrote in his memoirs about China and USSR

In USSR, a certain province had a higher yield than the rest of the USSR. The Provincial authorities had tried something new and DIFFERENT from what the Communist Party and Central Control said

Immediately the party leadership sacked the people who had tried something new, and demanded that the province go back to doing what the party wanted even if the yields would be lower

In China, a similar thing happened but instead of clamping down on the province, Deng Xiaoping sent people to find out HOW THE PROVINCE WAS DOING IT and soon made the same thing, the normal standards for other provinces, thereby improving the yield across China in 1971

It was then that Nixon realized China wasn’t the same as the Soviet Union. It was a different form of Communism, something that could maybe give the US a run for their money

This is every foreigners experience in China

China is different

I plan to make a trip later with some Quorans for 4–5 days to chronicle the trip and hopefully record a video on the same

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I used to work for a major cosmetics company that had some very strict rules that didn’t always work out as intended.

Example: one day we got a memo saying that employees were required, not by law but by company policy, to take both their 15-minute breaks. Now, you’re probably thinking, why wouldn’t someone take a break?

Well, there were a number of reasons that people, mostly management, were not regularly taking breaks: most times because the store was short-staffed on weekdays. Business was unpredictable and leaving one person on the floor when a crowd of people walked in meant lost sales, theft, and dramatic Yelp reviews (“If I could give ZERO stars I would!”), not to mention it screwed up our conversion numbers, which meant getting reamed out by corporate (“Jaime, you were working on Monday: can you explain why only 15% of customers bought something in the morning?”). Also, per company policy, managers couldn’t leave the building anyway, unless another manager was on duty (for register overrides), and with only enough managerial overlap on a weekday for lunch, we couldn’t leave to smoke or grab a coffee anyhow. As a result, managers would often either punch out for a short break and help out if needed or just take the legally-required lunch break.

Unbeknownst to us, some employees at other locations were fed up with this and had spoken to some lawyers.

Some time later there was a new rule: employees must take all breaks and may not clock in a minute early or a minute late at any time. No more eight-minute breaks, which we had previously been told was long enough to fulfill the break requirement. This resulted in staff standing by the punch clock waiting for the minute to turn over, because if we were a minute late, it would lead to a write-up. As a manager, I began setting the alarm on my phone when I came in early to get work done so I could run over to the punch clock and clock in at the exact minute.

The timekeeping rule was super annoying but served two purposes with corporate: it showed that the company was providing breaks, and it also eliminated overtime pay.

Unfortunately it’s not easy being perfect. Pretty much everyone got written up. Managers would punch out for their “fake” break, be told that so-and-so from XYA was on the phone with a question or run out to help on the floor with an override and then realize that they forgot to clock back in. Regardless, we tried our best. Managers didn’t actually want to give employees write-ups, so we helped staff by monitoring the time. When it was time for someone to go home, we’d cut in and say something like, “I apologize, Megan needs to leave the floor. My name is Jaime and I’ll be taking over.”

One day I got a letter in the mail from my employer saying I had been randomly chosen to speak to lawyers who were representing some former employees in a class-action lawsuit. I was told to be truthful and that it would not affect my job.

Some time later a nice lawyer named Kelly called and wouldn’t you know, she had a lot of questions about the timekeeping at our company. She found it very odd that company-wide, timekeeping was virtually perfect.

“I worked at Clinique when I was in law school,” Kelly said. “I know that in customer service it is not always possible to clock out exactly on the dot, like if you’re working with a customer and your shift ends. We find it very suspicious that virtually everyone has perfect timekeeping.”

Additionally, Kelly wanted to know if managers were able to take “relaxing” breaks without performing any duties, such as retrieving something from the stock room or processing a return, and if we could leave the store on these breaks. She was also very interested to know why, when someone called in sick, no one else was brought in to cover that shift (answer: because the sick employee is getting paid time off, and there is no money to cover a replacement). The conversation was very illuminating.

My employer lost the lawsuit, and checks were sent to employees within the company. I got around $1,200!

8 classes that should be required for all students before they hit adulthood

If we want to prepare kids for adult life, we've got some glaring gaps to fill.

I remember sitting in advanced algebra and trigonometry class in high school wondering if I was really ever going to use any of what I was learning. Math at that level meant nothing to me in a practical sense. I planned to study English and education to become an English teacher, so I couldn’t imagine why I’d need to learn the ins and outs of trig.

As it turned out, some of what I learned came in handy in the functions class I was required to take to fulfill my math requirement in college. But again, I found myself sitting in class with zero idea of why I was learning this level of math and suspecting that I was never going to actually use that knowledge in my adult life.

Now I’m a middle-aged adult and I can say with absolute certainty that I was right. In 27 years, I have not used anything I learned in functions. Not once. Not even a little bit. I agonized my way through that class to eek out a B-minus and to promptly forget everything I’d learned because it was utterly useless to me.

To be clear, higher math isn’t useless—it’s amazing. It was just completely useless to me.

You know what would have been useful? Learning about financing a car or a mortgage or understanding how and why and where to invest money. In all that time I was doing trigonometric proofs and calculating polynomial functions, I could have been learning all the various real-life math-related decisions I’d have to make as an adult.

I see the same thing happening with my kids in high school and college. It totally makes sense for students who are interested in going into math and science fields to take math beyond basic algebra and geometry. But for those who aren’t—why? There are so many more valuable things for them to take the time to learn—things that every single person really needs a basic knowledge of, such as:

Basic Psychology/Mental Health Maintenance

Every one of us has a brain and mental health is an issue for a huge percentage of people. Even those of us who don’t struggle with mental illness benefit from learning about how our minds work, gaining strategies for managing our thoughts, emotions and behaviors, and understanding why people do the things they do.

How many people would have been saved by learning how to spot a narcissist before getting into a relationship with one? How many people could mitigate an anxiety spiral right when it starts because they learned to recognize the signs earlier? How many people would appreciate the support and understanding of everyone having a basic understanding of their mental health disorders?

Basic Sociology/Human Behavior

Similarly, every one of us lives in a society. Understanding social connections, relationships and group behavior might kind of come in handy. If we don’t understand the causes and consequences of human behavior, we’re going to be confused by society at best and allow or enable atrocities to occur at worst.

From learning how cults and conspiracy theories work to recognizing how our prejudices can blind us to reality, sociology has useful knowledge we all need to internalize.

Media Literacy

If we’re going to be bombarded with media 24/7, we’d better know how to process it. Understanding how journalism works, what makes a source credible, how information can be skewed and how to recognize misinformation and disinformation is vital. What is bias and how can it be mitigated? How can we recognize when an outlet values accuracy?

So many of the problems the U.S. is facing currently are due to people watching or listening to dubious news sources. Mandatory media literacy courses would (hopefully) go a long way toward changing that.

The Stock Market and Other Investments

I underestimated how much I’d need to know about the stock market when I was younger. None of that economic stuff interested me, but I wish I understood it better now.

But really, it’s investing in general that we need to understand more about when we’re younger, especially since starting young is the No. 1 best advice any financial advisor will give you.

How Banking, Credit and Credit Cards Work

Every single one of us uses a bank or credit union and credit is a huge part of adult life. And yet most people I know have had to piece together how credit and credit cards actually work through advice from friends and family and good old trial and error, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Taxes

Good gracious, right? Not just how to do taxes, but what taxes get used for.

Financial literacy is what I’m saying. We need mandatory financial literacy classes. (Florida has actually just become the first state to require personal finance education to graduate, so yay Florida.) I think I was required to take economics in high school, but it was much more high-level economic theory than personal finance. We need personal finance first, then the bigger picture.

First Aid/Safety/Self-Defense

Most of us probably got some first aid and/or CPR training in health class, but how comprehensive was it? Did it include infant CPR? Do we know how to recognize if someone is having a stroke? Signs of infection?

What about basic everyday safety, like why you shouldn’t leave a car running in a garage or common household fire dangers or how to spot asbestos?

Self-defense seems like a no-brainer. Basically, a “How to Stay Alive and Keep Others Alive” course that includes most everything you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones on a daily basis.

Navigating our Healthcare and Health Insurance System

Ugh. I’ve been an adult for almost three decades and everything about our healthcare system confuses and frustrates me. Maybe if we required schools to teach young people how it works, it would shine a big spotlight on how ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated it is because no one could possibly explain it in a way that’s understandable. Maybe that would push lawmakers to actually do something about it, because honestly, it’s just a gigantic mess.

There are surely others, but those are the major subjects that come to mind as vital after being an adult for a long while and seeing what my own kids need to have a decent grasp on as they make their way into the world. And honestly, there are some classes that adults should be required to take well into adulthood. Parenting classes, for example. Or local government and voting.

All subjects and courses have value to some people, but if we want students to be prepared for adulthood, we should make sure they are given the vital knowledge and skills every person actually needs and will use.

Breakfasts

“Dear dad, aka “papa”.

When I first found out I was pregnant at 18, I wasn’t scared to tell anyone. Only you.

I wasn’t scared to tell friends, other family, or the internet. I was scared to tell you.

I still remember sitting on my bed with mom, when you walked in and asked why I was crying. I could barely get out the words “I’m pregnant dad..” before you hung your head in disappointment, and stormed off downstairs. Mom hugged me and told me that you would come around.

I gave you a few minutes, and I walked downstairs. You were sitting on the couch. You looked so mad. I couldn’t find the words to say anything to you, so I just sat down beside you, and laid my head down on your shoulder, as I felt tears drip down my face.

Out of all the people I had to tell, that I was pregnant, I was most scared to tell you. And you were definitely the most disappointed.

But, when I came home the next day, and I saw you clearing out the guest room, for your soon to be granddaughter, I knew everything would be okay.

Six months later, you took me to every doctors appointment, when my boyfriend was working.

Seven months later, you helped me pick out a bringing home baby outfit.

Eight months later, you were there through my labour, and reminding me I could do this.

When she was born, you wouldn’t let her go. She became your world, along with me.

Six years later, you, papa, are my daughters world. She wants to call you every chance she gets. She wants to see you every time we go anywhere.

I know that out of everyone, you were the most disappointed when I announced I was pregnant at 18, but my daughter and I, couldn’t imagine doing life without you. And I know that you couldn’t imagine doing life without my daughter.

You two needed each other, even if you didn’t know it back then.”

Have you ever seen an employee get fired on the spot because of you?

Many years ago I took my 2 children on vacation in Florida. It was their first vacation. My kids were 6 and 8. We stopped in a restaurant that was very much like the Ryan’s restaurants. It was Buffett or order an entree. I ordered an entree and I believe my kids got an entrees as well. Our waiter was super nice and while we were waiting on our meals my daughter the youngest asked if she could look at the dessert bar. She just wanted to see what the options were for after dinner.

we went up to the dessert bar and she eyed the choices. She said she wanted a cookie for later and I said okay which one?

my daughter said are those chocolate chip cookies or raisins. She pointed at them. The bakery employee came up and before I could ask which one was the chocolate chip cookie she slapped my daughter’s hand. She angrily informed me that she needed tongs to get the cookie.

I was in shock by what just happened. I told the lady we only had a question and we were not ready for dessert. She scowled at me. I gave her a death stare and we went back to the table. Our food came out but I didn’t eat any. The waiter came back and asked if everything was okay. I said to him no it wasn’t and I told him what the bakery employee did. He gasped and got his manager. I relayed the story to the manager and he was very apologetic about it and said he would handle rude employee. A few minutes later I saw rude employee going upfront she gathered her purse and walked out the door. The manager came back and refunded our meals and said we could choose anything else on the menu to take home. He said bakery lady no longer works for them.
we choose some entrees and went back to the bakery bar another lady was there and she was very pleasant. I asked her about the cookie and she pointed to the chocolate chip one. My daughter picked up the tongs to get her cookie as she already knew to do this. The bakery lady then put out signs identifying what the cookie s were. Apparently the other lady had forgot to do this.

our waiter took great care of us and the refund I about 20 dollars received from our meal I gave it to him as a tip.

Is there going to be a war between the US and Iran, or is what’s going on just propaganda and saber rattling?

Is USA going to war with Iran?

Nobody has the crystal ball. The ball is in USA as of 2024/1/31.

On the 1 hand, it seems both USA & Iran are avoiding a WW3. Yet at the same time, it seems both are waiting for the right moment to start a war.

Let us look at the big picture.

1, UN says the US occupation of Syria & Iraq is illegal. USA was not invited by Syria or Iraq. Nor was it approved by UN.

USA used laundry detergent to falsely accuse Iraq of possessing bio weapon & waged a war there. USA’s war & thus occupation of Iraq is illegal.

It means Iran’s attack at US (illegal) bases can be pardoned.

USA normally ignores UN. Probably this time too. Clearly Biden has concern. Perhaps Biden has no surety to win the war without US casualties. 2024 is a US election year.

2, Since Saudi-Iran reconciliation in 2023, Mideast nations minus Israel are united as 1 big family. They have 1 common enemy ie USA+Israel. They are also waiting for the right moment to kick USA out of Mideast. They want to reclaim their 100% sovereignty in Mideast.

That is, USA is not faced with Iran alone. But the entire Mideast. Does Biden have surety to win?

3, Iran has “warned” USA’s aircraft carriers. 1 US carrier left Mediterranean Sea a month or so ago. Why leave at this time?

4, No doubt. there were 150 attacks in 3 months. But no casualties until the latest one at Jordan/Syria/Iraq border.

Iran was attacked many times too. How many? dont know.

Mind you, Iran denied it was responsible for the Jordan attack. Iran said it was ISIS.

5, Remember the Iran-Pakistan crossfire? It turns out each country wanted to exterminate the same group of people who were recruited by USA+India & who were living in the Iran-Pakistan border. To these 2 countries, these people are rioters who stir up unrest in both countries. It is not a bad idea to get rid of rioters this way without being accused of ethnic suppression by the West.

Back to the attack at Syria-Jordan-Iraq border where there were 30+ US casualties. Could it be a repeat of the Iran-Pakistan action? All 3 countries are actually exterminating the same group of radicals who are recruited by USA in US base.

Will there be a USA-Iran war? Nobody knows.

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Imagine getting a frantic phone call to find a needle in a haystack. Except that needle is your whole family…. and that haystack is an unknown location.

My wife didn’t sound like herself.

She was crying, panicked, and talking to other people before she said:

Wife: we were in an accident…

Me: (fearing the worst) where are you?

The next words still give me shivers.

Wife: …. You’ll find us…

Dial tone.

I have no idea where they might be. Adrenaline is pulsing through my body, and my only instinct is to drive as fast as possible toward our home.

I’m trying my best to stay focused on the location of my wife and kids, and not what might have happened to them.

I reach our exit from the freeway. Scanning.

Nothing.

I drive past our kids’ school. School. Today was their first day of school.

I make a right, I know her route home.

I’m confident I’ll find them now, but dread what I might see.

Then I see it. Fire engine.

Our Escalade is flipped on its side. I leave my car on the side of the road like it’s a bike I don’t care about.

I run. There’s glass everywhere. Where are they?

Then I can hear crying. It’s the scariest, yet greatest, sound I can hear. Like the cry of a newborn baby to let you know they are alive, I find my wife and 3 children in the cab of the fire truck – all crying, but all safe.

A welcome relief after the worst two minutes of my life.

I wrote about this on another question Chris Lynam’s answer to What is the creepiest phone call or voice message you’ve ever received?

A “bystander” told the cops that my wife ran a red light, but my son (who has an unbelievable memory) was adamant that she didn’t.
It turns out that the “bystander” was a passenger in one of the two racing vehicles that both ran the red light and upended our SUV. He hopped out of the car and had fabricated a totally different account of what actually happened.
My wife was petrified to drive after that, but, after a lot of assurances and negotiating, had her drive me short distances around town.

Chicken Mediterranean

Quickly serves one very hungry person or two restrained people. Multiply at will (the portions, that is). Prep the dried mushrooms, have all your ingredients measured and ready, put on the rice and you’ll be ready to dine in 30 minutes. Also perfect with couscous.

mediterranean chicken recipe 1 1024x1536 1 — mediterranean chicken recipe 1 1024×1536 1

Why you’ll love it

This pan-fried chicken recipe has all my favorite ingredients that remind me of faraway beaches and warm Mediterranean waters. We’ve got a sauce with oregano, Kalamata olives, capers, and of course plenty of feta cheese. It’s got all the best savory flavors!

You know I’m the queen of creamy sauces, but I also enjoy changing it up with healthier fare (Pasta Puttanesca, anyone!?) every so often. This simple Greek-inspired chicken has an elegant, light white wine sauce with fresh tomatoes, so it’s perfect for easy after-work meals and isn’t too heavy.

What you’ll need

Chicken – we’re cutting two chicken breasts in half lengthwise for faster, more even cooking
Seasoning – salt & pepper, oregano, and garlic powder are sprinkled onto the chicken cutlets for infusing flavor into them directly
Olive oil – for pan frying
Garlic – add even more if you’re a big fan
White wine – try sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio.
Tomatoes – a pop of freshness. Use either grape or cherry tomatoes.
Kalamata olives and capers – this duo adds a little tang and so much savory goodness
Spinach – an easy way to get your greens
Feta – this delicately salty, briny, and rich cheese is a staple in Greek-style recipes

Ingredients

2 or 3 dried porcini mushrooms (each the size of a quarter would be nice, or bits and pieces to equal that)
Boiling water to cover the mushrooms
A couple tablespoons chicken broth or bouillon
1 tablespoon capers, drained
Zest of half an orange
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 pound fresh chicken stir fry meat or 1 skinless chicken breast, pounded
Juice of half an orange
1/2 a small anchovy fillet, mashed, or 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Put the dried mushrooms in a Pyrex cup and just cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak while you prep the remaining ingredients.
In a small saucepan, simmer the broth, capers, and orange peel. Chop the rehydrated mushrooms and add to the saucepan. Save a couple of tablespoons of the mushroom water for a later task (make sure it’s not gritty). Let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes and then move on to the next task.
In a sauté pan, skillet or small wok, heat the butter and the oil until very hot. Add the chicken stir fry, brown quickly for just a few minutes and remove with tongs OR add the chicken breast and cook about 5 minutes per side until browned. Remove the chicken.
Let the hot fat and chicken juices reduce for a couple of minutes. Then, over high heat, return the chicken to the pan and add the sauce. Add the orange juice. Cook until chicken is cooked through and sauce has reduced even further, turning the chicken from time to time.
Remove chicken once more. Stir anchovy paste into a couple tablespoons of the reserved mushroom water and add to pan. Let the sauce bubble for a minute or two. Return the chicken to the pan, turn it a few times, and serve with plenty of the sauce on a good sticky rice or couscous.

Substitutions and variations

As always, tweak the recipe to your tastes. If you don’t like olives, for example, you can leave them out.
If you can’t/don’t want to use white wine, just swap it out for chicken broth.
Chicken thighs would work great in here, but you may need to cook them for a bit longer to ensure they’re tender.

What to serve with Mediterranean chicken

Rice, Mashed Potatoes, and pasta are all great options along with steamed vegetables. Try my Garlic Buttered Noodles.
I like to start the meal with pita bread, hummus, and my homemade Tzatziki Sauce.
For a salad pairing, you’ll love my Avocado Greek Salad or Mediterranean White Bean Salad.

Leftovers and storage

Store for 3-4 days in the fridge in a covered container.
Reheat slowly over a low heat. Keep in mind the spinach will wilt more.
If you really need to, you could probably freeze it, but it’s not ideal since the spinach will change texture and the chicken may dry out.

Notes

Good ol’ reliable steamed broccoli on the side would be nice…chocolate for dessert.

The U.S. and China are planning to hold high-level talks on the fentanyl crisis. Do you think this will result in any meaningful action on the part of China?

The problem is in USA. Not China.

USA is using the band-aid solution without diagnosing the root cause to the cancer the fentanyl crisis.

China has done its part:

Fentanyl is illegal in China.

China has set up enforcement personnel to inspect import/export of drug incl fentanyl. One of the enforcement unit is in a police/custom. But …. USA sanctioned that unit. It is USA who does not want China to do the inspection work. It is USA who wants illegal drugs to go to USA.

One ingredient in fentanyl is opiod which comes from opium. It is a powerful pain killer. It is legal in the world. But we must have drug control eg doctor’s prescription.

I heard opiod type of pain-killer was regularly prescribed by doctors in USA (before fentanyl has become a crisis in USA). I heard at first they did not believe people will get addicted until much later.

I also observed that the opiod crisis in north America started at the time when USA occupied Afghanistan. During that 20 years of occupation, Afghanistan produced 80% of opium in the world. The Taliban government has banned its growth since US troops left Afghanistan. Is it a coincidence or not?

An Afghan farmer said it was US soldiers who “forced” or bribed them to grow opium.

Back to China. Fentanyl is illegal in China. No fentanyl in USA comes from China. Opiod that makes LEGAL pain killers are allowed to export to the world incl USA. So if foreign countries which use China’s LEGAL opiod to make fentanyl, China cannot stop them. Unless the world bans legal drug incl pain killers.

There is nothing China can do to help USA.

Fentanyl is a US problem. US politicians talk to China, just to fool Americans that they have done their homework with China. It is a band-aid solution without doing a serious job ie prescription control & underground drug trafficking.

Remember, if there is no market in USA, there will be no underground drug trafficking. So, the problem is inside USA.

In 1840’s, UK militarily forced China to buy opium. A British Jewish businessman spread opium in China. At 1 point, 1/2 of the population was addicted to opium. How did China clean up the crisis? Communist China used iron-fist to stop/punish drug dealers & addicts. Some addicts used their WILL POWER to overcome their pain during drug withdrawal.

China is clean since. So can USA if only USA has the will power to rid itself from fentanyl. Dont shift its responsibility to China. Good luck to USA.

The Mass Exodus Of Young Men From Dating/Relationships Is Baffling Both Academics And The Media

https://youtu.be/Ugs8z6JbdOo

What is the biggest waste of electricity you’ve seen in a home you visited, were a guest in, or even in your own home?

I did “energy audits” – home inspections to look for possible energy improvements – for some years. Here are 4 experiences that stick in my mind:

1. Homeowner complains of high electricity bills. Hmm – heating, hot water and oven are all on natural gas. What could it be? Surely not that hot tub, sitting out there in a foot of snow, gently steaming away on its 220V resistance element?.

2. Homeowner complains of high electricity bills. But this is a homeowner who is up with the latest. Insulation is good, hot water is gas but the heating/cooling system is a forced air high efficiency heatpump (=reverse cycle air con unit) with a programmable thermostat. The set temperatures are very reasonable, a bit spartan if anything. But the bills just look too high, especially in winter. Call in the HVAC expert to check it out. Result; the unit has not been wired properly. Since the original installation the unit never switched to reverse cycle, so the electric resistance element turned on every time the thermostat called for heat.

3. Big house, on multiple levels. Huge octagonal living room, 16 foot ceiling, full height windows all round. Homeowner has no real complaints, just wonders if he could save some money. I look and don’t find anything much to improve. The place is pristine, looks almost unoccupied. The wife and young son hang out in a basement room that is fitted out almost like an RV; couch, heater, sink, microwave, hot plate, small fridge, TV, blackboard, toy chest, a computer workstation. It’s a comfortable, snug room. Downsizing would save a heap of energy…

4. Homeowner says electricity bills have skyrocketed over the last few months. Can’t explain it; nothing has really changed, no new appliances, no change in occupants and so on. I check the electric units, everything looks OK.. Sure we can save some money with more insulation, some more efficient appliances, but it doesn’t explain the sudden jump in costs. I take another look at the bills – could have saved a lot of time if I had looked properly the first time. She had signed up with an independent energy supplier. The first year’s price per Kwh was super attractive. But once that initial year was over the price jumped to 50% higher than the regular utility. I guess one does need to read the fine print.

What are some psychological facts that people don’t know?

When you hold the hand of a loved one, you feel pain less keenly and worry less.
The more you talk about someone, the more are you likely to fall in love with that person.
Women generally prefer men with deep husky voices because they seem more confident and not aggressive.
Staying quiet often means that you do not think that other person is ready to hear your thoughts.
The smarter the person is, the faster he thinks, and the sloppier his handwriting is.
Your favorite song is your favorite because you associate an emotional event with it.
Smarter people underestimate themselves, ignorant people think they are brilliant.
When someone cries tears of joy, the first teardrop will always come from the right eye. Tears of pain start from the left.
Listening to high-frequency music makes you feel calm, relaxed, and happy.
Doing things that scare you will make you happier.
The happier you are, the less sleep you require. Sadness urge to sleep more.
A 20 seconds hug releases chemicals in the body that help you trust the one you’re hugging.
Chocolate discharges the same chemical in your body as when you feel love. One of which is phenylethlyamine, which causes alertness, excitement, quickens the pulse rate and makes you happy!

Resilient Kids Come From Parents Who Do These 8 Things

Letting your kids fail and talking to them about it goes a long way.

by Lizzy Francis

When you’re a kid, everything is a tragedy. Your grilled cheese has the crust on? The horror. Can’t assemble that Lego set? Might as well stomp up and down. You can’t change this. What you can do, however, is arm your kid with the techniques that teach them how to bounce back from their daily struggles so that, later on in life, when the stakes are higher, they know what to do. Because resilience is a behavior learned through explicit lessons and examples, one that teaches kids how to, among other things, better handle stress, understand that rejection is not a comment on their entire existence, and view setbacks as things that don’t need to sideline them for good.

But how, exactly, should you teach this lesson? According to Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do, here are eight common practices of parents who raise resilient kids.

They Let the Kids Struggle

“All kids have the ability to develop skills that will help them be resilient,” says Morin. “As parents, it’s up to us to give them those skills, and to serve as a guide — to help them when they’re struggling with something and give them more opportunities to practice resiliency.”

The worst thing parents can do, says Morin, is rescue their kids too much. Such actions prevent kids from learning how to act on their own. In other words, the parents who teach their kids that hard work is a necessary part of life — and sometimes that hard work is really hard — are the ones who raise well-adjusted kids.

They Let Their Kids Experience Rejection

For myriad reasons, it’s essential for kids to learn how to handle being told ‘no.’ “If your kid doesn’t get picked for the baseball team, it can be tempting to call the coach, call the schools, try to get your kid on the team,” says Morin. “But failure can be one of the best opportunities to teach kids a life lesson. That lesson: Failure is not the end of the road, you’re strong enough to handle failing, and that when you fail, you have choices.”

They Don’t Condone a Victim Mentality

“When kids say they are having a problem, it’s tempting for them to blame other people,” says Morin. “They fail their science test, and they say that their teacher didn’t explain it well enough.” It can be tempting for parents to give into this behavior and side with their children. But even if their teacher is bad or didn’t explain something, that instinct is dangerous.

“Parents need to tell their kids that life isn’t fair, but that they aren’t strong enough to handle the unfairness,” says Morin. “And I think for a lot of parents, our tendency is to make things fair — to advocate for our kids, to side with them, just reinforces to them that they’re the victim. It leads to learned helplessness.” Fight this instinct at all costs.

They Do More Than Tell Their Kids to ‘Buck Up’ When Struggles Occur

Letting kids struggle is important, but telling them to just deal with it, or ignoring that it could be tough emotionally, is not the right way to go about it. “You want to make sure that you validate their emotions and you empathize with them,” says Morin. “Parents can find that balance of knowing when to step back enough to let their child face some of their own battles, but at the same time, empathize.”

Talking to your kids about their feelings as they learn by doing is incredibly important. It will give them skills to talk about their feelings later on in life, as well as help them learn how to deal with difficult times.

“Parents need to ask themselves whether or not they’re giving their kids the skills and tools they need to do things on their own,” Morin adds. “If they don’t have those skills yet, then parents step in. But parents, make sure that you’re teaching them those skills, too.”

They Help Their Kids Learn How to Label Their Feelings and Emotions

“When kids can label their emotions, they are less likely to act them out,” says Morin. “If your kid can say ‘I’m mad,’ he’s less likely to kick you in the shins to show you that he’s mad.”

In other words, kids who can’t talk about their feelings tend to take those feelings out on others, which can lead to adults who don’t know how to cope with anger or sadness. By helping kids feel comfortable talking about their emotions out loud, you are also giving them the skills to think about (and cope with) what’s making them upset. It’s Resiliency 101.

They Give Their Kids the Tools to Self-Soothe

“I know some parents who created a ‘calm down kit’ for their kid,” says Morin. “They have a kit with a coloring book, and some Play-Doh, and lotion that smells good, and they remind their kid to go get the kit when they’re upset.”

Although this specific technique isn’t for everyone, the concept should be as it helps kids learn how to take responsibility for their feelings and calm themselves down. Using such tools and routines will help them manage and continue healthy coping skills as they get older. It’s invaluable.

They Admit Their Mistakes, Then They Fix Them

Parenting mistakes, per Morin, are opportunities for us to turn it around and show kids how to respond to errors and show that we all make them. Even the most well-adjusted parents screw up every once in a while. They get mad at the teacher or yell at their spouse or forget to do something critical. The important thing is that parents need to own up to their own mistakes in front of their kids — and then actually fix the problem. This shows kids that no matter how grave a mistake they may have made, if they are honest about it and try to fix it, things will get better.

They Connect Their Kid’s Self-Worth to Their Level of Effort

“There is research that shows that when girls succeed, we say, ‘You did well because you studied hard.’ But when boys succeed, we’ll say something like, ‘You did well on that test because you’re smart,’” Morin says. For her, that’s a problem. Connecting a kid’s outcomes to their inherent talent can lead to long-term issues.

“When we focus too much on outcome, kids will cheat in high school because they think the most important thing in the world is getting an A, and it doesn’t matter how they get there. We want to teach kids that what matters is being honest, being kind, working hard. It’s really important to focus on their effort. The kid who grows up knowing that it’s all about their effort, rather than their outcome, is going to be more resilient when they fail or when they get rejected.”

How To Regain Your Masculinity In A Relationship

Last Updated On December 15, 2022 by Andrew Ferebee

We have all seen a man who is big and brave when single but seems to crumble into a pile of ashes when he’s in a relationship. It’s almost as if someone flipped a switch.

One minute, he’s still just as manly as ever. Next, he’s wearing an apron, babysitting, and watching the worst romantic comedies since The Notebook.

Losing yourself in a relationship is a universal issue. However, when you’re a man and you no longer feel in touch with your masculine edge, it’s devastating.

You lose what makes you, you. Masculinity is a source of pride in every man, which is why it’s so important to stay in touch with it.

Though it’s rarely discussed, losing your masculine edge in a relationship can and does happen—quite a bit, really.

Masculinity has a lot of definitions

There is no such thing as a man who is purely masculine.

Everyone has both masculine and feminine energy in them, and every person has masculine and feminine traits. This is not a bad thing! Quite the opposite, it means that you are a balanced person.

Being a man means that you have the emotional strength and that you can be the one to take charge when need be. But, it can also mean being the support your wife needs when she breaks down in tears. See what we mean?

You do not have to guzzle beer, be a lumberjack, and smoke cigars to be a man. When you feel like a man, you’re a man. The man who owns a cat and relaxes to bossa nova can be just as manly as the man going on safari.

Masculinity is something that is felt and experienced—and it takes many forms.

Just because you’re not skydiving with Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson doesn’t mean you’re not a man. With that said, there’s a major question that deserves to be asked.

Signs you’re losing your masculine edge in a relationship

Therein lies the crux of the question, and it’s one that is hard to nail down in words. However, there are a couple of telltale signs that you might be losing your masculine edge in your relationships:

You honestly feel emotionally battered and beaten down. A man who’s lost his masculinity looks worn down. He might not have the inner fight in him that he once had. Sometimes, it can even make him feel sick and weak.
It’s been a long time since you’ve felt strong and confident. Do you find yourself questioning your abilities, when you never felt that way before? This is never a good sign.
If you were honest, it’s been a while since you have prioritized yourself. Part of being a masculine man is being able to actively make yourself a priority. Masculinity is all about being assertive and living for you. Do you feel like you’re sacrificing everything for yourself, with nothing in return?
You’re afraid to express yourself. Once again, this is never a good sign.
Your girlfriend or wife has stopped respecting you. If you find yourself begging for attention, pleading for her to meet you halfway, or experiencing serious signs of contempt from her, it’s time to make a change. Women don’t respect men they don’t view as masculine.

8 ways to regain your masculinity in a relationship

If you’re noticing warning signs that you’re losing your masculinity in a relationship, it’s time to take charge and realign yourself with your manhood.

By implementing the 8 principles below, you will discover ways to reclaim control and regain masculinity in your relationship.

1. Re-establish your boundaries and enforce them

There are a few things that will erode a person’s sense of self like having no boundaries and letting people walk all over you.

In many cases, this is why relationships start to emasculate men and why women lose respect for you.

What does this look like? Simple.

First, figure out what you need in your relationship in order to feel better. This can include having time to yourself, having at least one night out a week, or even getting better responses on intimacy.
Have a firm talk to your girlfriend about things you need to see happen. This can be as simple as saying, “I care about you very much, but I am not feeling great in this relationship. Here’s what I need to feel better.”
Tell her what you will not tolerate. This can include things like browbeating you, guilt trips, lying, shouting, ignoring your needs, and threats.
Tell her what you are in need of. Set boundaries that are reasonable when it comes to things like space apart, time with friends, time with family, and sexual needs.
Do not tolerate disrespect, verbal violence, or guilt-tripping. If she behaves this way, then the reason you lost your masculinity is that you’re in an abusive relationship. You may need to dump her.
Expect better, and call her out if it’s not working. It’s okay to remind her that she needs to do better.

If you feel like you’re regularly disrespected or have your needs dismissed, it may be time to call things off. A relationship has to go both ways, and if she’s just not listening, she’s not the one for you.

2. Don’t feel bad about prioritizing yourself

One of the worst things that happen to men on a regular basis is the guilting when they put themselves first.

Self-love is important for men. You can’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm! Boundaries are part of a healthy relationship, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

3. Ask for help with communication if you need to

Actually establishing healthy boundaries requires tact at times, and many men are not socialized to work with that.

That’s why it often helps to have someone in your corner who can help you figure out how to communicate.

4. Do things that make you feel like a man

Everyone has that one (or two) things that helps them realign with their masculine side—and that’s precisely what you need to start doing.

Once again, it’s important to take time to figure out when you’ve felt your best and what you were doing at that point.

Masculinity takes a lot of different forms. It can be when you’re competing for a 5K, when you’re bodybuilding, when you’re pouring effort into a new business or when you’re making a new song.

Whatever it is, do it for at least half an hour a week. Ideally, you’ll carve out more time for that thing. This is part of prioritizing yourself.

5. Write a list of things that you’ve accomplished in your life

While you might be feeling low right now, it’s important to remember that no one can take away your masculinity unless you let them.

Truthfully, no one can ever take away what masculine things you’ve already done. Sometimes, it’s good to have a reminder of who you are and what you did to put things into perspective.

So, write down a list of all the manly feats you did—from that time you finished a raid in WoW to that one time you did that thing in sports. Keep that list nearby when you’re feeling low.

6. Reach out to your guyfriends and bond with them

There is something truly magical about the bond that men have with their male friends. This is something that every man really needs to experience from time to time.

Men get it. It’s a world where men often are told mixed messages and where men often feel like they are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”

Hanging out with your bros is one of those things that is just as much a diversion as it is a practice in male health.

Men need other men as friends, guides, and confidantes. If you haven’t done so recently, call your guy friends and ask how they are doing.

7. Learn to drop your fear of the masculine and feminine

If it feels like we live in a society where men are told to embrace their feminine side, then punish them, you’re right.

There is this constant stigma of being too girly as a guy, and it often feels like we police each other in suppressing sides that don’t stick to the narrative.

Part of being truly masculine is realizing that being a “manly man” means you’re comfortable with your feminine side, too.

Just because you have a girly side doesn’t mean you’re any less of a man. Make a point of reassuring yourself that you’re still you, regardless of what society says.

What other people say about you has no bearing on you. They’re saying that, and it’s on them.

8. Realign yourself with the goals that you have for yourself

The key thing to remember about masculinity is that it’s all about leadership and paving your own way in life.

When you’re in a relationship, it’s easy to start to put your actual goals to the side in favor of all the other little things people expect you to do. This is why you might be feeling emasculated.

Women find a grounded man who makes his own way in life attractive. This is doubly true if his goals are ones that are difficult to attain and have a very high standard of performance.

If you need to focus on your career path or your own personal goals, that’s totally fine. In fact, it’s healthy.

Masculinity wanes when you stop taking your own needs and future into account. Write a list of your goals and ask yourself which ones started to slip away from you.

Start putting together a game plan on how you’re going to pursue those goals once more. Then, follow the game plan.

Takeaways

Regaining your masculinity isn’t always easy or clear-cut.

Let’s face it, when you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to make the right steps to get your masculinity back. Sometimes, it can feel like it’s just too complicated or difficult to work through—even when you know what you need to do.

Part of being able to get yourself back to where you need to be is having the right support network and even leaning on someone who’s been there.

When you have the right support, being able to realign with your masculine side becomes way easier and even intuitive.

Of course, the perks of getting that masculine mojo back go far beyond just feeling better. It makes you attractive to women, can help you get a better job, and also can change the trajectory of your life.

We help make that happen in our exclusive coaching program where you’ll learn, with our band of brothers, to become the best version of yourself, reclaim your masculine edge and improve your life and relationship.

You’re in a room with a king, a rich man, and a priest. Each orders you to kill the other two, and you’re the only one with a weapon. Whom will you listen to and why?

Originally Answered: You’re in a room with a king, a rich man, and a priest. Each orders you to kill the other two, and you’re the only one with a weapon. Who will you listen to and why?

I just love this question. I fucking love it. What’s so beautiful about this question is that it cannot be answered by analyzing what is given. Rather, the answer can only be found by analyzing what is hidden behind these black lines!

Let’s begin, shall we?

First of all, it’s safe to assume that the three designations described – the king, the priest, and the rich man are the three highest positions of power in the empire. Now, since I am the sword-wielder, I choose to be an ambitious one. And if I am ambitious, I would want one of these three positions for myself!

It’s evident that I’ll kill two of the three and spare one. So, instead of concentrating on what is to be lost by killing a particular person, let’s analyze what is to be gained by letting a particular person live.

Case 1) The king lives.

In this case, I kill both the rich man and the priest. What can the king do for me? The answer is clear – He can make me very very rich. But he cannot make me the priest. (The priest has to command the respect and devotion of the people, something a king cannot buy or order.)

Case 2) The priest lives.

Here, I kill the king and the rich man. Once again, I ask – What can the priest give me? He cannot make me rich. Most of the priests themselves choose to live a life of poverty (Remember High Sparrow?) But the priest can easily make me the king. He holds that much power over people, as is evident throughout our history (Again, remember High Sparrow?)

Case 3) The rich man lives.

I kill the king and the priest. Now, what can the rich man offer me? He can neither make me the king, nor make me the priest. Both of those positions require people’s will, acceptance and devotion; and that is something you cannot buy with money.

So, it is evident that the rich man is the most useless of all. He has nothing to offer to me. I kill him immediately.

Now, the king and the priest remain. The king can make you rich, and the priest can make you king. (Case 1 and 2)

So, it’s just a matter of the exact nature the sword-wielder’s ambition takes. Does he crave wealth or power? If he craves power, then he must kill the king. And if he craves riches, then he must kill the priest.

For me, personally, power is much more important than money. So, if you make me the sword-wielder, I’ll first kill the rich man. Then, when it’s just between the king and the priest, I’ll strike a deal with the priest that if I spare him, he has to make me the king with his support.

Then I’ll stab the king.

Boo ya!

Oops, I mean…

Homelessness In The U.S. Is Up 48 Percent Since 2015, And Americans Are Being Laid Off In Droves…

January 29, 2024by Michael

How can anyone out there possibly believe that the U.S. economy is doing well? As you will see below, the number of homeless Americans has risen to the highest level ever recorded, and large companies all over the country are laying off workers in droves. As I have discussed previously, the number of Americans that were laid off in 2023 jumped 98 percent compared to the year before, and now during the first month of 2024 it feels like we are being hit by a tsunami of layoffs. It literally seems like someone has turned a fire hose on, but the Biden administration continues to insist that unemployment is “low” and that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive.

Honestly, I don’t understand how the Biden administration can say that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive when the number of Americans that are homeless has been increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded. According to a brand new report that was just released by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the number of homeless Americas has increased 48 percent since 2015…

According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country’s unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said.

Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs.

We can see evidence of this all around us.

Tent cities are popping up like mushrooms in our major cities and countless Americans are living in their vehicles and RVs.

One of the primary reasons why homelessness has been surging so dramatically is because rental costs have soared to unprecedented heights…

Rent in the U.S. has steadily climbed since 2001. In analyzing Census and real estate data, the Harvard researchers found that half of all U.S. households across income levels spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly pay on housing in 2022, defining them as “cost-burdened.” Some 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened that year, meaning they spent more than half their monthly pay on rent and utilities, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels.

People earning between $45,000 and $74,999 per year took the biggest hit from rising rents — on average, 41% of their paycheck went toward rent and utilities, the Joint Center for Housing Studies said.

Tenants should generally allocate no more than 30% of their income toward rent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But Joe Biden insists that inflation is “low”.

You believe him, don’t you?

Sadly, more Americans will soon be hitting the streets because we are witnessing an insane wave of layoffs all over the nation.

Right now, it is being reported that Salesforce has decided to conduct another round of layoffs…

Salesforce is cutting about 700 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The job cuts, which amount to about 1% of its global workforce, follow a series of workforce reductions last year.

In 2023, Marc Benioff’s company laid off about 10% of its total workforce as it grappled with a swarm of activist investors who wanted margins increased faster than planned.

And we have just learned that REI will be giving the axe to 357 workers…

REI is laying off 357 workers, mostly in the outdoor retailer’s headquarters and distribution centers. In a letter to employees, CEO Eric Artz noted that “outdoor specialty retail has experienced four quarters of decline – and that trend has been worsening.” While REI was able to outperform this for much of last year, he said, this trend caught up to the company in the fourth quarter, and difficult conditions are expected in 2024.

Difficult conditions are expected in 2024?

Oh really…

Who could have seen that one coming?

After their deal with Amazon fell through, iRobot announced that 31 percent of its staff would be hitting the bricks…

Amazon and iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba vacuum, mutually called off their estimated $1.7 billion acquisition deal Monday, citing numerous regulatory hurdles.

Immediately after the deal was publicly squashed, iRobot announced it would lay off 31% of its staff and that founder Colin Angle would step down from his role as CEO, citing a focus on profitability, stability and growth. Glen Weinstein will serve as interim CEO.

Shares of iRobot (IRBT) were down around 9% in noon trading following the news. Amazon (AMZN), which was up about 0.5% in noon trading, will pay iRobot a previously agreed-upon $94 million cancellation fee.

Google, Microsoft, Levi’s, TikTok, Riot Games, eBay, Wayfair and Macy’s are some of the other big names that have also announced layoffs so far in 2024.

But no industry is being hit harder than the mainstream media…

Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire publisher of the Los Angeles Times, laid off 20 percent of his newsroom. Over at Time magazine, its billionaire owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, did the same for 15 percent of their unionized editorial employees. This latest conflagration had ignited at Sports Illustrated the previous week as catastrophic layoffs were dispensed via email to most staffers. Business Insider (whose parent company Axel Springer also owns POLITICO) jettisoned 8 percent of its staff while workers at Condé Nast, Forbes, the New York Daily News and elsewhere walked out to protest forthcoming cuts at their shops.

Perhaps if they had not made a habit of blatantly lying to us over and over again during the past several years they would not have lost all of their remaining credibility and they would not have had to lay off so many workers.

But even though so much is going wrong with the economy right now, many of the “experts” continue to tell us that happier times are just around the corner.

For example, Ed Yardeni insists that we will soon relive the Roaring Twenties…

Ed Yardeni, a veteran market strategist, thinks the US economy might be about to relive the “Roaring ’20s.”

The Yardeni Research president said during Friday’s episode of Bloomberg’s “Merryn Talks Money” podcast that he’s expecting a combination of loose post-pandemic monetary policy and rapid technological change to drive growth higher over the next decade.

Wouldn’t it be great if he was actually right?

Of course the truth is that he is just being delusional.

Things are bad now, and things are going to get really bad during the second half of 2024 and beyond.

If you still have a good job and a warm home to come back to at night, you should be very thankful.

Because more Americans are losing their jobs and losing their homes with each passing day, and the level of economic suffering that we are witnessing is already off the charts.

The Unthinkable Is Happening In The USA! (Texas Border Battle!)

https://youtu.be/Ik8Ya90P3ms

High fashion pooches

Dogs in Shenzhen are a real trip. I must tell you all, these pooches have to be the most catered to, and pampered animals in the world. They get hair styling, fingernails, their own clothes, carriages and backpacks.

It is wild.

Check out the pictures…

Now… with a smile on your face… enjoy today…

What is the best comeback you used on someone?

Many, many years ago I was working at Godfather’s Pizza. One of our assistant managers was a real jerk. One of his endearing habits was making sexist remarks. I found that the way to shut him up was to add into the conversation topics that he just couldn’t handle. Like one day when a song by The Who was playing. I altered the words and sang to him “Talking ’bout my menstruation”. Another time he was being rather condescending, lecturing the kitchen staff, and mentioned the cleaning towels. He said “We DON’T use RAGS!” and I said “I do!”

Which reminds me of a time with this guy I was dating briefly. We had just had dinner at a restaurant on our way back to town, and before leaving, he said “I’m going to visit the porcelain altar.” When he came back from the restroom, I asked “Did he accept your sacrifice?” He answered “With open mouth”. So then it was my turn. When I came back to the booth, I said “I gave a blood sacrifice”. I don’t know why he thought his answer was so witty, but mine was horribly disgusting!

Have you ever walked out of a car dealership just before signing a final purchase contract? What happened?

This was back several years ago, phone books were still used and no one had ever heard of such a thing as a smartphone. But I went to a Ford dealership in response to one of those Saturday morning programs I seen about various dealerships having sales on used cars where they’d parade them by the screen while rattling off the various things the car or truck was equipped with and the listed price. I go to the dealership and fell for their first scam, they ask you if you’re trading in the vehicle you arrived in and if you say yes they ask you for the keys so they can appraise the vehicle. Don’t ever fall for this cause not only are they going to low ball you on the trade in value (know what your car is worth before you go), but some dealerships will also about hold your keys hostage until you agree to buy whatever car you had been looking at with excuses ranging from they’re still looking at your car to let me go talk to my manager for the umpteenth time…

So I had fallen into this trap. The sales guy I had test drove the car with didn’t know anything about the car, I had to educate him, and I decided not to buy the car. Well they wouldn’t give me back the keys to my car and we were going through a litany of excuses – they were still looking at my car, let me talk to my manager, they can’t find my keys, so on and so forth. I’m getting angry and I’m not a confrontational person mind you but around and around we’re going. But then I have an idea and ask for a phone and the phone book. They ask who I’m calling??? I turn the pages of the phone book until I find the listings for the various local news channels and start to dial the phone on the desk for one of the local news outlets as I tell the dealership guy I’m calling the news, I’m sure they’d just love to hear about this dealership and their sales practices (cause we’ve all seen shady dealerships get profiled on the news haven’t we????). Well you never saw my car keys appear so fast. Never did get to talk to the news, got a busy signal but I didn’t tell them. Got up, left and bad mouthed them to everyone I ever encountered who was thinking about buying a car from them.

Why Men ARE NOT COMMITTING in Modern Dating | Dating Apps & Relationships

https://youtu.be/EHbcvm4uFxg

What are the differences in living conditions between Vietnam and China for both foreigners and locals?

Vietnam (Hanoi), China (Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu)

As a foreigner who has lived for a short time in these citys, I can answer this question.

I have lived in these cities for more than 30 days, so I have a certain say.

1. Basic life

The cost of living in Hanoi is lower than Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China, and about the same as Chengdu. This seemed a bit incredible to me at first, because Vietnam’s per capita income is much lower than China’s. But the fact is that whether it is rent, catering, purchasing mobile phones, or telecommunications services, prices in Hanoi are not cheap and do not match the level of development of the entire country.

Regarding this issue, some Vietnamese friends also told me that it is because I have adopted a “foreigner” lifestyle. For example, I live in hotels, shop in large shopping malls, and eat in more formal restaurants. It’s not really an “ordinary” life.

But I think this explanation is limited in its persuasiveness because I also live the same way in China. For example, the price of a bowl of rice noodles I eat on the streets of Hanoi is almost the same as the price of a bowl of noodles on the streets of Chengdu.

What particularly impressed me was that the taxi price in Hanoi was twice that of Chengdu and 1.5 times that of Beijing and Shanghai.

Compared with China, only some service industries in Hanoi are relatively cheap, such as haircuts and massages.

Therefore, in terms of basic life, the consumption levels of foreigners living in big cities in China are similar to those in big cities in Vietnam. There are no problems with basic living needs.

2. Public facilities

In terms of public facilities, Vietnam and China are quite different.

Hanoi’s urban development level is similar to that of Southeast Asian countries (except Singapore), while China is at the world’s leading level.

Urban transportation: Hanoi mainly relies on taxis, there is only 1 subway, and the public buses are terrible, slow and inefficient. There are some rickshaws that I rarely try.

China relies mostly on subways, every major Chinese city I’ve lived in has a huge subway system, and taxis are cheaper than in Vietnam. Buses in big cities in China are also very cheap and efficient. China also has a large number of shared bicycles and electric motorcycles, which are very convenient and you can use public transportation to quickly reach your destination.

China is faster and cheaper

Roads: Vietnam’s urban roads are narrow, vehicle driving efficiency is low, and traffic congestion is serious. Roads between cities are in poor condition and there are very few freeways. Driving long distances is not an option

China’s road construction level is very high. Expressways can lead to every small city. You can easily drive more than 500 kilometers a day by driving a car. If you are not prone to fatigue, 800 kilometers is also acceptable.

Driving a car in China is easy, but it is not recommended to drive a car in Vietnam for short-term stay

Cross-city transportation:

Vietnam is largely dependent on flying, driving a car is not an option and the rail experience is terrible.

Chinese people generally rely on highways and high-speed rail to solve journeys within 300 kilometers.

Most distances of 300-800 kilometers rely on high-speed railways.

Planes are only used for journeys over 800 kilometers, as they are too inefficient.

Although China is larger and cities are further apart, it actually takes less time than Vietnam.

FOOD:

The catering industry in Vietnamese and Chinese cities is very developed, and there are also restaurants that are open for a long time at night. So basic meals are no problem.

The food in Vietnam is generally Southeast Asian style. You can feel the influence of Thailand and Cambodia, and the spices they like to use are relatively similar.

The difference lies in diversity. China’s catering industry is the most diverse I have ever seen. In cities like Chengdu or Shenzhen, you can eat completely different foods every day for a month, and there are many choices for each type.

The catering industry in Hanoi is relatively simple. The tastes of Vietnamese restaurants are almost the same, unlike in China where there are so many types. The number of foreign restaurants is much smaller than in China, and there are even fewer choices.

3. Medical treatment:

Hospitals in Vietnam are crowded, and so are those in China. But the efficiency is not bad. Compared with Europe and the United States, the medical efficiency of China and Vietnam is very high.

I had a skin allergy in Vietnam and a respiratory infection in China. I entered the hospital on the same day, completed the examination on the same day, and received treatment and medicine on the same day.

The obvious difference is that Vietnamese doctors basically don’t speak English and they need to use translation software or my friends. Chinese doctors basically all speak English.

In terms of hospital environment, Chinese hospitals are larger, cleaner and more modern, while Vietnamese hospitals are generally older, but have complete basic examination equipment. (I don’t go to many hospitals. I always ask local friends to take me to regular large hospitals)

4. Language :

Language is a big issue in Vietnam

English is basically useless here, except for some hotel staff and professional translators, and some college students, almost no one can speak English. What’s embarrassing is that there are more people who can speak Chinese than English. So in Vietnam I always try to speak Chinese first.

In China, young people in big cities basically know some English, but some are more proficient and some have difficulty. But if I speak slower, many people can understand. However, as a Chinese speaker, I speak more Chinese, and I feel that the language environment in China is very good.

Spinach Balls (Pseftokeftedes Santorini)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups peeled, chopped plum tomatoes or 1 1/2 cups cooked, well-drained, chopped spinach, or any other greens
1/2 cup finely chopped scallions
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 heaping teaspoon fresh mint
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
Olive oil, for frying

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, scallions, garlic, herbs and spices. Add flour and baking powder and mix together so that all ingredients are well blended and have the consistency of a thick batter (about as thick as pancake batter).
In a large heavy skillet, heat enough olive oil for frying. Taking a heaping tablespoon at a time, drop batter into hot oil and fry until golden brown and crisp.
Remove at once with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Serve hot.

Servings: 36

Scariest Things Caught On Live TV

https://youtu.be/Bzm3IJCp_Rg

Who do you know who appears poor that is secretly loaded?

When we first moved to Maine, my wife was a wedding photographer. Having relocated from the West Coast, we were pretty unaware of the lay of the land here. We’d heard of ‘old money’—the result of generations of inherited wealth—but had never seen it up close.

So my wife gets a call from a woman asking about photo coverage of her second marriage, and my wife agrees to come out to their house to discuss with her and her husband, Richard. My wife takes along a $200 off coupon she was offering new clients at the time. She gets in her old Subaru and heads to the address. At some point, she realizes that the huge, mile-long block of woods she’s navigating around is completely enclosed by a stone wall and that the house she’s going to is the only structure inside the walls. She starts to sweat.

Inside the house, she’s introduced to Richard Rockefeller. He’s an unassuming guy in his 50s, a medical doctor. She thinks, there must be lots of Rockefellers here on the East Coast; this doesn’t mean he’s related to THE Rockefellers.

He is. In fact, Richard is the son of David Rockefeller and grandson of John D. Rockefeller. He is a physician in Maine, a prominent member of the community and president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation.

My wife has a lovely time, he asks lots of questions about her Nikon camera and even gladly accepts her $200 coupon, because, why not?

We both work together to cover the wedding reception, held a month or two later on an island the family owns off of Bar Harbor, Maine. We take a private boat to the island and are greeted by Richard at the dock. He’s wearing baggy old khaki pants, an ancient LLBean flannel shirt, a floppy sun hat and old battered shoes. He’s driving a Subaru wagon that makes my wife’s nine-year-old car look new. He grabs the wheel and tells us—the hired help, basically—that he’s taking us to his ‘barn’ where we’ll spend the night.

So we arrive at a structure I could call a barn only because it has the vague shape of what once was a barn. Huge open area for seating and events, with an upstairs loft area with comfy beds, bathrooms. We stayed there, in a gorgeous custom post-and-beam ‘barn’ that probably cost three times what my own house cost.

The weekend was fun—we photographed people like Glenn Close and others in attendance for the event. It was low-key and tasteful and understated, but obviously extravagant. Richard and his wife were extremely kind to us.

I’ve never forgotten my brush with ‘old money’. Here in Maine, you might sit next to someone like Richard Rockefeller at a local diner and never know it.

Richard died a few years later in a small plane crash. I consider myself fortunate to have met him, however briefly.

Woman Held Accountable By Church For Cheating On Her Husband

https://youtu.be/BFsTqxOToS0

What did you notice during an interview that made you not want the job?

Back in the ‘80s, as a teen, I applied for a security position at local supermarket (36hrs/wk), advertised in the Jobcentre. The advisor phoned them on my behalf (standard practice), they wanted me to attend a week long training seminar, nearly 3 hours away by bus, and assured they’d refund travel costs.

First day of training went well, and they informed me they’d refund travel at end of course. Fair enough. At the end of the week they said they’d refund after the contract was signed (yes, alarm bells rang), I intended to accept the job, while not great pay, it was local (walking distance) and better than nothing. So, read and signed contract, collected uniform, then given my assignment, 2pm to 2am (60hrs/wk, same pay!) at the airport! Not local! I explain it’s too far, and public transport doesn’t run that time of morning, they expect me to get a taxi home, which would cost more than my wages! I’m then told they do not refund travel expenses, after repeatedly saying they would.

As I’m leaving, wondering how I’m gonna explain this to dad (to borrow more money), I notice a woman in security uniform, she’s pale and looks upset. She’d not been paid for 3 MONTHS! I returned to the office, stating I didn’t want the job, to be told they’d sue for breach of contract.

Of course I’m upset and scared, if I take the job then it’s either have about 2 hours a day at home, or live in the airport, and hope I get paid. If I don’t take the job I’ll lose my benefits and get sued.

When I got home, I explained what happened to dad. He contacts a drinking buddy who works for the benefits office, and we both go see him Monday morning. He said they’d breached a verbal contract, I had good reason to believe they’d breach the written contract (not pay wages), and the job was not as advertised. He was appalled they hadn’t given me a copy of the contract. He assured me I wouldn’t face sanctions. He contacted the company’s head office on my behalf, he also made sure the company was blacklisted from advertising at the jobcentres.

Dad and I returned the uniform to the offices, he verbally ran rings around the 2-faced muppet who threatened me with breach of contract. Oh, and I made sure the room full of new recruits knew travel expenses are not refunded, not to expect a paycheque for at least 3 months, and the job is unlikely to be where or when advertised.

What are some hard ways to make life better?

I want you to take a gander around your room right now.

Seriously. pivot in your chair, couch, whatever —and survey everything.

How many things aren’t being used?

How many things are being kept for thin sentimental reasons? Until last year, my answer was “many, many things”.

I had an old crappy laptop that didn’t even work. I had a bunch of comics that were never going to become rare — because millions were printed. I didn’t even like the comics.

Your life is being dragged down by purposeless objects.

Junk is scientifically linked to stress, procrastination, and inefficiency. You could turn all three of those problems into advantages.

I hereby challenge you to can 50% of your stuff. Don’t let your room get like this.

Start by throwing away that stupid printer

My printer was the ultimate bad employee. Once every six months, I’d summon him, “Can you come to work today?

And in that one moment of need, he was hungover and unable to function. I’d get a mysterious error. Or an out-of-ink issue despite having barely used the printer.

He’d groan and moan and nothing would happen. He’s like that deadbeat dad who can’t sober up once a year for his son’s birthday party.

“Damnit Epson! You can’t get your act for Billy’s party for one day. Not sure why I ever married you!”

My printer is no longer with us. He’s enjoying an early retirement in the sunny isles of the Hillsborough County Waste Department.

The point I’m making: if you own something that doesn’t do its job, start there.

That lame couch you never sit on because it isn’t even comfortable? That clunky, wobbly table with a weird mystery stain, you can’t get rid of? Find them a new home.

Donate it.

Break it with an aluminum bat and scream my name if you want.

Do what must be done. I command thee.

Take a NASA perspective

I used to write in a tiny office, in a tiny house for 13 years. I moved in when I was in my mid-20s.

It was in this house that I had a girlfriend, who became a wife, who then became an ex-wife. I’ve finally collected the plunder from my various ventures and invested in a nice home. As I took stock of my inventory, I was mortified by how much junk I owned. I felt like a hoarder.

If my stuff was going to space, I’d have blown out NASA’s cost-per-square-foot budget. “Who brought these 50,000 index cards from Sean’s 2003 Bio class!?”

Heck, they’d have needed an extra fuel tank. Everything you own isn’t cost-free.

As you add more stuff, it drastically increases the surface area in your home. That surface is just one more thing to clean and collect dust. It eats up mental space. Think of your belongings like they’re being shot into space. Everything must be of absolute necessity.

No junk on the launch pad.

A push for more functionality

I used to have a GPS watch. I used it to track where I spent the most time in the house.

It was depressing: 90% of my waking hours were in my office.

I wasn’t surprised. Yet is this what home ownership is supposed to be about?

One study showed this is a common phenomenon, particularly in larger homes. Shaquille O’Neal famously owned an 18-bathroom house — and admitted, “I only use three rooms.”

We fail to optimize space. We have a bunch of chairs that suck to sit on.

Our dressers are full of clothes we never wear. Give yourself a reason to use every room in your house.

Decluttering isn’t about whether you like something; it’s about whether you actually use it.

A functional, non-cluttered house feels light. It’s efficient. It almost like weight loss. You feel lighter on your feet. Purging junk even feels like exercise: it isn’t particularly fun, but the outcome is super rewarding.

One simple trick and then some

We moved 14 times in 18 years during my childhood.

To avoid becoming hoarders, we had a hard and fast rule: if you haven’t used it in six months, throw it away. Do you even know what you own?

Imagine knowing what and where each item is at all times. I know where my remote is. I know where my two pairs of brown dress socks are.

I feel in control. Everything is accounted for. There is peace of mind in knowing everything in your life belongs there and has a use. It’s not neglected like an abandoned toy. It reinforces a mentality of purpose and deliberacy.

Adopt a six-month rule for your belongings, with rare exceptions where they need apply.

Selling on marketplace

The first object to go to was my dining room table.

I put it on the Facebook marketplace for only $50. My inbox blew up like a hot scammy dating profile at Port Dumbass.

This is usually what happens on the platform. It’s so easy. Two hours later, a nice, middle-aged Hispanic couple showed up.

After inspecting it, he turned to me and said, “How about $35?” I said, “Sorry. There are too many people wanting to buy.”

I wasn’t bluffing. But — then I offered him another table and several dozen other household items for free.

I realized I just needed to get rid of stuff. Thirty minutes later, we were stuffing his van with three tables, a huge ladder, and even lawn equipment. It wasn’t the most profitable way of doing things, but it felt good giving to someone who would need. I jokingly offered him the shirt I was wearing too, but he declined.

Decide what you don’t need and isn’t being used, and either sell or donate it.

I also called a trash hauler and paid them $150 to haul off a huge trailer full of unused stuff. You can find them easily on Craigslist.

The last step is to buy a big box of industrial bags. Then, each week make it a point to fill at least one with things you don’t want anymore.

They fit in the regular trash pickup. Donate what you can to the Salvation Army and get a tax deduction. Sell the rest on Facebook Marketplace.

Don’t think of this as an action but a lifestyle. You’ll reevaluate how you spend your money, taking broader consideration for how badly you actually need something.

Your house will feel bigger, more open, and more efficient. You won’t lose nearly as many things.

And you won’t have nearly as much stuff to manage. Throw away 50% of your stuff and you’ll be better off for it. It’s not a dare.

It’s a double dare.

I thought I wanted that…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RFqVysoJ__k?feature=share

What would Hell be for Joseph Stalin?

The question makes me remember two old Soviet jokes.

Both are about a tourist visit of the Hell. One of them mentions Joseph Stalin.

Joke #1

A tourist visit of Hell. Hall of the greatest criminals. They stand in blood (according to some versions, in shit). Hitler is waist-deep in blood, his gaze angry, his mouth shouting something that tourists do not hear. Stalin stands to Hitler’s left, silent, with a sardonic smile on his lips, blood reaching to the middle of his boots.

Tourist (astonished): Please tell me why Hitler is buried so much deeper than Stalin? Did he spill so much more blood?
Guide: Ah, I will have to tell the administration. Stalin cheated again!
T: How does he cheat?
G: He always climbs on Lenin’s shoulders!

Joke #2

A tourist visit of Hell. Astonished tourists see Nikita Khrushchev sitting on a sofa, with Marilyn Monroe in his lap, caressing him and kissing his bald head.

Tourist (astonished): Are you telling me this is the punishment for Khrushchev’s sins?
Guide: No, dear sir. This is the punishment for Marilyn Monroe’s sins.

DATING CRISIS: Why Are So Many Men Single?

https://youtu.be/EGRzM1f_qi0

What is the real condition of poverty in China?

See these Kids?

These Kids are University Students in China and Poor Kids, Children of Poor Families

Under Common Prosperity, University Students are mandated to serve 42 hours a year in their third or final year to tutor and help poor kids pass their examinations

They have these centers where Poor Kids are provided Food, Clothes, Shoes, Smartphones and Tutors free of cost as part of the revenue from the tax collections of the local provinces plus a 3.5% of profit from the Big Gun Industries

The best of them are admitted to School and on to Gaokao

The others get Skilled Training

The others get Vocational Training

Their Working Age is reduced from the mandatory legal 16 in China to 14 in many provinces so that they can earn a living and help their families

Once they are 21 years old, THEY HAVE TO COMPETE ON THEIR OWN

Their Talent , Their Ability

No Reservations

No Affirmative Action

I like this system

Help the Kids, give them education, give them all the material benefits needed then they can compete fairly

From 2019–2023 – Roughly 8.5 Million Poor Kids have been given Jobs that will transform them to Low Income immediately and Middle Class by 2036

China just doesn’t handout money or food to poor families like India or US do

There are NO FREE LUNCHES

One new rule that China established in 2021 for Poor People was :-

The Ten Year Rule

Tenant Farmers who work as Rural Workers can now send their Kids to the Local Schools in the Village where Education is free plus two meals are free (Breakfast and Lunch)

The Kids study from 4 PM to 7 PM

They work from 7 AM to 12 PM and are paid a minimum 6 RMB per hour ($ 0.91) which is equally TOPPED UP BY THE STATE

So each kid makes 60 RMB per Day and makes 4,000 RMB for a season in addition to two free meals a day plus education

Tenant farmers don’t have to feed their kids for 240 days a years, that has to be done by the Agricultural Unit Owner

Tenant Farmers who have worked as Tenant Farmers for at least 20,000 Hours , are eligible to get their OWN LANDHOLDINGS with the deposit amount FULLY WAIVED

Hu Jintao and his gang ignored these rules

Xi enforced them immediately

Almost 300,000 Tenant Farmers now own their own LANDHOLDINGS on 30 Year or 100 Year leases

The Real Condition of China is that today China has

51.9% Middle Class or Higher

34.7% Low Income

13.4% Poor People

0% Extremely Poor

Target 2030 where at least 15 Million Kids are involved in given all those benefits is

55% Middle Class

40% Low Income

5% Poor People

This is the target set in 2022

The Stock markets can wait

According to Xi, the key is to create a large middle class consumer base

800 Million is the Goal for 2030 from 426 Million in 2023

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

My father was a banker for most of my life. He worked in the trust department assisting people with estates, wills, and trust funds, inheritances, etc. My mother used to tease him that he had a “harem” of older ladies who thought he was wonderful because he had handled things when their husbands died.

In the early 90s the local bank was bought by a much larger bank from another state. Things changed and not for the better. My father was told that he should use money from one account to bolster another account and replace the money later. My father refused. While it might not have been illegal at the time he felt that it was highly unethical and he wouldn’t do it.

He resigned.

And when his clients all found out WHY he resigned they all, except for two or three, moved their accounts to a different bank.

One of his colleagues who still worked at the first bank told him that the leadership from the new bank were dumbfounded by the sudden mass exodus of clients. And when my father informed the local lawyers who referred clients to him what happened they stopped referring clients to that bank. In less than two years after my father resigned the out-of-state bank closed the Trust department because it was unprofitable. My father took great satisfaction in that.

WOW! I am humbled by the huge number of upvotes for this story about my father. He was not perfect, no one is, but he was an honorable man and I am proud to be his daughter.

I am humbled by how high the number of upvotes as climbed. It is over 5,000. This is the most upvotes I’ve gotten on anything I’ve written on Quora. Thank you for recognizing a good man.

Male inequality, explained by an expert | Richard Reeves

https://youtu.be/KVOJGRFSTgE

Who interrogated an accused with too much zeal?

In the 3rd century BC, a sensational scandal erupted in Rome: two Vestal Virgins had lost their virginity, and the guilty party was a young ‘pontiff’.

The Sibylline Books were consulted to decide the fate of the three religious figures, the Vestal Virgins Opimia Floronia and the pontiff Lucius Cantilius.

The two women had no escape, having been caught in the act. The rule of the Vestals prescribed live burial.

Floronia, not accepting the idea of dying in such a way, preferred to take her own life. Opimia resigned herself. A large crowd saw her ascend onto a mournfully adorned chariot, accompanied by a procession of priests to the place of execution.

Many Romans wanted to witness the dramatic scene of her being enclosed in the tomb with a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water. The interrogation of Lucius Cantilius was public.

The Pontifex Maximus, his superior and representative of the state religion, took on the role of the public prosecutor. Relentlessly, he ordered the questions to be preceded by violent lashes, repeated after the defendant’s answer.

It was not possible to conclude the interrogation: Lucius Cantilius, in fact, died from those lashes.

What’s the worst thing a girl ever said to you when rejecting you?

I had a sunroom added to my house, and the sales lady, construction manager was around a lot. She was quite flirtatious, as sales people often are. So when the project was done, and I had signed off on everything and I would never see her again, I asked her out on a date.

She told me she was moving to a different city the next week. Which was pretty suspicious, because my project had finished ahead of schedule. But I didn’t press it. Three months later I had a leak in my sunroom, and I called them up to fix it. Guess who answered the phone?

We had spent a lot of time together, and she knew I wasn’t psycho, the logical thing would have been to say that she wasn’t interested. If she was worried for some reason, then say that she was in a relationship.

But no, she had to go with the whopper, that I am moving to a different city. Nothing tells you how a person views you as much as telling an outrageous lie that’s so easy to check.

She told me on the phone, that she had just moved back. I pretended that was a reasonable answer.

Physical Intimacy: His NEED is NOT your WEAPON Ladies

https://youtu.be/NNMrhuIeUEQ

How did you know it was time to call it a career?

Police work is a young man’s profession. You don’t want to be out chasing criminals on the street in your fifties. I was hired rather late in life, graduating from the police academy at thirty-three years old.

I learned quickly that I could do the job of a street cop but liked narcotics, especially undercover work. That led to more complex investigations. After six years in narcotics, I decided it was time to gain rank, so I aced the sergeant’s exam. I enjoyed every day as a street sergeant, leading and teaching.

Four years later, I would become a lieutenant which was great for a while. As a watch commander and then patrol division commander, I led over half of the department and made positive changes. All was fine until one day; I was asked to take over internal affairs. Our department had more serious problems than I realized. I spent the next six years of my life embattled, persuing the worst officers you can imagine.

Officers committing crimes, abusing their power, abusing citizens, and even their loved ones. Stealing, cheating, and anything else they thought they could get away with. I spent a lot of time being grilled in court by their high-priced defense attorneys with only limited success.

By the time I left, we had fired all but one of this group. The last was fired shortly after I left. So I had to go through hell for years, but in the end, the department was a better place for the citizens we served.

My twenty-five-year retirement couldn’t come soon enough. A few more years in that pressure-cooker position, and I might have stroked out. So at fifty-eight years old, I walked away with my pension. I haven’t been sorry a single day since I retired six years ago. Life’s too short.

Have you ever accidentally opened someone else’s email and found something interesting?

My husband and I have been together 20 years when we met he was finalizing his divorce which they were simply too young and tried to grow up too fast they were together just two years. After about a month I was helping him get some of her stuff out which was all junk. I started cleaning out a desk of hers and in the bottom drawer was just stacks n stacks of mail. Apparently my husband hates opening mail and would just put it in a drawer for him to open later, I certainly make him open his mail I don’t know why she would do that. So he told me to open it, it was flyers, bills, coupons, everything in a stack. I start opening mail and I would see $5000 check then another then another then another. These checks were two days away from void/expired or have to wait a long time to reissue. It was from his dad’s estate and each kid got $5000 from certain accounts and investments and so on. He was broke at this time with his divorce plus being in your 20s you don’t quite make as much yet. He went from having a couple hundred dollars in his account and the very next day we now have money to put down on a house which is cheaper than our current rent and much larger and we later made a good chunk of cash when we sold it. In the end, it did look like a scam letter or a collections notice, now im always into opening mail because I’ve even over paid a bill and what looks like a bill would be a small refund for my over payment. I just can’t wait to get that jury summons for a crazy court case.

Will there be a War with China

https://youtu.be/PEpez9sCydY

Has being a polite customer in a stressful situation ever resulted in unexpectedly exceptional service or special treatment for you?

We were the polite customers in a round about way-

We are attending a destination wedding on an all inclusive resort in Jamaica-absolutely beautiful weather, all the food and drink you could possibly want. Beautiful rooms with waterfront views-

The bride and groom and the 6 other guests attending were incredibly rude, demanding, belittling, belligerent and racist in their remarks towards the staff on the resort. My husband and I had never seen this side of their personality and were shocked at the behavior to the point that after the wedding (3rd day of 7) we disassembled from those in the group and did our own things.

On the final day, we were all

booked under the wedding party and had to check out and depart together-one of the women in the group was accusing the cleaning staff of stealing her clothing, the bride was making up all kinds of reasons she should have received a discounted stay, on and on, the mother of the bride was loud and yelling in the front foyer of the resort-my husband and I had enough and told all of them to shut up. All they had done the entire trip was lie and complain. We then went into a private office and explained to head of the resort how they were lying because we heard all the comments they had made and could prove it-We were comped 1k off our stay and turned that money around to tip the staff that so excellently served us during our stay-my husband and I both knew none of the others had left a tip and it was intentional to not do so as it was mentioned on the very first night at dinner.

Once it was clear their motive was to get as much for free as possible they were checked out w/o any further interaction and escorted to the van that would drive them to the airport-My husband and I were put in a different van to go back

We never asked for anything back as we had a great trip but the resort was happy to give us the 1k- as for those people we have not spoken to them since-it’s not that hard to be nice!

As a professor, has there been a student you instantly recognized as a genius in the first week of knowing them?

Genius is what genius does. Professors spend the better part of their waking days interacting with intelligence at the upper tail of the distribution, so an unusually adroit bit of intelligence will catch any professor’s eye. Alas, anybody with experience also has seen many a charlatan, so skepticism always comes first. I may recognize genius quickly, but I will test it many times before I conclude it is truly there.

Here is an illustration.

A few years back I had an MBA student, born in the Caribbean, who had considerable world-travel experience under his belt. Quietly confident, and charming and affable, he had natural leadership abilities. Over time his stories of travels came with the additional details that he was facile with languages, and that helped him pick up work as he travelled.

I was intrigued, and learned about his travels throughout Asia, and tested him a bit with details (I have some experience in that part of the world, but, of course, I also had many more years to accumulate it). He seemed to be telling the honest truth. He knew things about Myanmar (and similar places) that would be hard to learn unless you visited.

Here is the genius part. He said that, for a while, he settled in China doing translation and other work. How was that possible? He had simply picked up Chinese, he said. I have an old acquaintance who was native English speaker who knew several European languages and learned Japanese after spending many years there, and he told me about all the challenges. So I was just a little skeptical. A few words, sure, but fluent with no formal training?

I had asked a few of the native-Chinese speakers whether the student could speak well, and they said yes, but none had a lengthy conversation.

One day we were visited by a Chinese delegation of businessmen. And my student was introduced to them. Off they went in conversation, laughing and conversing. He was fluent, and just as charming and affable in that language.

I never doubted him again. Genius is what genius does.

That’s fishy

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_F9XXx_sx7k?feature=share

Why do so many people hate the self checkouts?

My typical self checkout experience goes like this.

Using own bag. Place on scale. So I do. I use a backpack so it is heavier than a shopping bag. This triggers, Wait for an assistant. I open my bag ready so the assistant can look inside it. I do this because if they asked to see inside my bag I would be terribly offended and most people don’t like being told to go fuck themselves.

Ok, ready to start scanning. Where is the barcode on this cabbage? Oh, I need to look for it in the touchscreen. Finally found it after 2 minutes searching.

UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGAGE AREA. PLEASE WAIT FOR ASSISTANCE.

This happens at least one more time. I am really getting pissed off now.

Ready to pay. It asks me if I took a bag. I didn’t. It asks me if I’m sure. Now I start arguing with the machine. I’m fed up of you. Why would I steal a 40p bag? Don’t you think I would have taken the £10 side of salmon instead?

Finally, after a good 5 minutes have passed I get to pay for my 15 items. But wait, I have wait for assistance again to authorise the bottle of wine I bought. OK, so now I get to pay.

Not so fast. There were a couple of discounted items in there and guess what we need to get the discount applied? That’s right, an assistant!

I pay, put on my backpack and instead of saying thank you, as I would to the cashier, I mutter, stupid fucking bastard, to the machine.

Not a pleasant experience at all.

A woman I know who works in my local Aldi told me she feels bad for the old people. An old woman told her that she used to look forward to shopping because she lives alone and sometimes the cashier might be the only person she spoke with that week.

Some people enjoy human interaction. As a general rule, I’m not one of them. However I much prefer to be served by a cashier than those self checkout machines. It takes too long and it’s frustrating. Added to that, I feel like it is constantly accusing me of shoplifting.

Pepe Escobar: Putin and China just changed EVERYTHING with this Move and the Neocons Can’t Stop Them

https://youtu.be/xUFXD3-XF-M

What’s something a doctor did to you that you won’t ever forget?

When I was in grad school, I had to have oral surgery for a midline palatine cyst. After misdiagnosing it as an abscessed tooth and mucking about, my dentist finally referred me to an oral surgeon.

The oral surgeon (who was nearing retirement) asked about my financial situation at the initial consultation. It was pretty dire, so I told him I would need to pay over time. He told me not to worry,

After doing some imaging he told me that he had never seen a cyst that large. The surgery was done, and went well. But I was left with two drains coming out of the corners of my mouth. These needed to remain in place for a week.

My upper jaw was incredibly swollen. With the drains in place, I looked like a walrus. I had to be careful how I ate and drank, to avoid having food or drinks dribble out of my nose. Nonetheless, I had to go to classes (it was the first week of the semester) as well as meet my students (I was a teaching assistant at the time.)

And every other day, I had to see the oral surgeon. He irrigated the site and gave me samples of antibiotics and words of encouragement.

When he finally removed the drains, my palate was healing well. I saw him two weeks later for follow up. I stopped at the front desk to arrange for payment. His total bill? $50! The surgery had taken almost two hours! And there were those follow up appointments as well.

I was incredibly grateful. I waited to see him between patients to express my gratitude. He smiled and said, one day you’ll do something for someone else.

He was right. And I will never forget him.

Scariest Things Caught On LIVE TV 2#

https://youtu.be/Af18eL_y4L0

As a landlord, what was the grossest thing you ever saw in a tenant’s house or apartment?

This wasn’t my property but that of a friend. He rented it to a couple ‘from New York’ they claimed, who showed up very well dressed. He was in a suit and his ‘wife’ in a nice dress. They claimed to need a ‘local apartment’ as they ‘came to Boston’ (we are 10 miles west of Boston) often and stated an apartment was cheaper than renting hotel rooms every time, sounded legit. Anyway, for the first year, the rent was a couple days early then it was ‘just’ on time for a few months then a couple days late but paid IN CASH every month so no real issues. THEN it happened! After about two years the rent was a week late so my friend went by daily to catch them in (remember, they stated that they were from NY and came up ‘often’ so he didn’t expect them to be there at any given time). After five drive-bys he was there in the evening, on weekends, nothing seemed out of place from the outside. The yard was impeccably neat and clean as they stated it would be. Then two weeks later on a Friday evening just after dinner as he drove by he saw movement inside the apartment. He stopped and knocked on the door. When it opened, he was greeted by someone who spoke NO English. Panic ensued, people running around the apartment and out the back door. He told someone who came to the door that actually spoke some English that the rent was past due and needed to be paid. They stated that they would have cash Saturday morning for him. He asked why so many people and was told it was a party. He didn’t believe that story and said so, he told that individual that as it was rented to TWO PEOPLE everyone else had to go and if more than two were there in 12 hours it would be $50 EACH! What follows I witnessed the very next day. We knocked, no answer. I went around back and knocked, no answer. I walked back to the front. He was pounding on the front door… no one answered. WHY I cannot tell you but I turned the door knob, the door was UNLOCKED. He opened it. Before I go on, first I will say that we eventually found two month’s rent left on the kitchen counter in cash. Now the HORROR! They removed the doors from the kitchen cabinets and replaced them with chicken wire to house the CHICKENS that were now living in most of the cabinets! TWO DOZEN CHICKENS!The STENCH was gag worthy. The filth was just as revolting but what got me was the bathroom! The door was closed but the exhaust fan running. (A neighbor later told me it was running 24/7, read on and you will know WHY!). When he opened the door my friend closed it fast and proceeded to vomit! I opened the door to see the toilet PLUGGED AND MOUNDED with feces! The bathtub was ALSO filled with urine and feces! There were mattresses wall to wall in every single room except the bathroom and kitchen! This included a rough basement too! About 50(?) mattresses! The apartment was being used to house over 70 people! Even the ceilings were disgusting. I do know that the entire apartment had to be gutted and renovated, I saw it after it was done. It took a bit of searching but the two that rented it originally were found, I don’t nor want to know what was said or done but I do know that they were in full knowledge and complicity with what was going on. One further note, at some point before they ‘filled the tub’ they had roasted a pig in it! They built a fire in the tub and roasted a pig above it! When the apartment was gutted, it was found that the wall and floor behind and beneath the tub were charred, they almost burned down the house!

Hollywood Goes CRAZY! | Seinfeld DESTROYS Woke Insanity in EPIC Video

https://youtu.be/IELOMZMMljk

How do Chinese restaurants get their beef to be so tender? Like beef in black bean sauce or Mongolian beef etc. It almost falls apart in the mouth.

I’m an aficionado chef and I love watching cooking tutorials. Recently, I’ve discovered the secret behind how Chinese restaurants get their beef to be so tender in dishes like beef in black bean sauce or Mongolian beef – and it’s pretty interesting!

Once I did an Asian cuisine workshop, and one of the chefs there taught me the secret. Chinese restaurants often marinate their beef in a mixture of baking soda, cornstarch, and soy sauce for at least 30 minutes before cooking. This breaks down the proteins in the meat, making it more tender and easier to chew.

In addition, Chinese restaurants slice the beef against the grain, which makes it even more tender. When you slice against the grain, you’re cutting the beef perpendicular to the muscle fibers, and this makes all the difference.

Another thing that I love the most about Chinese cuisine is the high heat cooking method. When you stir-fry beef at a high temperature, it keeps the moisture inside the beef and makes it juicy and flavorful. And the cuts of beef that they use, such as flank steak or sirloin, are naturally more tender than other cuts.

I’ve tried making beef in black bean sauce using these techniques, and it is absolutely delicious! The beef just falls apart in your mouth, and it tastes so well. So, if you want to make your beef dishes tender and juicy like the ones you get at Chinese restaurants, try using these techniques. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

Tomato Pilaf

Ingredients

2 medium tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups water
1 cup uncooked regular rice
1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Cook and stir tomatoes and onions in butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes.
Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling, stirring once or twice; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 14 minutes without lifting cover or stirring.
Remove from heat. Fluff rice lightly with fork; cover and let steam 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Yield: 8 servings

Does a boss ever get in trouble when a staff member quits?

Names are fictional, but otherwise this is accurate to best of my memory.

Back in the mid-80s during my high school years, I worked at major fast food place. I worked there for around 18 months and was generally well regarded by the managers there. Because of this, I would often be called on to see if I was able to cover a shift when someone called out.

One such time, I agreed to cover and went in to see that the only person working was the manager (Jim). So literally it would be just the two of us working, Jim up front on register and me in the back making the food. (Another person from a different store came in an hour or so later to help out). It was a rough night, but we made it work.

After things slowed down, I asked Jim what happened. One of the other managers (Randy) was working that night and everyone he had working with him just up and left. I asked Jim where Randy was, and he said he was asked to leave as well and really couldn’t talk any further about it.

The rest of the story wouldn’t reach me for a week or so, but the entire staff quitting at once prompted the owner to investigate what happened. It turns out that Randy had been violating labor laws for months. And as most of the staff (including myself) were minors, those laws are more stringent and carry higher penalties. Things like forcing more than 8 hours a day, working outside certain hours, and forcing unpaid OT. While I don’t know for sure what prompted everyone to leave that night, I have to assume it was related.

Randy was taken off the schedule and, as far as I know, never set foot in the store again. I don’t know what legal consequences resulted from this, if any.

What’s the strangest request you’ve had at McDonald’s?

I have not worked at McDonald’s, but since there’s no equivalent question for Burger King, I’m going to answer anyway.

Late at night, a guy came up to the counter and said he wanted a Whopper with 10 patties on it. He seemed like he was probably a little stoned, or a little drunk, or probably a little both. “Money is no object,” he said. I knew how to set this up, but I called the manager just to make sure everything was ok and more importantly because I knew she would want in on this process. We had a button for a patty with no bun, to accommodate people on the Atkins Diet. I entered in his Whopper request, punched the patty button nine times, and then hit the intercom to explain to the kitchen crew the correct interpretation of what was now appearing on their screens. My amplified voice filled the kitchen, like the voice of God:

“That is not a mistake. It is a Whopper with 10 patties on it. Please do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

We couldn’t hear anything from the back over all the machine noises. The guy paid. It was around $12. Then, after a few minutes, there was activity at the hamburger chute. Normally burgers would be placed here and they’d slide to the front to be bagged or placed on trays. A pair of hands gently placed a very large, roughly-ball shaped object on the chute. The hands gently—tenderly— guided it to the bottom. It was held in place by four Whopper wrappers. “Be careful with this,” one of the cooks said. “Wrapping it was very difficult.”

The customer was delighted. Once he had his to-go bag, he explained that he and a friend had got in an argument concerning the truthfulness of our “Your Way, Right Away” slogan, and he had just won a bet. It remains one of my favorite moments, a real team effort.

Why Men Get So Few Matches on Dating Apps

https://youtu.be/x3lypVnJ0HM

Sitrep March 2024

This “sitrep” was compiled and written at the tail end of March, 2024. It contains active elements of the global Geo-Political situation focusing on the “primary core participants” as defined by the United States Department of State. I will intentionally leave out details on the “minor” participants, that while important, is not necessary in this overview.

The world is undergoing a massive shift in global [1] Leadership, [2] Finance, [3] Society, [4] Culture, [5] Military influences, [6] Technology, and [7] Planetary Management.

What was once the realm of the “rules based order” led by the United States (the United States makes the rules that others follow), and obeyed “in lockstep” by it’s captive proxy nations, has been eclipsed by a multi-polar world, led by the Russian / China leadership alliance.

The overriding plan

The United States, embroiled into (whether you don’t want to believe it or not, it is painfully clear and obvious that the United States “Leadership” is completely ensnared in this situation.) has worked out a long-duration plan to maintain and regain its hegemony.

The key to this is the suppression, followed by the break up of Russia, followed by a pivot to China.

The Timetable for initiation of hostilities

The Break up of Russia into an easily digestible entity was planned to occur in 2022. The war to start the collapse of Russia, however, got off to a bad start, and Russia has been thwarting all of the NATO efforts to manage that collapse.

However, the time-table has not changed. And as of this date a major push to destroy Russia once and for all is planned to occur in Spring / Summer 2024 this year. Leading participants to this fiasco; the United States, the UK, Germany, and France… with participative elements out of NATO to include Finland, Poland, and Sweden are expecting a NATO win by Fall of 2024.

A “buffer” period, or up to two years is planned to coincide with the planned destruction of China. This is planned for the tail end of 2026 and the Summer of 2027.

The Major Participants

For RUSSIA, the nations of NATO will attack on the chosen battlefields of Ukraine. Eventually weakening Russia to a point where “death blows” can be administered by aircraft and missile attacks.

The NATO troops are expected to consist of large quantities of Germans, Polish, Romanian, and French forces for the main thrust. With Northern contingent consisting of Swedish and Finnish forces that will deploy and assault from the North.

For CHINA, A “island chain” of American proxy nations have formed a QUAD of aggressor nations that is designed to instigate the precipitate motions that will force the Chinese entry into the upcoming Global catastrophe.

The primary antagonizing nation is earmarked as the Philippines, with major support from QUAD nations South Korea, Japan, (and to a lesser extent) taking a backseat, the resupply center of Australia.

It is expected that simultaneous “hot spots” will erupt that will trigger Chinese participation. Perhaps Taiwan declaring independence, with the Untied States, and proxy “toadies” nodding vigorously in agreement. Followed, or led, by disruptive assaults by the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The Timetable for war duration – Russia

What is going on right now in Ukraine is not a war. It is a military action, but not a full fledged war. Yet.

But once the full NATO assault begins in the Spring of 2024, a total war event scenario will begin. The United States, and NATO plans for a quick assault, and a rapid ending of the war.

Reports as ludicrous as the collapse of Russia by mid-November 2024 is being bantered about by the collective idiots in Brussels. Smarter heads prevail, and they anticipate a delay that could last until 2026 depending on a number of unknown factors.

But the plan is one of total victory by NATO over Russia and a “color revolution” internal to Russia that would dispose President Putin and replace him with a pro-American stooge.

Maybe an actor like Zelensky (Ukraine), a ideological imbecile like Javier Milei, (Argentina), a “stooge in debt” like Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr.( The Philippines), or an easy to control puppet like Yoon Suk Yeol (South Korea).

My understanding is that the replacement Russian “president” and his cabinet has already been selected, and the principals have already been contacted.

The Timetable for war duration – China

The ideal timeline for the “pivot to Asia” is once Russian territory is secure, and a proxy government is in charge. Due to the events of the last two years, this date has been pushed back from 2025 to 2027. But owing to the timer / stopwatch on the abilities of the West, the expiration date for action against China occurs in 2028. So the window for action is narrow, and there is an urgency to accelerate things aggressively.

While there will be a continuation of provocations in both the South China Sea, and in Taiwan, actual “False Flag” justification, and assaults against China is unlikely to occur before 2026. Thus, the window of 2026 to 2027 will be a VERY dangerous time, provided of course, if the West (The United States) is successful in taking over Russia through military victory.

Assumptions

The Pentagon along with a significant number of interested parties have made some baseline assumptions regarding both Russia and China. These assumptions color the battle and strategic policies that will govern this upcoming period of time.

Russia is “a paper tiger” and will not use nuclear weapons.
Russia is not as strong or militarily capable as it seems.
Russia, in regards to Ukraine, has been lucky so far.
The entire world is already against Russia, and the United States is leading the world against a renegade nation.

As far as China is concerned…

China is also a “paper tiger” and will not use nuclear weapons.
China has some basic technology, but it’s military is raw recruit, conscripts, with basic understandings and operates in crude military tactics.
China’s navy is expected to be “light weight”, and nothing to take too seriously.
China will fold once the oceans around China is controlled by the QUAD forces.

End Game

It is absolutely and positively understood that neither China, or Russia would dare attack the United States. As neither nations have the logistical ability to invade or assault America, the survival of the United States is understood as certainty.

So with both Russia and China devastated by massive conventional wars, and the United States left pristine and intact, the United States will rise from the ashes of a global war stronger, and better than ever before. Though looting the resources of both China and Russia, the Untied States can be rejuvenated, and the entire globe will listen to the undisputed leader of the planet; The United States.

Final Comments and thoughts

I personally believe that all the assumptions are wrong. That the timetable is off base, and a kilter, and the “leadership” of the West needs to stop taking so many drugs. We do not know what the future holds, but if this plan proceeds… one thing is certain, those planners in the West will not be happy when things go “tits up”.

Forgotten Chicken

Forgotten Chicken is a great fast and easy recipe! I have made this with chicken tenders, and it’s great. This is also known as “No Peek Chicken.”

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white rice, uncooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can water
Chicken breasts or thighs
1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Instructions

Mix rice, soups and water.
Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Lay chicken on top of rice mixture.
Sprinkle chicken evenly with onion soup mix.
Cover tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.

Shaming

I’ve been at my job for two years and have never called in sick. However, I’ve been vomiting and really unwell so want to call in sick tomorrow but my boss won’t allow it, saying it’s because we are short-staffed – is this allowed?

My boss refused to let me call in sick because I was throwing up. She said that would leave night staff short staffed. I said “no problem”.

I went to work as required. Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was using the wastebasket at the desk to throw up in. Boss insisted I would be fine and refused to let me leave

10 minutes later I was still throwing up. Finally the house supervisor came thru the station and saw me sick as can be. She asked why I was even there. I explained my boss refused to accept my call in.

Supervisor called boss to the nursing station. Supervisor reamed boss a new one and asked her “why would you have a nurse report to work in the ICU when she can’t even leave the trash can”. “Do you even understand ICU patients are in rough enough shape without a nurse throwing up on them”

Boss had to work my shift with calling someone in early for day shift.

No one questioned me calling off the next night too.

What are some daily things that we are unaware of?

Here are some common things we are usually unaware of the purpose of:

Stickers on fruit: The stickers mark the country and producer of the fruit, but it’s the numbers that are the important aspect. If there are 4 digits and the first number is 4, then it means the fruit is sprayed with pesticides. If there are 5 digits and the first number is 9, then the fruit has grown organically, and if there are 5 digits with the first number being 8, then the fruit has been genetically modified.

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Doughnut hole: In the past, it was difficult to get the edges and the middle of the pie equally baked. So they came up with the ingenious idea of using this shape to ensure equal baking on all sides.

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The original reason for sunglasses: today it’s obviously to protect us from the sun’s rays. But the original purpose was to protect Arctic people from the dazzling rays of snow. And in 12th century China, they became particularly widespread among judges in order to hide their true feelings from witnesses.

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Margins on paper: the original purpose was not for extra notes on the side. In the past mice and rats often gnawed on the paper, so in order for them not eat away the information, people started to leave spaces on the sides.

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Holes in padlocks: People usually buy a new lock when their old one doesn’t work due to rain. However, the purpose of the hole is to put in oil – once done, the lock should be able to open with no difficulty.

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Gran Torino , Clint Eastwood – Favourite scene

If you’ve worked in law enforcement, how often have you come across criminals like the Vince Vega character played by John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction,” who actually have intellectual interests outside of their life of crime?

Vince wasn’t an intellectual heavyweight. He was a deeply flawed asshat with an outsized ego and limited self restraint.

Remember the scene with The Wolf? The Wolf was there to save Vince’s idiotic neck, and yet our boy just couldn’t stand that someone else walked in and smoothly took control. When returning home with the wife of his boss, Vince was clearly working his way up to making a pass at Mia in spite of trying to talk himself out of it. If Mia hadn’t OD’d Vince would’ve discovered that his disposal wouldn’t even merit a pine box.

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Obviously my experience isn’t from the perspective of “law enforcement”, but from being locked up with, then living and working with other felons.

Those living a “life of crime” are different from you and your neighbors only because one aspect of their life is something illegal that they got caught doing. That doesn’t mean that they live and breathe crime 24/7.

These people are fully formed and complex individuals, just like you. In many cases, you would find that the “life of crime” really boils down to just one dumb act, not a daily ritual.

The only exception to this would be the addicts I’ve met, particularly the meth users. They might start off as “unique snowflakes” but something about that drug leeches personality from them like bathwater leeches the salts from your skin. Given enough time they become shriveled husks of former humans — having more in common with one another than with anyone else.

Playing around with text-to-picture

Default masterpiece best quality coloring book line art The Ha 3

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Default coloring book line art The Chariot tarot card with Art 6

Default masterpiece best quality coloring book line art The Ha 1

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The Sopranos – Getting everything ready for the Executive game

How does China’s emphasis on manufacturing prompt concerns about overcapacity?

This is what western economists say about the Chinese economy.

But the Chinese government and its economists don’t think that way because they look at potential market size first. In China, the leading importers and processors of minerals and raw materials are state-owned companies whose annual profits are capped at 3–5 percent annually. This means that raw material costs are lower. Chinese manufacturers are increasingly using robotics and automation so that manufacturing costs are lower. Then the Chinese yuan is kept lower against leading currencies to encourage exports.

Put it all together, and it looks to Europeans and Americans like China has impossibly low costs and is making it impossible for other competitors to compete. The problem is that China is different from Europe and the U.S. and its economy is designed to encourage manufacturing and exports.

The Chinese goal is to capture as much market as possible, and then to push costs down further through cost and efficiency improvements. This is different from western companies which start with lower prices to grab market share, but then gradually raise prices through predatory pricing.

How do Japanese see the US in 2024?

Some truths

Investing in a woman you’re not married to is a waste of energy and money.
If you find someone smarter than you, work with them, don’t compete.
Life is all about being intentional and proactive in our choices . The cure for a man’s depression ?? Focus on your purpose and stay busy.
The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person that negotiates with themselves everyday.
Stop complaining at every slight inconvenience. Do what has to be done . Be happy regardless.

Have you ever seen someone call the cops and it backfired on them?

My now ex wife wanted me out of the house and her life after I caught her red handed having an affair.

My relief called in sick so I had to pull a double shift, I got home and went right to bed, only to be woke up by her whaling away on me with a shoe. I picked her up and carried her out into the living room and gently tossed her on the couch, locked the bedroom door and went back to sleep.

It wasn’t long and there was a knock on the door, it was a couple cops, she had called them to report I was abusing her. They said I would have to accompany them to the station, then I looked up at them, there whole attitude shifted.

They handcuffed her and put her in the back of the squad car, one of the cops told me I should clean myself up, apparently she’d nailed me with a shoe and I had blood running down my face.

I went to sleep, she went to jail, couldn’t have worked out any better.

Mike’s 5 Most Badass Plans | Better Call Saul (Jonathan Banks)

How many cars have you owned and what were your favourites?

My first car was an old beater VW Karman Ghia . It was a tank, with the engine over the rear wheels it would go through snow, that bigger vehicles couldn’t handle. It was low to the ground, one day the neighbors pigs got out, and they had a huge boar, that blocked the road. He came over and leaned against my side window, and completely blocked the view.

It didn’t have a gas gauge, instead it had a reserve fuel tank, and when you ran out, you switched over, and drove to the nearest gas station.

It wouldn’t go the highway speed limit, maybe 63 mph with the pedal to the metal.

My second car was 1974 Plymouth Duster with imitation alligator skin roof, and a sun roof. It was an OK car.

My next car was a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba with real Corinthian leather seats ( best spoken in a Ricardo Montalaban accent) it had a high performance 400 cubic inch V8 with a 4 Bbl. Jet black with every option known to mankind. Sun roof, air conditioning, power everything. Pure white on white interior, to contrast to the black paint. I have a lot of fond memories of this car.

My next car was a 1969 buick skylark convertible. My plan had been to restore it, and always have a good car to drive. I spent thousands on it, and couldn’t keep up with repairs.

My next car was a 4 wheel drive AMC Eagle. It had air suspension, so it hugged the road, but if you went off road you pushed a button and the sur shocks filled and raised the car, to get more clearance. Best fishing vehicle I ever had.

The I had a 1989 Dodge D100 that was a rebadged Mitsubishi. It had a 4 cylinder that couldn’t get out of its own way, But it was solid steel, I was rear ended and it cost $200 to paint my bumper, but the brand new Previa that hit me was totalled. I wasT boned in an intersection and I I didn’t get a scratch, but it was $5000 to fix the other vehicle. It was a 4×4 with a half inch steel skid plate under the entire vehicle. It never had a problem until my power steering hose, and brake line started leaking. I couldn’t get parts, so I got rid of it.

I bought a 1997 Cadillac Catera , awesome looking car, and the day the warranty ran out, it started costing me money. Thousands.

I bought a 1999 Jaguar XKR convertible, with one year left on the warranty. It was the best looking car I owned, I had people hop out of their vehicle at a traffic light and ride with me until the next light. It was a great car.

I bought a 2004 Nissan frontier 4×4, which I drove in the winter, and the Jag in the summer. The Nissan was just OK, nothing special.

I replaced the Nissan with another 2013 Nissan frontier 4×4, which was significantly better than the first Nissan, but still not a memorable vehicle.

I got rid of the jag in 2021.

Hassayampa Casserole

This casserole is an original and was named after the Hassayampa River that flows in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoons chili powder
3 teaspoons cumin
1 (8 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 pound fresh tomatoes, diced
10 ounces frozen corn, thawed
1 cup sliced black olives
3 large green chiles, chopped
1 pound shrimp or imitation crabmeat
12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
12 corn tortillas

Instructions

Sauté onion in oil and add cinnamon, chili powder and cumin.
Stir in enchilada sauce and diced tomatoes. Set aside 1 cup sauce.
Add to remaining sauce the corn, olives, green chiles, shrimp or crabmeat and 1 cup cheese.
In a 3 quart shallow casserole dish, cover bottom with some of the tortillas.
Spread 1/3 of shrimp/crabmeat mixture over tortillas; repeat with 2 more layers.
Top with remaining tortillas, sauce and cheese.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes.

The Sopranos – Albert Barese

What is a historical fact that would sadden most people if they found out?

As a kid I was fascinated by the figure of Che Guevara, who looked cool, died relatively young and fought for a better world.

main qimg 1b633c9301e01bf1e1a8332f844c9f84 lq

Later in life, I read his biography by Jean Cormier, a French journalist/movie director who was a close friend of Che.

It tells the story of his childhood, his medical studies, his trip through South America on a motorbike, how he joined Fidel Castro’s revolution and how they disembarked in Cuba to start a guerrilla war against the Batista regime.

Both had their own regiment in the Sierra Maestra mountains, from where they would launch attacks against government forces. In Che’s regiment there was a little puppy that everybody loved, the mascot of the camp.

One day, Che and a group of soldiers left the camp to ambush a government caravan. But the little puppy had followed them and started barking. They had to shut the dog up or else they would be discovered by the government soldiers. So Che and his men formed a circle around the puppy while one of them strangled it.

I couldn’t put this image out of my mind of these heavily armed guerrilleros standing in a circle to strangle a puppy. They say innocence is the first casualty in any war.

Best Sopranos Scene – “We’re with the Vipers” -All Right Now

I received my ancestry DNA results and I am 0% Italian, however my maternal grandmother is 100% Italian. How is this possible?

Has your grandmother actually had her DNA tested and analyzed?

What I have found in 25 plus years of doing genealogy, and even MORE so since DNA testing came along……people get very invested in family stories and myths. They can build their whole sense of self around them. Then DNA and family history research comes along and blows big holes in their set ideas. Things aren’t what they seem.

There were some doozies told in my family. Some by accident – sort of multigenerational “broken telephones” where things had grains of truth but went sideways in the retelling. Some were deliberate, because it made for a better story. Tales of glory beat tales of misery. Some were told to hide things family members were ashamed of (we had more than our share of those).

DNA can also yank the rug from under you since who you think is your ancestor isn’t always. I have a 78-year-old friend who always believed her father was an Italian fellow who her mother sued for child support in the early 1940’s. Turns out she’s 50% Ashkenazi Jewish without a hint of Italian – and she’s found her biological father’s family, all of whom are at a loss to tell her what the heck happened (to say they were shocked would be an understatement, lol).

Your grandmother may have been born in Italy and raised speaking Italian, but her family could have been ethnically from elsewhere. Nationality should not be confused with ethnicity.

Japan is Changing, and it’s SCARY.

What is one moment in your life you thought could only happen in a movie?

So I have been dating this guy from eight years now. He is my family friend. My first crush,then my first love, my first boyfriend and my first everything. Me and his sister are best friends.

Even though our families knew each other for so long, my family never knew that we were dating, because we Never used to talk infront of them.We(me and him) always used to discuss about how we should convince my parents, how we should ask them and blah blah. I used to get very nervous thinking about my parents reaction. But I was confident that I will convince them and I always knew that he was the one that I want to spend my entire life with.

So one day i went out and came to home , and saw all my family sitting together and discussing seriously, they became silent after seeing me , and my brother asked me to sit beside him and asked me that, they are thinking to get me married. My heart was stumped, millions of thoughts rushed in my head and i was so shocked that i I couldn’t think of one word to say, then he mentioned about the guy that they were considering for me.

Well to my surprise he was none other than my love, the one who makes me feel butterflies even after 8years of togetherness, who just makes me happy by his mere presence. I was so happy that I wanted to jump and dance around. But I couldn’t I simply blushed and said “YES” to my parents. They still didn’t know that we are in love.

We are going to get married soon, preparations are started, IAM on the cloud nine since then. We are going to tell them about us on our wedding day.

I always thought things like this happens only in films and fairy tales. May be every love story is a fairy tale.

Real truth

Do Western countries want South Asia and Southeast Asia to have continuous conflicts? If yes, then what will be the policies of these nations?

They do dont they?

They don’t tend to leave any country alone do they?

They always make decisions based on the people of every country in the world

They must always decide who is free and who isn’t

Any Government that toes their line is ‘Good’ and any Government that doesn’t is ‘Had

They decide human rights violations

If Israel bombs and kills 32,000 Civilians and starves an entire population to death for a single terrorist incident – that’s KOSHER

If Russia invades Ukraine to come to the assistance of 2 Million to 3 Million people who live in Donbass and have been shelled regularly and lost 14,000 lives over 8 years, chronicled in the UN – that’s horrible and thats interfering in the sovereignty of a nation

If Russia arrests 439 people for Social Media posts that’s a huge civil rights violation

If UK arrests 3237 people for Social Media Posts including 900 people just for posting the N word – that’s perfectly acceptable

They have combined killed and liquidated through their decisions – almost 30 Million people in the last 300 years belonging to different countries including :-

Inquisitions
Literally NUKING a nation
Holocaust of 6 Million Jews
Starving a million Indians without a shred of remorse
Enslaving 3.5 Million people and treating them like Cattle and breeding them like Cattle and Dogs
Colonizing and cold bloodedly robbing, slaughtering and displacing 2 Million or more Native Americans , Maoris, Aborigines and stealing their land brazenly
Stealing Texas openly from Mexico and now hunting down the same mexicans as Illegals
Invaded a Nation, killed a known 93,000 people of that nation and displaced and impoverished an estimated 330,000 people literally lying that they had nuclear weapons
Bombed and killed and stole the Oilfields of a Nation merely because their Leader didn’t toe the American line (Syria)
Funded Color Revolutions, Coup de Ats and Uprisings against legitimate Governments by their Agencies

These aren’t conspiracy theories are they?

Every one of these incidents have been firmly listed and verified and is now regarded as history

Yet they always seem to turn the tables

Saddam was a Villian though they invaded Iraq for no reason and destroyed him

Yet Zelensky is a Hero

Gadaffi was a Villian

Mao was a Villian

Putin is a villian

Xi is a Villian

Yet not one of these people have conducted a war of aggression in their lives before 2022

Why?

That’s the key question

I believe the answer lies in an Ideology that is deeply ingrained into their blood for centuries

We are the Good Guys

We are the Angels to help these Backward People develop themselves and save them from themselves and their cruel leaders

Sometimes even if people die, we have to look at the long term and be harsh

Like Gates who openly supports an organization that wants 870 Million People dead because they eat up precious food

Now these Nations, it depends on the people of these nations

China and Russia and Iran and a few other nations have obviously woken up and now see these people for what they are

Putins 87% win is an indication

That people braved a rumoured terror attack and shelling and bombing and yet voted in larger numbers is the best middle finger possible

Niger is another example

The Middle East is slowly realizing things aren’t so rosy now

Others are TOO SCARED

India for instance is too frightened of the West because India is too weak to resist sanctions plus India cannot trust China Iran and Russia fully

Not when 40% of it’s exports are destined for US and EU and most of these export orders are non crucial and can be seriously affected

Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia are also too frightened of the West. They gave been dependent too long on the West and they don’t want to leave their comfort zone.

Some are TOO SUBSERVIENT

Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Philippines are simply too enmeshed into the Western system to come out of it

However luckily the hypocrisy of the West is slowly coming out piece by piece

That too despite the fact that they control the media in every way possible.

Eileen

“Come on Eileen”.

Yeah. I was just minding my own business and this classic comes on.

“Come On Eileen” is a song by the English group Dexys Midnight Runners (credited to Dexys Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express), released in the United Kingdom in June 1982 as a single from their second studio album Too-Rye-Ay.

It reached number one in the United States and was their second number one hit in the UK, following 1980’s “Geno“.

The song was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley and was initially claimed to be written by Kevin Rowland, Jim Paterson and Billy Adams, although Rowland later stated that the essence of the tune should be attributed to Kevin Archer.

“Come On Eileen” won Best British Single at the 1983 Brit Awards, and in 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation’s sixth favourite 1980s number one single in a poll for ITV. It was ranked number eighteen on VH1‘s “100 Greatest Songs of the ’80s” and was Britain’s best-selling single of 1982.

“Come on Eileen”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BODDyZRF6A&list=RD6BODDyZRF6A&start_radio=1

There’s nothing particularly special about this song except that it represents a specific time in my life. And when I heard the song, I was transported to that time, and in that place.

Todays…

What is the most intelligent one liner you have come across?

I had over a hundred toxic exposure personal injury cases pending against a major chemical company. To save money and gain a strategic advantage, the defense attorney filed motions in every case across the US to compel participation in a single deposition of their product development expert. Known as a de bene esse deposition, the transcript would be read at all trials instead of the witness’ live testimony. It would prevent live cross examination in front of juries, and updating questions based on new developments or ongoing testimony in the various cases. it was scheduled to occur within a few days at the company’s HQ in another state.

I had sent this company detailed interrogatories and records requests delving into their knowledge of the dangers of their product/similar products and pertinent scientific literature. This information was critical to adequately prepare to cross examine the witness. Despite my demanding this for months, they had never responded. Thus, part of my answer to their motion to compel the deposition was a counter motion to compel responses to my discovery requests.

On the day of their motion, moments before we appeared before the judge, the defense lawyer handed me the company’s responses. Despite the fact that I had asked at least 60 questions [including sub heading follow-ups], and requested numerous user safety documents required by public health laws, the “answers” [mostly consisting of “irrelevant,” “unavailable,” “objection – confidential proprietary information,” etc] were contained on two typed sheets. There were no documents. The company lawyer smirked at me, thinking he had deflated my best argument, and further, condescended to a female attorney 20 years younger than he.

His motion was called, we both stood, and he argued confidently that his client should not be burdened by multiple depositions all over the US, and that we plaintiff lawyers would all be asking the same questions in any event. He argued that judges all over the US had already granted this motion to “streamline” the litigation.

Then it was my turn. I asked the judge if I could approach the bench. He raised his eyebrows, but he consented. I handed him the “answers” to the interrogatories, explaining that I had just received them moments ago. I asked him to please read them. He looked annoyed but did so—- it took about two minutes. He looked up at me a little impatiently and said “Well?”

I replied: “Your honor is now as prepared as I will be to take the deposition of this absolutely critical witness on behalf of all my clients. I respectfully ask you: do YOU feel adequately prepared?”

He sat back in his chair and smiled, cocked his head, looked at the defense lawyer and ruled: “Your motion for de bene esse deposition is denied. Plaintiff’s motion compelling discovery is granted. Call the next case.”

Modern Wife Instantly Regrets Divorcing Good Husband

It is so difficult being a single parent. It makes me want to cry.

https://youtu.be/Qj9FzntQKwY

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

Invited to dinner by a friend of mine, we were listening to music afterwards and I mentioned that there were annoying vibrations coming from the right channel of his sound system.

“Yes, I think the speaker’s blown. I’m going to buy a new set.”

I listened some more.

“I don’t think so. Let me have a look.”

I took off the front of the speaker and almost immediately discovered a screw was lose and this was the source of the vibration.

Have you got a Phillips screwdriver?”

He gave me one, I tightened the screw, fix completed.

A couple of weeks later I was in my local bar chatting to a friend and she suddenly asked me if I could look at her sound system.

I was puzzled.

“Why? I don’t want to buy one.”

“No, it’s not that. Greg told me you fixed his and mine isn’t working properly. Could you see if you could fix it, please?”

I explained that all I had done was tightened a screw and I was by no means a sound system repair man, thus destroying my chances of developing a side gig as a sound engineer.

Some people are easily impressed and, it would appear, rumours of non-existent competence can spread rather easily.

Taiwan Election Fallout

https://youtu.be/j2_L3cYxYQ4

What’s something you regard as true but have no evidence for?

I say this as someone who has been teaching middle school (students aged 11–14) for over 15 years now, and who worked in special ed before that:

A nontrivial percentage of behaviors which fall under various special education diagnoses are, in fact, learned behaviors.

Learned helplessness, for example. That seventh grader who needs someone else to write down their assignments for them, because they “can’t focus enough” in class to write it down themselves? It’s no coincidence that that’s the same seventh grader whose parents have coddled them and treated them like a toddler well too far into adolescence.

Sure, now your kid can’t do that for themselves. Now your kid is far behind their peers in terms of independence. Because you taught your child helplessness by doing everything for them. What came first, your teenager needing to be treated like a toddler, or you treating your teenager like a toddler, even when they probably didn’t need it anymore?

And so you take your kid to a doctor, and the doctor diagnoses them with ADHD. Sure, they have ADHD. Anyone can see that. But what caused it? Or, rather, who caused it? Not all of you, but some of you parents need to look in the mirror for that answer.

Oppositional Defiance Disorder is another one. Yes, your kid has a problem with authority. Was your kid born with this problem? Not likely. They picked it up somewhere along the way. And who, more than anyone else in their life, is responsible for making sure they respect authority, to keep themselves out of trouble?

Maybe the kid who always gets in trouble at school has some sort of chemical imbalance or some major trauma in their past. It happens. It’s also equally possible, I believe, that that kid’s parents just did a shitty job of preparing their child for a world where they have to listen to authority figures to stay out of trouble.

But they can take their kid to a doctor and get a diagnosis of “O.D.D.,” so they sleep a little better at night, thinking that it’s not their fault that their kid can’t stay out of trouble. It’s a medical condition.

“Executive functioning problems” are another one. Is your kid so disorganized because they were born with some special need which made it difficult for them to be organized? Or did you just never take the time to teach your child how to stay organized, until it was too late? Perhaps it’s not your fault. Or perhaps you really dropped the ball when your kid was younger, and now that ball is too heavy to pick back up. Both possibilities have about the same chance of being true.

To be clear, I’m not saying all of these issues are caused by parenting. I’m not even saying most of them are. I’m just saying that some of them are. Enough of them that it’s statistically relevant.

Of course, I can’t prove any of that. I’m just calling it like I’ve seen it, year after year, for the last two decades.

This Video Will Leave Every Man SPEECHLESS…

https://youtu.be/0PGc6CDYmIw

What are some things that people who live in places with brutally low temperatures know, that the rest of us don’t?

Back in December 1983, Chicago spent 100 hours below -20F. Wind chill made it -86F. I worked downtown back then. No elevated train until a decade later, so the buses went down I-55 into the Loop. (Small edit: the buses were for shit, wind would come in through the doors and the window slats. The Orange Line could get you downtown in 20 minutes, the Green Limousine (our nickname) took about 90 minutes on a good day.)

If you wore wire frame glasses, they would freeze to your nose momentarily. You layer up and you don’t bother to color coordinate. Look like a clown astronaut, no one will care. You’ll even blend in. Your nose might run waiting on the bus, it will freeze. Wiggle your nose and the ice will fall away.

Don’t walk anywhere without the intention of stopping. Back in the 70s, I was walking only about a half mile to get a bus, and part of my brain kept saying to stop. Sit down on that bench. Rest. You’re halfway there. This was at midnight. Somebody would have found my body, no doubt frozen to the bench, in the morning.

A few have asked, or questioned why *I* never said something, as if *I* don’t exist, and that really frosts my cone. again, sun was out. If a piece of ice can snap away without breaking, it is warming up. Holding the icicle for ten seconds, my hand would be colder walking to the end of the driveway to the mailbox and back.

Plus: why would I give my dog something that might hurt his tongue? Chicago beats all logic.

Ray Dalio Explains Why America is Entering A Horrific Financial Crisis

https://youtu.be/f6u1-2Emyic

What scary gut feeling did you have that turned out to be true?

Ive been blessed with cracks between the worlds now and then.

I woke up one morning and told my late wife that we must cancel our trip to town as l had seen a “dream”, that a tree would fall on our vehicle. We had not been together long enough for her to know me all that well yet, and she got very upset because her heart was set on town, we were homesteading and needed some things she considered desperate ( like coffee🤣).

So after lots of persuasion I agreed to go. It was a two hour trip one way and I was keenly keeping an eye to where my vision had warned of the tree coming from, and sure enough, I caught a glimpse of the exact same tree coming at us. Because I had the warning and was looking for it , and my quick reactions of youth, I Swerved and slammed into it as it hit the road just in front of us, instead of ON us. We totaled our vehicle, but survived.

After that ,she always listened to my “hunches”(as she called em).

Greek-Style Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Greek Stuffed Chicken 1024x768 1 — Greek Stuffed Chicken 1024×768 1

Ingredients

6 boneless chicken breasts
1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach
1/4 pound feta cheese
3 tablespoons Romano cheese, grated
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white wine
1 tablespoon oregano

Instructions

Thaw the spinach and drain as much of the moisture as possible. Mix with the crumbled feta cheese, grated Romano, salt and pepper.
Make a slit in the side of each chicken breast. Fill the slit with the spinach mixture and close with wooden picks.
Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet. Brown the chicken breasts on both sides and remove to a warm platter.
Sprinkle the flour into the same pan and integrate with the remaining oil. Cook for about 1 minute. Slowly, add the wine and chicken stock and stir until a smooth sauce has formed. Add the lemon juice and the oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
Bring to a boil and return the chicken to the pan. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is very tender.

Zhou Shen’s new song “Floating Light” is sung for the first time tonight! REACTION – BEAUTIFUL!

https://youtu.be/Kc4z1SsBLyM

Have you ever had a problem with a coworker while working as a waiter/waitress? How did you handle it?

Back in my 20’s while working at a popular coffee shop, I had about an hour to go completing the graveyard shift, I was on the floor with an older gal about 45, 7 construction workers came in for breakfast and sat in her station. She went over to the table, and after about 5 minutes she stormed over to me and said “no way am I waiting on those jerks!, they are telling dirty jokes and everything”, so I told her I would wait on them, and I gave her 2 of my 4 top tables in exchange. I went over to their table, and they immediately began telling me the jokes, I looked at them and smiled saying “hmm, I’m not sure what that means but I can laugh”. The man who apparently was the foreman immediately told all the men to shut up and stop with the jokes, I suddenly became someone like a “daughter” he needed to protect (innocent). The service went great and they were all respectful of me, that foreman made each person leave me a 5.00 tip! That was a 35.00 tip on a 7 person breakfast that only came to about 45.00! OMG, now the trouble started, the other waitress saw what I got and ran to the manager demanding that I split that tip with her because after all, it WAS originally her table! The manager told her “hey, you told Linda to pick them up AND she gave you 2 of her tables to make if fair, so if you don’t agree with that, you can go”. The next week, the guys returned and she RAN to get them in her section, they began their dirty jokes, and this time she went along with them, and when they left, she got ZERO tip! Why? Because they saw right through her, I stopped by their table a few times to say hi, and was respected. Was she mad? oh HELL yes!

What is the one purely accidental thing you did that saved you or someone else from a major disaster?

Last Summer, I was sitting on the dock at my town’s marina watching boats being launched. A new-looking 25 foot boat was being launched from a trailer. There was some water coming out from a fitting near the stern. It seemed unusual but the launch angle might have caused some bilge water to move towards the stern where the bilge pump is normally located.

After launch, I couldn’t see much while the boat was tied to the launch dock. Its captain drove the trailer to a parking area and returned twenty minutes later to board with his family of young children. As the boat left, I could see that water was still coming out from the fitting.

I suspected that the owner had neglected to install his bilge plug. I called to the captain to point out his problem. His bilge pump could barely have kept up with the leak as long as his engine was charging his batteries but he would be in real trouble if he anchored somewhere. By the time he noticed, the boat would be settling in the water with dead batteries and the starting motors immersed in seawater.

At first, he gave me the look of someone who did not want to be bothered. He proceeded past my position before thinking better of ignoring my warning. He stopped to inspect his bilge and quickly headed back to the launch ramp. It took him about an hour to haul his boat, install the bilge plug and re-launch. Had he continued without installing his bilge plug, his new boat would surely have gone down.

China ANGERS The West, “We Won’t Destroy Our Economy For You”

https://youtu.be/ZpL1bL4Qu7M

What is the most shameless scam you’ve seen?

Years ago, there was a couple who sat in the parking lot with signs that read “Unemployed, four hungry children, please help. God bless you.” They had been doing this for over a year when our local newspaper interviewed them an published their story. This couple stated that they lost their good jobs due to the recession and just wanted jobs so they could feed their kids and, maybe buy a house some day – to be back on their feed again. After the story came out, they were flooded with job offers from all over the county.

Yeah, they turned them all down because panhandling was much more lucrative.

I worked in the city and there were quite a few off ramp and street corner panhandlers – the same ones every day. One day, I saw a young woman who left her corner, walked to the convenience store parking lot and got in to her brand new Honda Accord and drove home. Shift was over, I guess.

Now for a good story: There were two men who stood at the end of exit ramp I took on my way to work for about seven years. One was older, missing teeth and looked like he had led a hard life. The other was young, maybe early-mid 20s and he wore a funky top hat and played guitar and sang – he was really talented and all songs were his own originals. No sign, he just played his music. I am a go-with-my-gut person and never once did they ever made me feel uneasy.

After having enough experiences in horrendous traffic jams and snow stoms, I always keep protein or granola bars and a few bottles of water in my car. I would give them these when the light was red and, very occasionally, enough cash to buy a meal and they were always so kind.

I hadn’t seen the young man for a couple of months until, one night, I stopped at the mini mart on my way home from work for a diet soda and there he was. Working behind the counter. He looked healthy and happy and was so glad to be working. We spoke for a few minutes then he came around and gave me a big hug – man, did I get a lot of dust in my eyes.

Greek Orange Cake in Orange Syrup (Pontica)

Ingredients

Syrup

1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Cake

1/2 stick butter, melted
6 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
First make the syrup by combining the orange juice, water and sugar in saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the syrup from the stove and allow to go cold.
Butter an 8 x 12-inch baking pan with all the melted butter. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl. Beat the egg whites until stiff and they can form a peak.
In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks until light yellow; add the sugar, orange rind and vanilla and blend well.
To the egg yolk mixture add the egg whites a little at a time, alternating with 2 tablespoons of flour mixture until all used. Pour the batter into the pre-buttered baking pan.
Bake for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Remove the cake from the baking pan and cut into diamond shapes. Place the cake pieces on a large plate that will trap the syrup when poured over.
Pour the cooled syrup over the still warm cake. Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.

Yield: about 15 pieces

A crying mother cat brough her dying kitten to a man. Just unbelievable!

https://youtu.be/M5CTlPFTpPI

Have you ever returned home from a vacation and found an unwelcome surprise?

Yup. Came home to find our cable wires cut.

Of course we didn’t know they were cut until the Cable Guy asked us if we had any enemies. Which shocked us, until we realized what had happened prior to us leaving for vacation…

We have Wi-Fi through Comcast. We pay for that service. We realized that the neighbors across the street were stealing our Wi-Fi. So we put a password on it. For security reasons. Nothing wrong with that, right? WRONG!

They (four men) would sit on their porch with their laptops. We thought it odd since it wasn’t a comfortable porch and they were all crammed together. More of a doorway and just some stairs. We didn’t have a relationship with them, just the occasional neighborly wave. My brother is the one who enlightened us to the fact that they were outside because they were hooking up to and stealing our Wi-Fi. He told us to put a password and watch what happens. So, they were outside, we put a password, their connection died, they stared at our house, and closed their laptops and went inside. We giggled like little schoolgirls and went on with our lives.

About two weeks later, we went on vacation. And when we came home, none of our electronics worked. Called the cable company. They couldn’t get any signal so they sent the technician. He looked outside, and that is when he asked if we had any enemies. All wires had been cut. Could you believe it? They got mad at us for taking away something they were stealing! And of course, without cameras, we had no proof.

Some people just suck.

China called Taiwan’s 2024 election a choice between peace and war. Now that Taiwan has chosen war, what will China do?

Taiwanese did not choose war. Taiwanese did not gave a single seat out for an outright pro independence party! That party lost every SINGLE seat in the election.

DPP Tsai Ing Wen party and now Lai Cheng Te took over is pro independence favouring party that recognise the one China policy. It assures its voters they won’t harm cross straits harmony. Yet it could garner a mere 29% votes and lost the parliament to KMT by one seat and now need a coalition to even has a say!

What will China do? China will let the U.S. implode further, will let the Taiwanese people realise it does not want a Ukraine. And they don’t! China is sitting pretty. The U.S. is totally fxxked up!

Taiwanese are Chinese stock just like me of Hokkien origin. We know that by sucking up to the U.S., Ukraine lost 500 thousand men, 9 million seek asylum, 4 regions to Russia and 1/3 of their land and almost the entire Black Sea coast! Taiwanese voted for kinda an economic union with China and some special status of being independent somewhat! They voted against outright independence and they are very wary of the U.S. and its influence.

The real question if you are smart enough to ask is, does the billions of CIA, NED and other government agencies money spent on Taiwan worth anything? Does it pay off?

The answer us zero and nil. Once again the US is taken as a sucker!

Wife IN SHOCK After Husband Uploads Her Cheating Videos To Website And Sends The Link To EVERYONE

https://youtu.be/0jvAEjHKa1U

What have you seen that made you think, “If you wanted to be fired you could just ask”?

There was a pretty epic incident from a few years back.

There was a dead man in the Denver hospital (Denver Health), in their morgue or some holding area. He had recently passed.

One of the nurses was apparently impressed by his manhood, enough so that she went and told the other nurses something to the effect of, “You have to see this man’s D!”

She and 4 other nurses went on to go look at the deceased’s manhood.

Unfortunately for them, someone overheard the conversation and reported them. An investigation was then launched by risk management which resulted in 4 of them being suspended. (Source: Nurses who opened body bag to view size of dead patient’s penis suspended. Smith, Lydia. The Independent)

One of them also resigned from her position following the incident.

The man must have had quite a member there. And they do say that your body gets stiff after you die…

So far behind

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gbbebN7kjaI?feature=share

What was the moment you cancelled the friendship with your best friend?

I had a best friend from 14 till 29. For her 30th she threw herself a party, it was set to be wonderful, great food, drinks, friends a bonfire, just a wonderful evening. She and I hadn’t spent a ton of time together for several months before due to work and such so I was elated to hang with her and actually get to know this guy she’d been seeing for 6 months or so.

My friend was always a bit of an entitled princess but I usually ignored her when she did that. This party every 5 min she’d scream at the new guy: “go get me a drink” “are you stupid? My drink has been empty!” ”why haven’t you been paying enough attention to me it’s my biiiiiiirthdaaaay” it was annoying but hey she’s a bit drunk, oh well. Then as her bf is talking to HIS SISTER and I she walks up behind him and smacks him in the face full force. Her reason? “I knew what he was going to do, pay attention to other women and say things I don’t like so he deserved it.”

After that smack I quickly got ready and left. A week or so later I met her for lunch and confronted her, thinking perhaps she didn’t recall due to alcohol and I could encourage her to get help. Nope, she remembered just fine and felt she was justified to get her way. That was the last day of our friendship.

Do you think Japan will continue to export successful “soft power” fare in the future?

Japan is in a dire need to go back to the drawing board. It needs to rethink blind allegiance to the U.S., it needs to rethink Japanese only mindset, it needs to rethink helping the U.S. doing shit on China. It needs to grasp how humongous China is, and that how influential it is in the world today.

It needs a fresh perspective, soft power is good when you are winning competition, Japan is not! Soft power is good as an icing on the cake. Today Japan has lost its cake all together.

Steel is gone, Ship building is gone, electronics is all but gone, infrastructure building is gone, high speed train is all but gone and so is automotive industry, tourism is useful but cannot sustain high cost of Japan as a subservient and submissive country to the U.S.

Japan’s economy is fine if the west and the U.S. represents 60% of the world’s demand. Today it is less than 30% of world’s demand. Sucking up to the 30% and offending the balance 70% is a suicidal strategy. It’s population dwindled a million a year! It domestic demand is fast evaporating. It’s export machine has all but stopped except perhaps for some super high end products that has a minute market!

Japan’s biggest dilemma is between sucking up to the U.S. or facing reality. It has chosen being a slave vassal state of Uncle Sam! Can it survive? I very much doubt so!

At best it gets to play a house slave role but at a cost of an imploding an economy. It’s debts us already the largest versus its GDP on planet earth.

Were Roman gladiators allowed to sleep with slave women on occasion?

Roman gladiators had a very strange place in Roman society.

First off, we need to remember than gladiatorial combat was staged and hammed up for dramatic effect, and was rarely to the death. It wasn’t any more “real” than pro wrestling is today. It was a show, and sex appeal was a big part of the show.

On one hand, Gladiators were slaves, the lowest of the low. Furthermore, entertainers of all sorts (actors, dancers, etc) were infamia — outcastes, basically. A Roman citizen lost many of their rights if they were infamia. An infame had nothing to lose, socially or legally, by prostituting themselves.

On the other hand, gladiators were famous and glamorous slaves who were often invited to mingle with and entertain the highest social classes.

And gladiators were expensive slaves. A good gladiator might sell for 500,000 sesterces or more. A unskilled laborer in good health was worth maybe 1,500-2,000 sesterces. (Translating ancient currency into modern currency is basically impossible and misleading, but as a rough guide a skilled tradesman might make 8000 sesterces a year)

All slaves and entertainers were expected to have sex whenever and with whomever their owner or employer commanded. Even for free entertainers, prostitution was part of the job description. It’s likely that most slaves were at least occasionally rented out by their owners as prostitutes. That undoubtedly included gladiators. It is not a stretch of the imagination that a slave owner might have hired a gladiator to stand at stud with a slave girl he wanted to breed. The Romans regarded slaves the same way we regard livestock.

Roman culture was bi-normative; they didn’t have words for “gay” or “straight.” There was nothing shameful or unusual about a man having sex with another man. What was shameful was to be the bottom to someone of lower social status, or allowing yourself to be used for someone else’s pleasure. Roman values were centered around power and control; being the receptive partner in sex was seen as giving up power and control. A rich Roman citizen would likely have viewed fucking a gladiator as a demonstration of their natural superiority.

Roman women had much less sexual autonomy than men, but it was recurring gossip that Roman women (up to and including the Empress) bedded gladiators for sport. Gladiator sweat was also sold as an aphrodisiac (seriously).

Victoria Nuland

He was killed because of this video.

https://youtu.be/TzR—YDDIQ

Did you ever beat up the high school bully in front of everyone?

My little sister was two years younger and two grades behind me in school. She found me and my sports teammates one day and complained to me that a certain boy in her class has been bugging her, pulling her hair, trying to pull her bra strap and other such nuisances. So I told her, lead the way, little sister.

My teammates knew who this bully was and followed a bit behind me without me knowing it. I’m not that big of a guy but a couple of my teammates were. I figured I could just scare this bully and it would all be over. I rounded a corner with my little sister and she pointed out the bully. He was half a head taller than me and 30 or 40 pounds heavier. I gulped and I think everyone in the hallway heard it.

I walked up to the bully with my little sister and she menacingly said to him, “I told you I would get my brother to come and take care of you!”. Unbeknownst to me, that was my friends’ cue to come around the corner and stand a bit behind my sister and me. I took one more step up to the bully and told him he better leave my little sister alone or else…. I thought he was looking at me, but he was looking over my shoulder at my friends, and just nodded his head, then walked away.

When I turned around and saw my big friends, they were laughing at me and jeering, “OR ELSE!”. I started to laugh too. My little sister was happy – she would let us know now and then that the bully never bothered her again, and in fact had almost stopped bullying everyone.

And that became my friends’ catch phrase. Anytime I would make a statement, one of them, right on cue would add “OR ELSE!” Yah, that only lasted 2 years.

Have you ever been asked or told something so offensive you found yourself momentarily stunned?

When I was 22 I dropped out of college to have and raise my daughter. People were astounded I’d do that, as I also had to give up a full ride Air Force ROTC scholarship (I’d been introduced to the Governor of Oregon when I received it, made the newspapers).

Anyway, she was 6–9 months old and one of my soon-to-be-ex-college buddies called. I answered the phone as I was scooping some sweet potatoes into her, the airplane was coming into the hangar! She was in her high chair with her mouth open like a baby bird, hands up in excited fists giggling in anticipation of the plane vrooming some more sweet potatoes into her mouth.

He made the comment “I don’t know why you left school, you could have just had her get an abortion. You really messed up your career path. Think of all the money you’re missing out on.”

My daughter was looking me in the eyes smiling as he said that. I immediately hated his goddamn guts. So, excused myself from the phone call. I maintained contact over the years just to see how things panned out between us.

She grew up to be an EMT. She drives around saving other people’s lives, and has 4 kids herself. When she turned 19 and got her EMT certification, I went back to school and got my engineering degree.

Now I make more money than he does, have a superhero daughter, and 4 grandkids, and pictures of one million trips to the zoo, amusement park, daddy-daughter dances, holidays, etc. He has no children, grandchildren. He has a cat.

Fuck that guy.

What is the biggest waste of electricity you’ve seen in a home you visited, were a guest in, or even in your own home?

When my wife and I were first dating her electric bill in an apartment complex seemed high. The final straw was when she was gone for a two week trip and her electric bill was even higher than the previous month. I looked at the electrical panel and did a check on each circuit breaker, tripping it and seeing which lights or appliances were without electricity. I then marked them with a file sticky tab indicating what they went to. Two of the breakers didn’t seem to shut anything off. I told her to leave them off until we figured out what they went to.

Two days later an apartment maintenance worker was working on the apartment below hers. She noticed the worker, but it didn’t register to her why the worker might be there working on the apartment below hers.

The next day there was an electrician there and the “light bulb” in my girlfriend’s mind came on. She asked the electrician what kind of problem they were having, the electrician indicated that several appliances in the apartment suddenly went dead and had no power being supplied to them.

Turns out the two electrical breakers that I had tripped went to the water heater and the A/C unit for the apartment below hers. The apartment maintenance worker spent the whole day working on the problem for the apartment below hers before calling the electrician to perform the proper checks and determine the problem.

She told the electrician what I had done. He checked the breakers and told her that she had been being billed for the electricity to run the water heater and the A/C unit in the apartment below hers.

She asked if the electrician could fix the problem and take out those two extra breakers in her electrical panel. The electrician worked for several hours and then came back and said that the problem was fixed. The electrician had done one better, the people below that had been jerks while working to fix the problem. They now supplied electricity to run her water heater.

She never mentioned it for the two years that she lived there thinking it was probably going to even out over time for the electricity that she had previously supplied to the apartment below her.

The people below her complained several times about the increase in their electrical bill over what it had been prior to me tripping the breakers and discovering the electrical syphoning that had occurred.

No one ever came to check the electrical circuits for the rest of the time she lived there.

What are some of the best examples of “American ignorance”?

So I’m sitting on the hotel terrace in Düsseldorf, Germany sipping a wheat beer on a warm summer night last June.

Three American late-middle-age men sharing the table next to me with a similarly-aged German are debating the pros and cons of their company health care plans.

One guy prefers low premiums, with higher out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. Another travels a lot and doesn’t want to be tied to one network. The third guy is in great shape and argues for a high-deductible health plan with a tax-advantaged health savings account.

They try to outdo each other with lower copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums. Then they start in on horror stories from friends and family about outrageous billing, uncovered services, out-of-network charges, and medical bankruptcies.

The German listens politely until one of the men asks him if medical bankruptcies are a problem in Germany.

He answers, “oh no, all our costs are covered by the medical insurance.”

One of the Americans immediately cuts in and says, “oh, that’s right, Germans have really expensive universal coverage. I’m so glad we have freedom of choice in America.”

The Americans then continue their internal debate without asking the German another question.

“American ignorance” is not the problem, most people, from all countries, myself included, are pretty ignorant about a lot of things in life.

The problem with these Americans was not ignorance, it was an utter lack of curiosity and interest in anything outside their scope of experience.

Ignorance has a cure. Indifference is usually terminal.

Death of Gonzalo Lira, Crumbling Ukrainian Air Defenses, Growing Russian Military Capabilities

https://youtu.be/gwQCA7HK8xA

How do old people with low net worths live life? What are their lives like?

My mother in law has no net worth. She was a single mother working multiple minimum wage jobs, to get her daughters raised. My wife told her mother, that she did a great job, and that my wife had everything she needed as a child. Then my sil had a baby while still going to school, my mother in laws days, of supporting her grand daughter just started. She only had a month or two worth of expense money when she retired.

When she was 65 she moved into a seniors centre.

In Canada we have CPP, which pays out according to how much you pay in. She didn’t pay in that much, we also have OAS that anyone who has lived in Canada for 40 years, before turning 65 is entitled to. It pays $742 a month, finally we have a Guaranteed income supplement, to top up your retirement. If you have little income, like my mil, it pays out $1065 a month. So my mother in law earns $1800 a month, $21,600 a year. There are a lot of people like this.

But being in progressive Saskatchewan, my MILs senior centre charges her a percentage of her income, if she had more income, they would charge her more.

Until covid hit, she took a taxi to the nearest cheap grocery once a week, now she has it delivered, at 93 she can’t handle shopping for groceries.

She spends time either visiting or being visited by kids, grandkids, great grand kids, and great great grand kids. Or having coffee with her few remaining friends. Until recently she prepared meals and vacuumed at her granddaughters place, while they were harvesting.

She watches TV, plays board games at the senior center, does puzzles and crosswords, or plays Yahtzee with relatives. Up until recently she would go for walks to the farmers market near her. She is constantly giving out small amounts of money, to her relatives, for treats.

She is afraid of flying.

So this is her life, she was very happy until covid, then she got isolated and lonely, and hasn’t quite sprung back.

Not everyone would be happy with this life, but its heaven to her. When she grew up on the farm, they didn’t have running water. Being able to use an indoor toilet and get water from a tap, in her old age, is a step up from her childhood.

Are police officers ever afraid of a suspect trying to get revenge on them?

Working a long-term undercover assignment, you become close to your target. They learn to trust you and let you into their very closed little world. This happens over an extended period of time. When it’s time to conclude an assignment, it’s natural for the target to feel played, betrayed, and downright pissed.

I recall one gang leader in particular who argued with the detectives, refusing to believe I was an undercover cop. I watched this from behind a one-way mirror. Several minutes later, I entered the room, still sporting long hair and a grungy beard but with a gold badge hanging from a chain around my neck. The man jumped to his feet and screamed, “You’re dead!”

His face turned beet red, and he had to be restrained even though he was already cuffed. This was one pissed-off bad guy. It’s important to note, we knew he had killed before and was about the last person on earth I wanted to seek revenge.

I tried to sit and talk to the man, but he wasn’t ready to listen. A few weeks later, I was allowed to meet with him in jail with his lawyer present. He now seemed willing to hear that working undercover was part of my job and was never personal. I told him that I understood his feeling betrayed and didn’t take his death threat seriously. He didn’t reply, which concerned me greatly.

I had kingpin drug charges on him, which should have meant twenty-five years in prison. However, he cut a deal by pleading guilty and was given just nine years. I would meet him again less than five years later, as he was already out. He sought me out while I was on duty as a uniform sergeant on a call at a bar. He told me we were cool and didn’t blame me for doing my job. He also told me he was going straight and had started a job as a welder.

I didn’t know what to believe, but in the end, it didn’t matter. About a month later, he was shot dead by a member of a rival gang. Problem solved.

What are some of the best examples of “American ignorance”?

I don’t know if it is ignorance, stupidity or just entitlement, but this just happened a couple of days ago at Barajas Airport, Madrid:

So anyone who has travelled to Europe and entered the Schengen Area knows that there are two queues, one for EU citizens and one for all other passports. You also might have noticed that airport and immigration personnel is usually right before the queues telling people where to go.

Anyway, along comes this sharply dressed “gentleman”:

Upon being told to go to the ALL PASSPORTS queue you can probably guess what he said to the lady directing people: “I’m American, I’m not standing on that line, it’s too long”. The lady just told him, quite tersely “European Union passports over here, all other passports over here” and then turned her back on him. He then proceeded to stand on the EU queue anyway.

I loved the look on his face when he got to the booth and the immigration officer told him that he could not go through and had to go to the back of the All passports queue!

Columbia and the Passport Bros

The MESSAGE is at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4EzlU9AMEaU?feature=share

Written by a 90 year old!!

🤙42 lessons life taught me 💖

It is something we should all read at least once a week! Make sure you read to the end!

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it..

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

10. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

11. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

12. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it…

14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

15. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

16. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

17. It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

21. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.💖

22. The most important sex organ is the brain.

23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

25. Always choose life.

26. Forgive but don’t forget.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does..

31. Believe in miracles.

32. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

33. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

34. Your children get only one childhood.

35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere. (I love this one)

37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.

39. The best is yet to come…

40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

41. Yield.

42. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Men and women

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VnRidQv1DvM?feature=share

What is the craziest thing you have ever said or done at an interview and still gotten the job?

Well, I just retired at age 68 from being a Silicon Valley software development engineer for about 30 years. I probably literally have hundreds of interviews behind me. Some of them were quite funny and/or strange. But, the wildest one happened somewhere around 2014. (I may be off by a year or two either way.) Anyway, I was working for a small startup in Mountain View, California and it wasn’t going well. I had concerns about their future viability. And, so, I sent out my resume to my usual crowd of recruiters.

One of those recruiters got me a phone screen interview with Apple for an undisclosed position. (Meaning I had no idea what the job consisted of.) I had worked for Apple three different times in the past for a total of about 12 years — and, that included my very first job in 1990 as an entry-level engineer. I took the call on my personal cell phone while walking around in the parking lot because I didn’t want to be heard by my current employer. I just pretended that it was an important personal call (which I guess it actually was?) The phone screen interview was with the lead engineer of the team. I was under the impression that this was merely an initial screening and an in person interview would follow if I did well.

As best as I can remember the conversation went something like this after our initial greeting and exchange of names and background:

Interviewer: “Mr. Ussery, this job is an hourly contract position in support of Apple’s factory automation/robotics software as used in China and Ireland. And, it requires travel. Are you interested?”

Me: “Yes, I guess so, but I would like to know more about it.”

Interviewer: “Do you have any experience in this area?”

Me: “Absolutely none whatsoever.”

Interviewer: “Are you willing to travel and stay overseas for about six weeks, and do so for up to four times a year?”

Me: “Yes.”

Interviewer: “Do you have a current passport with a China work visa?”

Me: “I have a passport but it is expired, and I’ve never been to China.”

Interviewer: “I see. But, you have been overseas before?”

Me: “Yes. I have worked in Apple’s facility in Cork Ireland for six months in 1995.”

Interviewer: “That’s great! That is where I live and where I am currently calling you from. This position is home-based in Apple’s main campus in Cupertino, California. I spend about half my time there when I am not in China. Did you like Ireland?”

Me: “Yes, very much so.”

Interviewer: “How do you feel about working in China.”

Me: “I don’t know anything about it. I have never been there?”

Interviewer: “But, you would be willing to do so?”

Me: “Yes., I think so. Again, I would like to know more about it.”

Interviewer: “How many years of experience do you have with programming in C++?”

Me: “Over 20 years.”

Interviewer: “How many years of experience do you have with programming in Objective-C?”

Me: “About 15 years.”

Interviewer: “Have you programmed in non-MacOSX operating systems.”

Me: “Yes. I have programed on Linux and the Windows operating systems.”

Interviewer: “Do you know anything about factory operations, processes, and how final assembly of product are done?”

Me: “Not a thing. I don’t have any experience with that.”

Interviewer: “Do you know anything about factory quality control?”

Me: “No.”

Interviewer: “I see. Mr. Ussery, we would like to offer you a position working on our team. How soon can you start?”

They met me in person on my first day of work two weeks later.

And, that was how I got the best job I ever had — and up until very recently, the best paying job of my career. They even paid me while I had my butt parked on airplane flying to China or Ireland, and they paid me while I was in a shuttle bus going to and from a factory. (About two hours a day when I was in China.) Plus, they paid all my travel expenses and meals, and even put me up in four star luxury hotels when I was overseas. It was a great job, and it lasted about four years before I was replaced by a cheaper employee. I loved that job!

I think you’ll have to agree that the interview was pretty crazy. By the way, I made many really close friends while doing it, and that includes the original interviewer. My 60th birthday was a real blast too. I celebrated it eight years ago with six very drunk Irish engineers in Shanghai, China. I had a big hangover the next day — but it was worth it.

C’est la vie.

I Miss Living in CHINA! | America is SO Far Behind China

https://youtu.be/e93xiMitu7o

Why do so many people hate the self checkouts?

I will speak for myself:

Spite.

I like the idea of a self checkout for people who are in a hurry or don’t mind ringing themselves out. And that’s how the self checkouts were around here for the first decade or so that they existed. But, predictably, many of the businesses that I go to eventually replaced almost all of their employee checkouts with self checkouts.

I like having it as one of two options. I don’t like when it’s the only option. Or, as it is often around here, the only expedient option.

What a lot of places around here have done is to keep just one employee checkout open, and convert everything else to self checkout. The employee checkout always has a huge line (more spiteful customers, like me), which makes the self checkout seem like a better option. And that’s one of the points of only having one employee checkout open—to encourage customers to just use the self checkouts instead.

I remember, about 12 years ago, flying somewhere with my wife. When we got to the airport, an employee from our airline directed us to a self check-in kiosk. I said “no thanks,” and started to go to the counter to talk to a human about checking in. The employee literally stood in front of me and started going over the benefits of using the kiosk. I wasn’t interested. I know he was just doing his job, but the more he spoke, the more I was determined to not use that self check-in kiosk. According to my wife, I literally pushed the guy out of my way, so I could talk to a human. I don’t remember that, but I do remember being very mad that the guy wouldn’t shut up about the damn kiosk and just let me walk up to the counter.

Since then, I’ve quit patronizing two local fast food places which only have self-serve kiosks now, and no humans to give your orders to. Why? Spite. That’s why.

Also, in one of those places, I walked in with my prescription sunglasses on, and I literally could not see the screen on the self serve kiosk. It’s like it was polarized the same as my glasses. But I also couldn’t see it well without my glasses, because I’m very nearsighted. I had to walk back to my car to get my regular glasses. I just walked back to my car and went elsewhere instead.

I recently read a thread on social media. The topic was “I’m with the Boomers on this one.” It was basically all younger people saying that the Baby Boomers were right about not liking the creep of technology into every aspect of our lives. There were a lot of people who claimed to be “with the Boomers” when it comes to not wanting to use self checkouts. I am one of them.

Others that I agreed with were:

Not wanting to scan a QR code for a menu at a restaurant. Or anything, really. I’ve made it all the way to 2024 having never scanned a QR code.
Not being forced to use an app for something you used to be able to do without an app, like pay a bill or make a reservation. Apps should be for convenience if you want to use them, not for necessity because they are the only choice.
Not being prompted to tip all of the time.
Wanting the option to purchase a new vehicle without a giant iPad-like screen in the dashboard.
Wanting actual physical, metal keys for cars and doors, which you have to actually insert into a keyhole in order to open a door or turn on a car.
Preferring RPG video games that have a top-down, 2D view, and not a 3D “open world” concept.

Technology is great, but it doesn’t have to be in everything. Just because something can be done with technology, doesn’t mean that is should be done with technology. For self checkout, I know that the primary motivation is to save money for the store. That’s understandable. I just wish stores would understand that there are guys like me out there would would gladly pay a little extra for an employee checkout instead.

I think it’s difficult for people under the age of 35 or so to understand just how quickly technology has changed the basics of functioning in modern society, and how annoying that can be for those of us who remember a world before high-speed internet and smart phones.

Thanks to a broken washing machine, I recently had to spend some time in a laundromat. My two hours there felt like what someone 40 years ago would have described as “dystopian.” All of the machines were set up to use an app. Fortunately, they kept some of the machines quarter-based, for people like me. It cost $5 to wash one load, and $1 to dry it. Everyone there, from the employee to the customers to the customers’ kids, had on headphones. No one said a word the entire time I was there. I was the oddball for bringing a book to read, rather than a screen to look at while I waited. Everyone other customer—literally about 20 other people, and their children, some just toddlers—all of them, when they weren’t moving their laundry into a machine, or folding their laundry, were staring at their own individual screen. The place had TVs, too, but they seemed pointless, as no one was watching them, because everyone had their own screen.

It’s not like I was going there to make a friend, but still. For someone who remembers when the Walkman came out, seeing everyone of every age in the same place at the same time, but each in their own little technological world… there was something really sad about it.

Anyway, to answer your actual question: I, for one, hate the self checkouts because of what they represent. More technological creep into my life. I hate them out of spite.

Gentlemen, act accordingly

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pOEaMykF4tY?feature=share

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

When I was 10, my parents signed me and my younger siblings up for the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Kids Birthday Club. Basically, I gave Krispy Kreme my address and birth month and they would send me a coupon for a free dozen doughnuts every year on my birth month until I aged out of their Kids Club at age 12— ‘cause this is just for kids, OK?

Sweet deal.

But Krispy Kreme forgot to ask for the year in my birthday. They have no clue how old I am.

So I’m now almost 25, and I’ve been a member of the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Kids Birthday Club for 15 years. That’s a 180 free doughnuts for me, plus another 180 for my sister and 180 for my brother.

540 free doughnuts.

They’ve since closed the loophole to new signups— first you had to list your full birthday down to the year to join the Krispy Kreme Kids club (which they temporarily and unfortunately called “KKK”, no joke), and now they don’t even offer it. Adults can sign up to get one single donut on their birthday and some special days (tax day, Halloween, National Doughnut Day), but that’s it.

Will anyone at Krispy Kreme ever notice that I’ve been “under age 12” for 15 years? Tune in next year to find out.

Edit 2018: Nope, didn’t notice yet.

Edit 2019: More donuts.

Edit 2020: Happy donut day!

Edit 2021: Still more donuts.

Edit 2022: Congratulations to me, I’ve been “under 12” for 19 years! Can we get to an even 20?

Edit 2023: Happy 30th birthday to me! Either my donuts are late, or someone at Krispy Kreme is among the 1 million people who read this answer. It’s been great!

We pimp them hoes

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dKKAlSAgRis?feature=share

What is the most surprising secret someone has revealed to you?

I am 21 years old. When I was in 10th grade there was a girl A in school. Just like typical teenagers she had many rumours surrounding her. I ignored those and went ahead and made friends with her.

In some months we started dating. We were head over heels for each other. We had everything going great so shown in movies. One day when we were on a date, after coming out from washroom she gave me her phone. There she had written something which changed all my views on her. She wrote that she was raped at the age of 14 by a guy who forced her to be his girlfriend so that other people won’t suspect a thing.

Fearing society and her parents, she didn’t tell it to anyone. But had to undergo therapy. Her parents were totally unaware to real reason behind her behaviour. She lost a ton of weight and was living on medicines. This was really shocking for me. Then I had flashback of all the times when she had certain insecurities and why she required so much time to trust a person. She also had intimacy issues because of this. And that person had told her to shut her mouth or he’ll leak the tape which he had recorded. This rumour was spread in our school by her friends isolating her.

But now she’s a healthy person pursuing her career in engineering and I am a proud boyfriend.

American society is changing

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d6EtV9bdN8U?feature=share

What causes a person to live like a recluse and not want to deal with the outside world?

I’ve been an RN for over 45 years. With each passing year I’ve grown progressively more tired of humanity. It’s true I’ve met some lovely people. However, the proportion of rude, abusive individuals seems to be rising with every month.

I’m tired of toxic individuals. To me they are everywhere I look, and not just within hospitals. They are on the roads and in the supermarkets. They are politicians and CEOs. They are all over the media. I barely recognise the world I live in any more. People have changed so much. To the point that I no longer feel compatible with anyone. We are deep in a pit of moral decay that’s every bit as malignant as Covid. I believe there are good people, but nowhere near enough to counter the trend in self absorption.

I want a little piece of land away from the world. A dog, a couple of chickens, and a garden. I want a simple and as self sufficient life as I can make it.

I prefer to make friends with animals, plants and the stars To attempt to treat the planet with more respect than the majority of my counterparts.

It’s something I intend to make happen within the next few years.

Sounds like they read MM stuff

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vQtPU6r76h0?feature=share

Do Westerners hate China?

Yes they do, they use the thin veneer of I just hate the communist party.

You know the group that gave increased levels of prosperity to Chinese people?

We can literally see this with attacks on Asians in western countries. How are those CCP members?

We can also see it with the WIDESPREAD dehumanisation that has somehow been normalised. Look how normalised it is and accepted it is to dehumanise Chinese people, the prevailing thought by most Americans is we’re literally insects. This can be seen by their politicians who are VOTED IN BY THEIR PEOPLE.

Westerners ‘are accepting of’ Asians/Chinese when we’re seen as servants, those who deliver things, cook your food, do your laundry but once they as some of them say get uppity (you know aspire to be more) out comes the white supremacy.

Greek Hot Potato Salad

Ingredients

4 to 5 large potatoes
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 cup celery, diced
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
Parsley, chopped

Instructions

Boil potatoes until tender and keep hot. Slice onion into a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and cold water, and allow to stand about 5 minutes; drain.
Slice hot potatoes and add to onions. Add olive oil, lemon juice and celery. Mix well to absorb dressing. Season to taste, and garnish with chopped parsley.
Serve warm.

Have you or are you treated like a baby by anyone? Have you ever been mistreated?

I have traveled to the Philippines many times, but my first trip was the most memorable.

My flight was on PAL, Inc. (referred to by all proper Filipinos as Plane Always Late If Not Cancelled), from San Francisco direct to Manila, back in the 1990s when they still flew that route.

I wore jeans and a T-shirt for the twelve-hour flight, and the tag on the T-shirt was sticking up. One of the flight attendants tucked it in for me. I am a bit of a jokester and told her “Thank you. My wife dressed me this morning.”

So for twelve hours the flight attendants talked to me like I was an imbecile: “Can you read the menu?” and “Do you need help going to the toilet?”

It seems that Filipinos (at least the ones who work for PAL) take things rather literally, and I got a good opportunity to practice humility.

The flight back was memorable, too. As we taxied down the San Francisco International airport at the end of our flight from Manila, emergency vehicles surrounded our 747 and sprayed foam and water all over it. I looked at the cabin crew and they did not look worried at all, although some of my fellow passengers looked like they were ready to activate the emergency doors and jump.

It turned out that this was the senior captain’s last flight; he was retiring that same day, and this was a traditional means of celebrating.

You’d think they would notify us passengers first …

Yup. The USA is toast

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1Ev1PLNRSWA?feature=share

Greek Fried Cheese (Saganaki)

A visit to a Greek restaurant anywhere in the world is likely to feature waiters setting this dish ablaze and parading it through the room, accompanied by an appreciative “OPA!” from the guests.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
1 egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/2 pound kasseri cheese*, sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 tablespoons brandy
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Instructions

Heat the butter in a large heavy skillet over moderate heat.
Beat the egg and flour together, and dip the cheese slices into the mixture. Fry until well browned on both sides.
Remove from the heat and add the brandy. Carefully ignite the brandy with a match, and shake the skillet until the flame is extinguished.
Squeeze the lemon juice over the cheese, and serve from the skillet along with crusty bread.

Notes

* Available in finer supermarkets and Middle Eastern specialty shops. Parmesan or Romano cheese may be substituted.

What’s something you’ve had stolen from you that you literally couldn’t replace?

The thing that was stolen from me was my childhood. I was born the oldest of two sons to a violent and entirely unpredictable man. He abused his wife and sons until we three left (vanished really) one morning while he was at work.

He first abused my mother and I when she was 8 months pregnant with me (an unplanned pregnancy) by beating her and then punching her in the stomach. He then kicked her out of the house into a terrible Maine winter with no shoes or coat. A chance passing of people from the church choir she sang in got her into a warm car and a safe haven for the night.

With no means to get anywhere or escape, she returned to him.

I was born a month later hemorrhaging and required emergency medical treatment. A month later he began crib slamming me (to stop my crying)—and so began a 17 ½ year hell from which there was no escape and no hope of rescue. When I was 7 my little brother was born, a planned pregnancy this time. From the time of his birth our abuser tried desperately to drive a wedge between us—BUT HE FAILED.

More than brothers we turned to each other to lend strength and support to each other; we became like soldiers in combat that never ended.

The dynamics would take more space to explain than I have here. But I was assigned the role of Black Sheep and to blame for ALL the rage and violence in the household. This conditioning was something that my mother and little brother still clung to LONG after we had left, and our abuser was dead. But the bond between my little brother and I was still made of the hardest steel, forged in the very fires of hell.

I lost him in 2015 at the age of 47 to a massive heart attack. Our mother would survive 5 more agonizing years without him before passing away in 2020. It was only recently that I realized that our abusive father had caused my little brother’s death…his compulsive eating had led to his overweightness and blocked artery condition.

When our mom passed away in 2020, I became the last member alive of our nuclear (and dysfunctional) family. I have been left to try and clean up all the mess left behind by their passing, alone. Mom died with never having had another relationship in 40 years. My brother destroyed himself without ever realizing it was our abuser reaching out from the grave to destroy him. I have been left with the guilt that I never realized it myself until after my brother was gone.

Every year he told me he would kill me. He also said he would never be charged either, he would get away with it because of his masonic ties. Twice (age 15 and 16) when he was beating my little brother in the living room, I tried to take a kitchen knife and go after him—my mother stopped me both times telling me it was just what he wanted, he was waiting for me. Frankly, I did not care then, I just wanted to save my little brother and make the screaming stop…I would have rather died for him. I see now that this was how he planned to kill me without consequence.

He stole 17 ½ years of my childhood making me live in fear and doing nothing to prepare me for life, ruined my mother’s adult life and leaving her unable to find love in a relationship, and killed my little brother from the grave with the patterns he instilled when my brother was young.

THIS theft was worse than anything material I have ever had taken since. THINGS you can buy, but those years of my childhood, the years of trying to rebuild my life (and still trying in my 60s), and the loss of my little brother so young are a violation of my very soul. HE HAD NO RIGHT, and in fact had a RESPONSIBILITY to protect me from those kinds of things and to nurture me as the bright and imaginative child I was. Instead, he threatened to kill me and seemed to try every week.

30+ Rare Finds From Star Trek Previews All in 1 Video!

https://youtu.be/m2ZpjK6Z5fw

MM gets a police checkout

Last night, as I was taking my daughter back from her night-time skating class, we hit heavy traffic in front of our complex (the “Ghost City” that is supposed to be abandoned. LOL!). And it was 15 minutes of bumper to bumper.

Turns out that it was a roadside sobriety test checkpoint. And the local governments run these things all around CNY as many, many people drink and drive.

So I rolled down my window and exhaled into the wand.

It turned red and an alarm went off. The police scrambled, and I got out of the car.

I’m an American, so I knew what was going on. And no, I wasn’t drinking.

I was expecting to put my finger on my nose and walk a straight line. But no. That did not happen. Not at all.

So I stood there, and they got my various licenses, and registrations out of the car, and then subjected me to a far more stringent test. They pulled out a handheld black computer like device. And a red camera like device.

I had to hold my breath, and then exhale into a black monitor for six seconds. This was a much more accurate device. They then recorded my eyes and pupil dilatation with the red device.

He showed me the results; ZERO.

So I was good to go.

…

I signed my name on the ledger, and then they let us go. Ah. An interesting experience for certain. MM gets a police checkout. What do you know. Check one for my experience ledger.

Have a good one folks!

Today…

Has someone ever unjustifiably reported you to Child Protective Services? What was the outcome?

Yeah. I took my niece’s cigarettes away from her and she freaked – she was 10, or 11.

She told her grandmother (who I knew bought her the cigarettes) and she called C.P.S.

I refused to drive into the city to do the interview and made the guy drive out to my shop. On my terms, on my territory. And, I told the story exactly as it happened. Then, I asked him to call the kid. He didn’t want to. So, I did. (he even tried to wander out of earshot, but I followed him holding the phone in the air so he could hear)

I put her on speaker – told her she was on speaker with me and the man from Child Protective Services – and asked her to tell him what happened. She told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Then I asked who bought the smokes.

I was right, it was “gramma”. And, we hung up.

Then, I demanded he call “gramma”. And, he didn’t want to. So I did. (I even showed him the phone numbers on the phone so he could see I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one)

I told her that I was putting her on speaker, and I was there with the guy from C.P.S., and that we had a few questions. (he didn’t have any, I had a couple)

I asked why she called – she blubbered some nonsense. I asked if it was because I took the kid’s cigarettes – and she said that I had no right to take them. She was getting pissed. So I played her like a sunfish – I yanked her right out of the water. I asked if she bought the cigarettes for the kid, and she said, “Where else do you think she got them? They’re not going to sell her cigarettes, she don’t look old enough.”!!!

Then, I asked why. And, she said (and I shit you not), “So she’d quit bummin’ ’em off of me!”!!!

The guy hung his head, and I did one of the shrug your shoulders with palms facing up at shoulder level. Case closed.

I did my best to have “gramma” charged, or a C.P.S. case brought against her, but the guy just let it slide. I called the supervisor. Same thing.

That was twenty years ago – now the kid always says to me variations of, “Thank you for caring, thank you for trying – now that I’m a mom I understand what you were doing – I’m sorry.”

She has two great kids and last time I talked to her they were going for more. I hope they have as many as they want.

Never stop trying, never stop caring, it sinks in even if you think it’s not. (even my son, who has no kids (the dirty rat – I’d like a few grandkids), told me, “Thanks for being an asshole – I get it.”

Never give in, never surrender.

Apple Rum Baklava

Ingredients

3 cups chopped apples
2 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup raisins
2 tablespoons rum
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pound phyllo dough
1 pound butter, clarified, melted
1 cup honey

Instructions

Combine first 6 ingredients in large bowl; mix well.
Trim 8 sheets phyllo dough to fit 10 x 15-inch baking pan. Keep unused phyllo covered with damp cloth. Arrange in baking pan, brushing each sheet generously with melted butter. Spread half the apple mixture over phyllo dough. Arrange 6 buttered sheets phyllo dough over apple mixture. Spread with remaining apple mixture. Top with 8 buttered sheets phyllo dough. Cut into squares. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
Heat honey in small saucepan. Drizzle over hot baklava.

Yields 12 servings.

May substitute 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 2 tablespoons lemon rind for rum.

Donald Trump won the 2024 Iowa Caucus.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JgF6cZznKvg?feature=share

Experienced car drivers: what tips and tricks have you learned after years of driving and that nobody teaches you at driving school?

I’m not sure if they teach this in drivers’ ed in places where it snows a lot, but I took drivers’ ed in a place where snow is rare, so they didn’t bother to teach me about driving in it. Here are some snow-related driving tips that I had to learn on my own:

If there is snow around the wheels of your parked car, and your tires just spin when you’re trying to move, there are three ways to get your car unstuck: dig out the snow (takes a lot of time and effort, and is uncomfortable in the cold), throw some kitty litter under your tires for extra traction (requires kitty litter), or my personal favorite: rock the car back and forth until you build enough momentum to get it un-stuck. It’s the lazy man’s way of getting your car moving in the snow. It only works if you can go straight ahead of your car for a while, though. Will not work if your wheels are turned, like if you’re parallel-parked and have to exit the space by turning first.
Cleaning the snow off of the top of your car isn’t really for your benefit, but for the benefit of the drivers behind you. If you’re super-lazy and don’t care about other drivers, just take your car on the highway and let the wind blow the snow off for you.

Edit: I forgot something until some commenters pointed it out: if there is snow on the top of your car and you stop suddenly, it can slide to the front windshield and block your view.

(Don’t be this guy. Nobody likes this guy.)

If you know it’s going to snow and/or get icy while your car is parked, you should lift the wipers off of the windshield. Otherwise they will stick to it and break when you turn on your wipers.

(These people know what’s up…)

Door locks and power windows can and will freeze in the winter. Before you go through a drive-through on a winter’s day, you should confirm that your window will go down.
If your car has Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA), it will go crazy on slick roads. It’s the same for an Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS). That’s how I know that I need to be more careful when I’m driving in the snow: those lights come on. Also, if you’ve never felt an ABS system kick in underneath you, it’s unnerving the first time it happens.
If the snow is really deep, while digging out your car, you should be extra careful to make sure that the tailpipe is clear. People have died from sitting in cars that were running while waiting for someone else to dig them out.

(Anyone want to help this person dig out their car?)

Ice/slush will build in the wheel wells of cars that are being driven during the snow. It’s important to kick this off when you get a chance, particularly if it’s going to be cold for a long time. If you ignore it when it is fresh, it just freezes more solid and is a pain in the ass to get off then.

(If you see that around your tires, kick it off as soon as possible. Be careful that you kick with your heel, not your toes. It may be hard as a rock.)

There are “summer” and “winter” blends of windshield washer fluid. If you get the summer blend and forget to use it all before the winter, it will freeze in the tank and you won’t be able to clean your windshield while driving, which is important to do when it snows.
Pickup trucks with empty beds are the worst for handling snow. If you drive a pickup in a place where it snows in the winter, put something heavy in the back, just to put some weight on the back wheels.

Delusional Women In Denial As They Learn How Hard Men Work

https://youtu.be/LWfrcJTlD5E

Have you ever completely snapped? If so what did you do?

Yes. My husband was dying of cancer and in home hospice with me taking care of him 24–7.

The night before he died, his son’s mother started texting me about how he’s dying, she needs to get into his apartment and go through it to see what she could sell because she hadn’t gotten child support in a couple months. He still had his apartment after we were married, because his son was nearing 18 and wanted to move away from his mother asap, and he hadn’t paid child support in two months, because he had just recovered from brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and then in the following two months, we found out it had metastasized to his liver and then spread to all his abdominal organs and died 10 days after being put on hospice. I kept my cool while she was texting me about the money he owed her the night before he died.

The day he died, right after he passed, I called his son to come to my house immediately, as well as my other children. His mother was the only one else aware that he had passed, so here I was with our three boys, sitting in our livingroom waiting for the hospice nurse to come back so she could pronounce him legally dead, and I was already getting phone calls and texts of condolences. My stepson’s mother had announced it on Facebook. I kept my cool, though that was probably more of me just being in shock and unable to function.

The days following his death, she convinced my stepson to rush to my husband’s apartment, because “rent would be due soon and he had alot of valuables in his bedroom at his Dad’s house”. I didn’t go, because she had been texting both me and my SIL about getting into my husband’s apartment asap to sell his things for money, and I was afraid of what I might do to her if I saw her in person. My SIL did go over when they went over, to make sure nothing really important disappeared.

My SIL later told me that in the two days my stepson’s mother had access to the apartment, my stepson’s mother went through every room, every drawer, read ever piece of paper she could get her hands on, including love notes, etc, took pictures of how “filthy” the house was so she could show her friends, and didn’t really keep anything to sell, because nothing had any value to her, so she just threw it to the curb for garbage day. The few sentimental things that my husband had made known to everyone he wanted my stepson to hold on to, she would not let my stepson keep “because they were in poor condition”.

It should be noted that I know I could have called the cops on her for theft and harassment, but I didn’t for three reasons… 1. Me, my stepson, my sister-in-law and my other two children were mourning a loss and I was trying to avoid further drama. 2. Everything of value had already been moved to my house months ago and most of the things left in my husband’s apartment was gonna be gotten rid of anyways. 3. The apartment WAS filthy, because for the past two months, nobody had been there except me 3 times a week to feed his cats and change their litterbox. Nobody else was willing or able to help me with the cats or my dying husband, and it was a mile walk one way to his apartment, meaning if I rushed, I’d be leaving a dying man who could barely stand up by himself (but kept trying, so had several close calls with almost falling) alone at least an hour and a half. I wasn’t lazy, I was stretched too thin with no help and doing the best I could.

But I kept my cool with the apartment drama.

My husband was a car guy, loved older cars, had three classic vehicles when he passed away. He had wanted me to take his favorite car, and his son could have the car he’d already been driving for two months since he got his license, and his prized van as well. The plan was for me to not turn the titles over to my stepson until he turned 18, because it was common knowledge that his mother assumed that their son would get all three vehicles and she had planned on selling all three. This was also a constant source of texts and harassment on how I need to turn the titles over to her immediately (before their son turned 18), like I wasn’t smart enough to figure out that she wouldn’t then sell them as she’d then be the legal owner. I still kept my cool.

Once I finally figured out how I was gonna pay for the funeral and was planning the funeral, I gave people a date, but not much more information, as the details were still being worked out. My stepson asked for the tentative information, which I gave him, and she posted on Facebook, tagging my husband of course, the date, time, place, little details, making it sound like she had planned it. I SNAPPED. I was ready to ask if the funeral home had and 2 for 1 deals. I absolutely ripped her a new one online, publicly pointing out exactly how she’d been behaving and what I thought of her. It got really, really vicious, on both ends, with her playing the victim. Not my finest hour, but I was absolutely DONE with her. Completely out of character for me, but if I had been in the same room with her, I’d be writing this from my jail cell right now.

The last conversation she had with my husband on the phone had been about how their son turned out to be such a great person because he had HER for a mother and how my husband had only had him on weekends, didn’t really contribute to raising my stepson. She knew darn well that my husband would have taken their son full time in a heartbeat, if she hadn’t done everything in her power to restrict his parenting. Near the end, she wouldn’t allow her 17 year old son to sleep over my house (in a spare bed) on the weekend to spend time with his Dad who clearly had limited time, because “it wasn’t his own bed at his Dad’s house” and when he did stop by my house to see his dying Dad, his mother started texting him to come home after about a half hour. And then online while announcing his funeral, she was making out like they had been such good friends, that’s what coparenting is all about, it’s all about her son, his REAL child (my husband had raised my two boys as his own for almost 8 years and loved all three very much), and if course, all about her, because she’s the mother of his child. The one and only time in my adult life I ever completely snapped. Not proud of myself at all, but she deserved it and she got off easy.

What is something you know you do differently than most people?

A few days ago, my boyfriend offered me a stick of chewing gum.

He unwrapped his and popped it into his mouth. I unwrapped mine and took a tiny bite off the tip.

A few minutes later, when that first bite had lost its flavor, I took another nibble. And once that one shed its sweetness, I took another.

Before long, I noticed my boyfriend shaking his head at me, his eyebrows raised so high they’d almost disappeared into his hair. “You’re so weird,” he said affectionately (at least, I’d like to think it was said affectionately.)

He’s right. It’s pretty weird that I consume my chewing gum one nibble at a time. But I’ve done it that way for as long as I can remember.

When I was growing up, chewing gum used to be a top item on my parents’ list of choking hazards. So naturally, it was also a top item on their children’s list of valuable contraband.

Most of the time, I only had access to this rare treat when my friends shared it with me at school. And every tiny, foil-wrapped stick of it was so precious to me that I’d ration it out slowly to make the flavor last, and then replay the memory of chewing it for days afterwards.

Honestly, as an adult, I don’t even like gum all that much. But the memory of how precious it used to feel has never quite left my mind.

Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country – Khitomer Battle

https://youtu.be/XSqCJ-UGYns

What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

I had a soldier on a team I was commanding during advanced training called Zach.

Zach was the team clown, a hard worker and good soldier, but a complete goof ball.

He would find humor everywhere, and create it when it was needed. Most of the times, even though I wasn’t allowed, I would completely break soldier -commander distance and laugh at Zach’s punchlines. I would turn away from my soldiers so they wouldn’t see me laugh, even though it was hard to hide.

Two weeks before my soldiers completed their training, I was notified that I was being reassigned to a different team, and that my officer needed my final evaluation on Zach, since they were considering dropping him.

They claimed he was naive, and as much fun as it is listening to his jokes, our job was to train a team and make them combat ready.

Before I wrote up my evaluation, I took Zach for a conversation and told him exactly what my officer told me.

His smile faded immediately.

I told him that there are times for jokes, and time for work. I needed to be blunt, and said that his comic remarks have no place in the paratroopers training. We needed serious and professional fighters, not clowns.

I was a bit harsh, but truly wanted him to finish training.

Zach was one of my favorite soldiers, and it deeply hurt me to tell him to stop finding the funny moments in life, even when everything sucks. I felt like I was killing him softly.

During my final weeks with my team, Zach did not make a single funny remark. One of my soldiers asked to talk to me in private and suggested that Zach might have lost a family member, since he seemed depressed.

Eventually, Zach finished his training, and proceeded on to command school, but I always resented the fact that I was the one who took away the smile from his face.

Real

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Eh4dPHmfBBo?feature=share

Did the U.S. intervene in the 2024 Taiwan leadership election?

In fact, the United States has played a four-step game in an attempt to sway the elections in Taiwan.

Firstly, it’s a classic case of ”the pot calling the kettle black”—the U.S. has been vocal about external forces keeping their hands off Taiwan’s 2024 elections, all the while being the first to meddle.

Secondly, the American Institute in Taiwan has echoed the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party’s stance on cross-Strait relations, suggesting that even if the DPP wins, China is unlikely to take immediate military action. This could lull Taiwanese voters into a false sense of security, effectively boosting the ”Lai-Xiao pairing” in the polls.

The third tactic involves the U.S. flexing its military muscle, with P-8A Poseidon aircraft patrolling the Taiwan Strait—a clear sign of America’s concern for Taiwan’s security and a potential promise of defense. There’s speculation that U.S. warships might even make a bold passage through the strait. This military posturing supports the DPP’s narrative, encouraging Taiwanese voters not to view the upcoming election as a choice between war and peace.

Fourthly, the deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Western Pacific and equipping submarines with Tomahawk cruise missiles are moves that signal U.S. preparedness to intervene should Chinese mainland take military action against Taiwan.

China, of course, is keenly aware of these maneuvers. the spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense has hit back with a two-pronged rebuttal. Firstly, they’ve underscored the severe threat these U.S. actions pose to the security of the Asia-Pacific region and China itself. China has firmly opposed these moves and has vowed to respond with equal determination. Secondly, China has issued a stern warning to the United States: The Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China, off-limits to any external meddling. The resolution of the Taiwan question is an unstoppable force, immune to interference by any person or power. Taiwanese voters must remain vigilant, not to be swayed by the U.S. and the DPP’s rhetoric. The 2024 elections in Taiwan are pivotal for the trajectory of the Taiwan Strait situation, and any missteps could lead to tumultuous waters. The mainland’s stance is clear: ”Taiwan independence” equates to war and is a dead-end street, so there’s no room for wishful thinking.

The U.S. has a long history of involvement in Taiwan’s elections, with a level of engagement that runs deep. This is evident from the way candidates scramble to ”audition” in the U.S. during every election season. Take the 2024 elections, for instance; Taiwanese candidates are making their pilgrimage to America, while the chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Mr. Rosenberg, has visited Taiwan three times in just two months, meeting with candidates from the blue, green, and white parties. The depth of U.S. involvement in Taiwan’s elections is such that a single, biased statement from the U.S. could instantly flip the fortunes of their preferred candidate.

Built for families

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1yhrTH8cH54?feature=share

What is the saddest thing that happened to you that you never shared with others before?

My parents murdered me. They killed my ambition, separated me from the guy I love and got me married to a monster (unknowingly).

I was always a bright student. A topper in school and a gold medalist in my college. While in college, I met and fell in love with a man from a different state in India. Though it was not a huge difference like a North-South problem (we belonged to neighbouring states), it was huge for my parents who only had negative things to say about his community. The fact that he still needed time to settle only made him incapable in my parents’ eyes. They believed that I was their golden girl with too much talent to be given away as his wife. We fought for 2 years during which my mom stopped all communication with me. Finally, my parents weren’t willing to wait after I turned 25 as they believed that I will become “too old to be desirable by good guys”. They adopted all forms of emotional abuse and manipulation and broke us apart. I still cry to this day thinking about our breakup though it has been 8 years. I loved him and still do. If only we had remained together…

At about the same time, I wanted to change careers and become a teacher leaving my high paying job but my parents thought that only a fool would make that mistake. They prohibited me from doing what I liked and made me look after my dad’s company though I hated it. They believed that they were doing everything to protect my interests but never cared for my own feelings. I was too weak and timid to rebel and so I bore everything while breaking down mentally.

After this forced separation and being made to look after the company, I was put through the humiliating arranged marriage market where I was paraded around like a commodity. I hated every minute of it. Finally I was married off to this man who was good on paper. He came from a wealthy family, had two degrees from the most prestigious Universities in India and was settled in my own city. My parents couldn’t believe their luck and when all enquiries about him and his family didn’t turn up anything bad, they went ahead with it. All through this debacle, I was only a mute spectator.

What my parents did not know was, my husband was an egoist and a sadist. He HAD to be the best in everything and took joy in humiliating me and belittling my achievements. He was always fishing for compliments without which he couldn’t function. He could never take any form of criticism and would throw temper tantrums if things aren’t done his way. Even sex was a form of punishment for me where I was forced to do things I did not want and he would humiliate me. Every day and every night used to be the same. I put up with this for 2 years before letting anyone know because I foolishly thought that I did not deserve any happiness after breaking my boyfriend’s heart.

To the outside world I couldn’t have been happier. I had my dad’s company which was minting money and I did not have to work hard unlike people who start things from scratch, I had a husband who was very handsome, earned indecent amounts of money, came from a “good family background” and was even religious. But, inside closed doors I was living a nightmare.

The traditional traits looked for in arranged marriages – caste, wealth, education, family background and age were all perfect in mine but take it from me that none of these things matter more than an extent. It is only the love you share with the other person and your emotional compatibility and willingness to stand by them, that counts. This realization hit me like a wall of bricks when one day after a particularly nasty argument with my now ex-husband, I took my car for a drive. It was raining heavily and while I was waiting at a traffic signal, I saw a poor man on the pavement sharing a torn canvas cloth with his small family. They were laughing and were very happy with each other. Looking at this from my air conditioned “luxury” car, I realised that they had something that I did not – love and happiness. The divorce was painful where I did not have many people’s support – only my brother and father supported me.

It has been 4 years since the divorce. Where is the “golden girl” now? Meanwhile, the boyfriend whom I broke up with, went on to become successful and started his own consulting company which is doing extremely well. He got married two years after I got married when he still thought that I was happy. He called me before they finalized the girl, asking me how I am and that he is getting married. He told that he always wishes the best for me – I knew he also loved me the same way I loved him. After that we did not speak because it would be too painful.

It is not always true that parents love you the most. Sure, they wish the best for their child but sometimes they let their beliefs and bigotry cloud their eyes. Sometimes parents can be wrong – that does not mean that you shouldn’t take their well meaning advice, but the final decision should always be yours.

And sometimes, the person who loves you the most could be the guy whose heart you broke a long time ago, who still remembers your birthday every year and sends you a card with a coupon to your most favourite restaurant.

The USA is a land of idiots…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gHVDv6Rp5CA?feature=share

What is the backstory behind the intense battle between a Ukrainian Bradley and a Russian T-90M tank?

It is a bit more complicated than a Bradley decided to walk the dog on a T-90.

A Bradley IFV is designed to defeat enemy tanks. At very long rang using TOW missiles. Russian tanks are notoriously poor at surviving such missile attacks due to how their ammo is stored. Anything which gets through is likely to cook everything off… which is where you get those turret tossing videos.

In this encounter a pair of Bradleys more or less stumbled across a lone T-90 at would probably count as Danger Close range. The first engaged with its chain gun, scored a few hits, and then exited, probably trying to get to range so they could engage with a TOW. The second, not wanting to risk taking fire while moving away, decided to engage in hopes of essentially blinding and disabling the tank.

There is an interview with the two man crew of the Bradley in question and one point they both agree on… they were terrified. The one thing they didn’t want to run into at close range was an enemy tank. The crew couldn’t disengage safely, they had to stand and fight, and do so in such a manner that the T-90 couldn’t get its bearings and shot back.

Their training got them through this. The Bradley sticks and moves while the Bushmaster 25mm just peppers the T-90’s turret with hit after hit. The Russian tank crew, likely poorly trained, couldn’t see the Bradley to try and fire back. Attempts to back up saw them crash into a tree and get stuck.

Which is when the tank crew did the only thing they could think of… pop smoke and bail out of the tank. A wise decision as a drone strike destroyed the vehicle not very long after.

It isn’t unusual for a Bradley to score a tank kill. It is very unusual to do so in such a manner. Usually the 25mm autocannon is lighter vehicles, such as the BMP. Those the Bradley’s have been killing in droves. A tank is a much bigger foe to tackle.

What good deed have you done and no one knows?

In college, at the dorms there was a stinky girl who lived there. Everyone made fun of her and she was arrogant, yet all the same people were just rude. She was called “Hamburger “ or just plain “Stinky” by Everyone in the dorm. She wasn’t nice and was poor. Two of my roommates and I felt bad for her and used our bottle return money (we took discarded beer and soda cans from the dorm that we collected) and purchased the girl hygiene products from the dollar store. Our care package included a few bottles of VO5 Shampoo and conditioner, a few sticks of cheap lady speed stick deodorant, a brush and comb, razors, toothpaste, toothbrush, and I had a 12 pack of ivory soap I didn’t need, plus a bunch of menstrual pads and tampons. We put this stuff in a brown paper grocery bag stapled it and left it in front of her door. Nobody knew who it was from and we never told anyone. The girl wasn’t embarrassed and seemed happy someone cared enough to help her. The girl’s hygiene improved and people were nicer to her. My two roommates and I didn’t do it out of pity if someone might say that, we did this because we wanted to help her.

The Passport Bros movement

I guess that I am a “passport bros”. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u5DjFjLqXN8?feature=share

What did your boss do or say to you that made you quit your job?

“Your bonus check will come after X event”

After X being pushed back the 4th time, I nodded along, stood up, and went to a job-posting website. I got 3 calls back the following week.

A little bit of background for the bonus check: Our department needed to have an app on the company iPad for the engineer to work effectively. They consult with an outside ios developer team about the idea. The developer team comes back with a contract that it would cost Y amount, with half required as a deposit upfront.

At the time, I thought they really overcharged for such a simple application. There were many unnecessary features to be priced. But it’s not my money paying out, so whatever.

My boss, being the department director, asked if I could make the app. Keep in mind that I’m not a software developer in my department. My job description does not include coding and my wage is far lower than those who code for a job. But people know that I program from time to time to automate most of my job (and other people’s jobs) and for fun. Never have I ever made myself a full-fledged app before that time.

I said I could give it a try. He agreed on half the amount of Y for my bonus, once the app is made and tested.

I went home. Borrowed a MacBook from my friend (I knew my boss would never buy me a Mac just for a single project). Locked myself in my room studying as many tutorials for beginners as I could.

10 days later, an app is made. I couldn’t be happier. I showed it to everyone around, got some feedback, made changes. My boss told me to push it onto the App Store for internal use. I did. About 75 devices installed.

I wrote an email to my boss about the bonus, alongside with the terms like I would maintain the app myself, and transfer the ownership to the company, etc. I also mentioned the possibility of promoting me to be Software Engineer so I can develop more apps for the company.

*Crickets* – no response.

I came up to him after a few days. He told me I will get it after the Deputy Director come back from his business trip to see if the app is working well. I said no big deal, I could wait for another week. The app needs more time for testing anyway.

But the Deputy Director came back and still no sign of the bonus. I asked a few more times and my boss is like running this loop: For X in excuses: Say(“You will have the bonus after \(X) event”)

It’s been more than a month since I published the app and still nothing. The last time I came up to him, I also asked about the possibility of a promotion, to which he rejected and said I should just focus on my own work and only do special projects like this if necessary.

I said ok. Came back to my desk and started applying to new jobs. Out of 4 jobs I applied for, 3 called back and scheduled an interview one week after. I brought the app with me to demo. Got 1 offer at one company for the position of Software Developer at twice the salary.

When I came to my boss to hand in my resignation, he still wondered if he did anything wrong…

Contempt and hate

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pIObG5nqE58?feature=share

What are some ways to become wealthy without having wealthy parents or any initial funds?

1) Join the Massachusetts State Police. Make over 100K your first year, including overtime where you sleep in the cruiser most of the time. You will be incredibly wealthy and rich within 20 years. You can retire young and get a “getover” job as a college security police starting at 135,000 a year. Seriously, my brother is a State Cop and if I could live my life over again I would do this job. It’s hard to get through the Basic Training but once you’re on the job it is absolutely no work, lots of perks, impossible to get laid off… where else can you get paid 1000 dollars for sleeping in your car? I’m not joking! If you d3on’t want to be a State Cop then become a local cop but you might actually have to do something. Nevertheless the opportunity to make money as a cop in Massachusetts is unparalleled. The corrupt Police Union has made wages high and work virtually non-existent. This is the way to go.

2) Become a Fireman – this job is the biggest scam in Massachusetts. It’s GREAT money for doing next to nothing. Sure, there are lots of calls where you get to ride on the big red engine but mostly it’s for absolutely nothing. You stand around with a halligan tool and you coat open and a cigarette hanging from your mouth and then you go back to the station, eat something and watch television in a barcalounger then go to bed. You do this for two days, get a full week’s pay and then you become a contractor and double or even triple dip. You will be fucking rich in no time. Sometimes you might actually have to fight a fire but think of all the things you can slip into your boots or coat when you’re in someone’s smoky house – a wallet left on the dresser: it has your name on it. Expensive watch on the counter: you can easily sell that. All kinds of perks.

3) Become a Plumber. Believe me, these guys clean up. There aren’t enough plumbers and you can charge just about anything, especially in winter when people’s heat stops working. Yep, it’s hard work and you often have to deal with people’s stink and shit but usually you’re putting in new, clean pipe and the new Pex technology makes it fast and easy and you can clean up. If you have even half a brain within a couple of years you can get younger apprentice plumbers to work for you. Create a subsidiary business cleaning out drains. You can make up to 1000 dollars for a one hour visit. If you can get commercial accounts or city accounts, your future is assured. By the time you’re 35 you will be taking your wife and girlfriend to Turks and Caicos in the winter. Plumbers make HUGE coin.

4) Become an electrician – once again, it’s a tough apprenticeship but once you’re done you will never have a day off if you don’t want one. There just aren’t enough electricians. Had an electrician come to my house to replace a half dozen switches and plugs – cost me 750 bucks. You will really clean up. If you get attached to a building contractor you can start your own electrical company and hire a bunch of illegal immigrants to run wire through the new ant farms going up and you do the critical work of punching them down to the breaker box and you’re in like Flint. The sky is the limit.

5) Become a real estate broker – this is actually MUCH harder than it looks but the options for making a lot of money doing nothing at all are really good. To be a broker you have to be an agent for three years. That means sucking the asshole of another broker boss douche who is going to rip you off blind for three years. The first two years you won’t even make minimum wage but if you stick with it you will learn all the ins and outs and how to scam homebuyers which is every real estate agent’s job – Get the suckers to buy that termite trap as fast as possible and take your 2 percent commission and run. But once you’re a broker yourself than all those nose-picking wannabe agents will be sucking your asshole and they have to pay you 50 percent of their commission while you go deep sea fishing off the Keys in Florida. And they best part? The REAL money is in working with contractors or finding that great piece of property you can buy, rehab and sell for a huge profit. Yep, it takes time and effort and diligence but you can make millions a year in real estate if you’re willing to sell your soul to do it. I met the biggest agent in the area once, a woman who would sell her own daughter’s kidney for a profit if she could because to be REALLY GOOD as an agent or a broker requires you to have no conscience or soul.

When did you feel like a complete savage?

Remember the 50-year-old man who gave his number to my sister at our family restaurant?

Well, he came back last night with a huge smirk on his face.

He entered the premise with his friend. They were both semi-drunk. Here is the conversation,

His friend: “Is this the girl you gave your number to?”

Him: “Shhh.”

I kept a straight face. My sister was clearly uncomfortable and wanted me to take over.

As I was taking his order, I caught him staring my sister up and down. I was so angry and disgusted. That’s my baby sister he was looking at lustfully.

I looked at him and said,

Me: “What do you think you’re doing?”

Him: “…uh…nothing. *Looks away*.

Me: “You know that’s my sister you’re looking at, right?”

Him: “I…uh…was looking at the chef…”*looks away*

Me: “Well, she’s 15-years-old and you’re incredibly inappropriate. She’s underage.”

He was in shock (or so it seemed).

He ordered his food and went to sit down.

He then said:

“My daughter is 15”, to which I replied, “how would you like it if a grown man stared at your daughter in the same manner?”

He walked out.

His friend looked at me in amazement.

“I’m proud of you for protecting your sister. We need more women like you in this world. My daughter is 31 and if a man did the same to her, I would be angry.”

I felt like a complete savage. He deserved it.

Leave American schools and go private or international

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vX9gR-VA92Q?feature=share

What is the best random conversation you overheard?

Maggy is one of the smoking moms, and she is not happy. She has been morbidly obese for most of her adult life, but now her problem was bound to be solved. It hasn’t.

“The doctor lied. It isn’t better at all.“

The smoking moms bring their kids to school, or wait at the gates for them, while smoking. It’s their every right, but it also is a little weird to see young moms smoking so nearby a school.

Maggy had a gastric bypass — a type of weight-loss surgery that involves creating a small pouch from the stomach and connecting the newly created pouch directly to the small intestine. It essentially shrinks the stomach, so that you should eat less. Should.

But Maggy did not really listen to the doctor lady, because the doctor lady clearly said to Maggy that her diet should be (heavily) adapted in order for the operation to be a success. Should.

She explains it to her smoking mom friends while she is smoking —

“My stomach really hurts when I eat a little snack like a burger or so. And I am gaining a lot of weight again. The doctor really lied to me.”

But the doctor did not lie at all — Maggy did not listen.

And she should have.

Should.

Can you join a cult without knowing it? Is The Latitude a game, business or something else?

https://youtu.be/s6JjHAnCWqU

What are uneducated but highly intelligent people like?

Some twenty five years ago, while I was still in college,we had a maid . Let’s call her Lakshmi.

She came to plains from a village in mountains with her alcoholic husband. After her first daughter was born she started working.

She used to bring her daughter along, nurse her in between the chores and started her life.

After three years one more daughter came along and she decided two were enough . Here is what she did

Got a tubectomy done to avoid more kids.

She enrolled both of her daughters in a small school.

Since she could not afford costly food like almonds etc in winter , she used to feed her kids eggs in the breakfast.

Her daughters were always neat and clean.

She started depositing a tiny amount each month in the bank.

Slowly she bought the basics like a fridge, washing machine and a TV.

As time passed she bought a little house too on instalments and worked extremely hard to repay the loans she took from bank and a few people.

She realized that her elder daughter was a bit slow in learning so after high school she enrolled her for a beautician’s course. That girl now is happily married and has her own modest parlour.

The younger one was highly intelligent and won many scholarships. A family friend,who had their own engineering college, gave admission to her daughter in engineering and she is a software engineer today working in Chennai.

All her life Lakshmi remained completely honest and during my wedding, she even had the keys to my mother’s almirah.

Lakshmi was an honest,hard working woman who had dreams for her girls,the wisdom to plan and had the perseverance to execute those plans .

Lakshmi has never been to school and could barely write her name, but she was intelligent enough to understand what to do and how.

Intelligence has nothing do with the college, the degrees and the social strata of a person.

It shines in the direction our life takes. It is visible in each and every decision we take.

What is the best comeback you used on someone?

Not me but my dad. My dad has this quick wit about him, he can come up with the snappiest comebacks, silliest one liners, and dad jokes I’ve ever heard. If my dad is tired he’s even funnier (don’t tell him I admitted this). At my uncle’s house with the hypocritical aunt, she made a comment about dad and I. A little context, my cousins (she has two boys and 1 girl) absolutely adore my dad. He would take then camping and hiking when we were growing up. He would swim with them at the lake, help them work on their cars (well the boys have cars, the girl doesn’t want one yet). And of course I’m first in dad’s life so I was right there with them the whole time. They were having a summer cookout on this day so the cousins are up and down, in and out. One boy wanted to show me something about his game system, other boy wanted to show me something he did to his car, and the girl was telling me about some funny videos. When I would stop by dad, he would kiss my hand and tell me to have fun, smiling the whole time. My aunt remarks something about treating his daughter so grossly affectionate. Dad says “Yeah it’s hard trying to please a beautiful woman all the time but somebody’s has to learn how.” His brother choked on his soda and had to go in the house. Girl cousin was laughing hysterically but looking at her phone (it was loading a video but not playing yet).

When your cat is a trained assassin (John Wick)

Funny.

https://youtu.be/Dqo4cWsJmrw

What are some things that people who live in places with brutally low temperatures know, that the rest of us don’t?

I lived in a remote Siberian town throughout their winter and the temperatures remained below -20C for most of the winter, and on very very cold days, it would go below -40C as well.

Layers upon Layers. If you can put in a thin shirt underneath your fur coats, you put it in.
There are no veggies to eat. There are no fruits. Those who can afford them, are usually the oligarchs who come to visit their mansions for fun. Canada might have, because it has world’s largest food producer just next to it. Fatty meats, milks fats, milk, and some roots and tubers. Some people also preserve and pickle all kinds of veggies during the summer.
Your lungs burn. The air is so dry, every breath you breathe out, will push water out of your body. The lungs can become dry, and then every breath burns. You might want to replenish the fluids in your body, even when you’re inside. Light alcohol, helps. Of course, then the legendary vodka. But once the alcohol effects are dimmed, you feel more cold. So you need to keep drinking.
In remote areas, nights can get dark. People will not have windows, and if anyone has they will fill it up with winters covers, which basically means putting several wood boards. Nights are dark. Pitch black dark if you get even about 100 meters away from the civilization. You can’t see your own hands or body. You need to have sufficient lighting. The more batteries the better.
You don’t have diesel stuff at all, unless it is specially designed. You should have gas generators, gas cars, gas everything. Diesel will gell up, diesel engines can’t start combustion, or there must be specially designed engines, which have spark plugs. You don’t shut off the car unless you get everything you need. You will sometimes need to heat up the car before starting it, because it just won’t start.
Meat. You don’t waste any body parts. You will clean off the large intestine of all the poop and eat whatever part is edible. You eat the heart, brains, and even break up the bones sometimes for the marrow. Of a horse or a reindeer out of a 100kg carcass, 20kg is the highest amount that should go waste. The skins, are used. The most expert folks will be able to reduce the wastage 16–18kg. The amazing thing is, eating up all the body parts, ensures that people are never ever deficient in any macro or micro nutrients.
Metal is no good. If the temperatures drop, the metal can become brittle. It doesn’t conserve heat. It conducts heat too well. Wood. Wood. Wood. Your body will stick to metal. Wood is the way to go. You can’ burn metal. You can burn wood.
You don’t keep fuel in your home. Fuel means wood. Butane and propane are cute. But you don’t have enough to stock up for the entire winter. Once winter starts, you can’t get more either. You can always go into the forests and get more wood.
You learn to kill and clean a carcass. Really. Deer, horse, and whatever animal you come across.
You don’t want to sweat. So you don’t heat your home too much. You sweat, you die. You want to work hard, okay. BUT DO NOT SWEAT. SWEAT = DEATH. Sweat will go into your clothes. Water is a good conductor of heat, way better than air. You will get cold. If you sweat too much, your clothes will freeze and stick to your skin. The sweat ice will kill you in a few hours. If you sweat, wipe it off, and if you’re in home and you sweat, open the door to cool down the home. YOU DON’T SWEAT.
Home. Home does not mean a 3 bedroom American suburban house. It means a 300 sqft wood cabin. A single room, with some walls strategically placed around the door, to not let the cold air in. More rooms means more wood to heat everything. Wood is not infinite. You need to go into the forest with a few people, where 60% will keep a watch, 20% will cut, and the remaining 20% will do the odd jobs and gathering, cutting up of the trees felled. You can also sweat while cutting wood. YOU DON’T want to go for wood in middle of the winter. So, a single room cabin.
Sex isn’t taboo. It’s the same as America was during the period of settlers moving west. You will probably see your parents going at it. No worries, you’re not the weird one. The weird one is who’s not seen sex.
There aren’t any jobs. Survival is your job.
If you’re from a city like Miami, or from California, where the temperature doesn’t go below 0C, and it’s hot and humid, you can’t live here, without climate acclimatization. You need to move north, slowly, spend a winter and then move further north. You can die from the cold, if you aren’t acclimatized.

That is the gist of what I was able to learn about living in extreme cold.

What’s one thing you know now that you wished you knew earlier?

In 2022, when I went to Switzerland, I met a girl at a hostel[1].

During a long conversation, she told me that she preferred to travel on low-cost airlines across Europe, and it was cheaper than trains.

Like, she had spent only 15-Euros to travel from Berlin to Bern the previous day. The only requirement was that you luggage should be carry-on, the one that fit under the seat.

In 2023, when I went to Europe, I wanted to travel to Iceland from Italy. I found one low-cost airline, Wizz Air. The ticket cost 100 euros. I booked it immediately.

I kept getting notifications for e-check-in. Since, I never had the habit of doing e-check-in and always preferred to do it at the counter, I ignored them.

On the day of my trip, I went to the check-in counter. The lady checked all my details, luggage, and passport and said, ‘Everything is okay, but why haven’t you checked in already?’

‘Oh, I thought of doing it here.’

‘You have to pay printing charges if you want us to issue you boarding pass.’

‘Ah that’s okay. How much would it be?’

‘Four five.’

‘Four to five Euros.’ Quite expensive for a printout, but it is okay, I thought.

‘No. Forty-five Euros.’

I was aghast.

I quickly checked my phone to do web-check-in. But I couldn’t do it since it was 2 hr 30 min before the flight departure.

She noticed it. ‘Okay, let me see if I can do it from my side.’

Lady luck, I thought.

But

She sighed. ‘Sorry, sir, I am also not able to do it. The web check-in closes 3 hours before the flight departure. So you have to.. ‘

Thus, I paid 45 Euros to get the boarding pass for a 100-Euro flight.

‘Why you didn’t do it earlier, sir?’ she asked while handing over the pass.

‘In Singapore and India, there are no charges for printing boarding passes at the counter.’

‘It is different when it comes to low-cost airlines, sir. Nothing is free.’

That day, I learnt an expensive lesson.

Footnotes

[1]Srinath Nalluri’s answer to What’s your most unforgettable travel experience?

Girls be feminine

Don’t go masculine.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8ly-O_u0Lno?feature=share

What are some life realizations that are made after turning 21?

You have no skills.

You’re about to graduate college.

Harsh.

You read job descriptions, but they all require you to know a tool such as Excel or another software program.

I can hear you thinking.

It doesn’t make sense.

Wasn’t college supposed to help me land a good job? I didn’t learn any of these things.

You start sweating.

You look behind you. You can almost see the fraternity parties and drunken nights fading into oblivion.

There’s nothing on your resume except a degree and involvement in college organizations.

No one’s hiring college graduates without skills. That means you.

You feel alone on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean.

I don’t even know what I like.

Wasn’t I supposed to learn what I enjoy doing in college?

Maybe I should just apply to every job I see online.

Even with all these doubts, you must move forward. You send out hundreds of applications before someone considers your resume. They ask you if you’re willing to start as an unpaid marketing intern.

You think about it. It’s been three months since graduating, and you haven’t taken a serious step towards a meaningful career. When people ask you where you work, you hesitate to tell them about your two waitressing gigs helping you pay off student loans.

Maybe you can balance waitressing and your internship. Maybe not.

You feel pressured from your parents to move out of the house. In turn, you ask the potential employer if there’s an opportunity to turn this unpaid marketing internship into a full-time position.

He says, “Yes.”

You work extra hours at your unpaid internship for four months before asking for pay.

“Hey, I was wondering if you have a chance to talk about a potential pay raise?”

“Sorry. We’re just not ready to bring you on full time.”

You cry after work.

You believed your employer. You trusted them.

It’s been seven months since you graduated college and you’re still waiting tables. Your parents sometimes make remarks about you acting lazy even though you work eighty-hour weeks. You know they don’t mean it. They thought once you graduated they’d finally have time to themselves.

You quit your unpaid internship.

You apply to different job positions. The only phone call you get back is for a receptionist position at a salon. It’s better than saying you work as a waitress, but it pays less. You feel a strong need for validation, so you take the job.

It’s at this point you ask the right questions:

Who will teach me how to make more money?

Who will teach me how to become happy?

From here, you research on the internet those who built themselves up from scratch. At first, you follow the wrong people and waste money on their $199 courses and scams.

After you get burned, you dig deeper and discover people making a real difference. You read what they’ve written and study their habits. Then, you implement their advice.

In time, you discover the paths out of the jail cell that college left you in.

It takes time. Many people never find a way out.

Don’t give up. With enough persistence, you can accomplish your goals.

I know what it’s like. I worked at nine startups before getting hired to head marketing at a 50-million-dollar venture capital firm.

Keep believing. You’ll find great opportunities.

Threat of extinction

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/alOI3MTVzFk?feature=share

My 23-year-old son got a DUI last night and is asking for me to help financially. I can but I want him to learn his lesson. What should I do?

I don’t know your son or his sense of responsibility but I can tell you what happened to me. I was 40 when I got a DUI. I had never been in any trouble before and haven’t since. I will spare you all the circumstances to cut to your question. My best friend bailed me out of jail but had to be paid back immediately. My dad drove to my town the next day and replaced the money. He said he had made that bad choice many times when he was younger and felt I was paying for his sin. I lost my license for 6 months. My son (who was very anti-alcohol for some unknown reason – none of the adults in his life had been drinkers, including myself) rearranged his schedule to drive me. He was 16. His response was that I had spent his whole life rearranging his schedule around me, it wouldn’t hurt him to do the same for me when I needed it. I told my boss. He told me not to drive the company car while I didn’t have a license – he picked me up for work a couple of times when I was in a bind. He also did not report the transgression up the chain. He said he wasn’t sure what the response would be and he didn’t want to risk it. He said not to worry. I had properly reported. Not going further would be on him. I’m saying all that to say this. The worst experience of my life served to show me how blessed I really am even when things are rough. I did not take advantage. I was not a drunk. I had a bad day and made a poor choice. I’m not excusing that. I am so grateful that it was a ticket and not an accident. But the shame I feel about that awful occasion is softened by the love I had around me.

Tattoo regret

https://youtu.be/Tkaks4WQypQ

What was the biggest scandal at your high school?

The year before I started at my high school the administration allowed a writer to go undercover and pose as a student so that he could gather material for a book.

He wanted to write a sex, drugs, and hard partying expose full of scandalous true stories about the lives of real American teenagers.

The administration thought that he would be their ‘inside man’, and he would feed them all of the dirt about what the kids were up to.

It didn’t work.

Partially because my high school was really quite tame. All of the scandalousness the writer was hoping for and the admins suspected really only existed in their own fantasy lives. Partially because none of the kids were fooled, turns out the difference between an actual teenager and a grown man wearing makeup is quite evident despite what 21 Jump Street would have you believe. And partially because as word got out about what was going on there was a massive backlash from the parents.

Turns out that allowing a grown man unrestricted access to a student body of underage kids so that he can try to get invited to their parties and snoop on their sex lives is REALLY BAD.

The writer had to flee the scene in disgrace, the principal resigned in disgrace. There was just in general a huge amount of disgrace.

Women

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7nNGqBTuJhA?feature=share

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

Don’t know about how one in a million, but….

It was the winter of 1978 and I was bumming around Europe going to the train stations at night and using my rail pass instead of paying for a hotel room. This made for some strange side trips.
Anyway, I had planned on arriving at Heathrow with no money and flying back home to California.

But the fates decided differently. There was a bad snow storm and some sort of a strike that shut things down for days. Did I mention that I was flying standby? As a side note the Iranian Revolution had driven out the Shah and the airport was packed with Iranians trying to get home.

Stuck in Heathrow with no money and no plane seat in sight. I decided to go into the city and see if I couldn’t rustle up some luck.

So I’m walking down the street and come across a bakery. Ah! Says I, day old bread might be cheap or even free.

I go in the shop and tell the girl behind the counter my story. She looks at me for a long second and says, “I know you, I’m Susan XX, we were in elementary school together.” Small world. Improbable is appropriate, I think.
Got something to eat and a great memory.
Those days and nights in Heathrow still make me laugh at all the weird, happy, lucky things that happened there.

American teenage girls are being hurt

Me too, and woke is toxic.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/v8ccG5k77uE?feature=share

What was the cruelest rumor you’ve heard about another kid when you were in school?

In grade school there was a boy in our class who always smelled a bit funny. Kids were really cruel about that. They talked about “Danny’s” fleas, how he peed his pants and other really cruel things. To me he did not smell “bad” he smelled of something but it was not that strong.I do not have a strong sense of smell.

In first grade at Valentine’s Day we all made Valentines boxes and made cards to put in each other’s boxes. My mother told me that every child in my class should get a Valentine from me. I thought it was an odd thing to say because that was my plan. I thought it was everyones plan. On Valentines Day were got to open our boxes and see our cards. Some kids brought cookies and we had Kool Aid for our little party that day. Danny came to me afterwards and thanked me for the card I gave him. It turned out it was the only card he had in his box. This I just could not understand.

When Danny got a little older and in 5th grade he made a deal with the boys PE teacher that he and his little brother would come to school early twice a week and do the Gym laundry of towels and would include their clothing in the laundry. Maybe this originally came from the teacher. The smell was gone. Time went by and the teasing about the smell of Danny and is brother ended.

Danny was elected as president of our Graduating class.

China is a good friend to Africa

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-v4_gEtzodU?feature=share

How did your marriage end?

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

After well over a year of child support and custody battles, allegations and counter allegations it was over. The last court visit was upon me.

Over a year ago we talked and said we would just go through arbitration. We agreed that would be best for all parties concerned. No sense in fighting, she didn’t want custody of the kids so the house would be mine. She could have anything in the house she wanted. Why drag ourselves through the muck? It isn’t like we had hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets.

I still remember that day. My oldest son was an emotional wreck, the youngest was just aloof, not saying much at all. The table we sat at while we had this last civil conversation as married people is still here, about 5 feet from me as I type this.

It was in fact the calmest conversation we had with each other in the months since she abruptly left to go live with her coworker and his friends.

After she had left we fought a lot. Not just because she left but because of how she left. We lived an old fashioned kind of marriage. We had a joint bank account and everything I made was deposited to it. She was supposed to take care of the bills.

Once she started her affair she stopped paying bills and I was clueless. I found out after she left that every utility bill was at least two or three months behind. A week after she left I got a foreclosure notice on the house, she hadn’t paid that in four months. As ridiculous as it sounds I had a 3K plus water bill. I still cant figure that one out. That has to be two years of water bills. If I miss two months they threaten to shut it off.

What she did with all the money I will never know. My brother claims he thought at the time she was doing drugs. Honestly though? Its a mystery that will never be solved.

It all seems so surreal now. But that one day at least a little sanity seemed like it would prevail.

I called the court that Monday and said I was OK for arbitration, I waited for the call back telling me that she had also called and the schedule of appointments we would have to make.

One day waiting turned in to two, then three, then four. On Friday I got a call from a lawyer saying he was representing my then wife and that she was suing for divorce.

I tried to call her to find out what was going on. She didn’t answer.

I got a lawyer. After a couple court dates the lawyer informed me that I would probably have to give her a portion of my pension. Now I understood why she did the abrupt turn around. Spousal support can go on forever if the receiving party doesn’t remarry and since the guy she ran off with was married that was not going to happen.

I told my lawyer that I was not giving her a chunk of my pension for the rest of her life as a reward for screwing me and the kids over. He calmly told me that this was common in NY state for marriages over 15 years and their was little he could do.

I fired him the next day and represented myself.

The court cases went on for about a year, she fought me on everything from custody of the kids that she didn’t want to some generic Kmart pictures that had been in the attic for years. Small arguments we had had years before suddenly became portrayed as huge shouting matches with always just a hint that I may have been abusive.

If you have ever watched any of the reality TV divorce shows it is pretty funny watching people tell obvious lies about each other. It is not as funny when it happens to you and it is real life.

When it started to be obvious things were not going her way the hint was removed with actual allegations. I didn’t just argue with her, now I threw her across a room and jumped on her chest with both feet. It was so ridiculous the judge stopped her, admonished her lawyer and told her no further unproven allegations would be admitted.

I didn’t realize it then but that did cause some damage, not in the way she probably expected though. A month after everything was over my oldest came upon the divorce papers in the house. I came home one day to him sitting on the couch looking as solemn as I have ever seen him. He asked me, “Dad have you ever hit Mom?”

That hurt more then anything she had said about me in court. The image of my own son looking at me like I was a monster will be forever seared in to my brain.

You asked how did it end? My ex sued for divorce, I counter sued. After all the drama the end was pretty anti-climatic.

The judge read the charges for my ex one by one and denied them one by one. She then read my counter-suit arguments one by one and approved them one by one.

All while this was going on my ex just stared at me while I focused my attention on the Judge. We were now two people that had become strangers in a room full of strangers. There were no tears, this had been going on for over a year and half and all the tears had dried up long ago.

That was it, we walked out and headed to the elevator. When she realized she might have to ride down with me she went in to the bathroom to wait until I was gone.

I rode the elevator down, walked outside and stopped at a hotdog stand. After the guy gave me my purchase I asked him what the date was.

It was one week from what would have been our twentieth anniversary.

That is how it ended.

Bakaliaros Pastos Me Kremmithia

Ingredients

3 pounds salt cod
Water as needed
Flour for dipping
1 1/2 cups oil
2 pounds onions, sliced
2 pounds tomatoes, peeled and strained
Pepper to taste

Instructions

Cut cod into small pieces. Skin it, and soak overnight in enough water to cover, changing 2 or 3 times. Remove from water; take out bones; rinse and dry fish well. Dip in flour, shaking off excess, and fry in hot oil until golden.
In same oil, sauté onions until they are soft but not brown. Put them in wide pot, together with oil from the pan and any of the 1 1/2 cups oil not used in the frying. Add tomatoes and pepper. Simmer for 30 – 45 minutes or until onions dissolve.
Add codfish (and /1/2 cup hot water if needed), cover the pot, and cook for 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and only the oil remains.

Yield: 6 servings

The climb worth taking

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j-J4DalBSMU?feature=share

Is it true that the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan only used .001kg of material to level a city? The weight of a butterfly I was told.

Yes and no.

The Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighed 4.5 metric tons (9,000 pounds). This included the casing, aero-finns, fusing and safing equipment and batteries and particularly a large mass of conventional explosives.

The explosives were used to drive together a large, neutron-reflecting tamper and a critical mass of uranium weighing 64 kg (141 lbs). Naturally occurring uranium is almost entirely u-238, which is less prone to fission through thermal neutron capture, the type of neutrons produced in a nuclear explosion, so the bomb core had been enriched to an average of 80% U-235, and almost all the energy came from the U-235.

Of the 51 kg (113 lbs) of U-235, only about 1%, or 0.5 kg (1.1 lbs) underwent fission, releasing very roughly 64 trillion joules of energy, about the same as 15,000 tons of TNT, or ten times the explosive power of the RAF’s famous thousand-plane raid on Cologne in May of 1945, in which 44 aircraft and hundreds of air crew were lost.

But Little Boy was not filled with anti-matter. Fission only converts a tiny fraction of an atom’s mass into energy, and in Little Boy, that added up to a grand total of roughly 7 grams (0.007 kg).

That, in fact, is the weight of about 10 large butterflies or 20 more typical ones, or 7 paperclips.

Addendum:

The bulk of the uranium that did not fission simply remained uranium, was turned to dust or molten specs, was carried up with the mushroom cloud, and settled out over the Pacific.

If you’re like too many people, that probably scares you, but it absolutely shouldn’t.

Earth’s oceans contain roughly 4.5 billion metric tons of naturally occurring uranium, enough that any randomly collected liter contains about 3.3 micrograms. If you haven’t gone to sleep thus far worrying about Earth’s radioactive oceans, there’s no reason to start. The whole planet is radioactive and always has been, and your bones are considerably more radioactive than seawater—and that’s from natural sources.

Radiation is not magic death-cooties.

Who is the most shameless person you have ever seen?

In 1983, Stephen Phillips was convicted of a string of rape/burglaries in the Dallas area. He was subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Phillips was married at the time to a woman named Traci. Phillips claims she rarely visited him, and she divorced him whilst he was still in prison.

In 2008, having served 25 years of his sentence, Phillips was exonerated by DNA evidence, it turns out the real perpetrator was a convicted sex offender who had since died.

Phillips was released and eventually secured a $6M settlement in compensation for the terrible miscarriage of justice he had suffered, he attempted to restart his life, presumably hoping to never see the inside of a courtroom again, but that wasn’t to be.

Traci, his ex-wife, read about his settlement in the papers, and decided to take him to court claiming she should get a slice of his compensation as part of her divorce settlement, despite the fact that the divorce happened decades prior and she had long since moved on with her life and remarried.

After a protracted legal battle, during which time Phillips also had to fight off a spurious $2M claim from his former lawyer, the court eventually threw it all out in 2014 and Phillips was finally allowed to attempt to enjoy what remained of his life without the involvement of the legal system for the first time in 31 straight years.

It takes a certain kind of person to look at the compensation someone gets for spending a quarter of a century behind bars for a serious sexual assault that they did not commit and think they will try and take a chunk of that for no good reason other than greed.

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

One day at the end of class, Miss Thomas asked her fourth graders to go home and come up with a true story with a moral. The following day she asked for the first volunteer to tell their story. Little Billy raised his hand. “My dad owns a farm and every Sunday we load the chicken eggs on the truck and drive into town to sell them at the market. Well, one Sunday we hit a big bump and all the eggs flew out of the basket and onto the road.” When asked by Miss Thomas for the moral of the story, Billy replied, “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.” “Very good, Billy.” Little Suzy went next and kept with the poultry theme. “My dad owns a farm too. Every weekend we take the chicken eggs and put them in the incubator. Last weekend only eight of the 12 eggs hatched.” Again, Miss Thomas asked for the moral of the story. Suzy replied, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” “Good moral, Suzy.” Next up was little Jimmy. “My Aunt Helen was a fighter pilot, and her plane was shot down over enemy territory. She jumped out before it crashed but could only take a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. On the way down, she drank the whiskey. Then she landed right in the middle of about 100 enemy soldiers. She shot and killed about 70 with her machine gun, but then she ran out of ammo. So she pulled out her machete and killed over 20 more. Then the blade on the machete broke, so she had to kill the remaining combatants with her bare hands. Luckily she was rescued soon after.” A shocked Miss Thomas paused and said, “Good Lord, Jimmy, what’s the moral for that?!” Jimmy replied, “Don’t fuck with Aunt Helen when she’s been drinking.”

Argentina really fucked up

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SJE_qa3WRsY?feature=share

The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-022

Last week’s post on Moon of Alabama:

Ukraine:

January 15 – Former Presidential Spokesman Arestovich Speaks Of Peace And A Multinational Ukraine
January 17 – Ukraine Copies Russia’s ‘Active Defense’ Tactic
January 18 – Ukraine – Iovi Snubs Bovi – Huffy Bovi Moos Back
Related:
– Robert Fico: the Strategy of the West to the Ukraine simply does not work (in Czech) – Pravda.sk
– The War in Ukraine Has Become a Peripheral Concern for the West – Carnegie Endowment
– Former Nato chief: ‘If Ukraine loses, our enemies will decide the world order’ – Telegraph
– A Plea to End the War in Ukraine – Sonar 21

Middle East:

January 16 – War On Gaza – Iran Demonstrates Its Means Of Self-defense
January 18 – Mainstream Media Lies About U.S. Wars In Iraq Wear On
January 19 – U.S. President Engages In Therapeutic Killing Of Yemeni Children
Related:
– Redesignating the Houthis a terrorist group is not a bad policy: it is no policy at all – Chatham House
– How Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea threaten Israel’s economy – Washington Post
– Saudi says escalating tensions amid Houthi attacks and US strikes are dangerous – Reuters
– As Houthis vow to fight on, U.S. prepares for sustained campaign – Washington Post
– How the US created the “Iran-backed Houthis” – Nonzero

– EU’s top diplomat accuses Israel of funding Hamas – Politico.eu
– Famine expert Alex de Waal on Israel’s starvation of Gaza – New Humanitarian
– Israeli HQ ordered troops to shoot Israeli captives on 7 October – Electronic Intifada
– Netanyahu’s Gamble: Is Israel preparing for another war? (video) – New Rules with Alastair Crooke

– Divisions Emerging in Israel Over Gaza War – New York Times
– Biden: Two-state solution still possible with Netanyahu in power – Politico
– Israel’s Netanyahu told US he opposes Palestinian state after Gaza war – AL Monitor

Source – bigger

—
Other issues:

Empire:

Michael Hudson on Russia, Iran and the Red Sea: NATO’s War Economy Collapses (transcript) – Danny Haiphong / Naked Capitalism
Slaying the Dragon: The World Stands on the Brink of Global War – Alexander Dugin / Arktos Journal
The Crooked Timber of Democratic Peace and the End of History, Part 1 of 2 – Gordon Hahn
Emmanuel Todd: death of Protestantism explains Western decline – Unherd
Pepe Escobar: How the West Was Defeated – Sputnik
The American Crack-Up – Unherd

> Americans now find themselves living in an oligarchy administered day-to-day by institutional bureaucracies that move in lock-step with each other, enforcing a set of ideologically-driven top-down imperatives that seemingly change from week-to-week and cover nearly every subject under the sun. <

China:

Full text: Speech by Chinese premier Li Qiang at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024– News.cn
Israel-Gaza war: Palestinian envoy to UN thanks China, ‘a true friend’, for its support – SCMP
State Department Lawyers Concluded Insufficient Evidence to Prove Genocide in China (2021) – Foreign Policy
Taiwan’s Doubts About America Are Growing. That Could Be Dangerous. – New York Times

Russia:

How Russia Won the Sanctions War With the West | Opinion – Newsweek
Grabbing $300 billion of Russian assets is no panacea, West cautions in Davos – MSN
Russia Rules Out Nuclear Arms Talks With US Over Ukraine Support – Bloomber
An anniversary West would rather forget – Indian Punchline

Europe:

US rethinks gas exports, spooking Europe – Politico
Orbán Outfoxes the EU in Nationalism vs. Technocracy Fight – Naked Capitalism
Chartbook 261 A failed project of state-capitalist relations? The Eurozone at 25 (part 2) – Adam Tooze

Use as open (not related to Ukraine or Palestine) thread …

Posted by b on January 21, 2024 at 13:34 UTC | Permalink

What was the craziest defense in court that actually worked?

An attorney friend of mine told me this story.

He represented a guy on a breaking and entering charge. When the police arrived at the store, the silent alarm was still sounding and the defendant was standing at the end of one of the aisles (it was a grocery store). He was arrested without incident and didn’t make any statements while in custody.

The defendant was about 40 and had a long record of burglaries. However, he hadn’t had one for about ten years. Here was the defense presented at trial:

The defendant testified that he was a master thief. He explained that he knew the store had a silent alarm because he was very familiar with those systems. He explained in detail how he could have disarmed it had he chosen to do so.

He had entered through the roof. There was some sort of service door that he accessed by climbing a drain pipe. When asked, he explained that he didn’t enter through a ground level door or window because it would have required him to break something. The service door was secured by a simple padlock. He had years of experience defeating those locks and explained in detail how he could do so.

So why was he in the store in the middle of the night?

He had been in the store a day earlier and noticed how badly the products were arranged on the shelves. The end caps were particularly unattractive. He needed a job but didn’t think he could get hired by the store via the standard process because of his record. So, he decided to break in and rearrange some of the shelves to demonstrate to the owner how he could be a beneficial employee. The police simply arrived faster than he had anticipated. Because he was such an experienced thief, he said he could have easily broken into the store and looted it without getting caught. How could he prove he was a successful thief? That’s why he didn’t have a record over the preceding 10 years. He had never gotten caught.

So, his defense was that if he was really planning on stealing from the store, he would have never gotten caught. He was there as part of an unorthodox attempt to get a job BC he wanted to stop being a criminal.

The jury found him not guilty.

Economic Update: As The Empire Crumbles

A number of signs, and lots of evidence.

https://youtu.be/jklp36Ukhfo

Fried up rude

People can be crude. People can be rude. And certain people can be childish assholes. We all know this.

When I was unemployed, I managed to find work as a french fry flipper at a fast food restaurant. And so I endured this low pay, thankless job.

But… as a man, you do what you need to do.

Anyways there was this cashier that had a fun time making my life Hell. You see, every time someone places an order of French fries, she was to yell it out. But for fun, and being a real asshole, she called for fries at every order, and I, dutifully doing my job, would make them.

The situation arose that only two fries (boxes) were ordered, but I had made 64 boxes.

Got me in trouble, and I got my pay docked because of that.

Oh yeah…

I wizened up over that, and and other stories ensued. But the point that I am making here is that if you have a co-worker doing this kind of shit, can you image what they would do later on when they are better experienced and more capable.

Be careful out there everyone…

Don’t get fried.

Today…

My coworker decided to quit as soon as I became his boss. But I want him to stay. What should I do?

Replace him.

I spent over 30 years as head of the HR function at two very successful biopharma companies and as a co-founder of a SaaS company.

After I’d had enough experience to form an opinion, I went on a campaign to get a consensus from the SVP of administration and the CEO of the S&P 500 company where I spent most of my career: we accept all resignations.

Some of the reasons:

Countering a departing employee is news that gets around and becomes assimilated into the culture. Far better to pay at your intended percentile range in the market (25th-50th? 50th-75th?) and let people leave. It avoids creating an incentive for people to resign as a form of manufactured crisis where the company is known to cave.
Managers need to know how to replace a person quickly and effectively or to redistribute and redesign the work pattern to reduce the criticality of that person. They shouldn’t allow operations to become too dependent on a single, critical employee without knowing what to do if that employee resigns.
People at work sometimes act like the “Meister” system of guildsmen of the Middle Ages, who literally covered their workbenches at night with cabinetry designed to conceal how they did things. Even the great Mercedes-Benz suffered from this problem. They didn’t know it or face it until they got massive competition from good-enough luxo cars from Japan in the ’90s. In response, M-B had to understand its operations in a different way. They discovered that 60% (!) of cars on their assembly lines went backward for reworks. It was costing them a ton. All a meister at the end of the line had to do was say “send it back and repaint the hood.” Didn’t have to explain why. That was evidence that M-B didn’t really understand or own its standards and criteria. Some mis-motivated employees had created fiefdoms where secrets were power.

You’re a new boss. This all may be just an organizational theory to you. Explain to your boss that you don’t think it’s good for the company or the operations to allow this person to be treated as indispensable. Ask for your manager’s participation in the response. Then, accept the resignation. You may respond with a part-for-part replacement or you may reorganize the work at that person’s workstation. It may be some combination.

Whatever it is, by the time you solve the problem you will understand that job a hell of a lot better than you ever did before. You won’t be as paralyzed when the next person decides to resign. And, you’ll probably be motivated to understand and better document your work processes.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of the military-industrial complex?

It benefits some 0.01% of America and hurt 99.99% of Americans. But unfortunately the 0.01% owns America!

They choose the candidates for you 99.99% of Americans to pick! Heads they win, tails they don’t lose! When you have a good President like Kennedy the 0.01% Will assassinate him!

How can spending more on military than the next 20 nations be good for the U.S.? How can you sell this to the 1 million homeless in the U.S. or the 35% of Americans who will die of illness because the cannot afford health insurance?

China DESTROY Europe BRANDY And WINE In Retaliation Sanction

What’s a red flag that you ignored in a significant other, only to realize it was a big deal later?

For me I was getting to know a woman who treated me incredibly, she was beautiful, a great listener who would ask me lots of questions. She was sexy and great around other people and all my friends loved her. The problem was she had no other friends. She would talk about a friend here and there but I never met any of this people and she was never doing anything social outside our relationship. Basically every decision (what movie we went to, what restaurant we eat at came down to what I decide. It concerned me of course but she was naturally submissive and the dating world was so awful that it was easy to just ignore it. BTW she was one of the smartest person I had ever met.

We moved in with each other and slowly things started to unravel. Took a couple years for me to figure out she suffered from something that I knew nothing about. She suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder. It was a nightmare getting out of it.

What’s a seemingly simple task that is the bane of your existence?

I hate talking on the phone so much.

Ironically, phones are no longer for talking for me. That’s the last thing I want to do on them.

It’s amazing that so many people (cough*women*cough) can talk for hours and hours on the phone.

I try to call my parents once a week at least. We talk for 10-20 minutes typically. That’s about the extent of my calling.

I had a girlfriend who literally talked for 2-3 hours on the phone every single day.

And unfortunately, if her roster of friends were unavailable, I’d be the recipient of those hours of talkage.

I’d sit at my computer on auto-pilot, “Uho….oh wow….that’s crazy.”, as she told me this long story about the bad customer service experience she had that was basically her fault to begin with.

I’d install a new solid state drive in my computer as she debated out loud with herself about the proper wedding present for wedding #400 that year.

I remember lying on my bed, putting the phone on speaker mode and setting it on my chest.

I’d stare at the ceiling and wonder weird things, like if there was another duplicate galaxy out there, with a sun, an earth, a moon, and a Sean lying on a bed at that exact same moment, with a girlfriend telling him a longwinded story about how a girl named Becky said “Hi” in this really rude way the day before.

Two rude Beckies.

Man.

Hopefully, she never reads this.

What will happen if DPP wins in the Taiwan Presidential Election 2024? Will China then invade?

Luckily the Middle East Conflict has caused a major change in plans for the West for at least another year

The Plan was to bleed out Russia, weaken Russia & focus on Taiwan by 2024 May or June and push China into an aggressive action

Instead Russia is now stronger than ever and Putin isn’t going anywhere so Ukraine has been abandoned and will be fully abandoned in the next few months after a last aid package of maybe $ 30 Billion being approved after a lot of arm twisting

Yet the Middle East will be a considerable strain for the US whose production is by no means what it used to be

It would be a weakened US who would be facing China

Now Taiwanese aren’t Ukranians

No way will they choose to die stupidly

No way will they sacrifice their own lives

Same with the Japanese

So Taiwan WILL EXPECT the UNITED STATES TO DIRECTLY FIGHT CHINA. It means US Troops and US Body bags

That will be WORLD WAR III and both have NUKES

Hard to believe Trump or the Pentagon would prefer a World War with China

Trump wants to return US to it’s former greatness

A Possible Nuclear war would be the worst outcome for such a vision

If Trump can be assured that US will remain Number 1 for his term and possibly a decade or so after , if US can reduce its debt, China supports the US in restructuring Debt and reduce the deficit

HE MAY ACTUALLY ALLOW CHINA TO INVADE TAIWAN OR OPENLY DECLARE THAT IF TAIWAN DOESN’T RESPECT STATUS QUO, THEN US WONT INTERFERE IF CHINA RETALIATES

So a very interesting development awaits us all.

As a dying person, what is your advice to the living?

Do everything you want to do. Don’t take the little things for granted. Life is short…

I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 15.

Since I have done everything I wanted to do.

I’ve traveled the country, and I even rode my last roller coaster ride about 12 years ago.

Now, I am incredibly weak. I cannot talk very well, my voice is hoarse, raspy, and down to a whisper. I have to take breaths in between every three or so words.

I can’t walk more than a few steps.I have a wheelchair now.

I’m constantly tired by noon.

Even eating is a challenge. A simple slice of pizza takes about 30–45 mins to eat.

I’ve been cheated out of a normal life, and it hurts.

Live your life to the fullest. It’s the little things in life that make it so much better…don’t take it for granted

I am now 31 and have, at most, 1 more year left to live.

Written by my brother

Chicken Paprikash

Ingredients

Chicken

2 whole fryer chickens, cut up
1 medium onion, diced
Sweet Hungarian paprika
Vegetable oil
8 to 12 ounces sour cream
2 cans chicken broth

Spaetzle (Sinkers)

3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
6 to 8 eggs
Pinch of salt
Water, if necessary

Instructions

Chicken: Sauté onion in about 1/3 cup vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup of paprika, being careful not to let it burn.
Place chicken in skillet to fry, dusting one side again with paprika. Brown about 6 to 8 minutes, turning occasionally. Take chicken out and place in roasting pan.
Add chicken broth until it covers chicken. Cover the pan and bake at 375 degrees F for about 2 hours or until the chicken is tender.
Remove chicken from roaster. Cover and set aside. Put roaster on top of stove and bring remaining contents to a slow boil.
Gravy: Mix sour cream into some of the hot broth from roaster, whisking until smooth. Add back into roaster with boiling broth.
Pre-mix flour, water and salt. Whisk until smooth. Gravy should have a nice salmon color. Add more paprika if desired.
Spaetzle: Mix ingredients in a bowl. Dust hands and mix with flour. Knead into a ball. Flatten to about 1/8 inch thick.
Boil chicken broth in a pot. Keeping a spoon wet, section off pieces of spaetzle dough. Cook in the broth for about 3 to 6 minutes.
Place chicken and spaetzle on a plate and cover with gravy.

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

When I lived in what was considered a bad neighborhood in Salem MA (I didn’t think it was that bad, but it was cheap for Massachusetts) four boys moved upstairs from us the week after we got there.

Long story short, they were meth dealers (but not manufacturers, thank God!), and every weekend they threw open parties to get more business.

Idiots.

This lasted about six weeks before the Salem Police took them in, and we never saw them again. Hey, paperwork takes time. 😉 To be honest, it probably was quicker because all three were on probation.

Idiots.

So about a month after they went to jail (one went to custody of his mom), we got a ring on the bell. It was a large, muscular, threatening looking middle aged dude. He asked me what I knew about the boys, and I told him they’d gone to jail a month ago, and the place was looking for new tenants.

He narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t lie to me? People aren’t happy if they lie to me.”

I assured him I wasn’t lying, and their arrests had been in the newspaper, and were public record.

So he leans in, towering over me, and says, “You tell those punks they owe me $35K, and if they don’t cough it up, doesn’t matter where they are hiding. You got that?”

Looking up, I smiled and told him I didn’t expect or hope to see them again, but if by chance I did, I’d tell them.

I saw him get into his shiny black SUV, noted the plate, and went back inside.

Called the police desk and told them the story and the plate.

Never saw any of them again.

The price of success

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jyir89Vnyfk?feature=share

What is the biggest turn-off you’ve ever had on a date?

“Oh, can you get that for me?” he asked, tilting his head towards me and pointing to the cup on his dresser.

I nodded politely, and stood up to get it for him. As I made my way to his dresser, I noticed the piles of clothes he had lying around on the floor, crumpled and dirty. I don’t care about that I tried to convince myself as I handed him the cup of tea and sat back down.

This was our first date and we had begun to talk about life and our more personal beliefs. And when I say “we”, I actually mean him. For the next three hours, I had a total of about two minutes to share anything about myself.

I asked a lot of questions, sure, but every time I offered any input, I would be cut off immediately by another long-winded 18 minute story about his life. Again, and again.

And after about two hours, I decided to get up to go to the bathroom to compose myself and think about an exit strategy. So I got up and entered the bathroom in his apartment only to find… nothing.

Nothing.

Not a single bar of soap, not a toothbrush, not a towel. And worse.. not even toilet paper.

It was as if I had walked into a showing for a new apartment. I tried to look frantically in the drawers for something, but I found nada.

I was beyond shocked, especially because he had gone to the bathroom earlier for more than just a quick look in the mirror.

So if the two hours of lecturing from him was not enough, the bathroom was the signifying factor for me that I had to leave.

The capital of Georgia

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vRlLREz3Kjs?feature=share

Would an untrained dog protect its owner?

This is Ivan, my Great Pyrenees.

This is pretty much how he spends 23 hours every day. And he is for the most part untrainable. He is both incredibly lazy and incredibly stubborn and is not motivated by anything. Not praise, not treats, nothing.

One day last week, we were going for our daily walk. We usually walk around 1–1/2 to 2–1/2 miles every day, depending on the weather. We had only gotten a block from the house when two pitbulls that I had never seen before came charging at us. The fist one to get to us immediately tried to bite Ivan but just got a mouthful of hair.

I took a step back and made sure Ivan had enough slack in his leash so that he could do whatever it was he needed to do to defend both himself and I. I don’t think it took Ivan 5 seconds to send both of those pitbulls running for the hills. The noises he made sounded as if a demon had been unleashed.

And then we continued on our walk. And once we got home, he resumed his usual position, curled up on the couch.

Great Pyrenees dogs have been bred to be guardians. No training required. It’s just in his blood.

What is the most shocking diagnosis you have received after going to the doctor for a routine checkup?

Spring of 2012, I was 56, and I had completed my bloodwork in preparation for my annual physical. My GP called me and said, I need you to redo your bloodwork. I went to see the vampires again and gave another sample. Two days later during my physical, the GP tells me, “Your platelet count is really high, 1.6million per microliter”. (Normal is 150k to 450k) “l want you to go see this blood specialist”. The previous year, my platelet count was normal.

Ten days later I am sitting with the Blood Swami who tells me, “Dave, you are a walking potential blood clot just waiting to have a stroke or heart attack. You have a condition known as essential thrombocytosis and I am prescribing hydroxyurea to treat it. This is a pretty strong chemotherapy drug, and there is a risk that you could develop leukemia in 20 years. If you do nothing, you could throw a blood clot causing a stroke or heart attack at any time. I am also going to order a bone marrow biopsy from your hip to rule out cancer, which can cause platelet production to spike.”

Post bone marrow biopsy, which by the way, was excruciating, it turned out I had a genetic mutation which resulted in runaway platelet production. 11 and a half years later I am still on the drug, my blood guy and see each other quarterly, and although there has been some yo-yoing of my platelet count, we are keeping the count pretty much under control, and knock wood, no signs of leukemia.

Side note: when I was diagnosed, my mom told me she had developed essential thrombocytosis a year earlier, and her doctor did not order a bone marrow biopsy. Two months after my diagnosis, she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and was dead in 3 months. I have always wondered if she had had a bone marrow biopsy when she was diagnosed, would they have caught the lung cancer when it was more treatable.

Glitches In The Matrix – Complete Edition

https://youtu.be/DO6WF288XyU

What could you teach someone in 5 minutes that would benefit them for the rest of their life?

The commonest complaint with which people consult a cardiologist is chest pain. People believe, and rightly so, that chest pain is the classical hallmark that the heart may be in trouble. But fortunately, most chest pains are not cardiac.

–

The following ones makes us yawn.

‘Pain Right at this point.’

‘Pinprick type pain.’

‘Pain shifts here and there.’

‘Pain lasts for few seconds.

‘Feels like an electric shock’

‘Pains as I touch here’

All these have a low likelihood of being cardiac pain.

I examine them, ask for an ECG etc etc – all routine.

And most often they turn out to be normal.

–

The following gives us nightmares.

The phone rings.

‘Can I talk to the doctor?’

‘Yes please’

‘Doctor, I have some kind of discomfort of my lower jaw, I had a ECG done and it was normal. Just wanted to…..’

‘Tell me that again. Jaw pain? I need you to come down to the hospital ASAP’

–

ECG of someone who had a little jaw pain.

Here is his ECG

ECG (the last 3 leads) shows runs of VT (very fast heart rate). Precursor of a cardiac arrest.

–

Coronary Angiogram

Critical narrowing of a heart artery (Left Anterior Descending Artery)

–

A pain, ache or discomfort of the lower Jaw, or a discomfort radiating (spreading) from chest, neck to the lower jaw is highly likely of cardiac origin.

A chest pain can happen because of muscle pain, cartilage inflammation, and many such minor stuff but a jaw pain, though a lesser known and an uncommon manifestation of cardiac disease, if present, strongly indicates that the heart may be in trouble.

–

5-Minute-Teach

If you have a aching pain or unexplained discomfort of your lower jaw, go to your cardiologist and not to your dentist.

What is the boldest thing you’ve said to your boss or a coworker knowing that you might get fired afterwards?

Well I think I am eligible to answer this.

I was working in a Bangalore in one US based company.

I had team of 2 which I was leading and was working on Automation and I was the one who started this work.

Work was going fine and things were happening on deadlines. I had direct manager , no lead in team.

One fine day my account VP called me .

Account VP: your attitude is not good ( fyi I used to come office early in morning by 9am and complete work by 4:30–5pm and then leave) about why I am leaving so early when all other people stay late ( other people used to come by 12:30–1 PM and leave by 9PM) ,

Me: my work is going fine and my manager doesn’t have any issue with deadline and work( that time my manager was in USA)

A VP : you need to improve this , can’t work like this.

Me : what you want more time or better efficiency?

A VP : do your work but you need to stay .

Me: sorry , I can’t do that as I am coming early when no one is in office and completing mine work and team is also doing same.( Team people used to stay till 6:30–7PM for no reason).

Next day I was called by my HR director , when I reached there I saw VP sitting with him.

HR director: I was told that you are behaving properly and not working properly.

Me : work wise you can ask my manager and even I do direct presentation to India head and people in US.

HR D.: U need to stay also ,that’s how everyone work here.

Me: I am not everyone and I won’t work like that. When required I do stay but can’t do it daily for no reason.

HR d- this is not way you can work here.

Me: then I don’t want to work here, you guys don’t understand the problem. By sitting till late doesn’t mean you are working more. And I can’t stay without reason.

HR D: your behaviour is not good , Not good way to talk, Better you leave.

Me: ok. I will send a mail and I am leaving. Can’t work in this kind of environment.

Later in same month I got another job with very good hike 80% and again 17% in next 4months during appraisal.

FYI,

I completed 2 projects in 7months and after I left , responsibility was given to senior developer and few months later when I asked my team mates , they told me that there is no progress and they are almost still stuck where you left . One person left one month after I left and one was working there.

Being a leader

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dTAdknP2moA?feature=share

What is the most disrespectful thing your neighbour has done?

Oh, you wouldn’t believe what happened with my neighbor last summer. So, there I was, enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon in my backyard, tending to my roses — you know, the usual weekend relaxation. Out of nowhere, I hear this loud, screeching sound. I look up, and there’s my neighbor, Dave, flying a drone right over my fence!

At first, I thought, “Okay, maybe he’s just testing it out.” But no, this drone starts hovering over my yard, and I swear it’s like it’s spying on me. I’m waving my arms, trying to shoo it away like a pesky fly. And then, the unthinkable happens — this drone swoops down and knocks over my prized garden gnome, shattering it into a million pieces. That gnome was a gift from my late aunt, and I treasured it.

I marched right over to Dave’s house, ready to give him a piece of my mind. But here’s the kicker: he opens the door with this innocent look and says, “Oh, did my drone accidentally wander into your yard? It must’ve gone off course. Sorry about that.” I mean, the nerve of some people! It took every ounce of patience I had not to escalate things.

So, lesson learned — always keep an eye on the sky when Dave’s around. You never know when a rogue drone might invade your privacy. It’s funny now, but at the time, it was like something out of a sitcom!

What does Germany do better than the US?

Having lived for three years in Germany, the one thing that really struck me about Germany’s advantage over the US is Germans’ deep feeling of personal liberty. Americans believe we have personal freedom, but we really don’t compare to Germans.

Germans have a very generous social safety net that Americans do not have. In Germany a person can quit his job to start a business of his own without fear of losing his health insurance. This relieves a lot of the stress and risk for someone who wants to pursue a lifelong dream to have their own business. The government will even partially subsidize the business for the first year to help him get it started effectively rather than having to scrape together dimes and nickles and fail due to a lack of support. This makes it entirely possible for someone to start something they really want to do.

Education is fully subsidized at all levels. If a German wants to be a doctor, they go for it. An engineer, they go for it. An artist, a musician or a teacher, they go for it. The education is available to become anything they want to be, regardless of their ability to pay. Germans have freedom to pursue their dreams where Americans are enslaved by debt or cannot afford to go to school at all.

A person who loses his job in Germany may receive 60% of his salary for up to a year while he searches for a new job. This prevents him from being forced immediately into a lower-wage job as Americans frequently are when their personal savings runs out.

Free healthcare, of course. Germans don’t have to worry about whether they can afford their medications or medical treatments. Sickness doesn’t drain a person’s bank account.

The elderly are taken care of. Those who have retired will receive a pension sufficient to allow them to live the rest of their lives with dignity. The government provides substantially for elderly people who need to be in a nursing home or in a hospice, relieving families of the crushing financial burden Americans face as their parents grow old.

My experience brought me to the conclusion that Americans have as much freedom as they have money. People who have little money become risk averse and are not free to pursue their dreams—especially when they work pay check to pay check and are one car repair away from bankruptcy. If they have college debt, Americans live like slaves for many years. The German system, on the other hand, allows people to live free, to try things, to fail perhaps, and keep right on going until they succeed. The quality of life is therefore higher and people are free to do what they want with their lives.

Hanging by your fingernails over the edge of a cliff is not freedom.

Argentina is not joining BRICS? Where is its right wing President leading its people to?

Argentina went hard butt-fuck with the United States, and this has “sort of” messed up the global realignment.

https://youtu.be/FSPdG22Huok

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

Yes. Leanne. A rather entitled millennial who thought the sun shone from somewhere it didn’t. She told her manager to F-off.

She was put into a tech assistant role, supporting George, a category manager who had been working for the company for close to 50 years. He retired when he hit 50 years of service – he was 72 at the time. After retirement, he stuck around part-time for a few years as a consultant too – he was that knowledgeable, and important to the business.

Anyway, what George didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. He could tell you the names of staff going back to the early 70s. He could also tell you when something was made obsolete, and what replaced it. He was a walking archive of catalog information going back to before I was born. If you couldn’t find an answer, George was the one who would know it. He was extremely well respected. He had 2 assistants working under him, doing daily tasks like tenders and quotes, warranty checks, stock orders, and general technical assistance for distributors and customers.

Jovic was a fellow in his mid-30s when I met him. He was George’s protégé, and he had already learned a lot from George – having worked under him for nearly a decade. His only career plan was to step into George’s role when he retired. He did (and still does) a cracking job.

Leanne was employed a year or so before I came along. She was lazy, and slow to reply to requests for help. Customers complained to both Jovic and George about her. Jovic was growing tired of having to carry Leanne’s shortcomings and begged George to do something.

George worked out she would be better doing analytic tasks like price increases, manufacturing updates, large pricing tenders, and stock monitoring – so she wouldn’t have to talk to customers anywhere near as much. She was taking a week to do a tender than George could do in a few hours. Admittedly, George could look at a partial part number, or a description, and instantly know the correct number. This took Leanne a lot of time to search. But she was also partial to online shopping and would spend hours browsing fashion sites. She would also call her friends and spend hours going through fashion websites, deciding what to buy. This was the main reason she was so slack.

George had gone to HR several times about her lack of competence in the role, her time wasting, excessive personal calls etc, etc. She was given numerous verbal warnings and a couple of written ones. She was on thin ice. One afternoon George was frustrated that a deadline was coming up, and she hadn’t started a tender that she’d had for over 2 weeks. He walked up behind her desk to see she was browsing a fashion site, and yapping away on a personal call. He interrupted her and asked her to focus on the tender. Her response “Fx off George.”

George had never been short with anyone before. So his next outburst was a huge shock to us all. He bellowed (loud enough for whoever was on the other end of her phone to hear it) “That’s it, we’re going up to HR right now. You had your last chance, and you blew it.”

Her response, which was heard right across 60+ people in an open plan office – people who had suddenly become silent after hearing George’s outburst, was “You can’t sack me you crusty old cxxx. I quit first.”

Because of that retaliation, and the language used, HR refused to give her a reference as she was marched from the building.

George was the most patient guy, but Leanne pushed him way too far. We were all glad to see the back of her.

Jovic has since become “George 2.0” – although his knowledge isn’t as impressive as George’s, he still has some 25 years to get there.

Have you ever caught someone talking about you in another language?

I pressed the button for floor number thirteen. The only other occupants of the lift were two cute girls, who were talking to each other in a highly fake American accent.

At the fifth floor, the lift stopped, the door opened, and I was surprised to see an African man standing in front of us. True that Delhi is a favorite destination of international tourists, but people of African origin are still a rare sight.

The lift was again on its way.

I turned my attention back to the girls. Suddenly, one of them started signaling the other, making big round eyes, first pointing towards her, and then towards the African guy. For an instant, the second girl seemed confused, but then she realized what her friend was trying to point to and both of them burst with silent giggles. I felt really bad for the African guy, who seemed strangely calm. He didn’t seem to mind at all. Emboldened by this, the two girls began talking loudly, but this time, they strategically switched to Hindi.

“Kitna bhadda lag raha hai ye kalua!” (He’s so ugly, this Blackie!)

“Haan, sahi kaha. Baal dekh iske, jaise ghungrali ghas ugi ho sir pe.” (Yep, you’re right. Look at his hair. Looks like his head is covered with curly grass.)

At this, both of them again started guffawing with tears in their eyes.

“Itni badsurat shakal kisi ki kese ho sakti hai!” (How can somebody have such an ugly face!)

I was really embarrassed. Was this my incredible India?

The lift stopped. The African guy adjusted his backpack and proceeded to step out. Then suddenly, he turned around, and in impeccable Hindi, said –

“Badsurat dil hone se to badsurat shakal hona achha hai!” (It’s better to have an ugly face than an ugly heart!)

And then, he was gone.

The expression of utter shame and embarrassment on the girls’ faces, turned red with rage and humiliation, is something I still cherish to this day.

Purr mode

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zslyvU2RUMc?feature=share

What are mistakes a commissioned officer could make that aren’t criminal, but can end their career immediately?

Not sure if it ended the lieutenant’s career or not, but if it didn’t it was definitely a CLM (Career Limiting Manuver)

Friend of mine was engaged to an enlisted guy in the army. Dude had his paperwork, and was a couple of weeks from being a civilian. He was scheduled to do some final training for newbies *in a week*, but didn’t have any real duties until then. Gal’s Mom dies somewhat unexpectedly. They set up the funeral for Saturday, she calls (still crying) tells guy, wants him there. Guy’s LT is standing right there, so guy asks LT for a weekend pass to go to funeral. LT says something (loudly, knowing gal is on phone) to the tune of ‘No, you aren’t leaving the base so you can go with your c*** to a funeral’

Short version: Gal’s dad gets pissed. Calls local Senator – who just happened to be the chairman of the Armed Forces budget committee. They go to the Senator’s office, start explaining what happened, and the Senator stops her: “So, your guy doesn’t have any duty for a week, you are on the phone grieving, and the LT called you a what?”

*2 hours later*, LT is helping dude pack his bags…..

Incredible marketing

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ay_rmyNnKo4?feature=share

What is the hardest thing in life to overcome?

The son of our friend Mario has tried to take his own life on the weekend. Together with his family and parents, he had a nice quiet dinner where he had too much to drink, and this made him so drowsy that he ended up fast asleep in the spare room of his parents’ place.

When Robin woke up, he was extremely erratic (“What am I still doing here ?”) and ran to the garden, where a noose was tied to a tree, ready to be used.

It took his parents and sister more than two minutes to cut the cord, but he was still alive. His wife wasn’t there to help him, by the way, although she was on the premises “minding her own business.” After a while — essentially after he caught his breath and was able to talk again — he became so dangerously aggressive that he was involuntary committed to a psychiatric ward.

It was the third time in as many months that Robin tried ending his life, and it was the third time that an act of pure coincidence “saved” him. The first time it was sleeping pills (but he vomited and was found), the second time he drove his car into a log carrier, which he miraculously survived (although his car was totally wrecked).

Robin has a three-year-old son. And he also has a wife.

And she has told him five months ago that she wants to work on herself, and put their marriage on hold (“and maybe the kid was a mistake”).

It shattered his every dream of becoming the best dad in the world and a good husband, and the forth time around may well be the last. In matters of the heart, the mind often fails to survive and Robin is drowning in a shockwave that is totally beyond his control now.

For his wife, it’s a mere ripple.

SOURCES: paintings by Stephen Early and Nicola Samori.

What was the most expensive thing you ever got for free, because someone made a mistake and didn’t charge you?

Money. I got money for free. Thanks American Express.

I worked for a professional service firm early in my career and standard practice was a corporate credit card (American Express) which I could use for work expenses like travel, food, accomodation and limited rewards for my team members within certain limits. Sometimes I’d shout Friday drinks on the firm as a reward.

I’d submit my bill for payment every month; my boss would always authorise and all was good.

Then after a few years I resigned as I got a better offer from another firm.

I handed back my corporate credit card and did the usual handover of everything belonging to the firm before I left – security pass, phone, laptop etc.

Several months later I received a corporate credit card bill saying my account was not closed. So I contacted American Express explained that I had left and they should seek payment and sort out any outstanding amounts from my previous employer as I could no longer process any payment.

This process repeated itself for about a year. I would either email or phone explaining the situation or else ignore the bill.

Eventually I’d had enough and resigned myself to visiting American Express pay the bill myself, and settle this thing once and for all.

So apparently, I don’t know the difference between a credit and a debit balance, and it was American Express who owed me money and could not close the account.

When I got there and identified myself they gave me the cash over paid on the credit card, then closed the account.

The terms and conditions of the card made me responsible even after I resigned for card payments (and overpayments).

Free money.

The Kitten Held Out His Paw Every Time Someone Passed Him At the Shelter

https://youtu.be/q1ZJF-hF7G0

Can Walmart employees force me to stop and show my receipt as I leave the store? Is it legal for them to try?

A: The short answer, no. Absolutely not.

The long answer is this: If I smash a beer bottle over your head I will be charged with assault and probably various other things. If you invite me to smash a beer bottle over your head and refuse to press charges, I will be charged with nothing.

By voluntarily stopping, I’m inviting you to smash me with a beer bottle and I won’t press charges. But if you try to stop me against my will, you’ve just smashed me with one without my consent and the story gets radically different.

People stand in those receipt lines because of sheep mentality. These businesses know this and take full advantage of it. People are generally idiots that will do what they see other people doing – so if there is a line that terminates in the parking lot, where customers on their way out want to be, they will typically join that line. Show a receipt? Does it mean I get to my car eventually? No problem!

A receipt is a proof of purchase. Barring some evidence or suspicion of shoplifting, the business has absolutely no legal authority to detain you – they simply hope you don’t know that and are, in fact, an idiot.

Back in about 2003 I was buying a shit ton of PC builds from a store called Fry’s (Think Costco of electronics) in Burbank, California. I needed to fill an office of twenty or so terminals and would make thrice weekly runs to Fry’s ending in shopping carts full of things. There was at least a twenty minute line to check out. Then another twenty minute line while some dipshit checked every item at the door. I eventually decided to detour and was stopped, multiple times….

In each case, it escalated to a manager and in each case, I was apologized to and “let go”…and when I say “let go” I mean that I voluntarily left after staying voluntarily. I never showed my receipt because the bluff was called.

No matter what anyone says, unless you are part of a membership based retail chain with implicit contractual conditions, there is no way any retail establishment can force you to show a receipt upon exit of premises unless said receipt is to be used for in-store reimbursement. At all. Ever. In any store.

So walking without stopping at the hall monitors exit is more or less a test and they’re hoping you’ll blow it and submit to some bassackwards receipt check that serves no real loss prevention purpose.

I do stop for adorable old people though – because that’s like their last thing that means anything. I’ll easily wait 2 minutes while some octogenarian verifies I actually purchased only shampoo, diapers and a fifty inch TV.

What is the saddest thing a teacher has had to do?

I regularly have to trample all over student’s dreams and crush their ambitions utterly. I hate doing it more than anything else, but it’s my job.

For some reason people believe it’s fine to lie to kids with intellectual disabilities. They think it’s okay to tell them massive untruths because it makes them smile for a moment. And immediate, short-term happiness is all a lot of people consider when interacting with kids with intellectual disabilities.

I’ve been working in special needs education and I’ve lost count of the number of girls I have taught who honestly believe they have what it takes to be a great singer. They’re convinced that they’re just as good as anyone they see on TV or hear on the radio because that’s what people tell them. They belt out a tune and friends and relatives gush and talk about what a great voice they’ve got and how they’re better than Taylor Swift etc. And the kids believe them, because everyone says it and they have an intellectual disability so they believe what people tell them.

I’ve personally seen it happen. I’ve watched girls sing in school concerts and hit roughly half the notes they were aiming for and exhibit no sense of rhythm but generate the sort of praise that Pavarotti used to get from sycophants. People tell the student that they’ll be a great singer one day which they know is a complete and total lie.

My role as a teacher is to try and get them into employment. I try and find work experience, work placements, further education and job opportunities so they can leave school with a career path. Which means I have to ask them what they want to do for a living and they look at me with conviction and say they want to be a singer. Despite the fact that their ability is well below average, they dream of being a pop star because everyone tells them that they’re going to be the next great singer. And then I come along and talk seriously about maybe getting a job stacking shelves in a supermarket. I tell them that getting a high-school certificate is essential and they need to focus on their school work and start thinking of realistic career paths. I don’t actually tell them outright that their singing is terrible, but my job is to be the voice of reason and realism among the chorus of liars who tell them they’ll be a great singer. And I watch their dreams slowly die.

It’s not just singers. I’ve helped crush the dreams of actors, stand up comedians and sports stars. I’ve always encouraged them to follow their love as a hobby and keep at it but if they ask me (and most do) if they have what it takes to accomplish their dream then I’d be doing them a horrible disservice if I wasn’t honest.

Nobody prepared me for that in teacher training.

Double dipping

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q0OjvN8tgK4?feature=share

Why do people say that working as a flight attendant is not easy?

I’ve written this story before but I can’t find it.

I’m a pilot, not a flight attendant.

One day, I was traveling from a trip to my home base. I really wanted to be home but all the passenger seats were full and the cockpit jumpseat was full too. In those days, it was allowable for me to travel on the flight attendant jumpseat but it didn’t happen often. So I asked the flight attendants and they were good with it.

So I thought I’d be a nice guy and offer to help out. Unfortunately, they took me up on the offer.

I spent the first 30 minutes of the flight making drinks in the first class galley. Then they sent me to the aft galley where I swear I loaded 300 sodas on carts in a 737. When that was done, I started heating the meals and setting up each tray for the coach meal service. Those little foil dishes were super hot and I had to pull them out with an oven mitt and then remove the foil and put the meal on the tray and make sure the other items were in the right place. Then I put them into the carts as the flight attendants rolled them out for service. Then the trash started coming in and I pulled out the plastic bags from the carts and put in new ones and pulled out the carriers with the old trays and stowed them. After that was finally done, it was time for another beverage service! I had to clean out the beverage cart and put in fresh cans of soda, lots more glasses and ice. Then another trash pickup with dirty cups.

It was finally time for a break but…no, the moment I sat down on a jumpseat, people started trooping past for the lavatories. Many wanted something like another can of soda or some kind of snack or just wanted to chat or complain or ask which gate we’d use or about their connection or seat assignment or some other unanswerable thing. I said “I don’t know” a lot and most of the people were not in the mood to understand. It was exhausting.

Finally, they sent me back to the first class galley and she asked me to serve the cockpit which was kind of fun since they don’t often get service from a uniformed captain. They could tell I was wrung out. I went back to my galley and cleaned up the surfaces and put stuff where I was told to put it and make sure all those little doors were closed with the latches turned. She collected and service items and I stowed them where I thought they ought to go.

I was elated when the airplane started descending and even happier when they turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. A ten minute break!

We taxied to the gate and I was the first one off.

I had no idea how continuously hard the work was in the cabin. Those poor people never get a moment’s rest. They’re always “on” and have to somehow try to be courteous to everyone. I’m not a particularly outgoing person and it sapped my energy. It is far, FAR easier to be a pilot than a flight attendant.

Edit 1: I forgot to note that this was the flight attendant’s third leg and they were doing one more that evening. How do they have that kind of endurance?

I got a lot of new respect for the profession and I wish more pilots would do a “flight attendant appreciation flight”.

What makes a man fall in love with a woman?

1.Women as the safest place for him to go on the planet

Your arms, eyes, and lap, those have to be a refuge for him. If you become the safest place on the planet for his heart’s secret needs; he will never leave.

2. Women who make them feel like they matter

Appreciate him when he goes out of his way to buy a gift or provide you with much-needed emotional support. Tell him that he made a difference in your life.

3. Women who accept them for who they are

If you can encourage him to be his authentic self, it makes you extremely approachable and lovable. When he feels safe and comfortable, he’ll open up to you.

4. Women who push them and inspire them

A woman who excels in her pursuits, whether it is career, fitness goals, social milestones, or anything that truly fits his description of excelling at life, can be extremely attractive to men.

5. Women who are secure in the relationship

Men are attracted to strong and confident women, period. Confidence is one of the most attractive traits a woman can have. If you are secure and confident, he will feel the same, and this will lead him to open up more about himself and be able to show his vulnerable side.

6. Women who share their sexual chemistry

Physical intimacy is important in adult relationships. Men want their women to be open with them about sex and confident in their sexual encounters with them.

If you can radiate this confidence and openness to him, he will not only be attracted to you in the short-term, but also see you as a viable long-term romantic partner.

7. Women who are open to the idea of love

If a woman is resistant to being loved, a man will quickly lose interest. He won’t be able to open up or show love if he is continually being shut down. You need to be open to the idea of love and communicate your intentions and emotions.

8. Women who don’t fight their femininity

Men love to be with a woman who is authentic and confident in expressing her feminine side. Men are task-oriented and love it when their efforts are validated and valued, especially if it’s a physical task. So if you feel like he’s taking charge or trying to help you, it’s okay to lean back and let him do it occasionally.

9. Women who don’t play mind games

For instance, not answering calls or texts promptly is part of the mind games that can be counter-productive. This may lead to him acting nonchalant as well and not committing himself fully to the relationship.

Men like women who are honest and open with them about the things that really matter.

Congo

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wg3j22FP1Xk?feature=share

What is the best thing you learned in the military?

Go with the flow

My first 18 months in the USMC, I got to basically turn my brain off, because I was a PVT. Everything of any importance, or which required intelligence, was handled by NCOs and commissioned officers, not by some just-out-of-high-school junior-enlisted punk.

I was a Baby Grunt who just did what my higher-ups told me. Once I reached E-4 and above, though, I was entrusted with tasks that required more attention, thinking and care. I got smarter, and more careful.

Still, I could always rely on my company commander to take care of me, I never really worried about where my next meal would come from, or anything like that. Things worked out for me, pretty much, or at least I stayed alive and out-of-trouble.

I never got lost, or got demoted or thrown in the brig. I kept my nose clean and did my job decently, because no-one who was under my command died. That’s good enough for me, that I made sure I got all of my soldiers home alive, and except for one person, home in one piece.

Lots of things can go wrong at any moment, and everything is determined by luck and chance. You can die anytime. But at least they’ll take care of your family. And the chances of you dying get pretty low if you don’t take risks you don’t need to.

In my case of being wounded, that was no-one’s fault, except the Iraqi who placed it there. If I died, I would’ve done so knowing that I’d done my country and my men a good service.

Just do what everybody else is doing (most of the time, there are some cases where you should go your own way, especially if you’re surrounded by inexperienced, or just plain dumb, people) and things will turn out okay. Don’t worry, the Corps has things handled for you.

You might get your deployment extended, or sent out on back-to-back missions, but that’s not the worst thing that can happen to you. There’s a bigger picture.

Russian soldiers taking a break during the battle of grozny

What is the cutest mistake you’ve ever seen someone make?

My wife Sonia was 21 when we met. I wasn’t much older but had seen more of the world, whereas she came from a small town in Upstate New York and had never been on an airplane. I decided to surprise her with a trip to the Bahamas. When we embarked on our flight, Sonia wore a woven beach hat and beautiful sun dress. She was wide-eyed and adorable (still is). A true Audrey Hepburn. As we approached the screening area of the airport, Sonia said, “What is that?” She pointed to the large x-ray box for scanning carry-on luggage. Without missing a beat, I said, “Oh, if this is your first time flying, they screen you in the box.” I thought she would laugh. Instead, she started to climb onto the conveyer belt. I had to pull her back and then explain to the startled TSA agent (this was pre-9/11) that my girlfriend had never flown before. Sonia was suitably red-faced (and even more adorable). She proceeded to slug me (much deserved).

We’ve flown together many times since. I always make a show of trying to hold her back from climbing into the box.

Roof Koreans

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MilOXmjzRbg?feature=share

What should the punishment be for those people who “dine and dash”, meaning they stack up a huge bill at a restaurant and run away before paying?

I used to wait tables at a Denny’s in Lawrence MA. One instance, I was off the clock and having coffee with a couple of friends when 3 teens literally ran out the door. Found out that they had run out on the bill so we gave chase and got their plate number. Called the cops, filed a report, and about an hour later a very angry father showed up with the 3 boys in tow. His son had borrowed his car. The officer on duty (we had a detail officer during rush periods on the weekends) was aware of the incident and told them to pay the bill. Then he “strongly suggested” that the boys leave a generous tip for the waitress. They had the money, they just didn’t want to pay. After all was said and done, and the father had torn his son and son’s friends new ones, the officer arrested the 3 boys for theft. They were charged, given a deferred prosecution agreement, and sentenced to perform community service. Once they completed it, their records would be wiped clean. I believe two of them completed the DPA, the third ended up failing it and going to jail for a little while. Seemed fitting.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Yes due to my second layer boss simply didn’t have a common sense.

I have this habit while I was working in a client facing side where I occasionally check my work calendar on weekend in case any of my clients do schedule a meeting last minute.

While I was checking, I got this weird meeting invite on the next Tuesday with my boss, my boss’s boss and the HR team (1st red flag).

I figure there might be 2 options either I’m canned or maybe they’re gonna move me another team. I tried to contact them and ask what’s happening but well the HR and my second layer boss doesn’t have the balls to answer me and just ignore me till our meeting (2nd red flag).

My boss did respond though, through our call I found out that he did not know anything (or did he?) Well anyway I trust him, he’s a good man after all.

Well long story short, here I am writing this experience and my second layer boss got canned too 3 months after that.

Preview The MASSIVE 1/35 Akagi Flightdeck and Bridge W/ 1/35 Kate Torpedo Bomber

Very interesting. Just worth skimming through.

https://youtu.be/PNGY7sHQaMc

What is the worst medical misdiagnosis you have ever had or personally known someone to have had?

30 years ago, my SIL was worried about her 2 year old son. His tummy hurt and he wouldn’t eat much. Their doctor said it was a mild stomach flu, he’ll get over it in a few days, soft foods for a while.

When he started wheezing and coughing at night, the doctor said, “It’s just a little cold, he’ll get over it in a few days”, gave her a ventolin puffer (inhaler) and a spacing chamber, but no instructions.

Asthma runs in that family, because my son was also diagnosed with asthma, as had their shared grandmother. My son’s asthma specialist trained me how to administer the meds, so I taught my SIL.

My nephew’s legs were bruising from the inside of his legs, it seemed, because he was now too weak to move much. The day care called my SIL because he had a fever and they couldn’t wake him! She took him to Urgent Care, which sent them to the Emergency hospital.

The paediatrician diagnosed him with late stage leukemia and admitted him immediately!!

The Hospital staff reviewed what they could find of his records from the family doctor. The staff called their lawyers and the Medical Board before informing my SIL that her “doctor” was not trained or certified as any kind of medical practioner at all!

She declined to join the class action suit against him, or to file suit as an individual.

He survived, and is now a lawyer and owns an apiary.

What was the strangest part of your divorce?

The day the divorce was being finalized I went to the courthouse.

My about to be ex didn’t bother to appear though his lawyer did.

Judge reads over the paperwork, asks me a few questions. Announces he is finding in my favor in any disputed issues because if the ex cared about the outcome he should have appeared. BANG.

Divorce is final, see the clerk for copies of decree.

Ex’s lawyer turns to me and asks if he can buy me lunch.

Judge: WHAT?

Lawyer: Lunch. My treat. Least I can do.

Courtroom is full of muffled laughter.

Judge: Explain yourself, counselor.

Lawyer: Your honor, this lady and I have been the route together. My client-

Judge: This lady’s former husband. That client?

Lawyer: Your honor, my client is a squirrel. He messed this lady about for no damn reason, kept asking for changes, kept demanding she sign off on things then failing to sign the paperwork himself, that kind of thing. He regularly failed to pay the agreed support. For that matter, he hasn’t been all that great at paying me, either. I’ve spent more time on the phone with this lady than I have with my client.

Judge: Okay. Anything else?

Lawyer: Your honor, my client is a squirrel and as of ten minutes ago he’s not my client anymore and he’s not her husband anymore. I feel like this lady and I have been through a lot together and before we go our separate ways I thought it might be nice to sit, eat a nice lunch and not talk about the squirrel at all.

Judge: Out of my courtroom. Now. (Looks at me) Make him buy you the biggest steak on the menu.

Restructuring reality

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T50UU0U0O48?feature=share

What is the most interesting fact that you know and I don’t, but I should?

Farts can leak through your mouth if you hold them in.
Your nose is the same length as your thumb.
Staring at the palm of the hand, the center of the palm will become warm.
You see your nose at all times, your brain just chooses to ignore it.
The buttons on men’s shirts are always on the right and the buttons on women’s shirts are always on the left.
The Sun is extremely loud, we just can’t hear it because sound can’t travel through the vacuum of space.
Chickens have more bones in their necks than giraffes have.
Paper cuts can feel more painful than cuts from a knife.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
The distance between your earlobes is usually the same distance between your nipples.
People who stutter often do not stutter when singing.
Cold water weighs more than hot water.
People hear better and retain more if they listen with their right ear.
When you dream, one portion of your brain creates the story, while another part witnesses the events and is really shocked by the plot twists.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

I rented a u-Haul truck. It was a clapped out broken piece of garbage that was noisy, didn’t steer right and the passenger door would pop open whenever I hit a big bump. But that’s not the issue.

I rented it on Friday and needed to return it on Sunday before 9am so not to be charged an extra day. So Sunday I got up early and was there by 8am. The place was closed! And the lot was full of people either trying to return trucks or pick them up for the day. Apparently the opening guy was a no show!

I stood around with all these folks about a half hour. Then I wrote a note dated and time marked 8:30am. I wrapped it around the keys and put it in the night slot. I felt bad for the folks waiting for trucks who had to move that day!

I get the bill by email the next day. I’m being charged an extra day, them stating the truck was logged in at 12:30pm! I call the office and explain myself. The numpty explains that the time stamp was 12:30 so the charge was correct! I retort that they were closed during business hours! He responds that yes that is true, and there was chaos and the manager had to come in, and he didn’t get to logging the truck in right away, so the charge was right! I gave up, and hung up.

I called corporate and got a reasonable human on the line. He understood right away. Situation instantly rectified!

What happened during the process of getting your rental car at the airport that made you say, “You gotta be kidding me?”

Well, it was somewhat entertaining. I had reserved a car at EWR (Newark Airport). I used to live in NJ, and i knew very well that I wanted a SMALL CAR because that’s what you want in the part of NJ I was headed for.

So I get there, I walk up to the counter, give the guy my res number. He puts on a big smile, “would you like to upgrade to a sports car”.
No
“Woudl you like to upgrade to a full-sized sedan?”
No
“How about a Prius?”
No
Ok then. (do the usual dance about CDW, yadda yadda) He hands me keys. I look at the ring. It says “Ford Explorer”. Yeah. That’s what it said!
So I asked, can I have a compact like I asked for, please?
“No, we’re out, but you could upgrade to a sports car!”
Does that cost more?
“Well, it’s $110 a day.” (the compact was 39/day plus fees)
So, how much is this Ford Exploder? <guy winces>
“Well it’s to fulfill your reservation so it’s the same price as the compact.”

Yeah, so I was moving about NJ in the Iowa Class of Automobiles. I think I got about 11–12 MPG.

It is better that words fail me.

Mandela effect

Fruit of the loom!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LyWzsGI_h5U?feature=share

What are some examples of assassination attempts gone wrong?

When Susan Kuhnhausen walked into her house, she immediately knew someone was in her home.

It wasn’t just a sixth sense. Things had been moved. Curtains were now open, moving as if they’d recently been touched. Things on her table had been moved. She lived alone and she knew where everything belonged.

She walked through the house uneasily looking down hallways. In the kitchen. Moving quietly.

She walked past her bathroom. She turned into her bedroom.

Standing there was a bearded man, holding a hammer. He charged her and swung his hammer, hitting her on the side of the head. She fell down. He got on top of her and kept hitting her.

They then began wrestling.

Susan was a larger woman, who was particularly strong and worked as a nurse in the ER, trained on how to subdue wild patients.

After being hit several times, she managed to get her assassin pinned to the ground in a sleeper hold.

She began choking him. When she released him his throat had been crushed — he later died (after Susan called an ambulance for him).

The assassin had been sent by her husband.

Their marriage had fallen apart and he wanted her dead. He’d paid the assassin $50,000 to kill her. (Source: A Hit Man Came to Kill Susan Kuhnhausen. She Survived. He Didn’t. Slovic, Beth.)

She was later treated for injuries and made a full recovery. Her husband was then sent to jail for the remainder of his life (he died in prison).

Her would-be assassin’s last words, during their fight, were “you are strong.”

What is the most inappropriate gift that someone innocently gave a teacher?

I opened a Christmas gift from a female kindergarten student. She really wanted me to open it in front of her. It was a teal negligee. I was speechless. She was very excited to give it to me and I said it was beautiful.

I put it back in the gift bag and said that it was so pretty I wanted Mrs. L (my good friend) to see it. I told the student to just leave it on her desk because Mrs. L is very busy and to come right back to class.

My friend was in mild hysterics over this gift and she proceeded to quietly pass it around the school. Another teacher who had taught the older siblings came to me and said mom works in a factory and probably made the negligee herself. That’s why there were no tags.

I kept it for years and wrote a lovely thank you note, of course.

What unusual but useful mental exercise can improve people’s quality of life?

I have a bold and, perhaps, strange proposition for you: I want you to start naming inanimate objects in your life. Not all of them. Just five to ten will do. You can name them anything you’d like. Why? Because it will enrich your life, teach you to appreciate these objects, and promote fun and creativity. It can even defuse arguments.

For example, my partner Laura and I are constantly at odds over the thermostat. She generally wants the house so hot that the paint peels off the walls. And in her defense, I prefer an arctic winter. As a compromise, I bought her a few warm blankets, wool socks, and a sweater.

There is one brown blanket, which we originally named, “Big Brown”, but have now named it, “The Nuclear Option.” No heat escapes and if you dare sleep in it, you risk overheating. Sometimes, when we are discussing the temperature, I will say, “Want me to get the nuclear option for you?” She will look at me in horror, as if to beg, “N-n-no…please don’t.” It generally lightens the mood.

People generally buy and own too much stuff, but that doesn’t mean we can’t name our chosen objects. Naming something changes our relationship with it, altering how our brain encodes the information. The object gains meaning and becomes more memorable. For example, small children are more likely to notice and remember features of stuffed animals if a name is attached to it. Whereas they become far more disinterested in the absence of names.

Naming objects also gives a sense of psychological comfort and control. Your garage machinery no longer feels like machinery, but instead, happy, willing employees, your allies in oiled arms. Names can also enhance the intended purpose of an object.

For example, my dad was a Navy SEAL, and in training, there are these big logs they carried and did sit-ups with, grunting and enduring torturous exercise. But if trainees did something egregiously wrong, they had to carry an extra large log that is twice the weight of an already heavy log. They call it “Old Misery.” No SEAL forgets Old Misery, and its name is part of its menace.

Per Dr. Soonkwan Wan, Marketing professor at Michigan Tech University, “You may drive exactly the same car I drive. But my car is my car. It’s part of me and part of my history, so that makes it different. In this way, you kind of decommodify this commodity.”

A few examples

One trick is to think of singular objects in your life. There’s no sense in naming an apple, in a pile of many apples. Think of those things that stand out.

During my childhood Floridian summers, we occasionally got rain downfalls that felt like a biblical apocalypse to some, but were grounds for incredible childhood fun. I had a big clunky red bike that was remarkably good at riding through high waters due to its big wheels. Every other bike immediately got stuck and fell over. So, I nicknamed this one wave runner:

(Sister. Me in the middle. Johnny. Wave runner on the right. You might notice Johnny running for the car in the background. He’s rushing to tell the car not to try. We spent the day helping these cars get out of this street turned pond.)

Naming objects creates a bond with it, despite it not having any real feelings or thoughts. We are tricking the mind to care, and this is good because it elevates our sense of belongingness. I can promise you — as silly as this entire exercised seems — when you start naming things, watch as you suddenly start valuing these objects more.

My grandfather was eternally cheap after a bleak childhood during the great depression. He grew up in abject poverty, with a single mother and seven siblings. He took that frugalness far into life with him. Despite having plenty of money, he still drove this hideous Ford fiesta, with cracked and peeled off paint. It barely ran, and made us nervous on steep bridges because we weren’t sure if it was going to make it up the slope.

My mother pressured him to at least paint it and later regretted that. We came out one day — to see he’d taken cheap silver spray paint and made it look like the tin foil man. It was utterly embarrassing to ride in. But in good fun, and despite it topping out at 55 mph, we decided to name it the “Silver Bullet”. It took the whip off of the experience.

You might notice that my examples are throwbacks from many decades ago. Naming of these objects imprints them in your mind. You’ll tend to remember stories about them and have a stronger narrative of your life story (which is often anchored in these objects).

My friend James was given a plant 20 years prior at his Uncle Walter’s funeral (he died young and unexpectedly). They’d been very close. James named the plant Walt, and it is still living in his kitchen. When he sees it each morning, he says, “Hi Walt.”

Another friend named his Roomba, Hank, and talks to it every morning while it does zig-zagging routes through his house. I was visiting and was quite surprised by how authentic he sounded talking to it. He had a mock argument with his Roomba, just as Tom Hanks did with his volleyball Wilson — which had me rolling.

There are few rules to this exercise. Sometimes, naming breaks up the mundane. Other times, it’s a needed coping mechanism.

My aforementioned Grandfather was a World War 2 pilot, and named his bomber plane Blitz Buggy. Not only was naming planes tradition, but also a means of attaching value and trust in a machine that is deeply important. Its health was tied to your very own.

The big idea here is to have fun and find meaning. Naming objects will give you a sense of solidarity and trust with everyday things. It elevates that objects status to a character in your life.

Have the courage to be a little quirky and name five to ten objects over the next month. Think of the things you use most frequently, or of the things that aren’t like the rest. I think you’ll be surprised by how fun this exercise actually is. You’ll feel a bit of youthful vigor and creativity, and sometimes, some well needed sincerity.

I’d also love to hear from anyone who has already done this, and if there is a story behind these names.

What’s the most shameful thing a co-worker has done to you?

She forced me into a position I didn’t want to take. To do something I didn’t want to do

I was working for small company, a husband and wife operation. They bought overruns from manufacturers and repacked them into pre packs of assorted sizes and colors. It was all clothing. I and five others called up companies and sold the pre-packed clothes into off price retailers.

The receptionist had worked with them for years. One day I saw some people come in to the showroom and pick out some clothing for their small store. I’ll call the girl Mary although not her name. They gave Mary $100 bill and she went to get change. She opened the petty cash, took out the change but as I walked out of the office I dropped my pen. As I’ve bent over to pick it up I saw Mary put the $100 bill in her pocket. So I started keeping an eye on her.

A week later I saw her take 8 pair of Levi’s home for her son to try on. She only brought back 2 and paid for two. So she came out with four pair of free Levi’s.

At this point I had to go to the owners and tell them. It broke their hearts and cost her her job. I remember the boss lady crying because they thought so much of her they had put her in their will as they had no children.

I felt so bad that she put me in that position. But I had loyalty to my bosses.

What was a Christmas bonus you got from your company that made you speechless?

Almost 20 years ago I worked for a large chain craft and fabrics store who’s name rhymes with Sew Fan’s. It was a great place for a creative person with no money concerns to work, but corporate also didn’t seem to care two farts in A windstorm about the employees and were regularly instituting years long freezes on wage increases and cutting hours to under 22 per week to avoid having to pay any benefits. If I were ever to go back to working there it would only be to bring in the union. Those workers sure needed it. My first Christmas season there I was working the closing shift and saw a box that had originally had probably about 48 snack packs of cookies and crackers. It was down to maybe a dozen packs of crackers, as the day shift had pretty much decimated it. That was our annual Christmas bonus. One foot by one foot box of inexpensive snacks to share between both shifts. At least they let us do gift exchanges.

The next place I worked for had a prime rib feast, $25 gift cards and a turkey. It was pretty nice!

Men can relate

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TFezYsKfpU8?feature=share

What is the most condescending advice you received from someone who assumed you were poorer or less educated than them?

I was in my classroom after my class had left for the day. They had made a bit of a mess, so after I’d tidied the place, I got out the vacuum and began to run it around the room. I wanted it to look fresh for the new teacher’s aid who I was going to interview that afternoon.

A young man came in, looked at me, but didn’t say a word, didn’t introduce himself, just sat down at my desk!

I asked him, “Can I help you?”

He made an impatient gesture with his hand. “Just clean up and get out. I’ve got an interview with the Head Teacher at 4.”

I shrugged and got on with it. After about five minutes the room was clean and I put away the vacuum. As I was coming back to the room, the young man came out looking annoyed and said, “Look, pass on the message to the Head Teacher that he’s late for our interview, so I’m leaving.”

I glanced at my watch, said, “I’m so sorry, but you did imply that you didn’t mind waiting, as I was cleaning up. It’s now 4.05.”

He stared at me. “What’s it got to do with you?”

I held out my hand to shake his. “I’m the Head Teacher. Do you want to go back now for the interview?”

He stared, then went several shades of red and left. Needless to say, if he’d stayed for the interview he would have had to be truly exceptional for me to overlook his silly gender bias that I was “supposed” to be a male, and his assumption that a Head Teacher can’t clean up as well as a professional cleaner. And just for the record, our cleaner is male.

Chicken Kiev

The chicken is pounded thin, rolled with a filling of seasoned butter, breaded and then either deep-fried or baked.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

4 large whole chicken breasts, split, skinned, de-boned
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme or marjoram
All-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup fine bread crumbs
Salt

Instructions

Pound breasts thin between plastic bags, keeping the smooth side of breast down.
Mix next 4 ingredients. Shape into 8 elongated oval pieces and freeze.
Wrap chicken completely around butter and dip each chicken piece into flour.
Next dip into eggs and finally coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in hot oil (375 degrees F) for 10 to 12 minutes or bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Drain on paper towels. Salt after cooking. Chicken will keep in a 200 degrees F oven if placed, uncovered, on a metal tray.

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

This may belong to the blond joke section, but here goes –

A blonde is flying down the road in her little sports car, convertible top down, music blaring, signing away, going way over the speed limit.

Before long, she sees the flying cherries of a cop in her rear view mirror, so she pulls off to the side of the road. The cop walks up to her door and leans in and says “Do you know you were going at least 40 over the limit back there? I need to see your license please”.

The blond starts rummaging through her wallet, and before long she is obviously flustered, and turns to the cop and says “I’m sorry, what is it I’m looking for? Can you tell me what it looks like?”

The cop takes a deep sigh and says “Umm, your license?? it’s about the size of a credit card and has your picture on it???”.

So the blond rummages again and finds a little compact mirror in her wallet. She looks closely at it and sure enough sees her picture, so she hands it to the cop.

The cop, who it turns out is also blond, takes a long hard look at it, then hands it back to her and says “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were a cop, you can go.”

What are some interesting social skills that can be picked up quickly?

Don’t call someone more than twice continuously. If they don’t pick up your call that means they have something more important to attend to.
Return money that you have borrowed even before the other person remembers lending it to you. It shows your integrity and character. Same goes with umbrellas, pens and lunch boxes.
Never order the expensive dish on the menu when someone is treating you for lunch/dinner. If possible ask them to order their choice of food for you.
Don’t ask awkward questions like ‘Oh so you aren’t married yet?’ Or Why didn’t you buy a house?’ For god’s sake it isn’t your problem.
Always open the door for the person coming behind you. Doesn’t matter if it is a guy or a girl. You don’t grow small by treating someone well in public.
If you take a taxi with a friend, and he/she pays now, you pay next time.
Respect different political opinions.
Never interrupt people talking.
If you tease someone, and they don’t seem to enjoy it, stop it and never do it again.
Say “thank you” when someone is helping you.
Praise publicly. Criticize privately.
There’s almost never a reason to comment on someone’s weight. Just say, “You look fantastic.” If they want to talk about losing weight, they will.
When someone shows you a photo on their phone, don’t swipe left or right. You never know what’s next.
If a colleague tells you they have a doctors appointment, don’t ask what it’s for, just say hope you’re ok. If they want to talk about it they will and you don’t put them in the uncomfortable position of having to tell you their personal illness.
Treat the cleaner with the same respect as the CEO. Nobody is impressed at how rudely you can treat someone below you but people will notice if you treat them with respect.
If a person is speaking directly to you, staring at your phone is rude.
Never give advice until you’re asked
When meeting someone after a long time, unless they want to talk about it, don’t ask them their age and salary.
Mind your own business unless anything involves you directly — just stay out of it.
Take off your sunglasses if you are talking to anyone in the street. It is a sign of respect and more eye contact is as important as your speech.

Have you met a person who you thought was ordinary but actually was from a powerful and wealthy family?

So during college, I was visiting a small town, with my crappy car.

Of course, that means I broke down making a grocery run, and this old gentleman with worn out denim coveralls said he would call me a tow truck and have my car towed to the dealership.

Then I broke down because there was no way I had money for a tow let alone repairs. The old guy sat with me and calmed me down. He said the dealership was known to be reputable and would help me out of my jam.

Long story, but a couple days later I picked up my car and I went to pick up the car, having made arrangements to make payments.

They said there was no bill as Mr.Smith (not real name) had paid it. Then I realized the dealership was Smith Ford.

I Then went to get my car. Well they had totally detailed my car and even I could tell that I had new tires. I found a note on front seat saying pay it forward when I could.

They had done over 2,000 in repairs to a 500 dollar car. I can’t even list everything they did. But new tires all around, new brakes, oil change, filled gas tank, just to start.

Edit: Many people have asked if I have paid it forward. My wife and I have indeed done so, in many different forms over the years. We have been blessed, and consciously pay it back when we can.

Quantum Immortality

They are talking about “slides”.

https://youtu.be/nFgPt6Ive-Y

Disdain for a teacher

Once in China, I visited one of my students. he was a factory owner and we got along well. I was teaching him some English. And since my background is Engineering, we hit it off. So he came and picked my wife and I up and we spent the afternoon at his factory, had tea, and a good time.

He manufactured buttons. Particularly buttons for bluejeans.

Then came dinner, and it was nice… but… his wife really treated myself and my wife very poorly. In her mind I was “only” a teacher. Someone who you give a face-saving level of respect but who you consider to be beneath you… as they are unable to get “real work”.

She made many, perhaps ten “veiled” cut-downs, and almost-insults. Every word out of her mouth dripped with disdain. He made a big point of pointing out her nice bag, and their car, and the nice expensive restaurant. Very pretentious.

In her eyes… I was “only” a teacher.

My wife, who came from Wenzhou and who’s father was at one time a billionaire, was incensed, and vowed never to visit them again.

I mean it. NEVER. EVER.

I had a few classes with him and then cut it short, and I never saw him again. He was a good guy, and I liked him a lot. But the way his wife treated us was unforgivable.

…

People treat everyone as some one worthy. Take you time with them. Appreciate them exactly as they are.

Like in this first article…

Do you have a specific person in mind you dated who you ‘missed out’ on?

Oh, yes. I adored that man. Still do.

He didn’t have much money, but he was such a trier. He didn’t just have a good work ethic; he wanted to give something back to the world and make a difference.

I loved spending time with him doing things that cost very little or nothing—walking around the city eating street food, reading to each other, wandering into art galleries, admiring the architecture. But mostly, I liked just being with him, talking. I enjoyed being with him in silence as well. What touched me the most is how courteously he treated those with less than him. He always had change for the homeless and never treated anyone as though they meant less than he did. he had genuine class, the kind of class that you’re just born with.

I never told him any of this, and that’s how I missed out, because that’s the type of woman he was looking for.

Years later, he told me that I came across as sweet, but ultimately shallow and absurdly spoiled. A debutante with a smashing wardrobe. I really blew it when I suggested that we take a trip to Belize together—he politely declined but again, much later, told me that he found that particularly audacious. It had never occurred to me that he didn’t have the money to take a vacation abroad, because actually, I was really spoiled. It had never occurred to me that most people couldn’t afford to take international vacations.

I probably overlooked a lot of men with his qualities. They wouldn’t have been him, though. He was unique. Unforgettable.

I would do everything over differently, given the chance. But missing out on the best thing ever is the big price you pay for being young and dumb.

Who is the most feared person in New York?

This man was the most feared, and desired once upon a time

He was an airline steward who had lovers in cities all over the world. Whenever he had a layover he spent it in a bathhouse. Over 50% of the first HIV positive men either had sex with him, or someone he was intimate with. He was known as patient zero. He knew he was infected, and had the kaposi sarcoma lesions all over his taut tan body. He had unprotected sex anyway. I knew him from Christopher street in the early 80s. He left a trail of destruction across the decade

Why is it that when China finishes a new type of aircraft carrier, they immediately move on into another type of an aircraft carrier? Can the US do this? If so, why aren’t they doing it?

Because of this:

The most important plane on the Ford or Nimitz class carriers isn’t the F18 or F35.

It is this:

The E-2 Hawkeye.

There is no way to launch a 20–30-ton 10,000 HP turboprop off a carrier without catapults. And without the eye in the sky, there is no way to achieve operational parity with an American CBG.

The AEW system allows the admiral to detect threats at least 1,000 km away, and it is a prerequisite to establish air and sea superiority, if not dominance, within the sphere of sensor coverage.

And catobar was the original pursuit of the PLAN, except the program was staged, from a retrofitted foreign ski-jump cruiser, to an evolved indigenous ski-jump carrier, to a conventionally powered emals catobar flattop. The next two carriers will be a sister ship of the Fujian, conventionally powered, and China’s first nuclear powered flattop.

Welcome to parity.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

When I was in High School, I worked for my dad fixing computers. It was a great job for me as a teenager because I was making good money on commission.

When I was a senior in High School, right before I turned 18, he merged his company with one that my brother and another guy( Dave) started. My dad included me as an employee.

My dad and brother were both cool with me working service calls but Dave was a prick. Some rules that he came up with for me?

I wanted to take some time off for a school trip. My dad said yes. During the trip I ignored pages and phone calls from Dave during that time. New rule, I had to ask Dave for permission to take time off. Went over really well when I ignored him and went on a family cruise a few months later and didn’t clear it with him.
My niece was a baby. Dave’s sister was the receptionist/ babysitter. There was a day where I had no school and she had some place to be. My brother asked me to stay and watch my niece and answer phone calls. I decided to repair a couple of computers in the shop while babysitting my niece. I gave the invoices to my brother, who signed off on them with no issue. New Rule, If I was answering phone’s/babysitting my niece, I could not perform billable work AT ALL. Went out the window again.
When I was employed by my dad only, we used to tag faulty parts by placing them in the box the new part came in and taping it closed with masking tape. We would the write BAD (PART NAME) (WHY PART WAS BAD) on the tape. I changed out a bad power supply and did followed the procedure. He grabbed the power supply and tried using it. New Rule, We had to use tags instead of tape because he was too dumb to realize that there was a piece of tape closing the box stating what was wrong with the part.
Last, and for me the dumbest. I had to submit my resignation to him only. My dad and brother understood why I was resigning. I was shipping out for boot camp and I wanted to take a few weeks to pack and just relax before leaving. Just to spite him I typed up a nice resignation letter to my dad and my brother. I handed them each a copy then I looked at Dave. I told him I had two letters for him. I flipped him the bird and said “FU” My dad told me it was the funniest resignation he ever saw.

Circles

What doesn’t impress you?

I don’t care whether you come into the office at 7AM.
I don’t care what your background is.
I don’t care how hard you work.

What I care about is results, and I will do everything in my power to help you accomplish them.

When I make a new hire, we negotiate. I say, “What can you get done in the span of a year?”

Then I argue against my best interests, whether it be code or sales. “That’s a lot, are you sure?”

But in my mind, I already know what numbers I need to justify your proposed salary package.

Once we agree, you tell me what you need to be successful, and I show up for you.

9 out of 10 cases, I’ll pay for training, tools, and resources.

Then you can go meditate in the caves of the Himalayas.
Treat yourself to squid ink paellas in Barcelona.
Circle volcano rims in Costa Rica.

Or just come into the office—

As long as you meet your goals.

I won’t be looking over your shoulder. But I will expect you to come see me if you need more support. And I will make myself available to you.

The days of running adult daycare centers are over.

Here’s my advice to anyone hiring:

Agree with crystal clarity on the deliverables—

Empower your employees—

And get out of their way.

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

The addictive abilities of prescription painkillers.

My sister was addicted to prescription painkillers. (And meth and probably other things as well.) She was so addicted that she was arrested for writing fake prescriptions and couldn’t attend my wedding because it was out of state and she was under house arrest. I figured that she and people like her were just weak-willed or depressed and looking for an escape.

I had little sympathy for people who were addicted to things that were legal. If it was really that addictive, it wouldn’t be legal, right? It’s not like it’s cocaine. They’re just painkillers.

I was wrong.

When I was 27, I pulled a muscle in my back. It was so painful that I couldn’t walk straight. I’m not entirely sure how I even made it to the doctor’s office, but as soon as I hobbled in, they said: “Pulled muscle, huh?” I suppose I had the tell-tale walk of a man who tried to lift too much without bending his knees.

Anyway, the doctor prescribed me two prescription drugs. I believe one was a muscle relaxer, and one was a painkiller.

I recognized the names as soon as he said them. I knew these were some of the things my sister was addicted to.

And within 30 minutes of getting home and taking the first pills, I could see why she was addicted to them. I didn’t judge her and anyone else who was addicted to them as “weak-willed” anymore.

I remember lying on my bed, after being in intense pain for a day, suddenly feeling great! Not just the muscle pain, but every physical and emotional pain I had seemed to disappear. The stress of work and bills and being a husband and father just went away. The bed felt like a cloud, and I felt like I was floating. I was so happy.

When the first round of pills started to wear off after a few hours, I started to get depressed. Not just because the physical pain was coming back, but because some of my emotional worries and stress started to creep back in to my mind. I started to think about how much income I would lose from taking a few days off for my back pain. I started to think about the cost of the pills. I started to think about the domestic chores I’d been neglecting during my prescription painkiller trip.

But mostly I was thinking about if it was safe to take the next round of pills yet. The doctor said every six hours, and it had only been four hours. Could my liver handle it? Did I care if it could or not?

Then it hit me: I need to stop this before it gets worse. I didn’t want to end up like my sister. I liked my stressful life just fine. I didn’t need to escape from it.

So I quit taking the prescription pills, and decided to go with over-the-counter painkillers, stretching, and patience instead.

When I got back to work after a few days, a coworker offered to buy the leftover pills from me. But I didn’t want to be “that guy.” I didn’t want ANYTHING to do with those things anymore. So I flushed them down the toilet.

But I had newfound sympathy for people who can’t quit them. I understand the attraction they have.

My sister ended up overdosing on morphine a few years later. When we cleaned out her house after her death, she had over 300 empty prescription pill bottles in her room. The worst part was that those were just the empty ones. Some of her addicted “friends” had already come into her room and got the full bottles before we got there.

The USA is nuts

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MCXYTGu3Mp4?feature=share

Why do ALDI checkout staff always scan items at top speed with no regard for your ability to match their pace loading items into your bag or cart?

I’m a current employee of my local ALDI in America and have been there for two months. Knowing that, let me tell you this: ALDI would give big-brother a run for their money.

I work part-time on weekends and so as a result, I am almost always the primary or backup cashier because so much foot traffic is going on in the store and let me tell you; everything you do at the register is timed. They want “efficiency” and if you do not meet the standards, you will be held accountable for it.

For example, ALDI wants at the most only two seconds between transactions. When I say between transactions, I mean the time when you end one transaction and begin another. They’ll let you get away with three seconds at the store I work for but if you hit four seconds, you are failing the standards.

Every item has multiple bar codes on it so you can ring it up from almost any angle, but this also means stuff can get scanned by accident very easily. Yet they do not want any void items on the ticket. Ten voids is not acceptable in a normal day of work (eight hours, expected foot traffic on the weekend) they want to them to be around zero to three.

And lastly, the ringing speed. For a minimum standard the company demands that the cashier be able to ring 1,200 items per hour. If you can be faster, they’ll push you for it. For my part, being that I’m a part-timer, I’ve managed to ring only 1,000 items per hour. My boss tells me that I’m too slow and “will have to be held accountable for my efficiency” as per the rules of ALDI.

So if it seems like the employees are rushing, trust me, they are. But it’s literally not their fault. It’s ALDI that has the crazy expectations that they are required to meet for fear of losing their job. You wonder why they pay so well? Because the physical demands of the job are insane. If you’re not ringing things up at the 1.2k speed, you’re on the floor, pulling items, stocking shelves or crushing boxes into bales. Injury risk is high as well, hence the benefits offered. So please, speaking as a customer service worker for this business, try not to be upset at the employees for the standards the higher up sets. It’s not their fault that they have to act like that, it’s ALDI’S.

Responsibility but NO Authority

Have you ever been asked for help while off-duty as a police officer? What was the situation and what did they ask for?

Back in the early 90s, I was in a parking lot walking to a store. A woman was alone and walking about 15 yards ahead of me. Suddenly, a car pulls up next to her and a guy jumps out and grabs her by the hair to his car. She’s screaming for help as he’s yelling “Get in the car, bitch!”. She’s screaming for help as he’s spewing insults at her. She had her hands on the car pushing away as he’s trying to cram her through the driver’s door. I run up to the car yelling “police officer! STOP!” ALL of had was my wallet badge. I wasn’t carrying a gun at the time but I couldn’t let him try to abduct her. He hears me and turns around to see me holding my badge. He let’s go of her and jumps back in his car and takes off. Someone in one of the stores comes out saying they’ve called the police. I stay with the woman until the local police arrive.

The guy was the woman’s ex-boyfriend. I give the police my information and leave. I never heard anything about the situation again. That was also the day I started carrying off duty.

The purpose of life

What is the craziest arrest you have ever seen?

I was at Kohl’s with my sons and a stroller. I had my keys in the cup holder. This guy walked up and started talking to us. I thought he possibly worked there but then I realized he was just chatty. I then went to help my kids try clothes on, some of which they kept on, so I took the tags and we waited in line. Suddenly, the police stormed in and handcuffed me. My kids started crying and I was confused. I stated to them that I have the tags to all my items in my hands and I’d told the attendant lady I was doing it. I had assumed they thought I was trying to shoplift.

The police then said they didn’t care about that, they wanted to know who the man was. I was totally lost, not remembering the brief conversation with the strange man. They were very aggressively asking me questions and finally loss prevention came out with a picture and asked me “Who is this?”

I looked at the picture and told them I have no idea, he just was hitting on me or something, but I didn’t want to be outright rude, so I was polite and spoke with him a couple minutes before making it clear I wasn’t interested. The cop totally didn’t believe me and asked…

“Well then, if you don’t know him, why did he drive away in your car?”

I thought, “WHAT?!”

The cop looked a little puzzled, then said that after the man had spoken to me, I said goodbye and that he’d taken the keys from my stroller and when he went to leave, he’d shoplifted something. So when store clerks went to stop him, he assaulted loss prevention, an innocent bystander and a cop, before leading the police on a car chase where they lost him, but were currently searching for him.

After interviewing me and my kids, and then seeing that we didn’t actually arrive together, loss prevention and the police realized I wasn’t an accomplice, but actually another victim.

They gave us a ride home and then contacted me later to let me know they’d caught him but he wouldn’t tell them where my car was.

So I went to the jail and visited him hoping he’d tell me where my car was. He told me the street he’d left it on and where to find the keys- I had to go to a nearby restaurant, go to the women’s handicap stall, take the seat liners out, and I’d find the keys underneath them. This was a week later so I wasn’t sure they’d still be there, but sure enough, that’s where they were hidden. My car was just parked on a street, chillin’. The license plates had been changed with some rental car plates, but besides that, it was OK.

Kohl’s let me keep all of the items I was going to buy my kids for free, since I was humiliated and my kids were traumatized. The police were really nice after they saw that I wasn’t the guy’s friend.

Men learn

What has been your best career decision(s)?

“Sir. I’m not cut out for this. Thank you”
I stood up and walked out of the interview hall and never looked back.

“Dad I don’t want to work a job right now. I just realized that once I start working, I’ll be doing this for the next 30+ years of my life and never get the opportunity to take a break like this. I’d like to take a year off and camp and travel and bird my way across India. Once I leave for my MS, we both know I’m never coming back. This is my last chance to do this.”

Dad looked at me for a whole minute before saying “Go for it. I’ve got your back”.

Convincing mom was a whole other ball game but she eventually came around. I spent the next year of my life in National parks and sanctuaries; sometimes alone, other times with friends but most of the times leading groups of students as an instructor. After 15 years of hard slogging as a student, I finally had a break.

Taking a year off after undergrad gave me the opportunity to recuperate. It kept me away from a job which a lot of my friends described as a horrendous experience and helped me turbo-charge for what was ahead. It gave me a chance to spend time with the people I loved. It was not an easy decision. A lot of people doubted me. Most people called me crazy and arrogant. A non-trivial number of people assumed that I was lying and I had basically failed my BE and didn’t get a job. After all, which sane person passes on a job to watch birds? My dad, being the devilish prankster that he is, fueled these rumors even more to mom’s annoyance. He would go around telling people “What can I say. Nobody wants to hire him. If you have a job in your company can I send him to you?” This was the quickest way to get rid of all the concerned “well wishers”.

By the end of the year, I was mentally recharged and ready to take on whatever life had to throw at me. When I got to grad school, I was willing to push myself harder than I ever thought possible. When I started at Amazon a week after I graduated, I was completely pumped and ready to go rock this whole “job” thing because I had never actually had one before so I had a clean slate to start with.

Taking a year off gave me a chance to put things into perspective. It gave me a chance to believe in myself more than the established system. It re-affirmed my belief that you can walk the path less trodden and still make it to the other end. It will always be the best decision I will ever have made; because without it I would not have a career, merely a job.

Sometimes, the most important roads in life, are the ones you don’t take.

This is fun

What are some hacks that everyone should know?

About 90% of heart attack occur early in the morning and it can be reduced if one takes a glass or two of water before going to bed at night. We know water is important but never knew about the special times one has to drink it.
Put a sticker with a fake pin on your debit card. If someone tries to use it 3+ times, the atm will eat the card.
To remove chewing gum from clothes keep the cloth in the freezer for one hour.
Need to test a printer? A print the google homepage, it has all the colors and uses almost no ink.
To whiten white clothes soak white clothes in hot water with a slice of lemon for 10 minutes.
Confusing wikipedia article? Click “simple o english” on the left list of languages and it’ll whisk you to a simplified version.
Ants problem: ants hate cucumbers. Keep the skin of cucumbers near the place where they are or at ant hole.
If you drop an earring, ring or small screw, simply turn off the lights and look with a flashlight. They’ll light right away.
To get pure & clean ice boil water first before placing in the freezer.
You can clear a room full of cigarette smoke in about a minute simply by spinning a wet towel o around.
To give a shine to your hair vinegar add one teaspoon of vinegar to hair, then wash hair.
When you go to a zoo wear the same colors as the employees do. The animals will come right up to you.
To make the mirror shine clean with sprite.
You can predict your future adult height with almost 100% accuracy by doubling your height at age of two.
To get maximum juice out of lemons soak lemons in hot water for one hour, and then juice them.
Want to meet girls? Go outside when it’s raining with a huge umbrella and take your pick.
To avoid smell of cabbage while cooking keep a piece of bread on the cabbage in the vessel while cooking.
Want to know if someone has romantic feelings for you? Look at their eyes! People’s pupils expand by 45% when looking at a love interest.
To avoid tears while cutting onions use “chew gum”
Remove unpleasant odor in smelly shoes or gym bags by placing dry teac bags in them.
To boil potatoes quickly skin one potato from one side only before boiling.
To remove ink from clothes put toothpaste on the ink spots generously and let it dry completely, then wash.
To get rid of mice or rats sprinkle black pepper in places where you find mice & rats. They will run away.
Your personality has its own smell. People can guess characteristics of personality just by your smell, because the body emits hormones and pheromones that we can detect in sweat.

Gaps…

Why was that teacher fired during your schoolyear?

This was back in the 90s. This was in 7th grade. I had history directly after lunch, and the whole class would be waiting outside the locked classroom door by the time the teacher would show up. This guy was speed walking and sweating his ass off while apologizing. Then we get into class and take our seats. Every day he had an “educational video tape” and it was recorded on vhs from the history channel. He would put it on and then fall asleep at his desk. While sleeping one of us would go up to his desk and steal all the answers to his tests. Everybody in this class was passing with straight A’s, and we all heard he was being looked at for it, but that wasn’t the kicker. One day we were fucking around as usual and a kid decided to throw a book out the window. This teacher told him he better go outside and get the book and come right back in. We’re on the second floor and the exit is right below us, so we’re watching out the window for him to grab the book while the teacher is back at his desk not paying attention to a damn thing. The kid comes out the exit door, walks right past the book on the sidewalk, and just continues down the street until he is out of sight. Everybody is laughing but nobody wants to say why. All the tardiness with the straight A’s, even from the ones failing every other class, on top of a kid easily walking out of school and going who knows where, ended up with him being fired

The truth about life

As an older man, I tell you… this is the TRUTH.

What made you know you wanted to be a surgeon? Was it a certain moment, or a lifelong fascination?

A2A

I was NOT going to be a surgeon.

The 3rd year of medical school in the US is traditionally when students finally break out of the classroom and into the clinical arena of “rotations.” You spend a month or two on each of the mandatory specialties, learning the basics and just soaking up the experience. Everyone HAS to do internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, ob-gyn and general surgery, among others.

You do have some limited say over the order of your rotations, however, so I decided to do internal medicine (what I thought I was going into) first, and surgery (which I absolutely dreaded) dead last.

One of my first patients on the internal medicine service was Mr. A, a man in his 40s with advanced liver cirrhosis. He lived in a nursing home and was readmitted to the hospital like clockwork every 2–3 weeks for worsening confusion and somnolence, termed “hepatic encephalopathy.” The liver is a “super-organ,” regulating to some degree pretty much every other organ system in the body. When the liver fails, everybody fails. Fix one thing, something else goes to shit. In Mr. A’s case, the toxic byproducts of protein digestion weren’t cleared by his liver, causing his coma. The medication to help clear the toxins from his bowel gave him spectacular diarrhea, and his blood pressure plummeted, causing his kidneys to fail. Kidneys didn’t clear the toxins they were supposed to, platelets no longer worked, and combined with the absence of clotting factors made by the liver, engorged veins backing up into the stomach ruptured and bled. The blood pressure dropped further. What’s worse— all that blood digesting in the gut, well, that was just another source of protein to fuel the hepatic encephalopathy.

I grew to dread seeing him every morning. The best I could hope to obtain was the status quo, which hardly seemed an acceptable quality of life. Still, I could make him comfortable for the most part. On the other hand, there was very little I could do for his fiancee. She was there every morning, 6 am, when I rounded, for the latest update. There were no updates. There were never any updates. I could offer little more than a hand to hold.

It was frustrating. As I progressed through my subsequent rotations, and tried to consider each as a career option with an open mind, I found myself ruminating obsessively over Mr. A and his fiancee. They needed doctors to care for them. But could I be that doctor? How long before I couldn’t take it anymore? I considered the words of a good mentor: “Being miserable doesn’t make you a better doctor.”

And then my surgery rotation rolled around. General surgery is PUNISHING. I mean, like, holy crap, man. Rounds at 4 am. Line up, present, know your facts, yes ma’am, no sir, run to the OR, operate for 12 hours. In-house call every 2–3 nights, just powering through. Eat when you can, sleep when you can. And we were still expected to pass our final at the end of the rotation. Really??? When exactly was I supposed to study?

The night before, apparently. 10 pm, nothing like the last minute, pounding Starbucks, staining entire textbooks highlighter yellow, and my pager goes off. I wasn’t on call, but it was my attending. Do I want to come in and do a case? Honestly, no, no I don’t, I want to learn this stuff and take that test and be done. But I knew better than to say that. “Yes, sir, I would love to.”

I don’t know to this day why that attending called a green 3rd year med student who wasn’t even going into surgery, to “help” him with a case. Because here’s the thing: when I got to the hospital, he had no residents waiting, no other attendings, just him and I. Oh, and a helicopter.

Yeah, so I pretty much lost my shit. I jumped in, blades whirling, and felt my head explode. Luckily, he couldn’t hear it over the motor. “Where are we going, sir?”

He smiled, and gestured for me to put on my headphones. “We’re gonna go get a liver.”

And that’s what we did. A 19 year old shooting victim donated his perfect, soft pink liver. I cradled it, let it slide into the cooler. You know, those red coolers that say “HUMAN ORGAN,” you see people grabbing and hauling ass into helicopters in the movies? Yup, that was me. I felt like sort of a badass.

And then we took it back to my home hospital.

And we put it in Mr A.

True story. 9 months after caring for him on my internal medicine rotation, I saw him next, on my surgery rotation, draped, beneath the OR lights. I didn’t even realize it was him until we finished the operation, and I went with my attending to talk with his family. His fiancee was there.

I gave her the update.

4 days later I talked to Mr A for the first time ever. His new liver let him wake-up. He left the hospital and married his fiancee. They had been engaged for 6 years.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no such thing as a quick fix. He still required a lot of help from my internist colleagues to keep that liver working. But he got BETTER. Like, astronomically better. Literally overnight. Surgery was a big part of that. I was a big part of that surgery.

And that’s why I’m a surgeon.

(Also, because I passed that final with honors. That helped.)

Athenian Salad (Salata Athenas)

Ingredients

1 medium head lettuce
1 bunch romaine
10 radishes, sliced
1 medium cucumber, sliced
6 scallions (with tops), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
1/3 cup wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
24 Greek or ripe green olives
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 (2 ounce) can rolled anchovies with capers, drained

Instructions

Tear lettuce and romaine into bite-size pieces. Place lettuce, romaine, radishes, cucumber and scallions in large plastic bag. Close bag tightly and refrigerate. Shake oil, vinegar, salt and oregano in tightly covered jar; refrigerate.
Just before serving, shake dressing. Add dressing and olives to vegetables in bag. Close bag tightly and shake until ingredients are well coated. Pour salad into large bowl; top with cheese and anchovies.

Yields 8 servings.

Side gigs

Braised Chicken in Aromatic Tomato
Sauce (Pastitsatha)

This dish is one that evolved from Corfu to stretch scant supplies of meat. Consisting of chicken, turkey, beef or veal braised in tomato sauce fragrant with spices, it is served over thick tubular pasta from Corfu called “perciatellli” (if you can’t find it, use spaghetti). Kefalotyri is a nutty tasting hard cheese similar to Parmesan. It is available at Greek markets.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
1 (3 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
3 cups chopped red onions
6 whole allspice
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 (28 ounce) can whole Italian-style tomatoes, drained, juices reserved, tomatoes chopped
1 cup water
2 tablespoon (or more) red wine vinegar
2 tablespoon tomato paste
Pinch of granulated sugar
12 ounces perciatelli pasta or spaghetti
Freshly grated kefalotyri cheese or Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes per batch.
Place chicken on platter. Add onions to Dutch oven; sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spices; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and their juices and water. Return chicken to Dutch oven. Cover; simmer over medium-low heat until chicken is very tender, about 35 minutes.
Transfer chicken to platter. Tent with foil. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar, tomato paste and sugar to Dutch oven. Simmer until thickened to sauce consistency, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and more vinegar, if desired. Remove from heat. Cover to keep warm.
Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Transfer pasta to platter. Top with chicken, sauce and cheese.

DO NOT Pay On The FIRST DATE! (300 IQ STRATEGY)

China and Russia test ‘hack-proof’ quantum communication link for Brics countries

•Scientists in Russia and China establish quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by Mozi satellite
•‘All countries that are interested in technological leadership know that without quantum technology they won’t succeed’: quantum researcher

Scientists in Russia and China have established quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by China’s quantum satellite, showing that a Brics quantum communication network may be technically feasible.

The scientists were able to span 3,800km (2,360 miles) between a ground station close to Moscow and another near Urumqi in China’s western Xinjiang region to send two encoded images secured by quantum keys.

The first “full cycle” quantum communication test between the two countries was successfully conducted last year, said Alexey Fedorov, of Russia’s National University of Science and Technology (MISIS) and the Russian Quantum Centre (RQC), Russia’s leading institution in charge of creating a quantum computer, on December 14.

Bridging the vast distance is possible with the help of China’s quantum satellite Mozi, which has opened pathways to develop national and international quantum communication networks.

With the advent of advanced supercomputers and quantum computing, there were now more avenues for information systems to be attacked, the researchers at RQC, Moscow-based QSpace Technologies and MISIS University wrote in a paper published on the open-access online archive arxiv.org in October.

Quantum communication – a form of quantum physics-based information transfer that uses cryptography to encode data in single photons – offers a way to transfer information that hackers cannot eavesdrop on, according to the paper.

Encrypted data is transferred in the form of ones and zeros along with a quantum key that is used to decrypt the data.

Quantum keys, or strings of random bits, “are secret parameters that we use to encode useful information”, making it inaccessible to unauthorised individuals, Fedorov said.

Using quantum key distribution can allow for security that was “guaranteed by the law of physics”, the researchers wrote in their paper.

While there has been major progress in the development of quantum key distribution, ground-based transfer at reasonable speeds using optical fibre cables is limited to around 1,000km because of a loss of photons over long distances, according to the paper.

With this limitation, researchers in different countries and continents, or even on opposite sides of Russia, could not effectively transfer quantum keys, Fedorov said.

To overcome this hurdle, China launched Mozi, the world’s first quantum communication satellite in 2016, to begin long-distance quantum transmission.

Using the satellite, China has been able to develop a national quantum network of ground stations spanning thousands of kilometres.

In 2020, the Russian team began working with the Mozi team, who helped them set up systems to begin conducting experiments with the satellite, Fedorov said.

A ground station was set up at the Zvenigorod observatory just outside Moscow, equipped with telescopes and cameras to track the satellite. Various experiments were conducted between the Zvenigorod ground station and China’s Nanshan ground station near Urumqi, the paper said.

On March 1 last year, a full quantum communication experiment was conducted between the two stations.

A secret key was distributed between Zvenigorod and Mozi, which orbited between 600km and 1,100km above the ground station. Once the Chinese side received the shared key from the satellite, a secret key was established between two stations nearly 4,000km apart, the paper said.

Two coded messages were transferred between the teams that were decrypted with the help of two keys – a quote from Chinese philosopher Mozi and an equation from the late Soviet physicist Lev Landau – according to the team.

It was the first successful full-cycle quantum communication experiment between China and Russia. Fedorov said a secure quantum call had been established in 2017 between Austria and China using Mozi.

The paper released by the Russian team in October highlighted a major aspect of their research with Mozi and quantum key distribution.

To transfer quantum keys between long-distance ground stations, both stations must have detectors that pick up signals from a satellite. These devices “are not always working ideally”, Fedorov said.

Slight differences in the detectors could leave the system open to potential security attacks, he said.

The researchers said this detection efficiency mismatch was not taken into account in the decoy state quantum protocol – which is the most widely used quantum key distribution protocol. To further improve the security of the system, the team modified the security analysis protocol to take the mismatch into account.

“Our results pave the way to the considerations of realistic imperfection of the QKD [quantum key distribution] systems, which are important in the context of their practical security,” the paper said.

We live in an information age, where a lot of what we do “is tied to protected information”, making quantum keys a “useful tool” to protect strategic and sensitive information, Fedorov said.

While quantum communications networks could have many uses, Fedorov said that for now quantum systems would ideally be suited to scientific research, with more research needed before the technology could be commercialised.

He said the finance sector was interested in quantum technology, with banks storing “a massive amount of critical, important information”.

In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow he planned to develop Russia into an economy where quantum technology had an important role in digital infrastructure.

Russia has also proposed a joint effort to advance future technologies with fellow Brics nations Brazil, India, China and South Africa that would include quantum-based efforts.

“Technically, it’s absolutely possible” to build a quantum communication network between the Brics nations, Fedorov said.

But while there was “scientific, technical and commercial potential for these kinds of systems”, a unifying project was needed to push development forward, he said.

There would also need to be shared standards between nations regarding the exchange of data and safety measures.

Fedorov said that to commercialise quantum networks, development was heading towards expanding infrastructure through launching mini quantum satellites and building ground stations, along with forging protocols to exchange information.

In June, Russia released its own quantum microsatellite prototype, and had begun experimenting with the aim of launching its own quantum satellite, according to Fedorov.

The team hoped to develop its own quantum technology to become a resource to help other nations conduct quantum experiments as China had helped the Russians, he said.

Beyond quantum communication, countries across the world are researching various technologies, including quantum computing, which the Russian team would soon use to solve minor tasks.

“All countries that are interested in technological leadership know that without quantum technology they won’t succeed,” Fedorov said.

Sandlerverse

“A man and a woman had been married for more than 60 years.

They had shared everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside.

She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000. He asked her about the contents.

“When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.”

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

“Honey,” he said “that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”

“Oh, that?” she said. “That’s the money I made from selling the dolls.””

Caught

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MmHyYG0eZuk?feature=share

I purchased a house 2 years ago, but now I cannot afford my house due to an income drop. Should I sell?

Do not sell. You have already paid for two years. First contact your lender and ask for them to pause your loan for 3 months. Then for three months you will have no payment (time to save as much money as possible). Use that time to get your income level back up to where you need it to make the house payment. Look for a new job or another part time job. If you have a good car, do a delivery job like Uber or Door Dash. Eliminate any monthly paid services like movie channels, even internet. Just keep the electric, water, gas, and trash. NEVER eat any place that is NOT your house – unless it’s like free food at work. Fast food, Starbucks, restaurants, and eating outside the house is what breaks people. If you go to Costco you can get a whole chicken for $5 and you can get 12 croissants for $6. You can also get 50 little bags of chips for $13. You can get a case of 35 cans of Coke for $25 (one can a day for a month). A chicken sandwich on a croissant with a bag of chips and a Coke sounds like a good lunch. You spent $50 but you got 12 lunches and maybe more lunches and you still have lots of chips and cans of Coke for the rest of the month. Fast food restaurants will cost you about $15 for one lunch (sometimes more). So you decide 3 lunches at fast food or 12–15 lunches at home for the same price. Stay hungry, only eat when you must and drink a big glass of water before you eat. Potatoes are only $1 per pound and they are the most filling food you can eat. I remember in college, I always bought a big jar of peanut butter and jelly. A PB&J sandwich will really save you from throwing your money away on fast food and the PB&J goes great with the chips. Eating at home costs 1/10th the price of eating outside the home. If you cut down all your outgoing money and get more incoming money, you should have the ability to save your house. Renting might just be more than your house payment. Consider renting out one of the bedrooms. If you rent out the master bedroom you’ll get more money than one of the other bedrooms. Maybe a neighbor will want to rent a parking space at your house or rent your garage for storing their stuff. If your house has a lot of land, maybe someone will want to rent some space to park their RV until they need to travel. Look at the items you own, that item that you have not used for over a year – sell it on eBay. Have a garage sale to get rid of old clothing you no longer wear, old shoes, old dishes, old knifes and forks. Sell those collections and sell anything you can to keep your house. Your house is the most important investment most people make during their entire life. Don’t let this house slip out of your hands because when this happens most people never get another house. Use the least amount of heat and lighting as you can. More blankets. But no space or plug in heaters and NO CANDLES (they cause house fires and insurance doesn’t cover that). If you are not in the room turn off the LED lights, television, radio, etc. I didn’t own a television until I was in my 30’s. If you are spending all you free time trying to make money and spending almost nothing to live, you can save your house. You will be successful, you can do it. Stay hungry get out there and make some money however you can. You can do it! I believe in you! If you found my post interesting or helpful, please upvote, share, and follow. Thank you!

I lived in all these places

What is it like to grow up in a criminal family? How does it shape someone and their future?

I hated it. It’s an awful way for a child to grow up. I know that my brothers hated it too, but eventually my oldest brother went into “the business,” went to jail a couple times, got out, now he’s currently in jail again. My other brother and I both ran away from home once we were old enough and we don’t talk to the rest of our family much now.

First, some background: most “criminal families” aren’t like the mafia. It’s not a glamorous life. It is not like the Sopranos or the Godfather. It is not dark wood paneling and fine liquor. Every time I hear one of my sheltered school friends talk about organized crime or something it makes me want to puke. People go into crime because they are poor and they don’t know any better. They are not good people and they often don’t have a good sense of basic right and wrong. This means they are unlikely to be good parents. You know those pictures you see every so often on the internet with some woman turning a trick and her baby is in the background? That was how I grew up, but with drugs and guns and stabbing instruments lying around like toys. When my brothers and I were growing up, we constantly had strange people coming and going from our house at all hours, often engaging in loud altercations with both my mom and dad (I suppose I should give thanks that my parents were “together?”) inside the house or outside on the front lawn. Drugs and paraphernalia and firearms were pretty much everywhere. It’s fortunate that the trigger pull needed to set off a handgun is more than a small child can muster, at least until he or she is old enough to understand that guns kill people for real, and that yes, once when one of daddy’s friends was carried back to the house screaming and bleeding and couldn’t be taken to the hospital that that was because someone shot a gun at him! That’s how I learned about firearms safety – my mom just matter-of-factly said to my brothers and me, “That’s what happens when you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger” while stubbing out her cigarette watching my father and his gang try to staunch the bleeding and perform first aid. We did not play with the guns on the table after that. By the way, first aid is something you learn pretty early on, by the way, because there are a lot of ways to get injured in a “criminal family.” My parents were not (too) abusive, they loved us in a strange sort of way. But there were always weapons (of the sharp variety) or a lot of times broken bottles and other broken shit left lying around that my brothers and I got good at avoiding or when we were playing, we’d use them as fake weapons which, of course, since they were real and we were stupid, typically resulted in us getting to practice the first aid techniques my dad’s friend (“Doctor” Terry) had helpfully taught us. This was entirely normal to us – loud nightly commotion, a general tenseness around the house at all times, mostly sleeping during the day unless we bothered to get up to attend school, and a lot of injuries. I know now that regular childhood is full of little injuries, but we were always around blood and getting scratched up and scraped and gouged and bruised, just because the environment was dangerous. To this day I don’t know how we survived except that we picked up the instincts that people who live with weapons and sharp objects lying casually anywhere just happen to develop. No, we did not have shoes. At least not for the kids.

Once I was old enough to understand what was going on I learned that my family – not just my mom and dad but several “uncles” and their girlfriends were a minor part of a drug distribution network. Oddly enough we kids were not conscripted to be a part of it, not until my oldest brother decided on his own he wanted into the lifestyle. It seemed like my parents were doing it mostly because it was all they knew and after we were born they tried to protect us and provide for us in the only way they knew how. Strangely we never had any police trouble (at least at the house) because I think we were pretty far from the front lines and were considered a safe house of sorts where money was counted, weapons were traded and stored (for those who don’t know, guns are considered more secure currency because they can both be traded and used for intimidation), and “product” was moved back and forth. Maybe they were doing this to keep us safe(r), I don’t know. But I do know it was still a chaotic and very scary environment to grow up in as a child.

You probably want to know how I got out of it. Unfortunately that end of the story isn’t too interesting. We had television in the house, my brother and I would watch it, and sort of see (or at least get the idea) that not everyone lived like this. Television is full of happy middle-class families. And we wanted to get out of there. So one day (daytime! when everyone is sleeping!) we grabbed one of the bundles of cash lying around, stuck it in a bag with a change of clothes and took a bus out of town. 800 miles out of town. For awhile we were worried someone would come looking for us but it didn’t happen. Eventually I did call my mom and she was angry but it was clear she was worried and just happy we were alive. We didn’t talk much more than that, she just said, “Well take care of your brother.” My brother and I live in another city now and I have completed a GED and now I go to a state school. Hope that helps clear up some misconceptions.

Manners makith man

What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world?

Nobody is your friend, not even the guys you eat lunch with every day
Nobody is indispensable. Anybody can be laid off any day.
Never waste time listening to management podcasts, attending town-halls or post work self-funded drink parties as they dont have any impact on your salary, promotion or job security.
Try to attend as many technical trainings as you can which are paid for by your employer.
Never send emails late night or over the weekends thinking that people will get impressed. There are already people in your team who have seen it and done it all and only fools work overtime.
Become awesome at the work you do. Focus on learning the latest skills applicable to your field. That will save your life when you are laid off or want to change employer.
Dont waste time on feedbacks or year end assessments and dont take them seriously. No matter how hard you work or the value you add, you will always be made to feel below average.
Fight hard to get a raise by constantly raising your compensation issue with senior managers in private meetings. No company wants to pay more and one needs to snatch his share of goodies.
Never share your family or any other problem/weakness with anybody at work.
Make a genuine effort to help others who need some help from you specific to your knowledge or skill. The cycle of Karma will enable you to get the same help when you need the same.
Never use capital case or offensive words in any written communication that can be used as an evidence of your unprofessional behavior and be used against you.

Their feelings

What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?

I am a remote employee and I keep a company inventory, recently I completed an inventory of my stock. I received word when the higher-ups were reconciling my count that I was missing 5 high dollar items and was questioned, did I “loose” them or did I not count them, it was a significant sum, and I could have lost my job or been held financially responsible for these items. without a reasonable explanation, the boss was pissed as hell at me.

The thing was that just a few months ago, I was requested by the asset manager to send these 5 items across the country to another remote employee and I had an email with the item numbers and serial numbers along with the FedEx tracking numbers to prove they were sent and delivered. The asset manager was responsible for transferring these items into that other inventory.

I found the email and it only took me a few minutes to find it. I was off the hook and the asset manager or more likely one of his staff was in hot water now!

Hoe Phases

What did you notice during an interview that made you not want the job?

I had been job searching for quite some time at this point. I had gotten a job to come in for an interview. For this job, I had interviewed 2 other times for it, so, I was going to be interviewing for a 3rd time. In my mind, I thought, “Maybe they really liked me each time (as I qualified for the job) but they just kept getting really good candidates with more experience then me and so they would just go for the other person” Alas, I went into the interview hopeful and feeling very prepared.

I had arrived promptly for the interview, but the interviewer was extremely late. The interview was for 9am, but they didn’t call me until about 9:40am. I thought, “Maybe they just got really busy?” But, when the interviewer came out to greet me, they offered no sort of apology for being almost an hour late.

Alas, I greeted the interviewer with a smile and a firm handshake. When it was time to interview, they asked me to introduce myself and tell them a little about myself. The interviewer just looked like she was trying not to laugh for some reason. I continued the interview, and for one question, I think it was like “Tell me why we should hire you” and then she literally laughed. She busted out laughing and then tried to compose herself. I have honestly no idea why she did that. There were other interviewers in the room as well, but only she was acting like that. Weirdly enough, I ended up being offered the job, but I declined. Between the interviewer being late, laughing at my answers, and being sarcastic, it just left an “unprofessional” taste in my mouth. I really wanted the job (hence why I interviewed 3 times for it). But if that person was going to be one of my supervisors/ higher ups, I didn’t want to be apart of that company.

Illogical thought

Japan is planning to spend over $2 billion to help its country’s firms move production out of China, and 71% of Americans say US companies should pull out of China. How much does China stand to lose as they lose favor in the manufacturing sector?

China will say thank you very much for vacating valuable (and often choice) factory premises. Local companies will jump at the chance to acquire the sites, because these are often prime land with the best infrastructure and utilities.

China rolled out the red carpet for MNCs and the local government often offered the best preferentially to foreigners.

The problem with the de-shoring narrative is the utter impracticality, because it is nigh impossible to find another country with the set of conditions the mainland offers. China is no longer cheap, and competition is incredible. Factories that remain and prosper are ENABLED by the set of advantages the mainland provides.

The companies that find it attractive to relocate are chasing lower wages, and mostly unaffected by poorer skill, infrastructure and the lack of symbiotic ecosystems.

Scam alert

Jesus H. Christ

What screams “I’m upper class”?

When someone doesn’t understand how everyday mainstream culture works.

I went to college in a town with extreme wealth, but was relatively poor myself so worked at the nearby Burger King for, you know — money.

Occasionally, a wealthy type person would come in and seem totally clueless as to how a Burger King worked. The menu board was overwhelming to them. They’d order their burger “medium rare” or “well-done,” not realizing the burgers simply ran through a machine and they all came out the same.

They usually had unbranded shirts and pants that looked as if they had never been worn before.

Everything was a curiosity to them. I remember one was staring at the straw dispenser, wondering how the straw comes out. I leaned over and pressed the button and out rolled a straw. He seemed giddy about how this invention worked.

Essentially, they are space aliens on Earth for the first time.

Setting up for a crash…

We all need to be objective.

What makes you sad about people living in India?

Yesterday, I saw a young 20 year old married girl in my clinic, who was brought in by her mother in law for surgery for ‘ hole in the heart’

She was suffering from atrial septal defect (ASD) wherin you are born with a hole between two chambers of the heart. The surgical correction when done early on ( before 20–25 years) is very simply and almost risk free. But unfortunately this girl had a large hole and became very very sick. She also developed certain complications making her ASD inoperable.

She was found to have ASD at around 10 years of age but her parents did not get her treated as the stigma of heart surgery will make her ineligible for marriage. So they hid her disease and married her off. Her in laws who discovered her problem about one year back ignored it and now that she is sick, brought her for treatment. They are more concerned that she will be unable to bear children.

The poor young girl is screwed both by her parents and her husband for no fault of hers. Her parents only wanted to get rid of her while her inlaws / husband only want her as child bearing machine.Sad.

Edit: The surgery here in Hyderabad is free for poor patients in the best of private hospitals also ( Govt Aarogyasree scheme). The sad part is due to this delay the heart is irreparably damaged and it is now inoperable .

Bros… Men’s friends

What was a Christmas bonus you got from your company that made you speechless?

I still remember my first year at Campbell Soup Company in 1985. I started on Jan 2 as Assistant Manager of Accounts Payable. I was a glorified clerk who should have been eligible for overtime, but Manager in my title made me exempt.

We were not required to turn in time cards unless we missed work which I didn’t do as I was the new kid. At my six months review I received all high marks except that my boss marked me down for never working overtime. I averaged 10 to 20 hours of overtime a week.

To clue my boss in, I started turning in my time cards every week. A couple of months later the payroll clerk called me to the side and asked me if I wanted my meal money. There were several envelopes for me in the safe.

“What meal money?” I asked. She explained that anyone exempt who worked two hours past quitting time received $2 meal money. I laughed and asked her how long it had been since they had raised the amount. She said it had been that way as long as she had been there, or over 25 years.

At the end of the year, I received my first Christmas bonus, a $5 check. I had worked the year before as a part-time bookkeeper for my parents’ little dress shop and received a $50 bonus check. They paid their sales clerks a $250 bonus.

I framed my $5 check as a reminder that policies should always be reviewed and scrapped or updated as the case may be. It cost more for the company to process those tiny payments than it was worth to the recipients. If you are going to do something do it right or don’t do it at all.

Men are leaving… checking out

Have you ever met someone for the first time and got the strongest feeling that the person was bad?

When I was in college I moved into an old house that had been converted into apartments. Perfect location for me and within the first couple days I had met all the neighbors around me. All seemed normal, until the next door neighbors kid stopped by with the kid who lived across the street from us. The kid may have been 13 or 14 at the time, but he made the hair on my neck stand up. He looked like Malachi, from Children of the Corn, and that was his nick name. He never said anything to me or did anything crazy around me but I always had that spooked feeling around him. I moved a couple years later. One evening I was checking out the news and the headline that day was a body was found in a crawl space. When they showed the house and then the picture came up on the screen I was shocked to see it was the kid across the street from me. He admitted to another killing out of state a few days later. As time went on he confessed to a few more that he had killed. Before any future investigation was done, he took the easy way out via suicide in jail. He was a confirmed serial killer.

Argentina JUST Flipped to the US Dollar | -54% CRASH [President Milei FIRST Move!]

What is oddest crime you’ve ever heard or seen?

Back in 2011, the State of California reported that over 8.3 billion recyclable cans had been recycled that year.

This meant that California’s recycling rate was just under 100 percent; implying that nearly every single can in the state had been recycled.

Now, in an ideal world, such high recycling would be a good thing, and reflect incredible levels of environmental responsibility in California.

But unfortunately, this statistic was too good to be true.

Recycling Fraud…Surprisingly, It’s A Crime

As it turned out, California’s astonishing recycling rates were not the result of widespread environmental awareness. The real reason for this statistic was much more sinister…fraud.

Apart from Oregon, California is the only state with a container return program on the west coast. Due to financial incentive and a lack of regulation, several ‘recycling fraud rings’ popped up, defrauding the program by redeeming millions of ineligible cans.

In 2012, government officials reported that the State of California lost over $40 million every year to fraud. To combat these losses, the Justice Department created “recycling fraud units” to stop “recycling fraud rings”.

This initiative proved to be quite effective in stopping fraud. In late 2018, two Arizona men were arrested for over $16 million worth of recycling fraud. Under the guise of a trucking company, a man named Miguel Bustillos smuggled millions of cans into California for the purpose of defrauding the state government.

[1] If convicted of ‘felony recycling fraud’, Bustillos and his associated could face up to three years behind bars.

“So what are you in for?”

“Recycling fraud…”

I can’t imagine that would net you much respect in a prison setting. This whole thing just seems so surreal to me.

Footnotes

[1] 2 AZ men arrested in $16 million recycling fraud

Fucking awesome

What are three things you should cut out of your life if you are depressed?

When most people get depressed, they tend to start adding things to their life thinking that something will “make them happy”.

This isn’t how it works.

Here are 3 things you should cut out of your life when you’re depressed — based on personal experience.

Alcohol. Nowadays, I enjoy a beer or a glass of wine on the weekend. Maybe 2 if I’m feeling frisky. It’s become a sort of hobby — I like trying a new beer or wine to celebrate getting through a tough week of work or training. However, when I was severely depressed, I cut the stuff out completely. Alcohol tended to amplify whatever I was already feeling, meaning when I was sad, it made me really fucking sad.
Most romantic partners. I’ve dealt with depression on many occasions in my life. I’ve been in relationships during my depression at times, and I’ve been single during my depression at times as well. I’ve only had one partner ever who has been truly supportive during my periods of intense depression and anxiety — the one I’m with now. If a partner isn’t helpful for your mental health, it’s not that they’re bad, but the relationship will struggle.
Crappy diet/exercise habits. For a lot of people, there’s a dietary component to depression. For myself, I know that fried foods, too much food, and too much inactivity can set me off and send me spiraling. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of trial and error in this, but it’s relatively easy to learn to eat better. If something makes you feel bad, stop eating it.

Bad pasts

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rkGdhaJAIL8?feature=share

Tomorrow I start school and the teachers are going to ask the good old traditional question, “Tell me your name and a fun fact about you.” What should I say?

Be careful what you say. My first day of teaching at one district was almost my last.

We were told to have the students put their name, etc on a 3 by 5 card with something about themself. One boy said he was in a gang.

Later that week we had a big meeting about Gangs. Out of thousands and thousands of students 250 were identified as Gang members. Based on my location, the kiddie candy gang.

I had taught in another district where real gang activity existed. Before that I practiced law for 30 years. I had represented one gang in court as a lawyer. I quit criminal law when I got a gang member off and two days later he murdered an 8 year old. I knew Gangs well. I said to the teacher next to me, “ Two hundred and fifty. I got one of them. At my last district there were less than 250 non gang members”. The teacher asked how I knew. I said he wrote it on his card.

The next day the admin appeared and wanted the card. I refused ( although I knew I had no legal ground) and they told me I was fired and searched my room and found it. They then told me I was not really fired.

The boy was expelled. A week later, during school hours, he drove his car into a brick wall and died. 15 years later I still mourn. I never had the chance to find out if his life could be turned around.

Anything you say or write to a teacher is subject to the admin. You have No Privacy. Say your name. Tell them you like sunshine and lollipops.

Some might say this is bad advice. I think kids are lulled into thinking they have a private relationship with a teacher. You don’t.

Really unfortunate for Argentina

What is the most outrageous thing you’ve witnessed in a plane?

Late 70s on an early Sunday afternoon flight from LAX to Toronto on a wide body. I was sitting in the middle row which had 5 across, and a hippie couple sat in front of me with only one other passenger in their row. As soon as the fasten seatbelt light went off they started to get it off, laying across the 4 seats with just a blanket over them. The flight attendant came by and looked at them and did nothing. Shortly after she came back with the pilot and another flight attendant they conferenced then left without doing anything. So I just sat there and watched them go at it for three hours, they would take a short break then go at it again in different positions. I felt sorry for the poor guy in the end seat as their legs would sometimes end up in his lap. I really think they did it for the shock value. To top it all off some guy in a robe was sitting cross legged in the middle of the aisle burning incense. The flight attendants stopped that real fast. I used to fly 200k miles a year and this by far was the most entertaining one I was ever on.

Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?

I once had my apartment broken into while I was gone. The thief harmed my dog, and they stole about $12,000 dollars worth of a certain green substance that people enjoy setting on fire for recreational purposes. I had a pretty good idea who did it, and later I was able to confirm my suspicions.

Keep in mind that I am not some big bad criminal type, but I was counting on the money from the items stolen to pay my rent, utilities, college tuition, and books. So, I made one of the worst decisions of my life, and I went over to this person’s apartment which was in the same complex as mine.

I knocked on the door. He answered.

I walked past him without saying a word, and I turned around and shut the door. I then produced a handgun that had been covered by my shirt. I looked at him, and I very calmly but sternly told him that I knew he was the one who broke into my apartment and that he had about 30 seconds to produce every last bit of what he stole.

He complied, and I placed the items into a gym bag I brought with me.

I told him that he was dead to me, and that I didn’t ever want to see him again. That I was aware that his lease was up at the end of the following month, and that I strongly suggested he not renew it. I then told him that this was for my dog, and I punched him in the nose.

I re-holstered my weapon, and I walked back to my apartment. I was incredibly calm the entire time I was there, but now I was a bit worried that he might be dumb enough to call the cops despite the fact that he had committed multiple serious felonies himself.

I decided to bring the bag and the weapon over to a friend’s apartment that was just next door, and I left it there for the rest of the day. I went back home, and just went about my day. I cooked dinner for myself and my girlfriend, and fortunately the police never showed up.

I never saw the guy again, and he apparently moved out the following month. It wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve ever done, but without the money from the items he stole I wouldn’t have been able to pay my bills or my tuition.

Now, I’m an attorney with an MBA in Finance. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do what I did. I could have gone to prison for 10 years or more. At the time I was desperate though, and I couldn’t exactly call the cops to have them retrieve my stolen property in this case.

Desperation will make people do desperate things. Fortunately for me things worked out well. They could have easily gone badly.

Tax break

What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?

I once convinced one scammer that I was the curator of a major museum in Fort Worth and if he wanted for me to give him money so he could start a similar museum that he would have to send me a birthday present. He asked me what I wanted and told him two billfolds would do. Several weeks later the wallets, very nice ones. arrived from London. The Nigerian scanner was calling long distance. Naturally he did not know that I knew that he was trying to scam our museum. I finally told him to take a hike or I was going to call in federal law enforcement. Textless to say he was madder than hell that I scammed him. After 20 years I still use both of those expensive walkers As far as J know Jam the only potential victim that has ever scanned the scammer

Why older men want to be with younger women

What is an ethical thing that you have done that cost you little or nothing?

A few years ago I was coming out of my local bank when I saw a couple standing near their car looking a bit distressed. I approached them and asked what was wrong. The guy said his battery had died and he couldn’t get the car started. He asked if I would help to push start it.

So I got behind the car with his girlfriend and we started pushing. He popped the clutch and the engine turned over a few times but didn’t start. I told the guy this wasn’t going to work, he needed jumpercables. I only lived 5 min from the bank so I told him I would drive home to get the cables and be right back. The look on his face was a “sure buddy, never going to see you again” expression. I didn’t mind. Got into my car, drove home, got the cables from the garage and drove back.

Whem they saw me arrive they had a surprised look on their faces. I pulled my car up to his and popped the bonnet. Less then a minute later his car was running again. They were both thanking me profusely and wanted to offer me money for the help.

I told him to keep the money and “next time you see somebody needing help, spend a few minutes and help them”.

I hope they did and asked the same of the person they helped.

Didn’t you get the memo?

Why are there no stupid people in Chinese politics?

Very simple, because the stupid people in power were forcibly removed and filtered from the system continuously. Don’t get me wrong, China has statistically some of the most comedic and stupid people in the world because of its large population, they are just kept down and not allowed to harm the country.

Back then during the warlord era (軍閥時代), there was this absolute menace who shared my surname and was called Zhang Zong Chang (張宗昌) who governed the province of Shandong (山東省). He was a massive hedonist who gambled excessively and married 21 women from different countries.

During his rule, he brutally repressed workers rights (see 青島慘案), conscripted an unsustainable large military, wrote some of the most vulgar pseudo-tang poetry (despite being almost illiterate) and basically caused enormous suffering.

He was so intellectually stunted that he not only didnt know how many wives he had, but he also didnt know his own military power or finances (三不知將軍).

Zhang Zongchang once said to his subordinates: “Communism means sharing wives. Sharing wives is of course good, but communism is wrong. Things that can be taken are yours, and things that cannot be taken are not yours! Sharing wives is different. It’s okay to sleep with someone else if you can’t sleep with a woman.”

張宗昌曾對手下人說：「共產主義共產共妻，共妻當然是好的，共產就不對，東西能拿來的才是你的，不能拿來的就不是你的！共妻不一樣，你睡不到的女人和別人睡就沒錯。」

This is why the elite hate communism, and to some extent all result oriented systems. It removes their ability to loot and plunder to maintain their privileges because the playing field has been leveled.

On September 3, 1932, Zhang zongchang was assassinated on a train station using a pistol. No one picked up his body and left it to rot for three whole days. After hearing the news, all the people of Shandong province celebrated and welcomed troops from the Republic of China with open arms.

___

Modern China’s success is because “Communist” China is a meritocracy. This means that those who are given authority are those with skill and experience (or in other words, merit) and not their wealth, smooth talking skills, paramilitary criminal force or dick size. Doctors are qualified only because they pass 6 years of medical school with good grades before they can cure humans, because it involves life and death. Why shouldnt a similar filtering mechanism be installed for political leaders, who control the life and death of many?

This is reflected not only among politburo or chairman poliics, but daily life of people like me. The national pre university exam – 高考 – is based on pure grades, not race or extracurriculars or reference letters.

You gotta do what you gotta do

What’s a red flag that you ignored in a significant other, only to realize it was a big deal later?

My husband was the perfect boyfriend. Once we were married, things drastically changed. I realized it about 5 minutes we were pronounced ““husband and wife.” We got in the limo to be taken to the reception site, and 100% of his attention was on the driver. I couldn’t believe it, but let it go. I knew, however that I had just made a huge mistake. About 2 months into the marriage, when there was no more dating, dancing or flowers, I brought it up to him, and his answer was ““That part of our relationship is over.” What? Really? He then went on to tell me that he “married me,” so he “didn’t have to court” me anymore. Wow! I tried to talk to him, and explained that I fell in love with him because of the way he treated me and that I really wanted “that man back.” He looked at me and told me that that man never existed. He was right. For many years, I sought therapy, thinking there was something wrong with me because this marriage wasn’t working. My history and life made me believe that it must be my fault. I changed who I was way too many times, to the point that I don’t know who I am. The dude’s a freaking narcissist. My idea of what made a narcissist was way off point. Yeah, I’m still married to him, but I protect my heart from him. He’s caused a lot of pain, so we live as roommates, and it works.

Please don’t ask why I stayed, only people that have endured abuse would understand, and I’ve written enough already.

I just wish I wasn’t so weak and vulnerable when I met him. He knew I was the perfect mark. So if you can, and have friends and family to support you, run if you see this kind of behavior. Me? My mother and father were abusive and I had just got out of a 15 year extremely abusive relationship 5 months before I met him. So yeah, I was truly alone.

Go do something

Is currywurst considered a traditional German dish or an Americanized version of it?

Interesting story. The Currywurst was invented by Hertha Heuwer who operated a bratwurst and fast food stand in Berlin-Charlottenburg in September 1949. Hertha’s husband worked with American officers and noticed that they put huge amounts of ketchup on their steaks and told his wife.

Once, on a rainy day, when she had no custumors, Hertha cut a bratwurst in slices and played around with sauces and spices, however without much success. But the butcher Frank Friedrich who delivered bratwursts without casings to Hertha helped her to improve the sauce which finally was made up from tomato paste, bell pepper, paprika powder, spices and especially curry powder. Hence, the wurst was named Currywurst.

In the post-war era, this “exotic” version of traditional bratwurst was a huge success. Hertha’s recipe was immediately imitated by other operators of bratwurst stands and quickly Currywurst was sold all over Germany.

There are variations how to make the sauce. The simplest version is to take just commercial ketchup and curry powder. More elaborate versions use onions, fresh tomatoes and fruit to make the sauce.

The typical Berlin-style Currywurst uses a bratwurst without casing. After the war, casings were in short supply, and Frank Friedrich’s partner had developed a procedure to make sausages without casings. In other parts of Germany, however, ordinary bratwursts with casings are used for Currywurst.

The recipe is simple: Just take a bratwurst, sear or grill it, cut it into pieces and put the sauce on it. Sprinkle with curry powder. Recently, some wurst stand operators have started to add ultra-hot chili sauces. One operator in my hometown boasts that he makes “the world’s hottest Currywurst” because, for his number ten, he uses pure capsaicin. But this is a different story.

So, Currywurst is a kind of fusion. The sausage is traditional German. The curry powder came from England, with roots in Indian masala. The tomato-based sauce was inspired by American ketchup.

Doesn’t it help?

To what extent does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control the lives of its citizens? Is the level of control as severe as it is portrayed on paper, or is it less severe?

Well, this few information should put that matter to rest.

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Birth control

Gibanica

Ingredients

Dough

8 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pint sour cream
2 cups milk (about), scalded
2 ounces yeast
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/4 pound sweet butter

Filling

1 1/2 pounds ground nuts
1 tablespoon honey
3 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy milk or cream
1/3 cup sweet butter

Instructions

Dough: Dissolve yeast in about 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 cup warm water; let stand until it bubbles.
Sift flour in large bowl and add salt and 1/2 cup sugar.
In another bowl beat 3 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and sour cream; add yeast; add scalded milk and sweet butter which was added to the milk and cooled. Add this to the flour bowl and knead to a soft silky dough, not sticky. Let rise in a greased bowl until double in bulk. Make sure the dough is soft as it has to stretch.
On floured cloth roll dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness; stretch gently so it won’t break. Stretch oblong about 30 x 20 inches (use rolling pin if necessary) and fill with following filling.
Filling: Scald milk with butter.
In bowl add ground nuts, honey, vanilla extract, sugar and pinch of salt, then add scalded milk with butter. Mix, then add stiffly beaten egg whites. If thick, add a little more milk. Spread on dough like you would for nut roll and roll like a jellyroll (make as sweet as desired).
Grease roasting pan 4 to 6 inches in depth and fill pan; start at one edge of pan; make a “U” shape. Do not cut if roll is longer; turn again. Brush with milk. Prick with knife on top for air bubbles. Let stand 1 hour.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
Remove from oven and brush with butter. Let cool, then flop it on a cloth and place it on a rack to cool.

Source: Anne Price – Our Favorite Recipes – St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church

What are some things that people who live in places with brutally low temperatures know, that the rest of us don’t?

Air heat pumps barely function below minus 20 C, propane gels at minus 40, that most electric cars can not be charged below minus 40. Below minus 40, you can throw water in the air, and it won’t be liquid when it hits the ground. Depending on the metal, but metals get brittle at low temperatures, and below minus 40 they can snap at a much lower pressure than normal. If you are running heavy equipment, don’t even bother to try and use it below minus 30, because something will break., and starting a cold engine is very hard, and the oil is so thick, it will take time to flow through the transmission and engine. Most likely hydraulic lines will burst, but you can snap a thick piece of steel.

Flesh freezes in minutes. A friend was working outside in minus 50, and he had to remove a mitten to adjust a crescent wrench, and he didn’t put the mitten back on while he tightened the bolt. The bolt or nut snapped, and his hand hit the aluminum tower, it split wide open, in the fleshy part between the thumb and index finger. It didn’t bleed. He had to go the hospital. He could have lost his hand if he kept working in that cold.

You always wear mitts, not gloves, gloves don’t provide enough protection.

Wolverine guard hairs dont frost up, so are used on parka fringes.

Hard liquor, vodka, rum, rye, gin freezes at about minus 34.

Delusional

What is the most condescending advice you received from someone who assumed you were poorer or less educated than them?

I’m constantly considered to be an uncouth, unwashed plebeian. Particularly at restaurants. I guess I give off that ‘air’. Wait-staff constantly try to help me with my “mistakes”.

Examples:

I order seared ahi tuna. Waiter: “Sir, I just wanted to make sure you understand that the fish is mostly raw”.

Different restaurant, I order a calamari appetizer. Waitress: “You understand those aren’t onion rings sir, right?”

Even my wife calls me “peasant” sometimes (but I admit — I married above my station — she’s awesome and a hell of a sense of humor).

It’s become the family joke. My kids make bets to see how unsophisticated some new place is going to assume I am.

It must be the way I talk. I work in IT and while I have some very high-level responsibilities (a few applications I’ve written and maintain for my corporates overlords and maintain a few server farms in two states) I’m located smack-dab in the middle of Los Angeles — and I’m the only IT guy within 100 miles. We have way too many locations in LA for *just* me. Hope that changes soon. Anyway, sometimes I need to crawl under desks and field some “try turning it off and back on” type stuff that our help desk failed to filter properly.

My boss is constantly getting feed back about me from our non-IT remote staff on how I’m a “breath of fresh air” and that I don’t make them feel like they are dumb. I use simple language to describe what I’m doing, not techno-jargon. I’m not a fan of silence, so while I’m fixing something remotely, I explain what I’m doing or I explain why I’m asking them to do something. Again, in plain English. No alphabet acronyms.

Maybe when it’s time to retire, I’ll transfer to the helpdesk…

What is it called when a boss tries to make someone’s job hard so they will quit?

It is often termed “constructive dismissal” or “creating a hostile work environment.” Legally, such behavior can be categorized as workplace harassment or bullying, involving deliberate actions with the intention of making an employee’s job challenging in the hope that they will voluntarily resign. I strongly recommend discussing the issue with your manager to understand the reasons behind their actions. Alternatively, you can reach out to the HR department, if available in your company, to address and resolve the situation. You may also suggest implementing productivity tools such as Connecteam or Trello to streamline work tasks and proactively prevent similar issues in the future.

Money on solar panels

What is the most humiliating thing that happened to you at a McDonald’s?

More horrifying than humiliating. I lost track of my 3 year old grand daughter. She was playing on the playscape. I wrongfully answered a call on my phone.

After the call, my girl was gone. I climbed. through the playscape. I checked the bathrooms. I was nuts. I started screaming. The manager came and locked the doors except the emergency exit and he had a worker standing there. I was running around screaming her name. I told them to call the police.

Everyone was looking at me like I was the worst person alive. I was. Suddenly I heard a little voice say “ Nama” I looked around and did not see her. But I heard “Nama” again and caught some movement at a table.

At the table were the two most grotesque “women” I have ever seen. I don’t think they were female nor were they trans or cross dressers. They were in horrid disguise. They had a little girl with black hair, my grand was a red head. I got closer and could tell the child had black eyebrow pencil on and dark make up smeared on.

I got closer to the table. The child said “Nama, I pay make up” The two grotesque things said nothing but were looking at the door.

I reached over and pulled the black wig off the child… and grabbed my grand daughter and ran. I ran out the emergency door setting off an alarm. I threw her in the car, seat belt be damned and took off

As I turned out of the McDs I saw a car sitting there with the engine running with only one man in it. I screeched back and saw the license plate was mudded over. So I drove. I drove for 30 minutes making sure no one was following.

Then I cried for another 30.

McDs was very cooperative but the way their cameras were set, that was the only table not seen. Evidently the two grotesque things ran out the emergency door after me.

They were clearly in disguise.

They were never identified.

Of course I was humiliated. I neglected my duty as my grand’s care giver. But humiliation was deserved and I was horrified.

I still have nightmares.

Watch the kids The call will wait!!!

Ok folks. I don’t want one more virtue mongerer to chastise me that I should have waited for the police.

Exactly who do you think was going to hold them there until the police arrived?

You think they were going to sit and have a coke until the police got there to arrest them? Do you think the McDonalds manager was going to jump in and hold them down and end up potentially liable, after they beat the crap out of the manager getting out?

Maybe I should have made a citizen’s arrest and ordered them to wait while I cuffed them with straws or ketchup packets?

What makes you think they would not have just decked me and took her back and out the door.

I was almost 70 and on chemo. I wasn’t a 30 year old cop. Such virtue mongering by people who think kidnappers just hang around to be arrested and who have clearly never been in such a situation. But they sure think they would save the day. Pathetic.

Artichoke-Parmesan Phyllo Bites

Ingredients

3 (6 ounce) jars marinated artichoke hearts, undrained
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 clove garlic, minced
10 sheets frozen phyllo pastry, thawed

Instructions

Drain artichoke hearts, reserving marinade; set marinade aside.
Position knife blade in food processor bowl; add artichoke hearts, 1/2 cup cheese and garlic. Pulse 4 times or until artichoke hearts are finely chopped. Set aside.
Place 1 phyllo sheet on wax paper (keep remaining phyllo covered). Lightly brush phyllo sheet with oil portion of reserved marinade; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of remaining cheese. Top with another phyllo sheet; brush lightly with oil portion of reserved marinade. Cut phyllo sheet in half lengthwise. Cut each half crosswise into thirds, making 6 sections, each measuring approximately 6 x 5 inches. Place a heaping teaspoon of artichoke mixture in center of each phyllo section. Gather corners of phyllo over filling, and gently twist to close. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat procedure with remaining phyllo sheets, marinade, cheese and artichoke mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes or until golden.
Serve immediately.

Makes 30.

You don’t seem to understand

How much time does the USA need to take over China?

US failed to take over Afghanistan, failed to take over Iraq, failed to take over Vietnam. Each time the US tried with small weak countries it found that the people kept fighting them and so basically the US never controlled the population. Really expect that if the US could not take over those small countries it could succeed in a country that is almost as large as the United States in area and four times the population. It cost $7 trillion for the wars in the Middle East. Extrapolation says that it will cost 10 times as much to attempt the same with China. However, the US has a huge roadblock to overcome to invade Russia and that is that its ships cannot close on the Chinese coast without being sunk it could not land or supply units on the coast of China

US military leaders have admitted that China controls the seas within something like a 1000 kilometers of China, and every simulation of of conflict between China and the US in the region ends up with the US losing badly. Let us assume that the US can land on the coast of China, it will need a lot more men than it currently has in the military, like a factor of 40. China has 1.4 billion people while Afghanistan and Iraq had something like 40 million, and China is massive compared to those countries. Keep having your wet dreams because that is all they are.

Relaxing To Purring Cats And Cozy Fireplace for Peaceful Night 🔥 Deep Sleep, Relax, Study

This is a new one.

Swimming in cockroaches

I used to live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. And I loved it. What a nice and lush forest full of flowers. But like all things, I only was able to work there for a few years until I was laid off. Those lay offs really sucked, I’ll tell you what.

Anyways, I had a really nice house in a low area on the edge of a swamp. It was great. Glorious. With high temperatures, and humidity, it was super lush. My house was brown with nice green shutters and doors, and a nice slab parking garage.

Then I got laid off.

What a nightmare. I do not want to relive that. I’ll tell you what.

But, anyways, we had a bug-control man come over every month to spray for the cockroaches. Oh, they grew them BIG in Hattiesburg. And there were so many of them, at night the ground looked like it was moving. Like you were trippin’ or something like that.

So to save up money, we decided to cancel our monthly bug spraying.

Well, one week goes buy, and my cats were busy catching cockroaches. We would find dead cockroaches on the half-shell everywhere. But they got tired of it. You can only catch so many.

On the second week, I saw one my socks waking across the room.

By the third week we were hearing sounds in the walls, and periodic electrical shorts in our outlets. And then, but the end of the fourth week, when the television was covered with cockroaches, we made an emergency call to the exterminator to put on his flashers and race to us; we told him to come over immediately!

And he actually did.

Flashing red lights, and alarm! No kidding!

Jezze!

Lesson learned. If you live in a warm climate… please bug spray. Let me tell you, Joe’s Apartment (a fun movie) didn’t do that nightmare justice.

We were Swimming in cockroaches!

Today…

What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?

The cemeteries are full of people who thought themselves indispensable.
Nothing is certain except for death and taxes.
Everyone is a whore. We just sell different parts of ourselves.
Worry is today’s mouse eating tomorrow’s cheese.
Some people will only “love you” as much as they can use you.
Love is a crock pot, not a deep fryer.
Looking for others to validate your sense of worth will always end in ruin.
If it’s free, you’re probably the product.
Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.
The days will be long, but the years will be short.

The unimportant things

How would you deal with a supervisor who passes off your work as their own?

Had this happen in my first job. Learned my lesson.

Next time there was a review coming up ( about two months later ) I wrote up a synopsis of my work ( and my colleagues work) and delivered it to my manager’s manager two days before.

We then had the review where my manager misrepresented the work that was done, whose idea it was, and the results.

Not much happened. So two weeks later I went back to my manager’s manager with my request for a transfer. I was doing about 60% of the work in my team of 3; building all the scripts, generating the data for reports, including working at night and weekends because I was single.

When the department head indicated he was reluctant to approve the transfer I told him that was OK and that I’d have my desk cleared out by the end of the week. I knew that there was the possibility that this wouldn’t work out so I had been interviewing. I also knew that the firm had gone to a lot of trouble to recruit and train me & that having me leave would look bad.

I got my transfer.

Eggs with Peppers and Sausage

Ingredients

1 large onion, sliced
1 pound Italian sweet peppers or banana peppers, seeded and cut into strips
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 pound fully cooked smoked sausage links, cut into thin slices
6 fried eggs

Instructions

Cook onion and peppers in oil in skillet, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 15 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes, paprika and sugar. Cover and cook over low heat 15 minutes.
Stir in sausage; cook uncovered until sausage is hot, about 5 minutes.
Top with fried egg.

6 servings

What is the best piece of advice you could give someone about life?

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back into your pocket.
Never ask how stupid someone is, cause they’ll turn around and show you.
Don’t approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.
Stop looking for someone to love you & start looking for someone that deserves your love – tap here to meet your ideal match.

You don’t ask, you don’t get.There are plenty of ways to enter a pool. The stairs is not one of them.If a street performer makes you stop walking, you own him a buck.When entrusted with a secret, keep it.Date with standards, not expectations. Just sit back and see if they can meet your standards or not.Just because you can doesn’t mean you shouldYou only get one chance to notice a new haircut.Don’t dumb yourself down.You are what you do, not what you sayDon’t lose sight of the hobbies you enjoyed as a child. They will help you live as you grow older.Don’t let your yearnings get ahead of your earning.Don’t dig for water under the outhouse.Dating advice you should know: if they like you, you’ll know. If they don’t, you’ll be confused.

Mythology and bullcrap

What’s it like to be rich as in 1% rich?

My parents started middle class and worked their way to the 1%.

It isn’t this huge party. But there are some basic things you don’t worry about as much.

It is weird because I didn’t grow up wealthy at all. And had a strict-as-hell dad.

At some point after I left home, things really ramped up. My dad left the military and became a high ranking exec with SAP.

My mom started a vineyard at their farm. And sold off a lot of great real estate investments she’d made over the years.

But you would never know it if you bumped into them at the store or something. They have very humble personalities. If you went to their home however..

When I wake up in the morning in their guest room I get to enjoy a view like this:

When I visit they spend most of their time working around the house and on the farm. We don’t really sit still much. And even when we are it is because we are working on something. We are worker-bees.

Also, I think everyone has a misconception as to how wealthy the top 1% is. 10 years ago, even I had the impression that 1%ers don’t work hard and take 9 vacations a year. I think it is just different if you started small and got there in your middle age and have kids.

At that point, you are more concerned with managing everything and making sure your kids are doing OK.

(Maybe that it is .01 percenters that do all that laying around by the pool…)

Either way I love visiting my parents, but every time I get home here in Florida my house feels really really small! 🙂

I like them big, big

What is the most savage thing you’ve ever done?

I roasted a girl using nothing but a Venn Diagram

This happened in English class back in 2018, and the second it happened, I literally searched for a question that this answer would correlate to. The rest was history.

Okay, so class had just started. The teacher was marking the roll on her laptop, and some girl named Sophie was at her desk to ask her something.

“Ethan James?”

“Yeah, here!”

Then, suddenly, Sophie was like

“Ethan James; absence explained? What does that mean, Ethan? Why is your absence explained?”

I had zoned out, but I perked up upon hearing my name. As one does. I realized what was happening, and I started monologuing.

“Hey, can I get the whiteboard for a sec?”

I said, addressing my teacher. She obliged.

I drew one circle on the board.

“Sophie, you see this circle? This circle represents the status of my attendance.”

I then drew another circle next to it but not connected.

“You see this other circle, Sophie? That second circle represents your business.”

“Yeah. Okay” Sophie was confused.

“Now, Sophie, do you see any correlation between the two?”

“No.”

“My point exactly.”

What is it that nobody tells you about having children?

We have three kids. The oldest is 18, and the youngest is 4. So, for 18 years now, our lives have revolved around raising our children. My life in particular has been more child-raising intense, because I’m home with them more often and I took on the role of primary domestic engineer in our marriage.

I was prepared for how expensive kids would be, and the good times and bad times and whatnot.

But lately, I’ve been experiencing something no one warned me about: not knowing what to do with myself as my children gain independence.

Just in the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that my youngest can get her own snacks, turn on the TV and find her shows by herself, entertain herself with her own toys, and even tuck herself in at night. When my other children did this, I was either still busy in grad school, or had another baby who needed my attention.

But now, I’m finding myself, more and more, looking for things to do as my children do their own thing.

Before sitting down to write this, I asked both of my youngest children if they’d like to play something with me. They both said no. I wasn’t prepared for that. Normally, they’d jump on the chance to play with me. They’d insist on it. But right now, they’re each playing by themselves.

I’ve heard that business owners sometimes have a similar problem: they dedicate so many years to getting their businesses off the ground, that once those businesses are successful, and they have employees who do most of the work, the owners aren’t sure what to do with their new free time.

On the upside, my house has never been cleaner. I filled the unexpected free time this week by cleaning. Now, there’s not even much of that to do.

I predict I’m going to be one of those people who retire, and six months later find another job out of boredom.

Statement of reality

What do you do when someone has road rage and tries to follow you home to fight you?

I was going home on a two-lane highway on my motorcycle when a speeding 18-wheel truck came up behind me and started crowding me. I’m talking about an 80,000 lb tractor-trailer so close that I couldn’t see his windshield above the grille in my mirrors.

I was nearly to my left-turn to my road and I was afraid he couldn’t see my brake light or turn signal so I speeded up a little with my signals on, but he speeded up also. So I punched the throttle and jumped out about 100 feet in front of him, grabbed the clutch and stomped on my back brake to lock the 4.10 back tire to make smoke for about two seconds and then left off the brake and clutch and punched the throttle again. Mister Tailgater was doing the shimmy-shake trying to keep his trailer behind his cab in my mirrors and using both lanes to do it while I rocketed past my turn and outran him to the small town a mile away. I parked next to a friend’s business and upon being greeted and hearing the 18-wheeler grinding to a stop out front I ask the store owner, “Hey Spider, if you’ve got that sawed-off shotgun under the counter, I might need to borrow it in a minute.”

Fortunately, the trucker stared at the business for a minute and then drove away.

Ministry reveals UK’s MI6 using foreign national for espionage targeting China

China’s national security authority recently uncovered a case involving the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, using foreign nationals to engage in espionage activities against China, the Ministry of State Security announced on Monday morning.

In a statement, the ministry said that in 2015, MI6 established an “intelligence cooperation relationship” with a foreign national surnamed Huang, who served as the head of a consulting firm overseas.

The statement did not identify Huang’s nationality.

Subsequently, MI6 instructed Huang to enter China multiple times. Under its guidance, Huang gathered intelligence related to China and identified prospective individuals for MI6’s counterespionage efforts, according to the ministry.

MI6 also provided professional intelligence training to Huang in various locations, including the UK, and equipped him with specialized spy equipment for intelligence exchange and communication, it said.

Through meticulous investigation, the national security authority promptly discovered evidence of Huang engaging in espionage activities and took criminal compulsory measures against him.

Upon examination, it was determined that Huang provided MI6 with 14 pieces of classified information and three intelligence reports, the statement said.

Throughout the investigation, the national security authority has kept the consulate of Huang’s country informed on his case and has arranged consular visits for him, ensuring the protection of his legal rights in accordance with the law, it added.

Sawed Bones!

What is the rudest thing another shopper has told you while waiting in line?

I think we could all write a book about this but the rudest I heard was from a pharmacist while I was waiting in line for a prescription, not the other customers. My two year old daughter was potty training and doing a good job. That day she wanted to wear her big girl panties. She had been doing so for months.

The wait was long at the Drug Store. She needed to use the restroom. I asked if there was a restroom. The pharmacist barked “ no” at me. I explained the situation and asked if she could just use the employee rest room since we had waited a half hour already.

The pharmacist said “She will just have to wet her pants”. Really? I turned to my child and said. “Honey, just pee on the floor here. This place is just one big potty. “. My two year old politely squatted and peed all over the floor. The pharmacist was screaming. I said “ honey, this nice man will clean it up right after he gives me my paper back so we can go somewhere else. “

There were a lot of mothers also waiting and everyone found it quite funny but the pharmacist. I went back to that drug store a few years later and they had installed a public restroom.

PS. Whether you think I was right or wrong is of no matter to me. But the fact that some people think I did this over the use if the bathroom shows I did not make myself clear. I was a lawyer. Had the pharmacist said their insurance did not allow public use or said I might try xxx store that has a public restroom, no problem I get that. I could have taken her to the car and used a McDonald’s cup. It was that this man told a little girl to just wet her pants. Had she wet her pants the result would have been the same on the floor. I just decided to avoid the wet pants part and show this man that he was not providing customer service-of any form. I’m sure the issue of needing a restroom had come up before. The store should have had an appropriate response. There are Federal laws in place now concerning employee only restrooms.

New kitten

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Yes, and it all worked out beautifully: another employee in a different section whom I did not know well and was not particularly friendly with went out of his way to tell me that my bosses wanted to hire a woman to replace me (I am a man) and not just any woman, but one hot enough for them to ogle and flirt with. That is the kind of pervs that they were. After hearing that, I wiped my company-issued Macbook Air clean, mentally checked out, and waited for my last day.

After I had left the company, I heard that they did ogle and flirt with her, and I was told that they had hired her specifically for her charms – she flirted right back.

A few months later I got the delicious news that they had taken her on a business trip to meet the company’s most important client. In short, a good time was had by all, and she ended up fucking an employee at the client’s headquarters.

It gets better, a sympathetic former co-worker told me that he had dug around and found that my replacement had a police record (shoplifting I think) and her mugshot was online.

When I heard this news I sent an anonymous email to just the right person at the client’s headquarters describing the sex and a link to the mugshot and the fallout was magnificent: the client demanded that my replacement be fired, and she was, and my company’s reputation with their most important customer was ruined (they didn’t lose all the business, however).

Suddenly my old bosses were checking out my LinkedIn profile and I had the pleasure of blocking all three.

Millions of American’s Begin Moving into Vans | VanLife EXPLODES on Google Trends

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

Me: Hello, I’d like to book a room please mate?

Concierge: I’m sorry sir, we’re fully booked out. I can recommend a place down the road.

Me: How is it possible you are booked out? I’m looking at “Booking dot com” right here on my phone and it says you have a room going here.

Concierge: I’m sorry sir, we’re fully booked out. (and then smiles at me like I’m some sort of idiot)

Me: Okay, I suppose I’ll work something out.

Concierge: Yes sir. Sorry sir. (looks down at whatever it is Concierges do when they are not serving someone)

I step away from the concierge desk and think to myself… What happens if I simply press “Book Now” so… I didn’t think, I just pressed “Book Now”. The message comes back with my booking confirmation code. Bear in mind, not a single person is in the foyer, and not a single person has been and spoken to the concierge in the last 20 seconds since I stepped away from the concierge desk.

Me: “Mate, I’d like to check in please.”

Concierge: Certainly sir do you have a booking?

Me: (stunned he doesn’t recognise me from 20 seconds ago) Um, yes, here it is on my phone.

Concierge: Excellent sir, do you have any bags the porter can take up to your room for you Sir?

Me: Narr, it’s okay I only have this one bag. I’ll be okay.

I was thinking all the way up to my room in an elevator with the porter guy that had a single carry bag on a huge dome shaped brass pipe top with a red carpet floor baggage cart…

… “WTF just happened”

Picture this with one case on it. That case is the size of a case that you pull along for a two day stop over…

Like this… on that huge trolley.

Its that easy

Should a boss be allowed to fire an employee for something they do outside of work?

Tricky.

I once was fired from a job after a night out drinking with friends. Of course, most of the friends were work friends.

One of them mentioned they were worried about upcoming changes to the department and thought it was odd they were told to not do their job when they came in each day.

I told him … they’re going to fire you. (I had no idea…I wasn’t told anything, I was guessing) BUT i told him to never stop doing his job … that it was a test to see if they needed him at all. Turned out I was right. But someone told my boss that I had made this prediction.

I was terminated for professionalism. Off the clock, after hours, not on site … with no first hand knowledge shared.

When they brought me into my bosses office to fire me, I started to say “You can’t do this…” followed by “of course you can, otherwise we wouldn’t be here at this point.” I accepted it and turned in all my stuff, gave them notes on where I was in various projects and thanked them for the time and experience. To which my director literally said ” Thanks for your professionalism” I grinned and said “well it’s professionalism that got me fired according to you.”

And ai walked out of there and got a job paying 40% more in as month.

They can fire you for any reason and for no reason. They can even fire you for illegal reasons if they just cover it with a legal looking one. Ultimately, you can’t let it affect you. Sure money is going to be different and plans will change but you’ll get through it and you wouldn’t want to work somewhere that wants to fire you but can’t in the end.

What psychological facts really leave an impression on you?

When someone dies by suicide, it’s because they want to end their suffering, not necessarily their life.
Other people tend to see you as around 20% more attractive than you see yourself.
People who had a difficult or unhappy childhood are more likely to have a fear of being happy.
Having a pet is connected to better brain health as we get older.
Kids are less likely to trust people they perceive as not good-looking.
If someone is already feeling depressed, being addicted to social media can make their depression worse.
Almost one-third of American adults are online pretty much all the time.
Reading fictional stories when you’re young can help you develop a more complex way of looking at the world.
The first person you look at when you enter a room is usually the one you feel most threatened by.

This is REAL world War 3

Why does the ASML CEO seem worried about the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, despite previously stating “Even if we provided them with the drawings, they wouldn’t be able to make it.” regarding China’s technological capabilities?

When an Industrial leader gets arrogant and snobbish, there will be a D-day to it.

Lets look in perspective. As an experience sputtering process engineer, when i look at the EUV machine, I find that they are too elaborating. It consume hell of electricity and Hydrogen. The from my common sense if that if we can plough electron by electron onto an anode of cathode, I am sure we can make Nodes like a 3D printer. So I was right , now Cannon has done exactly that and they can produce cheaper chips then DUV and EUV… with the baggage of high energy cost and high H2 consumption. I believe Liang Mong Song already taught about long after he left Samsung. Cheers to China for giving the WEST as good bashing. When the old guards of China, Wen Jia Pow has stated we should share roles and work, but the American will never understand and Taiwan will face the music when they fondle American ideology to the hilt. As a staff in American MNC for more then a decade, I see the blind corners which will kill the American innovation. American Capitalism is all about me and not us.

Is China peacefully bullying the Philippines in the Spratleys?

No the U.S. is aggressively bribing poor fishermen away from fishing for their families to stir up shit on Chinese boats for thousands of dollars of cold hard cash paid in the high seas by CIA and NED operatives. That is precisely what happened.

All is well ap to now. The Pinoy fishermen are happy getting easy money, Bumbong Marcos U.S. happy the U.S. released his family wealth stuck in the U.S. and Philippine governments get more free money or bribes to allow US more bases. The money is used to improve infrastructures where China win the contract. You can say the U.S. pays for Philippine infrastructure!

So China prosper, US can shout it has more bases, fishermen are happy. But the only victims are Americans who will pay and pay and pay! If I were China I would bribed the fishermen to rob the CIA and NED cash by the boat loads to bribed them. That will bring peace faster.

Cat sleeping advice

What have you learned from Quora that you didn’t know before?

Survival: If you get lost in the wilderness, find a river, that will lead you to a town. Most towns (or people) live near water of some sort.
Happiness: Muting politics on social media platforms makes them 1000% better.
Indian Career Paths: Roughly 70% of Indians study Engineering (this blows my mind).
Trolls: There are very unhappy people in the world. They will leave mean, racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, virtually any ugly comment they can think of – to make others share their misery.
Driving: If someone cuts you off in traffic – it is more effective to give them a thumbs down than flip them off. This will cause them to rethink their actions.
Losing: Smile at the person who defeats you. It will steal their joy in defeating you.
Oops: If you find chewing gum on clothes or the carpet, put an ice cube on it for 2 minutes, it will become hard and come off easily.
Restaurant: If you find a fly in your soup, before sending it back, put a ton of salt into the soup. That’s the only way you’ll know they re-cooked new soup rather than send the same soup back out.

Do you know of any human interest stories that are both moving and at the same time outrageous?

“I realized my life was too valuable to let go of,” she said. “And that gave me the courage to survive.”

This is the story of Alison Botha, on December 18, 1994, she was abducted in her car near home by two strangers who took her to an area outside the city in South Africa and by the end of the night, she had been raped brutally and stabbed 30 times in the abdomen, to mutilate her reproductive organs and 16 times to her throat.

Alison Botha, with knife mark on her throat.

She said, “all I could see was an arm moving above my face making a sound. A wet sound, it was the sound of my flesh being slashed open. He was cutting my throat with the knife. Again and again and again.”

“Do you think she’s dead?” one attacker asked. “No one can survive that,” the other replied. They were apparently satisfied that they had killed her ’cause she was almost decapitated, so they left her for dead, but Botha was still breathing and could see car headlights coming through the bushes.

She started trying to get onto the road and as soon as she pulled herself up, she felt something slimy coming out from her abdomen, her intestines. She had to use one hand to keep her gut from spilling out and the other hand to hold on to her own head, ’cause it started to fall backward.

A young veterinary student named Tiaan Eilerd, who was driving down to Port Elizabeth from Johannesburg, saw Botha lying in the middle of the road and stopped. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors were stunned by her horrific wounds. She was soon able to identify attackers from police pictures while she was still in the hospital. This led to the arrest of the “Ripper Rapists,” as they were named in press release.

Both attackers were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in August 1995. But after serving 28 years, both were granted parole in July 2023.

Alison Botha soon became a motivational speaker and began traveling around the world, telling her story in different countries. She is one of the first women from South Africa to speak publicly about rape, she helped inspire other survivors to come forward and tell their stories to the world.

Note: If you are a victim of rape and planning to commit suicide, and if you change your mind after reading this story, then this would be a big favour on me. The only purpose of writing this is to let you know that you are precious, I just want to motivate you to live ’cause the world needs you. Please do me a favour

What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?

Maybe not the oddest but it gave me a chuckle.

Unknown number comes up on my work phone, not unusual, so I answer and am greeted by someone with an Asian accent, enquiring about the accident I had been involved in, having had far too many of these over the years I responded with, It only happened this morning how did you know, well sir we work very closely with your insurance company, this was the point I put the phone on hand’s free, and the rest of the office tuned in, Well I am very glad you called I was driving along the A1 near Catterick and someone drove straight into my vehicle, the caller was most concerned for my health and wellbeing, which I informed them that I was very shocked and shaken, I am now passed to a supervisor who needs Details so road A1, location Catterick, vehicle Scorpion, speed 65, damage scuffed the paintwork,

There was a pause as they went through the information, um sir I am struggling to find your car, you can’t find it it’s a very common vehicle around here, can you please give me a bit more detail please certainly it’s a Scorpion CVRT, no sir I am still struggling to find your vehicle, really I am not sure if you will be able to help me if you can’t even find my vehicle, It’s a Scorpion Combat Vehicle Recce Tracked, it’s a Tank mate definitely scuffed the paintwork terribly, silence from the other end of the phone, followed by a single expletive, and call ended.

Funny enough it’s the only phonecall I have ever got a round of applause for as well as much laughter.

What is the most tasteless thing you have seen people on a cruise do?

My mom and I go on a cruise every year for her birthday. I am disabled and have a walker for my immense back pain, I cannot stand for long periods of time, so it has a seat. My mom and I wait ONE HOUR in a line WE started to get into a show just so we could get our choice of seats (first come, first serve). A queue starts behind us about 20 minutes before the show and we are happy that we waited as we wanted to record from a very specific seat (middle isle). This woman shows up with her son in a wheelchair from the cruise liner, and proceeds to stand right in front of the entry doors of the venue. My mother and I give her the benefit of the doubt and my mother proceeds to let her know there is a line behind us (it wraps around a hallway). She looks at my mother and completely ignores her, sees a tall man walking past and says to him, loudly, ‘can you believe this woman wants me to get in line when my son is in a wheelchair?!’ The son is literally silent the WHOLE TIME with a small cast over his left foot. The man looks around the corner and sees me sitting in my walker. He says to the lady, ‘she has a disabled person in line too.’ The lady responds, ‘so?’ The man just walks off. My mom tells the whole line what happened. The line just ignores everything and shrinks back, trying to avoid the conflict. I am in shock about the whole thing and only getting angrier, by the fact the cruise liner crew isn’t telling her to move for blocking the door, OR asking her to get in line. I’m so angry by everyone’s actions I can’t even react. The doors open and she proceeds to sit EXACTLY WHERE WE WANTED TO SIT. The crew even offer to take the boy’s wheelchair since they aren’t allowed to leave them in the small isles! Even remembering this trip now upsets me. I couldn’t be more angry at myself for not saying anything and trying to stay calm. I should have just acted like I had NO MANNERS like her! Apparently the ‘squeaky wheel gets the grease’.

That was last year, the horrible time we had because of this lady just makes me cringe every time I think about it. I hope the woman reads this and remembers how she ruined what was before that moment, a beautiful and fun vacation. I hope she learned some manners or stays home, no amount of money can make her worth anyone’s time.

*EDIT* Thanks to everyone with the kind and understanding comments. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so heard. I think this event effected me so much BECAUSE I try to be thoughtful of others constantly and don’t get out much. Writing this out and getting validated with positive responses have really helped me, thank you. Please be aware you have made a difference in my life.

LOL Pickup

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/44HWGYM66fM?feature=share

When you worked on cruise ships, what’s the shadiest thing you’ve seen a passenger do?

There are many cheaters and “professional complainers” among the guests making nice business from giveaways and compensations. I personally recall one amiable couple who, while being alone in the corridor, hid the “caution, wet floor” sign. Then, they went straight to the reception desk, man literally shouting at the poor receptionist that his wife had just accidentally slipped there and injured her back. They caused a small scandal: hotel manager was called in to calm them down, medical staff treated the “injured” woman, and safety officer scolded the poor cleaning lady responsible for the corridor. Nobody was able to find “caution wet floor” sign that ought to be there, so the guests seemed to be right and were offered a financial compensation + next cruise for free. However, what cheating guests didn’t know was that there are many security cameras on the ship, some of them smartly hidden… So when the couple was invited to the hotel manager’s office next day, they expected to settle the details of their compensation. Hotel manager kindly greeted them, asked them to make themselves comfortable and said something like: “Before we proceed with the compensation, let me show you one short movie.” The couple watched with awe the TV screen, showing them hiding the sign from the floor to the locker and then running to the reception. With this proof in hand, hotel manager offered them choosing between two ways of “compensations”: 1) Trial at court. 2) Putting them on passenger blacklist shared with ALL cruise ship companies, that denies them of taking any cruise till the rest of their lives. They chose no. 2) .

Have you or a coworker been fired which then caused the company fail?

Yup, it was a famous named restaurant, I was the man who brought the inspection rating up from a 50 to a 98 percent,I also kept the lights on and the orders paid up to date, as well as didn’t have a huge turn over of employees. But some punk ass wanna be with out the education I had of running a business as well as the decades of experience had help in getting me bumped out of my job, little snot nosed shit sitting in my office telling me he’s my boss. 2 weeks into his employment he fires me. Okay fine I really don’t care, then this is the best part, he had no clue of how to do what I did, called me at home asking me for instructions. I gleefully told him there is no way that I’m going to teach you in a few minutes that took a life time to aquire in education and actually experience. You got what you wanted at my expense which was my job that you figured was up for grabs, I’m not going to help you, you’re on your own. 3 months later the business was shut down, and that was your Burger King at the Sunset Esplanade in Hillsboro Oregon that now the same building was remodeled into the chase bank. Thats karma at its best, screw me out of my life long career choice and not only did you lose me, but 45 other people lost out in the process.

What is the worst/weirdest thing you saw someone doing when you walked in?

I went away for the weekend, and my roommate was planning on having a big party, since he wouldn’t disturb me.

We had a huge backyard and they decided to have a competition for the coolest explosion, without gun powder. You know the mentos and diet coke, and the baking soda and vinegar, over filled balloons kind of thing. Stupid things like filling a balloon with diet coke and dropping in a pack of mentos in a paper tube.

The kitchen door led to the deck and back yard.

It all sounds harmless until you add copious amounts of alcohol.

I came home Sunday evening and found my roommate and a couple of friends scraping one end of the kitchen ceiling with an ice scraper. The culprits and ceiling were all different colors from the food coloring and other dyes that they had added to their experiments to make them more impressive. It appeared like tapioca or gummies stuck to the ceiling. They had matching paint already on half the ceiling. They had hoped to have it done, before I came home. But they had slept until 2:00 pm, before starting clean up.

No amount of begging would get them to tell me what happened. But I’m guessing that they prepared everything in the kitchen before taking it outside, and when alcohol is involved, I m guessing they weren’t careful.

So I came home to a bunch of hungover red and green people , with a 4 foot scraper, scraping one end of the red and green pebbled ceiling, while someone else was using a roller on a stick, roll paint along behind them.

That was pretty weird.

What is the most savage thing you’ve ever done?

My friend was admitted to hospital yesterday.

I had to go running to the medical store for purchasing the medicines prescribed by the doc.

In the afternoon, the doc prescribed some medicines and I went to the store to buy them.

There was a lady who received the prescription. She immediately ran her eyes through it and started searching for the meds in the shelves.

The total bill was 569 inr.

I paid 600 inr. She returned 30 inr and a dabur honitus (worth 1 inr obviously).

I was a bit reluctant at first, still I asked:

Me:Um.. excuse me. Can I get 1 rupee instead of the toffee?(I asked it not only because I disliked that toffee, but also because I loved collecting coins.)

She:No. We don’t keep coins for change. Anyway, what difference does it make.. the toffee too costs 1 rupee.

Me:Are you sure you don’t keep coins?

She:(obviously being annoyed by me) Yes. We dont.

Me: Okay. Thanks.

I went back to the ward.

By the evening some more new meds were prescribed.

I went to the store again.

The lady was still there. She gave me a forceful smile. I smiled back.

This time the bill was 131 inr.

I handed 130 rupees and that one dabur honitus.

She glanced at me unappealingly.

Me: Sorry mam. I don’t have coins for change. Anyway what difference does it make.. the toffee too costs 1 rupee.

I thanked her and gave a brief smile as I headed back.Happy and satisfied.

What are the implications of the Dutch government revoking the export license for ASML’s chip-making machines to China?

The person asking the question seemed to want an answer like this:

In response to the request of the United States, the Netherlands suddenly revoked ASML’s sales license to China, and some lithography machines planned to be shipped to China were intercepted. The free world successfully prevented China from acquiring advanced semiconductor production technology, and the United States won again.

But sorry, that’s not the case.

On January 3, the Dutch government suddenly revoked the export licenses for two models of DUV lithography machines (NXT: 2050i and NXT: 2100i) approved in 2023. However, ASML announced that the DUV lithography machines purchased in advance by customers from mainland China had all been delivered before the license was revoked.

In other words, when the license was revoked, the planned lithography machine had already been shipped to China.

Let’s sort out the process of this incident, and you will find how interesting the game between the Dutch and Americans is.

Since the beginning of the trade war, the United States has asked ASML to ban the export of lithography machines to China, which can be used to produce advanced semiconductors. After a year of haggling, the Dutch government compromised. ASML is prohibited from exporting EUV lithography machines (used to manufacture semiconductors below 7nm, which are more advanced) to China, but they can still continue to sell DUV lithography machines (used to manufacture semiconductors above 7nm, which is slightly behind).

The Chinese felt threatened, so they added a large number of orders for DUV lithography machines. In the past three years, most of ASML’s DUV lithography machines have been sold to the Chinese.

China’s semiconductor industry has been accelerating its development, making Americans quite nervous.

In 2022, the United States requires the Netherlands to increase restrictions again, prohibiting ASML from selling DUV lithography machines, and completely cutting off the source of equipment for the Chinese.

In June 2023, the Netherlands issued a new ban but announced that existing licenses remained valid and ASML could continue to deliver.

In December 2023, the Netherlands announced that existing licenses will be invalidated immediately

In January 2024, ASML announced that all Chinese orders had been delivered.

Found the problem?

US government: Netherlands must obey

Dutch Government: OK

—-

June, Dutch government: ASML, what to do?

ASML: You announce it first and then give me some time

July, Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: One more moment

In August, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: One more moment

In September, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: soon

In October, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: Just a little bit

In November, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: Almost done

In December, the Dutch government: ASML, is it okay?

ASML: OK, all delivered

Dutch Government: In order to maintain world peace and assist our great allies, we announce the immediate cancellation of sales licenses to China. immediately! immediately!

The Netherlands cannot fight against the United States, but this does not prevent the Dutch from trying their best to safeguard their interests. After all, that is tens of billions of dollars in profits, and they have sold all the equipment they can sell to the Chinese in the past two years.

ASML CEO (Peter Wennink) told reporters, “There is no hope of completely isolating China. If we don’t share technology, they will study it themselves.” “China has 1.4 billion people, and many of them are very smart. They will Come up with solutions that we haven’t thought of yet. You’re forcing them to be very innovative.”

The Chinese cannot control the madness of the United States. Their approach is to purchase as much technology and equipment as possible to buy time for the equipment they develop.

Once the Chinese get this done, the industry will be disrupted.

How to do it…

What is the best way to choose life partner?

Here are 8 things you have to consider when choosing life partner:

1.Ability to cope with your family

Your family will always be a key support system in your life. They can tell if your prospective life partner is suitable or unsuitable for you. If he or she cannot cope with your family members, you might be choosing a wrong partner.

2. Find someone who makes you laugh.

A sense of humor can help you overcome many of life’s obstacles. If someone can make you smile when you don’t feel like it, that’s a great quality.

3. Choose someone who respects you

When choosing a life partner be sure to select someone who will respect all aspects of your life. Mutual respect is one of the defining traits to look for in a life partner.

4. Find someone who have shared values

Having shared values reinforces the foundation of your relationship. Simple things such as consensus on the number of children you want or living within your means create a conducive environment for your relationship to thrive.

5. Choose an honest life partner

If a relationship is not enshrined in a culture of honesty and trust, it will definitely fail. Choosing a life partner who does not refrain from open and genuine communication is important.

6. Throw out the Idea of Perfect

Don’t make a checklist — mental or otherwise — of traits your future partner must have. You can’t conjure up your perfect mate and go buy said robot at Target. If you must make a list, make a list of deal-breakers: no smokers, no drug addictions, no one with a violent felony conviction. Those are healthy boundaries to set.

7. Know how they handle anger

You’ll need to observe this one rather than asking about it. Watch how they behave when they don’t get their own way, are disappointed, or feel angry. How people act with others under these circumstances says a lot about how they will one day act with you.

8. Find someone who have the same financial and social standards

It is not always important to have the same status, but having a similar financial and social standard helps in thriving together. If one person is very poor and the other is very rich then there is a possibility of being called a gold digger. But there is no exact rule book but do check if your potential partner has the zeal to make it later in life.

Who are some of the dumbest criminals ever to be caught?

I had a friend call me in the middle of the night, asked me to get my gun, and go over to his house. When your best friend asks you this, you don’t hesitate. Eventually the story came out – his wife was the manager of a jewelry store. Some men followed her home after she closed (crossing county lines), then at gunpoint (turns out it was a BB gun), forced her to drive back to the store, open it up, and unlock everything so they could clear it out. Of course, when she opened the store after hours, the security team watched on camera and called the local PD. When the perps left, the police were waiting for them. They took her car, and theirs and ran from the cops. After crashing and rolling both cars, they were arrested.

the morons got the idea from a movie. If they had just walked in during daylight and stole/robbed the place, they would have gotten 5 years. Instead, they committed multiple FEDERAL felonies (kidnapping etc), and all of them were sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in federal prison.

edit: the reason for asking me to come over with my gun:

He didn’t know if they were going to come back there. At that point the chase was still going on.

As a follow up – he gave my description to the local police, and let them know I’d be at his house. They showed up about an hour after I arrived, and I answered the door. I was slightly nervous because being 6’4 and nearly 400lbs I’m not a small dude, and had a 45 in a holster on my waist. I went to turn the porch light on, only to discover the porch light was burned out. I was very careful to let them know who I was and immediately informed them that I was armed – being sure to keep my hands nowhere near my firearm. When they asked for ID, I let them know I was removing it from my right rear pocket and moved with very clear movements, allowing them to see that I was reaching for my wallet and not my firearm. After they verified I was who I claimed to be, they made a comment like “yeah, I’d be armed too”. I love living in a rural community! 🙂

What is the most insane conversation you have ever had with your parents?

When I was in high school in 1965 I was reading a book about lesbians called The Grape Vine. My Mom asked me what I was reading. I said “a book about lesbians”. My Mom said “that’s nice, you love the theater”. I said “ no, those are Thespians. This is about lesbians, women who love women, not men”

My Mom insisted there was no such thing as a lesbian adding that the proof was that there was nothing two women “ could do together”. After my mother became hysterical, I went to my room.

Later that night my father paid me a visit. I was a little worried as my mother was his princess. He said “Laura, your mother is 45. She has made it to 45 without knowing what a lesbian is. Unless you are a lesbian, feel free to NOT educate her further”

I think when my Mom was about 80 she told me there were actually lesbians.

PS. Oh my. My mother would die a second time if she knew over 2k people liked this story. My Mom was so embarrassed that I got divorced she told everyone that my first husband was hurt in the Viet Nam war and that was why he shrunk 5 inches, grew blond hair and green eyes ( husband number two).

Nicaragua BETRAY Ally U.S in South America, Choose China

As a mechanic, have you ever performed free work on a customer’s car because you felt bad for them?

Around 10 or 12 years ago, I was on a trip and stopped at a rest area to stretch my legs and use the bathroom. As I walked back out to where my car was parked, I noticed a college age kid standing in front of his car with the hood up. I wandered over and asked him if he was having car trouble.

He replied yes and that his car wouldn’t start. He still had all his lights and so forth so I knew his battery seemed okay, but the engine wouldn’t turn over.

The car was an Acura, if I recall correctly, and the starter was located on the top of the engine, rather than down underneath the car. On the starter was a warning sticker that said not to hit the starter with a hammer.

Another gentleman wandered by and asked if he could help. I asked him if he had a hammer in his car. He thought I was joking, but I let him know that I was serious. He said that he did and left to go get it with a puzzled look on his face.

When he returned with the hammer, I took it and gave the starter a solid whack, right on the warning sticker that said not to hit it with a hammer.

I then told the college kid to try starting the car. It fired right up.

I handed the hammer back to the gentleman who had loaned it to me. Both he and the kid seemed amazed.

I asked the kid how far he had to drive to get to his destination. He said just another 2 hours or so until he got home.

I told him to drive straight home without shutting the car off because I couldn’t guarantee that the starter would ever work again. And then once he got home, he needed a new starter.

He thanked me and offered me $20, but I just sent him on his way.

Hungarian Potato and Egg Casserole
(Rakott Krumpli)

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup dairy sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 hardboiled eggs, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
Paprika

Instructions

Heat 1 inch salted water to boiling. Add potatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and cook until tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain; cool slightly.
Cook onion in oil until tender. Mix onion, oil, sour cream, salt and pepper.
Peel potatoes; cut into 1/4-inch slices. Gently mix potatoes and sour cream mixture.
Arrange half the potatoes in greased 10 x 6-inch baking dish or 1 1/2-quart casserole. Arrange eggs on top; add remaining potatoes. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and paprika.
Bake uncovered at 325 degrees F until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes.
Garnish with minced parsley if desired.

Yield: 6 servings

What are few things only mature people can tell you?

Not everyone will live long. Stay happy and useful to humanity as much as you can.
Life is not Disney Island, always strife for the best and prepare for the worse.
Nobody can love you unconditionally except your mum and in few cases, your family.
You can simply avoid future problems by listening to your instincts and warnings from your loved ones.
Most people won’t support you in life until there’s no option but to join the crowd.
Discipline will take you farther than talent.
Everybody is fighting their own demon either publicly or privately. Never envy anyone.
Don’t look down on anyone, life can switch up within a minute.
Money is not everything, it incredibly betters your life but doesn’t solve all life problems. Still have it anyway.
You don’t have to get to the level of Elon Musk to change the world when your little kindness can.

Hungry Crocs

Have you ever seen a doctor yell at their patient?

I was that doctor.

I yelled, loudly, not at the patient but at her aunt.

So I was working in the ER. A little kid of around 10 or 11 came late one evening. She had a massive blow on her skull and was getting seizures. It was all bloody but surprisingly she was conscious.

Her aunt was very caring and hovering over us. She told me the girl fell from a bike. I pacified her and told her to wait outside while I provided primary care to the child before transferring her to a higher care centre.

When the aunt was outside I asked the girl what happened. Her aunt had hit her in the head with a hammer. That vile lady had hit her 10-year-old niece in the head with a hammer. I was horrified, enraged. I was mad.

I stabilized her, came out and called the aunt inside. As soon as I saw her I just lost it. I yelled at her at the top of my lungs. I don’t even remember all that I said but it lasted long enough for the ward boys and nurses and the ambulance driver to gather. It also lasted enough for the aunt to break down and confess.

I called the girl’s parents and they called the police and registered the complaint.

My behaviour was unprofessional, but I have never regretted it. I don’t usually lose my cool, but I am glad I did that day.

Devastating Industry

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Seen a number of these over the years. First one that comes to mind is this one. Sitting in a bar in Neenah WI, conversing with a gentleman, probably about 40 something, less than 5′10″, probably about 150 lbs. Well spoken, polite, decently dressed. A larger (12–13) groups of people all came in at once, bikers by their dress and the beautiful sound of the harleys they pulled up on. Now please understand, the greater majority of bikers I’ve known over the years were great people, polite, non confrontational, and all around nice. These folks were not. Loud, already half tanked, and generally pushy. Once they had settled, one of them walked by, catching his elbow on my conversation partner and spilling both of their drinks. Confrontation ensued. Biker: you “effing spilled my drink!”

CP: sorry about that, let me get you another

bartender: no worries, I’ve got both of you

biker: you’re damn right you’re sorry!
and proceeded to grab CP’s shoulder. CP spun as he stood up, spear handed the biker in the solar plexus, and then Kicked him in the face! Biker was about 6′2″-3″, and now unconscious and bleeding on the floor. Everyone else stopped cold and looked at CP, shrugged, and went back to their conversations. Bouncer dragged biker out to the curb where the police and an ambulance took him away. Broken jaw, shattered septum, severe concussion. CP was the owner of a local martial arts school and had been training since he was a child. Oops.

JEFFREY SACHS FULL INTERVIEW ABOUT BAD SITUATION IN EUROPE AND U.S, U.N SITUATION, GAZA, AND MORE

Changes and changes

Life changes.

I have said this many times before. But I want to underline some things today.

When I was a senior in High School, I proudly wore a choker collar, puffy sleeved polyester printed shirts with a wide collar, and elephant bell-bottom jeans. Oh, and I also wore earth shoes, and rock-star boots. I was so fashionable!

I also drove a orange “goat” GTO.

And that was my life then.

Today, I am really different, as is my life.

Life changes. You will change.

ADVICE…

Embrace your moments. Savor your experiences. Remember that they will wane over time. So please treasure them.

Today…

For anyone who was bullied in school, what was the worst act of bullying you had to endure?

When I was a teenager I was bullied by a local group of kids, all of them a few years older than me. Two of them were particularly vile. I am changing the names. One was Patrick and the other was Gavin. Patrick was a horrible weasel who basically incited the others to beat the crap out of me, and rarely got his own hands dirty. Gavin was a sociopath who rarely showed any emotion whatsoever. One particular time me and friends were playing near a train track (as kids did in the 90s), and I heard Patrick’s voice saying “Hey Gavin there he is he wants to fight you.” Sure enough along walks Gavin and grabs me and says “I hear you want to fight me….” I assured him this wasn’t the case, but he proceeded to knock the shit out of me. And I don’t just mean a few punches in the ribs. He pummelled my face multiple times. I am pretty sure I had concussion. Anyway, halfway through the beating I hear the unmistakeable sound of a train coming. Gavin hears it too. “Come on, we’re both going to die.” and he begins dragging me onto the tracks. And he was correct, in that we both would have been killed. He clearly didn’t care. The only thing that saved me was that I was able to grab hold of a length of builder’s wire that was half buried in the ground, and must have been attached to a lump of buried concrete because miraculously it held firm. Gavin was straining with every ounce of his strength to drag me and him into the path of the train. I vividly remember the train zooming past and I looked at Gavin, his teeth bared in anger as he tried to dislodge me. I remember giggling because Gavin was closer to the train than me. If my t shirt had torn, or if the wire had come loose, then Gavin would surely have fallen under the train first. Gavin eventually tired of beating me after the train was gone and I stumbled home, sore, ashamed and shaken. My face was so badly battered that when I told my father that I had fallen off some scaffolding while playing at a building site, he believed me. Both my eyes were so badly bloodshot that my eyeball went red. I had black eyes and bruises all across my face and neck and ribs. The bullying wasn’t a once off, but that was one of the worst instances of it for me.

Polish Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients

12 tablespoons butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3 teaspoons cinnamon
A grating of fresh nutmeg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Beat the butter until it is soft and fluffy. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar and the egg and continue beating. Add 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, the nutmeg and flour, and beat until well mixed.
Spread about 1/3 of the batter on an ungreased baking sheet, forming a rectangle about 10 x 12 inches and bake in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 8 minutes, until lightly browned.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Repeat two more times with the remaining batter.
Whip the cream until stiff, and fold in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon and the vanilla extract. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream on one of the cakes, top with another cake, and repeat.
Spread remaining whipped cream on the top and serve immediately.

Serves 8 to 12

Cheating caught

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hQk09jxrwfM?feature=share

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

We lived in Base Housing, kids all over the place, filling the sandbox, fighting, arguing, being nice, being nasty. My four-year-old was a little redhead like his mommy and, like his mommy, often in trouble. Or, if not in trouble, causing it.

One day, another mommy, who was often irate because someone had wronged her little golden-curled darling who had the demeanor of an angel and the personality of a wasp, came to me with her howling little guy. His tears looked genuine. So did her anger.

“Your child needs to be controlled,” she said, “he bit Tony. Look!” She dragged Tony’s plump little arm out to show me four perfect tooth marks.

I said, “Are you sure it was Brian?”

She snarled, “Of course I’m sure. I saw him do it. He sank his teeth right into Tony’s arm.”

I said, “Bri, did you bite Tony?” He shook his head.

Mama Bear, filled with righteous fury, shrieked that he was a liar and my husband would be hearing from the CO if we didn’t teach our child civilized manners.

I just said, “Brian, smile at the lady.” Because he was an obliging child who genuinely liked people, he willing smiled at the lady—with his three front teeth, two on the bottom, one on the top, gleaming in the sunshine. His left top incisor had been knocked out when he was acting the fool in the bathtub about six months before. She didn’t even apologize to him, just stomped off, dragging poor, injured little Tony behind her like a pull toy.

Simply Cannot

What is a dirty little (or big) secret about an industry that you have worked in, that people outside the industry really ought to know?

We know all your passwords.

Shocked?

Well, you shouldn’t be. At least not yet. Let me tell you the whole truth first. Because once I do that, you aren’t going to be just shocked. You would be horrified, outraged, possibly traumatized for life.

I’ve been working in the tech world for quite a while now, and the wealth of “insider secrets” that I’ve accumulated along the way would be sufficient to fill a book in itself. But nothing comes close to this one single revelation, that I can positively say, has destroyed my faith in humanity. Once you finish this answer, you are not going to be the same person anymore, that much I can promise.

Let me ask you a very simple question –

How do you think the login process works?

Let’s say you want to open your Facebook.

You go to the login page.

You enter your username.

You then enter your password, which appears in all asterisks to prevent any unwanted ‘shoulder-surfing’. That’s crude. But effective too. And necessary. You see, the First Law of Passwords (okay, I just made up that phrase) states that there should be only one entity in the entire universe that should have access to your password – your brain. If a second copy of your password exists somewhere – say, on a piece of paper where you casually wrote it down thinking it’ll help you remember later, or in the password box where you just entered it, or engraved on a rock on planet Jupiter; somebody might be able to access it (theoretically speaking) and your security would be completely compromised. So, only one copy. Ever. Remember that.

Now, you press the Submit button.

But Abhimanyu, wait a minute! After I just pressed the Submit button, I got logged in. This means that some system on the other side must have verified that what I entered was indeed my password. But then, this system must have access to my correct password too! Otherwise, what will it compare my input with? Facebook must keep a second copy of my password somewhere!!!

The host website needs a copy of the password!

You are right. That’s a problem indeed. You might think that this is kind of okay since this second copy would exist with Facebook, which is the website that hosts your account in the first place. They would keep it safe, wouldn’t they?

But think about it.

Facebook, as an organization, is made up of humans just like you and me. What if some employee at Facebook has access to this code and could see your password? What if this was your bank account instead. What if Facebook was hacked and the hacker could see this code that has your password in it. Imagine the havoc this person might cause.

So a second copy is never okay, even if it exists on the parent website itself!

But then how would the website log you in? If it does not know your correct password, what will it compare your input to? How will it verify that you’re you?

That’s precisely the problem our engineering godfathers faced when they set out to design the entire system of passwords. And these guys were smart! They come up with an ingenious idea that would beautifully solve the problem.

The idea of Hash Functions.

The concept is extremely simple. A hash function is just a mathematical function. You input any word into it and it generates an output that looks like complete garbage.

But the devil, as they say, lies in the details –

The same word would always give rise to the same garbage.
Two different words would (almost) always lead to two completely different garbages.
There’s no way to look at the garbage and tell what the original word was. And just to be clear, this is not for the lack of trying. No. This is a fundamental mathematically restriction on the nature of hash functions. They are not invertible. They work one-way only. There’s no way to reverse engineer the garbage and get a peek at the word that produced it. Not even when you know the exact hash function.

Fun fact – This garbage is called the ‘hash’ of the input word.

Here’s how Hashes are used in login systems –

When you first create your account, you choose a password. This password is never stored by the website as it is. Rather, the website first hashes your password and then stores this hash in its database.

Now, when you try to log in the next time, the input you enter in your password box is first hashed, and then sent to the website. If your entered password is the correct one, this incoming hash would be the same as the hash the website had earlier stored in its database. That’s because the same word always gives the same hash (Rule 1 above). On the other hand, if you entered something different, the incoming hash would be different from the one that the website has got stored in its database next to your name (Rule 2 above).

The website compares the two, and if they match, bingo! You are logged in.

Now even if someone hacked into Facebook and copied the entire database, all they would see are these garbage hashes stored next to the usernames. They wouldn’t be able to deduce the original password from these hashes (Rule 3 above).

What if they tried to copy your hash from the database, open Facebook login page in their browser, and then enter the copied hash in the password field as it is (along with your username in the username field)?

Since Facebook’s login flow always hashes the incoming input, it would hash this hash too, and that would produce something completely different. On matching that with what is stored in the database, a big fat fuck-you would be returned.

So even when the hacker has got the entire user table, he still can’t do any damage!

Beautiful concept, isn’t it?

Except that it’s a complete pain in the ass for companies to implement and manage.

For starters, you have to integrate the hashing mechanism in your login flow which leads to considerable overhead. Actually, with modern libraries and frameworks, this part is no longer that big of a deal. The real pain lies in providing technical support to the customers.

Let’s say you are Flipkart.

A customer calls in to complain that he is unable to add a certain item to his cart.

The customer’s issue is escalated to the development team, where you, the poor developer, just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and lo and behold! The issue gets assigned to you.

All you know is that there’s a certain customer with this particular customer id and he’s unable to add an item to his cart.

That’s it.

That’s all you know.

Remember, the user can see the issue happening on his device in real time, but you can’t. You don’t have access to his account.

So, you send a request to the server team to access the error logs from the server, all the while praying to God that you find something useful in those logs – something that will nudge you in the right direction. But you have to be extremely lucky to find something helpful. More often than not, the issue would turn out to be a ghost issue that occurred because the user was doing something stupid, and you would spend an entire night on a wild goose-chase.

If you do manage to learn something helpful from the logs, you would then have to create a test account and try to replicate the issue there, which is just the beginning of the long and tedious process we call bug-hunting.

Either way, it’s going to be a long night.

But what if, let’s say, you did have access to user’s password? (Imagine a red devil sitting on your shoulder whispering this entire paragraph in your ear). You could simply log into his account and check if it’s a ghost issue. You’d be done in like five minutes. Even if it turns out to be a legitimate issue, you can trigger it again from the user’s account itself, and get a much quicker lead on the location of the bug!

The convenience is just too much to ignore!

You begin to get lusty.

Your mouth begins to drool.

And you give in.

Most of the companies in the IT industry that are customer-facing, store your passwords in their database in clear text. Without hashing!

Most of the clients that I’ve worked with as a penetration-tester, most of the companies I’ve done projects for, most of the websites I’ve hacked – all were storing passwords in stark naked clear-text. Plain as the day. Sitting right there for any employee or hacker to see.

I have seen database tables – with rows upon rows of clear text passwords – hundreds of thousands of them – all visible to the naked eye – ripe, juicy, ready to be exploited – their owners completely unaware, utterly naive, sleeping peacefully in their beds without a care in the world.

Now in all fairness, I must admit here that I’m sure none of the top-tier websites are doing this stupidity. Google isn’t doing it. Facebook isn’t doing it. Flipkart isn’t doing it. Your bank, definitely not.

But tier-two and three websites? They are. Startups? You bet your ass they are.

But that’s not all –

Most people, in an act of supreme foolishness, set the same password for all their accounts.

Which means that every employee at http://somerandomwebsitewhereyouoncemadeanaccountandthenforgotaboutit.com

knows your Gmail password.

Because let’s face it, they’re the same. Aren’t they?

All I have to do is hack this le random website, which is going to be a piece of cake. Sites like these are not big on security. As soon as I get into their database, I’ll have access to thousands of email id and password pairs, most of which will work verbatim on Gmail.

If you’re extremely unlucky, they’ll work on Paytm too.

And if with some cruel and twisted idea of fun in mind, your fate decided to truly fuck you over, they would work on your Bank’s website too !

So scary

Has anyone ever bought a car with the wrong engine in it?

Not me but my father in law. In 1957 he got out of the Army and first thing he did was buy a new Plymouth Fury. Not being a car guy he just picked the first one on the lot and drove it home. He had moved back in with his parents and his dad still had a curfue for him. One night he was going to be late so he opened it up to get home faster. He soon saw flashing lights in his rear view mirror but soon lost them and made it home in time. A few minutes after he got home a police car pulled up in the yard. Small town and the cop had recognized his car. Instead of getting arrested the cop told him to be at the start of Nine Mile Road at 9:00 the next night. This road had a long straight part through a swamp with no side roads. So he shows up and county police have set up a drag race. They had stopped traffic at both ends of the straight and the cop with the fastest cruiser lined up beside him. They had new Plymouth Furys with the police engine option. They take off and are neck and neck until the police car tops out and my father in law’s car keeps pulling away. He was fully stopped and out of his car at the other end before the cop car got there.

The cop comes up and ask him what modifications he has made to the car. He tells them he hasn’t even opened the hood since he bought it. They then open the hood and instead of the standard 301 Plymouth engine it had a 392 Chrysler Hemi.

Red Flag

When did you realize your parent was a total badass?

One day my Mom asked me where to go to replace a broken window on her car. When I asked what happened to the window, she said someone threw a brick through it. She was driving through an area with a lot of gangs and saw 2 guys chasing 1 guy. She didn’t like the odds, so pulled her car onto the sidewalk between the guy being chased and the guys doing the chasing. That gave the guy being chased enough of a lead that he got away. The guys who were chasing him weren’t happy about being stopped. They threw anything they could grab at Mom’s car, and a brick went through a window as she drove off. And that’s how Mom got a broken window on her car.

My Dad was also a badass, but in different ways. He was a veteran, but never told us about his military service until he was dying of cancer. He couldn’t see or hear anymore, but he could talk. He told us “funny stories” that were just plain crazy.

Assassination

What are some things that kids have said that caught you off guard? Funny, sad, confusing, inspirational, creepy?

Elleigh was a mouthy Little darling from ages 4-10. She just said anything that came to her mind, and sometimes, those things were hilarious. Elleigh once said:

“What’s up boys, take me out to dinner.”

I’m “unstopaddle.”

“You’re old!”

“Daddy looks like Mr. Clean.”

“Me: What’s your dad’s name? (Elleigh: Tyrell)”

*Doing her hair* “Oh, but I’ll look like a jerry.”

“Why was I in your tummy and Leo was in your gyna?” (She was delivered by a c-section, Leo was natural).

“Thong Thong Thong up your heiny.”

“I just had to itch my butt.”

“Ok boss!”

Me: Alright, let’s call… (Elleigh: Punk!)”

“Mommy, you don’t run, you gallop.”

“You did not do sports today because I was with you all day. Ooo, it’s just a joke.”

“I’m constipation” (we were doing affirmations).

“Stop annoying me. Excuse me, you’re not supposed to be talking to me, you’re a stranger.”

Me: You’re going to school. (Elleigh: Yeah, why?) Me: Because that’s what you do every morning. (Elleigh: Are you going to the gym every morning?”

“This dang deer.”

“This is not her real hair, her just put extensions in it. long extensions.”

Me: What’s your favorite kind of food? (Elleigh: Fruit). Me: What kind of fruit? (Elleigh: Fruit loops).

When she was really little, she would call a computer a “cubidiger.”

She would say “feel good” as “fuck you” (really threw people off sometimes).

I don’t know why I have so many footages of her saying these kinds of things.

Absolutely correct

If you were an employee, and your boss suddenly fired you without an explanation, how would you respond?

I had been there three years. Since I disliked the job and had strange vibes for the last 3 months, when I was told I shrugged and said “If that’s the way you feel.” They wanted me to sign a release. I was 61–1/2, Social Security at reduced benefits wouldn’t start until I was 63. I said I wanted my attorney to look at it before I signed, picked up the paper and walked to my office where I packed up my stuff. I kept nothing personal there except safety shoes for walking on the manufacturing floor (I got laughed at a lot because nobody wore safety shoes even though they’re required at most manufacturing facilities), my prescription safety glasses , a sweater, my favorite (and personally purchased) mechanical pencils and left.

My attorney said to sign the release after he crossed out two clauses noting the employment statues they were violating, and faxed it to them. I got a nice settlement and was able to collect unemployment for the 18 months until my 63rd birthday. This was in 2008/2009 when we had up to 100 weeks of unemployment due to recession.

Before anybody calls me a piker for collecting all that UI, I was offered two positions during that time. Each would have required a 100 mile round trip commute daily and only paid about 75% of what I had been making. The Unemployment Service said I was not under an obligation to accept either.

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

I used to own a small tavern. We had a guy who started hanging out there quite regularly. Nice guy, played darts with the other regulars, bought rounds in order , but didn’t talk much about himself or his past. But it’s a bar, so no one cares. We’ll call him Danny.

He was in early one night around 7pm. My staff is all away on lunch, partner wouldn’t be back til 10pm. I’m all alone. Usually not a big deal. This night, a couple of college jocks got way out of hand and started tearing the place up – breaking cue sticks and tossing around empty kegs. It’s just Danny, me and the college boys. I’m trying to de-escalate and get them to leave. Then, one of the big guys starts pushing me and throwing punches. I’m screwed. That is, until Danny steps in and beats the shit out of two guys much bigger than himself. I was completely shocked! We toss the guys out and he tells me not to call the police. He leaves shortly afterwards.

Next time I see Danny, I want to pick up his tab and chat. He asks me not to tell anyone or talk about it. I figure he’s ex-military and a private guy. He becomes pretty scarce. We’re looking for him, but he doesn’t come around anymore.

About a year later, we see his pic in the paper. He’s on trial for a pair of mob related murders. Turns out he might be responsible for more than a couple of these. I’m very glad he liked me.

Which sentences have made you think the most in your life?

There was a time while I was in college that I could only afford to spend about $3 per day on food. Needless to say it wasn’t an easy time.

One day, I spent part of my daily ration on a granola bar. As I walked out of the grocery store, a homeless woman asked me if I had any spare change. I told her I didn’t have any money to spare so instead split my granola bar with her and sat down to have a chat. She continued to ask people for change as we talked. After observing the responses, I asked her: “Would you rather people ignore your question, or say ‘no’ as meanly and rudely as they possibly could?”

She responded without hesitation: “I’d rather have the mean ‘no.’ At least they’re treating me like I’m a person, more than a piece of trash lying on the street.”

I’ll never forget that. I wouldn’t have been able to rationalize it myself, but it makes perfect sense. Her name was Anne.

As a pilot, what is some good advice you’ve been given?

When I was a much younger airline copilot, I flew with this Syrian captain. He was a Muslim and had flown F-4s for the U.S. Navy. He was a nice guy but kind of kept to himself mostly. I would always ask about the religion and how it was living in Syria and he gradually warmed up to me.

One day I was complaining about a relationship with a woman and he turned to me and said:

“Randy, I am going to give you two words that will ensure that you will have a long and prosperous marriage. It will end your problems in this relationship and any in the future. It is very old Islamic advice that has stood for centuries, long before the great advances in mathematics. It is among the oldest of all Middle Eastern knowledge”

“If you follow these two words. You will increase your happiness by a factor of 1000. Your wife will adore you and you will live in peace and harmony until you finally die and she mourns your death forever.”

“These two words? Obey and Relax”

“Randy, simply follow these two words in all of your interactions. Obey her demands and then simply relax. The West has not yet discovered this fundamental truth. If you just obey and relax, you will always be happy.”

Edit 1:

This guy was funny.

One day we were talking about his home life and he said: “Randy, Allah came to me before I was born and he told me I was a very bad man. He said I must be punished so he gave me a choice. I could live for ten-thousand years in hell or I could marry this woman. Like a fool, I marry woman!

I guess he didn’t follow his own advice. I heard he finally divorced. Even with this outcome, I still try to follow his advice and it works pretty well.

Did you ever have a restaurant meal “on the house”? What was the reason?

My wife and I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas three years ago. For anyone wondering, our new town is Grass Valley, pop. 13,000.

Coming from the dining heaven that is the San Francisco area, we set out to find some special occasion restaurants nearby. We were not disappointed.

Our favorite go-to fancy place is called Lola’s, in neighboring Nevada City. It’s comparatively pricy—$250 is the typical check, including tip, for the two of us. It’s located in the Gold Rush-era National Hotel.

We went recently for an anniversary. It was a Wednesday evening and the restaurant was not particularly busy, although there was some kind of event beginning to happen in the attached lounge.

We waited for an unusually long time, but we had no place to be, and we enjoy each other’s company. The server finally came to our table, apologizing, and took our drink order. After about ten minutes, she came by and told us our drinks would be out any minute.

We got our appetizers and waited a long time again for the entrees. The server apologized again and said our drinks would be on the house. We had not complained or looked dissatisfied, but it was a nice gesture on the restaurant’s part. We ordered a second round of cocktails.

The activity in the lounge explained the delays: they had a combination burlesque show and lottery going on. Everyone was having a boisterous good time. Evidently, they swamped the bar and the kitchen.

When our entrees arrived after another unusually long wait, the server apologized again and told us our entire meal and drinks were being comped because of the slow service. We were flabbergasted but happy to have a $200 meal comped. This was all the restaurant’s initiative; we did not complain or even look dissatisfied.

We ordered desserts, one of the many things this restaurant does extremely well. The total bill came to $26.00 for the desserts. The total bill would have been $250.

We tipped 20% of the whole amount. Our server was attentive and even embarrassed at the long delay. We would have been perfectly happy even if we’d paid the whole bill.

That’s the first time I’ve ever had an entire satisfactory meal comped. But it was a good illustration of this restaurant’s commitment to excellence in food quality and service.

What psychological trick changed your life?

Here are 12 tricks I learned from the book ‘12 rules for life an antidote to chaos’, written by psychologist Jodan B Peterson. These life rules really help me a lot:

1: Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back

If you present yourself as defeated, then people will react to you as if you are losing. If you start to straighten up, then people will look at and treat you differently.

So, attend carefully to your posture. Quit drooping and hunching around. Speak your mind. Put your desires forward, as if you had a right to them — at least the same right as others. Walk tall and gaze forthrightly ahead. Dare to be dangerous. Encourage the serotonin to flow plentifully through the neural pathways desperate for its calming influence.

2: Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping

We deserve some respect. You deserve some respect. You are important to other people, as much as to yourself. You have some vital role to play in the unfolding destiny of the world. You are, therefore, morally obliged to take care of yourself. You should take care of, help and be good to yourself the same way you would take care of, help and be good to someone you loved and valued.

3: Make Friends with People Who Want the Best For You

This is similar to the idea that you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Don’t think that it is easier to surround yourself with good healthy people than with bad unhealthy people. It’s not. A good, healthy person is an ideal. It requires strength and daring to stand up near such a person. Have some humility. Have some courage. Use your judgment, and protect yourself from too-uncritical compassion and pity.

4: Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday, Not Who Someone Else is Today

We only see what we aim at. The rest of the world (and that’s most of it) is hidden. If we start aiming at something different — something like I want my life to be better” — our minds will start presenting us with new information, derived from the previously hidden world, to aid us in that pursuit.

Then we can put that information to use and move, and act, and observe, and improve. And, after doing so, after improving, we might pursue something different, or higher — something like, I want whatever might be better than just my life being better.” And then we enter a more elevated and more complete reality.

“What could I do, that I would do, to make Life a little better?”

The content is too long, so I put the rest rules here

JEFFREY SACHS HONEST INTERVIEW ABOUT NATO ARROGANCE ON RUSSIA, SUPERPOWER WAR IN UKRAINE, CHINA RISE

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

I was selling cars and my friends mother said I should have a job that pays a salary and commission and not just straight commission. She suggested a software company and the one she worked at had a position available. I had no background in software or computers at all but I sent in a CV and called the Sales Manager and left a message. Then I would keep calling all day seeing if he would pick up the phone. Around 12 additional times.

On the 3rd he picked up and said NOBODY has ever called him so much in his entire life. I asked if he looked at my CV and he said yes, but there was no experience in computers and software. He even asked some basic questions which I failed miserably.

He finally said that I was obviously persistent and if I read some books about computing I could probably get a job in this industry. I asked which books and he suggested two. I told him I would read both, memorize them and call him back in 2 weeks where he could quiz me about anything. He was incredulous and said ya sure.

Well I bought those books that day and in 2 weeks had them memorized, with yellow highlighter throughout both of them. I could tell you what chapter something was in and the next point the author made. That’s how well I learned them.

2 weeks to the day I called and he picked up on the first 2 rings. I was very nervous and told him I had those books down cold and he could quiz me about anything.

He said to come in on Monday at 9 am. I said how long would the quiz take and he said, “There isn’t a quiz. You start your new job on Monday at 9 am”

I am happy to say I stayed in the computer software industry for 20 years.

Crazy

What should you never say to a British person?

I was on a plane once, flying across the US. The guy next to me (in the middle seat) just kept talking nonstop. Eventually the person in the window seat said something back to him. This set the guy off, he told him everything he knew about Australia, what a great country it was, how much he liked Australians. Then he asked what part of Australia the guy was from. He replied that he was from Wales.

Middle seat guy said he loved New South Wales. The Sydney opera house was his favorite piece of architecture in the world.

Window seat guy, replies, No, I am Welsh, from the British Isles.

Middle seat guy, just wouldn’t let it go. He wanted to know why someone from the UK spoke with an Australian accent. Eventually window seat guy lost his patience, and pointedly pulled out a book and started to read.

So, I would say you don’t ask someone from Wales, why they speak with an Australian accent.

Daddy Advice to a daughter

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?

I was recently divorced and working for a company that had just opened a branch in Germany. My boss told me four interns were coming from Germany. “You’re a supervisor,” he said. “This is a very big deal, so make sure they are comfortable and happy here.”

But there was a problem. We had three shifts, and I was on the second shift—by which time my boss was long gone for the day, so he couldn’t introduce me in person. When I got to work I found only a list of four first names and the desks they were sitting at. And then when I got to that part of the office, there were only three guys.

I went over and talked to them for a bit, tried to make them feel welcome, made sure they had everything they needed. I was hoping one of them would mention the fourth fellow, but nobody did. I figured he’d be sitting somewhere else, so I excused myself and went to look around.

Then I heard a guy speaking German. Bingo, I thought. I sneaked a look at the name on his desk: Arnold, same first name as the missing fourth fellow, and a German last name. This was him! He turned out to be much nicer than the other three and we had quite a good talk. His English was excellent.

In the following weeks I saw Arnold often and talked to him for a little while each time. The other three were polite, but distant. So when a fax came in written in German, I knew which one to take it to for translation.

When I handed him the fax, he looked at it for a long time. “I’m sorry,” he said. “My German isn’t really good enough to read this.”

And so it turned out that this Arnold wasn’t the fourth German at all—that particular Arnold, the intern my boss was so concerned about, had been out getting a sandwich the afternoon I came to meet them. Then he’d gone home to Germany a week or two later for some unrelated reason.

The Arnold I’d made friends with was an American with a German father—who had taught him just enough to get by in conversation. They’d spent plenty of time in Germany—so when I’d asked him questions about what it was like there, he knew all the answers. And living with his dad had given Arnold just a trace of German accent in his English.

That was 20 years ago. Arnold and I are still having good talks daily—in spite of being married.

And Then…

In the military, are you only allowed to keep on you what is issued to you by the government or can you buy extra protection if you want to? (knives, extra guns, extra supplies, etc), also, is your weapons and gear all new when you get them?

In the Army I served, simply asking that question would disqualify you from service.

They don’t want gun nuts. They want you to have the weapon issued, nothing else; unauthorised weapons on military grounds is a lengthy prison sentence, if you survive. The guards are armed, you know, and authorised to fire when they identify a threat. An unauthorised firearm is a threat.

They want you to fire your weapon when ordered to do so, and only when ordered to do so. Unless given that order, you don’t even have access to your weapon.

A pen knife, possibly. Extra supplies – food, yes. Nothing else. Protective gear – buster, you dress in the uniform issued, nothing else is allowed to be visible (so you’re allowed your own underwear). Ammunition – see above re. “identify a threat”.

The military take weapons seriously. It’s dangerous stuff, and they don’t want them fired except under strictly controlled circumstances.

And during my year in the Army, I did, in fact, not even once see an armed officer. Unless you count the Captain’s ceremonial sabre, which he dismissed, along with his entire parade uniform, as a “bloody spectacle”.

Legit

Why do some rich people act like they’re poor?

I have a friend that makes $200,000,000 annually. He lives in a $3,000,000 house that he probably paid $1,200,000 for. He drives a five year old Toyota. (He owns and runs a fund…was voted the best in the world at his profession not too long ago)

I have a friend that lives in a $4,000,000 condo downtown. He flies in his $17,000,000 jet and drives a $2,000 old pickup truck to his $60,000,000 ranch. (He sold his business to a bank/insurance company for huge money and has grown his wealth rapidly since the sale)

I know of another extremely wealthy family that when we took our kids to get treats after an event, their kids would ask for toppings on their ice cream. The mom kindly told her children, “no, we don’t spurge like that”. I thought, “what?” You own the entire mall that we are eating ice cream in. (He owns malls and resorts globally)

I don’t know of any that live like they are poor, they just live well within their means. They have different financial priorities than many people.

Organism 46B

Check this one out…

How can I find out who’s stealing my lunch from the office fridge?

I hope you like really hot, spicy food. Pack up some tasty leftover meat, veggies and rice or potatoes in a take- out tub – then add a full quarter cup of Tabasco, Psycho Bitch or Dave’s Killer hot sauce to it. People usually have a pretty good idea of who is stealing their lunches so, when the suspect heads for the lunchroom, follow them, hang around nearby and wait for the fun to begin. (Hot sauce is food, so you can’t be accused of trying to poison your co-worker.)

Use the system

What happened that made you walk out of the courtroom and think, “That did not just happen”?

I was being tried on a driving charge (i.e.. “recklessly causing an accident”).

Where I live, people being tried for “minor” offences will be assigned a common courtroom (i.e., Courtroom 335 12PM July 5, 1923).

I was in my courtroom waiting for my trial to begin when I was approached by an officer and asked to leave the courtroom.

In the hallway, I was told to go to another courtroom (no explanation).

The other courtroom was practically empty. A judge sat on the bench, one suit was standing behind the crown’s desk and one suit was standing behind the defense’s desk. Court reporters were present.

I was urged to stand at the defense’s desk and, at that point, I accepted the suit standing at the defense’s desk as my legal representative.

When I got to the desk, there was a short conversation between the judge and the suits. It took about a minute (maybe less).

And then I was told that I was “Free to go”.

And everybody just left the courtroom.

PS: The “accident” was, I think, a fraud. By the time I got to trial, nobody cared (and not even the police showed up to swear evidence … nobody in that courtroom was involved, in any way, with the case).

Non-verbal

I was fired 3 days ago out of nowhere after 5 years. Now, the CEO emails me that my job has been “re-instated”, but when I come back, I will get a warning for “low performance”. What can I do?

I was “constructively dismissed” by a new owner. I was offering my opinion as a good manager should and was told “shut up, sit down and do what I say; or leave”. To everyone else’s dismay, I left; I was off the property less than an hour later.

About two weeks later, I received a call from the controller desparately asking me for the admin passwords for the company’s mainframe (I was the one and only “unofficial” IT administrator for about three years) as it had crashed. I told him I couldn’t help him as my current employment contract prohibits me from directly assisting them (within 1/2 hour of driving off the lot and calling my wife to tell her I had left, I had already received calls from three competitors offering me a job. I had accepted an offer with their biggest rival); but that he could try contacting my current employer to “purchase” my services (there was no such condition, but I reported the contact to my current employer who was ecstatically happy to play along). They did, and was charged $5,000 for my single visit of less than an hour; to type in the master password and let them change it (1/2 of that fee was paid to me as a bonus).

I later found out that my former employer also had to pay over $20,000 in OT to recover the system, as there was no current tape backup. At the time, I was also the only one that was responsible for managing the daily tape backups; specifically inserting a new tape cartridge every morning. There were two daytime receptionists that I had trained to cover for me on my days off and when I went on vacation, but the full-time one was let go only a few days prior to me leaving, and the part-time one had quit in protest of being asked to work 7 days a week until a new full-time one was hired and trained. They had to manually re-enter two weeks of parts invoices and service work orders, while at the same time work off manual invoices and work orders until the system was caught up.

That owner didn’t last long; three years after I left, the franchise agreement was yanked by the manufacturer and the dealership closed permanently.

Karma.

Approach anxiety

What are your tricks to start a conversation with a stranger?

Are you sure you’re ready for my answer?

Because talking to a stranger is actually easier than you think it is.

Commit to the five seconds rule – my personal ace in the hole. I approached 100 women in 40 days with this trick. All it involves is that you make a decision on the first five seconds of seeing the stranger whether you are approaching or not. At first, I kept saying no, not yet, next time and then one day I just said fuck it! I’m doing this and I did. Don’t ask me how it turned out.
Use the universal opener and stop thinking – yes our mind is the great storyteller and a perfectionist one at that. If you give yourself too much time to think, you will end up not approaching the stranger so do what I did. Use the universal opener. It’s something called Hello. I think you’ve heard about it.
Avoid the alpha male trap – I know some people will tell you dress up, look cool, beef up and hold a wine glass standing by the corner, that advice is the worse shit in the world. It’s what I call the alpha male trap, feeling so confident in yourself that you don’t wanna talk with anyone and you expect them to feel your vibe and gravitate towards you. Avoid practicing this, calm down! Relax and smile when you are out there.
Open up! – still on the same point. Avoid closing up your body language by holding something in front of you such as your phone or glass bottle. Make sure in social settings, your body is open and you appear calm and relaxed. Please don’t ever approach anyone with the wrong body language. Research shows we process body language faster than sounds(as little as 0.2sec).
Smile like a lotto winner – one crazy genius called Ralph Waldo Emerson made the great statement that “the whole world loves a lover”, damn but he was right. The key to people’s heart is positivity if you are not aware. You just have to know that most people are not comfortable with meeting new people. So you have to put their minds to rest that you’re harmless and you want nothing but a good nice conversation. Smiling and exuding positivity does this perfectly.
Ask for the name and use it – I read this in Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, and it has never failed me. When you meet a stranger, make sure you get the name and use it repeatedly in the first conversation.
Watch comedy shows – apart from the added benefit of this improving your overall life happiness exponentially, this will add a funny tint to your conversations. People love humor you know.
Observe the rules – the thing about social situations is that there are no universal rules anywhere. How you should behave depends on where you are – you have to behave differently in a church compared to a networking party. The Super trick is to take some time to observe how people are acting around you, are if they are being upbeat or cool headed. Don’t bring noise into a cool environment or calm into a sizzling energetic room. Observe the rules and play by them. Then you win!
Go radical truth on them – out of those 100 women I approached, the ones who became my closest friends were those I went total truth on. Here’s what I mean; I approach them and said hello, then told them I’m a shy guy on a mission to approach 100 girls to build his confidence and that she is my number 41. This perks them up and they usually laugh, then they look at my face, see that I am serious and then we have a wonderful conversation and I always get their numbers. Crazy, right?
Guess – a lot of strangers are really not cool with you offloading a truckload of questions on them. They close up quickly and excuse themselves and that’s why I use guessing at times. I read about it in a blog post that I can’t really remember. It goes like this – during the conversation, instead of asking “where are you from”, observe them and say something like “you look like a new yorker”. Or instead of “what do you do”, say “something tells me you’re a fun person” or “something tells me you stay indoors a lot”. You get the Gist already.
Prepare to be human – I still approach women and get rejected, I still try to make friends on the bus, parties, church, etc, and get rubbed on. You just have to be ready for being a human, not everyone is going to like you or want to talk to you. Accept this and when the time comes that someone rejects you, remember that it’s normal and go find someone else to talk to.

This is my show

What is the most dangerous thing you’ve found in your backyard?

Several years ago, I was on the ladder working on the roof of my shed. Off in the distance there were some people shooting. This is common here as I live in the South (of America). Most people around are fairly safe with their practice shooting. While on the ladder, I heard what sounded like a hummingbird fly by. I looked around for him/her and couldn’t find it. I heard another and another. It dawned on me that these were not hummingbirds, but bullets. I got off the ladder, and yelled as loud as I could that they were shooting towards my house. A few more shots and I went inside and called the sheriff department to go by and tell them they were shooting at my house. I waited a couple hours and heard the shots again. I got in the truck, drove around to the property behind mine and pulled up. The guy and some friends were out shooting targets. I introduced myself and we talked a bit about guns. Then I pointed out that behind their fence was my house about 500 yrs through the woods. I had been up on a ladder and several of their rounds had come near me. They were horrified. I told them to point toward the sand plant since it was closed on the weekend or build a berm to shoot into. they apologized and changed where they were shooting.

What is a stand you took during your wedding planning that you will never apologize for?

I’m Jewish and was marrying a Roman Catholic woman. My parents were vehemently against it, but they also demanded that it be a civil ceremony. My bride wanted the church wedding.

I told her if she wanted the church wedding, that’s what we’ll do. I was not really practicing Jewish traditions, I wasn’t going to synagogue, I routinely worked on Saturdays if my job called for it, and didn’t keep kosher. In fact, since leaving my parents’ home at age 20, I had eaten a cheeseburger for the first time in my life, and had a milk shake along with it!

My parents tried to pressure me to pressure her to at least make it a civil ceremony. I had never even discussed it with her. I told them I would ask, but if she said she wanted the church wedding, then that was the way it would be. They told me they were severing all communication with me. I told them that was okay. They were north of 60 and 70, and living across the ocean, so I replied that I would have to get used to not having them around eventually and I might as well start.

I never backed down, and never regretted it. It set the tone for our future dealings. They knew I was immune to any bullying or any pressure they could bring to bear. If they wanted me to do something, they were going to have to be reasonable and try to convince me with valid argument and not arbitrary stubbornness.

Very interesting …

Would you feel uncomfortable at your in-laws’ home on Christmas when everyone has gifts to open except for you?

I have actually been through this.

I married into a family that is very pretenious.

My husband is more approachable than they are, more down to earth.

We married in our 40’s after failed marriages, so we had a civil wedding with my step kids as our witnesses. They were excited to have me in their family, and I was happy to be their stepmom.

He rarely spoke of the rest of his family and I didn’t meet them until after we were married.

I moved to his hometown which was an hour away and where the family lives.

I was a wreck when Christmas rolled around. The few encounters I had with these people were not welcoming. In fact, they completely ignored me.

I went shopping with my husband to buy gifts for everyone, and the spirit of Christmas eased my fears.

When we arrived I felt the chill. I spoke directly to several people and they didn’t acknowledge me in any way.

So, with my Christmas spirit extinguished, I reluctantly sat by the Christmas tree to open gifts.

After the presents were all passed out, I sat and tried to not act surprised by not having anything to open.

In reality, I was totally embarrassed and fighting back the tears.

My family always bought a few extra gifts in case someone unexpectedly joined us.

I wasn’t expecting much, but I never dreamed they would be so rude.

I never would have gone had I known.

In 1944

What are some good habits to follow?

In no particular order:

Floss before going to bed. To ensure that you don’t have junk stewing in your teeth for 8 hours.
Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
Perform kegels every day. Read more on why this is awesome.
“Eat the frog”. Write down 1 task that you must absolutely perform in order for the day to be a success, and do it first when you get to work.
Send 1 call/text/email to an old friend or colleague that you haven’t spoken with in a while. Over one year, that adds up to 365 reignited relationships (or 61 relationships reignited six times apiece).
End the day with fewer emails in your inbox than you started with. Repeat until you get to inbox zero.
Give away / donate one item in your household every single day. Repeat until you have an uncluttered, restful home.
Answer one question on Quora per day. Work on your writing ability while contributing to the organization of the world’s knowledge.
Walk to and from work, if possible. Exercise! Sunshine!
Eat at least one fruit or vegetable each day. Sure, you should probably eat a half-dozen servings of each. But things can get really screwed up when you are eating zero fruits and veggies. Start small and be consistent.
Express gratitude. My days go so much smoother when I remind myself: “dude, you could just as easily have been born in a Sudanese refugee camp. You’re one lucky mo-fo.”
Spend at least 20 minutes reading something that is completely unrelated to your career (or “personal development”). Creative thinking requires varied inputs. If you have monofocus (e.g. only read about startups all day), you’re severely limiting the amount of interesting ideas you can come up with.
Get uncomfortable at least 1x per day (ideally 3x or 5x). By “get uncomfortable” I mean “summon the courage to do something that makes you anxious”. Speak up during the work conference call. Say hi to the pretty girl or fella standing next to you in line. Run 4 miles instead of 3. Et cetera. Remember: “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

Polenta with Cheese (Mamaliga — Rumania)

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup water
3 1/4 cups boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup shredded Swiss or Kashkaval cheese

Instructions

Mix cornmeal and 3/4 cup water in 2-quart saucepan. Stir in 3 1/4 cups water and the salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir until smooth. Spread 1/3 of the mixture in greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. Dot with 1/3 of the butter; sprinkle with 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat twice. Sprinkle with Swiss cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F until hot and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes.

Fried Cornmeal Mush

Omit butter and the grated Parmesan and Swiss cheeses. After cooking 10 minutes, spread in greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 12 hours. Invert pan to unmold; cut into 1/2-inch slices.

Heat 2 tablespoons butter in skillet until melted. Coat slices with flour; cook uncovered in butter over low heat until brown, about 5 minutes on each side. Serve with molasses, jam, maple syrup or sour cream if desired.

The aluminum foil attired world line traveler

One of my Patreon videos. Enjoy.

Lilies for dinner

Yesterday, out of the blue at dinner time, a delivery man came to our door with a bouquet of lilies. Not for me. Not for the kids. Not for the wife. Mistake, I guess. But the address was exactly our address.

Strange.

A lily flower has different significance in China than it does in the USA. In the USA, lilies are associated with death and funerals.

So obviously, I looked at the delivery guy with a big exclamation point and question mark over his head. Wouldn’t you? Especially since I was in MAJ. Things that make you go hum…

Anyways…

I asked the Domain Commander about this.

DC told me that it was a real accident and not to worry. Sure there are elements in the world that would like me to die and collapse in a most horrible way, but they are far removed from me, and that I am protected. That I should not let my fears grasp my emotions.

Ok. So, yeah.

Never let fear take over your life. Period.

Today…

Who were the most shallow girls/women you’ve ever met? Why?

The funny thing is, I hadn’t met girls or women who I’d consider shallow until I began my PhD. Most of the girls and women in my life were strong, independent, no nonsense girls, who took their lives on by the horns.

However, once I started my PhD, it was as though I was overcompensated for what I had missed out all along. There was a flurry of girls and women I kept bumping into, who made me question their true worth and leave me in total disgust.

Well, without much ado, here’s introducing the creme de la creme

A top woman scientist who told me to do an MBA after my PhD because girls only marry men with fat wallets because sex is not everything
A PhD research scholar who intends to marry a man who earns at least ₹500000 (~$8000) a month so that he could spend at least half of that on her
Another PhD scholar who plans to quit working after she got married because it was her husband’s duty to take care of her
A research scholar who blows up about ₹25,000 a month on partying, clothes, and weekend holidays and then takes another ₹10,000 from home because she’s the only daughter and it was “her right” to be pampered
Research scholars who even in their 3rd year of research do not possess fundamental concepts of their research because, “we’re not nerds like you!”
A research scholar who called her roommate’s mother a whore just for speaking to a guy outside their apartment. Her roomie’s mother had passed away a few months back to cancer
Another PhD scholar who said “I’m a Lingayat,” when I asked her if she was non-vegetarian. Lingayat, turns out, is a caste quite popular in Karnataka and I had no idea until she laughed when I asked her what that was
Another research scholar who’d draw a stipend from her supervisor’s project and yet work entirely for someone else because she had the support of a lot of higher ups
A research scholar who threatened a guy who kept asking her a genuine scientific doubt during one of her presentations. She wasn’t able to answer the question properly and was subsequently cross questioned. Frustrated, she said “I’ll file a harassment charge with the police. I’m a girl and my father has money. Let’s see who they believe.”

Wow! I just realized I could keep going at this. It’s crazy the number of PhD’s who think and speak this way.

What’s the use of having an education when you’re not one bit educated!

I see so much in this kitten that reminds me of my deceased dog

Spareribs and Cabbage
(Zeberka Wieprzowena z Kapusta — Poland)

Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 1/2 pounds fresh pork spareribs, cut into 6 pieces
1 large onion, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1 small head green cabbage, cut into 6 wedges
Freshly-ground pepper

Instructions

Heat oil in Dutch oven until hot. Cook pork spareribs, a few pieces at a time, over medium heat until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes; drain fat.
Add onion, carrot, bouillon, salt, caraway seed, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and the bay leaf.
Pour water and vinegar over pork mixture. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
Add cabbage; sprinkle with pepper. Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender, about 45 minutes.
Remove bay leaf.
Arrange spareribs and vegetables on serving platter.
Garnish with minced parsley if desired.

Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter

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

Yes, yes I have!

A large company you have heard of needed to lay some people off. There was this one guy who always came in, went to his office, did who knows what all day, then went home. Nobody really knew what he did. His manager had been replaced with a new guy who was still figuring out which way is up. He had to lay off X number of people from his group. He laid off this guy.

Then they found out what he did, because it wasn’t being done anymore. Turns out he was providing exclusive customized support to a very large customer on a very lucrative contract.

The customer was not happy. They were no longer getting the support they were paying for.

I know other people who work at the same company. Management knows what they do, so their jobs are secure. It’s amazing how your job security depends on the right people knowing what you do.

2) Someone I know worked for a company that provides services to the military. The company was bought by another company, which put in management that had college degrees but no knowledge or experience in that field. The existing management, which had specific knowledge and experience, was laid off because they did not have college degrees.

That company was known by the military to be able to complete contracts that other companies had failed to complete.

With the team of experts gone, they could no longer complete contracts or train new hires. They had laid off their key people.

Meanwhile, the experts got jobs with competing companies, who were now able to complete contracts.

As contractor pay has stagnated, companies have been sold, and management has been unable to pay decently. A welder or electrician can make 400% more working anywhere else.

The team of experts has bounced from company to company. Whichever company they’re with is able to complete contracts.

How does this story end? That remains to be seen.

In the meantime, we have a navy ship that has been in for repairs for over two years, for work that should have taken only six months.

50% is terrible odds

16 mind-blowing psychology facts you should know:

Hearing your name when on one is calling you, is actually a sign of a healthy brian.
Sleep directly after studying, you will remember what you have learned better.
Don’t argue through text messages. The lack of tone decreases the meaning of the words.
People are more honest when physically tired. This is why most people confess things during late night conversations.
Those who look outside, dream. Those who look inside, awaken.
Cherophobia: the fear of happiness. People with this cherophobia believe that every time they feel happy, something bad will happen and ruin it.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
The most powerful way to win an argument is by asking questions. It can make people see the flaws in their logic.
It’s possible to die from a broken heart. It’s called Stress Cardiomypathy.
Being forgetful can be a sign of a higher intelligence.
Athazagoraphobia: the fear of being forgotten or ignored by someone who you strongly care about.
When ignored by someone who means a lot to you, the reaction in your brain is similar to physical pain.
Boys are actually more emotionally affected by relationship troubles than girls. They just know how to hide it well.
You’re more likely to be easily attracted to someone you have no chance with.
The average man gets bored of shopping after 26 minutes.
If you want someone to listen to you, start the conversation with” I shouldn’t be telling you this”

The Most Paranormal Place On Earth – What’s Happening on Mount Shasta?

What is the rudest thing someone has ever said to you and how did you respond?

This happened a week back exactly and it’s been running on my mind ever since then. I never thought something like this would happen to me, don’t know why.

Last week, I was on a business trip to Berlin and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend, for a short vacation. My return flight to India was from Berlin and so I took a bus from Amsterdam to Berlin Tegel airport (bus because it was cheaper!). I had to switch buses at a place called Hamburg and I had a layover of almost 3 hours.

These 3 hours were the most tiring 3 hours of my life because it was from 10–1 in the night and it was freezing cold outside. And, I was standing alone for so long. Finally the bus came at 12.45 and I was the last one to board the bus. The bus was full and all the seats were taken in the lower deck. The upper deck had only 3 seats.

Super exhausted, I politely ask this girl if I can take the vacant seat next to her and this is how the conversation goes –

Me – Hi, can I please sit here?

Girl – No

Me – I’m sorry, excuse me?

Girl – I want to sit alone. Find another place

I ask the girl in the front seat if I can sit next to her and she was like, “this seat is taken”

Me, again to the girl from before –

Me – There’s no other seat. Can I sit here?

Girl – Go see if there are any seats down

*She was getting on to my nerves*

Me – I’m coming from down, there’s no seat. I’m sorry

Girl – Ask the girl in the front

Me – I just asked her, she said it’s taken. If you want, go ahead and ask her

*By now, people were already looking at me and I was feeling embarrassed. I ignored her and took the seat*

Girl (after 5 mins) – Actually, I don’t feel comfortable about you sitting next to me

Me (I was shocked) – Sorry?

Girl – I feel very uncomfortable about you sitting next to me. Please understand. Don’t sit here, go away!

Me (I lost it) – You know what? There’s no other place. Shut the fuck up and sit! Don’t irritate the fuck out of me!

I don’t think I have ever been this rude to anyone in my life. But, I don’t feel bad about saying it and I never will. I said it, I was rude to her, like she was rude to me. But, I was shocked even after that, my eyes welled up.

For the entire 3 hours, she was giving all these reactions and making faces like she was sitting next to someone disgusting.

And the worst part was, the vacant seat in the front, it was taken by none.

I don’t know if this is racism and if this happened to me because I’m brown and not white. But, this same female was okay with another white girl sitting next to her. While I was walking towards the seat, another white girl was going to sit there but she found another seat.

When I told this incident to a colleague of mine, he told me that I’m jumping into a conclusion that this is racism.

I don’t know if it could be anything else. Because I was dressed up well. I’m someone who gives importance to getting dressed up. This picture below is from the same day morning. I was in the same attire, maybe with a coat on top of it –

U.S. Hegemony is turning the WORLD Against Us

What is the biggest opportunity you, or someone you know, has wasted?

A girl I graduated high school with got a full scholarship to The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. That’s the big UNC… The world-renowned UNC… The one that most of my graduating class was trying to get into. She not only got in, but had a free ride thanks to a combination of cheerleading scholarships and needs-based grants.

She drank and partied her way to failure her first semester, was put on academic probation, didn’t recover, and was back home living with her parents and working as a waitress by the time she was 20.

She was still smoking hott* though, and it all worked out for her. “It” tends to work out for women like her… Women with model-quality looks and bubbly personalities. She married a lawyer and is now a stay-at-home (a beach house, no less) mother who, judging from what she posts on Facebook, lives an enviable life.

As for me, I have one huge wasted opportunity that I know about.

When I was 23, I’d already spent years working for families with special needs children in the wealthy suburbs of Chicago. I ended up with a job as a special needs assistant for the local school district… a very desirable school district for teachers. Also one of the hardest school districts in which to get hired for any position. I only got hired as an aide because one of the parents on the school board knew me because I sometimes took care of his special-needs kid.

Most of the other aides were teachers-in-training. I hadn’t considered going back to school to be a teacher at that point in my life. An opportunity to go to work for a friend in the auto parts business and make slightly more money presented itself, and I quit my job with the school district mid-year.

That’s a huge no-no in education. You never quit mid-year. I burned that bridge to the ground. I lost contact with all of the people I knew in the district. Dozens of networking opportunities squandered, all for about $100 extra dollars per month.

Years later, I finally went back to college and got my teaching certificate. I was 30 by then, and I struggled to find a teaching job. It was all about who you knew that could get your resume in front of the principals, and I didn’t know anyone who could do that anymore.

Had I been patient and stayed on as an aide for a few more years, I would have been first in line for an open teaching position in that district when they became available.

If this were my 10th year of teaching in that district, I’d be making three times what I make now, and have a lot more perks.

Oh well. Youthful impatience has done a lot worse to other people.

Cats sleeping position

If, biologically, humans are not meant to be monogamous, why do we still strive to be so?

Chimps are not monogamous. In fact, they gang-rape each female. The females do this so that no male knows who the father is, preventing the infant from being killed. Just because animals do it doesn’t mean we should.

Gorillas have harems. Most males never mate, those that do dominate a group of females and have exclusive rights to them. This precludes equal rights for females. Go to a harem model, and you’ve just undone the basic premise for women’s rights.

Monogamy and systematic encouragement of it forced men to treat their only sexual partner with decency and respect for their quality of life. This is why only the Christian West gave women equal legal rights to men across the board. If men can have sex outside of marriage, whether sex slaves or prostitutes, the woman’s social status goes down.

Society has a vested interest in monogamy. Single mothers are even in the rich West at greater odds of poverty. Even worse is the three to four times greater odds of bad life outcomes for their kids. From drug addiction to joining a gang to not finishing school to committing suicide to being a single teen mother, the odds are 3–4 times greater if raised by a single mother.

If society wants to reduce criminal behavior, reliance on welfare (if it exists) and dependent adults, it has to encourage monogamy. The group cannot afford to encourage the breakdown of the family. You don’t get happy hippie communes; you get violent inner cities with stubborn inter-generational poverty in communities that used to have declining poverty rates.

Yes, humanity is biologically transitioning from “harem/free sex” to “monogamous”, so we have conflicting impulses. But we’ve been moving toward monogamy for literally millions of years. We know that because women are only 20% smaller than men versus half the size of a male as occurs in gorillas. It is driven by our higher intelligence and the longer dependent period of human infants.

Monogamy is in our best interest as individuals, as parents and as a society. And that’s why we encourage it.

Year after year

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

I had eye surgery in winter 2019, and had to wear dark glasses (the ones in my pic) for a bit.

My eyesight is terrible anyway, but for a couple of months l could barely see.

One evening, as usual, I was taking a long walk in London – couldn’t run, I’d have been running in to street furniture- for exercise. Earbuds in, listening to music.

A beggar stepped in front if me & said something about money. I put my hand in my pocket, handed him a quid.

He said something about wanting more, l couldn’t really hear him too well over Black Grape, but this pissed me off.

“Fuck off”, I said, “you can have a quid and like it”

“Gimme more. I want all your money”

“You cheeky cunt. Fuck off or I’ll take the quid back and kick your arse” l said.

He made angry gestures and stormed off.

A bloke came up beside me…. “…mate, are you ok?” he said.

“Yeah… why?”

“He had a knife”.

Oh. Not beggar; mugger. I hadn’t seen the knife.

The mugger must have thought I was like Chuck Norris, fronting him out like that.

New Upgrade: China J-35 Fighter JET To Fly From Aircraft Carrier

How much power does a general in the U.S. military have?

Not a General (or Admiral in this case, since I served in the Navy), but a Captain (equivalent of a full bird Colonel in the other services).

I joined on the delayed entry program when I was still a senior in high school. Toward the end of my senior year, I was awarded a scholarship to state university. There was a banquet to honor all the scholarship recipients.

Even though I knew I couldn’t accept the scholarship because I was already set to go into the Navy, I thought it would be fun and interesting to attend a banquet that was being held partly in my honor.

At the banquet, I met and made small talk with a Navy Captain. I told him about how I wouldn’t be able to use the scholarship because I had already enlisted via the delayed entry program. I never got his name and never heard from, nor spoke with, him ever again after that night.

So technically, I don’t know with any certainty that he was the one who did anything for me. But 30+ years later, it’s still the only explanation that makes any sense.

A week or two after the banquet, I got a phone call from the recruiting office. They wanted me to come in and sign some paperwork. When I arrived, they had two “identical” enlistment packets sitting on a table. The recruiter explained to me that they were going to let me out of my enlistment contract and go into the reserves instead so that I could go to college.

Even at 17 years old, I knew that the government never just lets anyone cancel a legal and binding contract. This was a really huge deal. Somebody pulled some serious strings.

Is it possible for two doctors to get married and barely get to see each other?

Not only possible, but probable.

I have told this story before, but I got married young at 24. We were in med school. We did not have a honeymoon, and it was a major fight to get the weekend off and permission to take an exam a day early. Then in residency we both worked 100 + hours per week for years. YEARS. We were not guaranteed to get vacation on the same week. We were not guaranteed a single day off in the month, including weekends. One of my fellow residents gave birth to premature twins. The babies were in an ICU in another STATE so her parents could be in the hospital because there was no family leave. I was repeatedly told not to get pregnant, which would be hard to do if you never sleep, let alone sleep in the same room on the same night as your partner.

Fast forward to maybe age 30. I saw a TV commercial about “the best part of waking up” and it showed a couple on their porch watching the sun rise and drinking some brand of coffee. I started to cry because I had never sat with my husband on my porch or had coffee in the morning together. That was kind of the moment I realized exactly what I had signed up for.

I think things are getting much better for young doctors but for us it was not great. People have NO IDEA what some of us have gone through to be “rich doctors.” Especially if you started out poor and had no outside help or support from family.

Human Remains Found In America Dated 128,000 BC

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

I worked for a ‘charity’ in Wakefield, England. A miserable place with many dubious business practices, run by a egotistical idiot. One day most of my team – conspicuously all those of a particular ethnicity – was pulled into his office and told we would probably be losing our jobs and would have to reapply for them. Given the decisive nature of who had been picked, it was obvious we wouldn’t get them when we ‘reapplied’: the company is notorious for their nepotism and they no doubt had replacements – friends and family – already lined up. Needless to say, the mood turned sour in the room. Then the kicker – the absolute collosal utter bellend of a boss legitimately couldn’t tell why we were angry. His exact words: “Come on guys, why are you so down? Let’s have a good day. Big smiles guys, big smiles.”

Had a stressful month looking for work afterward, but now in a great job and glad to see the back of that dump. And of course the people he lined up to fill our posts made a right mess of it (though sadly the company survived).

Is China expected to surpass the US as a superpower or will they remain on par with each other?

Can US citizens do 4 times better than Chinese citizens?

Think about this from 1980 to 2020 alone, China grew 30 times in 40 years in real income! What will happen between 2020 to 2060? Say it just grow 10 times that of 2020! It will leave the US trailing miles away!

Chinese people are innovating more, Chinese produce more STEM engineers a year more that the entire U.S. STEM sector! Chinese works twice as hard as American’s, they are highly intelligent and very productive and discipline. Every years China’s savings alone is as big as the entire UK economy! It already has the best infrastructure amongst major economies.

For China to stay still is never going to happen. Period. To me China will grow to 5–6 times the U.S. in real economy!

Expert REVEALS Evidence of Super ADVANCED LOST Ancient Technology!

What is the worst thing to say on a date?

True Story.

About 7 years ago, I met one of my oldest friend in Dallas’s daughter, and sparks flew from both sides. (His daughter is very close to my age)

You can read the story of how we got to this point here: Chris O’Leary’s answer to What were your feelings when you first met/saw your spouse?

It didn’t happen right away, but a year or so later, I met her again, and after some standard comical clumsiness, I asked her out.

Knowing based on what she did for a living that she was science nerdy like me, I planned a date to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science

. (Note to guys, this is a BRILLIANT idea. It’s not just that you’re showing respect for her intellect, it also gives you several hours to walk around, have a TON of stimulating things to talk about, and get to know each other.)

Day of the date arrives, her Dad’s in the hospital, so we agree to meet there, so I can visit him too. Hilarious side story, as we’re about to leave, she says, Ok, Dad, see you later, do you want me to turn off your light? “No,” Dad says, “Chris can turn it off when he leaves.” Uh, Bob?” I replied “….(Extended awkward pause….) I’m going with her….”

So we decide to leave her car in the Hospital parking lot and take my car to the museum. Get in the car, turn it on, doors lock, car goes into drive and starts rolling and I say:

“So you know I’m still married, right?”

Have you ever heard that metaphorical record scratch in real life?

Well. I QUICKLY explained to her that we had been separated for about 8 years, that the upcoming law called “The Affordable Care Act” would make it so that she could get insurance despite her pre-existing neuro-vascular disease, and that the only reason we were still married was so that she could stay on my corporate health insurance until that was the case. (In other words, I QUICKLY demonstrated that “I’m a VERY nice guy.”)

It calmed the fire down to the point where we were able to have a VERY nice date…didnt’ QUITE get together just then… a few breaks…not the right time…I was seeing someone else…then she was…and then…

The Stars Aligned.

Yup. I married the Girl who listened to me drop the WORST line you could possibly drop on a first date.

C’est l’amour, no?

Sanctioning China? US is as stupid as the Qing Dynasty Emperor

What are some hacks that everyone should know?

When you sign up for anything online, put the website’s name as your middle name. That way when you receive spam/advert email, you will know who sold your information.
If you’re on a first date and aren’t connecting with the other person or feel they’re dull, ask them what job they’d choose if money wasn’t an issue. It initiates a talk about one’s passions, which are rarely dull and are simple to connect.
If you want to be an effective communicators, let others talking about themselves and their interests – it’s as rewarding as sex. Check out 10+ psychological tricks that are mind blowing.

Do not try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be be. It more clearly defines your own convictions, desires, goals, and motivates you to be your best.
Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip – that’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.
When a friend is upset, ask them one simple question before saying anything else: ‘Do you want to talk about it or do you want to be distracted from it?’
No matter how much your workplace pushes “team building” and “family culture” – remember, they’re not your friends and it’s still a workplace.
If you’re stuck on an annoying call, put your phone on airplane mode instead of just hanging up. The other person will see “call failed” instead of “call ended”.
If you want to learn a new language, figure out the 100 most frequently used words and start with them. Those words make up about 50% of everyday speech, and should be a very solid basis.

The Circleville Letters Mystery | Why can’t we solve this?

Pork Sausage Loaf (Hungary)

Ingredients

1 cup diced mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg, beaten
1 pound fresh bulk pork sausage
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika

Instructions

Melt butter in a skillet and add mushrooms. Sauté.
Combine sausage, mushrooms, egg and crumbs and shape into a loaf. Sprinkle with paprika. Place in a small roaster; cover.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1/2 hour.
Uncover, return to oven, and bake 30 more minutes.

Serves 4

10+ Mind-Blowing Psychological Tricks & Facts That Everyone Should Know

Here are 17 psychological tricks to be more likable and 16 psychology facts you should know:

Posture matters: If you stand up straight and make an eye contact while talking to the people you are attracted to, will make you more confident and attractive.
Have a strong sense of humor: It is thought to be a sign of intelligence. this is why, when assessing a potential partnepsyr, we tend to be more attracted to those who are funny.
Start the conversation first: Women are automatically attracted to guys who start the conversation, take initiative, and make them laugh.
…and always be the one to pull away from the conversation: It shows that you value your time and have other stuff to do. If you cut short your conversation, the other person always wants more of it. It creates attraction.
Deeper voice: Men with deeper voices are more likely to make a lasting impression on women than men with higher voices.
Create sexual tension without touching: It is done subtly, and by flirting. It creates instant attraction if you do it correctly.

7. Never approach women from behind or from her sides. It looks sneaky. Approach her face-to-face. It displays more confidence.

8. Wear red: People subconsciously believe that women who wear red are more attractive and sexy, in 2010, Eliot confirmed that people will sit closer to women who wear red dresses.

9. Let others talk about themselves – it’s as rewarding as sex: If you want to make your conversation partner feel good, get them talking about themselves and their interests. Which will make people feel valued and they will be more impressed by you

10. If you’re a woman, a man will like you if you can make him feel masculine. No instructions, no advice and give him ample space.

11. If you’re a man, a woman will like you if you can make her feel beautiful, not just sexy. A high emotional quotient is also critical for a woman.

12. Do not speak badly about others as this creates distrust.

13. Do not spread false rumors and do not make accusations.

14. When with a group of people, including everyone in the conversation. Never leave anybody out.

15. Share the little you have with those who have nothing.

16. Become a happy person and wear a smile always.

17. Laugh with all. Don’t discriminate. Be gender sensitive.

US Heartbreak: Mexico Chooses China for Auto Future – Is It the End?

What is the strangest way you found out a friend was wealthy?

When I worked at the local university bar there was this guy called Mick. He was a down to earth guy who spoke in a working class accent. He always said that his dad was a miner. We socialised quite a bit over the three years that he studied for his degree. Then when it was his graduation I was invited and I met and sat with his parents. Obviously well off by the clothes that they wore. Anyhow, Mick’s mother was chatting to me and aske me who I was I told her that I was her son’s barman for the past three years. She asked “did he tell you that his father owns six mines in Yorkshire?”

I replied “no”. She said, “He’s such an inverted snob, How did you find him?”

I replied that I found him sociable, down to earth and a decent guy. I got a hug for that and an invitation to their home in the summer break.

It was like a bloody castle with footmen and butlers.

But, yes they were such a lovely, nice, down to earth family.

Do you trust your parents?

I’m standing by my Dad as I am casually playing on my phone.

Suddenly, he reaches over and snatches my phone out of my hands, eyeing the screen.

“Dad what are you doing?” I ask, surprised.

“Just checking” he replies, handing it back over to me.

“I’m so sick of dealing with Amy.

I wish I could just dump her at the doctors so they can take care of her.”

I’m frozen in place as I overhear my Mum talking to my Dad. I run back to my room and I find myself having a panic attack.

I’m laying in bed, “asleep”, when I hear my Dad walk up beside my bed. I peek out of my eye slightly, and see the light of my phone screen illuminate the room.

My Dad is standing there, looking at my notifications.

I start to wake up, and he quickly covers himself, saying he was just “seeing if it needed charging for tomorrow”.

These happened a long time ago, and to this day they continue to prove to me that they can’t be trusted and that they lie to me all the time.

They tell me I can trust them. They tell me that they will always support me. They tell me that they’ll always have my side. They have even told me that they will give me privacy.

But actions speak louder than words.

The Cat Knew That They Had Come to Put Him to Sleep! So Be It, For the Mistress Was Gone!

Lethal Easter

When I was a young boy, I reckon somewhere around 7 years old, we were living in Monroe Connecticut. It was (at that time) a growing middle class neighborhood, and my father bought a plot there and was building a house.

(Later on, it became a wealthy suburb, and our house that we sold at a loss in 1965, became worth many, many millions of dollars. Sigh).

I used to explore the woods around the home.

And one Easter, my father woke us up with our baskets of chocolate, and Easter eggs, and a live white rabbit.

And us kids… being kids… well, we spent all day feeding the rabbit chocolate. And that is what happened all during Easter.

Well…

The very next day, we woke up to find the rabbit dead.

Yup.

Chocolate ends up killing animals like rabbits, dogs and cats.

Sheech! We didn’t know!

So that morning, once we all got our clothes on, we filed in a line… a procession… and carried the rabbit to the swamp and trees behind our property.

And there, my dad dug a hole, and we buried the rabbit.

We all threw some dirt on the cardboard shoe-box, and said goodbye to our short-lived friend.

Sometimes, the best intentions… due to ignorance… can be lethal.

Today…

Do you think Alexander the Great is greater than Napoleon?

Here is my opinion:

Napoleon Bonaparte, who became Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, is the most famous self-made man in history. The other great men with whom Napoleon is compared, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, began their careers with tremendous advantages. Alexander was already king of Macedonia when he conquered the Persian Empire and earned the title “the Great.” Caesar was born into the aristocratic patrician class, and was governor of Spain before he conquered Gaul and became dictator of Rome.

Napoleon was born in Corsica, a backwater province of France, and through his father’s efforts attended military schools in France. At any other time, he might have simply served as a career officer in the king’s army, perhaps with some distinction. Instead of this fate, the chaos and violence of the French Revolution provided opportunities for ambitious men. Like hundreds of other French military men and politicians, Napoleon was literally the right age, at the right time in history, in exactly the right place to exploit fortune.

Through a combination of talent, ability, patronage, boundless energy, and great luck, Napoleon circumvented potential rivals and rose rapidly to prominence and power. By 1807, fourteen years after his first success at Toulon in 1793, Napoleon had created an empire unlike anything Europe had seen since Ancient Rome. He was 38 years old.

From the siege of Toulon to the battle of Waterloo twenty-two years later, Napoleon fought more battles than Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar combined. However, this era was far more than just the sum of his military exploits. The transition period between the 18th and 19th centuries was the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. People listened to the new, powerful sounds of Beethoven’s music, were inspired by the Rights of Man to overthrow the rule of kings by divine right, were appalled by the beheading of thousands during the Reign of Terror, were awed by the discovery of an ancient civilization in Egypt, and read the first works of the Romantics like Byron, Kant, and Goethe.

Gifted military commander, innovative administrator, and ruler of an empire, Napoleon seemed to influence everything and everyone. His enemies were so impressed with his genius and abilities that Prince Metternich, Austrian Minister and Chancellor, named the period the “Age of Napoleon” shortly after the French Emperor’s death.

Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity on a small island to become the most powerful man in Europe, then lost it all to die in exile on another small island. It is one of the most incredible stories in history.

If you hang up an a scammer or telemarketer, they’ll just call you back. If you get them to hang up, they’re much less likely to call you again. Have you found a never-fail way of getting scammers and telemarketers to hang up?

We got scam calls alot at our office…always an India accent. One Tuesday a call comes while I was on lunch break and frankly bored. I listen to the spiel. An American stranded desperately needs our help to get to the embassy. Why he/she had an Indian call would have been a good question, but I’m in this for the fun. So I loudly relay to my co-worker what they’re telling me…”Oh my gosh! Sarah you’re not going to believe what’s happened to this poor woman!” Making a long story shorter, we strung them along all week on lunch break having them email and call back while we tried to figure out how to make this $5k transfer. Friday rolls around and they call with wire #’s so I can send the cash on my lunch break. We wait about 20 minutes and they call back. I very innocently explain that I couldn’t send the money because my bank said they’re scammers, but not to worry…I gave the bank their phone number, wire numbers, and email address so the bank can verify they’re legit. Lot of cussing in the background and they hung up. It was quite satisfying and we got no more calls.

What are some of the mind blowing facts that you have ever come across?

The Enköping murder 2023 in Sweden.

A young immigrant taxi chauffeur had raped a girl who was 14 at the time. Oh well, sexual crimes happen and often the perpetrators come from cultures where the woman’s value is somewhere between cows and furniture. The Swedish law is rather jovial and lenient, also on what comes to sexual crimes.

The girl’s boyfriend had gotten furious, and had decided to avenge. He had called his brothers, and together with the girl, they had ambushed the chauffeur. They had assaulted him, tied him, kicked him and finally hanged him on a tree in a nature reservate.

The chauffeur’s colleagues had gotten worried as he had not arrived to work, and they found him hanged on the tree a week later.

The gang of five was caught on basis of the mobile phone data. They are charged of murder. But since they are all underagers (under 18), they cannot be tried and sentenced as adults.

It is easy to see the girl was a native Swede, as the boyfriend and his brothers killed the assailant to avenge the rape. If she had been an immigrant, the boyfriend and his brothers would have killed her as a honour murder.

All in all, I am not amused of this case. It is a direct slap upon the Sweden’s collective face. First, this whole case would have not happened if rapists were punished severely enough in Sweden. Second, vigilantism is a sign that the official crime investigation and punishing machinery is not working as it should. Third, because murdering a rapist is not an eye for an eye – murder is a far more grave crime than rape itself. And fourth, because the murderers are all underagers. It is utterly unlikely adults would have taken the law on their own hands and murdered the rapist, but underagers with too much testosterone and too little consideration can commit crimes like this.

“One cold night a billionaire met an old poor man outside.

He asked him, “don’t you feel cold being outside, and not wearing any coat?” The old man replied, “l don’t have it but I got used to that.” The billionaire replied, “Wait for me. I will enter my house now and bring you one. ‘ The poor man got so happy and said he will wait for him.The billionaire entered his house and got busy there and forgot the poor man.

In the morning he remembered that poor old man and he went out to search for him but he found him dead because of cold, but he left a NOTE, “When I didn’t have any warm clothes, I had the power to fight the cold because I was used to that. But when you promised me to help me, I got attached to your promise and that took my power of resisting.

MORAL: Don’t promise anything if you can’t keep your promise. It might not mean anything to you, But it could mean everything to someone else.”

What’s something the British know that most people don’t?

Only the British will know the “Slaughtered Lamb’s” most famous extra.
If you drink ten pints, your body will GPS itself towards a Kebab shop.
Only the British will know what Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Robert Lindsay have in common.
Only the British will know that Roger Moore nearly appeared in an Andrew Lloyd-Weber musical.
Only the British will know why the bowler was holding the batsman’s willy.
We know which part of Spain the rain mainly falls on.
It’s not a great idea to look the guy at the next urinal in the eye and smile!
Men know that five shakes and more, is getting ‘iffy.’
Only the British know what “Dogger” means when I say radio four.
Only the British knew about ENIGMA
Only the British will know about the use of inflatable tanks in WW2.
Only the British will know what an Anderson shelter was.
There’s always going to be one fat bridesmaid.
That part of the wedding where the vicar says, “Does any man or woman know why this man and this woman should not be wed?” – that’s the bit where Brits start playing in their head, what the outcome would be if someone says yes.
Only British drivers can navigate a double traffic island, with traffic lights and live.
Only British people know that a 747 over London actually STOPS, mid-air, then proceeds to land at Heathrow, while barely moving.
Only British people standing on the beach of Dover know that on a clear day you can see France, and that no bugger has yet seen France.
Only British people that the only thing that the City of London was designed for, is lunch.
Only the British know that the USA has NEVER lost a war in which donkeys were used.
Only the British will think that American history is an oxymoron.
Only the British know that the difference between burned toast and the US Army, is that you can still make soldiers out of burned toast.
Only the British know that the sea at Southport is only half true.
The French call it an outside cafe. The British equivalent of tables and chairs outside is called an eviction.

As an ICU doctor, how do you deal with patients’ loved ones trying to keep them alive even when that would be unethical and cruel (medicine, medical science, people, interpersonal skills, ethics, injuries, intensive care)?

It is horrible to be forced to keep a brain dead 16 year old on massive machines because the mother knows God will do a mighty healing and threatens legal action and calling me a murderer. By the way I am a Christian Doctor and I do pray with my patients and families. Two Neurologists declared this man brain dead. All the protocols were done proper . She refused any organ donation from her son. She had all the pastors and elders praying for this miracle. She glared at me horribly. I had prayed with her. She called me a murderer. I felt overwhelmed and miserable and helpless. I did not dare “ unplug “ this young son of hers. Very very depressing and sad . I consulted with the neurologist who said from his long experience to just stop trying to fight mom. He said the patient will “ die “ within a week even with full tubes and support. Forget the ethics and all the money lost and wasted that could have gone to better use. Just let it happen.

This helped me a lot.

After a week the patient went into total heart failure and no rhythm and was declared heart dead finally and the mother gave up. She was satisfied all was done and God took her son home.

Who gets to win even when the family are flat out wrong by science ? Who gets to pay all these bills? Who just eats it? We could build a whole school for what this all cost. And this sad game plays out all the time.

I have never resolved this dilemma in my heart .

Do you think Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are happy to see the United States collapsing?

Tell me

Just look around yourself

Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock and that group have single handedly performed Harakiri on their Industries and People

By tacitly cooperating with the destruction of Nordstream and by getting access to Cheap Gas and Oil taken away, they have subjected their people to inflation of almost 9% and forced their industries to pay between 57% –117% more for energy

Joe Biden, Blinken and that group have single handedly forced a level of de dollarization never seen before even in the 2008 Global Crisis

They have forced inflation on their Citizens

They have ignored Financial Struggles back home

Boris Johnson and Sunak and that group have done the same

Kept Europe in a state of war, Kept Oil and Gas impossible to buy for Europe or UK Without paying a 20% premium on the price to 40% premium

Plus knowing their actions have caused double digit inflation of 11% across the last two years

Are these really Democracies??????

Are they doing a SINGLE THING for their people?

In the US, more people have been cut off from Healthcare in the last two years

Anything being done?

Nopes

The US has been flooded with more illegal migrants in the past four years than under any other presidency

Anything being done?

Nopes

The Politicians of these Countries are being elected to power on the basis of deluding their voters by mass media and social media every time and once elected, commit every act of atrocity against the people

The exact opposite is happening in these AUTOCRACIES

In China, the focus is Food Security, Energy Security, Technological Independence, removing poverty, increasing healthcare participants

In Russia, for the first time Putin is focused on ensuring his people have enough to eat, work and the ability to buy homes at lower prices

In Saudi Arabia, MBS has made life much easier for women, more education, cheaper prices and a return to free healthcare for its citizens

Not to mention moving away from religious dogma

Even in India

Our Government never talks of Food or Energy Security or Water Security or Agricultural Security or Healthcare or Education

It’s always :-

Fifth largest economy
Third Largest economy by 20XX

In China meanwhile it’s always :-

So much Poverty gone by 20XX
So much energy dependence removed by 20XX
Own Soybean Production increased

I believe the very system of DEMOCRACY is collapsing across the world

Every Democracy now reveals a fatal flaw of how much more dangerous a Democracy can become for its people when it’s leadership becomes poor like the case of most democracies today

Xi and Putin have nothing to do with it

They didn’t sponsor Maidan in 2014

They didn’t blow up Nordstream

They don’t Publish lies about other countries

All they have done is REACT to unfair decisions taken by democracies and in the process caused greater damage to the same democracies

Top 20 Paranormal Events Caught On Camera

How has one person helped you achieve a successful life?

My daughter was 2 years old when I considered returning to school for my masters. I called Millersville University and requested a catalog be mailed to me.

After I called, I had misgivings. Should I wait until Lauren was a little older? The easy way out is always so attractive, so tempting.

The catalog arrived while Lauren was napping. I made myself a fortifying cup of coffee, sat down at the kitchen table, and perused this ominous looking catalog for, by now, that’s how I came to view the situation. Having consumed my coffee, I decided waiting was the better decision.

Two days later, the mailman delivered another catalog. I placed that on my desk beside the first one. Things began to look a little sticky when day five produced yet another catalog. Was Someone trying to tell me something?

Instead of placing the catalog beside two of its fellow conspirators, I took this into the kitchen, made myself a cup of coffee, and read the requirements.

Dad’s graduation photo.

Having finished the catalog and my coffee, a memory arose. It was of my father. I remembered walking through the kitchen on my way to bed. He sat at the kitchen table with the light shining on his textbooks, pencil in hand, working the problems his professor at The University of Dayton had assigned.

Dad worked full time at Delco Products in Kettering then attended night school to finish the degree he’d started years before. His studies had been interrupted when Pearl Harbor was bombed. At 40, he returned to college to complete his degree.

If Dad could do this, so could I. I put my feeble excuses aside, and spent the next three years completing my MEd and reading specialist certification. It felt good and my parents were quietly proud of me.

The USA is fucking nuts

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rPc-q1ARNoM?feature=share

BAD HABITS THAT MAKE YOU LESS ATTRACTIVE

You don’t listen when someone is talking.
You create conflict for no reason.
You constantly act superior.
You interrupt others.
You constantly complain.
You are rude.
You turn everything into a competition.

Bara Brith

This is a very old Welsh recipe. The word “Bara” is the Welsh word for bread and “brith” is the Welsh word for speckled.

Ingredients

1 pound mixed dried fruit, chopped
1 1/4 cups freshly-brewed tea
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten to blend
3 tablespoons orange marmalade
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Place fruit in large bowl. Pour tea over fruit.
Add brown sugar and mix well.
Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight.
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Add flour, milk, egg, marmalade and cinnamon to soaked fruit mixture. Stir until combined.
Spoon dough into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake until bread is brown and crusty and wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 2 hours.
Cool slightly. (Can be prepared up to 4 days ahead. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature.)

Makiwnyk (Poppyseed Loaf)

Here is the recipe for the makiwnyk, poppyseed loaf. This recipe was written down by me when I was about 15 years old as my mother was making it. The paper is old and falling apart, so bear with me. Don’t let this scare you from making it. I just found it and haven’t had a chance to re-do it.

Ingredients

Loaves

1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 cups milk, scalded and cooled until lukewarm in mixing bowl
3 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
2 cups flour
6 to 6 1/2 cups flour, divided

Poppyseed or Nut Filling

1 pound poppy seeds or ground nuts (I think she used walnuts)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter
1 cup hot milk
1 to 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

Instructions

Loaves: Dissolve the 1 teaspoon granulated sugar in lukewarm water (100 degrees F). Sprinkle active dry yeast into water/sugar mixture and let stand for 10 minutes.
Stir briskly with a fork. Add softened yeast to lukewarm milk and stir. Beat in the 3 cups flour. Cover bowl and let sit in a warm place until light and full of bubbles, approximately 1 hour.
Stir in the 1 cup granulated sugar, salt, melted butter and lemon rind. Beat just until mixed.
In a small bowl, beat with a fork the eggs and egg yolks. Stir into the batter. Add 2 cups flour and beat vigorously. Add another 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour working it in with a rotating motion of your hand. Turn dough over on a lightly floured surface and knead 8 to 10 minutes.
Shape into a smooth ball and place in a greased bowl turning the dough once. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, approximately.
Poppyseed or Nut Filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until totally incorporated, set aside.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Punch down dough and divide into 3 equal parts. Roll each into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Spread with poppyseed filling or nut filling and roll up each rectangle in a jellyroll fashion. Pinch seams to make edges secure and turn under loaf. Place on greased baking sheets and cover and let rise until doubled in size. Brush tops with butter and bake in oven for 1 hour.

Makes 3 loaves.

* I just go out to the supermarket and purchase the Solo poppyseed or nut paste and use that – it’s quicker.

I got fired. My ex-boss is now asking for the whereabouts of important files. How should I respond?

I’ve had two similar circumstances. In one, they had fired me and later discovered the program I had written that tracked orders in the company required an extensive update. They wanted to bring me back at my old pay level to fix it. I counter offered with a contractor based fee. They laughed and declined. I found out later it cost them ten times my offer to get it updated. The contractor they hired wouldn’t work on the old hardware they had been too cheap to update, wasn’t familiar with the legacy format of the database file involved, would only work during business hours, stretching out the job over many days, etc. I had offered to have it done over a weekend for $5k. It took over a week and cost $47k. I was told they inquired into suing me for damages. Since they had not fired me for cause, and because I had made a reasonable offer, I was told they were advised not to pursue it.

in the second circumstance I had left the company voluntarily six months prior. My replacement had been given all the passwords with instructions to change them on my departure. Six months after my departure I received a phone call from my old bosses’ lawyer – on a holiday weekend, no less. They wanted to know the password for a critical piece of hardware and threatened me with a lawsuit if I did not provide it. I said I would not even talk to them without my old boss conferenced in. She was on the line in ten seconds, leading me to believe she had been listening in all along. I reminded her that I gave my replacement all the passwords, including the one requested, with instructions to change them. She said he abruptly left and they are locked out. They were trying to make it my problem. I expressed my sympathy, said there was nothing I could do, wished them well, and hung up.

In general, unless you did something nefarious, the location of their files is not your responsibility after they fired you.

Were there any famous honeytraps in WW2?

I’d like to define “honeytrap” for others first before answering…

A honeytrap occurs when a person, political organization, etc. use sexual favors or romantic relationships to gather information. It’s also known as “sexpionage”. This was used quite ofted during the cold war.

In WWII it would be used more for spying on others rather than gathering information in a prison camp by using sexual favors. I really can’t think of anytime that prison camps did this, certainly not the Japanese who looked down upon those who surrendered.

Claire Phillip’s set up a famous honey trap. Claire was a U.S. citizen who escaped Manila when it it fell to the Japanese. She spent a number of months caring for other guerrilla figthers in the hills of Bataan. She was eventually convinced to go back to Manilla and spy on the Japanese. Phillips ran the Tsubaki Club which was a nightclub eventually most frequented by the Japanese soldiers (really the officers).

“Madame Tsubaki” would sing and socialize with Japanese businessman and officers along with girls she trained to flirt with them in order to get information. Her girls were able to gain information pertaining to troop units, troop movements, and important goings-on by flirting (and sometimes more outside the club in the nearby hotels). The next day, Phillips would gather the information gleened from that night by her and her girls and smuggle it by courier to the guerrillas.

She also helped smuggle food and notes into nearby prisoner of war camps. Her luck eventually ran out and she was captured by the Japanese police in 1944 after one of her couriers that had been captured (who had been brutally tortured and eventually killed) gave her up.

She was sent to one of the worst prisons on the island and was put in solitary confinement. The Japanese had plans to execute her, but instead commuted her sentence to hard labor. She was freed when her prison camp was liberated.

For her brave acts, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1951 upon the recommendation of Douglass MacArthur.

For further reading, I’d recommend – MacArthur’s Spies: The Soldier, the Singer, and the Spymaster who Defied the Japanese in World War II by Eisner, Peter (2017).

I’d also look up the story of this woman:

Betty Pack was an American-born British spy nicknamed “Victoria” who worked for the famous MI6. She was the one who first discovered that the Poles had broken the German Enigma code.

I’d recommend The Last Goodnight by Howard Bloom (2016), to read more about her in detail.

As a prison or corrections officer, what was the funniest thing you witnessed an inmate do?

I was a Critical Care Transport Paramedic for one of the largest prison systems.

I was picking up a 65+ year old “Lifer” who was suffering chest pains from our unit Infirmary, to transport him to the main prison hospital…

A young CO was putting the Old Guy (“OG”) in the required Full restraints while OG was laying on my ambulance cot, with a mile of wires, IV tubes, oxygen tube and sensor cables running everywhere….

Since OG had a high security rating, the rules required handcuffs with a “Lock Box”, belly chain, leg irons and a “trip chain”…

The kid was fumbling everything…

Finally the OG, told the CO… “Dammit Kid…!! I ain’t got enough heartbeats left to wait on your ass….! YA DO IT LIKE THIS….”

….and Old Guy proceeded to direct Young CO in how to properly restrain a High Security Prisoner, quoting the Procedure Manual chapter and verse.

And the OG did a darned fine job of it…

When the young CO finished he told his LT he was going to write the inmate up, the LT told him to STFU and learn…

We had an uneventful ride to the hospital, and OG survived that and several more cardiac events before he finished his sentence… so to speak…

I liked OG…

He was respectful with the Medical Staff and COs tho hard as nails and well respected by the other inmates…

Life is precious, please don’t destroy it. Remember!

Stop telling people everything most people don’t care and some secretly want you to fail.
Stay away from people who make you feel lonely. No company is better than a Bad Company.
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.
Not everyone will like you that’s life.
Focus on you people come and go.
If you don’t control your mind someone else will.
Sometime the things that break your heart end up fixing your vision.
Loneliness is the price you pay when you start to improve yourself.
Proud you survived the days you thought you couldn’t.
Be kind but don’t let people use you.
Don’t go broke trying to impress broke people.
Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
Don’t compare your life to others you have no idea what their journey is all about.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people.

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

I was working for an independent Mercedes repair shop in Richmond Virginia. A customer had moved to Richmond from West Africa and had his Mercedes shipped by boat to Newport News and then flat- bedded directly to our shop to get it checked out and get a state inspection. The boss told me to drive it to another shop a few blocks away that did engine cleaning. When I got there we popped the hood and the guy proceeds to turn an industrial-sized pressure washer onto the engine. Out pops the biggest rat I’ve ever seen, maybe the size of a small dog, and we watched it run across the road and behind the nearest building. If that’s the kind of rats they have in West Africa I’m definitely steering clear of that place.

What was the most surprising reason why a co-worker was fired?

A semi-friend in high school days had a lot of connections where we worked part time. As a result, he believed he could do (or not) anything. He had been right for a year running. If he wanted Friday night off for a date — granted — something none of the rest of us got. If he wanted to come in later on Saturday morning, granted.

He’d “volunteer” to straighten up shelves, etc. and in reality he’d goof off. Sometimes he’d hang out in the stock room, other times in the break room. Sometimes he’d leave the store for as long as 20 minutes. The manager, who “knew,” nevertheless never went looking. He also knew that if he caught the kid, then what? He couldn’t fire him (connections) and yet he’d now officially know he was goofing off.

What if one of the rest of the staff complained. Even worse, what if one of the staff filed a complaint with the Dept of Labor or something like that? So he maintained his “deniability” by never going to look.

Then one day, one bagger was at lunch and the second was on break. The store had been empty but all of a sudden, there was someone at the check out. The rules of the store were that that the cashier never bagged … that was the bagger’s job.

The manager knew Jon was somewhere in one of the aisles goofing off, so he paged him to the front. No response. Paged again, no response. Finally, Jon comes wandering up, the manager points to the checkout line and Jon erupts.

“Go do it yourself you Effing lazy <religious slur name>. I bet you think that just because I have pull downtown that I’m in your <religious slur> religion but I’m not. So if you want to bag that b&tch’s groceries, get up off your lazy <backside> and do it. I’m going out for a smoke …”.

The manager said (very quietly I was told), “No, you’re fired.”

Jon started to laugh and the manager once again said, “You’re fired. Get out of this store right now.”

Jon: “Yeah right you little piece of <religious slur> <word for crap>. You’ll be the one fired when this is over.”

The manager stood his ground and told the woman in the courtesy booth to call the local PD. To Jon: you’ve got until they get here to get out or you will be arrested and I will press charges. I assume that the store will also back up any charges the cashier and the customer might want to level at you.

Then he hears the siren … he sees the cop car coming toward the store. With that, he tore through the store and ran out the back emergency exit and to his car. Not long after, he’s on the phone to his grandfather, who was his connection downtown.

But the grandfather had already heard the story so when Jon went off again, Granddad let him rant and then said “as your manger said, you’re fired. Is that all you called me about?”

I heard the story from coworkers and from him and both sides agreed on all the essential details. This was very possibly the first time anyone had ever told him no and made it stick.

Have you ever witnessed a murder?

In 1976 I was in college, and one afternoon a girl was screaming on the balcony of my dorm. So I went out there, and saw a student lying on his back, very pale, barely conscious, with blood coming out his mouth. Another student was kneeling over him, and said “if he dies I’ll kill myself, but he shouldn’t have messed with me”. A rifle lay on the balcony between them.

They were both freshmen, and had been on campus for only two weeks. The victim apparently was a bit of an asshole who had pranked the perp the previous week, destroying some of his property. On this day, he had been at it again, locking a different student in a bathroom and walking away. That was his last prank.

It was a small town, which did not have “911” service yet. I think there was some confusion about who was calling the ambulance – most of us were teenagers at that point. We should have carried him into the parking lot and put him in a pickup; the hospital was only a half-mile away. Finally the ambulance arrived; I think I saw his hand move as they loaded him in, but he was dead upon arrival.

The perpetrator surrendered without resistance. Apparently he had a history of mental illness, so he was found insane and was transferred to a mental institution. The rifle did not belong to him.

12 Harsh truths that will make you a strong person

We can’t control the past. Wasting time to worry about it is lost time.
Sadly, we don’t get what we give. Don’t expect people to always give back. Not everyone has as giving a heart as you.
Good things usually don’t come easily. And if you think about it, great accomplishments take time too. Don’t expect rewards instantly.
Not everyone will support your dream. Haters, doubters, and pessimists will sabotage every move you make. To overcome this, follow your gut and forget them.
You are responsible for the problems you encounter, regardless of who caused them. So instead of blaming others, find a way to get out of situation.
Our words have the power to hurt. Cruel remarks wound others for life. Use your words to inspire and to liberate instead.
Failure quickly gets to our hearts, but success goes to our heads. Our character is revealed at our highest and lows. Be humble at the top. Be faithful in the valleys.
Our assumptions about what happiness should be are what makes us unhappy. Let go of your expectations about what would make you happy.
We judge ourselves by our ideas and others by their actions. Be a person who others want to meet and be around.
We all will die. No one will live forever. Start living a purposeful life and try to mend broken relationships, because you never know when life will end.
Hating oneself starts with breaking one’s promises. Once done, it feels terrible. When it becomes a habit, you hate yourself more.
Sometimes we have to ditch toxic friends from our lives and surroundings.

In court, what was the most devastating cross-examination of a witness that you ever saw?

My first jury trial my client was accused of knowingly applying for Oregon resident hunting licenses and tags without qualifying for residency. My client owned about 40 acres of land in Oregon and had a trailer home and a large shop on the property and had utility bills for that property. He had one pickup truck registered in Oregon and one in California, where he taught at a community college, but his witnesses testified he spent summer and sabbaticals and holidays in Oregon and did not own a residence or have a permanent address in California. He paid state income tax to California and not to Oregon and had a California license, and a resentful Oregon neighbor had turned him in to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). ODFW regulations required proof of residence by any 3 of a long list of documents, including a utility bill, a Passport, and a Social Security Card.

At trial, the arresting state trooper took the stand and on cross examination I handed him the booklet of regulations, which was 20 or 30 pages of fine print and was, at the time, distributed to every place that sold licenses, and asked him to turn to the page that described the residency requirements where my client could have found the requirements when he purchased his licenses and tags. I expected the trooper to turn right to that page and I planned to establish that all my client had to do was show a utility bill with an Oregon address, his social security card and passport (which have no addresses) in order to establish Oregon residence to the satisfaction of the vender.

To my great amusement, the trooper could not find the page. He fumbled through the pamphlet, back and forth. I enjoyed that for a few minutes, and finally told him the page number. He went to that page and scanned it and said “no, it’s not there” and went back to flipping through the the booklet. I let him do that for a minute more and said “look at page _ at the last paragraph set out with darker highlighting” and he then found the part and I went on with my questioning. At the end of the trial in my closing argument I hammered on that: My client is supposed to be able to read these rules while standing in line for his license and he is supposed to understand how they apply and the trooper can’t even find the rules when I tell him what page to look on . . . “

The jury acquitted my client on all counts. I cannot say for sure, but I believe that cross examination was the best moment in the trial for me and my client. My client was found not to have “knowingly” violated the law. And my brilliant cross examination was not planned or even anticipated. I assumed the trooper would be familiar with the regulations and would turn right to the page. The witness did it to himself.

What is the rudest thing your in-laws have ever said to you?

My father-in-law looked me in the eye and angrily laid a curse on me by saying: “You’re going to die a miserable old man all by yourself.” With that, he got out of his chair and stalked away.

The circumstances were I was divorcing his daughter. Understand that his daughter had had several affairs, had made my life hell for several years, and truly didn’t want me in her life. She only claimed she wanted to stay married to save face and for the Machiavellian goal of making me look like the “bad guy” because I was the one filing for the divorce.

The lead up to the above talk was my then father-in-law had called me up to come by and talk to me. I of course said yes. I had always had a good relationship with him.

I spent the first half hour listening to him about how the Christian thing to do was to not get divorced. I made sure to fully listen to him. I mirrored back to him what he was saying to make sure I understood. I didn’t interject with my counter thoughts.

When he had finished I only got about 30 seconds into what I had to say in response. He cut me off. Said I wasn’t listening to him (because I wasn’t agreeing with him) and then he laid the curse on me per the quote above.

That was the last time I talked with him some 20 years ago. As I write this I’m sitting here with my wonderful wife of 10 years enjoying a scenic overlook from the back deck of our house.

Hot Dog Sizzler, an Auto Oven Cooks Hot Dogs From the 1950s

Want a hot dog on the road? Just plug this heater into your car’s electrical system. This 12 volt electric cooker could cook two wieners at the same time in three to five minutes in your car!

It was called the Hot Dog Siezzler and was made by the Thomas Manufacturing Co., of Chicago sometime in the 1950s while drive-in’s were around. This was thought up has an alternative to what they saw has an expensive meal at a White Castle or McDonalds or even Carols. It only makes sense because after all who wouldn’t rather have a hot dog instead of a hamburger?

Priced at $3.95 in the 1950s. And it also comes in a 115-volt version for the home.

What is the most dark painful method of torture known to man?

Keep in mind that this is my opinion so you may/may not agree with me.

Spanish Donkey

This was a torture method that was used during the Spanish Inquisition (period of forced conversions to Christianity, killings, prosecutions and torturing). It was mostly used on women (but it was common to use on men as well) when they were stripped naked, put on the Donkey, weights were added on their legs and the point of the Donkey was to pressure the woman’s genital area and if the weights were heavy enough, it would split the victim in half. Weights were added to prevent the victim from falling off the device and to increase the agony.

Judas Cradle

Similar to the Donkey, Judas Cradle was a torture method used to punish criminals mostly. It was a pyramid shaped seat on which the victim was put slowly to make them suffer more. The victim was tied with ropes above the Cradle and then slowly lowered to the top of the device. Men were impaled through their anus and women through the vagina. The device would leave victims in agony and if those that were torturing wanted to make the whole process worse than it already was, they would add weights to the victim’s legs. If the victim didn’t die from the pain and exhaustion (as the device was known as “the wake” as it prevented victims from falling asleep) they would die from infections as the Cradle wasn’t cleaned.

The Brazen Bull

This torture method first appeared in Ancient Greece. The victim was placed inside a bull and fire was set under the bull causing the metal to change it’s colour to yellow as it was heated. The victim was roasted to death in the bull while the bull itself was designed in such a way that the screams coming from the victim sounded like the bellowing of a bull.

Scaphism

This was a Persian torture method. The victim was placed in a boat and covered with one more and then forced to ingest large amounts of honey and milk. Diarrhea occured as a consequence and the smell would attract various insects to the victim. Additional amounts of honey were poured on the victim to attract more insects as he/she was left to float in a pond on the sun. The insects would burrow through the victim’s skin destroying everything on their path. It was a long-lasting torture method so the victim was in agony for days.

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A real truth

As a teacher, what is the most ridiculous complaint you have had from the parent of one of your students?

Back a few years ago, I had a class with a lot of kids who hated going to Phys. Ed. The teacher wouldn’t let them participate without sneakers on, so they would (accidentally on purpose) “forget” their sneakers on Gym Days. I hit up the stores and bought sneakers (on clearance) in a variety of sizes so that no one would miss their Phys. Ed. time again. One day, “Josie” wanted to wear the pink sneakers, but “Susie” was already wearing them. She cried for a minute, then got over it. That evening the principal came to me and said that “Josie’s” mother had called an insisted on a conference with both of us. When he suggested that she just talk with me first, she said that what I had done was so awful, she needed him to be there to back her up. He asked me what I had done to this child. I had forgotten the sneaker business (It was a tiny part of a very busy day) and I couldn’t think of a thing. She was a complaining mother, and I was pretty sure nothing big or important had happened. He didn’t believe me. He was sure it was something really awful. Well, the mother comes in the next day, and her huge complaint was that her daughter had wanted to use my pink sneakers the day before, and I hadn’t let her wear them. The principal gave me a look, and I gave him a look reminding him that I told it wasn’t anything big. I explained to the mother why “Josie” didn’t get to wear the pink sneakers. She was still angry and said I should have taken them off of “Susie’s” feet and let “Josie” wear them. Happily for me, the principal told the mother that if her daughter needed pink sneakers that much, she should buy them and send them to school with her. We had a good laugh after the mother left.

Our neighbor’s 8-year-old drops by our house almost every afternoon and chats away about anything and everything until we ask him to leave. He’s a sweet kid, but it’s becoming a pain; what should we do?

I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to tell you my story.

I was that 8 year old child once.

My father was an alcoholic, my mother severely depressed. I raised my sister and provided her with the emotional support when our parents were too immature and abusive to give that to us.

I would get beat up, thrown against the wall, kicked, punched repeatedly on the head by my father, his rage would shake my soul. My sister and I would drown ourselves in books, homework and play as quietly so we wouldn’t anger our father. Our mother was verbally abusive, she would break everything in our home.

My father would tell us to get lost, to get out of his way, to shut up, leave him alone, brain dead kids.

He hated us.

One day my sister and I went to the neighbors house and asked them if they had candy.

It was an elderly lady and her husband. They giggled and came out with candy for us and told us to have a good day.

A few days passed and we knocked to ask them again. This time they pulled out some chairs and sat down with us. We talked for a few hours. We told them about our hobbies, favorite books, favorite everything. They gave us candy and told us to go home and not be out so late.

The next day we visited the elderly couple and they played the piano for us. We were so amazed by their warm atmosphere, love and kindness.

Some days we would go visit and they would just sit on the front porch showing them our sweet rock or toy collections, our art and we would even sing classical songs with them.

With time they began to tell us they were busy, then they didn’t open the door anymore.

We wanted to do something nice for them and picked out flowers for them and left them at their doorstep.

I still look back and I’m thankful to have met such a sweet couple. I strive to be like them one day as an old lady with my husband.

You have no obligation, but for me those strangers meant something worth remembering in my rough childhood.

What was the rudest thing a guest has ever said or did while visiting your home?

When I was in my 30s and moved into my first house (as a couple). I waited to re-paint, decorate and have locks changed and things fixed and restored, then I had a party/BBQ in my new house and invited some relatives. The party was on the patio with access to the guest bathroom and I placed sticky plastic runners on the new rugs. A couple of the relatives (the younger ones) brought some friends with them (rude to not clear it with me first) and a good thing that I have a tendency to cook way more food than I need (Nana taught me well). I was a little hyper aware of everyone’s comfort and whereabouts when I notice that two female friends of friends were missing. I knew that only one person at a time would use the bathroom so I went into the house. They were both trying the door to my bedroom (“Maybe it’s stuck”) which I had locked along with the two guest rooms and I went casually behind them and asked softly what they were doing.

They both whipped around startled. One of the women said “The door’s locked.” I actually did that because I didn’t want one of the kids to accidentally let my cats out. I didn’t say anything and they exchanged a look then asked why I had the door locked. I drew in a breath and asked them “Why do you need to go into my bedroom?”

“oh we just wanted to look at the house.”

“I think you’ve seen enough, now go outside or leave.”

They went outside…to complain. Why are there doors locked, why is there plastic runners all over the house, did you know there’s nothing in the medicine cabinet and the only thing in the vanity is an extra roll of paper (I did that on purpose).

I cleared my throat and said, “The why is because of people like you.” Their friends (Our relatives) just chuckled and kept their heads down.

Chase Explains Why Women SUCK At Picking Men And She Got UPSET

“I’m 70 y/o and this has been the case for many of the women I have known. Horrible in their choice of men. It’s on you girls, wise up.”

Has your cat ever comforted you unexpectedly?

Sigh. Yes, completely unexpectedly. This past Friday night, my girl was actively dying from liver failure. She was within hours of death and I was staying with her to help comfort her. There were no vets to call to help ease her passing at that time of night, so I was doing my best to comfort her through it as best as I could. I was lying on the floor with her and softly petting her, telling her I was there, she would be OK, that we all loved her, she was the BEST friend I ever had, but that I knew she was very sick and when she was ready go it was OK to go, and see her mama who had passed several years ago. I was trying my best to stay calm (because me being upset always concerned her) but at one point I broke down and cried a little. My dying cat made a huge effort to stand up, rub along my side and then lay down facing me. She looked me in the eye, and put her paw on my hand and purred. This is what she did after I came home from the hospital with my baby years ago and was suffering from postpartum depression, and after I had had gallbladder surgery and was sitting in pain on the couch for days, after my mother in law passed away and any other time I was distraught in the twelve years she knew me. She was always wonderful, and even when she was dying herself she was still thinking of me. Good lord, I’m missing her!

Dong Jun named Defense Minister

Dong Jun 董军 was named as defense minister, taking the position formerly held by Li Shangfu.

For the first time, a Navy veteran was named to the senior defense minister position. This likely means that the Chinese government believes that, for the first time, its major challenges will come from the sea, which includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. If conflict breaks out in any of these areas, the navy, air force and rocket forces will play a more important role than the army.

In terms of defense spending, this likely means a steady increase in budget for the navy, which is now building two more Chinese aircraft carriers.

If there is a major conflict with the US in the western Pacific, the navy, air force and rocket forces will form the tip of the Chinese spear.

This is what Xi is preparing China for, just in case.

How true is it that the Chinese have made a train that has no wheels and can go reverse?

I think by “train without wheels” you may be referring to it

In July 2021, the 600 kilometers per hour high-speed maglev transportation system developed by CRRC was mass-produced in Qingdao. This is the world’s first high-speed maglev transportation system with a design speed of 600 kilometers per hour.

In 2022, this maglev train will be exhibited at the German International Rail Transit Technology Exhibition.

In 2023, this maglev train will be displayed at the World Manufacturing Conference.

It is not a new thing, at least it has been around for 2 years.

It is a complete solution and requires a dedicated track to operate. This means that it is not a “train” that can run on ordinary rails.

It has no wheels and is suspended on the track by magnetic levitation. There is no resistance from the track. The propulsion power comes from each carriage. Technically, it’s flying in the air, just a few centimeters above the orbital surface.

The forward power of the maglev train comes from the conversion of the electromagnet polarity between the track and the carriage. S and N are alternately converted to push the train forward.

When it needs to reverse, the control system changes the conversion sequence of each magnet, and the vehicle can drive in reverse. Since there is no need for a gearbox and complex transmission mechanism, its reversing becomes very simple.

Why Men Are NO LONGER Approaching Women!

“I’m reminded of the BLIND guy that a chick said was staring at her in the gym. The guy’s defense was obviously “I’m blind, I can’t stare at anymore” the gym still kicked him out.”

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

A few times people have asked me very intimate questions about my sex life; I just looked at them and cussed them out.

A hairy but non-intimate question that has been asked of me a few times: Why won’t you have a Christmas tree? Why? Because I’m not Christian, I am Jewish, and although there are some Jews who do put up and decorate Christmas trees, I don’t.

I had a friend from high school who grew more heavily Christian, and she peppered me with questions about this. One time on the phone (perhaps the last time we spoke) she asked me why I wouldn’t consider putting up a tree for the holiday. I asked her if she would consider setting up a Hanukkah menorah with candles for the holiday. When she said no, I laughed drily.

I told her this was offensive to me and she couldn’t understand why. I think that people who are of the “dominant” religion sometimes forget that not everyone is of their belief. And yes, it is offensive to me to be pestered about this. Ask once, and if I say I don’t, accept that. Otherwise, you’re going to get a jawing from me.

10 Sad realities of life you should know

Maturity does not come with is age it comes from experiences it’s damn true because you can find a kid in 30 year old person and a wise person in 12 year old kid .
Some people come in our lives just for some time and then they leave us as if they never met.
Money is really important in life and It can solve at least 99% problems of our life .
No one is permanent in your life, one day everyone is going to leave you and We all know this but it’s takes guts to accept this fact .
No one can love you more than your parents, maybe at one point of life you will think that someone loves you more than them but it will be just illusion for fraction of time, which will get over with time.
Looks matter, Good looking people do get some benefits over others but of course it’s what others can do but we should always love ourselves the way we are.
Don’t give too much importance to someone or don’t do too much care because one day they will get bored of this.
There is nothing like BFF (best friend forever) because one day that forever gets replaced by never.
There is some problem in everyone’s life, so don’t compare your life with anyone; No one is really happy all the time.
We all have someone who extremely love us but only some lucky people have someone in their life who can understand them too.

What did a judge say during sentencing that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

I was around 30 and went through a phase where my right foot was much heavier than my left foot. I got pulled over for doing something like 80-85 in a 60 in an area about an hour from where I lived. When I went to court, the conversation between me and the judge went something like this…

Judge: This is your 4th speeding violation within the last 12 months. Do you realize this carries up to a $10,000 fine and up to six months in jail?

Me (suddenly feeling very dizzy because I actually did not realize that): Yes sir.

Judge: I assume you paid a fine each time before this one.

Me: Yes sir

Judge: It seems that taking your money isn’t getting through to you. How do I get through to you?

Me (on the verge of a breakdown): I don’t know sir.

Judge: I’m sentencing you to 6 months in jail, suspended. I’m also sentencing you to a $10,000 fine, suspended. You’re going to come back here in 3 months and we’re going to look at your driving record. If there’s nothing on it, you’ll go home. If there’s anything on it, your sentence will be carried out. Then we’re going to do that again 3 months after that, again 3 months after that, and again 3 months after that. In other words, I’m going to inconvenience you to drive back here every 3 months over the next year so we can look at your driving record. Does that sound fair to you?

Me (barely able to speak due to a throat like the Mojave desert): Yes sir.

Judge: I thought you might think so. I’ll see you in 3 months.

I walked out of there not believing my good fortune. Instead of just throwing the book at me and moving on, the Judge took mercy on me and pretty much made me walk the line. I went back every 3 months and he congratulated me each time for not having any other traffic violations.

Which battle saw the most intense artillery barrage in history?

If we’re only talking about sheer intensity (and not effectiveness) then the Soviet bombardment signalling the start of their Berlin offensive at the end of World War 2 is the clear winner.

According to Cornelius Ryan’s book “The last battle”, Soviet guns were lined up for mile after mile and stepped back caliber by caliber. The mortars were in front. Behind them were tanks, their long main guns elevated. Next came self-propelled guns and, following these, batteries of light and heavy artillery. Along the rear were 400 Katyusha multiple-rocket launchers. In all, over 20,000 guns took part in this bombardment.

At exactly 3 AM on the 16th of April 1945, three green flares soared into the sky and the huge collection of guns roared into life. In merely 35 minutes, half a million shells of all types and calibers were let loose. Many soldiers on both sides were battle-hardened veterans of the Eastern front, yet even they didn’t expect the true intensity of this barrage.

The noise was terrible. Gunners had to keep their mouths open to equalize the pressure on their ears, otherwise their eardrums would rupture. One experienced Soviet battery commander even warned his crews to not only open their mouths but also scream at the top of their lungs. The crew did exactly that but blood still ran from their ears. The most fearsome sound of all came from the Katyushas. The rocket projectiles whooshed off the launchers in fiery batches and screeched through the night, making terrifying noise like “huge blocks of steel grinding together”.

Everyone on both the German and Soviet sides suffered from some degree of deafness and could not hear very well at least for a while. In Marshal Zhukov’s command bunker, only when the bombardment was over could the staff barely hear their telephones ringing. Even residents of the eastern districts of Berlin, some 55 kilometers away from the target area, could hear the bombardment like distant thunder.

Also according to Cornelius Ryan: The German countryside beyond the western Kustrin bridgehead seemed to disappear before a rolling wall of bursting shells. Whole villages disintegrated. Earth, concrete, steel, parts of trees spewed into the air and in the distance forests began to blaze. Years later German survivors would vividly recall the strange hot wind that suddenly sprang up and howled through the forests, bending saplings and whipping dust and debris into the air.

Antony Beevor’s book “The fall of Berlin” cited Gerd Wagner in the German 27th Parachute Regiment: “In a matter of a few seconds all my ten comrades were dead.” When Wagner recovered consciousness, he found himself lying wounded in a smoking shell crater. He was only just able to struggle back to the second line. Few escaped alive from the artillery barrage which smashed trenches and buried their occupants, both alive and dead. Bodies are still being discovered well over half a century later.

The massive barrage also produced strange concussion effects. Troops and equipment alike shook uncontrollably from the shock. In houses closer to the front, pictures fell off walls, windows and mirrors shattered. In Muncheberg, a cross tumbled from the church spire. In the police station at Mahlsdorf books fell off their shelves and telephones rang for no reason. Lights dimmed and flickered in many areas. In Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten an air raid siren suddenly went berserk and no one could switch it off. Along the edges of Weissensee and Lichtenberg a sudden wind caused curtains to whip and flap with ghostly abandon, and in Erkner some inhabitants of air raid shelters were jolted out of sleep, not by noise but by a sickening vibration of the earth.

The world had never seen such a massive artillery bombardment like that before, it has never seen anything like that since.

Brian KICKS OUT PSYCHO Obnoxious Feminist!

“I genuinely don’t think she’s trolling, I think she’s literally just crazy. She has no idea how crazy she really is.”

If an alien spacecraft landed on Earth (and its crew died later for some reason), how quickly could we learn from its spaceship how to build our own spaceship that could match its travelling ability?

John W. Campbell got his engineering degree in 1930. In 1970, he wrote about what would happen if an SR-71 Blackbird was magically time-traveled to 1930.

It was clearly from the future. But how far in the future?

Electronics: not a single vacuum tube. Just little plastic cases with pins sticking out. They decide to sacrifice one to understand it. It appears as if the circuit diagrams are drawn on the chip. They can’t be sure, because much of the drawing is below the resolution the optical microscopes of the day allow. They do a spectroscopic analysis of the material. It is 100% pure silicon. Turns out the spectroscopes of 1930 cannot detect the parts-per-billion of the dopants that create the semiconductors.

Power: they’ve never seen a jet engine. There does not seem to be any way for the engine to operate. They try to run it. The fuel does not burn. Turns out the special fuel (if I recall, something called J6) can only be ignited by throwing some hypergolic igniter in on the ground. If it flamed out while running, it could not be restarted.

Radio: the circuitry is more magic drawings on silicon. They can’t figure out how any of it works. Turns out it runs at a higher frequency than anything they know how to detect.

Radar: They have no idea what that horn in the nose does. It seems to emit some kind of energy, because a tech got his hand in front of it an experienced some heating. So they tried using infrared detectors but saw nothing. Centimeter radar was beyond anything they knew about, and they had no way to detect frequencies that high, beyond anything they could even imagine.

Construction: it is made of pure titanium. More titanium than exists in the entire world! Extruded into thin sheets. And welded! Everyone they checked with said that it was impossible to weld titanium because it would essentially “catch fire” and it would start oxidizing and would all burn away.

So how far in the future did it come from? They got all kinds of people together, scientists , engineers, scientifiction authors. Where did this come from? Or, when did this come from? Consensus: maybe 400 years in the future.

No, it was 40 years.

So if we can’t reverse engineer something of human technology from 40 years in the future, do you think we have any chance whatsoever of reverse-engineering something from an alien planet?

When I became a programmer in 1963, if you added up all of the bits of memory in all the computers in the world, you would have at most a few megabits of memory. I am typing this on my iPhone, which has 128 gigabytes of memory, that is, one terabit of information. Plus a GPS, Internet access, three cameras, and a telephone that can allow me to talk to anyone who has a telephone anywhere in the world in seconds. That’s a bit longer than 40 years, but not that much longer. This thing I’m holding in my hand is at a minimum 100,000 times more powerful than the supercomputer of 1963, and could be construed as a million times more powerful along some measures. It has more RAM than our mainframe of 1983 had disk space to support 30 programmers. If I walk a block in any direction I will probably pass 20 phones equally powerful. And I live in a neighborhood of single-family homes

So we probably won’t be able to do anything with that alien spaceship. It might use quantum computers that compare to our quantum computers like my iPhone compares to an IBM 704 vacuum tube computer.

Does a boss ever get in trouble when a staff member quits?

When I was working in the arctic we had a mass mutiny after the boss cut our paid hours from 12 to 8, while we were down for repairs. Which was about 5 days. Those extra hours were all over time, so it almost cut our pay in half. We had signed up for 12 hour days, and just because we couldn’t work more than 8 hour days, we didn’t see that as our problem.

Our boss refused to budge, and at least 5 people submitted resignations, and said that they wanted tickets home, because the company wasn’t meeting the terms of employment.

The next day, a new boss showed up and took over, and pay was reinstated retroactively. The people who had quit ,hadn’t flown out yet, and they all returned to work.

Its hard to find qualified help in the Arctic. Cutting pay for five days, would have meant that we were shut down for at least another ten days before they could have flown in new qualified people. They wouldn’t have flown in for an eight hour day.

The old boss was transferred somewhere else, where he could do less damage. He wasn’t fired.

A story of two presidents

What did someone say in court that made you burst out laughing?

Back in Fort Bragg I stopped to get gasoline while I was wearing my fatigues. That was during a time when gasoline was being withheld by the producers claiming a gasoline shortage. There was a long line leading to the cashier.

To make a long story shorter, four young men came into the store and one of them came to members in the line making demands of them. I thought it was a prank on friends of the young men until he came to me. He demanded a coke I had in my hand intending to purchase when I paid for my gasoline.

I offered to buy the gy a coke and told him to go to the cooler and bring it back. He said that he was perticulaary fond of the coke in my hand. I refused to give it to him. He told me “we’ll see you outside”.

They were gone when I left the store, so I pulled up to the pump as was pumping gas into my car, when their car screeched up to mine and all existed the car. The same guy walked up to me and demanded the coke. I did not know him or his buddies and I was alone. He shouted “give me my coke”. I hit him across the head and face with the coke which was in a bottle. The bottle broke ! The broken glass sliced his head and face from above his left temple down to his lower right jaw.

He fell bleeding profusely. His buddies asked if they could pick him up without me cutting them. I told them to get him.

Skipping a bunch of details, I ended upon in court before a magistrate to be charged for assault on a minor. The boy’s father was in the courtroom and drunk as a a skunk. When he saw me walk in in handcuffs, he shouted pretty loudly “There’s the Son of a Bitch who hurt my son”.

The Judge admonished him telling him that was drunk and that he would not tolerate causing and such in his courtroom.

He man looked up at me and loudly said “Tell that son of a bitch (the Judge) that I’m not drunk”.

It turned out that the four young men were terrorizing local stores and people doing this same stuff over and over. I was released based upon defending myself.

The kid and I later became decent friends with him crediting me with saving his life. He has a scar across his face until this day but he is a law abiding and friendly young man. He is not hostile toward me at all.

When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?

As a very poor college student, I used to go dumpster diving. I found several things (radios, alarm clocks, amplifiers, etc) that I fixed and sold. I found that I could make about $40 a week that way, with only a couple hours work. Minimum wage was about $3.25/hour so it was relatively lucrative. But there were two items that I kept for myself.

In 1985, I found an old computer in a dumpster, complete with 8″ hard drive. I took it home and took a look inside. Everything seemed okay, so I went to the library and started looking for information about it. It turned out to be an Altair 8800BT, one of the first commercially available microcomputers. I stuck it in my closet and ignored it for a couple of decades, just taking it with me every time I moved. A few years ago, I came across a listing for a similar computer on eBay, and was astonished to find that it was worth about $5000! I spent about $200 getting it working again, but it is so much fun to play with that I haven’t gotten around to selling it, and the value fluctuates wildly. There is an amazing amount of code and documentation available for it on the internet.

A few months later, I found a Sylvania Superset in excellent condition. I took it home and plugged it in. The flyback transformer was blown. I spent $30 for a replacement, soldered it in, and the TV worked flawlessly until 1999, when my (now-ex) wife gave it to a friend.

The photos are not mine, but they are the exact same models.

What is the most deceiving picture of all time?

The Saigon Execution photo, but not for the reason most people think.

“Two people died in that photograph. The recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.” – Photographer Eddie Adams

This picture is both moving and tear jerking for me because I know the back story. Most people look at the picture and think the South Vietnamese general as some kind of monster. When the general lost a leg in combat and received medical treatment in the U.S., many were outraged. Then-Sen. Stephen M. Young (D-Ohio) called Loan a “brutal murderer” and said his treatment in the United States was “a disgraceful end to a … disgraceful episode.”

What most people don’t know is that the real monster was not the South Vietnamese general, but the Vietcong terrorist. Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem was the leader of a hit team that infiltrated into Saigon to execute political opponents and members of the police force. Just that morning, he had murdered 34 people. 7 of the dead had been General Loan’s own men. 2 or 3 had been Americans. The rest were wives and children of South Vietnamese police officers. All had been bound at the wrist, forced to kneel near a pit, and executed. The prisoner and all of his hit squad were terrorists who dressed as civilians to attack civilians.

Loan, fresh from intense combat with Viet Cong, literally caught Van Lem red handed. The most recent victims were one of Loan’s men, the policeman’s wife, and his 6 children. The general had literally caught the terrorist standing over the bodies of his own God children.

Combat was ongoing. Loan had to rush back into battle. He didn’t have time to read a Viet Cong terrorist his rights. He put a bullet in the brain of a terrorist who had killed dozens of women and children. But for decades, the picture was reprinted over and over, with no context. The ignorant believed General Loan to be a villain, rather than a hero taking a monster off the streets of Saigon.

Now the picture itself was not deceitful, nor was the photographer. But the picture was stripped of context and used to deceive the reader of American newspapers.

Have you ever fired someone for not coming to work on time?

Late and absent both. Let’s call her Patricia. Patricia, our receptionist, was late or absent at least once a week, and she was always very apologetic and always promised it would never happen again. Eventually she was put on last chance, final written warning.

The owner and I discussed it and thought that maybe if Patricia felt that the company was willing to invest in her, she would feel more invested in the company. So we sent her to a class to improve her skills. She was very excited about the opportunity.

The day of the class was monstrous. A new client signed unexpectedly and we had to immediately come up with eight workers in the right specialty to send them, but to come up with travel arrangements and temporary living quarters in a city a thousand miles away for those eight workers. We got through it finally but I’d been covering not only my own job but Patricia’s as well and I was exhausted.

The following day Patricia came in and I asked her how the class went. She said, “I was a little late and they wouldn’t let me in.”

“So why weren’t you here? If you weren’t in class you should have come to work,” I told her.

“Well, I would have, but I thought you’d yell at me.”

I told her to sit down and I’d talk to her later. Before I said anything further I wanted to talk to the owner, who wasn’t in yet. I also called the company that provides the class in question, and they told me that while the attendance records weren’t in yet, Patricia would have had to be at least an hour and a half late before she would be denied access.

The owner and I agreed that where Patricia had already been on last chance warning for her attendance, this was the last straw. As I told her, “If you’d come in to work when they wouldn’t let you into class I would have yelled at you but you’d still have a job. As it is, you don’t.”

How did old fashioned sail boats manage to sail across the Atlantic just by the power of the wind? If the wind blew in the other direction wouldn’t it just sail back in the other direction?

Old-fashioned sailboats were able to sail across the Atlantic by using the power of the wind and the skill of the sailors. They did not just sail back in the other direction if the wind changed, because they knew how to adjust their sails and navigate according to the prevailing wind patterns. Sailboats work by harnessing the force of the wind on their sails, which creates a lift that pushes the boat forward. The direction and speed of the boat depend on the angle and shape of the sails, the position of the rudder, and the resistance of the water and the keel.

By changing these factors, sailors can control the movement of the boat and steer it towards their destination. However, sail boats cannot sail directly into the wind, because the wind would push them back. Instead, they have to sail at an angle to the wind, called tacking, and zigzag their way forward. This way, they can sail in any direction, even against the wind, as long as they have enough space and time.

The Atlantic Ocean has very reliable wind patterns, called trade winds and westerlies, that sailors used to their advantage. The trade winds blow from east to west in the tropics, near the equator, and the westerlies blow from west to east in the temperate zones, near the poles. These winds are caused by the difference in temperature and pressure between the equator and the poles and the rotation of the Earth.

Sailors who wanted to cross the Atlantic from Europe to America would use the trade winds, and sail south until they reached the tropics, then sail west along the equator, and then sail north to reach the Caribbean or North America. Sailors who wanted to cross the Atlantic from America to Europe would use the westerlies, and sail north until they reached the temperate zone, then sail east along the higher latitudes, and then sail south to reach Europe. These routes are known as the Atlantic triangular trade because they formed a triangle on the map.

Sailing across the Atlantic was not an easy task, and it required a lot of skill, courage, and luck. Sailors had to deal with storms, waves, currents, pirates, diseases, and other dangers. Sometimes they had to navigate using the stars, the sun, the compass, and the log, and estimate their position and speed. They also had to cooperate with their crew and follow the orders of their captain. Sailing across the Atlantic was a great adventure, and a great achievement, for the old-fashioned sail boats and their sailors.

Has there ever been a famous billionaire who went completely broke due to bad habits?

One famous example of someone who was extremely wealthy and lost it all due to a bad habit is Howard Hughes.

Howard Hughes was a prominent American business magnate, aviator, film producer, and philanthropist who was born on December 24, 1905, and passed away on April 5, 1976. He initially gained wealth through his inheritance of the Hughes Tool Company, a successful oil tool business. Hughes expanded his empire into various industries, including aviation, film, and real estate.

Here’s how he lost his wealth due to a combination of factors:

1.) Excessive Spending: Hughes had a penchant for extravagant spending, particularly on ambitious projects. He founded Hughes Aircraft Company and designed and built innovative aircraft like the H-4 Hercules, also known as the “Spruce Goose,” which was one of the largest planes ever constructed. These projects consumed vast amounts of his wealth.

2.) Film Ventures: Hughes ventured into the film industry, producing movies like “Hell’s Angels” and “The Outlaw.” His fixation on perfectionism and costly reshoots significantly inflated production budgets, leading to financial losses in the film sector.

3.) Reclusive Lifestyle: In the latter part of his life, Hughes became increasingly reclusive and struggled with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). His reclusiveness made it challenging to manage his various business interests effectively, and he withdrew from public life, which hampered decision-making.

4.) Legal Battles: Hughes became embroiled in numerous legal disputes, including battles over his inheritance, control of his companies, and allegations of fraud. These legal battles drained his financial resources and added to his woes.

5.) Mismanagement: Hughes entrusted the management of his vast empire to a series of individuals, some of whom were not always acting in his best interests. This mismanagement further eroded his wealth.

By the time of his death in 1976, Howard Hughes had gone from being one of the wealthiest individuals in the world to a recluse with a much-diminished fortune. His life and financial decline are often cited as a cautionary tale of the perils of unchecked ambition, excessive spending, and reclusiveness.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

A woman was at my local bar in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, drinking a beer. It was a quiet early evening, maybe a dozen people in the place including the bartender and bouncer. A guy carelessly bumps into her, spilling her beer on her. He doesn’t apologize. Irritated, she points out that he just spilled her beer. I don’t recall exactly what he said, but it was very much not what a gentleman who just spilled a woman’s beer should have been saying.

Two large, tattooed dudes with shaved heads come along and sit on either side of the guy and ask him if he’d still be talking like that if the woman wasn’t alone. Because she very definitely was not alone. She was there with these two guys who had been up picking some music on the jukebox when the incident happened. And all three of them were good friends with the bouncer and the bartender. So they wondered if maybe the guy would like to apologize to the woman, buy her another beer to replace the one he spilled, and be a lot more thoughtful about how he treats people in the future. Which he agreed to. They pointed out how fucked up it was that it wasn’t until they came along that he started behaving more like a gentleman, and that maybe he should rethink his behavior towards women.

The guy left soon after, having wisely left a generous tip in exchange for leaving with all his teeth still in his mouth.

When did you think you were going to get fired, but didn’t?

I was working at Office Depot as a cashier. A lady had over $100 in merchandise. She had a coupon from Staples that was for $10 off of $50 and asked me if I would honor it. We did accept competitor’s coupons. I told her of course, not a problem. She produced it, and I was reading the fine print to make sure that it was valid. Some coupons will have exemptions, such as not being allowed to be used with HP ink. As I was trying to read the fine print, the lady told me that I said I would accept it. I agreed and asked her nicely to please be quiet so I could read the fine print. She was quiet for a few seconds and stated again that I promised that I would accept it no matter what. I told her that I didn’t promise, but please be quiet, I need to read in silence. She was quiet for a few seconds and brought up the fact I said I would honor it. I slammed my hands down on the checkout counter and told her if she would just shut up, and let me read it, we would both be happier. That shut her up long enough to see why she was trying to distract me. The coupon had expired two days prior. I looked at her and she blushed. I said, now I get why you were so insistent about my saying I would honor it. She started stammering out an apology. I told her not to worry, I would still honor it. I did because I figured, we were still making $90 from this sale, and most likely she would come back here to shop. I did ask her if she tried to use it at Staples and they wouldn’t honor it. Yes, they told me to try and see if Office Depot would accept it.

I expected to be fired for the way I talked to her and that I accepted an expired coupon from Staples.

Instead, she filled out a survey saying how wonderful I was and now she would only shop with us. She transferred her printing over to us, which generated over $1000 in sales monthly. The general manager asked why I honored it knowing it was expired. I told him because I said I would, but I did tell her that all the conditions had to be met first. Once I saw it was expired, I figured the $10.00 loss was nominal in making a customer happy.

I’m just supposed to do this forever?

Uh. Yes.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QsHyinPWGvY?feature=share

Who saved your life without even knowing it?

My mother saved my life by cursing me out and making me go to school. It was the day after my 11th birthday. I had every intention to stay home and play the new Super Nintendo games I had received for my birthday. Usually, my mother wouldn’t have had any problem with this, but that day she was adamant that I was going to get up and go to school. We got into a terrible argument and both said very hurtful things to each other. I had no choice but to go.

As soon as I got to school I had this overwhelming feeling that I just wanted to go home and lay on my mother’s lap and cry. It wasn’t because of the argument but it was something else I just couldn’t put my finger on. The school day was finally over and I still couldn’t shake this feeling. My godbrother and downstairs neighbor wanted to come over and play the game and even though I still just wanted to get in the house and cry, I reluctantly agreed.

When we got to the door it was locked. No big deal. Looked under the mat and the key wasn’t there. Still not unusual. I climbed up the back patio and let myself in. I immediately went to the front door to let my company in. After I let them in I went to the kitchen to get a piece of cake and my downstairs neighbor went straight to the tv and cut it and the game on.

For some reason, my godbrother started to walk through the apartment. When he came back into the living room he told us that we needed to go outside. We begrudgingly went. Once outside he proceeded to say “I don’t know how to say this, but your mother is dead”. I darted back in and went straight to her bedroom. She was tied to the bed with the phone cord and her throat had been sliced open. There was blood everywhere.

I ran back outside and downstairs to call 911 as our phone wasn’t connected at the time. I didn’t really know what to say and I think the operator must have thought it was a prank because she hung up on me. So I called my grandma and told her. After that, I just sat on the bottom step until the police and paramedics started pulling up. My grandma arrived shortly after and it gets blurry from there.

It will be 26 years on September 26 that this happened. Still no arrests. I feel like everyone in town knows exactly who did it, the same people I’ve been saying for years, but no one is willing to say anything. Mind you her boyfriend was killed in the same way about a year before. This happened in Plymouth, North Carolina, and her name is Sonja Day. You can also look at details of her boyfriend’s murder on the North Carolina Innocence Commission website under the Spruill case. My cousin was wrongfully convicted of his murder and after all this time they are finally trying to do something about it. I’ve always been adamant that the same people are responsible for both murders.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Probably should have made this its own answer. So that’s how my mother saved my life. I would like to think that if I stayed home that day, I could have saved her somehow, but it likely wouldn’t have gone that way.

Edit: Wow! I never thought that this many people would read this. I would like to thank everyone for their comments and well wishes.There are a few things happening that may lead to an arrest. I feel like the end may be within reac. I’ll definitely let everyone know how it works out.

Why should I not compare myself to others?

1-Everyone is on a different journey. You may just be starting yours while the other person might be at the end of his/hers.

2-Comparing yourself to others is a losing battle. In the game of life, you will never reach a point where you are better than others in every way.

3-What you are comparing against is inaccurate information. What people present to the outside world is usually an edited version of their reality.

4-Your dream is likely different from others. If you have a big dream, it will take a while before you achieve it.

5-Comparison saps you of your limited time, you’ll be better off paying more attention to your dream.

6-All you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.

As a software developer, how often do you leave a backdoor in your code?

I once left a backdoor on an Android app since I was working with a client that couldn’t be trusted whether they would pay me or not. Heard from another developer that they let him develop and ran away with the software and never paid him.

It was like this, whenever the app starts it proceeds as usual but on the background it sends a request to one of my servers, if the request reaches the server and the response is code 200, then its ok, am still waiting for the payment the app can proceed as usual, if 201 then I wasn’t paid, so crash the app, clean all preferences and change url that was saved in preferences makes the app completely unusable for good. If 203 then I have been paid in full, proceed never send any request to my server again.

And my guess was right,I made the app, haven’t send the code to the client yet (they didn’t need the code though, it was a full running app), they started using the app, told me some stuffs, I fixed them, everything is set, they love the app, it was even more than they expected, I even made them an admin dashboard with a bunch of analytics to monitor all their data for free as a way to make them like me to work with them in the future, in my price I even included free up to 3 months bugs fixing if any were to occur, they were so happy with the results.

Then they immediately disappeared, waited for their reply for two weeks, nothing, not even a reply to tell me to wait, its like they all died from a hurricane or something, they even changed the pass to their server so I couldn’t get in and kill it, that was proof enough that they clearly ran away with my software. So I sent the 201 status code from my server and the whole app froze, all clients they connected couldn’t use the app anymore, immediately the following day they tried to contact me, I tripled the price after seeing they wanted to scam me. They paid me in full the same day through western union, I sent a fully working app with no backdoor, and all the source code. And that was it, I’ll never work with these guys again.

I will put a backdoor if you are a bad client, if you are a good one or pay in advance I’m not putting any, or if we are in the same country because I know I could sue you. I hate backdoors anyway because they are too risky no matter how much I try to secure them, the fact that they exist is a problem.

Would you rather live in a huge home and be house poor or live in a modest home and have a lot of expendable money?

My wife has a face painting and balloon business. Before the pandemic, she was booked over three hundred gigs every year at hourly rates that would make a lawyer happy.

Once April 2020 hit, her business dried up. No parties. No festivals. No grand openings. No fairs.

We shrugged our shoulders. Oh, well!

She refunded her pending contracts to keep good customer relations. I went to work as usual. We actually increased our savings since then. My job covers our needs.

We’re fine!

The reason is our modest house. We made do with a smaller home and aggressively paid the mortgage down when times were good. When rates dropped, we refinanced. Our mortgage payment is only 1/4 of my monthly net income.

This could have been a very stressful time financially. I’m very grateful that it hasn’t been at all. I wouldn’t trade that security for an extra room or a big garage.

Modest home all the way!

It’s a true story

Said by “Al Bundy” actor of Married with Children. But it is a true story.

Why does the Air Force keep the A10 if the F-22 and even F35 can ground attack, and they’re magnitudes faster?

Funny story. The Air Force never wanted the A-10 and never wanted to support the Army in ground attack roles. They only adopted the A-10 to save their budget from the Army demanding to develop and provide their own CAS solutions.

Fast is great for a lot of things but the A-10 is able to loiter and remain aloft at much lower speeds, allowing pilots to see what was developing on the ground.

Six A-10s can be produced for the cost of one F-35.

A-10s are 1/6th the costto fly each hour.

A-10’s are mission capable at nearly double the rate of the maintenance intensive F-35.

The F-35’s are rife with problems that are slowing production and have cause groundings.

F-35’s stealth is far less useful in low and slow engagements because it can be detected and killed by people with eyeballs and manpads. The A-10 suffers this problem too but it’s more durable and cheaper to replace.

Every F-35 lost to CAS missions will be detrimental to other sorties the plane might have flown.

I like the F-35 but it’s not really a good plane choice for getting down in the mud with the grunts.

If an F-35 was shot up like that’ I seriously doubt the pilot would have managed to fly it home.

EDIT:

Folks, I never mentioned Ukraine. I never suggested sending the A-10 into combat without other types of aircraft designed to make their use tolerably safe. I also never made the A-10 put to be some sort of superhero airframe, unable to be killed. I specifically answered a question about the A-10 vs F-35/F-22 in close support of troops.

Have you ever caught a nurse doing something they should not have?

During my son’s 12th grade year of school another student broke his leg during football.

At the hospital, after the X-ray the nurse came in to wrap my son’s leg. She grabs his leg and bends it to the side, and I hear this pop noise as my son screams out.

I yelled at the nurse and made her leave the room. At this point the head doctor and head nurse rushed into the room. I told them to get my son’s pain under control. They gave him a shot and after he relaxed I explained what the nurse had done. I told them that I should sue the hell out of the hospital for allowing a person man or woman to work with patients that clearly has no damn idea what the hell she is doing.

The doctor and nurse took the bitch into an empty room and she walked out of the room and walked out of the exit door. She looked at me with a hateful look and I called her a bitch, and the doctor witnessed it. He told me it will be dealt with.

Not sure if she was fired or just sent home on probation.

Barley with Mushrooms (Scotland)

Ingredients

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup barley
2 teaspoons instant chicken bouillon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper

Instructions

Cook and stir mushrooms and onions in butter 5 minutes; place in ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Cover and bake at 375 degrees F, stirring once, until barley is tender, about 1 1/4 hours.

Have you ever walked into your home and known something wasn’t right? What happened?

When I was in 3rd grade my parents got a collie for me. Lassie was big on TV and I wanted my own Lassie. We named her Lady. She was the perfect pet and protector, especially of me. We lived in Omaha in a split level house. The kitchen, a bedroom, and a combination laundry room/bomb shelter were on the back of the house, the lower level. My brother, sister, and I shared the bedroom.

My parents both worked so when we got home from school, we’d stay with the lady across the street, who also took care of my younger brother who was not school age yet. We would leave Lady in the neighbor’s back yard during the day.

One day I wanted something from my room so I took Lady with me to our house. I was part ways down the back stairs when I realized the back door was open and a man was standing in the kitchen. He had apparently just forced the door. He was holding a pry bar. I froze and he started towards me, not seeing Lady behind me on the stairs. She met him as he was coming up and tore into his arm holding the pry bar. He dragged her to the door and out and I called her back as he ran away. We never learned who it was, though my dad suspected one of the neighbors.

There were two other times Lady probably saved members of our family. She woke us up the night our house burned down and got us out within five minutes of the entire ceiling collapsing.

The other time was when we had moved to South Carolina. We lived on the last street at the edge of town. Behind us was a wide field, then some woods. A few miles past the woods was a prison work camp.

My dad was gone bowling and my mother, sister, brother, and I were watching TV. It was summer and the side porch wooden door was open. The screen door wasn’t latched. My mom’s car was parked right outside the door.

My mother saw a man come over the back fence and look in the car windows, probably for keys, then walk up onto the porch and look through the screen. She called out, “What do you want?”

He didn’t say anything, just walked into the living room. He saw a woman and three kids but he didn’t see Lady, who was lying by the TV. She saw him, though, and without a word from us she was across the room and tearing into him. He bolted out the door, and she was chewing away at his legs as he went over the fence. We ran outside and turned on the porch light. He was running across the back yard, and Lady backed up to get a running start and leaped the fence. She caught him again at the back fence and worked on his ass some more. When he got over the fence and disappeared into the night, my mom called her back.

The police came and said he was an escapee from the prison camp. They brought dogs and tracked him from our house and found him in the woods. I suspect he had a healthy fear of dogs by then.

He wanted the car keys and who knows, he might not have wanted any witnesses to call the police.

Lady passed away while I was overseas in the military. My mom told me my dad sat on the floor and held her for hours until she was gone. We all loved Lady as much as she loved us.

It’s a turnoff for me

What are some ‘bro code’ instances you have experienced?

I’ll narrate two instances where I’ve witnessed a beautiful manifestation of “bro-code”.

Mine was a co-ed school. Our class strength was divided almost equally between girls and boys. One of the guys, Inzy, had a massive crush on a girl from another section. He was too shy to speak up however. He thought she was out of his league (whatever that means!).

Our class fellows immediately got down to image building. They casually started talking about Inzy with the girls of the other section. Not with his crush. They chose the other girls, carefully avoiding “the one”. The tales of his intelligence, humility and humour started being discussed amongst the other girls and this piqued the interest of his crush.

Some girls soon started interacting with Inzy with their casual helloes. And as expected, Miss. Crush bumped into him outside our Chemistry lab and asked him to clear some doubts. Inzy did not know what hit him! He did manage to sail through with his explanation.

Inzy found his girl, all thanks to his bros who worked behind the scenes and set the ball rolling for his love story. We girls also contributed our bit… by keeping quiet about the entire set up. Wasn’t easy!! :p

The second instance is a bit gory. There were a group of boys who used to hang out regularly at the corner of our street. They were college students who had known each other since their childhood. One of them was Omi bhaiya (elder brother). He was a gentle giant, forever helping others.

One day another gang of boys from some other neighbourhood came to our locality. That day our regular group of elder boys had not yet converged. The gang went up to a lone guy who coming back on his cycle and started fighting with him. He tried to escape but was surrounded. The gang was getting aggressive and soon withdrew hockey sticks and bats. The commotion drew the attention of Omi bhaiya who was casually walking towards his usual hangout. He ran towards where the whole scene was unfolding.

Just as the cyclist was about to be slashed with a blade, bhaiya caught the sharp weapon, with his bare hands! His hand was slashed across the palm. Seeing blood gushing out, the neighbouring gang guys ran away. Turns out that it was a fight over some insult.

When bhaiya was asked why didn’t he call for help and instead held the blade, thereby harming himself, his answer was simple. “The boy being attacked is my friend’s younger brother. He’s like my own. Couldn’t take a chance. Bros always look out for each other.How could I see him get hurt?”

Cesnica (Serbian Christmas Bread)

Ingredients

7 3/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons yeast
1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons salt
Warm water

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine flour, yeast, shortening and salt. Knead with enough warm water to moisten until dough separates from hands. Dough should be firm, not tacky.
Put dough on greased pan. Let rise for 10 minutes in warm area.
Perforate dough with fork. Insert clean coin (quarter or gold dollar) and spread dough flat like a pizza.
Bake for 25 minutes until brown.

Makes 16 servings.

What can I learn in one minute that will be useful for the rest of my life?

In one of my job interviews this year, I was asked, “How much do you think the chewing gum market is worth in the United States?”

If you haven’t encountered a question like that before, it might sound like a crazy thing for an interviewer to ask. For one thing, I knew absolutely nothing about the chewing gum industry. For another, if I ever actually needed that information, the smartest response would probably be to pull out my phone and Google it.

But the purpose of doing estimations like that isn’t to figure out the right answer – it’s to practice structuring your thinking in a logical way. You can learn the gist of how to do it in a minute, and you can use this kind of logic for the rest of your life.

Estimations like these are often referred to as Fermi problems, or back-of-the-envelope calculations. To solve one, you’re supposed to figure out a way to break the main question into a series of smaller components that can more comfortably estimate. Then, you put them back together to arrive at an approximation of the final answer. The trick is to ask small questions to reach a bigger solution.

For example, this was how I estimated the size of U.S. chewing gum market:

I knew that there are about 320 million people in the U.S.
I knew that the average lifespan in the U.S. is about 80 years. We’ll assume that age is evenly distributed among the population (not actually true, but close enough for our purposes.)
Teenagers and adults – say, between the ages of 10 and 50, so about half the population – are the demographics most likely to chew gum. Let’s guess that about 75% of them are gum-chewers.
Small children under the age of 10, and older adults over the age of 50, are the demographics least likely to chew gum. Let’s guess that 25% of them are gum-chewers.
If we do the math, that gives us a total of about 160 million gum-chewers in the U.S.
On average, each of those people probably chew at least 1 stick of gum every week.
Most of the packs of gum I’ve seen contain about 15 sticks of gum.
There are 52 weeks in a year. If we round up a little, that means the average gum-chewer buys about 4 packs of gum every year.
I’d guess that an average pack of gum costs about $5. That means that 4 packs would cost $20.
That gives us about $20 per person * 160 million people = $3.2 billion spent on gum every year.

I had no idea if that was right or not – for all I knew, some of my assumptions were completely ridiculous. But maybe some of my wrong assumptions canceled each other out. I Googled the question afterwards, and I found that the U.S. chewing gum market was worth $3.9 billion in 2015, which means I at least got to an accurate order of magnitude. And best of all, I got the job!

If you want to try doing one yourself, here are a couple of fun ones:

How many gas stations are there in your country?
How many hair are on your head?
How many airplanes are there in the world?
How many customers visit your favorite restaurant every year?
How many Quora answers have you read in your lifetime?

What is the most hurtful thing someone has said to you?

Right before I attempted suicide (and 2 months after my heart attack), I asked my “wife” to tell me that she loved me. She refused. We weren’t fighting or anything. She just refused. So I asked her to lie to me and say that she loved me. I was feeling low and my body was failing me. I’m a veteran who been through a lot. So she decided to make confessions. She said that it was NOT her responsibility to tell me that she loved me or that I was attractive. If I wanted to feel loved or attractive, go to therapy instead. She also revealed that she hated the educational gap between us and said that she despised living in my “shadow” and being known as my wife.

This absolutely BROKE me. The final straw was when I told her that she broke my heart and she just shrugged.
I absolutely wasted 20 years of my life.

What is the best thing your teacher ever told you?

Originally Answered: what was the most interesting thing your teacher said?

Original question: What’s the best thing you’ve heard your teacher say?

The first day I walked into my 10th grade chemistry class, the lights were off. The teacher was waiting at the front of the room, holding a small candle in front of him. The candle’s tiny flame was the only source of light in the room.

The class murmured a bit, confused and excited. Once we’d all quieted down, the teacher said, “Tell me some of the observations you can make about this candle.”

We paused for a moment. That seemed a little too easy for chemistry class.

“But keep in mind,” the teacher added, “that observations are the things you observe empirically. Inferences are the things you conclude… and inferences can be wrong.”

We stared at him, wary now.

At last, someone piped up, “Um…The flame is yellow?”

“The flame gives off heat.”

“The wick is burning.”

“The wax is cylindrical!”

The teacher raised his eyebrows at that one. “Are you sure?”

We stared harder at the candle, not sure how to respond to that. It definitely looked cylindrical.

The teacher shrugged. Then he put the candle into his mouth and started chewing.

The class stared at him.

At this point I was wondering if I ought to call the emergency room or something, but the teacher just kept chewing as though nothing was wrong. Eventually, he swallowed, shrugged again, and said, “Actually tastes okay.”

As it turns out, the so-called “candle” wasn’t made out of wax at all. It was actually just a slice of banana, with an almond slice for the wick.

The student’s “wax” statement had actually been an inference.

After explaining this to us, the teacher turned on the lights and said, “If there’s one thing I want you to learn in this class, it’s the first rule of scientific thinking: Never assume that your mind can’t lie to you.”

And that’s the story of how my 10th-grade chemistry teacher swallowed a candle to teach us the first principle of scientific thinking. Here’s to you, Mr. Miller.

06 Coolest psychological hacks you should read!

Test someone’s attentiveness. Alter a sentence slightly. If they’re attentive, their expression changes or they ask about the change.
Handshakes reveal personality; they can show anxiety even if you hide nerves.
Avoid being too available, especially to close ones, except for parents. Excess availability makes you seem less important; they might take you for granted.
Instead of dinner and a movie, watch the movie first, then dine. It gives you a dinner conversation starter.
Don’t react hastily. Don’t expect acknowledgment. Think before acting!
The thing that people remember the most about you is your personality, way of talking and attitude.

Why do people say that the CCP of China is on the brink of bankruptcy?

The Communist Party of China (CPC) originally did not have any party property and was a political party with 0 assets. The word “bankrupt” cannot be associated with CPC.

But the Kuomintang (KMT) in Taiwan owned party assets and was indeed bankrupt.

If you mean “the Chinese government / State Council (PRC)”, then I can tell you for sure that the Chinese government also has 0 assets, and they are only the managers of state-owned capital, not the owners.

If you mean “China’s financial sector”, then I can tell you with certainty that China’s savings rate is 45%, 10 times that of the US. China’s savings rate is even 11% higher than Japan’s, despite the fact that Japan is also an ardent thrifty nation. The main reason for this is:

Chinese people have a sense of worry and are always used to saving money to prevent and cope with emergencies and unforeseen events.
Chinese people generally have the habit of saving, no matter poor or rich, they all like to save their income in the bank to accumulate more money, instead of using credit cards to spend money in advance as westerners are keen to do. You can even ask the little black brothers in San Francisco why they like to rob the Chinese, because they know that the Chinese like to go to the bank and save their money, and they rarely spend tomorrow’s money today like the whites do.

The savings of 1.4 billion people is a huge amount of money, which is the “ballast” that keeps the ship stable, so the risk resistance of China’s financial industry is much higher than that of Wall Street’s financial industry.

In other words, even if the global finance collapses, China’s finance will not collapse.

Becket (1964) Richard Burton & Peter O’ Toole

Debauched King Henry II (Peter O’Toole) installs his longtime court facilitator Thomas Becket (Richard Burton) as the Archbishop of Canterbury, assuming that his old friend will be a compliant and loyal lackey in the King’s on-going battles with the church. But Becket unexpectedly finds his true calling on the ecclesiastical side, and aligns himself against the King’s selfish wishes, causing a rift and an eventual showdown not only between the two men, but also the institutions they represent. (IMDb)

A dose of reptilians with a dash of funk

I got an email a few days ago. The writer was pretty critical on my habit on covering all sorts of subjects and omitting the ET and the UFO stuff. Demanding, in a (almost) sarcastic way that I am somehow “fake” unless I spew out “lore” on a daily basis about “black hats” and “reptilians” and all that stuff.

Guys. I don’t know all that much. I have a connection to the Domain Commander… and it’s damn tight. Sometimes I wonder if I was domain before I incarnated… it’s that strong. But what I know is though two venues.

[1] MAJestic, and direct communication with the [2] Domain Commander.

Note that I did not include the venues on the internet about other stuff. Whether it is Farsight or some other venue. The events and states are often well apt to be misinterpreted by myself because of my own unique experiences. In my own reality.

And also… I grow and change.

Right?

So the view and observations that I held ten years ago are often quite different today. And I’ll tell youse guys… nothing is more sublime than my belief in “reptilians”.

Oh, Lordy!

You see, and many of you all know that I (for the longest time) ridiculed the “reptilian narrative”. And as such, I often confused the charlatans that monetized this narrative over the reality… even though it was not MY reality that I experienced. Oh man! I was wrong! Wrong! WRONG!

I asked the Domain Commander for a full information data dump.

…

This occurred when I was chatting with a MM follower. (You know who you are.)

And so I asked for the data dump.

I will post the details in a Patreon video or a separate post all to it’s self. But here’s a summary…

There are “reptilians” in the universe. It is a (branch) of an approved archetype.
Their normal environment is NOT around a G class star, like our sun.
They can live in our environment for short periods in a physical form.
They are “intersectionals” or “”interfrequency” beings. Meaning that they are a separate classification somewhere between a physical being, and a spiritual being.
Many of these beings have “advanced civilizations” and have shape changing technologies.
Some of them have visited the earth and occupied roles in this environment.

However…

The internet is flooded with disinformation regarding these creatures.
There are many people who have monetized this narrative. You need to be wary of that.

…

Remember people…

Reptilians exist. They have the ability to enter and leave our reality and realm at will. They do occasionally visit the earth, and when they do; they suffer though various limitations.

However…

There are greedy and ignorant folk that has taken this situation to extremes, and has created a fiction that is easy to get lost in. Please be cautious.

Today…

A daily dose of funk for today…

SOS Band reunion. No lip sync. I looked, if they are doing so… well it’s damn good.

Anyways. I love this band, and I had such a great crush on this lead singer. She’s still a looker… I’ll tell you what.

Anyways. Please enjoy.

If you grew up poor, how are you now?

I grew up poor. Our house was bare wood, no paint. My parents had to drop out of school after grade 9 to help support their families. When I was in the 6th grade, my parents told me that they hoped I would be able to go to University, but they had no money to pay for it.

I started mowing lawns and shoveling snow in grade 8. In grade 9, I started working 20 hours a week. In grade 10 it was 30, and in grade 11 and 12 it was 40 hours a week.

I stayed at the university dorm, sharing a 12×14 ft room with a room mate. I worked in the dorm cafeteria.

During summer break I got a camp job, with free room and board, working 360–380 hrs a month .

I graduated university with no debt. I went back to school a couple of more times over the years, whenever I wasn’t happy with my career. I would get another career.

I enjoyed my careers because I would change if I didn’t, life is too short to be unhappy.

I made good money. Then I retired comfortably on a fixed income on a paid for house in the wilderness.

Col Douglas Mcgregor: “We CANNOT Recover from What has HAPPENED! TOTAL DEFEAT ON ALL SIDES!!”

Colonel Douglas Macgregor delivers a compelling analysis, expressing the impossibility of recovering from the catastrophic events in Ukraine while highlighting the moral and financial losses incurred by supporting Israel. His assertion of a comprehensive defeat across all fronts for the United States indicates a poignant examination of the country’s geopolitical stance. Viewers are invited to explore Macgregor’s insights into the extensive implications of these interconnected situations.

https://youtu.be/578iRiJwyuQ

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

My husband and I were in the computer sales/repair business for many years. One day an elderly woman came in, asking if we could fix her computer. She said it had gotten so slow she could barely use it. She told us her 15 year old grandson also used the computer “for his homework,” and she wanted to be sure he could get his work done. I went to her car and brought it in for her, since she had trouble carrying it. My husband set it up on his bench, and pretty quickly told her that she needed to add more memory, as she had a lot of large graphic and video files. She had a limited budget, so he suggested she delete some of the large files to free up memory. She wanted him to do that for her, so he had her sit beside him and go through some of the files to decide which ones to delete. After opening a few older .jpgs, which were photos of a family reunion, he opened one in a more recent folder. I was at the front counter by then, but went to the repair room when I heard a loud shriek of “Oh, lord Jesus!” On the screen was a photo of a man with a foot-long … er, appendage, and a woman kneeling at his feet … you get the idea. The recently-downloaded short videos were all pornos. Once all that was deleted, she was happy with her computer, but not so happy with her grandson. As I loaded the computer in her car, she was muttering under her breath, “good whuppin’ is what he needs.” I don’t know if he got the whuppin’, but I’m pretty sure he lost computer privileges.

After Ukraine’s massive failure in 2023 along with entertaining PR stunts and pinprick attacks on juggernaut Russia, will we see Ukraine finally, finally kick Crimea out of Russia?

The US congress is turning off the tap. No more billions, not especially with a looming recession crashing head-on into bitter election season.

Ukraine’s economy is practically non-existent, with half the population gone with the wind, significant devastation, and the ongoing conflict. Ukraine is operating on fumes, and without US/NATO support, the country will struggle to function as a society.

Volodymyr isn’t the great statesman the free press trumpeted anymore. He is now an assassination target, with significant fractures developing within the command structure. What happens when the soldiers do not receive their wages? What about arms delivery?

Even with the full backing of NATO, Ukraine never matched Russian firepower on the battlefield, and Ukrainian soldiers suffer casualties at 5:1 to 10:1 rates compared to the Russians. That will be an optimistic loss ratio in 2024, as a severely degraded Ukrainian military fight on with dwindling support. Even fighting men are in short supply, never mind equipment, ammunition and real-time intelligence. Ukraine has practically zero industrial capability to sustain warmaking, other than growing its own food and making basic items.

Good luck hanging on to Odessa.

Normalized in a relationship

Ginger Beer

This is alcoholic, so please don’t let the children drink it!

Ingredients

To Make the Plant

2 ounces fresh baker’s yeast
2 level tablespoons superfine sugar
2 level tablespoons freshly ground dried ginger, bought from a spice store and NOT a supermarket

To Complete the Process

19 cups cold water
2 large fresh lemons
2 1/4 cups superfine sugar

Instructions

Mix yeast and sugar together in a small, clean plastic or china bowl with a small wooden spoon.
Add ginger and slowly mix in 1/4 cup of hand-hot water. Stir until well blended, then add another cup of hand-hot water and place in a very clean glass jar and leave, uncovered, in a warm place.
To Feed the Plant: 10 level teaspoons freshly ground dried ginger and 10 level teaspoons superfine sugar
Each day feed the plant. Do this by sprinkling onto the surface 1 teaspoon superfine sugar and 1 teaspoon ginger. Do this for 10 days.
When you have fed the plant for 10 days, dissolve the 2 1/4 cups superfine sugar with 3 3/4 cups of the water in a heavy-bottom 4-quart saucepan. Heat slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon, until he sugar is dissolved. It will not take long.
Using a thoroughly cleansed 10-quart plastic bucket, pour in the sugar and water mixture. Add another 2 1/2 cups cold water and the strained juice of two lemons. Now add the remaining 12 1/2 cups of water. Take the plant you’ve been feeding for 10 days and strain the liquid through muslin into the bucket. Save the sludge if you want to make more. Stir all the liquid well and pour into screw-top bottles. The 2 1/2-liter plastic screw-top soda bottles are ideal for this. Using a funnel, fill each bottle, leaving about a 2-inch air gap at the top for the ginger beer to breathe. Place the tops on, but don’t tighten down until the following day.
Sample after 5 days, covering the neck of the bottle with a cloth when opening. A small amount of sediment may collect at the bottom of the bottle. Decant the contents of the bottle into a pitcher, taking care that the sediment remains in the bottle. Serve chilled. Dilute with a lemonade soda or beer to make a refreshing drink.
To continue the plant: Divide the sludge into two glass juice containers, add 1 1/4 cups of hand-hot water to each and feed the plant in the previous manner. You’ll then be running two plants and will be making double the amount.

Can American submarines bypass China’s surveillance and enter China’s territorial waters?

Presently?

No. The Chinese can detect, track, follow, and “lock on” to any and all American submarines. This includes the highly vaulted USN “stealth” submarines.

This has been demonstrated in numerous ways, and though back channels to “key players” in the Pentagon. The public displays of this ability has been disguised as other events.

Oh, I am confident that the guys at NAS China Lake NWC will come up with methodology and techniques. When that will happen is unknown. But I am sure that some ideas are being researched and some preliminary studies are being conducted.

I have a reasonable expectation that some technologies will be fielded before 2030.

There are (highly likely) “black” projects currently in development that will eventually result in some great engineering direction. Of that I have no doubt. But it would be silly to assume that the Chinese are unaware of them. By the time they hit pilot field trials, China will already have counter-measures in place and fielded.

China, as of the time of this writing, has a very strong and significant undersea detection ability that spans the entire Pacific Ocean. This includes the Western coastline of the Americas. I do not know about the rest of the globe, but it can be inferred that the waters in and around Australia are under this umbrella of coverage, as are the Indian Sea, and the Northern navigable ocean.

So, to answer the question, more specifically…

Can American submarines bypass China’s surveillance and enter China’s territorial waters?

No. Any American submarine in the Pacific Ocean, near Australia, near the Indian Ocean, and in the Arctic Ocean can be detected by China.

If China determine that it is a threat, it will warn it away. This will include non-destructive methods such as the “sonic bomb”, and the “sonar ray cannon”. The warning usually is enough to cause the skipper to scamper away, as has already been demonstrated. In the event that the skipper is too recalcitrant, China has the ability to suppress the undersea vessel with extreme prejudice.

…

SOME IMPORTANT NOTES

Technical abilities of all military systems are hidden. The closest that the layman can get to understanding what they are is to either work with publicly available guesswork (such as JANES), or to actually have experience in these technologies.

If you regurgitate public domain evaluations (such as JANES) you are apt to copy the misinformation purposely fed to the periodical.
If you offer your personal experience in these matters, you are apt to be called a “fake news shrill” by a host of miscreants.

No one knows the true and real capabilities of the USN and the PLAN. However, people who have worked in these regimes, can make educated guesses and extrapolate towards highest probability conclusions. This is what I have done here.

The alternative is to rely on the public discourse, which is highly inaccurate, and intentionally misleading. If you feel that the anti-China disinfo is of better value to you, then go quite ahead and ignore this answer. No skin off my back.

Why do many people (including the Americans who left the US) say that living in the US is hard and that leaving the country was the best choice they ever made?

Count me in that group. I’m a disabled veteran, but my disability is not service-related. My disability insurance is SSDI; it amounts to $1069/month.

Stateside, subtract a hundred off the top for Medicare premiums. As a single male, the wait for Section 8 housing was longer, frankly, than most doctors said I could expect to live. A cheap rat-trap apartment near a VA ran about $640+ utilities ($120 electricity, water and trash). Meds related to my disability (multiple sclerosis) had a copay of $75. Add the cheapest liability insurance for my cheap motorcycle, $37.

See anything wrong here? Like…$90 for food and gas for a month IF nothing bad happens.

Before the death of my wife in 2017, we scraped by on my SSDI and her SSI. By late summer in 2018, I was sponging off my little sister and saving up for plane fare.

I landed in the Philippines with $800 in my pocket and a livein caregiver waiting to help me settle in. My rent was 5000 Philippine pesos (php) just under $100. My caregiver got twice that plus room & board, and she did all the grocery shopping with less than $65 a month.

Now, I have a fiancée instead of a caregiver, we live in her home in Bohol (no rent; she owns the place)

and I easily support her and her 2 daughters in simple comfort.

My meds are replaced with local herbs that grow wild, we grow or catch most of our food,

(Spearfishing for personal consumption is unregulated and the snorkeling is excellent physical therapy!)

We even manage a weekend at a beach resort every other month or so.

Yeah, it’s not just better…it’s a tropical paradise lifestyle on a bargain budget income and even my health is an order of magnitude better. I’ve outlived the docs’ prognosis by 3 years, and I got no plans to die sooner just to spare them the embarrassment of being wrong.

Can’t beat that with a stick!

Here’s the thing about average

What was the moment the quiet kid in your class snapped?

The quiet kid was me, and it happened during lunch. We had a really small cafeteria, with long tables set up. You couldn’t choose where to sit, you just sat at the next open spot. While you could control who sat on either side of you while you were in line, it was a crapshoot as to who was going to be sitting across from you.

There were 3 boys who had been taunting me since 4th grade (this happened in 8th grade). I was born with a minor birth defect. The obsolete name for it is “harelip”. (Clefting is repaired at a very young age, so really I had a scar on my lip.) So I got my tray, sat down between a couple of friends, and across from me was my chief tormenter, sitting between the other two tormentors.

Everytime I had gone to a teacher, the principal, the dean of students, the student counselor….any adult…the boys were always admonished that they weren’t being “nice”, and I was given the lecture that I had to develop a thicker skin, I was “better” than to let them get to me by calling me that name, that I should try to avoid them and that would solve the problem.

I was already having a bad day. It started as soon as I put my tray down. “Oh, god, it’s Harelip! Gross! I’m gonna barf! How can anyone eat having to look at that ugly harelip face?” On and on for about 5 minutes while I stared down at my tray. At my tray filled with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and chocolate pudding. In all, a very gooshy lunch.

I leaned over, grabbed the corners of his tray (he hadn’t eaten much), and flipped it over on him. His face now dripped sliced turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and chocolate pudding.

My absolute favorite teacher in the world prevented the dean from suspending me, pointing out that I had been asking for and begging for the authorities to do something about these assholes, and had been ignored.

I can’t remember if they were punished for bullying me, but at least those three stopped calling me harelip.

Ouch!

Is the U.S. dollar at risk of losing its status as the world’s primary reserve currency?

What you need to realize is that, the Dollar being a primary reserve currency has been an issue that many countries have secretly not been very comfortable with

It was one of the not so public reasons for the existence of the EURO

Many Nations especially the Middle East Nations felt it very wrong to sell their oil and keep all the money earned from those sales in Accounts in the United States

However back then the US was too powerful

Saddam Hussain tried and ended up being murdered after a bogus invasion

Gadaffi tried and was killed in a color revolution sponsored by the United States

The Saudis, the Qataris, the Iranians all felt like being under a Colonial Dictator who decided and controlled every aspect of their life using the dollar

The US was making up rules and using the power of sanctions and its military to destroy anyone who did not toe the line

Thus the fact that the Dollar was the Primary reserve currency was not something everyone was happy with even from the mid 1990s

The UK had decided to tolerate this because they were too badly broken after World War II and needed the US to survive as a developed nation

Every 3 out 4 Dollars they needed came from US Banks & US Federal Loans.

Europe too

Russia due to it’s incompetent leadership under Geriatrics like Brezhnev, Andropov and Gromyko and Chernenko plus Idiots like Gorbachev also needed US Dollars to rescue it’s economy from collapse and hyperinflation

China was happy earning dollars and building its reserves and growing 14% a year

In short the US had forced these Nations into situations where the US and it’s Dollars were indispensable to them

Today things stand different

The US is much weaker than it was

The same Nation that could probably once control a conflict from DC alone, is unable to rein in its most dependent lackey ally – ISRAEL

It is riddled with Debt

It has sanctioned and played unfair so many times that IT’S CREDIBILITY IS ZERO

So every Nation that once tolerated the US Dollar as primary reserve, is starting to trade in other currencies including the Yuan, the Ruble and their own Local Currencies

Energy & Food is now being sold in Yuan and priced in Yuan

Qatar sells LNG to China pricing it in Yuan as do Saudi Arabia and Russia

Brazil sells Soybeans and Ore priced in Yuan to China

The US may still be very powerful against any attack on the US itself but their offensive warfare capabilities have significantly become weaker and weaker.

The Military Leaders are weak

The Politicians are imbeciles – either Neocons or Corrupt Ideologues or Neo Liberals

Hence DE DOLLARIZATION HAS BEGUN and will continue

One currency as primary reserve and One Nation as a Hegemon was always wrong

Maybe it was unavoidable from 1945 to maybe 1975 when the world was still recovering from the World War and Anti Communist Wars

However it should have started focusing on a Multipolar World and a Variant currency reserve from at least 1975

Yet the US kept it’s hold as a Hegemon and it’s currency as primary through:-

Removing the Gold Standard and adopting the Bretton Woods system forcing Europe to accept both
Adopted the Plaza Accords in 1985 and finished Japan as a potential rival
Invaded Iraq and sponsored color revolution in Libya to ensure no other player even thought of going against the Dollar

Sadly today the US cannot continue this

Putin, Xi are TOO STRONG

The BRI has ensured that most of the Global South no longer kowtows to the US blindly but rather would do what’s best for them, best example being Vietnam

Also the US thanks to 30 years of bullying and intimidating has now a foreign Service and diplomatic service that DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE WHAT IT MEANS TO NEGOTIATE OR BARGAIN.

The crop of idiot diplomats know only to threaten and bully

Like Daleep Singh, the numbskull who threatened India with Sanctions when he could have offered a nice tech transfer deal plus a nice $ 100 Billion swap facility in Mumbai and maybe swayed India on his side

Or this brainless fool who could have easily offered China, a full tariff waiver for 3 years, a written guarantee on their US Investments plus a mutual guarantee on Taiwan (You don’t attack Taiwan and we don’t supply weapons)

China may have agreed to move away from Putin

If that was the case Putin would have lost by June 2022 and the West would have won

[Again I use MAY. Wang Yi and Jaishankar are too astute to trust the US but Modi is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and likely could have forced JS to toe the line]

So Yes the US Dollar is going to lose its Primary Reserve Status

By 2030 I believe the USD will have a reserve of around 46%, the Yuan at 13%, Euro at 10%, Yen at 5%, the BRICS Settlement CBDC at 5% and Local Currencies at 21%

What the fuck?

What’s the cleverest cheating you’ve ever seen as a teacher or student?

In high school I had this crazy idea that nobody believed would actually work, but it worked like a charm.

Writing the formulas to the blackboard.

Normally I am good at math, but some of the formulas, there tons of letters were involved were simply not getting in. And a lot of others had the same problem. It was nobody’s favorite subject, except maybe a select group of uber nerds. So I took a gamble. I was gonna fail with or without the formulas, so I figured I wasn’t actually risking anything. So the last break before the exam I wrote some of the formulas I was struggling with and left it out in the open. Just like that.

Teacher probably never even thought to check the blackboard. Why would he? Surely we wouldn’t be stupid enough to cheat so blatantly..

Would we? 😂

Occasional giggles only confused the teacher, he told us to keep quiet. We seriously could not believe this was actually working. There it was, the formulas, written in huge puntos, so out in the open as if it was begging to be seen.

It was probably one of our most nerve racking but also funny experiences throughout high school. I don’t know clever, but it was certainly outside of the box.

I got a cat…

What happened at a wedding that made you feel horrible for the bride?

My dad, a retired pastor, tells a story about a wedding he officiated for a couple in their mid-40s who were both on their second marriage.

The groom was what my dad affectionately refers to as a “good old boy,” which is polite for redneck.

The bride was quite well-endowed, and was wearing a strapless dress.

Whenever my dad would officiate a wedding for practicing Christians, part of the ceremony would be the celebration of the Lord’s supper, as a way of indicating that in a Christian marriage, the relationship is not only between the husband and wife, but also their savior. My dad liked for the groom to perform the communion rite with the bride, while dad spoke to the congregation about the symbolism of what they were doing, as inevitably there would be non-Christians there who didn’t understand what was going on. But in this case, the groom didn’t feel comfortable doing that and asked Dad to lead the two of them through the communion together. They chose to kneel down in front of the altar to take communion. Once complete, they were to stand and continue the wedding ceremony.

You can probably guess where this is going, but it was fortunately that the bride and groom chose to face Dad instead of placing him between them and the congregation because when they finished communion and the bride went to stand up, her dress was caught beneath her knees and pulled the front of her dress down so that her breasts popped out and landed on the table.

Dad describes it as if you were to lay two loaves of bread side by side on the table.

Far from being mortified for his about-to-be-wife, the good old boy groom just looked over at the bosoms lying there on the altar, gave a long whistle, and exuberantly yelled, “shooo weeee!”

What is the rudest thing a store assistant has said to you when you asked for assistance for a clothing item?

I was shopping for some clothes as a teenager in the 1980s and I had a $250 gift card (equivalent to about $500 or more today) for a store that was slightly upscale and popular with their name and reputation.

When I approached a sales clerk who was only a few years older than I was, perhaps 19 or 20, and who was this entitled snobby rich kid and asked her about some types of ‘stonewashed’ jeans which were the big fashion craze at the time, she clearly stated; “We do carry them but you probably can’t afford them so don’t waste our time”.

I was shocked but also very hurt since I did come from a poor single parent family and I was very self conscious about my circumstances since I attended a high school that had a lot of those snobby rich kids who looked down at poor kids which was a big deal in the 1980s and probably still is today.

I had received the gift card in a prize draw at some local community fundraiser and it was one of those rare times when I’d be able to shop for clothes that put me in the same fashion league as the kids who have everything that I didn’t have including a dad who paid child support and was part of their families.

After speaking with an assistant manager who showed me where the items that I wanted to try on and buy, that same sales clerk called the mall security and a loss prevention officer who followed me to the dressing room after I exited wearing a pair of stonewashed jeans, and I was questioned.

I was asked to change back into my own clothes and leave the store and I was escorted out.

When I got home I told my mother about what had happened and I broke down in tears.

A week later my uncle Bob, who was married to my auntie and who was a lawyer, escorted me to the same store and helped me buy some of the clothes with the gift card and he also treated me to a few items as well and we saw the same sales clerk.

She quietly went over to my uncle not knowing that we were together since he looked at some items on a display several feet away from me and she tried to tell him about me and warn him that I might shoplift and that ‘people like me were not welcome in the store’ and told him to watch his wallet in case I might steal it from him.

My uncle demanded to speak to the manager, and after a brief conversation, he got the number to the head office of the retail chain.

As far as I remember being told weeks later, the manager for all the human resources for the entire chain in Canada flew out to Winnipeg where their largest store in the city was so that he could personally fire her from the company, and he offered me a sincere personal apology and a $1,000 gift card for their store.

I also remember that the sales clerk was friends with some of the rich bullies who attended my school, and her younger brother was in my class and rumours spread as fast as a virus that I had been evicted from the store and that I supposedly tried to shoplift from the store, which only further caused more bullying about me being a ‘poor white trash’ kid who was beneath everyone.

My uncle Bob was again called, and he stepped in and met with the sales clerk who had been fired from her job and was slapped with a lawsuit, and he sued her and her family on my behalf. We ended up receiving $20,000, which in the 1980s was still a lot of money.

That money helped me attend a better school, my mom took some vocational training, and we were able to buy some nicer clothes for her and me and move to a better neighbourhood.

I don’t know if there really is some moral to this story but probably it’s a good idea to NEVER assume anything about anyone and be careful what you say because it could be expensive if whoever you’re talking about files a lawsuit and sues you for slander.

What are the downsides of requiring police to wear body cameras?

This is Christina Revels-Glick- a 36-year-old Georgian woman.

On July 1st, 2021, Christina went to the beach on a mild day. While there, she found a secluded spot near the water and inserted a “toy” into her….. ya. As she was leaving, the police arrived. Apparently, a family had seen something and called the cops to report her, and they had nothing better to do.

Christina was honest with the police, told them what happened, and was promptly arrested.

Then- to make everything worse, the entire arrest was publically released. Of course, the YouTube video went viral, and articles were written left and right lambasting and humiliating her further.

8 months later, Christina took her own life.

Now I think body cameras are good. They help expose injustice and help the public get a clear view of what police do.

When an officer uses deadly force, it should be investigated because murder is murder. This is a complex issue that is being glossed over here, but 1 step I think most agree on is that a body camera should be used.

There is a downside, though. Everyone has a bad day; everyone makes mistakes. Christina didn’t hurt or traumatize anyone; she made a silly mistake that didn’t cause any harm. Yet her life was ruined all the same. We need to decide where the line is. Should every police interaction be a public record? Should it confined to instances where violence was used?

Is it possible for America to defeat China militarily without starting a full-blown war against China?

No. You cannot rape a little bit!

You cannot kill without snuffing off a life!

If you touch China with the intent to hurt China, China will make sure you are hurt at least twice as hard. What do you expect China to do? Accept 10 million deaths and say it is fine, we still have 1.39 billion more?

China don’t want war, it never wanted, and it will always prefer peace. That you must know. But don’t ever confuse that with fear or weakness. It must be seen as it is. China is a very mature and responsible nation.

Actually China has defeated the U.S. militarily, economically and politically without shooting a single shot. Economically China overtake the U.S. in real value GDP since 2014, it’s growth on average over the last decade is 50% bigger than the entire G7 nations put together. China now makes the most computers, smartphones, vehicles, and almost everything the world needs. China also overtook the U.S. in the most important statistic of all, the life expectancy by 2 full years at 78 years old.

Politically China is supported by 175 nations out of 195 nations on earth. It even made peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran! Militarily, China makes more ships, more fighter jests and more weapons with 3 million soldiers ready and waiting in case the U.S. make the mistake of underestimating China.

If the United States were to declare war on North Korea, how long will it last?

There is 100% chances they will load all there nukes to destroy the U.S. and the North Koreans will hide in the biggest and deepest bunker for the next 100 years. Meanwhile 20 of your U.S. cities will be nuked that are 1000 times more powerful than the ones that destroyed Hiroshima. That kill 100 thousand people, imagine what the 20 nukes on New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco…. will do to you guys! I think 300 million out of 330 million will evaporate into nuclear dust

So you want to know how long ? I think 300 million gone in a week! So you still like to start this war?

Why do I not want to get a first job? I don’t want to be lazy, but I want to find a job that is the right fit.

My late wife took a job that didn’t really interest her.

She was a new college graduate and took a job at a large hi-tech company. She wanted a job in her chosen field; there just weren’t any openings. So she took what this company had to offer. Above all else, she just thought a job at this company was a good starting point. They offered good benefits and seemed to be going places.

She was in document control, of all places. She performed well and got to do some “creative” things that improved the department, but it wasn’t the world’s most exciting job.

After more than a year, a position opened up that was more to her liking: marketing. In this role, she got to travel all over the world and enjoy some pretty expensive dining, all on the company’s dime.

After our daughter was born, frequent travel didn’t work for her anymore, so she started looking around again.

She found an opening in the legal department. It wasn’t as glamorous, but it was steady work.

After a few weeks she discovered she freaking loved it. Her job was to write threatening letters to all customers who misused the “Intel Inside” logo. Though she really was the nicest woman in the world in person, for some reason she really loved writing threatening legal texts to people violating Intel’s trademarks.

My wife didn’t really find her “right fit” until she settled for something else. By taking that first job, she found something better and then something perfect. You might not know what your “perfect fit” is until you try something else.

Good luck!

Scientists FINALLY Found the Location Of Malaysian Flight 370!

https://youtu.be/eTp4zDCBGtM

The US “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024” bill mentions that it will comprehensively train Taiwan’s armed forces. Is it aimed at “destroying Taiwan to contain China”?

As of March 2005, Defense had trained more than 18,300 Afghan combat troops-over 42 percent of the army’s projected total of 43,000-and deployed them throughout the country.

Source: GAO analysis of Department of Defense data.

United States Government Accountability Office

In addition to being good at escaping and surrendering, have you seen any puppet army trained by the United States that is good at fighting?

Ngô Đình Diệm’s South Vietnamese army, or Syngman Rhee’s South Korean army, which puppet army was not trained by the United States? Did they have a record of defeating the Northern Army? If the United States had not intervened in the Korean civil war, the Korean Peninsula would have been reunited by the DPRK a long time ago. As for Vietnam, it is an indisputable fact that it was unified by the North Vietnamese.

After experiencing the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the Chinese People’s War of Liberation, the Chinese people knew that the “Imperial Association Army / 皇協軍” trained by Japan and the Kuomintang (KMT) Army trained by the United States had no will to fight.

During the victory in the War of Resistance, the CPC led the army in 125,000 guerrilla battles against the enemy, annihilating 527,000 Japanese troops and 1,187,000 pseudo-armies.
In just three years, the KMT, a big paper tiger with eight million troops armed to the teeth with US gears, was torn apart.

Because they can never resolve the question of who to fight for? For their own ethnic group – Chinese nation or for their foreign masters?

The People’s Liberation Army of China is different. They fought to defend the sovereignty of their countries and the integrity of their territories; they fought for their people. They are indomitable warriors.

Why are counterfeit drugs so lucrative for criminals?

One of the weird things that Americans believe is that the cost of pharmaceuticals is driven by production costs. They are not. Some pharmaceuticals cost a lot to produce. Most do not.

For example, a vial of insulin (10–15 days supply) costs about $10 to produce but in the United States can cost up to $300. Most Americans who need pharmaceuticals, even ones with insurance, can have trouble affording medication they need to survive.

Now, a simple comparison of brand name drugs to generics shows that the brand names are far more expensive except, of course, they’re otherwise identical.

Generics are, of course, perfectly legal. Once a drug patent runs out, it can be manufactured and sold by anyone. Generics go through the same supply chain as brand names, so they’re just as safe.

But to get a patent, you have to tell all your secrets, essentially telling anyone who wants to copy your drug exactly how to do so. Copying drugs under patent is, of course, a breach of patent law that will get you sued and put out of business (although here in Canada generic drug companies can get rights to produce some patented medications).

This is where counterfeiting starts. Like I said, it’s not impossible to set up a pharmaceutical factory, and the materials you need are available on the open market. Given the cost of brand name medications compared to their production costs, the ubiquitous presence of the internet, and worldwide courier services, a person with a larcenous bent can produce real drugs overseas and find customers both in the United States and in other countries where the drug might not be available. Mind you, counterfeiters aren’t the most careful of people so ingredient contamination or product contamination could be deadly (The FDA was started when someone substituted lethal propylene glycol for harmless glycerin – they taste the same). However, you can produce something like Viagra for pennies a pill and sell it for dollars a pill and still undercut legitimate pharmacies. Put a fake company logo on it and you’re golden.

Of course, it takes money to set up a pharmaceutical factory, and it’s likely to draw attention, so a lot of criminals don’t bother – they just fake the whole thing. People will get suspicious if you order Viagra precursors, but no-one cares about gypsum and blue food dye. Price it cheaply enough and people will buy it. It won’t help their ED, but it’s not likely to kill them. It’s sold through the same sales channels.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Didn’t happen to me, but a friend of mine.

He worked in a private local company. At the end of 2017 the owner of the company changed which means the head of the board of directors changed (let’s call the new guy Jim). Obviously, Jim wanted to make some changes himself, mostly to establish dominance and show he’s the new sheriff in town. Rumors say he promised to double company’s profit in a single year (remember this). There’s a thin line between ambitious and cocky.

The first move he made didn’t have anything to do with the increasing work efficiency or meeting heads of departments or actually know the work that is done in that company. Jim had installed one of those time clock machines where employees check in when they get to work and check out when they’re done. Something like this:

[source: google time clock, image from Icon Proximity card keyfob Reusable RFID Key Fob for Icon

]

only they didn’t have tokens, but cards. Installation and writing guidelines took about a week after which he announced to heads of departments that every employee must check in and check out themself even when they’re going out just for a break. Also, heads of departments should’ve forward these news to employees. The thing officially started second or third week in January of 2018.

At first, employees didn’t take it so seriously and some of them didn’t check in/out every day or didn’t (sometimes even forgot to) note down their breaks. At the end of the week, Jim would go through every employee’s record to see does any of them have less than 40 hours. (Notice he wasn’t interested in those who had more than 40 hours.) Friend told me that most of employees were in the range 38–45 working hours and a very few around 37 but none under 37. Jim called for a meeting with heads of departments every Friday to inform them about the records and to warn those who work less. Also, there was no compensation for those who work more (stay late or work on weekends).

Employees protested about that kind of behavior and wanted time clock out. That only made Jim to push that thing even more and convinced the board of directors and the owner that the time clock is necessary. So it passed.

The thing is that the work climate has changed. Everyone was more concentrated on if they checked in and if they worked enough than the actual work and the pressure started to build up. The thing went on for two whole months until the most of the employees (friend said 80% but maybe he exaggerated a bit) decided to come to work, check in, work their 8 hours at a moderate pace, check out and head home. No overtime, no working weekends, if the clock hit 16:00 people would leave midwork or in the middle of the meeting not giving a shred of an F. Their excuse was that they did their 8 hours and if they want them to stay, they want a written notice (which is a proof of working overtime and must be paid).

This way every single employee had 40 working hours a week and not a minute more or less. But you know what? Jim wasn’t satisfied. Why? Because work suffered. He made the employees numbers and working slaves that have only one purpose – to work. This killed all the passion people had towards the job they were doing. It demoralized people. They had a feeling that someone is standing above their head every second of the day. And the time clock might not be a bad thing to check employees every once in a while, but to terrorize them like Jim did made them do anything just in spite of that work regime.

After 3 and a half months, the moment of truth came. The first quartal report came. It was a bit better than the last year so Jim stayed at his position. Employees continued with their strike. The second quartal report came and the profit was ~8% less than the same period of previous year (maybe 9% I don’t remember). Jim ascribed it to a bad economy in the country and stayed at his position. Employees were informed about the drop in profit which made them to continue their strike. The third quartal report came. The company’s profit was down by amazing 34% compared to the same period of the previous year. Jim was fired on the spot (even though his mandate supposed to last 5 years) and time clock was left just to control employees every now and then.

Conclusion: Treat your employees as humans which they are and maybe consult someone about your radical actions.

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

Background:

My father decided to become a minister when I was 14.

We moved in December from central Colorado to Fort Worth, Texas, so he could begin attending the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in January of 1973. As a student, he didn’t have to change the registration and license plates on our two cars.

In the summer of 1973, I was 15 and old enough for Driver’s Ed and my learner’s permit. In the spring of 1974, I turned 16 and got my honest-to-God Texas driver’s license. Like every 16-year-old, I was thrilled in spite of having to take my driving test on the LBJ Freeway in Dallas, Texas, during 5 o’clock weekday traffic. (A nightmare much worse than parallel parking.)

While still in seminary, my father was offered his first church in a very small rural town in East Texas. By very small, I mean a population of maybe 500 (counting pets) with no traffic lights and just a post office and a gas station. I had gone from my sophomore high school year at the largest high school in Fort Worth (my class had about 1000 in it) to a tiny high school where my junior class was the largest in school at 20.

The nearest city of any size was 13 miles away, which is where everyone went for groceries, doctors, hardware, entertainment, etc.

As a newly minted driver in the state of Texas, I, of course, volunteered to drive back and forth on the 26-mile round trip for errands. (Much more fun than unpacking.)

Now the encounter with the local deputy sheriff:

On my way home from one such trip, i was, perhaps, driving a little bit over the speed limit and got pulled over for the first time in my life. (In spite of the 55 mph speed limit, if you drove under 70 in Fort Worth, you got run over.)

I just knew that my father was going to kill me when I got home with my first ticket.

Deputy: “You know how fast you were going, son?”

Me: “No, sir. I guess I wasn’t paying attention.” (It’s not like there was any other traffic at all on this little country road.)

Deputy: “Well, this here speed limit is 55 and you was going 68.”

Me: (Gulp!) “Uh, sorry officer.”

Deputes (getting out his ticket book): “Let’s see your license, registration, and proof of insurance.”

I fumbled around and handed him all the requested documents.

He started sifting through everything, totally unreadable behind his mirrored sunglasses. (Remember those?)

Deputy: “Is this address on your license correct?”

Me: “Uh, no sir. We just moved here.” (I gave my new address.)

He heaved a big sigh.

Deputy: “Lemmee get this straight. You got a local address. Your driver’s license has a Fort Worth address. This car is registered to your daddy and has Colorado plates and registration but the addresses ain’t right. Is that about it?”

Me: “Yessir.” (It’s humid, hot, and July, so I’m sweating bullets.)

He just stood there for probably a minute or two (seemed longer to me), and then handed everything back to me.

Deputy: “Son, I’m letting you off with a warning. You slow down to no more than 60, ya’ hear?”

Me (relieved): “Thank you, sir!”

Deputy: “You’re lucky, son. It’s hot, and it’d just be too complicated to write you a ticket. You have a nice day, and slow down.”

I nodded, and that was my first ever traffic stop.

My father didn’t kill me when I told him.

He just laughed.

What is the oddest reason you have been contacted by your child’s school?

He told a teacher he was picking on him because he was black. He is not black. He is 100% British white.
Telling the dance teacher that she could not choreograph a funeral procession.
Smacking a big guy across the face for using the F word.
Telling a boy that if he wants a good “kick in the vagina”, he should carry on disturbing the class.
His biology teacher has a unibrow so he told him that he needs to take a major pair of tweezers to ‘that small rodent’ on his face.
Completely losing his shit, trembling in the corner when a spider ran across his desk.
Going to non-uniform day in a loincloth, “as Jesus on the cross.” He said that ‘he nailed it.’
Telling the maths teacher he was ‘getting his period’, after being silly in class.
Telling the headteacher he was nothing but a “Mr Shitty” who could not run a hotdog stand, let alone a school.
Hijacking the PA system to sing “There are Worse Things I Can Do”, 1/4 tone sharp.
He continues to call the school prison and refers to his classmates as “Lifers”. The teachers are the C.O’s and lunch is chow.
He insists he is a lesbian due to the fact that ‘gay sounds like a minority’??
The class was asked to name one of the biggest influencers of peace in the 21st century. While most suggested the Pope and Mother Theresa, his suggestion was the Kardashians.
When the Notre Dame cathedral burned down, he stated, “Well, I cannot see what all the fuss is about – I mean, we’re talking about a church, not the Moulin Rouge.”

I am amazed at how he gets more upvotes than me. If you wish to view the original answer about him, here it is: Mark Pitt’s answer to When did you first realize your child was different?

Dinosaurs and Fast Food

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Guinness and Ginger Loaf

Guinness and Ginger Loaf is a fabulous holiday cake. It is particularly beautiful when decorated with a vanilla glaze and candied ginger.

Ingredients

1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup molasses
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
3 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon grated ginger root

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, line the bottom and sides with parchment and grease the parchment. (Alternatively, butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan.
Combine the stout and molasses in a large saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the baking soda. Allow to sit until the foam disappears.
Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and the granulated white and brown sugars in a bowl. Whisk in the vegetable oil.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom.
Combine the stout mixture with the egg mixture, then whisk this liquid into the flour mixture, half at a time. Add the grated ginger and stir to combine.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake until the top springs back when gently pressed, 1 hour. Do not open the oven until the gingerbread is almost done or the center may fall slightly.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
The top may be glazed, if desired, with a vanilla glaze, and decorated with candied ginger. Alternatively, it may be dusted with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Can a helicopter or a fan chop your head off?

Q: Can a helicopter or a fan chop your head off?

Unambiguously. Yes. Don’t even think about it.

Helicopters can and do behead people.

main qimg 9b90a849676203f5875a7325d2b2c958 lq

Their tail rotors are also known to chop people up like sushi, presumably sushi with some sort of death wish.

Airplane propellers can mince you up too. This one cropped off a mechanic’s arm while he was working on it while it was running, you know, like ya do.

Most cheap plastic household fans are pretty harmless, but you’d be wise not to assume so; even small spinning things can be deadly. This guy was flying an RC helicopter in a park in Brooklyn when it sliced the top of his skull off, bisecting his brain and killing him instantly as friends and bystanders looked on in horror.

But on the other hand, one must put such things into perspective. The park this happened in is named after famed architect, Calvert Vaux, who was largely responsible for the design of Central Park among other things, and who while walking one night in the area, tripped or fainted, hit his head, and drowned in Gravesend Bay.

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

Many years ago, I did retail PC repair at a local computer retailer. Not one of those big-box stores, but an independent shop that had opened sometime in the late 80’s and was barely struggling by when I worked there, around 2005 or so.

We accepted walk-ins for PC repair, so we got all kinds. All sorts of stupid, weird things walked through the door, but the one I remember the most…

An elderly lady, in her late 60’s at least, brought her PC in. It was a fairly recent eMachine, from right before they got bought by Gateway, so only a few years old. Still, the eMachines were never known as a reliable brand, and this was square in the middle of the Great Capacitor Catastrophe of the mid-2000’s (if you know, you know), so I wasn’t super surprised when she said that it’d “just stopped turning on,” as this was a common occurrence with medium to low end PC’s at the time.

I took it in and put it on The Rack to be looked at later. This was a first-in first-out shop, meaning that we worked on the oldest support tickets first. We always wanted to get to every PC as quickly as we could, but when things stacked up it sometimes took a day or two to get to.

I started to notice that, every time I’d walk past the PC while it sat up on The Rack, I’d smell something weird and my eyes would start burning. To be clear, I’d smelled it when she brought it in, but I was young and I figured that she was either using some weird perfume I’d never smelled before, or she burned incense or something in her house. But the PC stank. And it made my eyes burn just to stand near it. And it wasn’t even a few hours.

So I bumped her PC to the front of the queue, dragged it off the rack, and cracked it open. I immediately spotted the problem with it, and gave her a phone call to ask some questions.

*ring ring*

Customer: Hello?

Me: Hello, [Customer Name]? This is John at [PC Repair Place].

Customer: Oh, hello! Is my computer fixed already?

Me: I’d actually like to ask you a couple of questions, if that’s OK?

Customer: Oh, well, certainly.

Me: Do you, by chance, have cats? Or small dogs? Specifically shorthairs?

Customer: …Oh, uh, well… yes, I have cats. Several.

Me: Do you smoke cigars at all?

Customer: …Why do you ask?

Me: Well… it would help me make sense of what’s happening inside your computer.

Customer: …Yes, I do smoke the occasional cigar.

Me: OK, another question; at your house, where you use your computer, do you leave it on the floor or on your desk?

Customer: Oh I put it on my desk, next to the screen.

Me: Alright, I think this is the last question… are any of your cats un-neutered male cats?

Customer: …Now look here, I really don’t see-

Me [cutting her off]: because what I see here is that your PC is full of ash and cat hair, and it smells incredibly strongly of cheap cigars and cat piss. Can you check the spot behind where you normally put your computer and see if there’s any urine marks on the wall? Because I think that one, possibly more, of your cats is pissing into your computer case from both the front and the back, and I’m also pretty sure you’re putting your ashtray right in front of the PC, where the air intake is at the bottom. And that’s been sucking ash and cigar smoke in from the front of the PC. Did you know that both ash and urea, as in urine, as in cat urine, are both used in the production of concrete cement?

Customer: [total silence]

Me: And, well, unfortunately, I think the thing is a total loss. I have no idea which component in your computer is bad, and I don’t think you can afford to pay us enough to actually find out. I mean, everything inside the entire case is coated in damp, sticky cat hair, held together with tar from cigar smoke and fine ash. It’s like a quarter inch thick everywhere, and an inch thick on the bottom. It has an intake fan in the front, and that’s glued shut and doesn’t spin. It has an exhaust fan on the back, in the power supply, and that’s glued shut and doesn’t spin. And it has a fan on the processor, which also doesn’t spin and is covered in cat hair.

Customer: [more silence]

Me: [also silence]

Customer: …Can’t you just… I don’t know… clean it off?

Me [stunned]: [silence. somehow emphatic]

Customer: Hello?

Me: Ma’am, not at these hourly rates, no, I won’t clean it off. My suggestion to you is to go out and purchase a new computer. This one will never run again without a hazmat team and a chisel and hammer. Please come pick up your computer, free of charge. My eyes burn when I walk past it.

Hold the line

What would happen to the US economy if China stopped buying American debt and goods in retaliation for sanctions against Taiwan’s independence?

Stop worrying about China.

China is not your problem. America is.

In the last decade alone the U.S. debts increased from 10 to 35 trillion dollars. This is a 350% increase in 10 years! What do you think the U.S. debt will be like in 10 years from now?

Let us say it slowed down the increase from 350% to 250%. That will be USD 87,500,000,000,000 debts. Today the U.S. has to pay roughly 3% interest, say by that time the U.S. has to be 5% interest per annum as it is fast getting insolvent. That will be 4,750,000,000,000 or 4.75 trillion dollars interest payments alone each year!

That itself will bankrupt the U.S. Never mind it has to pay for its dozen aircraft carriers, its 800 plus military bases, fund 1–2 forever wars, fund regime change and colour revolution. If the U.S. do what it is doing now it will totally collapse in a decade at most.

Don’t forget in 10 years the dollar will be used by less than 25% it is being used for international trade now! The US inflation itself will hit the roof! The homeless will grow from 1 to 10 million people across the US. What a sight!

And you worry about China? China is too smart. It knows what to do. I suspect it will keep 500 billion dollars, loose change to China buying 5% earning US bond to help keep the US spending habits going! They will bring out their soda and popcorn and watch how the US will go from there!

A quote

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rcWKmeJyfm0?feature=share

As a patient, what’s the angriest you have ever been toward a doctor?

I had been non-stop vomiting for 5 weeks. I lost so weight, and despite already being very tiny at 4’10″ and 98lbs, I was down to a measly 70lbs. I was dying and no one knew what was causing my illness. I couldn’t even keep down water. It would instantly come back up. I had been admitted to the hopital for a week and given IVs with sugar and vitamins to rehydrate me and help keep me alive. I was also given medication to help the vomiting. Upon discharge, I was told to return to the ER in 72 hours if I continued vomiting even water. Well, 72 hours later, i returned as directed to the ER.

By this point, I had severe bruising in both arms from the IVs during my hospital stay, as they needed to replace the lines daily due to dehydration and my veins collapsing. I had track marks. It was ugly, but clearly not intentional. Upon my arrival at the ER, the attending physician entered the room, took 1 look at my arms and instantly assumed I was a drug addict. He asked when I last “mainlined”. When I replied disgusted, and stated my reason for being there, and the reasons for my track marks, he proceeded to tell me to enter into a facility that treats eating disorders. Now, I was beyond disgusting. He hadn’t even taken 1 look at my chart/history. Had he done his job instead of making assumptions, I could’ve been helped faster instead of laying there and dying, using every last ounce of energy I had to even speak. Despite my interjections, he literally asked me to “prove” I wasn’t making myself vomit. I smiled, and said, “Sure. Pass me a small cup of water.” I took a gulp and instantly projectile vomited the water. When he learned shortly therafter that I’m in school to be a Dr, and that my Aunt was the Head of Hospice Phsycician for the hospital, along with my mother being the head nurse practioner for hospice, he resigned. Good riddance! You’ve clearly lost your compassion when you instantly make assumptions about people instead of learning their history and trying to help heal.

Dont Allow Her To Disrespect You

How advanced is high-speed rail in China?

Originally Answered: How advanced are Chinese high-speed trains?

I had my first opportunity to ride the high-speed trains last week when I had a business meeting in Zhengzhou.

As someone who grew up with a disdain for public transportation (not sure why the US hates it so much), I was dreading the experience. I pushed hard to fly, but was told that it would be much better if I took the train.

The train was amazing. I had traveled on an Amtrak train before in the US, and hated how slow it was and how many stops there were. Chinese high-speed trains are on a different level.

First, when I say they are high-speed, I mean they are high-speed.

This was taken on my ride back to Beijing.

The trains are clean and the seats are huge. There are ample power outlets and you can’t even feel how fast the train is moving. If there were no windows, I wouldn’t be able to tell when we were stopped or when we were traveling at 300 km/h—it is that smooth.

My train wasn’t full, so on the ride back, I had an entire row to myself. You can use your cellphone on the train (looking at you Chinese flights—you need to learn from the trains) and you generally have full service.

The trains are very advanced and the stations are new. The terminal in Zhengzhou looked like you could fit a million people in it even though it isn’t a Tier-1 city. It had shops and a food court and the trains would silently pull in and out of the station perfectly on schedule.

I’m traveling again this week by train and I’m excited.

The high-speed trains are incredible.

Delta Worker GOES OFF On “Non Binary” Passenger CRYING Over Being MISGENDERED

Russian Missile Traverses Poland; NATO’s Much-Vaunted Air Defenses, Never Responded

World Hal Turner 29 December 2023

Last night, a live Russian missile entered POLAND Air space, traveled dozens of miles inside Poland, then turned into Ukraine. During that time, NATO air defenses failed to react!

Last night, as reported elsewhere on this site, Russia launched the largest missile attack upon Ukraine since the start of hostilities between those two countries. Upwards of 150 Missiles were fired by Russia.

At least ONE missile, fired from inside Russia, crossed through all of Belarus (Russian ally) then entered eastern POLAND air space!

The missile continued traveling southwest, remained in POLAND air space for several minutes, then turned to the southeast and entered Ukraine. The map below shows the missile track.

In the lengthy time the Russian missile was inside Poland, the much-vaunted NATO air defenses . . . . did nothing. No alerts. No radar tracking. No radar lock-on.

What’s even more interesting, the missile flew over forward-deployed NATO TROOPS! Right over their heads!

Very interesting probing of NATO air defenses, while attacking Ukraine. Looks to many people like NATO failed the probing test.

UPDATE 12:31 PM EST–

Poland now says their air defenses DID track the missile. They say the missile was in Polish air space for “three minutes” and they scrambled a fighter jet to shoot it down.

(HT REMARK: I leave it to your good senses to decide if they could have scrambled a fighter jet in three minutes.)

Our Casanova

78% of American divorces are initiated by women.

Think about that for a moment.

…

There was this guy that I went to college with. He was a real life Casanova. I mean it, a day did not go by without out him bedding (or boning) a new girl. He went through them like a sick person goes through tissues. And all us “normal” guys were terribly jealous of him.

I swear that of the 60 or so girls on our dorm floor, he must have had sex with perhaps 45 of them. Pretty damn impressive… seeing that I was a virgin throughout my college years.

This was in the 1970s. And yeah. I was the nerd bodybuilder planning to be a spaceman.

Virginal. No distractions.

On. My. Grind.

…

Ah. Memories.

During one of our Friday dorm parties, while I was a tripping on blotter (Acid = LSD), I noticed one of the girls on our floor; a particularly beautiful girl, flirting with him.

And myself, with all my inhibitions set to “off” went up to her and asked her point-blank.

“Why are you flirting with him”?

And I never forgot her answer.

“It’s fun”.

…

Duh.

…

Of course, this was a decade before Cindy Lauper sang “Girls just wanna have fun”….

And while I remembered the answer, I didn’t manage to put two plus two together. i still couldn’t figure out girls. Ah, perhaps it was because I was so fixated on “my grind” and trying to fly spaceships etc….

Which happened… well, sort of… don’t ya know.

…

But yeah.

Guys… men… we are too simple. If a woman wants something she gets it. Even at the detriment of her relationships, marriages, or physical health.

Keep your life simple.

Accept that women do what they want… FIRST.

And continue to do so until they hit an unyielding wall, And, as a man… our rules, relationships, structures and beliefs are that wall.

(Read that twice.)

And when that point comes… be prepared to… walk away.

Better for you.

Better for her.

Don’t fight it. Accept it.

And with that truth, we start with today…

As a therapist, what’s the most horrible thing a patient has confessed to you that no one else knows about?

‘That no one else knows about’ does not apply to my answer. But the most horrible thing was a schoolgirl aged about 15 came to see me when I was School Psychologist at her school. At the end of the session she said she had written a diary and had it with her and would I care to read it, as she wanted me to know what it was about.

I took it home to read that night in preparation for seeing her the next day. It was full of clearly suicidal thoughts. She was an alcohol user, too, and had already done some self-harming. I had to cope with the revelations overnight, spending my night not so much in sleep as in deep concern. To add to the difficulty, her mother’s sister had not long previously committed suicide. This would be a further load on her mother.

I did see her and was obliged to speak with her mother and get permission for referring her to an agency with more specialist capacity to help her. There was some opposition to the idea, but in the end the permission was given.

But knowing what she had revealed and not being able to do anything about it immediately was very stressful.

Head of the Household

What were you doing wrong all along?

Boiling eggs.

I grew up in West Africa. We didn’t just boil eggs; we superboiled them. We threw them on the stove, boiled them for 15 or 20 minutes or so, then took them out very satisfied that the egg was well cooked.

It was as though we wanted to let the yolk know that we hated it, along with its ancestors, parents, siblings, and extended family. The yolk, understandably would come out of this process looking pallid, forlorn, and dejected. The pale yellow would be covered in an equally pale grey, with the overall appearance of a strange, lost planet.

Why did you have to treat me so?

For my eternal fortune, at the age of 15, I moved to the United States, a land that was said to be paved with gold. I didn’t find much gold, truth be told, but I found the concept of a hard-boiled egg, which made me wonder whether there was such a thing as a soft-boiled egg.

Is it like when I accidentally “undercook” my eggs?

I googled it and found a chart like this:

Oooooooooooh!

I’ve never looked back.

This is what I made tonight.

This, my friends, is what you call perfection. The yolk is smiling at you suggestively, sending you an amorous look, beckoning you.

Come hither!

How can you resist? Of course you will kiss and treasure and savor it.

C’est ça, la douceur de vivre.

Yes, yes, it’s me in the picture. I’m wearing boring socks tonight. Deal with it.

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

My grandfather on my dad’s side, as a child me and my younger sister would visit our Nan and Grandad every other week just to spend time with them. My Nan loved having us at times, my Grandad however was a different story. He would always drink every time we went round there and constantly sat on the couch.

On one occasion I was play fighting with my Nan in the living room once and out of nowhere he screamed at me from the top of his lungs to “take it in the other f***ing room!”. My mood was instantly killed and I remember hiding from him in a cleaning cupboard because I was terrified. There was another time where I accidentally turned off the lights for the living room, he screamed at me saying “Turn those f***ing lights back on or I’ll throw you onto the street!”. When my mum came back to the house that night I was hiding behind her and she had never seen me so clingy so she knew something was wrong.

When we got home that night I told my parents what he had said to me about the lights and how he had made me cry on multiple occasions that I began hiding in the cleaning cupboard. My younger sister was also a witness for every occasion he was horrible to me so she confirmed my story to them. After this they decided he wasn’t going to see us as much as he used to.

We found out many years later that his drinking caught up with him and he was suffering from cirrhosis. He also had a cancer in his leg that he’s now recovered from. When the whole family found out about his cancer, all my uncles said they wouldn’t miss him if it killed him because of how terrible of a dad he was when bringing them up.

I also recently discovered that before I was born, My Grandad and Nan had asked our parents to look after their house while they went away. They forgot to mention to our parents that they owed this criminal some rent money, so one night this crook comes breaking the door down and demands the money. My parents being completely ignorant to the truth of course refused to pay the rent and so they contacted my Nan and Grandad asking what this guy’s business is. They tell my parents the truth but then refuse to pay the rent, saying they assumed their son (my dad) would’ve payed it for them. They had both already refused to pay the rent so as a result this crook gives my dad a sucker punch to the face in front of my uncle’s daughter who was there at the time.

Because of this, most of the family don’t associate or even think about him anymore. My mother has real beef with them both because of the incident with the rent, when I told her about the threat my Grandad gave me and how my Nan said nothing to defend me, that was the icing on the cake for both my parents and as a result we talk to them less.

We’re in an okay place now but we hardly talk to them anymore, we only see them once a year now, sometimes there are years we don’t see them once. My uncles each have different reasons for not associating with him anymore but I’d be here all day if I wrote them out.

Will Chinese, Japanese and Koreans ever co-exist? And for that matter, can the world and China ever co-exist at all? As far as current events go,that seems impossible.

Of course it can and it will.

But first the U.S. that orchestrated the break up of the world and the creator of animosities amongst us must accept reality first and recognised that it no longer has the ability and the means to war monger any more.

The western media must accept that sowing hates is not good for humanity, spewing hates hurt humanity and destroying earth. They need to know that lying is lowdown and simply despicable and it makes many people ignorant and naive.

Westerners need to reject them and condemn them and stop reading or listening to them. Westerners must want the truth not lies, propaganda, fabrication and half truths to fit bias hateful narratives. The western media so discord and hatred on anyone or any society that refuse to be submissive and subservient to the west.

The U.S. led them into this depth of crisis it must lead them out of it. Otherwise the 87% of the global south will leave you behind, they are moving on. Germany, Japan, Korea must stop being a faithful brain dead U.S. lackey and a lowly dog.

UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, grow some balls or forever be US dog, you deserve to sink with the world’s biggest trouble maker the U.S. Another dozen or so dog nations. Rise up and abandoned the U.S. EU abandon NATO.

Together you helped the U.S. bring the world into a chaotic, dangerous place ready to erupt into another world war but one that can end the entire human race. Act before it is too late. Let there be strong pillars of powers working together doing good and not keep one power doing bad.

Asian Cucumber Salad

Ding Tai Fung Cucumber Salad I Heart Umami 700x1050 1 — Ding Tai Fung Cucumber Salad I Heart Umami 700×1050 1

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large cucumber
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 red jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
Minced fresh cilantro

Instructions

Mix lime juice, water, sugar and salt in non-reactive bowl.
Cut cucumber lengthwise into halves, then seed and thinly slice. Add cucumber, onion and pepper to lime juice mixture; toss.
Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 1 hour.
Sprinkle with cilantro.

What’s the most obnoxious instance of America-centric behavior you’ve ever witnessed?

Not most obnoxious but a good example of why Europeans view Americans as obnoxious.

We were in a resort sauna in the Italian alps with 3 other couples (2 German, 1 Swiss) and single German woman. We’d enjoyed a couple of peaceful and wonderful rounds together.

A few minutes in to our 3rd round we heard them coming – Americans! They were talking and cackling very loudly. They opened the sauna hot room door and looked around – holding the door open, letting the heat out and cold air in. They received a loud round of ‘close the door’ in 3 different languages.

A few minutes later an American couple entered the sauna in their swimsuits. One of the German women told them that swimsuits aren’t allowed in saunas. The American’s scoffed and said certainly not and proceeded to sit down. I tried to explain to them that suits are indeed not allowed because of bacterias and odors. And that they also should have showered before entering the sauna. They slowly began to get the picture. They eventually left and we later learned that they’d complained to the resort mgmt about the no swimsuits rule and us.

Here’s the thing. There were numerous places in the hotel information stating that the sauna area (large changing and shower area with two saunas and a turkish bath) was a nude area and that suits were not allowed in the saunas or turkish baths themselves. And that this was a QUIET area.

There were big signs entering the spa and sauna area that said ‘SILENCE’, ‘QUIETNESS IS EXPECTED’ and ‘IN THE SPA YOU SHOULD TALK LIKE YOU ARE IN CHURCH’ and other sayings. If you closed your mouth for a few seconds you’d realize that there were a number of conversations happening but you couldn’t hear them. Except for Americans.

There were signs above the hooks where people hung their robes that stated not to wear swimsuits in the sauna. This is also standard throughout much of Europe.

The hotel manager told me that this was not an unusual event with Americans. I understand people being uncomfortable with the nudity element and that’s fine and those who are uncomfortable just don’t use the sauna. FWIW, about half of Germans and other Europeans aren’t comfortable with it either and simply don’t use public saunas. I have a fear of heights so I won’t go on most chairlifts or trams which means I can’t see many spectacular areas of the Alps. That’s life.

I think it takes a special kind of ignorance to not realize how loud and obnoxious Americans are, given how often it’s written about. Yet Americans continue to act loud, obnoxious and ignorant.

It has to crash

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/11Hw5OxFYmM?feature=share

I fired my therapist and I regret it now. I’m having a hard time thinking she won’t be in my life. What would she think if I emailed saying never mind?

Because I worked with persons with Borderline Personality Disorder I was used to being fired. I enjoyed the phase of therapy where I could ask “remember all the times you wanted to fire me and the couple of times you actually did?”

As I type I remember seeing a guy with BPD who fired me and stayed away for three weeks. I had a hunch, so I kept his slot open. When he returned he told me he fired me for “not caring.” That was because he was pretty sure I was yawning at the last session. It was a great starter for talking about interpreting vs. over-interpreting social cues from other people.

It finally became a joke between us. “Any cruel evil unfeeling bastards yawn at you recently? Obviously torture and death is the only answer for them.”

One of my favorite techniques with Borderline folks in recovery was wild humor like that. They often lived and felt in extreme ways and had a hard time finding their “middle.” Taking a feeling to a silly and impossible extreme could prompt a response of “well, maybe not that bad.”

Developing the ability to scale feelings is critical for folks with BPD.

Long story short, make an appointment with your therapist and get on with it.

Can India afford to ban Chinese products?

I was in a Video Conference yesterday. There was this slick controller from Cisco. I picked it up and turned it around to see the sticker that said: “Made in China”.

We have all heard the phrase. So much so that it has become a cultural meme, like this creative advertisement.

Every machine, and I mean it in the broad sense of the word, people use, almost certainly, has components made by the most populous nation of the world.

We are at a stage where manufacturing is synonymous with China. China’s total exports in 2017 were more than the GDP of India, at ~$2.26 trillion.

[1]

US is close with $1.5 trillion, but there is the catch.

US exports are primarily expensive stuff like airplanes, gems, assembled cell phones etc. But China makes the “cheaper” things — the components of your phones, the clothes you buy, the filaments in your bulbs, the shoes you are wearing right now.

More than a decade ago, a US family tried to rid themselves of all things “made in China”

[2] . Here are some excerpts from their experience.

When our son, then 4, needed new shoes it took me two weeks of frantic mall trips and phone calls across the country before I located Italian-made sneakers. (They cost almost $70, an obscene amount, and I bought him just that one pair of shoes all year to compensate for my excess.)

We boiled water for coffee every morning after our drip machine broke and the only affordable replacements we could find were made in China. Kevin stole —he likes to say borrowed—sunglasses from the lost-and-found at our kids’ preschool when he needed new ones and the only ones that fit our budget were made in China. We were barred from the market for humane mousetraps (I made my own), birthday candles (we used votive candles on our cakes instead) and the monster trucks and light sabers that our son dreamed of all year.

As December approached, we made lousy homemade Christmas presents, spent too much on toys from Germany and waited for the year, and our boycott, to fade into history.

And Chinese manufacturing has become even more pervasive and ingrained in the last ten years. Good luck with your attempt!

What’s the most embarrassing misconception you’ve ever held?

Originally Answered: What’s the most embarassing misconception you’ve ever held?

When my best friend and I were around 16 years old, we always did homework at her house, as my house was usually occupied (my mother was… friendly).

Anyway, one afternoon, we were in the middle of English Lit. homework, and I asked her if she had a dictionary. She said, “I have an Onary, but not Webster’s.”

I had never heard of an Onary dictionary before, but I figured it was no big deal. She told me where it was, and I went to the bookshelf and grabbed it.

The front cover was missing. Across the first page, in bold capital letters was ONARY.

I started laughing, and I couldn’t stop. She came over and started laughing, too, asking me what was so funny. I said, “Sardee, your dictionary is missing the front cover. It’s a Webster’s dictionary.”
She said, “I don’t get it. It says ‘ONARY’, right there.”

So, I grabbed a piece of notebook paper, laid it next to the book, and wrote DICTI.

I’ve never seen someone go from confused, to embarrassed, to doubled over in silent laughter, so fast in all my life. She and I laughed so hard, for so long, that our stomachs ached for days, afterward. Every once in a while, over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to bring it up, and it’s never failed to make us giggle. In fact, one of her sons, just yesterday, asked if anybody still bought dictionaries, because we can just Google everything, now.

I couldn’t even answer him. I just got up, told him to go ask his mother, and walked outside. Two minutes later, here comes Sardee. I just looked at her, and she said, “Shut up.”

She’s kinda awesome. Even if she was dippy in high school.

Power

Was the battle of Stalingrad really as bad as shown in the movie Enemy at the Gates or was it an exaggeration?

Originally Answered: Was the battle of Stalingrad really as bad as in Enemy at the Gates or is this overexaggeration?

Really as bad?

Oh, you sweet summer child.

Was there any cannibalism in the movie? There was at Stalingrad.

Did you see any wounded with gangrene and maggots crawling in their wounds? No? Maybe a bit too much for Hollywood, eh?

How about extended scenes of vicious and literal hand-to-hand fighting, with the combatants using knives, spades, teeth and whatever else came to hand on each other. No? Maybe those were left on the cutting room floor?

I don’t recall seeing anyone crawling along on their hands and knees with their intestines hanging down and getting tangled in their legs, while their enemy jeer and laugh from cover a few yards away.

And we never saw anyone pouring their toes out of their boots, with a lovely long lingering reaction shot of the rotting frozen flesh on their own face because of frostbite.

I don’t recall seeing anyone screaming as they were burned to death, either. And the film doesn’t really convey that ‘roasting flesh’ smell too well. Human flesh smells like pork!

‘Enemy at the Gates’ is an entertainment product. It’s designed to be able to be watched while eating popcorn. War, on the other hand, is the worst thing that organised groups of humans can do to one another. So don’t compare the two. A movie cannot be compared to reality.

What’s the most incredible coincidence that ever happened to you?

My late husband died 11 years ago. I have a box full of his things. One of the things he loved having was this old alarm clock. There was certain dings and scratches on it that made it unique. At one point it broke and he took it apart to solder some wires together. It was obviously a homemade repair, but you couldn’t tell once it was put back together. Well after he died, we ( our son and I ) moved several times. At one point our things were being stored in a friends garage. For some reason, i never got my husband’s beloved alarm clock back, it some how got mistaken for junk and was tossed out. I was very upset over the loss of his alarm clock. Several years later i was living on another side of town and a friend stopped by on mothers day to show me a box of things she found in a dumpster. ( a weird hobby i know) I noticed immediately an old alarm clock exactly like my late husbands. I picked it up and examined it, and i recognized the dings and scratches on it. So i flipped it over and unscrewed the bottem to inspect the inside where my husband had made repairs on it. It was unmistakably my husbands old alarm clock, and my friend graciously handed it over.

SF Hardware stores are all closing…

Doctors, what is something a patient didn’t mention that turned out to be important?

This is a really odd story.

I was in clinic, seeing patients when one of my colleagues came up to me. He was a pleasant fellow who always looked like an un-made bed. Shirt rumpled, tie askew. I hasten to say, he was an excellent physician.

“Maureen, can I curb-side you?”

“Sure. Whatcha got?

“Twenty-year-old woman with complaint of throat pain. I saw her a couple of days ago. I investigated everything I can think of but she’s back with the same complaint. Now telling me she can’t swallow”

“Trauma? Fever? Weight loss?…”

“No.”

We puzzled and puzzled.

“Probably send her to GI for a scope.”

“Maybe just do a quick x-ray to see if anything obvious is going on structurally.”

Off the young lady goes to X-ray.

Colleague sticks his head into my office.

“You have got to see this.”

I take a look at the film.

We both shake our heads.

“How did that get there?”

On the film, plain as day, is the outline of a toothbrush, lodged in her throat.

“What did she say when you showed her the film?”

“She said that she wondered where that went.”

“What’s she look like?

“Painfully thin.”

“I’m guessing an eating disorder. She was trying to induce vomiting and went too far and lost her grip. She’s too embarrassed to tell you.”

That turned out to be correct.

So, yes, the fact that she had lodged a toothbrush, deep in her throat, would have been useful to know.

Where is the praise?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MA1C2WEvUxU?feature=share

What has happened to the 1960s hippies, and where are they now?

Mostly they’re aging and retiring.

When my parents first met, my dad was living in a teepee in the woods, and my mom was living on a commune that could only be reached by boat.

When my older brother was conceived, they decided that being that remote would not be safe in case of complications with the pregnancy, so they moved somewhere a bit closer to town. They got some land, cleared it, dowsed and dug a well, and my dad started building our house.

My brother was born. I was born. The foundations of the house were laid, and the bottom floor was built. 4 rooms total. We moved in. My sister was born. Dad kept building. When I was about 4–5, we got electricity. That meant an electric pump, and running water.

When I was 11, the second floor was mostly done, which meant more rooms. I got a bedroom to myself. Mom got a job “in town”. We got an indoor toilet. That flushed.

The third floor got done when I was in high school. Mom worked as a youth counselor in town. We gradually got to be more “in the world”.

The folks split after my first year of college. Dad kept the house, Mom moved into town.

Dad finally finished the house and sold it. It was really way too big for one guy to live in. He died about 15 years ago.

My mom is 70 now. My brother owns an organic farm; she helps him out with canning and preserving his produce, so those old back to the land skills still see some use. Mom does grief counseling and hospice care as a volunteer. They never really lost their hippie ideals, but they modified them as dictated by circumstance and life.

As a doctor, has a patient ever surprised you in any way?

The first time I met her, she was in jail. She was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and plastic slides. The officer undid her handcuffs so I could examine her and he waited outside the exam room.

She was pregnant. I always ask my incarcerated patients why they are in jail (mostly in case it was for killing their former obstetrician). Invariably they will say “it’s for violating parole“ and eventually we will get around to why they are on probation in the first place.

Her’s involved a significant amount of theft.

I was immediately disturbed and put off by her handmade swastika tattoo.

She was always polite and respectful. She was released from jail prior to giving birth. She gave birth to a beautiful baby and was a conscientious mom and did a nice job breast-feeding.

She saw our lactation educator many times to help with the breast-feeding. After a year her baby self-weaned.

But she kept pumping. And pumping. And pumping. Once a week she would drive 30 miles to the nearest NICU and drop off a freezer full of breastmilk.

SHE DID THIS FOR TWO YEARS.

For two years she helped feed a NICU full of small and sick babies of every ethnicity and multiple nationalities.

She still has the swastika tattoo. Every year I see her I always look for it, hoping she will have had it covered up. I’ve never asked her about it.

I do hope that one day she covers it up.

But she is reminder to me that our worth is not simply equal to the worst thought and the stupidest decision we’ve ever made.

We are more than that.

Is America hoping for a war between China and Taiwan so they can rush over there as heroes?

US politicians want a Taiwan war. No doubt. Because MIC & politicians who buy MIC stocks feed on wars.

Warmonger Americans also want war because they think it is noble to support Taiwan democracy. Without understanding what is behind the war.

Let me share an article:

On the surface, it is noble, for a foreigner, to support Taiwan independence, in name of democracy or whatever.

Since WW2, 82% of riots/wars incl independence movements in the world are actually instigated by USA+allies. So as to control other’s strategic sovereignty, economy & natural resources. It is modern-day colonization without occupying other’s land.

No country will tolerate secession & subversion. I am sure not your country either. They will use military to stop secession when necessary. Biden deployed 10,000 armed personnel in the 2021/1/6 riot. UK also said they may use military to deal with Scotland independence.

In case of war, there are blood & deaths. If you cannot feel this pain, go to Ukraine & stay there for 6 months.

There may be legitimacy for independence. But we must know the history first. Otherwise we may accidentally support a devil instead of the righteous. Let me take the example of Tibet independence.

Before CPC China liberated Tibet in 1959, Mao Zedong had a 1-country-2-system, allowing Tibet to run their old system which was a slavery system. 5% of rich Tibetans OWNed 95% of Tibetans. Slaves sometimes fought with dogs for food. The worst part of cruelty was that owners could arbitrarily peel off (pretty) skins from slaves for crafts & gifts to foreigners. Pretty probably means young people’s skin. There is a museum in Tibet today to show this cruel history.

USA instigated Tibet independence in 1959 after USA lost the Korea war in early 1950’s.

When suppressing Tibet independence movement, China liberated Tibetan slaves at the same time. Today Tibetans have education & income, and can own business & property. It is only now they are treated like a human.

Next time when you as a foreigner support Tibetan independence, do not ask the 5% but the 95%. Do not ask those who live on political donation/corruption overseas & shout empty slogans. Instead ask those who work hard to earn an income to support life.

Likewise, dont ask the corrupted separatists in Taiwan who are, like the 5% of Tibetan, will only tell you China is bad, bad, bad. Try to independently learn Taiwanese history. Listen to the story of both sides – China & Taiwan. Ironically, it is the rebels whose propaganda stir foreigners’ emotion.

Remember: no country will allow secession & subversion. Not your country either.

Also remember: when there is war, there will be blood & deaths.

Never Ever

What did your mother say that made your jaw drop?

When I was in the eighth grade I had to bring home a report card with an F on it. For Spanish. Courtesy of Mrs. X.

I was a pretty good student, but I despised Mrs. X. She had the maturity of my fellow classmates and a mean streak a mile wide.

She was quite popular. Her mocking of the customs and ways of various Hispanic cultures always drew laughs from my fellow eighth graders. She taught us how laughably stupid and lazy Mexicans are for instance.

She also liked to gossip about other teachers. She once insinuated that a certain English teacher who was an ex-nun was probably lesbian.

I would rebel against her obnoxiousness by not doing homework and shrugging my shoulders when asked a question in class. I would aim for a 60 on all of the exams to show her I could do better if I wanted to.

I showed my report card to my mother who had to sign it. She saw A’s, one B (Math), and the F.

She asked me who my Spanish teacher was. I told her “Mrs. X.”

My mother said, “She’s an asshole.”

This is where my jaw dropped. My mother never swore!

She signed the report card and handed it back to me. Then she explained.

My mother was an RN at an urban hospital. She had trouble sometimes communicating with Spanish-speaking patients. She enrolled in an evening adult-ed conversational Spanish course at our local high school.

The teacher of the course was Mrs. X.

Ten minutes into the class my mother walked out. She thought Mrs. X was one of the most loathsome and obnoxious people she had ever met.

The weird thing is that my mother seemed almost proud of my F.

But she said “asshole.” That was the jaw dropper.

Lack of incentive

As a doctor, have you ever treated a patient you absolutely despised?

Absolutely. Many times. But one in particular comes to mind.

minor identifying features have been changed to protect patient confidentiality.

A young mother in her early 20s broke up with her abusive boyfriend. A week later he ambushed her on her front porch, stabbing her over 30 times before stabbing himself once in the stomach. She coded shortly after arrival to the trauma bay but we were able to get her back. She had been stabbed so many times in the neck that the ragged end of her esophagus was dangling out. We rushed her to the OR and she ultimately survived and went home, but that is a story for another day.

Shortly after she came in, her ex-boyfriend arrived. His injury was not immediately life threatening but did require an operation, so after stabilizing her, I took him to the OR too, where he got a relatively minor operation. He remained in the hospital for several days after, however, because he was on suicide watch. So I rounded on him every day as I would any other patient, did wound care and other standard post-op care. He was polite, said “thank you, ma’am,” and we never discussed his ex-girlfriend or the circumstances that brought him to the hospital.

Does that mean I liked him? OH HELL NO. I thought he was the scum of the earth. I found myself thinking he should have stabbed himself as many times as he stabbed her. Better yet, just stab himself and leave her the hell alone. Oh, I despised him to the core.

So did one of my med students. So after the 3rd or 4th day rounding on him, she couldn’t take it anymore.

”How can you be so nice to him after what he did? He’s a horrible human being! He deserves to die!” she burst out.

”Maybe,” I replied. “But there are agents of justice and agents of mercy in the world, and we need both. As a doctor I am an agent of mercy. My job is to care for my patients and trust that the agents of justice will do their job just as well. Which I do.”

THE FIVE GLOBAL CONFLICT FRONTS OPENED BY THE US.

The war in Ukraine is one of the fronts in which the United States, in command of NATO, does not generate results in its favor

(Photo: Flickr)

Dec 14, 2023

The crossroads at which the Western establishment led by the United States finds itself has materialized in the concern of a political sector inside and outside that country. The war in Gaza threatens to reduce US arms supplies to Taiwan, as does the war in Ukraine. In recent days, US President Joe Biden has been seeking war aid for Ukraine and Israel (Biden seeks ‘vital’ war aid for Israel and Ukraine ), including more money for Taiwan.

A note (https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/five-fronts-against-unipolar-globalism ) by the Russian philosopher and geopolitical analyst Alexander Dugin refers to five potential or real fronts on which multipolarity and unipolarity confront each other.

Below they are presented along with the approach that Misión Verdad has made regarding these cases.

1. UNSUNG DEFEAT IN UKRAINE

After the Minsk Agreement (2015) served as a mechanism to buy time, the so-called “collective West” led by the United States went to war against Russia in Ukraine since March 2022. Analysts such as Dugin describe that (https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/five-fronts-against-unipolar-globalism ), essentially, it is about a civil war between Russians: patriotic Russians against Atlanticist Russians who have betrayed their Russian identity, but the Atlanticist “Russians” are being used by the unipolar forces of the West.

The confrontation continues to generate negative results and perspectives for the Western side. According to an analysis (Zelenski no logra ganarse al Congreso de EEUU y el paquete de ayuda a Kiev sigue estancado ) by The Washington Post, the efforts of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during his second visit to Washington in three months, “did little” to change the opinion of Republican congressmen, who oppose continuing to finance the escalation of the war.

During that same visit, and meeting with the Ukrainian leader, President Biden promised Kiev a new $200 million military aid package, while noting that it could be the last. Days earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that he believes Ukraine’s front-line position could worsen if the West does not increase arms supplies. He detailed that kyiv is in a “critical situation” as members of the Atlantic Alliance were unable to meet the growing demand for ammunition. “We have to prepare for bad news,” he declared on December 3 in an interview (tagesschau24: Exlusiv-Interview mit NATO-Generalsekretär Stoltenberg – Nach dem Großangriff Russlands ist die Lage für die Ukraine kritisch | ARD Mediathek ) with the German television channel Das Erste.

In an interview (The AP Interview: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says the war with Russia is in a new phase as winter looms ) with the AP, Zelensky admitted that his fighters were unable to make significant progress in their failed counteroffensive. “We wanted faster results. From that perspective, unfortunately we did not achieve the desired results. And this is a fact,” he asserted, blaming the West for not having provided sufficient weapons.

He also expressed fear that events in the Gaza Strip could jeopardize the flow of military aid to kyiv.

In this way, the Ukrainian conflict would be overshadowed by the destruction of Gaza implemented by Israel with the support of Western powers.

Researchers Diego Sequera and Ernesto Cazal published a series of articles ( I, II and III) with a geopolitical balance of the war in Ukraine.

2. GAZA: “ISRAEL IS THE WEST”

Precisely, the second American war front is in Western Asia.The genocide against the Palestinian population carried out by Israel has the support of the West; This has been demonstrated not only by the forms but also by the concepts.

Last November, the official US military magazine Army University Press published an article (https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/military-review/Archives/English/Online-Exclusive/2023/Dostri/Hamas’s-October-2023-Attack-on-Israel-UA.pdf) written on behalf of the US Department of Defense calling for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the destruction of Lebanon.

The destruction of Gaza is not only advancing with irreversible damage to its buildings (15%) but also to its arable lands (22%)

(Photo: France24)

The article, written by an organic intellectual of Zionist nationalism, Omer Dostri, proposes as an “ideal option” that Israel reoccupy Gaza in the long term, ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents, exponentially expand the size of the extermination zone and establish settlements inside Gaza.

Dan Cohen, American journalist and documentary filmmaker, notes (El Pentágono propone limpieza étnica y colonización de Gaza y destrucción del Líbano) that the text adds to the numerous statements that, in the case of a war crimes trial, would serve as clear evidence of the intention to carry out a genocide, which is notoriously difficult to establish. establish. The fact that this call was published on behalf of the Department of Defense and in the main media branch of the United States Army raises doubts about American culpability in the Gaza genocide, which is being carried out mainly with factory-made bombs and missiles. of the North American country, and about what the true intentions of its government are.

Israeli occupation forces have attacked residential buildings, schools, hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel, rescue and first aid teams, journalists, United Nations employees, mosques, Christian churches, infrastructure, and have cut off electricity and communication services. According to data (Centro de Satélites de la ONU: el 18 % de las estructuras en Gaza fueron dañadas – SANA en Español) from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll as a result of Israeli bombings against the Gaza Strip increased to 18,608, while another 50,594 people have been injured. 18% of the total structures and 22% (In Gaza, ‘an estimated 22% of agricultural land’ has been destroyed since the start of the conflict) of the arable land in the Gaza Strip have been damaged as a result of Israel’s aggression against this Palestinian enclave.

The destabilization of the Arab and Islamic world is a necessity of the West and its advance requires a systematic genocide of the Arab population like the one carried out in Gaza. Washington’s supervisory role, demonstrated in the recurring visits of the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has to do with maintaining control over an eventual overflow of elements of the Palestinian resistance, gas fields (Los recursos energéticos en la ecuación del exterminio israelí) such as Leviathan and the India-Middle East economic corridor -Europe (IMEC, its acronym in English).

Disinformation has been the usual currency in the exercise of extermination, numerous fake news have served to bestialize (“Peor que el ISIS”: desmintiendo la propaganda israelí) the affected Palestinian population (What really happened on 7th October?)

Two research papers by Sequera ( I and II ) have been published on this portal to describe the plot, in addition to a recent interview with analysts Christian Nader and Javier Couso conducted by Ernesto Cazal.

3. IN AFRICA “UNIPOLARITY” IS TESTED (OR BETRAYED)

Dugin states that “the bloc of anti-colonial countries in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic, Gabon) is united against the pro-colonial (Atlantist) regimes and against Macron’s globalist France.” However, Washington’s hand is not far from that front, maneuvering to retain control of the region (or at least dispute influence with the multipolar powers) and depose the influence of France. This would demonstrate that unipolarity is not so much a Euro-Atlantic vision as a purely American one.

Three Sahel countries, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, signed (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso establish Sahel security alliance) a pact in September to establish an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance for the benefit of their populations.

After the coup d’état in Niger against President Mohamed Bazoum by officers at the head of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP), the confrontation against Paris was manifest.

The coup plotters alleged that the decision was due to the “continuous deterioration of the security situation” and “poor economic and social management.”

With the destruction of Libya (Níger: secuelas de la caída de Gaddafi en el Sahel africano) as a turning point, the Sahel region has become the epicenter of armed conflicts caused by terrorist groups throughout the entire strip; These opened larger markets for the smuggling and trafficking of weapons, drugs, slaves and raw materials, and facilitated the rise of the illicit economy (Terrorismo y crimen organizado: tráfico y contrabando de armas en el norte de África y el Sahel) around the energy and mineral enclaves of the area, while mass displacement increased and a trail of chaotic destruction in its wake.

Supporters of the military junta that took control of Niger through a coup d’état marched towards the capital waving Russian flags and denouncing France, the former colonial power

(Photo: Sky News)

The Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland, visited the African country (EE.UU. busca desplazar a Francia en el Sahel) in order to anticipate the increase in Russia’s influence. The rejection of the French could lead to their total expulsion (Aumenta la presión de Níger por la salida del embajador francés) from the continent and the subsequent security vacuum, which seems an irreversible process, even when force is used, either directly or through the Economic Community of West African States ( Cedeao).

The formation of the mutual defense pact by the three Sahel countries attempts, precisely, to confront the threats from ECOWAS, which has a history of successful military interventions (Historial de intervenciones militares de la CEDEAO en África) through its military arm.

In the region, the dispute between the unipolar order and the emerging multipolar order has been expressed (Níger, neocolonialismo y la geopolítica militar en África), one led by the Euro-Atlantic Axis with the United States at the head and the other by China and Russia, among other countries. The latter have dedicated themselves to establishing cooperative relations in the areas of diplomacy and international relations, economics, finance, trade and security—the Asians have been forging them for three decades. Washington, for its part, has become involved in the fields of financial investment in strategic resources and its military deployment has filled almost the entire African continent with AFRICOM (África marca el rumbo a América Latina hacia la multipolaridad)

To expand on the complex African geopolitical dynamics, you can consult the works published by Eder Peñaand Diego Sequera.

4. NATOIZING THE PACIFIC AND PROVOKING CHINA

The global dispute fueled by the United States reaches close to China’s borders, as demonstrated by the continued interference in the conflict between the Asian country and the island of Taiwan, recognized as part of its territory even by Washington, which has maintained an “ambiguity strategic” increasingly difficult to demonstrate.

It is essential for China’s foreign relations that its “One China” (The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue) policy be recognized. Its territorial reunification process, adopted by the National People’s Congress through the Anti-Secession Law (Text of China’s anti-secession law) of 2005, reserves to the government the right to use “non-peaceful means” in the event of an eventual declaration of independence from Taiwan, after accepting that the Taipei administration represents an autonomous province.

For its part, since 1949, Taiwan has claimed the government of all of mainland China, in addition to the archipelago of the same name, which keeps alive the conflict that Washington constantly encourages through political, economic and military support.

After the United States switched diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to China in 1979, it continued to sell weapons to the island under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act. The key was to sell enough weapons so that Taiwan could defend itself against a possible Chinese attack, but not so many that it would destabilize relations between Washington and Beijing.

However, it has sold him more than $14 billion in military equipment.

Last August, Biden approved an $80 million grant (EE.UU. está armando (ya no tan) silenciosamente a Taiwán) from American taxpayers under a program called Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which until now had been used to send military aid to Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, among other countries. The novelty (Los últimos pasos pro-Taiwán de EE.UU. que avivan el conflicto con China) is that it had only been granted to countries or organizations recognized by the United Nations, and Taiwan is not.

Map demonstrating US military pressure against China. In red the defense systems installed by Beijing, in green the bases and presence of the United States and its allies

(Photo: The Economist)

Not only has Biden used discretionary powers to approve another $500 million in operational readiness to Taiwan, but ground battalions will receive training in the United States.

He has sought to increase the siege of China by strengthening the Seventh Fleet (Home) in Japan, it is the largest in the North American country with 40,000 troops, 70 ships and submarines and about 300 aircraft. Such a deployment, which seeks to otanize (Cómo se prepara China ante una escalada en Taiwán) the Pacific region, has been seen in the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars (1991), and would be focused on supporting South Korea against Pyonyang and Taiwan against China in possible armed conflicts.

A BBC report (The US is quietly arming Taiwan to the teeth) indicates that the United States is running out of time to update and equip the Taiwanese army, especially knowing that the equipment is old, there is no island counterintelligence in the rival country and, perhaps most importantly , taking into account its inferiority in every sense compared to China.

So much so that China has its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, the largest in the world with 340 ships compared to the United States’ 280 ships. In recent years, the PLA has advanced construction of dozens of warships, including the Type 052D and Type 055 destroyers (Tipo 055 – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre), the Type 075 amphibious assault ship (Buque de asalto anfibio Tipo 075 – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre), and the 80,000-ton Fujian aircraft carrier (Fujian (18) – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre), according to a Pentagon report (2022 Pentagon Report on Chinese Military Development – USNI News) published in November 2022.

In addition, Taiwan plays a fundamental role in the supply and value chain of the American industry, specifically in the race for the semiconductor market, fundamental for technological development.

TSMC, short for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, is the world’s largest chip manufacturing company (https://misionverdad.com/home/eder/Documentos/MV%20MMXXIII/_blank), with a global market share of 54%, while Taiwan’s UMC comprises only 7%. Voices from the US political establishment have proposed destroying its facilities (EE.UU. dispuesto a destruir las fábricas de semiconductores de Taiwán) in the event that China exercises military control of the island.

The most recent works of Misión Verdad in this regard can be consulted here:

The latest pro-Taiwan steps by the US that fuel the conflict with China (Los últimos pasos pro-Taiwán de EE.UU. que avivan el conflicto con China)

The US is (no longer so) quietly arming Taiwan (EE.UU. está armando (ya no tan) silenciosamente a Taiwán)

How China is preparing for an escalation in Taiwan (Cómo se prepara China ante una escalada en Taiwán)

MILITARIZATION OF DIPLOMACY: ESSEQUIBO CASE

The Global North continues to search for oil and Venezuelan territory is in its sights.

About 10 years ago, the oil company ExxonMobil activated an oil and gas extraction plan in the territorial waters of Essequibo, a geographical space in dispute between Venezuela and Guyana as a result of the imperial dispossession of the United Kingdom during the 19th century.

Venezuela has responded to the Guyanese claim, lacking legal and historical support, demanding dialogue and bilateral agreements stipulated in the so-called Geneva Agreement of 1966. However, acting as a subsidiary of the oil transnational (Guyana, Inc.: filial de la ExxonMobil) and supported by the United States, Guyana has resorted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after the last two UN Secretaries General referred the dispute to that international court without taking into account the endorsement of the Venezuelan side.

Between 2015 and 2016, the Venezuelan government denounced to the international community the so-called “operation pincers” with which the United States, through Colombia and Guyana, would provoke a military conflict against Venezuela that would facilitate its subsequent intervention.

Within this framework, the United States Southern Command has arranged to include the neighboring country in its military maneuvers known as “Tradewinds”, in the Caribbean Sea, since 2015, just when ExxonMobil began to illegally explore (¿Quién está detrás del escalamiento diplomático por el Esequibo?) the deposits and sign contracts with Georgetown.

The US military arm is the one that manages (Guyana como enclave militar del Comando Sur en la cuenca del Caribe) diplomatic relations with increasing prominence; This is demonstrated by the face-to-face and discursive belligerence of his boss, General Laura Richardson. It was this official who received and introduced (EE.UU. busca potenciar su presencia militar en Guyana) the new American ambassador in Georgetown, Nicole Theriot.

The most recent version of “Tradewinds” featured 21 countries, including three European nations (France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom).

They gathered in Guyana for the second time since they took place to carry out various activities on land, air, sea and cyberspace, distributed in different locations in the country, many of them along the Essequibo River.

Guyana illegally granted concessions to ExxonMobil in territorial maritime space disputed with Venezuela

(Photo: El Universal)

Also this year, as a sign that his diplomacy is always linked to the conflictive imprint, Secretary Blinken visited Guyana and discussed energy investment issues for its companies and territorial security. There has already been a precedent for interference dressed in diplomacy: in 2019 the Lima Group, a group of countries aligned with the regime change operation against Venezuela directed from the United States, issued a statement (Declaración del Grupo de Lima) recognizing the alleged Guyanese sovereignty over the territory of Essequibo. This led to notes of protest from the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against the signatory states of the statement and led to the majority of the signatories recanting (Países rectifican posición tras nota del Grupo de Lima sobre Venezuela).

After the overwhelmingly positive result of the consultative referendum on December 3, the Venezuelan State decided to take the first actions to protect Guayana Esequiba.

President Nicolás Maduro ordered state companies to explore and exploit oil and minerals in the area, which caused the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, to say (Presidente de Guyana muestra intransigencia y apela al Comando Sur

) that he accepted the fact as hostility.

The war scenario is designed by the United States.

The Organization of American States (OAS), the spearhead for interventions and interference, has expressed itself (▷ Almagro respalda a Guyana y exige a Venezuela cumplir el fallo de la CIJ sobre el Esequibo #1Dic – El Impulso

) around the dispute, supporting Guyana, which seeks to mobilize the focus towards what the ICJ rules, whose decisions are known to be biased towards the North. Global, and recognized in case of being harmed.

Misión Verdad published numerous works regarding the Essequibo case, here

are six of them.

— WE ARE A GROUP OF INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS DEDICATED TO ANALYZING THE WAR PROCESS AGAINST VENEZUELA AND ITS GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS. FROM THE BEGINNING OUR CONTENT HAS BEEN FREE TO USE.

WE DEPEND ON DONATIONS AND COLLABORATIONS TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT, IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO MISIÓN VERDAD (Apóyanos)

The TRAP of the HIGH-VALUE woman: every restaurant serves water

Have you ever gotten roadside help from somebody unexpected?

This is actually a story about my daughter. She was 17 and had bought a second hand Acura Integra sports car with her own money. No, dad was very remiss in not teaching his lovely daughter how to change a flat tire, so one night she gets a flat and limps into a Walmart parking lot. She knows where things are in the trunk, but is a little unsure how to use them.

Suddenly, a van pulls up near her and 4 guys pile out. She said later she was frozen with terror thinking they were going to abduct her and rape her. Instead, one of the men asked if she had a flat and was help on the way.

No, she replied, she was going to fix it herself, except she really didn’t know how.

While she was talking the other guys opened the back of the van and pulled (as she described it) a lever-style jack out as well as a power wrench. In seconds, her car was lifted up from the side; the wheel removed and her replacement tire back on. All done in about 30 seconds.

They were the pit crew for a race team and were stopping at Walmart for some snacks when they saw her predicament and came over to help.

They advised my daughter to have dad show her how to change a tire.

edit: I neglected to mention that my daughter had AAA but given their response time and her not having a cell phone she was prepared to try to change the tire herself. Given enough time she’d have figured it out since she is extremely bright, but the fellows coming by was a godsend to her. They basically made it into a lark to help a damsel in distress.

It was just one time…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FSyyGUzwnv8?feature=share

I’m a stepparent to two children, I pay all of the bills and support everyone financially. My significant other’s family and the children’s fathers are telling them I’m unimportant, my opinion doesn’t matter, etc. How should I handle this?

My dad’s father died when he was 9, in 1946. He had an older brother, and two younger sisters.

A few years later, his mother married a man named John. John told the kids “I am not your father, I cannot replace your father. Call me John, or whatever you want.”

John was a hard worker- he only missed a day of work when he was injured at work, and only stayed home because they made him. John was not an overly affectionate man- he was in Special Forces in WW2 and had terrible PTSD. He did however take the kids fishing with him, taught them to play cribbage, he was very handy and made sure the boys could fix things. He was protective of the girls, and would stand on the front porch waiting for them when they went out, not resting until they were home safe.

He made sure the boys stayed out of trouble, made sure they behaved, respected their mother, and worked from the time they were 14. Although very “street wise”, neither boy was ever in any trouble.

His whole working life, he always turned his entire pay over to his wife, and she gave him an allowance. He never once complained.

When someone said “Your children…” to him, he would say “they are my wife’s children”.

We called him Grandpa John.

When I was married, and after my grandmother had died, I asked him about him saying that. He said “Their father deserves the credit for who they are, and it’s wrong to make anyone forget him. You only have one father.” I asked if he loved the kids… and he said “I worked hard to make sure they had everything, I took care of them.” To him, this was the proof of love.

He also said “It was a privilege to raise them, they are good people. I was lucky to be able to be there to help”.

When I was a kid, and Grandpa John taught me to play Cribbage- if I missed points when counting my hand, he would take them saying “If you don’t want em, they’re mine”. He never let me (or my brothers) win; we either won fair and square, or not at all.

My dad is now 84. He is so much like Grandpa John- he is a strong man, who plays cards (just as John taught him), who fishes (just like John taught him), who can fix *anything* (just as John taught him), He missed rare days at work, served in the military, and would be waiting outside for me whenever I went out in the evening- he didn’t rest until he knew I was home, safe.

I beat my father once at Gin- once- in my whole life. The last time he and I played cribbage, I missed “His Nibs”- and my dad took the point, saying “If you don’t want em, they’re mine”.

He is, in reality, as much (if not more) John’s son as he was his father’s son. He respected and loved John, not because anyone told him to, but because John earned it.

Your step-kids will look back on their lives and see that *you* are the one who paid the bills, *you* were there when they woke up afraid, *you* were the one who waited on the front porch until they were home safe. You were the one who said “He’s $20, stop for Pizza on the way home”.

Just be a man of integrity. Don’t argue with anyone, don’t withdraw your love or support, just be there for the kids.

Just as no one needed to tell my Dad how important John was, no one will need to tell the children you are raising. And, one day, you will see in them how important you have been. And in reality, they are the only ones who matter.

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

More like the most disgusting. When I was in eighth grade, we had a male history teacher. He was in his thirties with a receding hairline and a weird smile.

When we started the beginning of the year, he was sort of like a goofy soccer dad. Very funny and interactive with the class. Nothing ever seemed weird about him, and all the parents always liked him.

As we moved along the year, he started doing strange things. He’d walk up behind female students and rub their shoulders or go way too close to them when trying to “help” with a problem. People always were uncomfortable but he didn’t go to an insane extent.

When we reached the “two months left of school” mark, we were taken on a field trip to the park for a class picnic. My friend and I went off to a table away from the class so we could talk with one another without other people hearing. I remember we were laughing about a joke her brother said when the history teacher came up to us and told me that our, at the time, English teacher needed me.

I didn’t think much of it and went up to my English teacher. Yes, of course, I realized that I shouldn’t left my friend alone with the history teacher, but at the moment I wasn’t thinking.

After I talked with my English teacher for a bit, I walked back to the table but realized they were both gone. I was confused and went back to my English teacher and told her that the two were missing. She grabbed the other teachers and began to look around for them.

I followed them as they spread out. While they were searching, I realized the two of them might be in the parking lot grabbing something from the bus. I went over and checked the bus and nobody was in there. The parking lot was mainly deserted so I went and checked the van parked slightly away from the bus. I peeked through the window, and to my horror, I saw my history teacher r*ping my friend, who was yelling through her tears. I was absolutely appalled. I threw open the door and started screaming at the top of my lungs. I slammed my fist into the groin area of my history teacher, grabbed my friend, and hauled her out of the van.

The rest of the teachers ran towards us as I told them what happened. The history teacher started yelling as the others called the police and screamed at him. It was all chaos.

To this day I am still scarred. Thankfully, my friend turned out okay and I still talk to her now. She’s happily married and has healed from this experience.

Remember, just because they’re an authority figure doesn’t mean you should trust them. People are messed up.

What one thing did your father do that left your mother sobbing?

It was the day before Thanksgiving. My mom was in the hallway sobbing and frantically searching the Help wanted section of the newspaper. I was only seven and my brother was four. I was confused about why my mom was crying so hard. I asked her and she said she needed to find a job. I thought that was strange because my dad had a good job and my mom stayed home and cooked and cleaned. Who’s going to take care of us I thought to myself.

Thanksgiving was a weird and somber day. All the food was there, but it was quiet. Silent even.

My mom found a job overnight so she could be home with us during the day. My dad stopped playing with us. He stopped talking to us. He stayed late at work a lot. My mom was always tired and took naps whenever she could. I was at school most of the day, so that helped, but the house started to get dirty and she started to bring home fast food instead of cooking delicious meals. This went on for a few years. My mom got really skinny.

And then, when I turned ten, my mom quit work and stayed home again. The house was clean again. We had good food to eat and my parents were happy again.

My mom told me years later that my dad had had a nervous breakdown. We were very close to losing the house and everything we owned. My dad had come very close to trying to commit suicide thinking that his life insurance would be enough to save every thing. My mom was crying that day because he told her his plans and my mom told him she would go to work and help save the house, but she couldn’t do it by herself. She loved him so much that she went without sleep to save him and everything we had. They were married 47 years until death did part them. My mom lived another 3 years afterwards and is buried next to him.

Traditional woman

Why did Kentucky Fried Chicken get so bad?

As a KFC customer for almost 40 years, I suppose I’m also contributing to the problem.

Ever since I first had KFC in the mid 1980s, I’ve been trained to look for their special deals or coupons which would make their meals about 30% cheaper than their regular pricing. With the deals, the iconic boxes and buckets haven’t gone up in price as much as everything else. 9 pieces of regular chicken went from about $7 in the mid 1980s to $10–12 today when it should be about $25.

Hence they had to reduce the sizes of their chicken pieces, as they charge by the piece, and slash ingredient costs until it’s basically just salt for seasoning. Honestly, plain battered fried chicken is already pretty good, so I can see how they can get by with mostly salt and dispense with the expensive spices.

As a customer, I would expect ever lower inflation-adjusted prices to compensate for the reduction in quality. I would still come for the deals if it’s cheap enough. They know it and I know it.

Now, they’re making barely passable food loaded with insane amounts of salt that people like me still eat out of nostalgia when yet another coupon comes across. The usual patrons are at least my age or older and their sad looking sit down tables are still mostly empty and straight out of the 1980s.

While each KFC location can still pull upwards of $1–2M in sales a year, I don’t know how they’re going to survive in the coming decade when the older generations like me literally can’t handle the salt anymore. The Millennials and younger crowd have grown up used to fancy fried chicken like the Korean double fried or Dave’s hot chicken. They’re not taking well to KFC at any price.

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

In 2016 during a night in March around 2 AM, I was woken up by hard knocks my front door. As I made my way towards the door (which was partly glass), I noticed a police uniform. I opened the door and saw a police officer standing out there telling me he’s performing a wellness check. I look at him in a weird way, asking him why he would come in the middle of the night to check on me and my family. He explained to me that an Uber driver reported taking a strange guy from near our premises around 8 pm. The guy looked weird and acted strange enough to alert the Uber driver. He asked the Uber driver to simply drop him off in the middle of a street without specifying which house exactly. During the drive, he didn’t make any conversation with the driver.

Now for the back story. The passenger was my brother, who has hurt his eye during his army service. His iris was damaged, so it looks like he has an expanded pupil. He had just landed that evening after a flight from Europe (me in the US) and was jetlagged and tired. He simply rested during the drive and almost fell asleep. He didn’t know which Airbnb house the company rented, so he needed to walk a little to find it. When I explained this to the officer, we both had a good laugh at now, 2:30 AM and then he left.

After all this, I still appreciate the Uber driver, who did the right thing. I wish everyone cared enough about strangers they never met or knew.

What is something that you found out about your parents after they died?

After my dad died, my mother was incredibly lonely, so I would take her on road trips, and we would visit all the places that her and dad had visited together.

As we drove, she told me their history, from the day she met him, their first date, how he asked her out, their first kiss. They were married 75 years ago, and my mother was a virgin on her wedding night.

She told me of them scrimping and saving to buy each other, and later us kids, gifts. How happy they were when they saved enough money.

She told of how once a month they would have enough money for a 26 of whiskey or rum, and they would invite our neighbors, their best friends over, for drinks and toast. Then two weeks later, their neighbors would have saved up enough to invite them over. My parents had a pan with holes in it, with handles, that they sat on top of their propane stove, to make toast. Their neighbors had this newfangled electric toaster. My mother loved the evenness of the toasting on the toast, from the electric toaster. The neighbors were polite enough to say that they loved the toast from the pan.

When my father died, my mother had me spread the ashes at the site of their first house, by the stream in the country. She had told me so many joyful stories of those days. Like the day she found out she was pregnant with my older brother.

Her wish was to have her ashes spread there too.

What do you think are the reputational consequences of the Chinese spy balloon’s reveal in early 2023?

Your U.S. joint chief of staff in the military CONFIRMED THAT IT IS A WEATHER BALOON officially and you still choose to call it a fxxking “spy balloon” either you are dumb, idiotic or you are a jerk. But chances is that you are an average Joe a typical China and Chinese hater pretending to ask a question!

Shoot it down? Of course no. It no different from shooting down you neighbours kid party ballon blown of course into your air space! Do you know you look and sons like a 50 IQ per just for asking that? If you are normal you will question what your nation uses a billion dollar fighter jet to shoot down a thousand dollar balloon travelling 20 KM an hour!

Grow up will you? No wonder the U.S. is bankrupt and imploding. It is due to people like you.

You have to bite people from time to time.

What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to another adult?

When I first left Hawaii I moved to San Diego. One of the first things I wanted to do was establish a checking account. This was the mid 80’s.

I took my travelers checks and had to catch a bus to a bank. I looked at the desks as I entered and they were all empty so I approached a teller and let her know I wanted to speak to someone about opening an account. She told me she could help. So I pull out my travelers checks and my wallet and place them on the counter. She glances at the tc’s and asks me, “What country is that from?” – wait, really?

“This one.”

“Which one?”

“This one. They’re from this country. Is there an account manager available?”

“I assure you, I can help. Can I see your ID?” I hand it over. “And do you have your passport?”

“For what? I don’t have a passport.”

“Because you’re from overseas. I need a passport.” again- what?

I’m not from ‘overseas’. I’m from Hawaii. It’s a state.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, think again. Hawaii is a state.”

“Ma’am, you have foreign money and a foreign ID. I need a passport.”

So, at 21, I stepped back and yelled, “I NEED TO SPEAK WITH A MANAGER!!”

A young man steps up from behind me and asks what the problem is. I try to let him know that I’m trying to open an account when the teller interjects and tells him I have no passport, I’m from ‘overseas’ and I have foreign money. Before I have a chance to show him my ID he kindly lets me know that I need a passport to open an account when coming from out of country. So, I’m done. I grab my things and head for the door.

At this point it looks like the manager is returning from lunch. He stops me on the way to the door and asks if he could help. I show him my ID. “This is a state ID, issued in the State of Hawaii. The 50th state of the United States.” He say, “Yes, ma’am, I know what this is. What’s the problem?”

Teller pops over, “She needs a passport.”

Manager, “For what?”

“Because she’s from overseas!”

“No, she’s not. She’s from Hawaii.”

“But, that’s overseas.”

“Actually, it’s a state.” To which she looked totally confused.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I won’t be able to open an account here.”

He tried to stop me but I was done.

Why are so many Americans moving to the UK?

I took my Inuit husband to England. I borrowed my Mother’s car and took him to a pub. I had not been back for a while, so when, near 11pm, I did not hear the familiar “Time, Gentlemen, please” I assumed that licencing hours had been changed. After a while the publican came to each table and said, quietly “If you wouldn’t mind drinking up and leaving soon I would appreciate it. The police are outside.” So we left and got in the car. A police officer came over and I wound down the window. “Excuse me, Madam,” he said politely, “Did you know that your tax disk is out of date?” This is a circular piece of paper which fits in a holder on the windshield to prove you have paid the road tax. I explained that it was my Mother’s car and I knew nothing about it, but I scrabbled in the glove-box in case it was there. It wasn’t. “Well, perhaps it is just at home, then” suggested the officer, “could I have the name and address of the owner?” I duly gave it and was told that he would drop round in a few days to make sure. We drove home. My husband was astonished and suggested what would have happened if we had been in Canada. My Mother rushed into the nearest town the next day in my Father’s car and paid for the missing tax disk.

A couple of months later I was speaking with my Mother on the phone and she told me that a policeman had shown up just a day or so before this call. He had a cup of tea and chatted, and then mentioned the tax disk which had been duly inserted in the holder. He took a look at it and left.

That is policing as it should be, and it is the reason that the British police can do their job unarmed. In the UK, the police are our friends, there to protect us. They do not shoot and ask questions after.

P.S. Yes, this happened a number of years ago, and now police can check using the number plate.

Caught

What is a secret which you would not tell anybody in real life, but would on Quora using anonymity?

Dear teenagers ,

Please don’t confuse between Love and Hormonal influences.

When I am 16 years old , I met a guy 26 years old man in Facebook. I liked all his post mainly composed of love

His post said : Love isn’t all about Romance .

I am impressed and created a fake profile to speak with him. He found that is fake.

When he asked me about it , I am forced to reveal my identity . I proposed. My first greatest mistake of my life !

The moment I proposed his speech and attitude changed . He took advantage over me . He asked for my photos .

That night he started sexy talks over phone .

At first I could not understand what he was saying . He said imagine I am there and pressing your chest … And even worser …

I was confused . I started to rethink whether he is the guy who posted such beautiful stuffs in facebook.

The next day I shouted at him and asked him not to speak with me then after .

But he blackmailed me that he will say all this to my Parents. He recorded that night talk and threatened me .

But I stood bold . I said its better to get beatings from my parents than to be the feast for your lust .

Teenagers on Quora,

I see some having crush on Quorans just for thier writings here . You will never know how they are In personal life.

Don’t confuse between Love and Lust

And

Don’t confuse between reality and social – virtual world .

Remember, Don’t be an object for men’s lust .

It’s ok to get punishment for your sin than to hide it with greater sin .

Why has the West, particularly the US, been upholding the democracy, human rights, and freedom to commit genocide on millions of civilians and children such as in Gaza?

It’s what happens to a rogue empire when it begins to collapse inwardly

It becomes a Nation of Factions and Partisanship

The US is struggling in a Multipolar World

More and more Nations now stand up to the US and say “We have had enough of your hegemony. Either you treat us better or we go to Russia and China”

Yet Israel is an old buddy and the Jewish lobby, a Lobby of corrupt and greedy people who are middlemen to various corrupt deals involving Israel and USA can use the pressure of this corruption and cause Biden serious problems in the elections because Wall Street is heavily controlled by the Jewish Lobby

So on one side the US is losing the goodwill of the Arabs who are too rich to be bribed, who can get nuclear architecture from Russia and China completely bypassing the West and who can get weapons and trade from China and Russia entirely bypassing the West

Iran simply says to the Arabs “Look guys , either you allow me to get a two state solution by funding Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas or i turn them on you”

Arab States are happy with the recent peace with Iran so they say “Either Iran gets defeated which is good for us or Israel gets humbled and US gets humbled which is ALSO good for us”

Its a win win for them

Meanwhile Israel knows the US is losing Arabia and know that if they burn bridges with Israel, they lose the entire middle East

Israel is the only anchor for US influence in the Middle East where Arab Nations are fast asking the US to go f*** themselves every day

So they cannot be forcefully impeded by USA

So there you have it

The Strongest Nation in the world now a stinking cesspit with a Senile Biden, a Stupid Birdbrain Nikki Haley and that Faggot Lindsey Graham in charge of decision making

Losing the Middle East and clueless how to stop it

Too scared of losing Israel and thus allowing open butchery and murder of kids and women and losing the goodwill of the entire non western world

A HELPLESS NATION CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF WEAKNESS AND CORRUPTION

Pearl Quickly SHUT HER Down For Saying This…

Who was the most frightening child you’ve ever met, that you have no doubt would grow up to be a dangerous adult?

After working closely with children as a teacher, I have to say that, although in many cases family problems/neglect or abuse by parents, carers, etc is to blame, there are also some children who are just born “bad seeds”. I had one little boy in a class one year. I knew his parents socially and had his older brother in my class in previous years. The older brother was a nice, well-behaved kid – sometimes naughty, but what kids aren’t, sometimes? Just a normal, well-adjusted child.

His younger brother, on the other hand, was a nightmare. Because I was a friend of the family, I got to see this little horror in action. From the moment of his birth, he was a cranky and demanding baby who had no patience and if everybody didn’t jump to his will he would throw a huge tantrum. As he grew older, and particularly once I could observe him daily in my classroom, I saw him become, what I can only describe as cunning. He knew tantrums didn’t work with me: I usually walk away and once they realize they have no audience they calm down. Instead, he began a campaign of terror. Always when he thought I wasn’t watching. He was very intelligent,and when it suited him he could charm the birds from the trees. But on an instant he could turn into a raging maniac. Instead of using that intellect to learn, instead he used it to lie, steal, cheat, and physically hurt other children who were smaller than him, destroying their work and generally causing me to have to concentrate on him more than any of the others just to keep him under some sort of control. The day came when he skipped class. I could hear a commotion in the playground, where the school had set up a henhouse for the children to have contact with farm animals. I could hear chickens in distress. A number of teachers, all followed by their classes, ran to see what was going on. The hens were all milling about and scared and there were five dead hens. E. was still holding one screaming chicken, laughing as he swung it by its legs. The school then told the parents that this behaviour was beyond our capacity and to take him out.

His parents took him to a child psychologist and he was diagnosed as having “Defiance and Anger Management Disorder” and he was sent to a specialist school that deals with children with out of control behaviour.

I lost touch with the family for a number of years after that, but eventually ran into the older brother, who had by now joined the Australian Air Force and was a pilot in training. We chatted for a while, and of course I asked him how E., his younger brother, was doing.

He told me that E. only got worse as he got older. He had gone to Juvenile Detention for attacking people and was now in jail again for attacking an old age pensioner with a pair of scissors. His brother said he feared for when he got out – he said that E. was dangerous and couldn’t be trusted not to hurt people. Not because of anything they did to him. Just because he enjoyed hurting other living things. The family couldn’t keep pets, since E. would always torture them to death.

Ten years after running into the older brother, I again heard of E. He is currently in jail for attempted murder. His live-in girlfriend was found beaten to a pulp, and she lives now with multiple disabilities. The judge said he had never seen anybody treated so callously, and that E. had an absolute lack of apparent remorse for his actions.

So it is not always nurture. Sometimes nature is to blame.

Exposure

If somebody slaps my father in front of me, what should be my response in this situation?

When I was in high school, I was a cheerleader. My father drove a school bus. One evening, we were at the school waiting to board the bus to attend an out-of-town game. A student at the school that was heavily into drugs and other assorted activities came to the school.

I was standing, talking to my father at the moment this student approached us. He produced a pistol, stuck it under my father’s chin and pulled the trigger. The gun just “clicked”. He sneered at us and said “Darn. Wish it had been loaded.”. That is my last cognizant thought of the evening.

Later, friends relayed the “rest of the story” to me.

The police were called. Upon their arrival, my father was asked where the offender was. He pointed and said “Under that cheerleader.”. Obviously, I had taken serious offense at this jerk’s actions and beat the living daylights out of him. The police pulled me off of him and took him to jail. Again, I have no recollection of those events.

I cannot condone you taking the action I took. It would completely depend on the circumstances.

What has been the biggest plot twist that happened in your life?

When I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with Aspergers.

The psychologist told me I would never hold a real job, drive a car, or even be capable of basic self-care around the house.

Where I come from, healthcare is incredibly poor because only the lowest-qualifying doctors move to this environmentally contaminated area because nobody in a reputable city will accept them.

Basically, my diagnosis was based almost entirely upon my uneducated sociopath mother’s lies, slander, and manipulation. The rest of my diagnosis was based on the outlandish and outdated belief that it’s abnormal for a girl to be extremely quiet, but have very articulate speech and an interest in science and video games.
Yeah, they literally assumed I was mental because I didn’t fit their sexist views.
Needless to say, doctors in this area are among the most unprofessional in the entire country.

My childhood consisted of endless bullying and harassment from my mom, brother, stepfather, classmates, and teachers. My mom always called me a “retard” and told me to “act like a normal kid, you fucking freak.” She also belittled me by telling me that I DESERVED the bullying that everyone gave me.

Years later, I survived multiple suicide attempts and turned 18.

Despite being labeled as an “autistic retard”, my mom forced me to immediately enter college when I wasn’t ready and all I wanted to do was navigate through basic adulthood with a job before making such a huge commitment to education.

I psychologically cracked.

Most of what happened is now a blur.
But I can remember the part when I silently walked out of class in the middle of a lecture.
I continued walking silently outside and made my way toward my mom’s car.
(Yeah, she actually allowed me to get a license and drive myself occasionally. But only because her friends with “normal” kids started giving her shit about having a retarded kid.)

I got in the car and sobbed violently.
My life was over.
It’s all a prison and I want out.

My grades were all horrible because I saw no point in doing anything when my mom always told me that I would NEVER be allowed to have my own life and that if I attempted to escape from her, she would finally have me legally declared mentally incompetent so I would have no human rights to make my own decisions in life.

A few weeks later, I left my mom’s house without any notice and used my meager savings account to get an apartment. I spent 8 months submitting job applications to every place in town that would hire my age. I literally only got three interviews the entire time. I was forced to work online as an adult cam model to survive on less than $800 a month. Keep in mind that this job was very difficult due to being naturally ugly and constantly being degraded.
At the end of these 8 months, I was finally hired for a shitty part-time job.

At this point, it probably sounds like nothing will ever improve.

But here’s the plot twist…

Today, I’m 22 years old and I have a stable job in a manufacturing facility.
Most people are unable to survive on the meager wages of this job, but I’ve managed to do far more than just survive.
I’m thriving.
I didn’t need a roommate or a partner to help me move up in life.
In only two years of working this job and supporting myself living alone, I was able to build my credit and save up money to buy a nice convertible car and a HOUSE.
A freaking HOUSE.
I did it on my own with no guidance from anyone.
I researched everything carefully and worked hard and because of that, I succeeded.
But aside from material things, I also gained something else that my mom and all the other cruel people said I would never have.
Friends.

I still go through cycles of depression, but my friends are understanding of my struggle and it helps to know that they still believe in me.

The moral of this story is to never lose hope.
Even if everyone in your life hates you and makes a joint effort to keep you trapped, always keep an ounce of hope guarded in your mind.
If you have to use anger from injustice to re-ignite your hope, do it.
Do it until you succeed and then find peace.
As long as you have even the smallest amount of hopeful defiance,
you have the power to create a plot twist in your life.

Words have no meaning in modern America.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7U68b2CxJgs?feature=share

What was the moment you realized that life had passed you by?

Monday, November 26, 2012.

I had been out of prison for one month after a 15 year incarceration for murder. The conviction of murder requiring “intent” and “aforethought” in my state, I can say with a straight face and clear conscious that I did not commit murder, however I absolutely knew when my spouse took the stand to testify against me that I would be convicted of it. Since I am a “manslaughterer” by the legal definition of the word, I didn’t quibble and just took the sentence. It was coming either way, and I knew it.

On that Monday I took a psychological battery for vocational rehabilitation to see what they could help me with. I walked 4 miles one way at 7AM for the appointment. It was overcast, in the low 40’s when I started out, and I was hopeful. After taking a many hours long series of tests, I had a brief interview with a psychologist. I was warned beforehand that he was there to ask me a few questions but not for a counseling session, so I was to keep that in mind.

Every question he asked me I thought about in depth before I answered. I wanted to give this well educated, intelligent man the exact shade of phraseology I knew he needed for an accurate assessment. At the end, he asked if I had any questions for him. I said I had one, “When does being free start to become easier than it is now?” He looked at me straightaway in the eyes and said with absolutely zero expression of emotion, “This isn’t a counseling session. If you need a counseling session you can make an appointment.”

Freedom was not all it was cracked up to be, to put it very, very mildly. On that date I was down to my last few dollars I had saved whilst in prison ($700 in 3 years, crocheting blankets and working 250 hours a month at .30¢ an hour), I had no job, was being pestered to get a job immediately by Parole Officer who provided to date zero help in that department, and everything I was qualified, trained and educated for was worthless in a professional pursuit. I was given a list of over 50 companies who hire felons, but only 4 would consider a violent felon. I was told to spend at least 8 hours a day looking for a job. Between 10 to 20 times a day I had to replay for horrified managers what I did which sent me to prison. By the end of the day, I seemed like an apathetic sociopath who couldn’t care less about what I did. My family hadn’t deemed me worthy of help, I was in a strange new city in a halfway house, I knew very few people and they were all busy with their own life anyways.

What had most galled me was how the civilisation in general had changed. I was deeply, deeply bothered by the callous disregard of fellow humans by virtually everyone I met in every walk of life. For the last 10 years or so that I was in prison I noticed that the rookie inmates were particularly inconsiderate and selfish, and I attributed that to the fact that I was 10 years their senior, and that they were just young kids afraid and wanting to fit in. When I was released, I immediately noticed that in fact these selfish, inconsiderate and thoughtless inmates were just an accurate representation of their age group, and that this is what society had become.

Around noon, I was walking home on a bridge which went over the freeway. I looked over the edge. I could feel the spirit of despair and crushed dreams with no hope for relief calling me down to the pavement below with a promise for a sweet release from this place. For about 4 or 5 seconds, I just looked over the edge. I calculated all I have going for me and all I had relinquished so far in this life.

All I had was a promise from the Russian Orthodox Church which told me that after a well run race I would be awarded a rest and a peace the likes of which I could not imagine.

I walked on.

On my way home I thought first about what I had been educated 20 years for, and what I could do with it.

Zero.

Then I thought about what I had done in the past and wondered if I could do it again.

Nope.

Then I started considering my resources to find a job and realised that I had exhausted all of the leads I’d generated to no avail.

Empty.

Upon reaching the halfway house, I realised that every plan I had focused on my whole life was now worthless. Before I was arrested I’d hoped to become a tenured and published professor, and eventually move on to politics. In prison, all my hope every day was that life out here would somehow be better than life inside. It isn’t. It’s just different. After prison, I had hoped that my mind, education and experience could come together and be utilised in a positive way. I found that absolutely no one wanted to hear what I had to say except out of politeness. It had been all I could do to keep from jumping off the bridge when I saw into what this world has morphed.

Now I am a chef in a 4.75 star restaurant. Life is much, much harder and less pleasant than it has ever been out here. I don’t have a purpose. Not like my sister who is a world authority in her medical field. Nor like my brother in law who writes policy in the federal State Department. Nor like my Grandfather who helped save us all from the Soviet Union, put a man on the moon, and taught Jimmy Doolittle how to take a B-25 off of the USS Hornet.

I could have been any of these things and more, but I decided to overreact and lash out in abject rage in a total panic and go to prison. So, I can’t complain. At least I’m breathing, and at least God forgives me. He and His Church are all I have. Everything else can be stripped of me easily, and probably will. But I have faith in Him, His promises of life to come, and that the life here is of some merit simply unknown to me. Because of that, there is always hope that while if life has passed me by, at least I may someday cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.

What is something that your mother has done that is unforgivable?

My mother has done a great deal of unforgivable things. Here’s one:

Our family of eight moved from California back to New York in the middle of the night. I was 9 at this time. We drove, we had a beat-up station-wagon and it was pretty tight quarters.

One of the reasons for the move was my oldest brother was facing juvenile hall for some property he destroyed. My mother just couldn’t have HER oldest (and most likely best loved) son go away. I’d like to state here that my brother had problems, big problems. He was a sadist and probably a psychopath and definitely a pedophile. He was the eldest kid; there were six of us.

I believe another one of the reasons for the late night move was my Dad lost his job and we were running out on the rent. I’m not positive but it’s a pretty good guess. My Father was laid off from his job as a defense contractor.

We never got a hotel room because we couldn’t afford it, so we all slept in the car for the entire trip across country. Uncomfortable even if everything was Kosher. Which it was not.

One night I woke up to find someone pulling down my pants. Fortunately I was able to pretend to be asleep and move away from him, I realized during this situation (attack?) it was my oldest brother. So nothing happened technically, but we had just begun this trip, I was worried about him making another attempt to molest me. Of course I didn’t know THAT word at that time.

The next morning I got my mother alone and told her what happened, she said “What are you trying to do, start trouble?” I was speechless and afraid. So now if I tell my Father, (who was a good man) I would indeed “start trouble.” I should have gone to my Father first, but I was unaware (at the time), how skewed her opinion and vision of who and what her first son was. By the way, he was 16 at the time.

I have another older brother (he was 11 at this time) He is wonderful, loving, caring and trustworthy. I told him about the “problem.” He promised to keep me and my crazy brother separated by sleeping between us for the whole trip. For his trouble he was smacked and bothered by my crazy brother the whole trip. But he did just that, stayed between us, although our plan was met with objections from my oldest brother, he and my mother tried repeatedly to switch us around. I’m sure my Father thought this situation was nuts, but that was life with my mother all around.

My mother continued to take my brother’s side over the years, no matter what! He beat us up and terrified us just to entertain himself. He even turned on her, throwing glasses at her and a myriad of other things. I had to place him under citizens’ arrest twice, once when I was 13 and the other time I was 18. He was raving drunk both times, terrorizing us, breaking windows and furniture, hitting us. My Father did what he could to protect us, but my brother was a big, violent loud-mouthed drunk. The cops told me if I wanted him arrested, I would have to get him outside of the house or they couldn’t touch him. Although I’m loathe to have cops handle anything for me, I had no choice. I had little brothers and a sister to think about.

I’m so grateful to my brother (the normal one, lol.) for his protection, especially at his very young age. He remains to this day one of my very best friends as well as someone I can always count on.

A good man

What is the craziest thing you have ever said or done at an interview and still gotten the job?

Presence of mind was one thing I didn’t think I had until this happened:

Interviewer: Good morning Mr. Anonymous. I’m sure you’re familiar with a typical consult interview, so I won’t beat around the bush. Tell me a little about yourself before we dive into the puzzles and cases.

Me: Blah blah blah…er…blah…er…blah

Being my first job interview, I managed the impossible. I screwed up right at the start and ended up describing why I wanted to do consulting, instead of talking about myself. Beads of sweat started forming on my troubled forehead. With a bemused look on his face, the interviewer continued.

Interviewer: Uh, o…kay. I’ll go on to the puzzle now. Okay, so tell me…

He proceeds to describe a puzzle I had heard and solved recently. I have trouble keeping my emotions away from my facial expressions, so I broke into a wide smile, thinking that the moment to redeem the dismal ‘tell me about yourself’ had come! Needless to say, my poker career ended almost as soon as it had started.

Me: <Laughing> Sir, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve heard this one before…<I then proceed to give an outline of the solution>

Interviewer: Oh, haha, okay. I guess I’ll have to ask you another one I guess. Okay, so…

He then proceeds to describe a puzzle that sounded so tricky and convoluted that the beads of perspiration on my forehead now gushed forth with renewed fury in rivulets of nervousness down my face and neck and arms and legs. A Ganga of tension clouded over my face. The interviewer finishes asking the question and there is an ugly silence that ensues. I could almost hear the atoms in the left part of my brain screeching to a sudden halt and completely and stubbornly refusing to budge towards any analysis whatsoever. I had no idea what the solution was. I didn’t even know where to start!

But then the creative right part of my brain swooped in, with fluttering heroic cape et al.

Me: <Smiling broadly> Sir, I hate to admit it, but I’ve heard this one before as well!

Interviewer: <A look that registered appreciation of my unbelievable ‘honesty’ and shock at the probability of it all> Wow…No puzzles today, it seems. I guess we’ll move on to a quick case then…

And then, after blindly stumbling and bumbling through the case and then shockingly recovering to somehow solve it, I cleared the interview and got the job!

Why haven’t the French (& Belgians) filled (Garbage etc) the craters from WWl to enable farm land to be recovered?

Mostly they have.

A few years ago, I stayed at a hotel just outside Ypres (in Belgium) which more-or-less stood dead on what was the front line, back in 1914–18. There was a bunker in the garden, and lots of photos of what the immediate area looked like during the war (a muddy, blasted, hellscape).

Next door was a water park, across the road were fields.

If you look at aerial shots of, for example, the Lochnagar crater, which was right on the front line, and which was created by a massive underground explosion on the first day of the Somme battle (July 1916), you’ll see that it’s surrounded by fields of crops.

The areas that haven’t been reclaimed are the ones where the fighting was so intense, that there are still significant amounts of explosives, posion gas, etc, buried in the soil. Just down the road from Lochnagar is the Canadian (well, Newfoundland) memorial, at Beaumont-Hamel. There are areas there that are fenced off, and clearly marked as dangerous, becasue there are still explosives in the ground. Whilst the line of the Newfoundland trenches has been kept intact, and they are still there, along with no-man’s land, and that area has been turned into a memorial, the site of the German front line 100–200 yeards away has been cleared and reclaimed as farmland.

So, most of it has been cleared, but certain areas (the ‘zone rouge’) have not.

Think about that. We were so clever in our destruction of each other that we literally rendered the earth uninhabitable, for over 100 years.

This Is Why Marriage Is An “L” For Men!

“Their opinion on the fact that women initiate divorce 80% of the time is essentially… “a woman is always justified in whatever she does, and is also never at fault”. That is literally the default setting and opinion of most modern day woman. Ridiculous.”

What did a teacher say that broke your heart?

“You need to stay away from Kate.”

I was in 5th grade and my teacher told me I needed to leave my best friend alone. I was confused. I asked her why and was told me and Kate are no longer friends.

I was heartbroken. I didnt understand why this was happening. I kept trying to make eye contact with Kate to find out what was going on but she ignored me.

At lunch I was forced to sit alone. Kate was sitting with all our friends. Tears silently poured down my face as I tried to eat. My dad had just died of cancer a few weeks ago and now I had lost my best friend.

My face must have shown my grief when i got home that day. My mom, who was usually too self absorbed to notice me, asked me what was wrong. The tears started again as I choked out that I wasn’t allowed to be Kate’s friend anymore. She got immediately concerned and asked why, but the sobbing took hold and I ran to my room.

While I was in my room I heard my mom make two phone calls. One was to my teacher. My mom demanded to know what happened. I guess my teacher told her that Kate’s mom didn’t want us to be friends anymore. My mom was pissed. Me and Kate had been besties since 1st grade. Kate’s mom had never liked me but I never saw this coming. My mom asked why they didn’t call her. The teacher said she didn’t think it concerned her.

I guess my mom had hung up because next thing i knew she was yelling at Kate’s mom. “How could you do this after she just lost her dad? Shes already holding on by a thread!”

Then the conversation took an interesting turn. “What do you mean Kate thinks she’s too bossy?! She could have just talked to Sami. This was the extreme option. Can’t she just talk to her? Maybe they can work something out.”

So there was the truth. Kate didn’t want to be my friend. My mom was more pissed at my teacher for not calling her. I refused to go back to school. I couldn’t deal with it. I later ended up in the hospital for attempting suicide.

The teacher could have handled it differently. I was treated like a criminal basically. Everyone seemed intent on keeping me away from my friend that day and it hurt me deeply.

Edit: Wow! Over 5 thousand upvotes. Thanks everyone!

And I need to add something after reading certain comments.

I was just a child and I was hurt. I didnt realize I was getting on her nerves. I would have most certainly changed if I did. Im still unsure if my “bossiness” was the reason why she didnt want to be my friend all of a sudden. It could have just been an excuse to get away from me but we will never know.

I wasn’t some kind of mastermind bent on making Kate’s life a living hell. I didn’t know that I was acting a bad way because I was never taught about right and wrong. I was just myself with her, just like anyone else would be with their best friend.

How much real-life damage could a modern U.S. Special Forces soldier do to a small-town police force if provoked like Rambo’s character?

Originally Answered: How much real life damage could a modern U.S. special forces soldier do to a small town police force if provoked like Rambo’s character?

Micah Xavier Johnson, 25 years old, Army Reserves, Delusional

2016 shooting of Dallas police officers – Wikipedia

Dallas, Texas has a far superior police force to a “Small Town”, and Micah was young, delusional, rambling and scribbling gibberish at times with meanings still yet to be deciphered, and went in without a plan besides to shoot white cops, and in general a very far cry from a clear headed special forces operator with years of experience (one of the best if we are equating this person to Rambo)

Even still, he managed to kill 5 police officers and shoot 9 more, not to mention 2 civilians.

The largest police force of any city has a ratio of about 57 cops for every 10,000 residents, or .57% of the population. The next largest is a ratio of .43%.

San Jose on the other hand, has a ratio of .09% of the population belonging to the police force.

Based on what I have looked up

How Many Police Officers Does a City Need?

Over 87% of all cities in the US have a police force of under 40 members. Strange when considering New York’s is tens of thousands strong (.175% of population) The reason for this is that the smaller the city, the lower the ratio of crime to civilian numbers.

The Average Size of a Police Department | Synonym

The lower the population of a city, the lower the ratio of officers to the rest of the population.

San Jose has over a million people with a police force accounting for only .09% of the population, so a small town of say 4,000 people probably only has a police force accounting for around lets say .2% of the population at an absolute maximum? And even that is an extremely high estimate implying this small town has an abnormally high crime rate, despite this meaning that there are likely only about 8 officers in total.

8 officers in total for a small town of 4,000 people [on a high estimate], and a delusional, young army reserves soldier with no real plan besides shooting white cops, no escape planned out, proved his capacity to shoot them all out with a rifle while remaining largely stationary, in a shootout.

So how effective would a seasoned, trained, special forces operator, in their right state of mind [more or less] fair against a similar police force?

One of the officers might be able to survive by remaining hidden or fleeing if our modern day Rambo [with superior training than when that movie was made] is only allowed to use a knife.

Otherwise?

(Ironically Keanu Reaves training for John Wick was a better training video than the easily available ones on youtube)

Police force will get decimated. The operator will go in with a plan of action-

Luring the police force to a certain area for example and setting off a bomb or something- And then targeting the remainder with extreme and calculated force.

small EDIT: Thankfully no one has complained- But upon re-reading my answer, since we are talking about calculated killing of police officers, some of the terms I used- “Wiping them out”, “Blowing them up”- came back as callous to me, so I re-worded a bit to remove those terms. Targeted killing of police is a major issue that does not often get talked about, especially more recently with gang’s and initiations and the like, and I don’t want to give the impression that I do not have the utmost respect and appreciation for officers. Managing a hotel overnight (the closest one to downtown which has several clubs) surrounded by multiple popular bars and breweries within 5 minute walking distance, I have had to rely on officer assistance multiple times in the last year alone and the last thing I want is for an officer, past or present, to read this and think that I would make light of a highly trained military individual targeting a police force.

So thanks to everyone willing to put their lives on the line daily to keep people safe who cannot otherwise do it themselves, by picking up a badge knowing that it can just as easily become a target.

As a doctor or nurse, what has been your most disgusting encounter with a patient?

The most disgusting, and the most remarkable!

I was working at my first job post-graduation, as a brand new RN, young and impressionable. It was a 36 bed Ophthalmology unit, and there weren’t always enough eye patients to keep every bed occupied. During times when we had an ongoing number of empty beds, the docs would head over to the local psychiatric hospital and examine the patients for cataracts. Medicare would cover the cataract surgery if the chart documentation said that the psychiatric condition was exacerbated due to the patient’s impaired vision. After these visits we would have an onslaught of psychotic patients to admit and prep for surgery. Back then, in the 1970s, cataract extraction involved a four-day hospital stay.

We nurses admitted and cared for many patients with varied psychiatric diagnoses during this time, ranging from catatonia to manic disorders, schizophrenia, multiple-personality disorder, severe hallucinations — pretty much any mental disorder which rendered long term psychiatric hospitalization necessary. It was often our observation that, sadly, these patients were not well cared-for at the psychiatric hospital, and it unfortunately became routine for them to come to us malodorous, disheveled, needing a bath, and often with soiled clothes. We would get them showered and shampooed, apply lotion to their dry skin, give them physical exams and blood work, including gyn exams and Pap smears for the female patients, and begin eye prep for their cataract surgery.

So one morning I arrived at work and was given my assigned rooms, which included a new patient who had just arrived from the psych hospital. I braced myself for the usual, but what I found was beyond the pale. The patient was a 40 year old female. She did not speak, move or react, just stared ahead. Her need for hygiene was beyond anything I had ever seen. She smelled like an extremely ripe mixture of urine, feces, sweat, glandular and sebaceous secretions, stinky feet and unwashed clothes. Her dark skin was scaled and crusted. Her filthy and malodorous hair had once been carefully braided into tiny braids all over her head. Someone had once cared enough to do that. But it was so long ago that her hair had since grown about three or four inches into a neglected, uncombed, never-since washed, unkempt afro with the tiny braids imbedded at the ends.

I looked across the room to my other patient, her roommate, to see if she was at all put-out by the stench. She was in a long white nightgown, a rather pale tiny pretty elderly lady, who nodded hello and smiled sweetly at me. She was already getting up out of bed, and said she would attend to her own needs this morning so I could concentrate on her roommate.

First things first, the psych patient needed cleaning up. She would have contaminated the entire operating room! Ok to keep things brief I will only say she came alive when I explained I was going to give her a shower and tried to get her out of bed into a wheeled shower chair. She screamed and fought tooth and filthy nails, became dead weight when I tried to get her to transfer to the chair, wouldn’t cooperate with me one iota. Her breath was horrible every time she screamed at me. After much exertion, I was able to wheel her into the shower. I soaped and re-soaped and scrubbed her face and body, taking multiple times to do this, she was so encrusted with filth. The worst part was her groin. There was probably over a year’s worth of layers of soiling herself and never being cleaned, each layer dried and stuck to the layer underneath and to her skin and pubic hair. The hot water exacerbated the stench and I had to keep putting my head outside the shower curtain for fresh air. There were clay-like clumps of feces all along the bottom of the shower, which housekeeping would have to deal with when we were through. I must have gone through at least a dozen towels and washcloths, which were in a wet brown pile.

Once her skin was clean, I sighed, not knowing how I would ever attend to that head of hair. I decided the best thing would be to cut off the little braids, so I used my bandage scissors to do that. I trimmed and cleaned her filthy black fingernails and toenails too. All through the shower I was explaining what I was doing and trying to keep the patient as placated as I could, and by now she was considerably calmer. Her hair was thick with the texture of a Brillo pad, and so dirty that it was impossible to get any lather going. But I persevered until finally I had rich suds, which I fingered and rubbed into every bit of her hair down to the scalp. By now she was no longer trying to push me away, if not exactly cooperating.

Finally we were done. I was soaking wet. I dried the patient off, got her to put on a clean gown, rubbed her extremeties with lotion, then her feet also and put on clean socks. I wheeled the patient to the sink and brushed her teeth as best as I could, with very marginal cooperation.

I got the patient back into bed, now clean, and proceeded to give her the eye drops which would begin the prep for cataract surgery later that day. I was exhausted and needed to rest.

But first I needed to turn my attention to her roommate, who was also my patient and had been quietly waiting during all this time.

Since the roommate was going for cataract surgery also, I pulled the curtain back to administer the roommate’s drops as well, and I saw that she had washed up by herself and donned a modest white habit, and I realized she was a nun. So I gave the nun her eye drops and reminded her not to have anything by mouth prior to surgery. I told the nun that I would be back later with additional eye drops, and to check on her. The nun smiled and thanked me.

I turned to leave. As I reached the door, she said the most remarkable seven words I have ever heard: “You gave the Lord a shower today.”

Korean Spinach Salad

Ingredients

Salad

1 pound fresh spinach
3 hard-cooked eggs, diced
6 to 8 slices crisp-cooked bacon, crumbled
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, sliced

Dressing

1 cup oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Salt, to taste
1 medium onion, grated
1/4 cup vinegar
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Trim and discard tough spinach stems. Rinse leaves well; pat dry and break into bite-size pieces in a salad bowl.
Add remaining salad ingredients. Mix dressing ingredients together.
Toss salad with dressing.

No brothers?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jtzDbLJW3R0?feature=share

What do people living on SSI/SSDI do all day?

I have a friend. Let’s call him “Carl.”

Carl used to be a firefighter. He pulled people out of burning buildings. He risked his life all the time.

Then one day, an illness that had been lurking in his genes brought him to the ground. His tendons and muscles were slowly calcifying—turning to stone. All of them. His knees. His back.

His heart. His lungs.

And since this was a genetic disease, it was not covered by his firefighting pension plan. He had to go on SSI/SSDI.

The drugs that he took to slow (not stop, slow) the progression of his disease eventually gave him fourteen more incurable conditions, including heart disease, seizures, and diabetes. He’s had several strokes. He also cannot go outside because his immune system has to be suppressed. Going out around people always means he catches something.

So what does he do all day?

It takes him about three hours to get up, get cleaned up, and get dressed and get his breakfast, using his walker because his ankles are now frozen solid. It takes him two hours to do a single load of laundry. He does spend most of the day playing video games and watching TV, but that is because it takes him at least an hour to get to the bathroom, and there is no way he could actually work.

This man was a fireman. He saved people from burning buildings. Now he lives like a pauper, mostly on the charity of his family and friends because SSI/SSDI is not enough to allow him to do anything but die under a bridge.

He saved people from burning buildings. He’d have saved you, if you’d needed it.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I was working for a major car rental company as a tripper (drove cars from the service Centre to the rental lots). They paid us minimum wage, which was about $3.40/hr. back in the mid 80s, and decided they we playing us too much, as sometimes we had no cars to trip and they still had to pay us. It’s about 15km to the downtown Vancouver rental lot, so they figured it would take us 20 to 30 minutes. They decided to pay us by the trip, $1.75 iirc. Oh, this was a Toronto decision based on our work load in May and came into effect mid June. Demand rate was constant and now we were highly motivated to make s many trips as possible. We were tripping about 5 or 6 cars an hour, we were speeding a lot, crashing at least once a month (company self insures so all their cost). Usual the crashes were minor but we totalled 10 cars that summer (their were 5 core and 2 or 3 fill ins, so everyone had at least one major). Record was 8 mins in rush hour. They seemed up paying us about $10 an hour, their accident rates went up. I became a rental rep the next year and quit the next year as the idiocy from Toronto continued.

What is the saddest aspect about you or someone else in your family?

huWhen my mom was 16 she was raped by the son of a prominent member of her community. He denied it was rape and said she was a willing partner. The police chose to believe him over her.

She got pregnant from the rape and, because abortion was illegal, her parents sent her to a Christian home for unwed mothers. The understanding was she would give her baby up for adoption immediately after birth. She got no say in this. For whatever reason, there was a delay and she got to spend 15 minutes with her son before he was taken from her. It broke her heart.

After she recovered from her pregnancy she went home. Two things had happened while she was gone. First, her parents got their friends to start a rumor that she was away because she had an illness that required special treatment. The other was that someone started a second rumor that she had to go away because she was pregnant and had a baby, with the implication that she was promiscuous.

Guess which one took off? When she got back to school most of her classmates shunned her as a bad influence. She lost most of her friends. Members of her own extended family picked this shunning up. It followed her to college when she graduated. It was more than she could take and she had a mental collapse, ending up in a psychiatric hospital. (It is also possible that she was already bi-polar.) She dropped out of college because she could not handle the stress and deal with her PTSD and depression.

When she met my father who was in the Air Force and from another part of the county, she told him about the rape. She told him about the baby. She told him that no one believed that she had been raped. He believed her. He said he saw no shame on her and eventually they married. His service had them move from her hometown.

HOWEVER…every time she returned to town for the holidays, she would go through the shunning, the snide comments, and insults from her family and the townspeople. My parents separated when I was 24 and she moved home…to the same thing again but now her own mother was doing it too. She endured this until she died when she was 69, which means she was subjected to that shaming for over 53 years.

This is the side of “pro-life” no one talks about. Not only is there no plan for the children after they are born, but in the conservative communities that support this policy, the women who are unmarried will be slut-shamed for life.

What are some examples of assassination attempts gone wrong?

A group of hitmen refused to kill a victim as she was a woman and let her free to get her revenge.

In 2015, the Australian Noela Rukundo (who’s the lady in the photo) went to Burundi to attend the funeral of her stepmother who passed away only a couple of weeks back.

Straight after the funeral when she was going out to get some fresh air, she was quite suddenly kidnapped at gunpoint and shoved into a vehicle. She was blindfolded and driven to a safe house somewhere in the country.

Inside the building she was tied up, and a sack put on her head and was asked by her captors:

“You woman, what did you do for this man to pay us to kill you?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” said Noela, she was shaking uncontrollably.

“Balenga (Noela husband) sent us to kill you.”

“What? My husband will never do that, y-you’re lying!”

Her captors smirked and giggled. She then heard a phone dialling and a voice coming from a loud speaker:

“Kill her”

It was her husband. Noela fainted.

She was woken up much much later by her captors on the side of a road and they told her she was free. The men explained they didn’t believe in killing women, and they knew her brother and was friends with him. But they would keep her husband’s money and tell him that she was dead.

Not only was she freed, she was given a phone, recordings of the captors’ phone conversations with her husband and all the evidence she needed to take Balenga to court.

Although pretty messed up and a little dizzy, with the help of the Kenyan and Belgian embassies, she got a trip to Australia, where she planned her revenge.

Meanwhile back in Australia her husband had told everyone she had died in a tragic accident and all her friends mourned her at her funeral at the family home. On the night of February 22 2015, just as the Balenga waved goodbye to the last of his neighbours who had come to comfort him, Noela approached him.

“Is it my eyes?” screeched Balenga. “Is it a ghost?”

“Surprise! I’m still alive!” said a very angry Noela.

“ oh my god oh my god, I’m sorry for everything please forgive me” replied a rather shocked Balenga.

But Noela took none of his apologies. The police swooped in and captured Balenga, who ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison for incitement to murder.

During the investigations, it was found out that Balenga wanted to kill Noela because he thought she was going to leave him for another man, which apparently was not going to happen.

Balenga was sent to 9 years of prison while Noela lives with her 8 children somewhere in the same city I currently live at, Melbourne.

Who is the most evil person you have ever met?

This is probably a bit cliche to say but the first person that comes to mind for me is my ex girlfriend from 2017. Out of all the women I’ve had relationships with, she was by far the worst one. She was very controlling and manipulative. I was with her for 8 months and it was the worst 8 months of my life. We basically fought every day over anything. Most things that upset her. I felt like I couldn’t say certain things or do certain things without it possibly upsetting her. Anytime I tried to defend myself she would gaslight me and make me feel like the bad one. She would say things like “I don’t like what you said earlier” or “this happened and you didn’t do anything about it”. Right before I finally chose to break up with her I had her sleep over my house for a night because I just wanted a nice night with her and I could tell all night something was wrong. I could just sense it. When we were at my house she hardly spoke to me and when she did she said “I think I’m going to go home in the morning” Next morning I got up and without thinking made myself a cup of coffee.. but my mistake was not making one for her. She of course went tf off on me for it. At that point I had it, I was done. I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m not going to get treated like a servant when I’m just trying to be a good boyfriend and you refuse to see it.

People must hear you hiss

Today is a video that discusses the importance of instilling fear in others. Please watch it. Cobra’s need to hiss.

…

The United States is leading the West into a great collapse, and the longer that it is delayed, the more horrific the fall will be. Mark my words.

…

My mother was living with her “husband” after she divorced my father. This man and her did not ever get formally married as both were Catholic. However, they did everything else together. In sin, I suppose.

He was reasonably wealthy. He owned a coal company. And I got along reasonably well with him.

He had something like 18 sons. No daughters. And his boys were loose cannons, but a lot of fun. Oh well. LOL.

Anyways, as time went forward, he got older and older… more and more frail. And in the Manor where my mother and him lived, he has one of those staircase elevators installed. It was kindly neat and all that, but as soon as he passed on, my mother insisted that it be removed immediately. She didn’t want that thing in her house at all.

Fifteen years later, she too was old and feeble, and I was there taking care of her. It got to the point that she no longer could walk up the stairs by herself. SO she slept downstairs in a bedroom that we built just for that purpose.

The bedroom was really nice, by the way, with a bathroom, and an attached study. Mom picked out a massive desk for the office, but to everyone’s dismay discovered that it wouldn’t fit in the office. Oh well. We then parked the credenza outside.

She only got to use the bedroom for a few months before she passed on. Maybe ten tops. But that is good enough for me.

When you die, you leave behind the things that you no longer need.

…

Today… remember. People need to hear you hiss.

US Congress unanimously approved the Patent Restriction Act. All of China’s patents are at risk of invalidation overnight. Huawei’s 20000+ patents could be deemed invalid. All countries at risk as the US can claim a national security threat. Fair?

Patents serve ONLY one purpose;

To prevent a competitor from duplicating your technology / products.

By invalidating patents, then ALL patents become worthless paper. This is simply because any nation still using them restricts it’s own industry. To ignore patents by one is to ignore patents by all. To remain competitive, once the patent protection fails, all patent protection fails. It’s a global “domino effect”.

There will be a serious of STRONG and DANGEROUS consequences of this action.

Initially, the weaker industry (nation / product / technology) will start to copy the previously protected items.
This in turn, will provide an outward appearance of “catching up” to the dominant (nation / product / industry).
But, this will be short-lived. Innovation, especially in the contemporaneous fields (that are at battle) require manpower, innovative talent, and massive capital investment. The industry that presently maintains this lead will continue to maintain this lead, while the nation / industry falling behind will require massive changes and investment just to “tread water”.

This is [1] an obvious desperate move, [2] constructed by the ignorant, that will have [3] a long-term negative impact on the industries of the West. Particularly the United States.

…

Consider India.

India invalidated protections on American patents. This resulted in the export of “dirt cheap” medicine and pharmaceuticals. In the USA, a single pill of Viagra costs $20. (Of course, you can shop around, but that is the baseline price.) But you can buy them on-line, out of India for $1 each. Seeing that it costs $0.00000009 for each pill, the profit is still enormous for Indian companies, and American companies lost market share.

Consider China.

All those fancy-pantsy gizmos and gadgets in the latest American weapons systems, electronics, and medicines are now “up for grabs”. China will own EVERYTHING. Americans will still pay premium prices, and the protectionism measures will be “ramped up”, but China really will OWN EVERYTHING.

From Viagra to Oreos. From McDonald’s to Starlink. From Harley-Davidson to Heinz ketchup. This legislation by “Congress” pretty much is the DEATH BLOW to United States product dominance.

Last Word

To those of you who do not work in any tech industry, some words need to be said.

A patent is NOT a set of instructions on how to use technology. It is a description of the invention. It can include it’s basic properties and premises that it works upon, but patents will not provide enough information to duplicate that technology.

The United States can, at will, invalidate any patents it wants. But that does not give it that technology. It just allows it to copy the technology IF IT HAS THE MEANS to do so. If it has the manufacturing technology, the design technology, and a thorough understanding of the underlying principles.

For all you ‘Merica types out there is internet land, I’d advise you all to stop and think.

China is a beautiful woman. A 10 in any man’s book.
A patent is like a photograph of that woman.
But claiming that ownership of that photo is the same as being married to the chick is silly.

Come back down to earth, and realize that you just cannot reconstitute a technology from the words on a patent. All you can do is pin up that picture up on the wall for everyone to look at.

What has your child done that is technically “wrong” but you were proud of them for doing it?

My mom, dad, and Grandpa were the ones who were proud of me for sticking up for my sister.

So a little back story, my sister has Scoliosis and she had a bully in fourth grade who kept physically assaulting with her. She kept telling the teachers and even the principal but they never did shit about it, and she told us every time this guy would attack her.

So one day, I actually witnessed one of his attacks on her so I went up to him, pinning him to a wall and punched him the face a few times and told him, if he ever messed with my sister, I will give him a beating of a lifetime. Dude ran to the bus after I letted him go.

So I rode the bus home, and warned my mom she was going to get a call from the school about me taking matters into my own hands after witnessing this guy hurt my sister. She was shocked that I did that. But she said she would support me.

Guess what, first period, I get called to the Principle’s office by the school announcer, I just decided to go and face judgment day, my home room teacher and my counselor were there as well, along with the kid I punched a few times. I rolled my eyes at the kid, as I sit down.

So what happened next, I get confronted by three people at once, they were firing shots at me while I just sat there looking at the kid who I beat up. Soon enough, my mom was called in to meet with them that day, while I was in ISS. But she didn’t arrive till 7th Period with my grandpa, my dad who was a police officer, and my sister’s note book of all the dates this kid bullied her and when she did tell a teacher and the principal at which time.

I remember seeing the color being wiped away when she saw my dad in his uniform, but they frought hard in support of my actions. But at the end, we had to threatened the school with a lawsuit. But that was two weeks later. I was punished with OSS for two to three weeks.

So when it was over, My mom took me to the mall and got me Dairy Queen and a sword from Isle of Misfits, got a few lego figures and a Lego set. My mom did tell me to next time, prep before taking action. And try not to do that again unless I have to, but she was proud of me. Along with my dad and my Grandpa.

Anyway my OSS was lifted after the lawsuit was threatened and the bully of my sister was punished OSS for the time I was in OSS. My Teacher, Principle, and Counselor apologized to me but I just told the Principle to next time, to do her job, and I told my teacher and counselor that it’s going to take some time for me to forgive them.

All was well, the bully never messed with my sister and was even moved out of the classroom she and him were in. People in her grade knew not to bully her otherwise if Teachers or Principles don’t do anything, her big brother will do something about it.

Beggar’s Chicken (China)

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) broiler-fryer chicken
6 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 (1-inch square) piece fresh ginger root, pared and cut into thin slices
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups salt
1 1/2 cups water

Instructions

Remove giblets from chicken and reserve for another use. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper toweling. Place chicken on large piece of greased extra-wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. Rub or brush 2 1/2 tablespoons of the soy sauce completely over chicken. Rub or brush the oil completely over chicken. Pull skin at neck end under chicken and secure with small skewer. Tuck wing tips under thicken.
Combine remaining 4 tablespoons soy sauce, the sherry, sugar, five-spice powder, onions and ginger. Pour mixture into cavity of chicken, holding tail end of chicken up slightly so liquid does not run out of cavity. Secure tail end of chicken with small skewers. Wrap foil around chicken, sealing securely.
Combine flour and salt in bowl. Gradually mix in enough water to make a firm dough. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface until about 1/4-inch thick (dough must be large enough to completely cover chicken.
Place foil-wrapped chicken onto center of dough. Fold dough over chicken, pressing edges and ends together to seal completely. Place chicken in well greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Bake chicken in preheated 450 degrees F oven 1 hour.
Reduce heat to 300 degrees F. Bake 2 1/2 hours longer.
Remove chicken from oven. Using mallet or hammer, break pastry. Remove chicken from pastry and place on serving plate. Carefully remove foil and skewers.

Yield: 4 servings

What are some common scams that tourists should be aware of when visiting Japan? How can these scams be avoided?

It’ll be extremely rare to see a scam in Japan as a tourist in Japan, except in one location: Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Some scams exist for many Japanese people, like the Ore-ore scam

targeting the elderly, but many you won’t experience. (I’ve dropped my wallet in the middel of the street in Tokyo before, and had it returned with all my money inside of it.

Essentialy, the scam is that some cute girl or a muscular foriegner who speaks English tries to entice you into a bar, and get you drinking. If you’re alone and looking for company, you could get a drink (if you hadn’t checked the prices), and then when you get the bill, instead of something like $20 you were expecting to pay, you “ordered” the $2000 drink according to them.

Because you don’t speak Japanese and are intoxicated, if the police get involved you’ll most likely be blamed for not paying up.

They’ll take you to the ATM with a kind, muscular “escort” to help lift the burden of money off of you, and you’ll probably regret your existence while doing so.

Biggest thing is make sure you see a menu, and don’t go in because of a cute girl or because of some random promoter who speaks English.

I really enjoy going to Rocky Bar Mother and Bar Psy are really great to go to there, with drinks and awesome music if you like it. I take my friends there on occasion, so it’s something I’d highly recommend.

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

Dress well no matter what the occasion.
Always carry cash.
Always getup when you’re sitting and someone come to greet you.
Always comment on good things don’t keep in heart.
If the phone is on the speaker inform.
Chat to anyone who is sitting alone at a party or in a group.
don’t have the impulse to sit near look-alike you. If everyone fulfils this, people who represent any minority will end up sitting alone.
If feasible, avoid the plan to go outdoor if you have a runny nose.
Do not swipe left or right if individual shows you a photo on their phone.
Wave your hand rather than calling his or her name if someone is far or on phone or earphones plugged in.
Offer a glass of water to the delivery man.
People know the worth. If successful wear shirt of 300 it seems 3000 and if unsuccessful wear 3000 it seems 300. Don’t show off.
When anyone gets shouted at don’t look at them. It’s more awkward.
Always open the door for the person coming behind you. Doesn’t matter if it is a guy or a girl.
Stop being late, it’s irritating.
When someone starts talking about their conditions, don’t start talking about yours.
Never ask a shy person what’s wrong or ask them ‘why aren’t you talking more?’ It only makes them feel more awkward.
When visiting someone’s house, carry something.
When you open a gift, just say thank you. Don’t say, “It’s too expensive!”
Being vegetarian or non-vegetarian is a choice. Don’t ask anyone why it’s so.
Do not sympathize with anyone in public. This will embarrass a person more than be laughing at.
Don’t expect others to understand how hard you are working and living. Everyone doing.
If you like working with smart people, be prepared to be used by them too. As well as Worshipped and learn from them too. Your attitude.
Don’t make suggestions; But when it comes to house, car, marriage don’t give advice. Because these are very important things & if something goes wrong you’ll be blamed or they may stop talking to you.
Greeting Etiquette = The 6S- Stand, See, Smile, State, Say, Shake
Don’t look at your phone when others are talking to you.

What’s something unusual you said or did during a job interview that got you hired?

It happened during our campus placements. Company had shortlisted 20 students for interview round and intended to take only 2.

I had cleared first 2 interviews and was being interviewed with regional head of the company..

Interviewer: ” So tell me.. What will you do if any better company with same profile but better package offers you the job?”

Me: “Sir I will take that job.”

Interviewer: ” This means you are not loyal to us. Even if I offer you the job there is no guarantee that you will join our company. So why should I offer you one?”

Me: “Sir if you are talking about being loyal, so let me ask you, if you find another candidate better than me then you will offer him the job. Isn’t it. So going by your logic company is not loyal to me. But let me tell you it isn’t about being loyal. Everyone wants best for himself. You want best people to work for you and I want to work for the best. Don’t you believe you are best in the industry??”

Result : Selected..

Chinese teen and 20’s fashion

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

I had a charismatic boss who managed by walking around trying to intimidate employees. He didn’t bother me because my job was essential and I got along well with the conservative types and the weirdos.

We used a lot of darkroom equipment and chemicals. Because the chemicals contained silver, they were expensive, and this boss was cheap.

I found out by accident that he instructed accounts payable not to pay the suppliers. We were supposed to find new suppliers. And then when they were not paid, move to new suppliers.

I did not like this.

This plan made me crabby.

So, I called a couple of the suppliers from home to tell them the plan. They called other suppliers, competitors, and everyone else. That’s all I did. I called two suppliers.

Suddenly no supplier would fill our orders unless they were paid in advance. I told the boss that we had to pay up front. He waved this problem away, as he often did. I wrote him a note. Left it on his desk. He didn’t read it.

We ran out of supplies. The darkroom work and all typesetting stopped. All three art departments stopped, apart from planning.

The boss had a meltdown when he discovered all those employees were unable to finish work. He called a supplier from my phone. The supplier required payment for all previous invoices, so the boss called another supplier. He got the same message. And again.

Just then, the 80-year-old office manager arrived. She took the phone out of his hand and told him to leave the building and stop annoying people. He left. She continued the conversation to say that she would courier a cheque over immediately and when it cleared, we would appreciate the supplies.

As she was leaving, I heard her say that the she was going to kill that man before she retired.

She was unsuccessful.

He lives.

Lost In Space | 1920 Universe

This 1920 universe is AI generated madness. Well worth the time to visit.

What are few things only mature people can tell you?

Not everyone will live long. Stay happy and useful to humanity as much as you can.
Life is not Disney Island, always strife for the best and prepare for the worse.
Nobody can love you unconditionally except your mum and in few cases, your family.
You can simply avoid future problems by listening to your instincts and warnings from your loved ones.
Most people won’t support you in life until there’s no option but to join the crowd.
Discipline will take you farther than talent.
Everybody is fighting their own demon either publicly or privately. Never envy anyone.
Don’t look down on anyone, life can switch up within a minute.
Money is not everything, it incredibly betters your life but doesn’t solve all life problems. Still have it anyway.
You don’t have to get to the level of Elon Musk to change the world when your little kindness can.

Have you ever called in sick but you were convinced or threatened by your superiors to come to work? Did it end well for you?

I was assistant manager of a fabric store. Some days I would open the store and other days I would close. One morning I woke up with the flu. I felt horrible, as you can imagine. I was supposed to close that day, so I called very early and told the manager I couldn’t come in, hoping to give them the whole work day to find someone to close.

The manager said she was just about to call me to open because the other asst mgr had forgotten she had to take her kid to the dentist or something. I said, definitely not because I have the flu and can barely get out of bed. The manager said she REALLY needed me to come in. I explained I had a fever and was dizzy but she said I didn’t have a choice, they needed me to come in. I was like, seriously? I can’t believe you want me to come and work with the public when I’ve got the flu. She wouldn’t budge, so I got dressed and went to work.

One of the things I had to do was open the safe and count all the money to make sure the total matched the night before, and bring the cash drawers out to the registers. Any time I wasn’t in the office, it was policy to lock the safe, even if I was only going to be gone for a minute, and even though the store was closed and doors locked. I counted the drawers but I was having trouble counting the rest of the money because I couldn’t concentrate, I was so dizzy. I kept losing track and having to start over.

Finally, since it was getting close to opening the store, I decided to take the drawers out to the registers and then come back and try to count the cash. I closed the safe and carried out the drawers, just as a regional manager came through the door. She went straight to the office. When I came into the office, the safe was standing open. I was shocked because I knew I had closed it. The regional manager asked me why the safe was open, when I knew it was the policy to lock it when I left the office.

I said I was certain I had closed it. She said, yes, it was closed but not locked. I tried to explain I wasn’t even supposed to be there because I was sick, but she interrupted me and said they were going to have to let me go. I was stunned, as I was one of the most knowledgeable employees in the store and had never missed a day of work. I was standing there swaying and trying not to pass out, and wondering how I was going to support my kids now.

The RM told one of the other employees to call someone to replace me so the store wouldn’t be short-handed. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the door. The RM said, “Where do you think you’re going? You have to stay until someone comes to take your shift. If we can’t find anyone, you’ll finish the day.”

I looked at her with an incredulous expression. “Are you kidding me?? I’ve just been fired for dragging my sick ass out of bed to cover for someone who can’t be bothered to keep track of their appointments. I’m going home and going to bed!” Then I walked out.

I hope she got the flu.

STAR TREK ORIGINS (1920) | FULL MOTION VIDEO

What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?

This happened during college. I was down with viral fever and had to take a break for three days. My best friend, a girl, was in constant touch via phone and she sounded dull. When asked what the problem was, she said it was nothing and I thought she worried about my health. Day 4, I return to college and I learn that a guy from a different department was teasing her (in an abusive way) and was stalking her everyday. And she, being a very reserved and not so brave, did not even tell it outside. I went and punched the mofo right on his face and broke a couple of teeth. His friends came for his help and started attacking me and my friends came in from nowhere.

Once this gang war was done, I and that guy were taken along with our friends to the principal’s office and he started hurling scoldings one after the other. I was a bright student and was always in the good books of every professor and thus it came as a shock to everyone.

They called all of our parents and my dad came. Even my friend was taken into account here and her mom was called to the college (She didn’t have a dad). Everybody – My head of the department, my principal started scolding me and gave my dad a transfer certificate to fill up for me to take me out from the current college and put me somewhere else. They also told me I had spoilt my career now due to this and for also having a relationship (typical Indian brains ya know, roam around with a girl and she is your girlfriend). My dad remained calm and filled up the form and asked if there are any more procedures to be done. The principal and HOD were stunned (they were apparently just trying to scare us) and asked him if he wasn’t worried about my future. I still remember what he said “If I was him, I would have done the same, what he did was right. No one should stand by when a woman is being harassed. I want my son to be on the front lines to stand up for any sort of injustice. I know the girl for the past 14 years and she and my son have been friends since then”.

Everyone got a month’s suspension and the opposite team got two months suspension, except for that guy who harassed her, he voluntarily got a transfer to some other college. I came out of college as a guy with triple placement and being the highest paid recruit of that year.

When driving back home in the car, dad leans in and asks “You love her or what?”

Me : *Facepalm* Typical Indian parents.

P.S : But dad was the best and he was right, This happened 4 years back and am now engaged to that friend of mine 😉

Doctor Who | 1920 Universe | COLORIZED

Priceless . . . US Navy Refusing to Deploy Brand New Littoral Combat Ships to Middle East; Houthi Anti-Ship Missile concern!

Nation Hal Turner 22 December 2023

lcs littoral combat ship FILE PHOTO large

The US Navy says it doesn’t have enough warships to launch Operation Prosperity Guardian against the Houthis in Yemen.

According to John Conrad (maritime journalist), the US built 24 littoral combat ships for coastal warfare, but the US is now refusing to deploy them.

Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones “cause US concern.”

HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION

According to Wikipedia, these Littoral COmbat ships cost between Four-Hundred Twenty million and four-hundred eighty million dollars, each.

We built at least 24 of them.

Do the math: 24 x $420,000,000= $10.08 BILLION . . . . and now the Navy that bought them – for coastal warfare – isn’t sending them into battle over fear of anti-ship missiles????? WTF?????

So did we simply throw that money in the garbage? We have ships we can’t use . . . so what do we do with them now?

You know, you can’t make this stuff up. The level of stupidity is amazing.

Maybe, though, it’s not stupidity; maybe it’s corruption? Whose beak got wet from that $10.08 Billion? Whose palms got greased?

And nobody looked or asked about it because the ships were, in fact, built.

Except now, we’re afraid to put them into battle, and guys like me are starting to ask why we even built them, and why can’t a “modern” warship defend itself from anti-ship missiles?”

The Fantasy Of Missile Defense In Ukraine

In October 2022 I mocked western media propaganda that was depicting Russia as unable to sustain the war:

Russia, Having ‘Run Out Of Missiles’, Launches Barrage On Ukraine

Back in March I had warned that Lies Do Not Win Wars. Here is another practical example.

After allegedly having ‘run out of missiles’ and, more importantly, patience, the leadership of the Russian Federation decided to de-electrify Ukrainian cities with a ‘barrage of missile strikes’.

But first came the propaganda blubber: …

There followed 25 headlines by western media which claimed that Russia was running out of missiles.

More recently we see frequent claims by the Ukrainian government that it shot down 43 of the 32 drones Russia launched that day as well as 5 out of 3 supersonic missiles.

Laughable nonsense.

But slowly, slowly the Ukrainians and media have turned to describing stuff more near to, but not yet, reality:

Russia has fired 7,400 missiles, 3,700 Shahed drones in war so far, Kyiv says – Reuters

Russia has launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,700 Shahed attack drones at targets in Ukraine during its 22-month-old invasion, Kyiv said on Thursday, illustrating the vast scale of Moscow’s aerial assaults.

Ukrainian air defences were able to shoot down 1,600 of the missiles and 2,900 of the drones, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments. “We are faced with an enormous aggressor, and we are fighting back,” he said.

Shooting down drones, which are relatively slow and fly low, is not so difficult or expensive. One often only needs to have some machine guns in place on the path along which a drone is flying.

Shooting down missiles is something entirely different. Due to their flightpath and speed one needs expensive missile defense systems. The anti-missile missiles these systems fire come at a high price. One Patriot missile comes at about $2,000,000, more for newer ones. Routinely two are fired against any potential target.

If the Ukraine has really shot down 1,600 missiles, which I very much doubt, one can easily calculate the enormous costs of such an endeavor

There are reasons why Patriot missiles are only produced in the hundreds per year, not in the thousands.

No country in the world can sustain such an onslaught without running out of defenses or going bankrupt.

Several months ago a U.S. delivered Patriot system in Kiev came under attack. Set to automatic mode it fired (video) 32 missiles for no observable hits on the imaginary targets. Scott Ritter has said that the U.S. Marines are not allowed to use the automatic mode of their Patriot systems because that is known to fail. But the Ukrainians were not trained to fully handle the manual mode.

And now they are telling us that they shot down 1,600 missiles?

How probable is that?

Posted by b on December 22, 2023 at 12:53 UTC | Permalink

What are some things that make or have made you lose faith in humanity?

A few days earlier, I had ordered food from an online ordering service. The time must have been around 9:30 PM. Approximate delivery time given was 10:00 PM.

I was not famished literally and didn’t realize the order was delayed until I got a call from the ordering service’s customer care. It must have been around 10:15 PM.

Customer Care Agent: Hello, am I talking to Mr. Yatin?

Me : Yes.

CCA: I am talking from S****y. This is regarding your order sir. The delivery guy informed me that the order cannot be delivered as it is in very bad condition.

Me: Bad condition? As in?

CCA: The delivery person’s bike slipped actually. He says the order is not in a deliverable condition. Do you wish to talk to the delivery guy?

Me: Sure, connect us.

So now Me, CC agent and the delivery boy we now on conference.

After I was put in conference, I could only hear strange shouting sounds on the other side.

The shouting was like, “You idiot piece of s##t! Can you be any more careless? Do you think the material is free?…. Blah, blah, blah….”

Finally the delivery guy spoke.

Delivery guy (Shouting sounds still in background): Sorry sir, the delivery packaging is damaged, and I cannot deliver it.

CCA: Yatin sir, do you want a reorder or a refund? As you can see there is some damage to your order.

By this time I realised that the shouting sounds were in the background of the delivery boy.

The shouting continued, “It’s because of you careless guys that our reputation is spoilt. Careless fellow! Now if reorder is asked from us who will borne the loss?!! I will not give reorder!”

I understood that delivery boy had gone back to restaurant, and had to hear all this because my order was damaged.

I was not having it. I asked the delivery boy something which no one gave a f**k about.

“Bhaiya (brother), are you hurt after the accident? Do you required first aid? Keep the order aside and get first aid if required.”

The guy in a crying tone said he is okay and is sorry for messing up my order.

I asked him to handover his phone to that dumb restaurant owner. And I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him that delivery boys are human beings. They are not robots. Accidents can happen. No need to shout on anyone. It’s not only about your food that represents you, it’s you. I think so you should worry less about your ratings and more about your behaviour ratings. Try to have some general courtesy and not get blinded by professionalism.

He defended himself saying he did not mean any disrespect to me personally. I told him that I will not give any rating as I did not get any food. But whoever he is disrespecting, is a ‘person’ after all and mistakes do happen. He apologized for his behavior.

I still asked the delivery guy if he was fine, he said yes and thanked me. I asked him to be careful in the future and not rush so much as it will be fatal to his life.

The customer care refunded me and that’s all.

Numbers and stars can blind the best of us, is what I realized from this.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

Not me, my younger brother Kenneth (by ten years).

I was 21, he was 11. It was a Friday, I was off and took him to the lake. We planned to spend the day there, but about 12:30 we’d skipped breakfast so we went to this burger place to get some lunch. Ordered some burgers. They had one pool table there; Kenneth was watching four college kids play, back then it was 25c to play and they were playing for a dollar a game. Challenger pays for the game.

He said, “Gimme a buck and a quarter.”

All right, sure. I have an idea what’s coming. He walks over, and says he wants to play, he’s got his money. The guy who had won the last game is saying he doesn’t want to take a kid’s money, so I said, “It’s my money, don’t worry about it, just let him have a game.”

Okay. Four guys about 20, shaking their heads and grinning. Kenneth breaks hard, and sinks a ball. Runs four more after that, then barely missed a bank shot. Grins are gone.

The other guy takes his shot, misses, and Kenneth runs the rest of the table. It was hilarious, now all of those guys are drinking beer and laughing every time he sinks a tough shot, “no fucking way!” and “Jeezus Christ!”

He picked up the two bucks, said, “Thanks, dude,” then put a dollar back down. “Anybody want to play?”

They all did. One after another, they all lost a couple of bucks, along with the waiter, and two more guys who came in. We were there for hours, until it was too late to go back to the lake. He made about twenty bucks. Funniest buck and a quarter I ever spent. Kid had been shooting pool in our garage since he was four and standing on a box.

What are the most profound jokes ever?

A man dies and goes to hell. Once there, he finds that there is a different hell for each country, so he tries to seek out the least painful one.

At the door to German Hell, he is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”

He does not like the sound of that, so he checks out American Hell, Russian Hell and many more. They are all similarly gruesome. However, at Nigerian Hell a long line of people is waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?”

He is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Nigerian devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”

“But that’s the same as the others,” says the man. “Why are so many people waiting to get in?”

“Because of the power cuts, the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable. And the Nigerian devil used to be a civil servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business.” Tolu Ogunlesi

The Khachaturyan case:

This is a disturbing incident of three teenage sisters stabbing their own father to death, while he was dozing in his armchair at the family home in northern Moscow.

(Image Source: Getty Images)

The sisters attacked him with a knife, hammer and pepper spray, inflicting fatal wounds to his head, neck, and chest. He had 30 knife wounds in his body when he was found. The girls then called the police and were arrested at the scene.

Why did the sisters kill their own father? What was the motive?

It was during the evening of 27 July 2018, Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, called Krestina, Angelina and Maria, (aged 19, 18, and 17 respectively), one by one to his room. He scolded them for not cleaning the flat properly and sprayed pepper gas in their faces. The sisters plotted against the father after this incident took place.

The investigation soon uncovered an extensive history of violence in the family. Khachaturyan had regularly beaten his daughters over three years, torturing them, keeping them as prisoners and sexually abusing them. They reported the attack to police and admitted carrying it out, saying they believed their lives were at risk if they did not take action.

(Image Source: Social media; EAST2WEST NEWS)

The case quickly became sensational news in Russia. Human rights activists argued that the sisters were not criminals but victims, as they had no means of getting help and protection from their abusive father. However, there are no laws protecting victims of domestic violence in Russia.

Under legal changes introduced in 2017, a first-time offender who beats a family member, but not badly enough to put them in hospital, will face only a fine or up to two weeks in custody. Police in Russia usually treats domestic abuse as a “family issue”, providing little or no help at all.

The sisters’ mother, who had also suffered beatings and abuse from Khachaturyan in the past, had approached the police years before. So did the family’s neighbors, who were highly afraid of him. But there is no evidence that the police acted on any of these appeals for help. According to psychiatric assessments, the girls lived in isolation and had been suffering from post-traumatic stress (PTSD).

During the investigation, the sisters were all charged with premeditated murder. Angelina and Krestina face up to 20 years in prison. Maria, a child at the time, could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.

The decision to bring murder charges has been met with protests. In Moscow, hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters of the Investigative Committee law enforcement agency. Activists were continuing to picket their offices almost daily. Demonstrations have also taken place at Russian embassies or consulates around the world, and Russian cultural figures have spoken out in defense of the sisters.

The high-profile case has divided Russian society into those who say that Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan acted in self-defense and those who view them as murderers. Independent polling said that 41% of Russian respondents support the Khachaturyan sisters, while 29% don’t support them.

What do you feel about this disturbing incident? Do you see them as murderers? Or do you feel they acted in self-defense?

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

It wasn’t me that “picked a fight with the wrong person” but certainly one that I witnessed first hand.

So my wife, my friend Barry and his wife left a theatre heading for a bar, with the 2 ladies were walking maybe 20-30 metres in front chatting away – as women tend to do 😛

Next thing, they stop short next to an alleyway behind the theatre and my wife shouts out “f**k off a—hole” and starts to back off.

Barry and I arrive on scene and we see 3 guys – knives pulled waving them around.

Being “Mr Laid Back”, Barry asks “so whats going on here guys?” to which a—hole#1 responds politely “This is our robbery buddy so f**k off or we do you as well”.

Barry shrugs his shoulders, does a half turn as if to walk away then the rest was like the scene from Jason Bourne (movie 1) in the US Embassy scene……blur, blur, arms, hands, legs, blur blur and done, literally 5 seconds and 3 knife-wielding scumbags lying on the floor with broken wrists, unconscious and bloody (or all three).

What I didn’t say was Barry looked and dressed like a city gent, weighed about 120kgs and stood just under 2m tall. He was also previously an unarmed combat instructor for the police, an expert in Ju-Jitsu, Karate and Krav-Maga and worked “in the field” for the security services.

they certainly picked a fight with the wrong person……..

A good friend to have on or by your side at any time, and unfortunately now, sorely missed.

No right answer

20 Unspoken Rules For Men:

1. Never shake a hand sitting down.

2. Protect who is behind you, and respect who is beside you.

3. Never insult the cooking when you are the guest.

4. Never eat the last piece of something you didn’t buy.

5. Never make the first offer in a negotiation.

6. Don’t take credit for work you didn’t do.

7. Take blame, and give credit when due.

8. If you are not invited, don’t ask to go.

9. Always aim for the head.

10. Don’t beg for a relationship.

11. Dress well no matter what the occasion.

12. Always carry cash.

13. Listen, nod, and most of all make eye contact.

14. Show restraint in expressing anger, no matter what. Being angry is a waste of energy.

15. Weather it is dinner, drinks, or both, avoid placing your phone on the dinner table.

16. Never pose with alcohol.

17. Proper grammar will get you far in life. Leave the foul language for the less educated.

18. Ask more than you answer.

19. You can tell a great deal about a person by their handshake, so make your strong and firm.

20. Speak honestly. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

…

Chris Williamson: Why Men & Women Are Giving Up On Love

Has a doctor ever been disgusted by something they saw on a patient?

Well, I still get a bit nauseated thinking of this…I once saw a woman who reported “itchiness” in her groin. Expecting some type of rash, I had her undress and lay back on table. I inspected her groin only to find her entire pubic hair area filled with crawling small bugs! Pubic lice! I was careful not let my disgust show but got a treatment creme and smeared a LOT of it on the entire area. I prescribed a similar medication and simply assured her that the infestation and itchiness would get better after a while. She seemed grateful. My nurse and I then promptly sealed off that exam room and had it thoroughly cleaned. Despite that I felt “itchy” the rest of the day and gave myself a thorough shower when I got home. Despite feeling “disgusted”, one has to be professional. Sometimes harder than others!

Have you ever known personally someone to disappear from the face of earth? Are you looking for them?

I sure have known someone who seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. But I’m not looking for them anymore.

It’s my brother who disappeared. He was on vacation with his wife and my parents, when he decided to take a short solo hike. Our folks and his wife decided to sit in the shade and wait for him to return. He said he would be back within an hour. But he never returned.

They were in Mesa Verde National Park. The path he went down is called the Spruce Treehouse Path, and it was steep and paved and busy, as people flocked down to see the Spruce Treehouse, an abandoned dwelling in excellent condition. My brother was fascinated with the dwellings and wanted to see one up close and personal. The rest of the group settled on the porch of one of the museums in the park. None of the three were in good enough shape to make it down the steep path and then climb back up again. His wife offered him a bottle of water, but he declined, saying he’d only be gone for a short while. He started to walk off and then his wife called out to him, he turned around, and she snapped the last picture that she would ever take of Mitchell Dale Stehling.

And that was it. The last time anyone in my family saw my brother alive. After two hours had passed, my mother became alarmed, she just knew something was wrong, so they raised the alarm and a short search by rangers was conducted. He couldn’t have gotten very far, in such a short period of time, the rangers told the three. And nobody ever stays lost for long. Either they are found, or they manage to make it back on their own. But Dale wasn’t found that night, nor the next day when the search went into full force. The mountain came alive with people. Search and rescue people came and went searching for him on foot. There were people on horseback, on ATV’s, in helicopters all scouring the mountain side for my lost brother. In addition, a FLIR equipped jet buzzed around the mountain with its heat seeking device looking for Dale.

The massive search effort lasted about a week. The head ranger had my folks put up in one of the cabins in the park, and brought them food, and drink, an no good news at all. There was no sign of Dale, not even an indication that he had even been in the park. In the meantime, my poor dad got sick as a dog and had to see a doctor there. The search was scaled back after a week, and my mother and father drove home alone in their motorhome, while Dale’s wife drove home to Texas with her children, who had driven to Colorado the moment they learned their dad was missing. My mother’s description of how she felt driving down out of the mountains and headed toward home, leaving my brother behind somewhere in the wilderness, just simply broke my heart.

I didn’t learn that Dale was missing until two days after he was gone. I don’t know why nobody thought to call me, but I don’t hold it against anyone, because I can only imagine the chaos and emotional turmoil each person went through in the first days when my brother went missing. I wanted to fly out and help with the search, but my folks asked me to please stay in Texas and guard the home front. Offers of help of all kinds began flooding in, and our church took up a special donation to help offset some of the cost of travel and lodging and being unable to work for a week or so. So I stayed home and worried and cried, and took phone call after phone call from people wondering about Dale.

The night my parents came home, we all gathered at their house. We all hugged and cried and expressed our disbelief that something like this could happen in our family. We wondered aloud how and why Dale had managed to get off trail and get lost. We wondered if he was attacked by someone or something. We all feared the worst. For about two weeks I held out hope that Dale was alive, but then that hope faded slowly away, and I came to realize that he was likely deceased. Yet we didn’t know for sure where he was or what had happened to him. Did he just decide to walk away from his family who all loved him dearly? Did he commit suicide out there some how? Were drugs involved? Did he fall off a cliff, or suffer a heart attack or get bitten by a snake? The questions kept coming with no answers in sight.

The years dragged on. I can tell you that I learned all about grief during those years. Dale and I had been very close, visiting or calling one another nearly every day. We shared our deepest secrets with one another, and he and I just became closer when our brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and left the family fold. It was just him and me then, and you couldn’t get us apart no matter how hard you tried. I was simply and plainly, devastated by the loss of my dearest friend and brother. I wish I had a penny for every tear I have shed since Dale went missing. For years If I wrote about Dale, the ending was always the same. We didn’t know what happened to him, and we didn’t really expect him to be found as one year rolled around to the next. We were left hanging for many years.

Now there is a different ending when I write about Dale. And that is because of one off-trail hiker in the park. People are not allowed to deviate from the paths that run through the park. But this guy did, and he stumbled upon the skeletal remains of my brother over seven and a half years from the day he went missing. He left a note for the rangers, wanting to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. In the note he said he had found a human body, and had looked through the clothing and found ID. He named the person according to the ID found on him, and gave a good indication of where it was located. He also noted that he had already contacted the media, so the rangers needed to act quickly and go and retrieve that body. And that is exactly what they did.

The rangers and coroner hiked for well over four and a half miles into the wilderness, where they finally found my brother’s remains. They found his skeleton completely intact with the skull still on the neck and clothing still on the bones, shoes still on the feet. His cigarettes and lighter were still in his pocket as well as his wallet which contained his ID, driver’s license and credit cards. He was in a sitting position, with his legs straight out in front of him, leaning against “a lone tree in the bottom of a canyon” in an area that had been thoroughly searched when he first went missing.

Dale’s bones and clothing were examined by a forensic anthropologist. This person said that there were no indications of animal attack before or after his death. The clothing was completely intact and not ripped or torn anywhere. All the bones were accounted for, except the vertebrae which had been removed from his back a bunch of years before he went missing. His spine was fused during a back surgery. The coroner named the date of death as June 9, 2013, the very day he went missing.

Dale’s bones were returned to his widow. She had them cremated so that his ashes could be buried where he always said he wanted to be his eternal resting place. Which was under a big live oak tree on his property. There were visitation and funeral services for my brother, and a private burial after.

I have written about his funeral and burial before, so I won’t get overly emotional and write it all again. Suffice it to say, it was unique. I attended both, driving my parents to all of it. We attended the burial, and I watched as my brothers ashes were sprinkled into a hole in the ground at the base of a tree. My emotions were all over the place that day. I was so glad that the story had an ending, although not a happy one. It was good to know that his remains were back in Texas, and in the place where he always said he wanted to be buried. But the services made if feel like we had lost him all over again, and I cried for days and days.

I would give anything I owned to be able to wash this horrible event from our lives and to have my baby brother back. But God had other ideas, and I know where Dale resides right now. I can’t have my brother back, but I know I will see him again when we are reunited in heaven some day in God’s time. I have come to be able to cope with his death because I realize that this is but a short separation, really. We won’t be apart for all of eternity. Nope, because one day God will take me home too, and that is when I think life really begins. I imagine sharing heaven with my favorite person in the world. We will jump and shout and sing in the angel’s choir, together again for all eternity.

And that, I believe, is one heck of an ending to this story.

Star Trek as a SOVIET Sci-Fi movie directed by Andrei Tarkovski (ai generated)

What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?

I was 16, and at my grandfather’s life celebration. He’d passed 2 weeks before. That’s my dad and the daughter of a close friend.

I was trying to come to terms with a sexual assault that had occurred nearly a year before. My relationship with my dad had deteriorated to the point where we were hardly speaking, even though we were living in the same house. My dad is a good person, but he’s very broken and endured horrific abuse as a child and teenager. He’s also mentally ill, and at the time he was suicidal and angry. I’d also just lost my Poppy.

I was also suicidal and angry. My parents’ marriage was in tatters, I was in such emotional pain from the assault, and had just started college. I was working two jobs and paying my own way. My mother and I were constantly fighting. I’d just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and the treatment and recovery was wreaking havoc on my body and emotions. I wanted it all to stop. I was going to drive my car into a tree. I went out driving one night and sped up, and right before I swerved to hit the tree, I remembered my little sister and brother. And my dog, Woof. My sister was only 11, how awful for her would it be if I died? My brother was 14, it would have completely destroyed his life if I left. Woof wouldn’t understand what had happened to me, he’d just think I left him. I pulled over and broke down and cried. I drove home and told my mom I needed help.

I broke down crying on the kitchen floor and told her that if I didn’t get help, I was going to kill myself. She helped me make a therapy appointment for the next week, and I’ve been working hard ever since.

That was one of the lowest points of my life. There have been points just as low in recent years, but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t leave my family. If I can’t stay alive for myself, I have to for them.

After nearly 4 years of therapy, medication, a clinical depression and panic disorder diagnosis, a short stint in the psych ward when I had a panic attack so bad my then-boyfriend thought I was having a heart attack, and removing myself from my home situation, I’m proud to say that I’m getting better. I’m still not quite on the level of being okay, I still have my bad days and moments where I just want it to stop, but I try to no longer entertain those thoughts. I’m still working too much and not sleeping enough, but I’m also still in college and one step closer to achieving my goals. And I’m still here.

I made it to 20, and for the first time in a long time, I feel anxious but a bit more prepared for what’s coming next.

EDIT: August 29th, 2023 – roughly 4 years from my OP

This answer has started getting a lot of new comments in the last few weeks, so I thought I just come back to say: I’m still here! I am 24 years old now and STILL ALIVE! The last 4 years have been wonderful, and horrific at times. I have new medical diagnoses, and a much better relationship with my parents. They’ve both grown a lot in the last few years, as have I, and I am lucky to have a much better relationship with both of them.

Thank you everyone for continuing to comment, and boost me, and being there. I come back to this post often to read the wonderful things you all have written whenever I need a boost, or a reminder that I do have a purpose and place here. To anyone who’s been in a place like this before, please know that it does get better. All of the things that I’ve experienced were more than worth it. Because I stayed, I got to watch my little brother graduate from college. Because I stayed I got to watch my little sister graduate high school and go off to college. Because I stayed, I met some of the most wonderful people. You have so much left to experience, so much left to do, and so many people to love, and be loved by. It sounds cliche but I promise, it does get better.

Why PsycHacks REFUSES To Date AMERICAN Women!

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?”

Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I earn the money in this family, so let’s call me the capitalist. Your mom says what we spend the money on, we’ll call her the government. Both of us are here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people. Our nanny is representative of the working class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense.”

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep and his father missing. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room, but there he sees the father in bed with the nanny and he can’t get their attention. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good, then tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.”

The little boy replies, “Well, capitalists are screwing the working class while the government is sound asleep. Meanwhile the people are being ignored and the future is in deep shit.”

Actionable things

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Ragging.

It’s real. I have never spoken about it before this, but here I go. First year of engineering college was very difficult for me specially knowing the fact that I suffer from ADHD, thus I became an easy target for the seniors of our college. I remember telling a room full of seniors that I will complain about them and within first month it was known that no body from the second year is allowed to talk to me. Things became real one night when this one senior of mine slapped me 20 times in a room full of 20 people who did not even protest or say a thing. Then he used his slippers. Oh, what a night that was. And those two minutes when he was slapping me were the worst.

Then he told me that I won’t be allowed to enter any committee of the college and he would ensure that my life would be hell in college.

After this happened, I still had the guts to take the morning 9am bus and face him where the entire hostel was there. I never spoke to him or any of the seniors from our hostel again. I made some real friends after that incident who were in the room but did not say a thing because of fear. They came to me later to support me.

A similar incident happened six months later but this time all my friends were there to support me and nobody could touch me. Thank you, all of you.

A year later I was the President of Technical Club of our annual fest, Chairperson of Association of Computing Machinery at our college and held a lot of positions at other clubs.

Later when I got into Directi (highest paid internship and PPO from college) and then Flat[dot]to, Flatchat and Unacademy – I realized one real thing. Living your life and doing great is the best revenge.

Those seniors still like every Facebook post of mine these days 🙂

Maybe initially I was working so hard to prove something to them but eventually I realised, they are not worth it.

Do it for yourself, for your parents, for your brother, for your friends. The people who love you and whom you love.

Focus

Why are Sichuan girls so pretty?

It has to do with beauty standards. Sichuanese women aren’t objectively prettier than anyone else, they just fit many Chinese beauty standards better on average – beauty standards are highly variable from place to place and have changed a lot throughout history. Sichuanese women often have characteristics like thin pointed noses, heart shaped faces, larger breasts, lighter skin (Sichuan is located in the Sichuan basin so it’s really foggy), larger eyes, and double eyelids which fit modern Chinese beauty standards.

The traditional Chinese beauty standards preferred smaller eyes, monolids, smaller breasts, rounder faces, and flatter small noses. The only constant beauty standard is the strong preference for light skin. So this means Sichuanese women being considered attractive is a modern stereotype and you can’t find any historical sources treating them as prettier than women from other regions of China.

Sichuanese women are usually short and a low height for women was the historical beauty standard since it made women seem “fragile” compared to men (we are talking about a very patriarchal society, after all). In modern China, people seem to be a little mixed on this. Taller women are generally preferred and considered more “beautiful” but shorter women (as long as they are not too short) may be considered “cute” by some. For men, they have to be tall because short men are not considered attractive in general. (Are shorter men liked more than tall men anywhere in the world? Sorry, short kings 🙁)

Different generations

“When I was 17 …”

When I was 17 I decided I wanted to reach out to my biological mother through the adoption agency. I heard nothing back initially and when the agency advised me to focus on my leaving cert, I did and I continued on with my life.

Then, 5 years later, out of the blue a letter arrived. This letter would change my life.

I can only assume my mom was upset at the thought of me reconnecting with my biological mother, i dunno maybe she thought I’d leave home and be somebody elses son but no matter what was about to unfold with my biological mother my mom is, and will always be my mom. I feel very lucky to have been chosen by her, that’s sort of how i always felt, like i had been chosen to be their son.

After weeks of letters back and forth the day arrived. The first time i met my biological mother it was only for about 10 minutes in an room at the agency. I was actually ok but Anna (my biological mother) was a nervous wreck. For 22 years she carried this secret with her that no one knew about, not even her close family.

I have my own little guy now and I can’t begin to imagine how hard it must have been for my biological mother to give me up, I mean, I can barely cope with being away from him when I go to work and that’s just for 8 hours. I don’t know what it must have been like for 22 years.

I’m happy to say she is now a part of our lives, I even gained two brothers, another sister and grandparents as a result.

I sometimes wonder what if I hadn’t reached out. That letter that changed my life in such a positive way would still be sitting, unopened, unanswered, in a filing cabinet.

Dressing

As a doctor, what was your most ‘now that was stupid’ moment with a patient?

I once cared for a middle-aged patient who presented to emergency with a dildo-related very embarrassing situation.

He purchased the toy for one of his sexcapades.

Curiosity hit. And he shoved the damn thing in his pooper, high-high up!

“Me first” attitude didn’t do him much good.

Funny feelings subsided fairly quickly and the horror struck when he couldn’t get it out.

His drainage was jammed, the toy was slipping further up and after about 24 hours of wishfully waiting for it to naturally pass, it hurt bad enough to seek medical help.

The official party line, that he vehemently iterated, was I just fell onto it, how else do you think it got up there!

Needless to say, emergency surgery was necessary and he landed in the ICU with sepsis related post-op complications. It took him loooong before being able to use the toilet normally!

** NOT the patient’s X-ray, but it looked similar**

Though I have seen some really absurd stuff in the ER, including a gun-shot to the penis, this surely wins the now-that-was-stupid award..

Russian “Special Flight Squadron” Lands in DC – Ukraine War to End; Russia lays out terms of surrender

World Hal Turner 22 December 2023

Russian officials arrived in Washington, DC Thursday morning to discuss the terms of Ukraine’s SURRENDER.

This is the aircraft that brought the Russian Delegation to Washington, DC:

The “Special Flight Squadron moves Kremlin officials traveling on important matters.

TERMS

The terms given to Washington, DC for Ukraine are:

Complete Ukraine surrender.

Complete surrender of all military equipment.

Russian territory will range from Karkhov to Odessa, and gives Russia complete control of Black Sea coast.

Western Ukraine cannot join NATO, or have __any__ military aid.

Russia does not care who controls western Ukraine, and have openly offered it to Poland.

Put bluntly, the Ukraine war is over and Ukraine lost. Completely.

They can no longer defend themselves in any meaningful way. If hostilities are not halted, Ukraine will simply be slaughtered and, believe it or not, Russia does NOT want to do that.

Notice this information isn’t anywhere on the mass-media news?

Notice the Washington Post STOPPED PRINTING it’s “Ukraine War Update Section?”

No reporting that Ukraine has lost – – – and not a word about Russia’s victory.

THIS personifies what the so-called “main stream” media has become: A mouthpiece for government.

The mass-media acts as a stenographer for what government wants you to know. They report “the narrative” as opposed to the “news.”

EDITRORIAL OPINION

Russia won against billions of dollars of the best equipment and NATO-trained troops, it got exactly the farmland it wanted. It lost about 30k troops and killed 300K+ Ukrainian soldiers plus NATO “advisors.”

Russia’s Military industrial capacity has tripled. NATO’s reserve equipment and arms is non existent now.

The 20 percent of Ukraine they conquered are Russian and Russian speaking; so not only do those people NOT hate Russia, they support them!

Energy prices have tripled in Europe and as things stand now, Europe is on the verge of a economic collapse.

NATO and the US have been proven to be a “paper tiger.”

So many people in the West, in its media, and in its governments thought that Ukraine was one counter-offensive away from victory. It was all lies. Deliberate lies.

One wonders how all those folks are going to deal with Ukraine’s defeat.

Have you said something that has changed someone’s life?

It was in 1987, a widow of a railway employee who died accidentally, who was barely of 33-34 years approached me to open an account. She was not even able to sign her name. Those were manual banking days. I got her account opening form except signature(which she could not sign) and advised her to learn the signature by her next visit, then only I would open her account. In a sheet of paper I wrote her name “Girija” in hindi and asked her to learn to write her name. I opened her account at my risk and confidence on that poor lady. I didn’t know why my inner sense told me to do so.

She came within two days promptly learnt to sign, so relieving my tension for pending account opening form. She got some fixed deposits from her husband’s settlement funds.

Some days after she, looked terrified, came with an old person. It seemed as if she was trying to convey me some message. I got the chance and learnt that the person accompanied was her father in law(FIL) and he had snatched all her gold and silver jewellery and threatened her to get his name in fixed deposits or else she alongwith her children would be thrown to streets.

She had two young kids of 7(boy) and 11(girl) and she being illiterate, no other source of incime other than her husband’s pension and those deposits. How could have I saved her from her FIL.

I asked them to get seated and silently approached branch manager and asked him to get them inside and tackle him by opening FDs in both names but tactfully favouring FIL & Girija “ payable to latter or survivor”. The cunning chap was satisfied by getting his name in the first place while we were satisfied to get a poor lady saved from clutches of a butcher.

She remained obliged to me always and after about one year she was before me for a withdrawal of Rs.50000/— .to my utter surprise, for the purpose of engagement of her daughter. Sparing my busy time, I tried to convince her whether she wanted to repeat her past. Her daughter wanted to learn further and family wanted to marry her. May God don’t do that, if something happens in her daughter’s life also, she would as be worse as her own, so give her some education at least matric, make her self dependent and then think of marriage.

Believe it or not, a lady who was under veils, in the guardianship of eagle-eyed FIL, stood against all the family members to stop her daughter’s engagement with an oath to educate her daughter so that she might not see her reflection again in her daughter.

I thanked God to give her so much courage to face the old custom of child marriage when she fought against all odds to save her daughter. She was all in tears and thankfulness for me when she reached the branch for redepositing the withdrawn money.

Even after my retirement, I still remember that lady, her innocence but boldness when the question of safety of her daughter, in all, God enabled me to save a girl child.

If a passenger plane window breaks in flight, do things really get sucked out or is that just movies?

Unfortunately for these nine passengers, this flight was no flick.

United 811, 24 Feb 1989, is a tragic case of explosive decompression. The skill of the pilot, David Cronin, age 59, prevented a far greater disaster. Captain Cronin was on his second to last flight before mandatory retirement at age 60. He had flown 28,000 hours, 1,700 in the Boeing 747, which was the aircraft on this flight.

United 811 was climbing out from Honolulu on its way to Auckland, New Zealand, carrying 3 flight crew, 15 flight attendants and 337 passengers. The crew were maneuvering around thunderstorms, passing through 22,000′, when there was a loud bang and the aircraft shuddered violently. Cronin called for an emergency descent and the First Officer—who was flying that leg— started to lower the landing gear which is standard procedure in such a descent. Cronin waved him off the gear, saying they’d never get back to Honolulu. By that action alone, he saved the aircraft and all still in it.

They declared an emergency and Honolulu Center began moving traffic out of 811’s way, vectoring them to the longest runway at Honolulu International, some 60 miles away.

Cronin sent the Flight Engineer down to assess damage on the main deck. The FE reported that a large portion of the right fuselage had blown off. The downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland two months earlier was fresh in the crew’s minds. They believed this was the work of a bomb.

It was not. As the pressure differential grew acute at 22,000′, the forward cargo door had blown off, slamming into the fuselage, buckling and bursting it. Nine passengers, eight still belted in their seats, were blown out ++, one of them into the number three engine. The others were hurled against the right wing’s leading edge. Death for these unfortunates would have been instantaneous.

Response to Commenters: We have no way of knowing how much life was left to these poor people once blown from the aircraft. I decided to be merciful. You can be sure that the families would argue a lot of painful life was left in the litigation against United, Boeing and P&W.

In any case, the bodies of those that fell to the ocean surface were never recovered. One flight attendant was nearly blown out, but clung to a seat leg until passengers and crew pulled her to safety. She was, nevertheless, severely injured.

What followed was brilliant flying by Cronin, drawing on his 28,000 hours of flight experience. Engines three and four were vibrating heavily, showing fire and he ordered them shut down. The 747 was now flying on only two engines, both on the left wing, making it difficult for Cronin to hold heading and altitude. He ordered the FE to dump fuel since the plane—with a full load for the 16 hour flight to New Zealand—was far over its maximum landing weight.

For that reason, Cronin flew a shallow final approach hoping the landing gear would not collapse upon touch down. He did not have benefit of leading edge slats since those on the right wing would not extend. The damaged flaps would only go to 15 degrees. He waited until the last moment to lower the gear with all its drag.

Landing hot at 200 knots (normal landing 100 – 120 knots) he braked, applying full thrust reverse on engines 1 and 2, and did not overrun the runway. The cabins were evacuated in a remarkable 45 seconds, tho every flight attendant sustained some injury, the worst being a broken shoulder.

About 18 months after the accident, the U.S. Navy recovered the cargo door from an ocean depth of 14,000′—a remarkable feat in itself! With this critical piece of evidence in hand, the NTSB concluded that faulty handling by the Honolulu ground crew was to blame for the door’s failure.

However, the Campbell family of Wellington, New Zealand, having lost their son, Lee, was not satisfied. They undertook their own investigation. They found that design of the locking mechanism on the door was, in fact, the culprit. The FAA accepted this and recommended 747 cargo doors** changed from outward-opening doors, to a so-called “plug” door, the kind you and I see as we enter the cabin of an airliner. The kind that can’t blow open in flight….##

Incompetent cargo door design seems to have been something of an Achilles heel in the construction of wide body airliners, excepting the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. Only after several instances of explosive decompression in DC-10s, killing nearly 1,000 people, did the FAA get off its ass and press its buddy Douglas to effect necessary changes. Some of the good ‘ol boys at FAA should have done time for their disgraceful, indeed criminal, lax supervision.

And for me, it’s sad that a sterling pilot like David Cronin could not continue to fly while he was fully healthy. For without his skill, it is unlikely that United 811 would have made it back to Honolulu.

** Krishna Kumar Subramanian refined my answer re the FAA Airworthiness Directive on cargo doors. Apparently, cargo doors on the new 747–8 are the same doors—modified per the Campbell’s findings— as on the United 811’s B-747–122 some 27 years ago.

## Benjamin H. points out that a “fail-safe” plug door would require more cargo space in the cargo hold. This explains why airlines, for economic reasons, would want to stay w/non-plug type door. Thank you, Benjamin.

++ Thanks to Ned Abbey for informing the author that “blown out” is the correct term here, not “sucked out” as I originally termed this ghastly event.

If Texas beef and pork are so good, why do they have to drown it in sauces and chemicals to make it taste good? In Argentina, meat is so good, all it takes is a bit of salt to bring out the fantastic taste.

They… don’t? What? Good meat doesn’t need help from sauces. And Texas is known, well known, for not adding sauce.

This is Texas brisket, before the smoker.

What you see there is kosher salt and ground black pepper (14 gauge, to be specific). That’s it. The end. Then 12–15 hours on the smoker over post oak at 180F–210F and it’s ready to eat.

This is Texas brisket as it’s served.

Note the distinct lack of sauces anywhere near it. Putting sauce on that is sacrilegious. Stay away from my barbecue with your sauces; if you don’t like the taste of smoked meat and you feel like you need to cover it up with sauce, eat something else.

However, when I smoke a pork shoulder to make tacos, I do add a little additional seasoning.

This stuff is magic, and really brings out something special in a pork butt. It’s cheap, at the local grocery store, and is an excellent blend. Served just so.

On white corn tortillas with onion, cilantro, lime, and some salsa verde if you want. But it doesn’t need it. Good meat speaks for itself, it doesn’t need help.

I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it couldn’t be more wrong.

What is the most obvious case of a patient ‘faking it’ that you have ever seen?

My mom had a muscle spasm in her shoulder. They hurt, I know. She went to the doctor and was prescribed muscle relaxers.

The following Sunday, her shoulder was hurting again, and she was out of the muscle relaxers, so she decided to go to the ER. My dad and I told her to take some Tylenol and call her doctor in the morning, but that wasn’t good enough.

My dad drove her to the ER, dropped her off at the door and went to park the car. He walked in and she was nowhere to be seen.

She didn’t tell the triage nurse “I have a muscle spasm in my shoulder”. Oh, no. She told the triage nurse that her arm hurts and it hurt to breathe. They immediately took her back and hooked her up to an EKG, started an IV, drew blood for testing, etc.

She KNEW it was a muscle spasm, not a heart attack, but went along with a bunch of unnecessary tests and time wasting for the staff, all because she wanted attention.

Can you use deadly force to protect yourself?

Let me give you an example

In 2007 – Four thieves broke into a House in Hosur. They were from Rajasthan or North India and they had deadly weapons like the Aruva or Long as it is popularly known in the courts.

The Owner and his son – woke up and fought the thieves and they ran away but one guy was hit on his head with a tyre iron (Used to change lorry or tractor tyres) and he went a few feet away and collapsed near a drain.

There were 12 witnesses to the entire scene. The victim had a rambo knife and a bihar knife in his lungi as he lay there collapsed and unconscious.

Police arrived forty five minutes later – took the statements – took the victim to the hospital where he was pronounced DOA.

The Police booked a Murder (302) and 201 case against the Owner and his son.

The Magistrate Court refused to dismiss the case on grounds of Self Defense claiming that a Rambo Knife and Bihar Knife did not indicate self defense.

The Sessions court refused to dismiss the case

The High Court – thrice refused to dismiss the case

The Accused served 17 months in Prison until they got bail from the High Court.

Eventually in 2015 – The Accused were sentenced to Life Imprisonment

Finally in 2018 January – the High Court stayed the decision and acquitted them by observing that – (a) The Victim did not have any relation with them (b) The Victim did not have any work in that locality at that time – Of course this was all nonsense.

The main reason was because The Karnataka Police arrested the other thieves in 2016 and during their interrogation observed and found their statements where they confessed to a robbery in Hosur where their partner was killed.

On January 2018 – the Two were released from Prison. Not because of the courts and not because of the Exemplary Law enforcement but because some Decent cop at the Karnataka Police side was able to help them out and a very good and decent Chennai Lawyer was able to connect the issues.

So as you can see – A Father and Son defend their property from Thieves and murderers- they serve collectively 4 Years and 5 Months in prison

Do you know the first thing the Father said when he was released?

“Next time – i will bury the body and if the police come – we will hack the cops and bury their bodies as well”

A Law abiding man – was so angry – i am sure he would have slaughtered an entire police station and all the judges in tamilnadu.

They filed a civil suit which is still pending and is likely to be pending upto 2035.

Conclusion –

India is worse than any other country except maybe Uganda or Rwanda. The Law means nothing and the Laws in CRPC or IPC mean Zilch.

The Magistrates and Judges are among the most fifth rate in the planet. They rule like Panchayats.

Unless you are linked to the Big 4 – (a) Minister (b) MP/MLA (c) IAS (d) Big Businessmen or VIPS – You are unlikely to get any justice and no matter what – even if you use Deadly Force to protect yourself from Bin Laden – you will face murder charges and even be convicted of murdering Bin Laden.

Get the hell out if possible. If not – just mind your business and pray to all the gods not to put you in a situation which involves requiring using Deadly Force for Self Defence

That’s how…

What’s the scariest experience you’ve ever had when picking your child up from school?

It wasn’t my child but my cousin.

I was 15 years old. I was staying with my aunt yet again as my mother decided she needed another break from me and went on another bender.

My aunt was more of a mom to me. As a result I was very close to her family and called her mom Grandma and her sister Aunt. Anyway Grandma was living with my Aunt. She had dementia and was having a particularly bad day. My aunt asked me to pick up my 10 year cousin from school which was only a block away. I did this often as my aunt tried to shield my cousin from her mothers episodes. She gave me some cash to stop at the small ice cream place near her school to keep her away longer.

I got to my cousins school expecting to see her on the playground where all the kids played while waiting to get picked up. She wasn’t there but I wasn’t worried as I knew she sometimes helped the teacher clean up the classroom after school. I went to her classroom and she wasn’t there either! No one was.

Starting to get worried I started roaming the hallways peeking in the classrooms looking for her. She was nowhere to be found!

I ran to the principals office freaked out by then and told the secretary I couldn’t find her! The secretary immediately made an announcement over the PA system telling my cousin to come to the office. 10 minutes passed. She never came.

We went to the teachers lounge and got the teachers to help look for her. I’ve never been so scared! My aunt trusted me with her daughter and I didn’t know how to call her and tell her she was gone.

30 minutes later we heard a shout. One of the teachers had found her. She was in the library reading. She had gone to check out a book when school had let out without telling anyone and the librarian had locked her in.

I hugged her hard and told her to always tell someone where she was going. It was for her safety. She started crying and apologizing over and over. I told her it was okay. Her principal gave her the same lecture and we left.

My aunt hadn’t called yet to say it was safe to come home so we went for ice cream and then to the local park. An hour later my aunt called and told us to come on home. Grandma finally went to sleep.

After my cousin went to bed that night I told my aunt what had happened. At first she seemed upset but then said they were lucky to have me there. I was shocked. I didn’t receive compliments very often. She gave me a hug told me I was a good person and a great sister to my cousin.

My cousin always made sure she was on the playground after school after that.

Appreciate NOW

Only in China

The sheer logistics of trying to feed a nation of 1.4 billion people are insane. Take this building right here — it’s a pig farm. A 26-story pig farm named Ezhou farm. It’s one of the biggest ‘only in China’ moments for me.

Basically, China has been having some pretty major geopolitical tensions with many of its neighbors lately, and there have been a lot of issues with the ongoing trade war with America. So China wants to be less dependent on imports of vital things such as food.

As a result, it has started building absolutely MASSIVE pig farms on an industrial scale unseen anywhere in human history. It’s pretty crazy. Also, I gotta say, pretty impressive.

So yeah, 26-story pig farms are a strange phenomenon I’ve not seen anywhere else. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed Chinese cuisine knows it cannot survive without pork. So if ever war breaks out and trade routes are blocked, China is ensuring it’ll never run out of pork chops.

How many German women did Russian soldiers impregnate after the fall of the Third Reich?

Some sources claim that Red Army soldiers impregnated about 200,000 of the about 2,000,000 German women its soldiers raped during their advance into Germany in 1945. Quite a few German women were murdered during the mass rapes and looting or committed suicide afterwards, so the numbers could be off by several thousand.

Senior Red Army officers attempted to crack down on ill-disciplined Soviet soldiers and numerous enlisted men and some officers were either shot or sent to serve in penal units for lacking discipline on and off the battlefield. Discipline tended to be mostly excellent in Red Army Guards divisions and mechanized and tank corps. Red Army infantry units that had to use ill-trained and often ill-disciplined conscripts, often soldiers who had witnessed German atrocities in the Soviet Union, probably committed the preponderance of the rapes on German soil. The dead German women in the photo posted below probably committed suicide with cyanide capsules. It is unclear if they were raped beforehand or simply feared the Soviet soldiers so much that they took their own lives to avoid mass rape and murder.

Why are a lot of Nigerians so extroverted, fun, and friendly compared to other countries?

If they say Nigerians are among the happiest people on earth I don’t think we will argue. An average Nigerian mentality is just cruise. People that make fun of their own Misery’s. Humor is a gift you get for being a Nigerian, slightly higher than the line for insanity. I won’t be wrong if I say it’s our coping mechanism. Fun is a way we know how to keep on pushing and a way to look beyond our imperfect country. With how our country is if we don’t laugh at life we will go mad.

Who turns a protest into a party? Nigerians

Who replys with ffb on their president’s post on Twitter? Nigerians

Who creates happiness out of nothing? Nigerians

Who turns every situation into a comedy? Nigerians.

Nigerians use banter and humor to hide how fucked we all are in this country.

Nigerians are warm, friendly, kind, fun, witty and merry. Despite all the troubles , all our pains. We are sensitive to all the Issues we have and our heart silently scream in pain. Yet we still force a smile and make jokes out of everything.

If only we have good leaders, Nigeria would have become the best place on earth

Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter

How does spending the majority of one’s life in prison feel?

I was arrested when I was 17 and was released from prison when I was 46. So I spent well over half my life in prison.. When I was sentenced I remember being shocked. I didn’t cry like you see some of these teenagers do when sentenced. My dad had taught me that whether I did something bad or good to own it. But yet my whole family and some friends were in tears. I spent my first 5 years at MSP and really there I was just trying to survive.. But even though I didn’t like being in prison I became used to prison life. When They transferred me I was happy. For one I was leaving that place Second a different prison would be a change of scenery. I also spent the whole time on the transfer bus looking out the window. Seeing farms made me a little homesick

So I spent from 1993- 99 at Farmington Correctional Center. There were others that I knew from MSP there already Time passed pretty quick there. It wasn’t as violent even though you could not let your guard down. Anyway one day, some friends came to see me . One of my female friends told me. “You are different . Your eyes used to be full of life and you were always smiling as a teen-ager” I told her that I still smiled. “She said it wasn’t the same.

Anyway by now I had settled down into prison life .Every time I got a parole hearing I hoped for the best but expected the worst.. You laugh and joke with people in prison that you have become cool with. Not because prison is funny, but it helps keep your sanity. You miss out on birthdays weddings and holidays. You know this as each happened but push it to the back of your mind. . Oh you may say something to a friend like “ Guess what? My Brother is getting married” He will probably say something nice and then you dont speak about it much .And the days, weeks, months and years pass. On my 36th birthday my celly and best friend in prison made a meal to “celebrate” and I reflected on the fact that I had been in prison half my life. I have tried to convey how it feels but the only way you will know for sure how it feels is if you experience it. I pray that never happens .

Partners

What are the most profound jokes ever?

A jobless man applied for the position of ‘office boy’ at a very big company.

The employer interviewed him, then a test: clean the floor.

“You are hired.” – the employer said. ”Give me your email address, and I’ll send you the application to fill, as well as when you will start.”

The man replied, “I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”

“I’m sorry,” said the employer, “if you don’t have an email that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.”

The man left with no hope. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 USD in his pocket.

He then decided to go to the supermarket, bought a 10kg tomato crate, then sold the tomatoes door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded and doubled his capital.

He repeated the operation 3 times and returned home with $60 USD. The man realized that he could survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and returned late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly later, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

Five years later, the man’s company was one of the biggest food retailers. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance.

He called an insurance broker and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied: “I don’t have an email.”

The broker replied curiously, “You don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Do you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?”

The man paused for a while, and replied: “An office boy!”

Are you shocked that Burger King is closing over 300 restaurants?

I went to one of the few remaining Burger Kings in the City of Toronto this month. It’s in the Woodbine Centre in Rexdale. It’s a mall that’s clearly on its last legs as it has not one, but two liquidation outlets, although I’m astounded that the Hudson’s Bay Company (which just closed a flagship store at Yonge & Bloor) is still operating there. It appears the mall area is being completely redeveloped because it was obvious several of the stores there were at the end of their lease term from all the clearance signs.

I had not eaten at a BK in about two years. The last time I went there was when things started to open post-pandemic and I ate at the one on Yonge Street. I don’t eat at BK often because they’re inconvenient. They used to have a location across the street from where I worked, but when that complex was redeveloped they lost their lease and didn’t move back into the new food court. There’s an A&W there now. Similarly, BK closed down when the Royal Bank Plaza redeveloped its food court too.

I think my Whopper Combo set me back about $14 (Cdn.). That’s pricey – more than A&W’s Mama Combo.

So, BK is inconvenient (in bad locations) and no longer a really good value for money. A lot of fast food places are finding the same problem now – they’re in places no-one goes anymore, or they’re really old (the one on Yonge Street dates back to the 1980s). Here in Canada, they’re facing massive competition from A&W which has outlets everywhere, sometimes only a few blocks apart. You can get a sandwich and drink from Timmies for about $11. Five Guys serves better burgers (more expensive though) and they’re actually a little more convenient for me.

For example. there’s a BK at Eglinton Square, which I visit from time to time. I never eat there. I often forget it’s there. There’s a food court inside Eglinton Square but the BK is a stand-alone about 100m from the mall entrance. It’s also just across the street from an A&W, and just down the street from a joint Wendy’s/Timmies.

Again, Whoppers are lovely, but they’re certainly not anything I’m going to pay a massive premium for. I talk about going to Niagara Falls a lot and BK has a massive presence there in wonderful locations – Clifton Hill and the Fallsview Casino. However, they charge another 50% on top of normal prices (there is one on Lundy’s Lane that charges regular prices). BK also used to have locations in Cineplex theatres and had the same pricing strategy. There are three Timmies in locations in Niagara Falls similar to BK’s, but they charge regular prices.

What is the most humiliating thing you have ever seen happen to a receptionist?

Before I came to Thailand, I worked in Corporate America.

Her name was Laurie, and she was a really hardworking, patient receptionist, a young, very attractive woman of 21 who was going to night classes to further her education. Few knew that.

She was first contact for phone calls, visitors, deliveries and dealt with the everchanging schedules for five VPs and their unit managers.

She also had to contend with men hitting on her, both staff and visitors. She was good at it and could usually send them on their way with no hard feelings.

Except VP3. He never stopped pestering her. He had gone through a bitter divorce in which he had to give his ex almost half of the wealth and his children for marathon cheating.

Laurie looked like a younger version of his ex.

The humiliating event was orchestrated by VP3. He had a very powerful client that paid the company millions. The client called, Laurie informed him that VP3 was in a meeting and would return his call within the hour. She hand delivered the message to VP3.

But he didn’t make the call. He accused her of not telling him and blackmailed his secretary into backing him up. He didn’t do this quietly: he called HR and the other VPs to the open conference room and berated her in front of them.

Laurie attempted to defend herself, but VP3 was relentless and knew the company wouldn’t dare take her word over his. When he couldn’t force her to publicly admit wrongdoing, nor would she grovel, he loudly fired her with no severence pay.

But Laurie was no fool. She had kept copious records about work and VP3’s harassment. She had many friends in the office who would testify on her behalf.

Within a month, she had filed a suit against the company and VP3. The company offered a hefty sum to make it all go away.

But karma wasn’t finished.

Fast forward about six years. That really important client filed suit against VP3 and the company for mismanagement.

I enjoy imagining the reaction when the company lawyers informed VP3 et al that Laurie was one of several attorneys opposing them and had depositioned numerous previous and current employees. The court threw out the ‘conflict of interest’ motion.

I heard that the company and VP3 had to pay a stunning amount.

One never knows who that ‘lowly’ employee may be one day!

What is the most cruel thing you saw a parent do to their child?

I was the weird kid. Throughout elementary and middle school my mother kept my hair as short as a boy’s and dressed me in my brother’s hand me downs, even though I had an older sister as well. My early struggles with depression made schoolwork difficult, and I landed myself a spot in special ed. I was teased and bullied mercilessly.

One day, around the 3rd or 4th grade, I was getting dressed for school and couldn’t find one of my sneakers. I searched frantically, knowing the sort of trouble I’d be in, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. My mother was livid. She was not about to reward my irresponsibility, she screeched, with a day off from school! Her solution? I was dropped off wearing bedroom slippers.

Big, fluffy, orange and black bobbly-headed Garfield slippers with ping-pong ball googly eyes.

The other kids descended on the feast like vultures.

“Look at Baby Bacon!” (Rhymes with Meghann)

“Hey Bacon! You must really love Garfield!”

“Bacon and Garfield, sitting in a tree…”

The teacher at last called my mother to come pick me up, insisting I was being disruptive. My mother completely lost it. After a spanking I spent the afternoon confined to my room, with instructions to find the shoe before I came out for any reason whatsoever— bathroom, water and dinner included. I panicked and dismantled everything, from my bed to my closet to my bookshelf. Finally I found the shoe amidst a jumbled herd of discarded My Little Ponies in the rubbermaid bin where my mother collected my old toys for goodwill. She must have accidentally gathered it up while cleaning.

She had put it there. Not me.

A few weeks ago, I attended a traditional Thanksgiving family gathering. I brought green bean casserole and mac and cheese and we enjoyed our time together.

But the next day, my mom came to town (divorced parents) and I felt obligated to host a second “Thanksgiving.” I say “obligated” because (a) I can’t cook and (b) I suck at hosting. But it just didn’t seem right for her to travel so far and not enjoy a home-cooked meal with her family on Thanksgiving weekend.

So I invited my mom and stepdad, aunt and uncle, and my brother/sister-in-law/kids that we had just seen the day prior. I didn’t have the skills to make a Thanksgiving dinner, so I announced a chili night…the one delicious thing I CAN make.

And I’ve gotta tell you…it wasn’t that great. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I nearly ruined the entire double batch of chili when I forgot to turn down the temperature and left it to boil for 15+ minutes.

I made cornbread, put it in the microwave to stay warm, and then forgot to bring it out until after everyone was done with their chili.

I bought disposable bowls in an attempt to simplify cleanup…then watched the chili grease seep through the bowls.

I busted out a small fire pit for the kids to roast marshmallows, then struggled to actually START a fire in it. Three people later, we had a “meh” flame.

And at the end of my mediocre night of hosting, my 8-year-old daughter told me, “I wish I could rewind this day and do it ALL OVER AGAIN! It was the most fun EVER!!”

It turns out that while I was burning chili and forgetting cornbread, she was making silly “music videos” with her cousins with a karaoke microphone, an old iPod touch, and one cousin flickering the lights on and off for “effects.”

While my bowls were failing at the ONE JOB they had, my family was BSing each other over board games.

And while our fire was holding on for dear life, the kids (and a few adults!) gathered around it, debating the perfect amount of toasting and stuffing oversized marshmallows into their mouths.

Friend, don’t wait until you’re ready and able to host an elaborate gathering to invite people over. Don’t wait until your house is clean…or you tidy up your yard. My yard is 20% grass, 70% weeds, and 10% dirt right now…and the kids still found a million ways to play there.

Your family doesn’t need a spotless house. Your friends and neighbors don’t need an Instagram-worthy dinner and sides display.

They need to talk with you, to laugh with you, to tear up pieces of cardboard to start a tiny backyard fire with you.

Just make what you can, be who you are, and open your door. Because you need those things too.

What is the brutal truth about life after marriage?

I’ve been married nearly 18 years. I am very happy to be walking through life with my spouse. But there are some brutal truths.

You don’t magically change, and neither do they, into a different person simply because you get married. You don’t change your mind about major issues – one of the saddest ends to a marriage was seeing 2 friends who loved each other divorce acrimoniously because he hadn’t believed her when she said she didn’t want children.
It is not “happily ever after.” Life throws up bad stuff and stressful stuff. Sometimes your spouse can support and comfort you, but sometimes they don’t have the right skills or emotional bandwidth. They are also humans and dealing with their own crap. I tell my spouse whether I need a hug and a “there, there,” practical advice or to be left alone for a few hours to read or watch something escapist. Because me reacting badly when he offers help triggers his snarkiness which really doesn’t help!
It’s likely that you will be attracted to other people. That crazy infatuation period has a chemical shelf life in your brain, so if you let it pass without taking actions that impact the marriage (assuming it’s a marriage you want to stay in), it’s all good. If you do cheat, you should do so knowing that there is a strong chance you will get caught and it’s going to be very painful for your spouse and is very likely to end your marriage.
You need to let some stuff ride. I have a couple of absolutes that are marriage enders, so does he. Everything else is a negotiation, and sometimes it’s just letting go of something that you’d never do if you lived alone. Like how clean/tidy the place is, for example.
If you were unhappy and discontented before marriage, getting married doesn’t fix that. Active additions to sex, gambling, spending, drugs, alcohol, work, food, etc. don’t magically stop because someone gets married. If someone isn’t doing and continuing the work to not fall into these behaviours, you have something to be very worried about. If I start using again, I can’t imagine my marriage surviving and I’d put my spouse through hell before it ended.
The other brutal truth is that a good marriage will eventually end with one of you dead. Selfishly, I’m hoping I’m the one who goes first so that I don’t have to deal with the grief I’m going to feel if I lose my best friend, my love, and the person who can make me laugh like a four-year-old!

Retrofuturistic Voyages: Star Trek in the Roaring Twenties

Can you tell me about a time that you sued someone in civil court and won?

my husband and I just won a civil case against a building contractor that flooded our property while building other houses in our neighborhood. But the story gets better. Because this started at the beginning of Covid (April 2020) I was home all the time. He drained a swamp to build a house and sent the pond through a culvert into our easement that emptied into our backyard. Destroyed the culvert, never repaired it, built a house next to the easement (on the other side), ran over destroyed easement with large bucket caterpillar, then threatened to kick my husbands ass when we confronted him. He tried to mansplain water flow to me, as well. Well, with all my free time, I was able to watch what was happening, so if he violated code I would call the city. Sounds petty, but hey, I had a flooded backyard, and a guy who screamed “asshole” at me every time I walked my dogs.

then one day his survey guy shows up. On my property. I told them and him to get the fuck off my land. Survey next door all you want, but get your feet off my property. They told me no, they own my land. I laughed and laughed, and then told them that’s not how property ownership works. And that by state law they had to 1) give me notice of intent to survey and 2) give me 24 hours. the surveyors told me they did not. Then THEY called the police on me. For some dumb reason, the cop told them (the contractors) to put a Protection From Harassment on me. So they did. It was granted. Ooooo, the lies they told in that! Things like I threatened to shoot them in front of the cops, I put grease on their work vehicles (wtf) and I stole things from the construction site. All types of crazy shit. Okay. I’m still at home and I’ve got a phone with a camera and now one of the best lawyers in the state. I took thousands of pictures of my property, their property (from a distance, lol) everything that negates what they said in the their PFH.

we just went to court several months ago, he hasn’t shown up for the last several hearings and we won. I won $30,000 in defamation for him lying on the PFH and my husband won $20,000 because he was mentioned in it. The total amount included repairs to property and lawyer fees.

PS- when we went to court for the PFH we subpoenaed the cop who told them to place it and the chief of police. It was suddenly dismissed by their side. But the city wanted to charge me for the officers time, and have the court sanction me. We fought it and won, obvi. But the best thing about that part was the city lawyers were scared of my lawyer that at their firm it went from a low lawyer to his boss then finally to a managing partner in a matter of days once they realized who my lawyer was because my lawyer told me he knew him. That law firm wasn’t leaving anything to chance and still lost.

I laugh about this once a week. The loser contractor now lives in a trailer his dad owns, is divorced from his wife (business partner) and all three owe us close to $100 k.

if he had stopped the flooding and apologized, this would never have come to this.

What is a common mistake people make without realizing it?

Last night I saw a camera lens online that I wanted.

It was used. There were no bids.

I put in a bid at just over $425.

There were 2 hours left in the auction. An hour goes by. No bids. I’m excited. It’s an amazing lens.

Suddenly. <ding>

$430.

Oh so you wanna go?!?!?!?

Me: $440

Him: $455.

Oh you think you are a baller, huh?!?!?!?

Then this escalates into a full blown bidding war. I am ignoring phone calls as I pound on keyboard.

We get to $725. He puts a bid at $730.

I then have an epiphany.

Dude. Do you really want to bid more than that for a used lens? You can buy it new for $790.

I bowed out.

There are many situations in life where we don’t even realize that we are trying to “win”.

The problem is that we are trying to win the wrong game.

In life, we often find that the price of winning is losing.

Why A Lot Of MODERN WOMEN Are DELUSIONAL | And The Male LONELINESS Epidemic

What’s something most people don’t know about the Holocaust?

As someone who studies and talks about the holocaust, I often get a question- “why didn’t the Jews fight back”.

The answer is sad. For those that were murdered in the gas chambers they didn’t think they were about to die. They thought they were being showered before registration into the camp. By the time they realized what was happening, they were in a dark room quickly filling with Cyanide gas.

But- the Jews that knew very often fought back.

Operation Reinhard was a 2-year long effort to kill every Jew the Germans could find. In 4 extermination camps, almost 2 million people would be gassed and killed from late 1941 – late 1943. In 2 of these camps though, there were revolts, and thanks to these revolts- there were survivors.

I am going to focus on Sobibor because I think it is very interesting and even badass.

Sobibor was an extermination camp where 250,000 had been murdered. As 1943 was coming to a close the camp prisoners noticed that prisoners from Belzec (another extermination camp) had been sent to Sobibor and murdered after they dismantled and shut down their own camp.

The prisoners knew they would soon be killed when Sobibor was shut down so they came up with a brilliant plan.

Out of this, a resistance group was formed. They brainstormed ideas but soon got very lucky when a number of Soviet POWs arrived at the camp as more laborers, among them Alexander ‘Sasha’ Pechersky.

Sasha impressed everyone. During one of his first work details, he was placed outside the camp to cut down trees. When the SS guard started whipping Jewish laborers for cutting too slowly Sasha protested.

The SS guard, amused by this, challenged Sasha to a challenge. If Sasha could cut down a tree in 5 minutes he would win a pack of smokes. If not, he would get 25 lashes. Sasha agreed and 4.5 minutes later the tree was cut down. When the SS guard offered smokes Sasha said “thanks but I don’t smoke. The SS guard then returned with bread and butter and Sasha said “no thank you, the rations I receive satisfy me fully”.

This act of defiance became a rallying cry in the camp. Pretty soon Sasha was one of the leaders of the resistance.

After a plan to tunnel out of the camp failed, they settled on an all-out revolt.

What took place is brilliant.

On October 14th 1943 the time was now. The camps commander, who was gifted at rooting out conspiracies, had left the camp with his aides. This was the time for the prisoners to strike.

They would designate combat teams in every barracks. These combat teams were the strongest men armed with crude weapons.

The prisoners then lured the SS guards to various locations. They would say “hey we have some new coats confiscated, come pick one out” and stuff like that. SS guards were lured to tailor shops, storerooms, shoe shining places, and other buildings where combat teams lie in wait.

First the camp commander SS Untersturmfuher Johann Niemann had his head split in by an axe. Then, every 6 minutes for the next hour an SS Officer was killed.

No alarm was sounded so far- things were going well. There was a problem though. Karl Frenzel, the most feared of the SS, had been late to his appointment and was thus still alive. Additionally, many killings had been far too public.

At this point, Sasha was sure the plot would soon be discovered as bodies were located.

Sasha then gave a speech to the assembled prisoners.

Our day has come. Most of the Germans are dead. Let’s die with honor. Remember, if anyone survives, he must tell the world what has happened here!

The prisoners charged- using the pistols and rifles they had stolen. All-out chaos broke out as the prisoners got to the gate and nearby fences and clamored over.

The remaining SS Guards realize what is happening and open fire. Combat breaks out between the guards and prisoners. Hundreds of prisoners are slaughtered but many guards are gunned down from prisoners returning fire.

A few hundred get over the fence and head for the forest. Landmines kill many as others are gunned down.

In total, 150 are killed in the breakout, well over 100 were killed by mines in the forest, and a further 107 are hunted down and killed in the following days.

208 escaped with their lives though, and 58 would survive until the end of the war to testify what happened at Sobibor.

Sasha would steward a group of 50 Jews through the forest before abandoning them and making his way to the Red Army. He would survive the war and die in 1990 at the age of 80.

These 58 survivors would be the only people to survive Sobibor.

Treblinka had a similar revolt/escape where prisoners looted the armory, used grenades to destroy the camp, and made a dash for the gate. Here too almost everyone was killed but 70 managed to survive.

1.8 million Jews were sent to Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. Of those 1.8 million, only 178 survived. 50 escaped Belzec during its operation, 58 escaped Sobibor during the uprising, and 70 escape Treblinka during their uprising.

This means these camps killed 99.992% of those sent there. Truly horrific.

The way it ALL ENDS: the five endgames that all women face

The West is in really BIG trouble.

Will Biden Start World War III?

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I’m sure I could lead off this piece with a dozen quotes from various luminary thinkers through the ages about the wisdom of striking your enemies at moments of great weakness, confusion, or disarray. But I won’t, because I think the concept is sort of obvious, even to those who are not great thinkers.

Boxers and fighters know it.

Corporate raiders know it.

Lawyers and politicians know it, too.

You could even say capitalizing on vulnerability is in the collective DNA of nature.

Whenever possible, predators tend to seek prey of the old, sick, weak, and stupid variety — rather than specimens in the prime of life, at the peak of their strength and courage.

Point being, the U.S. is increasingly showing weakness, division, confusion, and vulnerability to the world. And no, this did not start all of a sudden with Joe Biden’s election. I would argue that it’s been escalating under the last few administrations, to one degree or another. But to my eyes, it’s increasing exponentially under the “leadership” of America’s first invertebrate president…

And I think this could tempt our enemies and adversaries — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, ISIS, whomever — to test us (and our allies) more and more over the course of Biden’s tenure, on multiple fronts, including militarily.

This is not hard to imagine when you zoom out and look at things from 30,000 feet

Aside from the questionable condition and readiness of certain parts of America’s military, or some of our more anemic foreign policy moves of the recent past…

I’m just as concerned with how a number of other things we’re doing (or allowing to be done) domestically could invite increasing challenges from abroad, or perhaps even violent attack one day. I’m talking about things like:

LAX BORDER SECURITY — Between all the mixed messaging, catch-and-release policies, surreptitious transportation of illegals into the interior (many of them infected with SARS-CoV-2, mind you), and the cessation of border-wall construction, the U.S. has seen an absolute explosion of illegal immigration since Biden’s election.

Case in point: May’s total of over 180,000 apprehensions hadn’t been seen in a single month since April of 2000, the year that set the current annual record for illegal immigrants (1.68 million). So far in 2021, we’re on pace to see as many as 1.86 million illegals on the year, a new record. And an increasing number of them are coming in from places other than central America, including Haiti and Africa.

REJECTION OF POLICE — Reversing a 40-year trend that saw spending for law enforcement more than triple, at least 20 major U.S. cities have now reduced or re-directed funds away from their police forces. Some of them have pledged to cut cop funding by as much as 50%. All told, more than $840 million has evaporated from police coffers in the last year and a half or so.

This had contributed to an unprecedented wave of retirement among cops, creating record vacancies on police forces across the nation. Baltimore alone needs at least 259 more officers on the street, and is begging Washington for federal agents to help with enforcement. The Philadelphia force has 268 vacancies, and is expecting more in the near future. There are many other American PD’s in similarly dire straits, too.

ACCEPTANCE OF CRIME — From abiding lawless “autonomous zones” to giving rioters free rein to destroy property and granting criminals tacit permission to swipe merchandise off store shelves without penalty, the force of law in America is being eroded by the day.

Yet even as crime increases, many kinds of criminal prosecutions are declining across the country. In fact, a movement is afoot in multiple U.S. cities to stop trying entire classes of criminality. Baltimore, as just one example, is no longer prosecuting low-level drug possession, prostitution, or traffic misdemeanors.

And did you see what happened in St. Louis recently? A judge was compelled to let an accused murderer go free because the prosecution failed to show up for trial. The same week, two other murder cases were also dismissed because of unprepared or absent prosecutors. Disgraceful.

PUNISHING U.S. INDUSTRIES — Biden nixed the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would’ve been a tremendous boon for American energy independence, but removed long-standing U.S. sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which increases Europe’s energy dependence and undermines our credibility in the region. Biden has made moves against the domestic coal and oil industries as well…

He’s also aggressively pushing mass-adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), despite America’s overall reluctance to fully embrace them, and the fact that China leads the global EV battery market. The precarious domestic steel and aluminum industries are vulnerable, too, as Biden weighs lifting the Trump-era tariffs that helped bring them back from the brink.

TOLERATING SOFT AGGRESSION — Biden’s response to repeated Russia-based hacking has been notably impotent. Instead of an iron-fisted ultimatum (or an actual counter-hack), he presented Putin with a list of 16 domestic infrastructure targets declared “off limits” to attack. The implication being that everything else is fair game.

The coronavirus pandemic could quite rightly be classified as an act of foreign aggression, too. Mounting evidence suggests that it was developed in a Chinese lab, and whether its release was accidental or intentional, China clearly encouraged its spread around the world, effectively weaponizing it.

Then there’s the PRC’s repeated threatening actions against Hong Kong and Taiwan (and in the South China Sea), Russian actions against Ukraine, North Korean missile tests, etc. All this tallies up to an awful lot of soft aggression against the U.S. and its allies, most of it unanswered in any meaningful way.

All of these things, and more (like declining standards for U.S. troops) project an image of decreasing strength

They suggest an inability to secure and lead our own nation (much less the world) competently, and an unwillingness to do the hard, but necessary thing. This softer image does not make us safer, it makes us more vulnerable.

I don’t see any of it getting better under the increasingly feeble-minded and tone-deaf Joe Biden, either — a man with a lifelong reputation for poll-watching, China-favoring, family-first, flip-flopping “leadership.” This is not just my opinion. You can look this stuff up. Shanghai Joe’s been among China’s top advocates in Washington for nearly his entire tenure in U.S. government. He’s also on record being on both sides of about just every major issue…

And don’t get me started on his family’s cozy and colorful (main color: dollar green) relationship with China and other powerful foreign entities. My read on this is that Biden can be bought, one way or another — and that he has been, many times over.

Bottom line: In my view, the policies of President Biden and his party are waving red flags in front of some very powerful bulls. And if China, Russia, or anyone else has a mind to attack us, I think they’d be very tempted to do it under his watch.

My great hope (yours, too, I’m betting) is that we get through Biden’s tenure without full-on war — and back to a more independent, self-sufficient America with some steel in its spine, both domestically and globally.

But the way things are going, the hope of such a thing may be all we end up having.

A rare but desirable quality in date-able women

What is the rudest thing you have ever seen someone do?

I was at a grocery store checkout once, and I saw these three college kids having a field day with a poor clerk who was trying to bag up their groceries. The whole thing, apparently, started when he dropped a bottle of wine they were buying. He apologized, cleaned up the mess, and rushed back to get them another bottle.

While he was gone, they started talking about what a “complete idiot” he was. They proceeded to make fun of the way he looked, the way he was dressed, his weight, his glasses, you name it. When the poor guy got back, they didn’t let up. They started insulting him right to his face, calling him a whole litany of terrible things until they had him on the verge of tears. The kid was only about 16; he was terribly overweight, and I could see how he was probably an easy target for any bully. I was bagging up my own stuff, but I was completely mesmerized by this entire exchange. Suddenly, the kid must have said something because one of the guys reached out and popped him across the face. It wasn’t a punch or a hard slap, just some wussy little pop meant to humiliate him. To my amazement, the kid didn’t walk away. He just stood there red faced with tears welling up in his eyes. The dude reached out and popped him again and, for some reason, this was the funniest thing that these guys had ever seen in their lives. They were laughing like there was no tomorrow.

I kept looking around for a manager, thinking someone needed to say something, but I finally realized that no one was going to. Then it hit me: Why couldn’t I say something? I reached out and grabbed the kid, and pulled him out of the way. I stepped up to the guy, pulled a 20 dollar bill out of my wallet, and told him that I would give it to him if he would hit me like that. He stared at me for a second like I had lost my mind before asking what my problem was.
“You’re my damn problem,” I responded. “Hit me in the face like that; I dare you.”
Well, there were three of these guys, but they didn’t look like they had ever been in a fight in their entire lives. I am a little over six feet tall, and I weigh around 225. I don’t consider myself to be a tough guy but, needless to say, they didn’t want any part of me. Instead, they simply started gathering their things and headed for the door. I pulled the kid out from behind me, and ordered them to apologize. They laughed at me, and hurried for the parking lot. Well, I was a lot angrier that day than I thought.

I followed them out of the store all the way to their car doing my best to start a fight. They got very quiet, and not one of them had anything to say. Instead, they just kept their heads down, and refused to make eye contact.

I let them leave, and then pulled the kid aside and told him to never let anyone push him around like that. In the future, he needed to, at least, walk away and find a manager. At this point, the kid just broke down in tears and sobbed on my shoulder. It turned out that his dad had died only a year earlier, and he and his mom were all alone in the world. At that point, I really wished I had put one of those bastards in the hospital. Instead, I gave the kid my card, and told him to call if there was ever anything I could do for him.
I never saw or heard from him again.

What are your thoughts on adults who still live at home with their parents without paying rent or contributing towards the household expenses?

We asked our adult son to live with us however long he could stomach it. He had just had a disastrous brief marriage and a divorce, was quite broke from the wedding rings, the wedding itself, buying a condo for he and his wife, etc. He had also bought himself a used Audi which self-destructed and led him back to driving a 20 year old Honda, worth only a few hundred dollars.

With the new marriage, he had started a new job where there was a potential for future growth. The learning curve was tough. He was working 10 hour days and then studying to learn the job more thoroughly until midnight, rinse and repeat. In addition he was emotionally almost catatonic from his grief over the breakup.

He is living with us now. It has been about two years so far. I think he will be here until January when he plans to get an MBA from one of the top schools to further his career. No wife, no kids, no girlfriend, no debts, now is the time if he is going to do it.

My son is an easy keeper. He is a complete neat freak, always leaving the room looking better after he leaves it than what it was when he entered it. Same with the kitchen. He will walk in to make his lunch and when he leaves the kitchen is spotless. And he is quiet as a mouse.

So, I am not sure this arrangement would work out for every adult child, but in our circumstances it does. We respect him as an adult and he respects us. And we are happy to help him get back on his feet financially and build up his savings.

This is why so many men today are blue pill

Jesus H Christ

What is the most badass thing a private has said to a general?

I was a corporal, not a private. I was sent to Fleet Hospital 5 for a gallbladder removal. They took out my appendix, by mistake. As I lay in my bed, belly full of stitches, my Sergeant Major came to visit, and shared that he would be back the next day because Norman Schwarzkopf was visiting. He was touring medical facilities before the war kicked off.

The hospital gave us magazines to read- people would send them via the any servicemen mail program. I had a Time magazine that asked an important question. Why was nearly the whole Marine Corps in theatre before the army deployed a far smaller amount of servicemen.

The next day I get my painkillers and they put me on my ass. In hindsight, the Navy may have upped my dose so I wouldn’t complain to anyone about how they screwed up my surgery.

So there I am, flying on pain killers, when the General walks in with his entourage. My SgtMaj was there, bringing up the rear. Schwarzkopf approaches my bed, and I am in and out of consciousness. They really shot me up with painkillers, bad. He looks at me and says “What’s a Marine doing in a bed that could be used for one of my soldiers?” I looked him right in the eye, pointed at the Time magazine on my tray table and answered “What soldiers?”

From the look on his face, my SgtMaj May have literally shit himself. The color definitely drained from his face.

The exact opposite happened with Gen. Schwarzkopf. He turned red. I mean really RED. Then, something amazing happened. He cracked a smile. Then, he cracked a joke. For the life of me, I don’t remember what he said, but I was cracking up, and crying from the huge surgical wound. Schwarzkopf noticed his jokes were causing me major discomfort- so he doubled down and told more jokes.

In retrospect, my badassery was chemically induced, but it showed off a side of a 4 Star general, most corporals don’t get to see. My abdomen still twinges when I hear the name Schwarzkopf, and I hope he is still laughing about my interaction with him, wherever he is.

Who was the most disturbed child you have ever seen?

Susan Wiley.

Nicknamed Genie, she was abused for the entirety of her life. From birth until the age of 13, she spent her entire life in a room.

Susan grew up with an extremely abusive father who would beat her if she ever let out a sound. She was beyond neglected. Left in her room to rot. It’s amazing she somehow survived. Her parents had three other children, two of whom had died. The detective at the scene described her room as so:

“Genie ‘slept in a crib formed with chicken wire attached with a latch,’ he said. ‘It was a cage for the child. The window was covered with aluminum foil to reflect out the sunlight. The room was as dark as a coal mine at midnight.’”

One baby died because the father could no longer tolerate the crying child so he wrapped her up, put her in a drawer, and left her to die.

As a result, Susan never learned many of the basic physical, mental, and social abilities we have. She could barely walk, she didn’t know where to pee and poo. She was never taught language. She couldn’t speak or understand language when social workers found her.

Then she became the psychology obsession of the world. While yes, they helped her to a certain extent, in my eyes, she was seen more as a experimental specimen and not a fragile, vulnerable human child.

The rest of her life, she lived in multiple foster homes. In those homes, she was again abused and neglected.

Today, she’s in an adult care facility.

I tear up whenever I think of her story. People can be so, so awful.

What are top 10 professional life hacks?

Don’t say “anyone.” Otherwise, everyone’s going to be waiting for others.
Sound decisive. Be punctual. People respect you for it.
Greet: hello/mornings/evenings/night (with a big smile)
Don’t complain either about your colleague or senior with anyone- puts you in bad light.
till 28–30 focus on learning and gaining skills
Stop getting away from responsibilities, or, like, how will I do it? It sounds great when you willingly do things. Do more than is expected. And sometimes take credit as well.
Always talk about your abilities with respect. If you share your weaknesses, they will find it hard to remember your pluses.
Take ownership of your mistakes. When you realize you erred, it’s natural to panic. Instead of reacting instantly, stop and take a deep breath (or several times). Then, begin brainstorming possible solutions.
Learn to accept constructive criticism.
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Always get out of your comfort zone. Ex: Don’t ask for permission, beg for forgiveness. Get coffee with a new person once a week.
Be hygienic. Always smell nice. Always have neat hair and/or clean nails.
Understand what others want or the office politics, and don’t react to everything that people talk about. act wisely. Mind your own business, but keep your ears open.
Talk less and listen more. Always let your seniors believe that they are in power.
Always report about your task and targets via mail, never believe in anything that has been communicated verbally, and ask for mail all the time as it becomes part of your proof.
never discuss problems discuss solutions.
If you’re the second last person to leave the office, please check with the other employee to see if he/she needs any sort of help.
Have self-pride. Wherever your name is attached, it should be perfect work done with effort. If you do good work, more work will come in.
आप अपने आज का पहला दिन या पहला साल किसी दूसरे के 10 साल के Effort के साथ Compare नहीं कर सकते।
Have a great team and trust them. Discuss and ask, and together, brainstorming brings new ideas to the table.
Always have a sense of ownership if nobody takes responsibility you have to. 99% of people are replaceable and 1% are irreplaceable, and all organizations depend on that. Be that 1% that never gets replaced. (Either reach or make your personality so good that it attracts. Ex: If you see a flower pot fallen on the stairs and ignored, you should take ownership and put it back. This is the attitude that we need.
Sir, Mam, Sorry, GM etc. are just the words which you should use. if you’re not feeling like using then too. It all shows manners and respect towards the person which increase your’s too.
Explain in detail and give pointers.
Never ever compete with a guy who works 24/7. There will always be somebody who knows/works better than you. Work efficiently as much as required for the day. That’s enough. Have work life balance.
Never be close friends with your colleagues unless you know them since your college days. Most of them are friends with you because they need you.
Never be loyal to the employer. You are just another employee to them.
Have every word/promise written in mail . Anybody can turn their back at you.
Never show your anger to anybody in office.
play the game. Play politics
never tell people whom you hate or find annoying.
make friends with secretaries and PAs.
Never lose an opportunity when a senior leader asks you for inputs- that’s the time for you to create visibility.
Never discuss problems, only discuss solutions. You will begin to stand out earlier on.
When you join a company, work really hard in the first 6-8 months & win the trust of your seniors. Once the confidence is developed, no one can ever doubt or complain about your performance & thats going to give you a good stay in that company.

What is the worst thing a woman can do to a man?

I can’t reveal my name, because this about my father’s sister .

My aunt was married and had an average married life with little but not very upsetting ups and downs. They’re blessed with a boy and girl. My uncle, her husband loved them more than anything. They were the apple of his eyes.

Once they deciced to get a gold necklace for the baby girl and he hunted down every jewellery shop in the town to find the perfect necklace for his girl. But he found none of the necklace worthy enough of his daughter and had a custom made for her. This is just an example how much he loved his daughter.

Over the years when the children were about 7–8 years old, they had a petty fight and my grandmother added fuel to the fire. My aunt totally under the influence of my grandmother divorced my uncle and left taking their children along with her.

She fed the children with all the lies about their father. And like we all know how a child’s mind is like a clean slate and she wrote gibberish on it, about their father. They eventually hated him.

Now after 26 years, I once saw my uncle’s profile on Facebook, I saw he shared childhood pictures of my cousins. I saw him mourning his departure from his own children, children he loved so dearly. He contacted my cousins many a times even though he was restricted to do so by the court, and my cousins shooed him away.

He was broken beyond repair. He married again to have children but wasn’t blessed. My aunt tool everything he had but what devasted him the most was separation from his children.

I think that’s the worst thing a woman can do to a man, separating him from his children and making them hate him.

Edit 1: He was restricted by the court to meet his own children because my aunt asked for the custody of the children and demanded no alimony and child care from my uncle. Initially he had a permit and he met his daughter during her school hours to which my aunt claimed that he tried to kidnap his own daughter. After that he was restricted to meet his children. The children now hate their father like anything, though I never quite understood what did he do wrong. He wasn’t alcoholic, nor a womanizer, loved his wife and children a lot, even helped my aunt in household chores. I wish I could do something but I really have no say in their lives.

What are some great examples of coincidence?

Enzo Ferrari And Ozil

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari company died in 1988 on the 14th August. About 2 months later on 5th October 1988, Ozil was born. He is arsenal footballer. They have unbelievable resemblance

A falling baby saved twice by the same man

In the 1930s in Detroit Joseph Figlock saved a baby who fell from from a window. A year later Joseph was passing when the same baby fell , he caught her again.

Twin brothers,killed on the same road,two hours apart.

In 2002,Seventy-year-old twin brothers were killed by accidents on the same road in Northern Finland.The first one was hit by a lorry while riding his bicycle ,he died 1.5km from the spot his brother was killed

The woman who couldn’t sink.

Violet Jessup.

She was named Miss Unsinkable. The stewardess and nurse was on the HMS Olympic when it struck the HMS Hawke, she was also on HMHS Britannic when it sank. She was also on the RMS Titanic when it sank after hitting an iceberg.

As a landlord, what is the dumbest thing you’ve ever had a tenant do?

This is about a fellow tenant.

Over the course of a few months someone was leaving hateful notes on my front door and yanking the silk flowers off the wreath hanging on my front door. By the end of this story the wreath is bare.

Overall I’m a nice person and usually get along very well with my neighbors, so I was very puzzled regarding what this was all about.

I reported the matter to property management then the police became involved.

In the end it was discovered that a neighbor living 10′ across the hall was very angry with me. She was receiving phone calls, probably telemarketers, companies selling auto warranties, etc. BUT SHE THOUGHT I WAS PRANK CALLING HER! I never figured out why she thought it was me!

Fortunately, I was able to let her daughter know. Her daughter reimbursed me for the wreath and not long after she was moved to assisted living. Whew! That was a mess.

Burmese Curried Pork (Weta Hin)

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) boneless pork shoulder
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped gingerroot
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained
1 stalk fresh lemon grass, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Hot cooked rice

Instructions

Trim fat from pork; cut pork into 2-inch cubes.
Place onion, garlic, gingerroot, turmeric and red pepper in blender container. Cover and blend on medium-high speed, stopping blender frequently to scrape sides, until smooth, about 1 minute.
Heat oils in Dutch oven over medium heat until hot. Gradually and carefully pour vegetable mixture into oil. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring, occasionally, 15 minutes.
Add pork, tomatoes, lemon grass and fish sauce; break up tomatoes with fork. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until pork is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
Serve over rice. Garnish with snipped fresh cilantro if desired.

Yield: 4 servings

What is the craziest office scandal that happened at your job?

I worked for a company where one of the married supervisors started going for lunch with one of his pretty young workers. The lunches got longer and longer, and then he had to start working late to get all of his work done.

Then he had to rent an apartment close to work, so he wouldn’t have to drive all the way home after working late.

Eventually his worker got pregnant and he had to make a choice. He got divorced and married his mistress.

When she announced at work that she was pregnant and getting married to her already married boss, it was quite a scandal.

His new bride had to quit work for maternity leave. She insisted that he have no female workers on his crew, and that he not work over time, she phoned during every lunch and he had to answer. This was before cell phones.

If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she was suspicious of her new husband.

He got promoted into a marketing position, and wasn’t in the office very much. For some reason his wife made him find an office job and I lost track of him for twenty years.

He started work at the same company I worked for, and I asked how his second wife was doing. ( She had been my coworker) and he said that he was on wife number 3.

It wasn’t as big of a surprise as you would think.

FEAR is the basis of RESPECT: people must hear you hiss

Must watch. This is the key content of this post.

Lemons and grapefruit

Lemons and grapefruit.

Ugh.

That was when my first wife and I were traveling the country and hovering around the poverty level, often dipping below it.

Often enough, we would be between work and thus pretty much starving. Going weeks between eating. Those were hard days. Those were difficult weeks. Those were really hard times.

But every now and then we would come near an orange grove, or see a house that had a lemon tree in it’s yard. Thus, by asking permission, we were able to get FOOOOOD!

And so we were kept alive.

Eating lemons all day for a month, or grapefruit all the time for a month or longer.

Man, oh man.

It felt like our teeth were getting loose, and going to fall out. And aside from that, we were still weak. Ugh. It’s something that I just don’t recommend for others to do.

Please, heed my advice.

A diet of citrus should be a last resort. Nothing less.

A painful past. I paid my dues. Have you?

Today…

How does the leadership and governance of China’s Communist Party compare to that of the US Democratic Party?

How about a million times better? How about CPC is about the most well organized and most successful organization on earth! Think about results. Surely results matter. And results are every thing right?

In 1949 CPC started governing China. At that time it’s life expectancy is 39 years old. Today in 2023 it is 78 years old. Chinese out live the U.S. citizens on average by 2 full years!

CPC reduce its hardcore poor by 1 billion people by 2022! The U.S. not only not reduced it’s poor to day 1 million Americans living live in tents homeless throughout the U.S. China has ZERO HOMELESS!

China has built high speed rail that cross China for trains travelling 3 times the speed of U.S. trains! US has less than 100 km of high speed railway lines compared to 45 thousand km throughout China!

China provides universal healthcare and charge what you can afford for 100% of its citizens and free college education for those who qualify while in the U.S. kids get into unplayable debts before starting life paying astronomical tuition fees and a third of American’s cannot afford to buy health care insurance.

China’s healthcare and pharmaceutical companies charge its citizens 0.95 trillion dollars for its 1.4 billion citizens. And the U.S. charged its citizens 5.9 trillion for its 330 million citizens! So on average Americans are forced to pay an average of 17.9 thousand dollars per annum while China charge its citizens 678 dollars a person a year. So the U.S. charge its citizens 27 times more to live 2 years less!

Chinese can walk freely at 3.00 am on any street anywhere in China and a week of U.S. random mass shooting is equivalent to China’s decade! China has 11% of US prisoners population per million people! In the U.S. there are many no go areas and people get necked to death all due to their skin colour!

CPC knew that STEM engineers and specialist number is the key technological prowess and being a technological leader. A year of Chinese STEM graduates equate to the entire U.S. STEM specialist and to day China has 100:1 advantage over the U.S.! Hence according to ASPI China today leads in 37 out of the 44 fields of key strategic technologies and the U.S. leads in only 7/44!

So you still want to compare? So U.S. is the David and China is the Goliath. China through merit gets the very best to lead. US gets the most popular! No comparison who gets the result.

What is the weirdest object you’ve ever found?

My 98 year old grandmother just passed this past Christmas. As I was cleaning out her apartment and sorting the junk from the priceless junk (amazing how much a 98 y/o woman can stuff into a 400 s.f. apartment), I came across a folded stack of notebook paper- it actually looked more like the paper torn out of a “Big Chief” tablet. On the outside was written, “Mrs. Ronzel Bailey, Orma WV” in my grandfather’s handwriting.

So, what’s so weird about that, you ask?

The paper was old and yellowed. As I opened it, I read the date- 1942. My grandparents had been married in 1938. My grandfather was a Lt. Commander in the Navy and on a ship in the Mediterranean in 1942. As I read the letter, the writing was in a very strange, detached voice. It told her how lost she must feel and how she must take care of herself primarily and then take care of my father (born in 1939). It then went on to tell her that she should buy a house on the outskirts of a small town and watch out for those who would take advantage of her.

I then got to a part where he instructed her to use her own judgement as to whether or not she taught my father about him. At this point I was thinking he was divorcing her! I got mad (even though I knew they were never divorced- they were married until he died in 1993- 55 years!). But, mad I was!

As I read further, it finally dawned on me that this letter was his final instructions to her in the event he was killed in action during WWII. It was difficult to hold back the tears as I read that she should not waste resources in trying to bring his body home.

This letter that I had just finished reading was what he wanted to tell her – make sure that she could move on and give her hope and comfort.

How she ended up with this letter, I will never know since he wasn’t killed in WWII and came home for another 50 years of marriage.

One piece of “priceless junk” saved!

What are some psycological facts?

People change for two reasons either they learned a lot or they have been hurt too many times.
If your mind wanders often, there is a 85% chance that you’re subconsciously unhappy with your life.
The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies, it comes from those whom you trust the most.
When we are constantly wishing for something, we overlook everything we already have.
The way we dress determines the way we react. Especially our shoes.
Tripping in your dream and waking up with a twitch happens when your brains thinks you’re dying.
Our mind can sense someone staring at us even when we’re sleeping.
Being nice to someone you dislike doesn’t mean you’re being fake but it means you’re mature enough to tolerate that individual.
The true mark of maturity is when somebody hurts you and you try to understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back.
The first to apologize is always the bravest. The first to forgive isthe strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.
Atleast once in life, you will meet a person you will never get over no matter how long it has been.
Life becomes more meaningful when you realize the simple fact that you will never get the same moment twice.

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

Two police officers with sober faces stared at me and I knew the news couldn’t be good.

They described a car that had just been in an accident, and the license plate. My wife’s mini-van had collided, burst into flames and everyone inside it died.

I’m doing a mental inventory about now. My wife, three children, and two nieces.

My legs turned wobbly. You can’t imagine what was going through my head. Because of the fire, they couldn’t find any useful identification but explained they could identify everyone both by DNA and by dental records. They wanted a DNA sample from me.

I guess they could verify my kids were mine, and that the adult was their mother. A nice, neat little bow.

Can you imagine? They’ve just told you that your whole family is dead, and —- I told them I would come down and give them a sample.

Getting ready to leave, my cell phone is buzzing. It’s my wife. What? Hard tingles are on my spine, like she’s calling from the grave.

“Our van was stolen from the parking lot….”

Were the sweetest words I could’ve ever heard. Yeah it was my wife’s car, but they won’t need any DNA sample from me today.

EDIT – to address some of the mysteries in the comments

I learned later that three people were in the van when it collided. A man, woman, and younger person, which they presumed was a child of the drivers. The police said everyone died, but they had a different human inventory than my own. I also learned they were part of a ring of car thieves, and the accident was not their fault. Another car ran a light and hit them broadside. No fatalities and only minor injuries in the other car.

My wife had organized a birthday outing for our oldest. All the necessary shops, restaurant, and theater were inside the mall. It would be several hours before it was time to leave again. The thieves had plenty of time to get away if they hadn’t been hit.

Chinese Sweet and Sour Meatloaf

Ingredients

Sauce

2/3 cup ketchup
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons FINELY minced ginger
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon mustard

Meat Loaf

1 pound ground beef
3/4 pound ground pork (approximation)
1/3 cup finely chopped green onion(white and green parts)
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 tablespoons rice wine or any dry white wine
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Mix all sauce ingredients thoroughly. Set aside to allow flavors to marry.
Next, combine all meat loaf ingredients except cornstarch. Take 1 cup of sauce AND mix it into meat. Follow this step with evenly sprinkling cornstarch over meat and thoroughly mixing it in.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place meat in loaf pan and pack it down. Bake covered with foil for about 30 minutes. During last 10 minutes of initial 30-minute baking cycle, remove meat loaf from oven, drain fat and slice into several serving-size slices. Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce over meat, making sure some of sauce runs down into cracks. Bake uncovered for about 15 more minutes.
Meanwhile, if you want, you can heat and thicken leftover sauce with about 1 teaspoon cornstarch and an equal amount of water. As sauce starts to thicken, you can add about 2 teaspoons hot oil to sauce.

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, so leftover heated sauce can be spooned over individual meatloaf servings if desired.

If you want a browner meatloaf, bake covered for about 20 minutes and uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes. Then drain fat, slice meatloaf and pour sauce over it.

Is Germany a good country?

As a person who has lived in GERMANY for 10 years, I can tell you what Germany offers and you can decide good and bad depending on your priorities. Germany offers the following:

Its a Democracy.
We have only 1 planet, so Environment is a priority.
1. There is no conflict among political parties over scientifically proven facts like climate change and global warming. Everybody accepts these proven facts.
2. Around 30% of all Energy is produced from renewable sources like wind & solar and is still on the rise . Eight of the seventeen operating nuclear reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following Fukushima in 2011. In 2011, Angela Merkel’s government announced that it would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.
3. Plastic bottles are to be returned once used and all trash has to be separated in categories before putting in dumpsters for respective categories of trash.
Germany has the highest Current account surplus in the world i.e. its earnings from exports exceed its expenses from imports.
People don’t carry guns around. Probability of that happening is 1 in 3 million.
People are learning slowly about foreign cultures, but are very friendly when you get to know them better. Contrary to International belief, I never came across a racist person during my long stay.
Citizens vote for higher taxes, this enables country to give top healthcare to its citizens and also maintain good infrastructure. So, healthcare system is very efficient, you can visit doctor without worrying about huge bills as you already pay the insurance cost as percentage of your salary.
Refugees are given refuge, if in genuine distress and are willing to integrate.
Education is free ranging from School to University level. So, average German person is very well educated. Therefore, Students are debt free at the end of their university studies with degree in hand.
Full-Time working hours are 35–40 Hours per week.
All Full-Time employees get 20–30 paid Holidays a year. Sick leave days might not have a limit if you have a prescription.
Inflation is kept under check, so pay raises are low but stuff you wanna buy is still affordable.
Maternity leave (12 months) and 2 months paternity leave are officially granted. There are 14 months of paid parental leave if the father takes at least 2 of them (12 if not). However the 14 months can be divided as seen fit e.g. 7 + 7 months for each parent.
There is no speed limit on Freeways as the roads are good and drivers are trained with long theory lessons and practical training until driving skill reaches adequate level. Hence there is no road rage.
Super rich are taxed higher than low and middle income people.
Unemployed citizens get unemployment allowance (including heating allowance and house rent) till they get a job.
Govt offers Retirement allowance for retired people and veterans.
Teaching good values to children is important, so people with Children never J-walk. That also goes for people who are standing next to people with children before traffic lights.
Food Factor:
1. Beer is the Best in the world without question and its low priced.
2. Though Italian and French wines are popular, German Gengenbacher wine from Blackforest is my all time favorite.
3. Bakeries are the best as well.
4. Everyday food in canteen/mensa is normally Italian and French stuff plus some salads. You always have to do a little bit of research before you find a place that serves authentic German cuisine.
German Football team is best from my personal perspective as they are A REAL TEAM and not a cult formed around a star player.

Limitations in Germany:

Though the new generation speaks English, language of communication in most work places is majorly German.
1. This is not a limitation for local professional working locally. However, it might limit the ability of a German professional to market his/her skills at global level. Skills of German professionals can help the entire world but lesser knowledge of English limit the possibilities of International cooperation.
2. High Skilled professionals who are looking to migrate to Germany must consider learning German or migrate to some other country which has more familiar language as the basis. As except for the startups or jobs in software & IT industries, German is first language at workplace. This might slow down their career growth if they fail to learn the language.
3. For closer integration in German society you get better and faster response if you speak German. Unless people know the language life can be comparatively difficult. Since, I knew the language it was fairly easier for me to get everything organized & get cooperation as compared to other people with same nationality and economic standing.
4. As Germany is slowly opening to attract foreign High-Skilled professionals as it is required due to economic reasons, the language situation is slowly changing but it requires time. Government offices in the city of Düsseldorf have adopted English as an additional language for official purposes and the new generation is adopting English as the second language in schools but the overall transformation will require more time.
Rules are governed by institutions & organizations and therefore are very rigid. Rules might ignore genuine trouble of some people from time to time and may seem illogical.
Local Trains and public transport as well as the ticketing system are managed differently by each city in a different way, there is no standard best practice.

What happened to the radiation that was supposed to last thousands of years in Hiroshima (1945)?

Like a lot of misinformation about radioactivity and radiation, that too was simply wrong.

The actual radiation from the Hiroshima blast was not nearly what some people thought it would be because they were looking at the results of the Trinity explosion in New Mexico. But the trinity explosion was on a tower a hundred feet high and not 2,000 feet in the air. As a result, the Trinity blast generated a lot of residual radioactivity from the dirt that was within the fireball. Even that didn’t last as long as some thought it might.

The Hiroshima bomb, Little Boy, exploded 2,000 feet in the air and the fireball didn’t touch the ground. As a result, although there was a lot of radiation, the only radioactive materials generated came from the components of the bomb itself. Due to the intense heat, much of the radioactive material was carried into the stratosphere and carried away by the wind. The material that descended onto Hiroshima, although highly radioactive, was short lived. You have to understand that if a radioactive material has a short half life, it will be highly radioactive, but only for a short period of time before it has decayed.

The result was that the intense burst of radiation from the bomb was one source of lethal ionizing radiation, but the “black rain” that fell carried some of the short lived, but rapidly decaying material down upon the people.

Today, the background radiation at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki is normal. There is no danger from radiation in either city.

Being an engaged parent

Did the Crusades help stop the spread of Islam in Europe?

No.

Muslims controlled parts of Spain, Portugal and Italy in the 11th century, before the Crusades. They had been in these countries for 300 years and 200 years respectively.

However, by the time the First Crusade was called in 1095:

Sicily had already fallen to the Normans, ending Muslim power in Italy
Muslim Al-Andalus (Spain, Portugal) had already collapsed and splintered into competing states. It was already losing ground to the Christian kingdoms of Castille and Aragon. Toledo fell in 1085 to the Christians.

The premise of this question is false because Islam wasn’t spreading in Europe at the time. On the contrary, it was in serious decline.

But what about the Turks?

The only area where Islam was spreading was in Asia, not Europe. The expansion of the Seljuk Turks from Central Asia into the territory of the Christian Eastern Roman Empire prompted emperor Alexios I Komnenos to ask Pope Urban II for help. This was what triggered the First Crusade.

The Seljuk Turks never reached Europe. Even without the Crusades, it’s highly unlikely that they could have. Horse nomads are not known for their skill at crossing the sea, nor are they famous for taking heavily fortified cities like Constantinople.

Okay, but what about the Ottoman Empire?

The Ottoman Empire conquered large parts of Europe in the 14th to 17th centuries, after the Crusades

So this question couldn’t be more wrong.

Islam was declining, not expanding, in Europe before the Crusades

After the Crusades, Islam expanded into Europe

Conclusion

The Crusades may have encouraged the spread of Islam in Europe, rather than stopping it.

This is because the Fourth Crusade of 1204 famously destroyed the Christian Eastern Roman Empire, doing far more harm to the cause of Christianity in the Near East than any previous event. And it was the weakness of Byzantium that in turn allowed the Ottomans to expand into Europe.

Without the Crusades, the Ottomans would never have existed. Let alone crossed into Europe.

Tldr: the Crusades caused the expansion of Islam into Europe, rather than ‘stopping’ it…

Italian artist Fabbio Fabbi (1861 – 1946) painted many delightful Orientalist scenes, such as this one. One has to be aware that these may not be strictly accurate, (and the concept of the harem is actually dark if one considers the details), but they are pretty to look at…

Is it legal to set deadly traps inside your house to defend against burglars?

WARNING: GRAPHIC STORY INVOLVING SERIOUS INJURIES. IF THAT BOTHERS YOU DO NOT PROCEED READING THIS ACCOUNT!

I know of two times when boobytraps were used with sickening efficiency. In Canada the law is explicit: any type of booby trap is illegal plain and simple.

An individual I knew had been broken into three times through the same basement window and all attempts to reenforce it was met by the burglars taking the challenge and doing increasingly more damage. By the third time there wasn’t anything of value so they did damage and perpetrated some absolutely foul actions involving feces, etc. As I said in Canada booby traps are illegal plain and simple but an item that was designed for something else that caused damage to a uninvited guest was that person’s problem.

This man took a 3′x3′ piece of particle board and drilled about 100 drywall screws into it, after that at the the bottom of the board he assigned values 10, 20 etc. creating a Pachinko game, then “absent-mindedly” left it under the window. About a week later he arrived home to a frightening scene of blood EVERYWHERE. He called the police who attended and investigated.They surmised that the uninvited guest had broken the window and climbed in, dropping to the floor and landing on the Pachinko game. He must have yelled for help and a second uninvited genius came to his aid and in doing so put himself in the same predicament.They freed themselves then left via the front door.

The officers attended the nearest hospital where they found a couple of meth heads with injuries similar to what the B&E guys would have. When questioned, they said it was a construction injury and the officers didn’t push it. They didn’t stay in the hospital as they were tweaking pretty hard. The homeowner faced no legal repercussions but was told that a second Pachinko accident may not be viewed as an accident a second time.The tweakers moved on.

Problem solved. I have a nastier story that if so desired I can relay but I want to see how this story goes over.

The talking cure

Who was the one kid at school who you never believed could make it as far as they did?

There was a dumb immature football player in high school who liked a lot of girls. I was one that he liked. He ended up getting a college scholarship to play football. I never thought he would make it past his junior year. There was another football player that I knew who he was but, didn’t know him that also got a football scholarship. I never thought he would make it past his junior year either. A few years later I was in the break room at my miserable job. The NFL draft was on. I wasn’t really paying attention. Then I saw both of them announced as first round draft picks. Each had a $7,000,000 contract. I was in shock! Several years later I became friends with the one who liked me on Facebook. He quickly started messaging me asking if I was single and wanted my phone number. He started calling me several times a day. He was basically inviting himself to come visit me. We lived 2 hours away from each other. When I let him know that I wasn’t interested he got mad. He told me that I should have gotten with him in high school. He then said that he bets if I would have known how he was going to turn out that I would have gotten with him. I said YEAH!I think he was trying to go back in time and hook up with all the different girls he liked and couldn’t get in high school. He told me he acted the way he did in high school because he wasn’t getting any. I told him the reason he wasn’t getting any is because of the way he acted.

Do you think the Communist Party of China is the world’s best party?

There is no such thing as the world’s best? Each country ought to have what they each see as the best for their nation and their people under different circumstances unique for them, over a development level that is different from country to country.

You can say every nation thinks they have the world’s best for themselves. They ought to be. Otherwise why would they choose it? Surely they all want to do the best for themselves right?

These words or symbols or slurs such as Communism or Democracy or Socialism are tags for various purpose. Some times to simplify some times to discriminate one against another or worst to slur and demonised. These labels meant nothing more, as each nation is shade of grey and not black or white.

The U.S. for example calls itself Liberal democracy. But in reality it is neither democratic nor liberal at all. Is 0.8% of the rich or and powerful decides that the 60 odd % of their people who bother to vote have only two choice Biden a senile or Trump a perpetual liar to choose from, surely that is not democracy!

The U.S. with a mere 4% of world’s population has 25% of the world’s prisoner’s population, surely it cannot liberal nor free? But U.S. can called itself whatever it wants!

China calls itself socialism with Chinese characteristics but the U.S. insists on the label. “Communism” for worst connotations to cast fear and hate on them! If you repeat it like this questioner do, it simply help your media cast hates on China.

To me if the west can call the U.S. a Liberal Democracy why can’t they tern China as Socialism with Chinese characteristics? It is no different from Western media calling Palestinians as “terrorist” and Isreal as freedom “fighter” These slurs and suggesting good is clearly a set. narrative!

Reality

Do lawyers ever have clients who don’t pay them on time or at all? If so, what do they think about them?

Back in my previous incarnation, I worked in collections for the law firm I worked for – drafting legal documents, preparing for hearings, and then taking enforcement steps once we obtained judgment. Yes, we sometimes collected money, but it was usually frustrating and fruitless.

Once, a client offered to pay $2,000 on a $5,000 bill. The lawyer (now a judge) asked my advice. I told her my usual recovery on a judgement was zero. We took the $2,000 and called it a day.

The real problem is that lawyers often start doing work without regard for the client’s ability to pay, they don’t bill regularly and they keep working on files even though there are unpaid bills. I was never involved in one of my firm’s biggest cases – a lengthy patent suit where the client was billed monthly and paid pretty much when it received the bill.

At first, most of the work was centered around clients whose assets we had grossly overestimated. This was very true in family law litigation. However, we often had cases where we simply did too much work for very little return for the client. I remember meeting one client who had met with “other Steve” (who did the collections calls) who complained that the entire amount of the judgement went to pay taxes she owned on the settlement. I told other Steve to write off the bill.

There was the odd client who had the wherewithal to pay, but just didn’t. In a lot of cases they were asset rich and cash poor. They often lived excessive lifestyles even though their income had dropped severely (not our fault by the way). We had a client who owed us about $70,000 and was getting about $100,000 a year from a rich person’s estate. However, that money couldn’t be “attached” by a judgement so we went unpaid.

Have you ever tried to fire someone and it backfired?

Backfire happened when my uncle was fired.

My uncle retired from the Dept. of Agriculture after a long career. He was headhunted by a couple of guys with land who wanted to set up a seed testing company. (If you want to claim something about seeds that you sell, someone independent has to test that.) He set up the program, and had contacts in the industry so that the two guys ended up with all their land in use. A year later the guys looked at their books and realized he was the highest paid person, and that all that he was doing, was signing off that the teenagers taking the readings, etc. and were doing the job right. They could do that.

They called my uncle in and offered him a severance package. He smiled, took the offer, and went home. Next month, they were frantic when they called him. After they had sent out the documentation with their signatures, every company that they were doing business with had called them and sent certified letters. They hadn’t understood that someone qualified as an expert witness needed to be signing those documents. The list of people qualified in that field is short. They had no choice but to hire him back, at an increased salary.

What is the nicest thing you have done that no one knows about?

I was a 16 year old American girl. Our family was living in Brazil due to my father’s employment. My family had gone to the beach for the day and had hauled along a 19 year old acquaintance from church. While at the beach, a woman had swum out too far and she was drowning. The 19 year old and myself swam out to help her. The tide was turning, the waves were really rough, and she was trying to climb up on us in order to not drown. She was so desperate. The situation with the waves, the changing tide, and her extreme emotional state was so dire that the 19 year old looked at me and said, “It is better for her to die than for all three of us to die while trying to save her”. He swam back to shore.

I realized that I would rather die trying to save her than live the rest of my life knowing that I abandoned someone in need. I could not leave her. I just could not do it.

I had taken a Junior Life Saving Course as a 10 or 11 year old. I remembered just enough to know not to let her grab me. I got my elbow around her neck and made her float on her back. I worked on calming her down. I tried to work with the waves instead of against them. It took a while, but we both got back to shore. She was vomiting up water, but she was alive. We both were. My family packed up and we drove home. There were no accolades.

I am 55 years old now, and that event at the age of 16 was a turning point in my life. The experience let me know that I could put my life on the line and do hard things.

Over the years, I have volunteered and donated and done some nice things, but that was the nicest thing I ever did.

Can Taiwan with the QUAD backing it, defeat China

No.

Not even close.

…

Consider this mix…

USA, Taiwan, QUAD, The Philippines, all of NATO vs China. Who would win?

China would win.

…

How? Why? What is the reasoning?

Well…

Let me engage you in some creative illustrations. Because anyone even contemplating such a ludicrous question is completely ignorant of China; China’s history, and China’s massive military capabilities.

A tale of mountains

Imagine, China as a huge; just massive mountain. And on that mountain are thousands, maybe even millions of ant hills. Every meter or yard or so, you see another ant hill. And amongst all those ant hills a dangerous and lethal fire ants. Their bite is painful, and nasty.

The fire ants are organized, communicate by scent, and are completely willing to die on the spot to preserve their colony.

The individual bite of a single ant is painful, but will not really kill any large animal. But if ten ants bite an animal, then you can expect some serious harm to come to that animal. Including death.

…

Now imagine a pack of dogs. Each dog has his own hill to live upon. One dog, the biggest of them all; an old and mangy mutt lives on a mountain, roughly the same size as the Chinese mountain. The other dogs, of various types and sizes and breeds live on an array of different hills and much smaller mountains. One is a husky, another is a German Shepard. One is a poodle, while another one is a lean greyhound.

This pack of dogs like to travel around in a great big pack. They are pretty good at it, running about, digging holes,, barking at everyone.

…

One day, the biggest dog tells the poodle and the beagle to go to the Chinese mountain and start digging and raising a fuss…

And they go up there and run about. Barking. Trampling all over the anthills. They dig into the ground and ants go a flying about. They are so happy that other dogs of the pack join in, and before you know it, all the dogs are running about all over the mountain and tossing the tiny ants everywhere.

Then…

(And anyone who has encountered fire ants knows)

… all at once, simultaneously swarms of fire ants bite in unison every single dog. They flood in from all over. They come from everywhere. And the dogs start running away, but the ants are still clinging to their fur and riding the yelling dogs back to their home mountains.

Some of the smaller dogs die in place. They never leave the China mountain.

The medium sized dogs make it home, where they lay in absolute agony and howl in pain and agony. The large dog collapses and winces and twitches as the fire ants relentlessly bite him over and over.

…

The ants that rode the dogs to their home now are establishing ant colonies there, and they grow and expand even as the dogs dies and their carcasses rot to bleached bones.

The ants in the China mountain rebuild and in no time at all, have bigger and more elaborate ant colonies. And the reign of the dog pack ends.

Replaced with a world run by a peaceful, but lethal fire ant horde.

…

This is the reality of a war with China. Are you ready to watch it happen?

What’s the most appalling behavior you’ve seen by a young child’s parent?

The woman living next door sent sweet bread for me yesterday.

She’s maybe 20 years old, mother of a toddler. It’s been a year they moved in as tenants and aren’t exactly the “hey, how are ya neighbor” type of folks and firmly practice minding their own business.

Last night, as I was back from work and having dinner. My wife brought a plate of sweet bread and said that Faiza (name changed) brought some sweet bread today and sat for a chat; it was delicious and kids loved it. We ate it while she was still here And after noticing the empty plate, she went back and brought some more, saying…

I’m glad you liked it. Here… I have brought some more for brother Neman. He should have some of it too.

And I thought… wow!

I tasted it and yeah it was nice. Sweet and crispy.

Later, I went to the other room and fired up my laptop.

I sat there and thought of her. Faiza.

A short brick wall separates our yards. I hear them all the time. She yells a lot at her husband and vice versa. She says “F” words to him which is quite uncommon. She sobs and nags. A poverty-stricken and miserable woman, indeed.

Worst of all… she curses her own son sometimes. I hear her saying “Drop dead” or “Why don’t you just die” to her own son. Downright awful.

Strangely… I didn’t hate her.

I would have hated anyone else in this situation. But not her. In fact, I felt for her. I remember seeing her as a toddler years back, running in the streets barefoot and playing with clay pots. She grew in this neighborhood.

It is complicated to explain to you, Quorans that in our lower-middle class culture… we just cannot go and tell people to behave on their personal matters. It can be considered rude and might actually trigger an irreversible chain of events that lead to “why did I do it in the first place” .

Believe it or not… I spoke to her one day. I initiated that neighborly talk and told her that I remember her as a toddler, playing in front of my house.

She smiled.

That’s what I was hoping for. A smile.

“I hear you cursing your son, Faiza. Trust me… he’ll remember it when he grows older. You love your child, I know. Do you want him to hate and abandon you as soon he can? It’s not his fault for whatever troubles you’re in”.

And that was it.

A few days later, I was home alone, opened my door upon hearing a knock and found her holding a piece of paper. It was the first time… she actually came to our door. She requested me to have her husband’s character certificate stamped by the local police as he’s applying for a security guard’s job.

I got it done.

It’s been weeks. Yelling between them is there but not so much, I would say. And certainly no more cursing towards her own son. I think… the kid has started going to play group. I saw him in his cute uniform.

And now this… a plate full of sweet bread.

Life’s good, people.

Who’s the funniest patient you’ve ever had as a doctor or nurse?

I was on a general medicine ward earlier this year where I met a patient who we will call Mrs X.

She had agreed to be a teaching patient. This was because she has peripheral vascular disease (the arteries in her legs weren’t working so well) so she had some good signs and symptoms.

While taking the history and exam I got to know this beautiful character very well. She was bright, energetic, witty and very funny!

She made jokes at her own expense, wasn’t afraid to rip into me (I did a little bit back to her too), and despite her rather poor medical state she had a great outlook on life.

Several months go by and I cycle through different specialities.

It was my first day on the geriatric ward and I got assigned my long case. This is a patient I’ll follow for the entirety of my placement. Writing about their medical history and progress.

Guess who I get assigned? It’s Mrs X!

She had undergone a double above knee amputation due to her peripheral vascular disease.

As soon as she saw me she smiled and said;

Mrs X: “Well I’ll be dammed! Who let this packet of trouble in here, how are you Carter?”.

I smiled, her cheeky wit was all to familiar and lovely to see.

Me: “I know right! Can’t get rid of me that easily. Hopefully you will be able to keep up with my banter still Mrs X”.

Mrs X: “Oh I will. No going easy just because I’ve no longer got a leg to stand on”.

From her cheeky grin erupted a heavy belly laugh. Only she could joke about a double amputation.

Me: “I would never, and I’m not giving you one of mine to stand on either!”.

We then proceeded to give each other a hug and catch up on the last few months.

Sometimes humour really is the best form of medicine.

What is it like to see the one you love with someone else?

The first time I saw my ex’s new partner, she stepped out of my old marital home with her child and stared at me blankly on the doorstep when I was picking up my son. It was odd, to say the least, to be standing outside my own house (effectively)and being introduced to his new flame. I hugged and kissed her hello and said ‘’Nice to meet you.’ Then walked away feeling surreal and asking myself ‘’What the hell is happening here?’

I was married for 18 years. We had a fairytale relationship. There were only three certainties in life: taxes, death and the fact that we would be together for the rest of our lives. But, things ended.

A reasonable adult will accept that the relationship ended for good reasons and that things just weren’t working anymore. But when your ex finds a new partner, that’s a whole different story. When he introduces his new partner to mutual friends as ‘’the love of his life,’ you find yourself having the petty, angry feelings a teenager would have. Then you chastise yourself for becoming THAT person.

And the day your 8 year old tells you that his suit for the wedding is too tight and you look at him bemused because you have no idea what he’s on about, and he looks back at you like a deer in headlights because he assumed you knew, you feel like you have been punched in the stomach. And weeks later, when you receive a text from an aquaintance asking ‘You okay?’ and it turns out she’s referring to the wedding photo just posted on social media, you feel you never existed. That’s when you realise those 18 years of love, support, fidelity, encouragement and accomplishment meant absolutely nothing to your ex. Or his family.

So you spend the next couple of years in a haze of various emotions (hatred, resentment, anger, jealousy, insecurity, despair) until one day you realise you’ve not thought about it much lately. And although the hurt will never disappear entirely, eventually it makes more sense to just accept it.

Why people divorce

Pretty good explanation.

In the USA…

Ohio, USA auctioned off 393,000 pieces of protective clothing for only $2451, and eventually threw away 7.2 million pieces of protective clothing as well as expired masks, gloves, and other materials. These soon to expire supplies cost approximately $29 million in federal funds.

Vermont sold 105,000 boot covers for $82.50 and thousands of safety goggles for 29 cents.

A survey by the Associated Press found that at least 15 states from Alaska to Vermont have abandoned some of their personal protective equipment due to expiration, surplus, and lack of willing buyers.

More than 18 million masks, 22 million protective suits, 500,000 gloves, and more have all been thrown into the trash can. This does not include states that have not provided accurate numbers to the Associated Press or responded through case studies or other measurement methods. Rhode Island states that it has crushed and recycled 829 tons of personal protective equipment. Maryland processed over $93 million in supplies.

The entire article is too long and there is a lot of material waste. I have only cited a small part of it. And that’s just what the US has calculated by itself.

In the past three years, countless people around the world have lost their parents, children, and partners. These life-saving supplies are just rotting here. Tell me, who is the one who does not respect human rights?

At the same time as these things happen, Washington was doing this. No party has done better.

The economic structure of this world is a joke, your society is a joke, and I watch it with tears in my eyes.

It needs to be changed. It can be changed. It must be changed.

Zones v3 – The most useful relationship map in history

What was the worst date you’ve ever been on?

“It’s really more of an in-person kind of explanation,” he demured, then suggested a dinner date.

I hesitated. Normally I don’t meet my online dates until significantly more text and phone contact. Partly for safety reasons, partly because I don’t want to waste my time on guys I know will not work out. But mostly because I have been on A LOT of bad dates.

He said he was living in his friend’s spare room because he’d hit a few “speed bumps,” in life. I totally got that. I’m the queen of speed bumps myself. I let myself dare to hope maybe— just maybe— I had found a kindred spirit. I agreed to the date. And just like that, there I was, listening to him tell his story from across the candlelit table.

”About a year ago, I went out with some friends after work,” he began, and I smiled and nodded to let him know he had my attention. “I met a girl at a bar and we really hit it off. We ended up going home together. Next day, there’s a cop on my doorstep. And yada, yada, yada… long story short, she didn’t LOOK sixteen.”

I stiffened. Did she look 30? Because you’re 44, dude.

“So,” he continued, “I have a felony on my record. I was put on probation, and my job fired me. And then, just to kick me when I’m down” —and this is my favorite part— “my wife left me.”

?!??!!

“Bummer,” I said, because what else is there to say?

“So I was out of work, and my mom and I couldn’t live off her social security check alone, so she started driving for Uber…

… That’s how she caught COVID and died.”

And this is why I’m still single.

Is it normal that my parents still let my 23-year-old sister live with them even though she does absolutely nothing in life? She has autism but other people with autism manage to get a job too so that shouldn’t be an excuse.

So you have an adult sister with autism, and you resent her living with your parents and, from your perspective, “doing nothing”.

You obviously don’t live with your parents and sister.

Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that there is a very wide range of capability and deficits. If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person. What one person with autism does has no bearing on what another person with autism can or will do.

Do you know anything about what your sister is capable of? Perhaps she had difficulty with language, making any interaction with the public impossible. Perhaps she has extreme sensory issues, making leaving her home environment an exercise in pain and anxiety. Autistic people can be intellectually disabled, or intellectually gifted. And both extremes tend to struggle with the social rules of conversation and interaction.

I would suggest that you find out more about your sister, without judgement. Ask questions with an open mind. Attend doctor’s appointments with your parents. Get to know your sister, on a personal level, without expectation of what she “should” be doing.

It’s perfectly normal, and even typical, for adults with autism to live with parents. They may lack the necessary mental skills to manage schedules, financial decisions, even cooking a meal or basic hygiene. While being able to discuss the intricacies of rainforest habitats.

However, your parents will not be able to care for her forever. And she is your sister. Eventually she may need you to help. So lose the attitude and get informed. That way you can be a loving, caring sibling, rather than a jealous, resentful one.

What is SpaceX doing differently that makes the company so successful?

That’s three spaceX raptor engines, on a regular ass flatbed trailer, being towed around by a ford.

ULA and all of the other legacy launch providers would have built some bespoke vehicle at the cost of millions of dollars to do this job.

I can think of few other images that capture in one shot the difference in philosophy at play here. SpaceX acts like it’s stuff is commodity, yet tough hardware, and that it can be treated as such.

It’s a rocket engine. If it can’t survive being towed around by a ford, it’s probably not going to survive flying to mars, landing, and taking off again with minimal human interaction.

The entire south Texas facility looks like a construction site that might be dedicated to the oil and gas sector (which is no surprise, given as that’s the sector that largely built it), not some hyper-clean room high tech facility that looks like it’s primarily built to host congressional delegations. The equipment used is overwhelmingly the sort of stuff that one sees at any industrial facility where you have to worry about cost, rather than the taxpayer subsidized specials that legacy companies seem to be addicted too.

Loyalty is really important to men

Have your neighbors ever called the cops on you for something ridiculous?

When I was still dating Ebba, she warned me for her father on several occasions. That he was a difficult man, that he was incapable of listening to other people, and that he constantly complained about my trees being too high. And that he would never stop.

Her words turned out to be augural signs for what was to come.

Have your neighbors ever called the cops on you for something ridiculous ?

Yes, all the time.

It started with nagging. Nagging about my hedge which was too high, nagging about my backyard birches whose leaves fell into his garden (and those tiny, tiny twigs), then about an old elder tree that (slightly) leaned over on his side of the fence, then about a Christmas tree that would grow too big in the future, then about all the shadow which is cast on his property.

Nagging, nagging, nagging.

So he contacted the community officer to complain, and that kind man patiently tried to explain that on the countryside, trees and hedges are a normal thing, and so are leaves and the like. He did not listen.

Some time later, we came back from abroad near the end of Eastern holidays, and our beautiful Christmas tree — the one that “would grow too big in the future” — had been cut. The bully admitted without any shame that he had done it.

The community officer tried to explain to my neighbor that this was not done, but again the bully did not listen.

And so it began, and proceeded.

Then envelopes came. With pictures of all the leaves and twigs that fell into their garden, and of all the fictional damage that they had done.
Then he sued us in a Justice of Peace court because of our trees, and the judge himself came by to check on his complaints. And he did not agree, on all accounts. He explained the bully that leaves and twigs are a part of country life, and that he would have to live with that. (He did not listen.)
The bully then nearly physically attacked me, and threw his entire repertoire of vile words in my face (and some of it also in my ear). He was heavily reprimanded by the judge. (He did not listen.)
Since then, he called the community officer again, and was again reprimanded and asked to stop. (He did not listen.)

Ebba was right indeed — her father will never stop.

So we planted a seedling of a giant sequoia in our frontyard.

It is a direct descendant of a 500-year-old Californian giant, and it grows ferociously. Last year, it doubled in volume and added more than two feet to its height, and it will keep on doing that until it towers above all the neighborhood trees in no time.

The gauntlet has been thrown.

And a shadow will be cast.

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

I left the office laughing.

On my second day in my new job, I was summoned to a meeting with the director. He told me that the person I had been hired to replace, as the top finance person in the company, had accepted an offer to stay, and that I would therefore not be made permanent.

Aside from some curiosity about this development, which he declined to gratify, my reaction was being absolutely fine. Just another curveball in the strangest year of my life.

As I got up to leave, my chair knocked over the fan behind me.

“Just because you’re being let go, doesn’t mean you can start trashing the place!” he said, and we both laughed.

Added:

Ten days later, I had lunch with the man who had replaced me at my previous job, as we had become friends during the handover. He asked me to come back and work with him. I accepted. A few weeks after that I fell in love with him. Last month we celebrated a year together. Funny what life throws at you.

What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?

I was fired, but I probably deserved it.

When I was 18, I had a job as a receptionist in a small doctor’s office in a rural area. There were three doctors who were based in another community. Their hours at this clinic were sporadic. This was when our healthcare system was in transition and many of the rural people didn’t understand the complicated new changes.

I noticed that the head doctor, who owned the business, was doing some dodgy things. He was billing the government for treatment, and then charged the rural people cash for the same visit. For example, a girl who had saved up money came in to have her ears pierced, was charged cash. The doctor then billed the province for an “ear infection.”

This same doctor opened an x-ray clinic in his own community, and apparently almost everyone who came through the door “needed” x-rays.

There’s more. In those days, the family doctor went all the way with his pregnant patients, from a positive pregnancy test, to delivery. Except this doctor was a no show, every time. Sometimes he went golfing after getting these calls! Sometimes he walked his dogs instead of attending the birth, birth after birth. Most times he got the message and simply ignored it.

This was awful! These poor rural people were being cheated, and the pregnant moms, too.

So, I took photocopies of government billing and the receipts for cash. I had lots.

I began telling these pregnant clients the truth, and they started going elsewhere for treatment.

I was at a loss as to what to do next, so I took all my photocopies to the mayor of the closest large community. He thought they were interesting. I was so pleased. However, the mayor didn’t tell me what would happen next…

I went to work the next day and the day after that. THEN, I got a call from the wife of the doctor, firing me. She didn’t say why, it was a short call. I’d never been fired before, and I had such hurt feelings that I actually cried. I felt so terribly unwanted.

Then I got a call from an employee at the other clinic. She said there were two mean guys from the government there who showed up with some kind of paper that said they could search through all the files. Later I learned that the doctor lost all his hospital privileges in the provinces. A couple of years later, he closed his business and left the country.

Still satisfying. All these years later.

Why do I keep seeing people on Quora saying the ancient Chinese were very strong and advanced, yet they got wrecked by the British (not targeting China, just curious)?

Rationally speaking, China or the Qing Dynasty was ruined by its own problems, and the British were only the fuse that ignited them.

In fact, with the wealth and potential that China has, it is difficult for any other country to really challenge it as long as it is on a normal track, having long occupied a quarter of the world’s population and wealth, reaching half at its peak. Such a country could only be destroyed from within. Several vulnerable periods in China have been marked by various unresolvable structural contradictions:

First of all the Song dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, since the Song dynasty was a local power, it had no control over the north and was caught in a long war with Jin and Liao, even so, the Song was the last large country to be conquered by the Mongols, after the Mongols had conquered most of Eurasia, they concentrated their forces of half of the continent to attack the Song dynasty, even so, the war lasted almost 50 years, it was not easy for the Mongols and As Mongol Khan died in Sichuan, it forced Mongolia to stop its conquest of Europe and led to the division of the Mongol Empire.
Then came the Manchu invasion. The problem of the Ming Dynasty was the successive famines during the Little Ice Age and the failed fiscal policies that led to a high concentration of wealth to the bureaucratic class, with officials getting rich and the country not collecting taxes. The corrupt bureaucrats had no regard for the survival of the country before their personal interests, and the Ming Dynasty collapsed after a massive peasant uprising broke out, at which point the warlords in the north also colluded with the Manchus for their own benefit and gave China away.

The structural contradiction of the late Qing dynasty was that it was a minority regime, which meant that the rulers saw the state as their property and the people as their slaves, and they were more afraid of having their rights taken away by the people as opposed to being afraid of foreign invaders; after all, foreigners wanted only property (territory) and the people wanted their lives. Therefore, the Manchu rulers did not dare to mobilize the power of the people and let them master advanced productivity and technology. As a result, Japan in the same period could modernize rapidly on a much worse basis, while the Manchu aristocracy could only make do.

There are many uncanny but thought-provoking phenomena in the Opium Wars that illustrate these issues.

The British did not initially sell opium to China; since they had already succeeded in the Industrial Revolution, they believed their greatest advantage was industrial consumer goods, which could be industrially mass produced at low cost, and through which they believed they could succeed in China.

And then they failed.

Haha, yes, because China was in a small peasant economy, with little economic circulation and no modernization, the peasants did not need these consumer goods at all, nor could they afford them. For food, they grew their own, for clothing, the price of Chinese cloth was even lower, and the most demand was for spices, a few agricultural tools, and only the high officials and the rich consumed those “magical gadgets”.

Well, the British adjusted their strategy and they started selling Indian spices to the Chinese, but that’s when a new problem arose, and that was the balance of trade. Due to the extensive trade, Chinese porcelain, silk and tea flooded into Europe, fostering European consumption habits, especially tea, which was literally gold growing out of the ground. Europeans have always suffered from the local water quality problems, due to industrial pollution, and no modern tap water system, Europeans have long endured the bitterness of drinking water, tea is simply a savior. At that time, people did not know that the soil had the problem of acidity and alkalinity, and they thought that only China could produce good tea. Therefore tea became the core of the world’s trade at that time, for the profiteering of tea, the British shipped almost all the world’s silver to China, which led to the silver crisis in Europe, that is, severe deflation.

To balance trade, British merchants packaged opium to sell to China as medicine, which opened the door to a new world, yes, the door to nightmares.

Opium was a perfect trade good, a product that could be manufactured in large quantities and that consumers could not get rid of after forming a habit, but none of this is the core of the problem, the most crucial point is that opium was banned in China. You must think I’ve said something wrong, but no, the logic goes like these:

Since opium was banned, Chinese farmers could not grow it, so this meant that China’s greatest advantage, the cost advantage, was gone, something that had not been the case with previous agricultural products.
Because opium was banned, it could not be imported through normal channels, was not taxable, and because the trade between China and abroad was monopolized by a few individuals who were thus sufficiently profitable, there was sufficient incentive for Chinese and foreign trading merchants to collude and buy officials to smuggle large quantities of opium. When the supervising officials essentially became accomplices of the smugglers, and there was no channel to respond to the ruling class about the actual situation, the opium trade became a mutually agreeable existence.
Since there was no supervision, everyone became complicit, forming a wide class of interests, so much so that it was even more impossible to contain, and the profitable officials made money to share the profits with their superiors, so that the senior officials were also deeply involved, so much so that the emperor was aware of the situation at a later stage but still could not stop it, because even the emperor himself could not resist the temptation brought by profits.

When the opium trade grew exponentially, problems arose, the people took a lot of opium, a large number of refugees emerged who were bankrupted by opium, the army took a lot of opium opium and lost its fighting strength, and the most crucial problem was the same as the situation in Europe before, the outflow of silver. At this point, the emperor finally realized the problem, yes, the emperor never worried about the miserable situation his people were in, he only cared about himself and his property, that is, silver.

At this point, the “smart” officials came up with a solution, the same as the current North American policy on marijuana, if you can not prohibit, simply liberalize.

Well, the nightmare really came. Due to the huge profits of opium, farmers stopped growing grain and they grew opium, domestic opium quickly took over the market, opium prices plummeted, more people started smoking opium, the market became bigger, so much so that smugglers could still make a lot of money even if they paid taxes legally and provided the officials with kickbacks as much as they should, and instead of balancing the trade, the open door policy made opium even more unstoppable.

When the Qing government once again made up its mind to ban opium, it was too late. The harsh policy not only failed to solve the problem, but also angered British businessmen, who spent a lot of money to convince the British Parliament to vote to declare war on the Qing Empire, a vote in favor of which was narrowly won by only nine votes. This meant that even at the time, when Britain was at its strongest, they did not have enough confidence to defeat China halfway across the world, tens of thousands of kilometers away. The parliamentary lords took the money and sent a small expeditionary force to try, at least they knew that the Qing did not have enough naval forces to retaliate against them.

At this point, the ignorance and lack of understanding of the other side on both sides of the battlefield is mind-boggling to people today.

The Qing emperor had always arrogantly believed that he was the ruler of the world and that the British were just some barbarians. He regarded the British attack as a historical harassment of China by barbarians from the north, as if the British army would immediately surrender and kneel down and beg for mercy as soon as he gave the order for the Chinese army to attack, which was not the funniest thing, the funniest thing was that the initial reaction of the British army seemed to confirm his judgment.

Surprisingly, the British fleet did not dare to attack and only cruised in the outer sea. The Qing generals holding on to the shore batteries even became bored, thinking that the British were bluffing and how they dared to fight against the armies of Heaven.

Do you know what the British think? The British think they are “blockading the port”. I have to say, I really laughed, “blockade of ports”? They didn’t even know that the Chinese had no concept of trade or sea power at that time, and all trade was packaged by officials as “tribute” from the surrounding barbarians to the central state, which had everything and didn’t need to trade at all, but only to show appreciation and give gifts to the “tribute”.

In fact, it was when the British fleet prepared to blockade the Yangtze northward and began to move deeper inland that the real battle took place, a process that shocked both sides.

British naval guns were surprisingly farther-ranged and more powerful than the Chinese shore guns
The Qing shore guns were surprisingly all fixed guns, unable to adjust their angles or aim, and could only probabilistically kill.
The Qing army’s jingalls were surprisingly unable to inflict fatal wounds on the British.

The British tactic of suppressing fire with naval guns and attacking with small units around the flank and rear was surprisingly easy to make the Qing defenses collapse. And this simple tactic seemed to work forever; the Qing army seemed to have absolutely no reconnaissance capability.
The Chinese population around the battlefield simply watched both sides perform, and even applauded the British victory, as they were apparently more oppressed by the Qing officials.

In the end, this turned into an almost one-sided massacre.

At the same time, the message to the palace is a lot of good news. The officials could not explain such an incredible defeat, and they could only cajole the emperor that although the Qing army had been winning, the harassment of the British brought a huge financial burden. How about giving the “barbarians” a sum of money to meet their trade requests and induce the British to retreat? They even falsely claimed that the defeated British army knelt outside the city gates and prayed for the mercy of heaven, which was moving.

Coincidentally, this was the time when, due to a massive outbreak of plague among the British army, more people died of disease than died in battle, and the British army was unable to fight, so a consensus was reached. The officials and the emperor saved face and the British got the benefit. The first unequal treaty in modern Chinese history, the Treaty of Nanking, was signed in such a confused manner, which started the prelude to China’s “hundred years of humiliation”. And this war even too small to be worth mentioning in the history of the British.

What, if anything, can be learned from this history? I would end this article with a quote from the Chinese author Liu Cixin in The Three-Body Problem.

Weakness and ignorance are never an obstacle to survival, but arrogance is.

This statement is not only addressed to the Chinese, but also to the many Westerners who currently know nothing about China but are happy to teach the Chinese how to behave. Hopefully, as mature civilizations, we should all refrain from repeating the mistakes of the past.

What is the most ludicrous thing someone got fired for at your job?

I had an employee in her late 30s that kept missing work. She called in with lots of excuses. Vandalized car, stolen keys. I put her on a performance plan (first step to termination). So, she reported to HR that she was an alcoholic. I, according to HR, could no longer terminate her. So, I (the company) continued to pay her while she spent 3 days in jail. I paid for her to be off work for a month, while she attended out-patient rehab. During her time off for rehab, she got pregnant. I paid for her to have a baby and 8 weeks off work. She continued to miss work…probation appointment, broken car-start-breathalyzer. Her work was terrible, she antagonized the other employees and spent a good part of her workday outside smoking cigarettes. She eventually quit. I never was allowed to fire her.

However, I had another employee that I did fire…for smoking marijuana during her time off work. She was selected for random drug testing. She failed for marijuana. Even though she was not using at work, and she was a good employee, I was required to fire her. She was in her 60s. She apologized to me as I was terminating her. I went back to my office and cried after she left. I felt so terrible for what I had done to her.

So, smoking tobacco leaves and drinking alcohol to the point of complete failure to perform….ok! Smoking marijuana leaves during your time off, while doing a good job at work…b-bye.

Completely upside down.

You suddenly wake up 50 years in the past with nothing but your clothes, smartphone and memories of modern life in the year 2019. How do you use what you have to best advance humanity?

I get to New York City, by hitchhiking if need be.
I go to the New York library and find the name of a good patent attorney.
I visit his office and show him the phone.
His jaw drops to the floor. He knows he’s looking at nothing that can be built in 1969.
Then I tell him there’s nothing in that phone I know how to patent, but I know a lot about the broad evolution of technology over the next 50 years across semiconductors, computers, programming, biology, material science, etc.
He takes another look at what is obviously the most powerful supercomputer on the planet…
Then I say: “I need a place to stay and a little spending money while we figure out how to build a company that’s going to own the most important intellectual property portfolio the world has ever seen. We’ll need scientists, engineers, investors, and lawyers working together. You in?”

You want a patent attorney, they see the possibilities.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Oh yes! Back in the day (early 2000’s) when I lived in Los Angeles I worked in the accounting department for a catering company. After a few months I was doing ok but I was aware that my immediate supervisor (we will call him Javier) was not very fond of me. (Well, actually he had been WAY too fond of me at first but once I turned him down it was downhill for me in that office. But that’s a separate story and I don’t mean to digress.)

One day the phone at my desk rings and I answer it. The young lady on the other line tells me she is answering the add she read in the paper (yup, newspaper ads! I am that old!) about the job opening and she is interested to set up an interview. Yes you read correctly: Those idiots had placed an ad in the newspapers for MY job and had given the phone number at MY desk as the contact by mistake. I was very pleasant to the young lady on the phone as well as the other dozen or so that called until Javier made it in later that day. I went into his office with a big smile and handed him his messages and said something along the lines of ‘oh and these messages are from people answering the want ad. You know, the ones that want to interview for my job.’ He looked at me in complete shock and embarrassment since I had just called him a complete idiot and he was left speechless which is essentially what had happened. I mean, what could he say? That was on a Friday and the owner of the company (who was completely unaware) was in Hawaii and would not return to the office until Monday. The owner came back on Monday livid that this had happened, was embarrassed and apologised for causing me any discomfort. Javier didn’t apologise as much as he said that California was an ‘at-will’ state which meant that one could be fired for no reason at all, blah, blah and that he really wasn’t a bad guy (only an idiot!). I didn’t have another job lined up so I let it go.

Fast forward about about 2 months later. Again a Friday and in the morning my phone rings. The young lady on the other end wanted to confirm her interview appointment for 3 PM that day. Again, for MY job! I responded ‘sure, no problem! See you then!’ After lunch my co-worker (who I though was my friend but turns out he wanted to safeguard his own position so he sided with Javier) says something like ‘hey Christian, there isn’t much left to do today. Why don’t you go home?’. I responded with a ‘naw, I have so much to do with blah blah…’ Half hour later Javier comes to me with the same question. I said ‘oh no, I want to get ahead with blah blah…’ 3 PM comes around, bell rings and in comes in the young lady. I sat her ass down in my seat, got her some coffee and told her I would let Javier know. I go to his office and announce ‘Mary is here for her interview for my job. I got her some coffee. I’m going home like you suggested. Have a great weekend!’ They once again found themselves speechless at their own idiocy. She turned them down.

A few weeks later I landed my dream job during the catering company’s busiest time period. My new job told me they needed me to start immediately. I told them that even though Javier had treated me like homemade dog piss, I was still going to give them a 2-week notice because that was the correct thing to do. The following day I walked into Javier’s office and gave my notice. He begged me to please stay for at least a couple of more months until the busy period subsided and they did not have someone to do my job. I said I could not and that the 2 weeks was all that I could give them. I left with my head held high and worked at the other company for 10 years until I moved to Europe. Moral of the story: When someone treats you like dog crap do not sink to their level and don’t forget your self respect by teaching them a lesson on what human decency is all about because sooner or later karma will still find those Mother Fuckers.

As an American, would you sacrifice the ability to choose your own doctor and receive expedient service in exchange for cheaper, universal healthcare?

When I signed up with my US health insurer, Humana, the first thing they did was assign me to a different doctor than the one I had been seeing for fifteen years. I called them and told them to put me back with my regular doctor. In April of 2023, I recived a new insurance card with a different doctor’s name and a letter informing me of a change in my primary care physician. Again, I called them and told them to put me back with my previous doctor. In June of 2023, I recived a new insurance card with a different doctor’s name and a letter informing me of a change in my primary care physician. Once again, I called them and told them to put me back with my previous doctor. In September of 2023, I recived a new insurance card with a different doctor’s name and a letter informing me of a change in my primary care physician. I no longer have Humana as my insurer.

So don’t tell me that as an American I have the ability to choose my own doctor when my insurance company keeps trying to deny me that choice.

American health insurance is shit.

EDIT: I should point out that my original primary doctor was and is in Humana’s “network” to begin with. Their insistence on assigning me to another doctor was either some kind of bureaucratic nonsense or they were just fucking with me. Either way, there was no reason for them to keep reassigning me when I clearly stated my preference time and again.

What is the most bulletproof advice your dad ever gave you?

One day dad and I went into a deep conversation about various aspects of life. Topics like meaning of life, life after death, role of luck in success etc.

Conversation went deep and we kept discussing and I was all ears to grasp whatever wisdom he had to offer.

Then I asked him “Dad if you have to give one solid advice to me that I should always follow, what should be it. Just one?”

He thought for a while and then asked me, “What is your utmost priority in life”?

I gave a grin smile and said, “My Career”…..I was 28 then.

To which he replied, “Suppose you earn $ 10,000 + in a month some years from now, for that obviously you have to trade time for money and you ignore everything to earn money. By the time you turn 40/45 you have all the money in the world and are financially secure. You have a house of your own, a car and all luxuries. But since you have traded time with money, you didn’t focus on your health and now you are obese and have a weight of 90 Kgs and is catching with some diseases such as diabetes, obesity, joints pain etc.

Why did you earn so much money? To buy luxuries and to enjoy them. Now even if you have all the luxuries in the world, you can’t enjoy them as you ignored your health, and now your body is ignoring you. Even if you want to enjoy the travel, food etc that money has to offer but you can’t utilize luxuries to the fullest.

One line he said that I will never forget – “You can work hard and with your skillset you can earn money anytime but once health is lost, it becomes quite difficult to regain back your health.”

So my son, never ignore your health for anything. Health is wealth. If you have health, you can enjoy life till your last breath.

Even if he is 65 now, he never misses taking care of his health for 2 hours a day at least and plays table tennis better than people in their 30s at his place. I have not seen missing him his workout for more than 3/4 days at a stretch for the last 35 odd years. Even after retirement he was of the view that I must not pass time rather being a good cook, he started his own youtube channel – “RAVI SISODIYA”

and is doing well. Enjoys his passion and interaction with subscribers.

I was not regular at that time and then decided to keep my health a number one priority.

Whatever your profession be, never ignore your health for more days in a row. Respect your body and mind and you will get the same in return.

Why are Russia and China conducting military exercises off the Alaska Coast?

First, it makes the absurdity of the “island chain containment” plain and obvious.

It is no longer this map keeping the Pentagon awake at night:

but these:

That is a whole lot more real estate, with few american base assets in sight.

The combined Chinese and Russian fleet this year is sizable, at 11. More tellingly, the US sent 4 Arleigh Burke destroyers and a P-8 in response, rather than rely on the Coast Guard like last year.

The diversion of 4 destroyers from regular operations opens up a 16% operational hole for a navy that is already stretched thin trying to match the operational tempo of the PLAN in the Western Pacific.

This is an important development on the chessboard, because the psychology has shifted.

The US can no longer plan around concentrating assets along the Western Pacific, because the Pacific and Arctic are huge playgrounds.

What will make it even more interesting is the presence of Chinese naval aviation when the emals carriers enter service. America will have to send a CBG or two in response, but there is the type 055’s formidable VLS battery to contend with, and so on. Fascinating calculus, if you are a wargaming nuthead.

That will upend the already stretched resources of the USN.

In other words, nightmare-inducing calculus for Americans, who will not be able to accept the Chinese conducting Sigint flights off its own coast, like it has been doing for decades on the other side of the ocean.

The Pacific is not America’s backyard. Neither is Pearl Harbor the keystone.

Time to tear up old maps and make new ones, at least where deployment of forces and chinks in the armor are concerned.

The Pacific is where Chinese power projection will develop, not Oceania, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere.

Note: Currently, more than 70 percent of the USN’s deployed assets are allocated to the 7th fleet and Indopacom, and they are concentrated in the waters around the island chains. In other words, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Fleets share ~30 deployable ships.

What are your thoughts on Chinese state-controlled media? Do you believe it is more reliable than Western mainstream newspapers like The Guardian or The New York Times?

Chinese official media is actually very boring.

But they have a great advantage, almost not lying.

I mean that they also have political prejudice, and they will also have strong ideological comments, and there will also be a degradation of competitors. But they always state exact facts. If some things are included in the unhappy scope, or things are not really determined, their choices are not reported, but they will not choose to lie.

Let me give an example:

Some people found several corpses in a car, looking like Asians, but without any identity proof, the police had been involved in the investigation.

Report by BBC CNN NYT:

1. Insiders revealed that several drug dealers from China died of attacking each other because they were unevenly split.

2. Several Asians were found to die in the car, and they may be a smuggler from Vietnam.

3. Our reporter was at the scene, and some residents told us that several Koreans died here. They come from a mysterious underground church, perhaps in a certain ceremony.

Are you familiar with it?

CNTV report:

Police found several men dying in the car, and their identities have not been found. Please pay attention to the safety of the surrounding residents. If you have a clue, please notify the police.

Is it boring?

we know. The mainstream Western media often lie, and they will report some things to catch the wind, even the news and hearing news. When one thing is proved to be false, they only need to apologize or revoke the article. After all: freedom of speech.

However, China’s official media are different. Chinese public opinion has strict bottom line requirements for official media: not lying.

In the Internet era, it is almost impossible to completely deceive everyone. In China’s official media, when a news report or video finally proves that the fabricated lies, the person in charge of the official media will immediately fall into a scandal. Waiting for them is generally withdrawal and reputation sweeping the floor. Apology does not have any effect.

However, there are also many unofficial media in China, and their content is much confusing. In addition to being limited in political content, they often lie in a row to catch the wind and catch the wind to attract attention.

Because they are conservative and boring, they only tell you that they are very limited before without exact facts. Therefore, Chinese official media often difficult to attract people’s attention, and their click rate and dissemination on the Internet are also very low.

Volkswagen media is more popular because it has more curiosity and entertainment.

But in China, when people want to know the truth of major events, they often believe in the official media and complain why the official media is so slow that there is no more detailed news.

When did you realize your parent was a total badass?

I grew up on a farm. There was a small forest, which we called “the woods,” on one end of the farm. Every year, my father would post “No Hunting” signs around the woods. But every year hunters would still come there, as the woods were filled with rabbit, pheasant, deer, and other game. When he saw them, my father would go out to the woods and explain to the hunter that these were his woods, he did not allow hunting, and they would have to leave.

One time, when I was four, my father was with my brother, who was six, when they saw a hunter at the edge of the woods, looking into the woods for something to shoot. My father took my brother’s hand, walked over to the hunter, and said “These are my woods. I don’t allow hunting. You’ll have to leave.” The hunter turned around, pointed his shotgun at my six year old brother’s chest, and said “I’ll hunt wherever I damn well please.” My father slowly backed away with my brother and went back to the house.

A few minutes later, he came out again. But instead of crossing the field that led from the house to the woods, he went to the side, where a chicken coop extended to the edge of the woods. He walked quietly behind the chicken coop, until he came to the edge of the woods, about twenty feet from the hunter, who was still intently looking into the woods for something to shoot. My father said to the hunter “Drop the gun and leave immediately.” Except this time, when the hunter turned around, instead of my father holding the hand of a six year old boy, he was holding a .38 revolver…which was pointed at the hunter’s head. As soon as he started to turn around, my father said simply “Drop it or die.”

My father died four years ago. It had been almost sixty years since this happened. When I went to clean out his house, the hunter’s shotgun was still in his closet.

What is your best parking spot revenge?

In the 90s I was the parts secretary at a Ford dealership. We had a few parking spaces for office staff close to our entrance. We often hauled in office supplies, food and boxes of promotional materials for sales, and we often left after dark.

A young, cocky new salesman was hired and started parking (his Ford pickup) in our spots. I politely explained to him why it was it was important to keep those spaces open for us. He shrugged and continued to park there.

I confronted him again with a firmer tone. “You gotta stop parking there man!” With two little words he sealed his fate. “Or, what?” Sweetie. Snookums. I got a truckload of what.

In those days a Ford dealership could get any information they wanted on a Ford. With his VIN number I made a duplicate key. When he parked in our spots I moved his truck to the back corner of the lot where new deliveries would bury it and he’d have to move several cars to get his. I didn’t stop there though.

Anytime I saw his truck anywhere I’d move it. Shopping Center? Moved. Street parking for a restaurant? Moved. That kid was looking for his car several times a week!

Eventually he came in to our office grovelling and pleading with me to stop. He promised to never park in our spots again.

EDIT: Wow! Now I see why there are always edits on these! Some of you are apoplectic that I “got away” with a heinous crime. It’s occurred to me that you are extremely fortunate to have never been the victim of domestic violence, stalking, rape, burglary or actual car theft. If you had you’d know that police aren’t much help in any of the above situations and perpetrators are rarely arrested.

Could I have, with righteous indignation, insisted he be formally reprimanded? Yeah. But who wants to be that bitch? Not me. He learned a lesson in a fun way. He took it in stride. He likely doesn’t remember my name (I don’t remember his) but he likely remembers me and this story as fondly as I do. And maybe, just maybe, he has a little more respect for how clever women can be instead of seeing us as spiteful hags. Lighten up!

Went to Motor Vehicles Today to Have LIENHOLDER Removed from Car Titles – Wait til you hear THIS . . . .

Nation Hal Turner 20 December 2023

Today I went to New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) on Summit Avenue in Jersey City, NJ to have the LIENHOLDER info removed from two vehicle Titles since I’ve paid the car loans off. You’re not gonna BELIEVE what happened . . .

Firstly, after the COVID scam, New Jersey Motor Vehicle has NOT done away with the requirement to make an appointment to go to one of their offices to have paperwork done. So I had to schedule today’s appointment last weekend, and I did.

I get there, walk in, and there’s two security guards who ask “Do you have an appointment? I reply “yes” and they ask to see the appointment confirmation from online! I brought it with me just in case, and gave it to them. They tell me, go in and see the Receptionist on the left. I go in.

I get to the Receptionist who asks me, “What are you here to do today?” I reply “Have the LIENHOLDERS removed from the Title on two vehicles I’ve paid off.” He hands me two application forms to go fill out.

I go fill them out, return the Receptionist’s pen that he graciously lent to me and he then says, now go onto the “ID CHECK” line to the left. ID Check??????? I go ahead and do that. Two people ahead of me.

When it’s my turn, I go up too the guy in the little booth– I think he was Hindu or whatever the folks are, who have the Dot on their forehead — and hand him the filled-out applications to have the Titles re-issued and he says “You know, this is going to cost you $60 each to have the LIENHOLDER Removed.” I replied “Yes, I know.” He then says, “I can get this done for free.”

Uhhhhhhh, I was not expecting this . . . . my Spidey Sense started tingling. So I ask him “How?”

GET THIS: He replies “I can have my Boss delete the LIENHOLDER in our computer system, then you walk out with the same Title, instead of a new one.”

I think to myself: “Then I won’t have any way to PROVE the LIEN has been released” So I respond to him “No thanks, I want the re-issued Titles without the LIENHOLDER on them.” He says, “Well, I’m just trying to save you money.”

He takes a staple remover and separates the Titles from the Lender Loan-Satisfaction, notarized letters, hands everything back to me with a card containing a number on it: “K117” and tells me, take a seat over there and you’ll hear your number called, telling you which counter to go to.

I go sit down.

About five minutes later, the computer voice over the PA Speaker calls “K117, Counter Ten”

So I get up and walk over to counter 10 and the nice Spanish lady behind the counter takes my paperwork.

To my utter shock, SHE then says to me, “It will cost you $60 each to have these LIENHOLDERS Cleared from the Title, . . . . but I can get it done for you for free.”

I’m now kind of stunned because this is now two separate Employees of the Motor Vehicle Commission saying the same thing. So I play along and ask her “How?”

She says, I will have the Supervisor come over, delete the LIENHOLDER from our Computer, but you leave here with the exact same Title.“

I thought to myself “Holy shit, they’re all “in-on-it” for the “Great Taking.”” I went on to think to myself “These people are working for the Bankers, so the Bankers can grab everybody’s stuff; just as I learned from the video “The Great Taking”

So I told the woman, “But then I would have no proof that the Bank no longer has a LIEN.” She responded, right, but you’ll save $120 on the Two Titles!

So I responded “No, I want the LIENHOLDER removed and I want the new, re-issued Titles without the Bank name on them”

She reiterated “But that will cost you $60 each, a total of $120” and I responded “I don’t care. I want the re-issued Titles.”

She put on a smug face as if to say “Oh this guy must have money, he doesn’t care about the $120.”

She processes the deletion of the LIENHOLDER info and then asks “Will you be paying by Credit Card, Check, or Legal Tender?”

“LEGAL TENDER????????????” Nobody says that outside of you know . . . . us . . . . .

I reply, “Legal Tender; Federal Reserve Notes.”

I hand the cash to her and she finishes the transaction, which prints the receipt.

But it’s all the same computer . . . . so If I agreed to “let them do it for free” they could NOT have removed the LIENHOLDER because the system requires the money be paid before it will complete the action ! ! ! ! ! If I had not paid, the computer could not have deleted the LIENHOLDER info! ! !

You know what I think? I personally think the whole offer to “get it done free” was a SCAM . . . . designed to deliberately mislead people into THINKING the LIEN had been removed, when, in fact, it has NOT been removed. And it COULD NOT HAVE BEEN REMOVED unless and until payment was tendered because the computer won’t process the removal unless payment has been made.

That leaves those poor suckers who THOUGHT they were getting it done “free” — open to the Banks coming and taking everything from THEM because all the official paperwork still shows the LIENS ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

How many thousands of people have believed this scam over the years?

I’m telling you, folks, I am totally shocked by this happening at two separate employees in a State Motor Vehicle Commission facility.

I now think the “States” are “in-on-it” too and all of them are working in lockstep with the Bankers to achieve their goal: You will own nothing . . . . and be happy.”

Not me! I have the Re-issued Titles without the LIENHOLDER info on them. These vehicles are, in fact, MINE, and I can prove it with the Titles.

I was born at night . . . . but not last night. They aren’t getting-over on me!

Humor: What are some of the greatest examples of presence of mind?

A businessman went to a shoe store to purchase a new pair of shoes. He was a prominent person in that town. After selecting a pair of shoes with size 8 he asked the salesperson to pack it. The salesperson had just started his career and joined the shoe store a few days back.

The businessman soon discovered that he had left his wallet at home. He told the salesperson that he would take the shoes with him and make the payment the next day. The salesperson being new to business excused himself in order to discuss this matter with the store manager. The manager knew that the customer is an eminent businessman; however, was reluctant to deliver the shoes without payment. At the same time, he was not ready to lose a sale too. He advised the salesperson to handle the situation in the best manner possible and left the place.

The salesperson stood there frozen for a few minutes unable to decide. He then returned to the customer, started packing the shoes and handed the package to the customer.

The next day the customer arrived at the store with the shoes he had purchased, made the payment for his purchase and told the salesperson that “After opening the package I found one shoe with size 8 and the other with size 7. Maybe you packed them by mistake. Can I have the shoes with size 8 please?” The salesperson apologized for the inconvenience caused and replaced the wrong size shoe with the correct one. The customer collected his shoes and left the store with satisfaction.

The manager happened to overhear their conversation and realized that the salesperson had used his presence of mind and handled the situation very well. They didn’t lose their business as well as the customer.

Moral

It is by the presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. If an individual has a calm state of mind, his attitude and views will be calm and tranquil even in the presence of great agitation.

Stephen Hawking said, “The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.” Do smart people out there agree?

I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture given by the late Prof. Hawking on the campus of the University of Berkeley; I say “given”; Hawking rolled onto the stage, and the lecture he so painstakingly prepared was delivered by the machine he used to speak with. I never heard him repeat this quote, so I will have to take it on faith that this is something he actually said.

I’ll be PC here, and substitute “average” for dumb; average people are not necessarily “dumb”, but the difference between them and very intelligent people is that they are far less intellectually curious, and tend not to question their own beliefs, or look beneath the surface of phenomena they encounter every day. For the average, smart people are not necessarily “crazy”, but they do come across as weird. If I were to tell an average person that they like doughnuts because simple carbohydrates and fat were rare and valuable nutrients on the African savannah 70,000 years ago, they would look at me like I was mad. They would say something like “I enjoy doughnuts because they taste good”; it wouldn’t occur to them to ask the fundamental question of why they taste good to us.

A graph showing the “bell curve” distribution of IQ.

As shown in the graph above, 68.2% of people are in the average range of IQ between 85–115 (using IQ as a proxy for general intelligence. The number of people with an IQ higher than 115 becomes increasingly rare with the increasing level of IQ, so those with 140+ are very rare indeed, so it should not surprising that those who are in this high range will often come across as “odd” to the average majority. There is a qualitative difference in the cognition of the highly gifted, compared to the cognitive style of the average; the more intelligent one is, the less “obvious” things seem to be.

In evolutionary terms, our “purpose” as humans is to survive and reproduce, functions for which the average level of intelligence is sufficient; humans evolved to be as intelligent as they needed to be in order to successfully carry out these biological functions, so it is not surprising that most of us are not smarter than we are. As social animals, we tend not to be too fond of “weirdos” who question the existing social order, and the way things have always been done, hence the existence of terms like “nerd” and “geek” for those whose manner of thought and speech is contrary to the norm. At the same time, it had to have been the prehistoric nerds and geeks who came up with technologies like the bow and arrow, and poison darts, which were beneficial for the survival of humans as a whole, by allowing us to hunt otherwise inaccessible game animals. One can just imagine the jeers of the normies when the first geek smeared some tree sap on a dart, and walked off with his blowpipe, saying “I’m going hunting by myself.”

As someone who has been accused of being smart, I’ve had to learn to self-censor in order to “fit in”, and not be ostracized as a “weirdo” by the general population. “Be yourself” is incredibly stupid advice if one happens to be an intellectual outlier, since “yourself” is likely to be regarded as strange, and even threatening by the majority. Hawking was right, and I reserve my unfiltered self for a select few IRL, plus, of course, anyone who chooses to read my apophenic ravings on Quora.

What is your biggest mistake in life? Did you overcome it?

He was my first love. We dated for 3 years and got married because I was pregnant. Worst mistake of my life.

By the time I had the baby, I could almost feel it. The loneliness. The emptiness. He became a totally different person. He complained that I was fat and unattractive. I was depressed and lonely. He knew that I enjoyed to have sex, so he withheld it from me to hurt me.

I had a startup business and was struggling to balance work and family. To make matters worse, I got pregnant somehow with the second child. He didn’t want to have the child so he asked me to have an abortion. I refused. He totally disconnected at this point. My business also went into the abyss as I was struggling to provide for myself, my daughter and unborn son. I hid and cried in the bathroom every night.

A couple of months after my son was born, a woman called and told me she’s sharing him with me and they have kids together. I confronted him and he didn’t deny it. A part of me literally died that day. Everyone around me seemed to know and I didn’t. What hurt me the most is that I stupidly still loved this man. He told me he didn’t want me anymore. He asked me to leave and leave his kids behind. I left with my kids and moved in with my sister. I had no job and 2 kids to look after.

To cut the long story short, we went through a really bad divorce, but it was freedom for me. I emigrated to another country, got a better life and job, got into great shape, and basically got my shit together. Am very thankful that I got this far. I never smoked, drank or did anything harmful to myself when I was at my lowest. My mistake gave me a chance to realize that you can pick yourself up after hitting rock bottom. KARMA IS REAL. I found out last year that the woman my ex chose over me left him for another man. Oh how did I forget? She also told my ex that the kids are not his. Thank you

What is the most ridiculous request your employer ever asked of you? Did you get out of it or end up giving in?

Having just informed me that 167 hours of work she had made me do would not be paid, my boss told me to prepare exams not just for my class, but for all the students. Unsurprisingly, I said no.

This boss had stopped me from teaching one of my usual classes on a Monday afternoon (without consulting me) and arranged for me to teach the same number of hours on some Saturday mornings and weekday evenings instead. She pretended that she was doing this to make my life easier, since Mondays were a heavy teaching day. She then insisted that I use the time I had off on Monday afternoons to do some of her administration for her, without telling me that this work would all be unpaid. She gradually added more and more of her work to my workload.

For the entire term I thought I was being paid to do the administration work. She only told me I wasn’t at the end of the semester, by which time I had chalked up 167 hours of her administration work plus 10 hours of extra teaching) that she wouldn’t pay me for.

Then, immediately after telling me all this work was unpaid, she told me to prepare some exams, something the other teachers didn’t have to do. I said no, obviously. She stormed off to Human Resources to complain about me. When she came back she told me how upset she was that they didn’t support her. She was actually crying a little, I’m not sure whether because of rage or if she was really hurt. I was called up to HR and asked how many hours I had done unpaid. My boss had a track record of not paying me, so I had noted every task and all the hours done in my diary. I was paid for everything I did and my boss was told that all our work had to be paid for.

I just wish I had learned to say no sooner – and I really appreciated the honesty of our HR manager.

Slayyyyy

Why did England change its capital to London?

It’s a fun story! To me at least. I’m cool that way.

Technically “London” didn’t become the capital until after the 16th Century. What we now call “the City of London”, the ancient square mile that Rome founded, was an entity of its own. And in many ways still is. It was a centre of power and money, even before the Norman Conquest.

Up through the Middle Ages there was no fixed “capital” per se. The kings didn’t stay put, they moved around, so the capital was essentially where they were, not necessarily where the government was. The government being those ministers of the king who administered (get it?) the day to day workings.

During the reign of the Wessex kings, Winchester was the closest thing to an English capital.

So, back to London. The kings had no real power over London. Edward the Confessor, who was technically of the Wessex blood line but spent his formative years across the Channel and didn’t really have a sentimental attachment to Winchester, built an abbey in Westminster, which was west of London. He also built a palace for the seat of government. With these he hoped to draw power and wealth from that citadel to the east protected by a massive wall.

Edward died in January 1066. In October, Duke William of Normandy arrived to take what he felt was his by right. After the Battle of Hastings he headed toward London, that centre of power. Not to London, mind you. Toward it. He circled round, burning his way around it. But he knew he couldn’t breach the wall. He made a deal with the London peeps that in exchange for recognising him as their king, they would retain their special privileges. This arrangement has been in place ever since.

Now, thanks to Edward the Confessor, there was a ready-made power base just to the west of London. William was duly crowned king in Westminster Abbey. Over time, the Treasury was moved from Winchester, which became that historic city with one train station (London now has over 600 train and underground stations). Meanwhile, houses were built between the cities of Westminster and London and a Greater London was formed, eventually swallowing up towns and villages in a 600 square mile area.

Note, though, that the City of London has no national government facilities in it, save the Bank of England, which is separate. Government (Parliament, Whitehall, Downing Street, etc…), the Palace, the national entities are in Westminster, but as that is in what became the megapolis of “London”, London is the capital.

What was a Christmas bonus you got from your company that made you speechless?

Wouldnt call it a bonus.

But we was excited last year, we had put in a lot of work to reach the goal that would make a bonus possible.

We where all called to a end of year quarterly meeting where the ceo would go over the figures and give us a chance to ask questions and share ideas.

Instead the owner of the main company was standing there and the ceo a bit to the side. First case of worry, but it could be a good thing right?

It starts and the owner takes the word. And it just goes downhill from there.

The board and investors are not happy, they are firing the ceo and the owner steps out of the board to take direct control of the company, they will reorganize the whole flow and all that modern jazz for making your work day a living hell the next half year.

Adding there wont be a bonus and we will stop having a bonus at all in the future.

A year later and everyone have turned sour many have left and those that remains are becoming more and more unmotivated.

We are close at needing a new firing round too. and nothing have really become better since the change, only more cumbersome and annoying with no gain. 2 years and no raise makes for grumpy workers, when then removing the carrot all together the last drive disappears..

Even overtime must be agreed upon before you get pay for it.

So the bonus was a year in hell that seems to continue unless I am lucky and can find another job that pay the same or better.

Worst part is, the owner got a social and public image as a good and sensible businessman that are very round handed with spending. But when it comes to the company he is a scrounge mcduck, as he dont wanna spend a single dime, even though it cost to make changes, and he want those changes.

So nobody believe us when we tell how he is at work, as everyone got another opinion of him from the local news…

How is Chick-fil-A still thriving when some people accuse them of having a “horrible track record” on social issues?

True story: I had never eaten at a Chick-fil-A before last weekend (Saturday, March 9, 2019). In the past, if I’d wanted a chicken sandwich, which I don’t often do, I’ve gone to McDonald’s. But this time I was in a different shopping center, one without a McDonald’s but with a Chick-fil-A next door.

Side note: I’d had their sandwiches before, but at wrestling tournaments. The sandwiches would be brought in in these temperature-controlled bags, and then sold by members of the Booster’s Club. I wasn’t really impressed. The sandwiches cost more than McDonald’s and they were soggy.

But here I was in a shopping center with a Chick-fil-A next door. Oh, well, I figured. I could see the place was crowded, too. Lots of cars, and a long double-line of cars going through the carry-out.

I went inside and the place smelled good. Not like McDonald’s. The menu items were all clearly posted. At McDonald’s, there are these electronic screens that’ll show a handful of items for maybe 10 seconds, then rotate to another set of items. I liked the clear posting.

After looking over the posted menu, I decided to get a spicy chicken sandwich. Not the whole meal, just the sandwich. There wasn’t a line; people were being served as they stepped up to order. At McDonald’s, I could have waited 5 minutes behind just one or two people. (Maybe they’d ordered fries or coffee, and were waiting on the next batch of fries or the next pot of coffee to finish brewing.) I ordered the sandwich and the person behind the counter asked what sauce I’d like with that. I asked what sauces they had.

At McDonald’s, that would have been greeted with a rapid-fire blur of sauces. Or the person would point to that electronic board where the sauces had to cycle through to be displayed. By now, the McDonald’s employee would have forgotten whether I’d ordered the sandwich or the meal. The McDonald’s employee also would have forgotten whether I was eating in or carrying out.

At Chick-fil-A, they had all the sauces out on display. The counter person pointed to them and suggested that since I seemed to like spicy foods, I might enjoy the Buffalo sauce. Sounded good to me.

She handed me a tall plastic colored cone with sauce packets inside. She told me to find a seat anywhere and they’d bring the sandwich over. Wow! At McDonald’s, I’d have to stand near the ear-splitting ice-grinding machine, waiting for my number to be called. She didn’t have to ask again whether I was eating in or carrying out.

I found a seat and, quite promptly, someone came over with the sandwich, wrapped, and asked: “Don? Spicy chicken?” Yup, that was me. The chicken was crispy, steaming, and hot. Tasty. A bit of a surprise, since my only prior experience had been at the wrestling tournaments where they were soggy. If it had been McDonald’s, the sandwich would have been soggy, too. Are they ever crisp there?

A family was seated at the next table. At some point, the dad asked one of the Chick-fil-A employees for a refill on a beverage. The employee said sure, and in about 30 seconds was back with a refill. Nothing like that at McDonald’s.

When I was finished, I started picking up the debris (the sandwich wrapping, the packet of hot sauce, the napkin. Before I’d even gotten it all together, a Chick-fil-A employee came over and said, “Oh, are you leaving? If so, I can take all that.” And he did. Wow! At McDonald’s, I would have gathered all that stuff, taken it over to a trash can, tried to slide it all into the trash can (those paper liners always stick to the tray!), and put the tray on the tray holder.

And that is why Chick-fil-A is thriving.

What made you forbid someone from ever entering your home again?

I have written on this before. When I was married to my ex, his daughter lived with us . Her and her husband came over to visit with their children. We also had a friend of ours over . She was very disrespectful to her dad and our friend told her that. About two months later she asked to take my youngest for a few days and I said no. She then said that our family friend had touched my son , while she was in the room. I gathered my kids and asked them and all three said nothing ever happened. She called back and was upset and said she knew I wouldn’t do anything and would be turning me into social services and she did!!! A case worker came out and took my kids and asked a lot of questions. Then we talked and this man was amazing!!! I explained that my kids were never left alone with anyone and always knew they could tell me anything and his daughter was upset with me , for telling her no. He told me she wanted to get even with me for being with her dad and this was vengeance towards me. I encouraged her Dad to continue a relationship with her but she would no longer be able to come in our home. This was so scary for me , and I could have lost my children. My relationship with her was over , and our friend was also worried. I’m so very grateful I got a wonderful case worker. He understood .

What was the one thing that made you finally drop your affection for someone?

Going anonymous because my ex is on Quora.

I was in a relationship with my boyfriend (Let’s call him A) for 2 years. It was the perfect relationship everyone dreams about. But that changed soon.

One day, I was at my friend’s house (Let’s call her B) to take some notes because exams were coming up. I didn’t tell him about it. After half an hour, B receives a call so she goes outside to answer it as she didn’t want to bother me. But after a minute, she comes back in, puts the phone’s speaker on and the convo went something like this.

B- Sorry, I didn’t catch that. What did you say?

The voice on the other end said: “I love you”.

I recognised the voice. It was him. I looked at B as if everything was over. But she continued talking to him.

B- But what about your girlfriend? This would break her.

A- We don’t need to tell her anything. It’ll be our secret.

I felt like my heart would give out. I wanted to scream or do anything just to relieve me from the pain I was experiencing. To think that the two years we spent together was a lie was too much to handle. I called him after I calmed down a bit. He said he did that because B’s boyfriend wanted to test her loyalty. I didn’t buy that and we broke up that day.

High Value Men requirements

What is your best parking spot revenge?

A friend and I were driving uhaul box trucks when we decided to stop at a gas station to get snacks and drinks. When pulling in, I saw a car parked parallel across 3 parking spaces. Without even taking about it, I parked directly in front of the offending car while my friend parked directly behind it. We got out, smiled at each other over our telepathic decision to mess with the offender, and went inside.

The car’s owner was apparently going out as we were going in, saw how we were parked, and followed us back in and started yelling at us, demanding we move.

Me: No

Bad Parker: I will call the cops is you don’t!

Friend: Ok.

BP: Don’t try me! Move your damned trucks!

Me: Naw, go ahead and call the cops.

Friend: Yeah, we’ll wait. We’re going to eat in, anyway. (The gas station has an Arby’s attached. We weren’t originally, btw, but you know how it goes.)

Me: It’ll be fun watching you have your embolism when they ticket you for parking like that.

We went and got our food, to our time eating and left. During that time, BP apparently tried getting to station manager to make us move and kept yelling and screaming until we were finally done. As we were leaving, BP yelled at us some incoherent crap that I don’t really remember. My friend returned a parting comment about BP’s horrible parking, and we left.

All in all, we were at the gas station about a 45 minutes longer than we’d initially planned. We don’t know what, if any, trouble BP got into it if he ever did it again. We stopped at the same station on the return trip, in the off chances that BP was a local and would return, but he didn’t while we were there.

What has an employee said that immediately caused you to fire them?

We had an employee who didn’t just say something that got him fired, he immediately followed it up with an action that also would have gotten him fired on its own.

I work for a vets office. We had a new tech that seemed afraid to do anything. He claimed most animals were aggressive and just wouldn’t touch them. Well we don’t allow techs to do injections until they are comfortable doing simply things like taking temperatures and checking heart rates which he still couldn’t do.

One day, we get a cat in for a tech appointment. Notes said “allergy shot.” For most cats, this mean a depo injection but you always ask the doctor what you should give. He did not. Instead he took the appointment himself, big no no at this stage and strike one. He brought the cat back and told another tech the cat needed a cytopoint injection. Strike two, he doesn’t get to make medication/ injection calls. The other tech asked if he was sure as that sounded wrong and he said “yes, that’s what the doctor told me.”

Ya see, cytopoint can be deadly to cats and is for dogs only. So the tech asked again, “are you sure that’s what the doctor said?” He got annoyed, told her that what the doc said and he got the cytopoint himself and injected it himself. Strike three. You’re out.

He was fired. The cat did almost die and we ended up having to give them free care for about six months for all their pets to make up for it. The cat survived but now has health issues.

This was an unforgivable, fireable offensive.

What was the nail in the coffin for an employee or a co-worker?

One of my colleagues was almost impossible to layoff. She was pregnant during a round of layoffs, and took maternity leave a week earlier than expected, and was gone for a full year, she came back expecting the layoffs would be over, but after a couple of months, they announced that there were new layoffs the next week. She called in sick Monday through Thursday, and on Thursday, they called her and said unless her doctor faxed in a note on Friday, she had to come in. By then everybody had been laid off, except her. She checked in and made sure everyone saw her, and then disappeared.

Her boss looked high and low for her, and eventually found a locked stall in the washroom. She looked under, and saw her shoes. She had to fire her through the bathroom door.

My colleagues only response was, I knew I should have lifted my feet.

She became a legend in the company. The nail in the coffin was not lifting her feet.

Which became a phrase everyone used when they got caught doing something wrong.

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve lost and found?

Went to Vegas . Won around $17000 . The wife and I split it between ourselves before the cdn border. Declared it and got home. Reminded her to put her cash in the safe. Few days later, I went in to grab all of it to deposit in our US acct and just found my part in it. Asked her about it. She couldn’t find it. Looked sll over. Than she thought she might had left it in the taxi on the way home. FUCK!! $9000 USD gone. So, a couple years later. We’re getting rid of her old car and im just going thru it, and lo and behold, it’s in between the seats in the car. She had put it there for safekeeping cause she went grocery shopping and didn’t wanna take all that in her purse. Why she didn’t remember that 2 yrs prior, I’ll never know. 😔 But I’ve learned to live with my wife’s poor memory. She was born without a thyroid and takes meds for that but it causes a horrible memory sometimes..

What is something you cannot forgive your parents for no matter how you try?

I’ve written about this before, but I think it bears repeating.

I learned how to cook very early on. My mother was working one Thanksgiving when I was 12. I volunteered to cook the dinner. She’d be home around 5 or so. Dinnertime had not been specified. Turkey went in the oven that morning. Since it was a day off school and I was a kid, I grabbed my bike and went riding all around town. I remember a fun, free-wheeling day until I got home.

I got back around 4:30 and realized I had to hurry. My brothers and father laid around and watched me as I hurried to prepare the meal. There wasn’t much to do if they had pitched in: boil potatoes, heat up rolls, boil the frozen corn, etc. But they didn’t. My mom walked in while I was peeling potatoes. She stopped dead in her tracks. “Dinner’s not ready?” I said “It will be ready in a few minutes.” I wasn’t lying. It would have been 20 minutes max. She threw up her hands like I told her I was a pregnant 12-year-old crackhead. She started screaming at me. Dad came running in to see what the fuss was. He took off his belt and whipped me violently right there in the kitchen, potato peeler still in my hand, for not having everything ready “on time” (again, we didn’t know exactly when she would be home, and no dinnertime had been set). My brothers just watched. I was sent to my room in the basement for the night. I don’t know who finished cooking, probably my mother in her martyrdom.

Here’s how it could (should) have gone down:

Scenario One: I come home at 4:30. Dad: “You’re cutting it close. Boys, go help your sister.”

Scenario Two: Mom comes home at 5:00. I’m peeling potatoes. “Dinner’s not ready?” “It will be ready in a few minutes.” “Okay, good, I’m starving. I’m going to take a shower/change/lie down for a few minutes. Call me when it’s ready.”

Scenario Three: Mom come home at 5:00. She starts yelling. Dad comes in. “Calm down, it’ll only be a few minutes. Here, let me take your stuff. Come in and lie down for a few minutes.” (to my brothers) “Get in here and help your sister.”

It took me many years to realize this day was an example of so, so many things. Dysfunction, piss-poor communication, child abuse, sexism, Old-World parenting (as in 1800s bullshit), knee-jerk reactions, and so much more. My family was fucked up, to say the least.

And I don’t care if that was the way they were raised. I am not a believer in the cycle-of-abuse crap. They were adults, they had brains to think with, they could make rational adult decisions. They knew better.

Edit: I think I need to address that there was a dried-up old bitch of a troll who left a comment that it was my fault, I was deservedly punished, I should have stayed home all day and had dinner ready, my poor poor mother, I was martyring myself, shame on me. Yes, that comment really happened (I deleted it and told her to fuck off). I wasn’t only abused at home, and this wasn’t the first or last time. I was bullied mercilessly at school. To have a day away from bullies at school was a real treat, so yes, I was going to take my bike and go have some fun while the turkey cooked. I was a kid. I wasn’t 20. And yes, I screwed up and mismanaged my time. Again—I was a kid. And my parents wildly overreacted—with violence against a child— instead of keeping calm and reacting reasonably. If someone told me they were cooking me dinner, but when I came home it was going to be 20 minutes late, I’d say “Okay, cool” and either jump in the shower or flop down and watch TV. I wouldn’t start screaming and whipping them with a belt. So again, troll: Fuck off. If you have kids, I sincerely feel sorry for them and I hope CPS is keeping an eye on you, old twat. You’re the reason child protection agencies exist.

Why is Urumqi, Xinjiang cleaner, safer, civilized, and developed than New Delhi?

Almost every Chinese City beats Indian Cities hollow in terms of Cleanliness, Safety and Development

There are Primarily three reasons for this :-

A. One Party Meritocracy & Funds

In China, fund allocation for Cities and their overall Urban development is based on the Urban Development Index (UDI) plus between 15% upto 46% of the revenue generated by a City is used by the Local Government of that Province and the Administration of that City to develop the place

There is no political rivalries or party based discrimination between Fund Allocation and Revenue sharing

It’s all about How much the City develops and how well maintained the City is

In India, funding is a nightmare because the State themselves have no claim over the money they generate as revenue. Everything is handed over to the Centre which then decides how much each State should get and then the State decides how much each City should get

China has 20 times the provincial autonomy than an Indian State

B. Continuous Development to prevent overcrowding

India keeps on dumping on the same city again and again for year after year. Thus every such city attracts migrants like flies and that leads to overcrowding of the worst order

China keeps developing and expanding new Cities regularly

Chengdu, Chongqing etc were small towns a decade or so ago that are now bustling cities, brimming with Prosperity

Urumqi was once a town , now it’s classified as a Tier 3 City

Thus if you notice Shanghai and Beijing both lost 4% and 5.6% of the population due to migration between 2013–2023 whereas Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad netted between 7.6% and 12% SURPLUS population by migration between 2008–2023

C. Chinas Housing Policy

Everyone living with a proper Job in a City in China MUST have housing

This is a law from the time of Chairman Mao and when it’s a Chairman Mao law, it’s enforcement is very strict

Public Housing is thus available for every single resident of the city including the poorest of them

Only Shanghai and Beijing has slums today , which existed before the 1998 law and thus can’t be torn down

If you have a legitimate job in CQ City, you get a Public Apartment of 39–52 Square Meters with indoor plumbing, heating, air conditioning and gas and electricity and drinking water for a mere 78 RMB / month

Of course many Chinese become prosperous enough to rent much nicer places and sub lease their public homes for which they pay rent of 78 RMB/ month for 400–500 RMB / month

During Covid 19, many such people were discovered and fined very heavily (30, 000 RMB plus 60 months rent or 100 Days in Prison)

A Fourth reason is the fact that Migration into Cities is heavily controlled

You just can’t come to a City that easily without housing or a job unless you are a tourist there

In India it’s the opposite

You can flood into cities and sleep on the roads and everywhere else and even defecate

It’s like a Zoo

So it’s the Chinese System

They may have their flaws but by God they have excellent City maintenance and keep themselves very clean

Their Air Quality improvement in a mere decade is something every nation takes notes on

Primarily another reason is the Chinese are proud of their country and love their country

Not the bogus love that Indians show which translates into defending India for all it’s weaknesses, glorifying mediocrities as superheroes, forcing people to stand up for the National Anthem etcetera

The genuine love that ensures they actively take pride in their development and their cities

China’s population is crashing. What changes would they have to make to attract expats to emigrate to China?

Declining population is not just a Chinese problem; but rather it is a worldwide problem. Most developed or developing countries have seen significant decreases in birth rates that coincide with an ever aging demographic.

Importing people from other countries is certainly an option. Especially considering how men vastly outnumber women in China. But I think it will require more than bringing in more people. China needs to tackle this problem on two fronts.

Firstly, building society with the mindset that the elderly need to be taken care of, whether that be through family or through a skilled nursing facility. China should look into building these all over the country. They don’t have to be as bleak as some in the U.S., but there needs to be a safety net for a vulnerable aging population in the event their children can’t or won’t care for their needs.

The second front is low birth rate. China’s work culture isn’t conducive to motherhood right now. 996 doesn’t make women want to get pregnant. Women also need paid maternity leave for at least a year.

The government can subsidize kindergartens and ensure that the education they’re receiving is at an appropriate standard. Families can be provided with subsidies for each child for a certain number of years.

China has a planned economy so if they begin implementing such plans in upcoming five year plenary sessions then perhaps they can be one of the first countries to find a solution to this worldwide problem.

Why did people on TV in the ’50s get all dressed to clean house, like wearing pearls? Is this how they really dressed then?

My mom was an RN, and wore a white uniform with starched cap every night when she went to work. When she got home in the morning she’d go straight to bed, and then get up around 3 p.m., dressed in capri pants (also called “pedal pushers”) or shorts in the summer, along with a blouse, often sleeveless, and canvas sneakers. Never any jewelry around the house or on quick trips to the store; that, and dresses and low-heeled pumps, were reserved for special occasions. For a really special occasion, like a trip to NYC to see a Broadway show, she added a hat to her outfit, and she and I wore short white cotton gloves. For school, I and all the other little girls wore shirtwaist dresses with petticoats, and the boys wore long pants and button-up shirts, with clip-on ties for school picture day. Up until a certain age, I wore my brother’s hand-me-down shorts and tee shirts for after-school play clothes.

None of us had as many clothes as we do today; our small closets were plenty big enough for our wardrobes (some of which were sewn or knitted by our mothers). But the quality of what we wore was higher, and we tended to wear everything until it wore out or we outgrew them.

Looking crisp and put together was important for our parents, since most of them had grown up during the Great Depression, when having raggedy clothing was a sign of poverty. Since synthetic blends didn’t become readily available until the very end of the 1950s, everything had to be ironed and/or starched. It was a chore my mother absolutely hated, so she was an early devotee of polyester blends when they came out.

Had she lived to this decade, she would have been baffled by people paying high prices for strategically ripped jeans, as well as the upper-class preference for “natural” fabrics like cotton and linen, which must be ironed!

Do Chinese state and general public consider marijuana a soft drug? What if a Westerner gets caught with a kilogram of this soft drug in China?

It’s very very complicated

The laws are highly varying

There is a law that says if any person is caught with possession of Marijuana (Cannabis) while entering China (Airports or Borders) then he faces Life Imprisonment if he carries more than 50 GRAMS

Yet ONCE IN CHINA if a person gets caught with the same cannabis or Marijuana, as long as the Marijuana on his possession is within 300 grams, he gets 15 Days Imprisonment, 45 Days Mandatory State Rehabilitation plus a fine

So technically if you smuggle 100 grams into China, you face life in jail yet if you succeed and get past the customs and manage to cross 300–400 feet and then get caught, you face 15 Days Jail and a fine

Plus no law about what happens when you possess less than 50 grams of cannabis

So as on date if someone smuggles less than 50 grams of cannabis into China and is caught – He is merely deported and the smuggled cannabis is destroyed

Next thing is Cultivation of Marijuana is not illegal in China

So if you are caught with 1 Kilogram of Cannabis and you can prove it is grown in China and explain that you are in possession of 1 Kilogram of Cannabis / Marijuana for medical purposes – YOU CAN ACTUALLY GET OFF WITHOUT ANY PUNISHMENT

The authorities have to prove you possess the Marijuana for intent to distribute as a Narcotic substance to charge you

For a Westerner who possesses 1 Kilogram Marijuana though, he cannot prove its grown in China or that he is in possession for Industrial or Medical purposes

So with Westerners the law assumes he is distributing as a narcotic substance and if so HE FACES THE DEATH PENALTY

Summary

To the best of my study of drug laws:-

< 50 grams smuggled – Deportation & Destruction of the Drug

>= 50 grams smuggled –Life Imprisonment

<= 300 grams possession inside China – 15 Days Imprisonment , 45 Days Rehabilitation (Optional), Fine

>300 grams possession inside China proven as grown in China by Mainland Citizen – No Punishment likely beyond censure and monitoring without proof of distribution or intent

>300 grams possession inside China by a foreigner – Death Penalty unless he can prove the same drug originated from local cultivation for industrial or medical purposes

Plus China has another law

Any Person in whose PREMISES consumption of Marijuana takes place regardless of quantity or fore knowledge will face 3 Years Mandatory Jail plus 50,000 RMB fine

This is called SHELTER LAW

Thus if you are a landlord and a tenant smokes Marijuana in your apartment that you have leased out – YOU WON’T BE CHARGED BY THE SHELTER LAW

However if your friend smokes Marijuana in your flat that you lease or own – You face 3 years Jail

What were the things your parents did right in raising you?

At the age of 11 my mother forced me to accompany my sister (17) whenever she went outside.

I was obviously reluctant at first but finally agreed. I used to sit behind the activa while she rode to the grocery store, shopping mall etc.

It was all good until the following incident took place.

It was around 7 pm and we were coming back from the supermarket.

Two boys with covered faces stopped their bike in front of us, passed an inappropriate comment and disappeared before we could think of anything.

I was perplexed. I was shocked. I felt helpless. I felt weak. I knew the meaning of that comment.

I didn’t eat properly that night. I was sleepless for a few days. Mom noticed a change in my behaviour.

Mom: Is something bothering you? You don’t seem fine.

Me: I was waiting to share it with someone. The stress was enormous and I told her exactly what I felt.

Mom: Did you talk to your sister after the incident?

Me: No maa!! If I felt helpless and weak, I can’t even imagine what she would have felt.

Mom: This is why I told you to accompany her. See, you are going to be a teenager soon and perhaps you’ll think that it’s cool to follow a girl or pass some comments. Even some of your friends might force you. They’ll tell you that it’s ok.

But now you know that it is not. I’m sure you wouldn’t want any girl to feel like the way your sister did.

And she was right. The people close to me know that I’ve severed friendships, raised my voice but I never compromised on this fact.

I would never ever want any girl to feel the way my sister did.

Has Chick-fil-A ever explained why specifically it does not serve beef?

If you’ve ever been to a Chick Fil A, you’ve probably noticed their menu is pretty chicken-centric. That isn’t accidental, and it isn’t just a branding gimmick; there’s actually a history behind it.

Their commitment to chicken goes all the way back to the founder, S. Truett Cathy. He opened his first diner in the 1940s and spent years perfecting the pressure fryer to cook his chicken sandwich faster than anyone could cook a hamburger. This was the birth of what ultimately became Chick Fil A’s signature menu item: the original chicken sandwich.

At the root of it, Chick Fil A doesn’t serve beef because they don’t have to. Their identity is so closely tied to chicken that serving beef would be like McDonald’s suddenly deciding to specialize in vegan food. It would throw people for a loop.

Chick Fil A’s boneless breast of chicken sandwich made its debut in 1964 with great success, paving the way for the first Chick Fil A restaurant that opened in 1967. Cathy even made a play on words with “Chick” to emphasize chicken and play down beef. This is a differentiation strategy. Just like you wouldn’t go to Burger King for a taco or to Taco Bell for a fish and chips plate, you wouldn’t go to Chick Fil A for a beef burger.

There’s also the branding component, right? You’ve seen the billboards with the cows painting “Eat Mor Chikin,” pushing the chicken agenda while steering people away from their own kind. It’s a brilliant marketing strategy that reinforces the no-beef policy.

While there’s no formal manifesto on why they don’t serve beef, the logic is clear: specialization. In a world where you can get a burger at every highway exit, being the go-to chicken spot sets you apart.

Staying in their lane has allowed Chick Fil A to perfect their products, focus on their poultry niche, and maintain the consistency and quality that has customers loyally returning to their restaurants. For many businesses, it’s a scary thing to put all your eggs (or chickens) in one basket, but for Chick Fil A, doing just that has been the secret sauce to their success.

So, in Portland, OR, where I’m based, if I’m craving chicken, it’s pretty neat knowing I can swing by Chick Fil A and get that same sandwich that put them on the map all those years ago, while also being assured that there won’t be a burger in sight. They’ve stayed true to the original plan for over half a century, and it’s working wonders for them.

China is getting tough

It took a long time, but it is finally happening. China’s gloves are coming off, and it is getting tough on Taiwan and the west.

For Taiwan, the Commerce Ministry has decided that Taiwan’s government has unfairly blocked the sale of many PRC products in Taiwan. For a long time, the PRC had allowed Taiwan imports to the PRC in the hope that Taiwan would eventually open up to PRC products on a reciprocal basis, but that has not happened, even when Taiwan has had food shortages. The Commerce Ministry will shortly announce which Taiwan products will be blocked from being sold in the PRC, which is the single largest market for many local Taiwan products.
For the west, China is now blocking the sale of rare-earth processing technologies to the west. This is a field essential for semiconductor manufacturing and defense technologies, and will hit Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the US especially hard as they try to develop their own independent supply chains free from Chinese components and raw materials.

For 2024, I am expecting an avalanche of new patents from Huawei for new technologies which leapfrog current western technologies. Western governments and companies will be faced with a difficult choice: Will they pay licensing fees to Huawei and other Chinese companies for these technologies, or will they insist on developing their own technologies and components using their own capabilities?

This is a very tough choice because investing in their own non-Chinese research and development will take at least five years, and will likely take more than ten years. Then, when that issue is resolved, where will they do the manufacturing? China has the best and most modern infrastructure and supply chains, so there will be a huge cost penalty for doing it on their own. When it comes to lower costs, the Chinese are masters of the game.

An even more important question: Where is the largest market for these products? Most likely, it will be China. So these products won’t be sold in China to Chinese? So where will it be sold?

What is the most difficult decision you have made as a doctor?

One hundred and six units.

An adult’s blood volume nine times over.

The entire hospital’s blood bank supply. We had to send to nearby centers for more. We had to put our own trauma center on ambulance diversion until more arrived.

After forty units, the chance of survival drops precipitously. The chance over a hundred— who knows? Past diminishingly small. Unreported, possibly. The physiologic derangement is simply too great. Banked blood is not like our own. It is cool, watery, weak and deficient. And this toxic cocktail had washed out every native red cell in her body, splashed out itself, and been poured back in again.

Every raw surface had begun to ooze.

We had already coded her twice.

With the blood welling up in spite of my every effort, I threw packs of thick cotton gauze in her chest, trying to stem the torrent. Trying to buy a moment to think. She had the same injury that killed Princess Diana. My partner looked across the table at me, a slight shake to her head. The probe at the head of the bed beeping out a constant register of oxygen saturation suddenly dipped in tone. I glanced, alarmed, over the drape and saw, unmistakably, her eyes opened, her teeth gripping the tube, her lips forming words to the anesthesiologist who hurried to medicate her. A tear sliding down her cheek towards her ear.

She’s neuro intact.

“She’s neuro intact,” I said, this time aloud, as my eyes reconnected with my partner’s. “She’s neuro intact,” I repeated, as a kind of mantra.

My partner nodded. “Okay, let’s keep going then,” and pulled the packs out.

She was forty-five.

Previously healthy.

And all there.

When I reviewed the case later before a panel of my peers, I argued this made her somehow salvageable. They scoffed. I reconsidered. So why, then, had I “wasted” so many resources on one woman with such devastating injuries, who ultimately died, as I knew she would?

Because I couldn’t look her in the eye and tell her no more.

Beef with Celery (China)

Ingredients

1 (1 pound) round steak
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 egg white
4 to 6 stalks celery
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon finely chopped, pared fresh ginger root
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons oyster sauce

Instructions

Cut meat across the grain into thin strips 1 1/2 inches long.
Combine 1/2 tablespoon of the soy sauce, vinegar and egg white in medium bowl; beat lightly with fork until foamy. Mix in meat. Cover and let stand 2 hours.
Cut celery into 1/2-inch diagonal slices.
Combine celery, 1 cup of the water and the salt in saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until boiling. Boil 3 minutes.
Drain celery.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in wok over high heat.
Drain meat and add to wok. Stir fry until meat is brown, about 5 minutes. Remove meat from wok. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to wok. Add celery, onions, ginger and garlic. Stir fry 1 minute. Return meat to wok; mix well.
Combine remaining 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, the sherry, cornstarch and oyster sauce. Pour over meat-vegetable mixture. Cook and stir until liquid boils and thickens.

Makes 4 servings.

What did someone say to you that instantly made you realize their life was in danger?

When driving a Private Hire Taxi to help pay my way through University one night I had to swerve to miss a guy staggering into the road. I thought he was a drunk but pulled up just to check he was OK. He staggered up to the passenger side window and slumped against it. He murmured for help, at that same moment I saw blood smeared all down the window. I saw another figure approaching the car, I was horrified to see he appeared to be carrying a huge knife. I opened the rear door and pulled the injured guy in. There was a lot of blood and I wasn’t sure he would make it. I drove off as the pursuer closed up. I radioed base and told them I had a seriously injured stabbing victim in the car. They called the hospital and the police. I sped to the emergency dept. on the way being picked out by a police car as I (very carefully) jumped a red light. They knew the situation and gave me an escort to the hospital. They were ready and waiting for him when we arrived.

The guy survived. The car was a total mess, but putting everything in perspective, a small price to pay.

He survived with 2 or 3 life-threatening wounds, making a full recovery, the police and the medics told me I’d saved his life.

I was later thanked by both him and, believe it or not the perpetrator, who received a jail sentence far shorter than he would have got for murder. Apparently they were friends and a disagreement over rent had got out of all proportion leading to the incident. Had I not had the feeling this was not just another drunk staggering around in the dark, a lot of lives would have changed that night.

As a manager how far have you had to go to fire someone?

As a newly hired IT Director in a City, I discovered one programmer who had been there for a number of years had no real assignments. He came in each morning, read the paper, then put his feet up and took a nap.

I promptly gave him an assignment and watched as he did nothing. I met with him numerous times and he finally mentioned that I couldn’t do anything because he had been there so long, he couldn’t be fired – certainly not by a new manager like me!

Challenge!

I documented my meetings and his comment and went to HR. They told me he was likely correct as he was a union steward, as well. I escalated to a HR Supervisor who suggested I build a file then apply progressive discipline.

And so it began. I gave him an assignment in writing. I had him agree, in writing, that he understood the project and how long it should take to complete. I set weekly goals for him to accomplish and when he didn’t, I applied progressive discipline. The first time, I issued a written reprimands warning that he could be terminated if this continued. Next, a written disciplinary memo. After that, I sent him home for a day with no pay. He immediately appealed.

At the appeal hearing, he brought a union lawyer, who claimed the project was too difficult and he needed additional training. That was BS, IMO, for a Senior Programmer with 8 years experience. However, the mediator suggested providing the training.

He began two weeks of training the following Monday. I found out he skipped several days and the instructor told me he knew the material going in and we were wasting taxpayer money to send him.

He continued to miss assignments, and I wrote several more written reprimands before suspending him with a 3 day unpaid suspension. He filed another appeal.

In this hearing, the union Attorney suggested that he occasionally fell asleep because he had kids who occasionally kept him up late at home. The mediator supported the suspension. When he returned, we sent him to the City Doctor for a “fit to work” physical exam. The Doctor determined he had sleep apnea and said he should spend a month at home using a CPAP machine for a month before returning for another physical (with full pay, of course). While he was gone, I gave his assignment to another programmer who knocked it out in 3 days.

When he finally came back to , I gave him another assignment with specific written instructions. Within a week, he violated the instructions and made an unauthorized and undocumented change to the system that opened the City up to several million dollars of legal liability.

I issued a written suspension for two weeks without pay and began the termination paperwork. At the end of the two weeks, he came in and gave me his written resignation.

Game over in 10 months.

During this period, he constantly complained to other staff, hurting morale. I even got a phone call from his wife telling me how cruel I was because he liked his job and asking why I hated her husband.

Why did the Chinese army retreat from India during the 1962 Sino-Indian War?

1. There is no border between China and India.

Because there was no India before 1947, it was just a colonial area composed of hundreds of small kingdoms forcibly annexed by the British. Maybe you would say that there were many countries in South Asia with large territories before Britain, but no former Indian country had a territory as large as India now. In particular, even though North India was often unified into one Greater India, South India and Northeast India were almost never ruled by North India. Therefore, there is no definite border line between China and India.

2 China was once very friendly and hoped to peacefully demarcate the Sino-Indian border.

India became independent in 1947. New China was founded in 1949. China and India are both third world countries. China wants to maintain good relations with India, so it wants to delimit the Sino-Indian border through peaceful negotiations with India. China says that we do not accept the boundary lines privately drawn by the colonists and that we can resolve them through negotiation. Our border areas are all no-man’s land, and the disputed areas on our borders total 120,000 square kilometers. According to the current actual control areas of both parties, China can recognize that 90,000 square kilometers of southern Tibet (now called Arunachal) belongs to India. India recognized that 30,000 kilometers of Aksai Chin belongs to China, and we signed a boundary agreement on this basis. From then on, both sides have an undisputed boundary line, and there will be no disputes or wars. From then on, friendly relations between China and India became the first Brotherly countries in the three worlds.

However, India firmly rejected any plan from China. It took the map drawn by the British and told China that this is the new India. You must fully accept that southern Tibet and Aksai Chin are mine. Because the Indians continued the arrogance of the colonizers. It has not learned to get along well with its neighbors, so this is the most important reason why India has poor relations with all its neighbors.

3. The reasons and purposes of the 1962 Sino-Indian War.

The reason is that India’s forward policy has invaded Chinese territory and challenged China’s bottom line.

The purpose is to make India understand that it must stop when China says to stop.

In 1962, India hoped to invade China step by step through the Forward Policy. The so-called forward policy is to advance the Indian barracks one kilometer towards Chinese territory every day, and then claim that this is India’s territorial scope. China has repeatedly warned India not to challenge China. But India ignored China’s anger and continued to invade China, even crossing the northern part of the McMahon Line claimed by India and entering undisputed Chinese territory. Therefore, China must use a language that Indians can understand to let India understand that the bottom line of the Chinese cannot be breached. This term is military power.

Indian prisoners in 1962

4 Why did China withdraw from the battle after winning the battle?

A Because China’s war goals were achieved, this is the most important reason.

From the beginning, China just wanted to teach the Indians a lesson, to let them recognize the reality, not to be too greedy, and not to ignore China’s warnings. When China says that LAC is the bottom line, don’t challenge China’s bottom line and don’t cross the LAC. When you really cross the LAC, China has enough strength to beat you back. So after China taught the Indians a lesson, China felt that was enough, so it returned to the state before the war and returned to the original line of actual control.

Maximizing revenue B

Simply put, it means achieving the highest benefit with the lowest cost.

If the Indians crossed one kilometer of LAC and China counterattacked 20 kilometers and stayed to occupy the land, it would definitely cause India to expand the war regardless of the cost, and the war would not stop lightly.

It would be unwise to plunge two countries with hundreds of millions of people into endless war.

It would be unwise to plunge two countries with hundreds of millions of people into an ongoing war over mostly uninhabited mountainous and desert areas.

War costs huge amounts of money. OThe value of a cannonball fired in one hour is enough to feed the residents of a small town for a year. In 1962, both China and India were quite poor countries, especially China. 1962 was the hungriest year in the history of New China. It would be very unfavorable for China to fall into a long-term war at this time.

China has pushed its battle line to the Indian plains. If China insists on fighting here, it will be at a huge disadvantage, because to transport an artillery shell from a Chinese factory here, it requires the use of donkeys to climb dozens of mountains over 3,000 meters. , spanning thousands of kilometers, requires a huge amount of transportation energy. Even if a 10-dollar artillery shell costs $1,000 here, Indian artillery shells can be transported directly by truck, and a 10-dollar artillery shell is worth at most $100. In other words, the cost in China is at least 10 times more expensive than in India. This is an asymmetric war. If China continues to fight here, the original victory will turn into a defeat, or a tragic victory. As a master of war, the Chinese will not make such mistakes. Therefore, China decisively returned to the LAC before the war.

In the 1962 war, from the perspective of territorial acquisition, China did not gain more territory than before the war. But the benefits are still huge.

The biggest benefit is that in the decades after 1962, Indians no longer dared to cross the LAC lightly and no longer dared to advance policies. In other words, Indians have heartily accepted that LAC is the default boundary line between China and India. This won decades of peace along China’s southwestern border.

The border conflict in 1967 was only a few days of minor fighting over the dispute between China and India over the LAC demarcation line at Nathu La Pass. At that time (32 Chinese soldiers died and 101 Indian soldiers died)

Indian prisoners in 1967

Maybe 1962 has passed too long, maybe Indians feel that India in 2020 is no longer the India in 1962, so the Indians crossed the LAC again in 2020, so China was forced to take action again to teach the Indians a lesson. I hope Indians understand that although India is not the India of 1962, China is not the China of 1962. China was in its poorest period in 1962, when China’s GDP was even lower than India’s. China GDP in 2020 is five times larger than India. Don’t provoke China, China is more powerful than you think.

Indian Captives of 2020

Nikki Haley says she will stop China from killing Americans with fentanyl. Is the PRC doing this? If so, how?

She’s lying. She has no idea what to do. What she’s trying to selli is the idea that she does.

Here’s the problem. Americans want fentanyl. Enough Americans want fentanyl as to make it worth the enormous risk of smuggling either it, or the raw materials to make it, into the United States. Capitalism 101. And there is no way to stop that. None. Every attempt we’ve ever made to stop drug use by prohibition has been not only an utter failure, but has caused us more trouble than the actual problem we were trying to fix.

There’s a deeper problem. Fentanyl is a symptom, not a cause. And that cause is the utter hopelessness and the lack of resources for the poor in the US. We’ve literally criminalized poverty. We have the weakest social safety net in the industrial world, and we’ve decided that a tax structure that makes it possible for a handful of men to amass fortunes that can buy them freedom from the law, is a good thing even if it leaves 20% of the country living below the poverty line in an information and resource vacuum that leaves most trapped.

Preying on the poor is hugely profitable, and the capitalists have risen to the task. We choose to look away and complain.

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

I once worked for a dental lab as part of a “back-to-work” rehab program after a work injury. I was working late one Friday and took a delivery into the mail room for shipment the next day. The mail room was adjacent to the owner’s office and I overheard him and his wife (his accountant) and the office manager planning on replacing some 60% of the staff with high-school kids in work-study programs. The boss, Rick, heard me taping up the box and came in, asking what I was doing and if I heard them, to which I said no. He told me I wasn’t supposed to work late and leave the package for the next day.

On Monday I was called into a meeting with Rick, his wife and my rehab consultant about missing many hours of work. He slid three altered times cards across the table as proof, not realizing I had copies of all my time cards as required by the work comp insurer. I pulled them from my bag and told him he was lying and falsified the cards because I overheard him planning on firing staff. He fired me anyway so as I left, I walked into the large work area and announced loudly, “Rick is going to replace most of you with high-school kids and he just fired me because I overheard him planning it.”

Two weeks later he let nine people go, replacing them with high-school kids. By the end of the month another six employees left for the competition and without experienced employees, he went out of business by the end of the year. I actually ran into him at the grocery store the following year and asked him how his business was going. He said, “Go f*ck yourself!” Best. Vindication. Ever. 🙂

What was the greediest thing you’ve seen a family member do?

This goes back fifty years, but I will never forget it.

My mother’s aunt and uncle (Annie and Homer) were married for over fifty years. They never had any biological children, but did adopt a daughter (Mary Catherine) and raised her as their own.

MC grew up, got married, and moved out of state with her husband. (The parents lived in Memphis, and the daughter lived in southeastern Missouri, about a five-hour drive apart.)

Being much younger, I only met the daughter a couple of times while I was growing up. She didn’t visit Memphis often.

Aunt Annie fell and broke her hip in an accident in her early-80’s. She survived the fall, but lapsed into dementia and died about two years later. Mary Catherine didn’t attend the funeral. (When I asked why, none of the adults in my family would talk about it.)

Uncle Homer lived another few years. His mind was sharp, but his physical health started failing. During the last year of his life, he was bedridden at home and required regular nursing visits during the day.

One afternoon, Uncle Homer called our house all frantic, asking my mother to come to his house. She and I drove over, a trip that took about fifteen minutes.

When we arrived, he was yelling and crying. His nurse had also arrived, but wasn’t able to calm him down.

When he saw my mom, Uncle Homer told us the story: Mary Catherine and her husband had shown up, and cleaned out the house of everything they wanted.

He had yelled and screamed, and had fallen out of bed trying to stop them, but they both just laughed at his efforts and took everything of value. He had gotten his gun out from the beside table, but his nurse had removed the bullets from it long beforehand.

The daughter and husband left before Uncle Homer called us, so we never saw them.

My grandfather had the daughter’s number in Missouri and called her that evening. She was not at all repentant and argued that the stuff she took was her just reward for putting up with her parents for decades. Apparently, she was upset because they had “lived too long.” She also let him know that she expected to get Uncle Homer’s house when he was gone.

Uncle Homer didn’t call the police on his daughter, but he was clearly heartbroken after this incident. His life spark and sense of humor were gone. He lasted about three more months, and passed away at age 92.

After he died, Mary Catherine didn’t attend the funeral, but did come back to deal with her inheritance. It turned out that Uncle Homer had altered his will and gave his house to his nurse, a widow who had been living in a rented place nearby.

The value of the house was a lot greater than the stuff that the daughter had stolen.

What was the cruelest rumor you’ve heard about another kid when you were in school?

There was that girl that had been lonely all her life. People, especially in school, disliked her because she was “strange”, “a nerd”, “too quiet” and just “different”.

One day she decided to talk to her teachers during the breaks instead of trying to fit in where she didn’t. She always acted older than her age and her teachers liked her, so they usually didn’t send her away, but had a friendly chat with her ever so often instead.

By tenth grade, she had almost developed some kind of friendship to a few of her teachers. When she got the “strictest teacher of the school” as her major course teacher in grade eleven, it took her mere weeks to find out that he actually wasn’t so strict at all.

They talked for at least half an hour after the lessons. About science, about our society, the people in school and whatever came to mind. Those two thought quite alike, despite an age difference of 34 years, and the girl now almost a woman could for the first time in years really live her passion for learning. Her teacher was highly intelligent and very knowledgeable, having not only written a dissertation in the past and worked in research for years but also being interested in a broad spectrum of topics.

Well, doesn’t sound so bad, now does it? So what happened?

Well, because teenagers are teenagers, it took about half a year for people to start whispering about the girl and her teacher. It started off lightly, she was still strange and why would she even talk to him?

But a few months after that, some people thought it to be funny to make up a non-existent romantic relationship between teacher and student. Despite that girl having been very close to other teachers before, but now that it was a male teacher, it suddenly was completely different. Because people of opposite gender can’t just see each other as friends, right? They just have to be in love to even think about talking to each other.

A less than funny “joke” became something way bigger. After two weeks, all of the 1600 students knew about this. And most didn’t know that it was a joke. People were laughing and pointing at her, throwing insults at the girl for something that never happened.

Finally, after about three months of dealing with it alone, she had the heart to tell her teacher. They decided to never talk to each other outside of class again, to prevent the teacher from getting problems with the school. While it was just a rumour, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t lead to problems.

Both of them lost a friend on the day they made this decision. And the student lost a person she saw as a second father – her father barely ever was at home and her teacher had been one of three people (the other ones being her best friend and a female teacher she knew since fifth grade) she ever fully trusted. It might not have been cruel at the first glance, but it hurt her in more ways than the others students could’ve ever imagined.

That girl was me.

Some good ways to get revenge on someone?

Meet Kyle Tomlinson.

As a 12 year old, he came to the auditions of Britain’s Got Talent.

You should go and get a singing teacher.

He was told by David Walliams

and that hurt the 12 year old kid. So much so that when he came for auditions 2 years later, he mentioned this on the stage again. David obviously did not remember the incident.

Kyle had taken it to his heart that ‘he was not good enough’ and had worked hard on his singing for the past 2 years.

Kyle sang that day with his heart out and the entire auditorium rose up to appreciate his talent. Everyone was moved and David Walliams somewhere realized how big a mistake he had done for hurting Kyle.

David pressed the golden buzzer, which meant Kyle went to the live shows directly. (Every judge has only one golden buzzer to use in one season.)

David came up to the stage and hugged Kyle.

Kyle transformed his embarrassment and made himself more than able in a period of 2 years.

He forced the man who had underestimated him to accept his mistake.

For me, that is the best form of revenge.

Turn your haters into your fans.

Film-Noir | Impact (1949) | Brian Donlevy, Helen Walker, Ella Raines | Movie, subtitles

A little red book

A lot of interesting stuff today.

The USA government that was designed back in 1776 can no longer function. It is not suitable for the new global order. The USA is at a strategic inflection point. Great discussion by Colonel Douglas Macgregor.

See below deep in the article.

…

There is a formula used by wives that wish to leave their husbands. It is a devastating reality to the husbands of the West. The “three step rocket“. It is a template that is followed over, and over, and over again. It is important for all married people to know about this reality.

See below.

…

Guys, back in the 1970’s. I would guess around 1972, my father came back from a work trip and gave me a present. It was a tiny book. The cover was plastic, and it was about 2 cm thick. It was about 4cm x 5cm or so. It was red. A little red book.

Because the cover was plastic, it was flexible and compact, and easy to slip into the pocket of my Levi jeans.

It was (the now infamous) “little red book”. And I loved it.

It was in English.

And it was page after page of sayings. All of which seemed to make a lot of sense to me, even though I was in my teens at the time.

I carried that book with me to college. To my various homes as I worked, and all the way up until I moved to China. I cannot say for certain that it influenced me to join the Chinese Communist Party, as I wouldn’t even begin to consider how to do so. But it absolutely DID influence me.

I could feel the “revolutionary spirit” of what was being birthed so far away at the other end of the world.

The Three Main Rules of Discipline are as follows:

(1) Obey orders in all your actions.
(2) Do not take a single needle piece of thread from the masses.
(3) Turn in everything captured.

The Eight Points for Attention are as follows:

(1) Speak politely.
(2) Pay fairly for what you buy.
(3) Return everything you borrow.
(4) Pay for anything you damage.
(5) Do not hit or swear at people.
(6) Do not damage crops.
(7) Do not take liberties with women.
(8) Do not ill-treat captives.

“On the Reissue of the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention – Instruction of the General Headquarters of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army” (October 10, 1947), Selected Military Writings, 2nd ed., p. 343.

How can you possibly not be impacted by such profound and intelligent direction?

Today…

What’s the most appalling behavior you’ve seen by a young child’s parent?

Me and my friend were about 17 hanging out at the local McDonalds. Let me remind you my friend had the physique of a 25 year old because he constantly roofed with his dad. We heard a father screaming at his son if he didn’t finish eating his food he would pull his pants down right there and beat his bare ass. He would jump up and act like he was going to punch the child who appeared to be maybe 4 or 5. When he did this the child would jump and cower in his seat. Then the father would let out this horrendous laugh making fun of him. Me being a child from a physically abusive father knew exactly how this poor kid felt. My friend who had always protected me saw the look of horror on my face.

The next time he jumped up screaming he would beat his bare ass, my friend jumped up grabbed his arm and screamed “you will not be touching him as long as I’m sitting here!” The mans facial expression changed to sheer horror as he saw this kid twice his size threaten to put him in his place. He suddenly asked the boy if he was done. and scurried out of the restaurant. That day my friend grew about 10 feet tall in my eyes and saved that little boy from receiving a severe beating for such a small infraction.

What’s the best thing you have ever said in an interview?

I was truly desperate for work. My husband and I had returned from his Naval station in Italy to find that the military was being cut back so he was out. It was August, so I couldn’t find a teaching job anywhere and he was having trouble finding anything at all.

The local paper yielded only two jobs for which I was qualified. One was as a cashier at a supermarket for $1.95/hour (1972…what can I say?) and the other was as a paste-up artist at a newspaper for $1.90. I figured the newspaper job might be more upwardly mobile, so I applied.

The manager didn’t ask for an interview. He called to tell me that he appreciated my interest, but that I was over-qualified for the job so he wouldn’t hire me. He said he figured I’d quit if I find something better. I told him my story. He still hesitated, pointing again to my advanced degrees. I waited a beat then said, “Even college graduates have to eat.”

He hired me right then and I made sure he never regretted that decision.

If there were free elections in China, would the current government have any chance of winning?

Look at how serious they look and how old they are

Their Median age is 61.3 years

They are all extremely talented people with tremendous ability and have proven themselves over and over again

These Generation of Chinese in the 1970s and 1980s could have easily recognized their ability and merit and voted them into power due to their sheer efficiency

Even the 1990s generation would have voted for them to a great extent, understanding the value of long term planning and hard work

Todays generation?

Naah

They are all modern and highly opinionated by Social Media and the outside world

They have more money than any previous generation and have seen so much development that they are liberal by nature in their Outlook

Sure today they regard the Government and the Party as Grandfatherly figures who make the laws like they see their own grandfathers. As Strict people who will take care of you and who shouldn’t be questioned

However give them a choice and it’s likely they will fall for the same BS that others in democracies fall for including issues that are:-

LGBT related
Feminism related
Ageism related
Nationalism related (Vote for me and I will take Taiwan in a week type of Chinese versions of Modis)
Separatism related (Freedom for Uyghurs, Freedom for Hui, Freedom for Bouyan etc)

These are the Hu Jintao period Chinese

I wouldn’t trust them to vote for the best leaders over most populist or handsome or the best talkers or some other version of divisive propaganda

The Next generation is fine

Xi Jingping has instilled a revival of the admiration for the One party meritocracy and these guys will vote always for the Party over any other

So maybe 10–15 years later, if free elections were held, the Party may win heavily as bulk of the 18–41 voters would be proud nationalists of the One party meritocracy

Today?

Bulk of the 18–41 voters would vote stupidly

So I hope not

India becoming China is admirable in its own way

China becoming India is a nightmare scenario

God help China having 100 parties and doing the idiocy Indian leaders do

US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor Reveals TRUTH About China

What statistic shocked you today?

This primarily shocked me because of where I live (Chicago) and my profession (teacher). I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know it was this bad:

Seventy-six percent of Chicago’s high school students, and forty-five percent of Chicago’s elementary school students, do not go to their assigned neighborhood public school.

That means that 3/4 of all high school kids, and almost half of all elementary school kids, have parents who took one look at their local public school and said, “no thanks.”

Every student in Chicago is assigned a neighborhood public school, simply based on where they live in the city. The students who don’t go to those schools go to private schools, magnet schools, charter schools, or selective-enrollment schools. Or they homeschool.

Magnet, charter, and selective-enrollment schools are public schools, too, but they require some effort on the parents’ and students’ part to get and stay in them. The selective-enrollment schools, in particular, require the most effort to get into.

All of those “public, but not neighborhood” schools were created due to parental demand or necessity. It was either create them, or watch as, year after year, even more of the city’s tax base (parents who give a damn) move to the suburbs.

This has been in the local news a lot the last week, and it even made an appearance in the national news, because the city government passed a resolution to prioritize those neighborhood public schools (which the parents reject) over the selective-enrollment schools.

The stated goal is, of course, “equity.” The idea is that, without the selective schools poaching all of the “good” students, those “good” students will go back to their neighborhood schools, and help them improve.

Except those students would not actually go to those neighborhood public schools, no matter what. Their parents would just pay for private schools, home school, or move to the suburbs. I’ve been teaching in Chicago long enough to know that most parents really don’t see the regular public school as a real option. Students here use the neighborhood public school names as the punchlines of jokes or as threats. As in, “You better be careful, or you’ll end up at [local public school].”

Also, the “good” students aren’t a tool for the city to use to improve “bad” schools. It’s not the job of the “A” students to diffuse the averages of the “F” students by enrolling in the same schools as them.

While the stated goal for this new push by the city government is “equity,” the real goal is, as with most things in government, money. The Chicago Teachers’ Union, which gets most of its money and influence via the neighborhood public schools, contributed over $2,000,000 to our current mayor’s election campaign. The quid-pro-quo is right out in the open for all to see, but the only people who bother to open their eyes to it are the people who didn’t support the mayor in the first place.

So the city government has a five-year plan to prioritize Chicago’s failing neighborhood public schools. I’m making a note to myself to check back in five years and see how it went. I predict that things will actually be worse, but they will change the metrics by which they define success, to make whatever happens fit that definition. Then they’ll say it’s not enough, and double-down on their bad policies.

All the while, private schools in the city will see an increase in enrollment, suburbs with good schools will see their property values go up even more, and home schooling will become even more popular.

Ever the cynic, and opportunist, I’ve actually been exploring ways to capitalize on this. A colleague and I have been toying with the idea of opening a tutoring center. The competition for spots at the good schools in Chicago is so tight that a lot of parents gladly pay thousands of dollars per year for their child to receive 1:1 or small-group tutoring in specific subjects, or generalized test-taking tutoring. Three of my colleagues in the last five years have left teaching to go into tutoring, and are making much more money that way.

This TikTokker Finally Realized Why Men Don’t Find Her Attractive

Why don’t you use social media?

Let’s scroll through Instagram account of Avicii, the world famous musician.

December 26th, 2017

Caption: Where am I?

Amazing. He is living life to the fullest. Damn!!!.

December 29th, 2017

Caption: Friends of Mine

All these friends to watch his back and enjoy the ocean of life. I am jealous.

January 11th , 2018

Caption: Music is a big part of my life

A blazing career with all the talented people around and loving everyday what he does with passion. God I am envious.

January 15th, 2018

Caption : A cuddle a day keeps the instinct away. (The hunting instinct.) (Just kidding.)

Awwww….

January 19th, 2018

Caption: Fact of the day: More people die every year from taking selfies than from shark attacks. Stay safe out there ✌️❤

LOL!!!!

February 18th, 2018

Caption: So I invested in Sweden’s first cold brew coffee company. Pretty cool startup that’s innovating the Swedish way of coffee drinking. You should definitely check them out.

Damn. This guy means business.

March 27th, 2018

Caption: Studio Mode

Workaholic and passionate. Damn I wish I could be like that.

April 5th , 2018

Caption: It’s always sunny in California

Woah!! Dude is rich. Dude is passionate. Has everything one can dream of.

April 20th, 2018

Caption:

image 25

So yeah.

That’s why I don’t use social media.

Edit: This answer is for people who don’t realize everyone is just a PR agent of themselves online. Everybody else sucks too. There is no reason for being miserable comparing your lives with social media. But I do believe social media should be used for generating content around your product or service like blogging, creating audio or visual content etc.

What if your child told you that their teacher slapped him or her in the face what would you do?

I would do just like I did for my daughter in Germany when she was going to a DOD (Department of Defense) school. She came home for a month and a half complaining about a boy bullying her on the playground. We called the school and told them almost every other day. They keep telling us the teachers are keeping him away from her. Well she kept coming home complaining. So I took it upon myself to really see what is going on. Sure enough he was harassing her. When she came home that day from school complaining about that boy. I set her down and told her that tomorrow is the time you have to do what Daddy has been teaching you how to defend yourself. Her response was, but I don’t want to get in trouble. I told her the only one that you will be in trouble with is me and how can you be in trouble if I am telling you to do it. Then I told her it is your choice if you want to end this or not. Either way I love you.

the next day around lunchtime I get a call from the school that she assaulted another student and I need to pick her up.

Well, well, well I took time off and drove miles and miles to get there. I told the officer who I was and that the principal is expecting me. She said yes Sir go on in. My daughter was standing in the corner of the office facing the wall waiting. I did not even acknowledge the principal and told my daughter to come sit in the chair in front of his desk. Then I ask the principal what is the problem ? His response was she assaulted another student. I told him that the next question I as you. I want you to think long and hard about your answer. Did she assault the student that has been assaulting her all these months! I then told him that he has 5min to respond and 4.5 of those minutes are gone! Go!!! He said Yes! Yes! Then I ask him so what are you going to do about it? He had the gall to tell me.that he was to suspending her for three days for putting her hands on another stoner. I leaned over his desks and told him that she it not going to miss another second of class. I told her to go to her class that she is supposed to be at this time and I will see you back home after school. Then to lighten her spirits I told her you are not beating me again tonight playing crash bandicoot!!! (Yes that was way back). After she left the office I locked the door to his office and turned around and told him that you made you decision, and now I have made my. I am going to take out the last two-to-three months my daughter, my wife and I have been stressing over and tag you are it!!!!

Sorry so long,but a true story.

When I went to jump over the desk. He jumped trough the window. The sad part was it was closed. 😂😂😂

Anyway, my Chain of Command knew all about the problem that my daughter was going through. I was a Platoon Sergeant at the time.

Now it gets good, my battalion commander was briefed on it. However he had to do something because because I threaten the principal and there was damage to government property, the window he jumped out of. So after the UCMJ (Uniform code of justice). My extra duty was to walk from the Commander’s Office down the street to my place of duty, which was only about 80 yards.

True story!! Need less to say my daughter did not have anymore trouble and got to get her education without any harassment from the students or the faculty.

I know this question was about a teacher slapping a student. If it was a teacher slapping my child I would have not gone to school. I would have followed that teacher after school and discussed it in another manner.

What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?

I got my first period when i was in 5th grade i was 10 years old. Worst part is i was in school, the last period was going on and I was sitting on the last bench in the corner row. i didn’t knew anything about it, and i was so clueless that wtf was happening with me. I told this to my bench mate and she said that she does not understand what I am saying. I ran to the teacher and told her everything, she said go to the office and ask the female staff to give me a sanitary pad.

I did that I went to the office and told the staff I want sanitary pads, she went inside the office. I was trembling with fear, but for a while I felt that everything would be alright.

The staff came out of the office and said that they are out of sanitary napkins, go buy them from the nearby shop.I was bleeding and literally begged her to come with me but she said she can’t leave the office and refused.

I was a kid and my body was not strong enough to bear the pain of periods. I was terrified, I couldn’t walk, I could feel the stains on my clothes. Still I walked to the nearest shop, and the shopkeeper was a male.

My eyes were downcast like I’m a terrorist, my voice was ashamed like I’ve committed a crime. And I asked him for a pad in a trembling voice, he took out a sanitary napkin’s packet and put 10 layers of news paper on it as if it were a bomb.

For me bravery is avoiding thousands of restriction and questions of the society and to say that yes I am a woman, yes I bleed and it is not my fault, it is not a crime.

I Saw the 11 Dimensions of the Universe in DETAIL! (Near Death Experience)

Do you think China will join the joint cruise operation against the Houthis in response to the recent attacks in the Red Sea?

No, the Houthis are not a terrorist force indiscriminately targeting civilians, they are just an anti-American and anti-Israeli resistance force.

What the Houthis claimed was that they would attack boats “associated with Israel”. What are “associated with Israel”? Western bloc, of course.

70% of Europe’s oil shipments will pass through the Red Sea. Europe has already interrupted Russian oil and gas, and now oil and gas from the Middle East will be stopped by the Houthis. Things will get even harder for Europeans as winter approaches.

The purpose of their attacks on Western Group boats was to support the Palestinians. It is well known that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. And the United States is stubbornly biased in favour of Israel.

The Arab countries and the Muslim world, while not supporting the Houthis, are not against them either, and some even secretly support them.

Chinese boats transporting oil do not pass through the Red Sea, only merchant ships pass through the Red Sea, and there are china railway express that can replace merchant ships.

I recall that the last time when Taiwanese Shipping Company large container ship blocked the Suez Canal, the china railway express became the main freight transport route to Europe.

Taiwanese Shipping Company leased the Japanese shipowner’s ship and hired Indian crew to drive the “Ever Given” large container ship through the Suez Canal. It would be surprising that there would be no accidents.

The Houthis will not attack Chinese boats, and China has no intention of joining the Western bloc, which is the unjust side.

The U.S. and Israel or Western Group should be reflecting on why they were attacked by the Houthis instead of looking to China as a lifeline to grab when they are drowning.

Korean Braised Short Ribs

Serve Korean Braised Short Ribs with cooked cellophane noodles, dipped into the cooking sauce.

Ingredients

4 pounds beef short ribs, cut into pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground sesame seed*
2 teaspoons chopped ginger root or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon pepper

* Ground sesame seed is available in Oriental food specialty stores and some supermarkets. Whole sesame seed can be ground in the blender: 1 tablespoon whole sesame seed yields 2 tablespoons ground sesame seed.

Instructions

Trim fat from beef ribs; place beef in shallow non-reactive dish.
Mix remaining ingredients; pour over beef.
Cover and refrigerate, turning occasionally, 24 hours.
Drain beef, reserving marinade. Cook beef in 4-quart Dutch oven over medium heat until brown; drain.
Pour marinade over beef.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees F until tender, about 2 hours.

Yields 4 to 6 servings.

Who was the most ignorant American you have ever met?

A previous boss.

I was required to issue a monthly report of sales by geographic region, listing each project.

One was a project in China sold to New Sun (China) Energy. I dutifully indicated the sale was in Asia.

My boss protested. “No!” said he. “You need to report that in Europe.”

I blinked and said, “But it’s in China.”

“Yes,” said he. “China’s in Europe.”

“Um…no.. China’s in Asia.”

He slammed his hand on his desk and said, “China’s a state of Germany, now report it in Europe.”

Me: “Ok” while silently muttering dumbass.

We had another dispute over Egypt. Apparently Egypt is also in Europe.

I had a grand time explaining to our lead sales person (a Chinese lady citizen of China) and our production manager (a German citizen) that Germany had expanded its population by a billion with this master stroke of geopolitical theater. They both rolled their eyes.

Yeah, boss was that dumb.

Did you ever get an order from someone who had absolutely no authority over you? What was it and what did you do?

Oh yes. “Give me your purse you b*tch!. I want £50 now!” screeched the entitled teenage daughter of one of the company partners. I was PA to both partners and had only been there for a couple of months.

Princess was used to dropping into Daddy darling’s office if she and her little friends were shopping in town and she needed more money.

This particular afternoon Daddy was away at a meeting and our accountant was on a half day (she held the petty cash and was used to dealing with the occasional demands of the Princess).

I explained that Daddy was out and the accountant wouldn’t be back until tomorrow so nobody could help with her (obviously desperate and life threatening) need for cash. She decided that I should meet her need by handing over my own money. She threw a tantrum when I refused, and immediately called Daddy’s mobile, interrupting his meeting and demanding that he tell me to give her the money. He told me to do so, and I refused.

I didn’t have £50 in my purse (or even £10) but if I did she wouldn’t have had a sniff of it. After she stormed out I wrote my resignation and called the other partner to explain why I quit.

Found out a while later that the partnership fell apart and nice partner sued Daddy darling for financial mismanagement and fraud. Princess wasn’t the only family member thinking the business was her own personal piggy bank.

Can China Save The American Dream ? US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor Reveals

As a Muslim, Do you agree with China’s way of treating Muslims?

China is not a Muslim-phobic country. It’s all United States propaganda to destroy Muslim world.

China tells its Muslim citizens to live well and love their state and also their religion as Xi Jinping said.

If China got attacked, know that the aggressors will fail.

If the aggressors try to attack Uyghurs like they did in Middle-East, bombing their Mosques, etc. Know that the Uyghurs won’t be silenced defending their home and mosques.

–

The Muslims of China will stamp out the hypocrite country.

–

~ Sunni Muslim from Asia here, appreciating China.

What is the most wrong you’ve been in judging someone?

I was once the daytime caregiver for a little boy with a massive brain injury. The damage was so extensive that a large part of his right brain had been surgically removed. He was paralyzed on his left side. He also probably suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but the doctors were unsure. He hoarded food, because he had gone hungry many times in his earlier life. Altogether a really lousy start.

I was pushing little X in his stroller. He was about three years old at this point. We were walking toward the high school, and there was a group of girls on the sidewalk. Black clothes, black hair, smoking, swearing girls.

X was a bit unusual looking, due to his injuries. I was thinking that these girls were going to laugh at him, or tease him, or something. I was getting tense and defensive.

As X and I get close, he hollers out, “HI”, which was his only word at the time. I was not expecting the response he got from those girls.

They were totally sweet. They were all saying hi back and asking his name and saying how cute he was. One asked me about his injuries, and I gave her the short version. She started to cry, and then I did, too. It was hard for me to talk about his history. We ended up hugging each other.

I have always remembered that group of girls, and how completely wrong I was about them.

They remind me often not to judge people by their appearance.

Is it on purpose that China makes it hard for foreign tourists? Media and Internet access, non-acceptance of international drivers licenses, lodging restricted to certain hotels etc? Chinese would cry foul if they were discriminated in a similar way.

Let’s see

First let’s see if what you say is true

Internet access is better than any other nation except maybe Singapore. The Public Wi Fi means you have free internet while travelling almost anywhere and uninterrupted

Sure many western sites are restricted as are many apps

You can use VPN but VPN is very unreliable unless it’s Nord VPN and that too for a proper router rather than for mobile phone

Yet with a proper VPN, you can access any and all apps and sites in China

IT IS NOT ILLEGAL UNLESS YOU MAKE COMMERCIAL USE OF VPN (Meaning downloading and selling pornography etc)

If you really want to go to western websites that are banned, you can visit a PUBLIC LIBRARY with your ID Card and access any website you want. There is NO RESTRICTION.

I accessed Quora openly in a Public Library whereas the VPN never gave me a connection beyond 6–7 minutes at a time

So yes, I would say if you really want to watch CNN and CBS and want to view the BBC Website and access Twitter all the time, then China is not for you

Otherwise if you simply want Gmail & your Online Banking & online calling & chatting – you have 1001 apps to ensure you are connected

Non Acceptance of International Driver Licenses

This is stupid again

China has NO ISSUES with a International Driver License provided there is INSURANCE available on that license

You want to lease a car in China with an International License, you either pay a fat deposit as incidental insurance premium so that if you bang the car, the rental company doesn’t shell out the cost

Otherwise you get a local license holder to co sign and you get your car in 3 minutes

Imagine you bump a car, park it and dash off to your country. That’s a huge loss to the rental company isn’t it.

You cough up the Incidental Insurance Premium Deposit which is FULLY REFUNDABLE on returning the car and they will accept your International Drivers License

This is nearly 3100 RMB so most International Drivers are cheapies who promptly blame the Chinese for not recognizing International Driving Licenses

Lodging restricted to certain hotels

Again a Stupid way to put it

Hotels in China connected to the Real Time Security Network accept foreigners all the time

That’s 100% of all hotels in Big Cities and 90% of Hotels in smaller towns

They scan your passport and in ten seconds, the data comes up from your immigration and that’s it.

Tomorrow if you disappear, no issues, the hotel informs the MSB who will promptly print out your passport and deliver a copy to your consulate

Sadly smaller hotels DON’T have this ready connection to the digital security system

They need to scan your passport, print that out, take the print out and deliver it to the local police outpost who will then deliver them to the main outpost

It will take 1 year to hunt for such a print out tomorrow if there is a problem

It’s too much effort so such hotels don’t accept foreigners UNLESS A CHINESE BOOKS THEIR ROOM with his Identity Card

Mostly such tourists have a Chinese Agent who will give his ID or his company’s ID and book the rooms

Our Vicky Bhaiya has no issues because his wives ID is sufficient

This isn’t only China

Even in France and Europe, many small provincial hotels don’t accept foreigners because of the same reason

They need you to get a clearance from a local gendarme who sees your passport and okays you

Hell in Scotland an Indian friend of mine couldn’t get a hotel until 12 Noon because of such a problem when a Local Britisher could get a room at 5:30 AM

Same for booking a car

Outside the West, an International Driving License doesn’t get you a car without a hefty deposit

All that China says is asks for the deposit towards Incidental Insurance

The Censorship?

Yes that’s unique to China among the big countries

Like I said if you want to access BBC and Twitter all the time, China is not for you

Can combat completely change you into a different person?

Maybe not into a completely different person, but it definitely will change you, and how you view life. Before I enlisted, I was an annoying 17–18 year old boy who played video-games all day, mouthed off to teachers, and had terrible acne. When I finished boot camp and AIT, I respected authority figures, I had better self-esteem, and I wasn’t as much of a smart-aleck anymore. I actually did stuff with my life.

I was still loud and sometimes annoying, at least when there were no senior NCOs or officers around, and I still made dumb jokes and toed the line around my family. I was the same kid as before, just disciplined and happier. More confident in myself, because I knew I could do stuff no one else in my family or my graduating class, except my father, could.

Then, I was deployed 3 times between 2004–2010, and actually saw, and participated in, combat and firefights. I saw the bloody, seedy side of things. It wasn’t like a movie or a video-game anymore, I didn’t tell jokes anymore, I was quieter and more serious. I didn’t tolerate people goofing off or making idiotic decisions around me anymore. Making the wrong decision, or playing games, on the battlefield could mean death.

Of course, I wasn’t firing my SAW at the Taliban and ISI 24/7. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting, marching, digging holes, and sitting in a hot, tiny truck for days, squeezed against another hairy, sweaty dude. That’s the part movies don’t show. It’s not action all the time, there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it that civilians and celebrities never think about when they hear the word “war.” And when there is action, you don’t have drawn-out speeches about family and honour, or whatever. You don’t goof off and walk up-right, unless you want a bullet between the eyes.

When I came back, I could not understand the struggles and pain of my family and friends that didn’t serve. Unless it’s an unexpected divorce or a death of somebody close to you, there’s no reason to grovel and whine about how hard and unfair life is, and how miserable you are. I’ve seen guys say they’re in “so much pain that no one understands” after a girl they knew for less than a year broke up with them. Especially these young Gen-Z kids and teenagers. All this “I could defeat anyone in a fight, I bench more than you” attitude is arrogant and laughable. You wouldn’t last a week doing the stuff we did, so stop acting like you’re so tough when you’re only 16 and cry in your room at night over a girl.

These (at least the males) youngsters also brag about Navy SEALS being better than anything and everything on earth, and use our military as a tool to justify their biases. You’re embarrassing us, and if any military veteran met you, they’d laugh.

Accurate depiction of what modern warfare is like: lots of sitting around and waiting, or guarding stuff.

In general, combat did change me a lot, and my outlook on life, and perspective on common civilian “struggles” and issues. It also gives shell-shock/combat fatigue/PTSD and nightmares to those who served, which changes them as a person. I personally suffer from some of these things. It does suck a lot, and played a part in changing me as well, there is simply no way to explain to a civilian what combat is like, what war-trauma is like, the things you saw and how horrific it was, how impossible it is to cope with things like that. In the moment, you never think about what you’re doing or seeing, you’re disconnected from reality, and in your mind you dehumanize the enemy. It is just “eliminating a threat” or carrying out orders, not opening fire on the 10-year-old coming at you with an RPG.

Later though, your mind thinks about what you did and what you saw over and over again, tries to rationalize it, process it, cope with it, and finds that a lot of the time, it can’t. It’s easier to push these things away and pretend it never happened, pretend you never saw that teenager choking on his own blood and gasping for breath in the sand after you shot him, or never saw your friend get blown to bits. I can’t say I regret doing these things, as they were threats to the livelihood of myself and my friends. I can say, however, that it’s inescapable to feel human empathy and sadness over what you done, even while knowing there was nothing else you can do, even while knowing that they wanted to kill you.

It’s just a natural human feeling, but you learn to suffocate it and push it down. I’ve had some idiots call me a terrorist and a war-criminal, for shooting enemy child soldiers, and the like. These people aren’t worth arguing with, they will never understand that morality doesn’t matter when it’s you vs them, and they’re literally a threat to your existence, no matter how young they are. They think in black and white, never understanding how complicated this is, and how necessary it is to defend yourself, even if it’s a child soldier.

Cop Warns How Women Manipulate Divorce Law

This is a pretty important video. The “three step rocket”.

Damn!

What was the worst date you’ve ever been on?

“It’s really more of an in-person kind of explanation,” he demured, then suggested a dinner date.

I stiffened. Did she look 30? Because you’re 44, dude.

?!??!!

“Bummer,” I said, because what else is there to say?

“So I was out of work, and my mom and I couldn’t live off her social security check alone, so she started driving for Uber…

… That’s how she caught COVID and died.”

And this is why I’m still single.

Why is the Vietnam government so much more intelligent in its dealings with China than the Philippines government?

The current supreme leader of Vietnam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, is a very typical pro-China faction.

This means that Vietnamese diplomacy should be like bamboo, whose branches and leaves may sway in the wind, but whose poles are very tough.

Vietnam may pander to the U.S. in some cases, but the bamboo’s backbone is straight. After all, they fought the Yanks, and US pressure doesn’t always bring Vietnam to its knees.

diplomacy

According to VnEconomy, in 2022, nearly 70 foreign affairs activities will be carried out by agencies under the Party, State, Government and National Assembly of Vietnam. According to statistics, by the beginning of 2023, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with 190/192 countries; economic, trade and investment relations with 224 partners, and cooperation with more than 500 international organisations. The country is also a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum (APEC), the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Trade Agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and 15 other free trade agreements.

Vietnam-China relations

From 30 October to 1 November 2022, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyễn Phú Trọng paid an official visit to China after General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President Xi Jinping assumed the office of the third President. He is the first senior leader to visit China after Xi assumed his third term as President. It was also Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s first visit to China after the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Both sides later deemed the visit a success. The Vietnamese side called China “a good neighbour, a good friend, a good comrade, a good partner, a good partner in the same boat, a good partner in solidarity and a good partner for the happiness of the people”. According to Reuters, the meeting between the two leaders was overly intimate, with no masks, They handshakes or hugs, against the backdrop of China’s strict embargo policy that it still maintains because of COVID-19.

Vietnam-United States relations

At the end of August 2021, the Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris, paid a visit to Viet Nam from 24 to 26 August 2021. During Ms Harris’ visit, the US side also confirmed a land lease agreement worth US$1.2 billion for the construction of the US Embassy building in Vietnam. Before leaving Vietnam, the US Vice President said the visit “marks the beginning of a new chapter in Vietnam-US relations”. After the visit, the Vietnamese media also carried a message inviting Joe Biden to visit Vietnam by the General Secretary and President of Vietnam.

On November 12, 2022, at the 40th and 11th ASEAN Summits, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pạm Minh Chính met directly with US President Biden. During the meeting, Mr. Pạm Minh Chính continued to “convey” the remarks of the General Secretary and President of Vietnam inviting the President of the United States to visit Vietnam. However, VOA caused a wave of controversy when it released a video in which Mr. Pạm Minh Chính chatted with subordinate leaders before meeting with the United States and “make it clear, to be fair, what are you afraid of?” The video was originally posted on May 14 but was not edited and was deleted on May 23. However, the video was later released by Voice of America but with the offensive phrase hidden. The reason why VOA deleted the video was that Khanh Nguyen, an official at the Vietnamese Embassy in the United States, asked VOA to delete the video. The email said the video “violates the principles of respect for privacy and journalistic professionalism and ethics.” Furthermore, VOA’s reporting has been misused and distorted for political purposes. The deletion was later protested by VOA’s Vietnamese service because it believed press freedom was being hindered. RFA, considered VOA’s “sister”, also released the video but did not receive any deletion email.

On the evening of March 29, 2023, General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng had a phone call with US President Biden at request. During the phone call, the leaders of the two countries both emphasized that 2023 will be the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership. When Mr. Biden spoke by phone with a foreign leader who was not a head of state or prime minister, the calls were rare, Reuters reported. The United States is currently also Vietnam’s largest export market in 2022. Soon after, from April 14 to April 16 of the same year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a high-level visit to Vietnam. He visited Vietnam and met with Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn, Prime Minister Pạm Minh Chính, President Võ Văn Thưởng, and General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. A contentious issue also arose during a meeting between Mr Phạm Minh Chính and Anthony Blinken, with only the Vietnamese flag in the background, not the American flag. According to Radio Free Asia, most of this information comes from Chinese media. The agency analyzed that because this was a meeting of different levels, there was only the Vietnamese flag in the background. According to BBC News, when US President Joe Biden may visit Hanoi in May or Vietnam’s General Secretary visits the United States in July, diplomatic issues between the two countries are likely to continue to heat up. The media also said in its analysis that the statement that Vietnam now “stands shoulder to shoulder with the United States at a time when we need each other’s support most” is often used only to refer to the country’s allies, but Mr. Blinken used it to refer to Vietnam.

And the Philippines is a blade of grass that falls when the wind blows. The Philippines was once a colony of the United States, and the colonial mentality of the Filipinos is deeply rooted. As long as the United States exerts a little pressure, Marcos Jr. will give in.

The truth

Have you ever caught someone in the action of stealing packages off your doorstep?

Yes.

I got a notification from the Amazon app that my packages were here. They were my sons birthday presents. I didn’t go outside immediately though as I was changing my twins diapers.

When I was finished I went out to get them. Some woman was out there picking up my boxes. I asked very loudly what she thought she was doing.

She tried to spin some story about how my packages were damaged and had been recalled and that they would be replaced in a few days,

I called her story bullshit and to get off my property or I would call the cops. I wasn’t quiet about it. She started to leave WITH my packages.

Before I could yell again or call the cops my neighbors Rottweiler mix was in front of us growling loudly with my neighbor limping fast towards us. He’s an older guy and an absolute sweetheart. He told her to drop the boxes or his dog would attack. She dropped them and ran to her car and drove away. I got her license plate number and reported her to the cops.

I hugged my neighbor and thanked him for saving my sons birthday. I also baked him cookies and brought him a slice of my sons cake the next day.

What is the most outrageous “fee” you’ve ever been charged?

Ok, this one has irked me for some time. I went to see a blood doctor. Had a bit too low iron in my blood. Called, confirmed my insurance co-pay, went to my appointment, paid my co-pay and left.

A few weeks later I get a bill for $250 bill for the visit. I call to remind them that I paid my co-pay (which was a hell of a lot less then $250). They acknowledge that, but “remind me” that this isn’t a co-pay, it’s a “facility charge.” I say I have no idea what they’re talking about. I never agreed to a “facilities charge.”

Well their office is in a hospital building so I should understand there will be a hospital “facilities charge.” I inform them that, I didn’t go to the hospital, I went to their office which happens to rent space from the hospital. They argue that it was in some paper package they gave me when I came for my appointment. I disagree refusing to pay, they insist I have to. I disagree after some argument end the call. They try to collect a few more times ending similarly. Eventually they get the point and realized their threats were falling on deaf ears.

They call me back a few days later, apologize for the confusion and agree to a one time reduction of the “facilities charge” to $75. I inform them I came to them for a doctor’s appointment, not to pay their rent and refuse. Another argument ends in me ending the call. More threats and calls ensue.

Finally I get a call from them stating that, “for this one instance” my “facility charge” is going to be waived but I’m going to be responsible for the full facilities charge for all future appointments. I assure them I understand, and make sure they understand that based on this fiasco there will be no future visits. The doctor that sent me to them also took them off his referral list.

I have needs

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PSZqLyUn7NY?feature=share

What’s the one big no-no that will make you walk out of an auto dealership?

After my husband passed away I drove his old Jeep Cherokee for a while, but it was starting to show its age and I could see some big repair bills coming up that I did not want to deal with. I started to look at new cars, and was impressed with the Subaru Outback. Then Subaru started a big promotion with discounts and 1.9% financing, so I drove the old Jeep to my local dealer. Talked to a salesman who qualified me (I had a good job in Information Technology, so the payments would not be a problem). I found one that I liked and we started to work out a deal. After some negotiating, I was summoned to speak with the Finance Manager – some dude in probably his mid-20s who informed me that, due to some late payments the previous year, there was no way I would qualify for their 1.9% financing, but he could offer me a loan at around 8%. I was startled, as my credit had been excellent for years, so I asked for clarification. Yes, there were a couple of late payments on a couple of credit cards that corresponded to the last few months of my husband’s life when I was… distracted much of the time, to say the least. Taking care of him was my priority, and sometimes other things, like writing checks to pay a bill got overlooked temporarily. Then the finance dude started lecturing me on the importance of being responsible and taking care of what is important (paying bills, of course), and how clearly my credit report was showing that I didn’t take the important stuff seriously. I looked him in the eye as I stood up to leave and said that maybe when he got a little more life experience he might understand what it is like to watch someone you love, with whom you were planning to spend the rest of your life, to watch that person waste away, in pain and terrible suffering, then we could talk about responsibility. During those months, my single highest priority was taking care of him. Yes, a few bills got paid late, but I know that I had my priorities correct. So don’t condescend, and do NOT lecture me on personal responsibility, frat boy.

Star Wars 1923 by Curious Refuge

Strange and quite bizarre.

What is a secret which you would not tell anybody in real life, but would on Quora using anonymity?

I am writing anonymously because I hate pity and I have friends on quora that know me.

I was an orphan. I don’t remember ever enjoying my childhood except sometimes playing Cricket with other boys of my age in my village. I came from a small village just outside of Lahore, Pakistan. I was told that my parents had an accident when I was 4 Years old. My childhood memory starts from my uncle’s home. I can’t remember my parents.

When I was 7 years old, my uncle had enough of me and sent me to Lahore to work. He dropped me off to his friend who owned a teashop in a busy market. I didn’t want to work, I wanted to play and study. I loved to go to school which now I couldn’t. I was hired for 4,000 Rupees which was alot of money for me but I came to know that I will get only 1,000 Pakistani rupees for my work and rest will be paid to my uncle.

After one year of working there, I used to deliver tea to a complete surrounding area of the teashop. I was responsible for the collection of money, delivery of tea and retrieval of tea cups. One day, the teashop owner asked me to make a special delivery at a compound nearby. When I took the tea to the compound, there were men sitting around in a round table in an open area. I delivered the tea to a person named Aqil, which the teashop owener Mr. Bilal told me. When I delivered the tea, and asked for the money and said that “Please kindly give me the money because I have alot of other deliveries to make” I don’t know what happend but this Aqil guy flipped and threw two cup of teas on me which was extremely hot and I started crying because of pain and then he said to me “Do you know who I am” “Now you will remember me always, scum”.

I left from the compound scratching my neck from burns. Now, when I remember back nobody stopped me and asked me what was wrong. It was approximately 3 minute walk back to the tea shop. The market was full of customers and a child is crying and walking and nobody stopped him or asked him what happend.

Then when I reached the shop, Mr. Bilal asked me what happend and I told him everything. Then he accused me why I asked them for money. Then I replied, you told me to ask for these things. Then he said forget about it, you don’t ask those guys for money. Here keep this 50 rupees and buy toothpaste for yourself to put on the burnt area. Also Mr. Bilal was a bad guy who used to beat me and slap me around just because I was late or because somebody didn’t pay me.

From that day, I knew life was not fair. When I was 12 years old I ran away from the Teashop and started living on the streets. I knew from my time in the shop to keep distance from people who are living on the street. I used to eat from a shrine known as Data Darbar in Lahore.

Then I knew I wanted to get a job so I can become something like the people that are sitting in an AC car. I knew I had to get an education but how. I didn’t knew anything about studies. So I decided to join a canteen shop in a school. There was one school which was very famous, I went to the canteen shop of that school and begged the guy in there to hire me because I wanted to study. I don’t know why but he did hire me and used to pay me 3,000 Rupees per month.

There was a female teacher in this school who was very nice. One day she approached me as I was working in the canteen and asked me about studies. I don’t know what prompted her to ask me this but she did. I told her that I wanted to study but I don’t have any money. She just said that don’t worry about it.

The next week I was enrolled in the same school I was working at.

Now I am 37 Years old. I’m married and have my own software house and a small general store which I acheived with my sheer determination and hardwork and some help from extremely generous people.

I have three Boys and 2 Girls. My wife often asks me regarding the burnt marks on my neck and chest and I always reply it’s a burnt tattoo.

I am happy. I got lucky. Not many people get lucky. Child labor is one of the worst things that can happen to a child. It’s my secret and now nobody can call me lowlife scum. Nobody can use me as their punching bag. Life is beautiful now, but I know from experience how ugly it can be.

Is it true that when Allied forces reached concentration camps in Germany, they were so disgusted by what they saw that they shot several Nazi officers right there, even when they surrendered?

Yep,

It happened in Dachau, when a dozen SS were executed by US army personnel who were appalled by the sight.

Remember that the Allies despised the S.S. for a variety of reasons: the Canadians despised them for the Normandy massacre, the Americans despised them for the Malmedy massacre, the British despised them for Wormhoudt, and the French despised them for the anti-bandit operations carried out by the 2nd Das Reich SS division in occupied France (for example, Oradour sur Glane).

Another minor episode occurred in Bavaria, when Twelve members of the 33rd SS division were executed near a forest by Spaniards of the Nueve; their bodies were never brought to France and were left to decompose.

Leclerc witnessed the fall of France and the devastation of French towns firsthand, and like many other Frenchmen, he lamented the loss of Ouradour sur Glane while actively seeking the annihilation of the Third Reich. During the liberation of Lorraine, his battalion was forced to untie from a community, and the mayor was later killed by the Germans once the village was retaken.

His division’s health service was retroceded in order to assist the released inmates from Dachau, and he witnessed the awful misery of the prisoners’ conditions in those sites; many of his fellow people were imprisoned in horrible conditions. He even got into a violent confrontation with a priest who was trying to keep an eye on what was going on.

So, sure, the execution of S.S was the culmination of months of frustration by Allies soldiers, which amounted to war crimes.

I have need

Relationship

What are the best answers for “Why should I hire you”?

“Why should we hire you?” Luigi the arrogant recruiter asked.

“I have with me a written proposal of how I will positively impact your organization during my first 90 days in this position. We can go over it together if interested,” Mario said as he showed a sneak peek of his document.

“Sure, let’s take a look at it,” Luigi’s eyes shone with amazement while thinking, “Ohh wow! This guy has a plan? I’m curious as to what he is proposing.”

“Mr Luigi, has anyone ever brought you a plan before you hire them?” Mario asked, taking control of the conversation.

“I must admit, this is pretty uncommon,” Luigi said.

“Mr Luigi, I’ve done my homework. This is how I do things. You should hire me because I’m self-sufficient, I don’t need you to be all over me to give you results. I’m always ahead of the crowd.”

He paused to look Luigi in the eye.

“You should hire me because I don’t need to be micromanaged. You will never have to be chasing me or telling me what to do. You should hire me because I’m here to make you money. Mr Luigi, I’m an asset to this business, I’m a producer — not a taker.”

“Let’s see the plan,” Luigi insisted.

Mario got the document out and placed it on the table. Still holding it, he paused and said, “Well, Mr Luigi, I still don’t know if this is the right job for me. Can I ask you a few questions?”

Luigi arrogantly laid back on his chair and said, “Ok, shoot.”

Mario started asking questions, “What are the company values? Do you really live by them? Who will I work with? Can I talk to these people before I get started?”

“Interesting questions, Mario,” Luigi said.

“Mr Luigi, the reason I ask these questions is because I’m more worried about WHO I work with than my paycheck.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s important who I surround myself with. I like to work with smart people. I don’t like to be limited by what I can accomplish. I want to push my professional growth. A big paycheck is NOT worth being surrounded by idiots.”

To answer your question, what are the best answers for “Why should I hire you?”

It really doesn’t matter the accuracy of a 90-day plan document. It doesn’t matter if it works or not. It will definitely make you stand out by showing you invested time thinking and understanding the job description and the company’s needs. (Most people only care about what they’re going to get paid.)
Show self-confidence. Show you care about yourself and that you have high standards for the quality of the people, the challenge and the job. Make the future employer feel they need to deserve you. (Most people will be almost begging for the job; that’s not very attractive for a recruiter.)

How does culture influence human behavior?

During a 10-hour flight, she was heading from Seoul, Korea, to San Francisco, USA. This mother distributed more than 200 passengers on the plane a plastic bag for each one. The bag contains candy, chewing gum and earplugs as a kind of advance apology for using them in the event that her 4-month-old baby screamed during the flight.

The bag also contained a message containing (hello, I am Jan Woo. I am 4 months old and today I’m traveling America with my mom and grandmother for my aunt’s outfit. I’m a little nervous and scared. This is my first flight in my life. It’s normal for me to cry or cause some disturbance. I’ll try to stay calm, but I can’t promise you. Please use it if my voice gets too loud.. Enjoy your trip. Thank you)

A culture of respecting the freedom of others…

What did your parent do that made you say “I will never be like my mother/father?

My mom borrowed ten bucks from me.

I was 12-years-old. I had a paper route and my mom wanted to go out for a beer with her best friend.

Let’s get a couple of things straight before I continue. This was the 1970s and no, she’s not an alcoholic. Going out with the girls for a beer was pretty common in the 70s. It wasn’t quite “Mad Men”, but not far off.

The thing is, my parents were terrible with money. We were poor(ish). We frequently had to move because the landlord raised the rent. All of our furniture was used (if the couch cushions wore out, we flipped the cushions over). You get the idea.

There used to be a company called “Grenada” that would rent appliances to the poor.

My parents rented a colour television for something like 25 bucks a month when a new colour tv would cost $500.

Rather than do without a tv for a couple of years and then simply buy a new set, they went with the “just put it on credit” style of living.

My mom was in debt her entire life.

I said, “I’m not going to live like that.” After graduating from college, I lived at home for 3 years (paying $200 a month out of my $700 bi-weekly paycheques/$1400 a month). I saved $32000 in those 3 years and bought a small freehold condo (freehold means no condo fees. You have to mow your own lawn and shovel your own driveway).

I was 24 years old at the time. I was mortgage-free when I was 37, which was great because I was laid off SEVEN times in my career.

I worked 2 part-time jobs along with my full-time job.

I’ve never been in debt in my life. If I couldn’t pay cash (car loans and mortgage aside), I didn’t buy it.

I’ve only ever bought a new car twice in my life. I drove that first car for a decade. My car now is 12 years old. I hope to drive it for another 8 years. I’ll buy myself a new car before I retire and you can bury me in it.

What was life like during WW2 as a German child?

I was immediately attracted to this question. My 79-year-old father is German and was a young boy during WW2.

I asked him to write something to respond to this question, and he provided this excerpt from his memoirs. (I’ve changed the names of my uncles.)

tl;dr: During the war, bad. After the war, worse.

“In the spring of 1942, as the RAF bombing raids started, our family was evacuated by the German authorities from Krefeld to the Black Forest in southern Germany. The operation was called MUKI (for Mutter und Kinder).

By train my mother and we 3 children arrived in Schönmünzach in the Black Forest. We were ordered into a requisitioned hotel. The money the government paid the hotel must have been pretty low, judging by the unfriendly service we received.

After a few weeks, we were moved another 15 miles deeper into the forest to the little village of Obertal into the Hotel Sonne and a little later to Hotel Günther. There we had a single room with toilet and washroom down the hall. The hotel was run by two sisters and a brother, who also was a blacksmith. Two of their nieces, Lilo and Inge, were the food servers. The food was without much variation: potatoes, carrots, mushrooms that we helped collect in the woods, and blue trout. I hated the trout because of their bulging eye balls and disliked the mushrooms, they were so slippery.

It must have been in the summer of 1942 when we kids played in the garden of the hotel. There was an umbrella stand with a heavy concrete base. In passing, I pulled the stand askew and let it snap back. Unfortunately, my brother Hans was close behind me and the pipe of the stand hit him in the face. He was bloody all over, but this guy is hard to kill, he healed soon enough, but today still has a scar under the left side of his nose.

In the fall of 1942, Hans and I started elementary school in Obertal, Walter, our younger brother, followed 2 years later. We were so proud of our satchels, packed with a slate board with attached sponge, and our freshly sharpened slate styluses.

One winter evening my mother left us alone in the room and locked the door (this was before the invention of baby-sitting). We were up to some mischief: I collected pine needles from the Christmas tree and stuffed them into an electric outlet. All of a sudden there was a big flash and the light went out. I had managed to put the entire hotel into darkness.

Shortly thereafter, in early 1943 we were moved to a farmhouse near the edge of the village. The farmer by the name of Haist and his wife were not happy at all to see the unwanted guests they were forced to take in. They had two children, Alma, who was about 4 years older than I, and her younger brother Egon. We were placed in the upstairs of the small house and had one bedroom, a living room and a small kitchen with a single spigot for cold water. The toilet was half a flight down and consisted of a board with a lid-covered round cut-out hole and a cesspool below, no running water. The bedroom had no heat but was placed above the stable where a pig and a cow were supposed to warm the room from below. It was not quite sufficient, and during the coldest part of the winter we had to hack the ice off the jug and wash basin that served as our bathroom.

One day my mother had to run some errands. She again locked us up in the living room and we thought of some new mischief. We found matches and tried to burn off the fringes of the curtains by the front windows. To our disappointment the fringes didn’t burn very well and only generated smoke. So we gave up on the idea, extinguished the smoldering fringes and looked for some other entertainment. I suppose my mother was upset when she came home, but I don’t recall any punishment.

Food in those days was strictly rationed and we had to use food stamps for every purchase. My mother managed to get beef bones once a week. First she made a soup from it, then burned the bones on the charcoal in the stove. She recovered the ashes and we had to eat them as our calcium supplement. It tasted almost as bad as the weekly cod liver oil that we had to swallow. (Cod liver oil is rich in vitamins and chemicals, such as iodine. The lack of iodine was causing a high occurrence of goiters among the locals.) One day the local grocery store, the Konsum, had a big surprise: they sold strawberry jam without food stamps. Everybody rushed to the store and bought as much as the store keeper would hand out. The jam was delicious, sweet and crispy. A bit later we found out that the crispiness was dozens of wasps that got processed with the strawberries.

In the spring of 1943 I got scarlet fever and an infection of the middle ear. I was quarantined in our bedroom while Hans and Walter were moved to stay in the bedroom with Egon. When I got worse I was sent by ambulance to the hospital in Freudenstadt, some 10 miles away. I must have been pretty sick because I had to stay at the hospital for more than a month. Later I was told that both of my ear drums had ruptured. When I finally was discharged the nurse confiscated my only toy, some kind of a construction set with interlocking wooden chips, because it was “contaminated”. Really they did disinfect it and let other kids play with it. I was very unhappy about the loss.

In the summer, war came to Krefeld. On 6/21/43 the Royal Air Force (RAF) launched a heavy air raid on Krefeld where we had lived. Our house took a full hit and was totally destroyed. We would not have survived had we not been evacuated before.

Once a week we were ordered by the school to collect potato beetles in the fields around town. The beetles were threatening to kill the potato crop and rumors were that the Americans dropped the beetles on Germany, an early application of biological war fare. We had to pick the beetles off the leaves which was ok; they looked pretty in their yellow and black stripes. What I didn’t like was crushing the larvae and the eggs between my thumb and index finger and, most of all, I didn’t like the young Hitler-youth supervisor who hit us with a switch in the back of our knees when we didn’t work fast enough. However, when we were doing well we received small propaganda stickers with a printed “Kohlenklau”, the energy thief with a sack of coal over his shoulder, and “Pst, Feind hört mit” the sticker to remind you that enemy spies where everywhere.

During the summer vacation of 1943 we helped our farmer to collect ferns in the woods that he used as bedding for the cow. The fern was spread in the courtyard to dry and piled up overnight. I still remember that one night the three of us kids were allowed to dig some cave into the huge pile and sleep in it. The fragrance of the dried fern was wonderful. We also helped to make hay, a very labor intensive process. In the morning the farmer went out to his large meadow behind the house and cut the grass by hand with a scythe. Every half-hour or so he paused, pulled out a whetstone from his hip pocket, and sharpened the scythe. Frau Haist, Alma, Hans and I used rakes to spread out the grass to dry. In the early afternoon, the grass had to be turned and in the evening it had to be collected into piles. This was repeated for several days until the hay was ready to be collected into a big net which the farmer then carried on his back into the hay loft above the stable. Every evening the farmer sharpened his scythe by straddling a stone bench that had a small anvil at the end, and hammering the edge of the blade razor thin. He then finished the sharpening with a whetstone.

To obtain firewood the forester assigned and marked one tree for each family and sent a notice where to find the tree. Our tree was up the mountain some 10 miles away near a logging road. The farmer, my dad, who was on furlough, Hans, Walter and I set off at 5 in the morning. After some searching we found the tree. Dad and the farmer cut it down, chopped off the branches and sawed it into 3 ft. sections. The 3 kids had to drag the pieces up the hill to the logging road and pile it up for pick-up by the forestry people. Hans didn’t like touching the slippery, mossy branches and decided to go home. He snuck away, took the cart with all our food and beverage and rolled down the road all the way home. You can imagine how furious we were, no food or drink and another 6 hours of work and a 3-hour hike back home. At home Hans got a severe thrashing, the only one my father ever administered to him. As a further penalty Hans had to do overtime in chopping wood after the man with the mobile band saw came by and cut the sections down to firewood length.

In the fall the farmer called in the local butcher to slaughter the pig. From our bedroom we could hear the poor beast squeal. When we went downstairs, the pig was already in a tub of hot water where it was being scrubbed clean and its bristles were scraped off. We kids had the job to wash out the intestines in the fountain in the courtyard and get them ready for sausage-making by turning them inside out. When the whole pig was processed we all sat down to a “Schlachtfest” (butcher’s party). The farmer’s wife dished out “Metzelsuppe”, the broth of the sausage cooker, and freshly baked bread, followed by various cuts of meat and sausages with potatoes and sauerkraut. It was truly a feast because we could eat without needing our ration stamps.

In 1944 we moved from the farm in Obertal to Baiersbronn into one side of a duplex that the town had built for bombed out refugees like us.

The house was very small, the living room was 7 by 12 feet, the eat-in kitchen was 8 by 14 feet, and there was a single bedroom upstairs, about 10 by 12 feet. Hans and I slept in a regular bed, Walter slept in the big bed with my mother and later, after my dad got back from the POW camp, he had a crib in an alcove. Later that year, Frau Ilse Mueller – who lived in the other half of the duplex – let us use her upstairs bedroom and the 3 of us kids had a bit more room.

The house had no road connection and no water. We had to haul the water by bucket from a neighbor some 300 yards down a path to the road. For three more months we kept hauling. When the town finally installed a single tap in the kitchen, it was truly a high point in our lives.

The toilet was a hole in a wooden bench, again with a cesspool underneath. It smelled terribly, especially during the hot summer days. Worst was the maggots that kept creeping up from down below. We didn’t have any toilet paper; none could be bought in the empty stores. So my mother sacrificed the love letters my father had written to her from the war, for us youngsters they were fascinating and so romantic.

Meanwhile, our neighbor, Herr Lampert, decided we needed a road, so he organized the neighborhood and we built a dirt road, about 200 feet long, to connect to the main road. We logged tons of stone from the nearby Sankenbach creek and set them by hand into a foot-deep road base. The bed was consolidated with rams made out of tree stumps. On top we put gravel and sand, and our foot path turned into a respectable piece of road.

In early 1945, the front was drawing nearer and bombs started falling nearby. One bomb hit Café Mueller and killed their only daughter. My mother barely escaped a machine gun salvo from a low-flying French fighter plane. She feared for our lives and we all went back to the more remote village of Obertal. There we shacked up with our friends, the Siehr family, into a 3 room+kitchen apartment. They had 3 boys, our best friends, and a younger daughter. Their father was a chemist who had volunteered to join the army in 1939 and was killed in action during the first few weeks of the war. Frau Siehr became a war widow at age 28 with four children, then 4, 3, 2 and 1 years of age. There was one bedroom for the children with triple bunk-beds for the boys, and the three of us doubled up with the boys head to toe. The girl had a small bed in the same bedroom.

Then, one day in April of 1945, the French army moved into the village. The German army had retreated to guard the next bigger town of Freudenstadt. Hans and I, at age 8, had to join the “Volkssturm” (People’s Army), the last resources of the army, consisting of men over 70 and kids of 8 to 15 (everybody between 15 and 70 had been drafted earlier). We had been trained, using wooden mockups, to shoot RPGs at the incoming tanks. But the German army retreated and had taken all the real weapons with them and, luckily, we didn’t have to make that “last stand against the enemy”. The village surrendered to the French without a shot being fired.

Then the French started to search each house for soldiers and also for quarters for their officers. They came to the upstairs apartment and knocked (!) at the door of the children’s room. My mother had posted all 7 children by the door; when the soldiers opened, they exclaimed “Mon Dieu” (dear Lord) and shut the door. We kids then moved swiftly through a connecting door to the living room where Frau Siehr posted us near the door. The soldiers knocked again at the next door and saw another mother with 7 more children. With a baffled “beaucoup d’enfants” (lots of children) they gave up on their search for accommodations in the house.

After the armistice was declared there was great joy all around. Our family went back to Baiersbronn to our “Behelfsheim” (emergency shelter) as it was officially called. There we found a big mess. French soldiers had celebrated the end of fighting with a big party and had turned the place upside down. Also, they ate all our food and we had nothing left to eat. One of the French soldiers, he called himself Bari Mulut, an Algerian, came by a few days later and asked my mother to hide him; he was a deserter and just wanted to go home. We hid him in the attic and played ignorant when the French MPs came by and searched the house. They overlooked the trap door in the ceiling, leading to the attic.

At that time, food rationing was not working anymore; the whole civilian service structure had collapsed. We went around to several farms and tried to get enough food but the farmers were reluctant to accept the worthless “Reichsmark” currency. My mother taught us some French and we went begging at the hotels the French had requisitioned. “Avez-vous des conserves pour nous?” we asked again and again. We also eagerly picked up cigarette butts, rolled them into new cigarettes of ever increasing nicotine content, and traded them against food at a farmer’s. One day we were very lucky, a French officer gave us eleven 32 oz. cans of meat and vegetables, it was a memorable day. Other days we were not so lucky and the entire food for the four of us consisted of a single sugar beet that the farmers usually feed to their pigs.

There were no toys around so we made some ourselves. We carved little boats from thick pine bark and let them float on the puddles in the ditch behind the house. We made whistles from willow branches, stilts from square-cut slats, catapults from beer-bottle tops and slingshots from inner tubes, discarded by the French soldiers.

The French commanded every inhabitant of the town to watch a film about the Holocaust at the movies. Everybody was horrified and some people said this was all propaganda. Apparently, they had lost their clear thinking after years of Nazi propaganda.

During the summer of 1945 stores had nothing to sell. To survive, my mother, Hans and I went on “Hamster Reise” (shopping trip), where we scratched up some tradable goods, among them mother’s pretty lingerie that dad had sent her from Paris, loaded them on a hand-wagon and walked first from Baiersbronn to Obertal, staying at Siehr’s for a short night. The next morning at 3 am we moved on across the “Ruhestein”, the watershed between the rain-drenched (130 in/yr) eastern part of the Black Forrest were we lived, and the fertile Rhein valley. We walked 22 km (14 miles) to Kappelrodeck, Hans and I barefoot because we had no shoes, to a farm where we traded our goods. We got some 140 pounds of potatoes, fruit and vegetables. By then it was almost noon and we started our trek back. While progress in the valley was fairly good, things got really slow climbing up some 10 miles to the “Ruhestein”. Luckily, that day there was a farmer who put a pair of oxen to work, trailing a bunch of ropes for us and other “Hamsterers” to hang onto, helping them to move their handwagons up the steepest part of the climb. Down the other side it was easier, 5 miles back to Obertal and then another 5 miles to Baiersbronn. We got back home just before curfew at midnight, an exhausting 21 hour, 33 mile barefoot trek. The trip added several new layers to the callused soles of Hans’s and my feet.

The next day we had to start preserving our food. All fruit was sliced and air-dried. For that we took the doors off the hinges and covered them with the fruit slices to dry outside on the grassy patch in front of the house. After the drying, the unpainted doors had a negative leopard pattern with light spots where the fruit slices had been and sun tan around them. Carrots, potatoes and beets were stored in a sand bed in the basement. Cabbage was shredded, salted and fermented into sauerkraut in a big ceramic jar, eggs were stored in silicone gel in another earthen jar, and bread was air-dried. We had no refrigerator, and only glass jars with lids, but without rubber gaskets which then rendered them useless (all rubber had been reserved for tire production for the army).

We did the trip twice more during that summer. On one of the trips we found another friendly farmer who too was trailing half a dozen ropes behind his tractor for people to hang on and get pulled up the mountain for a few miles. His tractor had a “Holzvergaser” (wood chip gasifier) that generated carbon monoxide by partially combusting wood chips in a man-size vessel mounted on the side of the vehicle. The monoxide was then burned to carbon dioxide in the engine, generating just enough power to pull the whole convoy up the hill.

My dad had a tough summer as well. During the last days of fighting in April of 1945 he was with a few other soldiers on the south-shore of the Danube River in Ulm. The Americans were on the north shore. My father was happy to see them, so he stood up and waved to them across the river. Next thing, the Americans trained their mortars on him and he jumped back into the trenches, barely surviving the attack. A short time later his unit was overrun and he ended in a POW camp in St. Avold in Lorraine, France. The Americans were mean to the officers, ignorant about the difference between the regular army and the SS-stormtroopers. My dad was regular army, but the Americans gave all of them their Holocaust special. They fed them 4 course dinners where, e.g., the fish course was a single sardine that had to be divided between 8 people. They made them sleep under the clear sky, no tents or other shelter. Luckily, it was a dry and warm summer, so they survived. My father weighed 210 pounds going into camp and 98 pounds when he was discharged 7 months later.

Things got better when my father came back from the POW camp in November of 1945. As a former officer, dad had to register and report every Saturday to the police station in Baiersbronn. Hans and I were with him one day when Hans saw a sign on the way out where the new administration was looking for “Applicants with business education”. Dad applied and just a few weeks later got a job with the “Preiskontrollbehoerde” (price control agency) in the newly established regional administration. He got a 98 cc motorbike as the official vehicle. His job was to visit shops and businesses and control that they adhered to the fixed prices set by the authorities. But his main concern was how to feed the family. So, he always brought a brown bag with him when he checked the local butcher or baker. He told them “I am not corruptible, but I have to feed my family with 3 small children”. Depending on the “crimes” he discovered, the bag got filled, more or less, with food. Once he brought back 4 pounds of lard, an exceptionally good day. At home, we cut it all up into little cubes and rendered it on the stove. The greaves tasted delicious with some salt, and the grease was a welcome change from frying potatoes without any fat. We didn’t mind that the grease was more like wax and stuck to the roof of our mouths.

Here ends the WW2 story and what it was like for me to grow up during that time in Germany.”

What’s the most appalling behavior you’ve seen by a young child’s parent?

I’m a service dog handler so I’ve seen quite a few.

This Time I’m in the bathroom with my dog. We’re at the mall and I really have to pee and my dog has just alerted me I’m about to pass out. I really want to use the bathroom before I pass out so I don’t pee myself.

I walk into the bathroom and I see this mother changing her kid.

I think “oh god. The kids gonna notice and get upset she can’t pet Callie.@ I was so worried because I really needed to use the bathroom and I was already dizzy and had blurry vision.

To my surprise (and relief) this little angel is smiling and giggling at her mom as she gets her diaper changed and she’s too busy to notice Callie.

So I get out of the stall and the mother looks up at me.

She didn’t see Callie who was sitting behind a pillar between me and the woman as I washed my hands. This woman starts interrogating me while her angel is saying “mommy can you hurry so I can help you pick out shoes?” This kid is a perfect angel.

The woman ignores her kid and starts yelling at me. “You are so disrespectful you shouldn’t be using the handicap stall! What if somebody in a wheelchair comes in needing it? Or somebody else with a disability?!!”

I can tell this kid wants to leave (her belated butt must be freezing by this point) so I calmly reply “Ma’am not all disabilities are visible, and I am in fact disabled”

This woman glares at me and says “Oh yeah? And what the hell is wrong with you?”

I step aside and call Callie to my side. I then inform her “While I am not comfortable sharing that information with you, I am willing to tell you that I used this stall so my service dog would have room and would not be inched away from me as I use the bathroom.”

This woman is dumbfounded for a moment then turns around to resume changing this poor kids diaper. I was so thankful.

Then, to my horror this woman does the closest thing she can do to turn this child to a monster. In a high pitched voice she says “Look at the doggy! Look at the doggy!”

I’m terrified this child will go crazy until she pets my dog (keep in mind I’m still very dizzy and about to pass out. Preferably in a chair)

Instead, this angel says “Mommy can I please pet the doggy?”

This is the part that horrifies me. She then gets in this kids face and screams “NO. THAT DOG IS WORKING YOU CANT PET IT”

She had very politely asked, and I may have said yes. (It would be good practice for Callie) but I was dizzy and this mom just told her no.

Now, this child was an angel by my standards and I’m guessing those of most people reading this, but she was not a perfectly behaved robot. Her mom had obviously scared her so she started wailing and sobbing because the woman she trusts most had just screamed at her in a demonic tone.

This woman then turns to me and says “You know. This is all your fault. We were fine before you showed up. No I have to deal with her.”

This kid was an adorable child who was one of the best behaved toddlers I had ever seen. (I am a babysitter) I could not believe her mother would do that. She wouldn’t have noticed and she was so polite.

What is the last thing you want your pilot to say?

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem with our wings,” announced the pilot.

True story. This happened to me last week.

The plane was making its final approach to Houston Intercontinental Airport. Suddenly there were three consecutive “ding-dong” sounds in the main cabin.

I saw both air hostesses run from the back of the plane to the front and grab the phone. They talked for a few seconds to the pilot, then the pilot came on with an announcement.

“We have broken off our approach. We have a problem with our wings. The leading edge slats won’t come down. We have declared an emergency and we will be landing shortly,” he said.

“Fire trucks will be waiting for us on the runway. It’s probably going to be a hard landing because we can’t slow the plane down as we normally would. We’ll see you on the ground.”

That was it.

Immediately the air hostesses started preparing everyone for the emergency. Uncertainty filled the cabin. Everyone of us felt vulnerable and scared.

I reflected on how fragile we are. There we were, trapped inside a metal tube flying at a high speed, … nothing to be done, simply pray and trust that everything would be okay.

The wind shook the plane from one side to the other. I could sense how the pilot was trying to find the optimal speed to land, not too fast, yet enough to fight the winds.

I could finally see the runway through my window. We all braced for the impact and as soon as we touched the ground, the pilot hit hard on the brakes.

The captain did an amazing job. We cheered and clapped for his fantastic landing.

Fire trucks followed us to the gate.

It was not fun. That leading edge slat on the front of the wing is responsible for the addition of a few more grey hairs to my head.

My first — and hopefully my last — emergency landing!

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

Fun outing in college, canoeing down the American River. Only… unbeknownst to us (and I suppose the trip organizers), unseasonably hard rainfall has made the river fast and dangerous in certain spots. Being completely inexperienced, my canoe-mate and I had no clue that going widely around the sharp bend would put us into the deepest, fastest-moving water, which coincidentally had just undercut a very large tree, which was now toppled into the water. So we get sucked into the fast-moving water under the tree and capsized. We surface. I come up with my torso against the tree, which is several feet in diameter. Some idiots immediately behind us apparently decide that they will “rescue” us (canoe-mate was a few feet down, straddling the tree by this time). They capsize. Their canoe catches the current side-on and lands against me. Both of my arms are over the top of the tree, keeping me above the surface.

I now have a sideways canoe with its flat hull pressing my torso into a giant tree, with the force of a raging river behind it. I feel it crushing me, and think I’m going to die.

And then, I didn’t. Apparently the angle was slightly off, and the canoe slid off and landed on my friend, a few feet downstream. Her leg was trapped and it took a whole lot of people a whole lot of time to move the canoe against the current enough so she could scrape her leg out. She ended up with severe bruising and was on crutches for awhile, due to the pressure. Yeah, I would have died, with puny ribs and lungs fighting the current instead of solid bone.

Chinese Black Pepper Steak

Ingredients

750g eye fillet (in one piece)
2 onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns, crushed

Instructions

Partially freeze steak. Cut into thin slices.
Combine steak, onions, sesame oil, sherry, sugar, ginger and soya sauce in bowl. Cover, marinate several hours or refrigerate overnight.
Stir peppercorns through steak mixture. Stir-fry steak and onions in a wok over high heat until steak is cooked to your liking.

Yield: 4 servings

Truth…

Are you surprised by the large number of dead sardines and mackerel washing up on the beach in Hokkaido, Japan?

I’m astounded that Japan could be confused about the reason dead fish are washing ashore in the hundreds and more. They just released the most toxic water to date into the ocean. Gee, I’m sure that has nothing to do with it. Just a funny coincidence.

Would you drink water from Chernobyl? Would you drink water from Fukushima? So why would you eat fish that live in an an environment of toxic nuclear water? Why would you be surprised that the fish are dying in such water and washing ashore?

Literally everyone with common sense could’ve and did predict this. It’s basic cause and effect. No, I’m not surprised.

What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?

Years ago I had a blind date. We had talked on the phone and the guy asked if he could take me to lunch. Not MEET me for lunch, but take me. He was inviting me so I assumed he would pay.

We met at a casual inexpensive chain restaurant. I had something modestly priced – it was probably around $7 (like I said, years ago). When the bill came, he told me what my share was – he actually said, “You had the french dip plus an iced tea, so your total is…..” I was pretty surprised but I figured that the cost of my lunch was worth finding out what a cheapo he was so I wouldn’t waste any more time dating him. But here’s the kicker – he had a Buy One Get One Free coupon! So his meal was free and I paid for mine! That was enough for me. He walked me to my car and asked if he could see me again. I said, “No” and he looked surprised and asked why. I said that anyone as cheap as he was shouldn’t date. Thank goodness he never called again.

EDIT*** For those who comment why it should be presumed that a man always pays for the first date – I do not presume that! Whoever invites another on a date (not a casual “meet up”) should pay. This man invited me. He said he wanted to “take me to lunch.” That is an invitation for a date and it was logical of me to assume he would pay. I have invited men on dates and I have paid for both of us. This is not a feminist issue – this is an issue of manners. And this guy had none.

What’s slowly being phased out that nobody is realizing?

MANY things.

Music CDs – it was announced recently that a couple of big box stores are dropping them from their shelves.
The word “TWICE”. No, really! Just start listening out for it and you’ll notice that almost every TV advert that should be using the word will say “TWO TIMES” instead…and it’s spreading, I hear this ugly replacement for a perfectly good word in news stories too. Why? It’s a total mystery! (Of course “THRICE” already went the way of the Dodo…so…)
Stick-shift cars. Most new cars no longer come with the option to drive stick. (Boooo!!!!!)
The grammatical rule that disallows “split infinitives” (Like “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”…which should strictly be -> which should be strictly “To go boldly…”)
In the USA – extending tape measures with inches on one edge of the tape and centimeters on the other. I broke mine a few months ago and neither of the local DIY stores have anything other than “Easy Read” tape measures with only inches. I had to hunt around online to find one that I could still order.
Cash. Already, several countries are considering completely abolishing cash…and a while back, I needed cash for something (I forget what) – and realized that I’ve had no cash in my wallet for more than two years!
Philips screw heads. (The ones like a ‘+’ sign) The replacement is the six-sided “torx” head screws (like a ‘*’ sign) – and in some cases the Allen head – which is a regular hexagon. With the improvement in design of electric screwdrivers, the old philips screws (which are DESIGNED to strip under high torque to protect the tool from damage) are overdue for replacement.

We could go on forever…

Point is that with all of the new things in the world – some old things have to “go away” to make room…either intellectually or physically.

Sometimes it’s sad…sometimes, it’s good…mostly it’s just “Meh”.

Are people who receive food stamps at all ashamed of it?

When I was in college I went to bed hungry many, many nights. I used to steal cheese from Administration wine and cheese parties so I could eat that night. My food budget was 5 dollars a week. Then one day I learned about food stamps. In those days, food stamps really were stamps — they resembled currency but could only be used for food. I think I was eligible for 90 dollars a month in food stamps in 1981. That increased my food budget to about 22 dollars a week.

It absolutely changed my life. Suddenly, I could keep peanut butter in my house, and bread and cereal, things I could eat every day. And if I had the right coupons, I could buy tuna fish and mayonnaise as a luxury. I can still remember my hands shaking with joy as I made a tuna fish sandwich. I was a six foot tall 19 year old man with a 28 inch waist.

Pride made me unable to let people know how bad things were or how hungry I was. Money from my work-study job was used to pay rent and utilities. I balanced my check book to the penny because every penny counted. But when I did go to the DeMoulas in Fitchburg near the college (and I always walked), I always felt ashamed when it came time to pay. And don’t think I didn’t get many dirty looks and the occasional snarky comment from others in the line.

I vowed one day to make up for taking those food stamps and never criticize people who used them. Hunger is real and hunger changes your life, what you can do, how you view your work, your study, your play, your pride, your sense of worth – everything you are, because what you eat today walks and talks tomorrow. Yes, I felt real shame using food stamps. I never took charity before, I was a white man in America and taught that men don’t take charity — you work for what you get. But they saved my life and I am grateful today for the generosity of the taxpayer of yesterday who saved my life and ability to graduate with high honors from college and become a productive member of society.

Have you ever come back to your vehicle only to find something quite unexpected?

Many moons ago, I found myself in perplexing life circumstances.

While I had a decent paying corporate IT job, my divorce of several years back had finally to ground my finances down to the point of near crisis.

Despite appearances of success, my disposable income after supporting two households was drifting into the negative.

In addition to faithfully paying child support for my two children, I also took them every weekend as they were the joyous bright light of my then stressful life.

While not extravagant per se, I made sure they had fun doing normal things kids do, as their mom tended to be frugal in this regard. No blaming, per se…

Backstory set, my current financial crisis was that the annual car insurance bill was due, and I basically didn’t have it. Ironically, a recent necessary car repair depleted my reserve at a bad time. Big sigh.

After spending days trying to sort this, no solution was apparent, and the strain of the bills due date was a preoccupation.

The next morning as I leave for work, the neighbor who lives across our sloping alley was standing behind my car looking at its bumper. His own over-the-top customized pickup is at an odd angle behind my car.

He apologetically explains that his big truck slipped out of gear, rolling over and hitting the back of my car. Hard enough that his trucks bumper was broken in the middle and partially dangled on one side. My heart sank, guessing at my poor cars condition.

Upon inspection, my early 80’s Volvo GL (very thick body metal) had a minor rumple in its rear corner. The trunk still worked, taillight undamaged, and bumper still fine as the lifted truck hit above it. Quite a comical mismatch of damage.

He gave me his insurance info and I went to work, grateful in part for light damage, but annoyed and worried. What was this going to cost?

I called his insurance agent who arranged to have an adjuster come my works parking lot, who I met about an hour later. He asked a few questions as he circled the car, tapping away on some hand-held machine that looked part printer (not a usual thing at the time).

Before I could finish explaining the alley incident, his machine starts spitting out some paper.., a check! He handed it to me with a smile saying There you go!

Sure I about to be low-balled for my repair, I quickly looked the amount. Easily quadruple what my car insurance bill that needed to be paid this week! Huzzah?

I look at the adjuster guy, clearly showing surprise in my expression. He says The damage is cosmetic and everything stiil works. If I were you, I’d just leave it and keep the money. Have a great day! We shake hands and off he goes.

And that’s just what I did, after paying my car insurance with the windfall from the other insurance company. A curious little shell game between these entities.

Indeed, Huzzah!

Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start The Fire (Historically Accurate Almanac) COMPLETE

How did old ships sail into the wind?

Sailing into the wind is a sailing expression that refers to a sailboat’s ability to move forward despite being headed into (or very nearly into) the wind. A sailboat cannot make headway by sailing directly into the wind; the point of the sail into the wind is called “close hauled”.

Sailing into the wind is possible when the sail is angled in a slightly more forward direction than the sail force. In this aspect, the boat will move forward because the keel (centerline) of the boat acts to the water as the sail acts to the wind. The force of the sail is balanced by the force of the keel. This keeps the boat from moving in the direction of the sail force. Although total sail force is to the side when sailing into the wind, a proper angle of attack moves the boat forward

Old ships, such as sailing ships and square-rigged ships, had different sailing and fighting qualities than modern sailboats. They had to rely on their sails, rigging, hull shape, and crew skills to maneuver and perform in various wind and sea conditions. They also had to deal with challenges such as enemy fire, storms, pirates, and navigation. Old ships used various tactics and techniques to sail into the wind, such as:

Tacking: This is a basic sailing maneuver that involves changing the direction of the ship by turning its bow through the wind. This allows the ship to zigzag its way upwind by alternating between port and starboard tacks. Tacking requires coordination between the helmsman and the crew, who have to adjust the sails and rigging accordingly. Tacking also exposes the ship to enemy fire from both sides, so it was often avoided in combat situations.

Wearing: This is another sailing maneuver that involves changing the direction of the ship by turning its stern through the wind. This allows the ship to reverse its course without losing much speed or momentum. Wearing is easier and faster than tacking, but it also requires more space and exposes the ship’s vulnerable stern to enemy fire. Wearing was often used as an escape or evasion tactic when facing superior forces.

Beating: This is a sailing technique that involves sailing as close to the wind as possible without losing speed or stalling. Beating requires trimming the sails tightly and steering carefully to maintain an optimal angle of attack. Beating allows the ship to gain ground upwind by minimizing its leeway (sideways drift). The beating was often used as a pursuit or attack tactic when chasing or engaging enemy ships.

Pinching: This is a sailing technique that involves sailing closer to the wind than is optimal (i.e., with a too-small angle to the wind). Pinching reduces the speed and efficiency of the ship, but it also reduces its leeway and allows it to point higher upwind. Pinching was often used as a desperate or risky tactic when trying to gain an advantage or avoid a disadvantage in a tight situation.

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

The time when I was 16 years old and had a fake driver’s license to get into clubs. (This is a very long time ago when the licenses were paper).

A few weeks before, a clever bouncer realised my ID was fake. I won’t go into the details. He took it from me and advised that if I wanted it back I needed to go to the police.

I freaked out, went straight home (parents) and hoped I’d never have to think about it again.

There’s a knock at our front door. It’s the police (I can see them coming up from my bedroom window). I couldn’t understand what was happening.

My Dad answered the front door. I heard mumbling for a few minutes. I heard the front door close, and Dad coming up the stairs.

Dad called for my Mum. “Heidi, your Uncle’s stolen car has been found and it’s registered to here. I’ve informed the police that he’s living here at the moment (truth) and that he’ll sort it out tomorrow with them”.

Footnote: I heard all this from my bedroom as I was promising God that I will never, ever, ever have another fake driver’s license!

What you’re not being told about Apple Daily and Jimmy Lai

Why do many countries prefer to loan from China and not the World Bank or IMF even if the Chinese loans are often more expensive?

A true story from Indonesia.

When Indonesia got loan from IMF in 1997, the Indonesian government was forced to terminate this project as one of requirements in order to get the loan from IMF.

The planes in the picture were N250s. The first ever plane produced by Indonesian airplane manufacturer, PT IPTN. It was in the 1997 N250 first prototype made its roll out. The plane successfully took off and conducted flight test. Unfortunately, Indonesia fell into a severe monetary crisis in 1997 and had to go to IMF to get the loan. The IMF told President Suharto to cancel the N250 project and it was mandatory before getting the loan. Suharto had no option at the time but approved it. Since then N250 project was cancelled. IMF also told Indonesia to stop funding IPTN totally but Indonesian government didn’t fully comply what IMF wanted. The funding to IPTN was only greatly reduced and its business cores were diversified in order to survive with minimum budget support from the government, now IPTN changes its name into PT Dirgantara Indonesia.

Many said and believed, IMF intentionally terminated the N250 project was to accommodate the requests from some foreign airplane manufacturers which didn’t want Indonesia to produce its own planes because they wanted Indonesia to keep buying from them.

I won’t say getting load from China will not be followed by terms and conditions but I just wanted to show you how IMF put pressures on countries that borrow money from them.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

I parked in a hospital parking lot, and when I came back to my vehicle, there was this young couple, early twenties having a heated discussion. She wanted him to call a taxi, and drive to a mall and buy a battery. He wanted to call a locksmith. The battery in their key fob was dead, and they couldn’t get the door open. They were getting quite mad at each other, thinking that the others solution was going to cost more and take longer.

I asked them if I could be of assistance, and they both wanted me to explain to the other why their idea sucked.

The guy suggested that maybe I could take the battery out of my fob, and put it in theirs just long enough, for them to open the doors.

I asked to see their key fob, and he handed it to me, thinking I was going to do his suggestion.

I walked to their car, put the key in the lock, and opened the door.

They both were stunned. Saying OMG, how did you do that?

They had never seen a car door opened with a key. I felt really old, and just a little smug.

Def Leppard • Hysteria || Jennifer Connelly • Career Opportunities

This is great.

Curried Beef

Ingredients

14 ounces (400g) lean boneless beef
2 teaspoons rice wine
3 cups (750ml) vegetable oil for deep-frying; uses about 2 1/2 oz (75cml)
2 ounces (60ml) clear stock
2 tablespoons curry oil
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ginger, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cornstarch (corn flour) dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon hot red chile pepper, chopped

Instructions

Cut beef into 1-inch square chunks.
Heat the oil in a wok over low heat to very hot, 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Deep-fry the beef until it is cooked through. Remove beef, drain, and set aside.
Pour the oil out of the wok, leaving a thin film on the bottom. Reheat until a haze appears on the oil surface. Add the curry oil, ginger, garlic, onion, chili pepper, rice wine, stock, salt, MSG (optional) and sugar.
Stir the cornstarch to blend and add. Add the beef, stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened.
Sprinkle with sesame oil and serve.

Why do people say looks don’t matter when looks do matter to a lot of people?

You bet looks matter

Here is Claudia Schiffer in her earlier days. If you are a heterosexual male (my perspective on this subject), this picture make your genes scream “I wanna mix with those genes!”

It’s not an intellectual response. It’s not a moral judgement. It is a primal response. You couldn’t stop it if you tried. In this picture, she is the epitome of beauty. This yells “fertile”, and “your (our) kids will be successful at reproducing, too”.

Remember, the future belongs to the people who show up. Reproducing successfully greatly increases your odds of having children that reproduce successfully.

Brigitte Macron (wife of French President Emmanuel Macron) is not exactly an ugly woman, but I guarantee this picture doesn’t spur the same response as the one above.

In this picture, she is at, or close to menopause. That’s enough to shut down, or at least greatly mute the involuntary male response.

But looks don’t matter

Looks open up the door. They don’t keep you in the room.

The visceral response to those looks may last 6 months, or two years. But humans become acculturated to their normal surroundings. And even if your wife/girlfriend looks like this (Linda Evangelista in her prime):

There comes a point where you are inured to it. You care more about whether she picks her nose and leaves the snot on the bedsheet (or whatever annoying behavior she has).

And then there’s that standard male desire for variety. Arnold Schwarzenegger was married to Maria Shriver

Beautiful, smart, connected. She had it all. That should be enough, right?

Nope. He had an affair – and a child – with his nanny

I can’t tell you what was going on in the Schwarzenegger-Shriver marriage, but it’s rather obvious that Maria’s looks didn’t mean a whole lot at that point in time.

So let me repeat the point:

Looks matter – they get you in the door. But they don’t keep you in the room.

Are you beautiful? Lucky you. You have a greater selection of mates to start with. But after you choose one, you need to figure out a relationship, and that’s hard. Really hard. Work on that. The looks will stop mattering, even before they fade.

Flanders becomes world dictator

Is it likely that China will invade Taiwan to distract the Chinese people from China’s economic down-turn?

The Average Chinese don’t understand GDP growth or PMI or Productivity or other Indicators

To them the only source of their worry is the REAL ESTATE MARKET

They have no inflation whatsoever
They have no unemployment problems
Their businesses have plenty of credit available these days

The Chinese who have invested a large chunk of their money into real estate now see the downturn in these markets and feel poor

The Chinese Economists know this and allow this to happen knowing the alternative is to keep fueling real estate speculation and spectacularly crash a decade later

Yet the Chinese people are stoic and practical people

In the end they will shrug, accept that their investments in real estate are going nowhere and offload them or stick with minimal growth

It’s a harsh pill to swallow but one necessary for the long term

China thus is doing pretty well relative to the rest of the world from the eyes of the average mainlander

In fact, except for the real estate slump, he would rank his life as very good

2023 was a good year for China

First the lockdowns ended and that was a huge relief

Second the country is chugging back to life. The demand is back to 2019 standards and slowly rising again.

I personally feel Chinas growth in 2023 could have been as much as 6% but the Chinese are keeping a lot of their success on the books so that they can boost their 2024 growth rate instead

Rather than a 6% growth in 2023 and 4.1% in 2024, better for a 5.1% growth in 2023 and a 4.8% growth in 2024

This way China exceeds it’s target for both years

So there is no need to distract anyone

The Average Mainlander doesn’t need distraction

He has relatives who inform him of their lives in other countries and he knows not one of them is better off than him.

TO THE MOM AT THE SCHOOL DROP OFF THIS MORNING

Today I walked my son to his kindergarten class. It was cold and we were huddled together like sardines as we stood outside the door waiting for the bell to ring.

I saw you with your little boy just a few feet from us, and I looked down when I realized you were looking at us. I hoped you didn’t know who we were. I hoped you didn’t know my son was “that kid.” The one who’s not transitioning well in this school year.

I know what the kids say about my son. They go home and tell their parents my kid is bad. Sometimes he pushes and hits. Sometimes he is defiant and refuses to sit down, be quiet, or stay in line.

I know because the kids tell him what they think of him on the playground. “Mark said I’m bad today.” Or “Aiden’s dad said I can’t play with him anymore.” And my heart hurts, because I know he’s struggling in school. And we are working every angle… in school with a specialist, at home, and through classes, books and resources.

Today, you looked at me, then at my son. “You must be K,” you said to my son. And I looked up and smiled sheepishly. It was an apologetic smile. Almost a “I’m sorry you know his name” smile, because that means you’ve heard the stories.

I said to you, “Yes, this is him.”

I whispered when my son stepped away that we are aware he’s causing some trouble and we are working on it. That we take his behavior very seriously.

And then you did something I never expected. I don’t know if I was waiting for you to tell me what you heard K did to your son, or just tell me off. But instead you told me about your older son who struggled with similar problems at this age. You told me that now he’s in high school and he’s a straight A student.

Instead of tearing me down, you lifted me up. You gave me hope. And you handed me an olive branch so I know that I do have an ally during school drop off. An ally I never expected.

You didn’t have to make that connection. You could have ignored us or pretended not to know us. Or yes — you could have told me what you think of my son (you would not be the first). But you didn’t. You showed me grace and kindness and you uplifted me more than I could possibly describe in words.

I told you I would love to learn more about steps you took with your older son. I would love suggestions and guidance and that I would call you. And you know what? I will call you. Even if no suggestions or guidance is ever exchanged. I will call you because you are a friend I want to have. You are a good person.

American schools are fucking crazy

What did someone say to you that instantly made you realize their life was in danger?

I will do something I normally despise: answer on behalf of someone else. This is just too good to not mention.

The words were: We are going to lie down for a nap. We are feeling tired and cranky.

It was just that: My wife, our toddler and I were going to take a nap on a weekend afternoon, because we were just not quite feeling ourselves. Before lying down, my wife called a doctor’s office to make an overdue appointment. All she got was a lady from the answering service – or possibly an Angel. We were not able to ascertain which, as we never met her in person.

The lady told my wife that the office was not open, and when it would reopen. My wife replied that she was going to try again later, as we were going to lie down for a nap because we were feeling tired and cranky. This had nothing to do with what she had called about – just making conversation. Still, only going by that, the lady deduced that we were dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. She told us to leave the house NOW, and called 911 for us.

Turns out the chimney had collapsed, and flooded the house with carbon monoxide. The levels were deadly – had we gone to sleep, we would not have woken up. The nice lady saved our lives, just based on my wife mentioning conversationally that we were going to take a nap. If that is not impressive, I don’t know what is.

Thanks, nice answering service lady, wherever you are.

MAJOR CORRECTION: My wife has read this answer, and she remembers telling the answering service lady that she was feeling woozy. That would have been a major hint – but I still find it more than impressive that she was able to save our lives just based on a brief phone call which was on its face about something else entirely.

What is the lowest probability event you have personally witnessed?

When i was 12 there were a few kids at school who bullied me for whatever reason. It wasn’t bad physical bullying just name calling mainly. On weekend i was in our town centre calling my mother from a payphone. These 3 boys walked past and started banging on the phonebox shouting some names and proceeded to walk off.

Now for some reason, i this time i reacted. The only thing i had to hand was a full can of coke. I shook it up and opened it up just a tiny bit and threw it towards the boys intending to cover them in Coke. I threw it when they must have been 20-30 metres away and as the can approached them i shouted one of the boys names. “Paul!” (I’ll not use his real name) he turned round and the can hit the side of his forehead and he just dropped to the floor.

I ran. Oh, i did, i ran! Finally stopping at another phone box to call my mother and tell her exactly what happened. She was surprisingly ok about it despite me saying ‘Paul’ must have been really hurt. She just told me to get my butt home ASAP.

I didn’t hear anything about it until after the weekend and ‘Paul’ came in to school with a massive lump on his head coming out in a huge bruise. He’d spent the rest of Saturday in hospital.

Fortunately, i didn’t get into any trouble at all. I had only intended to cover them in Coke and could never have imagined hitting him square on his forehead at such a distance.

As kids are we all became friends in later years with even ‘Paul’ painfully accepting it was a one in a million shot.

When you have an extrovert cat

What is your most controversial social opinion?

Someone I know was diagnosed with cancer and given only 3–6 months to live.

It was a devastating diagnosis to her and her family. She was an amazing person, who’d lived a good, healthy life, and was only in her late-50’s.

But, as we know, cancer is a merciless disease.

She ended up getting on a strong treatment plan that allowed her to live almost 2 years.

The first 12–16 months of those 2 years, she more or less had a great quality of life and was able to travel, spend time with loved ones, her husband, kids, grandkids, making the very most of that time.

In the remaining 8–12 months of her life, things began to descend.

The cancer began to change her body, breaking her down. Her mind began to change and, consequently, her behavior did too. The medicine she was taking was no longer thwarting the onslaught of the disease.

In the end, in the final weeks of her life, it wasn’t pretty.

She eventually fell into a coma that doctors advised she would not wake up from.

In her final days and hours, her body seemed in great pain.

I won’t burden you with the details, but know this – her family had to see her in a state that would traumatize most of us had it been our own mother.

I’m not presuming the following statement would have been her choice; it is my, perhaps controversial, opinion:

People who know their life will end in an excruciating way should have the option, with the assistance of medical professional, to end their own life in a more peaceful manner.

It is far more humane than letting them be ravaged until the bitter end.

What is a truth that nobody wants to admit or doesn’t see?

1. Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.
2. You can’t be healthy and obese.
3. Everyone wants to GET old, nobody wants to BE old.
4. Most anger comes from feeling powerless.
5. The people you look up to are just as nervous as you are.
6. As people age, they get fewer chances to mess up.
7. All systems are essentially a minority ruling over the majority.
8. If you look in the mirror and find a dirty face, it might also be that the mirror is dirty.
9. HR is not there to protect you, it is in place to protect the employer.
10. Relationships are a one way street, whether you are the one in love or the one loved.
11. Some people will not like you no matter what you do.
12. In fact, some people are not qualify to have kids or even pets.
13. Upvotes on Quora are free.
14. Small achievements may come from hard work, but big ones require luck.
15. We are all biased, especially those who think they are not.

Sounds Of The Department Store 1979

Absolutely takes me back.

When was a time you said silently to your boss “I told you so”?

I was working in the seafood department of a major grocery store chain. We had on ad pink salmon for .88 a pound. My first customer of the day wanted me to scale it, fillet it, and pack it into 4-ounce portions. I refused! She immediately went and told the store manager about my refusal. I was willing to walk out if he insisted that I do it because, I was working solo and the cost of the fish was so low and the cost of the packaging was a lot, let alone the time it would take if I had to do them. He came back, we went into the back to discuss my refusal. I told him my reasoning. He told me that he would help me with it.

We returned to the seafood department, and he told her that he would be happy to cut it the way she asked. She was over the moon and handed him two packages of the fish. He gave me a disgusted look. He told me you refused to do the two fish, unbelievable, I am disappointed in your lack of customer service. I smiled. Then the same customer pushed into the seafood department the two carts filled to the top with the fish. She had over 200 packages wanting them all scaled, fillet it, and pack it into 4-ounce portions. I silently told him so! He refused to do it for her and told me that under no circumstance would we do anything to the fish but sell them in the bags. I agreed but did tell him that I was disappointed in his lack of customer service! He sent me home for the day! Being a union department, I was paid for the day since he didn’t follow protocol about sending me home. The meat department had to cover my shift; boy they were pissed at me!

Have you ever taken a bribe as a police officer?

I once stopped a very hot looking “model” (I use the term loosely) for speeding at nearly twice the speed limit. Mind you, I am not a ticket writer and can count on one hand the number of citations I’d written in the last decade. Truth be told, at my rank, I don’t even carry a ticket book. When I informed her why I had stopped her, she proceeded to hand me her business card with her cell phone number on it and leaned forward making sure I could see her quite ample bosom. Up to that point, I had no intention of citing her, and was just going to warn her to keep her speed down. However, once she suggestively tried to flash some skin, I called for a radio car to bring me a citation book so I could write her up.

“You’re going to write me a ticket? Nothing we can do to work this out?”

“Ma’am, I had no intention of writing you a ticket when I stopped you, but at this point, if I don’t, you’re going to go around telling everyone that all you had to do was bat your eyes and flash your breasts to get out of a ticket… Press hard on the pen, there’s three copies.”

The Airforce UFO Cover Up That Drove a Man INSANE | They’re LYING to US

Hot Dog Butler

Butler, Pennsylvania is a small city that was a one half hour drive from where I spent my High School years. This is a typical Western Pennsylvania city; steel, and blue collar work.

Downtown, in the city, was a restaurant. It was established in the 1920’s or 30’s and pretty much stayed with the same decor throughout the century. It was Art Deco “diner” style with stainless steel fixings and decor. With a big picture of the family founder over the door.

It was called “The Hot Dog Shop“.

And it served typical diner food, and was a great place for my family to go to as a young boy in my pre-teens and my teenager years.

I would often get such things as grilled cheese sandwiches, with sides of gravy laden french fries, and bowls of soup. So very delicious. Not to mention the mandatory cup of coffee.

About ten years ago, give or take, it burned down. What a great loss!

But….

They had insurance, and the rebuilt the restaurant and as far as I can tell, it is still operating today. Oh sure, the great thing is that the have not changed the menu. They have not changed the decor. In fact they kept everything else the same EXCEPT for the removal of the cigarette vending machines, the ash trays and the free packs of matches.

If you ever get a chance to go… please go there and enjoy a “blue plate special”. Good times! Good times!

Ah…

For today let’s start here…

As a student, what is the saddest thing you have found out about your teacher?

My 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Bishop, was one of my favorite teachers. He taught my sister four years before me, and the year he taught me, my sister was a new mother. He asked me about her and her new child frequently, like he really remembered her and cared about her. It was nice.

But I also remember a few times when he fell over in his chair during class. The kids all laughed at him, and he laughed right along with them as he got himself back up.

Sometimes, he’d seem to talk really slow or just “zone out” for a few seconds while teaching. We just got used to it.

One day, he didn’t come to school. We found out later that, while on his way to school that morning, he’d lost control of his motorcycle and crashed through a sign next to the road. He was fine… just shaken up a little, and his motorcycle was broken.

A few years later, when I was no longer his student, I heard through the grapevine that he had to quit teaching because he kept having “episodes” where he lost control of his body.

He had multiple sclerosis.

All of the incidents the year that he taught me were just manifestations of the disease. He either didn’t know it, or didn’t tell us. Probably he just didn’t tell us… it was none of our business.

That was 25 years ago now. He’d probably be in his 70s by this point. I’ve tried Googling him, but I can’t find anything. But that includes an obituary, so that’s a good sign, I guess.

Edit: I just Googled his name again, and found his obituary. He died in Jan. 2022.

Soul star

My employee was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness and has since been sluggish at work. How do I let her go nicely without it costing me?

If I have read this correctly, your dedicated employee is dying because of illness, and you want to get rid of her because she is sluggish aka tired.

Take a good long look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself that if you were in her position, would you want the same thing to happen to you?

This job is probably what is keeping her going through this tragic period of time in her life, and you want to take that away from her? Are you serious? What kind of a person are you? She has bills to pay, food to buy for herself and possibly her family, and a FUNERAL to plan for HERSELF! Show some compassion and understanding. Is this the reputation that you want to have? If you fire her, trust me, what you have done and why you have done it, will be spread to everyone, especially your contacts and/or clients (customers). Legally, she can sue you for firing her under the Equal Employment Opportunity Law.

Have a heart of flesh and not one of cold corporate stone. What you do, will come back on you, either for the good or for the bad. Choose wisely.

aliens first encounter

As someone who lives in the United Kingdom, what is the most ridiculous thing you have witnessed a tourist do?

Another tale from the shire horse farm which I used to work at. A group of French students came to the farm, along with a couple of teachers. The students were teenagers and right from the start they were causing trouble. The first thing was being kicked out of the gift shop for being caught trying to steal.

Then they came to the animal section where I worked. At first, they seemed to be behaving themselves, but after they left the farm animal section, a member of the public came up to me and informed me that one of the French teenagers had stolen a duck. Yes, a live duck. I immediately went to one of the teachers who were supposed to be supervising the students and asked them to unlock the coach, which is where the person had told me they’d seen the duck.

The teacher did so. The duck had been shut on the seating area, and was flapping around, terrified, and pooing everywhere. I managed to catch the duck and put it in a sack to calm it so I could get it back to the pond. The teacher then had the audacity to ask if someone could clean up the coach, to which I replied that since it was her students who had stolen the duck, then they could clean the coach. Then I left with the traumatised duck, who amazingly survived.

The French students were consequently kicked out of the shire horse farm and I for one hope that they enjoyed the trip back in their feather and duck poo encrusted coach.

What is your best “one time my dad … ” story?

One time my Dad and I drove about an hour to fly my radio-controlled helicopter. But that’s not the big thing.

This was way back in the early 80s, at the latest. Way before stabilization systems, autopilots, etc. I was about 13 years old, had gotten a paper route (yes, kids actually delivered papers to your door) and saved every cent to buy an RC helicopter. After several unsuccessful flight attempts at home (hovering is freaking *hard*), he suggested we go to a flying club where there was a guy who could teach me. Off we go!

We arrive, helicopter, fuel, cooler full of sandwiches and soda, ready to start my training! But… nobody’s there? Apparently, the flying club was off that weekend- we got our dates mixed up. Bollocks.

No matter- the field is open, we figure we’d just try more “self-paced instruction”. Fire up the heli, a few really bad hover attempts when all of a sudden:

I’m barely maintaining a hover when all of a sudden the heli peels off into this incredibly cinematic sweep- dips forward, tail sweeps around, engine throttles up- it was beautiful! My Dad was shouting “Oh yeah, that’s it!!”- but I was shouting “It’s not me! The radio is jammed!”

The heli, on its own, takes off on a circuit about 1 ft off the deck, and circles around- coming right back down the flight line. By now my Dad knows this craft is out of my control, and if he doesn’t catch it it’s probably gone forever- and he knows how hard I worked to buy it.

He jumps in front of it.

This is not a little drone- this is an aluminum-frame gas-powered 3ft rotor diameter with ash blades behemoth screaming down the runway at us. If it hit something on the ground and jumped up- it could have killed him.

It smashes into his shins, rotor blades splintering. The engine, no longer under load, starts to whine like a banshee- we pinch off the fuel tube and kill the engine. We collect the debris, and start home. Dad actually packed a couple of cold soda cans into his socks to keep the swelling down.

When we got home, I asked him why he would do such a foolish thing as blocking the heli with his body. He said “You worked so hard to buy this, and build it, and fly it- I couldn’t bear to see it take off and fly away on a full tank of gas and be lost forever. Let’s just fix this up.” BTW- he had bruises and blood pooling in his legs and feet for months after this.

That was almost 50 years ago. I could never bring myself to rebuild that heli, though we continued with a bunch of other projects that were somewhat less lethal.

In the grey

What is the most absurd code you’ve ever seen?

It was a computer science lab.

We were being taught loops in C++. As a test, the teacher gave us the following question :-

Print the following pattern.

Everyone of us started writing the code, trying everything (since at that time it was a high level problem for us). One of my friends had no clue whatsoever about the problem, but he wanted to score well in the test.

You know what he did?

He wrote the following code

#include<iostream.h>
void show();
int main();
{
char ch=’A’;
int i,n;
/* Here he wrote certain code just to
show that some thing was being done*/
show(); //called this function
//secretly
for(i=0;i<7;i++)
{
for(int j=0;j<12;j++)
{
/*wrote some more useless code
which had no
effect on output*/
}
}
return 0;
}
/*after leaving about 100 blank lines so
that you dont have to scroll the
function to show you*/
void show()
{
cout<< ” ABCDEFGFEDCBA\n”;
cout<< ” ABCDEF FEDCBA\n”;
cout<< ” ABCDE EDCBA\n”;
cout<< ” ABCD DCBA\n”;
cout<< ” ABC CBA\n”;
cout<< ” AB BA\n”;
cout<< ” A A\n”;
}

When the teacher came to check his code, he glanced at the code and asked him to run it.

HERE IS THE OUTPUT:

Teacher saw this correct output and awarded him full marks. Teacher no longer cared if the code was correct or not since it was producing the desired result.

I was like, “wow man at least you thought of such an idea!”

Edit 1:

Just showed this answer to my friend who is being referred here. He was amazed I remembered it to such precision.

The whitest thing

When a child actor acts in an R-rated film, what do the makers tell the child about the film?

As an experienced professional actor, whose children have acted in screen productions they were too young to view, I will attempt an answer.

The short answer is that the film is compartmentalised and the child actor will only experience a small subset of the film. They will only be told about what is appropriate for them to know.

The “makers” of the film communicate with the child in the first instance through the child’s agent and thence to the legal guardian (parent or otherwise). If they feel the role and the production are suitable they will agree to be available and audition. Then, if cast, it is up to the director to communicate with the child actor.

Under no circumstances will they be allowed to see the full script or be on set at all times in an “R-rated film”. They will not be invited to the full cast read through nor to extensive rehearsals. Film making is compartmentalised. Every single shot need not be in the same place or shot on the same day as the next shot. Things are not shot in order.

The production company is responsible for the wellbeing of the child actor and will allow the legal guardian to be on set when the child actor is called. They will also supply a chaperone and brief all the crew and cast about what is appropriate. For example I once played a character who murdered his family. I was never allowed to be seen by the child actors – no wardrobe, makeup, rehearsal calls were scheduled on the same day. In the shoots there were no shots framed to include both the murderer and the victim.

In another production, involving an infant, no crew or cast were allowed to make loud noises or wear perfume on set.

There are laws to protect minors on set in most jurisdictions. If they are obeyed the experience can be safe and rewarding for the child and one day, if they are old enough and choose to see the whole film, hopefully they will be able to be proud of their work.

What’s your most absurd dealbreaker?

I have a beauty for this question.

I tried to buy my family’s next home many years ago and my wife and I were blown away by the massive cubbyhouse in the back yard. Our kids were young and they would love it. We had other reasons to love the house too, one being that our good friends lived in the same street. Needless to say we were looking forward to buying this, our new home, and started the price negotiations.

A deal was struck and we signed a contract we were happy with. Part of the contract was to ensure that massive cubbyhouse was legal and had all the right government approvals. It did not and so our lawyer informed their lawyer of the problem. Instead of further negotiations and a price reduction or trying to gain the required approvals, the vendors thought it appropriate to cut it down and burn it!

Unbeknownst to me, this house was for sale due to the divorce of the previous owners and the husband thought it would annoy his ex wife to destroy the cubbyhouse. The problem was we had a signed contract for the purchase of the house including the cubbyhouse. They would have to make good and we were assured they would.

As is often the case the purchaser of the house we were selling needed another day or two to finalise their finances and asked for an extension to the settlement date which was agreed upon by us and the owners of the house we were buying. However on the new day settlement was to occur, the lawyer for our new house changed position and said that we had to give up on our demands for compensation over the cubbyhouse. We refused.

They then would not proceed with the sale and gave us the option to sue them later. To my lawyer’s amazement I cancelled the sale and walked away. I have no regrets either and I and my family found an even better house, we loved, shortly after. We loved our new neighbours too and enjoyed the next 13 years in that home.

What is China’s response to Trump’s claim that China wants him to lose?

China don’t give a shit. It is none of China’s business is the U.S. wants to choose a proverbial liar or a corrupt politician that is for the American’s to decide. China prefer to mind its own business. China’s government is answerable to its citizens. It wants to do everything to make China prosperous. And peaceful.

It is always ever ready for US miscalculations but it is the U.S. business if the U.S. wants to throw monies into bottomless money pit like Gaza or Ukraine or flex it’s muscles aimlessly bankrupting itself in the process. That is your choice. We the world knows better.

A man like Trump cannot even be a lowly official in most nation. We don’t vote a sexiest, racist, xenophobic, baboon into power. At best he stays running a small con till he is caught! Please vote him in for all we care!

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (4/8) Movie CLIP – Kirk Beats Khan (1982) HD

What are some signs that someone is not as successful as they claim to be (financially)?

1. They don’t have a circle of successful people.

A banker will have a group of financial friends while a start-up guy will surround himself with a bunch of start-up guys.

2. Wealth is quiet. Rich is loud. Poor is flashy.

3. They don’t care about time.

True wealthy men are particular in time because they know these are the most valuable resources.

4. They have fake rich hobbies.

Clubbing, drinking, and partying.

5. They always try to impress people with their wealth and possessions.

And they want other people to know when they have spent a lot of money.

6. They are name-dropping like crazy.

A real wealthy man will always keep things private and will never act in that way.

7. They tend to buy pieces where the logo is big.

For them, owning these items is about making a statement, not the quality of the product.

8. They may own an expensive car but live in a relatively cheap apartment or house.

9. They often do not have any savings or investments, even if they earn a significant amount of money.

10. They constantly brag about who they know or where they’ve been.

Have you ever walked into work only to realize that you were fired?

I’d been in my new corporate job two weeks. I’d been given an office on day one and by the end of week two had made it my own.

Family pictures, work calendar with my appointments and in particular my desk blotter. My desk blotter was a massive work tool and an important record of my days and weeks. After two weeks my office no longer looked like the office I was given two weeks earlier.

Monday morning I arrive at work and to my surprise a very confused man I had not met before was sitting in my office, behind my desk. I was just about to have a chat to him when my secretary grabbed me and told me the news.

The man sitting at my desk used to have my office. He had been fired during his leave but his boss apparently hadn’t told him yet. To make matters worse his boss wasn’t at work yet either. Awkward.

So I did the right thing. I waited in the boardroom until his boss showed up and did the deed. I had no time for his boss, he was a lazy, disorganised non performer who didn’t last much longer than the guy who just got fired.

I found the whole episode to be cruel. I don’t know how much earlier than me he got to work that day but he would have known instantly he no longer had a job when he entered his old office and saw it had been taken over. That just isn’t right and I felt extremely sorry for him.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Heh. This was years ago, at my current employer.

We’re a mailhouse: we take people’s mail, co-mingle it, sort it, and get a better rate from the Post Office. As we’ve grown, we’ve added inserting/fulfillment, and eventually, printing as well. Like a print shop, but built in reverse.

I was hired to be the print department, which I did for seven years before I became the IT manager.

As print designer, programmer, and general operator, I often had to talk with clients—sending proofs, getting information, etc., and I developed a good rapport with many, if not all, of them, sometimes better than the salesperson they were assigned to.

If there was something wrong with an order, I was often the first person they’d contact.

So it was with a large client of the banking world. They were a high maintenance/high-return client, so I always gave them my best customer service. This day, they called to find out about envelopes, which is not my department, but I knew whom to talk with and I told them I’d look into it.

I ran around the shop and got the info, and reported back: they were out of envelopes.

Oops.

I had neglected to loop the salesperson in on the request (they don’t have any production knowledge, usually, so never was an issue in the past), but our salesperson, for some reason I’m still not clear on, had lied to the client and told them we had envelopes in stock.

No envelopes meant that their time-sensitive prints weren’t going on time. So when I said, “Yeah, there’s no envelopes in stock”, you’d better believe that our client went into panic mode.

And of course, they called the salesperson back, who, not knowing that I had told them the truth, proceeded to lie…again. The client was displeased, told them what I’d told them, and demanded an explanation. There was much back-pedaling and BSing from the salesperson along the lines of “Oh, they’ll be delivered today, Toby just didn’t know…” blah blah.

My manager, the general manager, the sales manager, all called me in. “Why are you talking with clients at all?” They asked, incensed. I could tell that they were this close to just firing me on the spot.
“Because I have daily conversations with them about their jobs?” I offered.
“Not anymore. ALL communication goes through the salesperson.”
“Ooookay, but, just to make sure I understand this correctly, it was the salesperson that lied to the customer, right?”
“That doesn’t matter! You could have cost us this account!” Veins were popping on at least two foreheads.
“No, I’m pretty sure that does matter. If we’d been honest with them, there wouldn’t be a problem.” And that was the third forehead.
They talked among themselves for a moment and said, “Just…just no more talking with clients.”
“Your call.”

The next day, one of the client’s vice-presidents flew in from across the country for a surprise inspection. There were no envelopes. Because I was just a print jockey, I didn’t have to be in that room when those four people got chewed out. But I did hear (from the client) that they were glad at least one person in the company was honest, or they’d have had a huge legal fight (that they would lose) on their hands.

Yeah, we lost the account. And, yeah, relations with that salesperson and I were chilly from then on (months later, she left the company). But what hurt even more was that all those customers who were used to my excellent customer service were now getting the run around from their clueless salespeople. Several of them complained and accounts were shuffled around*, but eventually the people in charge figured out that the problem started when they took me out of the loop.

“Toby, it’s okay if you talk to clients again.”
“Oh, good.”
“Just…check with the salespeople before you report on production, will you?”
“You mean, in case we need to lie to them?”
*Uncomfortable fidgeting* “In case we need to apologize.”
“Okay. Because I’m not going to lie to our clients.”
“That will be all.”

I’m happy to report that in the dozen or so years since, our sales team has become far more adept at apologizing and rectifying situations, and our production team has learned how to order before we run out of stock. My work here is done.

*Yes, a few clients did even suggest that they’d rather have me as their salesperson, but that idea was rejected by everyone—I don’t do sales, for reasons obvious from this answer.

Truth

What was the most popular band in the 70s that isn’t popular now?

Ask a teenager who is into classic rock to name the biggest performers of the Nineteen-Seventies. They’ll tell you names like Queen, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. Ask them “What about the Bay City Rollers?,” and they’ll answer: “Who?”

In the Nineteen-Seventies, if you liked popular music, you couldn’t escape the Bay City Rollers. From 1974 to 1977, they dominated the music scene, selling an alleged 120 million records. Yet you hear little about them today. It’s as if they’ve been erased from the collective memory.

Rollermania replicated the Beatlemania of the Nineteen-Sixties. Many however, felt the Rollers’ success was undeserved. As with all bands popular with young teenage females though, their success waned as their fans got older.

If you were female and under 14 in 1977, the Bay City Rollers were your world. No-one else wanted anything to do with them.

Time has not been kind to the Bay City Rollers. Unlike their predecessors, the Monkees, and their successors ABBA, the Bay City Rollers have not been declared pop geniuses. Classic rock fans have by and large spurned them. They are largely remembered today as an embarrassment. If they are ever mentioned at all in a documentary, it’s usually for laughs.

The Bay City Rollers’ record contract with Arista expired in 1981. Although this was the official end of the band, after 1981 versions of the Rollers continued to record and tour.

Eventually, nostalgia rescued the Bay City Rollers from obscurity. They appeared at the Punk and Disorderly 2010 festival, on the same bill with legends Stiff Little Fingers, Cockney Rejects, and Anti-Nowhere League. The ‘dag’ movement in Australia, which brought back faded performers and trends from the Nineteen-Seventies and Nineteen-Eighties, encouraged some to go to thrift shops in search of Bay City Rollers vinyl and memorabilia.

The Bay City Rollers saw little of the estimated £5 billion generated by their record sales and merchandising. Reportedly the nostalgia circuit enabled the Bay City Rollers to live the comfortable lives that their negligent and criminal management denied them, before death eventually claimed the main members.

I remember thirty years ago the Bay City Rollers undertook a low-key tour of Australia. This caused some excitement among the late-twenties females at work. One woman, who only listened to alternative rock, was quite excited that the Bay City Rollers were coming back!

You either hated them or loved them … the Bay City Rollers at the height of Rollermania. At least the Ramones admitted they liked them.

Kung Pao Beef

00100lrPORTRAIT 00100 BURST20200212145151299 COVER scaled 1

Ingredients

1 pound beef boneless sirloin or flank steak
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash white pepper
2 hot green chiles
2 green onions (with tops)
1 red bell pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger root
2 tablespoons brown bean sauce
1/2 cup diced canned bamboo shoots
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup skinless raw peanuts, roasted

Instructions

Trim fat from beef steak; cut beef into 3/4-inch cubes. Toss beef, 1 tablespoon oil, the cornstarch, salt and white pepper in glass or plastic bowl. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Cut chiles into thin slices (remove seeds and membrane if desired).
Cut onions diagonally into 1-inch pieces.
Cut bell pepper into 3/4 inch squares.
Heat 12-inch skillet or wok until very hot. Add 2 tablespoons oil; rotate skillet to coat bottom. Add beef; stir-fry 2 minutes or until beef is brown. Remove beef from skillet.
Heat skillet until very hot. Add 2 tablespoons oil; rotate skillet to coat bottom. Add chiles, garlic, ginger root, bean sauce and bamboo shoots; stir-fry 1 minute.
Add beef, bell pepper and sugar; stir-fry 1 minute.
Stir in onions.
Sprinkle with peanuts.

What is your evaluation of the recent visit to China by a delegation of Arab foreign ministers? Do they want China to attack Israel?

About twenty years ago, these Nations had little voice

They had to DO AS TOLD by the United States and it’s allies

If they showed the slightest independence, they would be faced with a four step method by the US

Make up accusations on Human Rights violations which would be the first step. Saddam got this in 1989 after the Iran Iraq war (Until which time he was useful to the West so they didn’t see any human right violations)
Impose Trade restrictions on such countries using shipping insurance and freight as a weapon and throttling their revenues which would be in Dollars. Saddam got this in 1994/95, ironically almost 4 1/2 years after he invaded Kuwait. Step Two
Impose Unilateral Sanctions and freeze their money and prevent them from being able to buy basic food and water at times not to mention medicines, hospital supplies etc. This is the FINAL WARNING. At this stage the Nation needs to depose it’s present leader and the new leader has to kowtow to the West.Step Three
Cause a color revolution or invade making some trumped up excuse.Step Four

Today these Nations have a very strong BACK UP SYSTEM

If the US goes too far, these Nations have CHINA & RUSSIA to fall back on

China takes care of the commerce and trade. The RMB ensures that these Nations can keep buying anything they want as long as they have Oil and Gas to sell China rendering most sanctions as impotent

Drilling machines, Machinery, Food, Paper Clips – You name it and China will deliver

Plus China’s enormous clout at the UN and it’s lobbying powers beat the US today. China carries 78 guaranteed votes at the UN Assembly against 54 Guaranteed Votes of the US

Russia takes care of the Grain and of the Military aspect

If the US try any tricks like they did in 2003, they could find themselves in a conflict with Russia being involved

Best example is Syria where Assad is very much in charge despite all the attempts by the US to depose him under Obama & Trump (?)

So the Arab Nations have a voice today

They can protest and they can demand things and the US can’t repeat it’s four step formula because that could send them fully to Russia and China like it happened with IRAN

That’s all the Arab Nations are looking for with China

They still want to be loyal to the US and it’s allies but if the US goes TOO FAR then they won’t buckle that easily and they have a back up with Russia and China

The US better not make the same mistake they did with Iran or Russia this time

Alien³ – What Happened On The Sulaco [HD]

What is the most clever way you have seen someone respond to road rage?

My brother. He was working graveyard shift at the time and had to commute quite a distance on the freeway for work. Of course, night time is when they do a lot of roadwork in this region to minimize impacts during rush hour. My brother is a burly sized guy. At the time he drove a little Hyundai hatchback. (Important to know for later). Anyway, one night, while commuting to work, the freeway is shut down to 1 lane of traffic for roadwork. Every one is backed up, traffic is virtually at a stops as everyone merges from 4 lanes to 1. Some person is a big old jacked up pickup truck gets behind my brother and starts riding his tail. Obviously, since this is a traffic jam, my brother can’t go anywhere. After a little while of riding my brothers butt, this person decides to turn on their high beam and start getting aggressive. Backing off, then running up to my brothers bumper and slamming on the brakes at the last possible second. At this point, traffic is down to one lane, so my brother stops in the middle of the traffic and proceeds to unfold himself from the car. Walks back to the truck and starts slamming his hand on the hood and screaming at the person. “it’s one f**king lane! I can’t go anywhere, I can’t go any faster! I can’t pull over and you can’t f**king pass me! If you want a fight climb out right now! Otherwise, Back the F**K off!”

Big truck never opened his doors. My brother waited a moment, went back to his car and proceeded on his way. Big truck turned off their headlights and maintained a respectful distance for the rest of the way through the roadwork.

Why would anyone want to retire?

I operated coin-operated amusements from about 1989 to about 2010. Foosball tables, Air Hockey, Video Games, Countertop Games, Pinball Machines, Pool Tables, Dart Boards, etc. I also retailed various Home Model games and parts, mostly Foosball.

I quickly realized, or maybe not so quickly, that when Laptops connected to WiFi had more attractive games on them than my coin-ops, and eventually even Cell Phones had more interesting games, that my business was doomed. During that same time many of my locations, mostly taverns and bars, and a few Game Rooms as well, were going out of business.

I had the policy, unlike most of my competitors, to own my own business without having an awful silent partner of a huge bank-loan. If I could expand using the funds from my business, I did, otherwise I remained small.

When the contraction began, as I lost a location, or one became unprofitable, I would just sell off the equipment and cash out. That went on for several years. But I kept my business open for my customers. The last 2–3 years I worked but had negative income. In other words, I was paying for the privilege of being able to work.

One year, I think it was either my last or second to last, I worked all year and found that I lost $6,000 doing so. More frustrating than that, I had $8,000 in licensing and taxation expenses. In other words, $8000 of my $6000 loss went to licensing and taxing authorities. After being in business for about 2 decades, you learn to hate taxation and licensing. That is when I closed shop. I just couldn’t see giving them ALL the money I earned and paying them an additional $2,000 out of my savings. Technically, I still have a non-operating business, that I don’t work at anymore.

Anyway, the end result was I quit working because it was more profitable to not work.

What is the rudest thing someone said to you because of your weight?

Not me… my wife.

My beautiful wife was a size five 10 years ago when she got pregnant with our first son. Here’s a picture of her right before she got pregnant.

Her pregnancy was difficult. She gained a lot of weight and her legs and feet got so swollen that the last couple of months were almost unbearable for her. She couldn’t walk very far without pain.

One time as we were walking out of a restaurant when my wife was 8 months pregnant, a woman stopped in her tracks and said “Oh my God”… looking at my wife’s stomach.

She was in labor for 36 hours and finally the doctor said “That baby is not coming out.” C-section it was. We found out why he wasn’t coming out. The doctor pulled him out and said “That is a BIG baby!” He was 12 pounds 2 ounces.

Two years later we had our second and final son. He was 11 pounds.

The two pregnancies and two C-sections left my wife with a hernia in her stomach and muscles that just never healed back normally. Despite her going to the gym 4–5 times a week and eating right, her belly has never been the same.

At least 10 times in the years since, people have asked my wife how far along she is. People, please stop doing this to women. Don’t ever, ever, ever ask someone if they are pregnant. My wife has been brought to tears over this stupid question many times.

Here’s my beautiful family now.

Update:

Wow, so many wonderful comments from all kinds of people. Thanks so much. It’s truly heartwarming to hear so many of you comment on how beautiful my wife is. She truly is a beautiful person inside and out.

Many have commented about how my wife could have corrective surgery. This is something we have researched and considered for several years. We are hoping that in the next few years we’ll be able to save enough money. It’s a very expensive surgery that we currently can’t afford, but it’s important for me that we get there and we get it done.

Preventing scars by allowing bruises

Do kids of bigger families wish they didn’t have so many siblings? If you were raised with more than 4-5+ siblings, what are your thoughts? Did you like having so many siblings? Were older siblings expected to take care of the younger ones?

I’m one of 5 kids. My parents always wanted a big family — in fact, they’d planned on 6 kids, but my mom’s health wouldn’t stand for it. Money was always tight, of course. My dad made a good salary but it still didn’t stretch that far among seven people, and my mom stayed home to take care of us. Both my parents believed it was very important for her to do that, and tbh any money she brought home would have been totally eaten up by childcare, anyway.

There was a time or two that I wished there weren’t so many of us, so there would be more money and attention for me. But which of my siblings would I wish out of existence? I could never imagine my life without any one of them. They’ve been my lifelong built-in friends. And sometimes enemies, LOL — we used to fight like cats and dogs! But as adults we are all very close, even those of us who are far apart in age. In a lot of ways I feel sorry for people who didn’t grow up with a lot of siblings like I did.

It probably makes all the difference that we didn’t just happen, our parents specifically wanted a lot of children to love. They always knew and respected our different personalities and needs. They sacrificed to make sure we were taken care of. They enjoyed our company—our mom was sad when we went back to school after summer break because she missed us! They never played favorites or acted like we owed them for existing.

And yes, the older siblings did take care of the younger, to an extent. Our oldest sister was Second Mommy in a lot of ways. I remember changing my two youngest siblings’ diapers. That’s how it works in a big family, you help take care of each other. But we helped, we weren’t fully responsible for our siblings. We just did our part. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to learn early in life that you’re not the center of the universe! You’re part of a family, and that means you’re there for them and they’re there for you.

Personally, I wouldn’t trade my family or the way I grew up for anything!

Evil Mother

As a patient, what’s the angriest you have ever been toward a doctor?

When a GI failed to listen to my history. Failed to look at records, radiology and pathology reports from my past. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis while active duty over two decades prior, my diagnoses was switched by his nurse practitioner to Crohn’s when I was hospitalized.

He decided I simply had Irritable bowel syndrome and told me it was in my head. At an office visit when asked what my pain was, I reported it as a 5 (I had an obstruction) only for the nurse to LAUGH. I stood up and excused myself asking for someone else to check me in since she thought pain was funny. The office manager came in to apologize but looked at my husband the entire time. When he noticed he said: “You need to be apologizing to my wife, not me”.

I ended up receiving a certified letter that I needed to find a new GI (I already had), so I asked to speak with the medical director and was kicked out of the patient portal. This same GI dismissed me when complaining of my guts being on fire (I had pancreatitis). I ended up walking around with a dead gallbladder and ended up in the ICU for 5 days.

I just returned from the ER after messaging with my primary for a month trying to get a GI referral for my now second stone stuck in my common bile duct. She kept telling me to go. I kept saying what for? They won’t treat the pain I’m in nor will they listen. She assured me I’d be admitted for pain control.

I wasn’t.

The ER provider did not listen when I told him my history of translucent stones being missed and that they’ll see it on an ultrasound. What was ordered? A CT. Of course nothing was seen but my liver enzymes are high, potassium low and positive lactic acid…I stood pacing the 5 hours we were there hoping to be heard.

I wasn’t.

Getting taken seriously post Covid is extremely difficult. There are so many jaded medical professionals that assume anyone complaining of pain is just there for narcotics… a year of trying to get help and countless episodes of Pancreatitis with no pain control is barbaric and my blood pressure certainly shows it. I cannot eat without feeling like a bomb has gone off inside me. NSAIDS have already caused gastritis and duodenitis so those are off the table.

I already exceed the recommended dose of Tylenol due to no other option. Yay for my liver!!

My children have been told that if I go septic or get peritonitis and the worst happens to sue. I’ve left a paper trail for them to follow. It’s so amazing being a middle aged female. I can’t possibly know what’s wrong due to experiencing it in the past. Nope. I’m just some needy woman who doesn’t get attention at home. I just can’t with the assenine thought process

Pretty in China

What is the saddest thing that happened to you that you never shared with others before?

Year : 2009

Place:Patna

It was during the summer, my maternal uncle and his friend visited our home. As usual, my mother cooked lunch for everyone and everyone were engaged in a conversation.

I was bored and wanted to peek into my Facebook account. I made a quick move and sat in front of my desktop and was chatting with my virtual friends.

After few minutes, I noticed a firm hand resting on my shoulders. I turned back to see and to my shock it was my uncle’s friend. I got uncomfortable and I thought probably he is just patting me.

After a while, his hands traveled downwards towards my breasts and he tried to hold them . THAT was a sickening feeling! And, I was so petrified that I couldn’t move and froze in fear.

I gathered courage to just run away from the room and went out to the living room. I saw my mom and looked at her face but I fumbled. And, I couldn’t speak up anything regarding the event that occurred with me few minutes ago.

I locked myself up and cried that night. The next day, my mother could sense something wrong with my behavior. And, asked me “Beta, what happened?” ..

I broke down and with tears in my eyes , I went on with everything I had in my heart.

She was shocked and furious. And what she did made me relieved and happy!

The next day, my uncle and his friend were leaving for their hometown.

My mother went to the railway station, got Kurkure and Lays chips ( as that man got these things for me) and in front of …all the passengers she threw those packets on his face and slapped him and thrashed him with her chappals.

She returned home, and said me ” Promise me , you will speak up if anything will bother you and at least would share with me if anyone tries to touch you without your consent” .

I’m still stuck to the horror of that event and it’s very hard to move on. I try to keep a safe hand distance from men and in a crowded place where I am surrounded by men I still feel restless. I just want to run and run and hide myself some where.

I live a normal life but some where within me, these fear have created a little home for themselves.

Ronald Reagan on taxes

What is the lowest probability event you have personally witnessed?

Technically, *I* didn’t witness it – my cousin’s camera witnessed it. But it was the bullet itself as it came out of the barrel of my .357 magnum.

To impart just how rare of a thing this is, normally a photographer has to use a reeally, reeeally advanced (and extremely expensive) camera with an insanely high continuous shutter-speed, AND stage the timing of the shot (by that I mean both the camera-shot and the gun-shot), as well. And even THEN, sometimes they have trouble.

My cousin did not have that kind of camera. He had a Nikon. Something like a D500 or a D600. It’s a nice camera for a hobbyist, but it’s not even remotely designed to capture something like a bullet moving at 1,500 feet per second. As is evidenced by the fact that the bullet in the picture appears as just one really long rod-like streak, rather than the size and shape of a normal bullet. THAT PROVES JUST HOW SLOWLY THE APERTURE CLOSED, in comparison to the speed of the bullet.

A person could easily spend their entire lives trying to get a picture of a bullet at that shutter speed, and never capture it even once.

And, mind you, my cousin wasn’t attempting to take a picture of the bullet itself, he was intending to take a picture of me just shooting the gun. So he was just manually clicking the camera button with his finger, not caring that much about the timing.

Would you buy a “mechanic’s special” used car?

This was back in the early 1970s. I bought 1969 Chevy Beaumont from a friend, I gave him motorcycle, that I had paid $500 for two years before, and was worth maybe $350, plus I think $200 cash.

I was managing a service station at the time, so I had access to all the tools and parts.

I had inspected the car before and I knew what it needed.

The water pump was leaking like a sieve, so I took it off, and at the time, you just used a cheap $3 kit to repair it, and replace. The fuel filter was plugged, it was just a piece of cardboard probably cost me 50 cents. The oil was so thick I drained a couple of quarts out, put two more quarts in, ran it for ten minutes, so that the black sludge would actually drain. Then changed the oil and filter. $7

There is a doughnut gasket between the exhaust manifold and the exhaust pipe. It was completely gone, no sign that it ever existed. It had been spewing out hot exhaust gas, and had burnt three spark plug wires to a crisp, so they weren’t firing.

At the time you could just buy bulk spark plug wire, cut what you need and put new caps on each end.

The donut gasket was $2, the sparkplug wire and caps was another $3.

The car was all done. I had put a sign up out front of the service station, offering to sell the car for $1200.

While I was still replacing the donut gasket, I was offered cash, no questions for the car.

They waited impatiently while I changed the donut gasket, gave me $1200 and drove off.

It had taken me about $30 and an most of an afternoon of my day off, to fix it.

This was a long time ago, but to put it in perspective, I could buy more than 400 cases of beer for $1200.

So, in the good old days, when you could actually work on cars yourself, I had a lot of mechanics specials.

Today I wouldn’t risk it.

What is the worst example of cheating you have ever seen, as a teacher?

Ice Tubes.

When I was subbing, I asked a question about atoms with the same number of protons and different numbers of neutrons.

Such atoms are called “Isotopes”.

Someone in class apparently knew that answer. But then people started playing a fun game of telephone, and the answer got … blurred.

In the end, several people wrote “Ice Tubes”.

Sad. But I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Runner up?

When I was in 7th grade, my science teacher approached me with a proposition:

“David, if you can get a 0% on the next science test, I’ll give you 100%.”

“Um, Mr. Morris, why would you do that?”

“Because I think people are cheating off of you. I know you know this stuff, and if you get every single question wrong, I’ll know that you knew all of the answers and were able to pick the wrong one. Plus, it’ll catch the cheaters.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Morris.”

I liked Mr. Morris. He was nerdy.

And so, on the test, I did my level worst. Answered every single question wrong on the Scantron (multiple choice) test.

And 7 other people all got zeroes.

I got an A in that class. Best zero I ever got.

Have you ever seen a rude or entitled customer get put in their place?

Right out of high school I was working for a big box retailer. I had only been working there a couple of weeks when I saw this happen.

I was working as a cashier and this little old lady (around 80 y/o) came up with her items – and she had quite a few of them. She was walking with a walker and moved pretty slowly.

We had just opened the doors for the day, so it was around 7am and there were only two of us, so pretty barebones staff. The rest of the staff would be in about an hour later – and this lady had been waiting at the door when we got there.

Just as she finished putting her items on the counter, this guy in a business suit comes up to the counter and asks me if I could ring him up really quickly – he was in a real rush.

I told him that was up to the lady who had just finished unloading her cart.

She said no – she was late for an appointment herself and he would have to wait.

He cut her off and INSTRUCTED me to ring him up right then. I said no. He then told me to get another cashier up front, right this damn minute. I told him the only other person working the store at the moment was the receiving guy and he was unloading the truck – and couldn’t use the registers anyways as he didn’t have the codes to the registers. I was the only cashier and would be until 8am.

He got really irate – I’m going to call the manager, etc. etc. etc. He was kept raising his voice until he was almost screaming. Other customers started to gather to watch.

When he finally got to the question of Don’t you know who I am? The little old lady yelled back at him – Yeah, you’re an asshole so shut the F up before I ram this walker where the sun don’t shine. She also said some other very choice words to him, but it’s inappropriate to post here.

He was just shocked by this little lady. He was so embarrassed, that he left his stuff in the basket, dropped it on the floor and left.

Turns out, this little old lady was in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve during World War II. As the women’s division equivalent of a drill sergeant. She had been married to a USMC drill sergeant and her two kids became USMC drill sergeants.

She didn’t take crap from anybody.

What is the most condescending advice you received from someone who assumed you were poorer or less educated than them?

I grew up in New Hampshire where we had well water (without fluoride) and my parents never took me to a dentist. Consequently, by the time I got to college, my teeth were a mess.

I took a part-time job just so I could try to afford the dental work I knew I needed.

When I opened my mouth, the dentist looked inside and made a “Tsk! Tsk!” sound.

“Someone needs to start brushing their teeth and lay off the sugar,” he said in front of his hygienist. They shared a look of disapproval.

The truth was that as a college athlete on a partial academic scholarship, I ate healthfully and did brush after meals.

I found myself shaking with anger and shame which the dentist interpreted as fear.

“There’s no beating around the bush. You’re going to need a lot of work to save these teeth and it’s going to be expensive,” he advised.

I got out of the chair, didn’t commit to a second appointment, and the next day, went to another dentist who immediately sensed that the situation was more complicated than a snap judgment. He asked questions and when I mentioned growing up in New England, he said, “I thought so. I used to practice in Vermont and half of my patients were people who didn’t have access to fluoridated water. But don’t worry. I can see that you’ve developed good habits and together we can get you caught up.”

He quoted me prices that were half what the first dentist charged. He put me on a no interest payment plan where, for the next three years, I visited the office sometimes twice a week.

The process was all-consuming and expensive despite the plan and reasonable prices. There were times when I chose between meals and paying for dental work. I don’t recommend root canals on an empty stomach. But while I was never able to afford orthodontics, to this day, I never lost a tooth.

How was the US industry so powerful during WW2?

Just to give you an ideal on how strong the US industries was in world war two.

The Free French air force (1940–1943) was a sad display of brave but poorly equipped pilots, most of the experienced officers and pilots where parts of the royal air force (some 262 men in 1940 -which is far from nothing!) the free fernch air force was a mickmack of stolen plane from vichy air base, obsolete planes, some hurricane (at beset!) etc.

After the success of operation torch (november 1942) the American agreed to modernize the entire french army, navy, land forces and air forces included. The rearmement for the French air force was nickname Plan 7.

From scratch… the Americans totally rebuilded the entire french air force with some 33 fighter groups (bombers, fighters, reconnaissance)…while also rebuilding the French army with 3 armored division, several tank regiments (destroyed, medium and light), several paratrooper unit…. and modernizing the 140 vessels of the French navy!

the Fench air force went from this:

to this… in a matter of one single year:

-The French air force would be an important component for the Allies, fighting in the Mediteranean, eastern front, England, Normandy, France, Italy, Sicily just to name a few.

Basically the US industries were literally spewing thousands enough materials to rearm a nation air force for 3 decades!

Bourne Means Business – Part 3A: Intelligence

“A couple of nights ago, I was so tired from everything we’ve been through with our toilet breaking and our house flooding.

We got back to the hotel we are living in pretty late after the hour-long round trip drive to boy scouts and basketball practice.

We put the kids to bed as quickly as possible and some teenagers were loud in the hallway for awhile.

I was frustrated, but wanted to wait to talk to them at the right time so I could tell them about our situation to see if they could show compassion rather than become angry at the lady next door.

I didn’t see them the next morning at breakfast.

(But that night ) I noticed that they were Future Farmers of America kids from Kansas.

They had their doors cracked, so I decided to talk to them.

I let them know about our house being destroyed by water.

I told them that we wanted them to have their fun and we would appreciate their respect to let our kids get good rest.

The young man who answered the door told me that he was very sorry about what we are going through.

Before I went to bed, I noticed a note that someone had slipped under our door.

I opened the note to find money.

(The note said:

We are more than sorry for,waking you and your family up the past few nights.

We hope everything goes well with you house.)

In a world where some people sit behind screens and become angry on social media, this young man restored my faith that the next generation can make eye contact and show compassion to the person right in front of him.

There were two other guys that I could see in their hotel room.

If anyone sees this post and knows who I’m talking about, please tag these guys so I can say thank you and God bless.

They set an excellent example for my children and their parents should be more than proud.

What is your best parking spot revenge?

When I was a teenager I went with my cousin and friend to an ice cream shop located in a strip mall. The parking lot was very full. There was a pristine looking truck parked in the intersecting point of four parking spaces. Literally one vehicle taking up a portion of four spots. The parking stalls weren’t too small for a truck like his either. Frustrated with this person’s sense of entitlement, I grabbed a sheet of paper from my school binder and wrote “I am so sorry about the damages. I will be in touch to discuss payment.” I left no contact information. I put it on his windshield.

20 minutes later we watched from the inside of the ice cream shop as the man looked at the note. He looked angry. Then, in the pouring rain, he spent several minutes walking around his vehicle, closely inspecting it for signs of damage. He got more than a little wet. We could see the moment when it clicked for him. He cracked a smile and looked like he laughed before climbing in his truck and driving away.

Is 60k a year a high salary in the U.S.?

Let me kind of start from the inside out. I live in Seattle (well, about 5 miles from the city of Seattle anyways, so whatever.)

Assuming 60k means $4,000/month take home, give or take, let’s look at some houses you could save up to consider.

In Seattle, with a 20% down payment, here’s a $2,500 mortgage payment.

If that looks like a small 1br house, that’s because it is. That’s what a $600,000 budget gets you in Seattle, relatively close to downtown.

Go 30 miles south to a city called Puyallup, and you get this:

Well, this is actually about $60,000 cheaper than the one above. Pretty profound difference right?

Go about 2 hours east and you’ll find homes about $100,000 cheaper than the Seattle house that look like this:

Okay, so now we’re closer to a $2,000 monthly mortgage, and I gotta say, that’s a whole lot of house. It has what, 3–4 car garages, wrap around 2nd level deck with a view, plenty of land… Not bad for the half million range.

Still though, Washington is pretty expensive even in the “cheaper” areas.

Let’s head back to my dad’s home state of Ohio.

Wait, is that a castle!? Yeah, that’s a f*ing castle. Not bad for that half million range, right? Except it’s not. It’s $280,000. With a way smaller down payment, you get your own castle for $1,200/month.

It comes with f*ing gargoyles!

The US is a pretty big country…

That’s really the trouble here. I mean, if you’re a full-time work from home employee, there are places in the country that are actually great to live in, good medical, good schools, etc., where 60k is a great income. In others, it’s low income.

I showed houses, of course, but even food, electric, water, fuel, home/car repair rates, taxes, etc. can fluctuate wildly from place to place. If you’re restricted to a location, look at it, and if not, go look at what’s out there and what you like. It’s a big and beautiful place with something for everyone.

What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to another adult?

I once argued with a graduate student over the weight of a Taco Bell burrito. She was hungry and so I suggested some half-pound burrito (I don’t remember what it was called). At which point the conversation went something like this:

“I can’t eat a half-pound burrito, that’s way too much food!”

“Actually, it’s only 8 ounces.”

“No, but it’s a burrito, so it’s heavier than that!”

“Um, no, it doesn’t actually matter what it is. A pound is 16 ounces, so a half pound is 8 ounces. A half pound of one thing weighs the same as a half pound of something else.”

“No, it’s more than that because beans are heavier.”

“Um, so you would argue that a half pound of bricks is heavier than a half pound of feathers?”

“Yeah, obviously bricks are heavier than feathers!”

“Even if they are both the same 8 ounces??”

“Well, yeah, because bricks weigh more than feathers!”

This went on for maybe a couple minutes while we were sitting in the drive-thru waiting to order. Honestly we had to finally agree to disagree before I went crazy. At which point I learned that a formal education doesn’t always mean a whole lot…

Emotion and belief

What was the British Army’s biggest mistake in WW1?

Allowing GHQ (General Headquarters) France to disregard hard intelligence.

British Military Intelligence was grouped per Command (GHQ Home, GHQ Ireland, GHQ France, etc.). This means nobody had the overall picture.

On top of that, most intelligence went through the Foreign Office and that intelligence, often on economic and and social matters in Germany was disregarded by GHQ France.

Brigadier John Charteris, in charge of Intelligence GHQ France was of the opinion that the hard intelligence was too pessimistic.

He believed, and convinced General Haig and his staff, that Germany was near to defeat as early as 1915 and pushed, together with General Haig for continuous offensives starting in 1916.

The estimates regarding available ammunition, air power, German troops movements, German troop morale, German civilian morale, etc. were all wrong.

The British kept on pushing for major offensives that resulted in massive casualties without ever having a real chance of breaking the stalemate until the Hundred Day Offensive in 1918.

In London, it was well known Intelligence GHQ France was a sick joke, yet nobody dared to upset the existing structure in which each Army Command could make its own decisions based on the intelligence they decided to trust.

Charteris wrote that “trusting the pessimistic intelligence provided by the Foreign Office would result in the staff at GHQ France losing hope and would lower staff morale.”

Charteris believed keeping the staff happy was essential to achieve victory.

The whole system was rotten to the core.

What did the average Southern general staff member or high ranking official think of the South’s chances after Gettysburg and Vicksburg?

Joseph E. Johnston — the one who acted like he knew it was over.

The Confederacy didn’t have a general staff. Jefferson Davis thought he was a military genius and dealt directly with the commanders of the CSA field armies.

The top men, Robert E. Lee in particular, all held on to the bitter end. They might not have been confident of success, but they didn’t communicate any such doubts and fought until hope was gone.

On the final flight west from Petersburg, Lee received a note from U.S. Grant asking Lee to consider an end to hostilities. Lee showed the note to James Longstreet and asked his opinion. Longstreet read the note and handed it back. “Not yet,” he said. They kept fighting until the road south was blocked at Appomattox Court House.

Joseph E. Johnston might have been the one who acted the most like a man who knew more bloodshed was pointless. A brave man who had survived several wounds, he was always judicious about giving battle. He made one serious attempt to stop Sherman, and when that failed, fell back and told Lee he could do no more than “annoy” the Yankees. When word came that Lee had surrendered, he asked Sherman for terms even though the two armies were not even in contact. He had to go quite a ways to meet Sherman and surrender.

So dumb

What’s the weirdest thing someone casually told you as if it were totally normal?

Approximately four months after I got married to my wife, my business partner defrauded me and put me into over 35,000 dollars worth of debt. My businesses began to crumble despite my frantic efforts to salvage the situation. Soon thereafter, my finances nosedived into a freefall.

By this time I had already already come to certain terms about my wife. One of them was that she was in it (our marriage) for the money. Since I couldn’t stand the thought of a divorce or a broken home I did my best to conceal my financial troubles from her in the hope that I was going to find a way to get back on my feet again.

Well she did eventually find out when I started having problems with releasing funds to pay the bills and run our home. Soon thereafter she started her series of packing out of our home on the slightest imagined irritation or offence.

Each time she would pack out I would go right after her, pleading with every single one of her relatives. I did get her to come back a good number of times but I guess this really annoyed her and her mom in particular who was really the brain urging her to abandon ship and go look for greener pastures.

One day she calls me up on the phone and tells me “hey look, each time I try to leave you, you’re always going around my relatives and getting them to put pressure on me to come back right? Well, one of these days I’m going to come back and unalive you and then you won’t get me to come back anymore, will you?”

I never went after her again.

I had to keep alive to take care of the two toddlers she left behind.

‘I Remember the Secret Service Being Tougher’ Scene | Red

What was your best moment as a doctor?

I was one year into practice. A 14 year old girl was transferred to my hospital. She had been in a motor vehicle accident and been to two hospitals before mine. Her parents had been told she was permanently paralyzed waist down, twice. I was the orthopedic surgeon on call and had spinal privileges and the ability and privileges to implant hardware. So I was the surgeon they called.

I arrived and did a thorough spinal trauma exam. Yes she was paralyzed. The confounding factor was that one test (her anal wink) where I poke the anus with a needle and see if it contracts was still working. That told me she was not completely paralyzed or in spinal shock as the nerve that controls this is the last one out of the spinal cord.

I told her parents that I needed to operate immediately. I discussed with her parents she might be the same, slightly better or significantly better. I made no promises.

I decompressed her spinal cord, implanted hardware and fused several levels. As I wrote my post operative orders in the recovery room after 4 hours of surgery I saw her thrashing her legs about. I tested her motor strength and it seemed normal. I went out to talk to her parents to tell them that she was better but I couldn’t predict how much better. She might have sensation deficits or coordination deficits and we would see but that it was a very good sign that she was moving her legs.

Amber made a full recovery after being declared fully paralyzed by 2 hospitals and at least one neurosurgeon. She walked out of the hospital in a brace and 6 months later was released from my care to full activities. I am sorry, Amber, if your back hurts later in life. I did my best.

I received Christmas cards and gifts for 15 years from her family.

Her case was actually part of my oral board exam. It was quite funny to hear questions from these examiners who didn’t even do spine surgery as to why I chose to do surgery and how I chose the operation and what levels to fuse.

The moral of the story here is that a physician who learns a thorough spinal examination found a patient that did not have a complete spinal injury and fixed it. Being a physician is being a master of your profession, not just reading reports and listening to others.

What was the moment you cancelled the friendship with your best friend?

I had a best friend in high school. We remained close friends until we went off to the same college. Her financial aid hadn’t come in so I loaned her some money that I had been saving for a trip which she knew was very important to me. I found out through another friend that she had received her financial aid, and she had not offered to return my money, putting my trip in jeopardy. She had also made new friends at college and I felt ejected by her. I got angry, got the money back off her and stopped speaking to her. The following semester I went to London for a semester, which extended into years, which became permanent. About five years after I left she sent me a letter saying she would be in London and wanted to meet up. The letter included her phone number where she was staying (way before mobile phones). I thought about ringing her. But never did. Thirty + years later, I had grown up and regretted my behaviour. I searched for her on social media but no luck. Eventually she contacted me through my father (no idea how she got his address). I responded this time and despite being on different continents, we are now long-distance friends. It was hard but I apologised for how I had behaved back then. I had taken the word of someone else instead of speaking to her directly and I did the very childish thing of not speaking to her. She might have had good reason for hanging onto my money, which I didn’t give her the chance to explain. And, she had every right to make new friends at college. I could have been part of her new social circle, I chose to tantrum instead.

So, I am admitting all this as a message to anyone younger than me who indulges in this sort of behaviour. It is childish. Don’t do it. You owe it to yourself and your friend to sit down together and have an adult conversation about whatever is troubling you. It cost me one of the most important friendships of my life. Don’t make the same mistake.

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

It was 3 years ago, I was 24.

My mom (egg donor) left my siblings and I to be with friends from her church 2 years after we got home from being in Foster Care for 12 years. She took our foodstamps with her and spent them on other families, while we starved trying to find her. The family she ran off to be with told her she wasn’t allowed to talk to her children- she obeyed.

I went to her church one Sunday at 14 to speak to her. The pastor and whole congregation was telling me ‘a 14 year old anorexic girl’ that I need to get a job and take care of myself while my mom took care of them. This was 2010, so you know I legally couldn’t work yet.

I couldn’t call, text, meet, or have any contact with my mom. She allowed it, so obviously she was happy she didn’t have to.

So, 3 years ago my egg donor calls me and asks me for some money. She “needs a car”, but doesn’t have any money. I still don’t have my first car and it’s 2023, now.

After explaining I don’t have money to give, I boldly asked her “Why would I help you if you abandoned me as a child? I needed you and you weren’t there”.

She offended me by saying with a chuckle “I had you kids so that when you got older and I need help, you kids will help me with money or a place to live”. I simply responded “That’s not how that works, if you wanted me to take care of you now, you should have taken care of me years ago. 1 timothy 5:8”. For a woman who claims she lives for the bible, she had to ask me what that meant.. it simply means anyone who abandons their kids or family is worse than a nonbeliever.

The Last Dragon (1985) “Craps”

How could the United States expand sanctions on China’s chip industry?

A better question is how could the United States expand sanctions on China’s chip industry without repercussions that hurt the U.S. more than China? And the Answer is it can’t. It simply can’t!

Chips are nothing unless it is used as a component of a product for example a smartphone or a computer. And China as a market dwarfs the U.S. by several folds. Today there are a billion Chinese consumer of high technologies compared to say 250 million in the U.S.! That is 4 folds higher! China’s consumer market alone is 30–35% if the entire world! Can the U.S. not be hurt if these consumers are forced into buying a different chips?

But worst is that from the 2/3 of the rest of the world market, most of their products are either assembled or made in China! That constitute another 30–40% of the world’s market! So the U.S. by sanctioning China U.S. sanctioning the U.S. chip makers of some 60–70% of the market. Or it has direct influence or possibly sell to only 30–40% of the world’s market.

But that is just the first nightmare for the U.S. Next, China will make equivalent products within 3 year’s maximum and then. Even this 30–40% rest of the world market will choose a Chinese make that is cheaper, faster and better than the U.S. products. Your entire chip industry will thoroughly collapse and U.S. government will be faced with high unemployment and bankruptcy!

So if I were you, I will vote in a smarter U.S. government!

I am dreaming about renting a van and traveling throughout America, from Canada to Patagonia, after I retire. To what extent is that doable and safe?

It is impossible.

Just around halfway, you will run into the infamous Darien Gap:

And there, the jungle is Master. There are no roads and those who try, fail miserably:

If a 4×4 cannot make it, a van even less…

You’d have to take a boat from Panama City to Colombia and that will be very expensive.

It’s better to sell your van in Panama, fly to Bogotá and buy another van there.

However, I would not do that trip on a van. It has to be a good 4×4. You need to do some research because not all car manufacturers sell in all countries; if you need a spare part and it is not sold where/when you need it, it may mean you’re stuck for a long time and there’s no guarantee that you will ever receive the part.

By the way, do you speak at least Spanish? In the countryside, people will not speak English at all.

What are the most common regrets that people have once they grow old?

I first met my wife when I was about 24 and very soon after had ideas that this was the woman I wanted to grow old with. I knew fairly quickly that she was divorced, but she always kept her private life private (I found out why later and agree with her totally) so it was some time later that I found she had 3 young daughters.

Being young, stupid and typically male, I didn’t want a ready made family, I wanted one all of my own, so I put the idea to one side. We stayed friends, but as we lived over 30 miles apart, we only saw each other occasionally. Years passed and the friendship continued to grow. In the meantime, she remarried and had 2 more daughters, then got divorced again.

Move on 24 years, I’m still single (came close a couple of times) but couldn’t find the perfect lady for me, but by now the older 3 are in their 20’s and the younger 2 are in their mid to late teens. Finally my stupidity left me and we finally got together.

15 years later, we’re married, still together and happy, even though she’s now bedridden. In case you’re wondering, the daughters have all “adopted” me, as have the grandchildren!

The long and the short is; don’t let hubris stop you from doing the right thing. We could have been looking at 40 years of happy marriage if I hadn’t been an idiot.

What was the best time you witnessed a bully get owned?

When I was in High School, there was a tall, thin Chinese boy in my swim class. He was very quiet and always had his nose in a book. I knew him because I was the one tasked with “helping“ the non swimmers.

One day, after class, we were outside waiting for the bell to ring so we could leave the Gym Area and head to our next class. He was off to the side leaning up against the wall while reading his book. A trio of boys (troublemakers/bullies) started grabbing for his book. So he asked them politely to leave him alone, so they just turned it up and managed to take his book. In a flash, he snatched the book back (that was the first clue).

Again, they tried to grab it, but he pulled it up out of their reach and asked them one more time to just leave him alone. But this time, the biggest jerk smacked/punched him in the face instead. Two of my friends and I immediately stepped forward to step in, but before we could take another step, this tall, gangly quiet kid had kicked the jerk on the side of the head and dropped him. EVERYONE who was there stood there in shock, not sure we had just seen what we’d seen, and the other two jerks immediately stopped and stepped back. The jerk who’d been kicked just sat there on the floor rubbing the side of his head while the kid just opened his book and started reading again.

To my knowledge, NO ONE ever messed with him again. That was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen and been in a lot of fights/scuffles.

Crocodile Dundee (1986) “Mick vs Pimp”

https://youtu.be/3o6SNp9Ouu8

Have you ever told a ridiculous lie just to see how someone would react?

20 plus years ago I was ordered to lie to my buyer or lose my job. I was ordered by my boss despite my protests.

The company I worked for had just won a major contract to sell light globes through one of the largest hardware chains in Australia – Mitre 10.

However we were very much behind schedule having had a number of delays already. Many times I had been in to my buyer to let him know of our latest delay and his patience was wearing thin and my boss knew it.

She asked me to lie and blame the latest delay on an earthquake in Japan (our globes were coming from India) or any other lie I could come up with as long as it wasn’t the company’s fault, as in it had to be a force majeure.

I made an appointment with my buyer and sat across from him and literally told him this:

“Peter, as you know, our globes are coming from India. The ship left on time and the order was 100% filled and packed in a shipping container. Unfortunately inside the same container was a cage containing a couple of Bengal Tigers. They escaped their cage and have unfortunately ripped or damaged all of the light globe packaging.

But we could fix that by having new packaging made and printed here in Australia except that, also in the same container was an Indian elephant. This elephant also escaped its cage and has trampled all the globes. Not one globe was left intact. The entire shipment was destroyed.”

“She’s told you to lie to me didn’t she?” he said after listening to me spin this ridiculous lie. He knew full well what was going on.

We got on very well, he knew me and what I stood for. We stayed in contact for many years after we both left our respective positions. He knew the position my boss had forced me into. After asking me for a new eta he told me to leave.

He wasn’t happy.

But I did what I was ordered to do and did it in a way that kept my reputation intact.

Why do people choose 35 or 37 when asked to choose a number between 1 to 50 with both odd digits.?

This was part of an old trick that the magician/illusionist Kreskin used to do back in the 1970s. You’re leaving out two very important parts of the trick:

He would say that the two digits couldn’t be the same
He would also say “So 17 is OK, but 11 isn’t.”

It sounds like there’s 50 numbers, but if you look at the options, they’re quite limited: 13, 15, 17, 19, 31, 35, 37, and 39. It’s really only eight. When he says “17 is OK but 11 isn’t”, most people won’t choose 17 since it was used in the example so you’re down to seven choices.

When he tested his trick, he found that overwhelmingly most people choose 35 or 37. When used this trick in public, he would write down both “35” and “37” but would cross out 35 and say something like “I sensed you were thinking of another number but changed your mind”. He would then proclaim that you were thinking of 37. This way, even if you said “35”, it would be there on the paper and as an onlooker you’d still be amazed.

He speculated that by using “17” and “11” in his spoken example, it tended to cause people to go the other direction and choose numbers in the 30s.

What was the rudest thing that a guest did to your children in your home?

Our home, but my brother’s son. We had our aunt over, an old, strict, stuck-up childless lady. She was always proud of how polite and good-mannered she is, and despite not knowing a damn thing about kids, she was always ready to educate them, expecting all kids to behave like miniature grown-ups respecting the rules of etiquette at all times.

Well, it was a big family lunch on the terrace, kids running around, so she was a fish out of the water – there were too many kids to educate, she lost count. When I arrived, I was immediately greeted by my 4-year-old nephew, whom I kissed, cuddled and then I ceremoniously placed my bag in front of him.

We had a game: each time we met I had something in my bag for him. He could dive in and find it. This was our thing. Sometimes it was a dessert that he could eat while we talked. Sometimes a toy, or some other small surprise. This time it was a small dog figurine that resembled their own dog whom he loved so much.

While he was snorkelling in my bag, I turned to greet some relatives. Then I heard my Aunt Etiquette, shouting in a sharp head voice at my nephew. “What are you doing? Who do you think you are, young man?”

We all froze, including my poor baby nephew. I had to explain my fuming aunt that I had allowed him to search my bag, and that was our little thing, but she was not the person who could understand things like this. There were rules that we clearly disrespected.

My brother had to tell her that in his house, it’s also a rule to keep it quiet and not to shout with any of the kids. That shut her up, but just because she was hurt over her educational methods being disregarded.

My nephew still goes in my bag, and there is still something in there for him every time. He has never done the same with anyone’s bags or stuff. He knows the drill. He knows it’s just with me. My poor auntie will never get that kids are not stupid – they are kids.

What is the lowest probability event you have personally witnessed?

A rich friend of mine one day had an emergency and needed to borrow money from me.

I was on campus so I went to the ATM and withdrew what he wanted to borrow, but in true ADHD style, forgot to take my card back.

After I left, a few minutes later, I noticed a Northern European girl (college student, probably Nordic from the accent) running in my direction and panting.

She was looking at me so I stopped to see what was going on. Then I saw my bank card in her hands!

Amazing because there was a lot of money in that card and a nefarious person would have withdrawn all the money and absconded with it.

I was so amazed by her integrity and kindness that I did not even know how to react. I had gone a long distance and at the time, there was nobody around the ATM kiosk; so I didn’t know how she realized the card was mine.

I think she may have seen me from a distance as I emerged and when she arrived at the ATM, I had spent the same time going away from it. Then, in order to not lose me, she ran all the way back to bring it to me, in consideration of no return whatsoever—just because it was the right thing to do.

How probable a similar event could be?

I insisted on asking for her details so I could at least thank her properly—perhaps by buying her a gift or inviting her to lunch—but she wouldn’t hear of it.

When I asked for her phone number she smiled and replied that it was not necessary to repay her in any way and left despite my persuasion to stay for a while so I could get to know her (you see, such a kind person would have made an excellent wife—additionally she was beautiful and I was single [and young, maybe four or five years older than her]; alas, she left too quickly and I didn’t find it polite to insist further).

Aliens (1986) – They Can Bill Me Scene – Enhanced 4K UHD HDR Custom”

What is your best parking spot revenge?

This is two days ago at a very busy shopping centre with just over a week to go before Christmas day and this “person” decided it is OK to park across two spots.

It was so busy and so difficult to get a park I had to do a lap of the carpark before I got lucky and found someone who was about to leave and so I was able to grab their spot.

I was furious when I saw this car and so were a bunch of other people standing around complaining. What I and the others didn’t know was that this person, who parked across two spots, was a psychic. I never met them, never saw them either but they had to be able to see into the future.

Their future told them they would have 4 flat tyres when they came out from shopping and so to make it easier for them to change all 4 wheels they gave themselves extra room around their vehicle. That surely was their reason!

It would have been impossible to do if they parked in only one spot like normal humans do.

There is definitely an upside to be psychic!

What was the best time you witnessed a bully get owned?

In Elementary School near Dallas, TX in the 70’s there was a bully named Paul. He stole from the cafeteria cash register, disrupted class, ruled over the entire school due to his size and generally pushed his way throughout class. Then a new kid came to our class. His name was Todd and by appearance was a total nerd. Tall, skinny, braces and into comics and science fiction.

Then in band Todd revealed that he played saxophone. None of us were bold or cool enough to even try that instrument, we were scared and just went along being content with the common brass instruments provided by the school. He brought his own horn and was much more advanced as well.

Then he met Paul. Paul tried to impress onto him that he was the big man in the school and literally pushed him around. Todd did not even hesitate to talk things over, he just punched Paul hard right in the face. We were amazed, we never thought it possible that a bully could be bested.

Later during outdoor recess Paul tried to re-establish his dominance to the rest of the kids. Without talking, planning or organizing dozens of the kids picked up rocks, sticks and other weapons and chased him off the lot. One that has stuck with me was a kid who took off his belt attached a stick at the buckle and swung it very effectively.

Paul never came back to school. Todd fell into his role as a nerd, never tried to become king.

Quick Orange Beef

Ingredients

1 pound flank, sirloin or rib-eye steak
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest, plus a little juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 pound sugar snap peas or snow peas

Instructions

If time allows, freeze the steak for up to 60 minutes to make it easier to slice. Slice the beef as thinly as you can across the grain. If you’re cutting it so thinly that some of the meat shreds, that’s good.
Combine beef with orange zest, soy sauce, garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper.
Heat a wide, heavy skillet or wok over high heat for a minute. Add vegetable oil and heat another minute. Add garlic and when it turns light brown (a few seconds) add the beef. Stir the beef 2 minutes. Add peas and stir 2 minutes more, or until the beef has lost its red color.
Squeeze half an orange over skillet ingredients and stir to combine. Serve over rice.

Serves 4 to 6.

If you have leftovers: Chill rice and beef separately. When ready to cook, heat 1 or 2 tablespoons vegetable oil over high heat in a wok or skillet. Add leftover rice and stir, breaking it up with a spoon or fork. When it’s broken up, add leftover beef and stir to heat through. Add soy sauce or toasted sesame oil, as desired.

What did a family member say or do that you don’t talk to them anymore?

so let me preface my answer; I no longer speak to my cousin but I didn’t speak to him much before the incident either.

My grandmother passed away the day my oldest son left for his spring break trip as a sophomore in High school, he was playing varsity baseball and invited on their tournament trip to another state to play.

I made arrangements to go on the trip to see my son play. This was an honor for him and one that he had worked so hard for. I got the call that my grandmother had passed away and I contemplated if I was still going to go on the trip or stay behind and attend the funeral. My grandmother had not been well for several years and honestly did not even recognize me or my children for the past two years due to her illness. I choose to continue on the trip with my youngest to see my oldest play ball. My parents were okay with my decision and actually helped me make the decision.

The evening after the funeral I received a nasty text message from my cousin stating how dare I miss the funeral. He understood that I was attending a baseball tournament but he came home from vacation for the funeral and he expected me to miss the baseball trip as well. It didn’t matter to him that I had visited her several times in the year leading up to her death even though she didn’t know me and he didn’t even know what nursing home she was in.

The fact that he inserted his beliefs in my life; and didn’t take into consideration the hard decision I had made was appauling to me. I wasn’t at peace with my decision but made the best one for my family at the time the decision needed to be made. I had said my good-byes to my grandmother heartfelt the last time she remembered me.

It has been 10-years since her passing and I still refuse to talk to that cousin when we are together at holiday functions. I will walk away if he comes over to sit at the same table I am at. He has never met my grandchildren on purpose as I don’t want to subject my grandchildren to his negativity.

Have you ever seen a tiny work mistake snowball into something catastrophic?

Oh, I have one. I was with my son at a Boy Scout jamboree back in the early 90’s in our state. The arranged for the state fish and game to come and train search and rescue. I had trained in search and rescue in the military and for Appalachion Mountain Club. I walked over to the game warden and volunteered to help, that I had a lot of experience in this sort of thing. He told me he had it, he was trained too and this was his job. The warden lined up like 300 kids and sent them into the woods to search for a injured hiker (two of the scout masters acting as injured hikers). The kids started walking across the field. Then went down an incline records the woods. As they started down the incline they started to run and then a battle cry like something out of bravehart came out of the crowd. By the time they hit the tree line into the woods they were on a dead high speed run. It was at this point I walked over to the warden, looked at the woods and asked him if he ever done this before? He said no, first time. I then asked, oh, by the way, how many kids went into the woods? First rule, know how many volunteers you send in so you know if you have accounted for everyone. He looked at me puzzled and said, I thought you guys knew that! I then asked, how far did you tell them to go into the woods before turning back? He said he didn’t. He then called for backup! The local volunteer fire department arrived and he sent them into the woods. I walked over and asked, oh, how many fireman did you send into the woods? He facepalmed and walked away. Three hours later, we accounted for every scout. Five were retrieved two miles away when they walked out the back side of the woods. It took another hour to find all the fireman. I walked over to the warden and said, I think that went well, don’t you? He walked away without answering.

Bourne Means Business – Part 3B: Intelligence

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

Yep , me . Two days after removing me from a job and my crew of 30 Americans to be replaced by a Latino crew I got a phone call .

Boss .” Hi”

Me”What’s up “

Boss “The engineer just told us they will withhold the final 10% if we can’t supply the electrical testing results that I know you did but that no one else ever does and he is persisting that he needs them . They are pissed .”

Me”Oh that sucks “

Now this was a 10 million dollar project . 10% of 10% would have been a good start . But :

Boss “Are they on the site somewhere , I know you were really organized so I’m hoping you can tell me where they are .”

Me”I have them in that log book I bought , ya know the log book you laughed at me for for using , ya know , the one where I kept records of what everyone did , deliveries , the weather and those test results “

Boss “Oh that is excellent can I swing by and pick it up “

Me “Well you could , but I’m looking out my window and the garbage truck is going up my road right now .”

Boss “You don’t have it”

Me”Nope”

Boss “ Oh you are supposed to keep them “

Me”I know , but as of the other day I don’t work for you any more and it was my book and I was done with it .Now ain’t that a bitch “

click

Have you ever been mistaken for the opposite sex? What was your reaction? Does it happen often?

Well, it wasn’t me, but I was involved.

See, about a lifetime ago, I worked in addictions. And I had this client. Beth. She was a young gay woman. Somewhere between 19 and 21. Totally butch and cute as a fucking button.

Sort of like this.

Long story short, she asked me to pick her up at a different place, one I happened to know was a trap house. When I pulled up at 8:30 in the morning, there were cops at the house next door, looking for a kid with a warrant.

Beth sees my car pull up, but hadn’t seen the police. She walked out of the front door and head down, beelined for me.

It took the cops less than five seconds to intervene.

Me: Fuck.

I roll down my passenger side window to eavesdrop. I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, but I can tell by everyone’s body language they’re giving her a hard time.

Me: Double fuck.

I grab the badge that says I’m a county employee and I walk over to the encounter. The cops look at me. I smile, show them my ID, and stick out my hand.

Me: Good morning officers. I assume everything’s alright here.

Officer 1 (nodding to my client): You know this young man? Is his name John?

Me (chuckling): Well, I definitely know this young WOMAN. Her name is Beth. And we have an appointment at her PO’s office in 45 minutes.

Officer 2 (doing a double take): Young woman!?

Beth: Yes. I was trying to tell you.

Officer 1 (pulling out papers and quickly changing the subject): Do either of you know this man? John Doe?

Me: Haven’t seen him.

Beth shook her head no.

Officer 2: We’ve got a bench warrant on him, so if you see him around, we’d appreciate if you call the station.

Me: Will do. Well, we better get going. They’ve got the highway backed up again with construction and we don’t want to be late to see the PO. You gentlemen have a nice day. And thank you for your service!

When we got to my car, Beth freaked the hell out: Holy shit, Molly. I thought I was going down! They wouldn’t let me get a word in to tell them I wasn’t who they were looking for! And they totally thought I was that dude!

Me: Breathe, girl. It’s alright.

We drove around the block, headed to the probation office.

Me: Now you want to tell me why you’re living at the dope dealer’s house?

Beth was always amazed that I knew what was going on. Like it being a trap house. Like knowing who her dealer was. Like when I told her she needed to get tested for Hep C and she said she didn’t. Then I had to tell her that I knew someone who fucked her girl who was sharing needles. And rumor had it, the girlfriend was positive and was hiding it.

Sigh.

I was pretty damn good at that job.

Except Beth ended up going back to the needle. Then back to jail. I hope she’s somewhere today, clean and sober.

Or at least off the dope.

Dogmen, Hybrids, The Beast of Bray Road | True Stories of Werewolves

YouTube is strike crazy

You-tube gave me another strike. I tried posting a Rufus video. Apparently the rescue of a person on the side of a Chinese skyscraper is a violation of policy.

Ugh!

The United States is truly bat-shit-crazy. You know there is so much that you can do in China that is just against the law in “the land of the free”; the United States.

Yet…

If you ask the vast number of people about the United States, they will regurgitate the narrative that “America is the freest land in the world”.

When it really isn’t.

…

I’m just disgusted.

…With the United States.

…

Sigh.

Today…

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to do for your kids?

I raised my kids in rural Alaska, and their walk to the bus stop, for the short period that they attended public school, was just over a mile up a trail through barely tamed wilderness.

When the first 2 went to school, both at the same time, it took only a few weeks for them, 5 and 7 years old, to decide that “Only babies need their MOM to walk them to the bus.”

Despite my suspicion that this was something inspired by older children on the bus just being mean, and the general hazard of bears, black AND brown, moose, feral dogs, occasional escaped *herds* bison from the bison farm and even the rare wolverine to be seen on this trail to the road, I agreed that they could walk on their own if they sang the Bear Song the *whole way*. Bears and other wildlife do tend to move off if you keep making noise. The lyrics of the song go: “I am OLD and TOUGH and STRINGY! I am SMALL and BONEY and QUICK!” (to be repeated endlessly).

Of COURSE I could not let them go alone…

So the weirdest thing I have ever done was camo up me and two infants in front and back pack, and stalk my own small children every morning, slinking (as much as a person with two infants in packs can) through brush with a shotgun, in case of aggressive wildlife. Fortunately young children are not especially observant!

What happened to you on Christmas Day that made you want to take all your bought Christmas presents back?

Years ago we had Christmas dinner with a family from our church. There had been problems in that family with one parent’s alcoholism. We were invited and we shared buying the meal. When we got there we realized the seven-year-old daughter had gotten IOUs from Santa for toys and a man’s sock with unwrapped, fleecy from the sock, hard rock Christmas candy in it. They had a can of this candy that had come from the father’s work and they poured it in one of the dad’s socks.

We were young and also had young kids and didn’t have much money. My husband and I went to the only store open in my area, Walgreens, and bought this child a Barbie and Barbie car, Barbie clothes and Barbie suitcase. It was a plastic and cardboard closet case, that folded out into a bedroom,kitchen and living room area. I got the doll-sized kitchen, bed and sofa and a Barbie artist set. Fortunately, everything was half price and it was everything that this child wanted and was on the IOUs.

I used my next two weeks’ grocery money. When we got back to the house we threw the toys in the snow. I had used the excuse to leave that I had to go home, for butter, for the rolls that I’d made for the dinner. Fortunately Walgreens also sold butter.

When we got inside we told the child that Santa had come. He had just dropped the toys outside because they had a wood stove and he was too big to get down that chimney. The look of joy on that child’s face was worth any sacrifice in groceries the next month. We took back the sweaters my mom had given us and we had to be frugal, but it was just fine the next month for groceries. This girl is now an adult whose kids call me grandma. I was the one who didn’t give but received the love of a child, who spent the rest of her childhood often with us.

If America stopped importing goods from China, could the country survive? If China stopped exporting goods to America, could the country survive?

Why don’t your think logically?

For example why does America import from China?

So America need to import because it does not have the ability to make stuffs that it needs at the same price to its consumers. So it looks around and the nation that can make stuffs America need happen to be China. The next closest alternative is selling it 50% more costly and unreliable.

So if you are America you 3 have a simple choice. One make them yourselves but to do that you need your people to earn half, CEOs to give up 80% of their income and rebuild your infrastructure and retrain your citizen. Can you do it and yet spend billions war mongering and maintaining 800 based around the world? I doubt so? But you need to decide?

If the answer is yes do it. If no should you get another nation to do it at 50% higher cost and cause a double digit inflation for Americans? You as an American must decide. And your voters will decide too! If you prefer to do that and hurt yourself go on! Do it. But if you won’t accept the consequences you are left with only one choice. Buy from China!

If the US stop buying from China, China will lose a good size market. It will lose some opportunities but it won’t kill them. Nor will it drive them out of the market.You can argue that China will benefit other more appreciative customers!

175 nations out of the world’s 195 country have China as their biggest trading partner not because they loved China or adores the Chinese. But simply because China is a humongous market that even dwarfs America. And China has built the most efficient and effective manufacturing facilities to build and manufacture anything faster, cheaper and better than others. So these nation’s also buys the most from them too!

The U.S. is no different. Most of the U.S. biggest companies sells more to China than it sells in America! America’s trade with China is big but it is a small proportion of its total trade.

So in conclusion if the U.S. wants to make its own stuffs it needs to overhaul the U.S. politics, economy and culture. Chances is it can’t. And it won’t. So it is either accepting double digit inflation and lowering its real income substantially or live with buying from China. If it want to stop selling to China, it will hurt the Americans more than it will ever hurt China! But Trump did and Biden could not stop this madness that harm the U.S. economy.

After 5 full years of the trade war, China is fine and dandy. It is growing at 5.5% in 2023 with a 0.8% inflation the U.S. may grow by 1.5% with a 5.0% inflation. Go figure it by yourself if your question makes sense or even make you look clever or not?

SCTV Monster Chiller Horror Theatre: The House of Cats

Goddess of democracy or puberty puppet?

Politics isn’t a teenager’s playground. And yet in Hong Kong, it had become precisely that.

Never in history has a political movement been driven by a cabal of wet-behind-the-ears teenagers. Famous among them is Agnes Chow Ting who has just fled into self-exile in Canada. She forms the terrible trio with two other teeny-boppers, Nathan Law, (on the run in the US), and Joshua Wong (now rotting in a Hong Kong jail where time hangs heavy). They comprise the hardcore of the now-disbanded political party, pretentiously and stupidly named Demosisto, whatever that means.

These young hot heads were put on the pedestal by the Western press, with Wong going for Time’s Person of the Year nomination. Chow, otherwise known as the goddess of democracy or modern-day Mulan, made the BBC list of 100 women and another list of the 25 most influential women drawn up by the Financial Times, ironically unaware that Mulan was a celebrated female Chinese patriot. Agnes is no patriot. If anything, she qualifies as an out-and-out traitor who prefers learning Japanese to Mandarin, blissfully ignorant of the hideous truth that Japan had slaughtered 35 million Chinese and brutalized China during its invasion of the country. She is historically illiterate and culturally rootless.

These herd-minded fifteensomethings remind me of a popular Chinese saying that “When a village dog barks, other dogs start barking in unison, without knowing why.” Their “noble” fight for freedom is but the antics of puberty-perplexed teenagers who opted for the excitement of the rough and tumble of politics forsaking skull-numbing schoolwork. Their political misadventure is, above all, a tragic educational failure.

Suddenly, these juvenile new political arrivals found themselves the center of world attention, intoxicated with a false sense of their own importance, absorbed in their own absolutism, but empty at the core. They prided themselves on blindly opposing anything remotely mainlandish. A farce has been cunningly twisted into a noble fight for freedom, despite Hong Kong drowning in freedom as the freest city in the world.

The Hong Kong unrest is the story of a beautiful city made ugly by political manipulators. This high-wattage movement is a political perversion indulged by kids too young to know their own minds or the ways of the world. Their activist high jinks have been mischaracterized as acts of political courage.

These lost young souls, besides being an educational failure, are the products of an act of sabotage by a Western press pushing them over the edge, turbocharged by a surge of manufactured social anger. It has all the sound and fury of a political movement, but utterly devoid of serious substance. They talked robotically and acted robotically as rebels without a real cause.

Nothing says Hong Kong freedom like the proliferation of political parties. At one point, no fewer than 17 political parties splintered its Legislature. This once apolitical city was swimming in a sea of politics, with an abundant display of copycat political behavior. New York had its Occupy Wall Street movement and we soon followed with our own Occupy Central. And when the Color Revolutions overseas faded they were reborn in Hong Kong as the yellow Umbrella movement. Our “revolution” consisted of mindless parroting that was a distorted, abused form of freedom. Of all places Hong Kong was the last to need an extra dose of freedom. The young were worshipping the wrong gods. We have no use for a goddess of democracy.

Thankfully, the pendulum has finally swung. With Agnes Chow in self-exile, the sorry saga is reaching its finale. Goodbye false goddess. Hello real Mulan.

Oh my goodness

Camper’s Chili

Make a hearty Camper’s Chili following the tip for precooking the ground beef. Ready-to-add canned extras are all that’s needed.

Prep: 20 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 (15 ounce) can Progresso® kidney beans, undrained
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1 soup can water
2 to 3 teaspoons chili powder

Instructions

In a 2 quart saucepan, cook beef, onion and salt over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain.
Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.

Notes

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): No change.

Cook the ground beef ahead and freeze. Pack in the cooler and it will be campfire-ready to make the chili.

Family Ties – Uncle Ned

What life experience have you had that you wish conservatives could experience to gain some insight into human empathy?

I was a trauma surgeon and ICU physician. I owned my own practice on the central coast of California. I worked hard, and was paid well, but for the next few years most of my money would go towards paying off a bad divorce and med school debt, rather than a lot of savings. So I lived relatively frugally, but quite comfortably, in my little one bedroom apartment, driving my Nissan, enjoying the beach, enjoying life in general.

And then it happened. A freak illness—which I can’t even remember, I have amnesia—put me in the ICU for four months. Complications from the illness stole my right leg. I was so weak, I couldn’t turn myself over in bed. And yet I had to learn to walk again, use a phone, drive.

I had no income for the foreseeable future, maybe ever, and no dependable means to pay rent when my savings eventually wore out. My father and brother threw what they could of my things in trash bags and put them in a tiny storage unit. Most of my things, including all my furniture, got tossed. My animals, thank god, all found temporary homes. When I got out of the hospital, and then out of rehab, buried in medical debt despite insurance and still as helpless as a newborn kitten, I went to live with my elderly parents for a month.

But every Friday through Monday, Mom (as is her way) announced she needed her space, and that meant I had to find someone else to stay with for the weekend. Someone whose house could be navigated on crutches. Someone who wouldn’t mind sharing their food or helping me off the toilet. I stayed with a stranger—a friend of a friend—an older woman whose husband had just passed from Parkinson’s disease. I used his wheelchair. We watched old musicals and every morning she laid out hardboiled eggs, fruit, and a Bible chapter for my breakfast.

On Mondays, I went back to my parents’ house and waited patiently at the bottom of the stairs to the porch to be let in. When the front door finally opened, I had to tuck my crutches beneath one arm and crawl on my hands and knees up the steps.

I was homeless.

I was a homeless doctor through no fault of my own, utterly dependent on the mercy (or lack thereof) of my loved ones and strangers. And what if there had been no mercy? What if God had taken my family as well? What if there were no friends of friends to put out dishes of raspberries? Or take care of my animals? What if I’d had no sister to live with later on, while I was doing physical therapy? Or no savings to pay, first for physical therapy, and then my prosthetic leg?

I am a trauma surgeon and an ICU physician. But that experience taught me I am so, so much more.

I am the sign beneath the overpass.

I am the voice from the curb.

Feed me.

Shelter me.

Help me.

I am you.

SCTV | Great White North – How to beat the Russians

Why do some intelligent people fail to achieve their potential?

One of the smartest, perhaps the smartest person on the planet, Kim Ung-Yong, was doing calculus and speaking five languages before age five. By age eight he was doing math at NASA and finished his Ph.D. prior to age fifteen.

(^ him at age five)

It’s all a bit over the top.

None of this was by his own decision. After the discovery of his genius, an I.Q. of over 200, he was placed on an ultra-fast track program for his life.

After accumulating a mind numbing pile of academic accolades, he worked at NASA for years until he abruptly quit.

Here you have the smartest guy in the world, someone whose intelligence dwarfs most Harvard students’, and he walks away from it all.

Why? He wasn’t happy. It was all too much intensity for him. He felt like a machine and just wanted something normal.

He now works in a normal university faculty position as a professor. A prestigious job for most people. But for him? Not so. Kim is still periodically targeted by Korean news outlets for being a “failed genius”. With all of his gifts he was expected to change the world and innovate within several science fields.

It begs the question, who decided Kim was supposed to change the world? It certainly wasn’t him.

Mr. Kim might not be someone most of us can relate to. But he is analogous, ground zero even, for the problems intelligent people face with regards to “potential.” Just because someone is smart, strong, creative, doesn’t mean they want to be king of the world.

Some people are happy with a low key life. Happiness is the great equalizer. If they are happy, your expectations no longer matter.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

The entry to the office in which I worked was near the lifts and most of us had to walk past our boss’s office to get to our desks. There was also a door next to my desk which could be used to exit only. The people who worked near me and I would regularly go out that door when we went to lunch or left for the day.

We all worked flex time, had to arrive between 8am and 9.30am, take a lunch break of 30 minutes to 2 hours and leave between 3.30pm and 6pm. We each had a time sheet which we would fill in and submit every second Friday. At the end of each fortnight we could carry forward up to ten hours credit or debit.

Our boss decided that as he couldn’t see us leaving the office, we MUST be cheating on our time sheets, so he implemented a time clock. We all had to log in and out when we arrived or left, which meant that none of us could leave via the door next to my desk -we had to go the longer route past his office. The time clock was supposed to reveal that we were all cheating, but in fact it revealed that we were all working longer hours than we had been claiming. It was only a few minutes each day, but if, for instance we arrived at 8.47, we would enter it as 8.50. If we left at 5.03 we would enter 5.00. All of a sudden we were all being credited with an extra 10 minutes or so per day, almost an hour a week. Every couple of months or so we were each able to take an extra day off courtesy of the time clock.

None of us were cheating on our time sheets, we were professionals who in fact were understating our hours.

That was a LONG way from the most offensive thing he did. He was a mean, nasty, petty little man.

What is something that someone said to you during your grieving that stuck with you?

My husband died suddenly when I was 31 and our children were just babies, aged seven and three. In the surreal and painful days immediately after his death, our house filled with visitors, mourners, love, and grief.

One of the women who came to hold my hand had been widowed just a couple of years earlier. She was older than I and her children were grown, but she was a relatively young widow, only in her fifties.

As I sat next to her on the couch, talk going on all around me about my beautiful young husband, it suddenly occurred to me that this woman might have some advice. I turned to her and asked, “What did you do when your husband died?”

Her thoughtful answer: “Oh, I just worked until I couldn’t.”

That advice actually got me through a lot. I worked and took care of the children. I frequently visited my mom in another city, as I always had. I took the children to my in-laws’ as my husband and I had done, and continued our relationship. Fearing insomnia and overwhelm from grief, I made sure I was exhausted when I lay down to sleep.

Work can be a balm for a sore heart. Staying busy allowed me to process grief in bits and pieces, so I didn’t crater completely. I was able to put my mind on my children and my job until I was emotionally stronger.

I’ve always been grateful to my friend for her answer. She may not have any idea how much it helped me.

TAXI, Iggy And The Pacman Machine

What are the experiences of female soldiers in the Finnish Army?

Let’s say it gave me perspective to understand the men’s lot in the society and in the life. Finland has this wonderful concept of conscription which means if you are male, you must serve. I do not call that as a male privilege.

Make no mistake, conscription is slavery. It is little better than chattel slavery. But for a country with large area and small population, it is the only eligible way to set up a credible size military. And it is different when you are a volunteer and when you are coerced. When you are a volunteer, you have a motivation and when things fcuck up, it is only your own naïete to blame. When you are coerced, it is your gender to blame.

Okay. Being referred to surname only basis was at first somewhat embarrassing, but also comforting: it meant my gender was now a non-issue. I realized now that the only thing which matters is my performance. Do not play the feminine card and ask for excuses for weaker physique. Be a team player.

Since conscription is a true cross section of the cohort, the materiél of the intake cohort is also a cross section of the society. The military did not only get the best of the boys to serve – it also got the worst, and it meant those boys with which you really would not like to have any interaction at any price, such as antisocial cases, former schoolyard bullies, psychopaths and sociopaths, alcoholics, drug addicts, petty criminals, thieves, weakly talented and hygienically challenged. Let’s say be curt and say the boot camp was a sheer hell. I regretted many times I had put that letter in the mailbox, but if I had quit, my dad would never have talked to me any more.

Once I had gotten in the specialist training, the going became much more sensible. The minimum intelligence for a military engineer is Stanine 6, and most of the boys were intelligent. Everything began to make sense, and I began to re-gain my motivation. I then volunteered for officer training, and was approved. Little did I know the boot camp was merely a mild prelude of what was to follow.

The academy was training from hell. Instead of brainwash (as in the boot camp) the method was now indoctrination, and while the negative motivator in the boot camp had been insults and denigration, in the academy it was now the fear of expulsion off the course. The training was physically extremely strenuous and we worked many all-nighters. But the cadets were incredibly bright lot, and from the first day on I really felt I was among my own. The team spirit was indomitable. In the end none in our company was expelled, and from my cohort in all companies, only four (two from being sick, one from getting engaged in a fight and one from failing in the examinations).

The military service gives you a great reality check in the life and what the life looks like at the other side of the gender fence. But if you are fit and if you can swallow your pride and identity as a unique snowflake, it gives you also a chance to really become a sociable person and a team player. I cannot stress the importance of the team work.

Like Eöwyn states in the ‘Lord of the Rings’, the women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. The military service gives you the skills to handle firearms safely and basis on learning to shoot and do the maintenance on them, and also the survival skills. They cannot be over-emphasized. Many people who come to the boot camp have never slept a night in the forest in a tent. Survival skills will benefit you for the rest of your life.

Do not stress your body too much and learn to know its limits. If your body fat percentage falls below 15, you will experience amenorrhea (cessation of the menstrual cycle). It is not fun. Moreover, the joints of women are more flexible and more easily sprained than those of men. But women tend to stand pain better than men – after all, childbirth is a painful event.

The military is not a place for romances. Do not attempt to socialize with your service mates. Treat them as your brothers. They will treat you as a sister.

Do not think it was all wine and roses. The Finnish suck is not a kindergarten – it is more like a sick crossbreed of a prison and lunatic asylum. What really picked on me was the inefficieny, stupidity and clowniness – everything had been designed according the dumbest thinkable recruit. But you may also learn special skills, leadership skills, and getting along with people.

In the end I decided the military wasn’t for me and went for the academia. Many Finnish female ex-soldiers head to become nurses or teachers – it is about learning to care of your fellow human beings and protect and instruct them.

All in all, it was an experience, but one of socialization. Without really having to learn on how to get along with all kinds of people, I might not have made it across the Atlantic in a sailing boat.

Why are wealthy Chinese seeking to launder funds overseas?

Unlike most European countries, Canada and the United States, China still has pretty strict capital controls which means it’s difficult to export money out of the country. This is essentially so the Chinese government can hoard U.S. cash (in the form of Treasury instruments, about $800 billion worth) which allows it to prop up the local currency, the yuan. In essence, its easy to convert dollars (or euros for that matter) to yuan but practically impossible to convert yuan to foreign currency except in limited amounts.

There are severe punishments for failure to declare foreign currency income if you’re a Chinese business. Now, there’s a lot of dollars flowing into China (the net is about $290 billion a year). The Chinese government likes to do all domestic transactions in yuan and use U.S. dollars (and euros) only for foreign transactions (and only when necessary).

Now, if you pay taxes in China, you pay them in yuan, but if your company earns foreign currency you’re supposed to convert it to yuan (unless you get permission to reinvest it) so that the government can build up a surplus of U.S. currency for public projects and the occasional foreign debt repayment.

So with all that money floating around, it’s not terribly difficult to divert a million here or there for other uses. The problem is that you have to do this on the sly and around official channels. If you get too much foreign currency, then you draw the attention of foreign tax officials, who are wondering where it all came from and why you aren’t paying local tax on the money. Foreign officials also aren’t above informing the Chinese government of violations of their capital control laws.

So let’s say you’re a Chinese company with timber holdings in Canada. It’s a good business and quite lucrative, but all your profits are supposed to be repatriated. No problem, just claim a few million in expenses for consulting companies and divert that money to an entity you own and hope the Chinese officials don’t catch on.

But this gives you another headache. Moving money through legitimate channels is easy to trace making it likely the Chinese government will catch on, or that local tax officials will start looking for that money. Naturally, this means you prefer to deal in cash. Offer some people discounts on full or partial cash transactions and you rake in the foreign currency. The problem now is to make it seem like it came from a legitimate source.

And that’s where the laundering comes in. You take the garbage bags of cash you’re collecting on the sly and get a confederate to take it to a B.C. provincial casino to gamble with it. Once you’ve gambled a little, the friendly cashier will be happy to get you a certified cheque (cashier’s check for Americans) which you can then take to a bank. You then work with a crooked real estate broker to get some inflated Vancouver property. From there, there’s lots of things you can do, like take a mortgage out on the property. The bank doesn’t even care if you default. That makes the money look legitimate and something earned outside the normal course of the lumber business.

Are there rural areas in Australia?

Can I ask you something before I answer this? Do your parents let you out by yourself? Because if so, that’s child endangerment. Neglect. And abuse. Now that that is out of the way…

See this map thingy here?

That’s Australia, that’s how it would look if it was in place of the entire continental US. Just about the same size, actually. Australia is 70,000 sq km larger than the contiguous US (if you don’t count the Great lakes, and since nobody lives on the great lakes. Or grows anything there, i don’t). Pretty neat, huh? Just one more cool thing we have in common. In fact, if you turn Australia upside down, it would almost look like the US. Or we would almost look like Australia. Either one.

Now, the continental US has 330 million people. We still have wilderness, and lots of rural areas. Australia has 25,884,430 as of Thursday, October 21, 2021. So about 1/13th the population. In the same amount of land.

Here’s a map of the population density of Australia:

You see the orange areas, both light and medium orange? That’s all rural areas. Very rural. Most of the yellow area is less than rural, possibly even uninhabitable, given its current state ( I’m fairly certain that part is so unexplored, there’s a full country of dinosaurs in there) . So yes, Australia has a lot of rural-ness. So there…what’s that, you say? You’re colorblind? Oh…well …I give up. Have a peachy night.

Is the claim that “Western Europe is rich thanks to its colonies” true?

Yes, to a large extent it is true, and it is rather obvious when you think about it. There is a certain amount of resources in the world and they cannot be used in two places at once. We can take Britain as an example. There are some things that the British just wouldn’t have been able to do historically if it wasn’t for their colonies.

In 1937 the British Empire exported 340,587 long tons of bauxite, which is the primary source of aluminium. This was becoming a strategic resource and was a highly lucrative trade. How much of this originated from Britain? 0%. 300,707 long tons (88.2%) of the British exports came from the colony British Guiana. If the native population had reaped the benefits of exporting this material, they would have been incredibly wealthy, there were about 2 tons of bauxite per person living there in 1937. But all that wealth went to great Britain, which used it to build infrastructure and other things in Britain.

Another important resource was chromium which is vital for making ships and other objects that needs to resist rust. The British Empire extracted a vast amount of chromium ore, 502,633 long tons in 1937, how much of it in Britain? 0%. From Rhodesia 53.9%, from South Africa 33% and from India 12.4%. Mind you the conditions for black mine workers in South Africa were essentially slavery.

For copper it was Canada and Rhodesia, diamonds in the Gold Coast and South Africa. The British Empire also produced 19.7 million troy ounces of gold, 10 of which was in South Africa none of which was in Britain. The Entire world produced 34.6 million troy ounces of gold, which means that the British produced 57% of all the gold in the world, 0% of which was done by the British.

We can continue, but I think you get the point. In 1937, British colonies allowed Great Britain to rob quite literally over half the gold in the world, before this state of affairs, it would be fair to say that in the 1800s Great Britain was the largest narco state in the world, when they exported opium to China to the point at which it was near collapse.

There is nothing voluntary or mutually beneficial about these trades, Africans were colonized with military force, and when China refused to trade in opium they were attacked twice, and eventually invaded and had their government palace looted and burned by British and French soldiers.

Western Europe, has spent hundreds of years robbing much of the world blind, through slavery, resource extraction and forced trade agreements through warfare. This wealth did not disappear into thin air. Westminister palace in London was built for the sum of billions of modern day pounds, British influence into the financial systems is long lasting and still benefits it, the legacy of that theft created billionaire families which exist today, and still maintain their wealth. Most importantly, all the wealth of these countries never went to the local population, they suffered in some cases over a hundred years of continuous enforced stagnation and poverty, were denied education, were denied industrialization, and now has to content with so called free market mechanisms without any of the things they we already have.

So yes, western Europe benefited enormously from colonies, and this is honestly just scratching the surface of the true extent of what the colonies actually meant.

What is the reason that China does not join the Group of Seven (G7) or the Group of Twenty (G20)? Why does it want to form its own group like the BRICS+?

G7 is really a “who to sanction next? Who to carpet bomb club headed by the U.S. amongst fellow native slaughterers and fellow despicable former colonial masters setting up a framework call the western rules based order to continue virtual colonialism”

China must never get anywhere near this hegemonic archaic imperialism tainted plunderers gathering. G20 China is a part of This grouping but it is making sure no single nation can and will abuse its position as a member in doing bad but as a group it is a force of good. Helping to eliminate real poverty. And not become U.S. tool of world subjugation.

BRICS are representing the world’s alternative powers. Brazil, Russia, India, China presents the global south ensuring the world’s largest population and now the largest GDP too to have an alternative or a sustainable future that the G7 cannot forced and coerce nations to be submissive and subservient to them. G7 can do what it likes but BRICS will counter if it sees the G7 as being vindictive or working against the interest of the developing world.

To put it in a simple apology. The west used the world to strip it of resources and capital through to barrel of the gun and after 300 years, it used the so call international rules base order to virtually colonised the world for another 80 years or so. That brings us to today. 2023. The 87% of the worlds nation or 180 out of 195 nations or so collectively know as the global south has a choice either to be real partners of equal rights with the west or go on their own!

So in summary G7 represents the U.S. dogs nation, BRICS represents the rest. And G20 is simply the top 20 nations representatives from both groups. From now till around 2050. There will be alternatives that are fairer, better, more representative of all corners of the world and a clear multi polar world. That no nation can dominate, not U.S. not China nor anyone else. Organisations like SWIFT, World Bank, IMF, Rating Agencies, metal and farm exchanges will have to go or become impartial. US dollars will be a currency amongst many currencies.

That will be the new world. Get use to it.

What is the most random but kindest thing you’ve been told?

Sometimes all we need is a break. I’m a single mom of three boys, dad died of suicide when they were 7,6 and 4. A day after I got the phone call, I received another telling me my eldest needed major back surgery. We went through hell traveling 200 miles a few times before the surgery. Brothers in tow. We did this while mourning, me working full time with little support, broke and scared. My mother asked me why I don’t just give up, collect welfare and stay home with my kids. She said exactly “You just can’t do it. Why don’t you give up”?

My employer made accommodations to have my son before and after surgery be able to come to work with me. He was having bowel and bladder accidents and after surgery, recovering on pain meds. Without her allowing him a comfortable space for me to keep an eye on him, we would’ve lost our apartment and car because I couldn’t have worked. She was so good to him, bringing treats and checking on him herself while I was busy (she’s a doctor). I had a hard time through the 12 years with her. That year was the worst. Months later I was in a car accident and was hurt pretty bad. The month after, my youngest had to go back and fourth to a specialist 100 miles away for bladder and kidney issues. She asked how I was when my eldest went back to school and I broke down. I cried, hard. I was afraid it would always be so hard, and that I’d screw my beautiful boys up.

She said “You are one of the smartest, most hard working I know. The difference between you and the other people I associate with is that you don’t have help, money or a nanny. You are an excellent mother and your children are so well behaved. You’ll be just fine.”

Coming from a doctor who had an autistic son and twins, who had a medical degree (at the time I had just a GED), who was a very dry, hard person, it meant the world. She helped me persevere. She saw the potential I could not see in me.

They’re 20, 19 and 16 now. They love their mom so much and recognize the struggle. They are genuinely good kids and I’m proud of what I did rather than looking and what I couldn’t.

If it weren’t for those words, I’m not sure we’d be were we are, in our own home, me graduating with a degree in just three weeks, them starting college and working.

I love that woman.

Family Ties – Sin Against Capitalism

Why do the Republicans not want a single payer, universal health Care system for the USA?

I have a newphew who lives with us. He’s a grown man, but due to health issues he cannot work anymore. He weighs less than 100 lbs and often has pain. He has Medicaid.

I have a very good job with a major corporation. I have health insurance for my family – the ONLY plan I can “choose from” from my employer – which is a “High Deductible combined with a Health Savings Account” plan. I pay hundreds a month for premiums. And, put thousands a year into my HSA.

Last month, my nephew and I BOTH went into the hospital for serval days for unrelated illnesses. We both went in, very sick, through the ER. I came out with a $3200 bill left to pay, and had to pay an additional $100 for prescriptions on my way out the door. I then had to followup with my regular doctor which cost me an additional $800.

By contrast, my nephew showed his Medicaid card, and nobody ever charged him a dime after that., Nobody talked to him about money, bills, costs, or anything of the like. He had more procedures done, though stayed one day less than I did. On the way home with him, we stopped and got 5 prescriptions for him – also at no cost.

WHY THE FUCK doesn’t EVERYBODY in America want their healthcare to work that way?

Which semiconductor company is making the chips for the Russian military?

Moscow Center of Sparc Technologies, they produce Elbrus processors.

There processors are a few years behind global leaders (they use 28-nm technology as of 2021), but they are sufficient for military purposes. Russian military also uses unique analog-based systems.

Pure and enduring

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I can’t say it backfired “terribly”, but it did backfire in that it ruined everything.

I was a waiter at a pub and one day one of my fellow servers was having a really shitty day. Some personal stuff, but that just made the normal rude customers seem even worse.

I had read an article that said that laughing on purpose produces some chemicals in your brain that actually make you happier.

I pulled her aside set the timer on my watch (no smartphones then) and said: “Hey, we are going to laugh for one minute”. We did. It took her a while but in the end, she was laughing just because I was laughing. It made her feel better.

We did this often after that. We even did it in front of the customers in the dining area, and guess what, they all started laughing too. We started doing it at our shift meetings, all voluntarily laughing for no reason. It was great.

Then the owner heard about it and made it “policy” that every shift meeting we have to laugh for one minute. That killed everything. Making it a rule or policy destroyed anything that was fun about it.

We never laughed again.

What happened

Was Michael Jackson really an innocent person?

It is very unlikely.

I love Michael Jackson’s music and, with no exaggeration, think he might be the most talented person to live in the 20th century.

However, I’m fascinated with the cognitive dissonance some people have on accepting what is right in front of their eyes. It speaks to the power of Jackson’s stardom.

Now, if you are someone who adamantly defends him, I want you to hear this out. Pause your assumptions.

First, a common defense I’ve seen is that, “There was no evidence.” In molestation trials, there is rarely physical evidence to begin with, unless something was recorded. It is typically circumstantial evidence and eyewitness testimonies.

There’s been a string of molestation cases against MJ over the years. In one, a former accuser, Jordan Chandler, correctly told police where a birthmark and spots were on MJ’s genitals and rear-end. He literally drew a picture that matched it. The case was so damning that MJ paid more than $20 million to avoid trial. I don’t care how rich someone is: you don’t pay that kind of money if you have nothing to hide.

Others have testified to seeing Michael touching boys inappropriately. His housekeeper testified to catching him in the shower nude with a young boy. His security guard, Ralph Chacon, also testified to seeing indecent acts being performed on a boy.

When they raided MJ’s house, they found two magazines with photos of nude boys— but they fell into the grey area enough to be considered “art”. Feel free to see for yourself. These are the titles:

The Boy: A Photographic Essay
Boys Will Be Boys

These books were endorsed as recommended reads by NAMBLA (The National Associated of Man-Boy Lovers). They are popular with pedos because they are legal to own and Jackson had them in a locked cupboard.

A huge mob of superfans began running social media campaigns after the Leaving Neverland documentary came out. The testimonies in it were compelling, heartbreaking, and excruciatingly detailed. This is one of the men, James Safechuck, as a kid with MJ:

The other accuser, Wade and MJ:

Notice how all of the boys MJ hung out with were these cutesy boy-models. There are countless photos of him walking around holding hands with these boys, which isn’t damning on its own, but looks pretty bad in context to everything

MJ paid off families multiple times. He was accused multiple times over decades. He openly admitted to sharing his bed with boys. Latoya Jackson even warned people that MJ was doing this in the 90s.

There are certainly one-off cases of people using false claims against celebrities for payouts. But there is way, way too much smoke here for there not to be a fire.

Just to recap:

He’s had five separate accusers over the years and multiple employees testify against him, multiple payouts, borderline child (boy) erotica found in his home, a boy who drew a picture matching the description of his nether regions, an admission that he shared beds with boys—all of whom were modelesque looking.

We can have a conversation about injustice against black men in the US—because that is a real thing. We can have a conversation about unfair targeting of celebrities. But this is not the hill to die on.

MJ had the most elite lawyers money could buy and was enshrouded in an unrivaled aura of fame. He wouldn’t have made that $20 million payout if his counsel didn’t think he was in serious, serious trouble.

If any of us had been accused under the same conditions MJ had been, we’d have been convicted in a heartbeat.

Quartermaster’s Stew

Quartermaster’s Stew is a time-honored Scouting recipe that is easy to make.

Serves 6 to 8 scouts

Ingredients

Stew

2 pounds ground beef
2 cans mixed vegetables (save liquid)
2 cans potatoes (drain off liquid and discard)
1 packet stew seasoning mix

Optional

1 can stewed tomatoes
Sliced fresh mushrooms
Additional vegetables, such as beans, corn

Instructions

Heat Dutch oven on fire, add small amount of cooking oil, and brown ground beef. Drain grease.
Stir in stew seasoning mix, add a bit of water, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
Add vegetables with liquid.
Chop potatoes into small chunks and add to stew. Add small quantity of water if need to cover contents.
Place oven on bed of charcoal – 8 to 10 briquettes (more in winter) on aluminum foil, shiny side up.
Cover with lid and put 2 to 3 times as many coals on top. Cook about 15 minutes.
Add tomatoes and mushrooms.
Cook until potatoes are tender and stew is bubbly and hot through – 15 to 20 minutes depending upon heat level, stirring occasionally.

Newhart 4×19 He Ain’t Human, He’s My Cousin

What did you find while snooping that you wish you had never found?

When I was about 12 we were living with my great aunt (my mother’s father’s sister. She had a chest of drawers that sat in the hallway it had been there as long as I can remember. I knew, from quick peeks every now and again that it was full of old paperwork. One day they left me home alone for a short time (maybe 30 minutes), I started going through it. I saw some papers that had my mom’s maiden name on them. After reading them I figured out my mom had had a baby before me. Later, I told my mom what I had done and what I found. She explained to me that her father had gotten her pregnant through raping her for years. They (her aunts) sent her to a home for unwed mother’s and she had given the little boy up for adoption. I think about him from time to time but would never try to find him. I just pray that he was adopted by a loving family.

What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

Do you QSL?

A story about my stepkids.

Waay back in time I used CB radios…a lot !You can blame one of my uncles for that…he was ex army…different regiments becuase of his skill sets…anyway.

My step kids found out and wanted to know what ‘CB’ is / was.

So I explained about it being a two way radio that you could talk to people on…then I realised the the opportunity for a history lesson, ( I’m sneaky like that ;-).

So I started by telling them the history of HAM radio and how ships back in the ‘old days’ used radio ! By using the phonetic code, Morse code, the ‘Q’ code and later using the ’10 code’ as used by the American Police.

I had to give a demonstration of using Morse code…by tapping out SOS…they were fascinated !

So I started to teach the kids Morse etc…just by tapping out the letters / numbers.

Well…as kids do in situations like this they just ran with it…so I ended up making them a morse key and a buzzer to practice on. I also made some ‘flash cards’. The other trick I used was when a car etc passed us….’Quick ! what’s the code’? meaning the phonetic code’! So they would rattle it of quickly ( it helped with their spelling as well…( I told you I was sneaky ! ).

That progressed onto using Morse code as well as the ‘Q’ code.

Right…so were at the local supermarket…and I’d said to the kids they could ‘talk’ to each other…so their standing about 15/20 feet apart…and tapping out Morse code messages to each other.

Other people in the store soon caught on and were fascinated by the kids ( who were oblivious to the attention they were getting ). Right up until a new ‘voice’ joined in.

‘QSK’

Kids faces were a picture…they knew it wasn’t me…the ‘hand’ was different, besides…they could see me in the queue and my hand were in view !

‘QSK’

The kids looked at each other, pretty much gobsmacked !

So my girl took charge…and replied by tapping out ( of course I’d taught them how to respond ! ).

‘QSK, QRZ, QRA, QTH, QSL’.

Their was a sound of muffled laughter followed by more tapping, telling them his name ( Stan ) and that he was in the ice cream section ( which they couldn’t see ).

Soon enough I’d passed along the line and paid for our shopping and joined the kids, where we were standing ( and still replying to the ‘messages’ )…then an elderly guy walked up…and looked at the kids ( with a HUGE grin on his face…and introduced himself as ‘Stan’.

Turned out that Stan was a radio operator in WW2, sometimes dropped behind enemy lines…I swapped telephone numbers and a few days later we invited him to dinner, where he told us about some of his adventures during the war.

Why do people describe an emergency stop in a US Navy aircraft carrier as a traumatic and intense event even though passengers endure much greater deceleration when cars make gentle stops at traffic lights?

Full reverse

I was present for an emergency stop test in the engine room of the JFK back in the early 80s. I have first hand knowledge of doing this.

But how do I explain this experience to the average Joe or Josephine?

Your question related this to deceleration forces and cars, so I’ve been mulling over how to answer in the same terms. Here is what I came up with. Please fasten your seat belts.

A ship has no brakes. Normally it coasts to a stop. This takes about five miles for a carrier at full speed as someone else alluded to in another answer. You can do this in a car coming to a red light if you want to. It will irritate the other drivers, but who cares right?

I knew someone who drove like this. She was old in the 1970s. Real old. In her 90s. I mowed her yard. She had this old 50s something Chevy she bought new. Each spring she would buy a few cans of blue spray paint and give it a new coat. She did an amazing job.

One day, I was admiring the car. It did not have a scratch on it. No dents. No dings. No bent chrome. No rust. She bragged to me that she still had the original brake shoes. She made them last by planning ahead. She knew where the stops were and could just let off the gas beforehand and coast to a stop.

She was sweet and fierce. She fed me little cakes. If you got out of line she would slap you up side the head, hard.

That sums up an aircraft carrier nicely.

Now imagine a car with no brakes. You coast to a stop just like ships do. Everything is fine until some guy ruins your day by pulling out in front of you.

What do you do, You have no brakes?

YOU CRAM IT INTO REVERSE AND STEP ON THE GAS.

In cars, that would likely break something even if you have a straight shift, but you can do it if you are:

In the dirt.
Aided by brakes.
Have fancy foot work.

I can hear the comments now. Impossible.

It’s not.
I’ve done it.
Yes it is likely to tear things apart.

I’ll refrain from giving the details of when, where and why I did this. I am not sure what the statute of limitations is.

On an aircraft carrier, you are doing just that when you do an emergency stop. In the engine room, things are absolutely screaming in protest.

The ship starts shaking.
The throttleman and boiler console operator are working desperately together to keep from breaking stuff.
People are calling off times and pressures as everything starts vibrating.
Dust and dirt falls on you from the pipes and wiring above.
Hands grab tight to things bolted down to keep standing.
The ship’s tires start losing grip. That’s the screws (props) as they try to catch water so hard it boils. Yes, the water boils (cavitates). As the pressure is lowered, it turns to steam.
A few might wet themselves just a little.
82,655 tons of metal that wants to keep on truckin’ protests loudly.

And it does not take miles to stop. It happens in a few ship lengths. Remember, a mile is only five lengths of a US aircraft carrier. Yes, it is intense.

We did this without any equipment on the flight deck. No planes. No green, red, yellow, white, blue, brown, or purple shirted guys running around. Everything tied down tight.

Bonus memory

The night I reported to the ship it was dark and rainy. I walked up to the watch at the pier and showed my orders. He pointed toward this dark shadow. I was confused.

“Is the ship behind that warehouse?” I asked.

He laughed and said, “That warehouse is the ship”

You really can’t appreciate the size of a US Carrier until you walk up and get swallowed by it.

For Man and Nature: Building a Community of Life Together

Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People’s Republic of China

At the Leaders Summit on Climate

22 April 2021

Honorable President Joe Biden,

Honorable Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to join you at the Leaders Summit on Climate on Earth Day. I wish to thank President Biden for the kind invitation. It is good to have this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views with you on climate change, and to discuss ways to tackle this challenge and find a path forward for man and Nature to live in harmony.

Since time of the industrial civilization, mankind has created massive material wealth. Yet, it has come at a cost of intensified exploitation of natural resources, which disrupted the balance in the Earth’s ecosystem, and laid bare the growing tensions in the human-nature relationship. In recent years, climate change, biodiversity loss, worsening desertification and frequent extreme weather events have all posed severe challenges to human survival and development. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has added difficulty to economic and social development across countries. Faced with unprecedented challenges in global environmental governance, the international community needs to come up with unprecedented ambition and action. We need to act with a sense of responsibility and unity, and work together to foster a community of life for man and Nature.

— We must be committed to harmony between man and Nature. “All things that grow live in harmony and benefit from the nourishment of Nature.” Mother Nature is the cradle of all living beings, including humans. It provides everything essential for humanity to survive and thrive. Mother Nature has nourished us, and we must treat Nature as our root, respect it, protect it, and follow its laws. Failure to respect Nature or follow its laws will only invite its revenge. Systemic spoil of Nature will take away the foundation of human survival and development, and will leave us human beings like a river without a source and a tree without its roots. We should protect Nature and preserve the environment like we protect our eyes, and endeavor to foster a new relationship where man and Nature can both prosper and live in harmony.

— We must be committed to green development. Green mountains are gold mountains. To protect the environment is to protect productivity, and to improve the environment is to boost productivity — the truth is as simple as that. We must abandon development models that harm or undermine the environment and must say no to shortsighted approaches of going after near-term development gains at the expense of the environment. Much to the contrary, we need to ride the trend of technological revolution and industrial transformation, seize the enormous opportunity in green transition, and let the power of innovation drive us to upgrade our economic, energy and industrial structures, and make sure that a sound environment is there to buttress sustainable economic and social development worldwide.

— We must be committed to systemic governance. Mountains, rivers, forests as well as farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts all make indivisible parts of the ecosystem. Protecting the ecosystem requires more than a simplistic, palliative approach. We need to follow the innate laws of the ecosystem and properly balance all elements and aspects of Nature. This is a way that may take us where we want to be, an ecosystem in sound circulation and overall balance.

— We must be committed to a people-centered approach. The environment concerns the well-being of people in all countries. We need to take into full account people’s longing for a better life and a good environment as well as our responsibility for future generations. We need to look for ways to protect the environment, grow the economy, create jobs and remove poverty all at the same time, so as to deliver social equity and justice in the course of green transition and increase people’s sense of benefit, happiness and security.

— We must be committed to multilateralism. We need to work on the basis of international law, follow the principle of equity and justice, and focus on effective actions. We need to uphold the UN-centered international system, comply with the objectives and principles laid out in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, and strive to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We need to each take stronger actions, strengthen partnerships and cooperation, learn from each other and make common progress in the new journey toward global carbon neutrality. In this process, we must join hands, not point fingers at each other; we must maintain continuity, not reverse course easily; and we must honour commitments, not go back on promises.

China welcomes the United States’ return to the multilateral climate governance process. Not long ago, the Chinese and US sides released a Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis. China looks forward to working with the international community including the United States to jointly advance global environmental governance.

— We must be committed to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is the cornerstone of global climate governance. Developing countries now face multiple challenges to combat COVID-19, grow the economy, and address climate change. We need to give full recognition to developing countries’ contribution to climate action and accommodate their particular difficulties and concerns. Developed countries need to increase climate ambition and action. At the same time, they need to make concrete efforts to help developing countries strengthen the capacity and resilience against climate change, support them in financing, technology, and capacity building, and refrain from creating green trade barriers, so as to help developing countries accelerate the transition to green and low-carbon development.

Colleagues,

The Chinese civilization has always valued harmony between man and Nature as well as observance of the laws of Nature. It has been our constant pursuit that man and Nature could live in harmony with each other. Ecological advancement and conservation have been written into China’s Constitution and incorporated into China’s overall plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. China will follow the Thought on Ecological Civilization and implement the new development philosophy. We will aim to achieve greener economic and social development in all aspects, with a special focus on developing green and low-carbon energy. We will continue to prioritize ecological conservation and pursue a green and low-carbon path to development.

Last year, I made the official announcement that China will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. This major strategic decision is made based on our sense of responsibility to build a community with a shared future for mankind and our own need to secure sustainable development. China has committed to move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality in a much shorter time span than what might take many developed countries, and that requires extraordinarily hard efforts from China. The targets of carbon peak and carbon neutrality have been added to China’s overall plan for ecological conservation. We are now making an action plan and are already taking strong nationwide actions toward carbon peak. Support is being given to peaking pioneers from localities, sectors and companies. China will strictly control coal-fired power generation projects, and strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th Five-Year Plan period and phase it down in the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Moreover, China has decided to accept the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and tighten regulations over non-carbon dioxide emissions. China’s national carbon market will also start trading.

As a participant, contributor and trailblazer in global ecological conservation, China is firmly committed to putting multilateralism into action and promoting a fair and equitable system of global environmental governance for win-win cooperation. China will host COP15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity this October and looks forward to working with all parties to enhance global governance on biodiversity. We support COP26 to the UNFCCC in achieving positive outcomes. As we in China often say, “It is more important to show people how to fish than just giving them fish.” China has done its best to help developing countries build capacity against climate change through various forms of results-oriented South-South cooperation. From remote sensing satellites for climate monitoring in Africa to low-carbon demonstration zones in Southeast Asia and to energy-efficient lights in small island countries, such cooperation has yielded real, tangible and solid results. China has also made ecological cooperation a key part of Belt and Road cooperation. A number of green action initiatives have been launched, covering wide-ranging efforts in green infrastructure, green energy, green transport and green finance, to bring enduring benefits to the people of all Belt and Road partner countries.

Colleagues,

As we say in China, “When people pull together, nothing is too heavy to be lifted.” Climate change poses pressing, formidable and long-term challenges to us all. Yet I am confident that as long as we unite in our purposes and efforts and work together with solidarity and mutual assistance, we will rise above the global climate and environmental challenges and leave a clean and beautiful world to future generations.

Thank you.

Why do so many people still think Ukraine is going to win this war when obviously they are doomed? Is this misinformation or just people being stupid?

Why do so many people still think Ukraine is going to win this war when obviously they are doomed?

It’s a religion now.

The god is democracy; not the concept or the practice, just the word “democracy”.

The US is the prophet.

The EU and other US “allies” are the priests.

Zelensky is the messiah.

Ukraine is the promised land.

Is this misinformation or just people being stupid?

This is normal behaviour for religious people. When faced with facts, we do not renounce our deity. We do not say “Oh, this has really opened our eyes to the truth.” We draw together, expel the unbeliever and say this tribulation has made us stronger and more pure.

Although, unlike other “traditional” religions, this one in particular is actually quite flexible. Because soon Tsai will be the messiah and Taiwan the promised land.

What is the most important life lesson you’ve learned so far?

When I was 13, I wanted a six pack. I did sit ups and curls intermittently with no plan or rigor. By 14, I’d given up.

When I was 16, I picked up boxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I wanted to be great at fighting. By 17, I’d decided in my head that great fighters have been doing this since they were 8, so I’d given up.

When I was 18, I wrote blog posts and started multiple businesses, I’d take them to a level of significance but nothing actually significant. By 19, I’d decided in my head I wasn’t going to make 6 figures at it anytime soon, so I’d given up.

Everything I wanted to get or do or be, I gave it one year tops before giving it up.

Now I look back and ask myself “Where would I be right now if I’d stuck with it? What if I’d had that foresight?“

I work out every day now.

I write every day now.

I train to fight multiple times per week.

I’m following the things I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid, because I now know the dividends I will get are going to have outstanding returns in 2 years, 5 years and 10 years from now.

1% better a day doesn’t look like much in 30 days, but it transforms you completely over the course of years.

The most important lesson I’ve learned in life is to play the long game.

The you in the past wants you to do better than they did, and the you in the future wants you to be better than you are. Don’t let yourself down.

Edit: When I wrote this I had no idea the kind of response it would get.

I want to write to each and every one of you who’ve commented to thank you personally for how much it means of you to comment on this (and as you might see, I’ve tried).

If there’s anything I can do to help the future you be better, please feel free to message me or ask me to answer your questions. While I can’t respond to everyone or answer every request, I’ll do my best.

Mister Ed Plays Baseball

Why are Chinese manufacturers’ products not as good as Japanese manufacturers’ products but less than half the price (electronics)?

I think that is fast changing and in 5 years you can hardly see the difference. Japanese has a 35 years head start but all economies do the same. They copy, learn, innovate and move up stream. And now they are worried other nations steal their idea. China is no different from the USA and Japan. Both went through the same path. To say China steal is very rich and so is to say China’s product is inferior.

These days China offers 3 value for money items. One is poorer quality but very cheap. Many in the 3rd world need to make do with this. And one who is very good quality but for rich and wealthy individuals and then there is the run of the meal products. In between the first two.

Why are sanctions on Russia so weak that Russia is constantly laughing at those sanctions?

Russia is a Surplus Food Producer and a Surplus Energy Exporter and has a massive raw material reservoir

How on earth could anyone with 1/10th of a brain hope to sanction such a country ?

It’s what we on Quora from Day 1 have always been saying

Myself, Bill Chen, Cai Lei, Venkata Krishna (Venkata Rao), Boris, Ivan, Alexander Finnegan, Li Pengli, Patrick Koh, Peter Okuhira, Donald Canton, Paul Denlinger, Bill Zhang, Robert Vanrox, Keshto Pat

It’s basic economics

Basic demand & supply

In fact the sanctions have rebounded very badly on Europe itself

Have you ever watched justice be served to a rude airline passenger?

I was in Shanghai, expecting to board a flight home after a long week. The flight was due to leave around 23:00. As I waited in the public area, I heard a comment about the flight, so I went to the counter and asked what had happened. The polite young girl with great English said that there was an issue with the aircraft and that there were no code shares available, so the flight had been cancelled.

Obviously I was unhappy, but I couldn’t blame it on the girl. I asked what I should do as I had no hotel booking and didn’t want to spend the night in the airport. She called up somebody. A woman came along in a golf cart and loaded my bags, driving me off to the other end of the terminal, where a group of tourists were going ballistic about the cancellation. She smiled at me and said ‘sit here’ so I stayed seated in the golf cart while the angry, drunk mob of tourists vented.

A few minutes later, she came back and drove us out to the carpark, where a late model black BMW was waiting. I was loaded in and driven to a nice new hotel near the airport. Upon arrival, I was greeted by staff and taken to a beautiful room. The attendant said that my stay and breakfast were free and that a driver had been arranged for the morning. As the attendant was walking out the door, he turned and said ‘Don’t worry sir, those other passengers are spending the night in the airport’!

Why do people say that Americans go bankrupt by hospital bills since most people don’t really pay them at all and nothing really happens too?

In 2009 I was taken to court by a hospital over a $200 balance and told by a judge I had 30 days to pay, or I was going to be arrested and put in jail. It was the peak of the Bush economic implosion, my business failed after 15 years of success, I had lost my house and car, and had been selling off everything, including my plasma, to rent a tiny house without air conditioning or heat. I was destitute, and the thought of jumping in front of a train so my family could cash in on my still paid up life insurance and my wife could receive my social security death benefit was becoming more of an option every moment. Here I was in court facing a judge that didn’t care about my situation and a smug collection attorney that worked for the hospital that treated my pneumonia caused by having no heat and they didn’t care at all. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t pay that bill in 30 days. I would be lucky if I could feed my children in 30 days. I did what I had to do, sold what I had left, beds, toys, family heirlooms, practically everything but the clothes on our backs. I borrowed a piece of crap car from the only friend I had left, and we snuck out of town into hiding. We managed to make it back to my hometown where I had friends from grade school and one gave us a place to stay, another gave me a job for cash daily. We survived like that for a year and I finally got back on my feet enough to contact the collection attorney office and arrange to make payment in full. I called the Sheriff and discovered that there was a warrant for my arrest where we used to live. I contacted that attorney again and told them I would pay them with a 7-11 money order and mail it to their office immediately if they took care of that warrant. They couldn’t do anything because only the judge had the power to discard the warrant. I had to continue to live anonymously for the next 3 years, no known address, no W-2, registering my kids in school under my mother’s maiden name until I afford a lawyer in another state to clear it up for me. 4 years of my life were taken from me over my inability to pay a $200 hospital balance. Don’t tell me nothing happens if you don’t pay a hospital bill.

**edit**

I have decided to disable comments. Apparently the concept of my particular situation is somehow lost in translation. I’ve been called names and grown tired of explaining how this is possible. Rather than continue to engage with these commentators, I will simply step away. Thank you to those that have shown empathy and support.

Hart To Hart | Long Lost Love | Season 5 Episode 8 Full Episode | Classic TV Rewind

https://youtu.be/Kqm-LV1YKcI

Monkey Play

When I was quite young, perhaps three years old, I went out for a walk with my father. And thus, together… hand in hand… we walked down the street in our housing complex in Bridgeport, CT. It was a nice Saturday. Blue sky. Sunny, but cool.

And as we walked down the street we came across a curious sight.

There was this old man in a blue jacket playing a wind-up musical device of some type, and a monkey on a really long leash….

This guy was just strolling along and the monkey was going p to people. If we gave the monkey some change, he would take it and carry it off to the guy playing the music. A simple and nice cute distraction.

My father gave me a few coins and I gave them to the monkey. He crawled up onto me, took the money, raised his tiny hat off his head and then ran to the guy with the music box, and gave it to him. And then the guys started the wind-up music all over again.

This was my once and only experience with such a troubadour. And, I had long forgotten about it.

But … when I was going through “retirement” I ended up with complete memory recall, and thus had memories regarding this singular event.

Treasure the valuable memories that you have. They might take you to places long forgotten, and seemingly trivial in importance….

Today…

How do you find out if someone is a jerk before you hire them? I want someone who isn’t too abrasive, competitive without being cutthroat, and who is able to represent the company well.

I believe it was Sir Richard Branson who did what he called the “Restaurant Test.” Part of his interview process was an “informal” interview at a restaurant. What the prospective employee didn’t know is that Sir Richard had already notified the restaurant that he was coming with a potential employee and to screw up their order, nothing major like giving meat to a vegan but if they ordered their steak medium rare, the chef would cook it well done.

Richard would then see how the other person reacted. If he was polite then it was onto the next phase of the interview, if they were rude he would finish his meal and that person would not be considered for the job

When in your life did you feel happy to be home after dealing with a lot of stress?

My wife and I agreed early on that whoever could draw the largest salary would work while the other was stay-at-home parent. Unfortunately I went to work (would have loved to be the stay at home dad.) Our deal included that after a 30 minute decompress and wash up after arriving home, our daughter was 100% my responsibility through bedtime. My wife got up in the night with her during the week, and I took the weekend shift. We tag teamed the weekend hours, but I took most of the time. My happiest memories were coming home and getting my baby to hold, feed, and change. Later it was seeing her standing at the door or front window waiting for me. She’s 50 now and remembers being swooped up and burying her face in my fur lined coat collar in the winter.

NO stress could survive the love of a dad and daughter.

Guy stuff

How would you describe your parenting style?

I’m teaching my 6-year-old son to be defiant.

And everyone thinks I’m crazy.

“Grandma said she’ll give me a gift if I let her shampoo my hair,” he tells me the other day.

I can see how torn and conflicted he looks.

My son’s a swashbuckling, bug-hunting pirate.

You’d have an easier time getting a stray cat to take a shower.

“I hear you,” I reply, making sure she’s out of earshot. “My take?” he leans in. “If she wants to give you a gift, she should just do it. No strings attached.”

He nods and we exchange conspiratorial smiles.

“You’ve got to rein in that wayward son of yours,” she tells me after a botched shower attempt.

But I won’t.

Of course, I’m always encouraging him to be kind, respectful, and thoughtful with others.

But I won’t use the stick or the carrot.

Because when he’s older and someone hands him a rifle telling him who the enemy is, I want him to do his own thinking.

Because when he’s older and someone offers him a pill and tells him he’ll have the best time of his life, I want him to question.

Because when he’s older and someone offers him a quick reward in exchange for giving up his values, I want him to stand his ground.

Am I making my life difficult as a parent?

Definitely.

Is it worth it?

Without a doubt.

Teachers: What’s the craziest excuse for late work you have ever heard?

“My homework caught on fire.”

That was the excuse I got during the last week of school when a project was due in my 7th grade reading class.

My students were told that the book we had just read, The Call of the Wild, was going to be made into a major motion picture, and they were to create a movie poster to persuade people to see the show.

The posters were to be judged by other students and staff, and the winner would be awarded a prize. The competition was intense!

Every student had a finished poster except Shane (not his real name). I wasn’t totally surprised, as Shane had been late with assignments in the past, but the excuse was pretty shocking.

“So, Shane,” I began, “when I call your dad, will he be able to verify that your project did, in fact, catch on fire?” I was ready for him to change his story, but he didn’t!

“Yes,” he replied, “and he’s really mad at me because it burned a hole in the living room carpet, so now I’m grounded.”

“Hmm, he’s good”, I thought, “validating his story with details…this should be interesting.”

Later, I called Shane’s dad, and sure enough, Shane was telling the truth! His dad explained that his son had used so much white-out on his project, that when he held a lighter to the poster board (to singe the edges and make it look old) the entire thing exploded into a fire ball, fell to the floor and burned a big hole in his living room floor.

“Wow, Shane! I was a bit skeptical, but your story checks out. I’ll give you until tomorrow to create a new poster. Your idea to make your poster look old is most impressive (as the story took place over 100 years ago) but DON’T burn the edges this time!”

The next day, Shane proudly walked into the class. I eagerly looked for a poster, figuring he’d be carrying it, but it was nowhere in sight.

“Shane, did you finish you new poster?” I asked.

“Yep, I sure did.”

“Where is it?”

“Right here.” and he gave me a crumpled ball of cardboard. “Open it up, you’re going to love it!”

I did the best I could to smooth out the wrinkled mess. Sure enough, there was a movie poster advertising The Call of the Wild.

“It looks great, but why did you wad it up into a ball?”

“To make it look old.” he said as if I should have already known.

Shane didn’t win the contest, he remained grounded 2 weeks, and that summer he had to get a job mowing lawns to pay for the damaged carpet.

I recently saw Shane at the state fair. He’s engaged and works as an auto mechanic. He remembers the poster project vividly and said everything worked out pretty well. They ended up getting the entire apartment re-carpeted for free and Shane got to keep his lawn mowing money.

Galatoire’s Crabmeat Yvonne

jacques pepin oysters rockefeller recipe 1024x694 1 — jacques pepin oysters rockefeller recipe 1024×694 1

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

6 artichokes
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup clarified butter
2 pounds backfin lump crabmeat
Salt and ground white pepper
1/4 cup parsley, chopped fine
6 lemon wedges

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Cut stem from artichokes flush with the base and boil artichokes for 45 minutes, or until a leaf pulls off easily.
Remove from pot, drain and let cool.
Pull off leaves and reserve for another purpose. Remove choke and slice the bottoms. Set aside.
In a large skillet sauté mushrooms in clarified butter.
Add reserved artichoke bottoms and crabmeat. Heat through, stirring gently.
Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley.
Serve on toast points with a lemon wedge on the side.

Attribution

Source: Galatoire’s, New Orleans, Louisiana. Gulf Coast Cooking

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

We have a son.

Twenty years ago, a friend called me in a panic. She was on the backside of a bad divorce, she had a three year old daughter, and she’d just been told she couldn’t continue to live where she was. The little girl was with her father that weekend, but my friend was at a neighborhood restaurant with no money and no idea what to do next. I told her to come over, got her something to eat and settled her on the sofa because she hadn’t slept in something over 24 hours and told her that we’d figure out what to do next when she woke up. Ultimately we moved her and her daughter into our guest room.

About three weeks later, she introduced us to a young woman who was pregnant and not in a position to raise a child. (She was married. That wasn’t the issue.) Sitting at our dining room table, having just met us and not knowing much more than that we’d taken in our mutual friend, she asked my husband and me if we would adopt the baby. We’d fought infertility for a long time. We said yes. She talked to her husband, and the whole thing was agreed on by the following morning. About seven months later, I was her birth coach and had the incredible privilege of catching my own son.

He’s nineteen now. We have him because we let a friend in a tough spot move in with us.

What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?

Mine was in the Air Force. I had a racist for an immediate supervisor who always gave me average ratings on my performance. I didn’t realize how bad I was getting screwed until one of my counterparts (who was a total screw up) was shocked that he higher ratings than myself. A “3” is considered average (which I was getting on my reviews). This “screwup” was getting 5’s which is the highest score. I was thinking “how the HECK did he get a 5??” This dude missed time, came to work drunk, was reprimanded for fights….been to jail….etc. my record was SPOTLESS. Always the first on the job and the last to leave. Kept my uniform super clean. So I realized that I’m working twice as hard as this other dude and getting a much lower score.

This was in the 1990’s. I overheard a conversation with my racist supervisor one day about what he wanted to be when he leave the military. He stated that he wanted to be a highway patrol officer “so that he can legally hit minorities”. He always made crude jokes about Mexicans and blacks. As an African American myself I hated this dude’s guts. His leadership skills were the worst. I hated every day of working with him.

One day it was his last day of work. The shop was going to throw a going away party for this racist pig. There was an option to donate $10.00 to the potluck to participate in the party or miss out and work. I chose to work. I’m not donating a DIME to this dude’s going away party.

After he gracefully disappeared from the job I thought that would be the last I’ve heard of him. NOPE! I was wrong. Found out later that he did apply for the state highway patrol position.

The timing on this particular day couldn’t have been more perfect. Two men from the highway patrol were visiting our unit and I happened to be the ONLY person there. They asked me “who’s in charge?” Well, I’m the only airman in the shop so I was actually in charge. I asked them what’s going on? They told me that they are doing a follow up on a gentleman who applied for highway patrol who used to work at this unit. I told them I have detailed files on this person. What made this even better was the fact that one highway patrol officer was black, the other was Hispanic. I was so nervous in hopes that our main supervisor didn’t show up because he would give this guy a decent feedback. I wanted them to hear the DARK side of this scumbag.

I told them that he was a decent worker at best but here are some documents I wanted to share. Luckily I kept my old floppy disk handy with all of the stuff I wrote to the higher chain of command about this racist pos. The statements had dates and times I written down of his racist comments over the years. Too many to write in this essay. But let’s just say it was two pages worth (front and back).

The look of disgust was very apparent on their faces. One of them asked me “people like him still exist in the military?” I replied “shockingly, yes”. They asked me, “did you ever want to knock this dude the F- -K out?” (Many Times I did).

To make a long story short, months went by and I didn’t hear anything. Then one day I overheard a conversation about my former supervisor being turned down for his highway patrol job and was working at a Wal-Mart as a warehouse worker. In all honesty, I take GREAT pleasure in feeling that my sneaky swift actions were the reason.

Get outta here

I told my professor that I am a Mensan; he laughed at me. What does it mean?

I certainly wouldn’t laugh if a student of mine told me that – so have no idea why your professor did. But I wouldn’t give it much weight, either. And I’d wonder why the student told me. Would they tell me how tall they were? Or what color hair they had?

If eligibility to be in Mensa requires one to be in the top 2% (or something) of people who take IQ tests, that is a nice capability to have. But what percentage of university professors are likely to also be eligible if that’s the requirement – plus have become academically very accomplished in their field of study? I have no idea what my IQ is, it’s never been tested as far as I know – nor has it ever mattered to me. It is likely higher than some – and not nearly as high as others, both professors and students I have known in my well over half-century at a university (if you include my student years). It’s a place that tends to collect very bright articulate people.

So if a student of mine told me they were in Mensa, I’d probably ask them about it, what they did as a member of Mensa, etc., just as I would if they told me they were in an orchestra or worked for a charity or played on the soccer team or something. That is, it is information about that student and it might be interesting, but what does it change? I would expect that person’s intelligence to show in their love of learning, the questions they ask, the connections they make, etc. And all of that intellectual capability would be obvious even it they were not a member of Mensa.

What was the best “extra item” you got in your order when ordering/eating at a fast food restaurant?

I went to McDonald’s and went inside to place a to go order. While I was standing there, the manager walked up to me and handed me an empty French fry box. This was during the time that McDonald’s was doing the Monopoly game. The game piece on the fry box was already partially open. I peeled it the rest of the way back and it said it was a $2000 winner. I really needed the money for college at that point in my life. I thanked the manager profusely. She said that it had been inadvertently opened by a worker. She saw me standing there with my young daughter and thought that I looked like I could use some cheering up. Best trip to McDonald’s ever!

If ASML cannot sell to China, how did they sell a huge order in September?

It’s very complicated

It seems the Dutch Government has forbidden ASML to sell EUVs to SMIC from 1/9/23

Yet orders placed until 23:59 on 31/8/23 can be shipped and fulfilled.

So technically ASML can ship orders to SMIC upto the time the last order placed on 31/8/23 is fulfilled

That’s for 21 EUV Machines & 50 DUV Machines

In September, ASML has delivered 4 EUV Machines & 17 DUV Machines

Meanwhile there is another legal complication

SMIC has now introduced a Distributor company who can buy EUVs from ASML and simply sell them to SMIC for a 10% commission (10% is just an example)

Now the Dutch order said only SMIC was forbidden from receiving ASML EUVs so ASML has also accepted 8 more orders for EUVs from this distributor

Technically Dutch Govt cannot specifically forbid ASML from selling to China as a whole as that is a major WTO violation

So they can only blacklist importers

So China can keep bringing up new distributors and placing orders and ASML is happy because TSMC has cancelled 24 Machines recently and i am sure China offered full price for the machines

Ultimately MONEY TALKS

Once again the US is furious but again it’s all about the legalese now

SMIC is forbidden so an agency buys and sells to SMIC

The Dutch look the other way of course

ASML is delighted because they sell more machines

My guess is this new agency will be blacklisted soon and they will incorporate more laws to prevent such measures

Yet that gets China another 8 machines plus a further 24 machines which I bet China will place as they are already in process

This means SMIC technically can make 7 nm and 5 nm Chips in decent quantities at least till 2026/2027

By then they should crack some breakthrough

So China has gained TIME and the Dutch have put business ahead of stupidity

Just like NVDIA and Intel just sold products to China which were slightly off the specs in huge numbers

Economics is ultimately invincible

Bile. Pure Bile.

What is something a teacher did that impressed you?

My Calculus professor in college did this:

He was working on a HUGE problem that took up the entire white board. The students were doing their best to follow the problem in their notes and in their minds. Suddenly he stopped, turned to look at us, turned red with embarrassment and realized that he got confused and lost in the problem. A student in the front row gently guided him to finish.

Instead of brushing this off he used this as an amazing teachable moment.

Here is what he did:

He asked us if we thought he was stupid. We collectively said “no.”
He then said that he was not a “melon head” and neither were we.
The lesson: He explained about the fight or flight syndrome and said that once he got momentarily confused, instead of going back to the place in the problem where he understood, he got nervous because he was in front of us, got into the fight or flight syndrome, produced adrenaline and got so stressed that he could no longer think. He then drew a picture on the board of a human brain, showed the reptilian part of our brain and the frontal lobes and explained that when we get too stressed we go to our reptilian brain and we need to return to our frontal lobe thinking. He gave us concrete strategies for exactly how to do this. (Breathe slowly, go back to a place where we last understood and start over). This lesson was SO impactful to me that I began to study the brain more and more and then I taught this to all of my students.

Final Thought: Even though my professor was teaching Calculus, his off-topic lesson was one of the best I ever had. He turned an embarrassing moment into an incredibly helpful life lesson.

This lesson was so important to me that I included the story as one of the chapters in my teacher support book, “Wait, Don’t Quit.”

Caught in the act

Ahhh. Sad.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wtWALCHAB04?feature=share

Have you ever found something unexpected inside of something you bought used?

I passed a great little convertible parked in front of a business with a “For Sale” sign and stopped to go look at it because I was considering a fun weekend car. It turned out the owner of the business was a past customer of mine, I had done work on his home. Two days later it was mine.

In the process of fixing every little thing and customizing it, I decided to pull out most of the interior to really clean it. Tucked in where the carpet overlapped, under the driver’s seat, was a gold ring with a small diamond. I wasn’t sure if it was real so I asked a friend at a nearby jewelry store. They confirmed it was real 18k and about ⅛ carat real diamond.

I called my friend who sold me the car. He checked with his wife and it wasn’t hers. I asked if they knew the previous owner but she had sold them the car before moving overseas and they lost track of her info. There must have been a clean title at some point because she wasn’t listed.

I doubt it was a wedding ring because it was so small, in fact the only finger it would fit was my mother in law’s pinky. She liked it so I let her keep it.

What is the bloodiest battle in Roman history?

Well, it depends on what we mean by “bloodiest”.

Battle with highest total losses: Battle of Vercellae

In 113 BC a large Germanic-Celtic coalition begins poking around Rome. They crush a Roman army and send the Romans into a panic. This army is 200,000 men strong- how can Rome compete.

Into this steps Marius, Uncle of Caesar. Marius was the most well-known general of his age and he set about reforming the Roman military with rapid speed, creating the more traditional Roman Legions we all know and love.

As this massive Army began to move for Italy Marius responded with his reformed Legions. What followed was a massive all-out clash where Roman discipline held back a far larger army. The turning point came when a commander named Sula counter-charged the Celtic cavalry and sent them fleeing into their own lines.

In all Plutarch reports 100,000 were killed, Livy reports 160,000, and Orosius reports 140,000 were killed.

Battle with highest Roman casualties: Cannae

Hannibal had invaded Italy and Rome responded by raising the largest Army in it’s history- some 90,000 men strong. The Romans used this Army to attack Hannibal, driving their strong heavy infantry forward in an effort to break Hannibal’s lines.

Hannibal had cleverly made his flanks strong and so as his center bowed inwards his flanks did not. This created a big “U” shape and the Romans found themselves being pressed from all sides. Then Hannibal’s cavalry came around the rear and surrounded the entire Roman Army. They then pressed in and killed perhaps 50,000 Romans.

My therapist refused to talk about herself. She kept saying “therapy isn’t about me, we are talking about you”. I don’t know why but it made me feel uncomfortable and a little distrustful. Is this normal?

I have to say, a number of answers to this question are appalling. What is most troubling is that many of the worst and most shaming of these responses are from supposed clinicians themselves. I am deeply bothered by this.

Is it normal, or lets say understandable, that you would feel distrustful and off about your therapist shutting down your queries about the nature of your relationship with them? Yep, sounds downright logical to me. When we feel distrustful it is because we feel unsafe in some way. You therapist refusing to engage with you around the experience of the inherent lop-sided-ness of the therapy relationship is problematic.

What you are experiencing is incredibly common, if not inevitable. I would dare say anyone who has remained in therapy for more than a few sessions with a therapist will wrestle with the freedoms and constraints afforded within a psychotherapy. For many this remains a constant felt tension throughout their therapy. It is an important aspect of therapy as exploring the tensions, dissatisfaction, unfairness, longings etc…with our therapists directly reveals our deepest needs and wants. Talking about the bounds of the therapy is the most fruitful of topics, a talented therapist would happily (if not giddily) help you to explore your distrust, or any other experience you may be having about being in therapy.

The issue isn’t whether it is right or wrong for a therapist to reveal anything about their private-selves (some do, some don’t). The issue here is that this subject has come up more than once in your therapy and you are clearly completely confused about it. Your therapist has missed a golden opportunity to open up a discussion about relationships.

It would seem according to some of these answers your therapist is not alone in completely missing the proverbial elephant, or neon sign, in the room.

He just wants peace

Have you ever met someone who sent you immediate red flags?

On my first day working at Domino’s Pizza, I was introduced to all the workers. One of the delivery drivers was a guy in his 70s whom we’ll call Morgan. He looked at me and said, “I’d ask you out, but I guess you don’t date people your grandfather’s age.” Keep in mind that I was 17 at this point; this was my first “real job.” Since I’d been homeschooled, I wasn’t well-versed in social norms, but this statement gave me the creeps. When I went home that evening, I discussed it wiith my mom, who said he was most likely teasing.

Morgan kept chatting with me, and I came to know him as a very friendly person. However, a couple of months later (I worked there from halfway through summer break until Thanksgiving, when I got a better job), I was eating a piece of leftover pizza and he grabbed my shoulders, trying to take a bite out of my pizza. I warned him not to do it again, or I’d elbow him. He talked for weeks about how “M.J. has pointy elbows,” so nobody get on her bad side.

I was never comfortable around him from that time on. He kept making comments that made me less comfortable. One day, he said, “You’re going to make a wonderful wife and mother someday.” Finally, I brought it up with my parents again. When I mentioned that he’d given me his business card so I could “use him as a professional reference,” they realized what was going on.

My dad called the manager, who was the best guy ever with six kids of his own and decided to let my dad (a tough-as-nails, Glock-carrying Italian gym rat in cowboy boots) do whatever he thought was best. I gave my dad Morgan’s schedule, and the two of them had a nice chat out in the parking lot. Morgan said about five words to me the entire rest of the time I worked there. It was glorious.

What is it like to work for a billionaire?

In a word? Surreal.

I used to work for an EXTREMELY reclusive billionaire (for further reference in the answer he will be called Greg) as a personal aide. Many things that I have seen and been a part of during my fantastic service with (for?) him are covered by legal documents that demand non disclosure from me. However, there are still some things that can be shared.

The word extremely is in all caps because only one or two pictures of him have ever been publicly published, and he has never given a personal statement. He maintained a zero social media presence, and would always grumble about the dependency of modern society on rapidly changing technology. His family and him always maintained a low profile, choosing to utilise public transport if they could (however, they had extensive means of transportation and if he felt even the slightest inkling of a threat they would use another transportation method). The children attended a private school just out of the county, however, in my country, private schools are very common, so this is not too fancy.

But, don’t for a moment underestimate the man. He had an uncanny ability to read people, pick out things others would not see at first glance and was always determined to understand and learn about the world around him. He would anonymously donate millions to organisations that furthered research into space (is this a thing? I learnt this from another personal aide). He played his cards close to the chest, and if he did not understand a theory or idea, he had no qualms of ringing the relevant party up to better understand the concept, something he did regularly with his firm which led to some talks behind his back in the firm.

He always maintained a composure of calmness through out even the most trying situations. There was a time when a client agreement between his firm and the client had fallen through, and they only had a few hours to rehash all the details. Unfortunately, he had given the lead architect of the deal a few days off earlier in the week as the client company had, at first, shown a very positive outlook on the agreement. Greg knew that the architect was out deep in the country side where he was helping with the after party of his sister’s wedding. Cell service was not great, and while the architect was informed of the situation, he was in no place to rehash a multi million dollar deal. So what was done, within a span of 1 hour, was a helicopter from a local tour agency, that always had one on standby, was chartered, sent out to the architect, brought him back and they worked on the deal. The deal eventually fell through (it was beyond saving if you asked me), and Greg felt extremely guilty for the inconvenience he caused the architect. As a form of thank you, he proceeded to pay for the sister’s wedding, and gave the architect another month off.

The billionaire I worked for always attempted to remain frugal. He never owned any form of private transport (jet, helicopter, yacht etc), had a small car collection but always donated money or reinvest it into the market. He never showed emotions, but you knew he was a caring individual. His neighbours son had been involved in an extremely gruesome accident when his car was slammed by a truck. Knowing that financing the operation and hospital stress for the son would be too much for the mother, he quietly payed for the entire operation, and set up a trust that would cover the living and medical treatment costs for that young man for the rest of his life.

Greg passed away a few years ago, which is when I stopped working. His wife asked us aides if we would like to stay on, and while several did, I left to take care of my ailing Mother. As a parting bonus, she gave the aides leaving a substantial monetary bonus that will be enough for the rest of my life if I live carefully. I haven’t heard from them in a while, but their current aides say they are still the same down-to-earth people I had known them as.

Greg was a fantastic individual. He was an avid learner, an individual who did whatever it took and, yet, still managed to keep the small things in life within his view. It gave me great pleasure to work for him, and I definitely miss him.

The Ferrari 166 S

The Ferrari 166 S was a sports racing car built by Ferrari between 1948 and 1953, an evolution of its Colombo V12-powered 125 S racer. It was adapted into a sports car for the street in the form of the 166 Inter.

Only 12 Ferrari 166 S were produced, nine of them with cycle-fenders as the Spyder Corsa. It was soon followed by the updated and highly successful Ferrari 166 MM (Mille Miglia), of which 47 were made from 1948 to 1953. Its early victories in the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia and others in international competition made the manufacturer a serious competitor in the racing industry. Both were later replaced by the 2.3 L 195 S.

What’s the strangest question you’ve been asked during an interview?

At the end of the interview, the hiring manager leaned back on his chair, folded his hands and grinned, “Tell me why I shouldn’t hire the guy I interviewed before you came in?”

I had to think for a moment. “Having never met or interviewed the guy, I can’t make an informed opinion.” And I thought the reason for the question was to see if I made snap decisions without any facts.

He shook his head, “Now that’s a cop out. Give me another reason.”

“Let me see his resume and give me a few minutes. Cover up his name.”

“I can’t do that, but I’ll show you his cover letter.”

He folded the paper so I couldn’t see who sent it, and moved it across the desk. I read the first sentence and said, “He makes careless mistakes. He misspelled the name of your company.”

The hiring manager’s eyes popped and said, “What?” He looked at it again, then said, “This meeting is over.”

And that was that. I never heard back and no one in HR would take my call. I don’t know if it was a fake letter he used as a test or a real one.

That was the strangest question I was ever asked.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Yes, I was a financial manager at a golf & country club.

I took two weeks’ vacation and when I came back there was a note taped to my computer that said, “Do Not Open.” Immediately, I knew because employees were being let go daily.

Minutes later, my desk phone rang, and the NEW GM wanted me in his office.

I was let go for no reason given other than “Don’t take it personally”.

I stayed in contact with my assistant, and she was given my job at $8 an hr. She also told me he brought in his wife, children and many other employees that he knew from a previous job at another club.

All total, 23 employees were let go and replaced!

Karma got him….he got caught stealing and he was fired!

Nagging Song

Have you ever dined at a restaurant that left you thinking ‘is this a joke’?

Some years ago, when my special needs kids were younger, we went to a nearby restaurant to practice behavior, social skills, and new experiences. They won’t learn if they aren’t exposed.

I agreed they could have anything on the menu as long as they agreed to try their choice. My older two tried something off the adult menu, but my younger one was less confident and asked to try something from the kid’s menu. I wanted this a positive experience so I said sure. He ordered the personal pizza.

I did chuckle that we came to a restaurant for him to have pizza, but we agreed. It was a great time, and everyone enjoyed. Well, I didn’t enjoy it as much when I got the bill. His personal pizza cost almost as much as a regular pie from the pizza shop. Well, we came for the experience and everyone behaved well. But next time, I had an impulse about eating out, I asked the kids if they were ok with the pizza shop, and they were. The restaurant was ok, but you could relax in the pizza shop. Ok, I learned a lesson that day.

What’s the biggest secret your mother told you that you can disclose here?

She hated the pool and resented my father for getting it.

Upon retirement, my father put an in-ground pool, complete with a deck and privacy fence, in his back yard. I’d been moved out for three years at that point, and I usually visited during the holidays, when the pool was closed. I never saw it in its full glory except in pictures. I saw a lot of pictures of my dad and sister and other people having great pool parties.

My mother was never in those pictures. She was the one taking the pictures, I assumed. But she later told me that she hated the pool. It cost half as much as the house it was attached to. It was the single biggest purchase my father ever made for himself.

He got about eight years of use from it. Then, his health got so bad that his doctors told him to quit going in it, lest he have a heart attack and drown in it. They drained the pool that winter, and it was never used again.

Then he died, and for the next six years, my mother had a giant man-made swamp in her backyard. Every time it rained, she had to pump the water out of the pool. It attracted frogs and snakes. It actually reduced the value of her home, because she lived in a poor neighborhood and no one who could afford to fix and maintain the pool would want to live in that neighborhood.

Finally, just last month, she got it filled in with dirt. It wasn’t cheap, of course, but now she can have what was there before: a garden.

Easy vs Hard

From an economic perspective, what would a “reasonable relationship” between China and the United States look like?

To the US :-

To the US, a REASONABLE RELATIONSHIP will be when :-

Xi Jingping retires or resigns
China demilitarizes and commits to the same
China relinquishes the One China Policy wrt Taiwan and cedes the South China Sea to US Hegemony
China prepares to be Number Two for the considerable future
China purchases and takes back US Debt to $ 1.5–1.7 Trillion

Nothing else will satisfy them

Even if China makes these confessions, some Neocons won’t be satisfied

They want a War against China and to see China broken and lose considerable power and the CPC to be ousted and a US style democracy established

For China, a REASONABLE RELATIONSHIP MEANS :-

Each Nation understanding that their laws are meant to be followed in each nation
No protectionism
Not using Geopolitical issues in Economic problems
Fair Competition and the ‘May the best man win’ philosophy
Win Win Partnership so that the Global Economy can gain

Of course China also has Wolf Warriors who simultaneously aim to develop their independent supply chain and to oust US influence in the Global South

In the end, the businessmen in both nations want what China wants

The leadership in China wants peace

It is the US that is divided because of its unstable politicians, between Neocons and Neo Liberals and frankly too many homosexuals and transgenders to truly gauge what a diplomatic partnership means

So today all China is doing is BUYING TIME and waiting for US to collapse under it’s own weight

What’s the strangest thing delivered to your house (that you did not order)?

About a year ago we had a strange series of UPS and FedEx deliveries. They all had our correct address but the name was something like a cartoon character.. think something like Betty Poop.

The first box was a plant stand. My wife took it back to FedEx. Two days later we got the same delivery! In the middle there were a few more deliveries.. my wife was thinking it’s a scam where someone would come by and steal the freshly delivered boxes. But the stuff we were receiving weren’t that kind of stuff you’d expect in a scam.

We have an HOA with a complete list of homeowners. There was nobody with a name even close. Last box arrives.. it’s UPS and a big box of wallpaper. I send an email to the HOA mailing list, asking if anyone else was on the receiving end of same thing.

I get an immediate call from a woman on my street about 10 houses away. She’s screaming that we are stealing her packages and she’s a decorator and we made her miss her deadline! Apparently the funky name was her new business name! She wants me to deliver it all to her immediately or she’s calling the cops!

I ask her what her address was and she recites MY address.. I tell her to go outside and look at the number on her house. And that I’m putting all her boxes out in my driveway and she should come get it!

Ten minutes later there’s a man in an SUV picking up the boxes. No apology, no admission of fault. I still wouldn’t know the woman if I saw her today!

What can we do against obesity?

Penn and Teller had this show a few years back called “Bullshit”.

They would debunk TONS of stuff. It was very educational without being skewed like some of Michael Moore’s stuff is.

One show was debunking diet myths. They went through the history of sugar vs. fat and the evils of high fructose corn syrup, etc…

But one pivotal bit was when they brought a stagehand out from behind the set. He had apparently lost a ton of weight recently. They asked him how he managed to do it.

This epic hero looked straight into the camera and said, “I stopped eating so fucking much.”

When COVID hit, I knew I wouldn’t be going out as much. So I decided to change my diet very VERY slightly. I would take smaller scoops of rice and take the smaller potato during dinner. Without doing ANYTHING else, I lost about 4 pounds in about as many months. I wasn’t even trying.

Stay away from hidden sugar. EVERYTHING in the U.S. has hidden sugar in it. Look at the ingredients. Is something ends in “ose”, it’s sugar.

Exercise helps, too, of course, but not everyone can do it. One thing everyone can do, though is:

Stop eating so fucking much.

Project Looking Glass | The Time Warriors of the 2012 Apocalypse

This is fun, but full of disinfo. Enjoy yourself.

When was the day you first realised you were getting old?

I grew up outside of a small prairie town. One of my best friends grew up about 10 miles out of town, and in my teens I used to spend a lot of time at his house with him, his siblings and his parents. They had a built in kitchen table and wrap around bench. We used to sit at that table have a beer, and play a card game called “pass the ace” or sometimes “spoons” with all of our friends, his parents and siblings.

I moved away, travelled the world, and never settled down. I was about 40, still single, and I still planned on getting married and having kids someday.

When I was back in Canada, I decided to stop in and visit his parents. I knocked on the door, which was never locked, they yelled at me to come in, and there was a tableful of people playing pass the ace, and drinking beer. There was my friends mother, his younger brother, and 5 other young people playing pass the ace. I sat down, had a beer and got dealt in. I started to get caught up on all the news. It was exactly like old times, talking, drinking beer, playing cards, with a tableful of young adults, in their late teens, and early twenties. Exactly as if I hadn’t left. Then it dawned on me, I was playing cards with my friends two sons, his sisters son and daughter, and two second cousins. I was thinking I hadn’t changed in twenty years, and suddenly I was an old man playing cards, with the next generation, and they were old enough to legally drink.

That was the day, I realized I was no longer young, lets face it, I was old. I remember 20 years before, thinking how cool his parents and their friends were, for drinking and partying at their age, and now I was that old man sitting at the table.

I not only remember the day. I remember the minute it hit.

What is the most interesting conversation you overheard in a restaurant?

I’m not sure it was the most interesting, but its stuck in my mind for years. I was in a nice lakefront restaurant, inside a city, so it wasn’t a big lake, but a small man made lake.

At the table beside me was a couple and a realtor discussing putting his house on the market.

The man appeared to be about 10 years older than his wife. They had one of 5 houses on an island in the middle of the lake, accessable only by a bridge. Very exclusive. The housing market was down. The realtor had told the man what his house was assessed at. The husband said, he knew very well, what it was assessed at, but he wouldn’t sell it for anywhere near that price.

The realtor told him it would be on the market for a long time, if he listed it that high, and might never sell. The wife started to say something, and the husband actually turned to her, and said “This is mans business, we know what we are doing, let us talk, if we want to know how to decorate a room, we’ll ask you” I saw the realtor cringe, he didn’t want to be included in that kind of conversation.

The husband then told him, that the way to market it, was to sell it as one of only five houses on an island in the city, maybe the whole province. I understood his logic, but this was not a nice man.

Listing a house is something that a realtor really wants to do. Even if they don’t sell it themselves, as long as someone buys it, they make money. But, and this is a guess, it costs money to advertise the house, put it on the MLS system, and if its unrealistically high, and it never sells then they lose money. Then he has to deal with a high maintenance client, that makes him feel like he should wash his hands, after every meeting.

In any case, the realtor said that if he wanted to list the house for more than 30 percent over market value, he would have to find a different realtor. The husband was stunned, and couldn’t believe he was being turned down. The realtor paid for the lunch and left.

I don’t know if they ever talked again. But I didn’t feel clean myself, sitting at a table next to this guy, so I didn’t blame him.

Men are not dogs

How do you call out someone that claims to have been in the SAS?

There is a sure fire way to discover if a guy actually served in the British SAS, one that I witnessed myself. Let me explain. I had a friend who was an alcoholic. There was gossip in the local pubs that he was ex SAS. No matter how drunk he would get, he would always laugh and tell you not to be so stupid if you aver broached the subject with him. So how did we find out the truth? At his funeral. A serving member of the SAS in full uniform, accompanied by a bugler (Non SAS) attended and gave a eulogy that had us all gobsmacked. Not only was my friend ex SAS, but his exploits were totally jaw dropping heroic. We were told that whenever an ex member of the SAS dies. His funeral is always attended by a serving member of the regiment. RIP Alec.

What’s the saddest “card declined” moment you’ve seen?

I was waiting in line at the dollar store, lady in front of me had an infant in her arms, and had an older boy maybe 5 who was holding his little sister’s hand who was about 3 to prevent her from running off.

She was purchasing 2 tiny packs of diapers, a few minor food items, and a 1 liter Mountain Dew. She had enough for the total, but it was spread among 3 debit cards. I don’t know if the clerk was new, or a new computer system, but the clerk was having trouble ringing it up in 3 payments like she needed.

I was off work at the time, between jobs collecting unemployment, so I was struggling also, but I could easily afford the little bit she needed, so I just stepped up, and swiped my card to cover her groceries. She tried to take the Mountain Dew out (a luxury, not necessity) but I pointed out with 3 children she needed the caffeine even though 1 was very mature, and helpful.

On my way out the door to walk home (nice day, and not far, so I walked instead of driving) I heard her attempt to stay her van, it sounded like a dead battery and when it finally started, a horrible belt squealing sound told me a belt was destroyed, or very loose.

I told her I’m a hobby mechanic, I don’t live far, and I told her I’d gladly look at it if she would like since I don’t live far, so she offered me a ride and another thank you for paying for her groceries.

When she pulled in the driveway, she was reluctant to shut the vehicle off, I told her I have a battery booster or my car to get her started if needed.

Opened the hood, and someone had replaced the alternator recently, but had forgotten to tighten the swing arm assembly that holds pressure on the belt. It took as much time to grab the tools as it did to tighten it correctly. It started right up with the battery booster, and the squealing was gone.

I pointed out the belt was looking worn out, recommended she get it replaced but it’ll last for a few months at least, and told her I would gladly put the belt on whenever she needed free of charge if she showed up with the belt.

I’ve been in her shoes raising my 4 children as a single dad, so the little money for her groceries, and about 5 minutes of my time to tighten the alternator belt was no problem at all.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

I’ve been wondering whether or not to answer this… The “wrong person” is my daughter (stepdaughter really,but I’m Daddy now and forever so that settles that) and the people doing the “picking a fight”were her ex boyfriend and his father.. I didn’t personally witness this because I was in Iraq at the time,but believe me I sure heard about it.

Daughter is tall and not a delicate flower even though she has all the requisite standard equipment to attract stares and suchlike, including a startling resemblance to Gal Gadot ,and I always emphasized to all my kids the importance of self confidence ,so she carries herself with a certain pride. She has Blackfeet blood along with Irish and Norwegian and who knows what else, girl has a temper too,what can I say..

Anyways,ex boyfriend and father spot her walking down the sidewalk one weekend night and follow her,asking her to get in and go for a cruise.. She says no,but they apparently don’t want to take no for an answer and pull ahead and stop, ex BF Gets out of the car and grabs her elbow and pulls her towards the car,she pulls away and he grabs her again, by this time she is almost in the door. I had taught my kids to avoid punching someone and use their elbows if the person was close enough, which ex BF certainly was unfortunately for his dumb ass, because Daughter proceeds to elbow him repeatedly in the face with backswing strikes on her way away from the car, dislocating ex BF‘S jaw and shattering his eye socket and breaking his nose, and naturally stopped any hostilities on his part, but ex BF’s dad was pushed by this time and ran around the car and accosted Daughter, catching a 50 yard field goal kick in his balls for his troubles..I taught my kids well.

no charges were filed..

The mindset of GEN Z

When Japan invaded China, did they also create “comfort women” like in South Korea?

During the Japanese War of Aggression Against China (1931-1945), about 200000, or even more women in China were lured and forced by the Japanese army to become “comfort women”. They suffered various unimaginable and unspeakable forms of abuse during the war, most of which were tortured to death at that time. Even if a few survivors survived by chance, they were left with scars and even lifelong disabilities.

At the comfort station, they subjected women to inhumane torture, even if they were pregnant, they still had to endure the torture of the Japanese army. Once they fell ill, they would be killed. The Japanese army did not leave a way for these women to survive, and they even set up a series of “rules and regulations” that made these captured women unable to die.

After Japan surrendered, they were afraid that their crimes would be exposed, and they brutally killed all comfort women before leaving. We cannot imagine how desperate they were at that moment. Fortunately, there are many women who have survived by chance. But for them, surviving may not be a kind of luck, because they have been living in darkness for the latter half of their lives, and their survival is evidence to prove the Japanese’s inhumanity. Because they survived with strength, we could only know about the various crimes committed by Japan.

There is a lengthy documentary in China called “Twenty Two”, that tells the story about China’s surviving “comfort women” during the Japanese invasion of China. The film was directed by Guo Ke, with 22 comfort women participating in the filming. It was released in mainland China on August 14, 2017. Unfortunately, on November 9, 2023, Li Meijin, the victim of comfort women, passed away at the age of 98. It means that all the surviving women in the documentary “Twenty Two” have passed away.

Until now, Japan has refused to admit their crimes. However, history is there, and it’s useless for them to sophistry. But even in textbooks, they briefly mentioned or directly overturned the truth about that period of history, to the extent that young Japanese people today do not understand what happened back then. They can cover up, but Chinese people will never forget that shameful past.

Alpha Dad Overcomes Childhood Hardships To Gain Wealth, Respect & A Wife That Treats Him Like A King

Damn is this good. And man do I love his grandmother. You rock!

What did you start doing differently that quickly changed your life?

When I moved to Thailand, I was incredibly lonely.

Not speaking the language, I lived for months in silence. I desperately wanted human connection. I just wanted to speak with someone.

My standard for becoming friends with someone dropped to having the ability to speak English. That’s all it took.

My new best friends became a 70 year old English man and his Thai wife. They would take me to markets on the weekends sometimes and talk with me if I ate dinner at their shop.

When I walked around the lake every day, I became friends with a 40 year old Thai man who used to work on cruise ships and could speak a decent amount of English to me.

A little 17 year old girl from Uruguay that I met at the gym became one of my good friends as well, she was studying abroad to learn Thai.

For the first time in my life, I had friends of all ages from all backgrounds.

My whole life, I’ve only been friends with people who were within a couple years of my own age. The only older men I talked to was my grandpa, I’d never called an older man a friend. I avoided high schoolers. Forty year old men and women were my parents age, I didn’t want to hang out with them.

But, let me tell you, life became so much richer as soon as I did. 70 year old men have lived a lot of life and can teach you a lot of things. 40 year old cruise ship waiters can tell you about a lot of life experiences that you’ve never had. 17 year old girls from high school can teach you about their way of life in Uruguay and supporting them can bring a lot of meaning to your life.

I think most people limit themselves to a bubble of friends who are the same age as them and in the same stage of life. I think that really limits yourself and the depth of relationships you can have.

I want to stay open to everyone for the rest of my life. It’s so much better this way.

Divorced Men

What is animal-inspired engineering?

Cockroaches have made their way into my life, against my will, and to great inconvenience. Three years ago, my girlfriend cried into the phone for me to come over, “Please…please…it is twitching on my kitchen floor.” She sounded like a hostage. We went back and forth for two minutes, with me insisting I couldn’t come to her house.

“I’m busy writing. Just get a paper towel and flush it,” I said, trying to calm her down. It didn’t work. She begged and begged until I finally said, “I’m doing this once.” And then drove 20 minutes — just to kill a roach.

After we moved into our new house together, my war with the roaches truly began. Exterminating them took significant research and numerous failed attempts. Mine is a common problem, and has made me question the value of these little critters.

We should be impressed that a creature has survived so much research and resources put into their extermination, and pesticides that are only making them stronger. A roach always finds a way and there is no “walling them out”. To the shock of NASA’s employees, one even snuck onboard Apollo 12. They’d moved mountains to decontaminate the spacecraft and ensure nothing snuck on. Employees were even in denial, swearing the roach couldn’t be there when astronauts said they’d seen one. Nevertheless, one did, and Apollo 12 took off for the moon while gaining the nickname, “The Roach Coach”.

Roaches are so nimble that researchers at Cornell University explored how just flexible they are. In a test of increasingly smaller crevices, they discovered roaches could squeeze through 3 millimeter spaces, despite their back being 12 millimeters high. Their exoskeleton is indeed hard and breakable, but exists in sections connected by soft tissue that molds and bends. And even while pressed down tight with weight on their back, they can still move fast and with little regard for gravity. When adjusting for size, they run the equivalent of a human running 200 mph. They can run when missing four legs. They can climb vertically while missing two feet. Scientists proved that roaches could withstand 900 times their own bodyweight without taking damage.

A roach is also an extreme gymnast, with a hallmark move, where it quickly flips from the edge of a table to the underside, dangling by one leg in an instant. It often leaves home owners wondering where the roach went. And so, a cockroach’s incredible athleticism, nimbleness, and durability, make it the perfect model for robotics technology, as we continue to explore new planets and depths on Earth. These new robots may even save lives.

A new era of inspiration

At John’s Hopkins University, Dr. Chen Li and Dr. Sean Gart filmed cockroaches running and then played video back in slow motion, studying how the legs and arms sync and propel it forward. They took notes, in awe, and looked at means of replicating these efficiencies with robots. A cockroach typically deals with vegetation, leaf and stick covered terrain. It is highly complex to navigate, but cockroaches do so with extreme ease and efficiency.

This matters because robotics is moving into a new phase, where robots are moving from indoor testing to outdoors, which is why the most clever animal navigators, including snakes, octopuses, and arachnids, have attracted non-hostile attention from scientists. One of the signature challenges robots face, is moving through unpredictable terrain and being durable enough for random physical impacts.

The study of cockroaches, in particular, has led to a new branch of durable and penetrating robots that can climb high objects, crash hard, and still get back up and resume climbing. Professor Robert J. Full, of UC Berkley, has spent his career researching the nature of evolution-inspired design, and even attached tiny jetpacks to the sides of roaches, to test how well they climb vertically while being randomly jetted to the side. It was easy work — for the roaches.

His lab designed a tiny cockroach inspired robot, that squeezes through cracks, and even looks a bit like a roach. It could be useful for descending through cracks in rubble to search for survivors. It stands 75 millimeters tall and can squeeze down to 35 millimeters, which is almost, but not quite as good as roaches. It also has similar pliable and molding body parts, that allow it to bend and move in extremely tight and uneven spaces. Dr. Full routinely meets with first responders at disaster sites, to learn more about their needs as he continues to innovate this robot.

The necessity of studying them

It is as the old Sun Tzu saying goes, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Cockroaches are a brilliant species, without actually being brilliant.

When I met with a pest control expert, his feedback wasn’t what I expected. He said, “Don’t just spray every inch of a room’s perimeter, they’ll know it’s a trap.” Then, he showed me how to put tiny drops along walls, and in the underside of cupboards and tiny cracks between furniture and sliding drawers. “Think of all the tiniest openings possible, and think like a roach — and you’ll know where to put the spray,” he said. It is this intrinsic cleverness and efficient navigating that could manifest robots of incredible caliber and utility in the coming decades.

What’s remarkable is that cockroaches don’t rely heavily on their nervous system for movement like other mammals. Even when thrown off balance, yanked around, blasted with wind, and spun like a top, their bodies auto adjust without thought. This matters for robotics because engineers are constantly programming and scripting robots to manage uneven terrain, and think about where their feet are going.

The insight from a cockroach is that, perhaps engineers shouldn’t try so hard with this programming method. They should rely on predictable mechanics, that have built-in means to traverse steep rocks and slippery surfaces. In short, make it more natural. This could impact medical technology and prosthetics, and help people who’ve had strokes or major injuries, develop more fluid gaits.

The animal kingdom is, in a sense, the only alien intelligence we deal with. Species are of ingenious design through an evolutionary arms race, and can move and adjust to their environment in ways we’d have never dreamed of. Which is evident when trying to step on a roach and you miss in the last moment, or even when you hit it, it manages to keep running. Who wouldn’t want this fortitude and evasiveness?

Perhaps what strikes me most, is that a bug with little cognitive function, has evolved to elude the smartest of all known species, and who is quite hostile to its presence. A future where nature-inspired robotics, combined with artificial intelligence, could save lives in search and rescue, improve exploration of new places and planets, and improve lives for the disabled. All thanks to our most ancient and enduring pest.

Chinese minorities

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/I2dUVTdyiOY?feature=share

Copeland’s of New Orleans Swamp Pie

Ingredients

20 ounces Graham cracker crumbs
6 ounces chocolate fudge
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream
12 ounces sliced roasted almonds*
12 ounces shredded roasted coconut*
5 ounces whipped cream
8 ounces butter or margarine

Instructions

Mix crumbs together with butter or margarine thoroughly. Spread the mixture on sides and bottoms of a 9-inch springform pan to form a crust.
Take 2 ounces of fudge and spread on top of crumbs. Place 1/4 gallon of ice cream on top of fudge. Next, spread 2 ounces of fudge over ice cream then place 4 ounces of coconut. Place remaining ice cream on coconut and follow with 2 ounces fudge, 4 ounces almonds and 4 ounces coconut as done before. Top with whipped cream and remaining almonds and coconut. Place in deep freezer for 3 to 4 hours.

Notes

Roasted Coconut and Almonds: Place coconut on a metal sheet pan and put into oven at 350 degrees F for approximately 3 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Do the same for almonds but increase the time to 4 minutes.

Simpsons Predictions For 2024 Is Insane!

What is one of the kindest things another person has ever done for you?

When I was running from an abusive situation, i lived in a shelter on welfare. After my 2 month stay was up, i had to find a room to rent or they’d send me to a homeless shelter (the one i was in was for female abuse victims and their children if they have any. Since there was a high demand for rooms there, the stays were short). I ended up finding a room that was 500$ per month. On welfare as a single person with no kids, I got 709$ per month. I went to view the room and the landlord asked me why I wanted to live there. I explained the situation and he immediately said yes. I ended up moving in not even a week later. He let me live there for free with unlimited wifi and cable TV included for 8 months of my 13 month stay with him. After the 8 months I had a job and could pay the rent, but even then he said if I couldnt make the rent to let him know. Hed share his food from his fridge with me, give me cash money randomly with notes that said things like “buy whatever you want” and “have a nice day”, hed offer to give me rides to the store and job interviews, he offered to get me a bus pass (85$ for one that lasts a month), hed invite me to share BBQs with him, his wife and the other 4 tenants. He bought everyone Christmas gifts (a box of Ferrero Roche chocolates and a 50$ amazon gift card). He never asked for anything back. He became more like a friend to me than a landlord. He was amazing

Was there ever a time in your life when you almost wanted to give up?

My stepdad beat me when I was between 8 and 11. He would wait until I wasn’t looking, then sneak up behind me with a riding crop and hit me behind the knees. My mother would not come to my defense, no matter how hard I cried. I had no idea how to process this situation. I felt like my mother betrayed me and that the legal system was on her side since she got custody of us (my sister and me) when she divorced my dad. I had thoughts about suicide, but we only lived on the second floor, so jumping wasn’t an option. There were railroad tracks nearby, so I could have jumped in front of a train. Basically, it was the lowest point of my life… and I was 11. Somehow I found the strength to get past this and accepted that beatings were a thing now. I could make it through this. I had to just count on myself to deal with the pain and betrayal.

Eventually, he beat me so bad that when my dad came to pick us up for one of our weekends with him, I was bleeding from a ruptured eardrum. My dad almost lost it. He was going to kill my stepdad. I asked him to just take me to a doctor and deal with the rest of the shit later. He did. He also demanded custody. My mom accepted immediately. I knew then that I was a commodity to her. I’ve written her out of my life for the most part. We only talk on birthdays and Christmas.

My dad did his best and I think he really supported me up until I lost him to brain cancer in January 2016. He was my Yoda, my Gandalf, my friend. I miss him daily. He saved my life.

I hope I can be there as much for my kids.

Overthinking men

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

KFC – always popular for making rules and rolling it back badly. As a student in UK, I worked as a parttimer in KFC for two reasons 1) Money I get paid 2) Food I’m allowed to eat during breaks.

Staffs who work in KFC are allowed to take KFC food during lunch breaks. I know staffs who even took a bucket of chicken for lunch , but then they’re hard workers and smart workers – a pillar of support behind the enormous profit KFC makes per shift.

One fine day, the circle management decided to do some cost cutting – made a rule that staffs are allowed to take only limited food for lunch. A burger, fries and a cup of soft drink. Nothing more.

Rationing food for staffs — nobody likes it. The store manager would check how much food you take for lunch , particularly if he’s a bully , that’s annoying as hell.

Time for payback ….

We came with a plan.

If the store closes by 10 pm, we started to over cook by 9pm, pile up all the racks with cooked food.

Now the “kick in the butt” is back on the store manager – it’s his head ache to sell all the cooked food before closing or else the food is reported as “unsold” in records. This means he gets questioned for poor sales, losses his incentives and what not
He can’t ask us not to over cook because incase there’s customer flow and there’s food shortage – we can do nothing. That affects the rating
Above all , staff food was rationed as a means of cost cutting. Now the management has learnt -” you touch my food, now deal with the loss mate, let’s see how you make profit”.

Within a week , the rule of food rationing was rolled back. The management went in knees —” take as much food you want for lunch, but please don’t overcook at closing time.

The management has learnt a hard lesson — it’s not just the store manager but the staff who knows how to run a shift with better profits.

No food chain can make profits without staff cooperation

Children who have had to clean out your parents’ house after they passed, did you find anything that completely changed how you viewed them?

This one didn’t necessarily change how I viewed my mom but it sure gave me a good (but bittersweet) laugh.

My mom was a hoarder. Her home was filled with junk from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. She just couldn’t bear to get rid of anything because she thought she might “need” it someday. The fact that she couldn’t find it if she did need it was lost on her.

Anyhoo, the day came when we had to move mom into a care home. My sister and I sat mom in a cleared corner of a couch and let her “help” by telling us “yay or nay” on keeping certain things. In the background, our team was hauling soooo much crap out into a bin without her knowing. We’d bring random boxes and let mom “sort” through them to keep her occupied. One or the other of us would sit with her and talk while the others worked. In the end, we actually kept only enough clothes and books and personal items to fit in the care home room we’d lined up for her.

During the course of the day we noticed that mom had acquired a VERY large number of nail clippers over the years. Being tiny items that you need fairly often, she was constantly leaving them here or there and losing them. The people helping would laugh and say “found another one!” every time they spotted one. In the end we found about 100 nail clippers! (We also found a mini fridge that had been buried in the back, filled with sickeningly, gaggingly, gross, rotten, mouldy food!)

Sometimes you can laugh and feel pain at the same time, I guess. It was a time of bonding for my sister and I. Mom had to give her beloved dog Spike to a friend and move away from the town that had been her home for decades. It was very painful for all of us but in a way it was also life-affirming if that makes sense.

What’s the weirdest thing you secretly do daily?

I bought a large framed picture of James Butler Hickock or Wild Bill. I loved the photo.

I hung the picture in my sunroom right beside the back door. It was like he was looking right at me and his eyes followed me everywhere I went.

I read quite a few books about this man and he led a very interesting life as a soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, showman, and actor.

We even visited Deadwood, South Dakota where he lived the last years of his life before being killed at a card game he was playing in 1876, the same year Custer died. We went to the saloon where he was shot and visited his grave on Mt. Moriah, and there beside him was the grave of Calamity Jane who was buried when she died in 1903.

So at first, every morning I walked out that door, I’d say, “Morning Bill,” and everytime I walked in that door at night, I’d say, “Night Bill.” All in fun.

Poor old Bill was probably lonely out there as he guarded the house. Was probably also cold at times. But those steely eyes would sure look at me. Sometimes he looked sad, sometimes amused like he had the slightest smile on his face. He probably enjoyed my pipe or cigar smoke that floated around the room while I had a few puffs. But I feel he looks forward to my good mornings and good nights, and I feel that if I forget to say those things to him, well, might not bode well. Superstitious I guess.

So every morning and every night, I talk to Bill and I think it’s okay. Weird, but okay.

Night Bill.

Roles

All the benefits and no responsibilities.

How could the American Military Industrial Complex be dismantled to save the US from getting into more and more wars and ballooning national debts?

This is a very good question indeed. Thank you.

Every American should seriously think about this. Every empire that come and gone since time in memorial, went because of over intervention, over interference and over reaching to the point that it could no longer sustain itself. And they self implode and civil war is inevitable.

The U.S. is not getting there, it is indeed there now and almost beyond redemption. Seriously, Americans must jointly and severally destroy the U.S. military industrial complex before it destroy all of you. They are the single most important reason that the US is drag into conflicts after conflicts. Due to them, your real standard of living has not grown since 1960! Your great grand parents have a better standard of living compared to you!

Please think seriously about your debts. Just 10 years ago your debt was a mere USD10 trillion today it is USD34 trillion precisely 340% increase in a decade. At the rate you are going by 2034 the U.S. debts will be USD100 trillion at least! Just paying interest alone at 5% is USD5 trillion dollars per annum.

Seriously, don’t let anyone fool you! 5 trillion is so humongous your nation will never be able to do anything else. Today you can argue that the U.S. infrastructure is lying dilapidated, your homeless has reached a million, a third of Americans are in debt and can’t afford healthcare and college education. It can only afford one and only one thing. Wage more wars! Wars enriched 0.01% of Americans! Your politicians and the deep state!

China is a million times more healthier than the U.S. that is your problem right here! China’s saving is so colossal it save a U.K GDP a year. China’s debts is USD 15 trillion and almost 100% of it is investment that grows China’s capacity! Build its state or art technology and infrastructure, graduate STEM engineers the size of the entire US STEM experts each year!

This means China grow its capacity phenomenally while the US fall back every year due to your liabilities. Let me be brutally honest, you don’t stand a chance against China! But you may save the US that still remain a nation and a strong 2nd largest economy for 50 years till India catches up! Most importantly your citizens get back its prosperity and avoid total collapse! Do it before it is too late. Get rid of the neocons, eradicate the deep state, get ride of NRA and CIA.

China cannot be stop, the best you can do is be strong and wealthy again.

Top Gun with a Cat

Enjoy this FUN short video. I hope it makes your day. I know that it did mine!

Oldest Son Blues

When I was in High School, I would often work until late at night in the mines, and then go home. But more often enough, no food was left for me. While my mother told my sister to make a plate for me, most of the time it was either [1] completely missing, or [2] starvation plate; one baby spoon of corn, one baby spoon of potatoes, and one half of a meatloaf.

Now, to keep up my energy, I would often buy my own food, and make it and eat around 10 at night.

One day, I was making a pizza for myself. I was alone at the house. But you know, suddenly I had to go to the bathroom. So I went upstairs while my pizza would finish cooking.

Unfortunately, while I was upstairs, my sister came home, with two of her friends. Took out my pizza and the three girls ate my dinner.

When I came down, I was livid, and they just laughed at me.

They taunted me. They told me how stupid I was, and all the rest of the silly kinds of games that adolescent girls play on the weak.

Meanwhile, my FUCKING father defended them saying “You are the oldest son and it is your responsibility to take the hits”.

…

He was always a BLUE PILL dweeb.

I’m much older now, and you know what, I should have beat their god-damn faces in. Let them cry and holler. Let them scream in pain.

But, you know, I didn’t. I was a “good boy”.

As far as my father is concerned… he passed on, and I forgave him. But I have to tell you all the real truth… he taught me to become the wimp nerdy blue-pill “kick me” beta simp that I had to endure with for decades.

DO NOT DO THAT TO YOUR KIDS.

You do not take abuse.

You PUNISH the abuser(s).

Swiftly. You rub their faces in the shit that they just laid down upon you. As they scream and hollar, let them. Soon enough they will shut the fuck up.

…

Today…

What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?

After he gracefully disappeared from the job I thought that would be the last I’ve heard of him. NOPE! I was wrong. Found out later that he did apply for the state highway patrol position.

Dave and Buster’s Muffaletta Salad

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds Romanelli pasta
4 ounces sliced turkey
4 ounces sliced ham
2 ounces (24 slices) pepperoni
2 ounces sliced salami
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup chopped green salad olives
1 cup sliced celery
3 tablespoons Italian dressing
12 ounces prepared assorted lettuce
2 ounces julienned spinach leaves
1 cup diced Roma tomatoes
1 cup assorted pizza cheeses: fontina, mozzarella, asiago or parmesan
4 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 cup roasted red pepper
1/4 cup shredded aged asiago cheese

Instructions

Julienne (cut into strips) the pepperoni, salami, ham and turkey then place in salad bowl.
Cut celery, green onions and roast peppers, add to the bowl.
Chop and add both types of olives and add to bowl.
Add the Italian dressing and pesto and toss all together well to mix.
Cook pasta in boiling salted water until done, drain and place in salad bowl. Pour the Italian dressing on the pasta and toss all together gently.
Place assorted lettuce, spinach, pizza cheeses, diced ripe Roma tomatoes and onions on cold platter (leave a space in the middle for pasta).
Add tossed hot Romanelli salad mixture; pile high in the center of platter. Add shredded asiago or parmesan to garnish.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: America is declining RAPIDLY

https://youtu.be/0gjzpZMFVsE

When have you fired someone on the spot?

Yes.

As a triage nurse in an Emergency Room, there are duties that become mundane but are necessary. One rule we had was that if a pregnant woman approached the check in desk complaining of pregnancy symptoms, the nurse asked how far along they were.

Twenty weeks is the magic number. If they are 20 weeks pregnant the baby has a realistic chance of surviving if delivered. This meant the nurse had to get up and push the patient by wheelchair to Labor and Delivery. It was a big hospital and L&D was on the exact opposite side of the hospital.

If they checked in at the front entrance, security would push them to L&D and the staff there would determine how far along they are and just as the triage nurse in the ER take them by wheelchair to the proper care area.

A pretty good system that had worked for years without incident. Both areas had to push an equal number of patients across the hospital.

And then one day I get a call from the L&D Director.

“We had a patient come in today who says she was told rudely by the ER staff that she was in the wrong place and needed to drive around to the front entrance,” she said.

I neglected to mention that this was a huge hospital that took up 2 city blocks. Crossing the hospital required a 10 min walk through a maze of locked doors and corridors. Driving around required 2 red lights and avoiding a one way street.

“I’ll have to speak to the staff,” I told her, “They know what they’re supposed to do.”

“This girl was 32 weeks and complained of her water breaking,” she continued.

It seemed she was catastrophizing the situation. The staff broke protocol. I will remind them and reiterate the protocol.

“I’ll make sure they understand,” I said.

“Keith, the baby was dead,” she said.

Turns out she was minimizing the episode. The seriousness of the call was not lost on me.

“I am going now to take care of it,” I said, “I am sorry.”

“These people are livid,” she added.

I called the charge nurse and asked who was at triage. Of the two names given, I immediately surmised who the culprit was. Judy was an outspoken nurse who enjoyed sharing her opinion that most of the patients in the ER did not even have an emergency. I went to get her.

“Can you come with me?” I asked.

“Why?” she asked, “Am I in trouble?”

She followed me out into the hallway, and as we walked to my office I asked her, “Did you send a 32 week pregnant patient around to the front?”

“Is that what this is about?” she started, “We are busy and I don’t have time to be pushing people all over the hospital.”

“The baby was dead,” I said, “This is not trivial.”

“That baby was dead before she got here,” she argued, “That has nothing to do with me not pushing her to L&D.”

Stating things that were most likely true did not change facts. She probably was already fired, honestly, but without hesitation I said, “Collect all your stuff and go home.”

“Am I being put on administrative leave because of this crap?”

“Come by my office before you leave,” I said.

While she collected her things, I called Human Resources and made sure I had grounds to terminate. The HR representative agreed to come witness the termination.

“I don’t care what you do,” Judy started as she entered the room. “That baby was already dead.”

“Judy, because of your refusal to follow proper protocol and continued insistence that you have done nothing wrong, you are being terminated. Effective immediately.” Her mouth fell open, and she began to cry. “This is Allison from HR. She can answer any further questions you may have.”

That’s the moment, I think, she finally realized the seriousness of her actions.

That’s Twilight

As a doctor, what is the most shocking thing a patient has ever requested from you?

An Egyptian woman insisted that her husband’s sperm be checked, because something was obviously wrong. They were trying to get pregnant, but nothing happened at all. And she wanted that baby.

His semen sample turned out to be a bit of a surprise, because it was dead. There was not a single living sperm cell detectable, and it had always been like that, because the man was consequently diagnosed with a rare congenital condition in which patients are infertile from birth.

His sperm had always been dead. The suckers never swam.

You might wonder why the woman’s question was shocking in the first place.

Well, they had three children. And her husband was convinced that he was the biological father of all three of them. His wife, on the other hand, knew only too well that maybe — just maybe — that might not have been the entire naked truth. Because back in Egypt — where they lived when all their children were conceived — there must have been another kind sperm donor. With living sperm.

And yet she was the one who insisted that her husband’s semen be checked by their urologist, because something was wrong. Only to be unmasked as a serial cheater.

And a very stupid wife.

What did you find while snooping that you wish you had never found?

I was working as a computer programmer. I was given a task with an impossible deadline with the threat “if it’s not finished on time, you’re fired”.

I was working late, very late like past midnight late. For some reason, I had an urge to snoop in my bosses desk. I was shocked to find a hand-written report on everyone in the department. The boss was following everybody around, timing and recording our movements. For example “A” took 3 minutes in the rest room, “B” took 7 minutes getting coffee then went to the rest room 17 minutes later, “C” returned from lunch 3 minutes late.

I was appalled and quit soon after that without telling anyone what I found. The rest of the team quit before the summer was over. From what I heard later on, they were all given a project with the same threat; “if it’s not finished on time, your fired”. Upper management called the boss in to find out why 75% of the department quit in less than 6 months.

I learned a very important lesson; if a boss hands you a project and says “if it’s not completed in time, you’re fired”. Quit immediately because that project was deliberately chosen for you to fail.

Doing “nothing”

What is your best parking spot revenge?

Its not exactly revenge, its more getting paid back.

I lived in a condo, I parked right next to a main door.

I would drive to work every morning, and one morning when I pulled out of my parking spot I noticed pinkish red transmission fluid on the parking spot. We have an expensive waterproof coating in the parking garage. You are not allowed to get oil on it, as it degrades it. There are huge fines for dripping oil

So I drove to work, called a transmission repair place, and told them that I had a leak, and they said I could drop it off at lunch. Towards the end of the day, they called me back, and said that they couldn’t find a leak, and they were sorry, but they were going to have to charge me $20 for the time spent looking. I thought this was a screaming deal, and put them on my list of places to deal with. A couple of years later, I did use them.

I drove home, and there was more transmission fluid in my parking stall, and I hadn’t had the car parked there.

So I went shopping, and bought a trail camera, that I placed in my stall. I also put up a sign, saying Parking $200 an hour. Which by condo bylaws was illegal, but I hoped no one would catch me on the first day.

I went to work the next day, and when I came home I checked the trail cam, and a delivery truck parked in my stall 4 times during the day, and the guy ran in and delivered packages. If he didn’t have the leak, he wouldn’t have been a problem. But it was like a $1000 for an oil spill on the membrane, so I had to stop it.

I called the company the next day and told them they had a driver parking in my stall, and they owed me $200, in parking fees. This covered my $20 at the transmission shop, my time off work, and my trail cam. They argued, but eventually paid, because I had pictures of the van parked in front of the $200 an hour parking sign.

He never parked there again. As I said, I wouldn’t have been upset, except for the leak. He might have been doing it for years, before he had a leak.

But I couldn’t risk the fines .

White American Food

Have you ever made a mistake that has haunted you for the rest of your life?

Yes. I am one of six siblings, the youngest was my sister. At 20 she got married, to what turned out to be a physically abusive husband that raped her. She got divorced. He began tormenting her.

I was ten years older than her; and I had started a business that was doing well. I was aware my sister was having problems with her ex, but I wasn’t paying much attention. She called me, and said she wanted to talk to me about if I could help her.

I could help her, but I was busy dealing with something, and told her I’d call her back when I had more time. Then I forgot to call her back.

A week later, her ex broke into her apartment in the middle of the night, and stabbed her to death, stabbed her 22 times.

It was up to me to go through her apartment after the police turned it over to us, and collect her things. I found a diary. And in the diary, she had written she thought her ex was escalating, he had cut the brake lines on her car, and she was afraid he was going to kill her. So she called me, she wanted me to help her run away for a while, where he couldn’t find her. And I said I could help.

And I forgot to call her back, for a week.

I had plenty of money, I could have easily supported my sister anywhere she wanted to go, indefinitely.

And if I had remembered to call her back, she’d still be alive. But I was too busy to talk to her, and learn how bad it really was. And I was too busy to remember to call her back.

Instead, I spent about $50,000 getting her ex prosecuted and sent to prison. I was prepared to spend even more, but back then, that’s what it cost.

That was over 30 years ago. I put my business ahead of my family. I still know I am guilty, my sister cannot forgive me, and I cannot forgive myself. That will be true for the rest of my life.

Edit: Thanks for the upvotes and sympathy. To save some trouble, I will say I do not want any advice on getting over this, or what my sister would have wanted for me, or forgiving myself, or that her ex is guilty but not me. If I could do any of that, I would not have written this answer. I’ve dealt with this 30 years ago in the way I still think is best: I accepted my mistake, and I changed my priorities and thinking to never make the same mistake again. And at retirement age now, those changes have helped me with other losses; they were not due to my neglect or wrong-headed priorities.

Edit2: several have asked how this cost me money; it is the States job to prosecute and they pay for it. True. But the DA has a budget, and spends it all on cases based on which ones they believe they will most likely be able to get conviction on. Especially you don’t want to prosecute a murder case, fail to get a conviction, and then if new evidence comes to light you cannot prosecute again, due to double jeopardy. They thought our case was just circumstantial and hearsay from the family that hated her Ex. (I understood that.) So I went looking for a solution, and found a law partnership with two ex-Assistant DAs, still on good terms with the current DA. They were now defense attorneys, but I paid them to reprise their former role as prosecutors, they hired private investigators (by the book professionals) to develop the evidence needed to get her Ex prosecuted. I paid a retainer of $10K up front, and every time that ran low, I bumped it up $10K. It took several months, but eventually they brought their case to the DA (I was not present for that meeting, they thought it would be easier to talk if it was just them and no civilians). The DA decided to prosecute. So I didn’t pay for the prosecution, I paid to make it cheap and easy for the DA to prosecute, and that was the new evidence they needed. None of that was illegal or used any illegal means. Her Ex was convicted, and the Jury deliberated about 30 minutes before sentencing him to 30 to life.

Cheesecake Factory

Do people drop to the floor when shot? Or can they keep walking?

Shortly after graduating from the police academy, I learned of a three-day course for police officers called “Street Survival.” I paid my way and attended the event. I learned a tremendous amount from going to that course. One of the biggest things I learned is what happens to a person when they are shot. We reviewed a lot of actual videos of police officers being shot. Some fell while others remained standing.

The skill they were attempting to teach us, was that as a police officer you never stop fighting. Not if you’re shot, not if you’re stabbed, stay in the fight as long as you are alive. This was at that time, shown to be the officer’s best chance at survival.

They showed examples of officers severely wounded who continued to fight until help arrived and survived. Conversely, some officers that were hit and simply disengaged were more likely to either die of shock or subsequently be killed by more gunfire.

I have watched videos where police officers in a gunfight don’t even realize they have been shot. I have always been taught that in a gunfight you keep fighting as long as you are able. It will hurt, and there will be blood, but an officer’s best chance at survival is to fight.

Secret doc AND modern policy aims to slow development in China

This is damn good!

What is the craziest thing you have ever said or done at an interview and still gotten the job?

I got called for an interview two days after submitting an application. I cried after getting off the phone, because heck, I need this job and I have an interview tomorrow.

For context: I was out at the beach with my niece and nephew, and it was cold water and their first time at a beach so of course I follow them into the water because someone has to keep an eye on these trouble makers.

I failed to realize the consequence of having sniffles combined with taking care of kids and a cold beach. While were out to lunch, I get the aforementioned call.

I wake up the next morning and I am sick. Sick as in flu, runny nose, throwing up, coughing, barely speak sick.

I get my butt up and go to the interview. That alone is crazy.

And this interview goes incredibly well. I manage to get through it.

The manager extends his hand and says with a big smile, “Well, we’d like to extend an offer to work here to you.”

I’m about to shake his hand when, because my life is an actual joke, I throw up. Onto his shoes. All over the carpeted floor.

I look at him, and I’m scared. I thought I royally goofed. He hands me tissues and smiles like a dad does.

”Don’t worry. The offer still stands. I hope you take it too, because it’s obvious you are a determined young woman. I’ve never had anyone come to an interview sick before.”

And thank God, I got hired.

BFFR LOL!

What are some of the most awesome psychological facts?

1) 80% of people would write their name if asked to write something with a new pen.

2) If a person laughs at a low quality joke then he is suffering from loneliness.

3) The big toe indicates the nervous weakness hidden by the other fingers, indicating that the person wants to be unnoticed by many.

4) Psychology is the first 6 seconds of meeting with someone, the first impression about him is formed.

5) It is a proven fact that our response to any situation is capable of radically changing that situation.

6) Many times someone’s indifference indicates his utmost care which he does not want to express.

7) If you write down negative thoughts and throw them away like garbage, your mood will get better.

8) In 90% of cases, those whose handwriting is bad are more creative than usual.

9) It has been proven that orange helps reduce anxiety. That’s why doctors recommend eating an orange before going to work.

10) Never reveal your goals to anyone. It produces the equivalent effect of achieving goals in the brain.

11) When surrounded by plants, the brain releases certain chemicals which increase the thinking power of the brain. That’s why walking in the garden is part of some psychiatric procedures.

12) The conversation of the parents with the child becomes the language of his mind.

13) 8 positive statements disable a negative statement.

14) If someone’s foot is back towards you during the story-gossip with many people, then it should be understood that he is interested in you.

15. If a girl likes you, she will play with her hair while talking to you.

16) You will rarely die in your dreams, if you die in your dreams then you have started something new in life.

17) Dream is a conversation between you and your subconscious mind.

18) But before we go – a click on the upvote button will make both of us happy.

Hair washing Holiday

Can you please provide your insights on the recent meeting between Xi and Biden? There are gossips that Xi requested 900 Billion USD to bailout China, is it true?

It’s not just stupid but impossible

Even if Xi requested for a Loan of $ 900 Billion, the request would be made by the Bank of China to the US Treasury and would be an official request

The Loan would need Congressional Approval

Besides why would Xi need Biden for $ 900 Billion?

He has $ 3.1 Trillion in Forex reserves and even if China pays off all the debts it’s committed to, that leaves $ 1.2 Trillion in the clear for China

That’s more than the next 17 nations combined

Plus even if Xi needs money to bailout some aspect of China, his people have almost 80–100 Trillion RMB in Savings and Investments and all he needs to do is to offer 8% interest and tomorrow morning he gets his $ 900 Billion.

Plus where exactly does Biden have $ 900 Billion?

Plus why would Xi need $ 900 Billion in US currency?

Obviously this news is not just wrong but fundamentally stupid

Xi and Bidens meeting was done at Bidens request

Xi took the opportunity to meet the businessmen of USA and present to them his three new policies on Foreign companies

A. Reducing the time needed to withdraw capital from 36 months to 12 months

B. Extending IP protection from 1 year to 5 years (Many US Businessmen loved this)

C. Decriminalizing Espionage which didn’t have National Security Implications and changing 15 year imprisonment to 100 Million RMB fine

Biden and Xi met to mainly bide time

Biden has the US Elections next year and has his plate full of conflicts and simply can’t afford a third conflict

Xi said he would not invade Taiwan without red lines being violated including the declaration of Independence

That’s it

Everything else is just superficial

Hoflation

What do you do when someone has road rage and tries to follow you home to fight you?

My cousin once ordered some louts out of the store he was a manager at.

Later that day, as he drove home, he spotted them following him. He didn’t speed, he didn’t weave, he just drove carefully to a nearby suburb, turned down a side street and then turned into a driveway between two blocks of residential units, with them closing the distance and pulling in right behind him . . . right into the parking area behind the local police station.

The louts realised where they were, started to reverse out as a bunch of police looked up at what was going on, only to have a police car pull up behind the louts, blocking them in.

My cousin got out and explained what was going on to the officers on hand. The louts denied following him but it didn’t matter. They had outstanding warrants AND were already on the ‘Be On The Lookout’ list for some antics they had gotten up to earlier in the day.

My cousin gave a statement and went on his way, the louts didn’t get to do the same.

What is McDonald’s hamburger patty made out of?

My family has been involved in sourcing the cows for McDonald’s for decades. I use the word “cows” as opposed to “cattle” because almost all of the meat comes from dairy beef. Now dairy beef is not a bad thing if you make hamburgers out of it and it is very lean. Growing up on a beef farm I was raised on premium ground chuck. The texture is totally different. Our burgers would easily fall apart. However, you do not want that in the fast food industry. Dairy beef creates a “chewier” patty. Processed thin, it is perfect for McDonald’s and it is 100% lean beef.

As cattle buyers, our family has had their fair share of tricks pulled on them. Unscrupulous sellers make give a cow an injection right before she enters the sale barn and we would buy her thinking that she was just a cow that had quit given milk. Since there is a time period between the sale barn purchase and the cow’s arrival at the processing plant, the ailment would inevitably show up and she would be rejected by McDonald’s. We, of course, had to bear the cost of the reject. McDonald’s was strict!

Additionally, all the cattle are brought to a central source where they are butchered and processed to provide a more “generic” flavor as opposed to one particular breeds distinguishing taste (if that makes sense). In other words, all the patties taste the same.

Though I do not eat at McDonald’s very often, I am not afraid of their meat. I recently read an article on Pollock (the fish in Filet-O-Fish). McDonald’s only uses PREMIUM Pollock! And their tatar sauce is one of the top-rated in the world for flavor! Crazy. Try the Filet-O-Fish with added bacon – game changer!!

Rufus takes action

What is the most violent thing you have ever done?

I tore a guy’s arm apart at the wrist, elbow and shoulder. I dragged another guy’s face along a brick wall.

I was out walking late at night. I’d just had unexpected news that my daughter had died. I was sitting on a bridge near my home contemplating jumping. I was completely broken.

Three men approached me. I was called a Paki and threatened with violence, and rather than run or de-escalate (which is the standard/correct response and one I had consistently tried to use until now), in my emotional state, I threw the first punch.

I dragged one of their faces along a pebble dashed wall, cutting up most of one side of his face.

I grabbed one of them by the wrist, twisted and yanked using a nearby wall and my foot as fulcrums. Elbow popped. Shoulder popped. Wrist cracked. He screamed and it looked completely misshapen.

This is why this was the worst: I was not trying to save myself. I was trying to hurt them. The self defence was coincidental. I was angry beyond anything I could control and they made themselves a valid target for my rage. I did not need to do those things to those people to protect myself.

They ran away with their injured friend(s). I went home and called the police. They sent me to a psychiatrist who assured me that my response was not “abnormal” given the sudden exposure to several extremely stressful events back to back, but that I did need further counselling.

I was put in touch with a longer term psychiatrist to help me process both my grief and anger, who also helped me deal with my subsequent depression.

True violence is very rarely the result of a healthy mind.

My 22-year-old daughter wants me to babysit her 3-year-old without paying. How do I tell her I won’t babysit her child without getting paid?

Where we live daycare is $500 a week for an infant with almost a one year waiting list. My daughter and my son in law (SIL) were making hard financial decisions on who would give up their career to watch the newborn – trust me they make good money, but not enough in this economy.

I said “I am eligible to retire. I can watch her”. I watch her 7–5, five days a week and do not ask for a penny.

What do I get in return? A bonding with my amazing grandchild that I never had with my own children that went to daycare when I worked.

I see daily, the world through her eyes, and the pure joy only a child has. Days filled with laughter. Singing her to sleep. Reading books. Playing together. Taking walks in the park.

Also they buy or cook food for me so I have a free breakfast, lunch, and snacks everyday. My SIL also helps with our routine home maintenance and also provides the muscle for jobs our old bodies can no longer do.

I receive special gifts from my grandchild every holiday and birthday that I know my daughter and SIL bought – items my daughter knew I wanted, but never would purchase for myself.

Yes, I could have worked a few more years at a very nice salary but I put my own ambitions aside. Family is all you have in the end. Hold them close.

Just my view.

Boss Babes

How corrupt are the Chinese elected officials compared to Western democratic countries?

On a time line?

It’s a roller coaster

Before the 1990s super corrupt Deng Xiaoping’s son and Macau Gambling debt is testament to that.

Then the 2000s rolled along and there were anti corruption drives. Literally people with bricks of RMB in their homes.

By the mid 00s human flesh search came along. When a citizen saw a government official with stuff beyond his pay grade? Or Flaunting it. They reported it. The CPC went and investigated it.

Li Gang is the poster child for this – This son said I’m LiGang’s son showing his power/wealth influence. He lost everything.

By the end of the 00s corruption existed but it was good fellas

You see by the 2010s cashless payments were the norm. So yeah sure you COULD have bricks of RMB in your home… but you can’t get it out the country… you also can’t spend it as above people watch for things you have above your pay grade if you pay in cash.

BIG cash payments draw attention to you as everything else is paid electronically.

But there are still 420,000 prosecutions each year out of 80–90 million CPC members for corruption.

The big difference? Jon Corzine steals 1 billion dollars. He apologies pays a small fine (significantly less than he stole) and got no prison time, oh and he resigns… the ULTIMATE punishment and the ULTIMATE HIGHEST WORST PRICE IN THE UNIVERSE!

Meanwhile in China. Corrupt politician equals DEATH!

Most westerners laugh at how soft this punishment of death is! I mean if he resigned that would be a MUCH MUCH HARDER punishment!

No he only got a slap on the wrist death!

What is something your pet did that you couldn’t believe?

One day, while I was working upstairs in my office, my German Shepherd came upstairs, stood in my office doorway barking at me.

Then he walked over to the top of the staircase barking as he looked down the stairs. He lifted his head, looked towards me and continued barking.

He walked back and stood in the office doorway again looking at me, barking.

He did this repeatedly for a few minutes while I worked. It became obvious he wanted me to follow him downstairs. I got up and asked him, “What’s the matter?”

As soon as I asked this our house began to shake.

Everything on my walls and shelves were rattling.

I did not understand exactly what was happening, but we both ran down the stairs while I yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

We got outside and I felt the ground moving.

Then it stopped.

We had just experienced an earthquake. They are practically nonexistent in our region. Somehow, my boy knew it was coming and came upstairs to warn me.

He did many intelligent things in his lifetime, but that was the most amazing.

EU launched an anti-subsidies probe into electric vehicles manufactured in China. Could China’s EV industry become another Huawei, which be contained by US and EU?

Naah

Huawei had a problem. The Core technology was Western owned and the West had leverage

In case of EVs, China owns all the core technology and actually licenses it’s own Battery Technology to Western players

This is just an effort by EU to protect its players like Benz or BMW or Volkswagen or Renault and buy them time to catch up with China

Eventually they won’t because they don’t have the Ecosystem that China has

However newer players may crop up to compete with China

At that point EU would be helpless to stop the competition

How lucky are we?

My grandmother won’t throw out food. If the strawberries go gray, soft, and moldy, she’ll carefully cut out the bad parts and eat them anyway.

When I was a kid, a friend and I played frisbee with a pita bread in a public park. An old man sitting on a bench nearly had a heart attack yelling his lungs out at us.

Both my grandmother and the old man had survived the Holocaust. My grandma watched her own mother wither away, her ribcage protruding more and more every day, her face becoming skeletal until she died from malnourishment.

They lived on unsweetened tea, watery soup, and a fistful of rockhard black bread. You were lucky if you had a potato peel floating around in your bowl.

When the prisoners were liberated, many died because of taking in too many calories too soon. Their bodies couldn’t handle the sudden nutritional richness. Imagine how the Allied soldiers must have felt when they realized their generosity was lethal.

The vast majority of us can’t even imagine a life like that. We live surrounded by an abundance that is unfathomable for people who have gone through such heinous adversity.

We have access to the basic necessities of life.

We have the luxury to dream, create, and even help others.

We are immeasurably lucky.

America is batshit crazy

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sWiyHzdDWxk?feature=share

What are some harsh things you have accepted as an adult?

A long-term relationship not always ends up with a marriage.
Love exists but it is preferable for many to become a slave and cry in a BMW rather than laughing and enjoying every moment with another person sitting right behind his/her two-wheeler.
Money is not everything but it is everything.
Looks are not everything but it is everything.
Sex is a need and is a way to every enlightenment.
The unconventional form of the profession or acts like writing, blogging, taking a year gap, traveling seems tempting by self but not appreciable by society.
“I need some space” is the most hypocritical statement ever.
Change is the only constant thing which stays immortal.
No one stays with a struggler.

How do you handle that one relative who insists every time on ordering the most expensive item at the restaurant when you are paying?

This used to be me. I’m successful in tech & love being with family. I was a travel RN for many years & I have family all over America. Fifteen years ago I was assigned to San Diego for six months. My Uncle Trent lived there with his wife & three kids. I’d see them once weekly for dinner & always paid. The family always ordered the most expensive on the menu but never finished the food. This went on for months. A few times I suggested that they all order what they could eat to no avail. So after four months of this I stopped going out with them when I visited. When they suggested dinner out I took my leave.

Father’s Day my Uncle calls me to come celebrate with them at an Italian restaurant in the mall. Sure! I’d love to be treated for once! I even bring my daughter with me since she’s visiting the city for the first time. We arrive at the restaurant & it’s one of those buffet type places where you pay first then eat. As we are walking up my uncle & his family line up in front of us. My daughter is in front me & we are all laughing & talking.

As I get up to the cashier & order she tells me the total. At my shocked face she says ‘He said you’re paying for everyone.’

My daughter hears this, puts her tray over mine & we turn & leave.

Never saw or spoke to that family again!

What is the Made-in-China 2025 initiative? What are its goals? Do you think it will be successful?

China has succeeded way beyond its own lofty goal 2 full years ahead of time. The goals were to match or overtake the west in all key technology for today and tomorrow’s world to the point that the U.S. and the west can no longer control China technically.

Roughly 2 years ago a Neo funded, Australian think tank call ASPI or Australian Strategic Policy Institute researched and comprehensively concluded that China today lead in 37 out of the 44 key strategic technologies and know how and the U.S. only has a marginal lead against China in 7 out of the 44.

China calls this technology sovereignty and China has them right where they wanted to be at. Frankly the U.S. by being so obnoxious about preventing this actually speed China along. The more the U.S. tried to contain and control China the harder and faster the Chinese work to overcome them.

So don’t asked this bias and ignorant question China is ready and China has overtaken. The question is how can the west win it back!

Credentialism

What are the ways to become a high quality man?

Start by getting the highest paying job you can get . Be the hardest working man in the room, always.
Get more responsible. Pay your bills on time and reach your workplace on time . Remember, you are capable of so much more.
If you have got any skill, level up and make it earn money for you . Start any side hustle , women love it and men respect it.
Adopt the 5 hours rule . Spend the 1 hour a day , 5 days a week , leveling up your skills , be it reading , studying or painting.
Become dangerous. Start boxing or karate classes , learn how to hurt people , destroy things and take a beating.
Increase your self discipline. Remember pain of discipline is less than the pain of regret and disappointment.
Create your own set of beliefs and standard about what you expect and will tolerate in your life . Like , I will not hang out with people who drink , smoke or have no ethics.
Improve your lifestyle. Cultivate good habits like reading, meditation and cut on bad habits.
Start working out be it yoga, boxing or hiking.
At the end of the day, you have to answer yourself and your conscience,” Did I live today according to the values and beliefs ? Was today a day of peace for me?.

Missing the doggie

Is there an anti-government militia organization in Tibet, China?

Tibet has been a part of China for more than 700 years. Before 1950, Tibet was a brutal serfdom under Dalai Lama and had a cast system similar to that of India. The Monastery class were the slave masters and owned 99% of the land in Tibet. As a matter of fact, Dalai Lama was the biggest landlord and slave master and owned more than 6000 slaves. As a result of the brutal treatment of serfs, such as judicial bodily mutilation, Tibetans life expectancy under Dalai Lama was only 32.5 years. Now it has more than doubled.

I constantly am told how can I support China considering what they have done to Tibet? For one, the Dali Lama is not the “pope” of Buddhism, the man claims to be Buddha reincarnated, 99% of Buddhists world wide reject this claim, it would be like if someone said they were the second coming of Jesus. Tibet was a backwards feudal theocratic society that tortured people, burned out peoples eyes as legal punishment with heated metal balls. It was a barbaric backwards society that in no way represented the teachings of Buddhism. China has since developed and provided massive humanitarian aid, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and did away with the barbaric inhumane practices, if you know the truth about Tibet, how can you not support China?

Let’s not forget when Dalai Lama was in Tibet the top 5% own the remaining 95% as serfs. Dalai Lama was from a rich family that has 27 manor houses, 13 pastures and 6,000 serfs. He didn’t want reform and coerced with foreign powers to fight the PLA. He and his rich big land owners now live in India like kings from the huge wealth they moved out of Tibet. The foreign powers used to operate in Tibet as about 20 years I once saw a video pointing from a second floor to a ground front door where a group of rioters suddenly came and systematically set fire up to the property in a staged and well rehearsed manner. I was taken back by the clarify, perfect position of the camera and the exact timing that it captured the entire sequence from the beginning. The video was supposed to prove Tibetans were suppressed and rose up to protest. It appears China has since put an end to these foreign-backed rioters. The CIA also played a huge role in Hong Kong riots in 2019 as they were filmed personally took charge in directing the crowd. Many protesters were paid. Some judges were bribed, arrested protesters were provided with legal lawyers, families of the arrested were given financial helps and those wanting to escape the law were arranged paid transport to Taiwan. The US has infiltrated the the education system, the civil servants, control some media and own one major newspaper.

Dockside Grill Shrimp Remoulade

Ingredients

Remoulade Sauce

2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup horseradish
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons Creole mustard
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 head shredded lettuce
4 Roma tomatoes, cut into quarters

Shrimp

1 pound boiled shrimp

Instructions

Mix all sauce ingredients well and refrigerate two hours.
Place boiled shrimp on shredded lettuce.
Add the tomato, top with Remoulade Sauce and serve.

Cat play

What’s the craziest or weirdest thing a new hire at your job has ever done?

I went back to my office after lunch and sat down at my desk. There were crumbs on it.

I called out to my secretary, who had a desk just outside my office, asking,” What are these crumbs all over my desk?”

My secretary says, “I told her not to do that. I told her. But she wouldn’t listen.”

“What is going on,” I asked my secretary, my voice rising. “Who did you tell not to do WHAT?”

Turns out a new hire decided that she needed a change of scenery for lunch, so instead of eating at her desk or in the cafeteria that she’d eat at my desk.

To me, it was:

1. a violation of my personal space

2. rude to leave crumbs all over

3. a stupid thing for a new hire to do

I chewed her out, but then a couple of weeks later a contractor called to let me know that this same new hire had told him not to tell me about a big costly mistake she had made. As if he’d risk his relationship with me!

I fired her sorry ass on the spot.

But when I came back from lunch after I fired her she was still there!

I asked her why she hadn’t left and she said because I couldn’t fire her without a written warning first and then counseling. I informed this sorry excuse for an employee that she was still on probation. She said that couldn’t be because it was past her first 30 days. I told her that she had been causing so many problems (her colleagues were furious with her) that I had officially extended her probation with HR, so I could fire her without any warnings or counseling, and that if she didn’t pack up and leave immediately I’d have Security do it.

She finally left.

I don’t want my daughter to be used…

It’s about stinky dead bodies

When I was a teenager, there was a flood along the river where we lived. A large number of mobile homes that were located on the shores of the river were taken out, and destroyed. And six people were missing.

One day after the grand storm, I was walking alongside the tracks beside the river. I was in a remote section of the track. Perhaps two miles away from the town, and in the woods.

Eventually I came across a section that smelled really, REALLY bad. It was so foul that I got off the tracks and went to the edge of the river, where the smell was so damn intense.

I couldn’t see anything, and left. But that afternoon, I later discovered that a body was found at the exact location where I was standing looking for the body.

This is my story for today.

Boring? But, you know… true life experience.

Today…

What did you find while snooping that you wish you had never found?

When I was around 11 I was snooping around in my parents room and saw their bank passbook sitting on their dresser. I opened it up expecting to see a healthy sum of money. Instead there was less than $30 in it. I saw the weekly deposits from my dad’s work and regular withdrawals for cash.

even at that young age I realized that we were poor and what little we had got spent on us kids. I felt terrible when I thought of all the times I’d pushed my folks to spend what they had on treats for me and my sister and brother.

I stopped asking for expensive things after that.

What are the reasons more and more Chinese students abroad decide to return to China?

A year ago, filled with a longing for Western freedom and democracy, I applied to the University of Auckland, thinking that it would be great if I could stay and work or live in New Zealand after graduation.

Now, I am firmly convinced that I should return to China after my graduation because:

1.The salary here is not as high as what I can earn in China,

2.The best city here is only equivalent to a third-tier city in China. Shopping and daily life are not as convenient as in China, and the cost of living is four times higher.

3.The knowledge taught in universities here, I can learn for free on Chinese websites, and it’s richer and more advanced.

4. I participated in two research projects at the University of Auckland and found that the level of research and development here is behind that of equivalent universities in China. I realized that by studying here, I probably won’t be able to bring back advanced knowledge. Therefore, I am considering returning to a Chinese university to further my education.

5. Moreover, I can feel that the majority of people in Western countries still believe they are more developed than China. This is the general perception, and I don’t need to explain it. I’ll just return to China and quietly contribute my strength there.

6. Western culture, there seems to be a preference for those who are boastful and talkative rather than those who are low-key and pragmatic. Coincidentally, as a Chinese person, I am not good at boasting, and I prefer to fulfill my responsibilities and then rest. The Chinese workplace is more accommodating to someone with my traits.

In fact, I spent hundreds of thousands of RMB to come to New Zealand, to see the real Western world, improve my English, and then met a group of Chinese students and a few friendly foreign students, and ate food that I wasn’t quite used to for a year.

What, as a parent, could you not believe you had to explain to another parent?

I’m not a parent, but as a teacher I had to explain to a mother about bedtimes and sleep for a seven year old.

Her son was always tired and had difficulty staying awake during class. He was not working to his potential.

His mom came to discuss his poor grades. Come to find out, she was under the impression that he slept too much. So, she kept him up to midnight and had him get up at 6:00 a.m. No wonder the poor lad was always tired. I would be, too.

So, I explained to her that growing children needed at least 10 hours of sleep nightly as their bodies were growing and sleeping gave their bodies time to rest, heal, and grow.

She started having him go to bed at 8:00, especially on school nights. Within a week, he was brighter, more chipper, and the quality of his work improved immensely.

The interesting part? About a month later, he gave me a big hug and thanked me for telling his mom he needed to go to bed earlier.

What was the craziest thing a mechanic said about your car?

I took my nice little VW Beetle Diesel to a mechanic for an oil change. After they got the car on the rack, the service advisor came out “Your car has a really bad oil leak.”

Before you go farther, bear in mind: This was a diesel. This comes in important later.

I go back to the bay and take a look at the purported oil leak. The bottom half of the back of the engine was covered in fresh, amber colored oil. “Oh, you’ve got a huge oil leak. You need to pay us $200 to diagnose the problem.” I called for the shop manager.

“Your employee claims that this car has an oil leak.”

He looks under there. “Yup. Sure does.”

“You know this is a diesel.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Have you ever seen the oil drained from a diesel?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you know that if I put fresh oil in this engine and drive the car three blocks, that oil will be as black as the Ace of Spades. This supposed oil leak, which is in a place oil can’t leak out of, is fresh oil.”

“Umm…”

“Listen. Clean all the oil he sprayed on my engine off it right now so I can go somewhere honest.”

The unbreakable rule

What is something you absolutely despise about your country?

Finn here.

The climate. Finland is located between 60th and 70th North, which makes the climate absolutely miserable.

The location means the winters are long, dark and miserable – sun rising at Christmas only at 09:00 in Helsinki and setting at 15:00. The situation isn’t exactly improved by the fact that Finland is located at the occlusion zone of Ferrel cell, which means the whole Atlantic comes down from the sky each Spring and Autumn. (Oh, Autumn is really Fall – I mean, rainfall. Finnish rain is not the warm shower as the Mediterranean rains, it is hard, cold and scourging.)

Finland has the worst of both littoral and continental climate: cool summers and freezing winters. Oh, and did I mention rasputitsa? Yup, we have it too.

The cold and miserable weather and the long and dark winter has left its permanent mark on our national soul. Finns tend to be emotionally cold, dour and close-minded. Not rude nor impolite, but cold. Sorry, no jolly reggae tunes here. Hero metal, power metal, black metal and prog metal. If your playing sucks, turn on more overdrive.

Which leads to another problem. Alcohol use is commonplace. Simply to carry over the worst. Getting hammered is a method to cope with the cold, dark and miserable winter.

Which leads to another problem. Suicides tend to be common, but not as common as they used to be. Many people simply cannot stand it all and quit their living.

Atheism is in Scandinavia a far older phenomenon than science. When the soil is poor, weather hostile and everything in the climate tries to kill you, you relate to supernatural as enemies and any deities as intolerable cosmic oppressors. The divine is not seen as a provider, but oppressor – as something which attempts to make living even more miserable than it already is. This is one reason why the Scandinavians are so hostile to religion and spirituality they tend to be. Already the Hrafnkell’s saga from 10th century tells of a Viking chieftain who ditches the Viking gods and becomes godhlauss, Atheist.

I wish I had wings so I could fly to Spain for winter like the migratory birds.

I’d choose the sandwich

What is the nicest thing you have done that no one knows about?

A bit of background: My parents recently got divorced and my dad got most of the money, furniture and he got the house. My brother (10) and I (13) only see our mom every second weekend and sometimes my dad just keeps us for the weekend. I always stop by my moms After school everyday to let her dog out and clean up any messes she made (She’s 17 and black lab). I usually wait there for bit until I have to pick up my brother.

Anyways, one day, my math teacher asked me to stay behind for a few minute so to talk about an opportunity to compete in a math contest. It was country wide and was for grade ten and eleven math. I’m grade seven but he said that’s he talked to the people who were running it. They said I could try but might have some trouble with it. I really like math so I said yes.

Fast forward two weeks and I’m sitting in the cafeteria with a bunch of really tall people. They hand out the papers and say go. I finish in about half an hour and turn mine in.

About a month ago i got the results and i placed third in the country. Apparently, there was a prize and i won three hundred dollars.

Now, my mom has been struggling financially although she didn’t tell us, I figured it out. Every time I stop by her house, I put some of the money in her jar and she hasn’t but noticed. I know it’s probably not a lot but I like to think I’m helping a at least a little bit. I can’t legally work yet…

Man, the USA is fucked up.

What is the best lie you have ever told your child?

When my due date was getting very close, I told my 3 and a half year old daughter that her little brother is afraid to come out of my belly. He thinks to himself: Oh, its a big scary world out there. Who knows what is awaiting for me outside. I’m just a little baby boy. I don’t want to go out and live with big grown up people all by myself.. Who will understand me and help me when I’m outside? Oh how I wish there was a little girl out there who would be my sister, so we can grow up together…

She was deeply moved when she heard this. She put her little hand gently on my belly, and whispered to her brother with a voice filled with tenderness. Come out little brother. I am your sister M. and I will always take care of you. You don’t have to be afraid. Few days after this, her brother came, and the love and connection that the two of them have is something I, as an only child, never imagined could exist. The way they cherish one another, help, encourage and comfort along the way is truly amazing.

Are school uniforms the most effective way to eliminate social and economic differences between students?

It’s not going to eliminate the difference at all. However, it could help the less rich kids to maintain their dignity.

This is the most common school uniform in China. It’s ugly, oversized, and appeard since my school ages, but totally affordable. It wouldn’t change the fact that some kids have a poor family background, but it could reduce the possibility of students getting isolated in schools for either being too poor or rich. Trust me that kids do that all the time, and it could be quite hurtful sometimes.

Besides, with an ugly uniform, how one looks like purely relys on face. Dad’s mercedes or even GTR wouldn’t save it.

This is very serious what is going on

Not really Communism, though…

Can you describe a time that your company only discovered that you were irreplaceable after they fired you? How did you feel? What did they do?

I am a welder and applied to a job through a temp agency. Their ad said hiring welders from $23 to $26 an hour depending on experience. They gave me a weld test and decided to hire me at $23. I told them I want $26 because that’s what their add said. I was told that was dependent on experience. Well I have 24 years of experience and I want 26. In the end I agreed to work for 25.

On my first night it was time to clock out so I went to the time clock and clocked out. I noticed all the other welders were still there cleaning up their work areas. I shouted at them so they could hear me, “hey it’s time to go. What are you all still doing here?”

I didn’t get an answer and left. Coming in the next day I asked them about this and they said they cleaned up the shop after hours on their time. With all the workers around and the boss I told everyone, “I don’t work for free. This mess wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been here working. I won’t be cleaning the shop for free. I am loud quitting boss” as I made eye contact with the foreman, “when my shift is over I am clocking out and going home. I will have my area cleaned up before then.”

That night was the first night they did weld testing because new clients demanded all their welders were certified welders.

The next morning the temp agency called me and asked me not to go back to the job because I had been terminated for not listening.

The morning after I was called back again. I was the only person on 2nd shift who passed the weld test and many on first shift also failed.

Company representative: “Would you come back to work for us, please?”

Me: “OK but I want $28 an hour and switched to 1st shift.”

Company representative: “we can’t do that”

Me: “Good bye”

50 Bucks and a pack of cigarettes

What was the most obvious hint that someone hitting on you ever gave but you totally missed it?

In Vietnam, when we meet someone for the first time in the new (lunar) year, we usually give each other a red envelope with some lucky money – as a good wish for a bright and happy new year.

I was in 11th grade in high school. We were just back from the Lunar New Year holiday (”Tết” holiday in Vietnamese), happily exchanging red envelopes and good wishes. Coincidentally, it was also Valentine’s Day that year. But, 20 years ago, I had no idea about that, so when this boy handed me the red envelope with a chocolate bar, “Happy Valentine!”, I happily took it, “Thank you! You’re so sweet!”, and I gave him a big hug.

Before he could say anything else, I opened the chocolate bar, broke it into pieces, and… shared it with the whole class, everyone got a piece. I couldn’t explain the emotion in his eyes when he watched that happened.

Years later, every time we meet up for our class reunion, he always brings this story up and we laugh. Still can’t believe I missed that hint.

CIA

Back in the late 70’s I found myself between jobs. I had 10 years as the GM of aof a chain of convenience stores which had been sold and that ended my job! My parents lived in the Washington DC area and one of their neighbors, who I had known for many years, worked for the CIA. At a neighborhood gathering while I was visiting I mentioned to him that I was job hunting and asked if he had any connections in the CIA. After we had returned home I got a call asking if I would like to interview so I flew back up and stayed with my parents for a week.

I was instructed to report to a building in Rosslyn VA which is across the Potomac River from DC. I remember having a hard time finding the address I was given because there was no name or numbers on the building. Maybe that was my first test! In any case, the interview lasted all week. One thing that I remember was is how low key the whole process was. Mostly a series of different people asking me a lot of questions about myself. What my hobbies were, favorite foods. etc. It reminded me of shooting the breeze with a bunch of strangers at a college mixer. Not much in writing, no physicals, drug tests, etc. Not many probing questions, very relaxed. Definitely the strangest interview I’ve ever had, and this went on for 5 days.

There was one woman who was my primary contact. From the beginning to the end, she was the one who was always there at the end of an interview and introduced me to the next person. Never their last name or title, just a first name, always in the same room, never in their office. On the 5th and final day, she brought me into her office and said that they would like me to work for them as an operative. I had never heard that term before, but knew that it meant that the CIA wanted me to be a spy. Immediate visions of James Bond came to mind. Fast cars, nice clothes, A GUN…all the things that we associate with being a spy. Obviously I was very interested.

I had a bunch of questions but the two that I remember were: 1. Where would I be stationed? and 2. What did they want me to do? I was married with two young children, and I was thinking maybe they wanted me in Europe where I had spent many years as a boy. WRONG! They wanted me to operate a small grocery store in PAGO PAGO! I had never even heard of Pago Pago, let alone knew that there was a large US Navy Base there. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from everything and everyone we know, it was out of the question.

That was the end of my spy recruitment.

LOL. All, I do mean ALL of the stores in Pago Pago are owned by Chinese nationals. No fucking shit. -MM

Chinese Rufus

Has an unknown stranger ever paid a massive bill for you? What happened?

I was a semi-freshly divorced single mom working in a chain of gas stations. It was my job to cover if someone called off and to run the money every day.

I had a reliable car only because my parents both took the time to teach me about cars including how to find a good used one and repair it when it broke.

I was enrolled in college. One class at a time is all I could squeeze in my schedule and budget.

My child was suffering under a rural southern school district. She is gifted and they had refused to set an IEP, refused to challenge her, and in fact persecuted her and myself due to our religion. We were told more than once we were going to Hell by school officials.

It was an uphill battle with them that required an attorney who volunteered his services. I couldn’t have afforded him otherwise.

Despite these difficulties, life was OK. We were surviving. We had food, shelter, and running water. My child never went to bed hungry or cold.

Then I started getting tired. Abnormally tired. I didn’t have the energy to function. My mother forced me to go to her doctor. She paid for the visit because I didn’t have insurance.

The doctor called me at work two days later and asked me to come in. I made arrangements for my child after school and I went.

He told me I was sick. Very sick. The tiredness was a symptom of this. It wasn’t just lack of proper nutrition or being over worked. This wasn’t something that could be fixed with a pill.

I started treatment the next week. I still went to work. I still took care of my child. I had to drop my class and adjust my schedule. I had to fight — and fight I did.

Then the medical bills started coming in. Uninsured and dead broke, I almost gave up. The state said I did not qualify for assistance of any kind because I made too much money.

If I had another child, I’d be at the income threshold. If I had another child, I could collect benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance.

If the state would have straightened out the child support instead of counting it against my income, I might have been able to pay a little bit of the medical bills.

I made arrangements for my child’s care after I passed. I had a small life insurance policy that would cover my final expenses. I managed to keep fighting.

The medical bills kept coming as did the phone calls from debt collectors. The threatening letters. The calls to my work. To say it was stressful is an understatement.

Until one day they stopped. The medical bills still came but showed a zero balance. The bills that had gone into collections were paid in full.

My rabbi approached me one night after services. He told me that a member of our shul had paid everything on the caveats I finish school and don’t stop.

I begged him to tell me who but he would NOT budge. He just said, “Finish your education and don’t stop.”

Finish school and don’t stop.

I still do not know who. I’ve had my suspicions, but I keep them to myself.

I have graduated but haven’t finished my education. (That is something that is never going to be finished.)

I haven’t stopped.

Smart Cat

Downtown Grill Catfish LaFitte

This is one of my favorite ways to prepare catfish. Even those who dislike catfish love it fixed this way.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper, divided (may need 2 1/2 teaspoons)
4 farm-raised catfish fillets, about 1 1/2 pounds
Vegetable oil
12 large fresh shrimp, unpeeled
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 very thin cooked ham slices, cut into strips
Garnish: lemon wedges

Instructions

Combine eggs and milk, stirring until well blended.
Combine flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper in a shallow dish. Dredge fish in flour mixture; dip in milk mixture. Dredge again in flour mixture.
Pour oil to a depth of 3 inches into a Dutch oven; heat to 360 degrees F. Fry fish for 5 to 6 minutes or until golden; drain on paper towels. Keep warm.
Peel shrimp; devein, if desired. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add shrimp and garlic, and cook until shrimp turn pink, stirring often. Remove shrimp, reserving drippings.
Stir vermouth into reserved drippings; bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute. Add whipping cream, 2 tablespoons green onions, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1 to 2 teaspoons red pepper; cook 12 to 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring often.
Place catfish on a serving plate, and drizzle with sauce. Top with shrimp and ham; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons green onions. Garnish, if desired.

Notes

I make the sauce first and keep it warm. I then fry the fish and finish the dish.

The Big Lie that Women Keep Believing in Modern Dating

Don’t people in China wish to live in a democratic country?

As a 31-year-old Chinese person who lived in China for 30 years and has been living in New Zealand for a year, I find that this question seems to be of particular concern to people in the Western world, while we ourselves are not so concerned about it. I have also thought about this for a long time, and I would like to give a rather serious answer.

When I was living in China, politics really didn’t have much to do with our lives. In the daily routine of a normal person, we were essentially free and democratic. Moreover, from childhood, we learned about both Chinese culture and Western culture. We were quite familiar with the Western world from our media, and we knew roughly what the world was like. After going abroad, it was also easy for us to embrace Western culture.

However, after coming to New Zealand, I found that the Western media is full of prejudice against China and North Korea, while reporting differently on East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea. In fact, I particularly want to tell many Western friends who have never been to China that it is easy for us to accept Western civilization, but your points of concern about China seem to differ from what we care about ourselves.

Historically, China has never actively pursued religion, so how could it be actively enamored with politics? As long as the party does not disturb the people, we won’t pay too much attention to it, and a political party is the least intrusive solution. China is a country that has been agriculturally based for thousands of years. Our ancestors loved the land that could grow crops, and this love has flowed into our blood. The charming land that produces enchanting crops makes us ordinary people happy. China is large enough that whether at the top or among ordinary people, everyone can find their own focus in life, everyone takes responsibility for their own duties, rather than thinking about taking advantage of others or stealing from others. This is more efficient and safe.

If the leadership does not perform well, the people will resist together, and our history has always been this way. An ordinary person can grow to be a top figure in the country, or a top figure over a piece of land. With 5,000 years of detailed recorded history, many historically high-ranking people came from common families. So, when you ask if Chinese people want to live in a democratic country, I want to say that we have always been democratic. Every Chinese person knows: “The noble and the humble have no determined lineage,” but as a culturally united nation, if we are in a high position and do not make the contributions we should, we will be shamefully recorded in history, which is as important as life itself to every Chinese person. Thus, even though we have equal opportunities to become influential figures, not everyone wants to be the most powerful because that also means taking on more responsibilities, which can be more tiring (the positions of emperor, prime minister, and general in Chinese history were high-stress jobs). So usually for us, enjoying the life of an ordinary person also seems more relaxing.

However, it seems that Western politicians do not have the same immense pressures as Chinese leaders, nor do they have the same sense of responsibility. Your leaders seem very relaxed, speaking eloquently with expressive gestures, whereas our leaders are sparing with words, and mostly very serious. How should I put it? They are also under great work pressure, as they are not only supervised by hundreds of millions of common people but also by their competitors. But from my heart, I like this Chinese style where everyone has their role and does not interfere with others.

Compared to many Western countries, China is very open. I grew up in a very ordinary family in China, reading masterpieces from all over the world from a young age, experiencing different cultures, which is why I chose to go abroad after getting married and having children. I have also read modern and ancient Chinese books, which enables me to answer this question today.

For foreign friends curious about China, if you want to understand China, you are sincerely welcome to visit, especially if your daily exposure is only to English media. Because they seem to be the most heavily brainwashed region at the moment.

How true is the statement that if China adopt electoral democracy, their politicians will be corrupt?

There is already corruption in China. I mean not USA style corruption. The USA is almost as corrupt as Ukraine.

But here’s the thing.

Corruption is actually punished in China. With the PENALTY of DEATH.

This man here? He was in the TOP ten most powerful men in China.

He took bribes. He is rotting in prison now, he was sentenced to DEATH in 2020 😀

Most westerners now are hahaha death is a soft punishment! They think that resignation is the ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT.

You remember when Jon Corzine walked off with 2 billion dollars? He went on television and said it simply evaporated.

At the same time this man

Citizens found he had better stuff than his pay grade. They reported it. He lost EVERYTHING.

BUT BUT westerners cry! We can vote them out and make them suffer.

How can you tell someone is faking intelligence?

Somewhere in my graduate school years I noticed a trend.

An undergraduate philosophy major will sound absolutely brilliant. They often speak in a jargon-dense diction, delivered at high velocity, one idea bouncing off another to produce a spiderweb of spiraling associations. The effect, rhetorically and aesthetically, is often overwhelming. Logic doesn’t really play a role because one hardly knows what they are saying. The unwitting listener feels himself outmatched, drowned and blinded by the naked light of unbridled genius.

The graduate student is a much dimmer light. He is still full of abstract phrases and obscure references, but he is someone who is starting to sound, again, like a human being — explaining things, pausing, asking questions to insure the listener is following. This is not nearly as impressive as the undergraduate, but it does have the virtue of allowing the ordinary among us to understand what is being said.

The professor sounds like your basic “dad,” albeit one with a lot to say. He can at times seem unsure of himself. He pauses to define his terms and to add qualifications to his statements. He speaks carefully. He might even speak slowly. He explains as he goes, almost apologizing for whatever obscurities he falls into. His manner of speech is, well… designed to communicate! A quite boring and not evidently bright fellow, you almost feel embarrassed for him.

In light of these observations, I was forced to conclude that there is either something terribly wrong with our educational system — since the higher people go the dumber they get — or intelligence is not quite what we sometimes think it is.

Show me your boobies

If a nuclear bomb is about to explode 2 miles away from you in 30 minutes, what is the first place you would go to?

In my van. We would drive away with the pedal to the metal. In 30 minutes, I could expect to get at least 50 kilometres away, and that ought to be far enough to be safe. Moreover, the van has a Diesel engine, so it does not need electricity to function – it will run as long as there is fuel and air.

If it was summer, I would drive to our yacht, put SCUBA gear on, and dive in the sea in the marina. There is enough oxygen to survive the blast underwater. Most radiation is absorbed in the sea, and the shock wave would not get to the water.

What was your “Aha!” moment during a toxic relationship that made you realize people never change?

I dated a girl for a few years and we lived together for the last half of the relationship. Things hadn’t been great for several months before I decided to break it off, but it was a single statement she made that convinced me it was time.

The yard was in serious need of some attention. The grass was a bit high and we hadn’t done weeding in a few weeks. So I decided to spend my day off working in the yard.

I mowed the grass and edged the walks, I weeded all the flower beds, watered and fertilized our plants, got some new plants to fill in the beds. After I was done with all that, I decided to do some cleaning. I power washed the driveway and the house. The concrete looked brand new.

I finished shortly before she got home from work. When she got in, I was in the backyard admiring my handiwork. I was proud of how the yard looked. It hadn’t looked that nice in quite a while.

When she came into the backyard, I motioned towards all my hard work with my hands as if to says “look what I did!”.

The only thing she had to say about it was “You forgot to sweep behind the chiminea.” and pointed to a small pile of leaves off in the corner of our yard. Then went inside to take a shower.

Something snapped in my brain. All the times she had criticized stupid things just to have something to criticize came flooding back. I suddenly realized the obvious pattern that had been there all along. She didn’t just do it to me either. It was just who she was to everyone. She just enjoyed criticizing people.

I knew I couldn’t live life like that. I knew that if I stuck around, she would keep doing that for the rest of our lives and it would make me miserable.

I had just spent my entire day doing yard work in the middle of June and she couldn’t find one positive thing to say about it. I left that evening and stayed with a friend. The next day, I came home and broke it off with her.

Every man on Earth

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

I was about 10 years old, and in bed – about 11pm. I was supposed to be asleep, but as usual, I was reading by the light of my nightlight. I heard my dad slam the front door, and my mom yell. This wasn’t normal behavior, so I went into the living room.

The police were called, and my dad told me the story. Mom and Dad were in the living room, and heard a knock at the front door. We lived out in the country, and the neighbors all knew Dad was a doctor, so Dad thought it might be a neighbor needing help. When Dad opened the door, he saw a man with a mask standing there with one hand behind his back. Our super friendly, loved everybody German Shorthair, Ringo, followed Dad to the door. As soon as she saw the man, she gave a huge bark, and lunged for the guy. Dad said that 3 things happened nearly simultaneously – 1) he grabbed Ringo’s collar, 2) the guy pointed a gun at Dad (it was in the hand behind his back), 3) the man shot the gun. Dad slammed and locked the door. Dad was unhurt.

When the police arrived, they spent a long time looking opposite the door to try to find a bullet hole. At one point, one of the officers said that maybe it was a blank. But eventually, one of the policemen noticed that the row of art books we had on the bookshelf facing the door wasn’t completely even; one of them was pushed back about an inch. He peered closely at it, and noticed something odd about the O (it might have been Michelangelo) in the title – it had a hole in the middle of the O. He opened up the book, and sure enough, the bullet was nestled in the pages.

Needless to say, there was a rule in our house after that – don’t open the door at night without asking “Who’s there” first!

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

He was in early one night around 7pm. My staff is all away on lunch, partner wouldn’t be back til 10pm. I’m all alone. Usually not a big deal. This night, a couple of college jocks got way out of hand and started tearing the place up – breaking cue sticks and tossing around empty kegs. It’s just John, me and the college boys. I’m trying to de-escalate and get them to leave. Then, one of the big guys starts pushing me and throwing punches. I’m screwed. That is, until John steps in and beats the shit out of two guys much bigger than himself. I was completely shocked! We toss the guys out and he tells me not to call the police. He leaves shortly afterwards.

Next time I see John, I want to pick up his tab and chat. He asks me not to tell anyone or talk about it. I figure he’s ex-military and a private guy. He becomes pretty scarce. We’re looking for him, but he doesn’t come around anymore.

About a year later, we see his pic in the paper. He’s on trial for a pair of mob related murders. Turns out he might be responsible for more than a couple of these. I’m very glad he liked me.

US Ambassador threaten to shut Ghana’s economy down if Anti-Gay bill pass

Yup. The United States foreign policy at work.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

I lived in northern Manitoba and southern Ontario, both in Canada, for about 25 years before I moved to southern Maryland. Snowmageddon struck in January-February of 2010. Everything was shut down for 10 days or so. Finally, I ventured out onto the roads.

My apartment complex fronted a 4 lane divided roadway, which was a designated Snow Emergency Route. The left lane was bare, the right lane was still covered with ice and slush. Both lanes were blocked where an SUV had gotten stuck then started to slide into the ditch to the right of the road. Pickup trucks, cars, other SUVs, vans, all were parked higgly jiggly and tall, brawny men were attempting to get the vehicle out.

I parked well back, walked to the crowd in my Canadian snow boots, and offered to help. They all had a good laugh, then turned away. I tapped on a man’s arm, “I grew up in Wisconsin and lived in Canada for 25 years. I know snow.”

“Hey, let the little lady here give it a try!”

I cleared them away from the car, crunched around it, repositioned the men, instructed the driver to straighten her wheels and put it into LOW gear, no gas! Told the men to push again, rocking, and told the driver to release the brakes.

The SUV popped right out of the icy ruts and kept going. Silently, the men returned to their cars and left. Too cold for crickets, I guess…

What did you notice during an interview that made you not want the job?

I was interviewing for a Canadian regional sales manager’s job for a company that sold patent medicines, made in Saudi Arabia. (Yes, I wrote the correct country name.)

After having introduced ourselves the interviewer handed me a package of papers, about ten pages thick.

“I’ll be quiet for a few minutes until you have read and signed this.”

It was the most horrible secrecy agreement you could imagine. If I break this, my grandson’s firstborn would be burned on the stake, or something along those lines.

I put it down, and politely bade my adieus.

The interviewer followed me all the way to the elevator door, trying to explain that not all was cast in stone. Some details could be negotiated.

I entered the elevator and left.

My next job was selling industrial valves, no secrecy agreement required. (I stayed there 9.5 years.)

Dead Bedrooms

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cuWLECYMWxo?feature=share

What did you see going on in the back of the school bus that shocked you?

The school arranged for a bus load of junior high students to go to a live play in the city.

This was the second bus trip in a month. The first one had gotten a little steamy on the ride back to the school in the dark. But not so bad it stopped the second one from happening.

The second trip, stopped all future bus trips, and caused a general assembly to be called. The principal and vice principal were dismissed at the end of the school year.

I didn’t have a girlfriend, and my best friends sister wanted to make out with me, but I knew that would end my friendship with my best friend. She wasn’t attractive enough to risk that.

In the back row, you could only see two guys sitting up, one in each seat. There had been girls sitting beside them when we left for the school.

What brought it to a head, was that the majority of students had hickies that were visible to their parents when they got home from the school trip.

There were a lot of phone calls leading up to the general assembly. It was amazing how many students had purple splotches, vainly trying to be covered with turtle necks, and long sleeves, and they had to sit in the front row of the general assembly, as we were told the consequences of our actions.

Do you continue to greet neighbors who never say hello first?

My mother was a nurse.

One day, she came home with a bruise on her cheek – just a small one, but it was a bruise. I asked what happened to her? She told me that a patient’s son hit her in the face because he thought she was ignoring his father – who was in pain while actually she was busy with another patient who was more critical. I asked her what happened next? She told me: “Oh, I came to that patient as soon as I finished with the one I was working on. Talked to him, comforted him and gave him some meds. Then I explained the situation to the son, and he apologized”. 7 year old me that day got angry and asked: “Why? You’re the best nurse, why didn’t you let someone else deal with that patient? His son hit you. He didn’t deserve your care!”

And my mom’s answer that day became one of the most important lessons I carry with myself through life: “Sweetie, you should never let someone’s bad action to be the reason for your own. Fixing something wrong by doing something wrong will never work. That man hit me may have been wrong, but if I hadn’t taken care of his father, I wouldn’t have been right. Moreover, it was the son who made the mistake, why should the father has to face the consequences? Your mom is the best nurse, so I do the best, right?”

So, if my neighbor never says hello to me first? That doesn’t stop me from saying hello and wishing them a good day.

I still believe that in this world full of sad/angry people, it’s much better if we’re sweet to each other, even just a littleeeeeee bit.

They know her language

Do you think the recent incident where a Chinese navy destroyer used active sonar to harass a disabled Australian frigate will threaten the pro-China government in Australia?

I strongly condemn Chinese military using sonar of mass destruction near Chinese coast which caused damage to Australian soldiers close Australian coast.

Wait… the Australians were near Chinese coast.

Oh… so you were their collecting seabed information, right?

In case of WWIII, it would be useful to intercept Chinese submarines.

International water or not, it’s definitely a hostile activity against China.

I can already make the draft about the same thing but reversed, i.e. PLAN soldiers got hurt by Australian sonar near Australian coast.

There is no “pro-China government in Australia”.

We know that already.

Stop lying.

Miao Ethnic Group

This is one of the 65 recognized ethnic groups in China.

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

The flags for the cars at my mother-in-laws funeral.

Well, they tried.

When they were doing their consult, they went over about a million things with my wife, and her brother. Both of whom were pretty deep in grief as they had just lost their mother. This woman was more of a mother to me than my own, so I wasn’t exactly NOT grieving.

Before my wife signed on the dotted line, she asked me to look the paperwork over. I saw a HUGE line item, it was around $2000, and just listed as “flags”. I asked the wife about it, and I asked the brother-in-law. Both had no idea what it was. I asked the representative from the funeral home, and they said it was for the funeral flags for the cars. The little magnetic “flags” that say “FUNERAL” on them. They are plastic, and have a magnetic base on them and you put them on your front fenders. If you have seen a few funeral processions, I’m sure you have seen them.

So I asked why we were paying $2000 for these.

I was told we had estimated 100 people, and they charge $10 per flag, and 2 per car. so 100x2x$10=$2000.

I asked if these were required, or if they thought that literally every single person was going to be driving their own car, or, the pretty obvious question, would this get re-rated based on how many people ACTUALLY showed up and needed a flag.

I was told that no, they were not ‘required’ but that they were recommended to make it more visible, and that wouldn’t my MIL want that item? They would re-estimate based on how many cars I expected (yeah, they KNEW that the estimate of how many guests was NOT the same as how many cars there would be), but that once the order was put in, it was non-refundable, and that if we didn’t use them all, then that was just how it was. They were basically being paid to make them available.

I went back to the wife and BIL, and explained, they agreed, nope, not necessary. I told them we didn’t need this, and to remove it immediately. They acted like that was some manner of travesty, and basically implied that people would think poorly of us for it. I knew my MIL, and KNEW she would have spit her teeth out if we had wasted $2k on this. There was a lot of shade from the funeral people for this.

Strangely enough, day of, not a single person asked about the flags. We turned out headlights on, and drove in procession with absolutely no problems whatsoever. Ironically, the only vehicle with the flags was the hearse, it had them permanently attached to it. We weren’t charged for that.

The funeral industry literally preys on people at their most vulnerable. They prey on your emotions, and your fears and insecurities. They have no trouble manipulating you into paying more than is necessary, and they will pad that bill out to match any insurance you might have. Do NOT just give them the insurance information, magically, if you have $35000 in insurance, they will eat every penny of it up. We had, $0 and paid every penny out of pocket… They still tried to pad the bill at every turn.

“What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?”

edit

yes, these ARE reusable, and yes, they are returned after the procession, and yes, that does make it so much worse.

Good men won’t stick around if they are unwanted

Canadian “Mercenary” Killed By Russian Army in Ukraine

The Russian Armed Forces announced today:

“Canadian Mercenary, Joshua Mayers from Alberta, Canada has been successfully liquidатеd by the Russian army in the Bakhmut direction.

Joshua abandoned his family to go fight for Ukraine in September 2023, and was liquidатеd on November 10th 2023.

Hope it was worth it all.”

Eight?

Dad finds out his daughters “body count”. His expression…

What is the most unforgettable sentence that someone said to you?

When I decided to move halfway across the Earth, from Vietnam to the U.S. to marry my (then) boyfriend, the only ‘condition’ I made my boyfriend agree to was I wanted him to move closer to his parents. My reason was that I would be in a new country, I wanted to stay close to our family. He agreed.

So, when The Teenager & I moved over, we settled down in a place within one hour drive from our parents.

Then came the first meet-up, we invited a few other family friends over. My mom & I were in the kitchen preparing food when a lady came in. She saw me, smiled, and asked my mom, “So, here is your daughter-in-law hah?” My mom smiled back at her, “No. She is my daughter in love.”

That sentence struck a harmonious chord within me and made my heart sing.

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

My wife and I were living in our first house in Oklahoma City. One day while we were both at work, the city sewer department tore down all the fences in the rear of the houses on our block to replace the sewer main. When we got home from work we were heartbroken because we had had our young dog in the backyard and now he was nowhere to be found. We searched the area for days and put up notices but to no avail.

We were starting to believe that we would never see our dog again. My wife was so upset she decided to call the city to “give them a piece of her mind” about the lack of notification on the sewer work causing us to lose our dog.

So she gets a person on the phone from the city’s Ombudsman Department. My wife explains the situation and tells the person that we loved that dog and had paid good money for him because he was a registered Irish setter. The person asks where we live and my wife gives our address. The person says “Well that’s amazing. I live about a half mile from you and there’s been an Irish setter hanging around lately.” My wife tells me the address and when I got to the person’s house, there’s our dog.

Oklahoma City is a big metropolitan area. Of all the people in the metro area my wife might have got on the phone, our dog happened to be at that person’s house.

Why can’t fast food establishments give the unsold food to the homeless people at the end of the night?

I managed a cookie shop once. It was in a college town, and was open til 11:30 pm. At the end of the night, a homeless person showed up asking for cookies. I gave him some.

the next night, he brought 3 friends. There were just enough cookies for them. The next night, I was swamped. Literally dozens showed up. I didn’t have enough cookies for all of them. The crowd became enraged. They started yelling at me, then they started throwing things at me.

i told them not to come around again, there would be no more free cookies. I had to take a cab home that night, it was unsafe for me to walk.

The next night, a few of them started following me as I walked home. They were loudly talking about how they were going to rape and kill me. I ducked into an open business and called a cab home again. I was very young, and made just over minimum wage. I couldn’t afford to take a cab every night, but I had to for weeks.

I did make arrangements with a night nurse, who worked at a local hospital. She dropped by at closing every night on her way to work, and picked up the last cookies to take to the break room.

Having had that experience, I would never give food from a restaurant to homeless people again. Many years later, I owned a bakery, but still remembered my lesson.

The UFO Incident That Shocked Ariel School: Telepathic Extraterrestrials (Re-Edit)

“It’s like story time for grown-ups. I really appreciate this channel. Hecklefish is my spirit animal.”

What are you banned from? Why?

I was banned from my local Walmart because I miss scanned an item. I went to self checkout one day because I had 4 items and wanted to teach my sons how to scan items. To make the story easier to understand, I had a tshirt, set of bras, shorts and some socks. While scanning, we had accidently double scanned the bras rather than scan the shorts, honest mistake. We finish up and as we are heading out, loss protection stops me and says “My name is XXX I’m with loss prevention please come with us” I was genuinely confused, my son got scared because of how aggressive they were but we complied. While in the security room they proceeded to rummage thru my bags and asked to search my purse. Again, I complied, but they never explained why I was pulled in. They searched cameras for probabaly 20 minutes. At one point, I hear one of the workers call across the radio “We need security detail for an escort.” I started getting REALLY scared and demanded an answer. Finally, they explain I miss scanned an item, because of this I am being escorted out of the building and will not be allowed back on property, should I step foot on property I will be arrested. I was baffled! They didn’t even give me a chance to fix my honest mistake! Needless to say, again I complied, but I put in a call the corporate after leaving, they reached out to me and lifted the banned immediately, apologized, and fired the entire loss prevention team. It wasn’t the first time they had abused power!

What vulnerabilities does the U.S. face by being dependent on China for Rare Earth Elements?

Every shit that the US does on China, the Chinese can do even more, faster cheaper and more painful to the U.S.

China prefers not to but it is always ready. Chinese people has a saying. If you do it on the 1st Luna calendar. We will reciprocate on the 15th. You mentioned rare earth but this is just one out of a thousand measure. It could checkmate the US. Don’t even think about it. Every hurt on China will be returned by several fold hurt on the U.S.

What is something everyone should consider doing?

My father called me yesterday.

Dad: Hello son, how are you?

Me: I’m perfectly fine, Dad.

Dad: Did you eat?

Me: Yep.

As usual, the conversation ended in five minutes.

After I had disconnected the call, I thought – What if it was a call from my best friend, would my response have been the same?

The answer was a big no and I was unable to figure out why. This restlessness drove me to call him again.

Dad: What happened? Are you ok, son?

Me: Yes, I’m fine, Dad. Just, missing you a lot.

He was surprised at first and thought I needed money.

Soon after, I began cracking few jokes (lame ones) to which he laughed his heart out. We talked for straight 40-45 minutes, engaging in topics we had never discussed before.

Strangely enough, I felt like talking to a different person. The person whom I had spent my life with, yet knew so little about.

The blissful conversation ended with a ‛Khush Raho’ (Stay Blessed!) from his side and a wide smile from mine.

And so, I realised, not taking your dear ones for granted and making a deliberate effort to know them is something worth consider doing.

I found a really good friend in this process.

Who knows, you may find one too!

What does that word mean

In Imperial China, was there any possible situation where a commoner could meet the Emperor?

In ancient China, common people had the following ways to meet the emperor.

1. The imperial examination. The final stage of the imperial examination is the palace examination, which is personally supervised by the emperor.

2. Assassination. The emperor went out to patrol and ambushed him by the roadside. Even if the assassination fails, before being executed, the emperor will personally question you, who is behind the scenes?

3. Emperor Banquets Centenarians. This is a large-scale honoring and respecting activity for the elderly where the emperor invites centenarians to participate in the royal banquet. But the prerequisite is that you must be able to live healthily to a very old age despite the lack of medical treatment and medicine in ancient times.

4. Become a eunuch. This is not recommended because ancient castration surgery was very risky.

5. Becoming a famous prostitute. Although the emperor had many wives, he would never refuse beautiful women.

Why don’t hotels in Western countries have Chinese breakfasts for their Chinese guests when they used to have Japanese breakfasts for their Japanese guests?

When I was in Malaysia, during breakfast they served dim sum in addition to other traditional breakfast foods and it was very nice. However, Malaysia is a country with a 20% Chinese population. Back here in the West we don’t have a high percentage of Chinese people. There are some Westerners like myself who would enjoy Chinese food, but the majority of people who would eat it would be Chinese people themselves. The lack of demand means there is little incentive to supply it.

What are some of the best pranks you have pulled?

1999. I had a four-year-old Internet advertising agency with 15 employees. A global corporation was buying it.

Weeks before the sale was finalized I had an early morning doctor’s appointment and saw these cups in her bathroom marked URINE SPECIMEN.

I took a bunch of cups, got into the office before any of my employees arrived, left a cup on each person’s desk with a memo that said the buyer required a urine test from everyone in the company before the sale could be approved. A nurse would arrive at noon to test the samples.

One by one they trickled in and proceeded to go batshit. Violation of my rights. They can’t do this. My personal life is my personal life.

I commiserated, but reminded them that if I didn’t sell the company, we’d probably go belly up, and we’d all be out of a job.

Not a lick of work got done all morning. Finally, at noon we all gathered in the reception area, each of us holding a full urine specimen cup.

I spoke to the group. “Guys, I hate this as much as you do.” I looked at my cup. “And I really hate my sample. The color of this piss is terrible. I think I’ll run it through one more time.”

And then I drank it.

I didn’t have to tell them it was Peach Snapple. They knew they’d been had.

15 people. 45 man-hours (and woman-hours) wasted. Pissed away, so to speak. And I loved every second of it. Best. Prank. Ever.

Simply disgusting

What is the most disturbing message ever left on your voicemail?

“Hey guys, it’s Heather. I’m running a bit late, but I should be there in a…..”

There was absolute silence in the room.

“Message received: September 3rd at 11:55 am.”

Not a word was spoken among the three of us listening to the message and none of us could muster anything useful to say afterwards other than a very weak, “save that message”.

It was September 5th. In less than 24 hours, we would be going to Heather’s funeral. Her car had been t-boned by a large truck and she had been killed instantly.

The police report showed that the accident had happened on the 3rd. Slightly before noon.

What could be the implications of China’s major state-owned banks exchanging yuan for U.S. dollars and selling those dollars in spot currency markets?

Try to fully understand China. Unless you do you will always have imaginary Chinese action. Let me help you. To China currency is meant to help transaction and to store wealth not trade currency for currency sake.

To China and to BRICS the SWIFT and its manipulative money trading scheme is just another western conspiracy to destroy countries by a stroke of a pen. China will not and will never play a meaningless game it is stacked against. China. So

it will not internationalise RMB or the Yuan. It will not try to helped prop it currencies artificially and it wanted a real currency value that. Is sustainable trusted. Playing Russian roulette’s with its 1.4 billion people’s wealth is not what China will do.The U.S. dollar used to be able to buy 100 items to day a mere 78 years later it can buy 3 of the same item. That is not good for Americans.

In fact between 1980–2020 Real Chinese income grew 30 times and the U.S. during the same time frame not only not grow. It went back to the 1960 level. So try imagine this. American today is doing worst than their grandpa! China wants its currency to buy roughly the same 78 years later. And an average Chinese have 50 times more Yuan.

What’s the funniest reason you’ve been called in to school to collect your child?

What’s the funniest reason you’ve been called in to school to collect your child?

We were called to get our 16 yo boy. He had drunk a bottle of some alcohol during the lunch break. Then during the relaxation class, he fell asleep. When we got there around 90 minutes later, the high school was closed. We couldn’t get there any earlier as both of us worked around 70kms away.

We discovered from the cleaner he had been taken to the police station as they couldn’t depend on when we would get there.

Unfortunately, the police [ it was a small unit] had been called out to a large bushfire. So they put him in the outside exercise yard. The problem was it didn’t have a roof. When our boy saw us coming he climbed the chain wall and high-tailed it.

He slept at a mate’s place that night. The next day the high school said they were going to have him placed under care. His mum also a school principal said, “ over my dead body”.

We came and collected him. He was terrified his mum was going to hit the roof. Which she did.

We got called by the police to discuss his behaviour as they wanted to know how he had purchased the bottle. We counted with how could you lose our son when he is in your care. In the end nothing became of it and our son grew up and gained some brains.

What happens when you get no action

What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?

As my first son learned to crawl and then walk, my wife and I played mantras to him, meditated by his side, and lit sacred sandalwood incense around him.

We co-slept and in the day he was always strapped to one of us, skin to skin.

He was breastfed exclusively for nearly a year and then given only organic, vegetarian food.

We didn’t buy him any guns or other toy weapons, only simple wooden and cloth playthings.

He was so peaceful that he radiated a tangible serenity.

Which made her happy—and me—because we wanted him to be calm, loving, and spiritual.

He’s seven years old now.

His favorite dish is a medium rare burger, he knows an embarrassing number of juicy curse words, and he’s obsessed with Nerf guns.

He likes to listen to rap music with phat bass lines, he finds talk of spirituality to be boring, and is not in the least bit interested in receiving affection.

But everyone is impressed by how determined, free-spirited, and bright he is.

And between you and me, I’m kind of happy he chose to do his own thing, to be his own being.

We love him more intensely than the blazing of the sun.

It took me a long time to realize that you can spend years and years of your life aiming for a particular outcome, just to have things turn out wildly different than you anticipated.

It took me a long time to realize that life is like a wild animal, like my son—fierce and free and beautiful, but ultimately, unpredictable, untamable, and unruly.

And I have the feeling it might take me the rest of my life to fully realize that this built-in uncertainty gives life a unique flavor that, after being acquired, tastes exquisitely delicious.

Why is it mostly old people that go to seafood-based fast food restaurants?

It could be because a lot of older people have tooth problems. An older relative, has dentures, I suggested that we go for steak, and she countered with a fish place, so she could be sure, that she wouldn’t embarrass herself having problems eating a tough steak.

The next time she was over, I had bought tenderloin steaks, and I cooked hers medium, which wasn’t as well done as she would have liked it, but was still pretty tender. Ours were medium rare.

She was upset with me, saying that she wouldn’t be able to eat the steak.

I showed her I could cut mine with my fork. She took one bite and was in love. She hadn’t had a steak she could eat in 10 years. She finished the whole steak, which she had said was too much, when she was looking at it. But once she started eating she couldn’t stop.

Every time we eat at restaurant, we have to make sure there is something on the menu that is soft for her.

So this is one possible reason.

Swarms of drones – kamikazes – attacked USS Thomas Hudner

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LmXXDmGgsWM?feature=share

The USS Hudner (DDG-116), an Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer of the United States Navy, was attacked by a swarm of drones this morning, while patrolling the Red Sea. The ship sustained no damage or injuries to its crew.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported the incident after Houthis in the country of Yemen, took credit for launching the attack.

Houthis are now attacking United States Naval vessels over US Support for Israel, as the Israeli government engages in conflict with the Municipal Government HAMAS of the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis launched swarms of Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones in an unprecedented act of war.

Yemeni rebels who have become a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East, attempted to sink the U.S. vessel.

What happens when you don’t get paid in China

How many Humans existed on the entire earth 60,000 years ago?

Not much more than a few thousand, which is surprisingly small. This is based on our DNA.

Unlike our chimpanzee cousins, all humans today have virtually identical DNA. In fact, one group of chimps can have more genetic diversity than all 8 billion humans.

Our minuscule genetic diversity indicates that at some stage, around 70,000 years ago, the human population dwindled to a very low level — maybe 2,000. In fact, it looks like we came close to extinction.

It was also around this time that our ancestors began migrating out of Africa.

This suggests there were dramatic changes to our traditional environment, possibly caused by the Toba supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago, the biggest eruption in 2 million years, which left entire regions devastated by ash and climate change.

What is going on with the Republican Party? Why do they seem so unhinged?

It’s 1964. Republicans are sane and intelligent. But they just got handed one of the largest losses in modern history, with LBJ winning the largest popular vote majority since James Monroe in 1820. Desperate for votes, they start pandering to racists who are upset about the Civil Rights Act and desegregation.

It’s 1974. Republicans just had their President outed as a criminal. They need an edge to get back in power. They start pandering to evangelicals, hoping their ability to believe in things they can’t see will make them easy targets for brainwashing.

It’s 1984. Republicans are scoring big points thanks to looking like the tough guys in the Cold War. They double down on the idea of growing the defense budget.

It’s 1994. Republican economic policies are dividing conservatives and just cost them the White House. They launch a 24-hour fake news channel to keep their base uninformed.

It’s 2004. Democrats have nominated a war hero for President and he should easily defeat the Republican incumbent. It’s time to start lying about his war record. Disinformation becomes the new norm.

It’s 2014. The economy is good. The nation is safe. But the President is black. Republicans dig up the 1964 playbook and capitalize on racism in their base.

It’s 2024. Sixty years of tactics have produced Republican voters who are racist, uninformed, misinformed, brainwashed, and violent. Now these people aren’t just voters anymore. They’re in Congress.

The president of the United States

China’s New Subs and Sonars Challenge Supremacy of US Silent Hunter Fleets

18:33 GMT 21.11.2023 (Updated: 18:37 GMT 21.11.2023)

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surpassed the US Navy in total number of warships in late 2021. Technologically too, China has made major strides, including in the area of submarine construction and detection. These advances have sparked concerns from observers that America’s powerful fleets could be left dead in the water in a crisis.

The PLAN’s military and technological prowess against the US Navy in the field of submarine construction and anti-submarine warfare is progressing apace, and the “era of total US submarine dominance” over the People’s Republic of China is reaching its end.

That’s the conclusion reached by one of America’s top cited business newspapers in a piece focused on the Asian nation’s scientific and industrial advances for naval warfare. China, the paper pointed out, is gradually “narrowing” the gap between itself and the United States in the highly complex fields of submarine technology and undersea detection.

These developments not only threaten the Pentagon’s regional strategy of hemming China into its home ports, but could challenge US naval supremacy globally over the long term.

Earlier this year, for instance, research by the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute pointed to Chinese advances in efficient nuclear reactors, quiet-running pump-jet propulsion systems and internal quieting devices, the latter based on “imitative innovation” of Russian technology, predicting that the PLAN’s latest nuclear-powered subs will be much harder to track than before.

Additionally, analyses of satellite photos of the Huludao Shipyard in Liaoning, northeastern China taken last year showed the construction of sections of submarine hulls larger than anything US analysts have ever seen in a Chinese sub, along with what seemed to be plans to increase production capacity.

US media citing leaked US Navy intelligence already sounded the alarm about China’s impressive shipbuilding capacity this past fall, which at 23.2 million tons per year, compared with 100,000 tons per year in the US, gives the People’s Republic the ability to build warships at a rate some 200 times greater than the US in a pinch.

On top of that, the PLAN’s rapid construction of a vast network of underwater sensors in the South China Sea and other areas along the Chinese coast known as the “Underwater Great Wall”, to look out for sub, surface warship and aerial activity, means that the Pentagon will find it more difficult to place its warships, subs and aircraft in areas around the Asian nation. The Underwater Great Wall’s construction is reportedly nearing its completion, and includes a vast network of passive and active sonar sensors, plus remote controlled underwater and surface drones which can look out for enemy activity.

China is reportedly also “getting better” at finding silent-running US attack and cruise missile subs sneaking around near its home waters, combining buoy and drone-based monitoring with the use of patrol aircraft and helicopters, for example.

In addition are the PLAN’s growing number of exercises with Russia, which, it can be assumed not only increases the Chinese Navy’s ability to coordinate with its northern neighbor in the event of an emergency, but allows it to learn from the Russian Navy’s half century-plus year experience as a major global naval power rivaled only to the US.

“The implications for the US and our Pacific allies will be profound,” former US Navy officer Christopher Carlson said, pointing to the headaches the US Navy will face, and the additional resources it will need, to locate and keep track of China’s new generation of quiet-running nuclear subs.

Strategically, the outlet noted, maneuvers that the US once took for granted, like the ability to approach close China’s home shores, will now no longer be a given, with the PLAN’s nuclear-powered attack subs able to pick off approaching American warships before they could reach Taiwan in a crisis, for example.

On top of that is the Chinese sub-based ballistic missile threat to the US homeland –a threat Washington has long been used to meting out, but not experiencing itself, in relation to the Asian giant.

“Finding a boat this quiet is going to be really hard,” Carlson said of the Chinese sub threat, predicting the new Chinese boats will probably be about as quiet as the Project 971 Shchuka-B (NATO reporting name Akula, or “Shark”) class fourth generation nuclear-powered attack subs which the Soviet Union and then Russia started fielding in the 1980s and 1990s.

China’s fleet of 79 submarines includes at least 16 nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile subs, including six Type 093 (NATO reporting name Shang class) attack subs and six Type 094 (NATO reporting name Jin) ballistic missile boats operating “near-continuous” patrols between Hainan Island and the South China Sea. But Carlson warned that the Asian nation could build up to triple the current US rate averaging 1.2 subs per year.

Costly as Aircraft Carriers, Difficult to Build

“Submarine-building is the pinnacle of technological excellence in economics and industry, and only a few countries have mastered the technologies which China has now broken into – France, Britain, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the United States,” Vasily Dandykin, a veteran Russian military analyst and retired Russian Navy Captain 1stRank, told Sputnik.

Several factors account for the US’ slowing pace when it comes to the construction of new submarines, according to the observer, starting with Washington’s decision to rest on its laurels after the end of the Cold War, to the drop in the number of high-class specialists in the field.

“The downtime” in the US’ submarine-related programs resulted from “complacency after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” when “not just America, but also Europe rested on their laurels,” according to Dandykin. “The Americans have the world’s largest military budget, which exceeds those of all other countries in the world. That means that somewhere they got carried away with such gigantic and expensive projects which did not justify their cost,” the analyst said, pointing to out of control spending on novelties like the $8 billion-per ship Zumwalt class of destroyers.

“There were a lot of such projects that sucked up a lot of money. And now it turns out that all of these experiments boil down to the fact that they’re 10 years behind Russia in the creation of a new fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarine,” made possible, according to the analyst, thanks to the backlog of revolutionary Soviet sub designs that Russian builders have been able to develop and build on.

“The ‘downtime’ that occurred had an impact in this area, not just with submarines, but the construction of the surface fleet, the entire American fleet. Here, without a doubt, China’s pace has been impressive, first and foremost in terms of the construction of large ships for the surface fleet. But I think they will push themselves and try to build up their nuclear submarine fleet as quickly as possible,” Dandykin predicted.

As far as China’s subs themselves go, Dandykin pointed out that for the moment, the majority of the PLAN’s fleet still consists of diesel-electric subs, and for them to reach the same technological level as the US, as they have already done when it comes to ships like universal landing ships and destroyers, will take time. The PLAN’s current nuclear-powered ballistic missile-launching subs belong to the second generation at best, in the retired naval officer’s estimation, and the newest efforts are aimed at the creation of third-generation vessels.

Accordingly, Dandykin believes US efforts to hype up the “Chinese threat” are “a little disingenuous,” and designed mainly to lobby for the allocation of even more resources for US sub-building efforts – a titanic effort equivalent, more or less, to the construction of an aircraft carrier in both technological and financial terms.

What does it feel like to be abroad but feel more at home than when you are back home?

Surreal. Uncanny. Deja vu. That’s how I felt as I looked down on Southeast Asia from my seat aboard an airplane. The feelings intensified the longer I was there. While my friends made me feel so very welcome, even in my time alone the feeling never left me.

I began the first leg of my long journey back home by crying into my teacup in a cafe in Changi Airport. My heart felt heavy. I was glad to go home to my daughter but if she’d been with me on the trip I’m not sure I’d have returned to the U.S. willingly.

I have said that when I die I want my ashes to be scattered in China, because America is the place of my birth but China holds my heart. There’s something about the Asian region that draws me deeply. I have no Asian background or ancestry so I can’t rationalize it. It’s just how I felt.

I was just jokin’

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

I was fired after 11 years in a PR firm. I never clicked with the owner, and the feeling was mutual. I loved my colleagues, got along well with everyone, and consider them friends to this day.

I had just come off of a very trying time related to a proposal I was writing, had slept little, was burned out and mentioned to a colleague that I wasn’t sure I belonged there anymore.

Soon afterward, the boss took me into his office and said nobody wanted to work with me and that we had just lost a client that reduced our budget. His second in command sat through this with his head in his hands the whole time. He helped me clean out my office the next day.

There were other things going on at the firm. The owner was advancing in age and had promised a succession plan. He never delivered. One by one, after my firing, everyone quit. His firm, started in the mid-80s and one of the most prominent in the city, was done.

Two people told me that my firing was the trigger that made people start thinking about whether they wanted to be there anymore. I can’t take the credit or the blame for what happened, but the exodus was fast and devastating.

Correct attitude to have

What seemingly good celebrity is actually a jerk?

The public image of a celebrity can often be quite different from their true character. Take Ellen Degeneres, for example. On her show and in interviews, she appears to be a lovable, down-to-earth aunt-like figure. However, there have been numerous accounts from staff and crew members claiming that she is actually a nightmare to work with and a terrible person. So, which version is the truth?

Then there’s Sean Penn, who was once in a relationship with Madonna. It has been alleged that he kidnapped and raped her during the 80s. Additionally, Penn has been involved in some truly awful activities throughout his life. On the flip side, he is also the CEO of a large charity and engages in humanitarian work.

Another celebrity, Mark Wahlberg, is often seen as an extraordinary role model and a decent guy. However, it is important to note that he blinded a Vietnamese man during a fight and is a high school dropout. Please note that the mention of being a high school dropout does not imply that it automatically makes someone a terrible person, but it is worth considering when evaluating their status as a role model.

Tim Allen, known for his lovable and funny dad roles, has a dark side. Despite making people laugh out loud with his jokes, he has been described as a severe asshole who disrespects those around him. Furthermore, he was caught smuggling a kilo of cocaine in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and served time for it.

On the other hand, we have Danny Trejo, who was once involved in drug running for a cartel and had a long history of violence and addiction. However, he has transformed himself into a humble and honest man who actively tries to steer kids away from his former lifestyle. In person, he is charming and genuine.

How might rising interest rates in the US affect China’s growth potential and FDI flows?

Nothing.

Zero effect.

Slave nations like Germany and Japan wrap themselves around US and western economic orbit. And the U.S. increase interest it destroy their banks and industry. Not China. China is in its own stable orbit. Today the U.S. interest is between 3–5% and China stays under 1% or so. It do its own thing.

US banks are dropping like flies. China’s bank is loaded with Cash. Chinese citizen on average save 35% of their income in Chinese banks. The U.S. citizens meanwhile saved in average less than 4%. So every year the Chinese add another 6–7 trillion dollars into their wealth and funds.

On FDI if the west reduce other nations made up for it and China’s own investment is so humongous. FDI from west means nothing.

This cheating event did not work out well

What are the influences of food on our culture?

I grew up in the USA. In high school, the lunch period was 25 minutes. On a normal day I washed down three peanut butter sandwiches and half a dozen cookies with a quart of milk and headed to the break room.

At least my parents enforced a family sit-down dinner, though it didn’t last long either.

My eating behaviour in college and working part time jobs was not any better, though the food choices were smarter and more varied.

When I started working in sales after college, I graduated to fast food eaten in the car.

At restaurants, servers were all over me, trying to turn the table in 45 minutes or less.

For me, eating was like putting gas in my car. Get it over and move on to the rest of life.

Then I moved to Germany. It was a shock. The canteen served excellent full hot meals and everyone took their time eating, chatting (but not about work), and taking turns buying coffee for the table.

It was impossible to get out of a sit-down restaurant in under 90 minutes without pushing the staff.

Dinner at friends was a four-hour affair.

I learned to love food and the community of sharing it with others. It wasn’t uncommon for less formal outdoor restaurants to seat me with other diners. I met dozens of fascinating people in that manner.

Ten years later I moved to France and learned that the French take mealtime even more seriously than the Germans. Employers even subsidise the canteen or pay part of the meal vouchers for each worker.

I think this question might be better phrased if it asked “What are the influences of culture on food?”

While the food does vary from country to country, I have little trouble in Europe to eat exactly what I ate in the USA. That’s why I don’t think it’s the food that matters.

Instead I think it’s the value people place on taking the time to savour their meals and those they share them with.

Zelenogradsk: What does a Russian city of CATS look like?

Nov 09 2023

Anna Sorokina

They are literally everywhere: occupying benches at observation decks, sitting next to tourists at restaurant terraces, strolling along pedestrian streets and (alright, fine) allowing you to take photos of them. Let’s pay them a little visit?

You can definitely call the small city of Zelenogradsk (pop. 16,000) in Kaliningrad Region the “cat capital” of Russia. Everything there is dedicated to these furry animals, from souvenirs to… traffic lights!

The many cats of this city will gladly show a tourist the best photo spots (and the best lunch spots!). But, how did it come to this?

Zelenogradsk (Cranz until 1946) is an old resort city at the shore of the Baltic Sea. Cats usually like to settle in such seaside towns, closer to fishermen, fish and vacationers. But, in Zelenogradsk, they have become a real attraction of the city.

According to legend, centuries ago, cats saved the city from rodents that were destroying their food supply and spreading disease. Caring for stray cats is the locals’ way of expressing gratitude.

Cats have always been living in Zelenogradsk. But, it was only recently that the city itself became the “cat capital”. It all started with the Murarium Museum in an old 1905 water tower. Local inhabitant Irina Klochkova decided to set up an exhibition hall for her cat statuette collection in the unused tower in 2012.

Real cats also live in the museum, with ginger-furred ‘Semyon Semyonovich’ chief among them. He became the prototype for the first museum souvenirs. ‘Murarium’ gained a lot of popularity among tourists; soon after, a lot of everything “cat-themed” began to appear in the city.

As soon as you visit, you’ll immediately notice an incredible amount of cat graffiti on buildings. Souvenir stores, on every corner it seems, sell anything from keychains and magnets to shopping bags and mugs with cats on them.

The city’s central street, Kurortny Prospekt, even has mini-benches for cats, little traffic lights with flashing cats, as well as vending machines where you can buy cat food. The city administration even has the position of cat chief, a cat caretaker. Their responsibilities include feeding and taking care of cats.

And for those tourists who decide to have lunch on an open terrace of any cafe, just know you won’t be able to so in peace and quiet! The local cats will always investigate and will not be against the idea of sharing a meal with you.

By the way, there are plenty of dogs in the city, as well, but they seemingly maintain a neutrality with the cats. There are literally no fights or altercations to speak of these days.

Why are the Chinese not interested in Western democracy?

There are two approaches to an answer, one superficial.

I’ll begin with the superficial.

Democracy, or one man one vote, is practiced by the Chinese. They have found the process is good at selecting leaders from small groups that work or live closely together. In fact, this is how the President is selected among the Politburo, and so on.

Unfortunately, one man one vote can and has been hijacked, particularly if money and power enters the equation. There are innumerable tales of village/town leadership seizing power through the “democratic process” and terrorizing “voters” for years on end.

When groups grow too large, voting among strangers can lead to undesirable outcomes.

That’s the modern Chinese experience.

Unfortunately, “Western democracy” isn’t just voting systems. It is a system of values and beliefs built on the foundation of western prosperity. For the past 5–600 years, it has been the absolute dominance in technology that has kept the West on top. That is how the top 12% of humanity today maintain radically different standards of living from the rest of the 88.

Until the emergence of China, only willing acolytes of the “Western model” made the leap into the first world, leaving has-beens by the wayside. All of them, to a fault, adopted Western-style constitutions, governments, legislation and thoroughly reformed society, in order to qualify for membership into the “globalized world”. In return, their economies boomed, powered by export-led demand from the first world.

Along came China, which is distinctly different, especially in the post-Soviet age of “the end of history”. Unfortunately, Communist China has succeeded wildly, way beyond the imagination of the “last man”.

Herein lies the rub. Chinese leaders had enough self confidence decades ago that the Western highway to prosperity wasn’t exclusive. Today, Chinese society is increasingly convinced their leaders were right, because they are living the best times in the sum history of Chinese civilization, a realized boast that reverberates through 4 millennia and >100 generations.

Western prosperity in the 21st century is no longer the shining city on the hill, cities of the future one can only dream of being teleported back home. A Chinese tourist visiting NYC, London, Paris and Berlin will be nonplussed by the sights, and perhaps repulsed by the smell and experience. Chinese cities have the same modern hardware, and services is rapidly catching up. And Chinese cities are evolving rapid improvement in quality of life metrics, while the west is stagnating, or worse, regressing.

The Chinese will go, that’s “Western democracy”, “in God We Trust”, and “all men created equal”?

Thanks, but no thanks.

Communism has our vote, because we live and breathe its outcomes.

Ukr Hard Day: Avdeyevka Cauldron, Kherson Bridgehead Cut Off, Wilders Wins; Biden BRICS Gaza Plan

As a doctor, what’s the saddest experience you’ve had with a patient?

I once talked to an acid attack victim.

She came to the surgery OPD by mistake on a day when our Plastic Surgery OPD was closed.

She had her face covered with a dupatta. I was immediately aware that she had some disfigurement that she was trying to conceal but it was only when I saw her treatment card that I realised what the reason behind it was.

I read the entire card and slowly looked up at her. She was looking at me with one eye while she kept the rest of her face covered.

“I was asked to come after 4 weeks. Here I am.” She told me quietly.

“Yes, I see it written here, ma’m, but our plastic surgery OPDs are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I am afraid, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Can’t you or the doctors here do anything about this?”

“We can but we are not plastic surgeons. We are not experts and we are not the best people to help you.”

“No one can help me, doctor. You know it.”

I had no answer to that.

“If there’s anything else I can do for you…” I said.

“What can you do? My life is ruined. All I do is travel between my home, the hospital and the court. The last few of weeks my life have been hell. The pain has been unbearable. I can’t even look into the mirror anymore. What do you think you CAN do? Can you get me to look like before?”, she said, her eye moist and a hint of desperation in her voice.

I was trying hard to act professional.

I wanted to say that I was sorry that this happened to her. I wanted to tell her that I felt a burning hatred for the person or persons who did this to her. I wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t give up because her life wasn’t over.

Yet, I didn’t say anything. Everything that came into my head began to sound empty as I was about to say it out loud. My words all seemed so woefully inadequate to offer any kind of assurance to her.

That’s why I was trying to be calm and professional. No pity, no sadness, no anger. I was just trying to do what I was there for: my job which was to try and help her.

“I’ll try to call the Plastic Surgery resident to see if he can come here and take a look at you. I can’t promise that he will but I will give him a call.”

“Thank you.” She said quietly.

Nodding, I took out my phone to call the resident.

“I shouldn’t have spoken like that to you.” She said, looking straight at me.

“It’s completely fine.” I said immediately. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel bad for me.

“No, it’s not. I know what it feels like to be spoken to like this, especially if you haven’t done anything to deserve it.”

“Really, ma’m, you do not need to apologise at all. It’s okay-”

“You know, what hurts the most? Before this I was recently-”

Married? Did the husband abandon her? That was the first thought that came to my head.

“-promoted. I was a receptionist in a famous hotel. I was good at my job. People speak to us rudely all the time but I was really good at handling them. There wasn’t a single complaint against me to my manager in the one and a half years that I had the job.”

She paused, looking down at her feet.

“It’s all gone now. They won’t let me work with this…face. It doesn’t matter how well I handle our customers if they can’t handle my face.”, she said, in a voice that was so matter-of-fact that my heart felt like it was being stabbed.

This was a woman who had been serious about her job. She had been excited about her future. She had been independent. The first thing she told me about her life was that she had lost the job she had worked so hard at.

I don’t know why but this case affected me so much more than other cases. Medically, there exist even more severe cases in which acid attacks have caused complete blindness, paralysis or in the inability to eat or swallow.

I know, of course, that you can’t quantify suffering and everyone has their own battles but this one…this one made me want to stop doing my work and go cry in a corner.

I forced myself to look away and called the resident. I managed to convince him to come and examine her.

“He’ll be here in fifteen minutes. Please wait outside.”, I said with difficulty because I felt a lump in my throat.

“Thank you.”, she said softly and left the room.

When you throw acid on someone’s face and they survive the attack, you take from them much of what we consider “life”. You take away choices, opportunities, self-respect and throw them into a world of such suffering that they have never known before.

Many victims say that death is preferable.

I don’t think I’ll be able to argue with them.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

My grandfather was once a lightweight boxing champ. He was healthy most of his life, but like everyone, he grew old. At 90 years old, though, he still liked to go dancing. He took his girlfriend to their elder community’s weekly dance. We went to join them for dinner and just visit them a while.

While I was up getting them plates from the buffet, two scummy men came in. They had been drinking and were looking for some old people to bully – no joke. They were in their late 30s/early 40s. They stopped at my grandpa’s table and started talking about his girlfriend. My grandpa stood up and told them to leave. I looked over and saw this jerk spit on the floor and shove my 90 year old grandpa.

I saw my grandpa stumble backwards against the wall, and I dropped the food tray and started moving towards him. It felt like slow motion.

Before I could get there, I saw my grandpa push off the wall and punch the guy square in the jaw. The man landed on his butt and slid backwards nearly all the way across the room! No one could believe what we saw, especially not the two creeps. His friend went over and helped him up, and everyone watched them leave with their tails between their legs.

I finally went back and got the food for them, and we sat and talked about what happened while they ate. After a bit, the two idiots came back with the police. They pointed by grandpa out to the officers.

The police didn’t believe their story, and we all acted like we didn’t know what they were talking about.

I sure miss that wonderful, strong old man.

Is it true that an increasing number of Chinese people are preferring domestic tourism? If so, what are the reasons?

In last two decades hundreds of millions of Chinese have travelled overseas. Annually about 130 million Chinese travel outside of their country. So by now most of them may have realised that most of the rest of the world is very backward and not as advanced as they used to think.

And secondly they have their own continent sized country to travel and explore and will probably take a lifetime to explore fully. And every kind of tourist related attractions are within their own country be it tourist spots, beaches, deserts, cultural and historical sites, valleys, grasslands, snow and glaciers means in short every experience and to say the least their excellent infrastructure that makes travelling within China indeed a cakewalk.

May be that’s why.

Man’s worst fear

I tricked my Muslim coworker into eating pork (bacon) in a lasagna. How can I tell him so he sees how hilarious and innocent it is?

If a Muslim unknowingly eats pork it isn’t a terrible problem. That doesn’t mean they won’t be upset though.

Regardless of how they feel about the pork, they will probably be more upset with you. Letting them unknowingly eat pork as a joke is a dick move of the highest order. I would recommend that you never tell them, if you want to maintain the relationship you have with them. If you tell them and laugh about it, no one is going to blame them for hating you forever. Others might join their camp.

Like I said, it’s a dick move, so proceed at your own risk.

A purr-fect neighbor

If Earth got flung out of the solar system and became a rogue planet, what measures would we take to survive, whether or not those would actually succeed?

Hoo boy. This is going to be one rough ride for humanity.

If we act fast, there is a chance that our species might survive for the long term, but we’re going to have to do things quickly. As soon as the Earth starts to move away from the Sun, things are going to cool off. A lot depends on exactly the trajectory, but even with a conservative estimate, we’re facing a snowball Earth scenario within a matter of years, when the surface of the planet can no longer support liquid water. It won’t take long for everything living on the surface to die.

However, not all hope is lost. The oceans will freeze from the surface downward, and as they freeze over they will in fact insulate the deeper layers. It could take hundreds of thousands of years before the oceans freeze solid, meaning some life may still manage to hold on in the deeper parts of the oceans for millennia, particularly where there is active volcanism going on, keeping things (relatively) warm. In theory, given enough time, we might be able to construct underwater habitats in the deep oceans as a refuge for humanity.

Another option is to simply go underground. On average, the temperature increases by about 25C for every kilometer we go down into the ground. Even when the surface temperatures have plummeted to -200C (when we’ve wandered out past Pluto), we “only” have to dig down a handful of kilometers before we can bask in the relative heat from the heart of our planet.

That heat from the planet’s core is what might ultimately provide the salvation for the species. While the rest of the energy sources we have available to us are ultimately based on solar radiation and will be forfeit once we’ve drifted from the Sun, our planet’s core is powered by radioactive decay and will keep on cooking for billions of years to come. We can harness this either directly via fission reactors, or indirectly through geothermal energy sources.

So here’s the scenario we might enact to provide for the continuation of humanity.

First, we determine what capacity we have for tunneling down into the crust and excavating areas large enough to create underground settlements. Perhaps the Boring Company will be in high demand in this scenario! Governments across the world pool their resources and a number of candidate sites around the globe are selected. Access to existing geothermal energy sources might be a good starting point.

Then we start digging. Temporary “camps” are excavated at shallower depths while digging proceeds ahead for future movements. In the meantime, each of these future colonies is prepared with resources that they’ll need to survive. Deep underground, some of the challenges will be oxygen and clean water; however, with artificial sunlight and proper preparation it should be possible to grow crops even underground. We’ll probably have to say goodbye to eating meat as raising animals for food won’t be an efficient use of resources, though we might keep some animals around for the sake of having animals.

At some point there’s going to be some kind of selection process for who gets to go down and survive. This won’t be pretty. Most of us will be left on the surface to freeze to death. But once it’s done, the selected groups can descend into the bowels of the Earth and begin a new subterranean existence.

Would it succeed? It’s hard to say. They have to dig deep enough, and that presents dangers in and of itself. Colonies could be destroyed by seismic activity that collapses them. In those kinds of close quarters, a disease outbreak could prove fatal to the whole group. Issues with food supply or water supply could doom a group. There are many ways in which any underground colony could fail, and it is almost a given some of them would.

But with enough luck, persistence and hard work, some of them might make it, and over the generations adapt to this new lifestyle. Maybe they’d even thrive to the point they could send excursions back out to the surface, exploring the frozen wasteland, travelling across the ice to visit other underground colonies. Maybe even once again find ways to build ships to leave the planet and try to find someplace nicer to take the family, so to speak.

From the Bayou Crawfish Louisianne

Yield: 4 to 6 generous servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1/2 cup chopped andouille sausage
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper (can mix the colors)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 to 3/4 cup whipping cream
1 pound crawfish tails
1 quart peanut oil
4 to 6 catfish fillets (2 to 3 ounces each)
Egg wash (egg white, water, milk)
Seasoned flour
Seasoning to taste
Cajun seasoning, pepper, red pepper and garlic powder

Instructions

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add andouille, peppers, onions and Italian seasoning and sauté until tender (about 5 minutes.) Add mushrooms just before completion.
Add whipping cream, and reduce the sauce over medium heat.
Add crawfish, and cook for 3 minutes. Adjust seasoning.
Heat oil in a large saucepan.
Dredge fish in egg wash and then season with flour.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
Pour crawfish mixture over catfish.
Garnish with parsley and onion tops.

So very British

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y8lMSMoqbps?feature=share

What are the ways to become a high quality man?

Make decisions for yourself and do not follow the opinions or actions of others.
Have a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for.
Spend time reflecting on your thoughts and emotions and deeply understand yourself.
Be capable of taking care of yourself and do not rely on others for support.
Enjoy spending time alone and find it more fulfilling than being with others.
Have a few close friends or family members and do not rely on the need for an extensive social network.
Enjoy exploring ideas and concepts and be comfortable contemplating complex topics.
Do not seek validation from others and be comfortable relying on yourself.
Have a unique perspective and approach to life and be confident going against the crowd.
Do not conform to societal norms or expectations and march to the beat of your drum.

The Chinese warship sonar incident

This mature and analytical write-up by John Menadue, November 23 is very constructive and logical.

John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.

…

“What a feast of anti-China stories we have had again from the Coalition and our media over the incident between HMAS Toowoomba and a Chinese PLA-N destroyer.

The whole issue really looks to be overblown – and seeded by some in the Sinophobia school who are worried about where Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong may be headed. The idea of “stabilisation” scares them, so they react by promoting some destabilisers.

The proposition that the Chinese warship was directed by Beijing – let alone President Xi – to initiate such “aggressive” action beggars belief. Like the ‘spy’ balloon exercise, where it seems clear enough that President Xi initially knew little about the whole thing.

Our ‘spooks’ depend on the CIA for about 90% of their overseas information and the Pentagon is building a network in our Department of Defence. I would very much doubt whether Albanese and Wong really know what ‘information’ the CIA and the Pentagon are feeding into our spooks.

The US expects that a pliant ally like Australia will do what it is told. It is concerned at recent events and prefers that we do not stabilise our relations with China. So this incident is a great opportunity for some destabilisation. And our poorly informed media tag along as always.

Given the unsurprising PLA comments the chances of misunderstanding the message or even miscommunication would have to rate high. If the PLA ship had been shadowing the RAN ship, which then decided to stop dead in the water to check for nets, would the Commander of the PLA ship not be a bit suspicious about what the RAN was up to and activate some of his intel alerts including special sonar to try to find out more? In any event presumably he would have had some of his sonar devices running while he was sailing anyway? Even if the PLA just happened on the RAN in the middle of the sea (electronically of course) would its initial reaction not be one of suspicion?

We probably will never get the real story of the actual communications between the two ships, but language problems cannot be excluded.

But Albanese and Marles (again and again) have been panicked into hasty responses for which we will pay. Marles should have tried to hose things down, but he invariably sings from the US song sheet. Albanese should stick to the line of not commenting in detail on his private conversations with world leaders. Blinken did this repeatedly over questions about the Xi-Biden talk. If necessary, the government can call in the Chinese Ambassador at Secretary level to make the point.

It is strange why Marles would want to play this up right now. The incident was not in the SCS but in Japan’s EEZ heading towards Japan. This could be in the contested area of the East China Sea, south of Okinawa.

It is also not clear what UN sanctions RAN was monitoring unless they were part of the regular monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea. We have been doing that in the Sea of Japan further north.

These incidents should be sorted out by military to military communications and not as a stick for those who want to destabilise our improving relationship with China.

We would be more concerned if this incident occurred in waters adjacent to Australia and not in waters adjacent to China, which is already encircled by scores of US military bases. China would understandably be very sensitive about what happens in its proximity.

In any event, this incident is minor compared with the aggressive things we do that are hostile to China. RAAF P8 aircraft operating out of the Philippines drop Sonar buoys in the SCS to monitor Chinese submarines. This is not for the defence of Australia but to support the US in a possible conflict with China over Taiwan.

Our media have shown no interest in this issue. It does not fit the Western ‘China threat’ narrative that our White Man’s Media works so hard to construct and maintain, and so is ignored.”

I stuff guys with cars…

Have you ever witnessed an “I demand to see the manager” moment?

If you’ve worked retail long enough, even if you’re amazing, you have one of these.

I work retail pharmacy. I had a woman come up to the sales counter with her adult daughter, wanting to buy a large quantity of Sudafed, but within the legal limit. Both of them were planning to buy, and they happened to mention that they were buying it for the woman’s mother, both of them. This is illegal, as in my state you must purchase it for yourself or your minor child. You actually sign an electronic document stating so.

I apologize to the women and tell them I can’t complete the transaction, and explain why, that it is against state and federal law.

Immediate attitude, along the lines of “Who do you think you are, you low born classless person to tell me and my daughter, with our bleach blonde hair and snooty attitudes ‘no!’”

The mother demands to speak with the manager, who isn’t there, we just have a staff pharmacist who’s witnessed the whole thing. She tells the woman that I can complete the sale.

I stare at her for a second before asking the pharmacist if she intends to pay my legal fees to reinstate my pharmacy tech liscense, and tell the pharmacist that if she wants to process the transaction she can, but that I WILL NOT.

She demands my register login and codes, because she’s not a regular pharmacist at my store. I refuse to give them to her, as that is a fireable offense.

The customer is staring at us, red faced and ready to burst, and demands I listen to the pharmacist, then demands I page store management when I explain that the pharmacist cannot compel me to break the law.

I page store management, and my favorite assistant manager comes over and asks what’s going on. By this point, the woman is using abusive language, and exclaims “This f*ggot won’t sell me Sudafed that is for me!”

At that point the manager raises an eyebrow and tells the woman she’s going to have to move her car.

Woman asks why.

“Because our parking is for customers only. You need to leave now. Our customers know they can’t talk to people like that.”

The woman throws a shrieking fit, shoving over a display of medication… which her adult daughter stops to pick up, apologizing the whole time.

The pharmacist in question got written up by corporate for an Ethics violation, and when my Pharmacy Manager told me I should just turn my ears off and not listen to conversations at the register and do my job, he got an Ethics violation that has left him stuck as a pharmacy manager.

The woman emailed the corporate office, and I got to see the reply which was basically ‘We’re sorry you had that experience, but our stores are committed to following state and federal law’ and they attached the laws in question, highlighted.

It was nice to be vindicated and defended for once, instead of thrown under that well known bus.

Reality in the USA

US Congress unanimously approved the Patent Restriction Act. All of China’s patents are at risk of invalidation overnight. Huawei’s 20000+ patents could be deemed invalid. All countries at risk as the US can claim a national security threat. Fair?

With China’s manufacturing power and the engi eers’ abilities of learning and copying, good luck to the US.

All US patents will be nulled by China and Russia as, and the US will lose much more than Huawei would do.

This is not only on Qualcomm, TI, AMD, intel but also hit huge on the pharmaceutical companies.

China and its engineers are waiting for the bill passed and now all the knowledge would be shared without any loyalty across mankind. Nice job the US.

I just don’t beat the shit out of you…

What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to an American tourist or as a tourist visiting America?

I was in a hospital, here at Rome, to visit a friend, and when I was going away I saw two American girls, one could hardly walk because she had fell and hurted badly her leg. I helped them to call someone to bring a wheel chair and they went to emergency. I went with them to help because they didn’t speak italian well. I asked why they didn’t call for an ambulance and they said they didn’t want t to spend too much money. They were worried about how much they would have to pay at the hospital too. I explained them, in Italy, the ambulance is free, and so the hospital. Even if she would have to stay there for days or weeks. No one in Italy could dare to ask a girl with a broken leg for money. Nobody could leave her without medical care even if the didn’t have money.

They couldn’t believe me . They continued asking if the hospital was going to send bills later. If they could pay later in installments.

The girls wanted to ask the administrative employee too, because they wanted to be sure. He gave them the same answer and they were very surprised.

Later the girls left the hospital, one had a cast on her leg but they had big, beautiful smiles!

Loyalty and Respect

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

Not me, but my mother. She was visiting the US for a ski holiday in New England and had a bad fall that resulted in a broken bone. As a result, she had to spend a bit of time in a hospital. Her stay was fortunately paid for by Canadian health insurance; can’t imagine how US citizens who don’t have or can’t afford coverage manage to pay for their care.

Anyway, I was curious to see what it cost after she got home, so she showed me the detailed bill. The total was shockingly high, no surprise, but one thing caught my eye. She’d been invoiced for 3X “helically wound cellulose absorbent matrix units” at $48 each. Curious, I contacted the hospital to ask what these could be. Can you guess?

They turned out to be rolls of bog-standard toilet paper, the number she was tracked as having consumed during her stay.

Amazing.

Pretty good

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

Not myself but a teacher at my school.

This was a Church of England (Christian) secondary school (ages 11-18) in the late ‘80s and the dress code was quite strict. Among the many rules was one that boys weren’t allowed to have long hair.

There was this old-fashioned teacher (Mr. Barabell) who’d been teaching there for ~30 years already by that point and was well-known for being strict but fair.

Anyway, there was this one boy (Luke) who decided that he wanted to grow long hair and he wasn’t going to let a stupid school rule stop him, and so he just let it grow. Initially he started getting comments from teachers about being “scruffy” etc. but eventually the situation came to a head in Mr. Barabell’s class:

A confrontation begins with the teacher telling Luke off— “There are school standards to maintain, “ and, “Does he think that he’s special, ” and so on. Well Luke—smart alec that he was—has a pre-prepared answer ready to go:

“But sir, Jesus had long hair didn’t he?“

As this point the class is completely silent waiting for a response, but instead of answering Mr. Barabell says, “Right, everyone come with me now,” and he turns and exits the class room. We all follow, including Luke, wondering what on Earth is going on.

Eventually we reach the school swimming pool and gather around. Then Mr. Barabell turns to Luke, points to the swimming pool and says, “Walk!”.

Luke is just standing there kind of shaking his head (knowing that he’s defeated) and the whole rest of the class is cracking up.

The teacher finishes with, “When you can walk on water, you can have long hair at school.”

Game. Set. Match.

Smart Kid

Why can’t Americans get access to the Chinese electric car market?

Americans foolishly screamed and shout that they are the leader of the free world without ever questioning if it is even remotely true or not! Please don’t be angry or upset if I help you guys since I understand you can pretend to be free or even dare says you are ordained by god to spread democracy and freedom but you Americans are one of the least free country on earth.

Let me help you good American. So first I like to explain how unfree you guys are.

35% of you cannot get health care when you fall sick! The most basic of freedom is the freedom to see a doctor and get cure when you fall sick. At least 100 million Americans don’t have this basic of basics of freedom.

Next 1 million Americans are homeless and don’t have another basic of basics of freedom. The freedom to have a roof over their head.! They have to live in makeshift tents on the streets.

20% of Americans don’t have 500 dollars to their name and don’t know where their next meal is coming from! Surely everyone must have the freedom to have a hot meal to stay alive!

USA with about 4% of world population has 25% of the worlds prisoners population! Think about this my American friends, prisoners are certainly. Not free. Many of them coloured people thrown into jail for the slightest reason. How on earth can you keep a straight face to say U.S. is the leader of the free world. No one know!

In many cities in the U.S. one cannot go to certain parts of the inner city like the Queens in New York. As crimes are rampant. So normal innocent and good Americans like you have to avoid that part of America! Surely freedom means you can go to anywhere or any part of America.

Kids and parents suffers the mental turmoils daily for just going to school. Many got shot to death in schools, public places, cinemas and even in Capitol Hill! Is that freedom? Even your kids are not free to go to school without a random mass shooter lurking with military grade weapons to murder them! Is this freedom?

If you are not fortunate to have a white skin you could be necked to death in the bright daylight of even driving a good car may be be shot to death just for suspected of stealing the car! Everyday you live in fear of a white policeman! Is that freedom to live? Freedom to avoid death at the racist inclination of the white racist? Surely not.

Freedom means you can choose who you really want to be your leader. Only 30% choose Biden. Or 35% choose Trump! Why are they your president? Your system allowed 0.8% of the richest and most influential people to choose your candidates! Surely this is not political freedom. This is far from democracy. How on earth can you call yourself the “beacon of democracy” who in a sane mind can claim that?

Oh today you country stop the Americans from having access to best 5G technology, Smartphone, best EV’s, drones and others for some geopolitical nonsense! Is this freedom? Freedom to be deprived? Let me help you understand. You are deprived from buying a 10 bucks EV. And need to be charged once a week but you are not allowed to! You cannot buy your Tesla like for half the price! Just to support your too big to fail auto industry paying 100 million bonus doing shit for good Americans!

But to me EVs and Drones are just the top of the iceberg of your draconian and suicide policies that takes away the freedom of Americans like you. Think about Jullien Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden! Freedom? American is anything but free.

Man these people are monsters

What conversations have you overheard in a language they assumed you don’t know?

It was 2016 in Bruges, Belgium. I was with my parents and we had just hailed a cab that somehow turned into a ride-share with this British family.

All was well in the van until about three minutes in, when I heard the lady say: “These people look a bit funny, don’t they?”. I looked up to notice that they were talking about my family. In plain English.

I stayed silent as much as I could, as they went on discussing among themselves and chuckling over how we were so bundled up (It was in the middle of a freezing winter and I live in the freaking equator!) even though it wasn’t that cold for them, or how they couldn’t figure out where we’re from because apparently we didn’t look Chinese enough nor Middle Eastern enough for them (Answer: Neither – we’re Indonesian) and all. During the whole ride, they were mocking us.

My mother must’ve seen me giving them a death stare and asked if anything was wrong, in Indonesian. Topping it all off, they were of course chuckling at how my mom was talking really funny. I couldn’t stand it any more, so I answered my mom in English, making sure the British family heard me well:

“Yes there is a problem here. Some people actually still think that English isn’t a universal language by now, and think that it’s good fun to mock and make fun of other people just because of how they look”.

I spent the rest of the cab ride watching the blood drain from their faces. At least I was no longer the one being uncomfortable in that cab.

Lord, Jesus help us

What are some deepest lessons you should know in your young age?

Feeling sad after making a decision doesn’t mean it was the wrong decision.
Life is not tiring. Wanting life to be a certain way but not having the confidence to make it that way, is tiring.
Self-awareness is realising that there is no opponent -you’re fighting against yourself.
Sometimes saying ‘goodbye’ doesn’t mean you don’t love something, it just means you love yourself too.
That lesson will repeat itself until you learn it.
If you keep one hand on your past and one hand on your future you’ll never have either. To embrace tomorrow, you must let go of yesterday.
The world starts and ends entirely inside your mind. No matter where you end up, no matter how rich, or successful you become, you won’t enjoy any of it if you get there at the expense of your mental health.

Chinese ethnic groups

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SC7IyLLt6PA?feature=share

What is the fastest you have ever seen your co-worker getting fired?

As a teenager, I worked in a gas station for a couple of years. A younger kid got hired who had some odd work habits. When the station owner would leave, the kid would just go sit down in the office. Meanwhile, I’d be pumping gas, changing oil, or mounting tires. I had no authority over this kid.

A few days after he was hired, I told the owner what was going on. An hour or two later the owner mentioned he was going home for an hour or two. He departed, the kid sat down in the office, while I finished doing an oil change and waited on customers at the pumps.

Ten minutes later, the boss walked out the alley where he’d parked his truck out of sight, and stood quietly in the shadows, watching me work, and the kid sitting on his butt. A few minutes later, the kid was fired. Word got around our small town pretty quickly, I don’t think this kid could find another job that summer.

I wasn’t sad to see him leave…

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

Years ago I strained a tendon in my thumb. I went to one of those jenky quick service medical clinics to have it looked at and a person, who I assumed had some training in doctoring or nursing, prescribed me ibuprofen and put my hand in a brace.

I paid them like 50 bucks and went on my way.

A few weeks later I got a bill for the brace from a medical billing company in Texas. They assigned a cost of $750 to the brace, and only the brace, claimed to have billed my insurance for $450 and expect the rest from me. Of course, I sent them nothing, and the bills kept coming. The brace was essentially the same as one you’d buy at the drug store for about $35. It was nothing special and there was no way I was sending them any money. I tried to call them, but no one ever answered their phone.

Once my tendon healed, I put the brace in a box, along with a copy of their bill and mailed it to them. I never received anther bill afterwards.

Good advice

Why did China keep collapsing throughout history?

This is an interesting question.

Why did ancient China keep collapsing?

Or , let’s change the question.

Why did ancient China keep rebuilding?

In fact, there is no eternal empire in human history. From Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Ottoman, Russia. The lifespan of any empire established by a civilization is limited. In other words, crashes are bound to happen.

But the difference between China and other empires is that most ancient empires collapse only once. Because the collapsed empire can never be rebuilt again. But China has such a magical power that no matter how it collapses, it will always be reunified after a period of time, and then climb to the peak again.

This picture shows the whole history of China. The crown represents peace and unity, and the sword represents division and war.

So much so that the opening sentence of the famous ancient Chinese novel “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” reads: “The general trend of the world is that if it is divided for a long time, it will be united, and if it is united for a long time, it will be divided.”

Why China has such magic power, historians have many opinions.

One of the more widely recognized statements is this:

4,000 years ago, the Chinese were born on a land suitable for farming. Since the earliest civilized countries were established, they have been a typical agricultural civilization.

From the earliest recorded history of China, they have faced the threat from the north. That is the nomadic civilization galloping on the grasslands. In the early historical documents of Chinese dynasties, the invasion of nomadic civilization was recorded many times, and even the most brilliant Western Zhou Dynasty perished because of the invasion of nomadic civilization.

The ancestors of the Chinese discovered that the agricultural civilization, which is good at farming and construction, cannot compete with the nomadic civilization, which is good at riding and archery, in war. (Infantry can hardly defeat cavalry).
But as long as they are united, they will become more powerful. If 1 person can’t defeat the enemy, then 3 people; if 3 people can’t, then 10 people. Since agricultural civilization can breed more wealth and population, once China is united, the nomads are no match at all.

In 221 BC, the Qin Empire unified China for the first time, defeated the Xiongnu in war, and built the Great Wall to keep them out of the cold north. The Han Empire went a step further and formed a professional army of hundreds of thousands of people, went on an expedition to the desert, and completely defeated the Xiongnu. A unified and strong state always protects its people from harm. And when the empire crumbles and divides, China becomes weak. For example, the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period were all like this. At this time, the enemy from the north invaded, the internal war was in chaos, and the society was dark. People cannot live a normal life, and starvation and death become the norm. Every round of imperial collapse and division in Chinese history will be accompanied by wars and a significant reduction in population. The lessons of history have engraved this truth deeply in the hearts of the Chinese people—unity is justice and light, and division is evil and darkness. The Chinese yearning for unity transcends history, time, religion, and nationality.

Therefore, the ultimate political goal of every careerist who wished to seize power in ancient China was the same: to unify the country and obtain the “sky destiny”. Only in this way can we gain the support of the people.

Imagine if in Europe, every German thought the German government was evil, the British thought the British government was dark, and the French thought the French government was corrupt. These governments should all be overthrown. As for the reason, there is only one: they don’t want to unify Europe, which is not the right direction.

What a terrible and incredible power this is, but the Chinese have such power.

A beautiful lesson

AH. I want to do this with my daughter.

What are some of the best examples of “American ignorance”?

I used to date an American. At the time I lived on an estate where to get out, you had to drive under a railway bridge arch. He got annoyed with having to wait for oncoming traffic to clear and demanded to know “why the hell didn’t they build this with two lanes?” I said it was built 150 years ago for stagecoaches, before cars were even invented. Americans forget how old England is.

What are some things that look easy but are difficult?

I asked a cycle rickshaw driver in India if I could have a turn. “This’ll be as easy as riding a bicycle,” I thought.

Technically, that’s exactly what it is. Only that you’re pulling someone else’s weight as well. Or even that of several people.

His face had all those deep grooves from the harsh sun beating down on him all day. His arms and legs were as thin as twigs. His ribcage bulged through a sweat-drenched tanktop.

I was less than half his age and enjoyed the kind of nutrition he could only dream of.

“You’re a tourist,” he protested.

But I insisted and he sat on the vinyl seat in the back.

I mounted the driver’s seat brimming with confidence and pressed down on the pedal.

It didn’t even budge.

I stood up and pushed down with all my might.

The rickshaw squeaked forward a couple inches.

By this point, the driver was laughing hysterically.

I conceded defeat, we changed positions, and he sailed down the street with an ease I could not even begin to fathom.

And while he was no industry-disrupting maverick, he was solving a real problem—helping people get from A to B.

My view of manual laborers was forever changed.

I learned that technique always trumps strength.

And that every honest line of work deserves our utmost respect.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: America is declining RAPIDLY

https://youtu.be/0gjzpZMFVsE

G3 and P99 dreams

I know that I live in China, and that it is safe, safe… safe! But you know guys, I do miss my guns. Yup. I left them all behind back in the ‘States when I moved to China. I loved to take them out, and shoot them every now and then, and truthfully, I was lethal with my pistol.

I also miss my G3.

I have had numerous weapons through the years, but I left behind my precious P99. It’s not that it is better than the trade-offs that I get here in China. It isn’t, but every now and again, I do miss firing that pistol.

Truth, you all.

Deep down, I still hold on to some of my American characteristics.

Of course, all of this is meaningless to you all, unless you are an American. But there is always something very nice about being able to defend yourself from the crime-ridden United States .

Here’s a (my) Martin .444 lever action.

Man, oh man, those bullets were huge!

It could really cut through the brush… I’ll tell you what.

Back in the day, Australians used to own thee kinds of weapons, and then a crazy guys in Tasmania (I seem to recall) went on a shooting spree “out of the blue”, and the Australian government started to ban everything… you know… to make Australia safer.

I hear that there are parts of Australia that remains very, very dangerous. I mean that there are some places that you do not dare go out at night…

…ugh. That is NOT a place where anyone should live.

But I don’t know if it is the wildlife… or the “wild” life. But if live in one such place, I would suggest that you leave. Life is too short to live in fear.

A life lived in fear is a life not lived.

Are there employees who later employed their boss?

For my case, I was the boss who was later hired by the guy who used to work for me. Early in my career, I managed a construction crew of a dozen or so workers. One of my workers, I’ll call Scott, showed exceptional intelligence, drive and common sense. I promoted to foreman and then supervisor in less than two years. I left that company over a contract dispute and found another job.

Six years later, I’d grown bored with the new job and felt my future there was limited. Out of the blue, I received a call from Scott. A short time after I had left the old company, Scott ran into his old college sweetheart and a year later, married her. College? A menial laborer, promoted for foreman, and then supervisor, had a college degree? Yep. He told me that he was once a practicing attorney but disbarred for helping a client hide some assets. After disbarment, he slipped into depression and alcoholism. At his lowest point, he took the job of laborer.

His sweetheart and new wife was $$$ LOADED $$$. she had bought him his own successful construction company. He was a smart, ambitious guy but lack bossines (I mean business) sense and knowhow. He found himself over his head on a project and called me for help. It happened I had a couple of weeks vacation left, so for a nice fee, I agreed to spend that time helping him.

At the end of those two weeks, he offered the the job as Executive VP at salary over my current one and a share of the profits. He turned out to be the best boss I ever had and I worked for him until he retired (at forty-two.)

How do Chinese people feel about foreigners who live and work in China?

Ask the foreigner.? To them it is a million times safer than back home in the U.S. Chinese people like diversity and welcome good foreigners. But if he is a CIA or NED spy or trouble maker chances is he or she will be caught within 24 hours. If he likes the food, the place the people or the culture he or she is always welcome. If he is a hubris, xenophobic racist he should stay at home and join the KKK.

Let me warn you, China sniff you out in an hour and we will send you packing. But if you live China and wants to make China even better welcome. Let me tell you what you can do in China that you cannot do at home. You can open a 6 pack and you can drink as you walk on Chinese streets. You cannot do in the U.S. You can walk in the street at 3 am in the morning safely even if you are a women. In the U.S. you have many no go areas that even cops don’t want to go.

You cannot see homeless because there is none in China. Your chance of being shot by a random mass shooter is a billion to one in the U.S. if you fall sick everyone including foreigners get to be treated by the best doctors and given medical help. The life expectancy of China exceed that of the U.S. There is zero case of racial profiling in China but in the U.S. blacks can be necked to death in open daylight.

Come over and let’s prosper together.

Is Xi Jinping’s presidential car in San Francisco a Hongqi car? What model is it?

It is a customized armored Honqi H9 Model 701

There are Sixty Eight Customized cars made for the CPC top brass every 5 years and PLA Top brass

Xi Jingping has four such cars, all similar and heavily armored

The Communication system is connected to a Chinese Satellite constellation and is not dependent on any other system allowing the president to talk to anyone he wants without any interception

Presently only Biden & Putin have similar systems

The Contract Tender price of this car was 972000 RMB ($ 136K)

What did your boss do or say to you that made you quit your job?

“I don’t care if she’s dead. Money is money.”

I’ve been managing a brand for 9 years and have had stellar performance. I was promoted quickly and pretty soon assumed the role of second in charge for one of the key cities.

Part of my role includes bringing in big corporate sales. I was in the midst of closing a large annual contract with a major player.

And then my godmother had to undergo brain surgery.

I applied for some time off and spent a week with my godmother who lives in another country. I had accrued over 40 days in leave as I’ve been working myself to death to grow the company.

When I returned, my then boss wanted to know if I had finalised the sale. I was speechless. Everyone knew about my godmother’s surgery and it was an annual contract that the company could’ve afforded to wait a couple of weeks for. It wasn’t as if it was completely lost and I’ve been in communication with the client throughout.

But then came those words that I will always remember – “I don’t care if she’s dead. Money is money.”

I walked.

On a happier note, my godmother is fully recovered!

What is the most extreme example of human willpower and discipline?

Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima

Story: He was the leading runner in the 2004 Summer Olympics marathon.
At his pace, he was sure to win first place and secure the gold medal which would’ve brought pride and glory to his family and country.

Near the end of the marathon, he was attacked by a spectator. The spectator actually sidelined into him. Intentionally. In public.

That brief, 10 second-long distraction was enough to completely disrupt De Lima’s mental AND physical rhythm, both of which are critical to running long distance marathons.

He was quickly surpassed by two other runners and was evidently off his game for the remainder of the marathon. He finished in third place in surprisingly good spirits and received the bronze medal.

What people remember is that he crossed the finish line with a smile despite what had happened to him just moments before.

This was a man who was robbed of first place and an Olympic gold medal in a matter of seconds.

Imagine training for something your entire life and being so close to accomplishing something extraordinary. Something that brings you, your family, and your country great pride and happiness and puts you in the history books.

Only to be robbed in a matter of seconds in the most outrageous and nonsensical way possible. By something that should never have happened in the first place.

De Lima could’ve stopped running when that incident happened. He could’ve attacked the trespasser. He could’ve complained endlessly to the officials.

But he pushed past, he ran, and he finished.

Even after the fiasco, words like “furious” or “hatred” were evidently not in De Lima’s vocabulary. Holding a relentless vendetta against his perpetrator was clearly not important to him.

Even when a fellow Olympian earnestly offered his own gold medal to De Lima, De Lima responded “I am happy with mine – it is bronze but means gold.”

De Lima went on to win a variety of awards commemorating his self-discipline and spirit of sportsmanship.

He also went on to light the cauldron at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

It takes immense willpower and discipline to run and finish as a top contender for a marathon in the Olympics, but I think what makes De Lima so special is his willpower and discipline to look past something so ill-fated and still come out on top. He truly lives a life of no regrets.

And I don’t remember who won first or second place in that 2004 Summer Olympics Marathon.

But I remember Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima.

The man is a legend.

Men and Ice Cream

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

When I was nine years old, my mum died.

Although I didn’t know how she died at the time, it later turned out that she had died by suicide. Nine year old me thought she’d just died of old age — she was 43 after all!

We were kept off school for a few days. My middle sister was in the year above me at the same school. Our classmates had been told that our mum had died (not how) and that they should be nice to us.

On my first day back at school, a boy from my sister’s class ran up to me and shouted in my face “Jordan, how’s your mum?” and ran off laughing.

I still remember his name 41 years later – Billy Smart; the same name as a popular travelling circus from that time. That’s all I remember about the boy now – his name and that he thought it would be funny to tease me about my dead mother. I hope he became a more sensitive and well rounded person as an adult, but I have doubts.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Ahahaha, memories! I worked at a publisher for a few years and the management had no clue how much work folks did. They were so clueless, in fact, that they were convinced people were shirking their duties, sneaking out early, coming in late, etc.

So, they ostentatiously installed an electronic time card system. We had to log in and log out every time we entered or left the building, respectively.

They informed us we were going to be paid for the “actual” hours we worked, instead of what we submitted on our timecards (we were “salary,” and yet had a low-budget pay system, so “salary” simply meant “submit a 40-hour timecard every week regardless of the actual work you perform.”), with the implication that we better watch out ’cause “now they were watching.”

Hahahahaha! Watch this!

This company was so delusional that it spent cold hard cash in a passive-aggressive attempt to not pay people, and it totally backfired.

To no one’s surprise, the next payroll was a blowout because we always busted ass and worked long hours. Plus, we completely stopped taking work home to do. Our rationale was “If you’re going to be a jerk about insisting that we are only paid for being in the building, then we’ll only work while we’re in the building.”

The company found themselves shoveling out overtime pay like it was Skittles.

They deactivated that system after Week Two.

I think, to this day, they still think we somehow “hacked” the system, because they could not acknowledge that we worked long-ass hours.

Dingbats.

Make men cry

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yq3yG3BZt4U?feature=share

What is the best thing you have ever learned from a criminal?

I learnt how to break into my own house when I forgot my keys.

I was waiting for my wife to come home standing in my doorway when a neighbour asked me if I was okay. I said I was fine and I was waiting for my wife to get home from work so I could get in.

I knew that he had a criminal history. He asked me if he could use a small branch of one of my trees to open the door. I agreed, and he put one into the letterbox of my door and he used it to nudge the Yale lock to open it.

I learnt that I needed a better lock. In fact, I bought a whole new door with several locks.

I also learnt that criminals can. and do. reform. For many years, my neighbour could have entered my house and stolen anything he wished.

You just need to put more effort in…

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

He died!

Months before he died he wasn’t feeling the best. Where he used to NEVER take time off work he had started taking lots of time off. Or coming home early. His feet hurt him. He did a lot of walking at work.

I BEGGED him to go to the doctor. I told his mom to TELL him to go to the doctor. All it created was fights. So I quit begging him to go.

I went on a girls weekend and he died in our home. I have SO MUCH ANGER that he died so young, when it possibly could have been prevented. The main cause of death was a heart attack due to untreated diabetes. Clearing out his drawers I found many bottles of unused diabetic pills. They weren’t even his. Someone gave them to him to “help”, he still didn’t use them.

Now I tell people. PLEASE make sure the ones you love go to the doctor, use Dave as an example why. Also that you know how all the household expenses work. He paid all the main bills and spoiled me. I didn’t have to do any of that. Was a huge eye opener when I had to take over. Nearly lost my house to foreclosure, but am finally getting things under control, four years later.

So yeah, he died on me. I will never forget. We were high school sweethearts. Met when I was 15, he was 17. Got Married when I was 19 and he was 20. Married for 23 years. Together 27.

Make sure the ones you love take care of themselves and get medical help. Sucks being a 42 year old Widow.

Don’t be too humble…

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

So I was in a car accident with my then girlfriend. A teenage girl, driving her mom’s car ran a red light and hit us. It was a pretty bad accident and my girlfriend was taken out of the car on a backboard. The girl who was driving was really shook up, and her passenger had a minor wound that was bleeding. I had banged up my knee and my face got hit pretty hard. An ambulance came, but there was no room for me in the back, so I sat upfront, shotgun. When we got to the ER it was really busy. I sat there waiting for about two hours. Finally a nurse brought me to the examining room, where I waited about another 45 minutes to an hour. The nurse who brought me in looked at my swollen face and said if you had iced that it wouldn’t be so swollen. Finally I just signed myself out.

About a week later I got a bill from the hospital for treatment and an ambulance ride. I called and told them I wasn’t paying because they never treated me and I rode on the empty front seat of the ambulance. They told me that I was charged because if I had really needed treatment it was there. So I asked if they charged people who walked past the hospital also were charged for the same reason. My bill was graciously forgiven. That’s when I knew I would go to law school.

Who cares what he thinks…

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

Not my husband but my bf. On Sunday passed I collapsed at the bar we were at having pizza and wine, and I suddenly dropped like a stone. I died for like 7 seconds, eyes wide open and no pulse. I was out for a few minutes then slowly came to. I had no idea what I was doing on the bar floor or who the girls were hovering over me. (Lucky the one girl was a chemist and resuscitated me) My bf tried to see if I could make it to the car but I was too weak, I could not walk at all. I could barely sit up. He called an ambulance for me. He sorted my ID with the drivers to help with my medical aid numbers (as the ambulance was going nowhere otherwise) Followed me to the hospital and sat by me while tests were being done. My blood sugar stabilised and I could go home. He drove us back at midnight, an hour journey…both of us exhausted. He’s not my husband so I didn’t expect him to do all that for me. I can’t believe he behaved exactly as a husband would. I’m a very lucky girl.

Jerry Springer world

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

After the dotcom crash I got hired by a small software company. They didn’t really have a good product and it was obvious they were on the way down. One day the owner called in with instructions to fire all the sales people as they weren’t making any sales anyway. OK so at the end of the month he calls to ask how sales were going. I said about as good as can be expected with no sales people.

A week later the hammer comes down and we’re all let go and given our severance checks. I immediately go to the bank branch that check was drawn on to cash it and it bounced!

So since I still had the keys to the office, I went back and grabbed a bunch of high-end laptops and took them home. Another week goes by and he calls to ask about these laptops that have gone missing. I said they’re not missing, I’m holding on to them until you make good on the bounced check. I was told that was theft and they would be pressing charges. I said great, I’ll be contacting the Labour Relations Board about your shitty practices and also the Police about knowing passing a bad check for thousands of dollars.

Needless to say I was asked to stop by his office to exchange the laptops for another check. It was like the scene out of Scarface where Tony Montana goes to buy the coke.

Owner: Do you have the laptops?

Me: They’re close by. Do you have my check?

He gave me the check and I went and cashed it and then went back and gave him his laptops.

It is assumed that men can handle hardships on their own…

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

This is the best, most positive experience I had at the hotel where I worked in college.

As I was getting ready to close my shift out at the front desk of a large hotel on Capitol Hill, a woman came to my desk and said that she wanted to check in, but she lost her purse somewhere along the way between the train station and the hotel.

She was frantic. She was having a meltdown. I asked her about her reservation, if she was with a group? She said “Yes! I’m with X group!”

Awesome. I knew this was an incoming group, with a block of rooms, so I asked for her name. Her name corresponded with a name on my incoming list. I told her that I see her reservation and you have a room! So don’t worry about that, I said. Let’s get the rest sorted.

I then asked when was the last time she saw her purse, and she said that it was on the Amtrak that came into Union Station about 20 minutes before she got to the hotel.

I asked her if she’d had anything to eat. She said she hadn’t, in hours. I said well you better get over to the restaurant and let them give you something to eat while I make some calls! I sent her to the restaurant, and I made sure that everyone knew she was my guest, and why.

I got on the phone, called a few people I knew at Amtrak and asked them to find the cleaners on that train. They found her purse, and brought it to the hotel. Everything intact.

Kicker is? The woman I helped? She was in DC to lead a series of workshops on customer service. I turned out to be the star in her first session on “Getting service right.”

Turns out, I’m nice. Who knew?

This man deserves Heaven

What’s the hardest thing you’ve endured being poor?

As my marriage began to unravel, my (then) husband became worse and worse with money.

First, he wouldn’t come home for days, leaving the kids and me with no car. That meant if I needed groceries, I had to walk 8 blocks to one store or 11 to another and carry them home.

I couldn’t ask my father for a lot of help, as my mother had cancer. More often than not, I was helping her, and my father was filling in when I couldn’t.

One day, I found I had no bread or milk for my children. I went to the cabinet where I kepy emergency money, only to find the jar empty. The “proud papa” took it. I scooped up whatever spare change I could find and went to the grocery. At the counter, I found I was short. I was ready to cry. I tried to think of which should I put back, when the grocer told me someone behind me paid for my groceries. I cried as I took the bag and said thank you.

Walking home I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but I was wrong. The jerk stopped his paychecks from going to our joint account. He wouldn’t pay the mortgage or utilities.

I had a bank book that he forgot about, and with that I paid bills for as long as I could. I put my children on food stamps to put food on the table. I put a lien on my house since you couldn’t qualify for services if you owned a house. Passover was coming and I didn’t have a penny.

Agencies that claimed to help made you feel like you were robbing them if you asked for food. I got one parcel and was sick. Everything was dated a month or two before: the juice, other items, and the raw chicken – which smelled so bad I threw it out.

I begged my brother for $200 so we could have a nice holiday. He gave it to me – and never let me forget it. If he needed a favor, he reminded me that I owed him. I was so ashamed I never told my parents.

The house went to foreclosure about the same time the utilities were shut off. I borrowed money from my father to move and pay first month’s rent on an apartment. When I finally started working I put aside $10 a month to pay him back. It was hard, and I barely made ends meet. My kids hadn’t gotten new clothes at this point in nearly two years.

I was still chasing my separated husband to get him to court. Finally, I hired three court servers for $200 a piece to wait at each exit at his job. He was served his subpoena to appear in court. After some delays – didn’t come with a lawyer, fired his lawyer in court – the judge asked him why he didn’t take care of his family. He said I’m having problems with their mother. The judge said “Why didn’t you buy food? Pay for the house? Clothes? What did you do for your children?” He kept trying to say he was having a problem with me and the judge got angry.

“What did you do with your money?” the judge asked. We presented photos of his new sexy sports car – bought with the money that was supposed to take care of his children. The judge told him “I’m done talking to you.” Then she asked me what I had done for my children.

I showed her the paperwork for food stamps, proof I sold jewelry and used the bank book I had to pay utilities. I just got a job, so we were under a roof.

She told my then husband “you earn almost 3 times as much as your wife and you did nothing for your children?” She ordered child support at the maximum allowable by law, as well as back pay of money he should have paid since January (it was now October).

He screamed “where will I get that kind of money?” The judge said “sell your sexy car, that doesn’t have room for your three children.” My attorney stepped up and said “we would like to show more mercy than he showed to his children. He can pay off his wife in semi monthly checks.”

He took the deal, never realizing he would be paying me for three years. The extra money coming in meant my kids could get new clothes for the first time in two years, I paid my father back the money he lent me – and I gave my brother $300 when he lent me $200. I told him the extra $100 was for him to shove it anywhere he wanted – I didn’t want him to talk to me like I was dirt again. In spite of my brother’s protests that he didn’t mean to humiliate me, he did in fact keep the extra hundred.

Today, I’m a bit better off. But I still need to watch my money. Sometimes I get depressed and buy junk I don’t need. But I try hard to avoid that.

Smart man

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JFReCu9Pv1g?feature=share

Why do some people think a nuclear war can be won against say Russia or China?

Read some of the western propaganda. You can see it on youtube videos about non western hardware.

There’s a very common narrative.

Everything Russian is junk! None of it works! Russians apparently don’t even have working rifles according to most westerners. If Russian rifles don’t work how would these [slurs] be able to maintain nuclear weapons! Only the SUPREME MASTER RACE can maintain nuclear weapons. You can see smug British people say haha ours work! Like our SA80 the BEST gun in the WORLD! The Challenger 2 the MOST INVINCIBLE TANK IN THE UNIVERSE. You remember posts on Quora about 6 months ago? British people saying it would take nuclear weapons to stop a challenger2.

Chinese?

Everything in China is made of tofu! Pretty much exactly the same as the above.

The MASTER RACE is so confident that they think they can perform nuclear strikes and bomb our cities and we can’t do anything back.

It is a big problem

Blue Bayou Chocolate Mousse

Yield: 8 cups

Ingredients

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 ounces unsalted butter
5 ounces egg whites
2 ounces granulated sugar
3 1/2 cups heavy cream

Instructions

In a double boiler combine chocolate and butter, stirring until melted.
Whip cream and sugar until light and fluffy; set aside.
Beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form.
Using a wire whisk combine egg whites with the melted chocolate and then with the whipped cream.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Don’t rock the boat

Be the best option.

Say I steal 2 cents from every bank account in America. I am proven guilty, but everyone I stole from says they’re fine with it. What happens?

A case like this actually happened in the 1960s. A programmer working on Wall Street opened an account and wrote a program that funneled all the forgotten mills rounded off of each penny into his account. It seemed like he was stealing nothing. It turns out that a weakness in binary systems makes it difficult for them to convert 1 penny correctly so they round up or down. There are often thousandths of a cent that are then ignored and few people, if any, on Wall Street look at the penny column. It was absolutely invisible. But those thousandths of a cent, multiplied by millions of daily transactions add up. He was caught by the sheer size of the numbers that were being generated.

He was prosecuted not because anyone cared about those fractions of a cent (they didn’t) but because he was stealing and stealing is against the law.

When you steal something it doesn’t matter what the victim thinks. The state is obligated to prosecute. The statutes don’t often say, “He broke the law but it’s ok because his victims don’t care”. The statutes, while they may take the scale of the injury into account, must prosecute you for breaking the law because “Justice is blind”. It’s a one size fits all approach, for better or worse.

In reality we know what really happens and there are plenty of ways for justice to be derailed long before the judge bangs the gavel and pronounces a sentence, but the theory still applies. It doesn’t matter what the victims think. Actions have consequences and you broke the law.

Dogcoin millionaire

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

In 1994 my then-husband was arrested for soliciting a hit man to kill me. He was apprehended by federal agents through a sting operation. As more information was revealed about how he was caught, I learned that my husband had contacted a member of the Outlaw motorcycle gang looking for the killer. Turns out the gang member called the feds because he had been in my business a few weeks prior with his daughter and I had given the little girl change for the gum machine.

A quarter saved my life….and sent my now-ex husband to prison for 21 years.

Be nice, you never know 😉

Cat With a Broken Paw Went To The Clinic & Begged For Help, But The Vet Did Something Shocking!

Great story!

What would China be like today had Mao Zedong lost the civil war against Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists? How would this have affected the balance of power worldwide today?

Mao won because he and the Red Army had won popular support among the Chinese people. In fact, during the three main battles fought during the civil war, Chinese civilian volunteers provided logistical support to the Red Army, and abandoned the Nationalist Revolutionary Army.

In China’s cities, runaway inflation and corruption among Nationalist officials destroyed support among private Chinese businesses, and they moved to support the Communists.

From your question, you seem to assume that the civil war simply involved two armies fighting each other for the control of China.

In fact, just as Sun Tzu has said, wars are fought and won in the hearts and minds of the people; it is not just about two militaries.

For this reason, your belief that the Nationalists could have won against the Communists is an impossibility.

The Chinese people decided that they needed a new China, and that is the environment the world is living in now.

Marriageable man or instragram

How have you changed?

“I’m worried about you,” my grandmother told me. “You’re too nice. People like you don’t do well in the world.”

That was the last time I saw her.

I forgot about that conversation.

I didn’t even understand what she meant.

Besides, it’s easy to dismiss the words of an elderly woman suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s.

I’ve always been concerned with what others think about me. I wanted to do well in the world. I had a deep need for outer acceptance because I wasn’t embracing myself on the inside.

I thought that if I just stayed out of trouble—if I just avoided controversy and did my best to please the people around me—I’d feel safe in the world.

Perhaps even wanted.

And so I became the nice guy.

I let other people come first. I put my own needs aside. I sacrificed my wellbeing.

And I was miserable.

But in the last years, something changed.

I put me higher up the priority list.

It’s not that I became an asshole or stopped caring. I realized that I’m still someone who feels and empathizes deeply with others.

But I decided to stop operating out of fear and guilt.

And I’ve realized that, as much as it sounds like a cliché, you have to cultivate happiness within instead of expecting the world to hand it to you as a trophy for your “good” behavior.

So I started taking my career seriously and insisted on being paid what I knew I was worth instead of letting employers walk over me.

I began practicing martial arts and became more confident.

I resolved to not put up with other people’s shit.

I gave up being nice.

And in doing so became more empowered. More genuine. More me.

I finally understood what my grandmother was trying to say.

She was right all along.

I just wish I could let her know.

Yes and no

25 Strange Things That Only Exist In Vietnam!

Vietnam, nestled in Southeast Asia, boasts a multifaceted tapestry of history, culture, and natural beauty. The nation’s turbulent past, marked by the Vietnam War, contrasts with its vibrant present, where bustling cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are hubs of innovation and growth. In today’s video, we will be talking about the things you can only find in this country of the east. We cover everything from their markets to their religious beliefs, but if you stay until the end of this video, you will also find out what exactly is the balance of five flavors, and why is it the most important part of their cuisine. Enjoy!

What was the biggest decision taken by you that changed your life?

Writing on this site—because of what it’s led to.

After my divorce, I knew I’d have a lot more free time on my hands. I needed a hobby that would be productive.

I am very intense and passionate about anything I do. I was a hardcore gamer for years and was a high-level league of legends player at one point. Not good enough to go pro, but maybe just below the level at which people make money. But it was a problematic hobby that ate up too much time.

As a child, my dad had often said, “Wow imagine if you put as much time into your studies as you did into those games.”

I decided no more hobbies that will consume me.

I figured writing on Quora would be a quasi-productive, quasi-fun hobby, that wouldn’t consume me too much.

Everything except that last part was true. It spun into this whole big thing that I never expected. I got obsessed with writing. I think in the first 3 years I wrote 4000+ answers.

This love of writing led to opportunities to make money. I was able to work at the craft.

Writing also made me realize how much I hated my corporate job. I would liken it to when you are in a terrible relationship and some great, attractive person who has their shit together asks you out on a date.

You start to wonder, “What if there is more to my life than this crap relationship?”

Quitting my job was a huge decision that changed my life for the better. I have freedom. The money is great so far. I have control of my life.

It’s amazing what can happen if you just listen to your parents.

How China Reinvented The Space Station!

Why was France industrially much weaker than both Britain and Germany before WW1?

Because it was mainly an agricultural country and France was a major food exporter.

Britain and Germany had massive industries meaning fewer people working in agriculture. This resulted in food shortages, the need to import food, and higher food prices.

The French economy was doing very well being based on agriculture.

Computer brain. Don’t get computer brain.

What is the funniest loophole you have ever seen?

When I was in eighth grade, our science teacher held a school wide competition to see who could build the strongest bridge out of tooth picks.

My best friend, “J”, was very smart, very clever, and always mischievous. The rules only states that the bridge had to be made out of toothpicks and had to be a certain length (I think 12”, this was over 20 years ago). The rules did not limit what glue you used to join the toothpicks. Additional toothpicks could be earned by doing extra credit worksheets.

“J” came up with an awesome plan. He did dozens of extra credit sheets. He had thousands of toothpicks. His father was a machinist for a local manufacturer of printing presses and was able to procure some industrial grade epoxy to use as glue.

“J” set to work making alternating crisscrossing layers of toothpicks and epoxy. He essentially made a solid brick of toothpicks and epoxy.

The day of the competition came. The competition went in alphabetical order and “J”’s last name was pretty far down the list. The teacher had everyone gathered in the gym to see the competition. The bridges were suspended over a gap with weights hung from them until they broke.

Kid after kid brought up their bridge, some of them very fancy suspension type looking bridges. Most of them broke at 6 kg or less.

“J”’s turn came. He walks up to the platform with his brick. Kids in the audience are laughing at it. The bridge is placed over the gap. 1 kg, 2 kg, 3, and on until they hang the biggest weight of 25 kg and it’s not even flexing. All the kids are stunned.

The teacher, who was quite large and probably weighed 150 kg, puts two stacks of books on the floor, puts the brick over the gap between them, and stands with one foot on it. Not even flexing yet.

He then has the entire middle school follow him to the parking lot. He uses the books to prop up the brick again and proceeds to drive one wheel of his car onto it. It flexed a little.

At this point he has run out of heavy things to try to break the brick and declares “J” the winner.

As a teacher, what was the trashiest thing you’ve seen a parent do?

I’m frequently shocked at the language some parents use when dealing with the priests and nuns at a Catholic school. I’ve been in meetings where parents shouted and swore at elderly clergy people because they (the clergy people) had the audacity to remind the parents that they were way behind in their tuition payments, or their children were in danger of being expelled due to too many discipline issues.

I was always taught to treat older people and members of the clergy with respect. I’ll never get used to hearing a middle-aged parent scream and swear at an elderly priest or nun.

I was also always taught that you’re supposed to be extra nice to pregnant women. Apparently, a lot of parents were not taught that. I’ve seen parents scream and swear at teachers who were just weeks away from giving birth.

I was also always taught that you’re not supposed to swear in front of children. Yet every year, there’s at least one incident where a parent picks up their child from school and, in the course of a three-minute conversation within earshot dozens of kids as young as three years old, manages to drop a dozen really loud f-bombs.

I’ve also been preparing for my class in the morning, only to have the windows of my classroom shake as someone with stupidly-loud bass in their car drove up to the school to let their kids out… all kids who were under eight years old. There’s a time and a place for loud music. Seven thirty in the morning in front of a Catholic elementary school while you drop off your kids is not the time or place for that.

I caught my neighbor using my electrical outlets outside, and I told him I was going to call the cops and tell them what he was doing. He laughed and said I can’t prove it. What should I do?

Get photos of the cord plugged in, photos of where it goes (unless you have to trespass), and make sure they are dated and time stamped (most digital cameras can do that and possibly some phones). Pull out your electric bills from the times you know he was using your power and try to see how much extra was used. If it is a lot over a short period, you have proof on the bill. Not sure about your power company but some keep track of just how much is used when to try to help you cut down and that information could also help you.

I always say, document, document, document so it isn’t your word against his.

What the Hell?

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

I’m not sure this counts as ‘accidentally’ but: A long time ago I joined a startup company. We were doing some innovative stuff with fiber optics.

My roommate and I got into the habit of taking the accountant out to lunch or Happy Hour every few weeks; generally on a Friday. We’d get a few drinks into her and she’d open up about the financial condition of the company because she was worried.

We found out that the first unit we “shipped” was actually sent to a warehouse for storage because the CFO wanted to tell the investors we’d sold and shipped a unit by year end. There was a potential client but they hadn’t signed the purchase order.

When I found out that the CFO was lying to investors and employees I started looking for a new job. Sure enough four weeks later they announced a layoff. I was let go because “your software already works and we’re betting that it will keep working.” Meanwhile they kept a programmer that couldn’t get his program to compile let alone work.

When my manager called me in, I told him that he was cutting off his nose to spite his face. I also neglected to mention all of the semi-automated routines that I’d built in my spare time that no one had thought about or worried about ( things like builds, backups, space reclamation in the homegrown database, etc. ).

They offered us ‘outplacement services’ with the first meeting that AM at an offsite location. At the outplacement meeting they scheduled us for a follow up meeting the next morning. I told them I couldn’t attend because I had an interview already scheduled. Three other people also had interviews already scheduled because I wasn’t the only on that took the accountant out to lunch!

Have you ever met a failure who completely changed their life around that truly inspired you?

Yes. I have a school friend who was very bright and did well. He was in the rugby team and was a Prefect. He was very popular.

After school he went to a good uni but surprisingly dropped out. He got a good job in advertising but lost it. He got another, got married, but both failed disasterously. He was a raging alcoholic and was out of control. Finally he became very ill and ended up in a clinic. He was in his 20’s still and was given a year to live unless he stopped drinking.

He met a girl at the halfway house he was in. She was in the same position as him. Together they joined AA and got their lives going. They moved abroad, to a fairly undeveloped country that was growing quickly, and with some inheritance, started a small film production company. They did very well. He was responsible for starting many AA chapters there. He saved careers, marriages and lives.

We met for lunch recently. It’s forty years since his last drink and he’s happy and prosperous. Being dry is not a struggle, but he is still vigilant. He accepted a long time ago that he has a terrible weakness, possibly inherited, and this is his burden. Unwilling to hand on this weakness, he’s never had children. He’d have made a wonderful Dad.

How warm was it inside of homes in the 19th century during the winter time?

Cold, but usually above freezing, at least here in the UK where nearly all buildings are made of stone or brick.

I don’t have central heating. I do have 18″ thick stone walls, but in a very cold winter my kitchen has been known to get so cold that my fridge stopped working, and my hands went numb within a minute or two of entering the kitchen.

However: yes, my windows are double-glazed but they’re a lot bigger than they probably would have been in the Victorian era, and in the Victorian era they would have had wooden shutters. I don’t even have curtains in the kitchen, because the room is laid out in a bloody stupid way which means I can’t even get *near* the window without climbing on top of a kitchen counter and walking across it.

In the Victorian era I would have had a fireplace in the living room and possibly the bedroom, and my kitchen would have had an actual stove that burned fuel and so put out excess heat.

Have you ever sabotaged food because someone was stealing it?

Back in the day I worked as an assembly line “artist,” creating art that sold wholesale to decorators of office buildings and hotels. The company was owned by a foreign family that had fled prosecution in their own country and a few family members were employed as artists or support staff.

I was a poor lad but this job seemed really fun. It paid a bit more than minimum wage and it was cool to hang out with young artists like myself. I rarely went out to lunch, preferring to save money and bring my own, including yogurt cups for dessert. After a while I noticed my yogurt kept vanishing. I made a stink about it, even contacted HR (well, the supervisor that handled billing and HR) mostly suspecting another starving artist.

Then I had a diabolical idea – I read that consuming saline solution could cause diarrhea! I wore contacts so I had some, I just needed to find a way to inject my yogurt cups with it. After some failed attempts, I was still trying to figure it out when another yogurt cup went missing.

Struck by inspiration, I went to the HR supervisor’s office and “confessed,” with the door open and loud enough for nearby folks to overhear, that I had “spiked” the yogurt with saline. I regretted my rash decision and told her that whoever consumed the yogurt would likely have stomach problems for an hour or so but would otherwise be okay.

Sure enough, an employee suddenly went home sick, complaining of stomach problems! And it was one of the owners’ family members, a fairly well off individual compared to the rest of us. So did I get in trouble with the bosses for poisoning a beloved relative? Nope, because there was NO ACTUAL SALINE in the yogurt! The only thing the thief was suffering from was a guilty conscience.

Don’t steal food!

Ouch!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ij8ZeTd7X7s?feature=share

If men and women are equal, how did the society become patriarchal in the first place, almost all around the world?

Men and women are NOT equal.

There is a thing called sexual dimorphism. This refers to physical, physiological and even mental differences between males and females of a species, beyond their sexual organs.

The vast majority of species in the animal kingdom have sexual dimorphism, and even some plants. I’m sure you’re familiar with lions.

Males and females are fundamentally different, and in humans and all apes the males are generally bigger and stronger than the females. This isn’t just a matter of exercise. Testosterone in men promotes the growth of larger and more powerful muscles, something women cannot achieve without outside help like anabolic steroids.

Testosterone doesn’t just influence men’s muscles; it also affects their brains. Men and women are mentally different because of the different levels of testosterone and estrogen in their brains.

And guess what? This doesn’t just apply to humans.

Male birds, for instance, are the only members of the species that initiate courtship rituals. (That’s why the peacock has that huge mane of feathers). Male birds sing and court females because of the levels of testosterone in their brains, making them aggressively seek and impress females.

Most animal species from rats to humans to birds exhibit these mental differences between males and females, even in species where no physical sexual dimorphism is present (such as with dolphins).

These differences even cause societal systems to form in animals. Patriarchies aren’t unique to humans. Lions have a totally patriarchial society where the males head the pride, and the women serve and hunt for him. Wolves, apes, and other animals have formed patriarchies.

Guess what? Some of the other species have matriarchies. Elephants for instance are a completely matriarchial society, with males being cast out of the herd to find other herds to impregnate, which is about the extent of his involvement in society. The herd itself is guided by the oldest matriarch.

The fact of the matter is, differences between males and females affect society. Not just in humans, but in many social animals. Pretending that men and women are equal is like an ostrich hiding its head in the ground trying to ignore what is obvious.

Human societies formed into patriarchies around the world regardless of creed, religion or ideology for one simple reason: the stronger physical dominance of men made them better warriors and workers, while the vulnerability of women during childbirth meant it was important to provide a safe and stable environment for them to rear children in. Further, only women can produce milk to feed newborns. This meant that the role was locked in from the start, something a man can never do.

Thus men took on the role of protector and provider, while women took on the role of homemaking and childbearing. While modern society can allow men to just buy infant formula and women to rise to exemplary careers and bring home the bacon, this is a modern development and not one that was possible through the early stages of human evolution and society.

In today’s world and moving into the future, it’s certainly possible for us to destroy the patriarchy and create a different kind of society. Time will tell where this social experiment will lead humanity.

Terrorists Blow-Up PAKISTAN Air Base! 40 Fighter Jets Burning

The Taliban-Linked Terrorist Group “Tehreek-e Jihad” (TTP) has just claimed Responsibility for a Significant Attack tonight on Mianwali Air Force Base in Northern Pakistan.

The Terrorist Group appears to have Snuck into the Base using Ladders and are claiming to have Destroyed several Aircraft as well as some kind of Armored Vehicle.

The Pakistani Army is currently conducting an Operation to Secure the Base and have already Killed multiple Terrorists.

Why is China not supportive in making India a permanent member in the UN security council?

I viewed some answers above, I felt many answers didn’t get the main point.

The truth is: nobody of the 5 wants to share their rights.

Everyone of the 5 says they agree to extend the council but actually they don’t. Because it will add the bargain cost.

USA government says they support Japan to get into the council because USA knows Russia and China will veto. USA says like this way to keep Japan in hand to deploy USA army.

China supports Germany to the council because China knows USA and France will veto. Guess for what interest.

USA and Russia says they support India because they know China will veto. For what interest? Weapon sales.

So now do you understand what game they are playing?

How far do alpha, beta, and gamma particles travel in the air?

Alpha particles don’t get far at all. They’re heavy, they’re slow, and they carry a charge, so they interact easily. They can travel an inch or so in air, but are blocked by a sheet of paper.

Beta particles are just elec…okay, um, so, correction. β- particles are just electrons. They’re light and zippy, so how far they get depends on how fast they go. Good rule of thumb, approximately 10ish feet or so for each MeV of energy.

β+ particles are positrons—antimatter electrons. In theory they could get as far as β- particles, in an antimatter world. In our world, they don’t get far at all in air before they hit something and annihilate in a flash of gamma photons.

Gamma rays? Oh, it is on. Hold my beer.

Gamma rays laugh at your puny “air.” Gamma rays laugh at your puny steel. Gamma rays might stop for lead, maybe, if you have enough of it to make things interesting. Six feet of concrete or one and a half feet of lead should do it.

This might as well be tissue paper to gamma rays
Gamma rays sneeze at this
This is not even close to what it takes to stop gamma rays
Starting to get there, if the gamma rays are going through lengthwise
Now we’re talking! (The whole stack, not one plate)

Gamma rays will go merrily through this planet’s entire atmosphere, plus the bodies of the researchers doing the experiment, plus the roof of their house, and then merrily on toward Alpha Centauri.

What happens if the United States stops China from developing advanced computer chips?

300,000 engineers and scientists in China will briefly look up from their work and say in a puzzled tone: “奇怪，那是什么声音？是不是美国放屁的声音？”. Then they return to their R&D projects in advanced chipmaking.

Bitter Pill

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

Not a mugging but I did have a break in at my apartment. I was assaulted, had both eye orbits fractured, broke ribs and fingers, and was choked almost to the point of loosing consciousness.

I however did manage to stab my attacker in his face and skull, scalping him from his left ear to the top of his head and causing brain dammage. He lost serious ammounts of blood passed out and was put in a medically induced coma for two days and had multiple blood transfusions before he was even conscious to be charged with aggrivated assault, breaking and entering and attempted murder (I dont actually know what he was officially charged with, just that he was sentenced to two years and ended up serving four)

I had my ass beat, and badly. But I was told by the police that if it wasnt for modern medical treatment my attacker would have died.

Now years later I was very drunk the night before my brothers wedding. Someone did try to mug me but I was apparently so drunk that I didnt know what was happening and I thought they wanted a cigarette and I kept explaining that I dont smoke. Their heart must not have been in it because they gave up and moved on to someone else without stabbing me. Some witness called police and I was supposedly too drunk to give a statement. They got me back to my hotel and I dont remember any of it

And thats my life story so far.

“Men Have No CLUE!” This Is Why Men Aren’t TAKING Western Women SERIOUSLY Anymore

Raw reality. I am so glad that I am no longer young.

U.S. and Europe Talking with Ukraine about PEACE NEGOTIATIONS with Russia!

Australia, UK, US condemn Hong Kong bounty for exiled activists

U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official.

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said.

Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of “the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine” and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

In other words, despite all the media hype that Ukraine is winning, Ukraine is actually losing. Imagine that.

More at NBC News HERE

First it’s the unchecked flooding of Chinese Fentanyl into America. Next, mercenary bounties get placed on British residents. At what point should America issue an arrest warrant for China’s Xi Jinping à la Manuel Noriega?

Rodrigo, educate yourself.

“Unchecked flooding of Chinese fentanyl into America”?

Fentanyl is a LEGAL drug. Fentanyl addiction is a problem only in America. NOT in China or anywhere in the world. It is Americans ordering, procuring and peddling this drug and not the Chinese “flooding” the U.S. It’s OUR problem because WE caused OUR opioid addiction. Why the shit are you blaming China for us not being able to control the trafficing of fentanyl within the U.S.?

“Mercenary bounties placed on British residents”?

“Mercenary bounties” is the farthest from the truth.

Bounties is defined as money paid for killing or capturing a person or animal.

However, Australia, the U.K. and U.S. have branded the rewards for information as “bounties” for 8 exiled pro-democracy HK activists for the 2019 riots in Hong Kong that these countries instigated through the CIA and NGOs. Hong Kong has every right to seek information on persons guilty of seditious acts against China.

This is Hong Kong issuing warrants for their citizens for serious criminal acts. And if they are stupid enough to return to Hong Kong, they will be arrested.

“Arrest warrant for Xi”?

Another stupid question. Who is to issue this? The U.S.? For what charge?

Are you dense enough to believe the U.S. has the authority to arbirtrarily order the arrest of the leader of another country? The U.S. has NO police authority beyond our border just like any other country.

And then what? Do you expect the U.S. or another country to invade the soveriegnty of China by going to China to arrest Xi?

China hate does not justify you to think, write or act stupidly.

This Just Ηappened In South Carolina, But Something Εven Stranger Ιs Ηappening Around The World!

Seems suspicious we never had this many huge disasters in our food manufacturing plants, trains, and other big plants.

https://youtu.be/MQV052LM9VY

U.S. Flying MQ-9 “Reapers” Over Gaza

The United States has been flying MQ-9 “Reaper” drones over the southern Gaza Strip of late. (HT REMARK: One wonders if they are giving intel to Israel so they can slaughter more women and children?)

They were first spotted on Saturday on Flightradar24.

Officials say the drones were being used to “aid in hostage recovery efforts” indicating that the U.S. is more involved than previously known.

Are Republicans losing?

Republicans are winning, they just don’t seem to know it nor can they give the rest of us some peace. What do I mean by this?

Traditional Republican values are what America still runs on and much of the rest of the world too. In fact, all of the countries where things work, they run on traditional conservative or Republican values. Like thrift, hard work, saving, putting your kids in school, reasonable but not high levels of tax, a hand up not a hand out. No corporate crony capitalism (this is in theory of course as there always is colllusion) , some type of religious base to your society and usually that is Christian though it could also be Jewish, or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim.

So why are the Republicans winning and losing?

First the losing. Because they can’t stop themselves, they keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is called extremism and the entire right wing of the Republican party starting with the so called Freedom Caucus which has nothing to do with either, not espousing freedom rather telling everyone especially women what they can and can’t do and it is not even a caucus, just a raucous group of malcontents.

Republicans are winning of course in the electoral college where they own around 30 states which gives them a disproportionate control of just about everything with state, local and federal government. They control red states which means military bases and expenditures (11 out of 15 largest are in red states, yet they cannot pass a budget that is focused on the military or allow the military to make promotions which their extremists block). They control state houses in the same proportion, they gerrymander like crazy and win more and more as the Supreme Court now rules in their favor, slowly whittling away black and brown rights in particular.

They are winning on dismantling and even the legitimacy of the federal govt and their chief avatar, Trump has his man in as Speaker who we found out this week doesn’t even have a bank account. No, he is not a traditional Republican.

What to make of this? Democrats feel they are in the majority, but control less and less and are fragmented. Republicans could control everything but the right wing crazies including Trump keep giving them opportunities which if it were not for Joe Biden, they would have squandered once again.

Republicans? Their values, real conservative values rule the civilized non autocratic world. Unfortunately in America, these values are not the values of the current Republican party.

Therefore you see, in the end they are winning in spite of themselves and with their losing their way and becoming extremist, they are literally taking the country down along with democracy with them.

Prizes…

Bank Notice: “Some Deposits May Be Temporarily Delayed”

Several US banks are facing service disruptions today. Meanwhile, users on the ‘free speech’ social media platform X complain that the Automated Clearing House system is down.

Downdetector.com shows Truist, Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, and Wells Fargo are experiencing widespread outages and disruptions that began around 0800 ET.

A message on Bank of America’s webpage reads, “Some deposits may be temporarily delayed … Some deposits from 11/03 may be temporarily delaved due to an issue impacting multiple financial institutions. Your accounts remain secure, and your balance will be updated as soon as the deposit is received. You do not need to take any action.”

Hal Turner Remarks

I see about 5 US banks listed as being offline over on down detector website. (HERE)

Bank of America
Chase
Chime
US Bank
Wells Fargo
Huntington

My bank (Capital One) is **NOT** affected at all.

One wonders if the situation in the Middle East has Hackers going after the US banking system?

Apparently, it’s a particular clearinghouse that B of A, Chase and Huntington use. That went down last night. They just got it up and running and I was told that most will get their deposits within 2 hours. Tonight at latest”

BofA rep just told me that the Fed sent the banks a bulletin that there was an outage overnight but that the servers are back online now and the deposit backlogs should be worked through by end of day today.

My wife contacted her company’s bank this morning. They reported that the issue is with the banks that use what’s called the ‘Federal EPM Processing Clearinghouse,’ and that they had a widespread server outage overnight, but that they are back online and processing the backlog.

What is the weirdest complaint people made about their food in a restaurant?

We were eating at Benihana’s one evening and sat next to a young couple who appeared to be on a date. They looked over the menu and ordered a variety of sushi. I was impressed by how adventuresome they were.

When their meal arrived both of them stared at their plates closely examining every item. They were clearly getting very upset. Finally they called over the waiter and the gal said in a loud voice, “You call yourself a restaurant?! Did you even CHECK this stuff before it left the kitchen! Look at it! Everything is raw!”

No words.

I learned what true love is…

Will China survive if her country suffers an extreme economic embargo from international communities just like one from North Korea?

China has had the north Korea experience. It was embargoed (I.e. Total sanction) together with their war comrades for three decades, until the 70s.

China survived that, back in a time when they couldn’t even make fertilizers.

The soviets helped but only the first decade. China remained desperately poor into the 90s.

Today, a china embargo will not be cost free like in the past. Does the world even notice Cuba has been embargoed for almost 6 decades?

Not so China.

For one, Apple as a viable company becomes historical, because it will not have hardware to sell. Every single company in the semiconductor supply chain will be disrupted, because China is a key node, either as supplier, assembler or customer.

Moving on, the different festivals driving seasonal demand will have to be repriced, because it is hard to find a supply chain big and efficient enough to absorb demand spikes.

Study the pandemic. Why didn’t a black market develop for ppe, ventilators and other medical equipment despite exponential growth in demand? Prices increased but they stabilized and the quantity and quality of goods has been remarkable given months of spiraling demand.

It is the same story with work from home essentials, from bird feeders to children toys to video conferencing equipment.

Things are so out of whack containers are being shipped empty back to China while the cost of sending an FEU from Asia to Europe has crossed the 10k mark.

Embargo China if you must, but it will hurt big time, especially for the comfortable first world.

China has made itself relevant to the world. There will be no repeat of “let’s bomb Iraq back to the stone age using flour in the test tube as justification”.

If China is embargoed, you won’t only see it in the news.

You will feel it, deep into your pockets, and you will live the consequences.

REPORT: VIP Jets Now Airborne from DC to Cheyenne Mountain Bunkers – “Gov’t Going Underground”

I’m not sure what to make of this, but it was posted in a US Veteran’s Forum. The guy in the brief video seems VERY nervous as he reports EIGHT “VIP” Aircraft heading to Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD??) and says “They’re putting government into Bunkers.”

His voice is clearly trembling as he describes what he sees going on. Looks legit to me, at first glance.

I pass this along with the full Disclaimer that I have not (yet) verified these claims. But if he’s right, then time is of the essence and all of YOU should know.

FLASH U.S. House Approves Resolution on Iran: “All means necessary” to prevent Nuclear Armed Iran

（Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Steve Schwarzman spotted at Xi Jinping dinner with U.S. CEOs）

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Resolution late last night “. . . to use all means necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; . . .” Now we know why our military is massed in Middle East.

It now seems clear to me that all the US military hardware sent to the easstern Mediterranean, has nothing at all to do with Israel, per se, and has everything to do with Iran.

That military hardware isn’t there “to protect Israel” as much as it is there to disarm Iran.

The Iranians have likely suspected this, now, they know.

Iran had better take a long, hard look at what is arrayed against them because once all that firepower starts shooting, the entire landmass of Iran will be like a hail storm of explosions.

What happened to Iraq in 1991, I think will look like nothing compared to what they plan on unleashing against Iran. But . . . . there’s a little problem. Russia.

Two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin casually reminded the world that his MiG-31 fighter jets, flying freely in international air space all the way up in the Black Sea, are equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. He also causally reminded the world that those missiles have a “known” range of at least 1,000km. Without actually SAYING this, it quickly became clear to everyone paying attention that America’s two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, are within range of those Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

Moreover, it also became quickly evident that those missiles can carry either a conventional warhead, or tactical nuclear warheads of at least 5 kilotons.

The US cannot defend itself from hypersonic missiles. No one can.

So if the US goes after Iran, using carrier-based planes, Russia can order two of its MiG fighters to fire Kinzhal missiles armed with small, tactical, nuclear warheads, and utterly destroy both aircraft carrier battle groups.

Can you say “World War 3?”

A direct Link to the official US Government Website showing the text of the US House Resolution on Iran is HERE

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

Interestingly, this now seems to be a method for declaring war without actually “declaring” it.

While the words “Congress shall make no law . . . .” does **not** mean what it actually says in the Constitution’s First Amendment, and while “. . . shall not be infringed.” does **not** mean what IT actually says in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, you can bet your ass that “. . .any means necessary . . .” means exactly what it says in this resolution!

So . . . . it now appears that the massive naval and military build-up we’ve been watching in the Middle East over the past two weeks was all part of a well-planned series of moves KNOWING FULL WELL they intended to take us to war with Iran. They just waited until ONE day before likely hostilities break out, to put through this new “policy.”

This is the level of sleazy, political, human, garbage we have in the Congress of the United States.

Oh, and by the way, have you noticed that this web site is the **ONLY** media outlet in the entire country pointing this out? That shows you you the level of sleazy, human garbage, infesting the mass-media these days. Keep it all quiet — on purpose. Keep the American people in the dark — on purpose.

Then, when actual war breaks out, the American people are blind-sided, afraid, and called to rally behind the troops. All one big plan.

As our military starts coming home in body bags, the very same politicians who literally caused the war, will cry crocodile tears for the men whose lives their vote snuffed out.

It’s disgusting to me on a level that’s hard to verbally describe.

Straight to the point

The Ukraine Peace Talk Trial Balloon

A trial ballon has gone up on the NBCnews website. It is testing the public reaction to the upcoming U.S. and NATO acknowledgment of their defeat in Ukraine:

U.S., European officials broach topic of peace negotiations with Ukraine, sources say – NBCnews – Nov 03 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

This comes the same week that saw a Time piece about Zelenski’s unwillingness to consider the real situation on Ukraine and to admit defeat. The same week the Economist interviewed General Zaluzny who optimistically spoke of a stalemate at the front even while his army is on the cusp of disintegration.

Taken together the three pieces might well be part of a U.S. administration campaign to concede its defeat in Ukraine while blaming its Ukrainian proxy forces for the results of its blunder.

Back to the NBC piece:

The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.

The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.

They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.

The problem of the Ukrainian army is an obvious one. It is running out of men and has few it can still recruit. It is difficult to assess the real losses the Ukrainian military has had, but I would not be astonished to learn that they sum up to about 300,000 dead and some 500,000+ wounded, many of whom will now be disabled.

Finally these concerns about Ukraine’s manpower get acknowledged:

President Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine’s depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good”

The last sentence seems to be taken from the Time piece which had said:

In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky’s close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, “we don’t have the men to use them.”

Ukraine itself is destroying its own brigades faster than it can generate new ones:

During the last days tanks from the 47th brigade (Leo 2) and 10th mountain brigade (T-64BM/BV) have been seen, and were destroyed, near Avdiivka. Both brigades had only recently been mauled during their hopeless attacks at the southern front. It does not make sense to throw what is left of them into another battle without reconstituting them. The whole experience and knowledge these brigades had gained will be lost with them.

The whole professional middle-block of the army, the sergeants and young officers, have mostly been killed or wounded. Without them it is impossible to constitute new forces.

The NBC piece has made news in Ukraine (in Russian) but I have yet to find Ukrainian reactions to it. While I was publishing this a first political reaction, total denial, appeared:

Zelenskyy: There is no stalemate, and there will be no talks or concessions – UA Pravda – Nov 4 2023

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not think the situation on the front in Ukraine is a stalemate and has said that Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia.
…
Quote from Zelenskyy: “This is not a stalemate. Russia controls the sky. We are protecting our troops. No one [in Ukraine] wants to just throw our people [into the battle] like Russia does […]

How can we overcome it? With the F-16s, we have to wait for our guys to get trained and for them to come back. When there’s air defence on the front, our soldiers advance, and they deploy the equipment they have.”

What will he say when the F-16s, the fifty year old wunderwaffen, fall out of the sky faster than they go up?

There are sure signs that the divide between the political and military leadership in Ukraine is growing. President Zelenski, on request of his new defense minister, just removed the commander of Ukraine’s special forces and installed a new one:

Major General Viktor Khorenko does not know the reasons for his dismissal from the post of Commander of the Special Operations Forces. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, did not submit a request for his dismissal.

It is very unusual to fire an officer without a request from his superior commander.

There are also shots fired against Zaluzny himself:

President’s Office advises Commander-in-Chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces not to publicise situation at front – UA Pravda – Nov 4 2023

Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, commenting on the article by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, for The Economist, has said that the military should not bring to the public what is happening at the front.
…
Zhovkva also stated that “one of the heads of the leaders’ offices” called him after the mentioned article was published.

“And they simply ask me in a panic, ‘What should I report to my leader? Are we really at a stalemate?’. Are we trying to achieve this effect with this article?”, the President’s Office representative said.

The NBC piece even sets a time frame to Ukraine to admit that it is over:

Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said.

Russia will likely agree to peace talks. But it probably will demand more than Ukraine is willing to give. At a minimum that is the full control over the five oblast it has annexed, including Crimea, and no NATO relations with Ukraine. The current Ukrainian parliament will probably reject those requests which will then lead to further Russian demands.

Kiev has yet to acknowledge reality. The Ukrainian state has been bleeding out – financially as well as physically. Its masters have found that their aim at the start of the war – to weaken Russia – has led to the opposite. Russia now has a bigger and better armed military with more real war experience than any of its possible opponents.

Russia has won.

Posted by b on November 4, 2023 at 13:23 UTC | Permalink

Who is the smartest person on earth currently? How?

Danny-Bob Vanderwal is the smartest man alive. Danny-Bob was so smart back in school that the teacher couldn’t find anything in her text books that Danny-Bob didn’t already know. When he graduated from high school, he got offers to go study just about anywhere he wanted. But instead, he went to work at the family vineyard. Danny-Bob said he owed it to his great grandpa that brought these grapevines from Germany to the Ozarks over a century ago.

Back in 2013, the county had the worst drought anyone could remember. Grape vines died and family vineyards went out of business everywhere. But Danny-Bob had a plan. He’d studied old geology maps of Vanderwal mountain made back in the 1930’s. He found a fissure in the bedrock down about a hundred feet below the vineyard. Danny-Bob had walked the mountain since he was a little kid, and he had always wondered where the watershed drained to. He came to the conclusion that the stormwater on the surface was draining down to that fissure. And it was probably staying there.

The summer of 2013 was really hot. It was well over 100 degrees in the shade. Danny-Bob had bought an old 1950’s cable-tool well drilling machine and the whole family was out trying to punch a hole through the black granite bedrock beneath the vineyard. Danny-Bob had the old Hercules diesel power unit firing on 5 of the 6 cylinders, but she was turning the drill head. The whole family worked non-stop for 8 days and nights. And finally, on September 7, 2013, Danny-Bob hit water. They all hugged each other and danced in the cool wet mud that flowed up the borehole.

The Vanderwal vineyard was the only one to survive the drought of 2013. Danny-Bob’s great grandpa’s grape vines are still producing today. And everyone in the county knows without doubt, Danny-Bob Vanderwal is the smartest man alive.

What are some things nobody tells you about life?

This answer is purely based on my opinion:

No matter how strong the bond seems but it can be broken.
The people you think will not leave you forever can leave you in 0.1 sec
You can survive without things you think you can’t survive without.
At one point of time in life you will get hated by everyone or anyone
If you’re student you will be respected everywhere according to your marks
If you’ve finished studying you’ll be respected according to your job standards
Your looks matter alot
You’ll have to go through many phase alone
There aren’t 100% guarantee of your loved ones being with you
You will hear the most painful words from your close ones
Everybody likes to be with you untill you treat them well or else they’ll stop liking you
You’ll come through a phase when you’ll find it hard to smile.

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

I lived in a small country town and my front garden was on the road children took to the little school, and as I was usually out there with my dog, many of them would stop and talk to me, and pet the dog, but being careful considering the paranoia about pedophiles, I never made any ‘advances’ that could be considered inappropriate

I had to collect my mail from the little post office, no deliveries were made, and standing in line one day, a miserable older woman in front of me turned and demanded to know ’Are you a Pervert?’

As you can imagine EVERY head snapped round, and all I could think to say was,

‘ I don’t really know..do you want to visit later and find out?’

Her face was a study..the post office erupted in laughter, and she stormed out in embarrassment, and being a small place, the story went around like wild fire…and several locals congratulated me later for ‘Talking the old biddy down a peg or two!

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

How about an interview that I did not even know was an interview? Time spent on interview: −2

weeks. Let me explain:

I went to a state university, and was not the ideal student. My undergraduate GPA was pathetic. I could make excuses, but the reality was that my parents made enough money that I could not qualify for any government student support, and they expected me to provide money to them. All of my high-school friends were far more cool than me, and they had jobs, and money. I could have worked a bit harder, maybe. But I worked my way through college, and usually took on too many obligations. My GPA was very bad, but one professor, Dr. Vimes, hired me on a grant to do some work creating custom maps for convention attendees, to get them to the booths that they were interested in. I got to travel to conventions and install the map systems.

When I finished my BS degree, I wanted to go on for a Master’s degree. The department chair, Dr. William M. Marcy, initially rejected my application. However, some of the faculty, and the department administrative assistant, convinced him to give me a chance. Dr. Vimes weighed in on that, and probably made a greater difference in my life than he ever realized.

As a Master’s student, I was paid a meager stipend to teach courses and conduct some research. I had the opportunity to travel and present my research at conferences. Meanwhile, Dr. Marcy had a start-up company that employed some graduate students. They had a fundamental problem that they could not solve. They had worked on the problem for over a month, and one of the graduate students told Dr. Marcy to hire me. He caught me in the hallway and outlined the problem, and asked me if I could solve it. I said “probably.” I showed up at the job site at 9:00 AM. By noon their problem was solved. It took me another 30 minutes to write some code to automate it. Dr. Marcy asked me for a bill, and I said, “Don’t worry about it. I had fun solving the problem. Buy me a good dinner someday.”

Under the tutelage of Dr. William Jennings Briant (Brian) Oldham, I finished the MS degree, with a much better GPA, and went to work in industry. In my two years, there, I earned an award for “Best internal supplier” and filed a patent application. When I told them that I wanted to go back to school and earn a PhD, they were willing to support me. They paid for four years of what turned out to be a six year degree. The patent was awarded, and they licensed the technology to other entities. The patent made them well over $10 million, so I think think that them paying me for four years of graduate school was a win-win. During my time as a PhD student, I traveled the world and presented papers to scientific conferences in several countries.

Now I’m going to answer the question.

As I approached my graduation with the PhD, I wanted an academic position. I wanted to be a professor, even though the pay is less. But there were about 50 academic positions nationwide, and over 600 applicants. There is a fairly standard part of interviewing for an academic position. The applicant must give a “research” lecture, and a “teaching” lecture. I needed to practice my lectures. So in October, I sent an email message to my MS Thesis advisor, Dr. William Jennings Brian Oldham, asking if I could do my lectures for their seminar. at my former university.

About a week later, he responded by asking what dates would work for me. The signature on the email message indicated that he was now the department chair. I congratulated him on his promotion, and gave the dates that I could be there.

Fast-forward. I drove down in early December to spend a few weeks with my family and incidentally give my lectures and get some feedback on them from my former professors. Dr. Oldham asked me to show up early, so that they could give me a tour of the campus and see how it had changed in the decade after I was a student.

I showed up at the appointed time, and a student took me all over campus, which was surprisingly interesting. Being near Christmas, someone was playing the carillon. One of the best carillons in North America. She even took me to the office of the president of the university, where I met with Dr. William M. Marcy. Yes, he had worked his way up from professor, to department chair, to university president. We only met for a few minutes, but he did mention that I had been a really shitty undergraduate, and that he was very happy that other people had pushed him to change his decision on admitting me to the MS program.

Shortly after that, I gave my teaching and research talks, and got some feedback from my former professors. The president of the university was present for both of my talks. He reminded me that he still owed me a dinner, and asked me if I was available that night. That night, we went to the best restaurant in that city.

A week later, I received an email message from my former advisor, Dr. Oldham, asking me to log into a web site and fill out the application. It turns out that they had put me through the standard job interview, and all I had to do was actually apply. I did that, and a week later, Dr. Marcy called me and asked, “What will it take to get you to come here?” I answered, “I want to be the highest-paid associate professor on your campus.” And that is how I ended up spending 14 years at a great university in a place where I really did not want to be.

And the shortest interview of my life. I did not even apply for the job until after the interview, so really, the time between application and landing the job is negative.

Blue Bayou Chicken Florentine

Yield:4 servings; 2 cups sauce

Ingredients

Chicken

4 (7 ounce) chicken breasts (with skin)
1 cup Florentine sauce (see below)
3 ounces chopped fresh or frozen spinach*
3 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
2 ounces cooked and chopped bacon
Seasoned salt to taste
2 tablespoons melted butter

Florentine Sauce

2 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
3 sliced medium mushrooms
2/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon diced pimentos
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Chicken

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In mixing, combine spinach, bacon and cheese; set aside.
Open chicken breast and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Stuff with spinach mixture. Fold and place seam side down in baking dish. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle outside with seasoned salt.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Top with Florentine sauce and serve over rice.

Florentine Sauce

Blend together flour and 2 teaspoons of the butter; set aside.
Sauté onions and mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter (do not allow onions to brown).
Add white wine and reduce completely.
Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the flour/butter mixture a little at a time until desired thickness is achieved. Continue cooking at a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.

Notes

* If fresh spinach is used, it must be blanched.

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

That was the last job I had in Vietnam before moving to the U.S.

I showed up. My (later would be) boss looked at me. Pointed me to the chair to sit down in front of his desk, then he said:

– I read your resume and recommendation. Do you have any questions?

I didn’t expect the interview went straight to that point, so I asked:

– What do you expect your new hire to be in one year?

I think I surprised him with that question as well. He thought for a few seconds, then listed out his bullet points of his expectations. After listening, I told him, firmly:

– I will be that person in 6 months.

He stood up, held his hand out. I shook his hand, he smiled:

– DEAL!

I got the job. Worked for him 5 years. He’s the best boss that I’ve had the chance to work with and learn a lot from.

What did your boss ever say in the office that caused you to resign?

Years ago I worked as an overnight stocker for Walmart when a night manager position came open.

I was the team lead in the grocery department and had, previously, been an assistant manager for a local grocery store so after almost 5 years with Walmart and 12 years in the grocery business, I felt that I was qualified for the job.

I went through several interviews and at the end it came down to me and a suckup who worked days.

The suckup ate lunch with management staff on a regular basis so I had a feeling that I was going to get screwed.

I didn’t receive a call on the day that they said they’d announce their decision but when I arrived at the store an assistant manager asked me to come back to the HR office. I knew I’d gotten screwed when he directed me to a chair in front of the desk while he leaned against the desk so I sat back to listen to what he had to say.

He said that choosing between me and the dayshift suckup was an incredibly difficult decision but they’d decided to promote the suckup.

He said that I was doing an outstanding job as team lead in grocery and it would not be in management’s best interest to remove me from that position.

He said that I was doing such a good job that they were bumping my pay up by 50 cents an hour, effective immediately.

He asked if I had any questions and I had just one:

“So, I didn’t get the promotion because I’m doing too good of a job?”

He immediately began backtracking and saying that I misunderstood him but I knew what I’d heard. I handed him my name badge and apron before leaving the store. I have not set foot in a Walmart since.

Can Taiwan and Quad win a war against China?

Not a chance

China can go into War Economy in a matter of weeks

None of the others can

You would be taking them on in their backyard where their supply and production and replacement will be twenty times faster than Quads with only South Korea being capable of production based supply

India

India , if they send one ship will face a Chinese pincer movement across the Eastern and Northern fronts and that’s a war that India with barely $ 20 Billion debt free dollars can’t afford

Russia and Venezuela and Middle East will refuse to supply Oil to India on the spot and Canada is not a friend now.

So India will simply sit this one out

Japan

Japan is a decent Navy but an offensive war?

They would simply be unable to get weapons and equipment beyond the sixth week

They would be begging the US for equipment pretty soon especially Shells

Japan has 140,000 active shells & around 600 Active Missiles

China has 1.7 Million shells and around 12,000 Active Missiles for offensive and defensive

South Korea

South Korea will sit this one out

Uncle Kim would be looking with Glee

No way will SK risk a conflict with China and open up a new salvo with NK

So it would ultimately be US vs China

Quad, the rest of it would simply opt out or play a small role in the deep background

US isn’t the great superpower anymore

They can’t defeat China on their turf

They don’t have the manpower if China decide to go reserve and get a whopping 5 Million men in 6 months

No American will agree to get conscripted to fight China miles away today

This ain’t 1965

So No

NATO, QUAD have no chance against China in the South China Sea

China doesn’t want a conflict because China is primarily a Trader than a Warrior

What items make you silently judge the people who buy them?

I don’t generally care what people buy but there is an exception.

I’ll occasionally see someone who is morbidly obese at the grocery store, who had a kid or two under 8 who are very, very overweight already and on track to be 2–3x their healthy weight.

Without fail, their grocery cart almost entirely filled with junk food.

I’m all for people living their own lives and whatnot. I also get that food and being judged is a sensitive issue for overweight people.

But I hate seeing kids being indoctrinated into a pattern of trashing their body.

It’s a really difficult thing to undo later in life if you’ve been conditioned to go straight for candy or chips everytime you are hungry. It borders are being a form of child abuse.

Admittedly, this is a touchy issue for me because I lost a family member solely to the fact that they’d chosen to trash their body. I probably have some pent up agitation because of that.

Outside of that, I don’t generally judge people’s purchases. When I worked retail many years ago, the only thing I judged people over was their attitude.

As long as they were nice and respectful, we were cool.

Some people look down on you for working such a low octaine position. So I try to pay it forward and be polite with everyone.

Is British airways really that bad, why do some allege it’s standadrs have dropped?

British Airways has been in decline for a LOOONG time.

What was it?

Multiple things : They were pretty much a monopoly in the past meaning they had the American problem. DELTA, AA have absolute monopolies on some routes… so it’s like it or lump it. This attitude continued well into de-regulation of airlines.

Later on, they got bought out and as usual corporates sweat the company for more profits. They did this by cutting back on cleaning and employee pay.

Employee pay was a funny one. In that they had unionised staff yet again a legacy of the monopoly age. They could give you crappy attitudes and be protected from losing their jobs. They also had new less well paid staff on different contracts. In essence nobody cared. The seniors were entrenched and were difficult to fire so they didnt care. The new staff were underpaid and on a vastly lower rate and less perks than the regular full time staff so they too didn’t care.

What is the craziest thing you’ve found in an old coat pocket?

I bought a coat on Marketplace. When I got home, I washed it, and I checked the pockets again before doing so, to make sure there was nothing more – like a tissue – that might make the wash gross. The pockets were really deep and came to a point, and I felt something in one of them and had to fish deep to get it. When I pulled it out, it appeared to be a diamond ring, with three sizable diamonds, white gold. I took a picture and messaged the seller I’d found it. She was surprised – said it had been an anniversary gift and wondered if her little girl had been playing with it and put it there. I didn’t want to make the drive again – it was 20 mins each way. So I offered to ship it, which she accepted. I hoped she would offer to pay shipping, since this was not my fault. She’d didn’t. I shipped it anyway.

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

I worked several decades at a company that Forrest Gump invested in, he called it “some fruit company in California”. I just turned 60, and got a bit tired of expectation of 14 hour days, so I asked to use my skill set in a reduced capacity. I have a life to live, family, other interests. So I asked for a demotion. “We don’t do demotions”. I said that we would have to do something, as I am not keeping up this pace until I drop. So we agreed to part ways (laid off). This did not go over well with other engineers who respected my work, some of whom I have mentored. Basically, anytime you touch a keyboard on a Mac, and enter something in any language of the world, what you see on the screen is my junk (and the junk of a bunch of other really bright people with whom it was my privilege to work). Well, it seems that the other engineers realized that there is no loyalty, and it was just a matter of time before they would be treated similarly. Next thing I know, the other engineers have moved elsewhere inside the company, or have left. Then it seems the entire project got put in “maintenance” mode, as nobody wants to mess with my work, I believe (it is elegant, but a bit hairy… well, I think I invented something, but whatever). Conclusion: This fruit company is ok at recycling hardware, but does not want to hear about recycling its people. The CEO is reported to have said that this is a company for young people, although he isn’t. My years of experience and skill set are no longer valued, there is no loyalty (as I go through ups and downs of life), so I’m happily pursuing my other interests… and I don’t look 60 anymore !

West Confused As China Rolls Out Red Carpet For Russian President Putin On His Visit!

https://youtu.be/FWDONQ4BAtM

Monroe Spaghetti

When I was a young boy, perhaps in second grade, we lived in Monroe , CT. It was a housing development that was being carved out of the forests, and was very nice. We only lived there for a year or so, before my father was transferred to Pittsburgh. We sold the place. Bad move, as the house ended up being worth millions of dollars.

Anyways, at that time in my life, I loved roaming the woods. All 7 years old, and it was a big part of my childhood.

I would often go into the homes being constructed with wire cutters and rip out the wiring and electronics for fun. Oh, that is, until my father had a talk with a building contractor. LOL.

But, you know what?

Yeah, what I most remember about that time was spending all day hiking and exploring, and then coming home to a nice big “sit down” dinner. These were often improved upon as I got older, but at that time, my mother was just getting into her “stride” and it was simple but delicious fare.

Meatloaf, roasts, soups, chicken, and the like. All very delicious and filling.

One of my fondest memories was the meat-laden spaghetti, with plain “wonder bread” on the side, and a nice large salad. Other popular meals consisted of pork chutney over rice, and submarine sandwich meals.

But it’s the spaghetti that I miss the most.

one pot spaghetti and meat sauce image 9

I used to take the bread, and butter both sides. Then, I would spoon the spaghetti into the bread, making a fine thick sandwich. Oh, I was so simple and silly then.

I guess the MM audiences would go “ohhh yuck” at this story. But for me, nah. it’s good memories and good times.

Today…

What is the most useful present you’ve ever received or given? Why did it mean so much to you?

I was a young, recently divorced, single mother of a 3 year old and one Christmas my grandmother gave me a HUGE box to open. In that box I found a little bit of everything! It had paper towels. Toilet paper, cleaning supplies, canned goods and many other items that you may want or need for your home and pantry! I was so grateful as it is pretty costly when you run out of everything especially all at the same time and because my Grandmother had no money she said she added everything a little at a time all throughout the year in order to help me the best way she could. My Grandmother was the sweetest, kindest Lady you’d ever know. I loved her with my whole heart!

Can you describe a time that your company only discovered that you were irreplaceable after they fired you? How did you feel? What did they do?

Yes I can!

I made $7.50 per hour for 3 years before I got a sweet .50 raise that catapulted me no where.

And I only got that because the lady was guilted into it.

I was told, as most people are, if you work hard and prove yourself, you will make more in time. Well that never really happened.

When I first started I just answered phones and worked the register. Then I got my vehicle inspectors license and begin inspecting vehicles. And answering phones and the register.

The business was a window tinting business, primarily, and they tinted vehicles, homes and commercial buildings. Soon I was prepping jobs for tint and doing bids for residential and commercial jobs. And doing well, I might add!

Then helping with the books. Opening, closing, picking up and dropping off customers. Driving out of town to pick up materials. And finally tinting commercial windows.

And I worked, often 80 hours per week. For $8 per hour. Which is a problem because at a certain point, over time starts to hurt. The extra would be taken out in taxes and the effort is not worth it.

Let me also mention that I didn’t have a car and used a company truck for company business but my commute to and from work everyday was just over 3 hours. I woke up at 4 to be there at 8:30. (Hitchhiked, rode 2 buses and walked…both ways…yep)

When I inquired about a raise she kept putting me off. She’d think about it. Couldn’t afford it, etc. Finally she said to me…

”It’s not like you need more money. It’s not like you have a family to take care of, house or car. It’s not like you have any bills.”

I will never ever, forget that. Ever.

Apparently it never occurred to her that I didn’t have any of those things because I was poor. And it was totally ok with her if I never had anything because it benefitted her.

And I had other issues with the place like rarely getting a day off and it would be the end of the world if I took a break at work because only smokers are allowed breaks. Twenty breaks, a hundred, doesn’t matter, because you need those cigarette breaks!

“If you don’t like it, then go work somewhere else.”

When she told me that.

I quit.

She was so certain I would come back because I had no prospects. Two weeks later, a friend told me she was looking for me, she wanted me to come back.

Why, you might ask??

Because she can’t find any decent help (read: people who’ll work for nothing!). And she wanted me to come back for…

Wait for it…

$8.50!!

See, I needed to understand that she could not afford more than that.

I told her. “No thanks.”

Then she called me selfish. She was struggling to find help and I didn’t care. Selfish!!

She ended up having to hire 4 other people. And for the next 5 years she contacted me off and on to try to get me to come back.

“Ok, how about $9! Be reasonable!!”

So on and so forth until she got to $12 over time.

I can’t honestly say I was irreplaceable. I can say that she needed a lot more help after I left. I can also say the business did not exist the fifth year after I’d gone.

I learned a very important lesson working for her. I needed to look out for myself. Work hard but only stay so long, based on the rate, frequency and size of raises. And all the while, always keep my ear to the ground for other opportunities.

I need to look out for me with the same ferocity the companies look out for their own interests.

Value

How will you judge the relationship between China and the US 100 years from now?

In 100 years 5% of those who use the U.S. dollar will remember how it look. And 15% of the nations who bought weapons in 2023 will still use weapons from the U.S. still! In 100 years US economy will be lying at best a distant 3rd behind China and India by a very long way. China will be roughly 5–6 times the U.S. size and even India will be close to double that of the USA!

The G7 at best is a fifth the size on BRiCS economy. The U.S. will be broken up into some 3–4 nations. And Democrats and Republicans are close to the full scale or outright U.S. civil war 2.0 in 2123! The U.S. and some 4–5 die hard dogs like UK, Australia and Canada will meet and still talk shit. But no one bother, no one even listen.

China has made the world 10 times more prosperous and 20 times more peaceful by then. Talking about the U.S. in 2123 is like talking about the former Yugoslavia today. By 2023 the U.S. would have long collapse and implode it’s economy and a full scale fight between Democrats and Republicans and also between the whites and coloured and also between the rich and poor has destroyed the so call liberal democracy.

In 100 years, China is selling moon and space tourism, become the leader in autonomous vehicles, supersonic planes, biggest ports and airports world wide. China will be in the business of hypersonic weapons, quantum computers. Artificial intelligence, Bio technology and nuclear technologies. A far cry from selling cheap T-shirts and plastic toys in 1980! By 2123. China has built an alternative Panama and Suez Canal 5 times its size! And a bridge to cross Russia to Alaska!

BRICS by that time consist of 50 nations. And gets supports from 190 out of 200 nations. Meanwhile as many as 10 million are living in tents homeless in the U.S. suburbs. Random mass shootings incidents happened at least 50 times a day in the U.S. killing roughly 100 people a day in the U.S. Confederate flag flies more widely than the Stars and Stripes in the U.S. in 2123.

China has just given warnings on visiting certain parts of the USA no different from the warnings of visiting Ethiopia or Yemen in 2000. That is what is likely happening in 2123 a hundred years from now. But the U.S. still scream liberal democracy like a 80 years old lone hippie!

Not sitting in the assigned seat

What is the most outrageous “eating sin” you’ve ever witnessed?

My husband and I are avid cruisers, which means food, food, and more food. That being said, I typically eat what I choose, save the occasional pick of something that is just not good. I usually eat breakfast alone, as he is still sleeping, and I sit and people watch in the buffet. My breakfast is always the same: oatmeal with fruit, some scrambled eggs, and a couple of pieces of ham or Canadian bacon. The same as I eat at home, essentially.
I get to witness the Sodom and Gommorah of food sin every day on a cruise, especially at breakfast. Football sized mounds of food get piled on a plate, and a lot of it is eaten. But it pains me to see a muffin with one bite. A bowl of cereal that had one bite, uneaten food galore. Yes, we pay for the food in our cruise fare, but it is as though we have no conscience when it comes to waste.
We often stop in Haiti at the cruise line’s resort, and they prepare a barbeque style lunch there. What many don’t know is that the leftovers are given to the locals, and I have watched them pick a piece of discarded watermelon off of the ground and brush off the sand to eat. While people are tossing full plates of food into the trash, these people are desperate for our scraps.

Food waste bothers me. For the farmer that took the time to sow the crops. For the cow kept pregnant to provide milk. For the pig slaughtered to provide us with ribs and bacon. For the countless hours spent preparing the food. We don’t honor what we have. We assume it is there because most of us have not had to go without. I am lucky, I always had a meal to eat, and I don’t waste food. I eat leftovers until they are gone, I cut my own fruit so that I can get the most out of the rind, and I toss produce scraps out for the deer and groundhogs that frequent my backyard.

We don’t appreciate the food we have. That is the sin.

The future of American women

Cajun Chicken Club Sandwich

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 slices Swiss cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan salad dressing
4 hoagie rolls, split and toasted
8 slices tomato
8 strips bacon, cooked

Instructions

Pound the chicken to 3/8-inch thickness; sprinkle with Cajun seasoning.
In a large skillet, cook the chicken in oil for 5 minutes on each side or until no longer pink.
Place one slice cheese over each chicken piece.
Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 1 minute or until cheese begins to melt.
Spread dressing over cut sides of rolls.
Place two slices of tomato on bottom of bun, top with chicken and two strips of bacon.
Serve with crispy fries or potato salad on the side.

Study the Buyer

What was a gift that made you speechless?

When I was married to my exhusband, I got a ‘‘bee in my bonnet’ that I wanted to learn how to sew. I’d never sewed a day in my life. So we went to different places, looking at machines. Hubs was a ‘research on Consumer Reports’ kinda guy. He didn’t want to buy something that would fall apart. Who knows though, honestly, if I would suck at this?! I’m not sure if he looked at it that way. He just wanted to get me something good.

So, we kind of narrowed it down to a couple, and tbh, they were ridiculously nice. One was a Singer, the other I don’t remember but it was pricey I think like $800 in like 1990. Crazy, for just wanting to try something. It was going to be a ““surprise” for Christmas… but I sneaked a look in his wallet one night (I KNOW, bad wifey) and saw he bought the $800 wonder. I was SOOO excited!!

Christmas morning comes.

I’m still very excited, because this IS an awesome gift. Knowing did not diminish my excitement. I opened up the wrapping, and inside, it was a different machine.

Tears rolled down my face and I couldn’t speak. The $800 wonder wasn’t there. Apparently, he had exchanged it. For an upgraded, fancy $1100. Wonder.

It was amazing. It did embroidery, a zillion stitches. It was a very high quality name I can’t spell 😂 Husqvarna? But wait, there’s more. There’s another box. Inside that box was a 5 thread Serger, a BabyLoc. I had everything I needed to be successful.

I sewed my butt off for years.

But I’ll never forget that feeling of ““I want to give you the moon” that he gave me that Christmas. That was epic.❤️

Chip War Despatch

Misunderestimating China, again.

Godfree Roberts

Nov 6, 2023

If the controls are successful, they could handicap China for a generation; if they fail, they may backfire spectacularly, hastening the very future the United States is trying desperately to avoid. Alex W. Palmer, NYT.

The Chinese cannot understand why we fight with “Fists of Seven Injuries” (七伤拳), inflicting as much harm on ourselves as on our target. The sanctions hit our high-tech companies hard, as they lose not only their biggest market, but also important partners in their supply chain. Qualcomm’s profits fell 23%. Samsung’s dropped 95% . Louise Low. Face-off on the Grand Chessboard.

The year of living vulnerably: 2015

By 2015, when President Xi warned of China’s vulnerability to a chip embargo his team, led by the redoubtable Liu He, had spent two years preparing to create an indigenous chip industry. By 2022, the first fabs were producing commodity chips in high volumes at low cost and China spent $300 billion importing high-end chips.

The first breakthrough came when Huawei quietly released its 7 nm. Kirin 9000 chipsets, and its Mate 60 phone sales quickly surpassed Apple’s – as they were doing when the US embargoed Huawei. While the Kirin CPU was a remarkable achievement, professionals were more impressed by Huawei’s indigenous communications chips, like cellular modems, previously a Qualcomm semi-monopoly.

Three months later, YMTC shipped its 232-layer 3D TLC NAND memory chips. Their huge capacity and speedy 12 GB/s I/O make bleeding-edge drives possible.

But the sexiest market right now is insulated gate bipolar transistors, IGBTs. They’re the CPU ‘brains’ that conduct the orchestra of sensors and inputs and reduce EVs’ power loss and improve reliability. They’re expensive: 7% – 10% of an EVs’ final cost. Back in 2020, BYD supplied IGBTs for 20% of Chinese EVs’ and Infineon supplied 58%. The IGBT market has grown from $5.27 billion then to $8.42 billion this year and expects CAGR of 15.7% for some years.

There’s also money to be made in less sexy chips, like microcontrollers, says TP Huang. “Has anyone heard of Zhixin’s chips? You’ll find SMIC’s 40nm auto grade processor in Zhixin’s MCU microcontroller – domestically designed, fabbed and packaged entirely in China. This has huge implications for STMicro, Texas Instruments, Infineon and TSMC. Few automotive applications will ever need processes beyond 28 or 40nm, which is SMIC’s mass production sweet spot. Why wouldn’t Chinese automakers buy domestically? I bet Wall Street analysts covering TI have never looked into new Chinese competitors and considered what that entails. SMIC will be a monster soon enough”.

Traditional couple

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

I was strung out for about 4 years from shooting up dope. After losing almost everything, I finally snapped out of it. It took, however, losing friends, my career, my therapist, my car, my motorcycle, my musical equipment, my instruments, my tools, my electricity, my water, all my savings which was in the tens of thousands, my sanity, almost my freedom, almost my life, and almost my house. I’m still in danger of losing it bc of unpaid property taxes of 3 years now going on 4. So when I was about 2–3 months sober, I had a friend drive me to Little Caesars to see if they were hiring. The manager was there. I asked. She said yes. Then she asked if I had manager experience. I said no…but I kinda did. I just wasn’t prepared for that gig being that I’m just barely out of a horrific addiction. She asked if I had an ID and a bank account for direct deposit. I said yes to the ID but no to bank account. She told me where I can get one at that moment and as soon as I get it to come back and I can begin to fill out the paperwork. Within 30 mins I was hired & started to fill out the necessary forms for employment. This was at the end of January this year and I’m still there and I’m sober.

I know this is a long story for such a question. My reason for including the other info is strictly for those that are currently where I was at when this happened. If this can help one person snap out of it then I will feel like I did a tremendous good for not just that one person but the world. Drug addiction affects way more than the drug addict. If you’re struggling, don’t give up. Be strong. It may take one time to quit or many times. Just don’t give up on yourself. I now have electricity and water and trash service. My house is still a wreck but it’s come a long way. I rode my bike to and from work which was 8 miles there and 8 miles back. But now I have a vehicle. I’m 6 feet tall and at the height of my addiction I weighed about 155lbs. Now I weigh a plump 210lbs. With time, that will change bc I want to be physically healthy. I am, w/o a doubt, physically healthier now than I was when I was using. And I prefer this to that any day. So if you’re reading this, you have to be strong and committed to this change no matter how tough it gets. It’ll get better. There’ll be shit days but it’ll pass. Keep going. We are made of sterner stuff. We’ve been through hell but now we are returning. And don’t think of it as starting over. You’re continuing your journey w a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. You may have lost everything but you’re not starting over. I wish you luck and lots of love. You’re not alone. I know that feeling of loneliness and despair. I felt lonely all throughout my journey through hell. But I wasn’t. You aren’t. If you need someone to vent w, message me. I’ll listen. I will not judge. If not me, reach out to someone. Anyone. And if you get rejected, fuck them. Move on. Don’t let that deter you. Look at me. I’m still here and am getting better everyday. Sure, we are all different but, in many ways, we are the same. We fuck up, and to fuck up is human.

One more thing: don’t beat yourself up if you quit and then go back to using again. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn’t. Just don’t let that stop you from quitting again. I have days when I feel so weak. I miss it so much. Coupled w the overwhelming feeling of how far I have to go to get back to where I was before my downfall, it feels hopeless. These moments test me, and I’ve come so close to shooting up again but I haven’t. I hope I don’t. In my journey, I always feel so glad I didn’t give in. Those feelings will wash away but they’ll be back again like waves in the ocean. You just stay afloat. It’ll pass and you’ll admire yourself for not giving in after it flows away. You’ll be proud of how strong you are becoming.

Anyway, there are my 2 cents.

Love yourself.

Love those around you.

Don’t be afraid to say it.

Don’t be afraid to show it.

Amp It The Fuck Up!!!

Antony Blinken Wrecked By Protesters In Congress

Great episode, Lee. Your humor is top dog here.

China and the Chip Wars: a Battle It Cannot Afford to Lose

The race for supremacy in the semiconductor industry is about much more than just technological dominance. It is about shaping the future of civilization.

“Can China ace the chip wars?” This was the central question that framed my talk at the Future of Finance China Forum held in Beijing on July 28. The forum, run by The Asian Banker, served as a critical platform for thought leaders amid the unpredictable economic and financial landscape of 2023.

While these wide-ranging discussions were informative, my focus was squarely on the place and potential of China in the semiconductor industry. Instead of merely asking if China can win the chip wars, it’s more insightful to consider whether China can afford not to. This reframing provides a sharper understanding of the stakes for China’s economy and its global standing in the semiconductor industry.

Current situation

“Valuation extravaganza” is a phrase I use to describe the surging market caps of companies like Nvidia and AMD. The remarkable value growth of these companies has raised eyebrows and led to questions about whether we’re witnessing a semiconductor bubble. However, the rational ubiquity of semiconductors, essential to various sectors, might justify these high valuations.

In 2021, over 1.1 trillion chips were shipped worldwide, finding their way into everything from cars and consumer electronics to industrial applications. Semiconductors, quietly yet crucially, have become a part of nearly every aspect of modern life. According to a recent survey of industry executives, the industry’s future direction is being steered by emerging sectors like the metaverse, sustainability, mobility, and digital health – each calling for unique semiconductor capabilities.

This importance of semiconductors is reflected in the market’s response. Nvidia’s stock price tripled last year raising its valuation to more than $1 trillion with a Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio over 240. AMD’s stock price has also doubled, its P/E ratio almost reaching 500. This valuation growth is partly due to the robust demand for semiconductors, with the global market projected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2032.

Even with the current chip shortage, some industry observers argue that these high valuations are justified. They view the long-term growth prospects for the industry as strong and believe these valuations are based on the expectation of persistent semiconductor demand.

Despite short-term disruptions like the global chip shortage, the long-term outlook for the semiconductor industry remains bright. Semiconductors play an integral role in the global economy, and their importance will continue to grow in the future, shaping our tech-driven world in ways we’re only beginning to understand.

Future growth

We must also consider the potential drivers of future chip demand, taking into account the radical changes that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may bring. A compelling perspective on this comes from Sam Altman, a prominent figure in the tech industry and CEO of OpenAI, in his manifesto “Moore’s Law for Everything”.

Altman applies the principle of Moore’s Law, which traditionally refers to the exponential growth in computing power, to a broader societal context, predicting a future where rapid growth permeates all facets of our lives and economy. Coined by Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore, the law originally observed that the number of transistors on a microchip double roughly every 18 months. Altman, however, envisions its implications beyond the realm of computing power.

This broader interpretation anticipates an era of abundance, where the ubiquitous adoption of AI causes a steep drop in labor costs that fundamentally transforms society. Altman posits that as automation replaces human tasks from plumbing to R&D, labor costs will plunge, leading to significantly cheaper goods and services. The cost of the essential inputs shifts from labor and raw materials to data, driving prices towards zero and marking the advent of an era of profound abundance.

But abundance here isn’t just about an increase in available goods and services. It’s also about equalizing access to these resources, democratizing what was once the exclusive privilege of the affluent. High-quality healthcare, education, travel experiences, and even a secure standard of living—Altman’s vision suggests these will be accessible to far more people, with the cost of a “great life” approaching zero.

At the core of this transformation is AI, its learning and decision-making abilities propelling us towards this era of abundance. Yet, the manifestation of this AI-driven prosperity depends heavily on a robust, efficient, and advanced computational infrastructure— semiconductors or chips. Semiconductors are the foundation of our digital world, powering everything from personal devices to advanced machinery.

The complexity and scale of AI necessitate more advanced and efficient semiconductors. The AI algorithms promising this era of abundance require enormous computational power to process large volumes of data and make complex calculations. The task of providing this computational power depends on a wide range of semiconductors.

The abundance that Altman predicts will not only be driven by AI but will also critically hinge on the availability and advancement of semiconductors. In the coming era of AI-driven abundance, those countries and companies that can ensure a stable supply of chips will hold the upper hand. Thus, as China strategizes to win the chip wars, the stakes become clear—it’s not just about surviving but thriving in this world of unlimited abundance.

Domestic politics and geopolitics

In the global context of the race for technological supremacy, the semiconductor industry is emerging as a key battleground. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), with its potential to usher in an era of unprecedented abundance and revolutionize labor economics, amplifies the national security implications of the semiconductor industry. Indeed, the ‘resilient redesign’ of the global supply chain is becoming an essential facet of national strategies to ensure sustained success in this critical sector.

The complex web of today’s supply chain, spanning continents and countless entities, is inherently vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and pressures. The need for countries to develop resilient domestic capacities is becoming increasingly clear. Governments worldwide are already showing a keen interest in the sector’s growth and security, a trend that is set to heighten as strategic reorientations, regulatory shifts, and a heightened focus on security come into play. The semiconductor industry is becoming a significant geopolitical flashpoint, a field of intense competition for technological dominance.

In the context of China’s domestic politics, this resonates profoundly with President Xi Jinping’s vision of ‘common prosperity’. The potential abundance enabled by AI could pave the way for realizing this vision, democratizing access to what is currently available only to the affluent and creating a more equal society. The era of abundance that Sam Altman envisions could, in fact, help manifest President Xi’s aspiration for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In this light, China’s broad conception of national security – which encompasses not only traditional military aspects but also economic and even cultural security – becomes particularly relevant. The advancements in AI, underpinned by the semiconductor industry, will be vital for maintaining and enhancing China’s national security in this broad sense.

Therefore, China cannot afford to lose the ‘chip war’. The stakes are beyond high – economic vitality, technological advancement, geopolitical influence and even the future of the human race. The semiconductor industry is not just another industry; it is a cornerstone upon which human civilization may be decided.

In conclusion, the race for supremacy in the semiconductor industry is about much more than just technological dominance. It is about shaping the future of civilization. For China, acing the chip wars is not just a matter of national security in the traditional sense. It is also about securing the future of its society and realizing its vision of prosperity for all.

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Before a class room of three hundred 1st year students, I was teaching, and my cell phone started vibrating. And I totally froze.

Just a couple of months earlier, I had become a father for the first time, and my girlfriend and I had agreed not to call during class hours, unless it was an emergency.

Often, I muted my cell phone during class hours, but this time I had forgotten. And this time the phone also rang. My girlfriend was the only person who would ring me at this unearthly hour in the morning. And suddenly it crossed my mind. Something is wrong with the baby.

Instead of two minutes, I had more than fifteen minutes left to cover while my mind blocked my every mathematical thought. So I taught the rest of the class through a true other-worldly out-of-body experience — I literally heard myself talking to the students, explaining things on the blackboard, and answering questions, while I was constantly thinking —

Something is wrong with the baby—Something is wrong with the baby—Something is wrong with the baby—Something is wrong with the baby.

When class was over and questions had been answered, I immediately called my girlfriend. She had forgotten about our agreement.

She wanted to say hello.

American society

What was the most obvious lie you’ve been told?

I’m a landlord and went to renew the lease on one of my rentals once. And when I pulled in to the neighborhood and turned the corner towards the house, the very first thing I saw was the screen door hanging off the front of the house.

I pulled into the driveway, knocked on the door, and while I was waiting for them to answer I looked at the screen door. It was literally ripped off its hinges.

Then they came out and greeted me as if nothing had ever happened.. I asked what happened to the door, and I swear they both looked me straight in the eye and said..

“It was like that when we moved in.” I was absolutely shocked…

I said, “Doug. You two have been here for TWO YEARS. You signed a move-in checklist when you first moved in that said everything was ok. I took and have pictures of everything before you moved in. And last but not least, I was here exactly ONE year ago to renew your lease then! Now, is this seriously your story, and are you sure it’s the one you want to stick to??”

“Yes.. It was like that when we moved in.”

So I called bullshit and told them that I would not renew their lease, and to be out before the end of the week. OR if they wanted to stay then they could fix the door.

They fixed it – reluctantly. Still swearing that it was like that when they moved in.

A coworker is harassing me. She asked me not to eat at my desk then told my boss that I was taking excessive breaks since I now eat breakfast and snacks in the kitchen to make her happy. What should I do?

When I was an administrative assistant to the dean of a department at a 2 year college, there were a couple times during the year that I ate at my desk for various reasons. There was another admin in a different department that took a dislike to me and tried to get me in trouble for only taking 30 mins to eat then leaving 30 mins early. She went to my boss and he said I had his permission to do so. She then went to HR to file a complaint and I got called in. After that, I requested a sit down with HR, my boss, her and her boss which we had. Over several weeks, I had documented everything she had said and done to undermine me and she turned beet red and had no real defense since she documented nothing. A couple of weeks later, she no longer worked there and they hired a woman who became a good friend.

Document everything—day, time, incident, what was said—and keep it in a safe place. I used an old fashioned college notebook and hand wrote everything with just a blank line between each incident. I about filled the notebook in less than a month.

What was the most satisfying display of instant karma you have ever seen?

He was the head janitor at my school, a teddy bear of a man, under 5 feet tall with the sweetest little smile and laugh. He had worked at the school since he was a teen and was due to retire.

Da Tuk (not his real name) was gentle, kind and generous, a soft touch for a sob story. He and his family had just enough but always ended with too little because of his ‘kindness.’

A relative had begged him for a large sum, almost all that Da Tuk and his wife had saved for a deposit on a home. He signed over a land deed to Da Tuk and then disappeared into the gambling dens of Klong Tuey.

When Da Tuk took his family to see the land, they found a hilly, barren, nowhere-near-anywhere, unsellable plot. Da Tuk was inconsolable, realizing that he had been duped and had lost almost everything.

Fortunately, the chairman of the school found a way to help the family to buy a small house and deal with the costs of their children’s educations. They never really recovered from the loss.

As the school grew, so did Da Tuk’s staff, to the point where he was overwhelmed. An ‘assistant’ was hired but was, in fact, in charge. However, he always treated Da Tuk as the boss and saw to it that others did as well.

For Da Tuk’s retirement day, the Board had arranged for a huge luncheon, and we were all seated, waiting for Da Tuk.

When he arrived, he looked stunned, which surprised us because everyone had been talking about the party and teasing him for over a month.

Then an equally stunned member of the Board made a shocking announcement.

Da Tuk had just been paid forty million baht (approximately two million U.S. dollars) for that ‘worthless’ land because it was adjacent to the planned eastern seaboard industrial estate.

What is one quality you admire in people?

I got laid off from my work. It’s an awful experience. I just had the yearly performance review and got a raise, I was thinking ‘life is freaking good’, then one fine morning, I woke up to a sudden 1:1 from my boss, and he told me I was let go (together with half of the company).

It’s unexpected, and I was shocked.

I sent my coworkers texts, told them my goodbyes and my wish to stay in touch with them.

All of them offered the same message:

Please let me know how I can help in any way at all!

I was touched seeing those messages, truly.

The only thing I asked from them was: I need to retouch my Linkedin Profile, the job market right now is super tough and competitive, anything can help my profile stands out would mean a great deal and I really appreciate a recommendation from them – if they have a few minutes to write me one. It would be a huge help.

Only 2 out of 10 people offered me the message to help in any way actually did give me a recommendation. And one of them actually referred me everywhere she could trying to help me to get interviews.

I don’t think any less of the 8 people that didn’t give me a recommendation. I understand perfectly that there are millions reasons for that, like I might not worth giving a recommendation, or they just simply forgot to give one, or writing a recommendation is not their cup of tea, etc… I just wish they didn’t tell me that they would help in any way if they didn’t mean it.

And I do admire the ones that offer and live up with their saying “let me know how I can help in any way”

Being a person of their own words is a super power.

What is the fastest anyone has been fired from a job?

Way out in the stick in the north of England there was huge project ongoing to build a dam.
A new site manager had been brought in because workers were reportedly lazy, either turning up late or skiving off down the local pub (which I worked in) during working hours.
On his first day on the job he grabbed someone from the admin office and headed off round the site looking for a sacrificial lamb. He was going to fire someone as an example to the rest of the staff.

After half an hour or so he came across a young guy sitting behind a building, against a wall, drinking coffee.

“Who are you?” he bellowed.
“What’s it got to do you with you?” asked the guy.
“I’m the new site manager, who are you, and where do you work?”
“Fuck off, leave me alone!”, replied the young guy.
“OK, you’ve had your chance, you’re fired!” He turned to the admin guy, “get his details, give him his cards!” The site manager then stormed off thinking this was a good start to his tenure.

Later that day I was serving behind the bar in the pub and the guy came walking in.
“Give me a pint of Guinness, I’ve just been fired”.
“Oh dear, first one’s on the house!”
“Cheers, that’s very nice of you.” he replied.
He had his Guinness then asked how much?
I said, “no, it’s on the house. Anyone who gets fired from the site gets a free beer.”
“No – it’s okay, I’d better pay!”
“But you got fired – it’s free!”
“I did get fired. I’m just sitting there having a cup of coffee when this idiot appears out of nowhere screaming and shouting at me, and fires me on the spot. He seemed so happy about it I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I didn’t work for him, and I’m just a hiker who had stopped for a coffee.”

Surprised My Cheating Wife With Divorce Papers at Her “Secret” Hotel Getaway Affair.

What is the angriest you have been at work with your boss or colleagues?

I nearly hit ENTER on my resignation email. I’d been with the company for 24 years at the time and I was tired of my boss contradicting everything I’d say. Sometimes he was right, usually he wasn’t but of course he only remembered that one out of 10 times he was right come review time.

Most people say I’m too much of a pacifist but he’d ding me as pointlessly argumentative. And, the reason why I was never promoted (he’d tell me year after year) is because I’d said or done “the wrong thing yet again to” and it would always be an unnamed executive. If I asked what I did or said, I’d get “you know I can’t tell you that” and if I asked who’s cage I’d supposedly rattled, it would be another “you know I can’t tell you that.”

This day, he said something that was completely wrong about a field he knew zero about and that I was an expert in. I should have known better but I said something just “in passing.” He erupted and screamed at me. “YOU ARE WRONG and you felt the need to ruin my day. I walked in here this morning feeling okay for the first time in months. You couldn’t let it go. Noooo … not you … you had to correct me and ruin my whole day. And you aren’t even right Mr. Know-it-all. Fine. You ruined my day so now I’m going to ruin yours. I expect a written apology, three copies, and this is going in your file.

I will then have your final written warning for insubordination and disrupting the office ready when you come back with your apology. IF I accept it, you will go on warning. But if I don’t like what you said, I tear that and the warning up and you will be done. You have pretty much just thrown away 24 years of work and any goodwill you might have built up with me because you just always have to say something.

You just can’t let anything go and you always have some story. No matter what anyone says, you were there, did that, had that or something too. Well now I think you can add fired for cause and blacklisted from a whole industry to your awesome list of life experiences. I’m giving you one hour. I’ll see you then or you can spend the time packing up your stuff. I really don’t care which at this point.

And because you are a critical employee with no backup or replacement, I will see to it that you pay for this for a long time to come if I have any say over anything. Now get going. The next time I see you, it will be either carrying your shit to your car or in here with a heart felt written apology.”

I typed out a resignation, just a terse one paragraph indicating only that I resigned effective that day and would agree to make my last day two weeks hence. Dated and my signature typed. I was ready to hit SEND and the email would go to my boss, HR and the Sr VP (who was the department head).

But then I thought: first, I’d be out of a job and it would not be easy for me to get another one. It’s next to impossible to describe what I really do — it’s a bunch of low level tasks where the high level aspect is that I can do them all. I already knew that no one in my industry was interested — had they been, I’d have been contacted at least one of the times where competitors or clients tried to grab employees from us. I was about the only long time employee who’d never been contacted by anyone.

My resume would make even less sense outside my industry. I’d at best have to hope for some small employer looking for a jack of many trades willing to work for next to nothing. Not very appealing.

He was right in one sense about something: whenever someone had a story, I’d often have a counterpart. I’m not a know it all, just a lot older than many of my colleagues and I’ve been around. I’d always thought I was just participating in a conversation but maybe that’s not the way some took it. Perhaps I should sit and listen more even if I did have such an experience myself and even if the teller was way off base.

So I resolved to say a lot less and not correct people unless there could be a serious consequence for letting it go. Even if I’d done whatever 50 times to their 1 and was considered an expert, just let it go. Let them tell their story.

Ruined his day? That was his responsibility. He was going through many personal problems but people other than I were getting tired of his ripping our heads off at work because his personal life was in a tailspin. I know that when I was having many issues one time (many years ago, different boss), my manager came along and told me I needed to straighten myself up.

He knew what I was going through and that’s why nothing had been said for a couple weeks. But now I had to pull myself out of it or he’d have to let me go. That was a couple weeks … but my current boss had been going on that way for months.

So there was wrong on my side and that was on me to handle. But I wasn’t responsible for ruining my boss’ day with an offhand comment of a factual nature. I needed to speak a lot less: not counter a story with one of my own, and don’t correct someone unless there was a vital business need for it. On the other hand, I was not about to take written responsibility for someone else’s life and emotions.

I apologized verbally including indicating where I was wrong and what I planned to do about it. But I made clear what I was apologizing for along with being clear without saying it that it would not be in writing. I also made clear without throwing anything in his face that if he chose to give me a final written warning, I would not sign it but rather resign effective immediately.

Nothing more came of it in large part because by the time I walked in there, the anger was gone. I dealt with this in a clear headed way and that’s the point to this long answer. Anger solves nothing, even if justified or at least partially so. We’ve probably all snapped at work and with what results? If you have sufficient clout, others might respond out of fear. But that never results in a good long term effect. You’re far better off resisting the urge to go off until you’ve had a few minutes to think about the whole situation.

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

I’m boy, When I was 13 , The principal always checks students’ hair and nails and punishes them if they were long

One day, he came to the line and checked our nails, I had forgotten to trim my nails for a long time, and my nails were long like a girl’s.

When he saw my nails, he asked sarcastically: Am I a girl?

I was embarrassed and lowered my head

The principal sent me to the corner of the wall and I stood facing the wall with my head down

he sent about ten other people to the side of the wall because their nails were too long

When all the students went to class, the manager and the principal came to us with a ruler, the principal said, we have to give them a nice punishment!

Principal said that we should paint their nails to make them girls!

They took us to the manager’s office and forced us to put our hands on the table

Then the manager took out a bottle of red nail polish from his drawer and started painting our nails completely

We felt ashamed and humiliated and our heads were down

They took us to the front of the line in front of all the students and calles us girls!

All the students laughed at us and we cried and felt humiliated

They hit our palms with a ruler to make us cry more!

From that day on, we didn’t have the courage to keep our nails long

What are the habits of highly successful people?

1. Successful people don’t leave their life in the hands of luck. Life is too unpredictable to leave it in the hands of luck. Therefore, successful people choose to take control of things rather than sit around and wait for luck to finally smile at them.

2. Successful people take risks at the right place, at the right time. Successful people know that they don’t have the luxury to be taking mindless risks that can do more bad than good. Rather, they wait for that perfect timing and occasion when they can justify taking the risk.

3. Successful people trust their intuition. Many people underestimate the power of gut feeling. But in reality, it’s one of the most efficient and free tools you can utilize profitably. And successful people know how to do just that.

4. Successful people are the masters of their own destiny. Some people believe that one’s destiny is predetermined, and so they decide to simply let things unfold accordingly. But successful people prefer to take charge and carve out the destiny they aim for.

5. Successful people know the importance of having control over their emotions. They understand the impact emotional control or the lack thereof can have on their motivation, perseverance, and overall success. Therefore, they always try to keep their emotions under control so they’ll be the ones having the power over them.

6. Successful people practice positive self-talk. Successful people try not to listen to that negative voice in their head that tells them it is not going to work out. They don’t insult themselves, either. Instead, they train themselves to be compassionate, understanding, and encouraging toward themselves so they never succumb to the destructive effects of negative self-talk.

7. Successful people know that making mistakes is an essential part of the process leading them to ultimate success. They are aware that no matter how many mistakes they make along the way, they can make use of each by learning from them, guiding them toward success they’ve been working hard for.

8. Successful people know how to take constructive criticism well. Not only do they understand the benefits of constructive criticism, but they also appreciate getting it because they see it as a way to improve themselves or get closer to their goals.

9. Successful people have an unshakeable faith in themselves. Even if everyone else around them thinks they are just idealistic dreamers chasing after unrealistic goals, they refuse to see themselves from the same lenses because they know they have what it takes to get the things they are after.

“This young man approached me and asked me to buy him a gallon of milk.

My first thought was to say no but as I was paying for my gas I grabbed the milk. Outside was his girlfriend holding a box of cereal. He thanked me and I started to walk to my car. Something in me made me turn around. I told them I was about to get a car wash but if he wanted to wash it for me I’d pay him $20. We went to the nearest car wash and he had tears in his eyes after I paid him!

He told me that more than anything he appreciated me giving him the opportunity to be a man again in the eyes of his girlfriend and work for the money. The whole time his girlfriend helped him. It’s like she was proud of him. You could tell the love was so real. Real beyond material things and what he could do for her. She told him he did a great job and he couldn’t stop smiling. I had a long talk with him and her and he had a backpack full of paperwork from all of the places he’s been going to get help for them. I drove them to my apartment complex and gave him clothes for interviews and a few outfits and fitted caps. I don’t have much but life is about sharing what you do have.

Be a blessing to someone today because you could be in that situation before you know it! I gave them my number and I plan to take them to any interviews or appointments they have. It’s a great day to be alive no matter what your situation is. Someone has it worse than you! Share this message and inspire others to do good.”

Credit: Ariane Nelson

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

Well it was a older Ford heavy duty truck, a three axle mini dump truck. It came in for brake work and when I opened the hood I discovered that most of the underhood wiring was redone with household electrical wiring cable, Romex and stripped Romex. It ran fine for a truck of the era that it was built and when the guy came to pick it up after the brake work, I had to ask about the wiring. He had the truck sitting unused for several years while he was working for someone and mice or squirrels had gotten in and destroyed the wiring and he had a roll of Romex in his garage and redid the wiring using another very similar truck as reference and got some bits from another truck he found in a junkyard. Mechanically the truck was solid and I was more impressed than anything else with the craftiness.

Woman Demands A Train Ran On Her! This Is Why Men Question The Value Of MW

WTF? The United States is truly messed up.

What is it that nobody tells you about adult life?

Lack of purpose. All your young life you are given purpose of passing exams and learning, then all of a sudden you are thrown into the world and told to find your own meaning.
You can stay up as late as you want. But you shouldn’t.
Where did all my friends go?
Didn’t know that other adults have the emotional intelligence of teenagers and its almost impossible to deal with logically.
Getting burnt out.
Having to make dinner every. Fucking. Day.
Not having a lot of free-time or time by myself.
Figuring out what makes you happy. Everyone keeps trying to get you to do things you’re good at, or that makes you money, but never to pursue what you enjoy.
The more life you’ve lived, the faster time seems to go.
How damned tired you are all the time.

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

I once stopped to help a guy change a tire. He had an arm in a sling and two very young kids in his car. He thanked me saying he didn’t want to hurt his arm any more and wanted to get back to work.

Fast forward three months and I’m in a very ugly motorcycle wreck. One of the EMTs noticed my back was broken. Had they continued I’d have been paralyzed. His quick thinking prevented that.

After I recovered I got to meet the EMT crew that saved my life.

The guy that noticed my back was broken? The guy whose tire I had changed.

What’s the most bizarre “wrong number” conversation you’ve had with someone?

This is an easy one to answer.

About 25 years ago, while living in Tucson Arizona, I received a phone call (bold = caller, non-bold = me):

Hi; Is this David Joseph? Dr. David Joseph?

Yes, who’s this?

Hi David!! It’s Garry Shandling!

Now at that time, Garry Shandling was a pretty well-known comedian, with his own show (“It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”), which was well known for its hilarious opening theme song. I was a big fan of his show, so I assumed a friend was pranking me:

Oh really?? Garry Shandling? Prove it; sing me your opening theme song!

He went ahead and sang me his opening theme song, and then went on:

David, how have you been? It’s been forever — can you believe it’s been over 20 years since we graduated?!

Since we graduated? Graduated what??

High School; Palo Verde??

Wait, I think you have the wrong David Joseph; are you looking for Dr David Joseph, the vet?

Yes; that’s not you? I thought your voice sounded different!

Yeah, that’s not me; I’m a people doc. I think that David Joseph moved away from Tucson a few years ago.

Oh, bummer. OK, I guess I’ll keep trying to find him — we were really close in High School.

Well, if you don’t find him, feel free to call me anytime; I’m happy to be your back-up Dr David Joseph!

Haha! Maybe I will! Thanks!

Good luck!

Then he called back a couple of hours later, explaining that he hadn’t been able to find his high school friend. We chatted a bit more, and then, once every few years, out of the blue, I would get a call from him, wanting to ‘catch-up with his back-up David Joseph.’

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

After I made a successful (static line) parachute jump – which turned out to be my first ever (and last) jump from a plane – I traveled back to the jump site three more times with Jeff C. to do it again. Various conditions prevented that from happening again, and after the third time that we were unable to jump again, we saw a fire a couple blocks off the interstate that was being fought by a team of professionals. A police officer instructed us to move along, but Jeff chimed in with “Why don’t they just let a good fire burn?” The officer walked to the front of Jeff’s car and wrote down the license plate and village sticker information, then asked Jeff AND me for ID. During the following week, I talked to mutual acquaintances of Jeff and related the aforementioned story to them. From one former coworker of Jeff, I learned that he was suspected of possibly starting two fires at his place of employment, with the second allegation causing him to be let go – I decided not to key ‘fi_ed’ – immediately. I no longer answered any of Jeff’s subsequent telephone calls, and did not answer the door when he came over.

Psychologist Addresses FEMALE DISRESPECT: why this is essential to relationship success

Damn! This is one HELL of a great video! Shit! Amazing video!

What most people don’t understand is that disrespect is a process. The best predictor of overt disrespect is covert disrespect. And this is why it is important to address disrespectful behavior while it is still in its nascent form. Failing to do so will jeopardize your relationship, primarily due to the fact that it is not possible for a woman to love a man she does not respect.

“Seeing how my now ex wife treated me compared to everyone else was an eye opener. I realized why everyone liked her, she treated them with respect and care, while I got the cold, cruel, disrespectful part.”

What is something your father did during your childhood that is unforgivable?

He beat me with a belt until I would bleed when I was very young and then when I became a teenager he would beat me with his fists. He broke my nose and blacked my eyes a few times. He’s dead now and I’m 69 years old. I have never for forgiven or forgotten. He beat my mom too. They divorced after I left home at 17. May he rot in HELL!

Have you ever been ignored by the staff in a store because you didn’t look wealthy enough?

Oh man! I sure have. Often. Up until recently I worked, either with a guy or on my own, doing demolition, kitchen removals and buying/selling used building materials. I also ride a motorcycle. A big-ass noisy motorcycle. And, personally, I think I am a pretty nice person. I am considerate, kind and polite. But sometimes I am covered in drywall or brick dust, insulation, paint or sawdust. I usually carry Handy Wipes to, at least, wipe my face and hands clean. I may be dressed in work clothes and/or motorcycle gear. I am otherwise a well-groomed, clean, and pleasant 54 year old woman. I currently work outside all day and am in and out and crawling around assessing cars and trucks. Again, in work clothes or cover-all’s I am often dusty and wind-blown with dirty, with grease under my nails.

AND I GET TREATED LIKE SHIT.

I get followed, have had rude and disparaging comments made or completely ignored. Some staff treat me like I am invisible and are dismissive, assuming (I think) that I have no money to spend. At other times, they have been openly mistrusting and suspicious.

ALL BECAUSE I WORK FOR A LIVING!

Two of my very worst experiences occurred at places connected to religious institutions. One a church bazaar and the other a faith-based second hand shop. Another time I was speaking, as a counsellor, on a panel about alcoholism and addiction. Independent of each other, the hosts TWICE assumed that I was the newly recovered individual as opposed to the presenting professional.

In NO WAY am I ashamed of what I do or how I look. In fact, I am proud of who I am and the jobs I have done (and still do). I just wish people would judge me on my character or my actions rather than the way I look.

What had been removed from your property that you thought would have come with the property before you purchased it?

Bought a small place years ago that had a nice shed that could be used for tools, mower, etc and I asked if it conveyed and was told yes. Went to move in after settlement and no shed. Since it was in the contract, I called my realtor and told her the she came back or I would immediately stop the sale. No shed by the next day when promised so I notified the bank again that the sellers were in breach of contract. I was living in the house but had not put my furniture in yet, still in the box trailer belonging to a friend. The sellers had the shed at their new place but moving it damaged it so I refused to accept it and they had to order a brand new shed, same size, for the deal to be completed. The bank held the check, I finished moving in, and 2 weeks later the shed arrived.

Don’t try fast ones when selling since you may seriously regret the expense of fixing it.

My neighbor picked all the peaches off my tree last year without my consent. I’ve never met them as every time I’ve tried, they’ve made themselves unavailable. How do I go about protecting my fruit this year without seeming passive-aggressive?

Do what my garden-savvy cousin did to keep deer away from her garden. She set up hoses and multiple impact sprinklers with a motion sensor that set them off when deer approached, startling them and soaking them. Very effective, and not mean.

If the neighbor complains your sprinklers got him wet, say “Sorry, I had to do something to keep the deer/bears/monkeys/kids from stealing all my peaches before I can make pies/cobblers/jam from them.

You could even say, if I have a good crop this year, I’ll bring you a bowl of peaches.

Why is it that Chinese people seem not to think that it’s rude to be really loud in public places, like restaurants and internet cafes?

In Chinese culture, sharing a meal with friends or family is a time to socialize. It’s actually something I very much enjoy being part of. As a Westerner, growing up in a Western and traditional Southern family, children were “seen and not heard,” and the talking points of a meal were, “Please pass the salt,” or “mind your manners.” The lively, upbeat, excitement that is exuded by Chinese people sharing a meal is something I adore.

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve lost and found?

When I bought my house the seller told me he had lost a ring a few years prior, and if I ever found it, it would mean the world to him to get it back. Three years later I saw something shiny while I was raking leaves. I picked it up and realized it was a ring encased in mud. I cleaned it off but didn’t think it could possibly be the lost ring. The stones were so large I thought it must be costume jewelry. I phoned the old owner and told him I found a ring but didn’t think it was valuable and asked if he could come take a look. When he saw it he started to cry and said it had great sentimental value. He offered me a reward but I declined. It didn’t seem right to take money for something that belonged to him. What I thought was a cheap ring with glass stones turned out to be $70,000 worth of diamonds.

Bit by a beaver

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

a friend of ours who at the time was single mother of two, her son is autistic. She complained she had no heat in her mini van and winter in southern Ontario can be bitter cold. Local franchise repair shop quoted her north of $1700 to fix it!

I said let me take it to my trusted repair shop.

After a quick diagnosis he says “is she a teacher?” I’m like “how’d you know?”

He says “I cleaned a pile of papers out of the vents by the the heater core…lots of heat now!”

$75 and she had heat again…and was advised to keep papers off her dash!

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

Yeah actually… A few years ago I went out on the town for a mates birthday – straight from work. I’m carrying with me a £2.5k laptop and my mates got his full pay packet in cash and a thermos of soup given to him by a friend for his birthday (separate story).

These two kids come up to us and demand all of our worldly belongings. We dismiss them, as the bravery of a nights worth of fairly strong Hazy Pale Ale courses through our veins. As we walk off, the braver of the two pulls out a pretty small knife and demands more of our attention.

With a look from my mate we start off round the corner. Once we’re there we in whispered, quick voices form a plan and we wait for them.

I caught the first guy with a swing of my rucksack right under the chin and all 15” and 2.6kg of my MacBook Pro knocked his head back nearly off his feet. My friend followed with the Thermos on the 2nd. We didn’t hold back on those hits.

Once they recovered enough to speak, the braver one asked the other one if he was bleeding… he was… and the other guy told him.

Angry from the revelation he was bleeding, he said if he ever saw us again we’re dead… My friend, living round the area didn’t take kindly to this and threw the statement back at him. Told him, NO if you ever come back here YOU’RE dead and flew at the guy with the Thermos a second time. He chased them both up the street with that flask, with me laughing in hysterics at the bottom of the road.

In a strange way, being drunk that night changed the whole outcome of that encounter. Doubt we would have stood up to them sober.

I cut down my neighbor’s tree while they were on holidays because leaves and branches fall onto my property. When he returned from holidays, he called the police and threatened to sue me. Does he have a case? Will the police do anything?

He most certainly has a case. One of my neighbors tried to have two of our old silver birches and one 50-years-old Cedar tree cut, and it cost him dearly. It started with a Christmas tree though.

We came back from the United States, and as usual when we are back from holidays, I checked the garden — just to see how the plants, flowers and mushrooms (but also our rabbits and barn owls) were doing.

And then I noticed that one of our beautiful Christmas trees had been cut. The top half was gone, and no higher Mathematics was needed to conclude who had done it. One of our neighbors — I once had a relationship with his youngest daughter Ebba, but he seemed reasonably normal in those days — goes berserk if even only a couple of leaves fall on his property.

This time, he had cut an evergreen conifer, and we were sick of it. We called the neighborhood police man to sort this out, and he reprimanded the neighbor — to no avail. We decided not to go to court for the time being.

Instead, he sued us.

Together with another neighbor friend (who apparently also had problems with leaves and needles without us knowing), he filed a complaint against us in Justice Court. Big goal: having some of our trees (two old birches and an old Cedar) cut.

It did not quite work out that way, though.

Instead, he was forcefully reprimanded by the judge, who explained that leaves and needles are a part of country life, and that there was nothing wrong nor illegal about them falling in his garden.

The judge also dismissed the demand that our trees would be cut —

“It is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to cut old trees, Mister C., so NO ONE will touch them. And very high maximum penalties would be issued if someone would.”

(Goal not attained.)

Since then, our neighbor had become even more mental than before. He throws all the leaves and needles he can find in our garden, and he has, since recently, started to throw buckets of his own stinking urine in our backyard.

But whatever he does — he cannot touch our trees.

And he knows it.

Boys and Girls

Why do so many foreigners go to China and think China is good?

I’m also one of those foreigners who think China is not just good, but a great place to live in! After working in China for the past few years, I have realized so many reasons for loving China.

A quick list of my personal observations about China:

1. Life has been very peaceful in China: I am never worried about my personal safety, or disruption of work. Life has been going quite smoothly.

2. Cost of living: About RMB 5,000/month (~$700). For the quality of life that I have enjoyed in China, it can’t get more affordable.

3. Jobs: my job is going fine. No issues with salaries.

4. Tax holidays: expats from a good number of countries (including US) enjoy tax holidays in China (due to the Double Tax Avoidance Treaty). I have not paid any tax in China so far. 🙂

5. Great food: China offers one of my favorite cuisine (I also love Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Indian food). You can order from home. RMB 15 for 20 dumplings (饺子, jiaozi). Even if you cook at home, it can’t get cheaper than that.

6. Online shopping: you can buy almost everything online in China. Taobao is probably one of those few sites I visit every day. I buy something every day.

7. Cashless payments: we don’t carry cash in China. We just need to bring a phone, scan QR codes and pay. In fact, you can rent bicycles by just scanning QR codes (first 1hr ride is free).

8. I have a history of diabetes. Going anywhere, including back to the US, puts me at a very high risk of Covid-19 pandemic. There are great medical facility in China. Every Chinese city has a good number of hospitals. It’s very convenient to visit hospital in China (Btw, my city is virtually covid-19 virus free).

9. Learning Chinese: if you want to learn Chinese, China is the best place. The whole atmosphere is warm and welcoming. You’ll learn Chinese fast. This was also a reason for me to move to China.

10. Travel: Lots of nice places in China. Recently I visited Zhouzhuang (周庄), a water town (江南水乡). It was a pleasant experience. Chinese tourist attractions are generally very different from the typical western tourist attractions.

11. No illegal immigration: you can’t enter China illegally. You will be caught if you try. Penalties are heavy. You will be deported, however, only after serving the sentence.

Living in China is a very different experience. It doesn’t make sense to compare China with other countries (or vice versa). Explore what China has to offer, and you’ll love it.

Also, I wish to thank China for taking a good care of me throughout my China stay, especially during my diabetes phase. Otherwise, I couldn’t have survived probably.

Which country have you visited that turned out to be nothing like how it is depicted?

All of them.

The U.K.: much, much more working-class than Americans are raised to assume. It’s a textbook example of American ignorance that we tend to believe Brits are all very sophisticated and “aristocratic.” (And I don’t mean that as an insult, just a reality check.) Britain can be polished and classy, and it can be tougher than a bad neighborhood of Philly.
Ireland: deep beauty, deep gloom, too. Really depends on where you go and when and what you’re up to. One of the friendliest countries I’ve been to. Just don’t expect everything to be rainbows and sentimental fantasy and you’ll be fine. Again, from an American perspective: virtually all Americans need a reality check here.
Mexico: been there multiple times, still haven’t been killed. Haven’t witnessed so much as a mugging let alone a cartel operation. The worst thing I’ve seen is sexual harassment. The worst thing that personally happened to me was an epic case of farts. In general, what I’ve seen of Mexico is more truly cultured and sophisticated than a large chunk of the most hyped places in Europe and certainly more cultured and tasty than significant swathes of the United States. (Some of Mexico is pretty benighted, but the chances of you ending up in those corners of Mexico are next to none.)
The United States: lived here most of my life, still haven’t been shot. A country with places as diametrically different as Vermont and Miami Beach, New York and the Sonora. What’s pretty true about one place isn’t even remotely true about another. And contrary to the stereotype that Americans brook no criticism of our country, I think it’s actually the most hyper-self-critical country I’ve ever personally been to. If you can’t hear copious criticism coming out of the United States, see an ear doctor, your ears are plugged up. (Too much of this criticism is tribal criticism and not enough self-criticism, but Americans love to bitch and moan about the place. How do you not hear this?)
Canada: lovely people, lovely country, but nowhere near as happy or perfect as a big part of the world believes they are. Canadians are aware of their problems, because they’re honest. This isn’t a comment about Canadians. It’s a comment about the mystery of why so many other people aren’t aware of the problems and unhappiness that do exist in Canada.
Colombia: didn’t get killed. Didn’t see any obvious drug deals. Freakishly hot. Got horrifying Montezuma’a Revenge: do not ever ever EVER drink the water. Would I revisit? Yes.
Cuba: very much like the pictures of 1950’s cars and bars would have you believe. Fucking amazing to fly down there from Wisconsin in February: it’s not a long flight at all, but you feel like you’ve gone back 60 years in time and also dropped into what Southern Europe felt like a generation or two ago, not just the Caribbean. Lost worlds, truly. The sanitation will get you, though. The poverty is shocking. The people are wonderful but deserve so much better.
Italy: the only part I really liked was Sicily, where I didn’t killed by the mafia. Sicily was extraordinary.
Greece: incredibly cold when I was there. I think I picked up a minor case of pneumonia. It was March and I was freezing to death.
Turkey: went in 2002 and no Muslims killed me. The waiter brought his kid sister out, maybe 10 years old, to practice English. She giggled and thought Americans were funny. I thought the Turks were friendlier than the Greeks. But I was an asshole kid back then.
Bulgaria: also went in frozen weather in March 2002. Bulgaria was probably the closest to the grim Iron Curtain stereotype I’d sort of been expecting. (You half expected to see Stalin at the train station in Sofia.) But I’ve heard it’s changed a lot for the better. I was there 21 years ago. Would I revisit? Yes. In July.
Spain: didn’t see anybody going to bullfights. Tacos are not the dominant cuisine there. Paella is overrated tourist food. Seville beats Barcelona and Madrid. Go to Lanzarote for surreal quiet time (I was there last April, showed up in a tiny town at night, sat on the balcony watching the moon, and I was like “I’m in Spain and there’s no noise. This is weird.” Also, you’re more likely to see people having big parties than going to a Catholic religious procession. Spain has an exaggerated reputation for being “extremely Catholic.” The American Midwest is 10 times more Catholic.
Sweden: only went to Stockholm. Incredibly empty. Not very exciting. Dirtier than I expected.
Finland: severely underrated people.
Iceland: not as cold as Minnesota. (I’ve been to both in January. Iceland is Ipanema Beach compared to Minnesota.)
Portugal and Slovenia: Europe’s most underrated countries.
Czech Republic, Poland and Croatia: not gray. Everybody who heard I was going there said “that sounds so gray.” These places were bursting with color and life. Ate like a king for the price of a Big Mac meal in the U.S.
Bosnia: didn’t get killed. Contrary to stereotypes, that war ended 30 years ago. Being afraid to go because there had been a war and some bad shit in the past would be like being afraid to go to Germany in 1975, thirty years after WWII. Ridiculous. (I drove on some roads in Bosnia that were better than roads in Michigan. There are other roads where if you’re not paying attention, you’ll drive off a ledge and end up upside down in a cabbage patch.)

I’ve been to a few more countries, but that’s the gist.

One thing I’ve learned from travel is not to put too much stock in other people’s opinions. I’ve been to places they love that I hated. I’ve been to places they bashed or were afraid to visit that I thought were some of the best experiences of my life.

It’s not that I don’t trust anybody. It’s just that I’ve traveled enough to know that I’d rather go somewhere myself and form my own opinion.

How do you interpret President Xi Jinping’s meeting with American executives in San Francisco?

To put it the simplest way:

Xi knows China needs the US, and of course the US needs China, maybe more so today.

Xi also knows that the world, which is facing more than enough difficulties right now, needs a stable US relationship and can not endure any major conflicts between the two largest economies.

Xi knows he can handle the situation here within China.

Then, looking around, who can help stabilize the bilateral relations? Who have a big say on the US domestic issues to try to calm down the sentiments there?

Is it possible, helpful and practical for him to talk to those big bosses of MICs, the Military Industrial Complex? Not quite possible — they prefer war than peace, they are thirsty for wars.

Is it helpful for him to talk to the US politicians? He has tried. He talked with Trump, and treated him well in Beijing, then what? Trump can tear down any agreements as he likes; He talked with Biden, last year in Bali, Indonesia, then what? Biden can’t even really govern his own administration team, neither the Democratics, let alone those from the GOP. But Xi tried once again, this time, he met Biden in San Francisco. But, again, then what? What if Trump came back after next election? He would again turn everything upside down.

Is it useful and helpful to talk to the general public? Might be of some help, but how many can he talk to? And how much help would that be of? No one really knows.

Then, who are left? The ones with a big say in the US politics, economy and even society — Yes, the business executives.

What they care more about is the market, the profits, the money, where China can offer. And with the money, they can stand with those candidates who are more practical and support a more pragmatic approach towards China, instead of those full of ideologies in their minds and even can’t wait to drum up a war with China.

Thus a comparably virtuous circle is hopefully to be formed to prevent the China-US relations from further spiraling down, which neither can China afford, nor can the US, as well as the whole world.

What is the most shocking thing that was found in a ship’s saltwater intake?

I joined a ship in Rotterdam and on sailing for Suez, noted that the generator oil temperatures were rather high. On asking the other engineers, they said “They’re always like that” which was often a reason given by those of an idle nature… I investigated and found that they had raised the alarm point to stop the alarms going off instead of actually fixing the problem, which I assumed to be the generator lube oil coolers being fouled. On arrival at Suez and waiting in the anchorage, we opened up the LO coolers but found that they were clear, though with a fine sand lying in the tube bottoms, suggesting a lack of seawater flow-rate. We transited Suez but on meeting the warmer seawater temperatures of the Red Sea, had to reduce the generator load to avoid them tripping out altogether. We put into Aden to fix the problem, blacked out and started working back from the seawater lines into the coolers to the pumps themselves, eventually having to take out just about all the seawater lines until on opening up the main piping from the pumps (some 650mm diameter) we found them to be just about blocked with an aggregate of mud, sand and shellfish, such that only a small diameter of some 250mm was available for passing water to the generator coolers. Out came the main length of piping and we started to shovel out the muck. As we cleared it, a large, Triffid/Hydra-like apparition started to appear, causing the more faint-hearted to jump back in alarm, though it was only moving by virtue of us shovelling out its supporting mussel bed… It turned out to be a submarine tree of surprising length and girth (around 5–6m long and about the diameter of my arm in the main trunk, with lots of squid like leaves on it which had been waving in the ever reducing breeze of seawater passing through the pipe. We eventually removed all the gunk and the “animal” itself and laid it along the plates for a photo opportunity (we only had the ship’s Polaroid instant picture camera in those days so I don’t have a record unfortunately).

How did such a large beast get into the system? Presumably it had entered as a micro-organism and found a handy place to anchor itself in the rubber jointing between flanges (its roots were entwined around the bolts) and then fed itself from the handy warm water stream passing its front door. It gradually grew, causing other marine life such as shellfish to cling on where the water was less turbulent, and then gathering mud and other essential nutrients from its environment. Amazing thing, but fortunately harmless in that it didn’t actually attack us… Being in Aden the temperature in the engineroom without the fans running was around 50C (we had to shut down the generators and rely on emergency lighting), such that we could only work for around 20 minutes each before having to go on deck in the (relatively) cooler air of some 35C Aden night time temperature. It took us most of the night to clear the piping and refit it – a big job indeed.

Final job on restarting everything was to wind the generator LO temperature alarms back to the proper alarm point; I checked back through the ship’s engineroom log books to see where the problem had first started, and it was some 3 years in the making without anyone investigating the slowly rising temperatures.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

I was Marketing Director for a major, easily recognized company that manufactured female oriented products. Our President was in over his head, as evidenced by our declining market share and revenue. I was hired to help turn things around given my successful track record at other companies. However, the President couldn’t handle any outside suggestion or strategy unless it was his so I was constantly reprimanded for doing my job.

One day, my timid, suck-up boss sends me an email about a report she needs me to do ASAP. I scoll thru the entire email and at the end, I see it originated with a request from the President. Basically he wanted my boss to assign the report to me and once she had it to fire me. The email also contained some very derogatory & crude & inappropriate comments about my appearance.

I forwarded the entire email to my personal email account, HR and members of the Board. In exchange for me not pursuing legal action or sharing the incident with my press contacts (would have killed any credibility in the female marketplace), I received my bonus, 6 months severance including paying my health insurance, & a strong positive reference letter. I had a new position in 6 weeks.

The President was let go after about 2 months and it took him over 1 year to find a new position at a less prestigious company and lessor salary.

As an auto mechanic, were there vehicles brought in that you refused to work on, even if the customer could afford the costs?

I wasn’t a mechanic, I was a service manager. A guy drove into the lot, he had poked a rod through his block. How the car was still running was a mystery. For some context, this was 1978, he was driving some little 1970 English import, a Vauxhall Viva, possibly. The blue book price was less than $500. He was a recent immigrant, with broken English, and obviously didn’t have much money, from the car he was driving.

I explained that it would cost twice as much to fix the car as it was worth. He didn’t appear to understand. So he called his pastor, who was his sponsor. I talked to the pastor when he arrived, and he called me a racist for refusing to work on an immigrants car. I explained it two different ways, and it didn’t make any difference.

I finally gave up, wrote up a work order, for $1200. Then I ran down the street to a convenience store, and bought an autotrader magazine. I handed him the work order first, and he audibly gasped. Yet it was just what I had verbally told him. Then I flipped the magazine open to a car like his, but in better shape, for sale for $500.

The light switched on. He wasn’t happy, but he now understood why I didn’t want to repair it. Since it was worth more than the car was to repair it, we would have required cash up front. Before starting the job.

My boss wasn’t happy with me, for spending my time driving away a customer.

I have no idea if the guy could have afforded to make the repair.

The next week the pastor started sending other members of his flock to us.

The Real Risk of China-U.S. Military Air-Sea Encounters

YE Rujing and Lin Yaxin

The following is a translation of a recent essay that examines the circumstances of close encounters between Chinese and U.S. militaries in China’s vicinity, explains China’s grievances, and identifies the factors that further heighten risks.

The author of this essay is Hu Bo, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Maritime Strategy Studies, Peking University, and Director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative.

Full text below.

______

Recently, the U.S. DoD “declassified” some of the videos and pictures of aerial encounters with PLA military aircraft in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, accusing China of “risky intercept” and “unprofessional behaviors.”

This is, of course, a one-sided narrative from the United States. The Pentagon has not made it clear where these air encounters took place or why they occurred. As the China-U.S. military competition intensifies, the frequency and intensity of air and sea encounters are increasing, and the risk of possible friction and conflict does exist.

However, the United States is hyping “anxiety”, partly because of real concerns about risks, and partly because it wants to take hold of the “moral high ground” in international public opinion and diplomacy.

In fact, in the waters surrounding China, such as the East China Sea and the South China Sea, despite the growing competition between the China-U.S. militaries as well as air and sea encounters, it is important to emphasize that the vast majority of the air and sea encounters between the China-U.S. militaries, which occur more than a dozen times a day and thousands of times a year, have been conducted in a safe and professional manner.

For example, in a 2022 emailed statement about transit through the Taiwan Strait, US 7th Fleet spokesperson Mark Langford said in an emailed statement that “all interactions with foreign military forces during the transit were consistent with international standards and practices and did not impact the operation.”

In August 2022, Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt told the press after the USS Abraham Lincoln, which she commanded, finished a deployment in the Pacific that “We were operating in the vicinity [of] Chinese warships at times, mostly … that shadowed our ship……It was safe and professional the entire time that we interacted with them. During some flight operations, our aircraft did interact with some of their aircraft, but again it remained safe and professional each and every time we interacted with them.” [1]

Both the U.S. and Chinese militaries have made it clear at the highest levels that they “do not want war” and want to avoid direct military conflict.

While formal communication mechanisms between the two militaries (e.g., the China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meetings, Defense Policy Coordination Talk, and China-U.S. Theater Commanders Talk) were interrupted after Nancy Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan, there are other channels of communication between frontline commanders, such as the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGs), and the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), which was adopted in 2014.

High-level exchanges between the U.S. and Chinese militaries have also been slowly restarting since President Xi Jinping had a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Bali. Overall, the situation of China-U.S. air and sea encounters is not as dire as portrayed by the media and some scholars.

▲ Four scenarios for confrontational encounters between China and the United States

However, under certain circumstances, the risk of conflict could run high. When the United States and China talk about military frictions or dangerous encounters and blame each other, the first thing we should be clear about is where these frictions or encounters are taking place. For both sides, air and sea encounters in different areas have different legal and political implications. Most confrontational encounters between China and U.S. military forces occur under the following four scenarios.

1. When U.S. forces approach the territorial waters and airspace of mainland China or Hainan Island, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reacts vigorously, taking such actions as interception or forcing out.

2. U.S. forces enter the territorial waters and airspace of the Xisha Islands to carry out so-called FONOPs and are warned and driven away by the PLA.

3. When the U.S. military conducted FONOPs within 12 nautical miles of China-controlled islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands and Huangyan Island, The PLA warned and drove away the U.S. military. For example, on September 30, 2018, the USS Decatur conducted a so-called FONOP in the waters near Nansha Islands’ Nanxun Reef and had a close encounter with a Chinese warship. The two ships were only 40 meters apart at their closest.

4. Both China and the United States engage in close reconnaissance of each other’s military forces during military exercises, including live ammunition exercises. While mutual tracking and surveillance of military activities are common, the reconnaissance operations conducted by the U.S. military sometimes come dangerously close.

Particularly during the PLA’s live ammunition exercises, the U.S. military often disregards the no-entry notices and unlawfully enters the relevant sea and airspace. For example, in August 2020, a U.S. U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft intruded into the PLA’s Northern Theater Command’s live ammunition exercise airspace, and an accident was barely avoided.

▲ China has legitimate concerns about the close encounters between Chinese and U.S. naval and air forces

While China is dissatisfied with the U.S. military’s actions in the waters near China and believes that the root cause of the encounters at sea and in the air is the aggressively close reconnaissance and other targeted military operations conducted by the U.S. military, it nevertheless tracks and monitors the U.S. military in accordance with international conventions, which is no different from reciprocal reactions of U.S. and Japan for China.

China only reacts more strongly in the four above-mentioned types of military encounters, which is in line with international common sense. Any country would take all feasible measures to safeguard its territorial, sovereign, and platform security against any actions that attempt to approach its territorial waters and airspace or pose a threat to its training exercises.

Strategically, China opposes the continuous challenges posed by the U.S. to China’s sovereignty over islands and reefs and its national security. Technically or in specific actions, China opposes actions by the U.S. that endanger the safety of personnel onshore at sea and in the air. In addition to strategic and legal differences, China also has three legitimate concerns:

First, some of the U.S. military’s reconnaissance missions are too close to China and overly provocative.

For example, on September 4, 2021, a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball missile surveillance aircraft approached Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong Province for close reconnaissance, with its closest point of approach to the Chinese territorial baseline being less than 20 nautical miles. On December 8, 2022, a U.S. P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft flew over the Taiwan Strait, at times with a distance of less than 13 nautical miles from the Chinese territorial baseline.

Second, China has reasons to be concerned about frequent accidents involving the U.S. military. In recent years, the high frequency of U.S. military operations and the negative impact on training and proficiency have led to numerous unfortunate accidents (such as the collision incident involving the U.S. Navy’s USS Fitzgerald missile destroyer in 2017).

When the Chinese and American militaries come into close proximity, the possibility of accidental incidents occurring due to a decline in the professionalism of the U.S. military is increasing.

Third, the United States has intensified the public hype and politicization of encounters at sea and in the air and military actions. In recent years, the United States has amplified the political and diplomatic implications of its military actions, with the most iconic examples being the so-called FONOPs carried out by the U.S. military within 12 nautical miles of China-controlled islands in the South China Sea and its transits through the Taiwan Strait.

On October 27, 2015, the U.S. destroyer USS Lassen conducted a highly publicized FONOP in the waters near the Nansha Islands. Although the U.S. had previously conducted such activities in the South China Sea, they were rarely so open and high-profile. The same is true for U.S. transits through the Taiwan Strait. Since 2018, after each transit through the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Navy would either feed information to the media or directly issue announcements, claiming to “maintain freedom and openness in the Indo-Pacific region”. Such hype and politicization have increased the complexity and difficulty of military communication between China and the U.S. and added to the risks of encounters between Chinese and American naval and aerial forces.

[1]Note: the original essay wrongly attributed the above quote to Rear Adm. J.T. Anderson, this newsletter corrected the inaccuracy.

What is it like to be an actor who gets cut out of a film after being cast? How does one react?

You smile, bank the check and say thank you! I had a very small role in the Spiderman movie starring Emma Stone. The scene never made it into the final cut. It wasn’t necessary for the story line. But I got paid union rate and residuals and spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening filming a 2 person scene with Emma Stone, who was absolutely delightful and charming. No complaints. And they sent me the specially designed movie baseball cap. I was treated as a professional and my contribution was valued at the time of filming.

Modern American women…

Do you think democracy is a failure? Why & why not?

Western democracy is absolutely a failure.

Democracy is supposed to be:

For the people.
Of the people.

In many western nations it fails on both counts. What they have left is an electoral system that goes through the motions. I remember a module on Law I did at UCL. It’s an elected dictatorship mostly. Before you screech but you’re in China, yeah but I was born in the UK. I watche the 1997 election (too young to vote) participated in 2001, 2005, 2010 and sat out 2015. I had left the UK by 2017 and 2019.

We can go through the common failings:

We can vote out those who fail!
We can freely criticise our leaders!
We can vote somebody in new and different!
Western systems ensure the BEST standards of living
Western systems are accountable!
Western systems ensure the most capable people!

We can vote out those who fail!

Except you don’t. The Labour regime of from 1997 to 2010 didn’t really achieve anything. They had some decent literacy programmes with the gremlins campaign but this was dismantled by the late 00s.

We can freely criticise our leaders!

Less so now, the UK has massively restricted free speech since the 80s, it has massively restricted protest. And guess what? Call the current prime minister a bum what happens NOTHING to you and NOTHING to them.

We can vote somebody in new and different!

Except it’s a false choice. You can choose a Neoliberal or a Neoliberal. The policies are a venn diagram that is a circle.

Western systems ensure the BEST standards of living

Maybe in the past 70s, 80s maybe the 90s. But once it got Neoliberalised productivity got disconnected from wages and there’s been a massive stagnation.

Western systems are accountable!

Yeah, they apologise or say let’s draw a line under it and then simply ignore it. I still remember Blunkett UK MP (EDIT) simply saying I don’t accept that to dismiss a well crafted argument against him.

Western systems ensure the most capable people!

No it ensures popular people. The UK’s Johnson for instance. What qualities other than being popular did he have?

Now let’s return to the above:

For the people.

For the people, are your lives REALLY getting better? My life in the UK:

Access to medical care: As a child I remember being able to get appointments with Dr Sharma same day for the times I was ill. As a teenager when I was beaten up, I could be admitted to hospital pretty quickly. Nose operations to put it back were done in as little as week. Into my 20s. It became increasingly difficult. Barriers kept being put up to see my GP. First off it was you had to book a day in advance, then a week in advance. By the early 00s. My GP had a 10 minute window at 8am to book appointments. There were 10 available a day.

My commute times : Each year it took longer and longer. I recall sitting in my dad’s car. To get to the big city nearby it was 20 minutes door to door. We moved a couple miles East but by the mid 00s it was taking 45 minutes and by the 2010s it was taking an hour each way door to door.

Policing There was a small police station in my dad’s town. It was gone and consolidated by the mid 00s. My dad had things smashed and police would attend same day. By the 2010s they wouldn’t attend and simply give you a crime number.

Of the people.

There’s the odd outlier like Mahri Black? The youngest MP ever. But the trend is establishment candidates. Only those backed by the party apparatchik have any chance of success. Tons of people like Lord Binhead try.. or the Monster Raving Loony Party try but always lose their deposits.

Picking fights reassures the insecure

What is it like going to an Ivy League prep school, or other elite private high school?

Sheltered, to begin with. In elementary school, I thought that friends who lived on Park Avenue were middle class.

One thing, though, that many don’t understand — not all of the students in these schools are rich. The schools generally offer financial aid, and many students are from upper middle class families. Increasingly, they have some poor children as well.

But of course there are lot of rich kids at them — kids who go skiing in the Swiss Alps, kids with household staffs, what have you. This can leave kids from middle class backgrounds thinking that they are poor.

The schools themselves — mine anyway —

Very high standards. You did not skip class, and you were not absent unless you were ill or there was a major crisis like a death in the family.
Very solid, college preparatory curriculum with lots of electives. Math and language classes were tracked by ability. The curriculum was accelerated to the point at which many students went to college after their junior year — there just wasn’t much left to do.
No bad teachers; they ranged from good to superb.
Few bad students. Admission was competitive and those who couldn’t handle the work were asked to leave. All students went to college, any or most to Ivies or similar, and most got advanced degrees.
Small class sizes. Ours were about 15. Teachers had low course loads, and latitude in what and how they taught — no submitting lesson plans. And they could focus on teaching, rather on lunchroom duty and such.
No “teaching to the test.” But then, such a thing didn’t exist when I was in school.
That said, there was good prep for the SAT’s. This can’t make a dramatic difference in scores, less than 100 points, but it can make some.
Beautiful campus, also like a small college. Here’s where I went to school — that’s the library building:

9. Excellent facilities.

10. No bells, etc. But very high standards of behavior. You didn’t arrive to class late, and there were no fights or anything of the sort.

11. A friend who transferred in from public school told me that he was delighted to be at a school where the teachers actually liked the kids!

12. I recall visiting my cousin’s public school when we were juniors and was appalled at the way the kids were treated by the administration. Obnoxious.

13. Smart kids were admired rather than bullied or looked down upon.

14. Today, there is a lot of pressure on the kids to get into a top college. Less so in my day. In any case, the schools are feeder schools, known to top colleges. At my school, for example, six kids went to Yale every year. Not five, not seven — they had six slots set aside.

15. The quality of the students was remarkable — probably more so at privates that cater specifically to the children of the rich. Out of a class of 100, one of my classmates became the first female editor of The New York Times. One became a philosophy professor at Cambridge, the other at Harvard. Another became a physicist. Most became doctors and lawyers. (Only three of us, I being one of them, became engineers.) One of the lawyers worked for President Obama. Etc.

16. I asked a former teacher why it was that, on a standardized test administered to students in New York City, the public school students did better than the private school students, but that in life, the private schools students did better, and he said it was simple — the private schools taught the students to think. They don’t stuff your head full of facts like a public school, but you can write an essay or prove a theorem.

In retrospect, if there was a downside, it’s that we were so sheltered. But overall, my experience was just about as good as it could be, within our current educational framework and given the requirements set by the colleges. I wish that every student could enjoy a similar experience.

Yang Yuhuan

What are the biggest threats to communism in China?

There is no threat to the Chinese political system. 95% of Chinese support China and its government. People live longer, today their life expectancy is 78 years old and the U.S. is 2 full years lower at 76 years old! They live better lives. Their real standard of living less inflation has grown 30 times in 40 years. Meanwhile during the same time. The U.S. real standard of living not only not grow. It deteriorated back 20 years into the 1960 level!

Chinese has full universal healthcare coverage and college education is free of charge if one qualifies for it. All of which is not free in the U.S. and close to a third of Americans are not covered by healthcare and may die if they fall sick! That is the U.S. not China! Kids gets into college debts before they even start life in the world.

So who want to change their political system? Well by trust on government measurement carried out by trusted western research in the west showed Chinese trust their government 95% and only 30% of American’s trust their government!

And your question is what is the biggest threat to the Chinese political establishment? Not what is the biggest threat to the so call US liberal democracy? Why do you not ask the obvious? And why do you worry about a non issue? Where is your intellect? Where is you rationality and sanity?

Ok I get it you are a China and Chinese hater and you term communism as a slur to demonised China. But let me help you. 87% of the world don’t buy your shit. Sure the 13% westerners may be fooled by your media but even that a higher proportion of westerners are smarter than you. They know this is a nonsense question. But I addressed it to call you out. If you can ask this question you don’t amount to much.

What are some things that you found odd when you left the US?

What was odd thirty years ago, is my new normal, but here are a few random remembrances from 1990 Germany, 6 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Brutal truth rewarded me when I asked “how are you?”. Replies weren’t always “great”, “awesome” or “just fine thank you.” Germans actually thought I cared (and eventually I learned not to ask if I didn’t).
Germans are direct. They don’t beat around the bush. When they have an opinion they share it with you. And they expect you respect it and deliver honesty in return. Political correctness was non-existent.
Service workers didn’t smile and chirp sugar-coated pleasantries. Shop attendants ignored me unless I asked for help. Restaurant meals were uninterrupted by the obligatory-every-five-minute repetition of “is everything OK?” I learned to ask for the bill rather than wait for it.
Smiling at strangers often seemed to discomfort them. I soon learned to recognize when a smile was welcome and when not.
Football (soccer for me at the time) rules. The 1990 World Cup began soon after I arrived. During games the world stopped. Loud cheers or groans occasionally livened up silent and traffic free downtown streets. As games ended, streets filled with honking cars waving huge flags (Italian, Spanish, Brazilian, Romanian and of course German).
I thought the Super Bowl huge, but the World Cup is much bigger.
Sporting events and television programs were advertising free. Ads appeared only between scheduled programming.
Everything was expensive. A used car with over 80,000 miles cost more than a new Hyundai in the US. A pair of brand name jeans cost 3 times more.
The electronics store salesman spent an hour trying to talk me out of a Toshiba television and a Samsung microwave. He insisted Asian goods broke as soon as the 2 year warranty expired. (The microwave is still going strong 30 years later, and the TV was only replaced because it was no longer smart enough for the digital age).
Nobody ever asked me about my religion or my profession, but damn were they curious about life in America.
Talking about money or charity is taboo.
Alcohol was everywhere. It was common to see people drink beer in the park or walking down the street. Lunch usually included a beer or carafe of wine.
There was no free water in the restaurants. And soft drinks were more expensive than beer. All drinks are served without ice.
Nobody littered! The public waste bins were emptied daily.
Germans pedestrians wait for a red light to turn green even on a deserted street at midnight.
Zebra-striped crosswalks get the same respect as stopped school buses in the US.
I was never asked to show ID to prove myself of legal drinking age. Sixteen-year-olds are allowed to drink wine and beer (even in a bar).
Magazines at the supermarket checkout featured naked breasts (no longer).
Shops closed at 6.30 p.m. on weekdays, 2 p.m. on Saturday and were all closed on Sunday (this has changed).
There were only three types of soda on offer, Coke, Fanta and Sprite (the selection is slightly larger now – but nothing like in the US).
Bagels and donuts were not to be found (that has changed too).
Bread was light on air and heavy on grains. My digestion became like an alarm clock.
Cities and streets are designed for pedestrians, bicycles and public transport – not for cars. Pedestrian zones are everywhere, parking is in expensive garages.
Downtown streets aren’t straight. They wander among the buildings and sites. Highways don’t mention north, south, east or west. They only tell you what towns and cities are ahead on the route.
Restaurant meals took hours not minutes and lack of television in the restaurants forced me to communicate with my friends. Meal portions were smaller and menus much more varied. Chain restaurants were rare. Tipping was optional and the wait staff gets 20 days of paid vacation.
Dogs are allowed in restaurants.
German flags were only displayed during the World Cup.
Everybody took a one hour lunch break and left work promptly before 5.30. People took three or four week vacations and left work behind.
Construction workers drank beer during their morning break. Obesity was unusual, beer bellies were not.
People walked for fun, but nobody seemed to run for fitness.
Some women at the pool sunbathed topless. Young children at the pool often wore nothing.
Public transport was immaculately clean and ran on time.
Brothels are legal.
Nobody ever seemed to get shot (though there were plenty of stabbings in Frankfurt where I lived).
Gas was four to five times more expensive than in the US.

My hour lunch break is over now. I’ll add to this if anything else occurs to me.

A theory

He has a point.

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

Back in the 70s, when smoking was legal almost anywhere except elevators. I stepped into an elevator in an office building with a coworker when another person stepped right in as the doors closed, smoking a cigarette. I pointed out it was illegal to smoke on an elevator and she replied, “what are you going to do, call the police?” My coworker, who happened to be a reserve police officer, pulled out his badge and said, “that won’t be necessary.”

Ah, I still remember her expression.

Varginha UFO Crash: Alien Contact, Government Denial and Coverup

Has China been misrepresented in the Western media?

You must be joking!!! I don’t understand how you could be unaware. China has been the target of massive anti-China propaganda in Western media for years.

And not only in mainstream media but in social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and here on Quora.

Curiously, there are very few positive stories about China in Western media. They’re nearly all negative! How can that be?

Can a country that…

built the world’s largest economy from scratch within 40 years
lifted 800 million people out of extreme poverty
created the world’s finest infrastructure of roads, bridges, high-speed rail, airports, etc.
landed on the dark side of the moon
sent an ambitious space mission to Mars
built the spectacular BeiDou navigation satellite system
reforested 34 million acres of land
produces the most renewable energy in the world

created the world’s best 5G technology
sent pandemic aid to dozens of countries around the world

…have practically nothing positive to report on at all?

Well, that’s what the American (Western) narrative is.

Duh!

Mysterious China

Is China’s claim that Michael Spavor’s claim “fully exposes Canada’s hypocrisy” accurate?

China don’t throw innocent people into jail like the how U.S. cook up some shit and throw the Huawei CEO daughter in jail in Canada. The 2 Michael’s are spies and doing things in China to hurt China and the Chinese people to spy for the 5 eyes. These are facts. These are self confessed facts. Canada, do the honourable think and apologise to China and the Chinese people.

Canada you are a hypocrite and a liar. You cohort with all the media to claim that they were innocent. Well they now says in their own free speech that they spied for you! You are lucky China don’t sentence them to death. China ought to. China should do. After all what they do could kill many Chinese.

The time that a white persons life is worth more than another race belongs to the 19th century today. We should sue every media that claims the Michael’s are innocent. We should end every journalist that lied. We should fine the media and politicians so hard the will never dare to lie again. Caucasians do the right thing. Do you like to be lied to? Again and again and again?

I thought that freedom of speech is so vital to you. And surely you want the truth, nothing but the truth? Why the hell are you keeping quiet? CNN and BBC. Why are you quiet as a mouse? Lying News channel?

Why do the TVs of now not last as long as those that were manufactured 20 years ago?

I raised a young family in the 1970’s as a TV repairman. Made good money. TV’s were so unreliable there was a TV shop on every other street corner. Drug stores had a vacuum tube tester for DIY’ers (You can’t guess how many service calls I made where the customer had a bag of tubes they took out to test but didn’t have brains enough to read the tube layout on the inside of the cabinet to return them in the proper place.) When the RCA XL100 came out as one of the first solid state TV’s, repairs started a slow decline. When integrated circuits became the norm, the bottom opened. Microprocessors blew the bottom away.

Drive down ANY 5 streets and tell me how many TV repair shops you can find. Go ahead, I’ll wait………..

I saw the handwriting on the wall, jumped into early PC repair, became an electronics teacher, saw the build you own PC market crash, got into networking, watched Cisco plummet in the 90’s, did cyber security and retired. Modern TV’s are far superior to any previous generation by my firsthand experience. Not to mention a color tv in 1960 cost $300 – 500 dollars. Do the math with inflation vs any brand of 40″ flat screen. Be amazed.

This is what fed my wife and daughter for 12 years.

What was the moment you cancelled the friendship with your best friend?

It was my daughter’s 5th birthday.

Because I got married and had her very early in my 20s, at that time, none of my friends had kids. My baby was the sweetheart for all the aunties – mom’s three close friends. We threw her a party.

It was fun. Each auntie got her a present. They handed it to her one by one so she opened it and got excited. To the last auntie, before she handed the present to my daughter, she ‘demanded’ my girl, “Say ‘please’ and bow, so auntie will give you the gift!”.

I thought she was joking, so I interrupted and told my daughter, “Auntie got you a present, you say ‘Thank you’ out loud!”.

My daughter exclaimed, “Thank you auntie!”, then opened the present.

It was a Lego Friends set. Needless to say, my daughter was so happy, and jumped up and down with the Lego set.

Then suddenly, the auntie snatched the Lego set from my daughter’s hands again, held it up above her head, and demanded my daughter, “Say ‘please’ and bow, or auntie’s gonna take it back!”.

This time, I knew she wasn’t joking.

I got angry but tried very hard to keep my voice calm, “No one demands my daughter to beg. We’re poor but we are not cheap”. “I was just joking!”, she said. “No, you weren’t.

That’s the second time and I don’t like it”, I told her.

Now she got angry, raised her voice with me, “Even so, this is an expensive toy, what wrong with begging a little?”. “You take the gift back and please leave”, I told her, while getting up and holding the door open.

She left and never came back.

The next day, I took my daughter to the toy store to get that Lego set. My friend was right. It was a damn expensive toy, it cost me a big chunk of my skinny paycheck and a friendship.

Crazy stats

What would you say is China’s greatest geopolitical foe in the world?

Of course it is the U.S. but to be fair the U.S. is the biggest threat to the entire world. China included. And the world. As a whole the world need to jointly and severally stop the U.S. excesses. I dare say for the good of the human race including the Americans.

The U.S. is the only nation that will push human into extinction through an all out nuclear war if uncheck. We humanoids on earth need to be very mindful of this fact and the U.S. powers must be checkmate at every turn and ever aspect. Militarily, politically, financially, economically and strategically.

The U.S. must be brought back into being a member of responsible human society where the common good of humanity must prevail over the selfish interest of the U.S. military industrial complex profiting from wars, chaos and violence worldwide.

China is a very peaceful loving nation and it survived 5000 years because it has a peaceful coexistence between nations as a priority. China don’t want enemies and certainly do not like war. Since 1979 some 44 years has passed since China last fought a war. But during that time China phenomenally grew rich and strong to deter any nation from threatening them.

China wants a peaceful world where we can live peacefully and harmoniously. We can all get prosperous and live better and longer lives. And we trade with each other. Today there are only some 12–15 nations that are part of these war threatening pack. Most of them are either forced into this pack as slave vassal states or coerced or bribed into this grouping. Glued together by the U.S. and the western media, this loosely defined as western powers need to be dismantled for good.

Chinese history

Cajun Beef Po’boy Sandwiches with Red Eye Gravy

For Cajun Beef Po’boy Sandwiches with Red Eye Gravy, sirloin steak is rubbed with espresso coffee powder and pepper, then broiled to perfection. Red Eye Gravy is added to the steak.

Ingredients

Po’boys

1 (1 pound) beef top sirloin steak, cut 1 inch thick
6 teaspoons espresso coffee powder, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 large French bread rolls, split
8 slices tomato
1 cup shredded lettuce

Redeye Gravy

3 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup diced tasso or pancetta ham
1/4 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon Creole Seasoning
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup hot water
2 cups beef stock
1 to 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce (Louisiana-style)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Rub beef top sirloin steak with 2 teaspoons espresso powder and pepper.
Heat broiler to HIGH.
Place steak on rack on aluminum foil-lined broiler pan so surface of beef is 3 to 4 inches from heat. Broil for 16 to 21 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning once.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat; whisk in flour. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes until caramel color, whisking often. Remove mixture from pan; set aside.
Melt remaining tablespoon butter in same skillet over medium heat; add tasso, onion, Creole Seasoning and garlic; cook for 10 minutes until onion is translucent.
Dissolve remaining 4 teaspoons espresso powder in hot water; add to skillet and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until browned bits attached to skillet are dissolved and sauce is reduced almost completely.
Whisk in butter mixture until smooth.
Add beef stock, hot sauce and Worcestershire; bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until sauce is reduced to 1 cup.
Add roast beef to skillet. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes until heated through, stirring often so sauce coats beef.
Divide beef mixture between rolls. Top beef with tomato and lettuce. Close sandwiches.

She’s an honest realist

You have to admire her.

What do you think of “foreign media reports” claiming that foreign companies are moving capital out of China?

There is no need to answer such boring questions anymore.

All infrastructure in China, including logistics, communication, power supply, water supply, and gas supply, is very complete.

In 2021, China produced 8.5 petawatt-hour (Pwh) of electricity, approximately 30% of the world’s electricity production.

There are two most advanced transmission technologies in the world, one called “ultra-high voltage transmission” and the other called “flexible direct current transmission“. China is far ahead of other countries in these two top technologies.

Overhead power lines can easily cause fires and can also lead to power outages.

Outdoor power poles and overhead power lines in China have been basically cleaned up during the renovation of old cities, and all cables have been buried underground without any exposed or disorderly phenomena.

If you have traveled to cities in Taiwan, Japan and Chinese Mainland, you will find that only cities in Chinese Mainland rarely see bare overhead power lines.

I haven’t experienced a power outage in China for 40 years.

Young people born in China after 1990 may not even understand what it feels like to have a power outage.

In China, even remote rural areas have stable electricity supply.

The Tibetan village at an altitude of 5000 meters has also been electrified.

But whether it’s India, Vietnam, or the United States or Europe, power outages are frequent.

The machines running in the factory require electricity, while the computers in the office require electricity. If the power supply is unstable, how do you make the enterprise work?

Taiwan’s power system has always had various problems. Taking TSMC as an example, due to a power outage in Tainan City, 30000 wafers on TSMC’s production line were damaged, resulting in a direct loss of US$200 million. No matter how rich TSMC’s finances are, it cannot withstand the losses caused by several major power outages.

Anyway, since you want to attract foreign investment, the first step is to ensure a stable electricity supply.

Otherwise, these enterprises will have to face downtime and production stoppage.

Through the the Belt and Road Project, China will help these countries improve their power systems and will actively transfer some enterprises to countries along the the Belt and Road.

China’s homegrown TP500 unmanned transport plane makes maiden flight, and transportation between Chinese cities will be faster in the future. Goods that originally took 3 days to arrive can be transported in 2-3 hours.

You have been chosen

What is an experience you had with a retail worker you’ll never forget?

I was a workaholic, working 16 hour weekdays and 8 hour weekends. This was about 20 years ago.

It was Christmas eve, and I still hadn’t done my Christmas shopping, I had my list for everything, most of it specified by my nieces and nephews.

I had been reading how a few malls in our city were in trouble, as everyone was switching to big box stores to shop. They showed pictures of traffic jams in big box store parking lots. I was finally out of time and had to shop, and hope I could get the stuff on my list, at the last minute.

I pulled up to Sears at the local mall, that had been featured in the news, as being in trouble. The parking lot was empty. I was afraid it was closed. I parked in the closest parking spot to the door. I walked in and manager saw me enter, and was on me like glue. I was the only customer in the store, ON Christmas Eve!!

He asked me what I was looking for and I pulled out this long list. He smiled and called someone over to get me a hot chocolate from the mall, he sat me down in a recliner in the furniture section, and called two more workers over, and asked them to get the stuff on the list.

We talked, and I drank my hot chocolate. He was pretty sure Sears wouldn’t last another five years, and he needed it to, to collect his pension.

After about 15 minutes, the workers were back with my presents. I paid for them. They had a gift wrapping service, which normally cost extra, but he said that the staff weren’t doing anything anyway, so it would be free.

In another 10 minutes, they helped me load the wrapped presents in my car.

It was maybe 25 minutes from when I walked into the store, and I was done. Wrapped and everything.

I had almost never shopped at Sears, but after that I was a regular, until they closed the doors. I saw the manager until he successfully retired.

I later read that Sears ended up shorting the pension fund. I hope he made out OK, as I have never had service like that, before or since.

Deserving

Who was the craziest person you dated, and why?

Just read this out to my wife and she burst out laughing. In 1996 I had been widowed over five years when a crazy woman burst through the door of our car sales site with so much enthusiasm and vibrance and chatter and said she wanted to buy a car. It was a quiet time so I stopped playing my guitar and set about helping her. She bought a car and left and I turned to my mate and said, ‘She’s totally bonkers’, he replied, ‘you’re telling me’, I replied, I could do with some of that’. I delivered the car a few days later and took her to the pub for a chat, after a few dates we were driving towards the Mersey tunnel, Merseyside from Wirral to Liverpool and I asked her if she would like to go on an adventure and her answer was yes, just then we entered the tunnel just as the petrol light came on, I said, ‘welcome to the adventure’.

We sold our houses, bought a B & B, called it ‘Firkin House’ and thirteen years later retired to sunny Cyprus and will have been married twenty years next May with lots of fun and laughs along the way.

What’s the most morally disgusting thing you’ve ever seen someone do?

Oh, boy. I’ll never forget this one as long as I live.

I had been living with my significant other for about four years. He always treated me well … but other people? Not so much. In this case, it was his grandparents, who I adored. They were just the sweetest people. They really loved their grandson, too, even though he rarely gave them the time of day. They wanted him to fly home for Christmas—I’d made plans with my family, so we were going solo that year.

Anyway, this guy refused to buy a plane ticket unless his grandparents paid for it. Here’s the kicker: he had the money to spend on plane fare. He just didn’t want to. A$$hole that he was. So, his grandfather, who was around 90, had said that he’d put the check in the mail. It hadn’t arrived, due to the holiday mail delay.

I bore witness to this guy browbeating his elderly grandpa into Fed-Exing another check over the phone. This was two days before the cut-off date to book the flight. So his grandfolks sent another check, because they wanted their grandson home for the holidays. These were old, frail people who barely got out of the house. Not good drivers. You know, why didn’t my S.O. just pay for the fare and let his grandfather pay him back once he was there?

A day or so after he left on the trip, his grandfather’s original check arrived in the mail. I looked at his spidery handwriting on the signature line, and I felt positively ill.

I ended up breaking up with my significant other because of that, and for countless other times that I’d seen him be really mean to other people who loved him—family members, even. I knew that one day, I could be next in line, and I wasn’t about to wait around for that to happen.

A dad plays with his boys

Boston loves the snow

Everyone in Boston loves the snow.

Who’d figure? Let me explain.

First of all, the great and grand snow squalls are called ”Northeasterner’s”( also called “nor’easter“). A weather cell hovers over the Atlantic ocean, and then migrates to Boston… then then unloads a shit-load of snow on everyone.

It is truly amazing. My last experience was in 1 April around 1997. Eight feet of snow in four hours.

Well, of course, the roads are impossible.

But…

If you have a snowplow on your truck… wait, because the local government will PAY YOU GOOD MONEY to clear out specific streets and roads. No shit.

It’s a great program, and works wonderfully.

Other states, such as Indiana and Pennsylvania should really give this system a try. Hint Hint.

Different places… with different laws and policies. Isn’t life grand? That’s why travel is important.

…

Today…

What are the most fascinating “weird but true” historical facts you know about?

I have an amusing anecdote involving Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy from 1943–1945.

The imposing naval figure above was a daring submarine commander in World War One. In the lattermost stage of his career he was responsible for fleets of warships, hundreds of thousands of personnel, and the mightiest war-fighting vessels of his nation. He reached the height of naval command and was covered in honors. He was even briefly Head of State.

But with a steep rise came an equally steep fall. After Germany’s surrender in 1945, he was in a Allied prison cell, awaiting trial at Nuremberg. To while away the time, one of Admiral Friedeburg’s adjutants taught him and his fellow prisoners how to play the game Battleship.

Of course, the game requires an opponent. Who else did he find to play against him but his fellow Commander-in-Chief, Hermann Göring. Those who once directed wars and decided the fates of nations, now directed fantasy fleets across pads of paper. Göring tried to sink Dönitz’s warships with as much gusto as if he was directing his Luftwaffe’s bombers against them personally, and he did not like to lose. Once the Admiral protested,

“Hermann’s cheating! If he doesn’t like where my shells are falling, he marks them in on different squares!”

You read that right: a Grand Admiral was reduced to playing Battleship, sparring against none other than Hermann Göring, who was a dirty cheater. If that’s not hilarious yet completely in character for both of them, I don’t know what is!

In the right way

CIA in China

The CIA I mean the NED is hiring and paying shot wages. No wonder we run circles around them.

But would you whore off your soul for such a pitiful amount?

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She fucked up

Creole Andouille and Shrimp Jambalaya

This jambalaya recipe will become an extremely popular dish with family and friends because it’s filled with tasty sausage, boneless chicken thighs, shrimp, fresh vegetables and rice…let’s be honest…it screams comfort food!

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 (13.5 ounce) package Johnsonville® Andouille Rope Sausage, cut into coin-slice pieces
1 pound boneless chicken thighs, cut into dice-size pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons Creole or Cajun seasoning
2 ounces tomato paste
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups uncooked long grain converted rice
1 pound cooked shrimp, thawed
Parsley and green onion, to garnish

Instructions

In a skillet, cook and stir sausage and chicken in oil over a medium-high heat until browned; about 5 minutes.
Add vegetables and Creole seasoning, cook and stir for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Add tomato paste, cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, bay leaf, sugar and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes to let the flavors blend; stirring occasionally.
Add stock and bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning and make sure it is a little over seasoned because rice absorbs a lot of flavor.
Add rice, stirring well. Return to a boil, cover and simmer on low for 10 minutes.
Turn off heat, uncover and stir rice.
Fold in shrimp and cover for 20 to 25 minutes to let rice finish cooking and shrimp heat through.
Garnish with parsley and green onions.

To make in a multi-cooker

In the multi-cooker, add the oil, onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic.
Select sauté setting, cook and stir occasionally until tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Add seasoning, tomato paste, tomatoes, bay leaf, sugar, stock and rice.
Secure lid on pot and close pressure-release valve.
Select rice/porridge setting and pressure cook for 7 minutes; use quick release to depressurize.
Add shrimp.
Secure lid on pot and close pressure-release valve. Select egg setting and pressure cook for 2 minutes; use quick release to depressurize.

High Value

Why does Argentina, a prestigious defender of human rights, accept to belong to the BRIC, where Russia, China, and Iran are denounced by Amnesty as serial violators of Human Rights?

Why do you care what Amnesty International says?

BRICS is an economic organization, and if you care about human rights, you should be upset at many countries which are allies of the west.

Your thinking is very muddled, and it is apparent that you let just one criteria be the judge of your economic decisions, when economics and politics are completely separate issues. The world is changing and it is important to be flexible.

A Chinese mystery

What has an employee said that immediately caused you to fire them?

The Unspoken Line

At the prestigious “AAAA” firm, Mr. Stevens was known for his level-headed approach and patience. As the Head of Department, he’d mentored many and had rarely ever lost his temper. But there was one incident that everyone in the office remembered.

A young intern named Jake had recently joined the team. Ambitious and eager, he sometimes came across as overconfident. One day, during a team meeting, a colleague, Mrs. Ramirez, proposed an idea she’d been working on for months. Instead of providing constructive feedback, Jake laughed dismissively and said, “Do you really think that old-school idea would work? Maybe it’s time you retired and made way for the new generation.”

A hush fell over the room. Mrs. Ramirez, a veteran with 20 years at the company and revered for her innovations, looked hurt but stayed silent.

Mr. Stevens, usually so composed, turned to Jake, his face stern. “In this company, we value respect as much as we value innovation. If you cannot provide the former, you have no place here, regardless of your skills or ideas.” By the end of the day, Jake’s internship was terminated.

It became a tale that echoed in the corridors, not as a threat but as a reminder: talent without humility means nothing.

I would do anything…

How do I politely refuse a request from my boss to go make her coffee or any other job that is not my responsibility?

Before I moved to the U.S.; I worked for my boss for 5 years. He was a big-ish deal of my company and I worked under his direct supervision.

It was a very normal thing when I picked my boss up from one vendor’s office at 11.30am to another vendor’s office for another meeting at 1.00pm. He used to ask me to get him a sandwich and a coffee so he could eat in the car while listening to my briefing about what’s the next meeting about. He could just tell me, ‘My flight arrived at 5.30pm Thursday, and I want to fly back Friday evening. I want to meet Mr.X for dinner’ and I would contact Mr.X’s office, try to arrange the meeting, make the reservation for dinner, and jot down a list of things Mr.X might want to discuss and the status of all ongoing matters for him. I also always carried an extra box of my boss’s name card, just in case he ever forgot and needed a backup.

I was hired to manage a computerized lottery system nationwide (43 cities). None of the above was in my job description. Yet, I did them gladly, just because I could, and I felt like I did make his life a little bit easier.

When I told him I would move to the U.S shortly, he offered me three extra months of pay added into the last paycheck, so I could have a little ‘runway’ to settle things down in a new country. At my farewell party with the team, he told me, ‘You’re not just one employee to me, you’re my brother-in-arms’.

While I totally understand others’ reasons for not wanting to be bothered to ‘make me a coffee’; I still think it won’t hurt if I go a bit further in terms of doing things for others.

Maybe I’m just too naive.

A real woman

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

When me and my husband split up my landlady decided to evict me and my son because she wanted to be able to rent the house for more money. We’d lived there for 10 years and even spent money out of our own pocket for small repairs. Our rent was only $400 a month. Went back a year later. The house is falling apart and is sitting empty. There was a workers permit laying on the front porch. It was really faded and I could make out it was for electrical work. I tried the front door and it was unlocked. 2 of the rooms looked like they had been half painted. You could tell no one had been in there for quite some time. The back porch had completely fallen apart. I guess she realized it was going to cost her more than she was willing to spend to get this old farm house up to the standard to rent for $1200. And now she is bringing in no income for the house. Bet she’s regretting kicking us out now.

Not staged

Do you think it’s fair for Arkansas to order that the Chinese-owned Syngenta to sell farmland in the state on the grounds that China is subject to US arms export controls?

Fair doesn’t factor in the U.S. vocabulary list at all. A nation who is the only nuclear bomb user don’t know the word fairness. A nation that used Agent Orange and Nepalm fire bombs on Vietnamese civilians don’t know fair. A nation build on the backs of ten of millions of African slaves never knew fair. An nation that become a nation after genociding and carrying out biological weapons of western influenza on its natives certainly don’t know fair.

Stop mixing up US and fairness. It is like oil and water. It will never mix.

Has the body of Shani Louk, the Israeli-German woman thought to have been kidnapped by Hamas fighters at a music festival in Israel, been found?

Her skull has been found and identified by authorities.

Her body has not been found.

Reports are that she was brutally raped and beaten by Hamas soldiers after her kidnapping.

Which raises a huge question.

This is supposed to be a religious war.

A jihad against the infidel and usurper Israel. A war to restore control of the Middle East to Islam.

Islam has very rigid rules on sexual behavior, especially for women. In many societies they must be totally covered.

Yet the warriors or Allah are gang raping their victims and parading them around nude in the streets.

Why?

It is against their religion.

Did they receive special dispensation from Allah to rape and parade naked women around?

Or do they really not believe what the Koran says.

Or do they choose to disregard it?

Or do the rules only apply to women?

I realize here is a certain level of hypocrisy in all religions.

But the level here is deafening. To fight a religious war for Allah but violate all the tenets of the faith.

Shani Louk was one of the victims of Hamas disregarding their faith. Of being hypocritical.

I had to call the store…

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

A new gal started in my dept. at work and she seemed really nice. We both started early so began talking over coffee before the others straggled in. After a couple of weeks though, I saw that the humor I had admired so much at first was really a thinly disguised nastiness. She would make fun of her handicapped husband, and then laugh raucously. Everyone else was joining in, but I recognized that what she was putting forth were her true feelings disguised as humor.

Some of the things she joked about was hiding her spouse’s wheelchair before she left for work, and then watching him on the cameras she had placed around the house while she was at work. (The man was blind and unable to walk, yet she thought it was so hilarious.) The saddest part was that the supervisors and bosses, as well as the co-workers all thought it was hilarious, too. They laughed even more when she showed them the videos she had recorded of his struggles.

I transferred out of that department as quickly as I could after that. I couldn’t stand to work with people who thought being a bully was funny.

What strange law did you accidentally break when you were in a foreign country?

I play flute, and years ago I spent four months busking around Europe. I had three encounters with police:

The Netherlands. Playing in Amsterdam, a mounted cop pinned me up against the wall of a building with his horse. The horse stepped on my flute case (open on the ground, full of coins) and broke it. The cop told me this was illegal and scared me to death; though I wasn’t hurt. After he left, while I was picking coins and stuff off the ground, some older men came out of the pub across the street. They helped me get everything and invited me into the pub to play in there, where they asked if I could play some Frank Sinatra for them (on the flute?) I did my best, and they were very generous.

Switzerland. I was playing in a square in Geneva, making a ton of money. Suddenly some cops pull up to me in a van and tell me to get inside. My travel companion was having coffee nearby and she came running over. The cops explained that this wasn’t allowed in Geneva, drove us to the outskirts of the city, and dropped us off. Message received.

Sweden. Playing in a square in Stockholm, a uniformed cop came over and listened while I ran through a movement from a Bach sonata. (First played straight and then the Jethro Tull version, part of my act.) When I stopped, he told me that that was beautiful but that sadly, it wasn’t legal in Stockholm. Then he put some kronor in my (new) flute case and wandered off.

What is your best dating advice?

For years, I often heard women complaining about the dating scene, and men who didn’t “Do what they say they were going to do.”

It struck a chord with me as I went through my 20s, and grew increasingly impatient with flaky friends and people who were constantly, and egregiously late to things.

I realized that the people who were the flakiest, and least likely to honor their word, were also the people who had far more problems in their life. Their careers were stagnating. Their relationships were turbulent and problematic.

Their lack of commitment to their word correlated to a bunch of other character flaws, for which they were paying a steep price.

I have since kept a strong radar pinging for people who fail to follow through on even tiny commitments.

My advice to you — and one that I’ve painfully followed — take a knightly approach to your word. This means saying no to things you aren’t sure you can follow through on.

If you explain yourself and say, “I don’t want to make a commitment I am not sure I can honor.”

They’ll usually understand and appreciate it.

This is especially true in dating. Women hate, hate flakey dudes.

Someone was stealing my lunch at work

What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?

My home burned down in 2012, end of January. Lost everything, including all my pets. Lived in a motel for 8 days, 5 of which my aunt gave me money for. My boss and cousin helped me find housing in a highrise, primarily seniors. Snoopy seniors.

I was sitting on my floor on blankets since I had no furniture. But I did have a TV and free basic channels from the building’s antenna. I could hear whispering in the hallway, right by my door. “Why’s she sitting in the floor? Why doesn’t she have furniture. Maybe she got out of rehab.” Typical gossipy old ladies. The maintenance guy hadn’t replaced my peepholes in the door and they were looking through the holes. I yanked that door open so fast one almost toppled over her walker. Told them I was burned out, was a working woman who drove many of them to doctors and church. I was not putting up with their shit. They took off down the hall. I put duct tape over the holes, which I hadn’t thought anyone would be rude enough to look through. Notified the office the next day. Both ladies got a letter about respecting privacy. They were on camera, peeking into my place.

What are the most blatant examples of double standards and hypocrisy in America?

Here we see an image from in interview in which actress Amber Heard “fights back tears” after telling about the horrific domestic abuse she claims to have suffered at the hands of her former husband Johnny Depp. She’s sad. She’s pitiful. She’s a brave victim, telling her story… only she isn’t. She’s bullshitting.

The truth is, Amber Heard has a history of domestic abuse. As in, committing it. Before Depp she primarily dated women, and she has a tendency of flying off the handle with them physically. Domestic violence between women, like female partners beating up female partners, is historically massively underreported. So is violence against men, by women. There’s shame, and there’s stigma involved.

She was arrested for it, before. Got into a physical altercation with an ex-girlfriend. Hit her, in public, in an airport.

And the case was dropped. And she got away with it. Because she’s a woman. A pretty woman. Better yet, a pretty rich woman. All the nasty stories about Amber Heard were carefully buried for years. Until the moment her then-husband, Johnny Depp, had enough and defended himself physically.

He then became “the bad guy”. The man with many wild and rocky relationships, who in spite of his substance abuse had never, ever been accused of abusing any of his partners… was accused by the woman who had a history of abuse. And yet she was believed, by default. Why? Because she was a woman.

That’s the most blatant double standard I’ve witnessed in recent years — you can literally be a woman with a history of abuse and beat up your husband, slap him, call him names, cut off his finger and defecate on his bed (Heard did all these things to Depp!) and the MINUTE he defends himself physically? He’s labeled a ‘wife beater’ and all-but blacklisted from Hollywood.

Christians, do you think funding missions in China will weaken the tyranny of the Chinese government?

As a Christian and a lover of Chinese culture and history, I have to tell you that there is so much wrong with the premise of this question that it’s scary.

True Christianity (not the “new evangelical movement” we see in America) is strictly Bible based. Bible based Christianity is not political. Bible based Christianity isn’t interested in overthrowing governments. Bible based Christianity won’t send you on crusades to conquer nations and set up a state church.

Understand that I’m not just talking out of my butt like most US politicians and popular evangelists. I actually devoted years of my life earning a degree in theology. I have studied the history of the Christian missionary movement. I have studied the history of Christianity from the New Testament down to modern day. I have researched and written books on it. I’m not trying to brag but I give my credentials to explain that I know of what I speak.

The very attitude behind this question is why Christianity finds itself unwelcome in some countries; because the government fears that that in allowing Christianity that they are importing a Trojan horse of imperialism. This very line of thought is what got Christians killed in China’s Boxer Rebellion. Some of those killed did seek to claim parts of China for their country. Just like the political cartoon of the day, nations gathered around China as if China were a pie to be sliced up in pieces. Is it any wonder that China fought against it?

However, some true Christians suffered in China during that time. I want to tell you about one of them. His name was Hudson Taylor. Born in 1832, he was English and had studied medicine at The Royal College of Surgeons. He became a Christian at the age of 17 and committed to go to China as a missionary. But not just any missionary.

At this time in his life he began studying Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Mandarin. He earned a degree from the Royal College of Surgeons, and he studied the ways of Christian missions of that time period. He arrived in Shanghai in 1853.

He was not well received to start with. And had arrived during Civil War. He wondered what he could do to better fit into life in China. You see, he wasn’t there to convert Chinese people to English ways. He wasn’t interested in making them more like the West. He didn’t want to destroy Chinese culture.

In fact, he chose to embrace Chinese culture. He began dressing as a Chinese man. He shaved his head and grew a queue, as was the hairstyle of the Qing Dynasty. He began living among the Chinese people instead of at the Christian missions. He learned Mandarin, Cantonese, Chaozhou, Shanghaineese, and dialects of the Wu and Ningbo. He even learned them well enough to give them a New Testament in their language.

The established English missionaries were horrified. It was considered improper for him to live this way. They very nearly stopped his marriage because of this. They thought him a fool, but he didn’t care. He renounced the ways of the English and said that if he had a thousand lives he would give them all to China.

He traveled to remote villages and gave them free medical care and free schooling. And yes, he preached the gospel. But he genuinely loved China and the people of China. He and his wife adopted orphaned Chinese children and raised them with their own children. He buried many of his children and his first wife in China, but that didn’t stop him.

As time passed, the people that he ministered to came to love and respect him and his family, as well as those who came to work with him. He would only allow missionaries who were serious about giving their lives to China. To follow Hudson Taylor, you had to renounce English ways and live as the Chinese lived. In dress, language, and custom. He was turning the English Chinese, rather than making the Chinese English.

His living children grew up and his daughters married in China, living among the Chinese all their days. Hudson Taylor remarried, and continued there. He survived the Boxer Rebellion, probably in part because he genuinely loved China, but many of his followers were killed—58 missionaries and 21 children. He refused to accept money from the government as reparation, though other Englishmen criticized him for this, but he maintained he had not come to take from China but instead, to give.

His health caused him to leave China for a time, where his second wife died in Switzerland. He returned to China again, in 1905. He died in Changsha, Hunan Provence and was buried with his first wife.

Hudson Taylor was the right kind of Christian missionary. He had no use for politics, and no desire to please the English. He immersed himself in the culture and way of life of the Chinese people. He preached Christ, yes, but he lived as a Chinese. He gave them hospitals, schools, and churches, but he did it while living among the people that he loved.

I am convinced that Christians today would find themselves better received if they’d leave politics and government and American ways out of mission work, and focus on loving the people of their chosen mission field. God didn’t call Christians to make converts to Westernization. God could care less about Western ways.

God isn’t interested in overthrowing governments or turning China into a democracy. Show me in the Bible where God said to establish democratic governments. Chapter and verse, please. God doesn’t care about your democracy. He said to obey government as long as it didn’t command you to go against the Bible. In the event that government and Bible clashes, God was ok with civil disobedience in that area, but that didn’t mean topple the government. You want to win people to Christ? Then stop trying to make them like you.

American women with crazy expectations

Why do some people carry grudges for a lifetime?

My Dad and his brother started a feud when they were in their early 30’s and kept it going until they both died fifty years later. No, I tell a lie. My uncle forbade my Dad from coming to his funeral, so he carried the feud on even after his death.

The irony is that neither could explain what the feud was about, so I am convinced that it was a trivial matter that just grew, and neither of these two headstrong men could let it drop because that would be to admit that their years of feuding had been a silly waste. In a sense, the longer it went on, the stronger the feud became even as the memory of the cause became weaker.

It hasn’t been a total waste though. My cousin and I are very close. It’s united us. It has also acted as a lesson to the extended family, a kind of example of how not to behave.

The brothers were both child refugees from the Nazis and had very difficult childhoods. They were both angry young men, and perhaps that explains their decades of refusing to go to family events if the other was going, the forbidding of the other’s name to be mentioned, etc. I don’t want to get into amateur psychotherapy except to say they were both nuts.

What’s the best thing you’ve done for your employee? How did he react?

I have an employee that I assigned to a huge deal. He not only made it. He absolutely killed it. He did far better than my wildest expectations. I called him into my office and told him to contact our travel people and to book a ten day cruise (all expenses) to anywhere he and his wife wanted to go. He was speechless and then didn’t understand how he earned it. I explained to him that his contribution to the company was invaluable. Prior to the cruise he was a Departmental Manager. On the day he returned he was Named a Vice President. I always reward high performance and talent. The cruise didn’t cost me a thing. He’s repaid the cost many times over. Did I have to do that? No, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

What is the USA gonna do now?

China’s SMIC and Huawei have surged ahead in chip technology, defying the U.S. restrictions aimed at curbing their technological advancements, Burn J. Lin, a former TSMC vice president, told Bloomberg in a rare interview. He believes ASML lithography tools that SMIC already owns will allow the company to advance to a 5nm-class fabrication process.

“It is just not possible for the US to completely prevent China from improving its chip technology,” Lin told Bloomberg.

Despite the U.S. imposing technological constraints via sanctions, SMIC has showcased notable resilience and ingenuity by developing its 2nd generation 7nm-class fabrication process. It also achieved yields high enough for Huawei to make plans to supply 70 million smartphones. SMIC allegedly used ASML’s Twinscan NXT:2000i litho tool, which is a deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography scanner that can produce chips on 7nm and 5 nm class process technologies. Exports of this tool to China were curbedby the Dutch government earlier this year.

The resolution that the Twinscan NXT:2000i features (≤38nm) is good enough for 7nm-class single-patterning lithography mass production. However, when it comes to 5nm-class process technologies, a finer resolution is required. To produce it, chipmakers can use double, triple, or even quadruple patterning, a lithographic technique that involves splitting a complex pattern into several simpler patterns, which are printed sequentially to achieve higher precision and detail in semiconductor manufacturing. Usage of multi-patterning is a tricky process that affects yields, and the amount of chips per wafer that can be used, so typically its usage is limited due to economic reasons.

But being limited to tools that it already owns, SMIC has no other option but to use multi-patterning for finer resolutions. Apparently, it has managed to achieve yields acceptable to Huawei. As a result, one can ask whether the U.S. government’s curbs against China’s semiconductor sector work.

“What the US really should do is to focus on maintaining its chip design leadership instead of trying to limit China’s progress, which is futile as China is adopting a whole nation strategy to boost its chip industry, and hurting the global economy,” former-TSMC R&D VP Lin is reported to have said.

Interestingly, the U.S. sanctions seem to have inadvertently opened the doors of opportunity for SMIC. The restrictions imposed on TSMC, barring it from transacting with certain Chinese entities, have allowed SMIC to step in and capitalize on substantial orders. This shift has facilitated SMIC’s enhancement of its manufacturing techniques and technological capabilities.

The really harsh reality…

Looks what mothers actions (when she was single) did to her 13 year old boy years later.

What is the least intelligent thing you’ve ever seen a tourist do?

Visiting Banff National Park, touring motorists left their parked vehicles to take photos of the cute Black Bears and their cubs. One stopped and before long a dozen more. The bears were grazing on a meadow about 100 metres (300 feet) from the road. Some brave individuals without telephoto lenses tried to get up closer for a good picture. A mama bear sensing a threat to her cubs could reach those touring idiots in 6 seconds, not even enough time to open the car door and get in, let alone run the distance back to their car. It took Park Rangers about 5 minutes to notice the “bear jam”, and they were screaming at everyone to get back in their cars and disperse the traffic jam.

I discovered that driving down any infrequently used Canadian wilderness road, when descending a slope, if the engine was turned off to coast down, half a dozen heads popped up to see why the sound had ceased. It surprised me that so many bears were hiding in the growth on the sides of roads, and how close they were. I would not recommend hitch-hiking. Another time just as I was passing, a huge timber wolf appeared and just stood there looking at me as I drove past. The paws were bigger than my hand, and in the rear view mirror I could see he was still looking at me for some time.

What do you think of the opinion that Australia’s trade tensions with China are its own fault?

Of course.

Basically Australia deserves it. Not Aussies. Many are smart good people. They lose a meal a day because your racist PM Scott Morrison prefer to have alliance with Mike Pompeo and confirm that Australia is indeed a China hater and Chinese hater. You harvest what you sow! Aussies promptly kicked him out of office. But the damage is done.

Not only China. But Asian especially South East Asian lost trust and faith in Australia. It sees them as a U.S. stooge and a colonial minded nation thinking that it is ordained by god to be white man run roughshod over coloured people. We Asians has a jolt of awareness that Australia don’t want to be part of and partner to Asia. It wants to be a U.S. dog nation.

Asia don’t want and don’t need a U.S. assistant sheriff! So Australia need some soul searching if it wants to be a real partner or a colonial outpost. Asia is watching.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

HiI was working as a security guard outside a 24:-hour McDonald’s in Australia around 2am. I was about 21 and a small-framed woman working alone and it was a bit of a rough area so I had to be careful.

A group of 5 or 6 teenager boys turned up and were standing around in the car park trying to pick fights with any guy who looked at them sideways. Mostly men were ignoring them but they were getting bolder and I was beginning to think I was going to have to call the police before things escalated.

Just at that moment a small thin guy exited the building. Everything about him said scared. He held the food bag in front of him like a shield, he was looking at his feet and walking fast trying to avoid any conflict with the boys.

Predictably one of the loudest lads zeroed in on him as an easy target to hassle and impress his friends. He runs over with the usual, “What are you looking at? Are you looking for trouble?” bullshit and the small man just sped up. I started to walk over to rescue him, thinking he was about to be beaten up by the group if they were allowed to proceed.

The guy ignored all provocation until the boy laid a hand on him. I have never seen anyone move so fast. The man dropped the bag grabbed the kid by the hair and pulled him backwards off his feet in a move he had clearly used before. He proceeded to punch the boy in the face 4 or 5 times til the kid was out on his feet.

There was a moment of shocked silence then the guy gently put the kid down and picked up his meal. He suddenly saw me standing there in uniform completely frozen in shock. The guy had yanked the kid’s head back so hard there were clumps of his hair on the ground.

As soon as he saw me the guy was like a lost kid. He said nearly in tears, “He started it. I just wanted to go home and have my dinner.” I just nodded and said, “OK off you go” because I sure as hell wasn’t going to stop him, and he drove away.

The kid suddenly came round, with a split lip, bloody nose, and a few loose teeth I would think. He was a bit dazed and I asked him if he needed an ambulance or the cops. He said no so I told him and his mates to piss off.

I have never seen a beat-down like that. From scared little guy to full psycho and back again in less than a minute. The guy must have been on parole or something because he wanted no piece of that fight before or after.

As for the kids, they learned an important lesson about picking fights with people you don’t know. Sometimes the little guy is not the easy bet. Sometimes people avoid fighting for your protection rather than theirs.

As my grandfather used to say, “Beware the wrath of the quiet man.”

Updated Response: thanks to everyone who up voted. When the incident occurred I was only 21 and very unsure of how to respond. Unfortunately the law in Australia is very clear. Security guards have no rights to remove people from anywhere and calling the police is often the worst response. While many people have criticised my actions that’s OK. The story illustrates as much as anything the lack of support guards have.

For those who could have done better, this reminds me of another of my Grandfathers sayings, “Everyone knows how to tame the mad bull, except the man who owns him.”

Road rage going too far…

Do you have 100% trust and faith in your government(US)? If no, why would you want to ban civilians from owning guns if it’s our only defense against a government you don’t trust?

Name a time when people with guns have ever stopped US government overreach. Want to know a secret? Most people prefer tyranny, as long as they aren’t the ones being tyrannized.

People with guns didn’t stop government racial segregation and Jim Crow. They cheered.

People with guns didn’t stop the mass interment of Japanese citizens in concentration camps. They cheered.

People with guns didn’t stop the police or government from lynching Black men. They cheered.

People with guns didn’t stop the police or government from persecuting gay men and lesbians. They cheered.

See, normal people know your felusional Rambo fantasies about “mY gUn WiLl StOp ThE gOvErNmEnT fRoM tYrRaNy AnD iNjUsTiCe” is a self-serving lie. No it won’t. You lot line up on the streets and celebrate government tyranny and injystice, as long as it hurts people you hate.

Gimme a break. You need guns to stop government oppression…ah HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Riiiiight. Sure you do.

What was the moment you cancelled the friendship with your best friend?

It’s been a couple of years now but this happened with a friendship that began in the early 90’s so that’s a long time. We had a slight falling out and it was over something I said, but her response to it changed me feelings of close friendship with her. I didn’t mind that it made her made or maybe offended her but she said friendship altering things that were beyond what the issue was. There was damage and issues that had evidently occurred that I just wasn’t aware of. I wish she had talked to me about whatever was going on with her towards me but, she didn’t. So when the opportunity arose she gave me more than I was ready for. It was a deal breaker for me and I think that, that is what she wanted. This may sound odd…….I miss her because we enjoyed a lot of things together but I’m okay with it at the same time.

Must South Koreans and Chinese pay their governments for living in the USA?

Hi, Joseph Mcmanus. Thanks for the very interesting question.

I’m Chinese and I spent a handful of years living in the States.

During my time stateside, I paid rent to my landlords.
I paid school tuition fees to the school I was attending.
I paid all living expenses out of my own pocket.

At no time during my handful of years in the States did I have to pay the Chinese government for living in the US.

Unless, as Frosty Shoat mentioned in their answer, you’re counting the cost of the passport as an expense for living in the US. But I don’t see how that is an expense exclusive to Chinese alone.

I hope that helps clear things up.

Hero Rufus

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

I saw a Facebook post from an acquaintance of the hysterical variety. “Can anyone help me move on Tuesday? I’m being kicked out of my place. “

Being the guy with a truck, and having that afternoon free, I said I would meet her at 3 and help move. So day of, I’m there at the appointed time and she’s nowhere to be found. The owner of the house is there and there’s a pile of stuff outside. I start hauling the stuff up to the Uhaul which fortunately is there and talking with the owner. Turns out my acquaintance is being kicked out because she hasn’t paid rent in 10 months and has left the landlord (her ex-sister in law) about $35,000 in the hole. They are going to have to sell the place to recover the money. She shows me around the place. It’s a bit of a mess but an absolutely lovely home. Quiet neighborhood but close to downtown Honolulu, views, parking. All the things.

I tell her that I love the place and before she talks to anybody else or lists it, to let us make an offer. My acquaintance shows up an hour and a half late, after the bulk of the work is already done. I finish helping her move, with a lot less sympathy now.

Six months later, after a lot of talking and negotiating and inspecting, we moved into the beautiful house! And because we negotiated directly we saved about $45,000 in realtors fees.

What real life legal events sound straight out of a movie?

A crime watch group in Homestead, Florida held a neighborhood crime watch.

This meeting took place outside on a back patio. The Chief of Police was meeting with all the participants and team members.

He was outlining all of the things to be on the look out for. He was going down the list of agenda items related to criminal activity.

As he was talking, they heard a loud engine sound. The BZZZZZZ of an airplane motor.

It got louder and louder.

Then.

vvvVVVVVVROOOOOOM

It streaks by.

And

<boom>

Something hits the ground.

Everyone is startled. Then they see a big box right next to them.

The officer goes to check it out.

What is in it?

Seventy-five pounds of cocaine.

The plane that had been flying overhead was on the run from Customs, and it was dumping its cocaine so as not to be caught when they landed.

Let me restate that – a box of cocaine fell on top of a crimewatch meeting.

The plane dumped its last box shortly after that before they landed and were arrested. (Source: What’s that falling from the Florida sky. It could be pork, poop — or worse. Miami Herald. Cohen, Howard)

Luckily that last box of cocaine only hit a church.

Just another day in Florida.

The argument from intimidation

What is the worst thing a woman can say to her husband?

The woman loved a man .

Both got married .

Both had children .

After few years of the marriage suddenly one day the woman announced her husband that she is in love with another man .

If he wants he can divorce her . But she won’t leave the other man .

The man had no choice but to agree her condition because of his children and social standing .

This is the worst thing in a man’s life to compromise with a cheating wife and spending entire life with that woman .

What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?

I wrote a letter to my manager outlining his misbehaviours. I gave a copy to every one of his staff. In due course I was in the state managers office with the personnel manager there too.

The state manager told me he was going to take disciplinary action against me. I looked from one to the other and said:

I don’t often beg, but I am going to beg this time. I’m begging you. Please take disciplinary action against me.

They looked at each other and there was silence for about ten seconds.

Then I said:

You’re not going to do it are you?

And quietly the state manager said “No”.

I told them the meeting was over and went back to work.

That was not the end of the issue, but there were no consequences against me.

What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?

My dad … brought us up to NEVER LIE so when he blatantly lied to the State Trooper standing in the family kitchen one early afternoon I was dumbfounded!

My aunt (dads younger and only sister) married an abusive drug addict/alcoholic child abuser (his own kids).

My aunt had a black eye and lots of other injuries, new and old but she told of her husband having an abusive fit and while beating her he grabbed their three year old son and threw him so hard he went through the plaster and lathe board leaving his whole body as a marker to how hard he was thrown. My aunt called the police eventually (this was mid 1970’s) but her husband threatened if she told them what happened he’d kill the children (1 boy 3, and a girl 1.). She didn’t press charges because she knew he had guns and knew how violent he was.

About three days later two State troopers were in our driveway. They asked my dad if he owned a handgun. They also knew what had happened to my aunt and her little boy (small community).

My dad wanted to kill her husband but knew he wasn’t worth it. So, my dad’s younger brother obtained a gun I think it was a .45 handgun. My dad climbed in the window of his sisters house after his brother dropped him off … and he waited. The abusive husband/father came home, unlocked the door and was going about his business. At some point my father came into view with that gun. He made that scum get on his knees and beg for his life.The end of the gun was put in his mouth. As my father was asking him how tough are you now? Beating up your wife and 3 year old son is easy. How tough are you now? The scumbag pissed his pants while begging for his life.

I’m sure there were a lot more things said and done.

The gun went back to its owner. My dad was having coffee and a cigarette when he invited the cops in. He was so calm, cool and collected as he told the cops he didn’t do anything. He was home all morning. He LIED! Then one cop left and the other one told him, “it’s just me and you, I’d have done the same thing if my sister and nephew got beat up. C’mon, you can tell me. My partner is outside and he can’t be witness to you telling me what really happened.”

My dad calmly lied again and told the cop he knew nothing about it.

After they finally left I asked my dad why he didn’t tell the one cop that he did it. There wasn’t a second cop to corroborate his confession. My dad told me, “Oh yes there was! They don’t carry two way radios for nothing!

My dad was a badass. Just a humble middle class auto shop rat. He died last summer. I learned a lot about life from him.

***edit: I thought that the abuser of my aunt was dead. I recently asked a family member of his. He’s alive but in bad health, still drinking and drugging. He did leave the state but it was after my aunt divorced him. He had a girlfriend. He beat her up so bad she died. I don’t know anymore details than that. I have no idea why he isn’t still in prison. I only know my dad changed his sister’s life for the better and probably saved her life. Her daughter was younger than her son (who was 3 years old when the abuser threw him through a plaster and lathe board wall) and she only recently found out that my dad also changed HER life for the better by scaring the sh;t out of her father and giving her mother the strength to divorce him. I’m sure the a$$hole knew he’d be severely beaten if he ever touched my dad’s little sister again.

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

Driving an ambulance in response to a “Man down” call on a Saturday morning; lights and siren activated. My travel route took me over a twisting two lane road that was frequented by bicyclists. I encountered a pack of cyclists – maybe 40 – who wouldn’t yield to me. The winding road prohibited me from swinging into the opposing traffic lane to pass.

Took me several extra minutes to work my way to the front of the pack whereupon the lead rider flipped me off and offered me some salient verbal advice. Got past them, delayed in responding to a serious call.

Returning to the station afterwards, made comment to one of my co-workers, a fellow volunteer and a full-time police officer in the local jurisdiction. On the next Saturday, he donned his police uniform, drove his cruiser to the bike-traveled road and waited for the particular bicycle club to cruise thru the stop-signed intersection, en masse….their usual disregard. He pulled the ENTIRE pack over and wrote reckless riding tickets for each and every cyclist. Took him more than two hours!!!!

I went to court with the officer, as did the rest of our ambulance crew….some riders showed; many defaulted. After the 4th or 5th defendant appeared, the judge called them all up together —— maybe a dozen —— spoke for a bit and found them ALL guilty. Good karma day.

EDIT: And before I receive another comment going to legal procedures, please know that in our community, organized bicycle groups make frequent use of a gent who is well-known as the “Bicycle Advocate”. He commonly appears at proceedings where/when bicyclists are cited. On the appearance day discussed above, The Advocate was on-hand, standing up to assert his interpretation of the motor vehicle statutes as they do/don’t pertain to cyclists. The rhetoric is without legal support, and the guy is neither an attorney, nor does he actually represent a defendant. He’s very good at deflection.

With serial defendants and the same fact-pattern, the judge soon tired of the Advocate’s repeated and time-consuming speeches. He cautioned the guy a couple of times and eventually fined him $200 for contempt. He then called up the remaining defendants, asked them to declare an exceptional circumstance or individualized defense(s) to their citations. Hearing none, he passed the collective judgment. The individual defendant due process rights were, indeed, preserved by the judge’s line of questions prior to rendering his decision.

And, yes, I am an attorney.

Un-bound

What is the most unfair advantage a person can have?

Being born to the right parents.

This single coincidence tends to make more of a difference to a persons’ life than any other factor, including whatever efforts the person himself makes to try to improve his lot.

Who your parents happen to be has a tremendous impact on a huge range of things that shape just about everything in your life to a huge degree.

It determines if you’re born in Sweden or in Somalia
The genes they gave you determines whether you’ll be tall, intelligent and handsome or short, stupid and ugly.
The genes also play a big role in whether or not you’ll be healthy, whether or not you’re likely to get a long list of diseases.
If your parents are kind, compassionate and nurturing your start in life will be very different from if they’re cold, inconsiderate or abusive.
The hobbies and interests they have in many cases have a lifelong influence on your own hobbies and interests.
Their wealth and their income determines what material standard of living you’ll have for the first 20 – 25 years of your life, and in fact often for your entire life. (in most cases lazy sons of multimillionaires end up better off than hardworking daughters of slum-dwellers)
They more or less entirely decide who is important in your life for your first 5 years. Such early formative relationships are very important for a child’s development.
They determine what quality education you’ll get, this depends on their wealth, where they happen to live, and their priorities. You as a young child have low influence on all of this.

I’m not at all saying that it’s hopeless to get ahead in life if you had a bad start. What I’m saying is that having the right parents means getting to play life on “easy” mode, while having the wrong parents makes everything a whole lot more difficult.

If someone came to your house late at night and asked to use your phone because they need a ride home would you open the door or would you call from a window or the door yourself?

When I was 16, I was driving home from my boyfriends house which was a good 15 miles away. My car suddenly stopped working. It was dark and it was 1996, so no cell phones. I was out in the middle of nowhere! I saw a house and decided to walk up and ask to call my dad. I was TERRIFIED!

A woman answered the door but barely opened it. I told her that my car broke down and asked to call my dad. She asked me to give her his number and she would call from inside. I agreed. It was cold outside and I was shivering (both from cold and fear). She called him and asked if he had a daughter etc. Then she gave him her address and she invited me inside. I was still scared, but went in because I heard my dad was on his way there.

She made me hot chocolate and I sat by the fireplace, petting their dogs and chatting until my dad showed up. My dad got there about 20 minutes later asked if he could come pick my car up the next day and they said, “of course!” Her husband put his coat on and helped push my car off the road and into their driveway. We both thanked them sincerely and they said “If You ever need anything again, you come straight here!” The lady gave me a warm hug and said goodnight.

My dad sent a tow truck to get my car to the shop the next day and it was back in order with a new timing belt. I made sure to always take that route home just in case I broke down again.

Date Night

What types of antiques have considerably dropped in value?

Roll Top Desks….

My Mom loved Roll Top desks. She always wanted on one. So in 1975, she went to a local Sotherby’s auction and she emerged victorious but financially wounded. In 1975, she paid $1500 for a desk almost identical to this one.

In 2023 dollars, that cost my Mom about $8,500 dollars.

When my Mom died in 2022, we had a professional estate sale guy come to the house. Now my parents lived in the heart of Silicon Valley. He said…………you know, around here this item is really difficult to sell. Nobody wants them because they aren’t super friendly to computers. Anyone young with money around here, won’t be interested. We’ll be lucky to get $2500-$3000, even if we can find a buyer.

That puts my Mom’s purchase around $500 in 1975 dollars.

I’m actually glad she never knew…it was her crown jewel among all her antiques.

ALERT: LARGEST NAVAL FORCE SINCE WW2, ATTACK ON TWO NUCLEAR PLANTS, HEZBOLLAH DECLARE WAR IN 5 DAYS

Looks like a war buildup against Iran.

What’s the most enjoyable thing you’ve ever said to a manager as you’ve quit your job?

Not me but my dad. He was a supervisor, and had a less than stellar employee. My dad was offered a job with the potential for a promotion on the other side of the country. He was retired military so we had moved a lot, so he didn’t take it as he didn’t want to move us again. The job was offered to the problem employee; my dad was happy to see him leave.

Two years later, the guy comes back, only now, he was my dad’s supervisor, and made his job a living hell. For example: this was back in the days of overhead projectors (a precursor to PowerPoint). My dad was to give a presentation to some high-level people. He starts, but the projector isn’t working, so he had to give the presentation with hastily copied handouts. His boss had removed the lightbulb from the projector, and then chastised him for not “checking his equipment”.

He pulled a lot of similar unprofessional stunts. My dad had already retired from the military, and had enough years in to retire again. His physician told him that based on his medical problems, he could retire any time he wanted to, so my dad had him draft an undated letter stating he was retirement-eligible based on years of service and medical issues.

We had an expensive vacation planned, and were to leave on a Friday night. My dad had put in for vacation, so the boss was well aware of it. Ten minutes before he’s about to leave, the boss shows up, drops a file on his desk, and tells him not only does he have to stay late to get started on the project, but he’s cancelling his vacation.

My dad got a box, and started filling it with his personal items. The boss goes ballistic, so my dad pulls out the physician’s note, dates it, and says “I just retired” and walked out. It was a tad petty, but it was epic.

Wife Has MELTDOWN After Husband Secretly Discovers Her Affair, Plans A Strategy & Then Divorces Her!

Do firefighters really eat the food people bring them?

Yes and No.

We had a very nice lady come by our fire station with an “ice chest” full of hot tamales (which we purchased). Everyone who ate the tamales got food poisoning (including myself). We were not incapacitated, but close.

The question is, by eating food that is given to us, will we be able to perform our job of protecting our community? Could we fight fires? Could we perform rescues or fulfill our duties as EMTs? The answer could be “no.”

For example, on another occasion a family was nice enough to deliver a big plate of cookies and other homemade treats. The family appeared dirty and reeked of bad hygiene. We thanked them profusely (as was the polite thing to do). After they left their treats (unfortunately) went in the trash.

We had a few regulars who brought us pies, which we ate. It took a bit of a size-up on the individual delivering them, at first.

On some holidays a major restaurant chain brought us an entire meal, which we ate (it was prepared in a professional kitchen).

All the food that was brought to us was appreciated and accepted. It was never looked at as a bribe (we had no involvement in enforcement issues).

Coffee or tea offered on fire scenes? Now that is something I’d like to see adopted in America! A lot of winter fires were in below freezing temperatures. We were wet and cold. A hot drink of just about anything would have been much appreciated those freezing nights.

We once had a terrible fire, with much loss of life (Deadly Reno Fire

). It was across the street from the rear door of the original Harrah’s casino, in Reno, Nevada. The investigation lasted for two weeks. The casino set up a room for us with 24/7 coffee, tea and snacks. They also provided many meals, which they did at no charge. They expected nothing in return. They were just being good neighbors. Kudos to Harrah’s!

The best policy is “Unless you know the history of the food, it’s unsafe to eat.”

The boats

Al Copeland’s Basic Cajun Jambalaya

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound pickled pork, diced
1 pound smoked ham, diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 pound smoked sausage, sliced
4 cups beef or chicken stock or hot water
2 cups rice
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste

Instructions

In large saucepan with lid, melt butter with oil.
Add onions and pork and sauté until onions are soft.
Add ham, garlic, thyme and parsley and sauté for 5 minutes.
Add sausage and cook until browned. Stir in stock and bring to boil.
Add rice, bay leaf and cayenne. Return to boil and cover. Simmer over very low heat for 30 to 45 minutes, checking after 30 minutes to see if all liquid has been absorbed and rice is tender. If necessary, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more water if liquid boils away before rice is cooked.

He should have been patient

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_nyfUtpSlZQ?feature=share

Can you give an example of how smart cats are?

My cat is four and a half months old. He’s part of our family for a month now.

As I was playing with him with the laser pointer about a week ago, he happily chased the red dot over the floor as always. But when he sat down to look at me, he suddenly looked over to my hand where I held the pointer, than back to the red dot and my hand again. His enthusiasm for chasing the moving red dot was suddenly gone. As if he understood that it was I who made the dot move and that wasn’t as interesting for him as a red dot that’s kinda “magically” moving on its own.

He also found out how to open drawers after watching me doing it two times.

And he’s been exceptionally quick to understand that I keep his “special” toys in the black plastic box on top of the shelf in our living room. As soon as I touch the box, he jumps off the desk and runs over to sit at my feet, waiting for whatever toy I might pick this time.

He’s extremely vocal and complains loudly when I chastise him whenever he does something undesirable, like playing with the computer chords (cuz he chews on them), jumping onto the kitchen table, scratching the wall corners instead of his scratching post, etc.

American Psychosis Chris Hedges on the US empire of narcissism and psychopathy

This is DAMN good!

https://youtu.be/Zp3gCeAI0ds

Sidewalk Kiss

I am out of the hospital, and I am feeling much better. I can’t wait to get back to business with the start of the new year. The world seemed to be passing me by. Just excited and ready, but my engine is purring. All is good.

…

STORY 1

When I was 16 years old, I went horseback riding with a girl-friend (not a girlfriend) and we were riding in the woods. Well, there were some low hanging vines, and sure as shit, one caught my neck and rubbed it raw. I mean, it was brutal. All my skin was removed.

To everyone at work… it looked like a big “hicky”; a huge sucker bite.

That wasn’t the case, of course, but the razzlin’ and all was really excessive, don’t you know. It took me months to get out from the hasslin’, but you know it was the early 1970’s and that kind of stuff was common in the work-place.

I was still “sweet 16” and never been kissed. That ended shortly afterwards when two of my “girl-friends” fought to become my girlfriend. Which resulted in a sidewalk kiss, that I will never forget.

STORY 2

We were leaving a “sweet 16” birthday party of a classmate. She, a girl named Robin, invited me to it, and I as clueless as ever didn’t know what to do. When we left, and we were on the sidewalk… walking home she stopped turned to me and and “Kiss me”. And so we did.

That was my first kiss.

Robin went off to college, got married, and last I heard was doing well. I’m happy for her.

People, as cherished as those memories are, there is no way that I want to relive similar events in another life. I am tired, and have no desire for another reincarnation. I’ll tell you what.

…

Today…

What has been achieved from the Chinese leader’s visit to San Francisco?

Politically, nothing much.

The star of the whole show, in my opinion, is the turnout of Big Business.

No, not what President Xi said, but the audience composition. Namedrop a household corporate name and the CEO was probably in attendence, Tim Cook and Elon Musk included.

The movers and shakers of Wall Street paid handsomely for the privilege of WELCOMING President Xi. In fact, the visiting Head of State may have gathered THE star-studded corporate audience in recent years, bigger than any Democrat or Republican convention. Even King Charles and the Pope will struggle to demonstrate the star appeal lighting up San Francisco this November WEEKEND.

It was a dinner worth trillions upon trillions in market cap. One need only imagine the private jets lining up to pay hangar premiums for parking rights.

America NEEDS China, economically.

That is why Janet, the top-ranking finance official in America, welcomed President Xi on the tarmac personally.

Note that both Janet and Gavin visited Beijing PERSONALLY to arrange the visit.

Both the tarmac welcome and dinner highlighted the conspicuous absence of the State Department. No more James Cook Hotel browbeating and public attempts at humiliating the Chinese contingent.

What’s the key here?

American corporations are suffering in the downturn and the captains of industry want guarantees from Joe that the situation with China will not deteriorate further. The chips they have on the table? 20–30 billion in election funding for 2024.

We can expect a freeze on escalation of the new cold war, but not a ceasefire. The militaries will resume direct communications, which is nothing more than “we’re continuing with the harassment, but we’ll inform you first, with your acknowledgement”. However, we can expect cabinet officials to either be gagged top-down or bottom-up, or instructed to be cordial and tone down on provocation. In other words, Gina et al. morphing back to friendly beaver mode rather than “feet to the fire” wolf warrior incarnation.

That’s the tone for 2024. I don’t believe Joe will repeat the “genocide determination” stunt next year, having committed to extravagant molly-coddling in San Francisco, amidst the sea of bipartisan support for playing the China card the corporate-sanctioned way.

Lobbying works, both ways.

This is why President Xi appeared relaxed throughout, almost as if he was on holiday, totally unlike the tense atmosphere in Anchorage, Alaska, back in 2021. People have short memories.

President Xi was being feted and courted, and he was only here after two years of intense US diplomatic efforts to re-establish ties torn down by the State Department, no less.

Crazy world, isn’t it?

Note: The welcome dinner also reassured the Chinese, and gave them the confidence to negotiate deals with the Fed. Corporate America’s turnout is the real deal, in a fiery red vs. blue battle to the death.

We start with a woke something…

Not sure if it’s a woman, or a man, or what…

What is the biggest life lesson you have ever learned?

I’ll probably never be as successful as my dad and I’m perfectly OK with that.

If anything I’m proud of him. At one point he was overseeing a $50 billion annual budget as Undersecretary of Defense. The dude earned his Wikipedia page.

My father is also an excellent case study. He is certainly very smart. But it wasn’t like he was always the smartest guy in the room. In fact, he was keenly aware when he wasn’t. Yet many of my dad’s peers, who were smarter on paper, fell way short of his success.

Why? It’s mainly because of his people skills and his diligence. He is an excellent listener. He knows how to dial in and pick up on what is important. He is also conscientious and very ethical. He treats people equally regardless of their position.

I’d say if anything, my dad’s superpower is the ability to size people up quickly and judge their character.

He has a special distaste for self-serving people, which is probably because of his career with SEAL teams, where teamwork is a religion.

This is where many highly intelligent people fail. They lack the soft skills, the ability to relate with many types of people.

Cliche as it sounds, many gifted people also have an underlying arrogance they mask. Business textbooks are filled with case studies of executives’ careers being destroyed by pride. My girlfriend is a college professor and complains constantly about the incessant egos at academic conferences.

And to be fair, I can’t totally blame them. When a person is told from birth that they are brilliant, and their test scores affirm that praise, and they live in a world that prizes intelligence — it is probably hard to stay 100% humble.

No matter how talented you are, remember you are dealing with human beings in your career. Success isn’t a MENSA test. Soft skills matter—bigtime.

Be nice to the secretary.

China is building a large harbor in Peru south America as part of its Belt and Road Project, why can’t the United States develop its own Belt and Road project between South America, Central America, Mexico, United States and Canada?

The U.S. should but it won’t and it can’t. The U.S. thinks like a racist, xenophobic superior white Caucasian nation that their neighbours should be kept as savage, poor, undeveloped nations that it can invade anytime it feels like doing. So they won’t help these nations. It is beyond them. People like Donald Trump can term them robbers and rapist so that he feels very good as the Aryan Superior. So the U.S. abused them instead of helping them.

Of course now that the Chinese decide to help them the U.S. will term it “Debt Trap” China will help to make these former Spanish and Portuguese stolen nations rich and successful.

Anyway they can’t help them. The spent all its money and resources in forever wars, war mongering, war financing, war orchestrating, chaos and coup tormenting. And barely have enough to help US homeless and poor. The U.S. own infrastructure were also 20 century relics and dilapidated beyond repair in the U.S. so they cannot help. Even if the wanted to they will set a thousand conditions including signing over their sovereignty to Uncle Sam.

She Can’t Answer This Simple Question About Marriage

Are there cats out there who do have a problem with you sleeping, for no other reason than you sleeping? One of my cats wakes me up from my naps at 12:30pm tops, just for her to want nothing in particular. Is that normal?

My cat goes on a rampage when he wants to wake me up, knocking every conceivable item off of every flat surface until I finally give up on sleep.

He did it to me the other night. I’d fallen asleep on the couch and woke up to the familiar sound of the TV remote control hitting the floor, then the Roku remote.

I could just make out the little guy’s form on the coffee table through blurry eyes without my glasses. My smartphone was the next thing to hit the hardwood (I have a military grade case precisely for this reason), then he violently smacked a bottle of pills so hard they ricocheted off an end table and went spinning across the room.

Next he hopped onto the end table, upending a bag of restaurant tortillas and swiping my keys off. A water bottle went flying. I heard my vapor pen skidding in the opposite direction.

The little f—er is relentless.

(“Does it look like I’m judging you, human? Because I am.”)

If that doesn’t work — and sometimes it doesn’t, because I know giving in just emboldens him — and he runs out of things to smack and wreck, he’ll pad over to his litter box and start punching the cover flap with his paw because he knows it squeaks and it pisses me off.

He’s a super vocal cat too, so all this is accompanied by high-pitched trills like “RRRRRRRUUUUPPPP!” and “BRRRRRUUUU!”

And you know what the most ridiculous part is?

He’s not asking for food because he always gets a bowl of dry food before bed. He wants to hang out and snuggle and be buddies. I can’t be mad at him.

So yes, it’s pretty common for cats to wake their people up for no other reason than they want us awake, acknowledging them, or giving them scritches and affection.

It’s not always tied to more concrete requests like food, although sometimes it is.

You’ll also notice that cats have no regard for your sleep, but they’ll give you the feline death stare if you rudely interrupt their naps. Such is the pecking order in feline-ruled households.

It is possible to train them out of waking you, especially if they’re young. If your cat is a kitten then she’ll adjust to your schedule. If she’s an adult, well, good luck with that. You can break the habit, but you’re going to make sure you never give in or you’re just hitting the reset button by proving to her that if she makes enough noise, you’re going to get up eventually.

In that case, grab a package of earplugs off Amazon for a few bucks. Your brain will thank you for wearing them.

(“I am a sweet little kitty cat and none of these vile lies are true.”)

Its all about control

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

We were at an airport in Mexico, going through customs and immigration. Once your bag is xrayed you pick it up, and walk to this green button and push it. If the light above flashes green, which it almost always does, you proceed on. If the light flashes red, and the buzzer, buzzes, you get pulled into a side room and they go through your luggage thoroughly.

There was a huge line up. We had waited an hour to get to the X-ray machine. We were up next. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone from a culture that doesn’t believe in queuing, walking alongside the line, right up to the front, I actually stepped in front of him, so he couldn’t get past me, and his wife took the luggage and threw it on the X-ray conveyor belt. At this point I admitted defeat, and let them go.

They get through the x-ray, and push the button, in my place. It flashed red, and they were led off to a little side room, It would have been me, if they hadn’t barged into the line.

I waved to them as they were being led into the little room.

Wonderbread women

Who is the lowest status person for whom you have the highest respect?

He is the manager of my neighborhood gym, a very rinky-dink gym.

He makes ~$35K per year. It isn’t terrible money. You can certainly live on that, but it isn’t great money in the US. His salary isn’t specifically why I have so much respect for him. It’s the context:

He was a big-time lawyer here in Tampa. He had a fancy degree and a job making huge money. He did it for 15 years. He had the respect of his peers, the fear of his opposition.

He was fully capable of continuing his relentless march as a litigator.

But he realized, “Nah – this isn’t the right life.”

He walked away – chose a low-stress job, managing this local gym.

When the end of the day rolls around, he goes home and work doesn’t chase him. He is free to indulge the rest of his life.

I see him 3-4 times a week while I sign into my gym. He is always in good spirits. Relaxed. Not troubled by some unseen threat that looms on his calendar.

We grow up. The people around us tell us they just want us to “be happy,” but at the same time, they are pushing this maximization mindset: maximize grades, maximize salary, maximize reputation, go, go, go.

You see plenty of people that maximize. You see plenty of people who don’t.

But how often do you see people who maximize and then walk away? Who goes from introducing himself as “Senior Counsel at XYZ” to answering calls, “Hello, ABC Fitness! How can I help you?”

It’s surprisingly rare. It’s hard to kiss the ring of ambition for so long and then drop it.

He’s a bit of a novelty in my life. On my bad days, I envision what it would be like to be him — that one guy who stepped through the paradox of happiness and ambition.

And although I suspect I don’t have the guts to do what he did, walk away, I have a surprising amount of respect for a guy who is capable of so much, yet aspires to so little.

He did it his way. And he’s happy. Does anything else really matter?

How you know…

What was the dish that made you reverse your opinion on a food you had until then disliked?

A girl I quite fancied took me to meet her parents for dinner – which turned out to be lasagne. The only prior experience I’d had with lasagne had been at school, many years before – about a millimeter thick, cooked in trays half a mile wide, with about 50p’s worth of ingredients and left to dry out under a heat lamp for a year. 🙁

But I had to be polite.

“I’m not very hungry,” I said. “just give me a little.”

Turns out that lasagne cooked by an Italian mother was rather different to the filth churned out at St. Mary’s. So I asked for seconds

“I thought you said you weren’t hungry?”

“That’s alright, I thought I didn’t like lasagne”

That’s lovely

Is it true that, in some American schools, students do essays on why the USA is the best country in the world?

Back when I was in high school in Florida, yes.

In the 1980s, state law in Florida required that all public high school students take a one-semester class called Americanism vs Communism, or AVC.

The State-approved AVC textbook can be summed up this way:

“Rah rah rah! We’re #1! America, fuck yeah! We won WWII and saved Europe and Russia! America is the best at everything! Woohoo! Look at how amazing we are! America, go us!”

Like, seriously, it was embarrassingly bad. We’re talking Soviet-Union-textbook bad. If George Orwell included a page from the AVC textbook in Nineteen Eighty-Four, critics would be all “nah, bro, too unrealistic.” You wouldn’t think it’s possible to fit so much cringe into one book.

I cannot fathom the degree of insecurity that went into passing the law that required teaching this class in schools.

Fortunately, I lucked out. My high school teacher, a WWII vet and survivor of the Bataan Death March, hated and loathed the class requirement and textbook with every fiber of his being, and made that very clear on the first day of class.

He refused to teach from the book at all. He told us point-blank “The state requirement for this class is complete propaganda bullshit. As far as I’m concerned, this is a class in Russian history, and that’s how I intend to teach it.”

He made his own teaching materials for the class and it rocked.

Short Men Energy

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c_KJmSuiswQ?feature=share

What would happen if China stopped investing in US treasuries? Would Americans face a financial crisis?

China has already stopped investing in U.S. Treasuries.

Since the beginning of the Ukraine War, China has been selling its Treasury holdings. As of October 2023, it continues to hold about $820 billion of U.S. Treasuries. This is a reduction of about 18% in one year.

Russia previously sold all its U.S. Treasury holdings, after the United States began to sanction it in connection withe Ukraine War. In about 2017, Russia encouraged the world to do the same.

At the same time, the Federal Reserve is selling the U.S. Treasury Bonds that it purchased during covid.

The combined actions of Russia, China and the Federal Reserve are driving down the value of U.S. Treasury Bonds. In the past six months, the value of 30 year bonds has fallen by about 50%. This raises interest rates in the United States, because the U.S. government must pay more to borrow.

The higher interest rates have greatly limited America’s options, financially. Housing prices are poised to fall, due to higher interest rates. Even worse, interest payments on the U.S. national debt have doubled. Interest payments will soon exceed what the United States spends on national defense. Thus, as you can see, the tactics of Russia and China have limited America’s ability to fight wars. We are seeing just the beginning of the cycle.

Your question is — will the United States face a financial crisis?

The answer is yes. If the United States (a) continues printing dollars, and (b) continues supporting a violent response to conflicts in the world, two things will happen:

The planet will refuse to work with the United States during America’s foreseeable crisis; and
The U.S. dollar will collapse, due to continued printing and the planet’s rejection of the dollar.

The collapse of the dollar will be devastating in the United States, because American society is dependent upon cheap gasoline and cheap imports, which will no longer exist in the United States.

The United States imports 28% of its crude oil. This leaves the United States vulnerable to a falling dollar. Contrary to popular belief, the United States is not “energy independent,” and remains vulnerable. The United States imports 5 million barrels of crude oil per day more than it exports. That is a lot of oil that won’t be coming into the United States when the dollar falls. In addition, President Biden foolishly sold decades of oil stored up by the WWII generation in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. America is not ready for the foreseeable crisis coming to its shores.

Expect riots and shortages in the United States. If Biden continues to pursue violent solutions to global conflict, those wars will return to the United States when the dollar comes down. The American people will be fighting over limited resources. There won’t be any jobs in America, when the shopping malls close.

Be equal or not

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2O1jxwQ00iw?feature=share

My friend has been terminated from the company that she’s been working for. On her last day of her work, she deleted all of her work in her computer. Does she have the right to do that, since all the work was done by her?

Normally the work product belongs to the company, not the worker. In the early days of solid state circuitry, my BIL developed much of it. Although his name is on the patents, the company owned them.

I was an independent contractor managing HOAs. ( Also a lawyer). I started by managing my own while my kids were preschoolers. It ran very smoothly so no one ever wanted to be on the Board until crazy ass lady and her group of idiots came on. True nut cases. One insisted on judging the Holiday decorating contest, then picked her own house as winner. One shot my dog. Board meetings were like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

The Board was 3/3, three humans, three horses asses. When one human was on vacation, the three asses called a special meeting and “ terminated “ me. Now they knew I would just sue them on my 2 year contract so they made paying me for another 18 months conditional on me delivering all the Assn documents and computer data on fees, violations etc on discs within five days. This belonged to them.

I was happy to get out of the nut house. The Assn owned the file cabinets. I just put them on a dolly and walked them to a Board member’s house and left them. I downloaded all the data in computer language and gave them the disks.

Problem was, I used a program I bought that was made by a company that had gone bankrupt. It was a great program. Totally unavailable for purchase anywhere. But I had no duty to give them my program. The computer disks were useless. The finances were also kept on a very old edition of an accounting program. I had no duty to provide them with my copy. The financial disks very useless to them without paying a few thousand for the program. It was a very specialized program used by CPAs

They spent a fortune going through old files and bank statements and quarterly financials to recreate payment records etc. And, I had fulfilled my duties. I got the next 18 months of my contract paid. They also received a cease and desist letter from me. The Assn ‘s original documents had a problem and no lender would loan on a house without a document called a Subordination agreement. Only a lawyer can write one. I always wrote them. No cost. It was my own HOA. But the first time they copied one on a new sale, I hit them with a cease and desist letter and reported them to the Bar for the unlicensed practice of law. So then they had to pay a lawyer for the next 150 or so documents. Lawyers are not free.

So, what the employer owns and what the employee owns is a mixed bag.

My guys…

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

I was in an elevator on a cruise ship. Some wiseacre saw my polka-dot suspenders.

He smirked, “Nice suspenders. You from Wisconsin?”

I replied, “No. Ever since my cancer surgery, I can’t wear a belt.”

His smirk instantly evaporated. The elevator doors opened on my floor, and I got out.

Soft tissue sarcoma caused by Agent Orange in Vietnam, They took out 1–3/4 pounds of me from my groin to my beltline. It left a notch where a belt would sit, so I can’t wear a belt comfortably.

Order over chaos

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/utsOIvH_FOs?feature=share

What is the coolest thing you have ever done in your life?

Two years back, I was on a road trip on my bike to Meghalaya. While returning, as I was tired I was riding slowly. I was still some 70 miles away from home, and it was already dark. On the highway, I saw a car parked and some people arguing. I rode past them, however before passing them I caught the sight of two women crying and eagerly looking through the front window.

I took a turn and came back to the spot. I saw four boys, around my age, were arguing and pushing a man of around 50 years old. Turns out, the family was returning from some function and lived in another town which was about 90 miles from mine. They were stopped by these four boys on bikes and asked them for some money. They started misbehaving when the old guy refused to pay. He asked his wife and daughter to stay in the car and got down to reason with them.

I heard the story from the old guy, while the boys asked me mind my own business and get the f**k off. I simply turned and started walking towards my bike. The man begged at me to stay and help him, and looked at the women in the back seat and felt their eyes pleading me to stay. But, I kept walking!

Here comes the twist! Now, during my rides I always keep a hockey stick on my bike. Bad luck for the guys who never knew this. They laughed at me, calling me names. One even said, “Yeah, keep walking you p***say.”

I took the hockey stick and came back running. The boys didn’t get time to react and I started beating them. The blows landed everywhere and I think two or more of them bled as well. I didn’t show them any mercy. Someone threw some punches and kicks at me too, but I had a more formidable weapon than them. Seeing me in action, the man also jumped in; his wife and daughter also got down and helped in whatever way they could. All beaten up and even not being able to stand properly, two boys somehow managed to run off on their bikes while the other two ran after them.

I told the man to start the car and keep driving, while I rode in front of him in case the boys decided to get help and chase us. When we entered the man’s town, we went to the police station and lodged a report. The daughter was smart enough to note down the bikes’ number plates. As it was very late, the man requested me to spend the night at their place. Once reaching home, the family thanked me for helping them. He wouldn’t even allow me to leave early next day, saying that he can’t send me off without a proper meal. Family, friends and relatives came to thank me for my heroism. I stayed for lunch and returned home.

To this day the gentleman calls me occasionally. He even invited me to his daughter’s wedding.

Now, let me tell you something. I’m not the brave person they take me to be. I was equally scared that night. I was terrified. It took me a lot of courage to do what I did. After this whole thing was over, I was so proud of it!

Companies Are Ditching Hiring Fresh Female Graduates

Does welfare perpetuate generational poverty?

My grandparents were too poor to afford a private jet or a private helicopter, they had to rely on government programs like public roads to get by.

They couldn’t afford to hire private tutors for my parents, and so had to send them to public schools to learn to read and write.

As one might expect, this cycle of dependency continued: My parents also didn’t have a private jet or helicopter, and they also had to rely on government programs like public roads to get by.
They also sent their kids to learn to read and write in public schools.

And here I am: made lazy by all this generational welfare, I’m not pulling on my bootstraps nearly hard enough to afford my own private airport.
Like my parents before me, and my grandparents before them, I depend entirely on government programs like public roads (or worse, public transit!!) to get to work.

There is no means testing in place for using public roads, which leads to rampant abuse.
I’ve seen people use them to go for a stroll, even though they could have afforded a treadmill.
Not only that, but these type of government handouts kill any incentive for most people to get a private helicopter, they’d rather stay dependent upon the government provided public roads.

It’s truly a modern tragedy, with no end in sight.

You rascal

What happened in your office that became the stuff of legend?

The Door.

Years and years ago, when I quit smoking, I found my temper would often flare up during the first few weeks of abstinence.

I worked at a remote branch office with a staff of six. One morning when I came to work early, something went “wrong” and I was so angry that I impulsively gut-punched my office door.

The door was hollow core wood; I punched right through it.

I admitted my foolish outrage to my office mates when they entered an hour later.

And little was said about it; I believe they were sympathetic with my situation, and supportive of my effort to quit smoking.

There matters laid at rest; nothing more said.

Until the office Christmas party, when staff from all branches and the headquarters office (over 100 souls) gathered at some central location for a cocktail party and most sumptuous feast. Everything paid for by the company as a treat to us. This was followed by after-dinner drinks, and the “awards ceremony.”

The awards ceremony was a production of the employees and was in the nature of a good-humored “roast,” drawing upon such amusing things as had happened involving any of them over the past year. Some of the recognition was by actual funny trophies which were passed from one recipient to another; others were unlikely objects constructed of broom sticks, hub-caps, old radios, or heaven knows what.

Because I and my cohorts were from the remotest branch, none of us received, or ever expected to receive, recognition at this ceremony. We had our OWN Christmas party, for that.

Thus it was quite a surprise, to me, when I saw that my associate, Greg, was called upon by the master of ceremonies to announce the grand prize winner. He briefly described in very general terms the struggle of one individual to overcome a serious addiction. I was as curious as everyone else to know who, and to know the story. The room became very quiet, as the subject appeared to deviate from the laughable to the serious. The recipient was as yet unnamed.

Then a cloaked object was carried onto the dais, looking for all the world like a draped coffin.

With the words, “And the winner is, John Scott Geare,” the black drape was pulled away to reveal my actual office door, with a precise halo painted around its wound. Somehow, the damned thing had been spirited from our office, and carried the 60 miles to the party, unbeknownst to me.

And it became the stuff of legend.

You owe me half

Chick was only going out for a free meal. And he says…

Cajun Style Tip Roast

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) tip roast
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped green bell peppers
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Combine vegetables, spices and oil.
With a sharp knife make 8 to 12 deep V-shape slit pockets, stopping an inch from the bottom of roast. Fill the pockets with the vegetable mixture, reserving some to rub on top of roast.
Bake uncovered for 2 1/2 hours or until thermometer reads 140 degrees F for medium rare beef.
Serve with pan juices.

Nutrition

Per serving: Calories 391; fiber 1g; carbohydrates 2g, Protein 61g, Cholesterol 160mg; Sodium 509mg; Fat 14g (32% of calories from fat)

Inaccurate Self assessment

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c0CzEzo7VwI?feature=share

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

A number of years ago I worked for a large US company. My role was in sales (industrial product). In my third year, I was selected for management. As such, I was trained in recruiting and helped district managers hire talent.

I visited one district and held a recruiting fair and ultimately recommended 10 applicants to the manager. The manager had his own candidate and asked me to interview him. In my opinion, his choice was terrible. He did not have any of the qualities successful people in our business had. I told him this.

Jump ahead six months. I become the manager for that district. My predecessor had hired the guy I did not recommend and did not even call any of the 10 I recommended.

Within three months i had hired five new sales reps. Four did very well and stayed for years. One failed within six months. The one that I did not recommend? I had to let him go due to poor performance and poor attitude. When I told him I had to let him go, he held onto my desk and told me he really did not want to be fired and would not leave the office. He would continue to come to work. It took several hours to convince him that he was not a good match for our industry. I continued to pay him for one month as he searched for another job.

Please don’t tell me I am mean and unfeeling. In my 30+ years of managing, I have supported many people in many different ways. The bottom line, if someone is not doing well in a job, it is usually because they are not trying or they are just in the wrong job. The latter is almost always the case. If you have a good, hard working person, try to find a different position in your company for him/her. That’s the mark of a good manager.

A biological male…

Why do some scientists on the Internet seem so arrogant toward people with differing opinions?

I first noticed this phenomenon with a guy named Dr.Layne Norton. Layne has a PhD in biochemistry. This man has forgotten more about the human body than I’ve ever learned, and I’ll have my Masters degree next month.

He’s an elite level powerlifter.

And a pro bodybuilder,

He also runs a youtube channel where he shares some advice on bodybuilding and powerlifting. I began to notice that the comment section was particularly toxic.

People were insulting this man’s intelligence, his personality, and his family.

I didn’t understand why. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Until I stumbled upon the answer.

One commenter said, “I’m sure you know what you’re talking about, you just seem arrogant though.” The comment had 100s of likes.

Scientists tend to speak in very absolute terms. Why? Because they’ve studied the shit out of whatever it is they’re discussing. And because they speak so unequivocally, people get turned off.

For example, I wrote an answer in which I said working out in the afternoon is best for muscle building and performance. The hormones and body temperature are in a better position to support a workout in the afternoon.

How do I know? I wrote a 20 page paper on this topic for school (supported by 30 peer reviewed studies).

Some guy told me that I was a liar. Why? According to him, testosterone is obviously highest in the morning… because men get morning wood…..

Like many have said, scientists have spent years studying a topic, and they’ve forgotten more about said topic than most will ever even hear. As far as I’m concerned, they’ve EARNED the right to be a little arrogant when it comes to their subject.

Since 1979…

What is the best comeback you used on someone?

I was adopted at birth. From the time I was able to understand anything, my parents called me their Chosen Child and gave me a poem with that name. I was raised to feel special. When I was in 3rd grade, one of the spoiled little rich girls tried to make fun of me, saying mean things, like, my mother hated me and got rid of me so that I had to be taken in by strangers out of pity – really wicked thing for an 8-year-old to say. When she finally took a breath, I responded by saying that I KNEW my parents wanted me, they CHOSE me. Then I said “I bet you were an ax-i-dent!” and walked away. When I got home from school, my mother said she had gotten a call from that girl’s mother, wanted to know what happened, and asked me how in the world I knew what an “accident” was, laughing all the time! I was only 8, had no clue, but I had heard her talking on the phone when she mentioned a girl getting pregnant by accident. Obviously, she didn’t know I heard her or that I understood the gist of the conversation. She was laughing when she told daddy – and that was when I began hearing her say to her friends that “little pitchers have big ears” as she changed the conversation. I don’t know what a little pitcher is, and that may not be what she said, but that’s all that I heard before they started a new conversation!

Your future children…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Oo8ihDBf4qc?feature=share

What does a babysitter do if parents don’t respond to calls and they don’t show up until the next day?

If they said they would be home at a certain time and didn’t call to ASK if it was ok that they stayed out later, I would call the police. I give them 1/2 hour past designated time to call and if they didn’t answer 2 calls and 2 texts all done within 1/2 hour time frame, the police would be informed of how worried I am about their safety because it’s now an hour late with them not calling or answering multiple calls and texts. Let them deal with the cops questioning them about not contacting you or answering you. The cops will let them know you only concerned about their well being and they will also rip them a new one for informing you and also for leaving their child alone with a babysitter who is now upset that something had happened to them. Trust me, they will never do it again to any babysitter. I say any babysitter because after that, I would NEVER babysit for them again, even at 4x’s the amount of money.

I actually like you

One of my favorite shorts.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1kypV3rvNHg?feature=share What is an example of “It was nice while it lasted”?

Chaurice

This Creole pork sausage is an old local favorite dating back to the 19th Century, but Chaurice isn’t as easy to find as it once was. It would seem to have come to Louisiana with the Spanish, and was adapted to local custom and ingredients; the term is similar to the Spanish chorizo. It’s great with white or red beans, and good for breakfast too, with eggs.

Ingredients

4 pounds lean fresh pork, butt or shoulder
2 pounds fresh pork fat
2 cups onion, finely minced
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic, finely minced
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
8 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground red pepper
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves, crushed
5 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
3 bay leaves, finely crushed
1/2 teaspoon allspice
3 yards small sausage casing (optional)

Instructions

Cut the pork at fatback into small pieces. Mix together and run once through the coarse disc of a meat grinder into a large bowl.
Add the seasonings and mix thoroughly until the stuffing is very smooth and well blended.
Make into patties, and use within three days or freeze.

Notes

You can also put chaurice into casings; make each sausage about six inches in length.

An interesting event happened in the South China sea on 24 December 2023

There was an interesting event happening on South China sea 24 December 2023.

This is a translated Chinese article pulled off the American platform Quora. Access to the article has since been "suppressed" and is not so easily found. Enjoy this article. -MM

Fact confirmed :

U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet announced Thursday night that the Electronic Attack Squadron 136 (VAQ-136) on the “Carl Vinson” aircraft carrier (CVN-70) currently operating in the South China Sea Commander Lieutenant Colonel William Coulter was relieved of his duties on the grounds that he “lost confidence in his command ability” Paul Ritter(Another military high rank in US navy), who was originally scheduled to serve as the squadron commander in April 2024, immediately Take over.

William Coulter is temporarily transferred to the Electronic Warfare Wing, Pacific. William Coulter has only served as the commander of VAQ-136 in January 2023, but was suddenly dismissed a few days after the “Carl Vinson” entered the South China Sea.

Speculation :

The F-18 “Three Brothers” on the US aircraft carrier. In the top is the single-seat F-18E, which is used for air control. The one in the middle is the F-18F multi-purpose type, which is mainly used for anti-ship/anti-ship and close range. the one in the bottom is an EF-18 “Growler” electronic warfare attack aircraft.

The fired electronic warfare commander (William Coultier) of the USS Carl Vinson managed this type of electronic squadron.

The strength of electronic warfare capabilities is extremely important for the US military’s aircraft carrier strike group (different from battle groups). Failure to obtain “electromagnetic control” means that enemy fighters, warships and even land-based anti-ship equipment will have a high chance of successful penetration, The warhead charge of modern heavy anti-ship weapons is no longer RDX, but CL-20 explosive (hexanitrogen), its power is three times that of TNT. The equivalent of about one ton of TNT explodes inside the aircraft carrier (more advanced weapons are equipped with armor-piercing nose cones, which can easily penetrate the aircraft carrier) with more than 6 times Mach impact energy, although the probability of sinking if hit by one is low, severe damage and loss of combat effectiveness are certain!

It is said last week, the US military’s EP-3E “Aries” electronic warfare aircraft encountered our military’s Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft over the southern Taiwan Strait. The two aircraft conducted a complex electronic offensive and defensive battle. The US aircraft did not gain any advantage, Evacuated the premise.

EP-3E is not under the management of the commander of the VAQ-136 Electronic Warfare Squadron aboard the USS Carl Vinson, which has nothing to do with his dismissal, but it is likely that he was defeated when he commanded the EF-18 to confront our J-16D, which resulted in the “Carl Vinson” being exposed to the firepower of our military.

Our army’s J-16D may be the most powerful operational/tactical electronic warfare aircraft in the world. It is derived from a heavy fighter, while the E/F-18 is a medium-sized aircraft. With comparable levels of electronic devices and integration technology, The former has a larger fuselage, higher engine power generation and greater power. It has a slight advantage over the “Growler” in interference and burn-through capabilities (anti-jamming), and our military has geographical advantages. “Growler” “It needs to take off from an aircraft carrier, and it is also at a disadvantage in terms of range and fleet size. However, our military can launch more J-16Ds at the same time to implement spectrum suppression (which can interfere with the Aegis radar on the Burke-class destroyer). This is all It was the reason that led to the downfall of the E/F-18.

The J-16D cooperates with other electronic warfare aircraft to compete for electromagnetic control rights, and then the H-6K carries long-range hypersonic missiles to strike. This is a tactic that US aircraft carriers cannot crack at this stage.

Needless to say, the struggle between our country and the United States is intensifying. In the past three or four years, when American aircraft carriers have entered the South China Sea from the Bashi Channel, our military will organize large fighter formations to conduct simulated offensive and defensive battles against them!

With the improvement of our military’s technology, the US aircraft carrier battle group can no longer show off its power like it did during the “96 crisis”. It has more symbolic significance than military significance. the US military’s four EA-6D “Prowler” electronic machines were able to interfere with telecommunications signals in most areas of Fujian and Zhejiang.

Conclusion of the speculation :

William Courtier putting the aircraft carrier at risk from our forces, and was dismissed.

Author Note :

US often send their war machine to china’s sea. do you really think US submarine hit mountain in South China Sea?

if you see the damage in that submarine, you can clearly see it was not caused by a breeding box, why because the upper part was not damaged. it was caused by a Chinese underwater drone, the best speculation due to damage is in the middle of the upper part of your so called sophisticated submarine.

Beowulf restaurants

In the late 1970’s / early 1980’s was a short-lived period of time where Beowulf restaurants made an appearance. They were briefly popular. And didn’t last long. But it was something that happened and then disappeared long before the invention of the Internet.

I never attended one of these venues, and so all that I know about this fad was second hand and from articles that I had read at that time. Apparently, what was popular was a rather crude communal table where everyone ate rather simple meals of meat, mead, and rough breads.

Time moves on… and the world revolves. The past is forgotten, and replaced with new things. We all need to deal with this reality.

Today…

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

Aged 13, just after school two pretty girls ask me to come to the bicycle lot to “show me something”. Wow – attention from two pretty girls – I’m in! (OK, I was also headed there anyhow to get my bike to cycle home, but still!) So off we go. They’re flirty and friendly, I’m wondering what the heck is going on but I’m too stoked to be suspicious.

As we come around a corner two boys jump me, each grabbing an arm and holding fast. Another approaches carrying a big plastic container, filled with some kind of lumpy slimy stuff – looks a bit like oat porridge. As he gets closer he is flanked by the two girls and gets ready to chuck the stuff on me. I am desperate. I kick at it, just hoping to prevent him achieving his goal. It spins out of his hands, flinging slime into his and both girls’ faces, as well as all over the boy on my left’s chest and stomach. They’re all screaming and scatter. Now I am angry. I turn and pick up the container, spin and throw it wildly away from me. It randomly hits the one boy that was not initially splattered square on the back of his head as he is running away and spills the last of its contents down his back. Five for five.

I go get my bike and head home, not a speck on me.

Bringing up the hard conversation

As a teacher, what was the best excuse a student gave for being late?

True story:
I had a student who was 15 minutes late to my 1st period class every day. After a week of this, I asked what the hell was going on. Turned out his single parent mom was an alcoholic and every morning was passed out on the couch. He took it upon himself to get his younger sister ready for school each morning, making sure she showered, had clean clothes, and ate breakfast, homework completed, etc. Then he drove her to middle school which was in the opposite direction of the high school to assure she arrived safely. Because of the different 1st bell times, he was always 15 minutes late. I told him to skip going to the office and just come directly to class, enter quietly, and we’d be good. I never questioned his story. Other students whined and asked why THEY had to be on time if he didn’t. “You want to trade places with him? Take his life for yours?” No takers. Everyone knew.

So it wasn’t really an excuse, it was a legit reason.

What is the most condescending advice you received from someone who assumed you were poorer or less educated than them?

I was walking my dog around the marina and I was going back to my dad’s boat. I saw a couple standing next to it. I walked down to the end of the dock and the guy told me only boat owners are allowed on the docks, and I have to get out. Then he turned to the woman and was telling her about the places he’s been on his boat, and how he has to find someone to clean it…all this time he was pointing at my dad’s boat.

I was just standing there wondering what’s going on. Then he told me that if I’m lucky enough I’ll find a rich guy like him, and told me to go away before he called security. The woman said I’ll have to find some other guy because he’s taken. She made a face at me and was hugging him. I tried going around them and he asked what I’m doing. I told him I was getting on my dad’s boat, and they both laughed at me.

Then Ed (one of the crew) came out from the back of the boat and told me dinner is ready. I told him I’ll be right up as soon as these idiots got out of my way. I stuck my tongue out at the woman and said he’s all yours. She got mad and walked away. The guy was following her and she kept yelling at him to stay away and how he’s a fake. Tom (another crew) opened the side door and asked me what’s going on….I said she didn’t like him as much as she thought she did.

What is the definition of “an alcoholic”?

I am an alcoholic. Warning, answer may contain triggers.

When I have one beer, although I will drink it slow, I will want another one directly afterwards. Because I will have opened something inside of me that is similar to a lock.

Once this lock has been opened I immediately relax. I feel good. That beer tasted great and made me feel great. I want to feel more of that.

So I have a second beer. This one I drink a little quicker because I now have the taste for it. After my fourth beer I start drinking rum. I don’t even remember drinking those last two pints, but I’m sure that they tasted great too. I feel fantastic.

I buy a bottle of rum to take home, and make sure that there is at least six beers chilling in the fridge for tomorrow. I drink through the night.

The next day I wake up and there’s only one beer left in the fridge and the rum is nearly empty. I polish off the beer directly after breakfast and pop to the shops to buy some more. I’ll buy 20 beers this time to last through the week, and another bottle of rum. But I’ll save the rum for the week, and buy a couple of bottles of Prosecco for today. It’s a nice and sunny day, and will be lighter than drinking beer.

By 3pm the Prosecco has gone and I am back on the beer and the rum. I run out of beer on Monday and the rum has gone by Tuesday, so I pop back to the shops to stock up mid week.

After fifteen years of living like this my kidneys start bleeding urate crystals into my blood stream which gives me gout. I lose the ability to walk, sleep or function as a normal human being for weeks at a time. Over the next few years my life becomes a living hell.

I decide to quit drinking and have now been sober for 26 months. I no longer suffer from gout.

I avoid going to the pub, because it is frankly boring if you are not eating or drinking. “Why don’t you just have one ?” my friends always ask.

Because I am an alcoholic. When I have one beer, although I will drink it slow, I will want another one afterwards.

Arousal

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QBFIn2EaWoI?feature=share

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

Back in middle school, I would bike my way to school, about 1.7 miles each way. I rode a $40 10-speed bike as two days of work was all that my parents could afford at the time.

The route would take me through city streets and up and down an overpass that stopped at a red light with cross traffic. Every time I came down that overpass, I would hope the light is green so I didn’t need to push my bike’s crappy brakes to their limits.

During the winter months when rain added to my misery, that downslope stop got extra sketchy as wet bike tires won’t grip the pavement. I really tried to time for that green light on the way down.

One time, when the rains made the pavement extra slick, I worked my way down when the light was green. So, I didn’t bother slowing down as much. But, just as I was about the enter the intersection, about 30 feet away, the light turned yellow. At that point, I had no chance to stop. I had two choices. I could either wipe out and slide straight into traffic or take my chances shooting through it.

I went with what seemed to be the lower risk move and went for it. As I entered the intersection, the light turned red and the cross traffic light turned green. A big pick up truck, one of those from the 1980s with the chrome trimmed grill, came straight at me from the left. Apparently he had seen his light turn green and was trying to catch it.

Somehow, he caught sight of me flying across in front of him and slammed on his brakes. I heard his tires tear at the wet pavement as they brought the big truck to a stop inches from me. I felt the steamy heat from radiator pour right on my face.

Stunned, I didn’t stop. I crossed the intersection and continued on the other side without daring to look back. I heard the truck roar across the intersection as I kept going, still shaking from the close call.

Those days, I never wore a bike helmet as I was young and an idiot. Somehow, I lucked out instead of becoming a vegetable.

Why Are Japanese Women Blowing Loads On Men

This is super interesting. And it is NOT what you think.

What will always be cool?

My buddy Tyler and I were out at a pool hall shooting a few games of 8 Ball.

A couple of jerkoffs fueled by liquid courage sat down in our area, pulled out their fancy cue sticks, and asked “You guys want to play doubles against us?”

When we declined their offer, they assumed we were just scared of losing.

We were having fun and not taking our game too seriously, but after every missed shot, we heard their snide remarks.

“C’mon, man! A toddler could have made that.”
“If you guys played against us, you’d probably learn a thing or two.”

Tyler had enough and invited them in for a game. He is an excellent billiards player, but he kept quiet, didn’t hype himself up, and didn’t trash talk.

Those guys maybe sank 3 of their balls before Tyler cleared the table.

Even after he demolished them, he didn’t gloat or rub it in their face. He just said “Good game” and we went about our business.

Humbly putting people in their place will always be cool.

Alphas and Beta orbiters

Do you think a character can be too flawed to work as a character in a story?

No. There’s no such thing as “too flawed a character.” Just look at A Song of Ice and Fire. Everyone in the story is flawed, and about half of them are entirely irredeemable. Still, it captured the hearts and souls of a generation of readers.

You can even make your flawed, irredeemable character your protagonist, like Lolita. Humbert Humbert was a pathetic child rapist who lived in his own fantasy world. He took us (the readers) on a ride and forced us to think about our own preconceptions about “love and romance.”

However, there are some pitfalls you need to be mindful about.

First of all, be very clear about the flaws of your character. There are a lot of supposed good characters engaging in extremely questionable behaviors and were considered “acceptable” by the author, by the characters around the flawed characters, and the author wanted the readers to root for the flawed character, ignoring or sometimes because of their problematic behavior.

For example, Edward’s obsession with Bella in Twilight is deeply problematic and abusive. Bella constantly puts herself in danger so she can see Edward is deeply problematic and manipulative. And yet, the author obviously thought these behaviors were OMG so romantic, and we’re supported to root for a 100-year-old vampire taking advantage of a teenager’s vulnerability. That’s bad storytelling.

If you want to write a flawed character, you need to make sure other characters in your story react to your flawed character in realistic and reasonable ways. One good example is Elementary on CBS. Granted, it is a TV show, but the concept applies. Similar to other modern Sherlock retellings, Sherlock Holmes in Elementary is deeply flawed in your typical Sherlockian ways. But unlike other modern Sherlock retellings, people around Sherlock don’t take his bullshit. They aren’t unreasonable enablers of his abusive behavior. They call him out for it so Sherlock can grow to be a better person.

And that’s the KEY of having a flawed character. The point isn’t writing the flaws. The POINT of the story is for the flawed characters to GROW and become better (or become worse if you are writing a tragedy). A flawed character who remains the same from beginning to end is a boring character (unless they are a villain).

Secondly, there’s a difference between being flawed and being likable. Han Solo is a flawed character, but he’s also instantly likable and remains so throughout the series. On the other hand, Princess Leia was also a flawed character, and she started out entirely unlikable. Han Solo’s character growth is about him growing some conscience and doing the right thing, while Leia’s character arc is about her becoming more and more relatable and likable, which is a lot harder to write (Lucas absolutely doesn’t have the skill to write it). If the story was about Leia as the protagonist, Star Wars might not be as enjoyable as it is.

The reason I stopped reading Name of the Wind is because I found Kvothe to be entirely unlikable. Yes, yes, I understand the writer wants to pull a Humber Humbert and give us an unreliable narrator, but the point of an unreliable narrator is to show how unreliable the narrator was. In the case of Lolita, the author shows us the devastation of Humbert Humbert’s actions on Lolita and how it ruined her life. And if the “Lolita is 12” doesn’t make the point of Humber Humbert being an unreliable narrator and a despicable child predator from the beginning, I think you should be on some kind of list.

The problem with Name of the Wind is that the author was so wrapped up in the awesomeness of his own unreliable narrator and never bothered to show us just how stupid and arrogant the guy actually is. Sure, in later books, we get to see some failures of Kvothe, but the author went out of his way to make justifications for Kvothe so we, the readers, would still root for him.

I found Kvothe’s narrative to be juvenile. If a 15-year-old edge lord wants to write a self-insert wish-fulfilling fantasy where he’s the best of everything, the youngest of everything in the whole damn world, and save the day being the hero, get multiple girls to fall for him, you get Kvothe. I roll my eyes every other page until I have to give up before I get an aneurysm.

Of course, Name of the Wind is an award-winning book. And there are plenty of 15-year-old edge lords who see themselves in Kvothe and will defend the book to the death. So… to each their own.

That leads me to my third point: You can’t please everyone. There will always be people who don’t like your story, and that’s OK. As writers, the only thing we can do is to be authentic to ourselves and hope that authenticity will connect us to our readers through our works. So, if you want to write deeply flawed characters doing horrible things, go right ahead. There are plenty of writers who make a career writing extremely gory stories about horrible people torturing and killing each other (Yes, I’m looking at you, GRRM, where’s the Winds of Winter? Hum?).

Do what feels right for you.

Inflation

What is the weirdest life lesson you have learned in your life?

One of the worst feeling is letting someone go from your life but still keeping them in your heart, you miss them but you can’t tell them because situations aren’t the same anymore.
Sometimes, you end up losing yourself trying to hold on to someone who doesn’t care about losing you.
Strangers can become best friends just as easy as best friends can become strangers.
Spending a large amount of time with someone literally causes you to a pick up their habits. Choose your friends wisely.
No one ever discovers the depth of their own loneliness.
Most people have their own shit to worry about.
When in doubt, don’t act. Wait for that moment of inspiration to strike.
Denying the truth doesn’t change the facts.
It’s weird how we sometimes think we can’t live without them again then you blink and you don’t even miss them anymore.
We often pretend that everything is getting better, when it’s not.
Sometimes being all alone and enjoying our own company helps a lot.
It’s awesome when someone understands you more than you.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

HR lady I was friendly with did me a solid. We were at the coffee maker and she was fuming about something, so I asked what was up. She looked at me, sighed and said “You might want to start looking for a new job. Your manager is not your friend”. That’s when I realised I wasn’t being paranoid and my manager really was trying to push me out. A week later, I was sacked.

Flawed logic

Does Xi Jinping’s family or relatives own land in the U.S.?

Sanctioning, confiscating, and robbing “enemy countries” is a Western specialty.

If Xi’s family or relatives owned land in the United States, it would have been confiscated by the US government in the Sino US confrontation. Confiscating the assets of Xi’s family is much more justified than robbing the assets of legitimate Chinese businessmen such as Huawei.

The West has not even let go of sanctions against Russian cats, Russian artist, let alone the land owned by the Xi’s family.

Meng Wanzhou was inexplicably detained by Canada for three years simply because Huawei received payment from Iran in its HSBC account.

Mao loves swimming, and when Americans learned this information, During the Mao era, even bikini swimsuits and trunks sold to China were subject to US sanctions. Lol!

What’s the cleverest cheating you’ve ever seen as a teacher or student?

I quite enjoyed the “cheat” I used in a mock A-level exam many years ago. We all had Casio FX-7000G programmable calculators that had room for ten custom programs. For our maths exams (and probably physics as well?) it was standard practice for the invigilators to wander up and down the line of desks before the exam, where you had to show the program home screen that displayed the list of ten slots and showed them all as being empty. I thought it would be funny simply to create a program that, when run, displayed a mock-up of the home screen, showing text that looked identical to the actual home screen with all ten slots being (apparently) empty. In one of my exams I had this set as the sole program on the calculator, just to prove (to myself) that the invigilators would not be able to notice the difference. I ran it just before entering the exam hall, and, yep, the invigilator took a look at the calculator and was satisfied that there were no programs entered on it. If I recall correctly, there WAS one visible difference, which was that the real screen had a flashing text caret at the bottom whereas my mocked-up screen did not. But the invigilator didn’t spot it. I suppose you’re just expecting everybody to comply and your brain sees what it wants to see when 99% of the screen is exactly as predicted.

I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to pull the same stunt in the real final exams, let alone actually use it to mask the presence of other hidden programs. But I did have fun testing out my little proto-cheating hypothesis that one time.

When you were a kid, what did you teach yourself to do without your parents knowing or approving?

Not me … but once I took a former student of mine and her eight year old daughter to breakfast when I was visiting her city. While we were catching up, the daughter was doing something quietly with her fingers. We asked what she was doing. “Oh, I’m counting in binary, see? One, two, three, … ,” as she raised and lowered successive fingers to represent the 1’s and 0’s of the binary system. “But I can only go to 32, holding all five fingers out. Oh, wait! 33, 34, 35 … “ as she used her other hand to coninue. Her mom asked where she learned that. She said, “I saw some older kids do it, so I taught myself.” I don’t think we should worry about that child.

Favorites…

What did someone say to you that instantly made you realize their life was in danger?

My dad said he should get his “cancer” looked at. I asked what he meant and he opened his shirt. There was a 2-inch long mole-like growth on his chest, brown and black and rough on the surface.

I’d had many skin cancers removed, and dermatologists have lots of pictures around showing both the benign and the dangerous kinds. This looked exactly like the photos of very dangerous Melanoma, the lethal version that had no cure.

I got him to go to the best doctor in Dallas. His diagnosis: Lie on the operating table – now! We have to remove the cancer today, without waiting for the biopsy. It was definitely the deadly kind.

He removed it all using the then-new Mohs technique of mapping the sample, flash freezing it and checking if there were any ‘edges’ that may still leave cancer cells.

My dad came home with 23 staples in his chest; my mom fainted at the sight. But he survived.

He’s 94 years old, living comfortably in Arizona, and still mentions how I saved his life sending him to the doctor 30 years ago.

Body counts of 19 year old girls

Damn! But, it’s a new world…

What screams “I’m upper class”?

In college, I made a pretty good living writing papers for trust-funders.

My background is dirt poor: single mother, trailer park, small town. I earned a scholarship to a Top 20 private university. It was my first exposure to True Wealth.

Where I grew up, the farmer who drove his Cadillac into town was “rich.” The doctor who built a Tudor monstrosity beside the lake was “rich.”

They weren’t, as I realized during freshman orientation.

A guy down the hall had the same last name as a Wall Street brokerage. His great-(or great-great) grandfather founded it.

A girl upstairs (coed dorm) was the daughter of a household-name media figure.

My roommate’s dad wasn’t famous, but he owned a company that manufactured parts for the Big 3 automakers. It was quite a conversation stopper when he asked, “So what does your dad do?”

I met many others. I became friends with some. Others, I noticed, were patronizingly polite toward me.

They took money for granted, to the extent that they were baffled, even resentful, when lack of it was an impediment. A friend and I discussed moving to an off-campus apartment the next year. I calculated that my scholarships (plus the side hustle) would cover half the rent and utilities for basic two-bedroom squalor.

He found us a condo that, for a mere $150,000 apiece (40 years ago), we could live in for three years and then resell for a handsome profit. He couldn’t understand how my single mother, still living in a trailer, didn’t have $150,000. “Well, can’t she just borrow it?” He found a future roomie with deeper parental pockets. We were never as friendly again.

He was the son of a lawyer and a Fortune 500 VP. Like so many others I met, he had attended prestigious prep schools, some of which even a hick like me had heard of.

And many of them didn’t give a fuck about the education an elite university could provide. They viewed their admission the same as their trust funds — as a present given at birth.

My roommate skipped far more classes than he attended, but he managed to pass. (Not only are the rich different from you and me, as Fitzgerald observed, but so are the rules that apply to them.)

His mom had even written his admissions essay. It was how things worked in their world. Other people did things for you, while you floated along in your cloud of privilege.

He was my first customer — an English 101 five-pager comparing-contrasting Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn. He wanted to go skiing instead.

I was careful not to write it too well. He got a B-minus and was satisfied.

Word got around. I charged exorbitantly — $100 (about $350 today) and sometimes more, depending on length and deadline imminence. The Fifth-Avenuers and Connecticut-estaters were happy to be overcharged and undereducated.

These were not stupid people. Their range of experiences had made them far more sophisticated than I. They just didn’t see the point of learning for learning’s sake. No classroom-derived fact or principle or perspective would make a material difference in their lives’ trajectories.

My roommate, for example, knew that once he shook the dean’s hand and accepted his fancy paper, he’d begin working in his dad’s company. The four years until then were Party Time. All he had to do was not get kicked out.

Years later, I realized that as an executive in the family business, he’d never dream of sorting out a complex problem by himself. If critical thinking or analysis were required, or research and a report to summarize it, he’d hire someone to do it — some jumped-up striver, some social-climbing grind educated on scholarships.

Someone like me. In a way, college actually was preparing him for the future.

Effort is for the little people. Nothing screams “upper class” louder.

EDIT: A few replies have criticized my answer for equating monetary wealth with social class. Fair point, although in my experience the noblesse oblige plummet rather swiftly without wealth to keep them aloft.

On the other side of the coin, even the nouveau-est of the nouveau-riches often establish their begrudged place among American aristocracy within a generation. Papa Joe Kennedy was a crass, rum-running thug, yet his kids were perceived to be shining knights of Camelot.

Upper class is longitudinal wealth and privilege. And power. Always power, even when wielded without malice or intent.

With that in mind, I’ve made a few tweaks to clarify that the old classmates I’ve mentioned grew up in an upper class cocoon, where they developed the patronizing obliviousness toward struggle/work/effort and an occasionally disdainful amusement toward social climbers.

Doing the right thing

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

I left message with a cruise line stating I was a dealer looking for work.

30 minutes later I got a call back.

Hi this is Ed from Dolphin cruise lines. Do you deal roulette?

Me: yes

Ed: you have a passport?

Me: yes

Ed: we have an opening but you need to make it to Miami in 3 days. Call me when you’re here.

So. I sold my car to get money for a flight. Told my girlfriend I was moving out and leaving for Miami. (It was a crappy relationship. Part of the reason I applied).

As soon as I got to Miami I called Ed and he told me to hurry and get to the port. I arrived and was amazed at how big the ships were and was trying to guess which one was mine when I met Ed. He gave me a plane ticket to Aruba and told me to hurry back to airport as the flight was leaving in a few hours.

Flew on the first and only smoking flight on Air Aruba. Got off and joined the M/S Oceanbreeze. Was the start of a 12 year journey that had me see over 100 countries, 27 ships, and 9 cruises lines until I met my wife on one and we returned to Canada to settle down.

In retrospect it was the most influential call of my life.

While driving a stick shift, how do you handle taking off at a traffic light when there’s a car extremely close behind you on a hill?

Fifty years ago, on my honeymoon in San Francisco, my new bride asked if she could drive my car. I said “Sure!” – without hesitation, knowing that was the only conceivable right answer. It was a Porsche 356 coupe I had while still in grad school and while we were dating. She had been with me on lots of drives, but had never driven the car.

But you don’t drive in San Francisco without, at some time, being stuck on a hill – the city is hilly! And sure enough, a car came right up behind us and stopped.

“What do I do?”, she cried out. I talked her through it: With your feet firmly on the clutch and brake, pull on the parking brake. Then with the car in first gear, move your foot to the accelerator pedal and rev the engine so it doesn’t lug. Now slowly let the clutch out until you feel the car try to move forward, then release the parking brake. Up the hill we went (whew!).

She never asked to drive my car again.

Only seeing the finished product

Have you ever done something nice for someone, and they returned the favor many years later?

I’m a physician and used to work in a small town. One evening a tree cutter knocked on my door. He had cut his thumb off. I made sure the bleeding was slowed and suggested he see a specialty hand surgeon but he insisted he had no insurance and could neither afford the emergency room or a specialist.

I agreed to do the surgery. I blocked his arm with anesthesia and I spent all night in my office re-implanting his thumb.

The next day, my office staff saw the blood in the exam/surgical room and asked what happened and asked how much to charge. I instructed them NOT to charge him as he had no insurance.

Although the first few days were rocky, my patient did well and now has a normal functioning thumb.

Years went by and Hurricane Hugo smashed the North and South Carolina coast directly hitting Charleston and began to move inward and upward. The storm hit my town and knocked trees over and many were in my yard including one that fell and hit my two-year-old daughter’s window!

The morning after the storm, I heard the noise of a chain saw. I looked out and there was the tree cutter cleaning up AND grinding the stumps of all my trees! He yelled and waved- “Doc, no worries – I’m just paying you back!” Quite a nice barter deal!

What women want

These video clips are just so precious.

I’m 63 years old and so lonely. Does it matter to anyone?

A couple of years ago, I noticed a hunchbacked figure standing in our front garden, but I had no idea what it was doing there. Instead of approaching the figure, I watched it patiently, and noticed that she seemed to be pulling weeds. And then she was gone.

Over the next few weeks and months, the woman reappeared on an irregular basis, and proceeded with pulling weeds on her own in our frontyard, slowly and decidedly, but also absently — as if she was meditating.

Sometimes, I also heard her singing.

One day, we walked up to her to have a chat. And so she told us she was a widow who had lived on her own for almost a decade now, only a couple of houses further down the road, and that in lack of any company (except for a son who only seemed to surface if he needed something), one day she had decided to pull some weeds — be cause she loved doing that.

And she had chosen our frontyard.

She asked us if that was alright, and we happily acknowledged. It was the start of a curious frontyard relationship which sublimated through (watching) pulling weeds, (listening to) old forgotten songs, waving hallo to each other with a smile, and the occasional short chat. It lasted for some years.

One day, the weeds kept on growing and the old songs started to fade, and in front of her old house, an ugly “TO SELL” sign appeared which symbolized her passing. In between the high grass and long thistles in our frontyard, you could still find some crumbled musical notes if you had some luck.

So to answer your question: it does matter to anyone.

It matters to us.

Creole Goulash

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds beef round steak
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 (16 ounce) bag frozen soup vegetables
1 (16 ounce) bag frozen Brussels sprouts
1 bag frozen hash brown potatoes
1 can tomato juice
McCormick’s Creole Seasoning
Garlic powder or salt

Instructions

Cut meat into bite-size chunks and brown in olive oil.
Add frozen vegetables and a nice amount of the hash brown potatoes and dash liberally with Creole seasoning.
Dash slightly with garlic salt. Stir well.
Add enough tomatoes juice to make a nice thick sauce and dash more Creole seasoning/mix to taste.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are cooked and/or reduce heat for desired thickness of tomatoes sauce.

What conversations have you overheard in a language they assumed you don’t know?

I work at a reception in London. I’m Swedish, as are some of our guests.

Guest: “The light bulb in our room is out.”

Me: “I’m so sorry about that! The maintenance guy will be here later, are you OK until then?”

Guest: “Sure, thanks!”

Guests among each other in Swedish, right in front of me: “How fucking hard can it be to change a light bulb?”

Me: “Oh, you’re Swedish, cool! The problem is that I have no idea where he keeps the light bulbs.”

I will never forget the looks on their faces! I take customer service and my job very seriously, but I must admit I enjoyed that moment at the expense of the guest 🙂

Is it true that most young unmarried men in China don’t have girlfriends, because of the gender imbalance in China? If yes, then what are some solutions for this problem?

I have a solution to the gender imbalance problem. I also have a solution to the “I cant afford to marry a girl because I can’t afford a house, car, and bride price” problem. Are you ready for it?

Chinese men should actively pursue and seek to bring women from America, Australia, Europe (etc) to China. Western women don’t usually expect their partner to automatically have a house or even a car, and they certainly don’t expect any sort of dowry or bride price.

China has historically been very good at absorbing any invading people groups. This would be no different. Let the Western women “invade” and in a generation they will be absorbed into the culture. If China put effort into exporting soft power appeal in the same way that Japan and Korea do, then getting women to come over and marry would be easier. Would there be cultural differences as wide as the Grand Canyon and a big language barrier? Yes. But they could be overcame easily enough with time and patience.

My answer is a bit silly perhaps, but you must admit, it’s creative!

Why people like Tiktok

What will serve you well in life?

Just yesterday, I was on my way to work, a commute that involves driving across Tampa Bay on a 2 mile long bridge.

My bridge was stuffed with traffic.

A commute that usually took 30 minutes, took 2 hours.

This traffic jam literally shut down Tampa’s morning commute, causing everyone to be an hour late.

What I later found out, was that that morning around 5:00 AM, a highly intoxicated man drove down the wrong side of the bridge.

He made it almost 2/3 the way down across the bridge.

He was weaving between oncoming traffic, until he finally went head on into an oncoming commuter:

He was killed.

The innocent person he hit is in the hospital currently, in critical condition.

The driver had a history of drunk driving.

It does make one wonder what takes people down these roads in their life.

Perhaps it started with one drink with friends as a younger man, and later snowballed into a full blown addiction.

Maybe the addiction was just a substitute for unhappiness in his life.

Or maybe driving down that bridge was his way out, and he was willing to take someone with him.

In any event, we all have our demons, though typically they aren’t as powerful as this man’s was. But those demons represent our weaker selves.

Know your demons. Know their names. Know when they visit. Know how to keep them out.

Small demons can become big demons. Big demons can be many demons. And when that happens, it’s game over.

Keep an eye on your demons.

Demons hate being seen. When you see them, they tend to shrink. They tend not to multiply.

How do you interpret President Xi Jinping’s meeting with American executives in San Francisco?

US business men are normal successful people who knows right from wrong. And they know China is a humongous and unavoidable market that makes or break them. The average Joe here is QUORA who are hubris, naive and ignorant thinks the U.S. is a ten foot giant and it can do any shit it wants. That is why they are less read, less travelled, more conservative mainly white trash don’t get it.

But U.S. business men are articulate and mindful. The came in force here in San Francisco to greet and express support to China and Xi Xinping. Waves flow to the shores everywhere and businesses go where money can be made.

Your U.S. media can say or do shit it wants. It don’t work. Your despicable politicians can say or do anything it wants but it won’t work. Every firm get out of China 3 new firms move into China. These companies unlike the average Joe the racist are smart and knows how to grow.

Unfortunately in the U.S. is mainly made of average Joe, so it seems the entire U.S. are made of fools. But the U.S. business men are no fools.

Kenny Veach Vanishes on his Quest for the M Cave | Mojave Mysteries Vol. 1

The Why Files is just on another level compared to other Youtube channels. Everytime Why Files uploads a video, it makes you question reality, it makes you laugh (looking at you Hecklefish), and sometimes (like this time) it makes you feel. I’m so glad that I stumble on this channel.

What is the most embarrassing thing you heard over the mic while gaming?

Back in high-school, I regularly had game night with a couple of good friends, and being that we were a group of socially awkward nerds, we had plenty of hilarious experiences.

One night while we were playing Grand Theft Auto V, my friend’s mom suddenly came into his room, and she seemed incredibly concerned.

James: “Hi Mom. Do you need something?”

Her: “James. We need to talk.”

James: “Uh, okay. Let me turn off my mic real quick.”

Her: “No no, leave it on. I want your friends to hear this too.”

James: “Uhhhh, okay? So what’s going on?”

Her: “James, I want you to be honest with me. Are you gay?”

James: “What? No! Why are you asking me this?”

Her: “Are you sure? It’s okay. I don’t mind. It’s just that you’re almost 18 now, and you still haven’t had a girlfriend yet.”

James: “…”

Her: “I mean, I’ve never even seen you talk to a girl before. Are you afraid of women or something? It’s okay. You can be honest with me.”

James: “No Mom, it’s not like that. Can we please talk about this later?”

Her: “James, I’m just really concerned for you. Guys your age should be getting experience.”

James: “Oh my god. Mom, please…”

Her: “Is there anyone that you’re interested in? Maybe I can help you out. Or what if you ask some of your friends right now? I bet they know some good girls for you.”

James: “MOM. PLEASE. AHHHHH.”

The rest of us could barely hold in our laughter.

Now, I don’t know if his mom was just trolling us or not, but it was absolutely hilarious.

What is normal in China that is weird and sometimes rude in many countries?

Asking for something in the shop to the cashier.

If you are in an English speaking country, and you over hear a Chinese person say to the cashier in the general store, or waiter/waitress in restaurant some thing like:

“Give me a pack of Marlboro, and a lighter.”

“Give me a pack of gum, and a mint.”

“Give me a House Specialty Grilled Rib with mashed potatoes on the side.”

And it cringes you, because you find it rude and impolite.

It made you think of a robber in the dark alley saying:

“Give me your fucking wallet, or I’ll cut you!”

You are right to feel that way…

But mind you, it’s not that the Chinese people are rude.

It’s because this asking for something is extremely acceptable in the Chinese language.

If I were to go to buy stuff in China, I’d say:

“给我一个冰淇淋，谢谢。”

“给我们一个红糖冰粉，加西瓜；油爆鳝糊；莼菜银鱼羹；两客生煎；一份时令鲜蔬；两碗米饭。”

literally, it means “Give me an ice cream, thanks.”

In China, it doesn’t have strong command implications.

But the acceptable way of ordering and buying in English speaking cultures, it’s:

“I’ll have…”

“I’ll get…”

“I want…”

To sound less aggressively demanding and more “asking politely”.

What is a stand that you took with a customer that you will never apologize for?

I was working a seasonal second job as a cashier at Toys R Us to earn extra money for the holidays. I was working Thanksgiving evening. We opened the doors at 6:00 pm to give an early start to Black Friday customers. The man who was first in line went running back to the exact spot where the specific toy he wanted for his granddaughter SHOULD have been. Each store was guaranteed to have at least one Barbie Escalade that year, but it was strangely not the case at our large store.

I knew there were certain employees who would often buy the limited items before customers ever had the chance to buy them. Sooo….when the gentleman came to my checkout aisle, panicking over not being able to find the car he had been waiting for out in the cold since that morning, I apologized and took him straight to the manager.

Since I was seasonal, I didn’t really care if I lost my job or not. I explained to the manager, right in front of the customer, that the gentleman was here for the one guaranteed Barbie car, but it was not on the floor. When the manager said someone must have gotten to it first, I then said, “This gentleman has been waiting first in line outside all day, skipping Thanksgiving, and was the first person back to that department. The registers have not had anyone check anything out yet. Clearly, we owe this man a car.” The manager simply said, “I’m sorry, but there are no rainchecks and we probably won’t get anymore in before Christmas.” I told her, in front of him, that I suspected an employee had rung it out and taken it to their car before we opened. “While this gentleman is here, can you please track this inventory number to see who checked it out?” The manager said she didn’t have the time.

I gave the gentleman, after she walked away, the inventory number and the number to the district manager so he knew who to report it to and what to say.

I found out later it was a friend of the manager who worked in the back room who had grabbed it up. I guess that still happens at a lot of stores…..Grinches they are.

He’s just being friendly…

What is something you need to confront?

I stumbled upon a DVD of old home videos in my dad’s stuff. They were from ’96 so I wasn’t even a thought back then — all the footage was of my sister, age 2, doing nothing of importance but everything worth filming to first-time parents.

And you bet your ass I sobbed while watching it.

I have lost a lot in the past three years.

We lost our family house, built five generations ago.

One dog. One cat. One bird. A few fish.

My parents’ marriage.

My mom’s new apartment.

Friendships because of depression.

When I could no longer afford it, college.

And the small stuff. I think someone sold my guitar while I was away. I don’t know where my records went. Where are my keepsakes, my high school yearbooks I will never look through but what if I wanted to?

My solution is, was, and has always been, to simply not think about it.

Don’t ask Mom where your guitar is. Don’t ask Mom what happened to your cat. Don’t ask, don’t question, don’t wonder.

It’s gone. Just let it be.

For months now I haven’t grieved because grieving is what you do when someone dies. It’s how you process the loss of a physical person, and through all the turmoil all of my physical people — whether I liked it or not — had survived.

But just a few weeks ago, my dad passed away.

Suddenly I was faced with my own definition of what grief should be, and even so I rejected it because I simply didn’t need to grieve.

I hadn’t seen him in nearly two years by the time he passed. Never mind the fact I lived with him for 18, clearly we weren’t close and therefore I had no real reason to grieve.

Done. Problem solved. Grief averted.

A week after he passed my sister and I traveled back to Wyoming to sort through his stuff and in the mess we uncovered a DVD labeled “home videos.”

Out of curiosity I polished it up and popped it in a disk drive. I figured it’d be some nice nostalgia, something fun and lighthearted.

At first, it was. I laughed a lot. The first video was my sister’s 2nd birthday party, so I watched her open presents and play with toys and blow out the candles on her cake.

Then the camera panned around the room and I saw everyone in attendance — both my grandmas, all my uncles and aunts and cousins and great-aunts and everyone in one room, laughing and joking and telling stories.

It hit me like a freight train.

Over half of the people in that shot were either dead or estranged. Most of them hate each other now. Some I haven’t seen in years. Others I’ll never see again.

The footage cut and continued to a few days after her birthday party. My sister was on the couch watching TV while my dad chattered from behind the camera.

“Taylor, what are you doing?”

She grins.

“Look at that smile.” He laughs.

“Taylor, I love you. I love you Taylor. I love you.”

I had to pause to get tissues. My chest hurt. I felt lightheaded.

Look at everything we’ve lost.

I would never have that life again. No big family coming together happily for a birthday party. No dad cooing from behind the camera, just proud to be a father. No watching my parents be in love. It’s gone. It’s all gone.

And I can’t keep pretending it doesn’t bother me.

Is it any wonder why I don’t want to date because I know they’ll always leave? Why I don’t make new friends, because they’ll leave too? Why I hate leaving my apartment because I know my cat will die, or leaving my car because I know they’ll tow it away even though they have no reason to? Why I refuse to get a regular salaried job because I know they’ll fire me and I’ll lose everything — my home, my stuff, my life?

Is it any wonder I’m afraid?

I know that if I never grieve, I’ll always have that clinging onto me. I’ll always be scared to do anything, to gain anything, because I’ll always be afraid that I might lose it again.

So as much as I dislike it, I have to confront where I’ve been. I have to accept loss and find ways to move forward with it.

It hurts. It hurts so much.

But carrying it with me every single day is so, so much worse.

My Girlfriend Failed A Loyalty Test And Had A Complete MELTDOWN After I Told Her It Was Over

Human relationships and the turmoil that can occur. Ugh! I am so very glad that I past that stage in my life. It’s so difficult for so many people.

Have you ever discovered that you or your friend’s drink was drugged or tampered with?

It was 80’s Florida, a party at some college students’ apartment. My older sister, 18 and I, 16, went. My sis didn’t do drugs and wasn’t a big drinker. After a couple hours, we were standing outside talking, all was normal. The next second, my sis couldn’t stand up. She just slumped to the ground as if all her bones had suddenly disintegrated. Luckily her bf was there too – between the two of us we managed to get her in the back of the car and outta there. When we got home we put her in her bed and explained to mom what had happened. As she didn’t drink much or do drugs, somebody must have spiked her drink. Luckily she was with us when it took effect, or God knows what would have happened.

Gender aging

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

The department store personnel director lady slid the familiar-looking booklet across her desk. “It’s just a short test we give all our applicants,” she said. “You have five minutes.” I glanced down at the first page. “Uh … I really can’t take this test,” I told her. She looked puzzled. “And why not?” I smiled. “Because I know all the answers,” I replied. She smirked. “Well, I guess we’ll see about THAT, won’t we?”

It wasn’t an idle boast. During my sophomore year of college I did an internship at a local mental health clinic where I administered and scored various tests. In addition to personality profiles, many of our clients were given a timed, multiple choice IQ test that had been developed by the military. It was the same test the store personnel lady had just handed me. I’d scored hundreds of them. And, with lots of practice, I’d memorized the answer key.

It took less than a minute to color in all of the little circles on the answer sheet. “Did you even bother to read the questions?” she asked. “Sort of,” I replied. End of interview.

My mother was standing by the phone as I walked through the kitchen door. “The store just called,” she said. “They want to offer you a job.” I climbed back into my car and returned to the store where the flustered personnel lady spent the next few minutes gushing over my “highest ever” test score. I was quickly ushered into the store manager’s office. My test was on his desk. “How?” he asked. He cradled his head in his hand and tried hard not to laugh as I recounted my repeated attempts to explain my knowledge of and experience with the test I’d just aced.

“So you really did know all the answers,” he said with a smile. Yup.

The job was mine.

Why does everyone say China’s economy is doing so badly when they are growing at 5.4% according to the IMF?

It is doing badly

No point in being an Ostrich. After all we can’t be like our Indian brothers

Two of its largest earners – Exports and Real Estate have taken a hit plus due to the Global slowdown and Fed interest rates , Investments are in mild net outflow

The point is SO ARE OTHER ECONOMIES

They are doing way worse than China which is not being covered in any way by anyone

The Narrative is that China is the only economy that is doing badly, giving the illusion that every other economy is booming and thriving

That’s the problem and that is propaganda

Every Economy has good and bad points

China’s bad points are it’s Real Estate, it’s Exports , it’s Investment outflow and it’s Local Government Debt

Yet it’s good points are it’s surging domestic demand, domestic consumption, very strong fiscal stability and very low National Debt for a GDP of that size

It’s Resilience so to speak of

The Western Media continuously harp on the negative aspects of Chinas economy while ignoring the positive aspects completely

The Western Media almost always harp on the positive aspects of countries like USA while turning a blind eye to the negative aspects

The reason is over the last two years or so, the Western Media and the Western Nations have decided to go back to the DEMOCRACY IS THE BEST MODEL mode

Thus they target primarily China and Russia for all the flaws and illustrate that both nations are likely to collapse any minute

Putin doesn’t care too much

He has his Oil and Gas and his army and he simply has no dependence on the US. He knows at the end of the day, for thirty years at least, maybe forty, the world needs his Oil badly and as long as he sells Oil, he gets whatever imports he wants

Besides at 2 Trillion, Russia isn’t an Economic threat to the West

Their threat is Military and hence the barrage of so called Russian Military Collapses predicted since 2022 May by every Western Journalist

Xi meanwhile is dependent on the West today for a lot of business and so he can’t say f*** you like Putin can

Besides at $ 19 Trillion, China is an economic threat to the US directly rather than a Military one

So the narrative is one sided, badly one sided

The reality is US and Europe are doing worse than China

Its just a bad time for the Global Economy due to three years of Covid led economic fracture plus the Ukraine conflict plus now Gaza

People are in recession mode and aren’t jumping to buy stuff and build stuff, the way they were in 2016–2017

Democracies hide and sugar coat the issues they face due to election fears

China faces the problems head on

That’s the simple difference

In 1917…

China

Excerpts from some speeches:

Mr. President,

China is a socialist country, and a developing country as well. China belongs to the Third World. 

Consistently following Chairman Mao’s teachings, the Chinese Government and people firmly support all oppressed peoples and oppressed nations in their struggle to win or defend national independence, develop the national economy and oppose colonialism, imperialism and hegemonism. 

This is our bounden internationalist duty. China is not a superpower, nor will she ever seek to be one. What is a superpower? 

A superpower is an imperialist country which everywhere subjects other countries to its aggression, interference, control, subversion or plunder and strives for world hegemony. If capitalism is restored in a big socialist country, it will inevitably become a superpower. 

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which has been carried out in China in recent years, and the campaign of criticizing Lin Piao and Confucius now under way throughout China, are both aimed at preventing capitalist restoration and ensuring that socialist China will never change her colour and will always stand by the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations.

If one day China should change her colour and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialism, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it.

Deng’s speech represents Mao’s attitude and is also a declaration from the PRC government to the world.

This speech actually represents China’s long-standing foreign policy and national positioning:

mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non- interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

Wolf Formation

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

FFS, it was not an intercept. No one got shot at or shot down.

The Canadian plane was there, far away from home. The Chinese plane was there, close to home. They flew together for a while, but the Canadian crew got anxious. Perhaps they know that they do no have a real excuse to be there.

If and when a Chinese military plane ever flies close to the Canadian coast, a Canadian flight might do the same.

The last time an errant Chinese balloon drifted over the North American continent, it was shot down. That is what you’d call an intercept.

Let’s stop with the hypocrisy and the hyperbole.

No action…

Biden Sends “War Powers” Notification to Congress over Gaza Situation

HitchBOT, hitchhiking robot, gets beheaded in Philly – CNN

Al Jazeera is reporting utterly massive and continuous bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip; unlike anything seen so far. They believe a ground offensive has begun. ALL COMMUNICATIONS CUT OFF. Phones, Fax, Internet, Cellular all off.

Russian Television (RT) reports complete loss of contact with their crew inside Gaza. Even TV satellite uplinks are not working; possibly being JAMMED.

Sources in and around Gaza are claiming that the Artillery, Tank, and Airstrikes on the Northern Gaza Strip tonight are the Heaviest they have seen since the start of the War.

Israeli naval vessels have begun shelling the northern tip of the Gaza Strip. This is in ADDITION to ongoing air strikes, and artillery shelling.

— Reports of General mobilization announced by Palestinian resistance in West Bank.

— IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has ramped up airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in the last few hours: “The Air Force is striking underground targets very significantly. Ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.“

–Palestinian Red Crescent says it has lost contact with its operations headquarters in Gaza.

— IDF Spokesman Hagari announces: “The ground forces are expanding ground operations this evening”

— IDF set to expand ground operations in Gaza tonight; Israel considers giving up on hostage deal & fully invading Gaza.

— U.S. President Biden has just been Briefed by his National Security Team on Updates regarding the Situation in Israel and Gaza:

Iran Foreign Minister: “They pressed the button.” (HT remark: I take this to mean the Ground Offensive is a “Go.” )

— Israeli Channel 12: “Israel abandons the prisoner deal and prepares for ground entry.”

— Israeli Diplomatic Officials have stated tonight that they believe Hamas has been “Dragging their Feet” on Hostage Negotiations within Qatar in order to Delay or Halt an Israeli Invasion of the Gaza Strip, and that despite the claims made the last few days by U.S, Egyptian, and Qatari Officials there is No Breakthrough that has been seen; further stating that they are Finished with Waiting.

UPDATE 3:48 PM EDT —

Columns of Israeli tanks are on the move, approaching the Gaza Border north of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun:

— Hamas official tells the Financial Times the organization ‘did not expect this much of a response from America’ after the 7th of October attack, adding ‘what we are seeing now is the entrance of the US into the battle, and this we didn’t count on’.

3:50 PM EDT — Hamas: We hold Israel, Washington, and Western capitals responsible for the massacres in Gaza.

— Oil prices surge by 3% over Middle East tensions

— Hamas calls on Arab countries and the international community to help ‘stop the crimes and massacres against our people’

***** BULLETIN *****

3:54 PM EDT —

ISRAELI TANKS ARE NOW STORMING INTO GAZA

Israeli Tanks have crossed the Border Fence into the Northern Gaza Strip near the City of Beit Hanoun.

— Gold hits $2,000 an ounce for the first time in five months

— Oil just spiked 3% and rising.

UPDATE 4:02 PM EDT —

Israeli tanks have just now begun crossing the Northern Border into Gaza.

4:05 PM EDT — Hamas-Linked Accounts are claiming that Israeli Tank has been Struck by an Anti-Tank Guided Missile and Destroyed to the East of Beit Hanou in Northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, up at the West Bank . . . . There is a shootout between Hamas and the IDF at the Nitzani Oz checkpoint in the Tulkarm region. Three homemade bombs were thrown at Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint.

***** FLASH *****

Update from Israeli Defense Force: “The Expanded Activity into Gaza Is Not The Anticipated Larger Operation”

— The Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs states that the Israeli Invasion of the Gaza Strip has begun.

4:10 PM EDT — Large IDF infantry & armored forces operating in several towns; exchanges of fire and massive airstrikes reported

4:12 PM EDT — JUST IN: Rocket attacks have begun against U.S. facilities in both Syria and Iraq.

NOW ALSO IN THE WEST BANK — The city of Nablus is uprising against the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Thousands taking to the streets.

4:16 PM EDT — The map below shows where Israeli forces have entered the northern Gaza Strip:

— this may be a probing attack . . .

— Adviser to Israel’s PM says military operations are underway and ‘when this is over, Gaza will be very different’.

— Explosions reported in another US illegal base in Kharab al-Jir area in Hasakah Syria.

Entire West Bank Erupting:

4:21 PM EDT — Large Explosions have now also been reported at the Al-Omar Oil Fields in Northwestern Syria which houses a U.S. Operations Base.

4:24 PM EDT —

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM . . . . . . .

Reports of Egyptian Air Force and Israeli Air Force airborne over the EGYPT/ISRAELI border at Eilat and Taba.

Why did Egypt put fighter jets up, and why is Israel mirroring them?

MORE:

Just-in: Egypt deployed air defense systems to the Sinai Peninsula. Well, Egypt certainly isn’t doing that over the Palestinians . . . is Egypt going to war against Israel?

UPDATE 4:31 PM EDT —

Houthis in Yemen are launching ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel.

— IDF infantry and armored forces are now operating in Bureij, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip, with gunfire and heavy airstrikes reported.

EGYPT . . . .

Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb condemns what Israel is doing now in Gaza as ‘blind terrorism, clear violation of all conventions, norms’

FROM INSIDE GAZA VIA SOURCE WITH Turkish cellular SIM Card:

“The area of Beit Hanoun adjacent to the Erez crossing point is being annihilated into oblivion”

DUGIN IN RUSSIA: “Israel has just declared the beginning of ground operation in Gaza. The Judgment Day is announced. Now the most important events have to follow. All US efforts to prevent or at least to delay it were in vain. This is the war between islamic world and collective West.”

4:38 PM EDT — Initial Reports of Explosions over the City of Eilat in Southern Israel.

— Turkish President Erdogan is urging residents to come out tomorrow for a rally in support of Palestine.

— Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades says it is confronting Israeli ground incursion into Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip; violent clashes taking place on the ground

4:57 PM EDT — In the Update above showing 4:31 PM, I reported Yemen was launching Ballistic Missiles at Israel. At the Update above showing 4:38 PM, I reported “Explosions over the city of Eliat” Israel. Moments ago, Hezbollah’s official channel posted a message from a member of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement with a single word: ‘Eilat’ — following recent explosions in the southern Israeli city. Hezbollah had previously hinted at involvement if Israel pursued a ground invasion. With it’s posting saying “Eliat” Yemen becomes the first outside country to attack Israel over the Gaza situation.

USELESS . . .

UN General Assembly adopted a draft resolution calling for an “immediate, permanent and sustained humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza and demanding a cessation of hostilities immediately. (HT Remark: Useless words, from Useless people in a Useless organization. The UN should be dissolved.)

Naval Assault By Israel

SPAIN . . .

Spain’s social rights minister says after communications cut off in Gaza, “The objective is clear; they want even more impunity to commit the worst atrocities’

UPDATE 5:08 PM EDT —

Claims now POURING IN saying a Yemen Missile struck Eliat,Israel and this photo is ALLEGEDLY the aftermath of that hit:

— Senior Pentagon official: CVN 69 aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower has passed through the Strait of Hormuz and will be in the waters of the Persian Gulf.

***** BULLETIN *****

UPDATE 5:12 PM EDT —

Syrian army artillery in Daraa has begun shelling Israeli army positions in the Golan Heights. Syria now becomes the SECOND outside country to begin attacking Israel over the Gaza situation. At this hour, Yemen and Syria are now, apparently, in this fight.

UPDATE 5:17 PM EDT —

Al Jazeera reporter Wael al-Dahduh: “We are not all right. Human body parts are everywhere. Missiles are aimed at everyone. The bombing (of Gaza) does not stop for a second.”

********** URGENT **********

5:19 PM EDT —

Coastal areas of Gaza report that American troops of the Delta Force unit are fighting on the ground. (I am attempting to verify or corroborate these CLAIMS. I __did__ call the Pentagon Press Office. It went like this: “Hello this is Hal Turner with radio stations WBCQ and WRMI. I am receiving reports that American troops from the Delta Force allegedly made entry into the Gaza Strip and are engaged in battle. Does the Pentagon have any comment to make? The reply: ‘Not at this time.” Sooooo, they didn’t confirm it, but they also didn’t DENY it.)

5:40 PM EDT —

Reports of Heavy LOSSES of Israeli armored vehicles (including tanks) destroyed, and Soldiers KILLED.

RELATED: The Dutch embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, urges all Dutch citizens to leave Iraq immediately.

UPDATE 5:44 PM EDT —

President of Belarus: “Any attack on Iran will lead to the third world war.”

— Two Senior U.S. Officials have told CBS News that the Israeli Strikes and Ground Operations tonight in the Gaza Strip appear to be the “Rolling Start” to the Full-Scale Invasion of Gaza.

UPDATE 7:00 PM EDT —

The U.S. State Dept. recommends that U.S. citizens in Lebanon leave now while commercial flights remain available due to the unpredictable security situation. Please see available flight options at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport

— Israeli Channel 14 says “Disappointment for our army tonight”

— MILITARY OBSERVERS: Israeli army has so far failed with a ground invasion and is practicing a scorched earth policy through indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.

***** FLASH *****

UPDATE 8:09 PM EDT —

North Korean leader Kim Jung Un in a Special Announcement to the people of North Korea, announced: “We are on the threshold of World War III and everyone must prepare.”

— “Moses Staff” an Iranian computer-hacker group warning Israel: “You will undergo irreparable damage in the field of cyber and infrastructure. From now on you should pay for each spilled blood. Wait for huge combined attacks. Our target is clear, specified and accurate”

— Military Analyst of Israeli Channel 14: The first land operation is a complete disappointment. The government is gambling with the lives of soldiers.

— Israeli Media is reporting that Thousands of Israeli Troops alongside Hundreds of Tanks and Armored Vehicles have entered the Northern Gaza Strip tonight near the City of Beit Hanoun with Heavy and Difficult Fighting against Terrorist Forces ongoing.

— Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said there are ‘no talks’ currently taking place between the group and Israel over a potential ceasefire and prisoner exchange.

— The Israeli army received a devastating blow on the outskirts of Bureij camp, and the tanks were burning as if they were toys and dolls — Walla News

UPDATE 8:19 PM EDT –

In New York City RIGHT NOW, thousands of people are engaging in a “sit-in” at Grand Central Station. The event, organized by Jews, DEMANDS an immediate cease fire and saying:

WE’RE TAKING OVER THE GRAND CONCOURSE. WE’RE REFUSING TO ALLOW A GENOCIDE BE CARRIED OUT IN OUR NAMES. CEASEFIRE NOW! NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!

— A source in the Palestinian resistance to Al-Mayadeen: “Israeli army is in a state of hit and run and has not been able to stabilize any of its forces in the main effort areas northeast, northwest, and central in Al-Bureij, therefore it intensifies the shelling at the fronts where they intend to advance.”

UPDATE 10:25 PM EDT —

Palestinian sources report that Israeli forces have stormed the Jalazone camp in the West Bank.

— STATEMENT FROM HAMAS LEADER ALI BARAKA ON THE GAZA GENOCIDE

“Bleeding for the people of the Arab nation. The failure of the ground attack launched by the occupation forces on the Gaza Strip through three fronts, and there are heavy losses among the enemy’s ranks in terms of soldiers and equipment.

The enemy fell into ambushes prepared by the Palestinian resistance on a number of fronts, and since the beginning of the battle there have been defensive plans against any attempt.

Kornet missiles and Yassin missiles were used to repel the attack, and we expect the enemy to try again.

The Israeli occupation used helicopters to evacuate the wounded and dead from the battlefield.”

UPDATE 10:31 PM EDT —

Biden sends War Powers Notification to US Congress.

He will move on

Biden Forced To Call Off His Plans For Ethnic Cleansing Of Gaza

The U.S. government under Joe Biden had developed plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza by moving all of its 2.3 million people into Egypt:

Harry Sisson @harryjsisson – 2:44 UTC · Oct 11, 2023

Amazing: President Biden is working on a plan with other countries that would allow civilians to safely leave Gaza and cross the border into Egypt. This is great news. President Biden is making sure that innocent people don’t die due to the actions of Hamas. That’s leadership.

The NSC spokesperson had confirmed that plan:

US ‘actively working’ to establish safe corridor for Gaza civilians: White House – Yeni Safak – Oct 12, 2023

The US is in active talks with Israel and Egypt to establish “safe passage” corridors for civilians in Gaza to flee ongoing Israeli airstrikes, the White House said Wednesday amid an expected ground offensive in the besieged enclave.

“We’re actively discussing this with our Israeli and our Egyptian counterparts, we support safe passions for civilians. Civilians are not to blame for what Hamas has done. They didn’t do anything wrong,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House.

“We are actively working on this with Egyptian and our Israeli counterparts. Civilians are protected under the laws of armed conflict, and they should be given every opportunity to avoid the fighting,” he added.

This all was based on a plan originally developed by radical Zionist within the government of Israel:

Leaked: Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza – The Cradle – Oct 29, 2023

Israeli culture magazine Mekovit published on 28 October a leaked document issued by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence recommending the occupation of Gaza and total transfer of its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The document, issued on 13 October, identifies a plan to transfer all residents of the Gaza Strip to North Sinai as the preferred option among three alternatives regarding the future of the Palestinians in Gaza at the end of the current war between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance.

The document recommends that Israel evacuate the Gazan population to Sinai during the war, establish tent cities and new cities in northern Sinai to accommodate the deported population, and then create a closed security zone stretching several kilometers inside Egypt. The deported Palestinians would not be allowed to return to any areas near the Israeli border.

Egypt of course rejected any such plans. As I had explained:

Netanyahoo’s Strategic Dilemma – Moon of Alabama – Oct 21, 2023

Israel, with the help of the U.S., has tried to push the population of Gaza into Egypt. From Egypt’s standpoint that would be a humanitarian solution, at least as long as others pay for it. But it would cause a serious strategic problem. Resistance by Hamas and others against Israel would continue indefinitely, but Egypt would be held responsible for it.It can not and will not take on that burden.

Despite that logic the White House continued to proceed with its plan. Its request to Congress to finance the wars in the Ukraine and Gaza with up to $106 billion included these lines (pg 40):

Letter regarding critical national security funding needs for FY 2024 – White House – Oct 20, 2023

These resources would support displaced and conflict-affected civilians, including Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, and to address potential needs of Gazans fleeing to neighboring countries. This would include food and non- food items, healthcare, emergency shelter support, water and sanitation assistance, and emergency protection. This would also include potential critical humanitarian infrastructure costs needed for the refugee population to provide access to basic, life-sustaining support. This crisis could well result in displacement across border and higher regional humanitarian needs, and funding may be used to meet evolving programming requirements outside of Gaza.

Russia had called out the plan for the nonsense it is:

Middle East and Central Asia. Lavrov on the interests of the USA and the West, parallels with Ukraine – Belta – Oct 28, 2023

“It is clear that such an approach is disastrous, because if the Gaza Strip is destroyed, if two million residents are driven out, as some politicians in Israel and abroad are implying, this will create a catastrophe that will last for many decades, if not centuries,” Sergey Lavrov noted.

Backed by Russia the Egyptian resistance against the plan continued. A phone call held yesterday finally buried it:

Sisi, Biden probe developments of Gaza escalation, reject displacement of Palestinians – Ahram Online – Oct 29, 2023

During the call, El-Sisi reiterated Egypt’s firm rejection of policies that collectively punish and displace the Palestinian people.

Biden, for his part, affirmed to El-Sisi that the US likewise rejects the displacement of Palestinians outside their homeland, expressing his appreciation for the positive role played by Egypt in this crisis, said Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Ahmed Fahmy.

The call touched upon the importance of preventing the expansion of the conflict into the region, added Fahmy.

During the call, El-Sisi reiterated Egypt’s firm rejection of policies that collectively punish and displace the Palestinian people. Biden, for his part, affirmed to El-Sisi that the US likewise rejects the displacement of Palestinians outside their homeland, expressing his appreciation for the positive role played by Egypt in this crisis, said Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Ahmed Fahmy.

Biden was forced to publicly declare that his plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza were called off:

President Biden @POTUS – 21:23 UTC · Oct 29, 2023

I also spoke with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to share my appreciation for Egypt facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

We reaffirmed our commitment to work together and discussed the importance of protecting civilian lives, respect for international humanitarian law, and ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza are not displaced to Egypt or any other nation.

This is another failure of the dimwit policies cooked up by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and SecState Anthony Blinken as directed by their Zionist puppeteers.

I for one support all plans that would allow them to safely leave Washington DC. They can move to Antarctica or to wherever the climate is severe enough to cool their genocidal moods.

Posted by b on October 30, 2023 at 9:35 UTC | Permalink

Mommy issues

Do soldiers in war ever help the enemy?

Of course. There are many instances. One of the most conspicuous was the case of Lt. Friedrich Lengfeld. He not only died to help a wounded American soldier during the battle of Hürtgen Forest, but is one of the very few Germans honored by his American enemies who in the 50th anniversary of the battle set up a monument in his honor. Here is an excerpt of the story:

By November 10, Lengfeld’s company was exhausted. The group had been decimated, and those who survived hadn’t bathed in days. Everyone was suffering from a serious bout of lice, hunger, malnutrition, and severe cold, as well as damp because of the snow and rain.

They had been fighting over a forester’s lodge in the woods to the south of where the Hürtgen War Cemetery now stands. At the time, the lodge had been used as a shelter by both sides depending on who held it.

The structure was beside a minefield the Germans called “Wilde Sau” (wild sow) and despite its decrepit condition, it provided some shelter from the elements. The following day, Lengfeld lost two men from sniper fire, so they prepared for another attack.

Later that evening, the US 12th Infantry captured the lodge, causing Lengfeld to lose more men. Rallying around him, they launched a counterattack and managed to drive the Americans out the following morning. As the Americans retreated, one of them ran directly into the Wilde Sau with disastrous consequences.

Though severely injured, the American survived and began calling out for help. Beside the minefield was a safe path guarded by a German machine gun. Lengfeld ordered Hubert Gees (a rifleman and his communications runner) to go to the gunner and tell him not to fire at any Americans who came to rescue the man.

Hours passed and no one came for him, either believing he was dead or because the Americans had retreated in disarray. Unable to take the man’s cries any longer, Lengfeld decided to mount a rescue himself.

The lodge was located beside a road protected with antitank mines the company had placed and knew the locations of. At around 10:30 AM, Lengfeld led a team of medics beside the road till he got opposite the American soldier. He then went into the minefield, but as he got off the safety of the path, he stepped on a hidden anti-personnel mine which blasted him away.

They quickly carried Lengfeld back to the lodge, but it was too late. There were two deep holes in his back, and he was suffering from serious internal injuries. They managed to get him to the First Aid Station in Froitzheim where he died later that evening.

The identity of the American soldier remains unknown.

The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was one of the longest battles fought in WWII, lasting from September 1944 until February 1945 at a cost of some 33,000 American lives and about 28,000 German ones.

Despite this, Lieutenant Colonel John Ruggles, former Regimental Executive Officer of the 22nd Infantry felt compelled to honor Lengfeld’s heroism during the battle’s 50th anniversary. And that’s why veterans of the 22nd US Infantry Society set up a monument in his honor at the cemetery.

In part, it reads: No man hath greater love than he who layeth down his life for his enemy

Lt. Lengfeld was 23 years old.

All three mistakes

What are the first things you notice when you become homeless?

I think the very first thing you notice is people’s behavior towards you changing.

Even before you are on the streets, even before you notice how random strangers now treat you differently, call the cops on you for existing, or feel justified in harassing or persecuting you…

Before that, you learn that for so many of the people you considered to be friends, you dont exist anymore. You learn who your real friends and family are, who the people are that will actually stand by you, even in tough times. Often, there are not that many.

The other thing that you learn a lot about is how much people waste.

How much food, clothes, furniture, space, money, how so much of everything is being wasted.

When you live on other people’s scraps, you develop an eye for waste.

It is amazing how much stuff people throw away, most of it perfectly good.

It is also super interesting to see how incredibly protective people are of their garbage! They were throwing it out a second ago to be destroyed, but if you take it, that would be the end of the world. I think it might be because when you take it, it induces cognitive dissonance as people see that the stuff they are throwing out is actually useful.

You notice a lot of other things too. For example that poor people are a lot more tolerant, and willing to help than rich people. To poor people, you are human, but as socioeconomic level rises, things change.
One time one of my friends received some change from someone wearing a suit. We celebrated the event, it was too rare an occasion not to.

Also, you notice how little a roof actually matters, compared to other things.

Is sleeping in a shelter worth the loss of half your day, the loss of your safety, being treated like an animal, suffering withdrawal symptoms, and abandoning your dog? Yeah, no, I’ll find some cardboard somewhere instead, thank you very much.

Edit: and one more that I forgot to mention: Homeless invisibility!

As I sat on the streets, I often pondered what an incredible spy I would make.

Being homeless was sometimes kind of like looking at life from an alternate dimension, where I could see and hear others, but they could not see me, hear me, or notice me.

I could be waving, and speaking to them, but I might as well not have existed, no reaction at all.
Sometimes, I was almost able to get through to some people.
They didn’t quite seem to actually notice me, or ever look at me, but they would speed up a little, or make a detour around me. Perhaps some kind of 6th sense allowed them to feel my presence, even though they could not see or hear me? Maybe this is where the reports of ghosts and other such paranormal experiences come from?

Adaptation

What did someone do on an airplane that made you say “You’ve gotta be kidding me”?

This happened years ago, before I had kids. I was on a flight, sitting in the window seat, minding my own business as people boarded. A young woman with a child sat in the middle seat next to me. I figured the child had the aisle seat, but no, someone else had that seat.

Now the rules then were that a child could be a free lap-rider up until the age of 2 years, then were required to purchase a seat.

This was the biggest 2 year old I have ever seen or the mother was pulling one over on the airline. Now they require a birth certificate if there is any doubt the age of the child.

Everything was fine until the plane took off. At that point the child decided they needed to see out the window and walked onto my lap to see the view.

Mother didn’t even flinch.

Just kept encouraging the child to see the view. She then slipped on headphones and buried her nose in a magazine.

Over the next two hours the child stomped all over me, demanded my attention, and prevented me from eating or drinking anything.

The flight attendants repeatedly asked the mother to keep her child on her lap, and she would for as long as it took for the FA to walk away. The flight attendants kept mouthing ‘sorry’ to me the whole flight.

I decided to suck it up for the child and since it was a short flight to just deal with it. As I stood to disembark the plane, after the mother and child had already left, all of the flight attendants hugged me, shoved extra snacks into my hands and thanked me over and over.

I ended up leaving with a big smile on my face. People like that mother are the reason the rest of us have to deal with so many rules and regulations.

Creole Cabbage Rolls

Add a Creole twist to stuffed cabbage roll recipes. These Creole Cabbage Rolls are stuffed with ground beef, Italian sausage, onions and Zatarain’s Spanish Rice, covered in rich tomato sauce. A delicious dinner recipe, or enjoy as a cold weather meal any time of day.

Prep: 30 min | Bake: 45 min | Yield: 15 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1 1/2 cups water
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 package Zatarain’s® Spanish Rice
1 head cabbage, core removed
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

Instructions

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and sausage; cook and stir until no longer pink.
Stir in water, diced tomatoes and Rice Mix; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until rice is tender.
Remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts lightly salted water to boil in large sauce pot. Drop cabbage, stem-side down, into water. Reduce heat to low; simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove cabbage and carefully remove outer leaves. Return cabbage to simmering water; simmer until outer leaves have softened.
Repeat simmering and removal of cabbage leaves as necessary.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place about 1/3 cup of rice stuffing near core end of each cabbage leaf. Fold in sides of leaf over stuffing, then roll up. Place rolls, seam-side down, in 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Pour tomato sauce over top.
Bake for 45 minutes or until cabbage rolls are tender.

Notes

Variation: Top cabbage rolls with 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

What could have been awesome if people hadn’t ruined it?

Hitchbot, the hitchhiking robot.

Hitchbot was created by two Canadian professors. According to his creators, he came to fruition in order to see if robots could trust human beings. Hitchbot could not walk, he was only able to speak. Still, he could relate facts and carry on basic conversations. Using just these abilities, the professors wanted to see if he could travel across countries only by hitchhiking.

For a while their plan worked!

Through the kindness of people, Hitchbot had traveled across Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. Along the way, Hitchbot had cruised the canals of Amsterdam, spent a week with a heavy metal band, and been a part of a wave at a Red Sox game.

Unfortunately, his good fortune would not continue.

Starting on July 17, 2015, Hitchbot would start on his fourth and final journey: attempting to travel from Boston to San Francisco.

After about two weeks, Hitchbot met his sad demise in Philadelphia. The robot was found stripped and decapitated, broken beyond repair. Photos were tweeted of his body, but the head was never found.

Hitchbot could have been a testament to human kindness, and for a while he was. But, ultimately, people had to ruin what could have been an awesome thing.

Still, regardless of his destruction, there was a strong outpouring across the Internet mourning his demise. Despite the poor actions of a few individuals, Hitchbot was able to touch the lives of many.

He remained upbeat all the way up to his passing. His last words are below.

“My trip must come to an end for now, but my love for humans will never fade,” the bot said. “Thank you to all my friends.”

Sources:

Hitchhiking Robot, Safe in Several Countries, Meets Its End in Philadelphia

hitchBOT – Wikipedia

Power Dynamic

What office rule made you say “Really?”

We had a no alcohol in the office rule. But we were having a summer BBQ put on by the company, which featured a keg of beer. The BBQ was on the lawn in front of the office. One of my coworkers had to use the washroom, and didnt want to put down their red solo cup, with the 10 other identical red solo cups, that were sitting on top of the flower box, by the entrance to the office.

I doubt they even thought about it, they just walked into the washroom, and put their cup on the counter by the sink. One of the bosses walked into the washroom, and started giving him heck, saying that he was going to write him up, and that this was a serious offence. It was, the company had fired someone, for picking up a bottle of wine at lunch, and putting it in his desk, to take home for dinner.

Another coworker was leaving the washroom at the time, and came and got us, and asked us all to bring our beer cups with us to the washroom. We couldn’t even fit in the washroom, we were backed up down the hall.

The boss seeing how big a fuss this was going to be, backed down and said people would only get a verbal warning this time.

Its pretty ridiculous, that a company has a no alcohol in the office policy, but supplies alcohol on the property, where the only washroom is in the office.

What is something about human psychology that almost nobody knows?

By exercising daily, your risk of catching a cold, flu, or some serious form of infection is dramatically reduced;
Don’t punish people in your present for the actions of people in your past;
About 80% of human conversations are complaints;
People with low self-esteem are more likely to put others down;
If you want to do more than meet the expectations of society’s life plan, create your own definition of success;
Growth comes from doing what we don’t want or are afraid to do;
Your physical pain, as well as fear and stress, can be alleviated by holding the hand of someone you love;
Even the illusion of progress can be motivating;
The beginning and the end are always easier to remember;
All advice is guided by the experience of the person;
Mental health is just as important as physical health. Emotions are real. Get comfortable with them. Understand that what you feel is normal. You are not less because of how you feel. Find a good therapist before you need one;
Getting a good night’s sleep, eating healthy foods, and being physically active are essential to staying healthy throughout your life!

What a good man wants…

Do you think democracy is a failure? Why & why not?

Democracy isn’t a failure. When implemented correctly, democracy works very well.

The problem is the US isn’t a democracy.

Yes, yes, I hear you. Technically speaking, the US is a republic, and we use “representative democracy.” Yes, I took Political Science 101 in college, just like you. So shut up for once.

The US isn’t even a “representative democracy.”

The US system is a plutocracy or rule of wealth.

Thank Citizen United, our system is entirely dominated by money. People with great wealth have great influence over our policy. Our representatives in the House and Senate are bought and sold by interest groups. You want single-payer universal health care? LOL, the insurance interests group will kill whatever bill you bring to the floor with super PACs. Do you want to be reelected? Better not hurt the status quo. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s start another war in the Middle East because weapon manufacturers and military-industrial complexes are paying for my next election.

We might not be able to do much as individual voters, but we can put in the effort to be informed voters. Vote in local elections. Read about policies. Do your research on the candidate you vote for and pay special attention to who’s paying for their campaigns. Donate to candidates who rely on individual donors instead of Super PACs.

And, more than anything, overturn Citizen United Vs. FEC. Money isn’t speech. Political donations should not be protected. Remove money from the election so we can actually have a democracy.

Pre Birth Plan: Woman Volunteers for INSANE HARDSHIPS to Help Earth SHIFT!

Building up for Christmas

Today is Christmas. We don’t really celebrate it very much here in Southern China, but it still is a reminder of great and grand times that I grew up with as a boy. This included such things as month-long cookie baking, Christmas breads, Christmas meals, Christmas carols, and Pitiza.

Vintage and throwback Mothers Day ideas 300x200 1 — Vintage and throwback Mothers Day ideas 300×200 1

Yeah. It goes much further than a Christmas tree and piles of presents and shopping.

It includes work luncheons. It includes drunk work parties, and long breaks, and card games.

The USA has come a long, long way from what it used to be. That saddens me.

Today…

How do you tell if someone is a true friend?

My best friend told me once that if I ever moved away from home, she’d stop visiting home and fly to wherever I was.

When I mentioned that I want to move to the UK, her response was “Ooh, that’s not too far from northern Europe! We could take a trip to Norway from there!”

She’s studying abroad right now with a month to go and she told me “I don’t want to leave here, but I can’t wait to hang out with you.”

No matter how far apart we are, she keeps planning herself into my life.

At the same time, though, we can go for days without talking.

She was gone for a month with no internet or phone service and when she finally got back to civilization, she texted me like nothing had ever changed.

We can tell each other anything.

I can say things like “I almost wet the bed last night” and “I think guys with mustaches can be incredibly attractive” and “Want to hear the world’s only placenta joke?”

And I know she won’t judge me… not too harshly, anyway.

We can talk about gossip and neuroscience and our dreams and geology and Hamilton all without pause. There’s nothing we can’t share.

We laugh. We cry. We eat large amounts of Taco Bell.

We stay friends no matter how many time zones apart we are or how many days we go without speaking.

We can be completely honest with one another and there’s no doubt it comes from love.

We keep planning ourselves into each other’s lives.

That, to me, is a true friend. One who isn’t a friend out of convenience but out of devotion.

One who stays your friend even when it’s difficult or when the geography doesn’t line up.

One who wants to be around you, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

I’d say I got lucky. I’ve had the same best friend for almost twelve years.

She’s a true friend.

The 3% club

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8TW46aJEJiY?feature=share

Taiwan elections

For those who do not keep up with what’s going on in Taiwan, the pro US pro independence DPP is now lower in the polls after a coalition by the opposing blue and white camps

https://www.8world.com/greater-china/taiwan-election-2296816

This means that it is now more likely that the status quo will be upheld, which is better for the region and future developments. As i have pointed out before in another comment

Nope there is a third scenario, one i think the Chinese government is aiming for

That is to advance China itself, economically and technologically beyond the level that the US has any chance of holding at the island chains, thus forcing the abandonment of the chains and resulting isolation of Taiwan. This is happening even now but requires time to complete hence tactics are aimed at dragging it out

The US economic power is collapsing which is why one should never be provoked when against a increasingly desperate opponent. Simply let them die off

Economic power (specifically industrial power as financial paper pushing does little) is the lynchpin of military power, so when it goes down, the military goes down with it and that is not even taking into account the corruption such as the $1300 cup.

Taiwan’s DPP talks up a big game but that is predicated on US support. The US has pulled back to the 2nd island chain because trying to hold the first chain is untenable, thus the attempt to pull the Philippines, South Korea and Japan to be the sacrificial pawns while the US tries holding at Hawaii (and standing on the soapbox made by the corpses of their “allies”)

Once US support dies off due to a lack of funds, obvious tech disparity and a numerical disadvantage, the Taiwanese will have 2 possible choices

i) Give up (this is the most likely given the current Taiwanese do not support their children going to war)

ii) Try a “heroic” last stand (which gives the mainland under One China, the legitimacy to launch a full scale attack)

Also do keep in mind that there are the possibility of burner accounts. What are burner accounts? They are accounts that are made with the specific idea of portraying themselves as part of whichever side/camp/group and will then suddenly turn around to support the other side at moments they find critical. The most famous recent one is bellingcat

‘CIA sidekick’ gives £2.6m to UK media groups

Catfish Muffuletta

Catfish Muffuletta is a very tasty sandwich made from one round loaf. Depending upon appetites, it can serve from one to four!

Yield: 1 to 4 servings

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup giardeniara marinated garden salad, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons pitted olives, sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (8 to 9 inch) round loaf Italian bread
1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
1 bunch arugula
1 pound sliced provolone cheese (optional)

Instructions

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season catfish fillets with salt and pepper. Fry fillets in the hot oil, in batches if necessary, for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Place fillets on a plate to cool and drizzle with lemon juice.
Drain giardeniara and place in a small bowl. Add olives, parsley, garlic and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and mix until combined.
Slice the bread in half horizontally and pull out most of the soft white part in the middle. Spread half of the giardeniara mixture in the hollow of the bottom piece of bread. Arrange the fillets in a single layer over the vegetables. Top with layers of tomato slices, arugula leaves and provolone slices, if using, and remaining giardeniara mixture. Place the other half of the bread on top, pressing firmly into place.
Using a serrated knife, cut the sandwich into wedges and serve.

Notes

The wedges can be individually wrapped and served at a picnic.

So you don’t want the job

US Congress unanimously approved the Patent Restriction Act. All of China’s patents are at risk of invalidation overnight. Huawei’s 20000+ patents could be deemed invalid. All countries at risk as the US can claim a national security threat. Fair?

How stupid is this?

What about apple? They have 95000 patents around the world.

If the US disregards patents so will the rest of the world, so not a single patent is worth the paper it’s written on, that includes ALL US patents around the world.

It looks like the US politicians once again showed us how bright they are, no wonder the country is going down hill fast.

What is the bravest thing you have ever seen someone do?

I watched my father care for my mother for six years as she slowly succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.

He gradually took over all the housework and cooking while dealing daily with her hurt, her rage, her confusion and her fear. He protected her from herself. He made sure that she kept the weekly hair and nail appointments that she so loved. He went shopping with her for the pretty clothes she adored.

When he finally acquiesced to his children’s insistence that our mother be placed in a nursing facility (because we were worried that his health was suffering from the strain of her care), he visited her twice every day. He paid aides to apply her makeup and arrange her hair every day. When the facility requested that he take her jewelry from her, including her pins and diamond engagement ring, he had a jeweler make up copies using cubic zirconia so that she never knew that she wasn’t still wearing her own lovely things.

And at her memorial service, the room fragrant with dozens of heavy bouquets of gardenias which were her favorite flower, my stoic father fought to keep his composure as he spoke of his love for the lively, witty, beautiful woman who had spent almost sixty years at his side. He called their time together a privilege, and recounted as though it had happened yesterday the first time he ever spoke with her, on a staircase at their university.

The manifestation of my father’s commitment and devotion to my mother in those unimaginably difficult years is the bravest thing I have ever witnessed.

* Sigh *

And he is going to prison in FLORIDA.

What are some of the best examples of sarcasm?

The best sarcastic response I have ever witnessed was by a colleague. But first, a little background to set it up.

When I worked at a law firm, one of my many functions was to head up the student practicum program. Basically, people studying IT at a local college needed three months of work experience as part of their graduation requirements. So I would interview them and select a few and they’d get an orientation. Once done, I would then take them around and introduce them to the team that they would be working with.

I kept it light and fun, because these students are nervous and I want them to feel comfortable. There was one student I was taking around, and when I got to the network manager’s desk, I said “This is Aaron, the network manager. You have to watch him, because he can be sarcastic.”

The student turned to Aaron and said, “Oh yeah? Say something sarcastic.”

Without missing a beat, Aaron extended his hand and said “Pleased to meet you.”

I couldn’t stop laughing.

What office rule made you say “Really?”

When I worked for an engineering consulting company as a project engineer, my boss came up to me when I had been there a few months.

He told me that the office rule was that nobody could wear jeans.

As an engineer, I had never been told that jeans were not allowed. Now, if I were management, or met with clients, or worked for a law firm or a finance person, I could see that, but engineering is notorious for being casual to the point of being borderline slovenly because engineers DO go to the field and nobody wears a suit on a construction site. In my position, I didn’t have to meet with clients all that often.

And I wasn’t slovenly—I was wearing a blouse and sweater with the jeans, which weren’t torn and were conservative in appearance (not ripped, not overly tight or had loud design details). The only difference between those jeans and any other pair of pants that would have been acceptable was the fabric.

That same company had a policy of not providing a coffee pot for the employees. Just about every company I’ve worked for at least provided the pot, and sometimes the employees would pitch in for the coffee stuff. The only reason our office got coffee at all was because we shared our office with the construction arm of the company, which DID provide coffee for their people (I dare you not to provide coffee for a field guy). One of our managers, when visiting our office asked why we had a coffee machine, and that’s the answer he got—it wasn’t ours.

The cheapest ass company I ever worked for. The company I work for now, I could probably literally show up in sweats if I wanted to and nobody would say anything. But I’m not going to push that.

Oh, and they provide coffee. And tea and apple cider and hot chocolate, and when we have our monthly office meetings, they kick in for lunch as well.

A certain tier of guy

What is currently stressing you out?

I’m dumping my therapist.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she asked if I was autistic.

“I just wonder if that’s why I’m having a hard time communicating with you.”

She continued that she wasn’t qualified to diagnose me, but I should look into it. No referral to someone who could diagnose me. No recommendations on resources. Just the assertion that I could be autistic because I apparently don’t communicate well.

When I reminded her that I probably have ADHD, which could explain those symptoms, she cut me off.

“They’re totally different.”

But they really aren’t. They have some key differences, but a ton of the symptoms overlap. Trust me. I’ve done my research.

She’s done this a lot—made alarmist statements with basically no course of action. In that same session she also told me I put up a lot of barriers in the therapeutic process.

“Can you give me an example?” I asked.

“I can’t think of any, but I sense it.”

I mentally rolled my eyes.

It’s been several months of frustrations. I told her I wanted to discuss relationships and she said she doesn’t read about relationships so she couldn’t help me. I told her I was struggling to find a place to start with doing inner work and she said “Just pick somewhere.” I told her I didn’t think quitting my job was a good suggestion and she said I was “resistant to getting out of my comfort zone.” (Note that in the last case, I told her I really like my job and didn’t want to do anything else.)

We haven’t clicked since day 1, but I kept going because I was sorely optimistic that maybe it just needed time.

But it didn’t need time. It’s been like six months and I feel as stuck as ever. I dread going to therapy because I feel like I’m going to listen to 50 minutes of her talking about her own life mixed in with advice that doesn’t do anything for me.

I’m stressed about actually pulling the trigger though. I don’t like change. I don’t like potentially hurting others. And I don’t like setting boundaries.

Hence why I’ve let this drag on for 6 months.

Tomorrow’s the day. I’m sending an email to let her know I’m done. I already booked an appointment with a new therapist to motivate me into doing it.

So, y’know. Best of luck to me. Hopefully I can find a therapist who actually helps.

Update: sent the email to end the relationship and booked my appointment with a new therapist!

Is it true that as long as the US has such strong allies in Asia as Japan, India, South Korea, etc., China’s actions will always be limited?

That is your dream. Not at all a reality. What is really true is that as long as the U.S., Japan and South Korea do this their economy will tanked and they will disintegrate into a bankrupt. China will let you have a long strong rope to hang yourselves.

Also Japan, South Korea and India are polite Asian people who have been living with China 5000 years. And they are still a nation in its own right! The U.S. neighbours Mexico lost half its land to the U.S. in a mere 100 years!

These 3 nations knows that! The saw it with their own eyes. China will do what they always do. Protect Asia for Asians.

Cat learns some Mike Tyson boxing moves…

This is BY FAR the funniest video that I have ever watched!

I got fired. My ex-boss is now asking for the whereabouts of important files. How should I respond?

LOL, when I was 25, I was an experienced herdsman for a pretty large dairy farm in my area.

The boss was too cheap to buy a computer, so I used my own, and often worked at home going through records of the cattle, creating the new lists as needed. Long story short, we had a falling out, and I offered to update the files before I left, which he rejected. A week later, he was at my door demanding I update the files.

I offered for a price, to be paid in advance. he became angry and stormed off.

I never heard from him again.

This will come back and BITE you chicks!

Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?

I’m a very adventurous hiker & sport participant. I flew hang gliders for years, but I also have scuba dived, sky dived, skied double black Diamond runs, winter camped in snow caves, white water canoed, gone on looonng-g-g hiking trips into the back country & spelunked (explored caves). It’s hard to say which sport is the most dangerous BUT for sure no one should do any sport without multiple safeguards & precautions. Dangerous sports are not for risk takers.

I’ve rarely had a close call. I can say when I did, twice, it was because I ignored safety precautions personally because I was with “experts” I put my trust in!

Despite spending a lot of time in the back country, I nearly killed myself when I ignored obvious important basic precautions the first time I went with world class expert spelunkers deep inside (one mile!) a very dangerous cave with steep drops into an unseen abyss or flowing rivers that disappear further into the ground, & cliffs requiring technical climbing expertise. Precaution #1. Don’t split up. We drove up in two cars, my ride wanted to leave early. He led me down a wrong path to the exit & we were lost in a very wrong part of the maze of the cave. We were supposed to lay a string trail from the cave entrance to follow out. My guide was over confident…. He’d been in the cave so often! He left me (!) to try to retrace to where we left the correct route as I lay in a fetal position trying to get warm… Luckily he found the route, luckily he found me, luckily I’m here to write this!!

Low value man

What’s the bravest thing you have ever done?

This incident happened when I was studying in my 10th grade. A male teacher hit my back with a throw ball deliberately. I was quite annoyed with the behavior. I chose to remain quiet. He came near me. I could sense that he was going to do it again. After a certain argument, I gathered my courage to shout at him – “Behave yourself” in front of 50 odd students. Humiliated teacher, stormed out of the place. The next day I was punished in front of my classmates for back-answering my teacher. Note that, none of my teachers knew what had happened behind the scenes and not one student was ready to narrate the incident. I was portrayed as a bad girl.

I did a little secret investigation(Well, I was 16 then, it was a big thing for me) on that teacher. Asked my junior friends, the students who attended his tuition classes. Turns out that, the teacher was lustful and many girls had similar experiences as mine, but no one had dared to speak up. I handed over all the information to the head mistress. The teacher was interrogated and after the certainty of the issue was proved, he was suspended. I felt really proud that I had the guts to stand up for myself.

You Won’t Believe Nightlife in Kigali, Rwanda!

What’s a sign of maturity that really shouldn’t be?

Franz Kafka wrote, “Most men are not wicked. Men become bad and guilty because they speak and act without foreseeing the results of their words and their deeds. They are sleepwalkers, not evildoers.”

This speaks to an immutable sign of a child masquerading as an adult. Just as a toddler innocently comments about how fat someone is, the immature man litters his remarks with no thought of a world containing feelings besides his own. There callous impulsiveness matches that of a kid snatching candy from a Halloween bowl.

There is profound virtue in choosing restraint in the face of an easy chance to hurt someone’s feelings.

A good and kind person speaks difficult truths with care and love. And they know what should remain unspoken.

They see a world containing many people, all with differing needs and vulnerabilities. This is beauty. This is someone cementing themself as a person who belongs in your life.

Woman EXPOSES The INEVITABLE Problem With Dating Modern Women | TRAINED/GROOMED To Be Masculine

Kara used to earn as much as $20k in a month, but has pulled back on work since becoming a mother—leading to painful identity issues. Her husband Drake has picked up the slack, but gender roles loom large in their at-home dynamic. Modern Dating is confusing for men and women.

Kuwaiti FM says no ties with Israel unless Palestinian issue solved

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah reiterated on Sunday Kuwait’s refusal to normalize relations with Israel “unless a future Palestinian state is established in line with international resolutions.”

He made the remarks at a press conference held at the headquarters of the foreign ministry.

The minister added that it is his responsibility to maintain Kuwait’s security and interests abroad by maintaining relations with friendly, brotherly and allied countries.

“The Palestinian issue is our first issue, without any ambiguity … Kuwait has never deviated from the path,” he said, adding that the war Israel waged against Gaza is retaliatory, not defensive.

The Kuwaiti top diplomat called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza, providing assistance to the besieged enclave and ultimately resolving the Palestinian issue through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

The principle of marginal utility

What was the most outrageous repair quote a mechanic has ever given you to fix your car?

I needed a car in a hurry and spotted a 5 year old Saab 9-5 turbo for sale online at a great price.

Called the owner, lady answered, husbands old car he was working and had a work vehicle so it was up for sale. It all sounded great so a buddy drove me there and i bought the car after a test drive.

Drove the 50 miles home without an issue until i reached the turnoff for my hometown when the car went into limp mode and the Check Engine light came on….. crap….luckily i was near a small industrial park so i pulled in at the front of a newly opened mechanics shop.

I’d met him once before at a friends unit in the same park but didnt know him. Told him what happened and he said leave it with me.

I started googling this model Saab and read many horror stories about failed turbos and blocked oil traps resulting in engine rebuilds… i was worried…..i had no car, it was going to cost me a fortune….

1 hour later i got a call, car is fixed. Shocked i went back out and sure enough it was running perfectly. I asked what was wrong and he said a pin hole in a breather pipe on the turbo caused a sensor malfunction. He replaced it with a new piece of hose and redirected it so it didnt rub on the exposed metal.

I asked what i owed him, he said 20 cents for the part…. He said don’t worry about it its a lovely car and it only took me 5 mins to fix.

Proof that there are gentlemen in the autotrade.

Beauty in China

GF Abandoned Me At An Absolute Lowpoint, Only For Me To Have The Last Laugh When She Was “PUT AWAY”!

“I’ve heard so many stories like this, and it is unbelievable to me. Women who leave their boyfriends after losing their job or suffering some sort of injury; wives who abandon their husbands when they are diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s absolutely despicable! I thought they were supposed to be the compassionate ones. Why does it seem like they are, actually, the more diabolical ones?”

“My ex called me about a year after our divorce went through. Of course I let it go to voicemail. She was arrested and in a mental hospital. For the next month, I got 2 calls a day. Each one maxing out the voicemail limit, saying the same strange things over and over. And of course, she “didn’t do anything wrong” and the cops framed her. Then the calls tapered off for a few weeks and one day finally, they stopped. Never answered her. Never heard from her again…”

Just how brutal was Genghis Khan?

How brutal was Genghis Khan? The guy was a one-man wrecking crew on a continental scale. He and his Mongol horde were responsible for the annihilation of entire empires, like the Khwarazmian Empire, which was wiped off the map in about two years. We’re talking about cities falling one after another, populations being massacred, and cultural legacies destroyed.

The Mongols employed psychological warfare, making sure their atrocities were well-known to instill fear in their enemies. They had a simple policy: “Surrender or face decimation.” And by decimation, we mean the wholesale slaughter, rape, and enslavement of entire populations.

Been there and done that…

Why do Chinese people love Mao, when he literally killed many of their ancestors and people (more than 15 million)?

Who says so! The western media? Did you count the body? The U.S. wanted to break up China into 100 bite size nations and chew on it like candy in 1945. The lost miserably. And had to do shit it Taiwan up till now. 74 years later!

Can you trust anything from western media? 15 million? Why not say 150 million. After all it is just another zero in their typing machine! Stop being a fool. Grow some grey matter, it is good for you. You really want gore details?

How many African slaves were tortured, lynched to death? Raped and killed? How many slaves baby were thrown to feed crocodiles? How many American natives were culled like sheep by white Caucasian cowboys? How many Japanese had to die to avenged Pearl Harbour? How many Vietnamese women and children were Agent Orange or Nepalm burnt alive? How many Muslims died from your cowardly Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya carpet bombings? How many Latin and African lives are lost die to US actions by CIA?

10 million? 100 million? The trouble U.S. Chinese are hell of a lot more intelligent than ignorant and naive Yanks. To Chinese and indeed 5–7 billion others Mao did what is right to save China from U.S. becoming USSR, or Yugoslavia or Middle East. Broken into tiny nations with U.S. puppet!

Stray Cat Paws At The Window Every Day Until Lady Adopts Him | The Dodo

Why does Russia have a strong military if it doesn’t have enough money and resources to use it?

Russia has a lot of natural resources such as oil and gas, coal, gold, manganese, uranium, copper, nickel, iron, chromium, graphite and so on.

The European countries to the West need those resources and are constantly expanding NATO eastwards, threatening Russia’s security.

This is why Russia needs a strong military to defend itself.

But Russia is not a poor country as you are trying to imply. In fact, Russia has the fifth largest GDP PPP in the world behind China, US, India and Japan.

Women RUINED The Gym For Everyone

What is the best way a friend has showed you that they are a true friend?

Many years ago, my husband was in a terrible car accident and ended up with a broken neck. At the time our two daughters were 13 and 10 years old. My husband had to be transferred to a larger hospital about an hour away. I and my husband both have great families who live nearby. I depended on them to make sure our daughters were taken care of while I was at the hospital with him, along with many of his family members. I came home, after finally getting word that he was going to survive and had a very life threatening surgery to stabilize his neck, which did save his life. When I got home, I found my lawn mowed, brand new pillows and a new phone line installed where my husband would be spending the first part of his recovery downstairs in our home. All was done courtesy of my brother’s best friend who I had always considered to be a second brother to me. I also found out that he had picked up my girls and bought them dinner and just made sure they were well cared for and feeling secure during such a hard time and while our families were busy supporting us at the hospital. Friends like him are too precious to ever take for granted.

How to make your kitty happy

What happened to make you not want to be a boss anymore and stop being a boss?

When I was almost 50,i reached what for me, was the top goal professionally – becoming the VP of IT in my division. “I made it”! Woo-hoo! After 20y of hard work and risk, I made it to the top.

Just one thing – I categorically, absolutely HATED the job. Plus I worked for a four star Ahole of a boss.

After 7 months I stepped down and took a 70k a year pay cut to go back to being a senior software engineer, a job where I loved the work and was gifted at it. I never even looked at the ladder again let alone climb it. I retired in 2020 as a senior software engineer with no regrets at all.

Brutal truths

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PC7d4V0OP3w?feature=share

Are your twenties really the best years of your life?

Do you know why everyone says the 20s are the best years?

Because most people stop living after they turn 30. And many stop living even while they’re in their mid-20s.

Many people graduate college with degrees they didn’t really want. They just got the degree their parents wanted them to get, or the degree they thought they should get in order to find a stable job, or the degree that was easiest to tolerate for four years.

Many people leave college and settle into a job they don’t really enjoy. They pick up the first “good job” that presents itself, get comfortable, and decide to start working their way up the ladder there.

Many people begin living life beyond their means as soon as the opportunity presents itself. They don’t save money, they spend money. They pick up an expensive car payment. They blow it on bar tabs and once a year trips somewhere so they can forget about the other 51 weeks they spend doing something they don’t really enjoy.

Many people get married because they think they have to. Or they get married because nothing else exciting is going on in their lives and they think, “This is what being in your 20s is all about!” They get married because they would rather be with someone else than be alone. Etc. etc. (And if you’re getting married for the right reasons, by the way, congrats.)

Many people start having kids. They want to buy a home. They want to provide for this family-in-progress—and so now there is absolutely no possible way for them to leave their job or career path because they have too much overhead. It becomes a financial no-no.

The reason everyone says your 20s are the best years is because most people create a safe and comfortable lifestyle before they even turn 30.

And then as soon as they turn 30, they’re done. They don’t have any more “goals.” They don’t work on acquiring new skills. They don’t find ways to go outside their comfort zone. They stop reading. They stop learning. They stop, essentially, looking at life as an opportunity for growth, and instead repeat the phrase, “I am so old.”

That is the opposite of how I ever want to live my life.

I realize the above are sweeping generalizations, but the sad part is they are true. In a lot of cases, the majority of people stop. They just stop. They find what’s comfortable and then they’re done. Life becomes a countdown to dusk, instead of a journey toward the sun.

And the worst part?

They look back and say, “Your 20s are the best years of your life!”

Every year has the ability to be the best year of your life.

It’s up to you what you choose to do with it.

Driving in a sports car

Cajun Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter, softened
8 slices crusty Italian bread
6 tablespoons pepper jelly
8 slices pepper jack cheese
8 slices Muenster cheese
2 links andouille sausage, grilled, each link cut into quarters and split lengthwise*

Instructions

Spread 2 tablespoons butter on one side of four slices of bread.
Spread pepper jelly on one side of the remaining slices of bread.
On the slices of bread with pepper jelly, place two slices of pepper jack cheese and two pieces of grilled andouille sausage.
Cover the andouille sausage with two slices of Muenster cheese and top with the remaining slices of bread, butter-side out.
Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.
Place sandwiches, butter-side down, in the skillet and spread the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over the tops of the sandwiches.
Cook sandwiches, in batches if necessary, for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until golden and the cheeses are melted.
Serve immediately.

Notes

* May substitute any other smoked sausage for the andouille

An empty offer

My friend wants to have a party to celebrate him paying off his mortgage. We are in our late 30s. Why do I feel like it’s a subtle flex? I think it’s unnecessary especially getting your friends to celebrate this. What do you think?

I have been to two mortgage parties. At each, the couple spent about as much as one mortgage payment, to supply food and booze, to maybe 50 friends and family. Everyone was ecstatic for them.

I personally have never held one, but I think they are a great idea. Sometimes it feels like the only time old friends get together is at funerals. This brings everyone together, for happy times.

Men no longer are accepting rude behavior

Buspar and Trazadone

When I was with my first wife, back in the late 1980’s her mental illness started to “kick in”.

For me, it was brutal.

I didn’t know what the Hell was going on. She started acting more and more peculiar. Followed by strange… really, REALLY strange behavior, and a mix of passive-aggressive and full-on aggressive behaviors flooded and spewed from her.

She would just spend 24-7, never sleeping, never taking a break just berating me for every problem under the sky. Non-stop tirades. First it was personal stuff. Then it evolved into the kinds of television commercials that played on the television… going to why I “allowed” the television to show those commercials.

Or, why I permitted a grocery store to price the cans in a “haphazard way”.

Why did I allow those commercials? Why didn’t I yell at the Store Manager?

She started saving boiled egg shells on plates. As they “predicted the future”.

The bedroom closet ended up being stacked with piles of plates with shells on them. She even labeled the plates with dates written on masking tape.

That was only the beginning, and she stopped washing her hair, and showering as it was a sign of my “male dominant” desires…

Like I said … “crazy” behaviors.

At this time, I was also living a nightmare as a cubicle employee in a company. It was a scene right out of “Office Space”. So, between the nightmare work environment, and the nightmare wife…

…and STILL being in MAJ with all the world-line swaps…

…I was HEAVILY stressed.

…

One day, we went for a walk. In those days, I would need to go out and get some “fresh air” and she would burst out of the house tagging behind me continuing her narrative of how rotten her life was, and why I was at fault. He was running amok and I hadn’t a clue as what to do. I couldn’t get a break. I couldn’t get a rest. I couldn’t get any alone time except while being in the car…

And…

…I snapped…

No, I did not go crazy. I did not go into a rage. I did not get upset. I did not freak out…

Something snapped inside of me.

I had an event. I had a breakdown.

Suddenly I was enveloped in fuzzy grey calmness, and all her talking was volume muted, the ground became warm and fuzzy and I felt like I was detached.

I was…

…comfortably numb.

…

She noticed this. She looked at me.

She then started to yell at me. “What are you doing!” she screeched. She grabbed me by the arms. “Snap out of it! We are talking about me! Pay attention to ME!” she hollered.

But it was too late. I was too far gone.

I had retreated inside. And the storm raged outside.

…

Look, I got over this. Buspar and Trazadone really got me back on track. They helped immensely.

And if you are going though this kind of event… you will too.

Stress and the horrific situations that it creates are but fleeting moments. Later on, when we are older, we look back in amazement of the things that we endured.

Today..

Alone

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Yep. Was commuting into the office on the train as per usual, when my work cell phone rings. Bit early for calls, as it wasn’t barely 8am yet, but ring ring ring anyway, and while Caller ID wasn’t blocked, I didn’t recognize the number entirely but it did seem vaguely familiar, and I pick up.

Turns out it was the support department for the company who hosts email for where I worked, since they outsourced it rather than dealing with running Exchange natively. They tell me the reason they’re calling is that they have somebody else on the other line who is asking to be promoted to owner of the email system, and asked if I approved it. I asked who it was, and it was somebody from HR, interestingly enough. Of course, nobody ran this by me, so being unable to rule out a social engineering attack, and not having approval from anybody to do so, I declined.

A few minutes later, I got another phone call on my cell, different number, still not my office or boss, and was asked the same thing pretty much by our phone system vendor. At this point, I’m thinking it’s less likely a social engineering attack and more likely that HR is trying to secure things I have access to. I pull out my laptop and MiFi and sure enough, my access to our VPN is terminated already. I figure I’m about to be fired, and sure enough, I get into work after disembarking the train and don’t even make it to my office before I’m ushered into HR and informed of the decision to let me go.

I ask if there’s a severance package, and am told there is not, and that before the company will release my final paycheck, I must return all my equipment and sign the paperwork. I do so, since I had my laptop, work issued cell phone and MiFi with me, and the charger for both at my desk. I expect HR to then hand me my check, but apparently, no, they instructed me to wait, while they called the email vendor back to get me to authorize a transfer of ownership. I waited patiently, and when they went through the department to make the request with me standing there, the support rep asked me if I was able to authorize the transfer.

I simply informed them that I was no longer a representative of the company and as such, couldn’t authorize anything, while smiling at the HR rep in the room. The email support rep then informed the HR rep that they’d need to file the correct paperwork to verify the business, exactly the paperwork they were trying to avoid, to reclaim the account. I snatched my final paycheck off the table and said “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way, now.” which went unresponded to, unless the glare from the HR person and my boss was a responce.

What’s your “never again” car brand? Why?

That would be Cadillac, I bought a new Catera, which is a rebadged Opel. It came with 4 year bumper to bumper warranty, and service. When the oil needed changing, it was free, new wiper blades free. New tail light bulb free.

So far, so good. On the night of the last day of my warranty, when the dealership was closed, my right turn signal would flash the radio light, but not the signal light. The dealership said that they consider the failure to have happened the first thing the next morning, when it was off warranty, because I didn’t report it when they were closed. It only happened at night, when the radio light came on. They said it was a $10,000 repair, if they did it by the book, but if they just clipped the old signal light wire, and ran a new one it would be $300.

Two weeks later both catalytic converters went, the dealer wanted $2500 a piece, but I was able to get new ones welded in at a muffler shop for $1300 for the pair.

A week later, I was driving, and suddenly lost all power, the engine died, most electrical went out. It turns out there is a cable, under the car, that requires the seats be removed, that came unplugged, it was the main power conduit. It was a $500 fix, including the tow.

The car requires that I pump the pedal to start it, its fuel injected, and that shouldn’t be the case. They park it outside in the winter, and they run the battery down, trying to start it, to take it in to work on it. They put in a new battery, that I don’t need. They tell me that you never have to pump the gas on a fuel injected car, to get it to start. So it was a bad battery. I point out that, the car was in to be serviced, because it wont start, without pumping the gas. It turns out that its a computer error, and is soon fixed, but they still charge me for the battery.

A month later, the transmission starts leaking. Its a totally sealed unit, there is no dip stick, no way to add fluid. It can’t be repaired, I need a new one. The dealer wants $5000. I go to a transmission shop, and they say they can put in a rebuilt one for $2500.

The kicker comes, not even a year after the car is off warranty, when idling I have no oil pressure, but it returns to normal when I step on the gas. I assume worn bearings, but how can it be, when the car only has 60,000 km, 40,000 miles on it, and all the service has been done at the dealer. The dealership is perplexed, they say that they have another, a year newer doing the same thing, and I should wait for them to figure out what is wrong with that car, as its under warranty.

I have had enough, I have paid more in repairs than the car is worth. I go to the dealer that I had bought it from, and trade it in for a Chevy.

I wouldn’t sell that car to anyone, but the company that sold it to me. The mechanics, gave it a clean bill of health and I got full trade in value.

I didn’t really want a Chevy either, but you take what you can get.

A Major crisis in the West…

What’s something you recently learned that shocked you?

1. 250 dead people are currently frozen, waiting to be revived with future technology.

2. After making 1.4 billion Crayons, the senior Crayon maker for Crayon admitted he was color blind.

3. If you type ‘illuminati’ backwards, followed by ‘.com’ as a URL, you will be directed to the US government’s national security page.

4. On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

5. The happier you are, the less sleep you require to function in everyday life. Sadness increases the urge to sleep more.

6. In 1920, a dog waited for 9 years after the death of his master outside the train station every morning until he himself pass away.

7. A study found that, on average, a woman’s friendliness will be mistaken for sexual interest 3.5 times a year.

8. Crocodiles do not die of old age because they do not age biologically. Instead, they die of either starvation or disease.

9. “Tom and Jerry” was a British slang term from the 1800’s, meaning “to fight and cause trouble”.

10. If a friendship lasts longer than 7 years, psychologists say it will last a lifetime.

11. Nike’s slogan ‘Just Do it’ was inspired by the last words of a murderer on death row.

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

Due to employee carelessness, I was badly injured on the job. Due to the owner’s negligence, there was none of the required paperwork at the store to fill out an on-job injury report. I drove myself to the ER, got treated, and the ER (very reluctantly) filed the injury report. (I had to write it up for them, with both hands heavily bandaged!).

I was off work for about 10 days, when I got back the owner told me because of the “poor quality of cleanliness”, my hours were being cut by 20%. The week before I got hurt, we had scored a perfect 100% on a corporate cleanliness/service inspection. I gave him the keys, and walked out, with him yelling after me I wasn’t allowed to quit.

When the staff realized what was going on, all but two of them followed me out, and when the customers found out what was going on, half of them came with us!

And I won my unemployment claim!

Preferences

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FqDXnJT3pm8?feature=share

What is the most unforgettable and frightening conversation you had with one of your children?

I came home from work at 4:30 pm and was unpacking purse, jacket, etc.

My son came close to me, and whispered. “Mom. I have to tell you something. I hope you won’t think I’m a tattle tale. But Nicholas* is smoking cigarettes when he’s on duty taking care of my sister! Sometimes I see the smoke going right into her!”

My daughter, with a tracheostomy, acute allergies, and chronic lung disease, was cared for while I was at work by Nicholas, an au pair from a Scandinavian country. He was referred to me by his sister, who was another au pair; she was good and I trusted her.

My son was protecting his sister. As a child, he could not defend her against this au pair. He was trusting me to intervene.

I went into Nicholas’ room, smelled cigarette smoke, and fired Nicholas immediately. My children’s father immediately came home from work when I called him. He drove the au pair to the airport.

When I went to clean out his filthy room I found a lot of Nazi propaganda. And, months later, we were notified of three lawsuits. Apparently he had crashed the car we provided for him into other cars.

I will never forget that my son saved our family with an unforgettable and frightening conversation, because he trusted me to fix a situation he knew was a bad one, even though he was only five years old.

*not his real name

Brigsten’s Restaurant Banana Bread
Pudding with Banana Rum Sauce

This is a fantastic cross between the classic bread pudding and Bananas Foster, the great flaming bananas and ice cream dessert.

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

Bread Pudding

6 cups bite-size pieces day-old French bread
3 cups milk
3 large eggs
2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 large very ripe bananas
3/4 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup seedless raisins
1/2 cup roasted pecans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Banana Rum Sauce

2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
6 large ripe bananas, quartered
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons banana liqueur
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Bread Pudding

Put the French bread pieces into a 9 x 12 x 2 inch baking pan.
In a blender or food processor, blend the eggs, milk, 2/3 cup of sugar, bananas, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla extract until smooth. Pour this mixture over the French bread pieces. Fold in the raisins and the pecans and let the mixture set for 20 minutes. Top with small pieces of the butter.
Cover the pudding with aluminum foil and place the pan into a larger pan. Add warm water to a depth of 1 inch in the larger pan. Bake for 1 hour.
Remove the foil and bake uncovered for 15 minutes until set.
In a deep, medium bowl, whisk the cream just until it begins to thicken. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Continue whisking until soft peaks form. Cover and chill.

Banana Rum Sauce

Heat a large sauté pan or skillet over low heat. Add the butter, sugar, bananas, cinnamon and nutmeg. Moving the skillet back and forth, cook until the butter and sugar become creamy and the bananas begin to soften, about one minute. Remove the skillet from heat and add the rum and the liqueur. Return the pan to the heat. Tilt the pan, avert your face and and light the liquid with a long match. Shake the skillet until the flames subside. Add the vanilla extract, remove from heat and keep warm.
To serve, place a large scoop of bread pudding in the middle of each serving plate or bowl. Place 2 slices of banana on each plate and top with about 3 tablespoons of sauce. Spoon the whipped cream over the bread pudding and serve immediately.

Please learn America…

What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?

My husband, kids and parents went to dinner with my sister’s family…a total of nine. We went to a unique steak restaurant where you ordered what you wanted and paid the cashier, then sat at a table where the food was delivered to you.

My brother in law, always the epitome of good manners (not!), made sure he was first in line when we entered. My parents were not in such a hurry, as they were chatting and having fun with their grandchildren, and were closer to the end of the line.

My BIL ordered a very basic steak dinner. This guy had a well-paying job, but the lengths he went to to save a buck or two were almost comical.

As the cashier was ringing up his order (He usually made my sister pay for her own), my mother called out that dinner for everyone was on her.

Charm boy immediately told the cashier to cancel his order, then proceeded to order the most expensive dinner, the steak and lobster with sides of prawns and garlic toast.

I hated going for a meal if he was included. He was always rude to the server and usually sent his meal back if he detected the slightest problem.

I’d love to know how many gallons of spit he has invested thru the years due to his rude and abusive restaurant etiquette.

What one sentence can change a life?

“I’ll be devastated if you’re not at school on Monday.”

This was said to me by my teacher for Math and Italian when I was 14.

I won’t go into great detail, but I was experiencing a particularly difficult period at that time.

I was severely depressed and expressed to multiple teachers how I felt. No one reacted.

Naturally, I decided to put a permanent end to a temporary problem over the weekend.

I had Maths for my final class on Friday.

As my teacher for Maths and Italian had always been my favourite, I left him a short note on the back of my test stating I wish you and your family all the happiness in the world.

He collected our tests, saw my message and asked me to stay behind.

He spoke to me for an hour and expressed how devastated he would be if I (or any of his students) were to take their own life.

At 14, to have someone I only spent two hours a day with show genuine concern meant everything to me.

China JUDGES United States: “War Addicts” Will an “Intervention” to stop our addiction come next?

What are the most interesting facts about human behavior?

The People’s Republic of China has JUDGED the United States of America as being “War Addicts.” As families of anyone with Chemical Dependency know, making such a determination is the step before an “intervention” to put a stop to an addiction!

A uniformed spokesman from China’s People’s Liberation Army brought the judgement to the world via a Press Conference. “”The USA are war addicts.” The country has existed for 240 years, and only 16 years it did not go to war. They built 800 military bases around the world. “Wherever the US military goes, people die everywhere,” said a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense.

RUSSIA CHIMES-IN

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday “The terrible events in the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by anything.”

He went on to say “We see that in the Middle East, instead of punishing terrorists, they began to take revenge on the principle of collective responsibility.

When you look at bloodied, dead children, the suffering of the elderly, the death of doctors in the Middle East, your fists clench, but emotions are unacceptable,” the president said.

Then Putin let loose with the quiet part that isn’t supposed to be said out loud:

“Behind the conflict in the Middle East, Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria are the ruling elites of the United States and their satellites

“They don’t need lasting peace in the Holy Land, they need constant chaos in the Middle East,” said the Russian President.

The US ruling elites, without achieving success on the battlefield, are trying to weaken Russia from within.

Putin’s key statement to Palestine sympathizers:

“We can only help Palestine in the fight against those who are behind this tragedy. We are Russia, and we are fighting them as part of a special military operation. Exactly with them. Both for ourselves and for those who strive for real true freedom.”

The President of Russia called it the duty of a real man to fight Nazism during the North Military District appearance he made yesterday, defending the Russian Federation and the future of the world, including Palestine.

Hal Turner Editorial Analysis

Folks, the rest of the world sees us for what we have actually become: Dangerous and out of control. Specifically, two of three most powerful nations on earth are now openly saying we’re causing the whole world deadly trouble . . . and we’ve been doing it for years. They’re tired of us.

It’s sort of like any other addiction. A family sees one of their own out of control, and decides to intervene. First they talk to the chemically-dependent/addicted person. They try to reason with him. Then they start applying efforts to make the addict’s life harder. But finally, and it ALWAYS COMES TO THIS, the family must physically stop the addict.

It seems the United States has now been judged an “addict” by China and their 1.5 Billion people. (Four times larger than OUR population.) If they decide to the we need to be physically stopped, we will have brought it upon ourselves.

The people in Washington, DC in the federal government, are personally to blame.

If the world begins to “intervene” in our war-making, and bombs start falling on . . . us . . . . to put an end to the trouble-making around the world by the people in OUR federal government, be sure to remember who is directly to blame.

Well-experienced people sayings that you should never do these things

Never compare your sex life with porn videos. Because porn videos are totally fake.
Never be sad for losing someone. No one lasts for long period of time. Even, you are gonna lose your beauty, money and health with age.
Never underestimate failure.Only a failure gives you the proper perspective of success.
Never “Trust” easily on anyone. Because trust is the most expensive thing and so don’t trust blindly. Even, your friends get jealous when they see your progress.
Never share your password of social media accounts, email, Internet Banking, and ATM pin\CVV number with anyone. Never!
Never get involved in sexual activities till you are not serious in your relationship.
Never believe on that girl\boy who have lots of relationship in their past. They can easily manipulated you by crying their bad past.( Exception is everywhere)
Never try to hurt your parents. They have lots of expectations from you.
In any situation, Never think about ending your life. Even plants regrow leaves after one leaf shed.

Why do the Chinese love living under dictators?

It’s simple

Their life has grown visibly better under the so called dictators and very rapidly too

Take Gautam Adani

In China

Adani if he was building a plant within a distance of 200 Kms Radius of a Village that had a chance of pollution effluents

He would have to pay for mandatory medical tests every 6 months

He would have to build a School for every 875 students between ages of 7–16

He would have to furnish and equip the school and pay the State / Province who would arrange the teachers

He would have to build roads, build warehouses & basic infrastructure plus employ a mandatory 85% of his staff from these villages and TRAIN THEM UNDER HIS OWN DIME

He would have to pay insurance premiums for all the employees he employs and if he fires anyone, he has to pay a mandatory 6 months salary plus a 36 month premium

This comes from his revenue which is audited by a State Auditor on his Board.

So no lying about making losses

If he is unable to sustain his businesses , his shares will be transfered to someone else

And he can’t leave China unless he has an exit visa

That is how the CPC protects the common mainlander

The Billionaire gets a tax credit and tax discount to cover this sum

If he tries to dodge this payment, he can be levelled with PUBLIC CORRUPTION and Jailed for 240 months/ Life or executed by the State

This is just one example of how China mixes it’s Capitalism and Socialism and rises accountability for the Party and it’s Private Sector

Likewise Poor Kids are inducted to WORK for 26 Hours a week at a minimum wage of 264 RMB a week

In exchange the employer must Mandatorily ensure that the Kid is TAUGHT Chinese & Mathematics until the age of 17 with proper medium of instruction

Talented Kids who score above a threshold can be paid a scholarship for 2 years to prepare for the GaoKao and prepare for the School Leaving Exam as well

Otherwise they are still educated and can become upto Foreman or Floor Manager in the factory and take basic certifications

While the whole world targets China for Child Labor, China does best for poor kids and gives them a FIGHTING CHANCE without burdening their families with Debt

So many poor kids today have respectable jobs as Foremen or Supervisors or Small Business holders because of the CPC

In Chinese Cities, if you have a Job and no housing, the City gives you a Public Housing with minimum space ranging from 24.45 Sqm in Shangahi to 61 Sqm in parts of Chongqing

Very low cost and rent

No homelessness

If you are a Sweeper from Rural China working in Chongqing, four of you get a single public house with a heater, bathroom and indoor plumbing

No Slums since 1976

No Shanty Towns

Proper Public Houses

In the words of Gita Gopinath, nobody in the world has a Public Housing program like the Chinese do

No desperately homeless families in China

Xilin purchased 11000 Pre Fab homes for their public housing which is more economical

This in China, you are GUARANTEED of a roof above your head and indoor plumbing no matter how poor you are

Plus Healthcare

The Poorest Rural Villager can get a Coronary Bypass for 5000 RMB on State Dime even without Employer Insurance

They trust Alternate Traditional Medicine Quacks more, that’s a different story

Plus Education

Plus Food Prices capped

This means Pork, Rice, Beef and Soybeans can’t sell beyond a maximum price in China

The State will absorb the extra cost

So in a way

The Median Chinese feel protected and safe

This is around 86% of the Chinese living in China

Among the remaining Chinese , mostly in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and other top cities, some 3% of the citizens feel they cannot really live upto the standard of their wealth in China and leave for Singapore and Australia and extol the virtues of Democracy

86% triumphs 3% is it not?

So that’s why People are comfortable under China and Chinese Dictators

Give them a Multiparty system like India and by God they would vote for a Putin like man for 40 years consecutively

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

There was a crew of men replacing the carpeting in the offices at work. It was a long, narrow hallway in that part of the building and someone in the crew set up a radio and had it blaring. I ended up having to be the one to tell them they couldn’t do that during work hours. I talked to the guy who seemed to be the foreman on the job and he seemed pleasant enough about it. He turned off the radio and talked to the others about it. He then came back and talked to me for a few minutes. Just to make conversation I asked him about the quality of the carpeting. He assured me that it was pretty good stuff, even though it was fairly thin. He said that he used the same stuff in his house. I said, “Oh, really?”, as I thought it was odd that someone would use commercial carpeting at home. He answered, “Yeah, I had to use this because my grandson is living with us. He’s only 2 years old, and he’s blind, so he has to have this kind of carpeting to make it easy to walk.” I was taken aback somewhat and said, “I’m sorry to hear about his disability.” The foreman quickly replied, “Oh, it’s fine. He’s a great kid and a lot of fun to be around. Sometimes we move the furniture around just to watch him bumping into things. It’s funny as hell seeing him all confused and falling down.”

I have to say that I’ve never met anyone else in my life that could entertain themselves by torturing a blind baby.

Why Women Are Upset When Men Have PREFERENCES?!

Why? The inability to emote. Many women (that are younger) just are unable to emote. They think they have a high EQ, but an inability to emote decries EITHER a ZERO EQ, or a narcissistic personality disorder.

What did your roommate say that made your jaw drop?

My story is awful in its own fashion but very different from the other responses. I had a wonderful roommate my last two years of college. Let’s call her Sue. She helped me get a job proctoring standardized tests. One Saturday I was finishing up a test when I saw my roommate in the door along with her then-boyfriend, Bill.

That surprised me because I thought they had plans since he didn’t live in town and they didn’t see each other often. Sue motioned me over.

“Jen, as soon as you can get away, we’ll give you a ride home.” The supervisor noticed the conversation and told me I could leave. I walked out to the car still wondering why Sue was here. After we got in the car, she turned around and gently told me, “Your mom called a little while ago. Your grandfather passed away this morning. Bill and I are going to drive you home.”

I was shocked. Although my grandfather had been diagnosed with terminal cancer the previous fall, he had responded well to radiation and had been active and in good spirits when I had last seen him only a month or so ago. Sue drove me back to our apartment to pack, then she and Bill drove me two hours back to my hometown for the funeral.

I’m not sure I ever really conveyed to Sue how grateful I was for that ride. I didn’t drive at the time, and it would have taken much longer for my sister or brother to have driven over to my college town to pick me up. She and her boyfriend gave up a large chunk of their rare time together to drive me home while I sat silent and grieving in the back seat, barely able to give directions in those pre-GPS days. “Sue,” if you’re on Quora and see this response and recognize the scenario, Thank you!

What is the most selfish act you have ever witnessed?

A little background — I was working in a chain drug store in Southern California, the only employee who came to work, on Christmas Eve. We were a 24-hour store, so, having cleaned everything, and faced all the stock on the shelves, I was thinking how to murder the “dancing Santa” (bad recording, 2 1/2 feet tall, and poorly made).

10:30 (22:30 for 24 hour clocks) a guy comes in, freaking out. His wife has recently left him for her “hot stud boyfriend”, with whom she has a brand-new baby. They are divorced, but she got the kids on holidays. He had bought and wrapped the presents for the kids (daughter, son), and dropped them off at her boyfriend’s house — left them on the porch, because she refused to open the door until he left. He gets home, and finds the kids waiting on his front porch. His ex-wife’s mother had just dropped them off, and left them alone, because ex-wife, new baby, and “Hot Stud” were going to his parents for Christmas, and she didn’t want the kids “getting in the way”. Grandma had plans of her own, and refused to take the kids with her.

Ex-wife left him with two kids with no change of clothes, no presents, not enough groceries, on Christmas Eve. And there was no way he could not make her sound like the totally selfish bitch she was.

Semi-happy ending. I abused the hell out of my authority as the manager, and “store-used” or “over-ride discount”ed everything we needed to put together a Christmas for his kids.

Each of them got a ream of paper, the largest box of Crayola (crayons) we had, a generic fuzzy toy, and two other toys that he thought they might like. Each present was individually wrapped in a different paper, with big fancy (store-bought!) bows, and a Christmas card on each present, plus each one got a good sized bag of “stocking stuffers”. (Pocket sized toys and games, candy, fruit, nuts, etc). Then I threw in (from me) a couple of bags of Christmas candy and chocolates.

It’s Christmas Eve, and your mother has her mother drop you off at your father’s house — who isn’t even home — because she doesn’t want you, because she has the new baby that you aren’t even allowed to touch.

I really, really hope she got what she deserved.

Why do so many foreigners go to China and think China is good?

Because there are two worlds: the one you see in real life and the one you see on TV or newspaper.

You watch TV, navigate through social media and you think you are well informed abou the world. And you know a lot about China. A strong dictatorship, damn commies, cheap labor and poor brainwashed people that would be amazed to see the “Free world”. The government is spying on their citizens, like CIA or NSA. But when commies do, you think is worst. Of course.

And one day, casually, you decide that you will visit China.

You arrived there and you are shocked. You can barely believe in your own eyes.

The big cities are super modern, big, shinning tall buildings. The way you pay, the way you shop, the hypermarket looks like in The Jetsons. You are in the future.

The level of automation there is out of this world (Western world, cough, cough). You had no idea that so many online services were already available to the people. You realise you have been scammed by your own country and media.

After the initial shock, you, an an educated person after all, well traveled, you have knowledge. Knowledge from the free world.

You decide to talk to the educated Chineses. Another shock. They know more about you (you as a citizen and your political beliefs) and your country than you know about them. Where is the brainwashing?

“Hey, but they are not free” you think in relieve. What can you do that they can’t? Let’s see… protest?

As if protests are changing something…

Vote? Chinese economy is growing faster and better than democracies…

It doesn’t matter, you are a free, superior citizen of the developed world. You travelled there to China to see them! And see that the Chinese studying abroad are going back to China… Whatever, they are commies.

You visit the Rural China, you still see a lot of poverty. You feel better about yourself. Hahaha, they are still poor!

You go back to the big cities and there is no way to deny the reality: China is growing and is glowing.

You go back home and you see, China is actually a good place. Very different from what you see on TV.

That’s why year after year the experts in your country are predicting the fall of China. There is nothing else to do beyond pray that somehow China will stop growing and wil be the end of the Western hegemony over the world.

PS: Go on, call me Communist Party propagandist.

How can an oil tanker so large and heavy with oil be so stable on the world’s oceans?

Oil tankers are large and heavy vessels that carry oil across the world’s oceans. They can be up to 400 meters long and weigh up to 500,000 tons when fully loaded. They are also designed to be stable and safe in various sea conditions. There are several factors that contribute to the stability of oil tankers.

The hull is the main body of the ship that floats on the water. The hull of oil tankers is usually long, wide, and deep, which gives them a large displacement and buoyancy. The displacement is the weight of the water that the ship displaces when it floats, and the buoyancy is the upward force that the water exerts on the ship. The larger the displacement and buoyancy, the more stable the ship is. The hull of oil tankers is also divided into several compartments, called tanks, where the oil is stored. The tanks are separated by watertight bulkheads, which prevent the oil from spilling or sloshing in case of damage or movement. The tanks are also arranged symmetrically along the centerline of the ship, which helps to balance the weight and distribution of the oil.

The draft and trim of oil tankers vary depending on the amount and location of the oil they carry. The draft and trim affect the stability of the ship by changing the position of the center of gravity and the center of buoyancy. The center of gravity is the point where the weight of the ship acts, and the center of buoyancy is the point where the buoyant force acts. The center of gravity and the center of buoyancy should be as close as possible to each other and to the centerline of the ship, to ensure a stable equilibrium. The draft and trim of oil tankers are controlled by adjusting the amount and distribution of ballast water, which is seawater that is pumped into or out of the empty tanks to balance the weight and trim of the ship.

The metacentric height is a measure of how stable a ship is when it is upright. The larger the metacentric height, the more stable the ship is. The righting moment is the torque that tends to restore the ship to its upright position when it is heeled by an external force, such as wind or waves. It is proportional to the product of the metacentric height and the angle of the heel. The larger the righting moment, the more stable the ship is. The metacentric height and the righting moment of oil tankers are calculated and verified by using stability instruments, which are devices that can measure and display the stability parameters and criteria of the ship.

Can you describe a time that your company only discovered that you were irreplaceable after they fired you? How did you feel? What did they do?

I didn’t work for a company, it was just a guy who sealed driveways.

I was 16 when he offered $10/hour under the table for good work.

We had fun. I busted my butt. I mixed sealer like a machine, process improvement every time.

We completed three or four driveways in five or six hours and then he took me out for a few beers on him.

It went on for two years.

At the end of the second year, he left his payment book open in the truck while getting something at the convenience store. He charged $300-500 per driveway on average.

I did the math quick in my head. Materials $40-50, labor $10, amortisation on equipment $20 (being generous).

That led me to: he gets $220-440 per hour and I get $10.

It was our last job of the year and I said nothing.

Next year in spring he called me and I upped my price to $20 per hour.

He freaked out, and asked if I was crazy.

I said, “Go and hire anyone you want, you won’t make as much money as you do with me and you won’t spend the last two hours at the bar drinking beer with somebody you like.”

He hired someone else.

He called four weeks later.

He said, “You were right.”

I said $25 per hour.

The beer tasted great the following Saturday.

What did a family member say or do that you don’t talk to them anymore?

My 83 year old father had an accident which caused a severe traumatic brain injury. He survived for a few months. My own mother died when I was 12, followed by my father emotionally abandoning me. He and his new wife carried this treatment forward for decades. This wife of 35 years, had always made it known I was not her cup of tea, was now terrified and desperate for help and support. I was the only one Dad recognized. She was panicked if he came home what would she do because he would have been severely disabled. During this time her tone changed and she made exclamations of “Family forever”. She asked me to move there and I agreed. The plan was I would stay for a month and then settle up the details of the sale of my home. I was moving whether Dad lived or died. I stupidly believed the cheetah changed her spots. Dad died and less than 48 hours later she told me I had to leave and I realized I was not welcome. I overheard her tell someone what a trauma it would be to have me around.

At that moment I felt the entire weight of 35 years of emotional abuse and neglect and the scales fell from my eyes. I felt like I was hit by a lightening bolt. I sobbed every day for the next 1.5 years…the pain was horrible as I realized how I allowed myself to be manipulated by her and how I allowed myself to be mistreated for all those years. I will never speak with her again because I refuse to be a second class citizen.

Which country has the most unusual capital city?

Tokyo, Japan.

When you are looking for countries that have unusual or weird capital cities, Tokyo takes the cake. Tokyo itself is a beautiful city, which is incredibly safe, and has some of the best food in the world. The city itself has over 13 million people in it (3rd largest capital city), and the metropolitan area has 37.8 million people in it – more than 195 countries (making the Tokyo-Yokohama area the largest metropolitan area in the world). It is also the best city that I have ever visited in my life. Tokyo is a city that is totally worth visiting.

I like Tokyo because of how weird it is. It’s not weird in a bad way – its just that you see a lot of things in Tokyo that you don’t normally see in other cities.

Tokyo restaurants often display plastic models of their food on their windows.

Now, where do you think you get these plastic food models?

Look no farther than Kappabashi Street – because the whole street is dedicated to selling restaurant supplies – such as these plastic food models.

Want to sleep in unusual hotels? Tokyo’s got your back. Introducing the capsule hotel – not for claustrophobics!

Ever felt like sleeping in a Kikkoman Instant soup bed?

Bored of playing Mario Kart 8 on your Nintendo Switch? Now you can do it in real life!

Tokyo is also known for its really weird restaurants. Alcatraz ER is a medical-prison themed restaurant.

Zauo is a restaurant where you literally catch your own food, bring it to the chef, and tell them how you want it cooked.

Mr. Kanso is a store that only sells canned goods.

The best way to experience the wonderfully weird city of Tokyo is to visit it, and I highly recommend to do it – it’s totally worth it!

What’s the coldest thing a doctor has ever said to you?

Not to me, but to my mom. 15th of July is “Asshole day” in my family. Why, you may ask?

When I was 9 years old, my mom got pregnant. I was soooooooo excited to have a sibling! But a few years after, my mom finally told me what had happened before she told me she was pregnant.

When she first found out, she was so happy. Her first doctor check up was fine. She went back about a week after, and there the doctor (a different one) did the ultrasound, looked at my mom, and simply said:

I’m sorry. You lost your baby. It’s dead

No explanation, nothing. My mom cried but came back home as if nothing had happened. She told my step dad but not me, I had no idea of what was happening in my home. I don’t remember seeing my mom cry, she would always make sure I wasn’t around.

In the next 2 weeks, she realised she still had all the pregnancy symptoms. Still had the same cravings. She was sure she hadn’t lost the baby. She went back and got an appointment with the same doctor as last time (it was at the hospital, you couldn’t really choose who you would see).

When she explained that she was still experiencing all the pregnancy symptoms, he denied all of it. He told her she was doing a phantom pregnancy. That she was too old (37) to have a baby so she just imagined she was having one. She refused to accept it and demanded another doctor to do the ultrasound. It took a while but finally another doctor came to see my mom. Took him about a minute to find my brother with the ultra sound. Doctor 1 was so embarrassed he didn’t even apologize.

Doctor 2 explained that Doctor 1 was still a student, hence why he made a mistake.

I don’t know why that student was doing ultrasounds alone. All I know is, the first thing my mom did when coming home was telling she was pregnant.

She was first told my brother was dead on July 15th. So we commemorate that day as Asshole Day and my mom usually goes out with my brother!

The United States is truly fucked up

What is the most ridiculous thing someone has said to you on a date?

Just when I thought I’d run out of stories for Quora answers. Praise almighty god.

I was on a date with a Veterinarian in her late 20’s. A very polite girl, pretty, smart – she had all the right boxes checked.

It was our second date and we were talking about “kids growing up too fast” which is code for teenagers having sex too soon.

We probably shouldn’t have been talking about that topic so soon and it was probably my fault, I tend to steer conversations to bad places. But oh well. Good dates usually involve being honest and talking about real things. And it was indeed a good date.

All I remember though was that at one point I was taking a sip of beer as she said,

“I mean I get it, kids experiment from time to time. When I was 8 years old I stuck a pen in my p—y.”

At which point I choked on my beer and started coughing and she immediately started blushing.

I was actually glad that beer was coming out of my nose because it probably minimized her own embarrassment.

She said, “Sorry – that was too much.”

After I wiped the beer off my face, I waved both hands and reassuringly said,

“Nah! You are fine no worries. Kiiiiids.”

What bad experience had you saying “I will never buy from that company or use their service ever again”?

My dad always bought his cars from a specific car dealership. After he died, my mother gave her big boat of a car to my brother, and decided to buy a smaller car.

We went to the dealership that dad had always used, he must have bought 10 cars from them, and we picked out a small one year old lease return, with very low mileage.

We were paying cash, and my mother and I sat down and signed the contract. We would pick up the car, after the check had cleared. When she went to get up, she almost fell over. We got to the door, and we were parked right out front, and she didn’t recognize her car. I took her directly to the hospital, she died 8 days later, never leaving the hospital.

After the funeral I went to talk to the dealership and they refused to take the car back. I tried to contact the local television reporter, who always aired these kind of stories, and never heard back. I asked Mom’s lawyer, and he said that she was obviously not of sound mind when she signed the contract. But that it would cost us more to use him to fight it, than it was worth. So we sold the car, still sitting on the dealers lot, to someone for $1500, less than we paid for it, two weeks before. A week later, the reporter contacted me, he had been on vacation.

I told all my friends, family and acquaintances about it. Many of them used that dealership as well. They all said they would never set foot in it again.

There were at least 50 people, who had bought at that dealership in the past, who swore they wouldn’t go back.

It didn’t make it right, but it felt better to know that they were losing customers.

Say I steal 2 cents from every bank account in America. I am proven guilty, but everyone I stole from says they’re fine with it. What happens?

This actually happened in 2011 or 2012, a hacker stole a penny from millions and millions of ppl amounting to a total of 78 million dollars. They couldn’t prosecute him for a plethora of reasons and as a matter of fact it got him tons of clout. He ended up getting tons of job offers because of his genius feat. So you’re late to the punch and that loophole has long been sealed by now

What is a strange experience you’ve had that you’ll never forget?

Sorry folks, this isn’t a ghost story, but it was awfully weird.

Years ago, when my husband lost his job, we used to run a stall at a Craft Market. We sold African crafted goods, and framed pictures of African wild life.

In the stall next door was a lady who did upholstery – she sold beautiful Ottoman’s and all manner of stuff to do with upholstery. She had a sister, Cat, who would help her out at times.

Cat had a deck of Tarot cards, and after obtaining permission from the owners of the market, set up a cubicle to do readings, within her sister’s stall.

Cat invited me over for a ‘practice run’. Not believing in any of it, I reluctantly obliged. I knew how these things ‘worked’, so was determined not to give anything away, by way of body language or expression. I sat immobile and stony-faced as Cat did her reading.

I honestly can’t remember 99% of what Cat told me, but one thing stuck in my mind. She told me that someone in our household was pregnant. I laughed it off.

At that time, we still had a young cleaning lady, Rachel, who lived in an outbuilding on our premises. I was very attached to this young woman, she worked for us for ten years and was almost like one of the family. I fed and clothed her as I knew her other job didn’t pay very much; I also saw to her medical needs.

A few weeks later, Rachel confessed that she was pregnant. Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather! I didn’t see that one coming.

No games

Why was Hermann Göering not allowed to speak in the Nuremberg trials?

Not only did Göering speak as others have posted, but he used a clever trick. He would listen to the question in English, which then had to be re-asked in German. The trick (so I’ve read) is that Göering was fluent in English. He’d get to hear the question and have time to consider his answer while it was put to him again in German.

Why are Taiwanese companies still doing business with China that wants to invade their island nation, especially since the communist regime would suffer without Taiwan’s technology?

1, Taiwan’s TSMC already moved out of Taiwan. It is a US firm now. Do you see China suffering?

It hurts Taiwan more than China.

2, It is all a political show by Taiwan’s pro-USA politicians. They all do business with China. With business with China, Taiwan has trade surplus. Who hates money? Not the corrupted Taiwanese politicians.

3, Of course, there are Taiwanese who are pro-China. They welcome China to “invade” Taiwan.

Taiwan is part of China. Is a Chinese province. There is no invasion of China when China decides to suppress the Taiwanese rebels.

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

Maurice was a soft-spoken and mild mannered boy in my class. He was friendly and pleasant to all. I cannot think of a single moment where he said or did something that angered or offended anyone while in school.

He lived further up the hill from where my school was; practically walking distance from the school. Girls confided in him due to his reserved nature and boys respected his kindness. Once he invited a few of us guys to his house for food and to watch SpiderMan (the very first movie) on his PC, after school. Maurice was the last boy one would think of when the word ‘dangerous’ was mentioned.

When we entered Form 5, a boy named Kevin entered the school and stoke fear upon many of us. I say ‘boy’ but he was already an 18yo adult when he came. He had transferred from a really rough school and practically every week he was involved in vicious fights or would be seen breaking class to smoke behind the labs. He would harass random boys, threaten them for their money and if they didn’t cough up he’d shove, slap or thrash them, according to his mood.

Maurice happened to pass by him one day and judging Maurice to be harmless he tackled Maurice for some money. Maurice ignored him but Kevin grabbed him by the shirt and slapped him on both cheeks, warning him that next time things will be worse.

Maurice’s shirt was dirty and his face red from the fracas but he remained silent and walked away.

After school ended I was walking with my friends out the compound and down the hill when we saw trouble was brewing. We saw a gang of no less than twenty young men from the area had accosted Kevin. Kevin’s face was bruised and swollen, eyes red and most of his shirt buttons were ripped out from a prior struggle. They dragged Kevin to Maurice and asked what to do with him. Maurice, in his soft voice told them that that was enough. The men shoved Kevin off and fired kicks behind him as he ran down the hill, thoroughly learning his lesson. The hill where the school lay was Maurice’s turf.

Kevin learned a lesson that day.

The most dangerous people are sometimes the ones you least suspect.

What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world?

Your manager is not your friend, no matter how nice, friendly you think he/she is.
Understand difference between a friend and colleague. Draw the line, and keep your friend circle outside work as much as possible.
You’re a “resource”, that’s how upper management refers to you.
Do what’s required of you, go a bit outside your comfort zone sometimes when required. Do the basics consistently, that’s what is expected.
Look at your payslip, offer letter and understand your salary components. Plan your tax accordingly and investments accordingly.
You can stay in a company for a long time, or keep shifting every 2–3 years. It’s upto you, and no one is right or wrong. Some people prefer respect and comfort and some more money.
Update your LinkedIn, spend time on it.
Have a life outside work.
POSH can attack you from anywhere anytime, please be aware of it, and understand it. Know when to talk where and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble.
Choose a company that is still starting out, you’ll have an opportunity to learn more, and your views shall be respected.
An employee without a good personal life and stability cannot be a good professional. Give people time, lend some hand if you can, if it’s in your professional prowess.
“Easy to work with” is in more demand than “good worker”
If you don’t like your job, move on, try to get a new job but please don’t expect that you’ll like it either.
9–5 jobs are amazing. All these entrepreneurs need some workforce as well to survive.
Be aware of skills required to upgrade in your role and the latest trends that are dropping in.
HR (employee relations) actually don’t do anything.
Nobody likes you and everybody talks about you behind your back. So, don’t try to build an image to be likeable.
You’re there to make money and learn. Everything else is not a priority.
Learn how to be respectfully sarcastic on mails, communication channels.
Don’t keep grudges. You won’t work there forever.
If you find someone is toxic, ignore them. If you have to work with them directly, just keep it to minimum work talk, and get everything over mail or slack/skype/teams.
Verbal communication is pointless. Document everything.
Smart people in corporate world will make you think they’re idiots and get away with everything.
Use Glassdoor. It helps other people.
Don’t be an attention seeking unethical jerk. Be normal, come on time, leave on time.

Does Iran have NUKES?!? Should we be worried?

Did you vote for a war with Iran? Your elected representatives did! On Wednesday, U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 559 on Wednesday which paves the way for a war with Iran over nuclear weapons.

As a British person visiting the U.S., what is the most astounding thing someone over there has said to you?

Second trip to New York a couple of years ago. Loved the first trip, the sights, the people, the atmosphere. Got chatting to a young lady who had moved to New York and was working as a ticket seller for one of the tour bus companies while we were waiting for the bus she’d just sold us tickets for.

Turns out she was a heavily qualified medical professional who was struggling to find work in the US.

Middle aged lady came up to me and asked if I knew how to get to such and such a place. I explained that I was a stranger, but suggested that she asked the young lady we were talking to.

He response? “I don’t ask ni**ers for directions”

I wish I could say that I said something witty in response, but I was so shocked that I just stared at her. The Englishman in me meant that I felt I had to apologize on her behalf. Swore never to go back to NY.

Genuinely shocking.

Why isn’t the USA stopping China from becoming an economic superpower? While China might not have the same military superiority as USA, it is becoming clearer that China is going to overtake USA economically.

Two part answer:

1) China has something like 4.5 times America’s population, so the fact that their economy is en route to exceed ours is hardly surprising. If you think that’s a bad thing, you are essentially saying that 1.4 billion people should be living in poverty. What reason is there for believing that the U.S economy should always be the largest on earth?

2) What do you think the government should be doing to prevent the Chinese economy from growing? A boycott is hardly possible and a trade war would hurt us as badly as them. Investment restrictions would again just hurt us and benefit Europe and Japan.

The fact is that the American and Chinese economies are tightly linked. We should be thinking about how to benefit from China’s rise (for example, selling them some scrubbers for their coal plants) instead of pointlessly trying to keep them down.

What is the situation of Huawei in China?

Who produces Huawei’s Kirin 9000S chip? This is a mystery that no one can figure out.

The test results of the United States have also come out. They admit that it is not an American technology and that it has reached the chip level of 5 nanometers or higher. However, they still point out that there is still a gap of five or six years between Huawei’s chip technology and the technology controlled by the United States.

What is the difference between six years?

The one that can help Huawei produce high-end chips cannot be TSMC, let alone Samsung. SMIC does not have this ability, so who else in the world can produce such high-level chips?

The relationship between Huawei and Songshan Lake began in 2005. At that time, Songshan Lake signed a project investment agreement with Huawei Investment Holding Co., Ltd. to establish a 750-acre Huawei Southern Factory, which was officially put into production in 2009. In 2012, the two parties signed an investment agreement to establish Huawei’s terminal headquarters. In 2018, Huawei’s terminal headquarters officially settled in Huawei Xibeipo Village, located in the south of Songshan Lake, Dongguan, where Huawei’s production and R&D capabilities also began to gather.

This is called the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou S&T cluster by the WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2023, but actually the Songshan Lake Science and Technology Industrial Park in Dongguan, Guangdong, China in the Guangzhou Shenzhen Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay area.

The photo was taken at the opening ceremony of the new academic year of Dongguan Institute of Technology. The speaker in the photo is the Secretary of the Party Committee of Dongguan Institute of Technology, introducing the industrial situation of Songshan Lake.

In July 2020, the state approved the joint construction of the “Greater Bay Area Comprehensive National Science Center Pilot Launch Area” by Songshan Lake Science City and Shenzhen Guangming Science City, covering an area of 90.5 square kilometers. In October 2021, the Songshan Lake Science City Development Master Plan (2021-2035) was officially approved by the Guangdong Provincial Government.

At present, the new generation electronic information industry cluster with Huawei terminal as the main chain has reached a scale of 100 billion yuan, becoming a pillar industry in Songshan Lake and even Dongguan. When a steady stream of scientific research results is transformed and applied to the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, Dongguan’s “smart” manufacturing will have endless productivity and creativity.

Songshan Lake has gathered 84 national-level talents of various types, including 21 dual-employed academicians, and has 56 innovative scientific research teams at or above the municipal level. More than 50 academicians and experts and more than 2,000 well-known domestic and foreign scientists carry out scientific research here all year round.

The City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) and the University of the Greater Bay Area (Songshan Lake Campus) are accelerating their construction and are expected to be completed and enroll students in the academic year of 2023. Songshan Lake, which is only 103 square kilometers, will have 6 universities.

The production and R&D capabilities of Huawei will also expand even further in the most productive and innovative Greater Bay area of China.

How much do you trust China to comply with the US sanctions on Iran and stop buying Iranian oil?

Why the fuck should China be complying with any of the U.S. sanctions?

By your logic, China being the most sanctioned country by the U.S. should be sanctioning itself?

China should in fact be working together to bypass U.S. sanctions – Iran also being heavily sanctioned by the U.S. – by directly settling trade negotiation with their own currencies. This, together with Saudi Arabia – directly contributes to the discarding of the petrodollar.

FreshandFit REACT To Cheesecake Factory DATE Gone WRONG

She’s forever the Cheesecake Factory chick. Ironic and poetic.

If you cry out of happiness, the first tear will fall from the right eye; if you cry out of sorrow, the first tear will fall from the left.
A person has 7 minutes of neural activity left before he dies. You will see your memories in a dreamlike pattern during the 7 minutes of neural activity you might have before dying.
When people who speak two or more languages switch from one language to another, they may unintentionally change their personalities.
As humans, we are most imaginative at night and least creative during the day.
According to studies, travel improves brain wellbeing and even lowers the risk of heart disease and depression.
When you’re sleepy, your brain does more imaginative work.

Being around happy people makes you happy.
Persuading yourself that you slept well deceives your brain into believing you did.
The music you listen to has an impact on how you perceive the world.

Damn!

Is China a first second or third world country?

China is more than a first world country but unfortunately for China , it is neither Caucasian (or of European descent ) nor friendly to them so it is rather called an emerging economy just to pretend to take it out of the disgraceful third world status . Tiny Israel with a beggarly $300 bn GDP ( lower than Nigeria’s $500 bn ) is put in the first world whilst China with an $18 trn GDP (or 60 times than of Israel is virtually ranked third world . And China has technology that even America cannot comprehend — high speed trains , landing on the dark side of the moon etc . The World of Wonders

Some people prefer to go to an office every day rather than staying at home all day. Do you think this is because they like what they do?

When I was growing up, I saw my father going to office every day. He would eat his breakfast at 9 and leave for office by 9.30. It was a six days week during that period. Since he was a civil servant, he had to many times go for work even on Sundays and holidays.
When I was in school and then in college, I seldom missed my classes. It was fun going to school and college and meet with friends and participate in all activities.
When I joined my job, everyone in office used to come in time without fail. There were many who wouldn’t even avail their full quota of casual leaves (15 in a year). There were a few instances when due to Deewali or some other vacations, there were continuous holidays for 4–5 days. People used to wait for offices to open.
Even today, in most government offices, there is no concept of working from home. All government employees go to office every day.
During the covid pandemic, most of the private sector companies introduced the concept of work from home. It was the need of the hour and was very convenient for the employees. Lots of people shifted to their home towns and worked from there. It became a new normal.
Now that the things have gotten back to normal, a number of people are still preferring to work from home. I know a few youngsters who resigned their jobs when the companies asked them to report to office for work. They became too comfortable perhaps working from home.
Maybe I am old school, but for me staying home all day is not done. I want to go to my office and work.

What should we pay attention to as the presidents of China and the US meet face-to-face in San Francisco since their Bali meeting last year? What implications does this meeting hold for China-US relations and for the world?

China in November 2023, will not be lectured and talk down to. Not now not again. Certainly by a nation build on slavery after genocide on its own natives. Certainly the one and only nuclear bombs on human. Certainly not by the biggest murderer of Arabs, Muslims, orientals, and certainly by the biggest terrorist state on earth.

Get use to the new fact of life. Then let’s talk as equal. No more no less. If the US has any sense of reality not to mention humility, it is the US needing China. Not China wanting this talk. Without China the US can kiss goodby to 30–50% of world demand. Without China it cannot win over the Global south or 170–180 out of world’s nation. Without China the US will collapse and implode.

But the US is lucky China is not the US. Not the hypocrisy, not the hubris, not the nation that wants the world to be submissive and subservient to them. Not the nation that is at war 237 out of its 247 years after stealing their nation from their natives. China don’t steal Hawaii, Guam, and some 50 other islands! And this nation wants to lecture China!

But China is willing to help make America good again. If it ever grow out of puberty. I doubt it will but if it does it will be good for the US and for Americans. And certainly the world.

Myanmar Civil War.

The war in Myanmar have reached China’s borders

This is a very complicated situation, involving multiple sides with intertwining relationships. So who’s fighting whom, which side is China supporting? It’s China’s version of the drug Cartel south of the border.

This conflict is mainly fought in the Kokang (green) region, on the borders between China and Myanmar. There are 3 sides to this conflict:

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) VS Myanmar’s Military (Tatmadaw) Allied with Kokang Local Forces.

Both MNDAA and Kokang Forces are ethnic Han Chinese. MNDAA split from the Myanmar Communist Forces in 1989, founded by Peng Jiasheng (pic below) In 2009, MNDAA rules Kokang’s capital Laukkaing. A splinter group betrayed Peng and the MNDAA as the Tatmadaw attacked Laukkaing.

The splinter group worked with the Tatmadaw to drive the MNDAA out of the city of Laukkaing. They later formed 3 branches of the Kokang Local Forces, controlled by 3 families. The first and most powerful are the Kokang Militia controlled by the Bai clan. Headed by Bai Suocheng

The 2nd branch is the Kokang Police Battalion. Controlled by the Ming clan. Ming Guoan (Up) was in command, but he recently suffered a serious injury while horse-riding on the streets of Laukkaing. So his younger brother Ming Guangcai (Down) assumed command.

The 3rd branch is the Border Guard Battalion, overseen by the Wei clan. Wei San as the head of the Border Inspection Committee that controls the Border Guard Battalion.

Other families have interests in different industries, from Mining to Gambling to Prostitution to Telescamming. These 3 clans wields the gun, I’ll call them Kokang Militia for simplicity (Kokang Militia Up, Kokang Police Battalion Middle, Border Guard Battalion Down)

Northern Myanmar is a lot bigger than Kokang. Kokang is just the Northern periphery of the larger Shan Autonomous State, which contains anther autonomous State called Wa State(Red). All of them are involved in drug trafficking (less so now) and telescamming(until very recently).

Wa State is another interesting faction, it’s entire government structure were copied from China. The Party Leads the State and Military. Even their congress building took hints from the one in Beijing.

Wa State is led by Bao Youxiang, used to be a drug smuggler. Wa State is the best administered state, with the most financial muscle, they also cooperate closely with China, to more or less resolve the drug epidemic on the border. Wa State is officially neutral in this conflict

MNDAA, Kokang Militia, Wa State, they are all vying favor from China. The Myanmar’s military, Tatmadaw that has a ceasefire with Wa State and is allied with Kokang militias, also needs China.

China’s official position is to avoid conflict, and negotiate a power sharing structure. MNDAA, Kokang Militia and Wa State are all ethnic Han Chinese, we can’t really betray any sides.

Wa State is the good-natured elder son.

Kokang is the son hanging with the wrong crowd.

And MNDAA is the rebellious son with a sense of righteousness. After Peng Jiasheng’s death, the command of MNDAA was passed to his son, Peng Deren.

MNDAA follows the party and military structure of China. Although they are no longer communists, they still have many iconographies from China. Before 2009, Peng clan struck hard against illicit drug in Northern Myanmar Winning praises from local Chinese citizens on the border

In the 2023 offensive, they also listed the eradication of telescamming from Kokang as one of their goals. Along with driving out the Tatmadaw and regaining the control of Kokang. The announcement of eradicating telescamming was a propaganda coup for them.

Chinese netizens cheered for them, some even organized donations. This is because the telescamming industry were on par with the Mexican Cartel in terms of brutality. They would lure people from mainland China and Taiwan with promises of very high salary. After they arrived..

They are forced to be trained in how to scam people through online and telephone. If you’re not very good or don’t comply, you’ll be tortured or worse.

After which if you are of no use, you’ll be sold into the local mines, after you’ve been exhausted, your organs will be harvested and sold on the black market This can exist in Northern Myanmar because of its lawlessness It’s under these circumstances the 2023 offensive started.

MNDAA has 4 Brigades of troops, all based in the deep forested mountains of Northern Myanmar, On Oct. 28th the 211 Brigade of MNDAA took control of Chinshwehaw, a land port with China.

As of me writing this thread, battle rages on in Kuktai and Hsenwi in the West, and Monekoe in the North. The MNDAA strategy is to cut off routes of reinforcement by the Tatmadaw and deal with the Kokang Militias separately. The goal is the city of Laukkaing (green circle).

221 Brigade have already taken Mang Dong Ba today. It’s only 7 km away from the city of Laukkaing. But what awaits them in Laukkaing will be a tough battle. This is the business HQ of a warlord of sort, called Liu Abao (all big businesses have their own private army). He’s been singled out by the MNDAA declaration due to past grudges. Liu fortified his building accordingly

As the MNDAA brigades marches towards their objectives, numerous Tatmadaw outposts were taken, weapons taken to bolster their firepower.

Graphic images of dead Kokang militias and Police brigades are plenty, which I won’t show. Tatmadaw armors have been destroyed, MNDAA have also learned from recent wars to use commercial drones to drop mortar rounds.

But the numbers is not on MNDAA’s side It’s 17,000 Tatmadaw + 6000 Kokang militia vs 7000 MNDAA. How will this end? Who knows. But Kokang authorities are handing over 2000+ telescammers to the Chinese side as MNDAA marches on.

Happy to report that Wei Qingtao of the Wei clan, and Liu Zhengqi of the Liu clan of Kokang are under Chinese custody. They are 2 key family members of organized criminal groups in Northern Myanmar, involved in murder, torture kidnapping and telescam. Why is it significant

They sincerely urged their families to give up telescamming and other criminal activities in Northern Myanmar. Relaying China’s resolute actions taken to eliminate organized crime in Northern Myanmar. All of this happened as MNDAA troops marches towards the capital of Kokang.

Wei clan is in charge of the Border Guard Battalion, a private army of sort in Kokang Myanmar. Wei Qingtao is the younger brother of Wei Rong, the CEO of the Henry Group, the biggest telescam organizations in Kokang.

Now, if you’re wondering, how did we get our hands on 2 key family members of 2 influential organized criminal clans in Myanmar? As their clans prepare for a fight? Let’s just say the plot of Wolf Warrior is not entirely fictional.

At the moment MNDAA troops are mainly fighting with the Myanmar Tatmadaw, encircling Laukkai capital of Kokang, Northern Myanmar. The Bai and Ming clans seems to be the main resistance. Let us see how MNDAA will exploit this major development.

The original Thread. follow her, she really have many info that hard to get otherwise.

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

I was in a big steakhouse in California about 30 years ago. The waitress, like many Americans, liked our Brit accent and happened to say their head chef was from England. Thought nothing of it because England is quite a big place with a lot of people . About an hour later as we were finishing up our desserts , the chef came out.

Conversation went something like this.

CHEF: I heard your accents and had to come out because you sound like you are from Essex.

ME: Yes all four of us are. We are from Southend on Sea. ( A very famous large Essex town recognised around the UK).

CHEF: Really. That’s where I’m from. Actually Shoeburyness just outside Southend.

ME: Really! I lived there for 12 years,after I was born.

CHEF: Do you know West Road. I ran the Chippy ( fish and chip shop) there for 10 years between ’71 and ‘81.

ME: You’ve got to be joking. I used to come in your shop the last Friday of every month with my brother and my parents to get fish and chips.

What are the chances of that???

In countries where alcohol is banned, where can you go to socialize with random strangers instead of at a bar?

I’ve been to Turkey, Morocco and Azerbaijan.

They drink alcohol I’m Azerbaijan.

In Turkish places they drink too. But those who don’t have a chai (tea culture) where you sit outside tea houses and pretty much do what you do at bars violence excepted.

Do you know of any instances where someone was asked if they were pregnant at a hospital, and then told that they were actually pregnant but just didn’t know it yet? If so, what happened next?

Yes, I had this when I was an ER doctor.

A young woman was brought in by ambulance at 3am after she collapsed while working a night shift restocking shelves in a nearby supermarket. After examining her and some tests, I concluded she had simply fainted. So I started asking about the causes.

Was she dehydrated? No

Suffering a mild viral illness with a slight fever? No

Had a history of vasovagal faints? No

Had been very stressed or seen blood or something upsetting? No

Could she be pregnant? She says no. Hmm. They always say no. Does she have a partner? Is she sexually active? Both yes. What birth control was she on? None. When was her last period? It was overdue. Oh, but it was coming because her breasts were sore. Double hmmmm …

But… but. … but she couldn’t be pregnant she told me. She had very painful periods and investigation had shown a bicornate (“double”) uterus with both sides nearly closed off by abnormal membranes and she had had surgery a few months ago to correct it and her periods were much better and….but she had been told pregnancy was nigh impossible. Her and her partner really wanted children, but had accepted it was not to be and were talking about adoption.

Could she produce some urine for a test? She was sceptical about the value of doing it but was a nice girl and would do it if we wanted. She handed me the sample and I did the test myself. It was firmly positive. I did a second to be sure. Same result.

I took the test and showed her the two dark blue parallel lines. She asked what it meant. I told her.

She lit up like a Christmas tree. She was beside herself with surprise and delight. Suddenly, she asked what she should do. I suggested telling her partner. She checked the time- 4.30. He’d be asleep and had work in a few hours. She decided to phone her mum. It took a while for the phone to be answered, I could hear the sleepy voice. Where are you? At the hospital? What? Suddenly more awake. Are you ok? What? Pregnant? But… PREGNANT!

We could all hear her mum screaming down the phone, her Dad being woken, and then him shouting too. They were just all so happy.

It was just a really lovely experience, giving welcome news for once.

Modern Women DEMAND Chivalrous TRADITIONAL Men but Don’t Want To Be Traditional Women…

Pick one. Be traditional or not.

What was it like when you were reunited with the child you put up for adoption?

I have to go anonymous for obvious reasons.

I got pregnant in my freshman year of high school, I even remember the day it happened. I was 14 almost 15. Too young to be having sex and definitely too young to raise a child.

The circumstances that lead to me getting pregnant weren’t ideal and I knew that I would be on my own. Completely. I knew that the father wouldn’t have anything to do with the baby, especially since he already had one that he didn’t see or take care of. My mother told me I’d be kicked out of the house, which wasn’t anything new since I had been living with friends when I got pregnant. My life was completely unstable and wasn’t a good place for me, let alone a baby.

The first time my mom kicked me out of the house was when I was 11, she always picked her boyfriend over me. So I bounced around from grandparent to grandparent and then eventually friends houses.

As any kid who is unsupervised and has no boundaries whatsoever, I did things I shouldn’t have. I missed a lot of school but no one ever bothered me about it since I kept a 3.8 gpa. I always wonder what I could’ve done had I actually applied myself, but I didn’t take it serious. It came too easily to me. I was more interested in partying.

Long story short, I got pregnant September, 1998. I was in denial for the first couple of months. The guy said he’d give me money for an abortion but then he spent it. I don’t think I would’ve gone through with it anyways.

When I was 5 months pregnant I wrote my mom a letter before I went to school. Looking back, that wasn’t the best way to tell her but I was scared out of my mind and she wasn’t the easiest person to talk to.
When I got home from school she blew up. Asked how many periods I had missed and when I said five I thought she was going to have a stroke. She said, “it’s too late to get rid of it!”, to which I replied, “I know, that’s why I’m telling you now. I’m going to place her for adoption.”

I don’t think my mom thought that I could do it since that was her original plan for me. I think that is part of the reason she always told me that I wouldn’t be able to live there if I kept the baby. But I had my mind made up. I was going to find a maternity home and an adoption agency. My mom was in a maternity home when she was pregnant with me, so that was our first thought. Thankfully we couldn’t find it when we went to look. I do believe things happen for a reason.

I was absolutely blessed with an AMAZING teacher. I truly miss her and would give anything to see her again and express my thanks to her. She helped me find a nice maternity home that was about an hour and a half from my home. She took the time out of her life to drive me all the way up there to check it out. Took me out to lunch and most importantly talked to me like I was a human being and not another dumb teenage statistic. She helped me in so many ways and she will always have a special place in my heart.

So I moved into a Christian maternity home (a culture shock to me since I grew up with no religion) with four other girls. I was the only one who was planning an adoption. We soon became a little family and I had a wonderful time there. The staff was amazing. I’ve never met a nicer group of women who were so supportive of unwed pregnant teenagers.

I formed an extremely close bond with one of the girls. Shortly after I had arrived she had lost her baby. Her and I were the only ones going home without babies, I think that is what brought us closer.

The time came to find parents for my little girl. A daunting task. You wouldn’t believe the amount of profiles that I looked through! I had certain things that I expected though.

They couldn’t have a child of their own.
They had to be educated.
They had to live “comfortably” but not be too rich.
They had to live close (within a few hour drive).
Most importantly they to had agree to an open adoption.

A lot of people don’t want an open adoption, and I can understand that, but it’s my child, my rules.

I found couples who were extremely rich, couples with a bunch of kids, and I even found an Amish couple. Then I found my couple. Something about their profile made me instantly like them. They came from a large family, lived comfortably (she was a teacher and he was a business man), they only lived a few hours from me, they were down to earth, they couldn’t have children since she had a hysterectomy, and they were open to an open adoption.

I had my lawyer set up a meeting with them. I liked them right away. They were a little leery about a completely open adoption but after I told them my reasons they seemed to understand. I don’t think it’s healthy for a child to live under a lie, I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t love her and just abandoned her, and if she wanted to get to know me one day she could. I made sure that they knew I wouldn’t be in their lives constantly, but I had to know that she was ok.

They were the only couple that I met. I told them that day. I know they didn’t want to get their hopes up too much, but I knew.

So the big day finally arrived. I was in labor for two days! It was hell. She finally arrived very early in the morning. When they put her in my arms my heart melted. It was the most incredible feeling in the world. I didn’t know that I could love like that. Didn’t know a love like that could exist. The entire world stopped once I looked into those blue eyes. She was pink and perfect and I’ll never forget the way she smelled. I was lucky enough to spend four amazing days with her. Four whole days that I spent just looking at her, smelling her head, and making sure that I always remembered these things because she was going to be out of my life soon.

Those were the quickest four days of my life.

The other big day finally came. The day I had been dreading for months. They had been staying in a local hotel since I had called them before I went the hospital to let them know. I imagine those were the longest four days for them. I signed all the papers, took a thousand pictures, and held her as much I could.

Putting her in their arms was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, but I knew in my heart that it was the right thing to do. I only had love to offer her and babies need much more than that. I had dreams for her, dreams she’d probably never realize had she stayed with me.

And she was gone.

Misery and depression became my constant companions. There are no words to describe that pain.

I was lucky though. Her mother sent me letters and pictures constantly. I saw my beautiful baby girl grow. Always happy and smiling with little curls and chubby dimpled hands.

Five years later I finally got to see her again. It was amazing. She knew who I was and was so excited to meet me! I was scared, but that day helped me so much. I got the closure that I needed. I knew I had made the right decision when I placed her for adoption. I backed off for a few years after that. I wanted to give them space. I wanted to let them be a family.

This past summer she turned 16. She’s beautiful, smart, and amazing. We talk once in awhile but I don’t want to intrude. She knows I’m always here if she needs me. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to see her again soon, but only if she wants to. I told her that I would understand if she didn’t want to, but she wants to meet up. She says that she wants to see me again and meet her sister. I’m thrilled.

I have thought about her every single day for the past 16 and a half years. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wonder what she’s doing, how she’s doing, if she’s happy, if she’s sad. I love her more than life itself.

I think of them as my family. It might not be your typical “normal” family, but it works. We love and respect each other. I’m incredibly lucky to have them in my life and I’m thankful every day that they are amazing parents to my girl.

What was your most embarrassing moment as a foreigner in another country?

I have had many embarassing moments as a foreigner in several other countries. But here are two of the most embarassing ones in Norway where I currently live.

“I accidentally did drugs, thinking it was chewing gum.

I was once at a pub with a few people. One girl on our table there was offering this one thing called snus to everyone seated at the table, except me because she knew that I am not into smoking, tobacco or any kind of drugs. I innocently thought it was chewing gum because it looked exactly like chewing gum, it came in a box that looked like a chewing gum box. I was wondering why she was offering it to all the others seated on the table but not me. Then I asked her for one She said, “It contains a bit of tobacco is that fine ?” I was like yes yes, convinced that it was harmless chewing gum. Then she told me that I needed to put it on my gums and I did that. Within 10 minutes, I noticed that my vision was getting blurry, someone was talking to me but I couldn’t focus on what they were saying, my head was aching so badly and I was getting really really dizzy. I felt very nauseous as well. I was so confused and upset about what was happening and I was almost about to cry. Then, I told the people there that I wasn’t feeling good for some reason. Then they guessed it was because of the snus and they asked me to spit it out immeadiately. Then they gave me loads of ice water and I was fine within a few minutes after that.

Image Source:BBC. This is how snus looks like. To me they looked like chewing gum on first sight.

I was told later that the amount of tobacco in one snus is equal to the amount of tobacco in ten cigarettes. To prevent air pollution, people in Norway use snus more than cigarettes. Almost everyone uses it here in Norway.

“Touching food with hand.”

In India, it is a common practice to eat with hands and to touch the food with your hands. But in Norway, they consider it unhygienic to touch food with your hands especially if it is out of a tray from which everyone takes food and if your hands are unwashed.

I once went to a bakery and instead of using the tongs to take out scones and pastries, I used my hands. Then the staff member manning the bakery at that time came running to me and said “Please don’t touch those with your hands, use these” and he handed me the tongs that were placed right next to the tray and I didn’t see those.

But, this wasn’t the first time this happened to me. This has happened with me many times. I frequently forget that I am not in India and take food with my hands, only to get told off by people.

But, now I more often than not remember not to touch food that is not mine yet and is for public consumption.

There are several more embarassing moments that I encountered. I plan to write a book about them one day.

China-Russia collaboration

China-Russia relations have become stronger through the collaboration of Presidents Putin and Xi. They have met some 42 times in both one-on-one and virtual formats, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. This contrasts with 17 meetings reported with Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden.

Stronger relations are marked by strengthening economic ties. In September 2023, monthly trade between Russia and China reached a record high of $21.2 billion which is up almost 60 percent from the same period in 2021.

President Xi said that “developing the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination with ever-lasting good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation is not an expediency, but a long-term commitment.”

The “long-term commitment” emphasized by Xi underscores a comment that he made to Putin on his visit to Moscow. “The world is undergoing changes unseen in a century,” he said. Putin agreed with the realistic assessment.

President Putin emphasized Russian support to the One China Principle and that Taiwan is part of China. His support for China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was acknowledged by Xi. “China supports the people of Russia following their path to national rejuvenation and in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests of the country,” he said.

The changing international situation

The changes in the international system are indeed profound. The world is inexorably moving toward multipolarity. The Russian side describes the situation as a transition from Western “colonialism”. The Chinese side describes the situation as a transition from Western “hegemony”.

Both Moscow and Beijing stress that there are now new centers of development emerging. The Global South is rising in relative terms. Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America are increasingly factors impacting the general direction of global development.

Thus, both countries recognize what can be called a period of global transition. This period may extend over a decade or two. The challenge is to maintain global economic development and at the same time attempt to bring stability to an inevitably more turbulent world.

It is recognized by Moscow and Beijing that increasing turbulence during the transition era is caused by the United States and West who are attempting to maintain their hegemonic position in the international system.

The international community, however, realistically sees the changing situation and desires to be on the right side of the transition.

President Xi underscored China’s commitment to work with Russia within the United Nations as well as within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Group of 20 (G20). Cooperation in the areas of food, energy, and supply chain security were highlighted.

For his part, President Putin emphasized continuing cooperation with China in the BRICS as well as in other multilateral mechanisms and platforms.

It was noted that the two leaders had an “in-depth exchange of views on the Palestinian-Israeli situation.” Given that the current Middle East crisis could expand into a regional war or worse, the cooperation of Russia and China to stabilize the situation is urgent.

Why should I live anymore? My impulsive mind has costed me everything and everyone I love and for whatever reason changing how I act has became harder than it should be. I’m a burden to my loved ones and can barely see a future for myself anymore…

Well my friend, that’s a terrible trap to be caught in, I know that hollow feeling only too well.

But the thing is, as dark as it seems right now, you will get through it..your not the first person to deal with or the last. It can catch up with you really fast. You put one foot in front of the other and you walk. The day will come when you will remember this all like a bad memory. I truly feel your pain, I’m an INFJ, I can’t help it. If you need to talk you can message me on quora. Things will get better, I can promise you that

Does China have exciting times ahead?

Within 20 years, Chinese cars will emerge from vaporware into global consciousness.

There will be Chinese jets, helicopters, trucks, maglev trains and many other products traditionally the exclusive domain of the first world economies.

Why am I so confident?

Whatever Japan and korea and Germany can do, China can do better.

Because it has the scale and domestic market.

All the Chinese need is someone to point the way and teach them, and the Chinese market will do the rest.

Whatever emerges from the Chinese market will have gone through a baptism of fire like no other. China class is world class, because the Chinese market is incredibly open for an emerging economy. The winners that emerge pit themselves against the heavyweight champions who have decades of experience before entering the Chinese market.

The other thing about Chinese scale is data. Big user base equals mountain loads of data. And China has many megacities to do experiments in collecting and harnessing big data and ai. What is impossible to test in say, Korea or Germany is a walk in the park in china. Even the US will find it hard because big, dense cities are not that common stateside.

We are entering the decades of Chinese surprises and delights, and they will come one after another.

I’m Getting Married in 2 Weeks, But My BRIDE Was Involved in an AFFAIR, and so was an OnlyFans Model

God Damn!

How innocent were you in your childhood?

I was probably 10 11 years old when I was at another friend’s house playing. We were playing in the garage where we were nurses and and the boys were our soldier patients. One of the boys, that I secretly liked, ask for everyone else to leave and let me stay with him as his nurse. I got so flustered I left and went home.

Have you actually ever heard someone say ‘Do you know who I am?’ indignantly?

I have heard a few people say this, mostly pompous folks.

But in the mid 00’s I was at a hacker conference, and we were waiting for me to be on a panel. I was helping a colleague with his notes, and apparently I was taken for his assistant.

Another hacker asked me if I wouldn’t be a dear and get them coffee. The panel was about to begin. I said, “I don’t think there’s time to get people coffee — the panel’s on in a minute.”

The guy said, “Well that’s why the people who belong up here don’t have time to get it.”

I realized he thought I was an administrative assistant or something.

He doubled down, “Run now and we’ll be all set and then you can go do whatever people like you do when the tech jargon starts.”

I had worked at that time about 25 years online, and more than that in computer engineering. But being a woman who was not dressed informally meant that I must have some boss who made me dress up, I suppose.

I think that the “Do you understand who you’re talking to?” was justified, tbh. It isn’t always a “Karen” sort of thing.

edit: No, I’m not saying that a support staffer should have been treated like that either, and I was angry at the guy for assuming he could ask anyone to be a dear and get coffee. Condescending AF.

But I really do believe it was raw misogyny, and I wasn’t worried about being personally disrespected. I think he disrespected anyone female, and anyone he thought he could boss around (which was a superset of anyone female, to him).

Some hacker types are just asshats. I try not to be.

Have you ever been invited to something that turned out to be another thing entirely?

About a million years ago, some coworkers said, “John want to go to a concert with us?” I was a grad student, I didn’t know anybody and so I sensibly (and uncharacteristically) said “yes.”

I asked who was playing. They said “Pat Metheny.” Well that’s cool. I don’t know anything about Jazz, but what could possibly go wrong? I’d hear some Jazz from a great Jazz person that even a classical music weenie like me had heard of.

So it’s time for the concert, and I carpool with the others. We get to the stadium, and everybody is excited, and on the banner over the entrance it says “Joan Armatrading.” I growl “I thought we were going to hear Pat Metheny!” and my friends responded, “Pat Metheny, what are you talking about? It’s always been Joan Armatrading!”

Kind of pissed off, and having shelled out about two week’s worth of food in the form of grad student money, I went in.

Best freaking concert I have ever attended.

My neighbor asked me to co-sign a loan for his son’s new car. Should I do that?

I co-signed my ex-girlfriends mother’s apartment lease. We were together for 8 years and I knew her mother well. She had divorced my girlfriend’s father and was having trouble getting a lease. Her mom had a stable job and an above average income for the time. I considered her a pretty low risk. I was wrong. Her mom paid her rent for 3 months, then went and traded her paid off car for an expensive two door coup and bought a ton of new clothes. She started going out and missing work the next day and eventually ended up getting fired. The apartment manager contacted me to let me know that she was a month behind and they wanted her rent. I had a discussion with her mom and she explained she’s got a new life and will get a roommate if I could help her with just this month’s rent. I did help her, and the next month it was the same story. I could see where it was leading and had a deep conversation with my girlfriend and her mom. It was like talking to a pre-teen and my girlfriend couldn’t understand why her mother is not my responsibility when I told her she needed to be the one helping her financially. I spoke to the apartment manager and they agreed to terminate the lease if I could find someone to assume the remaining term. I did find a coworker looking for a new place and willing to move in and assume the apartment. When it came time for her mom to move out she refused to leave until the property manager explained to her that if she was actually evicted she would likely never be able to rent again and that she was being done a huge favor. In the end, I lost my longterm girlfriend, I was the bad guy. Her mom ended up living with her son in another state and losing her car. Not what I had wished for her, but that is the result of her choices. I was lucky to escape without an eviction or having to pay her rent for 8 more months. Never again. I don’t cosign or lend money to anyone. If I do help someone out it is with the expectation that it is a gift and do not expect any to be repaid.

Have you ever received healthcare outside the United States? What was your experience?

Let me talk about the reverse, and healthcare in the US.

I’m British and live in Northern Ireland.

I have a chronic condition called Ulcerative Colitis, its a gastrointestinal condition, I’m seen frequently by my GP (primary care), I’ve also a consultant which I see every 6-9 months. I take a handful of medications every day plus a treatment called a biologic, it comes in an epi-pen injection format, which I collect from the pharmacist each month and inject at home at a time suitable to me.

All this is covered via the NHS via general taxation.

Prior to Covid in my previous job I was given the opportunity to take on a project in the US, before I accepted I investigated how my meds would work for the 4 months inwould be there.

My employer said I would be covered, as did my general travel insurance, and they would pay for everything on the days as needed, this proved not to be the case.

The company sponsored physician was an asshole saying I didnt know what i was talking about (despite having lived with the condition for a decade, and being a patient advocate, a mentor to those newly diagnosed and often asked to be a teaching aide to medical students), attempted to change the medication to what I assume was a medication he got kick backs for prescribing and refused to sign the script, it took a second doctor to give me the usual meds that worked for me.

If that wasnt enough, the trip to the pharmacy turned into a nightmare and a second argument at being forced to use the EpiPen injection there and then whilst being watched in disgust by a crowd of folk each time.

I then got a bill for $1375. This repeated for each of the 4 months,

It then took a further 6 months for me to be reimbursed by both employer and insurance for the costs I incurred which they had to argue for.

It’s a bloody good thing I had savings and a credit card or I would have been stuck.

Why is “the Chinese Communist Party” translated as CPC in China and translated as CCP by Western media? Is there any difference?

There is a HUGE difference between the meaning of the two.

—

When you look at “Chinese Communist Party”, the actual noun is the word “Party”. The words “Chinese” and “Communist” are both descriptors of the word “party”. Going more specifically into linguistics, the word “Communist” is an adjective, while the word “Chinese” is an adverb.

Party: noun. Subject of the phrase.
Communist: adjective. Describes the subject.
Chinese: adverb. Merely describes the descriptor.

The phrase emphasizes the political party portion of the phrase. And Anglo propaganda loves to artificially emphasize the Communist part, because they have a raging boner for fascism.

—

But what happens when we do the same analysis for “Communist Party of China”?

China: noun. Subject of the phrase.
Party: secondary noun. A subset of the subject. (Not quite an attributive noun though).
Communist: adjective. Describes the secondary noun

Now the emphasis is on the word “China”. The entity is indeed the political party, but it is merely a subset of all entities that “China” encompasses. The Communist adjective indicates this party is but one of many political parties that China has had, and will have.

—

See how the Anglo propaganda works? Rhetorically the “Chinese” part is but an afterthought, and it can be dropped completely without changing any of the linguistic meaning. “Communist” could also be dropped, as the subject is “the Party.” Of course, Anglos will never, ever, ever forget to say the “Communist” part negatively as part of their overall support for fascism.

In reality, “Communist Party of China” illustrates that the entity is a political party that represents China, advocates for China, and promotes China. It isn’t just a political party performing actions, it is China performing actions. The word “China” is the subject, and it cannot be dropped without destroying the rest of the sentence.

The two phrases could not be any more different.

Karma

Have you ever deliberately shocked your teacher with your selection of an essay topic?

Yes. Yes I have. And my teacher (actually professor, this was my second year of uni) literally said “this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” so I wrote, on my own time, a second essay supporting my assertions, and the next day he told me I “had a good point.”

My essay concerned ethics and morality. Specifically, I said that a lot of what we call “morals” aren’t actually morality at all—theyre custom and practicality.

As a simple example, people who migrate to cold climates need to wear clothing almost all the time to keep warm. After a while, as in generations, people simply become accustomed to seeing others almost always wearing clothing, and a few generations after that, not wearing clothing becomes viewed as “immoral.”

There’s nothing intrinsically immoral about not wearing clothing. Unless you’re out in the cold, it doesn’t cause harm. It certainly doesn’t harm bystanders. But the practicality of wearing clothing makes wearing clothing the custom, and because people get used to seeing others wearing clothing, eventually not wearing clothing becomes viewed as immoral.

The climate causes a practical change, that change gets cemented as a moral value because many cultural moral values are based on nothing more than “this is usually what I see the people around me do.”

So I said in my essay we should, as a society, unpack “this is practical and therefore customary, so not doing it is morally wrong” from “this harms others so it is morally wrong,” and stop labeling as “moral” that which is only practical social custom.

Anyway, unbeknownst to me, he was quite conservative and religious, and subscribed to a very different view of morality, so that caused some friction.

What is the most disrespectful advice you received from a person who assumed you were less intelligent and made less money than them?

When I was first married to my husband, we attended his company Christmas party. It was a rather small affair but included satellite offices and clients. The boss and his wife were there when we arrived and we went up to them to greet them and wish them Merry Christmas. It just so happened that the boss’s wife and I were wearing the same palazzo pants though mine had a skirt overlay. She looked me up and down and barely spoke to me. As we were drifting away from them I heard her say to her husband: “Well she has a nerve dressing so well when her husband is only one of your truck drivers!” She had no idea who I really was, my background, my education, my past career history, nothing. It was the fact that I was married to a truck driver that made me, in her eyes, less than nothing. My husband had to grip my arm pretty tightly and keep me moving forward to stop me going back and slapping her face. It wasn’t the insult to me that bothered me so much, as the insult to my husband because of the job he had. Sure we didn’t have a lot of money and my outfit which outshone hers in spades was purchased at a thrift store for $10! Apparently it looked expensive to her though! lol

Beware: China’s MASSIVE DF-1000 Missile Is A New Threat To US

China’s upcoming DF-1000 missile has raised a lot of conspiracy recently. Its deployment with the PLA Rocket Force underscores China’s ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region. As regional tensions evolve, the DF-1000’s significance lies in its potential to reshape the strategic landscape and protecting the nations interests while also ensuring regional stability and peace.

What is the most dangerous object that you’ve seen on the road when driving?

Many years ago, over 40 years for sure, my mother and I were driving down an Oklahoma rural highway. It was a windy day, and we were following a pickup truck which had a huge cardboard box in the back. That box was wobbling back and forth in the wind. My mother and I were commenting like, geez, wonder what is actually in that box, because it looks like it is going to fly away any second now.

Well, that’s exactly what it did. That box flew out of the truck and into our windshield! We were expecting the collision to be mild, since the box seemed to be very light weight. Nope, it was a pretty good crash! Wanna guess what was in the box??? A bathtub!! Just a fiberglass bathtub, but still.

But that wasn’t the fun part! The fun part was calling the insurance company about our accident. You know, the one where we are just driving down the road, minding our own business, when all of a sudden we got hit by a flying bathtub!

Brigtsen’s Champagne Vanilla Sabayon

Ingredients

12 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups champagne
2 cups granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, add the sugar and egg yolks. Beat with a wire whisk until light and creamy (ribbon stage). Add the champagne and vanilla bean. Cook this mixture over a double boiler on low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture becomes thick and frothy, 15 to 20 minutes.
Scrape the inside of the vanilla bean into the sabayon. Discard the bean.
Serve in the wine glasses or over fresh berries.

Attraction

Does China need to master chip manufacturing below 7nm to maintain the competitiveness of its products in the local and international markets?

There is something called PERCEPTION

The Perception value of a Chinese Brand is between 8% to 70% of a German or a Swiss Brand

This means even if China creates the same quality lens as Zeiss , a supplier would not pay more than $ 70 as against $ 170 for Zeiss

Thus China would be unable to compete and would be forced to sell high quality products at a loss

Now that’s fine if these products have a MASS MARKET

They don’t

Thus even after a decade, China won’t be able to expand enough to recoup it’s losses

Yesterday someone gave me a brilliant example of perception

India makes Audio panels, it exports the Audio Panels for $ 60 to Europe

Europe modifies the panel with around $ 20 worth of work and sells these Panels worth $ 110 including Import Duties and inventory BACK TO INDIA for $ 300–340

Indians gladly pay $ 2000 for these full systems (₹1.7 Lakhs) with foreign Brand name

If the manufacturers purchased directly from India, they could sell each system for maybe $ 1300–1400 but then the customers won’t buy as many

The Market Sphere for the 7 nm Chip is $ 88 Billion

China controls 3.1% of this market

The Market Sphere for the 28 nm Chip is $ 273 Billion

China controls 41.9% of this market

So you tell me what makes sense?

Blow Billions of Dollars into a market where no matter how high quality product you make, you can’t control more than 7% or so

Blow a fraction of that money and utterly dominate the 28 nm market with the best efficiency and price and supply chain and use the 28nm to handle it’s potential in terms of maximum and be the BADSHAH

Thus Chinas 7 nm Manufacturing is for SELF SUFFICIENCY entirely

China will never compete in all these areas where the 7 nm is used. Except maybe smartphones

Chinas key for competition is 28 nm , 45 nm and < 100 nm process chips

These Chips run EVs, Flights, Superior Drones, Port Logistics and most aspects of Semblance related AI

Everything we were told was a fucking lie

What was the most disappointing Christmas gift you saw someone get?

When my son was in middle school, his German teacher asked the class if they’d like to do a secret Santa. They were enthusiastic about it. They all had the choice to opt out of they didn’t want to participate. My son picked the name of a female student and I helped him shop for gifts. The limit was $10 but we went over it, finding fun and useful gifts at the mall. He said she was really excited about two of the things he got her.

Day of the party, the teacher hands out gifts and my son got nothing. He said the teacher looked so embarrassed. This was on a Friday. On Monday, there was a wrapped box on my son’s desk. When he opened it, it was filled with candy and the kid that had picked his name said something to the effect of “I didn’t get him that!”

At first, when it happened, I figured maybe the kid’s parents refused to buy something, and the kid was too embarrassed to say anything to the teacher. So, I held no grudge. No, this kid was just an asshole trying to make my kid feel bad. He had bragged to his friends about it.

I was so glad for that teacher’s act of kindness.

What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?

It was late at night on an Icelandic Airlines flight to Reykjavik (the old “hippy express). Most of the passengers were asleep, the cabin lights were down low. I gazed out at the window and noticed sparks coming from one of the engines. Suddenly it burst into flame.

I turned to my partner and shook her awake. “Do you get nervous on airplanes?”

“Nah”, she said. “I love flying; a piece of cake”.

“Look out the window”, I said.

She spied the burning engine and screamed. The cabin became awake, full of anxious passengers. The engine was spitting long, nasty flames now.

The captain’s voice came on throughout the plane’s cabin. He spoke in a confident, matter-of-fact voice “Good evening. As some of you have noticed, one of our four engines is having a problem. This plane can easily and safely fly on just three engines. You will be completely safe. We will be taking a slight detour to Gander International Airport in scenic Labrador to address our engine problem. Accommodations and food are being arranged. I believe you will have a pleasant stay. If you wish, go back to sleep and enjoy the rest of the flight.”

The engine stayed burning for a while, casting red shadows throughout the cramped the cramped cabin. Most of us settled down for a cold drink or two. My partner’s fingernails dug into my palm. “I hope he’s not bullshiting us”, she said.

He wasn’t.

タツノコプロ OP・ED集　［1965〜1983］

Welcome to something strange.

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

Not me but my mum.

She had withdrawn her and my dad’s weekly old age pension from the bank and was leaving the bank when a bloke tried to yank her handbag off of her. Surprising herself and her assailant she twisted his arm into a lock, forced him to the ground and sat on him. When a couple of minutes later the police arrived, he was heard to say, “l’ll come quietly, just get this fat cow off of me”

My mum was 80 years old, a little over 4 feet tall and as thin as a stick. It seems that all the years of watching my brother and I practice Aikido in the garden and sometimes using her, to show the other, how arm locks work had rubbed off on her.

She was affectionately known as the “fat cow” for years afterwards

Given that China is having a lot of success in many areas such as economic one, why doesn’t it show the details of their policies to the surrounding world and more transparency but instead enforce censorship?

If you ask this question in Chinese, mainlanders and those in the know will laugh.

And won’t stop laughing.

How does China achieve state objectives?

By getting people to work on them.

1.4 billion of them.

How do the people know what to do, what to expect, in order to reach set targets on time?

By being thoroughly informed.

How are the masses informed?

Through an information blanket.

Through TV, social media, radio, websites, posters, slogans, publications.

You name it, the Chinese have done it. From in-depth, to the lightest of touches.

It is called mass dissemination, and the Chinese are very serious about getting the message to everyone. It costs a pretty penny to get everyone on the same page.

Chinese society has changed so much in the last 40 years it is disorienting. How else do they navigate, much less keep up unless there has been a steady stream of information to guide their decisions and plans?

Learn some chinese. The western world leaves too much on the table when the Chinese generously serve lunch, and dinner to their guests.

They leave the feast untouched, and complain about hunger.

Men have a goal to get laid

Why do some older people get more miserable and bitter as they age?

Not everyone does, but for those who do, have some empathy. Many become that way because they are suffering from bodily pain, require frequent trips to the hospital or doctor’s offices. Hard to have a cheery attitude if you hurt frequently.

Others are living in or near the poverty level. Some of these were good, loyal workers but were fired as they neared retirement so that their employer wouldn’t have to pay them a pension. Some people are living on only Social Security. That would sour anyone.

Some are lonely, sad, frightened, depressed. It often goes with aging. Being kind and thoughtful of older people could make a world of difference. I recently read of a young woman who goes out of her way to speak with older people, whether in grocery lines, on street corners, or elsewhere. She says she often sees sadness or loneliness in their faces and wants to help a bit. Yet most young people don’t even see old people. To them, they’re invisible. Try saying a cheerful word to old people you see. It just might make their day!

About Xinjiang issues, does the China lie or the Western?

I have always said that it is really stupid for the American media to spread rumors about Xinjiang.

I am a Chinese, and I have been to Xinjiang (by the way, if you like cycling, Xinjiang has three desert roads across Taklimakan, also known as the Sea of Death, each of which is about 500 kilometers long, very exciting! Super interesting! You must come! During the day, the temperature can reach over 50 degrees Celsius, and at night, it can drop to freezing point! Except for the highway, there is vast yellow sand everywhere. If you dare to leave the highway, if you get lost, you may become a mummy within 48 hours. ! Particularly exciting. Ah, there is also a bicycle highway in China, which is a little more difficult but absolutely safe. It is a bicycle ride from 0 kilometers from the People’s Square in Shanghai to Lhasa. If you are willing to continue riding, the end point is Nepal, with a total length of more than 5,000 kilometers. kilometers, passing through more than a dozen provinces, climbing over 14 snow-capped mountains, and countless sharp turns! It is particularly interesting. Every year, many people in China ride this road. This road covers almost all the scenery in China, also known as: China’s landscape boulevard. Trust me, ride it once and you will come back and thank me! It’s so awesome)

*** Sorry, as a cycling fanatic, I accidentally said too much, let’s get back to the topic…

There are many friends living there, both in the city and in the countryside. The blatant lies of the Western media made everyone feel angry, and then laughed – how could they dare to lie so brazenly?

Do you know what they lost? trust. Even the Chinese who believe in the United States the most believe that the American media is fair and selfless. When praising the United States, we only need to say one magic word: Xinjiang. They just have to shut up because it’s so simple, clear and powerful. If they want to continue to defend the American media – we often say that a person can be stupid or bad – they can only choose to be stupid.

You have to know that there are not many people in the world, and there are even fewer people who care about Sino-US relations. One word, “Xinjiang”, can make 1.4 billion people share the same hatred and create a deep disgust for the American media. How difficult this is!

How credible is the United States’ claim that China’s economy is about to collapse?

As credible as they say Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. As credible as those who said earth if flat. As credible as those who believe that Elvis is alive.

What is your best badass firearm story?

A few minutes later, he came out again. But instead of crossing the field that led from the house to the woods, he went to the side, where a chicken coop extended to the edge of the woods. He walked quietly behind the chicken coop, until he came to the edge of the woods, about twenty feet from the hunter, who was still intently looking into the woods for something to shoot. My father said to the hunter “Drop the gun and leave immediately.” Except this time, when the hunter turned around, instead of my father holding the hand of a six year old boy, he was holding a .38 revolver…which was pointed at the hunter’s head. As soon as he turned around, my father said simply “Drop it or die.”

My father passed away four years ago. It had been almost sixty years since the incident with the hunter. When I went to clean out my dad’s house, the hunter’s shotgun was still in his closet.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

I actually had a customer – the owner of a similar business with whom we exchanged work where our capabilities dovetailed – come in on a Friday and tell me he’d seen my job listed in that week’s classified ads. He told me to call him on Monday, and when I did, he offered me a job. I worked for that fine gentleman for four years, and when I left, he shook my hand and told me, “It was good enough to hire you to stick it to that bitch you were working for, but even better that you spent every day proving I was right and she was wrong about you. Best of luck.”

Who is the loneliest person in the world?

Perhaps I’ve missed someone else offering this answer…

In 1911, about two hours north of where I live, a man walked out of the mountains. He was finally too lonely to continue being on his own. He was approximately 50 years old. He was the last of his kind.

Ishi, as he would come to be known, is considered the “last wild Indian.”

In 1871, 4 settlers came along and murdered 30 of the Yahi tribe, approximately 2/3 of the tribe. This was one of many such incidents that are categorized as the “California Genocide.”

As you can see, the Native American population in California declined quite rapidly until it reached its nadir around 1910.

In 1908, what remained of Ishi’s family fled upon seeing strangers. His uncle and sister disappeared. His mother remained hidden at the camp and then died from an illness. Now Ishi was the last of his people. He remained in the wilderness without anyone to talk to for a few years.

Upon descending, he was studied by anthropologists, chief among them being A. L. Kroeber, father to the famous science fiction/fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin

Ishi was able to tell anthropologists many things about his people. Unfortunately, he was often ill. About five years after descending from the mountains, he died from one of the many illnesses his immune system couldn’t fight off because he lacked any kind of immunity.

One of the saddest things about this is that Ishi isn’t his real name. We’ll never know what it was. “Ishi” was the word for “man” in his language. The Yati people had a custom that proscribed them from speaking their name unless formally introduced by another of their tribe. As he was the last of his tribe, he could only say, “I have none, because there were no people to name me.”

After 2/3 of your people are killed off, you spend the rest of your life on the run, watching as everyone else disappears, leaving you to be the last among your kind. Finally, too lonely to go on, you live amongst the people who killed your people until their diseases slowly whittle you away. That sounds plenty lonely to me.

What is something your father did during your childhood that is unforgivable?

Plenty.

But the most dispicable thing and the one that I just cannot ever forgive him for is.

I wet the bed until I was about ten years old and every morning my dad would get up and come straight into my room and rub my nose into my wet patch like I was a dog being toilet trained.

He actually screamed at me.

If you are going to piss the bed like a dog, then I’m going to rub your nose in it like a dog.

He would even give people to belt me if they taught I was misbehaving.

In the end I got up before my dad, stripped my bed, remade it and went to school or a friend’s house

China’s Breakthrough in HYPERSONIC Sector Has Baffled Scientists

Without a doubt, it has become universally recognized that China’s dominance in the field of hypersonic technology is nothing short of remarkable. With each passing breakthrough, China continues to surmount obstacles and unveil groundbreaking innovations that have garnered global attention. In a recent stride, China has once again achieved a significant milestone, firmly establishing itself as the frontrunner in the dynamic realm of hypersonic technology.

Muffuletta Sandwich

Relationships. Sigh.

I’ve been though a bunch. Ugh. I will tell you that I have experienced more than my comfortable share of them. Sad to say.

I do know that some of your MM readers are going though some of the relationship troubles right now.

I feel your pain.

I know that it is difficult.

Today, I want to cover a couple of videos about relationships. Painful stuff. Ugh.

Really.

Painful.

…

Guys, most of you all are not having relationship troubles. You are past all that. You are living a life. You have a family.

Loved ones.

Pets.

A life.

Please. Listen to me.

APPRECIATE them today.

…

Make today special. Appreciate the moments. Appreciate the breeze. Appreciate the trees. Appreciate the quiet comfort of familiarity.

All of you…

…I believe in you. I believe in all of you. You are all doing good. You are surviving, and I believe that great things lie ahead of you.

Take care. Make up a Muffuletta. Eat it well.

Today…

What’s the funniest thing you heard in a movie theater?

My wife and I went to see the war movie “Saving Private Ryan” in IMAX…. it was super loud. My wife had even taken hearing protection, because it was so darn loud. When the movie ended she was taking out her ear plugs and said..

“Wow, that was so loud”

Now, there was an old dude sitting in front of us, and he said …

“yeah, I was there and it wasn’t THAT loud.”

Why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?

They do.

It’s a game for them.

When Warren Buffet gets an extra billion, it has no impact at all on his well-being.

It’s just like collecting points in a video game, chasing a high score.

It’s not a means to an end, but a goal in itself.

You are playing Minecraft, and setting up swimming pools with no exit in the sims.

They are gambling on stock markets, and offshoring jobs.

Setting up pet projects, like going to mars.

You buy a new T-shirt or shoes to improve your image, they buy a new media company.

You get a new car to save on gas, they buy up their competitors to increase profits.

It’s all a big game to some people. They are far removed from the consequences of their actions, and only focused on their score.

Contestant number one

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

I can’t say that it ended badly, but he was certainly disappointed.

It was in Philadelphia, in the mid-80s. He came out of an alley with a 3 or 4 inch pen knife to challenge me. “give me your money.”

I remembered something I had learned from a friend, and I decided to try my German on him.

I pulled out my pack of cigarettes, and asked him in German, “wollen Sie eine Zigarette?” (do you want a cigarette?)

“I want your money.” he answered.

“Ich verstehe sie nicht,“ (I don’t understand you) I replied.

He pulled some bills out of his pocket and pointed to me.

I pointed to myself, held out my hand and said, “für mich?” (for me?).

He turned around and headed back into the alley muttering, “fucking foreigners.”

Heart racing, and jubilant at my deception, I resumed my walk home.

What do you honestly think most Chinese really think of Koreans, and why?

Most of the time, Chinese don’t think about Koreans.

When I have heard Chinese talk about Koreans, they talk about good entertainment and food, hard work, and often more hot-tempered than Chinese. But they do not say this in an uncomplimentary way; they just say that Koreans are usually more hot-tempered and emotional than Chinese in a matter-of-fact way.

Not Fixable

What are some ways to make a boss regret firing you?

Simply put, by doing a good job, right up to the last day. Here’s my story.

I wasn’t fired, but I was forced out. Over 17 years, I worked diligently for my boss. I started out as a laborer in this construction firm. I had completed a 2 year course on building construction, but back then, you did not get a degree for vocational education. I worked my way up to running jobs for him, as a job supervisor. Building one job, I set a record within the firm for the highest profit job. The boss that’s because he bid the job right. At the same time, we had 2 other identical jobs going, and they were both losing money. I replied that I made sure he managed to keep that money instead of running it poorly.

Fast forward a few years, and over the years, we had both grown tired of each other. Little things. The boss visibly checking his watch when I leave at 3:31, a minute after quitting, all the while ignoring I started 10 minutes early. For some reason, he tells me I can not run jobs for him anymore, claiming that the jobs he bids on, they want to see that his supervisors have a college degree. I’ll keep my pay and vacation, but I am maxed out as a carpenter, so don’t expect raise for the near future.

At first, this arrangement was actually quite nice. I kept my pay and benefits, but the stress levels associated with running a job went away. All of the newly hired college degreed supervisors love having me on their job. After 17 years, I knew what needed doing and how to do it, and was happy to do so. That Christmas, I specifically not invited to the company Christmas party, as only supervisors were invited. It used to be everyone when we had a small crew, or supervisors and key personnel (Long term hires, not the guy hired last week).

Later that spring, the boss tells everyone that times are tough, he won the bid on the job, but it was low, I need everyone to take a pay cut. Everyone else agrees to take a dollar cut. My turn in his office, he suggests a $3.00 cut in pay. I tell him I can not afford that, I’ll need to immediately start looking for a job. He replies, okay a dollar cut. And says that if everyone pulls together and produces, I can raise their pay back. So… my pay depends on all the now demoralized employees.

So, of course after a few more months, I am feeling hurt by the disrespect, and a job is offered to me, same pay, new company, one with some real character and class. I took the job, of course. The boss looks at me and says, you didn’t think that pay cut was permanent did you? I just looked at him. Two weeks later, I am working the next job and loving the working relationship.

After a couple months, I get a call from him, he tells me it was a mistake to let me go, he didn’t realize all I did for him and how well I did it, offers me a good paycheck and restoration of all benefits, etc… I reply that this job has different challenges that I want to prove myself on, and politely declined. His response, oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. A few months later, I receive a similar call from him, and it goes the same way, though he offers me a little more money. Again, politely declined. 2 years or so after leaving, I see a prominent ad in the help wanted section. He placed an ad in my new locale, describing my experience and capability to the letter, offering a company truck, commensurate pay, etc.. I did not respond. After 17 years of the little quibbles we had with each other, I had enough. I currently had a secure job and wanted to stay there.

TLDR, do a great job right up to your last day and make them regret making you leave.

Respect in China

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jcXGhB2-s6Y?feature=share

What true love story do you know?

Christopher Reeve was so much more than the characters he played.

He was exceptional, having hit the genetic lottery.

He was a brilliant student and an outstanding athlete. He was kind and oozed work ethic, pursuing perfection in everything he did. Christopher Reeve could have done anything he wanted in life.

Acting became his first and foremost love. He landed lead roles in nearly every audition from grade school onward.

A famous actress, Olympia Dukakis, approached him after a childhood performance, saying, “I am surprised. You’ve got a lot of talent. Don’t mess it up.”

He later frequented the most esteemed theater groups, including the Harvard Theater Company.

After being accepted to a list of Ivy League Schools, Chris attended Cornell, and later — Julliard.

He was adored by his theater teacher, John Houseman, who was eager to see Chris’s career blossom, saying, “Mr. Reeve. It is terribly important that you become a serious classical actor. Unless they offer you a shitload of money to do something else.”

The latter phrase came to be

After a stint of leading roles on Broadway, Chris landed the lead role in Superman in 1978. He went on to worldwide fame, appearing in famous films throughout the 1980s.

Chris lived a life most men dream of.

He made millions of dollars while starring in love scenes with beautiful starlets. He traveled the world, dining with Hollywood elites and noble laureates.

And then he met Dana

It was 1987. Dana Morosini was performing in a small-town cabaret.

Chris was always a fan of theater and was in attendance. Afterward, he walked into the backroom to meet her.

She’d fully expected to meet an arrogant jerk, as one often assumes of men in his position.

She said, “The man I met was soft-spoken, tall, kind, articulate, and not far removed from superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent.”

She was caught off guard by his interest in her. Chris said he’d just come back to compliment her, but later admitted he’d fallen in love with her in the moment he’d seen her.

She was initially skeptical, knowing it could all be a ruse to get her into the sack.

He later called her and she agreed to go out with him. She quickly fell in love and their relationship progressed. They moved in and lived together for several years. Then they married and had a child.

Theirs was always a good marriage, not prone to turbulence and strife and the two were known for their public affection. They traveled and went sailing while pursuing their own careers.

Eventually, horses came into the picture. Dana had grown up riding. In an effort to be part of that passion, Chris began taking lessons.

Like most things he did, he went all in. He wanted to be his absolute best. He rode and took lessons 4–5 days a week.

He went into jumping — a very dangerous style of horseback riding and was doing fine, despite taking an ambitious progression in the sport. It typically takes years to progress into big jumps.

May 27th, 1995

The most dangerous accidents are often subtle and less violent than a kick or explosion.

Gravity can do great damage with a little distance and a bad angle.

As Chris’s horse surged towards a wall to jump, it panicked and stopped, (called “refusing” in riding).

Chris was launched over the horse. He landed headfirst, all 6’4, 230 lbs of him. His second and third vertebrae in his neck were shattered.

Seven months prior, he’d filmed a movie where he played a paraplegic. He’d spent substantial time around people with spinal cord injuries in preparation for that role. Every day, he’d left their clinic feeling grateful for not living in their predicament.

And now he was there.

Life sputters to restart

Chris laid in the hospital, completely immobile and powerless. He was waiting to have surgery to reattach his skull to his spine. He couldn’t even lift his hand to brush his own teeth.

Most don’t realize what nearly happened in the weeks that followed.

Chris was in heated arguments with his doctors. He insisted they pull the plug on his breathing machine. It wasn’t a bluff. He couldn’t fathom living in his current state.

He saw himself as a burden to those around him. He was also threatening that he’d kill himself if they didn’t.

One can imagine, after a life of such freedom, being able to do anything you wanted, with a budget to pursue any passion, just how challenging it would be to suddenly be confined to such a cruel fate.

Dana Reeve became emotional and sat with him, saying, “I am only going to say this once. I will support whatever you want to do because this is your life and your decision. But I want you to know that I’ll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You’re still you. And I love you.”¹

She urged him to just give it two years before they revisited the decision.

He accepted.

He eventually settled into his new life and Dana stood by her words, and by his side. They still lived, did things together, and found ways to have fun.

They were brought together by a push to make the world better for people like him, starting The Reeve Foundation, and raising money for people with spinal cord injuries.

He said during an Oprah interview: “We (humans) are all one big family. This has taught me a big lesson about complacency. We should never walk by someone in a wheelchair and be afraid of them — or think of them as a stranger. That could be us. In fact, it is us.”

Yet, it almost ended in that hospital room.

Chris couldn’t move a single body part below his neck. It was a far cry from his days as a free-roaming bachelor.

Yet he and Dana’s marriage was as strong in the second half as it had ever been before.

Sadly, Chris lost his life in 2004, due to complications from his injury. Shockingly, and only two years later, his wife Dana passed away from lung cancer. She was 47 years old and had never smoked.

Their story is terribly tragic. But within all of that pain, their love was consistent and they were happier than many others. It is yet another reminder, to embrace the moment and the blessing of good health.

Rest in peace.

Talking about Drugs

What are the implications of the U.S. ramping up export restrictions on key semiconductors and tools to China?

The US government will destroy America’s semiconductor sector. Nvidia is the poster child of this event. It’s GPU semiconductors used in AI and cloud computing applications are a good example. At first, the US government stopped sales to the Chinese market of its 100 series chips, then Nvidia began a slower version in its 800 series chips. Now all Nvidia GPU chips are off limits to China. Not only that, but 21 countries suspected of reselling their purchases to China have been put on the entity list.

Talk about killing a company, Nvidia is a prime example of what is happening in the US semiconductor sector. The US is hell bent on denying semiconductors to the world’s biggest semiconductor market regardless of the damage.

Both TSMC and Intel have stopped work on their high end fabs because that market is fading away from them because of US restrictions. Intel and Qualcomm have established ‘innovation centers’ in mainland China and TSMC is trying to expand its Nanjing factory.

The US government is killing the very sector it thought its actions was meant to kill the Chinese semiconductor rise, only to find it is killing its own semiconductor industry.

Stories

When were you hilariously wrong about something?

The night I let the wrong cat in.

When I was four, my father brought home this little white puppy for my sister. About a year and a half later, my mother got an orange tiger that became my cat. I loved that cat, and the cat and dog became fast friends, sleeping in the same bed together at times, and generally being the best of friends.

Starting in about fifth grade, I began to get really interested in retro TV shows like the Honeymmooners and Burns and Allen, and so many weekend nights I would fall asleep on the couch to those shows, either not going upstairs to my actual bed at all, or going to bed in the mmiddle of the night, at about three or four in the morning. Often enough I would let my cat in after he was outside for a few hours, as almost everybody who had cats at that time did; this was in the mid-seventies. He would make a kind of soft murr as he came in the door, and that’s how I knew he was in. That little white dog would be hanging out at his usual spot near the kitchen stove where his basket was, and the house would be at peace.

One cold winter night in February, when I was twelve, I got up to let my cat in. As usual, he did his usual murr, and I closed the door. Only this time the dog started growling and barking. Then I heard the sounds of a cat hissing. Then I heard the dog barking, and the noises of a cat and dog fighting. I couldn’t believe my ears because nothing like this had ever happened before. My cat and my sister’s dog were great friends so why was this happening? I was starting to realize that something was very, very wrong, and that there was probably a cat in our house that simply didn’t belong there. What else could explain the dog’s weird behavior? And by the way, what the hell was I gunna do now?

Well, what else could I do? I went upstairs to my parents room, opened the door and said:

“Ma? I think I let the wrong cat in.” See, I had figured out by this time that this other cat had followed mine into our house.

At that point, she and my brother came downstairs to see what was happening. As it turned out, quite a lot was going on because this cat and our dog were still fighting. And now my mother and brother were trying to get the damned cat out of the house. The cat was shrieking and hissing, flying around the kitchen, the dog was barking, and my mother couldn’t get her hands on the animal. My mother screamed at one point because the cat, quiet for a few seconds because it had tried to hide itself in a corner where we were storing insulation because my father was rebuilding our kitchen, screeched like a banshee when the cat sprung from his hiding place and attacked her.

Finally my cat, who had been paying no mind and eating his food in his bowl, finally got pissed off at the other cat and chased him out of the house. Then all was finally quiet, and we three all went upstairs to bed.

Meantime, my father, who was upstairs while all this was going on, got up to go to the bathroom, and he just started laughing his ass off. “It’s not funny!” I kept saying from my room, because by this time I was now in bed, and it was probably about 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. Of course, the more I said it, the more he laughed, and the more he laughed, the more I found it funny, so I started laughing.

Just one of those classic stories from my childhood. And I can still hear my father remembering that story and repeating my words in the exact sheepish tone I used that night:

“Ma, I think I let the wrong cat in.”

Music

Can you think of an embarrassing moment that later made you proud?

There was the time I helped a teenage girl run away from home. I hid her in my room, lied to my parents, and ditched school. And for years I was completely embarassed by it. That just wasn’t appropriate behavior.

Here’s the story. When I was about 17, I started dating this girl who was a year younger than me. She complained about her mom a lot. Hey, we were teenagers, we all complained about our parents — but as I listened to her, it started to sound like there was some real emotional abuse going on. One night she called me, and we talked for hours. At one point her cat came in; he was a bloody mess, apparently he’d been in a fight, and for her this was the last straw. She was in quite an emotional state as she cleaned up her cat and then told me, “I’m coming over. I need to be with you tonight.”

It was 2 AM and I knew my parents would not appreciate a girl showing up at our house at two o’clock in the morning. I told her no, but she insisted. She said she was going to ride her bike over and that was it, goodbye.

What could I do? I didn’t want her ringing the doorbell, so I went downstairs and checked on my parents — they slept on the first floor, my room was upstairs. They were sound asleep, so I eased the back door open quietly and waited for her.

She showed up, dropped her bike in the back yard, and headed for the door. Before I stopped her, she threw the door open . . . and the dog started barking.

Oh crap, I’d forgotten about the dog. I shoved her up the stairs and followed her up, telling her, “stay up here and BE QUIET!”

Then I came downstairs, just as if I had been awakened by the barking and was trying to figure out what was going on. My parents were stumbling out of bed also. My mom noticed the back door was open and there was a bicycle in the yard. Obviously, someone had broken into the house — but where was the intruder? Dad headed to check the garage and I offered to check upstairs. Naturally, none of us reported finding an intruder, and they assumed that the intruder had been frightened by the dog and fled on foot. Mom brought the bike into the garage and was going to call the police — but I said “If we call the police they won’t be here for another hour and we’re all tired. Why don’t we call them in the morning?” They agreed that this was the best idea and they went back to bed.

Upstairs, girlfriend was crying. She was trapped, couldn’t go back downstairs for fear of the dog barking again. Couldn’t get her bike out of the garage without my parents noticing. I said “You’ll just have to stay here till morning.”

“My mom will kill me!”

At this point I said. “You’ve been telling me how much you hate your mom and how you’d really like to run away. Now’s your chance.”

“Huh?”

“Stay here tonight, and tomorrow we’ll see what your legal rights are.” She agreed and we fell asleep.

The next morning I came down for breakfast. Naturally, my parents were still talking about the incident in the night. I volunteered to call the police. I picked up the phone, dialed Time and Temperature, and listened to the National Weather Service’s local weather forecast while making up an entire imaginary conversation with the police department. I told my parents, “They said they’ll be here in an hour or an hour and a half. Why don’t you guys go to work, I don’t have school till third period today anyway, I can talk to them when they get here.” They said I was a good, considerate son, and went off to work.

By the way — I don’t think I’d ever lied to my parents before. At least not since I was little. I was a terrible liar, and I don’t know how I was able to do it so convincingly, thinking on my feet with the pressure on. Of all the things in this story, lying to my parents is probably the thing I’m the most ashamed of.

They went to work and Jeannie came downstairs for breakfast. I called an adult friend, an attorney, and told him the situation. He said that if I really thought that there was abuse going on, that I should report it to the District Attorney. So I called the District Attorney’s office and made an appointment for Jeannie to meet with them that afternoon. We arranged to meet at school and I would drive her downtown, but at the moment she needed to get her bike out of my parent’s garage. She rode off to school and I would later tell my parents that the police impounded it.

When I got to school myself — late, I’d lied to my parents about not having to go to first or second period that day — I was met in the hallway by my English teacher, Mr. Nelson. His first words weren’t rebuke or admonishment. Instead he said, “You’ve been seeing Jeanne M—-, haven’t you?” Cautiously I admitted it, and he said with near-frantic concern. “Do you have any idea where she is? Her mom thinks she’s been kidnapped, there was blood in the bathroom and she’s missing.”

Blood? Oh, yeah, the cat was bleeding when he came home that night and Jeannie cleaned him up. So I told Mr. Nelson that Jeannie had been with me, and he said Jeannie’s mother was on the way and I needed to go to the principal’s office to straighten things out.

When I got to the principal’s office several things happened all at once. The principal greeted me (I was kind of a teacher’s pet, and he insisted I wasn’t in any trouble). Jeanne just arrived on her bicycle and was coming down the hall from the other direction — and in the front door was walking Jeannie’s mom.

Jeanne gave me a hug, right in front of the principal, saw her mom, and panicked. “Oh My God, Run!” she yelled, grabbed me by the hand, and started running like she was trying to save her life. I followed as best as I could, and behind us, her mother was keeping up with us, cursing and making dire threats against us.

We went down a couple of back corridors of the school and into the student parking lot. We got into my car and peeled rubber getting out of there, leaving Jeannie’s mom out of breath and swearing.

We spent the next hour driving around, hiding from Jeannie’s mom or anyone else looking for us, then went downtown where we told someone from the District Attorney’s Office what was going on. They asked Jeannie to go in for further questioning and evaluation and told me to go back to school.

I went directly to the principal’s office. I told the principal about Jeannie’s claims of abuse — he didn’t act surprised — and that I’d dropped her off at the District Attorney’s office. He just told me to go to class and I never got into any trouble for what I did, not even for missing several classes that day.

Jeanne called me that night to tell me she’d been put in foster care and had been placed with a family that lived in the East High district so she’d still be going to school, and the DA was investigating the situation. But I never did find out how it all worked out, because not too long afterward, Jeannie and I had a big fight and we broke up.

In the years that followed, I was ashamed of the role I’d played in the whole affair. I was a good student, not a troublemaker, the teachers and parents all liked me, I was a Christian kid, active in church and my youth group, not the kind of person to help minors run away from home or hide girls in my room or lie to my parents. As the years went by I was ashamed and embarrassed by the whole thing and didn’t talk about it.

Then one day, 40 years later, I started wondering about some of the people I knew in high school and started looking them up on social media. I found Jeanne. Since I’d known her she’d become a registered nurse, gotten married, had a kid, gotten divorced, and lived alone with a couple of cats. Nothing too extraordinary there.

Then I found a blog post she wrote, entitled “The Day My Life Changed.” She wrote about years of emotional abuse recieved from her angry single mother, the cursing and threats and insults. “You’re nothing but a worthless slut,” she was told over and over, and ever since she was little she just wanted to make the abuse end. She wanted to run away — but was never able to do it “until one night a brave boyfriend said he’d help.” She ran away, got into foster care, and a family that convinced her that she wasn’t worthless after all — decided to go to nursing school and make a life for herself.

“Brave boyfriend.” I’d never thought of myself like that before. For years, I’d been ashamed and embarrassed about what I d done, only to find out that I was the hero in someone else’s story.

Yes I contacted Jean after that, and we stay in touch by Facebook.

Cajun Cheeseburger

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons green pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried, crushed basil
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 slices Wisconsin Cheddar cheese
4 hamburger buns, toasted
4 tomato slices
1/4 cup green onion slices

Instructions

Combine beef, pork, chopped onion, green pepper and seasonings; mix well. Shape into four patties. Cook and top with cheddar as directed below.
Place patties on oiled grill over medium coals (coals will be glowing). Grill, uncovered, for 5 minutes on each side to desired doneness.
Top each with Cheddar; continue grilling until cheese is melted. Place each patty on bun. Top with tomato; sprinkle with green onion.

Tell Me

What are the reasons behind the Chinese government’s willingness to help African countries?

I think it is inappropriate to say “China helps African countries”.

I have many business partners in China who are very interested when it comes to Africa. For the Chinese, Africa is a friendly business partner. Rather than “a beggar in need.”

There is a story circulating among the Chinese.

An Italian salesman went to Africa to sell shoes and found that Africans did not wear shoes at all. He returned to his country depressed and told his boss: “Boss, they can’t afford shoes at all. So our shoes can’t be sold.”

A Chinese salesman went to Africa to sell shoes and found that Africans did not wear shoes at all. He returned to his country excitedly and told his boss: “Boss, they don’t have shoes. Africa has huge market potential!”

Maybe you think that Africans can’t afford Chinese shoes, and that the Chinese are just being crazy. But the Chinese don’t think so.

There is a Chinese proverb, “Don’t bully a young man into being poor.” It roughly means: Don’t despise a person just because he is poor, but see his future.

In the eyes of the Chinese, although Africa is poor, it has huge potential. It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford shoes, I know rubber is abundant here. You can make soles out of rubber and sell them to me, and I will use them to produce shoes. Now that you have earned money, can’t you buy my shoes? You guys get nice shoes, I get cheap rubber, everyone is happy, isn’t that good?

What? You can only get rubber juice and don’t know how to make soles? It doesn’t matter, how about building a rubber factory and a shoe sole factory? No funds? Not technical?

It doesn’t matter, just wait for me to make a call.

Soon, rubber experts, equipment suppliers, and sole designers from China arrived. Chinese bankers came too, and they even gave better loans than the IMF, with only factories and future profits as collateral.

A year later, a modern rubber factory was built. Millions of shoe soles, gloves, and even tires are produced every year. Thousands of people found jobs here, and they began to have money to buy food, new clothes, and new shoes.

Salesmen in China found that their shoes were in short supply and all the shoes were sold. And the Italian salesman was still thinking about why Africans couldn’t afford shoes.

in this whole game

1. Africans got a modern factory.

2. Thousands of Africans around have received job opportunities. They have all made money, acquired new skills, and their lives have improved.

3. The tax revenue of the local government has been greatly increased. The income from selling rubber products is ten times more than that from selling rubber juice. There began to be money to build roads, schools, and hospitals.

4. China’s investment banks received dividends from the factory.

5. Chinese equipment suppliers sold equipment.

6. Experts who go to Africa to teach technology are paid a lot of money.

7. All the salesman’s shoes have been sold.

Who loses? There are no losers here

Is China helping Africa? No, China is just doing business their way, and Africans are just their customers. They deal fairly with each other and do not need charity or mercy.

Only some Western media are shouting: “Oh no! The Chinese are plundering Africa’s rubber. This is neocolonialism!”

They have completely forgotten how they did it 100 years ago.

Demigender

Is there anything that Canadian people hate about America and Americans?

Americans have a tendency to talk with their “outside voice”, even when inside and in a place where quiet is expected.
Americans have a tendency to mistreat people like store clerks, fast food workers, and hotel clerks.
Americans appear to have a perverse sense of pride about (1) how little they know about Canada (2) what they think they know about Canada that’s absolutely wrong, and (3) how large Canada is. Americans tend to treat Canada as if it were the size of Rhode Island rather than it being a little larger than their own country.
Americans are sure all their stuff is better than all our stuff, and when you point out how wrong that is in any area and provide demonstrable proof, they still won’t believe it.
Americans call our currency “funny money” because it’s plastic and all the bills have different colours. That’s despite the fact that American counterfeit currency is quite common and Canadian counterfeit currency is pretty rare solely because of its design.

Girl and guy standards

If you could give one piece of advice to every teenager in the world, what would it be?

A few months ago, I received an email from my daughter’s school informing me about the tragic passing of a girl. She had taken her own life.

She was only 14! She should have had her whole life ahead of her to do anything she wanted, but she couldn’t anymore because she chose death. The school email didn’t provide details about the reasons behind her action, but through the conversation with my daughter, I discovered that she had been battling depression. She felt overwhelmed by how she looked and the hurtful comments some other kids made about her. Sadly, some of her peers even viewed her actions as brave.

While I felt so sorry for the girl and her family, I felt compelled to remind my daughter a lesson I had always emphasized: “Everything can be fixed, except death. Taking your own life is not an act of bravery. Why? Because dying is easy. Living is hard. You only die just once but you have to live every day.”

I told my daughter, if anyone ever hurt you, do not hurt yourself, just come home to me, I will make you dinner, we will have dinner together, and if necessary, we will go out there and hunt the enemy that hurt you together.

Teenagers, please remember: Everything, every mistakes can be fixed, except death. If you ever don’t know where to go, go home!

And parents, please please, tell your kids that they can talk to you about anything, they can always come HOME. Please don’t assume that they know. Just tell them, by words, sincerely.

Traditional woman

What is the best, least expensive gift you’ve ever received?

Some background: I was a costume designer for many years. My life was all about color. I dated someone who didn’t have basic color knowledge. Most frustratingly, he didn’t know common color names: Magenta, aqua, salmon lemon yellow. Could have been Greek to him. It was a source of humor between us, like we were speaking different languages.

Call him Steve.

One day we were discussing how and when we had learned color names, and had a bizarre revelation. I realized I had learned all my basic color names from Crayola crayons (note for young Quorans: they used to have the traditional color names, instead of creative new names). I started asking my friends, and all of them said that yes, the Crayola 64 pack (or was it a 120 pack? The biggest one.) was where they first learned their basic colors.

Steve, it turned out, never had Crayolas. His parents only got him the little 8 packs of generic colors. Red, green, blue, yellow, brown, orange, black, purple.

My poor disadvantaged baby! Of course we started making up for lost time. He would ask me what color I called something, then he’d tell me what he thought it was. Like lovers from foreign countries learning each other’s languages.

Anyway…. Came my birthday, and he gave me a gift I will never forget. It was a little book he had made by stapling sheets of paper together down the middle. On the cover it said “Crayola-Steve Dictionary” Inside, on each page, were two columns. One had each of the crayola colors drawn on the paper, with its name. Opposite it was the color that Steve had grown up thinking that name referred to.

I have never in my life had someone put so much effort and caring into a gift.

Years later, when Crayola betrayed the artists of the world by changing their color names to updated and exciting things, so that kids could no longer learn their color basics from the product, he hunted down a pack of the originals for me.

He was a very special guy, and I will always remember that gift fondly.

ADDED: For those who are interested, here you can see the change in color names in 1990…art teachers, I warn you, have a stiff drink in hand…

History of Crayola crayons – Wikipedia

What has an employee said that immediately caused you to fire them?

When I walked up on an employee berating a very nice regular customer. Actually, called this sweet little old lady a very offensive name (you f’king ole b***h). Her offence? She asked him a question as he was stocking some items. I fired him right there on the spot in front of her. Told him to get his things and get out and I would be mailing him his last paycheck as I never wanted to see his face again.

What is this problem with people painting cats blue?

What did you say to your boss that made them quit their job?

I said, “Pssst! Dave! C’mere! I got us new jobs!”

I was fed up with the crap at a place that I was working and interviewed for a job that was opening up at a new place. My boss had been driving 50 miles each way. The new company was opening a place down the highway from his house, cutting it to 12 miles. They offered more money, more decency, better products and overall better working conditions. When I interviewed, they hired me on the spot and asked if I knew of anyone else who would like to work for them that they could talk to. I set up interviews for my whole team before I even told them about it, then badgered them into going. I told them they could say no at any point and I’d never say that they interviewed at all. We all went. We got better jobs closer to our homes. We got better working conditions. We got more money.

Is the principle plank or statement of the Republican Party to cut taxes for the wealthy in the USA?

Once upon a time in a far away place, there was a party called the Republican party that believed in fiscal restraint and cutting taxes as the way to win the hearts and minds of the American people and to transfer ever more wealth to the rich in America.

This policy was ingrained and enshrined in their thinking with the greatest avatar being the B grade actor Ronald Reagan. Reagan coined phrases like Morning in America and went around Washington having huge balls and a wonderful time. Jobs started to disappear and the Midwest became the ‘rust belt’ but Reagan slashed taxes for the rich, ran up the deficit and left it for Bush Sr to fix it which he could not as he was right when he called it, ‘voodoo economics’.

This let in Bill Clinton who worked with Newt of Gingrich fame and they balanced the budget and all was well as the country bled ever more jobs but it was don’t worry be happy. Remember that one?

But Bush Jr of hanging chad fame, became President, cut more taxes, had 2 wars at a trillion $ or so and the country was back on the debt cycle as 3 million more jobs went to China. The ‘oughts’ were the worst for the American worker and best for American rich in a century until it all collapsed in a big heap.

Bush left the US in the Great Recession, crashed the economy and left it to neophyte Obama to fix. Obama dawdled along, saved the auto industry and put through an expensive healthcare plan nicknamed Obamacare and after 8 years and the hubris of HRC another Republican, this time a 5 time bankrupt tv huckster, Donald Trump came in with the same old same old.

Cut more taxes but then he decided he didn’t care about budgets. Thus the story ended with yet another $7 trillion added in debt as every Republican President that was a tax hawk / cutter has added more and more trillions to the national debt.

Trump did something else and is the reason for this story, he ended the Republican party. It no longer is a governing party, it is now the party of the angry disaffected types who will vote for him even though he admits he lost the 2020 election and tried to steal it. They love it, his minions now run the House, the Speaker was a leader in the steal the election saga.

A Christian theocracy is now spoken of openly and history is being rewritten by the GOP to move the US to a religious based society run by evangelical GOP Christians where women have no rights any more and elimination of LGBTQ rights including the right to marry will be taken away.

The GOP no longer stands for cutting taxes for the rich, that has already been done. Now they want to destroy and dismantle the federal government and take rights away from those they do not like including black and brown people who are being gerrymandered out in state after red state.

To cut the power of the feds and give it to the states so that the states will devour each other in a free for all. The GOP no longer stands for anything other than chaos.

You don’t have to look far, the new Speaker’s first proposal for Israel was to partially defund the IRS so that the rich don’t have to worry about being audited.

In the end, the GOP now stands for chaos, tearing down the system, cutting taxes and screwing everyone including the military and making themselves the white masters of an evangelical Christian society where they have all the rights and will tell you what to read, what to think and what history will be taught.

In short, they stand for nothing but themselves.

Can married men have close female friendships outside of the marriage?

I dunno, should they?

I’ve heard men say the only reason they ever befriend a woman is because they want to get their dicks wet. I believe those men. They have no reason to lie, and I see no evidence that runs counter to what they say.

Those men? No, they probably should not. Not just because they’ll cheat if they can, but because they see women as basically a life support system for a vagina, and what kind of friend is that? Their friendship will always and forever be transactional, because at the end of the day they don’t see women as people.

Normal men? Yes, normal men should have friends outside their marriage. Including friends who are women.

Who is the worst customer you have ever had?

We had to ban Karen from our store.

Karen attempted to manipulate Domino’s refund policy, time and time again.

Ultimately, we were losing money because of her.

She liked to place pizza orders online quite frequently.

And would then decide to request a refund for whatever reason, be it from the order was messed up to ‘the pizza just doesn’t look that great’.

Yes, she actually said that to me.

It got to the point where we would ensure her order was immaculate.

Quality over quantity, eh?

And guess what? She’d try and get a refund.

Naturally, she’d get one, since there’s the whole thing about how the “customer is always right”.

We attempted to logically defend ourselves, telling her we did nothing wrong, but she ensured to find something flawed with her order.

Eventually, we got sick of it, and so we called in our district manager.

She places an order, and I crafted damn near the best pizza the world has ever seen. Even my manager agreed, so it’s legit.

Everything else associated with Karen’s order was on point.

So about 5 minutes or so after the driver returns from her house, we receive a call from Karen.

“Hi, I’d like a refund for my order.”

I notify my manager it’s a no go.

“Don’t refund her.”, my manager said.

“Ban her.”, my district manager said.

It’s about time.

Have you ever accidentally ordered something at a restaurant that was significantly more expensive than you expected it to be? What was the end result?

Yes. Out for dinner with my wife, I ordered a budget-friendly red called Leaping Horse or something similar. Or, more accurately, that’s what I meant to order. Instead, I treated us to a $200 bottle of Stag’s Leap at five times the price of the other horsey brand I thought I ordered. Stag’s Leap wasn’t even on the official wine list.

To be fair, the server questioned it and double checked that was what I wanted. Each time I foolishly said yes.

Expensive lesson but it was a beautiful wine.

The real red pill

How does the US Navy minimize the discomfort of crew members on modern destroyers during heavy seas?

The US Navy doesn’t try to minimize discomfort. Safety? Sure. Discomfort? Suck it up Shippy!.

Racks, Navy-speak for the bunks sailors sleep in, have straps. Typically we keep them tucked under the mattress. But when needed we can pull them out and snap hook the to the top of the rack frame. This prevents you from rolling out of your rack.

I have used the straps on a few occasions and they do in fact work well. During a trek from Norfolk to Pascagoula back in the mid-90’s aboard a Burke-class guided missile destroyer, we ran into a group of storms near Key West. This area is notorious for bad weather that pops up on short notice. The area is littered with wrecks from the Age of Sail all the way to the 20th Century. White Squalls in particular are some of the most dangerous and infamous. We happened upon what the Commanding Officer would later tell us the Coast Guard had determined was a White Squall. When it began I was actually on the bridge standing watch. We were taking heavy listing rolls and heaving up and down fairly steeply. There is a list gauge and pitch gauge on the bridge. The heaviest roll we noted was about 32 degrees which is fairly close to Burke-classes mast limit.

We posted garbage bags in passageway and at strategic points. Many guys got sick. I felt horrible but I didn’t throw up. That may have been because I simply couldn’t eat after it started. As I was leaving watch and heading to the Mess Decks for Mid-Rats or Midnight Rations, I could smell vomit. The hour or so beating we took while I was on watch had me dizzy and swaying. Even when the ship wasn’t rocking, I was. By the time I made it to eat everything was secured as ordered by the CO. At that moment the CO came over the 1MC (loudspeaker), which was a big deal because it was past TAPS and no announcements are normally made. “Everyone not on watch strap into your racks”. Engineering watch crew set about “Setting Condition YOLK” which closes a lot of doors on the ship along with ventilation. The gun mount was turn as far aft as possible and depressed (pointed down) as much as possible.

The next day it was very calm to start. Then all of the sudden a storm formed and hit quickly during dinner. The rolls approached 40 degrees. We nosed into one wave an it submerged the bow. The waves that hit the bridge smacked the windows hard enough that it broke several windshield wipers. The storm hit while dinner was being served. The salad bar, which was tack-welded to the deck broke free and sent the contents everywhere. At the time the boat deck and our complement of 2 RHIB boats were my assigned space and responsibility along with one of my comrades. Both of us had to go out on deck to make sure the boats were secured. That was fun. We got to the quarterdeck and an area in the open that we have to cross with nothing to hold on to. Just at we were crossing the open area the ship heeled an rocked heavy to starboard ( the boat deck is on starboard). We were standing straight up but looking straight down at the water. It was intense.

There is also a stanchion/wire system we can rig for the Focsle (bow). They screw into the deck and stand about 6 foot tall. Wearing a harness you can strap onto the wire. Although rigging it when the seas are already rough is problematic. You can also just take the top caps and screw them into the deck, attaching the wire.

What is the most savage revenge you’ve seen someone take on their ex?

Years ago, my then-GF had a friend who periodically hung out with us.

Her friend was in a fairly turbulent relationship with her boyfriend.

It wasn’t abusive or anything. It just wasn’t meant to be. They couldn’t agree on anything in life.

Honestly, I dreaded hanging out with them.

They typically were showing up when we were going out on the weekends.

I knew that when they drank, it only exacerbated their problems and they’d start arguing.

And look, I’m not knocking either of them for their dysfunction. They were both young, not in full control of their emotions. They definitely weren’t prepared for their own incompatibility.

These things happen. We live. We grow. We learn.

Eventually, he came to realize that they were stuck in a rut they would never get out of. He broke things off with her.

She did NOT take it well.

Within a couple weeks she had moved away.

She took something with her though – his child. She was pregnant and chose not to tell him. It was a savage, vindictive thing to do.

Years later, he found out through back channels about it.

He was rightfully pissed. And it turned into huge drama.

Some of the friends in our group knew about him having a daughter and didn’t say anything to him. (Thankfully I didn’t know.)

He had to take her to court to get access to his daughter. And he did get visitation rights eventually.

But it sucked. He’d missed 5 years of his daughter’s life and hadn’t met her until then.

I can’t imagine introducing myself to my 5-year-old daughter, but these things happen.

He and the mother found a way into an agreeable arrangement of co-parenting.

And, he found a way to bury his resentment towards her for the sake of the child, which couldn’t have been easy.

But it was a valuable sacrifice because in the end it benefited the most important person in the equation, his daughter.

But I hate seeing kids getting caught in these evil games adults play with each other.

No such thing as biological sex…

What will happen when I try to start a car that has been parked for 10 years?

Due to a wiring harness issue, my father parked his 1965 impala SS in the garage 2002 and there it sat until 2022 when we had to move it. Rather than calling a tow truck I figured what the hell l, let’s give it a shot. We put a battery in it, pumped the gas a few times, a lot and behold l, it started right up after 30 seconds of cranking. Granted it ran like crap but it did run and stayed running with 20 years old gas. At first I was shocked that the gas was still good. Then I realized that it was likely the fact that the gas was 20 years old that made it start fine. This gas was pre-ethanol.

Now all we need to do is finish the wiring harness replacement

Do you agree with “old enough to bleed, old enough to breed”?

No I don’t. I was 12 when I had my first set of twins. My father had raped me for almost 2 years, and I didn’t know about abortion then. I was a child who was forced into having sex, and procreate, against my will. I still managed to graduate early, and find a good man to love, but I’ll never be able to get that innocence or childhood back.

What is the most bizarre coincidence that has ever happened in your life?

On a beautiful summer day many years ago, my friend Cathy and I went to the beach.

After sunbathing and swimming, we had a picnic and took a nap.

Feeling refreshed after the nap, Cathy and I walked the full length of the beach.

This was in eastern Canada which is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

By the time we got back to our picnic table, it was starting to get dark.

We packed our things and headed for the car.

When Cathy got the car keys out of her purse she dropped them in the sand.

It was nearly dark out, and we were the only people left at the beach.

There were no cell phones back then, and the nearest house was at least five miles away.

It was getting REALLY dark and we started to panic.

We searched with a little ‘purse’ flashlight to no avail.

Just as we were giving up hope of finding the keys, we saw a silhouette of a man walking toward us.

As he got closer, we realized that he had a metal detector!

He asked us what we were looking for, and moved the detector around the area where Cathy had dropped the keys.

‘Beep – beep – beep’. The keys were detected!

What were the odds of a man with a METAL DETECTOR coming along the beach just when we needed his help?

As we thanked him, he told us that coming to the beach to find hidden treasures was his hobby, and he had never stayed that late before.

We were all amazed at his perfect timing!

When might China use America’s deceptive tactics back on America?

When I was a kid, my mother told me a Chinese famous saying:

Avoid argue with a sinister.

无与小人论短长

It is like debating with a dog. If won,you’re more dog than a dog. If lose, you’re worse than a dog. If it’s a draw,you’re like a dog.

There’s no need, just keep going.

Why Do Men Get So Few Matches On Dating Apps?

I get the feeling that Russia, China, the Middle East, and maybe others have something planned to take out the USA. Any theories on what it might be?

You want the good news or the bad news. Let me feed you the good news first. Not yet! Chinese, Russian or a combination of this that faced the U.S. excesses hasn’t reached the point that it wants to take out the U.S. in spite of the U.S. provocation and goaded behaviour.

But it might if the U.S. don’t recognised the red line and push and push and push. At some point it may have no choice. And now the bad news. The U.S. has lost its ability to act without repercussions. Up to 2000 these countries might not have the capability to take out the U.S. but by 2023 they certainly can. And absolutely could do so it push comes to shove.

My worry is that the U.S. might not recognises or in denial that those nations can and will do it if they are push into the corner. There lies the risk of a catastrophic disaster first of the U.S. demise and or worst the U.S. nuclear respond and of course China and Russia respond to the U.S. nuclear response. It is a dooms day scenario for our world.

Have you ever been ignored by the staff in a store because you didn’t look wealthy enough?

Actually, I have a different answer to this.

When I first moved to Boston, I had zero money. I was 18, working for minimum wage, and supporting my own crappy little basement studio apartment which took half of my take-home pay every month. I saved up to shop at Goodwill.

Dressed in my best ragged torn-off shorts and a gingham halter top, I wandered into John Lewis, an expensive jeweller on Newbury Street. The smell alone told me I was out of my price range–there’s just a smell to really high-end stores.

I was bedazzled. No other word for it. They had totally gorgeous stuff in their showcases, and I lusted after every item. The clerk asked me quite cordially if she could show me something. I told her that I frankly couldn’t afford to breathe their air. Her response made a difference in my life.

She said that maybe I couldn’t afford their stuff now, but maybe one day I could. She showed me everything! She let me try on everything. To me, Macy’s was higher class than I felt I could enter, OK? An expensive Newbury Street merchant making me welcome? This was beyond belief!

They had a set of 18k gold jewelry, all custom-made, hand-carved in a strawberry pattern that I fell in love with.

Eventually I tore myself away, a dream planted in my heart. Twelve years later, when I actually had a little money, I bought a custom ring in that strawberry pattern from them. It cost about $2000, and after a couple of fittings I wore it continuously for 30 years.

If that lady, who knew for a fact that she couldn’t sell me anything that day, hadn’t been so wonderful, I’d never have entered that shop again. Her kindness made all the difference.

What do you think of China’s regulatory clampdown on business leaders in the country?

China don’t pander to millionaires and billionaires rogue and irresponsible business leaders who took advantage and hurt the Chinese people. US calls it too big to fail companies. China take them to task. The U.S. bailed them out using taxpayers money.

What do I think?

I think China is responsible, is doing the right thing, is making businessman think of serving their customers better. I think the U.S. should learn from China. That is what I think! What about you? What do you think?

Gave Cheating Wife a Taste of Her Own Medicine: She didn’t expect to see my revenge…

https://youtu.be/NArKCFPWfbQ

How is China going to gain trust when their government says a forceful takeover of Taiwan is inevitable and near? Are they really that deluded?

China will do whatever is necessary to the interest of China and the Chinese people and that include Taiwan, China. Taiwan is an island and a region of China. It is an unalienable part of China. It cannot be separated or snagged away from China by any means including the U.S. and western geopolitical games.

As a Chinese origin from the southern China where 90% of Taiwanese Chinese migrated from. I understand their psyche that most westerners who write such ridiculous question can ever understand. We want to see Taiwan as an integral part of China. Many Taiwanese are all out to support and help China achieved this honourable achievement.

Do we gives a shit about what white Caucasian westerners think or feel? Not at all. Not even bothered a bit. We care about keeping our nation together from the manipulative western behaviour. Forceful or peaceful it our god damn business. It is our Business not yours. Mind you own business.

When do Chinese people think their country will finally be as advanced as the west?

As Prof Zhang Weiwei likes to say, China is no longer on the same track as the West.

She’s now running on her own track.

This is like what I tell my medical students — don’t compete with others, just do the best that you can do (in your own way that works best for you).

Edit 17 October 2023:

As a Chinese, I see China as still being more deeply Confucianist than Communist; though there’s some overlap between the two ideologies. The sworn goals of a Confucianist society are two: xiaokang 小康 (moderate prosperity — which China has largely achieved), and finally datong 大同 (Great Unity

, a classical Chinese concept for an utopian view of the world; or Common Prosperity).

This is very different from the approach of the Western nations, seeking hegemony over other nations.

“The report to the 20th CPC National Congress in 2022 drew a great blueprint for rejuvenating the Chinese nation on all fronts by pioneering a uniquely Chinese path to modernization, and pointed out that striving to build a global community of shared future is one of the intrinsic requirements of Chinese modernization, affirming the close bond between the future of China and the future of all humanity.”

Whether you believe the report or not — just watch what China had been doing (in Asia, Middle East, Africa and South America), and is continuing to do in the coming years.

Edit 18 October 2023:

China is holding her Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) on 17–18 October 2023.

Attending the event are more than 1,200 representatives from more than 80 countries and regions

The list of VIP attendants is impressive, showing how China’s Belt and Road Initiative (2023 is its 10th anniversary) has attracted the attention of most countries (except those in US and her allies):

Vladimir Putin is top of the list.

Others: Indonesian President Joko Widodo,

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,

Chilean President Gabriel Boric,

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic,

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev,

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape

UN Secretary-General António Guterres,

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez,

Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong,

President of Mongolia Ukhnaa Khurelsukh

Prime Minister of Mozambique Adriano Maleiane

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar,

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin,

Kenyan President William Ruto,

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet,

Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith,

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe

President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso

It looks like many other countries have been attracted by China’s parallel track, and are leaving “the American track”.

Alpha Hubby Allowed Me To Open My Marriage Then Filed For Divorce & Ghosted, Left Broke & Penniless

How low is the standard of living in Britain compared to the USA and Canada?

I’m a former New Yorker. I’ve only visited Canada, but lived in London for the past 25 years. In the States, if you have a good job, you can live very comfortably. But if you have a serious medical emergency or long term medical needs, this can bankrupt you, you can lose your home & be very poor. For average workers, the medical insurance is very difficult as the insurance is very expensive and on top of that, you have to co-pay. And many can’t get insurance because of pre-existing issues. In the UK, medical care is free, doesn’t matter about your past history … the taxes we pay towards it is less than what people pay in the States for their insurance. People never have to worry about being homeless because of ongoing medical problems. Whenever I go back to New York to visit, I’m a bit shocked at how very poor many people are there – compared to London.

In the UK, if you are working, but not able to afford rent, the government will pay towards your rent. It may not cover all the rent, but it helps. If you have children & don’t earn enough in your job, the government will top up your earnings so you are above the poverty line. If you are unemployed, your unemployment benefits won’t stop as long as you are actively looking for work & attending the skills meetings. And if you do accept a job, but it doesn’t pay well, the government will top it up to make sure you are earning what they consider to be the minimum needed to live on.

My high-earning son had the opportunity to work for his company in the States, but he realised he has a much better safety net here in the UK for his family. It felt too much of a risk for him to have to pay for medical insurance for his family when it isn’t even guaranteed that it will pay for certain things.

The only thing I don’t like about living in the UK is the weather. But everything else, in my personal opinion, leads for a better quality of life.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

So, I’m on the beach enjoying myself over a bit of beach calligraphy (this involves cutting sand out of the surface, and some fairly intense concentration) when the spell is broken by someone who has walked up to me, having walked over my work, stood on it at my side, and proceeded to ask me what I’m trying to catch.

The next time that happened to me I was ready with “Calligraphy” as my reply but then just dumbstruck again by being asked if I had permission.

EDIT
I just want to add the following in response to some of the comments I’ve had here:

I’ve NEVER had a child walk up to one of my doodles without noticing it and being curious about it. I do occasionally have young children deliberately tread through it but that’s part of being observant. It feels interesting underfoot. The interaction usually leads to my offering the tools to the kiddiewinks to try.

I can’t help wondering if there’s a relationship between stupidity and being unobservant. I’m not sure but it’s clear that coming with a strong preconception does get in the way of open observation and surprise. Only an adult can come blinded by so much preconception that they fail to notice the beach calligraphy happening before their eyes and under their feet. To then layer that blindness with a preoccupation with permission …?! I make no apologies for my disdain.

There are some lighting conditions under which the beach calligraphy is barely noticeable and almost impossible to photograph: high sun, lit from behind the observer, very cloudy. The beach calligraphy depends on shadow. I’m very keenly aware of this. Usually, under conditions like that, I’m just practising close to the waters’ edge where it is constantly washed away in any case.

If I have to do a paid commission then I get careful and a bit possessive about it and I look for a spot on a beach where I can be alone. I don’t usually mind redoing work. I often redo it in any case just because I’m not satisfied with the calligraphy.

You can lose your work to a wave, dogs, or an unobservant idiot but you don’t lose the skill you build in doing it again.

Some people have said things along the lines of “You don’t own the beach!” and I do (very rarely) get that response on the beach if I try to ward someone off my work. It’s a stupid response because this is not about ownership. Stupidity, on the other hand … if you’re not prepared to own it, it will own you.

What happened that made you walk out of the courtroom and think, “That did not just happen”?

I was in a courtroom trying to evict a tenant, I was broke had massive loans on the property and down on my luck, I could not afford legal representation so I represented myself which judges generally do not like. I saw the judge wipe the floor and throw out of court room the others who represented themselves earlier that day. This was the days before the internet and I had to learn about housing laws from things called books if you remember what they are? Then it was my turn to step into the dock after four hours of waiting in the court during previous, I learned a lot about tenancy laws in those four hours.

Preliminaries over then the game was on, its was like a verbal tennis match on points of law, I knew I had my paperwork and facts right, he volleyed and I hit it back countering his serve. Forgive me because this was over thirty years ago so I don’t remember the joust word for word, the judge did not like this uneducated smart arsed whippersnaper giving as good as-he got.

Then he threw a curve ball question regarding arrears, and how much the tenant owed, I said the tenant was six months behind I wasn’t sure of the amount as it was irrelevant, I had not come to court to claim arrears ( separate application and hearing and nigh on impossible to get money back because she was claiming benefits ) I said to the judge I just want her evicted and my property back. Then he tried to bamboozle me with jargon after jargon and I got a bit confused he then said to me said to me,

‘Young man I suggest you get your paper work in order and go and see legal advice!’

I was so nervous and that is exactly what I didn’t want the hear, as it meant I would have to have my property repossessed and I would have lost everything I worked for, I was sweating profusely my mind was over revving I was trying to grasp at something I had read in the past six months that would get me out of this painful situation

Then it came to me, I knew that I had done everything right and that he had to grant me a notice to evict, from deep within my memory I recalled something and blurted out to the judge, your honour under section ( blah ) article ( blah) of the 1988 housing act I have served you all the correct papers within procedure and you are obliged to give me notice of eviction, that was it, my final serve I had nothing else to give.

The court went silent and the court usher gave a wry smile, the Judge turned and looked down his nose through his half rimmed glasses at me and stared for a moment, then he turned to the court clerk and beckoned him over, he whispered something in his ear and the clerk disappeared for a moment and brought back one of the biggest books I’d ever seen laid it in front of the judge and opened it for him. The judge flicked through the pages and ran his finger down the lines of one or two pages as he was reading, he then grabbed the gavel looked at me and brought the gavel down with a thud and said

‘ Notice of eviction granted, 28 days’

It may not seem much, but there is nothing better (to me ) than beating the system that’s so inherently wrong and stacked against you but the biggest victory was correcting a judge on a point of law, when I left the court house I felt twenty kilos lighter and like had just been set free from , I did get my property back 28 days later

‘If you don’t fight you never win, if you fight there is a chance you may win’

Muffuletta Sandwiches

In New Orleans the two best Muffuletta Sandwiches — bar none — can be had at Central Grocery or at Napoleon House on Chartres Street.

Yield: 1 loaf bread; 1 to 4 servings, depending on appetite!
about 3 quarts olive salad

Ingredients

Muffuletta Bread

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 package active dry yeast (about 1 tablespoon)
About 3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Sesame seeds

Olive Salad

1 (32 ounce) jar pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
2 cups pitted ripe olives, chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped pickled cocktail olives
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 cups blanched chopped cauliflower
1/4 cup minced garlic
2 medium carrots, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil

Muffuletta Sandwich

1 (10 inch) Muffuletta Bread loaf
3 ounces honey ham, thinly sliced
3 ounces Mortadella with pistachios, thinly sliced
3 ounces Genoa salami, very thinly sliced
1 heaping cup Olive Salad
5 slices Provolone cheese

Instructions

Muffuletta Bread

In a 2 cup glass measuring cup, combine water and sugar.
Stir in yeast. Let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes.
In a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine 3 cups flour, salt and shortening. Add yeast mixture. Process until dough forms a ball, about 5 seconds. Stop machine; check consistency of dough. It should be smooth and satiny. If dough is too dry, add more warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, processing just until blended. If dough is too sticky, add more flour, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, processing just until blended. Process for 20 seconds to knead.
Lightly oil a large bowl, swirling to coat bottom and sides. Place dough in oiled bowl; turn to coat all sides. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
Lightly grease a baking sheet. When dough has doubled in bulk, punch down dough; turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Form dough into a round loaf about 10 inches in diameter; place on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle top of loaf with sesame seeds; press seeds gently into surface of loaf. Cover very loosely with plastic wrap; let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 1 hour.
Place rack in center of oven. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Remove plastic wrap.
Bake loaf in center of preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to 375 degrees F; bake for 25 minutes. The loaf is done when it sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Olive Salad

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to blend well.
Store in jars with tight-fitting lids in the refrigerator.

Muffuletta Sandwich

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut bread in half crosswise to form a sandwich bun. Layer the honey ham on the bottom of the loaf. Next add the Mortadella, then the salami. Spread the Olive Salad over the meats evenly. Top with the slices of Provolone cheese and place the top on the sandwich. Press down to compress slightly. Wrap the sandwich in foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese has begun to melt into the Olive Salad.
Slice sandwich into 4 quarters. Use wooden picks to secure layers, if desired; remove picks before eating.

Notes

Not only can you use this Olive Salad as a dressing for a Muffuletta Sandwich, it also makes a delicious addition to tossed green salads, pizzas, and is a great relish to spread on crackers.

They Don’t Want Coffee Dates, They Only Want The $1000 Restaurant

Boudin and American Supremacy

There is a sausage that is popular in the deep South in the Unites. It’s called boudin. It’s a kind of very spicy sausage and super tasty. I used to get it at the local quickie mart, and along with meat pies and fried catfish are some of the best ‘eatin that I ever had.

One day, while living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, my wife made me some homemade boudin, and I ate it just prior to hopping on a plane to Chicago for a meeting.

But she didn’t make it quite right, and I suffered from the most amazing gas that I ever had. I thought that I was having a heart attack! I was freaking out and almost called the ambulance from the hotel. But once I got on the phone and talked to a nurse and explained what I ate, it was simply a matter of taking a stomach pill. Phew!

Anyways, if you are gonna eat this tremendously delicious dish, please make sure you cook it properly.

What’s Boudin & Why Louisiana Is The Best Place To Find It

68 Comments / By Matt Long

Like many of you, I didn’t know what boudin was before first arriving into Southwest Louisiana. I like to consider myself somewhat worldly and at least aware of many foods, but somehow boudin had escaped my culinary lexicon for 40 years. But if you are from Louisiana, and particularly the areas around Lake Charles, then boudin isn’t just familiar to you, it’s a big part of everyday life. As I discovered though, it’s a lot more than just a snack, it’s an important part of Louisiana’s culinary traditions.

What Is Boudin?

To say that boudin is a type of sausage is wrong, although when you first see it that’s exactly what it looks like. To really understand boudin, we have to go back to those Acadians who originally settled in Southwestern Louisiana. Who we now call Cajuns, these French-speaking settlers were forced out of Canada, but took with them their proud French culture and traditions, including boudin. Boudin in Louisiana is different though from versions you’ll find in other parts of the world.

At its simplest, boudin is a combination of cooked rice, pork, onions, green peppers and seasonings. The mixture is pulverized in a meat grinder before being stuffed into sausage casings. It is then steamed for on-the-spot eating. But those are just the basics, boudin changes in taste and flavor from cook to cook, no two are exactly the same and are based on recipes that have been handed down through the generations. That’s why it’s so much fun to drive around Southwest Louisiana sampling different versions, to experience new tastes and flavors in what is this area’s go-to food.

When And How Do You Eat It?

Asking around, I soon discovered that there is no perfect time to enjoy boudin. It’s very common for people to buy some in the morning to take to work for the office to enjoy, and no proper road trip in Southwest Louisiana would be complete without some boudin links to snack on. Pronounced “Boodan” (never say “Boodin”), this is as simple a snack as you can get, and slowly eating the link whole is very normal. But there are many variations, including the most common, fried boudin.

Cut into smaller pieces, breaded and then fried, you’ll find fried boudin balls in everything from breakfast sandwiches to serving as an entire meal in their own right. While you can certainly buy them in grocery stores in the area, homemade is best and there are any number of small meat shops and independent butchers and grocers in and around Lake Charles that specialize in their own versions of boudin. To best enjoy this regional delicacy, a culinary route was established to help locals and visitors alike discover different variations of boudin on what is now called the Southwest Louisiana Boudin Trail.

The Southwest Louisiana Boudin Trail

The sign read, “Napa Valley has wine. New York has pizza. Wisconsin has cheese. Southwest Louisiana has boudin.” To say that boudin is an important part of foodie life in Lake Charles would be a massive understatement. That’s where I started my culinary adventures in Louisiana and in addition to offering a lot to see and do for visitors, locals consider themselves to also be the home of boudin. It’s also from Lake Charles where you should start your trek along the Boudin Trail – just make sure you skipped breakfast.

Truly the best way to understand and certainly enjoy the importance of boudin is to actually taste it. In Southwest Louisiana that means traveling the Boudin Trail along US Interstate 10 and stopping off at the many independent businesses all verified to be serving up some of the best versions of boudin in the area. For my own boudin experience, I was invited into the kitchens of a local favorite – B&O Kitchen & Grocery.

Jeff Benoit is a third generation Benoit to own the B&O Kitchen and Grocery, which specializes in of course boudin, but also cracklins and other tasty meats. Walking into his kitchens, Jeff first took me back to the fryers where new batches of cracklins were being prepared. The aromas were heavy in what can only be called porky goodness. Pork fat with skin that’s fried to within an inch of its life and then salted, these treats are delicious and as I discovered, somewhat addictive. I was there though for my first lesson in boudin, which Jeff’s daughter had prepared for me.

True to form, Jeff wouldn’t tell me exactly what seasonings he uses, but just smiled and promised that they were delicious. I picked up the small sausage link, taking a peek at the rice and meat before enjoying that oh-so-important first bite. A gentle but not intense heat from the spices was the first thing I noticed, but then the combination of well seasoned meats and rice came into play, creating an overall bite that can only be called perfectly constructed. I then took my second, third and fourth bites, quickly understanding why boudin is so popular. Simple, easy to eat and not expensive, they really are the perfect go-to food for almost anything. Next to the “normal” boudin links, Jeff had also prepared some fried boudin balls and since nothing fried can be bad, I knew right away that I’d love this version even more.

Jeff and the B&O is just one of more than 25 small, independent businesses along the Southwest Louisiana Boudin Trail, each offering their own unique takes on this Southwest Louisiana staple. It’s not just about the food though; it’s also about the culture. Many of us who don’t live in Lake Charles or surrounding towns don’t really know a lot about Cajun culture. But it’s more than what we see on TV, it has a long and proud history and it’s still very much alive. Food teaches us about new cultures when we travel; it emphasizes what is and is not important. In Lake Charles and other neighboring communities, that first step in better understanding what makes this part of the world tick starts first and foremost in the kitchens of the local boudin experts lining US 10.

Boudin sausage is worth the drive

KEVIN BEGOS

SCOTT, La. – Want a true taste of the real Louisiana? You’ll want to get behind the wheel and head out of New Orleans and off into the cypress swamps and rice paddies of Cajun country. Because that’s where you’ll find scores of mom-and-pop meat shops and convenience stores preserving a hundreds-year-old tradition of some very special sausages known as boudin. And you’ll be glad you did.

Welcome to Louisiana’s Boudin Trail, a loosely defined region west of New Orleans, both north and south of Interstate 10.

“Boudin is not a New Orleans thing. It is a Cajun country thing,” says Robert Carriker, a professor of history at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette and author of “Boudin: A Guide to Louisiana’s Extraordinary Link.” ‘’There are meat shops that make a handsome living for entire families selling almost nothing but boudin.”

Most boudin is boiled and served hot, but you also can buy it smoked, fried in balls, and made with crawfish, alligator or deer meat. There are boudin egg rolls, boudin grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza topped with boudin, even boudin stuffed king cakes. A handful of slaughterhouses still make old-fashioned red boudin, a blood sausage version.

Boudin (pronounced BOO-dan) is a tradition that dates back to the 1700s, when French Canadians came to Louisiana. Carriker says Cajuns started using local ingredients and spices to make sausages that are different from Old World recipes. They held communal livestock slaughterings, often in the fall, that combined food, family and music. Locals have loved the pork and rice sausages ever since.

Today, the region is littered with shops serving and selling boudin, almost all using special family recipes that date back generations. Where to begin on an eating tour of boudin country? An AP reporter ventured out, sampling boudin for breakfast, lunch and dinner at almost a dozen locations. Of course, there are countless more. But these are some of the delicious highlights:

Johnson’s Boucaniere (Cajun French for smokehouse) in Lafayette sells wonderfully flavorful boudin, and 87-year-old Wallace Johnson tells stories of boudin’s origins at communal country hog slaughterings, or boucheries.

“When they killed the hogs, they had to use everything, all the meat, because they had no refrigeration,” Johnson said. “It was rice, liver and meat, and the seasoning. In the old days they didn’t have a stuffer. They would take a cow horn” and use it to push the boudin mixture into casings.

Johnson’s father started making boudin in 1948 at the family grocer in Eunice. That store closed in 2005, but Johnson’s daughter Lori and his son-in-law Greg opened a new location a few years later, using the old family recipe. They sell a great breakfast biscuit with boudin, cheese or egg, along with po’boys, gumbo and other local specialties, such as barbecue potatoes and an outrageous bread pudding with praline sauce.

The Best Stop Supermarket on Route 93, just north of Scott, is a country store with a dizzying variety of specialty meats and sausage. Co-owner Dana Cormier said the family began selling boudin as a way to make ends meet in 1986, when oil field jobs went downhill.

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“When we first started, we’d make like 100 pounds, here and there,” Cormier said. Now “we make about 4,600 pounds of boudin a day, Monday through Friday,” along with 35,000 boudin balls a month. The Best Stop’s boudin is exceptionally moist and meaty, with pieces of scallion and a touch of old-fashioned liver flavor.

The state legislature gave Scott the title of “Boudin Capital of the World,” causing hard feelings in Broussard, which originally held the title, and some grumbling in Jennings, the “Boudin Capital of the Universe.”

Billy’s Boudin & Cracklin’ in Scott, just off I-10, sells an amazing smoked boudin, perfectly balancing the meat and rice with just a hint of smoky flavor. Their boudin egg roll is excellent, too. Crackling is deep-fried pig skin.

At the same I-10 exit, check out Don’s Specialty Meats, which sells a tasty, moderately spiced boudin with chunks of meat, as well as innovations such as Tater Tot boudin, which is a good choice for people looking to ease into the experience. They also have a large selection of Cajun specialty foods and spices, such as pickled quail eggs and jars of roux.

On the edges of Abbeville, about 30 minutes to the south, Herbert’s Slaughter House and Meat Market is one of the few places you can still buy red boudin, made with blood and an old-fashioned range of pig trimmings. They have fresh and frozen links, and the red boudin is moderately spiced with a slightly metallic taste, similar to English blood sausage.

Meanwhile, 30 miles away in Beaux Ridge, Cajun Works sells a wonderful, blisteringly spicy boudin ball in a small sit-down restaurant.

Ronnie’s Boudin & Cracklin’ in Hammond sells a version with a nice, full, creamy flavor, along with many specialties, such as crawfish boudin, deer boudin and andouille sausage.

Ready to hit the boudin trail? Start by heading to www.boudinlink.com , which has an interactive map showing more than 50 boudin stores, as well as a link to Carriker’s review of each one. Also check out Southern Foodways Alliance — www.southernfoodways.org — which works to preserve southern food cultures.

Carriker says you could start by visiting one city and sampling all the different boudin there, since each store makes it differently. Some areas, such as the Lake Charles region, have their own brochures with lists of boudin trails.

Or you could cruise along I-10 in either direction, stopping at the many stores near the highway. In general, old fashioned boudin often has more of a liver flavor, and boudin lovers look for a good balance between meat and rice, and a texture that isn’t too mushy or too dry.

Some people like their boudin spicy, others like it mild. And appearances can be deceptive; a small country gas station may have the most wonderful boudin, so stay open to serendipity.

What is the most romantic thing someone said or did to you?

This was few months after my daughter was born. My husband and I were trying to get back on track with our sex life. I had some difficulties. It didn’t feel the same as it used to be and I was worried.

He sensed it and he said, “ You know what? 50 years later when both of us are very old, do you think sex is going to be important? What I really want is to be able to grow old with you and I want you to be happy and comfortable to be with me till the end. We’ll consult a doctor and we’ll figure this out. I’m ready to wait until you are ready for this.”

That moment, I felt really lucky to be married to him.

Buster Crab, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich

Buster Crab, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich is a fried soft-shell crab served open-face over toasted brioche and dressed with fresh vegetables.

Ingredients

1 Louisiana soft shell crab, dressed
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup seasoned all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup mixed red, yellow, and green grape tomatoes, peeled
1 dash 25 year old balsamic vinegar
1 pinch minced chive
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 slice brioche or challah, toasted
2 teaspoons your favorite aioli
1 pinch micro greens
1 pinch lettuce sprouts
Salt and pepper to taste
Chive oil for garnish
Beet juice for garnish

Instructions

In a sauté pan, heat the canola oil over a medium-high flame.
Season the buster crab with salt and pepper. Toss into a mixture of seasoned flour and cornmeal.
Place the crab into hot canola oil and allow to cook for 1 minute on each side.
Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper, vinegar, chives, and olive oil. Place the tomatoes over a well-toasted brioche and place into a serving plate.
After cooking the buster crab, remove and allow it to drain over some absorbent towels for a moment.
Place the crab over the tomatoes and top it with a dollop of aioli, which you in turn cover with a pinch of micro greens and lettuce sprouts.
To serve, garnish the plate with additional chopped chives, chive oil and beet juice.

Man talk

Are there any reasons that the United States should not fear China?

Sure. Here’s one – China is a very peaceful country.

In the past 40 years, while the USA was busy bombing cities and killing people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Grenada, Libya, Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia etc

China did not fight a single war with anyone.

Here’s another. It is untrue that China beats the USA in all areas of manufacturing and exports. There is one area where the USA is far, far ahead of China.

The USA is far, far ahead of China, in selling weapons to the world, for killing people. You know – bombs, missiles, artillery, tanks, fighter jets etc.

China ia no match for the USA in destroying people’s lives.

China only surpasses the USA in manufacturing peaceful, beneficial things such as solar panels; electric cara; antibiotics; laptops; furniture etc.

13 Things from the 1970s, Kids Today Will Never Understand!

There are some things that are unique to the decade that we grew up in. The 1970s was no different, having a distinct style that is easily recognizable, even to newer generations. But aside from the obvious disco and bell bottom trends, there were more minute details that people living during that time will easily recognize. So, here are 13 things from the 1970s that kids today would never understand.

What are some street smart tips that could potentially help me one day?

1. Always carry a few coins in your pocket….

If someone confronts you with a knife you pull the coins subtly from your pocket and drop them on the floor. The attacker will always look down to the floor upon hearing the coins drop and this will buy you a second or two to turn and run. This can also be used if someone is intent on fighting you and you know you need to land the first blow, it’s a distraction technique.

2. Never use an ATM while wearing headphones and if wearing a coat/hoodie, never have the hood up, both will affect your awareness and makes you more likely to be robbed.

3. When entering any room, work out where every available exit and hiding place is. In the event of an emergency you will react a hell of a lot quicker if you have planned scenarios in your head, it will make you far less likely to freeze up.

This was something explained to me by an ex-special forces guy I was chatting to at a conference (he was head of security). He was sat at the same table as me, one of those big round ones with 10–12 people on each. I noticed his eyes were never still and he was always glancing at each door, window etc, basically any entrance to that room. I got chatting to him after the conference and asked him about what I had observed. He said “imagine you are at a public event and an armed terrorist storms into the room and starts shooting, most people are going to freeze for the first couple of seconds and that can cost you your life, plan for it to happen and although incredibly unlikely it ever will, you’ll react instantly and it could save your life”

Would Western countries go to war to spread LGBTQ policies and environmental policies to restrictive socially right-wing conservative countries? Would it be a good casus belli that would rally massive domestic support for such a war?

Would Western countries go to war to spread LGBTQ policies and environmental policies to restrictive socially right-wing conservative countries?

Why?

Because united we stand, divided we fall.

Those policies above? They atomise societies, atomised societies are easier to drive wedges into.

China 200 years ago 1820. There was a commonality of Chinese language. But we were fighting each other. Hakka hated Cantonese, Fujians hated Cantonese etc.

Sun Yat Set’s vision of Chinese nationalism was that we are all Chinese one people instead of atomised.

By 2023 we’re on the way to achieving this. We still keep our unique cultural identity but we intermarry we talk shit about other groups but 2019 aside there’s very limited division that we’d fight each other over.

That’s why I’m super suspicious of things like this

In that I don’t care who you’re miserable with and who you marry, but those groups? They’re often used as trojan horses by western governments.

Jimmy Sham for instance. He was on the side of the RIOTERS in Hong Kong. He was promoting VIOLENCE.

He claimed to have been attacked by multiple men with hammers for over a minute (he wasn’t he was exposed when he appeared the next day with only a small cut and fliers advertising his attack printed the day before).

They use their sexuality as a shield, you can’t criticise me! I’m gay!

What is important

When was the moment you realized you had gone too far with something?

We’d hired a guy and he seemed to have a good sense of humor. One day, he made a minor mistake and so I (thinking that he’d catch the humor) said “Looks like we’re going to have to transfer you to the Arctic Circle Remote Payroll Station.”

He said nothing, I let it go. Next time he goofed up, I mentioned that again and he got very apologetic, promised to work hard to not make any further mistakes, etc.

At any rate, a few months later, I mentioned that one more time and found myself in my manager’s office. He said that this guy was in terror that I was going to transfer him somewhere awful for what he thought were small mistakes that he’d promised to fix.

I said he should know that firstly, I’m not his direct manager so I couldn’t transfer him anywhere if I wanted to. But his big clue should have been “Arctic Circle Remote Pay Station.” Surely he couldn’t think that a movie payroll company had some operation on the Arctic Circle.

Well I don’t know, said my boss … all I can tell you is that you terrorized him and now you’re going to have to fix it. Okay, so I did.

(Good thing too because in the 12 years since that, he was promoted to supervisor, manager and he’s now a director and my boss.)

What’s the cleverest cheating you’ve ever seen as a teacher or student?

I taught a young Latino boy who was also short for his age. In secondary school, height is an issue.

By the second week of class, I was sure that he was illiterate, yet he submitted assignments and tests that were above failing.

At that point, I read his permanent record. There were no indications of cheating and his grades were Cs with only a few Ds.

How should I confront a student who already feels marginalized?

With the confidence of a newly certified teacher, I kept him after class one day and confronted him. “Do you know that you are smarter than every teacher you’ve ever had?”

His dark eyes grew deep and large!

“No.”

I insisted, “You are. You cannot read, and writing gives you a great deal of difficulty. You’ve been cheating all these years, and no teacher has caught you until now!

I’m giving you choices. You can continue as you’ve been doing and I will record your grade as F for cheating, or you can work with me, learn to read, do honest work, and earn an honest grade.”

He chose tutoring. He had great eyesight, strong artistic skill and had been reproducing the work of a variety of smarter students around him. He was dyslexic. It took patience from both of us for him to learn phonics and for him to get his quick brain to slow down to a speed that worked better.

By midyear, his grade of C was honest. By end of year, he was at a C+ in all his courses, and he’d been honest with every teacher about his problem, my tutoring, and asking each of them for help as needed!

(Yes, I recall his name!)

What are the dumbest things people spend money on?

Luxury items that they can’t afford.

Everyone has the freedom to buy stuff that makes them happy, may it be expensive purses/shoes, sports cars, yachts and boats, gambling, religion, tools and materials for hobbies and crafts, night clubs and fine dining, sports events and memorabilia, action figures and figurines, pre-order video games, subscription for streaming services, legal escort services and porn, legal recreational drugs (marijuana), tattoos and piercings… etc. etc.

There’s no such thing as a “dumb” purchase if it brings you joy and you can afford it.

Over the years, I had made plenty of “dumb” purchases. I bought a bunch of expensive lego sets. I bought video game figurines and collectible items. I pre-order games I like. I bought tools and materials for various hobbies, such as knitting, embroidery, and crocheting. I bought cookware and ingredients I only used once.

All of that could be considered dumb things, a waste of money.

On the flip side, I don’t buy luxury clothing items or shoes. All my clothes are from Uniqlo or Muji or discounted stuff from T.J.Maxx or Norstrom Rack.

I don’t go around claiming, “Gucci purses are the dumbest thing people buy.” Do you know why? Because I understand people are different and there’s nothing wrong in finding a little happiness wherever you can. I don’t judge people for purchasing things I don’t find very interesting.

Of course, if you spend beyond your means, that’s not very wise. But that’s not about the kind of things you spend money on, but rather you’re spending money you don’t have and it will eventually come back to haunt you.

But if they have the money, and Gucci purses make them happy, what’s so “dumb” about buying happiness? Oh, because you disapprove? Because Gucci purses don’t bring you any joy? So? Who the fuck are you anyways?

Life is short and miserable, for most people, most of the time. So, shut the fuck up and let people enjoy things.

What are some psychological proven believes about maturity of men?

Men need to understand that there’s nothing special in the body of random women you meet on the street/ Internet.
On difficult days, being extra gentle with ourselves is maturity at its peak.
Setting boundaries is not a display of disrespect . It’s an act of self-respect.
Maturity is seeing someone’s lack of effort as their lack of interest in you no matter what they say.
You don’t get fit eating everything . You don’t get wealthy spending everything.
Resist the urge to regret . Regrets are like old textbooks , you’ve already learned the lessons.
Your urges are your biggest enemy . Learn not to argue for nothing.
Self-acceptance shouldn’t stand in the way of self-improvement. Recognizing that you’re good enough today doesn’t prevent you from getting better tomorrow.
We’ve to be grateful for things . It’s too easy to be ungrateful. It’s too easy to not appreciate the simple things in life.

Fiancée DEMANDS Hall Pass 1 Month Before Wedding, In Shock After I Demand We Break Up!

“If I didn’t have a 26 year old son, and a 27 year old daughter telling me this madness is actually real, I honestly don’t think I’d ever believe it.”

What was your first impression when you met your sibling’s future spouse?

I thought she was sweet and quite attractive but giggly and not very bright. I thought Dave could do a lot better. In fact some of his previous girlfriends had been intelligent and ambitious as well as great looking. One had even been an Olympic tennis player. I didn’t get this new one at all.

She is Jewish and Dave decided to convert. Our Dad was Jewish, our mother not. We had been brought up as agnostic. So Dave’s announcement was surprising and I’m sure I must have asked him if he was sure about this. I know our parents argued with him over his sudden conversion. However his new girlfriend and her family didn’t insist on him being Jewish, so I think this decision was about him wanting to join the culture of north London Jews rather than any sudden religious conversion. I never heard of him going to a synagogue or heard him utter a prayer.

They had a long and reasonably happy marriage. I was wrong about her.

Although it is true that she’s no intellectual and never achieved anything academically, she helped Dave be all he wanted to be and was content with that being her role. She was a great home-maker and possibly the kindest person I know. She is funny and light hearted. When my brother suddenly died, she was distraught but showed a strength I had never previously seen. She is a very supportive mother and grandmother. She was a big help to me when my wife died.

Could Dave have done better? I doubt it.

What did the teacher in your high school get fired for?

I had a terrible High School Algebra teacher. Coach Trout could not teach and had “favorites” who somehow received good grades. One day a group of kids were hanging out at Mellow Mushroom and saw him drive up to the nearby grocery store….he went in and a student walked up to his car to see who was inside. Guess what – one of his female students! He walked back out with a twelve pack of beer got into the car and left. Students told other students….a student told their mother….their mother called her mother….the mother called the school. Bye Bye Coach Trout.

Years later ran into him at a wedding….he was the DJ.

What form of entertainment is on its last legs or on its way out that we don’t realize?

My cable company is starting to sound like this creepy, desperate -ex.

Each month the mail they send me is basically saying,

“PLEAAASE TAKE CABLE TV BACK. We’ll give you all the stations we gave you before at an amazing, amazing deal!”

Deal = $1 cheaper with a 24 month commitment, $399 cancellation fee + 2 kicks in the crotch.

By any logic I cut it, it makes no sense.

I divided the hours I was watching TV by the monthly bill and it came out to $15 an hour for TV.

I’m paying money to be forced to watch commercials every few minutes.

My cable package is forcing me to pay for a bunch of expensive channels (ESPN) that I don’t watch.

I don’t see cable TV as going fully extinct but I see it having a life as an increasingly endangered animal.

When you compare it to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and the like, it isn’t even a close contest. The only value cable companies add to my life is internet.

I think cable companies have become boxed into a bit of a hole. As more people realize how much they are being ripped off, they will keep cutting.

I don’t envy the cable executives who are charged with solving this problem.

What was the moment you cancelled the friendship with your best friend?

One of my best friends of all time and I parted when we were eighteen, and heading for university. The next big leap of life. We had known each other since we were seven years old, and we promised to write (hand-written letters still existed, though the idea was certainly fading).

And I did write letters, many times, over many years.

But none of them ever got an answer. We had been very close, and shared some of our darkest moments in our young lives — I didn’t understand.

More than a decade later, I bumped into him in an everyday supermarket and bluntly asked him why he never answered any of my many letters. He looked at his wife and shrugged —

“I never found the time.”

Only one of my friends still drives a gas powered vehicle. How do we respectfully cut him out of our gatherings without it getting ugly? Is an ultimatum warranted before severing ties?

Congratulations! You need to cut this vermin out of your life entirely! And without warning of any kind! And don’t kid yourself- he’ll KNOW why!

You need to take it a step further, too!

No more ordering from Amazon, who deliver those things in a fossil-fueled vehicle!
Raise your own food because everything gets delivered to your local store in smelly diesel trucks!
Make your own clothes out of cotton you’ve grown yourself!
Refuse mail unless it’s brought to you in a clean, quiet electric vehicle!
Stop heating your house—even if it’s an electric heater— because chances are that electricity comes from a coal-fired or natural gas generator!
And for God’s sake stop posting on Quora, powered by the same earth-destroying mechanisms!

What is the best roast from a student or teacher you have heard so far?

I was teaching a class in math in 4th grade. Because I’m kind of demanding of kids, and show them that anything less than their very best, is not good enough, I end every school-year with an hour of “roasting the teacher,” so they can get back at me for all those times that I’ve stood before them and asked for more.

I warn them that whatever they throw at me, I’ll return it in even measure. So, if they feel fat and don’t like it, they shouldn’t call me fat, cause I will make a fat-joke on their expense. If they feel ugly, they should not call me ugly, because I will do an ugly-joke on them.

So, younger kids are a bit scared and don’t really say anything. Older kids can’t help themselves and try anything to roast me. They never ever get to me, because kids are really bad at roasting adults.

But there was this little girl in a 4th grade class I taught a few years ago. After the initial stupid roasting (like, “your mom is so fat that …”) this little girl raised her hand.

As roasting can be a bit hard, I ignored her at first. She seemed fragile and I didn’t want her to get hurt. Usually the boys will shout any profanity at me and I will return their profanity with an equal profanity. It’s fun and it’s not personal. It’s a roasting game and the boys and girls who can handle it, get a go.

She kept her hand raised so finally I told her “Go ahead – give me your best shot.”

When I said that, this little girl, stood up, walked slowly along the back wall, then along the wall to the left. She came all the way up to the chalkboard and stopped just in front of me.

She lifted her right arm and raised a finger, pointing at me, about to roast me. Everyone in the class were silent and we all waited for it. Then she said:”

“Naaaahhh, you’re not worth it.”

Then she turned around, walking the same way back, just as slowly, and sat down.

The class erupted with laughter. It was beautiful 🙂

I didn’t roast her back. What could I say? I just got burned.

10 American Cities That Are DEAD Forever

“Having grown up in suburban Hartford, I agree strongly with the inclusion in this list. I left the area as a student in 1977, and was shocked about its decline when I happened to pass theough on a business trip in 2011.”

Have you ever had a car crash where the other person was at fault but they acted like the victim?

About 25 years ago, when I was still young, I had a crash at a roundabout. It was the kind of roundabout where visibility of all exits was excellent from a distance away, and because the roundabout was offset from centre, I was in a lane going straight on whereby you don’t need to turn the car at all to cross the roundabout.

So, on approaching I saw no cars to my right or straight on, and just carried on. Everything was fine until a car to my left, who should have given way to me (at roundabouts in the U.K. you give way to the right) just pulled out.

I hit the brakes but it was too late, and I went into the side of him.

He was immediately on the offensive, I suspect thinking insurance companies would take the word of a middle aged experienced driver over a 22 year old.

He kept saying that I was going far too fast, which was curious because by the time we hit I’d managed to slow down enough such that my airbag didn’t deploy.

He was impervious to reason, still yelling at me about my speed when the police showed up.

The policeman heard the guy say, “he was going far too fast”, to which the policeman replied, “if you thought he was going too fast, why did you pull out in front of him?”

My insurance paid nothing.

What are your school funny stories? Share it

It was online school, and we were just fooling around in our advisory breakout rooms.

We were discussing where people lived.

My friend, ‘Agastya’, let’s call him, told me that he knew where I lived.

“So,” I said, “Tell me where I live then.”

He repeated my exact address.

Me: Shocked.

Him: Smug.

Him:Me = 1:0

I asked him how he knew, and he said he’d seen my Mom and I playing outside while he was riding a bike with his friend.

In order to protect the great secret of my address, I told him, “Bro! I don’t live there! You know the house next door? I live there. I actually babysit the toddler of a very kind couple.”

He asked me to give the name of the mother.

I somehow made up a name—purely fictional I tell you—and told him it.

Five seconds later, he was laughing like hell and I asked him, “What? Give up?”

“See for yourself,” He said, laughing. He proceeded to share his screen, and I sat there, quietly, shocked at the results.

The “Kind Mother” had been murdered in 2016.

Never again would I give a fake name without searching it up first.

(Also, please note that we, in no way, intended to make fun of the fact that someone died.)

What’s the funniest thing your toddler believes?

My little guy firmly believes that if he lifts something “high” above his head, we cannot reach it.

I wanted to make a demonstration of this, so when I found him playing with a toy, I pretended that I wanted to take it.

I chased him all over the place, and he screamed and laughed and ran away from me.

Each time I got him cornered though, he would lift his hands above his head, looking at me victoriously.

Because obviously, if he lifts the toy THAT HIGH, no one could possibly reach it.

He is so darn adorable in this belief that we don’t have the heart to take anything from him when he does this.

How could we?

How could anyone?

It’s simply too high.

What is China’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how does it align with international law?

China is a pragmatic and rationalistic nation. The Isreal Palestine issue is a very long divisive issue with high emotion in both sides. China’s position is simply that they must find a long term solution such as a two state solution. This is a prerequisite for long term peace. It doesn’t take sides and not is it interested to be drawn into the conflict.

The reason being. China believes in the sovereignty of nations and that it can only be solved between Isreal and Palestinians. Not China or the U.S. for that matter. China sees quite correctly that U.S. lob sided stance is fuelling the crisis not resolving anything.

For the Palestinians sees that the Isreal government is backed by the U.S. to drive a wedge in the middle of a Arab and Islamic world. Hence it is an interested party. To China an Isreal that do shit on Palestinian land and people everyday then when they got hit Uncle Sam will always backed them out. And protect their excesses cannot be sustainable. It is foolish to think that Palestinian will put it up. At best Isreal is kicking the can down the road. Isreal and the US need to recognise this. For the good of them, the Palestinians and the world.

Laws a made by man, we are mere mortals. If laws are written unequal. It won’t last. That is the reason colonialism failed, it is also the reason the so called US international rules based order is rejected, if one stole land or occupied land that belongs to some one else and wrote laws to legitimately protect the wrong. It is double wrong not right. Two wrong don’t make a right China knows that laws written by the west cannot stand. It must go.

In 1840’s the British forced its jungle laws on China that it has a right to bring opium to China and drug the Chinese people bring havoc to the Chinese families. When China objected. The west jointly and severally supported Britain. To invade China and forced China to surrender HONGKONG for 156 years. This barbaric law were written by the British government. Of course laws like these can never be moral nor can it stand.

Why can’t China be more like South Korea?

You tell me this, would you accept a place literally BUILT to serve foreign soldiers? There’s literally a place in Seoul called hooker hill. Where those soldiers are completely above the law? Why would anybody want that?

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Way back in the day when I worked fast food, it was common for my fellow employees and me to clock in within a few minutes of when we were scheduled to start. If someone was scheduled to start at 8 AM, they might clock in at 7:57, or 8:03.

One day, the manager decided she wanted people to clock in at exactly their scheduled time on the dot. You were scheduled to start at 8:00? She would not allow you to clock in at 7:57. You had to stand there staring at the clock for three minutes. If you clocked in at 8:01, you got written up,

This backfired in a spectacular but predictable fashion.

People started clocking in at exactly the scheduled start time…

…and clocking out at exactly the scheduled end time.

Before the rule, people would often stay a few minutes late if they needed to. After the rule, if people were scheduled to leave at 5:00, and a tour bus full of hungry roadies pulled into the parking lot at 4:58 (something that happened a couple times a month), everyone would leave at 5:00 exactly.

The new shift is still getting organized and there’s nobody in the grill area? Sorry, boss, you made the rules. Remember how you wrote me up for punching in at 8:01 yesterday? Remember what you said about the schedule? Well, the schedule says I’m off now.

The rule lasted about a week before the manager did a humiliating climb-down.

The Most DANGEROUS Teens Reacting to Serving Life in Prison

Step into an emotionally charged moment in today’s video, where we capture unscripted reactions of teenagers as they receive their court sentences. Watch as their faces reflect a range of emotions – shock, disbelief, and introspection – as they process the weight of their legal judgments. This thought-provoking glimpse into a critical juncture of their lives offers a unique perspective on the impact of the justice system on young individuals.

What’s a hilarious story that has happened to you?

I was working at an upscale motel as the check in clerk. One night, around midnight, this nice looking couple came in and asked for a room. The man was slightly tipsy and dressed in a business suit. The lady was well dressed, sober, very nice. The guy signed the register, and it was time to pay for the room.

“Here is my check” he said.

“We don’t take checks here, it has to be cash or credit card.”

“You HAVE to take checks,” he replied. “I am in business. You have to take a check.”

“It’s the management’s rule, we don’t take checks”

He glared at me. “You will have to take a check. Everyone takes checks.”

“Sorry sir, we can’t take checks. That is our policy.”

He is getting angrier. “Every business takes checks….”

“Sorry sir…”

At this point the lady taps his arm. “It’s ok,” she says, “I’ll pay for the room. Here is cash”

The man looks over at her. He says, “Ok….I will write you a check. What’s your name?”

When have you said “That’s not my name”?

A couple times — once verbally and a few times non-verbally.

For the verbal time. Years ago when I lived in Minnesota, my ex asked me to go to the local farmer’s market to buy some things. I was wandering through the markets when this guy comes up to me and says: “Hey Steve!”

I kept walking; clearly he wasn’t talking to me.

“Steve? Dude?” he asked again.

“Um, my name’s not Steve,” I said. I got called this a few times until someone at a local restaurant asked me while I was buying takeout: “Are you Bonnie’s husband Steve?” “Nope,” I replied. Apparently I look pretty similar to someone named Steve in Minneapolis.

Now for the non-verbal.

One of the things you will not ever do to me if you want me to answer, or even respect, you is to shout out: “Hey, blind man!”

I am blind, and I am a man, but Blind Man is neither my first nor my last name. This has happened to me a few times when I lived in Manhattan. Sometimes when I’d be walking along a street, someone would shout this to me as I was minding my own business. I don’t care why you do it, but if you shout “Hay blind man” at me, I will not, under any circumstances, even acknowledge your existence. If you want to get my attention and you don’t know who I am, walk up to me, tap me on the shoulder or something and say: “Excuse me, sir?” Or something to that effect. “Hey blind man” will get you completely ignored.

First Step

From your school friends, who surprised you with their success in life?

I was friends with this guy in elementary school. He and I used to play together at recess and after school as we waited for our parents to pick us up. We even went to each other’s birthday parties during those years.

We didn’t talk much in middle school or high school, though. He was one of my many elementary-school friends who, once puberty and the popularity crunch hit, pretty much quit talking to me. I wasn’t one of the chosen “popular” kids… too ugly, and my parents were too poor.

Anyway, I have no hard feelings about it. Kids are stupid like that.

Over the years, a lot of my old classmates have either found drugs and ruined their lives, or found successful careers and are living happy adult lives now.

But this guy surprised me the most. That old elementary school friend of mine grew up to be a professional poker player:

He’s my Facebook friend now. We’ve never interacted, other than to send and accept friend invites, but he seems to be very happy. He’s married to a beautiful woman, and, judging from the pictures he posts, they do a lot of outdoorsy stuff, like hiking and camping. Good for them. I’m happy that he’s living his best life.

Do you agree with Donald Trump Jr. that we no longer have an equal justice system? The facts clearly support the statement.

I absolutely agree.

If you had a fair and equal justice system, Donald Trump (the father of the individual you mention) would presently be in jail awaiting trial – not only because of the stunning seriousness of the crimes of which he has been accused, but as a consequence of his own words, attacking both the criminal justice system, but also doing so in a way that actively threatens law enforcement and the judiciary.

Were it anybody else doing this, someone with less wealth or political influence, and they’d already have been in jail for weeks or even months, knowing that their trials would likely have additional charges tacked on for those threatening actions.

The United States isn’t a fair or impartial country, and the justice system sadly reflects that. It isn’t even a democracy anymore: whilst there are certainly democratic aspects, these are presently being undermined by Donald Trump and his cronies, as they push for a more authoritarian approach to governance. And, thanks in part to Citizen Utd v. FEC, and the nature of the US’ political elections, one thing is abundantly clear: the wealthy own the country, and live by different rules to the rest of you.

That Trump has committed such deeply serious offenses and yet remains free as a bird is evidence enough of that.

GALAXY QUEST is THE BEST!

Thanks so much for being here! OMGOSH! this movie is actually the best! I am so happy to have finally watched this! it is SO FUNNY and I can’t wait to keep re watching this!!

What is the strangest conversation you’ve ever had?

Fun story from my younger days. When telephones didn’t have caller ID.

I wanted to get together with a buddy, so I called him.

“Hey Mark! It’s Mel. Got any free time this weekend?”

Mark: “Hey Mel. Good to hear from you. No. I’m booked solid this weekend.”

Me: “Whatcha up to, buddy?”

Mark: “Got family issues to deal with.”

Me: “Family issues? What kind of family issues?”

Mark: “You know. The wife. She’s still pissed at me for taking that biking trip last month.”

Me: “Wife? When did you get a wife?”

Mark: “Dude, I’ve been married for four years.”

Me: “Um… Is this Mark?”

Mark: “Yeah. Is this Mel?”

Me: “Um… yeah. Is this Mark Chubett?”

Mark: “No, dude. You aren’t Mel Richter?”

Me: “Um… no. Wow. Ok. So you aren’t Mark and I’m not Mel.”

We had a good laugh. How I managed to dial a different Mark who knew a Mel (not the most common name) I’ll never know.

What’s the funniest thing your toddler believes?

I am responsible for putting dreams in her brain before she falls asleep.

It’s a part of our nighttime routine… I read a book, tuck in the kids, give them hugs and kisses…

…then I put my hand on the top of my youngest one’s head, murmur some nonsensical chant, ask her what she wants to dream about that night, chant a little more, and then tell her I put the dreams in there.

Sometimes, I tell her that I put in dreams about “Ice cream, puppies, and spiders.” Then she’ll say, “No! Not spiders! Take that one out!” So I put my hand back on her head and tell her I took it out.

Sometimes, if she’s having trouble sleeping, she’ll come into my room and request better dreams, because the ones I gave her aren’t working. It’s cute when she does it before 10 pm. It’s annoying when she does it after that.

Sometimes, I tell her it’s a “surprise dream.” In the morning, she tells me what she dreamed about, and I say, “Yep, that’s the one I put in there.”

How did Americans get so fat?

Back in college one or our profs made the blanket prediction that a new wave of obesity was about to sweep the nation.

The year was 1978 and the professor was Daniel Atkinson (who would later join the National Academy of Science as a biochemist).

His basic rationale was that the recent shift to high fructose corn syrup as a sweetening agent in American processed foods was a huge mistake that would have ramifications far beyond the the nominal amount of money saved by switching to a cheaper sugar.

The underlying biochemical premise was that, unlike glucose, fructose metabolism shunts one of the main regulatory steps/enzymes of glycolysis (phosphofructokinase-PFK).

Because of this, every bit of fructose consumed that was not needed for energy production would quickly be stored as fat.

History has proven him right (although there was more to it- noting that it was also around this point that America’s penchant for eating-out, and restaurant portion sizes were increasing in tandem along with the growing shift from food primarily being regarded as a source of sustenance as opposed to a source of pleasure).

Look at pre-1980’s films/TV programs that show Americans out on the streets and compare the sizes of the people in the background crowds to later post 1980’s films.

Similarly, look at pro athletes from the pre/post 1980’s and you’ll notice a similar pattern.

Anyhow, the point here is that the fairly abrupt American shift towards obesity can be linked to both to the biochemical properties of the food we consumed prior to the 1980’s as well as the gluttonous ways we increasingly adopted while on our way to the current “food porn” era.

If you found a Genie in the bottle, what would be your first, 2nd and 3rd wishes in that order?

If I found a mysterious bottle that promised a Djinn, I would put it back exactly where I found it and run in the opposite direction.

I’ve read enough folklore, myth, and fairytales to know that making deals with a supernatural entity never, ever ends well for the mortals. Even if the mortal doesn’t get screwed over by the Djinn or the devil or crossroad demon, they’ll soon realize either their wish didn’t resolve the problems they have or the wish created more, bigger problems.

“Faustian Bargain” is a cautionary tale to warn people not to take the shortcut because there isn’t any “easy” way. And the payment you give for the wealth and pleasure is always bigger than what you get.

So, put the bottle back, or sell it to some moron who thinks they can outsmart the devil.

China’s Groundbreaking 1nm Chip: Redefining Technology and Global Power

Wonderful China well done China keep it up.

https://youtu.be/4vEFXi_5INk

What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?

I asked the wrong woman on a date. I have a problem remembering names and faces. There was a girl at school I had been chatting with during lunch breaks, Vicki. There was another that I had met and spoken to exactly once during an outdoor cookout at the school (college) Marie.

I had an occasion where I was performing, the event included a dinner and dancing and I could bring a date.

I planned to ask Vicki as I had spent more time with her and felt I knew her better.

I am rushing between classes and I am stopped by a girl who says Hi. Vicki. I surprise her by asking her to accompany me to my event. She says yes and I get out my note pad to write down her number (prehistoric days before cell phones) and write the name Vicki. She says “That’s not my name.” I apologize for my memory glitch and ask her what her name is. Marie. Then it dawned on me, I had just asked out the wrong girl. But she had said yes and I was a gentleman so I would not back out.

We went on the date. We both fell in love that night. We were engaged three weeks later. That was 38 years and one son ago. We are still together. And yes, she knows the story.

Why does Amtrak have such poor service in comparison with other forms of transportation?

Imagine you’re at an airport. You’re on your plane and all of a sudden the pilot says “I’m sorry folks, but there are like 30 cargo planes waiting to take off and they all get to go first even though we were first in the passenger take off line. We’re going to be here another hour.”

Or you’re driving on the interstate and the right lane is marked “Tractor Trailers only, except for exiting”. so you have to use the left lane only, which of course is crowded with slower cars even though there’s lots of room in the right lane and trucks are moving very fast.

It’s even worse for Amtrak. In the deal that created them, the railways got to keep all the track. Amtrak has to pay to use it, but they have no say in its upkeep. Now, in theory, passenger trains are supposed to get priority over freight trains but, in practice, the three mile freight train running at 10 m.p.h. on rusty tracks gets to go first, so Amtrack trains wait.

If you go to Europe, the passenger and freight trains use separate systems, so passenger trains only get in the way of other passenger trains.

There’s also a feeling in the United States that rail doesn’t matter even though, particularly in densely populated areas, it carries more passengers than road and planes together. As such, the government doesn’t give Amtrak a lot of money. In Spain, on the other hand, the government went nuts laying out a new high speed rail network, buying trains, and upgrading stations. As such, there are like 16 trains a day between Madrid and Barcelona that cost $40 at peak times and like $8 at non-peak times.

Have you ever met someone from the Mafia?

When I was in high school, a divorced lady moved in across the street (quite scandalous, she was the first divorced person in the neighborhood). Her boyfriend was an older guy named Herbie. He was cool. He drove a bunch of cool cars, Lincoln, Jags, Caddies, etc.

Her kids were older than me and gone a lot.

Herbie asked me if I would mow her lawn. I usually got $5 for mowing a lawn, Herbie gave me a $20. My parents made me go give it back. Herbie gave me a 5, then took the 20 and stuck it in my shirt pocket. ““Now you can tell them I paid you a 5”.

A couple of times Herbie made spaghetti and meatballs and they had me over for dinner.

One day I was hanging out at the neighborhood gas station and Herbie drove up and started using the phone booth. My friend said “that guy always uses the phone to call his bookie, I think he’s a gangster” I told them no way, but when Herbie left and waved to me, they were impressed.

One day I go out to get the Newark News and there’s a headline “Mafia Lieutenants run things while Capos are in prison”. And there in the series of pictures is Herbie.

He was Jewish, made up for being Italian by supposedly being extra tough.

He was always really nice to me, me being friends with him made my parents nervous, but they never said anything, except for me overcharging for lawn mowing that first time.

Developing as a person

What was the strangest way a criminal was caught?

This happened in the 90s in Anchorage, Alaska, towards the end of summer. 2 geniuses decided to rob the Key Bank during daylight hours at a time in the afternoon when rush hour was almost at peak traffic. Key Bank was located at a corner where there was three major avenues with at least 3 lanes each, right in the middle of a 1 way grid. All lanes on all those streets were headed north, west and east, all one way streets. The apparent plan was 1 genius actually committed the armed robbery whilst his side kick drove the get-away car. Fine so far. Key Bank also is only a few blocks from Anchorage Police Department and jail. The hold up itself went off without a hitch. Now, mind you the streets were jammed with cars. Including an Anchorage PD officer sitting in his unit waiting for the light to turn green. This officer happened to be heading to the Police Department. The armed genius ran straight out the main door of the bank and (without checking if he was diving into the get-away car or not), threw open the police unit’s back door, threw the stolen money on the seat and threw himself onto that same seat. He slammed the door shut and screamed “Go! Go!”. The amused officer (who just heard about the heist on his radio) said “I will as soon as the light turns!” He arrested the genius right there and took him straight to booking along with the loot. He later claimed it was the easiest open and shut case he ever had!

A horse tale

I’ll never forget the day my mom called me in a panic: ‘Janna, you’ve got to convince your daddy to get rid of that horse, it’s gonna kill him!'”

Janna Grapperhaus shared the touching story of the bond that was built between her father and an abused horse.

Major was a young and vicious stallion when her father bought him. He “couldn’t be broke”.

“The men who owned him previously had used a technique to break horses that involved beatings and tying his head tightly between two posts where they left him standing without food or water for 4 weeks,” Janna said.

But Major stood strong.

When her father brought him home, Major barreled through five strands of fence within minutes of arriving. He’d bite and strike anyone that got too close.

“My dad never broke him… he earned his heart,” she explained. “Every single day, for hours and hours dad worked to earn that abused horse’s trust. Love won and after two full years, Major allowed my dad to ride him. When dad would go out, Major would kiss him on the head over and over. They had a bond that only horse people could ever understand.”

So when her father passed, it seemed fitting to let Major say goodbye.

“This is Major’s last kiss.”

Doing things right…

In 2018, 13-year-old Jaequan Faulkner started a small business selling $2 hot dogs with $1 sodas and chips from a stand in front of his house in Minnesota.

But his small business was in jeopardy after someone reported him to the Minneapolis Health Department.

Impressed by the young man’s drive, health inspectors decided to teach the young entrepreneur about proper food handling to assist him in getting his hot dog stand up to code.

The teen’s stand passed inspection, and it was the inspectors themselves who paid the $87 fee for his “short-term food permit.”

Kodak

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

I was flying on a milk run, from Houston to Dallas, to Denver to Calgary. Its May long weekend , and I have another flight from Calgary to Vancouver to catch, to meet some friends for the long weekend. I get to the airport in Houston and the lady behind the desk is having a bad day. There is a thunderstorm in Houston and my flight is cancelled. I explain that I am going to miss my.connecting flight to Vancouver, and ask if maybe there was an alternate route, maybe through Vegas. She did her best, and came up empty. I thanked her for her effort, and said I will lose the cost of my Vancouver flight, as it was with a different airline, and have to buy a new ticket.

She asked me why I was being so nice, when my vacation was ruined. I told her I was just being normal, and I appreciated them not risking my life flying into Dallas.

She told me that her afternoon had been hell. I was the only person not yelling at her. So she goes back to her desk, and says, she put me on the first flight in the morning. I come back in the morning, and not only did she put me in first class, she rebooked my Vancouver flight in first class with a different airline.

I don’t know how she did it, but I was only 16 hours late for my vacation, and didn’t miss much.

What’s the most obnoxious instance of America-centric behavior you’ve ever witnessed?

When I was in a bar in Vegas with my black, British-Born-with-Jamaican-roots dad, I entered into conversation with a group of strangers and pointed to my dad and referred to him as “the black guy in the blue shirt over there”. You would have thought I had slapped them in the face. I got screamed and shouted at for having the nerve to call him black and that I should call him African-American. I kept telling them he’s not American and not African either but they wouldn’t hear any of it and in the end informed me(!) that whilst in America I should call him British African-American.

Have you ever been mugged and had it end badly for the mugger?

Not me, but my husband.

He had landed in London and would be living there for about six months. He had gotten his iphone all set and was there with our 15 year old daughter.

He had his phone out at a bus stop and was checking the schedule. A little ways away a group of teenage boys were plotting mischief. Suddenly one of them breaks away, runs up to him, grabs his phone, and runs away.

Now, my husband, god love him, is a lovely man, a brilliant, overweight biostatistician. But he needed that phone! Badly! So he took off after the boy, who did NOT expect that at all.

He chased him down the street and around the corner, and then the boy disappeared. Furious, he said to some construction workers, “Did you see a boy run past here? He stole my phone!” Yes, he went right around the corner, and it’s a dead end, one of them said.

Mike went around the corner and there was a reedy looking, terrified 15 year old kid cowering in a pile of garbage, desperately trying to unlock his phone.

“Give me my phone, dammit!” he shouted. “Right! Now!”

It may help to know that all British people are firmly convinced that every American is insanely violent and probably carrying a gun…

He handed Mike the gun. Mike turned and walked away. The workers asked if he wanted them to call the cops. Mike said no, he’s just a kid.

The workers all laid into the kid, saying, “You are so lucky! You nearly ruined your life right there! for a phone! Are you crazy?” They were still yelling at him when he was out of earshot.

I would not want to be that kid for any amount of money.

What’s the rudest thing a doctor/healthcare provider ever said or did to you?

For nearly a year I had excruciating pain in my hands, wrists, neck, and shoulders. It would last anywhere from a few days to over a month. The doctor never really put much effort into finding out what was going on and would prescribe pain medications and muscle relaxers.

The second to last time I saw him, he informed me that I was an addict and he was putting that in my file. I had asked repeatedly for a referral to see a rheumatologist; he flat out refused, even with a family history of RA and other autoimmune diseases.

I made an appointment myself and paid for the visit and the labs out of pocket as, without a referral, my insurance company wouldn’t cover it. The rheumatologist’s office was in the hospital so he requested the blood test for RH factor be expedited (he was one of the hospital’s best and longest associates, so they did as he requested).

About an hour later he told me that I have RA and he had things pretty much under control in a few weeks. I went back to the first doctor and showed him the lab results and print outs of my x-rays. I chewed him out for letting me not only live with the pain and the permanent damage to my joints, but for accusing me of being a drug-seeking addict – particularly since I had never asked him for anything except an answer as to why that was happening. And yes, I did report him.

Zones: A map of relationship types to help relieve dating confusion

This is really good. LOL!

What is the creepiest thing you’ve ever experienced in your home?

I decided to stay up one night after my husband and kids went sleep reason because it’s usually the only time I had to myself. I cleaned house a little bit took a shower and made coffee . I sat down to watch TV and read a little bit , I didn’t last long before I fell asleep in the recliner. It was a very restless sleep and I had bad dreams like the kind that you know your dreaming but you can’t wake up and any attempts you make to fight or run in the dream were useless because it was like you were weighed down. When I did wake up I was sweating and very groggy. While I’m setting there trying to shake the groggy feeling my dog comes and sets at my feet and is staring at the bar between my kitchen and living room as I turn to see what he’s looking at a very thick large fruit bowl on the bar that had apples in it burst into hundreds of pieces and the apples went in different directions. It scared me so bad that for a few minutes I couldn’t get up to look around and when I did no one was awake and both doors were still locked, still to this day I can’t think of any logical reasons to how that thick bowl just burst like that. What ever it was my dog was aware of it.

What is the most outrageous outfit you have seen a client wear to court?

My years ago on a Monday morning trial docket a woman showed up in a lace red cocktail dress with a large flowing skirt, her hair piled high on her head with red pearls set in, red purse and red shoes. I can only assume the attorney told her to look nice. She looked GREAT for a Saturday night dinner at an expensive restaurant but for a Monday morning her outfit stood out. You could see her from across the room. It was years ago but I learned that day to specify to dress conservatively like you are going to church not a cocktail party.

What would be that one thing you would do for someone?

I have a good friend. We meet each year at a restaurant in Chicago. He always narrows his choice for a starter to one of two soups that he likes. No matter how often I remind him which is which, he always gets confused, can’t remember the difference, and can’t even remember which is the one he likes.

So the one thing I do for him is the obvious solution:

I order one of each, let him taste both, and I let him pick the one he likes that night. Maybe it’s the same as last year, maybe not; who cares? I like them both.

This has been happening for 15 years and it isn’t going to change. My solution works and it’s just our personal ritual.

JUST HAPPENED: China-Russia LATEST Military Pact in War Shocked US

Can you think of an example of something your teacher said in school that made everyone think they were crazy but was actually true later on in life?

In my junior year of boarding school (1982 to 1983), our history teacher, Mr. Steve Patterson, was a dyed-in-the wool 1960s hippie type. He was about 34 back then. Originally from Ohio, he was a calm, pacifistic sort who wore his unabashed liberalism on his sleeve. Since Mr. Patterson lived on campus with his wife and two young children, part of his job was to head a table in the dining hall twice daily, at breakfast and dinner.

However, neither he nor his family ever touched the school’s fare—which, though it was actually superb (really!), was also very traditional, i.e., full of meat and dairy products. The Pattersons were adamant vegetarians, back at a time when this issue was barely on the radar for most people. They used to bring along their own food, packed in Tupperware containers bulging with disgusting-smelling, homemade hippie-1970s-vegetarian concoctions. (Mr. Patterson would, though, deign to eat an ordinary peanut-butter sandwich now and then.)

At this school, we were all pretty close, so virtually no topic was not subject to vigorous discussion. We used to tease Mr. Patterson quite a bit, and he’d give it right back to us, with all the usual arguments you hear from vegetarians or vegans today, i.e., animal cruelty, fat, hormones in the meat, the environment, sustainability, etc. None of us heeded him (I certainly didn’t), but one thing he said back then does stick out in my mind to this very day:

“In the future, people are going to sue McDonald’s and Burger King for causing heart disease, what with all the fat and unhealthy ingredients, the same way that smokers are now suing the tobacco companies.”

At the time, I thought this notion ludicrous. Today, forty years later, I still haven’t converted to vegetarianism, let alone veganism, but I have to give Mr. Patterson his due. The food industry, the meat industry, and the fast-food industries have all come under increasing fire in recent years. Books, articles, and media productions focusing on portion sizes, obesity, and sustainability have proliferated.

Sad to say, Mr. Patterson didn’t live to see his prediction come true. He died of ALS at the age of 52, back in 2001.

When did getting older really start to bother you?

My friend, that is very easy to answer.

I was fortunate enough to be a patient of a wonderful General Practitioner Doctor for almost 20 years.

We had a great rapport, so any of my visits were very friendly and efficient and usually included a bit of friendly banter.

I’ve been playing some kind of sports all my life, and went to see him about a pain that would rise up in my left knee after about an hour of tennis.

After x-rays and a few tests I was back in his office for the results.

His back was to me, and he appeared to be studying my x-rays.

I saw the slight shaking of his head as I heard him take a deep breath and very slowly let it out (I found out this was all for dramatic effect after his performance).

Still with his back to me I heard him say in a serious sounding tone, “I know what is causing your knee problem, and it’s very sad to have to tell you that your condition is incurable It will without doubt become worse over time.”.

“There are things I can do to help slow down the damage and difficulty, but nothing to stop it..

He knew me well and I’m a rather stoic individual who wants to “cut to the chase”, and as he figured I said, “So Doc, how about just telling me what it is so I can assimilate and deal with it.”.

A slow rather dramatic turn to face showed me a Cheshire Cat’s grin as he said, “Welcome Michael to the ranks of us who are simply getting old and our aches and pains are caused by that incurable health issue called aging.”.

We both had a good laugh and I departed with his set of instructions and the realization that I was officially getting older physically.

I didn’t want to hear it, yet knew I would, so it came as no big deal. But I did appreciate my doctors touch of theatrics and dose of humor.

Indian scan center hacked

Why didn’t the Japanese try to decipher the famous “Navajo” code by capturing a Navajo native during WWII?

The Japanese did try to do that. And they did capture Navajo men. However, they were unsuccessful in using them to decipher the code. The reason was simple. The Navajo Code was a code that used Navajo. It was not normal spoken Navajo. To a Navajo speaker, who had not learned the code, a Navajo Code talker sending a message sounds like a string of unconnected Navajo words with no grammar. It was incomprehensible.

So, when the Japanese captured a Navajo man named Joe Kieyoomia in the Philippines, he could not really help them even though they tortured him. It was nonsense to him. He was in New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery unit when the Philippines fell. He had a horrible war as a POW on the Bataan Death March. Then he was later held at POW camps near Nagasaki and was there during the bombing. He survived the bomb and was released three days later. He returned to the Navajo Nation and lived a long life, dying in 1997 at age 77.

The reason capturing Navajo did not work was that it was a code, not spoken Navajo. The Navajo Code had to be learned and memorized by the Navajo Code Talkers. It was designed to transmit a word by word or letter by letter exact English message. They did not just chat in Navajo.

That could have been understood by a Navajo speaker, but more importantly translation is never, ever exact. It would not transmit precise messages. The US Marines only wanted to use such a code if it could send exact, word for word, and letter for letter transmissions. There were about 400 words in the Code.

The first 31 Navajo Marines created the Code in a Marine base in the San Diego area with the help of one non-Navajo speaker officer who knew cryptography. The idea of the Code was brought to the Marines by Philip Johnston. He was a WWI veteran, and engineer in L.A. and he spoke Navajo and had Navajo friends and contacts because he had grown up as a missionary kid on the Navajo Reservation.

The first part of the Code was made to transmit English letters. For each English letter there were assigned three (or sometimes just two) English words that started with that letter. Then those words were translated into Navajo words. In this way, English words could be spelled out with a substitution code. The alternate words were randomly switched around. So, for English B there were the Navajo words for Badger, Bear and Barrel.

In Navajo that is: nahashchʼidí, shash, and tóshjeeh. Or the letter A was Red Ant, Axe, or Apple. In Navajo that is: wóláchííʼ, tsénił , or bilasáana. The English letter D was: bįįh=deer, and łééchąąʼí =dog, and chʼįįdii= bad spiritual substance (devil).

For example, using the letter substitution part of the Code, the word “bad” could be spelled out a number of ways. To a regular Navajo speaker it would sound like: “Bear, Apple, Dog” on some days. Or on other times it could be “ Barrel, Red Ant, Bad Spirit (devil)”. Other times it could be “Badger, Axe, Deer”. As you can see, for just this short English word, “bad” there are many possibilities and to the combination of words used.

To a Navajo speaker, all versions are nonsense. It gets worse for a Navajo speaker because normal Navajo conjugates in complex ways (ways an English or Japanese speaker would never dream of). These lists of words have no indicators of how they are connected. It is utterly non-grammatical in Navajo.

Then to speed it up, and make it even harder to break, they substituted Navajo words for common military words that were often used in short military messages. Almost none were just translations. A few you could figure out. For example, a Lieutenant was “one silver bar” in Navajo.

A Major was “Gold Oak Leaf” in Navajo. Other things were less obvious like a Battleship was the word for Whale in Navajo. A Mine Sweeper was the Navajo word for Beaver. That would be pretty impossible to guess

A note here, as it seems hard for some people to get this. Navajo is a modern and living language. There are, and were, perfectly useful Navajo words for submarines (tsin naaʼeeł táłtłʼááh naagháhígíí –”boat, under the water, the one that goes”), and battleships and tanks. They did not “make up words because they had no words for modern things”.

This is an incorrect story that gets around in the media.

There had been Navajo in the US military before WWII. They had words for everything in the world that existed in 1940. And they have words for all the newer things today. The Navajo language is different and perhaps more flexible than English. It is easy to generate new words. Most nouns are made by conjugating verbs so they indicate what the object does. They borrow very few words and they have words for any modern thing you can imagine. The words for “telephone”, or “train”, or “nuclear power” are all made from Navajo stem roots.

Because the Navajo Marines had memorized the Code there was no code book to capture. There was no machine to capture either. They could transmit it over open radio waves. They could decode it in a few minutes as opposed to the 30 minutes to two hours that other code systems at the time took. And, no Navajo speaker who had not learned the Code could make any sense out of it.

The Japanese had no published texts on Navajo. There was no internationally available description of the language. The Germans had not studied it at the time. The US Marines were careful about that. The Japanese did suspect it was Navajo. Linguists thought it was in the Athabaskan language family. That would be pretty clear to a linguist. And Navajo had the biggest group of speakers of any Athabaskan language. That is why they tortured Joe Kieyoomia. But, he could not make sense of it. It was just a list of words with no grammar and no meaning.

For Japanese, even writing the language down from the radio broadcasts would be very hard. It has lots of sounds that are not in Japanese or in English. It is hard to tell where some words end or start because the glottal stop is a common consonant. Frequency analysis would have been hard because they did not use a single word for each letter. And some words stood for words instead of for a letter. The task of breaking it was very hard.

Here is an example of a coded message:

béésh łigai naaki joogii gini dibé tsénił áchį́į́h bee ąą ńdítį́hí joogi béésh łóó’ dóó łóóʼtsoh

When translated directly from Navajo into English it is:

“SILVER TWO BLUE JAY CHICKEN HAWK SHEEP AXE NOSE KEY BLUE JAY IRON FISH AND WHALE. “

You can see why a Navajo who did not know the Code would not be able to do much with that. The message above means: “CAPTAIN, THE DIVE BOMBER SANK THE SUBMARINE AND BATTLESHIP.”

“Two silver bars” =captain. Blue jay= the. Chicken hawk= dive bomber. Iron fish = sub. Whale= battleship. “Sheep, Axe Nose Key”=sank. The only normal use of a Navajo word is the word for “and” which is “dóó ”. For the same message the word “sank” would be spelled out another way on a different day. For example, it could be: “snake, apple, needle, kettle”.

US Military has Overextended Itself – John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen

Beef Muffuletta Burger

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 recipe Cajun-Style Beef Sausage
8 ounces salami, diced
6 slices provolone cheese
1/2 cup olive tapenade
1/2 cup chopped giardinera
1 large sheepherder loaf, about 8 inches in diameter
2 cups shredded lettuce
2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced

Instructions

Prepare Cajun-Style Beef Sausage (crumbles); add salami, mixing thoroughly but gently. Form sausage mixture into 1 large burger patty, 8 to 9 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick. Place patty on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 10 to 11 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, 10 to 11 minutes) until instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into center registers 160 degrees F, turning once. Use 2 grill spatulas for easier flipping. During the last 2 minutes of cooking, top patty with cheese and allow to melt.
Meanwhile, combine tapenade and giardiniera in small bowl. Cut sheepherder loaf in half horizontally. Scoop out extra bread from middle of both halves, as desired. Toast loaf on grill for 2 to 3 minutes, if desired. Line bottom of bread with lettuce and tomato; top with burger. Top burger with tapenade mixture, close sandwich. Cut into 8 wedges.

Notes

Sliders: You may prepare 12 sliders instead of one large patty. Form twelve 2 1/2 inch diameter patties in step 1. Place patties on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 8 to 10 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill for the same time) until instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally into center registers 160 degrees F, turning occasionally. During the last minute, top patties with cheese and allow to melt. Continue with step 2.

Nutrition

Per serving: 423 Calories; 20.6g Total Fat; 8.2g Saturated Fat; 0.7g Polyunsaturated Fat; 6.2g Monounsaturated Fat; 0.1g Trans Fat; 77mg Cholesterol; 1385mg Sodium; 413mg Potassium; 34g Total carbohydrate; 26g Protein; 4.3mg Iron; 4.4mg Niacin; 0.3mg Vitamin B6; 71mg Choline; 2.6mcg Vitamin B12; 4.5mg Zinc; 17.8mcg Selenium; 2g Fiber

How can Latin American countries lessen Chinese influence by increasing trade with the United States?

Why would the LATAM countries want to lessen Chinese influence and increase US influence when they have had a much worse experience with the US for more than 200 years?

The US had the Monroe Doctrine which turned Central and South America into a US political fiefdom where the US militarily intervened and toppled governments it didn’t like.

China never did that to the LATAM nations.

So why would the LATAM nations want to increase US influence unless the governments were directly US controlled?

The US influence on LATAM was never based on trade; it was based on the power of US multinational businesses such as United Fruit and US military power. Basically, the US government and its military acted as a protector for US business interests in the LATAM region.

Opting out is the real male response

Plastic convertible

When I was five I walked by a toy store with my mother.

I looked in the window, and I saw a plastic model of a car. It was a yellow convertible.

And I well remember myself looking up to my mother, and telling her that she should buy it for me so that I could gift it to my father. I thought, and was absolutely convinced that my father would love the car.

I’m sure that both my mother and father thought that it was so cute. And today, I look back at that moment with fond memories. And to this day, whenever I see a model of a convertible, I think of this particular moment.

Today…

What would be your best advice for a young person who just started their career?

You are paid by how expensive you are to replace.

I graduated college with this misguided idea that a good degree and hard work would make me invincible. Everyone would hire me and I’d get a raise every year.

All it takes is a company downsizing or a manager that doesn’t like you. Our pay and job security are directly tied to how many other people are willing to do our job. This isn’t an opinion. It’s economics.

You either make yourself indispensable to a company. Or pick up skills and qualifications that make other companies want you more. Otherwise, plan on getting yanked around and low-balled.

As an extreme example, my friend skipped college and worked his way up to senior-level tech support with a camera company.

He spent the best years of his life there. Now, he’s older, his company has gone bankrupt, and he’s out of the job with minimally transferrable skills.

Remember that a business cannot feel emotion or empathy. It is a system, designed to learn, evolve, and make money. Don’t drink the Kool-aid and corporate ra-ra.

You are paid by how expensive you are to replace.

Cajun Shrimp Burgers

Ingredients

1 pound steamed or boiled shrimp
1/4 cup finely diced onions
1/4 cup finely diced green bell pepper
2 tablespoons chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 beaten egg
Flour
Extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

Peel and devein shrimp and remove tails. Chop shrimp.
Cook onions, bell pepper and celery in microwave until soft. Drain well.
Combine chopped shrimp, vegetables, garlic, seasoning, mayonnaise, bread crumbs and egg.
Form into patties, dredge in flour, and place on plate or tray. Freeze for about 20 minutes.
Remove from freezer and dredge in flour again.
Drizzle oil into a nonstick pan and fry shrimp burgers over medium-high heat until brown and crunchy on each side.
Serve on buns or French bread.

Singaporean Woman Flips On Modern Woman For Bashing Her PASSPORT BROS

This Singaporean Woman is sick and tired of Modern Women feeling entitled. She said look up a Singaporean passport before you open your mouth.

Can Russia, China, and the West ever be on good terms?

Yes they can and they should. It makes sense that if the three strongest and most powerful nations find a way to accommodate each others interest and red line. When and if they do the rest of the world are free to move on with their lives and grow their respective economy. I really believed that these 3 powerful nations simply cannot make each other submissive and subservient to the other.

The U.S. tried hard and desperately over the past decade or so without any success at all. Take the U.S. and China trade war. After 5 years straight of tariffs, sanctions and demonisation, if anything China gets stronger and more independent. And the Chinese counter actions. Is hurting the US. And to be fair China prefers to not have this dispute as it slows down Chinese growth too.

The U.S. tried to pinned down Russia militarily and geopolitically too since Biden take office culminating with the Ukraine war. A good 18 months has gone by and Russia is as strong as ever and at best the war is a stalemate with both the U.S. and Russia becomes slightly less strong. But the only thing the U.S. who goaded Russia into this war achieved is to bring world GDP down a notch. What good is it?

China do not mind if the U.S. grow healthily at 3% due to its mature economy and as a result China grow 6% healthily and both nations and the rest of the world pay attention of improving competitiveness and development. I am hopeful that a new U.S. president will see the benefits of collaborating with China and Russia.

The U.S. threw their kitchen sink at China and Russia for the last 2 full years! Has China and Russia been destroyed? Be honest! Nothing substantial happened. And what ever little Russia and China got hurt and harm so does the U.S. at least in the same proportion if not a little more. So what good is it? All the huff, puff and rant for nothing.

Now imagine. All three nations go positive. The world will be healthier, more stable, more peaceful and prosper. That cannot be bad for the world. The U.S. needs a new approach and a new leader that don’t think in hubris but in finding collaboration for mutual good.

Man SHOCKS The Panel With This Fact

https://youtu.be/Y_wj5vvjjj4

I have an employee that always clocks out 5 minutes early. They seem to have a good work ethic but I recently have been questioning it. What should I do as a manager?

Story time. My ex was an irreplaceable worker who needed to leave work 10 minutes early to catch a train that would get her home a good 45 minutes earlier compared to the train she’d get if she left exactly on time.
her manager insisted she stay until exactly 17:30. Note that she didn’t do anything worthwhile in that last 10 minutes. Her type of work meant that everything took longer. She also hated crowds, so she got the train to work an hour earlier than strictly necessary, meaning that most days she was 45 minutes early for work (she’d stop somewhere to buy a hot breakfast). Because of the type of conscientious worker she was, and also she was the head of a team of around 10–12 people, and she took pride in her work; she would start working more or less straight away. The boss knew all this, because she was always at work when he came in. He also knew that she was already working because of the dozen or so emails that she had already sent out (to clients, to coworkers with him CCdd, to him directly, etc). When she pointed all of this out to him, he said that “nobody is asking you to do that” and something about any colleague could walk up to her at 17:25 and ask a question or for a task to be done. If you ask me, it was all baloney and the dude was simply on a power trip! (Or maybe someone above him had archaic views and was being unreasonable)

so she gave in her notice and quit to start up on her own (basically to be a freelancer).
they couldn’t find anyone else to do the work, and for the first two years of her freelancing career she basically did her old job from home (no commute, working from home, and back in 2015, this was a massive perk, which was unheard of). Hell, the lack of commute alone saved her £3000 per year.

She got paid about 40% more to do the same work she always did, in about 1/2, maybe 2/3 of the time. It took them two years to train someone up to replace her (and stop needing her services as a freelancer).

Serves them right…

Welcome to America!

What is the greatest miracle you have personally witnessed in your life?

My Brother was in a car crash and went through the windscreen of the car he was a passenger in.. he managed to get his arms up to protect his face but didn’t manage to completely cover his eyes.. he was cut out of the car and flown by ambulance to Ninewells hospital in Dundee (Scotland) where he spent two years going through in total 35 operations on his eyes. Ninewells had the best Eye Specialists and Dept. in the Country.. After his final operation his Doctor sat down with us his family, and explained that they had tried everything to save his sight but that he would be 100% blind for the rest of his life and that he would need all our help to come to terms with it and to help him adjust to life as a blind man.. after 2 years they released him from Hospital into our care..

I had not prayed for many years. Had stopped going to Mass years before.. but that night I got on my knees and I prayed to God.. I begged him to restore my brothers eyesight and offered to lose mine in his place..

3 days later.. it was a beautiful sunny day and I took him for a walk.. guiding him with my arm.. someone he knew shouted hello from a distance and waved to us. My brother asked who it was and I said the guys name and said that he had waved. My Brother said “I know, I could make out the shadow of his arm in the grass”

I was gobsmacked but didn’t say anything to him about it.. When we got home I told Mum what had happened and She phoned his Doctor who brought my brother in for tests.. the Doctor confirmed his last prognosis.. that he was blind and there was no difference from the last time he was tested.. He sat Mum down and explained that it was his brain playing tricks on him and went into great detail on the damage that had been done and how it was impossible that it could be repaired either naturally or medically..

My brother now has 98% of his vision restored and wears contact lenses.. he actually has better sight than me..

God makes the impossible possible…!

Censorship

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

This happened to my best friend. She had left her abusive husband and was living in her own apartment, when he learned where she was, and went ballistic on her. He assaulted her and threatened their one year old. Her new neighbors heard the disturbance and called the police. When the police got there, they asked for his information and he gave a false name. Unfortunately, they believed him. because when they called that name in, they found no record on him. They were about to leave when my friend overheard and gave the police officers her husband’s correct name. Turns out there was an outstanding warrant that she hadn’t known about, and they hauled his ass off to jail.

It gets better. During that time, she got a lawyer and pressed charges, and her neighbors testified in court. His mother and father, who were quite elderly and in poor health died within weeks of each other. Then, when he got out of prison, the city decided to put in a new road and offered his landlord money for the house that my friend’s husband was living in, so he got evicted. He spent the rest of that year couch surfing because nobody would let him stay with them, due to his bad temper.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

I was flying out of LA bound for Newark. My flight was leaving at 6am on a Wednesday. My work was finished on Tuesday, around 8pm. I went to a restaurant, had a great meal, dropped off the car and went to check in at around 11pm that Tuesday evening. My plan was to find a comfortable seat, take a short nap, and be ready for my early Wednesday flight.

At the security check point the person checking told me I could not go through because I was a day early for my flight and I’d have to come back the next day to check in. I tried to explain to him that the next day was in one hour and my flight was leaving in six hours. He did not get it and was adamant that I could not enter until the next day.

At that point I asked to see his supervisor. He eventually got the supervisor. When the supervisor listened to me and checked my ticket he told his guy, “Let him in. You need to learn how to tell time. See me later.”

The flight was uneventful.

$22,000 dollars

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_kUaYkG9wF0?feature=share

What would you do if I park my car in front of yours to block your exit for a few minutes?

I use to fix street lamps for a living. Once I was about to pull up to a lamp that needed to be fixed when someone pulled into the spot ahead of me. I got out of the truck and explained I was about to pull up to the lamp to fix it and would he please move his car. His response was, “I’m only going to be a few minutes, you can wait “ He then walked onto a store that was right there.

So I pulled up the truck along side his car, and was up in the bucket and started to fix the light. I was still up in the bucket fixing the lamp when he came out of the store and was angry to find my truck was blocking his being able to pull out. He called up to me demanding I move my truck so he could pull out. I shouted down to him, “I’m only going to be a few minutes, you can wait “ and then went back to fixing the light.

Have you ever had a work colleague who was disliked by most of the other staff, but you knew just how much integrity, honesty, and honour they really had?

Bert was a part of the furniture for many years. He slid silently into his cubicle before most people arrived. The sound of flipping pages and keypad strokes were the only signs of life from his corner.

He evaded unnecessary contact with his colleagues. In meetings and during unavoidable greetings he mumbled and focused his eyes anywhere but on the person talking to him.

Bert drank no coffee and ate a packed lunch at his desk. He evaporated promptly at 4.55 every evening, leaving only an immaculately ordered workspace devoid of any clues as to who he was as a person.

It was impossible to like Bert. His own discomfort with everyone else was awkward and off putting.

At the same time, the only thing to dislike about him was that he didn’t fit in with the rest. Bert’s unseen presence was a low-level annoyance, like a squeaky chair or the smell of an overheated copy machine.

Only two people understood how valuable Bert was. Bert’s boss had known it for years. I learned about his talents when we worked as a team to create technical catalogues. I handled text copy and Bert handled tables, graphs and technical drawings.

We mostly collaborated by e-mail. His PDF markups were always detailed and clear.

When we met in person, I honored his unspoken preference to avoid eye contact. This seemed to comfort him.

For three years we redesigned dozens of catalogs with only rare and minor errors discovered after printing.

I learned to truly appreciate Bert’s talent for finding the needles (errors) in the haystack (multi-hundred-page catalogs). He was quiet, unassuming and provided the company excellent value for his salary.

I eventually moved on, but Bert and others kept producing error-free work. Bert’s methodical proofreading approach guides me still.

When Bert’s boss retired, a new boss found him uncomfortable (like everyone else). He was let go and his job was outsourced to an agency.

One of the agency’s first jobs was updating an existing 800-page catalog. 50,000 copies were printed and some were shipped to customers.

It was only then that the typo was discovered. A technical term had been typed as a sexual one. It was an expensive mistake (mostly covered by the insurance company).

I still have no idea who Bert is as a person. But I know his work reeked of integrity, his written communications were more honest than most people can swallow, and that working together with him was an honor.

Being able to depend on a colleague is more important than liking them. Thanks for the life lesson Bert!

Wealth in perception

Why does America force democracy upon people who don’t want it?

The U.S. used democracy in 2 ways. To elevate the U.S. as the beacon of democracy in the free world, a self declared superlative about themselves by themselves. That no one believes but themselves. Even that is only some white Caucasian, Anglo Saxon, conservative and less travelled and less educated ones.

And to tag countries that refused to be submissive and subservient to them to be “not” democratic. So authoritarian and dictatorial or a host of slurs such as. Communism, Socialism, Regime, Rogue States etc. Simple pea brain people buys that slur over the years to feel good about themselves while looking down and demonising others they did not like after being indoctrinated against for close to a century.

But these are optics or cosmetics. Forcing “U.S. liberal Democracy” is much more sinister. If you are having a political system like the U.S. they can easily manipulate that nation’s political process and place their puppet to do the U.S. bidding for them. Such as align with them and against China or Russia or selling resources to the Yanks at dirt cheap prices! That is what happened to many decades in the Philippines.

US political system is all about popularity and no meritocracy at all. All you need in a poorer developing nation is money to bribed voters. And the U.S. has plenty of printed Green back to throw about. That is the reason they forced nations to failure through the unworkable and inefficient political processes. For the U.S. sake. Not the nation in question sake.

After spending billions it almost always don’t work after a while. Hence Vietnam U.S. still a proud successful socialist nation, Iraq is still a Muslim fundamentalist nation and Taliban Afghanistan became Taliban Afghanistan after tens of trillions spent. Sure Zalensky the U.S. puppet did poke Russia in the eye and see what the U.S. and Ukrainians get for their effort!

Magic Music for Cats – UNBELIEVABLE Results (Tested 2022)

You won’t believe the results of this expert-made calming music for cats! Designed to relax your cat no matter their state of anxiety, aggression stress or depression! Try it now to see why we’re the number 1 natural remedy on youtube!

Why do guys never go for an “innocent” girl?

First of all, many guys do go for an “innocent girl.” I’m not one of them, but there are countless guys who totally look for “innocence,” however variously that may be defined, in women.

Why don’t some guys go for an “innocent” girl?

Speaking only for myself, not for any other man: I don’t go for “innocent” women because I like women who know exactly what they like and how to get it. I strongly prefer women who aren’t meek and aren’t the least bit frightened, women who live their lives out loud, uninhibited and unashamed.

Why?

They’re better partners.

They’re more fun. They’re less timid and more adventurous. They understand themselves better. They sample life with gusto. They embrace life in its joy, unworried about what other people have to say. They live on their own terms, which means they are more likely to explore and embrace new things. They are, not to put too fine a point on it, more courageous and more enjoyable to spend time, or life, with.

What is your best parking spot revenge?

Ages ago I used to work at a place that had formerly been a large outlet mall. The company I worked for owned one quadrant of the building but there was plenty of parking available. One guy, Crumb E. Parker, had a very nice car and did not want it damaged but rather than park it far away from the building he parked it close by and took up three spots, almost like so but even more perpendicular to the spot.

Now had he done this in the East Jesus end of the lot where nobody else parked nobody would have cared but he had an early shift and parked as close to the building as he could This happened every day for a month and people were sick of seeing it. A couple of us got together and decided this aggression could not stand, man!

Since he did this right by the handicapped spots we made friends with the person that would park in the handicapped spot closest to his car and got them to swap spots with someone who worked a shift until midnight. Then we did the same with an early bird who would park on the other side of him. We had both cars parked so close to him he’d have needed to make an 87,423-point turn to be able to get out. We waited.

Shortly after Mr. Parker’s shift ended there are announcements and emails going out. Mr. Parker is wandering the halls of the office looking for whomever owned the cars that had him blocked in to move them. Nobody is owning up to it. A threat comes out to have towed the cars blocking him which was followed by a near-immediate retraction when someone pointed out that doing so but not towing the guy who parked like crap all the time could be seen as retaliation against a disabled person which would open up lawsuits. The guy ended up having to take a taxi home and back to work the next day and after that he would still park like crap but way out in the furthest parking spots where nobody cared and all was right with the world again.

304 Woman Got REJECTED For Being Promiscuous

https://youtu.be/O1EV1mw5_Lc

What is the craziest thing you have seen a mechanic do at an auto mechanic shop?

Worked at Ford Dealership many years ago. I had 45 techs in seven different departments. Of all the people I had, only two were certified to work on the FORD GT’s.

I don’t recall the reason why the vehicle was in for service, but it was minor and didn’t require a test drive afterwards to verify that it was repaired.

I received the repair order and assigned the ticket/vehicle to one of my GT techs. As mentioned, it was simple repair and after the parts arrived, it only took him an hour so.

My GT tech finished the repair, closed out the ticket, sent me the paperwork (hard copy) then carefully backed the car out and drove it outside towards a special area that we kept all high dollar/high profile customer vehicles at.

I was inside my office at the time and watched the big garage doors open as he drove this wonderful-sounding, sexy vehicle outside.

I go to lunch and get back to my office an hour later.

I checked my email – “Come see me ASAP” it read. It was from my Boss.

This was highly unusual. I mean we sent emails back and forth all the time, but never with the subject matter “Come see me ASAP”.

Nonetheless I marched into my Boss’s office and he shut the door.

He looked at me and was pale as a ghost.

“Mike crashed the GT,” he said.

“He TOTALED it.”

…

I couldn’t believe it. Instead of parking this $250,000+ car like he was required to, Mike decided to take it for a spin around the block. Real quick.

He went around a corner too fast, lost control and took out a tree.

#dumbass

He was unhurt for the most part and walked away from it with just a bruise or two (he said).

“GET INTO THE SYSTEM AND MAKE SURE HE DOESN’T DRAW ANOTHER VEHICLE!” my Boss told me. (he wasn’t much of a systems admin guy and needed me to do it). So I did.

To make a long story short, Mike the GT tech finished out another vehicle (a big truck) that he’d been doing an engine on. It took him a couple of days, but when he finished the ticket, he was fired. I’m sure he saw it coming.

The Dealership paid back the GT Owner what he’d paid for it. He wasn’t happy, of course, but what else ya gonna do?

Unwanted attention

What is something people need to understand?

Grit is the engine of success.

Not ability.
Not talent.
Not IQ.

Grit.

This isn’t a matter of opinion. There’s research behind it. And what it concludes is unequivocal—

Innate aptitude just means you start out a few steps ahead.

Perseverance is where it’s at.

When I started out my writing was so crappy I wouldn’t share it here if you paid me.

My first gig paid $1.5/hour.

10,000 hours later, I support a family of 5 by working from home.

I got here because I showed up.

Every. Single. Day.

Ask my wife how many times I came to her on the verge of tears saying I wanted to quit because my writing was rejected.

But I stuck with it.

And with time, the rejections became approvals.

Never hearing from clients again became high-paying long-term retainers.

And the feelings of insecurity became a steadily growing sense of self-assurance.

Failure is staying down after you get knocked out.

Success is doing something as many times as it takes until you nail it.

What economic policies has China implemented that are successful?

I’m not a professional economist.

Judging from the economic events that will occur in 2023, I think one of China’s most successful economic policies is “foreign exchange control.”

…

China’s foreign exchange controls include the following measures:

1. Restrict foreign exchange circulation in China

Any enterprise or retailer in China is not allowed to accept foreign currency and must convert it into RMB before trading. I can’t buy anything in any store in China with US dollars or Singapore dollars.

2. Restrict foreign exchange from being freely convertible into RMB

Any foreigner who visits China needs to convert foreign currency into RMB. There are limits on the amount. For example, foreigners entering China can only exchange US$50,000 in cash each year. The foreign exchange received by Chinese companies operating abroad will also be subject to amount restrictions when they need to convert it into RMB.

Foreign companies also need approval to remit foreign currency into China for investment.

3. Restrict the conversion of RMB into foreign currencies

Any Chinese or foreigner leaving China must exchange RMB cash into foreign currency. Or if you want to remit RMB and convert it into foreign currency, you are also subject to the amount limit.

Not only that, if Chinese companies want to invest in other countries and want to convert RMB into foreign currencies, they also need approval.

Simply put, the conversion of RMB and foreign currencies is subject to limits and controls. This makes large sums of money not freely convertible at all.

China is the world’s largest trading country, and it is the largest trading partner of almost all countries in the world. Therefore, the foreign exchange control policy actually has many negative impacts on the Chinese economy, which brings troubles to cross-border transactions, troubles to Chinese companies operating abroad, and a lot of troubles to foreign companies investing in China.

Even so, China still insists on implementing foreign exchange control strategies.

As an employee of a Singapore investment company, perhaps because of my lack of knowledge, I have not been able to understand China’s approach in the past many years. Because this policy often gives me a headache at work and adds a lot of extra workload to our company. The Chinese want to expand trade so much, why do they impose artificial restrictions on currency flows?

I once believed that if China relaxed its foreign exchange controls, China’s imports and exports would see huge growth.

It wasn’t until 2023, after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike, that I realized the reason why China did this: they took financial sovereignty into their own hands.

As we all know, in order to solve the country’s economic problems and curb inflation. In 2023, the Federal Reserve carried out continuous and substantial interest rate increases on the US dollar.

This operation has greatly increased the yield on U.S. dollar deposits, and funds all over the world want to transfer to the United States to obtain high interest rates. Many people even apply for loans in their own country and then transfer the loaned funds to the United States to enjoy the interest rate difference between the two places.

This caused funds from all over the world to begin to gather in the United States. Investors and wealthy people frantically converted their currencies into U.S. dollars and remitted them to the United States.

This resulted in a series of dire consequences for all other countries:

1. Due to the loss of large amounts of funds, investment in various fields in the country has been stopped.

2. The domestic currency was sold off in large quantities (converted into US dollars), causing the domestic currency to depreciate sharply, while the US dollar appreciated sharply.

3. Lack of investment and consumption (all the money is remitted to the United States) has caused the economy to decline, business is sluggish, and companies are gradually closing down.

4. As the U.S. dollar appreciates, American investors can purchase companies and minerals that are about to go bankrupt in their own countries at very low prices.

5. National wealth shrinks (the national currency depreciates), and people no longer trust the national currency and turn to buying U.S. dollars, causing the collapse of the national currency to intensify.

This consequence is like a domino, which is catastrophic for any country, meaning that the wealth created by this country for decades may be completely harvested by the United States.

In order to avoid this disastrous chain reaction, governments can only take one approach: follow the United States in raising interest rates. This can reduce the interest difference between the two countries and reduce capital outflows. You can take a look at the situation in your country in the past six months. Are banks already raising interest rates?

However, raising interest rates is not a panacea. It also has a serious negative impact, which reduces domestic investment willingness. After all, who wants to invest in business when you can earn a high income by depositing your money in the bank? At the same time, some companies that rely on loans, especially the financial industry and large-scale manufacturing industries, will see their capital costs continue to increase. When the chain breaks, businesses go bankrupt. For individuals, the interest pressure on student loans, credit cards, and mortgages will increase, and people’s lives will inevitably be affected.

Therefore, for most countries, not raising interest rates means allowing the United States to harvest their own wealth; raising interest rates means immediately harming the domestic economy and people;

No matter what you choose, you will get hurt. The rate hike is just the one that hurts less.

But in China, the situation is different.

Not only did the Chinese not follow the U.S. in raising interest rates like other countries, they actually kept cutting interest rates in the past few months.

Aren’t they afraid of massive capital outflows and sharp depreciation of the RMB, which will trigger an economic crisis?

Of course not, that’s why they implemented exchange controls.

Since the RMB and the U.S. dollar are not freely convertible, large-scale conversions are simply impossible.

Bank of China: What, you want to convert 50 million yuan into US dollars? what is your purpose? Transfer money to a U.S. bank? Sorry, this is not allowed.

Oh, you changed your story again and said you were going to the United States to do business. Well, please provide your business contract, investment agreement, and lawyer’s certificate!

Therefore, they are not worried about these problems at all, and the outflow of funds is limited to a controllable range. The United States simply cannot harvest China.

In the past few months, the yuan has indeed depreciated against the US dollar, but has appreciated against other major currencies around the world, which shows the effectiveness of China’s foreign exchange control capabilities.

With low interest rates, Chinese companies can obtain very cheap financial support from their banks, which makes them invincible in the global market. Taking the shipbuilding industry with the largest demand for funds as an example, the Chinese have taken 90% of the world’s shipbuilding orders in the third quarter. In the same period last year, their share was only 50%.

In the face of US dollar interest rate hikes and global currency depreciation, inflation has occurred in various countries, but China’s domestic inflation does not exist at all. They have even begun to worry about “deflation.” Many Chinese friends told me that domestic prices in China are actually lower than last year, and people can buy more goods with the same money.

What the world thinks of Americans…

As a police officer, what situation made it hard for you to keep a straight face?

I was assigned to Police Motorcycles for ten years. I was on a traffic stop one winter day writing a citation to a young man. While writing, the young man asked me if I knew Officer Stone. My heavy leather jacket covered my name plate, and as the only Officer Stone on the force, I found this an interesting question, since I had never seen him before. I responded, “Why yes, yes, I do.” I threw in “He’s really a great guy.” The young man agreed, telling me how they were good friends, and that Officer Stone was close with his family. “Officer Stone comes over to my house on most Sundays for dinner and my mama cooks for him”, the young man added. I said “Why that’s real nice of her.” As I handed the kid his citation to sign, I pulled back my jacket to reveal my name plate, and said “Tell your mama I’ll be over for dinner Sunday at 1:00”. The kid’s face froze, and after a few seconds, he simply responded “Yes Sir!”

How do you politely and respectfully keep women coworkers from hitting on you at work?

My career was spent as the Founder and CEO of a very large company. When a woman disrespected my marriage, politeness went out of the window. Ladies, trust me I’m not God’s gift to women, but I have been hit on! I was once told by a 22 year old (I was 40 something) that she could steal me away from my wife. My response was, “you’re fired”!

I’ve now been married to the most incredible woman in the world for 56 years. I still find reasons to fall in love with her each day.

What’s your recent happiest moment?

When I was 17 years old, I dropped out of high school to work full time. I never went in to get my GED (which is the equivalent of a high school diploma).

Since then, my parents (especially my mom) have been begging me to get my diploma.

I’ve put it off for years and years, much to their disappointment.

This fall, my friend finally coaxed me into taking the exams. He assured me that I could do it, he encouraged me, and he was a huge support.
I wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for him.

November 30th, I passed my final exam and got my GED!

I printed it out, framed it, and wrapped it up for my parents for Christmas.

Unfortunately, I have no chill, so I went to my parents’ house last night to give them their Christmas present early.
My mom unwrapped it, read the diploma and…

Oh. My. God.

That reaction was worth every single minute of studying and exam taking.

I have never seen someone cry out of happiness at a present, but my mom did. My dad got teary eyed! Shit, the boyfriend said he even got blurred vision watching my parents’ reaction!

It was amazing.

My dad was smiling and clapping and my mom hugged me so hard I thought she was going to break a rib.

The dogs started barking because they were freaked out at the sudden mayhem.

At one point my dad yelled, “A ROUND OF WHISKEY IS IN ORDER!” and ran off to the kitchen to pour a round of shots.

It was hilarious.

Hands down, being able to make my parents that excited has been one of my happiest moments.

There’s nothing like making your parents proud.

(Oh, and P.S.: I passed with flying colors. I made those exams my bitch.)

Iran Gets Access To Chinese Satellite To Use For Missile Attack on Israel!

“The US must be isolated or sidelined for the benefits of all free nations of the world.”

https://youtu.be/c311mOySUVE

What pushed you into retirement?

What pushed me —a United States Astronaut— into retirement? I’ll tell you exactly what pushed me.

I was summoned into the “corner office.” This is a hallowed place, reserved for the Chief of all astronauts. Seated in a chair in front of the boss’ desk, the discussion would eventually turn to me asking, “What are my chances of flying again?” The boss pulled out a long sheet of paper. A sheet known to wannabe fliers as the A/B line chart. It typically shows potential flight assignments well into the future and is used for NASA JSC management planning purposes. After fidgeting and mumbling for a few moments, I heard the words that would eventually push me into retirement. I heard the head of the astronaut office say —in part— “… I have better choices to fly in space than you,” and then, after a brief pause, the boss followed up by saying that I didn’t “… have the temperament for long-duration spaceflight.”

I was crushed beyond words. The career that I had worked so hard for, and had —after 15 application cycles— been selected to do, was being summarily ended. I left the office of the Chief Astronaut and cried … but not before I wrote down everything that was said.

I did not retire immediately. I hung on … performing as a lowly “management astronaut.” Stripped of most of the “fun” stuff (like flying in the T-38), I was expected to go to meetings. The only saving grace I had was that I was made an IA (instructor astronaut) for spacewalking. Something I was very good at, I apparently did have the temperament for teaching neophyte space walkers. Of course, I took that assignment very seriously.

In all honesty, I was hoping for a change. I tried to wait the boss out, hoping they would step down for a more promising assignment. They did exactly that, hoping —but failing— to be named as the first astronaut to spend a year in space. I would then enter the hallowed corner office once again, only this time I was sitting across from the new Chief… and the new deputy.

When I respectfully asked them for a chance to get back into the “active astronaut” and flight-eligible line, the boss gave me an emphatic “no.” Expecting exactly that response, I asked for a more responsible position in the office hierarchy, one that could challenge me more than meeting attendance and effectively utilize my 30 years of NASA experience (15 as an engineer, 15 as an astronaut). Again, the boss said “no.” The Deputy said nothing. I was being dressed down, by two people who would go on to fly again … just like the previous boss.

I was angry … very angry. So much so, that I was bringing that anger home and inflicting it upon my family. Obviously an unpalatable situation, it took the courage of my then 18-year old son to say, “… Dad, this has to stop.”

And stop it did … sort of. My family will tell you that I am still angry … and it’s something I must deal with every single day. I am working hard to lessen the anger, but it’s going to take some time.

I have now been retired for nearly 6 years. During that 6-year hiatus from government service, I have been writing. I write to share my stories with you and, more importantly, because it’s therapeutic. And it’s really a whole lot of fun! I also enjoy teaching part-time at Iowa State University, entertaining as a motivational speaker, and I consult with various organizations in a number of different capacities (listen for my voice sometime or take a Royal Caribbean cruise!).

Have you ever been in a situation where a vacation took a sudden turn for the worse?

My wife and I spent a month in Spain and were scheduled to fly home from Paris, France.

The day before we were to leave my wife tested positive for Covid.

I had to to make arrangements to stay longer at the Airbnb, the host was very kind and helpful.

I had to reschedule a number of appointments that were to take place after we were to return home.

All of this went smoothly but when I tried to get ahold of Air France, it took over six hours of trying before I was able to talk to a human. I was informed that they would not change our tickets because we had booked through America Express. It took about two minutes to get a human at American Express who was able to change our tickets for a flight four days later. We were issued new tickets, but when we were at the airport, Air France informed me that there was a $175 charge for the changed flight. I asked why as we already had new tickets and Air France did not do anything for the changed tickets. It was like I was talking to a brick wall. The Air France person could not (or would not) explain what the charge was for. He was rude and acted like I was being unreasonable, but all I wanted was an explanation as what the extra charge was for.

Rwanda

I finally paid the the fee but I will never fly on Air France again

Rwanda, a tiny country in the eastern central part of Africa Rwanda

When visiting Rwanda, don’t bring any plastic bags as they are prohibited in the country. When you try to bring them, they will be confiscated right at the airport. Same goes with throwing waste in the environment, our country is very clean, and throwing any waste would be a shame for you, and the authorities can punish you for that.
Don’t openly discuss ethnic issues. 22 years ago our country had seen one of the most atrocious tragedies in human history 1994 Genocide Rwandan genocide
you shouldn’t go around asking everyone what? where? how? who are you? The good way to learn this history is to try and visit some memorials which are rich in that history and it’s near the main city, Kigali and almost in every other city across the country.

Don’t try to take pictures of everything you see especially people even young kids in the street without first asking. Yes, our country is still under development, you might see poor neighborhood, young street kids or some funny things you can make out of those pictures – taking photos of those vulnerable people without their permission is a sensitive issue in our culture.
You shouldn’t be annoyed or irritated if someone didn’t make it on time. For many people being late “is just okay” one hour or 4 hours would still be okay 😉 so if you are meeting someone either for business or personal affairs just bear this in mind and be patient.

Restaurant and other service businesses. You will be treated really well, in fact a special treatment will be given to you if you are a foreigner (Rwandans are very welcoming and we are naturally good to our neighbours), but don’t take advantage of it or think that they want something from you (i.e. don’t shout or raise your voice when you are not satisfied with the service, there is a good manner to bring the issue at hand).
Rwanda is very safe and secure. Contrary to the popular belief or some perception of a country which has been in Genocide 22 years ago, you can move around anytime you want; even midnight. Don’t expect anyone to understand what you are talking about, even if you speak English or French, the majority of people only know one language; Kinyarwanda. Taxis, local traders, waiters, service providers, etc. they try hard to understand you but make sure when you are traveling to have a local guide with you (this will also help you pay less for everything, because you will not be overcharged cause you are a foreigner)
Don’t bring cats or dogs to public places or smoke in public. This doesn’t mean Rwandans hate animals, it means they respect other people’s views almost on anything. There are also special places reserved for smokers.
When you are a guest to someone’s home, don’t pay (or contribute) for the food or drinks offered unless asked to, this is rude or in some cases disrespectful.
Don’t get annoyed if you are being called ‘muzungu’ everywhere. Literally muzungu means ‘a traveler’ but it is widely known as ‘white people’, even Asians are called ‘muzungu’ 😉 😉 Don’t think they are being racists or are they trying to insult you.

Welcome to Rwanda! The land of thousand hills.

Man Expose His Girlfriend After DNA Test Proves He’s Not The Father Of Their Son.

Cute vs fun matrix is classic.

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

Probably not the strangest, but the only one I could prove.

An elderly gentleman came into the shop complaining of a brake squeak. I wrote up the work order and my guys pulled it into the shop. After several minutes passed, I heard an explosion of laughter coming from the break room.

It was kind of obnoxious, so I went to see what was up. A mouse had gotten stuck between the brake pad and the caliper. Sadly the mouse had passed away.

I then approached the customer to come see what was causing the squeak. The customer began to hysterically laugh. To the point where he dropped to one knee. I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance.

A tech released the mouse and the squeak was gone. Rest in peace Mr. Mouse. Thanks for the laugh.

Has a store ever accidentally given you something for free?

Back in day 70s when I got married, I registered for a lovely ironstone place setting from Mikasa. I got 10 and a half place setting for wedding gifts. I went to Macy’s in Indianapolis to buy the rest to make 12 place settings. About 18 months later, I got a box from Macy’s that contained another place setting plus some serving dishes. Upon speaking to the manager of the department, it turned out they were discontinuing the pattern and as I was the last person to buy any pieces, they sent the display pieces to me. I thought that was very nice of them. 50 years later I still have all the pieces and use them when I have company.

What are your thoughts on Singapore’s role as a tech hub and regional gateway for funding and talent in South-east Asia?

I think it’s a great idea. Singaporeans are very intelligent, and have excellent educational backgrounds. They also have the distinction of being Asian in ethnic identity but having the Western influence that Singapore is known for. They have the best of both worlds, and a unique ability to unite Eastern and Western worldviews in brokering investments for the tech industry.

Singapore is also known to be a haven for those with considerable wealth. They may be willing to invest in tech startups that have potential. Especially if that company is close to home and able to benefit Singapore’s economy.

Singapore is also a major trade hub. Second to Shanghai, they are the largest port for transporting in the world. It’s a prime location for new ventures. It’s proximity to other Southeast Asian countries, India, and China make it a good hub with access to millions of people. All in all, I have a favorable opinion.

This is why men needs to have more sex than women…

Have you ever had a neighbor call the police on you?

Yes. And when they arrived for the “noise complaint” I answered the door in my boxers with my 3 year old slung over my shoulder on one side and a long handled fish net containing a bat (as in a nocturnal flying mammal) on the other.

“Can I help you officer?”

“Is that a bat?!”

“Yes, excuse me for a moment.”

Handed off my kid to the rather confused officer, went about the necessaries of releasing the terrified bat from the net, set it down, and retrieved my kid.

“What can I do for you sir?”

“We had a noise complaint (it was two or three in the morning) but I’m guessing I understand. Have a good night sir.”

And then he left. Chuckling all the way back to his car.

What’s your all-time favorite life hack that has made your daily routine significantly easier?

Micro-efficiency.

Someone on Quora pointed out that Ireland is good at micro-efficiency. If you need to fill out a form, there will be a pen beside it. The security guy at the door can tell you which desk you need to go to, stuff like that.

So I apply this to my life. My bicycle is in the hall, with the lock, lights and reflectors all attached to it. I can grab it and go out the door, knowing I have everything I need. My bike bag contains a can of instant puncture repair and rain gear.

My keyring has only the keys I actually use, plus a small mirror for problems with contact lenses.

I only buy trousers with pockets with zips that will actually hold my phone and keys.

Every coat has a pair of reading glasses in the pocket.

Beside my passport, I keep a small plastic bag with a toothbrush, contact lens case and mini deodorant. If I have to, I can hit the airport with just those and I’ll manage.

I wash the muddy dog in the road outside the house, not the bathroom. She likes it better, the local kids help, and I don’t have massive cleaning up to do.

There is no one hack that does it all, it’s more about finding the most efficient way to get things done.

In business, has your boss ever tried to fire you, only to be fired by their boss instead?

I worked for a company in Texas for a number of years. After my immediate supervisor retired, a new person from outside the company was hired to take his position. This guy was a complete sleeze bucket, he was really shady. I was given instructions that I was morally unwilling to do. I was given the choice to do it or pack up and leave.

I typed up a letter of resignation effective the Friday of that week and immediately left to visit my job sites in Louisiana and East Texas. On Friday as I was headed back home I stopped at one of my last job sites. The superintendent of the site informed me the President of my company was trying to get in touch with me and the owner of his company told him that if I showed up and did not contact my President, he would be fired.

I called him and he said when my resignation was delivered to the Senior VP in charge of my division two of my coworkers also turned in their resignations. Between the three of us, it represented 20+ years with his company. He and the SVP went to talk to my former supervisor. He was terminated on the spot and the three of us were asked to reconsider our resignations.

Making a man wait is like…

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Well, this wasn’t actually a person. But it was the best case of ‘you just picked a fight with the wrong one’ I’ve ever seen.

I was at the park walking my dog with a friend and her dog.

Her dog was a rescue but from her brains, looks and behavior she was an Australian Shepherd. That particular day she was off in the distance chasing birds while my dog (also a rescue and at that point still quite timid) was hanging back with us.

Suddenly a pair of huge Great Danes appeared out of nowhere and decided to make a meal out of the Aussie. They started off far behind her but they were 5 times her size, so they closed on her quickly in a vee formation, with the Aussie at the point of the vee.

As my friend and I watched in horror, they gained on her until they were just inches from her, still closing in at an angle. We were sure she was a goner.

And then, just as they were about to grab her, she reversed on a dime and shot back through the narrow gap still left between them. The train wreck she left in her wake as the two clumsy oafs slammed into each other head first was awesome to behold.

We were still laughing when she reached us, trotting back with a grin just like the one in the picture on her face and her tail waving high.

How did you break out of the rat race?

Today, I got this tough email…

Dear Hector,

Today feels heavy. I got up when it was still dark, way before sunrise because I wanted to do some work before my main job. I’m super tired. Coffee is like the juice that keeps me going.

In a few more minutes, I’ll go to work. I’ll be there for a long time. It’s supposed to be from 9 to 5, but I always need to stay longer. My boss says that’s what I should do to be a good employee. But even though I work a lot, my piggy bank isn’t getting any fatter, and everything else, like food and rent, keeps costing more.

Did you have a similar experience when you were my age? To me, this makes no sense!

Very frequently, I feel scared because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop working. It bothers me when people suggest we should save for retirement. They make me feel like I can’t manage my finances wisely. This is ridiculous. Savings? Lol, when will it happen?

Meanwhile, everyone seems to be so happy on the Internet. They post pictures with big smiles and seem to be having fun, but I think most are just pretending. Most of my friends are also running this “race” to success. Yet, most of them are also super tired, although nobody wants to say it out loud.

When I get home, I work my side hustle. Why? Because I went to a good college, and now I owe money, a lot of it. So, I work all day long, even when I should be taking a break or hanging out with friends. It feels like I’m on a bike pedaling super hard, but I’m not moving.

I need your help, Hector. How can I make this stop? How can I escape this miserable lifestyle and start making real progress?

Sorry if this was a long email. I hope you have some words of wisdom to open my eyes. I’m hungry for progress. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve done everything I was supposed to do, yet I don’t have the results I expected.

This is a tough one… but this is what I answered:

My friend, reading your email hit me right in the gut. I’ve been there, and let me tell you, it’s a tough spot. But you’re not alone, and you’re not the first to feel this way.

The first thing to understand is that this non-stop hustle culture we live in isn’t sustainable. It’s not healthy. Sure, working hard is important, but there’s a point where you’ve got to step back and look at the bigger picture. Are you working smart? Or just hard?

Here’s my answer thinking as an entrepreneur. I’m not saying this is right, so take this with a grain of salt. This is how I would focus my attention:

Health is the first step to wealth: Drop the caffeine and find a healthier way to stay sharp. If you burn out, you can’t make money. Period.
Forget the 9 to 5 myth: If your current job demands long hours with little reward, it’s time to rethink your career strategy. Maybe your skills are more valuable elsewhere. Ever thought about that?
Your net worth is not your self-worth: Stop comparing yourself to the fake TikTok life. Delete it! Focus on you.
Make time for what matters: You’ve got friends you don’t see because everybody’s “too busy”? Cut the BS. Schedule it as a meeting that you have to attend. Work will always be there. Relationships won’t.
Your side hustle: You’re working a lot and not moving forward? Maybe you’ve got a passion or skill you can monetize on the side. It could be anything. To me, your answer is found there.
Learn to say “NO”: This one’s tough but necessary. Set boundaries. Your time’s the most valuable asset you’ve got.
Get a game plan: Sit down and figure out where you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years. Then, work backward to make a roadmap on how to get there.
Take a break: Burnout is real. Sometimes, you’ve got to take a step back to leap forward.
Keep learning: You say you went to a nice college. Great. But learning never stops. There are a ton of free resources out there. Use them. Learn how to increase your expertise and generate extra income.

You don’t have it all figured out yet, and that’s okay. Most of us struggle with this.

Here’s the good news: It’s great that you’re asking questions. Stay open to change and find new opportunities. Keep searching for answers!

Most importantly, make sure you’re hustling in the right direction. The world has changed. It’s all about working smarter, not harder.

What am I missing?

Xi Jinping’s Global South Red Carpet: China’s WARNING to the Neocons

China has been rolling out the red carpet for Global South leaders maligned by the United States. This video explains why this is a stark warning to the neocons that they’re global order is FINISHED.

What are the reasons (historic or otherwise) that led to the belief that wealth is a zero sum game?

It’s the story of a mugger named Bob, who had a lot of money, but wasn’t incredibly happy.

Getting drunk and hiring prostitutes just wasn’t really hitting the spot anymore, he felt a little bit empty, he was having trouble sleeping at night, wondering if he was really doing the right thing, questioning the meaning of life itself.

When he spoke to people about it, many suggested changing his ways, no longer mugging people, and doing something else more productive instead.

Bob didn’t like that idea one bit!
It sounded like a lot of work, for one. And it implied he had been doing something wrong?!? How dare they suggest that he was anything less than perfect!?
Hearing that kind of stuff made him angry, not happy.

But then one day, Bob talked to one of the PR people working for the thieves’ guild, and it changed his life.

He sat there for hours, listening avidly. For the first time, he was hearing ideas that made sense to him, it was like music to his ears.

Bob the mugger learned that wealth is not a zero sum game.
His latent feelings of guilt evaporated as he learned that getting money from someone, was actually the same thing as providing that person with a service.
Wealth creation! Of course! That made sense!

He felt a bit like a courageous hero when all the risks he was taking were mentioned.

He had always suspected that if there were any issues caused by muggings, it was just because of over-regulation, and that it would all go much smoother if city guards would just stay out of it.

When he was told that he was an amazing person, superior to everyone else, and that people were just jealous of him, and that was why they didn’t like him… Oh boy! It stroked his ego in just the right way! It was exactly what he wanted to hear.

Bob the mugger walked away feeling GREAT!
No more doubts, no more guilt, and no need to change anything either!
He could go on mugging people, filled with confidence that he was making the world a better place, by caring only about himself.

And he went on to do great things!

He decided that it was time that he give back to the community, by providing some jobs for other muggers. And he didn’t stop there, he had a growth mindset, and built a huge mugging empire!

Bob the mugger became Bob the risk-taker, Bob the job provider, Bob the creator of wealth!

This unsung hero almost died asking himself that very same question:

Why does nobody understand me and my greatness? Why do they not understand that I’m creating jobs and wealth?!? Why do they keep talking about a zero sum game?!?

But then he remembered: They were probably all just jealous.
And he died at peace with himself, soothed by his comforting ideology.

What are some mental errors to avoid at all costs?

There’s a thing called the gambler’s fallacy that many of us fall for in so many situations.

The most simple example is if you are flipping a coin. You’ve landed on heads 10 times in a row. At that point, you might think that you have higher odds of landing on tails. Obviously, that’s not true — as it is always a 50/50 chance.

It happens during card games, sports betting, and all manner of games that we play. If you are playing cards and get five good hands in a row. It’s easy to start thinking, “You know, I’m actually kind of a good card player.”

Your ego gets involved and that’s when things get dangerous for your wallet.

Cajun Salmon Burgers with Lime Mayonnaise

On the table tonight: Cajun Salmon Burgers seasoned with McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Cajun Seasoning, panko, red bell pepper and onion. Top with Lime Mayonnaise for an extra-delicious Lenten (or any season) dinner.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Lime Mayonnaise

1/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel
1/2 teaspoon lime juice

Cajun Salmon Burgers

3 (5 ounce) pouches boneless skinless salmon, drained
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 teaspoons McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Cajun Seasoning
1 tablespoon oil
4 hamburger rolls

Instructions

Lime Mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients in small bowl until well blended. Cover.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cajun Salmon Burgers

Mix salmon, egg, panko, mayonnaise, green onions, bell pepper and Seasoning in large bowl until well blended. Shape into 4 patties.
Heat oil in large nonstick stick skillet on medium heat.
Add salmon patties; cook 5 minutes per side or until lightly browned and cooked through.
Serve salmon burgers on rolls with Lime Mayonnaise and desired toppings.

Notes

Serving Suggestion: Serve burgers with lettuce and tomato.

Should we be concerned that China’s probes into Foxconn’s facilities and land use could affect iPhone production capacity in China?

Quora Prompt Generator, who is the “we” you’re referring to?

Are you referring to the U.S. government? Why be concerned? Biden’s been bitching that Apple should do their manufacturing in the U.S. China is now telling Apple’s producers to stay home in Taiwan. This is a good time to remind Apple to come home.

Or are you referring to Apple stakeholders? You should be very worried. Foxconn and Wistron had to abandon India because they couldn’t transplant and replicate their China production to India and are trying to work their way back to China. Apple has no other country that can produce its premiun models and would be in deep kimchi if Foxconn can’t recoup to build back their capacity in China.

Or are you referring to Apple, the company? Yeah, they should be running scared because Tim Cook knows Apple has no Plan B to fall back on. Why do you think he’s been practically camping in in China these past months?

Or is this the “royal we”, the general public so to speak? This should be taken as a good sign. China is doing their due diligence – not allowing any “sacred cows”. Entities like Foxconn should be audited to ensure that they’re complying with all rules and regulations in order that there is a level playing field and market competition for all.

She Got UPSET After Knowing How Men Think!

Stalking for a bloody nose

When I lived in Milford, Massachusetts I worked at an appliance company as a Chief Project Manager in the R&D group. During that time, early on in the company, I was living with a model named CJ. She was extraordinarily beautiful, but a royal pain in the ass. Ugh! That’s a story for another time, I’ll tell you what.

Anyways, there was one of the guys in my company, way a youngish (in his late 20’s) man who worked in Marketing. I got along fine with him.

But my girlfriend, CJ (the chick that I was living with) told me that she had a “bad feeling about him”. But I shrugged it off.

About a month later, I noticed that he was driving around and waiting outside my apartment. I wondered why, but couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Later on, after that, CJ told me that he was following her.

…

Two weeks later, he came to work completely beaten up, and his face was a real mess. He worked for a day or two, and then quit. I never found out what happened to him, but I figure that he messed with the “wrong people”. Not me. But perhaps someone else…

What do you know.

…

Today…

What was the most legendary “I quit!” that you know about or witnessed?

I was asked, as a consultant, to handle a very delicate matter. It appears that the company president’s teenage daughter had taken a liking to one of the system assembly people who was building rack servers. He told her that he was busy and she was not authorized to be in the department. She complained to daddy, and the employee was subject to a screaming match in front of his co-workers and told by his boss that he needed to apologize by the close of business when the executive and his daughter left. And that some token of his contrition might be a nice gesture.

Near the end of the day, the technician located the daughter, said he was sorry, and gave her a handmade electronic sculpture as a token of his contrition. He then wrote a resignation note and left it with H.R.

I was called to resolve the issue and get the employee back to work because they had a backlog that was building on the workbenches. I could not find any reason why someone else could not build-out the server blades and none of the employee’s co-workers volunteered any information. That is, until I learned that he had fashioned the sculpture out of the all of the motherboard chips on hand.

There was no attempt to gain restitution for the ruined chips and the employee was paid in full — including two weeks severance. I later heard that the president reimbursed the company for the entire amount. I pocketed my fee — which only added insult to injury.

I Live Better in The Philippines Than I Did in The U.S For Cheaper – My Story

“It was reassuring to hear of JJ’s positive experience in BCG, and of his low monthly budget. I’ve been thinking a lot about my future retirement and moving somewhere that will provide a better quality of life for my budget. I’ll try to spend time in several countries, before picking a place to settle down. Thanks for another great video, Evan.”

Texas Iced Tea

Ingredients

6 tea bags or 2 large tea bags
Water
1 cup granulated sugar (optional)

Instructions

Heat 1 quart to boiling 1 quart water in saucepan.
Remove from heat; add tea bags, cover and let steep for 30 minutes.
Pour into 1 a gallon pitcher.
Add sugar, if using, then fill pitcher with cold water.
To make sun tea, fill a 1 gallon glass jar with cool water.
Add 6 tea bags and place in direct sunlight.
Leave in sunlight until desired color (strength) is obtained (reddish brown) – about 2 to 3 hours. Do not leave in the sun too long (over 4 hours) as mixture may become bitter.

What is the best revenge you ever had on your bully?

A very stupid woman in my social group was my bully. She hated me and did & said what she could to trash me.I was involved with someone that she had a crush on. She did everything she could to break us up, including making up stories about me sleeping around with other guys (I wasn’t), stealing $$$ from him (I earned 3x what he did), badmouthing him, etc. It did cause some tension in my relationship.

However, she thought it was funny and sent screenshots of what she had said & done to a friend of mine. She didn’t know he was an old friend of many years. He sent me copies which I gave my guy. He blocked her on the spot and cut off all contact with her.

At the time she was living with a guy in public housing and collecting disability. Again, Ms. Stupid sent to our mutual friend comments like she was only living with him so he would pay her bills. That she really didn’t have a disability but she had a corrupt Dr who would fill out “appropriate l” paperwork for a fee. And that she had a job off the books and making very good $$$.

He sent me everything. I filed a complaint on the doctor with the state medical board. I forwarded her comments to the Housing Authority and federal offices. But the best was, being crafty, I created a mini-book that listed all of her comments from her lies about me to using the boyfriend as a paycheck. I wrapped it up nicely and sent it to him at his place of employment. (I did put a note on it saying to open in private…he didn’t need to be embarrassed in front of co-workers)

So long story short, she lost her apartment but gained a new one at the local jail. She lost her boyfriend but gained a new corrections officer. She lost her social circle but gained new cellmates. She lost her lucrative income but got a job at the prison making cents on the hour.

Have IDF soldiers ever used Krav Maga in real life?

On March 7th, 2002, Gabi Altaraz, owner of the Cafe Caffit was walking around his crowded restaurant, full of families and young couples, full of the sounds of children. He noticed a young man sitting alone at the table. The man seemed nervous, agitated and odd.

Despite the day being quite chilly in the tail end of the Israeli winter, the strange man was sweating profusely.

Gabi walked over and asked to take the order, figuring the man was just a bit distracted by work.

The man seemed annoyed by the question. “Just water,” he snapped, clearly bothered. He then asked who Gabi was, giving him the most chilling smile that looked murderous.

As Gabi listened, he noticed a very large backpack by the man’s feet.

Gabi didn’t change his expression, but said he’d get it. Instead, he went and got twenty three year old Shlomi Harel, one of the waiters. “I think we have a problem,” he said.

Now, with spiked hair, tattoos and a pierced eyebrow. Shlomi may have looked like some bored college student currently fetching drinks and food, but he was also a recently released elite commando.

Shlomi walked up to the table and asked in Arabic for the man’s ID card (which all Israeli residents must carry) The man produced a blue one, indicating he was an Israeli citizen. However, Shlomi had already noticed the bag.

More importantly, he noticed the wire which protruded from it, and which ran through the man’s jacket and through the man’s right sleeve to a detonator in his hands.

The cafe was full, 50 innocent civilians, women and children and elderly, all of whom were defenseless. In seconds, they would be a red mist unless he was willing to risk his life.

With a fearlessness bordering on superhuman, Shlomi pounced on the terrorist and threw him out of the restaurant.

Once outside, before the terrorist knew what hit him, Shlomi had already jerked out the wire, separating the bomb from the detonator, as he was trained. He then ripped off the pack, threw aside and slammed the terrorist to the floor to restrain him.

As he wrestled the terrorist to a safe distance, he also yelled to clear the streets, take cover and call the bomb squad, while using the skills of Krav Maga to make sure the would-be murderer didn’t go anywhere until the authorities could take him away.

Shlomi’s excellent training, heroism and sacrifice prevented a massacre. 10 kilograms of explosives and shrapnel was packed inside the backpack, enough to kill all 50 people and wound and blind and maim and mangle 50 more.

If a soldier has to resort to Krav Maga, the goat droppings have really hit the fan. Ideally, you never want to be in a position where you need to be that close to the enemy, but there have been situations where it was required.

Remember, Krav Maga isn’t just about a form of self defense so you can go home at night safely.

In the army, it’s about making arrests. (And his knee isn’t on the detainee’s neck but shoulders, as can be clearly seen by anyone with training)

It’s about disarming suspects.

It’s about self defense for situations like knife attacks.

And as the story makes clear, it has other uses.

So yes, soldiers use it. Otherwise, why would they teach it?

And yes, the stuff related to arresting and neutralizing terrorists. Not the stuff I do.

No Status

Have you ever experienced something you can’t explain?

Me and a buddy were at his house watching TV and some person on the screen was eating a strawberry. I don’t really care for them, but it looked good and I asked if, by chance, he had any strawberries in the house. He almost laughed at me, we were two 20-year old’s with a higher chance of beer or mac & cheese or Fruit Loops than strawberries. About twenty minutes later, there’s a knock at the door and he goes to answer it. He yells out to me to come see something. His mom is standing at the door with one of those low-cut boxes with a bunch of strawberries. he said, “Tell Jeffy what you said!” She looks a little strange and says, “I was driving home and there was a guy selling strawberries out of the back of his truck and I thought, “I bet David and his friends would like some strawberries…” My buddy says, “Well, you blew it. We all have one wish and you wasted yours on strawberries.”

A year ago, I did a test for Mensa, also known as “The High IQ Society.” I was given an IQ of 162. Does this mean I’m special?

Yes, but…

As an example, there was a woman who worked for me at one point. She used to always brag that she has a 174 IQ. Everyone was tired of it and it really kept her from forming good relationships at work (the “I am better than you” complex). One day, I was just not wanting to put up with it so I said “wow, your IQ is higher than Albert Einstein!” When she agreed, I responded “he invented the theory of relativity, what have you done?” She never mentioned her IQ after that. You see, IQ matters less than what you do with what you have.

P.S. I am a member of Mensa, too, and realize that it is just the measure of potential, not an accomplishment.

Edit: thanks for everyone who up-voted my response. I think this is my highest. I went to my first Annual Gathering (AG) this year and it just reinforced my belief. It isn’t what you have, but what you do with it. Many wonderful people, but just like the rest of society in so many ways.

How is she surprised he responded like this? She deserves everything she gets

Lordy! This is everything that wrong with the United States today.

Who is the most evil person you have ever met?

Have you ever been accused of something very wrong ,and been totally innocent.

I have this mentally I’ll neighbor a block down the street ,he will say just about anything with no remorse whatsoever, he is so envious of me, from what other people have told me that it’s almost some type of fixation.I warned my new girlfriend about him and to keep her distance from him, quite frankly I don’t trust him at all.One day I see she was at the bottom of the driveway picking up the mail as usual only potty mouth is blabbering to her about something, he was out walking his dog. When she parks her car and heads for the house she usually stops to see what I’m doing. Today she goes straight up and into the house, I knew that idot had said something to upset her, unfortunately for me I was in the middle of spraying and couldn’t drop what I was doing.I head into the house an hour later and she seems very tense, but when I mentioned what did the ding dong down the load have to say, she said ahhh nothing really.

A couple hours later when we met at the doorway between the master bedroom and the bathroom, she actually ducted away from me. Now I knew something was wrong and I had to get to the bottom of it, but when I asked what was bothering her every time she had the same response, ahhh nothing really.

Finally I had enough, I said I want to know what is going on ,and we’re not closing our eyes until you tell me. Then she says, whatcha going to do hit me.I was totally floored, I have never in my life struck a woman and told this to her. She says that the guy down the street told her, he used to hear my ex wife screaming and that I had been arrested for abuse a couple of times.I started to chuckle a little and she says this is very serious ,and that if I layed a hand on her she’s going straight to the cops.

I pointed to a couple of shotguns leaning in the corner by my dresser. See those, well if I had any sort of domestic violence charges brought against me , there wouldn’t be any fire arms allowed in the house. She says you have several guns, that’s against, the law then. I warned you about listening to that asshole some time ago didn’t I ,she couldn’t believe someone would make up a story like this. So let’s just look up my criminal record and see how bad I am, in Wisconsin you can go to the clerk of courts on line and check out anyone’s history. Look here there nothing, nothing at all, squeaky clean. She seemed a little shocked. Now I said let’s check out your new friend, Oh Look two convictions for domestic abuse, spent two weeks in jail twice for failing to pay child support and a felony conviction for distribution of cocaine.Maybe now you will take what he says with a grain of salt. She still looked a little puzzled, but gradually got back to normal. One of these days he’s going to say something about the wrong guy and find himself in big trouble. I fail to see what he hopes to gain, except cause me grief. Maybe someone else has a clue, I just totally avoid him and have for several years now.

What is the origin of the expression “ducks in a row”?

The expression, “get your ducks in a row,” means to get prepared to do something. But where did this expression come from?

Many years ago, an old-time JPL engineer explained to me the origin of this expression. Sadly, I don’t remember who it was. There are a number of people I regarded highly who might have been the source of this. I certainly believed them because it made so much sense.

Consider an old drafting tool used to hold splines to make curves. It is called a drafting duck, also known as a lofting duck.

What the heck is a drafting duck, you might ask?

Before we get to that, let’s talking about lofting.

Back in the days of building large wooden sailing ships, they used to create full size drawings of the ship. The only place big enough for such a drawing was in loft above the shipbuilding building. The loft had a lot of space without posts in the way. Creating such drawing became known as lofting.

If you’ve ever done any computer-aided drafting, then you will have come across splines. These are smooth curves passing through a series of dots.

But how did they do that in the days before computers? Well, they used splines! A spine was a long flexible piece of wood that was held down on the drawing to make a curve passing through the points on the drawing.

or the very long splines they used in lofting, they had a bunch of weighted objects to hold the spline in place so they could run their pencil along it to make the smoothly curved line.

Lofting Ducks. The little bent nose sticking out was poked into the top of the spline to hold it in place. The body of these ducks was something like steel so they would be weighty and able to hold the spline in place.

So, before they could draw the line along the spline, they had to …

get their ducks in a row.

And that’s where the expression came from. At least according to the ancient engineer I knew a couple of decades ago.

Being in the friend zone

I promised my son a PS5 if he got straight A’s and he did, but I don’t want to give him a ps5. What should I do?

Huh. Tell me about it.

I promised the Screamy Blonde Thing £200 if she passed all her GCSEs except RE, which we don’t care about.

Yeah, my money’s safe because I’ve seen that kid’s Eng Lit essays. I’ve just spent two years shouting and cajoling just to get her Eng Lang up to scratch and the chances of her passing Eng Lit is the same as that of Kylie Minogue dragging me into Meadowhall Travel Lodge and giving me a damn good seeing-to.

Is what I thought.

Do you know what she bloody well did? Passed the bloody lot except RE. I swear she did it on purpose just to annoy me. Sigh. Bye-bye £200. I knew I shouldn’t have spent a week going through Romeo and bloody Juliet with her, still less another one going through The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde. Because of this, she now has a morning off from her computerses things at the Tech whilst the dim kids retake their Maths and English GCSEs. That kid has always been as jammy as a Co-Op doughnut, I tell you.

Anyway, the point. Stump up. You promised it, you bloody well deliver or you’ll be persona non grata in kidworld and they’ll never trust anything you say again for the rest of your life.

Back to the subject of the SBT, she’s spending her morning lying in bed playing with her Nintendo.

Or so she thinks.

I’m about to break the news that nobody could be arsed to do last night’s teapots and there’s a sinkful, and guess who’s drying? BWUHAHAHA! It’s not that I’m evil, it’s just……no it is. I’m evil. But not evil enough to renege on my promise for hard work. Get your wallet out.

What are your thoughts on China’s military growth? Do you think they will ever catch up to America? Or are there some aspects where we still hold an advantage?

In terms of absolute military power, they will never catch up with the USA. They simply do not have any intention to do this.

I think that Americans simply do not comprehend this. They live in a country that is accustomed to wars, The USA destroys countries and kills people in wars continuously. Afghanistan; Iraq; Syria; Bosnia; Somalia; Vietnam; Libya; Grenada etc etc. This has gone on for so long that Americans think it’s normal – as normal and ordinary and unremarkable as their regular school shootings.

China isn’t interested. They just want to build highways, sea ports, airports, railways etc; link up the world and do more trade and business.

Men Made a List of Women to NEVER DATE!

What has your toddler said that left you completely dumbfounded?

“I know who’s wetting the grass mummy!” My three year old daughter one day stated proudly.

We were eating breakfast at the time and my husband and I both looked at each other dumbfounded. She continued beaming at us. Clearly very proud of herself.

“Honey what do you mean?” My husband asked her trying to make sense of it.

“You know daddy…” She said shaking her head as if it what she was talking about was common knowledge. I was struggling to keep a straight face. “Explain it to daddy,” I said to her.

“Ok mummy.”

“Well,” she said. “In the mornings the grass is wet right?”

“Right, yes it’s a dew.”

“No…” She corrects him. “It’s a man dressed in black.”

“Are you sure honey?” My husband asks her.

“Yes I saw him last night…”

At first we were dumbfounded, then we were very worried. Turns out she had seen someone. The next night I stayed in my daughters room and someone actually tried to break in. Luckily some fly spray in the eyes and a quick call to the police soon put him out of action… Though my daughter said “mummy don’t do that to the grass wetter”

Turns out he was a child abuser, not the grass wetter. Luckily he won’t be doing that ever again now. And my daughter still can’t get over the fact that I sprayed him in the eyes with fly spray…

What did she say to me afterwards? “Who will wet the grass now mummy?”

And the next morning. “They found a new person, I haven’t seen him yet but the grass has been wetted again.”

Kids. They are so innocent and at times hilarious 🙂

What “unwritten rules of being a man” don’t you follow?

I was taking an advertising class. An ad agency executive was doing a guest lecture.

The theme of the class was, “Knowing your customer.” Learning about each demographic.

We had a small class of about 15 people.

He was seated off to the side of the class. He was having each of us individually go stand in front of the class for 2–3 minutes for a conversation.

From there, he’d have a friendly conversation with them, asking them questions about them and their life.

So my turn comes. I go to stand up in front of the class.

He looks me over and asks, “What’s your favorite sport to watch?”

My reply, “Well. I don’t really watch many sports hmmmm….”

He immediately changes to, “What’s your dream car?”

My reply, “Well, I am not really into cars either.”

“Fishing? Hunting?”

I defeatedly say, “Well….no…not so much.”

Apparently I didn’t check the box of following at least one major sport or being into fishing or hunting.

I was married at the time. He sees my wedding ring, and says,

“How’d you propose to your wife?”

I thought, “Oh man…really?…..guess we are out of man questions…”

And I painfully relayed a story of how I proposed.

And of course all the girls in the class all went “awwwwwwww”.

I felt like I’d suddenly grown a vagina.

But oh well. This is me. I’m not a typical dude. No apologies.

High Alert! China’s New EMP Weapon Is Going To Change The Industry Forever

What are some awesome psychological facts you know?

The happier you are the less sleep you require to function in every day life. Sadness increases the urge to sleep more.
Dreams reveal feelings that we’ve hidden or repressed because dreams, are a reflection of our unconscious mind, our emotional truth.
The unhappiest people in the world are the ones who care what everyone thinks about them.
By thinking one positive thought every morning, you can psychologically trick your brain into being a happier person.
Walking increases brain activity.
Intelligent people are more likely to avoid conflict, which explains why some people notice everything but choose to say nothing.

What do you do if you are homeless and alone?

I’m technically homeless for the second time in my life. Finances were at a real strain earlier in the year but I held on until my son went off to college. At 68, my career in print media ground to a halt and with an exploding real estate market where I saw my rent quadruple in a matter of months. My life was unsustainable.

Car payments, car insurance, prescription medicines and food, I’ll admit, I was drowning. When my son left I no longer had a reason to maintain a household or a car. I stopped fighting the inevitable. My social security payment was all I had. I sold my possessions and booked a one-way ticket to the far east. I can live on the pittance provided me for my years of work as an American. I just can’t live in America.

Since I left the states, I’ve lived in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal. Next week I’m heading to India for a month before returning and spending Christmas and New Years in Vietnam. I live in decent three star hotels typically with free breakfast.

My social life had already slowed considerably as I got old.

I stopped drinking nearly three years ago so I no longer have that monkey on my back. But life, in general is good. It’s adventurous. And I no longer have the burdens that come with life in the US. My son is happy and thriving. My older daughter and her family are doing very well. I’m a phone call away from them and we talk frequently. The difference is I’m alive and living with few worries.

Would you be nervous if FBI agents knocked on your door and asked to talk to you? Would you let them in?

My son had an FBI agent come to his apartment. He sold noncommercial DVDs on his web page of 80’s cartoons. Someone had bragged about not caring about copyright and given the FBI his name in order to get him in trouble.

When asked, he said, “Yes, I sell those DVDs on my web page. Oh, do you want copies of where I have the rights? What’s your fax number?”

And nobody ever bothered him again.

Powerful Truth!

What is the most inappropriate thing that you have ever witnessed at a funeral?

Many years ago my first wife’s father was died. He was married at the time. He also had a girlfriend. When my mother-in-law, my now ex-wife, her grandmother and I arrived at the funeral we were expecting, of course, to sit on the front row. It is typical for the spouse to sit there. Unfortunately, the girlfriend with her children showed up prior to the wife and had seated herself and her kids on the front row. The wife, who had more restraint than I would have, decided not to make a scene and sat behind the girlfriend and her kids. If my memory serves me correctly, she did fire the girlfriend, who worked at the store now solely owned by my mother-in-law.

I get that the girlfriend was also grieving. After all, her sugar daddy was now gone. If she had had more manners and civility at the funeral, she would probably have been given time to find a new job (my MIL was a nice person), but since the gf intentionally embarrassed the wife in public, she didn’t deserve to be treated nicely.

How do cancer patients know the end is near?

My father was the epitome of impeccable health well into his older years, the strongest, healthiest person I knew. Walking 25,000 steps per day, always energetic, near perfect vision, mentally sharp (he had a PhD in mathematics), my father had every quality in his 70s that I wish I had in my 50s! Best of all, he was a very humble man and wonderfully loving father.

My dad was a renowned scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he studied nucleology. Unfortunately, he and many of his fellow scientists developed sarcoma later in life, a rare form of cancer. Some of his cohorts had already died in their 30s and 40s. My father didn’t acquire sarcoma until the age of 73, striking with little warning and spreading quickly throughout his entire body. It remains unknown whether or not the fate of these scientists was connected to the decades of nuclear research projects they performed.

My father awoke in the middle of the night in pain, was driven to the hospital by my mother, and by the time he arrived 15 minutes later he had no feeling below his rib cage. A tumor had grown along the spine and rapidly shut off the nerves, blocking any feeling all the way to the tip of his toes. After some tests, the doctors gave him three to six months to live. He lasted three months.

The question

To answer your question, how did he know the end was near? After three months of being bedridden and paralyzed, with his spirits high and his faith strong, he was lying awake around 4:00 a.m. when he suddenly struggled to breathe. He summoned my mother who was asleep in the same room. He knew it was the end.

The finale

My parents had been together for 55 years, meeting when they were teens. My mother held his hand, and he whispered, “Will you be okay without me?” to which my mother replied, “I’ll be fine.” And within seconds after those words, he was gone. I was on a plane flying to come see him when he passed, so I didn’t make it in time to say goodbye. But we had spent plenty of time together, especially in the final months, so I was at total peace. The world lost one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century that day. But I lost the greatest father.

What is the dirtiest fine print you’ve seen in a contract?

A co-worker and I were given new employee contracts to sign and we saw that if we were to leave the company we could not work as software developers for three years. We refused to sign, so the company controller came to us and asked why.

After we explained why we wouldn’t sign, he said, “Oh, that’s not what that means. What it means is that you won’t start a new, competing contract firm and steal away employees.” So I told him to change the contract language to state exactly what he’d told me. He just kept saying, “But you know what it means!”

I finally told him that until the contract says what it really means, I wouldn’t sign it. He said he’d have it corrected, but we never received a corrected copy, so we never signed a new contract.

His explanation made more sense than the contract’s language, but I wasn’t going to sign away my right to work on blind faith.

A husband

“This man worked a 13-hour day in 90-degree weather and walked through the door and said, ‘I’m home. What can I do to help you?’

Yet, these are words I hear from him often.

He is not a ‘unicorn.’ Men like these exist.

The kind who wash the dishes after you cook. Who do the yard work because they know you hate it. Who work 60+ hour work weeks and still come home and play with their kids, give their wife a kiss, and ask, ‘What can I do to help?’

Who gets up some nights to change the baby’s diaper while you get ready for a night feeding. Who gives the kids baths and puts them down for bed. Who spends his weekends with his family. Who cracks a cold one once the kids are down, and plays Farkle and Rummy with his wife.

Leader of the home, equal partner with his wife, provider, protector, and hands-on father. I’m so glad I married this man, and that he also acknowledges my hard work at home with two kids, nursing, cooking, and cleaning.

We take care of each other. It’s 50/50, and we are raising our boys to be men, just like their fathers.

I see so many women cry and complain their partner doesn’t help with the kids, bills, housework, give them any attention, etc.

My heart breaks when I hear, ‘Oh, that’s men,’ or ‘I just deal with it and suffer.’

Ladies, that isn’t a man. Make him do better or find better! If you have a good one who treats you like a queen, then treat him like the king he is.

Marriage is a partnership, not a dictatorship. My husband and I both take care of each other and are very happy.

Many blessings and happiness to all you kings and queens.”

Shared with permission via Jessica Maddux

Cajun Orange Mopped Chops

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
2 tablespoons chopped green onions with tops
4 boneless loin pork chops

Instructions

Combine first five ingredients and pour over pork chops in shallow glass dish. Marinate for 10 or 15 minutes while heating grill or broiler to high.
Reduce heat to medium. Place marinated pork chops on grill or under broiler for 7 to 10 minutes per side, brushing marinade on chops as they are turned. Be careful not to overcook.
Serve with rice or potatoes and a vegetable or salad.

Something Very Βizarre Is Starting To Ηappen At Walmart.. (This Seems Unbelievable!)

Tree love

I have always loved and appreciated trees.

I most especially like the large shady kinds. As a boy in the 1960’s I used to climb them, and hike through the woods as my adventures would take me.

With each and every event, the trees made my life magical.

The earth was rich and moist, and the air was cooler, with the sounds of the swishing of the leaves from the slightest breeze.

When I moved to Indiana, I noticed that people there did not appreciate the trees at all.

Entire forests were cut down and replaced by either flat farmland or parking lots. And Indiana was a most boring place.

Let me tell you.

When you all have a moment, take the time to stroll in a local woods. Spend the day. Take in the scents. Feel the moist earth. And listen to the birds.

…

Today…

What judgment surprised you in a court case?

I was night manager of a large resort hotel. We had a spate of thefts. People weren’t locking their doors, and the thieves would walk up the hall trying door knobs. If the door opened, they took a few steps into the room and took what they could quickly find. A lot of guys left they wallets on top of the TV, so that’s what most often got stolen.

The couple were caught, it was a 17 year old girl and a 19 year old guy. The girl turned 18 before the trial, so her juvenile record was sealed. She looked pretty punk when she was arrested (this was in the 80s). She showed up in court wearing a tasteful black dress and looked very proper.

They were both found guilty. The judge said the girl looked like she was “well bred and just got caught up with the wrong people”, and sentenced her to time served. The guy got 12 years.

After the trial, one of the victims told me he worked for the court system and saw her record before it was sealed. She had all sorts of crimes going back to when she was 12. The guy had one arrest. It was unfair, to say the least.

Rio Grande Valley Pink Grapefruit Pie

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

4 medium to large pink or red grapefruit
1 cup granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups water or strained grapefruit juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (3 ounce) box strawberry gelatin
1 (8 or 9 inch) pie crust, baked
1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Instructions

Peel grapefruit, separate sections* and remove from membranes. Place sections in a strainer over a bowl overnight.
Cook sugar, juice, cornstarch and salt until thick and clear.
Add gelatin and stir until dissolved.
Brush gelatin mixture over pie crust.
Chill gelatin mixture and crust.
When gelatin starts to thicken, add grapefruit sections.
Pour into pie crust and chill until set.
Top with whipped cream.

Notes

The grapefruit should be sectioned lengthwise. By slicing the ends off, the fruit can be set flat on the cutting board to make it easier to slice the rind off lengthwise. Use a small, sharp knife to then remove the sections from the membranes.

What is the most underhanded thing a co-worker did to you that they mistakenly thought went unnoticed?

Oh I let them know I noticed, when I quit. I worked for a Spokane based home healthcare service. I’d been in hospice for a long time and the additional licence for this job was stupid easy. That should have been a clue.

This company has a jaw-dropping philosophy: they provide the barest minimum of service possible without getting sued. That’s it. They don’t give a damn about their clients. I actually offered to give a course in wheelchair safety because OVER AND OVER I’d hear about clients getting dumped on the floor by untrained caregivers. I’ve never dropped a client. Not in 13 years! I was told to “mind my own business.”

The absolute final straw was when I reported bedbugs in a home that had been treated just a few months before. The other two caregivers SWORE there were no bugs. My supervisor told me an exterminator had checked on my day off.

So I came to work that morning and went to make the bed. And it was ALIVE. And when I called the exterminator he said he hadn’t been contacted. So…my employer lied, and broke the law. I sent about 5 minutes of film to dispatch. Live bedbugs. Dead bedbugs. Bedbug and mouse poop. I told them I was reporting them. Well, that got their attention and a state case manager was there in 15 minutes. They got turned in. They got SUED. No job is worth the risk of contaminating my own home or carrying bugs to another client’s home! I’ve never, ever had an employer that literally didn’t care if the clients lived or died. In this case, the clients family had signed her very nice home over to the state to pay for her care. It’s heartbreaking! The state actually wants these elderly clients dead.

WW1 From Russia’s Perspective | Animated History

Do you find Wang’s argument that foreign companies are not truly withdrawing from China because they are merely cutting costs by moving production to countries with lower labor costs like Cambodia?

The problem is practical, in terms of cost.

Cost have risen so high that labor intensive goods below a certain value are increasingly non-viable in a a growing majority of China’s industrial regions.

The most critical problem of cost, though, is the enforced step change in the price of Chinese exports.

The two biggest factors in the past decade have been the reverse Plaza accord, and Donald the Orange’s illegal blanket tariffs.

The reverse Plaza accord was kicked off by the devaluation of the yen in 2013/14. A top-3 global currency was given the political mandate to devalue 100% in a single decade, pulling most of the third world along, making the yuan more than double against most third world peers this century.

China was singled out as a currency manipulator and threatened with designation to force the PBOC to keep the yuan up.

We live in odd times today. The JPY is a mover and shaker in the immense global derivatives market, but a 100% devaluation has been consistently ignored over the past decade. A 10% devaluation of the yuan, which doesn’t even show up in BIS reports, is exaggerated as a meltdown that will bring the rest of the global market along for the “china collapse”.

Note that the yuan will have to trade north of 14 to the dollar to mirror the yen’s decade-long move from 76 to 150 today.

These conditions created by the first world have sent shock waves rippling through margins and prices of Chinese exports.

Instead of climbing a gentle slope, the Chinese have had to struggle up a steep staircase, due to the speed of the enforced change.

But the biggest driver of long-term change in China is the replacement labor. In the 2000s, less than 10m students took the Gaokao. Today, that number is hitting 13m from a smaller cohort. There are fewer factory workers to go around, and the only answer is automation, and moving up the productivity ladder.

Take footwear. China competes on speed and quality, because there are entire shoe manufacturing ecosystems concentrated geographically that can turn idea into product within mere hours/days. Chinese speed underpins the success of Temu and Shein, which has redefined the fashion shopping experience by affording quality at the very forefront of trends.

In a nutshell, the jobs that cannot be automated away will have to eventually leave China, and the belt and road will be a big enabler. There are Chinese-run business parks in Pakistan, Laos, Vietnam and elsewhere, all enabled by infrastructure that didn’t exist before the Chinese came calling.

China will continue supplying the components, and as skills improve overseas, the lower-margin component lines will also be transferred.

What did a neighbor do to you that you will never forget?

My husband and I were living in an apartment but when we found out that I was pregnant we had to move, our landlord didn’t allow children (it was legal at that time and place). We looked for another place to live and found a lovely little cottage in a small village about 20 minutes out of town.

The day after we moved in, our neighbour to the right knocked on the door holding a plate of baked goods, she didn’t linger, just welcomed me to the village and gave me the goodies. Living there for the next few years, they became the best neighbours I’d ever had. They reminded me of The Waltons, so wholesome, cheerful and friendly. Two of their boys often came over to cut the lawns, shovel snow or to babysit. I’d stop by for visits and we’d share fruit from our trees to make pies and fruit salad.

My neighbour to the left side was a younger couple with small children, so when my daughter was a toddler she played with their children while their mom and I sat and enjoyed a chat and a cuppa.

The entire village seemed to be equally as kind and helpful. At the grocery store they packed my bags and delivered them for me, no charge. The local Ford dealership often fixed my car for no charge or just the cost of parts, and the local jeweler owned several homes that he rented out for low rent. Our landlady was a young woman who’d inherited the cottage, but she was happy living with her mother who worked at the post office, each of them were always pleasant. Generally the entire town looked out for each other. It was nothing like I’d experienced before, having come from an urban area and never lived in the country.

I doubt that it’s still the same, it’s been over 30 years, developers did their thing and it’s no longer a quiet little village. The grocery store has bars up the windows, the Ford dealership is a used car lot now, and the jeweler is probably no longer with us, but it was a very good time in my life that I still think about once in a while.

GERMANY Beg CHINA For Money As They Resume Economic Trade!

Germany should apologies to China and offer tea and stay sorry to China.

What will happen if the US and China enter a conflict over the South China Sea, particularly now the US is sending warships etc and will it be a “big” conflict or just isolated to one area?

Let’s start answering this question by addressing the “elephant in the room”.

If you read any Western press, you will be aware of the “common expectations” of what a war with China, and what it would entail. These are clearly explained in policy papers and popular media. The strongest promoters of this narrative is the legacy media to include Yahoo, CNN, BBC, FOX, ABC, MSNBC and all of Australian and Indian “news” media.

This is a “seeded” and intentionally promoted narrative, and no deviance is permitted on this script. This the narrative popularized by NEOCON publications, the United States Congress, and legacy media such as Forbes, Bloomberg, New York Times, etc.

It is a CIA / NSA / NED narrative concocted out of Langley, Va.

[CIA / NED Narrative]

China continues it’s “provocations”.
And “invasion” of Taiwan occurs.
The USA, through it’s proxy nations, intervene.
Chinese advantage is ONLY with numbers and proximity. And thus the PLA run like cowards to the massive military might of the combined Allied forces.

China does not have the ability to innovate, and are novices in fighting. They fall into the “new Verdun” that the United States constructed. The Chinese leadership is also swamped by plagues, famines, and internal revolts that suddenly cropped-out out of nowhere.

A long, drawn-out war ensues.
It will be limited to the South China Sea, and Taiwan.
All trade with China stops. All BRI are interrupted, and Naval blockades are complete.

It’s World War I all over again, only inside of Chinese territory.

China will pour weapons and men and material into those designated war-zones, and the Allies will do the same from their staging locations in Japan, The Philippines, Australia and South Korea.
Eventually, after a few decades, China backs down and surrenders.
The Chinese people, tired of their pathetic lives, revolt and topple the CCP.
Peace overwhelms the planet and everyone enjoys democracy and freedom under the brilliant leadership of the President of the Untied States.

Sound familiar. It should.

And only an ABSOLUTE IGNORAMUS would actually believe it. Because it relies on a plethora of lies, distortions, falsehoods, in order to arrange and fabricate a narrative that many WISH and HOPE to occur.

That is exactly how propaganda works; it tells lies that you WANT to believe.

…

But, you all know, it’s not really “rocket science”. This scenario has already been “gamed out”. At least the early stages. The United States has been following the well-worn, tired and true playbook for decades…

The United States initiates a provocation.
China refuses to act on it.
The United States the stages a “false flag” event, supported with a media barrage.
China reacts militarily and destroys all belligerents in the area.

What happens next depends on numerous factors, but I will break it down in really simplistic categories.

[Planned Response]

This is pretty-much a rehash of the earlier CIA plans.

This is what the Straussian NEOCON psychopaths want. This is their objective.
The United States now has the excuse for a war with China.
As a result, it starts blowing up Chinese cities, ships and assets. The plan is for overwhelming superiority in aircraft and missiles from numerous nations, Naval vessels, and bases.
The plan is for a victory over China, and the assumption that China would be incapable of fighting back in any positive way.

Now, this is where the NEOCON plans go “off the rails”.

Instead of fighting a conventional war, on American terms, to an American defined timeline, and on Chinese soil, using the well-worn war-playbook, China does something different, and unexpected.

I argue (it doesn’t take too much effort, either) that China would…

China and Russia work together lob hyper-sonic nuclear weapons at key cities and infrastructure in the United States directly. This is done at the same time as China is attacking the invading forces and their staging centers.
Most of the United States population centers, as well as those of the proxy nations, are erased from the face of the globe. New York gone. Los Angles and Silicon Valley; gone. Virginia… all of it…gone.
The dinged-up USA responds with nuclear weapons.
The Chinese shoots most of them down with their laser umbrella.
But even with a hand full of American detonations, the Earth experiences a global catastrophe. North America and Europe, as well as Japan, South Korea, and Australia are radioactive wastelands.

[The USA backs down]

This scenario describes the highest probability event cycle.

This concept of withdrawal is unheard of in the United States and Western media, but historically, this is almost ALWAYS the case. This is the Afghanistan, the Vietnam, the Korean War event scenario. Thus, this is a higher probability of occurrence than what one might otherwise think.

The USA performs a politically motivated war plan. While technically well-gamed out, political considerations force erroneous assumptions.
The plan goes to shit early on. FUBAR occurs, and the entire backbone of the plan collapses.
A period of aggressive losses in manpower and material occur, and Washington disengages from the battlefield(s) under some context.
The American and Western media praise the “Great American Win”.

But the impact of very bad Geo-political decisions ignite a “ticking time-bomb” internally.

American domestic opinion turn against the administration.
A nation-wide American civil war breaks out.
It is a catastrophe for the West, and aligned nations all experience internal violence. Japan, Europe, Australia and South Korea suffer massive changes at all levels.

[USA first strike]

This is the great concern, of the “Global South”; the rest of the world outside the G7 led by the United States. But, personally, I really do not see this ever happening. The American military will not allow it.

The USA launches MAD in the belief that China will stand down. Full spectrum war is unleashed, but unlike the earlier scenario, this one engages nuclear weapons from the start.
The SLBM’s and ICBM’s start flying
The Chinese shoots most of them down with their laser umbrella.
But severe damage still occurs inside of China.
China and Russia launch nuclear weapons at the entirety of the West.
Most of the United States population centers, as well as those of the proxy nations, are erased from the face of the globe. Europe is no longer a population region. The United States glows at night.
The, being leaderless, under the control of “the deep state” and rudderless, the United States continues to engage the world in a nuclear war on auto-pilot.
It is a global catastrophe.

[USA Sanctions China & interrupts shipping]

This is the “China Lite” version of war that is debated within the NEOCON publications and talks. I can confirm that this has a great deal of support as a “war on China” option in Washington DC.

The USA decides to implement sanctions (Russian style) against China, and also starts sinking ships. American piracy, and shipping losses enter billions of dollars in losses.
China readies it’s long-planned counter-actions. And they are BRUTAL.
A period of time passes, while the United States, and it’s proxies tries to ignite a “cold war II” fuze.
The Western media is on a full-war gallop…
The American led provocations are numerous, and dangerous. China continues to avoid all of them.

So far, it appears that this is on-going right now. Which makes this scenario the most worrisome.

Then, during a point in time when all the American “leadership is in one place”, such as during an election, or government event, China launches hyper-sonic nuclear weapons at major American cites. The idea being to completely unleash maximum damage in a very short amount of time.
America is erased from the surface of the planet. There simply isn’t any American government left.
The USA auto-retaliates with a MAD nuclear response.
The Chinese shoots most of them down with their laser umbrella.
But even with a hand full of American detonations, the Earth experiences a global catastrophe. But, the USA is the most destroyed nation on the planet.

…

It is a lose-lose in every scenario.

No one wins.

How ANYONE can advocate World War 3 clearly shows how idiotic, moronic, and deranged the Western “leadership” actually is.

How anyone can think otherwise is amazing to me.

There is absolutely NO SCENARIO where the world becomes a better place. Instead, it becomes HELL, and most people DIE.

…

At this point in time I want to address some misconceptions.

One of the greatest is accepting American anti-China propaganda as truth. It’s insidious, and everywhere. If you get any information about China, make SURE that it is from CHINESE sources in CHINESE. Otherwise you are regurgitating CIA propaganda and disinformation.

As a (now deleted) troll said “China only has 300 nuclear warheads, while the USA has over 6000”.

Oh, really?

And, “China is unable to make more because of <insert technical jargon here>”.

China can build two (x2) 6,000 bed hospitals in ten days.
China can build a 62 story skyscraper in two days.
China can design, manufacture and produce cutting edge IC chips, complete with it’s own OS, operating system, and includes satellite comm ability in four years.
China can lock down an entire nation of 1.6 billion people, with only 5000 deaths…

But it cannot make nuclear bombs.

Uh huh.

Sure. What ever you say.

(Eye roll.)

…

Drinking the American propaganda is dangerous as it is in everything. In fact, nothing is left untouched. Those in the upper (the very top) know its all a lie, but have succumbed to their own hubris; the believe their own lies. Oh man. That is dangerous.

So I have to ask…

How do you know that the United States has 6000 nuclear bombs?

Well it said so in an American report, and in American publications.

How do you know that the USA did not blow up Nordstom 1 & 2 pipelines?

Well, it is investigating the issue. American and Western publications say so.

How do you know that the Apollo moon landing program put men walking on the moon?

Well, NASA filmed the guys doing it, and the American government verified it happened.

It is not that EVERYTHING that the United States says is a lie. It’s just that most are distorted truths… approaching the laughable.

How do you know that America is recovering from the “disastrous Trump administration” and inflation is only a mere 3% today?

Well, the American government announced the latest inflation figures.

Crazy huh?

…

The world is spiraling all out of control, all because a group of psychopathic nihilistic narcissists with delusions of ultimate power. And they all are in a circle-jerk believing their very own lie-machine.

What will happen?

No one actually knows, but we do know this;

In 1995, the CIA remote viewed the year 2025. They remote viewed the world 35 years into the future.

This is what they observed…

The Shocking 2025 ‘Deagel’ Forecast and Remote Viewing the future

You might not believe in “remote viewing”, or the CIA. But you have to admit, that there is no way, that in 1995 anyone would be able to predict the world we live in today.

The predictions are uncanny.

And, if you think that the future is not going to unfold this way, then you are delusional.

VOA tried to sabotage Indonesia’s new high speed rail opening

Indonesia’s brand new, China-built and financed high speed railway officially opened to the public yesterday, with most Western media being surprisingly fair in their reports. Voice of America didn’t get the memo, apparently, and ran with a story using their typical, blatant misinformation, posting a picture of an old train directly under their headline. I rode the brand new train during a test run about ten days ago and will share some of my experience with you today, including a chat with a local reporter.

What Is Third Wave Coffee?

Coffee has undergone several major transformations in the past century, commonly referred to as “waves” that denote shifts in how coffee is produced, processed, and consumed. Here’s an overview of the progression of coffee waves.

First Wave Coffee: Accessibility and Mass Production

The first wave of coffee began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This era was characterized by the mass production and widespread accessibility of coffee.

Brands like Folgers and Maxwell House emerged, making coffee a staple in households across the U.S. and beyond.

The beans were often robusta, chosen for their yield and price point rather than quality and flavor. Brewing methods were basic, with drip coffee makers and percolators commonplace.

Espresso drinks like cappuccinos were rare outside of Italian immigrant communities. Overall, coffee was viewed as a commodity rather than a specialty product.

Key Features of the First Wave:

Instant Coffee: The invention of instant coffee made it easier for people to prepare and consume the beverage.
Branding: Major companies began advertising campaigns, making coffee a household name.
Consistency: The focus was on producing a consistent taste, often at the expense of quality and flavor nuances.

Second Wave Coffee: The Rise of the Coffee Shop Culture

The second wave, which began in the 1960s and peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, saw the rise of coffee shops and espresso drinks. Brands like Starbucks, Peet’s, and Costa Coffee played pivotal roles in popularizing this wave.

Beans were sourced from specific regions and often single origin. Roasts were lighter to preserve the distinct flavors of bean varietals.

The emphasis was on taste and freshness. While speciality coffee chains drove the second wave, independent cafes also popped up throughout the US and helped fuel coffee connoisseur culture.

Key Features of the Second Wave:

Espresso-Based Drinks: Lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas became popular choices.
Coffee Shop Culture: Coffee shops became social hubs, places for meetings, work, and relaxation.
Variety: Consumers started to become more aware of different coffee beans, origins, and roast levels.

Third Wave Coffee: Appreciation of the Art and Science

The third wave of coffee emerged in the early 2000s and continues today. This wave strives to produce the absolute highest quality coffee through control of the full production process from crop to cup.

There is an emphasis on direct trade, single origin beans, lighter roasts, and freshness. Brewing methods highlight the distinctive qualities of each bean, with pour over, cold brew, and microbatch espresso common.

The barista is viewed as a skilled artisan. Innovative coffee shops focus on the total coffee experience – the aroma, taste, feel.

There is also transparency about sourcing and farming practices. Third wave coffee is complex, nuanced, and treated more like wine or craft beer than a mere commodity.

Key Features of the Third Wave:

Direct Trade: Coffee roasters and shops often build direct relationships with coffee farmers, ensuring fair prices and sustainable practices.
Specialty Coffee: There’s a focus on high-quality beans, often graded 80 points or above on the Specialty Coffee Association’s scale.
Brewing Techniques: Methods like pour-over, siphon, and cold brew highlight the unique flavors of each coffee bean.
Traceability: Consumers can often trace the coffee’s journey from the farm to the cup, understanding its origin, variety, and processing method.

Fourth Wave Coffee?

Some speculate that a fourth wave of coffee is emerging, focused on sustainability and fair treatment of coffee farmers and workers.

But others argue the industry is still deep in the third wave, working to perfect coffee quality and the consumer experience.

Whether the fourth wave coalesces remains to be seen. For now, the focus is squarely on continuing to improve coffee quality.

Potential Features of the Fourth Wave:

Technology: From blockchain for traceability to apps that connect farmers and consumers, technology plays a central role.
Sustainability: There’s an even stronger emphasis on eco-friendly practices, from farming to packaging.
Education: Consumers are not just passive drinkers; they’re educated about every aspect of coffee production and preparation.

The progression of coffee waves shows an increasing appreciation of coffee as a complex food product requiring care and craftsmanship.

What began as a commoditized morning drink is now regarded as an artisanal product that brings nuanced flavor, community, and connection.

The future of specialty coffee promises even more dedication to the bean, the farmers, and the drinkers who savor every sip.

Ukraine SitRep: Bad Demographics – End of Support

Via a Responsible Statecraft piece I came onto a EU study that tried to predict the future demographics of Ukraine’s population.

The War and the Future of Ukraine’s Population

The study is from early 2022 and is based on Ukrainian casualty numbers from only the very first month of the war. Their worst case scenario was this:

Our third and fourth scenarios assume that the war will continue for a month or longer so that further casualties and refugees are expected. We assume the following casualties: 5,000 deaths among soldiers and 1,500 civilian deaths based on the current trends. There will be 5 million refugees, which is an estimate by UNHCR (UNHCR 2022a)

The real refugee numbers are twice as high and the casualty numbers, wounded and dead, are of course about 100 times higher than the study assumed. It was thus not worth the money that had been spend on it.

Still, some graphs in it are usable.

Yesterday I shortly discussed the op-ed by the former British Minister of Defense Ben Wallace in which he asserts:

The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40.

He then urges the Ukrainian government to throw more young men into the meat grinder.

My response to Wallace was this:

The young Ukrainians are gone. They either have fled from Ukraine or are wounded, disabled or died. You can not mobilize what is no longer there.

Unfortunately the real situation is worse then I had thought.

The ‘age pyramid’ in Ukraine isn’t a pyramid. In 2020 there was a huge lack of 15 to 20 years old people. They were simply not there. They never existed. The number of newborns around 2000 must have been horribly low.

The reason for that was likely the serious downturn of Ukraine’s economy after it had separated itself from the Soviet Union.

It took a decade long severe recession for Ukraine to find a bottom for its economy. Bad economic times and low expectations of betterment had influenced the desire of its people to procreate. Two more downturns followed during the global recession around 2008 and due to the 2014 Maidan coup and the civil war following it.

Thus when the war started there were only half as many people of 20 year age than 40 year old ones. It is no wonder then that few of younger age are seen at the front line.

There is still one measure Ukraine might take to increase the numbers of young soldiers. There currently are exemptions from mobilization for those who study at a university. If Ukraine would draft these if could probably find a few ten-thousand additional soldiers. But it would also strip itself of its future elite.

The already bad demographic prediction some 20 years out would then look even worse than they currently do.

Early this year Ukraine’s birthrate had hit a new low:

To keep a population steady, research shows it’s necessary to have an average of about 2.1 babies per family — known as a replacement rate. In Ukraine, fertility rates have remained under that threshold since 1990. Over the last two decades, the rate has often dropped below what experts call a “very low” fertility rate of 1.3, when a population begins to shrink at an ever increasing rate. In January 2021, a year before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the fertility rate was 1.16, according to national statistics.

The birthrate has since dropped further and is now the lowest one in the world:

Birthrates in Ukraine have fallen by 28% in the first half of 2023, compared to the same period prior to the war, marking the most significant drop since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 25.
…
Due to the ongoing war, millions of Ukrainian women with children were forced to leave the country, while men aged 18 to 60 were prohibited from leaving. As a result, many couples were physically separated, while others delayed starting families, the report says.

In the first half of 2023, there were 96,755 children born in Ukraine. Since 2013, the country’s fertility rate has been dropping by approximately 7% per year.

The population of Ukraine will shrink further. In 1990 Ukraine had a population of more than 50 million people. Twenty years from now the country will have less than maybe 25 million inhabitants. This even if all refugees return. A large if that this is unlikely to happen.

Support for Ukraine is shrinking:

As Russia has become more bloodyminded, Ukraine’s allies seem caught in their own conflicting boundary conditions. There is no willingness to mobilize to defend Ukraine. There isn’t even a serious effort to ramp up military production to an adequate level to match, let alone surpass, Russia’s output.

And that’s before getting to the fact that Ukraine as a county has become a very costly ward of all its backers.

Yesterday a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers on further military assistance for Ukraine ended without results (machine translation):

The foreign ministers of the EU countries at today’s summit in Kiev could not agree on the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 5 billion euros for 2024.

This was announced at a press conference following the event by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel.

The EU’s budget for 2023 was €168.6 billion. €5 billion are peanuts but the EU countries could not unite over it. The senseless generosity has reached the end of the possible.

Borrel predicted the inevitable outcome:

Earlier, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrel said that the cessation of military support for Kiev from the West will lead to a quick end to the conflict in Ukraine, but as a result, the country will lose its independence.

A quick end to the conflict is what all sane people should hope for.

Look at the demographics and economics above and ask yourself what 30 years of ‘independence’ have done for Ukraine.

To end it could well be the best that could ever happen to it. Unfortunately for it Russia is unlikely to step in and to subsidize its further existence.

Posted by b on October 3, 2023 at 13:30 UTC | Permalink

Something TERRIBLE is happening to me right now!

We are all in the same situation, Tucker is just the FIRST. The agencies will get away with this because CONGRESS won’t stop it.

U.S. CONGRESSMAN: ” . . . IF WE’RE GONNA LOSE THE DOLLAR . . . “

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaking about the growing BRICS nations engaging in “de-dollarization,” Gaetz told reporters “. . . if we’re going to lose the dollar . . . .”

Does Gaetz already KNOW the Dollar is doomed?

Here is the one minute, fifty second clip, so all of you have context of the Congressman’s remarks:

This off-the-cuff remark by Congressman Gaetz made me sick to my stomach when I heard it. In __my__ view, this validates ALL the reporting I have been doing on this web site and on my radio show, telling my readers and listeners the US Dollar is collapsing and will be rejected by nations around the world as a means of trade.

That would utterly cripple the United States since we don’t manufacture mcuh of anything here anymore; we import most of it from other countries.

If those countries stop accepting the US dollar in trade, how will WE get what WE need?

Stock-up, folks. Food, clothing, medicines, etc.

Get what you need NOW, while it still can be gotten.

If this collapse takes place, I suspect it will happen like a lightning bolt out of the blue.

No advance warning before it all goes to hell.

Don’t let the US fool you: China is AWESOME!

“For a person who have been to China multiple times, I absolutely love and envy China. It’s absolutely a big disappointment when I return to India and hear all the negative news about China. Chinese people absolutely love Indian people and we instead are preaching hatred towards them. It’s a very very sad affair. Even my children are asking why we are always saying bad things about China all the time. They went to China with me too. I can’t answer them. What can I say? ….India afterall is my country and we are supposed to hate China.”

Israel Confesses War Crime

No, not really. Israel did not confess war crimes. It never does. It proudly announced that it will now commit a war crime:

Israel’s defence minister described Palestinians as “human animals” and vowed to “act accordingly,” as fighter jets unleashed a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip.

Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, an area of about 365 square km, and home to 2.3 million Palestinians, which has been under an Israeli-led blockade since 2007.

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant said.

“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he added.

The Israeli air force has dropped 2,000 munitions and more than 1,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in the last 20 hours, the army said on Monday morning, having shelled 20 high-rise residential buildings, mosques, hospitals, banks and other civilian infrastructure.

—

Ragıp Soylu @ragipsoylu – 13:37 UTC · Oct 10, 2023

Israel military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the army drops hundreds of tons of bombs in attacks in the Gaza Strip, and —— “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”
— Haaretz

—

Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price (archived)

…
On Saturday they were already talking about wiping out entire neighborhoods in Gaza, about occupying the Strip and punishing Gaza “as it has never been punished before.” But Israel hasn’t stopped punishing Gaza since 1948, not for a moment.

After 75 years of abuse, the worse possible scenario awaits it once again. The threats of “flattening Gaza” prove only one thing: We haven’t learned a thing. The arrogance is here to stay, even though Israel is paying a high price once again.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears very great responsibility for what happened, and he must pay the price, but it didn’t start with him and it won’t end after he goes. We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, but we should also cry for Gaza.

Gaza, most of whose residents are refugees created by Israel. Gaza, which has never known a single day of freedom.

—

The Israeli government has called up another 360,000 reservists for a total of 660,000 reservists plus the 170,000 in the regular standing forces. Israel’s total labor force is 4.4 million.

This is not sustainable for more than a week or two. With 660,000 mostly young people, 15% of the total workforce, suddenly absent, Israel’s economy will immediately tank. The Shekel and the Israeli stock market have already dropped significantly and the central bank had to intervene to keep the currency stable.

Meanwhile 200,000 out of a total of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are now displaced. Israel bombed their homes to smithereens and they have nowhere to go.

A few days ago Netanyahoo told people in Gaza to leave. The only place they theoretically could go is Egypt. Today Israel bombed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

A ground invasion of Gaza will be difficult and likely lead to massacres – on both sides. Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria would likely see a ground invasion of Gaza as a reason to intervene. It has missiles and drones that are precise and can reach any part of Israel. Israel may then retaliate by attacking the Syrian government. Iran and Russia would thereby get involved in the war. The U.S. of course would jump in on Israel’s side.

This war could really, really escalate and do so soon.

Posted by b on October 10, 2023 at 14:42 UTC | Permalink

First Time in U.S. History: SPEAKER of THE HOUSE — OUSTED

Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history, that was forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.

McCarthy’s chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, forced the vote on the “motion to vacate,” drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is unworthy of leadership.

It was the first time since 1910 that a vote has been held on whether to remove a Speaker and the only time such a motion has been approved.

McCarthy is now the shortest-serving House Speaker since the year 1876.

Next steps are uncertain, but there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.

Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker “is hereby declared vacant.” The Hammer fell at 4:49pm EDT. Here is video of the historic moment:

Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker is chosen.

The House then briskly recessed so lawmakers could meet and discuss the path forward.

Trump Wanted U.S. Out Of NATO!

Among the list of Biden administration accomplishments, the expansion of NATA is usually mentioned prominently by the President’s supporters. And that represents a stark contrast with Donald Trump, who at one point during his presidency declared an intention to pull the U.S. out of NATO entirely. But he soon backtracked, which has led a number of observers to speculate about what might have changed Trump’s mind.

Has Huawei successfully challenged the dominance of American tech giants and truly democratized the tech industry?

Huawei has established the third truly COMMERCIAL Asian Tech Ecosystem from China and the eighth in Asia after Toyota, Nikon, Canon ,Samsung , BYD, Trina and Xinyi

The Huawei Ecosystem now has

The Chip
The OS
The 5G Modem
The GPU
The Networks

Yet Huawei Ecosystem is fragile because SMIC the manufacturer of the 7 nm Node depends on Advanced DUV equipment from ASML

Now SMIC has stockpiled massive orders from ASML and that will keep SMIC going till maybe 2026

However that’s still dependence, a lot of dependence on the West

So i would say HUAWEI has made a start

Meanwhile people forget the REAL WINNERS of the three companies that have established it’s own dominant ecosystem on which the West is entirely dependent on :-

BYD

BYD has:-

The Chip – The Mature 28nm Chip that only China can today manufacture cost effectively and in huge volumes
The Software
The Satellite Navigation System
The Battery
The Dynamic Unit

It’s completely and entirely Independent from Western Technology

Trina and Xinyi who have :-

The Intelligent Chip
The Micrograde Wafer Panel (That to this day no nation can produce except France but at 87% higher cost)
The Carbide micro layering etching equipment (Chinas equivalent of the EUV Lithography Machine)
The Silicon extraction process into Mono, Poly Crystalline Silicon with infusions

Yes Huawei deserves all the admiration for its clawback and fighting

Yet BYD, Trina and Xinyi actually get Proprietary License Fees from the West which is unique for a Nation that to thia day didn’t kowtow to the West unlike Japan, Israel and South Korea

Huawei to win, needs SMIC to become another BYD or Xinyi or Trina

If SMIC can achieve that, then China truly begins the challenge to the established Semiconductor industry

Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home| REACTION TEARS

Oliver Anthony is breaking a spell we’ve all been under with his pure unfiltered honesty. It’s just disarming and appears to allow everyone to drop the mask we put on everyday and speak to each other from the heart. I haven’t not cried yet.

Will the United States ever become a major manufacturer again like it was in the past, instead of outsourcing everything to China?

Why don’t you decide?

First you ought to understand the issue in the first place. Anything made in the U.S. simply cannot compete and won’t sell. Why?

Your workers demand 5 times the salary and is willing to work half the hours, expecting 10 times more benefits. You CEO wants 100 times their income, your workers refused to be train, your colleges turn out lawyers and bull shit artist and not STEM engineers, your infrastructure is dilapidated, Your government spends all its money fighting wars instead of helping industry. You offend all your prospective customers.

So my friend. You need to outsourced your production. China offers a best value for money. You Choose China. China don’t choose you.

So you want to stop. Can you? Can you ask US workers to get 20% salary, work twice as hard, accept 10% of benefits, your CEO earn 1% it did, you stop fighting wars, making wars and building infrastructure? Can you? I doubt so.

You can’t have the cake and eat it too. Choose one! I think this questioner will choose war because you have been conditioned your whole life to think the U.S. must bomb any nation that refuse to be submissive and subservient to you. Your media and your politicians made you what you are.

ER DOCTOR reacts to BRITISH PUBLIC guessing US healthcare costs | Dr Jmack

Heyo!! Today I’m reacting to the British public reacting to the cost of healthcare in the US. I thought this would be a cute and funny reaction video, but it really turned into something else. I may or may not have ended up ranting for 20 minutes! Topics hit: absurdity of US healthcare costs, does US medicine already have a combined capitalist/socialized structure, do doctors/nurses care that the system is rigged?

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

When I was in middle school, I took “typing” for all three years of my tenure there, and I never learned to type. I never did anything in the class except draw, use my Gameboy, or shoot the shit with my friends. Somehow I always got a passing grade, like a ‘B’, and I didn’t ask any questions. it wasn’t til my second year did I figure out what was going on….

The teacher always wore a decent conservative business suit, carried a large hard side briefcase (this was the late 80’s), and never really taught us anything. He only taught typing and “computers” and the computer class was the same vibe. Well, I viewed into his open brief case one day to see real estate materials, flyers, business cards, etc. This guy was a real estate agent, that somehow got hired as full-time teacher as a side hustle……..at least he had a steady income and full bene’s as a teacher.

He was always working on his real estate business when he should’ve been instructing! He couldn’t give the few of us that did nothing bad grade cuz that’d ruin his gig. I’m still not sure why he decided to teach, who decided to hire him, and why he seemingly got away with this for years.

However, this did teach me that I can successfully juggle two projects and receive two paychecks!

U.S Senators Travel to China to Beg Xi for Trade Deal !

Engagement and dialogue are essential for constructive international relations. This video examines the delicate US-Taiwan-China relationship, addressing the importance of mutual understanding, compromise, and respect for sovereignty for maintaining stability and trust between nations.

Has Huawei successfully challenged the dominance of American tech giants and truly democratized the tech industry?

My friend explained it like this.

He plays the piano beautifully, and he practices with the children on weekends.

He likened the first world’s iron grip on tech to this little tool here…

It’s called a metronome, and musicians use it to set the beat-rate for sheet music.

I taught myself how to read notes (very, very poorly) as an adult and as an engineer, I couldn’t figure out how sheet music communicated the speed one played the notes.

Until my friend explained the metronome to me.

Pre-2020s, the pace of progress was set by the first world. The standard-defining or cutting-edge tech always came from advanced economies. For cars, we had the S-class/7 series, for computers we had Intel and more recently, AMD/Mac, for planes we had Airbus/Boeing.

In essence, the west defined tech generations. We were stuck with 2G… until the first world came along with 3G. We were stuck with DDR3 Ram, until DDR4 was introduced.

The first world ran the clock when it came to tech, and the rest of the world planned around the schedule.

The most important reason was the monopoly they had on the upstream tools. If we gave the best talent the best tools, different teams will eventually optimize towards convergence. There is only so far one can push the expression of the state of the art, and that is why Airbus models are head to head with Boeing, and Android not too different from iOS.

China is third world.

And for the first time in modern history, a non-first-world country has dibs on the cutting edge. China has established itself as a dominant player in diverse fields such as nuclear power generation, medium voltage power architecture, EVs, high speed rail, TBMs, photovoltaics and many more.

In every one of these fields, China isn’t competing on cost alone, but setting standards, and helping to define the next generation.

Case in point: China is currently the only country to operate a test 4th-gen nuclear reactor that’s plugged into the grid, putting it a good decade (or more) ahead of the competition in terms of commercialization.

Similarly, Huawei, after being kicked out of the Bluetooth SIG, has redefined short-range wireless technology with its Nearlink standard, capable of 1.5Mbps speeds consuming way lower energy. And these are delivered numbers, in physical consumer products available TODAY.

That’s bluetooth 6.x/7.x territory, which is years away from being issued as a standard, never mind consumer availability.

Imagine Huawei, one third world company, leapfrogging the current state of the art Bluetooth by at least 1–2 generations.

The west/first world no longer controls the clock.

Let me repeat, because this is important.

THE WEST NO LONGER CONTROLS THE CLOCK.

Rather, China will continue to pop surprises, just because the country and society is poorly reported by the first-world dominated media.

The educated, and well informed who read ABOUT the Chinese exclusively will repeatedly wake up to head-scratching bombshells in the coming future.

What? The Chinese did THIS? That’s… impossible. Don’t they only know to steal and copy and reverse-engineer?

I won’t be surprised if Nearlink is adopted by Apple and the Android alliance, because it is a transformative standard that can enable brand new ecosystems. What will Huawei do with Wifi, and next-gen navigation, particularly indoor spaces? What will a 5.5G Huawei phone add to the mobile experience?

The Chinese, at the minimum, are turning up the metronome, and playing Beethoven as he originally intended.

Shape up, or screw up, sanctions be damned.

Things a Filipina Fears in Dating Foreigner – Untold Reasons!

Most of you if not all foreigners were really curious of us filipina why we are still single but always wish in the corner to have a foreigner partner. Now you will know the untold reasons and that includes mine. Some of it are very hilarious and might offend one of your pride but let me tell you a word that you will enjoy and learned alot by watching this video.

The first results from the extraterrestrial material of Bennu

The Osiris-Rex mission conference has wrapped up, and the newly released pictures of rock samples collected from the asteroid Bennu are leaving everyone in awe.

These samples consist of 250 grams of primordial material, which means they originated around 4.6 billion years ago during the formation of our Solar System.

Within these minute fragments, scientists have detected the presence of clay, water, and even organic material.

Three MORE Aircraft Carriers Leaving Port; 101st Airborne Division Relocating from Romania to Jordan. Target: Iran? Syria? Both?

China Is Suffering a Brain Drain. The U.S. Isn’t Exploiting It.

Most of the general public already knows the USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier and its Strike Group arrived in the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Israel. What few people know is that THREE other aircraft carriers and a NATO Maritime Group are also being deployed . . .

The big media bru-ha-ha over the past few days was the urgent deployment of the USS Gerald Ford and Carrier Strike Group 12.

But the mass media has been almost silent about some other vessels suddenly putting to sea and the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division are all heading out — fast.

How do I become very successful in my early twenties?

In short: Do more than everybody else.

If you work harder than everybody else around, you will become more successful.

It’s that simple… at least on a first glance.

But on a second glance, it might be a tiny bit more complicated than that.

Let’s look at an example: Elon Musk.

Elon Musk works 90 hour weeks regularly, although he has been known to work over 110 hour weeks during some parts of his life.

He definitely worked harder than anyone else around and eventually reached success with that.

But the question you have to ask yourself is if that is the kind of life you want to live.

Elon Musk has very little time for anything else in his life.

Since he works so much he only has very little time for friends and family, little time for hobbies and even less time for any other activities like watching movies.

He doesn’t travel much outside of work and is probably not caught up on any of the newest series or movies.

Instead his life is centered around his work and he invests most of his time into it. To him, this is the best place to spend his time.

Before you get all up and about in becoming successful ask yourself first what you are willing to sacrifice to get there.

Elon Musk sacrificed and still sacrifices a lot of family time, hobbies and experiences to give himself more time to work, allowing him experience of being successful. That is what he wants out of life and that is what works for him!

You can definitely reach high amounts of success in your early 20s, but to do that you have to sacrifice many friendships, hobbies, a lot of family time, a large amount of sleep and many other niceties.

You will miss the relaxing cinema experiences, opportunities to engage with friends about the newest series, and time spent on hobbies and other things… but you will increase your chances to be successful!

The question is: Is that worth it to you?

If you are still willing to work for success with that all being said, keeping in mind all you might need to sacrifice, then by all means, go and work!

If your definition of success does not include any of the sacrifices, then go for it! Do what you can, read more books, learn, improve, grow and spend 90% of your waking time grinding away.

If that however does not seem like the life you want to lead, then maybe think about what it is you want instead.

If you want to spend time with your family, want to travel and go on vacations, want to have crazy hobbies, and spend some time chatting about the newest series, then you will not be able to work that much or succeed that fast.

You will have to spend some time every week in these things. Is that okay for you?

Different people have different values in life and depending on them they need to spend their time differently.

While Elon Musk is driven by his work, you may not be, and that’s okay!

It’s not about creating THE successful life, but about creating YOUR successful life!

Okay… those were my 2 cents on it; now lets get into the actual How to do it!

Ascertain what “Success” means to you – Depending on your personal definition, the work you do will be different.
Consume Information from People that have reached that Success – The closer they are to your idea of success the better it is. Learn from them and follow their advice! Trust them, as they must have had some right idea to get where they are today.
Produce don’t Consume – Besides the consumption above, you should be grinding and producing non-stop. More work = Faster results. That is the rule of thumb and holds generally true.
Adjust – Every week… no… every DAY you should be looking at what works, what doesn’t, where you struggle and how to get results faster. Keep tabs on yourself and do not allow yourself to get away with less than you want!
Create a System – You have to create a path that goes from your action to the desired result. In finance this is called a ‘Funnel’. How are people going to go from site X to purchase on site Z, for example.

The rest, depends entirely on what your version of success is and how hard you work.

Other than that, if you do steps 2–4 every day, you will become successful in your 20′s no problem.

Just make sure it is really what you want first!

6 Reasons to Retire as Soon as You Can

There is a MAJOR uptick in these kinds of videos about people dropping out of the work-force.

What is the likelihood of China using military force against the United States in the near future? What would be their likely method of attack?

The threat meter is flopping back and forth from zero to pinging at 100%.

The meter is normally at zero.

Then, out of the blue, some NEOCON psychopath does something stupid like slamming their fist on the meter, kicking the table or banging on the dial… and the meter pings to MAX.

Ah.

One day, I’ll tell you what, that ol’ meter is gonna break.

I don’t want to be anywhere near it when the glass shatters and shards of metal start flying.

Pedernales River Chili

This is the chili that was always cooked at the LBJ Ranch in Texas. It was a favorite of Lyndon B. Johnson. He ate this with saltine crackers and a glass of ice cold milk.

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

4 pounds coarsely-ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
6 teaspoons red chili powder
2 (16 ounce) cans tomatoes
Salt, to taste
2 cups hot water

Instructions

Put the meat, onion and garlic in a large pot and sear until light brown.
Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
Let cool, then refrigerate.
Skim the congealed fat from the top.
Reheat the chili to serve.

Imagine Putin went to the ICC member country thinking that the leaders there is his friend but he is successfully arrested there and sent to Hague. What will be his fate and of Russia?

The next minute tanks will surround all the the unfriendly embassies in Moscow

Every Diplomat in Russia will be arrested with impunity

Putin will be arrested in an ICC Country and will be in a nice Dutch cell

The US Ambassador, UK Ambassador and others will be in Russian prisons where the probability of their rape in the first 24 hours is 82%

Their families will go out of contact

60–65 Kids will face their lives being risked in an ‘Unfortunate Accident’ where six and seven year olds will vanish

Any Western Leader who flies will face risk of attacks of his aircraft over Europe

Meanwhile Russian Diplomats will face nice European cells and european laws

Russia will then declare war on the ICC Country which arrested Putin

The West will be forced to Release Putin or see their diplomats never come out including the wives and kids

That would cause many diplomats to refuse to serve in 50–60 dangerous nations out of fear that they would be next

So that will never happen

Putin will not go to an ICC country because he won’t embarass the leadership but other wise if they touch him all hell breaks loose

And the Judges will pay

The Judges will face a fate like Prighozin

Nice Ricin Capsules or Novichok

China’s rise and the changing global order | Ben Norton & Li Jingjing

This is pretty good.

Ben Norton, has recently moved to Beijing. We’ve met in person and had a discussion on the rise of China and the whole Global South. We also exchanged our thoughts on Syria, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, BRICS, and all the recent events that will change the global order.

Two Different Americas

It is quite amusing to juxtapose these two articles and see how journalists create a very different picture than academics.

(NYT)

Caught in the crossfire: Fears of Chinese–American scientists

(PNAS)

Li Yuan is the author of the NYT article. Her article bases its assertions off of interviews with 14 Chinese professionals as well as China’s median yearly emigration as reported by the UN. In terms of claims, she is pushing this line of logic:

Quite a few people I interviewed said, like Mr. Chen, that they had started thinking of leaving the country after China amended its Constitution to allow Mr. Xi to effectively rule for life. The “zero-Covid” campaign, with nearly three years of constant lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines, was the last straw for many of them.

And as for why they aren’t showing up in the US:

Most of the emigrants I spoke to, explaining why they did not pick the United States, cited America’s complicated and unpredictable process for applying for visas and permanent residence status.

This is in stark contrast to Yu Xie et al., who have published a paper in the National Academy of Sciences’ official peer-reviewed publication. Their study has a sample size of 1,229 (or 934 for the federal grant question). In terms of their claims, they point to a steady increase in the number of academics leaving the US for China, and more crucially they have measured out some indicators.

Perceptions and intentions of scholars of Chinese descent. Note: Only past and current grant awardees were asked the question of whether they were considering “avoiding applying for federal grants”.

Their study claims fear is high in the Chinese-American community despite 89% of scientists clearly interested in promoting science in the US. Most dramatically, the study concludes with one data point:

One respondent, self-identified as a US citizen and a former recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, told us that he quit his academic position exactly because of what he perceived as an “anti-Chinese atmosphere”. He then wrote:

If it were not because the COVID pandemic cuts off international traveling and I am a U.S. citizen, my family would have left the U.S. permanently without any intent to come back in the future. What I have experienced at my former institution was not only disgusting, but a system[ic] corruption that I believe [is] illegal. I had never thought of somewhere in this count[r]y to be dark and corrupted like this. If I had, I would not have become a naturalized U.S. citizen, which I regret now. What I ha[ve] experienced not [only] ruined my academic career, but also destroyed my American dream.

Interestingly, Li Yuan makes absolutely no attempt to recognize or challenge the claims made by the paper. While the paper acknowledges weaknesses in its methodology, it notes that it is corroborated by two similar papers, one from University of Michigan, the other from University of Arizona. Instead, she goes for this description of the fates of those headed from China to the US:

But it won’t be easy to stay in the United States. Mr. Zhao has a job offer and will get temporary employment status as a graduate in a STEM, or science or engineering, field. That will last three years. He will participate in a lottery for an H-1B work visa. He did the math: There’s a 40 percent chance he won’t win the lottery by the end of the three years. He might have to go back to school to remain in the United States, or ask his company to transfer him to a foreign post.

Li Yuan’s claims are in my opinion cherrypicked and misleading. She points to data to support her position, but the mild rise in emigration out of China from 2016 until now is something she attributes strictly to political reasons. She makes no attempt to recognize economic factors, such as the well reported glut of graduates unable to find a preferred job, nor any temporal factors such as the COVID opening up releasing otherwise delayed plans due to COVID restrictions and more importantly prohibitive flight costs. Instead, we are left with a threadbare attempt at explaining data with a political narrative.

Li Yuan, and perhaps the staff at the New York Times, are selling a narrative that runs contradictory to peer reviewed science. They are advertising one America, which promises a better life for Chinese, if only America would make it easier for Chinese to migrate into the country. Meanwhile professors at Princeton, Harvard, and MIT are telling us a very different story in which Chinese living in America are doing so in fear of both the government’s actions as well as anti-Asian violence. They have chosen that dramatic quote at the end for a reason— the NSF CAREER award is NSF’s most prestigious award, and many go on to win Nobel prizes.

The NYT and Li Yuan wonder why the US isn’t attracting Chinese scientists. Maybe they should have asked Chinese scientists in the US before making their gloriously nationalist article.

A stray kitten was terrified of everyone and everything and just wanted to hide

There’s something about a kitten’s motor just purring along that makes me melt!

A painful passing

When I got out of Prison, I suddenly came down with two maladies. The first was Ball’s Palsy (where my face was paralyzed, and I couldn’t close my eyes), and the second hit me about two weeks later. I had terrible kidney stones. And man oh man was it painful.

Because I had no money, and was transitioning from prison, I went to the hospital emergency room and they gave me a number to call to get some medicine for the pain.

And when I called that number, the receptionist answered the phone and accused me of wanting drugs and said that I could come in, but they weren’t going to give me anything for the pain.

I endured that pain for a week before I passed the stone, and it was a mighty bad situation. The pain was HORRIBLE.

Never the less, the thing that I remember was not the pain; the stone; or the egress from prison. I remember that holier than thou bitch at the reception desk that was giving me a hard time.

For all you Karens out there, I have a message for you all.

FUCK

YOU.

…

Good, now that I got that off my chest, let’s do todays post…

What are a few bitter truths of life?

Robert Sandifer’s life began in two overlapping hells.

The first hell smoldered outside of his home, the streets of the South Side of Chicago, infamously dangerous, and marred by a blistering gun violence that persists to this day.

These streets are so dangerous that Google actively censors the imagery that populates on Google Streetview.

Robert Sandifer’s second hell raged in his own home.

He was born to a prostitute mother who had dozens of arrests, and who was addicted to cocaine before, during, and indefinitely after his birth.

Sandifer’s father was wholly absent, serving a long prison sentence for felonies related to brutal gun violence.

He received severe physical beatings that started long before he could speak, that left him with terrible bruises and bloody lesions.

At age 3, Child Protective Services opened an investigation after finding cigarette burns on his body, caused by his mother’s boyfriends.

CPS tried to save him. They moved him to his grandmother’s house, but that home was a 3rd hell, already overflowing with as many as 20 kids at a time, many of them from similar circumstances.

Sandifer quickly became a product of his environment, adopting a violent lifestyle, beating children mercilessly on the playground, stealing their money, and their food. He began burglarizing homes, breaking into cars.

He dropped out of school at age 8 and roamed unsupervised in the gun-born, blood-soaked streets of The South Side.

Sandifer was assimilated into a notorious gang, The Black Disciples, who embraced and celebrated his violence.

At age 10, he was arrested after being caught driving a hijacked car, not the first he’d stolen – nor the last.

After Sandifer’s arrest, his family requested that he be kept in juvenile detention for his own safety and for that of the public – but they were denied – Sandifer was too young for juvenile detention.

And thus – he was released to his Grandmother’s custody.

And into the arms of The Black Disciples.

On a fateful 28th day of August, his gang ordered him to take out a hit on a rival gang member.

Sandifer arrived at his target’s house, he positioned himself behind a parked car on the opposite side of the street.

And opened fire.

His bullets plunged into the crowd, hitting several bystanders, and ultimately killing the wrong person – a 14-year-old girl Shavon Dean.

3 days later, Robert Sandifer was taken under a bridge, told to get on his knees, and shot, execution-style in the back of the head by members of his own gang to silence him.

At the time of his death, he had committed 23 felonies and 5 misdemeanors.

At his funeral – the only picture his family owned of him was his mugshot.

He was 11-years-old.

The bitter truth of life: some kids never stand a chance. People really do not understand just how bad it gets.

Have you ever sabotaged food because someone was stealing it?

Yes I have. I was a single mom struggling to keep my head above water so I would take leftovers for my lunch. This one co-worker would help himself to my lunch, then tell me how delicious it was. I tried explaining my situation to him, but he still continued to eat my lunches. I even bought an insulated lunch box so I didn’t have to put my lunch in the employee refrigerator. He would steal my lunch while I was away from my desk. And still brag about it. Now this coworker was from a different department than I was and made almost twice as much as I did. One day I had enough. That night as I was preparing my lunch for the next day, I included a healthy dose of mineral oil. Mineral oil is edible, it has no taste or smell, but it is a very good laxative. It took the guy about a week to figure it out. He went to HR and tried to get me fired or at least pay his lost wages ( he had to leave work 2–3 hours early all week.) HR talked to me and when I told them my story and how long it had going on, they made him reimburse me for all my lunches he ate. They verified my story first, of course. Later an email went out to all employees that theft of any food would be grounds for termination.

Is a California poppy extract-related product legal to sell in China?

Illegal, in China, selling drugs is illegal, exceeding 1 kg will be sentenced to death.If you know Chinese, you should know that.

In June 2021, 215.37 kg of drugs were hidden in 67,000 tons of soybeans exported by the America to Qingdao port, China, and were intercepted by Qingdao Customs. Relevant personnel have been punished.

I hope you can understand Chinese hatred of drugs. Qingdao is an eastern port city, and it is obligatory to prevent drugs.

In 2017, Mianyang city Sichuan Province, southwest of China, a thief broke into a house to steal.When he find drugs on the ground,he gave up the plan and report to the police, confessed his crimes and discoveries, and helped the police officers catch a large drug-making-trafficking gang.

Yes, even thieves also despise drug dealers,they also join Antidrug.

Lone Star Bacon and Cheddar Fries

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound (3/8 inch) regular cut fries with skin on
2 ounce shredded Cheddar cheese
2 strips cooked diced bacon
3 ounces sour cream
Finely chopped green onions, for garnish
Jalapeno peppers, for garnish

Instructions

Deep-fry regular cut fries (350 to 360 degrees F) for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.
In fry serving basket, arrange hot fries.
Top with cheese and bacon.
Garnish with sour cream and green onions.
If desired, garnish with jalapenos.
Serve immediately.

What are some small things that matter a lot?

It was a hot summer afternoon in the month of May.

I was riding on my bike to home. A man who may be in his early 50s asked me for a lift. He was sweating profusely and needed to reach home. As his house was on the way I was going in, I gave him a lift.

He explained to me that, his sugar levels are dropping and need to reach home fast. I dropped him off at his home and he thanked me whole heartedly. I got back home and forgot about it.

After a month, a small hotel was opened nearby. I went there to try it out. I was checking out the menu and someone tapped on my shoulder from behind. He was the same man whom I gave lift earlier.

He asked me if I had recognized him. I said no. He explained that I gave him lift a month ago. Then, I recollected him. He asked me, what would I like to eat. I was surprised.

He giggled and said that, he is the owner of that hotel and as a token of gratitude I can have anything for free. I politely refused it but he was stubborn in his offer. So, I gave in.He asked the chef to make the best of the dish I ordered and was given for free.

That day, I realized, the good you do however small, goes far.

Any small help you do to people will for ever be engraved in their minds forever and it comes back to you in the ways you can never imagine.

So, don’t stop doing good and spreading smiles!

Why don’t more people move to Wyoming?

This map of Wyoming offers one of the reasons:

The areas shaded in green are owned by the federal government. Although Wyoming is large, the federal government owns about 47% of the land. So, some of the most beautiful parts of Wyoming are not places to which people are moving because there is very little private land for them to buy and live on.

But the problem is even deeper than that. These federal lands contain timber, pasture, and minerals which are leased or sold to those industries, but those leases and timber sales are prone to fluctuate with political fads for or against use of federal timber, minerals, and grazing. Even aside from that, the bureaucracies in authority over these lands do not take responsibility for maintaining the jobs in these industries. Since they have often not worked in the private sector, they either do not understand or do not care how delays and unpredictability in their decisions kill private-sector jobs.

Another reason for the low population in Wyoming is the 75,000-person tipping point in urban population. There is a pattern in the United States: cities tend to grow faster once they have reached a population between about 50,000 and 100,000. At this population, there is enough demand for specialized services in medicine, law, finance, engineering, management, entertainment, air transport, and other professions to support higher-paying jobs in these industries. There is also enough population to entice specialized types of businesses to locate there. Some of these are businesses that hum along below the surface of your local economy, but are important in helping other businesses thrive: machining, transportation, calibration, training and testing. Some of these businesses are retailers and national food chains that make a place more inviting to new residents. No Wyoming city has broken through this tipping point, although Cheyenne may be doing so now.

A third factor: By geographical accident, Wyoming’s neighboring states tended to have urban clusters near their borders with Wyoming which hindered any Wyoming city from reaching this population tipping point. Specialized, high-paying jobs and businesses are less likely in an area within 150 or so miles of existing firms. Denver and Salt Lake City are large cities with trade areas which include much of Wyoming. But the smaller cities of Rapid City, SD, Billings, MT, and Idaho Falls, ID also have large parts of their trade areas within Wyoming. Have a look at the map of United States trade areas and influential cities. All of Wyoming is depicted as being within an out-of-state city’s trade area. The map has flaws. Certainly Casper, Wyoming should qualify as having a trade area if Butte, Bozeman, and Helena, Montana and Alliance and Valentine Nebraska do, but the map nevertheless makes a valid point about Wyoming’s lack of urban areas with trade areas.

In the long run, Wyoming will be one of the nation’s faster-growing states and will develop larger urban areas. It contains major freight rail lines and major interstate highways. It has cheap electricity, low taxes, and lots of money in the bank from all the mineral wealth. It has major electricity transit lines and energy pipelines. Culturally, it has a good work ethic and an openness to newcomers. It has enough water resources to accommodate lots of population growth.

Which incident did you consider to be an absurd hoax but later found out to be crazily true?

Many, many years ago I received a letter in the post. It was a recorded delivery and I had to sign for it to confirm delivery. I was intrigued and opened it immediately. It was a summons to appear in our local small claims court. I was being sued for £6,000. There were no details about the charges or any explanation of what the case was about other than the name and address of the complainant. I was mystified as I didn’t recognise the name. Lets call him Mr Smith.

In the three weeks before the stated date I convinced myself that one of my sons was playing an involved joke on me. I quizzed them all mercilessly but nobody would admit to knowing anything about it. As the date drew closer I determined to go to court just to find out which of my boys was the perpetrator of this rather involved joke.

Court day arrived and I went into the court building and presented my summons to an attendant, still expecting to be told it was a forgery. I was wrong. I was politely directed to a small waiting room and told my case would be called in 10 minutes. I was stunned.

When I was escorted into the courtroom the Sheriff (a lay judge in Scotland) asked me if I had a legal representative. I explained how I thought that the summons was a joke and I had no lawyer. He said that I could ask for a deferment to get legal advice if I choose but he didn’t think that was necessary. I sat down still stunned and confused but by now rather scared.

The Sheriff now asked the other side to outline their case. I listened in stunned amazement as the story unfolded.

Apparently some 6 months previously I had sold Mr Smith a tenpin bowling ball and drilled the ball to suit his hand. I had explained to him the need to keep the ball clean of lane oil on a regular basis. Mr Smith had taken me at my word and had left his bowling ball soaking in a bathtub of hot soapy water overnight. Feeling that the finger and thumb holes were wet when he fished the ball out of the bath in the morning he had decided to dry out the ball. Fifteen or twenty minutes in the microwave should dry it out nicely.

Some time later the ball had exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to destroy the microwave and send the door of the microwave flying upward with enough energy to punch through the ceiling and the floor of the room above his kitchen. Unfortunately the room above his kitchen was his neighbours bathroom. The microwave door not only punched through the floor but punched through the actual bath. Really unfortunately the poor woman was taking a bath at the time.

She was suing Mr Smith for the damage to her bathroom from the flying microwave door as well as the water damage to her carpets from the bath full of water. She wasn’t suing for the shock of a microwave door suddenly puncturing her bath although it must have been a terrific shock.

Mr Smith was suing me for the same amount on the basis that I had sold him a bowling ball without specifically telling him not to put it in the microwave.

By this stage several people in the gallery were laughing and the sheriff was definitely smiling. I was still worried but feeling considerably less scared. We all sat politely until Mr Smith’s lawyer had finished. The Sheriff then drew himself very straight and without a trace of a smile said that he was here to apply the law of the land and not to educate idiots. Case dismissed.

WARNING something BIG is happening in Ukraine, Putin stays quiet

Something big is about to happen in Ukraine. Is Putin about to launch a pre-winter offensive now that Ukraine has exhausted all of its resources? Logistical signs are showing newly built railway tracks and large troop movements on the Russian side. Also multiple reports over the past 48 hours show an increased number of young Ukrainian men racing to get the hell out of Ukraine.

How has living in China changed you?

it’s aged me!

I was in my mid-20’s when I came, and after 30+ years here I’m already 57. If I stay here a few more years I’ll be 60. No one cares!

I don’t know which changes are due to maturing and which are due to living in China, but I can say how I’m generally different than Americans who haven’t lived in China.

I’m less emotionally invested in news reports, especially about politics. If you’ve lived in a place or have a job that’s occasionally the focus of the international media (as China manufacturing has been) then the discrepancy between what’s reported and what you know is obvious. It makes you skeptical at first, then cynical. Apathy soon follows.
I don’t take it for granted that multi-party democracy is superior to one-party rule. I tend to look at the results not the process.
I accept rapid, sweeping, head-spinning change as the norm. instantly accepted and accommodated.
- Yesterday we used paper currency to purchase things. Today we use cash cards. Tomorrow we’ll buy everything with our phones…. oh wait… we’re using the phones now, today, not tomorrow. OK, ok. I got it. Yesterday we used cash cards, today we use phones, tomorrow well use something else.
  
  I don’t remember when I stopped carrying cash and then stopped using my cash card. But that’s where I am now. That’s where everyone is—even beggars on the street accept mobile payments.
- Got a meeting in the next city… ? Better schedule 1/2 a day to get there. Then, all of the sudden, you realize you’re always arriving early to meetings. Everything started moving faster like this. Now that half a day gets you from Shanghai to Beijing by train. And if you start in the morning in Shenzhen, you can have an authentic Hunan lunch in Hunan, and be back in Shenzhen for an authentic Cantonese dinner.
I’m more appreciative of people in general, Chinese or expat. I don’t love everyone, but I value my relationships and feel grateful for the respect and assistance I’ve been given. I often feel like the big bang has distributed the universe’s molecules with my wellbeing in mind.

Koreans React To ‘Mr. Rogers’ For The First Time

Why are many Indian Ph.D. graduates from top institutes now choosing China for their postdocs? How is the life of an Indian post-doc in China? Do the Indian postdocs settle in China?

Money!!!

Chinese programs in Universities today get more funding than even USA, as US focuses on Private Funding

In 2022, US Universities spend $ 208 Billion in University Research against $ 346 Billion by China

You write a good paper for your PHD in Biotechnology, you could get offered an Research Associate position for 25000 RMB a month that’s around ₹ 34 LPA plus housing against a mere ₹7.6 LPA in India

That’s equivalent to $ 83,666 a year in US that’s higher than the US median of $ 64,712 for a Research Associate in PPP terms

China pays highest in PPP terms for most research today barring Norway and Switzerland and Taiwan

Life of an Indian Post Doc in China

My son is one

He is doing research for a Private Company on a 5 year grant (2023–2028)

Here are his observations:-

Knowing Rudimentary Mandarin is very important. The Lab assistants, the research students do their best in mandarin. The english is pretty accented. Luckily most Universities offer you Mandarin elementary classes for free if you are doing research there.
Softwares and Settings are programmed to Mandarin. You have to set it to English. Then print in English and Mandarin.
Money is pretty good. Housing is pretty good.
You will have two security reviews by the Government.
If you do research funded by the Government Or research classfied as National Research , you get a ID that gives you some powers. You get clout with cops. Now technically these IDs are only for National projects but like India, my sons director has managed to wrangle these IDs for these guys as well.
Very easy to get a Chinese girlfriend if you are unmarried. Unlike Singapore where girls are steady since secondary school. My son has 3 Assistant Researchers from Vietnam, Indonesia and Kerala. All have Girlfriends in less than a year.
Research is very well funded. You want to buy a $ 300,000 machine, you get approval in a matter of 2–3 days

It’s damn good

Settling down in China ?

Not encouraged

Finish your grant, extend your grant, live for 15–20 years in China and then go home or to Singapore

Meanwhile train as many Chinese as possible

Most people who settle down in China are married to Chinese Mainlanders and have kids and full families

They become Chinese themselves, speak like mainlanders, act like mainlanders

They are eligible for Citizenship of China

Are Indian Postdocs selecting China?

Yes

China beat Japan to the fourth position in 2023

It’s US, Germany, UK and China at fourth position beating Japan which was at fourth place until 2023, France is sixth, Middle East & Africa is seventh (no idea how), Singapore is Eighth and Canada is ninth

However in absolute numbers only 8.63% Postdocs go to China with almost 39.44% going to US and 71% going to US, UK and Germany

However this is a huge increase because in 2006 only 0.51% Postdocs sought careers in China meaning a Eighteen fold increase in a mere 17 years

Men DESTROYED Modern Women’s Beauty Standard

Rating women’s attractiveness is dramatically affected by make-up. I’ve seen them transform from as much as 2’s to 9-10’s. Truly amazing results.

https://youtu.be/pf3qHed8TtA

How has living in China changed you?

A few years back I had to change my careers. At that time I took a big change and moved halfway across the world to China.

I lived there for 3 1/2 years. I was there for 3 years in NE China in a small rural area. Then about 4 years later I move back but to the big city of Shanghai(but only for about 1/2 a year).

That’s the background story now to your question.

My first 3 years in China was very humbling. I was in a rural area still governed by old rules and ideas. I met a friend who lived in South China in a big city and she told me that I experience things that she never experienced while there. Each person’s experiences are so different. In the rural areas you live like the Chinese, but in a big city, you live like a foreigner in China.

When I say humbling it’s because I learned to live on very little. I spent $200 a month for food, shopping and traveling. When I went back to China in a big city you definitely can’t live on that. I learned to appreciate what I had and how to make do with what I had.

I discovered that my own culture lack respect for elders. That we are far behind when it comes to public transport. (China is far ahead of us). I gained a love for food, Chinese eat all the time (but are skinny). They eat tons of vegetables and meat as well…but it’s fresh produce…which my own country lacks…we eat way too much processed food. Of course, I learned how to use a squatty potty.

Now, when I went back to China 4 years later…so much has changed. They are so advanced when it comes to technology. While China was a humbling place for me for my first 3 years. It was not so the second time around…why? The simple answer is that times have changed. Don’t get me wrong I loved Shanghai and appreciated it, but I learned that sometimes you can’t go back…memories are better left in your mind.

China will always be a part of me. It has changed me so much more than I can ever put into words. But for me, “humble” is what learned from all my experiences in China.

No Handyman Jobs! People are BROKE!

I guess I was spoiled with the abundance of jobs these past few years. Well, I guess that has come to an end…

https://youtu.be/eJTOxnL_nBw

If a drone is flying on my property and I have already notified that I do not want it to be flying on it, can I destroy it without legal repercussion?

Ok, so here’s my experience.

A few years ago, a kid in our neighborhood got a drone for Christmas. He started flying it around people’s houses. The first time. I was sitting on my deck and it flew to the edge of the deck. I waved and it flew away. The next day, the same thing. After a few days, the kid got bolder. He started to fly it right over the deck. There was also one time that I was doing dishes in the kitchen it was hovering right outside the kitchen window, watching me.

This went on for about a month. I would see it right outside my windows or around my yard. I knew it was just a kid but it was getting kind of creepy. I wasn’t sure if I could be heard on it but I tried telling the drone that the fun was over and please don’t come back. Guess what? It came back the next day again. I didn’t know who the drone belonged to so I called the PD and they really didn’t know what to tell me. At this point, drones were just becoming popular and there wasn’t really any protocol. I asked around the neighborhood and no one seemed to know where it was coming from. I tried to follow it but it was faster than me and was piloted over houses and through other yards that I couldn’t go through.

Another month passes and now this kid is just taunting me. I tried throwing things at it, putting up a sign asking them not to fly it near my house anymore, my then-husband actually had it in his hand at one point but those things are pretty strong and he wasn’t able to keep a hold of it. We would flip it off when we saw it or curse at it, anything we could think of. I even fired a few warning shots with a BB gun. Nothing worked.

Finally, we were just done. The last day I ever saw it, I was again sitting on my deck and I hear the familiar drone sound. I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away. I could hear it getting closer to me but I just kept my head down, pretending to read my book. The living room window was open so without looking up I yelled “It’s back again!!”. My then-husband walked out onto the deck and the drone moved towards him. He pulled out his pistol and pointed at the drone. No shots fired, it wasn’t even loaded and the drone high-tailed it out of there. Within 15 minutes, a very angry father and 2 police cruisers were in my driveway. The father wanted us arrested for threatening his kid. We explained what had been going on and the cops had several reports over the last few months from me as well (including pictures of the drone in various places around my house, date and time-stamped). Basically, nothing happened. The gun was registered to a licensed gun owner, no property was damaged, and the documentation from the police department showed that this kid was a nuisance. The cops went and had a talk with the kid. I found out later that other neighbors had the same issue with the drone so the cops had not only our complaints but many others. I don’t know what happened to the kid but I do know I never saw that drone again.

***EDIT***

A lot of people are commenting about the police not doing their job and yes it does seem that way. However, we have to remember that this was the first year that drones became really popular and it was the IT thing to have. People were having a lot of fun with their drones but there weren’t any clear laws that the police could follow. Also, you couldn’t trace them so you had a basic idea of the surrounding area where the drone was coming from but unless you actually saw where it went “home” to, there was nothing you could do so I believe that the police did the best they knew how at the time.

I don’t even blame the parents that much because the kid was like 13 or 14 years old. When I figured out who the drone belonged to, I knew exactly who this kid was, and quite honestly, he was an entitled little sh**. His parents were actually pretty nice people who tried their best but had very little control over their kids. The father showed up with the police because the kid made the father believe that a gun was pulled on him while cutting through our yard. That was not the case and when given all the facts, the father was still upset but it didn’t have a whole lot to say anymore.

And before you come for me, yes, most times kids are a product of their environment but sometimes the parents are doing everything right and the kid will still be a jerk. My kids are 21 and 17 and I have been involved in many of their activities over the years and have seen it all.

The Real China Shocked This British Man

Whenever I hear the China collapse theory, I always ask the person if s/he wants to take a bet, just provide a time frame when you think China will collapse and I bet you two whiskey that it won’t. I had been winning so many whiskey in the last 15 years, but none of those losers pay up.

Do the majority of people in China wish to remain communists, or if they had a choice, would they want democracy?

Seriously, do you really think the people in China really care whether China is a Communist or a Democracy if all there is to it is just some meaningless labeling.

Is like categorizing races by color, when you call it white I saw pink, when you call it yellow I saw light beige, when you call it black I say are you color blind, do you know what black looks like?

Chinese people in general are very much pragmatic, results orientated and doesn’t give much crap to whose camp they are in as long as they prosper and live a better live then the past. Also, Chinese history and philosophy never taught them life is simply black and white we know it has at least if not fifty shades of grey in between.

Furthermore, if one look at the Tai Chi symbols we see the black and white are not shown as antagonistic to each other, whilst they may be opposite to each other in direction but they intertwined in a circle with the opposite instead of a straight line in between a square. It also house a fraction of the opposite too, all for the purpose of equilibrium and in layman term it is call Win-Win or Harmony.

Life cannot always be a equal sum game, it has many elements and each play an important role, if one element does not survive well or is missing rest assure others will also get affected adversely by it. In science term, it is what we call a Eco System.

Balance reduce conflict, hegemony are always short lived and unintelligent, longer it stretches it more violent is the snaps when it breaks.

So is it really true that there are no democracy in a Communist system and when a country is not run by Communist does that mean they have no tyrant, no dictator, no ruthless regime, no poverty, no corruption and their people live a much better happy life?

Whats’s the big fucking deal about democracy if the leader doesn’t really practices it. “For the People, To the People, By the People” my arse when I see what’s going on in their land of Oligarchs Plutocracy.

What are some things you genuinely like about living in China that back home still needs to catch up to?

That is a great question indeed.

Safety – yesterday, today and tomorrow.
At first, right after moving to China I was truly amazed that there are so many chairs for valets randomly placed on the sidewalks. In Russia these chairs will end up at someone’s country house.
Small businesses
In Russia shops, restaurants, coffee-shops etc. belong to the large chains, you cannot find a small bar with homemade food for example. And places like that are my favorite in Beijing.
Infrastructure – in Russia you hardly can:
– get anywhere by subway and pay under 10 kuai for it,
– get anything delivered to your house,
– pay for the stuff via wechat,
– get foot massage in the middle of the night,
– pay for electricity and water using your own terminal, etc. etc.
Variety of entertainment choices
The only places that are really good for eventful life would be Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, other cities cannot be ever compared to Beijing: lots of events, activities and parties. Russia does need to get on this level.
Taobao
This is the most genius thing ever – I am a big Taobao fan and would love if a platform like that will be developed in Russia someday.

China moves into position to support Syria

So happy to see China & Syria are working together! Stronger united against the Empire!

School Bus Driver Rant

As a school bus driver, I would like to explain something.

My job is to transport your child from point A to point B safely, on time and ready to learn.

That is all.

What do I mean when I say safely? Let me explain. Safely means I pre-trip my bus daily to ensure it is running properly and that it hasn’t been tampered with. Safely means my eyes are constantly scanning all 7 mirrors, blind spots, and the road in front of me.

I’m NOT a babysitter.

I’m NOT a mediator.

I’m a BUS DRIVER.

I would absolutely love to be able to watch and hear each and every little thing that goes on in the 40 feet of school bus behind me, but while I’m watching Johnny jump across the seat, I just missed a car pull out in front of me. And oops, while I’m yelling at Susie to keep her hands to herself, the light changed and now I’m slamming the brakes to stop in time at the intersection. And what’s that? Now Joey has a nose bleed? And now someone dumped all of Katie’s stuff out of her bookbag, and “bus driver, Bobby is flicking me”, and “bus driver, Lily said she doesn’t like me anymore”, and what’s that? While I’m looking in the mirror behind me reprimanding your perfect children, a car just ran my reds and Sally almost got run over!

It’s Never Ending to us…

And that doesn’t even include the way the children speak to us. I’m pretty certain they don’t speak to other school faculty like that. And certainly don’t speak to their parents the way they speak to us.

So please, parents, tell me … where do you want me to look? Behind me? In front of me?

Would you prefer I pull over each and everytime someone yells “bus driver”? Because then YOU will complain that the bus is never on time, and trust me if I did pull over everytime, we wouldn’t even make it out of the school parking lot before I’d have to stop. Incase you didn’t know, your children are not perfect…no one is.

Would you rather I continue down the road watching what’s going on BEHIND me more than what’s going on with other vehicles on the road around me? Because I can assure you, if I’m not scanning every angle around the bus, there WILL be an accident, and then I will again be to blame, because I should’ve been paying attention to the road.

Now, on top of that, we see your children for less than 30 minutes a day, in most cases. Please teach your child to respect the bus driver, and to behave themselves when riding the bus…because we want to return them to you, SAFELY.

~ Unknown

Russian & American In China Are SHOCKED What They Experienced

What is the craziest request you have gotten when you were buying something (car, boat, bike, furniture, etc.) from someone who was so deeply attached to the item it felt like they were losing a part of their family?

Not crazy at all, just unusual and — under the circumstances — quite touching.

A 1969 Ford F250 was advertised for sale located in a town about 400 miles away. I called and spoke with the elderly original owner. He was not an enthusiastic seller and seemed to be throwing up obstacles to buying it. For one thing, he asked the questions, not me. The conversation went like this:

Me: Hello, I’m calling about the F250 for sale. Is it still available?

Him: Yes. What do you want with it?

Me: Uhhh, well, sir, I was thinking about buying it.

Him: Why?

Me (looks at phone with a WITW? expression): Because I need a truck.

Him: What do you need a truck for?

Me: To haul tools and material.

Him: That’s good. How old are you?

Me: (Young in spirit but wise beyond my years. More or less.)

Him: That’s good. How’s your driving record? Any accidents or tickets recently?

Me: No wrecks, no tickets.

Him: Will you put different wheels and paint and interior and engine in it?

Me: Gosh, no. I want it all original. Like it is now.

Him: Okay, you can come look at it. My address is…

I went all that way, looked, endured another vetting from him and was finally judged worthy of his treasured pickup that he could no longer drive because it had manual steering and he could no longer turn the steering wheel. As I drove away in the truck he’d named Whitey back in 1969, I glimpsed him in the rear view mirror crying unashamedly.

But wait, there’s more.

I drove directly to the other side of town and viewed a second 1969 Ford F250 for sale by its elderly original owner who also subjected me to a lengthy qualifying interrogation. Satisfied, he sold me the truck he’d named Rita in 1969 and helped me disconnect the driveshaft then attach a tow bar so I could pull her home with Whitey. After I had remote lights rigged up on his Rita, I got into Whitey and pulled away. In the rear view mirror I glimpsed Rita’s original owner crying unashamedly.

Nearly 10 years later Whitey and Rita are still exactly as they were the day I brought them to their new home. It was a good day, as have been all all the rest with them. As their original owners requested I have kept them exactly as they were: working trucks, now 50 years young, in original condition and carefully maintained. I even built them a canopy to protect them from the sun and inclement weather.

When you speak this way, your reality evolves…

Fair video. Fits in with my affirmation campaigns.

If the one child policy was such a disastrous idea, then why didn’t the Chinese experts object to it?

Was it a disastrous idea though? Who said?

Sure it wasn’t a comfortable idea for the people. I haven’t had children yet. But I do want to have two. One is scary in many way. What if something happens to him or her? What if he/she wants to join the military… and not come back?

But if I insist on having a second child, I would end up paying a fine. Then I would be liable to pay for the child education. The first child will get free ride from K-12 and university.

In fact, I can have as many children as I would like. I just have to afford raising them all with minimal government support.

Why the one child policy?

Look at China in the 60s – 80s

It was a simple life. Classism may have been at the lowest in Chinese history. To be a well respected person, you can be a teacher, a village chief, a policeman, a small government official, a factory manager, etc…

This simple peaceful life was made possible by the One child policy.

Do you know that unemployment was low? Job selection wasn’t great, but as long as you were willing to work, someone could find you a job.

Despite the scare of Western invasion and atomic bombs, it was a relatively safe society. Petty crimes were plentiful, from pickpocketing, theft, to scam artists. But it was unlikely your house would be broken in at gun point.

All these wouldn’t be possible if the population was left to balloon unchecked. Far more crime, homeless, desperate people out for blood, and money.

If I went back in time to 1970s…

Knowing the future is a hell of an advantage. I would start trading goods, then collaborated with the government’s economic expansion programs.

Humble start, this was how many Chinese entrepreneurs in the 70s and 80s had their start.

Moving up, buying a truck. One man transportation company in the 90s.

Eventually able to have enough money to open a factory. TV production company in the 80s.

Not really a photo of China, but of 1980 computer stores in the US. My computer store would look like this.

I would get into computers as early as 1975. This was around the time Bill Gates and Steve Jobs founded their companies.

I would even go to India in 1974 to meet the penniless backpacker Steve Jobs and offered him his first initial investment before he even knew he was to found Apple. He would be indebted to me for life.

Two prospects regarding to One Child policy:

One Child Policy: Boosted economy. I could be rich, easily affording 4–5 children if I wanted to.
Booming population: China would still be a shithole like any of the third world country China’s BRI is helping now. Raising one child and keeping my family fed would be very hard.

I actually knew people in China who had more than one children after 1980. They were not jailed or anything. Their neighbors and friends were supportive of their decisions.

Putin at Valdai, civilizational world order is here to stay

“I thought Putin was exceptionally clear, rational, even handed, well spoken, honest, and painfully accurate about everything he said. He has my vote for US president.”

Have you ever judged someone and realized you were wrong?

Oh my, yes!

Steve seemed such a surley man. Unsuprisingly older than me by a couple decades since this was my first professional job as a newly minted college graduate, he seemed to growl at me whenever I saw him.

With the confidence only available with youth, I judged him.

I judged him mean, old, and a bit scary.

Imagine my horror when after about a year on this entry level job when I was reassigned to work for Steve. Of course, the reality was that I knew nothing about him.

What happened over the course of the next year was one of those special times of life that changes who you are forever. I learned that while I knew nothing about him, he knew quite a bit about me. Turns out that this wasn’t some corporately bland reassignment, but, rather, he asked to take me on as a project.

As I got to know Steve, it turned out that the gravelly voice, which I can still hear in my imagination as I write, was just his voice. And the surley demeanor I had judged so harshly was a product of a direct and unassuming style this loquatious post-adolescent did not yet grok.

One teaching moment in particular is one I’ll never forget. I carry this lesson with me every day.

You see, I’d made a mistake. Not a huge one, but a clear screw-up. I had a plan for spin control. I was confident in the plan. The lies were off-white lies at best.

But Steve believed in me enough to ask questions gently. And after he had twisted me into a logical knot, he said, and I’ll never forget his words, “Tony, you can do better than this.” He proceeded to teach me the value of not spinning and just dealing with my own limitations as a human. He showed me the real value of honesty: building trust.

And, Steve was right. I came clean and it was all ok. And, a few months later when I made a yet bigger mistake, that was ok too.

I got to know Steve better over the next couple of years. I learned that we shared some basic interests and religious faith, but he was not the type to over-share or brag. Sadly, when I had this incredible access to him, I never fully understood Steve.

But, I understood far better when he died.

Just a couple years after this priceless mentoring, Steve was stricken with brain cancer. He was far younger than I am right now, so even in death he taught me to value every day.

But this wasn’t the last lesson he had to teach. Not hardly.

I was invited by his widow to his funeral. I had known of his faith, but not quite the extent to which he walked the walk. I’ve omitted a great deal of detail, but Steve had not had an easy life. In my mind, he was doing all he could to just survive and raise his own family. I assumed his faith was like my own: sincere, yet mostly a coping mechanism.

In the shadow of his recent death, some mutual acquaintances filled in some details. There was far more to the man than even I suspected. My admiration was already deep. My tears were quite real.

Steve had been an elder at a prominent church for many years. The details of his service to others would make this long answer far too long. The debts others expressed dwarfed my own sense of gratitude.

But, the funeral blew me away.

You see, it was a large church. Very large. That day, it was filled to the rafters. I have never been to anything like it since. The love expressed for Steve that day over powers me even as I write this.

And there, in that pew, I knew i wanted to be like Steve.

Not for glory or acclaim—not at all. Just to have left this place a better place than I had found it. And, as I traverse my new career in coaching, I am still chasing his example.

Thank you, Steve, for teaching me how to be real. I’ll never forget you. I’ll never achieve what you did, but I am so much happier for trying.

And, I even learned from misjudging you.

How did Huawei replace over 13,000 components in its range of products with local substitutes in response to US trade sanctions?

In a short sentence, the completeness of the supply chain.

In brief exposition, this is the bitter fruit of embargo.

No, I’m not referring to Donald the Orange’s tariffs and dismantling of Huawei.

I’m talking about the 30-year EMBARGO that the US enforced on China after the breakout of the Korean War, along with the withdrawal of Soviet tech support as relations cooled heading into the 60s.

In fact, the Cultural Revolution’s deurbanization was a direct policy response to having the economic rug pulled under by foreign forces.

China learned a very important lesson: Any weakness in a supply chain can and will be exploited.

The Chinese prioritized the control of key enabling heavy industries, beginning with steel manufacture, before using policy tools to encourage the organic growth of eco-systems downstream.

The Chinese were not happy with assembling a shoe from components. Rather they focused on being able to make every component, down to the dye and synthetic materials suitable for footwear.

This process was repeated up the tech ladder, and by the 2010s, the Chinese had the most complete supply chain in the world, encompassing all categories of the UN industrial sector classification. China remains the only country to maintain this milestone.

China’s strength is hardware, and the world’s greatest concentration of hardware engineering talent—whether it is chips, IC, antennas, speakers, motors—are found on the mainland, and overwhelmingly Chinese.

These are world class talent who’ve delivered on big projects, and thoroughly up-to-date with their field of expertise. I daresay set them loose on any problem and they will find solutions, because the intensity and breath which they attack problems is unrivaled. The Chinese have the scale to apply multiprong strategies in parallel*, while the competition iterate sequentially. This is the famed China speed, and China has made up plenty of ground in recent decades expertly harnessing economies of scale.

America uses its heft to force compliance, through the threat of market access withdrawal. But the Chinese market is already bigger than the US, especially hardware components, just because China is the world’s factory. Huawei is able to find enough domestic partners who don’t mind losing the US market, because there are enough customers within China. Besides, this is a matter of survival for entire industries, and it is imperative to break the tech embargo.

Huawei’s telecoms gear isn’t like cellphones, because they are tethered to the mains. Power efficiency isn’t a make or break consideration, and there is no need for the latest and greatest off the cutting edge node, chip-wise.

This makes domestic substitution a breeze compared to say, the Kirin SOC, because hacks are always available, especially under the umbrella of Huawei’s immense patent portfolio.

In the final analysis, I’d say it boils down to the quality and quantity of talent, and it shows in the remarkable speed of the turnaround.

欺负华为没人？

门儿都没有。

Heinz Guderian noted in his diary that he had observed snow for the first time in the campaign in the Soviet Union.

The original plan for Operation Barbarossa was extremely sketchy for such a massive operation. One of the odder aspects of planning was that the endpoints for the invasion were never set forth, and became vaguer and more nebulous the further along planning got.

The first battle plans, prepared for the OKW by General Erich Marcks in mid-1940, actually did set forth a terminal line of the invasion. Marcks proposed the “A-A line” as the operational objective. This was to run from the northern city of Arkhangelsk on the Arctic Sea through Gorky and Rostov to the port city of Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga on the Caspian Sea. This assumed that the European portion of Russia and its satellites was the only part of the country of any interest and importance. There, the German Army could stop and set up a defensive line beyond which whatever was left of the Soviet Union could be allowed to wither away, as it would pose no threat.

After the Marcks Plan (as it came to be called), though, the idea of any kind of ultimate objective for the Wehrmacht disappeared. The debate instead degenerated into one of whether or not it was even important to get to Moscow, let alone reach any points further east. The prevailing theory – primarily Hitler’s – was that the entire Soviet Union would capitulate after a few decisive border battles destroyed the Red Army, failing that Hitler issued a directive to pursue the Soviets.

As of 6th October 1941, there has been no “pursuit” in the Soviet Union or at least none that has lasted very long. Every step has been contested, every river has been defended, every city has been fought over and sometimes even been boobytrapped after the Red Army has left. The defense has been uncoordinated and lacking in effectiveness on many occasions, but the Red Army has been fighting all the way. Now, the best campaigning months of 1941 are already gone and it is only going to get worse before it gets better again. Given all that, the astounding underestimation of the effectiveness of Red Army opposition during the planning stage of Operation Barbarossa has not really hampered German operations yet, it just has required adjustments to compensate for a slower rate of advance than anticipated. The tanks still run, the trucks still carry supplies, the horses are still fed from grain in the fields.

However, everything is about to change forever, and the men on the front line see why after dark as the snow begins to fall around them. The lack of effective antifreeze for trucks or tanks, the lack of chains for wheeled vehicles, the absence of winter clothing which was considered superfluous in June – all of a sudden these omissions loom large.

Late Night Flight

While drinking, a Pilot bet he could land outside the bar, 2 hours later he touched down in central New York in a stolen aircraft. Years later he repeated the stunt because someone wouldn’t believe him.

In September 1956 after drinking heavily at a bar in New York City, Thomas Fitzpatrick made an intoxicated barroom bet that he could travel from New Jersey to New York City in 15 minutes.

At 3 a.m. he stole a single-engine plane from the Teterboro and flew without any lights or radio before landing on St. Nicholas Avenue near 191st Street in front of the bar where the bet was made.

The New York Times called it a “fine landing” and a “feat of aeronautics”. For his illegal flight, he was fined $100 after the plane’s owner refused to press charges.

In October 1958 just before 1 a.m., Fitzpatrick again stole another plane from the same airfield and landed on Amsterdam and 187th after another bar patron disbelieved his first feat.

For his second stolen flight, judge John A. Mullen sentenced him to six months in prison. When asked why did had undertaken the 2nd flight Fitzpatrick told the police “he had pulled off the second flight after a bar patron refused to believe he had done the first one”

Fitzpatrick was a Marine during the Korean War and received a Purple Heart. He has three sons and was married to his wife, Helen, for 51 years working as a steamfitter. He died in 2009 at the age of 79.

Fitzpatrick has a mixed drink named after him for his feat called the “Late Night Flight”

Oh SH*T, The Collapse Has REALLY Begun

The threat of a US recession is escalating fast as corporate bankruptcies and debt defaults pile up. As the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates, small businesses are starting to collapse and close down. There’s going to be a tipping point where job losses will accelerate and consumer spending will crash.

What is the best case of, “You just tried to scam the wrong person,” that you’ve witnessed?

I got the “You owe money to the IRS and are going to jail” phone call. I knew it was a scam because not only does the IRS not call you, but I could hear multiple voices in the background…classic boiler room. Duh! So I decided to play along. I let the guy go into his spiel and about halfway through I started crying. When I say crying, I mean REALLY wailing, gasping for breath, totally panicked! The guy has to stop talking in order to calm me down as I’m really losing it. As soon as he calms me down, off he goes again, telling me if I don’t pay, I’ll go to jail. Well, I just lose it again…crying, wailing, the whole nine yards.

Again, he tries to calm me down. Finally, with hitching sobs, I calm down enough to ask him how much I owe the IRS. When he tells me it’s $24,000, well, you know, I just lost it again. Crying. Wailing. Sobbing. What am I going to do?? OMG, I’m going to lose my house! I won’t be able to feed my kids! I’ll have to give away my dogs! Oh, noooooo! Noooooo! He calms me down (again) with the suggestion that he might be able to reduce what I owe to just $12,000. Which, of course, just sets me off again. Where, oh where am I going to get that kind of money?? I’m going to lose everything! Death! Doom! Destruction!

Finally, for the last time, he manages to calm me down enough to where I can ask him one final question…before I gave him my credit card number, would it be okay if I ask my husband first? After all, he IS a tax attorney. Dead silence for the space of about five seconds, then he let loose a torrent of profanity such as I’ve never heard before (and I’ve heard a lot) while I’m laughing my ass off. He then warns me that, “I’ll be sorry” to which I reply, “Not as sorry as you, you thieving, scum-sucking piece of humanity!” He hung up on me then, and surprisingly enough, I’ve never gotten another IRS phone call again.

It was the highlight of my week!

What are the biggest culture shocks people face when coming to Germany?

I’ve been in Berlin for about two months now.

Here’s my longish list:

I started learning German before coming here. People said I was wasting my time, that everybody here speaks English. That’s not true. Many Germans don’t speak English. Also, a number of people (usually officials or clerks) were upset that I don’t speak their language yet, as if my not having learned the language yet in the span of two months is some grave offense.
Maybe it’s only this year but the summer isn’t really summer. There are hot and cold days. Sunny and overcast days. Clear and rainy days. A day can start sunny and end in rain. You can walk out in your shorts and have to wear pants and a light jacket by the end of the day. Also, the days are unbelievably long. The sun rises before 5 AM and sets at around 10 PM.
WWII and the Holocaust. I am of Jewish descent. Many of my ancestors were taken to Auschwitz and other camps to be exterminated. I remember the first time I saw a stolperstein or “stumbling stone” in Berlin (these are brass plates inscribed with the names of Jews and information about the dates of their deportation and extermination, inlaid in the pavement outside their last place of residence) I froze. My heart sank, and a deep sadness welled from within me.
Ethnic Diversity here is wonderful. There seem to be people from all over the world, all co-existing. Yes, there have been some glitches, but seeing this melting pot of diversity brings hope to the heart. Plus, you can have authentic food from almost anywhere—from Mexican to Vietnamese to Turkish to Lebanese to Korean, etc., etc.
Many, many people are tattooed, so much so that un-tattooed individuals seem rarer than tattooed ones. And so much so that I sometimes wonder if even the businessmen and women, under those fine tailored suits, are hiding some large and colorful dragon or tiger adorning their skins.
I assumed Berlin would be cleaner. Before I came I had a vision of Germany as a glinting-clean place. And although it’s not filthy, there’s some waste strewn about in parks and on the streets—empty beer bottles and food leftovers and dirty plastic packaging, etc.
And speaking of beer bottles, people drink alcohol. A lot of it. I see many people walking around with some kind of drink in their hands, or people sitting outside bars or even in parks with an unbelievable amount of empty bottles by their side. Or in supermarkets, walking out with cartfuls of booze.
Maybe I notice it more because I’ve never lived in a place with so many churches, but there are so many of them here. Imposing ones with rising spires and crimson bricks and huge bells resonating blocks and blocks away. Having grown up in Israel, I find it hard to imagine how the visions of a carpenter in the Middle-East, over centuries and millennia, transmogrified into these massive, gothic places of worship in a completely different culture and milieu.
The other day we went to a pleasant park and there were a bunch of kids playing in the nude, splashing each other with water and running around in the sand giggling. My son took off his clothes and joined them, and I thought, how wonderful that no one is embarrassed seeing naked kids playing around, that they are granted this easy, unconscious freedom that in many other parts of the would would have been considered inappropriate.
Sex seems to be less of a big deal here. I’ve seen a number of adverts in the street depicting some form of sex in illustrations. In the US, there would have been a lecherous quality to it, some kind of cleavage or exposed thighs, something to suggest and tease and taunt. But here there is something unassuming about its depiction—a couple or even a threesome lying in bed covered in blankets, a cartoon of a man with his loins covered by a popping champagne bottle and a smiling woman by his side. Unassertive—as if this, too, is a natural part of life and there’s no need to make a fuss about it.
Organic food is available in most supermarkets and is not necessarily exorbitantly priced. In fact, almost every little place that serves food will have some kind of organic lemonade or soft drink.
Although I am not vegetarian, when I came here I imagined würste (sausages) everywhere, and a dearth of other, non-pork based offering. But, in fact, it is very easy to get vegetarian food here. From vegetarian gemüse kebap (Turkish food—vegetables in bread) to vegetarian asian dishes, to tofu, grain- or legume-based meat substitutes in supermarkets, it is not only possible to be vegetarian here, but even easy.
The streets and the curb are wide and spacious, oftentimes cobbled and shaded by evenly-distanced stately trees. Having grown up in Israel and lived in India, this was novel for me—this European expansiveness.
Some people can be incredibly proper and strict here. I’ve been scolded for standing out in the street when the bus came, and then for standing in the wrong place inside the bus as I was paying. In some places and settings people are expected to behave in a certain ways, and are frowned upon if they are not.
The bicycle is a serious mode of transportation with its own lanes and a substantial number of riders.
Drivers are not as courteous as in other places—in less trafficked streets with no stoplight, and unlike the US, cars will mostly not stop when they see a pedestrian, and one has to wait for an opportunity to cross.
Things are well made. The walls of the apartment I’m staying in are almost as thick as my outstretched arm. The woodwork is precise and sturdy. Some of the buildings around look like they’ve been in existence for centuries, and that they will last for many centuries more. There is an assuring sturdiness in the material existence here—like things are dependable and robust. Also, it is not difficult to find objects that are Made in Germany or Europe—be it knives or rucksacks or wallets, etc.—that look like they will last for a lifetime. I like that.
Almost all shops are closed on Sundays.
Parcels are left with neighbors. If you’re not in and you have a package, it will be left with one of your neighbors, who will then, perhaps later in the day, come knocking on your door and claim the package with a slip.
People have been incredibly helpful. When I arrived, a neighbor helped carry our luggage from the street. Another neighbor helps me whenever I need something in German translated. I’ve had people in the street, after asking for directions, pull out their phones, search for the place, and give me clear instructions. Of course, as with everywhere else, there are also unfriendly people, but the friendly and helpful ones have left a greater impression on me.

Boeing is Panicking! Brunei and China Order 30 Aircraft | Boeing Completely Loses The Chinese Market

In May 2017, China successfully conducted the historic first test flight of the C919 aircraft, which marked the complete break of Boeing and Airbus’ half-century monopoly on large commercial aircraft. Soon after, China’s C919 aircraft attracted cooperation intentions from many countries.

Up to now, China’s orders for C919 aircraft have exceeded an astonishing 1,061 aircraft, but I think this is just the beginning of the emergence of China’s C919 aircraft. At this year’s 20th China-ASEAN Expo, China’s C919 aircraft once again became the focus of attention.

Among them, Brunei spent US$2 billion to purchase 30 large passenger aircraft from China, including the much-anticipated C919 aircraft. As more and more countries purchase China’s C919 aircraft, Boeing in the United States begins to panic and even begs to regain the Chinese market.

https://youtu.be/7kIH65mOefQ

What’s the most useless map ever made?

One day at the end of the School year, my teacher was throwing out some old junk. One of which was this old globe that was so inaccurate, I’m surprised it wasn’t thrown away as soon it came off the assembly line.

Some Countries don’t exist at the same time.

As far as I know, Tibet did not exist at the same time with a unified Independent India, Southeast Asia with a unified Vietnam, and what’s that little country north of Mongolia?

Oh that’s right, It’s Tannu Tuva! You know the country that was annexed into the USSR during the middle of WW2. Because the Partition of India took place after the World War ended (1947). The inconsistency with time are the least of this Globe’s problems.

Making major countries the same shade of blue as the OCEAN!

As you saw above, China is the same color of the Ocean, but that’s not the only one.

The color they chose for Turkey just makes it look like the Black Sea is part of the Mediterranean if you’re not looking close enough.

Same goes with the Great Lakes area.

Since the State of Michigan is sandwiched between massive lakes, it should be a different color to make it stand out more. Well the designer didn’t think so, because instead of the Great Lakes, it’s just ONE Great Lake.

Plus New York makes lake Ontario and Erie look like an extension of the Atlantic. So does Quebec.

But this doesn’t go with what makes the map the most useless.

They got the freaking hemispheres on wrong!!!!

I’m pretty sure Australia is not directly south of Ethiopia!

South America is just floating in the middle of the Ocean.

Though Southern Africa actually fits well with the Northern Hemisphere part of South America.

This Globe has to be the most Useless reference of the World ever!

Have you ever let your dog loose on someone who was on your property and refused to leave? Is it legal to do so?

I got Montana at a church fundraising garage sale for $1.15. She was a Rottweiler/GSD mix and the owners were selling the puppies for $3. After three hours of wheedling my mother, and scrounging as much change as I could from the car, I paid for her quite proudly. She’d been the runt of the litter, and all her litter mates had long been snatched up. I brought her home, and made a bed for her in the bottom drawer of my dresser. Took her to the vet the next day to get her all of her shots. Did basic obedience training with her and all the requisite fun things a teenage girl could do with a dog.

Flash forward three years and I’m off at school across the state, and she’s at home with my mother, grandmother and younger brother. Due to her general quirkiness, she never barked or growled unless she felt that her family was in danger. She was quite content to roam the backyard, playing chase along the fence lines with the dogs that neighbored on either side. About three am my mom hears the neighbor’s golden retriever barking up a storm, then hears the fence rattle. Thinking it was a raccoon or opossum, she laid back down. Then Montana is growling right under her window. That’s when she hears a lot of cussing, more growling and then a whimper and the fence on the other side rattle. Now there’s even more cussing and growling as the other set of neighbor’s black malamute is in on whatever is happening now. Mom grabs a flashlight and the cordless phone, calls 911 and rushes out to find out what’s happening. That’s when she sees a man vaulting the far side of the fence in the neighbors yard, only to be confronted by a massive Great Dane. Montana comes slinking to her, whimpering with cuts running down both her flanks. Grabbing her leash, she takes my dog out to greet the police, explaining what happened. Apparently they caught up with the guy a few blocks away, having been bitten by about four different dogs. Mom took my brave girl to the vet immediately. The cuts were superficial and shallow, needing nothing more than some cleaning. She had a chemical burn on her backside because he’d sprayed her with either mace or pepper spray. Montana was handsomely rewarded with a steak for doing her job protecting the family, and no one ever set foot in our backyard without permission again.

Do the majority of people in China wish to remain communists, or if they had a choice, would they want democracy?

Not the slightest chance of that

There is anger against the CPC by some people, especially in the big cities however none of these people want democracy or voting

They simply want more capitalist reforms by the CPC

The Majority are very satisfied and happy with the CPC

Especially the younger generation

They regard US democracy as a JOKE

They are so proud of their country and it’s growth and the CPC that they only want reforms, reforms and more reforms

Here are the main suggestions

The Average Age of a Party Member is 49 and they want it to reduce to 40
The Average Age of a Politburo member is 56. They want it to reduce it to 50.
70 Investments were banned by the CPC between 2017–2023. They want these investments regulated.
They want flexible and productive work hours to enhance maximum output instead of the rigid slogging workstyle of the older generation

They have contempt for the USA

Especially the 17–30 year olds born post 1993

Chinas future

They are brilliant, they have the midset to be the BEST in the world

The Older generation in their forties and fifties, born between 1973–1983 are more of the WHY IS THE US SO UNFAIR rather than any contempt for the US

They have a lot of relatives in US and the West who migrated from 1965–1990

They have contempt for the Russians and Russian Technology

They are also a bit colonial and sub consciously believe they are not in the same league as the West deep down

They MAY have no problem if China becomes a democracy but they wouldn’t want it as a choice

The even older generation in their 60s and 70s, born between 1945–1965 are steeped in Patriotic Ideology. They remember the old days and the way the CPC took China to the top

It’s for their sake that China still has the name Communist when it’s anything but communist

They would abhor any democracy

Xi has created a very nationalistic patriotic generation of Youngsters brimming with confidence

The CPC needs to make some changes though in the next 10 years to ensure the Youngsters connect to the party and that wave of nationalism is retained at it’s same fervour

But Democracy? Especially Western Style?

Good God No!!!!!

Could China force all countries to use their yuan instead of American dollars for trading internationally if they took over from America economically and militarily?

No to both questions,

Economically,

Countries opt for local currencies in bilateral trade due to several reasons that align with their own interests:

The high interest in the US dollar has driven up the cost of purchasing US dollars.
Foreign exchange transaction fees associated with using US banks are expensive (3%), and the SWIFT system not only takes several days to settle transactions but is also subject to US monitoring for unilateral sanctions, even when the transactions involve purely business matters.
A surplus of expensive US dollars is circulating in the global economy, with many countries selling them back to the Federal Reserve Bank where billions are used to fund the record national debt and crowding out private investment by keeping the interest high.
There is a concern that the US dollar could face a collapse if the Federal Reserve Bank ceases its policy of increasing interest rates, as this could exacerbate inflationary pressures and erode the currency’s value.

Military,

In contrast to historical colonial powers and the dominant influence of the United States, China lacks the ambition of global control through culture/racial superiority, military endeavors, and covert activities. Instead, China offers an alternative vision to the world by fostering connections among people through infrastructure development and trade.

The Real Reasons I Left United States (and won’t go back)

I really enjoyed this video.

Real Talk about why I don’t like living in the United States anymore and why I can’t see myself ever returning. I had invested a lot of time and money to research and travel the world to find where I best fit in, which culture I feel more comfortable in. After almost 6 years of continues life abroad, I really can’t see myself ever going back.

What are some strange things that only happen in China?

[1] As a result, it has started building absolutely MASSIVE pig farms on an industrial scale unseen anywhere in human history. It’s pretty crazy. Also, I gotta say, pretty impressive.

Who are the most professional and skilled foreign soldiers you have served with?

Let’s start with the worst:

Unfortunately, some stereotypes might be true. When I served in the German army we trained for a week with Italy’s famous “Folgore” parachute unit. Although they were considered elite in Italy, they really sucked.

When we went with them to the shooting range my job was to count the targets they were hitting, which weren’t many. With one guy it took me a while to figure out that he was missing his target by at least 5 meters- at a 150 meters shooting distance.

These guys failed at everything they did, except for one thing: The last night of their stay we went to a bar with them and after a few German beers they started singing Italian songs. Very well and beautiful and not like our “barbaric” German singing.

I also trained a lot with French units. Most of them were really decent fellows, but their officers were completely useless. They were unable to motivate their soldiers and always seemed to be screaming at them. As a result the French troops we trained with didn’t perform as well as they could have.

Although I trained with British troops on several occasions, they didn’t leave an impression with me. Neither good nor bad. Later on my German army unit got their a** kicked by a British Special Air Service unit during an exercise in Denmark. I didn’t participate in this exercise and therefore these SAS guys are not in my ranking.

In Bosnia I fought for the Croats. They were all decent soldiers and what is very important, they were eager to learn. The Croatian army during the war lacked material and sometimes professionalism, but they more than compensated these flaws with outstanding bravery and high motivation. Especially their leadership was exemplary.

Later I fought in Kosovo with the Kosovo Liberation Army. I trained the unit that I fought with, so of course, they did ok. What I often saw in battle was that with the right guidance one could really make a difference. Sometimes we had soldiers from other units under our command and although we first thought that they were completely useless, watching our guys fight it out, these soldiers started to give their best.

I trained twice with US Army units and both times it was a pleasure. First time with a battalion of the 82nd Airborne in Italy and later I had the privilege to attend the German commando course with a US Army Special Forces unit. While the Airborne soldiers, although very good soldiers, were not really a match to our German “Fallschirmjäger” platoon, the US Army Special Forces (SF) were amazing.

They somehow weren’t that good at achieving many tasks during our training inside the barracks and were also not the fastest team on the obstacle course, but as soon as they were in the forest they showed admirable infantry skills, very good adaptation to the terrain, speed and stealth.

These SF would make the first place on my ranking if it wasn’t for a couple of Dutch LRRP’s (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) soldiers who also attended the same German commando course. They were good at everything and in the end had the highest score from all attendees.

They were also very modest, quiet and polite, almost shy, and these are qualities one doesn’t find very often with elite soldiers. Therefore I rank them first.

If a drone is flying on my property and I have already notified that I do not want it to be flying on it, can I destroy it without legal repercussion?

I will answer with my experience in this. There was a drone that would come over my house three times a day and roughly the same time each day. I put out a sign said please stop recording my house and yard for a couple of days but it kept coming. Thay is when I noticed a police car parked in the lot behind my house while the drone was there. So each time I’d check and see on my camera if the cop car was there and every time the drone came around sure enough. So new sign unless you have a warrent stop filming my house and yard. At this time I checked with courts for any investigation warrents for me and my property and none. So I then went out and threw rocks towards the drone each time it would take off. But still coming back. So I set the trap. I sat out front and waited for this thing to come flying over my back yard with a rather large rock. I nailed it the first try. It broke and landed in the back yard. It took three days for the cops to get a court order to come and retrieve it. Seems in the attempt to get me into trouble they had to show the footage of the drone and the warning to stop recording was enough to exonerated me for damage to the drone. They have not been back since.

Man Didn’t Want This Cat. Now They’re Inseparable Swimming Buddies

At first this man didn’t want a cat, but his swimming buddy Frosty changed everything. It took time for them to develop the bond, but when they did, a cat dad was born. Soon, Stefan discovered Frosty’s affinity for swimming, He was super curious about water and started jumping to the shower, and then the bath and finally the swimming pool.

https://youtu.be/-wSl9unZ7wE

What’s something commonly eaten in America that British people find strange or disgusting? I’m looking for foods that are viewed as normal in America that British people can’t understand.

So what the bloody hell is this?!

Biscuits and gravy is a popular breakfast dish in the United States, especially in the South.

No.

No.

NO!

I don’t care that you have your own version of English – that is an abomination.

That quite clearly consists of a scone:

With some kind of weird elephant ejaculate on top.

So not only is the name utterly wrong to British ears (if you ask someone here if they wanted “biscuits and gravy” here you will either a) end up in a mental institute, or b) be hounded out of town like a demon), but:

The actual thing doesn’t look much better.

I mean seriously guys – that stuff looks pretty damn unappetising, and that’s a “glamour shot” taken from some recipe website!

So America – let’s recap:

You’ve taken a food item traditionally eaten in the UK with cream and jam – and decided it would be better with some weirdass sausage-jizz-sauce.
You gave it a name which makes it sound bloody awful to British people

In case you haven’t gathered – this is not a popular food item in the U.K.

And we would rather it stayed that way – it looks ghastly.

EDIT:

From some of the very angry comments, it seems like some of you Americans just can’t seem to take a light-hearted ribbing, or a smidge of sarcasm. The whole point of the question is that us Brits don’t understand why you like it.

And for crying out loud:

yes, I know you call biscuits “cookies”. That’s part of the bloody joke.
Yes I have tried it. Calling me ignorant isn’t going to help.
Yes some British stuff is weird too. But we’re not talking about us – the question is about America.

Some people are treating this answer like I did a big squishy turd on your beloved flag.

It must be that sarcasm is hidden away in the ‘u’ in humour….

Which countries have the most brutal and horrific history?

This answer isn’t really about saying what one single country has done the worst, but I do want to share below on the cruelty of humankind that many people don’t know about.

Graphic content below but I want to make this known because so many people around the world have heard of Hitler, Nazis, concentration camps but they have not heard of the Asian holocaust that took place around the same period. In western schools, history classes do not teach people about this part of the world.

This is regarding what the Japanese did during their occupation of China and Korea and the war crimes they committed to the surrounding Asian countries, including some Pacific Islands they invaded: Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, East Timor, New Guinea, Indonesia, Guam, Nauru, Wake Island, Attu and Kiska Islands, and Kiribati.

They even had some prisoners of war from the west such as America, any forces against them at the time etc.

Hundreds of thousands of women from my country in Korea were forcefully abducted (called comfort women) during the Japanese occupation in WWII. They endured torture beyond imagination if they did not sexually submit to these vile men and were forced to have sex with 60–100 men every single day. Their innards rotted because of the STD’s and they were destroyed, unable to have children even after they were rescued. They have still not been compensated for the war crimes that they endured and majority have died.

Pregnant mothers were cut open and rape victims were sodomized with bamboo sticks and bayonets until they died in agony.

On top of this they literally tore the unborn from women’s wombs and speared them alive with bayonets in front of them. They’d crush the infant’s skull against concrete floors. They would actually do this for fun.

They tied sons and daughters up and tore them apart, spearing them and forced their own parents to watch.

They raped and pillaged women of all ages, even toddlers to old women in the most vile, disgusting way imaginable. They would often disembowel them while in the process, leaving them to die in agony.

They conducted unspeakable evil torture and experiments on LIVE prisoners from these countries even children and infants in UNIT 731. Torture methods such as vivisecting pregnant women without any anesthesia, centrifuging and killing people in pressurized chambers, and slowly burning and freezing people alive. They artificially created what is similar to the ‘bubonic plague’ to see the effects on the prisoners. They were forced into X-rays until they perished and hung people by their thumbs or tongues etc. These torture tactics were deliberately planned to see death happen SLOWLY, not fast as the scientists wanted to observe the resilience of the human body.

Unbelievably Inhumane Japanese Torture Methods Used During World War II

(image deleted – too unsettling)

Bodies of slayed, raped, mutilated women in China.

(image deleted – too unsettling)

Carcasses of babies and children piled up

Despite this, Japan still presently denies what has happened and even believes that it is a rumour. The young people as shown in this video are absolutely clueless on the whole tragedy, or are so far removed in cognitive dissonance and lack of care it is astounding. There is even a middle aged woman in the video who even says “Well I’m not sure if it’s a rumour or not…” which is an absolute lunacy and an embarrassment of the failure of the country in not properly educating their citizens of what truly happened. One young girl even says “Well, I wonder when they will ever get over it…” How are people supposed to get over it when there are still thousands of victims still alive who didn’t receive any form of compensation for what they have been through??!

Their government still warps their history books and deliberately tries to hide the evidence of what truly happened. There are active groups within Japan who refuse to accept what happened and truly believe that it is just a ‘rumour’ to make Japan look bad.

Below is a real life account by a South Korean comfort woman on the horrors she went through. It is heartbreaking to watch but quite educational. She sadly passed away early January of this year, fighting until her last breath but still never receiving any compensation or apology from the Japanese. They don’t even recognize that she went through this or who she is.

(Video no longer available on YT)

What Japan did wasn’t just an invasion or occupation, it was a literal carnage, hell on earth genocide. They didn’t have to go this far as majority of the Koreans and the people they invaded were helpless farmers, uneducated servants, and innocent people who were not trained in war at all. They did this because they did not see these people as human, and their goal wasn’t simply to occupy, but to desecrate the spirit from within. They knew when you destroy someone’s spirit from inside out, the enemy will bend the knee and yield to the point where they do not have the soul to fight back. On top of this, it was just pure, raw sadistic savagery because all of these helpless people surrendered and begged for mercy yet they were still tortured for absolutely no reason.

(Video no longer available on YT)

Presently Japan is one of the most wealthiest and prosperous Asian countries in the world yet they cannot even fully take responsibility for their own committed atrocities. It shows the savage barbarism that still resides in some of these people and makes one question just how this is even acceptable. Instead they choose to warp their own history books, flat out deny it existed and have refused to offer sincere, acceptable compensation/apology for the people who are still alive. They are waiting until every last victim is dead so they no longer have to worry about it. They are not truly ashamed of this past, they just see it as an eyesore they want to bury. Keep in mind Japan has very strong political parties that strives to ensure this shameful past does not reach the masses to retain their false honour. Still to this day, they praise their war criminals in shrines.

From the invasion of China in 1937 to the end of World War II, the Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. This is more than the estimated Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe controversially claimed that “there was no evidence to prove” that the women had been coerced into sex.

“The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is engaged in an all-out effort to portray the historical record as a tissue of liesdesigned to discredit the nation,” wrote Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point, in 2014.

“Mr. Abe’s administration DENIES that imperial Japan ran a system of human trafficking and coerced prostitution, implying that comfort women were simply camp-following prostitutes,” Kotler continued. “The official narrative in Japan is fast becoming detached from reality, as it seeks to cast the Japanese people — rather than the comfort women of the Asia-Pacific theater — as the victims of this story.”

Japan’s Textbooks Reflect Revised History

Japanese Broadcast Official: We Didn’t Commit War Crimes, the U.S. Just Made That Up

Why is it so hard for Japan to say sorry?

China criticises Japan after Shinzo Abe honours war criminals as martyrs

Letter threatening to hunt Koreans sent to South Korean embassy in Japan: media

The Harrowing Story Of Filipina Women Enslaved In Japan’s Wartime Rape Camps

Edit: Since I’m getting quite a lot of people who clearly don’t seem to understand and may not have read or researched in depth in this matter. They are saying that ‘Japan does not need to offer apology or compensation for what people of their past did etc’

It’s more complicated than that.

Please read the links again. Even if they can’t take full responsibility for their past, they SHOULD take responsibility for the future by not warping textbooks and giving power to political parties who enforces the dangerous fallacy of denying any of this ever happened or triviliazing everything that has happened. They should make sure to teach the correct history not just for educational purposes but to ensure their citizens fully know and accept their own history and in hopes that it never happens again. This is also to help not silence the voices of the people who did suffer in the past and to not spit into their graves and ruin their legacy by spreading false lies.

Also the comfort women and people who were forcefully taken into labour camps as prisoners, many are still alive who didn’t actually get any compensation or even sheer RECOGNITION. They suffered their entire lives without anyone hearing what they have to say with nothing from Japan. This isn’t just about wanting Japan to go up to a stadium and saying ‘I am sorry’ and stepping down. Words are meaningless and worthless when not backed up by actions.

They are hypocrites by warping textbooks and also praising their own war criminals. Imagine what the world would say if Germany praises Nazis and gave strong political power that has the power to make Germans never even hearing of the Nazis or even contemplate if it was just a rumour or not. Think about how insane that would be.

So why do they need to apologise? Because unlike Germany what they are doing is absolutely deplorable and morally bankrupt by continuing to CONTRIBUTE to the legacy of the abomination Japan was in the past. You don’t see Germany do the same about the Nazis and for good reason. It means Japan hasn’t learned and is not truly remorseful. By Japan I am talking of the FACES of Japan which are the politicians who represent that country. The rest of the Japanese experience their trickle down effect so while it’s not saying it’s their fault, they end up indirectly contributing to supporting these vile politicians. So yes the people who represent JAPAN who hold the power of influence does need to sincerely apologise and stop contributing to what they are presently doing.

As I am getting tired of having to repeat the same information again and again, any comments that say things along the lines of ‘Japan does not need to apologise’ or those questioning or defending the existence of any of these crimes, their war criminals will be either ignored, deleted or blocked. It is extremely disrespectful to the victims and deplorable. The links are already here clear as day for reading and one can also do the research themselves. Also for anyone who brings up another atrocity and pitting them against each other, STOP. This post isn’t about pitting one atrocity against another, it is disgusting to even keep doing that and seriously lacks any insight into the original point of my post.

Otherwise thank you for reading and have a nice day.

TLDR: Japan did some truly horrific shit that many people including the present day Japanese citizens are unaware of. What they did is abysmal carnage from the Antichrist itself.

Also, piece of shit apologies that require uttering words and throwing money at victims isn’t a true apology when they are still in 2019 warping textbooks and none of their youths know anything about their crimes.

Why do you think Germany forces every citizen to learn about their nazi history and Japan doesn’t ? It is to deliberately ignore and not acknowledge their past due to their pride and selfishness. I’d equate this to even pathological narcissism and psychopathy due to how far they have gone in managing stomping this knowledge out of their own present day citizens.

Edit 2: As I am still getting very disrespectful, deranged comments on here pitting atrocities against each other, saying that I am spreading lies and others spewing ignorant hatred against Koreans, here’s my final message.

Instead of blaming others, look at what Japanese Nationals do. Stop diverting the attention away by blaming the mistakes of other countries yet not acknowledging the corruption of the Japanese government

Japan’s leaders are still stubbornly refusing to admit their war crimes

What Japanese history lessons leave out

Japanese people often fail to understand why neighbouring countries harbour a grudge over events that happened in the 1930s and 40s. The reason, in many cases, is that they barely learned any 20th Century history. I myself only got a full picture when I left Japan and went to school in Australia

The Germans in contrast have personally done everything possible to make people aware of their Nazi past. Japan doesn’t scratch the surface of what it means to have true honour while Germans go to great lengths to do humanitarian work and to allow their citizens to understand the FULL facts. This is what true compensation and remorse actually is, not the dogshit excuse of what Japan does by also denying people, correct history. End of.

We must remember Nazi crimes, says Merkel

Westoids get rid of this sick mentality

Disappointed that china isn’t collapsing and Chinese people are not starving with 50 cent hoes selling their body to you?

A channel which is ironically named “Economics Explained” is possibly the worst when it comes to it. Western propganda is not just limited to mainstream media, but to nutwits like these.

Imagine if a Chinese made a video “sorry to disappoint America/India isn’t collapsing ..yet”. What wud their reactions be.

In all honesty, the best channel for economics is Xiao Lin, light years better than these sick bas***ds.

Meanwhile Indian videos on China’s economy are even more hating than that of westoids.

Like seriously westoids, get a forking life other than hating a new country every decade. Last decade was Russia, last to last was Iraq. You guys got no job other than invading countries and telling “we love the people hate the government” then getting sad why that country hasn’t collapsed yet?

Original San Antonio Chili

Ingredients

2 pounds beef shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup suet
1/4 cup pork fat
3 medium-size onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 quart water
4 ancho chiles
1 serrano chile
6 dried red chiles
1 tablespoon comino seeds, freshly ground
2 tablespoons Mexican oregano
Salt to taste

Instructions

Place lightly floured beef and pork cubes in with suet and pork fat in heavy chili pot and cook quickly, stirring often.
Add onions and garlic and cook until they are tender and limp.
Add water to mixture and simmer slowly while preparing chiles.
Remove stems and seeds from chiles and chop very finely.
Grind chiles in molcajete and add oregano with salt to mixture. Simmer for another 2 hours.
Remove suet casing and skim off some fat.

Notes

Never cook frijoles with chiles and meat. Serve as a separate dish.

What is the toughest difficulty you have ever faced in life?

The pain was beyond anything imaginable.

Chiang Mai Thailand 2013. I had a rare form of Tuberculosis cysts lodged in my spinal cord and on my right kidney. The doctors didn’t know how I contracted this deadly bacteria. I was too ashamed to tell them it was from drug abuse and the unhygienic practices that came with it.

It felt like a hot knife piercing my back continuously for months as I lay immobilized on the bed of my apartment. I could not hold down food and went from 220 lbs to 163 lbs. There was no sleep, only my body eventually shutting down from the pain.

My mother was an LPN and flew in to take care of me because I could not afford a hospital. My poor mother, I screamed at her to take my life. I switched from fentanyl to methadone to morphine, but none of them worked – they only made the pain worse because my feeble body could not process the drugs. It was gasoline on the fire raging inside me.

Once a week or so, my mother would help me to sit up, place a back brace on me, and help me move six feet to the bathroom so I could attempt a bowel movement and a brief shower. Every inch of every movement was excruciating pain; I had no more tears; it was hollow bellowing, and even cursing was painful. And then back to bed. That simple exercise would be an hour of horrific suffering.

After three months of strong antibiotics, I could finally eat and hold it down. With a back brace and cane, I could stand and walk briefly. The photo above was from this time, taken with my beautiful mother. You can see the back brace under my shirt and the cane I used to walk.

This life I have today is beyond anything imaginable

I never thought it possible. I thought I was doomed to the bondage of self, and the slavery of active addiction.

Now, I live a lifestyle of sober recovery – drug and alcohol-free at 56. I train daily in the gym, go for power walks and jogs in nature, and have a purposeful, meaningful life.

I Just Got an Email That Left me SPEECHLESS. WE’RE AT DEFCON 2

This is really good, from a prepper. DEFCON 2. Holy Shit!

What are things about corporate life no one tells you about?

Your appraisal is dependent on last 2 months efforts and not 12 months
You ask for a raise, and your boss thinks you’re looking for a job change
You complain about administrative issues and your manager thinks you’re trying to be a rebel
Don’t share secrets with your colleagues, they might be sharing your secrets with colleagues or managers
Your office friend is not your real friend and they won’t swear by your death bed
If you die tomorrow, there is a replacement within a week
Your efficiency is decided by number of hours you clock in vs number of productive efforts you place in
A junior person can outsmart a senior person but he will still be called junior
Your mistakes will always be discussed during appraisals
Your best performance will be discussed when you want to quit
If you finish your work on time and leave early, this is getting noted in the system as you don’t have enough work. [Your efficiency is not counted 90% of the time.]
Hiring is done based on communication skills and not on management, writing, negotiation, programming, analysis, attitude and mindset
Your CTC, Variable, Bonus and Take home salary are different components (understand the difference)
Utilize your earned and casual leaves when you get time
Find your interests and do some certification courses from LinkedIn, Coursera, edX etc
Documentation is king
Lazy ones are the smartest but are difficult to manage
Love your job and be committed to the work. Period.
Your salary will increase by 1.5x, 2x or 3x only when you switch companies
At age 20–30 skill set is primary and salary is secondary.
If you find a mentor in your current company, listen to him/her and always consult when you get stuck
Be open to change and learn how to become smarter
Try to be 1% better than yesterday
Kill the boredom, go for a walk when you don’t have anything to do at office or talk to your colleagues and find out how they do what they do
Be happy and learn the financial management, this will help you stay afloat after 10–15 years

Chen Si.

He works at a logistics agency in Nanjing, China. He also spends his free time saving other people’s lives.

Let me tell you his story.

In 2003, a very close relative of Chen’s committed suicide after watching his sons argue over who would take care of him. The incident was deeply traumatizing. Having to lose someone he held so dear to his heart just because his sons didn’t seem to show enough respect and compassion for him. Chen also read in the local newspaper that the Nanjing-Yangtze River Bridge was a major suicide hotspot — in fact, by 2006, about 2,000 people were estimated to have killed themselves by jumping off the bridge since the year it was constructed (1968). He then became greatly determined to devote the rest of his life saving those of others trapped in hopelessness by foiling suicide attempts.

In response, Chen began to patrol the Nanjing-Yangtze bridge either on his motorbike or on foot, continuously on the lookout for people willing to jump from it.

He has been there almost every day, even on holidays and weekends, regardless of the weather.

He has kept a lookout for signs of depression, for example, in the way some of them walk, which Chen describes as “passive with no spirit or direction”.

Chen also keeps a diary documenting the people he has encountered and the reasons why they wanted to kill themselves.

Some had been greatly shamed for not being successful enough in school.
Some had broken up with their boyfriend or girlfriend.
Some had wasted away their money on needless things.
There was also, for example, a migrant worker who was drowning in debt because he couldn’t pay off the $15,000 bill for his daughter’s leukemia treatments.

Chen also gives out suicide prevention pamphlets to potential jumpers, detailing emergency contacts.

And not only does he simply pull people off the bridge. In fact, he has spent 10,000 yuan ($1,457 in dollars) renting a two-room house not far from the site, which he calls “a station for the soul to rest in”.

He sits with people and lets them share all their suffering in their stories, which in a way ignites friendship, trust, and newfound confidence. Chen also occasionally brings victims back to the bridge as volunteers, helping others see a way forward in life.

Throughout his time engaging in this, Chen has stopped over 300 people from ending their lives. That is an example of being a hero without having to fight. An example of generosity and compassion at work without the necessity for bloodshed. Sometimes the best heroes simply dedicate themselves to lending a hand to people who feel like they’ve got nothing left for them. Chen Si isn’t called the “Angel of Nanjing” for nothing.

“Not all heroes wear capes”, they say. That is most definitely true.

Footnotes

[1] Chen Si – Wikipedia

What are some of the oldest contracts still in place that include some regular payments, like a lease that requires the user or tenant to pay something?

Every October since 1211 the City of London has paid rent to the Crown for two pieces of land even though nobody knows their exact locations.

The Ceremony of Quit Rents is the oldest legal ceremony in England apart for the Coronation of the Monarch. It takes place between St Michael’s Day (October 11th) and St Martin’s Day (November 11th) every year in the Royal Courts of Justice in London where the City pays the King’s Remembrancer.

The King’s Remembrancer is the oldest judicial position in England and was created in 1164 by Henry II to keep track of what was owed to the crown.

For the first piece of land, called The Moors, the City pays two knives, one blunt and one sharp.

The Remembrancer’s duty is to test the knives. The billhook is tested on a hazel tally and should make a mark representing the payment. The sharp axe then splits the tally in two, one for each party as a receipt. The Remembrancer then calls “Good service”.

This is called a split tally where in order to record debts a stick was marked with a number of notches and then split lengthwise. This way the two halves both record the same notches and each party to the transaction received one half of the marked stick as proof.

The second quit rent is for the use of the forge in Tweezer’s Alley, somewhere near The Strand. It is believed that the first tenant, Walter Le Brun, was a blacksmith who had set up his business near the tilting ground of the Knights Templar sometime around 1235.

The rent for this land is sixty-one nails and six horse-shoes. The horseshoes used are believed to date back to 1361 and are probably the oldest horseshoes still in existence. After the payment is received, the shoes and nails are then loaned back to the City of London for the next year.

When presented with the horseshoes and nails, the Remembrancer calls “Good number”.

There are also other quit or peppercorn rents. In Medieval times when a piece of property was deeded over as a reward for service a nominal rent was often charged as a reminder that the tenant didn’t own the property outright. A single peppercorn (or a single rose i.e. rose rents) was among the most popular forms of this style of rent but there were various other interesting forms of payment, such as a frog, a roast pork dinner, the donation of a petticoat to a poor woman, or even a raw calves head and a pair of gloves.

What do you dislike most about the U.S.?

Hi.
I am an Australian who is married to an American and, due to the nature of my work, lived ALL OVER the US over a decade.

Half my family are American and many of my closest friends.
In short, I’m very fond of the United States and support my nation’s close affiliation with them.

So please forgive me if I’m blunt.
This is NOT an American bash, it’s an honest expression of the one thing that [SOME] Americans do that never fails to trigger me.

“We saved your asses in World War Two”.

Americans often tell us bluntly, over and over how they “saved our arses” in both World Wars.

I assure you, EVERY SINGLE Brit, Aussie, Kiwi or Canadian reading along can hear those words spoken in an American accent as they read them.

That’s how often we hear it.
Almost weekly.
Certainly once a month.

Wars that we ourselves stepped up and fought in the protection of others.
Wars that wouldn’t even have affected us directly.
Wars we fought for YEARS before the United States.

Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand particularly could have turned their backs on Western Europe.

Britain herself could have closed her borders and looked the other way.
Hitler had no designs on the UK – He admired them.
All they had to do was stand back and allow the holocaust to happen.

But of course they couldn’t because fighting Nazi Germany was the right thing to do.

We didn’t make Britain wait 3.2 and 2.3 years to enter either great war.
We were there from day one.

We didn’t charge Britain for our goods or help.
We didn’t keep a tally and make them pay it back for seventy years.
We didn’t insist they realign their trade preferences to favour our markets setting their still very young colonies prematurely adrift or cost them their empire, wealth, dignity or preeminence as a world power.

We didn’t use Britain’s plight as a springboard for our own wealth and dominance or spend the following century diluting their culture with Pan Americanism and shallow consumerism.

CANZUK didn’t ask for anything.
We just went because we’re family and that’s what family does and despite what some of you are going to assert in the comments, yes, America, though you are the black sheep you are also family.

Speaking for Australia, from a population of six million (2/3 of which were women, children, the elderly and infirm), a full one million Australian men served in the military during the Second World war.

Let that sink in.

We had, from our far-flung nation gathered together the fourth-largest air force in the world and the fifth largest navy and lost so many men in every theater of both World Wars that we had a noticeable lack of them right into the 1980s.
Indeed, by the time American boots had touched the ground in North Africa and Europe, CANZUK had already sacrificed literally millions of men.

It’s SO, rude.
I’m not even sure you understand just how disrespectful it is and how much damage it does [at street level] to our relationships with the US.
Honestly – it’s there in the pit of all our stomachs whenever we even engage with an American.

I will leave you with this quote from the memoirs of one of your own.
American journalist Ernie Pyle who was killed in action by the Japanese in April 1945.

His account of D-day and the liberation of Paris.

“One cannot help but be moved by the colossus of our invasion. It was a bold and mighty thing. One of the epics of all history. I hope that we can rejoice in victory but humbly. The dead men would not want us to gloat.”

Peace.

Do people realise that China is an authoritarian country?

Probably. So?

I don’t live in China. But I do live in another country that is often said to be authoritarian (Singapore). And what else can we say about Singapore?

It’s ranked in the world’s top five richest countries (by GDP per capita). It’s ranked among the world’s top five least corrupt countries. Its public transport system is often ranked as the world’s best. It’s also ranked as the world’s no. 6 most peaceful country. It has one of the world’s highest average life expectancies. It’s ranked No. 1 for infrastructure. Singapore is ranked the 2nd safest city in the world. Singapore students are the world’s best in science, math and literacy. Its economy is ranked the 4th most competitive in the world. Singapore has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world. Homelessness is very rare here. Singapore’s rate of death by drug overdose is 81 times lower than in the US. There hasn’t been one gun homicide in the past 17 years.

Etc etc etc. I could go on and on. Basically Singapore is a very successful country across a wide range of different indicators and criteria. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it – what exactly is so bad about authoritarianism.

Yeah, yeah, you can’t smoke pot; you’ll be caned if you are a rapist, and you have no right to utter hate speech to bully anybody. Sounds quite good to me.

Which is the best thing to import?

Cigarettes 😀

You do the maths. I used to be able to buy them at HKIA for $90HKD a carton. The airport staff said you have to pay duty if you take more than 2 cartons. I said yes and filled my suitcase.

I’d take them to the UK and sell them for £35–40 a carton. I’d sell them to somebody who looked like he’d stab you in the face. First time I met him he wanted to rob me, but realised I could supply him regularly. Anyway he’d sell them for £50–60 a carton (it’s about £50 for 100 a carton is 200).

The trick was to land late at night, if you did this the customs agents were usually not too attentive and wanted to go home.

Same thing with France, I’d go for a razz now and again and come back with a car filled with cigarettes.

It was easy money and made me my seed money to get my business off the ground.

What are some sad truths about life?

Chris Langan was born with a freakishly potent brain, having arguably the highest IQ of any living person.

Langan began speaking at six months old and went on to skip several grades. He had an adult vocabulary by age 10. He breezed through college-level tests as an adolescent. He took his SAT several years early and got a perfect score in half the allotted time and took a nap.

Today, he is a rancher. He never finished college. Most of his adult years were spent as a bouncer at a bar, and in manual labor jobs.

It all stemmed from his rough childhood. He grew up in a poor family. His mother married multiple times before he turned 12. One stepfather committed suicide. Another was psychopathic and abusive.

His stark upbringing created behavioral problems and a persisting contempt for authority. Combine this with inadequate mentorship, resources, and an absent professional network and he never weaponized his extremely rare gift.

The sad truth is that there are many like Langan, who are like the gifted child working on a 3rd world farm, born into poverty and dealt a common, cruel blow to the chance of success.

TikTok on the cost of living | RANT ON INFLATION | EVERYONE IS BROKE AND TIRED

“Hi guys, just to clarify I do not own any of these videos I just thought it would be interesting to see how people are dealing with the cost of living, sending prayers and well wishes to you ”

Tiny treasure

When I was a teenager I would explore all the abandoned homes in my tiny small town. I grew up in Western Pennsylvania; coal and steel was our life, but during this time, the factories were all closing. So the homes would be abandoned. And we would explore them.

One of my friends, not me, was rummaging around in one of the old bedrooms and found an interesting object in an ancient shoebox tucked in the end of top shelf of a closet.

It was a handbook.

He found an operation manual for a biplane! It was a World War I era instruction manual for a Curtiss JN-4. And it was cool as Hell. I loved the illustrations, and the classic format in this small leather-bound book. Totally awesome.

I have no idea what happened to this little jewel of a book, and sometimes I muse what happened to it.

I will never know, but if you see me sitting quietly watching the rain fall down, thoughts of this little book is but one of my many many meandering thoughts.

Today…

Japanese Women

How can humans only live up to 11 days without sleeping?

So after researching, apparently the longest anyone ever stayed awake was this dude named Randy Gardner who did it for a science fair project back in 1963.

He lasted 11 days and 25 minutes without sleep, which is insane. He set a world record, but they don’t do that anymore cuz it’s too dangerous.

We all know that sleep is super important for your body and your brain. It helps you heal, grow, learn and stay sane.

When you don’t sleep, you mess up all kinds of stuff in your body, like your hormones, your metabolism, your mood and your stress levels.

You see, you start feeling the effects of sleep deprivation pretty fast. After just 24 hours, you’re like drunk or high.

You can’t think straight, you can’t remember stuff, you can’t see or hear well, you get cranky and you might even start to hallucinate.

It gets worse the longer you stay awake. After 36 hours, you lose your motivation, your reasoning skills and your attention span.

You might also start to have microsleeps, which are like mini naps that happen without you knowing. You just zone out for a few seconds and then snap back to reality. Imagine this happening while driving.

After 48 hours, you’re in trouble. You might start to have delusions, paranoia and psychosis. You might see or hear things that aren’t there, or believe things that aren’t true. You might also get really emotional or aggressive.

After 72 hours, you’re basically a zombie. You can barely function at all. You might not even be able to stay awake if you wanted to. Your immune system is shot, your blood pressure is high and your risk of getting sick or having an accident is through the roof.

So yeah, don’t try this. It’s not worth it. Sleep is awesome and you need it to live a healthy and happy life.

The average adult needs about 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, but it varies from person to person. Find out what works for you and stick to it.

Texas Fajitas

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

Fajitas

2 (1 1/4 pound) skirt steaks, trimmed of membrane and fat
16 to 20 flour tortillas, warmed

Marinade

1 cup bottled herb and garlic or Italian salad dressing
12 ounces beer
1 large onion, minced
Juice of 3 or 4 limes
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons minced, fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lemon pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 bay leaf

Accompaniments

Mild or medium salsa
Guacamole

Instructions

Place the meat in a Pyrex dish.
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl, mixing well and then pour over the steaks.
Refrigerate the meat for 6 to 24 hours, turning occasionally.
Remove the meat from the refrigerator and drain off the marinade.
Bring the steaks to room temperature.
On an outdoor grill, grill meat to medium-rare.
Cut the steaks diagonally through the grain, into finger length strips.
Serve meat on a platter with tortillas and serving bowls of salsa and guacamole.

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

One of my first “real” jobs as a young man was working in a distribution center for a pharmaceutical company. I loaded and unloaded trucks, unloaded box cars and pulled orders, and I found the work to be enjoyable. I was the youngest employee in the place and the older women in the office would dote on me, which I also enjoyed immensely.

The general manager was a former college jock and I became friends with him and would play volleyball, basketball, and softball with him and his friends. After a softball game one summer I overheard him talking to one of his friends and he mentioned that the company we worked for was in trouble. He told his friend that he was afraid the DC where we worked was going to be shut down, and he didn’t want to move to North Carolina, where the company was headquartered.

I didn’t really think about it until I started noticing that the shipments we received weren’t as large, or coming as frequently, as they had in the past. A warehouse than had once overflowed with stock was starting to look barren. That’s when I recalled what the GM hold told his friend and I decided to start looking for another job.

I found a job working in a DC for a wholesaler and gave notice, but the GM tried to talk me into staying. He said I had a future with the company but I still decided to leave. Six months later the distribution center closed and the entire warehouse crew was let go. Some of those guys were in their 60s, so their only option was to take early retirement. I felt bad about not letting them know what was coming, but what if I’d been wrong? I was lucky to get out when I did.

Deserve the world

Tech hegemony name of NSA’s game — Zhang Zhouxiang

Had the Ministry of National Security not mentioned it on its official WeChat account, it would have been hard to imagine that the US National Security Agency, a key department of the US government, had invaded the server of China’s Huawei headquarters in 2009 and was monitoring it ever since.

This was at a time when the US had not even triggered trade frictions with China and “partnership” was the key word defining their bilateral relationship. That was also the time when the US was keeping a tab on allies and imagined enemies alike, such as by bugging the then German leader’s phone, as Edward Snowden revealed.

All these incidents once again prove that even when the US smiles at you, you cannot take it at face value. The US can use one hand for a handshake and the other to point a gun at the person it is shaking hands with.

It’s ironic that despite spying on the Huawei server for 14 years, the US still could not find any evidence of Huawei having “stolen” technologies from it. That is the biggest evidence that the NSA is not at all concerned about the United States’ national security, but about the US’ technological hegemony. Anything called “national security” for the US is based on the insecurity of others.

With this mentality, the US cannot become a worthy leader of the world. It can only arouse the whole world’s suspicion with its actions, as everyone knows that the US gained its current superpower status by cheating, stealing, hacking and blackmailing.

And such conspiracies won’t persist for long because the rest of the world cannot be overshadowed by the US forever. That Huawei has released its new smartphone model Mate 60 Pro, despite the sanctions, proves that the US’ blockade and surveillance don’t work.

It is time the US woke up from its own dreams.

China’s LASER Tech Achieves Yet Another MASSIVE Breakthrough

In a groundbreaking announcement, Chinese military scientists have unveiled a remarkable leap forward in laser weapon technology. The researchers claim to have developed an ingenious cooling system that eliminates a long-standing obstacle – the buildup of excess heat during the operation of high-energy lasers. This achievement, which could redefine the face of modern warfare, promises to enable these laser-based weapons to fire with unprecedented longevity and precision. Today’s episode will cover another breakthrough in China’s laser technology.

What is the most “technologically illiterate” thing you’ve ever seen someone do?

Wasting an entire tech budget on peripherals, with no computers to attach them to.

Several years ago, I worked at a school where the majority of teachers and the principal still used overhead projectors. I bought my own projector and used my own Macbook instead. When the principal saw what I was doing, she put me in charge of setting up Smartboards for every classroom.

Apparently, the year before I got there, the principal (an older woman) went to an education convention and got swindled into spending thousands of dollars on new Smartboards. Someone must have had a display where they showed all of the great things you can do with a Smartboard, so she used the school’s technology budget to buy one for each classroom.

They’d been delivered over the summer, before I was hired, and they were still boxed in the storage room when I got there.

Except she didn’t buy the computers or projectors to go along with them.

A Smartboard by itself is useless. It’s basically a large track pad. It requires a computer and a projector to work. The Smartboard is the cheapest part of the equation.

I got one up and running in my room, since I had my own laptop and projector. She was so excited that she had the janitor unbox and hang several others in other classrooms over a weekend, before I explained to her that they only worked when connected to a computer and a projector.

When I came to work on Monday, half of the classrooms looked like this:

They had nice, new Smartboards hanging there, completely useless.

Then I gave her an estimate for cheap laptops and projectors to get the other Smartboards up and running like the one in my room was.

She got mad at me. It’s the first time a principal ever actually raised their voice to me. She insisted that I could make the Smartboards work without buying extra parts, because the guy who sold her the Smartboards didn’t say anything about needing a computer or projector to go with them.

I think she was mad that she’d been ripped off. She spent literally the school’s entire tech budget on those Smartboards.

She raised her voice to me a few more times throughout the year, for leaving to get coffee on my lunch break (I’m an adult and I can do that), not keeping the students busy every possible second (I don’t believe in busy work), and not using the Smartboard in my room enough (It was a bigger pain to use it than it was worth). Basically, she micro-managed and treated me like a student, not a teacher. I left there after just one year. She ended up being forced into retirement after that year too. I suppose a lot of people complained about the way she treated the teachers, and pissing away the school’s money on pointless tech was the last straw.

Nice Guys finish last

Do you think that money gives you absolute happiness?

Whatever your opinion may be about this man, Dan Bilzerian, he said something very true in an interview, and I would like many people to reflect on it.

In the Joe Rogan Podcast (the most famous and most listened-to podcast in the world), Rogan asked him the same question:

Joe: Hey Dan, for the people who are listening to us, and most of them won’t even make a quarter of the money you’ve made, do you think money brings happiness?

Dan Bilzerian: Money, Joe, brings satisfaction. Money can undoubtedly give you a lot of satisfaction, but never complete happiness.

When I go to a fancy restaurant, when I drive a brand new car, when I party at the best clubs, for me, that’s already normal.

But the day I can’t afford to eat at a restaurant of the same quality, or drive the latest car, or go partying, how do you think I’ll feel?

In my case, I raised the ‘satisfaction bar’ so high that I have to maintain this lifestyle forever because if I don’t, I get depressed.

Happiness, even if it sounds cliché, cheesy, or however you want to call it, comes from within, from your person. It doesn’t come from material things. Material things give you ‘satisfaction,’ but they will never give you happiness.

There’s always someone who says something like:

‘Money doesn’t bring happiness, but I’d rather cry in a Lamborghini.’

Now, let me ask:

Wouldn’t you rather smile from ear to ear in a Kia?

Regards.

If I Compare Both – CHINA is The Winner

China’s space program and Elon Musk’s SpaceX represent two major players in the rapidly evolving field of space exploration. In recent years, both entities have made significant strides in rocket development, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of space travel. From the famed Falcon series to the proud and furious Long March family, both players have redefined space sector on their own terms.

Ukraine SitRep: Storming Andivka – Ukrainian Losses

The Russian military has launched small attacks along the whole frontline. A major effort is made near Andivka which yesterday was bombed to smithereens:

The headline reads “RF Army has delivered a blow of previously unseen might against the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU)”. What they are describing is an aerial bombing of Avdeevka, the heavily fortified Ukrainian town 14 kilometers away from Donetsk city, which is an urban center of more than a million inhabitants and capital of the Donbas oblast (region) of the same name. Donetsk city has been struck by missiles and artillery shells launched from Avdeevka on a daily basis from the time before the Special Military Operation, and with ever greater intensity during the SMO. Video images of destroyed homes and apartment buildings have appeared on Russian evening news together casualty figures and the testimony of victims.

The attack on Avdeevka came early in the morning when the Ukrainians were attempting to carry out a rotation of their troops. Eyewitnesses said that “the earth shook” in the whole area as a result of the bombing.
…
The bombing of Avdeevka today, like the reported destruction of a major Ukrainian command post by 1.5 ton bombs a couple of days ago, would suggest the “softening up” phase before a major ground offensive.

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Since 2014 the Ukrainian military had made Andivka into a fortress. It requires big bombs to break its bunkers.

bigger

That something important was coming up could be seen it the recent Daily Reports by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The ones put out on the 8th, 9th and 10th of October showed relatively few Ukrainian casualties (655, 630, 580) and a reduced counter artillery campaign with only 6, 7 and 8 Ukrainian guns hit on those days. It was a sign that something was coming up.

Today’s report, which includes the numbers from yesterday’s campaign against Andivka and other places show high Ukrainian casualty numbers (895) and hits on some 24 Ukrainian artillery systems.

The Ukrainians seem to fight almost exclusively on foot. Losses of armored fighting vehicles have become rare. Today’s report reports hits on only 7 armored combat systems (including tanks) but also hits on 35 transport vehicles, i.e trucks and pick-ups.

Yesterday’s evening summary by Strana.news described the bad state most of Ukraine’s brigades are in (machine translation):

Reports of the beginning of massive attacks by the Russian army coincided with the appearance of an increasing amount of information about significant problems with the offensive potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As we have already written, ex-adviser to the President’s Office Alexey Arestovich called on the Ukrainian command to go on the defensive and abandon the offensive, which, in his opinion, is hopeless with the current balance of forces.

Also in social networks, a video from a Ukrainian military man was distributed, who talks about problems in the “Guards Offensive” brigades due to heavy losses and poor organization.

“I communicate with different military personnel from different branches of the armed forces and, in principle, I understand that cp@ka is everywhere. But I did not expect that in the rampant “Offensive Guard” we will meet with those mistakes that even the most meaty brigades no longer make,” says a National Guard soldier in Tiktok.

Then he describes various problems in specific teams. Let’s list the main ones:

Platoon commanders in critical areas, including on the Zaporozhye front, are appointed junior lieutenants without military experience and knowledge.
Many fighters have not received sufficient training;
Coordination at the company and battalion level is almost nonexistent. Maximum-squads and platoons;
Huge losses – “three companies enter, only a few go back”;

“One village took an infantry company in a short period of time. 120 plus or minus people,” says the military man.

The Russian Federation has many times more forces and resources – “no matter how strong you are, you will be stupidly beaten by the crowd”;
In some cases, the assault fighters go on foot – 7 km in equipment for 35 kg.

Other reports have confirmed that the Ukrainian military has long lost its middle officer and NCO corps. Smart kids fresh from senior high school are leading platoons of men mostly in 30s or 40s and 50s. Brigade commanders give direct orders down to platoons because the staff of battalions and companies in between is no longer there.

The Ukraine lacks artillery. The Russian counter battery fire has become more and more intense.

The advantage the HIMARS systems with their 70 kilometer reach had given Ukraine is also gone. The U.S. delivered HIMARS systems, which previously had been positioned safely out of reach of Russian counter-battery fire, are now easy to reach targets.

Russia’s new versions of the Lancet kamikaze drone have destroyed Ukrainian fighter planes on the ground some 90 kilometer behind the frontline.

Smaller Russian First Person View (FPV) suicide drones now come with thermal night vision.

The new Tornado-S Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS) provides a reach of 120 kilometer with GPS guided missiles.

It is pretty much over for the Ukrainian military. The only sensible action it can now take is to shorten the frontline and to retreat behind some natural defense barrier like the Dnieper river.

However, Zelensky still talks of victory and is unlikely to order such a move.

Posted by b on October 11, 2023 at 15:00 UTC | Permalink

The number one rule

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-EbqIpiOPNk?feature=share

Who is the most accidentally famous person ever?

Charles Ramsey

On May 7th, 2013, Clevelander Charles Ramsey sat down in his living room, and was about to eat a Big Mac when he heard screaming coming from outside…

He opened his front door, and realized that it must have been coming from his next door neighbor’s house, so he walked over. But instead of his neighbor, Ariel, he saw a woman in the doorway clutching a child. She said that they needed to get out of the house, but that the door was secured and they were trapped. Although hesitant to break his neighbor’s front door, Ramsey agreed, and together they kicked out the bottom panel. The woman and her daughter crawled through…

But that was just the beginning! The lady said that she had been trapped in the house for years and that there were other women still inside! She ran to a nearby house and called 911 while Ramsey did the same on his cell phone. Within minutes, police and press had swarmed the street. What was going on?

The woman’s name was Amanda Berry. She had been kidnapped by the owner of the house and kept inside for 10 years, where she and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, were kept in dismal conditions and sexually abused. They were all rescued and reunited with their families after a decade. The kidnapper, Ariel Castro, was arrested minutes later at a nearby McDonald’s. The whole city of Cleveland, Ohio, was overjoyed to learn that the missing women had been found alive after so long, and the rescue made headlines across the world!!

Ramsey gave an iconic interview with a local news station, just minutes after the news broke, and it quickly went viral.

“I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Dead Giveaway. Something is wrong here.” – Charles Ramsey

His candid demeanor during such a stressful episode caught people’s attention. The Gregory Brothers recorded a song by remixing his statement. Mike Epps parodied his reaction. Drew Carrey, a fellow Clevelander, personally met with him. He was skyrocketing to fame but his big break came on Snoop Dogg’s show talk show.

Snoop Dogg received an audio recording of Ramsey’s 911 call. In it, the dispatcher asked for Ramsey’s phone number and Ramsey gave it, but whoever provided the audio did not mute or obscure it to protect Ramsey’s identity. Snoop and his guest decided to call the number themselves to congratulate him, and Ramsey picked up. But they also broadcast the number to the entire world!

Ramsey received an unbelievable amount of support and praise. From across the world many sent their thanks and Ramsey was absolutely overwhelmed by the attention. As more evidence came to light, Ramsey also had some choice words for Castro and described in graphic detail how he would exact revenge on him. Talks of a reward for Ramsey abounded. He even received several marriage proposals. When a news reporter asked how Ramsey felt about all the congratulatory phone calls and texts he was getting, he replied that he now wished he had paid for an unlimited phone plan, as he had exceeded his allotted data. He eventually solved this by throwing his phone into the Cuyahoga river.

McDonald’s — whom Ramsey had referenced in his viral interview and where Castro had been arrested — gave Ramsey tons of $50 Mcdonald’s gift cards. Ramsey gave them out to children and the homeless, and when McDonald’s heard about this, they stopped giving him gift cards.

Ramsey appeared on Anderson Cooper, wrote a memoir, and since then has sought to avoid the spotlight. He met with Amanda Berry in 2019 on the sixth anniversary of the rescue, and claims that he and Michelle Knight, now known as Lily Rose Lee, sometimes see each other when out walking because they live nearby.

What is something you have learned about relationships while you were single?

As I was sitting on the beach with my friend Courtney, she turned to me and said, “You know, I really love Landon. I’m going to marry him. But, if he were to leave me, I would be okay.” They had been dating for four years and her boyfriend was asking her dad that summer if he could have her hand in marriage. They were very happy and comfortable together.

It was a stark contrast to my old roommate. In the four years I had known her, she had been single less than two weeks. Every time she became single, it had not been her choice. After each breakup, she had immediately gotten a new man within days. Eventually she settled with a guy who emotionally abused her. She had eventually caught him cheating more than three times and broken up with him, but her fear of being alone had driven her back into his arms after ten days. She married that guy.

Both of these girls are wonderful people who I enjoy hanging out with. But, they have one stark difference. Courtney is comfortable being alone. My old roommate is not.

Courtney dated her share of frogs but was always able to leave if things got bad. She liked being single and was comfortable with herself. So, she found a man perfect for her who added something amazing to her life. She settled for nothing less.

My old roommate stayed in abusive relationship after abusive relationship. Being single scared her, so she’d rather stay with someone who treated her badly than face the world alone. She will depend on someone else for her happiness for the rest of her life and they will consistently fail to provide it.

Being single taught me that you’re not ready to be in a relationship unless you’re truly happy and comfortable being single. If you don’t, you make yourself very vulnerable to abuse and a life of heartache.

Learn to be alone and to depend on yourself. Don’t date anyone before you date yourself. It is the most important basis of a healthy relationship.

Filipino Girls Get BRUTALLY HONEST

As the Philippines welcomes foreign tourists back for the first time since 2020, countless interested bachelors are arriving at the shores of Davao City specifically to find a Pinay to share their life with. Known around the world as amazing women, Filipinas entice foreigners to travel halfway across the globe just to guaranty a match through face to face interactions. As more men dream of romantic connections with Filipino women, solo travel to the magic city of Davao becomes a bucket list item for countless guys.

Davao City plays host to a couple dozen foreigners several times each year who arrive to meet Pinays in one on one introductions or during group speed dating events arranged by local matchmakers. Because dating in Davao remains a foreign affair for Philippine women seeking love beyond borders, foreign guys also interested in meeting Filipino girls are once again solo traveling to this magic city to try and guaranty a match among some of the most stunning ladies in the entire world.

Know to be ultra family oriented in nature, most Filipinas are seeking traditional family life with a good man who seeks the same. While many Western men begin to adopt alternative philosophies towards domestic dating like MGTOW or Red Pill, many are simply seeking a traditional wife or what they call a tradwife within these Red Pill or MGTOW circles. While most Filipino women fit what men use to describe their tradwife, it must be recognized that Pinays are also industrious and independent completely out of necessity in the Philippines.

Most Filipinas find the domestic dating scene in Davao City to be lacking, which leads many towards furthering their educations and/or careers to make a life for themselves. Because most Pinays will want to create a family of their own, dating beyond borders to establish a WMAF ( Western Male Asian Female) relationship becomes a focus for many who are seeking such a life. WMAF relationships in the Philippines have become quite common in cities like Davao where dating often feels like a foreign affair because of the expat population and constant foreign tourists who frequent the region.

While Filipino women dream of lasting connections with foreign men, the ability to guaranty a match in the Philippines via solo travel rather than making a Filipina dating app your cupid has become the go to method for guys wanting the same type of lasting relationships.

There are advantages to dating Filipinas in cities like Davao, where an overwhelming number of Asian women are wholly open to the idea of WMAF ( Western Male Asian Female) relationships. While most marriage minded Filipino men are already starting families by their early twenties, the vast majority of bachelors are single by choice. Because countless Pinays still seek to create a family of their own, dating beyond borders with visiting foreigners becomes the most practical way to achieve the dream of loving connections that can create such dynamics.

WMAF relationships are quite common in cities throughout the Philippines like Cebu, Davao or Manila. Because the majority of Filipino women are fluent English speakers, men who share this language are able to communicate well, which expedites the courtship process for many WMAF couples. As men venture into the Philippines specifically in search of the Filipina pea to their pod, cold approach in the street scenes of Davao can seem appealing, but the most serious Filipino women often find such interactions with strangers to be unappealing.

Sure, Filipinas may say hello to you in the street scenes of Davao if you initiate this interaction, but in the less savory parts of the city, these interactions rarely signal a woman interested in starting a lifelong loving relationship. In the interest of being able to guaranty a match during solo travel to Davao City, more men that ever are partnering with local matchmaking agencies to meet serious Pinays to achieve their dream of lasting connections with Asian women. Matchmakers in the Philippines commonly organize private speed dating events for Filipinas and visiting foreign men who have a stated purpose of finding lifelong love as the key motivation for attending these events.

During speed dating events in Davao, men meet over 100 single Pinays in a matter of hours, with only a couple dozen guys in attendance. The odds of meeting 100+ Filipinas in 4 hours via cold approach becomes less likely, especially when factoring in the pre-qualification process administered by matchmaking agencies like A Foreign Affair. Because more men than ever seek to guaranty a match with Filipinas, dating agencies play a crucial role in creating lasting connections via one on one introduction or the world famous speed dating events held in Cebu and Davao.

What does it mean now that BRICS has added Iran?

What does it mean now that BRICS has added Iran?

What is the longest time a soldier has spent firing a weapon continuously?

The longest recorded continuous firing of a weapon took place in 1963, when a group of British Army armorers decided to put the venerable Vickers machine gun to its most extreme test ever attempted. Having a stockpile of around 5 million obsolete .303 British rounds, they took turns continuously firing a single freshly-rebuilt Vickers for an entire week.

The men took 30-minute shifts operating the gun, with others shoveling the spent brass and bringing more ammo and cooling water, pausing only to reload and change worn-out barrels. Amazingly, in a week of non-stop firing, the gun never malfunctioned a single time, and a follow-up inspection found it to be within design specs in every parameter.

This hardly came as a surprise, as Vickers MG was already legendary for its reliability, having been continuously fired for over 24 hours on multiple instances during WWI. In one recorded instance in 1916, a British machine gun company of ten guns expended a million rounds over the course of 12 hours to suppress a German position, at the end using their own urine to cool the barrels after all available water was expended.

What to expect from Iran’s membership in BRICS

Friday, 25 August 2023 11:24 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 02 September 2023 6:26 AM ]

Iran’s membership in the BRICS group of emerging economies is a significant national, regional and international development, which is important both to Tehran and BRICS members, including China and Russia.

In recent years, there has been a lot of focus on Iran’s membership in global political and economic organizations, institutions and groups in order to spur economic growth and provide a ballast in the face of geopolitical and structural changes.

BRICS has gained a special place in Iran’s foreign policy due to its increasing importance in the international political economy and geopolitical developments.

The Islamic Republic has good political relations with all five main members of the BRICS group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Tehran is motivated by the international prestige, the geopolitical and geoeconomic linkage with the emerging world powers, and the regional and international status which joining BRICS can potentially bring in.

New economic partners are about to come out of the woodwork after membership in BRICS and access to new financial resources, technological findings, knowledge-based production methods in agriculture, food security and trade could enable Iran to better deal with the hobbling impact of sanctions.

BRICS is developing internal institutions for integration and increasing effective economic power in order to support development programs of its members and strengthen their regional and international position.

The establishment of financial institutions independent from Western institutions can be considered the most important success of BRICS in promoting convergence and its most important advantage in the new global economic structure.

Two financial institutions within BRICS are the pillars of the group’s power, which also offer opportunities for Iran.

The New Development Bank of BRICS is the most important economic pillar of BRICS, created with the aim of forging convergence among the members in the world economy.

The bank was established in 2014 with the initial authorized capital of $100 billion to finance infrastructure projects in BRICS countries and other emerging markets. It is headquartered in Shanghai, China.

According to the agreement, the bank “shall support public or private projects through loans, guarantees, equity participation and other financial instruments”.

Another key institution established with the aim of strengthening financial convergence among the members is the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA).

It is a framework for the provision of support through liquidity and precautionary instruments in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures.

Although US financial sanctions make it difficult for Iran to access the resources of these two institutions, BRICS has adopted various methods under its de-dollarization scheme to provide loans and services to members, which can reduce the impact of the sanctions.

The New Development Bank uses methods such as providing loans in the national currency of BRICS powers, cryptocurrency and currency swaps.

Bear in mind that Iran’s integration into the BRICS economic framework is fraught with challenges as regards alignment with the economic policies, regulatory mechanisms and commercial laws and regulations of the main and new members.

Ensuring the coordination and synching of the domestic bureaucracy with BRICS institutions in areas such as customs, tariffs and investment regulations requires time and complex expert reviews.

Nevertheless, the geoeconomic benefits of the membership are so many that any misgivings are roundly misplaced.

As a full member, Iran would have closer economic relations with other member countries, which can gradually lead to increased business and investment opportunities.

This cooperation can include various sectors including energy, production, agriculture and technology and provide access to new markets and potential sources of foreign direct investment.

Joining BRICS would also give Iran the opportunity to diversify its economic partners beyond the current circle.

The BRICS countries have an overall population of more than 3 billion people, which potentially provides a vast consumer market for Iranian goods and services. This diversity would reduce Iran’s dependence on a limited set of business partners and increase its economic resilience.

Membership in BRICS also increases Iran’s regional influence and geopolitical position.

It enables the country to interact with emerging economies and have a say in shaping global economic and political affairs. In addition, Iran can actively participate in regional projects and contribute to the development of convergence in the region.

By becoming a member of BRICS, Iran would access the financial resources of the BRICS Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangements (CRA) to fund the development of infrastructure, energy projects and other potential priority sectors.

This can help to solve part of Iran’s development needs and spur long-term economic growth, even though access to the resources of these institutions under sanctions would be difficult.

Iran is a large producer of oil and gas and its membership in BRICS can strengthen closer cooperation on energy security initiatives.

BRICS countries, especially China and Russia, have significant energy needs. They can potentially cooperate with Iran on energy exploration, production and infrastructure development. This cooperation would improve Iran’s energy sector and provide ways to diversify exports.

Meanwhile, BRICS countries stand out for their advances in technology and innovation in the developing world.

Iran’s membership in BRICS can facilitate the exchange of knowledge, carrying out joint research projects and technology transfer, which could enable the country to increase its technological capabilities and competitiveness in different sectors.

This can help Iran’s economic modernization and reduce technological gaps with other countries.

Iran is facing the most draconian US sanctions, which has limited the country’s access to global markets and financial systems. Joining BRICS can potentially give Iran more leverage in international negotiations and potentially reduce the effects of some sanctions.

Moreover, the collective power and influence of the BRICS countries may provide a platform to defend Iran’s economic interests and reduce trade restrictions.

BRICS countries have forged increasing cooperation on agriculture and food security. Iran, with its diverse agricultural sector, can benefit from the best methods and joint initiatives through knowledge exchange with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity, production and distribution of foodstuff.

This cooperation can help Iran’s food security goals and strengthen its agricultural sector.

Finally, Iran’s membership in BRICS can activate the Russia-Iran-India corridor, facilitating exchanges among the member countries, and provide access to Eurasian resources along the Belt and Road Initiative stretching from China to Russia up to Central Asia and beyond.

In 29 Days The Internet Will Change FOREVER

Through increased legislation such as the Online Safety Bill and Google’s own repression of new emerging competitors, independent media and free speech has a fight on its hands.

What moment completely changed how you saw someone?

“Can I trust you?” she asked me quietly as we walked in the school grounds.

She didn’t even wait for me to reply.

“My father was diagnosed with cancer. Two years ago. Of the prostate. He was under treatment since then, but these days, he’s been getting worse. And we don’t even have that much money, we’re a simple family.”

Sarah was the ‘weird girl’ in the class. Or that’s how the others saw her.

She was always energetic. So much that you’d think she was high on caffeine every day. She had a prominent personality, something so sun-bright that you couldn’t help but notice. And being talkative and making loud, obnoxiously lame jokes were a fundamental part of her.

Sarah was just so full of life. The fullest you can be. The fullest I’ve ever seen someone.

I think that’s what began, slowly but surely, irritating others in a way.

She would laugh at her own awkward jokes and people would roll their eyes. She’s so random and so extra, they’d say.

She became the class clown.

One day, during the sports class, the conversation written above took place.

And I couldn’t help but silently wonder: how/why was she so buoyant and full of life all the time?

A second later, the tone of her voice shifted.

“You wanna know why I’m so cheerful all the time?”

It’s like she read my mind, I swear. I looked her in the eye, then quickly looked away.

But what she said left me open-mouthed because it was completely different than what I expected.

“You know, I believe that you have to create what you want for yourself. As I see it, everyone has to create their own happiness. There is no other way out. I have so many things to be sad about. But that is exactly what I won’t be. I just work like that,” she shrugged.

And suddenly, just like that, I saw her in a whole new light. And I’m not even exaggerating. It was literally like depicted in the movies.

In fact, I felt guilty, on behalf of my class, that we’d been so utterly stupid.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but Sarah taught me things that I have not learned from anyone else.

I’m not gonna lie and say that since that moment, I’ve been the happiest person alive. I haven’t. It’s a slow process. But I see myself getting there very soon.

Sarah reminded me that one has to create their own happiness. You can’t rely on life or its circumstances to do that for you. She was a living example of the quote: “When life knocks you down, smile and stand up taller than ever before.”

I like to call Sarah my ultimate friend.

Is China going to aim to be self-sufficient in all ways to further frustrate US sanctions? Or will China still try to cooperate with the US on other projects in the future?

Yes.

China learnt that thinking that it should share a loaf of bread with the west is unnecessary and unappreciated. Well perhaps the west is not matured enough. So why not have the entire loaf of bread themselves.

So why not just produce the very best in everything for China and 7.5 billion earthlings and let the west decide if it wants to be up to date and advance. Or suffer a triple digit inflation and stay backwards.

Like what they say one don’t know how fortunate they are till they lost it for good. It’s a shame. For the U.S. China is willing to be a good partner to help bring about a better world but the U.S. chose its own demise.

The U.S. behaviour befits the 247 years old hoodlum mafia that they are and China need to let the U.S. grow out of puberty. Sure China prefers to work with the west and the U.S. and it will do better with them. But without some say 50–70% of worlds 30% of the market it will still do rather well.

US may need to make a million adjustments just to stay afloat. But heck. That U.S. their problem. It is their choice. They can de-risk on each other for all we care. Essentially the U.S. has decoupled with the world.

What’s the most shameful thing a co-worker has done to you?

My former supervisor came to my wedding and told guests that she felt terrible, but when I got home from my honeymoon, she was going to have to fire me.

I was working at a staffing agency, and my supervisor Snowflake (for her appearance and mental condition) came to my wedding as my guest and the date of my fiance’s friend.

During the reception, she told multiple people that as much as she looooved me, she was going to have to fire me when I got back from our honeymoon. We were gone for a week, and knowing what we would be facing when we got back, her date called my husband and told him the bad news.

Talk about landing the balloon with a crash! At least I could walk into the office the next day armed and forewarned. They transferred me to another department, she was reprimanded, and within months was transferred to another office. I will never trust people like that again, and I feel for anyone who had to be involved with her in the future.

THE DURAN AND BRIAN BERLETIC ON UKRAINE’S DEFEAT SENDS NATO INTO PANIC

Four giants discuss NATO.

Do people in actual gun fights miss as many shots as shown in movies? What is a realistic gun fight like?

I will answer from my personal experience. I do trauma anesthesia and every now and then I will get someone in who has survived a shoot out with the police. I usually talk to the police during the case since they are waiting to hear if the prisoner will survive or not so they can file the paperwork. The truth is they miss more.

Last one was a murder suspect who they rolled up on as he was exiting his car. He pulled out a gun and they unloaded on him. The police expended more than 350 rounds. He was hit 3 times. One hit on the hand which took off 2 fingers, one hit in the meat of the thigh and the one that took him down was a hit directly between the eyes. But he was a lucky SOB. The police were shooting 9 mm. The shot that hit him between the eyes bounced off his skull, traveled under the scalp and exited near the rear of his head. That one knocked him out and probably saved his life.

Shootouts are a very stressful situation. The target is hiding behind obstructions. He is shooting back at you. And the distances are more likely to be 25 to 50 feet. The adrenalin is running high. Even in a perfectly comfortable range with a paper target it is almost impossible to put in precision shots at 50 feet with a hand gun. That is a pretty typical outcome in that type of shooting.

The scary part of all that is that there are 340 plus bullets traveling down range which can strike anywhere.

I hope that puts some perspective on the subject.

Insanity in the USA

Is the influence of the US in the world gradually decreasing?

Of course it is!

Unless one is blind, deaf or dumb you can conclude otherwise. Of course BBC, CNN, Fox & Sky News sing a tune that US are popular are needed or or respected. But it is no different from Nazi propaganda selling the Aryan nation and the Nazi’s view on Jews!

But let us stick to the facts. Zero nation in Latin America and Caribbean supported the U.S.stance on Russia! And that is the U.S. closest neighbours.

Take the Beijing Olympics boycott. In 2020. After a year of shuttling around the world. Convincing nations to boycott China and billions invested to demonised China. Only 5 nations agreed to withdraw uninvited officials from the games! Just 40 years ago the U.S. wanted to do likewise in the Moscow Olympics and 65 nations joined them!

US influence? It us a thing of the past. Good riddance Uncle Sam.

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

Originally Answered: What have you assumed was exaggerated until you experienced it yourself?

Expensive paper towels.

What the hell, Bounty? You think you’re worth twice as much as my grocery store-brand paper towels?

Oh, you’ve got “super-absorbent pockets” that can soak up that entire sippy cup’s worth of juice and then still have room for the drips the other leading paper towel left behind?

Riiiiiiight.

The “quicker, thicker picker-upper”?

Screw your fancy camera tricks and stupid, gimmicky pockets! I’m not going to fall for your crafty advertising and excessive -er-ending tagline!

Oh, what a fool I was.

Enter: the Infant.

Through drips and spills and mud and snot, the infant could take out an entire store-brand roll in a single afternoon. My discount paper towels may as well have been tissue paper against the sticky onslaught of a lunchtime feeding. Spit and mucus passed right through those weak sheets, so much so that I would have been better off just wiping my daughter’s mouth with my own hand.

Oh, “just double them over,” you say?

Ha! The acrobatic, one-handed tear needed to secure a double sheet (while holding a leaking child) would simply rip a corner sliver from those generic towels, leaving the bulk of the sheet flapping wildly off the roll and onto the floor.

In a delirious panic, I’d resort to mummifying the child and letting the mess soak through, sheet after sheet, until she was just dry enough to slip a new shirt on.

There had to be a better way…

I finally caved and bought a roll of the more expensive Bounty brand—they were on sale. I figured maybe I could stick my daughter into one of the “super-absorbent pockets” and just let her eat from there like a quilted, drooling baby kangaroo.

Dear sweet sanitary Jesus.

Those paper towels are amazing.

Yes, they can soak up the sippy cup juice, and the snot, and the milk, and the spaghetti sauce, and the toilet water on the floor, and—why is there toilet water on the floor?!—and the strange brown mess that probably isn’t that, but you’re not going to get close enough to smell it.

All of it.

And double sheets? Ha! Only if you want to clean out a frying pan right off the stove because those babies can insulate like a fiend when you need to wipe hot grease out of a pan.

Bounty paper towels are freaking magical. I buy them all the time now—though I still wait for sales. They are worth every penny, and they are every bit as amazing as the attractive hand models on the commercials imply they are.

Thank you, super-absorbent pocketed picker-upper. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.

5 GOOD REASONS to File for Social Security at Age 62

This is for Americans on SS. Otherwise ignore. I took my SS at age 63.

The strategy is based upon your anticipated life expectancy.

What is the best way to deal with failure at everything in life ?

On December 9, 1914, Thomas Edison faced probably the biggest test of his life when a huge fire destroyed his lab in New Jersey.

The fire destroyed more than half of the buildings in the laboratory complex, including many original records, prototypes, and valuable research work.

The damage was estimated to be around $7 million dollars at the time, which is equivalent to over $180 million today.

Insurance only covered $2.3 million.

How would you react if your entire life’s work went up in flames at 67 years of age?

History tells that on the night of the fire, as Edison calmly watched his life’s work go up in flames, he told his son Charles, “There is a great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”

Edison wasted no time in rebuilding. In just a few weeks after the fire, parts of the lab were operational again. Within about a year, most of the facilities were fully reconstructed.

To answer your question, what is the best way to deal with failure at everything in life?

We should learn from Edison…

Accept that failure and setbacks are just part of life’s journey.
Be persistent, don’t ever give up. If we ever stop trying, that’s when we let real failure take over our lives.

As Edison put it, “We’ve just got rid of a lot of rubbish. Although I am over 67 years old, I’ll start all over again tomorrow.”

Life will always throw challenges our way. But like Edison, we can choose to get back up and start building again.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

Men and burdens

How can I feel productive when I don’t feel like being productive?

When you are feeling unproductive, don’t allow yourself to do anything. This means no entertainment devices, no books, nothing. It is very boring. But if you make this rule and allow yourself only to do only one thing, you will find yourself walking the plank and doing that very task.

It feels like putting yourself in time out. But you’ll find your task beats the despair of boredom.

Meditation is also extremely effective if you can’t get focused. When I’m most distracted, I close my eyes and focus on not allowing in any thoughts. It is in those moments that mental silence is most difficult. My head is full of chaotic energy and thoughts that gust and jerk around inside of me. But in the end, I feel still and focused. I am prepared to work. Start with 5–10 minutes. A little bit goes a long way.

Sad but funny

What’s your shoplifting story?

Shoplifting was a regular occurrence at the auto parts store where I worked. Headlights were the most common thing people stole. At least once per day we’d find an empty package for a headlight on the shelf.

That’s how a lot of people shoplift, by the way… Just open the package and take the product. Chances are, if there is some anti-theft tag on it, the tag is in the package, not on the product itself.

Also, the fancy retail word for product loss through shoplifting and internal stealing is “shrink.” Now you know. My store had a pretty high “shrink” rate, because the neighborhood around the store wasn’t all that great. The last time I visited that store, about five years after I quit working there, they’d finally wised up and put most of the products behind glass displays, so you had to ask a worker to get them for you.

We’d catch shoplifters sometimes. They’d usually get loud and try and cause a scene, but then leave. None of them ever got physical. They also frequently worked in pairs… one person distracting the counter guy, while the other walked around the store and cut things out of their packaging and put them in his pockets. I got good at spotting that scam eventually, and would stare at the guy walking the aisles until he got the hint that I was on to him, and they’d leave.

But my best story was the Great Heist of 2008. That’s what I called it when I was telling my coworkers about it after it happened.

I was the opening manager that day. It was six in the morning and there were just two of us there. That was the minimum number of people we had to have working in order to be open. The first few hours every day were always uneventful, especially during the week.

This particular day, a guy came into the store and said he needed antifreeze for his car. We looked up the type he needed. He said he needed four gallons. I showed him where they were on the shelf, and he immediately complained about the price. The type his car needed was expensive… like $20 a bottle, if I remember correctly. He left the store without them.

But he didn’t go far… just to his car. He drove up next to the door, left his car running, ran inside, grabbed four gallons, dashed out the door without paying, and sped off, tires squealing and everything.

Except he grabbed the wrong thing. He stole four gallons of washer fluid:

Not even the good washer fluid either. The cheap stuff that we gave away for free sometimes. It was like $1.25 per bottle, max. This guy made off with $5 worth of, basically, tap water with a little alcohol in it.

I didn’t even fill out a report. To be honest, I felt kind of bad for the guy. I hope he didn’t put it in his radiator. That would be two boneheaded mistakes in a single day.

Unbreakable Friendship

U.N. approves invasion of Haiti, US forces already there

Redacted has confirmed that the U.S. has special forces inside of Haiti as the U.N. is set to approve an invasion. The United Nations will vote today on the United States’ request to invade Haiti with Kenyan troops. The U.S. says that a military invasion is necessary to “conduct joint security support operations as it works to counter gangs and improve security conditions in Haiti.” The force will help secure “critical infrastructure sites and transit locations such as the airport, ports, and key intersections.” The people of Haiti have been pushing back against this rhetoric and begging the United States to stay out of their politics. Redacted correspondent Dan Cohen brings us the story.

Why has Foxconn decided to relocate its operations from India back to China?

Thanks for request

There are currently two Foxconn situations regarding India. One is iPhone production and one is a project to build semiconductors.

iPhone production in India is below the output volume and quality demanded by Apple. This year’s production in India will sold only in India and maybe in some other Asian countries. Foxconn will seek to improve the production in future. For now China will remain the primary production location.

Foxconn has broken off a JV with Vedanta on a project to build semiconductor chips in India. Foxconn decided end plans after delays by the Indian government to approve incentives for the project.

Foxconn has operated in India before and left after a few years. It knows the business situation there. It likely is aware of other prospective projects that were to receive government incentives by India that led to years of foot dragging, and decided there are other opportunities. Meanwhile India will look to attract others interested in the project.

Saudi Arabia compared to NYC

What is the best indicator of a person who will become successful one day?

You are on your way to the airport.

It’s the first time this year that you are going on an actual holiday.

You booked the ticket months in advance, and have been preparing for this trip for weeks.

Today is finally the day on which you leave.

You arrive at the airport earlier than you need to, get your luggage checked in and are in front of the gate, ready to go, 2 hours in advance, when you hear this over the announcement:

“Flight 206 to Honolulu has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience. Have a nice day.”

Your heart sinks into your chest.

That was your flight.

You lean back in the chair you were sitting in, stare up at the ceiling and take a deep breath.

Then you pull out your cell phone, grab your carry-on and start walking.

On your way to the information desk you check various’ other flights, check hotels in the area, and when you get to the information desk you ask about alternative, last-minute routes.

Within 20 minutes you have an alternative booked, have gotten your ticket refunded, and are ready to go.

This is the difference between those that will reach success and those that won’t.

The key indicator of those that will be successful later is that they do not let their situation stop them.

They find a way, are solution oriented, and will act a hundred times more often than they will complain.

Stop complaining about your situation and stop focusing on the problem. And look at what you can do now instead.

WW2 From the German Perspective (Full Documentary) | Animated History

Texas Ranch-Style Taco Salad

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 head lettuce
1 onion
1 (16 ounce) can Ranch-style beans
1 package Fritos Corn Chips
2 avocados (ripe but not too soft)
2 tomatoes
1 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
1 bottle Catalina dressing
1 pound ground beef or turkey
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice

Instructions

Sauté ground beef; drain well and set aside to cool.
Tear lettuce into pieces.
Dice tomatoes and onion.
Grate cheese.
Drain beans.
Break corn chips into smaller pieces.
Chop avocado and sprinkle with lemon juice, lightly tossing to coat.
Toss together all ingredients except corn chips.
Top with chips just before serving.

She just keeps on laughing

Women of the West. Sad.

What can we do to support teachers who are frustrated with underperforming students?

Ability-track students into separate classrooms, starting at around fifth grade.

The frustration for teachers usually isn’t from an underperforming student alone; it’s from underperforming students in the same class, at the same time, as average and over-performing students.

Underperforming (the more PC term is “struggling”) students often take longer than average to learn the same concepts as their peers, and/or require different teaching methods. All of that is fine and easy for a teacher to do, if students like that were all in the same classroom at the same time, with no classmates who were too different from them, learning-style wise.

I have the same issue with my English classes every year. I always begin each year with three days’ worth of lessons on proper comma usage when writing, because so many students struggle with that. About 25% of the students understand how to use commas after the first day of lessons. Another 50% of them understand the concept well enough by the end of the third day.

But about 15% of students need longer than three days to get the concept, and 10% of them will never get it, no matter how long I spend on it. So, what’s a teacher to do? Bore the smart kids? Frustrate the struggling students by leaving them in the dust? Or aim for the middle and hope for the best?

Of course, is all of the smart kids were in one class, all of the average students in another, and all of the strugglers in another, I could spend as much time as I wanted on each concept, without worrying about boring anyone or leaving anyone in the dust. And I could use lesson plans tailored specifically to each group’s learning style.

The classes wouldn’t even have to have even numbers. I can easily teach 50 students at a time, if they’re the “average” students, while teaching smaller classes of advanced and struggling students.

There are a lot of reasons why separating students by ability isn’t popular these days. I’m not saying that they’re good reasons, or that I agree with them. I’m just saying that there are reasons that exist.

Still, it would help de-frustrate teachers to have fewer mixed-ability classes, and more mono-ability ones.

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

That was me. I worked for a biotech firm that was cutting costs. I was a corporate recruiter. People were being laid off. My only HR colleague left because he had to do all the firing as the big boss didn’t want to do the dirty work, he was also never in the office. That left me having to fire the employees which I hated doing but there was no one else to do it.

I had to fire the finance manager, it was year-end and we had to do merit raises and bonuses. The payroll manager didn’t know to calculate the merit increases based on the allocated budget and bonuses. The company was going to ask Ernst & Young to calculate this but the CEO rejected this as the cost was enormous. The CFO didn’t know how to calculate this so he asked me to calculate this.

this task can be done manually but it would have taken weeks as there were over 200 employees. I downloaded ADP salary data and created an Excel template using formulas to allow scenario analysis as there were lots of changes. (fighting between managers on merit and bonuses) This took a whole week but I completed it on time to pay the employees.

It was yearend and I had to fire most of the salespeople, the new sales manager cleaned house. After I fired the last person my boss called me in to fire me. He said sorry we have to cut costs, you’re a great recruiter but we won’t be hiring anyone next year.

Well, this was the first time in my life to get fired. I was very upset but luckily I found a good job in 2 weeks and I was working. A month later I get a call. They had lost key employees in the IT department and had struggled to find anyone. They wanted me to help. I had started a side business – a staffing agency so I said I will work on commission which they agreed. In 45 days I completed 2 searches and billed my former employer 45K. This took about 40 hours of my time. The fee is 20% of the annual base salary. I made more money that year than any other year.

They wanted to hire me back but I was upset that they fired me in the first place so I did not go back.

At the end of the year, they called me to ask me how to use the spreadsheet that I created. No one could figure out the formulas to change the parameters.

I said no, why don’t you call Ernst & Young?

An unfiltered conversation on why I live in china now, what china is like for indians, college, etc

“Thank you for sharing your insights. I agree with you, China is much safer for walkability and touring. I stayed 1 year in China and nobody ever gave me any problems and everyone was so hospitable and friendly. India tends to be more lawless in many ways compared to China. I still love India though! Jai Hind”

World war 3 has passed

The threat period of world war 3 has passed.

Oh, sure, it might still happen, but it is increasingly unlikely with each month. The risk and threat level has passed.

The owners of the American “leadership” realize that alternatives to a global conflict with Russia, China and their buddy nations is not going to happen, as the USA would be smashed by catastrophic blows.

We are now is the LONG-SLIDE towards reconstruction surgery of the world’s governance system. The rest of the world are puking out the Western ideals, and governance. This pooling mess of hot blood stained vomit which going to get obvious and very unsightly as time progresses.

Most of the MM readership will be spared for horrific consequences that many of the West will need to endure.

The “news” will present a real mess. But, do not fall for that.

Everything is starting to settle out. It will appear that the world is in one giant blender, but that is not the full story. There is a sorting going on. There will be winners and losers. But it will not be like many fear.

The world War 3, started in 2007 (with the breakdown of American society) and the global war that started in 2014, peaked in 2022. A bit early. Welcome to the reconstruction phase.

…

I would now like to compare what we experienced with what John Titor has to say…

American civil war and breakdown

Titor said 2004, and fought in 2011
I observe / claim it began around 2007

“There is a civil war in the United States that starts in 2005. That conflict flares up and down for 10 years.“

World War 3

Titor said nuclear strikes occurred in 2015
I claim that it began in 2014. No nuclear strikes but a biological assault on china in 2019. NATO hot war with Russia in 2022.

“In 2015, Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the “other side” of the civil war from my perspective), China and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)…thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed. Russia is now our largest trading partner and the Capitol of the US was moved to Omaha Nebraska.“

Things to ponder. Eh?

Today…

The Real Africa that they do not show you…

Why are Europeans not as fat as Americans are when Europeans eat white bread and pasta and butter all the time?

I went to Europe early this year. Paris, Rome and Barcelona. I asked my wife “Where do they hide the fat people?” Things I noticed:

I did not see anyplace that was “all you can eat”.
The food I bought in the street was fresh and delicious. The strawberries were the size of grapes but so delicious and were meant to be eaten right away meaning no steroids or preservatives. I had some Brie cheese and I could taste the cow.
Food portions were small but I never left a table hungry.
My Fitbit said I met my goals as far as number of steps taken: at least 10,000 per day. In Positano, Italy it said I climbed the equivalent of 60 floors. In the US, I barely make 3,000.
Refrigerators are small. You don’t buy two weeks worth of food full of preservatives so they still look good after two weeks. We bought everything we needed to eat each day.
You walk everywhere. Burn those calories.

Netanyahoo’s Strategic Dilemma

Israel is a colonial settler state in permanent conflict with the suppressed natives.

It thought it could survive in that state, or even extend its settlements, by deterring opposing forces with its superior military.

Hamas has breached that deterrence myth by inflicting, in one day, more casualties in Israel than it had experienced in any previous wars.

Natanyahoo is under pressure to restore the deterrence, to again provide the Zionists with a feeling of superiority.

He can not do that.

Any land attack in Gaza means urban warfare in an already destroyed city with large underground facilities. During the taking of Bakhmut the Wagener forces had in total some 40,000 casualties (dead and wounded). The other side had more than 70,000. What price would the IDF have to pay to ‘destroy Hamas’?

The other factor is of course Hizbullah and other resistance groups, which may well attack Israel from the north and various other directions. Hizbullah has loudly said it would do so should the IDF enter Gaza. It has some 100,000 missiles – more than enough to exhaust Israel’s air defenses. Its longest reach missiles can attack any major city within Israel. There have already been daily fire exchanges at the norther border.

The 2006 war in Lebanon has shown that Hizbullah is dug in and very able to defend itself. It has since gained more experience by fighting ISIS in Syria. Neither U.S. air force attacks nor a land force invasion can hinder Hizbullah from firing its missiles.

(Syria, as well as Iran, will not intervene in the war unless they are directly attacked.)

Netanyahoo must attack Gaza to restore deterrence. He can not attack Gaza because the urban warfare would cause large Israeli casualties. He can not attack Gaza because Hizbullah would then destroy the myth of the superior settler state even more than Hamas has done so far.

Israel, with the help of the U.S., has tried to push the population of Gaza into Egypt. From Egypt’s standpoint that would be a humanitarian solution, at least as long as others pay for it. But it would cause a serious strategic problem. Resistance by Hamas and others against Israel would continue indefinitely, but Egypt would be held responsible for it. It can not and will not take on that burden.

Netanyahoo’s next idea was to starve Gaza. But the world will not let him do that. At least not beyond a certain point. Even the UN Secretary General has visited the Rafah crossing. Other global organizations, like the WHO and ASEAN, have spoken up. Pictures of starving people will make it impossible for the west to support that ‘solution’.

Meanwhile Hamas fighters will continue to sit in their tunnels, ready to defend their land, and likely with enough provisions to hold out for months.

Israeli settlers, with the support of the IDF, are rampaging through the West Bank. They are killing more Palestinians and further enrage the global public against their deeds. This will escalate.

Israel’s decision making is paralyzed. It will for now continue to talk of a ground invasion but will not launch one. It will also continue to starve Gaza.

But something will soon break. At any minute there might be a new large atrocity in Gaza or a pogrom in the West Bank. Any miscalculation in the north could launch that front into a hot war. Hizbullah could start to ‘preemptively’ invade Israeli proper.

But Israel’s Jewish public is still demanding a war of revenge. It still needs the restoration of its deterrence and superiority.

But what if that turns out to be impossible to achieve?

Well. Then something else must change.

As Adam Shatz summarizes in the London Review of Books:

Vengeful Pathologies (archived)

The inescapable truth is that Israel cannot extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence, any more than the Palestinians can win an Algerian-style liberation war: Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs are stuck with each other, unless Israel, the far stronger party, drives the Palestinians into exile for good. The only thing that can save the people of Israel and Palestine, and prevent another Nakba – a real possibility, while another Holocaust remains a traumatic hallucination – is a political solution that recognises both as equal citizens, and allows them to live in peace and freedom, whether in a single democratic state, two states, or a federation. So long as this solution is avoided, a continuing degradation, and an even greater catastrophe, are all but guaranteed.

Posted by b at 14:52 UTC | Comments (306)

RICH MANS GOLD! INSANE Reaction Oliver Anthony

Why did China sell missiles to the terrorist group Hamas?

The Steel Casings used in 60% of the Missiles on earth comes from China

It’s either Grade 7 Or Grade 8 Customized Light Steel Alloy Plate (LSAP)

It can be used for reinforcing I beams or making missile casings

Likewise the Electronics for basic primitive rockets almost entirely come from China

They can all be purchased retail across the market and can be used for do it yourself drones to basic rockets capable of 40–50 km range depending on the fuel thrust

I know because that’s the justification China gave when the West said Russia was being provided with Chinese weapons

China said – we give the steel, the basic raw materials and chips. How the Russians use them isn’t our business

They can be used to make Deep Freezers or can be used in basic rocketry

The Hamas likely buy their raw materials from China on the open market by playing secondary orders from Saudi or Turkey

Delivery comes through Jordan or Egypt

It’s just basic steel plate and basic electronics, so nobody cares what it’s being used for

Chemicals also flood through Egypt into Gaza from China.

Chemicals that can be used to make explosives but also ball point pen ink

So China never sells Weaponry to Hamas

The Hamas uses Chinese Raw Materials and makes their own primitive, crude but effective weaponry

Advanced guidance electronics come from Iran

Chinese won’t go that far to sell more advanced electronics to Hamas. These have END USER CERTIFICATES and if Jordan or Egypt sell such electronics to Hamas , they will get into a lot of trouble.

You may convince the world Hamas is making ball point pens and cheap electronic stuff

Can’t convince the world, Hamas is building EVs or High Altitude Drones right?

Plus plenty of Drones come from Iran who have a near independent supply chain and some of the finest reverse engineering on earth

Iran also supplies a lot of Missiles but that’s mostly to Hezbollah

Plus a third source is from Ukraine via the BLACK MARKET through the Balkans

A $ 55,000 box of 10,000 Rounds of 9 Ammunition sells for upto $ 400,000 on the black market without an end user certificate

Hence a Ukrainian Unit could remove 50 Boxes and sell them for $ 20 Million and pocket the entire sum

Who will audit or count the rounds every day?

$ 20 Million is CHUMP CHANGE for Saudi Billionaires or Emiratis or Qataris

That’s 500,000 Rounds of 9 mm Ammunition

That can sustain gunfire for 50 days at 10,000 rounds and day and kill at least 400–500 Israelis

A $ 1250 tagged M14 Rifle goes for upto $ 5000 In the black market , so a corrupt Ukrainian unit happily sells 1000 Rifles for $ 5 Million and claims the rifles were damaged

A. They buy raw materials from China and build their own rockets and other stuff like chemical explosives

B. They get Drones and Better Chips from Iran

C. They get other stuff from black markets and other war surplus from Europe

Real Texas Chili

This classic Texas chili (no beans, no onion, no tomatoes) was created by native Houstonian Carter Rochelle, a professional fund-raiser. Former New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne once pronounced this chili his favorite and published the recipe in two of his cookbooks.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Serve with pinto beans and chopped onion on the side to mix in as desired. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, warmed flour tortillas or corn bread.

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless beef stew meat (chuck or round)
6 ounces beef suet (hard white fat), cut into pieces (see note)
3 or 4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 to 6 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
8 tablespoons Masa Harina (Mexican corn flour)
6 cups hot water
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon or beef bouillon cubes
Red chiles, crushed or dried and chopped, to taste (optional)

Instructions

Remove gristle and most of fat from meat; cut into 1/2 inch or smaller cubes (some of the beef should be chipped or flaked).
Place suet in large skillet or heavy kettle and render it (cook until fat melts).
Skim residue off rendered suet; discard residue.
Add meat to hot fat and sauté until lightly browned.
Add garlic, salt, black pepper and chili powder. Mix well and let seasonings permeate meat a few minutes.
Sprinkle in Masa Harina and mix, stirring rapidly until smooth.
Add water, vinegar, bouillon and chilies. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is very tender; some of the meat should virtually dissolve into the chili.
If chili becomes too dry while cooking, add a little water from time to time.
Correct seasonings.
When done, skim fat from surface. (You can refrigerate overnight and scrape hardened fat off before reheating.)

Notes

Because of health concerns, many chili cooks substitute 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup vegetable oil or shortening for rendered beef suet, which is a highly saturated fat.

If a startup has a great product, then why don’t people buy it still?

Originally Answered: If a startup has a great product why don’t people buy it still?

Startup mistake:

“I have a great product. Come and buy it!”

“I have the best business idea. You should invest in it!”

“My product is the best in the market. I deserve your money!”

—

I’ve made this mistake so many times, it’s painful!

It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting their business.

The challenge is to make decisions RATIONALLY, not emotionally.

Entrepreneurship is complex because we act on our emotions, but we should make all decisions with data. Without the proper guidance and discipline, it’s very easy to make mistakes.

Now, there’s no negative judgment of failures, just lessons and growth. You’d be surprised, though, how history repeats itself over and over again down through the ages. The most successful companies and entrepreneurs have learned this the hard way.

Examples:

1957 — Ford Edsel

Ford invested $400 million into the car, but Americans wanted smaller, more economic vehicles. FAILED.

1975 — Sony Betamax

Sony kept Betamax proprietary, meaning that the market for VHS products quickly outpaced Betamax. FAILED.

1985 — New Coke

The “Pepsi Challenge” ads were responsible for Coca-Cola trying to create a product that would taste more like Pepsi. FAILED.

1993 — Apple Newton

Apple’s great idea was ahead of its time. The technology wasn’t there yet. FAILED.

2006 — Microsoft Zune

The Zune was targeted to take over Apple’s iPod. It didn’t. FAILED.

2006 — HD-DVD

HD-DVD was the hi-def replacement to DVD, but Sony led with Blu-ray built into their Playstation console. FAILED.

2009 — The Nook

Amazon’s Kindle is cheaper and syncs up easily with Amazon’s account. FAILED.

2014 — Amazon’s Fire Phone

Amazon’s Fire Phone released in 2014 looked competitive. Amazon discontinued the phone 13 months after its launch. FAILED.

2019 — Google+

“Google+ was one of the most ambitious bets in the company’s history,” Eric Schmidt wrote in his book, How Google Works. It was believed that it would be a Facebook killer. FAILED.

To answer your question, if a startup has a great product, why aren’t people still buying it?

People don’t buy products or services — they buy results, benefits and solutions.

PUSHING your products and services to the consumer is a recipe for failure.

Startups commonly fail because they waste their most scarce resource (cash) on advertising and promotions. The ‘in’ reality is that marketing goes in one ear and right out the other.

Solution?

Figure out your niche in the market; DON’T try to sell to everyone.
Understand their hurts and their frustrations. Why is it that they will buy your product? Example: people don’t buy eyeglasses, they buy vision, the benefit!
Learn to feel like them to a point to deeply understand them.
Communicate their problem in their language. Listen to them, don’t guess what they want — talk to them. What you think they need is very commonly not what they want.
Test your market BEFORE scaling.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

He was irritated to come out to a secretary’s desk and find she wasn’t yet seated. She was in the lounge putting away her coat and then fixed herself a cup of coffee, and she sat down at 8:36 — instead of 8:30.

It happened to be a morning of extreme stress and he really needed all hands on deck that morning. Got it, but he was very short-sighted. The 6 minutes didn’t change the course of the day, but his Memo to Staff certainly did.

He circulated a memo to all staff which said something to the effect of:

“The day begins at 8:30. Not 8:36, or 8:40, or when you found a parking space, or when the coffee was ready. If you need more time, plan your day accordingly and make your cup of coffee, and find your spot, and hang up your coat, earlier than normal. 8:30 means in your seat, at your desk, ready for the day’s work to begin. Not coming through the door.”

Okay — we got it. Well, I was a paralegal at the time, and I put in SO many more hours than the 40 hours I was paid for. I arrived early, left late, frequently delayed lunch, often didn’t take breaks on busy days preparing for trial.

His memo so back-fired, that every single employee was grumbling, not just the secretary. As it happened, I was the most affected (in a positive way, actually) by this policy memo because I was the staff member who had the MOST lost-time from working beyond my schedule. I was never late, so he didn’t have a problem with me, but he also abused my time more than anyone else. There were months where I never took so much as a coffee break. Often ate lunch at my desk while working. Seldom left at closing time. Often came in on Saturdays or Sundays to help get ready for Mondays. I just always shrugged it away and took it as “part of the industry.” A trial litigation practice is stressful and schedules need to be fluid.

He didn’t appreciate that, so we responded as a group of 16 employees with total solidarity.

We were AT our desks at 8:30 a.m. We LEFT our desks promptly at 5:30. We took our breaks and our lunch hours exactly on time.

It was a disaster.

I was the first to respond. “Sorry, I can’t help right now. My lunch is 12 to 1, and I have to stand up at 12, and sit back down at 1, so this copy project would make my lunch “12 ish to 1 ish.” I’ll start on this at exactly 1:01 p.m., when I’m back at my desk.”

I also left at exactly 5:30 p.m. I stood up, put the cover on my typewriter, and cleared my desk. He said “Can you just—-” and some paperwork in his hands.

“No, I’m sorry. My day begins promptly at 8:30 and ends exactly at 5:30. I’ll help with that tomorrow.”

I left.

Everyone did the same. All week.

“No I’m sorry, I’m required to take a 10 minute break in this hour.”

“No, I’m sorry, my lunch begins in 15 minutes at 12:00, and that’s 30 minutes of dictation you want transcribed. I’ll begin exactly at 1:00 when I’m IN MY SEAT and AT MY DESK.”

He realized the petty nature of his Memo to Staff within 2 business days, and sent around an apology memo within a week of disastrous results.

He then sent us all out for an extended lunch of 2 hours — on the house. He didn’t come.

His memo said “Go complain about your boss over a 2 hour lunch — on me.”

Oliver Anthony – I’ve Got To Get Sober | REACTION!

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

I had a friend who I knew smoked Marijuana among other things. I chose not to partake of any of this so he would walk away do his thing then come back. No big deal… well it had a few months since we had been able to hang out and decided to meet up at a local festival. I was having gall bladder issues at that time. The day we were to meet I was in the middle of a very severe “attack” but chose to go anyway because I missed him so much. I told him this when I arrived. After about 2 or so hours he said he wanted to go “smoke” so I sat listening to a band while I waited. And waited… and waited. Over an hour waiting on him while I was very sick and in pain. I finally left. I later found out that he decided to go drop acid instead. He forgot I was there because he was so messed up. That was the last time I saw him. If drugs are more important than our friendship then I don’t need you in my life.

David Cross: Why America Sucks at Everything – US American Reacts

Have you ever seen a drill instructor compliment a recruit?

Of course they do.

I LOVE YOUR TINY LITTLE VOICE, WHY DON’T YOU SAY IT LOUDER FOR MY FRIEND TO HEAR TOO?

Drill Instructor Sergeant Ferry was the most merciless individual ever known to man. He would punish you for something as simple as not sitting properly and play mind games with recruits just to kill time. Sergeant Ferry had little tolerance for any sort of discretion and was the most hated man out of all the Drill Instructors in our platoon since he was the designated disciplinarian or otherwise known as the Kill Hat.

During Recruit Training, there was one particular class where we were educated on the benefits of knowing a foreign language then told to sign up to take the Defense Language Proficiency Test, if we claimed to be bilingual. I signed up to take the DLPT for Vietnamese and was promptly removed for one entire morning along with a few other recruits from other platoons to take the exam. The Drill Instructor escorting us to the Receiving Building where testing was held, was none other than Drill Instructor Sergeant Ferry.

While we were waiting for the proctors to set up the computer lab, Sergeant Ferry had a few remarks for us.

“If you pass this test, you will earn the chance to get paid extra money every month, and probably go on missions requiring speakers of your language.” he growled.

“Be the one to fail and I will make sure your life is absolutely miserable when you return to your platoons.”

Luckily for me, I passed the DLPT and could not have been happier as I walked back to my platoon’s squad bay alone after a well deserved lunch.

Later on that evening in a rare moment of sanity, Sergeant Ferry was loudly lecturing the platoon on the importance of being a well-rounded Marine. At some point in his speech he said, “IF YOU KNOW A SECOND LANGUAGE LIKE VIETNAMESE, YOU CAN GET PAID FOR IT IF YOU PASS A QUALIFICATION TEST AND GET EXTRA MONEY IN YOUR PAYCHECK EVERY MONTH!!”

While he did not mention my name at all, I felt that was his way of saying “Good job Vu for passing the exam!” without stating the obvious.

After completing the Crucible a month later at Camp Pendleton, the contract Private First Class Marines in the platoon were asked on which Drill Instructor they would like to pin them in the promotion ceremony that was held before our Warrior’s Breakfast. I chose Sergeant Ferry to pin me as a PFC.

As he was pinning on the chevrons onto my collar, Sergeant Ferry said in a hoarse voice, “Getting promoted to Private First Class and getting paid extra for speaking Vietnamese? I’m damn proud of you Vu”.

He shook my hand with an iron grip and I felt humbled as he walked to the next Marine.

Is China’s WhitePaper a global rescue plan or a global threat?

It’s a great question, there is a new White Paper and China is “threatening” to lead the world into a different place – who benefits and how?

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

I’m a nurse. When I was a mere student (many years ago now), I was doing my stint in A&E (ER for my American friends). It was a Saturday night. I had requested it specifically, as I wanted to see some “exciting” cases. I was put onto triage with a qualified nurse, to see how the system worked.

The department I worked in was in the city center, so a lot of “walk in” patients. About 8pm, in walked 2 young lads in their late teens, early 20’s. One with a broken nose, the other with a possible fractured jaw. They had been “set upon by a group of guys in the city”. They were seated, awaiting X-ray. We also informed the special constable on duty attached to the department (auxiliary police) about a possible assault case.

About an hour or so later, an old guy in his late 70’s to early 80’s walked in. He had what we call a “boxers fracture”.. basically, a fracture of the hand that is normally sustained by punching something. What we found interesting, is that the old guy was not medically trained, but came to us saying “I’ve got a bloody brawlers fracture, haven’t I?”. How did he know? He said he had been “set upon” by two young lads who had tried to mug him.

Well, I finished my shift, went home and on Monday morning heard the rest of the story.

The old man and the two young men had seen each other in the X-ray dept. The old man had started shouting, saying “those are the ones that attacked me”. The police had been called, the two men questioned and arrested.

A week later, I came in for one of my last shifts in the department and, in the staff room, there was a newspaper cutting from the local press saying something along the lines of “Hurricane Harry wins his final bout”.

The old man, at about 84, had only just stopped training local boxers. He was an ex prizefighter, had been an army middleweight champion during the war and devoted his life to boxing. Set upon by two young lads, he decided to teach them a lesson in respecting your elders haha.

China’s First 28nm Lithography Tool to Be Delivered This Year

By Anton Shilov

China’s most advanced domestic scanner.

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), China’s most successful lithography scanner manufacturer, reiterated plans this week to deliver its first scanner capable of producing chips on a 28nm-class fabrication process by the end of the year, reports TechWire Asia, citing newspaper Securities Daily, which in turn cites an unnamed source.

For SMEE, its SSA/800-10W scanner is a breakthrough since the most advanced scanner that the company has today is only capable of 90nm and thicker fabrication processes. A 28nm-capable lithography tool will over time enable Chinese chipmakers to rely on domestic lithography equipment for a range of mature technologies.

The move is part of China’s broader goal to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency and reduce its dependence on foreign technology. But the question remains as to whether SMEE can produce this scanner in mass quantities, and when it can make such scanners available to substitute for machines from ASML, Canon, and Nikon.

The latest export regulations from the U.S. government prevent Chinese chipmakers from accessing tools and technologies essential for creating non-planar transistor logic chips under 14nm/16nm dimensions, 3D NAND chips with over 127 active layers, and DRAM ICs with a half-pitch smaller than 18nm. Restrictions from the Netherlands, Japan, and Taiwan that went into effect earlier this fall further isolated Chinese firms like SMIC and YMTC from advanced tools. These limitations impede their ability to produce chips using their newest manufacturing processes, notably SMIC’s 14nm/12nm and 2nd generation 7nm as well as YMTC’s 128-layer and 232-layer 3D NAND.

As a result, China needs advanced domestic lithography tools to ensure that its chipmakers can produce chips on even fairly advanced process technologies, such as 14nm. For now, it looks like Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment is on track to reveal its 28nm-capable SSA/800-10W scanner, which it will ship either to SMIC or a chip research intitute.

After it does this, it will still take some time for the chipmaker to integrate the new scanner into its production flow. However, it will only do this only if SMEE can produce a sufficient number of such tools.

What is something that people commonly think is true, that is actually a myth?

There is a myth that is way popular.
It’s not a myth, actually, it is a myth within a myth.

Myth-ception.

You must have heard this statement before:
“NASA invested $1,000,000 to develop a pen that works in space, while Russia used a pencil.”

Why did I say this is a “Myth within a Myth” (Myth-ception)?

Here, I’ll explain:

Facts that show that the statement is a myth:

Before a proper Space-Pen was developed, astronauts from both the USA and Russia used pencil in space.
NASA never spent the $1,000,000 to develop a pen that works in zero-gravity of outer space by themselves.
Russia itself, along with the USA, uses a space-pen today.

The fact that busts the myth present within the myth:

A normal pen can work in space!

Who told you that a normal ballpoint pen won’t work in space?

Let me explain it to you properly.

In the initial days of space flight, scientists were unsure about whether or not normal pens would work in the hostile conditions of outer space. And the capsule in which astronauts were sent into space had very little space to send only the essential stuff. So, they couldn’t send some normal pens along with pencils just to try.

They couldn’t risk the situation by sending only pens instead of pencils. What if an astronaut inside the ISS (International Space Station) takes a pen but it doesn’t work? There is no stationery shop floating outside the station to buy another pen or a pencil. If the pen they took wouldn’t have worked, no instruments would be available to write.

Hence, all of the astronauts had to take pencils with them. No pen was given a chance.

In 1967, during the launch rehearsal test of the 1st Apollo mission, a cabin fire took place. This fire killed all of the three astronauts present in that crew.

After this incident, engineers tried eliminating all of the flammable items in any space mission. The pencil was one of them.

But what do you use if a pencil is eliminated?

Then NASA turned towards the man named Paul C. Fisher. This man had patented an “Anti-Gravity” ballpoint pen in 1966.

Fisher was the person, who invested his own $1,000,000 to make a space-pen, independent of any organization. NASA approached his company after the pen was launched.

Now, some people think that the pen itself costs a lot. But the thing is, the cost of a million dollars was spent to make the pen. NASA actually bought the pens for a cheaper price (around $6 per pen).

Now I will come to why we don’t use normal pens in space (even if we can).

What I think is, after reading all of this history, people just assumed that normal pens don’t work in space. But the situation is a bit different.

I did an analysis of the mechanism of all types of pens and came to an amazing conclusion.

For you to understand that, you will have to know how a space pen works. And for you to know how a space pen works, I will have to explain how a normal pen works.

Basically, pens are divided into 5 main categories:

Fountain pen
Rollerball pen
Felt tip pen
Ballpoint pen
Gel pen

Now, I will tell you the mechanism of each type of pen.

Fountain pens

To understand its mechanism, it can be divided into three parts:

The Nib
The Feed
The Reservoir

Structure of a regular Fountain pen

To know how things look in real, I broke my own ink pen:

I’ll explain the function of these three parts, starting with the reservoir.

The reservoir contains a cartridge which holds ink. This part is broad and the ink can move independently under the action of gravity. The job of this section is to hold ink and supply it to the feed.

A pipe starts from the reservoir and it sends ink to the feed.

This pipe has 4 thin channels — 3 for ink and 1 for air.

Now you would ask, “Why a channel for air?”

Well, let me make it clear with an example.

Take a plastic bottle and fill it with water.
Make a tiny hole on the cap.
Invert the bottle so that the cap is facing down.

Does water start flowing?
NO.

That is because of the atmospheric pressure (air stops the flow from below).
It is just like pressing the hole with a finger. Water won’t flow out of the hole (even if gravity is supporting you in this case).

You will have to squeeze the bottle to get water out of it.

The reason for the water not flowing out is the absence of air above. If water gets out of the hole, a vacuum will be created above (since the water level has to go down). We know that this is impossible. There must be some way, by which air will be filled in the upper section as the water level keeps moving down.

You can do this by making a hole above (on the base of bottle). Now, water will keep flowing from the hole made on the cap (without squeezing the bottle).

As water moves out from the hole, the water level keeps decreasing from above – this leads to the formation of vacuum – which, in turn, sucks air from the opposite hole.

A similar mechanism is used in the Fountain pen.

The only difference is that – the hole for air is made near the same point, where the three holes for ink flow are made (instead of making one on the opposite).

When you glide the nib on the paper, ink flows out from the three channels and air keeps getting from one channel. This air goes through the feed and reaches the reservoir. (This way, the air is filled in the space emptied by the loss of ink.)

Hence, constant flow is maintained.

Here is the structure of the feed:

Structure of the feed

The feed consists of three parts:

Wings
Fins
Post

I have mentioned the function of each in the image.

Here is the structure of the nib:

Structure of the Nib

I have mentioned the main components, with their functions, in the image.

Now, coming to the main point.

Why did I mention that there are 3 thin channels for ink in the feed?

That is because these channels introduce Capillary Action in the fountain pen. The movement of ink through these channels happen due to capillary action, and not gravity.

See, the two components that drive ink downwards, inside a fountain pen, are:

Gravity — inside the reservoir (Because it is broad, hence, no capillary action can take place).
Capillary action — inside the thin channels of the feed (Because they are way thinner).

When the ink exits the feed, it enters the slit of the nib. The slit is also very thin. Hence, the ink flows from the breather hole to the tip of the nib, by Capillary action, again.

My point here is to explain that if we use this pen in a zero-gravity spaceship, it is bound to work for some time (thanks to the capillary action).
But… once the feed is emptied, the pen will stop to work. The ink in the reservoir (cartridge) will keep floating and won’t come down.

Also, there is another big disadvantage of taking a fountain pen to space.

You must remember the role of air in the functioning of an ink pen (as I have mentioned above). We know that a spaceship has an oxygen supply. But, if an astronaut takes a fountain pen outside the spaceship, the absence of the atmosphere will make the pen function-less.

Coming to the Rollerball pens:

This type is said to be invented in 1888.

The most common example of this kind of pen is Trimax.

To understand the internal structure of this pen, I had to break my own pen.

This answer required a high budget. LOL.

The upper section of my Trimax (a rollerball pen).
The Feed and The Nib

You can see that this pen has a lot of similarity with the fountain pen.

To show you how all of the parts of this pen look, in detail, I used my simple microscope to zoom at each part of the Feed and Nib:

A detailed structure of a Rollerball pen.
The visible parts were zoomed and pictured using my simple microscope.

You can see that the Fins part of the feed is similar to a fountain pen.

The main difference is created by the Post and the Nib.

Instead of having a pipe with four channels, the post of this pen is a porous substance, which transfers ink by suction.

This porous material was inserted in these pens, during their invention period, for easy writing on rough surfaces.

The Nib is the same as the ballpoint pen. I will explain the structure of the ballpoint Nib in the section of how ballpoint pens work.

I removed the ballpoint nib of this pen and this is what I was inside:

Inside the Nib of a rollerball pen.
(Imaged under my simple microscope).
It is the same extended porous material (that caries ink). Just a metal nib is added over it.

We don’t need a separate channel for air since the refill of the pen is open from above.

Talking about this pen to be used in space:

We can say that the flow of ink can happen in the absence of gravity, through a suction-based cloth type material. But the main issue is the Water-based ink used in this type of pens.

Water-based ink has a very low cohesive force. That is, the molecules in that ink aren’t attracted to each other at a large scale. So, we can’t assure a constant flow of ink. The pen may stop writing at a point.

Coming to the Felt-tip pen:

Common examples are Regular sketch-pens.

The mechanism is way similar to that of rollerball pens. The flow of water-based ink is maintained through suction, using a similar porous material.

The only major difference that I could notice was — they don’t have a ballpoint nib.

I showed you how the nib of a rollerball pen looks when you remove the metal nib. That is exactly how a nib of Felt-tip pen looks. The nib is nothing but the same continued section of porous material.

Why can’t we use these pens in space:
Same reason as with the Rollerball pen → the damn water-based non-viscous ink.

Coming to the main contestant — Ballpoint pens.

These pens have a simple structure. There won’t be a need to discuss the mechanism of a refill.

The only complicated part is — the ballpoint metal nib.

The mechanism of the Ballpoint metal Nib.
I have labelled all of the parts, with their functions.

In the image, I have also explained the working of the ballpoint pen.

I won’t be discussing the gel pens because they have the same mechanism as that of ballpoint pens. The only difference is in the ink. Gel pens use Water-based ink.

Coming to the main issue:

Why can’t we use a ballpoint pen in space?

Who said that we can’t?
We can!

In 2003, an astronaut named Pedro Duque took a normal ballpoint pen with him, to confirm the fact. He found that the ballpoint pen worked pretty fine. He wrote 4–6 paragraphs in his diary and the pen didn’t stop!

According to my analysis, this happened because of the Oil-based ink present in the refill of a ballpoint pen. This ink is highly viscous and sticks itself pretty well. Cohesive forces (among the molecules of this ink) is very high.

So, for the pen to work, we need a small driving force that could maintain the flow of ink. The Capillary action inside the thin nib is enough for it.

See, the refill of a ballpoint pen is thick and it can’t build a capillary action. On earth, this part relies on gravity.

But… when you take this pen to outer space (zero-gravity), the small section near the nib will suck the ink under capillary action. This will drive entire ink because of the “stickiness” of that ink. It will have a continuous flow.

Now you would ask, “Then why don’t we use normal ballpoint pens in space?”

The thing is, zero-gravity is not the only issue. There are other problems like extreme temperatures (cold and hot), UV radiation, lack of atmosphere outside the spaceship.

The issue is the same: If astronauts take normal ballpoint pens with them and they stop working somehow, there is no stationary shop floating outside the spaceship. We can’t risk. Hence, the space-pen was bound to be made.

The Space-Pen:

Paul C. Fisher spent his $1,000,000 to make a pen that overcomes all of the limitations of other pens.

Every pen has some drawbacks, which pose a risk to be dependent upon. I have tried to mention all of these drawbacks from my analysis.

This pen uses refills which contain pressurized nitrogen gas inside them. The pressure forces the ink out of the nib even in the absence of Gravity and Atmosphere.

The ink used in this pen is extremely viscous (like jelly). So, continuous flow is maintained even in zero-gravity.

Also, the materials used while manufacturing is chosen such that the pen can write even in extremely hot and cold temperatures. The shocking part is that this pen can also be used to write underwater.

So, here we are.
At the end of the Myth-ception.

I hope that I was able to clear all of the myths, along with the myths present within the myths.

Sunny Dhondkar

This is funny

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Cx7hntWSueg?feature=share

Why is it a problem when 5 countries (BRICS) decide that they want to step away from using the dollar for their trade? They didnt say the whole world should do it, They are just doing it amongst themselves. Why does the US have a problem with that?

I’ll keep it simple. The US earns 1 trillion a year and spends 2 trillion right, they make up the shortfall by printing a trillion every year – they issue T bills. In the normal course of events printing the equivlent of your yearly GDP would create massive inflation and your economy would collapse.

However. The USD is used for most of the trade on the planet so all of that money gets to share the inflationary pressure – all countries suffer the inflation and so (given that all countries are ‘inflating’) there is no inflation. All of the currencies are inflating at the same rate.

When other countries (BRICS countries and more) move away from the USD that not only takes USD out of circulation (incresing inflationary pressure on what is left) but makes those (BRICS) countries more immune to the inflationary presssure.

So the problem that the US has with it is that it’ll totally fuck the US. Which is as it should be.

What is something that your mother-in-law said that you’ll never forget?

My ex-fiance’s mom and I were incredibly close. We used to spend all our time together when she visited, even when her son was at work.

Then, the heart-wrenching day came when I had to break the news about his infidelity. She was nearly as devastated as I was. We had planned our wedding for six months down the road, discussing every tiny detail with excitement. She often expressed how proud she was that I would officially become her daughter-in-law.

However, her son didn’t share her sentiments.

When we split, I never got to say goodbye in person because they lived far away. Within a week, I packed up and moved back to Spain to heal with my family. We exchanged messages, and she confessed that part of her was relieved we hadn’t met to say goodbye because she didn’t know how she would handle it.

Fast forward a year, we still keep in touch on WhatsApp (her son and I definitely do not!). I’m solo traveling in Australia, and she checks on me. She remembered my birthday and even shared what would have been my wedding day with me. She continues to be my mother-in-law in spirit.

This past Christmas, she sent me a message that brought tears to my eyes. In their family, everyone had a special bauble on her Christmas tree. She told me to add one because she considered me family. I bought a simple, beautiful one.

Christmas 2018, I thought about that bauble and how life changes. Two days later, she messaged me, asking about my trip to Bali for Christmas and New Years. She sent a photo of her beautifully decorated tree, saying, “Your bauble is still on my tree, and it will be every year xx.”

I was truly fortunate to have her as my mother-in-law.

Oliver Anthony is Single-Handedly Destroying the Recording Industry

Oliver Antony chose an unconventional path to fame and fortune. In the process, he showed other artists how to break the backs of the recording industry. All you need is strong vocals, a good message, and a Youtube channel to rake in millions of dollars without any censorship of your message.

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

My last name is not exactly common. Especially in northeast Ohio where I grew up. In the Cleveland area, if you know someone with the last name of Breaux, they are most definitely closely related to me.

So, there I was working for Geek Squad. I arrived at a client’s house to perform some kind of repair on an older guy’s computer. I introduced myself and we made a little small talk on the way back to his office. He pointed me to the office chair and told me a little about the problem. When I booted up the computer, it needed a password so I asked him to type it in.

“I’ll just tell it to you. You look trustworthy. You might want to write it down, though.”

I grabbed my notepad and a pen and nodded to him.

“B”

“R”

“E”

“A”

“U”

“X”

I just stared at him, confused and a little freaked out. Why was this guy’s password my last name?

I must have just looked confused because he chuckled and said “It’s my middle name. Strange, I know, but I was named after a close family friend growing up in Detroit.”

My jaw almost hit the ground. My dad and grandfather were born in Detroit, my Great Grandfather had moved there in the early 1920s. I was pretty sure he was the only Breaux that moved up from Louisiana at that time.

After I collected myself, I showed him my ID badge and his eyes lit up and he got a huge smile on his face. It turns out, it was my great grandfather that he was named after. He remembers my grandfather as a child and used to play with him when their dads would visit each other. After my he and my grandfather joined the military to fight in WWII, they lost contact and never spoke again.

I may have spent much more than my allotted time at that client’s house, but I got to hear stories of my grandfather as a child growing up in Detroit. I wouldn’t have traded those stories for any number of extra clients that day.

What was it like having a Navy SEAL for a father?

Misunderstood.

My pops was an active duty SEAL for the first 30 years of my life. Many (most?) of his closest friends are former SEALs. Many of my friends and acquaintances were also raised by frogmen.

Note: I’m going to speak in broad strokes here, but I’ll do so with care.

*Understood Incorrectly*

Strictness Speaking generally, yes, they are tough dads. But probably less strict than most Marine fathers or the expectation many of you have. Perhaps family life is a welcome break from a day job that involves being hard.

You learn respect early. Talking back isn’t tolerated. But it isn’t extreme. Most SEAL communities are teamwork oriented, there are levels of compassion and understanding that underlie their tough outer core.

Put simply, they teach their children a lot of lessons that don’t involve kicking the shit out of kids on the playground.

Lineage Most team guys don’t pressure their kids to become SEALs.

In fact, I can’t name a single son who followed in his father’s footsteps.

Why? Well, for one, it is an extreme career path. You need to be near-born with a desire, a calling, a primal urge to pursue it. Anything less isn’t enough.

I’ll further speculate, many fathers may feel the same trepidation that a pro athlete feels when they see their son also pursuing a pro-sports career.

They know that their kid may be setting themselves up for failure. With SEALs as with a pro sports career: most are not cut out out for the task in front of them.

Also, serving screws a lot of guys up. Physically and mentally, SEALs see a lot of bad things and have a lot of bad things happen to them.

Quick tip: when you find out someone’s dad is a SEAL, don’t let your first question be, “Why didn’t you join like him?” The question is beat to death.

*Understood Correctly*

Quiet Warriors They don’t talk about what they do. Never heard anything. And believe me, I’ve asked.

Philosophy Someone who joins the SEALs has an underlying belief that evil exists in this world. And that becoming a SEAL will give them the best opportunity to help rid the world of darkness, help protect the weak from those who would do them harm.

Tangent to that, being allowed to operate with (arguably) the most elite group on Earth, is a privilege. You’re given access to high-level equipment, training, and above all, the most talented peers available. Service is, again, seen as privilege.

Consequently, humility is a strong value among team members. I’ve seen that humility frequently passed down to their children.

Values Driven They tend to pass along a strong sense of values and orientation towards right and wrong (again good vs evil). Most are conservative. Many are also religious (Christian).

Physical Fitness Most SEAL families are indeed athletic. Staying physically fit was always held in high regard, a sign of work ethic and self-discipline.

Overall, it is a great experience. I’ve only lived one life (that I know of) and given the choice, I think I’d repeat.

SEAL dads make pretty darn good dads.

What is the reason for the discrepancy between the Chinese government’s desire to have more tourists and the way it treats its own citizens?

The Chinese government treated its people way better that the U.S. treated its own people.

Let’s put things in perspective not be foolish to repeat US narratives on CCP, China and the Chinese people.

Freedom. The U.S. has 9 times more per million in jail than China! For a nation calling itself the land of the free, this is simply shameful. US has a law that disallow its people to drink a beer on the streets but allowed lethal military weapons and today the U.S. has more mass random shooting incidents in a week than China has in a decade! Freedom to shoot and kill but not free to drink a beer on the go! China allows you to drink alcohol and beer as long as you don’t disturb the peace but one is not allowed even a 4” blade in your pocket.

Living Standard. The U.S. has stopped growing in real living standards since 1960. Today it is fast deteriorating. Your inflation is 5 times higher than your income growth since 2020! The poor is getting poorer and up to a million live in tents on the streets. And 50 million has joined the poor from the middle class. China grew real standard of living 30 times in 40 years from 1980–2020 alone! China’s inflation is a shade below 2% and its growth is way past 6%! China’s middle class is today close to 700 million or more than twice the entire U.S. population!

Disparity of income. The Rich in the US is filthy rich and the poor is dirt poor. The U.S. has many companies which is too big to fail! Not China, even the richest man will be hold accountable and even the biggest company need to be held responsible. The U.S. 1% owns almost 90% of the wealth and the 99% share the 10%. The rich influence the government and dare I say owns the government! Not in China. People comes first.

Safety. In China one can roam the streets at 3 am in the morning alone! In U.S. chances of you being robbed or rape is very high. Even shot to death is likely. Cops in the U.S. can necked you to death and shoot you all due to the colour of your skin. If the cops don’t get you the racist or the mass random shooter can kill you anytime! If you lose your mobile phone. Chinese cops get it back to you within hours!

So grow up the U.S. government don’t care about you. They take care of big pharmaceutical companies and military industrial complex and National Rifles Association and weapons manufacturers! The U.S. government are put in place by these companies. They owned the government.

Travel and tourism. Chinas has more high speed railway than the entire world put together. US failed to complete 100 kilometres line from LA to San Francisco after 20 years. During this time China put up 120K miles of high speed railway! It is cheaper and more convenient to travel for everyone in China.

Free Medicine. China offers universal health coverage for everyone rich or poor. No one dies because the don’t have health insurance. The Rich pays more and the poor lays little or none. In the U.S. 35% of Americans. Cannot get treatment because they could not afford health insurance.

Free Education. In China if you kids qualify for college. Chinese government provide it free. In the U.S. your kids get into debts just for attending college!

Chinese government is so much better than the U.S. government in China. Admittedly one cannot attack their own capital like Trumps supporters did in Washington in China. But we don’t mind.

The Best Near-Death Experience I’ve Ever Heard

“The best NDE I’ve ever heard.” Rosemary Thornton had a near-death experience (NDE) while undergoing cancer treatment. She instantly found herself on the other side in a white room where she conversed with God and Angels before going to Heaven. Rosemary’s near-death experience (NDE) showed her what happens after death, what angels look like, and that there is life after death. Her near-death experience (NDE) provides more evidence/proof of an afterlife.

Could the US just not pay the bonds that China has as a sanction? What would the consequences be?

It is unconstitutional for the U.S. government not to recognize its debt and pay interest on it. After the Civil War, the Supremacy Clause and the 14th Amendment established an obligation for the federal government to recognize and pay its debts, even those incurred during times of insurrection or rebellion, such as the Civil War. This constitutional principle serves as a foundational element of the nation’s financial stability and credibility. Therefore, the US government must follow its own laws to pay the bonds owned by China.

The United States has not defaulted on the principal or interest payments of its government bonds. The U.S. government has a long-standing reputation for honoring its debt obligations, both to domestic and foreign bondholders. This commitment to debt repayment is a key factor in maintaining the country’s financial stability and credibility in the global financial markets.

To default on the interest payments for bonds held by China, the United States would need to amend the constitution, a process that has not occurred since 1992, and identify which bond is held by China, a task that is impossible to carry out. In addition, these actions carry severe repercussions for the United States, including the potential for substantial economic and financial upheaval, harm to its global standing, and interruptions in government services. China could respond by liquidating its entire bond holdings, causing a crash in the bond market. Given these considerations, it would be less painful for the U.S. to meet its obligations by relying on future inflation and higher interest rates while printing more money.

What is the strangest thing you’ve seen on public transit?

A new mom boards a city bus, holding her baby in her arms. She deposits her fare, and greets the bus driver.

The bus driver asks her how old her baby is. She turns the baby around so he can see it and says proudly, “Just a week old, sir”.

The bus driver takes a look at the baby and exclaims “Wow, that’s literally the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen!”

Crushed and angry, the woman walks down the aisle of the bus and finds a seat next to a man.

The man notices she’s fuming, and asks her “Ma’am, you seem upset. What’s the matter?”

“The bus driver just insulted me saying really mean things. He was not a very nice person at all.”

The man quickly replies, “Wow, I’m so sorry to hear that! Tell you what, you should go right back up there and give the bus driving jerk a piece of your mind and demand an apology. And while you do that, I’ll hold your monkey for you.”

First Time You Realized America Really Messed You Up – Part 1 – US American Reaction

Which popular career advice will be abandoned 10 years from now?

The old man was walking with his wife at the local shopping mall.

He analyzed the latest Amazon’s Pop-Up Shop and searched for music products and couldn’t find any.

He continued to walk around and has a déjà-vu, “WOW! There’s a huge opportunity here!”

“What do you see, my love?” The old lady asked with eyes of admiration.

“Imagine how many people walk here everyday… everyone loves music, and there’s NO music store in all the shopping mall! I’m going to push our son Luigi to open a music store here!”

Oh dear, you’re old but still a visionary genius! I’m sure Luigi will love the idea!”

They excitedly hurry home.

“Son! Sit down right now and listen to me! You won’t believe the amazing opportunity I just found. Your future is guaranteed if you follow my wise advice.”

“What are you talking about, Dad? Tell me about it,” Luigi asked, taking a seat.

“I WANT you to open a music store at our local mall!” Old Mario said with authority.

“But Dad… that doesn’t sound like a good business anymore,” Luigi refuted fearfully.

“Don’t you be disrespectful to your father’s wisdom, Luigi! He’s offering you an opportunity of a lifetime!” Mom interrupted.

“But people don’t buy music at a shopping mall any more, Mom. It doesn’t make sense!”

“You listen to and obey the wisdom of your father. All those grey hairs are there for a reason! Your dad has already got a line of credit for you.”

Luigi had a bad feeling about this, but with no other choice he had to trust his parents.

He goes to the bank and takes a 100,000 dollar loan under his name and opens the music shop.

Four years of hard work and no results. Luigi is devastated. The market has changed. People don’t buy music CDs or cassette tapes anymore.

Moral of the story?

Luigi invested 4 years of his life into this venture, lost everything and now has to start all over again, but now with a financial burden of $100,000 that he must repay over time.

Mom and Dad feel deeply disappointed about Luigi’s incompetence.

Devastated and confused about his inability to make a living, Luigi must continue living with his parents while he reinvents himself to find a decent job.

How will Luigi get out of this financial mess?

Now, to answer your question, which famous career advice will be abandoned 10 years from now?

“Go to college and pay with a student loan!”

The story above is obviously a sarcastic story of what’s happening to a whole generation of young adults.

Careers are changing, and parents are still forcing youngsters to study outdated degrees.
Jobs are changing, and parents don’t understand it.
Once graduated, many find themselves jobless and parents blame their child for incompetence.
Young adults need to start all over again to find a real path into the future, but now with a financial load that won’t go away.

At nearly $1.5 trillion, the student debt problem is out of control and will soon become a problem of historic proportions.

Elites ‘are in the grip of a pseudo-ideology of control’: Former CIA analyst

Former CIA analyst and Author Martin Gurri says the world is incrementally moving towards authoritarianism as elites embrace a fragmented “pseudo ideology of control”. Mr Gurri described protests as being “hollow ideologically”. “In the end, it’s the rule of experts, the rule of science, the rule of justice, as defined by the people in charge,” Mr Gurri told Sky News host James Morrow. “You need something to be that something; you can’t be something with nothing. “You’re not going to beat a pseudo ideology of control, until you work out an ideology of freedom.”

What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?

Many years ago I drove into NYC to visit a friend for the weekend. Sunday evening I started up my car to drive home and smoke came out of the front end, which is never a good thing. I called AAA and some thingamabob was busted (I don’t remember which part) and needed fixing in order to drive the car. Being a Sunday, not much was open, but I found a car repair place that could do the work, so I had my car towed there. They said yes they could fix the car, but mysteriously all the credit card machines were broken, so I’d have to pay cash. They wouldn’t even take a check. Of course ATMs had a limit to the amount of cash you could take out per day, and the daily amount was less than what was needed, so they said I had to stay in NYC until I had enough cash before they would do the repair. I felt like they were holding my car for ransom, but there was nothing I could do. Fortunately I could stay at my friend’s place, but this meant I had to take Monday off from work. There was something about this place which didn’t seem right, but I don’t know a lot about cars and I didn’t know what else I could do.

By Monday afternoon I had amassed enough cash for the expensive repair, which didn’t take long, and got on the road to drive home. I wasn’t too far from home when the new part stopped working and smoke came out of the car again. Once again AAA towed me, this time to my mechanic. He took one look at the part and told me they had installed an old broken down part instead of the new one I had paid for. He had to pull it out and now install the actual part I had paid for. I was furious. Fortunately he knew what agencies to report this to in the State of NY and said he’d prepare whatever statement was needed to support that I was ripped off.

The next day I started calling and filing reports and claims against this shoddy repair facility in NYC. So the agency that handles such things went there to get their records and while there noticed so many things that were in violation of standards that they ended up revoking their license and shutting them down! Also turns out they had had their eye on this place and my reports were the evidence they needed to put them out of business for good.

For good measure, they also got a certified check from the place not only returning all funds that I had paid, but also including all the costs I paid to my mechanic to actually do the correct repair as punitive damages.

So for ripping off an out-of-state woman, they ended up paying for my repair and getting their business shut down. Sometimes crime doesn’t pay. Revenge is sweet.

Russia’s sanctions-dodging is getting ever more sophisticated. What do you think about it?

Of course it is

How much longer can a group of Nations keep threatening the world and sanctioning them unilaterally?

Of course everyone will take precautions

Russia started from 2014 itself. They bore the worst brunt of the sanctions from 2014 and it cost them almost $ 1 Trillion of GDP growth

That was a much tougher sanction package because Russia was completely unprepared

By Contrast in 2022, Russia was already slowly and surely capable of withstanding fundamental sanctions, had many alternate payment systems and had a very strong trade pact with China

They had 8 years to ensure their Dollar Assets and Euro Assets were buried cleverly and untraceable. They had 8 years to ensure that every dollar of western assets in Russia was monitored strongly

The present Sanctions package was a Joke without China. If China had stood apart, Russia would be in big trouble because it had no alternate currency buttress or payment system or all those wonderful industrial supplies and components

Luckily China realized that they were next in line and decided this was the time to stand strong with Russia

Once that happened, the Sanctions became near worthless to Russia but devastating to EU, UK and USA

Simple Example :- Russia refused to export Fertilisers to UK and US and shipped their entire stock to India and China. US immediately Comandeered all of the Canadian surplus and had no issues but UK suffered a 43% shortage and it’s translated in the shelves of supermarkets

Plus Obama, Merkel, Cameron were intelligent leaders who knew restraint

Biden, Blinken, Ursula, Scholz and Sunak don’t know their face from their arse.

Putin and Xi can cook them for breakfast and run rings and rings around them

What is the most mind blowing fact about either World War?

This is probably the least known fact of World War 2, that you never have heard of, which is a shame because it’s quite interesting.

During WW2 millions of Poles became refugees after Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. The Soviet Union deported almost a million Poles and sent to freezing Siberia, where many died.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of Poles decided to flee, and they did this by crossing the Caspian Sea from Russia to no other country than Iran!

Over 116,000 Poles sailed across the Caspian Sea. The majority docked in the port city of Pahlevi, where they were fed and quarantined because many were carrying lethal diseases such as malaria and typhus.

When Polish refugees were loaded on to trucks to relocate from Pahlevi to Tehran, some Iranians threw objects at them. The frightened refugees thought they were being stoned — but they soon noticed that the objects were not rocks, but rather cookies, candies, and food.

They were warmly welcomed by both the Iranian people and government. Hundreds of buildings were built to house them, and Polish schools, businesses, and cultural organizations were established.

These refugees now had clean beds and plenty of food, after they had spent years in freezing and disease-ridden conditions.

Despite Iran being a country under occupation by the British and Soviets, and even though starvation and poverty were widespread, the refugees were warmly welcomed and witnessed the famous Persian hospitality and kindness first-hand.

The Polish refugees were nourished more by the smiles and generosity of the Iranian people than by the food dished out by British and Russian soldiers

– Polish scholar, Ryszard Antolak

After the war, many Poles decided to stay in Iran and build a life for themselves here in Iran.

Tehran also has a Polish cemetery (called Dulab) which houses the graves of more than 2,000 Poles.

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

I had worked with Frank for many years. we did application support for an IMS based system and Frank knew that system inside and out. when the word came that there was going to be downsizing, Frank was the least likely one to be displaced. He got along with everyone and did the job better than anyone. The manager that had to decide the person to leave picked Frank because he challenged her on some topics and he was not very subtle. So on Friday Frank was let go and got a severance package. then it was announced that they would fill the open slot via a contractor. Frank knew the head of the consulting firm and called him up. the consulting firm hired Frank Friday afternoon and on Monday Frank was back doing his old job, getting paid 30% more, was hourly instead of salaried and worked from home instead of coming to the office. That manager lasted a few more years, but eventually she was let go as well. Frank was legend and everyone loved telling that story of how he was able to turn getting let go into a huge positive.

Taqueria Guacamole

Ingredients

2 ripe avocados
1 lemon, juiced
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 medium fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
Coarse salt

Instructions

Halve avocados lengthwise around pit. Remove pit with a large spoon, then scoop out flesh into a bowl.
Squeeze the lemon juice into bowl.
Add tomato, onion, and jalapeno.
Mash guacamole with a fork to desired consistency.
Season guacamole with salt, to taste.

Who is stronger, China or the United States?

Militarily? I would say on par, I know yanks will always say they are, but I don’t think so, a few years ago? Yes, definitely, but theses days,? Not any more, if they went to war? Neither could win, they will both be destroyed, actually in my view, the whole planet would be. Because it would definitely evolve into WW3, and the nukes will start flying.

industrially? Definitely China there is no doubt about that, simply because of numbers, and work ethics, they can build rings around the USA,

in technology? Also close on par, the USA might have a slight edge, but again it comes down to numbers, China just has so many more graduates.

so over all? I guess China gets the gold medal,

that’s the main reason why the USA is so toxic against China to try and keep them down, instead of improving themselves? They prefer to squash any competition, but this time it’s not working, their boot isn’t heavy enough, and the meddlesome bug is to tough.

AMERICAN COUPLE React To Americans Living Abroad: First Time U Realized America Really Messed You Up

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

In my early days of work whilst on a summer internship. I didn’t actually see anything… I learned about/lived it. A guy in my office was having personality difficulties with our boss. Basically, the guy was older, smarter, more approachable and more helpful to his co-workers and the boss resented it. The writing was clearly on the wall that the boss had it out for him so when the guy was fired it was hardly a surprise to anyone, particularly not a surprise to the guy that was fired. He packed up and left quietly.

Fast forward a week… the office was starting to smell pretty rank. Everyone was checking their desks for a ‘forgotten lunch’ and orders came down from the top that the fridge and break room needed to be cleared out and cleaned or you’d lose whatever it was that you had stored there. Being the summer intern that somehow became my responsibility. Nothing overly offensive was found that could be the cause.

Fast forward two weeks… the office was uninhabitable. Everybody was sent home. I think they were about ready to bring in corpse search dogs to see if they could locate the offensive smell.

At the end of the third week (since the firing… the week after we were told to leave the office) were were notified that we would be returning to the office the following Monday (I’m not sure if it was paid or unpaid… I was an unpaid intern so I just had to do the work I was given from the local university library. Other actual employees did maintenance work from home during this time, but I don’t think a lot of work got done.)

Long story short, the cause of the smell trickled down to everyone — somebody pushed one of the false ceiling panels up and deposited a bag of fresh prawns into the ceiling cavity to sit during that hot summer. Nobody claimed credit for it and no names were given, but the fired employee’s ex-clerk received a card from the fired employee telling the clerk that he’d moved on to another job and would be happy to serve as a reference should the need arise (I think the fired employee was trying to bring his clerk with him). The kicker was the card was one of those nostalgic 1950s cards with a giant photo of a shrimp cocktail on the front of it.

Message received. Ha ha.

What is the significance of the 10-year Treasury briefly breaching the psychological 5% mark?

Think about this simple maths. The U.S. is indebted up to 34 trillion dollars now! Within 5 years chances it’s that it’s debt level will exceed 50 trillion dollars! That is almost a certainty.

5% of 50 trillion dollars is 2.5 trillion dollars just to service you loan! That means the entire U.S. government budget by that time goes to paying interest alone!

No more money left for welfare services, infrastructure spending, healthcare services and every war it get into it will need to print and create money without basis. Americans must bear this in mind before you vote in your next president. And before you think the U.S. and fight another perpetual war!

China SHOCKED US! New LW-30 Laser Defense Tech Introduced

As China continues to invest heavily in research and development, its laser defense systems have become increasingly sophisticated, capable of detecting and intercepting a wide array of targets, including drones, missiles, and even low-orbit satellites. Today’s episode will cover China’s laser defense technology.

Serious dog chomp

When my wife and I were homeless and living in a van. We were in Corpus Christi, Texas. And on Christmas day, we left the van and went for a walk. And we walked a few blocks in and out of the various storefronts and nearby suburbs.

Then, out of the blue, this old gentleman was leaving one house with his small dog in his arms. He had obviously just finished visiting family. It was Christmas day, after all.

That little dog, for some God-damn reason, jumped out of the old man’s arms, and made a “bee line” straight for my wife, and then went CHOMP on her leg. And that little bastard just hung there. Clenched on her calve. Son of a bitch!

Anyways, my wife is crying, the old man came out and started yelling at us. Blood was everywhere, and he wanted to call the police.

I told him, “go ahead”. The police will impound his dog, and maybe put him to sleep, and we will need to get rabies shots (the dog did not have a rabies tag).

He left and grumbled the entire time, cursing us the whole time.

And that is how I spend my first Christmas day with my first wife. Now you know.

I have multiple stories from this most impressionable time in my life, but I just wanted to share this one with youse guys.

…

Lessons? Oh, I don’t know.

Perhaps, “random acts of violence can occur when you are least prepared for them.”

Today…

This just in

The IDF is in trouble. They’re just kids doing their national service. They refuse to move. The bad ones use Palestinians for target practice but there are some good ones, including officers, who want nothing to do with genocide. The high command says they would need two years of training and re-equipping before even considering a Stalingrad attack on well-prepared Hamas fighters in bombed-out Gaza.

Bibi hoped this war would distract people, but it just made them mad. Last night Jerusalem saw its biggest demonstration ever (amazing drone shots) demanding his resignation.

Hezbollah opened a new front last night by taking out a couple of IDF tanks. Considering that Hezbollah wiped them out in the last war, that’s got to be a morale-crusher.

And since those thousands of $600 Hamas missiles have exhausted Israel’s supply of $20,000 Iron Dome antimissiles, Iran is preparing a barrage of real missiles.

And the US is sending two carrier battle groups to the coast. But Iran needs only two Kinzhal missiles to destroy those carriers, which are defenseless against them, and which could force the carriers to stay outside the Kinzhal’s 1000km range. Which is outside their air wings’ range.

This is a heartbreaking, beautiful true story

Nicole and Brent Keryluke of Red Deer, in the Province of Alberta, decided to go for a motorcycle drive.

They had to be back within two hours, because both of their two young children had medical appointments, as they both suffer from hearing impairments and one needs speech therapy.

As they were turning a curve, a truck coming from the other direction veered into their lane and hit them head on.

They were killed immediately.

The driver of the car behind them said that Nicole had her arms wrapped around her husband, with her face in his back…and never saw it coming. And that Brent, before the moment of impact, instinctively put his arm behind him to hold his wife.

Brent’s parents, Ben and Marilyn, now had guardianship of three-year-old Liam and six-year-old Arielle, and especially because of the additional costs of the medical bills, they had to sell Brent’s classic 1973 Pontiac Parisienne, which he restored himself and hoped would one day be Liam’s on his eighteenth birthday.

They didn’t want to, but had to.

And they took it to EG Auctions to sell.

Watch the awesome video of what happened next: EG Auctions Charity Car

“They basically stopped the auction, let everybody know what was happening, where the money was going to go, and then we were shocked what happened after that,” said Ben.

First, Rod McWilliams from Red Deer Motors bought the car for $29,000…and immediately gave the car back to be auctioned again!
Then Danny Fayad, who had driven up from Edmonton, bought the car for $30,000….and immediately gave the car back to be auctioned again!

All the while, members of the community yelled out pledges to go over and beyond whatever it finally sold for.
One man yelled out, “2,000 over the price!”, another yelled out “$4,000 over”, and it happened again and again and again.
One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, told a reporter that she came with $2,500 to see if she could “score a deal” on an older unrestored car that was coming up later in the auction, but pledged her money for the Keryluke family. “ I have two kids myself. I thought of them. What if? I have one car already.”

It was finally purchased for $20,000 to Bob Bevins from Bulldog Metals in the third and final round.

The reason he didn’t also give the car back to be sold again, was because after the auction was over, he went to the Keryluke family…and gave the car to them.

“Maybe someday that young man will drive his father’s car,” he said.

Said Lyndsay, “People were overwhelmed with just the generosity of people of central Alberta and the support that this family has. It was incredible. People were cheering, I was crying. Our auctioneer Rod had a hard time getting through it because he was crying. He was emotional.

When the last buyer stepped forward and said ‘I want your family to have that car, so I’m giving it back to you,’ the audience erupted.

When our auctioneer Rod announced that, the place just went wild. There was a standing ovation, people were cheering, whistling. It was wonderful.”

After Parents Are Killed, Family Had To Auction Dads Classic Car. Spontaneous Beauty Followed.

Putin and Elon Musk just changed EVERYTHING according to the EU

Do children of parents who were close to or over 40 when they were born wish they had younger parents?

My dad was 58 and my mom was 38 when I was born.

Growing up everyone thought my dad was my grandpa. My dad had spent most of his younger years wanting to live and experience life.

He later told me, “I have spent my life searching and wanting to find what I was missing in life, little did I know it was having a family”.

My dad was wise beyond his years and was truly the best father a child could ask for.

At very young age I began to watch my dad age before me and become very sick.

Most of my teenage years he was in the hospital and when I was 17 years old he passed away.

Do I wish my dad had been younger ….yes and no.

Yes, I wish he was younger in the hopes that he may have still been alive. He missed so much of my life (grandkids, graduations, marriage and family).

No, because had he been younger he would not have been the person who raised me to be who I am today.

What made you forbid someone from ever entering your home again?

Yes my step daughter’s birth mother (or birth giver as she called her). My (now ex) husband had custody of his daughter. And I spent years trying to be civil to this lousy person.

She was always petty and nasty to me and to her daughter.

Daughter got cancer and asked if she could come live with me and my fella for treatment. She said she knew she would get the best care from us and that I could handle dealing with the doctors (because I had always worked in the medical field).

I just didn’t feel like dealing with her “Mama” and told her if she wanted to see her we would either drive her to see her (the next state over) or they could come up to our area and we would bring her to a restaurant to meet up.

My daughter (as that is really how I referred to her) was fine with that because she had little patience with her too. I really did not want to deal with this woman at all but I knew trying relay the medical information through my ex husband would be difficult as he did not really understand everything I was telling him so he could not really explain it to her.

So I agreed to talk to her and explain what was happening with daughter.

She had surgery and it turned out what they thought was an ovarian tumor turned out to be a tumor in her liver that could not be removed. I explained this to Mama and she went off on me about how I picked sh*tty doctors and how little I really cared..

I got pissed and hung up.

Later on I went on Facebook and posted a picture of my dogs and she commented b*tch. Every single thing I said or did got a similar response. When she wrote c*nt I had enough and blocked her completely.

“Mama” called daughter screaming that I blocked her (you see I wasn’t telling daughter what was happening as I felt she had enough to deal with).

So daughter asked me what was going on. I gave her a brief rundown on what was said.

Daughter called Mama back and said you deserved that and since you are choosing to be a jerk I am blocking you too.

The wonderful part of this is darling Mama wrote to daughter’s boyfriend to tell daughter that she would never speak to her again as long as she lives and she hoped she died soon.

This apparently was at about midnight and daughter passed at 1am.

Boyfriend furiously wrote her back and said well she’s dead I hope you’re happy now!!

Then blocked her too. (We had no idea she was so close to dying at that point, it really devastated us all.)

Mama spent the next few days being as mean and spiteful as she could possibly be to everyone else she could get in touch with.

I kept her blocked and am eternally grateful that I never let her visit so she had no idea where I lived (still live).

THIS Is Unthinkable – America Considers Crossing The Economic Red Line

In a shocking twist of events, America’s special envoy is discussing the possibilities of using Russia’s frozen reserves to rebuild Ukraine. While this might be an immediate win for the West, it opens up Pandora’s box to more de-dollarization risks and a complete breakdown of financial trust. Here’s what you must know & why the big winner will be physical gold.

Is it really so bad in China or is it the American propaganda which shows China in such bad shape because the USA fears of being replaced by China as the main world power?

Try imagining the U.S. sets a budget of 1.5 billion over 5 years or 300 million a year to dig up as much dirt it can find about China! I think no one, no nation on earth are so obnoxious and despicable as the U.S. I think Nazi Germany at their height don’t set a budget of this size to demonised the Jews between 1935–1944!

The U.S. did this after 3 generations since 1949, badmouthing China, slurring China, spread misinformation about China, fabricate lies on China and casting doubts and basically demonising China. If I were an American who has been screaming freedom if information, speech and human rights I will be so shameful of the US, I will emigrate!

To the rest of the world we are clear as hell. A nation needing to do so much shit cannot be any good and cannot have any confidence. You can fool your ignorant millions of people in the U.S. and their US dogs nations like Canada, UK, Australia and their slave nations like Japan and Germany but 7.5 out of 8 billion people on earth aren’t fooled at all.

China is not perfect but it is way way way better than the U.S. in behaviour any day. Any where. China is doing extremely well in spite of the shit that you dumped on them. It does not have any bad intention towards anyone including the U.S. but it learned that it cannot rely and trust the U.S. at all. You cannot blame them.

It will overtake the U.S. completely and comprehensively because it has 4 times your population and everyone works harder, are more discipline and learn more everyday and are highly intelligent, very driven and industrious than Americans. There is nothing you can do to stop them without hurting yourself.

For me it is better that the U.S. take note of this and stop wasting your money and effort. It’s better to use the billions to help your own people instead. The million people who are homeless, the millions who have no medical insurance and the millions that has college debts and the millions suffering from chronic inflation.

China will overtake the U.S. and it will dwarf the US in a couple of generations. It is a humongous market even now. Don’t deprived your business and your people to enjoy a better standard of living. Everything you do China can do better, faster and cheaper. Stop dreaming you can deprived them of you technology. You better worry if China reciprocate and bankrupt you in the process.

Tai Lopez: Why I left America for More Freedom

BYD holds 15 times more patents than Tesla

In the fast-evolving world of electric vehicles, two names stand out: BYD and Tesla. While Tesla has been a front-runner in the EV market, recent data reveals that BYD has been quietly securing its position as the patent king of EVs, with a staggering 13,000 applications in comparison to Tesla’s 863 over the past two decades.

BYD, a Chinese automotive giant, has been diligently working behind the scenes, focusing on protecting its battery technology. A whopping 50% of BYD’s patents are dedicated to batteries, allowing the company to develop in-house battery packs, a feat not many car manufacturers can boast. This strategic move has positioned BYD as a leader in the development and manufacture of lithium-ion batteries with iron phosphate cathodes, which are notably more affordable than the ternary lithium batteries utilizing nickel and cobalt from their Korean counterparts.

On the other side of the spectrum, Tesla, the American EV behemoth, has taken a different approach. With a mere 863 patents filed, one might raise an eyebrow at the disparity. However, Tesla’s strategy leans heavily on software development, utilizing a plethora of publicly available information. A significant portion of Tesla’s patents revolve around charging infrastructure and communication between EVs and drivers, showcasing their focus on enhancing user experience and connectivity.

Patent lawyer Hideto Kono notes that a company of Tesla’s stature would typically file for at least ten times as many patents. The lower number of patents from Tesla raises questions about their reliance on software and the risk of imitation by competitors. Unlike BYD, Tesla mitigates this risk by implementing new production technology exclusively within its factories.

While patents offer a layer of protection, they also come with a caveat. The details of the patents are made public, leaving room for potential imitation. This is particularly crucial for BYD, as their proprietary battery technologies can be dissected by simply disassembling the battery packs. The company’s heavy reliance on patents underscores the importance of safeguarding its innovations in a competitive market.

I tried to tell you, but you CHOSE to IGNORE!

This is called currency devaluation.

Burger and Fries Pot Pie

Beef and potatoes come together in this cheesy pot pie that’s baked to perfection – a savory dinner.

Prep: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
2 cups frozen crispy French-fried potatoes (from 20-ounce bag)

Instructions

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
In 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain well.*
Sprinkle flour over beef mixture. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Stir in tomatoes; heat to boiling. Remove from heat.
In ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole, spread beef mixture.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Arrange frozen potatoes evenly in single layer on top.
Bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

* Be sure to drain the cooked ground beef really well. Any extra juices will make the pot pie too watery. When it’s too cold outside to grill those burgers, comfort food calls, and this pot pie will surely hit the spot! Serve this pot pie with ketchup, if desired.

What did a neighbor do to you that you will never forget?

My neighbour was a shell -shocked, disabled Vietnam Vet. He was on a plethora of medications. Hhe lived with his mother who had died about 2 weeks prior.

He had a old car body in front of a hill not far Huron the rural road. He regularly target practiced shooting at the car body. Sometimes he would “practice” for hours on end.

One day I’m driving past his house on the way to town. About a 1/2 mile down the road I see him sitting in a deep ditch beside the road. I had to drag him down the ditch until it was shallow enough to get him able to stand up. He was babbling word salad, obviously experiencing a psychotic break.

I drove him to the Veterans Hospital and helped this dear man up the elevator to the Psychiatric ward. The elevator opened and there was a a collective-inhale of the nurses at the station! The patient was in just his underwear and covered in mud shivering uncontrollably with a towel wrapped around his shoulders! Needless to say they were surprised!

He stayed hospitalised to 2 weeks and came home normal as anyone and apologised that he’d got his medication s mixed up, and thanked me for taking care of him.

He lived two more years and committed suicide.

He was a lovely person and I still think of him fondly.

Blessings on your journey.

Why I REALLY Left America

“We left a long time ago and have never regretted our decision. The key sentence in this video is that “ they are in decline “. This really echoes the current situation.”

What are the signs of maturity in a male?

If you back up to 2009, I went on a few dates with a lady and moved to Houston, shortly to find out she was pregnant. She told me it wasn’t a trap, and I did not have to be a father if I didn’t want to or wasn’t ready. I considered it, believe me. But then, I moved back to Dallas.

About 3 months from my daughter being born, I suddenly became crazy about the thought of holding my little girl. You would often find me looking at baby clothes, stock piling diapers, building a crib, or prepping her room. When she was born, I was hooked on that baby. Unfortunately, her mother wasn’t faithful, so we didn’t end up being together. I wasn’t sad about not being with her mom, I was sad I wouldn’t be in the same home with my daughter.

Emma, my daughter was so young and couldn’t speak intelligibly. We are nearing 1 and a half, and now, when I would go to pick her up from her mom’s house, she would reek of cigarette smoke, she was crazy dirty.. And always covered in scratches and the occasional bruises. Her mom would talk about how it was all just from playing outside, but seeing as Emma would go into a screaming rage on her way back to her mom’s and claw at the car seats to not get out, I knew there was something wrong. My mom did, too.

This behavior reminded me of, well, me… I was abused when I was a child. I exhibited extreme anxiety at such a young age and my first memories of anything were of my father beating me and being afraid to go home. Emma was being abused…so, I started building a case, and Emma started staying with me most of the time and occasionally going to her mom’s.

Now Emma is about 3… I go to pick her up from her mom’s one day and the driveway is covered in broken glass from a broken side patio door, and their minivan is sitting sideways in the driveway. Something is wrong. I feel it in my heart and no one has answered the phone all day. I call the house phone and hear the phone ringing through the door. When the answering machine came on, I said “if no one picks up, I am breaking the door down.”

Her step dad answered… “Hey buddy. They went to my mom’s down the street while I clean up this mess, we had an accident.”

I drove to his mom’s house, knocked, and Emma’s mom answered the door. I had never seen a person beat so bad. She was still covered in dry blood and her face and body were bruised. Emma came running out to me saying she didn’t want to go back to the “bloody house.”

I told her mom to get her shit and they were both coming with me. I had been building a case but I never took it to court because to me, it was all over. I got them out of the monster’s house.

Well, now we are months into her mom staying with Emma and me when I start noticing a lot of things. Emma’s mom is abusive. She would get drunk to the point of falling down every night. Literally unable to stand on her own feet, she would drag Emma out to the patio to smoke her cigarettes, and she argued incessantly with her husband through phone and text. She would cuss at me and try to provoke me into fighting. This, of course, is when I noticed her mom was an abuser too. I thought I was rescuing someone when in reality, I invited an abuser, another monster into my home. I don’t fight. I just observed. I later found out they were both beating each other up. Right in front of Emma. They were locking her outside to fight, and she was spending most of her time locked in her room and hiding under her bed.

For many reasons, I eventually kicked her out and my mom took her in. For disgusting reasons, my mom kicked her out and she disappeared. We took care of this lady for the better part of a year when she just abandoned Emma. She then called me out of the blue after months of no contact and said she wanted Emma to “come home.”

She moved back in with and remarried the same man. When I mentioned her months of promises to never letting Emma back into that home or environment, she said “Emma can get over it.”

I pulled out my case file and filed a restraining order. Over the next year, I fought and won custody of my daughter. Her mother abandoned all of her visitation, and has officially been completely gone for over half of Emma’s life. The only memories Emma has of her mom are abuse, but she has been gone so long that she is never spoken of.

I get tickled when Emma and I go out on the weekends, because people will literally make multiple derivatives of the same comment about me being a weekend father. Like — “Ooh, Saturday night date with daddy?”

No, it is just us. It always has been. I have her the other nights as well. All of the week days, all of the holidays, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Emma is a healthy, happy, ambitious, and extremely intelligent child. Because she didn’t have to endure a life of abuse. I didn’t become a man until she was born, and it took me until my mid twenties to finally get over my abusive childhood. If it weren’t for my mom saving us from my dad, I wouldn’t be the man I am today, and I doubt I would be a responsible father. If it were not for my dad abusing me, I would not have picked up early on the signs that I needed to save my daughter, so I thank them both. I am strong enough to have lived through being beaten… strong enough to never let my child live through it.

Some people have made some good comments about what makes a manly man. But I will stick to this one:

Everyone has a neighborhood grocery store where they often see the same customers… or maybe you have a job where you have regulars visit often. If you see a man holding the hands of his kids, and it isn’t the weekend – he is a real father. If you see a guy like me, with pink and glitter french-tipped painted finger nails, and bows and ribbons stuck in my hair and beard, it is because I am a masculine man… mature enough to show my child how she should be treated and respected on this little fucked up planet we live on.

Is there anything we can do to stop the Israel army with high tech weapons from obliterating Gaza which still has 1.6 million innocent unarmed civilians in their homes? How is the world allowing this barbaric ethnic cleansing?

Naah

Hamas delivered their greatest win and achieved something neither Egypt nor Syria could between 1948 to 2006

Israel made a fool of itself

First being attacked with full intelligence failure and then blindly bombing everything into oblivion and dictating lies like the beheading of 40 kids

Respect for Israel has crashed

Their vaunted Iron Dome lost to fifth grade rockets made from pipes

Their mossad, an organization I held huge respect for was so blind that Gaza imported enough materials under their nose citing that they needed to make BALL POINT PENS. Not once did anyone think why would the Palestinians need to make 500 Million Ball Pointpens?

What should Israel have done?

Quietly carried out Damage assessment

Reinforced their Army Positions

Made calls to Saudi and UAE and said “My New Friends. I must respond to this but I don’t want to kill Civilians. I am helpless. Use your influence to persuade the Civilians to move out of the Strip so that we can fight Hamas”

Made speeches saying “Hamas will be obliterated but Palestinians are victims, so I urge Palestinians to leave Gaza and abandon Hamas”

It would have been a master stroke

Then if the Hamas prevented Palestinians from leaving, THEY WOULD BE THE BAD GUYS and even Islamic nations would be forced to condem them

At the same time, Israel should have negotiated for their Hostages involving the Arab world

Forced Egypt, Saudi, UAE, China, Russia, India to demand that Hamas return the hostages unharmed

This way even if the hostages died – HAMAS WOULD BE THE VILLIANS , EVEN TO THE ENTIRE ARAB WORLD

Then maybe after 20 days, a sudden ground operation against Hamas after enough warnings citing the hostages

Then the bombings

Israel would say “Alas. I tried. Now we have no choice but war”

The whole of the Middle East would have no choice but to be neutral

It would be a glorious moment for Israel and the world would be forced to admit they had no choice

Instead, What did Israel do?

Shrieking and Screaming like Hysteric Kids who have never fought any war, Calling for Death of Palestinians, Threatening to flatten all of Gaza

It was like something Hrithik Taletiya Or Raju or some of our Quora heroes would say than leaders of a major nation

Immediately running to the US showing the entire Arab World how the equation worked between Master & Dog than Two Allies

Not consulting any Arab Nation

Blindly starting bombing operations without a care in the world for Civilians

Giving warnings to evacuate 1.1 Million Civilians in 24 hours, something that forced even old friends like Jaishankar to take a harsh line

As a result

The Entire Arab World is sympathetic to Hamas and Palestinians
The Entire Arab World trust the US less and Israel even lesser
The Israelis have little confidence in their Country anymore. The Old Israel under Shamir Or Rabin or even Sharon would have FIRST GOT THE HOSTAGES BACK
Nethanyahu is proving to be a brainless Idiot
Yov Gallant is proving to be a bloodthirsty fool with little brains for strategy or tactics

Support for the Two State Solution has massively intensified

The Hamas has won

Israel cannot recover from this blow

They may obliterate Gaza but they will never be able to repair the damage they have done

Plus the US as well

And the West

The Middle East will never trust them again

Turkey will be wondering about it’s own future in the EU or NATO

Egypt would be wondering when to call Putin and ask for 20,000 Soldiers just in case

So nothing is needed

Israel is hanging itself

Just watch and smile if you feel they deserve it

Like my friend Arrête Les Macroni

If you feel they don’t, then hope to God, some sanity prevails and they undo at least 30% of the damage they are doing to themselves and the US in the middle East

How France and U.S Failed Africa Leading to Coup in Africa!

In Today’s Video: We are critically examining the actions and policies of the French government in Africa, pointing out contentious actions detrimental to the stability of African nations. Comparatively, we highlight China’s beneficial involvement.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

I was on my way to trade in my old car for a new truck at the same place I’d already purchased several vehicles over the years. I stopped at the local 7–11 convenience store to use the ATM to get the last part of the cash I needed toward my new truck. I turned the car motor off, dug out my ATM card and began to exit my car. This teenage boy in a shiny little coupe zipped his car in so close beside mine; I couldn’t exit my car.

The kid quickly jumped out of his car and started heading into the 7-11. I yelled at him, “Hey, you blocked me in, I can’t get out of my car, move it!” I could not believe it, but he actually thumbed his nose at me with one hand, flipped me the bird with his other hand, and just kept walking. What a disrespectful little shit!

The kid left me no choice. He needed to learn a bit of respect, so I slammed open my driver’s side car door into his new shiny car and shimmied my way out of my car. I left a lovely revenge dent in his passenger door and the kid absolutely deserved it. He had his head so far in the clouds, he never even saw it when he hurried out of the store, smirking at me and laughing.

I arrived a few minutes later at the car dealership with cash in hand to trade-in my car and get my fancy new Dodge Dakota. I was a bit surprised to see that same little teenager’s zippy coupe parked right beside the front door, (blocking once again) at the car dealership.

The first thing I saw through the window was the car salesperson I had worked many deals with, Tony Carson. He was standing there, inside the car dealership with the coupe kid; both had their arms flailing in the air like the conversation between them was getting a bit heated.

I walked in the entrance and the kid, whose back was turned to me, said, “Dad, the old lady blocked me in. Dad I didn’t do anything. Dad it wasn’t my fault.” Tony responded, “How could you be so irresponsible? Did you call the cops? Did you get her license number?” I vaguely recall thinking that this family sure loved expressing themselves with their hands.

When Tony saw me, he stopped the conversation and said, “Son, I have to see this woman.” Fibbing little ‘Sonny’ turned around with that same sarcastic smirk on his face. I bet he thought he had put one over on the old man… until he saw me. I’ve never seen blood drain from a face so fast. I swear he turned white and swayed so fast he had to hold onto the display car beside him.

I asked, “Hello Tony, this must be your son?” Tony introduced his son, Trevor, to me. I told Tony that I had just met Trevor at the 7-11 and it all fell apart for Trevor from there. I think Trevor got a lesson in respect and humility that day. I walked away that day with an even better deal on my brand new Dodge Dakota, even got free tinted windows and floor covers. I paid no cash down, and, best of all, Trevor is now back on his bicycle!

Worried Mother Cat Brought Her Sick Kitten To The Hospital. Then The Nurses Did Next The Unexpected!

It was a relatively quiet day at a hospital emergency room in Istanbul, Turkey. Going to an emergency room is never a happy experience and waiting in line is never fun. But sadly many parents have felt the fear of needing to take their children to the emergency room. But this emergency room would have a very different family come in for some help. The worried mother cat brought her sick kitten to the hospital. In most cases, animals aren’t welcome in medical institutions But you won’t believe what the nurses did next. Come with us to see this mind-blowing story.

Many economists are predicting a hard landing for the Chinese economy- do you think this is accurate or overstated?

Does china have high inflation?

No.

How about record low lending rates?

No.

Tightening financial conditions to control inflation?

No.

Loss of market confidence, leading to a stampede in Chinese bonds a la UK gilts?

No.

Participating directly or indirectly in the economically draining Ukraine-Russia conflict?

No.

China has plenty of policy space to stimulate the economy, now that it is transiting from zero covid.

What is a “hard landing”? The worst year in the 4 decades since opening up has been 2020, as China reoriented the economy to fight covid.

Even then, it did not fall into recession, growing 2.2 percent for the year.

For 2021, it was 8.1 percent.

And based on President xi’s recent new year’s message, China grew 4.4 percent in 2022.

That’s 4.9 percent compounded growth over the past 3 years.

4.9 percent.

Are the Chinese expecting 2023 to be more challenging than 2022?

Externally, yes. The first world is heading into recession and the fallout from Ukraine will continue. American-led sanctions and anti-trade measures will only mushroom.

But domestically, things are looking up with the end of covid restrictions, especially services roaring back to life.

One particular bright spot: automobiles. China has quietly leapfrogged Japan in 2022 to become the no. 2 car exporter, behind only Germany. Domestically, the market share of both Japanese and German marques has shrunk from 25-30 percent to 15-20 percent each within a few short years.

2022 was a record year for the Chinese car market, with more than 27m vehicles sold, double the figure in 2010.

The catalyst?

The embrace of EVs.

Now you know what is driving the persistent chip shortage. Honda’s global production in particular has been decimated by almost 40 percent (1.9m cars) compared to 2019.

The Chinese will ask, what chip shortage?

The credit squeeze in the dollar denominated economy won’t stop China in 2023. Instead, the transition away from the dollar will continue, as China looks to domestic and Bri recirculation.

I expect China to comfortably beat 2022 in 2023.

She Abandons 35 Sick Kittens in the Woods, Then a Judge Gives Her a Taste of Her Own Medicine!

Michelle did the unthinkable when she abandoned thirty-five sick kittens in the woods, thinking it wouldn’t be traced back to her. She was wrong! She was subsequently charged to court, and what Judge Cocconetti sentenced her to will shock you! Watch: She Abandons 35 Sick Kittens in The Woods. Then a Judge Gives Her a Taste of Her Own Medicine!

If we keep aiding Ukraine, could Russia possibly use their nukes on us?

Indeed, they could, if our government controlled by MIC will not leave them alone.

Russia will use it only as the last resort if Russia’s existence is at stake. The problem is that we do not know when they will make such determination, because they see things very differently than US government.

Contrary to Narrative, Kremlin never expressed the desire to “annex Ukraine” or deprive it from its “independence” (lost in 2014 to USA). The Russians are merely returning their own lands gifted to then-brotherly Ukraine, together with their own people who asked them to do it many times, because they do not like to be murdered by the puppets of the vicious Russophobes in DC, with the ever-compliant Western press covering this up.

The most important principle of government is that, to rule, the rulers need the consent of the ruled. The consent of South and East Ukraine to be ruled by Kiev was withdrawn back in 2014. Since then, Kiev regime became a tyranny, and the people had the right to rebel against it and call Russia for help. Read American “Declaration of Independence”. It is a very useful document worth reading.

People who think that they have the right to draw borders in old Russian lands, subjugate their citizens, and carry out their ethnic cleansing, all these people, from the Russian point of view, are similar to dangerous animals that must be dealt with. They run the serious risk of being exterminated in a radiation wave. It takes 1–3 weeks to die from radiation sickness, constantly vomiting. Are you ready for that, just to satisfy your ambition?

Instead of lecturing the others in the countries you know nothing about, supporting one war after another and blaming the victims, how about looking in the mirror and realizing that the ugly mug is yours? Magpies can recognize themselves in the mirror. Can you? Are you self-aware? Or you are an automaton controlled by the government?

Keep in mind that many important figures in our government have completely lost their marbles and cannot be trusted with rational decisions. Joseph Biden is senile and can barely speak. The others call not to be afraid of a nuclear war (Tony Blinken), praise the great investment, as long as Russians are dying (Lindsey Graham), sworn to destroy any country they do not approve of, especially, Russia (V. Nuland and her hubby R. Kagan).

If you are self-aware, and you possess the gift of sentience, unlike these criminally-insane individuals, I propose to work for peace on your side and vote for Congressmen who promise to stop funding the slaughter of Ukrainians.

EDIT: For the bragging bullies who think they are safe. The 60 second flight of a “Zircon” from an Atlantic submarine to DC is very hard to stop. The decision-making centers, the orbital satellites and anti-missile defenses will be taken out first. So no, you are not safe, it is a delusion. Arrogance, aggression, and stupidity are poor replacement for rational thinking.

Supersonic age: China’s explosive engine drone capable for ‘unparalleled speeds’

China’s first drone to be powered by an engine that uses explosions to propel aircraft to unparalleled speeds has made a successful maiden flight at an undisclosed airfield in Gansu province… ‘It uses kerosene fuel and features rapid ignition, and could power an aircraft from zero-speed to several times the speed of sound’…

“The [Rotating Detonation Engine’s] explosion is much more efficient than turbojet and ramjet engines, giving RDEs the potential to revolutionize supersonic flight while consuming less fuel. And, unlike scramjet engines – which generally require speeds above Mach 4 to initiate – the RDE can start at zero and are easier to maintain.

Just When Υou Thought Things Couldn’t Get Wοrse.. This Starts Ηappening Everywhere

Scary what’s happening to the 🇺🇸 USA.

https://youtu.be/Xw0S5eI5Ykg

What is the most disturbing thing your ex did after you broke up with them?

Before we broke up, she insisted we move 1,000 miles away to be closer to her family.

I agreed, did all the packing and moving myself, paid for the truck, drove it there, unloaded all the boxes.

Then she wanted all new furniture, and made me apply for credit to buy it.

Shortly thereafter, things started to sour, and she stole my car and disappeared for a week, maxing out the credit cards and writing so many cheques the account was overdrawn.

When she came back, she claimed it was “self care” and threw a huge tantrum crying “I WANT TO BE ALONE!” stating she did not want me to live in the house anymore. So I moved out and we divorced amicably.

Several years later her mental health degraded to the point that she could no longer hold a job or even look after herself, so she moved into a room at her son’s house and his family feeds her and cleans up after her while she lies in bed watching videos on her iPad all day.

I’m not even angry. I actually feel bad for her. She was an awesome person once.

India’s Moon Mission FINALLY Found What NASA Was Hiding….

Have you fooled anyone? How did you fool him?

Many years ago, we are talking back in the 1980’s. I was in my early twenties. I was working as an office property manager in my hometown in North-West England. I have written about the same period elsewhere on Quora.

The office property was adjacent to some vacant land where twice a year, for a few days in May and a few days in November a traveling fair would arrive and set up camp. That fair brought hundreds of people and many cars. Our office car park was a prime position to park, go to the fair.

The problem was car thieves and people who stole things from cars got to know that too. So around 1983, maybe a year either side our office insurance premium went up massively because people parking on the land, having their cars broken into and stolen, sued the property owners.

My boss, was furious and had signs made that vehicles had no right to park without permission and offending vehicles would be clamped, with a removal fee added. The whole idea was unenforcable, it was a deterrent to stop parking and subsequent theft claims.

Well time came for the fair to come around again, and some people parked on the parking lot, and a couple of the cars were broken into.

My boss was pulling his hair out in frustration. People even parked right in front of the signs saying no parking. They just ignored them.

I promised on Friday afternoon to fix it on Saturday and Sunday. There would be no parking and no break-ins.

Being May, the Sun came up quite early, but I was pulling into the parking lot before 7am. I owned a nice red Opel Manta, a car that always got a second look. I went into the office and got the wheel clamp. Taking the wheel clamp down to the parking lot, I put it onto my own car. Which I had parked alongside the no parking notice.

Then I just sat.

Sitting in my car, reading, listening to the radio, just pottering about doing some paperwork. It was fun. Cars began to pull onto the parking lot.

Then the laughing drivers would do a quick U-turn and drive out.

Around 1pm a mini pulled onto the parking lot. I watched as the driver pulled into a parking bay and switched off his engine.

Something was clearly going to come of this!

I stepped out of my car. Scuttling over to the mini. The male driver looked at me.

“Have you come to help me?” I asked.

“What?” he asked.

“Oh so you don’t know? Well I wouldn’t park around here if I were you!”

At this point the man was extricating himself from his Mini. Bloody hell, he was big. Way over six foot six, built like a brick outhouse with a tiny bald head. A bloody pea on a mountain, I thought.

“What are you going to do to stop me?” He snarled.

I gulped. He’ll hit me for sure, was my instant thought. “I pointed to the sign, No Parking I”I thought it was a trick. “ Now pointing to the wheel clamp on my car. “I’ve been waiting three hours for them to come take that off. I hoped it was you!”

He looked at the car, the wheel clamp. His face broke into a broad grin.

“You’re f***ed” he laughed as he rolled himself up and closed his car door. Starting up his car backing out he gestured “Dick head” at me.

Yeah and you too pal I thought.

Then made my way over to my car again. I turned up the radio and got on with some more paperwork.

I repeated the same on Sunday with no other actual encounters.

The good news there were no cars stolen or broken into that week-end. Well not on our parking lot anyway.

Thanks for reading.

All the best.

Finnish Vocal Coach First Time Reaction: Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond

Pepe Escobar: Russia-China Partnership Defangs US Empire

China’s State Council has released a crucial white paper, titled A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions that should be read as a detailed, comprehensive road map for a peaceful, multipolar future.

2023-09-29T15:08+0000

That is if the hegemon – of course faithful to its configuration as War Inc. – does not drag the world into the abyss of a hybrid-turned-hot war with incandescent consequences.

In sync with the ever-evolving Russia-China strategic partnership, the white paper notes how “President Xi Jinping first raised the vision of a global community of shared future when addressing the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2013.

”That was ten years ago, when the New Silk Roads – or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – was launched: that became the overarching foreign policy concept of the Xi era. The Belt and Road Forum next month in Beijing will celebrate the 10th anniversary of BRI, and relaunch a series of BRI projects.

“Community of Shared Future” is a concept virtually ignored across the collective West – and in several cases lost in translation across the East.

The white paper’s ambition is to introduce “the theoretical base, practice and development of a global community of shared future.”

The five key points include building partnerships “in which countries treat each other as equals”; a fair and just security environment; “inclusive development”; inter-civilization exchanges; and “an ecosystem that puts Mother Nature and green development first,” as Xi detailed at the 2015 UN General Assembly.

The white paper forcefully debunks the “Thucydides Trap” fallacy: “There is no iron law that dictates that a rising power will inevitably seek hegemony. This assumption represents typical hegemonic thinking and is grounded in memories of catastrophic wars between hegemonic powers in the past.”

While criticizing the “zero-sum game” to which “certain countries” still cling to, China completely aligns with the Global South/global majority, as in “the common interests of all peoples around the world.

When the world thrives, China thrives, and vice versa.

”Well, that’s not exactly the “rules-based international order” in play.

It’s All About Harmony

When it comes to building a new system of international relations, China prioritizes “extensive consultation” among equals and “the principle of sovereign equality” that “runs through the UN Charter.”

History and realpolitik, though, dictate that some countries are more equal than others.

This white paper comes from the political leadership of a civilization-state.

Thus it naturally promotes the “increase of inter-civilization exchanges to promote harmony” while elegantly remarking how a “fine traditional culture epitomizes the essence of the Chinese civilization.”

Here we see a delicate blend of Taoism and Confucianism, where harmony – praised as “the core concept of Chinese culture” – is extrapolated to the concept of “harmony within diversity”: and that is exactly the basis for embracing cultural diversity.

In terms of promoting a dialogue of civilizations, these paragraphs are particularly relevant:

“The concept of a global community of shared future reflects the common interests of all civilizations – peace, development, unity, coexistence, and win-win cooperation. A Russian proverb holds, ‘Together we can weather the storm.’

“The Swiss-German writer Hermann Hesse proposed, ‘Serve not war and destruction, but peace and reconciliation.’

A German proverb reads, ‘An individual’s effort is addition; a team’s effort is multiplication.’ An African proverb states, ‘One single pillar is not sufficient to build a house.’

An Arabian proverb asserts, ‘If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk together.’

“Mexican poet Alfonso Reyes wrote, ‘The only way to be profitably national is to be generously universal.’

An Indonesian proverb says, ‘Sugarcane and lemongrass grow in dense clumps.’

A Mongolian proverb concludes, ‘Neighbors are connected at heart and share a common destiny.’

All the above narratives manifest the profound cultural and intellectual essence of the world.”

BRI Caravan Rolls On

Chinese diplomacy has been very vocal on the need to develop a “new type of economic globalization” and engage in “peaceful development” and true multilateralism.

And that brings us inevitably to the BRI, which the white paper defines as “a vivid example of building a global community of shared future, and a global public good and cooperation platform provided by China to the world.”

Of course, for the hegemon and its collective West vassals, BRI is nothing but a massive debt trap mechanism unleashed by “autocrat China”.

The white paper notes, factually, how “more than three-quarters of countries in the world and over 30 international organizations” had joined the BRI, and refers to the sprawling, ever-expanding connectivity framework of six corridors, six routes, an array of ports, pipelines and cyberspace connectivity, among others via the New Eurasian Land Bridge, the China-Europe Railway Express (a “steel camel fleet”) and the New Land-Sea Trade Corridor crisscrossing Eurasia.

A serious problem may involve China’s Global Development Initiative, whose fundamental aim, according to Beijing, is “to accelerate the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

Well, this agenda has been designed by the self-described Davos elites and conceptualized way back in 1992 by Rockefeller protégé Maurice Strong.

Its inbuilt wet dream is to enforce the Great Reset – complete with a nonsensical zero-carbon green agenda.

Better Listen to Medvedev’s WarningThe hegemon is already preparing the next stages of its hybrid war against China – even as it remains buried deep down into a de facto proxy hot war against Russia in Ukraine.Russian strategic policy, in essence, completely aligns with the Chinese white paper, proposing a Greater Eurasian Partnership, a concerted drive towards multipolarity, and the primacy of the Global South/global majority in forging a new system of international relations.

But the Straussian neocon psychos in charge of the hegemon’s foreign policy keep raising the stakes.

So it’s no wonder that after the recent attack on the HQ of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a new National Security Council report leads to an ominous warning by Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev:“NATO has turned into an openly fascist bloc similar to Hitler’s Axis, only bigger (…)

It looks like Russia is being left with little choice other than a direct conflict with NATO (…)

The result would be much heavier losses for humanity than in 1945.

“The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, has revealed that Ukraine has suffered a staggering 83,000 battlefield deaths since the start of the – failed – counteroffensive four months ago.

And Defense Minister Shoigu all but gave away the game in terms of the long-term strategy, when he said, “the consistent implementation of measures and activity plans until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”

So the SMO will not be rounded up before 2025 – incidentally, much later than the next US presidential election.

After all, Moscow’s ultimate aim is de-NATOization.

Faced with a cosmic NATO humiliation on the battlefield, the Biden combo has no way out: even if it declared a unilateral ceasefire to re-weaponize Kiev’s forces for a new counteroffensive in the spring/summer of 2024, the war would keep rumbling on all the way to the presidential election.

There’s absolutely no way some sharp intellect in the Beltway would read the Chinese white paper and be “infected” by the concept of harmony.

Under the yoke of Straussian neocon psychos, there are zero prospects for a détente with Russia – not to mention Russia-China.

Both the Chinese and Russian leaderships know quite well how the Ray McGovern-defined MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) works.

The kinetic aspect of MICIMATT is all about protection of the global interests of big US banks, investment/hedge funds and multinational corporations.

It’s not a coincidence that MICIMATT monster Lockheed-Martin is mostly owned by Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street. NATO is essentially a mafia protection racket controlled by the US and the UK that has nothing to do with “defending” Europe from the “Russian threat.”

The actual MICIMATT and its NATO extension’s wet dream is to weaken and dismember Russia to control its immense natural resources.

War Against the New ‘Axis of Evil’NATO’s incoming graphic humiliation in Ukraine is now compounded with the inexorable rise of BRICS 11 – which embodies a lethal threat to the hegemon’s geoeconomics.

There’s next to nothing the MICIMATT can do about that short of nuclear war – except turbo-charging multiple instances of Hybrid War, color revolutions and assorted divide-and-rule schemes.

What’s at stake is no less than a complete implosion of neoliberalism.

The Russia-China strategic partnership of true sovereigns has been coordinating full-time.

Strategic patience is the norm.

The white paper reveals the magnanimous facet of the number one economy in the world by PPP: that’s China’s response to the infantile notion of “de-risking”.

China is “de-risking” geopolitically when it comes to not falling for serial provocations by the Hegemon, while Russia exercises Taoist-style control to not risk a kinetic war.

Still, what Medvedev just said carries the implication that the hegemon on desperation row could even be tempted to launch WWIII against, in fact, a new “axis of evil” of three BRICS nations – Russia, China and Iran.

Secretary of the [Russian] National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev could not have been more crystal clear:“In its attempts to maintain its dominance, the West itself destroyed the tools that worked better for it than the military machine.

These are freedom of movement of goods and services, transport and logistics corridors, a unified system of payments, global division of labor and value chains.

As a result, Westerners are shutting themselves off from the rest of the world at a rapid pace.”

If only they could join the community of shared future – hopefully on a later, non-nuclear, date.

China has captured all Oil US is DOOMED

https://youtu.be/pxWh7wdGdv4

The West is just stupid

So, the Canadian husband of a Chinese lady who belongs to a Chan Buddhist (Zen) temple and is a friend of mine helped me out today shopping since I am recovering from surgery on my wrist.

During the course of our hour or so together, my Canadian friend informed me of many ‘interesting’ things.

I’m posting this since he is a well informed person. I asked what sources of information he has, and he says he gets it from more than one source. He did mention the Wall Street Journal and China Daily, which he takes with a grain of salt.

He lived in China for several years where he met my Chinese friend, now his wife.

Xi Jin Ping is going to be gone soon, since he is very unpopular
He has gotten rid of most of his opposition.
Most Chinese are not happy with how things are going in China
Chinese long for the most recent past leader, Deng Xiao Ping. (I reminded him that DXP was leader about 40 years ago, and was not the one who was escorted out of the recent Party Congress)
China’s economy is in terrible shape, due to overbuilding and way too much debt.
Lots of people are getting out of China for political and economic reasons
The Belt and Road Initiative is a failure financially as well as diplomatically
Either Russia or China will stab the other in the back, since they have never been allies, but instead adversaries during their long history
Same goes for North Korea and Russia, since their cultures are different and incompatible
Russia has only been able to hold together in the face of a threat.
Russia’s army is in a disastrous state due to the ‘senseless, vanity’ war initiated by Putin
Both Russia’s and China’s economies are in bad shape
The Chinese Yuan has not bottomed out yet, it will be a few more months before that happens
Because of the war Russia initiated, it has lost all soft power around the world.
China likewise has no soft power status
Russia will split apart due to its internal conflicts

Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him about some vague rumors (wink, wink) I had heard about Nazis in Ukraine, and in Canada.

My guess is that he knows such rumors are groundless.

Fortunately, he just started a new job teaching here in Thailand, where he stresses the importance of developing critical thinking skills in students.

This is not satire. Acual conversation.

Eric

Cheese Packets

These little salami and cheese pies are the perfect picnic food to tuck into your cooler.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup warm water (115 degrees to 120 degrees F)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup (about 1 ounce) freshly grated parmesan cheese
6 ounces salami, chopped
1 small tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon water

Instructions

In a large mixer bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with the yeast, sage, and salt. Add the warm water and the oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can. Turn out onto a floured surface.
Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Place the dough in a greased bowl; turn once. Cover and let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled (45 to 55 minutes).
Meanwhile, make the filling. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cheeses, salami and tomatoes. Toss until well-combined; set aside.
Punch the dough down; divide into 6 pieces. Cover and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll each piece of dough into a 7-inch circle. Spoon 1/2 cup of the filling onto half of each circle.
Combine the egg and water, and brush over the outer edges of the dough, to moisten. Fold the circle in half; use the tines of a fork to seal the edges. Place on a greased baking sheet. Prick the tops and brush with more of the egg mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the baking sheet; cool on a wire rack.

Rebuttal

To me the information you got from your Canadian friend is as biased as most western media, if not more.

I grew up in China and have been doing research in China, and I can tell you that Xi Jinping has been the most popular leader in China after Mao passed away.

Deng Xiaoping and others were popular among former landlords and other elements suppressed by Masome, but they are no more than five percent of the population, but for the workers and farmers, Xi represents the best things for them.

I live in the U.S. and last fall I traveled to 13 countries in Europe, Middle east, and Asia as a professor on the Semester at Sea, and last summer, I was in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China for about two months, I would argue that the economic situation everywhere was very bad, which I think it was a good thing.

There had been too much meaningless consumption and development. The world needs to slow down a little bit to give mother earth an opportunity to recover.

Economically China is struggling as well. But compared with any other places, China is doing much better.

Its people have enough to eat, have a roof over their heads. What else do a normal person need to be happy?

Half of the Chinese people are farmers who can grow everything they need to survive. They do not pay taxes to the state and local government.

If they know what is going on in other parts of the world, they should be the happiest people in the world.

Dongping

Dog-Person Guy Begs His Wife To Adopt Shelter Cat | The Dodo Foster Diaries

Are Huawei phones now a real challenge to Apple’s iPhone?

Yes.

Competition is always a challenge, right? More than competition, Huawei is a Cinderella story. Remember, it was ranked #1 before Donald Trump torpedoed it.

Now, let’s use a little logic. If Huawei is able to manufacture enough chips to supply the global market, how long do you think it will take Huawei to rocket back to #1? It will have a reputation as the best smartphone on the planet, bar none. It will also have a reputation as the comeback kid.

Do you suppose some people might buy one just to spite Donald Trump or America? That’s precisely why I bought mine.

The Western media never stopped crowing about Huawei’s dependence on Google. In fact, more intelligent people might buy a Huawei phone to escape Google. That was part of my motivation. Unfortunately, my phone runs on Google’s Android program. No problem, I’m going to upgrade to a new Huawei, now that it’s running on Harmony OS.

The iPhone may remain #1 in the U.S., but I predict it will fall to 2nd place (or worse) just about everywhere else.

One thing helping the iPhone is the Apple ecosystem. If you own a Mac, as I do, an iPhone might seem a logical peripheral. Unfortunately, the U.S. tech sector is rotten to the core. I like Apple far more than Microsoft, but I still don’t completely trust it. It also seems like it has become just a little buggier in recent years.

My dream is to someday migrate to a Chinese system, leaving all that U.S. crapware behind once and for all. Unfortunately, I use Adobe software extensively, and I don’t know how long it will be before Adobe software will be compatible with Harmony OS or some other Chinese operating system. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens in the next few years.

Oops, I almost forgot to mention 5G and 6G. China is clearly in the lead here. I don’t know how much that will affect the average person, but it’s certainly a good selling point.

After being wowed by Apple for two decades, I never thought I’d abandon ship, but the Chinese can outperform and undersell Apple at the same time. As a U.S. citizen who’s getting tired of being screwed by the tech sector and my own government, I appreciate bargains, don’t you?

Will China Collapse? (ft. David Goldman)

In Today’s episode of “Moment of Truth,” Saurabh and Nick sit down with David Goldman, Deputy Editor of Asia Times and Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute’s DC Center for the American Way of Life, to discuss everything China, including trade, growth and innovation, Taiwan, minerals, AI, hypersonic missiles, the 2008 crisis, China’s plan for a ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ the dollar as the reserve currency, and what the future holds for the geopolitical landscape.

Does the USA have any countermeasures against China rising up as an economic power in terms of politics, economics, etc.? Is there any plan to hold back their growth?

They thought they have!

4 times the US tried and each time it failed and each time they cost the US more and more. Will they try again. China just make sure every time it cost the U.S. exponentially more and guess what the U.S. are so full of it they will try again. So let them pay like a lord since the loved to behave as though the world will have to surrender to their will. It is fair.

So the first time they thought that the GPS or Global Positioning System could be shut down to whoever refuse to be submissive and subservient to them. It merely took a few years to have Russian and Chinese GPS which happen to be faster, higher resolution and better than that the U.S. GPS and in a decade 80% of the world has switch to the Chinese Beidou system! Many counties switch off the GPS and are now paying to the Chinese. Too bad.

Next the U.S. disgraceful Congress ban the Chinese on participating in their “international space center”. What did China do. In a few years China build an better, the faster and a more higher technology space Center and open it to the entire world! Today many countries are working with China to do human friendly experiments! The U.S. has decommissioned the U.S. space Center is due to it be expire it’s technology life span. And in just a few years. China’s space Center will be the only space Center for the next few decades.

You would think the Yanks learnt this lesson. But no! Next Donald Trump says let’s start a trade war on China. He actually say trade war with China is easy! But now 4 years after the war started China’s economy grew 26.5% and the U.S. grew 5.5%. Meanwhile the U.S. inflation grew to double digit while China grew 1.8%. Meanwhile the U.S. deficits and debts shot up the roof. The U.S. lost to the trade war terribly and it is still suffering very high inflation and a looming recession!

So losing three times straight for any one ought to teach them a lesson but not the U.S. The U.S. thought they can contained China on chip act. They banned China on high end Chips. This is by far the most costly and expensive if it failed. It will bankrupt all the U.S. chip companies and billion if not trillions will be lost. The U.S. thought China will need to take a generation before the U.S. could produce this high end chip. But China shocked and surprised the U.S. it took a mere 3 years.

At the moment the stock value of US chip firms deteriorated by the trillions and the loss of business to the U.S. firms are wiping off billions of profits. And the U.S. is learning the 4th very painful lesson. Will they learn, I very much doubt so. The US will need to learn more lesson before it give up. I suspect the US need to be totally bankrupt before it learn anything.

After all Korea did not teach The US, Vietnam did not teach the US. And Afghanistan and Iraq did not teach the US and Ukraine wont either.

Barack Obama Reveals Aliens Exist In Top-Secret Government Lab

For years, rumors have swirled, conspiracy theories have run rampant, and skeptics have dared to dream about the possibility of aliens existing in government labs. But now, in a mind-bending revelation that will send shockwaves through the very fabric of our reality. The forty fourth President of the United States, Barack Obama finally breaks his silence and unveils mind-boggling revelations about extraterrestrial involvement in the highest echelons of power.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

My employer changed the formula for how sales staff commission was calculated. Previously the formula was a certain percentage of the profit on the sale. The new formula was a smaller percentage of the total price of the sale.

That quarter the factories were busy, and sales volume reports were looking terrific. Travel requests were getting approved, and statements were issued to investors about gains in market share. The stock price climbed.

Suddenly two months into the quarter the mood changed. Those of us on the R&D side who were planning to attend a major conference were told to cancel. The supply cabinets would not be restocked. What had happened?

It turns out that the new incentive plan had a side-effect that should have been obvious. Rather than spending hours or days negotiating with customers toward a price that gave us a good profit, our sales staff were going into negotiations with opening bids at or even below cost! Sure, that meant a little lower commission than if they made the sale at the typical profit, but it meant that they were almost guaranteed to win the bid rather than risking losing the bid to our competitors (as happened half the time), so their net commissions increased! Sales volume increased, factory output and shipments increased, but profits plummeted!

They went back to the previous commission formula immediately.

Chicken, Broccoli and Mushroom Pie

Chicken and mushroom pie with bacon square FS

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Cheese Crust

1 cup lightly packed shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling

1 (6 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breast
Salt
Ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
Pinch ground nutmeg
2 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
1 cup lightly packed shredded Swiss cheese (4 ounces)

Instructions

Cheese Crust: Using pastry blender, combine cheese, flour, salt, dry mustard and melted butter. Press dough evenly into bottom and up sides of a 10-inch pie plate.
Filling: Sprinkle chicken breast lightly with salt and pepper.
Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 25 minutes or until done.
Allow to cool.
Cut into cubes; set aside. (You should have about 1 1/4 cups cubed chicken.)
Melt butter in a skillet. Over medium heat, sauté onion and mushrooms in butter for 2 to 3 minutes, or until tender.
Stir in flour. Add cream, 1 teaspoon salt, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Simmer for 1 minute. (Mixture doesn’t thicken.)
Add broccoli, eggs and chicken cubes; blend well.
Stir in Romano cheese. Set aside.
Line crust with shredded Swiss cheese.
Pour broccoli-chicken mixture into cheese lined crust.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F; bake for 20 minutes or until set.

GAWNE – “Rich Men North of Richmond” Remix (One Take)

Nice remix.

Chinese Doctors

The doctor(s) keep telling me that high blood pressure is not a problem. They say “you cannot die from high blood pressure“. And this, of course, is the Chinese stance on the matter. That blood pressure is dynamic, and not static, that it goes up and it goes down. And that you want to manage your lifestyle to keep it in a relatively low state, but not to get upset if it raises up high.

Meanwhile the Western advice for what my current blood pressure seems to be is…

Which is quite different from the Eastern belief.

When I entered the hospital emergency room, my blood pressure was 214. The Western medical advice and warnings are…

I think that it was prudent that I went to the emergency room, no matter what the doctors say. And I most certainly did not want to endure a stroke or a heart attack.

You all, please be careful and safe.

Today…

In the military, have you ever seen a superior officer berate a junior officer for giving enlisted unnecessary grief?

In 1973 while a specialist (E4) in the 82d Airborne Division, I had to draw a travel pay advance to go TDY (temporary duty) for 179 days.

This was well before direct deposit or electronic payments.

We actually got paperwork processed then went to a teller’s window who dispersed cash.

When I arrived at the division finance center the waiting area was full to overflowing.

As I found a place along the wall to stand a soldier near me said, “You’ll be here a while. ”

He pointed to another soldier and said he had been there two days in a row before that day attempting to get an advance to go home on emergency leave.

Several other soldiers confirmed what he said. They too kept returning and waited their turn until time for the center to close, then they returned to their barracks and came back the next day.

After an hour or so with only a couple of troops called to the desk to be processed (by now it was late morning) a full Colonel arrived and signed the waiting list at the front.

As he took a place along the wall one of the soldiers told him he would have a long wait. Someone else told him about the guy who needed to go on emergency leave.

After about 30 minutes, the colonel went to the clerk at the sign in desk and asked to speak to his boss.

The clerk went to the back office area and returned with a senior NCO, E6 or E7 as I recall. The sergeant asked the colonel how he could help him.

The colonel replied, “I asked to see this clerk’s boss, the person in charge here.” The Sergeant said, “I’m his boss.”

The colonel then said “I want to see the OIC (Officer In Charge) out here, right now.”

He was very polite and spoke in a slightly lower volume than if in a normal conversation, however when he approached the sign in desk all conversation in the room ceased and we could hear what he had to say.

Full Colonels, O-6s, don’t like to be kept waiting.

The Sergeant (staff sergeant or sergeant first class) went to the office area and returned from a small separate office with a junior officer, a captain if I recall correctly.

Very respectfully the finance officer asked the colonel how he could help him.

The colonel said he was going on TDY and needed his advanced travel pay. The finance officer said, “Yes sir we’ll get you taken care of right away.”

The colonel then said “I need to leave tonight.”

“Yes sir, no problem.” was the reply. The colonel said “

All these men that were signed in before me are ahead of me. They will get their money before my advance gets processed. Are we clear on that, Captain?”

A very red-faced, obviously shaken junior officer, now sweating bullets, assured him everyone in the waiting area would be processed that day.

It was amazing how quickly paperwork was processed after that.

The guy waiting for emergency leave was called back almost immediately and the rest of us were taken care of very expeditiously in the order in which we signed in.

The colonel was looking out for men who weren’t directly in his chain of command but he made sure everyone was taken care of appropriately.

He could have “pulled rank” and left with his money in just a few minutes.

He could have made one phone call to division headquarters and had the officer and the NCOIC replaced, but a low key, on the spot correction resolved the immediate issue.

I’m sure the situation was discussed with both the OIC and NCOIC privately and in much greater detail later.

That was an experience I learned from and never forgot as I rose through the enlisted, warrant officer and commissioned officer ranks during my 24 years of service.

Chili Louisiana-Style

Yield: about 3 quarts

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground hot sausage
2 medium onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 whole clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 (15 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
3 (15 ounce) cans New Orleans style kidney beans, drained
Louisiana hot sauce, to taste (optional)

Instructions

Combine first four ingredients and brown in a large frying pan. Drain all excess fat.
In a large slow cooker, combine all the remaining ingredients. Add the cooked meat mixture. Cook on LOW overnight.
Remove garlic clove before serving.

When men have NOTHING left to lose. The masculinity crisis pushed too far.

Men being treated like second-rate citizens in the modern day is nothing new, but what happens when they end up being pushed to the very edge? Men were not designed to lie down and be taken advantage of. Eventually, all men rise up against oppression and take their final stand. This is a frightening world we’ve created.

https://youtu.be/aOnsLtmIPb8

On a plane, is it rude to ask someone to move to another seat so you can sit with your friends or family?

Literally this just happened to me a few days ago. I live in Virginia (USA) and I was flying to Athens, Greece. We booked the trip on a Saturday and left three days later, very last minute. Because it was an overnight flight and more than 9 hours we purchased the tickets in business class so we could recline to sleep. I like to read before sleeping so I purposefully selected (on Saturday) the window seat so I could lean up again the wall and look out the window while reading. As soon as I got onboard and got to my seat (hadn’t even sat down yet!) the woman in the aisle asked me switch with her husband who was seated on the middle row on the aisle. I said “No thank you, I’m good with where I booked”. I was polite but firm. Later during the flight she asked when I had booked and I said three days ago and she said that they had booked months before. What actually irritated me was that MONTHS went by where she (they) could have adjusted their seats to be together. Why then does it become MY problem to give up what I paid for. So yes, I find it exceedingly rude to ask someone to give up their seat.

P.S. Athens, Mykonos and Santorini were fabulous and I can’t wait to go back!

Why does the West vehemently back Israel?

They don’t

Get your facts straight

The West has a history of Anti Semitism that would make your blood run cold

I don’t mean just Uncle Heini

Jews have been deported enmasse from 8 European Countries from the 12th century to the 20th in their thousands, forced to live in Ghettos, speaking a slavish language Yiddish for the most part

Guess where they were treated better than in Europe?

Yep.

The Middle East , the Muslims

The Jews had their best time under the Ottoman Empire and with the Arabs. Both sides minding their own business

And once again who ruined it?

Yep

The West – in the form of the United Kingdom

This is Klaus Barbie – a Psycopathic Anti semite who sent many jews to their death in camps during WWII

He was the butcher of LYONS

Yep that’s France

Frenchmen, Poles, Czech and Ukrainians watched and silently endorsed the slaughter of Jews and making them soap , a term that our friend Jean-Marie Valheur takes such strong offense against

Auschwitz, Riga, Sachenhausen – they aren’t in Moscow or Beijing or Delhi or Tehran

They are in Europe

This gutter dreg who took orders from Himmler or his men and who had jewish blood on his hands

He got a standing ovation in Canada

Standing Ovation!!!!

So dont ever say the West backs Israel

The West wants a guard dog in the Middle East just like you want a Foreman in prison, in case the inmates get violent

The West believe the Middle East is their playground and to keep things in order, fund organizations and terror groups and keep organizing small and large scale chaos

Israel does what it’s told

As simple as that

The West will never see Israel as part of it’s Anglo Saxon heritage

Not even Eastern Europe whose idiots think they are a part of the grand alliance of the West

They aren’t

The West is US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Italy and Scandinavia

Every one else from Spaniards to Slavs to Greeks to Jews to Balts to Chinese to Indians to Malays to Serbs are expendable and will be dropped like hot potatoes if it suits the West

How powerful is the Triad? Does the triad engage in a gunfight with the Chinese police?

The Triads? They’ve long since become regular business men.

The last triad gunfights were in the UK around 1997 vs the Vietnamese gangs. The Vietnamese gangs had guns the Chinese triads didn’t.

The last gunfights in Asia were Yip Kai Foon. He had a type56 Chinese AK and rarely got into gunfights. He eventually did get into a gunfight with police and was hit in the spine and captured shortly after.

What is the fastest anyone has been fired from a job?

I got fired during my interview.

I had already been given the job. Been told my start date and salary. The owner was my brother in laws father.

I had sat and chatted with him one evening having just left the army. He told me the job was mine. But he had already arranged the interviews so told me he had to go through with them but inserted me into the interview process.

I mean this job couldn’t of been more nailed on. Ever.

Anyway. I was so blasé about it. I went into the interview not even thinking it was an interview and chatted away to him. Next thing I’m laughing and joking with him about my time in the army. About the crazy funny antics we got up to. Like skidding tanks. Trying to spin the tracks on tanks in the mud. Breaking so hard to see how much you could nose down.. how I run my colnel of the road snaking down the road in a tank. I thought I was hilarious. I thought he thought I was hilarious

This was for a job as an articulated truck driver.

I even walked out pleased with how it went. Absolutely clueless

Needless to say. I got a call next day saying I didn’t get the job.

The most ridiculous part of this story is that the penny didn’t drop for years for me. I just assumed he had only given me an interview to keep the family happy. That I was never going to get the job and was annoyed he’d wasted my time.

It was only 20 odd years later I had that awful.cringe moment. Like. Oh god! No! Did i actually go into an interview for a driving job. Bragging about how irresponsible a driver I could be. Yes. I did.

A need to rewrite marriage laws

The latest generation is simply not getting married, and will result in this…

Do the Chinese know how much worse a war with the United States would be for their country than for the Americans?

Terry, you have everything upside down.

China and the Chinese do not have to be reminded of the horror of wars. They have the century of humiliation that reduced their entire country to destitution and hundred of million dead. It is this existential awareness that is in fact going overdrive to ensure this never ever happen again.

On the other hand, the U.S. has never been touched by war because of geography – not WWI, not WWII. This is why after WWII it is only the U.S. and our industrial base coming out totally unscathed that allowed for our hegemony.

We’re the clueless.

And today, it is the U.S. who must be reminded that we have a peer military power. China has the capability to kick our ass if we try an offensive run at them and can accommodate in kind with a nuclear MAD. So, how is it that they will suffer more in case of war with us?

Have you ever gone for a date without knowing it was a date?

I went to a late afternoon house party at a neighbor who lived a block over from my house.

The host was wealthy. She had a beautifully designed Tuscan, two-storied house, with art of various styles and sizes adorning the walls throughout.

Although I was younger than most by decades, everyone was very welcoming to young buck Sean.

Everyone had brought a dish of food and they had some music playing.

My intention was to just stay for an hour, make the rounds, introduce myself to some neighbors and get to know them as it was rare to see a lot of these people that I shared close proximity with.

(For the record, I wasn’t a freeloader – I’d made brownies that I’d brought with me as well.)

There’s a crowd of us on the back porch talking. I’m in a circle with the host, her daughter, and 4 other people.

So out of the blue, the host says, “We’ll just let you two talk for a bit.”

And everyone evaporates into the house and here I am stuck on this back porch with her daughter.

It felt like I blinked and the world disappeared and I was locked in a closet with a stranger.

“So Sean – do you like it here in Tampa?”

You’ve got to be kidding me. This is a setup…..

She was pretty and friendly enough.

However she was not my type and I was not psychologically/emotionally prepared to be on a date that moment. My ex and I had broken up 2 days before this.

I got through it. We spoke and I stayed long enough so as not to be rude and/or hurt her feelings. Then I went home, curled up in a ball and sucked my thumb.

But hey – at least the experience made for an OK Quora answer.

My pain for your pleasure.

Did he handle this situation properly?

Making a day better

Yesterday, we had a horrible customer at the restaurant, he yelled at the bartender because we didn’t have club soda. The bartender explained we don’t have club soda because we don’t have liquor (just beer and wine) and therefore we don’t have a soda gun behind the bar. He didn’t like that.

Then he asked for a cheese that we don’t have, even after she read him the cheeses we did have – twice. She explained we don’t have that cheese. Then he LOST it and started yelling at her as if she was hoarding the world’s supply of this cheese for herself. Ridiculous.

He eventually left in a big huff and every other person within earshot of his temper tantrum was thankful.

Even after he left we still had a black cloud over us. Admittedly, we let this man and his behavior affect our day.

That is until an older gentleman and his adult son came into the restaurant and changed our whole mood. They are relatively new regulars (started coming in a month or so ago). The son has Down Syndrome and his father takes care of him throughout the day.

The father is very talkative, but his son (Peter) never spoke to us – he was always happy to eat his sandwich and bop along to the music (he really likes Grateful Dead songs).

As they were getting ready to leave, the father waved us over. We got to the table and Peter looked up at us and said…

“I’m happy here, I see you give out hugs, can I have a hug?”

We happily raised our hands to start the hug and he quickly pulled us in and gave us the strongest bear hug we’ve ever received in our life. He lifted us off the ground – anyone that has ever met us face-to-face will attest, that is no easy task.

Thank you Peter, with one (just shy of unbearably strong) hug, you made our entire day better (and gave us a free back (alignment) You’re an awesome man.

What are your thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Regardless of the military outcome of the war in Gaza, America, and Israel are already big losers. In a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor in Gaza, a staggering 120 countries voted in favor. Only 12 other states backed America and Israel. Massive protests are erupting in major cities around the world, from Sydney, London, Paris, New York to Washington, and across much of the Muslim world. Israel has the audacity to question UN’s legitimacy after it passed the unfavorable resolution and doubled down by demanding an apology from Secretary-General Guterres and his resignation for condemning Israel’s indiscriminate bombing in Gaza.

The biggest losers are, sadly, the Palestinian people. Consider these sobering facts. Fully 85% of Hamas fighters are orphans who grew up in hate, many as young as 12 who stand shorter than the rifles they carry. Thousands of children are buried alive in the rubble, and thousands of expectant mothers are denied medical care because hospitals are either bombed, overstretched, or critically short of essential supplies. It is a humanitarian disaster on a scale unseen since the last world war. Israel keeps killing while the whole world watches—in its own shameful Holocaust against the poor Palestinians.

Brushing aside the UN resolution, Netanyahu seems constitutionally incapable of compromise. Turkey calls him a war criminal and is crouching to strike, as is Iran. The 6th full-scale Israeli-Arab war looms.

When Hamas killed and captured Israeli civilians, they were crucified by Western politicians and pundits. But as Netanyahu made good his threat to reduce Gaza to rubble in a frenzy of murderous bombing that took the lives of aid workers, journalists, women, and children, world opinion swiftly shifted. Four European minnows plus eight tiny Pacific Island states like Fiji opposed the resolution, as their support can affordably be bought. Even traditional staunch Israeli and American allies voted to abstain.

The root cause of the conflict is Israel’s 50-year-long brutal suppression of Palestinians, who subsist as stateless people in their own country. In World War II, Jewish people won universal sympathy as the oppressed. Now, they have mutated into brutal oppressors themselves. Netanyahu has Nazified the Israeli military.

In a fatal strategic miscalculation, the US rushed warships to the combustible region, ostensibly to deter Iran from entering the conflict. But Biden is sending a wrong and strong signal that emboldens the bloodthirsty Netanyahu to carry out his Gaza massacre. America has failed to put Bibi on a leash and he is spilling oceans of blood.

This conflict has reshuffled the geopolitical deck, with Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon already engaging Israel sporadically. Heavy hitters like Turkey and Iran are crouching and poised to pounce. Russia, too, is entering the equation, airlifting supplies to Gaza and threatening all-out war if its planes are fired upon. The war in Ukraine is becoming a side-show, with NATO support possibly waning or wavering. China is seen as a potential credible mediator. America, by contrast, stands discredited as a meddler, aiding and abetting Israel’s unjust war against a downtrodden people. It is fast losing its halo as the world’s self-appointed policeman.

If the war widens, America and Israel will be fighting on multiple fronts. I see no long-term winners, even if Israel wipes Hamas off the map. Genocidal oppression breeds its own revenge and lethal vicious circle. That is why Netanyahu, the butcher of Gaza, is a danger to Israel’s legitimate existence. China is walking taller among nations. That explains the mild thaw in US-China relations during the Chinese foreign minister’s recent visit to Washington. Both Blinken and Biden notably toned down their anti-China rhetoric. With two wars raging, America reluctantly seeks dialogue to restore bilateral relations to a normal footing.

Wars are notoriously unpredictable. Who will emerge on the right side of history? No one knows. But one thing is certain: injustice is inherently unstable. Regardless of military muscle, with shifting allegiances on a crowded planet, world opinion matters.

Has someone ever been fired because of you?

Absolutely and I would do it again!

I was in line at a market and there was just one person ahead of me. The assistant manager was at the register and just as the person in front of me left, the regular cashier returned from her break.

Instead of simply walking away and letting her take care of me, he turned to her and began yelling at her because she was 3 minutes late coming back from her break! “How dare you take up my time, I am way more important than you and I could fire you for this!!” he screamed, as I was standing there waiting to pay for my groceries and leave.

The poor girl was incredibly embarrassed and turned to me to apologize and I lost it!

I looked him square in the eye and said “How dare you dress down a staff member in public! I manage a staff of 60 and would NEVER yell at my staff in front of anyone because it is incredibly unprofessional and embarrassing for every person standing in this line! Where is the manager?” I asked and proceeded to hunt him down.

I spent 10 minutes dressing down the manager in his office and told him that I would take it to the corporate level if that man was not promptly fired for his actions.

I found out later that he had been harassing this poor girl for weeks and no one had gone to the manager about it out of fear of retribution. I never again saw that assistant manger and later heard that he was fired on the spot after I left. The staff was so much nicer and happier without him there and I received a personal letter of apology from the manager that thanked me for letting him know what had happened that day.

BTW, I have done this 3 other times at different places and had the same outcome at all of them. I am not looking for someone to be fired when I walk in the door, but I know what it feels like to have a boss that thinks it’s okay to terrorize his staff and I refuse to allow it to happen in front of me ever again.

No one has the right to go after a staff member in front of customers. It is unprofessional and makes those in charge look like they are power hungry bullies who out of control.

Someone has to be the champion of those who are too afraid to speak because they are so afraid to lose their job, and being the loudmouth that I am, I am happy to step up!

A tiny tiny house

What is the cheapest thing you’ve seen a mega-rich person do?

I am a pediatric dentist. I had a patient who was autistic and had ADHD (male, 5 years) with a huge swelling on his cheek because of an infected tooth. Generally, 5 years old understand and sit on the chair, but because of his problems, he just wouldn’t sit and made a mayhem in the clinic. My assistant then restrained the child and we drained the pus.

Now, the mother started to cry when the payment part came. She told us she was separated from her husband and he wasn’t paying support. Because of the special child, she couldn’t even work, so please make it free.

Thankfully, my assistant knew her. She and her husband had two apartments worth 7 cr each in Mumbai and were in the middle of a deal worth another couple crores. My assistant was with the broker who had initiated the deal, so he knew for sure. But the lady wouldn’t budge. At the end, she paid 50 percent and left, and didn’t turn up for the next appointment.

Fast forward a month, the kid had swelling and pain again, because of the incomplete treatment. She pleaded to come, and promised to pay. But this time, because of the pain, the kid didn’t allow me to even have a look. He was feverish and in a bad condition.

So I told the parents (dad had also come) that the kid would need a treatment under general anesthesia in a proper hospital. We explained everything, they nodded with great interest, then asked for the cost. It was going to cost more than a lakh.

The dad straightaway asked me to slash my charges completely. Because, anyway I was earning from rest of the patients and didn’t really need the money. Then he asked for the cheapest hospital possible. I told him I don’t go to charitable places because of questionable hygiene, and lack of ICU. I don’t compromise with the safety. He then argued for an hour over the charges. I refused to budge. I have done numerous free cases, but I wasn’t going to do charity here. He then asked me to wait for two months as he had enquired about an insurance plan, and the wait period was two months. And give the kid medicines to stop the pain.

I was aghast. I told him the kid needed treatment now. All his teeth were in a bad shape. And medicines wouldn’t help after a while, and it wasn’t his decision to make. The medicines also have numerous side effects, if given unmonitored.

Then he started to blame me for the charges. I politely told him to go to a govt hospital where he would be treated for free. He declined, because they had a really long waiting list, just to be seen.

Lastly, he told me to go ahead, but that if his kid had any problem post treatment, he would see me in the court.

I folded my hands, and asked him to leave. Anyway I didn’t want to treat after such a long argument. And no one wants to work under threats.

He got furious and stormed out. We heaved a sigh of relief.

He kept calling for the next few days, bargaining. Even told me he would refer me ultra rich patients if I treated his boy for free.

No thanks, I said. I am happy with my patients who trust me.

So, a super rich man and his wife(at least for me) declining urgent healthcare for his kid to save money and insulting the doctor is the cheapest and most despicable person for me.

Cooter (Turtle) Stew

Ingredients

2 to 3 pounds cooter*
2 quarts water
4 tablespoons cooking oil
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large onions, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
10 peeled, seeded tomatoes or 2 large cans tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 cup green spring onion tops
1 pinch each paprika and cayenne
4 bay leaves
1 1/4 cups good sherry (not cooking sherry)
1 tablespoon molasses or brown sugar
6 to 8 hardboiled eggs, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
Seasoned salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup crumbled bacon

* Substitute dark-meat chicken, catfish, veal, or all three.

Instructions

Cover meat with water and parboil on medium heat for 20 minutes.
Set aside to cool and then trim to small chunks. Skim fat from broth and set aside.
Heat oil to just short of smoking. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 15-20 minutes to make a dark roux.
Add big onions, garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste.
Add 4 cups of reserved broth and meat and cook 30 minutes on medium-high.
Add celery, spring onions, seasonings, bay leaves, sherry and molasses or brown sugar and cook 30 minutes. Add water to thin stew, if needed.
Add chopped eggs and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
Add potatoes and cook 20 to 30 minutes longer, until potatoes are tender.
Taste and add seasoned salt and pepper.
Sprinkle bacon over top. Remove bay leaves.
Serve in large bowls with a salad on the side and hot bread, preferably corn bread made in a black iron skillet.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Big Cup of coffee

What is the best moment you witnessed in which somebody proved they weren’t “all talk”?

I watched an elderly man in San Francisco, on the tough corner of Eddy and Hyde streets, being threatened by a thuggish stranger on the street, and being told “I’ll kick your ass.”

The old man laughed, and said quietly, “No, you won’t.”

The thug made a quick move and the old man flinched. The thug laughed and said, “Scared?” The old man said, “Yes. And it’s not healthy to scare me.”

Suddenly the thug was on his back on the sidewalk and the old man was sitting on his chest and beating him across the face, still talking quietly, saying “You better not mess with strangers. I could easily kill you, but I won’t. But you’ll have enough pain so that you’ll remember this for a long [BAM] long [BAM] time.” [BAM]

The old man got up, dusted himself off, picked up his dropped belongings, and left the thug laying bleeding and dazed on the street.

The “Urban Alchemy” private security people across the street, stationed in the area as part of the city government’s last desperate attempt to maintain civil order in the anarchic “Tenderloin” district, didn’t even have time to react. It was over that quick.

I was in awe. My jaw literally dropped. I was walking ten feet behind them, I heard and saw everything. I’m pretty old myself, and I’m no stranger to street confrontations. I’ve never seen any such situation where the outcome was like that. Not ever.

And I’ve never envied one of the participants so much in my entire life.

Why was salt so valuable in ancient times and even used as a currency, when all you have to do to get it is let sea water evaporate in the sun?

It’s not that easy.

Yes, if you can get sea water to evaporate, you get salt. However, you need to get a lot of sea water to evaporate to get an appreciable amount of salt out of it. For that you need a lot of flat land by the seashore. It needs to be at or very close to sea level so that you can let the water roll in before you close off your salt pans. And you need a lot of warm, dry, sunny weather to evaporate the sea water and leave the salt behind. Land behind the sea shore rises too quickly? Can’t make salt. Too much rain? Can’t make salt. Storms driving large waves that wash over into the salt pans? Can’t make salt. Too cold or humid so evaporation is slow? Can’t make (meaningful amounts of) salt.

So it turns out that there are actually very few places where it’s actually feasible to make salt by evaporating sea water. So few that those very, very few places which can historically grew rich by doing it and salt mining could remain a viable competitor. Venice, for example, occupied a shallow lagoon backed up by marshes. The sheltered lagoon protected the marshes from large storm surges, the marshes weren’t too elevated to convert into salt pans, and the Mediterranean has a warm, sunny climate. Consequently, it first became wealthy in the salt trade. But you simply couldn’t do that around places like Genoa or Bruges, which had the wrong geography and/or the wrong climate. Sure, you can get salt out of sea water, but it’s a lot harder to do on an industrial scale with historical technology.

The lack of a father….

Tits up in American Samoa

Today I want to relate the events leading to why my wife and I left American Samoa.

American Samoa is an American territory in the South Pacific. It is a very beautiful island, but is way off the shipping lanes, and is really difficult to get to, thus it is not really a tourist destination.

I had an opportunity to build a hospital there.

Anyways, the social and societal organization there is very, very different from what I, as an American, realized.

Here’s a short recap.

Families are in the wife’s name.
Ownership is by the wife, the men own nothing.
Each village has a “pecking order” of hierarchy, all woman led.
If the leading female in a village dies, the next ranking female takes over.

Now, my “Boss” was a man in the leading family in the local village. And he provided me an apartment to live in and a car.

Pago Pago harbour utulei south american samoa 1

Then one day, there was a death in the village and the leading woman died.

Immediately, the next week was a reshuffle of power, and ownership changed hands. My “boss” was no longer in control.

We lost our apartment, and our car, and had to find a place to live. And it sucked!

…

No answers, but my “boss” gave me a place for free. He told me where to go, and later on that day I went to see it.

Ugh!

It was a open-air cinder-block room beneath a backyard chicken-coop/garage. And seriously, I wouldn’t even consider to have my dogs live there. No windows. Just an open square. The “door” was a piece of plywood with a hasp. The “bed” was a ancient well-worn hospital bed. One electrical outlet, and a century old fan.

Mold everywhere.

Moist. Damp. Dirty. Filty.

Something like this…

341D35D800000578 0 image a 72 1463138700608

I looked around. Said “nope”.

She started to go to the building. I sad NO!

My wife who was trailing me as I entered the hovel was confused. But I spun her around. There was no way in Hell would I subject her to the indignity that I had just been exposed to.

I just left from the site, hopped in the car. Told my wife “we are leaving”, and then made the necessary arrangements.

We were out of there within 24 hours.

…

Do not; never expect the same levels of social norms, respect or allowances that you have grown up with. You might end up with one Hell of a surprise.

This was a “close one”, for once trapped there, we might never had gotten the opportunity to leave.

Today.

How was the Chinese Communist Party able to control the army and ensure that it would not carry out any military coup?

Sanwan’s adaptation (1937), Mao’s purge of “three gulfs” after the Boxer uprising

After the failure of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong led the remnants of the army to the south, retreating towards the Xiang-Gan border. After the clear transfer to the Jing-Gang Mountain area, the troops arrived at the village of Sanwan, Yong-Xin County, Jiangxi Province on 29th September, 1927, when the commanding group of the Front Committee at that time decided to integrate the remnants of the army.

At the time of integration, there were less than 1,000 troops left in the remnants of the army, and there was no CPC organisation at the grassroots level of the army, so the army’s culture was no different from that of the warlords’ troops, and the soldiers’ ideology was chaotic, and they did not have any absolute sense of affiliation to the CPC.

The contents of the integration included the following:

Dispatch some of those who did not want to stay in the army, reduce the army to one regiment and rename it as the First Regiment of the First Division of the First Army of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army;
Establishing CPC party organisations in the troops, so that there were company branches (CPC party branches were built on the company), battalion and regiment party committees, and CPC party representatives above the company level;
To stipulate that officers and chiefs should not beat up soldiers, that officers and soldiers should be treated equally, and to establish soldiers’ committees to take part in the management of the unit and to assist in political and mass work. The troops were united under the leadership of the CPC Front Enemy Committee, of which Mao Zedong was the secretary, and a democratic system was carried out internally.

The Sanwan’s adaptation clarified the absolute leadership of the CPC over the army, and at the same time became a guarantee of the CPC’s armed seizure of power.

https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/61whs_6ia97.html

A PLA tradition: the democratic life meeting.

Within the PLA, officers and enlisted men are completely equal, and at company meetings, ordinary soldiers criticise their officers, who are mortified.

In the U.S. Army, it is unthinkable for the average soldier to criticise his commanding officer.

KMT army vs. CPC army in the Chinese Civil War:

1. The American-backed KMT army of Chiang Kai-shek was entirely a warlord army.

In the case of Chiang Kai-shek’s direct subordinate Hu Zongnan’s Seventh Corps, for example, some of the KMT officers mistreated and brutalised their soldiers to an appalling degree, as reflected by the regiment’s insurgent officers and soldiers:

its 430 regiment’s deputy battalion commander Chen × × when the machine company commander, soldier Liu Yanchun desertion was captured back, Chen × × Liu Yanchun hung up and beaten to death, the body was thrown into the field to feed the dogs, and then cut off the ears of the dead, hanging on the wall, and then gathered the company announced: “You see what this is? Whoever escapes again in the future will be dealt with in this way”.
its 351st regiment soldier Yue Quanfu disclosed: he was 16 years old, was captured by the head of the security force, the village with him at the same time to be captured as a soldier of 10 people. The 10 people, two were shot, one was beaten to death and fell off a cliff, and one was flayed alive by an officer because he didn’t ask for leave to relieve himself!
its 473rd regiment deputy battalion commander Wang × × pick up new recruits, met a few sick people can not walk, so they deceived them and said: “Who can not walk, say, I let you go home”. Four soldiers just turned their heads to go back, was called by Wang × ×, he let the four sick kneel on the edge of a cliff four or five feet high, copied a stick, a stick one, all beat them to the bottom of the ditch, then, long gone.
Its 158th Division officer Deng x x revealed that when he was a platoon leader, he once followed the mortar company commander to Sichuan to pick up new recruits, and saw with his own eyes that this company commander killed more than 20 recruits who deserted. Most of them were killed with guillotines, and others were killed by “splitting the bodies of five horses”. When one of the recruits ran away, he led men to the recruit’s house to catch him, and when he didn’t catch him, he set fire to the recruit’s house. Another time, when he failed to catch a deserter, he ordered four soldiers to carry the deserter’s family and put them on fire until they were burned to death.
Zhu x, chief of staff of his 55th Division, once ordered the commander of the company directly under him to “bury alive any soldier who makes a mistake”. This man once dug out a soldier’s heart on the spot during a punishment and hung two large bunches of them. Soldiers revealed that “he dug out the hearts of many soldiers”.
349 regiment 2 battalion platoon commander Shi × × to sodomise a soldier, was rejected by the soldier, Shi × × even get a carrot to the soldier’s anus hard stuffing!
A division of a deputy division commander is a big sex maniac, his subordinates in the past only know that he often use his authority to force sodomy subordinates, who knows, through the denunciation of the revelation, by his sodomy of the subordinates was as many as 89 people, the anger of the uprising of the officers and soldiers have demanded that the deputy division commander’s crotch penis will be cut off!
According to statistics, of the 2,451 soldiers in the 144th Nationalist Division, 107 soldiers’ mothers were raped by their officers, 21 soldiers’ mothers were abused by their officers, and 185 soldiers’ mothers were forced to remarry; 57 soldiers’ wives were raped by their officers, 53 soldiers’ wives were abused by their officers, and 93 soldiers’ wives were forced to remarry; 159 soldiers’ sisters were raped and abused by their officers, and 175 soldiers’ sisters-in-law were raped and abused by their officers, and were forced to remarry; and a total of 850 soldiers’ mothers, sisters, and sisters-in-law were raped, abused, and forced to remarry by their officers.
Of the 2,451 soldiers in the division, 345 were hung up and beaten by officers, 289 were tied up and beaten by officers, 1,238 were clubbed by officers, 13 were stabbed with bayonets, 677 were beaten with rifle butts by officers, 1,362 were slapped by officers, 945 were beaten with belts by officers, 991 were kicked by officers, 53 were beaten to death, 20 were beaten to vomit blood, 22 were crippled, 1,298 were made to kneel, 535 were made to freeze, 1298 were made to dry in the sun, and 53 were made to faint. The number of people who were beaten to death by officers was 53, 20 were beaten by officers and spat out blood, 22 were beaten and crippled by officers, 1,298 were punished to kneel by officers, 535 were punished to freeze outside by officers, 128 were punished to be exposed to the sun, 1,302 were punished to starve by officers, one was punished to drink urine by an officer, one was punished to eat an officer’s sputum by an officer, 33 were shot and buried alive by officers, and one was shot and buried alive by an officer, but not dead. 33 people, 24 people buried alive by officers ……

You tell me, how does such a warlord army get the support of its soldiers? How can such a warlord army gain the support of the Chinese people?

If this reactionary, inhumane Kuomintang army can win the Chinese Civil War, it will not be unless the days and nights are turned upside down and the Pacific Ocean dries up!

2. Mao’s army was an army of equal officers and soldiers.

First, on the way to catch up with the enemy. Mao Zedong asked CPC officers to grasp the ideological education of captured soldiers and new recruits.

For example: Mao Zedong knew that most of the captured Nationalist soldiers were from poor families, some of them were forced to be arrested by the Nationalists, some of them were here for money, and they had no idea why they were fighting the war. In response to this background of origin of the captured soldiers, CPC officers were required to provide one-on-one ideological education to recruits and captured soldiers.

CPC officers talked to the recruits and captive soldiers on foot and when they had the opportunity, talking about their family history and finally blaming it on the KMT, which was caused by the exploitation of the poor by the landlords and rich peasants they supported. If the KMT’s Chiang Kai-shek continued to exist, the poor would never be able to turn over a new leaf and would have to live in poverty for generations.

Every day, CPC officers had to report to the CPC Party Leader on the ideological work they had done with the masses, the reaction of the masses, and the ideological sentiments of the masses, before accepting the task for the next day’s work. The CPC party group leader then reports to the CPC party branch, and the CPC party branch then reports to the CPC party committee. The ideological situation of the fighters was firmly in the hands of the CPC Party leaders.

The thoughts of the captured soldiers were quickly transformed through the ideological education of the CPC officers.

Secondly, during the march of the army, the CPC officers set an example by carrying the luggage of the captured soldiers and new recruits. When resting at the end of the line, the CPC officers burned foot-washing water for the captives and recruits, and cooked food for the sick for those who were not in good health, so the CPC officers really treated the captives and recruits as their own brothers.

Thirdly, the captive soldiers also saw that the officers and soldiers in PLA were united, all of them had no salary, ate, wore and slept together without any special treatment, united with each other, and took care of each other as if they were brothers, like a big family.

Fourthly, in order to comfort the KMT captive soldiers and stabilise their minds, the CPC branch sent an official letter to the captive soldiers’ hometowns, stating that they had joined the PLA and that their hometowns should treat them as military families. This moved the captive soldiers and made them settle down; turning their guns to fight the KMT.

At the beginning of the Chinese Civil War, the KMT had 5 million soldiers and the CPC had 1 million; when the Chinese Civil War ended, the KMT was left with only 1 million soldiers, 4 million of whom surrendered to the CPC and joined the PLA.

There is a detailed account of Mao’s army in “Red Star Over China” written by the American journalist Edgar Snow.Red star over China by Edgar Snow | Open LibraryRed Star Over China by Edgar Snow, unknown edition,

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1774434W/Red_Star_Over_China

Xi walked into the dormitories of ordinary soldiers to see if their blankets were warm enough, and Xi ate a pot of rice with ordinary soldiers; has the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States ever done this? These are PLA traditions and have been so since Mao Zedong.

Bisquick Cranberry-Apple Cobbler

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter
2 1/2 cups Bisquick or Biscuit Baking Mix
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup chunky applesauce
1 apple, cored and thinly sliced

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat butter in 9 x 13 inch pan in oven until melted.
Mix Bisquick, sugar and milk with wire whisk until smooth.
Pour Bisquick batter evenly into prepared pan.
Mix cranberry sauce and applesauce. Spoon evenly over Bisquick batter.
Place apple slices on sauce.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm with whipped cream or rum raisin or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

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

My best friend/co-worker Larry was the IT guy in the training department for a large computer corporation where we both worked. I was a course designer/instructor. The company had been doing quarterly layoffs for almost two years. When it was your turn to be laid off, security watched you pack your personal items then escorted you off the property.

One night during a software update Larry discovered the next layoff list on the boss’s computer (she hadn’t even bothered to password-protect it, but her incompetence is good for another story). Both he and I were on the list. The date was a week away.

In the bookcase of my cubicle were copies of every technical manual and instructor’s guide I’d written for this company. They were my proof of ability. I would need them when I went on interviews and was asked “can you show me something you’ve done?” I spent the next week slowly replacing each binder with an empty one. By the time we were laid off, my entire collection of authored books was safely at home.

Bonus, Larry called the local news to expose how the company was using layoffs as a quick boost to their quarterly earnings numbers (fewer employee expenses improved the net bottom line). They’d often lay off the most critical employees right before end of quarter and then hire them back as “consultants” a few weeks later. We were both interviewed on the news the afternoon we were laid off. Screwed our chances for being rehired but I wouldn’t have gone back anyway.

Oh yeah, and the company? Failed a year later after an even bigger scandal surfaced. They had sales reps creating huge fake sales orders, then right before end of quarter all that equipment would be “shipped” to a large storage facility. They were caught with millions of dollars of fake earnings from falsified sales.

Passport Bros Meet Filipina In The Provinces

No need to be nervous in the small towns in the Philippines. Almost everywhere I go, the Filipino people are the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met. Moved here from So. Calif. in 2010, found my sweet wife here, the Philippines is HOME for me now.

Why do some people tell the victim to “just leave” the abuser without providing a plan to leave, money and emotional support? Doesn’t “just leave” contribute to her going back?

Back in 1999, my then husband began to threaten to harm our children. I set in motion actions with only one thought-to protect my children.

January: I filed a complaint at his precinct (he was a police officer). They took away his guns-he had 10 (he told me 3) and enough ammunition to fight a battle (they told his brother in law that). He filed a complaint with them, saying he threatened to kill us. They told him “we know, he’s a psycho cop. But he’s ok. He loves his kids.” They had zero clue what went on in our home. His brother in law called Child Protection because he saw the police were not taking this seriously. Child protection came, saw it was a clean house with food in the cabinets and he was polite and calm. They never spoke to me or the kids. He told me if I said anything he will make our children orphans. I filed for an order of protection to get him out-his buddies faxed inletters swearing he was a nice guy, loves his kids-she was the bad one. I got denied. He refused to give me money for groceries, mortgage, utilities.

February: I went to put the child on welfare and food stamps. Why are you staying there, they asked. Take your children and leave. I had two sons with asthma and they all had special needs. Why should WE leave? He was the menace-take him out!! So the welfare people called child protection on ME. That’s right-because I didn’t want to take my asthmatic and special needs children to a homeless shelter 3 trains away in the Bronx! My parents didn’t want anything to do with my problems. We went to their home for two days and they threw us. You married him and had his children-now live there. Child protection came to my home at 11:30 at night. They saw the children and me living in the basement. We had a clean home and food (I told them my parents bought them food sincevhe gave me no money). The next day I called my therapist in tears-they will take my children away from me! All because I won’t leave the house! I can’t understand it-we have no where to go or any money. Why should we leave? He’s the threat!! She calmed me down. She made calls all day. By the end of the day, they closed my case-she had the faxes on her desk because I trusted no one.

March: I told my parents there was no more choices. I was getting a lawyer and divorcing him. My parents were horrified. They couldn’t believe he was starving his children. I showed them my temporary support which was running out. Their grandchildren were getting food stamps because their father wasn’t buying them food. My father called our rabbi to talk to him while we stayed in their house. Two hours later, the rabbi came to my father’s house. “It’s a terrible thing to see people change from human into something monstrous. I tried to talk to him about a man’s responsibility to his family.” “Rabbi, he doesn’t like you since Fort Dover, when he was in the hospital for a week and you saw him only once for 5 minutes.” “He told me. He spat on me for it.” My father and I lowered our heads in embarrassment. “I never advocate for divorce unless there is nothing left. Benny, I’ve known you for many years. Get your daughter a good lawyer, she’s going to need one.” I started to cry and the Rabbi put a business card in my father’s hands-it was my lawyer to be. My father and I went the next day and hired him. I told him everything that happened. My lawyer gave me his phone number-call him after 911 in an emergency. And get the children on as much welfare and food stamps as you can. I had to hire 3 servers at $200 a piece to wait at each exit of his precinct to serve him with the order to appear in court. On that day, I went to social services and gave the title of my home as a guarantee so the city can put a lien on my house against any financial support we got from welfare and food stamps. The children and me were finger printed and got ID cards that day. I got formal letters stating we were in need and were getting food stamps and money. The date was March 10-My then husband’s birthday. I chose the date. I wanted everything to have his birthday on it -the court papers, the welfare papers. It was my last happy birthday to him.

April: when the Jewish community and our friends found out about the pending divorce, we were ostracized. I went to Jewish agencies for help. I had no money for Passover. I got a $25 food voucher from an agency that helped the poor and aged. I went to another place that gave me such bad smelling food my father was outraged. He made me take him and the food back. He screamed at them in Yiddish how shameful this was to a poor girl with children. The man shrugged and said “she’s your daughter, you take care of her.” My father said “if only I had back the charity money I gave to places like yours” He put the box on the floor at the man’s feet and he ordered it thrown away. I asked my brother for money, and he gave me $200. But he always reminded me I owed him the money and anytime he needed a favor, he reminded me of the money.

May and June: I finally got approved to work at the Department of Education as a substitute. I accepted any job I could get, no matter where it was or what it was. Getting my money was harder. Sometimes I got my check in the mail. Sometimes I had to go back to the school. Sometimes it was at a district office. I had to drive to the payroll center to make sure all my checks were processed. Meanwhile, the city demanded I worked for their workfare program. No one gets welfare for nothing. I tried again and again to explain how subs worked. I had to wait for them to call me. I told my counselor she can call 65 Court Street to confirm how they call subs. I was told “no problem, you can go there and clean their toilets and wash floors.” Didn’t you want me off welfare? I can get hired by the Dept of Ed if I keep accepting jobs. If I’m washing floors somewhere else I won’t get hired. My counselor took it to mean I was too good to wash floors (if I had no prospects of a job I would have done it gladly). I was thrown off welfare.

July-September: I had been going to court, but he kept putting it off. I couldn’t miss a single court date, but he could show up and say he’s not ready, no lawyer-he fires his lawyer right there in court once! I was getting worried because I needed to keep getting called in to work-30 straight days in any school and I could get hired. I had 20 days and they stopped calling me. It was frustrating as can be.

October: the bank sent over two big guys to serve us with foreclosure papers on the house. The first met my husband who threw him bodily off the premises. I agreed to sign off on the papers if I could get 48 hours to pack our things and leave before they came to lock up the house. They saw what a bad spot I was in and that the idiot didn’t tell me the house was being foreclosed because he didn’t pay the bill in months. They gave me the 48 hours. I called a friend who had s vacant apartment. He didn’t clean it yet. I’ll clean it. I need it in 48 hours. He was ok with it. I called a moving company that specialized in last minute moving-especially in domestic situations. They sent over big guys in case he cane by to interfere. I threw clothes and toys in bags and boxes. I grabbed whatever I could that day. My father and I cried-my marriage was dead. I never told my father-this wasn’t a parole from prison, where I got timevoff for good behavior. It was a pardon-I was freed because of a terrible mistake that shouldn’t have happened. The next day I called Sub Central with my new address and phone number. We were trying to find you! I had to move suddenly. We have a job for you-and it could be permanent. Can you go there tomorrow? I cried with joy. Thanks to God-we had a safe place and I got a chance for a permanent job. It was the School I’m still working at-18 years later. I hung up and my children and I all hugged each other. I moved to this apartment with no job and borrowed money for the first months rent. I didn’t have anything for security. Now, I had a place and a job to take care of my children.

November: Family court once again. The case had been moved to another judge who refused to delay the hearings. She asked him “what did you do to support your children?” “I’m having a problem with their mother-“ “that’s not what I asked you. Did you buy groceries? Pay the phone? Electricity? Gas? Mortgage?” All the answers were no. The judge turned to me. “What did you do to support your children? I turned over all my papers from welfare, food stamps, my pay stubs, and a joint bank book stuffed with grocery slips and utility payments. His lawyer turned pale. The judge went through everything very carefully. “So, your wife put your children on welfare and food stamps while you didn’t do a thing?” “She didn’t put the kids on welfare (chuckling).” The Judge has him look at the papers. Yes I did – and they were all dates on his birthday. “You put my children on welfare-on my birthday?” “Yes, the same day you were served to come to court.” The judge flipped back pages. “You mean to tell me that you have been screwing around all this time while you had no idea how your children were living? You’ve been putting this off from March to now?” She threw her hands on her table. “I’m done talking to you. Let me see your pay stubs.” She reviewed his stubs and was about to order support of $400 a month. I asked to see his stubs first. I pointed out to my lawyer 3 pension loans he took out which come out of his gross pay check, thus reducing the net check to look less. My attorney stood up and said “why should the children have to have their money reduced because of his pension loans? We request you add those amounts in.” The Judge looks over the stubs and screamed “you think you’re so smart huh. I had someone from Sanitation do this last week. Know what I did? I threw the book at him. Like I’m going to do to you.” She reworked the figures. $636 semi monthly-and give me a list of expenses you borrowed-moving, apartment, clothes-anything you had to borrow. He’s going to pay you back for 1999. Every penny!” My husband jumped up out of his chair and yelled “you can’t do that to me! We’re on the same team! All the judges love me.” “The other judges don’t know you-but don’t worry. I’ll make sure they do.” The bailiff had to stand behind him and keep his hands in idiot’s shoulders. My lawyer stood up “your honor, we realize this had been quite a shock to the defendant. We know how hard it is to support a sexy sport car instead of a family (he showed pictures of him in the car). How about if the defendant pays my client $50 semi monthly until his debt is paid?” The other lawyer said ”yes, please!” So the idiot wound up paying me $50 twice a month for two and a half years! These $50 checks were in addition to the child support the court ordered.

December: I was formally hired by my School to work there full time. I paid back my father the money I borrowed. I caught up on my rent and paid security. My children were removed from welfare and food stamps. I bought my children clothes for the first time in nearly two years. We had a real holiday as a family that we didn’t have for so long. And their father told them that I was a bad mother because I took them away from him. It would be years before they saw the truth. I also got back into my house that had been locked up. He set fire to our wedding pictures, most of my old photos from School, books, whatever he could throw in. There was a huge black circle in the middle of the living room. I grabbed more of the children’s things, whatever I could salvage-and his grandmother’s silver items. He left all of them in the China cabinet. I took the Jewish books he left, anything I could throw in a box or bag. He broke my dishes in the kitchen sink. I took a few pots and pans I found. I took all the children’s pictures I found still hanging up. Oddly enough-he never opened my nightstand. I had, shall we say, personal items that a lonely woman keeps in a nightstand drawer. I decided to throw them out instead of bringing them home. I don’t know why. I stopped at the doorway. I looked inside for a last time. This horrible nightmare was finally ending. I knew I had more-the foreclosure sale, the divorce. But this prison that I loved because I raised my children in it, that I cared for, was finally closed. I saw the mezuzah still on the door post. I took it off-my father bought that for us. I gave it back to him.

Yes I know-I wrote a novel. I did it with a time line and great detail for a reason. Any moron who says just leave without a plan or money or support is just that-a moron!!! It’s easy to say “just leave”. And go where?????? If parents turn you out, your family and friends shun you-where do you go? The only person who helped me was HIS sister and her husband. She kept my important documents safe and $300 of emergency money for me. It was her husband who filed the complaint back then saying he heard their father say we were better off dead-and because he was a cop, he would get a slap on the wrist. No one-NO ONE stood up for me. Even my parents told me openly they were ashamed of me. My father gave me money for the sake of his grandchildren. The next person who says just leave and has no plan or idea on how to accomplish that action should be slapped. Because they were never standing at that black pit as I did. Just leave. Why not just say “jump into that black hole?”

Im sorry for writing a long answer. As you see, nearly 20 years later, I can recall it in great detail. Thank you for reading all the way through. If my story can help just one person-then it was all worth it.

No one wanted this cat, so I adopted him.

This is very interesting.

“I adopted a cat and realized everything I thought I knew about them was wrong. In this video, I’m sharing my whole journey from the first week to what I’ve learned, and how Bepo is doing now.”

What hilariously stupid thing did a Trump supporter say that made you think, “Wow! I completely underestimated your stupidity!”?

One of the many encounters I’ve had with a Trump supporter was the time a woman commented on a local news station’s Facebook post with a picture of what she claimed was the 1938 Time Magazine Man of the Year cover. It was clearly photoshopped and had Hitler in an heroic pose with a caption calling him a great leader. She gave her own opinion that Time was a liberal hate rag that supported Hitler.

I knew it was fake because I’ve seen the real cover. It’s hard to forget. It’s a macabre illustration of a tiny little Hitler sitting at the bench of a giant pipe organ. Above him is a wheel with several naked corpses hanging from it. The caption reads, “From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate.”

I replied to her with a link to the official Time website archive page showing the real cover and the story calling Hitler evil.

You may have already guessed this, but she used the laugh reaction to my comment, called me an idiot and then said there was no way to know my cover wasn’t fake and hers was real.

Again, it was a link to the actual Time archives. She could have also done 10 seconds of research on Google, but no. She was more willing to believe this random, poorly edited JPG she found on Facebook was real and that Time Magazine in 1939 praised Hitler and somehow got away with it.

Her husband joined the conversation and attempted to prove his wife was right by telling me I have a woman’s name.

This encounter really drove home for me that we are in a lot of trouble as a country because a lot of people are completely stupid and unwilling to believe facts. A month or two later COVID hit.

Americans React To “When Americans Realise The Entire World DOESN’T Revolve Around Them”

In this video, we react to moments shared on Tiktok when Americans realize the whole world doesn’t revolve around them. These are hilarious but also somewhat eye-opening.

What are the reasons why people can’t access foreign websites freely in China? Does the Chinese government always block some foreign websites for no reason?

Oh, there are always reasons.

For example, up to 2009, Facebook was fully accessible in China. Then in July that year, a group called ETIM (which the UN categorises as a terrorist group) used Facebook to organise and instigate a riot in China. 197 people died and more than 1,000 people were injured.

The Chinese government asked Facebook to cooperate by identifying the ETIM members who had used Facebook to instigate the riot. Facebook refused. So the Chinese government banned Facebook, saying that otherwise Facebook might be used to instigate violence and organise riots.

As the years passed, it became clear that the Chinese government was not wrong. I say this, because of events in other countries make this clear and obvious.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Well, the fight was with me, and I sort of picked it. Just wait for it, you’ll understand as I go.

If I recall correctly it was 2018 and I was at a bus stop, there was a young girl, I would say about 13 years old. It was pretty late at night, I had just finished a routine commute from the city I trained in to the city I lived. I’m standing outside of the bus stop, gym bag over my shoulder while in the distance I saw a person kind of walking all over the sidewalk. Not unusual, there were a few bars around, I had even popped into one for a drink before waiting for the city bus home.

As the person got closer, my assumption was confirmed that they were in fact a bit drunk. Not a big deal, being drunk in public isn’t necessarily a crime unless you go overboard with it. So I ignore it. He comes up to the bus stop, stops for a second and then notices the girl. He starts banging on the glass, asking her questions and telling her to smile for him. I think to myself “Well, he’s an asshat”, and then asked some advice on my phone (facebook) of what to do. I got a few responses right away, mixed, but overwhelmingly saying I shouldn’t do anything.

Here is where it got dicey, instead of just being on the outside of the bus stop continuing his belligerent ways, he proceeds to walk to the entrance of the shelter and continues to tell her to smile and she should talk to him. I see the girl is visibly upset, and now it’s getting to a confinement issue. So I said to the guy to leave her alone, she’s too young and that’s you are making her uncomfortable. He turns around in a rage, swearing at me, telling me he used to race cars and she clearly wanted him. I repeated what I had said, he starts approaching me so I backed up a couple of steps, put my gym bag down and tried to descale it. He said he was going to smoke me. He starts trying to get in my face and I put my hand on his chest and asked him “what are you doing? I don’t want to fight but you have to leave her alone.”

Anyways, he tried to push through my hand and by that point I had enough. I grabbed the back of his neck, pivoted and shucked him to the ground. I didn’t follow up with anything because at that point it was done. He got up, realized he was outmatched and left her alone.

I looked over at her after to see if she was okay, and she mouthed thank you. So I asked her if she wanted me to sit with her on the bus so he wouldn’t try anything else.

It sounds like a lame “fight”, but I’m not going to let a young girl get sexually harassed and potentially assaulted by some drunk guy.

Getting to the point of picking a fight with the wrong person. At that point I had been training in mixed martial arts for 8 years, had 3 fights against opponents that were supposed to be way better than me, and was training 6 days a week. I wasn’t worried about what could have happened because at our gym we are more self defence oriented and I knew to keep an eye out for weapons.

Biden Beg China for Xi Jinping Visit to America For Talks!

Today’s geopolitical landscape is vibrant and ever-changing. In this video, we explore the tense dynamics between the United States, China, and their respective allies. Engage with us as we unravel the threads of trade conflicts, technological competitions, territorial disputes, and the subtle, strategic game of international influence in the 21st century. Biden Beg China for Xi Jinping Visit to America For Talks!

What was the biggest coincidence ever?

In the late 1990s my then-husband, also a firefighter, became ill from a chemical exposure in a fire. We had just built a vacation home in a tiny town (population 231) in the Colorado Rockies. He retired and chose to live there full time because he didn’t know how much longer he had. (Firefighters can retire earlier because of a typically shortened life span. He passed away a few years later.)

I wasn’t ready to retire so I stayed in Bay Area and continued working for my fire dept as well as a safety trainer for a large semiconductor company. Every two weeks I went to Colorado for a week to spend time with hubby.

While in the mountains I made friends with our nearest neighbors. They told me their brother was retiring soon from the Navy and planned a wedding at their house upon his return. We were invited.

About a week later I was in California teaching a safety class at the company. One of the new hires had just gotten out of the Navy and when I introduced myself as living in Colorado, he said his family lived there, too! In fact, the following month he would be having his wedding at his sister’s house in the mountains.

Yep! He was my neighbor’s brother! AND when I showed up to the wedding in a new dress I bought in California, his sister was wearing the exact same dress!

We remained friends for years.

How To Reduce Stress For Passport Bros | Floyd Gets A Filipina | Philippines Vlog

Honestly the Philippines has over 7000 Islands so not very hard to discover a place like this off the beaten path. Most of the named products are copies but still provide good quality for a lower price. Once you discover the lower cost of living you never want go back home.

Always have ways to relieve stress creating a peaceful mind. Try to find a way to keep yourself cool in a hotter climate that can also stress people out. If you are overweight the heat will help lose weight fast in the first few months.

This is the time to try maintaining a healthy body. Don’t fall in love with the first women you meet having plenty of options available. When meeting women make sure your intentions clear at the beginning never misleading them.

No matter where you live each person has their preferences that attracts them to others. Don’t stress over this since there are plenty of people you can vibe with.

Remember you are a guest in another country so show respect at all times. I agree Thailand suits younger men better who enjoy the night life.

A positive attitude is key to having a wonderful time. Remember you are responsible for your own happiness. I wish all who visit or move overseas to enjoy a happy life for less money.

Why does China spend so much money to host the Asian Games?

For soft power purposes.

Athletes come, bring their coaches, family and support staff. So 12000 athletes maybe bring 50,000 people

They get a look into China the real one not the Washington version.

We can see how western media isn’t even acknowledging it at all.

…

Look at the BBC link it’s right at the bottom.

Add on bloggers and private people traveling to have a look? There’s potentially half a million people who get to see what it’s REALLY like.

These people will return home. These people will hear the usual propaganda garbage spouted against China

These people might decide to push back, at which they have a great thing to say.

“I’ve been there. I’ve seen China up front and close, yet YOU know more than I do?”

I often say this to westerners who claim to know everything about China despite never visiting, not understanding the language or being able to read our media. They literally have no response to it other than I know better than you because (racist) reasons.

US And TSMC In Pain, As China’s SMIC Becomes World’s Best Chip Manufacturing Company!

Congratulations China and SMIC. Many of us around the world have been waiting for this day. Both the US and TSMC had been arrogant and thought no one could shake them.

https://youtu.be/c75Wwu0_IK0

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

This is how I learned how crooked employers can be, right at the start of my career. 1984, first job out of university. Five young women were hired by Sperry Corp. We were working on a contract for the State of Texas which involved a lot of traveling and overtime to install and look after a new computer system.

We had to fill out two timesheets, one for our employer (single copy) and one for the State of Texas (triplicate). We were told to put eight hours per day on the employer timesheet but our real work hours on the State’s timesheet, because we were not going to get overtime pay from our employer. So, 40 hours per week for Sperry, 50+ for the State usually, since we often started by leaving on Sunday night and didn’t get back until Friday night. Travel hours were considered work hours. It was no fun, especially since we weren’t allowed any vacation time the first year.

If you’ve ever worked in IT, you know you get stuck working weekends and holidays when fewer people mind if the system is down. Thus we were working on Thanksgiving weekend doing testing, along with some seasoned employees, all male. It was boring and we had lots of time to chat. One of them said “at least you are getting overtime for this”. We wryly laughed – “ha ha NO.” Two of them replied, “Well you should be, you’ve been here less than six months and they automatically classify you as non-exempt for six months when you are new.” Then some comments about the bosses probably not telling us this and figuring we wouldn’t complain because we were female.

We quickly realized we had one copy of the triplicate time sheets for each week we’d been working, because we kept part of the State’s timesheet. Of the four of us ladies remaining, two did not want to make a fuss about it, and two of us decided to confront the bosses. We added up our overtime and had a plan going in.

Our supervisor and his boss and his boss’s boss actually admitted they hadn’t paid us on purpose! Because “the project didn’t have the budget.” Really brazen and condescending attempt at deflecting us. I pointed out this was still illegal and I’d go to the EEOC if they didn’t make good on what they owed. We said we wanted a paid week off at Christmas and cash to make up for the overtime, which they gave us. Our two colleagues who were afraid to complain got nothing. My friend and I had a nice ski vacation together with the proceeds.

I immediately found another job and moved away within a few weeks. Later I got to be an agent of karma: I rose to a position in my company where I had influence on decisions around large contract awards. When Unisys (formerly Sperry Corp) was competing for our business, I made sure my fellow decision-makers knew about my story. It’s bad business to cheat your employees!

stone knives and bearskins

Given Huawei’s chip break thru with the Mate 60 pro, would it make any difference to the future outlook of American chip manufacturers if the US was to abandon the high tech sanctions against China?

The United States will not give up its high-tech sanctions against China.

Not only the United States, but also Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan Province of China are the same. As soon as there is an election season, all kinds of stupid anti-China remarks will come out one after another.

Normally, they create rumours and smear China every day to brainwash their own citizens:

How China steals their technology? How China has taken away their jobs? How China threatens their national security ? Even rumours of genocide are created, so in the eyes of most American rednecks, China is “unforgivable”.

You see, there is such an evil country in the world, and it is righteous for us to be tough on it!
If you give up high-tech sanctions, you are pro-China and treasonous!
Every chip sold to Huawei will become a bullet that hits us!

If you’ve watched too many Western-style elections, you’ll know that it’s the same as a TV talent show.

Whether it’s Trump or Biden, they shout “CHINA” from the podium like a tenor voice, and the voters under the podium feel like they’ve been stimulated by a egg-vibrators in their G-spot, and they instantly orgasm, their minds going blank.

Inflation, health care, and Gun violence and drug-infested are not important, they just want to hear more “CHINA”, and keep on having orgasms, and keep on being happy, and descent into madness.

After enjoying the orgasm calm down and think about it, in the past, the United States to the Soviet Union, to Japan is not also such sanctions? The United States has already achieved success, there are success stories, and as long as the United States increases the sanctions against Huawei, the United States will not fail, and they will keep reassuring themselves in this way.. 🤣

Their election is a race to see who is more anti-China, so the White House will continue to impose technology restrictions on Huawei.

In any case, Biden must take a tough stance to avoid being labelled a “pro-China traitor” by Trump.

Reaction To Jimmy Dore’s TRUTH At The United Nations

On Tuesday the United Nations Security Council welcomed a very surprising speaker — comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore! Jimmy explained about how the United States was behind the Nord Stream bombing and the western media all fell in line to push the lie that Russia or Ukraine or someone else was responsible. Guest host Craig “Pasta” Jardula and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss Jimmy’s UN appearance and Seymour Hersh’s startling revelation that the Nord Stream bombing wasn’t actually about the Ukraine War at all.

What’s something that you can teach me?

My mom was on welfare when I was ten years old. She had been taking a bus (public transportation) to school every day to become a dental technician. Her goal, which she worked towards and accomplished, was to get her family off of welfare.

On the day she was scheduled to graduate, her unemployed boyfriend was supposed to watch my brother and me. The plan was for him to pick us up and take us on a hunting trip with him and his friends. Not that we would have been allowed to shoot anything, but we were really excited.

He never showed up.

Mom called the neighbor and asked her to watch me and my brother, to which the neighbor agreed. I was really upset and disappointed that we weren’t going hunting.

As my mom was leaving for her graduation, I was crying and begging her to stay. She said she loved us and left.

When she got back, she asked me how my day was. I told her I hated her. That was it. That was all I said. “I hate you.”

I can only imagine the strength it took for her to hold back the tears as she got my brother and me ready to go for a walk.

Right outside the door, there was a brand-new bb gun sitting on the porch. We lived in Cherry Ridge Terrace which is located on a mountain in the woods of Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. There are tons of wooded trails around those parts.

She took my brother and me down a trail.

Located in almost every tree, shrub and plant, were empty aluminum cans. One by one, we switched off possession of the bb gun and shot cans out of those trees and shrubs the whole way down the trail.

It was so fun for us.

As it turned out, my mom had gotten a $50 graduation gift from her father and bought a bb gun before she came home from her graduation.

She walked that trail and put those cans all around before she came in the apartment, so she could take us hunting. And right before she did that, I told her that I hated her.

That was the last time I told my mom I hated her.

And when I saw this question, I called her and apologized for saying that I hated her, thirty years ago.

What I can teach you right now is something I learned ten minutes ago.

It is never too late to apologize for something.

Leon

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

When I was 17, I went camping at a beach one day, and decided to make a sand throne, to relax in, except… it wasn’t made entirely of sand, because it would collapse the moment I sat on it. So, I gathered some large stones nearby, arranged them neatly to form a chair, and then covered it with sand to even out the gaps so that it would be comfortable to sit in.

After 2 hours of toiling under the hot sun, the job was done, and I sat in my throne with a great sense of fulfilment. After a while, I retreated back to my tent nearby to rest.

As I stared out of my tent to enjoy the view of the beach and admire my handiwork, a young boy, around 10 of age, went to my throne and walked around it, inspecting it curiously. For a moment, I thought he was going to sit on it. But then, a mischievous glint shone in his eye and he backed away from it a few steps. Then, he dashed and swung a mighty kick! And… collapsed, clasping his foot and crying for his mom.

I stayed in my tent, with tears in my eyes trying to hold back the laughter, thinking “Served you right! “. It wasn’t intentional, but making a “sand” structure with stones was definitely the most satisfying passive aggressive thing I did to a troll who goes around kicking sand structures.

Star Trek – I Have the Phaser, Captain

What do you, as a Marxist ideologue, actually do for the poor, except preaching revolution?

I sponsor poor children in Thailand through an accredited international relief fund. I have been doing this for 15 years.
I do pro-bono law work for the poor. I have saved single mothers from eviction, saved a person’s life, helped someone wrongly arrested and charged from going to jail and being away from his children, and others.
I rebuild and repair computers and donate them to impoverished families.
A socialist society would require less of me having to deal with evictions for poor mothers because the mother would be given her own place, free from that concern. There would not be the systemic injustices that cause so many legal problems for people. Most poor people would make a living wage so they wouldn’t be destitute. An equitable economic and legal system is far superior to charity. Until the beautiful day of communism, we all need to do what we can.

Is the Huawei Mate 60 Pro chip equal to the latest iPhone chip or even better?

In terms of raw flops for the CPU and GPU?

No.

But in terms of aggregate function, it is arguably THE smartphone SOC of 2023.

Why?

Well, it is the first mobile device with Bluetooth 6.x that can deliver lossless high fidelity audio at lower power than the current industry standard, Bluetooth 5.x. Huawei calls it Nearlink, and it is 100% Huawei controlled.

It is also the first mobile device that can make satellite calls, courtesy of a sophisticated antennae design that, according to my friend who has done a partial teardown, is the most complex he has ever seen. There are 9 separate segments on the frame of the mate 60.

The WiFi 6 speed can hit several Gbps, while the 5G mobile connectivity has been demoed above 1Gbps. These are class-leading numbers, with the signal processing improved through AI.

Wired/wireless charging at 88/50W are way better than what Apple offers, as does the battery capacity.

There is also a large language AI model built into the OS, making Hongmeng stand out among the 3 mobile ecosystems. The AI also enables the nifty camera, which takes some of the best mobile photography in 2023.

There is nothing like the features enabled by the Kirin 9000s chipset, even if we combine the best features of the Android and iOS universe into a hypothetical superphone.

Is that better?

You decide.

Nvida Shocked! Huawei’s Secret Weapons: Ai Chip Ascend 310 Explained

Huawei is becoming the company Apple wants to be… building its own modern ecosystem for the internet of things and huawei car integration. Let’s see who gets there first.

What do the Americans want from China in the end? What is their end game? When will they leave China alone?

I thought about this for a long time , a very long time

Yes it’s true that the West led by the US has become unusually harsh towards China. In fact the US is destroying it’s entire reputation in front of the world through it’s actions against China & Russia

So why?

First let’s get rid of the obvious NONSENSE theories here

Theory 1:-

That US doesn’t want China to be a threat in the future and become a Rival

This is ridiculous. It’s also highly improbable. US doesn’t think long term at all. US thinks only short term, typically from Election to Election Or Boom to Recession to Boom

That the US is doing all this , to throttle Chinas Growth seems foolish to me because the US gains nothing at all

If the US simply and quietly did it’s work without any threat of sanctions, the USD would remain a global currency for a century perhaps

So US destroying it’s own reputation by the day, it’s reputation as a free country, as a country of laws, as a country of responsible media and as a country promoting free trade – just to ensure China doesn’t grow to be as big as the US is downright foolish

Theory 2:-

That US wants to protect it’s Companies from Patent infringement

Again Nonsense

That’s not how the US works

These Companies, they have for several decades run their own businesses and have never come crying to the US Government for help

That the US doesn’t want China to become technologically advanced and sell more smartphones and laptops is illogical

Theory 3:-

That the US are doing this for National Security

Again foolish. US have Nukes. China has Nukes. In any struggle between two nuclear powers, the power heading for defeat will try to balance the equation by using nuclear weaponry

This US will never fight China in a major war and vice versa

The US has no conflict with China and the Sphere of Influence for the US is in the Atlantic & Pacific not the South China Sea or Africa

And for gods sake if you tell me this is because US cares about the Taiwanese people, I would tell you the chances of Netanyahu being a Hamas agent is higher than that

Plus nobody uses 3 nm Chips for Missiles or Space

Theory 4:-

That US wants to break up China and destroy the CPC

Again nonsense.

Why?

China is an economic and trade ally and helps make $ 2.3 Trillion a year to the US Economy by value addition. Why destroy that with breaking up China and destroying Status Quo?

Sure you do have a handful of faggots like Lindsey or De Santis who are demented enough to have this illogical ideology

Yet they represent maybe 3–4% of the US collective of Politics, Press & Big Businesses

Theory 5:-

Politics & Elections

Again doesn’t make sense

US voters vote on various issues and Anti Chinese Rhetoric isn’t one of them. Hell, both sides make Anti Chinese Rhetoric don’t they?

This brings me to the real reason in my opinion

The US NEEDS CHINA to do something very badly and is using all these measures as bargaining chips

Taiwan
Tech barriers
Tarriffs
Propaganda

The US wants something from China in return for which the US is ready to go back to removing all of the above

That’s the only logical explanation of why US keeps threatening China and it’s businesses

It hopes these businesses and people will put pressure on China to somehow do what the US expects

This also explains why China isn’t reacting at all to all these provocations but quietly making firm statements

Its ECONOMIC

The US Economy is a time bomb waiting to explode. When it does it will take the economy of the entire world with it.

It will cause huge blows to every nation including China

Yet it will also finish the US as a global power completely

Unless China steps in

China can invest $ 770 Billion today without needing a signature or getting into debt

China has $ 18 Trillion in savings alone

A Huge Swathe of Chinese Investments into USA , especially PUBLIC MONEY belonging to the Chinese People will allow the US to either delay this time bomb from exploding immediately (7–12 years) to around 40 years

It’s why so many US higher ups are visiting China again and again

It’s why no top ranked Chinese is visiting the US

The US keep telling China, it’s in their own interest to prevent the US from the great economic collapse

Otherwise China would be badly burnt

Yet China may feel that it’s best to let US collapse even at great personal loss. This may be why China is busy with alternative settlements and alternative currency routes

I somehow seriously doubt Xi Jingping wants to be the Global Hegemon

All his moves are to secure Fuel, Energy and Food and Independence from the Dollar

I thought this was because the US is insane enough to sanction China but maybe it’s because China wants to put distance between the US Economic time bomb & themselves and their clients

I believe it’s why US have enmeshed the EU into this quagmire and also the UK and Japan and S Korea

If US experiences this Economic Collapse, these nations would be gutted completely. Hence they sink or swim with the US. That’s why they too put pressure on China yet have some major visit to China almost every month

This is my hypothesis

Nothing else makes sense

Politicians have their ideology

Media Channels have their ideology

Businessmen may have their own issues with China

But a full concerted effort to target China and that too announcing everything months in advance all the time , looks stupid and completely ineffective

It looks like the US is desperately putting hook after hook into China and saying “If I go down, you go down”

China still doesn’t believe that and feels that if the US goes down, and if China survives – it would be a better world altogether

I am firmly convinced the US is having an economic nuclear bomb within itself and needs China to prevent the collapse which will damage the Global Economy heavily

All these moves are completely Anti Chinese but intended as bargaining Chips

Nothing else makes sense to me.

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

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

I had been the victim of a road rage incident when I was in my 20s. Long story short, I was in a left-turn-only lane; the perp was in the right-turn-only lane, and she wanted to go left. I made my turn, without ever noticing her, as there weren’t very many cars on the road, and went into a restaurant to pick up my dad’s dinner. She followed me in, kicked the chair out from under me, and kicked the crap out of me while screaming, “Do you know who I am?” Luckily, one of the waiters got her license plate number.

I had eight broken ribs, a fractured cheekbone, and she had ruptured all of my stitches from my gallbladder surgery that I’d had two weeks prior. She tried to have me arrested for assault, saying that I threw her against her car. I’ll come back to that.

At my first court appearance, the prosecutor took me into a room and wanted me to drop the charges against this woman. I obviously refused. The prosecutor said, “You are 22, you work as a hairdresser, and you live with your parents. You are nothing. Marjorie (the perp) is a pillar of the community, and is the child psychologist for the county, so I’d think real hard over this (let’s not forget that I had been the victim here).”

I did point out that I had brought a witness (the waiter), as well as notarized affidavits from several people who were in the restaurant at the time, and CCTV footage from the restaurant, too. She refused to allow them to be admitted. Wasn’t she supposed to help me?

The judge wanted me to let the perp have my car fixed (she broke a window and keyed the door) by some unlicensed guy, whom she had treated when he was in school. I agreed to an estimate, but I was going to get my own estimate as well.

My sister used to work as a legal secretary, and she took me to one of her old bosses. We went over all of the evidence, and he agreed to come with me for the second court date.

So, at the next date, the prosecutor called me back to a private room, before going into the courtroom, again trying to force me to drop the charges, but still wanted me for assault. My lawyer, Mark, said, “So you say that my client threw Marjorie over the hood of her own car and held her against a wall with her right arm, correct?”

The prosecutor said, “That’s what Marjorie told me.”

Mark: “Marjorie, how tall are you?”

Marjorie: “5’10”

Mark: Chole, how tall are you?

Me: “5’3″

Mark: “Marjorie, you are a big woman, easily close to 200 pounds, while Chole weighs 92 pounds, so how could she throw you?

Prosecutor: “That’s not important.”

Mark: “I disagree. Marjorie, you said in your sworn statement that Chole held you up against the wall with her right arm. Are you certain that you want to say that?”

Marjorie: “That girl is a wild animal; who knows what those people are capable of?”

Mark: “Well, Chole had emergency surgery two weeks prior to the incident, on her right side, and still cannot lift that arm past shoulder level, no thanks to you. Also, she’s left-handed.” Checkmate.

Marjorie, at this point, jumped up and started screaming about how important she was and I was just white trash, when Mark stood up, looked down at her (he’s 6’9) and said, “Lady, you might have convinced this prosecutor that you’re somebody special, but I have, in my briefcase, a filing, ready to go to the state board, along with all the evidence from this case, as well as sworn observations about your general behavior from your fellow psychologists and some of your neighbors. You will never be able to work again once I’m through with you, so I suggest that you sit the f**k down and admit that you lied and that you beat this ‘white trash girl’ for no g*****n reason.” Then, he turned to the prosecutor and said, “How dare you assume that someone is guilty because they’re not from this s****y town? What does that prove, or are you just bored and lazy?”

Marjorie had to pay for all of the damage done to my car, as well as the ambulance service, medical costs relating to everything that she did to me, and the damage she did to the chair in the restaurant. All of my charges were dropped and expunged.

Mark usually handled divorce cases, but he had way too much fun that night!

Flash-forward a few years, when I was at a luncheon with my mom. We ran into a friend of hers, who is also a child psychologist for another district. My mom mentioned my case, and the woman said, “We’ve all been waiting for that b***h to get knocked down a few pegs for years! She’s a nightmare to deal with, but she did lose her job shortly after your case was resolved.” The district didn’t want to have to pay out a small fortune if and when this woman blew her top again, so they forced her into early retirement.

Eliminate Apple Android compatibility! Huawei’s independent operating system shocks the West!

“”In today’s episode, we dive into the latest developments in the Huawei vs. United States tech competition. Huawei has made a groundbreaking announcement – its HarmonyOS will no longer be compatible with Android. HarmonyOS 4.0 has sparked intense discussions, with industry experts suggesting it could challenge iOS and Android. Huawei’s move to disconnect HarmonyOS from Android is a strategic maneuver in the global tech arena, countering U.S. dominance. We explore the implications and Huawei’s plan to create opportunities for global tech enterprises.

https://youtu.be/blnnMPkTITs

Russia ditches US Dollar and Indian Rupee, accepts Only Local Currency and Yuan

Russia is still sitting on 40 billion dollars worth of trapped Indian Rupees.

BRICS member Russia is evading US sanctions by accepting local currencies as payment for exports and not the US dollar. Russia’s third-biggest oil producer, ‘Gazprom Neft announced that the company has completely stopped accepting the US dollar as payment.

The oil exporter has ditched the US dollar and switched to accepting local currencies for cross-border transactions. This is the first oil-producing firm to completely switch from the US dollar to local currencies in 2023.

The development comes on the heels of the de-dollarization efforts initiated by the BRICS alliance. Saudi Arabia also confirmed recently that it is open to accepting local currencies for oil trade across the world.

Alexander Dyukov, the CEO of Gazprom Neft, said that the company has completely moved away from the U.S. dollar. He added that the firm will not be accepting Euros, which will eventually put pressure on the countries of the European Union. “We have virtually moved away from payments in dollars and euros,” he said to Tass.

Dyukov revealed that the oil firm will accept the Chinese Yuan and the Russian Ruble as payment moving forward. “We mainly use Yuan and Rubles,” he said. A spokesperson said that the company has no issues accepting and withdrawing foreign currencies from across the world.

However, the CEO stressed that the company is not open to accepting the Indian Rupee as payment. “No. We don’t use Rupees,” he said without citing why the INR is left out as a payment option. If many other oil companies follow suit, the US dollar could be in jeopardy. The means to fund the dollar’s deficit will narrow, leading to economic turmoil in the US.

ASEAN Rejects US As Biden Tried Disrupting Summit And Made These Silly Requests!

“im from the Philippines and i firmly believe that without U.S. hegemony, the world will be at peace.”

https://youtu.be/qhI3NtjeKI4

When have you fired someone on the spot?

Quite a few years ago I worked for a large insurance company. I had an office on the fifth floor. In that office I had a decorative ceramic eagle worth about $200 sitting on my bookcase. One Friday afternoon it was there when I went home for the weekend. When I returned on Monday it was gone!

I trotted down to Building Security and explained the issue. They smiled and said, “Give us an hour.” I said, “Why?” They said, “Very few people know about the hidden cameras in the elevators!”

An hour later they called me. They showed me a video of one of my employees carrying out my eagle at 11:00 PM on a Sunday night! They happily printed out a hard copy of a frame that showed the theft.

On Monday morning I called my thief into my office. I had a little fun. I told him how shocked I was that my eagle was missing. He said all the right things about how terrible this was!

“Who would do such a thing?” I inquired. He quickly threw two other employees under the bus. Then I laid the picture out of this SOB doing the deed!

“I guess I’m fired” he said! “You guessed right,” I said.

Footnote- My superiors were not satisfied with that. They called the police and had him charged & convicted for theft!

It FINALLY happened (mask off moment)…

Thanks, Canada, for confirming what Mr. Putin has been saying all along.

https://youtu.be/8BhRpSTJklA

Why is Japan so safe?

“Remember, don’t talk to the hostesses, and don’t start a fight. Got it?” I asked my friends, making sure everyone also had a drink in hand.

Girls holding signs, where sometimes a man may come in to “persuade” you to try it

“What happens if we lose you?” one of my friends asked.

“Look, you’re not carrying shrooms or weed. Don’t start a fight, and worst case they put you in a cell until you sober up. Then call me.” I grinned back. The Neon lights with the words “Kabuki-cho” illuminated behind me. Farther ahead, many girls with signs.

Sorta like this now

They all nodded, some coming from downtown LA, some former military members, and some just like you, traveling Japan for the first time.

As a preamble, they wanted me to take them to the sketchiest part of Tokyo, which I find to be a contradiction.

After seeing a beer cans and some trash on the floor, I looked back at my group, shaking my head. “I’m so sorry guys. This area is not as clean as Japan, and it can get pretty bad.” Then I looked back up and winked at them.

The reason why it’s so safe is because of the culture.

People in Japan from a younger age are taught to think of the community first, and not themselves. There are pros and cons of this, which I’ll reserve for another post, but it starts from school as the students are expected to clean everything. If you do a bad job, you will be socially ostracized until you put in “your part”. Everywhere you go it’s pretty much handicap friendly, so if you have any disabilities people make sure you can go about your day.

The reason why it’s so safe is because there’s no incentive

It didn’t used to be this way. Japan has organized crime like any other country (Yakuza ring a bell?) but even they realized it wasn’t profitable to do violence so they pretty much resort to financial racketeering or money laundering and other “services”, but never violence.

The reason why it’s so safe is because of the police culture.

Japan has what some in the West would be almost a too trusting culture with the police. Kid is lost? Go to the local police station. Harassed? Local police station. Followed? Local police station. You get the idea.

You also don’t really have to worry about being injured going to the police. The police are liable if they do physically hurt you, so they have come up with ways to restain you without harming you.

The reason why it’s so safe is because the population is older and busy

If you look at Japan, the average age is almost 50. People don’t need to prove themselves when they’re older, and have it stable. Likewise, the younger generation are almost too busy with school, work, or other societal aspect that there’s almost no free time to do anything else. This obviously has major cons, but it does make it so that most people follow the rules and are rewarded on the “successful” pathway.

By age 40, you should be smart enough to realize this:

1. Stay silent. Not everything needs to be said.

2. Silence is better than unnecessary drama.

3. If you find someone smarter than you, work with them, don’t compete. Competition is a weakness.

4. The family you create is more important than the family you come from.

5. Your current job doesn’t care about you. They only pay you enough to kill your dreams.

6. Free yourself from society’s advice, most of them have no idea of what they’re doing.

7. It’s better to have 1 friend who’s;

• Happy for you

• Supports your win

• Encourages your dreams

Than a bunch of acquittance who are

• Lazy

• Self-centered

• Jealous of your success

8. You’ll be 10x happier if you forgive your parents and stop blaming them.

9. If you continue waiting for the “right time ”, you’ll waste your whole life and nothing will happen.

10. No one will ever come save you. Your life is 100% your responsibility.

11. Your inner circle should be more focused on money, success, and starting a family.

12. You don’t need 100 self-help books. All you need is actions and self-discipline.

What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

Iceland here.

If it’s 10degrees or hotter outside [50 degrees Fahrenheit, for Americans] we will go out in bikinis and sunbathe
Almost every family owns at least one summer cabin that is frequently visited
We say ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’ to everyone we pass on the street, depending on the time of day
We will often have long discussions (*hem* arguments) of what type of snow is snowing at the moment
The first real day of summer was three days ago and almost everyone took a break from work to go and enjoy it (it was around 14 degrees or something)
It snows from August to June
All the houses are built like fortresses so they can withstand the frequent earthquakes
We await the next volcanic eruption with excitement

(Eyjafjallajökull, 2010)

Most of us watch football religiously
Dried fish is a delicacy

We loudly announce when we go to the toilet and ask if we have permission to do so
Going on dates is a formal and a rare experience, not standard at all
Blind dates is something that doesn’t happen
In swimming pools we wash without clothes with everyone else of the same gender, no stalls
We drink a lot of milk —it goes with everything
We leave our babies outside in their prams -of cafes, our homes, in the garden, in our unlocked cars
We love sauces; we probably have hundreds of different types, also ice cream shops normally have about six different sauces
We will have barbecues in any weather
We drink lots of alcohol: beer, wine, you name it
It’s never cold inside our houses, ever
We party until way after midnight —if you are camping and want to sleep, don’t camp next to Icelanders
Believing in elves and trolls is normal and we have tons of stories that we’ve been told about them since we were young
We have 13 Santa Clauses

edit : some more for y’all + pics on the original answer

We have a Christmas Cat that, if you don’t get new clothes for christmas, will come and eat you (particularly children)

The christmas cat is owned by a pair of trolls called Grýla and Leppalúði. they are the Santa Clauses’ parents, who are also trolls.
Grýla kidnaps, cooks and eats misbehaving children.

We have a day dedicates to eating these delicious balls of air

The water quality is 500% and so when we visit other countries we are dying because the water tastes so bad there
We are taught from a young age that we should never ever ever step on the moss and if you do then u deserve to burn in hell (ok maybe not but that’s the idea)
Everyone hates Justin Bieber for that music video he did. (+We had to close down the park a part of it was shot in because the tourists were tearing up the moss.)
In winter we all wear the thickest coats you’ll see while still trying to stay fashionable and we all look giant
Conjugation is a thing so a noun has 16 different variations of itself.
Tourism is the top industry of Iceland
Ice cream is enjoyed whenever; in a snow storm or on a rare hot day; doesn’t matter

What is the most clever way you have seen someone respond to road rage?

I was proud of myself for this…you be the judge.

While waiting to turn left into a busy street, the person behind me grew impatient and honked. Not wanting to be the person to face death by oncoming traffic so he could hurry, I put my car into park and got out.

I pasted a look of quizzical concern on my face, and slowly walked to the back of my car. I inspected the back and could find nothing wrong, so I turned to the guy who honked and said, “What is it? Is one of my lights out? Is one of my tires flat?”

He shouted, “I just want you to go!”, but it was busy, so I pretended not to hear him, so I cupped my hand to my ear and walked towards him.

“I JUST WANT YOU TO GO!!!!” he shouted.

“Oh, well, I’m turning left, and it’s kind of busy, so I’m waiting for a break. I’ll go then. I thought you were honking because you saw something wrong with my car. Thanks!” I cheerily shared.

I went back to my car, put it in drive, and waited for a safe time to pull out.

Why People Are Moving to Mexico City

Under-reporting trend.

Why don’t American teachers break up school fights anymore?

I used to until I was sued and faced legal action against my credential that was filed by my principal. The principal also convinced the boy’s father to file a criminal complaint and tried to get me arrested. It cost over $150,000 in attorney’s fees to fight the administrative actions and criminal actions. I ended up prevailing and in the end, after spending another $100,000 in attorney’s fees, I recouped my fees by filing suit against the parent of the student and the school district.

The back story was this male student who suffers from schizophrenia and has other learning disabilities was assigned to my science class. I was never informed about his medical diagnosis. He was enrolled in the intensive intervention program at our school that was for students who had behavioral issues. These students were supposed to have an aide with them in the mainstream classroom or they were supposed to be in the II room doing their work. They had a behavioral intervention plan for each student.

I was not given this student’s BIP because his mother, a teacher in the district and at another site, did not want his medical diagnosis shared with his teachers. She also did not agree with it and refused to administer his medication at home. To be allowed at school, he had to take his meds. The year prior, he had beaten two students so severely, they were hospitalized for several weeks and one almost died. So his meds were administered at school. He did not take them on the weekends so on Mondays he was always exhibiting extreme behavior. It also turns out that at times the voices he heard told him the meds were poison so he would pretend to take them and then spit them out when the school nurse was not looking.

I knew he was supposed to have a BIP and I made several requests for it by email. I cced the requests to the vice-principal and the principal and never received a response. By state and federal law, I was supposed to be given the BIP and made aware of anything that could possibly endanger myself or my students. I was supposed to be informed that the previous year he went into a psychotic rage and nearly killed two students in his PE class and it took 4 PE teachers to pull him off of the student both times. It was after the second attack that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in the II program and assigned an aide to be with him at all times.

Well, his case carrier let him go to his classes without an aide because none of the aides would deal with him. He had assaulted all of the aides that were available and so they refused to work with him. He was confined to the II room for the first 5 periods of the day. She sent him to my class 6th period because it was her prep period and she wanted a break. Since no aide would work with him, she did not send an aide with him, so I had to deal with him on my own. Of course I had no idea about the schizophrenia or that his constant talking was due to his talking to the voices of his imaginary friends that were real to him and that were telling him what to do.

One day those friends told him to beat the crap out of a female student that was half his size because she had disrespected him because she was looking at him funny. Of course she was at the back of the room and he was at the front and she wanted nothing to do with him. Nobody wanted to even talk to this kid. So he got up and walked back to her, and pulled her out of her seat and started beating her. When I got to her, he had her on the floor and she was in the fetal position. He was kicking her head repeatedly. I grabbed him in a bear hug from behind and walked him to the door. He was continuing to kick and so he and I went down. I just continued dragging him to the door and pulled him out the room. I left him outside and returned to the room and shut the door behind me. He was locked out side.

I called the office to come and get him and to send for paramedics for the girl. He spent the next 30 minutes pounding on the door and windows with his bare fists. He actually shattered several windows to the classroom. It took administrators 10 minutes to get to my classroom. They spent 20 minutes asking him to calm down and walk with them to the office. He charged them several times and hit and kicked them but they would not use any physical force to restrain him. Even after he broke the windows with his fists and cut his hands, they refused to restrain him. I finally had enough and called the police. They came and took him down and cuffed him. My principal was upset. But the paramedics were able to stop his bleeding before he bled out. Then they were able to treat the student he had kicked in the head several times. She had a severe concussion and needed medical attention now, not 30 minutes from now.

Of course in this day and age of cell phones, a few of my students filmed this. As allowed by state law, I confiscated the cell phones because filming inside of a classroom is a violation of state law, and filming fights is a suspendible behavior. I handed the phones to the admin and wrote the appropriate referrals.

The district policy is the admin is supposed to review all photos and videos with a parent present, copy any thing taken in a classroom then delete those images from the phone. Those copies are then saved as evidence for the basis of the suspension and depending on the severity of the offense and the number of previous offenses the student gets from 1 to 5 days of suspension. The phones do not get handed back under any circumstances until the videos are erased.

Well, the principal just handed them back immediately. I still wrote the referrals. I documented everything.

The next day. I get called to the office. I find the SRO wanting to interview me. I respectfully declined. I invoked my right to have an attorney present before answering any questions. I have attorneys for relatives and friends. When a police officer asks you a question about a situation you were involved in, they are not your friend. Anything you say can be used against you. You do not say anything without an attorney. What the officer did not say that I learned later was the father had filed a criminal complaint against me. The principal had encouraged him to do so. The problem was, he did not have custody of his son nor did he have legal educational rights. In fact, there was a restraining order prohibiting him from being on school grounds or within 1,000 feet of his son. Mom did not want to file a criminal complaint because she knew what would happen, absolutely nothing. She was a teacher and knew what the education code was.

In CA, a teacher may intervene to protect the safety of a student. So if it is mutual combat, I could legally intervene to prevent both students from harming each other. I am not legally required to but I can if I feel I can do so. If I am injured, I am covered by workman’s comp for injuries sustained in performing my duties. The top duty of any teacher is to ensure student safety. That takes a higher priority over teaching students. I have broken up fights before and have been injured and they have always been covered. I do it because I am a teacher and student safety is first.

The principal then filed an administrative action against me for violating the rights of a special education student. I did not follow his behavioral intervention plan. Had this been successful, I would have lost my job and my credential. This was made worse by the fact that the video taken by a student was posted to social media. It then made the local news.

Of course the story was one sided. I could not provide my side of the story. Anything I said would violate the student’s privacy rights under state and federal law. So, I was the teacher that assaults students for no reason. Nothing was said about the student that was on the floor, in the fetal position, having her head repeatedly kicked. Nothing was said about her traumatic brain injuries or the induced coma she was in for two weeks or her overwhelming fear of returning to the same school this monster of a student was at so she ended up transferring to a private school. By the way, this student who was the aggressor was never suspended because his special education rights were violated. He did this to at least 6 other students after this incident over the next 2 years and the district ended up paying out several millions to the parents of his victims. They finally got rid of the student by moving the program off of my campus to another one. This allowed them to fire this inept teacher. At the new campus, this student is confined to his II room and not allowed into any general education room. That principal has made sure of it. He has signed one school security officer to be with the student at all times.

My union would help pay for the legal defense, but only if I prevailed. So I did what was best for me, I hired the best attorney in the field of Education Administrative law. She has earned several awards and has won many cases that went all the way to the CA Supreme Court. I mortgaged my house and paid the retainer. I then shut up and let her talk for me.

My district told my principal to back down, she would lose. Since this was a legal action, I got a copy of all emails and I got this email. My principal did not realize I got this email and her response was she was not going to because I hurt a student and she needed to make an example of me. Their response was they would not pay for her legal costs, she was on her own and she had to pay for all of her attorney fees. They would not provide an attorney for her. She decided she did not need one. She went it alone. If you are dealing with a legal issue, never, ever appear before a judge without a competent attorney. If your boss tells you to drop it and you insist on following through on the legal action, it is a sign you are going to lose.

After 3 months, she lost. Then I took all the documentation of where she went wrong and filed suit. Then she realized she screwed up big time because the district told her to get her own attorney. She refused to settle out of court and so her costs went up and she lost. The district also lost because I went after them because she was their employee. I also went dad for his defamation and libel and filing a false police report. Because of the deep pockets law, I won an enforceable judgement against the district and the principal.

Now, as a teacher, I really do not want to take money from the education of students. So, I negotiated with the district. Since I won against the original criminal and administrative complaints against me, my union will cover much of the attorney’s fees for that. I also had to hire a criminal defense attorney. His bill was only $10,000 because he only had to file some paperwork with the DA to get the DA to make a decision to either charge me or drop it. The DA decided that at worse I was guilty of an infraction, and since I was protecting another student and had a strong defense that I was protecting her from certain death or permanent harm, what I did was legal, he would never consider filing charges because the case would be too weak and I would never be convicted. The district negotiated with the principal to cover my administrative attorney’s fee not covered by the union. This meant they told her they would withhold the money from her paycheck to pay my attorney or the principal would no longer have a job.

Then, the principal would buy 10 years of credit into my retirement plan with the state. This would come from her paycheck rather than from the district so students do not suffer. If she did not agree, she would not longer be working for the district. This will allow me to retire early and leave the state and seek employment outside of CA where education has not become so bad that the schools are run by the lowest common denominator and the students who want to learn and get an education are being left behind and whose safety is in danger every day.

In exchange, I signed a contract that I will never intervene in a fight. I will call the office and report it to an administrator. Last year, I had 8 fights in my classroom. Administrators are trained to not run to fights. They are supposed to walk because it demonstrates a calm response. My classroom is at the back of campus and it takes a minimum of 5 minutes to walk from the front to my room. The average administrative response time from the time I call to inform them there is a fight in my room to them actually arriving is 15 minutes. During that time I am supposed to evacuate the classroom of all students who are not participating and who will follow my directions. I have to supervise those students outside. The defiant students stay inside. Since I have done my duty, I am good. The students inside can hurt and maim each other all they want and they do. After the administrators arrive, a few ambulances are required.

The result, last May a police officer attempted to do CPR on a student that collapsed at lunch time. Other nearby students assumed the officer was assaulting the student or arresting the student and started a riot. They threw trash cans at that officer and the other responding officers that arrived within two minutes. The 4 administrators that arrived and told the students to disperse were ignored. The administrators sounded a lock-down and the students ignored it. They continue to attack the officer attempting CPR. The student died.

That student had tapped a mixture of pentyl and THC and she stopped breathing. It took 20 minutes for the police to to control the students, including arresting 30 of them, clearing the area enough to get the paramedics to the girl. They could not perform CPR during that time. The officer that tried to do CPR was taken to the hospital with a concussion after having two garbage cans slammed over his head.

Students learned if they fight the adults back down.

If I see a fight or a student assaulting another, I walk the other way. I am legal safe if I just call the office. If I intervene, I can lose everything. I can be sued, I can lose my job, I can lose my life savings. If I do nothing but just call the office, I am protected from all legal consequences. The worst that can happen is I get called to answer the questions from a few attorneys. I spend a few days at the district office with pay while talking to attorneys. I did that two months ago.

It went something like this. Did you see the fight. Yes. What did you do? I called the office to report it. Who did you report it to? I reported it to the attendance secretary who answered the phone and she said she would call security. I then waited in my room because I feared for my safety. I watched the fight through my classroom window. It took security 15 minutes to arrive.

Why did you not break up the fight? I did not feel I had the physical strength to do so without incurring injury to myself and I have a written contract with the school district stating I will not break up fights but will only report them to the administration because it is their job to break them up. Here is a copy of that contract.

The district hated that I brought that up but it gave me 100% legal cover. It was proof I did exactly what I was directed to do by a superior so they were 100% on the hook for my actions.

The truth is, your students are not as safe at school as district administrators want you to think.

Banana Custard Cobblers

Yield: 8 servingsIngredients

Custard

1 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup cornstarch8 large egg yolks3 cups whole milk1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise6 tablespoons (34 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature1/4 cup dark rum

Topping

3/4 cup all-purpose flour1/2 cup almonds6 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces3 bananas, thinly slicedInstructions

Custard

Whisk sugar, cornstarch and egg yolks in large bowl to blend.Bring milk and vanilla bean to boil in heavy large saucepan.Gradually whisk hot milk into egg yolk mixture; return mixture to saucepan. Whisk over medium-low heat until custard boils and thickens, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.Whisk in butter and rum. Cool slightly.Discard vanilla bean. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until cold. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Topping

Blend flour, almonds and brown sugar in processor to mix.

Add butter and process, using on/off turns, until coarse crumbs form. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer to bowl; cover and chill.)Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.Place eight 1 cup ramekins or custard cups on baking sheet.Divide custard equally among ramekins, using about cup for each.Top each dessert with about 8 banana slices.Spoon topping over banana slices, dividing equally.Bake cobblers until topping is golden brown, about 15 minutes.Remove from oven and cool slightly, about 15 minutes.Serve warm.

What was a big mistake in WW2?

Originally Answered: What was big mistake in WW2?

This is the Lorenz cipher.

Unlike its better known relative, the Enigma machine which was infamously deciphered by code-breakers at Bletchley Park throughout the war, the Lorenz cipher posed a much greater challenge. Utilising 12 wheels to scramble up the message being sent as opposed to the 3 or 4 rotors found in the Enigma machine, the Lorenz cipher was incredibly secure. As a result, unlike the Enigma that was used by the German standard armed forces, the Lorenz cipher was used only by high command with messages coming from Hitler himself. As a result, to crack the Lorenz cipher (or Tunny as it was code named by the British) would have the potential to change the course of the war.

Not much headway had been made in breaking the Lorenz cipher through the war until a German operator made a catastrophic mistake on 30 August 1941. When a German receiving operator did not receive a message correctly, he asked the transmitter to resend the information and despite clear protocol against it, the two operators resent the message without changing their key settings (the settings that determine how the text is scrambled up). However since the message in question was 4000 characters long, the lazy German operator abbreviated several words, thus changing the length of the message. Since their key settings were both the same, the two messages had the same scrambling pattern of characters. Thus by comparing the locations where the message text changed, details of the way the rotors worked could be determined.

These two messages were intercepted by the British who soon realised the importance of what they had discovered. This task of cracking Tunny was given to W T (Bill) Tutte who began to find repetitions in the cipher which allowed him to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine’s logical structure in what would be later described as “one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II”. In order to support the painstaking decryption of German messages, the British Colossus was built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers, the first ever modern computer.

The Colossus Machine

The impact of the decryption of Tunny was enormous. It gave the British intimate details of Hitler’s most secret communications which was most notably vital in D Day where the Allies were able to deceive the Germans that they were going to attack at Calais as opposed to Normandy and at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Germany’s last ditch attempt to reverse their fortunes on the Eastern Front and one of the largest battles in history. Involving 3 million men, without foreknowledge of German planning provided by the British, the Soviets would have been badly prepared defensively and could have lost this crucial battle and as a result, the war would’ve been prolonged. In fact, historians estimate that the breaking of the Lorenz cipher shortened the war by two years and thus saved millions of lives all due to the careless mistake of two lazy German operators.

However this pivotal event is not well known due to the Official Secrets Act keeping the nature of the code breakers working to break the Lorenz cipher secret until 1974 and some former staff even today still refuse to break their vow of secrecy, preferring to take their knowledge to the grave.

W T (Bill) Tutte, the man responsible for cracking the Lorenz Cipher

Sweet cat is trying desperately to fit in, find a home

No longer human

On a somber note, the Israeli destruction on Palestine is a (text book) genocidal event. This is just as disturbing to me as the complete killing off of all the males in Ukraine.

There is something truly evil about the oligarchy that rules the West.

Their “heads aren’t screwed on tight”. They are unhinged and behaving in complete disregard for their fellow humans.

No care towards humanity.

Which means that they have evolved into something NOT HUMAN.

I shake my head in sadness.

As Everyone’s Lοοking At Ιsrael, Something Τruly Unbelievable Has Begun Ιn America

https://youtu.be/DA3aRJrAyOo

What is the craziest thing you’ve found in an old coat pocket?

The identity of a MURDERER!

I bought a used coat from a yard sale and months later, when it turned cold, I put the jacket on and noticed a hand written note in the left pocket. It had listed things to buy at Ace Hardware.

It said Lye, ropes, tape and a small shovel.

Next to the list was the actual receipt showing the stores name, what was bought and exactly when.

I thought it seemed suspicious so I took it to the local police and they ran the info I had against an unsolved murder case.

After pulling the archived video from Ace Hardware, it was clear who the man was and after interrogating him and his fake alibi, he broke down and admitted that he was the one who picked up a 22 year old hitchhiker and raped and murdered her.

He forgot about the note and receipt in his left pocket.

He was also left handed. Had he not written it himself, it would not have proved anything, but it matched the handwriting analysis.

He also had no idea his wife sold the old jacket in a yard sale months earlier. That simple task on her part, cost him his life and he sits on death row today.

You just never know what you’re gonna get for three dollars at a yard sale.

A strategic nightmare sneaks into Washington’s political agenda: Global Times editorial

By Global Times Published: Oct 14, 2023 12:38 AM

This is horrifying. -MM

A simultaneous war with China and Russia is a strategic nightmare that sober American strategists such as Henry Kissinger have been warning the US to avoid at all costs, and it is also a topic that some US media outlets have become more and more fond of talking about in recent years. At least from the publicly available information, Washington has never previously addressed it as a formal political agenda, supposedly aware of its seriousness and the terrible risks it carries. But the publication of a report by a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel titled America’s Strategic Posture crossed this “red line” on October 12.

The central point of the 145-page report is that the US must expand its military power, particularly its “nuclear weapons modernization program,” in order to prepare for possible simultaneous wars with China and Russia. Notably, the report diverges completely from the current US national security strategy of winning one conflict while deterring another, and from the Biden administration’s current nuclear policy. It is not a fantasy among the American public, but a serious strategic assessment and recommendation in the service of policymaking.

The 12-member panel that wrote the report was hand-picked by the US Congress from major think tanks and retired defense, security officials and former lawmakers. This report makes us feel that a “strategic nightmare” is sneaking into the US political agenda, but has not drawn due concern and vigilance in Washington, and to a large extent, the American elite group represented by the panel is actively working to make this nightmare come true.

A look at the specific recommendations of this report will send shivers down the spine of those who retain any basic rationality. The report recommends that the US deploy more warheads, and produce more bombers, cruise missiles, ballistic missile submarines, non-strategic nuclear weapons and so on. It also calls on the US to deploy warheads on land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and to consider adding road-mobile ICBMs to its arsenal, establishing a third shipyard that can build nuclear-powered ships, etc.

What depths of insanity is the US sinking to? The US’ military spending accounts for nearly 40 percent of the world’s total defense expenditures, and it has been growing dramatically for several years, with military spending in 2023 reaching $813.3 billion, more than the GDP of most countries, but even that is not enough for these politicians. Such a report full of geopolitical fanaticism and war imagery, whether or not it actually ends up as a “guide” for Washington’s decision-making, is dangerous and needs to be resisted and opposed by all peace-loving countries.

According to some American media, the report ignores the consequences of a nuclear arms race. In fact, the report doesn’t seem to consider this at all and doesn’t suggest any measures other than nuclear expansion to address this issue. In other words, it is a reckless approach. Both China and Russia are nuclear powers, and everyone knows that provoking a confrontation between nuclear powers is a crazy idea. Even promoting a nuclear arms race under the banner of “deterrence” is a disastrous step backward in history. Washington’s political elites, who lived through the Cold War, cannot be unaware of this. However, the fact that such an absurd and off-key report is being presented in all seriousness by the US Congress is both surreal and unsurprising. It is in line with the distorted political atmosphere in Washington today.

The motives behind this exaggeration of threats and creating a warlike atmosphere are highly suspicious. The recent outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict caused a sharp increase in US defense industry stocks, while American defense industry companies have also been the biggest beneficiaries of the long-standing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The military-industrial complex, like a geopolitical monstrosity, parasitically clings to American society, manipulating its every move, pushing Washington step by step to introduce and even prepare for ideas that were once considered “impossible.”

The prosperity of the American military-industrial complex is built upon blood and corpses, and carries a primal guilt. Serving the interests of the American military-industrial complex is unethical.

The reality is that such rhetoric is becoming increasingly politically acceptable in today’s Washington. The idea of “preparing for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China,” once a fringe fantasy, has gradually made its way into Washington’s agenda, which is deeply unsettling.

If Washington were to adopt even a small portion of the recommendations in this report, the harm and threats it could pose to world peace would be immeasurable and would ultimately backfire on the US itself.

There is an old Chinese saying: “Those who play with fire will perish by it.” This is something that is worth Washington’s careful consideration.

Have you ever bought a car that didn’t run and found that it was an easy fix?

In 1980 my boss had left the company and had planned to sell his very nice 1970 Buick LeSabre for $500. One Monday I came into my office and the keys to the Buick were on my desk with a note saying that the automatic transmission was bad and that it would cost more than the car was worth and that I could have it for $25 since that is all the wrecking yard would give him.

I picked up the car one evening and was able to make it part way home before the “transmission” problem occurred.

Fortunately, I was near the company parking lot where I left the car. The next morning, in daylight, with the help of my brother-in-law, we discovered that the “transmission problem” was actually the air conditioning compressor intermittently locking up and putting a severe drag on the engine.

Since it was fall in southern California, we just cut off the single belt that drove the AC compressor and the car ran great. Months later, a neighbor was putting a Chevy V8 into a Toyota pickup and gave me the AC compressor, which we installed on the Buick. And the AC worked perfectly.

I told my boss how we fixed the “transmission” problem and offered him $500 for the Buick.

He declined and said I should keep the car for $25.

I told him I didn’t want my wife driving a $25 car, so he agreed to $250.

That summer I decided to install an aftermarket cruise control unit on the Buick and while routing wires under the dash, I noticed a small spring, not unlike the ones in ball point pens, was broken in an AC/heater duct. I replaced that spring (cost was less than $1) and noticed that the AC was coming out of the dash vents where previously it was just coming from the floor.

When I next saw my former boss, he said that he had taken the Buick to the dealership to complain about the AC/heat not coming from the dash vents, and they told him that to fix the problem they would have to remove the dash and it would cost more than the car was worth.

I put an additional 100K miles on that car and only recall replacing the brakes and a distributor, in addition to routine maintenance. In 1992, as I was moving to Texas from NJ, a co-worker asked if I would sell him the car, which I did.

As an aside, my former boss went to work for a company that made high power gas lasers, costing at that time about $25,000.

At my next company, I needed one of those lasers. I happened to mention to my former boss at a conference that I hoped to buy one of those lasers, but didn’t have the budget.

A few weeks later, a high power gas laser unexpectedly arrived on the shipping dock!

I called my former boss and he said if and when I get the budget, let him know and he will replace the “loaner” laser with a new one. Probably a year or so later, I did find the money and paid for the “loaner” laser.

My former boss’s company also made an even higher power laser for $50,000. I later wondered if I had given him $500 for the car if he would have shipped a $50K “loaner.”

I would ask him, but he passed away, way too young, years ago.

Rest in peace, Dean…

Life in URUGUAY! – South America’s Richest and Safest Country

As an Uruguayan I want to make a comment. First, great video, mostly accurate expect for a couple of details.

When you show the ‘gauchos” those look more like people on horses from Bolivia or Peru, or even maybe somewhere in northern Argentina or Chile. Because, first of all, in Uruguay, the gaucho’s “poncho” is usually made of plain dark colors, and most important, we do not have mountains, like the ones you show. About population “skin” color, let me make some remarks.

The original population in Uruguay is around 90% of European descent, and when I say European I mean, from all over Europe, including countries like: Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Russian, Denmark, etc. Not only Southern Europe. So there are a lot of fair skin color people including blonde, blue eyes.

But what has been happening in the last decade is that there’s a large immigration wave, such as from the Caribbean countries, as well as from the rest of Latin America.

So, the demographic is changing rapidly because Uruguayan’s population as you established is very small, so the culture is also changing, including the food and even the language…

https://youtu.be/sTP44M2vQzk

How heavily does Apple depend on China, and what would happen if China decided to seek revenge for the Huawei ban by kicking Apple out of their market and supply chain?

2500 Foreigners have been invited to the Hangzhou Asian Games in China

Ordinary Foreigners

From US, Canada, Europe and Japan and South Korea

Fully paid for, Business Class Tickets, Five Star Pampering

All China asks them to do is to cover the Games on their Social Media (TikTok mainly or YT or Instagram)

The result is despite the Western Media almost entirely ignoring the Asian Games, a whopping 673 Million people worldwide are watching the events

This is China’s Strategy to counter thr Western Media

Not launching their own MSM and insanely and making accusations

Instead , they bring ORDINARY PEOPLE and treating them to what China looks like and spreading the message

A Popular Teenager goes home and says “Man do you know China is so different from what we hear in our TV channels”

Slowly this gains traction

It’s a long term plan targeting the 19–24 year olds today and gradually influencing the Younger Generation

The key reason is INFLUENCE

The 12–36 year old US Generation doesn’t view China as an enemy but as a neutral country or as a mutually beneficial country

Yet 36–65 year old Americans, the MSM influenced generation see almost 75% of them view China as an enemy

China is slowly influencing the younger generation and in a way that US simply cannot comprehend

Long term, slow and PATIENTLY

Every year you have 20,000 Vloggers invited to China and cover China positively

They influence around 60 Million -150 Million people

Tourvashu is one of these

He influences 2 Million Indians

Most are 16–20 year olds

More likely to watch Tourvashu than Palki Or Gravitas or Arnab

Slowly the Younger Indians will be influenced and say “Yaar Tune Chaayina ka wo Video dekha. Mast tha”

So you wonder why Apple is not banned. In China?

Same reason

It’s not the Chinese way

These Brash, Useless and Economically unsound tactics are not something the Chinese do

China will encourage Apple, use it as a gold standard to develop their own industry, and undercut the iphone eventually

Take the Chinese High Speed Rail

In 2005, Chinese imported exclusively their Boring Machines (Germany, Switzerland), Engines (Japan, Spain), Software (UK, Singapore, US) and Electronics (Japan, S Korea)

Today nearly 90% of their High Speed Rail Supplies are COMPLETELY MADE IN CHINA with same or better quality

They have decimated TBM markets in Germany with export shares plummeting from 69% in 2000 to 11% in 2023

Took them 17–18 years

That’s how China works

These loser protectionism bans don’t work for China

They COMPETE and UNDERCUT and enhance quality with competition

The Trump Ban begun in 2019

So the key is to see if China will beat the Apple and undercut the company by 2036–2037

I am willing to guarantee that they will

It’s what they do

Kind of their Mantra

Banning is what Losers do

Competing and beating with Economics is what Winners do

What is the smallest thing a person ever did for you that impacted your life?

When I was a young boy I used to get teased a lot in school and I didn’t have many friends. I was a fat kid and often got called a “fat slob”, “pig”, and “smelly or “stinky”. I took a bath at least once a week, more in the summer, and tried to keep clean so I knew I was just getting teased because I was fat. When I was eleven my best friend’s mom drove us home from baseball practice one day. Out of the blue she turned to me in the back seat and said, “Andy, you smell and you need to bathe more often.” She did not say it in a mean way but in a stern businesslike manner. My best friend was horrified and said nothing.

When I got home I immediately took a shower and wondered about what was going on. Obviously, I’d been sweaty from practice but she must have known that. As I thought it over, it also dawned on me that my skinny little sister often got teased as “smelly” too. I’d always assumed she got it from association with me, not because she smelled. So I told my mom what happened and asked her to tell me honestly if I smelled. She said, “no” and started to get a little upset about my best friend’s mom saying that to me.

I went to play outside and saw one of my classmates across the street. We had an on-again/off-again friendship up to that point. I guess we were what you might call “frenemies” today but at this point in time, we were more on the friendly side. I decided to get his opinion believing he wouldn’t hold back. In fact, he had teased me before about being smelly. So I asked him straight-up, “Do I smell?” He answered very matter-of-factly, “yes”. “My sister too?” “Yes, her too,” he replied. Then I asked him what we smelled like. He then told me that this had actually been a subject of discussion among his family who did not want me or my sister in their house because of our smell. He said his parents said we smelled like “old books”. Immediately, this brought to mind the set of Encyclopedia Britannicas I had in my bedroom closet. I immediately went home to check them out. Not only were they covered in mold but vast sections of my closet and room had mold. In fact, I found it throughout our home. But it didn’t smell to me. I was used to it. We all were. We lived in the woods surrounded by soggy tree pools so our home was often damp. We had no AC nor did we need it. This was back in 1972 before the internet and all the scares about the dangers of mold.

I told my mother what I’d learned and was able to convince her this was what was causing my sister and me to smell and probably her too. We cleaned everything with bleach, aired out the house, and bought dehumidifiers. From then on I showered every day. My friends all told me I no longer smelled. That following summer I also worked my ass off to get physically fit. I don’t know how many more years I might have suffered but for this very simple and brutally honest admonition from my friend’s mother. To this day, my best friend of 58 years still tells me how embarrassed he was that his now-deceased mother said that to me. And I always remind him she did me one of the greatest favors of my life.

Flip Flop Cherry Cobbler

Yield: 6 to 8 generous portions

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
8 cups cherry pie filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

Coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternating with the milk; mix until well combined.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Top with filling and sprinkle with sugar. Cover and freeze.
To bake: Thaw completely in refrigerator.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes or until browned.

Mighty China Remove All Iran Sanctions Placed By U.S and E.U

In this eye-opening video, we explore the shifting dynamics of power and influence between Iran, the United States, and China. With the U.S. imposing stringent sanctions on Iran, China steps in to form a strategic alliance, challenging the global power balance. Learn more about the economic, political, and strategic implications of this trilateral relationship and how it could shape the future of global geopolitics.

What was one experience in your life that hardened you as a person?

Going anonymous because it is a part of my life that not even my closest friends are aware of.

This is from the time when I was 12 years old. My mom had a problem where her breast would develop lumps which would have to be removed surgically. This problem started before I was born and she would undergo these procedures every couple of years. We lived in a small town with limited access to advanced medical facilities, but the doctors always told us that the lumps were not malignant.

When I was 12, this one lump was growing very big. My dad (who is a doctor himself) decided to take her to Delhi to get some tests done. I have two elder sisters and we (me, my sister and my parents) live with my grandparents.

So, my parents were away in Delhi and my grand mother would spend the day on the phone talking to relatives, spreading rumors that my mom actually had cancer and saying that we three are a burden on them and that they just want my parents to come and get us off their head.

My sisters, who were older and more mature, would mostly stay in their room, but I, by nature liked to be outside with my mom and in her absence, my granny. Hearing these things used to hurt me, but I wouldn’t tell my sisters since I knew they’d be hurt even more.

I started taking up house-work with my granny (though we had help by my granny used to crib that we 3 were a burden)-cooking half meals, helping with washing clothes. All this I did without my sisters’ knowledge (or they’d never have let me do it).

This was a time when mobiles didn’t exist in India and fixed line phones were the only means of communication. News from my parents used to reach us with a lag. We just kept praying that our mom comes back safely.

After tests at AIIMS (top hospital in India), our parents returned awaiting results and my granny immediately left for my aunt (her daughter’s) place citing she needed “rest”.

Results came in-the growth didn’t seem malignant but needed a fairly complicated medical procedure in Chandigarh. These were times when my dad was under a lot of financial pressure (though my grandparents were well-off and my dad was the only son). My dad requested my granny over call that they need to leave immediately and that though he had applied for their life savings-their FDs to be broken, but if it doesn’t happen on time, if my grandparents could lend money till the FD money could reach home.

Unbelievably, my granny just didn’t come home! She made my aunt call in saying she would stay longer at her place and that my parents can leave for the surgery! I still remember my dad almost crying, not sure if he would be able to arrange money on time to save his wife (the tumour had grown visibly big). By God’s grace, the FDs broke a day before they had to leave and they left us alone, at the trust of the neighbours who were more helpful than my grandparents!

It was a long, painful time when my mother received treatment-a surgery which lasted 9 hours, where doctors almost gave up hope, where she was on ventilator support for days. All this while, I kept hearing from my granny’s conversations as she invited friends over, that it was certainly cancer, that such complicated surgeries could only be for cancer. It kept on making the 12-year old me scared as I knew cancer is something bad, it is something that can take away my mom.

We first got a chance to speak to our mom after 35 days when she managed to call from a hotel after her discharge. Those 35 days had been a struggle beyond my imagination for my parents (which they told me much later when I was around 20). With just my dad for company-he had managed everything from sleeping on hospital floors to washing my mom’s clothes.

My mom has recovered fully and still prays everyday for the doctors who cured her.

My dad still hates my grand parents, and I don’t feel any love for them wither.

My grand dad passed away a few years ago and we still live with my granny because my mom still thinks its our duty.

But, the pain is still there, the fear that the 12-year old felt is still there ,the betrayal is still feels fresh when I see my granny.

I grew up in those 2 months, chopped off my hair because I had long hair and my granny wouldn’t help manage them.

I hardened, realized I only have my parents and my sisters who will stand by me, and I will stand by them till I die.

I realised the world is cruel, looking at my relatives’ behaviour in that period.

The child in me died.

Why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?

“Dad, when will you retire?” I asked him one day.

“Hector, I retired before you were born,” he laughed.

Confused, I asked again, “Be honest, Dad, I mean, when will you stop working?”

His response was simple, “Working? What’s work? I don’t know what work is.”

“OK, Dad, forget about it,” I said as I assumed he wasn’t willing to talk about this.

“Hector,” he said, “what you know as my job is not work for me. I enjoy architecture so much that I could do this 24/7. This is who I am. Architecture is my life.”

So, to answer your question, why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?

My father lived to be 91 and worked until his body gave up on him. He was a passionate architect who found joy in his work. That’s what kept him active and full of joy every day. His passion for architecture was infectious, and it taught me this valuable lesson about work as a lifestyle.

So, if you ask me about retirement or work-life balance, I’d say it’s better to find what you love and make it a part of your life. When you find that, you’ll stop working and start living. We achieve a balance not by separating work from life but by integrating what you love into your lifestyle.

Today, this is how I see it: It’s not about working less; it’s about loving more what you do.

That’s the secret to a fulfilling life. As my father always said, “The day you find what you love is when you will stop working.”

Heavy Rain forced Mother Cat to Carry her kitten in Streets, but No One Opened the Door for Them!

In the pouring rain, we spotted a soaked cat seeking shelter. Feeling sorry for her, we followed as she led us to her hidden kitten in the woods. We gently petted the mama cat, who had braved the relentless rain. The tiny, wet kitten needed our care, so we wrapped him in a warm blanket. Back at our home, where rescued cat families and foster cats live together happily, we ensured both mother and baby were dry and well-groomed. A vet visit ensured mama cat’s health, and we even gave the kitten a bath, revealing his adorable charm. The heartwarming reunion between mother and kitten was filled with playfulness and bonding, showing the strength of family ties.

https://youtu.be/-xzP2TMSoMQ

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Here’s one example, regarding myself: I was working as a bouncer at a bar in Erie, Pa one night and some guy, about 24 years old or so was making quite a bit of trouble, harassing customers, pushing some, bullying others, etc.

He was somewhat high, but not drunk, and it seemed he was there just to harass and embarrass/humiliate some who were there with a date. He was pretty big, about 225 pounds and about 6 feet and acting like a real bully. When I was told about some guy doing these things ( He wasn’t near my door, but farther inside ), I went in to see what was up.

When I got there he was harassing some poor kid who was clearly scared and was with his girlfriend. As I approached, a few people pointed at this guy and said, “get him out if here, he’s an asshole.” .

I got up to him and very nicely told him to leave the kid alone and that he’d have to leave because he was causing too much trouble.

He looked at me, stood up as high as he could (I hate when they do that, like it matters), and said, “Who’s going to make me?” I said, simply, “me.”

He told me to get lost or he’d beat the shit out of me.

I said, “Well, let’s go outside and see who comes back in, and, if it’s you, you can stay.” He smiled, said,”I’m gonna enjoy this” and said, “let’s go” and we walked outside. By that time, everyone, including the other bouncer at my door knew what was going to happen.

The other bouncer, Tommy Williams, just stood at the door and smiled while we walked outside. Well, when we got out about 15 feet from the door, the moron suddenly turned and tried to hit me with a roundhouse kick which I not only blocked, but grabbed his leg and picked him up by the leg and threw him to the ground, saying, ”I don’t think karate is going to help you here.”

He jumped up and said, “how about this, asshole? and then tried a double leg takedown, as, apparently, at some time he was a wrestler. I actually laughed and said, “oh, you want to wrestle, huh?” and then as I countered his sad attempt, the other bouncer, who had heard everything, shouted out: “Wrestle? well you picked the right guy, he’s the National wrestling Champion……”

I just said, “You picked the wrong guy you moron,” and, as my friend, Tommy later said to me, I literally swept the parking lot with him.

I never saw him after two of his friends ended up taking either home or to the hospital.

He was a bully.

He got to feel like those he had bullied before.

I was NOT kind to him.

No regrets, but I bet he was kinda surprised when he heard the other bouncer tell him who I was, and he had no escape, as even as he said over and over, “I quit, I give up.”

I told him that it wasn’t up to him, It was my call and I wasn’t done yet.

That is a scary thing to realize, that you can’t quit, that it’s up to the guy beating the crap out of you. But I believe it has led others like that guy to never bully anyone again. Jeff

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

Sat in a bar in South Pattaya one Sunday afternoon in 1991 I noticed a fairly fit looking bloke dressed only in flip flops and shorts. He suddenly ordered everyone a drink then turned to me and said “I see my friend that you are interested in my tattoos.” I wasn’t that interested but I wasn’t going to argue and let him tell me. One he’d got for some work in the Philippines – the other some thing in the Mekong Delta. A mahout then came by with a large elephant which the man went across to look at saying they’d always fascinated him. So I asked him where he came from – American Samoa he replied. And what did he do? He worked “for the government”.

He then stepped back and ordered another drink for everyone in the bar. I thanked him and he turned and said “Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we may be dead”. He then looked me in the eye with the coldest eyes I’d ever seen and said “ You know it is very easy. I pick up the gun, I pull the trigger and they are gone.” It was evident he wasn’t bullshitting.

That evening I saw the bar owner – who comes from Texas – and mentioned this guy. “Oh yes that’s so and so – he’s a US Navy SEAL. Bad news when he’s drunk.”

Guess I can be thankful I met him whilst he was sober!

Atheist Overdoses; Shown Soul’s Process Of Pre-Life Planning (NDE)

Her story is powerful. All of her words should have been heard and none bleeped out….

What are your thoughts on the owner of Home Depot saying,” The rise of socialism is making people too lazy, fat, and stupid to work”?

If you are offended by profanity, best skip this response.

I, too, am in the top 1% of wealth holders in this country, albeit, on lowest rung, yet minimum wage at my small Inn is higher than it is at this billionaire cunt’s company. I have no problem finding employees. This piece of shit motherfucker sits on his yacht sipping pina coladas while his employees need a second job to just pay the bills to live their day to day lives.

This asshole supports the Republican Party with massive amounts of money, and as a wealthy person, I can tell you a thing or two about how tax laws work in this country. For those of you who make less than $250k a year but still vote Republican, your economic misery is your own fault. The Democratic Party has LOTS of problems, but one problem they don’t have is trying to make life better for the average person and if you stopped watching your choice of right wing media, you’d soon realize that. It’s people like this cunt who are destroying America and contributing NOTHING to it.

What did this prick do? He built a fucking store, massively exploited his workforce by grabbing all the loot for himself and then whining when ordinary people have had enough and don’t want to work for anymore. Fuck him, and his fellow cunt billionaires.

How do you know you are rich?

When I was doing my B Tech, there was a Professor Talukedar who used to teach us ‘Mechanics’.

His lectures used to be very interesting since he had an interesting way to teach and explain the concepts.

One day, in the class, he asked the following questions,

What is ZERO.
What is INFINITY.
Can ZERO and INFINITY be same.

We all thought that we knew the answers and we replied as following,

ZERO means nothing
INFINITY means a number greater than any countable number
ZERO and INFINITY are opposite and they can never be same

He countered us by first talking about infinity and asked, ‘How can there be any number which is greater than any countable number?’

We had no answers.

He then explained the concept of infinity in a very interesting way, which I remember even after more than 35 years.

He said that imagine that there is an illiterate shepherd who can count only upto 20.

Now, if the number of sheep he has less than 20 and you ask him how many sheep he has, he can tell you the precise number (like 3, 5 14 etc.). However, if the number is more than 20, he is likely to say “TOO MANY”.

He then explained that in science infinity means ‘too many’ (and not uncountable) and in the same way zero means ‘too few’ (and not nothing)

As an example, he said that if we take the diameter of the Earth as compared to distance between Earth and Sun, the diameter of earth can be said to zero since it is too small.

However, when we compare the same diameter of earth with the size of a grain, diameter of earth can be said to be infinite.

Hence, he concluded that the same thing can be ZERO and INFINITE at the same time, depending on the context, or your matrix of comparison.

The relationship between richness and poverty is similar to the relationship between infinity and zero.

It all depends on the scale of comparison with your wants.

If your income is more than your wants, you are rich.
If your wants are more than your income, you are poor.

I consider myself rich because my wants are far lesser than my income.

I have become rich not so much by acquiring lots of money, but by progressively reducing my wants.

If you can reduce your wants, you too can become rich at this very moment.

Ep 9. We just moved to Bulgaria! How is it going?

From the UK to Bulgaria.

Have you ever caught your spouse cheating on you in your own home? How did you deal with it?

I came home very sick with flu one day, went up to my bedroom, my husband was in my bed with the mail lady. I told them both to get the fuck out of my house. He argued that he needed sleep cuz he worked overnights. He needed his clothes and stuff. I told him all his clothes would be alongside the garage by Monday. It’s where the garbage is kept. Take a shirt and stuff he needed for tonight and get lost. Take a shower at her house or work. I packed up his stuff in garbage bags along with the topper to our wedding cake, some mementos from our honeymoon, I was being passive aggressive I agree, but how dare he sleep with her in our bed, in our home. We had a 2 year old and a 6 mos old. He was just wrong. He showed up a month later crying to me that she had broken up with him. I told him too bad, I didn’t feel bad for him in the least. I got the house( and mortgage) in the divorce. It was ok cuz I wanted the kids to stay in their home and school and I made more money, the root cause of the problem. He felt inadequate cuz I was a senior manager and he was doing maintenance work. This was no issue for me, just for him.

What caused you to fall out of love with your past lover?

When I first got married, we would be passionate everywhere, if you know what I mean, bed, floor, couch, where ever. We would do things for each other. And we enjoyed each other’s company. She was from Japan I am white american.

I learned to speak Japanese and we lived in Japan a few years and life was good. We had kids together, but over the years things grew cold between us.

They say that people change and you grow apart. I don’t think either of us changed. I doubt that most people change. What I suspected happened was that I would base my love on how much she loved me and visa versa. If she did something nice for me, I would do something nice for her. Or if I did something nice for her, she would do something nice for me.

That all sounds fine and dandy, but I think in practice, it doesn’t work. When I do something nice for her, I expect something of equal niceness in return. However, often is the case that you don’t perceive what is done in return is as valuable as what you gave him or her. So the next time you do something, you feel less inclined to do something as nice. And so the love kind of fizzles.

You basically stop caring because you perceive your partner as not caring. And chances are your partner feels the same way about you. Neither person has changed. They are both the same person, but the love isn’t there anymore. They let it spiral into nothingness.

That is what my wife and I did. After 20 some odd years of marriage, there was nothing. I really had no desire to do anything for my wife, because she wasn’t going to do anything for me. We didn’t hate each other. We helped each other when needed, but that is about all.

I was unhappy with the marriage. I either wanted out or I wanted it fixed. But after 20 years of marriage, I knew that she wasn’t going to try and fix the marriage. I knew that she thought I would not change so why should she have to do anything special and if I did change, it would only be temporary and things would go back to how they were, so why even try. I knew this would be her mind set.

So I had 3 options. Divorce, stay in the lifeless, sexless marriage, or take a chance and do something about it.

I thought perhaps divorce would be the better way. Start anew. She had given up on me and didn’t care.

But I decided to give it a try anyway. I completely revamped my approach. I decided that I would try for one year to fix this. I would not require her to do anything. I would just do these things on my own. If these things wooed her back then she would be back on her own terms and not mine.

So I did the following.

I committed to get into shape… better diet, exercise
I committed to do something special for her everyday regardless of whether we were getting along or not.
I committed to do at least an additional 30 minutes of house work every day.
I committed to pay her a sincere compliment at least once per day.
I committed not to fight with her and to only have calm arguments with her.
I decided to fix her dinner and breakfast as often as possible.
In essence I decided to love her every day.

As I thought, I got essentially no response from her day after day. I mean she would sometimes say thank you, but that was about it. After about four months she started to change. I kept at it. She continued to change. Ok.. she didn’t change. She was the same person, but she saw that I was trying. She saw that she was important to me. She saw that I wasn’t giving up. She wanted to be loved.

She started doing things for me again. We started talking a lot more and doing a lot more together. We started dating again and going on trips. It was almost like we were newly weds again, but with less passion, but it felt great. Sometimes I would just hold her in my arms for 30 minutes.

Love can be revived. It is not easy. True love takes work. Making the decision above to love her regardless was the second best decision of my life. The first of course was to marry her. Our marriage is not perfect, but I look forward to seeing her every day. She is an awesome woman. She is basically the same person I married. We just let our love die. We were lazy lovers. She asked me one day what got into me and I talked with her about my plan. I think it was a pretty good plan and so did she. And yes, we are still married, but much more happily now.

I knew our love couldn’t be one sided, but I also knew it needed to start somewhere and why not me. Ask yourself, why not you? Do you want the love back? what kind of sacrifice are you willing to make to have the love back? If I had decided that she needed to do something while I was doing something, then we would have been right back to where we started. You can’t base your actions on what the other is doing in return. You need to commit to love regardless of what is done in return. That is the sacrifice and that is where real love will begin.

Edit.

I can’t believe how many people have read and liked this. Someone mentioned the 40 day challenge. I found out about that several months after I started on this path. There is a movie out there along these same lines called fireproof that is worth a watch.

For me things didn’t change around in 40 days. It took quite a bit longer. But you have to ask yourself is divorce really the better way out? Yes, sometimes it is. But infidelity doesn’t have to be the end of life as we know it.

I look back on these events and they seem like a distant memory, the hurt and pain. like a forgotten dream. But it really wasn’t that long ago. I am a better person because of it. She has become a better person as well and we are definitely a better couple.

6 REASONS WHY AMERICANS ARE OBESE. WHAT IS CAUSING THE RISING OBESITY IN THE USA?

It’s no secret that obesity in America has been an ongoing issue and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

In fact, according to Harvard University; about 2 in every 3 adults or 69 percent of the population in the US are overweight while1 in 3 adults are obese or 39 percent.

It has to make you wonder how the most powerful and advanced nation in the world can be so obese especially when compared to countries in Europe and Asia, it’s not like we don’t have the means as a nation for healthier lifestyle and better-quality food.

Or maybe Americans are meant to be obese, and they want us to stay that way? Sounds controversial right, well in this video we will expose 8 reasons why Americans are so obese compared to other countries.

Why is Burma so poor?

Our country born with troubles since its independence.

Have you ever heard about the Burma Campaign in World War 2? It is quite thorough and one of the most destructive campaigns largely forgotten by Western Powers and historians. The entire infrastructure of the country was destroyed during the course of the war. By the end of the war, the country was totally in rubbles and a massive number of firearms were widespread even in the village level which was left behind by warring powers. The situation was ripe for armed insurgencies.

The country was never been administered as a whole before British arrival. The region out of central Myanmar was usually administered by local petty chiefs with vassal-high king relationship which never need any direct contact between different cultures (except a few tributary missions and merchants). There is no large-scale internal trade and the transportation was also difficult. Different cultures and ethnic groups suddenly came into contact under British rule. As usual, the British exploited the situation by creating a divide & conquer strategy by favouring ethnic minorities over the Burmese majority. This led to extreme Burmese nationalism.

Due to economic disaster in the 1930s and later devastating war, the country is under very hard economic conditions which was a natural breeding ground for communism. The Burmese Communist Party which never believed in British plan for independence already went rebellion even before independence.

Then, the world’s longest-running civil war began.

In the 1950s and 60s, the civil war lost momentum and Burma came under the spotlight of international relations due to its leading role in third world nations, one of the founders of the non-aligned movement. The country was also the only real democratic nation in Southeast Asia with regular elections. The country largely recovered from the war at the beginning of the 1960s and hopes ran high. A federal system was proposed by the ethnic leaders and the government agreed.

All out of sudden, the coup came. At first, people weren’t serious as they already seen a short 2 years long military rule which stabilized the country and the coup ended with the mostly free and fair elections. By the time they realized that the military is no longer intended to give up the power this time, the civil war gained intensity and all the things we achieved in the last 10 years were gone.

The military junta slowly transformed themselves into businessmen by laying hands on the country’s economy entirely. The Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) ran by the military alone control nearly 40–50% of the country’s economy directly or indirectly. With the lack of a proper banking system, the ordinary people have no access to much-needed capital for investments. Small and Medium scale businesses have no chance to grow unless the monopoly of military elites and their relatives were removed.

My daughter hit her younger brother in the groin so he slapped her across the face. I confiscated all his devices and grounded him for a month. Was that a good enough punishment or not?

So he responds in self-defense and you teach him that if the attacker is female he’s supposed to just sit there writhing in pain getting injured? And she got off scott-free?

What’s next? She stabs him and he gets tossed in a closet and fed gruel and water? Because you might as well.

If you knew she attacked first, you should have punished HER. You discipline all parties that have transgressed, not just the ones who have a penis. Having a vagina doesn’t magically bestow immunity on a person.

If you confiscated all his devices, you should have confiscated hers as well. For his month of grounding, she should have received two.

There’s a big difference between a slap in the face (which stings but quickly dissapates) and kicking someone in the jewelies (which could cause irreparable damage).

No. You’re punishment wasn’t good enough. You half-assed it due to sexist reasoning. Go back and discipline your daughter as well.

Who Wants To Be A WARMONGER?!

Inspired by the war hawks that run the West, it’s the game show that always ends badly!

What is the kindest act you have ever witnessed?

Even though this was a relatively small thing, it affected me profoundly.

On my lunch break from work, I went to a fast food place. A homeless man came in. He was absolutely filthy, with long, greasy hair and dirty hands, dressed in raggedy clothes with a piece of blanket wrapped around him. He smelled bad. He didn’t seem able to talk and he went from table to table, sort of chittering at people, like a rat. People were pretty horrified and either gave him a quarter or just ignored him.

There was one table with 4 Mexican day laborers. These are guys who often are in the U.S. “illegally” and who hang around outside home improvement stores, hoping to pick up jobs. They don’t make much money and sometimes people cheat them, knowing the laborers can’t go to the authorities. A lot of these men may live in one house so they can save money and send it back to their families in Mexico.

When this homeless man came up to their table, they asked him, “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?” Then they gave him all of their food, packing it up for him so he could carry it away. Then they didn’t go and buy more food themselves (they probably couldn’t afford it), but simply cleared the table and walked out. They knew what it was to suffer, and they very likely would suffer a bit from their generosity. But that didn’t stop them; and they were the best example of kindness I have ever seen. It was over 30 years ago, and it still affects me.

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

The night my daughter died in a double hit-and-run in Colorado, a stranger stopped to help her and was witness to the second car that hit her, ending her life. He had been trying to help her though; he called for an ambulance and although it was ultimately unsuccessful, every effort was made to save her life. That stranger is a hero as far as I’m concerned.

The man who tried to help was very traumatized by what he had witnessed and had to change jobs so that he no longer had to daily pass by the place where my daughter died as he went to and from work. Unrelated to the accident, he and his wife got rid of their landline when they moved. I wanted very much to thank him but although I had tried every way I knew, his job had changed, he no longer had a telephone I could call 411 for and he no longer lived in the same place. I finally decided that simply being grateful would have to be enough, even if I couldn’t tell him myself.

Two years later, I’m sitting at the dinner table in a hostel in London and strike up a conversation with a guy also having dinner there. He was from the same area as me. He remembered my daughter’s death not just from it being in the news, but because the husband of one of his co-workers had stopped and tried to help the young lady.

OMG.

To make a long story short, he put me in touch with his co-worker and I was able to email her and express my thanks and gratitude for her husband’s efforts that night. She emailed me back and said that although her husband was desperately sorry he couldn’t save her, he was grateful that she didn’t have to die alone. He is a hero in my eyes and I’m so glad I got to let him know how grateful our family is. May he and his loved ones be abundantly blessed.

China Reveals HUGE Sanctions On US Tech Giants Due A STAGGERING Unpaid $1 Trillion

The direct consequences for the implicated U.S. tech companies are potentially disastrous. China is a significant market for many of these entities, and the sanctions could drastically affect their revenue, stock prices, and global operations. Companies like Apple, which rely on China for both sales and a vast portion of their supply chain, could see significant disruptions. The same goes for firms like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, which have invested billions in capturing the Chinese market and establishing a supply chain nexus.

Furthermore, these sanctions could also impact hundreds of smaller U.S. tech firms and startups that might not be direct targets but could suffer collateral damage due to the intertwined nature of the tech ecosystem. This isn’t just a bilateral U.S.-China issue; the sanctions have ramifications for the global tech industry. Supply chains across the world are intricately linked, and disruptions in China could lead to ripple effects impacting tech manufacturing globally. Countries and businesses that rely on these tech giants for critical infrastructure, software, and hardware might find themselves caught in the crossfire.

The European Union, India, Japan, and South Korea, among others, will be closely watching the developments. Any prolonged conflict could force these nations to recalibrate their tech dependencies and alliances. On the diplomatic front, this escalation further strains an already tense U.S.-China relationship. The last few years have witnessed a hardening of stances on both sides, with trade wars, tech bans, and territorial disputes. This new development might just push the diplomatic ties to a new low.

As the news of China’s unprecedented sanctions reverberated across the globe, key stakeholders began weighing in, highlighting the vast complexities of the issue. Major international business councils, traditionally silent on political matters, expressed deep concern over the possible long-term disruptions to global trade. Wall Street responded predictably, with significant declines in tech stock prices. Investor sentiments seem to mirror the broader fears. If China and the U.S., two of the world’s largest economies, can’t resolve their differences amicably, what hope is there for the stability of the global economic order?

Moreover, experts in international relations also sounded the alarm. The escalation of this magnitude in the U.S.-China tech conflict marks a deviation from conventional trade disagreements. The integration of geopolitics with business is not new, but the scale of this rift indicates a deep-seated power struggle reflecting ambitions, fears, and strategies beyond mere economic interests.

One of the most pressing concerns for the sanctioned tech companies and the international community is the verification of China’s claim. How is this enormous one trillion dollars figure reached without transparent documentation and a clear breakdown? Suspicions linger over the validity of such a vast sum. The call for a neutral third-party audit has gained traction in various quarters. International bodies like the World Trade Organization could potentially mediate, ensuring that claims and counterclaims are examined impartially.

While the U.S. government has not yet announced any countermeasures, there’s widespread speculation about potential retaliation. Would the U.S. respond with equivalent sanctions on Chinese tech companies? Could there be a broader economic response that targets other sectors of the Chinese economy? Such a move would undoubtedly lead to further escalation, intensifying the trade war and potentially causing harm to global economic stability.

https://youtu.be/0HdX5XhiMMQ

Date Pudding Cobbler

Yield: 9 servings

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cold butter
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup water
Whipped cream, for garnish
Ground cinnamon, for garnish

Instructions

In a bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar and baking powder.
Cut in butter until crumbly.
Gradually add the milk, dates and walnuts.
In saucepan, combine water and remaining brown sugar; bring to a boil. Remove from heat; add the date mixture and mix well.
Transfer to a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
If desired, top each serving with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

What are the cleverest scams you have come across?

As an immigrant, one thing that always spooks me is paperwork and all related things to immigration process.

One day, I was outside working on my garden, when I came back inside, there were four missed calls. Just like a habit, I copied and pasted the phone number to Google search, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Corpus Christi Border Patrol Station popped up.

I started panicking. Why? Why they called me?!?? So, when the phone number appeared again a few minutes after that, I picked it up.

A woman on the phone let me know that there was someone used my identity to cross the border, tried to traffic drugs into the country. She told me that this could happen because I traveled outside of the country recently (which was correct). I was nervous. Then the woman proceeded to tell me she ‘would help me to verify and straighten things up’. Then she asked me my full name, DoB and Social Number.

At this point, I started smelling B.S. I told her, wasn’t it an identity thief case? Shouldn’t she have those information already? She got furious and told me, she was ‘trying to help’ and I needed to ‘cooperate’ or else I would ‘end up in jail’.

I decided to cut off the call, told her I would contact my lawyer and said goodbye then hung up.

I did some searching, then I decided to call back the phone number. It went to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Corpus Christi Border Patrol Station for real. I talked to an officer. He told me I was right hanging up the call and told me scammers nowadays gets really aggressive. They can hi-jack the phone number line like that, so the Caller ID looks like it’s legitimate from government offices. He also told me: If the government wants anything from you, they will send snail mails, they don’t call.

It was a very interesting experience.

Star Trek – Parallel Universe

Reaping the whirlwind

Israel war. Ukraine war. Niger war. Maybe soon… Taiwan war.

Which nation is center to all these wars?

Geo-Politics is a real bitch. It’s the middle of the HOT PHASE of the massive Global Turning that we all are experiencing.

But we have PAST the THREAT THRESHOLD. So do not get too caught up.

…

Today.

How did your marriage end?

He came home from work, ate dinner, and said , ““I want you to do something and I don’t want you to fight me on this. I want a divorce.” I was completely blindsided. Then he packed a bag and left for his mother’s house. I made him leave his key. He didn’t understand that, ““how will I get in the house?” I replied that he had no reason to enter the house when I wasn’t home. He didn’t live there anymore. He was shocked.

I started thinking about his infidelity and the micro-aggressions that had recently increased; for Christmas he had given me a bottle of men’s cologne! That’s it. Of course, he kept it for himself. It was evident that he had given my gift absolutely no thought.

So instead of begging him to stay, I emptied out the joint accounts and made an appointment with a family attorney for the next day.

Of course he wanted to drag things out. He came to get his things the same week, and I watched TV while he packed and loaded the car. He actually asked me to help. I said “This is something you want to do, not me.”

Before he left, I told him that I know he is still committing adultery and that my attorney said he should be careful about that. Lots of denying and sputtering but the thing that bothered him most was my getting a lawyer. He actually said “You got a lawyer? You know I will always take care of you. Don’t you trust me?”

By the way, he told me the reason he needed space was “the children are grown now, so I don’t have to pretend anymore. I never wanted a family that I had to hang out with.”

So that was the end. A year later, a judge granted me about a third of his assets and income as alimony until I remarry or die. We were married 32 years, and I was 65 years old. I’m sitting pretty comfortably and very peacefully in a different city. Except for incidental paperwork handled by my attorney, I have no contact. I don’t have to pretend anymore, either.

‘’Edit: I want to say that finally getting a chance to tell my story has been cathartic for me. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I am much less angry and more resolved to live well after this. Thank you all.”

INTERVIEW: Reaping the whirlwind

Karma is a BITCH. Well said Scott.

Steak over Noodles

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) round steak, cut into strips
1 can tomatoes and green chiles
1 can sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon oregano
Parmesan cheese
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can tomatoes
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 package egg noodles, cooked

Instructions

Cut steak into small strips.
Heat oil in a large skillet. Add steak and brown quickly.
Combine tomatoes and green chiles with onion soup mix. Pour over steak.
Add remaining ingredients, except noodles and cheese. Simmer until steak is tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours.
Cook noodles according to package directions, then drain well.
Serve steak mixture over cooked noodles. Top with parmesan cheese.

What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

Last week I needed to drive to Sheffield for my brother’s funeral. On the morning in question I thought I had better top up the oil so l lifted the bonnet, undid the oil filler cap and placed it on top of the engine. It rolled off and fell down into the body of the engine just below the fan belt and where all the pipes and tubes and things I don’t understand are. I tried reaching it, I tried a magnetic rod, I tried a long reach grabber thingy but couldn’t get it.

I stuffed some paper towels in the oil filler orifice and set off for my local garage. Explained the situation on arrival and they immediately allotted a young lad to retrieve it for me. He got it up on the ramps, undid a few things, removed a panel or two and then there was my oil filler cap.

Then they did the unthinkable – they said there was no charge and they were happy to do it for me.

Needless to say I couldn’t stand for that type of impertinence and gave them £20 and told them to have a drink on me.

What is something that the 1% do that 99% won’t do?

The 99% work following a linear formula:

Skill×Time=Paycheck

There’s NO leverage in that equation.

To answer your question, what is something that the 1% do that the 99% won’t do?

The 1% work with a non-linear formula, with business leverage:

We all have the same 24 hours in a day.

The 99% focus their efforts on increasing their skills on making more money.

The 1% are focused on finding creative ways of making the most of their limited time and energy using leverage. How?

Using other people’s time (employees)
Using other people’s talents (expert advisors)
Using other people’s money (Banks)
Using technological advances (Automation)
Scaling their knowledge (Systems)

Why did China invest 400 billion in Iran?

China and Iran are still discussing a $400 billion strategic agreement over 25 years.

This agreement has many benefits for both countries.

Since Donald Trump unilaterally denounced the Vienna nuclear agreement that Iran had been respecting, Iran has once again found itself under a very strict embargo.

Iran has realized that the European Union is not in a position to resist the pressure of American sanctions.

Therefore, Iran is looking for partners who can help it resist US economic sanctions. China is the only partner capable of offering this.

China will invest 400 billion dollars in Iran over the next 25 years if this agreement is signed in early 2021.

This agreement provides for the sale of Iranian oil and gas to China at a preferential rate. China could also set up military bases in Iran and have privileged access to all investments in the country.

Iran would join China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

For China, securing its oil and gas supply is essential. For Iran, having a partner as powerful as China will enable it to better resist the United States.

An Iran-Russia-China axis is being formed to better resist the United States.

CHINESE VS AMERICAN BOOKSTORES

So typical China.

This is a MUCH WATCH.

https://youtu.be/1bn-FQBsvT8

How do the surgeons preserve a patient’s dignity during surgery?

Two years ago, a surgeon told me my left testicle was malignant and had to be removed. He worked out of a teaching hospital, so he asked if the students could come in. They get very few malignancies like this— a rare form of cancer. I agreed. Every visit, I’d have 5 drop dead gorgeous women in masks and white coats come in and feel my nutsack while the surgeon had his hand in there giving the tour.

One day, while the crew was working my nutsack over, I noticed a woman had come into the room, and was standing back from the crowd huddled around my nether-regions. She seemed hesitant.

“It’s okay.” :I said. “Join the party.”

“No thanks,” she said. “I’m just here to have you sign some forms.”

Look, one thing you’re going to have to get over with this sort of thing is dignity. There’s just no room for it.

When the day came, I drew a big arrow up my left leg with marker and wrote THIS ONE! When I got in the operating theatre, there were over a dozen people. Some were surgical team , while others were student observers. Before they passed me the gas, I sat up on the table and asked for everyone’s attention.

“Just so there’s no confusion here,” I said. “I want everyone here to repeat for me; ‘It’s the left nut!’”

“It’s the left nut!”

I didn’t want any mistakes.

My advice to anyone reading this is as follows. Throw away all notions that what you have under your clothes is private and unique. Whoever is going to see you started working on this with cadavers. The whole point of the exercise is to keep you from ending up as one of those cadavers. Once you embrace it, have fun with it. You might as well. You’re getting cut on anyway— one way or the other.

Just so y’all know, the orchiectomy went well. I was back at work in less than a week. The cancer returned 9 months later. I had to undergo chemo; that darn near killed me, but I pulled through and made it out to my deer stand that November. I’m now cancer-free and there is very little chance of it returning.

The National Debt And The Everyday American

Why does the United States have so many more prisoners than other countries?

Up until the late 1960s, U.S. prisoner populations weren’t much that greater than other similar countries.

However, both the Nixon administration and the Reagan administration decided to use the justice system to fight both the counter-culture movement and, of course, minorities. Many states already had draconian laws in place for marijuana possession (Michigan made it a felony punishable by life imprisonment) but the federal government upped their own penalties for marijuana, treating it as the equivalent of a narcotic (which it wasn’t).

This initiative was, of course, given the name “The War on Drugs” as “The war against hippies and uppity n*ggers” didn’t play out so well in the press. African-Americans and Hispanics were using their newly found “civil rights” to vote for Democrats in droves, pretty much driving Republican mayors and councilmen out of America’s biggest cities, where blacks and Hispanics were quickly becoming the majority.

Naturally, none of the new drug laws were administered equally. Possession by rich white people in the suburbs was pretty much ignored or got a slap on the wrist, while police and the courts came down hard on blacks and the poor living in the big cities.

The effect on these communities were immediate – other crimes related to drugs started to rise in concert as drug dealers stopped being the friendly guy down the street and started to be organized criminal gangs with the wherewithal to bribe cops and the power to eliminate competition. Having most of your young male population serving time in jail devastated black and Hispanic communities, fueled prison and street gangs as prisons became more overcrowded, overwhelmed the courts with drug cases. Cities collapsed as those who could moved out and the people left became more desperate.

With this side effect being crystal clear by 1980 when Reagan was elected, he decided to double down. The new menace was “crack”, cheaper than cocaine, but shorter acting. It was preferred by the poor as a gram of cocaine could set you back $100, but a dose of crack with much less cocaine might only be $10. Nevertheless, even though a gram of crack contained less than .1 gram of cocaine, the penalty for using it was identical. That meant white cokeheads got the same sentences as black crack users for using a more potent drug. That particular issue wasn’t fixed until the Trump administration. (It’s the one thing Trump did right, although he did it for all the wrong reasons and got angry when black people didn’t start voting for him).

Meanwhile the underground drug economy was growing by leaps and bounds. Raw product was available in Mexico for peanuts, but once across the border markups of 1000% weren’t uncommon, and then it was marked up again for retail sale. So much money was flowing to Columbian drug lords that they had more money to spare than the government, and a good chunk of the cash coming out of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was solely for the purpose of feeding the drug supply chain. I think I estimated at one point that about 10% of the BEP’s output was going solely to Pablo Escobar.

But you know who else was taking advantage of all this free cash and the cars, planes and yachts that came along with it? United States law enforcement agencies. You see, in most civilized counties, if you levy fines or seize ill gotten assets, all that money “excheats” to general revenue, so it becomes part of general government funding to be distributed as politicians see fit. That wasn’t what happened in the United States. In the United States, the agency that seizes the assets, such as the Drug Enforcement.

Agency or the Customs Service, gets to keep them, and they’re added directly to their budget, just like a small community that runs a speed trap on a major highway.

As such, the efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement started to become to seize as much stuff as possible. A single marijuana cigarette on a yacht allowed the Customs Service to seize and sell the entire thing. The practice was so reviled that even the most conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices railed about its legality, and eventually the Supreme Court forced reform of the system.

So, with many federal, state and local agencies being dependent on drug money for their operations, they got more aggressive and, the more aggressive they got, the bigger they got and the more money they needed.

Naturally, all of this, together with people stealing money for drugs, drug dealers fighting over drug territories, and all the other secondary effects of a prohibition movement (remember alcohol prohibition, remember Al Capone, take that and multiply it by a hundred) the prisons got stuffed full. No problem because it provided a lot of free labour, most of the prisoners were poor, black, or Hispanic, and prison budgets didn’t allow for such luxuries as “enough well trained guards” or “rehabilitation programs”. When many states hit a wall because of the cost of new prisons, they privatized them, paying prison owners a per diem for every prisoner, which the private prisons demanded a new supply of.

Since many drug offences are felonies, it often means that when people are released they’re prohibited from entering lots of fields such as “barber” in New York State (a felony conviction keeps you from being licensed).

Luckily, things are changing on a bipartisan level. Conservatives are noting the cost of running all these prisons as other crimes had longer sentences attached. Drunk driving is a bigger problem than drug use, but it was clogging Texas prisons until they came up with a more effective diversion program to keep people out of jail. The increasing cost of an aging prison population serving time for things that happened when they were 20, and they’re now 70, are stretching prison budgets to the limit. Moreover, the “defund the police” movement notes that many of these initiatives that put people in jail for minor offences turn local populations against the police, making it harder to investigate more serious crimes.

THE GREATEST SPEECH EVER by AN AFRICAN LEADER explaining THE NEW AFRICA-EVERYONE MUST HEAR Historic

That was epic to say the least.

What are your 10 laws of manhood?

Here are 10 laws of manhood that my father taught me:

1.Don’t pay for sex.

You don’t need it that bad, you’re not an animal, you should spend your evening trying out new pick up lines and having a good time with people.

2. Never chase after a woman

Never base your life around one single person that is not a sure thing, instead, you should be chasing your dreams and goals while trying to make a success of yourself.

3. Know when it’s time to fight back

There comes a point in life, where you can no longer expect others to solve a problem for you. If you can’t stand up for yourself, why should you expect others to? A man should know when it’s time to hit back. There’s never a reason to fight — until there is.

4. Your marriage should not always be a choice between your mother and wife

Your mom is definitely the first woman in your life. But your wife is someone to be cherished and respected, too. A clear line should be drawn between the kind of relationship that you share with both of them. In case of a tussle take a neutral, just and impartial stand.

5. Don’t brag about things you’ve done, instead let the things you’ve done speak for itself. Actions will always speak louder than words so keep that in mind.

6. It’s good to talk about the emotions you’re feeling with loved ones as they’ll be there for you. Being a man does not mean that you have to hide your emotions and be a rock.

7. Stay clean, if you have a long beard then take care of it and keep it neat, brush your teeth and shower

8. Failure doesn’t threaten your manhood

A lot of men fear failure in life, career, and relationships. They feel they aren’t “real men” if they fail. But failure is an essential part of life! It’s a reality of life. Accept it!

9. Be able to cook a good meal.

It’s important. You don’t have to be a chef, but know how to make at least one good meal. It doesn’t need to be fancy, a good sloppy joe is perfectly fine, but be able to cook up something and make sure it’s good.

10. Take action because it is right, not because it is popular.

The things that matter are not merely what is popular at the moment. A true man, a gentleman, takes action because it is the right thing to do, and they do the right thing whether or not it feels cool or fun.

Man Dies & is Shocked to be Shown the Future (NDE)

Jeff Tolley shares his Near Death Experience (NDE) after being so distraught after his brother’s death that he took his own life. While on the other side Jeff met up with his brother and three beings that showed him he had more to live for and the state of his energies bodies. He was also shown his future and the future of Earth. Jeff came back from his near-death experience with a renewed sense for life and a new outlook on life and his purpose.

As an American, do you get offended when you repeatedly try to convince those from Europe, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that America is the greatest country in the world, and they end laughing in your face?

As an Australian who travels to the us a lot , I prefer Australia and New Zealand. I’ve got a business that is growing in the US but I really don’t want to move there so instead endure the 12 hour return flights .

There are some really awesome Americans. But there’s a lot of dicks, and this huge focus on materialism that I just don’t buy. If you drive a $600k super car and look like the Kardashians you are idolised there more than you would be in any other country I know. The American god is the god of material wealth . I find that quite noxious, even though I can afford a $600k car.

what I respect about America is that you can , as a middle class battler, still buy a nice house for USD400k in most cities . America protects its middle class , and that’s cool. Affordable housing is a big tick. I come from humble beginnings and know what it’s like to struggle to get your first house , and I think America does well here .

As a place to live though – naa. Australia and New Zealand far better . And from what I’ve seen Western Europe far better also. Go to downtown LA or San Francisco. It’s vile. Miles and miles of people living on the streets, shooting drugs , littering. It’s some sort of future dystopia ! Who the F would want to live near that depravity. It’s down right depressing and disgusting. It’s what happens when you drive the cost of living beyond what the poor can afford to exist and you offer no support for the cost increases – the bottom 15% of society simply fall out and end up living like animals on the street. Is this the sort of country where you would want your kids to grow up in? Not me , not ever.

America is dangerous, riddled with crime and depravity. They have got it wrong and are paying for it. And it’s gunna get worse.

Don’t take this as all Americans are pricks – they aren’t. But there’s something structurally wrong with that country – not my cuppa!

“The Mandela Effect” These examples will make you question EVERYTHING in your reality

This is fun. And it is a MUST WATCH. Especially for you MM followers.

When Susan Kuhnhausen walked into her house, she immediately knew someone was in her home.

She walked through the house uneasily looking down hallways. In the kitchen. Moving quietly.

She walked past her bathroom. She turned into her bedroom.

Standing there was a bearded man, holding a hammer. He charged her and swung his hammer, hitting her on the side of the head. She fell down. He got on top of her and kept hitting her.

They then began wrestling.

Susan was a larger woman, who was particularly strong and worked as a nurse in the ER, trained on how to subdue wild patients.

After being hit several times, she managed to get her assassin pinned to the ground in a sleeper hold.

She began choking him. When she released him, his throat had been crushed — he later died (after Susan called an ambulance for him).

The assassin had been sent by her husband.

Their marriage had fallen apart and he wanted her dead. He’d paid the assassin $50,000 to kill her.

She was later treated for injuries and made a full recovery. Her husband was then sent to jail for the remainder of his life (he died in prison).

Her would-be assassin’s last words, during their fight, were “you are strong.”

Girl power.

I Had 0 EXPECTATIONS.. But I LOVED IT | Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond (REACTION!)

What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?

Me: “Hello.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Hello. This is Bob Bobson from Microsoft Support. We are seeing a lot of virus activity from your device.”

Me: “Oh no. My device? Are you sure?”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Oh yes, we have many reports.”

Me: “Oh jeez. How can I fix it?”

NOT-Microsoft support: “It’s OK, sir. We can help you right now. Are you in front of your device, sir?”

Me: “Yes. I was just about to use it. I’m glad you called.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes sir, we are going to help you. Can you please push the Start button?”

Me: “I haven’t put in a time yet.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “That’s OK sir, just press the button.”

Me: “OK. What now?”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Now you want to click on Control Panel.”

Me: “I don’t see that.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Do you see a bunch of information above the Start button?”

Me: “Yes.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “That is your Control Panel.”

Me: “Wow, I didn’t realize it had a name.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes sir, now press on Internet Options.”

Me: “Yeah, I definitely don’t see any Internet options. I don’t think I purchased that feature. This is just a cheap one.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “They all have the Internet, sir. Press the Start button again.”

Me: “OK, it’s the same as before.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “That’s OK, sir. We are going to restart your device. Can you please turn it off?”

Me: “Ummm…I don’t know how. I’ve never turned it off. Since I bought it, it just kind of stays on all the time.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “There must be an off button on your device. How do you stop it when it’s running?”

Me: “In those cases, I usually press the big button beneath Stop/Cancel.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “OK, sir. Please press that button.”

Me: “Ok.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Is your device off?”

Me: “No. The door popped open.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Door? Is there a disc inside the door?”

Me: “No, there’s a burrito.”

NOT-Microsoft support: “Why is there a burrito in your computer?”

Me: “Computer? This is a microwave.”

The Sopranos – Carmine Jr Speaks To Lupertazzi Management

Are girls more attracted to confidence or the look of a guy? I’ve seen some couples where the girl is very attractive and the guy is just average, and I’m asking myself, how? Is it because of his confidence? Maybe he’s funny or rich?

My two older sisters, twins, had a long and busy career in fashion modelling. I always thought they would marry the Hollywood hunk type of guy because those were the types they would sometimes go out with.

However, when they did got married, the guys were just your average Joe types; certainly not the Hollywood attractive male type. My parents and I were quite surprised. However both were confident in themselves.

They married good men who always treated them nicely. They didn’t put the girls on pedestals, treat them like starlets or have them as trophy wives. They didn’t ask them to leave modelling. They just treated them as regular women, were loyal, and had a great sense of humour. Of course they loved and cared for them deeply.

Lori and Tracy were the business girls who after modelling, took over dad’s car dealerships when he retired and made them very successful.

Mom was a fashion model who was on her way to Hollywood with a friend when she met dad. Dad was at the time working at a car dealership, which he later bought, but at the time he was a sales manager. “He made me laugh and didn’t fawn all over me like I was a movie star. He treated me as a regular girl and I just fell in love with him,” she said. She was six years younger than dad.

So attractive women don’t always go for the rich, good looking businessman. The smart ones go for the ones that make them happy.

Missile Excerpts from the TV Movie “The Day After”

While not completely accurate in technical approach, the failure of the deterrence mission was shown in the made for ABC TV movie “The Day After” that premiered on 20 Nov 1983. The movie used scenes from the film “First Strike” to show the USAF detection and response to an ICBM attack against the U.S. Presented from the archives of the Association of Air Force Missileers (AAFM).

“I spent 4 years in SAC as a Minuteman II launch crew commander back in the 70s. This depiction of the launch actions is very accurate. Of course, they left out some of the classified details in processing the message, but, all in all, this was very accurate. Several times EVERY DAY we got coded Emergency Action Messages (EAM) that could have been real execution messages for nuclear war. As others have mentioned, we did NOT know whether these were tests/training messages until we had competed decoding and authentication procedures. That was the real test of your nerves. You never knew. I am sometimes asked if the launch crews would obey the execution messages. The answer is an unqualified YES. If the message turned out to be a valid and authentic message, keys would be turned. We believed that the EAMs would not be transmitted unless the U.S. was under attack and the sooner we got our missiles off the ground the sooner we could stop any further incoming attacks. While I count that as a valuable experience in my life, I do not miss the stress.”

Why is America losing the tech war with China?

The truth!

The U.S. can win if they compete on who is better in plundering, looting, stealing, abusing nations, regime change, orchestrating demonstrations and coups and unilateral sanctions. That kind of competition the US will win hands down.

Tech war! Are you kidding me. For ever 100 Chinese engineers the U.S. barely produce one! Chinese will eat them for lunch any day. Over the past decade China has registered twice the U.S. registrations of patent in the U.S. patent registration office.

And according to the Neo con funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute ASPI, out of 44 of the most strategic technologies China leads in 37 of them! The U.S. only manage to lead by a whisker in 7 out of the 44 these days.

Try colour revolutions competition I guarantee the U.S. will! Hahahaha.

Dad Came Back 1,5 Month Later. Cat’s Reaction.

Has a teacher ever accused your child of doing something that you know he could not have done?

Quite clearly. But not my kid.

I was tutoring a young man in HS. He (and several classes of other students) had to take his teacher’s Math Final over the Internet with a non-relative adult as Proctor. He took the Final at the tutoring center with me as Proctor.

About an hour in, he discovered that an entire sentence was missing from a Question rendering it impossible to solve. He asked my help. I refused. He asked my advice. I first looked at the Question and said nothing but knew he was correct — unsolvable because of missing information. “What do YOU think you OUGHT to do?” “EMAIL THE TEACHER, AND THEN DO THE REST OF THE EXAM?” “Then do that.” He did. I watched.

About 20 minutes later the teacher put out an email announcement to all students to skip that question, saying it had a misprint and was missing required information.

Fine. EXCEPT she flunked him saying he was absent from the exam. The problem escalated but the tutoring center did nothing because that teacher had threatened to have our contract with the County terminated (possibly causing massive tutor layoffs and lots of kids screwed….)

At that point I went in to the center’s boss, announced my resignation, and contacted the Principal and the young man’s father’s lawyer. The bitch teacher tried to get support from the Teacher’s Union and got caught in more lies.

The lawyers worked out a compromise. The kid passed and graduated, but the D in a straight A record was kind of a screw job and the bitch teacher accused me of lieing.

Oh well, let it go….

Five years later, my wife and I received a brief note with tickets to a university graduation. The kid not only got in, he was Straight A for four plus years.

US And Western Media’s Dirty Propaganda About China’s Lithography Exposed!

Bro the US cant even compete. Its laughable.

https://youtu.be/lDGMe7cK_RU

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

I had a bank customer who was a older gentleman that had recently lost his wife. He came across as a mean person only because he didn’t engage in conversation nor smiled much. Somehow he trusted me and we became good friends. He was the second person I called when my own father died and he explained to me why my father chose to just give up. My friend was 90 at the time and in better health than my dad. Anyhow he made me understand why he was “tired” and just wanted to feel alive again. I teased him telling him he more less became my surrogate father from then on. The day I quit the bank, he cried thinking I was going to forget him. He had two daughter’s who didn’t live in the same state so I continued to check on him taking him home cooked food, to appointments and just to visit. The day came when he moved into a retirement home so helped him get his house ready to sell. I never asked for anything because I never expected anything. He was a friend and I’ve always enjoyed dealing with elderly people. Once he hit 92, he decided to move near his daughter in another state. That’s when it was my turn to cry. Felt like I was losing my father all over again. Kept in touch with him until the day his daughter called and told me he had a massive heart attack. I was devastated. Months went by until out of the blue I got a call saying he left me alittle something in his will. I didn’t want anything and didn’t have a friendship for that purpose. His little something was a check for 20,000. I was blown away but his daughters thanked me as well for being there for him. It never was a duty but it was more of a way to let him know, he wasn’t alone. I work home health now and always keep him in my mind.

People Who Disappeared Because They Knew Too Much

The people you are about to see in this top made discoveries that would have changed humanity. However, unexpectedly, they disappeared from the face of the Earth or ceased to exist. Many theorize that they disappeared because they knew too much.

What is the Chinese people’s understanding of democracy? Why don’t they have it yet? If they are aware of it, what are their reasons for not wanting it?

One big reason the Chinese people don’t want democracy is the USA.

The USA keeps holding itself out as the world’s prime example of democracy. Chinese people take a look and they are horrified.

The US imprisons more citizens than any other country in the world. The police step on black men’s necks to kill them. U.S cops carry weapons designed for war! Then there are the widespread demonstrations that degenerate into rioting, looting and arson. Half the U.S population believes that the last election was “stolen” from them. Then there is an attack on Capitol Hill. Furthermore Americans say that gun ownership is a fundamental liberty. But every week they have mass shootings. People get killed all the time in schools, supermarkets, pubs, parking lots, country music concerts, churches, Independence Day parades etc. The infrastructure is crumbling, the country is mired in an endless drug crisis and they don’t seem to have a healthcare system. The country claims to have freedom of expression but it bans TikTok, which the rest of the world has. Meanwhile fake news is so prevalent in the US that Americans’ trust in U.S media, as proven by survey results, has plunged to a record low. The country claims to have freedom of religion, but clearly Christian nationalism is sweeping across the USA and women can’t even get birth control or abortion. Also, did you know that the U.S violent crime rate is 3 times higher than that in China, and that the U.S homicide rate is 4 times higher? Meanwhile every day, the Dems and Republics are attacking each other for the sake of attacking and they do not appear at all to be interested in working together in any way for the good of the country.

This terrifies the Chinese people.

Then the USA says “Oh, we are the champions of democracy.”

Well, of course the Chinese people don’t want democracy. “Errr, thanks but no thanks!” they say.

The Middle Class Can No Longer Afford Rent In America

All Americans require a nice, secure, and inexpensive place to live in order to prosper. For years, low-income families have battled to find cheap rental properties, but today the middle class is also facing significant difficulties in this area.

Due to the sharp increase in rent prices seen in major American cities since the outbreak, millions of middle-class Americans are unable to pay their rent.

These middle-class households are being excluded from normal middle-class communities without major income increases or government support, which starts a domino effect that results in systemic poverty and enduring inequality. In other words, middle-class Americans are being squeezed to death by housing costs.

Compared to just two years ago, the average home now costs approximately $80,000 more, and the average rent in the US is over $1,000 more than it will be in 2020.

The survey discovered that while middle-class renters’ salaries have decreased 9% over the past ten years, rents are rising on average by 3.5% yearly.

The American middle class has been spending far more on housing than they can afford in the majority of urban areas across the nation, researchers found.

According to the survey, 46.3% of middle-class renters and 21.2% of middle-class homeowners in the US, respectively, are moderately or severely burdened by housing costs, which are defined as spending more than 30% or 50% of one’s salary on housing.

What would you do if you were told, “pack up your things and leave immediately” from your place of employment?

This happened to me when I was a programmer in London, back when coding was done in ANS Cobol.
I was sitting in my office at around 9:30 a.m., feet up on the desk and probably snoring. The big boss man came in very quietly, pushed my feet off the desk, and told me I was fired and to leave the company immediately.

Well, I know how to wind people up, so I just shrugged and started to leave. He stopped me, asking if I had anything to say, and the conversation went something like this:

Boss: “Why did I find you sleeping on company time?”

Me: “Where were you at 3 a.m. this morning?”

Boss: “In bed with my wife, of course. Why?”

Me: “Well at 3.a.m. I had already been here for two hours fixing a bug that had interrupted the operation of the mainframe computer at around midnight. It was a bit of a bugger to find, and the system wasn’t up and running again until 7:30 this morning. This means that I get triple pay for the hours I worked, all expenses, a full meal (even though no place was open), and today off work. I’m leaving now, and will be contacting my union to discuss how best to get as much as I can in damages”.

His only choice was to give me a raise, which he did. Tosser.

What is the most surprising thing you have accidentally overheard about yourself?

My parents divorced when I was 4. My mother remarried a man one year later in 1965.

He was a very controlling man about most things—but that’s a different story. In the summer between my 4th and 5th grade, he became “Born Again” at a Billy Graham revival. At his insistence, my mother soon followed, as did my sister. I was the only one in our family of 4 who didn’t want to give up their entire life and become a singularly focused religious fanatic.

My stepfather had never really liked me before that. After that he hated me, and could barely contain his loathsome attitude toward me.

Speeding ahead a few years, when I was entering the 12th grade, my mother took me aside one day and told me that they had no money to help me with college—that I was going to have to figure out my future on my own. (She was quite literal about that. They never even once discussed with me what my options might be.) I said it was ok. I’d figure it out. I did, and after high school, I got a job at a factory.

My sister, who is 4 years older than me, did attend a religious college, and while it crossed my mind as to how she was able to pay for college, I never asked. We weren’t very close.

Fast forward to 1994. I am now successful in my career. I have a large house with a swimming pool and hot tub in the backyard. My family—mother, stepfather, sister and her family—are invited to my house for an afternoon barbecue.

My mother and sister are sitting in my hot tub. I am around the corner of the house tending the barbecue. They don’t realize that I’m there. They are talking loudly, and I can clearly hear them. My sister starts talking about college education for her kids and she asks my mom how she and my stepfather saved up the money for her college education.

My mom immediately started to panic, and began shushing my sister to be quiet. She frantically said, “I don’t want Kent to hear this! We told him we had no money for college.”

I always knew that I was the black sheep in the family, but it was in that moment that I truly realized how much I was excluded. From that point on, my eyes and mind were opened to the lies and deception within my family. It forever altered our relationship.

Update- stepfather died. Felt nothing. My wife thinks that I suffer from PTSD because of him. Maybe with time I can now forget and maybe even forgive. I wonder if he got that gold-plated throne next to God that he obsessed on his entire life. I doubt it.

Update- mother died. I felt almost nothing. I do mourn that she was more interested in keeping her abusive husband happy than having an interest in her son. Such is life.

Why CHINA Will Win The Space Race

China has rapidly advanced its space capabilities, achieving milestones such as landing a rover on the far side of the moon and establishing its own space station, the Tiangong. The Chinese space program’s impressive progress has raised concerns in the United States about the potential erosion of its dominance. Today’s episode is explaining how and why China will win the race to space.

What is self-love?

I once was in a very tough situation financially. I worked three jobs at the time to keep up with life.

One day, at the end of the month, my rent was due, my fridge was empty, my paycheck was late, and I got a phone call from my daughter’s teacher reminding me to pay the school fee – my daughter was the only one who hadn’t submitted the payment. I was exhausted and didn’t know what to do, so I called my best friend and just cried. He came to my office, forced me to call in sick that afternoon, then took me to an ice cream shop and bought me an ice cream.

Then he sat me down and told me, ‘Life is tough, so you need to be tougher. In order to do that, you need to be nice to yourself, and don’t beat yourself up. You need a break too. Look, if everything you carry is heavy, you can put it down for a second, take a break, and then pick it up and keep moving. Sometimes, just surviving to the next day can be called a success.’

After that day, I went to the supermarket and bought a package of candy. It’s Korean milk mint candy; it’s really good and I had one every day in the morning to remind me that, no matter how hard life could get, there would be always something sweet, as long as I’m kind to myself. That one candy in the morning was what helped me going strong through life. I don’t remember how many candies I’ve eaten.

I don’t think ‘self-love’ needs to be something big or serious, it can be as small as a candy.

Oh, and I still have that kind of candy around the house:

Does the U.S. regret the chip act that has backfired on most of the successful U. S. chip companies, to the point where they are losing profits, market share, and risk going bankrupt now?

They ought to, they should be…

But of course they won’t publicly. These setback has very severe consequences that cost the US trillions of dollar loss and hundreds of thousand or a million jobs!

The billion of dollars investment in the Chip plant in Arkansas, US is barely in its teething set up stage with painful bickering between the Taiwanese and the U.S. contractors. 3 full years into the most ridiculous day light robbery of Taiwan technology and know how coerce by the U.S. with promises of billions of U.S. taxpayers money as subsidy to produce in a place without the skill and expertise needed and to be made by workers 3 times that if Taiwanese and 10 times benefits to produce half the result.

But the losses that is huge is nothing compared to the loss of respect that the U.S. believes in free market mechanism. And free trade. Forcing a Taiwanese company to shut its operation in their land and uproot to US heartland against their wish is anything but freedom! But what is worst is that it will be the biggest white elephant before even a chip is ever made. And if course destroying the entire livelihood of the very people they said they want to defend.

China has all but proven that every technology the U.S. tried to protect and stop China from having at a humongous cost to the U.S. is now proven to be easily produced in China. Made better, cheaper and faster by China a mere 3 years after this obnoxious and ridiculous attempt to stop China. All in all hundreds of US, and U.S. cronies technology companies simultaneously going obsolete all due to this ridiculous decision. Think about the billions and billions of losses of each company. And think about the workers losing their livelihood.

China whose own market alone is 30% while also producing most products for 60% of this planet’s need now will totally stop using anything from these firms. Just on business losses and profit loss is in the billions. Which fool could have thought it is a good idea losing this customer. But now you lost the entire world’s business.

In Wall Street trillions got wiped off the stock value of these firms. And 90% of these firms will go bankrupt. Mostly insured by the U.S. What an unbelievably daft decision by some neocon politicians and administrators yet 20 odd days after China shock the world not a word by those responsible! Not a whisper not a groan not an apology.

But this is the real irony of the U.S. they screamed so loud of freedom of expression who is talking now. Here in QUORA there are many brain dead Yankees who cheered this on. Where are you now! Don’t be a coward come out and continue your hateful agenda. You let the U.S. and your American friends down. You gave them false hope. Now they lost everything because of your selfish hate. I like to hear what you have to say.

Texas Grilled Cocoa Chile Steak

Bored with burgers and hot dogs? Offer seasoned steak slices in flour tortillas at your next backyard cookout.

Prep: 5 min | Refrigerate: 2 hr | Cook: 16 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons McCormick® Gourmet Collection Cocoa Chile Blend
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Oregano Leaves, Mexican
1 teaspoon salt
6 flour tortillas (8-inch)

Instructions

Brush steak with oil.
Mix brown sugar, cocoa chile blend, lime juice, oregano and salt until well blended. Rub paste over steak.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight for best flavor.
Broil or grill over medium-high heat for 6 to 8 minutes per side or until desired doneness.
Cut steak across the grain into thin slices.
Serve steak slices in warm flour tortillas.
Top with salsa, shredded Cheddar cheese and sour cream, if desired.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Epic action and mind-blowing effects rock the planet in this thrilling reinvention of the sci-fi classic, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, an otherworldly being whose arrival on Earth triggers an unstoppable series of events that threaten all of mankind. In a desperate attempt to save humanity, governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance. When a woman (Jennifer Connelly) and her young stepson find themselves embroiled in the alien’s plan, they become the world’s only hope to stave off apocalyptic annihilation.

Why aren’t men nowadays persuasive?

I met Senator Strom “Spermin’” Thurmond not long before he died. He gave me and my young friends this priceless advice:

“Boys I’m going to share with you the most important thing I have learned in my life; Two women in ten that you ask to sleep with you, will. You just have to ask the other eight first!”

For years I was grumpy about the issue this question addresses. I’ve made my peace with the post #MeToo dating regime. You should too.

I’m no longer persuasive. No means no.

If I for some reason wanted to ask a woman out face to face instead of on a dating site like a normal person, it would go like this:

“Would you be interested in being courted? No? OK. You know where to find me if you change your mind.”

That’s one less woman I need to ask to reach my goal of ten. The end.

The old way – sidling up to a woman.after enmeshing yourself in her life, finding a good way to ask, then being persistent (but not too persistent) if she didn’t shut you down hard sucked for men and it sucked for women.

Why would you want to go through that again?

In the early 2000’s back to time immemorial that push-me-pull-you cat and mouse bullshit was simply how courtship worked. I had no complaints because that was all I ever knew.

You might do this dance for weeks, months, or in same cases years with ten women for every two who would eventually consent to date you. In some cases you as a man were making their lives hell and their work/school/social environment hostile in the meantime. In other cases you were feeding their “A Man Is Courting Me” ego at the expense of your dignity.

That’s all gone now. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Women who liked the game lost. Game players. Flirters. Time wasters.

Women who preferred straight forward yes/no propositions won. Normal women.

Now we don’t have to distress eight women to suss out which two of them really “just want to be pursued”. Now we don’t have to be a creep just because we “can’t read the signals”. No more wasted bouquets of flowers. No more months long pre-courtship. No more of the woman’s friends coming up to you and telling you that you’re making her uncomfortable.

You ask. She answers. The end.

If she tries to play a game, she will lose every time because in this new post #MeToo environment you can’t be persistent. Neither can any other guy. You suffer no competitive disadvantage by accepting the first “no” you get because all other guys must do the same.

It’s liberating really. They only people who lose are the super aggressive men who don’t mind making 100’s of women uncomfortable to get laid once, and the women who want a Disney Princess experience of being chased.

Senator Thurmond would be a happy man… “ask(ing) the other eight first” has never required less effort or risk! We no longer must or may be “persuasive”. We live in Strom’s world now.

What do you think about the Hong Kong protester Tong Ying-kit being sentenced on July 30, 2021 to nine years in prison as the first prosecution under Hong Kong’s national security law?

If he had done this in America, flag or no flag, there is a high probability he won’t be granted a trial, because he would have been shot dead, one of a thousand killed by American police in a normal year.

He didn’t just chant a slogan and walk the streets as a protester. He drove his vehicle at speed deliberately into a group of police officers who were armed and trained in the use of deadly force. It would have been a justified shooting, because tong ying kit turned his bike into a deadly weapon. The officers used their bodies to stop him. Several were forcefully thrown by the impact. Tong remains wheelchair bound, with a cast on his arm, injuries sustained in the crash.

The sentence is a little harsh but there is no doubt Hong Kong society must make an example of him to warn others what he did is unacceptable.

His notoriety did him in.

He is the perfect index case for the nsl, and an illuminating case law example.

MINDBLOWING NDE: Secrets From the Other Side! You are NOT Who You Think You Are.

Rude boy on a dirt bike

When I was working as an engineer during the 1990’s I spent most of my time living in mobile homes. These flimsy boxes were perfect for my lifestyle of hustle and layoff, and move to another city.

But, gosh, the mobile home complexes that we found ourselves in, were inhabited with some very ill-mannered people.

One time, when I lived in “West Elizabeth, PA” we had a mobile home at the edge of the mobile home community, and there at 9am every weekend, this little 13 year old boy would go around and around and around my home on his dirt bike. Only around my home. No other homes. Just mine.

Those things were noisy, and I couldn’t figure out why he chose my home to endlessly circle.

One day, I met his mother.

She said, “Oh, I thought no one lived there. Do you have a problem with him riding around your home?”

Well yeah.

DUH!

We had a few words and he stopped. But not until I was really upset and angry over the non-stop noise and the endless feeling of living in the God-damn middle of a freeway.

So many people are inconsiderate.

Partly because they are rude, and partly because they are stupid. Though drugs might play a role…

You cannot fix either. All you can do is move…

…on.

Todays…

Why is India NOT a global manufacturing hub like China? What is stopping India?

Couple of years back, I was having a conversation with an Indian origin entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who is making quite lot of innovative products. It is an early stage company. So, my conversation was about the possibility of starting his firm’s manufacturing units in India. He said something insightful

“I change my product designs quite often. And I would need rapid prototyping abilities to execute my business effectively as it is an evolving field. I make a circuit design, upload the specs to a firm in Shenzen, pay the money. Within four days the prototype is at my place in Palo Alto. All processes can be done online. Imagine doing this in India. Unless you are a Samsung or LG which has a massive team to handle all these customs, import export stuff with tons of paperwork, you will end up spending ages to do this in India. Shenzen is a one-stop ecosystem for anything electronic in the world. The supply chains and distribution mechanisms are super efficient. I don’t think India will ever reach there”

After this conversation, I’ve had multiple conversations with small and large players. Small players lament about the customs, import – export processes in India. Large firms crib about the absence of supply chain base of input for manufacturing. Our metrics of measuring ease of business is horribly skewed towards the efficiencies of business for a large player like Apple or Samsung or say a Honda. We don’t focus on making things easy for small firms like the one which I mentioned . Unless we crack that part, we’ll never be able to build a true ecosystem like Shenzen thats attractive for the large corporations

Steak in a Bag

Ingredients

1 cup egg bread crumbs
1 (2 to 3 pound) top sirloin steak, cut 2 1/2 inches thick
4 tablespoons butter, softened
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
2 1/2 teaspoons seasoned pepper
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Prepare egg bread crumbs; set aside. Remove excess fat from steak.
In a small bowl, mix butter, oil, garlic, seasoned salt and seasoned pepper until blended. Spread on all sides of steak.
Mix bread crumbs and cheese. Press into butter mixture on steak, coating steak well.
Place steak in brown grocery bag. Fold end over and secure with paper clips. At this point steak may be refrigerated several hours.
Before cooking, bring steak to room temperature.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bag on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. For medium rare steak, increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F and bake 15 minutes longer, a total of 45 minutes. For medium-well steak, reduce heat from 425 degrees F to 375 degrees F and bake 5 minutes longer before removing from oven, a total of 50 minutes.
Remove steak from bag. Let stand for 5 minutes before carving into thin slices.

NIGER COUP: JUBILATION IN NIGER AS 400 FRENCH SOLDIERS LEFT NIGER IN PEACE THIS WEEK. NOT BY WAR.

What’s the rudest customer service experience you have ever had?

I worked in Veterinary medicine for more than 36 years and we always dealt with some real doozies!

We had a lady come in with a chow for regular vaccines and after she signed in, she sat on the bench waiting to be seen. One of my techs walked over to her with a clipboard and pen in her hands to get some information. While she stood there speaking with the woman, her dog came over (he had been straining at the leash trying to get out the door) and with no warning (not even a growl) grabbed hold of her hand with his teeth and began to try and rip her arm off! He shook his head, bit harder and dragged her to the floor!

Instead of trying to get the dog off of her, the woman began screaming at us for abusing her dog as we tried to break the dog free of my tech’s hand and 3 of us were bit trying to get her loose!!

Instead of an apology for owning an aggressive dog and not restraining it when she came in, the woman screamed at us that ‘”You people had no right to attack my dog like that and it’s your own fault for walking up to my dog!”.

My tech ended up with 4 broken bones in her hand and a massive infection that put her in the hospital for 4 days, and in the end, the woman actually had the nerve to file a lawsuit claiming animal abuse against our hospital. She wanted more than $25,000 in emotional distress!

We shut the hospital down on the day of the trial (there was NO WAY we were going to settle) and every staff member who had been involved was there to testify.

In the end, the woman was forced to pay all court costs and lawyer fees, the cost of the medical treatment for every person who was injured, the cost of shutting down the hospital to come to court and was given a fine by Animal Control for having an aggressive dog. She was also told that should the dog ever bite someone again, not only would the dog be put down, but she could be arrested and jailed for having a known aggressive animal in her home and not properly containing it.

I Live Better In Thailand Than I Did In The U.S. – Here’s How Much It Costs | Relocated

To those who say he’s spending too much — not all digital nomads are poor. This guy’s a high earner, and by spending a few thousand he’s living a lifestyle that would typically be accessible to only multi-millionaires in the US or Europe.

‘Won’t sit idly…’: China claps back after Germany insinuates ban on Huawei, ZTE 5G parts

A day after reports claimed that Germany was considering a ban on parts made by Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE in its 5G networks, Beijing has responded. The Chinese embassy in Berlin said the country will not stand by idly if the German government goes ahead with the proposal.

“If the German government really decides to move in this direction without proving that Chinese products pose a security threat to Germany, we will not stand by idly,” the embassy was quoted as saying.

“Should Germany unjustifiably exclude Chinese companies, this would not only be a violation of the principle of fair competition but would also harm Chinese companies and Germany itself,” it added.

What has Germany proposed?

Germany’s interior ministry has chalked up a proposal under which the said Chinese companies will be eliminated from the country’s “core network” as part of a “de-risking” strategy. The ministry is expected to submit its proposal to the cabinet next week.

Apart from issuing a full ban on the new parts made by Chinese companies, the German government will also extend the ban on those parts that have already been installed. It wants to start by phasing out parts made by Huawei and ZTE in Germany’s “access and transport network”.

What’s a point in time when you realized nothing would ever be the same again?

My doctor noticed that I had lost weight. “Are you on a diet?” No. “Having any eating issues? “ Sometimes meat doesn’t go down. “We’d better look.” This was April-may, 2014. Gastroenterologist did an Endoscopy. No warning, “You have Esophagael Cancer, you have an Oncology appointment tomorrow.” Chemo and radiation started almost immediately. They told me not to look on the internet at the statistics, so I did. 95% don’t make it 5 years. The stories were pretty grim. I sold my milling machine, lathe, TIG welder and a couple of old Honda mini bikes, if I was going tits up, I didn’t need some scammers trying to rip off my wife when I was dead and gone. Chemo and radiation were pretty straight forward and I didn’t really have any issues, I continued to work while I was getting treated. CT Scans, PET Scans, Xrays, things improved inside. August 18, 2014, 6am, I went into surgery for a gastroesophagectomy, removal of most of my esophagus and part of my stomach. Up to this point, I had lost 70 lbs in about 5 months. The surgery was really rough, and I couldn’t eat for 3 days after I woke up, then it was cottage cheese and tomato soup for about 2 weeks. I was in the hospital for 15 days, 7 in ICU. I’ve had eating issues since then (coming on 4 years), and it was 3 years before I could eat a steak. I’m back up to about 190 lbs (from 158 at the low), it takes me about 3 hours to eat a meal, but my boss and the people at work, work with me, I’m usually eating all the time. But I can only eat about 1/4 or 1/3 of the amount of food I used to eat, and very little meat, food hangs up. I’m also susceptible to aspirating (inhaling) food into my lungs, which makes me really susceptible to bacterial pnuemonia, which I’ve had at least 1 each year since surgery. All CTScans and PETScans have been negative, my doc says, “Next time if (when) the scan is clear, we’ll call it done.”

But I ain’t dead.

Life has changed considerably. I very seldom eat in restaurants any more. Sometimes I have to eat standing up, something inside seems to get pinched off when I sit down and eat. I don’t sleep as well as I used to. My doctor seems to feel I’m one of the 5% that makes it (she said the actual number is about 15% now, the first numbers I read were old stats). As far as attitude goes, I don’t worry about things any more. I just roll with it and try to enjoy myself. I’ve gotten another lathe and welder, looking for a milling machine, hopefully I’ll be making parts for a good long time.

Chinese Tech Firm’s Groundbreaking Achievement 5nm Chips Made Without Lithography Machines

New manufacturing technology.

https://youtu.be/kEIelm-dbvw

What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

I recently was released from an Alabama prison. I spent two years in prison.
I was sent there when I was 17, I am 19 now. The Alabama prisons are a horrible place. I was a sheltered child growing up. When I was 17 my father forced me to steal from some people because we didn’t have any money. I did not want to do it, my father forced me to. I begged and pleaded with him.
I used to love to play video games. I haven’t now played games in years, since I was probably 15. That part inside of me sort of died.
I was and am still tall and kind of thin.

The first place I went, was one of the worst places, the juvenile wedge in the Mobile metro jail. A wedge holds eight cells, and is supposed to only hold 2 juveniles per cell/per two bunks. But there were sometimes up to 4 people per cell, forcing kids to sleep on the mats on floor and right near the toilet. The 16 and 17 year olds in Alabama jails are horrible and the most violent of all inmates. I can look back and understand the readers thoughts, they probably are curious to know how age 15-17 year olds could be so violent. But, Alabama, if you have actually visited, is a very rough place, especially the projects. I was in this jail with the teens who were the ones that committed the worst crimes, 1st degree robberies, murders, arson, theft, rape and molestation.

I was the only white boy. They always attempted to steal from me and rob me, and literally terrorize me, throwing piss on me, or spitting in my drinking cup.
They let the inmates fill up the other inmates drinking cups.
The first week there, I bought a $20 phone card, and when I came back to my cell the black kids were waiting for me in there, predators. They had put a towel over the cell’s only light, to darken the cell, so the guards couldn’t see what was about to happen. And they surrounded me once I had walked back into the cell. I told them I would not give them the phone card, I actually intimidated them.
I was grabbed from behind, and put into a choke hold, then I blacked out. I woke up from underneath the steel metal desk with blood dripping down the side of my face. The phone card was gone.

After that, I spent an entire year in a cell by myself, because I had to be separated from them. Throughout that amount of time, I saw over one hundred fights, and was sleep deprived quite a lot. The juveniles would scream and yell and cuss each other out ALL the time. They were animals. They would talk about the most hateful, vile things, and how ‘gangster’ they were, drug dealing, robbing and killing. It was utterly saddening. Especially at night, they would beat on the metal over and over and over, and rap, all of them together. (In no way am I racist. Nor prejudice towards a certain taste of music, I like rap myself sometimes.)

During the time I was in jail, I heard news about my father. Months later, a Correctional Officer actually was the one to give me news that my father had been arrested himself. He had stolen from more people, the same exact way he had made me do it. And was in jail. he would finally pay for what he had done to me. But, there are no laws protecting kids from what their parents force them to do, sadly, Quite a horrible thing for the legal system to do to kids.

The juvenile wedge was located right next to the suicide wedge.
The loudest wedge in the entire 2000+ jail. That is where they put the drunks, the crazy psychopaths who had just murdered their whole family, and even more nutjobs. One man gouged his father’s eyes out with a spoon.(I can reference that, as well.) They would beat constantly and scream and moan all night long.
I remember specifically the one’s who would never stop beating on the clear plexiglass walls of the suicide cells. They were in there naked, (all of them). At one time I saw my own father in there, after he had gotten jumped in another wedge and his nose broken and both eyes completely blackened. They put him in their for “protection”. I remember hearing the guards running in there and beating the hell out of those people, and hearing the inmates scream. I was right next to those cells. I lost lots of sleep over the constant noise,
BANG BANG BANG. BANGING over and over and over, for hours, all night. It was just like a lunatic asylum.

I did read a lot of the christian bible, when I actually believed in that kind of stuff. And other books as well, It was my only solace then. And learning, I yearned to read and learn.
I was constantly a target with the black people, because I was a white boy.

I was deeply miserable, and so I got the doctors to finally give me sleep medicine after many months, “Remerons”, which made me feel like I was slow when I took them, but sleepy. They took a very long time to wear off.
I started to slide them in the inside of my mouth when the nurse would give them to me, and I would spit them out when I got back to my cell, And hide them in a hole in my inch thick mat. I had no pillow, just a wool blanket.
Before I went to prison and was waiting in limbo in jail, I thought there was a chance that I might be sent to prison. So over a long amount of time, I started to collect those sleeping pills just in case. So I could protect myself, if I was given a long amount of time in prison or whatever.

Things got more miserable, I stopped a young black kid from committing suicide in my cell at one point. I turned 18 in jail.
After that, I mixed in with the adults. I finally received my time, It was two more years… and I would be going to prison.
I couldn’t do it anymore. I was utterly miserable and sad, And I lost the will to want to be alive. I wanted peace, just once in my life. If you call death peace.
One night I took all the remerons I had collected, I first waited for my cellmates to begin playing cards, and then I took around 100 of them, and heated up some hot water, and crushed up some of the pills and swallowed them all down.

It was the worst, bitter disgusting taste. I still have a hard time swallowing pills if I ever have to chew them. I wrote a note telling my mother I loved her and wished I could hug her. No one knows the truth or what really happened. No one cares to know.
I hadn’t seen her in 8 years. I got up on my top bunk and rolled over on my side on my mat. And laid there. I prayed to God, asking to be with him, I commend to you my spirit “Lord”. I was completely terrified of going to hell, but I still did it, I was in so much misery.
30 minutes later my body was almost paralyzed. And my body was pulsing and throbbing. I began to feel very sick. I tried as hard as I could to hold my stomach in. But I had to get up and go to the toilet to vomit, and my whole body was almost paralyzed, I could not jump off my rack. I couldn’t move.
And then I blacked out, into nothingness. Silence. Blackness.
There was no bright light.

Over the course of that period, while I was in jail, I had many inmates/criminals try to hurt me.

Later, I woke up in a hospital handcuffed to a stretcher, I was on life support.
My cellmates had gotten scared and told the guards, once they had seen me black out. I obviously did not want my cellmates to know what I had done. But I was forced to throw up, and black out.

After my ill recovery, I was thrown into the suicide wedge, right where I remembered all those people.

I soon was shackled and shipped to prison, where there was no A/C at all, there is none in the Alabama prisons. Prison is even worse. You are forced to work all day.
And the temperatures inside the dorms get to 100+ degrees. Everyday, all day long, during the hot long Alabama summers.
Misery. I remember pools of sweat collecting on my mat, while I tried to lay down. I would have to strip to my underwear to stay cooler.
The black men would look at me, and some would masturbate at me, while I would sleep, or do it right in front of me. They call it “gunning you down”.
It was a fact that the African american men were specifically like this.
A lot of the time when I would try to take a quick shower, they would all watch me, to see when I would go in. And then go in the shower with me and watch me, and ‘gun me down’, while I bathed myself quickly.
Quite a dehumanizing thing to have done to you.
I wish I could’ve knocked one of the those motherf*ckers heads off.
But I knew I had parole coming up, And I might make it, If I never get into any fights, or disciplinaries. Which was even worse. Because, I needed to stand up for myself. It was so crowded in prison, there was no privacy. Nowhere.
Showers were completely wide open, toilets were in rows of 30 lined up.
No stalls, Those did not exist.

I tried dearly to avoid the showers, and the sick people. I saw a lot of sick stuff in there. The white gay boys were the ones that almost always were on the “receiving” end of the action.
Homemade hypodermic needles, and one of the main drugs, called Suboxones, they were these thin sublingual films from a pharmacy that were smuggled in, they are a narcotic analgesic and they dissolve fast. The drug addicts broke up and disolved the film in a spoon and either snorted or injected it. I did none of that. I had never done drugs before.

I was in prison for a long time.
After two years of being in there, and finally making parole, I was released and transferred to another state. I was granted immediate release from parole at least three months before, but it took them a very long time to “find” the paperwork. They would not have done it or found it, if a trustee inmate had not given me a special phone number for the parole boards office, that was not “public”, and I got my family to call up there over 50 times over a course of months.

I realized my weaknesses while in prison, my puniness as well.
A lot of me died slowly inside, I do not think about girls as much. I was a young kid, I had only ever had one girlfriend in 8th grade. I had to drop out of school after that.

When I was in prison I longed to just touch a girl’s hand, just to have someone love me as friend. I yearned for a companion, I was so lonely.
Words could never express.
My heart felt like it was literally dying.
I also missed listening to music so much, I loved music a lot.
I don’t feel things anymore as much, I tried to feel love and compassion, but my heart has died slowly. I still do love people, I have tried to keep that alive,
I really try my best. And I love to give people gifts with the money I have now.

Things don’t mean as much at all to me anymore.
I am somewhat of a stronger guy now, I fear nothing.
I also lift weights and exercise everyday, that is one thing I will always do.
I am still trying to find what I am going to do with my life and career.
And find meaning in life. I do enjoy computers a lot, evidently.
If I had to go through those two years again, I don’t believe I could do it all over again.

-Luke

How will Huawei’s 7 nm breakthrough undermine confidence in Western sanctions?

Huawei breakthrough is more than the 7nm as widely perceived in the media since the annocement of Huawei mate 60 series.

Huawei had invented and patented a 3D Finfet transistor that enable it to be fabricated using a tweaked or modified DUV machine with mass production. The 7nm Kirin 9000s chip with 3D Finfet transistors consume less power and can achieved equivalent performance of 3nm chip. It can easily be refined and improved with 5 nm or 3nm designs which l believe will be used in Kirin 9100 chips and achieve better performance.

Hisilicon had utilized the Chips and design Kirin 9000, Kirin 9000s Soc using it’s Taishan architectures and system.

The Kirin 9000 series are 8–12 Taishan core CPU working together with GPU and Huawei Balong Modern. They are comparable to Qualcom snapdragon 8-2 chip set and Apple M16 and M17 chip set.

Beside the Kirin Soc the Huawei mate 60 series also used in house indigenous technologies like Ximage, Nearlink and Satellite connectivity technology.

Ximage is Huawei photo taking and processing technology, one of the best in the world.

Huawei breakthrough is far from just handphone technology, Huawei will be the top platforms for AllAI and All Cloud and All IoT. It will be the smart system inventors that empower human leveraging on technology to improve life and productivity.

What is the best thing you came across on the internet today?

This is Miss Nigeria Nyekachi Douglas in the Miss World beauty pageant. You must be thinking that she is so happy because she won. No, she didn’t win the Miss World title but rather her friend Miss Jamaica Toni-Ann Singh won Miss World title.

She is being praised for her heartwarming reaction despite losing Miss World After miss Jamaica, Toni-Ann Singh was named miss world, Douglas jumped up and down and did a happy dance as she congratulated and hugged her friend .

Be happy for other people, regardless of what it is for. It will cost you nothing.

I am blown away with her reaction. And she won my heart.

We should learn from her and be happy in the happiness of others.

How do you prevent a clingy relative constantly coming to your house and wasting time and annoying the children and you?

I’ve dealt with this. For YEARS. My salvation came one day when I was particularly under the gun to get a few real priority tasks around the house and yard done. I was about to leave town and this particular afternoon was my last chance to get things straight before leaving. When said relative showed up, unannounced as per the usual, I said “Great! You’re here” and immediately handed them a lawn bag, went out the door, then hollered back at them to hurry up!

I worked them into the ground…..and kept pressure on with family gossip about THEM as well as promised I’d never turn down their help again….. how I couldn’t wait to get back to town and have them help with winterizing, cleaning gutters, etc.

They never popped in again. That was 17 years ago.

Las Vegas teen expected ‘slap on the wrist’ for hitting, killing cyclist: ‘I’ll be out in 30 days

The teenager who police say intentionally struck and killed a retired police chief in Las Vegas said he would get a “slap on the wrist” after he was taken into custody, the 8 New Now Investigators have learned.

China to build up Huge IC chip factory using a particle accelerator!

Article link HERE

Scientists said this unprecedented technology can overstep US sanctions and make China a new leader in semiconductor chip industry
Plans are now in progress to construct a huge particle accelerator to help researchers put into practice the cutting-edge technology
China is exploring new avenues to bypass restrictions on lithography machines, which are used in the production of microchips. Using particle accelerators to create a novel laser source, researchers are laying the foundation for the future of semiconductor fabrication.

China sets out to develop EUV lithographic ‘cannon’

China is exploring the use of a new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source in making its own lithography facility

China to use EUV in making it’s own IC fab facilities

China is exploring the use of a new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source in making its own lithography facility but technology experts said such an ambitious goal may take many years to achieve.

Over the past few days articles and videos have gone viral on the Internet in China claiming that Tsinghua University has made breakthroughs in steady-state microbunching (SSMB) technology, which can create an EUV light source with a power several times higher than that of ASML’s EUV lithography.

They say the future launch of a SSMB accelerator, nicknamed “lithographic cannon ,” will help China bypass the export controls of the United States and the Netherlands.

These came after Huawei Technologies on August 29 commenced the sale of its flagship smartphone Mate60 Pro, which used a 7 nanometer chip produced with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) N+2 processing technology and ASML deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography.

“We understand that it’s difficult to have more breakthroughs in chip-processing if we follow the current technological path,” a Chongqing-based writer says in an article published by the Huxiao Business Review on September 16. “It will be more feasible to walk on a new path.”

He says Tsinghua’s suggestion to use the SSMB technology in lithography can help China break the technological blockage of ASML.

He adds that what Tsinghua proposes is not a lithography machine but a huge factory that involves a lot of land and workers – resources that China does not lack.

China beats US in top global scientific ‘hot papers’ — those that receive instant recognition — ranking

China has surpassed the US

with the number of papers published and cited in the world’s most influential journals, a new report has found.

China also ranked first on the international papers citation chart in six major disciplines

– agricultural sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, materials science and mathematics. The top spot in mathematics was a new achievement compared with the previous year.

According to the Statistical Data of Chinese S&T Papers released on Wednesday by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC), Chinese researchers

published 1,929 “hot papers” – papers that receive significant numbers of citations soon after publication, usually in a rapidly evolving field such as molecular biology and materials science – accounting for 46 percent of the global total by July.

What was the weirdest wedding you have ever attended?

My live-in nanny Jennifer moved from Oregon to Yuma, Arizona to attend college and take advantage being near her fiancé, Ryan, stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS). Jennifer was energetic and very Mormon, interviewed quite well and had impeccable references. If you are thinking this is all going to turn out bad; you would be 100% wrong. Jennifer was a dream nanny, excellent student, exceptional teacher, my confidant, unapologetically pretty, my foster children loved her and her voice… she could sing like an angel. Jennifer and I are still in touch on social media.

Jennifer moved in with me the fall of 1995 to begin as a nanny. She was so looking forward to caring for Brittney, attending a new semester at Arizona Western College (AWC) and finally spending some time with her fiancé. There was a two-day registration window for her to sign up in January 1996 for the spring semester classes.

On the first day at registration, when she was signing up for a choir class, the teacher informed Jennifer about a music scholarship that would cover all her expenses. Jennifer would have to audition for the scholarship. As I said, Jennifer had the voice of an angel and she easily passed the vocal audition for the scholarship. The kicker; the music scholarship was reserved for Arizona residents (2 years or more) or family members of military personnel only; so, she didn’t qualify. Worse yet, the deadline for qualifying for the scholarship and class registration was the very next day.

Jennifer has never been the type of person to sulk or quit; she was undaunted. She certainly couldn’t qualify for the Arizona resident part; she’d only lived in Arizona for six months. She told her counselor, “If I need to be a military family member, then I will be a military family member by tomorrow.” Jennifer called her fiancé Ryan, told him about the scholarship and announced that they were getting married NOW so she could qualify for the scholarship.

When I came home that day, Jennifer explained about the scholarship and she would need a few hours off to get married. I was absolutely impressed by her resourcefulness. Not once did she address this as a problem; and, she actually reveled in the opportunity the challenge represented.

Ryan, who was still working on converting to Mormonism, was fully on-board with the wedding plan. He and Jennifer could have that big religious wedding for their families later. They just wouldn’t tell them they had gotten married already. Since Ryan was in the Marines, he needed approval from his commanding officer first. Ryan managed to get it done right away and meet Jennifer at Yuma County Clerk’s Office to get their marriage license.

Thank goodness Arizona does not require blood tests; Jennifer is needle-phobic and jokes that a blood test might have been a deal-breaker. Jennifer couldn’t have picked a more perfect town for a quickie marriage. Yuma has quite the reputation for many movie stars flying in from California for a quick marriage; including, Loretta Young, Claudette Colbert, Alice Fay, Mary Astor, Jean Harlow, John Barrymore, Errol Flynn and even cowboy Tom Mix… and more.

The only wedding officiant they could find on such short notice was a judge at City Hall. His docket was full but Jennifer and Ryan somehow convinced that judge to perform the marriage ceremony at 9am the next morning; scholarship and college registration deadline day. I was impressed how quickly Jennifer got it all arranged in a single day. When Jennifer wants to get something done; there is no stopping her.

With no advanced planning for her wedding, Jennifer certainly hadn’t planned for a wedding dress. Ryan could get away with wearing his Marine Corps dress uniform. Jennifer began to go through her everyday-go-to-school outfits and she modeled in front of me, “Do you think this looks wedding-enough?” No matter how resourceful Jennifer had already been; she really had nothing that looked anything like a wedding dress. In my mind; a woman needs a wedding dress on her wedding day. So, I told her I’d buy her a dress as a wedding present. Although it was already late in the day, we immediately went shopping. We stopped near one wedding shop and she motioned for me to keep driving. She insisted, “This is a small event, no need for expensive.” Jennifer got so lucky; she ended up finding the cutest little white lacy wedding dress on a JC Penny’s discount rack for under $40.00. We couldn’t believe it; it was like it was waiting for her and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

On the morning of the 2nd day of college registration, at 9am, she and Ryan stood before the judge at Yuma City Hall and got married. One of Ryan’s friends and I were the witnesses. We took Polaroid insta-print pictures of the ceremony and also a posed-picture with the judge. They had no real wedding rings, but did exchange a couple of Cracker-Jack rings at the ceremony. Ah, such a tribute to young love at its finest.

Now most bright-eyed wedding couples would have a big celebration and then head out for an exciting honeymoon. Well, that’s what’s very different about Ryan and Jennifer. Ryan immediately reported back to duty at the MCAS. Jennifer, still wearing her wedding dress, with a copy of a marriage license in one hand, marriage certificate in the other and backup pictures of the marriage ceremony, drove with all her determination out to AWC to capture her scholarship.

Jennifer’s first stop at the college was the music teacher where she got her scholarship stamped qualified and approved; Victory! Then she stood in line at the registration office, still wearing her wedding dress, and finished registering for her college classes; Victory!

Whenever I hear the expression, “failure is not an option,” it always reminds me of Jennifer. You gotta love Jennifer.

Oh SH*T, NATO just crossed the line and Putin knows it

What is the smallest thing a person ever did for you that impacted your life?

The year is 1974 and I am the junk dealer’s daughter. My brother has become a teenager; my parents spend half their time watching my father slowly die and striving to save him; the rest struggling to survive.

Our TV is off limits, the days are long — especially for an introverted kid, but I am not alone, for the bookmobile comes every other Thursday at 3 pm.

Three years before my mom had walked me down the street and signed me up for the reading program. Read ten books and get a sticker. Get the stickers and you get a prize.

I had rapidly progressed from the small child’s, to the preteen books and last year the bookmobile lady had sent home a permission slip to allow me to read the adult books. This year she scours the county for good books for me.

Smiling, she hands me a stack of ten books, “there are some new westerns and a couple of scifi as well, if you want them.”

My book a day limit met I struggle home with my treasures. Another two weeks of adventures and stories. I don’t feel as alone and my belly doesn’t rumble as much when I’m reading.

Carefully I open the first page . . . the bookmobile lady has saved me once again.

The year is 1994 and now I have a family to support. Going back to college was a good decision. My hard work and bright mind has been recognized and I have risen from student worker to classified staff.

Painfully shy I stay to myself but then another worker stops by and tells me as a union member I should be attending union meetings.

“I just want to fit in,” I think. “I’ll slip into the back and hopefully no one will take much notice of me.”

“Hey Nancy? Is that you Nancy?”

The bookmobile lady is there, older now but just as nice.

“Sit by me and my friends. Hey everyone this is Nancy. When she was little she used to come down with a wagon full of books to exchange when I ran the bookmobile. She read a book a day. Isn’t that cool?”

And just like that I am no longer alone.

The bookmobile lady has saved me again.

What are some commonly accepted double standards?

One of my guy friends was sucker-punched in the face by a girl outside a club.

We both had left the club with a couple friends, and somehow the girl’s bf was talking shit to us because of some misunderstanding. She couldn’t handle getting shit talked back to her by my guy friend, which he was pretty good at.

Even though he wasn’t directly talking to her, she violently hits him. She was bigger than him, but still hit like a bitch. After she hit him she was still in his face, pulling him around with his t-shirt, yelling her voice out, assaulting with all sorts of shit and going completely ballistic on him.

He grabbed her arms to stop her from punching him, and violently swung her away, causing her to crash on the ground head-first.

That was our opening to escape, and him and I started walking away with our friends. But the security guard briskly chases after him, even though the guard wasn’t outside in time to see what had actually happened. Put his hand on his shoulder and told him to get down on the ground as he shrugged off and said don’t touch me. He later called the cops on him.

They arrested him for assaulting the security. A guy recording everything got arrested for obstruction of justice or something. They put him in an individual cell so they couldn’t talk. Never got his info. He went through an extremely long court battle. The woman who started it was never even mentioned, and he had to do some time in jail for aggravated assault.

It’s absolute bullshit that men are instantly vilified and crucified for assaulting a woman under the right circumstances. I’m sure you can see how differently this story would’ve played out had the roles been reversed.

Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home REACTION TEARS

People are tired. They are fed up. They want CHANGE.

In what ways will a 33 trillion national debt affect the United States and ultimately the whole world?

This is a serious figure; it’s a serious number. It bodes a very bleak fate for Americans, and for any nation that holds on to American stocks, treasuries, and assets.

I suppose I can confuse the reader with bafflegab. Speak thoughtfully and with authority using obscure and technical terms, and repeat the American government narrative that all is well.

But it is NOT well.

The United States has yet again had it’s credit rating downgraded to AA+.

And it sounds “great”, but the naming convention is a distraction. The term “AA+” actually means “Significant credit risk, and looming possibility of default”.

If you all were smart, you would be “bailing” out from the United States as fast as you can get your passport stamped.

…

Go to someplace better.

Like Bangladesh, or Laos, or Bolivia.

Somewhere that will accept you and enable you to live peacefully and calmly, with a roof over your head, has decent medical care, and healthy and cheap food. Oh, and one where criminals and the police won’t shoot at you.

I’d normally advise careful consideration be taken, but given the total collapse of American society, basically ANYWHERE on the face of the planet is an improvement over the United States today.

…

There are few options remaining for the United States movement to stop the rapidly approaching “train wreck”…

Raise taxes on Americans to around 80% of income.
Lift all tariffs, so that there would be some slowing of the rate of inflation.
Re-compensate Russia and re-approach with them to get the fuel / gas prices down.

Not much can be done…

Start charging Americans for the right to breathe air.
Sell off (wholesale) United States assets, property, gold, and land.
A massive war of distraction; perhaps a global thermonuclear war with both Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea simultaneously.

Like I said, all the viable options “on the table” will have catastrophic results.

…

All of this is far too gloomy.

It’s time that I set myself to the other side of the table, and have a shot of whiskey with you. Look into your eyes, and hold your hands. It’s time for straight talk.

American society HAS collapsed.
Like a headless chicken, it is still running around the barnyard, but it is accomplishing nothing.
The “government” is non-functional.
The American citizens are riding in the car, drunk on media lies, and the driver is driving the vehicle right over the cliff.

Freefall will be surreal.

And when you all hit the bottom, it will be really ugly.

…

Jump out of the car before it is too late.

Every minute counts.

How I view the US after 12 years living abroad

If the United States freezes China’s assets, how do you think China will react?

What do you think China would do?

They’ll be more than happy to accommodate.

And it would be the most stupid thing for our politicians to do because there’s a world of difference between what we have in China than what the Chinese have here.

How U.S. companies do business: It’s hard to accurately quantify how much business assets they have in China. However, considering that between 1982 and 2021, US direct investments abroad grew from $580 billion to more than $6.4 trillion dollars, it would not be too farfetched to assume that they have at least $2 trillion invested in China. China is their supply chain as well as their major market.

How Chinese compaies do business: They stay home to manufacture and profit on their trade with the world. China does have investments in the U.S. but they’re simply “investments” and not core to their operating businesses; they don’t have major companies operating out of the U.S. whose core business is in the U.S. It wiould be hard put to assume that China’s investment is more than $1 trillion in the U.S.

So who would hurt more if these two countries start freezing each other’s assets?

How about China starting off by just freezing Tesla’s and GM’s Chinese assets? Tesla’s mega factories are worth billions but the loss of sales revenue would be exponentially larger.

And how much would Chinese companies lose if the U.S. froze their investments in farmland in the Mid West?

Russia has Officially Deployed the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM

Russia has introduced a formidable weapon that has raised concerns among its rivals. Moscow has officially deployed the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM known as “Satan II,” for active military use.

This announcement was confirmed by Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, as reported by the Russian state news agency Tass.

According to experts, the RS-28 Sarmat missile has the capability to travel over both the North and South Poles and deliver a warhead weighing up to 10 tonnes to any location on Earth.

This development has amplified concerns about Russia’s nuclear capabilities, particularly in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Steak San Marco

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) chuck steak, cut into serving pieces
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
Pepper, to taste
2 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 (16 ounce) can peeled tomatoes
Garlic salt, to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

Arrange meat in a large skillet, cover with onion soup mix and tomatoes.
Sprinkle with oregano, garlic salt, pepper, oil and vinegar.
Simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.
Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

What is the strangest thing that drives women crazy?

Being too agreeable.

I’ve learned this over 17 years with my wife. I’ve learned to pretend to have opinions about decisions we need to make, even when I’ll be perfectly happy with any of the options, because it annoys her when I don’t care one way or the other.

From little things, like what we should have for dinner, to big things, like what we should name our children, the truth is I was perfectly happy with all of our choices. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but rather that I saw the positive aspects in all of the possible decisions, and she did seem to care a lot, so I just let her make the decision.

I guess that drives women crazy: being with someone that’s just going to agree with their decisions 99% of the time, because that someone doesn’t really have an opinion.

So I’ve learned to fake it a lot. My wife knows I’m faking it, but she recognizes it as an improvement from the way I used to be.

Her: What should we have for dinner tonight?

Old Matt: Whatever you want. It’s all good to me.

New Matt: Let’s go with Mexican food tonight. Enchiladas? Yes. That’s what I want.

In reality, Old Matt and New Matt both had the same opinion, but New Matt has learned to just pick something and pretend he has a preference for it, to make his wife happy.

Vocal Coach reacts Dio – Last In The Line / Holy Diver Live 1986

A tiny man with the voice and charisma of a giant. Dio was truly one of a kind.

Why do the Chinese not care about the lack of freedom?

In my experience, the “freedoms” that they lack are access to Western (social) media (correction to remove freedoms that they actually have). What they get that westerners don’t, in exchange, is a very safe and modern country.

Safe: In ten years here, I have yet to witness violent crimes. My mother isn’t scared to walk alone at night, and there are no shady people lurking in public places.

Modern: the infrastructure is top notch, 5G is ubiquitous, cheap and really fast (I pay about 50 dollars a year for 40 Gb a month of data on my mobile and crazy download speeds). Cash is a thing of the past, everything related to money is digitized. With the sale app you can unlock a dockless bike (less than 2 rmb per ride), ride a bus, pay utility bills, book tickets, order food… even doing taxes is an easy app.

Many Americans like to quote Benjamin Franklin “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”.

But actually, that’s the foundation of society.

Besides, if I compare with France, my home country, Chinese people are more free on their daily life. In France, there are norms and rules about everything, usually in the best interests of corporations. You can’t play music in public places, you need to pay royalties, you can’t change a lightbulb in your office because you need a certification for low level electric work and work in high places… things like street food or street vendors couldn’t exist. In France, you are free* (so long as you abide the 300000 rules). Rules prevent many things “for your own good” but really for big companies. I come from the countryside and many people had to stop butchering ducks at home like they had for generations because they need an official slaughterhouse, which is expensive to build at home. It’s not really that butchering at home is unsanitary, it’s that big slaughterhouse need their money.

In China, you enjoy actual freedom: you are free to sell street food, free to eat it even if it’s not always sanitary, and to go to the toilet because of that, etc. The government usually doesn’t care about people’s lives unless it’s very political. One perfect example is the one child policy. When I was a teacher in college, in a time when the policy was still effective, many students actually had siblings, especially in Guangdong. The government was very strict about that with officials, who were supposed to show a good example, but a lot more lenient with regular people, especially in the country.

So in short, Chinese people in general have a very free daily life, and enjoy a very safe, modern and cheap country. If they have to sacrifice Western media for that, it’s a fair price (besides, there are VPN to get around that limit and that’s another rule the government is lenient about). I enjoy Chinese freedom more than I enjoyed the French one!

Huawei cannot make advanced chip smartphones on a large scale: US

The US is saying that Huawei cannot make smartphones with advanced chip technology in large-scale production. This comment comes amid rising worries about Huawei’s return and harming iPhone sales in China.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday that the U.S. has found no evidence to prove that Huawei can manufacture seven-nanometer chips at scale. Her response draws the attention many of people in the global smartphone industry as everyone is surprised by the return of Huawei’s mysterious chip.

Last month, Huawei unveiled its latest Huawei Mate 60 series in China. The company has not organized any launch event or mega show to introduce this smartphone. Instead, it was sold directly via online and offline sales channels. Aside from its alluring design and camera features, the phone also packs a new Kirin chipset – the Kirin 9000s.

An evaluation from TechInsight shows that the chip is processed with advanced 7nm technology made by China’s SMIC. In some benchmark tests, the chip posts even higher marks than the 5nm Kirin 9000, which is very surprising.

Why all the Ruckus?

In 2019, the US Commerce Department sanctioned Huawei from buying US-made technologies. Therefore, the company can’t purchase or produce new chipsets for smartphones and any of its tech products.

In the early days of sanctions, Huawei stockpiled the chip from various sources. However, the situation became worse as the chip stock declined.

Thereafter, it had to rely on Qualcomm to provide 4G Snapdragon chips for its smartphones. For the past two years, Huawei has been launching phones based on Qualcomm chipsets.

Within the fourth year of sanctions, on August 29, 2023, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro came into play. However, the company does not even mention this chip in promos. But it carries a new Kirin chip, which became a topic of wide discussion.

The return of Kirin also reached the White House and it was previously confirmed that the US is searching for more ‘information’ about the return of the Kirin chip. It seems the US has finally come to the conclusion that Huawei can’t produce advanced chip smartphones and that might be it for the investigations, probably.

Fat TikTok Influencer just said the UNTHINKABLE, wants you to pay for it

Is China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) a debt trap?

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s ambitious plan to connect Asia, Europe and Africa through a network of infrastructure projects, has been met with skepticism and criticism by some Western countries. They accuse China of using the BRI as a tool to trap developing countries into debt and expand its influence and interests. However, this accusation is based on a false premise and a misunderstanding of the BRI’s nature and purpose. In this essay, I will argue that the BRI is not a debt trap, but a platform for win-win cooperation that benefits both China and its partners.

First of all, the BRI is not motivated by China’s selfish agenda or geopolitical ambition, but by its vision to promote the development of participating countries through enhancing connectivity. The BRI is a public good that China offers to the world, and a platform for international cooperation that is open, transparent and inclusive. The BRI follows the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and respects the sovereignty, independence and diversity of each country.

Secondly, the BRI is not a debt trap, but a debt relief for many developing countries that face financing gaps and infrastructure deficits. The BRI could reduce the costs of trade and increase global real income by 2030. The BRI also helps create jobs, improve living standards and foster social development in participating countries. Moreover, China has always been a responsible lender and borrower, and has taken concrete measures to prevent and resolve debt risks. For example, China has signed debt service suspension agreements with 23 African countries under the G20 framework, and has provided debt relief or cancellation to 16 African countries. China has also established mechanisms for debt sustainability analysis, project evaluation and risk management with relevant international organizations and multilateral development banks.

Thirdly, the BRI is not a zero-sum game, but a positive-sum game that creates opportunities for cooperation and mutual benefit for all parties involved. The BRI is not exclusive or competitive, but complementary and synergistic with other regional and global initiatives. The BRI welcomes the participation of third parties, including developed countries and international organizations, to jointly contribute to global development and governance. The BRI also promotes dialogue and exchange among different civilizations and cultures, and fosters mutual understanding and trust among peoples.

In conclusion, the accusation that China’s BRI is a debt trap is based on a false premise and a misunderstanding. The BRI is not a debt trap, but a platform for win-win cooperation that benefits both China and its partners. The BRI is not motivated by China’s selfish agenda or geopolitical ambition, but by its vision to promote the development of participating countries through enhancing connectivity.

The BRI is not a zero-sum game, but a positive-sum game that creates opportunities for cooperation and mutual benefit for all parties involved. Therefore, instead of viewing the BRI with suspicion or hostility, it is more constructive and rational to view it with openness and confidence, and to join hands with China to build a community of shared future for mankind.

The Rise and Fall of America’s Middle Class

America is bleeding out. Slowly, steadily. And it’s a self-inflicted wound. When NAFTA was signed, it set in motion decades of decline that have crippled American industry, gutted American towns, and robbed American citizens of their birthright – the simple dignity of providing for themselves and their families. But there’s a road back. Starting with denim blue jeans.

A tusk-less mastodon

When I was a young boy, my father would semi-frequently take us all to local museums. I really appreciated that. It was, and still is, some of my most favorite memories.

On one such visit my father bought me a small bronze mastodon. It was magnificent, but tiny and I loved it a lot.

I loved it because of the great long tusks. It looked so cool, and I loved to hold it in my hand. It was one of my favorite nick-nacks, and I set it proudly on my brick-a-brack shelf in my bedroom.

One day, I came home from school and discovered that my little treasure was tusk-less.

You see, my father was afraid that I might hurt myself with the tusks, so he sawed them off.

I don’t know where he got that “hair up his ass” about me hurting myself. After all, he got me a cub-scout pocket knife two years earlier. What’s this shit about pointy tusks?

Anyways, someone influenced him. Bastard.

…

My little story for today. Take what you will from it. Be careful of the poison that seeps into the ears of others. Who knows what damage it would do…

Today…

Western powers are falling behind in technology, held back by systemic rot

The West’s terminal technology problem

Alex Krainer

Sep 24, 2023

Western powers are falling behind in the development of new technologies, particularly in the military domain. This is partly caused by the perverse system of incentives that suffocates research and development work, but also by a system of education that’s producing less and less technical, scientific and engineering talent. From the strategic point of view, this is a critical problem, as I elaborated in an earlier Substack, “Of Empires and Technology.”

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Pie

Bacon Tomato Pie with Gluten Free Option

Ingredients

12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Chopped onion to taste
4 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Butter a 9-inch pie pan.
Layer bacon crumbs on bottom and cheese on top.
Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over top.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes.
Garnish with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and bacon.

Did Israel commit a war crime by turning off its supply of electricity and water to Gaza?

Yes

Absolutely

Article 33 of the Geneva Convention says so

Cutting of living essentials to Civilians is a violation of Article 33

However there are ways to spin this and claim this is NOT a collective punishment but a strategy for war

Israel may say, we are targeting the HAMAS but they hide among civilians and thus we have no choice

Israel may say “The 1949 Amendment was inserted when the world didn’t know about Terrorism of this type”

Israel may point out to the British inplementing the same violations in Belfast from 1963 to 1984 (Northern Ireland) or Malaya in 1955

They may point out US Violations in Vietnam between 1968–1972

So sadly today, the winners dictate the laws and their interpretation

At the 8th Eastern Economic Forum held earlier this month in Vladivostok, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about the development of a new generation of weapons: “If one looks into the security sphere, new physical principles weapons will ensure the security of any country in the near historic perspective. We understand this very well and are working on it.”

The kinds of weapons Putin was referring to include particle beams, laser, ultrasonic, radio-frequency and electromagnetic systems. That sounds quite futuristic – was Putin telling tall tales? When he announced that Russia had developed a variety of undetectable hypersonic weapons back in 2018, many in the West thought that he was bluffing and we heard much mocking and crowing: “the West outspends Russia 10 to 1, the Russians can’t possibly bla, bla, bla…” And like the Chinese, the Russians are inferior and incapable of innovating, they can’t think strategically, etc.

Fast forward to today: the Russian forces have successfully deployed hypersonic Kinzhal and Zircon missiles in Ukraine, delivering pinpoint strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and military facilities, the crowing and the gloating about all the ways in which the Russians are inferior to us westerners has died down a bit. Still, we can’t just admit that Russian weapons systems are superior to the western arsenal, so the western press, relying on Ukrainian sources, claimed that Ukraine’s air defenses manage to intercept and shoot down Russian hypersonic missiles.

That would actually quite spectacular since NATO officials themselves have corroborated what Putin had said: that the missiles are undetectable and were not picked up by western radar systems. Either the Ukrainians have managed to develop targeting solutions very fast, using binoculars, or they’re lying. Whatever the case, Putin’s latest announcement did not trigger much mocking and crowing this time around. In fact, some western analysts now concede that Russia’s military technology has eclipsed that of the west.

The significance of hypersonic weapons

But how can this even be possible if for decades now, western “defense” spending outstripped that of Russia by a factor of 10 or even more? In a recent article titled, “Hypersonic Missiles Are Game-Changers, and America Doesn’t Have Them,” the Wall Street Journal explored why the US and the West have fallen behind.

“For more than 60 years,” says WSJ, “the U.S. has invested billions of dollars in dozens of programs to develop its own version of the [hypersonic weapons] technology. Those efforts have either ended in failure or have been cancelled before having a chance to succeed. … This situation is raising alarms.”

Last March I explained why hypersonics are a radical game-changer in my Substack article titled, “Why hypersonic weapons change everything“. Indeed, hypersonic systems are regarded as so critical that in 2021, US National Defense Authorization Act explicitly made the development of these systems a priority in US defense spending.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal didn’t provide any convincing explanation for why western powers are falling behind in development of new technologies. It also didn’t explore the fact that they even fall behind in production and maintenance of legacy systems. As NATO’s Admiral Robert Bauer lamented this week,

“Today the chiefs of defense expressed their concern that across the alliance, production capacity is lagging behind. Delivery times are moving to the right [they’re getting longer] and prices for equipment and ammunition are shooting up. Right now we are paying more and more for exactly the same, and that means that we cannot make sure that the increased defense spending actually leads to more security.”

Bauer’s statement is a clear admission that defense spending does not translate into better defense. He also said that, “Our liberal economies are not apt at creating the prioritization that is so desperately needed right now.”

The problem with incentives

There is a great deal to ponder in all this, but it is perhaps Admiral Bauer’s last statement that provides the most food for thought. Western powers do spend massively on the military, but most of that money is squandered, lubricating the wheels of corruption in the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). Spending the money (i.e. allocating it to defense contractors), is much more important than actually developing new systems and the upkeep of legacy systems.

In the United States, the MIC consists of publicly traded corporations whose market value is determined by how profitable they are. Today, about half of the Defense Department’s (DOD) $850+ billion budget is spent with the DOD’s top five “prime contractors” who, after decades of consolidation have all but eliminated all competition (in the 1990s the DOD had more than 50 such “prime contractors”).

Given that research and development (R&D) is a cost which cuts into profitability of these very powerful contractors, they’re incentivized to reduce it as much as possible to maximize the profiteering. The more profits, the higher the stock price and the higher the executives’ bonuses. On the other hand, cutting the R&D and skimping on the essential work of technology development means that a lot of real talent and promising projects get axed even as massive pork-barrel programs like Lockheed Martin’s F35 Joint Strike Fighter drain trillions of taxpayer funds. The F35 is now more than 15 years behind schedule and for its $1.7 trillion in expenditure, the program has delivered no meaningful military advantage.

Meanwhile, the lobbying arm of the MIC makes sure that such spending remains protected behind the flag and a veil of patriotism. Military generals who go along are rewarded and those who challenge the system get sidelined. That is how our wonderful “democratic system” sources top talent and delivers bestest solutions. The problem is that the top talent it draws are MBAs, lawyers and lobbyists, not scientists, engineers and systems developers. The actual military capabilities of the United States only receive lip service necessary to keep the American public distracted and unable to identify the root of the problem which is corroding the competitiveness of American industries in a very real way.

Losing talent

However, there may be deeper problems blunting the West’s technology edge, including education and cultivation of skills that are required for the challenge. Today, fewer than 20% of Americans choose STEM degrees in universities (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as more and more talent gravitates toward law and business degrees or humanities like gender studies.

According to the UNESCO, in countries like Tunisia and Malaysia as many as 37.9% and 43.5% of students (respectively), choose STEM degrees. In Germany, UAE, Belarus and India about 35% of students choose STEM degrees. While it’s true that western nations can overcome the shortage of human potential by attracting foreign talent, more and more nations today offer great career opportunities and compelling work to young professionals, so western nations face tougher competition for talent.

Ignorance is strength?

There’s also the problem of rigor in education, which has gone very loose in the West, and it is even affecting the prevailing cultural environment. Today for example, if you say that there are only two genders, your career could be finished that day. But if you insist that feelings matter more than facts and that 2+2 = 5, you could have a stellar career and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation might even fund your cause with tens of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, it is the Chinese youth that are sweeping the medals in one math competition after another. They may not know how to count genders, but they seem better prepared to solve practical problems.

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

I can feel the love in this gentleman’s heart. I had the same for the son I raised for over 2 years and found out he wasn’t mine. It takes a toll on your sanity. I was down for years afterwards and gave up on women for around 10 years, and still couldn’t ever trust another woman for the rest of my life. Which is a shame because I have a lot of love in my heart to give, but western women are just horrible. No accountability at all for anything. I will definitely be saying prayers for this guy and his kids

What was the strangest part of your divorce?

When I married my ex, he had an 18 month old boy. I loved him as my own. I raised him for 5 years before my ex and I divorced. It was an awful marriage and my ex was never around. The boy’s mother showed up to visit him maybe once every 2–3 months. I had to stay with my parents while I was getting the divorce. They hated my ex and were very controlling of me. It was a very small community and everyone knew everyone.

In the courtroom (ex didn’t show up), the judge asked where my son was. I responded that he was my step-child and I didn’t have any rights to him. The judge said “He IS your son. He loves you as his own mother. In fact, he loves you more than his own mother.”

I responded that I couldn’t have him. The judge said “Do you want him? I can make it to where you’ll never have to deal with his biological parents. He needs you!” I thought about it and knew that my parents would have a fit. I declined the offer and cried the rest of the day. My mother told me they would never let me stay with them with my boy.

This horrid story does have a happy ending! My mother called me one day out of the blue. She said “Someone knocked on our door and when I opened it, the handsomest young man was standing there. He said “Is my Mama here?”. She invited him in and they had a wonderful visit. She gave him my phone number and he called me! That was 30 years ago. My boy came to live with us at the age of 17. He stayed until he met and married a wonderful young lady. We have the best relationship ever! I have 5 grandchildren from him and 3 great grandchildren! I love my boy so much!

UPDATE: I am very surprised by the responses to this. Please understand. I was very young, had no job and no way to support myself and a child. My parents were very controlling and were afraid my ex would use the child to worm his way back into my life.

I Say: Let Them Kill Each Other

I am 61 years old and for much of my life, I have seen the Arab/Israeli hatred for each other manifest in tragedy after tragedy, fight after fight, war after war and frankly I’m sick of it. I say, let them fight it out to the death. Right now.

It’s not like we didn’t try. We did. We spent literally hundreds of billions of dollars trying to educate, placate, pacify, please, or even coerce, both sides into behaving like normal human beings. It has all failed.

You see, the mistake we’ve made for decades, is treating these Barbarians as if they are civilized people. They aren’t. Neither side!

Their never-ending fighting, bickering, and warring has been going on since before Jesus Christ walked the earth two thousand or so years ago. And these Barbarians — and that’s what they are – have hated each other, deceived each other, fought each other, and killed each other for that entire time.

As the world got smaller thanks to modern travel and innovation, both sides recruited others into their age-old hatred. The Jews with money, the Arabs with oil and the wealth it generates.

It’s NEVER going to stop, unless we in the rest of the world, step back, and tell them both: Go at it. Go ahead, slaughter each other. We don’t care anymore. We’re tired of your bullshit. We’re tired of paying you to be nice to each other. We’re tired of hearing how you’re both always being wronged by the other. We’re tired of you. We don’t want YOU or your bullshit in our lives anymore.

So go fight it out. Kill each other. Fight until you’re ALL dead for all we care. But if any of you survive, we will be ready to have good relations and do business with whoever wins.

You see, it’s simple: the world will know absolutely no peace unless and until the two sides are allowed to slaughter each other.

I don’t care if the entire Middle East runs knee-deep in blood. We in the United States, and the rest of the civilized world, should do absolutely nothing.

Both sides are big talkers. Both sides are tough guys. OK, let’s see how that works out when big brother America is no longer there to influence the outcome.

Let’s see how each side does when the checks written by their big mouths, arrogant posturing, and intransigent positions, have to actually be cashed by their bodies as they fight it out to the death.

Your mouths have been writing checks that your bodies can’t cash. It’s time to ante-up and fight it out once and for all.

Go ahead and slaughter each other. The rest of us just don’t give a shit anymore.

Oh, and if any Americans or Europeans are so incensed at the situation that THEY think WE should be involved, then THOSE PEOPLE in the US and in Europe should head on over to whichever side they support, and offer to fight along side them.

Let them get killed to. This way the rest of us can have peace.

Shelter cat uses sweetest meow to get adopted

He is so sweet.

What incident has traumatized you for good?

Sorry to go anonymous, but I never feel comfortable enough to reveal my name.

I was about 7 years old and my sister was 5, we just came home from Halloween and were sitting on our carpet in our room, dividing our candies in equal parts (but mostly eating all of them).

I remember my sister suddenly stopped talking, looked at me in the eyes without saying a word, with her eyes wide-open, pointing at her throat.

She was suffocating and I started panicking. I was taught in school what to do so I put myself behind her and started pushing above her stomach, but as you can imagine I didn’t have much strength as a 7 years old.

My mum, whom I had been desperately calling from the beginning, rushed in our bedroom and started taking my place in doing the “move” but nothing was working. I was sitting in our carpet, helpless and in full panic mode, watching my sister turn more and more blue as seconds went by. I really thought I would have seen her die in front of me and I couldn’t bear to look. I shouted “sorry, sorry, I will always love you” and closed myself in the toilet, crying and shouting as if the world was going to end.

After maybe 2 minutes, but it could as well have been much less (Time always seems stretched in situations like these) I hear the bedroom go silent. I hear my mom stopping to try. And I hear… breathing. Heavy breathing.

I’m scared that if I go in the bedroom I will see her dead, but I gather my courage and exit the bathroom.

Turns out my mum had grabbed her by the feet in hope to let gravity do its work, as a last hope move… and it worked. She had inhaled a whole hard candy and it was stuck in her throat, slowly suffocating her.

The candy was still on the carpet when I entered the room, and there was my sister, on the ground, slowly going back to a normal color.

I hugged her so tight that she almost lost her breath again, but I was the happiest person in the whole world. That time I really thought I would have lost her.

From that day on, I always check if she bites the candy as soon as she puts them in her mouth. When she lost her back childhood teeth, I would take her candy and break it into little pieces with my knife, and then give it to her. She sometimes got annoyed but she will never know the fear I felt that day.

15 years later and I’m still as attached to my sister as I was that day. I still secretly check if she bites her candies. It truly traumatized me for good. I never want to lose her.

WSJ Joins Neocons To Instigate War On Iran

Updated below.

The neo-conservatives want to blame Iran for the current war in Palestine/Gaza.

They have for years tried to instigate war against it. Now they again see a chance. But its not a big one – yet.

Yossi Melman is a very well connected Israeli author:

Yossi Melman @yossi_melman – 5:33 UTC · Oct 9, 2023

IDF spokeperson Brig-General Danny Hagari said that there is no indication of an Iranian involvement in the war in Gaza.

—

Biden administration scrambles to deter wider Mideast conflict – Washington Post – Oct 8 2023

Asked whether Hamas may have acted in partnership with Iran to disrupt the effort to broker a Saudi deal, Blinken said “that could have been part of the motivation. Look, who opposes normalization? Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran.”

But, he said, “we have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack.”

—

Fear not, say the neocons, we still have the Wall Street Journal to carry water for us:

Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks (archived) – Wall Street Journal – Oct 8 2023

DUBAI—Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.

Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions—the most significant breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War—those people said.

Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon, they said.

WSJ authors in Dubai(!) have access to “senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah”?

Both groups are notorious for their secrecy and their senior leadership is usually hidden away. Those facts alone are enough to debunk the report as nonsense. But the WSJ authors continue:

“We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate this account,” said a U.S. official of the meetings.

A European official and an adviser to the Syrian government, however, gave the same account of Iran’s involvement in the lead-up to the attack as the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members.

Asked about the meetings, Mahmoud Mirdawi, a senior Hamas official, said the group planned the attacks on its own. “This is a Palestinian and Hamas decision,” he said.

A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the Islamic Republic stood in support of Gaza’s actions but didn’t direct them.

“The decisions made by the Palestinian resistance are fiercely autonomous and unwaveringly aligned with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people,” the spokesman said. “We are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself.”

Three direct rejections by official sources of the WSJ claims get countered with an anonymous ‘European official’ and a likewise anonymous ‘adviser to the Syrian government’.

It is like the authors don’t even try to sound believable:

A direct Iranian role would take Tehran’s long-running conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of broader conflict in the Middle East. Senior Israeli security officials have pledged to strike at Iran’s leadership if Tehran is found responsible for killing Israelis.

The IRGC’s broader plan is to create a multi-front threat that can strangle Israel from all sides—Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members and an Iranian official.
…
Israel has blamed Iran, saying it is behind the attacks, if indirectly. “We know that there were meetings in Syria and in Lebanon with other leaders of the terror armies that surround Israel so obviously it’s easy to understand that they tried to coordinate. The proxies of Iran in our region, they tried to be coordinated as much as possible with Iran,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said Sunday.

There is however little evidence for the Israeli assertion:

Leading the effort to wrangle Iran’s foreign proxies under a unified command has been Ismail Qaani, the leader of the IRGC’s international military arm, the Quds Force.

Qaani launched coordination among several militias surrounding Israel in April during a meeting in Lebanon, The Wall Street Journal has reported, where Hamas began working more closely with other groups such as Hezbollah for the first time.

Hamas and Hezbollah have cooperated for decades. During the war on Syria some Hamas members took the side of the ‘moderate rebels’. They taught them how to dig large tunnels, a technique they themselves had once learned from Hizbullah:

Abu Musaab, a leader in Ahrar al-Sham, told the pro-uprising satellite television station Orient News that the Syrian militant group received tutorial videos from Gazans showing them how to repair collapsing tunnels.

“The ground here became damp and began to fall on us…and some of our youth were trapped inside. So we spoke to those with expertise, our brothers in Gaza, may God reward their good deeds,” Abu Musaab was quoted as saying.

“We consulted them regarding the problem and they advised us to bring in wood (plates), sending us video segment showing us how they do it and we replicated that,” Abu Musaab added.
…
And in June 2013, the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported that “sources close to Hezbollah and the Syrian regime claim that Hamas had a role to play in the battles of Qusayr, [where tunnels] … had been dug using small Iranian devices that Hezbollah had transferred to Hamas.”

“Some of the explosives, they added, were found to contain electronic chips that Hamas had acquired from Iran and Hezbollah,” the Lebanese paper said.

After the war in Syria was decided in the governments favor, Hamas slowly found its way back into the resistance camp. Consultations between Hezbullah and Hamas have been constant since. Back to the WSJ:

Representatives of these groups have met with Quds Force leaders at least biweekly in Lebanon since August to discuss this weekend’s attack on Israel and what happens next, they said. Qaani has attended some of those meetings along with Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, Islamic Jihad leader al-Nakhalah, and Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’s military chief, the militant-group members said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian attended at least two of the meetings, they said.

This, however, is clearly no believable. Amir-Abdollahian is a professional diplomat, not a security official. While he has been deeply involved in political issues regarding Palestine he is unlikely to have been involved in any top-secret operational planning.

Also biweekly meetings between Qaani, Nasrallah and other high ranking resistance leaders are unlikely to have ever happened. Each such meeting would be a security nightmare.

The planning for the recent Hamas operation must have taken years not just the few month since August. While the WSJ lets it seem that there is operational coordination between the various resistance groups their real cooperation is on a way more strategic level.

Each group in the resistance axis has its own plans and goals. That does not exclude strategic cooperation, but not on the detail level of fighting:

Egypt, which is trying to mediate in the conflict, has warned Israeli officials that a ground invasion into Gaza would trigger a military response from Hezbollah, opening up a second battlefront, people familiar with the matter said. Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire briefly on Sunday.
…
The Iranian official said that if Iran were attacked, it would respond with missile strikes on Israel from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, and send Iranian fighters into Israel from Syria to attack cities in the north and east of Israel.

While there is no denying that Iran, Hezbullah, Hamas and others consult with each other on a high level, any deeper cooperation, training or assistance is unlikely to still exist. It is each on their own, but with a common big goal in mind.

Update – 14:40 UTC

Of interest:

Andrew MacGregor Marshall @zenjournalist – 11:54 UTC · Oct 9, 2023

The main reporter on this story, @summer_said, has a history of dishonesty and inventing stories. I fired her from Reuters in 2008 for this reason. I’m surprised that the @WSJ has hired her and is publishing her stories that are clearly bogus.

Posted by b on October 9, 2023 at 11:20 UTC | Permalink

The problem with going fast…

Paradoxically, even technology itself may have contributed to the slowing of progress in the west through the ubiquity of software tools that make problem solving much easier than it used to be. I recently came across this little chart on social media. I must say, I felt the sting of its message personally.

When I was in high school in Croatia, our training in mathematics and science was very extensive: we had 9 hours of math per week and 6 hours of physics in addition to chemistry, biology, information technologies, software programming and more. It was a lot of work – so much so that when I came to the United States and enrolled in AP (advanced placement) math as a high school senior, I found the program very easy and aced it without even trying very hard.

By today however, I’m definitely at the “spreadsheet” stage of life: without Excel I think I’d be lost and I fear that my own conceptual thinking abilities and math problem solving skills have atrophied disconcertingly.

In the west, where fast and efficient problem solving is prized over conceptual thinking and inventiveness, more and more scientists and engineers work in that last, “spreadsheet” phase, quickly working out solutions to problems, perhaps at the expense of more creative, conceptual “out of the box” thinking.

The importance of pencil-and-paper work

In places like Russia and China, that broad-based thinking and working with pencil and paper is still very much prized and their educational institutions continue to insist on it (or at least have done so in the recent past). Of course, it would be difficult to assess how creative Russian or Chinese engineers or software developers are compared to their western counterparts, but beyond leapfrogging the west in development of hypersonic weapons, I came across an interesting case that speaks to this gap.

Namely, in 2009 Goldman Sachs pressed charges for theft of intellectual property against one of their software developers, a Russian man named Sergey Aleynikov. In 2013, Michael Lewis wrote a fascinating story about that case in Vanity Fair in which he revealed that more than half of Goldman Sachs’ software developers were Russian – an extremely interesting bit of information, especially in view of the notorious rigor which Goldmans is known to apply in recruiting their quants and software engineers.

Now, given that Russian software engineers don’t constitute half the population of the US, either Goldman Sachs liked to have a lot of Russians lurking around, or it could be that they found them better prepared to tackle tough problem solving. The latter possibility might also explain Russia’s ability to develop the Zircons, Kinzhals and Avantgard missiles as well as weapons based on new physical principles. Here’s how Aleynikov himself explained the difference between Russian and American education:

“In Russia, time on the computer was measured in minutes,” he says. “When you write a program, you are given a tiny time slot to make it work. Consequently we learned to write the code in a way that minimized the amount of debugging. And so you had to think about it a lot before you committed it to paper. . . . The ready availability of computer time creates this mode of working where you just have an idea and type it and maybe erase it 10 times. Good Russian programmers, they tend to have had that one experience at some time in the past: the experience of limited access to computer time.”

Indeed, clicking “run,” then deleting and retyping code is no substitute for doing a lot of thinking, which is absolutely indispensable to building high quality, reliable solutions and genuinely useful innovations.

My own experience with ‘pencil-and-paper’ R&D

My own experience in developing the I-System trading model confirmed its importance. In 1999, when my team and I built the model’s prototype, it turned out to be a maintenance nightmare and it was clear that I needed to hire serious software talent to turn the prototype into a reliable tool. For a few months in 1999 I worked with an American software engineer, David B., who had recently graduated from Stanford University. Although David was extremely bright, he was literally working in the debug mode almost nonstop.

He was able to maintain the software and fix bugs as they crept up, but the code itself was growing into a patchwork of fixes and workarounds. I began to worry that sooner or later it would become unmaintainable and in 2000 I decided to hire an older engineer from Croatia, Boris Brec. Boris was old school and he insisted on extensive pencil-and-paper foundation work. He pretty much told me that he wouldn’t lift a finger until I had drafted the full set of specifications explaining exactly how the model worked, including schematic process-flow drawings of all the routines under the model’s hood.

The process of upgrading the I-System from the prototype to its ‘industrial’ version was extraordinarily labor-intensive, costly, and it took four years to complete. That was the cost of quality, which included the tradeoff between diving headlong into trading and continuing with the fastidious development work, going over every algorithm with a fine tooth-comb and testing everything ad nauseum. I was only able to do this because I managed to wrest full control and ownership over the project from my superiors.

Had the costs of project’s development impacted someone’s bonus, the firm’s profitability or market cap, it would have been axed and never lived to see its upgraded version. Fighting to keep the project alive and adequatly funded was a struggle at every turn. For me it is easy to see how frequently great and promising projects must die over money, missed deadlines and organizational politics.

Quality solutions, breakthroughs require abundant time and resources

The difference between I-System’s prototype and the upgrade was the change from nonstop maintenance patchwork with David to the flawlessly functioning, zero-maintenance machine put together by Boris. It was worth the four years and every euro spent on it: quality is the gift that keeps on giving, not only in having the system that functions as intended, glitch free for 20 years, but also in having the peace of mind, never fearing whether all the patchwork maintenance introduced new hidden bugs into the edifice.

The experience has taught me that this kind of work MUST begin with pencil and paper, that it must be methodical, that it must be given adequate time and resources, and that if we want to achieve quality solutions we must be willing to bear the associated costs. Where the system of incentives generates pressures to cut corners, take shortcuts and rush out half-baked solutions, it will ultimately suffocate creative work and kill many quality solutions before they had the chance to prove their merit.

Programs like supersonic weapons are only symptoms of self-inflicted systemic headwinds that are now slowing the advancements of science and technology in the Western world. A reform – nay, an overhaul of the system – will have to look at those perverse incentives as well as our educational and governance systems. This won’t be easy, especially as the western nations have deliberately seeded their political and academic structures with ideologues and zealots who are far too busy policing social justice, hate speech and gender equality to worry about the real future challenges faced by our societies.

What is something weird you read or saw today?

Was looking at one of my wife’s old cookbooks, for some reason and found the old lore and wisdom in the book fascinating. It’s hard to imagine people believed these things back then.

Like these:

‘When frogs holler, rain will soon foller.’ That could help my weatherman who has no idea when it’s going to rain.

‘Anyone born when the mulberries are ripe have a good chance of being red-headed.’ That one has got to be true, right?

Here’s an old insult. ‘His family is like potatoes. All that is good of them is underground!’

‘Corn is not ready to grind into meal until it is dry as an old maid’s kiss’ ouch.

‘We huckleberry gatherers don’t like to admit it, but what we call huckleberries are actually mountain blueberries.’ “I’m your huckleberry,” Doc Holliday.

‘To take the last piece of bread on a plate foretells rain.’

If a piece of buttered bread drops on the floor butter side down, it will rain soon.’

“We’re eatin’ the long corn now,” meant one was finally financially well off. No wonder it’s raining so much in my area. Happens to me all the time.

‘Corn must be knee high by the fourth of July.’

‘Onion skin very thin, mild winters coming in. Onion skin thick and tough, coming winter cold and rough.’

I love this one. ‘When you are tired of life and all its busy scenes; just run to the garden and hide behind the beans.’ God I wish I had a garden sometimes!

‘Always bake a cake when the sun is going up or it will fall.’ The cake or the sun?

‘A cow with its tail to the west, weather the best. A cow with it’s tail to the east, makes weather the least. ’THATS what my weatherman needs, a cow. He’s always wrong.’

‘If a bat flies into your head, you’ll soon become bald.’ Now we know what happened to The Rock and John Travolta to name a few.

Okay guys, here it is. A cure for baldness. ‘Consume the gall of a lizard, fresh mouse meat or mole’s blood.’

‘To prevent lockjaw, ‘If a needle is stuck in a foot, put fat meat next to the puncture then a penny over that.’ I’ll try that next time. The hell with a tetanus shot.

To cure a blister, ‘Kiss a red headed fellow.’ I’ll bet a lot of red headed guys were hanging around women sweeping the floor.

A good spring tonic? Anvil dust mixed with cream. Yum.

To cure asthma. ‘Stick the dried skin of a mole to the chest with honey.’ Did people really do that back then?

Mock cherry pie? Use cranberries and raisins.’ No one will tell the difference. Especially if they’ve never had cherry pie before. Then make them a sandwich of mock chicken.

To prevent mumps. ‘take a chip of wood from a log, and rub it on your jaw and throat every day.’ And see how many girls you’ll meet. None maybe? “Watch out for Ned, he’s off his rocker. Keeps rubbing a hunk of wood on his jaw and throat!” “Eeeeuuuw” “Here he comes! RUN!”

In the mid 1700s, women shaved their foreheads and eyebrows so they could press on mouse skin eyebrows. Girls, don’t you wish you lived back then. Save a lot of money on makeup.

That’s all folks!

Why do so many Chinese students study abroad? Are there schools colleges, science centers, institutes, and science universities in China? Does China have schools, colleges, and institutes?

Hi, Jain Patel. Thanks for the very interesting question.

No, China doesn’t have any school colleges, science centers, institutes, or science universities.

We get a couple of years of primary school, but after that, we all have to go and get tracker microchips implanted at the base of our skulls and start working in the Factories.

These Factories are run by our alien overlords.

Here are some pictures I took on my way to work.

These are the “Prime Sentinels” that guard the Factories.
If you are late for work, you will get stomped on.

The vast majority of us live in the mountains.

We have to bore holes into the mountains, and we live in those holes.

With a year’s salary, we get to buy a house/bedroom.
I say house/bedroom because the house is literally just one room – your bedroom.
That room is your house, and it’s also your bedroom.

Here’s a picture I took of my house/bedroom.

The view’s not too bad.
Especially in the morning.

Here’s a pic of my neighbors’ house/bedrooms.
These guys live just below me:

The pay for working in the factories isn’t that great.
I get paid USD 0.01 a day.
If I work overtime, I get paid USD 0.001 an hour.

Thankfully, the soil in the mountains is pretty good and we can grow a lot of vegetables in our allocated community gardens.

Here is the community garden allocated to the people who live on my side of the mountain.
Everyone gets to take home a small piece of broccoli for dinner.

Oh, and because we don’t have electricity in China, the three most common modes of travel are:

(1) Horse:

(2) Boat:

(3) Sword (powered by qi):

Some of the richer peeps own aero-cycles.
These are tiny little bike/seating platforms powered by qi:

Since there’s no electricity, we have to find creative ways to spend our weekends.

Going to the local monastery to hone our martial skills is one option:

As is hiking in the hinterlands:

In the evenings, some of us enjoy playing mahjong at the local park.

A long time ago, a race of giants used to live in the mountains.
For some reason, they enjoyed cutting down the many giant trees that dotted China’s many mountain ranges.
The tree stump you see below is just one of many giant tree stumps you’ll find up here in the mountains.

It makes for a great mahjong table.

Conclusion (a.k.a. TLDR):

No, Jain Patel , China doesn’t have any school colleges, science centers, institutes, or science universities.

Now you know the reason why!

Officer’s wife says words to this effect: “You shall address me by my husband’s rank.” Isn’t this impersonation of a military officer? And what legal consequences would there be? I would assume UCMJ can’t apply to non-mil.

As a United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, I went to work one fine morning, to discover a young lady laying down on the horn of her car at 0730 in the morning! Dressed like they were going to the beach?

She had some of her Girlfriends with her.

I approached her, and inquired what the problem was, and pointed out to her that she was blaring her car horn in front of an enlisted barracks FULL of people who worked 2nd Shift and the Graveyard Shift that needed their rest and sleep. Military Police, Watch Standards, Cooks, Bakers, Corpsmen (Medics) etc.

She responded with, do you know who my Daddy is? Pointing towards the Blue Base vehicle sticker on thr lefthand , lower windshield. Sticker with THE STAR!

(Meaning her Whoever Whatever was a Commissioned Officer) !

And laid down on the car horn again!!!!

I called the MP’s on her and reported her! And went to work (It was on a Sunday) Forgot, all about it.

Next morning? (A Monday) I had the Commanding General of Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina walk into my office with his daughter apologizing to me!!! A Marine Staff Sergeant?

Disabled cat was about to be euthanized. This woman took her home.

Epic Games laid off over 800 of its employees on Thursday.

The official number is 830, but the actual number could be well into 900 because of various legal considerations outside the US and Canada.

And I’m one of those 16% unlucky bastards who got screwed over.

I already signed my severance package, so I can’t say much about this other than this is such a shitshow. Layoffs are, unfortunately, very common in the video game industry, to the point that it’s almost expected. But the way Epic did it, it’s just so … anyway, Like I said, if I want my severance, I better shut the fuck up about it.

I was in shock on Thursday when I got the news. It was so sudden. I got an email around 8 am in the morning (PST), and within half an hour, all my company access was shut down/removed. I get up early because I work East Coast hours. A lot of my West Coast colleagues don’t start their day until 10 a.m., and they arrive at the company with everything shut down and no longer have a job. I had to reach out to my co-workers via text because Slack is no longer accessible. I imagine, if I were working at the office, this would be the time when the security escort all of us out of the building.

I guess when you have to cut 900 people, you have to be quick and brutal about it.

900 people, that’s the size of a large company. Poof, gone.

Thinking back, this is actually the first time since I started working in video games that I got laid off. For over a decade, I dodged every layoff from every company I was with until my luck finally ran out. You play the game company layoff Russian roulette, there’s always a bullet waiting for you sooner or later.

All things considered, severance is generous. We have 60 days of pay from the WARN Act and then 4 months of severance. So, all together, I’m covered for 6 months until I need to dip into my savings.

After the initial shock, anger, and fear, and frustration, and anxiety, I actually started to feel better about it. I went to bed that evening, realizing I didn’t need to get up at the crack of dawn every day from now on. My brain suddenly has some extra processing power because I don’t need to think about work-related stuff anymore. It’s funny. I found myself habitually thinking about the stuff I was doing before I got laid off, the Tableau project I was working on, the AirTable updates I needed to do… And I realized, wait, none of that matters anymore. When I was working, there is a portion of my brain never stopped thinking about work. It’d be like a program running in the background, taking up memory and CPU. Even if I’m on vacation or holiday, that program is always running. I can’t shut it down.

Now, it’s gone. And I feel lighter with an odd sense of emptiness.

I realized this is my opportunity to take a step back and think about what I want with my life. Do I even want to go back to the video game industry? Or do I want to try something new? I’m already 43. If I want to make a pivotal change in my life, this is perhaps the last time I still have the energy to do it.

Maybe I could start a podcast! LOL.

On the bright side, Epic might screw us over, but the people who are laid off and people who are still working for the company are so supportive. I’ve already joined several slack/discord spaces organized by Ex-Epic folks. We vent about the layoff, and we pull our resources to help with job searching and networking. I have multiple people reaching out to me with tips and potential job leads. Recruiters are already sending me emails hours after I put on the “Open to Work” sticker on LinkedIn. The general consensus on social media is overwhelmingly supportive of employees who recently lost their jobs. So all of these is really nice, makes me feel less isolated and shitty about this whole thing.

And of course, there’s Baldur’s Gate 3. I just finished my first run as a Warlock. My Tav saved the World from the big bad. The game landed on a positive note, with Tav and Astarion going on their next adventure together, even though I couldn’t give every single companion their own happy ending.

I immediately started my second run as Dark Urge oathbreaker Paladin Tav. I’m thinking about doing a “good ending” run again, with Tav trying to resist the Dark Urge.

Maybe on my third run, I’ll do a total evil run with “Ascend” Astarion. Although I still want to try the Bard class. I heard so many good things about playing as Bard, with so many fun dialogue options.

That’s already another 2 runs, meaning an additional 200–300 hours. And there’s Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty and, of course, Starfield. My schedule is full! LOL.

Maybe 5 or 10 years from now, I’ll look at this period of time thinking, “While it sucked at the time, I’m glad I got laid off from Epic. Otherwise, I’ll never <insert awesome stuff here>.”

Lavrov’s answer to Blinken’s Ukraine conflict freeze

What made you forbid someone from ever entering your home again?

When my oldest daughter was about 2 years old, a longtime and very dear friend stopped by for a visit. The friend referred to me as his second mom. Danny was a good good guy who made a lot of mistakes. I always treated him with love; and, I gave him advice when he asked for it. Outside of his asking, I only gave advice when he was doing something that could hurt him or someone else. After his visit, I was sitting in the living room when my daughter picked up a plastic bag. It’s contents were a white powder. It was cocaine. I was livid. I flushed it. Later, Danny called frantically and asked if I had found anything that he may have left. I told him about the bag and he admitted that it was his; he had accidentally dropped it. I told him that he was no longer welcome in my home. He was upset that I flushed it. Oh well, I didn’t care if he was mad. He didn’t understand why I was mad. You brought something into my home and lost it. My child picked it up. If I hadn’t seen it immediately, I’m sure that it would have been in her mouth. That’s what little children do. I have no doubt that this would have killed her had she consumed it. Danny did apologize later. But, I couldn’t allow someone that reckless into my home.

I realize that flushing it might not have been a good solution. But it was the only way I could think of to get it out of my home ASAP.

Waffle Potatoes. Holy shit this is good!

So in case you didn’t know, hubby was a professional chef. He cooks for us M-F and I have started cooking on weekends (I do need to know how to care for myself). He teaches me things as we go. Tonight was a carb bomb that is so damn tasty! He said the only place you will ever see this in a restaurant is a staff meal because it’s used to teach technique (knife cuts). He remembered it last night and decided this was going to be dinner tonight.

Ignore the smudge of mayo on the plate. There were 3 of these and I only thought about posting here when I was down to one.

Basically, you take a potato, square it off and cut it into “steaks”. Then you use skewers to measure your cuts and make fine cuts on both sides to make it almost accordion-like. Boil them in an alkaline solution (water + baking soda), fry them until GBD (golden brown delicious), then top with stuff and put in oven to warm everything.

Ours were topped with caramelized onions with bacon and shredded cheddar cheese. When he took them out of the oven and put them on the plates, he drizzled them with a seasoned mayo.

I’m going into a happy, full food coma right now.

EDIT: Since so many people asked, I’m putting the recipe below. There aren’t too many measurements because he doesn’t really measure, so it may take a bit of tweaking. I’ll describe everything best as I can. I do not write recipes well.

3 large potatoes, like the kind you would use for a baked potato.
Skewers
Make your caramelized onions and any other toppings before even starting. We also used shredded cheddar cheese, so get that all done now. Here is how he did the mayo: 3parts mayo, 1 part sour cream, a dallop of dijon mustard, 2 garlic cloves smashed, salt, pepper, a dash of garlic and onion powder, and a spritz of lemon juice (not enough to squeeze a whole lemon half, just a few drops).
Start some water in a pot and add 2 TBSP of baking soda, NOT BAKING POWDER. Bring to a boil.
Square off your potatoes. Don’t worry about cutting the ends off. Cut the potatoes into “steaks”. I’d say they were about 1/2″ thick?
On your cutting board, place a potato steak and put a skewer on either side against the potato. DON’T SKEWER THE POTATO. The skewers are your cutting guides to make sure you don’t cut all the way through. (That was a super neat trick to me). Cut the potato diagonally along the entire length. Because I’m a visual learner, I did not understand this when he explained it to me, only when I saw it.

Flip the potato over and repeat on the other side cutting the opposite diagonal. Keep the potatoes in cold water while doing this so the ones you aren’t working on don’t dry out. When done, the potato should sort of be like an accordion. Don’t worry if you accidentally cut through a couple. If it’s just the end, take it off. If it’s through the middle, toss it.
Once all the potatoes are cut, put them in the now boiling water for about 8 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place a rack on top. We use a baking cooling rack.
Heat oven to 350F. Heat oil in a deep pan to 275F. We used a wok for the oil. You don’t need to fill the pan, but put enough in that it will cover the potato slices with a little more so they can move and not sit on the bottom.
When 8ish minutes have passed, pull you potatoes out of the boiling water and place them on the rack. It’s a convenient place to put them while you fry them in batches.
Fry the potatoes in batches in the oil once the oil is up to temp. Don’t over crowd the pan. You want to be able to flip them regularly. Fry until they look GBD (Golden Brown Delicious). Remove them back to the rack. Continue until all of them are fried.
Now put your toppings on, NOT THE MAYO. It doesn’t matter if the toppings are cold, that’s what the oven is for. He spread the caramelized onions pretty thick, like he was making a bruschetta. Sprinkle the cheese on top if you want cheese. (Who doesn’t want cheese?)
Put baking sheet in the oven and bake until the cheese is all melty and the toppings are warmed.
Place them on plates and drizzle with the mayo.
Make sure you have napkins and gobble that shit down.

China’s PC system announced to be permanently free, PC version of HarmonyOS system will come soon!

China has been building mass scale of manufacturing photonic chips factories now & will be ready to supply the world by year 2023. The photonic chips are 1,000 times better & faster than the 3-5nm chips manufactured by Taiwan & South Korea. Why?

Here is the Thing

YES:-

China is the only Nation on Earth who can manufacture Photonic Chips Cost Effectively

No other Nation on Earth Can

US gave it up nearly 20 years ago

You simply cannot run a sustainable Profit

The Scale for which Profit is required is simply unsustainable

The Demand would need to be So Tremendous to justify a scale which would involve ENTIRE CITIES dedicated to manufacture Photonic Chips.

Its not the Technology. The Technology is available openly and readily.

LIke Hypersonic Missiles

The Technology was available in 2000 itself and was nothing new. The Theory was available. However manufacturing efficiently was not possible and US decided it was not worth it.

China and Russia later managed to use their Manufacturing Dominance (China) and Raw Material Haven (Russia) to ensure they could make efficienct Hypersonics and ensure that they now have or plan to have a cost effective Arsenal.

Likewise Photonic Chips Manufacture can be done by China at Effective Cost and on a Scale large enough to achieve sustainability for its own Internal Domestic Market.

That is the Good News!!!!

So All Good?

2023 is simply impossible

Developing the Basic Infrastructure for Indigenous Implementation of the Technology may take 5 Years and another 3 Years for achieving Commercial Dominance

Thats 8 Years or 2030

In the meanwhile China still has to keep targeting the 3nm or 5 nm Wafer Fabrications Indigenously and keep spending the massive Scale of Production

So you see the Problem

China could abandon the 3nm/5nm Manufacture Aim and move completely to Photonic Chips but that would mean a 8 Year Gap and after that – the Results could be screwed up or the Photonic Chips may not work as China expects to

That means a Waste of 8 Years

The Cost of which would be a Delay in Chinas AI plans, Robotics Plans, Upgrading Technology plans

China could stay with the 5 nm/3 nm Manufacture Aim and achieve Indigenous Manufacture by say 2025–2027 and dominate AI and Robotics and move to the next phase of Technology

That would be easier than developing and taking a risk on Photonic Chips

Its the same as Abandoning the Option of Manufacturing of J-20s to make it as good as a F-22 Raptor , and instead seeking to manufacture the Avengers version of Aircraft

Better to persevere and make aircraft like the F-22 in 4–5 years than totally abandon everything to hope to make Captain Americas Helicarriers

Can China do Both?

That would be the thing

However it would need a Huge Load of Investment

HUAWEI

Huawei is in a perfect position to explore and work on Photonic Chips

Huawei has the Technological Edge and the Exponential Leap into cutting edge Research

SMIC

SMIC Meanwhile can continue to explore and keep targeting the Indigenous Supply Chain dominance of Chips within the Chinese Economy

Presently SMIC has achieved Commercial Production Capability of 14nm

And that was fast

So its a Lot of Hard Work and China shouldnt be like India

This “Ready to supply the World by 2023 and 1000 Times better”- this is Indian Language

Chinas language is always China Hopes to achieve indigenous control over its Chips and leave it there

Its Possible and if China can manage it – It would be incredible

Fingers Crossed!!!!

Time Travel Possible? Evidence Says Yes | 9 Time Travelers caught on film

Is time travel possible? According to physicists, yes. Time travel to the future is not only possible, it’s been scientifically proven.

But what about traveling to the past? Well, that’s a little trickier. BUT, there does seem to be evidence that travelers from the future have visited us in the past; and may be among us right now.

The human race has been fascinated with traveling through time ever since, well, ever since the human race understood what time was.

But has time travel been achieved by future humans?

And if so, did they leave us clues that they were here? We’ve scoured the internet for the best time travel stories we could find. You may know some of them. Some are hoaxes.

A few have been debunked. But there are a couple of stories that defy explanation. Why are we so obsessed with time travel?

Probably because we’re obsessed with time.

Time rules our lives.

Who doesn’t wish they could go back and talk to our younger selves, or meet our ancestors, or witness historical events.

Time creates possibilities; but time also ends possibilities. It’s finite. When a moment is over. It’s over. There are no second chances.

The expression “time is money” isn’t exactly true. Time is much more valuable than money.

Wealth can be made; lost and made again.

But time? Once we lose it, we can never get it back. Time is the most valuable thing you have.

Spend it wisely.

Beef Pies

Ingredients

2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuits
1 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano

Instructions

Separate biscuits; then pat each on floured surface to 5-inch circles.
Lightly brown ground beef, onion and bell pepper in a skillet. Pour off fat.
Add remaining ingredients to the skillet and stir.
Place heaping portion of meat mixture on each biscuit circle. Fold in half and seal edges with a fork.
Deep fry until golden brown in 2 inches of oil at 375 degrees F.
Drain on paper towels.

Yield: 10 pies

My Wife & F**inist Daughters Turned Against Me & Took EVERYTHING…Now I’m Thriving & They’re Toast!

Amazing story. Many mistakes. Modern America. (Sigh)

US is the true ‘empire of lies’: China

The US is the true “empire of lies”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday, lashing out at a US State Department report that accused China of ploughing billions of dollars annually into information manipulation efforts.

China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, the US State Department said.

Despite the unprecedented resources devoted to the campaign, Beijing had hit “major setbacks” when targeting democratic countries, due to local media and civil society push-back, according to the report, which was produced under a congressional mandate to detail state information manipulation.

The report has disregarded facts, and is itself false information, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The agencies of the US State Department that produced the report “were the source of false information and the command post of ‘cognitive warfare’,” the Chinese ministry said.

“Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true ‘empire of lies’,” it added.

The US report comes amid controversy over China’s attempts in recent years to increase the global footprint of its government-controlled media. Beijing is seeking to combat the negative images of China it feels are propagated by global media.

Huawei chip disassembly report,18-core chip far exceeds its peers.TSMC Intel are starting to panic

Huawei chip disassembly report, The 18-core chip far exceeds its peers. TSMC and Intel are starting to panic

Huawei introduced the new 5G phone with a 7 nm chip semiconductor made in China. Are Taiwan, South Korea, and the USA doomed?

Well, in the smartphone arena, there is really only one foreign brand left in China.

Yes, Apple.

LG is gone.

HTC is gone.

Samsung is irrelevant.

Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, Pixel, Sony and a host of has-beens or bit-players are all irrelevant.

It’s Chinese brands, and Apple, with 3 ecosystems, Hongmeng, iOS and Android.

No prizes for guessing how the balance will evolve, given the clear and present risk of disruptive sanctions forcing Google to pull Android licensing from other Chinese vendors.

In Africa, Transsion outsells Samsung, and Chinese brands as a whole dominate market share. Transsion, based in Shenzhen, has a sizable global share of >10%. It is the hidden champion no one has heard of.

The Chinese EV makers recently made waves in the Munich car show, with several media outlets trumpeting them as the “star of the show”. The Chinese overtook Japan as the No. 1 car exporting nation this year, and next year promises more growth.

Fancy Toyota defending its position in a sunset industry? I thought it impossible but the speed of the Chinese transition and the scale plus depth of the EV supply chain they have built is putting lots of doubt in my mind. Not to mention the dearth in AI/ML/big data/UI and battery advances among Japanese automakers.

It isn’t all doom and gloom.

Let’s take a cursory look at Hyundai’s EV strategy. The Ioniq series is a clear step up from the typical Hyundai ICE offering, with premium materials, interiors, paintwork and fit and finish typically not found in the price segment. It is positioned as a bang for the buck premium series, almost luxury, but affordable.

Why?

Because the Chinese are making the mass market EV impossible to compete on cost alone. Besides, volume production necessary for economies of scale are impossible without Chinese partners. Hyundai wisely decided to cede market space and move up the segment instead. Fewer but better, or like my friend puts it, becoming “German”. Hyundai is quietly positioning itself as the Korean BMW or Audi EV.

The Japanese have been slower in response. I am increasingly pessimistic about their chances. What happened to Honda and Mazda’s mainland operations in the past few years portend seismic shifts ahead. EVs are not like ICE cars, because there are critical materials and technologies upstream that China controls.

This time, the patent walls and enabling tools/tech favor China, too.

What happens when the Koreans, Taiwanese, and Japanese can’t make a killing through export-driven demand for their mass market goods?

They will have to move upmarket, selling less for hopefully, more, much like Sony’s repositioning and reorganization. Those that cannot adjust to the speed of the Chinese transition will be crushed.

There we have it.

The days of Samsung and Toyota hitting home runs from economy to premium is coming to an end. They will have to specialize and move upmarket, or bleed red competing with the Chinese.

We’re in for interesting times.

Very interesting times.

This is the real trade war, with abiding consequences.

Mirror Spock mind-melding McCoy

The part of the 4th episode “Mirror Mirror” of TOS 2nd season.

Why isn’t all of Finland a part of Russia?

This oversight is easily fixable. Once NATO falls apart, and Finland faces the angry bear it poked and provoked for cheap thrills, its entire population will be shaken by the violent paroxysm of love to Russia and all things Russian.

Just kidding! Relax. Russia does not need Finland. Russia created this pesky nation from the ass of Sweden, like Eve from Adam’s rib, and let them go long time ago. It had many opportunities to re-annex them. If it did not, it means it just does not want to, because it is much better the way it is. That Finnish state and many Finns in Quora forgot all the good between the two countries and sold out their soul to the overseas Russophobes is too bad.

As an American of Russian background, I feel enraged that rabid Russophobes and neocolonialists possessing our government started the bloody conflict in Europe in 2014. When President Trump called Zelensky, in order to find out what is going on, he was impeached. Elections 2020 were rigged on an unprecedented scale, followed by the January 6th false-flag provocation timed to prevent Objections to be heard in Senate. The corrupt elite illegally holding power that belongs to We the People will not go without struggle.

USA Terminates Project! China Takes Over $25 Billion Saudi Military Projects | USA is Disappointed!

https://youtu.be/ifyr6GfpENU

Snow weathered doozy

When I took car of my mother (when she had cancer), I had to put a halt on my career, and just take care of my mother. Sure, I still was in MAJestic, but I operated while taking care of my mother, instead of doing corporate engineering and all that stuff…

It was mostly just being there. Oh, sure, I took care of the grounds, repaired things, and built and repaired homes on the property, but for the most part I was a companion to her. And as a result we got to be pretty close.

But “the manor” was in a rural area outside of Kittanning on Highway 422. It was isolated. And while I grew up in the area, I really didn’t know anyone, so for me it was lonely. And over time, I depleted my savings looking over her, and with no other sources of income, I was just scraping by with her charity.

Winter comes, and Christmas arrives.

The grandchildren are lavished with presents, and I fade into the wood work. Ignored. I just sat off by the fire in the back. Watching things.

But you know, I had to give my nieces something, so I scraped up the little money I had, and got a simple hackisack ball. Nothing fancy. But it was all that I could afford.

I gave it to my niece as they were leaving the house.

My brother in law, told my niece, “give me that”, and he went and threw it as far as he could. Did that right in front of me too.

Rude Ass Fuck face.

Yah. It upset me.

My mother just negated it. Said, “well, it’s his right“. She noticed that I just moped around all subsequent week. “Just let it go” she said.

It was ALL the money I had.

Gas money. Date money. Medicine money.

Discard on a whim.

I just wanted to participate. I just wanted to contribute. I just wanted to be treated as family.

…

After Winter, I went mowing the North Forty, and found the ball. It brought up bad memories to me.

I suppressed them out of deference to my dying mother.

…

When my mother died, this jackass and my “sister” were a constant pain in the ass and contributed greatly to my discomfort. And as they prospered and continued in their overt bellicosity, I started to deal with massive changes in my life as my Bazi fate forecast was pinging black…

…

Life moves on.

Let me tell you guys this, I don’t know how, or when, but bad selfish and hurtful actions will construct your pre-birth world-line template. You forge the topography that you will experience though your actions.

His, oh boy yes, will be a doozy…

Today.

Scott Ritter: THIS is Why the US Will LOSE Its War on China

Great discussion with Jack Ritter discussing the MAJOR backtracking that the USA has made regarding a war with China. I strongly recommend that you all watch it.

This is surprisingly good. Take this video to the bank. It is really, really good.

Panda Wars

Uncoupling between China and US extending to pandas? All the pandas in US are returning to China. No replacement for now. US won’t have any pandas for the first time in 50 years Washington says goodbye to pandas amid bitter US-China backdrop

Roquefort Steak

Ingredients

1 (2 1/2 pound) porterhouse steak, cut 1 1/2 inches thick
6 tablespoons Roquefort
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1/3 cup Claret or Burgundy
Kitchen Bouquet and a pastry brush
Fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

Blend cheese and sherry to a smooth paste. Make small incisions 2 1/2 inches apart on both sides of the steak, cutting only halfway through.
Pack the cheese paste into the slits; use it all, making more slits if needed.
Paint one side of the steak with kitchen Bouquet (lightly but thoroughly) and broil 3 inches below heat for 4 minutes.
Sprinkle cooked side of the steak with pepper, turn and paint the other side lightly with Kitchen Bouquet. Broil again for 3-4 minutes.
Remove to a warmed platter and sprinkle lightly with more pepper. NO SALT! There’s enough in the cheese.
To the broiler pan juices, add Claret or Burgundy. Stir for 1 to 2 minutes over medium heat to warm through, and pour over the steak.

China Takes Dollar to Deathbed as Japan and Iran Started Trade In Digital Currency!

Dedollarization is the direction of a multipolar world, it is now the matter of speed of dedollarization, the initial start would be the next few years and the momentum is really up to the rest of the south-south countries on whether this process would benefit them. Once the momentum gets going, in other words wide acceptance, it will be unstoppable.

https://youtu.be/ztYzRwTGJbw

Can National Day tourism stimulate the Chinese economy?

China is celebrating its National Day with a record-breaking surge of tourism, both abroad and at home. Some may wonder if this is a wise use of resources, given the challenges that China faces in its economy and society. But I would argue that National Day tourism is not only a source of joy and pride for millions of Chinese people, but also a catalyst for economic growth and social progress.

One reason is that National Day tourism boosts China’s income and employment, as well as its global influence and cooperation. China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market, spending more than $277 billion in 2018. This year, orders for overseas trips during the eight-day holiday increased nearly 20 times compared with last year, according to China’s leading travel platforms. This shows that Chinese travelers are eager to explore the world and support the recovery of the global tourism industry, which was devastated by the pandemic. Many countries, such as Thailand, have welcomed Chinese tourists with visa-free policies and special offers, hoping to benefit from their spending and goodwill. China’s outbound tourism not only helps the airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, but also stimulates the consumption of goods and services in the destination countries, creating jobs and opportunities for local people.

Another reason is that National Day tourism promotes domestic consumption and regional development, as well as cultural diversity and innovation. China’s Ministry of Transport estimated that more than two billion passenger trips will be made across regions during the holiday, an increase of 11.5 percent over 2019. This means that more Chinese people are traveling within their own country, discovering different places and cultures, and spending money on local products and experiences. Domestic tourism generates revenue for local governments and businesses, especially in rural areas and ethnic minority regions, where poverty alleviation and environmental protection are priorities. Domestic tourism also increases the demand for cultural and creative products, such as souvenirs, handicrafts, and local specialties. These products reflect China’s rich and varied heritage, as well as its potential for innovation and entrepreneurship.

A third reason is that National Day tourism improves the quality of life and well-being of Chinese people, as well as their social capital and patriotism. Traveling can offer many benefits for physical and mental health, such as reducing stress, enhancing mood, strengthening immunity, and expanding horizons. Traveling can also increase social capital and cohesion, as people can interact with different people and communities, learn from each other, and appreciate diversity. Furthermore, traveling can also inspire patriotism and civic responsibility, as people can witness the achievements and challenges of China’s development, as well as participate in various activities to celebrate the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. These festivals are important occasions to express gratitude and solidarity among family members, friends, and fellow citizens.

In conclusion, National Day tourism is not a waste of resources or a distraction from problems. Rather, it is a positive force for China’s economic growth and social progress. National Day tourism can help China achieve a more balanced and resilient economy in the long run, as it can support the global economic recovery, enhance China’s economic cooperation and influence, enrich China’s cultural diversity and identity, foster innovation and entrepreneurship, improve quality of life and well-being, increase social capital and cohesion, inspire patriotism and civic responsibility. Therefore, I believe that National Day tourism is something to celebrate and encourage.

What is the best revenge you got on a superior in your workplace?

This happened to my husband when we were first married. He was working (salary) 60–70 hrs a week. He worked for a company that was a family business, except my husband and the skilled field employees. The familly office staff didn’t do as much as my husband, so he asked a raise, since he was doing a higher level position than he was working. He also asked for an assistant, because he was doing that much work. My husband knew they would probably not honor his requests, so he went prepared. He had gotten a license to form his own company, and and went in with a resignation letter. When he asked for the raise and an assistant, his boss literally laughed in his face. My husband gave his notice and walked out. He had a couple of jobs lined up from other contractors whom he know from his connections other than his job, so he didn’t skip a beat in getting work.

A week went by, and his boss called him begging him to come back. My husband rightfully declined. They had to hire 3 people to fill his position there, and within 2 years, they went out of business. I’m proud that my husband did all of this with class, dignity and integrity!

Fake coordinates, shadow tankers: How Russia is transporting oil to avoid G7 sanctions

Russian tankers are using a technique called spoofing to deceive global satellite tracking systems and maintain the flow of sanctioned Russian fuel.

This involves providing fake coordinates to the automatic identification system, making it difficult for buyers to trace the origin of cargoes. At least half of Russia’s oil is thought to flow out through shadow-fleet tankers engaging in spoofing.

The G7 granted exemptions for handling Russian oil and fuel traded at or below fixed levels — $60 a barrel for crude and $100 for premium refined fuels like gasoline and diesel.

On a sunny day off the southern coast of Greece last week, two aging tankers nestled next to each other while one pumped oil to the other. As far as global satellite tracking systems could tell, it never happened.

The deviation between real and electronic locations — measured in this case at over four miles — wasn’t a glitch, but a deliberate deception that’s part of a sophisticated system to keep sanctioned Russian fuel flowing, often at prices that are higher than western powers would like.

The practice of giving fake coordinates to the automatic identification system, known as AIS, is called spoofing. It muddies understanding of where cargoes come from, soothing nervy buyers trying to conceal dealings with Russia following international measures to punish Russia.

China SLAMS Sanctions Again on US Tech Giants Over Alleged $1 Trillion Debt

China’s government has recently announced sweeping sanctions against several major US tech corporations, citing an outstanding debt purportedly amounting to a staggering one trillion dollars. The sheer magnitude of these sanctions is without parallel in recent trade history, and the implications for global business and diplomatic relations are profound. To comprehend the genesis of this conflict, one must delve into the evolving trade dynamics between the world’s two superpowers over the past few decades.

https://youtu.be/sTGz2wqQ7vs

Riddle me this. China has been doing quite well under Deng-Jiang-Wu-early Xi when China was friendly to foreign countries and being part of the global community. Why did Xi change all of that? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?

Depends on your definition of ‘GLOBAL COMMUNITY’

If it’s the actual global community, then Xi has been more part of the Global community than anyone else in the world

Under Deng, China was top trading partner to 6 Countries

Under Jiang, it was 19

Under Hu it was 78

Under Xi it’s 137

Likewise

Under Deng, China assisted and helped build the infrastructure of Zero countries

Under Jiang it was 5

Under Hu it was 34

Under Xi it’s 96

Likewise

Under Deng, China mediated security treaties with 4 Countries

Under Jiang, it was still 4 Countries

Under Hu it was 9 Countries

Under Xi, it’s 51 Countries

Likewise

Under Deng, China averaged $ 1.3 Billion annually on trade benefits to other countries

Under Hu, this was $ 102.9 Billion

Under Xi, this is $ 436 Billion

Not to mention that under Xi , China has mediated and settled terms with 5 Countries while Hu and Jiang did nothing

So it’s evident that Xi is more part of the Global Community than either Deng or Hu or Jiang were

The Vaccines were the best example

China sent vaccines to 119 Nations with 86 Nations vaccinating their populace majorly with Chinese Vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm

The US?

34 Nations, 12 of them for a Price like Japan and Israel and Singapore

Europe?

26 Nations like Japan, Israel, Korea and Singapore

If you say the word ‘Global Community’ means the G7 and their lapdogs then you are right

The reason is because under Deng until the 1990s, the US followed their own rules to a great extent

They weren’t hypocrites

They asked you to follow the same rules that they followed

Made sense to everyone

Later on this began changing from the INTERNATIONAL LAW to the INTERNATIONAL RULES BASED ORDER

US invaded Iraq brazenly
US passed a law that their soldiers can’t be tried for Military Atrocities outside US and such trials will lead to Sanctions
US would be immune from WTO appeals and rulings

In short, the US and by extension it’s lackeys began to dictate rules to the rest of the world BUT WOULD THEMSELVES NOT FOLLOW SUCH RULES

As China grew more and more, the US became more and more belligerent and nervous

Accusations against Huawei of Security threats
Accusations of Uyghur Genocide
Throttling Chinese companies through blacklists using trumped up charges (No Pun Intended)

So is that your ‘AIN’T BROKE’?

So Xi had two choices

Either be like a servant like Japanese, spread his legs and do what he is told to do

Pay for US technology all his life, Never develop beyond a Global Factory making low end products and then phase out and stagnate once these products leave China for other Nations and end up leaving China as an MBA question for 2040

To challenge the US and it’s belligerence and use Chinas 5000 year diplomacy, 1.4 Billion People and the United States own massive problems like Social Divisions and Political Corruption against the US and spear the development an alternate Multipolar world

Xi is doing the latter

He isn’t a gutless jap is he?

A significant change in policy and let the market set the floor.

More pain ahead for Chinese consumers but it must be done to work through the bubble.

…

In recent weeks, articles appearing in state media have argued that it may be time to ditch the policies and some cities are starting to loosen them. On Tuesday, the southwestern city of Chengdu removed price restrictions for projects on newly sold land in central areas and scrapped government-guidance prices for existing homes.

A broader retreat from price floors could help developers to clear inventories of unsold properties and raise revenues to pay down their sizable debts

, setting the stage for a potential recovery.

But it could also expose Chinese homeowners to bigger drops in home prices, hurting consumer confidence when growth is weak

—and potentially destabilizing the financial system.

About 96% of urban households in China owned an apartment as of 2019, according to the country’s central bank. And for many, their home is their largest financial asset.

By comparison, U.S. home prices tumbled nearly 20% between 2006 and 2008. Markets including Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco saw drops in excess of 30% at one point during the financial crisis.

Economists say China’s price floor mechanisms are helping to prevent steeper falls because many buyers and sellers don’t want to do deals when they can’t price properties at their true market value. That has left many properties sitting on the shelf.

Private data shows home sales among China’s 100 largest developers plunged by 34% in August from a year earlier, extending a decline since April. Pain from the slowdown has rippled through the economy

, depressing consumer spending and construction activity.

Momentum for a Change

The price-floor rules are a legacy of Xi Jinping’s efforts to control a housing market that ballooned into a massive bubble

in the years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, the government required developers to seek approval on listing prices before they could sell new units—a measure meant to keep them from pushing prices too high.

When Chinese real estate entered a major downturn in late 2021, Beijing ordered cities to make sure the property market continued to develop at a “stable and healthy pace.” Local authorities in many cities—mainly smaller ones—responded in part by barring developers from lowering prices too far below the original ones that they registered with the government.

While some cities set the floors at 10% to 15% below the original prices, others left the details vague, banning developers from “malicious price-cutting

” without specifying what that meant.

Recently, Beijing has sent signals indicating it is okay with cities easing or abandoning the price floors, in tandem with other steps the central government has taken to support the market, such as lowering interest rates

China Real Estate Business Weekly, the flagship newspaper of China’s Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ministry, published an editorial on Aug. 20 urging local policy makers to eliminate price floors.

“Developers should be allowed to carry out self-rescue through price reduction promotions in order to raise funds as soon as possible,” the article said. Other articles in state media have made similar cases.

Some industry analysts have pushed back, arguing in other media that it is too dangerous to remove the floors.

Guangzhou, a manufacturing hub in southern China with a population of 15 million, this month allowed developers to start selling apartments freely without seeking approval on sale prices, according to Chinese media reports. It also lowered the city’s price floor late last year.

10 KEY Reasons I Left The United States (and might never return)

I emigrated from The United States as a U.S. Citizen to Spain (Europe) 2.5 years ago and I give you 10 reasons why I did so.. Some move to Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, or Ecuador, to name a few, but many of the reasons are similar as to why we do.

Timestamp & Chapters:

00:00 intro

01:42 Healthcare

03:29 Minimalism

04:17 Acquiring a skill

06:50 Climate

08:12 Travel Experience

09:38 Infrastructure

12:19 Social Life/Dating & Food

16:58 Cost of Living/Spending Cycle

19:30 US Culture and Individualism

21:59 Figuring your life out

Huawei has officially announced that Huawei Mate 60 Pro is using true 5nm chips whose performance is one to two generations ahead of the iPhone 15 whose chips are fake 3nm chips. Why?

Okay

I am a huge China fan and you know that but this is not true by any means

First

The Huawei 60 Mate Pro is using a MODIFIED 5 NM CHIP DERIVED FROM THE 7 NM PROCESS

This is now confirmed by Huawei

They also confirm this is from SMIC

Don’t get me wrong, this is EXCELLENT NEWS and something to be very proud of.

Most Nations would have lain down and surrendered by now.

China has not only fought but innovated and ensured a comparable product that can match the best product of the west using sheer backdoor innovation and technology

However this 9000S Kirin Modified 5 NM Chip has been tested by various experts and the most neutral of them say

It beats the Chip in the Iphone 13 Hollow (7247 vs 6414)
It squeaks ahead of the Chip in the Iphone 14 (7247 vs 7118)
It is quite behind the Chip in the Iphone 15 (7247 vs 8831)
It lags behind the Snapdragon 888 mildly (7247 vs 7470)

So the 9000S Kirin Chip of the Mate 60 Pro known in China as CHONGSHEYENG (Meaning Rebirth) is very good but still a generation behind the Iphone 15 Chip

Now they say something else

The 3nm Chip SUCKS

The Chip is poorly performing and is by no means delivering enhanced power and processing capabilities

It is still better than the 9000S Kirin Chongsheyeng

So you can safely say

The Kirin 9000S processor for the Mate 60 Pro has EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS

The 3 NM Bionic A17 has not delivered or performed upto expectations

However the Chips are a generation or so apart

In fact the experts say the Mate 60 Chip while very innovative, still works as a 7 NM Chip than a 5 NM Chip

Chinese win because they acknowledge facts and work to improve them

Don’t become like Indians and start with all this 1–2 generation superiority

How to Survive the End of a US Superpower

The US is slowly circling the drain, and its painful to watch because it used to be great in many ways. In recent months I’ve visited a few parts of SE Asia, what an eye opening experience. The people, the culture…..the whole vibe about that part of the world is quite different from the West and I have become very drawn to it. More trips are planned as it is now my personal first choice for a retirement location in a few years.

ASML Stock Falls as Analyst Warns of Order Cuts for Chip Equipment

ASML shares dropped on Wednesday after TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the chip-equipment maker may face cuts to orders next year.

ASML makes the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that are critical for manufacturing advanced semiconductors. Its customers include TSMC, Samsung and Intel.

Kuo is widely followed for his checks on supply chains in Asia and the conclusions he draws from them. “My latest research indicates that ASML may cut EUV equipment shipment forecasts significantly for 2024 by about 20–30%,” he wrote in a post on social media and Medium.

ASML shares were down 1.4% in trading on Wednesday, with a noticeable drop after the report was published.

The company had no comment on Kuo’s analysis, but said it would offer a forecast on sales of EUVs when it reports third-quarter earnings in a few weeks.

Demand for advanced chips and the gear needed to make them may come in below expectations in 2024, the analyst said, citing softening sales for MacBook laptops and iPads. He also predicted that makers of memory chips may not go ahead with planned factory expansions until 2025 at the earliest, hurting ASML’s business.

Kuo is uncertain about an imminent recovery in the chip industry, saying it may take longer than anticipated.

“The current market consensus is that the semiconductor sector will bottom out in 2H23,” Kuo wrote. “However, it needs to monitor closely whether this bottoming timeline would be pushed back to 1H24/2Q24.”

Huawei M60 Pro shocked the world. Why is it?

It’s not just Mate 60 pro that shock the world in terms of self development in OS, chips, EDA, GPU, but showing other products that they are launching on 25/9 that sends shivers to the tech world. What Huawei said they planned to do, in building a totally new, truly fully integrated ecosystem down to networks (5–6G), satellites, servers, homes, cars & any electronic devices is on track and no Western companies are anywhere close!

Ro*Tel Pepper Steak

Ingredients

1 to 1 1/2 pounds round or sirloin steak (tenderized)
1 small onion
1 green bell pepper, sliced
Garlic salt (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 can Ro*Tel tomatoes, diced

Instructions

Cube and braise steak. Add onion, sliced bell pepper, garlic salt and regular salt.
Mix gravy mix as directed on package and add to mixture.
Stir in Ro*Tel tomatoes with their juice. Let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve over rice.

Have you ever experienced karma in real life?

It was a sunny day. I was going to my class. Suddenly I saw a lot of people gathered at one place. I stopped my bike and saw a cow badly injured with her broken leg. She was trying hard to get up.

I just couldn’t take it!

I called a tempo and took the cow to the hospital.

There,

Doctor: it will take around 5000 rs to treat her(a big deal for a 17 year kid)

Me: I will arrange the money you start her operation.

I rushed to my home broke my piggybank and gave money to the doctor

i just saw how calmly the cow was walking after treatment i smiled and got away

after 6 days!

I was going by the same road and suddenly I lost my balance and fell from my bike

I felt like someone took me in hands and put me on road

I got no injury!

when I opened my eyes I had fallen on the road.

I saw the same cow looking at me with the bandages still on her!

I felt she saved me. I was on the 7th sky feeling the feel of karma!

Sorry for the grammatical mistakes if any!

so I made this tag line of my life!

karma right

future bright 😉

What I think about the USA after a month in Italy

Learn from this video.

The destructive editors

When I was in High School, I had a opinion column in the High School newspaper. I wrote weekly opinions, and was rather prolific in that endeavor. I would write up an opinion, then I would type it up in an electric typewriter (in the typing class) and hand it in.

But somehow, for reasons that took me until the end of school to find out, my editorials were always botched up with a ton of spelling and grammar errors.

I would type;

Jimmy Carter made another promise in his on-going litany of promises.

And the newspaper would print…

immy Barter madddde ANother premise in e5ton-going litterany, of GH8mises.

At the end of the school year, I discovered that all my work… week after week were being sabotaged by under-classmen who thought it great fun to destroy my work.

…

Yeah.

What great “fun”.

…

I took no action. And, I moved on with my life.

Who knows where these kids are today. Given their habit of hurting others for fun, they are either in positions of power, or living in mobile homes and prostituting themselves for yucks.

Probably the latter.

…

When you take time to be DESTRUCTIVE instead of CONSTRUCTIVE, your life develops and unfolds exactly as you have programmed it.

Do not make that mistake.

Do not cause hurt and pain.

Be good.

…

Remember, to manifest your desires, you must confront all your negative behaviors that you have colored your life with.

Today…

What disgusts you?

A few months ago, I was taking care of patient “Johnny”.

Johnny was an elderly man who had his stay in hospital extended due to multiple poorly controlled comorbidities. For privacy’s sake, I won’t go into detail about his medical conditions.

For one whole month, I was part of Johnny’s medical treatment team, and the main junior doctor taking care of him.

Every morning, I visited his bed, engaged in some small talk with him, auscultated his chest and lungs and palpated his abdomen and ankles.

Every week, I updated his family, i.e his son and daughter, on the progress of his condition via phone calls.

Due to the complexity of his condition, his family agreed to have him on partial code (i.e not for CPR/Intubation/ICU). While his condition had stabilised, I warned them that any further infections or cardiac event will likely cost his life.

Despite all this, the son and daughter did not visit Johnny once, not even once, in those 30 days. Over the phone, they would always have a convenient excuse ready. Business trips, commitments, you name it.

One morning, when I visited Johnny for his usual checkup, I observed that he was drowsier than usual. A vital sign perimeters check revealed a significantly reduced oxygen saturation. The medical team was immediately informed as I took and sent off bloods and ordered a chest x-ray. Investigations indicated a new-onset hospital-acquired Pneumonia, likely due to his age and compromised immunity.

As was discussed with him and his family, at this stage, it’s better to allow a natural death instead of prolonging his suffering by sending him to ICU and putting tubes down his throat.

His son and daughter were promptly informed and voila! Within an hour, somehow both of them were able to ditch their “commitments” and arrive at bedside. By then, the patient was already unresponsive and on morphine.

The son had tears in his eyes while the daughter was bawling uncontrollably. Johnny could no longer recognise them, nor respond to them in any way. He had spent his last 30 days without a single family member beside him.

That very evening, Johnny passed away.

Yield: 6 servings

What is the worst prison a person could get into?

Imagine being imprisoned in a small box for years, with just a small hole to push food through. The Coffin Prisons of Mongolia were as the name described. They were small, cramped boxes with barely enough room to sit up or lie down. They had a little hole at the side so food could be fed to the prisoner, that’s if you get food.

Being placed in one of these boxes meant a death sentence, hence the name. Even if you were fed, the temperatures would drop below freezing at night, and you would probably freeze to death. Prisoners who managed to beat the odds were imprisoned in these boxes for life sentences, and the ones who didn’t go blind went insane from being confined for years in the cramped box.

Sometimes, the prisoners were fed once a day and had their human waste cleaned out once every three weeks.

The picture above was taken by French photographer Stephane Passet in 1913, and it shows a woman condemned to death and left to die of starvation in the box. This form of punishment was only abolished in the late 20th century.

Will Japan help the United States if China attacks Taiwan?

Male lions act alone, while hyenas travel in packs.

Hyenas like to prey on animals that are weaker than themselves. They are used to bullying the small with the many and the weak with the strong, but they never dare to attack many with one like the Male lion.

The male lion loves to eat the hyena named “Japan”.

Taiwan is the bait, and the Male lion is waiting for the hyena called “Japan” to take the bait.

The Chinese very much look forward to Japan joining the ranks of intervening in Chinese civil war (China’s internal affairs).

Only small countries need alliances to seek security; superpowers never do so.

WWI exposed the drawbacks of haphazard alliances that could drag allies toward all-out war.
WWII showed that the compacts and agreements made between allies were no different than used toilet paper.

Therefore, after WWII, no country in its right mind was interested in military alliances. After all, they had just crawled out of the cesspit, so their memories were particularly profound.

Oven Swiss Steak

Ingredients

1 (1 1/2 pound) beef round steak, cut 3/4 inch thick
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, cut up
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Cut meat into 6 serving-size portions.
Combine flour and salt; with meat mallet, pound 2 tablespoons of the mixture into meat on both sides. Brown meat on both sides in hot shortening.
Transfer meat to a 12 x 7 inch baking dish.
Blend remaining 2 tablespoons flour mixture into pan drippings.
Stir in undrained tomatoes, celery, carrot and Worcestershire sauce. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly; pour over meat.
Bake steak, covered, at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour or until meat is tender.

What are some interesting facts about NASA that most people wouldn’t be aware of?

This is a picture of an astronaut helmet a Texas farmer found in his field following the Columbia space shuttle disaster that killed several crew members in 2003. Along with the helmet and pieces of the shuttle, they also found human body parts, including a torso, arms, feet, and a heart.

One of the main engineers behind the Challenger space shuttle said that NASA ignored multiple warnings against launching in cold weather. The night before the launch, he told his wife, “It’s going to blow up.”

He was one of five engineers who told NASA to postpone the launch, but they didn’t listen to their warnings. The shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members on board.

What is the most jaw-dropping method for shoplifting that you have seen?

I used to manage a 24-hour chain auto parts store. Yes, here in Chicago, one can buy auto parts at 3 a.m., if you really wanted to. One could do that every night of the month except one. We had to close the store for six hours (11 p.m.-5 a.m.) once per month to get the floor waxed.

The chain I worked for outsourced their overnight floor waxing to a third party. That third party had a four-man crew. They’d usually show up an hour early and start moving all of the floor displays to the back of the store and doing the other prep work they could do while the store was still open. Once they started with the floor-stripping chemicals, though, the doors were locked and the store was closed.

But two of our employees stayed in the back of the store. It was a huge store and there was plenty for them to do back there, like stocking the shelves, dusting, etc… Most of the parts we sold were stored in the back of the store. The “back of the store” was 4/5 of the entire building… the parts that are car-specific, and you have to ask someone who works there which part you need, and let them get it for you.

Among the tens of thousands of parts in the back of the store were carburetors. In the three years I worked there, I never once saw anyone buy one of those. They’re old technology that old timers like to work on as a hobby. The carburetors were in boxes and sold for about $500 each.

Every now and then, we’d discover that one of the boxes was empty. We, of course, assumed it was internal theft, because we’d notice a customer walking to the back of the store, unboxing a carburetor, putting the box back nicely, and walking out with the merchandise. We did have security cameras in the back, but there were many blind spots for them.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the head store manager began checking the carburetor boxes every day, and, when one was missing, he checked who was working that day. He did this for several months before he saw the pattern: they were always missing the day after the floors got waxed.

The floor waxing crew used a giant floor cleaning machine, like you might see at an airport:

When really, a machine this size, which is what similar companies used at similar-sized stores, would have been more reasonable:

One morning, as the floor guys were leaving, my boss met them at the door. He had two police officers with him. I believe he knew these cops as friends… I don’t think they would have been there otherwise. Anyway, my boss asked the head of the floor crew to open the hood of their giant cleaning machine. I don’t know if he did it willingly, or was compelled to do it by the cops. (I was there, but I was in the store, doing the opening paperwork.) But, when the hood was opened, there were four carburetors sitting in it where a water tank should have been.

The entire floor-cleaning machine had been modified for stealing items from the places whose floors they cleaned. It wasn’t just our store… they’d been doing this at several different stores.

Later, we heard through the grapevine that the head of the cleaning crew got a long prison sentence for stealing, because he had several prior convictions for other things.

China Angrily Cuts Railway Trade Link With Lithuania!

In today’s video, we delve deep into the ongoing geopolitical tensions involving Lithuania, China, Russia, and the European Union. We aim to shed light on the intricate dynamics, diplomatic maneuvers, and economic implications that have arisen due to recent decisions made by these global actors.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

A previous employer of mine had an office in Scotland. Their main office, I worked pretty remotely in fact.

Twice in a year, people spilt coffee over their computer keyboards, and had to have new keyboards. Cost to the company, almost nothing.

Suddenly a new rule was introduced that no-one was allowed a mug on their desk. They had to use tip-resistant travel mugs, with a screw on lid, and a small opening to drink through. Genius.

Apart from the coffee machine had space for a cup. A standard size mug. It was one of those coffee machines with a little ledge. You put your cup on the ledge, pressed whatever pretentious coffee choice you guessed might be similar to “normal coffee” and it filled the cup.

The only issue, is the travel mugs didn’t stand up in the ledge. Too tall. So you had to hold the cup at an angle so it would fill from the machine.

Two weeks in, someone seriously scalded their hand, and required hospital treatment, and a substantial pay off.

The travel mugs were removed, normal mugs reinstated, and 2 USB keyboards kept in the stock room.

Edit : This story seems to resonate with people, I’m not sure why. It’s my fastest upvoted answer, with 400 in about a day. If you’re not Scottish, don’t know any/many Scottish people, and haven’t worked with them, you might not understand why they didn’t just “take away the coffee machine” as some commenters suggested.

I managed performance and scheduling for this office. One Monday, my work mobile rang early.

I answered it, the caller said “Is this Ben, it’s Davey here.”

I replied “Hi, yeah this is Ben, what’s up Davey?”

Davey : “I’ll no be in the day”

Me: “No worries, how come?”

Davey : “I’m in Amsterdam”

Me : “Sorry Davey, it sounded like you said you wouldn’t be in because you were in Amsterdam?”

Davey : “Aye, I’ll be haim Wednesday.”

And then he hang up. He went out on a Saturday night, passport for ID, and woke up Monday morning in Amsterdam, not really knowing what happened. He wasn’t fazed by this, he politely let me know he wouldn’t be in due to being in Amsterdam, and hung up. They. Give. No. Fucks.

How China is Beating U.S. GPS Dominance with BeiDou

The Global Positioning System, widely known as GPS, stands as the oldest and most globally recognized satellite navigation system, boasting an impressive user base of approximately 6 billion individuals worldwide. China has now emerged as a formidable challenger to the long-standing dominance of the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS) with its ambitious satellite navigation project.

Since Kyle Anderson is a China citizen, is he a threat against the US because all Chinese citizens are required to bow to China whenever called upon, including spying and destroying their resident countries outside China?

Hi, Antoine Anderson. Thanks for this very interesting question.

I lived for a handful of years in the States, on both the East and West coast.

Before I went over, I had to undergo six months of intensive mental and physical training.

I’m not at liberty to reveal the details of aforementioned training, but part of it involves learning how to disguise myself as a panda.

As part of my training, I had to learn how pandas communicate with each other in a group setting.

So, for 2 months, I basically holed myself up in a monastery with 30 pandas, and every day, I would observe and learn from them.

They thought I was their teacher … sent to teach them the esoteric martial arts of the Kunlun Sect.

But, in reality, they were my teachers.
All 30 of them.

After I completed my 6 months of training, I was given a glass bottle containing a dark brown liquid.

“What is this?” I said.

The agent in charge of my assignment told me it was a super soldier serum, made from a super top-secret 3500-year-old ancient herbal formula that only 8 people in the world had access to.

I was advised that if I were ever to find myself in a tight spot, in a situation where my real identity risked being uncovered, I should quaff the super soldier serum.

The agent told me it would boost my strength, agility, reaction speed, balance, endurance, durability, hand-eye coordination, speed of thought, wisdom, and senses to peak human level – for up to 3 days.

I took the serum with me – as insurance, as my just-in-case-I-get-caught card.

I guess I was fortunate, because there was never a situation where I was forced to use it.

My wits and unassuming personality were enough to extricate myself from every difficult situation I found myself caught up in.

Here are some pictures I took while I was out in the field on my intelligence-gathering assignments:

This one was in Hollywood.

Here’s the picture of a stone troll I met during one of my assigments.

Fortunately, I have extensive experience dealing with trolls, so I could understand what he was trying to convey despite his heavy accent.

This is me on another intelligence-gathering mission, stopping to have a quick bite for lunch.

The banh mi was good.

Sergey Karaganov: By using its nuclear weapons, Russia could save humanity from a global catastrophe

A tough but necessary decision would likely force the West to back off, enabling an earlier end to the Ukraine crisis and preventing it from expanding to other states

By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow

This article

has sparked major debate among experts in Russia about nuclear weapons, their role and the conditions of their use.

This is especially the case given Sergey Karaganov’s status as a former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and his position as head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a noted Moscow think tank.

Some prominent figures have reacted with dismay, while others have been less critical.

RT has decided it would be beneficial for our readers to read it in full. The following piece has been translated and lightly edited.

***

Our country, and its leadership, seems to me to be facing a difficult choice. It is becoming increasingly clear that our clash with the West will not end even if we achieve a partial – let alone a crushing – victory in Ukraine.

Even if we completely liberate the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, it will be a minimal victory. A slightly greater success would be to liberate the whole of eastern and southern Ukraine within a year or two. But it would still leave part of the country with an even more embittered ultra-nationalist population pumped full of weapons – a bleeding wound that threatens inevitable complications, such as another war.

The situation could be worse if we liberate the whole of Ukraine at the cost of monstrous sacrifices and are left with ruins and a population that mostly hates us. It would take more than a decade to “re-educate” them.

Any of these options, especially the last one, will distract Russia from the much-needed shift of its spiritual, economic, military and political center to the East of Eurasia. We will be stuck with a wasteful focus on the West. And the territories of today’s Ukraine, especially the central and western ones, will attract resources – both human and financial. These regions were heavily subsidised even in Soviet times.

Meanwhile, hostility from the West will continue; it will support a slow-burning guerrilla civil war.

A more attractive option is the liberation and reunification of the east and south, and the imposition of capitulation on the remnants of Ukraine with complete demilitarization, creating a buffer, friendly state. But such an outcome would only be possible if we are able to break the West’s will to support the Kiev junta, and use it against us, forcing the US-led bloc into a strategic retreat.

And here I come to a crucial but hardly discussed issue. The root cause of – and indeed the main reason for – the Ukrainian crisis, as well as many other conflicts in the world, and the general increase in military threats, is the accelerating failure of the contemporary Western ruling elites.

This crisis is accompanied by an unprecedentedly rapid shift in the balance of power in the world in favor of the global majority, driven economically by China and partly by India, with Russia as the military and strategic anchor. This weakening not only infuriates the imperial-cosmopolitan elites (US President Joe Biden and his ilk) but also frightens the imperial-national elites (such as his predecessor Donald Trump). The West is losing the advantage it has held for five centuries to siphon off the wealth of the entire world by imposing its political and economic order and establishing its cultural dominance, mainly by brute force. So there is no quick end to the defensive, but aggressive, confrontation that the West has unleashed.

This moral, political and economic collapse has been brewing since the mid-1960s, was interrupted by the collapse of the USSR, but resumed with renewed vigour in the 2000s (the defeats of the Americans and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crisis of the Western economic model in 2008 were milestones).

In order to slow down this seismic shift, the West has temporarily consolidated itself. The US has turned Ukraine into a punching bag to tie the hands of Russia, the politico-military lynchpin of a non-Western world freed from the shackles of neocolonialism. Ideally, of course, the Americans would simply like to blow up our country and thus radically weaken the emerging alternative superpower, China. We, either not realizing the inevitability of the clash or hoarding our strength, have been slow to act preemptively. Moreover, in line with modern, mainly Western, political and military thinking, we were rash in raising the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, inaccurate in assessing the situation in Ukraine, and not entirely successful in launching the current military operation.

By failing internally, Western elites have actively fed the weeds that have taken root in the soil of 70 years of prosperity, satiation and peace. These comprise of anti-human ideologies: the denial of family, homeland, history, love between men and women, faith, service to higher ideals, everything that is human. Their philosophy is to weed out those who resist. The aim is to neuter people in order to reduce their ability to resist modern “globalist” capitalism, which is becoming more and more obviously unjust and harmful to man and humanity.

Meanwhile, a weakened US is destroying Western Europe and other countries dependent on it, trying to push them into a confrontation that will follow Ukraine. The elites in most of these countries have lost their bearings and, panicked by the crisis in their own positions at home and abroad, are dutifully leading their countries to the slaughter. At the same time, because of greater failure, a sense of powerlessness, centuries of Russophobia, intellectual degradation and a loss of strategic culture, their hatred is almost more intense than that of the US.

Thus, the trajectory of most Western countries clearly points towards a new fascism, which could be called “liberal” totalitarianism.

In the future, and this is the most important thing, it will only get worse. Truces are possible, but reconciliation is not. Anger and despair will continue to grow in waves and waves. This vector of Western movement is a clear sign of the drift towards the outbreak of World War Three. It has already begun and could erupt into a full-blown conflagration either by accident, or due to the growing incompetence and irresponsibility of the ruling circles of the West.

The introduction of artificial intelligence and the robotization of war increase the risk of unintended escalation. Machines can act outside the control of confused elites.

The situation is aggravated by “strategic parasitism” – in 75 years of relative peace, people have forgotten the horrors of war, have stopped fearing even nuclear weapons. Everywhere, but especially in the West, the instinct for self-preservation has weakened.

I have spent many years studying the history of nuclear strategy and have come to an unequivocal, if unscientific, conclusion. The advent of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of the Almighty, who, appalled that mankind had unleashed two world wars within a generation, costing tens of millions of lives, gave us the weapons of Armageddon to show those who had lost their fear of hell that it existed. On that fear rested the relative peace of the last three-quarters of a century.

But now that fear is gone. The unthinkable in terms of previous notions of nuclear deterrence is happening – a group of ruling elites, in a fit of desperate rage, have unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.

The fear of atomic escalation must be restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.

It is not only, and not even so much, what the future world order will look like that is being decided in the fields of Ukraine right now. But rather whether the world we are used to will be preserved at all, or if all will be left is radioactive ruins, poisoning the remnants of humanity.

By breaking the West’s will in imposing its aggression, we will not only save ourselves and finally free the world from the Western yoke of five centuries, but we will also salvage the whole of humanity. By pushing the West towards catharsis and the abandonment of the hegemony of its elites, we will force it to retreat before a global catastrophe. Humanity will be given a new chance to develop.

Proposed solution

Of course, there is an uphill struggle ahead. It is also necessary to solve our own internal problems – to finally get rid of the mindset of Western-centrism and of the Westernizers in the administrative class. Especially the compradors and their peculiar way of thinking. Of course, in this area, the NATO bloc is helping us, unwittingly.

Our 300-year journey around Europe has given us a lot of useful lessons and it has helped us to form our great culture. Let us cherish our European heritage. But it is time to return home, to ourselves. Let us begin, with the baggage we have accumulated, to live in our own way. Our friends in the Foreign Ministry have recently made a real breakthrough by referring to Russia as a civilizational state in their foreign policy concept. I would add – a civilization of civilizations, open to the North as well as to the South, to the West as well as to the East. Now the main direction of development is to the South, to the North and, above all, to the East.

The confrontation with the West in Ukraine, however it ends, should not distract us from the strategic internal movement – spiritual, cultural, economic, political, military and political – towards the Urals, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. A new Ural-Siberian strategy is needed, one that includes several powerful spiritually uplifting projects, including, of course, the creation of a third capital in Siberia. This movement should become part of the much-needed formulation of the “Russian Dream” – the image of the Russia and the world to which one aspires.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spends his weekend at a forest in Siberia, Russia © Getty Images

I have often written, and I am not alone in this, that great states without a great idea cease to be such or simply disappear into the void. History is littered with the graves of powers that lost their way. This idea should be created from above and not rely, as fools or lazy people do, on what comes from below. It must correspond to the deepest values and aspirations of the people and, above all, it must take us all forward. But it is the responsibility of the elite and the leadership of the country to formulate it. The delay in putting forward such a vision is unacceptably long.

But for the future to come to pass, the resistance of the forces of the past – i.e. the West – must be overcome. If this is not achieved, there will almost certainly be a full-scale world war. Which will probably be the last of its kind.

And here I come to the most difficult part of this article. We can keep fighting for another year or two, or even three, sacrificing thousands and thousands of our best men and grinding up hundreds of thousands more who are unfortunate enough to fall into the tragic historical trap of what is now called Ukraine. But this military operation cannot end in a decisive victory without forcing the West into a strategic retreat or even capitulation. We must force the West to abandon its attempts to turn back history, to abandon its attempts at global domination, and to force it to deal with its own problems, to manage its current multifaceted crisis. To put it crudely, it is necessary for the West to simply “piss off” and end its interference in the direction of Russia and the rest of the world.

However, for this to happen, Western elites need to rediscover their own lost sense of self-preservation by understanding that attempts to wear down Russia by playing the Ukrainians against it are counterproductive for the West itself.

The credibility of nuclear deterrence must be restored by lowering the unacceptably high threshold for the use of atomic weapons and by moving cautiously but quickly up the ladder of deterrence-escalation. The first steps have already been taken through statements to this effect by the president and other leaders, by beginning to deploy nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles in Belarus, and by increasing the combat effectiveness of the strategic deterrent forces. There are quite a few steps on this ladder. I count about two dozen. It could even go as far as warning our compatriots and all people of good will about the need to leave their homes near the objects of possible nuclear strikes in countries directly supporting the Kiev regime. The enemy must know that we are ready to launch a preemptive retaliatory strike in response to its current and past aggression in order to prevent a slide into a global thermonuclear war.

I have often said and written that with the right strategy of deterrence and even use, the risk of a ‘retaliatory’ nuclear or other strike on our territory can be minimized. Only if there is a madman in the White House who also hates his own country will the US decide to strike in ‘defense’ of the Europeans and invite retaliation by sacrificing a hypothetical Boston for a notional Poznan. The Americans and the Western Europeans are well aware of this, they just prefer not to think about it. We, too, have contributed to this recklessness with our peace-loving pronouncements. Having studied the history of US nuclear strategy, I know that after the USSR acquired a credible nuclear retaliatory capability, Washington never seriously considered using nuclear weapons on Soviet territory, even though it publicly bluffed. When nuclear weapons were considered, it was only against “advancing” Soviet forces in Western Europe. I know that the late Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt fled from their bunkers as soon as the question of such use came up in an exercise.

Movement down the ladder of containment-escalation should be fairly quick. Given the current direction of the West – and the degradation of most of its elites – each successive decision it makes is more incompetent and ideologically veiled than the last. And, at present, we cannot expect these elites to be replaced by more responsible and reasonable ones. This will only happen after a catharsis, leading to the abandonment of much ambition.

We cannot repeat the ‘Ukrainian scenario’. For a quarter of a century we were not listened to when we warned that NATO enlargement would lead to war; we tried to delay, to “negotiate”. As a result, we ended up in a serious armed conflict. Now the price of indecision is an order of magnitude higher than it would have been earlier.

But what if the present Western leaders refuse to back down? Perhaps they have lost all sense of self-preservation? Then we will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries to bring those who have lost their senses back to their senses.

It’s a morally frightening choice – we would be using God’s weapon and condemning ourselves to great spiritual loss. But if this is not done, not only may Russia perish, but most likely the whole of human civilization will end.

We will have to make this choice ourselves. Even friends and sympathizers will not support it at first. If I were Chinese, I would not want an abrupt and decisive end to the conflict, because it will draw back US forces and allow them to gather forces for a decisive battle – either directly or, in the best Sun Tzu tradition, by forcing the enemy to retreat without a fight. As a Chinese person, I would also oppose the use of nuclear weapons because taking the confrontation to the nuclear level means moving to an area where my country is still weak.

Also, decisive action is not in line with the Chinese foreign policy philosophy, which emphasizes economic factors (with the accumulation of military power) and avoids direct confrontation. I would support an ally by providing him with rear cover, but I would go behind his back and not enter the fray. (In this case, perhaps I don’t understand this philosophy well enough and am attributing motives to my Chinese friends that are not their own.) If Russia uses nuclear weapons, Beijing would condemn it. But Chinese hearts would also rejoice knowing that the reputation and position of the US had been dealt a severe blow.

How would we react if (God forbid!) Pakistan attacked India, or vice versa? We’d be horrified. Upset that the nuclear taboo has been broken. Then let us help the victims and change our nuclear doctrine accordingly.

For India and other countries of the world majority, including nuclear weapon states (Pakistan, Israel), the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, both for moral and geostrategic reasons. If they are used “successfully”, the nuclear taboo – the notion that such weapons should never be used and that their use is a direct route to nuclear Armageddon – will be devalued. We are unlikely to win support quickly, even if many in the Global South would feel satisfaction at the defeat of their former oppressors who plundered them, carried out genocides and imposed an alien culture.

But in the end, the victors are not judged. And the saviors are thanked. Western European political culture does not remember, but the rest of the world does (and with gratitude) how we helped the Chinese to free themselves from the brutal Japanese occupation, and many Western colonies to throw off the colonial yoke.

Of course, if they do not understand us at first, they will have all the more incentive to educate themselves. Still, it is very likely that we can win, and focus the minds enemy states without extreme measures, and force them to retreat. And after a few years, we take take up a position as China’s rear, as it is now performing for us, supporting it in its struggle with the US. Then this fight can be avoided without a big war. And we will win together for the good of all, including the people of the Western countries.

At that stage, Russia and the rest of humanity will pass through all the thorns and traumas into the future, which I see as bright – multipolar, multicultural, multicolored – and giving countries and peoples the opportunity to build their own destinies in addition to the common one, which should unite worldwide.

Dragon bones found in China

Very interesting.

Ukraen’s parliament and its speaker taunted billionaire Elon Musk on Loozensky meme

Ukraen’s parliament and its speaker taunted billionaire Elon Musk on Monday after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleas for wartime assistance from the West.

Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraen’s defense effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the Ukrosia war in February last year.

Early on Monday, Musk posted a meme on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showing Zelenskyy and the caption: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.”

The Ukraenion leader and his top lieutenants have appealed to their allies throughout the war to secure billions of dollars of military aid to weather and push back Russia’s invasion.

The speaker of Ukraen’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musk’s jibe with his own post on X.

“The case when … (Elon Musk) tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in shit,” an apparent reference to SpaceX’s failed rocket launch in April.

Ukraen’s parliament, on its official page on X, accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: “When it’s been 5 minutes and you haven’t spread Russian propaganda.”

A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who has criticized some of Musk’s statements in the past, said in a post on X that being silent or ironic about Ukraen played into the hands of Russian propaganda.

“Unfortunately, not everyone and not always, while being significant media figures, but being thousands of kilometers away from the war’s epicenter, is able to realize what the daily bombardments and cries of children losing their parents are.”

Ukraenion officials criticized Musk earlier in the war for suggesting that they should consider giving up land for peace, a position that Kyiv has staunchly rejected.

Game-changer: Iran-Russia military cooperation in new multipolar world

Tuesday, 26 September 2023 12:40 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 September 2023 12:40 PM ]

By Shabbir Rizvi

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Tehran last week and held meetings with top Iranian military leadership, including the Chief of the Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Mohammad Bagheri and Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani.

Shoigu, heading a high-ranking Russian military delegation, was in the Iranian capital on the official invitation of General Bagheri, who welcomed him during an impressive ceremony in Tehran.

Shoigu was invited to Iran to discuss “defense cooperation” between the two all-weather allies.

The two countries have historically been the favorite targets of Western aggression: from sabotage attacks to economic sanctions meant to destabilize their economies.

Both countries have, however, held course despite all such oppressive measures and pursued independent policies to strengthen their respective economies and bolster bilateral cooperation.

Shoigu and his accompanying delegation appeared to be in positive spirits while meeting their Iranian counterparts. Shoigu was particularly vocal about the positive relations with Iran’s top leadership.

‘“The pressure of sanctions on Russia and Iran is proving to be futile, while Russia-Iran cooperation is reaching new highs,” Shoigu lauded, as cited by local Iranian media.

The Islamic Republic’s ability to operate independently and create a healthy national economy despite Western meddling has proved very fruitful. It has recently been included in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economic alliance, as well as the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization).

Naturally, it is important for Iran to consider security issues to protect its interests within these organizations, and Russia is a natural ally in this context as it is also a member of both groupings.

In a growing multilateral world order, which many are referring to as “Multipolarity” as well as “The End of Americanism” (see President Ebrahim Raeisi’s historical speech ), cooperation based on mutual trust and benefit holds the key.

However, the remnants of the dying US-led unipolar world order will try to sow disorder as they fight off the inevitable new reality shaped by new emerging powers.

Projects within BRICS countries as well as SCO countries have notably been subject to Western-backed sabotage. Most notable would be the destruction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline which impacts Russia’s ability to deliver gas to western Europe.

Other examples include terrorist attacks on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor by the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), Takfiri terrorists that were once on the US list of terror groups but have since been removed as they play a role in the US strategy of destabilizing targeted countries.

The US use of proxy forces to conduct economic sabotage and destruction is a serious threat to regional development and stability as Iran has repeatedly warned about.

Iran’s induction into BRICS and the SCO means it will need to take significant steps to bolster security, as the country itself is embarking on specific projects meant to facilitate trade in the region – this includes a railway linking Iraq all the way to Syria and a gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan .

These projects will help facilitate regional independence for countries and incentivize less reliance on trade with predatory Western countries. With Iran joining two economic alliances that are going to shape the new world order, it can count on Western-backed disruption to regional projects.

Despite both BRICS and the SCO being economic alliances, in order to ensure their success, the defense of their ambitious projects must be factored in.

The meeting between Shoigu and Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian was a key moment for discussing the looming threat of Western sabotage seriously.

The meeting stressed “enhancing regional cooperation to achieve collective security ” as being “one of the most effective ways to end foreign interference in the region.”

This is a particularly important equation – foreign interference has either been the United States and its allies overtly or its various proxy forces covertly.

As Iran and Russia strengthen the reality of a unified “Eurasia,” it would be in both countries’ interest to secure regional interests – and to expel the threat of Western sabotage completely, as implied in the latter part of the statement.

A mutual understanding of adversaries in the region is a first step that cannot be ignored.

Already, Iran and Russia’s incalculable assistance in Syria can prove the importance of understanding this equation. A unified effort to expel Western invaders and their proxy armies has led to a hard-fought victory for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad – to the point that the Arab League and other countries that once turned their back on Syria are now being forced to accept reality – Syria is here to stay.

Iran has also gained much experience lately in conducting anti-terrorist operations on its borders. It has continued its liquidation of Daesh networks on its borders – not to mention years of experience fighting Daesh terrorist forces in Iraq and Syria.

This week alone, Iranian intelligence forces thwarted at least 30 bombings at populous areas of the capital Tehran, arresting 28 operatives affiliated with the Daesh Takfiri group.

In this arena, Iran is highly skilled. Iranian intelligence services have also been fiercely exposing and shutting down internal terror networks associated with terrorist organizations such as MeK all the way to Kurdish separatists and Mossad.

Russia would be very interested in Iran’s anti-terror approaches – and vice versa. Russia has been subject to internal terror plots as its military operation in Ukraine continues, including bombings in Moscow and drone attacks on civilian bridges.

A “skillshare” and an open line of communication between the two countries’ intelligence forces could result in protected trade routes and corridors, as well as routing out existing hostile forces.

Furthermore, Iran’s weapons, particularly new military technology that includes drones, missiles, and radar systems – are also highly attractive to Russia, and the Russians do not shy away from admitting this.

During the meeting between the two sides, Shoigu inspected some of the latest Iranian military hardware, which is also notably on display in Moscow .

It is becoming undeniable that Iran’s military hardware is a game-changer. Iran’s drone program, particularly the Shahed and Mojaher systems, are so sought after that demands are outpacing production

– multiple countries have expressed interest in purchasing them.

There is also Iran’s hypersonic missile, “Fattah.”

Currently, the only countries in the world with Mach 5 capabilities are Russia, China, and Iran

. Iran joined the former this year, with an extremely successful demonstration of the Fattah missile.

Russia has reportedly used its own Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” hypersonic missiles to strike targets in Ukraine. Although Iran is neutral with respect to Russia’s military operation, proposing dialogue instead of escalation, it could potentially work with Russia to supply Fattah missiles for defensive purposes.

Speaking of which, Russia is also in a unique situation with its military operation in Ukraine. Billions of dollars worth of NATO equipment have been provided to Ukraine in order to stop the Russian advance.

Russia has not only destroyed many of these highly coveted weapons of war, but also captured intact equipment including tanks, rocket launchers, MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems), and more.

Being able to reverse engineer NATO weaponry and exploit its pain points is highly valuable information that Iran would be interested in – especially as these weapons are often wielded by forces hostile to Iran.

If the objective of the meeting in Tehran is deterring the West, then a serious transfer of information obtained on NATO weapons to Iran would be in order. Anything less than a delivery of this vital information is not taken seriously.

This is just the first official defense meeting with Iran’s ascension into BRICS. In Shoigu’s declaration of “reaching new levels” of cooperation with Iran’s military, more meetings will commence as the countries draft various security agreements to protect the region and build multipolarity.

We can also expect more joint military drills between Iran and Russia – similar to the drills held in the Sea of Oman between the two countries and China earlier this year.

Lastly, we can also expect the West not to leave the region gracefully, despite the odds becoming increasingly against them.

Come whatever may, the new alliances – formed by economic mutual cooperation – have a chance to bring much-needed stability and prosperity to the entire “Eurasian” region.

To invoke President Raeisi, it is indeed the end of “Americanization.”

deleted Aliens sentry gun scene

This is fun.

https://youtu.be/t9ZS_ltsMhM

UPDATED 10:05 AM EDT — U.S. Money Supply CONTRACTING; Down 3.69% and Falling

Nation Hal Turner 03 October 2023

In the past 150 years, the US Money Supply has only contracted five (5) times; and they were Recessions and the Great Depression. It is happening again.

Two U.S. money supply metrics that investors tend to pay close attention to are M1 and M2. The former accounts for the cash and coins in circulation, as well as the demand deposits within an individual’s checking account. Meanwhile, M2 factors in everything in M1 and adds money market accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit (CDs) below $100,000. The main difference is that M2 factors in cash that takes a little extra work to get your hands on.

For as far back as the eye can see, M2 has been climbing. Since the U.S. economy steadily grows over the long run, it’s only natural that more cash/capital is needed to facilitate transactions. In fact, M2 rising is so common that some economists may not even be paying attention to it as a monthly reported datapoint.

But in the rare event that M2 meaningfully declines, pay attention!

Back in March, Reventure Consulting CEO Nick Gerli posted what you see below on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It highlights M2 money supply growth and contraction dating back to 1870 using data supplied by the St. Louis Federal Reserve and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Over the past 153 years, there have only been five instances where M2 has declined by at least 2% on a year-over-year basis: the 1870s, 1893, 1921, 1931-1933, and 2023. In order, these instances resulted in a depression, panic, depression, Great Depression, and (insert your best guess here). In the previous four instances, it was an ominous sign for Wall Street.

As of July 2023, M2 money supply was 3.69% below the all-time high recorded in July 2022. This marks the first time since the Great Depression that we’ve witnessed a meaningful decline in U.S. money supply.

To be completely fair, the declines in the 1870s and 1893 occurred prior to the creation of the Federal Reserve, while the drops in 1921 and during the Great Depression came shortly after its creation. Today, there’s a far better understanding from the nation’s central bank and Capitol Hill on how to utilize monetary policy and fiscal policy, respectively, to avoid a depression.

Furthermore, multiple rounds of fiscal stimulus during the COVID-19 pandemic led M2 money supply to catapult higher by 26% on a year-over-year basis. It’s always possible that the decline we’re witnessing now of 3.69% represents nothing more than a return to some sort of mean after a historic expansion of M2.

However, history has been unkind to meaningful M2 money supply declines. With the core inflation rate more than double the Fed’s long-term target of 2%, less capital in circulation would more than likely lead to a deflationary recession.

YIELD CURVE INVERTED – 1 YEAR +

Add into the above facts, the reality that the yield curve, as reported by the Federal Reserve, has been inverted for over a year, and you’ve got the makings of financial disaster:

As you can see on the chart above, the yield curve is now starting to normalize.

The crash ALWAYS comes after it normalizes.

And when the yield curve is inverted for an extended period of time, the crash is bigger and harder.

UPDATE 10:05 AM EDT —

Here is the Debt Clock:

The LIVE version is HERE

Not only is the US Money Supply CONTRACTING, the value of the US Dollar to Silver . . . . $0 and The value of the US Dollar to Gold . . . $0

TREASURY BOND CARNAGE

The Ten Year Bond is going Vertical . . . Look:

Direct LIVE link HERE

Why is this happening, you ask? Because NO ONE wants to lend money to the US for a long term anymore. The US is so in debt, people have lost faith in its ability to repay. So the Treasury is having to offer MUCH higher interest rates just to get people to lend them money.

Meanwhile, the short term Bonds are Flat or Dropping as seen below because more people are interested in short term loans; no faith in the long term.

Direct Link LIVE Here

HAL TURNER ANALYSIS

OK, so what does all this actually MEAN to you and me? I found some of this information in comments on the web, by people who know a lot more about this stuff than I do. I found their remarks worth repeating here.

THE YIELD CURVE COULD NORMALIZE AT ANY TIME, MAYBE EVEN TODAY.

After that, combine the contracting money supply with high inflation and . . . MEGA DOOM

The way I see it . . . . it’s literally THE END. The US economy is 100% kaput

The last time this happened, they talked the Boomer’s parents into sending their kids to die overseas to fight Communism and Socialism. Kids by the millions coming home in body bags and idiot parents posting yellow stars in their windows so everyone could tell them how brave their kids were for fighting Nazis and Communists, when actually they were just covering up what they did to the Weimar Republic.

All for what? So the Bankers could move here en-masse and take over the west while telling us we won, and then spend the next century raping an pillaging our society too, like a plague of locusts.

You think they’re going to get their Draft and War this time? I’m not sure bout that. Most everyone knows that Ukraine is a money laundering operation for them to get the rest of the loot out and convert the dollars to something useful before the crash becomes obvious to the pleebs.

This is why the “Elite” are building bunkers.

This is why they have a puppet instead of a real leader in Washington.

It’s why they have fences around the US Capital.

It’s why they don’t seem to care if anyone sees their crimes and greed right now.

They think we’re stupid, and I’m willing to bet that most people don’t get what the money supply running backward on the debt clock means, except for you folks who visit this web site.

They want us to give up our kids IN Ukraine.

Well, my position on that is simple: no gold star for this Dad.

They want us on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and to own nothing. This is how they figure on doing it, another great depression and another World War. Just straight up evil.

They’ll give us another “New Deal”

This time, the Green New Deal.

They’ll talk about how dirty money spreads disease (COVID), pushes illegal drug sales (they Kensington St. in Philly is on a 24/7 youtube feed…it’s propaganda), how it causes global warming (the Maui lasers…oops, excuse me, I meant entirely accidental fires), etc.

They figure once they get us on the digital currency, that’s it. They can do whatever they want with us forever.

And forget ever having a fucking independent retirement. Any money you save will be squandered with inflation. Perhaps they even intend to make gold and silver worthless because there’s no way to buy or sell it without cash.

We need to say NO to this New Deal, and shove it right back down their evil throats with a simultaneous boot up their ass.

Indians and Sichuanese people (China), who is better at eating spicy? I saw on TikTok that Sichuanese people can eat a few kilos of chili in a single dish, they even hold an extra handful in their hand to eat more when needed. So what about Indians?

I don’t know about Indians, but on the other side of the equation, forget about Sichuan cuisine.

Sichuan cuisine is mild compared to Jiangxi cuisine.

Seriously, Jiangxi folks consume chilis like they’re vegetables.

I remember going with a colleague (from Sichuan) to another colleague’s (from Jiangxi) apartment.

When we arrived, he (colleague from Jiangxi) was cooking and as soon as we stepped into the apartment, the “spicy-ness” in the air was so overpowering and overwhelming that our eyes started to water.

Then dude proceeds to bring out this huge-ass noodle dish from the kitchen, and the entire thing is mostly chili.

At the time I remember thinking – is this a noodle dish, or a chili dish?

Just looking at it – well, sweat beaded my brow and made my hands moist.

Sichuanese colleague was not exactly enthusiastic about the offer and said, jokingly, that he would stil llike to be able to go to work on Monday.

Even a Sichuanese is quaking in his boots at the thought of eating Jiangxi cuisine.

To me, Jiangxi cuisine doesn’t appear to be food for humans.

I’m not a masochist.

What’s the weirdest item you have found on your property?

Before we retired, my husband and I worked as educators and lived in a small rural town in California’s Central Valley. When we bought our home there the realtor covered all the basics, but after we moved in we discovered a hole in the ground with a metal lid covering it.

Lifting up the lid, my husband saw that the hole was actually an empty 30 gallon steel drum buried in the ground. Still not sure of its purpose, he put the lid back on and didn’t think much more about it.

A few weeks later we were across the street talking with our firefighter neighbor and his wife when my husband mentioned the weird hole in the ground thing. Our neighbor got excited, asked to take a look at it, and the two men crossed over to our house to check it out.

When they returned, the neighbor said our hole in the ground was a barbecue for deep pit tri-tip and other meats that are cooked low heat and very slowly—typically 12 hours or more. He loved to barbecue and asked if he could use it sometime.

We said he could use it any time he wished, and that’s how we came to enjoy delicious “low and slow” barbecue many times over the twenty-five years we lived there—without lifting a finger.

Our neighbor wouldn’t even let us pitch in to pay for the meat. This was like a new toy to him and he was in hog heaven. So what was weird to us as people from the San Francisco Bay Area was a much sought after item to him.

When was the last time something blew your mind?

The first serious story I wrote when I was a kid was about a man who had a heart transplant and began taking on the characteristics of his donor, who turned out to be a serial killer. It was always a topic that interested me, and one story stands out as evidence that this phenomenon exists.

In March 1995, 33-year-old Terry Cottle from South Carolina took his own life by shooting himself in the throat with a shotgun. After four days in a trauma unit, his wife Cheryl decided to take him off life support and donate his organs.

His heart went to a 57-year-old man named Sonny Graham, who was dying of heart failure. After a successful transplant, Sonny started to write to his donor’s wife Cheryl. Over the next ten years, the two ended up falling in love and got married.

People who knew Terry Cottle started to notice that Sonny was taking on some of Terry’s personality and characteristics. He started liking things he never enjoyed before, like beer and hotdogs, which were some of Terry’s favourites. This isn’t uncommon for transplant recipients. Many people have reported taking on the tastes, emotions and even memories of their donors.

This phenomenon was taken to the extreme thirteen years after Terry took his life when Sonny took a shotgun and shot himself in the throat the same way Terry did.

Iran successfully puts third imaging satellite into orbit

The Noor-3 was reportedly placed in an orbit 450km (280 miles) from the surface of the Earth and, like its predecessors, was taken to space using a Qased – meaning “messenger” – carrier developed by the IRGC.

Despite criticism from the West, Iranian officials have promised to carry on with the expanding satellite programme and are expected to launch several more satellites into different orbits in the foreseeable future.

In August 2022, an Iranian-owned and Russian-built satellite – said to be capable of taking high-resolution images – was successfully launched from a base in Kazakhstan.

Western allies have suggested the development of Iranian satellites may violate a United Nations Security Council resolution underpinning the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers because the technology could potentially be used to facilitate nuclear weapons.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed such claims, maintaining that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), continues to be in limbo after the United States unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran.

Iranian officials have recently suggested again that they are open to returning to the accord but would first need to see political resolve from the Western parties, which also include France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

As part of one of the clauses of the accord, a number of restrictions on Iran’s development of ballistic missiles is set to be automatically lifted next month.

But with tensions lingering over the Iranian nuclear programme and Western accusations that Iran has armed Russia with drones for the war in Ukraine, the European powers have said they will maintain their own sanctions on Iran despite the clause.

What are the most extraordinary findings in the history of paleontology?

On December 25, 2015, a farmer named Jose Antonio Nievas discovered something unusual near a stream on his farm, located about 15 km from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Initially, he thought it was just a rock. However, when he removed the mud covering it and dug around it, he realized that it wasn’t an ordinary rock at all.

His discovery turned out to be much more extraordinary than he had imagined, so he decided to involve experts from the scientific community.

After careful analysis, scientists concluded that this mysterious object, which appeared similar to a rock, was neither a meteorite nor a dinosaur egg, but something much rarer: the shell of a glyptodon.

The glyptodon was a huge armored mammal that lived during the Pleistocene era and was an ancestor of the modern armadillo. These imposing animals could weigh up to two tons and it seems they shared territory with humans for about 4,000 years before disappearing from the face of the Earth.

What do you usually wear when you go to work?

Originally Answered: What do you wear when you go to work ?

I work for a game company, so like most IT companies, our dress code is on the far side of casual. Checkered shirts are a must (since it’s the uniform for programmers), people come to work in sweatpants, slippers, old T-shirts, hoodies, sneakers… Instead of having casual Fridays, we actually have Fancy Fridays that encourage people to dress formal once in a while, just for the kicks.

When I first started working in the industry, I was “t-shirt+hoodie+messenger bag” ALL THE WAY, EVERYDAY.

(this is my “I don’t give a fuck about how I look” face).

Then I got a bit more “sophisticated” mostly because dressing up make me feel good. Picking out clothes and socks and such is fun, shopping is fun.

So I “evolved” to a what I call “Japanese casual”.

And this is me doing fancy Friday

Tucker Carlson: Things are getting weird fast!

This is amazingly good.

Worthless scrap of paper

Prior to my “retirement” I had opened a number of bank accounts in China. I did this, at that time unknowing of my future, as a “good thing” to do, “just in case”.

Talk about foresight! Eh?

I had two bank accounts.

I opened up an account at BOC in Shanghai and placed $40,000 in it. I deposited a cashier’s check in it, and used a “passbook savings account”. I was told that it would take three months to clear, and that I had to keep the receipt in the book to “lock” the exchange rate of 9.5 RMB to USD. This brought me (the potential of) 380,000 RMB. Ah. Enough to buy property in China.

The other account was in Shenzhen and much smaller; being only $5000.

Well…

BOOM! I am “retired” and stuck in Arkansas.

My father needed to hire an attorney to get me out of the mess, and tried to extract the money from BOC. Good luck! No one could take it out except myself.

He needed my thumb print.

When he held the BOC passbook, he discarded the receipt. He thought it was a “worthless scrap of paper”.

…

So, even though I couldn’t hire an attorney, and my bank was frozen, no one else could seize the money.

Good going China!

So I still have money in China; a life in China…and hope in China.

Meanwhile, everything else was gone; stolen and discarded.

All of this while my properties, and belongings were systematically looted, stolen and acquired by all the “friends” and “family” surrounding me.

Jackals.

Seriously.

Now, eventually I get out of the USA. I am in China, and I use the $5000 to start a new! Fantastic, and I related this story to youse guys earlier.

But of the $40,000 in Shanghai?

Well, my well meaning father, discarded that little receipt in the passbook as unimportant. And when I opened up my bank account, I discovered that it only had 220,000 RMB in it. Not the 380,000 RMB I was expecting.

Why?

That little “junk” slip of paper was my proof of a 9.5 conversion rate. Not the 5.5 conversion rate at the time of retrieval.

I lost one FUCK of a lot of money in the process.

…

The point in this little story is that …

…”if you are handling other people’s affairs, keep everything. Do not discard even the most trivial item. You probably are understating its importance.”

Today…

Are Huawei phones now a real challenge to Apple’s iPhone?

Have you ever wondered why we don’t have too many commercial operating systems outside of Windows and MacOS?

I don’t include Linux which is by no means a commercial operating system despite its many advantages

Have you wondered why China and India are unable to make a PC Operating system despite so many skilled students and so much of a software base

Its because a commercial OS needs to be compatible with your processor

The Processor is INTEL Or AMD and they need to ensure your OS is compatible with their processor

This was a huge argument in an ANTITRUST case against Microsoft that the plaintiffs lost

Without that compatibility , you can never control an ecosystem or have an OS that controls the entire ecosystem

You can have secondary systems that can never replace MS Windows or MacOS

Tomorrow if India develops an OS on par with Windows, India will be throttled by Intel and AMD

They will cite security concerns, backdoor etc and simply prevent the Indian OS from freely competing

Thus India needs to develop a processor as well

This processor better be on par with the Intel or AMD or people simply won’t buy the processor and thus by association, the Indian made operating system

Say India develops a cutting edge web browser

The same has to be integrated & compatible with your search engine for maximum efficiency

Google and Bing both have maximum integrated compatibility with Chrome and IE, so your browser will not be able to host these search engines efficiently

That’s goodbye to a good technology right there

Thus you need a search engine of similar standard and a web browser of efficiency plus an Operating System plus your Hardware

THE WEST CONTROLS IT ALL

Rather US controls most of it

Let’s say India develops an App that can beat Facebook

Or an app that can beat Twitter

Android and iOS can simply refuse to give a bundling agreement for that App citing security reasons or other reasons

Tik Tok got a bundling deal with IoS and Android in 2014 for 25 years until 2039 along with WeChat and Alipay and other apps

Telegram got a similar deal until 2033 (15 year deal)

It’s why both Android and iOS cannot remove these apps from their playstores

Today both Android and iOS no longer do bundling deals for long term periods, but only for 12 month periods and renew them (Since 1/1/2020)

So Indian Twitter and Indian Facebook could be throttled simply by refusing to bundle them or integrate them into the Android or iOS ecosystem

If indeed these apps became a threat to the US equivalents, India would become a major security threat in 20 minutes

The Whole world accepted this dominance of the West and their complete control over the Information and Communications Ecosystems

Including many Chinese companies

Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo all happily kowtowed to the Western dominance and slogged hard to make 8% and hand over 92% to the west

Thousands of excellent apps and games are unable to leave China because they can’t get bundling deals with Android and iOS outside the mainland

Then ONE MAN CAME ALONG who said THIS IS RIDICULOUS

He dared to envision his own ecosystem

The Chip – the Kirin designed entirely by Mainland China
The OS – The Harmony
The 5G Modem – To deliver highest speeds
The Networks – To ensure the lowest latents

Once the Huawei ecosystem was in place, a flood of competition would be unleashed

Chinese Apps would roar into the global market where they had been throttled before

Baidu would finally compete with Google on a one on one platform and combat MSM propaganda in neutral nations

Chinese Digital Payment systems would soar across and surge through the Global South

They throttled Huawei

They simply cut off the source of chips

Huawei had the design but they couldn’t get the chips made because the world’s only makers TSMC and Samsung wouldnt due to sanctions

The excuse was Huawei had business with the Govt of China. So did Oppo but Oppo was a meek obedient boy

Then Huawei tried to get the chips made in SMIC

They retaliated by cutting off access to EUV machines

Yet Huawei managed to mass produce 5 nm Chips with the 7 nm process using very innovative stacking using DUVs

Now Huawei has the Chip and the OS

The US and the West couldn’t succeed in throttling Huawei

Now the next step is probably to stop DUVs

It’s why SMIC is stockpiling and also accelarating it’s own lithography progress

So it’s not the phones

It was never the phones

Tomorrow if Huawei dropped their Chip idea, signed a 20 year deal with Qualcomm and dropped their OS idea and modem idea – US would lift the sanctions in 10 seconds

It’s the ECOSYSTEM that Huawei brings with it that will finally break the US (Western) dominance and bring in a new player and country after virtually 30 years of control

If Huawei triumphs, the world as we know it changes

India could take inspiration and proceed on our own path to develop our own Ecosystem

So could other players

That TERRIFIES THEM

Is the Chinese government determined to have Chinese technology replacements available for all US technologies so China-made products can become completely technologically independent of the US?

In the industries of yesterday, there will eventually come a time when China isn’t affected by American sanctions. That will happen within the next 10-20 years, as Chinese manufacturing go from the current 30+ percent to over 50 percent of global output, and the Chinese patent portfolio matures.

Now, turn the coin on its head and ask yourself a simple question.

What happens in a world where the Chinese option is the cutting edge?

Tesla entered into partnership with panasonic just a decade or so ago to build its first gigafactory. Panasonic, a Japanese company, had the best and most mature battery tech then. Similarly, yuasa, another Japanese company, was chosen by Boeing for the 787.

Today, the best batteries using novel chemistries and materials are Chinese, promising unbeatable energy densities at great prices. Many ev makers have entered into partnership with a variety of Chinese battery makers, and that includes Tesla. China will become the go-to for batteries in the coming decade, driven by economy of scale.

Shocking change in just 10 years no?

In nuclear fission, China has leadership in gen 3 reactors, with the indigenous hualong in mass production and a steady stream of projects in the works. More importantly, China has the world’s first and only gen 4 gas cooled demonstrator online and plugged into the grid, promising even greater safety and reliability.

Expect commercial availability within the decade.

Same story in photovoltaics. China is already the biggest maker of solar panels and related modules, with leading edge options. My friend in the industry says it’s practically impossible to make a project viable without Chinese panels, not without massive subsidies or tariff walls. That’s how good the Chinese are.

The best hsr system is Chinese, despite China being 50 years late to the game. Better than the Germans and Japanese? Yes, because the installed length is already greater than the rest of the world combined, and serve a broader range of conditions and latitudes. The ride comfort and stability is second to none. Try it yourself if you don’t believe the claim.

Make a guess how many containers Chinese ports handled last year.

300m.

That’s 3, followed by 8 (eight) zeros.

America just about crumbled with a modest 5–10 percent increase above the 50m they usually deal with, as a direct result of covid induced changes in lifestyle.

Rates for China-US TEU went up more than 10x, an order of magnitude, at its peak. Ships were returned SANS empty containers, just to beat the logjam in American ports.

Imagine first world American ports and infrastructure being unable to handle domestic demand, while China happily fulfilled GLOBAL demand with a future-proof, scalable automated port system.

The Chinese are already leaders in digital payment, facial recognition, aspects of ai and big data, quantum computing, and many other technologies of the future. Some of the most exciting breakthroughs of tomorrow will happen in china, and revolutionize the world.

Is the world prepared for that, especially served by a media that’s reluctant to report China in the slightest factual, and positive light?

The first world may very well be caught unawares.

Huawei 6G is coming, 100Gb per second transfer speed

Good news that more and more Chinese researchers are leaving the States for China. It will help China.

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

Back in 1996, I worked as a Field Technician for Lanier Business Systems in Houston, Texas. Specifically, I handled recording devices and systems, though on occasion I also handled copiers, printers, and fax machines. My territory was into the 610 loop and all overlapping zip codes. This included all the hospitals in the Houston Medical Center. Those that are technical people will figure out what is going on with this before I finish the explanation.

So, for one of the hospitals, they had one of our dictation systems and one day, I get a call from the hospital administrator complaining that they haven’t had backups running on their system for six months. So, I head to the hospital, walk into the admin office, and begin working on the system. I go through the settings, and confirm it is setup to backup changes to the 3.5 in floppy drive. I checked the logs and confirmed the backups ran with no errors, or where there were errors is was able to resolve them and move on.

I checked the disk, and it was blank. Completely blank, In fact, the disk wasn’t even formatted. Assuming that was the problem, I formatted the disk with Lanier’s proprietary encryption protocols, and confirmed I could copy data to the drive. I left the disk in the drive, and explained to the admin what I thought the problem was, and that I had fixed it.

The next morning, she registered the same problem so I head back to the hospital, with a new disk drive. I pull the old drive install a new one, then proceed to run a few tests on the old drive with my testing equipment. Everything checks out, no problems on the drive, but I leave the new drive in just in case. Again, I explain to her what did, and felt fairly certain the problem was resolved.

Next morning, I get another call. Same problem. At this point, I am scratching my head. I know the system is working, I was able to confirm the doctors are making recordings, i confirmed the backup are configured properly, so I talk to the admin and explain that I will come by this evening and confirm that the backups are running tonight.

That evening, I head to the hospital and sit down at the monitor. She pulls the disk off the side of the system hands it so me and I insert it into the drive. ten minutes later the backup runs, I watch it, and after about fifteen minutes it completes with no errors. I sit down go through the logs, check the data on the disk. I confirm the backups are there, verify the data integrity. I even make certain that I can restore the data to the system. Everything looks great, I think the problem is solved. I hand the backup disk back to the administrator, and we talk for a few minutes. As, I am leaving, she puts the disk in a clip and slaps it onto the side of the system.

I stop, and I stare at her for a moment, She looks at me, and asks what I’m waiting for. I look from her to the disk stuck to the side of the computer, back to her.

I had spent three days troubleshooting this problem. I had confirmed that the equipment was completely in working order, and I knew for a fact that backups were running properly. I literally just confirmed that the backup was run, and the data was right there on the disk.

Her actions had just made all those efforts pointless. She just erased everything off the disk and wasted all of my effort. Heck, she has been wasting her own efforts for six months and was getting frustrated because of what she just did.

That clip is a magnetic refrigerator magnet. That magnet wiped the data from the magnetic disc in the floppy disk. She was the cause of all these problems, and has been doing it for six months. I had walked over, removed the disk and put it back in the drive. She looks at me confused. I pull up the floppy disk and it needs to be formatted. She asks me where the data went. I looked at her and handed her the refrigerator magnet.

“Is it on here?”

“No.”

“Then where it is?”

“Gone, you erased the disk.”

She stares at me, dumbstruck, “What…what…what to you mean, I erased it. she mumbles curiously.

I then explain to her that floppy disks are magnetic and are very sensitive to magnetic fields. That refrigerator magnet was strong enough when attached to metal object to erase the disk. She felt horrible.

However, I spent the next several hours, backing up changes for six months of data onto a box of 3.5 inch floppy drives.

I then explained proper disk storage, and told her to keep magnets away from the backups.

After I was done, she was extremely appreciative, and apologetic.

Additionally, I got 3 hours of overtime pay, and because the problem wasn’t caused by our equipment, which meant it wasn’t covered under contract. I made the company a nice profit. The base charges for such failures was $300 per hour, which easily covered my overtime pay.

HE DID IT AGAIN! (OLIVER ANTHONY – I WANT TO GO HOME REACTION)

What is the likelihood Xi Jinping will never meet with President Biden during Biden’s term?

I watched a recent speech by Biden in Asia. It was a press conference in Vietnam. Biden was so bad that while he was still talking, his own US press secretary cut him off halfway by muting his microphone, declaring abruptly that the conference was over; and turning on jazz music in the room so that Biden’s voice could not be heard anymore. This was damage control. The US press secretary did it, to stop Biden from continuing to ramble on spouting nonsense in front of a roomful of journalists and media crews.

The poor man is senile. He is still President, of course. But surely he is no longer making the real decisions for the USA. He is just the front, the puppet on stage – the people in charge are the ones behind the curtains pulling on the strings.

It’s pointless for Xi to meet Biden. Xi probably knows it already. Any meeting with Biden would just be for ceremonial purposes and publicity reasons. Nothing will actually come out of such a meeting, because Biden doesn’t make decisions anymore.

Xi is a busy man and I wouldn’t be too surprised if he decides never to meet Biden again. There’s not much point in such a meeting.

I ADOPTED A CAT (because i’m lonely)

In Chinese tradition, the emperor is seen as a model for all citizens. Did Puyi ever become that model citizen?

Puyi has been seen in history as a villain of sorts. He was the last vestige of the Qing dynasty, a living testament to imperialism. He was called effeminate by many and impotent by some. He was selfish, shallow, and childish in his early years. He was also rumored to be cruel to others for his pleasure.

However, we must view him with nuance and remember the time period he was born into. He was groomed from birth to be ineffective by the women in his family who wanted to hold onto their power to rule through him as their proxy. He was born into a family where opulence and excess was considered normal and expected even. But it was also a time where the peasants were deeply unhappy with an ineffectual government and orchestrated a revolution that toppled his world as he knew it.

He united with the Japanese which made him a traitor in the eyes of the Chinese; but Japan had promised him the opportunity to return to a throne and that was the only life he knew. His early wives would tell you he was self centered and downright nasty when he wanted to be.

While he was not a good man in many ways, he was not irredeemable either. Mao allowed him to be the gardener of the Beijing Botanical Gardens. Puyi sought, with his last years, to redeem himself and to become a better man. He once said that the Puyi of his youth was the enemy to the Puyi of his latter years. He often wept when shown examples of his past damage to China. He was overwhelmed when shown the horrors of Unit 731 and cried that those atrocities had been done in his name. His transformation so complete that he became a man of humility. He was reported to have accidentally knocked an elderly woman over with his bicycle and visited her in the hospital every day until she was released.

In the end he found love with his last wife, Li Shuxian, being “all he had in the world,” and she reported in an interview that his love for her was such that when she was sick he would sit by her bedside all night, seeing to her every need.” He had come to be a man who took pleasure in simple things and in his love for his wife. He had indeed become the model citizen and died at the age of 61 of kidney cancer. His widow had his ashes placed with nine other emperors that had come before him. In death he had been returned to his family.

China shocks Europe by canceling ASML’s $580 billion lithography order!

https://youtu.be/s6gPPjQt4RE

What’s it like to be one of the 55 ethnic minorities living in China?

I am the Tujia nationality, and I belong to the eighth largest ethnic minority in China. We have 8 million people.

1. Add points in the most important exam in China-the college entrance examination;（It used to be 20 points, but now it has been reduced to 5 points due to the improvement of educational facilities and standards.）

2. To study for master’s and doctorate with a score lower than Han people, the tuition fee is exempt.

3. Before the “one-child policy” was abolished, ethnic minorities (the ethnic minorities who joined the Communist Party of China are only allowed to have one child) can have 2 or more children, and the Han can only have one;

4. Use and develop the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities. Most ethnic minorities only have languages without a writing system. The GOV has developed a writing system for us;

Orange-Chipotle Skirt Steaks

Marinate: 6 hr to overnight | Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

Marinade

Juice of 1 medium orange
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons adobo sauce (from chipotle peppers)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Steaks

1 1/2 pounds beef skirt steak, cut into 4 to 6 inch pieces

Tomatillo Salsa

2 medium oranges, divided
2 cups chopped tomatillos (4 to 5 small to medium)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 to 3 teaspoons minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Marinade

Combine ingredients in a small bowl.

Steaks

Place beef steaks in food-safe plastic bag; turn steaks to coat. Close bag securely and marinate in refrigerator 6 hours or as long as overnight, turning occasionally.

Tomatillo Salsa

Grate 1/2 teaspoon peel from 1 orange. Cut this orange and half of remaining orange into segments. Chop segments into 1/2 inch pieces.
Combine orange peel and segments, tomatillos, onion, chipotle peppers, cumin and salt in medium bowl; cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Cut remaining 1/2 orange into wedges; reserve for garnish.
Remove steaks from marinade; discard marinade.
Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, uncovered, 10 to 13 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, covered, 8 to 12 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally.
Carve steaks diagonally across the grain into thin slices; season with salt, as desired.
Serve with tomatillo salsa. Garnish with reserved orange wedges.

Oliver Anthony ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Intense Listening Sesh/Reaction – POWERFUL!

What is the most touching act of kindness you have ever witnessed or experienced?

I will try to make this brief. My husband and I are a “multicultural” pair; he was brought up in Scotland and I was brought up in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of the time during our marriage we have lived in Ohio, some of the time in Glasgow.

Somewhere in the mid ’90s we decided to move again from Ohio back to Glasgow. I had three little children at that time — three girls, 7, 3, and 1. We had practically all our worldly possessions with us in 13 metal trunks and the usual baby paraphernalia. We flew from Florida to Glasgow, after flying from Ohio to Florida. The leg from Florida to Glasgow was a direct flight but lasted 10 hours. Needless to say we were very tired, stiff and sleep deprived.

We saddled the family onto an airport bus to take us “home” after such an exhausting trip. After loading our 13 trunks into the hold of this huge bus our bus driver let everyone else off at the usual stop. Before letting our family deboard, he asked us, “Hey, where do you folks live?” We told him the exact location where our small house was located. He laughed and said, “Stay on the bus, I’ll take you to your door. No taxi I know of will fit all this stuff.”

So that’s what this hero did. He pulled his massive 88-seater bus right into our cul-de-sac, right up to our door, and also helped unload the 13 trunks and our very tired family.

It was an act of kindness I have never forgotten. Oh and I forgot to mention, it was 4am.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I was working as the assistant accountant at a company and had to leave early one day as I was sick. My boss insisted on a doctor certificate to cover that half day so I managed to see my gp the next morning who gave me a certificate for 3 days off plus the half day. I objected but the doc said if you’re feeling better in a few days just go back to work.

So 2 days later I’m feeling better and return to work. My boss was annoyed because instead of a few hours I’m now out 2 days so she says I need to go back to same dr to get a clearance to return to work.

By this time it’s midmorning of the last day of the certificate. I’m fine. It’s the last week of month and we’re super busy and she wants me to drive 40 minutes each way to the dr to get a certificate and the chances of an appointment with the same dr is unlikely. And it’s going to cost me $80 for appointment.

I had lots of sick leave accrued and it’s also November.

I explained that we’d lose 1/2 to 3/4 of the day and I’d be out of pocket but nope she wanted me to go back to the dr.

Previously no one had ever enforced a dr certificate if anyone came back early (unless it was workers comp). She told me that this was my “punishment” for leaving early when I was sick a few days before!

When she said that, I made a decision. I said I wasn’t prepared to spend the money for the dr to reassess me for 1/2 day work. She said in that case you can’t work today.

No problems I said. I’ll go do my Christmas shopping and I grabbed my handbag and sauntered out.

I’m told her face just dropped and she bitched to the GM after I’d left and he laughed and told her she was the one who forced the issue.

”What Do You Have To Offer A Man?”

I think this is THE fundamental question both men AND women should be asking… if you have a long list of demands, you better have a long list of qualities to offer.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Employees will pay for personal calls on the company’s cell phone.

This happened about 2003. The developer team took turns being “on-call” and carrying the company phone. Most of us had cell phones but we did not use them as much as we do now. My plan was expensive even though it was the minimum number of minutes, I think 60, per month. In any case, I rarely went over the number of minutes per month. The company phone, on the other hand, had an unlimited plan so there would be no overage charges. The business use of the phone required a lot of minutes.

When it was my turn to carry the phone, I did not carry my personal cell phone at the same time. If I needed to make a call, I would just use the company phone. Most of us did the same thing. Cell phones were bulky and it did not cost the company anything extra. Also, we only made a few short calls on the work phone.

Well our boss, the CTO, called a meeting and showed a new form for us to record our personal calls when we carried the company phone. He told us that it did not matter that the company’s unlimited plan made the calls free. It was the company’s phone and the company’s money. However, he appreciated that it was inconvenient to carry two phones so he was implementing a new policy that the person using the on-call phone for a personal call would log the call and reimburse the company the going rate. It was something like 20 cents per minute which was the normal per minute cost at the time. We were to use the form to pay the company for personal calls on the work phone.

Most of us thought it was a little petty because the company’s plan was unlimited and a few short calls did not cost the company anything. However, we acknowledged it was a reasonable policy and we would just have to pay a little for convenience or carry two phones. Not really a big deal. Then I thought of something.

I asked the boss, “Can we use the same form for the company to reimburse us for work calls on our personal phones?” He asked if we used our personal cells for work. “Of course, whoever is on-call often calls his colleagues for advice about a problem or how a system was configured. If we are not home, we take the call on our cell. As a matter of fact, twice this year I went over my monthly minutes and had to pay overage charges.” He replied that I would not pay extra if I was more careful to not go over my minutes. “Well, as you explained, it does not matter if I pay extra or not. It’s about keeping personal calls and work calls separate. So, can we use the same form or should we use a different form?” Without answering the question, he ended the meeting shortly thereafter.

He never said anything more about the form, and the policy never went into effect.

I admit that I did not like the guy because he viewed us as commodities instead of employees. The feeling was mutual and he fired me the next year. Oh well, I got a better job after that.

China Tests New Laser Weapon That Destroys Planes In Seconds!

Will China’s economic problems become a financial crisis for the rest of the world?

It won’t

The Debt crisis in China isn’t a shock to the global economy

Evergrande crisis happened in 2021 and it’s 2 years old and yet Evergrande hasn’t fallen

The Debt crisis is two years old, maybe three years old now

So even if the big names begin failing, the systemic shocks to Chinas Economy Or the Global Economy will be much milder than a sudden unexpected shock

The difference between US and China, is that in US, the Institutions which are privately owned and have very little regulations, lie and cheat and bury the information deep and keeps allowing more and more trouble to accumulate

Lehman Brothers crisis in 2008 is an example as is the 1929 depression or the recent Silicon Valley Bank failures

They pretend nothing is wrong, they pretend everything is hunky dory, they even manipulate the system like they did in 2008 with Moodys and S&P

Then THERE IS ALWAYS A SUDDEN COLLAPSE AND A MASSIVE SYSTEMIC SHOCK

https://www.khilafah.com/the-2008-financial-crisis-cost-every-american-70000/

Like in 2008 when there was a downward swing in investment indices by a whopping 60% across 2 years

People lost homes, savings everything and plunged into poverty

China is entirely different

China has lots of regulations and State has a huge control which means no pretension, no burying of information

The Chinese in fact start openly publishing info from Day 1 about such problems

Evergrande problems were published 30 days before their first default while the real estate debt crisis problems were openly revealed yuan for yuan almost 3 months before Evergrande (which is how the West knew about it in the first place)

As a result the system gets a DULL SHOCK rather than a SUDDEN SHOCK AND COLLAPSE

This Dull Shock is absorbed slowly into the economy of China and by the investors, then smaller shocks happen and they too get absorbed

Thus Indices will fall maybe 6–8% in China , maybe 10% over 5–6 years and then stabilize and recover

The Impact will probably be 10% of the 2008 Crisis at the most

Lehman collapsed in 14 days, Lehman Bros when it collapses will do so after almost 825 days to 900 days

Lot of time to absorb the shock

Experts gauge China will absorb it’s debt crisis at a cost of around 1.2% a year in it’s economic growth for around 5 years and 0.7% a year for the next five

That’s around 13.5 Trillion Yuan

Worst case, that’s more than double of the estimated value of impact of the debt crisis (6 Trillion Yuan)

Chinas past growth and surging development will keep China protected from the debt crisis and get China off safely and with a nice soft landing

Another 5 years if Xi had buried this and kept up illusions and kept seeing debt rollovers and price rise rapidly

China would have had 6–6.5% growth for the next 5 years or so but then the impact would have been maybe 30–35 Trillion after a decade or so

An example of the astute leadership of China which cares about long term prospects

Unlike a problem with democracies which bury all the problems hoping the next party will deal with them

How much of everything is made in China now? If so, how did this happen, and why do they make things there instead of here in the USA?

Ask you CEOs why they think they are entitled to earn 100 times more that Chinese CEOs? Ask your employees and your unions what the push their salary to 5 times that of China? Ask your employees why they expects 10 times their benefits compared to Chinese counterparts? Ask why they are willing to work 25% less hours compared to the Chinese workers? Ask why are your education system turning out lawyers and bull shit artiste instead of stem engineers?

Ask your government why your infrastructure is dilapidated and why are there no trainings and retraining of workers sufficient to meet today’s manufacturing needs? Those question get you real answers and make the U.S. face realities?

China did not put a gun on the heads on 330 million Americans to buy Chinese products! The 330 million Americans chosed value for money like everyone on earth. The U.S. government and the U.S. people made wrong choices. They choose wars and war mongering rather than helping their manufacturers and factories. The citizens chose those leaders! If the U.S. citizens were to turn around and kicked out any politicians that prioritise wars over work kick them out of office they can make the difference.

There are so many Americans here in QUORA who champion wars and worship power but ask why China makes everything? You need to choose wisely. You go around telling everyone you have a freedom to chose and are so proud of that freedom but you blow it every 4 years for 250 years long.

You chose leaders that don’t care about you and in fact destroy you!

Do Cats Miss Us When We Leave the House?

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

At my wife’s father’s wake, we told her uncle he wasn’t welcome.

We had texted him and asked him not to show up early , as he wasn’t welcome but said that we would be leaving early so he could come later, but he came early anyway with his two sons and his screaming Harpy of a wife.

We had rented the hall and paid for the food and bar.

I stopped them at the door, expecting trouble. I asked him to leave and come back in a few hours when we would be gone.

They tried to push past me and called my wife a c##t

I reacted without thinking.

I shattered his and his two sons noses with three strikes in about two seconds.

They know I am a Wing Chun Gung Fu stylist who is also a 6′ 200 lb pro renovation contractor.

They called the police.

The police called them white trash and suggested they didn’t want to go in front of a judge considering their conduct.

They backed down and left.

One of the cops was Irish , he said he would buy me a whiskey right in front of the jack ass’s if he wasn’t on duty while they were holding their noses.

P. S. I don’t advocate violence, but I have no regrets at this time.

Love some, trust few, and do no great harm.

Baby Wasn’t Able To Tell Parents About Cruel Sitter — But His Dog Could

This is Vesna Vulović.

She holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall without a parachute and surviving. She is reported to have fallen 6.3 miles (33,330 ft; 10,160 m) from the sky when a briefcase bomb exploded onboard JAT Flight 367 and crashed into what was then Czechoslovakia in 1972.

So, how exactly did she survive the fall? When the bomb exploded during mid-flight, almost all the passengers were sucked out of the airplane into subfreezing temperatures and fell to their deaths. Vulović was trapped inside the fuselage and pinned down by a food cart. She landed in a heavily wooded area with snow, which helped cushion her fall. Interestingly enough, Vulović’s low blood pressure allowed her to pass out quickly when the cabin depressurized and prevented her heart from bursting on impact. When applying to become a flight attendant, Vulović had concealed her low blood pressure from the medical examiners by drinking several cups of coffee.

Vulović was the only survivor, and upon impact, had broken both her legs, parts of her vertebrae, and several ribs. She also fractured her skull and pelvis. After spending several days in a coma, Vulović awoke and asked for a cigarette. She had no recollection of the explosion or the crash. Her recuperation took a total of 16 months.

BREAKING! China and U.S. headed for all out war, and Putin knows it

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

“Any hotel expense over $XX must be approved by your Supervisor unless previously authorized (Daytona during Bike Week, going into hurricane devastated areas, or other known high cost areas, etc.)”.

Sure, I’m on the road for 3–6 weeks at a time and only after working the planned for 8–10 hours a day (yes 50+work hours a week were the norm) would I be on the road to the next job which was often 100 or more miles away. Needless to say, there were many, Many nights where I arrived at a hotel at around midnight.

Guess who went home at 5 PM back in the office? Yep, our supervisor. So, someone found his home phone number and we all began calling it when we arrived somewhere that wasn’t within the price range they expected.

So they changed the rule to say “Don’t call your Supervisor, but you are responsible for finding a hotel within per diem limits”.

Sure, but since it’s something you told me to do then I’m still at work. Do you Really think its worthwhile to pay me an extra hour’s pay just to save $10 for a night? Do you Really want me to add the two hours travel time to my pay-sheet because the only hotel in the price range was that far away?

I just remembered another prime example backfiring: the company had a policy that if we screwed up a job then it was our responsibility to go back and fix it on our own time. (If we didn’t want to then we’d mysteriously find our services weren’t in such high demand for the next week or three). So, one fine Saturday morning after I’d finished installing the computer system for a well-known coffee chain, I got a phone call that said I had to travel 400 miles to Memphis and fix a problem with a printer that didn’t work. Obviously it not working must have been my fault. It didn’t help much to say that part of my checkout procedure was to get a number from a document the help desk printed to their new POS system’s laser printer.

So, yeah, I’ll go back to Memphis on my own dime, BUT if it’s not my fault then I get paid. Traveled 6.5 hours to Memphis and walked into the coffee shop to hear the manager complain that his printer wasn’t working. I asked him what the help desk had him do. Turns out he didn’t call his help desk but just his contact at the company I worked for. I walked into the office, took a quick look and flipped the “ON” switch to the printer. Then I handed him the work order and told him he was going to be charged for 8 hours of travel to Memphis (400 miles at 50 MPH) 4 hours of overtime (our minimum charge and it was Saturday) and 8 hours of travel back to my house.

“B-But it didn’t work, you installed it wrong!” Nope, here’s the printout and the confirmation number from your help desk printed to that computer saying everything worked. Your help desk would have asked you what lights were on the printer, IF you had called them first.

A terrible day, so I spent the afternoon on Beale St. before heading home to pack up for the next Monday’s job in Charlotte or somewhere, who knows?

Tucker Carlson ‘ You’ve No Idea What is Coming, start Preparing Now

https://youtu.be/iiaU43WmfL8

What classic car has the most available parts?

When my daughter was 15 (2000) I asked her what kind of car she wanted. Her answer stunned me: an old VW Beetle. We decided rather than looking for a good one to buy we would buy a beat up old junker and restore it together. I acquired the catalogs from suppliers and was shocked at how cheap the parts were and could not find a single thing that was not available new. We stripped that old junker down, did the body work and painted it. Bought all new chrome and stainless steel trim, all new upholstery, head liner, carpet and replaced every piece of rubber on the car.

When it came time to rebuild the engine I took a list of the parts I thought I would need to a local shop that specialized in VWs. He looked at the list and ask if I was planning on rebuilding the engine. When I said “yes” he responded that I was not going to do it, I was going to pay them to do it. I ask why? He said because this list of part is going to cost you 800 dollars and we will rebuild it for 875 dollars. Thinking it was a scam, I asked what if the crank is bad? His response was we are not going to use anything but the block, everything else is new including the heads . We picked up the engine and, as he said, it was 875 dollars.

When she turned 16 I gave her driving lessons in her VW. She drove it through high school and well after college. she didn’t stop using it until she had her first child.

Rather than let it sit we gave it to a friend who, 20 years after our rebuild, is still using it.

Total cost of the junk car, parts, and materials, including the engine rebuild: $3,300. Never had a part that we couldn’t get within a couple of days (side note; for several years she claimed she could not drive an automatic [or any other car] because she only knew how to drive a VW.)

Digging Dollar’s Grave! ASEAN Nations To Use Yuan As Their New Single Currency!

https://youtu.be/lvsZlBlfvW8

Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media

The mass hysteria reflects the biases inherent in the world’s most powerful media outlets.

By Chandran Nair

February 21, 2023

A key feature of mainstream Western media today is the relentless China-bashing. It is off the charts and tiring, often involving regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. But such stories continue to be churned out with no end in sight.

Countering this in international media by offering more balanced views for a global audience is near impossible as censorship is rife. There almost seems to be a global compact to control the narrative, a propaganda war powered by today’s digital technology.

Just try looking for a positive story on China any day of the week in any of the leading global media outlets. Apart from reports in January about the Lunar New Year, there will hardly be any, and these too are likely to have a negative spin. It would appear there is a confidential memo circulating within Western media groups that guides reporters and editors to ensure there cannot be any positive news arising from a country with 1.3 billion people.

Typically, the negative stories adhere to three core ideas, which inform the unspoken guidelines within these press rooms when it comes to reporting on China.

First is the belief that China is a threat to the world and that this belief must be relentlessly reinforced at every available opportunity. How and why China is a threat is never explored; such is the deep-rooted and almost religious nature of the belief. Sound arguments do not matter. The basic tenets of good journalism are ignored when it comes to a China story. There is no need to explain or give evidence of why China is a global threat.

Left ignored is the plentiful evidence that shows China is not a global threat – even if one can point to mistakes and overreach in certain areas. China has not invaded any country in decades, or imposed sanctions that have devasted the lives of millions in poor countries, unlike the West, led by the United States.

Second is that China must be linked to every possible global event that affects the West. This provides an opportunity for the West to bash China while simultaneously burnishing its own credentials as the supposed arbiters of what is right and wrong in international relations. From the pandemic to the Russia-Ukraine war to carbon emissions; from rising sea levels to the scramble for rare earths; from the building of infrastructure in Africa to the production of vaccines – there must be an angle to demonize the country and instill fear in Western nations (and beyond).

Indeed, media outlets are reverting to the “yellow peril” of the late 1800s. There is no subtle and nuanced approach to instilling fear like this. It is full-on and very often blatantly racist – but it is now acceptable for one to be racist about the Chinese in Western media, despite the fact that Black-White relations are very carefully described.

The third part of this phenomenon, which is surprisingly not challenged by liberal readers of mainstream media, is the sentiment that everything must be done – even illegal and unfair methods – to arrest the rise of China. Never mind the rights of hundreds of millions of Chinese to have a better life after a century of poverty and deprivation.

Headline after headline that capture this sentiment have normalized the view that there is a need to curb the rise of China, and that this is a legitimate geopolitical objective. There is no explanation about why or if it is even morally acceptable. It has become a feature of Western commentary on China to say that its rise is a concern and a threat. With this assumption unassailably in place, the West has the right to galvanize – and even bully – its allies and ask the absurd question, “what should be done about China’s rise?” – as if China does not have the right to carve its own place in the new world.

There is even a school of thought in the United States that it was America that magnanimously allowed China its first baby steps into the globalized economy, and that in hindsight the U.S. was too nice to China. This view betrays everything that is imperial about the West and why it is unable to come to terms with the legitimate rights of other nations to grow and become powers in their own right. The assumption is that the rise of others is a gift from the West, and accordingly they must never challenge its supremacy. The deeply entrenched view in the West from centuries of domination is that it will decide which nations will be permitted to be participants in the global economy according to its self-serving “rules-based order.”

Indeed, Western media seem wholly tied to the hegemonic competition view of geopolitics, constantly referencing the “Thucydides Trap” and being stuck in the Western canon as if there are no other ways of looking at geopolitics and world order. This view assumes conflict is inevitable and helps to demonize China while justifying the hegemonic position of the West – and the United States in particular – as a globally stabilizing force.

Needless to say, this is an extremely belligerent position to take, and not something media should be egging on. Whatever happened to promoting multilateralism? And why are people who speak to multilateralism side-lined as idealists or China apologists? This flies in the face of fair reporting.

So, how to fix this?

First, people in China and the non-Western world must realize that when it comes to the workings of the mainstream media we are in a new era – a propaganda war the likes of which the world has never seen before, powered by today’s digital technology. The media war is real, and tech-driven, and it is not a fight for eyeballs to deliver fair, honest, and educational news. It is almost everything else but that, especially when it comes to China or enemies of the West.

On one side is sheer propaganda aimed at the preservation of Western power. Participants include the most well-known brands in the Western media world, which are household names across the world.

The idea that Western media is run by fair-minded people who are independent, driven only by a desire to talk truth to power, is a mirage. It is a myth, and it is a bitter pill that needs to be swallowed. The idea that the Western journalist is a paragon of virtue also needs to be banished from the minds of consumers of media.

That is the first stage in enabling one to step out of the propaganda mist we are engulfed in on a daily basis, so that one can examine different viewpoints as news is consumed. This is not easy, given the current dominance of Western media outlets and their apparently collective mission.

The next step is to dismantle the dominance of Western media.

This too will be a long, hard fight. Mainstream Western media are the most powerful in the world and for close to a century, Western media have had a stranglehold on the dissemination of international news and viewpoints across the world. Many had their origins in colonialism, the preservation of empire and later the spread of Western ideas about how the world should be run. These outlets are a powerful economic force and dislodging them will require investments.

Across the world there is an opportunity to contribute to this effort, not necessarily by building large media companies but by investing in media companies that are committed to fair and objective analysis, so that local audiences in the first instance have choices and are not inundated by the propaganda of mainstream Western media. This too will not be an easy task and there are many hurdles to overcome, but this is not the space to dive into those details. Ultimately, it is all about readers becoming more aware of global issues by having more non-Western sources to rely on, so they are not victims of the current propaganda war. This is beginning to happen as more alternatives flourish.

It is an urgent need in the West too so that the mass hysteria generated by mainstream media is prevented from creating fear and pitting Western societies against the rest of the world. Today the target is China; tomorrow India and then maybe Africa.

Merkules – ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix (Reaction)

Young Boy Looks Out The Window And Sees Sister Bring Dragged Into The Woods

At some point or another in most of our lives, we will have an opportunity to be a hero. Some people will take that opportunity and run with it, and that includes Owen Burns.

Owen was coming home from school in the afternoon when he heard screaming. It was his sister, and at first, he didn’t feel that it was anything serious.

Eventually, he did turn and look out the window and what he saw on the outside was enough to make his blood run cold. It was a frightening issue but one that he decided to put out of his mind and do the right thing.

Owen was getting ready to play Call of Duty on his PlayStation when his sister started screaming from the backyard. As any 13-year-old brother would do, he got irritated because he thought she was overreacting and just being annoying.

When he looked out the bedroom window, however, he saw that his sister was being dragged away by a stranger. His sister was only eight years old and they were headed for the woods behind the house.

Immediately, the teenage boy grabbed a slingshot and anything he could use as ammunition, including a rock and a marble. He took aim and got off a shot, hitting his sister’s abductor right between the eyes.

He got off a second shot, hitting the man in the chest, and at that point, the man was swearing and cursing.

This wasn’t something that was hidden from view, it happened in broad daylight at their home in Michigan. The mother, Maggie Burns, said that it is not common for kidnappings to occur in the neighborhood.

Fortunately, the abductor was scared away and the 8-year-old girl was unharmed. They were able to capture the would-be kidnapper, a 17-year-old. They didn’t release his identity but they did say he would face charges as an adult.

According to John Grimshaw, a Lieut. with the police force, Owen saved his sister’s life, or from something seriously bad happening to her. They called his actions extraordinary.

He also said that the young man should be commended for what he did. He used a regular slingshot that was purchased for three dollars on sale. He did practice shooting on occasion at old orange juice cans, and that helped him to improve his aim.

Owen said that he only had one thing on his mind when he saw someone trying to kidnap his sister. He was afraid that the kidnapper would either kill her or use her as a sex slave.

He said that the abductor had come behind his sister and grabbed her just like you would see in the movies, putting his hand over her mouth and his arm around her waist. He was trying to get her into the woods.

That is when Owen grabbed his slingshot and started shooting at him. When the kidnapper finally let his grip on the little girl go, she ran into the house crying and said that she had almost been killed.

Owen was angry at that point and ran outside to curse at the kidnapper. He threw a baseball in his direction but it missed.

At that point, he tried to shoot him again with a slingshot but the rubber band broke.

They then called the mother who had been at a relative’s house to help as she was on her way from work. She ran home, called the police, and it all stems from hearing her kids on the phone. The only thing she heard was the word, kidnapper.

They found the 17-year-old kidnapper hiding at a gas station nearby. He was indicted in the County Court on charges of kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. They will also charge him with misdemeanor assault and battery.

The police said that: “He had obvious signs of an injury consistent with those that would have been sustained from the slingshot strikes to his head and chest.”

The mother was skeptical at first that Owen had hit the kidnapper in the face and chest from 200 feet away. When the police confirmed the injuries, they even said that the goose egg on his head continued to get bigger while they were speaking with him.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and I would say Owen and is as close to a superhero as you can get.

Office of Naval Intelligence Leak: China Building Naval Ships 232 Times faster than USA – “Lift to Invade North America”

The United States office of Naval Intelligence suffered a leak of an intel briefing slide, showing China now has naval ship building capacity 232 times greater than the USA. This capacity can be used to build enough ships to “lift” an army to invade North America – successfully.

This amazingly oversized capacity to build naval vessels has caused some analysts to raise the alarm that the United States cannot even hope to catch-up . . . for years.

Other analysts have a more dire view: China is building this enormous amount of “lift” to be able to field a 200 million man army to invade and conquer North America, which it needs for food production and for its gigantic and growing population.

The seeds for this dire analysis began under the Trudeau government in Canada, when it signed a Treaty with the China Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing to allow Chinese Troops into Canada – to “protect Chinese investments.” The Treaty made it explicitly clear that local governments in Canada would not be notified and could not do anything about the presence of such troops.

By using Canada as a beachhead, giving China a foothold on north American, China can now pre-position armor and troops along the US northern border until they reach such mass that an invasion of the US would be almost a fait accompli!

US Military in Recruiting Shambles

In the meantime, the armed forces of the United States are in a Recruiting shambles. EVERY branch of US Armed Forces have been missing their recruiting goals for the all-volunteer force, and have been missing those goals for years.

The troubles plaguing recruiting do not come from lack of available people but rather a whole host of issues with those people. For instance, a very large portion of American young people are “morbidly obese” to such a degree, that the physical strength and stamina simply cannot be restored to make them fit for military service.

Other potential recruits suffer from a host of disqualifying psychiatric issues: Men who think they’re actually women trapped in the wrong body . . . . women who think they’re men . . . . candidates with a history of suicidal ideation and/or actual suicide attempts and more.

Also plaguing the pool of potential recruits is the mental inability to think critically; to make judgements, and act on immediate information.

As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, a sizeable portion of the potential recruits are so physically weak and effeminate, they simply cannot be brought to military strength.

Drug use is also a major factor in disqualifying potential recruits. Psychiatric drugs for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), addiction to Adderall, on top of others who are using illicit drugs like Cocaine, Heroin, or a

plethora of other, exotic “designer drugs,” has disqualified very many potential recruits because withdrawal from such drugs can lead to long-term violent outbursts and unstable mental states.

DEFENSE INDUSTRY IN SHAMBLES

Adding fuel to the fire is the Defense Industry itself. At present, the US Defense Industry is UNABLE to re-supply the most basic war-fighting products like Ammunition and artillery shells in sufficient quantities to re-stock what the US has already given away to Ukraine, never mind to fight an active war with a near-peer rival.

Instead of hiring new employees to increase defense production, many defense contractors are having to LAY OFF workers because they simply cannot get the parts necessary to assemble replacement weaponry like Javelin Missiles! American manufacturer’s “out-sourced” many jobs to overseas locations, and, in the case of China, that is now coming back to bit the US in its ass.

For instance, China recently imposed economic Sanctions on Lockheed Martin and other American Defense Contractors, for supplying weapons to Taiwan. This means that Chinese manufacturers can no longer sell certain electronics to those companies; electronics necessary to build and re-supply US military weapon systems!

Not only is this affecting the US ability to continue providing weaponry to Ukraine, it is also affecting our ability to make weapons to defend . . . OURSELVES. With the vast array and quantities of weaponry being “given” to Ukraine, it appears to some Defense Analysts that the US is being INTENTIONALLY DISARMED by its own federal government.

COMMERCIAL ENTITIES UNABLE TO SERVICE or CUTTING-OFF US MILITARY

Reverting back to the subject of ships for a moment, it became known this week that Danish shipping giant, MAERSK, is “backing away” from providing shipping services to the Department of Defense.

With most of US Ship-building gone from environmental regulations and Union Labor contract demands, the few shipbuilders the US still has, simply cannot meet the demand for new vessels or to timely repair existing vessels.

The US has to rely on foreign shipbuilders for Hulls and for shipping services.

MAERSK has not said why they are “backing away” from providing services to the Department of Defense, but they are, in fact, doing so.

Are these companies being pressured by China or other foreign governments to cripple the US? Are these companies being threatened with losing the ability to provide shipping services to foreign countries if they continue helping the US? The answer to those questions is not known, but it __may__ be a possibility.

Which brings up the issue of future US ship building and moving men and materiel.

With China having 232 times the US ship building capacity, and with commercial ventures in the US unable to re-supply or even timely service existing ships, and now commercial entitities “backing away” from providing services to the US, it is starting to look as though we are being set up to be invaded and conquered.

MILITARY-AGE MEN SOUTHERN BORDER INVASION

All of the above brings us to the US Southern Border. There has been an over Nine-hundred percent (900%+) increase in young, fit, military-age, Chinese men crossing illegally into the US via the southern border. This is confirmed by FOX NEWS.

Why the sudden surge of Chinese men? Some analysts think they are a fifth column; wolves in sheep’s clothing, entering our country at the behest of the China Communist Party to lay in wait for an order to attack the US from within.

And the US federal Government is making it EASIER for people to enter the country illegally! The Biden regime has ordered gates in former President Trump’s border wall . . . . to be welded open! YEs, you read that correctly, the gates are being welded open so even US citizens, concerned about illegals entering the country, can’t simply close and lock the gates.

STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE, DRAINED

The United States established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970’s. The SPR can hold a little over seven-hundred-million barrels of oil in giant caverns in Louisiana and Texas. Yet the Biden regime has ordered the SPR to sell-off much of that reserve to artificially reduce gasoline prices in the USA.

As of today, more than two-thirds of that 700 million barrel SPR, have been sold off and are gone. There are presently no plans (and no money) to refill it.

If the US is invaded, and we cannot import foreign oil because we’re a war zone where ships cannot safely come and go, we won’t have more than a month or two of fuel with which to fight and defend our own land.

TREACHERY?

This appears to be deliberate treachery on the part of the federal government, some of whom may simply have been bribed by China, or other countries, to sell-out our nation and prime us for invasion.

This week, Congress beings Impeachment Hearings into President Joe Biden, who allegedly received potentially millions in bribes from China and elsewhere. Congress has already revealed that Bank Wire Transfers to Hunter Biden, showing Joe Biden’s home address in Wilmington, Delaware as the recipient’s address, have been confirmed as having taken place. At least $250,000 of such wire transfers are said to have come from Beijing.

Also this week, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was Indicted and Arraigned in federal court, after being caught with some $458,000 cash stuffed into envelopes hidden in clothing in a closet, and in a safe, in his Englewood Cliffs home, along with 81.5 ounces of gold bullion in bars, allegedly for making military deals with and for, Egypt.

Menendez is charged with Bribery.

If Menendez took Bribes from Egypt to sell out US weapons, one has to wonder if he also took money from China to sell us out? Or if he also took money from other countries?

One also has to wonder if any OTHER Senators or Congressmen took such Bribes?

It appears the United States of America is suffering a level of treachery from within, that may actually cause our nation to cease to exist.

China Exposes New G20 Summit Hypocrisy and lies

You won’t believe what Biden just said after all the sanctions the US imposed on China. Biden gave a statement thinking that he is trying to create good relations with China after the G20 meeting with China’s Premier League Biden said we don’t want to contain China instead we want to make sure we have a relationship that is on the up and up squared away but don’t be misled by this statement before you know the actual truth According to Forbes, the US has imposed a list of sanctions on China, and its motive is simply to contain China, so when it comes to words, the US has a lot to say to impress you, but when it comes to actions, you won’t find anyone more brutal in the world than the US, so the question is why is there such a big difference between the US’s actions and its words, let’s find out in this video we will discuss the reality behind the US’s claims to not contain China We will also analyze the impact of Biden and Lee’s G20 summit on US-China relations. Watch the video until the conclusion to find out if the US is being honest this time or if this is just another tactic to attain ulterior aims.

https://youtu.be/w0MMrKvJZLQ

COVERT INTEL: CLOSEST PUTIN ADVISOR SAYS “NUKE U.K. OFF THE MAP” TO STOP UKRAINE WAR AND WW3

Three Cheers For the Guacamole Act of 1917!!!

One of the closest and most trusted Advisors to Russian President Vladimir Putin has formally told his boss that a “massive” use of nuclear weapons is necessary to actually “prevent” World War 3 and save humanity. He urges the complete destruction of the United Kingdom as a warning to others to stop.

Mediterranean Steak and Pasta
with Tomato-Olive Sauce

Whole-wheat pasta is served with beef Sirloin Tip Center Steaks and a tomato and olive sauce. This one will please the adults and the kids in your family.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked whole grain fettuccine
4 beef Sirloin Tip Center Steaks, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 4 ounces each)
1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce with olives*
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1/4 cup finely shredded Italian cheese blend or mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Instructions

Cook fettuccine according to package directions; drain and keep warm.
Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Place beef steaks in skillet; cook for 11 to 13 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally. (Do not overcook.) Remove from skillet; keep warm.
Combine pasta sauce and oregano in same skillet; heat until hot. Return steaks to skillet; turn to coat with sauce.
Place steaks on fettuccine; spoon sauce over all.
Sprinkle steaks with cheese, allowing cheese to melt. Sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

* You may substitute 1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce with olives for 1 (26 ounce) pasta sauce plus 1/4 cup chopped olives.

What advice do you have for people who have been called weird?

I used to coach swimming in the early 2000’s. It probably won’t surprise you that my most challenging group was the middle school boys.

But where a few of them were difficult, others were in need of help. They were “different”. Consequently, they were bullied frequently at school. They would come in upset about how their day had gone.

I identified with them on so many levels as I’ve spent my entire life having people tell me, “You are one weird guy.”

I would reassure them that they were simply misunderstood and that they were in good company: some of the greatest people who ever lived were treated as weirdos.

Frederick Nietzsche, another mega genius, was in this camp at one point too. He was, by very definition, different than his peers. People tend to attack things they don’t understand.

Throughout his life, he proposed many wild and brilliant ideas, faced his own share of critics, and endured his own moments of social isolation.

One line he wrote, that I encourage any who feel misunderstood to remember:

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

Humanity is filled with wild and shimmering variety. Those who see “different” and attack are afraid of their own authenticity.

Don’t shy away from living your own truth.

If you haven’t been told “You’re weird.” a few times along the way, you aren’t doing it right.

My Alpine masterpiece

When I was in seventh grade, my father bought me a hat for Christmas. It was some kind of furry alpine hat with flair and it even had a feather in the top. Man! Oh man! was I ridiculed by everyone in the class for wearing it. My other classmates all wore orange hunting caps, but I had my Alpine masterpiece…

I got to be the brunt of many a joke because of this hat.

Anyways, one day, one of the loudest boys who made fun of my hat, took me aside and told me in private that he liked my hat and thought that it was really cool. Well… good for him. I appreciate it.

If you are a parent, please take the time and give some thought to what your children might think of your fashion choices…

Today…

What is the most outrageous “fee” you’ve ever been charged?

I own the building in the picture, 6–8 Commerical Street, Castleford, West Yorkshire, England.

(picture omitted)

My financial advisory company occupies the two two floors. The electricity Supplier Opus Energy tried billing me for a standard charge to supply the non-existent number 10 Commercial Street, so I wrote to them as below –

Dear Sirs

Account Number ********** Invoice Number ***************

Your bill (scan attached) has nothing to do with me.

1. I own 6-8 Commercial Street, not number 10. There is no number 10. It does not exist.

2. I have never signed a contract with you for any premises whatsoever.

3. The meter to which this refers has a label attached to it saying ‘Dead’. You say that the bill is for my ‘connection to the network. I am not connected to the network via your company but via British Gas. I have 2 meters with British Gas, one for the 1st floor and 1 for the 2nd (top) floor. The baker and hairdresser on the ground floor have their own meters. I refuse point blank to pay you for a dead meter that supplies absolutely nothing.

4. The reading on your meter – 94717kwh – is the same as it was on the day I bought the building, 1 March 2017.

5. The ‘balance before this bill’ of £33.08 plus VAT should presumably be directed to the previous owners if anyone, though they did not own 10 Commercial Street either. If they were paying you in error then that is their problem. I do not intend to make the same mistake.

In view of the above:

1. Please cancel this invoice and ensure no more are sent. You are not supplying me with electricity; British Gas is.

2. Please arrange for your engineers to safely remove your meter without affecting my supply or that of my tenants.

3. I reserve the right to charge you £1 per day rent for the wall space your meter is taking up backdated to the date I acquired the property.

This argument went on for two years! They eventually threatened to take me to court. I said “Okay, get on with it. I’ll see you in court.” At that point somebody with a brain in his head (their legal department I’m guessing) looked at it and dropped the demand. Case closed.

Mexican Pepper Steak

Ingredients

6 steaks
1 cup red, ripe Anaheim chiles or 3 red bell peppers, seeded and sliced into thin strips
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

Choose your favorite steak.
Grill the steaks al carbon and serve them topped with the chiles or bell peppers.
To prepare the topping, heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Add garlic and chiles or peppers and sauté them until they are soft.
If you are using bell peppers, add black pepper, to taste.

China permanently stops exporting two important minerals for manufacturing electronic chips

In a significant development, China has made the decision to permanently cease the export of two crucial minerals essential for the production of electronic chips. This decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for the global electronics industry.

The move comes as China aims to prioritize its domestic technology sector and strengthen its position in the global market. With the halt in the export of these minerals, manufacturers of electronic chips worldwide will face challenges in sourcing the necessary materials, potentially leading to supply chain disruptions and increased costs.

As electronic chips are vital components in various devices, including smartphones, computers, and automotive electronics, this decision by China is likely to impact the availability and affordability of these products globally. It may also prompt countries and companies to explore alternative sources or develop new technologies to mitigate the impact.

The implications of China’s decision on the electronics industry are significant, and stakeholders will need to adapt to this new landscape. Stay tuned for further updates on how this development unfolds and its potential ramifications for the global technology sector.

What is the worst thing about the U.S. politics?

I’m convinced we are going to see a politician die on TV — and not because of an assassination.

Neither of our two likely presidential candidates can run up a flight of stairs without great risk. Even back in January 2021, the top three candidates (Trump, Biden, and Sanders) would have each been the oldest president ever at the start of their terms.

Mitch McConnell’s eyes are rolling back like a ref is giving him a standing 8 count against Mike Tyson. His publicized medical report said there were no signs of any problem. But politicians decide if medical reports are released. For context, Trump’s doctor also said he was in “extraordinary” good health.

I’ve also stopped buying into Biden’s speech impediment excuse. Watch a few of his younger speeches — there’s a huge difference. Notably, he was also one of the youngest senators in history at age 30. At the time, he said, “The seniority system has more drawbacks than merits”.

God bless Biden for hanging in there but even as a left-leaning moderate, I can’t watch anymore. Per a NYT piece, even his aides are extremely nervous each day, worried he’ll fall or make another serious gaffe.

Politicians have never been a bastion for youth —but a revival is in order. I watched the Republican debates and saw a number of bright candidates, who’d be a much better alternative to Trump. But we are boxed in as usual. Even my parents, who are die-hard conservatives, have lost their enthusiasm.

It’s either a fascist narcissistic billionaire or a democrat who forgets which country he is in.

What a mess.

So what gives?

Why is it so hard to find a fresh 40-something with bold, good ideas —and more cognitive shelf life?

For starters, there’s an incentive problem. The US political system favors experience — but not experience in drafting policy or leading. It favors experience in building allies and raising money.

You might wonder: Why doesn’t a wealthy donor support a younger politician? Because political donors aren’t altruistic. They want people with power, who can use that power to benefit them.

We have abysmal representation for young voters— especially when it comes to issues like climate change. I see countless older politicians advocating for the use of coal when it’s one of the most dangerous sources of energy on a per KWH basis. We have embarrassing, recurring viral moments of politicians completely misunderstanding technology and social media.

But incumbent politicians are devilishly difficult to dethrone, particularly after they’ve been in office for a few terms. They have name recognition and access to enormous campaign financing. They are on TV constantly, dropping zingers on their opponents. And —there are no term limits.

There’s a reason you rarely see 80-year-olds running for their first term.

The only means of entry seems to be through extreme partisanship, which is why you see so many young and over-the-top politicians.

We are to blame

Voters often prefer candidates who are closest to themselves in age. Moreover, we tend to vote for demographics that align with us, and voter turnout remains terrible for young people.

It isn’t just politicians getting older. The average age of incoming S&P 500 CEOs has increased by 14 years over the previous decade. Two-thirds of the nation’s wealth is held by Americans 55 and older, despite them being less than one-third of the population.

The age in Congress dropped slightly after the midterms, with an average age of 58. The average age in the Senate is 64. Meanwhile, the average American is only 38.

We live in a technical age, with sophisticated and evolving artificial intelligence sweeping across every sector. Meanwhile, 72-year-old Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is still using a flip phone.

Many of these leaders were born in the 1940s and were shaped by an era that has blinded them to massive problems at our doorstep. How can you care about climate change if you aren’t concerned about what 2050 looks like?

Biden looks and seems much older than he did only a few years ago. Trump lost his marbles long before he hit his 70s.

And age is causing problems in the actual procedures of governance. Senator Diane Feinstein (90) has well-documented health problems issues that have held up passing legislation.

The lack of a filtration system

There are no real physical demands of the job. This isn’t construction in equatorial heat. If you have a sound mind, and sometimes, even if you don’t, you can stay in office.

Perhaps the job is too easy. Most of us have stressful work that involves tons of multitasking and recurring deadlines we lose sleep over. We look forward to retiring. If people are eager to leave office in a coffin, maybe we haven’t asked enough of them. CEOs rarely last work past decline as they do in politics. They are typically shown the door or leave when they hear the creak of it being opened.

And is that how you’d want to be remembered as a politician? As a cantankerous curmudgeon who refuses to leave?

Sure, there is an appeal to age and experience. Wisdom isn’t inherited. But only to an extent. We need younger blood in office now more than ever.

And so to the people voting, on both sides of the aisle, and both sides of the hill, consider giving fresh voices a chance. Being president has morphed from being a popularity contest —to being a contest of which politician you hate the least. It doesn’t have to be this way.

And more broadly, this is a reminder that just because things are done a certain way, doesn’t mean they should always be done that way. Keep an open mind and good heavens, exercise your right to vote.

HOW I SEE THE USA AS A EUROPEAN (after 6 months)

“Cultural shocks? Differences between Europe and the USA? Regrets, struggles, positive surprises? In this video, I want to share with you some of my impressions of the United States after spending 6 months traveling the country. So, do you reckon I should come back?”

US is Waging a Hybrid War on India.

By S.L. Kanthan

America loves wars. And it wages wars on enemies and allies alike.

Recent events this year indicate that the US is waging a hybrid war on India. It started with a BBC documentary that recycled Hindu-Muslim conflicts from 20+ years ago; then, allegations against Indian billionaire Adani by an American company; followed by calls for better democracy by Soros; and now the latest bombshell accusations from Canada against the Indian government regarding the murder of Sikh separatists.

By the way, the word “allies” is just a euphemism for vassals. Modern wars are hybrid in nature — they include hot wars, economic wars, tech wars, trade wars, propaganda wars, spy wars, political wars and so on. The US wages hybrid wars on its vassals to make sure that the vassals don’t collude or start making independent decisions. Thus, the US spies on its European allies, stages soft coups in allied countries, wrecks their economies when they get too strong, and even forces them into proxy wars. This is standard procedure, and India is now getting a taste of it. With Soros’ involvement, there might even be a color revolution.

To counteract America’s hybrid war, India should re-embrace China! Yes, bring back Huawei 5G, TikTok, Alibaba etc., and the US will back off quickly. That’s smart, “Chanakya” geopolitics.

In this article, we will discuss one of the powerful modern tools for regime change — use of NGOs by the US foreign policy establishment. Then we will discuss why India is under attack and how India can fight back to protect its sovereignty and focus on rapid growth.

How the Attacks are Unfolding

2023 started with a BBC documentary on Modi that rekindled the controversies about the Hindu-Muslim riots 20 years ago. (I thought the documentary was pretty good; and the Indian government should not have banned it). The US and its Western allies are like a geopolitical Godfather and his consigliere.

The BBC documentary was not a coincidence as evidenced by the Hindenburg report that came a couple of days later in a one-two punch fashion. The allegations of fraud have eviscerated $100 billion of (corrupt?) Indian oligarch Gautam Adani’s wealth. He quickly fell from the 2nd wealthiest man to #25 in the Bloomberg Index

Then came George Soros, the king of color revolutions, who linked these two incidents, attacked Modi, and called for a “democratic revival” in India. This was the final confirmation of America’s war on India.

The latest attack is from Canada, a member of the Anglo-American Empire and Five Eyes. Don’t mistake me — it’s very likely that the Indian government in some level was involved in the shooting of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The media is now reporting that there are incriminating recordings of Indian diplomats in Canada. Not surprised at all.

The whole thing was an entrapment. Just like how the US ambassador in Iraq told Saddam Hussein that if he invaded Kuwait, the US wouldn’t do anything.

In India’s case, it’s likely that someone from the CIA (or even the Mossad) gave the green light for the assassination, while other groups collected the evidences.

(Note that India’s intelligence group, R&AW — which is like the Indian CIA — has carried out such assassinations of Khalistan or Islamist terrorists in Pakistan before. However, to carry out such acts in a NATO/G7 country — killing a Canadian citizen in Canada — is quite brazen and probably a massive geopolitical blunder by India).

What is America’s goal? Either regime change or forcing Modi government to change some of its domestic and foreign policies.

Another sign of the escalating hostility is the sudden change in the tone of the Western media. Look what the influential journal Economist says

🔹“India is invariably weaker than its leaders publicly proclaim”

🔹“If the investigation confirms Indian involvement in this crime, it is time for a tougher line.”

🔹“On its own turf, India has muzzled the press, cowed the courts and persecuted minorities”

Understanding America’s Overt Regime-Change Ops

A quick history lesson here is important. During the Cold War, the CIA blatantly assassinated many leaders of sovereign nations all over the world to “stop the spread of communism.” The real reason was, of course, to extend American hegemony globally and ensure cheap supplies of raw materials as well as open markets for American products.

However, by the 1970s, a lot of allies started to complain, since murdering political leaders was a bit too much even for the co-conspirators and obedient puppets of imperialism. Thus, in the 1980s, the US polished its regime change operations and came up with the idea of revolutions through propaganda and soft power. This was the result of people like George Soros and a myriad of organizations like NED and NDI.

Thus, the US shifted many of its operations from covert to overt. Rather than knife-and-dagger, try to overthrow leaders openly!

In 1991, Allen Weinstein, the founder of NED, admitted

that, “ A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

The goal was to spend billions of dollars in “NGOs” in developing countries, especially those that are resistant to American influence. In an Orwellian fashion, these “non-governmental” organizations are funded and directed by the US government! The term “NGO” just means that they are free from the governments of the countries where the NGOs are located.

These NGOs create a vast array of groups including those that promote “journalism,” “free speech,” “women’s rights,” “environmentalism” etc. Plus, to give some legitimacy, they also include groups that allegedly help fight poverty or illiteracy. However, all their actions are focused on promoting pro-American sentiments and Western corporate interests. The leaders of these groups can make a lot of money and enjoy celebrity status. They can attend workshops in Europe, get to testify before the US Congress, write articles for the NY Times, appear on CNN etc. If they are really good, like that North Korean defector Yeonmi Park, they can make $10,000 a speech, making up absurd stories.

You can see these US/EU-funded fake NGO groups now, in 2023, in Myanmar, Thailand, Belarus, Kazakhstan etc. For more than two decades, they were busy in Hong Kong, until they were completely dismantled by China two years ago. The separatist movement in the Xinjiang-Uyghur region is also fueled by the same people. Other places that were recent victims of US-led protests include Venezuela, Syria, Libya, Cuba and even the so-called Arab Spring.

In Ukraine, they started in the early 1990s and lasted until 2014, when the Nazi-led and US-orchestrated Maidan Coup overthrew a democratically elected leader. Since then, the Ukrainian NGO groups have shifted their energy to 100% anti-Russian propaganda.

George Soros, the General of Color Revolutions

While the US government funds groups like NED and NDI to create chaos in not-so-subservient nations around the world, these groups still had direct links to the US government, which was embarrassing at times. Thus, the US deep state picked George Soros as its henchman or general. He was a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, had strong anti-Russian and anti-communist feelings, and was the perfect pick.

And Soros has been extraordinarily successful. In an interview, he boasted

, “After the fall of the Soviet Empire, I picked up the pieces and created the Soros Empire.”

With Wall Street’s help, the CIA made him a billionaire. With insider information, Soros made his first billion by shorting the British Pound in 1992. Then, subsequently, he made more billions during the Asian financial crisis, Russian crisis, and Mexican crisis during the late 1990s. Get rich by destroying others!

He started his grassroots movements in the late 1980s — first in Hungary, then expanded to Poland and even mainland China.

Soros played a significant role in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Soon after that, China banned him and his organizations. A couple of years ago, Putin finally banned Soros; and now even his native place Hungary is trying to ban him!

Soros and his groups play the long game. For example, his “Open Society” group brags about how it has spent billions of dollars in Ukraine since the 1990s.

A characteristic of his movement is the use of colors — like:

“Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003
“Orange Revolution” in Ukraine in 2004
“Tulip Revolution” in Kyrgyzstan in 2005

In each of the above cases, when a pro-Russia leader won the election, Soros turned on his useful idiots and provocateurs, who started large protests. Then, the US/EU governments would cry crocodile tears about human rights, freedom, and democracy. US/UK media operating in those countries would carry out intense propaganda campaigns about corruption. Then the governments were forced to hold another election, in which the pro-US leader won by a small margin.

The interesting and obvious phenomenon is that when a pro-US government is established, Soros quietly shuts down all his “grassroots” organizations. All those protesters and influencers quietly vanish in thin air. Thus, the people are left with the same corrupt system but with different or worse rulers.

Take Ukraine, for example.

In 2004, Ukraine became slightly pro-US after the first color revolution;
In 2014, Ukraine became a total American puppet.

What did the Ukrainian people gain? Nothing but poverty and destruction.

In 2021, before the war started, the average pension in Ukraine was just $150 a month. Ukraine was still the poorest country in Europe. Worse, the Ukrainians got a comedian president, rule by the same oligarchy, Nazism, civil war, Russian invasion, millions of people turned into refugees, and utter destruction of the entire country.

While the US has groups like the National Endowment of Democracy (NED), people like Soros are even more effective. Why? It gives US deep state “plausible deniability” — “Hey, he’s just an individual, not the US government.”

For Soros, he enjoys immense power — to manipulate millions of people and overthrow governments. Of course, the new puppets installed in these countries will let Soros and his financial buddies in New York and London make enormous amount of money through various “reforms” such as privatization. So, for example, Soros’ hedge fund would be able to buy a natural gas field, a bank or an airline for pennies on the dollar. The investment money belongs to other oligarchs and financial institutions in the US/Europe, and Soros gets a juicy commission. This strategy of OPM — Other People’s Money — is more discrete and smarter than Soros himself becoming the owner of a new bank or an airline — then, even the average useful idiot of the color revolution will be able to connect the dots.

For example, after the fall of the USSR, vampires like Soros descended upon Moscow, handpicked Russian oligarchs and politicians- based on their loyalty to US/EU, and looted hundreds of billions of dollars.

What India Needs to Realize

Indian leaders should understand the complexity of this network. Indian FM Jaishankar only attacked Soros personally, which gives the wrong impression. George Soros is part of the US/EU Deep State — a group of elites from the foreign policy establishment, Wall Street, military, spy agencies, and the media.

Similarly, Canada is not a tiny country acting alone. Whatever Trudeau says or does is a reflection of the collective decisions made by the Five Eyes — US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Of course, the US is the boss.

Also, in order to circumvent pesky constitutional limits, the Five Eyes do dirty work on each other’s countries. So, British agencies spy on certain Americans; and the CIA/NSA spy on diplomats in Canada, and so on.

Canada is a key designated member of the Five Eyes to attract separatists from all over the world — Sikh separatists from India, Uyghur and Hong Kong separatists from China, Islamists from Syria and so on. These groups are geopolitical pawns for the Western countries to harass developing nations, rivals, or simply any country not being “cooperative” — a.k.a. obedient.

Thus, it’s not just BBC or Hindenburg or Soros or Trudeau attacking India. The entire Western establishment is targeting India.

And the attacks are not going to stop, unless the Modi government gives into the US demands. And what does the US want? I am not sure, but here are my guesses:

Stop buying weapons from Russia. Instead, buy US weapons.
Allow US military bases in India.
Stop helping the expansion of BRICS, especially with the addition of Saudi Arabia and Iran. (This threatens the petrodollar hegemony).
Be more anti-China. (Recently, the Indian government has been trying to downplay the tensions with China. When there were some border conflicts, it was the British media that leaked the news. Also, India-China trade has been booming. It looks like the Modi government realizes its mistake of over-hyping anti-China sentiments).
Allow privatization of India’s financial sector — let US giants buy shares in Indian banks, insurance companies, stock market exchange etc.

America is a Brutal Empire

Many Indians have no clue about the real nature of the U.S. partly because of immigration and partly because of the abysmal job of the Indian mainstream media. For example, how many Indians know that the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? It’s pure terrorism, like a 9/11 on Germany, America’s “ally.”

Most people also don’t know that the U.S. has armed and funded Al Qaeda since the fall of the Soviet Union — as seen in Chechnya, Kosovo etc. ISIS was also a U.S. creation in the proxy war against Syria. And the U.S. has been funding, recruiting and training Nazis in Ukraine for a decade; U.S. Pentagon also established bio-weapon labs in Ukraine and quickly ordered them to be destroyed when Russia invaded. There are many more such examples of atrocities committed by the USA.

Whatever it takes to maintain the American primacy.

Now, think for a moment what the U.S. would do to create more tensions between India and China. For example, could the U.S. have rigged the GPS system of Indian soldiers in Ladakh in 2020?

India’s Solution: Strategic Ambiguity

I have already written about India has been getting colonized by the US — India, the Crown Jewel of American Empire

. The US elites must have concluded that they now have sufficient control over India that they could blatantly engineer a regime change.

By the way, the U.S. has done this twice in Australia — once in 1975 when Australian Prime Minister Whitlam was removed from his office by the CIA

. In Brazil, the NSA leaked an audio tape

to remove President Dilma Rousseff, when she wasn’t acting like an obedient puppet.

Consider that India’s 5G is all 100% foreign and from US and its close puppet allies. Plus, Indian leaders all probably use Gmail, Outlook etc., which are all spy tools for US deep state. Thus, all forms of communications — phone calls, text messages, emails — in India are under American surveillance.

The spying on Indian diplomats in Canada should wake up Indians to one more gruesome fact: The US is also spying on key business and political elites in India through 5G, Google Pay, WhatsApp, e-commerce (Amazon & Flipkart), Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Amazon AWS cloud, undersea fiber optic cables and so on. Go back and read Edward Snowden’s revelations from a decade ago. Even hard drives and semiconductor chips have back-doors for the NSA to spy. Don’t be fooled by the Indian CEO faces in some US hi-tech companies.

Finally, imagine if the US sanctions India. It will ruin the Indian economy. Imagine if Google Pay, Whatsapp, Amazon, Flipkart etc. get turned off at the snap of a finger! Thus, India becomes very vulnerable when it depends on US technology so much.

The current American chutzpah in attacking India can only be explained by India’s distancing itself from China. Without any powerful ally other than the US, India is hapless. India must rectify this immediately with a shot across the bow: Seek detente with China! It will absolutely blow the American mind.

Bring back TikTok and watch Facebook and Google cry! Bring back Alibaba or AliExpress and watch Amazon shake in its boots! Approve Huawei 5G for India’s networks and watch the CIA weep about how it can’t spy on Indian elites! Let China build some massive infrastructure projects in India — from clean coal power plants and solar farms to airports and highways. Create joint ventures with Chinese firms to create massive manufacturing ecosystems.

India’s strategic ambiguity will get it better deals from China (including technology transfer in some areas) and force the U.S. to curtail its imperialist actions.

If you’re worried about the border disputes, see my blog

on some ideas on resolving them.

Conclusion

India is at a critical inflection point. The next two decades will determine India’s 21st century. Thus, it’s a geopolitical imperative that India navigate this exigent period carefully and wisely. This is the time to focus on growth and prosperity, while making sovereign decisions. India’s focus and goal should be:

Maintaining Strategic ambiguity while balancing China and the West
Stopping any nefarious regime change operations… and
Resisting being a geopolitical pawn of the American Empire

Huawei Stealing American Technology? Ha ha… We’re ‘Stealing’ America’s Technology of Tomorrow!

The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement emphasizing that Huawei, a Chinese company, is excellent but faces prejudice due to its Chinese origin.

Meanwhile, in the United States, there is a department called the “China Task Force,” led by Mike Gallagher, which aims to tarnish China’s image and suppress Chinese technology companies.

Even before the US government released an official report on Huawei’s Mate60 smartphone, which featured the Kirin 9000S chip developed domestically, Mike Gallagher called for a halt to all technology exports to Huawei and SMIC.

He also accused Huawei of relying on US technology to produce the Kirin 9000S chip.

These accusations from US politicians are not new and have been ongoing since May 2018, with claims of national security concerns and technology theft by Chinese companies like Huawei.

In response to these allegations, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, stated that if Huawei had stolen US technology, it would mean stealing technology that the US hasn’t even developed yet.

He suggested that the US may be attempting to suppress Huawei because it is ahead in technological advancements.

https://youtu.be/0sh9AVy_gSE

What countries will you never visit again?

Egypt was a nightmare.

It is an omen of what social collapse and government breakdown looks like. I’ve been to many countries, but unlike any of these places, there were no traffic rules properly enforced in Cairo. Some streets are absolute wrecks of apocalyptic chaos. Honking everywhere, shattering your ears. Swerving cars with cracked windows. Smog pouring out exhaust pipes. I saw a woman pulling a donkey and cart on a congested highway surrounded by cars. Many cars break down on roads.

The pyramids were overrated and very difficult to appreciate due to the madness around them. This included all sorts of merchants or vehicle operators screaming at you or fighting each other. They are also fringed by what is essentially the slum construction site of Giza with donkey faeces and piles of litter everywhere. Many buildings look like they are crumbling and I heard they appear like this on purpose because painting them technically means they are complete and thus available for taxation. So the population has seemingly agreed to not paint their buildings.

Much of Cairo is falling apart. The old city really is about to roll into a coffin. The sheer scale of people flowing down the small streets was extraordinary. At some points it was almost impossible to move without pushing through crowds. The dining options were not great either. Some places stunk of raw meat or looked unbelievably unsanitary. I saw a man sitting in a cafe looking nonplussed as he seemed to be covered in exhaust smog with his ears being obliterated by honking.

Your instincts are screaming at you everywhere. The pictures online are nothing like experiencing it in reality. The best place is your hotel, away from the chaos. I’ve seen inside perhaps an average home and it seemed well organised and clean, but the outside world is unmitigated lunacy.

The tourist industry is also probably the most aggressive in the world. Many of those working within it actively scam tourists as a major aspect of business dealings. This is ingrained in almost every aspect of it from tour guides to hotels. You cannot trust the prices they quote and they also demand tips quite hawkishly. Cafe owners will mislead you and taxi or tour drivers will take you to so-called museums which are gift shops where owners sit you down to try and sell you stuff. Even in Luxor, ticket sellers demanded tips.

The tourist industry is also very dystopic and along Egypt’s east coast, it is basically an infinite line of resorts for many miles. All of them are heavily guarded by the military and police because one incident against a tourist bankrupts the industry for months or over a year. The military is necessary here, but seeing machine guns and road blocks everywhere puts you on high alert, being afraid that some crazy person is going to burst into the resort and rampage around or it could be one of the guards. Of course, this doesn’t happen and terrible events are very rare, but the thought remains.

Finally the sun. It is so powerful and without sunglasses you will be squinting everywhere. The sun is very intense. This can’t be helped geographically, but with all the traffic congestion it makes the country exceptionally broiling.

I hope the country can fix itself. There are good people who I encountered, but they are very far away from the tourist industry.

Immigrants have started to Leave Canada in 2023 – WHY?

True 100%. We decided to move out of Canada due to lack of access to health care and influence of gender ideology in schools.

What did you say at a job interview that automatically landed you the job?

It was not what I said but really what I did. I brought a pen.

It may seem like a small thing, but I truly think it made a huge impact. When I went to my interview I was handed a packet of documents that outlined the responsibilities of the position I was hoping for. I immediately brought out a pen and as we went over each bullet point I made notes. For instance things that she hoped the hire would take on complete responsibility for, I put a star next to. If she mentioned a software or computer program the company used, especially if I was not familiar with it, I wrote it down to look up later. On things I wanted clarification on, I marked down the new information I was given. I was called in for a second interview.

I brought my pen again, and I brought all that information from the packet. I had researched the program that was mentioned during the first interview. I referred to points made previously. At one point I even brought out a small notebook to jot another note down. I was called in for the final interview.

Not going to lie, I did not need my pen here, nor did I get the opportunity to use it with the VP of HR who was conducting the last phase. She told me she wanted to hire me right then, and if it were not for assessment needed for my department it would be a done deal. I went outside and took my assessment. I did horrible. I am not the best at math, and I had not used fractional math for years so I am sure I got every question wrong. The rest of it I aced. Since math took up over half, I was sure I was out. I cried all the way home, even though they told me strait up it was not pass/fail so much ad they wanted to see where I needed training.

I was called two days later and offered the job. I am sure it was because I came prepared with a pen and showed how serious I was taking things. Take a pen with you.

A large-scale rally calling for the withdrawal of Yoon Seok-yeol weightlifting

To retire Yoon Seok-yeol weightlifting, which works evil in the entire area of puppet The struggle of all walks of life is expanding day by day.

On the 16th, Yoon Seok-yeol Station was retired from all areas, including Seoul The 3rd Pan-National Congress of the withdrawal of the Yoon Seok-yeol Regime was held.

The rally participants said, ” I can’t live like this.”, “We gathered here to Change Resources and Information.

November, we held the “People’s Gun Contest” and announced the withdrawal of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime. I’m going to have a total struggle for it.”I decided.

Yoon Seok-yeol, chairman of the Democratic Ro-gun, is not only in Seoul, but also in all over the world.On this day, he said that he was raising the eccentricity of the regime’s departure. We have been informed of the situation of the rally that is taking place in the entire area of the puppet.

He continued, ” If we don’t struggle together against the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, we don’t fight together.” We can only be forced to continue to work for a long time.”Once again the protest of the people who brought down the Park Geun-hye regime Let’s organize. We in this position will take the lead, and the people will step out together..”, “In November, the Yoon Seok-yeol regime with the people’s guns stopped your runaway.> , <There’s no place for you guys to live.>Let’s declare it unabashedly.”It was a great place to stay.

On the other hand, the participants of the 3rd Pan-National Convention for the withdrawal of the Yoon Seok-yeol Regime on this day “Japan Radioactive Polluted Water Marine Dumping” held in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Korea in the afternoon! Yoon Seok joined the 4th Pan-National Convention and condemned the defeat of the Yeomanry I raised my voice even more.

In order to stop the runaway of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, the speakers said, ” Everyone from all walks of life We must unite as one.”, “One day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day Of course, I ask you to be responsible for non-walnut Japan’s nuclear pollutant second world war. We must order the impeachment of Yoon Seok-yeol to the National Assembly in the name of the people..”He strongly insisted.

“Only COWARDS fear World War 3!” Sean Penn on giving more money to Ukraine

Ugh.

Minute Steak Parmesan

Ingredients

5 minute steaks
1 beaten egg
1 tablespoon water
Dash of pepper
1/4 cup soda cracker crumbs
1 (8 ounce) can pizza sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions

Dip steaks in combined egg, water and pepper. Coat with mixture of crumbs and half of the cheese.
Brown in hot oil; drain on absorbent paper.
Arrange in baking dish; cover with pizza sauce, and top with remaining cheese.
Bake at 325 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

I owned a carpet cleaning company

We worked for a LOT of apartments. A lease renewal clean was done by the apartment complex once a year for the tenants lease renewal. The apartment community paid for the clean so it was free for the resident and we did not move furniture as part of the deal.

Clean an apartment for a Spanish couple. SHE complained (in Spanish) the entire time that I was doing a horrible job and I needed to move everything. Me, the VERY white Gringo-American just kept cleaning and asking the husband, in English, if everything was alright. HE explained, in English it was fine and kept telling his wife, in Spanish, that it was fine amd to stop complaining. SlThis went on for the entire clean.

Getting done, packed up and heading out, I looked at him and in English asked if they needed anything more. Nope was his reply.

I turned to her amd in SPANISH said, “Thank you for the job, please open your windows a crack to help the carpets dry. It should take about 2–3 hours. Have a good day.”

Her mouth fell and she said NOTHING.

I walked away satisfied.

I invited my husband’s family for Thanksgiving. No one ate my meal and it was really embarrassing. I later found out that my mother-in-law cooked a large meal and fed everyone before they arrived to my house. Should I say something? What should I do next year?

My mother in law did something similar to me. She was a terrible cook and her two grown daughters asked if they could all come to our house for Mother’s Day one year. I knocked myself out fixing dinner for 14 people but ordered 2 pecan pies and a cake from an expensive bakery since I didn’t have time to make desserts too.

Everyone arrived and complimented the table but my sister-in-law pulled me aside and told me their mother had insisted on taking them to a buffet at a restaurant an hour before the time I had set for our dinner.

Only my husband and our kids ate. Everyone else pushed the food around embarrassedly. I was furious and finally couldn’t hold back. I looked at my mother in law and said I wished she hadn’t taken them out to eat when she knew I was cooking for them.

Instead of apologizing she giggled and said “My bad.” I’ve never forgotten that smug look on that witch’s face.

The next time anyone asked me to cook for a holiday I politely said no, we were having a small feast with just the four of us and I stuck with it.

People who pull that kind of stunt are emotionally stunted and don’t deserve anything from us except contempt.

USA on the Brink of Chaos: How Americans Are Living the End of the American Dream

In case you were unaware about how things are going in the United States today.

The in-laws

There was a 1979 movie starring Peter Falk titled “The In-laws”, and for some strange reason I just remembered this movie. I tried to download the torrent, but it is taking forever. It is just a goofy and funny comedy, but for some reason… it came to mind.

It is available free on the Internet DB. HERE.

And still, I have downloaded the torrent from this site...

The premise of this film is really simple: if two families are about to enjoy the union of their children in a marriage, is it not likely that the in-laws involved can come to depend and help each other out in times of need? Most of us would probably say no, or want to know the extent of the help. However, when Vincent J. Ricardo (Peter Falk) asks Dr. Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin) to assist him in retrieving something from a safe in Ricardo’s office, Kornpett is willing (if somewhat suspiciously) to do it.

The reason that Kornpett is suspicious is he is not quite certain what to make of Ricardo. They only met at Kornpett’s house the night before, for a dinner party introducing the families of the bride (Kornpett’s) and groom (Ricardo’s) to each other. Ricardo acted…well oddly. He told tales of his business travels in Central America, including how in one country babies are being carried off by huge bats that are protected by the Guacamole Act of 1917. Kornpett hears this with a blank face, although his eyes do bug out a little in disbelief. Later, when Ricardo gets testy with his son over a comment about the former not being home enough, Kornpett can’t believe the near rage that Ricardo demonstrates at the table. So his suspicions about his future in-law seem well based.

Shortly, after being chased and nearly killed by two men who are after the items that Kornpett picked up, the suspicions seem confirmed. Ricardo explains to him, over pea soup in a restaurant, that he actually is not a successful salesman but a C.I.A. operative (a photo in Ricardo’s office confirms this: it is of President Kennedy, and the autograph refers to the Bay of Pigs Invasion). He is in the middle of a critically important mission in Latin America dealing with international finance and a conspiracy against the richest nations. Kornpett hears him out, and is upset to hear that there is more material that Ricardo hid in Kornpett’s home the night before. He wants no part of it, and leaves to go home – only to find the police there. He flees, and does evade capture – at the cost of having his car repainted in a way he never would have wanted it to look.

Soon Kornpett is forced to join forces with Ricardo, and enters the deadly serious but (here) quite farcical world of international espionage and intrigue. At the end of the road is the ringleader of the conspiracy, General Garcia (Richard Libertini) who has a special little friend that makes Al Pacino’s little friend in SCARFACE lethal but sensible in comparison.

THE IN-LAWS is funny. Arkin with his tight-ass repressive personality works well against the free-wheeling, anything goes Falk. Libertini appears only in the films last twenty minutes, but he does equally nicely as the ultimate in screw-ball dictators. Well supported by a cast including Nancy Dussault, Arlene Golonka, Penny Peyser, Michael Lembeck, and Ed Begley Jr. the film is just a laugh fest until the happy ending. As mentioned elsewhere in these comments Arkin and Falk should have made several films together. They have only done one other movie together since THE IN-LAWS. Pity.

What’s the coldest thing a doctor has ever said to you?

‘If you lose this baby, you could always have another one’. The comment above was made by the doctor who my husband and I had a consultation with. I was roughly 10 weeks pregnant with our first child. I was in my mid 30’s while hubby was in his early 40’s.

An elderly man in his fifties, he barely looked at us, ignored me, said hello to my husband, looked at my file fleetingly, a file with tests and scans which showed I had fibroids, looked directly at my husband and said to him, ‘She will be fine’. I was furious that this man was clearly sexist, ignoring me as if I was invisible. I responded by asking what that meant, what was the cause of the bleeding as he had not told us at this point about the fibroids. ‘You do not need to bother about it. That is why we are here’. This statement was addressed again to my husband who he was still looking at while still ignoring my presence.

At this point, something in me snapped and I snapped at him, ‘Look at me and tell me what is causing this bleeding. It is my body and I need the details’. He then slowly turned to look at me as if seeing me for the first time and emotionlessly said, ‘you have fibroids. They are not massive and do not pose a danger to your baby’. ‘But I am bleeding. Is that not dangerous? ‘ I worriedly asked.

That was when he looked at the file and without lifting his head, retorted ,Not really. However, if you lose this baby, you could always have another one ’. I almost cussed the insensitive idiot out but my husband who knew I was fuming at this point, got up and ushered me out of the office while the doctor was still talking about ante natal visits at their hospital. We had heard enough. I went on to another hospital where I met the amazing doctor who delivered my daughter without complications and went on to have a son after that.

She is now a healthy, happy 10 year old who is pure joy and always a little mama to her 7 year old brother.

London Broil

London Broil is a favorite recipe from the Iowa Beef Industry Council.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 (1 1/4 to 1 3/4 pound) beef flank steak
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Combine vegetable oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper for marinade.
Place steak in plastic bag and pour marinade over it.
Close bag securely and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight, turning occasionally.
Pour off and reserve marinade.
Place steak on grill and broil at moderate temperature for 5 minutes.
Turn, brush with marinade and broil 5 minutes or to desired doneness (rare or medium).
To carve, slice diagonally across grain in thin strips.

10 STOIC LESSONS TO HANDLE DISRESEPECT (MUST WATCH) | STOICISM

Learn something important.

ASML

Here is the reason why ASML CEO said a few years ago that if ASML gave China the blueprint for the EUV machine China would not be able to make it.

This is because all of the core technologies is NOT owned by ASML. ASML is the system integrator that was allowed by the US government to participate in the US government project to create an EUV light source.

This project pulled together many US national labs including Lawrence Livermore Labs, Sandia Nation Lab, Brookhaven National Lab, Lawrence Berkely National Lab, IBM, Intel, AMD, etc. And it took over 10 years to create this laser light source.

This was considered a national security project so Japanese companies like Nikon and Canon were not allowed to join.

The difficulty of this light source and the engineering problems that had to be overcome was as difficult as the first atomic bomb.

So I have to admit that I was wrong in my speculation about using a Rube Goldberg device to generate EUV. They didn’t have a choice. This was the best possible source at the time. It took literally the US, Germany, and some other nation’s best experts to create this light source.

The other parts are relatively easy in comparison.

The problem is that China has also created this light source and using another method so it isn’t so Rube Goldberg machine. Not that it was simple to make. But it is more reliable and you don’t have to worry about residue removal that will mess up your mirrors and the inside of the your machine which has to remain at clean room levels.

Is China creating fear in many Americans because China’s success challenges the American belief that democracy is necessary for a successful market-driven economy and intellectual freedom is necessary for technological innovation?

This is a very good question indeed.

Thank you for asking.

The Answer is yes. Yes indeed the U.S. and the west has been propagating that only western liberal democracy works. Nothing else. Either be a liberal democracy or die says the US. That is of course simply not true at all. And the real truth is simply that the West wanted to install liberal democracy so that the west can easily manipulate it and install a government that surrender its sovereignty to the west in order to manipulate and steal it’s resources to enrich the former colonials.

Now that China proved beyond reasonable doubts and against all odds that it could grow phenomenally and economically dwarfed every other nation, this fear and worry the U.S. mightily. Failure to contain China means failure to perpetuate this lie!

This is indeed worrisome for the west since they the west in general has essentially collapsed in a huge pile of debts. And law and order disintegrates through the western world. With high inflation and a looming recession with countless millions of homeless people living in the streets while their government finance and orchestrate wars. Based on printing money without basis and rampant money creation.

China U.S. out innovating the U.S., it U.S. out thinking the U.S., out growing the U.S. and out influencing the U.S. growing even its military and wealth and out manipulating the U.S. government everywhere on earth. The U.S. wants to stop the truth from being revealed to the world.

It’s Not Just You: American Jobs Didn’t Used To Be This Terrible

My Dad’s Union IBEW is the reason we went from lower middle class to solid middle class in 10 years. Unions are one of the most important checks for capitalism.

Why are Chinese people so satisfied with their government?

Easy – shit gets done.

Government promise something. Give it a few years and it happens.

Some bigger projects like Mao wanting to borrow some water from the south took a bit longer.

OTOH governments like the UK one I lived under… they promise shit, then they say haha you sucker you actually believed me? Fuck you!

Gordon Brown’s QC literally said that election pledges and promises were not subject to legitimate expectation.

Here? Here in Hong Kong? The government construction projects shaved 20 minutes off my commute.

25 years ago they shaved an hour off the commute for the villagers by widening the dirt track that lead to my village and paving it. Then offering a bus franchise nearby so it was connected with the world.

We literally see things happen.

What is something weird that you enjoy doing?

I observed something while traveling.

Most people my age would either be listening to music, watching some TV show/movie in their smartphones/tablets. A very few would be reading a newspaper or book.

I was one of them. I always had music on. I can’t read/watch anything because of motion sickness while traveling on road.

The older generation- they do nothing. They don’t use phones, they don’t talk, don’t read, nothing. They just sit and look around.

I wanted to try this and coincidentally my earphones broke down.

Now it has been over six months. I travel in the metro for 3 hours everyday and do nothing, just look around. This has helped me so much. I observe people, their behaviours. I look around to see what’s actually happening.

It may sound weird but there’s something weirdly enjoyable about it. It feels like living life the old school way. This has helped me reduce the screen time as well.

I have even started recognising the regular commuters. I am sure they don’t recognise me.

Unbreakable (2000) | First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Asia and BJ

Still one of the top 10 best comic films of all time. Its really the first one that showed what the comic genre could do when taken seriously.

This is one of my top, and most favorite movies. It is so meaningful to me. Seriously people. I can relate to this movie. So very much!

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

When my daughter was about 9 or 10 years old, whenever she got a scolding from my wife, I would annoy her by doing a chicken dance and do so in a way that ONLY she sees it.

“Mommy! Dad is making fun of me!” she would always complain.

When my wife turned around, I would stop and act normal and go on with my stuff. This went on for a while till it became a game of HER trying to catch me in the act and prove it to her mother.

She would learn to very quickly take out her mobile phone and try to snap a picture of me doing it. I would tease her by dancing until the moment the phone was almost pointing towards me, then I would stop and behave normally.

“I will get you someday,” she said.

“No, you won’t! I am too fast for you,” I replied.

On a particular day, I again did the ridiculous chicken dance, she was rolling her eyes and her hands move slowly towards her phone. I continued dancing and mentally calculating how fast she could key in the pass-code and turn on the camera mode.

Something didn’t feel right, her action was slower than usual, by the time she pointed the camera at me, I had stopped. But she started laughing loudly.

“Guess what daddy? THIS isn’t my phone. I switched the phone cover with mum. MY PHONE is behind you, just above the cupboard, ON VIDEO TAKING MODE.”

Ouch! A full two minutes of myself being ridiculous caught on video!

NOT genius smart, NOT intellectual smart, perhaps a little STREET SMART!

That was my last chicken dance.

How is the Chinese government treating MPOX?

The gay and bisexual men are not as common in China as they are in the West. It is difficult for MPOX to become an epidemic in China.

From June 2 to June 30, 2023, 106 new confirmed cases of monkeypox were reported in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), including 48 cases reported in Guangdong Province, 45 cases reported in Beijing City, 8 cases reported in Jiangsu Province, 2 cases reported in Hubei Province, 2 cases reported in Shandong Province, and 1 case reported in Zhejiang Province. There were no severe cases or deaths.

The epidemic presents the following characteristics:

One is that the vast majority of cases are mainly transmitted through male homosexual sexual contact.
Secondly, the risk of transmission through other forms of contact is low, and the vast majority of close contacts, except for sexual contact, have not experienced infection.
The third is that most cases were found during medical treatment, while a few cases were found through follow-up screening of close contacts.
The fourth is that the vast majority of cases have typical clinical manifestations, mainly symptoms such as fever, herpes, and lymph node enlargement, with no severe or fatal cases.

An American Reacts to Why America Sucks at Everything – THIS ONE HURT

This is very good. Really.

It is a MUCH watch. This is the real truth about the United States.

“I’m so glad you made this video because my conservative mom watched it and now she’s starting to wake up. I got screwed over by the “in network out of network” bullshit recently. My employer changed our healthcare coverage, and I had to find a new neurologist and start the “prior authorization “ process for a particular drug that I take all over again”

Is this the end of Xi Jinping, now that he has lost FACE over Qin Gang?

The sheer power of Xi Jingping is the fact that QG has been buried away and cut off in a matter of seconds and China and it’s foreign affairs moves without a single blip

Thats power

Had Xi been weak, a rival faction would have lobbied immediately within the CPC but the fact that China has simply chosen to forget QG and not talk about him shows the power of Xi Jingping

China and CPC knows that today in the hostile atmosphere with the West — Only XJP is the right man to lead China

Hu JINTAO would have kowtowed in seconds
Li Keiqang would have kowtowed in maybe a month
Bo Xilai would have kowtowed in nanoseconds

Xis power is at its peak now

Had QG defected to US and been declared a mole for CIA then yes , Xi would have been finished politically

Yet QG is in China and safe and under the Partys safe hands 😁

So NOT A CHANCE

Have you ever had a premonition that saved your life?

My father-in-law did. He was moving some tools around in his garage and suddenly had a strong urge to move one of the cars, a Subaru, out into the driveway. He tried to ignore this feeling, because the car was not in his way and it seemed like a needless waste of time. But he couldn’t shake it, so he went and got his car keys and backed the car out of the garage.

Just as he had done so and was getting out of the car, a speeding Tesla flashed past him a couple of feet away and crashed into the open garage, then burst into flames. If he’d stayed in the garage working, he would most likely have been killed.

The resulting fire destroyed the entire garage and his other car. It was 9 months before he and his wife were able to move back into the house. But he was alive, and they still had their Subaru. There was no good explanation for the “little voice in his head” that told him he needed to get himself and his car out of the garage.

By the way, the Tesla driver, who was pulled out of the burning car by a neighbor, was uninjured but was convicted of DUI and had to pay restitution and perform community service.

He was suffering from pancreatic cancer at the time, but from that moment his desire to oversee the restoration of the house gave him a new determination in life. It was a very busy and stressful time, during which he and his wife lived in rental housing. At last they were able to move back into the house which had been perfectly restored to its original state, including a new garage of course, new roof, new heating & a/c, new paint and flooring, and every item inside the house had been removed, professionally cleaned, and replaced. It was beautiful. However, his condition declined rapidly after that and he passed away in August 2018, not quite a year after the fire.

The US Plan to KILL Second Citizenship

“As a Venezuelan born in the 90s (post oil-golden era for that country), I know first hand what he means when he says it’s important to have options. I saw how my mother and her siblings were unable to get their second citizenship by descent from Trinidad and Tobago, once things got terribly bad in my country. My grandparents had both US residency and Caribbean citizenship, but because things were going so well in Venezuela in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, they didn’t work on securing and passing along those other options; and their children never thought things would get this bad. It only took less than 30 years to see things turn around for the worst.”

America isn’t an ordinary country, it’s an idea, it’s the very embodiment of democracy, freedom and hope for the whole world, and now China threatens American democracy and freedom for all mankind. How will humanity unite to defeat Chinese autocracy?

For many years now, the USA has been classified as a “flawed democracy”. Events such as the Capitol Hill riots – intended to disrupt the inauguration of your elected President – did not help. A significant proportion of Americans themselves believed that the last election was rigged and “stolen” from them. So how can the USA be said to be the “very embodiment of democracy”? This strikes me as an extremely grandiose and indefensible claim.

As for freedom, the USA comprises 5% of the world population but holds about 20% of the world’s prisoners. With so many Americans literally locked up behind bars, how can the USA claim to be a “free” country? Furthermore your 13th amendment legalises the enslavement of prisoners – and the USA heavily exploits these slaves/prisoners in ways that your own civil liberty lawyers have described as an abuse of fundamental human rights. (Eg US prisoners can be forced into hazardous jobs – such as fighting wildfires – for as little as zero to fifty cents per hour of work). Errrr, seriously, you think that the US is the embodiment of freedom?

What hope does the USA bring to the world? In the past 40 years, the USA has dropped more bombs, fired more missiles and killed more people in other countries, than any other country in the world. In the past 40 years, the USA has killed people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Grenada, Bosnia, Somalia and Uganda. Because of US sanctions, the world was afraid to send even vaccines, masks and ventilators to Iran during the covid–19 pandemic. This is how the US brings death and destruction to the world.

Please stop watching your Hollywood movies where the USA is always the one to save the world from invasions by aliens from outer space. Open your eyes and look at the real world. At least look at your own country. Your people are dying from drug overdose at the highest rate in the world. Your people are getting shot to death at the highest rate among all developed countries. Your policemen are shooting citizens for minor offences. Your cities are littered with homeless people living in tents. Your national literacy rate is collapsing together with your average life expectancy. Medical bills are the biggest cause of personal bankruptcies in the USA; your infrastructure is crumbling and aged water pipes are leaking lead into the drinking water for your public schools. To lead your country, you are choosing between a criminal octagenarian and a senile otagenarian. Your income inequality is vast, with the top 1% controlling more wealth than the middle 60% – let’s not even discuss the sufferrings of your bottom 20%.

The US is the embodiment of … HOPE, you say?! Hopelessness is more like it. The USA is no example for the world – unless we are talking of negative examples.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Not so much a rule.

I used to work for a major mail order company; as tech staff I could be sent out anywhere in the country, for which the company would pre-pay for accommodation and pay 40 pence per mile for fuel costs (which was tight-arsed of them, as other companies paid 65ppm).

They also supposedly insured us for using our private cars this way.

People who regularly went out for long trips had a company card to pay for hotels with.

One day they decide they are cutting the fuel payment to 25ppm, and back-dating it SIX months, and also cancelling the company cards – people would have to pay with their own money and claim it back.

This latter move caught a few out who were already out on trips – one guy was unable to pay his bill at a London conference centre, and the staff there were threatening to call the Police.

We also discovered at the same time, that the company HADN’T been paying for the extra car insurance policy, so we were all using our cars effectively with no insurance.

Next day, everyone parked 1/2 mile away and walked into work. “Sorry, can’t go on that job, no car” was the story from every member of the technical staff.

Every senior manager was made to turn over his company car for us to drive around. Even the CEO’s chauffeured Bentley was pressed into service, but it still wasn’t enough; by the end of the first week the taxi bill was running into the high hundreds, and everyone was refusing overnight jobs on the basis they couldn’t afford to pay for the hotel.

It took a MONTH for the suits to cave, and god only knows how much it cost them, in money, customer relations, and the lost goodwill of the tech staff.

Why the American Dream is a Myth

“It’s expensive to be poor” Just…. damn man!

Mediterranean Steak and Pasta
with Tomato-Olive Sauce

Whole-wheat pasta is served with beef Sirloin Tip Center Steaks and a tomato and olive sauce. This one will please the adults and the kids in your family.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked whole grain fettuccine
4 beef Sirloin Tip Center Steaks, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 4 ounces each)
1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce with olives*
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1/4 cup finely shredded Italian cheese blend or mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Instructions

Cook fettuccine according to package directions; drain and keep warm.
Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Place beef steaks in skillet; cook for 11 to 13 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally. (Do not overcook.) Remove from skillet; keep warm.
Combine pasta sauce and oregano in same skillet; heat until hot. Return steaks to skillet; turn to coat with sauce.
Place steaks on fettuccine; spoon sauce over all.
Sprinkle steaks with cheese, allowing cheese to melt. Sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

* You may substitute 1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce with olives for 1 (26 ounce) pasta sauce plus 1/4 cup chopped olives.

US loses first round in attempts to curb China’s tech progress; change of course a better option

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she was “upset” when China’s Huawei Technologies released a new phone with an advanced chip during her visit to the country last month but noted that the US has no evidence China can make these components “at scale,” Bloomberg reported. She also said the US is trying to use every single tool at its disposal to deny the Chinese the ability to advance their technology in ways that can hurt the US.

Raimondo’s words are nothing new, but saying that China’s technological advancement “can hurt the US” is a stupid and ridiculous line of thinking. Many American elites refuse to accept that the Chinese have broken through the technological blockade. Radical lawmakers are calling for efforts to strangle Huawei and SMIC, which is not only hegemonic but also an evil way of thinking.

Whether it is ASML, the Dutch manufacturer of lithography machines, or the American chip giants, they do not believe that decoupling can stop China’s progress in semiconductor technology. They believe that China can find alternative methods and its own technological path. However, a large number of American elites are non-technical and refuse to face reality, blindly believing that Huawei’s breakthrough is because the US export controls on technology to China are “still too loose.”

It should be said that Huawei’s breakthrough has to a certain extent undermined the credibility of the US’ technological blockade against China and shattered the collective confidence of the West in this regard. Washington’s current investigation into the origin of Huawei’s chips and attempts to tighten the noose on the blockade against China will only isolate itself.

Because Washington clearly lost the first round, it has to bet even bigger and risk losing the Chinese market for many Western semiconductor companies. Imagine the result of continuing technological restrictions if Huawei makes further breakthroughs – can ASML’s lithography machines still enjoy their current glory? Where will the US-controlled chip production factories find their next market? Just look at the panic faced by Japanese and German automotive giants today in the face of the rise of Chinese electric vehicles. If the current semiconductor leaders are cut off from the Chinese market, who can guarantee that their future situation will be better?

Huawei’s Kirin 9000s is a breakthrough that it was forced to make by the US sanctions. If the US exerts even greater pressure, it will turn this breakthrough into a systemic breach, promoting a highly integrated and strong production chain in the Chinese semiconductor industry. Chips produced in China will also be much cheaper than those produced in the US.

If the US semiconductor industry loses the Chinese market, it will not be as lucky as Google and Facebook. The latter have software advantages that some Chinese internet companies do not have, including the application ecosystem they established by being the first movers. However, semiconductors are hardware, and when Chinese companies like Huawei can provide a cheaper alternative, the situation will be completely different.

A crucial crossroads has been reached. If the US forces China to achieve complete independence in the semiconductor industry, it will have no further cards to play in blocking China’s progress. Moreover, the technological landscape of the world will undergo a rewrite. China now possesses the capital, and we will continue to progress no matter what. It is now the US’ turn to make a choice: continue gambling or change course and resume cooperation?

Expat’s THAI WIFE disappears and so did his fortune $$. Then it got WORSE!

Gosh! This is horrible! You all must be careful.

Head Shakers

One of the “head shakers” about China is the ever-present music of Kenny G on elevators, in supermarkets, in malls, and in restaurants. I do like slow easy jazz, and back in the 1980’s. But I, like most Americans, have moved WAYYYY past all that.

We moved past mullets. We moved past Miami Vice. We moved on from large curly hair, and pastels. We moved on from Windows DOS.

But, you know, China never experienced those things, and have no idea how out of date all this is. And us expats, really, have no heart to admonish our friends in China to stop being so retro. We, well, we just let it all ride.

Just like no one ever says “What’s uppppppppppp!” any longer.

Or, “Where’s the beef?”

Or, Max Headroom.

Todays…

At what point should America issue an arrest warrant for China’s Xi Jinping à la Manuel Noriega?

First it's the unchecked flooding of Chinese Fentanyl into America. Next, mercenary bounties get placed on British residents.

First of all, Fentanyl is used for treating severe pain especially for cancer patients and is deem a medicine product which many countries import mainly from China. Likewise it is your own country laws and regulations to prevent abuse instead of blaming China or Mexico or another other countries. If illegal Fentanyl managed to slip into your country, blame your border guards and custom officer for not doing the job or your judges for not imposing severe penalties.

Just like a simple soap for washing and bathing and you decided to abuse it by eating them as food and then you blame China other then yourself.

I suggest in that case better that your country be pure communist like Mao time where China totally shut off from the world where no exports and no imports can take place.

Would that scenerio be a better option for your country . That covers all your citizens from visiting any countries so that they will not be arrested or detained or even your organs been harvested for scientific research.

The moral of my answer is don’t blame others, other than yourself if you decided your own will to do stupid things.

Why are the people of the PRC hypocrites that they say they don’t want their nuclear arsenal to be increased and yet they increased from 300 to 400 nuclear arsenal?

Here’s the fun thing.

We don’t actually need them. This is from the US military college. A war with China will wipe 3600 US soldiers out or 50,000 a week. That means ONE brigade a day.

main qimg 9edc4a61f5c9274ffb1048a611b9d6aa

Kiwifruit Teriyaki

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

4 kiwifruit
1/4 cup dry white wine
Soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root or 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 to 2 pound (1 inch thick) boneless round steak

Instructions

Pare and puree 2 kiwifruit. Combine with wine, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and oil in large baking dish.
Add steak and marinate for 1/2 hour. Marinating for more than 1 hour may over-tenderize it.
Remove steak from marinade, and broil to desired degree of doneness.
Slice steak and arrange on serving platter.
Pare and slice remaining kiwi; garnish platter with slices.

Have you ever refused an inheritance? Why?

Yes. My brother died last September without signing his will (they had it filled out but he didn’t sign it).

I have helped his widow out with cleaning the house.

Because he was intestate, I’m technically entitled to 25% of his inheritance under my state law as our parents are dead, but he was married (75/25 split by law).

He literally told me he wanted everything to go to his wife, who I would consider my sister now.

I’m not screwing a 60 year old lady out of her house.

Yeah, as a working class guy, I could REALLY use 100k+ dollars if I fought it, but I will absolutely NOT destroy his dream of his wife having a nice little home.

Them home cooked meals, talk and sharing memories a couple times every few months are worth more to me than money.

Maybe I’m an idiot, but I love him and her too much to go by “the law”.

Signing that form for her lawyer was about the easiest moral choice I’ve ever had to take.

CN bans ASML products,Lays off 86 million employees; Photolithography machine turned into scrap metal

For china to make a competitive smartphone to Apple with old generation technology is truly remarkable, I know why U.S and Europe is scared of china…they are simply better in technology.

Is democracy inevitable in the long term? Will countries like China and Russia ever become democracies?

Depends on your definition of Democracy

Let’s start with Russia

Russia IS a democracy. Merely because they keep electing Putin and the UR Party all the time or because the election rules favor the ruling party doesn’t disturb the definition

Ultimately Putin IS elected by the people of Russia

The Government under Putin has helped Russia rise from a torn apart and destroyed country in 1991 to a very strong, united force in 2023

So the People are happy and the People vote for the Government and President

That’s Democracy to me

If the US don’t like it, they can go f*** themselves

Next China

Chinese society is 5000 years old

The Chinese mindset is entirely based on the premise that EVERY CHINESE has a role to play in Society and if every Chinese plays their role properly, China will flourish

Under the Emperors, this role was defined by birth and family

Under today’s CPC, this role is defined by ABILITY, ABILITY and more ABILITY

That very mindset is completely against Democracy which claims everyone from a Pauper to a Beggar to a Technology Geek to a Clerk to a Oil Baron have the same rights in choosing a Government

The result is before you

India and China became Independent in 1947 and 1949 – at the same time virtually

Yet China is advanced in EVERY SINGLE FACET over India

China stands before the US as such a feared opponent that the US spends every waking moment on trying to countering China with propaganda and lies and failing

Proof that the CPC did more for China than any Democracy in the history of the modern world

Why would they need this US loser version of democracy

The Chinese version of Governance:-

The Worthy keep voting in the Grassroots
The Unworthy do what they are told to do
Only Ability and Merit matters
One Party, different opinions
Gays, Transgenders put in their proper place which is a ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell environment’

That alone is enough for China to grow

They don’t need the horrors of becoming a Cesspit democracy

Oh SH*T, What Russia and China are doing will change everything, and the west wants WAR

What Russia, China and North Korea are doing will change everything. The massive economic expansion is pushing the West to do some very desperate things. This week Russia and North Korea signed remarkable new trade agreements. It came on the same week as China and Russia launched a new cross border energy hub. Do you see what’s happening?

URGENT: RUSSIA HALTS ALL EXPORT OF GASOLINE AND DIESEL FUEL

This morning, Thursday, September 21, Russia announced they are “temporarily” halting the export of all Gasoline and Diesel Fuel.

Russia is the world’s single biggest seaborne exporter of diesel-type fuel.

Their decision will have an immediate impact on fuel costs and availability. Expect skyrocketing prices, especially for Diesel, and subsequent skyrocketing prices on EVERY product that moves by truck.

It is not known at this hour, exactly how long this “temporary” halt will last.

Confession of the Day

There’s always someone who ended up in a worse situation with a bigger loss. Every time I hear those stories, it makes me feel a little better that it “could have been worse.” Hope this helps someone realize how bad it can get before you ultimately end in the same place, with the same loss, and the same need for help. It’s also therapeutic to write it down, I’ve found.

In 2012 I had $20k to my name. Turned that into $100k in 5 years buying American Airlines and chip stocks. Took most of the $100k and bought a house to run as an Airbnb. Made about $100k off that in 2 years and sold it when they banned airbnbs. Bought my own house and sold it a year later for another $100k profit. Invested that $300k in the market around the Covid drop and ended 2020 with about $600k. Then I started with options. The ability to make huge gains so quickly was so intoxicating and addictive. $20k in a day. $50k. $100k. I was crushing it and starting to dream of my new rich life. I broke the $1mil threshold and ended the day with $1.1m.

The next day the market sucked and I knew it. But I had such an itch I made a play anyway. I was down $250k by noon because I broke all my own rules just to avoid “taking a loss.” I finally accepted the loss but tried to chase it by jumping to the other side. That cost me an additional $100k loss. Within 2 days I made it back to within spitting distance of being a millionaire once again, but spoiler alert, I’d never see that number again.

Down $200k, another $300k. I finally had to go to my dad for a bailout. He refueled me and I lost it all again within a month. Another bailout, another loss. I was so depressed and suicidal at this point. It was like a bad dream that I couldn’t wake up from. I will forgo buying a drink with a meal because I don’t want to spend the extra $3 but I had no problem loosing $600k in a single day if it meant I could get the dopamine rush.

Then comes the shame of having to admit what happened. The relapses. The broken future. The never ending despair.

I made right moves far more times than wrong but my losses were always much larger than my gains because I couldn’t accept a loss and didn’t want to further risk a gain. In the end, the money didn’t actually mean anything and it was never about the money (not really anyway) it was always about the high of submitting the order and watching the dollars come or go.

In the end, if it wasn’t for anti depressants and my daughter, I wouldn’t be here today. Looking back it’s impossible to imagine how something could have completely high jacked my brain in such a way but it really did.

There is recovery. There is help. It does work. I only wish it didn’t take losing $2mil before I realized it and finally sought help and treatment.

Don’t make my mistake if waiting and find help now. Also, give the “unhappy millionaire” episode of Happiness Lab podcast a listen, changed my life.

Giving up the American Dream is hard.

giving up the American Dream is Hard. I made a few videos: why I gave up the American Dream, the real cost of the American dream and how to ditch the American Dream. Folks have resonated with it, hated it and everything in between.

But let’s be honest, it’s hard to give up the American dream, especially as a Black woman.

Hustle Culture is not for Black women, but the pursuit of the American dream is tied directly to it.

Let’s talk about grieving the American Dream. content included: giving up the American Dream, I gave up the American Dream, Giving up the American Dream is hard, Hustle Culture is not for Black women, Healing for Black women, I gave up Black excellence, hustle culture is toxic, the real price of the American Dream, Black Women deserve good things, Black woman wage gap, I gave up the American Dream, why I gave up on the American Dream, grieving the American Dream, Black women and the American Dream,

What has been your most stunning find at a thrift shop?

I work as a manager in a Charity Shop/thrift Store and I look having a good search through donations for that special item!

One day, I had some items donated and a handbag. In that handbag in a secret pocket was a Genuine Cartier watch.

I was in absolute awe and was so excited!! Thing is, I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted to sell it without the donors consent. (I knew it was genuine as it’s myself who deals with all the name branded luxury items)

I chased the lady through town and told her what I’d found. She broke down in tears telling me they were her late mums things and the watch was lost for many years. Her mum had dementia and her father was only just starting to clear through her things.

So anyway, she asked me to stay with her whilst she rang her father to tell him the news (he also cried which started me off crying!)

After the ordeal of the day I genuinely felt pretty chuffed with myself. I could’ve easily sold it online for a 3figure sum – but something just didn’t feel right.

A few days later that same gentleman came in and thanked me personally. He told me he’d brought it his wife for an anniversary present. I asked how it came to being in an everyday handbag and he explained that she went to get it cleaned (it was boxed) but her dementia was in it’s early stages and was eventually forgotten about. The kind gentleman had a funeral collection in the Charities name and even made a £200 donation to me personally, which I put to the charity.

So yea, that’s my amazing find

Oprah has no idea there’s a Cost of Living Crisis

Why everything feels so expensive right now.

“The basic price of commodities has tripled in my experience from 2019. The same 1 bedroom apartment I rented in Dallas for 700 dollars in 2017 is 1400 dollars in 2023. The house that would cost 180k in suburban DFW just 5 years ago costs 400k. The cost of home and car insurance is over the roof. All this in Dallas which is still very cheap compared to many other big cities in the USA.”

Beijing says it uncovered US National Security Agency operatives behind cyberattack on Chinese university

Article HERE
Second Date’ software used in Northwestern Polytechnical University attack is potent cyber espionage tool developed by US agency, says state media
After global tracing, Chinese team reportedly found ‘thousands of network devices’ across the country still infected by the spyware and its derivatives

China says it has identified US National Security Agency operatives while investigating a recent cyberattack on Northwestern Polytechnical University, as its top spying and anti-espionage agency vowed on Thursday to root out all “digital spies”.
The revelation came just three days after Beijing revealed more details about John Shing-wan Leung, a Hong Kong permanent resident and US citizen the Chinese Ministry of State Security said posed as a philanthropist while snooping for information. He was jailed for life for espionage in May, two years after his arrest in China.

State-run CCTV said on Thursday that China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre, with help from Chinese antivirus company 360 Total Security, had discovered the identity of the National Security Agency (NSA) operative or operatives – the broadcaster did not specify how many or name them – after it extracted “multiple samples” of a spyware called “Second Date”.

It said the spyware was used in the cyberattack on Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shaanxi province.

‘Stop stealing’: China condemns US over Trojan horse cyberattacks on state-funded university
The report said technical analysis showed that Second Date was a cyber-espionage weapon developed by the NSA to sniff out and hijack network traffic and insert malicious codes.

Quoting senior engineer at the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre Du Zhenhua, it said software was a potent cyberespionage tool that enabled attackers to take control of target network devices and the data traffic flowing through them, and use them as a “forward base” for the next stage of attacks. It could run on various operating systems and was compatible with multiple architectures.

Du was quoted as saying the spyware was usually used in conjunction with various network device vulnerability attack tools from the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO). The TAO, now renamed Computer Network Operations, is a cyberwarfare intelligence-gathering unit.

China’s foreign ministry says the international community should be highly vigilant about CIA activities as a new report alleges a years-long global cyberattack campaign. Photo: AFP
The report said that after global tracing, the Chinese team found “thousands of network devices” across the country were still infected by the spyware and its derivatives. It said they also found springboard servers remotely controlled by the NSA in Germany, Japan, South Korea, India and Taiwan.

Those pesky Chinese…!

INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 20:39 utc | 31

Back in China | Our First Impressions…

Can you describe the creepiest person you have ever met?

I had an abusive boyfriend. He was great at first, of course. As soon as he was confident of me, he stalked me, tried to run me off the road many times, pointed a gun at my head a few times, cut my phone lines, beat me, fired a gun into my floor pretending to commit suicide (he would never have done that, he only wanted to scare me), destroyed my things, and more. He was military (so was I) and I had no protection. I was able to get him out of my apartment with the help of his best friend and because he was put in a mental hospital for a few weeks. But I never got a break until I was discharged (honorably), moved across the country to a large city, and changed my name. An ex-husband kindly let me take his name, a common one. The abuser knew my friends and family. A false friend who secretly hated me (I didn’t know) kept telling him how to find me and encouraged others to do the same. People thought it was romantic that he carried such a torch for me. I thought he would appear at my door any day and kill me. He stalked me for 13 more years until I persuaded his commanding office to make him stop. I can’t imagine after all those years that this worked, but it did. Perhaps it was because he didn’t deny what he did and the commanding officer threatened his career and his pension. I never heard from him again. In those 13 years, things had changed somewhat.

I went to law school and made it my mission for many years to protect other women who were treated this badly and sometimes worse by abusers. I got them protection orders and divorces. I got their abusers out of their homes and sometimes in jail. It was very satisfying work. I’m retired now and happy to be so. I feel I did my bit.

Dedollarization Accelerating Within BRICS, Across Globe

It will be amazing if BRICS can come up with some gold-backed trading currency. The dedollarization is happening fast. Over the last 20 years, you see the share of global payments in the dollar has gone down at a steady rate.

This is getting even faster now. At the same time, to “truly dedollarize,” several aspects should be taken into account, he added.

“The harder part” in efforts to replace the dollar lies in the reserve aspect of the currency, the Netley Group president noted. For instance, the United States’ big advantage at the moment is the breadth of its bond market, Goddard explained. “One of the ways, I think, BRICS could develop something to compete with that would be the technology to actually link the BRICS bond markets,” the entrepreneur added.

Combining these two things — a stable trade currency and a strong joint bond market — could create the potential to eventually displace the dollar, Goddard also stated. This process could be even sped up with the enlargement of BRICS, increasing the depth of these economic ties, he concluded.

Why did Israel allow a terrorist and thuggish nation like China to take over the Haifa port?

I live in Haifa, Israel, the location of that port.

A few decades ago we decided to build tunnels to connect the north, the south, and the middle of Haifa. We hired a Chinese company from Shanghai with experience in tunnel building to do the work. It was a massive project and took a few years, during which the Chinese workers lived here. The Chinese company did an excellent job. These tunnels have reduced traffic congestion in Haifa.

The Chinese company we chose to run the new Haifa port has a lot of experience in that kind of work.

In both cases, we chose based on objective criteria, not on politics.

Btw, many Chinese students study at the Technion here, and Chinese tourists visit.

European Union’s decision to launch an anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric vehicles, will it make the Chinese EV industry become another Huawei?

The Claim is :-

China offers subsidies to their EVs in battery making and other areas, heavy subsidies in taxes and waivers to ensure that EVs are produced at a final cost that is 20% cheaper

This makes Chinese EVs deliver lower cost at better quality than many European EVs

Second complaint is that most of the world pays a premium for Chinese EV batteries but BYD and other players pay 45% lower costs for the same battery due to the fact that the batteries are made in China

This is alleged as unfair competition

They want either the batteries at lower costs or a 20% mark up on Chinese EVs that eliminates the subsidy effect

It’s Classic Protectionism 101

Soviet Style rather than Adam Smith

China didn’t do this

When Volkswagens and Citroens and Mercedes Benz and Toyota and Mitsubishi dominated the vehicle markets of China a decade or so ago:-

China didn’t impose extra tariffs on them nor make it unfair for them to import custom made parts by imposing 60–260% tariffs

China told BYD and SAIC and Great Wall to either make similar quality cars or go out of business because the customer needs the best

Thus these companies formed partnerships and purchased technology and leased technology and made a living with limited market share

Yet this competition helped them prepare a lead in EVs and dominate today

However the West isn’t prepared to do the same thing and ask Renault and Chevy and Volkswagen to COMPETE or go out of business

They want to protect their companies

Like US , Germany, France

They talked of free trade when their products were much superior and Asian nations imposed protectionism

Today when they are being left behind, they scream and yell and whine about tariffs and duties

China has many weapons here

China sells 61.5% of the EV Batteries in the world and 86% of EV Batteries today are made by Chinese players with only Tesla having it’s own supply chain and making it’s own battery for it’s own cars

If you want EVs – you need the Chinese Battery, Electric System and Motors and Chargers

The Chinese make the world’s best and most cost efficient products

Even Tesla battery technology is inferior to CATL and it’s latest batteries

It’s only in Autonomous driving that Tesla has an edge

So frankly China for the next 15 years at least can simply ban the export of batteries or impose a 80% tariff on EV exports and ensure European and US EVs simply can’t compete with ICEs

It throttles the EU green initiative

China loses the EU market but critically ensures Russia & Saudi gains a major leverage as EU and US become more dependent on Oil

That is one card

The Bigger card is

China can play it’s own protectionism

China has a huge market for European Cars with Eight Brands having their largest market in China

That’s 157,000 Jobs

China could simply ban the imports tomorrow and that would finish these companies revenue and share wise

Like the Iphone

Intel & Qualcomm openly said if China forced them to choose between the Chinese market and the Commerce Department restrictions, they would have to choose China for the sake of their US stockholders

If China banned Qualcomm entirely today and said “Okay. We will live with inferior phones but you B******* won’t sell or get a fifty cent piece from us”

Qualcomm would be brutally mauled

The Entire smartphone industry will be brutally mauled

The Entire Semiconductor industry will be brutally mauled

The Chinese are VERY PATIENT PEOPLE and they will play their cards very slowly

They thrive on competing

If China simply decides to close its markets to Foreigners except it’s Russian and Global South friends who will sell it all the Energy and Food it wants

Then most of the Tech firms will be brutally mauled

It was predicted that if Apple was banned entirely from China – $ 1.02 Trillion of it’s market share would never come back

The Total hit on the entire industry could touch $ 7–12 Trillion

Who will take up the slack?

India is expected to touch 40% of Chinas present market in 17–21 years (2040–2044)

Nobody else can take up even 3% of this slack

So China has a lot of Brahmastras to use

There will be no more Huaweis

Huawei was a blow

Nobody expected the West to be so brutally lawless and act like a mafia state , like a land with zero laws

Today China is ready

Every US attack has a party from China including the biggest Brahmastra

CUT OFF ACCESS TO PHARMA APIs & Cut off all components needed for Medical Equipment
Devalue US Debt by suddenly pegging an exchange rate of 2 Yuan to 1 USD. China will lose 17 Trillion Yuan and after the peg is removed the rate could reach 10–11 but US will lose 160 Trillion Yuan ($ 25 Trillion) , 8 times worse than the 2008 Crisis

APPLE Shocked! Huawei’s Secret Weapons: NearLink Explained

Amazing technology. Zero coverage in Western “news”.

Chinese wisdom: Wang Yi urges nations to help avert cold war

INTRODUCTION

Human behavior falls into durable patterns of action and reaction/response. Taking China-U.S. bilateral relations as an illustration, one almost always finds that China is forever responding, and that the United States is non-stop plotting, agitating and acting in annoying or irritating ways, resulting in China’s patterned response of rebuttal.

For example, in picking a fight with China, the United States will accuse China of “spying” and/or soliciting a prominent politician to accuse and confront China on “ideological” grounds, making it difficult for China to defend.

How do you defend an ideological choice?

As ideology is value-laden, it was adopted to change a sick Chinese society for the better, by bringing in fresh or foreign ideas that are believed to work.

For China, socialism with Chinese characteristics is designed to address its chronic social inequality and alleviate abject poverty. China’s adoption of a socialist ideology is observably bearing fruitful results, lifting millions of its people out of poverty, and building railways in foreign countries.

But, for the U.S. hardcore irrational antagonists such as Mike Pompeo, China is “on the wrong side of history”. What else then can these self-styled enemies of China do but to use and recycle the “spying” game of accusations, hoping to see their cooked-up situation comes to fruition.

In the following article taken from an English-language newspaper dated Thursday, July 30, 2020, the incidents that happened at the beginning of the Trump era were nearly the same as that is happening in the United Kingdom, which has officially announced that a parliamentary researcher has been lately accused of “spying” for the CCP.

For fear of missing its juicy details, let us go over this article.

Entered Wang Yi Who Called on All Countries to Resist “Unreasonable Acts” and to Help Prevent…

FM Wang Yi called on all countries to “resist” the United States’ “blatant and unreasonable acts”, and to help prevent the world’s two greatest powers from descending into what he called a new cold war.

In a phone call with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday, Wang said China would take “firm and rational responses” amid the intensifying rivalry with the US, but also stressed that Beijing would strive to maintain stable relations with Washington.

It was the fourth time in less than a fortnight that Wang, who is also a state councilor, has named the US in conversations with foreign official, following calls with his Russian, Vietnamese and German counterparts.

Before that, veiled attacks against Washington might have been made in talks with foreign governments without naming it.

The change in rhetoric and the increased frequency of verbal aggression by both sides has meant a rapid deterioration of China-US relations, and an imperative for Beijing to ensure other nations do not side with Washington.

“Tolerating a bully [such as Pompeo] will not keep you safe. It will only let the bully get bolder and act worse. All countries should act to resist any unilateral or hegemonic act and safeguard world peace and development.” Wang was quoted as saying in a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Wang said the current decline in China-US relations was caused by a certain political faction in the US, driven by the need to lift campaign prospects and maintain unipolar hegemony.

During the phone call to Le Drian, Wang called for “vigilance against US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent remarks instigating renewed ideological confrontation and leading the world to a new cold war”.

In a speech last week, Pompeo called for China’s own citizens to join an international effort to “change the behavior” of the ruling Communist Party.

“We believe that all countries will make the right and wise decisions, instead of being held hostage by a small number of American politicians,” Wang said.

“All countries will make concerted efforts to prevent the world from being dragged into a new cold war of conflict and confrontation,” he said.

But Wong said the interests of the two countries were deeply integrated – and that Beijing stood “ready to maintain the stability of China-US relations through equal communication and exchanges with the US side”.

“We will never allow a few anti-China elements to overturn decades of successful exchanges and cooperation between China and the U.S., nor will we allow ideological prejudice to undermine the future development of China-US relations.”

Ties between the world’s most powerful nations have plunged to the lowest point in decades as they clash over trade, technology and geopolitical clout.

In their latest brawl last week, the US ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston –over spying claims. China retaliated – by ordering the US mission in Chengdu to shut down.

The foreign ministry rolled out a 10-point rebuttal yesterday against American accusations over the closure of the Houston consulate, denying that it was a hub for China’s spying efforts or that it was used as a base for its “fox hunt” operations to induce the return of Chinese fugitives. (Source: SCMP)

CONCLUSION

Readers may find it amazing after reading the above newspaper article on U.S. accusation of Chinese spying, and China’s retaliatory response. Amazed because the narrative over alleged Chinese spying is the same, except this time it is the UK that is the accuser. This pattern persists, and tensions go up.

The ultimate reality, though, is that “U.S. trade is still chained to sources in China.” Research demonstrates the difficulty of severing the countries’ economic ties. According to NYT.

In the end, it is U.S. pragmatism and Chinese rationality that prevails, settling the “spy” squabbling.

Ties may temporarily go sour; bilateral efforts will be made, and trade activities between the U.S. and China will resume. Wang Yi’s rationality is right and wise.

The latest visits by high-profile U.S. secretaries starting with Anthony Blinken, Janet Yellen and Gina Raimondi wrapped up the futile spying game – testifying to the law that damaging business ties lead to revenue loss.

Will the US actions against China over chips really set the Chinese tech sector back 100 years?

Only 100 years?! You bet, will be at least 1,000 years, or maybe, better back to the Stone Age!

And then, you might find one day, your country would have to import chips from China, and the products you use would be embedded with Chinese chips. LOL

The whole Western world, especially the nuclear powers, even later the Soviet Union, had blocked nuclear technology from entering into China back in the 1950s and 1960s. Then what?

The first Chinese nuclear test was conducted at Lop Nur on October 16, 1964. Then in less than 32 months, China detonated its first hydrogen bomb on June 14, 1967. Now, China’s nuclear arsenal is the world’s third largest, and China has, more importantly, also developed its nuclear technology for peaceful use, boasting the second largest number of nuclear power units in operation or under construction in the world.

China was officially barred from visiting the International Space Station (ISS) by the United States in 2011. Then what?

China is nearing its completion of the construction of its own space station -Tiangong, with many visits there already done by Chinese astronauts, three of them are right now flying over us in the station. With the ISS retiring sometime in 2030, China’s Tiangong will be the only space station in the world.

China has been under the tough blockade of Western military techonologies, especially high-end, advanced ones. Then what?

China has successfully tested several times of its hypersonic missiles, among the first nations who have achieved success in this most advanced weapon development.

Also, China has finished its third air-craft carrier, with a fully indigenous design, featuring a CATOBAR system and electromagnetic catapults, one of the most advanced in the world.

And China has its J-20, a twinjet all-weather stealth fighter aircraft with precision strike capability. The Y-20, a large military transport aircraft, the first cargo aircraft to use 3D printing technology to speed up its development and to lower its manufacturing cost.

Similar cases also include the tunnel boring machines, giant cranes, giant excavators, deep-sea drilling machines……You name it. Then what?

China has self developed all of them, not only meeting its own market needs, but also exporting them at a much more affordable price than their Western competitors. What’s more ironic is, some of them have been exported even to those countries who had previously blocked their techonologies into China!

So, in the short term, yes, China is sufferting from the heavy blow from the US, but in the long run, the US and its allies would not only lose the lion’s share of chip market here in China, but will have also to face a strong competitor in semi-conductors, or chips, or something alternative which have similar functions, in the not-too-far-away future, maybe in their own market, and also in the global market.

But during the process, the US would have dried up its influence as a banner-holder of liberal market economy, its credibility as the rule-setter who betrays its own rules, its reliability to its allies since all of them would have to suffer along with the US, and hence, its soft power in leading the world.

Nothing much to gain, but a lot to lose, yet, the US is determined to ride on the self-devastating road. The faster it runs, the quicker the fall of its hegemony.

Japanese-Style Sirloin

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound Certified Angus Beef ® boneless sirloin steak, cut into 1/4 inch strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons sake or dry sherry
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 scallions, cut diagonally into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
8 ounces Napa cabbage, chopped
4 ounces bean sprouts
1 cup cooked short grain rice
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Combine soy sauce, sugar and sake in a small bowl. Set aside.
Heat wok or electric frying pan to medium heat.
Heat oil, add steak strips and stir until beef is browned (about 3-5 minutes).
Push beef to one side. On the other side, add scallions and peppers and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add cabbage and sprouts, combining all ingredients in the pan. Stir-fry about 1 minute.
Sprinkle soy mixture over meat and vegetables. Cook for 1 minute.
Serve over warm rice and garnish with sesame seeds.

Why People are Leaving Canada, Top 5 Reasons Why People Leave

I left Canada about 1.5 years ago to travel the world and here are some of the top reasons why I left. I give a lot of my own personal anecdotes as someone who has lived in canada for over 20 years. This video represents my personal opinion about living in canada and why I prefer to live in Asia or other countries.

The main reasons. why people are leaving

1. High living costs creates a low standard of living, especially in Vancouver and Toronto.

2. Lack of infrustructure for transportation which means you need to have a car in order to get around

3. Brain drain and lack of opportunities because most talent go to the states

4. Lack of medical healthcare because most people can’t find a family doctor or are finding it difficult to find one

5. Not much social life /activities for young people, most stores close at 6pm

https://youtu.be/2vXjQHNfiW8

China, the next war

On China, the US is again lying itself into the next war. The US says “The [Defense] Department remains committed to abiding by the well-established one China policy of the United States” and “this Administration opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side of the Strait. We have not supported Taiwan independence, we do not support it now.”

But actually the US is supporting the Taiwan independence from China, while Taiwan is calling its independent government the “Republic of China” which is a violation of the “one China” claim. The US also admits that the principle reason for this attention to China’s internal matters is to sustain the anti-China barriers in the off-shore China region: “Taiwan is located at a critical node within the First Island Chain in the Indo-Pacific region.” More detailed information on the coming anti-China next war is recent testimony in the House Armed Services Committee here and here.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 20 2023 15:14 utc | 7

Is India acting as a spoiler in the BRICS on behalf of the West?

A spoiler must possess some power to manipulate but this India clearly does not have.

India can do nothing within BRICS with China around (that’s why they didn’t even dare to join RCEP). Modi was left sitting in the corner of their meeting hall.and as quiet as a church mouse during the last BRICS summit because he had no allies to support him on anything. BRICS proceeded accordingly to invite those countries that Xi had pursued.

An interesting thing happened between then and the Modi show at the G20 with new BRICS members Saudi Arabia and the UAE getting into the act. And of course Xi completely abstaining from even attending. Expectations are of course that the G7 countries, headed by Biden, would be there to cheerlead to elevate Modi’s ego as their way of wooing him to their side.

As the saying goes, give the guy enough rope and he’ll be sure to do it to himself!

And true to form, Modi came out with a true masterpiece that had behind him the G7 countries – U.S., E.U., Germany, France and Italy – applauding him on. and the Western MSM hyping up Modi as the new major player to contest China’s BRI plans. This is the G7’s main challenge to China and to be implemented unti its GPII initiative!!

But this plan could not have been possible without the push of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Of course, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have grand plans for themselves – mostly to transition and establish their economy as a major global force after their days of oil dominance is over.

But look at the curious first part of the IMEC journey that has the starting route going through the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which essentially is an alternative route to bypass the Suez Canal.

And then of all places, this very expensive trans-Arabian rail line ends up in Isreal!!!!!

Now, who are the Arabs in their right mind would set up the crown jewel of their economic infrastructure to land in the hands of their arch nemesis to be held hostage anyttime any conflict should arise?

So, you have Modi hoisting himself as a challenger to Xi’s BRI.and also coincidentally, there will be after this G20 a third BRI Meeting in Beijing in October 2023!

The big question is: What are Saudi Arablia and the UAE’s real plans? Are they with the IMEC or are they part of the BRI still and be officially inducted as new BRICS member in 2024?

Have you ever tried to eat at a restaurant, which happened to be a mafia front, but you didn’t know it was a mafia front, and everyone inside just stared at you when you walked in, because nobody actually eats there?

A friend of mine told the story of going to visit his childhood home in Brooklyn. He had hired a car for the day to go all around the old neighborhood so he wouldn’t have to rely on taxis. On the way to visit his mother’s grave at the cemetery, he spotted a flower shop and thought it might be nice to bring flowers.

He went inside, and found a couple of men playing cards, They didn’t seem to notice him. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

“A customer!” one declared, as if in shock.

My friend said he had grown up in the neighborhood, and he chatted with the proprietor a bit about how things have changed over the years.

“Why don’t you sit down and have an espresso with us?” he asked.

“I can’t, I have a driver outside!”

“Well, invite him in, too!”

After he politely refused, they made a beautiful bouquet for him, fairly quickly. He was impressed with the work.

“How much do I owe you?” he asked.

The florist looked hurt. “It’s for your mother! How could I possibly charge you?”

After a little back and forth, it was clear that they weren’t going to accept payment. He thanked them for their generosity and left.

It dawned on him that this place probably wasn’t a flower shop. But they did make him a nice arrangement.

Something TERRIBLE Just Happened in Maui, Oprah & The Rock

James sues Hawaii for First Amendment violations over ban on public photography in Lahaina “This isn’t merely about the freedom to take photos; it’s about the freedom of the press and the right to hold our leaders accontable.

What are your thoughts on China surpassing the USA

Well, China has surpassed the United States in so many ways, that this question is a tad out of date. China is quite a formidable and powerful force right now. Depending on the measurements used, you can easily map out the dates when the mantel of power was transferred.

Economic = around 2013.
Military = around 1950.
Educational = around 1995.
Social = around 2005.
Manufacturing = around 1990.
Technological = in process.

So what are my thoughts about this?

I really don’t think that China is trying to surpass anyone. And certainly isn’t trying to better the USA. I just think that China is doing what it needs to do to serve it’s people. It’s 1.4 billion people, don’t you know. And they need to be satiated, satisfied, and happy.

China is doing that.

All these sanctions, political posturing, and the general madness out the United States (and it actually is a DSM-4 state of crazy-town) is only accelerating and necessitating China to become absolutely independent of the leashes and chains that the United States controls.

Soon, and I do mean SOON, whatever vestiges of American “greatness” will be eclipsed by a rather harsh reality.

Oh, and it PAINS me to speak of it.

But today, the United States is a lie, on top of a lie, that is covered up by lies, and the only good thing about it is that the lies are so obvious that everyone KNOWS that the lies are simply BULLSHIT.

Today, the USA is a third-rated, banana-republic, ruled by psychopathic morons.

And when history books are written about this has-been nation, it will refer to it as a over-glorified “strip mall” masquerading as transsexual brothel built upon an open sewer.

This is common knowledge in “fly over country”.

Those “Rich Men North of Richmond” really gutted the country, and are now stealing everything they can lay their hands on as they flee the cesspool that they created.

When did China surpass the United States?

Oh, sometime back in 1776. It’s been downhill ever since.

Neocons turn on Joe Biden

Calling Biden a president is like calling Harris a vice president.

Extract of horny 16 year olds

One of the MANY kinds of music that I enjoy is “Trance”. This is a kind of melodic continuous beat, many times with a female vocalist signing her heart out.

I was listening to some Trance on you-tube, and thought about it… you know… the pace and the beat of the music lends itself well to porn. No shit!

So, on a lark, I went to one of the porn sites; xHampster, and spent a minute or two watching the video while the you-tube Trance music played. Sure as shit, I kid you not, the music and the melody absolutely matched the actions of the porn actors and actresses. LOL.

Both the men and the woman busy in frenzied (erp) activity…
The woman lost in organismic pleasure
Periods of bliss

Like this tune…

30:20 Giuseppe Ottaviani & Lucid Blue – I Believe

…

I think that this is more than just a casual observation. It’s a reflection of the ties to emotional and mental biological attachments relative to our drives.

Sex is but one of our many, many drives.

…

How does the music you listen to reflect your interests and desires?

I mean if Trance can equate to porn, then what does Country & Western music equate to? What does Classic Rock equate to?

Carry on my wayward son
Stairway to Heaven
Back in Black
Black Magic Woman

It seems to me that David Lee Roth is always singing about prostitutes, and Van Halen roars out about cars…

Ah.

…but what about polkas?

… Vodka drunk aunties, with roses clenched in their teeth, and little kids running all over the stage, eh?

…

Music reflects our inner desires, and under certain conditions, they can enhance or suppress them.

Jazz.

Pop.

Banjo…

…

Todays…

NATO Planning for 3.5 MILLION to Serve if War With Russia Starts

What is the funniest loophole you have ever seen?

In the event of a direct war with Russia, the NATO military bloc will utilize the 300 thousand troops already on the Border with Russia, in the first month. “NATO will then “attract” up to 3.5 million troops” according to Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of the military committee of the North Atlantic Alliance, .

Where do they think they’re going to get those 3.5 Million troops? Why, YOU – and your children — of course! Ready to go fight and die for the armpit of eastern Europe, Ukraine?

Admiral Bauer noted that NATO’s new regional defense plans involve further reinforcement on the borders with Russia in case of a possible confrontation.

“If they attack, we must be ready. So we need more militaries at a high level of readiness, and that’s not something that can be done overnight. They will need training, weapons, ammunition, everything else. Therefore, we are talking about 300 thousand military personnel at a high level of readiness. In total, NATO countries, together with Finland and Sweden, have 3.5 million troops,” said Bauer.

Rattling sabers will not help. Sooner or later Russia will complete its plans for its new Northern Military District, and NATO knows about this.

NATO, the clown force defeated by horseback riders from Afghani caves.

Beef and Mushrooms

Wild Mushroom and Beef Stew Recipe 5 of 10

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/4 pounds sirloin steak, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (10 ounce) package sliced mushrooms
1 (16 ounce) package frozen pearl onions
2 cups red wine
1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom soup
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional)

Instructions

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
Season steak with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
Transfer steak to a bowl and set aside.
Add mushrooms and onions to the pan and cook until liquid has evaporated.
Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half, 5 to 6 minutes.
Stir in soup and 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil.
Add steak and its juices from the bowl and simmer, 2 minutes.
Divide into individual bowls and sprinkle with the parsley, if using.

Trump Latinos – Rich Men North Of Richmond “Official Video”

Everyone is raging about Washington DC.

Why is America losing the tech war with China?

America does not believe in fair competition, Tonya Harding is its role model.

What has the US done while China is improving?

…

NOTHING.

Just a whole lot of talk, blustering and promises…

China released new photolithography factory plan, U.S. restrictions will no longer be in effect.

Oh man this is a very wonderful news, hope it can be made soon and can’t wait to see US semiconductor companies close their doors one by one as no other market can absorb their products … I would say well done USA for digging your own grave yard, very well planned!

Have you ever been judged by someone solely based on the clothes you were wearing?

My first “real” marketing job, back in the 80’s, was working in the fragrance division of a world renowned fashion designer. 2x a year, I was given $2,000-$3,000 to go shopping at Bloomingdales buying up the competition’s newest products.

I learned that if I dressed down, jeans & tees, I could freely shop the dept without sales pressure. I could easily make a list of what I needed to buy Basically, I was ignored and when I tried to get help, I was ignored even more by the seasoned sales people. They would rather talk to each other than help me.

Eventually, a new or young sales clerk would take pity on me & ask if they could help me. I would hand them my list and watch the delight spread over their face as they mentally calculated their sizeable commission, especially as I pulled out the cash.

And it was super fun watching the scowls on those that wouldn’t help me, when they saw the size of my purchase. And yes, as I walked out, I said to each one of them “ you had your chance.” Lol

Are Europeans shocked when they first come to the United States?

There were only two things that shocked me when I came to the US.

The complete lack of maintenance for the infrastructure. I thought Americans loved to drive? So why not spend some money on maintenance. I’ve seen more potholes in 6 days in the Usa, than in my entire life in the Netherlands
The way police officers and other other uniformed people behaved. It already started on the airport at border security, all of the guys in uniform acted like they were the most important person in the world and we were just measly worms. Come on, I know you have a job to do, but why can’t you just try to be pollite? If Dutch police officers would behave like that, they would be considered unfit for the job.

What should we children do with a 91-year-old mother who needs care but refuses to move in with us, let anyone live with her and will not consider nursing home or assisted living?

You could try doing what my neighbor did 50 years ago. His mother was a stubborn woman from the old country. She won’t consider going to a nursing home having any help in her place etc. she fired several people as soon as they started. So he hired another person and they concocted this plan. He told his mother that this person wanted to rent a room from her and she would pay her every week. But that she was a bit hard up and couldn’t afford the full cost of the rent so in order to get a lower rent she was going to help around the house and other things that might need to be done. So every week the son gave the Aide an extra $50 and the Aide handed the mother the $50 and she gave it to her son to put in the bank. So the Aide started helping around the house and then slowly started with personal care. Pretty soon she was taking full care of the mother and the mother thought she was great and offered a bigger reduction in her “rent” and she told her son that she had a nice tenant who helped her “a little” and it was so much better than having an Aide messing around in her house plus she was earning an extra $50 a week!

When I was in school, they held a robotics competition.

It was pretty simple, conceptually. You had to make a firefighting robot. It would have to navigate a maze, find a candle and put it out (fully automated, no remote control). I can’t remember the exact size but I think the robot had to be smaller than 1 foot in length, width, and height.

Scoring was as follows. You start with your time (how long it takes to search every room and put out the candle), and get deductions (bonus points) if your robot:

Put out the candle with anything other than a fan (water, for instance)
Searched every room, didn’t just stop at the one with the candle
Could separate into parts to search rooms in parallel
Was very efficient algorithmically (there were a few benchmarks for this)

Most entries looked like what you would expect, a bunch of sub-systems. Each one with a specific purpose. A Robot.

I entered a block of dry ice. It held a simple metal device attached to it.

It basically just had a spring-powered hammer to shatter it into little pieces when the start timer went (so that it would evaporate faster)

In seconds the entire maze was filled with a white fog and the candle was definitely out. I had the fastest time by a landslide even before you counted my deductions:

Didn’t use a fan? Check
Search every room? Check.
Separate into parts to put out fires in parallel? Check

I think I could’ve been the only person in history to ever win a robotics competition without writing a single line of code or soldering a single wire.

But alas, the judges disqualified me by unanimous vote.

Aztec Death Whistle | The Scariest Sound You’ve Ever Heard

What children’s toys have been repurposed for something very un-childlike?

During the Iraq war, soldiers frequently used Silly String to help detect booby traps.

Specifically:

If you were entering a house, a perimeter, any at-risk area, you would stand near the areas, and spray Silly String around the room.

Wherever the string caught, seeming to hang in the air—was often a tripwire, that was designed to set off a bomb killing all in the immediate vicinity. (Source: Silly String Has a Real Purpose: Exposing Trip Wires. Ferro, Shaunacy)

Because Silly String is so light, it doesn’t set the wire off. And—you can get Silly String that glows in the dark and is bright. So it has become a popular request from soldiers in the field.

A woman in New Jersey, whose son was serving, even created a charity and collected 80,000 cans of the stuff to ship over to them.

New Zealand’s Capital City Is OVER

What’s the craziest thing you found in the middle of nowhere?

My parents used to fuss at me so bad about my adventures, mainly because I would bring junk home from the multiple dumpster areas. One in particular was located in the middle of nowhere, which is now a very nice neighborhood. Before this area boomed into what it is now, this particular set of dumpsters was literally rich people stuff from the surrounding lake homes. If Dad told me to take off the trash, I drove the extra few miles down the small road to go to these. Anyways, one day I hit mega jackpot!

Since these were so remote, nobody ever really used them and they were not picked through. I can tell you we had pickers in the others, because one day I threw a bag in and the dumpster said “hey watch it!”. That was quite the surprise. On this day the stars aligned for me though. As I was emptying Dad’s old truck, my eyes happened to see what I couldn’t believe….a nearly new VCR. Back then dad said he wouldn’t buy one they were just too expensive. This was back in the late 80s when VCRs were literally thousands of dollars, and this one was top of the line too! Somebody must have gotten angry at it, as I could tell it had been bashed. It was lying in a pile of stuff, deep down inside. So I pull the trusty truck up to the door where I could crawl inside. Low and behold it gets even better! Under it was a fairly new Sears stereo system…..like WHAT!!!! This was thousands of dollars of stuff here, and me being 17 I was just overcome with emotion. The cabinet was smashed as someone had just tossed it all in. I didn’t care I was in heaven. I retrieved my prizes and headed home. I was beside myself. When I pulled up to the house, I was so excited I could barely speak. Dad was skeptical. I admit the stuff had been scratched and damaged, but it was complete!

I understand why someone threw it out. The VCR ate tapes more than it played them. At 17 though, my skills as a repair person were developing. What happened was the rubber was not staying on the wheel that drove the tape, it was slipping. Gluing the rubber to the wheel solved the problem. The stereo was way more complicated to fix. It only had one side that was working, the left channel. The right was dead. It took me some time to figure it all out, but with help from the neighbor down the street (who had a Commodore 64 controlling his whole house) we were able to get it repaired. It was a burned up circuit on the board. I held on to that stereo and VCR for years, until it became totally obsolete and I finally placed it for recycling. My roommate for college was utterly shocked with the electronics I had. He couldn’t figure out how someone who barely worked could afford such high end stuff. He was even more miffed when I said I literally got it for free. I was always scared he was going to steal it too.

What was the most satisfying lie you caught someone in?

I ran a company for years and I told my employees that I expected them at work every day unless they were truly sick or had something that had to me taken care of.

I paid well and took good care of my people. One day, a guy named Tommy called in sick. Later in the day, I had to go look at a job on a part of town I’d never been in. As I drove, there was a group of guys in a yard drinking beer. Tommy was there with them. I waved as I drove by, and the look on his face was priceless.

I had a car phone which was rare back then. Tommy called after a bit and I told him his check would be ready on Friday.

Later, his wife called and asked me to give him one more chance that this was the best job he’d ever had and that their family was more secure than they’d ever been.

I let him come to a staff meeting and stand up and tell everyone what he’d done. I passed out slips of paper to everyone and let them vote. Stay or fired. They wrote, folded the papers and put them in a hat as it went around.

Most voted to let him stay. I did and he was a great employee from then on. I think it made a strong impression on all of the crews and I’m glad I gave him another chance. If his wife had not called, he would never have gotten the second chance.

Shopping at One of the Last Open Kmart’s Before it Closes Forever! Westwood NJ

Signs of America.

When my mother started to suffer from dementia.

I was in that position. It’s not an uncommon position to be in.

My mother was living alone and had early dementia. While not 91, she needed help and someone to talk with. And she was slowly losing it. She was in her late 70’s and had cancer. She lived in a big “Manor” house about an hours drive out of Pittsburgh, PA.

My sister lived the next town over and didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Instead, she wanted to put her in a care-home for aged people, and then take over her estate. Which was really selfish, and rude, but her husband was / is a self-centered bastard, so what can you expect.

My other sister lived a five hour drive away, and while she wanted to do something, it really wasn’t possible. She had her own business, and was busy. She could visit maybe once a month, but that was it.

My younger brother lived in Colorado, had his own business and couldn’t do anything.

And I, well, I was living in Boston, MA at the time. I was working as the VP of an International automotive electronics company, and I (as the oldest) was faced with the task on what to to. My brother and older sister discussed the matter with me and none of us wanted to put here in a “home”. So it was really up to me.

I quit my job.

Packed up all my belongings, and moved into the “Carriage House” (a caretaker building) on the property. Technically, I didn’t live in the house, but I was with her every day. We shared meals together. I took care of the property, and drove her to her medical appointments and kept an eye on her.

I did this for three years.

Then on Easter day, she got really tired. She couldn’t eat dinner with all of us. Instead she just sat in the kitchen, unable to move. We ate, and talked and then we carefully helped her to the couch in the TV room.

We put on a rental movie, and watched it together. She closed her eyes and went to sleep. Everyone else left, and that night, I sat beside her writing e-mails to my girlfriend in China.

She never woke up.

And I, well, I sat beside her all night, and into the next afternoon. Hospice came. We moved her into a bed in the TV room. She laid there.

And I sat beside her.

I was there beside her as she passed on.

…

You can either be a man and take responsibility for your family, or not. I took responsibility, and those three years with my mother were very special to me. Treasures. Really.

After she passed on, a new chapter opened up in my life.

And that is what life is all about…

高速道路に捨てられた子猫、不器用な女性が持ち帰る | とても幸せでした

https://youtu.be/WynzVlff9iQ

How much will Apple, Qualcomm, and other U.S. tech companies have to lower their costs in order to compete with Chinese tech companies?

Lowering costs?

That’s not the US Style isn’t it?

When has a Company in US ever lowered its retail costs to compete fairly?

The Answer is NEVER

At least not since the 1970s

Japanese cars and steel threatened to swamp out the US overpriced cars in the 1980s

You had the PLAZA ACCORDS to destroy the Japanese export market for two decades

Tik Tok has a huge market in US and threatens every Big Tech Giant and their applications

It became a National security threat

…

Huawei became a major competition for Apple globally and looked poised with their innovation to eclipse Apple by 2025

It became a National Security Threat and was hit with every commercial sanction in the book

…

Chinese Electric vehicles threaten to dominate the world market by 2025

Bang!!!! European Parliament decides to look into anti dumping and raise tariffs. After all, it became a National Security Threat.

The fact is these guys haven’t properly competed with any rival for more than five decades

I mean the West of course

They have a four way formula to keep skirting around competition:-

Powerful Brand Image and Billions of Dollars in advertising and marketing
Powerful Lobby Groups in US and powerful political forces to throttle any competition outside the Western Bloc plus Japan using the ‘National Security Threat’
Political manouvering to use Tariffs, Sanctions and vague Export controls to throttle foreign competition
Outright buying up of opposition through voluntary or involuntary acquisitions

In short ‘BULLYBOY TACTICS’

India does the exact same thing, so do most democracies these days

Dr Singh wanted multiple entities to set up mobile services in India to develop fair competition and lowering the prices

33 to be exact

Instead we set up mock bribery charges and wiped out the entire plan and established a Cartel

So the US and it’s lackeys will never play fair economics

They will talk about it of course until kingdom come

Tomorrow if China decides to ban Iphones for 50 people, they will shriek and scream about ‘Laissez Faire’ and ‘Free market’

Yet these demented fools will never see that they are doing worse. They have been brainwashed into believing they are the good guys.

The only way to defeat them is the Chinese way which involves simply innovating, lowering costs and establishing markets wherever possible in the Global South especially BRI countries where Chinas influence exceeds the West and their influence

And slowly keep your cards close to your chest and use some of the same protection tactics that the West adopts and cut off their products from your market threatening a SCORCHED EARTH POLICY.

Or have you forgotten what and how the United States treated Huawei?

8 Forgotten Restaurant Chains We Need Back!

If the US dumps chips in the Chinese market at very low prices, how will the Chinese government react?

My wife works for a big logistics company in China. When the US sanctions hit, DHL withheld some Huawei equipments in their European warehouses for American investigation. This totally set Huawei off and prompted the company to look for domestic alternatives. My wife says their service is worse and more expensive than DHL, in fact totally incomparable in Europe, but after the episode Huawei was just never going to trust DHL again. Thanks to the money Huawei keep throwing their way these past few years, they’ve been able to grow and expand in Europe, becoming more respectable. At this very monent she’s on a business trip in Europe to open a new office for their newly acquired Dutch subsidiary and the inauguration of a new cargo airline.

This is just one very narrow and personal peek into the consequences of the trade war, but I think it’s a window into other areas like chips as well.

American chips were good and cheap and flooded the Chinese market before the tech war, in fact they still do, so Chinese domestic chip makers just couldn’t grow. In 1997 Chinese ministry of education downright cut the semiconductor major in universities, probably believing such majors to be unnecessary since cheap American chips are readily available and Chinese companies just weren’t making them so graduates couldn’t find jobs.

The chip war has changed that. Now semiconductor is the hottest major in China and new Chinese engineers are filling up new Chinese chip start ups. If the US drops the sanctions and flood the Chinese market again now, it will still have tarnished its reputation as a reliable supplier, and we have an entire nation, if not more, wary of the potential of American political untrustworthiness disrupting supply lines. Just like Huawei refuses to use DHL despite its service being better and cheaper, allowing for my wife’s company to grow and maybe one day take on DHL, some Chinese companies will just not trust American chips again, despite them being cheap or not, leaving room for domestic chip business to grow.

Cambodian Girl Surprises Me With Kindness in Phnom Penh

Fun and interesting video.

https://youtu.be/uXv6qrcGGhw

Have you ever witnessed an objection at a wedding?

As an attorney, I had someone served with an involuntary bankruptcy at his wedding.

He had refused to pay both child and spousal support for years. He worked for his daddy and claimed he wasn’t making any money. Almost everything he owned was in someone else’s name, except for the house.

He drove expensive cars, had a boat, a couple of quads and dressed in very upscale clothing.

He would eat at the finest restaurants and travel all over the world.

Yet his ex-wife could hardly put food on the table for herself and her children, who were his children also.

I filed an involuntary bankruptcy against him to get the equity in the house to pay for the support.

He kept dodging my process server. His car would be at his work, but they would claim he was not there. Same at home, his car would be there, but his girlfriend would claim he was not home.

I spent about six months trying to get him served, when his children (the ones he refused to support) got an invitation to his wedding.

I had my process server dress as a delivery lady, with a big gift-wrapped box. Someone at the door said they would take the gift, but the process server told them that the gift was so special, it had to be delivered to the man personally.

He came to the door, the process server opened the box and, “Mr. So-and-so, you have been served.” He blew a cork and started screaming at the process server using every cuss word you could imagine.

I found out later that he was served just as the wedding was about to start.

During one of the court proceedings, he told the judge that I ruined his wedding and his honeymoon, to which I replied that was OK because he had ruined his children’s lives.

Daddy came up with the money for the back support and my attorney fees. I also got a lien on the house for all future support payments. I then dismissed the bankruptcy.

I really dislike anyone who will not support their own children, especially when they have the ability to do so.

I consider this to be one of my finest cases.

Shanghai Has Changed Forever Since The Lockdown

A dated video. But gives you an idea bout the feeling at that time.

What is the most British thing ever?

I arrived at a very old and very prestigious school for a job interview as a teacher. The first thing I thought upon arrival was “Oh my God! This place is way outside my comfort zone.” It looked just so venerable and posh. Much of the building was Tudor (1547ish) and extensively re-modelled in Victorian gothic. It was imposing and intimidating as a potential workplace.

But then I walked into the school office and Reception and there on the Reception desk was a letter “In-Tray” with a huge ginger Tom Cat curled up alseep in it. I thought that “only in a very old, very British, very eccentric school that was very sure of itself would a cat be sleeping in the Reception Desk in-tray.”

The cat was called Henry and he had the run of the whole school and everyone loved him.

Anyway, I got the job and was ringing round various companies to acquire new equipment for my Technology lab. One company I wished to use had no supply contract with the school and so I was asked by their representative on the phone to set up a credit account. The conversation went like this:

“We will need some business credentials for your company in order to set up the credit account”

“Yes of course; what do you need to know?”

“Firstly, how long has your business be operating?”

“Four hundred and seventy-five years”

“Ah. I don’t think there will be any problem setting you up with a credit account”.

The De-Civilization of America | Victor Davis Hanson

A calm voice of reality.

What did you find out about your teacher that shocked you?

When I was in 3rd grade, there was a class bully by the name of Chris. My cousin Ryan was also in the class, and we were buddies. One day Chris decided to pick on my cousin. Incensed, I punched Chris in the face and knocked him clean out of his chair.

Horrified by what I had done, I quickly turned to see if the teacher had seen. She hadn’t. She had her back to the class writing on the chalk board and had missed the whole thing. I was so relieved. I attended a private school that employed corporal punishment and I was so sure I was going to get paddled.

I found out years later from my parents that she had actually seen the whole thing and had quickly turned to the board to hide her huge smile. She had been aching to punch Chris herself for months.

Chris never bothered me or my cousin again.

Constitution 101 | Lecture 1

Learn the meaning of the Constitution and the principles of American government in this new version of Hillsdale’s most popular course. Visit hillsdale.edu/con101 to begin your course today.

What was the strangest thing you found cleaning out your parents’ house after they died?

Two things – not necessarily strange, just quirky. My father died quite unexpectedly of an aneurysm over a decade ago. He had a terrific sense of humor, and an awful gold and tan plaid sports jacket from the 70s. My mom had begged him to get rid of it for years, but no. He even wore it to my best friend’s wedding, insisting she’d find it funny. She did. When I got to it in the closet, I wasn’t sure I could give it away, but I checked the pockets anyway. Each pocket held 13 crisp $100 bills – $3900 total.

The other item was inside a puzzle box I had given him many years prior. It was the kind where you had to tap on one section, twist another, etc. in a specific order to get it open. I heard something inside when I shook it. Took me almost an hour to get it open to find his neatly written recipe for barbecue sauce.

Gosh, I miss him!

9 Things Your Cat Does for You Without You Knowing

What’s something a doctor did to you that you won’t ever forget?

I am disabled and I see a psychiatrist, as required by disability.

My doctor was the only one in town who accepted medicare/medicaid. He accepted me as his patient when I went for my first appointment. We got on well right away. Over the years, he has helped me along my journey to better mental health. I have had to change medications quite a few times. Sometimes they stopped working. Sometimes the side effects were too bad, or they didn’t help at all. Each time, he listened to me describe my thoughts on the medications. He worked with me and offered different solutions in order to find the best fit for me. I sincerely like and respect my psychiatrist.

I had an appointment one afternoon, and at the end of our session, he told me that he wasn’t going to be accepting medicare/medicaid patients any more. My heart sank, because this meant either forking over cash, or driving to another town to see a psychiatrist.

Then he told me that he had decided to keep a handful of his medicare/medicaid patients and see them pro-bono. He said that I was one of those patients.

So now I have a doctor who sees me regularly, fills out paper work to the satisfaction of disability people, and prescribes my medications and monitors how they are working for me. And he does it without charging me a dime.

My income is small. This is an enormous benefit to me. I can’t thank him enough. I’m proud to know a charitable person who silently helps people with no expectation of gaining anything from it. If my situation changes, I will be glad to start paying him to see me, even if it hurts my pocketbook.

1980s Things That Are Not Socially Acceptable Today

https://youtu.be/Apmq2Ktyd1I

What did you find out about your teacher that shocked you?

My 8th grade PE teacher was tall, black, muscular, and pretty terrifying. His wife came by class one day; she was white, plump, mid height, and sweet. I’d never seen a mixed race couple before and was a little shocked. (It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea; I had zero exposure to mixed race anything in a nearly all white neighborhood.) What was more shocking was she took none of his shit. He barked at her like he barked at us and she told him to settle down. She instantly became my hero. They loved each other a lot, that was obvious. I never thought twice about mixed race couples again.

I was at McDonald’s and I noticed that customers were choosing to wait in line to order with the cashier, instead of using the available kiosks. Why do you think that is?

Yep. Our local McDonalds recently completed their renovation, which includes the new kiosks. I walked in and noticed the kiosks, but went straight to the cash register.

The manager asked me to please use the kiosk. I said no thank you. She said, we’re trying to get all of our customers to use them. Again, I said no thanks. She got really huffy and stopped what she was doing at the french fry station and turned to me and said, why won’t you use them?

I said, “I didn’t come here this morning to do your job. You want me to take an order, then pay me.” That stopped her. She came and took my order.

While she was taking my order I explained, “To use your kiosk, I have to make multiple selections, and each one requires that I choose between many options. I don’t want to do that. I just want a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. I can tell you that in one simple sentence. I don’t have to pick through multiple screens of options of things I don’t want.”

That’s why you won’t ever see me at the kiosk.

“We Can’t Be Afraid Of Nuclear War!” Says Sean Penn

The world is populated by idiots.

EU may become as hooked on China batteries as it was on Russian energy

EU could become as dependent on China for lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells by 2030 as it was on Russia for energy before the Ukrosia war unless it takes strong measures.

Worried by China’s growing global assertiveness and economic weight, the leaders will discuss the European Commission’s proposals to reduce the risk of Europe being too dependent on China and the need diversify towards Africa and Latin America.

While the EU has a strong position in the intermediate and assembly phases of making electrolysers, with a more than 50% global market share, it relies heavily on China for fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries crucial for electric vehicles.

According to the European Commission, in 2021, the year before Ukrosia war, the EU took more than 40% of its total gas consumption, 27% of oil imports and 46% of coal imports from Russia.

Ending most energy purchases from Russia caused an energy price shock in the EU and a surge in consumer inflation, forcing the European Central Bank to sharply raise interest rates in a move that has curbed economic growth.

Lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells were not the only area of EU vulnerability.

A similar scenario could unfold in the digital-tech space. Forecasts suggest that the demand for digital devices such as sensors, drones, data servers, storage equipment and data transmission networks will rise sharply in this decade.

The EU has a relatively strong position in the latter, but it shows significant weaknesses in the other areas.

By 2030, this foreign dependency could seriously hinder the productivity gains that the European industry and service sector urgently require and could impede the modernization of agriculture systems essential to addressing climate change.

China Ignores the US & Deepens its Ties with Russia!

China Creates world’s most powerful RADAR Chip

Article HERE
Amid US tech sanctions, Chinese scientists say they made the world’s most powerful radar chip

New semiconductor performs at orders of magnitude higher than similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems, says Chinese team

It uses gallium nitride despite export bans by the US government blocking high powered gallium-based semiconductors to China

A research team with a major Chinese defence company says it has built a radar chip with a record power output using semiconductor technology that is the subject of strict US sanctions.
The finger-sized chip can generate radar signals with peak power reaching 2.4 kilowatts. It is one or two orders of magnitude higher than the performance of similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems.

This after China banns the export of Gallium to NATO countries.

INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Sep 20 2023 20:28 utc | 29

Expats Share Their American Trauma After Living Abroad

Americans has PTSD.

Why is China a threat to the United States?

American foreign policy is based around “security”. But our notion of “security” does not distinguish between a possible threat and an actual threat. If it could possibly be a threat, then we treat it as if it’s threatening us right now. We dominate the North American continent; that’s not secure enough, so we establish military bases in Europe; that’s not secure enough, so more bases in Asia; that’s not secure enough, so take over space. In fifty years, we’ll probably be trying to colonize Mars to forestall the “threat” of somebody else getting to it first (that’s a little joke). To get an idea of how American foreign policy works, imagine a psychopathic Uncle Sam, staring at some small country with creepy twitching eyes, and saying, “You’re threatening me” while reaching for a knife.

There is a thing called nuclear primacy. Suppose that you can attack another country with nuclear weapons and destroy the whole country without the possibility of retaliation. The United States can do this to any nation on the planet, except for Russia. If Russia’s arsenal degrades to the point where it can no longer retaliate, then the United States has nuclear primacy, meaning the ability to destroy anyone without consequence. Total impunity.

There is another thing called full spectrum dominance, which is similar to nuclear primacy, except for every single dimension of warfare, not just nuclear weapons. Domination of land, air, sea, cyber warfare, everything. The United States has this over most other countries. There are a few exceptions, though. China is one. The stated intention of American military policy is to achieve full spectrum dominance over any possible opponent. Total control.

When Washington describes China as a threat, they mean that China may one day be a country that the United States can’t dominate completely with zero consequences. The chances of this are quite small and remote, but higher than zero. That makes China a “threat”, in the way that Washington uses the word. So we have to remove the “threat” by ham-stringing China, preferably by partitioning them.

Which brings me to my next point: divide-and-rule is a strategy as old as empire. Western countries excel at it. The idea is to take someone else’s country and break it apart into many smaller countries. We call this “partitioning”. Partitioning weakens your enemy by destroying their unity. But partition is a nasty, aggressive word, and Washington likes to frame all of its actions as just and defensive. So instead of partitioning, we say we’re “decolonizing” other countries. We don’t want to dominate Russia and China by partitioning them. No, see, they’re the evil imperialists, so we’re going to decolonize them, tee-hee! We’re the good guys!

This last requires a lot of propaganda to frame our enemies as “colonizers”. So we take lands that have been Chinese for centuries and claim that the Chinese are evil colonizers for having those lands. Of course, we’re also evil colonizers, but that’s okay because I started with a land acknowledgment. This is also why you hear Western intellectuals say things like, “China has never been truly unified” and “There is no continuous Chinese civilization”. This is manufacturing a justification for partitioning China a few decades down the line. Or perhaps sooner than that…

What I fear is that American hubris will suck us into a Thucydides trap. What if we decide that it’s intolerable for us not to control the world? What if we decide that World War Three is a better option? Because those are the only two options Washington sees as viable: total domination, or apocalypse.

Don’t get me wrong, by the way. I love my country. But the America I love is 4th of July parades, cookouts, and deer jerky. The America that glasses a small Middle Eastern country so some guy at Raytheon can get a new yacht — that America I don’t love.

Record Treasury Dump

If ASML cannot sell to China, how did they sell a huge order in September?

It’s very complicated

It seems the Dutch Government has forbidden ASML to sell EUVs to SMIC from 1/9/23

Yet orders placed until 23:59 on 31/8/23 can be shipped and fulfilled.

So technically ASML can ship orders to SMIC upto the time the last order placed on 31/8/23 is fulfilled

That’s for 21 EUV Machines & 1850 DUV Machines

In September, ASML has delivered 4 EUV Machines & 390 DUV Machines

Meanwhile there is another legal complication

SMIC has now introduced a Distributor company who can buy EUVs from ASML and simply sell them to SMIC for a 10% commission (10% is just an example)

Now the Dutch order said only SMIC was forbidden from receiving ASML EUVs so ASML has also accepted 8 more orders for EUVs from this distributor

Technically Dutch Govt cannot specifically forbid ASML from selling to China as a whole as that is a major WTO violation

So they can only blacklist importers

So China can keep bringing up new distributors and placing orders and ASML is happy because TSMC has cancelled 24 Machines recently and i am sure China offered full price for the machines

Ultimately MONEY TALKS

Once again the US is furious but again it’s all about the legalese now

SMIC is forbidden so an agency buys and sells to SMIC

The Dutch look the other way of course

ASML is delighted because they sell more machines

My guess is this new agency will be blacklisted soon and they will incorporate more laws to prevent such measures

Yet that gets China another 8 machines plus a further 24 machines which I bet China will place as they are already in process

This means SMIC technically can make 7 nm and 5 nm Chips in decent quantities at least till 2026/2027

By then they should crack some breakthrough

So China has gained TIME and the Dutch have put business ahead of stupidity

Just like NVDIA and Intel just sold products to China which were slightly off the specs in huge numbers

Economics is ultimately invincible

Reality

Beef Medallions with Cognac Sauce

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 teaspoon (packed) brown sugar
1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup canned beef broth
1/2 cup Cognac or brandy
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 (4 to 5 ounce) beef tenderloin steaks (each about 1 inch thick)
Fresh Chives

Instructions

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat.
Add shallots and sauté until tender, about 4 minutes.
Add brown sugar; stir 1 minute.
Add chicken broth, beef broth and Cognac. Simmer until sauce is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 20 minutes.
Add cream. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)
Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat.
Add steaks; cook to desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for rare.
Transfer steaks to plates.
Add sauce to skillet; bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Slice steaks; fan slices on plates.
Top with sauce and garnish with chives.

Notes

Serve Cabernet Sauvignon with the steaks.

The cost of living in Chiang Mai, Thailand 2023. Retire in Thailand affordably – live in Chiang Mai!

The rest of the world is a great IMPROVEMENT over that of the “good ol’ USA”.

What is the smallest thing a person ever did for you that impacted your life?

When my daughters were babies/toddlers, I/we used to have to walk to the supermarket and back to get our groceries for the week. Most of the time, this went alright. It was a bit of a juggling act and it always stressed me out on the way home, but it was also nice to get out with them without my then husband.

Anyhow, one day we’re really struggling to get home. My oldest didn’t want to walk and I couldn’t carry them both and the bags etc, so we’re doing everything the hardest way possible. The only way possible. Then a lady, a bit older than myself, stopped me and told me to ‘wait right there please”. I was completely confused, but thought maybe she was going to get her car or something? Who knew. I was exhausted, my kids were too, so we waited and I thought I was an idiot for waiting.

Then she came back, with a double stroller. Not some glamorous kind, nothing with all the bells and whistles and not brand new, but one that I could use as a buggy or as a stoller. I could put one of my kids in it and still have room behind them for bags, or put both kids in.. or neither kid and lay the front seat down. Anyways, it was perfect for us and I could’ve cried and kissed that lady. She kept saying she didn’t need it anymore and it wasn’t a big deal, but it was a huge deal for us. I offered to pay her or do something, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I’ll never forget her generosity or how much she helped us.

RUSSIAN SUPERMARKET TOUR! 🇷🇺 0,2$ BREAD and 0,2$ POTATO

The realization that the United States has lost

I watched the grilling of the Commerce Secretary by Congress about Huawei.

The anger was thick. And the compensate measures were astounding. There was an open hostility and a degree of frustration on the “representatives” faces.

The Commerce Secretary recovered herself and exclaimed… “well, maybe I was “bushwhacked” by Huawei while in China, but China cannot make to scale.”

Not true.

But it is a hope. They wish to be true.

Let that sink in.

The USA threw EVERYTHING at China, discovered that it is resilient, and decided to “take a step back” and try to “compete”.

That competition is OVER.

Huawei’s actions were an open alert. China, and it’s national companies are immune, inoculated, from the USA, and far more powerful than anyone in Washington is willing to consider.

You can see it on their faces.

It is the realization that you just drove your car into a tree because you drank too much, and your girlfriend is dead. Now you are going to jail.

That was the expression.

A feeling of utter hopelessness.

It’s all over. The only thing left is global thermonuclear war, and the Pentagon already briefed these “Senators” on what that means…

…

The “Commerce Secretary”.

I have some words about this person.

This is the person who implemented the switch from manufacturing to service industry.
This is the person who assisted in the “hollowing out” of the United States.
This is the person who permitted the demise of unions.
This is the person who permitted to demise of company sponsored health care.
This is the person who allowed unemployment benefits to atrophy.

No grilling on those things.

Not so important, eh?

…

The United States is FUCKED.

We all have realized this, but slowly the Senators in Congress have gotten the message. And they do not like it. It’s a grim day at the start of a very grim century.

Today…

Can you openly criticize President Xi in China? If so, can you name some people who openly criticized President Xi and what happened to them?

The only people who have anything to fear about in China include :-

Persons who have received funding from an organization perceived as favouring internal destabilization in China (WEF, NED for Instance)
Persons who are belonging to groups favouring Taiwanese Independence. Not everyone. Only members of specific Groups
Persons who are members of Falun Gong, offshoot groups of Falun Gong & specially funded groups of Falun Gong
Persons who encourage or organize protests without prior permission of authorities that call for counteractive measures instead of pro active measures
Persons who participate in above protests
Persons who spy on China or commit active treason against China

That’s it

That’s all

The above categories, these people will be dealt with brutally

Many of them will never be seen again and exiled to remote regions

However apart from that if you stand in the middle of the road in Beijing and scream “Xi Jingping is a Coward” in your loudest voice

A Cop will come, pull you to the side and ask you not to create a public ruckus and go on his way

If you continue, you will be fined 800 Yuan and spend 24 hours in detention for PUBLIC DISTURBANCE

At worse, there is an older law still in statutes where ridiculing the Supreme Leader carries 6 months to 2 years jail but it’s unlikely Xi will enforce it because according to Xi only Mao is the supreme leader

So insulting Mao in China is more serious than insulting Xi

If you keep talking nonsense, someone will investigate you to see if you belong to the above categories

If you dont, they will simply ignore you like they ignore a madman

If you do, you disappear

Li Keiqang is one man who criticized Xi in 2012

He was Xis premier for 10 years

Xi only cares about Corruption and how close you are to the West

He knows his power is very strong to fear criticism and challengers

Cracked Pepper Steak

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 (4 to 6 ounce) beef tenderloins, 1 inch thick
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup brandy or dry red wine

Instructions

Combine pepper and rosemary in a large bowl. Coat both sides of the steaks with the mixture.
Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet until hot.
Add steaks and cook over medium to medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in the center registers 160 degrees F (for medium). Remove the steaks from the skillet and cover to keep them warm.
Add brandy to skillet and bring to a boil over high heat, scraping particles from the bottom of the skillet. Boil for about 1 minute or until liquid is reduced by half. Spoon sauce over steaks.

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

I worked at a factory making furniture. Every night I would leave the gate with a wheelbarrow full of sawdust and every night the factory guard checked through the sawdust as I left, looking for what I might be stealing… but I was too cleaver, he never found anything!

After 20 years, the guard was retiring. He pulled me aside and said”Look, I know you’ve been stealing SOMETHING for the past 20 years and it’s driving me crazy not being able to catch you. I’m retiring and, I swear, I’ll not tell anyone – I just need to know… just what have you been stealing?“ “Wheelbarrows”, I said.

US pleads with China to re-purchase chips as chip supply chain collapses!

Welcome to VOC – Vision of China,In recent years,”In today’s episode, we delve into the United States’ supply chain crisis caused by the loss of chip orders to China. The China-US chip war, intensified by the launch of new Huawei smartphones, has raised concerns among American lawmakers.

Join us as we explore the implications of this conflict and its impact on the global semiconductor industry. Discover how U.S. sanctions against China’s semiconductor market may have unintended consequences, affecting not only the U.S. economy but also global stability. We discuss the challenges the United States faces as it strives to maintain its technological dominance and competitiveness.

https://youtu.be/0Ib45UnK_zk

Did the low demand for chips from TSMC in China contribute to the decision to delay chip equipment deliveries?

Donald the Orange upended the supply chain with the cluster bomb dropped on Huawei.

That was pre-covid.

It caused a scramble within the industry as players stockpiled on existing supply, especially mainland corporations.

When covid and lockdowns hit, the canceled chip orders were diverted to domestic mainland players, only too glad for the padded security. The rumor is mainland orders hijacked the queue and tied up production for months or even years. Honda’s million vehicle swing in recent years is one of the unfortunate fallout victims.

As mainland production ramped up to sidestep the stop-gap measures, there appears to be a chip glut developing ex-China, with the economic downturn due to monetary contraction and rising rates squeezing demand, exacerbating the fracture in the fragile and temporal equilibrium.

It is hard to forecast such a market, especially with the growing fog of war surrounding mainland players who are going dark and playing among themselves as a matter of survival.

I don’t think TSMC, Glofo, Samsung, AMD, Nvidia and Intel will be able to retain their market share in the coming years.

The Reason why Men are Walking Away from Dating (Ep. 411)

I am so happy I am not generation x,y or z.

What’s the one gift you’ve gotten that you never would have imagined you wanted, but it turned out to be the best?

When my husband and I got married, my cousin gave us what I perceived to be a very bizarre gift. He bought us a red toolbox filled with many tools. I have to admit that I just looked at it and thought to myself “What a weird gift for a wedding!”

Well, my husband and I have been married for over 34 years and I have to say that this turned out to be one of the best gifts that anybody ever gave us! We still use it regularly and if you think about it, it’s very expensive to buy a lot of tools. This ages well, it doesn’t go out of style, it doesn’t break and you don’t have to worry about if it matches your decor! How many wedding gifts can anyone say they still use regularly after 34 years?

The Terminator – all deleted Scenes

Confession of the Day

$300k in debt (no mortgage). $297,677.49 to be exact.

$215k law school debt, $40k graduate school debt, $25k credit cards, $11k car loan, and a personal loan.

After 5 years of deep denial- I think I’ve finally accepted how badly we fucked up. I feel like I’ve gone through the stages of grief multiple times this year.

We paid for very expensive degrees that didn’t need to be. We racked up a shit ton of credit card debt by spending money like entitled a**holes and not using a budget. I wish I could go back in time, slap 23 year old me (and my husband) and ask, repeatedly- what the hell are you doing??

We would go out to bars and dinners every weekend with friends. insert Discover card. We would regularly order takeout. insert Amex card. We went on yearly vacations. insert Jet Blue card. We financed furniture???? Not to mention we walked right into the “prestige” private school bullshit.

We ate that shit up.

And for what? To impress people? To prove that we’re worth something? All the above? It’s so normalized to be in debt as a millennial.

Everyone had credit cards, everyone was going out, everyone had student loans. We were super normal! You’re only young once- amiright?!

I found Dave last year, when I was hitting rock bottom. My debit card was getting declined at the gas station and the grocery store regularly.

After listening to The Ramsey Show for a couple weeks, I realized how screwed we were. I remember the first time he talked about the borrower being a slave to the lender.

That’s exactly how I felt.

I couldn’t breathe. I had a mental breakdown. I haven’t really been able to relax since. My husband and I spent all last year fighting about money and almost got divorced.

We’re on BS2 right now. We should bring in around $170k this year before side gigs. We have paid off $12k since June. We started FPU last week. We’re throwing everything at the debt. I’m working my ass off. Husband is working 65+ hrs a week and donating plasma.

We dropped more than half of our “friends.” It’s a humbling experience to say the least. My mother in law makes us dinners a couple days a week to help out.

Family and friends ask why we’re not having kids or buying a house yet. The whole situation is embarrassing, but we deserve it.

I don’t blame anyone but myself. I’m not expecting anyone to “forgive” or payoff our dumpster fire. We were extremely stupid and entitled, but we need to get out of this ourselves. I just need prayers that we can make it out of this. We will. Hopefully better than who we were before.

Just trying to “embrace the suck” and keep up the motivation.

Tony Soprano | A Conflicted Man

This is why the Sopranos is the best tv show ever.

What was your experience like moving from a large city to an even smaller town (or vice versa)?

I did the small-town-to-big-city move in 1998, for college. I lived in a dorm my first year here, and didn’t have a car. But, my second year, when I was just 19 year old, I got my first studio apartment and brought my car with me from my small hometown.

One of the biggest adjustments I remember was getting comfortable with parking my car on the street overnight. In my small hometown, everyone had driveways. Most people parked their cars in their back yard or garages. And all of the businesses had parking lots. There were only a few streets in my small hometown that had parallel parking spots on the sides of them, and those spots were huge, clearly marked, and largely optional. They were for people who didn’t want to walk about a block from the nearest parking lot, just in the downtown part of my hometown.

But here in Chicago, driveways for people’s houses are rare. Most people park on the street or, if they’re lucky, in a garage. Street parking doesn’t have marked spots. You just squeeze in where you can.

It took me a few weeks to get used to the idea of just leaving my car on the side of the street all of the time. I remember my first night with it here, waking up several times in the middle of the night to look out the window and confirm that it was still there. Sure, there were cars bumper-to-bumper on both sides of the street, and mine was a cheap car that no one would want to steal anyway. Still, it took me about two weeks to get completely comfortable with the concept of just leaving a car parallel parked on the street overnight.

It took a while to get used to driving down a street next to parked cars as well. In my small hometown, since most streets didn’t have parallel parking, you didn’t need to worry about clipping people’s mirrors when you drove past them, or them opening their doors as you drive past, or someone stepping out from between cars, in front of you while you’re driving. The sides of the streets in my small hometown were usually clear of everything.

But, here in Chicago, you can easily be driving 50+mph down a 4-lane street, inches away from parked cars on the side. It’s kind of weird if you’re not used to it.

Mandatory Paternity Test Law Passed – No More Paternity Fraud From Single Women

United States is undergoing massive change.

Huawei M60 Pro shocked the world. Why is it?

Just imagine, the strongest, toughest school bully, out of jealousy-turned-into-fury-then-to-desperation, mobilized all possible means, together with his allies, and wanted to kill his most challenging competitor.

At the high-time when he thought and believed he was to succeed and gonna to celebrate with champagne, and when some schoolmates are waiting to watch the tragedy of the competitor, while some other schoolmates are considering which side to take, and of course there are also others wishing for the competitor to survive, though inevitably with bruises and bumps……

All of the sudden, the competitor came back, with a beautiful, ace-trumping, and formidable hitback, standing even higher, better and firmer!

If you happened to be one in the school and witnessed all these, how would you feel?

Shocked, whoever you are, whichever side you are with, right?

And, if I were U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, I would never say something like this: She was “upset” by news of the launch of Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro during her visit to China last month. (US says it has no evidence that Huawei can make advanced smartphones ‘at scale’ | CNN Business

)

It’s sort of admitting the school bully US is losing, or has lost, anyway, a real strongman would never be “upset” by a “nobody,” right?

MOVING TO PORTUGAL ALONE in my 50s!

European Union’s decision to launch an anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric vehicles, will it make the Chinese EV industry become another Huawei?

The Claim is :-

China offers subsidies to their EVs in battery making and other areas, heavy subsidies in taxes and waivers to ensure that EVs are produced at a final cost that is 20% cheaper

This makes Chinese EVs deliver lower cost at better quality than many European EVs

This is alleged as unfair competition

They want either the batteries at lower costs or a 20% mark up on Chinese EVs that eliminates the subsidy effect

It’s Classic Protectionism 101

Soviet Style rather than Adam Smith

China didn’t do this

When Volkswagens and Citroens and Mercedes Benz and Toyota and Mitsubishi dominated the vehicle markets of China a decade or so ago:-

China didn’t impose extra tariffs on them nor make it unfair for them to import custom made parts by imposing 60–260% tariffs

China told BYD and SAIC and Great Wall to either make similar quality cars or go out of business because the customer needs the best

Thus these companies formed partnerships and purchased technology and leased technology and made a living with limited market share

Yet this competition helped them prepare a lead in EVs and dominate today

However the West isn’t prepared to do the same thing and ask Renault and Chevy and Volkswagen to COMPETE or go out of business

They want to protect their companies

Like US , Germany, France

They talked of free trade when their products were much superior and Asian nations imposed protectionism

Today when they are being left behind, they scream and yell and whine about tariffs and duties

China has many weapons here

If you want EVs – you need the Chinese Battery, Electric System and Motors and Chargers

The Chinese make the world’s best and most cost efficient products

Even Tesla battery technology is inferior to CATL and it’s latest batteries

It’s only in Autonomous driving that Tesla has an edge

So frankly China for the next 15 years at least can simply ban the export of batteries or impose a 80% tariff on EV exports and ensure European and US EVs simply can’t compete with ICEs

It throttles the EU green initiative

China loses the EU market but critically ensures Russia & Saudi gains a major leverage as EU and US become more dependent on Oil

That is one card

The Bigger card is

China can play it’s own protectionism

China has a huge market for European Cars with Eight Brands having their largest market in China

That’s 157,000 Jobs

China could simply ban the imports tomorrow and that would finish these companies revenue and share wise

Like the Iphone

Intel & Qualcomm openly said if China forced them to choose between the Chinese market and the Commerce Department restrictions, they would have to choose China for the sake of their US stockholders

If China banned Qualcomm entirely today and said “Okay. We will live with inferior phones but you B******* won’t sell or get a fifty cent piece from us”

Qualcomm would be brutally mauled

The Entire smartphone industry will be brutally mauled

The Entire Semiconductor industry will be brutally mauled

The Chinese are VERY PATIENT PEOPLE and they will play their cards very slowly

They thrive on competing

If China simply decides to close its markets to Foreigners except it’s Russian and Global South friends who will sell it all the Energy and Food it wants

Then most of the Tech firms will be brutally mauled

It was predicted that if Apple was banned entirely from China – $ 1.02 Trillion of it’s market share would never come back

The Total hit on the entire industry could touch $ 7–12 Trillion

Who will take up the slack?

India is expected to touch 40% of Chinas present market in 17–21 years (2040–2044)

Nobody else can take up even 3% of this slack

So China has a lot of Brahmastras to use

There will be no more Huaweis

Huawei was a blow

Nobody expected the West to be so brutally lawless and act like a mafia state , like a land with zero laws

Today China is ready

Every US attack has a party from China including the biggest Brahmastra

CUT OFF ACCESS TO PHARMA APIs & Cut off all components needed for Medical Equipment
Devalue US Debt by suddenly pegging an exchange rate of 2 Yuan to 1 USD. China will lose 17 Trillion Yuan and after the peg is removed the rate could reach 10–11 but US will lose 160 Trillion Yuan ($ 25 Trillion) , 8 times worse than the 2008 Crisis

Here’s Why They’re Coming For Russell Brand

Back when he was a hard-partying movie star, Russell Brand was the darling of the mainstream media.

But ever since the British comedian started turning hard against the establishment, exposing the mainstream narrative on COVID, the Ukraine War and empire, the knives have been out for him. And now we know how they plan to get him, with a series of questionable rape allegations emerging from anonymous sources in his distant past. Guest host Craig “Pasta” Jardula and Americans’

Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss why the establishment would have determined that Brand had to be disappeared from the discourse.

What did your parents say to you as a kid that still affects you today?

My dad is the best mechanic, I’ve seen him pull apart motors, transmissions, put them back together with no problem. Cars pull better, the knocking sound gone from the motor, take a test light and track down a short in a ticket making brake light system.

He can lay boards to a deck or floor and they fit perfectly everytime.

Make a brace for a wobbly door that hides from view, eyeball a fence line to be exactly lined up post to post. Watching my dad work is like watching an artist paint a masterpiece or craft a sculpture.

After school I would fly through my homework so I could start dinner and be ready when dad got home.

Some nights I would be doing my homework and trying to make dinner simultaneously and dad would come in. “Let’s have a look” or “let’s knock this out”.

But when I started junior high school, dad stopped helping with my homework, he started stirring the pot or watching the oven. He still watched me do my homework and was certainly right there but he didn’t offer to read or assist. Then I caught him.

One hot humid night I couldn’t sleep, my oxygen machine was drying my throat, but I’m sweating bad (I know not sexy for a girl but I have high metabolism) and I get up for some water.

Dad is sitting at the table with one of my school books. He jumped when he saw me, like he was stealing something or about to get in trouble.

He was saying sorry and mumbling about not having permission to go in my backpack.

I didn’t care it was just a school book and I have nothing to hide from my dad so being in my backpack was no big deal. But what he said next floored me; “I wanted to understand the lesson, I couldn’t understand what you were doing earlier and I hoped I could figure it out. I know I’m not very smart but I don’t want you to think less of me.”

I was shocked, me think less of the greatest person in my life, why would he, how could he ever think that?

This was when I started to learn of dad’s disability, he has severe dyslexia.

Now I know people will say that’s not a disability or several people have that but it’s the way it affects the individual.

My dad graduated high school on what is now considered a 9th grade level, and then just barely. He is a hands on learner, because he doesn’t trust himself to read and comprehend instructions, words plainly written on a page seem like a foreign language to him.

Numbers to a simple math equation would make him basically stop thinking and just have a blank mind. I was beginning to see why dad couldn’t balance the bank account, why he only had oral agreements with clients, and hated texting.

People had called him dumb, lazy and stupid until he believed it himself and he was afraid the person he admired most would think less of him.

Russell Brand – sinister demonetisation attempt by MP

Big major changes all over the collective West. Sheech!

Does being born into poverty affect your mindset later on in life?

Speaking for myself.

I grew up and was mostly raised in “the inner city.” So that’s my experience with being poor. I don’t know what it’s like to live rural poor.

I don’t live there anymore. Right now I’m pretty comfortably middle-class.

One way that I am marked out as “different” compared to many of my peers, is that I am very, VERY cynical when it comes to the treatment of the poor. It is one of the few big things I am not really partisan or ideological over.

Poverty is a burden, and it’s a burden that most people will hate, despise, and pity you for carrying. This is regardless of party, race, color, or creed. I am amazed and saddened to know just how much easier life gets when you are not poor, and how much more people will like you.

Life really is pay-to-win. And with that realization, I see that my poverty was really nothing more than a hinderance. My life would’ve been much easier, in virtually every way, had I not been poor growing up. I see no glory in coming out of it, no special mindset for having been in it — other than cynicism. I can’t find any narrative for myself to have made the sheer unfairness of being born into poverty mean something. It just happened. Like getting hit by a bus.

Although, one way I suppose it’s affected me, is that I don’t hate or blame the poor for their poverty. This isn’t to say that some poor people don’t make disastrous choices. But I went to an expensive college. I’ve been around rich people. They make plenty of disastrous choices; they just have the money to mitigate the fallout. Humans make bad choices. The poor are expected to be superhumans and are blamed for failing.

*sigh*

Another way it has affected me is that it’s made me much less sympathetic to the middle-class, and I am middle-class. The middle-class complains endlessly, about everything. They are constantly sucking all of the air out of the room. Politicians dote on them regularly. Middle-class this, middle-class that. The middle-class even has this theory where they are the defenders of democracy and without them everything would fall apart. And on and on and on.

Let me tell you, the middle class is spoiled. The gulf between the poor and the “middle class” is so enormous it would make you cry if you lived it — as I have lived it. But the middle-class get to complain constantly about their property taxes (imagine owning property!) and how college scholarships don’t help them because they’re “at the cutoff” and blah blah blah.

And the poor? They get a swift kick and are told to “work harder.”

Sometimes you have to laugh…

4 Airplane Outburst More Terrifying Than Tiffany Gomas

JP MORGAN CEO SOUNDS ALARM – Dark Winter for Banks

Hal Turner

Yesterday, speaking at an industry event organized by Barclays, CEO Jamie Dimon sounded the alarm on a slew of headwinds that will hit the U.S. economy hard in the next couple of months, and pointed to several risks that could deal heavy blows to consumers, investors, businesses and banks.

On Monday, he weighed in on how new regulation by the Fed will impact customers in the coming months. The changes will certainly not make them happy. Dimon explained how plans for new capital rules in the United States could damage the attractiveness of bank stocks, and make banking costs go even higher for consumers.

He argued that the Fed’s “’Basel III Endgame’ reforms” would make loans even more expensive, and would force banks to reduce the amount of money they lend, which could drive banking activities into less regulated sectors. Dimon stressed that more lenders could run into problems just like Silicon Valley Bank did this spring. “Any crisis that damages Americans’ trust in their banks damages all banks — a fact that was known even before this crisis,” he wrote. “Even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come,” he emphasized.

He also said that it is “a huge mistake” to think that the U.S. economy will boom “for years” given that there are so many risks out there. With interest rates still going up, conditions will become even more recessionary, and “you are going to see more people out there with problems”.

It is for that reason that JPMorgan has just reiterated its bearish stance on the stock market, urging its clients to stay defensively positioned. Analysts at the firm also adjusted the bank’s investment strategy in response to rising commodity prices and the potential spike in inflation. JPMorgan strategist Marko Kolanovic also noted that the increased potential for bank turbulence, an oil shock, and slowing growth is poised to send stocks back toward their 2022 lows, as reported by Bloomberg News.

We still have three more months to go before this year is done, and a lot more can happen in financial markets. One of the biggest concerns right now is the real estate sector. Warren Buffet’s investment partner and vice president of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger recently observed that hundreds of banks are exposed to commercial real estate loans that are at risk of going into default. He thinks there is trouble ahead for the U.S. commercial property market. “A lot of real estate isn’t so good anymore,” Munger said. “We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. There’s a lot of agony out there.”

These are the very early chapters of this crisis. But when even the head of one of the biggest financial institutions on the planet is worried about growing risks, we should definitely brace for pain because much worse is yet to come. Although it may take a while for all the dominoes to fall, we won’t be able to avert a decline that is already in motion. The clock is ticking, and time is running out for the U.S. financial system.

From the Concrete Slab Came a Pitiful Meow

What are some ways that American companies can keep up with Chinese companies like Huawei that are becoming increasingly competitive and innovative?

Why did US win the space race?

Why did they edge out the USSR by 1970?

They promoted meritocracy and hired thousands of people of ability

Including hiring 3 Colored Women in Texas well before the Civil Rights Act

It’s because THEY DIDN’T SANCTION THE USSR

They COMPETED

They used their resources and advantages and competed aggressively and took advantage of the fact that USSR had the worst leadership from 1966 onwards

That’s all they need to do

Compete and allow Economic forces to decide markets rather than the Congress or Politicians

Take Alipay and Wechat

Amazing Apps

If we bring Alipay and Wechat to India today, they will compete one on one with Phone Pe and Google Pay

That will lead to fierce competition and lead to one superior product evolving or a market resolution

Instead if we keep protecting US Apps from competition, the Chinese will build their apps and compete ferociously in their own markets and evolve their apps on a far superior level than US Apps as is already happening today

Chinese Apps like JD or Meituan or Alipay or Wechat or SHEIN are far superior to US equivalents and of course Tik Tok which has launched ecommerce functions in US

Meanwhile because of Chinese protectionism, Google wasn’t allowed in China and due to no direct one on one competition, Baidu has never reached the level of penetration and functionality of Google

The US today have a sense of entitlement that is unbelievable

Anyone develops some product that could compete with their licensing of core technology, and they invent some trumped up security threat and sanction the product and threaten anyone who uses that product

It may work against small players

Against China, a Nation of tremendous talent and intelligence plus a superb merit based system – It is a huge axe blow on your own feet

US has abandoned free economic forces and fair competition

That signs their death warrant

China had decide to embrace both. That means they will win.

Ultimately Economics is always the same

RESPECT THE ECONOMIC FORCES

The US must abandon all sanctions and go for free trade and competition with China including full access to each others markets.

What’s the weirdest thing a guest has done at your house?

Oh my gosh. I’m still getting over this one. I travel a lot on business and, when I do, I usually try to find someone to come in and house sit for me. Well, I met a woman whom I thought would be great for house sitting. Because she was going to be taking care of 3 dogs, 5 cats, and 4 horses, I told her that I’d pay her $150/day, which she agreed to.

I told her that she could sleep in the guest room (which is decorated very nicely with a new bed, sheets, blankets, etc. I showed her how to use the big screen tv, etc — and I told her that she could eat any food in the house with the exception of a certain coffee and also to please not do anything illegal on my property.

When she came over, I was very specific and left written instructions so she wouldn’t be confused. The specific rules were for the protection of my animals.

Feed the horses in the feeders and don’t move the feeders.
Fill up the water trough daily so they have fresh water and, because it was winter and freezing, make sure that the water de-icer was left on.
Put the dogs in the house before going out the gate, then go back and let them out. If you open the gate, the dogs will run out and you’ll have a difficult time getting them back.
Do not allow the cats to go out. They’re indoor cats and 1 is a female that I just adopted — she’s not spayed yet so under no circumstances can she go out.

She agreed to everything and I was happy that I’d found someone who could take care of my house and animals.

During my business trip, I called several times to make sure things were going ok and she said they were so I was happy that I didn’t have to worry about things.

When I returned from my trip, I was absolutely shocked. I walked into my house and couldn’t breathe. The house was completely filled with pot smoke. (And I have a BIG house). I thought she’d spent the entire time getting stoned. But that wasn’t all. She had gone through ALL my cupboards and closets and taken everything out and rearranged things. NOTHING was where it had been. All the furniture was changed around. My bedroom had been completely changed, including my bed — which she’d been sleeping in and had stained the bed and sheets — not sure with what but it was disgusting.

She had also thrown all the cats outside — because “cats don’t belong in the house.” I’m not sure what she’d done to the dogs, but they were terrified of her. I do know that she had left the gate open and they got out and it took her hours to find and get them back in. (I live in a rural area where people shoot stray dogs so they were in danger.)

I also found out that she’d just dumped the feed for the horses in a completely different area than where they were supposed to be fed AND it was where there was a lot of sand — so essentially the horses were eating feed mixed with sand (which can be deadly.) She’d pulled the de-icer out of the watering trough and pulled the plug so the trough was empty and the horses had no water.

The back of the remote control for the tv had disappeared — and I found it a month or so later hidden in the back of my closet. She’d ripped out plugs from my desktop computer and taken all the ink out of my printer.

I had a brand new washer and dryer. She pulled them out and the hoses and plugs were disconnected. I had a beautiful handmade wooden bowl was on my fireplace mantel. She took it off the mantel, took it into the bathroom and poured liquid soap into it, then put it into the shower so the wood had warped beyond saving. It was ruined.

I collect art and she’d moved all my pictures around and turned them upside down.

My best friend had died a few years before, and he had given me a ceramic angel before he passed. It had a lot of meaning for me and I loved it — it was so precious to me. It had disappeared. I found out later that she’d thrown it away — I found it in the trash in a bag of dirty cat litter.

Oh, and my coffee that I’d specifically asked her not to use (there were at least 5 other kinds there) — what she didn’t use, she dumped out in the trash.

There were a lot of other things that she’d done, but you get the idea. I was freaked out and horrified, and honestly, she scared me.

I asked her why she’d done all this and she said got belligerent and told me that she had every right to do it because it was HER house and she could have it any way she wanted to. She told me that my dogs were too spoiled and they deserved to be “trained”. Part of that training was making them sleep outside. (Imagine a Basset Hound being made to sleep outside with no shelter, in the middle of February when the temperatures were down to 0 degrees F.) The same with the cats. (Oh? and that female cat? Let’s just say that there are now two more kittens here. ::::sigh:::::)

When I asked why she’d say that she’d house sit if she didn’t want to follow my instructions, she said that she came from a family with 6 sisters and she was the youngest. She hated it when they told her what to do and so she ALWAYS did the OPPOSITE of what anyone “ordered” her to do.

Then she said that NOBODY orders her around. She got more and more angry and upset and I was actually afraid that she would become violent. She started screaming at me and daring me to call her a “F’ing C*** B****”. (Sorry, I don’t use that kind of language.)

I did pay her, because I just wanted her gone. I did tell her that she was never to set foot on my property again or I’d have her arrested. After she left and had given me back my keys, I noticed that one of the door keys was new so she’d obviously had extras made. The next day all the locks were changed, including the locks on the gates.

The next day the texts from her started. She told me that she’d thrown away my angel but I didn’t need anything from a dead friend and SHE’D be my new best friend. The texts continued to get creepier and creepier.

I responded that if she ever texted, called or tried to contact me again, I’d have her arrested for stalking. Then I blocked her. She totally freaked me out.

I haven’t seen her since. But I did get a new mattress. :::::shivers::::::

Four-Onion Steak

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 (12 ounce) boneless beef top-loin steaks, cut 1 inch thick
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 medium leek, thinly sliced
2 shallots, chopped
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup sliced scallions
Scallions, sliced into 3-inch pieces (optional)

Instructions

Cut steaks into 4 portions.
Combine garlic salt, chili powder, pepper and cinnamon. Use your fingers to press mixture onto both sides of each steak portion.
In a large skillet cook steaks in hot oil over medium heat to desired doneness, turning once. Allow 8 to 11 minutes for medium rare or 12 to 14 minutes for medium.
Transfer steaks to a serving platter, reserving drippings in the skillet. Keep warm.
For sauce, add white onion, leek and shallots to skillet. Cook and stir over low heat for 5 minutes or until onions are tender.
Add beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more or until broth is slightly reduced.
Add scallions. Spoon onion mixture over steaks.
Garnish with scallion pieces, if desired.

Do Cats Think They’re The Boss?

CIA impressions

When I first arrived in China, I lived downtown in Lohu. And to get around, I rode the subway. Very convenient, and super cheap too.

I have many, many stories about those days.

At that time, My hair was short, but I had a long beard. I also wore a red baseball cap (backwards) and wore tan cargo shorts, and a black cargo vest over my black tee-shirt. I didn’t think too much about it.

My eyeglasses were tinted, giving me the appearance of wearing really dark sunglasses.

The baseball hat was to cover up my bald spot, and the beard was to over compensate. The cargo shorts were the norm, being 90F at 90% humidity daily. And the cargo vest is, well necessary, for tissues, phone, charger, wires, and all the rest.

I would ride the subway, and lean, casually on the side rails as the subway sped through the underground tunnels.

One day, I noticed another fellow on the train. He was of middle east appearance. Swarthy, perhaps from Afghanistan, Pakistan or maybe Syria. And he just keep looking at me. I tried not to look back, but he was just sitting there staring at me. His mouth open.

Open.

O-P-E-N

I would watch him in the glass reflection on the train. Yup. He was fixated on looking at me….

I wonder why?

Today…

Did China ever buy Mig-29s from Russia?

No, China has never imported MiG-29

Historically, in 1990, the Chinese Air Force planned to import MiG-29s. But when they visited Moscow, a MiG-29 crashed during a demonstration.

This makes the Chinese hesitant to sign purchase agreements.

At this time, the Sukhoi Design Bureau quietly gave the SU-27 information to the Chinese (the SU-27 was still confidential at the time)

The Chinese compared the performance indicators of the SU-27 with the MiG-29. In a short period of time, a consensus was reached: buy back SU27 at any cost.

Facts have proved that the Chinese are wise. As a country with a vast territory, the range of MIG29 is too short and cannot meet the requirements. The SU-27 is more powerful and has a better design. An upgraded version of SU27 made by the Chinese: J16 fighter jet

The Chinese have developed and produced many upgraded models based on the SU-27, and their performance even surpasses the Russian version.

Until China’s fourth-generation fighter jets entered service, the improved SU-27 fighter jets had always been the absolute main force of the Chinese Air Force.

What is something that your mother-in-law said that you’ll never forget?

My MIL raised 5 boys, I married the eldest Son, we had 2 sons so I was the only girl for a couple of years..when he died in a car accident 8 years later. I made sure my boys spent time with her. I remarried but still visited her thru the years. Forty-six years later, She is now 90, on one visit, we were just talking, when she said, I always wanted a daughter, but had the boys instead, I had to wait till you came to have my daughter. I had called her Mom all these years, i was so touched to hear that. Bless her.

Cumin-Rubbed Steaks with
Avocado Salsa Verde

3443d757981d90bae33d132252411a07 salsa verde restaurant recipes

Ingredients

2 beef shoulder center steaks* (ranch), cut 1 inch thick (about 8 ounces each)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4 cup prepared tomatillo salsa
1 small ripe, Fresh California Avocado, diced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

Press cumin evenly onto beef steaks.
Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot.
Place steaks in skillet; cook 13 to 16 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally.
Meanwhile combine salsa, avocado and cilantro in small bowl.
Carve steaks into slices; season with salt, as desired.
Serve with salsa.

Notes

* Two beef top loin (strip) steaks, cut 1 inch thick, may be substituted for shoulder center steaks. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, turning occasionally.

The Blinken Doctrine: A two front war with Russia and China

Blinken might be the worst American “diplomat” in American history. He’s drunk on American exceptionalism out of touch with the new realities of multipolarity.

This is important. Pay attention.

What is the craziest arrest you have ever seen?

Back in my late teens, many moons ago, I saw cops arrest my friend to cover their asses late at night. Earlier, they had pulled over a motorcycle rider & passenger for riding on a bike with no lights on a back, unlit , dangerous windy road. But even though they were riding a black bike and wearing black (so basically invisible) the cops let them go…no ticket

20 minutes later, I was standing by the side of the road waiting for my friend to back his car out of a tight space so I could get in. The bike rider came around a bend and plowed into my friend’s car. He & his passenger were killed instantly when they were thrown from the bike. The cops, when they showed up, arrested my friend after verbally abusing & berating him and threw him in back of the squad car. They then proceeded to pick up the money, laying on the road, that had fallen out of the rider’s pocket and we’re stuffing it into their own pockets. I brought that to the attention of the crowd that was assembling. Cops told me to mind my own business. Then they started yelling at my innocent friend some more who was beyond distraught.

I finally opened the squad car door & let him out which then got me arrested also. Get to the station and I make my phone call. 5 minutes later the Chief walks in and all hell brakes lose as the cops on duty try to get their stories straight and throw my friend & I under the bus. The Chief sees me & demands to speak to me directly. I tell him everything that happened, including the cops taking the victim’s money. Of course the arresting cops call me a liar.

One slight problem for them. The Chief was a family friend who had known me since I was a baby. His best friend was my grandfather who just happened to be a police Chief 3 towns over. Long story short, two of the cops lost their jobs over this.

AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIANS

The following has been written by the late Douglas Adams of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” fame.

“Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the bottom half of the planet. It is recognisable from orbit because of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge into the girting sea.

Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology, but they still call it the “Great Australian Bight”, proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory but they can’t spell either.

The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other landmasses and sovereign lands are classified as continent, island or country, Australia is considered all three.

Typically, it is unique in this.

The second confusing thing about Australia is the animals. They can be divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep. It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them.

Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on), under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else.

A stick is very useful for this task.

The last confusing thing about Australia is the inhabitants.

A short history: Sometime around 40,000 years ago some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and a lot of them died.

The ones who survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man’s proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories. They also discovered a stick that kept coming back.

Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north.

More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons), ate all their food, and a lot of them died.

About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since. It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal and litigate (marks of a civilised culture they say), whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert – equipped with a stick.

Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on ‘extended holiday’ and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside their boots every morning for fatal surprises. They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.

There is also the matter of the beaches. Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the world, although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching

a beach sunset is worth the risk.

As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a sour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick. Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string and mud.

Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the ‘Grass is greener on the other side of the fence’ syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land “Oz” or “Godzone” (a verbal contraction of “God’s Own Country”). The irritating thing about this is… they may be right.

TIPS TO SURVIVING AUSTRALIA

Don’t ever put your hand down a hole for any reason – WHATSOEVER.

The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.

Always carry a stick.

Air-conditioning is imperative.

Do not attempt to use Australian slang unless you are a trained linguist and extremely good in a fist fight.

Wear thick socks.

Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.

If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die. And don’t forget a stick.

Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.

HOW TO IDENTIFY AUSTRALIANS

They pronounce Melbourne as “Mel-bin”.

They think it makes perfect sense to decorate highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.

They think “Woolloomooloo” is a perfectly reasonable name for a place, that “Wagga Wagga” can be abbreviated to “Wagga”, but “Woy Woy” can’t be called “Woy”.

Their hamburgers will contain beetroot. Apparently it’s a must-have.

How else do you get a stain on your shirt?

They don’t think it’s summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle.

They believe that all train timetables are works of fiction.

And they all carry a stick..

Russia strikes Kiev’s depleted uranium stocks, Storm Shadow missiles depots, intelligence centers.

“NATO is a suicide pill to the world. So if you want peace, pray for a Russian victory.” ~Scott Ritter

Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer for an unusual reason?

Yes I was pulled over by the police while driving in London. As I hadn’t done anything wrong I asked the one who wasn’t checking my details why I’d been stopped. He said his colleague happened to be interested in the make of car I was driving and noticed that the number plate didn’t seem to match the year it was manufactured.

He e quite correct as it had been kept at factory for their use and so had only been registered for use on the road a year later. I thought it amazing that he’d noticed that while driving in the London traffic.

What’s the hottest thing a teacher has ever said to you?

Ms. Tan was this petite girl in her early 20s, she was athletic, tanned, had the most perfect brown-tinged hair right out of a shampoo ad, and most of all she had a certain “get-out-of-my-way” badass attitude matched with an inexplicably attractive resting-bitch face.

She was the latest in a string of Physical Education teachers assigned to my class of 12 year old boys thoroughly enjoying the first blasts of puberty.

We were all on the ground pretending to do sit-ups or something like that while she yelled at us like a drill instructor, except this drill instructor was in skin tight hot shorts and her fluorescent sports bra was shining through her translucent T-shirt. We were all really enjoying that.

She was so caught up in her yelling that she didn’t watch where she was walking and she tripped over me.

She was sprawled face first all over me.

She was pressed so close to me I could smell her hair.

The whole class erupted into a derisive but mostly envious “Ooooo~” and “WAAAH!”

Instead of shooting up and telling everyone to shut the hell up, Ms. Tan locked her sympathetic eyes with me, smiled a smile I’d never before seen, and said:

“So sorry, looks like I fell for you”

She laughed, and got up. She then told everyone to shut the hell up.

I was the class hero for the entire year.

Uncanny Valley Explained | Why Robots, Dolls and Mannequins are Creepy

Man in Peru Caught Out Drinking With an 800-year-old Mummy!

A pre-Hispanic mummy of between 600 and 800 years old, was found inside the backpack of a delivery man from a delivery company in the Peruvian region of Puno, near Bolivia. The 26-year-old Peruvian man who was caught with the mummy said, ‘Juanita’ was a kind of ‘spiritual girlfriend’ he kept it at home “and took it out to show his friends.”

Drunk in Charge of a Mummy

The police found three young men accompanied by a mummy that was inside a thermal delivery suitcase. The discovery occurred on Saturday, February 25, 2023, in the city of Puno, in southern Peru. The group of friends was surprised by the police authorities in a routine check while they were consuming alcoholic beverages at the Mantaro viewpoint of Puno.

The 26-year-old had with him a delivery box from the company ‘Pedidos Ya’. Inside, there were human remains in a fetal position still bearing soft tissues with characteristics corresponding to a mummy.

According to the BBC , the young man described the mummy as ‘a kind of spiritual girlfriend’ as he had been sharing his room with it for some time. The mummy was supposedly owned by his father, and was generally kept in a box next to the TV. It is unknown how the mummy came to be owned by his father.

The Ministry of Culture specified through a statement that the remains – classified as a national cultural asset – were identified as a mummified adult man presumably from the eastern area of Puno. Sources from that office informed EFE that the individual would have been over 45 years old and approximately 1.51 meters (5 foot) tall, according to preliminary investigations.

#PUNO Momia era trasladada en mochila de un delivery @pedidosya. @PoliciaPeru #terna intervino a joven y sus amigos libando junto a los restos arqueológicos de la época pre hispánica en el mirador Manto en Puno @MinCulturaPe @CNNEE @ReutersLatam pic.twitter.com/mI3cA2EOMb

— Puno Sin Filtro (@PunoSinFiltro) February 26, 2023

An Odd Housemate

The authorities estimate that the human remains were 800 years old, and would likely come from the district of Patambuco. Apparently, they had been in the possession of the family for about 30 years, the authorities from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture informed various local media.

The delivery man stated that the mummy was kept at his parents’ house and that he took it out to be seen by his friends from the neighborhood, according to the newspaper El Comercio .

The police confiscated the mummy and turned it over to the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. The delivery man and his two friends, aged between 23 and 26, have been detained and are being investigated for possible crimes against the country’s cultural heritage.

Why You Need to Leave America – 5 Signs You Can’t Ignore Anymore (It’s Time to GO!)

Yup. Good video.

What was the cruelest thing a company has ever done to you as an employee?

I was working as a photo engraver for a major newspaper. It was a union job, so I was making a pretty good salary. I was a newlywed, having gotten married two months earlier. I was working the day shift, 8 AM to 4:30 PM. My wife and I were still learning how to live as a couple.

Just before quitting time on a Thursday afternoon, I was told that starting next Monday, I was being moved to the graveyard shift, 1:30 AM to 8 AM. This meant that I would no longer be able to sleep with my wife. We made the best of the situation, but I was pissed that someone had enough control over my life that they could make me do something I did not want to do.

I was working in a room by myself operating a huge graphic arts camera. People would bring work to me, but I primarily worked by myself. Each night I would come to work and try to figure out how I could get out of this mess. I realized I had to work for myself. I had a lot of time to think.

After months of soul searching, I decided to go to law school. This would allow me to get out of the newspaper and work for myself. My schedule was work: 1:30 AM to 8 AM, go home, have a meal with my wife and then go to bed. We never figured out what to call the meals as it was breakfast for one of us and dinner for the other. I would sleep until 5 PM when my wife woke me for another meal. I would go to school, take classes from 7 PM to 10 PM and would stay out at school until midnight studying, come home and start the cycle all over again.

It was rough, but worth it. Right in the middle of law school, my first child was born. I was now the sole income for the family, a law student, and a new father.

I just retired from practicing law for over 35 years.

China is exploring the use of a new EUV light source in making its own lithography facility

China is exploring the use of a new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source in making its own lithography facility but technology experts said such an ambitious goal may take many years to achieve.

They say the future launch of a SSMB accelerator, nicknamed “Lithographic cannon”, will help China bypass the export controls of the United States and the Netherlands.

The SSMB technology in lithography can help China break the technological blockage of ASML.

An article published by Acta Physica Sinica (a Chinese academic journal) has proposed to create SSMB-EUV lithography while Tsinghua’s research has already proved the feasibility of this idea.

News about China’s plan to build an SSMB facility in Xiongan New Area near Beijing, with this project, if it’s successful, China can bypass the US sanctions.

China should develop the SSMB technology because it can obtain neither the EUV lithography from ASML nor key parts needed such as lenses from German’s Zeiss and laser beam tools from the United States’ Cymer and German’s Trumpf.

Currently, ASML’s EUV lithography is using a light source originating from a laser-produced plasma (LPP) source that has a maximum power of 500 watts. A ring-shaped SSMB accelerator can create an EUV light source with a power of about 1 kilowatt (1000 watts). Its circumference may range from 100 to 150 meters.

Another EUV light source comes from superconducting radio-frequency free electron laser (SRF-FEL), which can achieve maximum power of between 1 and 10 kW. Such a facility can stretch out for as long as 200 meters. More technological breakthroughs are needed to achieve this.

In general, the power of a laser beam should reach 250W for making 7nm chips, 350W for 5nm and 500W for 3nm. It needs 1kW to make 2nm chips.

All these long-term developments have recently caught the attention of Chinese netizens, who wish to see China move on to making its own EUV lithography after the successful launch of Mate60 Pro.

Coming Back Home After 3 Years In Thailand, here are my thoughts

Very interesting.

With top Chinese universities scrapping English tests, will China become more isolated or do we all need to learn Mandarin as China advances?

Hi, Henry R. Greenfield. Thanks for the interesting question.

Don’t worry about it.

Put such thoughts out of your head.

Chinese are very accommodating.

We learn English so that you don’t have to learn Chinese.

Some of us even give ourselves an English name so that you won’t have to struggle with our Chinese names.

My former colleague in Dublin, Ying Xue, introduces herself as “Snow”, so that no one will struggle with her name.

My former housemate in Dublin, Chu Jun, introduces herself as “Jennifer”, so that no one will struggle with her name.

My former classmate in the States, Shi Ting, introduces herself as “Kelly”, so that no one will struggle with her name.

See the pattern here?

In my opinion, that’s pretty accommodating.

Your facility with Mandarin – or lack thereof – matters not one whit to me.

We can just converse in English.

I admit, I’m not the Second coming of the Bard – to be honest, I don’t really get poetry, I can never tell great from doggerel – but I strongly believe that my command of the English language is at a much higher level than your grasp of Mandarin will ever reach, could ever reach, in this lifetime at least.

And that’s not hubris speaking.
Just common sense.

So, rest easy.

You will never need to learn Mandarin.

Banish those fears from your mind.

Take a deep breath.

Wipe the sweat that has beaded your brow.

Steady your hands.

And enjoy what remains of your existence on this ball of rock.

Life is too short to wallow in fear and hate.

Crumb-Crusted Top Sirloin and
Roasted Garlic Potatoes with Bourbon Sauce

crumb crusted top sirloin roasted potatoes with bourbon sauce

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Roasted Garlic Potatoes

2 large russet potatoes, each cut lengthwise into 8 wedges (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Steak

1 beef top sirloin steak, boneless, cut 2 inches thick (about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon prepared spicy brown mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup soft whole wheat bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Bourbon Sauce

1/2 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons bourbon
1/4 cup Half-and-Half
Pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F.

Roasted Garlic Potatoes

Place potato wedges in 15 x 10-inch metal baking pan.
Combine oil, garlic, salt and pepper in small bowl. Drizzle over potatoes; toss to coat. Spread potatoes in single layer. Set aside.

Steak

Combine mustard, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in same small bowl; spread evenly onto beef Top Sirloin Steak.
Combine bread crumbs and parsley in another small bowl. Pat mixture evenly over mustard mixture.
Place steak on rack in shallow roasting pan. Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so tip is centered in thickest part of beef, not resting in fat. Do not add water or cover. Roast steak and potatoes in 425 dgrees F oven for 25 minutes; turn potatoes. Continue roasting 15 to 20 minutes to medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness for steak and until potatoes are tender.
Remove steak when meat thermometer registers 135 degrees F for medium rare; 150 degrees F for medium.
Transfer steak to carving board; tent loosely with aluminum foil. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes. (Temperature will continue to rise about 10 degrees F to reach 145 degrees F for medium rare; 160 degrees F for medium.)
Meanwhile prepare Bourbon Sauce.

Bourbon Sauce

Add broth and bourbon to roasting pan; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until browned bits attached to pan are dissolved. Boil for 2 minutes.
Add Half-and-Half; bring to a boil. Season with pepper, as desired. Keep warm.
Carve steak into slices. Spoon sauce over beef. Serve with potatoes.

Confession of the Day

My dying wife asked me if I’d be okay if she had sex with her ex one last time

My wife has a terminal disease. She is projected to live at most 9 months. I am of course destroyed. We’ve been together for a decade. I don’t remember life without her and I don’t know what I’m going to do when she’s gone. I have been doing my best to make the last days of her life good and grant whatever wish I can.

The doctors said that she was likely to need a wheelchair in 4 or 5 months, then by month 8 she’ll be bedridden for the last few weeks. That’s if she doesn’t decline faster.

Recently she sat me down and told me that one of the last things she wanted to do was have sex with a previous partner of hers. I of course was shocked and when I asked why the fuck she wants that. So basically she thinks that her most physically compatible satisfying lover was him. She gave a whole monologue about how sex sometimes is just physical and how emotionally fulfilling sex is with me but it was bullshit to get to that point.

So now I’m left with this, deny my dying wife a wish for my own ego, or let her go fuck another man who she feels was better. Honestly I’m so pissed of and betrayed that she asked this of me. I feel like I’m put in a position where I have to say yes because she’s dying.

I know what I want to say, but I don’t know if that’s right. I’m so hurt that sex with an ex was apparently so good that she needs to do it once before she dies.

I just hate everything about this.

Victor Davis Hanson warns America’s witnessing a ‘systemic collapse’

It amazes me how many don’t see the country collapsing before their eyes.

What was the best answer given by a bartender to a rude customer?

My best answer to a rude customer didn’t require speaking.

I had a foreign “dignitary” attempt to dine at the Japanese restaurant I bartended at. He showed up in 1 rolls Royce and his 7 wives arrived in a second one.

He sat drinking at my bar, ogling (in a very creepy way) every female in the bar while his wives stood quietly lined up against the wall without any refreshment. He complained about everything, including the bar snacks we put out demanding that I go to some specialty store to get a specific olive mix for him to munch on while waiting for his table. I declined

At one point in time, I bent over slightly to wash a glass and he just reached down my blouse to grab my breast. Without missing a beat, I grabbed a soda gun and sprayed the hell out of him with coke soda. Just happened that there were a couple of off duty cops sitting there so he was escorted out while a few of his wives snickered.

The gallons of coke soda answered for me. Lol

Will the reentry of Huawei into the market push Apple to prioritize innovation, or will their efforts primarily revolve around lobbying against Huawei through Congress and the federal government?

First of all, “Huawei’s reentry” is possible only because they overcame all the U.S. sanctions and built a better chips on a 7nm platform two generation behind the leading edge 3mn chip that Apple has. . . and producing it without ASML’s EUV machine that people said they had to have. And Huawei’s can even do what Apple’s can’t – make satellite calls that is essentially 6G.

So what do you expect any lobbying will do for Apple? Just as Biden expected Russia to topple with the SWIFT ban, all of Washington never thought Huawei could come up with its own chip. . . . and this soon!

And most important of all, Apple doesn’t want really to get China upset because they’re the only ones in the world who could make Apple’s leading devices. They may pass on assembly of legacy devices to India or Vietnam to please Washington but no one is set up to even touch China on their high end production lines.

Apple is indeed caught between the rock and a hard place, especially with the mobil market being down. They just canceled order for about 20% of the 3nm chip for which they were suppose to be taking up 90% of TSMC’s manufacturing run. So, it’s not just Apple that will be hurting.

In the meantime, Huawei has increased their orders for more Mate 60 Pros. its uhheard of that a dated chip is outperforming and outselling the leaders and if even last for a short while, expect red ink to be outflowing.

Shopping at One of the Last Open Sears Stores – Newport Centre Mall Jersey City, NJ

Homeless in the land of plenty

For a while, right before I was “recovered” by MAJ at China Lake Naval Weapons Systems, I found myself in California and making ends meet. I knew that I had to be in California, but where? And how to contact my “up-line handlers”?

I hadn’t a clue.

So I parked myself in various cities, and waited for their actions.

Right before they “found me”, I was working as a breakfast cook at a restaurant called “Louse’s place” in the beautiful town of San Louis Obispo. This town, a college town, was nestled in a nice area, surrounded by mountains, and built upon a network of streams. It was, at that time, quite lovely.

I wore a short sleeved shirt, a white apron, and a chef’s hat, and performed my cooking rituals in front of the customers. Basic stuff, really. Bacon and eggs, gourmet omelettes, and specialty sandwiches.

I lived off the small salary, and the tips that I would get.

I worked a 5am to 3 pm shift. And it wasn’t bad at all. I got a free lunch, and could take home leftover “blue plate specials”. And I did just that, as I would walk the distance to our broken down van, that was parked at the edge of a obscure parking lot until we could get enough money to get an apartment and leave.

We would eat the food in the front seat. And just pretty much lived a transit lifestyle.

This was in the 1980’s. I can only imagine how bad it must be today. Back then, We were a rare sight. Today, we would be just a ripple in a massive wave of homeless. Gosh! Can you even imagine?

…

I have a lot of compassion of others (homeless in California) who suffer through this plight. It’s difficult, and hard. Housing, utilities and expenses are outrageous, and they do not have to be that way, it is just the super greedy that this created this impossible situation.

If you ever get a moment, give some food to the homeless. Maybe they will accept, maybe not. But show some compassion.

Won’t you?

Todays…

What were the results of Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia?

North Korea will participate in a number of Far Eastern Projects and establish a Russia DPRK Labor Commission to engage upto 200,000 workers who will live in Far East for 10 years and could be Prospective migrants
DPRK and Russia will jointly modernize the Air Force of North Korea, Drones in North Korea and Air Defence of North Korea
DPRK and Russia will sign a Trade Pact
Putin has committed around 1 Trillion Rubles investment in North Korea

China will play a key role but China will remain hidden behind the scenes because it’s not a Sanctioned state like DPRK and Russia

They can’t sign an official agreement due to existing UN sanctions that Russia can’t break or violate

Yet they can unofficially make a no limits friendship which they just did

In exchange

DPRK promises assistance to Russia against ROK (South Korea) and Japan as a strong piece on the Chessboard

A Nuclear power with 50 Nukes minimum is a strong powerful deterrent

Huawei issues denial

That the governments of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela have ordered their government officials to stop using Apple iPhones and switch to Mate 60 Pro for security reasons.

Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed
Potatoes and White Gravy

Ingredients

6 cube steaks
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons seasoned salt
3/4 tablespoon celery salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
4 to 5 eggs

Instructions

Add the seasonings to the flour. Stir it all together.
Crack the eggs in a separate dish and mix them together.
Lay the steak in the flour and then dip it into the egg. Place it back in the flour.
Repeat with the rest of the steaks.
Lay the steak in hot oil. Let it cook for a couple of minutes at 350 degrees F.
Repeat with the rest of the steaks.
Plate the steak and serve with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy.

If you were a super hero, what would your super powers be, and what would be your cause? Why?

If I were a superhero, I want my superpower to be “involuntary empathy.” I have the power to make people feel what others are feeling. The process is simple: I mark a person as a “target,” and choose a “recipient,” and link them together. The selection can not be random. The recipient’s action must directly impact the target; otherwise, the connection will not work. Both the target and recipient maintain their independent thought and free will. They can go about doing their own thing. However, the recipient will experience the target’s emotions that directly result from the recipient’s action (and nothing else). The recipient can go kill the target if they are willing to experience death. On top of the obvious murder change, the recipient will suffer a mental breakdown and never recover. And if a person has multiple victims, the effect will compound.

For example, if a man abuses his wife, he will experience the physical pain, fear, desperation, anxiety, and shame… that directly result from his abuse. But he doesn’t get to experience the love and joy his wife felt when she was with her family or playing with her children.

I want to be able to walk up to a youth pastor who abuses children and make him experience the anguish, desperation, sense of isolation, shame, guilt, and self-loathing his victims felt while they were being molested. I want him to feel the pain that drove these poor kids to self-harm or even commit suicide. I want to make murderers feel the pain of the families of the victims. I want to make the billionaires feel the pain of their workers.

I want those pearl-clutching “concerned moms” to feel the fear and anxiety and isolation of trans kids who just want to use the fucking bathroom.

I want the shitty parents to feel the pain of the children they abuse.

I want the racists to feel the fear and anger of minority people they bully and harass. I want the KKK members to feel the pain of their victims. I want them to feel every single minute when the victims are beaten and tortured.

I want this pain and suffering to stay with these people for the rest of their lives. And the only way they can reduce their suffering is through genuine remorse and making actual amends.

I want Jeff Bezos to feel the exhaustion of his delivery guys and distribution center workers, the discomfort that they had to hold their bladder, the shame of having to pee in a bottle, the fear of being sick and missing work, the anxiety of doing full-time work and not making a living wage. I want him to feel it every day, every night, every minute of his life on his fucking 500 million dollar yacht. He won’t be able to enjoy any luxuries in life until he changes his company policy.

Of course, the recipient would experience positive feelings from the target as well if that’s the direct result of their actions. So if Jeff Bezos decided to pay his workers fair wages, give them sick leave, and some bonus, he would experience immense joy no 500 million dollar yachts would bring. If the billionaires want to experience incredible joy, they can donate to disaster relief and build schools for underprivileged children. I would be happy to connect them to the children they helped. I mean, actually helped, instead of using their charity organization as a tax haven.

I feel that I could actually make the world a better place if I had this power.

Even MOBILE HOMES Are No Longer AFFORDABLE

Today I am finally showing you around a mobile home park here in California. However, there is a caveat…Its quite expensive to own a mobile home here. However, I was able to speak with one of the residents and get you the details on what its like to live and own in a mobile home park.

You cannot afford to live in the USA.

Have you ever been on a date that was going so badly you walked out and left?

I had ridden motorcycles, ATVs, dirt bikes, etc on & off since I was 5. I met a guy on line who was a biker and agreed to meet for a ride & lunch. At the time, I didn’t have a bike so I was to be his backseat “princess”.

Before the ride, I questioned him a lot about riding, how long he had been riding, where all he had ridden to, what bikes he had owned, etc to make sure he was legit. I’m not putting my life at risk with a poser. He came off as legit.

We meet, start the ride and I realize that I was in trouble….he was dangerous with his riding skills. Tailgating, splitting lanes when there was no need to, cursing out car drivers, braking too late, taking curves too fast…. basically he was dangerous. I admit to being scared shitless. He refused to stop to let me get off his bike until we got to the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, I went from being an emotional wreck to being all out “Irish-Redhead” pissed but presented a calm and exterior. After ordering, I excused myself to go to the ladies room. While in there I called for an Uber to pick me up in 1/2 hour. I rejoined him, ate my meal, including a stiff drink to calm the nerves and thanked him. Then I just went outside and got in my Uber to go home. Be damned if I was getting back on the lunatic’s bike. And of course, I blocked him.

Why is Huawei’s new smartphone generating so much buzz?

Huawei was once the world’s top smartphone vendor, shipping over 200m phones in 2018.

Last year, under a de-facto embargo by the US, it shipped 28m, an eight-, almost nine-fold decrease from its peak.

The volume has been cannibalized by Apple, Samsung, and other Chinese brands.

Apple, in particular, now sell more iPhones in Greater China than stateside, all thanks to Huawei’s demise.

That’s “national security” and “clean networks” for all you Apple fans.

How bad were the curbs applied on Huawei? Phone assemblers froze assembly lines overnight and refused to fulfill their contractual obligations, components on order were canceled, Google withdrew Android licensing and design license agreements were ripped up.

Huawei had no OS, a completely disrupted hardware supply chain, a deficient set of highly specialized software design tools and its CFO under house arrest in Canada.

It would not have surprised anyone had Huawei announced its withdrawal from the consumer device space.

Amazingly, Huawei the 5G telecoms champion sold off Honor, its sub-brand, and issued 4G phones under the Huawei brand, weathering a gut-wrenching revenue drop off a cliff. It conducted an internal review of the entire supply chain, from its core telecoms equipment business to consumer devices, and began the painful and expensive task of de-Americanization. Any component that had even the hint of American IP was marked for domestic substitution. The process was completed for its telecoms equipment earlier, but the device side lacked two pieces—a capable GPU for AI-assisted gestures, payments and the camera, and a 5G modem, which was protected behind Qualcomm’s giant patent wall.

Huawei found hacks around EDA restrictions, and designed its own GPU. It also introduced novel transistor geometries to boost the performance of 7nm to the 5nm node. It rapidly upgraded its inhouse Hongmeng OS to 4.0, turning it into a polished platform with large language AI and IOT capability baked in. Its software ecosystem is coming along nicely, and the platform is well beyond the market share needed to ensure survival.

To add icing on the cake, the flagship Huawei phone of 2023 can make satellite calls, showcasing its space comms tech maturity and the bandwidth/coverage of the Chinese commercial satellite network.

In field tests conducted by a Hong Kong user, the Mate 60 Pro matched the iPhone 14’s 5G network speed, demonstrating Huawei’s 5G modem was a match for Qualcomm’s implementation. Not a bad milestone for a first effort, eh?

Huawei had no need for GPS, Qualcomm’s 5G, LG’s OLED, Samsung’s storage, Micron’s memory, or even upstream chip design tools that were vulnerable to US sanction. In fact, even if we took the best in class features from Apple, Google and Samsung and put them into a hypothetical hybrid champion, the Mate 60 Pro can still stand shoulder to shoulder, because it has a couple of industry-first or performance leading features. It is truly worthy of a 2023 flagship designation, earned fair and square.

Huawei did all these in less than 4 years, a remarkable turnaround despite becoming a corporation targeted for destruction by the US government, probably a historic first.

Huawei is finding its mojo again on way firmer footing, and it will sell every Mate 60 pro the production lines can churn out this year.

The NEW American Dream: GETTING OUT!

We grew up during the 1970s and 80s in the Midwest back when the American Dream was still the goal and attainable for most people in the middle class. If you worked hard for a loyal employer (they were still loyal back then) or at your own business, you could expect to have a shot at freedom, prosperity, a house, a car, a better life for your kids, etc. Sadly, that is no longer the case for several reasons we discuss in this video. Now, the NEW American Dream is about something most people never thought they would do: Leaving the United States.

Are economic sanctions really effective against countries like Russia and China?

There is a Golden Rule for Sanctions:-

(a) If you can produce your own food and supply your own food

(b) If you have a Product that has tremendous Global Demand and its deficit would lead to significant losses

Then You are immune from Most Sanctions on a Long term basis.

Its why Iran and Iraq have also survived Sanctions.

They have OIL.

Thats Why Afghanistan is likely to be roasted under Sanctions. Because they dont have the above merits.

How Will The Biden Administration Cope With Its Loss In Ukraine?

While this piece will touch on the war in Ukraine it is more about the U.S., and the Biden administration, and how they will cope with their defeat in their war on Russia. Please keep that in mind when commentating.

Washington’s moment of recognizing the defeat in Ukraine, and its consequences, has yet to arrive.

In his latest piece (archived) Seymour Hersh reports on the state of the war and of significant differences of opinion between the U.S. intelligence services:

There are significant elements in the American intelligence community, relying on field reports and technical intelligence, who believe that the demoralized Ukraine army has given up on the possibility of overcoming the heavily mined three-tier Russian defense lines and taking the war to Crimea and the four oblasts seized and annexed by Russia. The reality is that Volodymyr Zelensky’s battered army no longer has any chance of a victory.

The war continues, I have been told by an official with access to current intelligence, because Zelensky insists that it must. There is no discussion in his headquarters or in the Biden White House of a ceasefire and no interest in talks that could lead to an end to the slaughter. “It’s all lies,” the official said, speaking of the Ukrainian claims of incremental progress in the offensive that has suffered staggering losses, while gaining ground in a few scattered areas that the Ukrainian military measures in meters per week.
…
The American intelligence official I spoke with spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying has respect for Putin’s intellect but contempt for his decision to go to war with Ukraine and to initiate the death and destruction that war brings. But, as he told me, “The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.

“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House.”

The differences between the current CIA and the more neoconned Defense Intelligence Agency extend to their view on China:

A byproduct of the Biden administration’s neocon hostility to Russia and China—exemplified by the remarks of Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who has repeatedly stated that he will not currently countenance a ceasefire in Ukraine—has been a significant split in the intelligence community. One casualty are the secret National Intelligence Estimates that have delineated the parameters of American foreign policy for decades. Some key offices in the CIA have refused, in many cases, to participate in the NIE process because of profound political disagreement with the administration’s aggressive foreign policy. One recent failure involved a planned NIE that dealt with the outcome of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

I have reported for many weeks on the longstanding disagreement between the CIA and other elements of the intelligence community on the prognosis of the current war in the Ukraine. CIA analysts have consistently been far more skeptical than their counterparts at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on the prospect for a Ukraine success. The American media has ignored the dispute, but the London-headquartered Economist, whose well-informed reporters do not get bylines, has not.
…

The DIA is still saying that the Ukrainian army has a chance, a small one though, to break through the Russian lines. The White House still seems to believe in that. The CIA knows that the Ukraine is done.

Alastair Crooke, in a talk (vid) with Judge Napolitano, says that the moment of truth will only arrive in November.

But what will happen when everyone recognizes and acknowledges, if silently, that the war on Russia has failed?

Michael Brenner argues that the US Can’t Deal With Defeat:

Ukraine, today, has suffered huge losses of even greater (proportional) magnitude [than the German Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk], without achieving any significant territorial gains, unable even to reach the first layer of the Surovikin Line. That will clear the road to the Dnieper and beyond for the 600,000 strong Russian army equipped with weaponry the equal of what the West has given Ukraine. Hence, Moscow is poised to exploit its decisive advantage to the point where it can dictate terms to Kiev, Washington, Brussels et al.

The Biden administration has made no plans for such an eventuality, nor have its obedient European governments. Their divorce from reality will make this state of affairs all the more stunning — and galling. Bereft of ideas, they will flounder. How they will react is unknowable. We can say with certainty one thing: the collective West, and especially the U.S., will have suffered a grave defeat. Coping with that truth will become the main order of business.

Here is a menu of options for handling it:

Redefine what is meant by defeat, victory, failure, success, loss, gain. There is a new narrative that is scripted to stress these talking points: …
…
This narrative already has been given an airing in speeches by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. Its target audience is the American public; nobody outside the Collective West buys it, though — whether Washington has registered that fact of diplomatic life or not.

Retroactively Scale Back the Goals & Stakes
…
Cultivate Amnesia
…
Next: China
…

It is likely that the administration will use all four options to make the pain and memory of defeat go away. Declare victory over Russia because Russia was stopped at the border with Poland. Then forget about all the details and consequences and move towards war on China.

That could end catastrophically.

The focal shift from Russia in Europe to China in Asia is less a mechanism for coping with defeat than the pathological reaction of a country that, feeling a gnawing sense of diminishing prowess, can manage to do nothing more than try one final fling at proving to itself that it still has the right stuff — since living without that exalted sense of self is intolerable.
…
The U.S. was fortunate, in the case of Vietnam, that the United States’ dominant position in the world outside of the Soviet Bloc and the PRC allowed it to maintain respect, status and influence.

Things have now changed, though. The U.S. relative strength in all domains is weaker, strong centrifugal forces around the globe are producing a dispersion of power, will and outlook among other states. The BRICs phenomenon is the concrete embodiment of that reality.

Hence, the prerogatives of the United States are narrowing, its ability to shape the global system in conformity with its ideas and interests are under mounting challenge, and premiums are being placed on diplomacy of an order that seems beyond its present aptitudes.

The U.S. is confounded.

Major offices in the CIA, according to Hersh, have recognized the danger of such plans. It may well be the reason why the CIA’s informal spokesmen, David Ignatius, and others wrote that Biden should step down.

If he doesn’t the neoconservatives around him will have a great incentive to move on China as fast as possible. As Biden will have difficulties in winning next year’s election he needs some objective that can unify the country. A war that he can claim the U.S. will win is one. Some hostile naval exchanges with China will follow.

(Please don’t use the comments of this thread for details from the war in Ukraine. The current thread for such is here.)

Posted by b on September 21, 2023 at 17:05 UTC | Permalink

Dangerous

On topic we are at a dangerous inflection point. Ironically it is the potential of war with China that is preventing WW3 from starting, in my view. Maerica doesn’t know how to accept loss and animals are at their most dangerous when cornered.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Sep 21 2023 18:22 utc | 29

What are the strengths and weaknesses of China’s foreign policy towards the United States?

China’s foreign policy towards the U.S. is very simple indeed Allow the U.S. to commit suicide and give them a long rope to hang themselves since they choose ignorance, naïveté and hubris over knowing the real China.

This policy is highly effective cost almost nothing and hurt the U.S. beyond recognition. And it is the US doing to themselves. Take the Chinese response to US thinking they could knee cap China on supposed technological superiority on semi conductor. Over China.

China don’t wish to start a fight now wants to hurt snd harmed China but the US insisted. Hence China chose the precise response that will totally destroy the U.S. that cost China nothing and cost trillions upon trillions of losses in the U.S. chips industry.

But this is not the first time nor will it be the last. The last nation to threaten is one that helped you enjoyed a 30 years inflation free economy. But the U.S. started a trade war against China for no reason except it is popular for politicians. Today the U.S. is paying for a high inflation and looming recession.

Their policy as usual is sustainable, practical and pragmatic while the U.S. policy towards China hurts and harm the U.S. to no end. It is neither sustainable nor effective against China.

China Slams And Issues A Massive Warning To Europe | Sparks Tensions Over EV Exports

“Just like their master, the E.U. resorts to tariffs to try to slow down the growth of Chinese EV’s in its market. In other words, when they can’t compete, they employ dirty tricks to get what they want. How can the E.U. go about the accusation of government subsidies when the same eletrict car costs nearly twice the one in the Chinese domestic market? The madness is beyond belief.”

China can make life really bad for European car manufacturers if it wanted to.

Who is probably the luckiest guy ever?

This man survived the unthinkable on 9/11.

Stanley Praimnath, was working on the 81st floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

He was a vice president at Fuji Bank, a prestigious Japanese financial institution. He had a nice office with a view of the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River.

He had a good life, a loving family, and a strong Christian faith.

But everything changed in an instant when he saw a plane flying straight toward his building.

He later recalled:

Depiction of the plane.

“I saw this giant airplane coming towards me eye level, eye contact. I’m looking at the cockpit of the plane and I see the red markings on it and I realize it’s an American Airlines plane.” He instinctively ducked under his desk and prayed: “Lord, I can’t do this! You take over!”

The plane crashed into the building between floors 77 and 85, just above Stanley’s office.

The impact was so powerful that it tore a hole in the wall behind him and sucked out everything in his office except his desk, which shielded him from the flames and debris. He was trapped in a small space with no way out.

Meanwhile, on the same floor, another man was looking for survivors. His name was Brian Clark,

a Canadian executive at Euro Brokers, another financial firm.

He had escaped from his office on the 84th floor, which was at the top of the impact zone, and was heading down Stairway A, the only one that wasn’t destroyed by the plane.

On his way down, he heard a faint voice crying for help from behind a wall of rubble.

He followed the sound and found Stanley’s hand waving through a hole. He shone his flashlight and saw Stanley’s eyes staring back at him.

He grabbed his hand and pulled him over the wall.

Stanley was overjoyed to see Brian. He kissed him and said:

“I’m Stanley! We’ll be brothers for life!” Brian agreed and said: “Let’s go home.”

The two men made their way down the stairs, dodging smoke and debris along the way. They reached the ground floor at 9:55 am, just five minutes before the South Tower collapsed.

They ran out of the building and hugged each other in relief. They had just become two of only four survivors from above the south tower impact zone.

Stanley later said that he owed his life to God and Brian. He said: “God sent an angel to save me.” Brian said:

“I don’t know why I survived when so many others didn’t. I guess God had other plans for me.”

After 9/11, Stanley became a Pentecostal pastor and a popular inspirational speaker with religious groups and churches. He also remained close friends with Brian, who he calls his brother for life.

Chopped Steak Special

Skillet Chopped Steak ExtraLarge1000 ID 1164090

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
3 tablespoons grated or minced onion
1 tablespoon minced chile pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon spicy steak or Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon green or red Tabasco sauce

Instructions

Combine all ingredients until well mixed.
Shape into four fat oval patties.
Pan broil in a heavy skillet.

What are some examples of countries which went rapidly from rich to poor?

Cambodia.

In short answer, Cambodia used to be a prosperous country. After the end of the Indochina War (1945–1954), under the leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012), the economy of Cambodia rapidly went up for the next twenty years, with remarkable achievements. In 1960, the GPD per capita of Cambodia was US$ 111,34 and it was even higher than both North and South Vietnam at that time (with US$ 51 and US$ 105, respectively).

During the 1960s, while Vietnam was stuck into a devastated war, the economy of Cambodia continued to develop rapidly. The capital of Phnom Penh was among the “pearls” of the oriental, where notable figures of the world such as French President Charles De Gaulle (1890–1970) and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) had their visits.

However…

The fate of Cambodia was sealed on 18 March 1970, after the coup d’état against King Norodom Sihanouk, which was sponsored by the United States. Since then, Cambodia was stuck into a bloody civil war during the next five years (1970–1975), with hundred thousand deaths.

Unluckily, the end of the Cambodian Civil War in 1975 did not mark the beginning of the new peaceful era for Cambodian nation. On the contrary, it subsequently marked the beginning of the Maoist genocidal regime of Khmer Rouge, as one of the most brutal dictatorships in 20th century. “Comrade Pol Pot”, the supreme leader of Cambodia at that time once said:

“In the concrete revolutionary struggle of our country, we creatively and successfully applied Mao Tse-tung Thought.”

(Peking Review (北京周報), Vol. 20, No. 41, 07 October 1977, p. 25)

With Chinese Maoism in his mind together with strong military supports from People’s Republic of China, in just four years Pol Pot rapidly transformed his country into a massive “killing field”, where 2.0 to 3.0 millions of “counter-revolutionaries” or 1/3 of Cambodian population were exterminated! Historically, it was called the “Cambodian Genocide”, in which the whole country of Cambodia was returned to the “Year Zero” (Année Zéro). From a prosperous country during the 1960s, Cambodia became a constant famine-stricken and also one of the poorest countries in the world under the rule of Khmer Rouge regime.

The whole economic structure of Cambodia was totally bankrupt to the root when Pol Pot decided not to use the paper money anymore! The city of Phnom Penh subsequently became a “ghost city”. There were no more French-style coffee shops, no more luxury cars, no more beautiful lights of neon at night, but only the so-called “people’s communes” located around the country, where people were forced to work until their last breath. These below pictures were about the city of Phnom Penh under the rule of Khmer Rouge.

The “Cambodian Genocide” was finally ended on January 1979, when the Cambodian national uprising together with the Vietnamese offensive finally overthrown the rule of Pol Pot and his henchmen. During the next twenty years (1979–1999), together with the Vietnamese military assistance, the new government of Cambodia under the leadership of Hun Sen continued the fight against the remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas until the death of Pol Pot in 1998 and the total disband of the Khmer Rouge faction in 1999.

Since 1993, Norodom Sihanouk officially returned as a King of Cambodia. Meanwhile, all of the former leaders of Khmer Rouge regime were charged with their crimes against the humanity.

Nowadays, although Cambodia is not a rich country, but the revival process is going on, the whole country of Cambodia is again going up rapidly from zero and obtains average GDP growth about 7.5% annually.

How to LEAVE AMERICA FOR GOOD and escape the rat race in the United States

If you’re thinking that America sucks and is going to hell recently, you’re not alone and lots of people are wondering how to set up an escape plan and get out of the USA permanently before it falls apart.

Or, you might simply be thinking that it would be better to live in another country, regardless of how well the United States is doing, because you’re trying to escape the rat race that we’ve built.

Whatever your motivations for wanting to leave the USA and travel the world full-time, this video will breakdown how to make money while traveling, different jobs available to foreigners, how to work online, how to find jobs in a foreign country, a few countries that I think are good first-time tryouts for anyone who is considering living the digital nomad life full-time, and much more.

“Digital Nomad” is a very highly hyped occupation, but in actuality, it doesn’t really work out that great.

How can we make peace between China and Taiwan?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has already answered this question.

Taiwan is part of China.

Since 1956, Mao Zedong proposed the “third cooperation between the KMT and the CPC” to complete the mission of peacefully reunifying Taiwan, and proposed the policy of “One Program, Four projects”, the predecessor of “One Country, Two Systems”.

It is the hypocritical Yanks who have been blocking China’s efforts to unify Taiwan.

The United States has always been the main culprit in dividing China. Without the overt and covert support of Washington, the DPP would not be able to gain power in Taiwan.

We record everything the United States has done to China.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Why do service economies eventually become rent-seeking economies when growth slows down?

When service economies slow down; they resort to financialization.

This means that they create cash flow by creating debt instead of producing anything.

This is what has happened to the US economy. Most Americans are deeply in debt, and spend a significant portion of their monthly income paying interest on their debt.

It is NOT productivity.

Debt is a necessary part of life, but it should only be spent as an investment for future productivity, not for paying off daily expenses.

Frugal Living Is The Only Way To SURVIVE The Cost of Living Crisis

Fact.

The tiny squeeze

Normally, I talk and relate stories about China. And yes, Hong Kong is part of China, but the fact is that it has been “polluted” by the UK and it is sort of a hybrid “Western city” integrated into China. It is interesting in many, many ways. But today, I want to talk about the shopping centers; not the malls… the small grocery stores.

You see, in HK space is at a premium. You cannot get around without bumping into anyone, and some days it is just truly crazy; I mean “soylent green” type of crowding. And because of the massive crowding, the HK folk have devised walk around, and one such work around (or walk around) is the supermarkets.

They are tiny, tiny.

Tiny isles, jam packed with all sorts of food items. Really small grocery carts, and checkout lanes that require you to slide out sideways. LOL

Is it really important to have a four bedroom, three bath, three car garage? Or can you make due with less and spend more time doing OTHER things?

Yes. that is why the HK-Macao-Zhuhai bridge is being so heavily used. Many HK folk have bought homes in Tanzhou (where I live). It’s crazy actually.

Today…

Have you ever known someone who was too perfect?

Definitely. There was a girl at my high school who was as seemingly perfect as one could get – she was pretty, had tons of friends, an amazing figure, good grades, a large social media following, played in the first hockey team…the list goes on. She was nice, too, in a polite, composed sort of way.

This worked for her for a few years. Our school was single-sex and quite prestigious, and for a while the intense and competitive environment often felt like a contest for Who-Can-Be-The-Most-Perfect. Although she never stood out in any way, she was often praised by students and teachers alike for her good work ethic, perfect hair, perfect legs, perfectly pleasant demeanour. As you might be able to tell, the word was thrown around a lot.

Unfortunately, I think it eventually went to her head, twisting her thoughts. She became resistant to change. I suppose it would be an easy position to take; if a flawless person cannot be improved, any alterations are damaging, right? Instead she became obsessed with sustaining her image. As school became more difficult, she studied harder, refusing to let her grades slip. People began describing her as vain – a word I’d never before associated with her name – due to her new, unreasonable concern for her looks and social media persona. Her friends became increasingly frustrated as she fretted over Instagram posts and projects and pimples, and eventually her group of admirers dwindled. I can only speculate that it was in response to this that her fixation with her body began, and continued to develop into anorexia.

In year 11 (2014) she was admitted to hospital because they thought her heart would stop. She remained there for a few weeks, then spent a few months visiting ED specialists. She later moved schools, and from what I have been told and what I have seen from her (much less-used) social media accounts, she seems to have let go of Perfection. Apparently, she’s really happy.

In my experience, a person is too perfect when perfectionism consumes them.

The Sopranos | Wolves

This was actually amazing.

What is it like to date someone from another culture?

It’s eye opening and makes you rethink the things you take for granted.

It took me and my husband a while to know that when we’re talking about the same topic, often times we’re talking about completely different things because our backgrounds are different.

Meaning when we talk about abortion, we have different scenarios in mind. Because it’s much more prohibited in Egypt, and because pregnancy outside marriage is a disaster and may endanger the mother, my view on abortion is shaped so differently from his since abortion in his culture isn’t usually caused by these motives.
Similarly, when we talk about adoption we’re coming from such different directions ! The percentage of adoption in Egypt is very different from the percentage in the US. I don’t know a single adopted person in my community. So we’re talking about very different experiences.
Another example, one time my husband told me “I’m the king of my house”. In my culture this sentence indicates superiority.I got really mad and told him, “I am no servant !” He said “of course you’re not. You’re the queen of the house so I’ll have to spoil you“. I was like “Oh“.
We discovered that our definition of control is so different. My tolerance of control is way higher than his. So something like “Stop using your phone and sit with me already” sounds controlling to him. To me the thought doesn’t even come to mind.

We learned, after many misunderstandings, that whenever we discuss something, we’ll have to take a step back and describe what kind of setting we have in mind. Or even ask about the very basics that one normally wouldn’t consider asking while talking with someone from your own culture. The phrase “everybody knows this” is simply thrown out of the window.

It’s definitely thought provoking. But it’s a very enjoyable, enlightening journey.

90’s-Style Swiss Steak

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds boneless beef round or chuck shoulder steaks, cut 1/2 inch thick
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup finely chopped carrots
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup prepared picante sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
2 1/2 cups uncooked bow tie pasta, cooked

Instructions

Cut beef steak into 6 pieces; pound to 1/4-inch thickness.
Combine flour, salt and pepper. Lightly coat beef with flour mixture.
Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until hot. Brown beef in batches. Pour off drippings.
Return beef to Dutch oven. Add remaining ingredients, except pasta; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover tightly and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until beef is fork-tender. If sauce becomes too thick, stir in a little water.
Serve over pasta.

Huawei’s Explosive Revelation! Huawei Mate 60 Pro Flying off the Shelves, Shining as China’s Pride!

Recently, the most notable queues in China are not found at tourist attractions like the Great Wall or train stations, but at Huawei smartphone stores.

People are lining up in large numbers to purchase the latest Huawei phones, creating winding queues that stretch around corners.

For instance, in Shanghai’s Nanjing Road, customers wait in line outside a Huawei flagship store to get their hands on the newest Huawei smartphone.

The situation is similar in Shenzhen, where a Huawei offline store sees such long queues of customers buying Huawei phones that the store employees have resorted to buying them fried chicken to keep them satisfied.

Huawei exclusive stores in various parts of the country are also experiencing significant queues.

The reason behind this surge in demand is the release of the Huawei Mate60, which marks Huawei’s comeback and allows consumers to partake in its success.

Initially, analysts predicted the sales of the Huawei Mate50 series to be around 5 million units, but they now estimate that the Huawei Mate60 series could surpass 6 million units in sales.

“China Focus” is a YouTube channel created to provide current events and pop culture headlines from China.Here you can get to know a more real China through my video. ｜

https://youtu.be/E2W8DfTUIYc

The US helped China, Japan, and S. Korea industrialize and become wealthy. Japan and South Korea show their gratitude to the USA by being strong allies. Why does China treat the US as an enemy?

Sorry, I can’t help laughing，good narcissistic question!

I want to correct you, Japan and South Korea allied with the US because they want to rely on the US for development, and the US also wants to use Japan and South Korea to contain China. They each have intention. Besides, the alliance with the United States was not so easy. Both Japan and South Korea were severely emasculated in key areas such as military, and were unable to control their own destinies. So don’t think that America is the god and such great and selfless.

You said China sees the US as an enemy. I don’t see that. Hostility towards a country usually manifests itself in suppressing its economic development, denying its achievements, confronting it, accusing or even stigmatizing it. Isn’t that exactly what the US is doing to China? So you are wrong, it is the US that sees China as a thorn in its side because it feels uneasy about the rise of China. In fact, China wants to be a partner with the United States, not an enemy. Mutual benefit is what China wants to see. China is doing what it can to improve relations with consumer companies around the world, especially in Europe and the United States. But in the past two years, some of America’s actions have been disappointing.

Maybe you are used to the privileged position that the United States has long enjoyed in the world, and when a more confident, unyielding, and tough China appears in front of you, you feel that it is against you. I would urge you to stop looking at things from such “American perspective”. It is normal for countries to have differences, but there are also relations of cooperation and exchanges. Don’t assume that the entire world is succumbing to the United States. This is abnormal and impossible.

Lalo Salamanca | Revenge | GTA IV Theme

“Man was on the vengeance grindset”

‘De-risking’ may kill EU economy — Hungarian minister

The proposals of European politicians on “decoupling” and “de-risking” with China will amount to a knockout of European economy, according to Hungary’s top diplomat.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó told the Belt and Road Summit 2023 in Hong Kong on Sept 13 that these politicians by those terms mean to cut economic ties with China.

“What would happen if you cut such ties? You are killing the European economy,” he said, noting the annual trade volume between the EU and China has reached over 800 billion euros ($859 billion).

Therefore Hungary is urging for an even tighter, stronger, more successful and more efficient economic cooperation between China and Europe, the minister added.

Hungary is one of the very few EU member states that have not delivered weapons to Ukraine. And Hungary is aimed at becoming the meeting point of the West and the East, he said.

Szijjártó told a panel discussion that European policies toward Ukraine and sanctions against Russia are total failures.

Europe is in bad shape, to say the least, confronting both security and economic challenges, noting his country’s neighbor Ukraine has been at conflict for the last one and a half years.

He said Europe is bearing the cost of the Ukraine-Russia conflict as European people are dying, its infrastructure is being ruined, and the economy is suffering huge losses.

“Unfortunately, the answer Europe has given to this war proved to be a big mistake, a huge failure,” he told the summit, adding that Europe should have isolated this conflict, but instead of that, Europe has globalized it.

Europeans should have prevented the conflict itself, but now everyday even higher risks of escalation keep emerging due to illogical acceptance and following of moves by the world’s top military power. On top of this, Europe has decided to implement a policy based on sanctions, said Szijjártó.

“These sanctions proved to be a total failure,” Szijjártó said. This is because the goals of such sanctions, pressing Russia and ending the conflict, have not been fulfilled, while the competitiveness of the European economy is decreasing day by day.

When it comes to the long-term impact of the conflict, the minister said there is another “very serious risk” as the world is going to be divided into blocs again.

The economic development of Europe had been based on a good combination of highly developed technologies and easily accessible and cheap natural resources from Russia. “But now the ties between the two … are now being cut, one by one,” he said.

The Sopranos || SCARS

WADDAYA SAY, WADDAYA HEAR?

How do Chinese people view white Europeans?

Instead of reading answers by non-Chinese telling you how we Chinese view white Europeans, why not listen to an actual Chinese telling you how Chinese might view white Europeans?

It’s very possible and plausible that an actual Chinese person who has lived in Europe might have a more accurate view of how Chinese people might view white Europeans compared to the non-Chinese people trying to tell you what we Chinese think of them.

I lived in Germany for just under a year and in Ireland for about three years and have traveled many times to the UK, and made more than a few trips to France and the Netherlands.

In that time, I’ve made more than a handful of good friends.

The obvious answer would be that I view white Europeans with my eyes.

The boring answer would be that my experiences living with white (and non-white) Europeans tells me that they aren’t different from anyone else.

It’s not like they’re from a different planet.

They bleed red.
They defecate and micturate.
They want to be healthy but can get ill, whether physically or mentally.
They enjoy hanging out with their friends.
They enjoy having a healthy social life.
They treasure their leisure and alone time.
They love their vacation time.
They watch movies and enjoy eating and spending time with friends and family.
Family – parents, siblings, children – are important.
Parents want the best for their children.
There are times when they get their hearts broken – by a woman, by a man, by a friend, by someone they’re close to, by a pet’s death.
There are times when they get their hopes dashed and when they feel frustrated because there are many obstacles in front of them, obstructing the path to their dreams, their goals.
They want to have a good life – with “a good life” having as many different meanings as there are people in their countries.
They like feeling loved, feeling appreciated.
They indulge in stereotypes – just like everyone else on the planet.
Some of them are passionate about football*, and many support their national football teams.
Some enjoy politics, some don’t.

*As an interesting aside, when I was living in Germany, I managed to strike up a conversation with a TOTAL stranger about football – we ended up talking for more than an hour, just about football, nothing else. The funny thing is, this conversation took place not in a pub or biergarten but when I was helping someone else with ther gardening.

As a Chinese, I don’t see Europeans, white or otherwise, as any different than Chinese or any other group on the planet.

Fundamentally, their wants, their needs, their desires are the same as everybody else’s.

Having made more than handful of friends while I was working and living in Europe, I will say this:

Developing real meaningful friendships kills ignorance and prejudice.

Try it and see for yourself.

U.S Lawmakers Banned All Tech Exports To China And Lost The Tech War

Really pathetic to see the USA behaving this way. But, it does expose a desperate attempt to halt it’s decline. Hope more Chinese scientists and skilled experts return to the motherland.

https://youtu.be/YajA1UV0awU

Is it a pleasant surprising movement at G20 where Chinese PM Mr. Li Qiang did a supportive and constructive role by joining unanimously the G20 leaders declaration?

It was BRILLIANT

I always wondered why Li Qiang was at the G20 instead of Wang Yi which is the actual protocol

Now I can see why Xi didn’t come

India, Russia and China bamboozled the G7 completely

They got their G21 and THEY GOT RUSSIA REFERENCE OUT OF THE ORIGINAL JOINT DECLARATION

The Original deal was the G7 would approve of the inclusion of the AU into G20 in return for India agreeing to a joint declaration which indirectly referenced to Russia and it’s Aggression on Ukraine and universally agreed that Russia had to do something to stop the SMO

That’s what the Foreign Ministers Agreed

Then the West would say “The Whole World condemns Putin”

It was a win – win for the West or so they thought

Either they would get a declaration condemning Putin and Russia or they would not get a statement and declaration because China and Russia would object and that would badly affect India with a dead G20 summit and drive a wedge between the three BRICS founders

Cant fool these two old foxes can you?

The Masterstroke was sending Li Qiang

He simply said “I don’t have the authority to accept any declaration other than the one I have been told to accept”

Li Qiang isn’t Head of Government

Had it been Xi, he would have had to refuse and that would have made him look belligerent

Maybe if Modi didn’t get his declaration and the summit ended up a lame duck, the tensions would have widened between the two nations

Instead Li Qiang brilliantly shrugged and sent back the declaration to Beijing and said he needed approval

Lavrov saw the same trick and sent the declaration back to Moscow

Time kept flying as planned

Ultimately Jaishankar as planned moved in and said “Look, we need our declaration to make the summit a success. We have everything else. Let’s forget Russia”

Li Qiang jumped and endorsed everything else including the aggression statement

The West were entirely outmanoeuvred and they HAD NO CHOICE

Lets see now

Modi gets his G20 Summit – the Most Fruitful Summit in the last Decade
China gets their BRI friends into G20 and widens their influence
Russia avoids Global pressure and continues its SMO slowly shrugging off the West

Win, Win and Win

Who Loses?

We found the abandoned white cat with homeless kittens. the mother cat needs help immediately

In scorching heat, we came across a cat and her two kittens by a roadside park, seemingly abandoned. Determined to find a safe shelter, the cat led us on a journey to shelter her little ones. Finally, she settled down, and we offered her water and a creamy treat, hoping to build trust. She eagerly accepted, realizing our care and support. Nourishing food followed, as we felt compassion for her hunger and the intense heat. With her trust gained, we brought the family home, ensuring protection from heatstroke. Witnessing their newfound peace and happiness filled us with deep contentment. Watch the inspiring video till the end and witness the heartwarming journey of a mother cat and her kittens finding hope and a safe home in the face of adversity.

China deHow technologically advanced is China? Can you give some perspective and examples of how advanced in technology they are?

China is the most advanced Nation in the world in terms of Applications of Advanced Technology

They can apply advanced technology on a scale that no other nation to this day can manage

It is undeniable that China is the world’s foremost nation to apply advanced technology

By comparison the US pales with most Americans using 4G speeds and with most applications falling flat. They actually use paper certificates for vaccines

South Korea comes second in this aspect followed by Japan and Singapore

My sons first word was “It looks like one of those Futuristic Cities shown in many 1980s Hollywood movies”

The Key here is CORE TECHNOLOGY

Now for instance, all these wonderful apps that are being built , they are coded in a specific language right?

They need high performance servers right?

You need processors right?

Every one of these is controlled entirely by the West in terms of their Core capabilities

It was a perfect relationship with China developing the most fantastic advanced applications and developing their software at fantastic pathbreaking pace

The West sold and licensed their Core Technology for a fat fee

The whole Global economy relished the partnership

The West chose to WEAPONIZE their core technology

This accelerated Chinas own pursuit of Core Technology

In a mere decade China today controls almost 11% of the World’s Core Technology and Research in various areas

They are almost on par with Europe and Japan and well ahead of South Korea

Yet THEY ARE STILL ONLY A SIXTH IN TERMS OF CORE TECH CONTROL AS THE USA

Had the US simply shut the f*** up and simply encouraged Green Cards for Researchers from China with a 10 year path to Citizenship in 2012, China would have been in all sorts of trouble

Had the US encouraged actual competition on even grounds, the Intel and Qualcomms and Huawei would be on level playing fields and smaller Chinese entities would never have got the Billions of Yuan needed to leapfrog which would have instead gone into Real Estate & Paper

So Today China is surging ahead or at par on almost all modern commercial technologies like Rail, Green Energy, Latent Communications, Face recognition etc

Yet China is only around 16% in Control of Core Technology, far ahead than ANY ASIAN NATION IN POST WW II HISTORY but still a long way to go

Experts believe China will control 30% of all Core Technology by 2032

Conclusion is China is on its way

As they say in Hindi

China CHAL PADA HAIN

China opens ties with Venezuela, challenging US ‘hegemonic mindset’

Condemning Washington’s “hegemonic mindset” and sanctions, China strengthened its strategic partnership with Venezuela. The oil-rich South American nation’s President Nicolás Maduro took a historic trip to Beijing, and applied to join BRICS. Ben Norton analyzes the important geopolitical and economic consequences.

What damaging belief has pervaded Western societies?

The two worst beliefs are Judaism and Christianity, which have been used by power elites to control and manipulate societies for thousands of years.

By promoting belief in a god and afterlife; they actually promote the false belief that humans are not responsible for improving their lives on this earth in this life. Then, by promoting the belief that individuals could ask for forgiveness before they died, it encouraged all kinds of bad behavior during their lifetime.

These religions have twisted western society into embracing the idea of the white savior, out to save other civilizations because of their unique connection to the creator.

They have been a curse on the development of human societies.

How is the iPhone made in India costlier than the retail price in other countries?

Let me guess?

You expected the Iphone 15 to cost ₹50K right?

You saw ‘Assembled in India’ and decided that the price will be pretty low

Instead as usual India has the most expensive iphones apart from maybe Turkey

The primary reason for this is that India is a pretty weak market for the Iphone today

The Lowest price is ₹80K and most Indians can’t afford this price tag

It’s why you have 96,000 Pre Orders for this Phone from India against nearly 3.15 Lakh Pre Orders in Dubai and almost 6.8 Lakh from USA (China of course had a very bad reception for the Iphone 15 with only 2.66 Lakh Pre Orders so far)

Most Indians are waiting to see how much cheaper the Iphone 13 becomes and buy that phone instead

So without Volume, there is no scale for Apple to lower it’s costs

It costs ₹52,000 to assemble the iphone and pay all import duties in India for all components

That’s $ 840 or 5500 Yuan

It costs only 3630 Yuan in China

So the Chinese retailers get a much larger share of the retail price than the Indian retailers

The retailers in India would likely end up with ₹4K to ₹5K for a Iphone 15 costing ₹80K or around 10%

In China the Average retailer could get 24%

Another reason is TAX

T A X

India charges too much tax

Import duties, GST cost a big chunk of sales of the iphone

It exponentially increases the cost of almost all products assembled in India and makes them pricier than actually importing the product

Apple thinks India will one day be big enough for a large market share of the iphone

That’s wishful thinking

The Iphone high end model (9999 Yuan) costs around 55% of the Average Monthly Salary in Beijing, 49% in Shanghai and 46% in Shenzhen

It costs 16.8% of the Average Monthly Salary in New York

In India it costs 261% in Chennai, 236% in Bangalore and 219% in Mumbai

So either the price of the iphone must be brought down to ₹35000/- Or salaries must rise by 4 times

India will thus be worthless for Apple unless they exclusively assemble and sell lower grade Iphones pricing them at ₹40K each

Sorry, when I say Apple – I mean Foxconn

Apple still will earn a lot of money from its Proprietary Fees & Profits.

Foxconn will ultimately make very little money and will leave India like others before

So to those geniuses who said Iphone prices in India will come down and more Indians will buy the same

I TOLD YOU SO

Guitar Teacher REACTS: Robin Trower “Too Rolling Stoned” 1980

So glad you discovered Robin Trower! You have to give a listen to the entire album “Bridge of Sighs” Brilliant album. He’s still alive and cranking it out.

THE OSTRICH!

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for their orders. The man says, “A hamburger, fries and a coke,” and turns to the ostrich, “What’s yours?”

“I’ll have the same.” says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order. “That will be $9.40 please.”

The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, “A hamburger, fries and a coke please.”

The ostrich says, “I’ll have the same.”

Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.

This becomes routine until the two enter again.

“The usual?” asks the waitress.

“No, this is friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and a salad.” says the man.

“Same,” says the ostrich.

Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, “That will be $32.62.”

Once again the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. “Excuse me, Sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change in your pocket every time?”

“Well,” says the man, “several years ago I was cleaning the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there.”

“That’s brilliant!” says the waitress. “Most people would ask for a million dollars or something, but you’ll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!”

“That’s right. Whether it’s a liter of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there.” says the man.

The waitress asks, “What’s with the ostrich?”

The man sighs, pauses and answers, “My second wish was for a tall chick with a big ass and long legs who agrees with everything I say.”

Despite US Blackmailing, 90 Nations Confirmed Attendance At The Belt And Road Initiative For China!

Great analysis. Yes, China’s BRI dominance is about peace and prosperity. US dominance is about bullying and exploitation.

https://youtu.be/i7ukFh58rFk

If China does invade Taiwan and the USA, Japan, and Australia go to war to defend Taiwan, how many soldiers, warships, and combat vehicles would they lose? Who would really win?

Taiwan is in China. The island of Taiwan is surrounded by Chinese warships and the American, Japanese and Australian fleets are unable to approach Taiwan.

Biden did not tell the US citizens that he wanted to invade China, only “to defend Taiwan”.

So, I ask, how does the US plan on doing that? with some sort of video game competition?

I mean, in order to “defend Taiwan”, you have to have military troops pertorming military actions, aka combat inside of China – And that’s because Taiwan is in China.

So currently America has soldiers in Taiwan, which is either illegal, or at the very least gray area because that’s part of China. And the government of China doesn’t approve of that and hasn’t allowed it. So that’s the current status.

If US start performing miltary action, that’s an effort to militarily conquer at least China or push them back inside of China.

That‘s called an invasion.

Sorry, everybody, if you don’t agree with this definition, but that’s what it is.

The 1.4 billion Chinese people have told the small hooligans led by the United States countless times that the Taiwan question is the bottom line of the Chinese people, and foreign forces are not allowed to get their hands on it.

China can use all its forces to resist the invasion, and after this naval battle all the warships of China, the United States, Japan and Australia will be destroyed.

Do you think that after the end of the naval war, it will stop here? No, it has not come to a stop yet.

At the same time, China will fight back against its territory. Although all of China’s warships were sunk in the war with the United States, Japan and Australia, let us not forget that China has the largest number of civilian ships in the world, and Chinese soldiers will be present in those countries.

No matter what era we are in, apart from the indiscriminate bombing in the early stage of the war, the later stage of the war will be a ground war.

Does Australia have 50,000 soldiers combined? China can send 500,000 troops to Australia and take it over.
Japan: China does not need to send troops to occupy, dropping a few atomic bombs would be enough. The four Japanese islands are so resource-poor that even if China occupied them, they would be a liability and would be better off being completely destroyed.
As for the US, China wouldn’t send troops to occupy it either, but a huge army landing on US soil would be enough to make the US pay. China’s huge population could provide a steady stream of soldiers. You have to be prepared for America to become a battlefield.

The United States is keen on Preemptive war. However, China has always adheres to the principles of defense, self-defense and post-strike response, and adopts active defense. It keeps to the stance that “we will not attack unless we are attacked, but we will surely counterattack if attacked”.

“post-strike response“,”we will surely counterattack if attacked” →→→ We have already told you what we will do!

Don’t think that if China is bullied, it will swallow its anger and not take revenge. There are limits to tolerance. Modern China is no longer the China a hundred years ago.

This is like a group of American hooligans always bullying a high-achieving Chinese student at school. Chinese students usually don’t give a damn about the provocations of American hooligans, but once they can’t stand it anymore and decide to fight back, the American hooligans will have to start paying a high price for their previous stupid provocations.

Girlfriend Disrespects Her Man, Instantly Regrets it

Mad respect for Joyce, she took those roasts in the chin like a champ.

What are some tried and tested ways to get rid of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come knocking at your door?

A couple of years ago an elderly couple knocked on my door. I could tell at a glance they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. I opened the door and said, “I’m sorry but I’m really busy today and don’t have time to chat. I’ll be happy to take a Watchtower, though.”

The man said, “There’s a really good article in there about saving for retirement.”

I said, “I’ll be sure to read it.”

As they left the woman turned back and said, “Thank you for not being mean to us.”

What was the reason for the Luftwaffe’s neglect of fighter production?

They didn’t neglect fighter production. Thanks to German mega presses the Germans churned out far greater fighter quantities (by the simplification of major parts), than they should have been able to.

German 19,000 ton Heavy Press of WW2.

Germany also had fewer aircraft types in service. So they had high volumes of fighter production.

The problems were many, like a lack of higher octane fuels so they couldn’t max out engine performance and later on a huge attrition of skilled pilots, followed by a lack of new well trained ones due to fuel shortages..

The fact that the 109 was still competitive at all by wars end, was a miracle considering that they were restricted to lower octane fuels.

Even after Germany reduced bomber production, it would still be impossible to keep up…

The simple truth, was simply that the Allied nations potential industrial capacity, by far dwarfed that of Germany’s. And sabotage along with a reluctance to cooperate in captured territory, meant Germany could not successfully leverage the entirety of the assets they had stolen in Europe’s Industry.

For America alone they entered the war after Sunday, December 7, 1941…So basically in real world production terms 1942. And they had gone from a peacetime to full wartime economy (outstripping German AND Japanese war production) by mid 1943. That’s not including Russia or the massive output of the British Empire. IN ONE AND A HALF YEARS.

Ultimately it comes down to simple math’s.

More people, more resources, more factories = more production.

In a war of production…Germany could never win. No matter how perfect they could have tried or how much war porn advocates bleat they could..

Tony Soprano – Putrid Existence

The Sopranos is one of the greatest deconstructions of the glamorous and honorable depiction of the mafioso’s lifestyle. In reality, behind the money, drugs, power, these men lead the life of misery and pudrid existence, betrayal, mindless murder, constant lies and theft. The legacy they leave behind ultimately drag down their families and friends.

Why is China advancing rapidly in technology?

China’s rapid advancement in technology can be attributed to several key factors:

Government Support and Investment: The Chinese government has made technology development a top priority. Through initiatives like the “Made in China 2025” plan, they’ve provided substantial funding and resources to support the growth of high-tech industries.
Large Pool of Talent: China has a vast population, which translates to a large pool of skilled engineers, scientists, and innovators. This human capital is a crucial asset for technological advancement.
Education and Research Institutions: China has been investing heavily in its education system and research institutions. Universities like Tsinghua and Peking University are producing world-class graduates in technology-related fields.
Emphasis on STEM Education: China places a strong emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education from an early age. This helps nurture a generation of students with strong technical skills.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship: China has seen a surge in entrepreneurial activity, with a thriving startup culture. This has led to the development of innovative technologies and business models.
Market Size and Demand: China’s enormous domestic market provides a substantial incentive for companies to innovate and develop new technologies to meet the demands of a rapidly growing middle class.
Global Collaboration and Partnerships: China has been actively engaging in international collaborations and partnerships with leading technology companies and research institutions around the world. This helps them access global knowledge and expertise.
Regulatory Environment: The regulatory environment in China, while strict in some areas, can also be more flexible and accommodating in others. This can facilitate faster development and deployment of new technologies.
Focus on Strategic Industries: China has identified strategic industries like artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and biotechnology as areas of focus. This targeted approach helps concentrate resources and talent on areas with high potential for growth.
Adoption of Emerging Technologies: China has shown a willingness to adopt and implement emerging technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence, and blockchain on a large scale, which can accelerate their development.

Is America Destined to Fall Like Rome? | Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson explores the striking similarities between ancient Rome and modern America in this thought-provoking video. Including the parallels between these two great civilizations and the lessons we can learn from history.

https://youtu.be/UR40MYBjSm8

Has anyone ever been wrongly executed?

This is the story of the happiest man to live on death row.

In 1936, 15-year-old Dorothy Drain was raped and murdered at her home in Pueblo Colorado .A man had entered the Drain’s home and assaulted Dorothy and her mother with an axe. A massive manhunt was launched, and the police were under pressure to catch the killer.

As they searched the railway lines, they came across 21-year-old Joe Arridy who confessed to the murder when they brought him in for questioning. He also fit the profile that was any Mexican-looking man, a description given by two women who were also attacked.

Joe wasn’t even Mexican, and his dark complexation was down to both his parents being Syrian. He also had an IQ of 46, and couldn’t tell the difference between a rock and an egg. His parents were first cousins, so Joe and his siblings suffered from problems related to inbreeding.

Joe couldn’t tell the difference between colours, talk very slowly, and was easily misled and was known to take the blame for things he didn’t do.

During Joe’s arrest, the police learned another man named Frank Aguilar had been arrested for the murder of Dorothy Drain. Frank was Mexican, worked for the murdered girl’s father, and was fired before the murders. They also found an axe head at Frank’s home, he also admitted to the murders.

The had concluded that Joe was with Frank at the time of the murders even though Frank admitted to the murders and told police he acted alone. Even Dorothy Drain’s mother who survived the attack pointed to Frank and said he was the only attacker.

Joe’s story would change depending on who was questioning him and it should have been clear Joe wasn’t a suspect. Even though three psychiatrists testified that Joe was mentally handicapped, he was still convicted and sentenced to death.

While on death row Joe, spent his time playing with a toy train given to him by prison warden Roy Best. He was treated well and with respect by prisoners and prison staff. Prison warden Roy Best would bring him gifts and said he cared for him like a son.

With the mental capacity of a small child, Joe didn’t understand he was going to die. When asked about is upcoming execution, Joe didn’t understand what a gas chamber was, and just said, “No no, Joe won’t die.”

Joe ordered ice-cream for his final meal, and before they took him to the gas chamber he asked prison staff if they could put the ice-cream in the freezer so he could finish it later. Joe smiled as he was led to the gas chamber, and when he got momentarily nervous, the warden held his hand.

Joe was executed on January 6, 1939, after many stays of executions and appeals. In 2011, Joe was finally pardoned seven decades after his death.

Huge Cat Hugged A Woman In a Shelter And Didn’t Let Go! It Must Be Seen

It happened about a week ago, Andy Brumagen and his fiancee Jessica came to the shelter, where their attention was completely captured by a pretty cat of quite large size. The couple loves animals and, of course, they couldn’t walk further down the hallway without giving this cat some warmth and care. As soon as Jessica opened the enclosure and pulled out the cat, she hugged her and buried herself in the girl’s shoulder, clearly not wanting to let go.

https://youtu.be/CEv8dgvKvc0

Can a human actually fire a handheld Minigun the way they do in movies and videogames?

The answer here is a really big, no.

It was tried once by US Army Special Forces and the results were practically catastrophic. Even in the movies you’ve seen it done in, there’s a lot more happening off-screen to make it look real than you could imagine.

The one everyone knows was designed around Jesse Ventura’s personal preferences for the movie Predator (it helps that he was actually an armorer when he served on a US Navy Underwater Demolition Team during the Vietnam era – UDT was a part of Naval Special Warfare and was a close relative of the SEAL Teams). It has an M60 handguard to hold onto, and is fitted with a harness, so that he could carry it for the movie. Arnold later used the same gun for T2, with slightly different modifications.

What you don’t see on screen is that neither of them are carrying the batteries for it, (Miniguns are electrically operated) because they were simply too heavy for either Ventura or Arnold. The wire leading to the batteries were hidden down their pants’ legs. It also has a supply of ammunition that can be exhausted in seconds (a Minigun fires up to 6000rpm, and a human just can’t carry enough of the 7.62x51mm ammunition it fires to make it useful). Even significantly reducing its ammunition consumption (you can slow it down) to about 1250rpm, the one they used fired its total ammunition supply in seconds. Even at that sedate rate, the ammunition canister for it held only 550 rounds which it could exhaust in 26.4 seconds. And carrying 550 rounds on top of the batteries and gun would be back-breaking work. Neither Ventura, nor Arnold after him, both extremely strong body builders, could even do it. And remember, that’s only 26.4 seconds worth of ammo, at only 21% of the gun’s actual potential rate of fire.

Next, they used blanks in those movies, for obvious reasons. But if they hadn’t, the recoil force is so extreme it can’t be controlled. Blanks don’t produce recoil the way live rounds do. The one time US Army Special Forces tried this, the gunner was literally spun halfway around by the force of the recoil. The only reason he didn’t kill anyone behind him was, fortunately, the gun had consumed all of its ammunition by the time that 180 degree spin was complete.

Awesome Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients

6 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pounds beef sirloin steak, cut into thin strips
1 package onion or roasted garlic gravy mix for steak
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, quartered
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (10 ounce) can beef broth
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (for garnish)

Instructions

Cook noodles according to package directions-keep warm.
In a large heavy bottom pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add meat and brown.
Sprinkle gravy mix over meat.
Add mushrooms; sauté for 5 minutes.
Stir in tomato paste and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat, and stir in sour cream.
Top with parsley and serve over hot cooked noodles.

Can the US really obstruct China’s technological breakthroughs through export controls?

No!

There is no way it can stop China from overtaking the U.S. and the more it try, the faster China will overtake them and the faster the U.S. will implode.

I don’t think the U.S. realised it but everything the U.S. do to contained China it cost the US an arm and a leg yet it is barely a little inconvenience for China. China is a lot lot lot better than what the U.S. thinks China is in terms of technological prowess, in resilience, in preparedness in determination and in its ability.

Meanwhile the U.S. almost always over estimates it’s own ability, capability and capacity hence it always spend billions to do shit on China and harmed the U.S. instead of affecting China. So U.S. bring it on do as much shit as you want. The more you do the faster you die.

The U.S. has a mere quarter of Chinese market size over time and if the U.S. is smart and not so full of itself it better build a good relationship with China. Whatever the US wants to sell some 50% of customer is in or made in China! If you fxxk up this market you are fxxked. Thinking of containing China is a pipe dream. They can contain the US. Not U.S. containing China.

Simple, Chinese are more hard working, Chinese are willing to sacrifice, Chinese save more, Chinese invest more, Chinese learn fast, Chinese Market is way bigger, all SUPPLY CHAIN partner is in China, Chinese government is way, way, way more effective, 60% of the world s Market in around China. If China stop doing business with the US, you will suffer chronic inflation! If U.S. stop doing business with China they still have 95% of the worlds market.

Take my advise don’t pick a fight with China. They won’t lose. You will.

If I am the next US president, the First Nation I visit is China. Not Japan, not UK not Canada. I will double up trade with China. I will visit China every year and Invite Xi Xinping to make US their biggest partner. I will make Chinese a compulsory second language. Bring 10 million Chinese students Chinese students and send 2.5 million Americans to study in China!

I am not your enemy, I am giving you an advise to make the U.S. great again!

The Sopranos || Day is Gone

Jesus this deserves so many more views.

B2 bombers cluster bombing Palestine

Chinese videos on the Israel bombing of Palestine, clearly show B-2 bombers flying and bombing the Palestinians. The ONLY nation with this bomber is the United States.

So, the United States is now at war with Palestine.

…

Ugh! You can pretty much figure it out by reading “between the lines” on what the “news” media says.

“Why doesn’t China condemn Russia? Why doesn’t it condemn the Palestinians?”

Why doesn’t it…

…

Never the less, the videos are clear. Those are B-2 bombers dropping munitions on the apartment buildings and homes of the Palestinians.

The United States has entered another new war, and Lindsey Graham is calling for an invasion of Iran.

WTF?

This is so dangerously goofy.

My “Prepper feeds” are information dense with reports all over the globe. The biggest stuff comes from NATO, and I have a video below that goes into detail regarding it.

You know, I was going to talk about my trip to a factory today, but the Western world is coming unhinged. Holy Fuck.

… but please do not freak out.

DC still stands by “small bads”….

Today…

Who supplied Hamas with weapons during their conflict with Israel?

Bought from the dark net, sold by Ukrainian Army represented, donated by U.S. and UK and some US dog nations, paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Hey U.S. taxpayers save more money. Isreal need more weapons now!

So indirectly you can say U.S. innocent people who paid taxes assisted Palestinians to start a war on Isreal. Now you tax payers need to help Isreal defend against Palestinian. Oh U.S. tax payers. You poor soul please save more money as the your government need to start another war in Asia, another one in Latin America and another one in Africa.

Don’t worry tax payers after all the wars sometime in 2100 finally the U.S. government will help you get health insurance, college fees, homeless! But we still need to fund CIA, NED and MIC. I am very sure after spending on 800 military bases and 12 aircraft carriers and interest on 500 trillion dollars debts we will still have some pennies left to help you kind taxpayers.

WHY RETIRE in CHINA?

There are a lot of reasons to retire in a foreign country and the best one I found was china. The cost of living, food, weather and people make it my first choice of any country in the world. This video is very convincing and from an expat that has lived in China for more than 20 years. Living the experience is better than watching it on TV. don’t waste your retirement on the boring life. Live the adventure.

How do Chinese people view the British rule of Hong Kong?

I’ll talk about Hong Kong Chinese.

My mom grew up in British Hong Kong, the eldest child of a solidly middle-class Hong Kong Chinese family. She and her siblings are all university educated; all her brothers went on to become medical doctors. Mom left Hong Kong a few decades ago, lived in the UK for a few years and has lived in Canada ever since.

Given this background, one might expect her to be quite pro-British.

However, her perspective is that when she was growing up in the city, the British treated HK Chinese as second-class citizens (she actually gets a bit irate when we talk about this). As a Hong Kong Chinese herself, she felt that the superiority complex of the British in the colony was very strong. She disliked the endemic corruption in the government. Moreover, the colonial government had no democratic legitimacy (for all the talk in recent years of HK “democracy”, there were no elections held in Hong Kong until the 1984, just 13 years before the handover).

On the other side of the coin, the Hong Kong she grew up in had received a massive influx of Chinese refugees fleeing the upheavals in China. The period from the end of the Chinese civil war to the Cultural Revolution saw some 1.1 million people from China come across the border to make their home in the territory. She recognizes that under British rule, the legal and regulatory foundation was laid for Hong Kong’s success as a global financial centre and entrepot.

I think her views capture the feelings many older Hong Kong Chinese have about British colonial rule.

Many young HKers seem to idealize colonial Hong Kong as it was in the last decade of British rule — a golden era for the city where, as one of the five “Asian tigers”, Hong Kong experienced amazing economic growth, established its position as one of the world’s leading financial centres and saw its cultural influence spread across Asia and beyond (a precursor of today’s K-wave).

But ask older HK Chinese, and they will also remember what it was like before that golden era — to be treated as second class citizens in their own city, when corruption in the police force and government departments was rampant and when even water to the taps was only available for a few hours a day.

Steaks with Mushrooms, Blue Cheese and Frizzled Shallots

Prep: 10 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 (8 ounce) beef round sirloin tip center steaks, cut 1 inch thick
4 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 small shallots, thinly sliced, separated into rings
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, diced
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

Instructions

Cook bacon in nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp.
Remove bacon with slotted spoon to paper towels, reserving 2 to 3 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Set aside.
Meanwhile combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in small bowl. Add shallots; toss to coat.
Heat bacon drippings over medium-high heat until hot. Add shallots. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until well browned, stirring occasionally.
Remove from skillet with slotted spoon to paper towels. Set aside.
Reduce heat to medium. Season beef steaks evenly with remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Place steaks in same skillet; cook for 14 to 15 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally. Do not overcook.
Remove to serving platter; season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Keep warm.
Add mushrooms and water to skillet. Cook and stir for 3 to 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.
Add cream. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until cream is almost absorbed. Stir in cheese and bacon.
Spoon mushroom mixture over steaks. Top with shallots. Sprinkle with parsley.

ALERT! ATTACK ON NATO, GLOBAL MILITARY MOBILIZATION, FULL SCALE WAR, VIPs MOVED, GPS JAMMED, UNREST

The on-going “hidden” world war III…

Have you ever discovered something about your pet that shocked you?

It wasn’t a pet, but one of our roosters shocked me into a more open mind about animal sentience.

We had chickens, and because of the rough behavior of the roosters toward the hens, they were separated from each other. We fenced in the crawl space under the chicken house and the roosters lived there. The hens and roosters were usually released for foraging on alternate days.

One day I was walking by the chicken house, and one of the roosters under the building looked me in the eye, picked up a little piece of wood, dropped it, and began pecking it. He then looked me in the eye again, and repeated the behavior, several times, until it dawned on me that he was miming eating. Sure enough, they were out of food, and that bird was telling me he was hungry.

I may have seen him doing that before, but I barely noticed it, dismissing it as meaningless chicken behavior. Now I was beginning to feel shocked at what I just witnessed. I gave them the chicken feed and later I released them for foraging.

The roosters were always a little feisty and I was alert to any attacks coming my way, but the second shock I got was when one of them did attack me, and at that moment the rooster who mimed a request for food rushed in and drove off the attacking rooster.

Ever since that day he was my rooster bodyguard, never letting any rooster attack me. I always gave him special attention and treats after that, making sure he had what he needed, and he got to live out his natural life span.

But chickens? Intelligent? Really??? That was shocking, and I had to release my human chauvinism after that. I could never have foreseen a chicken behaving with such intelligence, and I believe we humans have only a vague understanding, if any, about the minds of nonhuman species.

FIRST TIME REACTION TO AC/DC – WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE | SPEECHLESS…

Another reaction. The expression on all these girls are just GREAT!

Can China manufacture semiconductor chips and create a rival to Intel, Apple, TSMC, and NVIDIA?

Of course they can. China didn’t in the past not because they were not capable but because it made much more sense for the Chinese customers to buy foreign chips. China were late in game. When the west started making semiconductors back in the 1960s/1970s, China were still in cultural revolution. By the time the got out of it, they were already too late.

The Chinese government was not comfortable at all being so reliant on foreign imports. They tried in the past 20+ years to create a local semiconductor ecosystem but they failed despite spending over a trillion RMB. They failed not because they didn’t have the talents, but instead they failed because there wasn’t a market. Even Chinese customers chose not to buy from their local semiconductor startups. Why would anyone take the risk of trying out local products when there were good foreign products available?

But that all changed when the US sanctions started. The US government essentially created a captive market for the Chinese semiconductor manufacturers. These manufacturers suddenly got the badly needed revenue. When orders flow in, investments followed. With investments, young Chinese engineers are motivated to join the industry. Hence, a negative spiral down that prevented the Chinese semiconductor industry from growing turned into a positive upward spiral.

To be sure, they still have many more years to go before they can catch up to the best in class. However, bear in mind, they don’t need to be at the cutting edge to do extremely well. Great majority of the use cases of semiconductors only need up to 14nm, which the Chinese are capable of doing themselves. Now that Huawei has already proven that with the 14nm node, they can design chips that perform at 7nm level, that is good enough for 90% of the applications.

Today, Chinese lithography manufacturers can make up to 28nm. They literally came from 90nm to 28nm within a very short period of time. Once they stabilize their 28nm products, they would go very quickly to 7nm with DUV. EUV is a different thing, but even for that, I think it’s a matter of time. I use to think 10 years but seeing how quickly the Chinese are improving, I’m not sure anymore how to make an educated guess.

So to answer the question – can the Chinese be a serious competitor in semiconductor manufacturing? Absolutely. In a few years time, I bet the US will regret waking up this sleepy dragon. Instead of importing over $300B worth of semiconductor a year, China will export their products and crash the global market like they did in most things they manufacture. How about a $10 GPU? Anyone?

Irish Girl Reacts to “Mister Rogers Saves PBS” For the First Time

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

I went to apply for a job at JFK Airport. I was a Family Practitioner and was told that they preferred surgeons. In any case, I decided I had nothing to lose and went in for the meeting. There were three or four people waiting for the interview and I was the only one who was not a surgeon.

Then the Deputy Director entered the room and asked if anybody spoke Swedish. Nobody did. Then he asked if anybody knew what a medicine called Kåvepenin manufactured in Sweden was. Nobody knew but I saw he had the box in his hand. I asked to see the box, looked for the composition and although the spelling was different than in English, it was clear that it was Pen VK (potassium penicillin V). So I said so.

The guy left the room and a few minutes later came back and told me, “You are right. You are hired. Everybody else may leave. “

Some protested but he said, “I hired him for his brain. None of you did anything and that guy took the initiative and got the right answer.”

I could not believe it. Fastest job interview I ever had in my life and I got the job.

What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?

A friend of mine was sacked over a pencil!

His company was a big international Human Resources consultancy, and their expenses were divided between clients. For example if they used a £250k printer/binder/etc for a job, a fraction of that £250k would be allocated to the job. No problem, but took ages to allocate every time something was used.

One day, he goes to the stationery cupboard to get a pencil. The office assistant asked him which account it should be charged to and for him to fill in a requisition form for the pencil. He just blew his top. It would cost the company 100 times what the pencil was worth for him to fill in the form, with charge codes, client details and so on. It was a waste of his time and everyone else who just wanted some stationery.

The departmental manager fired him for his outburst “Not what we would expect in this company”. About a few hours later, he had requested a meeting with the departmental manager and the Vice President of his section. They expected a grovelling apology and it’ll never happen again.

But no. He went in saying this was classified as unfair dismissal and he wanted £30,000 – or he would go to court. They told him that they were a top HR company with the top HR experts in the land working for them. He would never win a unfair dismissal case and would get nothing. He pointed out that a full case would take 2 weeks in court and as the company was a partnership, every partner was equally liable and he would subpoena every partner to defend the case. He said he might not win, but would console himself with reading about the HR court case in every HR publication. The VP realised it would be very damaging to the company’s PR and they came to an agreement. They paid the £30k.

After that, I asked him, how did you know about the unfair dismissal law? He said that it is true that the company did have the top HR person in the country working for them, but that top HR person sat opposite him and my friend got him coffee each day. When he was told what happened, he agreed that my mate was fired for having common sense and gave my friend a bit of advice.

After my friend left, the company changed its procedures and you could now get stationery when needed.

China’s National Holiday

China’s National Day, which falls on October 1, is just around the corner. For the Chinese people, September 30 marks the start of a seven-day holiday following the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the upcoming days, they will enjoy the happiness and joy of the “long holiday,” which they have earned through their hard work.

Meanwhile, across the ocean in the US, this year’s October 1 is a critical day.

Federal government agencies will run out of funds previously approved by Congress at midnight on September 30, the end of the current fiscal year. A government shutdown due to the bipartisan inability to reach an agreement seems inevitable.

For the rest of the world, this situation appears to be a farce of a commonplace American political struggle. People are not concerned about whether Washington will shut down. Where exactly is the US debt ceiling? This is what worries them. Can it continue to rise indefinitely?

The US has not defaulted on its national debt in the past, which is why US debt has become the most reputable in the world. But it has now reached an alarming height – $33 trillion! That amounts to $100,000 per person across the nation! What’s even more concerning is its growth rate, with an increase of $10 trillion in three years! That means $833 million is being added to the debt every hour since it crossed the $33 trillion mark.

A nation that frequently accuses other countries of creating debt has set a huge trap for the world in recent decades. Let us not overlook the fact that the US possesses the power to “print money,” which it uses to sustain Washington’s audacious habit of borrowing and spending recklessly, exemplifying its dominant “style” of hegemony. Government finances in the US have struggled for nearly half a century due to excessive spending without proper control, resulting in the continuous accumulation of federal government debt.

In the realm of election politics and hegemonic policy, the US has wasted significant financial resources. These resources have been used to cater to the interests of interest groups and self-serving politicians. Consequently, there has been an excessive increase in military expenditures to sustain hegemony, along with a continuous distribution of funds to appease voters.

Filippo Gori, an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has published an article entitled “America’s Debt-Ceiling Disaster: How a Severe Crisis or Default Could Undermine U.S. Power,” on the website of Foreign Affairs magazine (April 24, 2023).

The article points out that “because most international trade is in U.S. dollars, the United States can print money to pay for goods that it buys from abroad, allowing it to finance a large international trade deficit without having to worry that it will run out of cash.”

This monopoly advantage, known as “too big to fail,” has resulted in a peculiar situation where the US is “insolvent” but not officially bankrupt. As a result, the US must employ diverse strategies to uphold the dollar’s dominance.

Another fundamental truth is that when the global community thinks about how the impact of this “Grey rhino” can be prevented and begins to make necessary preparations, the hegemony of the US and its foundation, the dollar, will surely be shaken.

China is a significant creditor of the US. The US’ containment of China, particularly through creating military tensions in China’s neighborhood, as well as the overall restriction on Chinese manufacturing and its impact on the livelihoods of the Chinese people, has heightened China’s worry about the US reneging on its debts.

The hardworking Chinese people, who are about to enjoy a wonderful holiday, know that they work hard for the well-being of their families. If their hard-earned money were to be used to prop up an empire’s hegemonic and brutal actions, as well as an unsympathetic political struggle, and then they were to be paid back in the form of “printed money,” they would definitely say “no.”

We believe that hard-working people around the world would share the will of the Chinese people.

China’s new rare earth technology has made new breakthroughs, US chips can’t live without China!

China rare earth insanely very cheap , compare to how rare earth produced and refine. No other countries could produced rare earth with current price .

What are some weird facts about the USSR and living in the Communist Soviet Union?

People in the USSR were allowed to have car in private—the correct term was “individual”—possession.

But we were strictly prohibited from using cars for gaining revenue. Profiteering would unleash on the owner the wrath of the Soviet court system. In worst cases it could be a prison term.

Gypsy cab entrepreneurs risked a fine for the first transgression. The second one would involve confiscation of the car, and an even heavier fine. If the prosecutor could prove you derived a “non-labor” (netrudovóy) income on a regular, “systematic” base, you’ll get behind bars.

Renting your car for a remuneration was of course out of question. If you used a car for example to run your errands as a member of a cooperative, the tax inspection would turn down any tax reports that showed the cooperative covering your expenses. They also would send the case to the state attorney’s for them to take care of your accountant.

Neither could you sell your car with profit.

There were too few cars. Even the few people who had the money to afford a car had to wait for years for a permission to buy one. Which is why it was commercially possible for new owners to sell the vehicle right away sometimes with up to 100% mark-up and more.

At the end of the posting, a newspaper notice from a Soviet provincial newspaper in 1960, “From the Courtroom: Because of Re-selling Automobiles”

The text says:

“The vehicle operator of the Construction department No. 10 in Novo-Alexandrovsk N.H.Semerik bought in 1957 in a car store an automobile Pobeda, paying the government-approved price of 20,000 rubles. Three years later Semerik sold the used car registered in the State Vehicle Inspectorate in his wife’s name for 31,000 rubles to another person, and bought in the store a “Volga” to himself.

As soon as he was in possession of the new car, Semerik and his wife registered themselves in a waiting list for a new car.

The people’s court of the Novoalexandrovsk county prosecuted Semerik N.H. for profiteering according to article 154 p.2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. It sentenced him to two years of incarceration, with confiscation of the vehicle “Volga” and the money on his saving accounts. Signature: I. Artamonov, chairman of the regional court of justice.”

Have you ever been asked or told something so offensive you found yourself momentarily stunned?

Yes, indeed. When my daughter was four years old, she had a lazy eye. She was diagnosed by an ophthalmologist. Eyeglasses were prescribed which she wore for one year. After a year she went back for a check up and he reported that she no longer needed the eyeglasses, the problem was fixed.

Soon after this – maybe a year – she kept putting aside longer chapter books in favor of short easy readers. She had learned to read completely by age 4, so she was almost 6 at this point, she had been a very enthusiastic reader, so the fact that she kept describing books as too hard raised a flag. Also she tilted her head sideways while watching TV. I took her back to this ophthalmologist who said everything was fine(!) The weariness with reading continued, so I took her to a vision therapist who specialized in tracking problems. He told me that she only had sight in one eye – he told me that it would be difficult to get the other eye engaged again, which really means getting the brain working again, but that it was possible with a lot of hard work.

I believed this doctor but still I took her to a different ophthalmologist in a big city who had many accolades….for a second opinion.

This ophthalmologist announced brusquely that her vision has been ruined by me because I had not acted quickly enough. (He would not listen to any of the history that I tried to offer.) He exclaimed loudly that she would never have sight in that eye and then he demanded that my four-year-old son climb into his chair barking: “I had better check his vision to make sure you have not ruined him, also.”

I am not often at a loss for words, but his condemning words were body blows from which I simply could not recover quickly.

I left that office never to return. We went directly back to the vision therapist and I am happy to say almost 2 years later she had 90% vision in that eye and the balance is corrected with a contact lense. He literally helped turn on her vision in that eye. So she has 20/20 vision and all is well.

The awful doctor was the head of an eye institute which will go unnamed for now. The vision therapist had a very small practice and really believed in what he was doing. I am so grateful to him. It was very hard work, but it was successful.

When her vision was mostly 100% restored in that eye, I wrote a letter to the ophthalmologist at the big, famous eye institute and gave him a piece of my mind. Oh, yes, by then I had found my words!

8 Basic Skills A Narcissist Cannot Master

Today’s interesting class. Very interesting.

In what ways will a 33 trillion national debt affect the United States and ultimately the whole world?

The “national debt”’ of America isn’t 33 trillion.

That’s merely the debt owed by the federal government, which primarily taxes income, and funds with shortfall by issuing treasury bonds.

There is another set of government debt that is completely separate. State and local governments tax property, and fund the shortfall by issuing municipal bonds.

The total outstanding today is 33 (treasuries) + 4 (munis) = 37 trillion.

That’s 37, followed by 12 zeroes, or 14 figures.

How big is 37 trillion, relatively speaking?

It is more than 75% of the combined GDP of the world’s top 5 global economies: US, China, Japan, Germany, India, totaling ~3.5b in population.

It is more than 85% of the combined GDP of the rest, the >180 nations outside the big 5 club. That includes all of the first world beyond the US, japan and Germany. That’s 4.5b people.

America has a population of ~330m.

It takes the annual economic output of a population that’s an order of magnitude larger to repay the debt owed by the American government. Note this does not include unfunded liabilities, and private debt from households and corporations.

This is far and away the greatest threat to global financial security, on sole account of size.

What is the likelihood Xi Jinping will never meet with President Biden during Biden’s term?

Very High

The Biden administration has made it very clear that China must operate in the manner in which the USA sees fit

That China must develop in the manner in which the USA sees fit

In short –

Make all the Washing Machines, Laptops, Smartphones, Microwaves and Televisions you want
Make all the Jeans, Toys, Textiles you want
Make all the low and medium grade components you want
Hell even make all the Robots you want and High Speed Trains, EVs and Solar Panels and Green Energy

Yet at the same time

You cannot go ahead of us or our allies in the areas of Advanced Computing, Space, Quantum Computing, AI etc. You should always be No 8.
You cannot modernize your Military technologically
You cannot pursue your own foreign policy and Geopolitics against our foreign policy
You cannot support anyone who doesn’t follow the Rules based order
You have to buy more Bonds of ours and acknowledge the Dollar as the world’s only reserve currency

This was the BIDEN DOCTRINE TO CHINA

Qin Gang and Blinken apparently discussed this where :-

In exchange for

China acknowledging the Biden Doctrine & relinquishing support to Russia & Forcing Putin to sue for peace by weaponizing the Yuan

The US would remove tariffs on Chinese products, remove export controls on certain equipment, remove 215 Chinese entities from the blacklist and propose Status Quo for Taiwan with no support for Taiwanese Independence

The plan was likely for QG to deliver an ultimatum to Lavrov and for Xi Jingping to gather Global South Leaders like KSA & UAE while US could persuade India and together force Putin to call a ceasefire in Ukraine

The Old Fox Wang Yi likely told Blinken to “go fuck himself” which is why Biden was so angry that he called XJP a dictator

I believe Raimondo tried the same thing, asking China to trade and develop in a direction acceptable to the US

I believe China again said GO SCREW, and DIE.

That’s why Raimondo was so angry when she returned back

Blinken, Yellen, Raimondo all pushed China to follow the Biden Doctrine and China said No each time which was why they all returned back in a state of fury

So now Biden will say the same thing if he meets Xi Jingping

Maybe Hu Jintao would have agreed

Not Xi Jingping

So Biden and Xi meeting is a pointless exercise

There is no US Leader who is willing to ask China to do whatever it wants and COMPETE with China directly and win

What was the cruelest rumor you’ve heard about another kid when you were in school?

Starting in 6th grade, this nice boy from a troubled family was tortured for being suspected as gay. This was the late 80s in South Texas. The boy was caring but misunderstood. Sensitive. Soft. Other kids were non-stop cruel to him calling him a fag and “Terry the Fairy” (his name was Terry) from the time he arrived on campus until the moment he left. He never stood up for himself preferring instead to wish it wasn’t happening, turning them all off in his head by living in a fantasy reality instead, and becoming an angry shell of a generally happy boy.

One day in math class everyone was making fun of him with the usual taunts. Something snapped that day. He put his head on his desk and just said something like [Can you all just say it where I can’t hear it? I don’t care what you think, I just don’t want to hear it.] Everyone just laughed at him. Finally the teacher intervened and told everyone to be quiet (note no teacher ever made an effort to make them be nicer, just, on this day, to be quiet).

Finally, the boy broke down and told his parents. They were sympathetic but ultimately told him to just ignore it.

This continued until 11th grade when the boy discovered that he could get into college with a good GED score (not a top school, but he could work hard and transfer to one, which he did). He promptly signed up for the GED, took it, scored in 98th percentile, and immediately dropped out of school. He went on to college, did well, flew away and started his life.

That boy was me.

Fast forward 30 years. I am a successful man. Yes, gay, with two beautiful children and a thriving career thousands of miles away from South Texas and a life so rich and full I can barely remember any of their names — that’s the best revenge. 10ish-years later when Facebook started I received friend requests from many of those nasty kids I grew up with. Then, it seemed, that because I’d moved off to an exciting city and made good, and being gay was suddenly “cool”, they wanted to be my friends. I declined them and have not been to a single reunion nor do I ever plan on going. My attitude has always been: you hated me then, I didn’t like you, why on earth would I let you into my social media or ever purposely go see you now?!

It got better. My partner lovingly calls me “Terry my fairy.” I belong. I overcame and laugh at it now. They’re all mostly right where they were in that boring town surrounded by the same people, while I achieved that elusive thing: happiness. They did me a favor, really. They motivated me to get the eff out! If you’re reading this and you went to Hobby Middle School, or Clark High School, this post is really for you. I survived. I thrived. Thank you for the pain — it has served me well.

I never looked back.

Disturbing CEO Announcement: Workers to Be Reminded of Their Place

The CEO has many indicators of narcissistic personality disorder. Suggesting people need to suffer to recognize him and his company as an authority over their lives is a major red flag. Everyone who works for him or with him should walk away.

What do you think of Chinese communists?

From a western point of view and a few years doing business in PRC, I offer my thoughts.

Over the past 20 years, I have worked with several state owned factories in sourcing raw materials to the US and had the pleasure to meet and get to know with the No. 1 and other senior level managers in these factories. I am assuming, probably with good reason, that these people are all active members of CPC.

They are all good business people and given responsibility for the company management, quite the same as a CEO is selected by a board of directors in a private company with many of the same factors affecting their selection. They have connections ( as in both systems) to get these positions and expectations of success in their assignment.
The Chinese leader in the factory further understands that he is also responsible not only for the workers’ welfare, but their families in the management of the factory community. As such, they all have compassion, and concern and take this responsibility often with great passion .
Like private company management and politicians in the west, some are greedy. I came to know one very good company manager for a period of 5 years, who was eventually appointed to a local government official position (similar to Mayor in US). When I returned the following year, I learned he was to be executed for crimes; he took a bribe for preferential treatment of a private business deal! Chinese punishment of CPC member who violates a trust is certainly much more severe than the West, perhaps a lesson well learned by many for the high price of a life.
I ate, drank, and sang with these people and see them firstly as compassionate human beings, acting similar to those all over our planet.
Certainly the burdens of the CPC on the success of the business that includes the welfare of all the workers and family members must weigh heavily on these people, perhaps more so than a CEO in a western private company who must answer to a B.O.D and the shareholders.

In other cases, I have had opportunity to interact with other CPC members , at a lower level, in Chinese Customs, regarding our trade in China.

At this level their understanding of global trade was clouded considerably with politically driven policies. Like all people, we learn from our teachers ( in this case , the CPC) , who often have a different agenda than politically different viewpoints.

But it seems we all have bosses of some sort whether another higher ranking CPC member or a small business company owner, and as human beings, we react for the benefit of our own survival.

So what do I think about CPC members? Just people doing what they have been taught by others to get through this life.

What are some advantages to living in China compared to living in the US?

1. Your salary. I get paid pretty much equal to what I would in the USA ($40-45k) as a history teacher at a local school, which includes a stipend for housing and round-trip flight home every year… but my salary goes further here.

At home, I could hardly afford an apartment (I’m from New Jersey) because I had student loans, car payments, car insurance, rent, utilities, etc.

Here, rent is paid. Utilities are cheap ($100 max for heat in the winter; $10 water bill; $30 unlimited internet). I have no car, no car insurance. I can get taxis (starting at $3) or hire a car (starting at $5) or take the metro (less than $1) everywhere. I can eat very well with a variety of foods, go get massages & spa treatments ($30 for 90min at my fave place, but you can go to cheaper places), and travel cheaply. All while still having enough to send home to pay for student loans…

2. The food. I left Shanghai for a year for another job and that is what I missed most. All the regional cuisines (Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Dongbei, Taiwanese, Xinjiang, Tibetan) are delicious and fantastic. I can also get a wide range of international cuisines within 5km of my apartment (Thai, Vietnamese, Vegan, Organic, Japanese, French, Italian, Mediterranean, Spanish, Mexican, Turkish, Moroccan, Indian, Malaysian, Singaporean, etc. etc.) and, for the most part, are reasonably priced. Shanghai is more expensive than Beijing and people here always complain about inflation, especially with cost of food. However, with everything else being relatively cheap, I don’t mind spending $15-30 on a Western restaurant brunch which includes a bloody Mary or two… (not the four star crazy buffets… they are $80-100)

3. Convenience. You don’t have time to clean your house or do your laundry? Hire an ayi (maid/nanny) … Mine costs about $6/hr … You don’t want to go to your favorite restaurant for dinner because the pollution is bad? Don’t worry, you can have it delivered. There are many restaurant delivery services where you can order online and someone goes to get your order from the restaurant and brings it to you… You don’t want to go to the foreign supermarket? You can order online and have it delivered. You don’t want to go to the store to buy bottled water? You can have it delivered. You don’t want to spend $100s on a new suit? Bring a picture to the fabric market and they’ll make it for $10s. You want to do a juice cleanse? You can buy one and have it delivered to you every day. You can get a lot of things done for you if you know how… And the list keeps growing! All the choices for foreign food markets & deliveries were not around 4 years ago, so the market is growing…

4. Travel. You can travel cheaply in the entire region. You can also splurge on a hotel because the cost of wherever you’re going is going to be nominal. I treated my mom to a private villa in Thailand for Christmas. I stayed at the Sofitel in Hanoi for my birthday. I am a ardent budget backpacker at heart and have been travelling & living in hostels for 8 years, but living in China has given me the opportunity to see many different cultures around East and Southeast Asia and stay within my budget. Only in the last year have I started splurging a bit, and while I don’t do it all the time, it’s nice to know that I can…

Now, I know friends at bigger international schools with bigger salaries that live in bubbles on the outskirts of town and spend my entire monthly salary on apartments or going out to eat… My boyfriend lives in such a bubble with a driver and he eats at the top tier restaurants all the time… I like being in the middle of it all… I would probably be considered rich by most Chinese, but middle-upper class by most expats here in Shanghai… I can`t enjoy top tier luxuries all the time, but I can afford way more that I ever could in the USA at my age (I’m 29)

and if you’re looking for a non-monetary and/or food answer:

5. Culture/Language. Living in the middle of Shanghai means that I interact with the local culture every day. I’ve learned to read and speak enough Mandarin to haggle in markets, order in restaurants, talk to taxi drivers, have conversations about where I’m from and what I do, navigate around the city, etc. It can be very frustrating sometimes, and I know if you are in your expat bubble, you don’t even have to speak any Mandarin at all, but I like what I’ve experienced. I speak Mandarin every day and as a history teacher, I find living and experiencing the changes in China to be fascinating. You can see the impact the past has had on the current government and how the economic changes are paving the way for a new China to emerge… it’s great to be here and experience all of the energy…

What would happen if someone in the military decided to shoot their mates and join the enemy?

I don’t want to know how many soldiers have played with these kinds of thoughts. Of course, almost no one goes through with it.

If you are in a shitty unit, you sometimes start hating your own guys more than the enemy. In such a situation, some people start contemplating murder. If you kill only one teammate, you’re screwed; therefore the only logical thing to do is killing all of them and defecting to the enemy.

What will always happen to you if you were doing something like this is the following;

You kill all your “comrades”. No problem, it’s easily done.
You surrender to the enemy. Still, everything is okay.
Big surprise! You end up in a Prisoner of War camp. Don’t think that the enemy will give you any preferential treatment or somehow recognize you as a defector or collaborator. No one likes to have a complete psycho around them.
After a while, your fellow prisoners will find out about what you’ve done and kill you.

Even the most deranged soldier can see that such an act can only lead to his certain death. That’s why it doesn’t happen more often.

What object would hurt you the most to lose?

When a person describes heroin withdrawal as ten times worse than the flu, they are doing it no justice — plain and simple.

That’s like saying that sex and ice cream are the same.

Sure, sex and ice cream are both awesome, but they’re not really the same when you dissect the feelings that each of them evokes.

Same with heroin withdrawal and “ten times worse than the flu” — yeah, they’re both awful, but really, they’re not the same.

The first time I went through real heroin withdrawal was in Lancaster County Prison after a ten year habit. It was torture beyond imagination, and I have yet the strength to write an in-depth description on Quora.

One of the withdrawal symptoms of heroin is the feeling of suffocation.

From the last time you shoot heroin, it takes about six days to fall asleep. When you finally do fall asleep, you wake up in an hour or two feeling like you’re suffocating on your swollen tongue and saliva.

There is one thing that helps that particular withdrawal symptom that jails do not provide.

Air movement.

My current girlfriend has two children. The only thing that we ever argue about is the amount of noise they make after I go to bed.

I need complete silence and darkness to fall asleep — I always have.

But ever since I got clean from heroin, there is one noise (that used to bother me to no end) that I can fall asleep to — the hum of a fan that circulates the air.

Without it, I feel like I’m going through heroin withdrawal.

When I feel like I’m going through heroin withdrawal, it triggers me to want to shoot heroin again.

I never want to go back to that life — the life that was really no life at all.

The object that would hurt me the most to lose, is my stupid fan.

It keeps me from wanting to shoot heroin.

I’ll choose my dirty old annoying fan over any other object on earth, hands down.

Leon

Robin Williams Explains Golf

Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?

I met James Earl Jones and his wife in Dubuque, Iowa when he was acting in Feild of Dreams. There was a friend of mine who was a script supervisor on the shoot, and the entire cast and crew were frequently guests at a local restaurant in town called Mario’s.

I went to meet my friend there and met James Earl Jones and his wife. A customer made a racist statement about Mr. Jones and his wife, and I got into an argument with the idiot and had him escorted out. Mr. Jones invited me to join him and his wife for a drink, and the three of us talked about his career and life for almost an hour. I avoided asking about Star Wars, and I think that was part of the reason I got to stay so long.

Every time I went to the restaurant, Mr. Jones (if he was there) would invite me to the table, or walk over to me, and at least say hello and buy me a good bottle of wine. He frequently picked up my tab, and introduced me to both Burt Lancaster and Ray Liotta.

A great man who told great stories and clearly loved his wife.

My boss told me that she expects my work to be flawless when she checks it and I responded “okay” with a smile. She told me to stop smiling. How should I have reacted?

Go home and find a new job.

First, no work is flawless. It’s an impossible standard, so either she’s lying, or she’s deluded.

Second, bosses who try to enforce stupid and arbitrary rules like “no smiling” are soul-sucking creatures whose mere existence proves that they really are monsters.

Why I Will Never Come Back to the United States

“Couldn’t agree more. 32 years ago I met a woman while working in Stockholm that summer. The next year, I left Brooklyn to live in Sweden. The best decision that I ever made. After a good career in the Swedish Royal Opera, I collected my pension and now live in a small village outside of Palermo. No regrets. I’ll never return to the states.”

What is the most accidentally slick thing you said to a girl?

I was dating an eighteen years old girl, I was twenty-five years old. I had fallen in love with her, but this scared me because of the age difference. I felt guilty that she had not had a chance to experience a lot of life like I had.

She also did not have much of an education having just graduated from high school. I had already graduated from college.

I thought the correct thing to do was to break off the relationship giving her time to experience life more fully.

I took her out on a date intending to tell her at the end of the date that it was time to go our separate ways. All night long I was rehearsing the speech I was going to give her:

It is not you it’s me.

You have done nothing wrong

It is for your own good

Some day you will understand

At the end of the date, we were parked in front of her house when I turned to her to give her the speech the words that came out of my mouth were “do you want to get married?”

I swear I had never even considered marriage and to this day I have no idea where those words came from.

We have now been married for more than fifty-one years and are still deeply in love with each other.

I am one of the most fortunate people alive to have this amazing woman share her life with me

What’s something a poor kid would understand, but would utterly confuse a rich kid?

All that, but no bag of chips.

Remember the parties we used to have in school? The little things thrown together to mark the little milestones? Christmas or Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day?

Everybody would bring something. A bag of chips, a big soda, cookies or brownies or candy.

I used to look forward to those. It was a chance to have some of the things I never got at home. Money was always tight and everything else came first. So I never was able to bring anything.

Somewhere around the third or fourth grade the teacher made an announcement in class. If you don’t bring a treat, you don’t get to participate in the parties anymore. I looked around the room and noticed a lot of faces looking back at me, smug grins from smug little faces, faces lined with nice haircuts they didn’t get at the kitchen table.

There was something happening soon. I want to say the end of the year party. The grand send-off to summer vacation.

I went home and asked then pleaded then begged but “no” was “no” in my home. I guess when you live in an old house with no heat or A/C, no fans or television or telephone, no hot water or washing machine… basically just four walls, the extras didn’t matter much.

So I went with nothing.

The big day came. Kids piled in carrying their bags. The teacher laid the feast out on a long folding table. There was never that much before. Rows of potato chips, cans of dip: French onion, bean and the most valuable of all… nacho cheese. Every kind of cookie, cakes and pies, sodas and big bottles of juice.

I heard my name. Over and over. “Freddy didn’t bring anything.”

Time for the party. The teacher drags a chair out into the hall and tells me to follow her. I sit there alone with my book and read, trying to drown out all of the laughing and slurping and crunching.

That’s what the rich kids wouldn’t understand. Being outside.

Always being the one on the outside.

Strip Steaks with Garlic Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 (8 to 12 ounce) strip steaks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pitted black Kalamata olives, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed flat with the side of a knife

Instructions

Cut the strip steaks in half across the midsection to make 4 steaks.
Season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat oil and butter in a wide skillet over medium high heat. When the fat is hot, add garlic, and cook a few seconds until it is aromatic.
Add the steaks and cook until well-browned, about 3 minutes on each side (remove garlic when it gets brown).
Reduce heat to moderate, and cook for about 7 minutes more, or until done to desired tastes. Remove to serving plates.
Add the olives to the skillet, and stir to heat through.
Add a little water, beef broth or red wine to the skillet and scrape out bits that are sticking, then pour this pan sauce over the steak.
Serve with steamed or sautéed asparagus, orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta) or small shell pasta coated with gorgonzola or blue cheese.

How To Launch Nuclear Missile

Scene from movie “WarGames” (1983)

As a teacher, have you ever had an unforgettable student? What was he/she like?

Several, but one comes to mind in particular. (Going anon because he follows me on Quora). I’m going to call him Dmitri.

I met Dmitri when he was in 7th grade when I was to be his teacher. Before the first day of school at the middle school where I teach (which starts in 7th grade) we have a fun hiking day where students get to interact with their teachers, parents can come if they want, they usually do, and we get to be outside. Of course it’s optional, but students are strongly encouraged to come.

Dmitri came by himself. When we got to the top we do this exercise where everyone picks out two palm sized rocks. They choose one they don’t like very much and let it represent all their fears and angers, and then they throw that off the mountain, we encourage them to scream when they do this if they want to (it’s often fun to just scream as loud as you can), and then with the other rock you let it represent what you love about yourself or you let it represent someone you love. We often tell them that they can save it for someone they love. When Dmitri threw his first rock over the mountain (which is in a direction nobody is so no passing hikers could be potentially hit with rocks) he let out the most gut wrenching scream ever, he doubled over with it and screamed until he couldn’t anymore, I remember thinking to myself, “that is a child with demons”.

The school year started, I was Dmitri’s English and history teacher. He was a great student. The kind of student nobody worries about. 4.0 GPA, top marks in all areas, he was very popular although he didn’t have any real friendships, but he didn’t have any enemies either. He had a great sense of humor and was just a very likable kid. He was also a good writer. His essays were always pretty good, although also very closed off. Like he was locking the reader out of the story, he never connected anything to himself, he seemed scared to show that level of emotion. The way he outlined and articulated essays was good beyond his years, but he never made the reader feel anything. Which isn’t surprising, not that many 7th graders know how to make a reader laugh or cry.

About half way into the semester there was an assignment for the student’s to write about a time they struggled to say something. This could be having a hard time telling the truth, having trouble saying how they were feeling, or just any struggle with communication they have had. I see Dmitri’s essay in his folder as he’s sorting through some papers from his bag and go to grab it. He quickly grabs it before I can and says, “Oh, um, that’s a rough draft” Then he hands me another version. Which I accept. But before I go I ask if I can have the rough draft as well. I really like watching the way a student’s writing changes between drafts and assure him I won’t grade the rough version. He seems like he very much wants to say no, but he was a very passive kid and he so he agreed.

I’m grading papers that night and first read his final version. Pretty much what I was expecting, a well written, well organized introspective essay regarding when you should tell the truth to preserve somebodies feelings and when honesty is more important. It’s ideas were deep, but he did a weak job connecting it back to his own life. Then I read the rough draft. It was on a completely different topic and blew my mind. It wasn’t organized or planned, I don’t think Dmitri outlined it first and it seems like he wrote it without the intention of it being read. It seemed more like something he did for himself therapeutically.

The essay was about his older brother who had died of a drug overdose when Dmitri was 9 and his brother was 15 (this is not something I had known about). He talked about how difficult it became to talk to people after that. One quote that really stayed with me, taken directly from the essay, was “At the funeral everyone felt the need to talk to me. They gave me their condolences and told me it would be okay even when it clearly wouldn’t be. I wanted them to go away and shut up and just let me be alone with silence. After the funeral, after all the thoughts and prayers were out of the way, everyone faded into the background. They were so worried they’d say the wrong thing that they chose to say nothing at all. With a mother who had collapsed into herself I was left alone with a dead older brother and I ended up resenting the silence I had searched for at the funeral. I looked for [brother’s name] everywhere. In his room, on the trails we used to hike, in the medical examiners toxicology report. All I found was a stranger who I felt I had no right to grieve” Dmitri went on to talk about how after his brother’s death he had become obsessed with the police investigation into where his brother had gotten the drugs. Because, as Dmitri put it, he wanted someone to blame. He blamed himself for not knowing about his brother’s use, and his brother for using, and he just wanted someone who wasn’t him or his brother to blame. To quote another part of his essay “They never found the dealer and it took me over a year to realize it didn’t matter. I wanted them to because then it wouldn’t be [brother’s name]’s fault for doing drugs, or mine for not knowing he was doing them, it’d be all the dealers fault for giving them to him”.

It was, without a doubt, the best student writing I’d ever read. It made me cry, in parts it even made me laugh.

I talked to Dmitri about it.

He broke down in the conversation and said he hadn’t actually talked to anyone about his brother in over a year. We talked for awhile.

At the end of the semester I found a little box with a note from Dmitri. The note read: “I wasn’t sure what this was supposed to represent. There were no parts of myself I particularly liked and no one I felt comfortable declaring a love for, even if the declaration was a private one. Thank you for showing me the parts of myself it could be and for showing me what a healthy relationship is. You’re the person I was meant to give this to” Inside the box was his rock from the start of year hike. I’ve kept it for the passed 3 years, it’s the most thoughtful student gift I could have asked for.

I’ve loved continuing to get to know Dmitri. He’s in 10th grade now and with his intellect combined with one of hell of a work ethic and his determination to be the first in his family to graduate college, I’m quite certain he has a big future ahead of him.

Has anyone adopted a child later in life?

I am 60 and my husband is 67. In May we adopted a 16 year old young man. He moved in with us the January before his 15th birthday. The people he called mom and dad had just died. His biological mother did not want him and he never met his bio dad. We spent the year doing a TPR terminating parental rights. Once it was done, we adopted him. He is very shy and was never given anything as his parents were both on Medicaid. We have been able to introduce him to all sorts of things that the world has to offer. We went from being empty nesters for 10 years to having a teen. Sometimes I think he might be better with younger parents, but we give our undivided attention and he has our love and support, no abuse and a future.

i am risking EVERYTHING to share this with you!

Since he left FOX, he has been on fire.

A man with Cancer

I took care of an elderly man who had cancer. He lived Next door to me. I hardly knew him but asked about his health after not seeing him over the winter, he had lost 50 pounds and the doctor didn’t know what was wrong with him. So I volunteered to have him checked out and sure enough, he had malignant cancer. His family lived across country and didn’t want anything to do with him. Or his health. So I stepped in. The next 3 years we went through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. See, his family were Roman Catholic, and I believe he was gay, although we never discussed it. They felt he was a sinner and abandoned him. It was sad. I mean Really sad, and since I lived next door, I stood at my kitchen window and kept an eye on the house when I was trying to give him quiet. We moved his bedroom to the living room, where he could sleep and I could look through the window to make sure he was alright. One day he attempted to cook and fortunately I saw the fire! I put it out and never let him cook again, which is when I took on his nourishment needs, although he could barely eat.
Thus became my life. I found out he never had a birthday party, so I had my family come with gifts and cards. He was elated!

When he finally did pass away, he had left me his house and his corvette. His family was furious, although they were very well off.

when I had him buried in his family plot, I bought a gorgeous headstone for him. The family had the management of the cemetery sledge hammer it to destroy all memories. I was heartbroken and really pissed off. The next time I went to the cemetery the manager said , “Well I had the opportunity to speak to the family, and I see you were right, they are awful people!” When I went to visit one day, it was early evening and it was snowing so softly, and as I was leaving an ENTIRE herd of deer stood up and looked at me. They didn’t leave, they weren’t frightened, they just stood there staring at me.

I knew right then and there that he was happy safe. His family doomed him to hell, but that is not where he was! My heart grew and I was able to replace my tears with a smile. Moral of this long story is this; it doesn’t matter what material things you have in life, take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. Be there for people who need you, whether it is family or a neighbor. It helps your soul to know you did the right thing.

Last thing, when he left me his house and car in his will, he stipulated that his family get $7,000. This way they had no recourse to fight me. I mailed his dress uniform from when he was a marine, his dog tags and many more items a normal family would want. They refused delivery and had it returned. his house wasn’t worth much, but I sold it when the market bottomed out and put in a few kitchen and bathroom remodeling.

I will never forget him. There is a shadow box in my home with pictures, dog tags and coins from around the world, even a picture of him riding a camel on vacation. The bulk of his money went to Karmanos cancer society. I do not regret one moment of those 3 years. Remember, be there for the people who have no one. It’s what you DO not what you have. Thx for reading this long story.

EDIT; this is for the woman who said it was a “weird, sensational tale of fiction “ This was all 100% true. The management of the cemetery destroyed the headstone because it was a FAMILY plot, and the Family had the right to decide what was on it. I complained vehemently and was refunded the money I spent on the headstone. It was afterwards that the management conversed with the family and found them crass and rude. There is nothing I can do about your comment, except to say sorry you didn’t understood what my post meant to me. So many others did.

The Living Dead: The Most Disturbing Story From 9/11

At 08:46 (EDT), hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Centre’s North Tower. It wasn’t long after that firefighters and emergency medical specialists were dispatched to deal with the multitude of distress calls they received from people trapped within the burning building. One such medical specialist dispatched that day was Ernest Armstead, a veteran with over 30 years of experience. In this video, I will attempt to retell the horrific experience Ernest witnessed that day.

My main beef

My main “beef” with my parents was a simple one. At every opportunity for me to do something outside of the school narrative…

“Study hard. Get a good job, and you will be set for life with a good pension.”

…They pretty much sucked at helping me.

I asked my mother; “How do I buy land”? And she looked at me for a moment and answered…

“You just go and buy it.”

Gosh, Mom. That was so helpful.

NOT!

At that time, there wasn’t any Google about. No internet. Only a small town library, and neither the teachers or anyone would help me out. No one could answer my questions.

I’d ask my dad; “How do I buy stocks”?

He would chuckled. Then thought about it, and he answered…

“You just go and buy them.”

Gosh dad. That was so helpful.

NOT!

And it wasn’t just that.

I asked my dad, “How do I ask a girl out for a date”?

And his answer was…

“What, who’s the girl?”

And I would say, “No one you know. So how do I do it”?

And he would chuckle, and he said…

“Oh, you just go up to her and ask her if she wanted to go out with you.”

Wow! So very helpful.

NOT!

…

Do not make the same mistakes that my parents made. Take the time. Enunciate. Explain. Be empathic, and be kind and considerate.

It will make a BIG difference.

Todays…

How China Destroyed US Sanctions and Changed Microchip Forever!

The USA did not declare war on Huawei. They declared war on hundreds of thousands of motivated Chinese set to go starving on the streets, unless they pushed themselves…

What many people don’t know is Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei only owns roughly 1% of the company, and the employees own 99% of the company, so imagine a body of hundreds of thousands of supercharged and super-talented people giving their all, not only for survival of their families but also with a vengeance to prove that they can’t be suppressed and will fight back.

It is unknown how many generations of Huawei-made chips ahead of the US- made chips. But the performance, especially the downloading and uploading speed of Huawei Mate 60 Pro is one to two generations ahead of the US-made Apple 15. Why?

Huawei is a networking equipment maker which makes mobile phones. This means it knows the backend first, and then how to connect the network to its Frontend devices, including mobile phones.

Apple only focuses on Frontend consumer devices, and not connecting with backend devices because its focus is on the user experience.

Apple relies on Qualcomm for its 5G transceiver; Huawei designs its own 5G transceiver.

That is the difference.

Newborn kitten cries when she sees her mother lying motionless on her left side full of thorns

Newborn kitten cries when she sees her mother lying motionless on her left side full of thorns The mother cat and her cubs have an accident on a strange fruit full of thorns A mother cat crashes next to the fruit back.

We have seen the mother cat and her two young children lying here. kittens just a few days old swaddled around their mother. and cried out of voice when he saw his mother in trouble.

next to it is a fruit full of thorns. This cat family is pitiful.

when I thought the fruit from the other corner fell on the mother cat. but luckily the other fruit is just next to the mother cat and the kittens.

Maybe the mother cat was exhausted.

We are walking in a tropical forest. There are a lot of dry leaves here. I came across a family of cats in distress here.

The kittens were crying when they saw their mother lying motionless. The mother cat lies next to the thorny fruit weevil. I come closer to check and will help the cat family.

The kittens are quite small. Luckily this thorny fruit didn’t hit the kitten. The mother cat is very weak. it needs immediate care. I will help this poor meod family.

https://youtu.be/WUKV-HSJypQ

Sweet Potato Layer Cake

This is a Southern classic.

Ingredients

Cake

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups finely shredded uncooked sweet potato (about 1 medium)
1/4 cup hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans

Frosting

1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 (5 ounce) cans evaporated milk
4 egg yolks, beaten
2 2/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Cake: In a mixing bowl, beat oil and sugar.
Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add sweet potato, water and vanilla extract; mix well.
In a small mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff; fold into the sweet potato mixture.
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; add to potato mixture.
Stir in pecans.
Pour into three greased 9-inch round cake pans.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 22 to 27 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks.
Frosting: Melt the butter in a saucepan; whisk in sugar, milk and egg yolks until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened and bubbly.
Remove from the heat; stir in the coconut, pecans and vanilla extract. Cool slightly.
Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with a third of the frosting.
Repeat layers.

Did witnessing someone’s death change the way you were living your life?

When I was in high school, in my senior year, I had a co-op job as an electronic tech, and worked for a small business. The business was on Rt 11, in a business district leading into Bloomsburg Pa.

One afternoon, while at my bench, we heard a car accident occur outside our building. Apparently, a young man no older than me was speeding and decided to use the enter lane to pass people, and caught a young family getting read to turn off to the seasonal hamburger place next door to so (to the right when facing the highway)

Tye family was ok, but a group of workers from the welding/fabrication shop next to us (on the left) ran out to the car and attempted to pull the young driver out.

But he apparently had a broken neck… I will never forget seeing how his head moved, it just sort of flopped around on his shoulders. That was 43 years ago, and I still remember that part vividly.

A day or two later his sister dropped by and asked us if we had seen a ring of his that was missing. We did walk around the accident scene but never found it.

Because he broke his neck on his steering wheel, I started to wear my seatbelt while driving, long before there was a campaign to require it.

What is an example of a dirty trick that a thief tried but backfired when they saw your dog?

Don’t know if this was a thief or not, but a number of years ago there was a rise in fake “Utility Company Representatives” knocking on people’s doors. In many cases things went missing if these people were allowed into people’s homes (they worked in pairs).

At the time we were living in a duplex. The first floor level was about 6–8 inches higher than the level of the front porch. We had a Siberian Husky/German Shepherd mix (both sides of his parentage were pure blood pedigrees), and he was the best burglar alarm even invented. 60–70 lbs of solid muscle, the face of a wolf, and the most disconcerting part, 1 blue eye and one brown eye. Our storm door had a solid panel that went about halfway up the door. High enough that you couldn’t see the dog if he approached the door. The top was screened.

My wife answered the door and was faced with 2 “Utility Company Representatives” that were checking the water meters which were inside, down in the basement. Their trick was to gain entry, get the person who answered to accompany one down to the meter while the other one stayed in side the front door and “waited”, picking up anything they could find that might be valuable. Like wallets from purses. True to form, they wanted to come in and check the meter. My wife knows better and told them they couldn’t come in without some sort of ID. They started arguing that they had a legal right to inspect their hardware (they didn’t), and she kept telling them no and flicked the lock on the storm door.

Our ever faithful guard dog had walked over to the door while they were trying to talk their way in. When their tone started changing he got interested and decided to see who was talking to the boss-lady like that. He popped up on his hind legs which put his face not too far from level with the people on the porch, who suddenly decided they no longer had to gain entry, and said ‘someone else will contact you later’ as they left for greener pastures.

Best alarm system ever.

EDIT… Punctuation repairs (Thanks Ed), and I thought you all might like to see this buddy of mine. We lost him to The Bridge from cancer 29 years ago now, and still miss him every day. Sadly, we didn’t do a lot of picture taking back then, so my choice of pictures is limited.

He had the black and white Husky markings, and the longer snout and some brown from the Shepherd side. Check out his eyes, and imagine them staring at you through a screen door at eye level.

China and technology

The reason Trump thought that he could stop China from making DUV machines is because DUV machines encompass a lot of technologies.

If China is unable to produce any of these technologies then the DUV machines China purchased from ASML would be completely useless in a year or so. The parts need to be replaced. No parts, no working machine.

The light source breaks down all the time. The coating on the lenses only last for a few months. 1 year at most. All those machines that China bought from ASML for over $500 billion would become very expensive scrap metal.

But China managed to develop these core technologies. And it required the entire Chinese scientific community to do so.

But now that China has the core technologies, there is nothing the US can do to stop China from advancing. The US no longer controls Chinese chip industry.

This video explains just how intricate chip production is and how much leading edge technology is required to make on of these machines work.

The Sopranos || Get It Up

This should get more views, it’s such a perfect clean edit

How do I change someone’s political opinion from left wing to right wing?

Start buying them lavish gifts, like expensive vacations at 5-star luxury resorts, free airline flights to exotic destinations, Rolexes, things like that. Then buy their mom’s house and let mom continue to live there for free. Then donate the money for their kid’s education at an expensive university.

Okay, that’s an extreme case, but it works. Most famously, the first black mayors of Los Angeles and Detroit suspiciously became a lot more pro-business after they were elected than before, and that was just the result of freely given campaign contributions, invitations to nice dinners, and perks like the odd bottle of whisky that remain within the rules for gifts.

Take a look at Krysten Sinema, who got elected mostly because she had a massive team of young volunteers who saw her as a progressive. After she got elected, she started getting massive donations from pharmaceutical companies and, all of a sudden, she’s shifted a lot further to the right.

One of the reasons why this works is that running for office is incredibly expensive. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first campaign cost $2 million, mostly spent on the Democratic primary. She was funded by a group who wanted someone more progressive, and now she’s elected to a safe Democratic seat, she will need less money going forward, but her $170,000 salary (seems a lot doesn’t it) still doesn’t pay for her New York rent, her Washington rent, and her student loans.

One of the best tricks plays on vanity. The politician writes a book, which gets published, and “friends” buy enough copies to make it a best seller. This is really sleazy, but it happens all the time, and it is in no way illegal. There are allegations that Hilary Clinton’s success in the futures market was a set up where a benefactor essentially ate losses and just passed on the gains.

This is why the rich are heavily into “charity”, showing how good they are by building college buildings and universities (with their name on them of course). It’s certainly cheaper than paying taxes for the same thing, that’s for sure. Andrew Carnegie started it with libraries, and is seen as a saint, but governments still had to maintain those (most are now over a century old, including one or two in my home town of Toronto) and the donors usually don’t pay for the upkeep.

What is the strangest culture shock you experienced when visiting America?

This woman is an Egyptian living in Kuwait. -MM

I’ve already written about some shocking things I’ve come across in the states in another post, so I suppose this is part 2, but here we go:

Heard people going at it…you cannot imagine my shock as a person coming from a conservative area, one who hasn’t even seen her parents kissing, to witness such a thing. But while staying at a hotel, for the first time in my life, I heard two people going at it very loudly so that it was impossible to ignore them. I was so embarrassed and my husband was laughing at me for looking so shocked.
Serving water for free in restaurants. For a capitalist country like the states, I was surprised they didn’t benefit from this one thing that people will undoubtedly pay for. You certainly have to pay for water over here in restaurants.
Ice.. always. Continuing from the last point, water is always served with ice. Someone like me who can’t have very cold water had to specifically ask for it to be omitted.
Medical issues. I needed antibiotics during my visit because of an infection that I get frequently. Not having insurance as a simple visitor, we had to pay 400$ to see a doctor and get this simple prescription. Meanwhile back home, I got it for less than a dollar. So I swore to pack lots of meds next time I come over.
Vast spaces. Perhaps because I’ve been only to Buffalo, Niagara, and Oregon but there was always a ton of space between buildings. The markets were huge with vast parking lots. And the roads were very big for the most part.
Black people everywhere. In New York airport (JFK), almost all workers were black! That was a surprise because I always heard of the diversity in the states. But even later in Oregon, almost everyone was white.
Security at the airport. That one was quite funny. When you get scanned at the JFK airport, you have to stand in a certain cabin, face your right, raise your arms like a criminal, then they scan you. The woman worker shouted, “Put your arms up!” and I had no clue what she was talking about. She kept repeating then showed me the exact position and where to face. Then she said “Seems like you don’t travel often”. I wanted to say “Excuse me? I’ve been traveling since I was 4 but this doesn’t exist anywhere else I’ve been!”.
Coffee. That was no coffee. That was dirty water. Period. Lol. For real though, our definition of coffee in Egypt is Turkish coffee which is very heavy, dense, and intense in flavor.
Huge meals. Everyone said so before and yet I made the mistake of ordering an appetizer before the main dish, only to be surprised that the appetizer is so big that it’s a meal on its own. I felt so sad throwing half the food away as we were traveling and I couldn’t take it with me.
Reese’s everywhere. It was Reese’s heaven! All sort of sizes, shapes, and mixes. Like mixed with Cadbury, Oreos, and so on.
Credit card everywhere. I am not exaggerating when I tell you there hasn’t been a single place I’ve been to that doesn’t take credit.
Rich wildlife. Coming from a desert, it was so impressive to just casually come across deer and squirrels. And at some point, I saw a massive number of seals. I learned the hard way that they stink.
They use their attractions wisely. I’ve been to countries that don’t give enough attention to grand places that leave you in awe, meanwhile, the states try to give such attention to whatever place they feel people may like visiting. Whenever you go to an especially cool place, you’ll find stores near it selling stamps, mugs, and stickers with pictures of that attraction. I’ve seen that at Niagara Falls and the redwoods in California. Did I mention that I’d never seen such huge trees in my life?

I loved the States quite a bit.

US chip giant opens $4bn Singapore plant

The world’s third-largest contract semiconductor maker, GlobalFoundries, on Tuesday opened a $4-billion manufacturing plant in Singapore as part of a global expansion to help ease an industry supply crunch.

The new Singapore facility will produce an additional 450,000 wafers annually at full capacity by 2025 to 2026, general manager Tan Yew Kong told reporters, raising the city-state’s overall capacity to 1.5 million wafers each year.

The chips, usually used in smartphones and other mobile devices, are also increasingly in demand by automakers, especially for electric vehicles, adding to the pressure to raise production.

“The key megatrends of our industry — digitisation, connectivity, cloud computing — are all driving acceleration to a more connected and data-centric world,” GlobalFoundries president and chief executive Thomas Caulfield said at the launch.

“It demonstrates how central and critical the industry is to the world economy and how pervasive semiconductors are in enabling and enhancing all aspects of human life.”

Caulfield said that despite current economic headwinds, the company estimates the industry will double in the next decade.

“The catalyst for this growth will be AI (artificial intelligence),” he said.

The firm’s 23,000-square meter Singapore facility, which broke ground in 2021, will expand the global footprint of the company, which already has plants in the United States and Europe.

Singapore’s chip output currently makes up 11% of the global semiconductor market.

The global semiconductor market is predicted to experience a downturn of 10.3 percent this year but recover in 2024 and grow by 11.8%, according to estimates by the industry monitor World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

Do intelligent people realize that they are smarter than everyone else around them?

Very often, the answer is no. Not only do intelligent people very often fail to realize how much smarter they are than everyone else, they also tend to overestimate other people’s intelligence even when they do. Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, I was at a bar with some friends. The bar had an outdoor area where you could stand around and drink beer. There was a guy who thought it would be funny to ride past the bar repeatedly on an extremely loud moped. At certain times, he would stop, rev the moped so loud that nobody could hear themselves think, and begin whooping loudly. This same guy had been at it all day, not just by the bar, but riding up and down the streets and residential neighborhoods, screaming and hollering and bothering everyone he could with his moped.

I mentioned, casually, that I wouldn’t mind chucking my beer mug at his head if he were close enough. A friend of mine, whom we shall call Angus (not his real name), said, “Well, you should probably leave someone as unstable as that guy alone. He obviously has some serious emotional difficulties.”

Angus is a smart dude, but he misread the guy on the moped. The issue is that the guy on the moped was probably not suffering from some deep emotional trauma that had made him so obstreperous. Rather, Moped Guy’s thought process was, most likely, no more complicated than this: “YEAH! YEAH! LOUD! LOUD MOTHERFUCKER! YEAH LOOK AT IT MAN! YEAH! LOUD!”

The issue that Angus was having is that Angus, being an intelligent and empathetic individual, was trying to understand Moped Guy’s motivations and look at things from Moped Guy’s perspective. Angus was thinking to himself, “What would have to happen to me to get me to act that obnoxiously?” The thing is, intelligent people of high character, like Angus, are not moved to act like idiots unless they suffer something really bad, at which point a complicated emotional process leads to bad behavior. Angus’ miscalculation was that Moped Guy would have to have suffered some horrible trauma to act in the way he did. The big issue is that Angus did not account for Moped Guy’s stupidity, and forgot the simple fact that stupid people will act stupid without any suffering or instability. Dumb people just act dumb.

I have suffered from this problem myself. For the longest time, I did not realize that so much of human behavior was posturing, and did not realize how to read people correctly. I thought that, when someone talked to me about their interests, they were merely stating facts and not trying to talk to me about themselves. The vast majority of humans are so subjective that most of their communication is about themselves and not about things or ideas or even other people. Intelligent people have problems grasping that.

What is the worst thing that has happened because a patient lied to a doctor?

My father, as I may have said before, is an ER doctor.

One night, a case arrived to the hospital of a teen girl with what seemed like a regular fever. The team gave her the necessary meds and started running a few tests.

Her mother had rushed to the hospital with her and looked particularly nervous. The doctor asked her some typical questions such as when her daughter showed signs and so on, but she would have vague half-assed answers.

However, within a few hours, the girls fever was sky rocketing, and her blood pressure was getting very low, and for some reason she wasn’t responding to regular meds or fluids.

The mother looked very nervous then she timidly approached a nurse and told her “actually, I forgot to tell you something. My daughter just went through a liposuction a couple of days ago. I don’t know if these two things are related”.

Yet by the time this piece of information reached the doctors, the girl had already died. She was being treated for a regular fever until test results showed the real issue.

Turns out that the mother took her daughter, who was not even chubby to begin with, to undergo a liposuction. Given that the girl was underage, a parent’s approval is a must. Her father was completely against it but the mother went ahead and sneaked it with the daughter anyway.

And she was too scared of her husband knowing what she did so she didn’t want to let the secret out until she realized that the complications are more serious than she thought. But it was too late by then.

Lessons of the day:

1-Don’t put your child through unnecessary plastic surgery.

2-And don’t hold back information from the doctor for God’s sake.

Christopher Moltisanti – So Far (The Sopranos)

The most tragic character in fiction, even with all his flaws he will always be one of the greatest characters in the history of television…

https://youtu.be/idXp9arL83g

Is the Chinese government and economy transparent enough to gauge how good (or bad) their economy is going?

The Chinese government is a lot lot lot more transparent than the western government on the economy. It is simple Chinese government don’t need to be popular it need to be effective!

The U.S. government need to and use their media to fool Americans and hoodwinked them so that Yanks will always be highly naive and ignorant. How do they do that? Western media are profit motivated so they are free to make money by writing what westerners like to hear. So they write or broadcast what westerners like to hear.

After conniving you that China is at fault, China is your enemy, China is backward, China is evil, China steal your technology, China cheats, China take your jobs…..What do you like to hear? China fail and U.S. is great, it is exceptional, its economy is still wonderful. Your technology is unmatched. So you media cohort with your government to fool you and guess what that is what you want!

Chinese government don’t face election and popularity contest every 2 years! You do! China says and report as it is and encourage or motivate its citizens that it needs to buck up and work harder. Hence all the superlatives such ad the U.S. is exceptional, Britain is Great, US is the mist innovative, Britain invents everything…

China don’t do that. To us Empty vessels makes the most noise! Western media are simply lying media that spread half truths, fake news, misinformation, fabrications. Demonising others to distract your people from your impending collapse.

What did you learn “the hard way”?

I was studious, which resulted into me getting a scholarship in college. One of my friends asked me for some money (2500/-). He was my good friend, not best, and I was completely aware of his gambling and drinking habits.

I wanted to say “No”, because I knew the importance of money at that moment of my life. I was aware of the fact that he will never return it, but I still lent him the money, which was obviously never returned.

It was my first breakup and I was leading a miserable life. There was this girl who was my junior and she started taking interest in me.

I was uncomfortable, but she was pretty. I wasn’t ready for a relationship and she kept pushing me. Again, I wanted to say “No”, but it could have hurt her feelings.

Unwillingly, I said Yes. And that relationship survived for a month only.

Don’t judge me, I was an immature teenager back then.

There were many incidents in my life where I desperately wanted to say “No”, but ended up saying otherwise. And in return, I paid a huge price, not monetarily, but emotionally and mentally.

But today, things have changed. I have changed for my own good. And I have learned the art of saying “No”. People call me rude, arrogant etc, but who cares about their opinion?

This is my life, these are my struggles. They will only give their absurd opinion which is never required. Sometimes people think that saying “NO” is hard because your image will get maligned or it will hurt other people.

My question is, what will you do with your false pride? Maybe momentarily you will hurt people by saying “No”, but in the long term it will save you from huge disappointment.

This is what I learned the hard way: How to say “No” to the face when/where I am hesitant/uncomfortable.

It comes with multiple benefits:

You don’t have to lie.
You don’t have to make excuses.
You don’t have to justify anything.

I refused to please others at the expense of my emotional well being. Even if it is saying “No” to the people who are used to hearing “Yes”.

Learn the art of saying “No”. Don’t lie, don’t make excuses, don’t over explain yourself. Just simply decline.

The Sopranos || Easier

“Man, thanks for this awesome work! This gives me power every time I rewatch it to deal with tough shit in evercold Moscow. I’d love to see more motivating sopranos vids from ya!”

What happened to your school bully?

When I first started High School, I had a guy that rode the bus with me every day, and made my life a living hell. His name was David R-. He was 18 years old and still in the tenth grade. He was bigger than me, and cussed like a sailor. He was mean and vicious, and he absolutely scared me to death.

I have vivid memories of him sitting behind me on the bus, slapping me in the back of the head as we rode home from school. It happened almost every day. This was 27 years ago and, back then, bullying was just a “common thing.” It was something you had to deal with. You had to learn to stand up for yourself and “be a man”. I would complain to the bus driver and the principal. Mr. Dave would get a good scolding, but he was right back at it the next day.

Well, after six months of this B/S, I’d finally had enough. I just snapped one day. I turned around and dove over the seat, and started pounding on him. Everyone went crazy. The driver slammed on the brakes, and brought the bus to a stop.

I was getting my tail kicked by this guy. He was bigger, faster and stronger, and the only thing I had on my side, was rage. We were up against the emergency exit, slugging it out, when, all of a sudden, the door just popped open, and we went tumbling into the street.

When we hit the pavement, Mr. Dave had his arm twisted behind his back. He landed on it, and I heard it snap like a piece of kindling. He pushed me off of him, and got up with a bone jutting out of his wrist. He was screaming his head off, and blood was pouring onto the asphalt.

Maybe I should have backed off at that point, but this guy had made my life hell for several months, and I wanted revenge. I twisted his broken arm behind his back, and took him down on the ground where I proceeded to beat the living daylights out of him. There were several cars that had stopped by this time, and it took two grown men to pull me off of him. It was the worst fight I’d ever had in my life, and it remains so to this day. My nose was busted and I had a black eye. Mr. Dave had a broken arm, a busted lip, two missing teeth, and a huge laceration across his forehead. They actually called an ambulance for him.

Both of us were suspended. Dave’s mother contacted my dad a few days later, and threatened to sue us. She wanted us to pay for Dave’s medical bills. However, I had a bus full of people, who absolutely hated Dave, and all of them were telling the principal about my six months of hell, and insisting that Dave had started the fight.

I was suspended for two weeks. I also got a month of detention, and couldn’t ride the bus for the rest of the year, but that was the end of my punishment. As far as I know, Dave never returned to school at all. I didn’t see him again for 15 years.

Then, right around 2005, I moved from Mississippi back to my hometown in Georgia. One day as I was walking out of a convenience store, I spotted my old high school bully picking up aluminum cans along the side of the road.

It totally shocked me, and I wasn’t absolutely sure that it was really him. After all, it had been 15 years. Still, I was PRETTY sure. So, I strolled over to the edge of the parking lot for a better look. Just as I walked up, he turned to stare at me, and I recognized him beyond a shadow of doubt. I’m not very good with names, but I rarely forget a face.

He looked terrible. His hair was long. He hadn’t shaved in several days. His clothes were torn and ragged, and he smelled like a wet dog. He was very thin and dirty, and half of his teeth appeared to be missing. He also had an old duffle bag slung across his shoulder, and I got the distinct impression that he was homeless.

“I’m sorry, you’re David R-, aren’t you?” I asked.

His eyes brightened for a moment, and he looked at me long and hard before responding. “Yeah, who are you?”

My first impulse was to tell him. I wanted to remind him of all those days that he had harassed the hell out of me, and then ask him if he remembered our little brawl and his trip to the hospital. Then I wanted to let him know how much money I had made the year before, and tell him all about the new job I had just started down in Atlanta. Instead, I just stood there, staring at him.

“I think we might have gone to school together,” I replied.

His eyes narrowed again, and he really studied my face. Still, I don’t think he had a clue who I was. Apparently, I had changed a lot in 15 years.

“What’s your name?” He finally asked.

I shook my head. “Not important”, I replied. I dug in my wallet, and pulled out a ten dollar bill. I held it out to him, and he took it. I said, “God bless”, and then slowly walked away.

The only thing I felt for him, was pity.

Global South won’t back Kiev as West demands

A push-back against Western influence is reportedly prompting countries to reject the pro-Ukraen agenda. Zelensky during a UN General Assembly session.

Western officials have overestimated the willingness of neutral nations to join anti-Russia policies in support of Ukraen, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It’s clear that the West overall has been surprised by the pretty widespread reluctance by many of the countries in the so-called Global South… to come on board.

“animosity toward the US and Europe” in some parts of the world and the desire of rising powers, such as Brazil and South Africa, to “assert their independence”, the article said.

The WSJ detailed purported successes and failures of Western diplomacy to rally the support of neutral nations for what it called “a fair peace settlement for Ukraen” ahead of next week’s gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

Loozensky has been internationally promoting his “peace formula” with Western backing. It includes Ukraen regaining control over all former territories, war reparations from Russia, and a tribunal for the Russian leadership. Moscow has dismissed the Zelensky plan as being detached from reality.

What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

My oldest son was driving a red Toyota 4×4 pick up . It was used but solid .

He worked at an auto parts store and had done a pretty good job of fixing it up . One weekend he did a tune up . Plugs , rotor , cap, plugs etc .. about a week later while I was working , he called and said it had statrting running rough then died.

At that point I had more money than time so we had it towed to a shop I had used before .

Next day shop calls me to tell me it jumped time and the engine was a complete loss .

Quoted me 2500 to rebuild .

Only paid 1500 for the truck .

I told them never mind and had it towed to the house .

Finally I was off work a few day and decided to check it out . Pulled the timing belt cover and checked the orientation of the cams to the crankshaft . It was perfect ! So at their point I’m a bit confused . Pop the distributor cap and noticed the rotor was on the wrong cylinder .

Come to find out my son forgot to put the holding screw back in the rotor and it had turned just a bit . This meant the timing was so far off it wouldn’t run .

Put the screw back in, cranked it up and it ran like a champ !

Drove it up to the shop and called out the boss .

Showed him and explained what was found .

His face turned 4 shades of red lol ! Come to find out the tech that looked at it got paid extra to do rebuilds and was condemning engines every chance he got !

Needless to say the tech got fired .3 hours of my time and I saved 2500$ and my son got his truck back .

Never went back .

Did Huawei’s launch of the Kiriin 9000s chip for the Mate 60 Pro show that <5nm processes are not necessary for modern mobile phones, and how will this affect TSMC’s business?

As an Ordinary user of a smartphone, can you really tell the difference between the 3nm and the 7nm Chips?

You can’t

The difference is more from an engineering point of view and a design point of view than a commercial point of view

The Average customer doesn’t understand 3nm and 7nm.

There is Zero difference from the POV of a retail customer who doesn’t understand Semiconductor Design Or Power Consumption Efficiency (99.9% of the world’s retail customers)

Here are the top six parameters based on which people decide which Smartphones to buy :-

Price
Camera
Battery & Charging
Gaming
Color & Design
BRAND

Do you see ‘Performance’ anywhere?

Performance is impossible to gauge for a normal user

You need advanced tools that tech blogger guys from YT have

Sure you can see the difference between a 32 nm Laptop Chip and a 7 nm Smartphone Chip

However it becomes tougher as you come closer and closer to each successive process

Take the I7 vs Loongson 3AC6000

Assuming Loongson had Windows integration

An Average user could not distinguish the two apart unless by GPU performance or Memory superiority

Yet a professional with tools can see that the Loongson is performing only at 50% the rate of the I7

So the answer is YES

My guess is the 3/2nm Chips are redundant for modern smartphones. They are too advanced and unnecessary for the average retail user

Cost effective 7/5 nm Chips are the Uppermost limit for smartphones

The Iphone 15 vs Mate 60 is the best example

The greatest advantage of the Iphone 15 was the GPU of NVDIA according to retail users

Mate60 won with the Camera, Gestures, Satellite Calling, 5G speeds etc

Iphone won with the Graphics

Nobody mentions the A17 Chip except as part of the textbook spec comparison table

3/2 nm Chips will be pathbreaking for the NEXT GENERATION after the Smartphone like maybe Advanced AI systems etc

TSMC will find the 3nm process overkill

Yet if they keep at it, they may find it easier to progress to the next generation of communication technology

Goodfellas | 𝑾𝑰𝑺𝑬 𝑮𝑼𝒀𝑺 | 𝙴𝙳𝙸𝚃

Very nicely done.

What was the most condescending comment someone made after seeing your new or newly renovated home?

We have built a vacation home in a nearby province. Husband took on the contracting while maintaining his full-time police job – so proud of him!

I did not announce this; I dislike the comparison games people play and do not want to be perceived as bragging.

A good friend asked to see pictures at a reunion luncheon. As I flipped through pix on my phone, an acquaintance from long ago came up behind us.

She peered over our shoulders and exclaimed, “When you married that low-ranked cop, I knew you’d end up this way! How far you’ve fallen! How can you live like THAT!!”

The look on her face was not one of concern, but a sneer.

She was looking at a picture of the shed where building materials had been kept (that has since been removed).

*sigh*

*Note Some have asked about my response. I smiled, told her that it was the raw materials shed and went back to my conversation.

Why didn’t I snap back, go for her throat, etc?

Because that (and to embarrass me) is what she expected, what she wanted. She is in her element when someone defends herself or gets angry.

But she has never been able to handle a calm, non-defensive response.

Was enlisting in the military a mistake for you?

No, it wasn’t.

My time in the Marines didn’t go at all as I expected; in fact, I was disappointed with almost all of it. However, I am grateful for these very disappointments. It took me a long time to come this viewpoint, but I am finally able to see the experience in a more wholistic way. As a Christian, I see it through the lens of Romans 8:28:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (ESV)

When I was planning to go into the Marines, my father encouraged me as he always had. He thought I had sound judgment and that I had made a wise decision. It was a sickening shock for me to find out in the Marines that very few people, men or women, thought this way.

I was generally despised as a woman Aircraft Maintenance Officer. Women hadn’t been allowed into this MOS for very long. I was about the sixth woman to choose it. People thought women couldn’t understand machinery or aircraft.

I personally got ugly comments. One was a note passed to me in AMO school that read, “A woman is a life support system for a cunt.” I was very quiet back then and kept to myself a lot, but other Marines’ hatred for me was so great they went out of their way to humiliate me.

At some point I found out I could not be assigned to a deploying squadron; no women Marines could deploy back then. So this fact meant I would not be assigned to any unit that actually had aircraft, unless it was to a training squadron. My dream of going to a deploying squadron and to a carrier ended.

I was so miserable. I had no friends after a while. A woman captain I knew went to Germany, and a woman TBS classmate with whom I was also close had to take a medical discharge. I was lonely and frightened and made bad personal decisions as a result.

But when I was at my lowest point, I reached out to God in desperation, and He answered. It was the beginning of our relationship which continues to this day. It was about that time my EAS rolled around, so I was then set free from the Marine Corps.

In spite of the traumatic stuff and in addition to my now having God in my life, I did however benefit from my service.

I was able to work for Sikorsky Aircraft as a technical writer. I wrote repair manuals for the SH-60B helicopter when it first came out. The job included testing the manuals out on the helicopter by doing an R and R (remove and replace) of all the parts on it, including the engines, blades, and rotor head.

Being a Marine helped me get a job with the Texas Department of Public Safety as a security officer. Marines are highly respected in the Department, and there are a lot of them in it. To my surprise, many other members of the Department admired me for my Marine service and accepted me because of it. That had hardly ever happened before.

A huge benefit was that my husband, a highly decorated combat Marine, chose me to be his wife. He said that when he learned I was a Marine, he knew I could understand him like no other woman could. We got married six weeks after we met.

So my military service was a rough go, but it prepared me for the rough life I had ahead of me. But most importantly, God used it to bring me to Him and to my wonderful husband.

How did the Vietnam War affect you and your family?

At so many levels… I was a small child in the 60’s. I remember on the news there was a symbol- a silhouette of a soldier walking – with a number in it, and that number was the number of casualties there had been that day. My cousin was in the 101st Airborne- it would take forever to hear anything so we both were encouraged and afraid when they mentioned the 101st.

Many people say the Gulf War was the first war played out on television. It wasn’t. It was Vietnam. I remember it so distinctly. It was terrifying. I asked my Dad what the war was for… he started to explain but in the end, he just said “There is never a good reason for war, and in the end, it won’t change anything anyway…” Looking back now, what did all that death and pain- on both sides- accomplish?

The city I lived in had a Marine base. Many of the kids I played with had dads who were “in country”, or mothers and fathers who worked at the base. I saw many of them saying goodbye because their lives had suddenly changed, either because their dad would not be coming home, or that he had come home and was now facing extended time in rehab. I remember playing in the stadium right in front of the entrance to the housing area for the base… when we saw a black car with a driver, an officer… and a chaplain… all the kids would run home in terror. Someone was about to get some bad news.

I was grateful that my Dad didn’t have to go to Vietnam. He was in the navy as the war started but I was a sick baby and he was discharged on compassionate grounds.

I remembering wearing a bracelet with the name of an MIA soldier… he didn’t come home, well, his remains didn’t come home, until the late 1970’s, I folded up his bracelet and sent it up to his family.

One of my dearest friends, “Sarge” Robert Hultgren, was a 2 tour vet- he campaigned tirelessly for the MIA and POW. “I can’t forget a single brother” he said. Sarge died several years, of Alzheimer’s Dementia. He forgot his daughter, his wife, his own name… but he thought he was in Vietnam. His PTSD pierced his soul so deeply it was too deep even for Dementia to wash away.

Sarge used to put up a bamboo Christmas Tree in front of Boston’s City Hall each Christmas. Lest we forget.

I remember standing on the front steps with my Mom when all the church bells and sirens from Fire Trucks and Civil Defense were sounding to say the war was over. But how could it be over? My friends were still waiting for their dads.

That next year at Memorial Day, the 1st World War vets marched, all snappily dressed and although old were orderly and looked dignified. The same was true of the World War 2 vets, the Korean War vets… then came the Vietnam vets. The looked slouched, and where people had cheered for the other men, they yelled things at the Vietnam Vets… Baby killer. Rapist. Bastards. WHy didn’t you just die there….

Some of the my friends were there watching their dads marching and they winced at the hatred. We had already seen it, protests at the gates of the base, “peace protesters” telling the small children there that their daddies were murderers and rapists. Who did they think they were to “peacefully” destroy these kids?

Neighbours of my grandparents, the place where we spent every spare minute, were a military family. One day when visiting them, the news came on the TV and they turned it off. “We don’t listen to that when we are here… this is our escape” said the lovely Mrs Wittman. Her husband was a senior military officer. This was the reason:

Lance Corporal Narvin O WIttman 26–9–1946 – 7–8–1967 Their son had died in Vietnam. When I went to see the “Wall”, I took a rubbing of his name. He didn’t even make it to 21.

It was years before we learned our lesson. It is this deep wound of guilt that led to Americans thanking Vets for their service… never again would we forget that it’s not the soldier’s fault when he does what his country asks him to do. I hope.

All those of my generation had the same experience… the pain and horror of Vietnam was all over the news, inescapable, imbedding itself in our psyche.

Thanks for your service… as my generation joins those who pass away, I just pray we as a human race never forget. We inflicted pain on those young men- draftees- and their families. For what?

The Sopranos || Lovely

Breaking bad is my all-time favorite show.. But this show is… its a masterpiece. I remember the first time i finished it. Had a feeling i need to watch it again right away…. They don’t make them like they used to before. What a great time it was for entertainment back then.

Southern Crusty Coconut Pie

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups shredded coconut
1/4 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell

Instructions

Pour milk over coconut and set aside while creaming butter and sugar together.
Add eggs to creamed mixture and beat well.
Add milk, coconut and vanilla extract.
Pour into an unbaked pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until pie is golden brown and firm.

Yield: 6 – 8 servings

This recipe may be doubled to make two pies.

Will China survive in a globalist world if they keep their average citizen closed off from the rest of the world?

Chinese are not closed off from the world; more than 130M Chinese travel outside China annually, and they spend about US$250B annually on their travels, making them the single largest tourist group by nation, and the biggest spending one.

Just because you disagree with Chinese government policies, do not say that Chinese are closed off from the rest of the world. It is you who are out of touch with what is really going on.

I miss my bust

When I left the United States, for China, I had to leave so many things behind. Over time they were stolen, discarded, or just junked. Others simply saw no value in the things that I had, aside from a few dollars at a “swap meet”.

One of my treasures was a historical (museum) reproduction of a ancient Greek torso. It was of a man’s chest, fragmented, and standing on a pole on a hard and heavy black square base.

It was my little treasure, and I would often feel the lines of the torso as I came back home and disgorged my keys on my hall table.

2012 NYR 02609 0023 000alva s eylanbekov torso093357

Over the years, I found it very difficult to give gifts. Often some money or a party or get together would suffice.

But, in a pinch, nothing is better (and long lasting) as a heavy cement or stone statue. I strongly believe this. It’s a present that is unique, has value, and too heavy to throw away.

Nothing too big. You know, the size of a turtle or door stop.

Whether Art Deco, or lawn ornament style, take the time to select something wonderful…

Todays.

The Sopranos – Tony Meets With Carmine Lupertazzi Jr

Tex-Mex Chili Cheese Supreme

A delicious layered Tex-Mex casserole using three different cheeses.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (15.5 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, with juice, coarsely chopped
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder, or to taste
1 (15 ounce) carton Wisconsin ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded Wisconsin Monterey Jack cheese
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
3 large eggs, beaten
1 (8 ounce) bag tortilla chips
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Sauté green bell pepper and garlic until tender.
Add kidney beans. Set aside.
In saucepan, combine tomatoes, tomato sauce and chili powder. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Add to kidney bean mixture. Combine ricotta and Monterey Jack cheeses, chiles, onions and eggs.
Spread 1/4 of cheese mixture evenly in greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish.
Arrange 1/4 of chips over cheese.
Spread 1/4 of tomato mixture over chips. Repeat layer 3 more times.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove foil and top with cheddar cheese and bake 10 to 15 minutes more.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

How technologically advanced is China? Can you give some perspective and examples of how advanced in technology they are?

China is the most advanced Nation in the world in terms of Applications of Advanced Technology

They can apply advanced technology on a scale that no other nation to this day can manage

It is undeniable that China is the world’s foremost nation to apply advanced technology

By comparison the US pales with most Americans using 4G speeds and with most applications falling flat. They actually use paper certificates for vaccines

South Korea comes second in this aspect followed by Japan and Singapore

My sons first word was “It looks like one of those Futuristic Cities shown in many 1980s Hollywood movies”

The Key here is CORE TECHNOLOGY

Now for instance, all these wonderful apps that are being built , they are coded in a specific language right?

They need high performance servers right?

You need processors right?

Every one of these is controlled entirely by the West in terms of their Core capabilities

It was a perfect relationship with China developing the most fantastic advanced applications and developing their software at fantastic pathbreaking pace

The West sold and licensed their Core Technology for a fat fee

The whole Global economy relished the partnership

The West chose to WEAPONIZE their core technology

In a mere decade China today controls almost 11% of the World’s Core Technology and Research in various areas

They are almost on par with Europe and Japan and well ahead of South Korea

Yet THEY ARE STILL ONLY A SIXTH IN TERMS OF CORE TECH CONTROL AS THE USA

Had the US simply shut the f*** up and simply encouraged Green Cards for Researchers from China with a 10 year path to Citizenship in 2012, China would have been in all sorts of trouble

So Today China is surging ahead or at par on almost all modern commercial technologies like Rail, Green Energy, Latent Communications, Face recognition etc

Yet China is only around 16% in Control of Core Technology, far ahead than ANY ASIAN NATION IN POST WW II HISTORY but still a long way to go

Experts believe China will control 30% of all Core Technology by 2032

Conclusion is China is on its way

He Crashed Into A Train And Died, bringing back Messages From God on the Other Side

What are some of the best conversations in a movie?

The unpopular movie First K!ll (2017) has a conversation between an 11 year old kid and a bank robber, which I consider to be the best thing in the entire movie. The bank robber schools the kid about how to deal with bullies, something the kid’s own father couldn’t do… something many kids’ parents in real life can’t do actually.

(For a small prologue, The bank robber had taken the kid hostage, but as they spent time together they started getting acquainted.)

Bank Robber: What were you and dad doing in the woods that day anyway?

Kid: He took me on a hunting trip.

Bank Robber: Ah. You wanted to be a big man hunter huh?

Kid: No

Bank Robber: Why was he teaching you then? A little city boy and his son bonding?

Kid: … There’s this kid at my school that keeps beating me up, and he thought hunting would… I don’t know. I tried to tell him it was a stupid idea, but he wouldn’t listen.

Bank Robber: Well, [It was a stupid idea]. Especially since you already have what it takes to handle a bully.

(Kid looks surprised)

It’s true.

See, bullies are all about one thing, intimidation; and they feed off fear. Take that away from them, and you stop them cold.

You know when you’re playing your video games, and you’re fully into it, focused, ready for anything? It’s like you’re outside of yourself, but in control of this warrior. That’s the attitude you gotta give a bully. Completely still. In your mind, you’re able to change what’s about to happen. In your heart, there’s no fear. There’s nothing he can do to you that you can’t overcome. You stare at him, think you’re unstoppable, and shake your head. No more.

That’ll back them down 99 times out of a hundred.

Kid: What about that 1 time it doesn’t?

Bank robber: Well, In that case son, you just hit them with all you got. Or run. No shame in either.

This made me want to find a bullied kid and tell him/her the same thing.

America in the 1910’s – 1920’s / 55 Rare Impressive Photos in Color

Super interesting photos of over 100 years ago. Must watch for perspective.

Putin must know that the war is unwinnable by now. Why is he doubling down on a losing hand?

Why exactly is the SMO unwinnable?

Let’s leave the Military aspects aside and see the things Russia has achieved since it started?

Is Russia a Pariah as the West hoped?

Nopes. Putin holds meetings all over the world and they listen to him. Russians haven’t been even censured by any of the 147 countries outside the US and it’s 30 odd lackeys

Is Russias Economy in dire straits?

Nopes. 2% Growth predicted, now 2.5%

Fastest Industrial progress

They just flew their fully domestic aircraft yesterday

Food Inflation at 3.9%

General Inflation at 5.7%

Lower levels than almost every European Company

Now let’s see Russias so called Rivals

Germany – Recession and Industrial Decline of the highest level in 26 years

Netherlands – Recession

UK – Recession plus Inflation

US – Near Recession saved virtually by printing money and still having inflation

Plus

The Whole world is wary of US hegemony now and ready to hedge it’s bets

All that “Decoupling and Derisking” with China is really “Derisking with USA”

The Local currency trades increasing, The Yuan trades, BRICS expansion, Oil Cuts by MBS

Putins SMO has already delivered him more victories than any he could imagine

He stands today in a better position after the worst sanctions hit him

The whole world now sees sanctions in a much weaker light.

Another major defeat to the US

The world doesn’t fear sanctions that much anymore

The normally obedient Rhamposa after meeting Nuland, still voted to expand BRICS

Now on to the Military

The SMO seems unwinnable only because Ukraine keeps throwing body after body after body

Russia is a patient army

They kill and kill and keep killing

This is a war of attrition not territory as Brian Berletic says

Ultimately the Russians have soldiers and weapons while Ukrainians will lose too many men and weapons and the West can’t resupply them fast enough

The SMO is over

Russia has got what they wanted, they have to defend it and take around 4700 Sq Kms more

Mother secretly RECORDED teacher during meeting… HOLY.

America and the West is wholly bonkers.

The US likes to name airports, bridges, ships, etc. in honour of their beloved presidents. What would be an appropriate public facility that might be named after Donald Trump?

You know why Donald Trump is so fun to mock? Because, despite constantly insulting others, he has an incredibly thin skin when it’s turned around on him. If he had a sense of humor about it at all, it would be far less enjoyable.

Case in point: when John Oliver randomly made fun of Danbury, Connecticut on his show, the mayor of Danbury claimed they were going to name their new waste treatment plant after Oliver. The mayor later clarified that it was obviously a joke, but John Oliver was having none of it. He demanded his waste treatment plant. He publicly offered Danbury $50,000 for the naming rights, and when it was accepted, travelled to Danbury for the naming ceremony.

Point is, John Oliver is impossible to make fun of, because he happily owns the joke at every turn.

The reason I bring this up is because I’d love to see a Donald Trump Sewage Plant. Not because I think it’s appropriate (sewage treatment plants are necessary and useful pieces of infrastructure), but entirely because I’d love to see Trump’s reaction. If he could ignore it or take it in stride, it wouldn’t be funny. But I’m 100% sure he could do neither.

Casino (1995) – Blackjack Scene HD

Casino Blackjack scene.

Why didn’t the Germans detect that their encryption method Enigma had been broken by the British, given that it was a natural suspect when the enemy seems to anticipate your every move as if he could read your internal messages?

The British did not get greedy. They played a long game, only using a small percentage of the information available to them. When they did use information to score a victory, they used double agents to supply the Nazis with a credible alternative reason for their success.

When the Nazis cracked (or were supplied with) an Allied code, they DID get greedy. Supplied with British battle plans, Rommel won battle after battle, driving the British East across North Africa. His results were too good to be true. The British realised what was happening and changed their codes (and brought in the brilliant General Montgomery). Rommel’s string of victories turned into a string of defeats culminating in his nervous breakdown.

Admiral Doenitz became convinced that the encryption system was cracked by the British however and so another wheel was added to the Enigma machine. Fortunately, one Nazi sub commander forgot and sent a message in the old format and then, realising his mistake, sent the message again in the new format. Bletchley Park was back to ‘business as usual’ almost immediately.

This Is HUGE!!! U.S. Commerce Secretary Begs China for Help? – China’s Ultimatum!

The urgency surrounding the visit of the U.S. Commerce Secretary to China clearly signals a plea for China’s assistance in this critical situation. The purpose behind her visit is quite transparent: the U.S. is actively seeking a lifeline from China. In recent days, Gina Raimondo, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, has touched down in Beijing, embarking on her trip to China. Even before her arrival, the objectives of her visit were evident. The main focus is on tackling the economic and trade disputes that have been ongoing between the U.S. and China. Simultaneously, the aim is to cultivate a practical and collaborative partnership between these two economic powerhouses. But What are the key factors driving the urgency of the U.S. Commerce Secretary’s visit to China and the apparent plea for China’s assistance in the current critical situation? Will China’s Strategic Divestment from U.S. Bonds Spell Disaster for the American Economy?

https://youtu.be/ZeNuyWjqG5Q

Why are nuclear power stations so unique?

Hardly anything goes into them, and hardly anything comes out of them, except huge amounts of electrical energy, and waste heat. The amount of fuel consumed and waste produced amounts to the volume of a peanut per average consumer-year of electric power.
Given a few centuries of storage, and recycling, the waste is less radioactive than the consumed fuel, so they cleanse Earth of radioactive material.
Their grounds make nice public parks, and the slightly warmed water makes for good fishing.

Breaking Kitchen – Episode 6

Yo guys I must warn you that I can’t outdone myself every time because that’s not the point, this episode was planned six months ago. Walter could have thrown the pizza in the first episode, but I was leading up to a moment when it would fit best so it’s not about running out of ideas. Episodes are not made on the fly but are planned months ago (Vince Gilligan style lol) https://i.gyazo.com/0a2f75de07f8c4359… It’s no coincidence that events led up to Flyn’s appearance and then to the scene in Gordon’s office, and in what order the participants appear. For example, in order to make the line in the office about the meth make sense, I had to show it beforehand. The next episode with Gus, will have a small connection to the first episode, ect. And then there’s the bigger picture which is very difficult to implement.

The Time Tunnel – Inside Irwin Allens

Short documentary about the classic 60’s SF series ‘The Time Tunnel’.

Which actor accepted a film thinking it would go unnoticed and found himself at the helm of a gigantic success that transformed his career?

When Liam Neeson received the script for Taken , he thought it was a small project. He agreed to make the film because he was well paid, but without any illusions.

In an interview with 60 Minutes , he said:

“It was really a simple little story. I didn’t find anything complex about him. He’s a guy determined to find his daughter. He goes looking for her, and then, presto, he finds her. And, presto, he kills a lot of bad guys…

I was sure it wouldn’t go anywhere, it would go straight to video.”

$226 million later, Liam Neeson becomes Hollywood’s newest action star and his career takes on a new lease of life.

Not necessarily the one he was hoping for… but when you continue to be a headliner in Hollywood at over 65, it’s already not bad.

The Sopranos – The end of Jackie Aprile Jr

Business advice.

What are some effective military tactics used by Indian army during war?

During 1960s, Pakistan was the favorite of the USA and received over 1.2 billion dollars worth of military aid in equipment and money. In arrogance of newly received modern weapons, Pakistani military dictator Ayub Khan dreamed of defeating India and ruling over Delhi. Along with other modern technology, Pakistan received modern Patton tanks by US.

1965 Indo-Pak War.

Pakistan had 15 armored cavalry regiments consist of mainly modern Patton M-47 & M-48 tanks.

On the other hand India had comparatively less modern Centurion Mk 7s and Sherman tanks. During the start of war, Patton tanks proved their superiority and soon captured Khem Karan, an Indian town which is 5 kms inside the the international border.

Pakistanis were riding on sophisticated American weaponry and were confident they could maintain the same pace.

They were eyeing Amritsar. They knew the importance of Amritsar. If Amritsar fell, it would be difficult for India to negotiate.

After the fall of Khem Karan, Major General Gurbaksh Singh ordered the division to fall back and assume a horseshoe shaped defensive position in Asal Uttar in the sugarcane fields and ordered to fill the fields with water.

The fields were filled with water for 2 days and soil became very sticky. Indian forces lured the Pakistan tanks division towards their position. The defensive position was equipped with Centurion tanks and 106 mm recoilless guns mounted on jeep.

Pakistani Patton tanks were unaware of the swampy fields and were lured to the horseshoe trap. Soon these tanks were slowed down. By the time they could understand the Indian plan, many of them could not move because of the muddy slush.

In a few hours, the fields were covered with Pakistani tanks all stuck in the swamp, making them an easy target for Indian troops.

More than 100 Pakistani tanks were either destroyed or captured and the defeat of Pakistan Army in the battle of Asal Uttar was one of the greatest defeats suffered by Pakistan forces in the history.

Casino (1995) – Cheater’s Justice HD

“Throw him out in the alley and just tell the cops he got hit by a car.” CLASSIC!

Who stands out as the most morally reprehensible person in your experience?

The grifter is the worst, most morally reprehensible type of person in my opinion. They come in many shapes and forms. They cross ethnic, religious and political boundaries. Think of a man like, say, Joel Osteen. He wants your money. He tells you all sorts of reasons why you should give it to him. God is good to those who give, that sort of nonsense.

He’s a conman, his only love is money, but he’ll hide behind a thin veneer of religiosity and peddles “inspiration”, neatly packaged, to the masses. The way a Trump would have the masses pay for his legal defense and campaign costs, a man like Joel Osteen sells salvation, he sells eternity to you on a golden platter. And all you have to do is reach for your wallet, and it can all be yours.

Oh, he’ll save you, alright! And he’ll laugh all the way to the bank doing it… he’ll live lavishly off of the donations of his flock. These types always do. Fast cars, big mansions, private jets. His lifestyle is that of a celebrity. Like a Kardashian, but one who uses the words “God” and “Jesus” every second or third sentence and doesn’t say curse words.

Of course the grifter will go on shows like Oprah Winfrey’s, telling about his success, pretending to be humble as he counts his blessings… the grifter, to me, is the very worst humanity has to offer, because he sells hope. Hope for a better future. A better world. An eternity of peace. An ideologue at least has genuine passion, he wishes to see change. Be it a right-wing or a left-wing ideologue, there’s real drive, true desire to improve the world and organize it to his idea of perfection…

…not the grifter. Never the grifter. All he wants is the insides of your wallet. He’ll pretend to love God, when all he loves is money. Pretend to love people, when all he loves is his own smiling reflection. I can forgive a great many sins. But I will forever side-eye those who get rich over the backs of the faithful, manipulating their beliefs for personal gain. This, to me, is the worst type of person out there.

I have some personal experience, too, with such grifters. After all I lived for years in the Philippines, where a cult named Iglesia ni Cristo is active. Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) literally translates as “Church of Christ”. Oh, the hubris! It’s leader, Eduardo Manalo, is the grandson of the churches’ founder. Each leader is the son of the one before him, kind of like North Korea. I remember a kid in the town I used to live in. He was sad after a service once. I asked one of his friends, why he was sad.

“He wasn’t able to pay his tithe… the monthly ten percent he’s supposed to pay…” his friend explained to me. Essentially, all members, no matter how young, have to give ten percent of their monthly income to the church. Even if you’re a kid, you have to give your allowance money, your lunch budget, whatever. If you don’t give it, you’ll get scolded. You’ll get shamed. Asked by your pastor if you “really love the Church”, or if you “really love God” because if you did, surely you would have spent a little less on your lunch yesterday at school? Bought a little less candy, perhaps, or one less lumpia?

It’s morally reprehensible to me. Because while the poor flock is told to “pay up and not ask questions”, the leaders always live lavishly. Huge family compounds. Enormous mansions in gated communities, private jets, expensive cars… and those who pay for it are indoctrinated from an early age to give, without question. The consequence of not giving? Hell, and eternal damnation. Because the way of the grifter and his minions is the only way to salvation. I cannot think of worse people.

Derby Day Burgoo Stew

Burgoo is a mishmash of meats and vegetables. You might call it the “kitchen sink soup.”

Yield: 8 to 10 main course servings

Ingredients

1 pound mixed cooked meats (beef, lamb, pork, chicken, etc.)
1/2 gallon chicken stock
1/2 gallon beef stock
1 ounce Worcestershire sauce
1 cup tomatoes, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 large potato, diced
2 large carrots, diced
1/4 cup peas
1/2 cup okra
1/4 cup lima beans
1/2 cup yellow corn
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for two hours, skimming the top as needed.

The Rocket Launch. A Super 8 mm home movie from the 70’s.

Takes you back.

I know the beach has a seaweed smell. Does Venice, Italy have a smell to it also?

Actually, “Venice stinks” would be a way of describing the nauseating stench emanating from the hundreds of canals and backwaters of “La Serenissima”, especially in summer. “La Puzzona” – the little stinker – would be a better name.

This is due to the fact that Venice, to this day, does not have a functioning sewage system or sewage treatment plants. Until the 1960s, the sewage was slowly directed into the so-called “gatoli”, a brick sewer system that eventually led into the canals and that was developed as early as the 16th century.

These tunnels were built of clay bricks and were designed so that the heavier sediment sank to the bottom while the liquid part flowed into the canal. Today’s septic tanks operate on a similar principle. The solid parts of the “gatoli” were constantly emptied.

In order not to clog the outlets of the gatoli into the canals, they were raised further and further. As a result, they were exposed at low tide, which had quite unpleasant consequences: stench, terrible hygiene conditions in the canals, rats and swarms of insects – especially the “Chironomide”, a species of non-biting mites. The last major outbreak was in 1987, when I visited Venice and was appalled by the swarms of insects that covered the glass walls of the Vaporetto stations.

A few years later, at attempt was made to map the gatoli, but that proved almost impossible in the end because the system had been changed many times over the centuries. It was also sometimes difficult to understand into which channels the sewage from the houses was actually being emptied.

Today there are more than 7,000 septic tanks in the city which effectively constitutes a fragmented, decentralized sewage system. The septic tanks allow wastewater treatment so that the liquid part floats on top and is cleaned before entering the canal. The solid part, on the other hand, must be removed manually. You can see the special boats that empty septic tanks almost everywhere.

Septic tanks are mandatory for all establishments such as hotels, restaurants, cafes, museums, hospitals, offices, etc, but they can also be found in private homes, (where, however, they are not mandatory).

Septic tanks are not always feasible in Venice since they need space and cannot be built on public land or near the supporting walls of a house. The volume of septic tanks is calculated based on the number of people that live in a building, and often that proves impossible.

And even if there is space, digging in the foundations of the houses often expose their supporting piles, hastening their decay, so septic tanks aren’t built if it would seriously jeopardize the stability of historic buildings. In this case, owners have to fall back on the old “gatoli” system.

Living in Venice therefore also means accepting the stench. Of course, organic detergents and eco-friendly toilet paper can help a bit, and most inhabitants would welcome it if Venice were to stop discharging sewage into the canals. But the plan to provide Venice with a centralized and modern sewer system had to be abandoned in the end, as Venice would have had to be more or less completely demolished and rebuilt from scratch.

A compromise was finally reached that calls for a combination of septic tanks, maintenance of the existing “gatoli” and dredging of the canals. Nevertheless, large amounts of fecal matter, waste and, above all, toxic industrial residues and garbage still enter the lagoon. So if next time you visit La Serenissima and the stench gets particularly bad, just hold your nose.

Tony Soprano || The Scientist

“Man, this is one of your best works! All are so good put together, this songs really fits Tony. The effort you put into this is incredible, I know you took time doing this and for that, for that this is art. The song you choose for him was a good decision, this song is very melancholic and nostalgic, you are so talented at editing man, seriously. it was worth the wait for these wonderful 4 minutes, keep it up Alex.”

Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice Chili

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Chili

1 box Rice-a-Roni Spanish Rice
2 3/4 cups water
2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
1 (15 or 16 ounce) can kidney beans or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14 1/2 or 16 ounce) can tomatoes or stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Optional

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
Sour cream
Chopped cilantro

Instructions

In a 3-quart saucepan, combine rice-vermicelli mix, special seasonings, water, chicken, beans, tomatoes, green pepper, chili powder and cumin. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low; simmer uncovered, about 20 minutes or until rice is tender, stirring occasionally.
Top with cheese, sour cream and cilantro if desired.

1940s USA – Fascinating Street Scenes of Vintage America [Colorized]

Posted before, but just great.

The big nope

You know guys. When you think about it, I mean spend some time and think, the most crazy stuff about “extraterrestrials” is that you adapt (as a human) they become normal to you.

Maybe it is my “Frankenstein” programming, or just four decades or so of close proximity, but it’s not a big thing. Not at all. To me, they are like my pet cats, my pet dogs, my friend down the street. They are most certainly not a “shock” in any way shape or form.

If anything, I just kind of wish that I would spend more physical time with them, somehow. But, you know, I know that is not gonna happen soon. Sigh.

…

When I was attending university, there was a saying that all my classmates had (guys and girls). And this saying was “I’ll do (try) anything once.”

I wonder how many of them caught Genital Herpies, HIV, or got addicted to cocaine, over the decades. Some of those “first things” can stay with you forever. Don’t you know.

Now, I was NOT one of those people who repeated that mantra. I just nodded knowingly and agreed verbally, but internally disagreed.

Of course, for many, I suppose that (at that time) they were thinking of sex, or drugs. But, to me, I thought that it was like playing Russian roulette. One of those “try once” events could be your last. Like “speeding down a highway way too fast”, or “jumping out of a plane skydiving for the first time”.

To me, it’s all a big “NOPE”.

…

Through, joining MAJestic was one decision that I will never truly regret.

Today…

Why do American expats say that the USA is a shit-hole?

Because it’s true! I am an American who permanently moved to central Brazil. It was the best decision I ever made.

● I built my new house in central Brazil and was able to pay it off in ONE year.

● My property taxes are $100 US dollars a year. No, that is not a misprint. $100 US dollars a year!

● My dental implants are less than half the cost of the same in the United States…with equal and often better results.

● My food isn’t loaded with hormones and chemicals and I even have space to grow my own organic vegetables. Within 2 months in Brazil I lost 40 pounds without much exercise….just eating better food (which is difficult in the US).

● Almost every day is sunny and breezy with low humidity.

● Racism is much less pronounced than in the US. People in Brazil actually help each other and are not afraid to talk to strangers.

● Doctors actually take the time to listen to you and don’t treat you like a “number”.

● Brazilians enjoy life and have “fun”. They don’t worship the “Almighty Dollar”….except for some who are very greedy. For the most part, people are more important than money.

When Americans speak about “life” they speak about “life in the United States”. There are many ways “to live” and , for me, life in the US is NOT “truly living”. Americans don’t know what it means to truly live. In the end, materialism isn’t what brings true peace and satisfaction…….good relationships are.

Tex-Mex Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork sausage
1 small onion, chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups milk
1 (16 ounce) loaf Mexican pasteurized cheese
1 (4 1/2 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
16 ounces macaroni, cooked
8 ounces shredded Southwestern cheese blend

Instructions

Cook sausage and onion in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink; drain.
Add flour, cumin and milk, stirring constantly, until thickened.
Add Mexican cheese and chiles, stirring until cheese is melted.
Add macaroni.
Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.
Sprinkle with shredded cheese blend, and serve with salsa.

Yield: 8 servings

Why was China able to abolish the hereditary nobility and establish the absolute authority of the emperor and the dynasty around 200 BCE (when it was first unified), while Europe was never able to do so?

It all starts with water.

China has two very large and very powerful rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangzi River, both of which have their source in the Tibetan plateau. Harnessed the right way, these rivers are able to provide water irrigation to support a very large part of the world’s population. However, these rivers are unruly, and would often overflow their banks, and flood the surrounding plains which were fertile farmland. Many thousands, even millions of people would die in these floods.

The challenge for any Chinese ruler was simple then: control the waters so that the people would have food to eat, and not rebel against their ruler. At the same time, prevent floods from wreaking widespread damage.

This question goes so far back into Chinese history that one of the early, probably mythical rulers of Chinese history, Yu the Great

, had to deal with the issue of controlling the rivers about 2200 BCE. Because he succeeded, he is venerated as one of China’s great emperors.

Now, the challenge of controlling floods required a central government which was able to command huge resources in its ability to create and handle large engineering projects. Not only that, but there needed to be a large bureaucracy.

Here is one example of a successful Chinese hydraulics civil engineering project: Paul Denlinger’s answer to What are the most significant high-impact civil engineering projects in the world?

This is one of the reasons China has gravitated to a large central and authoritarian government. Big challenges normally need big governments and bureaucracies to solve them.

At the same time, this meant that small local rulers and kings would have less power, because in comparison, they would only be able to handle comparatively smaller local projects.

Because the farmers could only pay their taxes in grain, this required a complex national bureaucracy which could collect grain (farmers didn’t have money, and had no use for money most of the time), and store it in central locations so that in case of a grain shortage in one area, it could be shipped to another area where it was needed.

When the water problem was solved, the Chinese then gravitated to small hi-intensity farming. This was highly efficient, and Chinese farmers were able to increase the yield of their crops. As the Chinese farmers fed their families, they had more children, and more sons.

These farmers’ sons then formed the core of the army used to unify China the first time.

This was why Qinshihuang was able to unify China the first time in 221 BCE.

But one piece of the puzzle was still missing. In order to turn these men into soldiers, he needed to be able to quickly train them and standardize their weaponry. Furthermore, these weapons needed to be interchangeable on the battlefield.

The weapon which the Qin dynasty standardized upon was the crossbow, and the piece of standard equipment it needed to make in very large numbers was the Chinese crossbows’ lock and trigger mechanism.

Basically, the Qin dynasty took the Chinese bureaucracy and put it to use to master mass production and manage what was probably the world’s first national armory to produce standardized weapons to conquer all of China.

Because the conquest of all of China required huge national resources, the Qin unification made the nobility obsolete. The state controlled water distribution, food distribution, taxation, fielded a national army and large-scale weapons manufacture. The nobility was now irrelevant.

If we turn to Europe during the Roman period, the Roman empire also had tremendous central state power. If we take a close look at how the Romans spent their engineering talent, we see roads, aqueducts, temples and coliseums. Compared to the Chinese, they did not have to deal with huge unruly rivers and floods, which probably also meant that the Romans were dealing with considerably smaller populations than Chinese rulers.

If we turn to Europe during the feudal period, the rise of local barons in what is now England and Germany is precisely because they did not have national bureaucracies and armies. As a result, the barons had large estates, and would provide land to the serfs, and the serfs would have to turn over a significant portion of their harvest to the lord of the manor as their rent.

When the King of England would go to war, he would have to turn to his barons for support, and they would be responsible for raising armies from their serfs. The most highly skilled fighters were knights, who would have to be paid by the barons, and had squires and other supporting company. All of their fighting equipment was custom-made, and was not made in a national armory. Moreover, they had to carry the costs of the production of their weapons.

This meant that the local nobility, or the barons, had great power over the King of England, and if he could not rally the barons to support his cause, he would have his knees cut from under him.

This is what happened with the Magna Carta.

It was all about separation of powers, and this is what gave way to what would eventually come to be western democracy.

In contrast, the Chinese emperors and dynasties never had this notion of separation of powers. To this day, this continues to be a foreign notion to Chinese rulers.

To sum up, the Chinese rulers discovered in the second century BCE that with the right combination of water, food, population, weapons and bureaucracy, one emperor and one dynasty could rule all of China, becoming the Son of Heaven. His rule was direct, and he needed no nobility.

This never happened in Europe, which is why the hereditary nobility survived.

The Sopranos – Paulie vs Ralph

Why does the USA Suck?

As a low income American that worked multiple jobs that just covered rent, utilities and health insurance, I can assure you I was scraping the barrel of third world living conditions, my house was ruined, we had no hot water, no heat, and barely enough for food. It cost me $25,000 a year to survive, barely survive.

For the same amount of money in the UK I have a home, all utilities paid, cable WiFi and landline, a cellphone, health care, transportation, a whole months shopping for groceries and money left over. I also get 15 free hours of child care for my children and 28 paid vacation days. I have never lived better in my life.

Some wealthy person is going to say the US is easy, well for lower class people it’s a nightmare. I don’t have time to put the links but Google the following.

51 percent of Americans earn less than $30,000 a year.

Only 0.01% of minimum wage workers can afford a 2 bedroom apartment at fair market rent

The average minimum wage worker needs 2.5 jobs to have a two bedroom apartment at fair market rent

Low income Americans can’t afford 95% of colleges.

Our healthcare, infant and mother mortality rankings.

When you are poor you are left with nothing, there may be programs but they are extremely limited, hard to get, usually you are denied several times until you give up. As someone who just barely survived I got SNAP. I fed my family on over a hundred dollars a month, that does not last.I eventually had to get Medicaid when my job closed up, but nothing in the form of cash benefits.

First, second and third world reside within the US, your income depends on what your reality is.

What are the fundamental differences between Western and Russian tanks?

Design philosophy. What some people are calling “flaws” were conscious decisions and tradeoffs made in the design process.

To be honest, it’s only later in the Cold War where the two began to diverge significantly. Prior to that, both were in a pretty neck-to-neck, “my machine is the better version of yours” competition. I’ll emphasize more on the Soviet side:

Small turrets and low profile

In World War 2, the Soviets noticed that plenty of the fatal hits their T-34 took were to the turret. The concluded that they need to minimize the turret to make it harder for NATO tanks to hit them. Similarly, keeping it small means the tanks would be harder to find and hit from great distances. At the same time, they also realized the 3-man turret works best, which means that the turret would have to accommodate the commander, gunner, and loader even though it means that each would have a very constricted working environment.

The Western approach of keeping ammo on the turret, making it nearly as big as the hull, makes little sense from this point-of-view.

Autoloader and ammo inside the hull

People love to jump on this like it’s a “gotcha” thing the past year or so, but this was also another conscious decision.

Having an autoloader means that you eliminate the loader position, allowing the turret to be smaller. It also means that you can crew a tank with just 3 people instead of 4 (Western standard) or even 5 (World War 2). This has massive implications in an all-out World War scenario:

Imagine you have 1,200 trained tankers. With the Soviet approach, you can man 400 tanks, but with the Western approach, you can only crew 300. 100 extra tanks is a formidable force, no matter how you look at it. World War 2 was a numbers game, where quantity can trump quality. Both sides were expecting World War 3 to be no different fundamentally.

(Of course, with only 3 people servicing the tank, the workload is higher during repairs.)

Keeping the ammo deep inside the hull is as old as tank design. Without blowout panels (on the turrets), this is the most sensible place to put ammo since it has the most armor protecting it. The other thing is, if something did enough damage to go through all that armor, the crew would probably be already dead anyway.

In any case, even modern Western tanks have provisions to store ammo inside the hull. The main downside of keeping ammo in the turret is simply that you’re far more limited even with that huge turret and you’ll run out of ammo quicker.

Contrary to what some people say, autoloaders can be installed with ammo-on-turret designs. See the French Leclerc.

Simple/“crude” technology

It all goes back to World War 2, again. Soviet tanks were designed to be easily repairable in the field and manufactured in great numbers. Those were the main qualities of both the T-34 and the Sherman (even though the Sherman has a much better “finish quality” than the T-34). The Soviets also knew that they stuff they’d be mass-producing wouldn’t be very high quality, but they absolutely needed the numbers. That was how the older but more sophisticated T-64 was supplemented by the T-72.

That said, the newest versions of both are about equal.

Light weight

Bridges. That’s it. The Germans had issues trying to cross rivers because sometimes they found out that their tanks were too heavy to use certain bridges. The Soviets wouldn’t have any of that. Of course, the downside of keeping the tanks light is that you can’t put too much stuff on it (including armor).

Ground pressure and mobility on soft/rough terrain is a bit more complicated than simple weight. After all, Pressure = Force (weight) / Area. All you really need to do is to make the tracks wide enough. But having lighter weight also helps.

Gun-launched missile

This is to offset NATO’s superior optics and computers and also that generally, you want to be the first one to shoot. Even if the missile missed, the opponent would have to do something to defend themselves, making them more vulnerable to follow-up strikes.

In any case, the Soviets absolutely love missiles given that they put it on just about anything that moves (the BMP series was ahead of its time, it’s not until late in the Cold War that NATO had anything comparable, with the M113 being the workhorse. The M113 APC versions do not have missiles and barring a few modifications, its armament is usually just machineguns).

This Phone Just Destroyed US Sanctions… America Shocked!

This is STUNNING! Jesus. H. Christ!

Why do American expats think that the USA is a shit-hole?

I haven’t spent that much time in the US, barely two years, but was also very happy to leave.

My issue with American society:

artificial culture with short lived relationships, therefore people are great at making first impression, but after that it gets quite shallow and interest based
materialistic culture where people are quite obsessed with money. This isn’t America specific thing, but it is very strong in America, and rather on third country levels where it is rather understandable that people really need money, but not on more relaxed developed country level
overconfident culture based on “American exceptionalism” can be too much for people who prefer to rely on data in their life, and are independent thinker
Therefore, a lot of entitled people which is quite annoying since they have often no reason to be so entitled
Those entitled people are often in debt, sick and not being able to afford appropriate treatment, education, not having money reserves, but underlying still acting like some movie stars and big patriots

Fundamental problems:

The society is overall in a bad shape. High suicide rate, high depression rate, high *insert random sickness and USA is probably quite high in rankings*. You see that in people, overworked, sick and depressed. Most live paycheck to paycheck.
Crime rate is quite high for a rich country, actually the highest among rich countries. And it has some unique problems that are not being addressed like mass shootings.
Combination of high violent crime rate, mental and economic issues and a lot of “confident” yet not good at problem solving people leads to constant tension in all areas of live. USA just feels tense and stressful.
Healthcare and education are way more expensive than elsewhere, probably adds also to the tension.
Overall, with all the fear and tension there are technically less freedoms.
No specific perks of being in USA. All patriotism aside, there is nothing what you can’t get elsewhere (for guns obsessed ones, yes, guns too, USA isn’t really that special here)

What are good hacks to live cheaply?

In the US, if you’re shopping for food, find a store run by immigrants from India, the Middle East, Latin America, China or Vietnam. Probably almost every item you’re looking for, they’ve got the cheapest prices and best value in town.

I live in the Twin Cities. I go miles out of my way to drive up to Northeast Minneapolis to shop at Holy Land (which specializes in Mediterranean, Balkan and Somali food) and Little India — the mother lode of spices in this town.

Stores like these usually aren’t very “visually appealing.” It’s pretty low overhead. They’re not in very wealthy neighborhoods. They cater mostly to a working-class immigrant clientele. And that’s partly why they’re so cheap. (Many American yuppies actually go out of their way to pay more for products so they can show off and feel rich. That’s one reason why REI is so popular in the clothing line. They might be paying textile workers more — I don’t know — but a lot of consumers just feel like they’re getting a “better” product if they pay more. This is a huge American consumer mindset.)

Spices that I’d have to pay $16 a pound for at my usual neighborhood market… Little India sells for a third of that price. And man, they’ve got spices. This is about half their spice aisle. Both sides of the aisle, all spice:

I also love that they sell a 28-ounce bag of this stuff for a reasonable price. A pound and a half of the stuff:

Honestly, I don’t know if all the products you find at these markets are optimo primo top quality. But if you’re poor (I’m poor), it’s good enough for you.

When I wander into a Whole Paycheck/Whole Foods, the setting is spiffier, but that’s about it. I see just about nothing there I can’t find for a better price at an immigrant market, plus a lot of unique imported goods that I can’t find anywhere else at all. (I don’t know any standard grocery store in the Twin Cities that sells fava beans. No other stores sell Turkish coffee, also called Greek coffee, also called Bosnian coffee. And where I do buy Bosnian chocolate cookies or tangy Bulgarian yogurt — even though the brand I buy at Holy Land is made from California milk? Well, the Lebanese sell it.) I’m also happy to support an immigrant instead of a big company.

I’ve lived most of my life in the Midwest. There’s a lot of immigrants in the Midwest. You can find these stores in probably every big US city. Even if you live out in the country, if you buy bulk, sometimes it’s cost-effective to do your shopping while you’re in a city. Lots of items like spice, oil, tea, coffee and obviously rice and beans — this stuff keeps for months if not years.

What are the scariest social experiments?

This is one of the experiments that, like the Milgram experiment, simply scares me.

Because it shows why people allow themselves to be led en masse to their own downfall.

Let’s take a look at this.

Participants were alone in a room and had to fill out a questionnaire.

Then, suddenly, smoke came out from under the door.

What would you do now?

Leave the room immediately and tell someone, okay?

And that’s what 75% of the people tested did. And, on average, they did it after 2 minutes.

Then, the subjects were exposed to the same situation, but with other people in the room.

In this case, there were two actors and they pretended not to notice the smoke.

And now only 10% of the test participants left the room, continued to fill out the questionnaire.

Even when the smoke burned his eyes and rubbed them visibly .

The experiment shows that people react slower (or not at all) in emergency situations when other people are passive.

They seem to rely heavily on the reactions of others, even against their own instincts. If the group acts like everything is fine, then it has to be, right?

That’s what always scares me, because I see it everywhere.

But I know that others don’t react until they believe that at least most other people would react.

This fact makes me desperate because it is being used to manipulate the masses . And I will never be able to do anything to convince them until everyone cares.

It’s so scary!

Germany just told Ukraine to F*CK off, along with 3 other E.U. countries | Redacted News

We will not extradite people to die! That is what four countries have told Ukraine in response to the country’s request to send back those refugees they were so nice to last year. They need to throw them into battle to die, please.

The Czech Republic has said that it will not do that and so has Austria, Hungary and Germany.

Poland has reportedly already begun to comply.

What are some difficult foods to give up when you move abroad?

Speaking from personal experience; as an American living in China, I have found the following to be rather difficult to obtain. (Oh, anything can be obtained in China. The issue boils down to accessibility, cost, and quality.)

Here’s a brief list;

Fresh bagels.
And creme cheese to put on them.
Thin crust pizza. (In China it is either impossible to get, or cooked to a cracker.)
Deep dish pizza.
Cheese-It crackers. (Does not exist in China.)
Goldfish crackers. (I found some once.)
Jar of pickles. (Doesn’t matter; dill, sweet butter chips, gerkins. Not available.)
Jar of relish. (Can be found if you look hard enough.)
Fresh and hot pretzels.
Jello. Not unheard of, just very rare.
Hard rolls. Forgetaboutit.
Hamburger (Known as “mince”). You have to make it yourself in a grinder.
Pre-made bread, or pizza dough.

Of course, must Western foods are available in a restaurant. But these are limited to either fast food, or steaks. Forget about “blue plate specials” and things that you normally get in the ‘States.

Grits
Cheese omelette
Rye toast. (Rye anything…)
Eggs Benedict.
Milkshakes. (McDonald’s USED to carry them, but they fell from popularity. Presently, they are impossible to find.)
Pies. (any type; pumpkin, cherry, blueberry, sweet potato, it doesn’t matter. )
Turkey.

The Sopranos – Like Everybody Else

I’m Not Like Everybody Else (Live) – The Kinks.

What is the best case of, “You just tried to scam the wrong person,” that you’ve witnessed?

I can relate two instances.

Back about 1980 I bought a raffle ticket (for only 50 cents) from a sorority in Little Rock, Arkansas. The prize was dinner for two at the 6 nicest restaurants in town. Eventually I got a call that I had won and would get my gift certificates soon. No tickets ever arrived. I contacted the sorority and they offered to refund my 50 cents! Unfortunately for the girls who sold me the ticket, I worked with a certain fraud division of the state government. I contacted the restaurants mentioned on the raffle ticket and discovered they knew nothing of the raffle. I then brought some serious heat down on the sorority, and they quickly delivered my prize. As they left my home, one of the girls said “We’ll never sell YOU another ticket.” As if.

About a year later my car needed a tune up. The car needed new spark plug wires so I replaced them myself before going in for the tune-up. While I’m waiting for my car to be fixed the technician walks in and announces that I need new spark plug wires. Oh really? I asked to see the wires. They had been cut. I explained to the man that I had just put on that new set of wires not an hour ago, and the only way they got cut was by him cutting them himself. The result of that business’s interaction with the fraud folks? They found themselves closed down. There had been plenty of complaints about that business but now they had defrauded the wrong person for sure.

China Wins the Deep Sea Mining Race, Becomes Precious Metals and Critical Minerals Rich Country

“Thanks for sharing this information, I love your podcasts,,, We don’t get this knowledge on mainstream media.”

https://youtu.be/Bx5bOKGLG3k

US inability to sell Iran’s seized oil angers congressmen

The US congress representatives referred to reports that show that 800,000 barrels of Iran’s seized oil have been wandering off the coast of Texas since about 11 weeks ago, and American companies and parties are reluctant to unload their cargo for fear of alleged Iran’s possible retaliatory measures.

The US seized the tanker in a sanctions enforcement operation, Reuters reported.

The delay in discharging the cargo is also partly out of fear of repercussions from Iran. A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ navy said last month Iran would retaliate against any oil company unloading Iranian oil from a seized tanker.

They continued that enforcement of petroleum sanctions will become irrelevant if American citizens and companies involved constantly live in fear of Iranian retaliation.

They asked the administration for a briefing on the progress of the transfer of the seized oil from the Suez Rajan to US custody.

After withdrawing from the JCPOA nuclear agreement in 2018, the US government has implemented all the suspended sanctions under this agreement against Iran. US has also required third countries and companies to implement its territorial sanctions against Iran.

LOL at uncle shame…

The Teen That Lit 91YO Man On Fire..

That man lived a long hard life and this is how it ends, a teen’s selfish and senseless act. RIP wise old man.

Was Adolf Hitler a talented person? It seems as though he failed at painting, military career, and politics.

He was a talented…. speaker.

After World War I, Hitler was broke and unemployed, and he made money by (1) being paid by the Army to speak to young people about the evils of Bolshevism and (2) spying for the Army at political gatherings.

In July 1919 Hitler, on his second part time job, was sent to a meeting of what was then the German Worker’s Party, a nationalist, anti-Semitic, pro-capitalist reform group of about sixty people. During the meeting, Hitler, who had read up on politics, started talking and everyone there started thinking he would be a good spokesperson for the group.

Now, Hitler was a bright involved student in elementary school (top of his class as a matter of fact) but his ultra-strict father and doting mother (Hitler was the family’s only son who survived infancy) turned him into the equivalent of an emo-kid when he got to high school, and he insisted he was going to be an artist, something that his civil servant father was opposed to, but his mother encouraged.

Hitler’s father died when he was young and his mother actually gave Adolph the money she got from the Austrian State pension for a child benefit so he could move to Vienna to pursue his dream. However, when he was 18, the money stopped when the state stopped paying for him, and his father’s estate and death benefits still had to be used for the support of his mother and sisters.

As such, Hitler became largely homeless, art school didn’t want him (he wasn’t particularly good at it) and he hadn’t finished high school, which was a prerequisite for architecture school. Let’s just say at that point he was like a teenager who discovers Ayn Rand and thinks he’s better than everyone thinks he is. What he read during this period of time started to shape his views on the economy and non-Germans.

When World War I started Hitler actually fit into the army quite well, but after the war he fell for the “Big Lie” of the day, that the socialists had sabotaged the war effort (in fact, the previous government had collapsed under the weight of lack of supplies and money). The peace treaty in 1919 didn’t help as it required Germany to pay more money than existed on the entire planet at the time.

When Hitler and his buddies, now re-named the National Socialist Party, tried to overthrow the government of Bavaria in 1923, he avoided the death penalty by appealing to the right-wing German Empire judges that he was only trying to save the country. He served less than a year in prison while he dictated a very bad polemic book, “My Struggle” (Mein Kampf) to a couple of his friends.

Anyway, Hitler was banned from speaking so the Nazi’s were moribund, but then the ban was lifted just as the Great Depression began. Mainstream parties couldn’t cope, but both the Communists and the Nazis grew rapidly in popularity and Hitler positioned himself as a middle-left alternative to Communist Soviet-supported Bolshevism. As he gained electoral success, he paralyzed the government by having his legislative deputies vote against everything, and then argued that the problem was that there were too many political parties.

Hitler never had a majority of deputies in the legislature (Reichstag) so despite numerous elections and legislative paralysis, the centrist and right parties managed to keep him at bay. Finally, in a panic, Hitler said he would be Chancellor if just two other Nazis were in the cabinet. They bought it, but the two Nazi ministers controlled the police and the army, which were quickly used against Hitler’s adversaries. When someone tried to burn down the Reichstag, he managed to convince it to give him emergency powers, which he used to arrest even more of his rivals. Eventually, when the only balancing force, President Hindenburg, passed away, Hitler just took his place. He had a mortal lock on everything, and most of that was his idea.

What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?

California, 1949. My 16-year-old mother was called into the office of the very agitated high school principal who explained emphatically, “There are reports that you have been dating a Negro. We have an integrated school here now and the only way than can work is if the races do not ever mix. As a white girl I expect you to uphold that standard.” My mother stared that woman down without a word, then simply walked out of the office and nothing else was ever said about it. The reports were quite true, and three years later they were married. I was born the following year.

Poor Kitten Showed No Sign of Life, and Her Mama kept Worrying for Him

Help the kitties.

https://youtu.be/RRl4DNTSWDI

What was the bravest thing you ever did in a job interview?

My plebe (first year) at West Point, I asked my Tactical Officer (a TAC is the legal commander and supervisor of a cadet company) if I could give up my summer leave (1980) and serve at Nellis AFB. Even this was pretty bold for a plebe to ask a Captain. He said he would (might?) look into it. I mentioned it again during graduation week (just prior to leave) and he said it couldn’t be arranged.

The following week, when I arrived home in Las Vegas, my Dad asked if I wanted to attend the 100th year birthday party at the American Legion for the oldest veteran in the state. (He had been a veteran of the Spanish American War). I said sure and attended in uniform.

There were many veterans, active duty military, and dignitaries present, including the commanding brigadier general at Nellis. He recognized my uniform and that I was a newly minted “yearling” and asked how I was doing at the Academy? I said it was tough but that I was doing well. He asked what I had planned for summer leave? I replied, “Sir, I was hoping to work for you.” He was surprised and asked why? I said, “I thought it would be career broadening.” He said, “That sounds like a great idea. Why didn’t you do it?” I said, “My tactical officer said it wouldn’t be possible to arrange… with all the inter service bureaucracy” He replied, “Inter service bureaucracy? I’ll give Joe Franklin a call and we’ll have it set up by tomorrow afternoon.” Brigadier General Franklin was the Commandant of Cadets. Apparently, they were classmates.

it was a great summer!

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

I was speeding down a highway in the dark of night, around 10 or so, when I passed a state patrol car sitting in the median. I knew I was busted, so I took my foot off the gas, looked in the rearview mirror to see if he was coming after me (of course he was) and then looked down at my speedometer which read 75. Yikes! How fast had I been going?? Anyway, I pull over and get my stuff ready to hand to him. He pulls up behind me and gets out, and out, and out of his car. Big man, very tall and imposing. I was thinking oh crap. He comes to my window and asks me how I’m doing as I hand him my driver’s license. I tell him pretty good, just trying to get home to go to bed. He stops, leans (way) over and looks in the window at me. I recognize him as one of the regular customers at the convenience store where I work days. He says “what are you doing?? Go home. Slow down and drive safely!” And hands me back my driver’s license. I thanked him profusely and we both went on our way. No ticket, no nothing. Whew! Dodged a bullet there. It pays to be good to law enforcement. 😀

Star Trek Enterprise – Unknown Space Capsule

Please enjoy this segment. I did.

Star Trek Enterprise “Future Tense”

Why do American expats say that the USA is a shit-hole?

Because it’s true. I moved to Spain in 2017.

My health improved dramatically thanks to high EU food-quality standards (and the 2000 additives and chemicals used in the US food industry that are banned or restricted in the EU).
My quality of life improved thanks to low crime rates and Spain’s emphasis on quality of life over work. Everyone is happier.
My cost of living went down a lot, especially my healthcare costs.
My doctors here actually listen to me and take time with me because they don’t have to rush through as many patients in a day due to the high costs of everything. Healthcare isn’t all about profits. It’s about… health. Imagine that!
Even the health of my pets improved.
Instead of Oklahoma and Louisiana being my “backyard” (I lived in Texas), France and Portugal are.

You could not pay me to go back.

The Rule of Thumb

What are some facts about some famous video games?

I’ve just got one.

During the Cold War, lots of people expected the US and the Soviet Union to exchange nuclear missile strikes. They thought nuclear armageddon could arrive any day.

So in the event of nuclear armageddon, what are some tips? One tip that was widely popularized, was the Rule of Thumb.

The Rule of Thumb says if you extend your arm, and put your thumb over a nuclear mushroom cloud, you can tell if you’re in danger from radiation. If your thumb covers the entire cloud, you’re safe. If it doesn’t, you’re in danger and need to take cover.

This tip wasn’t necessarily true, but luckily nuclear war never broke out and they never had to use it.

But in the Fallout games, nuclear war did break out. And guess what extremely popular Fallout character is using the Rule of Thumb?

The Government has Secret Listening Posts in Every Major City

New York City has skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes. But why does this 500 foot tall, 29-story building have no windows, no lights and no markings at all?

Because it’s a top-secret NSA spy station built to withstand nuclear war.

Officially, this is an AT&T telecommunications building. But thanks to leaked documents, we now know that 33 Thomas Street is actually a top secret NSA mass surveillance hub.

It’s code name is: TitanPointe.

And right now, as we speak, TitanPointe is listening.

The gray, granite tower is located at 33 Thomas Street in Lower Manhattan. Locals know the building as the “Long Lines Building” and it’s been a source of mystery for years.

What jumps out is that the building has no windows and no exterior lighting.

During the day, it fades into the background of the New York City skyline.

And at night, it becomes an invisible shadow.

Thanks to NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden, we now know that creating an invisible building wasn’t an accident. It was absolutely by design.

33 Thomas Street operates under NSA codename TITANPOINTE.

And Titanpointe is a core location used for a controversial, and possibly illegal, NSA-sponsored mass surveillance program.

According to leaked documents, this program has targeted the communications of the UN, the World Bank, the IMF. It’s been used to spy on at least 38 countries, including US allies like France, Germany and Japan. It’s common knowledge that AT&T is very cooperative with the NSA.

Using an AT&T cell phone? Eh, you might want to rethink that.

Let’s find out why.

Brutally True

What accidentally rude things do Americans do while traveling even without realizing it?

Black Zimbabwean on receiving end here. Many years ago, just after getting married, new hubby & I flew from Harare (capital city) to Kariba (small touristy town 45 minutes away by air) for our honeymoon.

On arrival at the little airport, we head for the courtesy shuttle. A group of mostly middle aged (& all white) American tourists have already taken up most of the seats when we step onto the bus. Some look a little startled, and one woman pipes up, “You can’t get on this bus. This is OUR bus”.

We politely explain that no, it isn’t ‘your’ bus, it is actually meant for anyone booked at the local hotel.

She argues; there are a few supportive mutterings from her compatriots, until the driver chimes in, and with a huge smile, confirms what we’ve just told her.

I suspect he’s encountered this before.

A few minutes later we are on our way, & we soon strike up a conversation with our nearest neighbours (the natives are friendly here ). A woman in the next seat interrupts and says, in baffled tones, “Your English is really good”, and her male companion adds, almost accusingly: “You sound educated!”

I don’t remember feeling offended, just mildly taken aback and amused at the level of unconscious presumptuousness.

People are PISSED off

What’s the most ridiculous adult tantrum you’ve witnessed that you couldn’t believe?

My sweetie and I were in a BBQ restaurant in Cambridge, MA. The place was crowded with lots of people, including a family of 2 adults, 1 son, and an infant. The son was going from table to table flailing his arms, screaming in people’s faces, grabbing their food, knocking over their drinks, while their parents did absolutely nothing to control their child, who was ruining dinner for everybody else in the place.

The layout of the restaurant meant that we would be the last table for him to torment. Sure enough, he arrived and began shrieking very, very loudly in our faces. My sweetie smiled at him, and made the exact same sound back at the kid. In an instant, the child stopped, smiled, and began a low and happy conversation with my guy. End of problem. It was the first and only time the kid smiled.

What happened next was unbelievable. The wife/Mother came up to our table, and began to yell as loudly as she could that we were being horrible to her child, we should be thrown out of the restaurant, and never allowed back again.

The next thing that happened was my sweetheart changing his demeanor 100%. In an instant, the gentle man playing with the kid was gone, to be replaced with a deadly serious person who quietly but forcefully said to the woman “Hey lady, f*** off!” Other customers actually applauded. As the husband/Father got control of his family, he came to apologize for his wife’s behavior, saying dealing with the kid was very hard on her.

While I had all the sympathy in the world for the family, no child should be allowed to ruin the dining experience for 50 other people. If the child can’t be controlled, then take it outside. Period.

This has to be a joke…

What are telltale signs of an ambush?

Ideally, there wouldn’t be any ‘telltale’ signs of an ambush, but in practice, this is as good as impossible.

To successfully set up an ambush, there need to be a few elements in place and this can give the attacker away.

Ambushes are executed from concealed positions, locations where you’re able to hide a number of soldiers very close to the troops that you want to ambush.

The ambush has to take place on a road or path frequented by your enemy, most often at a certain time. An ambush is not a fishing expedition. If you don’t know that an enemy will pass by your ambush site, you are just wasting your time.

If you attack vehicles, you need your enemy to slow down or stop. This can be achieved either by choosing a location where your enemy has to slow down (a sharp bend or uphill) or you place an obstacle on the road (a tree ‘fell’ down, a carcass, etc.).

Very bad for your health, but not an ambush: a roadside bomb or IED (photo: US Army 25th Infantry Division soldiers during an “IED trainer course”).

Often a mine (or Improvised Explosive Device, IED) is placed on the road. It has two functions, to stop the enemy’s vehicles and to give the signal for the attackers to open fire.

To make things clear, an IED per se is not an ambush but a remote controlled mine. An ambush by definition is “a surprise attack by people lying in wait in a concealed position.”

[1] This can happen with the help of an IED, but the detonation of a road mine alone isn’t sufficient to qualify an attack as an ambush. In other words, you need soldiers attacking you.

When you are on patrol, you’ll probably never see a direct sign that there is an ambush ahead of you, but bearing in mind how an ambush has to be set up to be successful you will have a good idea where it’s most likely going to happen and how to avoid it.

If you use the same road twice, the risk for you to be ambushed increases dramatically.
If you approach an area with buildings, bushes, or other covers near the roadside, be careful!
An obstacle on the road that forces you to slow down is an alarm sign.
Sharp bends, ravines, and hollow-ways are the classical spots for an attack.
Every activity “out of the usual” might point to a possible enemy attack. The absence of people or animals or a road that has been blocked and requires you to take a detour might point to an ambush.

Experienced soldiers learn to read those signs and many others, often unconsciously. You acquire a ‘feeling’ when something ahead of you doesn’t look, sound, or smell right and you’ll be able to take countermeasures.

The Sopranos || Easier

Guy in there has a natural canopy.

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

My birthday one year ago was really sucking. I decided to go buy myself a cake at the grocery store and get it decorated, because it was my birthday and I wanted something nice. When the guy at the counter asked who it was for (in retrospect he meant what name to put on it) and I said it was for me, he was incredulous that I had to buy my own birthday cake. I just kind of shrugged and went out to finish shopping for groceries. He said my cake would be need to be paid for at pick up.

When I came back to pay for and pick up my cake, a different person was at the register and she said my cake had been paid for. It was also decorated a bit more than I thought it should have been. I have not seen that guy working there since and in my head I’ve called him the cake fairy.

It was a good cake. I still cried eating it because the entire day sucked, but it was a good cake.

The Sopranos Tribute “Don’t stop believing”

“Strange how you can miss people from a tv series like they were your family even though you know they are fictional characters. Even today I feel like a part of my life ended when the series stopped.”

What was something that someone said or did that has changed you forever?

My baby son was fast approaching his first birthday. I was working away from home in South Wales and had just completed a 3 month long project before returning to head office in Aberdeen. I received a phone call, at home, informing me of a problem in another location and requesting me to travel to Shotton steel works, in England, as soon as possible.

My wife went ballistic. She informed me that I had only been home to enjoy my son growing up for 6 weeks of his first year of life. Not only that but I would miss my boy’s birthday. On reflection, she was correct.

All that night I reviewed my life. I recalled my own childhood with my father being a fisherman. He was away at sea for 3 to 4 weeks at a time and only home for a couple of days before sailing off again. We never had time for any father/son activity. I loved my dad but he was a stranger to me. I simply didn’t know him well.

The next day I scheduled a meeting with my managing director and informed him that I couldn’t continue to spend as much time away from home. His response was that I was the only person qualified for that job and nobody else could do it. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

I tended my resignation and started looking for another job. I ended up working in the oil and gas sector. I was office based and got to help raise my kids. It was definitely the best decision I ever made.

NORTH KOREA TO SEND 300,000-500,000 TROOPS TO ASSIST RUSSIA

This is FLASH Traffic. North Korea has agreed to send three-hundred-thousand (300,000) to five-hundred thousand (500,000) troops to Russia to assist with its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, against NATO.

The first deployment will be about 20,000 soldiers to assist with Logistics.

North Korea will also deliver to Russia, the new KN-09 Multiple Launch Rocket System.

This is the latest North Korean version of the KN-09, with two pods of SIX rockets each.

Intelligence assessment of these new rocket launchers is as follows:

Judging by the published photos, the military received MLRS, known under the Western designation KN-09 or KN-SS-X-9. Its caliber is 300 mm.

The first version, which has eight missile tubes, was shown in 2015 at the parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

It is believed that missiles with a warhead weighing up to 190 kg are capable of hitting targets at a distance of at least 220 km.Guidance is inertial, in preparation for use, the calculation uses data from navigation satellites, which provides a fairly accurate hit.

In 2020, an upgraded version was introduced, in which the three-axle all-terrain vehicle was replaced with a four-axle platform with twelve tubes.

THOUGHTS & OPINIONS

North Korea is supplying military materials, ammo, weapons systems, supplying military logistics, and manpower to Russia.
A 500,000 man military presence is large enough to; Completely take over the Ukraine war effort from Russia. Occupy and conquer Ukraine. Serve as a complete self-contained invasion force for NATO and Europe.
All reports indicate that Ukraine has been sufficiently weakened by the USA / NATO leadership decisions that it is a “404 nation”.
NATO, and the largest European nations inside of it are now in the process of De-industrializaiton, suffering energy shortages and high inflation. All of which is a very terrible mix were they to be invaded.
North Koreans have been taught, from cradle to grave, how dangerous the West is, and that the United States and it’s proxy nations need to be eliminated from the surface of the planet.
North Korean soldiers are “enraged” soldiers, and are a very dangerous and lethal force.
The decision to place a NATO office in Japan is viewed as a direct threat to North Korea.
The decision, last month, to have NATO war games next to North Korea, (to include Germany) is viewed as a direct threat to North Korea.

CONCLUSIONS

The NATO use of Ukraine as a “cat’s paw” has been a disaster.
The American neocon dream of a “Pacific NATO” has resulted in dangerous consequences.
Now, North Korea is basing an enormous invasion force at NATO’s door. This is exactly what the United States (and it’s proxies) have been doing to Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and the Global South.
The size of the force betrays it’s intent; the conquering and subjugation of Ukraine. Followed by a “dagger at the throat” of NATO.

Did you tell your parents you’re an ex-Muslim? How did they handle it?

Yes I told them.

But parents aren’t dumb. Especially when the family is as religious as mine it’s easy to see when your child strays. It’s like having a gay kid who you can easily see his lack of interest in the opposite gender early on.

However, if I were to pinpoint the start of them noticing, It would go back to the time I was in high school.

I was curled on my bed sobbing like there’s no tomorrow. My mother came up to me and asked me why I was crying. I said that when I pray I sometimes wonder what if I’m talking to myself and no one’s actually listening to me. And I said that I hate myself for having such bad thoughts. She said “Salma it’s the devil playing with your mind. It’s okay all of us have thoughts like that sometimes”.

But I wasn’t anyone. I was obsessive, still am. I had a form of OCD where I had to wash so many times before each prayer to make sure I’m clean. I always repeated my prayers over and over to make sure they are to God’s liking. And at the end of the day after all the washing and repeating I would go to bed crying and whispering “please god make it easier on me”. But he didn’t.

My thoughts increased “what if god doesn’t even care about washing five times a day to meet him and pray?” “What if everything I believe in and take for granted is false?”. And naturally I was devastated and drowning in guilt and shame for even having in such thoughts.

I talked to my mother about it and she was really scared and told my father. They took me to a therapist who’s from their very same religious circle. I told him about my obsessions and my thoughts. And he would try to convince me so strongly of the falseness of my thoughts and that they are all OCDish thoughts not what I truly think. And with my excessive washing and the like it was believable at the time. I was prescribed meds to get rid of my OCD. And my obsessive actions stopped. But my thoughts never did.

The more time passed the more I doubted things. Then I went to pray while sobbing and said “help me ! I’m about to stray. Please don’t take my faith away. I don’t want to go to hell”. Yet by that point my blind faith and certainty of the rightness of my path had already vanished. Despite myself when I sat with religious people and heard them talk about Quran and Sunnah, I thought of everything they say with a critical eye and not the eyes of a believer who listens and obeys. And when I did that I noticed how much I roll my eyes at the silliness of what’s said.

I was miserable. I lived for Islam and wanted to die for it. My whole life revolved around it. I was a teacher at a mosque, I knew the Quran by heart, and I prayed much more than the average Muslim. So I felt like the very core of my personality and life is being pulled away from my heart.

In my last prayers, I was desperate. If you know the Islamic prayer, you know we place our foreheads on the floor. I would stick my head to the floor, holding to the rug around me like I’m holding to dear life. And from the very bottom of my heart I would whisper with a cracked voice “Help me. Help me. Help me.”. I would cry and sob and pray “please god take me. If you don’t now I’ll die as an infidel and spend an eternity in hell”.

And that was it.

The knots of faith were already fully untied after that. My mind went numb. And I finally allowed my brain and heart to be on the same page.

My parents noticed it all. They especially noticed that I didn’t pray anymore. Which was anything but easy, for weeks everytime I skipped a prayer I felt utter shame and fear of hell. But then even that disappeared. My parents gave me advice constantly urging me to pray again. They would always tell me the benefits of prayers and all that.

They urged me to visit a therapist again. And what’s a therapist going to do? Make me believe that god cares about washing before praying especially if I farted beforehand? (Yes this is a teaching). He’s going to convince me that God wants me to not listen to love songs or shake hands with male cousins?

What was the point?? So I insisted on not going.

The final straw, was after I met my husband. They discovered that we’re chatting. And yelled at me “you’re going to marry an infidel??” And they insisted that this marriage will never come to life.

So I had to come out and say it bluntly.

“I’m not a Muslim. And if I married a Muslim he’d be sinning anyway because he’s not allowed to marry a non-believer”. (Muslim men are allowed to marry Muslims, Christian’s or Jews which I was none).

The silence resounded in the room. My father’s broken voice was the only thing that put an end to it “so you’re really not a Muslim anymore? That’s it?”. He looked devastated.

I hated it all. Should I have just lied for life? Should I have hidden the truth sentencing myself for a life with misery and hypocrisy? But I didn’t take anything back. It was either now or never. Either I choose to break free and be true to myself or bury myself to suit their tastes. I loved them so much but I couldn’t make such a sacrifice.

They were heart-broken for months. Until I broke down completely mentally and emotionally. The guilt and pressure were too much for me and I snapped. I was in so much heartache. I had to be put on a big dose of anti-depressant and an even bigger dose of mood-stabilizers.

That’s when my parents softened up and came around. Finally my happiness meant something to them and they just gave in.

My father was in denial for long though. Whenever the topic came up he would change it. And when I said something that indicates that I don’t care about Islamic teachings he would ask “why?” As if he doesn’t know the answer.

However, after months, our relationship now is really good. I no longer lie, hide and sugar-coat. So they know me better. They still hope I go back on my decision but never pressure me to do it. And I love them for it.

Dr. Phlox Confirms That the Pilot Was A Human Male

Star Trek Enterprise Season 2 Episode 16 Future Tense

Why do American expats think that the USA is a Shit-hole?

I’ll start with the definite truth of my own life: Leaving the US was, without a doubt, the best decision I ever made.

I have said this out loud and reflected upon it often. In short – it had to do with identity and personal happiness.

I was always an energetic child and a hardworking student. Motivated by accomplishments; incredibly obedient; afraid of getting in trouble – a teacher’s pet type. I was generally nice to people around me; just wanted to do well and get on with my day.

After elementary school, I started going to private school – for a better education and hopefully better access in life. During that time, my Black, middle class background became the center of the world. I still did well in school, but I wasn’t spoken to as if I did well or was capable. I was made to feel inadequate at every turn, even in the face of great accomplishments.

As a teenager, this racial alienation was emphasized through social and dating dynamics. All teens have teen problems, but I wasn’t just a moody, insecure kid – I was a Black kid in a sea of White and there was nothing to be done about that. There was no amount of patience, kindness; weight loss; working out; grooming; hair perming – that would make me less Black. And you can’t talk about that to anyone; no one can relate; you’re unceremoniously accused of “bringing race into everything”. A very lonely reality.

Throughout the entire secondary school process, my intelligence was always doubted and I was constantly insulted. My school offered Chinese – they tried to tell me I wouldn’t do well because it’s “a very difficult language”. Within a year, I had top marks. I once had a teacher tell me my writing was so bad I probably had a learning disability. (I’m about to finish my Masters with distinction in England, and I’ll be starting my PhD in the fall).

By high school, I decided to spend a portion of my senior year in China. It was like night and day from my home school. Suddenly, I was smart again. Without a concerted effort of teachers telling me how stupid I was all the time, I was flourishing. I got straight A’s in AP Calculus – a course, among others, my home school wouldn’t let me take because it would be “too hard for me”. When it came to college lists – I was told I couldn’t get into any of the schools on my list; I shouldn’t aim higher than my State school. Mind, at 17 I was a varsity athlete; president of thespians; worked on a number of school plays; danced on the school team and studied Martha Graham independently; first chair clarinet; played alto sax in Jazz band; fairly skilled in drawing and painting; spoke Chinese and had a high honors GPA. So – what made me less than my peers?

In China, it was the first time anyone (other than my parents) had ever told me I was pretty. Looking back, I was still quite young; so a lot of firsts would be happening around that time anyway – but it was definitely different than in America. In America, I was just ugly. People might not say that to my face – but it was reflected in certain ways.

Beyond that, college was the same for socialization. I tried to be cute, preppy and peppy like my White friends – but I wasn’t. I was sad and defeated. And still had some discernible, inferior, human status.

So again, in college, I went to China. And again, I was able to find normality, humanity and love.

After I graduated college, I went back to China to work. I soon met my current partner and we’ve been together six years. We moved to England together last year so I could continue studying to change careers. I’ve done incredibly well and I’m just happy.

In summary:

I personally felt my intelligence and beauty were never appreciated in the US.

I was suicidal sad; until I could no longer deny that I needed to live life a different way.

My partner is Greek and it feels very freeing to not be a part of the radical, radicalized, American fervor. Also, biracial relations aren’t questioned in England the way they are in the US.

Life doesn’t feel so heavy. My days are nice. I have a nice home. A nice partner. My efforts are recognized. I’m just, whole.

What is the most dangerous object that you’ve seen on the road when driving?

This happened about ten years ago.

I was going to Providence, RI on a stretch of highway known as Route 295. It’s a wide highway but in a rural area and there are no lights on the road. It’s long and actually pretty boring. It was nighttime and I was racing down the highway in the middle lane when I thought I saw a glimpse of something dark. I only noticed it because it created a black patch of dark in the middle of the dark night which otherwise was studded by ambient light from other sources. I pulled into the fast lane and when I got to it, it was a shipping container, right there in the middle lane, just sitting there, with no lights. It had evidently fallen from a truck – but there was no truck to be seen. Apparently the driver didn’t even know he had lost it. It was just like this in the photo:

If I hadn’t been paying attention I would have plowed right into it as if it were a brick wall at 70 MPH.

I immediately called the State Police who dispatched a cruiser. My brother is a state cop who told me that there were almost many accidents. They had to put a cruiser with lights flashing behind it until a truck could come and retrieve it. I was astonished at how nearly invisible it was. Without power from the truck or reflective panels, it was as if it weren’t even there. It would have been easy to crash right into it.

Casino | “Meeting in the Desert Always Made Me Nervous”

Ace (Robert De Niro) and Nicky (Joe Pesci) arrange to have a secret meeting in the desert outside of Las Vegas. As federal law enforcement closes in around them, the two find their friendship has reached its breaking point. They exchange insults and foul language in one of the finest acting moments in any Martin Scorsese’s film.

Tex-Mex Hash

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup rice, uncooked
2 teaspoons salt
3 onions, sliced
1 can whole tomatoes
1 teaspoon chili powder
Dash of pepper

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Pan fry ground beef until light brown in skillet. Drain fat.
Add onions and bell peppers and cook until onion is tender.
Stir in remaining ingredients and heat until warm.
Pour into a casserole dish. Cover, and bake for 1 hour.

Yield: 5 servings

HEAVEN

Turkey ass sandwiches

When I lived in American Samoa (Pago Pago), there were many unique aspects of it that I have long since forgotten. But today, well something jogged my mind. And you know what came up? Yes.

Turkey-ass sandwiches.

Yupper. Very popular in Samoa. They (for some reason that I do not understand) inherit a large amount of turkey-ass meat. And the locals take this cheap meat, and cook it and make sandwiches out of it.

Two slices of bread; mayonnaise, and turkey ass meat.

It’s not exactly my “cup of tea”, but I had a few sandwiches (back in the day). It fills your stomach. But not as good as you would hope for them to be. I’ll tell you what.

Long post today. Many videos. More than average number of Oliver Anthony reaction videos. Kinda like a mother-load. But overall thoughts on the absolute devastation of Western culture and Western society today.

Stick around and enjoy every morsel.

Have fun…

Do you have good knowledge of China’s economy? Nobel laureate in economics, Paul Krugman believes that the Chinese are saving too much, and that the country’s economy is on the way to a serious crisis. What is your knowledge about it?

Krugman initially made such a report based on the Western Model and predicted Chinas collapse in 2005

Krugman wrote a paper where he established that the Banking Crisis of the 1990s would surface by 2005 and displace China

It didn’t happen

Because as I keep saying Repeatedly – the Chinese work and think differently and their economy works as per their own system

Now Americans and the Western systems HATE Saving money. Money is meant to be spent. Money has to keep being spent and drive consumption.

If you don’t have the money – BORROW or avail what is another major driver – CREDIT

The Chinese on the other land love saving money. They love having money in the bank. They prefer to spend only money from their current earnings or from any PROFIT or INTEREST they earn on those savings

Likewise Americans invest very heavily in paper or non asset backed instruments

It’s very easy to go to New York tomorrow and raise $ 50 Million capital from a small hedge fund who will simply call someone else who will invest the money from an Insurance or Pension Fund

In the 1980s – the Americans loved the free market

Today they are confident of a Federal Bailout ever since the 2009 Crisis

Chinese don’t trust paper instruments

They trust ASSETS

They like Land, Gold, Resources, Buildings, Windmills

In 2002 – The Government of China converted 160 Billion Yuan of Bad Debt ($ 18.3 Billion) by Banks into Units of Land Holdings owned by the Banks

They offered these units as sale

The Debt was paid off in 8 Days!!!!

A Debt that was 10 years old, paid off in just 8 days

So unless an Economist knows China, Chinese Culture and the Chinese system including the fact that the State owns all the land and resources – they cannot understand China

They always judge China by the Western Standard and when China thrives and doesn’t collapse like they predicted

They don’t apologize and realize their mistakes

They double down and keep assuming China must have done SOMETHING SHADY

It’s fodder for the MSM Propaganda against China

These Experts, they apply the Western System everywhere

BASEL was fine in Switzerland and developing companiss

However applying it in India destroyed almost our entire enterprise and banking so far

So Krugman, he simply tries applying the Western system to China

He tried this in 2005 and failed badly

Now he is doubling down

Unless he truly understands the Chinese people and the Chinese system – his predictions aren’t worth a damn

Nobel Prize or No Nobel Prize

I Finally Heard the Viral Country Song EVERYONE is Talking About.

Since gold is unevenly distributed, if BRICS (~20% of total gold reserves) make a new gold-backed currency, don’t the NATO countries + Japan (~65% of total gold reserves) have the upper hand in dominating it?

Hmmm

Let’s see

Yep you are right – NATO+G7 hold around 65% of the World’s Gold Reserves

They also hold $ 81.79 Trillion in External Debt combined

If you have a Gold Backed currency, it means the NATO and G7, they can’t keep printing notes anymore

Tomorrow every note they print can legally be redeemed against a few micrograms of gold

Their Printing fun is OVER

Now BRICS

BRICS have 20% of the World’s Gold Reserves

Their Cumulative External Debt is only $ 5.105 Trillion

So now YOU DO THE MATH

NATO +G7+ Japan have 3.25 times more gold

They have a whopping 16 times more external Debt

That’s the Big problem here

Low Country Chicken Bog

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) whole chicken
6 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1 onion, chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice
1/2 pound smoked sausage of your choice, sliced
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
2 cubes chicken bouillon

Instructions

Place chicken, water, salt and onion in a large pot. Bring to a boil; cook until chicken is tender, about 1 hour.
Remove chicken from pot and let cool. Remove skin and bones and chop remaining meat into bite-size pieces.
Skim off fat from cooking liquid and measure 3 1/2 cups of this chicken broth into a 6 quart saucepan.
Add rice, chicken pieces, sausage, herb seasoning and bouillon to the saucepan. Cover the saucepan. Let come to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 30 minutes. If mixture is too watery or juicy, cook over medium low heat, uncovered, until it reaches the desired consistency. Stir often while cooking.

TELL IT LIKE IT IS!!! | Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North of Richmond

Huawei Mate 60 Pro with 7nm have been on sale in China and in the world with 100% China-made components, software, chips & operating systems. Why is the US’ sanction against Huawei making Huawei smart phones more independent and successful globally?

Typical!!!

That’s just how China is

All the focus is on the CHIP, the Chip and it’s stacking and it’s revolutionary inhouse design

In reality the real breakthrough by Huawei isn’t the damn Chip.

It’s the FILTER

The Bulk Accoustic wave Filter, the small component that in laymans terms enables those different latent speeds on your smartphone and gives you 5G connectivity

The Chip is great news

Yet that’s nothing amazing or new. Yes China can make 5nm Chips with Foreign DUV equipment

That’s why US sanctioned the equipment which is probably why China now uses stacking to get the same processing power but with higher power consumption

The BAW filter is the BIG BREAKTHROUGH and China is diverting all the attention from this to the CHIP hoping that idiots like Raimondo or Blinken go after the Chips

In reality the BAW Filter made entirely of Chinese Design is the killer here

I bet the Chinese commercially make it at 60% cost

Now China can make it’s entire 5G network spectrum without any dependence on the West

Zero Dependence

They control the raw materials, the equipment, the design and the process entirely in house

Companies that design and make the BAWs are entirely anyway on the US Blacklist so they won’t be affected in the least

Plus now that Huawei has designed a BAW for 5G Latents, it’s only one step for higher latents (6G)

It’s why China and Huawei are diverting everyone’s attention towards the CHIPS again and again

The West will say “They were made using ASML and we have restricted the exports of ASML so this will end”

Nobody will look at the 5G BAW filter designed and made by China from scratch and scaled efficiently

Helping China scale it’s way to 6G without any dependence on the West and KEEPING THEIR LEAD

That’s the big breakthrough Huawei has achieved which they are masking from the world to remain undisturbed for another 2–3 years while the Idiots focus on the Chip again and again

What does it feel like to become poor after being wealthy?

Originally Answered: What does it feel like to go from being wealthy to being poor?

It’s absolutely horrible. I was 50, had recently sold my very successful car washes, had a $1MM in my checking account, the big house, kids in private school and life was grand. I was focused on growing my other business (car wash equipment sales) when the manufacturer we represented lost a client that accounted 1/3 of our business, Hurricane Katrina hit (followed by several other hurricanes), and then the great recession. I had stopped taking a salary and started loaning the company money. I was determined to work through this. I even spent my retirement in a last attempt to turn things around. Fast forward, the company was broke, I was broke, and I couldn’t pay the house mortgage. I had to give up the house and shut down the business. A personal bankruptcy soon followed, and then a separation from my wife of 30 years. The stress was unbearable, and I contemplated suicide. The only thing that stopped me was that my dad had taken his life when I was 26, and I knew first hand the pain that my loved ones would bear for my actions.

The worst part is the loss of self confidence and depression, followed by the loss of “friends”. It’s amazing how quickly they disappear! I will say that two friends stuck by me. One in particular would check on me and take me out to ride his motorcycles to help take my mind off of things. I moved into a friend’s rental property and I started looking for work. I had owned my own companies since college, was a past Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and had never really worked for anyone. At the worst, I was working at a construction company repairing equipment in their yard, collecting food stamps and living alone.

Fast forward a couple of years. My wife and I got back together, we moved to Texas, and I took a job back in my industry (building car washes). We now rent a nice home, and were recently able to buy a nice used car. It gets better every day. I love my job, and I hope to get back into car wash ownership (with investors), while continuing to do what I do.

In summary, there are a couple of important lessons to take from this:

Good times don’t last; bad times don’t last.
Most of the people who claim to be your friend are only there for the good times.
Business associates that you’ve spent millions of dollars with over decades will instantly turn their back on you when the money stops.
Don’t ever stop taking care of yourself. Exercise is great for relieving the stress.
Face facts. Recognize when you have a losing hand and walk away. And if bankruptcy is inevitable, just do it. Don’t procrastinate and stick your head in the sand.
Do not EVER use your retirement money. I used mine to try and save the company, and I am now 60 years old and starting over.
Never stop believing in yourself.

The Left RAGES Over Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North Of Richmond” | Tomi Lahren Is Fearless

People are starting to get really ANGRY.

Huawei unveiled their new smartphone, which is undeniably impressive and packed with numerous technological breakthroughs. How many of you are keeping tabs on this development, and what are your thoughts on Huawei’s achievements with this phone?

China’s core competence is manufacturing and logistic. It has IP independence in numerous areas, and the industrial chain can collaborate to bring complex, world-class projects online in record time.

As I’ve said repeatedly over the years, China class is world class, because the Chinese competition has to beat the world’s best in order to be counted as domestic champions. There are few absentees in the world’s largest single market. Chinese corporations do not compete in sandboxed silos, unlike elsewhere.

The best thing is, the Chinese are among the best informed people when it comes to business intelligence, because of the completeness of the supply chain.

Case in point: Kuo Ming-Chi has been one of the best-informed and accurate Apple “analyst” over the past decade, because he taps the Greater China-centered supply chain directly.

That is also why only Apple is left in the brutal handset business in China, with the Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese and Europeans all relegated to “others” or complete irrelevance on the mainland. Transsion, a company few have heard of, outsells Samsung in Africa, a market that Chinese handset vendors dominate. The competition that China offers is multidimensional and immense.

We will see entire industries being remade on a global scale as China moves up the tech ladder and redefine the 21st century factory. Today, a journalist who wants to showcase industrial innovation will find the best material in China, and not Germany, Japan and the US. Instead of going wild over AI’s use as a human-like chatbot, China is deploying AI, ML and big data on an industrial scale to run intelligent factories, automating the often tumultuous marriage between lean manufacturing and quality improvement.

What impressed me about the Mate 60 Pro’s soft launch was the order fulfillment. The announcement went live on the webstore around 12pm, and orders were processed for an hour before selling out. Customers received their purchases several hours later. That’s world class, cutting edge logistics, and it is already what the Chinese consumer expect as norm.

China is writing the 21st century future.

Can you imagine a world where Southeaast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Russia (yes, Russia!) enjoying the same as the Chinese recreate the mainland experience overseas?

The global south leapfrogging the first world, in delivered outcomes.

Makes for interesting times, don’t you think?

My First Reaction to Oliver Anthony | I want to go home | REACTION

He’s vocalizing our times.

What is missing when everyone talks about the great European healthcare system vs the horrible US healthcare system? Obviously they have to pay more for it with taxes.

Jim Haywood wrote the best answer to these stupid questions I have come across on Quora:

OK, I’ll bite…

In the UK, I’ve never heard it called “free” by anyone except Americans looking for a straw man argument. In the UK we normally just call it “the hospital”, “the doctor”, “the clinic”, “the ambulance”. The exception is “the dentist”, which has a standard charge if you’re registered with the NHS. AND…

BEFORE YOU START YOUR NEXT STRAWMAN PROJECT… the state of people’s teeth is better in the UK than the US.

A personal experience.

Last year, I spent three weeks in hospital for major surgery. I wasn’t well enough for the operation at first and I was pumped full of antibiotics, vitamins and three fuck-off-size bags of amino acids and other nutrients (its called TPN). My biggest fear was the drip stand falling and crushing me, (like suffocating under a cow’s udder!). I took a photo.

The extra nipple is for visitors.

I’m joking, of course; there were no visitors during the covid lockdown.

I had the operation, and some days recovering, at the end of which (the evening before I was due to be discharged), I tested positive for covid (you remember that funny little bug), so had to stay longer.

I had about £2.60 in my pocket. I went home with £2.00 because, one day, I went for a walk in my hospital slippers and bought a Twix at a vending machine.

(The food, btw, was good, and already paid-for, of course, since you asked. Not Michelin starred, but wholesome, tasty, familiar, comfort-food. It was the same as served in the canteen for visitors and staff and cooked on the premises.)

When finally home, I was looked after by “district” nurses visiting me at home to change dressings, and specialist related to the particular procedure I had. This was daily at first, tapering off as I needed less support.

At home, then, I got a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung, probably as a consequence of covid combined with the op.), I was reticent to go back to hospital (as you might expect), so the GP came out to me, at about 9pm, just to check me over and make sure I went to hospital (a PE can be life-theatening). I was admitted back into hospital via A&E (Emergency Room) for a day of monitoring.

More drugs. Slow recovery over the last year, with regular checkups and blood tests.

Money?

Now, I’m not a rich man, and I have a mortgage, and bills to pay like everyone else.

Not once did I worry about medical bills. Not once. Because there weren’t any. No forms to fill in, other than a simple consent for the operation, no “co-pays” (as I’ve learned you call them), no payments for diagnostic imaging – x-rays, ultrasound scans, and no insurance man checking whether I could have the treatment or the meds (WTF??).

Being that sick is a shitty experience whatever country you live in. But, by God, I was very grateful for the Nation Health Service.

No, it’s not free. We all pay for it based on our ability to pay. If you’re rich, you pay more; if you’re poor you pay less. It’s funded directly from general taxation and comes out of my monthly salary before I see my pay in the bank. (BTW, the tax system is massively more efficient than in the US, too. I haven’t had to complete an annual tax return for 20 years, for example.)

I post my experience, here, not because it was exceptional – it wasn’t – but because it was ORDINARY and EXPECTED.

Oh yeah, “socialised” medicine:

So when I need medical treatment, it’s already paid for, fairly (we’re not bloody savages), by every tax payer in the country.

Just to head off a few other straw men:

If you haven’t paid your taxes, you still get medical treatment, because the doctors don’t care about your tax: it’s none of their business. And we’re not bloody savages.

If you’re terminally ill, you still get treatment. We’re not bloody savages.

There are no such thing as “death panels”, an invention of liars in the US media. We’re not bloody savages.

And the only time you see a shop till is in the cafe in the reception foyer (and that’s staffed by volunteers) or the staff canteen.

What it really costs you, Americans.

Not only do you, in the US, pay more (about double) for a similar quality of service, some of you pay with your lives.

Being scared of medical bills, people put up with pain, put off worries, and sometimes die, unable to afford the most basic medication. Insulin, for example. You don’t pay for insulin in the UK.

How else do you pay? Drug addiction, as “doctors”, cajoled and incentivised by big pharma, look for a quick, affordable (to the patient) fix, and end up hooking the patients onto addictive drugs.

On average, your life expectancy is two years shorter than in the UK. Now, some people might say “ Well, those are two years of pain and decrepitude at the end of my life, so no great loss!” No. They are two years of healthy life that you haven’t had. And all that’s left to you then is some horrible religious drug-addled fatalism as you watch your life and your savings bleed away to be sucked up by big pharma and the bloated, useless “insurance” companies. This is a one-way flow, notice. Once that money is gone from your family it’s gone for good.

Free-rider “problem”? There’s plenty of free riders – you’re already paying for the health plans of all those insurance salesmen, actuaries, marketeers, administrators…

End of rant. Now the really sad part:

You know, I’m sure you’ve noticed a certain sneering from some respondents on Quora towards the USA. Not Americans, I hasten to add: we tend to like Americans. You might put all that negativity down to “hate” (which seems to mean something different to Yanks, but never mind). I tell you though, it’s not hate, it’s not envy, it’s not spite or helpless rage or snobbishness. It’s something much more damning:

Disappointment.

A footnote about prescription charges.

In the UK, there are prescription charges. But you don’t pay if you’re a child or pregnant or over 60 or suffering from one of a number of long-term conditions or on state benefits, or receiving disability allowance, or unemployed, or living in Wales or Scotland (which have slightly different arrangements).

If you do pay, it’s a standard change of £9:30 per prescription, but you can buy a “prepayment certificate” for £112 per year, if that’s better value.

When I collect a prescription, I’m asked “Do you pay for your prescriptions?” I used to answer “Yes”, and pay, or “No, I have a ‘cert’. Now, they rarely even ask, because I look my age, 60. Not once, have I been asked to prove my age or show a certificate. Why? Because its too much bother – if I needed to cheat, I wouldn’t have to because I would get it free anyway (in most cases)!

BTW, if medicines are dispensed in hospital, there is never a prescription charge.

Anything else?

Yes. One more thing that screws American patients: your litigious culture: if something goes wrong you can be awarded punitive damages. Suing a hospital is cheap and the rewards can be very high. This incentivises ultra-precautionary medicine so you go to a doctor (on your sooper-dooper insurance policy) with a simple strep throat. The Doc writes you up for a mountain of almost certainly completely unnecessary tests to de-risk himself (not for your benefit). He has an army of lawyers on stand-by in his own indemnity insurance, which has to be paid for. So his charge are higher, so insurance premiums are higher, and ultimately, the individual pays. The costs are so high, everyone is looking for an opportunity to screw someone else.

In the UK, the system, even today, works more on trust: patients trust the doctors to advise them and diagnose them correctly, and trust that there are check and balances in place that will identify bad doctors and disqualify them. Suing a doctor is still possible, but damages are only to reimburse the failed patient, not to punish the failing medic.

You’re are all paying to keep the ambulance chasers chasing ambulances.

Finally, let’s go back to your question:

Why do some call universal healthcare free when it isn’t since people pay for it through their taxes?

No, matey. It’s not free despite being paid for through our taxes, it’s free because it’s paid for though our taxes:-

Free at the point of use.
Free from the threat of bankruptcy.
Free from co-pays and desperate attemps to claw back money through lawyers (and their fees).
Free from the fear of lawsuits.
Free from drug companies’ profiteering from your illness.
Free from t.v. adverts for life-saving drugs (ask your doctor for what???).
Free to leave your crappy, toxic, wage-slavery dead-end job, yet still receive treatment for your “pre-existing” condition (as opposed to non-existing conditions, presumably).
Free not to have to choose between your home and living out of pain.
Free to hold your newborn baby in hospital (you’ve GOT to be joking!).
Free from Go Fund Me campaigns for your kids’ cancer treatment.
Free from the selfish, vindictive, judgemental, spiteful attitude that Human Being X doesn’t deserve to live because they didn’t buy enough insurance.

Put all that together, folks: what a weird and twisted SICK system you have (accidentally, perhaps) invented! Some of you think it’s normal, even to the point of QUESTIONING another, better system. If you’re happy with it, you’re just as weird and twisted. But probably not sick. Yet.

U.S Lose $1.7 Trillion USD in Trade, After Tariff On China

Welcome back to Innovative Check! Dive deep into the intricacies of the U.S.-China trade dynamics and uncover how tariffs are impacting American manufacturers. As companies like MISCO feel the strain, what does the future hold for U.S. domestic production?

Given Huawei’s chip break thru with the Mate 60 pro, would it make any difference to the future outlook of American chip manufacturers if the US was to abandon the high tech sanctions against China?

To little to late, the horse has bolted, China have the ability to make their own now, there is no going back. The USA have lost their little chip war, NEVER start a fight you can’t finish, you’ll end up with a bloody nose. The US never seem to learn, block them from the ISS, no problems, China just make their own, block the chip supply? No problems China just make their own, try and block technology? Won’t work, China will end up with better than yours, when are they going to wake up, that it’s better to work with them than against them? If they start a war with China, they might end up with a lot more than just a bloody nose,

I am planning to study Mandarin Chinese, yet I am overwhelmed by what to do, and what online resources there are available, can you please assist?

If you are serious, move to China and immerse yourself in the environment which will force you to learn Putonghua. If you are not serious about learning Putonghua, don’t bother, because the time investment is worth it.

What was the most satisfying display of instant karma you have ever seen?

My second son was a toddler and we were on the way to meet friends at a soft play centre. i always stopped off on the way at a local garage and got a large coffee. There was a short zebra crossing from the parking area to the shop and a young girl in a convertible parked across it. Son was walking holding my hand and I said

“Did you have to block the crossing”

“Too bad you fat cow” she flounced off into the shop.

Coffee in cup holder I watched her pull away between a lorry and the bollards at the shop front … and scrape the side of her pale blue car along the side of the lorry. I almost wet myself laughing so hard and loud enough that she heard me. The driver of the lorry who had watched this with amusement looked across at me and said

“At least us fatties can drive”

Why does Huawei name its new phone ‘Huawei Mate 60 Pro’ that no Chinese can say it?

“No Chinese can say it?” where have you been? Definitely not China.

I worked with uni students in Guangzhou who major in several European languages including English. They translate English to Mandarin articles for me in a few hours, and here we are, speaking English and Mandarin in a Zhongshan cafe.

My China nephew about to graduate from engineering course from Guizhou university listens to old Beatles songs, he likes the group, and we talked in Chinese and English.

Huawei naming of their latest phone is for the international market. In Kuala Lumpur Huawei has a skyscraper HQ and their mobile phones are popular among Malaysians.

The world does not exist only for English speaking people.

In tiny Malaysia, a former British colony, you’d be surprised how many people eat, live, and breathe Mandarin only, they don’t need the English language.

Kasandras Beware – China’s Economy Will Not Hit A Wall

The economist and columnist of the New York Times Paul Krugman wrote about China hitting the wall:

China is in big trouble. We’re not talking about some minor setback along the way, but something more fundamental. The country’s whole way of doing business, the economic system that has driven three decades of incredible growth, has reached its limits. You could say that the Chinese model is about to hit its Great Wall, and the only question now is just how bad the crash will be.
…
Wages are rising; finally, ordinary Chinese are starting to share in the fruits of growth. But it also means that the Chinese economy is suddenly faced with the need for drastic “rebalancing” — the jargon phrase of the moment. Investment is now running into sharply diminishing returns and is going to drop drastically no matter what the government does; consumer spending must rise dramatically to take its place. The question is whether this can happen fast enough to avoid a nasty slump.

That was written in 2013 when China’s GDP at purchase power parity reached $16.3 trillion. The number has since more than doubled to a projected $33 trillion in 2023. (In the same time span U.S. GDP(ppp) grew from $17 to $26 trillion.) But that hasn’t influenced Krugman’s conclusions. Two week ago he wrote another column that paints the same gloomy picture and prescribes the same false medicine:

Since the late 2000s, however, China seems to have lost a lot of its dynamism.
…
… China clearly can’t sustain anything like the high growth rates of the past.
…
At a fundamental level, China is suffering from the paradox of thrift, which says that an economy can suffer if consumers try to save too much. If businesses aren’t willing to borrow and then invest all the money consumers are trying to save, the result is an economic downturn. Such a downturn may well reduce the amount businesses are willing to invest, so an attempt to save more can actually reduce investment.
…
The obvious answer is to boost consumer spending. Get state-owned enterprises to share more of their profits with workers. Strengthen the safety net. And in the short run, the government could just give people money — sending out checks, the way America has done.

How is giving checks (btw: no Chinese or European citizen uses those antique instruments) to people who are saving instead of consuming supposed to increase their consumption? I would presume that it would rather increase their savings. Giving more income to people who like to save to increase consumption is like pushing on a string.

David Fishman, an economist who lives in China and speaks Mandarin, had an interesting chat with a taxi driver. He concludes:

1. Even after buying a property, long-term considerations still drive Yang to save money, most prominently his daughter and parents.
2. Yang and his wife give up consumption in pursuit of their long-term goals, even working an extra job, to put away extra cash for those goals.
3. He associates loose/free consumption habits with youth and a lack of responsibility. His consumption today is strategic and intentional.
4. He is unperturbed by the prospect of real estate losing value, since he bought his house to live in, and doesn’t intend to resell it.

Now, macro econ punditry is *not* my lane.

But if I hear a pundit talking about Chinese consumers, and how they will/won’t behave in response to some government policy, I will always wonder what their mental model of this generic Chinese consumer’s behavior looks like.

To be credible, that consumer behavior model should probably look like Yang, willing to work an extra job & skip consumption, not out of today’s financial necessity, but in preparation of being a good filial son, and so his 3-year old daughter can take dance lessons someday.

And that is Krugman’s problem with diagnosing China’s economy. People work hard in China. And they like to save instead of consuming all their income. They retire pretty early but live long (though that retirement age is likely to rise). So having a bit of money on the side will make for a nicer living in later years:

The official retirement age for men is 60. Women in managerial positions have a retirement age of 55, while blue-collar female workers can retire at 50.

Chinese people are simply not Americans. But Krugman’s economic models presume that they are and he isn’t willing or capable of looking beyond those.

Still he was onto something when he opened his column with this:

The narrative about China has changed with stunning speed, from unstoppable juggernaut to pitiful, helpless giant.

It is indeed a fact that the narrative about China’s economy has changed way more than China’s economic numbers. But Krugman fails to ask why.

Some argue that this narrative change serves investment interests:

First, the most salient preoccupations of Western commentators reflect the skewed distribution of foreign-owned capital within the Chinese economy.
…
The second feature relates to the financial industry’s reliance on the art of political-economic storytelling to sell investment options.

But it is probably more a political instrument to support the general U.S. war against China.

Newsweek recently published a rather laughable story which asked if Shanghai (25 million permanent inhabitants) had turned into a ‘ghost town’.

The Global Times editors see political motives behind such ‘bad China’ narratives:

If only Newsweek is doing this, then it is an isolated case, indicating the media outlet’s problematic professional ethics and the negative impact it caused is not significant. However, starting from March or April this year, not only Newsweek but also other US and Western media outlets have been selectively using some specific data from a certain point or in a certain field to generalize, and even fabricate information to undermine, the Chinese economy. This is a coordinated and large-scale campaign, with consistent steps, intense actions, and extensive content, which is rare in recent years. Can we say that this is a coincidence?

The ‘bad China’ narrative is an economic phenomenon but is used for political reasons:

In the field of economics, there is a term called narrative economics, which uses storytelling to influence judgments, even at the cost of creating false information, to undermine the morale and confidence of the target and attempt to deter foreign investment, thereby having a substantial impact on the economy. The US has openly regarded China as its biggest competitor and even treats China as an imaginary enemy in many practical aspects. We cannot expect it to engage in fair competition with China. In order to win this “competition” initiated by itself, the US often resorts to any possible means. This perspective can explain the phenomenon in which the US is badmouthing the Chinese economy in a collective manner and can also roughly predict the US’ future actions toward China, indicating that it aligns with the basic facts.

The problem the Gloom and Doom in China narratives have is that they are propaganda. Propaganda does not change reality. It falls apart when confronted with facts.

War propaganda falls apart when a war is lost. Economic propaganda falls apart when the new numbers come in. Krugman’s doom and gloom propaganda from 2013 was defeated by China’s growth. His 2023 propaganda is likely to have the same fate.

Posted by b on September 12, 2023 at 16:39 UTC | Permalink

EXPLOSIVE! New details in the JFK assassination & RFK, JR responds

EXPLOSIVE! New details in the JFK assassination, and now RFK, JR. is responding. On Saturday, 88-year-old former secret service agent Paul Landis gave an exclusive interview with The New York Times where he shared he shared his revelations regarding what happened November 22, 1963. And it turns out he’s the one that picked up the magic bullet from the back of the President’s limo. This completely upends the story around the magic bullet and undermines The Warren Commission.

What would happen if a colonel ordered the sergeant major of the army to do 20 press-ups?

I’ll tell you a story from my Marines career. Not marine Corp, Royal Marines. I was responsible for intel and let’s just say I was on detachment to some of the better Royal Marines. We had some young gawky junior officer fresh out of training and looking to stamp his authority on us. So one day he decided to make me do 20 I took the piss and did a few extra got back up and stood to attention. A few hours later I got called to the bosses office.

Conversation as follows.

Hayworth did he reprimand you?

Yes sir

Why?

I was laughing at him behind his back

CO to hotshot,

You might want to remember that this guy is the one who’s going to be getting the right intel to your unit, basically when he’s on operations he is the guy making the decisions

Officer Hotshot. Why, I’m in charge.

CO to hotshot, not without fucking intel you’re not. Now get the fuck out of my base and get a transfer. If you think stamping authority around here is going to get you any favors then you are useless to me and my men. There is no rank around here, not even me. That’s the SBS way. We’re all experts at our jobs and I don’t need a fucking junior officer upsetting my teams. I still love that CO.

The Sopranos – Talking out of turn

Chris can’t keep his mouth shut.

What is the most inappropriate experience you had with a debt collection agency?

My Stepdaughter passed away at 22 due to complications from her Type 1 Diabetes. She had massive medical bills. We had insurance, but it only covered parts. So, let’s start by being harassed by a debt collector calling about someone that had passed away.

When the bills started coming I called all the companies. 99% only asked me to send a copy of the death certificate. But, this one company, well, they were total slime balls. The odd part was this was on a bill that was actually paid by the insurance in full. So, on the first call from them I sent them copies of the paid in full notices, and a copy of the death certificate.

A year went by, and I got a call from them again on the same bill. I told them about their error, even sent a copy of the registered mail signed copy. Week later, another call. This time I was hot. Gave them an ear full. A month later, same thing. This time, the asshat actually said they don’t believe she is dead. Wanted to know how to reach her so they can sue her for the money. I gave them the address to the cemetery. A month went by, another call. Same thing: we don’t believe you, etc. So, I said, Do what you got to do.

And believe it or not, they actually sued her. I went to the office of the lawyer, with my lawyer, and a counterclaim on behalf of the estate. The lawyer wanted to drop everything right then. But, we took it to court. We made them play the recording of the agent telling me that they refused to believe she was dead. The Judge dropped the hammer on them. We won a $30,000 donation in her name to the American diabetes Association.

Have you actually ever heard someone say ‘Do you know who I am?’ indignantly?

I don’t think I have.

However, back in he 1960s I was one of a group of about 20 new graduates taken on by a large multinational. We were in an enormous site and were all expected to trek across it in order to clock in every morning. We quickly took it in turns for one of us to go and clock in for us all.

One day, one of my colleagues had just finished clocking in for us when he was apprehended by a portly manager for this illegal practice. “Do you know who I am, demanded this august presence?”

“No” my friend replied and listened to the fellow describe his important position in the company. When he had finished, my friend asked him if he knew who my friend was.

“No” replied the manager.

“Thank God!” said my friend and took to his heels. An investigation followed but we were able to hide the miscreant

Shortly after, we decided to go on strike and all refused to clock in. The company relented after we agreed to sign an attendance sheet. The local union rep found about this and made a fuss about it as it was a privilege normally extended to more senior staff than new graduates. The result was we were all promoted to a position where we were ‘legally’ allowed to sign in which carried a pay rise with it.

I don’t know what this proves except that perhaps it pays not to accept being messed about with.

Testimonial: “They Moved a Biological Man into My Dorm Room!”

The #WalkAway Campaign is a true grassroots movement, founded by former liberal, Brandon Straka, dedicated to providing a place to share #WalkAway testimonials and personal journeys to freedom.

What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?

$8.

Here’s the story:

I worked at a state park for a few years. The primary sources of income for the park are day-use fees and the seven campgrounds. The main two campgrounds and day-use areas are developed, very nice with running water, showers, and are only accessible through a manned gate. The other five undeveloped campgrounds and day-use areas are self-pay on the honor system, but since that unfortunately means most people don’t pay, one of my main duties was going around and collecting fees.

More often than not, most people were “just about to go pay.” Sometimes they’d been in the park for days, but were inevitably “just about to go pay.” What timing.

One day I stopped by a campsite where I was immediately confronted by a diminutive and very angry camper. He immediately started accusing me of harassment, then started listing an exhaustive series of offenses I had committed against him and his family, even though I’d been there for about a total of 45 seconds. Recognizing that he had a few too many with lunch, I put on a big smile and assured him I was just there to collect the campground fees. He told me to look in his truck, he had his self-pay permit attached to the windshield.

He wasn’t wrong, it was there. The problem is that the window tag is attached to an envelope. You put your money in the envelope, write down your license plate number, and put it in the locked collection box. There’s even a matching number on both in case you didn’t write your license plate number on it. The tag was on his window, but the envelope was still attached.

I calmly explained this to him, and asked for the $8 fee. He swore at me, called me names, threatened me. I asked him if there was someone else I could talk to. That really set him off. He started screaming at me, hitting his own truck, and threatening to call the cops and sue me. I tried my best to keep him calm, then decided to give him some cool down time. I left and started going to the other camp sites, planning on returning on my way out and maybe even catch someone more sober and reasonable.

However, a few minutes later I received a call on my radio. A camper had called 911 to report that a ranger was harassing and threatening them. They wanted me to go talk to him and see what was going on.

This is a unique form of irony.

Seeing the conflict of interests and not wanting to escalate the situation, I asked if a county deputy was really available. One was, and he was there within minutes. I met them both back at the campsite where I found the man yelling at the deputy. I calmly explained that if he just wanted to pay his $8 we would leave and he could enjoy the rest of the night.

Long story short, he spent the night in jail and received over $100 in fines.

TRAVEL FROM GHANA TO KENYA WITH ME | MY SURPRISING FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF NAIROBI

A nice little vacation for all youse guys.

Have you ever had a premonition that saved your life?

My wife quite possibly saved our lives. We were on our last vacation, a two-week road trip through some western states. At her insistence I booked two nights on the Las Vegas strip. (I love playing poker but I can’t stand Las Vegas. I would have preferred an extra night in Laughlin or at an Indian casino). The moment we arrived, she was on edge. I did all right, and even cashed in a small sit-and-go Hold-Em tournament.

When I got back to the room, she said we are leaving first thing in the morning. We had reserved a nice room on the strip for Thursday and Friday nights, and this was still Thursday. We had already toured the renovations going on “Downtown” and planned to spend Friday on the strip. There was some huge music festival going on Friday night we wanted to check out. Nope. WE. ARE. LEAVING.

Yes, Dear. Some things shall not be questioned. Change some reservations, whatever. Reminder to self: I don’t even like Vegas. Her idea to go there, and her idea to LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW. Yes, Dear.

We had just settled in to a Motel 6 in Bakersfield CA when Stephen Paddock opened fire at that music festival on the Vegas strip.

What happened in a courtroom that gave the judge a belly laugh you will never forget?

Didn’t give the judge a laugh but gave others in the court room one. My older cousin was a senior in high school and her social problems class was on a field trip to the local court. We lived in a small county, so cases ranged from traffic tickets to drug offenses to child support cases before one judge.

This was before DNA testing. A 17 yo mother was on the stand testifying that she had only been with one guy and he denied that he was the father. The judge called the one she named as the father and he admitted he had had sex with her, but so had his two friends. The judge believed the mother. He called each of the guy’s friends and they testified that they had each had sex with her and they were winking at each other as if they were fooling everyone. The teen mother was upset but was quiet. The judge looked at the three friends and ruled that each would pay the full amount of child support and he would see them in a month and maybe by then they would have figured out which one was the father before he ruled if all three would pay back child support.

Bet the three friends had an interesting conversation outside the parking lot

Bobby Asks Tony To Give Him Better Jobs – The Sopranos HD

The evolution of Bobby’s character was one of my favorite details from The Sopranos. From a shy, bumbling guy Tony ridiculed and dismissed into Tony’s most trusted soldier.

Have you ever told a customer “no” when they asked to see the manager?

Yes, because I was the manager when this incident occurred.

For all of an hour and a half or so, I had to fill in as a temp for the Domino’s store I worked at.

Why my manager picked me, a kid who had just turned 18, to be her fill-in is beyond me, but I guess she trusted me more than I thought she did.

Apparently, she had a doctor’s appointment to attend to and the assistant manager was unable to clock in early, so it was up to me to hold down the fort.

Even under unusual circumstances, I was determined to perform well in my new role, even if it was only temporary.

I did perfectly fine for the first hour, as business was going well as usual.

That was, until some kid wearing a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) blues uniform walked in and told me that he had somehow ‘earned’ some free cookie brownies.

The uniform looked similar to Air Force blues, but without the ribbons, the lapels, and the rank.

And how did the kid supposedly earn free brownies?

According to him, he was walking down the street when one of the delivery drivers pulled up next to him and told him he could have some free brownies solely because he was wearing the uniform and the driver wanted to thank him for his “service to the community.”

I knew that was bullshit immediately because I personally knew all the drivers on shift, and none of them would ever hand out free brownies to anyone, no matter who it was.

And they definitely weren’t going to pull up to some kid and tell him to walk to the store for some free brownies.

That sounds really stupid, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I told the kid he had to pay for whatever he wanted or he wasn’t getting anything.

With that, the kid left. Or so I thought.

A couple of minutes later, his mom walked in and demanded that I give her son his free brownies because of his service to the community or whatever.

There was no way in hell I was going to be a pushover for some entitled boy scout and his even more entitled Karen of a mother.

I told her that I wasn’t going to just give anything out for free and that they would have to pay for what they order, or else they had to leave the store.

The lady didn’t seem very pleased with that, so she told me to ‘get’ my manager so that she could further ‘negotiate’ or really just demand.

I told her no because I was the manager at the time, and I then told her to leave or else I would have to call the cops and whoever else I saw fit.

That scared away the mom and her kid, so they left the store, and I told them to have a nice day.

I was shocked to see that two people could have such an irrational sense of entitlement, and it still bothers me that people like them are out there.

TSMC has a large number of resignations;6,000 Tsinghua scientists defect to Huawei

TSMC has a large number of resignations; 6,000 Tsinghua scientists defect to Huawei; Ren Zhengfei personally receives Chinese students.

What are some lesser known facts about Canada?

Originally Answered: What are some lesser known facts about canada?

I’m from a small town called Caraquet, New-Brunswickand I’ve moved to Australia about a year ago.

These are a few lesser known facts about Canada:

1. Canada is the World’s Most Educated Country: over half its residents have college degrees.

2. Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world’s lakes combined.

3. Canada consumes more macaroni and cheese than any other nation in the world. (I’m really missing good old Kraft Dinner)

4. I never locked my house door until I moved to Australia.

5. I also never locked my car door and kept a spare key under the rug, in case someone needed it.

6. I’ve never had anything stolen until I moved to the Gold Coast.

7. Not everyone loves Hockey, but we do respect the sport.

8. Gay marriage

was officially legalized in 2005.

9. The quality of the tap water is often better than bottled water. In my family home, we use an underground well.

10. If you send a letter to ”Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0.” You will get a response from Santa.

11. We have an organisation called “Operation Red Nose

”, where volunteers drive drunk people home during the holiday season, for free. My home town doesn’t have taxis, buses, or Uber.

12. Mc Donalds sells Poutine, and it’s awesome.

13. Health Care is free, you really can just walk in and out of a hospital without ever seeing a bill.

14. We call beanies, tuques.

15. We have a strategic maple syrup reserve.

16. My province, New-Brunswick, is completely bilingual . You can get served in English or French. Everything has to be bilingual as well, including road signs, menus, food labels, etc…

17. Yes, a moose is huge.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed these facts!

Have you ever walked into a room and seen something that made you go, “Nope,” and turn 180 degrees and walk away? What was it?

A few years ago, my wife heard what sounded like an animal scratching around in our attic. I figured a squirrel must have made its way inside. The attic access is a little 3 foot by 4 foot opening in the ceiling of one of the closets. It’s a pain to get up there, but I know even a single squirrel can cause a lot of damage so I got the ladder and a flashlight with Intention of trying to chase it out the vent up there.

i climbed up through the opening and turned the flashlight on to see what was happening and I saw about 50 pairs of bat eyes reflecting back at me. I turned the flashlight off, slowly climbed back down the ladder pulling the door cover closed behind me.

My wife, anxiously awaiting my return asked if I had gotten rid of it already. I just said nope and that I wasn’t going back up there.

it ended up being a whole ordeal to get rid of them. They are a protected species, so you can’t have them exterminated. You have the house sealed off to prevent the bats from getting, but they leave a hatch the bats can get out through. Once they all leave in the evening to eat, you are good. Only problem was, it was their mating season so we were told if we sealed the house now, when the mothers left to eat, they would not be able to return to care for their babies, so we had to wait two months until the babies were old enough to go feed on their own.

it was a long two months hearing them moving around up there. Fortunately, homeowners insurance did pay for the removal and cleanup afterwards.

I’ll never forget all of those eyes staring at me though. Still gives me chills.

Buckle Up: This White House MISTAKE Will Hurt Americans

The European Union’s leader has proposed the idea of a Global Digital ID, which would allow governments worldwide to monitor their citizens. While it’s framed as “keeping track,” it raises concerns about potential surveillance and control. The plan involves countries contributing funds to establish this system, overseen by the United Nations. Critics liken it to dystopian scenarios, like the “Mark of the Beast” from religious texts, as it could enable extensive tracking, restricting access to basic necessities for those with dissenting opinions or unvaccinated individuals.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

My mate Graham, almost 70 years old. He came out of his house one day and 3 young guys are lounging against his BMW car parked in the street. “Come on guys, off the car, it’s mine”.

Reply was, “ huh, don’t have to, we can do as we want!”

“Oh, so it’s OK for everyone to do what they want? Regardless of the consequences?” “ Really?”. The guy said “Yes!”

Graham hit him with a left hook that sent the guy flying and bleeding into the road. He turned to the others and said, “Hey, this is great, being able to do whatever I want, with no consequences!” They ran for it and the other one picked himself up off the road and followed them.

The moral of the story: don’t fuck with an Ex British Para and ex French Foreign Legionaire, even if he is almost 70!

Oliver Anthony Slams High Ticket Prices, Cancels Show

I just like this guy more and more as I see how he deals with his success. In a world of so many bad leaders and people who are driven by money alone, it’s so refreshing seeing someone who won’t bend his morals to greed.

Stay strong!

When did you realize your parent was a total badass?

When he backed down an abusive teacher without saying a single word.

I was in second grade, and my teacher was haranguing me while I waited for my father to pick me up at the office. He walked in, saw me sitting there, bloody and clothes torn, and simply looked at her. She started, then began to shrilly list my supposed faults. Silence, and the “Dad stare”. She started spouting justifications. More silence and one eyebrow raised. She burst into tears and bolted from the room…

US/EU pressure UAE in effort to pick apart BRICS

This just further shows how desperate the US and collective West are getting, their military industrial complex along with the USD’s hegemony are in decline and they know it.

As of September 2023, Chinese Huawei used SK hynix’s chip, South Korean semiconductor maker, for its new phone “mate 60 pro”. Is the South Korean company, SK hynix, still giving the advanced chips to the Chinese Huawei in China despite the sanctions?

It is stuff like this that kind of annoys and amuses me because it shows that people that are commenting don’t even have a basic idea of how a cell phone works.

SK Hynix is a manufacturer of DRAM and flash memory chips. DRAM is basically a commodity market, and it would have likely been impossible for SK Hynix to prevent Huawei from using its DRAM even it it wanted to. The thing about DRAM is that is it basically interchangeable with other DRAM and flash memory. So unlike other chips which have to be custom designed, Huawei can replace those with local chips if it wanted to.

One thing that kind of really makes my blood boil is that the US seems intent on preventing China from manufacturing top of the line cell phones. Okay, if the US wanted to restrict China from getting atom bomb secrets or manufacturing better missiles, I can sort of deal with that.

But we are talking about a consumer cell phone, and if China can’t manufacture better cell phones then I don’t know what the US expects China to do.

This is hard to watch…

That chick wouldn’t be so bad looking if she didn’t turn herself into a clownish monster.

In basic training, have you ever witnessed a recruit with serious martial arts skills take on a drill sergeant in a fight?

Absolutely. There was this kid (literally, he was 17) who was pretty much the model recruit. He never complained; did what he was told; helped the rest of us out; and was physically in great shape.

He’d been in competitive martial arts for years. Not YMCA level, but “has to travel to Japan for belt tests,” skilled. (He never, ever bragged about it.)

The only time I can remember him getting yelled at was when we were in the sand pit learning basic unarmed self defense. (The super cheesy kind that makes you think you’re in a World War II training film. I think that they have dramatically improved that portion of the training now.)

The Private was decidedly and obviously half-assing it. Not arrogantly, more like bored out of his skull.

One of the drill sergeants came over and was doing his motivation screaming thing and asked him, “You think you don’t need this? Are you too good for this?” and other variations on the theme.

Pvt Yarberry replied, again, matter-of-factly and not boastfully, that no, he did not actually need that training.

It went about how you’re imagining it.

The only thing that saved him was that he had been such a model recruit. So the drill sergeant eventually says, “Show me.”

Mind you, this was not an angry fight. They assumed ready stances and this recruit did a series of moves that were very fast and almost gentle? Honestly, I can’t really describe what he did because it was so fast. The drill sergeant was basically laid onto the ground in a control position where he could not do anything about it. Nobody tried to hit anybody, but it was clear that the 17 year-old kid could put this 30 something year-old experienced soldier in the pretty muc…

German deindustrialization accelerates

“I spent a lot of time in Germany. I cannot believe that the Germans I knew would follow the Ukrainian mission over the cliff like lemmings.”

Doom and Gloom

On August 24th, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced partial suspension of Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines due to low semiconductor demand. Similar challenges are affecting South Korean semiconductor factories due to the loss of a crucial customer, China. South Korean Chip Factories Announce Shutdown of Lithography Machines Due to Lack of Chinese Orders!

This nightmare will hit South Korea in two steps.

Loss of China market as its chip manufacturers enhance technology and ramp up capacity.
Reduction of global prices as China manufacturers enter the international market in 2024 and that would affect the profit of the South Korea chip companies.

The nightmare for South Korean chip companies is only starting. It is too late to reverse the situation.

Huawei is capable of self-reliance, and the US plan to sanction Huawei has failed, but they will not resign themselves to failure, and there will be more madness in the future. ake trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again . . . till their doom. that is the logic of the American imperialism over in dealing with the rival companys, and they will never go against this logic.

Over the weekend, the United States and South Korea agreed to a five-year deal to increase the military payments, subject to legislative approval in both capitals. Under the agreement, South Korea will pay $1 billion this year, 13.9 percent more than its annual payments in 2019 and 2020, officials said on Wednesday.

IMO there is little chance of a rapprochement between China and SK until the American Pie and Yankee Doodle singer is gone. His hardline towards China will cost not only his job but has affected the future of many South Korea.

What a jerk SK has elected for the Blue House? Now they understand the price they have to pay for Yankee Doodle democracy as per USA.

I Left USA and Moved To Thailand. Why I’ll NEVER Go Back.

As a korean-american who just came back to the US after 3 months stay in Bangkok, I couldn’t agree more with what you said. My quality of life escalated significantly when I was in Thailand. I miss Thailand so much haha.

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

I’m a truck driver. One day, when I was waiting in line to load at a coffee warehouse, the driver behind me who was an owner-operator asked if he could load before me because he was in a hurry to get to his delivery on time. So I let him pass in front. He then told me that he’d just bought another truck and asked me if I would drive it. He offered me much more money than my current employer, so I accepted. That was 15 years ago. He now has a fleet of 50 semi-trailer trucks and I’m still working for him.

Some Chinese say that all companies which supported the US tech sanctions against Huawei and China are valid targets now; how do western tech companies feel about this?

Terrified.

They need the Chinese market to have the revenues to do research and stay relevant.

If they lose the Chinese market they will end up as laggers in technology rather than leaders.

Micron is already projected to lose 50% revenues. And YMTC hasn’t even started production with their second much larger fab yet. That is due to come online next year.

So Micron can expect to lose the entire Chinese market.

Micron will also lose the world market outside of the US, EU, Japan, lapdogs, etc. As those Chinese chips are going to be going into Chinese products shipper worldwide.

Same for Nvidia, Intel, etc. SMIC is building 4 more fabs. As they come online and start making chips, they will displace US, EU, and Japanese chip makers. And we are talking about all types of chips. Everything from power chips to FPGAs to GPUs to CPUs to DRAM to ASICs for everything.

As BCG’s (Boston Consulting Group) paper said. Western companies would lose their leadership position. They thought it would happen in 30 years…I laughed when I read that. Clearly they didn’t understand Chinese progress in tech.

He who controls the market controls the industry.

Hi-Rez – Rich Men North Of Richmond (Rap Remix) – Reaction

This is new and noteworthy.

After successful G20 with India hogging the limelight, does now Xi Jinping realise that his sulking and keeping away from G20 meet is proven a lost opportunity and has caused much more harm to long term interests of China and Chinese people?

During the G20, Xi Jingping spent his time meeting Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela and setting up a Oil Deal to assure the energy security of his nation

He later toured the provinces of China to supervise the Agricultural Areas and talk to the people about Health Insurance and renewed improvements in Agrarian financing

In short he was doing what a Leader should be doing

Visiting his people and discussing their problems and finding solutions

While people like Sunak , Ursula, Scholz and Biden and Macron paraded around pompously, blissfully ignoring the problems their people face

Xi Jingping is doing what’s best for China and the Chinese people

He sent Li Qiang to Delhi as a representative believing that it was enough, having lost any real respect for the alliance and feeling the alliance to be a lackey group for the G7

As for PM Modi stealing the limelight

Barely 24 hours later Bidens speech in Vietnam included

I met with the Indian PM, Nare..Nare.. Modi and they didn’t allow a Q & A, those Indians. I had a good talk on Human Rights concerns and the importance of a Civil society and raised several pertinent questions

Meaning Modi has been TOLD to respect human rights and follow a Civil Society

Biden doesn’t tell this to Britain or Japan does he?

Trudeau openly said

Actions of a few don’t represent Canada. Canada respects freedom of speech and peaceful protests and believes it fosters progress

Any idea what he is referring to?

The Farmers protests of course. A Protest that forced Modi to finally back track his farm laws.

Now what has India gained from the Summit?

It’s over now

The AU are happy but that’s it. They go back home now and they need GRAIN and RAILWAYS and JOBS and TRADE

India can’t give them any of these

US can’t give them any of these except Bradleys and Howitzers and sermons on Democracy

Only China and Russia can give them all of these

300,000 Tonnes Grain Cargo from Russia is worth 500 G20 Summits

$ 16 Billion waiver of interest for 3 years from China and a new Hydro power plant is worth 500 G20 Summits

The AU had their Pindi Chole, Lal Maas etc and now they are gone

They have trouble, they will call Putin and Xi

They won’t call Modi or even remember him unless they meet him again in Rio in 2024

Same for Saudi Arabia

MBS is on a State Visit

He will persuade India to buy Saudi Oil and ask for investment into Refining and Petrochemicals

India will obviously delay and drag and eventually say no

India has inked 3500 MOUs in the past 4 years or so and only 19 have managed to gain ground and proceed to operations

MBS needs Russia for his OPEC Solidarity and China to modernize Saudi Arabia and even maybe to build a nuclear power plant

Once he leaves India, he forgets Modi until he meets him in Kazan in 2024 or Rio in 2024

LEVERAGE!!!!

That’s what China holds and Russia and even the US

No G20 summit is needed to enforce that

India holds near zero leverage today

A Thousand G20 summits and Pindi Chole and Laser Shows and Five Star pandering can’t advance Indias leverage by 1%

How the U.S. is preparing for conflict in Asia: Hynes

The U.S, is building power by creating a dense network of military alliances among Asian countries, says Phill Hynes, a top geopolitical analyst based in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, here’s the answer to the puzzle of why the media tells Australians that an invasion is imminent, but their submarines won’t be ready until the 2040s.

Mississippi Delta Tamales

Ingredients

Filling

6 to 8 pounds boneless meat (pork shoulder, chuck roast or chicken)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Wrappers

Corn husks

Corn Meal Dough

8 cups yellow corn meal or masa mix (available in most grocery stores)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 2/3 cups lard or vegetable shortening
6 to 8 cups warm meat broth (from cooking the meat)

Instructions

Filling: Cut meat into large chunks and place in a large, heavy pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until meat is very tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove meat and reserve cooking liquid.
When meat is cool enough to handle, remove and discard any skin and large chunks of fat. Shred or dice meat into small pieces. There should be about 14 to 16 cups of meat.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Stir in chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder and cumin. Add meat and stir to coat with oil and spices. Cook, stirring often, until meat is thoroughly heated, 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside.
Wrappers: While meat is cooking, soak husks in a large bowl of very warm water, until softened and pliable, about 2 hours. Gently separate husks into single leaves, trying not to tear them. Wash off any dust and discard any corn silks. Keep any shucks that split to the side, since two small pieces can be overlapped and used as one.
Corn Meal Dough: Stir corn meal, baking powder, salt and lard together in a large bowl until well blended. Gradually stir in enough warm meat broth to make soft, spongy dough the consistency of thick mashed potatoes. The dough should be quite moist, but not wet. Cover with a damp cloth.
To assemble the tamales, remove a corn husk from water and pat it dry. Lay husk on a work surface. Spread about 1/4 cup of the dough in an even layer across the wide end of husk to within 1 inch of edges. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture in a line down the center of dough. Roll husk so that dough surrounds filling and forms a cylinder or package. Fold bottom under to close. Place tamales in a single layer on a baking sheet. Repeat until all dough and filling is used.
Stand tamales upright, closed side down, in a large pot. Place enough tamales in the pot so that they do not fall over or unroll. Carefully fill pot with enough water to come just to the top of the tamales, trying not to pour water directly into the tamales. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily and cleanly, about 1 hour.
If you prefer to steam tamales, stand tamales upright, closed side down, in a large steamer basket. Cover with a damp towel or additional husks. Steam tamales over simmering water until dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily and cleanly, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
Serve tamales warm, in their husks. Remove husks to eat.

Yield: 7 to 8 dozen

American cities are collapsing and democrats are in PANIC mode

Should entire families be deported to solve the migrant crisis? That is what Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy promised to do if elected. This would bring about a Fourteenth Amendment question.

Ramaswamy says that there are “legally contested questions under the 14th Amendment.” This comes as progressive politicians are showing real signs of fear over illegal immigration.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says that the city is facing a “financial tsunami” because of it and predicted that the rapid influx of immigrants will destroy the city that he knows and loves. What is the solution besides burdening the already-burdened U.S. taxpayer?

What environmental disasters were caused by humans?

An apartment complex in the city of Kramatorsk Ukraine was said to be cursed.

In 1980, an 18-year-old woman living in apartment 85 suddenly died. Two years later, the girl’s 16-year-old brother died, followed by their mother. They had all died of Leukaemia, but doctors couldn’t find the root cause of it.

Then in 1989, another family took up residence in apartment 85. A father and his two sons had been living there less then a year when both sons fell ill. Rumour began to spread around the city that the apartment was cursed when it turned out the two boys also had leukaemia.

With the apartments history the father knew something other than a curse was the problem. When one of his two sick sons dies he pushed to have to apartment inspected.

In the late 70s workers lost a radiation level gauge in the Karanksy Quarry located in the city. Workers spent a week looking for it, but it never turned up. No more thought was given to the level gauge, and the rocks from the quarry were then used in the construction of apartment 85.

When inspectors came out to check for high levels of radiation they found it radiating from a wall along side one of the kid’s beds. They knocked the wall and found a capsule of Caesium-137 that had broken out of the level gauge. By a stroke of poor bad luck for two families the capsule ended up becoming a part of their apartment. 17 other residents living in the apartment block received large doses of radiation.

Abduction of Proserpina made in marble by the renowned Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, between 1621 and 1622.

Bernini’s “The Abduction of Proserpina” is a mesmerizing sculpture that captures the dramatic moment from Roman mythology when Pluto, the god of the underworld, seizes Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres, to make her his queen. Completed in 1622, this Baroque masterpiece portrays the intense emotions of the characters: Pluto’s powerful grasp and Proserpina’s anguish. The work showcases Bernini’s skill in sculpting marble to convey a sense of motion and realism, making it a celebrated piece in art history and a symbol of Baroque sculpture’s dynamism and emotional depth.

It currently resides in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

China’s upcoming tech dividend

This year, the Chinese economy has been growing more slowly than expected because of the ongoing real estate crisis, and trade decoupling with the G7 countries led by the US.

But the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro offers a bright spot for Chinese spending. Up until US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s China trip, it looked like most Chinese were going to stop spending until things became clearer for the economy. Most Chinese had treated their purchased homes as a major asset and because real estate prices were deflating, they cut back on their spending.

No more.

The US’s demands for Huawei to stop spending on research and development have hit a very nationalist raw nerve among the Chinese. (Huawei spends about US$22B on R&D annually.) Many feel that this is an insult not just to Huawei, but to China, the nation. How do they push back? By buying the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, which sells at 6999 yuan each. Some estimates are that Huawei may sell 35–50M units by year-end.

The Mate 60 Pro is first in a line of tech products developed according to Chinese instead of western standards. While Chinese are careful about their spending, many feel that now is the time to stand up and support Chinese tech companies by buying their products, just as the tech companies are struggling hard for their survival. Some Chinese will do this even though their home values are declining.

This means that it will likewise be a very hard time for foreign tech companies in China such as Apple. Apple has tried very hard to steer clear of the US-China tech dispute and up until now, it has succeeded. At the end of the day though, it is a US tech company which will side with the US government in a crisis.

The friend and enemy lines are being drawn more clearly.

This also means that as the US tries to build new supply chains outside China, in India and Vietnam, they cannot count on support from Chinese suppliers helping to make the switch. The management of some of these suppliers will decide that supporting the Chinese home team is more important than making money.

Some remarkable stories are coming out about the development of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro. Many Chinese component suppliers came together voluntarily, forming cooperative teams across companies which normally were competing against each other. Engineers spent all-nighters in their competitors’ offices developing and testing equipment. Many gave up going home. Some Taiwanese companies in the PRC also joined in. They did this because they felt that the Chinese tech industry was in a life-and-death struggle to survive, and they needed to come up with new standards, components and products which were completely free of western patent claims. This was not normal business, and they needed to fight and survive and set aside the normal profit motive for the time being.

Just to cite one example, they were able to create a 5G wireless modem which went around Qualcomm’s very broad patent claims. Apple has spent the past six years trying to do this, and even buying a business unit from Intel, but so far has failed.

The team around Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro did it in about a year and a half.

Some day, this would make a great movie story.

Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North of Richmond🔥 | WAKE UP AMERICAN

What’s the most embarrassing thing your kid has ever said?

When my daughter was 4 we went into a store. There was a man there that was physically handicapped. His legs were skinny and twisted and he was walking with crutches.

My daughter walked up to him (very confidently) and asked “what’s wrong with your legs?” I wanted to crawl under a rock!!

This man was absolutely AMAZING with her! He looked down at her, smiled and said “God didn’t give me good legs like you have so he gave me these (indicating his crutches).” That was enough to satisfy her curiosity. He looked at me and smiled and said that I had a beautiful child.

He was pleased that she asked instead of being afraid of him because he was different.

I was truly embarrassed when she asked him her question but so amazed at his gracious answer.

This is what really-really AMAZED me

Raimondo was in China where she had hoped that China will return to buying Boeing jets
Given what they had done to Huawei, why would she even think that China would buy Boeing aircrafts
Boeing have forecasted that China would need 8,485 new passenger planes by 2041 and, traditionally Boeing had received half of the Chinese market
but no longer, other than a few immaterial amounts, China has essentially stopped purchasing Boeing aircrafts

this will now NOT change especially since Huawei had broken the American chip blockade
over one million American aerospace jobs (including related American supply chains) will be/was lost

On a side note, of the industrialized countries that I have travelled in, the United States have one of the poorest telecommunication infrastructure. Because it has locked out Chinese companies, the United States pay a heavier price primarily from non-American/non-Chinese suppliers for a poorer telecommunication product. I won’t discuss what will happen to American semiconductor industry. So Americans are paying what was done to Huawei in MANY ways.

The Americans are SILLY-fied people who are unable to learn and pivot to a better place.

Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home (REACTION)

What’s the most embarrassing thing your kid has ever said?

My daughter started talking quite early and was always very curious. Around the time she turned 2 she loved showing off her communication skills by naming things around her. “”Look mommy an apple! Do you like apples? I like apples too!”

It was very cute and she was usually quite loud which garnered much attention and lots of compliments.

On one fine day while driving home from picking up my teenage son from school, he was 13 at the time, she began identifying things around her.. cars, people, buses. Then I heard“”what’s that mommy?” I looked over and saw a dump truck so I responded “”that’s a truck sweetheart.”

Little one can’t pronounce the “t” sound and says ever so innocently “oh… fuck!”

Teenage son loses his mind with laughter which is all the little one needed to know she was on to something. Next thing we hear my 2 year old dropping F-bombs left and right from the back seat.

Wish the story ended there. Couple of weeks and lots of t-phonics practice sessions later, we are in the front yard of my brothers house, when lo and behold a trash truck is driving by. In front of about 15 family members and 5 other kids my sweet little toddler looks at the truck and says very loudly, you guessed it, “FUCK!”

No one was able to hold in their laughter much to my terrible embarrassment.

What’s the saddest thing about human conflict?

That eventually some people will be left to pick up the pieces.

Every battle has a clean up just like any other mess. Someone has to make the phone calls to let family know their son or daughter has died.

Someone has to remove the body from the battlefield. It is very common to see soldiers’ bodies with photos of their loved ones, like this Italian soldier in WWII with a picture of his baby in his hand.

The last thing he did was look at his child before he bled out.

These are the very real sacrifices people make. I grew up on military bases and have been to many military funerals. Families never truly move on from the death of a young loved one like this.

There are often inner conflicting feelings about encouraging their son to join the military (even amongst the most patriotic families). These things are all normal.

War is a terrible thing and anyone who tries to glamorize it as some video game has never truly endured it.

Merkules – Oliver Anthony ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix

Merk is a beast if you haven’t seen him before

Edit: go see more of his stuff.

What was the nicest thing someone has done for you that you kept quiet about? How did you repay them?

Few months ago I was visiting Colorado. While leaving for the airport to go back home, someone hit my rented Tesla from behind. The usual process happened where cops was called, complaint was filed, numbers exchanged, etc.

After this incident, I dropped by at a near-by pizza place with my son. I was tired and somewhat stressed about this accident. Although it wasn’t my car or my fault with the accident but I still felt bad for the person who owned this car. I had a great trip but the last few hours of my trip was something. My son and I walked into the pizza place. The manager asked, “How was your day?” I responded saying, “good” but my son said, “No it wasn’t good. Someone hit our car so my mom is feeling bad.”

We ordered and ate our pizza. I asked the waiter for the bill and he said the manager took care of it ($19). He said, he can sense the stress on my face and wanted me to go home peacefully. In addition, there were two other waiters who constantly checked on us while we were eating to see if we wanted anything else. One of the waiter also entertained my son while I had to take care of some phone calls. In addition, while talking to the waiter, I also learned that the business was suffering during Covid but they’re trying to rise up again slowly. I was so touched by their kindness and willingness to pay for my pizza even though their business was not in the best condition financially. I offered to pay my bill numerous times but the staff wouldn’t let me. So I left a $50 bill with the manager and asked him to split the tip between the three waiters. In addition, I also took the manager’s card and sent him a bottle of wine from my state for their kindness.

This was a small encounter but I’ll never forget this kindness. There are very few people in this world who will think about others even when they have their own problems to worry about. May God bless such people. I hope their business thrives.

Wow, so many upvotes. Thank you for reading this answer. I didn’t expect such a nice a response :).

Update:

Here is picture of the manager, Jonathon. I randomly dropped by Priti’s pizza in Denver and captured a picture of this kind soul 🙂

Apple pie musings

It appears obvious. You know, right? The United States is forcefully and intentionally forcing the world into two sides.

You can see this with what happened with Italy. Sure they love China and the BRI investment, but a unified surrogate EU must be beholding to the USA. So we are seeing things play out.

The USA is trying to secure Europe. But the major nations of Germany, and France are trying to shake off the American pre-defined role that they MUST act as they are for the USA while moving against it. So is Italy, trying to walk a thin line.

One face gives big fat wet kisses to the USA, and the other face, is one where Italy is in bed having gymnastic sex with China.

So…

Do not be confused by scant NGO / NED successes in Pakistan, Thailand, and Mongolia. Those are not going to amount to anything and are not going anywhere.

Asia is united with China.

Africa is united with China.

The Middle East is united with China.

South America is now in play. And it is quiet. Too quiet, but things are going on.

If anything is printed in the “news”, it will be long after the bodies are buried.

Meanwhile, the “news” media screeches and howls about war, and this and that. They are just noise makers designed to keep the rabble in line. Don’t listen to them. It’s all bullshit.

…

Meanwhile, I could use a nice apple pie ah la mode. With a nice hot fresh cup of coffee. That is what I could use right now. How about you all?

Today…

What is the most disturbing fact you know about psychology?

This is important because it could happen to anyone. How easy is it to control groups of people, and how far is a person willing to go to serve another?

I have worked alongside anti-cult groups and wrote an article exposing one of the biggest cults in the world. Before I got involved in researching new religious movements I had a very narrow-minded view of the kind of people that join cults, but the reality was much different.

When I first joined the group I was researching I was recruited by a doctor, and a respected one who was also an author. She was smart and attractive and when we first talked, she had a very warm personality, not what you would expect from a group that believed Aliens had come to Earth to give their leader the secrets to life.

As my research continued, I began to meet similar intelligent people who where working high end jobs, and I even met a psychologist who was a member of this group.

Imagine volunteering to be buried alive. This was one of the initiations into the upper levels of the group. At this stage, the cult has broken down so much you are willing to climb into a hole to be buried alive.

So how do smart intelligent people get to that point? Well, it starts gradually.

When you join these groups, you will be subjected to what you would call love bombing, and it comes in many forms, and it happens with every cult. This is the time you start making connections with other like-minded people in the group. If it’s a large cult, then these groups would be split up all around the world, and each of these groups would have an instigator.

Some people do well in these cults, and they always have similar personality traits as their leader, such as narcissism. These are the people that will start breaking you down. One example of this would be Keith Raniere’s, NXIVM cult, and the actress Alison Mack who was his instigator and helped control the girls in the group.

Like I said, the abuse starts gradually, and the abuse comes in the form of it being beneficial to you. It could be minor things like what you eat. They like to control what you eat because the fewer nutrients and calories you get from food makes you lethargic, which makes you more malleable.

They start to control who you talk to, like family members and friends outside the group. This isolates you from people who will try to make you see reason, and when you are around only the people from the group, it becomes hard to question the red flags. They slowly strip you of who you are, and by the time the abuse is ramped up, you’re so desensitised to it you don’t even know you are being abused.

What does it feel like to be in this state? There’s always a mix of fear from the many veiled threats you will receive from the leader of the group, and this will come from the instigators as well. You will be in a constant state of brain fog, and everything that was once normal to you will be distorted by the group’s beliefs, and it will become unfamiliar and menacing.

I had a friend who was a notorious conspiracy theorist, and I didn’t like how his views would try to distort my reality into being something to be fearful of. But again, my friend was a prime example of how this form of group thinking can drastically distort one’s reality.

So how does a cult turn deadly? Someone willing to volunteer to be buried alive is know different then volunteering to die or even kill someone. It’s all dependent on the leaders ideology and how far he’s willing to take that control he has over his members. If you are willing to endanger yourself to the point of death, then you will be willing to anything.

Deadly cults like Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, Mansion and his family, Heavens gate, they all have one thing in common, a leader who was willing to cross that line. The people in these groups where all the same, brainwashed into believing death was the only option.

Tex-Mex Spaghetti

Ingredients

12 ounces spaghetti
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound chicken, cut into cubes, or 1 pound ground beef
1 large red onion, sliced and julienned
2 bell peppers, sliced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 (15 ounce) can fire-roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken or beef broth*
1/4 cup Half-and-Half
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
Fresh cilantro, for serving

* If using chicken, use chicken broth; if using ground beef, use beef broth.

Instructions

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook spaghetti according to package directions until al dente. Drain.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add chicken or ground beef and cook 6 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add onions and peppers and cook until tender, 4 minutes more.
Add chili powder, cumin, and oregano and stir until coated.
Add tomatoes and stir, then add chicken or beef broth and Half-and-Half.
Add cooked spaghetti to skillet and toss until coated, then add cheeses and stir until creamy.
Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Prep: 15 min | Cook: 10 min | Yield: 4 servings

Are American restaurant portions bigger than those in other countries?

The United States is famous (or infamous) for the size of its restaurant portions. Honestly, if you didn’t grow up in the United States (or Canada, which isn’t quite as bad, but knows about it) you will be astounded by how much food you get for a reasonable amount of money.

Travel YouTuber Mark Wolter talks about his experience in Chicago with their famous “deep dish” pizza. He’s from the midwest and travels a lot, and when he goes to Chicago’s most famous pizza places he orders a “personal” because even though he’s a fairly large fellow, he knows he can’t eat a small. On one of his trips, a European came in alone and ordered a “small”. Wolter tried to warn him, but the fellow insisted he had eaten small pizzas by himself lots of times and never had a problem. He couldn’t finish half of it.

Food is extremely cheap in the United States.

I completely disagree. But this is an American, who never left the USA and only knows what he knows. -MM

… because the production of much of it is either heavily subsidized or relies on agricultural produce that is heavily subsidized (like beef and alcohol, both the result cheap corn). The United States has 157 million hectares of arable land (only India comes close, and it has triple the population) and grows far more food than it can reasonably consume. There used to be a large export market for American food, but although it still exports, that export market is constrained. For example, since 1940, the U.S. population has doubled, but corn production has quintupled, and the vast majority of corn grown isn’t for human consumption, even when you take into account American favourites like corn flour, corn oil, and corn grits.

The bottom line is that food in the United States is cheap, plentiful and largely delicious. If you run a restaurant, food costs are the least of your worries – labour is a much more important expense, as is the cost of renting or buying land.

These are actual soft drink sizes sold in actual food retail establishments in the United States. Yes, at some 7-Eleven locations, they will sell you a 128 oz fountain drink. That’s 3.7 liters of soda.

The cost of the smaller 40 oz “Super Big Gulp”? Generally around $1.59 plus 25 cents for the cup. Once you buy the cup, refills are only $0.99.

Why does Mike Pompeo hate China so much?

Mike Pompeo doesn’t really hate China. He’ll tell you he only hates the government but not the people. He’ll even tell you how much he loves Chinese food. In 2019 a whistle blower has accused him of using his taxpayer-funded security detail to pick up Chinese food, walk his dog, and chauffeur his college age son to and from Union Station in Washington DC. How can he hate a country he hardly knows?

Interestingly, China wasn’t on Pompeo’s mind while he was the Republican congressman from Kansas’s 4th District. However all that changed when he became Donald Trump’s CIA Director and later Secretary of State. He had an advisor who hated China—Miles Maochun Yu. Now all he could think about is China.

Yu was born in China and had a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and taught at the US Naval Academy as a professor of modern China and military history. He was also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative think tank.

Whatever scraps of knowledge Mike Pompeo have of China come from his chief China policy planner and strategist, Miles Yu. Now he knows how to stick it to the Chinese government in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang.

The real question is why does Miles Yu hate China so much? We know that he has listened to Voice of America when growing up and supported the Tienanmen Square protests. In his social media account, he has considered sanctions against China as “a badge of honor.” He is also in favor of NATO expansion in Asia to contain China.

Phyllo Potato Knish

These unique appetizers with savory potato and onion filled phyllo pastries come with a small taste of comfort in every bite.

Prep: 30 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

18 (9 x 14 inch) sheets Athens Phyllo®Dough, thawed
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut in half
1 teaspoon + 1 pinch salt (for boiling potatoes)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 large egg + 2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

Thaw one roll of Phyllo, following thawing instructions on package. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place potatoes in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover and add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, and then simmer until tender. Drain, mash and set aside to cool.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add onions, cooking covered over medium heat until they become soft and begin to brown. Remove from heat to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, combine mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, onions and any remaining oil. Mix in one egg.
Unroll and cover Phyllo sheets with plastic wrap, then a slightly damp towel to prevent drying out.
Lay one sheet of Phyllo dough on a work surface and brush lightly with butter. Place a second sheet on top and brush with butter. Place one more sheet on top but do not butter. Cut layered Phyllo in half widthwise, so you have two stacks, each 9 x 7 inches. Place 1/3 cup filling on each stack toward the bottom (an ice cream scoop is perfect for this). Fold long sides over the filling and then roll from the bottom up, making two packets. Repeat the process with remaining 15 sheets of dough, yielding a total of 12 knishes. Place knishes seam side down on a baking sheet.
Whisk together egg yolks and milk. Brush the egg yolk mixture over the top and sides of each knish.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

What is your comfort Chinese dish or food that can bring you smiles, when it is needed?

Poached chicken aka white cut chicken.

It has its most famous manifestation as the Hainan chicken rice. However it is also a dish by itself.

At its best, it uses capon chicken ie castrated cocks.

The French has their version in Bresse chicken.

In fact some say only the Chinese and French appreciate the nuances of poached chicken.

The Chinese go further with condiments of shredded ginger, spring onion soy sauce. Tomato sauce or chili sauce should not go as condiments for this iconic dish, although some use them, because they overwhelm the flavour.

Biden’s Childish Move Brings Shame US Technology Policy On China Shattered!

The US has never had any experience in dealing with real smart enemies.

The experience it had during the Cold War with the USSR didn’t have technological and economic factors in it.

The war against China is of a different nature.

Had the US had smart politicians at all, the war shouldn’t have happened. It started with the cocky President Trump, the real estate man who had never had any political experience before, and then passed on to Biden with his Neocon cabinet, together with the support of equally prejudiced Congress.

https://youtu.be/lm-RE4cgzSk

Did NASA fake their first moon landing?

The most popular answer says that Neil Armstrong was a terrible actor, and that’s why the moon landings had to be done for real. Well, only the first part of that is true. Neil Armstrong was indeed a terrible actor. We know this from the Apollo 11 press conference:

Have you ever watched this recording?

The comments under it are truthfully hilarious:

These comments go on and on and on…

Seems quite a few people have been able to face the facts and overcome their cognitive dissonance.

That’s one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind.

Are gas driven cars cheaper to manufacture than electric cars? Or vice versa?

EVs have far fewer parts. There is much less mechanical complexity. The modern EV is a flat, skateboard-like platform, with some bodywork bolted on the top.

Assembly requires far fewer man hours what assembly there is can be automated more easily.

So to build an EV costs a manufacturer far less – especially if they re-tool their production line for EV-first assembly. No fuel tanks, pumps, hoses, transmission tunnels, gearboxes, spark plugs, carburettors, manifolds, exhausts, catalytic converters, clutches – all gone.

The only issue remaining is the traction battery. This component costs a lot to buy, and the supply of batteries is less than the demand. So we see EVs with slightly higher prices than their ICE equivalents.

If battery pack manufacture and supply was improved, the cost of building an EV would be significantly less than the equivalent ICE vehicle. Whether car makers will pass that on to customers, is another question.

UNSOLVED: The Creepiest TV Hack in History

THE MAX HEADROOM INCIDENT. November 22nd, 1987 was a pretty normal evening for television viewers in Chicago. That night, like every night, Dan Roan was covering sports on WGN-TV, Channel 9. Then suddenly, the signal was disrupted and screens across the city cut to black. Engineers at WGN-TV thought their transmitters were failing.

They weren’t.

A few seconds later, something crazy happened. WGN’s broadcast signal had been hijacked in what is now known as “The Max Headroom Incident”. WGN-TV was able to act quickly and get their signal back. But, Two hours later, it would happen again to another TV station and there was nothing they could do to stop it. What happens next remains one of the most bizarre unsolved crimes in television history.

What misconceptions did you have about China that you didn’t dispel until you went to China?

I was born in Singapore, and someone in my family can speak Chinese, so I have been able to speak Chinese since I was a child.

But it doesn’t mean I understand China. Actually, I knew nothing about China until I was 25 years old.

My knowledge of China comes from Hollywood movies, BBC news, Mediacorp, and BBS.
It was a place ruled by an evil regime, and people wore gray and blue clothes, rode bicycles, and wore the same hats .
They ate dog meat every day, and baby girls were killed. Anyone who says a bad word about the leader is gone the next day.The air is full of smog, food and powdered milk are poisonous.
All in all, a horrible place.

Until ten years ago, when social media became popular, I saw many real pictures and videos of China. While there is still a lot of bad content, there is a lot of good content coming out. However, I still think it’s a terrible place.

5 years ago, I went to China for the first time because of my work. I went to Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and even a village in Guizhou Province.

Within an hour of leaving the plane, I was shocked by this country, and for the next hundred hours, I was shocked by this country every hour.
I found that all my images of China in the past were wrong. This is a super-modern country, people are very orderly, and the degree of modernization of buildings, roads, and cities surpasses all countries I have been to, including European and American countries.

There are no gray-blue clothes, and no one eats dog meat.
The girls are very fashionable and beautiful. Their cops don’t even have guns and batons, and they rarely show up.
We can drink in the street and take a walk late at night. In the pub people talk about elections in America, stocks in London. The milk tea is very delicious, and all kinds of food are very delicious.

Chinese people don’t use cash or credit cards, they use QR codes for all payments. Made me look like a redneck on my first shopping trip.

In the following years, I traveled to China twice. 2020 break. I went there again this year, and China has undergone tremendous changes again.
On the streets of Shenzhen, at least half of the cars have been replaced with green license plates. That’s the massive EV revolution.

I don’t know how many words to describe the change in my view of China. Perhaps, only when people go to China can they experience all this.

Niger France Embassy Siege Moving To Forceful Removal, Macron To Deploy Troops To Protect Citizens

“I as a Tennesseean I stand with any country who seeks to throw off the yolk of neo-colonialism and freely rule themselves”

What do you do if your flight arrives at 5am in the morning and your hotel doesn’t allow check-in until 2pm?

Here’s what I did;

My flight arrived just after 5 and I got to the city centre around 7.

I went to the hotel and told them about it. They said they’d be happy to hold my luggage, and if I’d like a cup of coffee they could let me know soon if an earlier checkin might be possible.

It was, but still only at 12 noon. Would I like to visit the breakfast buffet? I’d need to pay, though. Yes, no problem, I’d love to.

Would I like to use and hang out by the pool? Yes! Especially as I could shower there as well.

At around 10, as my luggage was safe and sound I did some exploring around the neighborhood, found a supermarket, got a few bits and pieces (water, snacks, a little flask of booze, some soap nicer than hotel soap, toothpaste). I did some early gift and souvenir shopping, got t-shirts and stuff to take back home, had more coffee, and kinda bumbled around in an air-conditioned mall.

Found a food court and had an early lunch. My energy was fading.

Got back to the hotel around 11:30 expecting to wait, maybe with more coffee, and was greeted with “actually a room is ready for you. We just said 12 because we have to allow enough time for the cleaners. Would you like to go up now?” Oh yeah, I would.

Had a deliciously cool shower and flopped onto the bed for a huge nap, then woke up and headed out again. It worked out!

Why Does Biden Look SO DIFFERENT? TWO Bidens? A MASK!? We Finally Have The ANSWER

Beneath all that is actually Scrappy Doo trying to be a world leader.

Joe Biden is MULTIPLE PEOPLE.

What impact will the resumption of Boeing sales to China have on US-China relations?

It’s call de-risking!

I thought the U.S. is trying to de risk from China? Don’t sell them planes! They may copy it!

Oh they already have their own jets! Never mind keep your Boeing and sell it to your slaves and cronies. They will buy but give them 50 years to recover from the recession first!

You see China learns from the U.S. fast. You think only you needs de-risking? China needs to de risks from you too! Why should China buys from Boeing, who the. Makes money and fund its weapons subsidiaries to armed the U.S. to threaten and attack China? These are real tangible risk for China!

Remember you stop buying from DGI and Huawei because of de-risking or decoupling? Well China is de-risking and decoupling too! We learn from you!

Don’t do on to others what you don’t want them to do on to you! Learn this and leant it quick. China just stop 500 billion dollar jet planes purchase from Boeing since you de-risk we de-risk too!

P.S. apologies to the thousands of U.S. worker who lose their jobs!

Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Documentary, July 14 – 16, 2023

In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. 2 Kensington’s high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia’s problems.

Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia’s problem.

What is an act of kindness you witnessed today?

I was at a mall today, paying bills, having lunch and planning on a visit to the gym (pat on the back: I did all three!).

As I walked to the bank, I noticed an older man sitting by a water feature, dipping his fingers in the pool. This was unusual as people here in Thailand rarely do this in a mall.

When I passed him again 10 minutes later, he was standing in the middle of the walkway, searching to his left, then to his right, over and over, looking distressed.

I was about to approach him when a group of (uniformed and backpacked) high school students got to him first. They spoke to him respectfully and quickly realized that he didn’t know where he was or who should be with him.

One young man sprinted off to Information while the others tried to distract the old man to calm him.

A few moments later, a female security guard approached the group, having been notified by Information. She told the kids they could leave, but they refused, feeling they should stay and keep ‘grandfather’ happy.

An announcement was made, and within a few minutes, a very worried, middle-aged couple rushed over to the old man, and although they fussed at him for disappearing, they were clearly relieved.

The high school students were thanked, and then they respectfully took their leave.

The old man watched them go, turned to the couple and asked, “Where are the grandkids going?”

The couple smiled at him and gently said, “It’s ok, Father. They are going to school.”

The old man replied, “They are such good kids. You raised them well.”

China DESTROYS the Neocons as Biden’s WAR Fails w/ Brian Berletic

“I joined Brian Berletic of The New Atlas on his channel to discuss my trip to China and what I learned about this successful defeat of US and European war plans against it.”

This is really good. Listen to what they have to say. Learn something.

Is China economically done? Nike gone, Samsung gone, and Puma gone. Vietnam is rising as the new manufacturing giant of Asia and the US is thrilled. Is China done?

Typically Consumer Products dont leave a country unless it’s market has reduced so much that there is no point in continuing

Today China has at least 100 Local Brands of Shoes ranging from the 21.99 Yuan a pair Danis available in every Hypermarket to the 2199 Yuan a pair LiNing in select showrooms in Malla

They have taken over sponsorship of events and Athletes begin buying them over brands like Nike or Puma

PUMA or Nike have so much unsold inventory in China that they typically offer mass discounts during Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year

Nike was very arrogant when it has a two third market share in China

It priced itself in Dollars

It sold shoes without it’s “Air”

Now Nike and Puma simply can’t sustain operations because CHINA ISN’T BUYING THEM ANYMORE

Domestic Brands in China have surged with Nikes market falling from 53% in the Middle of 2014 to 8% by 2021 while Domestic Shoe Brands rose from 6% in 2014 to 61% in 2021

Plus Chinese Brands Anta and Nining rose their Asian market share from 0.8% in 2015 to 8.6% in 2023

And if Nike gets such a mauling, imagine Puma!!!!

Plus the Nike production in Vietnam is 66,000 Pairs a day Or 2 Million a month

In China?

It was 14.8 Million Pairs a month in 2016

Almost 7.5 times higher

As for Global Exports – Prices to make Nike Shoes have surged in China due to higher labor costs

The Chinese say

You pay us 110 Yuan a pair for our Factory make, pay our wholesellers 240 Yuan a pair and you sell retail for 1300 Yuan a pair

Sorry, either you pay us more or we start making Anta or Lining which pays us more and shares price more evenly

Vietnamese don’t

They need these numbers

Same with Samsung

Once Samsung dominated Consumer Electronics in China with a 31% market share and Mobiles with a nearly 18% market share

Today?

Samsung Electronics have a 3.2% market share on the mainland and their phones have near zero demand

It’s market forces purely that many brands are pulling out of China

China has domestic equivalents now at half the price and same quality

Why would China pay twice the money just for a brand?

Chinese are some of the most practical people on earth when it comes to money

Only a few foreign brands like the Iphone or Macbook hold a fascination for the Chinese even today

INTERVIEW: The odds are on a nuclear war

Retired US colonel Tony Schaffer says there’s an 80% chance of war between America and Russia in the next year. No one in power understands the Russian perspective.

US Commerce Secretary Raimondo said China is “uninvestable”; does China want investment money from the US?

China is taking a very close look at investment money now, and in many areas, US investment money is not attractive because:

US legal jurisdiction claims to be above the law of other nations, giving the US the ability to sanction other nations for US IP products and services within the nation’s own borders;
US investment money favors New York as the world’s capital market, and the role of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. The Chinese government wants to cut back on the US dollar as the only global reserve currency, which is why it is active in BRICS.
The US keeps its global economic dominance through the Big 4 accounting firms which act as gatekeepers to US equity markets for raising capital. Same goes for US investment banks.

For these reasons, China is looking at diversification, especially in the area of manufacturing.

In order to find an alternative to US investment money, China has built very strong trade and investment relations with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which were recently admitted to BRICS. Both are just starting to invest in Chinese projects in China and in their countries, and the new BRICS entrants of Egypt and Ethiopia.

This Middle East capital will flow into China and come without many of the strings which come with US investment capital.

This is part of China’s decoupling policy with the US.

24 Times Paulie Walnuts Had The Best Lines On “The Sopranos”

This is fun.

How dangerous is it to be a Night Stalker in the US Army?

This question strikes close to home, thanks for asking Luther.

I was in the 160th in the early days, May 83 – Mar 88. I ended my 20 year career and retired out of the 160th. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the ultimate, there is no unit like it and after being in the 160th there’s no other place to go. *Everybody* in the Night Stalkers is a volunteer; officer, warrant officer, NCO, enlisted. You are so highly trained and the mission so specialized that once in the unit the Army will leave you there until you ask to be reassigned or the unit leadership asks you to leave.

There were several training accidents in my day resulting in a lot of casualties. So many that at one time the big Army considered shutting the unit down. Understand that we were charting new territory, what we did in establishing new procedures and ways to operate had never been done before. Things improved tremendously, the unit got better, provided the SOF community with a capability it never had before. The big Army realized this, we persevered and now the 160th SOAR(A) is the best unit of its kind in the entire world. Hell, it’s the *only* unit of its kind. It was born out of the disaster that was Desert One, the Iran hostage rescue attempt in April, 1980.

Our “customers” are the best of the best and the Night Stalkers will not let them down. They are why the unit exists. To them you can be one of two things, an asset or a liability. Nobody wants to be the latter. No matter the weather, no matter the terrain, no matter the opposing force capability, the Night Stalkers will get them to the objective. And most importantly the Night Stalkers will get them out. Time on target plus or minus 30 seconds.

To completely define a Night Stalker you need to also consider the spouses, the families. They are just as dedicated and it can be said that their job is the hardest.

Yes, you could consider it dangerous, probably more so than any other aviation unit. The training is intense, you train like you fight. It gets the call and is exposed to hostile action more often than any other aviation unit so the risk is always there. Its aircraft are not “off the shelf”. They are tailored and modified for the unique mission and is the best you can get. Night Stalkers and its customers are involved in some operations that you don’t hear about and never will. Everybody is a volunteer. The unit personnel are the best of the best and you don’t become a Night Stalker until you successfully complete assessment and initial training. Certain personalities are drawn to this kind of unit. Those that will willingly risk their lives for their buddies, for their Country. To them, the risk is worth it. To the rest of the country, be proud and comforted knowing that those types of individuals exist.

And ya know what? If you were to pass a Night Stalker on the street you’d never know it. They don’t brag, they don’t boast, they don’t thump their chests. Ah, they might in jest amongst themselves or their customers, but never in public. They look and act like your typical guy or gal that lives next door to ya.

“To those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.”

Night Stalkers Don’t Quit!!

Roasted Blue Cheese Potato Salad

Get rid of that boring old potato salad recipe and change things up in the flavor department with this delicious Roasted Blue Cheese Potato Salad.

Prep: 10 min | Bake: 25 min | Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

Pam® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
1 yellow onion, sliced in 1/4 inch thick rounds
3 pounds baby red potatoes
3/4 cup diced celery
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray the bottom of a baking sheet generously with cooking spray.
Evenly spread out the onion slices and potatoes onto the baking sheet.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are browned and tender.
Chill immediately.
Next, dice the chilled onions and place them into a large bowl along with the chilled potatoes, celery, mayonnaise, blue cheese, basil, salt and pepper and mix until combined.
Serve chilled.

USA mad!

The USA is now into sanction inception! Say what? The USA will sanction already sanctioned companies for not respecting sanctions…

Again wut? Chinese companies that do business with another Chinese company, under US sanctions will get sanctions.

😀 😀 😀 😀

It’s like they think they can pass laws for other countries!

This Is WORSE Than China’s Treasury Dump!

China’s treasury dump has hit a 14-year low with $11 billion more bonds sold, but this is nothing compared to the tsunami of debt coming from America itself. Yellen is going to flood the economy with nearly $2 trillion dollars worth of treasuries which is putting enormous pressure on bond yields. While this might push the economy towards a recession, the real risk is accelerating towards a fiscal cliff which is unthinkable!

US Gov’t Begins Probe Into Huawei’s Breakthrough Chip

So here we go!

Huawei Technologies Co. roared back into the spotlight this past week after a Bloomberg report showed their new phone is powered by a 7nm processor, which is just a few years behind Apple’s iPhone. And who’s getting the jitters over this new development? Those very same Capitol Hill lawmakers, who, for the last several years, sanctioned not only Huawei but also China’s chip sector to stymie homegrown tech progress. That move didn’t pan out as planned.

Now, the US Commerce Department is panicking while it rushes to understand how sanctioned Huawei was able to design and manufacture a 7-nanometer processor for its new Mate 60 Pro smartphone. The whole purpose of blacklisting the company and many other Chinese tech firms was to restrict access to US technology to make these sorts of devices.

Mate 60 Pro went on sale while the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was on a trip to China last week. This is a sign that China is ‘thumbing their noses’ at the US for the wave of sanctions that have failed so far.

“We are working to obtain more information on the character and composition of the purported 7nm chip,” a Commerce spokesperson said in a statement.

According to Bloomberg. the Commerce Department will begin its own investigation into Huawei’s new phone. The Commerce Department’s Office of Export Enforcement will likely lead the study to determine if China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s Kirin 9000s chip, was made using US technology.

The Mate 60 Pro news is a sign that suggests President Xi Jinping’s efforts to develop technological self-sufficiency are working. The Bloomberg report on the phone showed it has “an unusually high proportion of Chinese parts … a sign of the country’s progress in developing domestic tech capabilities.”

Meanwhile, China has banned iPhone use by central government employees and has expanded it to to local governments and state-owned companies. Such curbs threaten multinationals like Apple, which derives 25% of its sales from China.

Tom Nunlist, an associate director from the Beijing-based consulting firm Trivium, said, “Chip tech export controls may have been Washington’s one and only ace in the tech war.”

Tex-Mex Street Tacos

Flavorfully-seasoned flank steak cooked to perfection, and then wrapped in soft warm corn tortillas.

Yield: 4 servings; 2 cups Pico de Gallo

Ingredients

Tacos

2 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup silver tequila
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 jalapeño pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Cotija cheese, crumbled
16 corn tortillas

Toppings

Minced white onion
Chopped cilantro

Optional Toppings

Cojita cheese
Lime wedges
Pico de gallo

Pico de Gallo

4 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
2 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
1 jalapeño pepper, ribs and seeds removed, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Tacos

Place tequila, soy sauce, garlic, lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, salt, black pepper, jalapeño pepper, shallot and cilantro in a freezer proof zip-top bag. Add flank steak. Seal and marinate 6 hours to overnight in the refrigerator.
Heat gas or charcoal grill to 400 degrees F.
Remove meat and discard marinade. Place steaks on oiled grates and grill for approximately 4-6 minutes on one side or until moisture startes to pool on the top and beef releases easily from the grates with tongs. Flip once, grilling on the other side for 4 to 6 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F with meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the steak. Transfer steaks to a platter and let rest for 3 minutes before slicing against the grain, into 1/4-inch thick strips.
Warm the tortillas for 30 seconds on each side in a dry skillet or on the grill.
Stack 2 tortillas, add beef, toppings and lime juice if desired.

Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo: Combine Pico de Gallo ingredients in mixing bowl and toss thoroughly.

Datura tales

When I was in my “lost in the wilderness” period in my life (After I joined MAJestic, but not yet trained at China Lake, I wandered about.) we were living on a farm in Yanciville, NC. (I don’t know if I spelled that name right.)

And there was a guy (named Holt) who introduced us to the Datura plant.

Datura is a genus of nine species of highly poisonous, vespertine–flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae).^[1] They are commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil’s trumpets^[2] (not to be confused with angel’s trumpets, which are placed in the closely related genus Brugmansia). Other English common names include moonflower, devil’s weed, and hell’s bells.

All species of Datura are extremely poisonous and potentially psychoactive, especially their seeds and flowers, which can cause respiratory depression, arrhythmias, fever, delirium, hallucinations, anticholinergic syndrome, psychosis, and even death if taken internally.^[3]

Due to their effects and symptoms, Datura species have occasionally been used not only as poisons, but also as hallucinogens by various groups throughout history.^[4][5]

Traditionally, their psychoactive administration has often been associated with witchcraft and sorcery or similar practices in many cultures, including the Western world.^[5][6][7] Certain common Datura species have also been used ritualistically as entheogens by some Native American groups.^[8][9]

Non-psychoactive use of plants in the genus is usually done for medicinal purposes, and the alkaloids present in some species have long been considered traditional medicines in both the New and Old Worlds due to the presence of the alkaloids scopolamine and atropine, which are also produced by Old World plants such as Hyoscyamus niger, Atropa belladonna, and Mandragora officinarum.

And we all tried this old fashioned remedy using this dangerous plant.

We soaked the roots of the plant in water for a week, and then drank the water.

I know it was terribly stupid, but we were young and in our 20’s and we believed Holt.

The effect was that every thing turned very blue and soft to us. We heard the twinkling of soft bells, and when we went to sleep later on the night, had very vivid dreams.

I would NEVER do that again. And I DO NOT suggest anyone duplicate our stupidity.

…

But the point of this story is that …

Well-meaning friends can put you in life threatening situations.
When you are in your 20s you can do very stupid things.
Whatever the experience was, it was not worth the risk of death.

And so, I ask everyone to heed my story and pay attention to what might transpire in your own lives.

Today…

Huawei unveiled their new smartphone, which is undeniably impressive and packed with numerous technological breakthroughs. How many of you are keeping tabs on this development, and what are your thoughts on Huawei’s achievements with this phone?

I am following it closely; the Mate 60 Pro is just the first step.

Over the next decade, I expect China to launch many new products based on new technologies. Most of these products will be launched in BRICS markets instead of the G7 nations.

The West is poised to feel what it is like to live in a a “banana republic.”

Granny’s Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding
with Vanilla Sauce

Ingredients

Bread Pudding

1 pound French bread, cubed
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bread Pudding

Combine bread and raisins in a large bowl.
Combine milk and 1/4 cup butter in a 1 quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted.
Pour milk mixture over bread; let stand for 10 minutes.
Stir in all remaining pudding ingredients. Pour into greased 1 1/2 quart casserole.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until set in center.

Vanilla Sauce

Combine all sauce ingredients except vanilla in 1-quart saucepan.Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil (5 to 8 minutes).
Stir in vanilla extract and walnuts*, if using.

To serve

Spoon warm pudding into individual dessert dishes; serve with sauce.
Store refrigerated.

Notes

I usually serve this without the walnuts, but sprinkle them over individual servings if anyone likes walnuts.

Niger Raises Uranium Price From €0.80/kg to €200/kg

Niger Raises Uranium Price From €0.80/kg to €200/kg – In a groundbreaking development that signals a seismic shift in the global resource market, Niger, a prominent player in the uranium industry, has reportedly taken a bold step towards securing fair compensation for its invaluable natural resource, uranium.

Multiple reports suggest that Niger has substantially increased the price of its uranium, skyrocketing it from a mere €0.80 per kilogram to €200 per kilogram.

This remarkable decision underscores a burgeoning determination among African nations to break free from historical imbalances and demand equitable remuneration for their vital contributions to the global economy.

According to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), Niger is the world’s seventh-largest uranium producer.

The radioactive metal is the most widely used fuel for nuclear energy. It is also utilised in cancer treatment, naval propulsion, and nuclear weapons.

Uranium prices increased slightly in the aftermath of the military coup in Niger that saw the ousting of President Mohamed Bazoum, with many analysts forecasting larger gains in the future. For instance, Ben Godwin, head of analysis at London-based Prism Political Risk Management, said that current events in Niger, which produces about 4 percent of the world’s uranium supply, could be critical to Europe.

“It is certainly a topic of great interest in the moment, particularly as uranium markets are very, very tight at the moment,” he said.

“Demand has been going up over the last few years, and this year, we’ve seen the uranium spot price go up by nearly 40 percent year to date.”

Does the US believe that China is powerless to attack the US mainland if it attacks China first?

The Pentagon understands the true and real abilities that China possess.

There is absolutely no questions regarding whether or not China can attack the United States mainland. The answer is affirmative. China has numerous weapon systems designed to acquire, target, stealthy evade and strike with great accuracy targets within the United States geographical landmass.

This has been proved. Demonstrated beyond any question of doubt, and is known to be stockpiled in enormous quantities.

The Pentagon believes that China is capable of destroying targets within the United States without problem or interference.

…

That being said. What does the “government” think?

I’m sure that President Biden has his own points of view…

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I’m sure that key and influential members of the US Senate has their ideas as well…

main qimg 31abfa22c7712659717f74bcead91cce

And since they will be the ones who will decide whether China shall use these weapons systems on American cities, perhaps we need to listen to what their thoughts are.

One way is to go though the people that elected them to office, and ask those people what they think.

main qimg c6c7f321775e90046cb10509a2a3b34d

But, you know, most are going through the “trials” of being an American. So perhaps the smarter thing to do is ask a more diverse cross section of the American population and see what they think…

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My guess is that these people would have a diverse opinion that would be heavily influenced by their social media of choice. So, if you want some real unbiased opinion of what Americans think, perhaps you should visit the more rural areas…

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And their opinion is “China ain’t gonna do shit. We’ll kick their ass!”.

And so, to answer the question…

Yes. China is fully capable of attacking the United States.
But Americans are not worried because…

IRAN’S VICTORY! China Takes Over Iran’s $2.7 Billion Strategic Project | Break US Sanctions!

The United States has long imposed a series of sanctions on Iran, including restricting oil exports and cutting Iran off from the international financial system.

This has greatly affected Iran’s economy and international status. In order to break through US sanctions, Iran has been working hard. Recently, Iran became a member of the BRICS as it wished.

In order to express its sincere desire to its Eastern partners, Iran signed an infrastructure agreement with China immediately after the BRICS summit ended. According to the agreement, Iran will invest at least US$2.7 billion in the expansion of the international airport, and Chinese companies have successfully become the sole builders of the project.

However, what is most concerning is that this time Iran’s $2.7 billion infrastructure cooperation with China will use a special payment method.

From an analysis point of view, the payment method reached by Iran and China not only effectively got rid of the sanctions of the United States, but may even accelerate the process of “de-dollarization”, which made President Biden feel very panicked.

So, what exactly happened?

https://youtu.be/XMoWgo4jUVQ

Why does Elon Musk blame a Los Angeles-based school for turning his transgender “woke” and making her hate him?

It’s kind of a crazy story.

One of those stories that seem almost surreal.

But essentially, Elon Musk sent his children to the finest schools money could buy. Only to discover, much to his chagrin, that such schools are rather progressive.

[1] Now his oldest son suddenly isn’t his son anymore, but his daughter. And she self-identifies as a “communist” and hates Musk for “being rich”.

main qimg 58e59ff552016cd136f71523a814d6b0

This is where the whole “campaign against wokeness” comes from, for Musk — it’s a personal vendetta of sorts. This is why he bought up Twitter in the first place; because ‘the woke’ have gotten to his own family, and he resents it. I’m not entirely sure it’s this school in particular that turned his child transgender, however — the school boasts several famous alumni, among them Jack Black. And Jack Black is pretty much the bloke-iest bloke to ever bloke around.

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Either way, Elon Musk decided that schools pushing woke narratives turned his own child against him, brainwashing her. He’s upset. I kind of get it. I would be, too. Change is scary. And when someone hates you to the point of legally petitioning for a name change (from Musk to Wilson, the last name of his ex-wife), that’s rather awful.

Anyway, it’s the school’s fault, not Musk’s. And now, the wider issue Musk identified, is the the type of policies peddled at schools and campuses in general. The left-wing ideologies, the gender-bending, the overly progressive attitude towards pretty much everything. I’ve never given much thuoight to what started Elon’s crusade against wokeness… but now we know the answer. Now we know what started it all.

The Death of Disney – Narrated by A.I David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough narrates the rise and fall of Mickey Mouse (A.I parody).

As a police officer, have you ever received an unusual ‘thank you’ for taking care of someone?

Around 6 months after I finished field training, I was working a night shift and was dispatched to an animal cruelty call. Arriving at the home,I was met by a woman and her 4 year old son,both in tears. In this line of work, you quickly become accustomed to dealing with upset people, it’s just a part of the job. I introduced myself to both of them and listened as the mother explained the situation to me.

Arriving home from work, she and her son had parked in the driveway and walked to the side door of the house where they found the little boy’s 4 month old kitten lying on the steps. The kitten had been skinned by someone, and carefully placed on the steps to be noticed immediately. Being a cat person myself, my heart ached for this little boy. Not only was his kitten dead, it had been killed on purpose by someone and carefully skinned then left on display for maximum shock value! I took a report on the incident and then I helped the little boy bury his dead kitten in his back yard, fashioning a little cross out of some sticks.

There were really no leads of any kind on who may have perpetrated this horrible crime. I had the 911 telecommunicator search for any similar crimes in the area that had been reported recently and had no luck. I knew that the chance of finding out who did this was slim to none, but promised the little boy that I would do everything in my power to find and punish those responsible. Before clearing the call, I gave the little fella a tour of my patrol car, letting him play with the lights and siren. I always kept some stickers and stuffed animals in my trunk for situations just like this, and I let him choose a couple stickers and an animal.

About two weeks later, my Lieutenant called me in to his office after shift briefing. On his desk was a thank you card and a picture of a kitten that had been colored for me. My Lieutenant explained that the lady and little boy from the animal cruelty call had visited the office and left the items for me earlier that afternoon. It warmed my heart to receive this heartfelt thanks from them.

Maybe a month or so later, I answered a call about someone throwing a kitten out of a car window. Arriving on that scene, I found the kitten on the side of the road amazingly uninjured. Normally on a call like this we would turn the animal over to animal control, but I had an idea. I put the kitten in my patrol car and drove towards the little boy’s house, hoping that since it was a Saturday I would find them at home. I was in luck! Before showing the kitten to the little boy, I spoke with his mother to make sure she was OK with it. She agreed, so I got the kitten out of the car and presented it to the little boy. His eyes were the size of dinner plates when he saw the kitten! Both mother and son thanked me profusely and I left knowing that I had made that little boy happy.

It is situations like this that made being a law enforcement officer one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

“Nuclear war between U.S. and Russia is inevitable” – Russian General | Redacted with Clayton Morris

Retired Major General Alexander Vladimirov, who wrote Russia’s three volume book called the ‘General Theory of War,’ says the moment war broke out in Ukraine is the moment that nuclear war with the West became inevitable.

Why is everyone talking about the G20 Summit?

The biggest point on every media outlet outside India is

WHY IS XI JINGPING BOYCOTTING THE G20?

That’s the only thing that has made the G20 summit newsworthy so far

In India locally – the G20 Summit isnt even the top news

It’s the renaming of India to BHARAT and Modi hiding slums with green posters or something like that

Every major outlet is only discussing that one thing on the G20

Why is Xi Jingping not attending?

Some say he has kidney ailments, Some say he fears CPC revolt, Some say Putin and he plan a major meeting and some others say something else

All of it nonsense of course

The G20 Summit will not make a splash unless it becomes G21 which means inclusion of the African Union

Li Qiang will support the proposal wholeheartedly as will Lavrov and i am sure so shall Modi

Then the G20 may draw some traction

Right now nobody is talking about it at all

Douglas Macgregor: What A Deep Penetration!

https://youtu.be/0ibt2nrh0IQ

What are the gayest things I should avoid?

According to my homophobic father?

There was an entire list.

Shorts. Invented by gay men so that they could check out men’s legs.
Football. All that back slapping and hugging when they score a goal. They’re all closet <insert homophobic slur here>.
Rugby. The scrum? Closet <insert homophobic slur here>, the lot of ‘em.
Art. They’re all <insert homophobic slur here>.
Actors. They’re all <insert homophobic slur here>. Putting on wigs and make-up – sends them “funny”.
Having female friends. Women are for looking at and for having sex with, not being friends with.
Wearing your watch on the right wrist. I never learned why.
Anything pink.
Looking at your nails “funny”. (This translated to holing your hand out, flat palm facing away from you, fingers straight).
Cooking.
Baking.
Garlic. The French use it a lot, and we all know the French are all <insert homophobic slur here>.
The French. A special rung of gay was reserved for the French (yes, the entire population) in his head. Apparently the women were gay and the men were gay. He never did elaborate as to how France has managed to still exist generation after generation. The “womanizing” Frenchman was a cover to hide his gayness.
Thai men. Yes. Every man from Thailand is a homosexual… apparently.
The Navy.
Glam Rock.
ABBA’s music. But only the one’s in which Bjorn sings lead in. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do you want to know what my homophobic father regarded as the most macho, manliest-man, hetero thing in the world?

Wrestling.

Wasn’t regarded as gay, but eating garlic and hanging around with French girls was.

The Sopranos ( best ending scene ) season 6

When Phil says “no more Butchie. No more of this” and the music starts rolling, you know the war is about to start.

What was the moment you cancelled the friendship with your best friend?

My best friend spent most weekends with my husband and I, we had lots of fun cooking, going places, etc. She would get a guy, get serious, then find some awful thing wrong with him, call him names, and had to change her number numerous times.

When I got pregnant she seemed off. I know she always wanted a family and was jealous. She gave me an IOU for an expensive breast pump and bragged about it at my shower. 5 months after, no breast pump, whatever. But not even a pair of socks to welcome my child into the world. Yest she got a mani- pedi every two weeks, like clockwork. I am the type of person who yses the same old bargain pur for years, never get manicures or pedicures, and i get my hair cut twice per year. I shop at goodwill for clothes. I summoned up the courage to tell her I felt insulted that she never acknowledged my child, not even a pair of socks. She went of the deep end and called me materialistic! And all sorts of swear words. I never spoke with her again. Been 16 years. I couldn’t wrap my head around what she said to me.

Crunchy Taco Wraps

This taco wrap gets its crunch from a tostada in the middle of delicious taco fillings; and of course wrapped up in a delicious Rhodes grilled flatbread.

Prep: 15 min | Bake: 15 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

12 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed
6 tostada shells
1 pound lean ground beef
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon garlic
1 jar nacho cheese or Queso cheese dip
1 cup sour cream (optional)
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend

Instructions

Lightly spray counter or table with nonstick spray. Combine two dinner rolls and roll into an 8 inch circle. Repeat with remaining rolls. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and let rest.
In a large skillet or griddle, over medium-high heat, brown ground beef and. Stir in taco seasoning, water and garlic. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 5 more minutes.
Heat griddle to medium heat. Carefully remove plastic wrap from dough. Grill dough for 20 to 30 seconds on each side or until cooked through.
Lay one grilled flatbread on a flat surface. Spread 1/2 cup of taco meat onto the center of the flatbread. Spread queso over one side of the tostada and place it cheese side down on the meat.
Spread a thin layer of sour cream or more queso on top of the tostada shell. Top with lettuce, tomato and cheese.
To fold the taco wrap, start with the bottom of the tortilla and fold the edge up over the center. Continue to work your way around, folding the tortilla over the center fillings. There will be an open spot on the top in the center.
Repeat with all remaining flatbreads, tostadas and toppings.

every store is CLOSED in San Jose

San Jose the Bay Area’s largest city has dropped out of the top 10 largest cities in the US by population and stores are closing left and right in this city tour I am exploring downtown San Jose, and what I found was shocking, blocks after blocks of empty storefronts.

Why don’t the Western countries “peacefully evolve” China by breaking the Chinese Great Firewall?

Has it ever occurred to you that the Great Fire Wall protects you? Yes, you!

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Imagine if suddenly 1.4 billion people flooded the internet with pro-China content. Okay, some are dissidents so make that one billion instead. My point is, in the Western world where “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” abound, unleashing the mainlanders into that environment en masse would have a profoundly negative impact for Westerners. I’m not sure they (the “outside” world) could handle it. Fun to think about though.

Protected: Part 12 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander September 2023

Botox time in Lahaina!

US: No bread for you China, 
China: No flour for you US.

Well, I’ve been putting it off, and putting it off, but I made the big leap. I went and got a Botox treatment.

Before:

After:

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I cannot believe that is me in the mirror!

LOL

Personally, I don’t think it did anything. But everyone else ohhs and ahhs about it. WTF? They say I look twenty years younger. What?

Do I look like I’m 14 years old?

The procedure was simple. They put this icy cold (it was stored in the refrigerator) gel on my face, and then covered it up with clear plastic wrap. Then after about 40 minutes, I laid down and had the procedure.

ouch. ouch. ouch. ouch.

(Only kidding.)

About 50 or so little tiny pin-pricks that I could hardly feel.

And that was that. All the skin on my face relaxed, and those troublesome crevices and gullies disappeared! Who would have thought?

The effect lasts for about six months and then I’ll need to do it again. Don’t you know.

I don’t know what the Hell I was afraid of. It was “nothing”. Really. Not a big deal at all.

Now, if only I could do something about my hair… or lack of it. LOL.

Sigh.

…

The amount of money you pay, vs the look that you are trying to achieve can be either very important or trivial. If it is very important to you, then well… yeah pay that money. If it isn’t, then NOPE… buy a case of beer instead.

It’s all about priorities.

I do not know if I am going to continue with the six month Botox treatments. They cost money, and I am not seeing any real significant changes or improvements in my appearance.

So I probably will not…

…

By the way, a 18 year old girl started to flirt with me today, so….

…

Todays…

Many anti-China YouTube channels are saying President Xi Jinping is losing his grip as China suffers from devastations from the flood and high youth unemployment. Is there any truth to what they are saying?

That would be like saying that the US collapsed every time there was a recession, high unemployment or depression.

If that were the case, the US would have collapsed at least eight times in its history. Last time I looked, the US is still there.

You depend on YouTube for getting your information? There is a thing called a brain; when it works right it does this thing called thinking.

Thinking helps me to tell the difference between what is useful information and what is just someone going blahblahblah.

Got Me Again! Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home ( Reaction )

What bad experience had you saying “I will never buy from that company or use their service ever again”?

My family owned and drove nothing but Mitsubishi vehicles for about ten years. Three cars and a (small) truck, all purchased new.

One of the cars died four days after the warranty expired.

Four.

Days.

I don’t mean it developed mechanical problems. I mean the engine locked up solid. Like a brick.

Like all of our vehicles, this one had been well maintained. All scheduled maintenance performed on time, regular oil changes, tire rotations, fuel injector cleanings, the works.

I wrote a long, detailed letter to Mitsubishi Motors, explaining about the car. I made it clear that we were faithful customers, and that we knew the warranty was technically expired, but… four days? Seriously? The car had less than 50,000 miles on the odometer, and it had been immaculately maintained.

I asked if Mitsubishi could do anything.

They responded about three months later with a one-sentence letter. Something to this effect…

After careful investigation, we have determined that that your vehicle’s warranty was expired when the failure occurred.

That pissed me off.

Careful investigation?

I told them in the first paragraph that the warranty was expired. I mentioned it about six times in my letter, along with exact dates, mileage readings, and all the details, including photostatic copies of maintenance records.

Honestly, Mitsubishi could have sent me a $300 voucher toward an engine replacement and kept my business.

Instead, they lost a customer for life.

More than one customer, actually.

My daughter (grown now) won’t even look at a Mitsubishi product. Neither will my (now) ex-wife. And – before I eventually calmed down – I showed their rejection letter to a LOT of people.

I got more than a few calls from people who knew that I’d been driving Mitsubishis for years, wanting to know what kept me coming back. They got an earful.

I’ve probably bought eight vehicles in the years since then, so I know that crappy letter cost them eight car sales. I imagine at least a few car shoppers decided against Mitsubishi after seeing that letter.

Someone once told me that a satisfied customer tells six to ten people about their positive experiences, but an unsatisfied customer tells fifty to a hundred. I’ve told more than a hundred.

I can guarantee that.

Careful investigation, my ass!

Corned Beef Hash

Yield: 4 servings

Equipment

10 inch cast iron skillet

Ingredients

1 pound cooked Certified Angus Beef® corned beef, 1/2 inch dice
1 1/2 pounds baby new red potatoes
2 tablespoons rendered bacon fat or butter
1 onion, quartered and sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 cups thinly sliced cabbage (1/4 head)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 fresh eggs

Instructions

Dice potatoes to 1/2 inch. Add to salted water and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, sit for 10 minutes, strain and set aside.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Add bacon fat to skillet over medium-high heat. Sear potatoes until golden, about 5 minutes.
Add onions, garlic, thyme and oregano; sear until onions are transparent. Stir in cabbage and corned beef. Season with pepper.
Gently crack eggs on top of the hash and place skillet in the oven.
Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on desired egg doneness.

Oliver Anthony’s Emotional Speech About the Future of America

Oliver Anthony fought back tears as shared his thoughts and opinions on the current state of the United States of America and its future. Oliver Anthony also gave a very candid response to his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” being used as a political tool with both Conservatives and the left.

Have you ever met an inmate that was actually a very nice person but did absolutely horrifying crimes? If so, what’s their story?

Yes, I met a really nice guy that was serving two life sentences. It was really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea had so much time, so I asked him about it. The guy was a Vietnam War vet. He was a tunnel-rat, meaning that sometimes he had to belly-crawl into holes to clear them with just the use of his boot-knife. He got very efficient at it during his tour. Meanwhile, his tour was almost up and he was looking forward to coming home. However, he kept hearing stories about his sister being in an abusive relationship. He explained that normally he didn’t involve himself in the details of other people’s relationships but this was his sister that he was very protective of and he just didn’t know how much he could tolerate knowing that she was in an abusive relationship after he’d spent years killing people just because they were the enemy. So he sent her a letter to break off that relationship, in hopes he would never meet the guy that was abusing his sister.

Eventually, he did return to the United States. He caught a cab from the airport to drive him home. But as they entered the neighborhood the police had everything sealed off because of some crime scene investigation. He didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes but he did explain that he was just returning home from Vietnam and only wanted to get home which was only a block away. So they asked for his address and he gave it only to be met by a detective requesting his company down at the station. So he reiterated that he literally just returned from Vietnam and didn’t know anything about what was going on, but the police insisted.

So he goes down to the station to be informed that his sister and mother were killed by his sister’s boyfriend. Apparently, the guy wasn’t so keen about breaking off the relationship. The police had the guy, it was pretty cut and dry, he was in custody, and the police only asked him to let them do their job without him interfering.

Well, turns out that the boyfriend bonded out, and this Vietnam vet had friends that knew where this guy hung out. So this guy goes down to a bar the boyfriend frequented and had him pointed out. He approached the guy at the pool table and started chatting the guy up. He explained that he just got back from Vietnam and that he was a tunnel rat there. He pulled out his combat knife to explain what it was like belly crawling through tunnels with that particular knife because his .45 would have alarmed the enemy. He told stories of spiders the size of basketballs rushing at him that he had to kill without giving away his position. But the guy he was talking to just wanted to know if he wanted to bet on the pool game.

So he told the guy (his sister’s abusive boyfriend that killed both his sister and his mother), that he had a bet for him. He told him that he was going to take that very same knife he used in Vietnam to skin him alive and that he was willing to bet nobody in the bar would intervene. And so he did. And he didn’t stop cutting up that guy (in front of everyone) until the police arrived and asked him to.

When he went to court, the judge wasn’t too happy about his vigilante justice and convicted him for murder, but when he was asked if he’d like to say anything before sentencing he asked for the name of the magistrate officer that gave his sister and mother’s murderer bail.

Oh SH*T, The Fuse Has Been Lit!

The economy is on its last legs and the Fed is about to push it off a cliff. Powell’s conviction to crash the economy is alive and well, he wants higher unemployment to destroy inflation. Here’s why interest rates will stay higher for longer & how it could collapse this leveraged economy.

The father just paid child support, and now he’s asking the mother of the child to start showing him receipts. Do you think he is right for asking?

No. Me ex tried that.

So I sat with his attorney and mine….one time….and listed out everything I had bought for our daughter, divided it in half and that’s what his money paid for.

Then I showed my lease and renters insurance and water bill and cable bill and light bill, you get the gist.

Half of all them are for her.

Divided hers in half and started adding up his responsibilities.

It turned out I was short $300 a month of his responsibility.

It took him a minute to look at the breakdown and I stood and leaned over the table and started pointed and numbers and adding them again on my calculator and then handed him the calculator if he wanted to add it himself since he was looking at a major spreadsheet (I do accounting) and asked if he understood.

It took a few minutes for it to sink it but he got it. About 6 months later he asked me to see the chart again and I showed him and he handed me an extra $300.

He said to keep him up and what the bills are and if I need more to let him know. He always paid for her school supplies and new clothes and shoes for school.

Once it was all in black and white and he saw I wasn’t screwing him over like all his friends said then he put his love for his little girl ahead of everything else. He was a crappy husband but a wonderful father.

How I see the US after living in Europe for 5 years

What is America like after experiencing life in Europe? BIG. Consumerism. Gun violence. The homeless. The police. “What do you do for work?” This is how I see the US after living in the Netherlands for 5 years. Sometimes it takes leaving a place for one to truly understand the pros and cons of a place. There are things I love and dislike about the US. Hope you enjoy this short movie!

What inventions had deeply personal origins?

In 1981, a young Japanese engineer named Kikuo Ibe broke the mechanical watch his father had given him as a gift. Ibe accidentally dropped the watch on the way to work and it broke into pieces on the floor. At the same time, he began to observe some construction workers around his office who were using jackhammers, and he noticed that they never wore watches because of the vibration. After that, he got the idea to create a sturdy watch that couldn’t be destroyed.

When Ibe later got a job at Casio Computer Co., Ltd. , he developed the rugged digital watch called the G-Shock. The G-Shock was designed as a watch that would have triple resistance 10, meaning it would have a battery life of 10 years, water resistance of 10 bar and could survive a drop of 10 meters. As most watches on the market were as slim as possible, it was not an immediate success, only attracting construction workers and police officers. But it later became a style icon when the skateboarding craze hit the world, prompting young people to look for a tough watch to match their baggy clothes. Subsequently G-Shock became very popular among the general public. On September 1, 2017, Casio celebrated its 100 million shipment of G-Shocks worldwide.

Rock Music Producer Reacts to Rich Men North of Richmond by Oliver Anthony Reaction Video

As a British person visiting the U.S., what is the most astounding thing someone over there has said to you?

I was living in Arizona and working a good paying job, living in what I thought was a good sized house when a young British man, probably 17, knocked on my door selling books.

Like seriously, who sells books door to door anymore right? And this dude had the coolest accent, and how many British people do you honestly come across in southern Arizona. So what the hell, I invited him in for a soda, and bought some books.

But here’s the thing. Got to chatting with the guy, he was here on some exchange program for the summer, had to live with some American family, only had $3 to spend on breakfast each day (he ate at Denny’s) and had to sell books all day for the company who sponsored the travel.

Slave labor I thought. He had stained dirty clothes that didn’t fit him, and was riding a bike. I felt so bad, I took him to my closet and started going through all my clothes.

I said here, you can have this, and that. If you are going to be selling books door to door in this neighborhood, you ought to look your best.

He smiled humbly, and said friend, you really don’t have to do this. I have lots of clothes back home, and my family…

Nonsense I said. Here’s a nice button up shirt, and some slacks. What size shoe do you wear?

Sir, please, you really don’t have to..

Long story short, we became pals, added him to the Facebook, sent him off on his little bike with a pile of clothes, and kind of forgot about him for awhile.

Sometime later, I noticed a post he made. He was all dressed up in a Tux, attending some royal party in England. Turns out his family was pretty important, and he was super rich.

Probably had a house the size of mine just for his horses.

So the most astounding thing I ever said to a British person visiting America, who happened to be some kind of British Royal person, was “Hey, have some of my clothes friend, and a drink!”

Hope he sees this and gets a good laugh.

BRICS 11 – Strategic Tour de Force

Pepe Escobar • August 25, 2023

Chinese President Xi Jinping defined all the major decisions embedded in the 15th BRICS summit in South Africa as “historic”. That may be seen as an understatement.

It will take time for the Global South, or Global Majority, or “Global Globe” (copyright President Lukashenko), not to mention the stunned collective West, to fully grasp the enormity of the new strategic stakes.

President Putin, for his part, described the negotiations on BRICS expansion as quite difficult. By now a relatively accurate picture is emerging of what really went down on that table in Johannesburg.

India wanted 3 new members. China wanted as many as 10. A compromise was finally reached, with 6 members: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Argentina and Ethiopia.

So from now on it’s BRICS 11. And that’s just the beginning. Starting with the rotating Russian presidency of BRICS on January 1, 2024, more partners will be progressively included, and most certainly a new round of full members will be announced at the BRICS 11 summit in Kazan in October next year.

So we may soon progress to BRICS 20 – on the way to BRICS 40. The G7, for all practical purposes, is sliding towards oblivion.

Bur first things first. At that fateful table in Johannesburg, Russia supported Egypt. China went all out for Persian Gulf magic: Iran, UAE and the Saudis. Of course: Iran-China are already deep into a strategic partnership, and Riyadh is already accepting payment for energy in yuan.

Brazil and China supported Argentina, Brazil’s troubled neighbor, running the risk of having its economy fully dollarized, and also a key commodity provider to Beijing. South Africa supported Ethiopia. India, for a series of very complex reasons, was not exactly comfortable with 3 Arab/Muslim members (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt). Russia assuaged New Delhi’s fears.

All of the above respects geographic principles and imprints the notion of BRICS representing the Global South. But it goes way beyond that, blending cunning strategy and no-nonsense realpolitik.

India was mollified because Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at the table in Johannesburg negotiating on behalf of President Putin, and highly respected by New Delhi, fully understood that a new, single BRICS currency is a long way away. What really matters, short and medium term, is expanding intra-BRICS trade in their national currencies.

That was stressed by New Development Bank (NDB) president Dilma Rousseff in her report to the South African summit hosts – even as Brazilian President Lula once again emphasized the importance of setting up a work group to discuss a BRICS currency.

Lavrov understood how New Delhi is absolutely terrified of secondary sanctions by the US, in case its BRICS role gets too ambitious. Prime Minister Modi is essentially hedging between BRICS and the completely artificial imperial obsession embedded in the terminology “Indo-Pacific” – which masks renewed containment of China. The Straussian neo-con psychos in charge of US foreign policy are already furious with India buying loads of discounted Russian oil.

New Delhi’s support for a new BRICS currency would be interpreted in Washington as all-out trade war – and sanctions dementia would follow. In contrast, Saudi Arabia’s MbS doesn’t care: he’s a top energy producer, not consumer like India, and one of his priorities is to fully court his top energy client, Beijing, and pave the way for the petroyuan.

It Takes Just a Single Strategic Move

Now let’s get into the strategic stakes. For all practical purposes, in Eurasian terms, BRICS 11 is now on the way to lord over the Arctic Sea Route; the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC); BRI’s East West Corridors; the Persian Gulf; the Red Sea; and the Suez Canal.

That blends several overland corridors with several nodes of the Maritime Silk Roads. Nearly total integration in the Heartland and the Rimland. All with just a single strategic move in the geopolitical/geoeconomic chessboard.

Much more than an increase of BRICS 11 collective GDP to 36% of the world’s total (already larger than the G7), with the group now encompassing 47% of the world’s population, the top geopolitical and geoeconomic breakthrough is how BRICS 11 is about to literally break the bank on the energy and commodities market fronts.

By incorporating Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, BRICS 11 instantly shines on as an oil and gas powerhouse. BRICS 11 now controls 39% of global oil exports; 45.9% of proven reserves; and at least 47.6% of all oil produced globally, according to InfoTEK.

With BRICS 11 possibly including Venezuela, Algeria and Kazakhstan as new members as early as in 2024, it may control as much as 90% of all oil and gas traded globally.

Inevitable corollary: operations settled in local currencies bypassing the US dollar. And inevitable conclusion: petrodollar in a coma. The Empire of Chaos and Plunder will lose its free lunch menu: control of global oil prices and means to enforce “diplomacy” via a tsunami of unilateral sanctions.

Already in the horizon, direct BRICS 11-OPEC+ symbiosis is inevitable. OPEC+ is effectively run by Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A ground-shaking geoeconomic reorientation is at hand, involving everything from routes plied by global supply chains and new BRICS roads to the progressive interconnection of BRI, the Saudi Vision 2030 and massive port expansion in the UAE.

By choosing Ethiopia, BRICS expands its African reach on mining, minerals and metals. Ethiopia is rich in gold, platinum, tantalum, copper, niobium and offers vast potential in oil and natural gas exploration. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, incidentally, are also involved in mining.

This all spells out fast, progressive integration of North Africa and West Asia.

How Diplomacy Goes a Long Way

The BRICS 11 Shock of the New, in the energy sphere, is a sharp historical counterpoint to the 1973 oil shock, after which Riyadh started wallowing in petrodollars. Now Saudi Arabia under MbS is operating a tectonic shift, in the process of becoming strategically aligned with Russia-China-India-Iran.

Diplomatic coup does not even begin to describe it. This is the second stage of the Russian-initiated and Chinese-finalized rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, recently sealed in Beijing. The Russia-China strategic leadership, working patiently in synch, never lost sight of the ball.

Now compare it with collective West’s “strategies”, such as the G7-imposed oil price cap. Essentially the G7 “coalition of the willing” self-imposed a price cap on Russian crude imported by sea. The result is that they had to start buying way more oil products from Global South nations which ignored the price cap and duly increased their purchase of Russian crude.

Guess who are the top two: BRICS members China and India.

After wallowing in several stages of denial, the collective West may – or may not – realize it’s a fool’s dream to attempt to “de-couple” the West-ruled part of the global economy from China, whatever is spewed out by Washington.

BRICS 11 now shows, graphically, how the “Global South/Global Majority/”Global Globe” is more non-aligned with the West than anytime in recent history.

By the way, the president of the G77, Cuban leader Diaz-Canel, was at the BRICS summit representing the de-facto new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the G77 actually incorporates no less than 134 nations. Most are African. Xi Jinping in Johannesburg met in person with the leaders of most of them.

The collective West, in panic, regards all of the above as “dangerous”. So the last refuge is, predictably, rhetorical: “de-coupling”, “de-risking”, and similar idiocies.

Yet that may also get practically dangerous. As in the first ever trilateral summit in Camp David on August 18 between the Empire and two Asian vassals, Japan and South Korea. That may be interpreted as the first move towards a military-political Asian NATO even more toxic than Quad or AUKUS, obsessed to simultaneously contain China, Russia and the DPRK.

The Collective Outstripping of the Global North

The UN lists 152 nations in the world as “developing countries”. BRICS 11 is aiming at them – as they outstrip the Global North on everything from population growth to overall contribution to global GDP growth measured by PPP.

In the past 10 years since the announcement of BRI first in Astana and then in Jakarta, Chinese financial institutions have lent nearly $1 trillion for infrastructure connectivity projects across the Global South. The upcoming BRI forum in Beijing will signal a renewed drive. That’s the BRI-BRICS symbiosis.

In the G20 last year, China was the first nation to lobby for the inclusion of the 55-member African Union (AU). That may happen at the G20 summit next month in New Delhi; in that case, Global South representation will be close to parity with the Global North.

Claims that Beijing was organizing a malign conspiracy to turn BRICS into a weapon against the G7 are infantile. Realpolitik – and geoeconomic indicators – are dictating the terms, configuring the Shock of the New: the G7’s irreversible irrelevance with the rise of BRICS 11.

Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond REACTION

Why did the leaders of BRICS accept Ethiopia to join the club?

There are four major countries in Africa:

South Africa
Nigeria
Ethiopia
Egypt

Ethiopia was the only major African kingdom not be colonized by the Europeans, except for an Italian occupation in the 1930s.

It has a significant middle-sized population of 120M.

Ethiopia has a government which is dedicated to the modernization of Ethiopia led by Abi Ahmed.

Abi Ahmed was educated in China and is fluent in Putonghua, and there are other Chinese-educated members of government who are adapting lessons from China’s modernization to fit into the Ethiopian model of development. China has been involved in various infrastructure development projects in the country.

The country also has cordial relations with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.

The US and G7 have overlooked Ethiopia for a long time, and have considered it to be unimportant.

Beef and Gravy over Potatoes

Beef Tips Gravy verticle 720x540 1 — Beef Tips Gravy verticle 720×540 1

Ingredients

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/3 cup water
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Place potatoes and water in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on HIGH for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile, in large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in garlic powder and onion powder.
Prepare gravy mix according to package directions.
Place potatoes in a mixing bowl; add milk, butter, salt and pepper. Beat on medium speed until smooth.
Serve beef and gravy over mashed potatoes.

What does the richest person you know do for a living?

Do you recognize this famous street hawker occasionally featured in international media in discussions related to global economic dynamics?

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He is Sirivat Voravetvuthikun—Mr. Sandwich of Thailand.

Previously a high-flyer multi-millionaire businessman, Sirivat went bankrupt by impacts of the infamous Asian financial crisis of the late 1990’s. The crisis not only took away all his fortunes but also left him in debts of millions of dollars.

But all this mishap could not smash him to simply become a poor and rot. Srivat took himself to the ground to kick off a restart, afresh.

His wife would make sandwiches from night till dawn and he would go out to the street to sell them starting early in the morning.

Soon he became a media-feature, a subject of the critics and many raised their eyebrows at the sight of a multi-millionaire selling sandwich on street.

But nothing could hold him back. Srivat stirred himself through.

Then, as he kept on doing what he was doing, the populace started to re-discover Srivat Voravetvuthikun. The dignity, courage and honesty that Srivat was trying to uphold: he was not trying to cheat or steal someone else’s money. Nor was he trying to escape from his lenders. Nor did he choose to live a disgraceful life of a fallen runner. Instead, he was trying to re-establish himself, to stand again on his own feet, pay off his debts and live with his head held high in the society.

People now started buying his sandwiches.

Sirivat’s sales started growing, then soaring. At the height of his popularity, he earned a loving nickname: Mr. Sandwich.

Soon Mr. Sandwich became a brand—one of its kind and ever, as Srivat started settling with his sandwich/coffee shops nationwide.

Mr. Sirivat Voravetvuthikun once again became a millionaire. This time a more renowned one, and well-respected.

To answer the question— unless born with silver spoon in the mouth, a genuinely rich person does anything he/she needs to stay on. I’ve learned about this great man, and I also know about quite a few other rich men. They work hard no less than the mediocrity, even harder than the average people. They don’t care how much it takes, what the critics talk on the face or behind. They only keep their promise to themselves: live in affluence with dignity.

Thailand’s Mr Sandwich happier 10 years on

He Died & Was Shown The Future of USA Democracy – Ken Leth’s NDE

Ken Leth shares his Near Death Experience (NDE) that he had when he was 8 years old when he was shown the future and a civil war. This is his testimony

What’s the most questionable cost-cutting move you’ve seen an employer make?

The Company I worked for made over $9B in 2004 on the revenue of $36 billion. That was a lot of money for a company to make back then. And a 25% profit margin is just sweet.

One fine day, in 2004, the leadership decided they needed to be more nimble. More efficient. The solution? Supplies were no longer available on each floor, you had to walk down to the ground floor to get them.

So you’re in the middle of something and realize you need a notepad and a pen.

You walk to the elevator, push a button, wait for it, enter, push the G button, wait, exit the elevator, walk to the supply room, get a pen and notebook, walk back to the elevator, push a button, wait, enter the elevator, push the desired floor button, exit, walk back to your desk.

For a company that paid its software developers well over $100k! This came at a time when tech companies started giving free lunches to keep their employees productive. The waste of time alone meant the change was a net negative.

Who the heck thought it was a good idea to save pennies by removing supplies from each floor from a company that made 25% profit (over $9B / year at that time)?

I know of several people who quit the company over this. Not because this specific thing was painful for them, but because it signaled the company was in a downward spiral. They went to other companies (often competitors) where they were more valued.

In coming years The Company was going to prove those quitters right by losing a lot of market share in key upcoming markets, from the browser to mobile devices.

What are some examples of the daily lives of people receiving the “karma” they deserve?

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Virginia Western Regional Jail

The photo above is by Cole Carini. He is 23 years old and is from Virginia, USA.

On June 2, 2020 (yes, a few days ago), he walked into a local medical centre with serious injuries to his body… and a missing hand! When local authorities asked about the reason for these extreme injuries, he lied to them saying he had received them because of an accident he had with a lawn mower. Due to the severity of the injuries, the FBI became involved in the case.

But the FBI soon discovered that he was creating a bombshell for an alleged attack on a group of women he described as “Cheerleaders.” During the making of the bomb, he somehow ended up exploding the bomb and blew off his entire hand, causing very extreme injuries to his body.

For me, this is an example of instant karma, though perhaps not so much in everyday life. He was definitely making the bomb to hurt others, but he ended up almost killing himself. I’m sure now he wishes he wasn’t even able to make a bomb!

First Time Hearing | Oliver Anthony – I WANT TO GO HOME | Reaction Video

What is the craziest thing your kids have told you that you thought was a lie but turned out to be true?

main qimg b93c251a0d7293a6a37fc6372b725523 lq

When he was six years old, my son came excitedly out of the garden and threw a stone he had found in my hand. He told me he found a Stone Age tool. I put it down to a vivid imagination, but to appease him I told him we could ask the head of the local historical society for an opinion.

We did that a few months later, and the man’s eyes popped out of their sockets. He was also a delegate to the state archeology office and said he needed to send the stone to the museum in Stuttgart for a professional opinion. He was sure it WAS a primitive tool.

As it turned out, the stone was a flat tool used to poke holes in leather to sew pieces of leather together. It dated back to the end of the Stone Age. How my six year old recognized I had no idea.

LIBERAL REACTS Oliver Anthony I Want To Go Home & I’ve Got to Get Sober REACTION

Preach it brother!

“Information Designed To Show …”

Yesterday CNN published another Russiagate like nonsense story:

Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners

Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence.

Caitlin Johnstone takes it apart:

Another Day, Another CIA Press Release Disguised As News

She concludes:

One of the craziest things happening in our world today is how westerners are being trained to overlook the massive amounts of western propaganda they’re inundated with day in and day out and focus instead on “Russian propaganda”, which has no meaningful existence in the west. In 2017 before RT was shut down in the UK, it accounted for 0.04 percent of the UK’s total TV audience. A New York University study published earlier this year found that the supposed Russian Twitter influence campaign ahead of the 2016 election which dominated headlines for years had had “no measurable impact in changing minds or influencing voter behavior”. An earlier study found that suspected Russian accounts showing up in Facebook’s news feed during that time amounted to “approximately 1 out of 23,000 pieces of content.” A study by Adelaide University found that despite headline after headline warning us about a massive wave of Russian bots manipulating online discourse after the invasion of Ukraine began last year, the overwhelming majority of fake accounts they examined (more than 90 percent) were pro-Ukraine accounts.

Contrast this microscopic smattering of influence with the fact that westerners are continually getting their news reporting from western propaganda outlets which openly publish CIA press releases disguised as news on a regular basis. These people are absolutely telling us the truth when they say we’re under constant bombardment by propaganda and influence operations — they’re just lying about who’s really doing it to us.

CNN was not the only outlet that plugged the stupid CIA press release. The New York Times had it too and its report is a bit more revealing:

Russia Pushes Long-Term Influence Operations Aimed at the U.S. and Europe

Reading through the stupid disinformation stuff one stumbles over this sentence:

[T]he information released by the United States on Friday is designed to show how much deeper Russian influence operations are than those efforts to sow dissent on the internet.

That is quite revealing. The information contained in the CIA release was ‘designed’ or construed to create a certain propaganda narrative. It wasn’t just information that could be found or observed by a reporter but a curated collection of items put together to create a certain effect.

Think about that for a minute and you will recognize that most of the ‘news’ one reads is made like this.

Someone asserts that there is a need for to create a certain effect. A narrative is thought up that could lead to it. The some bits of facts or rumors are collected, sorted, filtered and then written up until the constructed narrative is thought to be likely to create the desired effect. This is then the declassified product and fed to the media which are willing to distribute such stuff.

The current very long Spiegel story about the U.S. attack on the Nord Stream pipelines is a nice example for such a ‘product’:

Investigating the Nord Stream Attack – All the Evidence Points To Kyiv (archived)

German politicians are too coward to call out the U.S. for the attack and to discuss the necessary consequences. They need a different narrative.

When an attempt was made to declare that ‘Russia did it’ the public did not fall for it. Blaming Ukraine is a convenient out. It can later be forgiven because, they will say, Ukraine did what it thought was necessary and only did it because Russia was attacking it.

That is the desired effect of the story. The information in the Spiegel piece was carefully ‘designed’ to create the appropriate narrative.

That the Spiegel needed 19 named authors to put it out says something about the complexity of such a process. It is still disinformation but on a large scale.

Posted by b on August 26, 2023 at 15:53 UTC | Permalink

Have you ever walked out of a car dealership just before signing a final purchase contract? What happened?

Yes. I test drove a demo car. It had been driven by one of their salesmen for year. We agreed on a price. I had everything set up and I was ready to sign.

I looked at the contract and saw $250 tacked on to the price. I asked what it was for. They told me that it was for the pinstriping, floor mats and hubcaps. All things that were part of the car while it was being driven around by the sales person and when I test drove it.

I told them I expected to purchase the car for the price they quoted me as it was shown to me. They offered to remove the pinstriping, floor mats and hubcaps. I said no and once again told them that I was ready to sign for the price I agreed to in the condition the car was in when they gave me the price.

The manager refused to budge and so did I. I walked out. The salesman seemed surprised: I told him I would not pay the extra $250 they tried to slip in on the contract.

The sad part for them is, if they had quoted me the higher price to begin with when we made the deal, I would have purchased the car. It was the fact that they added it at the last minute to the contract they handed me to sign.

Heartbreaking! Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home / Reaction Video !

What is the worst product name of all time?

In 1964, two entrepreneurs paid a marketing company to help them come up with a name for their service, which would also be the company name.

They started with Analytical Technology. Then, quite, unfortunately, condensed it into AnalTech. They’ve had the name now for more than 50 years.

They provide services for forensic science and pharmaceutical development. Per their own words, they’ve always faced challenges with people on the internet using juvenile humor about their name (guilty). Additionally, spam filters on other company websites have caused them problems.

JohndoeATanaltech.com never seems to be able to reach anyone’s inbox. They’ve considered other names but seem married to the one they have.

In 2017, a truck lost control and went off the road, not only mowing down the Analtech sign but also plummeting into the actual building:

Adding on to this, and I’m not joking with you — locals reported that a bizarre smell began coming out of the Analtech building after the impact.

You can’t make this stuff up.

MM Commentary

There are a lot of “fringe” and conspiracies out in Internet land.

My favorite (head scratcher) has to do with the strange coincidence that all of the roofs on the homes of the ultra-wealthy were painted this brilliant blue. And everything that was not scorched were blue. Like mailboxes, plastic refuse bins and things like that.

Really odd.

And the really strange thing is what the ultra rich did to their homes a few years earlier…

I watched a video on you-tube that shows how a laser can destroy everything except the color blue. WTF!

DEW being used on …

Maui Fires, DEWs & The Secret Of The Color Blue!

So…

Here you have this super strange fire.

And the strange way that the United States government is hiding everything and policing the area… People! This is not how FEMA handles fire devastated regions.

Gov’t Installs BLACK FENCING Encircling Lahaina!

This is damn odd.

In a recent video that went viral online, a Hawaii resident documents the miles of black fencing that has gone up around Lahaina in Maui as well as other burn zones from the recent wildfires. Getting necessary supplies to the fire’s victims has been rather slow, but all this fencing went up in record time. So what’s going on?

Plus, you add on the facts that this prime section of real estate has been in the process of being bought up by very wealthy interests, with the lowly commoners in the town of Lahaina in the way.

What is going on?

I welcome your thoughts. -MM

A cold slice of pizza in the morning

I must admit that I enjoy a cold left over pizza in the morning. It goes good with black coffee. It doesn’t matter what kind of pizza, or how much, or what the toppings are. You can reheat it or not. Personally, I guess I am strange, I prefer the cold pizza in the morning. Who figures, eh?

It’s an American thing.

Pizza is an American food, and one of the things that I love, but cannot eat too much of. It tends to make my body rotund, and you guys know that I am in the process of losing weight.

…

I am at 85Kg today.

Last week I was at 90Kg, and (if you recall) my BMI listed me as obese. I said “NO!”, and then lost 5Kg in one week!

I also noticed that I became weak at noon and needed a nap, and afterwards I really needed to urinate. I noticed that my urine became very thick and deep in color.

My waist shrank.

But you know, the rest of my body is still bony as ever. LOL.

…

What I did was change my diet to “slight”.

Breakfast = 1/2 cup of black coffee.
Lunch = One small chicken burger or Baozi.
Dinner = Tiny dinner. Vegetables with meat and small portion of rice.
No snacks.

Today, we are going to sponsor another meal with friends. The excuse is a shared birthday. We rented a room and we will be drinking a case of Shiraz, and 5 liters of Guoji wine. (37% alcohol).

I’m sure to gain some weight. But I will not glutton out, We will enjoy fine seafood, BBQ chicken and other tasty morsels and sign and dance until midnight, and then take my daughter to bed.

Then I will return back to my (now normal) routine.

…

My affirmations agree with my new lifestyle.

I’m one week into my latest campaign and the transformations are stunning. I am actually witnessing the slides manifest in real time. Not since my Majestic days have I experienced such “easy” changing.

…

My daughter has really taken to boxing, and loves to spar with me. So I get on my knees and allow her to punch me relentlessly. It’s a father’s duty, don’t you know.

She also loves Hip-Hop. Ah. She’s a natural.

And sports; she loves basketball. And she can dribble like there is no tomorrow!

Not too bad for a four-year old. LOL.

…

While she understand my English, she has preferred to speak in Chinese. But lately, she has been speaking to me in English, and it makes me very happy. Still, it’s baby-English and she speaks it like it’s Chinese, but still, it makes me glad.

I’m a proud father.

…

The world continues to turn.

The “news” has hit the stratosphere and now orbits the earth in some kind of lime-loop. And we all move on with our lives one way or the other.

The editors and their owners are absolutely clueless.

…

Typhoon hit yesterday. Today is a steady medium rain with small squall gusts. Much flooding. Some debris on the ground, and some trivial damage. Most of the trees are intact and remain rooted in place.

We took a ride out to check out the damage. Trees are down. Flooding everywhere. Many shops closed. Leaves galore. Some damage to face scanners, cameras, and traffic lights. The thermal scanners are mostly intact, though.

We drove in circles looking for a snack place that served coffee and hybrid / fusion food. Only one open was good, but the dishes served were too big. We wanted a light snack, not a banquet. Sheech!

We swam the car home, dusted off the branches and leaves and ordered home-delivery. I ordered some Zha Jiang Mian for myself and a cup of coffee, the rest got some pigs feet, Chinese spinach and some rice. Ok. Fair enough.

29873c7294b34f3ea322bfb5d710d29f — Zha Jiang Mian

Zha Jiang Mian is very much like American spaghetti. Only the sauce is very thick with lots or ground pork, and thickened with bean paste. You can eat it spicy if you want. Often it is served with these toothpick thin slices of cucumber, which you stir into the noodles.

Its one of my favorites.

I just cannot believe the Chinese expats being happy in the USA and not being able to enjoy such delicious Chinese food on demand. You have to make it at home. Sheech! What a pain!

…

Today’s post…

What is the significance of James Cleverly’s visit to China’s Vice President Han Zheng?

This is what Cleverly thought he can do in China in one day:

He thinks the U.K. is a peer to China and for the sake of the British people and the world, he wants China to work with the U.K. on climate change, prevent nuclear proliferation, and matter relating to AI and other technologies.

It’s humiliating if you think so much of yourself and China politely listens to you and quickly send you off home without discussing any of these.

Cleverly’s humiliating China visit was the perfect symbol of isolated, ill-led ‘global Britain’ | Simon Tisdall

The foreign minister set off with the aim of both ‘standing up for our values’ and securing profitable trade. He failed at both, says foreign policy commentator Simon Tisdall

What Cleverly can’t admit to is that the U.K. needs economic assistance and densely believes that the U.K. can get it from China while barking ever so loudly as a U.S. lapdog.

LOL.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

China doesn’t care if the U.K. is ignoring China.

It’s just that China is simply ignoring the U.K.

LOL!

(Burst of laughing loudly and rolling on the floor.)

Cleverly hasn’t realized it yet that the U.K. is irrelevant to most of the world.

What is the point of China giving basically free money to African nations, and building their infrastructures?

China isn’t giving free money to African nations.

Here are the Chinese goals and motivations:

The African nations are rich in natural resources, but are weak in infrastructure development, especially transport infrastructure. China is now the world’s leading manufacturing nation, and it needs raw materials and natural resources to keep Chinese factories busy. For this reason, it makes sense for Chinese construction companies to improve the transport infrastructure of the African nations;
The quality of government and governance in the African nations has been gradually improving, and the African farmers and miners of today are destined to become the African consumers of tomorrow. It makes sense for China and Chinese companies to improve their standard of living so that these Africans will eventually buy the output of Chinese manufacturers, instead of only supplying raw materials to Chinese manufacturers;
Because the African economies will become more important, it makes perfect sense for China to build goodwill with future African political leaders and business leaders and entrepreneurs. If they attend Chinese schools, learn Chinese, and understand Chinese culture, they will become future ambassadors for China in their home countries, and will be well disposed to building bridges between their government, society and Chinese official and business interests. These societies are also likely to have significant local Chinese populations which will serve as bridges between China and their new African home countries. Because China’s relationship with Africa has never been tainted by a history of brutality, racism and slavery, Chinese and Africans are able to deal with each other equally, and are not burdened with negative historical stereotypes based on racism and discrimination. This racism, discrimination and condescending attitude are something which western societies have great difficulty escaping from, which hinders the development of relations with the African nations and societies. For Africans, this mutual respect with China and Chinese based on pursuing their individual interests, and seeking shared interests when possible, is a breath of fresh air.
Chinese manufacturers have the know-how many African nations need to move up the value chain. Some of the lower value-added manufacturers, such as textile manufacturers, may move some of their operations to African nations since the Chinese government no longer sees China as being leaders in these areas, and is encouraging high-tech manufacturing development, especially with the Made in China 2025 plan. So far, most Chinese textile makers have been moving to Vietnam, Thailand and SE Asia, but it is likely that some will move their operations to African nations. This will help Africans to get their first step into manufacturing. In contrast, during the colonial period, the British, French and Germans never allowed manufacturing in Africa, instead preferring to keep Africans poor and underdeveloped. China and the Chinese have no such agenda.

To sum up, China is not giving away free money.

China is investing in the African consumer of the future, and sees them as important future Chinese partners.

China Exposed the US Call to Ban Anti Satellite Missile Tests; Fake Arm Control!

Chinese laser technology and rail-gun are more advanced than the U.S.’ ones, while Russia has the most advanced hypersonic missiles. The U.S. lags behind in those fields. That’s why, the latter tries to prevent these cutting edge technologies from destroying Western satellites in case of conflicts. The Americans also aim at slow down the progress of the Russian and China space industries. When Russia and China hadn’t such technologies, the U.S. didn’t offer peaceful use of space, because of Russia and China lagged behind American military and space technologies. It’s too late !

https://youtu.be/EhTFmIswgVU

The “government” is simply fucking with us…

You’ve got to be kidding me…

Beef Curry

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

3 pounds beef round steak, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup raisins
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup diced onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
2 apples, unpeeled, cored and finely chopped
Fluffy rice

Instructions

Dry beef well with a paper towel.
Mix flour and curry powder.
Coat meat cubes with flour mixture.
Place meat in slow cooker.
Add garlic, raisins, sliced apples, onion, salt and pepper.
Pour in broth and stir to blend.
Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours until meat is tender.
Before serving, stir in additional curry powder to taste (up to 1 tablespoon) and chopped apples.
Serve over hot fluffy rice.

What surprises Americans when they come to Australia?

Kangaroos! They are a lot bigger than what I’d imagined. These days what with YouTube one can get a good idea about their size, but when I went to Australia I had no idea. I also imagined them to be, you know, out in the bush or somewhere out there away from civilization, but no, I get up in the morning and look out the window and there a pretty big dog outside. Then it stands up and is about 8 feet tall, well maybe not 8 feet, but hella big. My brain sort of short circuits for a second until I realize I’m looking at a kangaroo! Big and in the suburbs of a large city!

I burst out of the room yelling that there’s a giant kangaroo in the back yard! My friend, er… mate says, “Yup, he’s probably eating the dog’s food”. He doesn’t even bother to look. Later we go out the front door and there’s a couple more just standing there. I’m slack jawed and he just walks past them, gets in the car, and off we go. Kangaroos!

Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home And Rich Men North Of Richmond (Reaction)

What’s the craziest thing you have said to your boss?

Originally Answered: What is the craziest thing you have ever said to your boss? And still kept your job? Or been fired?

I have been asked to tell the following story many times, and it became so famous that I was even asked to record it for NPR.

I worked for a high-tech company when high-tech was just starting to make an impact on the world. This was before the internet, even before everyone had PCs. We had one IBM PC for the entire department and it was a thrill to use it. I say this just to give an impression of how things have changed since then.

Our company made high speed modems, but the fastest anyone could do in those days was 9600bps, and you paid 10,000 dollars a piece for each modem — and you needed at least two of them, one for each end. We had invented a mechanism that would double that rate to 19,200bps, which was like lightning at the time. The benefits were immediately apparent and every major company wanted them, damn the cost. Unfortunately, the techniques we were using were in their infancy and had lots of bugs. Even though we were selling them like ice cream on a hot day, they didn’t really work as advertised.

A huge oil company bought a massive amount of product. Their plan was to link all of their gas stations across the US to their central site and have the managers report daily sales to the home office. This previously had been done by mail or phone and was slow and inefficient. With a modem system they could know what their revenues were to the penny overnight, or even several times during the day. They did some cursory testing on the devices and rolled them out. But they didn’t work.

Our engineers worked day and night to fix the issues but it turned out to be intractable. There were grave concerns that we might never solve the problem. Our salesman for the company was a brave and confident expert with years of experience but he was becoming increasingly despondent. The customer was agitated and angry and threatening to return the product. This would have been a huge setback, possibly a death blow to the company. They were by far our biggest customer and by far the biggest sale we had ever achieved. And the salesman would not get his commission.

I was the manager of the business unit, newly promoted into the role at the age of 26. I thought I was something special, and to be honest if not modest, I was a world-wide expert on these technologies and frequently flown around the world to solve problems. But what I didn’t know was that behind the scenes the senior managers of this customer were now DEMANDING a reckoning with our company. Our management knew it was the end if we did not have a solution, and we had no solution.

The salesman set up a meeting with the Senior Vice President of this oil company, a man who probably had the power to overthrow third world countries or have people killed. Suddenly, the President of our company had pressing business in Europe. So did every other executive down the line until, casting about, they looked at me. I was to be the sacrificial lamb they would send to the slaughter. I was told to go “make nice” with the customer to buy more time. I was unaware of the political issues behind the scene. If I failed, I would be unceremoniously fired as a token of good faith. The salesman knew it. I did not.

Thinking this was going to be yet another triumphant visit, and with a swelled head, I went out, bought a new suit and briefcase and flew from Boston to the West Coast. I didn’t even have anything to put in the briefcase except a pad and pencil since I wasn’t given any progress report, possible solutions or any token that might mollify them. Management was so certain of disaster that they thought it best I go completely in the dark.

I was picked up by our salesman in his new Jaguar , along with our field engineer, both of whom knew the gravity of our situation and how dire things were. I was cheerful and humming in the car as I took in the sights. I was surprised by their gloomy silence until we got to the customer’s campus. I had never seen anything like it before. Oil money can buy anything, and this building was modern and massive, the lobby was an art museum with original paintings by the Masters.

We didn’t even have to wait. As soon as we announced ourselves we were shown to a conference room. This is when I really got scared. The room was huge with an impossibly long conference table surrounded by the most expensive leather chairs money could buy. There were tuxedoed waiters with white gloves bringing crystal glasses for the pitchers of water. There was a stenographer with a real steno machine to take the minutes. The room was already filled with executives and lawyers speaking to each other in low voices and grim expressions. I knew then that I was doomed.

Finally the door opened and the SVP came in. A hush fell over the room. Here was a man that everyone in that room feared and respected. You could feel the power and electricity coming from him as he strode in. He sat directly opposite me. I blinked stupidly as the sweat rolled down my sides. Next to me our salesman was gripping his Mont Blanc pen like a drowning sailor clutches at a piece of driftwood. On my right the SE sat stoically. No matter what happened, he would be safe — unless the company went broke because of this debacle.

The SVP opened the meeting as if it were a legal proceeding, reading a summary of the problem and all the actions taken to date, emphasizing our failure to solve it. As he got into it he became angrier and angrier. He started pounding the table and he got red as he spoke of how much time and money had been wasted and spoke of “fraud” and “malfeasance” and “misrepresentation”. All of this vitriol was directed at me. He was further insulted that our company had the nerve to send me, of all people, not even a VP. Finally he pointed at me and said in a harsh voice, “If you can’t fix this problem today, right now, around town your name isn’t going to be worth squat!”

And then he sat back in his chair. I can still hear the leather creaking. There wasn’t another sound in the room. Every eye was on me now, and what I would say next. I had nothing. I didn’t even have anything in my briefcase to fumble with for time.

And then, without even thinking, I said, “Around town it was well known that when they got home at night their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives”

I couldn’t believe my own ears. I couldn’t believe I had just said that. To my left, our salesman looked at me in horror and tried to pull himself away from me in his chair. The SE had his mouth open. So did all the important lawyers in their suits and suspenders. Even the stenographer looked up from her machine at me. I was well and truly fucked. The SVP wound up to scream at me and I flinched.

Then he stopped.

“Wait a minute,” he said, “I know that line…”
“Yes,” I whispered, “It’s from Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ album.”
He said, “I knew that. You like Pink Floyd?”
“Yes,” I said, “It’s my favorite group.”
“Mine too,” he said, suddenly smiling and getting up, “I saw the ‘Wall’ concert in LA in 1980. It was fantastic! I even caught one of Gilmour’s guitar picks. I have it framed in my office with the ticket stubs. Come on, I’ll show you!”

And he got up and walked over to the door. I numbly followed. My ears were ringing and I knew I stunk of sweat and fear. The people in the room were dumbstruck. Everyone had their mouths open or were looking at us in absolute amazement. No one said a word.

As we left the room, the SVP smiled and said to the room, “Oh, we’ll give them a few more weeks,” and he waved them off and we went down the hall. The rest of the visit passed in a blur.

The salesman was pounding the wheel and laughing out loud on the trip back to the airport. “We gotta get you a great big steak,” he said, “You know, you can only get away with that once in your career.” The SE didn’t say a thing except, “I like Pink Floyd too.”

When I got back to the office I was the hero of the hour.

The salesman had called and related the story to everyone he could reach, and I was called into a meeting to recount the adventure. Everyone was laughing and slapping me on the back. It felt good to be the hero for once: tomorrow I would once again be the goat, I was sure. Over the next few weeks we had a dramatic breakthrough in Engineering and the problem was solved, the situation resolved, the customer saved. They went on to buy many thousands more modems.

Pink Floyd saved the day.

What’s a real fact that sounds made-up?

In 2005, in outskirts of Istanbul Turkey, 1500 sheep were grazing in the field. It was early in the day when all the sheep were relaxing in the field eating there breakfast. The shepherd’s were watching the sheep graze, when they noticed one lone sheep break of from the herd and wander off on it’s own.

This didn’t seem out of the ordinary as sheep tend to wander. They watched as the sheep made it’s way to a cliff edge, but before they even realised what was happening the sheep jumped to it’s death. This was obviously devasting for the shepherd’s watching, and they were definitely not preprepared for what happened next.

Suddenly another sheep left the herd and made it’s way to cliff before following the first sheep to it’s doom. This caused another to follow and jump to it’s death causing a domino effect of suicidal sheep.

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The Shepherds tried in vain to stop the sheep from jumping, but it was like they were determined to follow their brothers into the unknown. The sheep began piling up at the bottom of the cliff, but as the sheep piled up in a mass of blood, guts and wool they began to cushion the rest of the sheep as they hit the ground.

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The whole herd, 1500 in total had jumped, but only 450 perished with the rest being cushioned by the first of the doomed sheep.

THIS IS THE WORLDS ANTHEM! FOR THE PEOPLE! (Reaction) | Oliver Anthony-Rich Men North of Richmond

Absolutely incredible! Oliver Anthony shines light on those hiding in the shadows. Those D’s wanting to C everything we do, while trying to cover up and hide everything they do. THIS is the voice we need!

What screams “I’m upper class”?

Many years ago my ex husband and I had our own pottery business.

We sold a lot to members of the British Aristocracy (for some reason it seemed to appeal to them).

We only ever realised who they were when they paid by cheque (credit cards weren’t really a big thing at the time).

We had cheques signed by The Marquis of Bath, The Marchioness of Tavistock, Marquis of Salisbury, Earl Spencer amongst many others.

They were the nicest, most down to earth people that you could wish to meet. All of them were very casually dressed and you would never know that they were aristocracy.

My current husband 🤣 was on guard duty at Windsor Castle during the Falklands conflict. Very early one morning our beautiful late Queen Elizabeth passed him on the way to the stables, no bodyguards or companions. She stopped to talk to him, asking where he was from, about his family. She had no particular need to do so, nothing to prove to anyone.

These people screamed class, without making any sound.

Will Russia become the main bargaining chip in the US-China relations?

No because:

China does not see relationships as being transactional the way the US has;
Russia deserves respect as a sovereign nation which makes its own choices, and if China sold out Russia, it knows that Russia would never trust China again.
It understands that the US always views relationships as transactional, and that it would turn against China when expedient.

Tucker: “We Have Proof Obama was Having Sex With Men, Smoking Crack…”

There is a bunch of pictures of Obama with “a brother”, only before he had the sex change. That’s right. “Michelle is a trans man”.

“Biden is the Obama’s third term”.

BRICS: the China-India factor

By Pepe Escobar

After a long-running buildup pinpointed by immense expectations all across the Global South, Global Majority, or “Global Globe” (as coined by Belarus President Lukashenko), the BRICS summit in South Africa, on its first day, revealed a “lost in translation” incident that should be taken as a serious warning.

The BRICS Business Forum feed on South African network SABC turned into a BRICS linguistic Babel. The voice of all the translators, simultaneously, was clashing on the feed. Explanations vary from the desire to forge a new Esperanto (not likely); plain incompetence from the sound engineering team; the isolation of the translators in a separate cabin, not warned to turn off their mikes; or last but not least, NSA interference, messing up with the translators’ mic frequencies.

Whatever happened metastasized into a serious impediment for a South African – and international – audience, online, to understand what was being discussed. Even though “lost in translation” would not nullify the BRICS’s ambitious agenda for change, it certainly will be played up to the max by the usual Divide and Rule suspects to boost their already in effect all-round Hybrid War against BRICS.

The Shakespearean de-dollarization drama

Whatever the final concrete results of these potentially game-changing days in Johannesburg – I analyzed the key themes here

– the basic facts are immutable.

China and Russia, as the main drivers, are bent on expanding towards BRICS+ to resist imperial bullying, diplomatic and otherwise; build alternatives to SWIFT; promote economic self-reliance among members and autonomy from the sanctions dementia (which will only increase); and eventually forge an alliance against imperial military threats – with the possibility of BRICS+ merging in the future with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The China factor is arguably the key vector in all these complex, intertwined processes. It’s no wonder that President Xi, in his only second state visit abroad in 2023 (after Russia), will convene a special meeting in Johannesburg with dozens of African heads of state.

Chinese public opinion is absolutely riveted

by the BRICS summit, with “interest surpassing the G7”. There’s extensive debate on the whole Empire-defying agenda – from de-dollarization to heightened influence in the energy market – and on the China-India divide, with New Delhi often pointed out as a hostile agent inside BRICS.

Sherpas, off the record, as well as diplomats from the current BRICS five (soon to expand) have been extra-cautious to frame the whole debate not on de-dollarization – still a distant prospect – but on alternative trade/payment systems in local currencies.

Yet in his address by videoconference – saluted like a rock star – President Putin was adamant: the de-dollarization process inside BRICS is irreversible.

Yet it’s internal contradictions that stand out when it comes to BRICS+. New Delhi has been extremely cautious – even as sherpas let it be known that the main rules for admission have been agreed upon.

The proverbial Divide and Rule spoilers have been spinning that Beijing wants BRICS+ to be a competitor to the G7. That’s nonsense. Chinese geopolitics is way more sophisticated – and would never present partners with an iron imperative. Beijing wants to solidify its de facto role of geoeconomics leader of the Global South by seducing the maximum number of partners, not intimidating them.

Thus the importance of the China-Africa meeting. South Africa was the first African nation to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Beijing and Pretoria are celebrating 25 years of diplomatic relations. Xi and Ramaphosa will be talking overall African economic integration, in detail, with all those heads of state.

What does India really want?

China’s vision for BRICS+ and especially for Africa is intrinsically linked to BRI, which after all is Beijing’s overarching foreign policy concept for the next few decades.

India, for its part, has other ideas when it comes to configuring itself as a leader of the Global South. Earlier this year, New Delhi hosted a Voice of the Global South Summit, attended by over 100 nations. That might have conformed a sort of informal, multilateral alliance with diverse values but focusing largely on the same aims promoted by BRICS.

If China rolls with BRI, India rolls with a sort of – complementary – counterpart: the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), where it’s one of the main actors alongside Russia and Iran. So here we have a top BRICS member and a putative BRICS+ member: India is very much keen on Iran’s accession.

All of that in fact points towards integration of BRICS, BRI, INSTC and also SCO (Russia, China, India and Iran are all members). Once again, the devil will be in the “lost in translation” details. There’s no categorical imperative stating Chinese and Indian priorities may not converge.

The RICs (Russia, China,India) have also noted that the overwhelming majority of Global South/Global Majority nations did not support – nor adhered to – the collective West wet dream of strategically suppressing Russia. Even though Russia is now the fifth-largest economy in the world by PPP (over $5 trillion) – ahead of imperial European vassals – the Global South’s perception of Moscow is as “one of our own”.

All that adds extra power to the new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) – which has to be courted full-time by the RICs. Global North late “initiatives” such as the American Build Back Better World

and the EU’s Global Gateway

are regarded as lush rhetoric at best.

Even as China is bound to solidify its prime Global South role especially in Africa after the summit, India counts on a boost as well in its self-designed role as a North-South power. That may be seen as a hedging-your-bets sort of game, as the New Delhi establishment prides itself to be intertwined with the Global North when it comes to strategic goals (Quad? Really?) while remaining a Global South actor.

Well, sooner or later something’s got to give. The Empire tailored its bogus “Indo-Pacific” terminology and strategy specifically to ensnare India. No one across Asia-Pacific has ever referred to the region in terms of “Indo-Pacific”. Yet, in one go, the Empire gets rid of China, the South China Sea and even Southeast Asia to accommodate in a catchy slogan what it regards as a geopolitical neo-colony at best and battering ram against China.

It seems that New Delhi is developing a trend: never live up to its potential when it comes to exercising sovereignty to defy the Hegemon.

Undermining BRICS+ from the inside

Russia’s reach is way more ambitious – ranging from the post-Soviet space across the Heartland to the real Asia-Pacific, West Asia and, much like China, also Africa. All of these players rely on Russian energy, food, chemical fertilisers and a host of commodities. As far as all of them are concerned, there will be no “decoupling” or “de-risking” when it comes to trading with Russia.

In his videoconference address to BRICS, Putin absolutely killed it on the connectivity front – expanding on the INSTC and the Northern Sea Route. Same when it comes to providing free grain to the poorer African nations. He also destroyed the “so-called” grain deal: Moscow would consider coming back, but only if its legitimate demands are met.

In contrast to fast expanding Russian soft power, how could Beijing expand its own – which may be severely lacking in several areas? Setting up Confucius Institutes is not enough; ideally the Chinese should start promoting a string of Global South think tanks, from West Asia to Africa and Latin America, to analyze the ever mounting geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges to the multipolar road.

For the moment, Beijing will turbo-charge institutional forms of South-South interactions, such as the Belt and Road Forum (the next one is in October); the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation; and the China-CELAC forum with Latin American and the Caribbean.

But then again, inside BRICS, it all comes back to China-India. 2023 might become a turning point in their bilateral relations. New Delhi organized the latest SCO summit (unfortunately only online; rumors about internal dissent were never fully disproven). And will preside over the next G20 summit.

And then there’s the toxic external factor: the already ongoing imperial Hybrid War against the BRICS. The usual suspects will go no holds barred to pit Beijing against New Delhi, especially after everything they threw against Moscow miserably failed.

This multi-faceted Hybrid War has been designed to undermine BRICS+ from the inside, especially weaker nodes Brazil and South Africa, and including already mega-sanctioned Iran if it becomes a member. The Empire will go no holds barred to not lose key pivots to Latin American and African hegemony.

As a whole, the RICs – and perhaps soon RIICs – should concentrate their attention on Africa. That doesn’t mean that a host of African nations should be allowed to join BRICS+ literally tomorrow; the question is to be able to help them in several crucial fields as the process of breaking from imperial/neocolonial control is now irreversible.

The Empire never sleeps – at least those who really run the show: Crash Test Dummies impersonating Presidents is another matter. With Taiwan false flag dreams fast waning, all bets are off that the Empire might set up its next big war psyop in Africa.

WHO THE F**K IS THIS GUY?!? Reacting To Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North Of Richmond”

HUNGARY BLOCKS ALL E.U. AID TO UKRAINE!

World Hal Turner 31 August 2023

Hungary has vetoed the European Union’s intent to give more money to Ukraine until such time as Ukraine accounts for the 50-70 Billion EUROS already given!

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said today “Of course I won’t give-=in to pressure. Until we get a detailed, clear account of what the approximately 50-70 billion EUROS spent on Ukraine, was spent on, and until the OTP Bank is removed from the list of so-called International Sponsors of the War, there can be no question of making a decision about additional funds to finance armaments, or _anything_ related to Ukraine.”

European Union Chief, Borrell, was literally in tears (pictured below) over the situation.

Borrell had tried to allocate more “Peace Funds” to Zelensky in Ukraine, but had to publicly admit he could not release the next tranche of funds to Kiev “because Hungary said no.”

With European money now halted for Ukraine, it is only a matter of time before the Ukrainians completely collapse.

Another Betrayal Saudi Arabia Dumps US, Backs Up China In The US China Rivalry!

https://youtu.be/NVfM07YUMYA

Russia Announces “SARMAT” ICBM’s Now on Combat Duty”

World Hal Turner 01 September 2023

Russia Announces "SARMAT" ICBM's Now on Combat Duty"

Russia’s Sarmat strategic missile system has been put on combat duty, Yuri Borisov, the head of Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, said on Friday.

“The Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty,” Borisov said during an educational event.

Russia tested the nuclear-capable Sarmat missile throughout 2022. Last December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia will maintain combat readiness and improve the country’s nuclear triad, which he called the main guarantor of its sovereignty.

The Sarmat system is meant to replace RS-20 Voevoda missile systems. The new missile is capable of striking targets at long ranges using various flight trajectories and is guaranteed to overcome any existing and prospective anti-missile defense systems.

Having the longest range of target engagement, Sarmat is also expected to reinforce the combat capabilities of the Russian strategic nuclear forces. The first test launch of the Sarmat missile was carried out on April 20.

SPECIFICS

The RS-28 Sarmat is a three-stage, liquid-fueled ICBM equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs).

The operational range of RS-28 Sarmat is up to 18,000 km allows it to target almost any location on Earth.

The missile can be armed with 10-15 warheads or a combination of warheads and countermeasures, including dummy warheads to confuse enemy missile defenses.

Additionally, the Sarmat can carry up to two dozen Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, making it an even more formidable weapon.

Each warhead of the RS-28 Sarmat is estimated to have an explosive power of up to 500 kilotons, equivalent to leveling a major metropolitan area.

To put this into perspective, the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 had an explosive power of 15 and 21 kilotons, respectively.

The destructive potential of the Sarmat is unparalleled, and it serves as a potent deterrent against any aggression directed towards Russia.

RESPONSE TO U.S. “PROMPT GLOBAL STRIKE”

Russia points out that the Sarmat missile system is Russia’s response to the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) concept developed by Pentagon planners.

PGS proposes preemptive conventional massed cruise missile strikes to disarm an adversary and eliminate its leadership.

This concept, unveiled after the US withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in 2002, prompted Moscow to develop advanced weapons, including hypersonic missiles and glide vehicles, and ultimately, the Sarmat.

THIS SONG GOT ME EMOTIONAL! Oliver Anothny-Rich Men North of Richmond | Reaction SONG OF THE YEAR

What little-known fact about a dangerous animal would change people’s perception of that animal?

Cheetahs seem ferocious, they’re natural predators; carnivores. They typically stalk their prey, charge towards it, trip it up and bite its throat to suffocate it, you know, to make it nice for the eating.

They’re the fastest land animal, too.

Cheetahs are “instinctively shy” – they’re nervous and shy animals by nature

So, when they’re kept in zoos, their anxiety keeps them from socialising with each other, and most importantly, from procreating. This puts them at a high risk of becoming extinct. (Risk of extinction is why they’re in zoos in the first place – to help get their numbers up.)

For years zoos have been pairing cheetahs with their very own support dogs.

These doggos are raised from very young ages alongside the cheetahs. They live companionably; the cheetahs take their social cues from the dogs, because dogs are very sociable animals by nature.

Cheetahs are so sensitive by nature that almost all of those who are held in captivity suffer from anxiety-related conditions, but dogs make it better, just by being their friends.

[1]Footnotes

[1]Jordan Zhouyi’s answer to What rare fact do you know about an animal that would change a lot of people’s perceptions of that animal?

“We Have Never Seen Anything Like This” | Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture. Victor discusses current political and social events and ideas, and current and past cultural trends.

Beef Ragout with Grilled Bread

This dish can be made in a slow cooker or the stovetop. Canola oil is used to make both the ragout and grilled bread because of its neutral flavor and heat tolerance. The ragout is served with bread to soak up the hearty and flavorful broth, but it can be served with pasta or polenta instead.

Yield: 6 servings; serving size 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) ragout

Ingredients

Ragout

1 pound lean beef roast such as round tip roast 500 g
1 tablespoon canola oil 15 mL
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning 15 mL
1 medium eggplant, not peeled, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 (15 ounce/426 mL) cans low-sodium crushed tomatoes
1 cup red wine 250 mL
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped 60 mL

Grilled Bread

12 slices whole grain Italian bread, sliced on bias, about 1-inch thick each
1 tablespoon canola oil 15 mL

Instructions

In large, nonstick skillet, brown each side of beef roast in canola oil. Place roast in slow cooker.*
Add onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and red wine. Cook on LOW heat for 8 to 9 hours (or on HIGH heat for 4 to 5 hours) until beef is tender and has an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (65 degrees C).
When beef is cooked, shred with a fork.
To prepare grilled bread: Brush bread with canola oil and grill for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, until toasted.
To serve, top ragout with parsley. Serve with grilled bread.

Notes

* If preparing on stovetop, use a large pot (8-quart) and bring ragout ingredients, except parsley, to boil and simmer covered for at least 30 minutes.

If I travel and visit China, does that also mean that my face is also permanently in the database of Chinese government? Do non-citizens effectively have fewer rights than citizens?

In the US, if you go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get your driver’s license, the same thing happens, and US security services and intelligence agencies can access your photos and data.

The same thing happens when you apply for your passport.

Get over it.

Rescue a dying kitten that the owner abandoned it front my clinic the kitten only breathing

Sad, but then there is hope.

I once had a cat named Scooby

I once had a cat named Scooby.

I loved him dearly, and he was a good cat. I will tell you that we had him for perhaps four years when he started having problems, and so we took him to the vet.

It turned out that he had Feline AIDS, and Feline FIV, and was very contagious. Our vet recommended that we put him down so as not to contaminate the rest of the cats in the neighborhood. So we resigned ourselves to keeping him in our home and isolated.

But over time, he started to behave aggressively and strangely. Like peeing over everything.

And he kept on breaking out of the house…

Eventually, we got him, and took him to the vet and “put him down”.

I was there, and from the moment the needle was inserted he knew what was going on; and he hated me for it. I could feel his spirit attacking me, clawing at me. Biting me, and hissing at me.

This went on for hours before it finally dissipated.

I hated it.

I hated everything from having to put him down, to the fact that he was sick, to the hate being directed towards me. It was a grim time.

Two days later, I had to fly out for a job interview.

While I was sitting on the flight, Scooby came to me (in spirit form, of course) and curled up in my lap. He forgave me. And was giving me love. He lay there in my lap for the three hour flight, and then disappeared.

I do miss that lanky old cat.

He was a good little guy.

…

Nothing lasts forever. I look forward to seeing him again “on the other side”.

…

Todays run…

China’s 6nm automotive-grade chip passes certification!

https://youtu.be/dLB7xvbhtfY

What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?

Flying back from Mallorca on Jet2, the pilot said on the intercom:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re ready early and we’ve made it with plenty of time for our departure slot. The bad news is that unfortunately it seems the Spanish air traffic controllers have decided to walk out in solidarity with striking French controllers so we currently have a 2 hour wait. However, to ease the boredom, I’ll step out of the cockpit and you can all come up, sit in the pilot’s chair and be shown around by the first officer who’ll answer any questions you have”

The second I saw him come out of the cockpit I sprang out of my seat to get to the front of the inevitable queue and had a good chat with the FO while sitting in the seat. My impressions were that the cockpit of a 737–800 is a lot smaller than you’d think and that the seats are pretty difficult to move.

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After 90 mins the pilot is on the intercom again:

“Folks, unfortunately we’ve been told we have another 2 hours, 45 minutes wait (huge groans from the cabin)
Only joking, we’ve got to get going quickly so back to your seats and buckle up soon as you can! (cheers from cabin)”

The pilot landed pretty hard in Birmingham and 10 seconds after reducing reverse thrust was back on the intercom:

“I’ve just been informed that my landing was a bit on the hard side. I don’t know what the fuss is about, it seemed fine to me. But apologies to anyone with loose fillings”

My goodness!

What is the most outrageous “fee” you’ve ever been charged?

Decades ago, I received a past-due notice for a loan payment to a bank I’d never done business with. Puzzled, I called the bank. After explaining my confusion three times, I finally was talking with someone who had sense enough to look into it instead of fobbing me off to someone else.

“Did you make a purchase from Such-and-such Music Store?” Indeed, I’d purchased a piano for my wife a month or so earlier. (Might’ve been nice if the salesman had mentioned they’d turn the loan over to a third party, but whatever.)

I then asked the bank worker how the *very first* communication I’d received from the bank could be a past-due notice.

“You should have received a payment coupon book,” she said. (As indicated, this was ages ago.)

“I’ve received nothing from you till this,” I replied.

And then, to my everlasting amazement, she said, “I know. The printing company we use had an equipment breakdown and the coupon books haven’t gone out for a while.”

That “I know” blew me away. The bank *knew* their customers weren’t being told when their payments would be due, and how much they would be—and, in cases such as mine, didn’t even know their loan had been sold to that bank—and instead of notifying people, they just sent out overdue notices.

With a late fee attached, of course.

So I told the nice lady that I’d be happy to make the payment, but I would not stand for a late charge.

Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Why not?”

“Because I wasn’t late—*you* were!”

In the end, she had to have a VP call me later, and after I went over it all again, he agreed it was kinda dumb for them to send late notices to people who didn’t even know they had a loan with that bank, he waived the late fee.

That only took half of my day.

U.S And Europe in Trouble As China Rush Into Legacy Chips!

What is the most, “What were they thinking?” marketing mistakes you’ve seen?

In 2007, Jennifer Strange entered a competition to win a “Wii. console.” The competition was run by local radio station in Rancho Cordova, in California, and was called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii.”

The challenge was a group of participants had to drink as much water as you can, and who ever could hold their wee the longest would win the Wii console.

Jennifer strange drank more than one and half gallons of water in just three hours, but still only managed to come second in the competition. One of Jennifer’s co-workers who was driving her home after the competition, said she started to complain about a sever headache, which became so bad she started crying.

A few hours after the competition Jennifer Strange was found dead in her room, with the cause of death ruled as “Acute Water Intoxication.”

Her parents sued the radio station and they were found liable for her death, and the parents were awarded 16 million dollars in compensation.

China Scientists Tease the US as They Found a Weak Spot in US “Undetectable Submarines”!

https://youtu.be/9FYE_-FiHPw

South Korea To Run “NUCLEAR ATTACK” Evacuation Drill August 23

World Hal Turner 18 August 2023

The entire country of South Korea will stage a NUCLEAR ATTACK EVACUATION DRILL on August 23. Fifty-one Million (51,000,000) citizens are REQUIRED to participate to practice evacuating to shelters or underground safe spaces during the 20-minute exercise.

The drill, scheduled for 2:00 PM on Wednesday, August 23, will see many drivers required to pull over to the side of roads and the exits to subway stations closed with commuters required to remain inside, a statement from the South Korean Interior Ministry said.

“We expect to strengthen the response capacity of the nation through a practical drill reflecting the aspects of provocations of North Korea,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a news release this week.

The release said the 20-minute drill is part of a larger exercise to test the South Korean government’s response to potential threats including “advanced nuclear missile threats, cyber attacks, drone terrors, etc.”

The prime minister also called on South Koreans to take the drills seriously, something that hasn’t always been the case.

The Interior Ministry said 17,000 shelters would be open nationwide, and locations are searchable in popular Korean online apps.

The South Korean prime minister said the civil defense drill would be held in conjunction with large-scale US-South Korea military exercises that have drawn sharp criticism from Pyongyang in the past.

It will also come less than a week after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol travels to the United States for a trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, where “the continued threat posed by” North Korea will be on the agenda, according to a White House statement.

Hal Turner Opinion

HMMMMM. Having a nuclear evacuation “drill” of 51 Million people into 17,000 shelters at THE SAME TIME as a large-scale US-South Korea military “exercise???????????”

Gee, it occurs to me that maybe that military “exercise” isn’t an “exercise” at all. What if they first-strike North Korea?

With 51 Million South Koreans already inside Shelters, and US-South Korean Troops already on-station and fully armed – seems to me it would be a perfect opportunity for the US to first-strike North Korea.

What better conditions would exist than the ones described above?

Easy Sloppy Joe Pot Pie

All the great taste of classic sloppy joes in an easy one-skillet pot pie. No one will miss the buns!

Prep: 5 min | Bake: 40 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can original sloppy joe sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cook beef and onion in ovenproof 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain.
Stir in sloppy joe sauce.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Stir remaining ingredients until blended. Pour over beef mixture.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

Special Touch: Before baking, sprinkle with a tablespoon of sesame seed.

Woman Dies And Is Shown The Year 2042 And Beyond | Near Death Experience | NDE

U.S. Sanctions Syrian ‘Moderate Rebels’ It Had Previously Armed

In 2013 the CIA was handing out TOW anti-tank missiles to ‘moderate rebel’ groups who were fighting the government in Syria. These groups were allegedly ‘vetted’ before they receive money and weapons. Unfortunately ‘vetting’ was something the CIA had never been good at.

One of the groups that received such support was the Hamza Division:

Hamza Division (Forqat al-Hamza – فرقة الحمزة): An FSA-banner group composed of six substituent brigades that operate mostly in the environs of Inkhil, Daraa. The Hamza Division has received TOW ATGMs and it works under the supervision of the Daraa Military Council. They receives foreign support from Western and Arab state backers and are a member of the Southern Front coalition. The Southern Front has stated their commitment to a civil state, and have released a comprehensive political program in support of democratic reform. The Division came together with the Syria Revolutionaries Front and the 1st Artillery Regiment to create the 1st Army, which later disbanded. The Hamza Division continues using the 1st Army imagery alongside its own while the other former substituents do not. Social Media: YouTube;YouTube (older channel)

Hamza was later also supported by the Pentagon. Without such support the group would never have become a viable entity. Things got a bit complicated when militias armed by the Pentagon started to fight those armed by the CIA.

Later Hamza was sponsored by the Turkish state. This again made things a bit complicated:

Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai – 17:39 · Oct 16, 2019

Do you remember when the #US spent $500 million to train/arm Al-Hamza Division?

Well the US-trained “Moderate rebels” are fighting – under a NATO flagged country (#Turkey) – the US-trained Kurdish YPG in the area occupied by the #US.

I’ll make it even easier: A few minutes ago, #US Prsdt @realDonaldTrump said the “PKK is far more dangerous than #ISIS (The Islamic State)”.

The US trained & armed Syrian Kurds proxies, the YPG, are the Syrian branch of the PKK that Trump considers far more dangerous than ISIS.

Ten years after being ‘vetted’ the Hamza division is again receiving U.S. attention. This time from the Department of the Treasuries:

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating two Syria-based armed militias and three members of the groups’ leadership structures in connection with serious human rights abuses against those residing in the Afrin region of northern Syria. An auto sales company owned by the leader of one of the armed groups is also being designated.
…
The Hamza Division, another armed opposition group operating in northern Syria, has been involved in abductions, theft of property, and torture. The division also operates detention facilities in which it houses those it has abducted for extended periods of time. During their imprisonment, victims are held for ransom, often suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Hamza Division fighters.

The Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13894 for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged in, the commission of serious human rights abuses against the Syrian people.
…
Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr is the leader of the Hamza Division and its public face, appearing in numerous propaganda videos produced by the Hamza Division. While Abu Bakr has been commander, the Hamza Division has been accused of brutal repression of the local population, including kidnapping Kurdish women and severely abusing prisoners, at times leading to their death.

Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13894 for acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Hamza Division.

The AP report about the new sanctions does not mention any Pentagon or CIA support the groups had previously received.

One wonders how long it will take until the U.S. will sanction the fascists militia it has and is now arming and sponsoring in Ukraine.

Posted by b on August 18, 2023 at 15:36 UTC | Permalink

Well Ladies, Men Have Gotten The Message…Enjoy Your Cats!

Confessions of a 57-Year-Old Virgin

August 16, 2023

I’m a 57 year old man, about three years away from whatever the grandmaster of all the wizards are. I’ve never hugged a woman before (beside female relatives), never dated anyone before, no one at all. And then obviously that means that I never had my first kiss and I’m still a virgin.

Now, if I were to sit here and tell some random stranger on the street about my current life predicament, I would be laughed at until the end of time.

That brings me to my first point of advice. Ignore all of that crap. It’s worthless to feel like shit, for what? Because life didn’t come as anticipated. It can be harsh, but it’s not entirely over.

Which brings me to my second point of advice. Get out any way that you possibly can, I cannot stress this enough!

Up until the age of around 52, I never went out. I was a complete loner. One day, I decided enough was enough and I finally got off my ass and made something worth living for.

I began engraining myself into work dynamics and friendships. (By the way, get a job if you dont have one). I made it my personal goal to make friends any way that I could.

Eventually I had my first solid group of friends in roughly 45 years, yes you heard that number right.

The results? I currently do fantasy league with them once a week, as well as a cards night. Every couple of weeks we meet up at a bar, and I’m telling you it all came about from not giving up and striving to make something of my life.

Also, I keep up with hobbies such as working on used cars in my past time, so that’s another thing to keep in mind. I’m going to guess most people aren’t as old as me, maybe a majority are in their late teens to early 30s.

If you are in this range, even mid 30s, you still have a shot to not only make good friends like I did being the bum that I was, but also to get a date. Especially if you are a teen, that won’t be a problem in the slightest.

I’m saying this because doing what I’m doing at 57 is far more valuable during the younger years.

I know now that if I would’ve started this train of thought, I probably could’ve picked a date or two at least by now. That ship has sailed for me. Don’t worry though, I got over my self pity at 45 and my libido has dropped, so good friends, my dog, and beer, is what I make of life now.

Finally, good luck out there guys and ladies and don’t put yourself down. Strive to bring self-worth and meaning to your life!

BRICS Bank Just Dropped A Huge Bombshell | Stuns Everyone With This Move

Wow wow wow Amazing Incredible BRAVO CONGRATULATIONS.

Woman Finally dates Traditional Man

Cool Finds

What Is Self Discipline And How To Build More Of It

August 15, 2023

Self-discipline means that you do the things that you know are right or beneficial, even if they’re difficult. But what does that really mean? What does that actually look like?

People often associate self-discipline with diet and exercise, but it goes beyond that. Yes, staying active and eating clean in our current culture takes discipline, but being a self-disciplined person goes way beyond that.

When you build self-discipline, you’ll find it reaching into all areas of your life: your career, your relationships, your goals, your attitude, your self-talk, your mindset. Self-discipline becomes a part of who you are and impacts every single decision that you make each day. Disciplined people start to prioritize their future selves out of habit.

Discipline means having the ability to hold back those damaging words that you want to say during a disagreement. It’s being honest with yourself, looking at your weaknesses and assessing them so that you can improve. It’s sticking to commitments that you’ve made, both to other people and to yourself.

Self-discipline is a skill!

I cannot tell you the number of times that people have said things like, “I wish I could do what you do,” or “I wish I was as disciplined as you are,” to me, and it frustrates me every single time.

I know that it’s easy to tell ourselves that we aren’t capable of the things that other people accomplish. When we decide that we just aren’t capable of working out five times per week or starting a business or building a happy and stable relationship, we give ourselves an out.

By deciding that disciplined people are somehow different from you, you have what seems like a valid excuse for why you haven’t done all of those things that disciplined people do. You’ve convinced yourself that you just aren’t capable of it so it’s okay that you haven’t done it.

But that’s not true.

You are capable.

You are stronger than you realize.

And I know this because I know that self-discipline is a skill. I haven’t always been a disciplined person. I, too, have spent 14 hours a day sleeping, eaten whatever I felt like eating, procrastinated on my homework until the absolute last second, and gone months without getting any real physical activity.

Then, I decided to build self-discipline. And just like building any other skill, it took practice. I made mistakes, I faced setbacks, I struggled, and sometimes I fell off the wagon—in fact, I still do all of these things. Discipline is a skill that I am still building because—just like any other skill—there is always more to learn. You can always continue to improve.

You can become a disciplined person.

If you’re reading this blog, I’m sure there are a lot of things that you want to do, but you haven’t done them yet, and you likely aren’t working toward them consistently, or even at all.

You might want to start a business, go to school, improve your grades, get in better shape, learn to play an instrument, work on your mental health, write a book, etc. You have things in mind that you would like to do.

These things haven’t happened for one reason: lack of self-discipline.

Self-discipline is the skill that lets you build every other skill.

When you build self-discipline, you become the kind of person who does all of those things that you’ve always wanted to do.

A little later in this article, I’ll give you some advice on how to start building self-discipline, but for now, sit with everything I’ve just said. Start to consider that you are much more similar to me than you might realize. You are 100% capable of the things that you want to do and the only thing standing in your way is a lack of discipline. You can build that discipline.

How does self-discipline improve my life?

You already know that eating healthy, starting your homework early, going to bed on time, exercising regularly, managing your time, and meditating will improve your life. But as most people already know, doing all of these things, and doing them regularly, is difficult.

If you try to rely on motivation to do these things, you’re never going to do them because most of the time, most people don’t feel like doing these things.

You’d rather do what’s easy and enjoyable. You’d rather sleep in, eat fatty, sugary foods, and have a lazy, fun, easy life.

But that lazy, fun, easy life is only fun at first. Soon, you’ll start to face consequences. You’ll be tired all the time. You’ll see others reaching their goals and realize you haven’t accomplished anything in months. Your mental and physical health nose-dive.

What started out as fun and easy soon becomes miserable.

Those things that disciplined people do—exercising, planning, goal setting, thinking ahead—those things benefit your future self. And one day, you’re going to be your future self. The actions that you take now directly impact the life that you will get to live one day.

So how does self-discipline improve your life? Well, if you have the discipline now to save money, eat clean, exercise, work toward a career that you love, build healthy relationships, and create systems and routines that benefit you and your mental and physical health, one day, all of those things will pay off.

One day, you will be happy and healthy. You’ll be in a positive place living a life that you enjoy waking up to.

And I know this because I’ve done it. I’ve been putting in the work for long enough that I’m living and enjoying a life that I built intentionally. And I’m continuing to put in work that will improve my life so that it only goes up from here.

Self-discipline directly translates to living a life that you love. Self-discipline brings stable, long-term happiness.

Why is self-discipline important?

This is something that I’ve touched on before and is probably fairly apparent already from the previous section of this post. Self-discipline is important because motivation is fleeting and unreliable.

To get where you want to go, you need to complete a set of tasks, and either you want to do those tasks or you don’t. I doubt anybody would argue that those statements are untrue.

If you want to do those tasks, that’s motivation. In those moments, it’s easy to find the time and energy to do what needs to be done.

If you don’t want to do those tasks, and you’re trying to rely on motivation to get them done, the chance that those tasks will ever be completed is low. You likely know from experience that it’s hard to drum up motivation when you need it.

Discipline, on the other hand, is reliable. When you have self-discipline, it doesn’t matter if you want to put in the work. Disciplined people do what needs to be done regardless of how they’re feeling.

Many of us fall into the habit of doing what’s easy rather than doing what needs to be done. When you have discipline, you can do what needs to be done. When you can do what needs to be done, you reach your goals. If your goals are important to you, then self-discipline should be as well.

How to build self-discipline

Self-discipline is an odd beast to tackle. It’s simple, yet it’s not. And because it isn’t something that you can build outside of the context of your everyday life, becoming more disciplined inherently involves changing your life.

Begin by figuring out a direction. Start considering what actions that you currently do that you’d like to quit and what things that you don’t currently do that you’d like to do habitually.

Realize that building discipline is necessary to change your life and that the act of building discipline is what changes your life. The two things are inseparable. If you aren’t ready to change your life and don’t have a direction you want to go, you aren’t in a place to start becoming more disciplined.

Recommended Reading: The 5-4-3-2-1 Method for Setting and Getting to Your Goals

Self-discipline doesn’t look the same for everyone, and it doesn’t look the same day-to-day. What gets you moving one day might not work the next. Learn and grow with it so that you build an arsenal of strategies to use when you need them, and don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad day or five. It’s normal to struggle sometimes.

At its core, self-discipline means taking action.

Your aim throughout this process is to practice quickly making the decision that you know is right and then acting on that decision.

Rather than debating whether or not to go to the gym, then eventually deciding two hours later that it’s the right choice, then sitting on the couch for another 45 minutes before putting on your sneakers, discipline means deciding to go to the gym the moment it crosses your mind and then heading out the door.

That is your eventual goal. That is what you’re working toward. Some days, you’ll have no problem doing that. Other days, it will be a battle. The more you practice deciding quickly and taking prompt action, the better you’ll get at it. This is how you build discipline.

Let’s be clear: if you aren’t acting, you are not building discipline. Reading this blog post is a decent first step, but if your actions don’t change because of it, you have made exactly zero progress in the self-discipline department.

Practice taking action.

Practice doing small actions even when you don’t want to do them. This is probably the best way that I know of to build discipline. You don’t want to hang your coat up when you come home? Too bad. Do it. Don’t think about it, just do it.

You don’t want to do the dishes? Too bad. Do it.
You don’t want to write that paper? Too bad. Get started.

I know that it sounds harsh, but when you start with small steps and work up to bigger tasks, it becomes easier to act despite your feelings. Practice ignoring your desire to avoid action.

Now, I’ll soften that blow a bit. Yes, “just do it” is the ideal. Acting quickly based on what you know is right is the aim, but that isn’t always possible. Sometimes it’s a bit of an internal battle, and that’s okay. There are some strategies that you can use to act when you don’t feel like it. After all, the goal is action. Getting there with a little help is better than not getting there at all.

START SMALL

I wish I could scream this from the rooftops. I wish I could scream it and scream it and scream it until my lungs give out.

The bigger the task is that you don’t want to do, the more you won’t want to do it. The smaller you can make it, the easier it will be to do.

Your goal is action. A smaller action than you intended is always better than no action at all. There is no shame in scaling back a bit so that you have an easier time getting moving. Doing one pushup is better than doing zero of the ten you intended to do. Washing three dishes is better than not cleaning the entire kitchen, even if that was your original goal.

On a broader scale, don’t attempt to overhaul your entire life overnight. I have a whole blog post about this. Focus your efforts on one area at a time. You’ll be much less likely to burn out, you’ll see faster results, and you’ll be much more successful in the long run.

Find Your Why

I’ve talked about this about 10,000 times before so just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll just link you to the post about it.

I do want to note, though, that it’s okay if your Why stems from wanting to leave a negative situation rather than wanting to reach a positive one. I often frame Whys in terms of positive things—the goals that you’ll reach, for example—without acknowledging that my first Why was that I wanted to improve a bad situation.

I was trying to build a better life after a rough break up, largely out of spite and a little sadness. Though I now focus my Whys on the good things that I will reach because of my actions, it is valid to build discipline that is motivated by a desire to leave a bad situation. In fact, wanting to leave a bad place in life is a pretty common reason for people to want to build self-discipline.

Practice calling yourself out on your excuses

Most of the “reasons” that we give for why we didn’t do something are invalid. On the surface, they may seem fine and they’re enough to placate our brains and prevent us from feeling guilty, but they don’t stand up to further inspection.

Start taking time to assess your excuses. Remind yourself that you really want to see results. You really want to start making progress. Does your excuse truly prevent you from doing what you need to do? Is there any way that you could create a backup plan?

Next time you find yourself making an excuse, write it down. Then write three reasons why you want to do the thing you’re trying to avoid and three things that you could do instead, even if you don’t accomplish your primary goal.

For example, if you decide you can’t go for a run because it’s raining, list three reasons why you want to exercise, and then create a list of three things that you could do instead of going for a run, like doing yoga or going for a run on a treadmill. You’ll train yourself to reconsider your excuses and realize that just because you can’t accomplish your original goal doesn’t mean you can’t many any progress at all.

Monitor your feelings

As I’ve said before, self-discipline means doing what needs to be done, even if you don’t feel like it. Most of the time, “I don’t feel like it,” and “I don’t want to,” are not valid reasons not to do something that needs to be done. Learn to shut them down.

But that isn’t to say that you should totally ignore your feelings. They’re there for a reason. Notice them—meditation can help—and respond appropriately. Often, we may not feel like doing something that’s good for us even though that thing will actually make us feel better. Self-discipline often means getting uncomfortable and knowing that the discomfort is worth it.

Self-discipline is a tricky beast. It gives you what you need to be consistent, which gets you to where you want to be. It takes practice and patience, but it will improve your life in the long run.

Discipline means being willing to choose long-term gains over immediate success. When you think long-term, the whole process starts to become easier and make more sense. Practice becoming friends with your future self, and before long, you’ll start seeing the results of your self-discipline paying off.

– Life By Grit

Europe Panic: China Cancel $100 Billion Car Order from Germany!

In today’s video, we explore the complex relationship between the European Union and China, focusing on Germany’s recently canceled $100 billion car order. How did we get here, and what does this mean for Europe’s future? Join us as we dive into the policies, decisions, and global economic trends that have shaped this unprecedented situation.

Interesting

Raining spiders, frogs, fish and … meat. Yes, meat.

What is Occam’s Razor?

August 15, 2023

Occam’s razor is often misstated as “the simplest answer is the correct one,” but it should more accurately be “the simplest answer is the best starting point to investigate.”

The idea is that the more different variables or assumptions have to add up to get to a solution, the more difficult it is to investigate, and the less likely it is to occur in general. “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” is the classical way to state it.

So the classic example is: you hear hoofbeats outside, is it a horse or a zebra? Well unless you live in the African savannah, it’s very unlikely to be a zebra. We’d need more assumptions to get there – a zebra was imported to a local zoo, it escaped captivity, and now it’s running amok. Whereas a horse requires just one assumption – a horse is nearby. That doesn’t mean that it cannot be a zebra, it just means that you should start at “it’s probably a horse” and investigate from there.

I had a fun moment the other day, when I went to my kitchen and saw a jar of pickles left out on the counter. I knew it wasn’t me, which left two possibilities that my brain somehow jumped to:

A burglar broke in, stole several other items, and also ate a pickle. He left the jar out to taunt me.
My wife had a pickle and then forgot to put away the jar.

I could have totally checked my locks, made sure my valuables were still in the right place, etc. Instead I just yelled “Hey, did you leave this pickle jar out?” and got the simpler answer right away. Starting with the simpler solution (fewer assumptions than my burglar story) got me to the right answer efficiently.

Man Dies, Sees Future & Says Don’t Freak Out (Powerful NDE)

Gary Wimmer had an NDE (Near-Death Experience) and discovered what happens after death. He saw seven beings/angels, and after leaving his body was shown future events. Gary’s NDE (Near-Death Experience) showed him that there is life after death, and it was a life-altering experience that changed him forever.

Now this is something that I would buy

Gobble It Up Pot Pie

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

Filling

2 (15 ounce) cans mixed vegetables, drained
1 pound (2 cup) cooked turkey, shredded
1 (12 ounce) jar turkey gravy

Topping

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1 (6 ounce) package instant turkey stuffing mix
1 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Filling: In large mixing bowl, combine vegetables, turkey and gravy; mix well.
Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole.
Topping: In skillet, melt butter.
Add onion and celery and cook until tender.
Add seasoning packet from stuffing mix and water. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat; stir in stuffing. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Stir in dried cranberries.
Spread stuffing evenly over vegetable mixture.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until heated through.

Girl With Huge TaTa’s Gets HUMBLED For The First Time In Her Life!

“A small peep is natural, BUT a wide pussy is man-made” I laughed so hard at this statement it took me 12 minutes to gather myself enough to write it down

How to (actually) talk to kids

It’s not dissimilar from talking to other adults, but even the most well-meaning grown-ups can forget that.

By Charley Locke Aug 13, 2023, 7:00am EDT

Somehow, despite our best efforts, it still happens to even the most self-assured adult. You’re at a birthday party or a family dinner or a picnic in the park, and suddenly, you find yourself face to face with a kid. You introduce yourselves, there’s a slight pause, and then, even though you know better, you hear the boring question coming out of your mouth: “So how’s school?”

Why are adults so bad at talking to kids, considering each and every one of us used to be one? “We forget what it’s like to be a child,” says Tina Payne Bryson, a psychotherapist and co-author of The Whole-Brain Child. “It’s hard sometimes to relate to kids because the rhythm of our days is so different.” Our brains and habits have changed, and as adults, it can be tough to remember what it’s like to be a 10-year-old.

But that’s the key: Talking to and connecting with 10-year-olds now doesn’t require remembering what you were like at 10. Instead, it’s all about approaching them as people: individuals who have their own interests, insights, and personalities. If you’re curious, warm, and earnest, you can make a new friend — and leave your awkward adult persona behind.

Find a point of connection

Much like in an initial conversation with an adult stranger, it can be hard to know where to begin. But once you offer up an open-ended topic, a kid will often run with it. Icebreakers with a kid can be situational. If you’re at a barbecue, ask them what their favorite condiment is. Or they can be general: Did you see a funny animal video recently? “You just want to get the kid talking,” says Ben R., an 11-year-old who lives in Highland Ranch, Colorado. “You want to get to know them.” Ben recommends starting with a question about something that you enjoy. If you like video games, ask what games they like to play; if you’re a big reader, ask about their favorite recent book.

The framing is important. “Adults reach for whatever they can, and ask a yes or no question,” says Robyn Silverman, host of the podcast How to Talk to Kids About Anything. If a kid is wearing a baseball cap, asking whether they like baseball is not a good question — just like if you were wearing a baseball cap, that question wouldn’t encourage you to keep talking. Don’t despair: You can just tweak the format of a question to improve it. “Instead of ‘How’s school?’, you could ask, ‘If you were principal for the day, what’s one thing you’d absolutely change?’” suggests Silverman. “A more interesting question will elicit a response more than ‘fine.’”

That first conversational volley is all about finding a point of connection. It could be a shared interest, such as the card game Codenames, or a low-stakes disagreement, like whether dipping french fries in a milkshake is delicious or gross. “The great thing about asking questions is to find out what you have in common,” says Ben. “You’ll feel more relaxed then and can focus on connecting through that.”

Ask good follow-up questions

The next step in a good conversation with a kid? Pay attention. This is where many adults slip up. Instead of actually listening to what a kid has to say and asking a relevant follow-up question, they jump in with a long story about themselves — or, worse, offer up a weird non sequitur. Recently, Ben was waiting in line for a waterslide when the adult behind him asked what grade he was in. After he answered, the stranger, who had not previously met the fifth-grader, replied by saying that he grew up so fast. “I thought to myself, is this how adults are? They just ask simple questions, half-pay attention to the conversation, and get distracted by something else?” Ben says. “I felt like he could have just realized that I could talk the same way everybody else could, but he made it really awkward for the rest of the conversation.”

Asking a good follow-up question is all about active listening, which requires humility. A kid is a person with their own interests and expertise, and you can learn from them, just like you learn from a conversation with another adult. “Kids are egocentric in nature, and they love to talk about what they love,” says Morgan Eldridge, a clinical psychologist who recommends framing a child as the expert on what they care about. “If you don’t know anything about Pokémon cards, ask them to tell you about it.”

More key aspects of active listening are body language and tone. If you’re talking to a younger kid, physically get down on their level so that you’re not looming over them. For kids and adults alike, face them, put away your phone, make eye contact, and smile. No need to speak in a different voice, though. “There are multiple occasions where adults have talked to me with a childish tone,” says Ben. “We’re more sophisticated than they think.”

When you’re fostering a comfortable conversational environment for a kid, you should also think about safety. There’s an inherent power imbalance between an adult and a kid, especially when you don’t know each other well, and as the adult, you’re responsible for making sure that your relationship and conversation stay appropriate. “Kids need to feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure,” says Bryson. “When you smile and have relaxed posture, it sends signals of safety and connection.”

Let their enthusiasm lead

Once the conversation is moving, step back. “When talking to kids, adults make the mistake that they need to talk a lot,” says Silverman. “But people [not just children!] actually love it when you listen.” Instead, ask questions and let the kid direct the flow; they’ll naturally lead the conversation toward what interests them most.

In many cases, this means going in a speculative, silly direction, which can be tricky for grown-ups. “Adults are more logical and solution-driven,” says Bryson. “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to play.” To rediscover your playful side, you can always ask an open-ended question, or even a goofy one: If you were going to open a restaurant that only serves three dishes, what would they be? What celebrity has the coolest style of all time? Would you rather have to fight 50 mosquito-sized alligators or one alligator-sized mosquito?

No matter what, don’t dismiss their enthusiasm. If a kid loves basketball but you don’t care about sports, ask them to tell you about their favorite player of all time. If they just learned a ton about bugs in a science unit, don’t try to show off how much you know — encourage them to share instead. “There’s a power imbalance, and it seems to give adults permission to belittle,” says Silverman.

If you do make a faux pas, like talking over them or getting distracted, own up to it, apologize, and redirect. You can always say, “I just spaced out, I’m sorry. What were you saying about summer camp?” Just pick the conversation back up afterward.

Be yourself (even if that means being shy)

Kids have different temperaments and personalities, just like adults do. They don’t expect everyone to be outgoing and loud. In fact, not every kid will want you to be. “Just like different friends appeal to different people, different kinds of adults will appeal to different kids,” says Bryson. “The boisterous adult doesn’t appeal to some kids, and the quiet adult doesn’t appeal to others.” Just come as you are, since kids can tell whether you’re being authentic or not. “It’s really about showing up as yourself in the moment,” Bryson says.

If you are on the quieter side, don’t worry. Kids know what it’s like to feel anxious in a conversation, too. “Sometimes you just get nervous, and that’s okay,” says Fiona A., an 8-year-old who lives in Salinas, California. “Or sometimes you need a little bit of alone time. Just be you.”

Ben suggests a trick that he uses when he feels awkward or unsure about what to talk about: When you get stuck and start to feel self-conscious, ask a question. “Even if you don’t pay attention, it diverts the conversation away from yourself,” he says. “You learn more about them, and also you don’t have to talk as much.”

Sometimes, you’ll notice that a kid seems anxious to be talking to an adult. In that case, make sure you’re projecting a warm, friendly, safe environment. Being vulnerable can help them feel more comfortable, too. “A lot of adults are authority figures, and sharing something embarrassing can make us more accessible,” says Bryson. When she’s talking to a quiet kid, she often shares a story about when the class rat bit her in first grade at the school Christmas party; her listeners are always on the edge of their seats, ready to share their own best animal story afterward. You can be vulnerable about feeling awkward, too: If you share that you often feel shy at parties, then it normalizes the kid feeling shy.

And if they’d rather be quiet, it’s also fine to share a companionable silence. “If we ask a question or two and they don’t expand, it just means they don’t want to be asked a question right now,” says Bryson. If they’re not uncomfortable with quiet, then you shouldn’t be, either.

Refer back to your shared interests

Once you’ve had a friendly conversation with a kid and found some common ground, you can start to develop an ongoing relationship with them. Just like with a new adult friend, it’s important to remember details about them and refer back to them in future conversations. Did they tell you about joining the soccer team? Ask how the season is going. Did you bond over your love of superhero movies? Ask them what they thought of the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. If you know in advance that you’re going to see a kid who you’ve already spent time with, you could send them something that you can then talk about in person. Bryson recently hosted a friend and their 13-year-old son; in anticipation of his visit, she sent him some funny dog videos on Instagram. That offers an easy way to break the ice and connect in person again.

No matter the age gap, making conversation and becoming friends always happens much the same way: capitalizing on shared interests, asking good questions, and paying attention. And once you’re friends, conversation is easy. “After I get to know an adult, it’s easy to talk to her,” says Fiona. “It’s more complex to build friendship with an adult, but once you do, it’s like they’re a kid just like you.”

He Did It Again!

At a recent speaking engagement, President Biden attempted to tout his success at getting a bipartisan infrastructure bill through Congress. At least that’s what one would assume, even though what actually came out of the President’s mouth sounded more like “bipah infraloction.” This is, of course, just the latest verbal stumble from Biden, and you know there are plenty more to come. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss not only this difficult phrase for Biden, but also his similar inability recently to say a series of Asian names.

The Hardest Pill To Swallow About Self-Improvement

August 16, 2023

One tendency I’ve noticed about a lot of us who are into self-development is that we are incredibly hungry for information.

Some of us may have had neglectful parents or an upbringing that was very scarce, we may have not gotten the encouragement for self-betterment, we have no one around us who are striving for the best — so we want to consume and process all the information, methods, tips, and tricks we can.

I think that’s great because being deeply desirous to change yourself is better than being apathetic and lethargic.

Unfortunately, this over-consumption of information can become gluttony. Gluttony then leads to lethargy, which then leads to sloth and not doing anything with this information.

More books! More articles! More podcasts! More lectures! More, more, more! I need to know the secrets of the universe before I end up starting my business, before I apply for that job, before I take that trip, before I ask out that girl.

We need to be perfect and then, then we’ll act. One day. One day.

But one day never comes. Neither does perfection.

The real truth about self-development, the real pain is the application. It’s in the messy interactions between imperfect human beings.

You’ve read what’s in that book about dating. Now, go out on a Friday night and apply it.

You’ve read how to start a business. Now, start your own.

A lot of people are dreaming with their heads up in the clouds, thinking they’re moving the needle when they’re just reading a book or an article online.

How many people are out there actively trying, failing, getting knocked down on their ass, and trying again? Very few.

Most people read about a diet in a book, try it for 2 months, then relapse into their old eating habits.

Many people say “I’m gonna meditate for 20 minutes a day” but they “can’t find the time…because Netflix”.

Then people wonder why 2021 is 2020 is 2019 is 2018. Repeating a fucking Groundhog Day existence for 30 years.

Then you’ll be 68 years old and realize that you just twiddled your thumbs in your ivory tower while your life passed you by.

Because the real pain of self-development is exertion, it’s doing it when you don’t want to do it, it’s progressively getting better and actively cutting out areas where you don’t need to be doing things.

What methods work? They all work. There are some that are more “optimal” than others, but they will all work – if applied. If you read a self-help book starting from ground zero (like you know nothing about this stuff), you will be a better person on page 258 than you were at page 1. I guarantee it. So it’s not about “choosing the right methods”. It’s about application.

There are people who think self-development and self-help is a joke. These people have never even walked into a book store and yet they’re laughing all the way to the bank or living the life that we want to live!

I can pretty much guarantee that if you took one book like Deep Work or Psycho-Cybernetics and applied everything in there to the T, your life would dramatically alter.

You wouldn’t need to be browsing Inc. magazine for the newest hacks. You wouldn’t need to go on Entrepreneur and say you’re “hustling”.

We need to stay focused, guys. We need to build a core set of practices and not stray from the narrow road of improvement.

We need to throw ourselves into the task with everything we have and not look around for another hack or tactic to help us when we have an arsenal of 1,000 inside our head.

You won’t know all the answers. You can’t know all the answers before you take action. You need to act before you are ready.

You will NEVER be ready.

You can’t solve the puzzle without taking action to assemble the pieces.

Get going and the pieces will start to fall in place. Then the puzzle starts to solve itself.

Voynich Manuscript Decoded | The Mysterious Book Finally Solved?

For 600 years the Voynich Manuscript has stumped scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists. Now, a researcher in Germany has claimed to have finally decoded the most mysterious book in the world.

Bad, just bad.

New and improved BRICS to emerge in South Africa. Morocco wants to join

Biggest global events…

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

I was terminated without notice only to be offered my job back for significant less than I was making. I declined and filed an unpaid wage claim costing them over $12,000 in damages due to me.

Worked for a Co. that terminated me at end of day on a Monday without notice or reasoning other than, “It just wasn’t working out;” but was promised to be paid the rest of the week as a courtesy severance for the inconvenience. Wanted to stay professional, so I complied and thanked them for opportunity. I was allowed some time to pack up my things and head out.

I handled all payroll and AR/AP but wasn’t presented final check upon termination and even offered to do it before I left but was told it would be mailed to me. Fast forward 6 days and I receive a text message from former employer urging me to return their call as soon as possible.

I called the next day and was offered my job back for $10,000 less per year than I originally was hired for and was told a few duties would be taken off my work load. It was insulting and I asked to think about it but asked about my final check prior to ending call and they asked me to go pick it up from office. I was out of town for a few days so made arrangements to pick up the following week (now 14 days after term).

I arrive and was presented with a check. I open it and say that it’s incorrect. They apologize and agree to have an amended one in mail next day. I offered to wait but they had an “interview coming shortly.”

I waited 7 more days before filing a wage claim for the final check. I end up receiving a final check for the one day of that week a few days after but didn’t include my vacation time / PTO, the severance, or penalty for late payment.

After 8 months, we were granted a hearing where they were ordered to pay me for 30 full days salary as penalty, all vacation and PTO, adjusted benefits, and severance as promised.

Employer called me an extortionist, and Labor Board representative interrupted their tirade to say “No, that’s the law. You should be happy he didn’t sue you for retaliation, well, he still can. So maybe you should lay off the insults and direct that energy to educating yourself and finding counsel.”

It was vindicating.

Hey! Look at what “president” Biden is doing…

Nearly ALL of America FEELS This | Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North of Richmond” | Just Jen Reacts

This song is resonating with people.

This is MEGA-viral.

The United States is about ready to EXPLODE!

My icy cold Razzmatazz

We continue…

The voting in the USA was rigged. No doubt about it.'

And not only at the last election, it has most likely gone on for two or three elections before that.

There is only one cure. Paper votes, hand counting and representatives for all interested parties as observers.

And it would be nice if you had a working judicial system as well.

I cannot see how this is not going to end in bloodshed.

It is just a matter of time, before people revolt.

In a way I'm surprised it has not already happened.

Posted by: g wiltek | Aug 15 2023 16:07 utc | 4

When I was in training for my MAJ role at NAS China Lake, I had my first experiences with world-line travel. It wasn’t until later that I start to notice that my journeys would “stick”. I would find myself on a new world-line with new things, and old things that never existed.

One of the things that I miss is the breakfasts with beans. In this present world-line it is with potatoes. Of course, to youse guys, it’s always been that way.

One of the things that seem to be forever changed for me is the soft-drink Razzmatazz. It never existed on this world line. But back in the day, prior to me joining the Navy, it was THE soda that you all would drink. And while there were coke and Pepsi drinks, I always loved my icy-cold Razzmatazz.

My favorite was a malted cherry soda that they made. It had a kind of cherry-butterscotch like feel to it. There was also a birch beer & vanilla, and a malted root beer. Sigh. But none of it exists on this world-line.

All’s the pity.

Today… have some fun.

France Reportedly Thinks That The US Backstabbed It During Nuland’s Trip To Niger

By Andrew Korybko

AUG 15, 2023

France fears that the interim military-led government is willing to explore a deal whereby they’ll agree to keep Russia/Wagner at bay and retain the US’ bases in their country in exchange for Washington ensuring that ECOWAS doesn’t invade like it threatened to do. In that event, the full fury of the Nigerien people would be directed against France, which could either go it alone in trying to forcibly reverse last month’s coup in vain or chalk up the strategic loss and withdraw.

Le Figaro cited an unnamed diplomatic source over the weekend who alleged that the US backstabbed France during Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s trip to Niger. The piece is paywalled but was summarized here

. France reportedly fears that the US might tacitly recognize Niger’s interim military-led government in exchange for being allowed to retain its bases. Should that happen, then the US would proactively replace France’s security role in the Sahel before Russia/Wagner has a chance to.

This concern is predicated on rational calculations. From the US’ strategic perspective, the anti-French sentiment that’s sweeping the Sahel will inevitably result in ousting that country’s military from this part of Africa, which could lead to a security void that would likely be filled by Russia/Wagner. Even if France resorts to force for clinging to its last regional bastion in Niger, whether directly and/or via Nigerian-led

ECOWAS, then it’ll only exacerbate the hatred that locals feel for their former colonizer.

A swift victory is doomed to be pyrrhic since another round of anti-French unrest would follow sooner or later to complete the decolonization process that the prior one couldn’t, while the outbreak of a larger regional war risks Russia accelerating its envisaged replacement of France’s security role in the Sahel. Both outcomes are contrary to America’s long-term interests, though some policymakers might find their potential short-term benefits to be alluring.

It’s in this context that Nuland visited the Nigerien capital last week to “push for a negotiated solution” according to what she informed the press during a special briefing after her meetings there. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin reacted to this development by boasting that “the US has recognized a government that it did not recognize yesterday just to avoid meeting the Wagner PMC in the country.” While some might have dismissed his remarks as trolling, they actually convey a stark truth.

Nuland’s trip was likely driven by her government’s desire to determine post-coup Niger’s intended relations with Russia/Wagner. She made contradictory statements about this during her briefing that were analyzed here , but the point is that this was probably the real reason behind her visit. If she assessed that no clear commitment had yet been made to solicit that group’s services, then it would be possible to make progress on the vague “negotiated solution” that she claimed to have in mind.

Judging by Le Figaro’s report, France fears that the interim military-led government is willing to explore a deal whereby they’ll agree to keep Russia/Wagner at bay and retain the US’ bases in their country in exchange for Washington ensuring that ECOWAS doesn’t invade like it threatened to do. In that event, the full fury of the Nigerien people would be directed against France, which could either go it alone in trying to forcibly reverse last month’s coup in vain or chalk up the strategic loss and withdraw.

The US already backstabbed France a few years back by stealing its nuclear submarine deal with Australia via the surprise unveiling of AUKUS so the precedent exists for it to backstab that country again in the Sahel by stealing its “sphere of influence” there through these means. In this particular case, American policymakers might have concluded that France’s military ouster from the region is inevitable so it’s better to proactively replace it with their own forces than risk Russia/Wagner filling the void.

To that end, it makes sense to opportunistically exploit the latest events in pursuit of a pragmatic deal with Niger’s interim military-led government despite being at France’s expense. There’s no guarantee that it’ll succeed, but it’s strategically sound from the perspective of the US’ New Cold War interests in Africa. America could present itself as a peacemaker that averted the wider war that France wanted to spark all while stopping the spread of Russian military-strategic influence on the EU’s Sahelian doorstep.

The aforesaid reframing of Nuland’s trip in light of Le Figaro’s report compellingly explains France’s alleged fears of her country’s real intentions in wanting to diplomatically resolve the West African Crisis. The ulterior motive behind its latest “push for a negotiated solution” is to proactively replace France’s security role in the Sahel before Russia/Wagner has a chance to. In this way, the US could mitigate the strategic damage from the Nigerien Coup and arguably benefit from it to an extent.

the GIRLS REACT to Terminator (1984) THIS IS TERRIFYING!! (First Time Watching) Sci-fi Movies

Is America a Second Rank Power?

Blame deindustrialization.

Godfree Roberts Aug 16

Since the Second World War most Britons have unquestioningly accepted the premise that Britain should continue to rank as a first order world Power while, on the other, insisting that living standards should continue rising and social services be protected from taxes to finance foreign policy commitments. The question is not whether Britain can continue to think and behave as a Great Power, but whether it can afford to. – F. S. Northedge, 1970.

The good news is that there will be no war.

The rather sad news is that America can’t afford one.

1980s neoconservative policies – downsize government and privatize everything – have left the US a second-tier power, uncompetitive economically, industrially, scientifically and even militarily, as this STEM ranking suggests:

Why we fail

There are at least seven reasons why the US failed in Ukraine. Says Correlli Barnett, “The power of a nation-state by no means consists only in its armed forces, but also in its economic and technological resources; in the dexterity, foresight and resolution with which its foreign policy is conducted; in the efficiency of its social and political organization. It consists most of all in the nation itself: the people; their skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative; their beliefs, myths and illusions. And it consists, further, in the way all these factors are related to one another. Moreover, national power has to be considered not only in itself, in its absolute extent, but relative to the state’s foreign or imperial obligations; it has to be considered relative to the power of other states”. Let’s break that down.

The Power of Other States

Armed forces. No serious military scholar imagines the US Army could challenge the Russian Army in Europe, nor the PLA in Asia – after being humiliated in Korea in 1951. Next year the PLAN will have 400 new warships armed with hypersonic missiles – which the US Navy’s 293 older boats neither possess nor can defend against.
Economic and technological resources. Russia’s economy is the world’s fourth largest, its military sector is 800% more productive than America’s, its military technology is a generation ahead, and its generalship is the world’s best. China’s productive economy is 300% bigger and leads the US in almost all sciences and technologies.
The dexterity, foresight and resolution with which its foreign policy is conducted. Ninety percent of the world’s people do business and sympathize with Russia or China, and their leaders are rock stars wherever they go. Ten percent of the world’s people support America, whose leader is pitied, even insulted to his face.
The efficiency of its social and political organization. 80% of Russians support their government’s policies and 96% of Chinese support theirs. Barely 34% of Americans trust their government or support its policies.
Skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative, beliefs, myths and illusions of the people. China’s and Russia’s recoveries reflect their people’s resilience, skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative and collective self-belief. The US has yet to recover from the GFC, struggles to staff a chip fab, and hasn’t given its workers a raise since 1974.
Foreign or imperial obligations. Ukraine, on the heels of the Afghanistan imbroglio, suggests that the US is incapable of sustaining its obligations towards its allies. Its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear pact suggests that it is incapable of making agreements.
National power relative to the power of other states. If America wants to match Russia or China militarily, Washington must double real defense spending through 2034 just to match the 2023 capabilities of either, not both, of them.

America is overextended abroad, overinflated at home and its State competence is deteriorating in almost every way – from governance to justice to military to infant mortality – while it ignores its decline.

Next Stop: Failed State?

A failed state’s institutions are feeble and flawed. Often, the executive barely functions while the legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy, and armed forces have lost their capacity and professional independence. A failed state suffers from crumbling infrastructure, faltering utility supplies, educational and health facilities, and deteriorating human-development indicators like infant mortality and literacy. Failed states create an environment of flourishing corruption and negative growth rates, where honest economic activity cannot flourish. Encyclopedia Britannica.

Even before Covid, there were more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides and executions, illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China. How long can post-Covid America, riven by factionalism and distrust, weakened by disease, and dying younger each year, compete with dozens of initiatives like this?

The only real barrier to China’s bid to capture Eurasia’s vast Middle Space was the US occupation of Afghanistan. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, TAPI, joining Central Asia’s gas fields to South Asia, was announced in 2018 but progress through the critical Afghan sector was slowed by the war. Since then, the scheme has been revived, opening the way for Chinese investment that could complete its capture of Central Asia. Alfred McCoy

10 Reasons I LOVE China (in 10 minutes)…

Is it true that China’s economy is 60% smaller than it is actually reporting?

Wow!!!!

Did you know this was exactly the same stuff published in the Soviet papers and East German papers and Czech papers and Polish papers in the 1970s?

That the US Economy was exaggerated and 60% smaller that it really was

main qimg 663ac1209b28add3bd7458db8a8939e5

Man , this is bad

Back then in the 1960s to 1990s, Americans won by Competition, Ability and Achievement

Back then the Soviets claimed victories in paper by publishing lies, lies and more lies and used brute force and twisting of data to claim a superior system (US)was collapsing all the time

Today the opposite is happening

US and the West are Soviet Russia and East Germany today

They hate competition, They hate tolerance in any area other than Transgenders and Homosexuals, They are losing ability by the millisecond

They claim victories by publishing lie after lie, most of which are bizzare and illogical and use the same brute force to claim a superior system is collapsing.

Meanwhile China is becoming exactly what the US was in the 1960s – 1990s

Critically truthful, Exploring Solutions openly, Admitting Problems openly, Keeping Victories as subtle as possible, Fostering Competition in every sphere, Tolerant of every race and religion provided they identify as Chinese first, Focus on Ability and Merit only.

Russia too is following the same road now

The Democracies are collapsing due to their fatal flaws

The Meritocracies and carefully planned one party systems are flourishing

So this Chinas Economy is 60% smaller is basically History going around in Propaganda and Lies

A Testament to the theory that eventually all Democracies decline into a Mediocracy

You Won’t Believe What China Have Done | American CEO’s Protest !

A tiny microchip smaller than a fingernail is at the heart of a high-stakes technology war between superpowers.

Advanced semiconductors form the brains powering everything from AI to hypersonic missiles.

Now a global battle is unfolding between the US and China over who controls the future of these foundational chips.

With national dominance at stake, the US has imposed sweeping sanctions to blockade China from cutting-edge semiconductor designs and manufacturing.

But China is marshaling its vast resources to achieve self-reliance and circumvent restrictions.

The race is on to shape mastery over the electronics underpinning 21st century innovation.

Join us as we uncover the events, technologies, companies, and strategies fueling this multifront semiconductor conflict.

The trajectory of global scientific progress and economic power hangs in the balance.

Are there any other countries taking action against China for their treatment of Uyghurs?

I’m from Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

When the Uyghur topic arised a few years ago, it was also a trending topic here.

Many people started to curse China because of this issue.

But Indonesia is a neutral & non block country, which means we’re friends with many countries, including China, even North Korea.

Indonesia, as well as many other Muslim countries has been sending alot of Imams (priests), delegations, and even students to China, including Xinjiang regularly.

Guess what? None of Muslim countries condemn China on their acts, because later we realize that it’s only propaganda made by Western countries to weaken China & to create destabilization.

As for me myself, I’ve visited Xinjiang 2 times before the Covid pandemic, I know that there were terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, which the members were mostly from Uyghur ethnic.

The terror movement is called the East Turkestan (Islamic) Movement. It’s backed up by Al Qaeda & Taliban.

The United Nations on their website also listed the Movements as a terrorist Movement, also they list most of the attacks on their website too.

The US already know this issue, and they also bombed Uyghurs, who ran to Afghanistan after Chinese Central Government took control of Anti-Terror acts (because the local government failed to control them and the situation became worse)

Note: This is an American news media, not Chinese media.

So the US also bombed Uyghurs, but later accusing China for their treatments against the Uyghur, don’t you think that it’s hypocrisy?

Nowadays Taliban is close to China, and they promised not to help Uyghur militants anymore, they even sending back the militants who ran and hide in Afghanistan.

I can read a little bit of Mandarin, I use some Chinese social media and make friends with Uyghurs, so I know what happened and what’s happening from the Uyghur themselves.

They said that those terrorists use Turkestan name because they want support from Turkic countries nearby, while those terrorists also killed their own Uyghurs who don’t wanna support them, as well as Uzbek, Kazakh & other Turkic people, also Tajik Muslim, Hui Muslim & Han people in China

And they use “Islamic” name, obviously for supports from Islamic countries.

On the early morning of Wednesday, 30 July 2014, an Uyghur Imam, named Juma Tahir, the imam of China’s largest mosque, (Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar), was stabbed to death by three young male Uyghur terrorists because he was strongly against the terrorists.

Alot of Western Media covered this, but it seems that they forget it easily (or intentionally).

These videos are the example of Muslim Scholars visiting Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region recently, there are Indonesian Scholars too in that event

Beside of those videos, there are still alot of informal visits from Islamic Scholars & imams to China.

In fact, tour to Xinjiang is available in Indonesia and it’s always fully booked, as I work at the one of the biggest Tour & Travel agency in Indonesia.

Latest Xinjiang Muslim Festival in Indonesia, featuring tribes in Xinjiang especially the Uyghurs, and Indonesian ustadz (Islamic preacher), leaders, government, etc

From 19 July – 10 August 2023 to celebrate the Islamic New Year, this is the re-stream from 2 August:

As for now, there are some people who are still condemning China in Indonesia, but most of them are either from extremist groups (we call them kadrun), or just ignorant & uneducated people. Which later we found to have links (directly or indirectly) to the US’ Anti Chinese founding

U.S Boeing Near Suspension in China as Tensions Between US China Escalate!

https://youtu.be/pZAhDLwkp9c

“Most Unsafe Site Ever” – Shocking Truths About TSMC Arizona Revealed!

The TSMC Arizona project is one of the biggest FDI deals in United States history with Taiwan investing over $40 billion. It’s all part of the $52 billion dollar CHIPS Act to bring Taiwan’s flagship company to the US, but there are a plethora of problems amounting the question the entire legitimacy of this project. In today’s video we examine the top 5 biggest problems TSMC is currently facing and if this project will be a success.

Beef Chili Cheese Fries

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped yellow onions
Salt and cayenne to taste
2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Crushed red pepper to taste
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
3 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped fresh or canned tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups beefsteak or beef broth
2 tablespoons Masa Harina
Vegetable oil for deep frying
2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into shoestrings, rinsed in cool water and patted dry
1/2 pound grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 pound grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sliced pickled jalapenos

Instructions

Heat the vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions, season with salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until they begin to wilt, about 2 minutes.
Add the beef, chili powder, cumin, crushed red pepper and oregano. Season with salt and cayenne, and cook until all the pink in the meat disappears, 5 to 6 minutes.
Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and 2 1/2 cups beef stock; bring to boil, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, until the meat is tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface.
Combine the Masa Harina with the remaining 1/2 cup stock and mix to blend. Slowly add to the pot, stirring to blend. The mixture will thicken. Cook for 30 minutes, then season again with salt and cayenne. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
In a heavy, deep pot or an electric fryer, heat 4 inches of vegetable oil to 360 degrees F. Fry the shoestring potatoes in batches until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels, then season with salt and cayenne.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Cover the bottom of a large, glass rectangular baking pan with the shoestring potatoes.
Combine the Cheddar and jack cheeses. Sprinkle the cheese over the fries.
Bake just until the cheese melts, 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and spoon the chili over the top of the fries.
Garnish with the sour cream and jalapenos.
Serve immediately.

“U.S. bullying ends now!” – Putin issues stunning military plan

Yeah. Give nuclear weapons to Iran, Mexico, and a host of other nations that are sick and tired of the USA.

Ukraine’s Grifter Wars Through Gonzalo Lira’s Eyes

Former Glasgow MP George Galloway said it best about Gonzalo Lira, whose re-arrest by Zelensky’s Gestapo was announced by American transsexual grifter Sarah Ashton Cirillo, who is now a staff sergeant in Zelensky’s Wehrmacht even though, as we previously pointed out, Sgt Sarah has not yet completed basic military training.

In wishing Lira well, no matter what Lira’s motives were for staying in Zelensky’s Fourth Reich, Galloway spoke for most of us, who don’t take our marching orders from a transgender American who left his wife and children back in Yankee land to play act at being a girly spokesperson for the homophobic Ukrainian Wehrmacht.

In acknowledging Lira’s chequered history, Galloway said that was not a massive problem for him or for his listeners, who were more interested in Lira’s bird’s eye view on the conflict, rather than on tips on how to pick up hot Ukrainian chicks or, indeed, chicks with dicks like Sgt Sarah. Galloway, with his excellent command of the English language, also doubted that Lira “inflicted strategic damage on Zelensky’s regime”, thereby implicitly agreeing with my earlier analysis that Lira should have got a kick up the transom and be booted across the Hungarian border.

Leaving aside that Sergeant Sarah was a Federal informant, an agent provocateur, a gambler, a sexual deviant, a complete sociopath, and a terminal narcissist who pals around with terrorists, I, amongst others, have seen this D grade Hollywood plot play out a hundred times before.

Ukraine has an unhealthy sprinkling of such grifters on both sides of the lines. Former USMC officer Scott Ritter, who previously defended Lira, now believes Lira is a liar and SBU asset as does Eva Bartlett for the same reasons she objected to the family of Syrian President Assad bringing competition for her begging bowl to Damascus.

Brian Berletic, who posts informative videos under the New Atlas name, believes Lira is more fool than knave and, like Galloway, he admits he found Lira’s input helpful in his own analysis. To counter Berletic, there are a stream of twitter threads like these “exposing Lira” and all ‘kinds of “Putin shills,” some of whom, like Bartlett, Galloway was reduced to calling “flat earth fucks” because of their grifting, much of which, such as lying they were in Syria when they were not and stealing over $1 million of Iranian aid for Syria I have witnessed firsthand.

To get a feel for some of the whack jobs MI6 and the CIA support in Kiev, consider this MintPress article which reports on Cormac Smith, MI6’s hired Irish field hand who tells us that ““Russians are fucking animals” and that the Russkies have committed genocide by admitting that they forcibly transferred “700,000 Ukrainian children” to Russkie land, a figure Smith obviously plucked from Sgt Sarah’s more than ample ass.

MintPress goes on to discuss some of the usual suspects, such as MI6 asset Michael Weiss, the Henry Jackson Society, The Interpreter, the Atlantic Council, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Bellingcat, the 77th Brigade, MI6 contractors Torchlight, and NATO fixer Chris Donnelly, all of whom are grifting in Ukraine.

To me, all of those grifters are just noise. I go back to first principles, to the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and South Tyrone where the British fought a successful 40-year intelligence campaign against the Provisional IRA. As part of their war effort, MI5 bankrolled supposed former PIRA member Vincent McKenna’s Families Against Intimidation and Terror (FAIT),who gave the IRA a series of very black eyes until grifter McKenna was jailed for raping his own daughter.

When I asked two members of the IRA’s Army Council, their governing body, why did MI5 hire such a boomerang, they replied that MI5 were so hell bent on beating the IRA that they turned a blind eye to everything, child rape included. Using that and similar examples as my compass, it is, to me, beyond doubt that MI6 and the CIA have exotic and unhinged operatives working behind the lines in Syria, Ukraine and everywhere else; however, I doubt Lira is one of them. Rather, I believe he is one of those well-meaning fools I have come across who have paid either with their lives or by serving very long prison sentences for their folly in the killing fields of Ireland and Syria.

The problem is that it can be hard to differentiate the wheat from the chaff, the fool from the knave. Jamal Daoud, a Jordanian living in Australia, complains here about an alleged former Hindu extremist terrorist, planning to bump him off. But they, in turn, reported Daoud to Syrian Military Intelligence for bringing Jonathan Spyer, an Israeli spy, into Syria. Because of all that, I bought Spyer’s book, which is published by Routledge, which more or less specialises in academic vanity publishing. Chapter 14, Undercover in Damascus, the relevant chapter of the book, is as forgettable as bland bread and served no benefit to Israel or its allies.

And then we have the Sydney based Anglican priest, who is on an Israeli naughty list because of his long-standing friendship with nuclear missile whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu Barrett tried to manipulate for one of her $40,000 scams and whose face another “street artist” scammer plastered on murals all over Sydney when the priest was already in very hot water with his archbishop for bringing the church into disrepute with his activism. The end result of their “humanitarian intervention” was that the priest became homeless.

That is not to say Israel does not want their legions of little helpers in Syria. It does and I have blocked some of them and observed some others of them up close. But they, like Lira and his critics, are not the main game and they are hardly even a sideshow. As Syria’s best secret service agents joined the colours, it was often the dross that stayed behind to mop up the bribes, often in cahoots with the grifters.

When I told two former senior members of the IRA, whose brothers were murdered by the SAS that Assad had, despite Bartlett’s keening, invited Major General John Holmes, the former commanding officer of the SAS to Damascus, one of them thought it a good idea as, to him, bridges have to be built and the other thought it a bad idea as, to him, the only good SAS officer is a dead SAS officer.

Schooled by such experiences, my own prognosis is quite simple and to the point. The main vectors in the Ukrainian shemozzle are the Armed Forces of Russia and their military allies on the one hand, and NATO and their lemmings on the other. All else is tinsel.

Allied and perhaps even integral to the Russian Armed Forces are a number of spokespeople, the best known of whom are Russian President Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russian Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zakharova, all of whom tend to tell it as it is, not as Tinseltown’ transexuals would like it to be. Opposed to those spokespeople are Hollywood circus clowns like Zelensky and Sgt Sarah, as well as a bunch of supporting clowns in Washington, London, Paris and Brussels.

The Syrian situation is slightly different as Syrian civil society and, indeed, Syrian military intelligence, have left far too many holes for domestic and foreign grifters to exploit. I have met many of these grifters and, not to put too fine a point on it but far better people were found in the back roads of Fermanagh and South Tyrone with bin bags over their heads and bullets through their brains.

Lira, as my previous article described him, is simply a middle-aged Chilean Ukraine will try to trade at a premium, just like they have done with previous civilians they kidnapped. Though Lira is only an irrelevant sideshow, I wish him and his family the best.

That said, this Ukrainian war will end with a resounding Russian victory that is already resonating across Africa and throughout Asia, from Syria in its West to China in its East. Cold comfort for Lira if he gets an OBE (one behind the ear) but, whether he lives or dies, his torture at the hands of Zelensky and transexual nut job Sergeant Sarah is one more score that has to be settled, one more vendetta that must, if necessary, be avenged in blood by the Russian Armed Forces.

Tucker Carlson EXPOSES Ukraine Biolab SHOCKING Details

The United States does this…

https://youtu.be/ZMTznqsHmM0

How Will Trump’s Fourth Indictment – And RFK Jr. – Influence The Election Season?

Another month brings another indictment of Donald Trump:

ATLANTA — Former president Donald Trump and 18 others were criminally charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an indictment made public late Monday night.

Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.

With so much alleged conspiring should we call all these indictments a conspiracy theory?

This indictment is again too wide and borders on, like the others against Trump, criminalizing the retelling of rumors and free speech.

Just consider this part:

COUNT 29 of 41

And the Grand Jurors aforesaid, in the name and behalf of the citizens of Georgia, do charge and accuse DONALD JOHN TRUMP with the offense of FALSE STATEMENTS AND WRITINGS, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20, for the said accused, in the County of Fulton and State of Georgia, on or about the 2nd day of January 2021, knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully made at least one of the following false statements and representations to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, and Georgia Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany:

That anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;

That thousands of people attempted to vote in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia and were told they could not because a ballot had already been cast in their name;

That 4,502 people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia who were not on the voter registration list;

That 904 people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia who were registered at an address that was a post ofiice box;

That Ruby Freeman was a professional vote scammer and a known political operative;

That Ruby Freeman, her daughter, and others were responsible for fraudulently awarding at least 18,000 ballots to Joseph R. Biden at State Farm Arena in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;

That close to 5,000 dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;

That 139% of people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Detroit;

That 200,000 more votes were recorded than the number of people who voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Pennsylvania;

That thousands of dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Michigan;

That Ruby Freeman stuffed the ballot boxes;

That hundreds of thousands of ballots had been “dumped” into Fulton County and another county adjacent to Fulton County in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;

That he won the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia by 400,000 votes;

said statements being within the jurisdiction of the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, departments and agencies of state government, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof;

Even the Washington Post write-up finds that a bit too excessive:

The indictment takes an expansive view of the behaviors it alleges were acts “in furtherance of the conspiracy” — including, as an example, at least a dozen instances of Trump’s tweets alleging fraud and other claims. Such details from the indictment quickly drew criticism as potential violations of the defendants’ free speech protections.

Trials over these indictments, if any, will likely start only next year and will take quite a long time. Any judgment in them will be appealed.

All this will mean little for voters who mostly have made up their minds:

Yet most Americans made up their minds about Mr. Trump long before prosecutors like Fani T. Willis or Jack Smith weighed in, polls have shown. He is, depending on the perspective, a serial lawbreaker finally being brought to justice or a victim of persecution by partisans intent on keeping him out of office. The Georgia indictment, powerful as it is in its language, has been priced into the market, as the Wall Street types would put it.

“The accumulated indictments are kind of a white noise for voters,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican political consultant who has organized opposition to Mr. Trump and conducts weekly focus groups with voters. “They can’t tell the difference between Georgia and Jack Smith because it all blurs together in one long news cycle of Trump’s-in-trouble.”

I believe, like Trump, that the indictment will help him. First in the primary and then in the general election:

Speaking to supporters in Alabama a couple of days after his last arraignment, [Trump] claimed he was looking forward to the next one. “We need one more indictment to close out this election,” he boasted.

That is bravado — the sort of bring-it-on bluster that electrifies a Trump rally.

Contrast that with the case and against the Bidens which will be laid out by a special prosecutor to the same public. As I wrote when the last bits about the Bidens-Burisma saga came to light:

On the one side we have a case which shows the deep corruption of ‘the big guy’ and his family who are supported by the deep state they control.

On the other side we have the underdog who thought he was doing the right thing but is now indicted by the deep state for, at that time, saying so.

The media will shine the light on both cases. Each time they will mention Trump it will, independent of what they write about him, be positive for him by making the case of the lone guy who gets unfairly prosecuted by the deep state.

Each time the Biden case will be mentioned it will remind the public of Biden’s corrupt dealings.

Proceed through that for sixteen month and the outcome is assured.

Now add to that the possible quirks of the Democratic primary. RFK junior has entered that race:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has raised eyebrows as the first right-sympathetic populist to run as a Democrat since William Jennings Bryan. Launching with twenty paid staff and functioning now with seventy, Kennedy’s campaign has latched on to several issues important to mainstream Republicans—Covid tyranny, censorship, government surveillance—as well as to the dissident right: public health threats posed by chemicals in food and water, ending forever wars. The difference is the right frames these issues as matters of social cohesion and public order, while Kennedy uses the language of democracy and freedom.

In the currant fashion RJK Jr. is not really a Democrat:

When discussing the issues that animate him most—the environment, censorship, state and corporate collusion—he brightens. His hopeless intellectual humility and his hesitation to emphasize the most divisive ideological commitments of his own party while regularly taking up the language of his partisan opponents are setting up a general election that could divide populist voters almost entirely on the basis of aesthetics.

During the primaries the Democratic Party mafia will do their best to eliminate him even when he is unlikely to be a real danger to Joe Biden’s candidacy.

Should Trump then consider to run for president with RFK Jr. as his future vice-president he could form a quasi bi-partisan populist ticket that might well attract a larger majority.

Posted by b on August 15, 2023 at 15:47 UTC | Permalink

Taiwan is in BIG TROUBLE as China Vows Retaliation for DPP Visit to US

China has rebuked the U.S. for its latest escalations on Taiwan, from a growing economic war to the DPP’s latest visit to the United States. Here’s what we know thus far about the potential consequences.

The Perpetual Wars You Aren’t Supposed to Notice

By William J. ASTORE

In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend our country and our values.”

As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from a working-class background who volunteered to serve more than four decades ago, who am I to argue with Austin? Shouldn’t I just bask in the glow of his praise for today’s troops, reflecting on my own honorable service near the end of what now must be thought of as the First Cold War?

Yet I confess to having doubts. I’ve heard it all before. The hype. The hyperbole. I still remember how, soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush boasted that this country had “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” I also remember how, in a pep talk given to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010, President Barack Obama declared them “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.” And yet, 15 years ago at TomDispatch, I was already wondering when Americans had first become so proud of, and insistent upon, declaring our military the world’s absolute best, a force beyond compare, and what that meant for a republic that once had viewed large standing armies and constant warfare as anathemas to freedom.

In retrospect, the answer is all too straightforward: we need something to boast about, don’t we? In the once-upon-a-time “exceptional nation,” what else is there to praise to the skies or consider our pride and joy these days except our heroes? After all, this country can no longer boast of having anything like the world’s best educational outcomes, or healthcare system, or the most advanced and safest infrastructure, or the best democratic politics, so we better damn well be able to boast about having “the greatest fighting force” ever.

Leaving that boast aside, Americans could certainly brag about one thing this country has beyond compare: the most expensive military around and possibly ever. No country even comes close to our commitment of funds to wars, weapons (including nuclear ones at the Department of Energy), and global dominance. Indeed, the Pentagon’s budget for “defense” in 2023 exceeds that of the next 10 countries (mostly allies!) combined.

And from all of this, it seems to me, two questions arise: Are we truly getting what we pay so dearly for — the bestest, finest, most exceptional military ever? And even if we are, should a self-proclaimed democracy really want such a thing?

The answer to both those questions is, of course, no. After all, America hasn’t won a war in a convincing fashion since 1945. If this country keeps losing wars routinely and often enough catastrophically, as it has in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, how can we honestly say that we possess the world’s greatest fighting force? And if we nevertheless persist in such a boast, doesn’t that echo the rhetoric of militaristic empires of the past? (Remember when we used to think that only unhinged dictators like Adolf Hitler boasted of having peerless warriors in a megalomaniacal pursuit of global domination?)

Actually, I do believe the United States has the most exceptional military, just not in the way its boosters and cheerleaders like Austin, Bush, and Obama claimed. How is the U.S. military truly “exceptional”? Let me count the ways.

The Pentagon as a Budgetary Black Hole

In so many ways, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional. Let’s begin with its budget. At this very moment, Congress is debating a colossal “defense” budget of $886 billion for FY2024 (and all the debate is about issues that have little to do with the military). That defense spending bill, you may recall, was “only” $740 billion when President Joe Biden took office three years ago. In 2021, Biden withdrew U.S. forces from the disastrous war in Afghanistan, theoretically saving the taxpayer nearly $50 billion a year. Yet, in place of any sort of peace dividend, American taxpayers simply got an even higher bill as the Pentagon budget continued to soar.

Recall that, in his four years in office, Donald Trump increased military spending by 20%. Biden is now poised to achieve a similar 20% increase in just three years in office. And that increase largely doesn’t even include the cost of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia — so far, somewhere between $120 billion and $200 billion and still rising.

Colossal budgets for weapons and war enjoy broad bipartisan support in Washington. It’s almost as if there were a military-industrial-congressional complex at work here! Where, in fact, did I ever hear a president warning us about that? Oh, perhaps I’m thinking of a certain farewell address by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961.

In all seriousness, there’s now a huge pentagonal-shaped black hole on the Potomac that’s devouring more than half of the federal discretionary budget annually. Even when Congress and the Pentagon allegedly try to enforce fiscal discipline, if not austerity elsewhere, the crushing gravitational pull of that hole just continues to suck in more money. Bet on that continuing as the Pentagon issues ever more warnings about a new cold war with China and Russia.

Given its money-sucking nature, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that the Pentagon is remarkably exceptional when it comes to failing fiscal audits — five of them in a row (the fifth failure being a “teachable moment,” according to its chief financial officer) — as its budget only continued to soar. Whether you’re talking about lost wars or failed audits, the Pentagon is eternally rewarded for its failures. Try running a “Mom and Pop” store on that basis and see how long you last.

Speaking of all those failed wars, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that they haven’t come cheaply. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, roughly 937,000 people have died since 9/11/2001 thanks to direct violence in this country’s “Global War on Terror” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere. (And the deaths of another 3.6 to 3.7 million people may be indirectly attributable to those same post-9/11 conflicts.) The financial cost to the American taxpayer has been roughly $8 trillion and rising even as the U.S. military continues its counterterror preparations and activities in 85 countries.

No other nation in the world sees its military as (to borrow from a short-lived Navy slogan) “a global force for good.” No other nation divides the whole world into military commands like AFRICOM for Africa and CENTCOM for the Middle East and parts of Central and South Asia, headed up by four-star generals and admirals. No other nation has a network of 750 foreign bases scattered across the globe. No other nation strives for full-spectrum dominance through “all-domain operations,” meaning not only the control of traditional “domains” of combat — the land, sea, and air — but also of space and cyberspace. While other countries are focused mainly on national defense (or regional aggressions of one sort or another), the U.S. military strives for total global and spatial dominance. Truly exceptional!

Strangely, in this never-ending, unbounded pursuit of dominance, results simply don’t matter. The Afghan War? Bungled, botched, and lost. The Iraq War? Built on lies and lost. Libya? We came, we saw, Libya’s leader (and so many innocents) died. Yet no one at the Pentagon was punished for any of those failures. In fact, to this day, it remains an accountability-free zone, exempt from meaningful oversight. If you’re a “modern major general,” why not pursue wars when you know you’ll never be punished for losing them?

Indeed, the few “exceptions” within the military-industrial-congressional complex who stood up for accountability, people of principle like Daniel Hale, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden, were imprisoned or exiled. In fact, the U.S. government has even conspired to imprison a foreign publisher and transparency activist, Julian Assange, who published the truth about the American war on terror, by using a World War I-era espionage clause that only applies to American citizens.

And the record is even grimmer than that. In our post-9/11 years at war, as President Barack Obama admitted, “We tortured some folks” — and the only person punished for that was another whistleblower, John Kiriakou, who did his best to bring those war crimes to our attention.

And speaking of war crimes, isn’t it “exceptional” that the U.S. military plans to spend upwards of $2 trillion in the coming decades on a new generation of genocidal nuclear weapons? Those include new stealth bombers and new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the Air Force, as well as new nuclear-missile-firing submarines for the Navy. Worse yet, the U.S. continues to reserve the right to use nuclear weapons first, presumably in the name of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, despite the countries — nine! — that now possess nukes, the U.S. remains the only one to have used them in wartime, in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Finally, it turns out that the military is even immune from Supreme Court decisions! When SCOTUS recently overturned affirmative action for college admission, it carved out an exception for the military academies. Schools like West Point and Annapolis can still consider the race of their applicants, presumably to promote unit cohesion through proportional representation of minorities within the officer ranks, but our society at large apparently does not require racial equity for its cohesion.

A Most Exceptional Military Makes Its Wars and Their Ugliness Disappear

Here’s one of my favorite lines from the movie The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” The greatest trick the U.S. military ever pulled was essentially convincing us that its wars never existed. As Norman Solomon notes in his revealing book, War Made Invisible, the military-industrial-congressional complex has excelled at camouflaging the atrocious realities of war, rendering them almost entirely invisible to the American people. Call it the new American isolationism, only this time we’re isolated from the harrowing and horrific costs of war itself.

America is a nation perpetually at war, yet most of us live our lives with little or no perception of this. There is no longer a military draft. There are no war bond drives. You aren’t asked to make direct and personal sacrifices. You aren’t even asked to pay attention, let alone pay (except for those nearly trillion-dollar-a-year budgets and interest payments on a ballooning national debt, of course). You certainly aren’t asked for your permission for this country to fight its wars, as the Constitution demands. As President George W. Bush suggested after the 9/11 attacks, go visit Disneyworld! Enjoy life! Let America’s “best and brightest” handle the brutality, the degradation, and the ugliness of war, bright minds like former Vice President Dick (“So?”) Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald (“I don’t do quagmires”) Rumsfeld.

Did you hear something about the U.S. military being in Syria? In Somalia? Did you hear about the U.S. military supporting the Saudis in a brutal war of repression in Yemen? Did you notice how this country’s military interventions around the world kill, wound, and displace so many people of color, so much so that observers speak of the systemic racism of America’s wars? Is it truly progress that a more diverse military in terms of “color, creed, and background,” to use Secretary of Defense Austin’s words, has killed and is killing so many non-white peoples around the globe?

Praising the all-female-crewed flyover at the last Super Bowl or painting rainbow flags of inclusivity (or even blue and yellow flags for Ukraine) on cluster munitions won’t soften the blows or quiet the screams. As one reader of my blog Bracing Views so aptly put it: “The diversity the war parties [Democrats and Republicans] will not tolerate is diversity of thought.”

Of course, the U.S. military isn’t solely to blame here. Senior officers will claim their duty is not to make policy at all but to salute smartly as the president and Congress order them about. The reality, however, is different. The military is, in fact, at the core of America’s shadow government with enormous influence over policymaking. It’s not merely an instrument of power; it is power — and exceptionally powerful at that. And that form of power simply isn’t conducive to liberty and freedom, whether inside America’s borders or beyond them.

Wait! What am I saying? Stop thinking about all that! America is, after all, the exceptional nation and its military, a band of freedom fighters. In Iraq, where war and sanctions killed untold numbers of Iraqi children in the 1990s, the sacrifice was “worth it,” as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once reassured Americans on 60 Minutes.

Even when government actions kill children, lots of children, it’s for the greater good. If this troubles you, go to Disney and take your kids with you. You don’t like Disney? Then, hark back to that old marching song of World War I and “pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, and smile, smile, smile.” Remember, America’s troops are freedom-delivering heroes and your job is to smile and support them without question.

Have I made my point? I hope so. And yes, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional and being so, being #1 (or claiming you are anyway) means never having to say you’re sorry, no matter how many innocents you kill or maim, how many lives you disrupt and destroy, how many lies you tell.

I must admit, though, that, despite the endless celebration of our military’s exceptionalism and “greatness,” a fragment of scripture from my Catholic upbringing haunts me still: Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Why I’m Raising My Children in CHINA – NOT The UK.

What I Wish My Dad Taught Me When I Was Little, According To 11 Me

It’s impossible to teach everything. But it’s helpful to know what untaught lessons might be felt the most.

by Matt Christensen

Aug. 10, 2023

A father’s influence on their sons is profound. As young men, we look first to our fathers to help lay the foundation for our own future growth and development. In an ideal world, they show us what to do, and what not to do. They help us distinguish between right and wrong. They encourage our strengths and nurture our struggles to prepare us for the future.

But, as well all know, fathers aren’t perfect. Sometimes opportunities to teach life lessons, impart simple skills, or prepare for hard-to-swallow truths get lost in the chaos of life. It happens. And it’s easy to look back with longing and regret at those moments. No, the point here is to not dwell on mistakes. Rather, it is to learn about what you might want to prioritize. We asked a dozen men what they wish their dads taught them when they were still kids. Whether learning how to problem solve, develop confidence, or rock and roll, they all had something to say. Here’s what they told us.

1. How To Be Present

“I grew up in a relatively low-income family with my mother on disability and my father always working hard to put food on the table and clothes on our backs. At one time my family had to file for bankruptcy because of debt. But my father still managed a way to get us what we needed.

My dad was a hard worker and taught me the meaning of hard work and perseverance.

But the one thing I wish I had learned sooner from my father was the importance of experiencing life, moments, and relationships over working for the dollar. Make your living doing what you do, but be present and don’t live life stuck in the past or even the future. Learn from past mistakes, but be in the present and cherish experiences and family because time is the one thing you can’t get back.” – Adrian, 31, Missouri

2. How To Know My Worth

“My father never taught me to be confident in myself. Instead, he forced me, as a little boy, to be timid, weak, and feel inferior to others, especially my peers. He was abusive and manipulative, and as a result, I would doubt whether any actions or decisions I took were the right ones.

Later on, colleagues would insult, hurt, and bully me, and I didn’t have the strength to defend myself.

I did learn lessons from my upbringing, though. The one that stands out in my mind all the time is that I must cherish and value my own children. I should never mistreat them or allow anybody to make them feel inferior. I’m traumatized by what my father did, and I wish he would’ve taught me differently. But what I have learned are essential lessons that I will never forget for the rest of my life.” – Phillip, 37, Colorado

3. How To Play Guitar

“My father was a musician, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I begged him to teach me how to play the guitar like him, but I wasn’t very good, and he wasn’t very patient. He got frustrated easily and nudged me toward other interests.

As a father myself, I certainly understand frustration. But I also know how wonderful it feels when your kids finally learn how to do something new.

I did eventually learn to play guitar. I’m still not good, but I’m better than I was when I was younger. My dad passed away before I had any skills worthy of sharing, and I always wonder what it would’ve been like if he were my teacher and we actually got to rock out together at least once.” – Jim, 45, New York

I begged him to teach me how to play the guitar like him, but I wasn’t very good, and he wasn’t very patient. He got frustrated easily and nudged me toward other interests.

4. How To Fix Things

“My dad was one of those guys who was very mechanically inclined. He had a blue collar trade for a career, worked on cars in his spare time, and fixed anything and everything that needed fixing around the house.

I’m not wired the way he was, unfortunately. Fixing broken things and working on cars is not a skill of mine. If I could go back in time to being a kid again, I would have asked my dad to take time to bring me in on some of his repair jobs.

To give me a shot at turning the wrench, so to speak. Not only would it have given me much needed knowledge, but it also would have given me much needed confidence when working with my hands, which happens a lot as a dad.” – Scott, 36, North Carolina

5. How To Set Goals

“When I was younger, I wish my dad had taught me about setting realistic goals. It’s a really important skill that could have helped me grow and become better. It would have made me more disciplined, determined, and adaptable from a young age.

Breaking big goals into smaller tasks can make a big difference in how kids deal with challenges.

If I knew this earlier, I would have been more motivated and faced difficulties with more confidence. Also, understanding the importance of setting timelines would have made me feel more urgent to get things done and not procrastinate. If my dad had taught me to celebrate even the small achievements, I would’ve felt better about myself and been more encouraged.” – Erik, 40, Texas

6. How To Care

“I wish my dad had taught me how to develop emotional intelligence. My dad wasn’t very present during my childhood. He was a traveling jeweler and usually out for two to three weeks, then back home for one or two.

He didn’t show me how to play sports, read, or any of the ‘normal’ stuff.

But the biggest thing he never showed me was how to care for the people I love.

I didn’t need him to be constantly checking up on me, but to be involved in how I felt, what I thought, or even what actually interested me outside of buying me whatever game I wanted. I now know this was something that he just didn’t know how to do, which is why I’ve made it a priority.

My kids will know that I’m interested in what they like, how they think, and the people they are going to become. And my wife will know I support her in whatever she does. Ultimately, their happiness and emotional health are priorities for me as a husband and father.” – Joshua, 33, Arizona

7. How To Connect With People

“Being a dad to two cool boys, 9 and 11, often makes me think a lot about what my own dad taught me growing up. One big thing I wish he’d shown me is how to connect with people.

I’m an introvert and striking up a conversation with someone new feels like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded.

It’s tough, and I see the same thing in one of my boys. I realized a few years back that I had a small group of friends and didn’t stay in touch as much as I should. This hit me hard and got me thinking about the importance of connecting and building relationships.

I’m learning to get better at this, and I’m taking my boys on the journey with me. I want them to understand that making friends and keeping them close is just as important as acing a test or scoring a goal. It’s something I’m still figuring out, but hey, that’s part of being a dad, right? We learn, and we teach.” – John, 31, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

My dad was very much a ‘Let me do it’ kind of guy. He wanted to fix the problem, whether it was a broken appliance or hurt feelings, rather than explore it.

8. How To Let Certain Things Roll Off Me

“I wish my father had known about and been able to teach me about the mind, and not letting what others say and do get to me so much. Sometimes the things other people say and do make us change how we do something or what we think about something, which has interfered with my life quite a bit.

Had I have been taught how to manage those types of thoughts, I’m sure some of life’s worst moments wouldn’t have weighed upon me so heavily, for so long, and I would have been able to move on from them sooner.” – Michael, 40, Michigan

9. How To Problem Solve

“Getting older has made me learn to appreciate the ability to understand how and why things work. I’ve taught myself a lot by taking things apart and putting them back together, and I realize now that I’ve been conditioning my problem-solving abilities.

My dad was very much a ‘Let me do it’ kind of guy.

He wanted to fix the problem, whether it was a broken appliance or hurt feelings, rather than explore it. Or help us learn about it. I appreciate what he was trying to do, but I think it hindered my ability to think for myself and really figure things out while I was growing up.” – Trevor, 40, Pennsylvania

10. How To Nurture My Inner Child

“I wish my father had taught me that most adults, even parents, still feel like kids themselves deep down inside. That the feeling of not being ready for adulthood never really goes away, and most grown-ups are still trying to learn how to do stuff the right way.

Since becoming a dad myself, I’ve realized that the feelings I have, like not always knowing the right answers, or trying my best but still making mistakes with my kids, must have been there for my dad, too.

I’ve realized that they must have occasionally felt like a child with adult responsibilities sometimes, just like I do. I also think that lesson would have helped me be a bit more calm and understanding with other people throughout my life.

When I stop and think of other adults as basically kids on the inside, with the same insecurities and fears that I have, it’s a lot easier for me to have patience and compassion for them.” – Phil, 45, Ohio

11. How To Manage Money

“I wish my dad had taught me about stocks and investing when I was young. He rarely talked about money or his work as a director at a large financial institution. His passing in December 2001 left a void in my life and financial knowledge.

As I grew older, my interest in finance intensified, and I felt unprepared to manage money.

I took it upon myself to learn about investing through self-education and seeking advice from others. Now, as a father, I understand the importance of sharing knowledge with my boy. I aim to be open and communicative about finances, empowering him to make informed decisions.

Though my journey to financial knowledge was self-driven, I hope to create an environment for my son where he feels supported and encouraged to learn about finance and investing, just as I wish I had been in my youth.” – Patrick, 45, Korea

How China Space Program Is BIGGER, BETTER & ADVANCED Than NASA

Armed with aggressive timelines, strategic investments, and an insatiable appetite for innovation, China’s space endeavors have propelled it into the forefront of the race to space. The nations remarkable successes, like landing rovers on the hidden part of the moon and building a growing space station, have caught the world’s attention and clearly show that China wants to be a leader in space exploration, challenging the long reign of the US. In today’s episode, we will cover how China space program is better than NASA in several aspects.

What are some facts that a disturbingly large percentage of Americans are ignorant about?

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Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma, was one of the richest black community in all of America. Then in 1921, a group of white supremacists attacked the community with the help from the National Guard.

Known today as the Black Wall Street massacre, where 35 square blocks were decimated. The community was home to 10,000 African American residents. It was a thriving community, with brick and wood frame houses, and a bustling place of commerce, with shops, night clubs and theatres. It was a vibrant place, and full of promise which is why it became known as Americas Black Wallstreet.

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Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed wiping out years of generational wealth. Hundreds had been killed and buried in mass graves as a heavily armed gang of looters and arsonists destroyed everything in there wake. One of the factors in the destruction of the community was resentment over the financial prosperity of the black community.

What are the world’s weirdest court cases?

In Charlotte, North Carolina, a Lawyer bought a really expensive box of Cigars and then insured them against fire. Within a month he had smoked all 24 of these rather fine Cigars, without even paying his first premium payment on the insurance policy.

The Lawyer then filed a claim against the insurance company. In the claim the Lawyer claimed the Cigars were lost in a series of small fires.

The insurance company out-right refused to pay, stating the obvious reasons for not paying out the insurance claim, and that the man has consumed the Cigars in the normal way. The Lawyer filed a lawsuit against the insurance company and won.

The Judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous, but the judge stated that the lawyer had a policy from the insurance company, which it had warranted that the Cigars were insurable and guaranteed that they would insure them against fire, without defining what was considered to acceptable fire.

Instead of having to go through a lengthy legal battle and costly appeals process they accepted the Judges ruling and paid the lawyer 15,000 dollars for the smoked Cigars.

After the Lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson.

The Matrix (1999) | First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Asia and BJ

Would a Russia and China alliance be an unstoppable force? With Russia’s oil and natural gas resources and China’s large economy and sheer population and both countries military power, arsenals and nukes

Absolutely

The Russo – Sino combination would produce an Economic Giant with :-

Combined Real GDP of almost $ 25 Trillion
Combined Food Per Capita of 575 Kg per Year (400 Kg per year being minimum desirable)
Combined Gold Reserves of 5000 Tonnes officially and around 6500 Tonnes unofficially
Around 4 Million Soldiers including Reservists
Capable of outproducing NATO at 17:1 in Ammo, 9:1 in Missiles, 6:1 in Ships and 6:1 in Choppers and Tanks
Oil and Gas Reserves

However this isn’t just adding numbers

China isn’t ready to split the world into camps

China wants a multipolar world and wants both the East and West

No matter what the West does, China is not burning bridges with the West because China still gets a lot of stuff from the West

My guess is China will wait and if Taiwan becomes a major issue then China may finally formally cut off the West and form a major alliance with Russia

Russia is ready even today

It’s tired and sick of the West

Putin and Shoigu are moderates but Medvedev, Lavrov, Surovikin, Prighozin are all extremists and tough hawks who want the West beaten and crushed

So it all depends on Taiwan

That would be the red line for China

If US supports Taiwanese Independence, China will formally get into a United Nuclear Alliance (If anyone nukes China, Russia nukes him back and vice versa) and a United Military Alliance (Anyone attacks Russia or it’s friends and China supplies everything including soldiers )

US politician Robert Kennedy Jr. has confirmed the existence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine which are used to produce banned biological weapons.

Tuesday, 15 August 2023 2:40 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 15 August 2023 9:37 PM ]

US politician Robert Kennedy Jr. (File photo by AFP)US politician Robert Kennedy Jr. has confirmed the existence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine which are used to produce banned biological weapons.

"We have bio-labs in Ukraine because we are developing bioweapons," the Democratic Party presidential candidate told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a video interview posted on the X social network (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday. "Those bioweapons are using all kinds of new synthetic biology and CRISPR (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats in DNA) technology and genetic engineering techniques that were not available to a previous generation," the US politician, also known by his initials RFK Jr., said in the interview. "When the Patriot Act reopened the biolabs arms race in 2001, the Pentagon began putting a lot of money into bioweapons," Kennedy Jr. added. "But they were nervous at that time because if you violate the Geneva Convention, it’s a hanging offense," he explained. "So they were nervous about actually going full force into bioweapons development. So they transferred the authority for biosecurity to one agency in the HHS [the US Department of Health and Human Services]," the politician added. "But now, when you do bioweapons development, every bioweapon, it needs vaccine so you develop them side by side because in 100 percent of the cases when you deploy a bioweapon, there’s blowback. Your side also gets sick," he concluded. The Russian Defense Ministry revealed the existence of US military biolabs in Ukraine working on producing bioweapons as early as February 2022. In mid-April, a Russian parliamentary commission presented its final report on the investigations into the activities of the US-run bio-labs in Ukraine. The report concluded that the Pentagon’s military biological program had grown large in scale, being implemented under the guise of anti-terrorist projects and activities that were permitted by the Biological Weapons Convention. The parliamentary commission also pointed out that the activities of all the US-controlled laboratories involved Pentagon experts. However, the results of their work were confidential and government agencies in the host countries only had access to secondary research results. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, revealed that the secret US labs in Ukraine were producing biological warfare. As a result of the illegal activities that were being carried out at US bio-labs in Ukraine, Russia last year asked the United Nations Security Council to establish a commission to investigate the reports that Washington and Kiev were in violation of the Convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons. In the meantime, Moscow believes that the US bio-labs in Ukraine are only a fraction of a global network of 300 similar facilities. However, the US government has now denied the existence of such military bio-labs. Instead, the US government has admitted to what it calls US-funded biological research facilities. Earlier this year, Russia said it had obtained documents in Lisichansk, in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), that revealed the US military-funded labs in Ukraine had been creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of the country. "Russian troops have secured over 20,000 documents, reference and analytical materials, and interviewed eyewitnesses and participants in American military-biological programs" since the start of the war in February last year, said the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov. The general said that the documents "confirm... the focus of the Pentagon on creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of Ukraine and other states along [Russia's] borders."

What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?

I am 67 years old. These are among the best things I have ever learned:

You spend your first 20 years worrying what people think about you. You spend your next 20 years swearing that you don’t care what people think about you. You spend the next 20 years realizing that they aren’t thinking about you. A liberation!
Any day on this side of the dirt is a good day. Some people didn’t make the cut last night. I was hit by a speeding taxi as I was walking to a bus stop. I spent a month in rehab with two broken legs, a brain injury, multiple back injuries and other fractures. The night before I was hit, a young, married couple was also hit. They both died. Practice gratitude.
A woman I know spends most of her time thinking about how much she hates her thighs. She can give you a detailed report on what is wrong with them. She forgets all the places those legs have taken her, all the miles they have walked for her. It doesn’t occur to her that when she gets up in the middle of the night to pee, those very thighs walk her to the toilet. Spend more time appreciating what you’ve got— a heart that beats, a way to pick up your cup of coffee, the eyes that see that cup and know what color it is. Blessings abound.
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who believe there is enough to go around, and those who don’t. Here is an example: If Margo is leaning up against the car kissing her boyfriend, and I think how nice that must feel, do I try to steal Margo’s boyfriend or do I go out and get my own boyfriend? I go out and get myself a boyfriend. I don’t need to steal Margo’s. I know that there is enough to go around.
An old Native American woman was asked why she was always so happy. She said that she has two wolves in her heart and they are both hungry— one wolf is angry and evil, the other wolf is filled with love, and that’s the only one she feeds.

India Just BURIED The Dollar, Saudi Arabia Is Next

Yes. It is happening.

A truth

Diver Dan – Riddle of the Hermit Crab – Episode 20

Can you give some examples of revenge being served cold and sweet?

About 30 years ago, I lived in an apartment complex where the owner paid the heat, hot water and cooking gas. The owner was one of the cheapest people I knew and she refused to fix anything or hire a decent Super. Btw, she had paid off the complex 15 years prior so she was making good $$$ off the complex

The boiler breaks and she has an old, used one, that she found in the newspapers, installed during the summer. By state law she was required to provide heat by November 15th. By the 23rd, it is brutal cold and we still didn’t have heat. I called her up to find out what is going on. Her response was that she was out of $$$ and for me to buy some electric heaters. Btw, that meant my expenses would up, since tenants paid for their electricity.

I go to town hall, met with the appropriate officials, let them know what is going and file a complaint. I also let them know that there was a large elderly group of tenants in the complex.

The official calls her, tells her that she is in violation and that she needs to get the heat on ASAP. She tells him off and refuses saying that she knows people. (She didn’t) He tells her that he will fine her $1000/day for each unit or $48,000 a day starting with that day. She tells him that he can’t do that and called him some choice names. What she didn’t realize that the town’s lawyer heard the entire phone call.

The next day she was delivered a notarized invoice for $48,000 along with a legal document stating that this daily fine will continue until the heat goes on. Now she is in a panic since she now owes the town $48,000.

But the best part of the revenge is that this happened on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Do now she had to scramble to find someone who could get the system working which she eventually did. But he charged her double claiming that it was interfering with him going away for the holiday.

One last thing, the town official told her if she tried to harass me for reporting her, the town would go after her and would pay my legal bills if I had to sue her

Couldn’t Be Easier Brisket

Prep: 5 min | Bake: 2 to 3 hr | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

3-4 pounds boneless beef brisket
1 bottle chili sauce
1 can Coca-Cola
1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Instructions

Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Combine chili sauce, Coca-Cola and soup mix.
Place brisket in a foil-lined baking pan*. Pour sauce mixture over brisket and cover with another sheet of foil sealing edges.
Bake at 300 degrees F for 3 to 3 1/2 hours until tender.
Carve brisket against the grain and serve the pan juices as a sauce.

Notes

* or use a cooking bag for really easy clean-up.

Now CHINA Missile Force Can Destroy US Asia Pacific Command in Just 7 minutes

This audacious assertion unveils a stark reminder that in the realm of modern warfare, the boundaries of possibility are continually pushed, leaving the world to grapple with the implications of China’s missile might and its potential to reshape the geopolitical landscape in a matter of minutes. Today’s episode will cover China’s missile force power.

Which Chinese fashion is still not adopted in Western countries?

Hanfu.

During my years in Australia, the States, Germany, and Ireland, I have seen Western women wearing the occasional qipao.

But never hanfu.

I guess because hanfu can be cumbersome and is generally impractical for modern urban city life.

And maybe because most people in Western countries don’t even know it exists.

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MUST WATCH: Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North Of Richmond” Review

The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)

Today’s treat. Full movie with James Stewart. Please enjoy!

Out of the blue, the grizzled farmhand, John O'Hanlan, receives an unexpected letter from an unknown solicitor in the far-off town of Cheyenne, Wyoming, informing him that he is the proud owner of the Cheyenne Social Club, now that his estranged brother, D.J., has passed away. Intrigued and eager to trade in the dusty landscapes of 1867 Texas for an easy life as a businessman, without delay, John sets out on a long trip with his best friend, Harley Sullivan, to create a better future for himself. But somehow, John's newest and only acquisition has both a good and a bad reputation. Either way, the establishment's inexperienced manager now holds the fates of its loyal staff in his hands: a beautiful sextet of dedicated, and above all, famous female employees. However, is John cut out to run this type of business?

https://youtu.be/aRjhZSGaWbE

NATO moves away from Ukraine, lunges toward Taiwan

It seems that the re-posturing is in process, right on a schedule established decades ago. One; mind you, without any allowance for change in the Geo-political situation.

Todays…

You know, I was watching Babymetal the other day, and it occurred to me that the entire band is the embodiment of a cat.

Yes. Seriously.

The elements of [1] hard, and fast along with [2] the very cute.

It’s one manifestation of a cute kitty cat. Then it gnaws on your hand… and draws blood.

Seriously. Check this one out with that thought in mind.

BABYMETAL – メギツネ – MEGITSUNE (OFFICIAL)

Though… it is about a FOX (which is a human female embodiment of a feline).

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Walmart My friend, 5″10″ 185 was walking out of the store on an Friday night. There were several high school boys horsing around with each other. As my friend walked past the biggest one, he went into a Rocky boxing stance behind him.(The store cameras caught the whole thing). He push punched my friend’s right shoulder enough to almost unbalance him. When my friend turned and saw a large figure in a fighting crouch, he continued his turn and placed the point of his elbow on the far side of the kid’s jaw.

Resulting in the kid flying backward to land flat of his back unconscious, with a broken jaw. Took about 2 seconds start to finish. The jaw was unintentional.

Kid’s dad was angry until he watched the vid.

Why is China way stronger in industry than the USA? Will the USA collapse and China make the world lead?

In the past 40 years, Chinese have worked hard, and the government has continued to invest in soft infrastructure (education, etc.) and hard infrastructure including transport and manufacturing.

In the US, Americans have voted to cut taxes and the size of government, which meant that there has been no investment in hard and soft infrastructure.

The “rise of China” is simply the result of those different policies.

How effective would the US government be after a nuclear war?

How effective is the United States today?

According to the United States constitution, the purpose of the Government is as a vehicle to serve its people.

Are they being served?

Is inflation under control?
Are the streets clean, and safe?
Are people happy, employed in useful productive activities.
Is the nation as a whole, healthy mentally, physically and emotionally?
Does the future look bright?
Is food, and shelter affordable?
Is medical care cheap and easy to obtain?
Is the government meeting the needs of the individual?

As I see it, the most basic, of basics is neglected.

This is not only unhealthy, but completely unsustainable.

You do not need a nuclear conflagration to destroy the United States, it is already destroyed. It is torn up and sitting in the garbage swill of past glories.

The American society is dead. DEAD. Gone, and slaughtered.

There are ZERO vibrant and healthy cities in the United States today. The downtowns are boarded up, squalor rat and rodent infestations exist, and tent cities abound. Those that exist fumble and mumble in their drug haze like the zombies they are. Today, the United States (though there are a handful of “pockets” of normalcy) is simply a ghost-nation.

Hollowed out.

Void of any real and actual leadership.

Inept, incompetent, and runs a well produced “clown show” in front of green screens, reading well produced scripts to keep the rabble in line.

No.

A nuclear war will not kill the United States.

It is already a carcass.

Pick it up off the side of the road, and start fresh. It’s the only thing that is left to do.

…

Remember…

Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy large functioning cities, and masses of military. That are their targets. If the cities are just crumbling, and the only strategic targets are a warehouse here, a factory there, or a government building over there, then it makes far more sense to use conventional munitions in “surgical” strikes.

As the United States stands today, a nuclear war would have very little effect on the nation.

A dead dog is still a dead dog. To shoot it full of holes will not change anything. It doesn’t matter if you use a .22 caliber revolver, or a 10 gauge shotgun.

Thus, to hasten the demise of the United States (as it is already post-collapse) is to target the few remaining assets that keep it alive;

The factories that make the bombs and missiles.
The “leaders” that run the remains of the nation.
The transportation hubs that distribute goods and services.

That is the true and real reality of the situation.

…

The United States is a carcass.

Any action by the rest of the world would be to add lime to it and advance the decay.

SHOCKING PRE BIRTH EXPERIENCE! I Saw Why I Chose a Life of Suffering!

Please enjoy my interview with Betty Guadagno about he Near Death-Like Experience and pre-birth memories!

Is China waiting for the right time to invade Taiwan?

No, why would China invade Taiwan now when Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan was restored and recognised in 1945? The only question is whether or not the rival PRC and ROC governments which do not recognise the right of the other to govern China, intend to finally finish the Chinese Civil War. Admittingly, it does not take a genius to realise that at this point, if the fighting does resume, it is but a matter of the PRC finishing off the last remnants of the ROC rump on Taiwan, since the ROC forces have no chance of reconquering the entire mainland by now (though they did hold on to this desire as late as the 1970’s).

And the answer to whether or not the fighting should resume is a resounding ‘no’ on both sides as well. Everyone on both sides of the strait is Chinese, and quite frankly most of the irreconciliable points of contention in ideological dogma and political doctrine between the KMT and CCP have long since become obsolete.

What most Chinese wish for is to find a peaceful long term resolution to the civil war which does not involve bloodshed, and most people from across the Chinese World regardless of political affiliation recognise or are at least willing to trust that those advocating for ‘Taiwanese Independence’ are but a small albeit vocal minority on Taiwan. Meanwhile, no one finds writing systems or pinyin romanisation standards to be worth fighting and dying over. My own hometown is somewhat inland but not entirely remote from Xikou, where Jiang Jieshi himself grew up. There are plenty of people in Xikou nowadays who in principle do not object at all to the prospect of welcoming the remains of the KMT leader back for a proper burial when the situation permits it (which was his own dying wish).

Of course, negotiations will not be straightforward, and it is completely understandable that ROC officials will have concerns about their specific status within a reunified Chinese state, and what protections and guarantees will be offered for the specific particulars of their own way of life. However, almost everyone of political prominence in the 1930’s and 1940’s is either dead or rather senile, so most understand there is no concern of anyone being dragged away to a public trial by the people.

The only reason why there would be a motivation to achieve reunification by force would be if something drastic happens, such as if the MJD attempts to change the ROC’s name and contitution, or the US uses ROC territory as a base for attacking other parts of China.

Is China–Russia Alliance is Likelier than we think?

On 4FEB22, it was formally announced that China and Russia formed a new “national structure” together. In short, they joined together into one singular “state” of a type never before seen on the planet. This nation state is tighter than any kind of individual nation, and stronger economically than any other singular nation in the history of the globe.

Since today is late July 2023, this new “nation-state”; a unified Asia, has been in force and operating now for a goodly one and a half years. And we have seen some amazing changes take place.

Both the paramilitaries of China and Russia integrating together.
Joint leadership in the various national organizations.
A wide selection of free trade and energy activities.
Massive infrastructure projects.

Of course, NONE of this is reported in any of the Western “news”. You have to be able to read Chinese, Russian, or Persian to keep abreast on the massive big changes going on in the world today. The English reporting is absent, and if reported, it is distorted beyond recognition.

For instance, take the joint Naval exercises with Russia and China around Japan last week. Western reporting equals zero. Or, the new rail lines connecting Western Russia to China, the Western reporting is yet again; zero. How about the new manufacturing plants in Russia? Zero. Or the trade corridors from the Middle east into the Heart of Russia, via the China “bridge”? Reporting is zero.

And so, with the West living in this bubble of ignorance, it can be expected that those in the West are unaware that China and Russia are one.

It is a united Asia.

To a person in the West, it is almost like waiting to get an invite to a big party. And you wait and you wait and you wait. Then you find out that the party came and went, and no one told you. Yeah. It’s like that.

So to answer the question;

Is China–Russia Alliance is Likelier than we think?

It happened a year and a half ago. It is more than an alliance; it is a new global superpower. If the USA is considered to be a superpower, then the new Russia-China “new national form” is a Super-Duper-Supreme-power. And that is how things stand today.

Which is why…

The people; the citizens, worry about war, Taiwan, nuclear bombs.
The multinational companies, are all renewing investments in China and Russia independent of any American-led sanction efforts.
The nations are all abandoning the USD in favor of a BRICS “basket of currencies”.

So do not be confused by the dearth of actual “news” reporting. Watch what people, companies and nations are actually doing. Not what they are saying.

For instance, as an example…

Thailand elected, via color-revolution, a pro-USA leader. However, just this week the Thai Navy spent all week drilling with the Chinese Navy, and the the BRI projects are proceeding that connects Thailand to China, and Laos without any interruption.

Pay attention to what is physically going on. Not, what is being “reported.”

Fluffy Dumplings

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon melted shortening or oil
2/3 cup milk

Instructions

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into mixture of beaten eggs, shortening and milk.
When ready to serve, drop by teaspoonsful into boiling gravy (about 4 cupsful), cover and cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes or until done.

Hunter Biden Plea Bargain FALLS APART

Nation Hal Turner 26 July 2023

The Hunter Biden plea deal appears to have collapsed. The so-called ‘Sweetheart deal’ on tax and gun charges seems to have fallen apart in a stunning twist after prosecutors said president’s son could STILL be charged with other crimes.

During his appearance in front of a judge in a federal court in Delaware the president’s scandal-hit son said ‘yes, your honor’ when asked by the judge if he was going to plead guilty, and admitted he’s been to rehab six times in 20 years for addiction to drinking and drugs.

But then the Judge demanded a recess when an agreement between prosecutors and attorneys for the president’s son appeared to fall apart.

Hunter’s attorney Chris Clark said the agreement was ‘null and void’ after top prosecutor Leo Wise said the president’s son could still be charged with other crimes – including violations related to representing foreign governments.

Has anyone ever gained superpowers in real life after an accident?

Jason Padgett

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He was a party guy who hated school and got really bad grades. One day, two men savagely attacked him and robbed Jason outside a bar, leaving him with a severe concussion.

This damage turned him into a math genius and made him learn fractal geometry, which he had never learned before. He then became a renowned mathematician.

Derek Amato

At 39, he hit his head after diving into a pool. He was diagnosed with a concussion and 35% hearing loss. After that Derek started seeing black and white keys on his head and out of nowhere started playing the piano like an expert and eventually became a composer.

Ben McMahon

He was in a car accident in 2015 and was in a coma for a week. When he woke up, he spoke perfect Chinese, even though he had only learned the basics in childhood.

Tony Cicero

He was struck by lightning while making a call in a phone booth. Within days, he became addicted to music, which wasn’t the case before. After experimenting with the piano, he became a musical artist who composes his own music.

I may not call them superpowers, but they are definitely powers for the uninitiated.

NDE: Woman is Shown Pre-Birth Plan and is SHOCKED to see she Did Not Accomplish her Life’s Purpose

Please enjoy my interview with Norma Edwards about her Near Death Experience!

The CIA

an ALL powerful organization unlike anything the world have ever seen

far more powerful than the Illuminati, the Free Masons and all powerful Men like Kim Jong-un
this organization had, thru mission creep, amassed GREAT POWERS for itself and now control the most powerful nations on earth
in a demonstration of its power, it had also made possible the Presidency of Joe Biden. It was in Ukraine that the CIA co-opted Hunter Biden as it fund bio labs. It also suppressed critical information that allow Joe Biden to win the 2020 election

What most Americans are NOT aware is that the CIA:

is the largest drug smuggler in the United States and in many parts of the world. It also arms Narco trafficker in Latin America which destabilized MANY countries
the slush funds created from drug smuggling enable it to fund activities outside state control
throughout the world, it is responsible for the death of tens of millions of people as it funds wars, mayhem and overthrow governments
overseas and in the United States such as in Fort Detrick, it operates bio.chemical labs that conducts research into bio weapons designed to kill and eliminate whole races of people

In the United States, the CIA:

spies extensively on Americans
control pedophile rings such as those run by Jeffrey Epstein which allows it to control American business and political elites (Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Bill Gates were just some of the individuals who were frequent visitors to Epstein’s island). This control allows it to direct America’s domestic and foreign agenda
thru its funding of American and foreign media and think thanks, it promote hate in the United States against China, Russia, Muslims and others distracting Americans from what it is doing and the governing Plutocrats openly stealing from the country and its people
it CENSORS books in the United States and fund major Hollywood movies in order to manipulate Americans while funding studies on thought control experiments
it’s involvement in the opiate trade has led to the death of millions of Americans devastating lives and communities.

From an organization which was created to gather intelligence from foreign countries, the CIA have evolved to spy on and manipulate Americans as it wage wars and inflict death and chaos which affect millions around the world while controlling bio-chemical weapons. Most of all, it now controls American political and business elites.

What is the CIA up to? As we have seen, the CIA is involve with much nefarious activities. If Oliver Stone is correct, this could also include the assassination of an American President

It has now united the countries of Europe and Japan – countries with a long and bloody history of waging wars of racial domination – after triggering the Ukrainian crises by funding neo-Nazis Ukrainians and triggering the Maidan revolution

for it is clear that the CIA objective is world domination and to set the world alight triggering an orgy of death, chaos and destruction

more than anything else, the CIA represent the physical and spiritual manifestation

of the Dark Angel himself where it has now found a HOME

always seeking power and domination while sowing death and chaos in its wake

it is now in the cusps of accomplishing its objectives of lighting the world on fire

in this world, in a country that is big and small, haven is preparing its favourite son

for that epic confrontation against Evil itself

in order to save the world from a fiery end

Most DETAILED Near Death Experience Ever Recorded; Woman is given TOUR of the Universe! Venia Hill

Please enjoy my interview with Venia Hill about her incredibly in-depth Near Death Experience!

These Humorous Stinker Station Signs Helped to Provide Comic Relief for Motorists in Idaho During the 1950s and ’60s

When traveling to distant places, it is well to remember where you come from. If you come from Idaho, chances are you are familiar with the Stinker gas stations, which used to put up gag signs along the roads. Those bright yellow Stinker Station signs all with black print truly were an “Idaho only” institution. The Stinker gas stations used to break the monotony of traveling through southern Idaho’s miles of sagebrush with their comic signs.

h/t: vintag.es

“BALLISTIC MISSILE LAUNCHES” UPDATED AGAIN 1:13 PM EDT — Major Air Strikes Against Ukraine

Reports are coming in that Russia has launched 12 TU-95 aircraft carrying missiles for Ukraine

If each aircraft is carrying a full load, that is up to 96 cruise missiles.

Air Raid Sirens are sounding throughout the red shaded areas of Ukraine shown on the map above. Explosions likely to follow.

Check back.

UPDATE 11:31 AM EDT —

13 Russian Tu-95MS and a number of Tu-160M Strategic Bombers are currently noted Airborne across Western Russia heading towards “Launch Zones” over the Caspian Sea.

A Large Missile Attack on Ukraine _SEEMS_ Imminent.

UPDATE 11:34 AM EDT —

Preliminary launches of X-101/555 missiles from Tu-95 from the Caspian direction.

CONFIRMED! Initial Detection by the Ukrainian Air Force of Cruise Missile launches by at least 12 Russian Tu-95MS Strategic Bombers over the Caspian Sea; the Missiles should be entering Ukrainian Airspace within the next hour.

UPDATE 11:38 AM EDT —

ADDITIONAL MISSILE ATTACKS NOW TAKING PLACE! High-speed missiles entering Ukraine from the north, Ukraine’s air force says.

These are DAYLIGHT launches, not something the Russians usually do.

UPDATE 11:40 AM EDT —

Cruise Missiles Flying towards Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk .

Possible direction – Kremenchuk, Kropyvnytskyi!

Explosions are reported in Berislav district of Kherson region and in Kharkov.

UPDATE 11:43 AM EDT —

Right now, Ukrainians are in a panic that has long crossed the line of hysteria.

Rockets over the Kirovograd region towards Kiev;

More missiles in the direction of the Vinnitsa region;

Rockets over the Zhytomyr region;

Zhytomyr region Powerful explosions;

Borispol, Kiev region, Explosions; Zhytomyr region.

Detonation of two warehouses with ammunition.

UPDATE 12:07 PM EDT —

Apparently, the Russian Air Force took significant steps to deceive the Ukrainian air defense; today’s missiles are constantly changing course in mid-flight!

Russian cruise missiles are flying to Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, — Ukrainian Air Force.

Explosions reported in Dnepropetrovsk region.

The second wave of Russian missiles is entering from the East.

Cruise missiles on the approaches to Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions!

MORE:

Explosions Reported in Dnepropetrovsk and Kirovograd Regions

It appears that a portion of the Iskander missiles have successfully struck their intended targets.

The activation of the air raid alert following the initial strikes indirectly confirms the accuracy of the hits on these targets.

Moreover, there are indications that a ballistic missile strike targeted an assembly shop in Kharkov, which was allegedly involved in the production of drones.

As for the cruise missiles launched from the Caspian region, they have not yet reached their intended destinations.

There is speculation that these missiles could potentially target certain sites belonging to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Khmelnitsky and Vinnitsa regions.

NEW: A group of missiles is moving along the border with Moldova in the direction of Khmelnytskyi region!

UPDATE 12:13 PM EDT —

Multiple explosions heard in Khmelnytskyi region

UPDATE 12:25 PM EDT —

Missiles entering Lviv.

Lviv region advised to take cover immediately, missiles inbound.

Volyn and Rivne regions. Missiles also fly towards you.

COURSE CHANGES – AGAIN: Several RU cruise missiles turned from Lviv to Volyn region NOW! Some rockets in the Ternopil region made a 180-degree turn.

A group of missiles from Ternopil Oblast changes course to Zhytomyr Oblast, another group in the direction of Lviv Oblast and Volyn Oblast.

UKRAINE authorities in panic, now hysteria: screaming to citizens “Missiles constantly change their flight path. Stay in shelters!”

UPDATE 12:46 PM EDT —

Russian “Dagger” missiles heading in the direction of Kyiv!

(NOTE: Today’s ongoing missile barrages appear to be the largest and longest-sustained attack since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began. Ter for months, we were all told “Russia is running out of missiles.” HMMMMM. Looks like the people telling us that were . . . ahem . . . wrong.)

AT LEAST FOUR (4) HYPERSONIC “KINZHAL” MISSILES HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED AND APPEAR HEADING TOWARD KIEV.

MORE:

Iskander missiles have JUST BEEN launched from the Bryansk region Russia.

***** FLASH *****

Multiple reports coming in claiming land-to-land BALLISTIC MISSILE LAUNCHES have taken place inside Russia, heading toward Ukraine.

UPDATE 12:57 PM EDT —

Explosions heard once again in the City of Khmelnytskyi in Western Ukraine.

UPDATE 1:13 PM EDT —

The attack seems to have subsided. No additional missiles are being tracked in, or toward, Ukraine.

Unconfirmed Reports that Starokostiantyniv Air Base in the Khmelnytskyi Region of Western Ukraine has been struck by at least 5 Russian Cruise Missiles. This Base is Home to the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade who operate Su-24 Tactical Bombers which are claimed to be the __ONLY__ Ukraine aircraft capable of utilizing “Storm Shadow” Air-Launched Cruise Missiles provided by the UK and France.

If this base and its planes have been put out of commission, then Russia achieved multiple wins; knocking out more Ukraine air power and HALTING the ability of Ukraine to use STORM SHADOW missiles, anywhere in the country.

Reports are that this is attack was focused on NATO Assets, Supplies, and Command Centers inside Ukraine, which would explain the daylight strikes.

THIS ENDS ONGOING UPDATES

Cajun Pork Chili

Ingredients

2 pounds ground pork
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet red bell pepper, chopped
1 sweet green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano*
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Salt and pepper

Instructions

In a heavy saucepan, cook the pork over medium heat, stirring to break up the meat, for about 5 minutes or until browned. Pour off the fat.
Add onions, and cook until tender. Add garlic, red and green peppers and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened.
Add tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of a spoon. Stir in kidney beans, hot pepper flakes, oregano, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Notes

* If you prefer a more traditional chili flavor, use cumin instead of oregano, and add chili powder to taste.

What is it like to live on a small island? What does it smell like? What do people miss from the mainland?

Originally Answered: What is it like to live on a small island?

I’ll answer for an island of 300 in the Maldives.

Enjoy? Things get boring very quickly unless you LOVE water sports or fishing. After we exhausted these options, cabin fever set in really quickly. Chess is a favorite pastime for locals.
Lizards and spiders galore, bats hanging in trees all day. Mosquitos are everywhere and the sand fleas are worse. Locals seem to have developed a tolerance for both though.
Translucent crabs COVER the edges of the island closest to the ocean from dusk to dawn.

Biggest swimming pool ever

The reefs are absolutely magnificent

Fantastic visibility

Supplies come once and sometimes twice a week – you miss everything and if you don’t order it or get it on the day or even hour it’s delivered, you’re out of luck that week.
There is one small general store that has a regular refrigerator for Kit Kat ice cream cones and bottled water/soda (only Holstein’s that I can’t even find online) – while they last.
Most mosquito coils in the general store are so old they won’t light
More coconuts and fresh fish than you could ever begin to try to eat

The boat that brings the supplies

Waiting to board the boat – yep, you can go for free but you’re gonna ride with the bananas, pineapples, bread and orange juice headed for the resorts

Knocked out on the floor of the ship. There wasn’t an open spot left anywhere.

It smells like ocean, sand, coconuts, fish, and musky people – no deodorant, obviously
Air conditioning and heating don’t exist – ditto for heated water.

We caught all these fish using fishing line and a hook tied to a water bottle. We just let the line drop and our “captain” drove around until one of us got a bite. No more than five minutes and usually less than a minute. I’ve never fished so easily in my life.

Brian with the fancy fishing “rod”

Sometimes fish is cooked by gutting, covering with salt, spearing with a freshly picked palm frond and roasting lightly over a coconut husk fire

Cooking on the deserted island across the atoll from where we stayed

Yeah, there were plates on the deserted (read: private party) island. They get rinsed in the ocean.

Everyone eats with their hands. All the time.
Everyone knows everything about everyone – this cannot be underestimated. You have ZERO privacy
Even though everyone knows everything, there are still drug (heroin) and alcohol abuse problems – they are isolated enough that they protect each others privacy from the rest of the world.
You can walk from one side of the island to the other in under 15 minutes if you go slow. 10 minutes for a nice, brisk pace.

One of the two main “streets”

Most furniture is made from wood and rope – withstands the sand and wind quite well

Finishing off another coconut in my favorite chair

Pretty cool six seater chair

There is a plane ambulance for major health emergencies – it has to fly to the island and fly back out
There is a speedboat ambulance within the atoll that will take you to another, slightly larger island with doctors for less major medical emergencies
There is one doctor from India who lives on the island part time for basic checkups and minor health care needs
There’s a large soccer (football) field that is used nightly, an open air mosque, and an open air two room school house
ZERO automobiles, a couple bicycles, a motorbike (maybe 50cc) every local rolls their eyes at because it’s so ridiculous (I think they’re waiting for him to accidentally ride into the ocean), and a couple carts for hauling what comes in on the boats
Two plastic lawn chairs at the end of one lane that faces the nearby resort island. On a good day, you can pick up the wifi from across the ocean. Spotty, but workable. Some days, people wait in rotation for a chair.

Hope that helps. Perhaps you’re looking for details about a bigger island, but some stuff should be similar. Good luck!

US Begins Draw-Down of ACTIVE ARSENAL to Give to Ukraine

World Hal Turner 26 July 2023

The US is giving another $400 MILLION (Corrected) of Military aid to Ukraine but this time, the weaponry is coming out of the ACTIVE ARSENAL and NOT coming from reserves or excess inventory! The Active Arsenal exists to defend the USA itself.

The US confirmed a new aid package to Ukraine valued at up to $400 million. It comes direct from Department of Defense stocks.

The capabilities in this package include:

1. Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);

2. Stinger anti-aircraft systems;

3. Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);

4. 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;

5. 120mm and 60mm mortar rounds;

6. 32 Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers;

7. Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;

8. Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets;

9. Hornet Unmanned Aerial Systems;

10. Hydra-70 aircraft rockets;

11. Tactical air navigation systems;

12. Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing;

13. Over 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades;

14. Night vision devices and thermal imagery systems; and,

15. Spare parts, training munitions, and other field equipment.

This latest gift of military aid is now directly impacting the ability of the United States to defend ITSELF.

It’s almost as if someone in government is deliberately doing things to the country to make us vulnerable to invasion!

Smoky Pasta and Bean Soup

Warm up with this hearty soup. Serve with warmed bread sticks and a salad.

68e34c05d98c7e4635fa7ee0ba9b663c pasta dinner recipes recipe pasta

Ingredients

6 slices bacon
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, crushed
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
2 1/2 cups canned white beans, drained
6 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup macaroni or other small paste shape
Fresh Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Instructions

In a large deep skillet, sauté bacon until some fat is rendered; add onion, celery, carrot, garlic and red pepper to skillet and sauté until vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes, cook and stir occasionally for 10 more minutes.
Stir in beans; add broth and bring to a gentle boil. Add macaroni (or other small pasta) and continue cooking until pasta is tender, but still firm, about 15 minutes.
Serve immediately with Parmesan cheese if desired; or cover, refrigerate and reheat gently to serving temperature.

Prep: 15 min | Cook: 45 min | Servings: 8

Nutrition information: Calories: 180 calories Protein: 10 grams Fat: 6 grams Sodium: 1310 milligrams Cholesterol: 10 milligrams Saturated Fat: 1 grams Carbohydrates: 26 grams

Can the US fight against all its adversaries at once like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea?

Right now, as of 2023, the “adversaries” against the United States is roughly about 85% of the global population.

The United States is a tiny part of the globe, and getting smaller each day.

So, who is the United States, and it’s allies, that the Mainstream Media like to refer to as “most of the world”…

American proxy nations.

These nations will do what the United States say. The methods of control vary from nation to nation, but they are not independent at all. It is extremely unlikely that these nations would do anything without asking the United States for permission first.

Canada
UK
Minor European states
Japan

American friends.

These are proxy nations that might have the ability to “break away” from the United States if conditions are favorable. Each nation operations under their own unique conditions. Some desire to be United States proxies, but Geo-political realities prevent full engagement, others wish to be more distant, but again, Geo-political realities prevent that as well. These nations are in a sort of limbo, and political expedience results in a default abeyance to American dictates.

Israel
Germany
Poland
France
Switzerland
Sweden
Finland

Neutral

These nations are trying to walk the razor-thin line of neutrality. There are internal elements that are dividing the ruling leadership. The issues involved in these nations are complex. Yet, their actions suggest that they are trying to “play both Geo-political blocks”.

Australia
Philippines
South Korea

The Global South.

These are the current “enemies” of the United States “Western” ideological block.

Some are codified, and formalized, such as Russia. Some are not formally engaged, such as China. Some are considered to be “American easy lays” such as South East Asia, though they are anything but that.

Russia
China
North Korea
Iran
Pakistan
All of the ‘Stan’s
South East Asia
Much of Africa
Brazil
South Africa
Argentina
Much of South America

Neutral but leaning with the Global South

These nations are currently picking sides. Most intel suggest that they are strongly leaning towards the Global South and rejecting the “American way of life”.

Mexico
Most of Latin America
India
Turkey
Bulgera

And that is pretty much the entire world. So, if you look at the list above, you can see the reality of what the world has fractured into.

A “West”; led by the United States. It promotes “American values”, “American democracy”, and woke progressive ideology. They use the USD as the dominant trade currency, and are referred to as the “English speaking world”. (Though that is NOT an accurate statement.) It’s an “American rules” order. It represents 15% of the world

An “East”. Led by the China-Russia-Iran-Saudi Arabia- Brazil-South African nexus. It’s a “multi-polar” order. Organized fundamentally under the UN charter. It is further subdivided into sub-blocks such as G20, BRICS+, and SEO. They use a basket of currencies based on hard tangible resources to trade. And combined, represents 85% of the world.

No.

It is unlikely that the United States can fight the entirety of the rest of the world and win. How likely or unlikely, is dependent on your personal point of view, and the intelligence or “news” that you (personally) consume.

American neocon = Likely that the United States will win, because it is blessed by God.
Typical proxy nation citizen = Tough call. Maybe the United States can persevere.
Global South Citizen = We are constantly underestimated. The United States cannot win.

Road to Bali (1952, Adventure) Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour | Full Movie, Subtitles

Today’s treat. Full movie. Great background movie.

Actually this movie is AWESOME!

It is fun. Enjoy your opportunities today.

Sitrep 2023 August

When I was in university, one of my friends offered to buy me lunch,and have some beers with me on a slow Tuesday afternoon. I was a Sophomore at the time, as I recall, and we went to Hungry Charlies and I had this enormous Turkey Grinder and we split a pitcher of beer. Good times. We then went back to the dorm.

He then went and proceeded to pull out his bag of weed, claiming that it was home grown and very weak. He didn’t smoke any, but I was all good for it. I smoked up the entire bag, with no effects. He didn’t and just chuckled.

I turned out to be parsley and he wanted to experiment on me to see if he could get me horny.

It didn’t work.

It also didn’t smoke bad either, as I recall.

Anyways, I have a history of people trying to get me to become horny. Mostly girls. And of them, if I were just a little bit more aware, I would of had a much more interesting time growing up.

But I was a clueless as you could be, and it is only now that I look back at what transpired and what could have been. It’s called “Life”.

Sigh.

Todays…

Taiwan Ammunition Dump DETONATES

World Hal Turner 24 July 2023

A gigantic explosion has taken place at the Hsiang Feng military base on Taiwan. DPP Authorities are already describing this as “Chinese Sabotage in advance of invasion.”

The situation is volatile. A significant number of people are said to be dead and injured.

Finger pointing (in public) at China is not subsiding.

This ammunition dump was THE primary ammo supply for Taiwan military.

If China were to invade now, Taiwan could not fight for longer than a week before running out of ammo and losing.

In the capital city of Taipei, people are TERRIFIED and streets are LITERALLY empty; as if an air raid is taking place:

Biden and his economy

Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes said Friday he was “amazed” by the administration’s rhetoric on the economy.

“A year ago, Joe Biden was calling himself the deficit cutter, the deficit slasher. This year, two and a half times the deficit is what it was a year ago,” he told “America’s Newsroom.”

“He says he’s bringing down inflation, still twice what it was when he came into office and those prices are not coming down, just the rate of increase is coming down. People’s credit card debt, where is that? Record high. Business investment is not what it should be, headwinds overseas.”

“What kind of world does he think he’s living in?”

The president delivered a full-throated defense of Bidenomics , claiming credit for bringing down inflation, slashing the federal budget by $1.7 trillion and creating 13 million new jobs.

In June, Biden made the same claim about cutting the deficit by $1.7 trillion, which The Washington Post rated “highly misleading.”

Voters also have their doubts; Biden had a 60% disapproval rating on the economy in Fox News’ June poll, which was a 7% improvement from the prior year.

Forbes believes Biden will not be the Democratic nominee

in 2024 and argued his record on the economy is one of the main reasons.

“People feel the institution in this country [they] can’t trust anymore. And both sides, you see that feeling, which is why Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is getting real traction. Who would have thought of that a year ago?”

Former economic adviser to President Trump Steve Moore told “The Faulkner Focus” Friday that the Biden economy is not working for many Americans.

“The people that have really been the victims of the Biden policies have been middle-class Americans,” he explained.

“Inflation is coming down, no question about it. It was 9% this time last summer. It’s down to a little over 3% now, which is good news. But guess what? That huge inflation that we saw in the first two and a half years of Biden’s presidency is now baked in the cake. In other words, if you go to the grocery store, or you go to get your gas fill up, or you buy an airline ticket or buy meat, all of those things on average are up 15 and a half percent. And that’s going to continue as we continue to have this inflation.”

Moore continued, “wages over that same time period for middle-class families are up roughly 12%. So the math here isn’t difficult, a 15 and a half percent increase in inflation, a 12% increase in wages means people are falling behind, and they’re feeling it.”

The economist noted inflation is also affecting those near retirement age.

“Who do you think gets hurt the most by inflation? People who have spent their whole lifetime building up their savings. So we estimate, for example, that the average 401(k) plan has lost about 40 or $50,000 in its purchasing power because of the high inflation and the fact that the market had not done so well,” Moore said. “The stock market is doing better now, thank God. But it’s really difficult for people now to just retire on Social Security.”

U.S. Economy To Reach Hyperinflation if BRICS Becomes Global Currency

The U.S. dollar stands at the crossroads of a new financial order as the BRICS alliance is looking to launch a new currency.

The present objective of BRICS is to dethrone the U.S. dollar and make the new currency the world’s reserve status.

BRICS is advancing in its mission to challenge the U.S. dollar by convincing developing countries to end reliance on the greenback.

The bloc remains successful as close to 41 countries have expressed interest to trade in the new BRICS currency.

The development could put a strain on the U.S. economy as the greenback would have no means to fund its deficit. While the debt ceiling crisis is yet to be resolved, the burden of a ‘BRICS currency success’ will take a toll on the American economy.

Heritage Foundation economist E. J. Antoni warned that the U.S. dollar is on the brink of losing its reserve currency status. Antoni explained that if developing countries ditch the dollar and trade in BRICS currency, the debt ceiling crisis could worsen.

The economist rang the warning bells saying that if America fails to fund its deficit, seven decades of deficits could flood the U.S. economy. He said that if such a situation arises, the U.S. economy might fall into hyperinflation where prices of all commodities would skyrocket.

“Losing reserve currency status would mean 70 years of deficits flooding back to the U.S. All competing with existing dollars held domestically to buy goods and services. That’s a hyperinflation scenario. It also means we could no longer export inflation abroad. So we’d bear the FULL COST of past and future inflation.

Earth is the Most Difficult Planet to Incarnate Into | Near Death Experience Researcher David Suich

Why do Western elites feel so threatened by China that they’re willing to risk a world war to maintain “rules-based international order”?

If you belong to a class that writes the rules that favour you and enrich you thinking it could last forever you won’t want it to end. It is that simple. Just think about this. Prices of commodities are controlled by the west to be deflated at will to keep the rest of the world barely making a living Basically so that the west can literally keep the rest of the world as mere or near slaves and the west makes products that the rest of the world have to harvest an acre of land a year to afford a little radio!

From the end of colonialism after the 2nd world war in 1945 till 1995, the western so call “ rules based international order does just that. They wrote the rules, they police these rules and the judges are the 5 Anglo white Caucasian eyes. In 1945 after the world is burnt to ashes. The developing world could not do a thing. Crumbs off the western table kept us alive.

But bit by bit starting with the Japanese and the Germans. Then Oriental east, ASEAN, Indian subcontinent. Now Africa and Latin America are no longer in need to pay heed to these institutions and soon the hegemonic dollar too. China is one of the enabler BRICS is collectively responsible. Now the BRiCS plus some 40 nations are coming together to set its own rules or at least rejecting the western order.

Western elites clearly don’t like this. But it needs to accept that cheating the world 50 years after stealing and plundering them for 300 years simply cannot go on. If you simply summarise this 350 years, 15% of mainly white Anglo Saxon people stole plunder, looted from the world and kept them impoverished and dilapidated while the western elites build grandeur castles. How can they not feel threatened? Of course they do but to the world it is good riddance.

What do you think will happen to Putin once all this is over and Russia is literally cut off from the world?

Nobody Knows

Its easy to talk about going Renewable but thats downright nonsense

Refining/Processing Plants in UK, US and Europe employ 160,000 People in Total . Thats $ 17 Billion a year in Paychecks

Thats $ 117 Billion a year Revenues

You really think they will keep quiet if they dont get enough Oil and are put out of business???

And Lets say you move to EVs

Who gives you the Palladium? Russia.

Who gives you the Batteries? China

Who gives you the Motors? China

You want to pay $ 65K for a EV Car or $ 261K for the same EV Car if you bypass China and Russia???

My Point is simply this

You cannot cut off Russia from the World

Russia has too much. Its not exactly Djibouti or Honduras

What is the most inappropriate experience you have had with a neighbor?

I have lobster traps stacked in my yard. Every spring, I set them out and around December, I bring them ashore and re-stack them. It’s been going on like that for years.

When the elderly lady next door passed away, the house was sold to a couple with addresses in NY and Conn. So, they moved to this small town and decided, we don’t like the looks of those traps.

I asked, what makes the difference? It’s a summer home, the traps are gone before you get here and you’re gone before I take them back up and stack them in the yard.

It didn’t matter, we ended up in court, everyone had their say and the judge was going to think it over.

Before he hit the gavel, my lawyer asked to make one more statement.

He said “your Honor, these folks bought a house, in a fishing village, on an island, on the coast of Maine. What in heck did they think was going to be next door?”

He decided in my favor right then.

How Bad is the Chinese Economy? Walk Through Shanghai Reveals Truth

How bad is the Chinese economy? We hear it everyday in the news, but what is the economic situation on the ground in China? In today’s video, I hit the streets of Shanghai and explore a local neighborhood seeing what life is like in China in 2023 and share my experiences of speaking with some Chinese youth about the future of the Chinese economy

NOPE

Italian Meatloaf

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground mild Italian sausage
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 slices white bread, crumbled
1 tablespoon milk
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese, reserve 3/4 cup for topping
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup marinara sauce, plus 1/2 to 3/4 cup more for topping

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and sauté the onion and bell pepper for 3 to 4 minutes; remove from heat.
In a large bowl, add the meats, onion and bell pepper along with all remaining ingredients reserving 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese for topping. Mix very well. Place and mold the mixture in a baking dish of your choice.
Spoon 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the marinara sauce on top and spread around.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Remove from the oven and top with the remaining cheese and sprinkle a little dry basil over the top.
Return to the oven for 10 more minutes. Make sure the meat is not pink before serving. Baking time will vary depending on the thickness of the loaf.

France under attack: the pawns are fighting in the streets of France, but the war is between France and the Anglo-American Empire.

[This article was published on Alex Krainer’s substack TrendCompass]

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron is under attack by the Anglo-American imperial establishment. The civil unrest that erupted across the nation was triggered by the 27 June 2023 Police killing of the 17-year old Nahel Merzouk (NM) in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. NM was driving a car without a driving license, failed to comply with police orders and for that he was shot point blank by two officers in full riot gear. NM was of Algerian origin. The next day, riots broke out in many cities across France: Paris, Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble and also Brussels in Belgium. Some areas were left looking like war zones.

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In fact, some of the riots did resemble low-intensity warfare. According to some reports, US weapons donated to Ukraine have found their way through black markets to the streets of French cities and into the hands of the protesters who used them in coordinated attacks on police and firefighters. Just on the night of Jun 30/July 1

, 41 police stations were attacked, 79 police officers injured, 2560 fires were set in the streets, 1360 cars and 234 buildings were burnt. The government deployed 45,000 police and gendarmes to bring the situation under control, but thus far, the rioting has continued with great intensity for five straight days, threatening to destabilize the nation.

President Emmanuel Macron is under increasing pressure, not only from the rioters and the opposition, but more ominously, also from his own Police forces and the military. Police Unions of France wrote to Macron threatening to revolt: “Today the police are in combat as we are at war. Tomorrow we will be in the resistance and the government should be aware of this.” Certain military circles appear ready to turn against Macron. General Pierre Villiers, who is apparently well respected among the French military commanders said

that the army should be loyal to the people, not to Emmanuel Macron.

Nothing is what it seems…

So far, the events may seem straightforward to understand at the levels of pawns opposed to one another in the streets of French cities: the abusive government of President Macron and its security apparatus is under attack by the people whose legitimate grievances went past the boiling point. From there, it’s easy to assume that Macron’s government even instigated the riots deliberately in order to crack down and tyrannize the people according to their plan. Heck, Macron is the Rothschilds’ errand boy and a loyal World Economic Forum young leader.

You’re either with us, or you’re against us.

All of that sounds plausible, but there’s a far broader context to this story. The present crisis draws root from the very strained relationship between French ruling elites and the Anglo-American imperial establishment, which spans centuries. A more thorough analysis of this relationship could fill many volumes but for now we’ll focus on just the more recent developments. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, President George W. Bush announced to the world that, “you are either with us, or you are against us.” He wasn’t just saying words: the empire was preparing to cement the unipolar global order, eliminate its rivals, establish full-spectrum dominance and launch its Project For The New American Century.

France has never accepted the role of a junior partner or unquestioning ally, let alone a vassal to the Anglo-American Empire. It has continued to be a pain in its side at critical junctures. Here are a few examples of the last two decades’ spats between the two sides:

2003: French opposition to US invasion of Iraq

In late 2002 and early 2003, the Administration of George W. Bush was working feverishly to secure its allies’ support for an invasion of Iraq. In February 2002, US State Secretary Colin Powell waved a vial of white powder at the UN Security Council, accusing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of possessing biological weapons of mass destruction. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin wasn’t impressed. In a searing speech he poured cold water on US case for war and called out Powell’s performance as dubious and unconvincing. A few weeks later, on 10 March 2003 President Jacques Chirac made it clear

that France would vote against any UN Resolution authorizing US attack on Iraq. In this, France would vote on the side of Russia and China (talk about foreshadowing).

2008: France opposes Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO

One of the most important projects of the Anglo-American empire over the past three decades has been to encircle Russia by absorbing all of her neighbors to the west and southwest into the NATO alliance. In several waves of eastward extensions, NATO added 14 new member states, moving more than 1,600 km toward Russia. Ukraine and Georgia were next: at the April 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, the alliance proclaimed the Bucharest Memorandum. Referencing Ukraine and Georgia, they explicitly declared that, “We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” While not yet a full-fledged member of the alliance’s integrated command, France was openly opposed to the resolution on the grounds that it would exacerbate the risk of war with Russia.

2019: Emmanuel Macron calls NATO a ‘brain-dead’ alliance

In an interview with The Economist

in October 2019 titled, “Emmanuel Macron warns Europe: NATO is becoming brain-dead,” French President warned European countries they can no longer rely on US-dominated military alliance (note, by now France was a full-fledged NATO member): “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” and declared that Europe needed to “wake up,” as it stood on “the edge of a precipice” and needed to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power, otherwise as Europeans, we’ll “no longer be in control of our destiny.” Worse, when asked whether he believed in the effectiveness of Article Five which provides that if one NATO member is attacked all would mobilize to defend it, Macron gave a convoluted, cryptic reply: “I don’t know, … what will Article Five mean tomorrow?”

But President Macron and his government would become still more problematic for the Anglo-American cabal with the escalation of conflict in Ukraine. Of all European leaders, Macron has spent the most time visiting with or speaking on the phone with his Russian counterpart; he sought to improve relations between Russia and France and he tried to influence other European nations to chart a more independent policy on the continent.

2022: Macron says Russia has legitimate security concerns

In an interview that aired on Saturday, 3 Dec. 2022 Macron urged the West

to take seriously Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO expansion near its border. He called for greater willingness to give Moscow the “guarantees” necessary for negotiations to be successful. He called them ‘essential’ if the West wants to get serious about talks and peaceful settlement. “We need to prepare what we are ready to do, how we protect our allies and member states, and how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table.” Macron added that, “One of the essential points we must address — as President Putin has always said — is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors, and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia.” These comments elicited rage and disbelief among the Anglo-American allies and western media who accused the French President of being a pro-Kremlin stooge.

April 2023: Macron visits China, flirts with BRICS nations

Emmanuel Macron provoked even more rage and disbelief after his three day high-profile, red-carpet visit to China, from 6 through 8 April 2023. Western “national security experts” were so alarmed by this visit, they called the event

“one of the greatest blunders by a major European power since the end of the Cold war…” Indeed, it was a slap in the face to the Anglo-American establishment.

On 7 April 2023 President Macron visited the Sun Yat-Sen University

in South China’s Guangdong Province where he received an enthusiastic welcome. He delivered a speech on China-France ties and took questions from the students. There may have been a subtle message in the very venue chosen by his hosts. Sun Yat-Sen was a vocal critic of the British Imperial system and their foreign policy. In his book, “The Vital Problem of China,” Sun Yat-Sen wrote that,

“When England befriends another country, the purpose is not to maintain a cordial friendship for the sake of friendship but to utilize that country as a tool to fight a third country. When an enemy has been shorn of his power, he is turned into a friend, and the friend who has become strong, into an enemy. England always remains in a commanding position; she makes other countries fight her wars and she herself reaps the fruits of victory. She has been doing so for hundreds of years.”

[h/t Cynthia Chung

for highlighting this passage]

We shouldn’t be America’s vassals

Speaking to journalists on the return flight from Beijing, Macron said that, “Europe must resist pressure to become America’s followers…” that the “great risk” Europe faces is getting “caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its own autonomy,” and that, “Europe had increased its dependence on US for weapons and energy and must focus on boosting its defense industries.” In referring to Ukraine, Macron said that it was, “a faraway country of which we know nothing…” But even this wasn’t as unforgivable as his swipe at the “extraterritoriality of the US dollar.”

While in China, Macron signed many deals expanding bilateral trade between France and China, many of which will be denominated in Chinese yuan. Already before Macron’s visit, in March 2023 French companies began to strike such deals, the first of which was the purchase of 65,000 metric tons of liquid natural gas settled in yuan. French leadership’s willingness to craft their own bilateral relations with Anglo-American Empire’s chief rival and bypassing the US dollar is simply unforgivable. But Macron would soon go farther: according to the newspaper L’Opinion, during last month’s telephone conversation, French President asked his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa to extend him an invitation to participate in the 15th BRICS Summit planned to be held in South Africa in late July/early August.

It’s about the two systems of governance…

It is important to keep in mind the broadest context of the current global conflict. As George Soros laid it out in his annual address to the World Economic Forum

in May 2021, it is the conflict between the two systems of governance. Soros mischaracterized them as “open societies” and “closed societies.” In reality, we’re witnessing the conflict between the western imperial colonial system and pretty much the whole rest of humanity.

The imperial system governance is controlled by the western occult oligarchy which, while it gives lip-service to the rule of law, freedom, democracy and human rights, in reality it consistently sows mayhem abroad and misery at home. Truth be told, the French ruling elites have also enjoyed the massive privileges of this system for centuries. However, they never accepted subservience to the Anglo-American establishment and always sought to plunder and exploit its colonies on their own terms.

Ukraine is some faraway place to you?

We don’t know yet whether France will indeed be invited to the upcoming BRICS Summit, but in the world where not being “with us” equals being “against us,” the Empire simply can’t tolerate the uppity independence of France. You think our military alliance is brain-dead? You don’t want to be our vassal? You dare to strike trade deals with China and trade in yuan? You want to seek peace with Russia? And Ukraine is some faraway place to you? Clearly, this is unacceptable and the Anglo-American establishment has had enough of France’s insubordination. It was time to teach France a lesson and bring her into line with the Anglo-American agenda.

AUKUS alliance: a stab in the back to France

The most recent sign of the Anglo-American cabal’s contempt for the French was the 2021 announcement of the AUKUS alliance between the US, UK and Australia. In 2016, France made a deal with Australia to supply 12 conventional submarines for her navy. The deal was worth $37 billion – a very substantial amount by any measure. French diplomacy celebrated it as the “contract of the century,” important not only for its sheer size and the strengthening of France’s relationship with Australia but also in terms of securing French strategic influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

But then, on Wednesday, 15 Sep. 2021 US President Joe Biden, UK PM Boris Johnson, and “that fellow down under,” as Biden addressed Australia’s then PM Scott Morrison, announced a “historic” security alliance between the US, Britain and Australia. Part of the deal included US and UK providing Australia with nuclear submarines and a significant transfer of US military technology.

With no prior consultations or warning, Britain, Australia and the US, otherwise well known for the high value they place on sanctity of contract, simply sidelined France, tore up her contract with Australia and threw French interests overboard provoking indignation and anger in France. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian referred to the AUKUS announcement as evidence of duplicity, treachery, and a stab in the back to France from her supposed allies and partners.

France recalled its ambassadors

to the United States and Australia and Le Drian stated that there was now a crisis of trust with the US. EU Council’s President Charles Michel also strongly criticized the AUKUS announcement, accusing the Anglo-American club of leaving Europe “out of the game in the Indo-Pacific region.” This was not the first massive humiliation dished out to France from the same “friendly” Anglo-American circles.

Haiti’s reparations: how the US punished France’s opposition to Iraq invasion

American diplomacy and secret services found it easy to punish France’s opposition to the Iraq invasion and the embarrassment that France’s Foreign Minister Dominic De Villepin inflicted on the US delegation in the UN Security Council in February of 2003.

Jean Bertrand Aristide had first become Haiti’s president in 1991, but was deposed in a military coup after less than eight months in office. He spent years in exile in the US before coming back to power again in 2000 elections, with the help of the US. His US liaison was the diplomat and CIA agent Luis Moreno. On 7 April 2003 Aristide suddenly started calling for colonial-era reparations from France (note, this was 18 days after the start of the US invasion of Iraq). The precise amount that Aristide was demanding was $21,685,135,571.48 – that sum represented the lower-end of the scale of estimated damage inflicted on Haiti by France.

Formerly known as Saint Domingue, Haiti was a French colony, supplying sugar, coffee and tobacco to much of Europe. It was a boon to French merchants, slave owners and financiers. But in 1791 Haiti’s slaves staged a successful rebellion and won their freedom. In 1801, when Napoleon sent a large armada to subjugate them again, they defeated his troops and in 1804 Haiti’s leaders declared independence.

But France wasn’t ready to give up Haiti. King Charles X sent another armada in 1825 offering to recognize Haiti’s independence, provided that Haiti’s government agreed to pay an extortionate tribute in the amount of 150 million gold Francs. How much money was that? In 1803, France agreed to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States for 80 million Francs – an area that was 77 times larger than Haiti. But Haiti’s choice was simple: pay up, or it’s war!

The French would have been able to impose a naval blockade on Haiti and entirely cut them off from global trade and payment systems. Haitians had no choice but to submit to French ultimatum. To pay the ransom, Haiti was forced to borrow the sums from French bankers and pay back the loans plus interest from the proceeds of their commodity exports. Incidentally, this was the beginning of the new model of colonialism based on financial debts rather than military occupation. That, essentially is the imperial model of governance plaguing humanity to this day.

Haiti’s tragic experience was the only time in history when freed slaves had to pay restitution to their former masters and borrow funds from them to meet the ransom payments. This is why Haiti’s humiliation was called the Double Debt: it took Haitians over 130 years to pay it back and doomed the nation to chronic austerity, underdevelopment and crushing poverty.

It also made Aristide’s demand for restitution legitimate and an absolute bombshell for France. His campaign grew bolder over time with banners, bumper-stickers, government adds and graffiti spread all around the country. Not only was Aristide demanding a very substantial amount of money from France in reparations, he also encouraged other former colonies to join his fight and demand their own reparations from France.

French government was stumped with this development which their Ambassador to Haiti Mr. Yves Gaudeul called explosive. He urged his government to open discussions with Haiti to diffuse the situation, but he was firmly rejected. Instead, France recalled Gaudeul and sent a less sympathetic Ambassador to Haiti, Mr. Thierry Burkard, who explained the situation in stark terms: “Algeria can perfectly make claims, as well as most of our colonies… There’s no end to it. It would have set a precedent that we would have been greatly blamed for.”

Thankfully for France, the problem disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Before dawn on 29 February 2004 Luis Moreno, that same US “diplomat” who helped bring Aristide to power in 2000, came to his residence flanked with security officials and demanded Aristide’s resignation. Mr. and Mrs. Aristide were simply abducted and flown out of the country on a US-chartered plane back into exile. Haiti’s new, western-backed leader, Gerard Latortue dropped the restitution demands and the whole messy affair was closed.

Even though Jean Bertrand Aristide had been in power since the beginning of 2001, his calls for reparations came more than two years later, seemingly out of nowhere, but soon after France’s snub to the US over the Iraq invasion. Aristide demanded reparations from France, but never from the United States which had occupied it, or held it in debt bondage since 1915, subjecting it to equally rapacious exploitation.

Even before military occupation, in December 1914, US Marines landed in Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, broke into Haiti’s National Bank and simply took some $500,000 worth of gold belonging to Haiti’s government. Within days, Haiti’s gold was in the vaults of New York banks. Still, Aristide apparently made no precise calculation of damages inflicted on Haiti by the United States.

Furthermore, in an email exchange between Aristide’s government legal counsel Ira Kurzban, and their international law advisor Gunther Handl, the latter advised Kurzban that “Haiti must convey to France,” that there are suitable opportunities “for washing France’s dirty laundry in public.” It’s almost as though the affair was about pressuring and embarrassing France rather than securing justice for Haiti.

That notion is confirmed by the simple fact that France’s problem disappeared only after US agents removed Aristide from power, rather than after earnest negotiations with Haiti’s representatives and France’s acceptance of some obligation to Haiti. This fact alone suggests that France yielded to the United States in some backroom deal, not to Haiti. Perhaps France dropped its challenge to the New American Century and its full-spectrum dominance, and pledged her allegiance to the hegemon.

In 1966 under President Charles de Gaulle, France removed all her troops from NATO’s integrated military command and asked all non-French NATO troops to leave France. In 2009, only a few years after the Haiti affair (plus the destabilizing 2005 riots for a good measure), France once more became a full-fledged member of the North Atlantic alliance. But everyone did not live happily ever after and the relations with France remained difficult.

The Damocles’ sword of France’s colonial past

The Damocles’ sword of France’s ugly colonial past (though no more ugly than that of Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Great Britain or Germany), was brought up again in November 2022 when Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appeared on Italian channel 7

airing some of France’s particularly ugly-looking colonial dirty laundry. She showed the Italian public two exhibits: a CFA Franc banknote and a photo of a child working in a gold mine in Burkina Faso: “This is called the CFA franc. It is the colonial currency that France prints for 14 African nations, to which it applies seigniorage and by virtue of which it exploits the resources of these nations…“

Meloni claimed that thanks to the CFA Franc, 50% of everything that Burkina Faso exports ends up in the French treasury. In addition to being the Prime Minister of Italy, Meloni is also a member of the powerful Aspen Institute. Headquartered in Washington, D. C., the institute is funded by some of the most powerful exponents of the Anglo-American establishment including the Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Carnegie Corporation and Lumina Foundation and Meloni might be doing their bidding in antagonizing France.

In another jab at embarrassing France, in May 2022, the New York Times published a 19,000-words long special report about the French colonial abuse of Haiti. Titled, “The Ransom: How a French Bank Captured Haiti

,” the report reads almost as though it was the French who invented slavery and colonialism.

Preannouncing the attack on France

The most bizarre element that suggests that the current uprising in France is a planned destabilization attack by the Anglo American imperial cabal is the fact that it may have been preannounced in what appears to be their habitual modus operandi. Last month I had the privilege of participating in the Better Way Conference in Bath, organized by the World Council for Health. One of the speakers on my panel was Mr. Mark Devlin (@DJMarkDevlin

) a DJ who made it his challenge to study how the ruling establishment use popular culture and entertainment to disseminate propaganda and manipulate the masses.

One thing he picked up on is that they invariably preannounce their plans to the public through popular films and TV series. Mr. Devlin claimed there are literally hundreds of examples of this, and he shared one with us: a short clip from the American TV show, The Dead Zone which aired in 2005. The plot involved a Coronavirus contagion. The virus originated from China and caused high fever and respiratory infections, necessitated lockdowns, quarantines, wearing of masks, tracking and tracing of contacts, etc.

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The clip was profoundly disturbing to see, but it suggested that Devlin was onto something important. As it happens, the case of riots in France also corroborates his hypothesis. Namely, in 2022 Netflix launched a film titled “Athena

” about a future ethnic civil war in France, which would erupt after the police killing of an Algerian youth. On 27 Jun 2023, French police killed an Algerian youth.

Seeking justice for Nahel by attacking Chinese tourists?

Another detail about the riots could have symbolic relevance: namely, Reuters reported that Chinese tourists were injured when rioters attacked a bus carrying a Chinese tour group in Marseille. The attack, which took place on Thursday, 29 June 2023 again reveals the cabal’s modus operandi. Recall, when the US and NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999, five U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition

guided bombs hit the Chinese embassy, killing three Chinese state media journalists. One bomb might have gone astray and hit the embassy by accident, but five bombs were a message, as was (probably) last Thursday’s attack on Chinese tourists. It would be difficult to explain why rioters who had grievances against the French government and demanded Justice for the young Nahel Merzouk, thought they’d obtain that justice in attacking the Chinese.

What now?

Should we regard Emmanuel Macron and his government as the good guys in this saga? Will they be able to pacify the situation, or will it escalate? For my part, I’ve never been even slightly fond of Emmanuel Macron, but I believe that today France’s sovereignty is at stake, and it was Macron who invited Anglo-American cabal’s wrath. If France fights back, things will get ugly. Yes, they’ll have to crack down and yes, western media will accuse them of all the standard faults of tyranny, repression, intolerance and censorship.

If France capitulates, things will get uglier still and uglier for longer. But to defend France, the government of Emmanuel Macron will have to try to bring together all of France and this could prove their toughest challenge. Macron represents the French elites which do have much to answer to – not only to their colonial subjects but also to the French people whose country has been stolen from under them (though Macron is not the only one to blame for this).

In 1996, when I moved to Monaco, I recall that for several years in a row, France was winning the top spot as the country with the highest quality of life (I believe the quality of life surveys were conducted by Conde Nast or some such publication). Over the last 25 years however, quality of life in France has deteriorated precipitously. If France is to survive and lead Europe once more, the elites backing Macron will have to reconcile and make nice with the people.

With regards to her colonial past, France will at the very least need to set up a truth and reconciliation commission and offer an earnest apology and a helping hand to its former colonies to rise and develop as equal trading partners rather than simply territories to strip mine of their resources and subjugate in a cold and inhumane fashion.

The world should consider offering a helping hand to France, because with the present struggle, a very large opportunity has presented itself to humanity: to defeat the imperialistic system of governance that’s caused the unspeakable tragedies of our colonial past and its most powerful beneficiaries, the Anglo-American imperial establishment. If they succeed at taming France and making her their vassal, they will grow stronger.

If France prevails and joins humanity, the multipolar integrations and the other model of governance, the imperial cabal will suffer a crushing blow. I know where 99.9% of us stand and for my part, I would love to see Emmanuel Macron in South Africa at the end of this month, for once listening and earnestly seeking partnership and reconciliation with the world and securing France’s place as an equal in a new community of nations.

At what age did you learn about life? Why would someone in their late 40s and 50s have to be told how to eat or be happy?

I’ve been learning about life the whole time. The problem is that most of my first twenty years were completely fucked up by abusive nightmare parents who not only failed to teach me many important lessons, but also straight up lied to me about life, themselves, myself, other people, and everything, thus leaving me with much to unlearn.

But haha, when your parents fuck you up, then later in life you usually find some other horrible person to continue the abuse, and that’s what I did. So the last twenty years of my life were ruined by the woman who is now my ex-wife, who lied, cheated, stole, and fucking ruined me, leaving me homeless and too depressed to even try to get out of the ditch.

Then, flat broke, desperate, I tried to go get some help, make friends, find a job, and generally start over at fifty years old. I’ve been trying for almost four years now, and I’ve failed at everything. I’ve given up, honestly.

I’ve been trying to eat, but food stamps aren’t enough. The food bank gives random crap, and not much of it. So I’ve been hungry. I’ve been trying to eat cheap, but it seems like food prices have suddenly become comical, just as I’ve become broke and homeless. I’m just trying to buy simple, healthy groceries, and I can’t afford them. Also, it’s really hard to cook when you’re homeless. I don’t really know how to be poor; I’ve always had at least enough to eat well without worrying about affording decent food. Lately, I’ve been trying, or I was before it got so hot I gave up on cooking. So how to eat can become an issue in midlife for different reasons.

And maybe the worst part is seeing how shitty most people really are. Stupid, of course, but also greedy, selfish, thieving, and cruel. I guess I was used to getting some respect. But now, absolutely everyone treats me like shit, because I got fucked over and became homeless. Not sure how I’m supposed to be happy in this situation. Been trapped in absolute misery for three, four years now, really.

I mean, I know a thing or two, and I learn more every day. I am sorry to say that the lessons I’ve learned lately have been pretty bitter. This world is kind of a nasty place, and a lot of the people I’ve met lately are nasty, mean, shitty people. Good to know, I guess. Not really sure how I’m supposed to be happy in such a lousy world with such awful people, honestly. My current solution is to get as far from everyone as possible, but then I get lonely. I dunno man, can’t really believe this is my life at fifty years old, but I’m still here somehow, still learning horrible lessons. Still trying to figure out how to eat, how to be happy. Maybe I never will get it.

Arnold Ziffel Gets Revenge on Oliver Douglas – Green Acres – 1967

BREAKING NEWS: DRONE ATTACK AGAINST MOSCOW!

World Hal Turner 23 July 2023

This story publishes at 9:35 PM EDT. Minutes ago, at about 9:28, at least three drones hit skyscrapers in Moscow, Russia. Some damage was done but Russian air defenses are active above the city.

This is FLASH-Breaking News developing . . .

UPDATE 9:42 PM EDT —

Video is beginning to emerge from Moscow showing MORE THAN ONE skyscraper was apparently hit.

The Headquarters for the Russian Branch of Leroy Merlin, a French Home Improvement Company, has reportedly been struck.

UPDATE 9:57 PM EDT —

Moscow’s Komsomolsky Avenue close to Defense Ministry building closed after drone fragments fell on the area.

Multiple Roads near the Russian Ministry of Defense Building in Downtown Moscow have reportedly been Blocked by Police and Military Forces after claims that a Drone has been downed close to the MoD Building.

UPDATE 10:15 PM EDT —

Additional video of areas impacted in Moscow by drones brought down by Russian air defenses:

NOTE: Live updates terminated as of 10:22. It appears all is calm now and the attack is over.

Only in Australia

The United States is “fit to be tied”…

This short video is a must watch.

Meanwhile in the United States

OFFICIAL PUBLIC WARNING FROM RUSSIA — REPORT: Poland Intends to “Tear-Off” Parts of Ukraine and Belarus Under NATO Umbrella

World Hal Turner 21 July 2023

Reports are beginning to circulate claiming Poland intends to enter Ukraine with troops, to “grab” parts of Western Ukraine, but also to “Tear-off” part of Western Belarus, under the protection of the NATO umbrella.

While Russia __may__ be willing to allow Poland to take back parts of Ukraine that were formerly Poland, Belarus, it appears, would be “off-limits.”

Should Poland try to grab parts of Belarus, the region of Eastern Europe will likely immediately explode into full scale World War 3. Poland seems ready to begin playing a VERY dangerous game.

Developing . . . . slowly

UPDATE 2:04 PM EDT —

President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused NATO member Poland of having territorial ambitions, and said any aggression against Russia’s neighbour and close ally Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia.

Moscow would react to any aggression against Belarus, which forms a loose “Union State” with Russia, “with all the means at our disposal” Putin told a meeting of his Security Council in televised remarks.

I figured that this would occur. 

Poland would recapture some of it's older territory pre-world war that is now considered "Ukraine". As this is mostly empty land, and they speak a dialect of Polish. 

There is this land in Belarus also, but that is part of Russia. Well, a very pro-Russian area.

If the Poles are being smart, they would ONLY seize Western Ukraine.

If the Poles are acting as a Proxy, they would attack Belarus.

Lots of shadow play here. Just keep your eyes open.
-MM

The U.S. Wars Against Russia And China Have No Economic Logic Attached To Them

The U.S. politician Zbigniew Brzezinski was a hardliner with a (neo-)liberal core. He had a wide influence on U.S. policies:

Brzezinski is the author of The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, a 1997 book on geopolitics that was based on Mackinder’s Heartland Theory. Brzezinski argued that the US could retain global supremacy only if it prevented the emergence of a single power on the World-Island.

The Brzezinski Doctrine remains influential in the US foreign-policy establishment. His protégés, among them Ukrainian émigré Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs, are a powerful voice in the US State Department.

Brzezinski had argued that without Ukraine, Russia would be unable to rule the Asian heartland and could not challenge U.S. power.

But I just learned via a Pepe Esobar essay about Henry Kissinger’s visit and a potential great power war with China, that Brezezinski had in later years changed his mind:

“The Grand Chessboard”, published in 1997, before the 9/11 era, argued that the US should rule over any peer competitor rising in Eurasia. Brzezinski did not live to see the living incarnation of his ultimate nightmare: a Russia-China strategic partnership. But already seven years ago – two years after Maidan in Kiev – at least he understood it was imperative to “realign the global power architecture”.

In a longer piece published in 2016 in American Interest, Brzezinski indeed argued for great power cooperation:

A constructive U.S. policy must be patiently guided by a long-range vision. It must seek outcomes that promote the gradual realization in Russia (probably post-Putin) that its only place as an influential world power is ultimately within Europe. China’s increasing role in the Middle East should reflect the reciprocal American and Chinese realization that a growing U.S.-PRC partnership in coping with the Middle Eastern crisis is an historically significant test of their ability to shape and enhance together wider global stability.

The alternative to a constructive vision, and especially the quest for a one-sided militarily and ideologically imposed outcome, can only result in prolonged and self-destructive futility.

For America, that could entail enduring conflict, fatigue, and conceivably even a demoralizing withdrawal to its pre-20th century isolationism.

The U.S. did not follow Brzezinski’s advice. It alienated China by launching an economic war against it and pushed the Ukraine into a proxy-war against Russia that was supposed to destroy Russia’s capabilities. In consequence Russia and China united their capabilities against their common new enemy, the United States of America. We will see during the next years if the consequences Brzezinski foretold for the U.S. under these circumstances will come into light.

It is interesting that the old rivals and political opponents Kissinger and Brzezinski have late in their lives come to the same conclusions.

As Stephen Roach in his take on Kissinger’s visit to China states:

For several years, Kissinger has expressed great concern over the worrisome state of the US-China relationship. As far back as late 2019, he warned that that the United States and China were already in the “foothills of a new cold war.” Given the trajectory of conflict escalation in the ensuing four years, there is a new urgency to his concerns. In the Chinese readout of this week’s meeting with [Defense Minister] Li Shangfu, Kissinger is reported to have said. “Neither the United States nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary. If the two countries go to war, it will not lead to any meaningful results for the two peoples.”

Opposition to the U.S. bi-partisan policy of economic warfare against China is now also coming from the bigwigs of the U.S. economy:

Leaders of the largest US chipmakers told Biden officials this week that the administration should study the impact of restrictions on exports to China and pause before implementing new ones, according to people familiar with their discussions.

During meetings in Washington on Monday, Intel Corp.’s Pat Gelsinger, Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang and Qualcomm Inc.’s Cristiano Amon warned that export controls risk harming US leadership of the industry. The Biden officials listened to the presentations but didn’t make any commitments, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private.

Economic logic provides that the U.S. (and European) economy would be better off by avoiding a conflict with Russia and China. But, as Micheal Hudson explains, this now gets overwritten by national security preferences which have remarkable conseqences:

Instead of isolating Russia and China and making them dependent on U.S. economic control, U.S. unipolar diplomacy has isolated itself and its NATO satellites from the rest of the world – the Global Majority that is growing while NATO economies are rushing ahead along their Road to Deindustrialization. The remarkable thing is that while NATO warns of the “risk” of trade with Russia and China, it does not see its loss of industrial viability and economic sovereignty to the United States as a risk.

This is not what the “economic interpretation of history” would have forecast. Governments are expected to support their economy’s leading business interests. So we are brought back to the question of whether economic factors will determine the shape of world trade, investment and diplomacy. Is it really possible to create a set of post-economic NATO economies whose members will come to look much like the rapidly depopulating and de-industrializing Baltic states and post-Soviet Ukraine?

This would be a strange kind of “national security” indeed. In economic terms it seems that the U.S. and European strategy of self-isolation from the rest of the world is so massive and far-reaching an error that its effects are the equivalent of a world war.

The question is really why the U.S. is doing this harm to itself instead of following Brzezinski’s and Kissinger’s advice. As Yves Smith says in her preface to Hudson’s piece, it is a quite bizarre spectacle:

One of the subthemes of the latest offering from Michael Hudson on the bizarre spectacle of the US escalating against China is puzzlement that the West is not operating in its best interest. Lambert has been chewing over this conundrum too.

Perhaps it’s that they really do believe their propaganda, and still don’t recognize that the military and economic clout of the US/EU bloc on a relative basis isn’t anywhere near substantial enough for them to push the rest of the world around. But you think their self-delusion would have started to crack with the failure in their efforts to pressure many countries, such as India and South Africa, to side with the US and condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and now with the supposedly superior US/NATO war machine not performing too well.

Another possibility is the so-called Iron Law of Institutions, that individuals and interests are operating to maximize their own position, with little/no concern to the impact on the system.

I have come to the conclusion that the main actors in this game, the Bindens, Blinkens, Sullivans and their bipartisan supporters, are driven by a blind ideology that has dismissed or replaced global realities with wishful thinking.

The failure of their sanctions against Russia should have demonstrated to them that the real word is by far not the one in which they believe to be living. They however are now repeating their errors by waging a similar war against China.

It will not end well for the people they are supposed to lead.

Posted by b on July 22, 2023 at 17:12 UTC | Permalink

Come in and meet the mrs…

Success Doesn’t Require Speed…It Requests Slowness

July 12, 2023

So many people today are in a rush to become successful.

They want to earn 7-figures in 12 months even though they have no marketable skills, no network, and no businesses acumen.

They want to build their dream body in 12 weeks even though they haven’t set foot in a gym in years and don’t really understand the current state of their physical body.

They want to magically find the man/woman of their dreams even though they themselves are completely undateable and have 0 social skills.

And I get it…

Human beings are inherently impatient.

But the great irony of success (in any area of life) is that an approach that is overly focused on speed will actually force you to go slower.

Trying to achieve too many things too quickly or changing too many aspects of yourself and personality in too short of a time span will detriment your results.

Don’t believe me?

Then let’s take a look at two (semi) hypothetical examples.

Example #1: Speedy Sam

Sam is just like everyone else.

He’s earning $50,000/year in a job that he doesn’t really like.

He isn’t fat, but he also isn’t in great shape and probably has 15–20 lbs. that he could lose.

He’s dating Sally from Accounting but their relationship is “meh” and he doesn’t feel the spark or connection that he’d really like.

After attending a personal growth conference (that he paid for on credit) he comes home and he’s on FIRE!

He’s ready to change his life and he’s ready to change it now.

So he makes a plan and decides to take action.

He decides that, starting tomorrow, he’s going to:

Exercise 5 days a week for an hour a day
Eat only whole foods
Quit smoking cigarettes and marijuana
Work for 5 hours on his side hustle
Take Sally on a weekly date night and have sex everyday (instead of once a week)
Meditate every day
Journal for 30 minutes a day
Read 60 minutes of personal growth literature
Wake up at 5 a.m. (3 hours before he normally wakes up)

He sets lofty goals for himself and decides that he wants to build a multiple 6-figure business in 6 months, lose 15 lbs. of fat and gain 20 lbs. of muscle, become as “Zen” as a monk, and feel abundant joy on a daily basis.

He wakes up the next day before his alarm goes off and for the following 24 hours, everything is perfect.

He does everything he’s supposed to do and goes to bed smiling and happy with himself.

The next day, he wakes up on time again, this time much more groggy and fuzzy headed.

He still accomplishes all of his tasks for the day, but he’s beginning to feel more tired and burnt out than he has in a while.

On the third day, he hits the snooze button for “just a few minutes” and oversleeps by 2 hours. He spends the rest of the day beating himself up and feeling like crap for being such a lazy p.o.s. He doesn’t make it to the gym and eats a cookie at the office.

By day #4, he’s tired, drained, and wondering why in the hell he even wanted to change his life in the first place.

After the first week has gone by, he’s sore, grumpy, and stuck in a pit of self loathing because he’s “Such a loser” for not being able to stick to his goals.

He quickly reverts back to his old patterns of behavior for a few months before casually picking up a copy of Awaken the Giant Within, getting a huge dump of motivation and trying to do it all over again.

He goes on like this for YEARS!

Setting big goals, getting really intense, burning out quickly, and ultimately accomplishing nothing.

After more than a decade of this behavior, he’s no closer to the life of joy and freedom than when he first started.

In fact, he’s worse off than before because now he feels worse about himself AND his finances, health, and marriage have all deteriorated.

Speedy Sam has royally screwed himself over and paved the path to failure with his own good intentions.

Now let’s consider the inverse of this approach with Slow Steve.

Example #2: Slow Steve

Steve is very similar to Sam.

He’s slightly overweight, working a middle management job earning $50,000 a year and stuck in a relationship that isn’t all that inspiring.

Steve knows his life isn’t working and he decides to do something about it.

But after reading The Compound Effect and The Slight Edge, he realizes that the key to success is to slowly but surely take SMALL actions everyday towards his goals.

He sits down and looks at his life and realizes that two things are holding him back more than anything else.

His health – his energy levels suck and he’s always tired and feels incapable of working on a side hustle or going to the gym
His finances – He’s buried in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, and stuck in a rut of being unable to earn any more.

Steve knows that his life isn’t going to change overnight and so he creates a simple 12 month plan for himself to get unstuck.

But here’s the thing… His plan isn’t all that crazy or audacious.

In fact, it seems too simple to most people.

For the first month, Steve only makes three small commitments.

He’s going to walk for 30 minutes three times a week
He’s going to spend 45 minutes a day researching side hustles and new ways of earning extra money
He’s going to spend only 10% less on going out than he has been in previous months (a total savings of about $70)

At first, it doesn’t look like he’s making any progress. He loses only 2 lbs. during the first month, saves $70 in his War Chest, and narrows down his side hustle to 3 potential options.

Then, the next month, he adds on 3 new shifts.

He commits to going to the gym once a week and doing a full body workout
He commits to calling freelancers/small business owners in the 3 potential side hustles and asking them questions about what they do and how they do it.
He’s going to go on 2 dates with girlfriend and pay for them by spending less money on clothes.

Again, there aren’t many noticeable changes.

He loses a few more pounds of fat, boosts his energy levels by only 10%, and still isn’t earning any more money.

Slowly, but surely, he continues this trend over the following 12 months and by the time the year is over, he’s successfully:

Training at the gym 4 days a week and eating an 80% whole foods diet
Lost all of his excess body fat and gained 5 lbs. of muscle
Started earning an extra $1,000 a month doing freelance writing for 60 minutes on the weekdays
Improved his relationship and started consistently dating his (now) fiancee.

His life hasn’t changed all that much in 12 months.

He’s earning a little bit more money, he’s in better shape, his energy levels are higher, and his relationship is more connected.

But he isn’t a millionaire or fitness model and he doesn’t have some magical relationship where he screws like a rabbit everyday and never fights with his girl.

But he commits to continuing the process.

Another 12 months go by and another and another.

By the time that 5 years have passed, his life is COMPLETELY unrecognizable from the life he was living before.

He’s a lean, mean, fighting machine and weighs 185 lbs. with 8% bodyfat. He regularly competes in Jujitsu matches and Spartan Races, and he feels amazing.

He quit his corporate job and is earning $150,000/year as a marketing consultant and he’s in the process of self publishing his first book.

He’s happily married, feels deeply connected to his wife, and has a stellar sex life.

He put one foot in front of the other and changed everything.

Another 5 years go by and now, Steve is a world renowned marketer earning more than $3,000,000 a year. He has a budding personal brand, 3 best selling books, tens of thousands of dollars of passive income, and a career that he loves.

His body is a weapon and he’s in better shape than the guys that are 10 years younger than he is.

His relationship with his wife is a point of power in his life and spending time with her rejuvenates and inspires him (instead of draining him).

In other words… Steve is a badass.

But he didn’t get there overnight.

He did it in small steps that helped him prepare for HUGE leaps (like proposing, quitting his corporate job, and competing in his first physique show) .

Steve has changed his life SLOWLY.

But ironically… He changed faster than ANY of the other guys trying to rush their way to success.

Success takes time.

So chill out, trust the process, put one foot in front of the other, and eventually… You’ll get what you want.

Hope this helps

Stay Grounded,

I have installed another, newer, COMMENTS Feature – But a WARNING to all

World Hal Turner 23 July 2023

Hal Turner is learning. I didn't know that he did time in the Fed. Well, at least the food is better than the "Global" and mashed turnips that I had to endure, and he didn't have to do hard labor in the hot Arkansas sun like I had to. 

This is interesting. -MM

A week ago, I shut down the comments feature beneath articles because it had become a never-ending stream of aggravation for me. I’ve put a new comment feature in, but BE WARNED:

In June of 2009, the United States Attorney for Chicago had me arrested for an Editorial I wrote about a court ruling dealing with gun control, in Chicago. The US Attorney said my Editorial was a “Threat” and argued to the courts that MY words were a “threat” because of YOU.

Yes, YOU!

They cited to the court, some of the comments made beneath web site articles, and described those comments as “violent” and “hate” and “extremist.”

I went on trial in December, 2009. Hung Jury. Went on trial a SECOND time in March, 2010, Hung Jury.

They put me on trial an astonishing THIRD time in August, 2010. By that time, I was Bankrupt from being unable to do my radio show or be on the Internet (by court order) and had to get a public defender. Big mistake. I could have done a better job defending myself.

I LOST that third trial and was imprisoned for 33 months in federal prison — because of my READERS comments!

Oh, and those Readers . . . NOT ONE of them donated money for my legal defense. NOT ONE of them showed up at my trials. NOT ONE of them even wrote to me in prison.

I’m not going down that road again.

You see, while it’s real easy for you to shout “freedom of speech” it’s __ME__ they put in prison for what you write.

So here’s the deal. The comment area is back and we’ll see how it goes. BUT . . . if you post comments that a US Attorney can describe as “Violent” or “Hate” or “Extremist” or “Terroristic” then YOU are outta here.

I have zero interest in any of that nonsense. I do not advocate violence and will not have that on my site. I do not advocate hatred, and will not have that on my site. I do not abide extremism and will not have that on my site.

So watch what you post and watch carefully because I am watching; and my eye is keen to not being thrown in prison again over what YOU write.

If it’s a choice of your “freedom of speech” or my “freedom from prison” you lose. Period. Full stop.

This new comment module uses darker typeface, for those whose vision is less than stellar (like mine is now).

You can edit your postings.

It is much faster, very neat, and less cumbersome to follow than the old.

Lastly, this is not YOUR web site, it’s mine. Do not use this comment area to post things UNRELATED to the story above just because YOU think the public should know this. If YOU want to publish things that YOU think the public should know – then YOU go out and get YOUR OWN web site, build an audience on your own like I did, and then post what YOU think on YOUR site. Not mine.

Oh, and about YOUR site, these comment areas are not for you to advertise YOUR site. More than a few of you have zero interest in what appears on this page other than to repeatedly post links to YOUR site. You are not going to use my site as a cheap, sneaky method for advertising your site.

Enjoy —— but be very careful what you post.

“Scotty, Throw the Switch!” – Star Trek – 1968

Confessions Of The Son Of A Billionaire

July 7, 2023

How much is your father worth?

My father is worth just shy of $2 Billion liquid, and he’s on a rapid trajectory be worth significantly more.

What do you do for a living?

As for my current job, I work a generic IT position with a standard salary – nothing that will produce the kind of fortune my father’s work has.

What kind of car do you drive?

A 2014 Subaru Outback. Prior to that, a very-used ’98 Outback. Probably not the answer you were expecting!

As for my parents, the primary cars at each property are a Mercedes GLS and SL Roadster; they have lots of others, but nothing too fancy. Mostly old Chevy and Ford cars primarily driven by the various employees they have.

What do you do for work and why did you go into that field?

I’m a computer systems adminsitrator for a small company because it’s what I enjoy and it doesn’t require a large amount of non-immediate work. I didn’t inherit my dad’s strong ambition and drive, unfortunately.

Do you think having the trust fund played a role in your lack of ambition and drive?

The truth is that I didn’t know about the trust fund until I got married, so it had little influence over my upbringing. I knew that my parents were well-off and perhaps assumed that that would come to us someday, but nothing was explicitly stated about it as a kid. So if it did affect my ambition and drive, it was more subconscious. It’s certainly possible, though it didn’t affect my siblings. I’m more inclined to think of it being how I’m neurologically wired, just as my dad is wired to be a workaholic but less emotionally engaging. But it’s hard to say. I certainly do blame myself for my lack of sustained ambition, most of the time.

Do your nearest and dearest know your worth, potential or otherwise?

Well obviously my wife knows! We have one pair of friends who at least know my parents are very wealthy, since they’ve stayed with us at one of their properties. Everyone else (hopefully) assumes we have little more than the middle-class lifestyle that we provide for ourselves.

Wait so does your father not share his wealth with you?

We enjoy their material assets, get awesome gifts for Christmas, and each have a trust fund of $28K/year. But to have a comfortable life and income, we have to have our own jobs. For now, at least.

Did your father insist on a prenup for your wife to sign before marriage?

They suggested a prenup, but it didn’t happen. My wife hates their wealth and wants no part in it so I’m not concerned about her trying to run away with it.

How is your relationship with your parents?

My relationship with them is complicated. I appreciate what they’ve provided, but the emotional connection has been poor. I wish I could feel closer to them, but I just don’t think they’re wired for that kind of relationship. Dad’s a workaholic, Mom’s a socialite, I’m the kid who didn’t do everything perfectly and felt like the pariah for a decade. Things are better now, but conversations are rarely more than business and small talk.

What kind of schools did you go to? Were your peers wealthy?

I went to a private school for grade school, a boarding school for high school, and then private university which I eventually dropped out of. Since the familial wealth grew as I did, the peer group evolved over time; but I never understood the extent of their or our worth until recently. My perspective was more than a bit off growing up.

At what point in your life did you realize that your parents are very, very rich?

Far later than I probably should have. I didn’t really realize just how out of touch I was until around 23 or 24. Granted, we were worth significantly less when I was younger, but still, many things that I took for granted were definitely not common.

Do you think you grew up in a bubble, so to speak, unaware of things those of more modest wealth take for granted? Any funny or embarrassing moments?

I think so. Generally I was more naïve than anything. I can’t think of any specifically funny moments, but there are a lot of things that I roll my eyes about where I was much more flippant about the price of things. I was just a kid who was excited by certain things, but I didn’t realize that talking about them so much was likely very awkward for others who were adults and yet had experienced far less. I remember asking the person who maintains some of our land what his favorite place to travel to was, and when he told me that he had never flown on a plane in his life, I suddenly realized that there was a very big difference in how we grew up. I felt quite awkward and guilty about that one.

Do your parents pressure you to want more? Make more money?

Well I do think that my anxiety comes from my dad wanting me to do better, in part. As I mentioned elsewhere, I dropped out of college; I did terribly in school – had high overall intelligence and tested well but just failed to put in the necessary sustained effort. I’ve recently been diagnosed with ADHD and the difference since starting treatment has been profound, but I wouldn’t dare tell my father that because a) he’s convinced that it’s a fake condition, and b) I doubt the diagnosis myself because it just feels like too convenient of an excuse. I’ve been taught that there’s no excuse for not succeeding other than not working hard enough, and by that metric, I’ve largely been a failure. My dad’s success and his hope for my success has been an enormous burden, but I think at this point he’s generally “given up” on me having the same drive as him.

Do you have other siblings?

I have siblings, and I get the feeling that they’ve been better-supported financially because they’ve lived their life much more in line with how my parents had planned.

What’s that -one thing- you never got as a kid?

A gaming console. Or as my dad affectionately referred to it, the “Super No-friend-o”. Somehow computer games didn’t fall into that purview though, so I had a top-end desktop and laptop anyway. Didn’t stop me from being obsessed with gaming; the PS2 was the first purchase I made when I started getting my own paycheck.

Seems like even though you had connections to wealth, it wasn’t used as a magic wand to get you shiny things all the time. Did you learn the value of money and earning, over just “having” money?

Sort of. We (my siblings and I) certainly didn’t have carte blanche, and I’m self-sufficient currently outside of a growing and accessible trust fund; but they have a “what’s mine is yours” mentality when it comes to enjoying their homes and possessions, which are plentiful. As we speak, my wife and I are staying in one of their massive homes for a stress-free weekend, and everything from the cars to the cook is at our disposal. These days I’ve never asked for something that they’ve said “no” to, but I’ve never tried to push the limits.

Are the other homes always “staffed” even if your family isn’t there, or is it a more “on-call” situation?

Some of the properties are quite large and require constant upkeep. One is on a farm and has a family living on the property – the husband and wife handle the land and home maintenance, respectively. Some of the properties are in city high-rises and have building staff to take care of them. Then they have their main guy (I have no idea what his official title is but he’s effectively a modern butler valet) who almost always travels with them and handles arrangements to keep their flow as uninterrupted as possible. He also lives in a home provided by my family, right next to one of their “hub” properties.

Do you have any “regular” friends now? What’s a Friday night like for you?

My wife and I are shut-ins and will spend most evenings just watching shows and playing video games together. When we meet up with friends, we meet at the pub or go to one of each others’ houses. A couple times we have taken some friends up to one of my parents’ properties, but only after we’ve come to know them quite well.

But generally, unless I’m with my parents at the time, I live a very standard middle-class lifestyle.

Thoughts on economics and/or politics? Libertarian free market, radical socialism, social democracy, liberal welfare state?

I generally lean conservative/libertarian on fiscal issues, which probably isn’t surprising.

Do you travel a lot ?

I did as a kid, less so now that I have my own income and my own job schedule. Starting around 12 or so, each spring break was spent on another Caribbean island and each summer was spent visiting another country or series of countries. My dad would increasingly joke that our hotels were picked by my mom Googling “Most expensive hotel in ____”; and those trips usually consisted of a private tour guide who would take us everywhere, get us behind velvet ropes at various museums, etc.

I didn’t appreciate how special those trips were as a kid, though I certainly did love them.

What games do you play?

We play special billionaire-only games that you wouldn’t have heard about.

Kidding. We just wrapped up Dishonored 2 and are currently replaying the Bioshock trilogy.

What type of hobbies do you have?

Technology, media, games. I have an awesome home theater which is my biggest piece of personal extravagance.

Please elaborate

Well we squeezed it into our relatively normal house, but it’s a 150″ screen with a 4K projector, seating for eight, Atmos 7.2.4 sound, and a whole lot of soundproofing to keep it contained 😉

I was so close to convincing my dad to put an amazing theater into his newest home, but regrettably he decided that a massive wine cellar was the more prudent option. But at least I get to say that I have a better home theater than him 🙂 Not much that I can beat out the billionaire in, so I’ll take what I can get!

What’s your favorite pop tarts flavor?

Nothing beats brown sugar!

Do you actually eat pop tarts? I don’t just mean pop tarts either. Like, when I imagine rich people eating, I always think of private chefs, or at very least having someone else cook for them in some way. Do you ever just open up the panty and grab something like a box of cereal, or pop tarts, or ramen noodles? Or do you always have other people prepare food for you?

Well at the house where I’m staying at right now, there’s a pantry with Tostitos and Skippy peanut butter, a freezer with Eggos, and there are always a half-dozen Oscar Meyer wieners available for cooking. Of course there are other fancy snacks as well and our freezer is actually mostly full of the meat from a cow and pig we won at a rodeo auction last year, but sometimes you need a quick breakfast or midday snack and it’s not worth having a professional always handling it. Depends on the circumstances.

What’s a problem that billionaires have that we plebians do not?

Child-of-a-billionaire problems include rock-bottom self-esteem and endless guilt.

As for my parents, their problems are a lack of time and a loss of perspective. Worst has probably been their focus on maintaining a social appearance which has come at a significant cost in regards to their relationship with me and my siblings. They spend so much time these days trying to make our family seem perfect that they forget to do the actual things that keep a relationship strong.

Is this more keeping up with the Jones’s or just being scheduled too much to make time? Running an empire is hard work, I don’t envy then the drudgery.

My dad lives to work. He knows he doesn’t need any more money, but it’s when he’s working hard that he’s having the most fun. So for him, it’s just keeping busy. My mom, on the other hand, took our class status as an opportunity to become a major socialite. I participated in literally over a half-dozen debutante events. I felt like a trophy being paraded around, the illusion of our familial excellence masking the superficial relationships we had underneath.

Things are a bit better now since I confronted them on all of this a couple years ago, but still, our relationship is so-so at best and I expect the wealth was a catalyst in that.

You mention that you live a middle class life now and work in a normal job. Are you content with this or do you have plans to get independently wealthy?

I’m not a strong worker. There are things that I’d love to excel at, but I lack the patience and focus to accomplish them. There are many causes and industries which I look forward to financially supporting once I am afforded that lifestyle, but I would be content to just live out my life as I currently do (with more perks, of course) and leave the ambitions to those who are cut out for it.

Why do you work, particularly in mid-range IT? You could be doing anything. Does working feel like waste of time?

The trust is only $28,000/year for the time being. That’s the maximum non-taxable amount and is enough to provide a nice boost without letting us get away comfortably with doing nothing. That will change in the future, but for now, my parents strongly encourage a good work ethic and the value of earning your self-sufficiency. Not to scoff at how valuable that $28,000 has been, of course.

Are you any less miserable than we are?

I have emotional problems like everyone else. But I don’t have to worry about my paycheck, I don’t have to worry about my retirement, I don’t have to worry about supporting my child financially, I don’t have to worry about a medical crisis ruining our family… There are so many burdens that I simply won’t know. I wouldn’t dare make a claim to the same sadness and difficulties that many people deal with.

What are your thoughts on whether money can (or can’t) buy happiness?

I once read that money can’t buy happiness but that it’s a good “unhappiness repellant”, and that seemed like a good way to describe it. There are a lot of things that can cause unhappiness that can be prevented with money: financial issues obviously, health-related crises, and lots of little things. Being able to skip the major airports and take a private jet instead bypasses a major headache!

But money can cause problems too. Especially extreme wealth.

Being given such an extreme amount of wealth creates the burden of managing that wealth properly. You don’t want to be the generation that loses what prior ones have worked so hard to provide. But you also want to do as much good as you can for the world while you have the opportunity.

Most importantly, I’m terrified about raising my kids well. I don’t want to raise spoiled brats, but I have no idea how to both acknowledge our extreme privilege and simultaneously impose a modest lifestyle. There are so many bad examples out there, and we only get one chance to raise them right.

What’s the best thing money can buy?

That’s a profound question to answer which can delve into the philosophical, so I’m just going to modify the question to “what’s your favorite thing your parents have bought?” to keep it simple and light. And to that, it’s almost impossible not to say the private jet. Not because of how comfortable it is, but because of the convenience and time-saving.

We don’t need to show up at the airport 90 minutes early, check our bags, wait in the security line, put our liquids in special containers within containers, then sprint to the gate desperately trying to reach it before the door closes. Instead, we literally drive the car onto the tarmac, let a crewmember carry in the luggage while we take a seat, and are in the air within 10 minutes. The crew is employed by us and is ready to go the moment we pull up. And our dog gets to sit in the leather seat next to us. Usually a meal is provided: shrimp caesar salads, a charcuterie board, a glass of wine, even a steak dinner if we request far enough in advance. And when we land, someone pulls our car around and meets us at on the runway, they put our luggage into the car, and we’re on the road – often much closer to the final destination than a larger airport is.

It is absolutely extravagant, but the reduction in stress and time is so significant that it’s one of their expenses that I absolutely think was worth it.

5 reasons to NOT live in the United States right now | Why the U.S. is broken

Confessions of a Man Who Got The Penuma Implant

June 27, 2023

First, some quick details:

Surgery: January 2023
Penuma XXL – this was right before the Penuma plus so I got the classic
Pre-surgery Measurements:
Flaccid: 3 inches length; 4 inches girth
Erect: 6 inches Length; 6 inches girth
Post-Surgery Measurements:
Flaccid: 6 inches length; 6 inches girth
Erect: 6.25 inches length; 7.5 inches (mid-shaft) to 8 inches (base) girth
Male – 50’s

As you can tell from my stats – I was never big – but I was always a grower. At least I had that. I felt ok about my penis when I was erect but was very self-conscious whenever I was naked and flaccid. I like to be naked a lot. Pre-surgery – I always found myself tugging on my penis trying to get it to chub up a bit so it wasn’t so small. I went into this surgery knowing that the purpose is not to increase erect length – but to increase my flaccid length which is what I really wanted and got!

I had the procedure on a Saturday and stayed in the local hotel overnight. I live about an hour and a half from Dr office so transportation logistics were not an issue. I work from home and had no problem working on that Monday in my sweatpants at my desk. Went back on Tuesday and had my drain removed. Didn’t miss any work after that. I also didn’t need the pain killers. I still have them and am looking for a way to dispose of them safely.

I’m not going to lie – the first two months were tough at night with the nighttime erections. I woke up every hour and a half to two hours the first month. When I did wake up, I would immediately go to the bathroom and urinate. This immediately helped relieve the pressure so I could go back to sleep. I urinated in a red solo cup standing at the toilet the first couple of months – this helped alleviate cleaning the little bit of spray on the toilet that I had at first. The stream corrected itself quickly. OTC Melatonin was a saving grace. The second month got better over time. Was getting full night’s sleep by beginning of third month.

I wore the Uro Wrap as prescribed for the first month. Wearing the wrap at night actually seemed to add to the pressure of the implant and causing more pain than benefit. I asked Dr at my one month follow up if I could discontinue use and he allowed it, except I still had to wear at the gym which was not a problem. Did light workouts at the gym at 6 weeks. Heavier workouts after 8 weeks.

At two months I was able to get into my favorite pair of jeans. I think old fashioned boxers are the way to go – but when I want a pair of briefs the Wildman T series really are perfect. I’ve heard other guys here recommend them and they were right.

The question everyone asks regarding sex. Yes, it’s amazing with Penuma. I haven’t lost any sensation and women really love the extra girth. I do seem to last a little longer now – that’s a huge benefit too. And I love the confidence that comes with having a large penis. I tend to have sex a lot. I’m divorced and have sex with different women. I don’t feel the need to explain to them that I have an implant – but they would be able to tell I had one if I was totally flaccid. What I do is chub up a little before they get their hands on it and then they can’t tell. My full erection was always 90 degrees and that hasn’t changed. Condoms – regular condoms do not cut it anymore. I ordered the MyOne 64 and they were still too narrow. I then ordered the MySize 72 and they fit like a glove.

Everything about this experience has been amazing for me. It’s more than just the great sex, it’s the confidence and little things. At this point, day to day I don’t even know that I have an implant there. However, everyday I appreciate having it such as when I enjoy laying on the sofa in lose shorts and actually feel it lying against my leg. I also like having to now point my penis down one leg of my pants or the other which I’ve never had to do or had the ability to do.

Arnold Ziffel Gets Kicked Out of Hooterville Elementary – Green Acres – 1970

How could the US Navy compete against China in the Taiwan Strait?

The Taiwan strait is the wrong battleground today.

Let’s describe the geography first.

The Taiwan Straits is shallow, less than 100m deep in most places, other than a narrow strip of water between Penghu and Taiwan.

It is a no-go for submarine activity. So we can discount the USN’s submarine service.

Way back when Newt was Speaker, America could parade TWO (2) CBGs through the straits in tandem as a show of strength.

Today, the risk is considered too high, because mainland China has defacto control of the sea and airspace in and around Taiwan, and it is being exercised on a daily basis.

The only way to get into the ring is to massively militarize Taiwan, and Penghu with American troops and equipment, but that will be seen as an invasion of Chinese sovereign territory.

In the present, we have to zoom the map out a little, when it comes to Taiwan.

To contest the Taiwan straits, the USN must compete along the entire red dotted line of the 1st island chain, because the waters west of the line is firmly in the grasp of China.

That is a huge front, easily >10,000km, and even if every single combatant of the USN (which number about 200 after stripping away the heavy lift and coastal patrol elements) is activated, the firepower won’t be able to overwhelm Chinese defenses.

The principle is simple. In the Korean war, a chinese soldier had to get within touching distance to do damage to a US tank, whereas the US military had aircraft that could bomb Chinese supply lines hundreds of kilometers behind the front.

Today, the Chinese have the same capability as the Americans to maim from long distances. In some types of weaponry, the range and firepower exceed American equivalents. This means that any weapon system deployed by the the Americans that can hurt the Chinese will be within the Chinese kill zone.

In other words, this is no longer an unequal fight with America holding all the cards.

Any hostility will be paid in plenty of American blood. I won’t be surprised if the kill ratio favor the Chinese today, rather than the lopsided 1:x0 ratio of the Korean War.

This calculus does not change even if China were to face the combined might of Korea, Japan, the US, Nato and the Five Eyes.

Combined, they still won’t be able to hurt China more than they receive, because China can call on at least 10 million troops and have another 100m citizens dedicated to guaranteeing the logistics of war.

That is the status quo today.

Put another way, any attempt at hostility will require fight-to-the-death conviction, just to turn up at China’s doorstep.

As for show of force competition with the Chinese navy through operation tempo, the USN is already way behind the curve. European naval ships, and even the Canadian and US coast guards have to make 20–40,000km round trips just to “patrol” off the Chinese coast, because the USN is overextended, despite devoting 70 percent of active assets to Indopacom. With Russia in the mix, along with the rapid expansion and upgrading of the PLAN, the operational burden will only increase.

Good luck.

Green Acres clips – Oliver For State Senator

What are the protests in Hong Kong about? Why are they happening? Why is Beijing ignoring them? Is this a sign that the Chinese Communist Party is losing its grip on power?

HK riots and protests were a failed CIA Color Revolution attempt, it ended 3 years ago, it is not happening now.

China didn’t do anything to intervene openly, that is SOP standard operating procedure for Chinese government, 秋後算帳, they gathered all the evidences, passed a new National Security Law, waited 1–2 year and arrested all the rioters who didn’t escape. They are all in HK prisons now.

It is cleaning the bills after Autumn, 秋後算帳，the judgment day will always come, just not right away. They don’t forget nor forgive, they will absolutely come knocking. There is no rush, but they will come for you.

How did your life change after moving from a big city to the countryside?

Oh boy did it change!

The apartment building went section 8. Our income was such that our rent was going up by 2.5 times what we were paying. I jokingly said to the wife, for that we might as well have a mortgage.

So, long story short, we moved to my parents cottage for 9 months saving all the rent, picked an area where we would rent at lower cost while looking for a house to buy but in the next county because of lower prices, and lower taxes.

Within the year found a 3 bed, 2 bath on 7.5 acres.

Put in a bid, accepted.

So the big change, QUIET! No sirens, no traffic no horns honking. Within the first months, waking up to turkeys outside our bedroom window. A curious fox catching some sun on the front deck. Then only honking we heard were the geese going south in fall or north in spring.

Better yet was only paying for electric and phone.

Came with a wood stove, so heated with what fell during storms. Well for water, septic for sewage.

Been here for 27 years now, never going back to the city. Best financial decision we ever made.

Edit, wow, love the comments, so here’s a bit more.

My front yard

main qimg 37b1e3ad435eb4a2f0d0934d03b044c7 lq

Australian In China Is SHOCKED What He Experienced

SITREP August 2023

In exactly one month, the fifteenth BRICS Summit will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa (August 22 to 24, 2023).

A significant number of nations, ahead of the reunion, already presented their candidacy for membership of the (current) BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) group.

Moreover, the group will most probably make an announcement about the gold-backed BRICS currency.

China & Russia have gold reserves FAR ABOVE their officially declared amounts.

For those interested, Dominic Frisby created on YouTube a 2022 update for China’s REAL amount of gold. In a nutshell, it’s a lot more than the ~ 8150 metric tons the US IS SUPPOSED to possess (a serious audit under the supervision of an international commission would be most interesting). China’s true gold reserve is estimated at 20 000 to 25 000 metric tons, not the much smaller officially declared 2092 metric tons.

It’s part of the ongoing DE-DOLLARIZATION process.

Also, since the last 10 years, for the same goal of de-dollarization, China concluded bilateral agreements for international trading usage of her currency, the Renminbi aka the Yuan.

China has always veiled the true amount of gold she possesses because it was tantamount of declaring war to the US.

Since she declared war to the US on Monday Feb 20, 2023 by a document published on the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is no need to be coy anymore concerning her true wealth.

The title of the document is “US hegemony & its perils” . It’s an axio-epistemo-political proclamation upholding the legitimacy of the war she is now waging against the US as the de facto leader of the KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment).

Using the Chinese political lexicon, it’s the proclamation of intention by the Chinese rulers to restore the Mandate of Heaven : essentially Harmony & Justice at the level of the Heavenly Timeless Universal Principles.

This intention of restoring The Mandate of Heaven is made crystal clear and utterly pragmatic by 3 main inter-related projects :

*** The Global Security Initiative
*** The Global Development Initiative
*** The Global Civilization Initiative

There is no Civilization without Development.

And there is no Development without Security.

Those 3 inter-related initiatives are embodied by the BRI (the Belt & Road Initiative) and not forgetting the Agenda 2025 for acquiring and being excellent in the vital technological sectors.

The last 30 months have been filled with watersheds or at the very least extremely meaningful events and no one having a little bit of sensibility and a tad informed about the international events can escape the impression that we are going through an utter acceleration in the right direction of Universal History.

HERE ARE THE MAIN EVENTS I WISH TO UNDERLINE :

1- The Alaska/Anchorage China-US meeting (March 18 & 19, 2021). His Excellency State Councilor Yang Jiechi put US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to his rightful place, a more modest one compared to what Blinken probably had in his mind. Blinken, apparently, thought that he was speaking “from a position of strength” …

2- In February 2022, the renewed, at a much deeper closeness, SINO-RUSSIAN comprehensive strategic PARTNERSHIP of coordination for a New Era.

3- RUSSIA’S SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION (SMO) IN UKRAINE started on Thursday Feb 24, 2022.

4- Two days later, on Saturday Feb 26, 2022, the imbecilic, foolish & idiotic Western ruling class seized the Russian assets .Russia being the first nuclear power; Russia having developed hypersonic missiles; Russia being a major provider of energy; commodities and food; Russia being a permanent member of the UNO Security Council; Russia being a nation known for her numerous military victories; Russia having a super-amped, patriotic, proud, rather cohesive population boasting a charismatic & efficient leader, the same for the last 2 decades. Do I need to add more ? By resorting to such an abysmally stupid act, the Western ruling class was shooting in its feet by utterly & definitively destroying the global trust in the Western financial system and more simply, destroying forever the global trust in the Western system, destroying without return the global trust in the word of the Western ruling class.

5- At the end of September 2022, the rogue state US/KFC-AZAEL, assisted by 2 vassal states (Sweden & Denmark) , by an act of international terrorism, destroyed the Nordstream II pipelines buried under the Baltic Sea.

According to Professor Braun interviewed by the German reporter and documentary films maker Dirk Pohlmann, the terrorists used a mini nuclear bomb. Nuke or no Nuke, the pipelines have been destroyed to put Germany down, Russia out and the rogue state US/KFC-AZAEL in. This has been clearly stated in 1949 by Lionel Ismay, the first Secretary General of NATO as the pre-eminent goal of the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization.

Nowadays, the formulation of this NATO’s general policy might be slightly changed as follows : keep Russia down, China out and the rogue state US/KFC-AZAEL in.

BUT RUSSIA IS NOT GERMANY

AND CHINA IS RUSSIA’S COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC PARTNER OF COORDINATION FOR A NEW ERA

6- CHINA’S DECLARATION OF WAR TO THE US on Monday Feb 20, 2023 : The text “US hegemony & its perils”.
The Chinese Sovereigns traditionally offered to the World the exhaustive written enumeration of the depredations of the criminals to be destroyed before going to war.

In the present case concerning the US/KFC-AZAEL, the crimes have been grouped in 5 categories (for details, please refer to the text itself) :

    I- Political Hegemony - Throwing its weight around
    II- Military Hegemony - Wanton use of force
   III- Economic Hegemony - Looting and Exploitation
   IV- Technological Hegemony - Monopoly & Suppression
    V- Cultural Hegemony - Spreading False Narratives

7- March 20 to 22, 2023, President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow.
When leaving Moscow on March 22, 2023, His Excellency said to his dear friend President Vladimir Putin :

President Xi :  RIGHT NOW THERE ARE CHANGES  WE HAVEN'T SEEN FOR 100 YEARS, AND WE ARE THE ONES DRIVING THESE CHANGES TOGETHER.

 President Putin replied : I AGREE.

 President Xi : TAKE CARE PLEASE, DEAR FRIEND.

 President Putin : HAVE A SAFE TRIP.

8- April 6, 2023 : the diplomatic documents for the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement signed in Beijing. Less than a week later, a truce was agreed for the war in Yemen where Iran & Saudi Arabia were fighting a proxy war for years.

9- Orthodox Easter Sunday, 2023 : President Vladimir Putin received the Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu for discussing a closer Sino-Russian military cooperation.

10- Saturday June 3, 2023 : the USS Chung-Hoon, accompanied by the Canadian HMS Montreal, lost a brinkmanship type confrontation when challenged by the Chinese warship Suzhou in the Taiwan Straits. A week later, a US airplane has been chased away above the South China Sea by the Chinese airmen.

11- Janet Yellen kow-towing without success in Beijing concerning the USD bonds market.

12- July 18, 2023 : the 100-year-old Dr Henry Kissinger was received at the Villa no 5 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse (as in 1971) in Beijing and discussed warmly with President Xi Jinping about the China-US relation.

I would like to quote the last 4 paragraphs of the piece penned by Pepe Escobar published on July 21, 2023 by Sputnik.

The original title of the article was “The definitive 21st century war is on, AND IT’S NOT A WAR ON CHINA”.

I wished to adumbrate this first title because it reflects, according to my understanding, the reality. The second title, having been chosen, is “Neo-cons want war with China” and it expresses the desire of the most dangerous group of hubristic psychopaths living on Earth nowadays.

It is most interesting that it has been selected as the definitive title because it stresses rightly, ironically and powerfully, among other things, the utter unreality within which are living the members of the Western ruling class & the Western intelligentsia serving as their political advisors.

REALITY versus UNREALITY :

REALITY versus NARRATIVES :

REALITY versus SHADOWS.

Being able to see the reality as it is, is consubstantially part of belonging to the upper class, the ruling class. The utter lack in the Western upper class of a supposedly consubstantial quality to its members is a clear sign of utter degeneracy.

That degeneracy most probably coming from intrinsic biological factors because of [1] excessive inbreeding, [2] abuse of toxicomaniac substances, [3] neglect of self-discipline, [4] loss of true understanding of authentic classical, timeless values.

The centenary Henry Kissinger’s visit to China on July 19, 2023 was the occasion, so to speak, for a deep analysis of THE NEXUS of circumstances.

Which is, of the seriously accumulated flawed judgments…

…all, because of a toxic mix of hubris, fecklessness, corruption and utter idiocy (from the Greek word “idiotes” meaning living exclusively in one’s own bubble) coming from the predatory entity I refer to as the KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American Establishment).

As well, of the coalition of the last 3 Sovereign Civilizational States (China, Russia, Iran) & all the global partners willing & capable to participate to the Grand Endeavor of unremittingly eroding and ultimately annihilating the existing exploitative global system.

I consider that the last 4 paragraphs of the aforementioned article by Pepe Escobar offer the quintessential gist of geopolitical penetration and truly deep grasping of Universal History concerning the present global situation :

The title for the last 4 paragraphs is perfect :

*** Destroying the rules-based international order ***

And here are those last 4 paragraphs summarizing the fundamental geopolitical reality of our present world :

" The crucial difference today, compared to seven years ago, is that the US is incapable, per Brzezinski, to "take the lead in realigning the global power architecture in such a way that the violence (…) can be contained without destroying the global order." It's THE RUSSIA-CHINA PARTNERSHIP that is taking the lead - followed by the Global Majority - to contain and ultimately destroy the hegemonic "rules-based international order".

As the indispensable Michael Hudson has summarized it, the ULTIMATE question at this INCANDESCENT juncture is ** whether economic gains and efficiency ** will determine world trade, patterns and investments, or ** whether the post-industrial US/NATO economies ** will choose to end up looking like the rapidly repopulating and de-industrializing post-Soviet Ukraine and Baltic states or England.

So is THE WET DREAM OF A WAR ON CHINA going to change these geopolitical and geoeconomics imperatives ? Give us a - Thucydides - break. THE REAL WAR IS ALREADY ON - but certainly not one identified by Kissinger, Brzezinski and much less Luttwak and assorted US neocons.

Michael Hudson, once again, summarized it : when it comes to the economy, the US and EU "STRATEGIC ERROR OF SELF-ISOLATION FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD IS SO MASSIVE, SO TOTAL, THAT ITS EFFECTS ARE THE ** EQUIVALENT OF A WORLD WAR **."

*** Please meditate deeply on the numerous ramifications of the 4 powerfully worded paragraphs above ***

Speaking of wet dream, Sun Zi (544 BCE to c.495 BCE) considered that ‘the Supreme Warrior wins without fighting’. That can be interpreted on more than one level but if I simply read it as ‘the Supreme Warrior wins without having to fight a kinetic war’, it is already more than satisfactory, at least having the least possible of that dimension called ‘kinetic war’.

The first paragraph of Master Sun’s Art of War :

Master Sun said : The Art of War is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road to either safety or ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

Here is the article I wrote recently on ‘The Everlasting Civilization’ which might contribute to the understanding of the fundamental principles underlying the present practical maneuvers by the Chinese rulers & their advisors.

That the present US ruling class needs a 100 years old man to go to Beijing exploring the possible overtures in the China-US relation is a glaring sign of the utter emptiness and incompetence of its members. That’s for Henry Kissinger (1923- ). Moreover, I warmly recommend his 2011 book “On China”.

Concerning Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928-2017), let’s remind that his 1997 Magnum Opus was named :

The Grand Chessboard, American primacy and its imperatives.

In that 1997 book, Brzezinski summarized as ‘American primacy’ (or GAS : Global American System) the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment’ endeavor for global Empire.

Fifteen years later, in 2012, Z Brzezinski wrote a sequel to the Grand Chessboard : Strategic Vision. In this book, Brzezinski calibrated downwards the ambitions for the US and was capable of taking into account the new realities of China’s revival and of Russia’s return from the ashes, like 2 splendid reborn phoenixes.

Brzezinski was capable to change his mind but he died in 2017. His followers apparently are not of the same caliber.

Let’s not be neither complacent nor naive. The KFC-AZAEL will not go down without a serious fight. Let’s be aware of this reality and let’s be ready.

KFC-AZAEL DELENDA EST !!!

Quan

NATO RECALLS UKRAINE TROOPS FROM FRONT LINES

World Hal Turner 23 July 2023

At about 2:00 AM eastern US time Sunday morning, NATO instructed Ukraine to ABANDON THE FRONT LINES and have all troops “return to the cities immediately to seek shelter.”

Something BIG is apparently planned very soon!

Will NATO intervene, directly??

Will “peacekeeping forces” enter Western Ukraine to “freeze” the war???

Or will NATO simply outright attack??

Sadly, at present, 10:43 AM EDT Sunday, there are no apparent answers to __any__ of these questions.

Last night, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and US admiral James Stavridis stated NATO may be planning to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea! Russia will also be preparing for NATO to attack! He said NATO ships should accompany grain carriers in the Black Sea and, if necessary, open fire in response to Russian warships.

Also last night, Ukraine President Zelensky publicly pleaded with NATO Secretary General to urgently convene Ukraine-NATO Council Against the background of the defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Odessa and the loss of NATO equipment.

Zelensky asked NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to urgently convene the Ukraine-NATO Council.

Stoltenberg heard the request of the vassal. He has called a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council for 26 July.

The official agenda of the future meeting is consultations on the latest developments in Ukraine and discussion of the transportation of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

What is apparent to everyone right now is that something very, VERY, big is about to take place.

Get right with God.

Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Breast

Imagine a turkey breast pounded thin and rolled up with stuffing and cranberry sauce. Nice, huh? Now imagine it wrapped in bacon. Guaranteed. Win.

Ingredients

1/4 cup KRAFT Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
1 small onion, chopped
1 (1 3/4 pound) boneless skinless turkey breast, butterflied
1/2 cup water
1 (6 ounce) package STOVE TOP Lower Sodium Stuffing Mix for Chicken
3/4 cup canned whole berry cranberry sauce, divided
8 slices OSCAR MAYER Lower Sodium Bacon
6 fresh sage leaves

How to Butterfly the Turkey Breast: Place turkey on cutting board; carefully cut turkey horizontally in half, starting at thickest long side of breast, being careful not to cut all the way through to opposite side. Open like a book.

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat dressing in small nonstick skillet on medium heat.
Add onions; cook 10 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Cool.
Pound turkey to 1/2-inch thickness. Place turkey between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; pound with meat mallet or rolling pin to desired thickness.
Add water to stuffing mix in medium bowl; stir just until moistened.
Stir in onions; spoon down one long side of turkey.
Spoon 1/4 cup cranberry sauce next to stuffing.
Starting at covered side, roll up turkey breast; place, seam side down, on parchment-covered rimmed baking sheet.
Wrap bacon, with slices slightly overlapping, around turkey. (Turkey should be completely covered with bacon.)
Top with sage; press gently into bacon.
Spray foil with cooking spray; place over turkey, gently pressing foil onto bacon.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until turkey is done (165 degrees F), uncovering after 30 minutes.
Serve with remaining cranberry sauce.
Garnish with additional fresh sage leaves before serving.

Prep: 15 min | Total: 1 hr 10 min | Yield: 8 servings

My Dad back in Italy from China, No one can Imagine What he Saw in China!

Confessions of a Commercial Airline Pilot

July 6, 2023

How much of a flight is automated and how much of it is actually you piloting?

It depends on the day and the person flying. I generally prefer to hand-fly the airplane up to about 10-15,000 feet before engaging the autopilot. Then you turn it off when you’re landing.

So on a day when it’s nice and you feel like flying, figure 30-40% of the flight is hand flown, the rest is autopilot. Some days you don’t feel like working as much and turn it on earlier and off later, but it’s always off for takeoff and landing.

Other people turn the autopilot on when you’re 600′ above the ground (our company standard minimum AP engagement altitude), then snap it off when we’re 200′ above the ground, so they fly on autopilot for 95% of the flight.

Do you know what all the buttons do? Have you pressed them all even once?

A) Yes, and if I forget they’re all labeled so…. hooray cliff notes!
B) No, there are several that never get pressed. In fact my company even has one button, the “High Power Schedule” button that kicks the engines up to their maximum possible thrust rating that we refer to as the “Get Fired” button.

Usually the ones that don’t get pressed are for emergency use only. Fortunately there are very few real life emergencies.

Is the audio quality of those transmissions really as bad as it seems in the videos? Because if it is, I cannot for the life of me see how you people understand each other.

The audio quality is a touch higher than on the recording. Most of us invest in high quality, noise dampening/cancelling headsets that run $600-1000 to assist in understanding. Further, most of the radio calls are very standard and we expect to hear the calls at certain points in the operation. if we have trouble understanding a specific word, we can generally either pick up what was said based on context. Additionally for any two way communications we will read back the precise instructions to ensure understanding. ATC then has the opportunity to correct us if we mis-heard.

Which commercial planes do you think is the best/worst designed from a pilot’s perspective? Are there any military or special-use craft that you think would convert well to commercial use?

Man, that’s not an easy one to answer. I don’t even know where to start on this one really. I haven’t flown enough different airliners to have a truly informed answer, but Boeing refusing to update the cockpit of the 737 due to type-rating issues hasn’t ever sat well with me personally.

Not that that particularly matters for anything and I’m sure there are thousands of 737 pilots who would tell me to shut the f*ck up, it’s fine how it is. The cockpit(s) of the Airbus line is so much better from a pilot perspective. It’s all sleek, and push button with actual space to move around, while the 737 cockpit is a direct rip from the even older 727 and is roughly the same size as my CRJ regional jet cockpit. Airplane generally flies just fine when there are competently trained pilots at the controls but that’s the best answer I can give you there.

The only military craft I could see having a viable civilian market (that doesn’t already HAVE a civilian market like the CH-47) would be the V-22 Osprey. The rest more prioritize power and performance (rightfully so) over efficiency, so making money with them becomes significantly harder. Companies like money. So… yeah.

Do you really have to eat a different meal than the co-pilot?

Haha I’m lucky if I get any food in-flight to begin with, let alone worrying if it’s different than what the other pilot is eating. I currently do not do the super long-haul cross-planet flights that entitle me to crew meals, so I can’t personally comment on whether that’s true or not. I think it’s up to each company’s individual policy.

What would be your one tip of advice for people terrified of flying?

Trust your flight crew’s judgement. If it were unsafe even a little bit we would not be getting on that airplane. We have families who love us too and aren’t trying to go die.

The bumps, the turbulence, can be scary to the uninitiated, but think of it more like driving over gravel or potholes in your car. You’re gonna bump around some and the ride is gonna suck, but you’re going to be fine. Up front, us pilots don’t wanna bump along any more than you are so we’re probably on the radio with ATC trying to find a smoother altitude to fly at. Some days though the ride sucks at all altitudes and all we can do is grin and bear it.

Hope that helps.

At what level of turbulence should we be worried? How bad does it have to get to become dangerous?

“Worried” is too strong a word, but when the captain advises the flight attendants to take their seats mid-flight, chances are we’re seeing a nasty looking storm out the front window. When you are seated, keep your seat belt on because sometimes things pop out of nowhere.

That said, I’ve flown through storms that LOOK like they’re going to be bumpy as shit and we don’t feel a thing. This is what happens 98% of the time.

Conversely there’s a rare phenomenon known as Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) that can be really severe but have zero indications it’s coming up until we’re deep in it. There was a Compass Airlines (Delta Connection) flight last summer I believe (maybe 2 summers ago?) that bounced the flight attendant off the ceiling of the plane and flipped a drink cart. In a situation like that, go ahead and be concerned, by all means. Believe me when I say we do our damnedest to avoid those sort of bumps.

Turbulence isn’t life threatening, it’s been a long time since I heard about a turbulence caused fatality or crash. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any in my lifetime. Injuries when it gets that bad are pretty common, usually from people that are up out of their seats when it happens.

I flew with a captain a while ago who got into Severe/Extreme turbulence (i.e. the top of the severity levels) while flying a smaller corporate plane. While he did land successfully and without injury (other than his passenger’s soiled pants), he said the plane was uncontrollable half the time and it took all of his skill to keep from breaking the plane. When they landed the tail was bent and the skin of the fuselage was rippled. It had to go back to the factory for 6-months+ worth of repairs.

I don’t tell you the previous story to scare you, but to highlight the fact that, even with those extreme weather conditions and a damaged airplane, it landed safely and everyone survived. The 757 airliner behind him flew through the same weather and also had to do an emergency landing because people go bounced around pretty badly (bruises, sprained ankles, etc) but that plane was not damaged like the small one was. Again, zero fatalities, plane landed safely.

These planes are built to survive extreme conditions. Like I’ve said in other questions, we are right up there with you and will not put anyone in a situation that threatens lives. Bottom line: the “Fasten Seatbelts” sign isn’t necessarily legally binding in the air like it is on the ground, but when it is on, you’re strongly advised to listen to it.

I often hear pilots say “we will make it up in the air” when there has been a short delay taking off. That indicates to me that you normally aren’t running at maximum speed (I’m guessing for fuel savings). How much faster could you go though? Let’s say it’s a 4 hour flight, could you get there in 3?

Basically, though not that much time. We can maybe do +/- 20 minutes on a 3 hour flight depending on conditions. It’s true, we don’t generally operate at maximum speed, and that is for fuel savings concerns. Our flight plan from out dispatchers has a planned flying speed and gives us a fuel load based on those calculations (with some wiggle room). And it’s not that we don’t HAVE the fuel to fly faster, it’s that the company makes less money if we burn through a bunch of extra gas we didn’t need to trying to make up 5 minutes. Gotta balance the concerns.

Other things we can do is ask Air Traffic Control for short cuts on our planned route of flight. From Point A to Point B there are generally proscribed routes of travel to make ATC’s job of tracking us easier. They’re generally pretty efficient, but not always the most direct route possible. Sometimes we can get the short cuts, if ATC isn’t very busy, sometimes not. We can usually save ~10 minutes with more efficient routing.

When the airline says my plane is delayed because of “mechanical issues”, what does that really mean?

99.9% of the time it literally means something broke and maintenance has to come out and fix it. Now that doesn’t mean something IMPORTANT broke, but if something is broken and it’s not in the aircraft logbook, it is literally illegal for us to go flying. Even if the door for an overhead bin breaks, its gotta get written up and entered on the aircraft dispatch release before we’re legal to go fly.

Usually it’s something like a fault cropped up in the electronics, maybe the temperature sensor for the wing anti-ice system threw out an error message and the mechanic is gonna come, pull a circuit breaker and reset the system, write it up as fixed, and boom. Done.

Buuuut, that takes time to call dispatch, get switch over to the maintenance desk and relay the problem to them. Then they have them call the company mechanics if we broke in a base, or draw up a quick contract with the local maintainers to come over and service the plane if we’re at an out-station. All of this takes time, usually for something really stupid that we honestly COULD go fly with if it weren’t illegal. Very rarely is it a serious maintenance issue. There’s an old pilot adage: problems on the ground don’t get better in the air.

If you’re ever worried about a plane coming off of maintenance, just remember: us pilots are on that exact same airplane with you. If it weren’t safe, we wouldn’t be getting on that plane. We love our jobs but do not have a death wish.

People always say pilot get paid by a lot (like enough to get u rich). Is that really true?

The simple answer to “do pilots make a lot of money” is….. eventually, if you’re lucky. Our pay is based on flight time. We’re only getting paid when the main cabin door is shut, until it opens again at the end of the flight.

All of that time preparing the airplane for flight, greeting all you lovely passengers as you come aboard, cleaning up the plane at the end of the flight once everyone gets off, sitting around the airport waiting for our next flight to start? We’re not getting paid for those times.

Airlines fall under the Railway Labor Act here in the US and have hourly pay rates for Captains, First Officers, and Flight Attendants, so the more we work, the more we get paid. Most airlines have a minimum monthly guarantee, i.e. you’ll get paid no less than 75 hours worth of pay, whether or not you actually get scheduled to fly that much. Pay rates are individual to each airline but a rough rule of thumb is a Captain makes twice as much as a First Officer who makes twice as much as a Flight Attendant. It’s not exact, but it’s relatively close to reality. As such captains are often unofficially obligated to buy the first round of drinks on the overnight and tip the airport shuttle drivers. haha.

Pilot pay has increased substantially since 2009 when new regulations went into effect, effectively shrinking the pool of available pilot candidates. They raised the airline pilot requirement from 250 hours of flight experience to 1500 hours of flight experience, a 600% increase to the minimum requirement to airline ENTRY LEVEL jobs. Prior to that, it wasn’t uncommon for a regional airline first officer to make $16,000/year and be on food stamps. Currently in the US, a regional airline a first officer can expect to make $40-50,000/year. A regional airline captain can make (roughly) $75-125,000/year depending on how many years seniority they have on the pay scale. The “big” airlines like Delta, American, FedEx, UPS, United, etc have much higher pay scales than the regionals and as such are the end-goals of most of us pilots.

Keep in mind though, these high-end pay scales are the…. “payback” for lack of a better term for years, decades really, of extremely bad pay and high cost of entry int o the aviation field. To become a pilot it’s not at all uncommon for people to go $50-100,000 in debt. Personally I got my pilots license with $57,000 of student loan debt. Then to accumulate 1500 hours of flight time most people have to work as flight instructors, pipeline inspectors, do banner towing along beaches, etc. Those jobs…. don’t pay a lot. Most pilots at that level can’t afford a house, or contribute to a savings or retirement account, so the high pay at the peak of the industry is designed to offset those early career detriments.

Bottom line answer: yes, you can get rich as a pilot if you stick with it long enough, keep your record clean, and have luck on your side. It’s less common, but for a large part of your airline career you can live a pretty comfortable, sometimes budgeted lifestyle. Hope that helps.

What effect does it REALLY have if I don’t put my device in airplane mode?

It can cause interference with our radios, both audio and navigational. On rare occasions we’ll have a lot of static on the radio, we’ll stop and make the announcement to remind everyone their phone needs to be in airplane mode and that if that doesn’t solve the problem we’ll have to return to the gate for maintenance. Reeeeeaaally quick the interference goes away. Go figure.

You want your phone in airplane mode too. Once we climb above ~5000 feet your phone isn’t gonna pick up any cell signal anyways so it’s just gonna spend the rest of the flight draining your battery searching for cell service.

Do you let young kids take pictures with you in the cockpit?

Absolutely. We all remember when WE were those kids. You’d be hard pressed to find the grumpy, crusty pilot who’s gonna pass up the chance to share our love of aviation with a kid and maybe create a life changing memory.

We can’t have people in the cockpit anymore during flight (thanks 9/11), but talk to the flight attendants about it during initial boarding, or talk to them in flight about doing it after everyone else gets off.

What’s your opinion on people who applause after landing?

I know, I know other passengers hate that and think they’re fools, but… I mean, most of us pilots have huge egos from doing what we do. We’re up front there probably applauding ourselves in our own heads. Either that or cringing at how we fucked up that landing, better do better next time. So.. whatever, thanks for the support I guess. Haha

Do they give you “Ladies and gentlemen, ah, this is your, ah Captain speaking” PA lessons?

Well ahhhhh, you have to pick your spots ahhhh, so that everyone knows you’re still speaking ahhhhh while you look for more pointless information to tell everyone like ahhhh the wind speed and direction at the destination.

Are all pilots required to wear aviators?

Yes. It’s hidden deep within federal aviation regulations 14 CFR 121.682 and all pilots are briefed on it when they’re in their new hire initial training.

He’s EXPOSING the secret alien interrogation program

Interesting. Relax. Do not get too caught up in this. But very interesting.

At least it confirms what I have been saying all along.

14 People Reveal How They Found Out Their Partners Were Cheating

July 20, 2023

1. My wife tried calling and didn’t hang up once it went to voicemail. She accidentally left a 2:45 VM. The VM consisted of her and her BF talking shit about me and how much happier she was with him.

At the time I was home with our kids and I thought she was 1,800 miles away to be with her dying father. Two years later we are divorced and her father is still alive.

2. She needed a new phone so I put it in my name since I was working, 2 hours after leaving the store and having lunch with me joking about how excited she was to get married I found a photoreel full of pictures she had been exchanging with her ex whilst transferring her stuff to her new phone.

I put 2 and 2 together and opened her text inbox and surprise! She had been texting him for months and fucking him for a few weeks.

3. I counted the pictures.

This was in 2000, before everyone had a camera on their phone and you had to get your holiday snaps developed at the Walgreens photo lab.

She brought home the pictures of her vacation to see her “old high school friend” in Vegas, but there was something missing. See, back in the day the rolls of film were made up of exposures of 12, 24, 36 pics, etc. depending on the film you bought.

I went through the photos and it didn’t add up. Literally. The 24 exposure roll only had 18 pics. Eventually I found the remaining photos…her and the new boyfriend looking happy.

4. My super genius ex wife bitched about the cost of our joint cell phone bill. She told me I’m using it too much. I never used it except to call her phone which was free. So I looked over the bill and found the number to the dude she was cheating with.

5. iMessage linked to her computer. I was on her computer buying stuff off Amazon and she was sitting on the couch, feet from me, texting her ex. He was trying to get her to send him nudes and they were reminiscing about previous encounters. He was bragging about how he made her “leg shake” all the while I was watching the conversation in real time, right next to her. My adrenaline kicked in and I simply closed the computer and left the house without saying a word. This was over a year ago and I’m still fighting her for custody of our children.

6. She became more and more distant. Not just that, but also indifferent. She just stopped caring and it showed. I caught her because she claimed she was working OT, but her pay never reflected it. One day I got out of work early after a machine broke down in the department. I didn’t tell her. When I came home, I caught her red handed with someone in our bed.

7. I had a feeling for a while, it was always denied of course – directly and through a massive amount of gaslighting. Ultimately, the other woman was also married and her husband called me at work (found me via LinkedIn). Took everything I had to walk to my car to cry in private.

8. Back when cell phones had limited minutes, I got notified that we were over our limit. Checked the last bill and nothing but her and her boss talking at all hours of the day. Then she stupidly left her e-mail open on my computer and I got to read how he enjoyed touching her boobs a lot.

9. Just got on a flight in London headed to Vegas. Sitting next to my GF and she wants to show me something she has planned for the trip so gets out her phone.

It opens to the Messages and shows a chat with a guy (I know him) saying how much she is gonna miss him and how she doesn’t wanna go away with me anyway.

The doors close on the plane and that was a really fucking fun 10-11hrs…

10. I know this is cliche and I’ve definitely bitched about it before, but coming home from a 12 MONTH deployment to a BLACK baby when we’re both white were strike one and two. Strike three was telling me she had black relatives (whom I’ve never met) so that could be what happened, sure. Doesn’t matter what excuse You have there isn’t a magical 12 month gestation period. Makes me very fucking angry.

11. The dude told me. We used to go to school together. Saw him in Facebook and requested friendship. He asked me how I was doing and I told him that I was great. Girl and I were about to celebrate our anniversary. He apologized to me and said he had to tell me that they had been fucking for the last week. Said he didn’t know we were together and I believed him. He sent me screenshots of pages of text as proof. She got called out by the both of us and we are still very good friends, he and I. Fuckin lying skank.

12. I woke up in the middle of the night when she was in the bathroom. Used her phone as a light. Saw texts from her ex about how good it felt to cum inside her the day before.

13. She forgot to end the call, you know, press the red button. I heard them talking about who was going to shower first.

14. She was in the toilet. Her phone flashed up. The message notification read “Did you tell him?”.

Apparently the message was about something completely different, but after I bluffed her into thinking I know more than I do – a name and that something’s up, she “confessed”.

10 years relationship destroyed. No turning back. Easier to build up trust with a new person the. with someone that cheated on you. And in long term relationships, marriage, you have to trust each other.

The Simpsons news! War between America and China

You ARE aware that the Simpsons television show has been able to predict the future, right?

https://youtu.be/vVz7bS6cQs0

Why do you think China hasn’t invaded Taiwan yet?

Chinese don’t like war, not just for moral reasons, but because they are very costly and wasteful. Human lives are lost, families are wrecked, individuals are traumatized, buildings are destroyed, and deep ill-feeling is created.

Chinese especially don’t like the idea of killing other Chinese, even if many Taiwanese don’t consider themselves to be Chinese. Killing other Chinese is something which should be avoided until all other ways of resolution have been exhausted, and this is true for Taiwan.

Moreover, reconstruction costs would be huge, and the national treasury would take a major hit lasting years. If China attacked without provocation, the United States would be the first country to call for a boycott of China and Chinese goods, which would hurt the economy for years. The costs would run into the hundreds of billions of yuan.

On a scale of 1 (Poor) to 10 (Excellent) how do you rate the USA in the effectiveness of their foreign policies to your country and why?

Zero.

The U.S. has lost every conceivable element of respect by must South East Asian people for being hypocritical and obnoxious, power that is bent in trouble making and war mongering which is what we do not want.

The U.S. must move from their moral high horse that no one buys and much less believe. To South East Asia we see the U.S. as the barbarous nation that murdered up to 3 million Vietnamese civilians and carpet bomb Manila to murder up to 1 million mostly Filipinos in its war against the Japanese. We know that the U.S. has a hand in murdering another 3 million anti communist in Indonesia.

The U.S. has completely and totally lost its plot in South East Asia. Apart from Singapore who is more interested in US money than US behaviour the U.S. do not have any influence here. Talking bad and talking down in China has turn off the South East Asian officials. To U.S. China has been our big neighbour for 5000 years yet we are still our own sovereign nation!

We saw what happened in the U.S. that begin with 13 East Coast states to stealing 37 more states till Pacific coast in a mere century! We appreciate that China in spite from actually way stronger than U.S. left us alone. The U.S. trying to sow fear about China is simply not believable at all. If anything. It showed the U.S. hypocrisy and it manipulative nature.

Sitrep

August 2023

There are three levels.

[1] Geo-political

In flux. The single ruling (American / UK) nation as a dominant entity is over. The world is in a situation of metamorphosis.

The duration of this period of change is unknown. However, a rapid change is suggested.

Most of the world (the Global South) are aligning with the China-Russian axis.

This suggests either [1a] a world consisting of two Geo-political axes or [1b] a world led by the Russia-China alignment.

This is a “bumpy road”. It may get “hot”, or “frosty cold”. But the changes will continue for a spell.

[2] Global Economic

Of the two emerging powers; (USA, Russia-China), the Western-led axes is remarkably poor. While the Eastern axes, (Russia – China) is powerful, wealthy and leading in most every indicator of value.

This trend is continuing in the two vector paths. One up. One down.

No one knows when the West will hit bottom.

The East will continue to go ballistic and there is no indication that the trend will plateau.

[3] Galactic

Various entities are observing these changes in the earth centrist sphere.

Domain is very busy right now, but the impression is that all is proceeding as it should. Medium bads only. No big bads are indicated.

Some very powerful entities have attempted to alter the “environment” to their personal benefit for one reason or the other. Domain has been patching away these efforts towards “full body repair”.

A period of stabilization and calm should be evident by the end of this decade.

Return To Green Acres (Full)

Ugh. So much sad and depressing stuff. How about something light, cheerful and happy for a change. This is my special gift for today. -MM

Today’s special treat! Happy times!

Sure they are older, by about 30 years, but it’s a fun time for all. Silly. Yeah. Not serious. Excellent! The stuff about Trump is pure gold.

Reactions and adventures

Once, when I was living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, my cat (a cute but smallish Maine Coon) named Phelie jumped on my bed at 4am. She took out her claw, and carefully… so very carefully… opened my eyelid. She wanted to see if I was alive.

I guess that (then, at that time) I must have slept deep.

Cats and dogs; our little buddies. Our pals. Well, they care for us. They worry about us. And if we have the opportunity, we should take care of them too.

…

Today, this article is going to be heavily laden with “reaction videos”. People listen to a song that they never heard before, and you listen to their reactions. You would be surprised how many of the younger folk (20s and so on) have never heard of the music that we all grew up with. And it’s a treat.

I suggest that you watch all of them, but if you are busy, then just watch the very first one, which is a compilation of reactions to an Opera, and the last one which is a reaction by an African woman to “Zombie”.

Enjoy today. And if you have the time, I strongly recommend watching all those videos. Most especially those with a “@” at the front.

First Reaction To Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody THE BEST BY FAR!

How would you stop people from walking across your lawn?

There was an older woman on my block growing up who disliked that a bunch of older boys kept walking on her lawn and garden. One day I watched as she called the biggest boy over. He was menacing and we all walked in fear of him. She said, “Son, I have a problem I am hoping you can help me with. I have all these kids who walk on my lawn and garden and I am trying to grow things. Do you think you could make sure no one tramples them since you are clearly such a leader in the neighborhood?”

From that day on not one person touched her grass or garden. That boy defended her turf like it was his own and with every fiber of his being.

All it took was a frail 80 year old woman with some wise rhetoric.

“Rebels beheaded, instigators arrested”? And this is not Prigozhin

From HERE

An audio recording appeared in one of the telegram channels of the Wagner group. Someone describes the situation with Prigozhin’s rebellion, prefaced his speech with the following words: “I ask you to put this on your information resources.” This person introduced himself as an officer of the Marine Corps of the Northern Fleet “from the Kherson direction.” He says that a unique KGB-style special operation was carried out – “lightning fast and deadly for the enemy.” And explains what it is.

The entry with the “officer’s” story, of course, may be stuffing and intrigues of enemies. And the fact that it was posted on the resources of PMC “Wagner” is not a guarantee of authenticity. First there was a recording, then its textual transcript. This “military” says that allegedly a group of rebels from the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff and the National Guard were going to remove Putin, but they did not succeed:

They are beheaded and destroyed. All the instigators, organizers, performers were handed over to the authorities that should deal with this. And they are already doing it hard.

He explains the role Wagner played in this:

Vladimir Vladimirovich turned to his loyal soldiers and his most trusted person, Prigozhin Evgeny Viktorovich. Special thanks to him for saving the country and people from the coup. He is a true patriot and deserves a second Hero star.

Next, the listeners are explained why the PMC units occupied Rostov-on-Don in the first place:

Because the headquarters of the Southern Military District is located there. The instigators-generals were sitting there. Some managed to escape to Moscow. In a panic, they gave orders to attack the Wagner columns with aircraft. But it did not bring results.

The narrator drew attention to the fact that the buildings of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were not occupied by the “Wagnerites”, but only cordoned off – because there was no need for this.

The generals who fled to Moscow could not believe that an uprising had been raised against them. They were really scared, because they don’t have combat-ready troops, everyone is involved at the front. They ran to the president: what to do?

Who is with the president?

Then there was Putin’s appeal to the people, in which he spoke about some rebels, but did not name “Wagner” and did not mention the name of Prigozhin. It was about the rebels, “who will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.” And the narrator emphasized in this regard that it was “precisely about the group of generals of the Ministry of Defense.”

Vladimir Vladimirovich is waiting after the appeal. The Federation Council speaks out for the fact that they are devoted to the Supreme Commander. Mayors, governors – too. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko calls Prigozhin: “Zhenya, hang up.” Wagner divisions are leaving for their permanent locations.

Here a hint is made that we did not hear such assurances from some leaders of the army, and by this they betrayed themselves:

That says a lot… That’s what “Wagner” did. The most unique operation. The rebels are completely beheaded. The grouping has been destroyed. According to some information, the leaders have been arrested. I don’t know for sure, but we’ll know tomorrow.

Quick “palace coup”

The narrator also answers the question: “What would we expect if this operation did not take place?”

“Wagner” was going to be disbanded the other day, depriving the president of such a power lever, because everyone is at the front. There would be regular regroupings like Kharkov, Kyiv. Only already in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Something would have happened in Crimea. Then the people would get excited. Here the generals would make a quick palace coup, taking their place (Putin. – Approx. ed.).

Also, according to the author of the entry, as a result of the coup, Russia would pay indemnities to everyone and “would go to hell”, and the new rulers would rule “this decaying and dying” country.

And, of course, our president, as always, was on top. Grandmaster!

Will the Tula governor go for a promotion?

Wagner also reports in its TG channels that the Prosecutor General’s Office allegedly found procedural inconsistencies in the FSB’s decision to initiate a criminal case against Yevgeny Prigozhin, and it was closed (later, a message appeared in Telegram channels, without any reference to specific sources, that Yevgeny Prigozhin remains under investigation in connection with the rebellion):

Prigozhin, Lukashenka and Dyumin will meet in Moscow. You will learn about the results, detentions with resignations from the media.

Also, according to the “Wagner” channel, soon the governor of the Tula region, Alexei Dyumin, will begin work at the headquarters of the Southern Federal District of the Moscow Region, where he will be presented in a new position. And he will bring to the final the goals and objectives of the special operation:

Surovikin will be the chief of staff, some of the PMC fighters will enter a separate structural unit of the Russian Defense Ministry. Only Alekseev and Yevkurov will retain their positions. Prigozhin will be engaged in a new large project on the territory of Belarus.

The public also “promises” that a part of defense enterprises and strategic projects will be withdrawn from the structure of Rostec . Some of the design work and enterprises will be taken away from Roskosmos to strengthen the satellite and aerospace group of forces. And they will appoint a new minister of industry.

As for all PMCs, the Ministry of Defense signs a contract with them, and they cease to be structures of state corporations. And the Wagner structure will receive a unique legal status, which “will allow it to be a subject in a dialogue not only with the authorities in Russia, but also with the governments of other states.”

These are the plans voiced by the anonymous speakers of the Wagner Group. How true they are, time will tell. If this is the case, then we will see the results very soon.

The word “throw” immediately comes to mind.

The political observer of Tsargrad Andrey Perla expressed the following opinion about the conspiracy theory voiced in this material:

I think that such texts do not improve the situation, first of all, for Wagner himself. Because these texts are an attempt to prove that although you retreated in front of everyone, in fact you achieved everything and won everything. There is a public in the world that can believe this, but this public is always in the minority. And can never influence the decision makers.

The second point that Andrei Perla drew attention to is that these words were not spoken on behalf of the PMC, but were expressed by an anonymous person who calls himself a marine, but does not disclose not only his name and rank, but even his call sign. This, of course, does not inspire confidence in him , but adds doubts about the authenticity of the text. And the word “throw-in” immediately comes to mind.

In any case, very soon we will understand how great the consequences of the “mutiny”. I think they are quite large. But the content of these texts has nothing or almost nothing in common with everything that happened.

– considers the observer of Tsargrad.

@ Black Reactors First Time Listening To Luciano Pavarotti Singing Nessun Dorma Pt 2

I was once driving my car from Indiana to visit my family in Pennsylvania. On the way, we had our three (x3) cats riding with us, when we hit this massive traffic jam near the “Liberty Tubes” outside of Pittsburgh.

It was hot. Miserable, and traffic was slow. All four lanes were at a standstill.

We were listening to public radio, and they put on an Opera. And as we sat there, I watched the hair stand on end on all my cats simultaneously. They all arched their backs and their ears perked up, and they stood frozen for the climax of the music.

Then one by one, they got down and came up to me and kissed me on the face.

Music. Universal.

‘Give War a Chance’ – A ‘War That Even Pacifists Can Get Behind’

Alastair Crooke

June 5, 2023

The West is now waking up to the reality of the emerging, polycentric and fluid global order, Alastair Crooke writes.

More than a year into Russia’s Special Operation, the initial burst of European excitement at western push-back on Russia has dissipated. The mood instead has turned to “existential dread, a nagging suspicion that [western] civilisation may destroy itself”, Professor Helen Thompson writes.

For an instant, a euphoria had coalesced around the putative projection of the EU as a world power; as a key actor, about to compete on a world scale. Initially, events seemed to play to Europe’s conviction of its market powers: Europe was going to bring down a major power – Russia – by financial coup d’état alone. The EU felt ‘six feet tall’.

It seemed at the time a galvanising moment: “The war re-forged a long-dormant Manichaean framing of existential conflict between Russia and the West, assuming ontological, apocalyptic dimensions. In the spiritual fires of the war, the myth of the ‘West’ was rebaptised”, Arta Moeini suggests.

After the initial disappointment at the lack of a ‘quick kill’, the hope persisted – that if only the sanctions were given more time, and made more all-embracing, then Russia surely would ultimately collapse. That hope has turned to dust. And the reality of what Europe has done to itself has begun to dawn – hence Professor Thomson’s dire warning:

“Those who assume that the political world can be reconstructed by the efforts of human Will, have never before had to bet so heavily on technology over [fossil] energy – as the driver of our material advancement”.

For the Euro-Atlanticists however, what Ukraine seemed to offer – finally – was validation for their yearning to centralise power in the EU, sufficiently, to merit a place at the ‘top table’ with the U.S., as partners in playing the Great Game.

Ukraine, for better or worse, underlined Europe’s profound military dependence on Washington – and on NATO.

More particularly, the Ukraine conflict seemed to open the prospect for consolidating the strange metamorphosis of NATO from military alliance to an enlightened, Progressive, peace alliance! As Timothy Garton Ash effused in the Guardian in 2002, “NATO has become a European peace movement” where one could watch “John Lennon meet George Bush”.

The Ukraine war is portrayed, in this vein, as the “war that even former pacifists can get behind. All its proponents seemed to be singing is “Give War a Chance””.

Lily Lynch, a Belgrade-based writer, argues that,

“…especially in the past 12 months, telegenic female leaders such as the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, and Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, have increasingly served as the spokespersons of enlightened militarism in Europe … ”

“No political party in Europe better exemplifies the shift from militant pacifism to ardent pro-war Atlanticism than the German Greens. Most of the original Greens had been radicals during the student protests of 1968 … But as the founding members entered middle age, fissures began to appear in the party – that would one day tear it apart”.

“Kosovo then changed everything: The 78-day NATO bombing of what remained of Yugoslavia in 1999, ostensibly to halt war crimes committed by Serbian security forces in Kosovo, would forever transform the German Greens. NATO for the Greens became an active military compact concerned with spreading and defending values such as human rights, democracy, peace, and freedom – well beyond the borders of its member states”.

A few years later, in 2002, an EU functionary (Robert Cooper) could envisage Europe as a new ‘liberal imperialism’. The ‘new’ was that Europe eschewed hard military power, in favour of weaponising both a controlled ‘narrative’ and controlled participation in its market. He advocated for ‘a new age of empire’, in which Western powers no longer would have to follow international law in their dealings with ‘old fashioned’ states; they could use military force independently of the United Nations; and could impose protectorates to replace regimes which ‘misgovern’.

The German Greens’ Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, has continued with this metamorphosis, scolding countries with traditions of military neutrality, and imploring them to join NATO. She has invoked Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s line: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. And the European Left has been utterly captivated. Major parties have abandoned military neutrality and opposition to war – and now champion NATO. It is a stunning reversal.

All this may have been music to the ears of the Euro-élites anxious for the EU to rise to Great Power status, but this soft-power European Leviathan was wholly underpinned by the unstated (but essential) assumption that NATO ‘had Europe’s back’. This naturally implied that the EU had to tie itself ever closer to NATO – and therefore to the U.S. which controls NATO.

But the flip-side to this Atlanticist aspiration – as President Emmanuel Macron noted – is its inexorable logic that Europeans simply end by becoming American vassals. Macron was trying rather, to rally Europe towards the coming ‘age of empires’,hoping to position Europe as a ‘third pole’ in a concert of empires.

The Atlanticists were duly enraged by Macron’s remarks (which nonetheless drew support of other EU states). It could even seem (to furious Atlanticists) that Macron actually was channelling General de Gaulle who had called NATO a “false pretence” designed to “disguise America’s chokehold over Europe”.

There are however, two related schisms that flowed out from this ‘re-imagined’ NATO: Firstly, it exposed the reality of internal European rivalries and divergent interests, precisely because the NATO lead in the Ukraine conflict sets the interests of the Central East European hawks wanting ‘more America, and more war on Russia’ up and against that of the original EU western axis which wants wanting strategic autonomy (i.e. less ‘America’, and a quick end to the conflict).

Secondly, it would be predominantly the western economies that would have to bankroll the costs and divert their manufacturing capacity towards military logistic chains. The economic price, non-military de-industrialisation and high inflation, potentially, could be enough to break Europe – economically.

The prospect of a pan-European cohesive identity might be both ontologically appealing – and be seen to be an ‘appropriate accessory’ to an aspiring ‘world actor’ – yet such identity becomes caricature when mosaic Europe is transformed into an abstract de-territorialised identity that reduces people to their most abstract.

Paradoxically, the Ukraine war – far from consolidating the EU ‘identity’, as first imagined – has fractured it under the stresses of the concerted effort to weaken and collapse Russia.

Secondly, as Arta Moeini, the director of the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, has observed:

“The American push for NATO expansion since 1991 has enlarged the alliance by adding a host of faultline states from Central and Eastern Europe. The strategy, which began with the Clinton administration but was fully championed by the George W. Bush administration, was to create a decidedly pro-American pillar on the continent, centred on Warsaw – which would force an eastward shift in the alliance’s centre of gravity away from the traditional Franco-German axis”.

“By using NATO enlargement to weaken the old power centres in Europe that might have occasionally stood up to [Washington] such as in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Washington ensured a more compliant Europe in the short-term. The upshot, however, was the formation of a 31-member behemoth with deep asymmetries of power and low compatibility of interests” – that is much weaker and more vulnerable – than it believes itself to be”.

Here is the key: “the EU is much weaker than it believes it to be”. The outset of the conflict was defined by a cast of mind entranced by the notion of Europe as a ‘mover and shaker’ in world affairs, and mesmerised by Europe’s post-war prosperity.

EU leaders convinced themselves that this prosperity had bequeathed it the clout and the economic depth to contemplate war – and to weather its reversals – with panglossian sanguinity. It has produced rather, the converse: It has put its project in jeopardy.

In John Raply and Peter Heather’s The Imperial Life Cycle, the authors explain the cycle:

“Empires grow rich and powerful and attain supremacy through the economic exploitation of their colonial periphery. But in the process, they inadvertently spur the economic development of that same periphery, until it can roll back and ultimately displace its overlord”.

Europe’s prosperity in this post-war era, thus was not so much one of its own making, but drew benefit from the tail-end of accumulations hewn from an earlier cycle – now reversed.

“The fastest-growing economies in the world are now all in the old periphery; the worst-performing economies are disproportionately in the West. These are the economic trends that have created our present landscape of superpower conflict — most saliently between America and China”.

America may think of itself as exempt from the European colonial mould, yet fundamentally, its model is

“an updated cultural-political glue that we might call “neoliberalism, NATO and denim”, which follows in the timeless imperial mould: The great wave of decolonisation that followed WW2 was meant to end that. But the Bretton Woods system, which created a trading regime that favoured industrial over primary producers and enshrined the dollar as the global reserve currency – ensured that the net flow of financial resources continued to move from developing countries to developed ones. Even when the economies of the newly-independent states grew, those of the G7 economies and their partners grew more”.

A once-mighty empire is now challenged and feels embattled. Taken aback by the refusal of so many developing countries to join with isolating Russia, the West is now waking up to the reality of the emerging, polycentric and fluid global order. These trends are set to continue. The danger is that economically weakened and in crisis, western countries attempt to re-appropriate western triumphalism, yet lack the economic strength and depth, so to do:

“In the Roman Empire, peripheral states developed the political and military capacity to end Roman domination by force… The Roman Empire might have survived – had it not weakened itself with wars of choice – on its ascendant Persian rival”.

The final ‘transgressive’ thought goes to Tom Luongo: “Allowing the West to keep thinking they can win – is the ultimate form of grinding out a superior opponent”.

Interesting!

What are your thoughts on the U.S. and China’s failure to restore military-to-military contacts?

There are a number of critical steps that occur before two nations engage in open warfare.

All of these steps have already been taken by China in response to American aggression and provocations.

China has taken the necessary steps. It’s all public knowledge, though you would have to perform some pretty deep sleuthing to find anything about any of it in the Western “news”.

Publishing a Casus Belli.
Dumping the other nation’s currency.
Stockpiling of precious commodities.
Military mobilization.
Severing military lines of communication.
Severing diplomatic lines of communication (touch and go presently)

It’s pretty “cut and dry”. Obvious to everyone.

China already has provided the “due diligence” and set up the “rules of engagement”. World War 3 will be on the Chinese timetable, following Chinese defined rules of engagement, and China will dictate the terms of Western surrender.

The United States is being run by ignorant idiots that have no clue as to what they are fucking with.

China’s time line is running HOT. And the “stop watch” is ticking.

Brace for impact.

FREAKING SHOOK!| FIRST TIME HEARING Faith No More – Epic REACTION

Why is the US blaming China for its fentanyl crisis? What’s the cause of America’s drug abuse?

In the rest of the world, fentanyl is a controlled and regulated substance and is used as medication. In the US, fentanyl has been turned into a recreational drug inspite of the obvious dangers.

There is no effective government in the US. It is that simple.

It is obviously stupid to blame China or any other country. Other countries do not run the US government.

Only US citizens can run and manage the US government.

CAMEO CANDY VIDEO REACTION

Can China survive on terms enunciated and dictated by the US and her allies?

Well, if you distill the terms presented by the United States and it’s proxy “allies” you have this…

All Chinese must die.
Chinese culture must be erased.
All history books must be rewritten to avoid any mention of China.
China to be broken up into parts.
China to be looted until nothing is left except junk and stone.
The surviving Chinese are to be used as slaves, servants, and sex toys.

Can China survive under these conditions?

Personally, I actually think that China can.

But it will not want to, and it will flatten the United States into a radioactive wasteland of ruin if the United States continues it’s moronic march towards “suicide by cop”.

SO CATCHY!… | FIRST TIME HEARING Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen REACTION

All aboard the gravy train: an independent audit of US funding for Ukraine

HEATHER KAISER, ANYA PARAMPIL AND MAX BLUMENTHAL

·JUNE 27, 2023

President Joe Biden travels to Kyiv, Ukraine Monday, February 20, 2023. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

In the absence of official scrutiny of Washington’s spending spree on Ukraine, The Grayzone conducted an independent audit of US funding for the country. We discovered a series of wasteful, highly unusual expenditures the Biden administration has yet to explain.

During a recent discussion with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, touted her organization’s push to guarantee transparency for US taxpayer funds sent to Ukraine.

“We are involved in funding efforts at ensuring judicial integrity, which is intrinsically important to building Ukraine’s democracy and its integration plans to get into Europe,” Power declared, adding USAID’s work in Ukraine was “also really important in terms of assuring the taxpayer, the American taxpayer, that they’re resources are well spent.”

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While innocuous on the surface, Power’s comments revealed a great deception the US government is currently waging against the American public. In the roughly 16 months since Russia’s February 2022 escalation of the Ukraine conflict, the US government has approved several multi-billion dollar spending packages to sustain the Kiev military’s fight against Moscow.

Though many Americans likely believe that US dollars allocated for Ukraine are spent directly on supplies for the war effort, the lead author of this report, Heather Kaiser, conducted a thorough review of Washington’s budget for the 2022 and 2023 fiscal year and discovered that is far from the case.

US taxpayers may be shocked to learn that as their families grappled with fears of Social Security’s looming insolvency, the Social Security Administration in Washington sent $4.48 million to the Kiev government in 2022 and 2023 alone. In another example of bizarre spending, USAID paid off $4.5 billion worth of Ukraine’s sovereign debt through payments made to the World Bank — all while Congress went to loggerheads over America’s ballooning national debt. (Western financial interests including BlackRock Inc. are among the largest holders of Ukrainian government bonds.)

Though it is nearly impossible to calculate the total sum of US tax dollars sent to Kiev, Kaiser was able to perform an independent audit of Washington’s proxy war in Ukraine through a careful search of open source data available on the US government’s official spending tracker.

Kaiser reviewed all the funding allocations in which Ukraine was listed as the “Place of Performance” for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Additionally, she discovered supplementary funds were sent to Kiev by listing Ukraine as the “justification” for spending, rather than the location where the money was physically sent.

Calculating the total dollar amount that the US has given to Ukraine is incredibly challenging for multitude of reasons: there is a lag in reporting expenditures; covert money given by the CIA (Title 50 Covert Action) won’t be publicly disclosed; and direct military assistance in the form of military equipment is not calculated in the same manner as raw cash. The Pentagon recently admitted to an accounting error revised up to 6.2 billion dollars. Despite this, Kaiser submitted a request to the Department of Treasury asking them to disclose the total dollar amount of US taxpayer support for Ukraine. Treasury has not responded at the time of publication.

Though Kaiser was able to search through pages of reported spending, the US government has yet to conduct an official audit of its funding for Ukraine. What’s more, there is currently no limit to how much Washington can send to Kiev.

In the absence of dedicated official scrutiny of Washington’s spending in Ukraine, The Grayzone has produced an independent audit of US tax dollar allocation in the country.

Among the many troubling contracts we discovered was a $4.25 million payment from the Pentagon to a military diving contractor that a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee has described as a “fraudulent company.” The US government asserts the payment covered the company’s delivery of explosives equipment to Ukraine.

So how exactly was that money put to use? And why has Congress so far refused to implement any program to track these shady weapons deals?

Unfortunately, the “justification” for contracts like these often consists of just a brief paragraph — or worse, a single sentence. Little little information is available that documents precisely how the funds were spent down to the dollar and item.

Beneficiaries of USAID’s Ukraine aid: Polish NATO lobbyists, a private equity firm, rural Kenyans, a TV station in Toronto

USAID awarded $21.8 billion

to Ukraine throughout fiscal years 2022 and 2023, roughly 41 percent of the 53.4 billion it spent during that period. Mysteriously, a portion of USAID funding earmarked for Kiev was sent to Kenya and Ethiopia via other agencies, with the award description stating projects in Africa were “partially funded with response funds and Ukraine supplemental funds.”

USAID sent $4.5 billion to Ukraine via the World Bank to pay off Kiev’s debt and fund various social programs, including government pensions. USAID made a total of $21 billion worth of direct payments to the World Bank in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 (9.1 Billion and 11.9 Billion respectively), more money than all of the funding Washington sent to the bank between fiscal years 2008 and 2021 combined. The $4.5 billion allocated for Ukraine funded programs directed by the bank’s International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

USAID supplied a $1 billion grant to the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to subsidize projects “Ukraine cannot fund at this time.”

USAID has supplied $20 million to “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees” since February 2020. Recipients include a Polish think tank called the Casimir Pulaski Foundation, a Toronto-based Ukrainian TV channel, a collection of Ukrainian “anti-corruption” organizations, and other groups listed in the screenshot below. These awards were issued on top of $26 million worth of funds USAID sent these groups between 2016 and the February 2022 war escalation.

USAID allocated $500,000 for the Casimir Pulaski Foundation in 2023 to fund a program dedicated to “advanc[ing] U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting economic growth, agriculture and trade; global health; and democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance” in Ukraine. The funds were earmarked “to strengthen the International Center for Ukrainian Victory (ICUV) initiative in implementing international advocacy campaigns to keep high levels of international solidarity with Ukraine.”

USAID’s support arrived on top of a $74,788

subaward the State Department granted to the Casimir Pulaski Foundation in June 2022 to “build capacity and policy formulating capabilities of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory (ICUV) and assisting Ukrainian civil society based in Poland.”

According to their own so-called “Peace Manifesto,” the ICUV’s top priority is to admit Ukraine into NATO, a move that former US diplomats from George Kennan to Jack Matlock to Henry Kissinger and even current CIA director William Burns have described as a major provocation against Russia.

USAID sent $3 million to the World Health Organization

(WHO) in 2022 “to improve health outcomes in drought affected areas in Ethiopia.” The description stated, “partially funded with response funds and Ukraine Supplemental Funds.”

USAID sent 30.9 million to Chemonics International, Inc. for the “Ukraine confidence building initiative (UCBI) 4. A private, for-profit aid contractor, Chemonics’ founder said he launched the company to “have my own CIA.” The Grayzone has documented Chemonics’ role in delivering US government funding and supplies to the Syrian White Helmets, which served as the propaganda wing of the Al Qaeda-tied armed opposition. Chemonics previously reaped a massive windfall

from the US occupation of Afghanistan, raking in as much as $600 million from USAID.

USAID sent $20.7 million to PACT, INC. for “USAID Ukraine’s public health system recovery and resilience activity and will strengthen the Government of Ukraine (GOU) capacity to address COVID-19 and other public health threats, sustain health services during a crisis, and protect the health of all Ukrainians including vulnerable and marginalized populations. According to its 2022 impact statement [PDF

], “In Ukraine, Pact’s work empowers citizens to push for transparent and democratic governance, advances gender equality and human rights for women and girls, and accelerates efforts to achieve HIV epidemic control.” The contractor’s work contributed to “172 people increas[ing] their net income,” according to Pact.

USAID sent $25 million to Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV

, a “leading private equity firm in emerging Europe, via the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), “to back high-growth tech and export-oriented [Small and Medium Sized Enterprises] succeeding globally, based on platforms in Ukraine and Moldova.”

USAID sent 7.6 million to UNICEF IDA

for emergency nutrition response in ASALs (Arid and Semi-Arid Lands) in Kenya. The description stated, “partially funded with response funds and Ukraine Supplemental Funds”

USAID sent $1.2 million to University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc.

located in Atlanta, GA to “support humanitarian information management through geographic information systems, data analytics and visualizations”. Ukraine was listed as the place of performance.

The Pentagon sponsors diving contractor with “history of fraud” to send mysterious explosives to Ukraine

The Department of Homeland Security sent 5.48 million to Gravois Aluminum Boats LLC

on June 8, 2021 for the following purpose: “PROCUREMENT OF TWO 38-FOOT FULL CABIN RESPONSE BOATS, FOUR 38-FOOT CENTER CONSOLE RESPONSE BOATS, TRAILERS, SPARE PARTS, AND TRAINING AS REQUIRED UNDER FMS LOA DB-P-LCL FOR THE COUNTRY OF UKRAINE.”

The Department of Defense has transferred 4.75 Million to Atlantic Diving Supply, Inc. as of February 3, 2023 for “PRO SAPPER AND EOD EQUIPMENT [CONTRACTING SQUADRON] UKRAINE” and “Marine lifesaving and Diving Equipment.”

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and sapper equipment is exclusively used to blow things up or clean up explosives. And Atlantic Diving Supply

is a military contractor originally founded to provide tactical gear to Navy SEAL divers.

When a company like this is tasked with a highly specific delivery of explosives gear to any foreign nation, including Ukraine, it should prompt questions about the mission, particularly when US intelligence is blaming Ukraine’s military for attacking the Nord Stream pipelines without the knowledge of President Volodymyr Zelensky. (The payment date does not necessarily correlate with the date of delivery from the vendor; in other words, the equipment could have been delivered at a prior date.)

Luke Hillier, the founder of Atlantic Diving Supply, paid a $20 million settlement in 2019 to resolve charges that he defrauded the Pentagon by falsely claiming his company was a small business. Atlantic Diving is consistently listed as one of the top 25 largest military contractors in the country.

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In 2021, Hillier raked in a massive $33 billion contract under the same program, prompting fresh accusations of fraud. This pattern of malfeasance prompted a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to bluntly denounce Atlantic Diving as a “fraudulent company.”

Hillier currently owns a $13 million mega-yacht in the Cayman Islands, $24 million worth of beachfront property in Hawaii, and two Bahamas-based companies with murky operations, according to the Project on Government Oversight

Atlantic Diving Supply founder Luke Hillier living his best life

The Department of Defense has paid 4.9 Million to BAE Systems GCS International as of September 12, 2022 for “UKRAINE LCS LW 155 SPARES” and “guns over 155mm through 200mm”. In Navy terminology, LCS means “Littoral Combat Ship,” while LW refers to the lightweight gun. And “155 SPARES” refers to the gun mounted on the ship’s main battery off the bow.

So what is the exact purpose of the LCS LW 155mm gun spares, why were they given to Ukraine, and where are they now? Is there a tracking mechanism in place to know where they are and how they’re being used?

Washington funnels cash to a private equity firm, Georgian finance corporation, a ‘private entrepreneur’ via Ukraine aid

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) sent $25 million to Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV , a “leading private equity firm in emerging Europe, “to back high-growth tech and export-oriented [Small and Medium Sized Enterprises] succeeding globally, based on platforms in Ukraine and Moldova.”

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) sent $1.5 million to the Gazelle Fund LP, another private equity firm, to relocate Ukrainian businesses to Georgia. Georgia does not border Ukraine, nor is it a primary location for Ukrainian refugee resettlement.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent $882,291 to a single individual described as an “private entrepreneur” in exchange for “overseas technical assistance program support services.” The private entrepreneur listed, Igor Lavreniuk, serves as the Program Coordinator for USAID’s Competitive Markets Program according to his LinkedIn.

The National Science Foundation sent 1.3 million to University of Illinois for faculty and curricular development in remote sensing. The place of performance is listed as Ukraine.

The Department of State has paid 8.3 million to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to help “refugees from Ukraine meet their essential needs during initial displacement.” According to SpendingUS.gov, Catholic Relief Services is listed as having received a total of 657 million from the State Department in 2021, 5.7 billion since 2008 and 670 million during the last 12 months

Sponsoring “democracy” at Americans’ expense

Along with the blowback from their government’s gratuitous sanctions policy against Russia and other official enemies, Americans are feeling the impact of this overseas spending spree at grocery stores, gas stations, and everywhere in between. Meanwhile, rising generations are not only struggling with historic inflation, but concerns that Medicare and Social Security will be insolvent in the near future.

Washington and Europe have insisted that the flood of aid to Ukraine is essential to defending democracy against the existential threat of an authoritarian Russia. This framing is designed to shut down all debate by casting anyone who questions the ballooning price tag as fundamentally anti-American — if you are against funding the West’s proxy war with a nuclear power, you oppose the very ideals that define our nation.

Yet our inspection of US government spending in Ukraine demonstrates that Washington has prioritized its supposed fight for “democracy” abroad over the well-being of the American people.

As the war drags on, lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham have marketed military aid to Ukraine in increasingly grim terms. As the senator boasted

during a recent trip to Kiev, “The Russians are dying…it’s the best money we’ve ever spent.” Meanwhile, Congress has rejected any mechanism that would guarantee transparency on the billions sent to Kiev, and shunned a war powers debate over the US military’s presence on the Ukrainian battlefield.

President Joseph Biden, for his part, has pledged that official Washington will support Kiev “as long as it takes.” As the potential for blowback grows from Western pressure to push Ukraine into NATO, and a nuclear-armed Moscow is backed into an existential fight for its survival, while economic powers including China gradually decouple from the Western financial system, Americans can only wonder how much will this war cost them when it is finally over.

FIRST TIME HEARING Brad Paisley – He Didn’t Have To Be TEARS

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Butter

Ingredients

3 quarts sweet cider
8 pounds ripe, well-flavored apples
2 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Cook cider over high heat, uncovered, about 30 minutes or until it is reduced to half.
Wash, quarter and core unpeeled apples. Add to cider, and cook over low heat until very tender. Stir frequently. Work apple mixture through a sieve, returning the puree to the kettle. Stir in sugar, all the spices, and salt. Cook over very low heat, stirring almost continuously, until mixture thickens.
Pour into sterilized pint jars and seal securely.

Makes 4 jars.

First Time Hearing Jay Chou (feat. Fei Yu-ching) “Far Away” Reaction

How To Plant Propaganda: “Putin has been weakened. Russia is crumbling.”

On Sunday the U.S.Secretary of State went on four morning shows to play the same distinct melody over and over again:

Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Margaret Brennan of CBS Face the Nation

SECRETARY BLINKEN: And it was a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. So this raises profound questions. It shows real cracks. We can’t speculate or know exactly where that’s going to go. We do know that Putin has a lot more to answer for in the weeks and months ahead.
…
SECRETARY BLINKEN: These create more cracks in the Russian façade, and those cracks were already profound. Economically, militarily, its standing in the world – all of those things have been dramatically diminished by Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. He’s managed to bring Europe together. He’s managed to bring NATO together. He’s managed to get Europe to move off of Russian energy. He’s managed to alienate Ukrainians and unite Ukraine at the same time. So across the board this has been a strategic failure. Now you introduce into that profound internal divisions, and there are lots of questions he’s going to have to answer in the weeks ahead.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Chuck Todd of NBC Meet The Press

SECRETARY BLINKEN: … So I think we’ve seen more cracks emerge in the Russian facade. It is too soon to tell exactly where they go and when they get there. But certainly we have all sorts of new questions that Putin is going to have to address in the weeks and months ahead.
…
This is just the latest chapter in a book of failure that Putin has written for himself and for Russia. Economically, militarily, its standing in the world – all of things have plummeted. We have a united NATO that’s stronger than ever before, a Europe that is weaning itself off of Russian energy, Ukraine that Putin has managed to alienate and unite at the same time. Now, with trouble brewing from within, this, as I said, just adds more questions that he has to find answers for.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Dana Bash of CNN State of the Union

SECRETARY BLINKEN: But we can say this. First of all, what we’ve seen is extraordinary, and I think you see cracks emerge that weren’t there before …
…
We’ve seen this aggression against Ukraine become a strategic failure across the board. Russia is weaker economically, militarily. Its standing around the world has plummeted. It’s managed to get Europeans off of Russian energy. It’s managed to unite and strengthen NATO with new members and a stronger Alliance. It’s managed to alienate from Russia and unite together Ukraine in ways that it’s never been before. This is just an added chapter to a very, very bad book that Putin has written for Russia.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken With Jonathan Karl of ABC This Week

SECRETARY BLINKEN: But I think we can say this much: First, we’ve seen some very serious cracks emerge.
…
But we’ve seen, I think, lots of different cracks that have emerged in the conduct of this aggression, because everything Putin has tried to accomplish, the opposite has happened. Russia is weaker economically. It’s weaker militarily. Its standing in the world has plummeted. It’s managed to strengthen and unite NATO. It’s managed to alienate and unite Ukrainians. It’s managed to get Europe off of dependence on Russian energy.

In piece after piece, issue after issue, what Putin has tried to prevent, he’s managed to precipitate. And Russia’s standing is vastly diminished as a result. Now, add to that internal dissention. Again, we can’t speculate on where this goes. We have to remain and we are focused on Ukraine, but it certainly raises new questions that he’s going to have to address.

The very same (false) talking points, repeated over and over again, are a sure sign of lies and an organized propaganda campaign.

For the record. Progozhin was all alone in his mutiny attempt. Not one element of the Russian government or civil society joint him in his ride. So where are the cracks? There are none. Also Russia’s military is now larger and better equipped then before the war. Russia’s economy is fine and growing. Its standing in the world has increased.

But Blinken’s propaganda works well because the U.S. media are trained to pick up any sheet of music an administration hands out and to sing its tune over and over again.

I could quote dozens of participants in that game to make that point. But the Washington Posts has made it easier for me when it asked eight of its columnists to comment on the issues. All but one, a neocon who wants to see more action, repeat Blinken’s message: “Putin has been weakened. Russia is crumbling.”

Opinion What happened in Russia — and what happens next? Our columnists weigh in.

David Von Drehle: Even failed coups have consequences

Putin evidently had no more confidence than Prigozhin as to the outcome of the clash. Rather than test the loyalty and strength of government forces to crush the uprising, the Russian leader grabbed the first exit he was offered — a sign of weakness that might invite another attempt. … The bad news: A weakened Russia has weakened leaders and is spinning out of control. Putin has taken his country into a disaster, and there is no one in sight to save it.

Max Boot: Prigozhin has made Putin’s weakness clear to everyone

Putin, has now had his own legitimacy undermined by the revolt of Prigozhin and his Wagner Group mercenaries. Whether the damage is fatal remains to be determined. … Even if Prigozhin is gone, the discontent he has revealed will remain an Achilles’ heel for Putin.

David Ignatius: After dodging the bullet, Putin will need to show he’s in control

Putin’s vulnerabilities were vividly on display last weekend, but so were his uncanny survival skills. He got inside Prigozhin’s conspiratorial plot and stopped it. … Putin will need to show that he’s in command now, after this near-death experience. That’s the bad news for Ukraine and Russia both.

Eugene Robinson: Putin is likely to survive this crisis

The revolt by the mercenary butcher Prigozhin did reveal Putin’s regime to be more brittle than it had appeared from afar.

Charles Lane: Prigozhin is the only Russian to publicly speak the truth

Vaclav Havel insisted that truth still exercised a mysterious, but latent, power.

It can unexpectedly “issue forth … in something visible: a real political act or event, a social movement, a sudden explosion of civil unrest, a sharp conflict inside an apparently monolithic power structure, or simply an irrepressible transformation in the social and intellectual climate,” Havel wrote. “And since all genuine problems and matters of critical importance are hidden beneath a thick crust of lies, it is never quite clear when the proverbial last straw will fall, or what that straw will be.”

Spy, oligarch, warlord — Prigozhin was an unlikely candidate to confirm Havel’s prophecy. But in a way, he did.

Jason Willick: Chances for escalation in Ukraine have gone up

Some observers might be overstating Putin’s weakness — he did suppress the mutiny quickly, after all — but the spectacle has clearly dented his image of control.

Josh Rogin: Prigozhin’s failed gambit is an opportunity for the West

Now that the Kremlin can no longer pretend Wagner is a separate entity, Russian government and defense officials must also be held accountable for Wagner’s worldwide crimes, which include credible allegations of mass murder, torture, rape and other atrocities.

Megan McArdle: Turmoil in Russia shows the fragility of illiberalism

Nominally, Putin controls a massive army, a substantial police force and a population that returned him to office in 2018 with a resounding 77 percent of the vote. But when push came to shove, those same folks were indifferent between him and a murderous warlord — or, at least, didn’t care enough about the distinction to risk getting shot. Putin survived, but the risk to his regime has risen now that it is clear how little actual support he has.

The overall tone: Putin did not fight the loon Prigozhin but found a peaceful solution. This shows that he is weak.

This bears a question. If eight columnists at one paper come to the very same (but false) conclusion, just issued in different words, why hire and pay all eight of them? Clearly, one would suffice.

Oh, that would show a lack diversity? The religious believe in individualism where all humans must differ – but for the opinions they are allowed to espouse?

Posted by b on June 27, 2023 at 15:43 UTC | Permalink

Rap Fans React to The Cult- She Sells Sanctuary REACTION

Having participated in the 2019 Hong Kong riots, can I still go to mainland China?

Use of your HK residency card might cause some problems for you. You will not have the same kind of treatment that you have grown accustomed to.

Oh, of course, the Chinese will smile and be so very polite. But, a “black mark” is a interruption of normal process, and will require an override by upper management.

Of course you can apply for a visa.

[1] If you are denied that visa, accept that reality. That reality is one of a perpetual “outsider” that will not be given the chance for redemption. If so, then you fucked up BIG TIME. Nothing worse than “missing the bus” for the global future.

[2] If you are granted that visa, you must accept the reality that you will be monitored absolutely. The duration of the monitoring will be at least ten years, and if you apply for work, there will be limitations on your applications. Certainly the housekeeping, and janitorial professions will probably be open to you, but forget about any skilled positions.

You made a very BIG and BAD MISTAKE.

But there’s always hope for redemption. If you can prove that you are reformed, you have a chance.

Finally…

If you do enter China, and you decide to break a law, or participate in NED sponsored color revolution activities, your fate will sealed (and very horrible). Ask the two-timers from HK that participated in the Shanghai protest last year. They will never leave China.

Don’t be like them.

FIRST REACTION! Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music SHOCKED! THEY WHITE?

How can I raise a bilingual baby that speaks both Chinese and English?

Answered by MM. -MM

I have a young daughter in Kindergarten.

I speak English to her.
My wife speaks Chinese to her.

She speaks fluent Baby-Chinese, and completely understands my English. However, the only time that she uses English is when she is MAD. When she is angry, that is when she spouts off in English. And lordy, it’s a sight to behold.

At home, she watches a mix of Chinese and English age-appropriate shows. And she attends Kindergarten, Dance, and boxing classes all in Chinese.

Yes. She is absolutely bilingual.

Jay Chou – Fearless Official Music Video|Reaction

What is your opinion on China’s more militarized coast guard?

Starting last night and into today, Beidu is reporting that China has laid out defined rules on violation of Chinese air space and sea lanes. No longer will China issue a verbal warning to planes to leave, or for ships to exit.

They now are authorized to fire weapons with the intent to kill and destroy the intruder(s).

My opinion is that…

This follows the North Korean model of engagement. Which is why the United States avoids flying into to North Korea, but happily pushes into China’s.
This is a direct result of [1] the Canadian / USA naval transit in the Taiwan strait, and [2] the Spy Plane violations of air space. Now, if those events were to reoccur, there would be two sunk Naval vessels, and one destroyed spy plane.
Never the less, the rules are going to be violated by the United States. The American “leadership” are just itching for a war. Like I have repeatedly stated, “stupid beyond comprehension”.
People are going to die. No way to avoid this result.

WOW!| FIRST TIME HEARING Tears For Fears – Sowing The Seed Of Love REACTION

How serious is Western propaganda against China compare to China‘s propaganda?

Western media and political propaganda works very much to China’s advantage.

Chinese strategy ever since the time of Sun Tzu is based on deception, and namely on making the enemy underestimate China.

This means that the more the west thinks that they are ahead of China, the more they underestimate China, and the more China hides its true strength, the better it is for China.

This means that if the Americans think that they will defeat China in the end because of American exceptionalism, and because the US is the city on the hill shining the bright light of freedom and democracy, the better it is for China.

This means that in the end, if China strikes, it will strike to kill.

There will not be any of that Russian pussyfooting around in Ukraine in the early stages of the war which Russia did, and which ended in failure.

@ A MASTERPIECE!!! Emotional Reaction to CRANBERRIES – ZOMBIE | Difficult to Get Over This

What are the unexpected and interesting travelling experiences you have had?

Back in 2007 I had gone to Russia. Being an African American woman in braids, I pretty much stand out over there. I even had a police officer ask to see my passport because, well, there’s not a lot of black people there, and those that are there are usually European and African descent.

So we were visiting a type of flea market in Moscow to shop for souvenirs. I only know three or four Russian words, so I did my best to bargain (but it helped to have Russian students in our group translating for us).

This vendor suddenly stared grabbing my hand joyfully and kissing my hand and arm! He was saying something like “krasivaya” or something like that.

He was pointing to my arm and I realized he was enamored with the color of my skin.

One the students (or another vendor helping him, I’m not sure), knew English and translated for me, “He says, “You’re beautiful.”

It dawned on me he had never seen a black woman before.

That actually amused me —- I mean, who knew that, considering all the crap black people have put up with because of our skin color, having dark skin would elicit such a positive response?

@ THIS IS FIRE!!! THE CULT – FIRE WOMAN (REACTION)

Should we congratulate EM Jaishankar for his honesty? He recently said that India is inferior to China in every way.

Yep

Absolutely

main qimg df9a4fac3eb29a74fdfea38a27dc9093

His message was simple

China is too strong for India

It’s a simple message but 90% of Indians won’t agree

They simply won’t admit what Jaishankar admits

India can’t pick fights with China

Stupid to say India is exactly like China

That’s coping and it’s embarrassing

Stupider to say China manipulates it’s GDP and in reality it’s much smaller

That’s worse coping and it’s even more embarrassing

Jaishankar simply gave a dose of reality

That China is impossible to take on today by India in any sphere

Education, Technology, Diplomacy, War, Economy, Industry — They dominate in every one of these over us.

Nothing embarrassing here

China once was exactly like this compared to the US

They saw the US as advanced and ahead and decided to build themselves and develop themselves to reach that goal

We should do the same

Jaishankar did

Others?

Nope

The Average lunkhead still thinks somehow India is a superpower and that India can do this and that and Modiji is a god in disguise

Just read Quora answers and see how many people even acknowledge China is ahead of India without a “But…”

The Realist says

China is way ahead of India

India must slog and slog and stop lying, see their weaknesses and identify them and rectify them

How many Realists do you see?

Every one adds their own “BUT” that includes Tiananmen Square and a bunch of lies about the CPC gleaned from Western media

Jaishankar is a realist and that’s good

THIS WAS SO GOOD!.| FIRST TIME HEARING Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World REACTION

Have you ever purchased a home from an owner who left their belongings behind?

My parents built a cottage on Loon Lake in Ontario in 1965, Mum and I spent many happy summers there while Dad came up on weekends. Mum died in 1983 at age 60. Dad couldn’t stand going there anymore because “there was too much of Mum in it” so he sold it (with my knowledge and blessing) in 1986 fully furnished to include dishes, linens, two boats – everything. Apparently this is quite normal in that marketplace and situation.

Fast-forward to 2004; I took my wife and four sons to a rental cottage a couple lakes away. We took a boat trip to show the boys where I grew up. Fortunately the owner was there so we moved the boat over toward the boathouse (both boats were still there) where I turned off our boat and said, “My parents built this cottage when I was 10 years old.” His immediate response was, “Oh, you’re a Kuhs!” I was amazed. Not only were he and his wife the purchasers but they had owned the cottage – still named Cry of the Loon – for 17 years and he came up with our fairly odd name so quickly. They gave us the “grand tour”, Mum’s cottage was over 90% unchanged from the last day I saw it over 20 years before. Not a dry eye in the house!

We have lived on the upper Chesapeake Bay for 35 years so there’s no animosity.

Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive FIRST TIME HEARING THIS!

What does the U.S. have that China doesn’t to become a superpower? What can China do to surpass the U.S. as a superpower? How long will this take?

China isn’t in a race to be better than the US or to surpass the US.

The Chinese are in a race to become the best version of themselves after being poor and politically divided for so long.

The problem is that when Chinese say this to Americans; US politicians and western politicians tend to think that the Chinese are lying to them, when in fact, the Chinese are not.

This means that the fate and destiny of the US is in the hands of the Americans themselves, not in the hands of the Chinese.

Americans have done great things in the past, and if they work hard and apply themselves, they can do great things again, such as landing men on the moon, and defeating diseases like polio.

To do this, Americans would have to give up some bad habits, and apply themselves the same way the Chinese have in the past forty years.

If the US competed with China this way, the world would become a better place because all of humanity would benefit.

Reaction To “Simple Minds Someone Somewhere In Summertime Live 1983” THE WOLF HUNTERZ Jon and Dolly

How do you interpret Secretary Blinken’s statement on re-establishing dialogue with China?

I don’t. I don’t interpret it at all because it is not sincere, either way. No sooner than Blinken met with Xi Jinping, Biden called Xi a dictator and Blinken quoted more foolishness trying to justify arms sales to Taiwan. The U.S. is not capable or interested in following China’s conditions. There is no sincerity. It is always speaking with a forked tongue out of both side of the mouth with my country. Don’t be surprised. His visit was all an elaborate show on the world stage.

On a positive note, China chewed him a new backside, so I’d say it was a win for China.

WERE SHOOK! | FIRST TIME HEARING Patsy Cline – Crazy REACTION

UPDATED 10:39 AM EDT — Russian Presidential Fleet Plane Enroute to Washington DC – Evacuating Diplomats?

World Hal Turner 27 June 2023

An aircraft from the Russian Presidential fleet is presently on its way from Moscow to Washington, DC. It is now feared this plane is coming to evacuate Russian Diplomats prior to . . . well . . . what __could be__ the start of a war.

As of 6:16 AM Eastern US Time, the aircraft has left air space which is tracked by radar, and is now over the Atlantic Ocean being tracked by Satellite:

No word yet from anyone why this plane is coming to the USA.

The Russian Federation maintains Consular Offices in three locations in the U.S., Washington, DC is its main Embassy. In New York City and in Houston, are Consulate offices.

Main Russian Embassy: 2650 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20007

Consulate New York City: 9 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128

Consulate Houston, TX: 1333 West Loop S Ste 1300, Houston, TX 77027

Folks in an around those cities may wish to take a drive by, and see if there are any obvious signs that staff are evacuating, or if there is dense smoke coming out of a chimney indicating the burning of documents.

BELARUS TO COMBAT ALERT

Belarusian President Lukashenko said that he has given orders to bring the army to full combat readiness against the backdrop of the events in Russia.

“If Russia collapses, we will remain under the rubble, we will all die” he said.

‘The threat of a new global conflict has never been as close as it is today.’“Once again, they are trying to blow up our country, our entire region, to disorient people. Shake up the situation by any means and, under this noise, impose your own rules, establish your own order.

An order in which there will no longer be either our countries or people.”

UPDATE 10:39 AM EDT —

The Russian Foreign Ministry has commented on this plane:

“A Russian plane is on its way to the United States to evacuate diplomats ordered to leave the country by US authorities, Zakharova said in her Telegram channel.According to the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, it is not a question of expulsion, but of restrictions on operations created by Washington.”

@ I DISCOVERED THE BEST SONG EVER! | Ram Jam – Black Betty (REACTION!!!)

All Sources inside Russia Have Gone “Dark” – Largest Submarine Sails with Poseidon Nuclear Torpedo

World Hal Turner 26 June 2023

A very troubling situation has developed inside Russia this morning, Monday, June 26, 2023. All my intel sources have either gone dark or told me they have to go dark immediately. Apparently ANYONE who expressed support for the Prigozhin Rebellion is being rounded-up and/or turned off violently.

More interestingly, Russia’s largest submarine, the “Belgorad” (K-329), set sail from its Arctic port in Severodvinsk, along with a support ship “Akademik Aleksandrov.”

This Support ship is associated with testing the “Poseidon” Intercontinental Nuclear-Powered Nuclear-Armed Autonomous Torpedo.

The sailing of the two vessels, together, plus other signs observed, may indicate that a Poseidon test launch is imminent.

The question becomes, is it a test or will it be live?

The Poseidon torpedo is autonomous. It can be pre-programmed to travel almost anywhere in the world, silently, take up position off a coastline at a depth of 1-2 miles, and wait, undetected and undetectable.

At the pre-programmed time, it can detonate its scalable 100 MEGATON nuclear torpedo, creating a radioactive tsunami that takes out the entire coastline of an adversary. In some areas, the tsunami would come ashore as a 1500 foot tall wave of radioactive water, knocking down entire cities, and leaving them covered in a radioactive flood that would make the area uninhabitable for decades.

The submarine carries SIX such Poseidon torpedos.

It could place one off each coast of the UK, travel across the Atlantic, place one or more off the US East Coast, the travel down to the Gulf of Mexico, place another, and leave the US West Coast to typical Russian submarines.

None of us would have any idea at all that anything was wrong and then, suddenly, BOOM, all of them go off at once. The US and UK would be completely crippled immediately, wiping out NATO.

Bad Company – Rock Steady REACTION

What steps can the US take to protect its research and intellectual property from being stolen by China through civilian research partnerships?

Don’t worry. The US Government and its loyal allies are already doing an absolutely fabulous job of this.

Chinese universities ranked above Oxbridge, Caltech in quality research

Xie Xiaoliang is latest Chinese scientist to give up US citizenship

China overtakes United States on contribution to research in Nature Index

British chair professor joins China’s hypersonic programme

Award-winning Chinese mathematician returns to Peking University from US

Chinese researchers in US ‘eyeing medical teaching jobs at University of Hong Kong’

China leads US in global competition for key emerging technology: study

China trounces U.S. in AI research output and quality

meanwhile back home…

Half of Americans think young people don’t pursue STEM because it is too hard

The Best Reactions to Black Sabbath “War Pigs” Compilation

A world where China is Number One

Kerry Brown’s new book notes folly of projecting Western values and a Manichean worldview onto China’s very different civilization and tradition

by Scott Foster June 28, 2023

The three key things about China we need to keep in mind are that

it is strong, not weak;
it has become a sea power; and
its values are both different from those of the West and not necessarily what Europe and America think they are.

“When we are discussing anything to do with the People’s Republic of China in the contemporary context, therefore, these three factors are good places to start,” writes Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London, in the first chapter of his new book, “China Incorporated: The Politics of a World Where China is Number One.”

The title reminds us of Japan Inc, the words used to describe Japan’s combination of industrial policy and mercantilism since the 1980s; and “Japan as Number One: Lessons for America”, the popular book by Ezra Vogel published in 1999. Brown’s book even has a chapter entitled “The Enigma of Chinese Power,” which echoes Karel Van Wolferen’s “The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation,” published in 1990.

But the book does not explain Chinese industrial and trade policies; it does not tell us what the West can learn from China’s rapid modernization; and it is certainly not about what the writer imagines is the hollow political center of a great economic power.

Rather, Brown examines the more important issue of how Western misunderstanding of Chinese thinking about the role of government and international relations has magnified the problem of dealing with a different civilization that has grown big and strong enough to reject our criticism and push back.

The misunderstanding has historical, cultural and political roots but fundamentally it can be attributed to the universalist, Manichean (good vs evil) worldview of what Brown refers to as the Enlightenment West – and the projection of that attitude onto a civilization that doesn’t share the same history.

“The distinctiveness of the intellectual and cultural history of inhabitants of the space now occupied by the People’s Republic of China is undeniable,” Brown writes. “In terms of language, modes of governance, economic behavior, and fundamental view about how the world operates and how society should be shaped, the Chinese tradition is a long, complex and sometimes (but not always) contrasting one to that which has created the Europe and North America of today.”

He continues, “The Western European proclivity has been to maintain the conviction, at least until recent decades, that there is a final, truthful, unifying vision of the world.”

On the other hand,

In the Chinese world where a notion of harmony in the abstract was privileged, the focus was on accepting different kinds of views and convictions for different spaces and occasions….

A syncretic worldview is the result – one that in the twenty-first century continues to puzzle and fascinate because of the ability of modern Chinese to place capitalism next to socialism while seeming under Xi Jinping to be proud of Confucianism as well as having as many as 200 million Buddhists in various sects and about half that number of Christians.

That description runs head on into democratically elected politicians’ abhorrence of one-party dictatorship and American alarm over perceived or potential subversion by Confucius Institutes, Huawei or any other Chinese organization under the sway of the Communist Party.

Brown does not dwell on the nature of the Communist Party, but points out that Confucius Institutes have often been their own worst enemies and that Huawei, due to its leading position in the telecommunications industry and the legal environment in which it operates, will never be free of suspicion.

After all, China’s National Intelligence Law stipulates that “all organizations and citizens shall support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with the law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.”

Combined with the rapid growth of its military power, including the ever-longer reach of its navy, the globe-spanning infrastructure investments of the Belt and Road Initiative, allegations of hacking and the hot-button issues of the South China Sea, Taiwan and Xinjiang, this makes China for “a large number of American and European politicians … not just a problem, but the problem.”

The problem with this problem is its ambiguity. The Chinese military has never used more than a fraction of its power. No clear evidence of surveillance via Chinese telecom equipment has been publicly provided. The motives and capabilities are there, but there is no smoking gun.

As for the Belt and Road, which critics regard as a combination of debt-trap diplomacy and strategic threat, Brown asks, “How much longer do we have to wait till we see Beijing’s hand fully exposed? What if, in the end, it really was all mainly commercial?”

For centuries, the West has been working to remake the world in its own image. Its Enlightenment mind finds it logical to conclude that the Chinese are trying to do the same, regardless of China’s doctrine of non-interference in the affairs of other countries (rejected as duplicitous on the one hand and as unprincipled support for dictators on the other) and its cultural exclusiveness.

Western military and national security officials default to the worst-case scenario, while many politicians favor a simple narrative of evil communists oppressing the good Chinese people. But, as Brown writes, “one thing stands out – the complexity of the issues China poses, just being itself, and doing the kinds of things it does as an actor of its size and reach.

“Complexity alone is a vast problem, and one the Enlightenment West in particular, with its love of orderly frameworks and all-embracing tidy theories, clearly abhors. China upsets the epistemology of the West – it violates notions of universalism being universal.”

If economic prosperity either is contingent on the existence of multi-party government and Western style rule of law or inevitably brings these in its wake, this leads to:

China explanation number one – We are right; China is undertaking a huge con, and
China explanation number two – China has to democratize.

Otherwise, China will collapse. But it hasn’t collapsed since Gordon Chang’s book “The Coming Collapse of China” was published in 2001 and Brown now doesn’t expect it to collapse anytime soon. Rather, within a decade, “the world’s largest economy could well be an Asian country under a Communist government.”

If and when that happens, the West is likely to be a sore loser, angry and frustrated. In fact, it already is doing everything it can to slow China down and prevent that outcome.

At the same time, China

is certainly more frustrated and irritated than ever before at the outside world. This has reached such a level of intensity that there has been a formal policy response: “Dual Circulation” – a strategy in many Chinese people’s eyes to simply get whingeing, moaning, sore losing Westerners with their toxic social media, their crazy political systems, their moralizing and ignorance and arrogance, off China’s back.

Dual Circulation is an economic policy that puts priority on domestic consumption (internal circulation) while remaining open to foreign trade and investment (external circulation). Dependence on exports is to be reduced while technological independence is achieved through innovation. It is an answer to Western sanctions and protectionism, a sort of reverse decoupling or de-risking that is less ideological and more pragmatic.

Brown hopes that pragmatism will also take hold in the West. He states that, “Whether we embrace or have distaste toward China as it is politically today, we have no choice but to recognize that it is there and that it is as it is. We will not all wake up tomorrow, like protagonists in some fantasy film, and find China is no longer there, or that it has magically transformed to become somewhere we actually like and feel close to. We can console ourselves with the associated thought that exactly the same in reverse applies to China.”

There is a lot more to this book, which is informed by the author’s 30 years’ experience of life in China, where he has worked in education, in business and as a diplomat. He is the author of more than 20 books on China.

WHO DEY!!.. Guns N Roses Welcome – To The Jungle | FIRST TIME HEARING REACTION

China is ready to turn the tables on the US

32 Billion Chip Orders Canceled, Chinese Enterprise Installs First Domestic Lithography Machine!

The Chinese chip market is undergoing a transformation, and under US chip restriction rules, China has embarked on a self-sufficient development path. Not only has it set a goal of achieving a 70% self-sufficiency rate in chips and producing more chips domestically, but Shanghai Microelectronics is also increasing its research and development of lithography machines, and Chinese enterprises have moved in the first domestically-produced lithography machine.

China is the world’s largest chip market and spends a considerable amount on imports in the field of integrated circuits each year, especially for high-end chips imported to meet the needs of a range of consumer electronics products such as smartphones, computers, and tablets.

Chinese chip manufacturer SMIC is vigorously expanding its 12-inch wafer capacity for mature chips and significantly increasing its 28 nanometers chip shipments since China has its own domestically produced chips, its dependence on imported chips is not as great.

In the first quarter of this year China’s Imports of integrated circuits totaled 108 billion pieces a year on year, a decrease of 22.9 percent equivalent to a reduction of 32 billion chip imports from last year, a total of 32 billion chip orders were canceled, making it harder for overseas chip Giants to make big profits, more signs indicate that China’s chip industry’s self-sufficiency ability is constantly improving in the first quarter of this year.

In the 1st quarter of this year Chinese Enterprises moved in the first domestically produced lithography machine the advanced packaging lithography machine from Shanghai microelectronics was moved in by Chinese Enterprise conscience for a production line project.

Shanghai microelectronics is the only company in China that has mastered the production of complete lithography machines in the front-end lithography machine field.

Shanghai microelectronics has excellent capabilities and can produce 2.5 D to 3D Advanced packaging lithography machines perhaps many people do not know that there is a difference between front end and back end lithography machines.

The front end and back end lithography machines are two different steps in the semiconductor chip manufacturing process. Front-end lithography machines are mainly used to make lithographic masks in the chip manufacturing process that is to project the design chip patterns onto the Silicon wafer to form a pattern. While the back-end lithography machines are used to etch the patterns on the Silicon wafer to form the chip circuit component.

Front-end lithography machines usually require higher resolution and precision while back-end lithography machines require higher processing speed and stronger etching ability.

Relatively speaking the manufacturing difficulty of front-end lithography machines is greater, in that they require High Precision Optical systems, Precision mechanical systems and high stability control systems and require knowledge in multiple disciplines such as physics, Optics and Mechanics.

ASML can achieve high-end processes of five nanometers and below in the front-end lithography machine field and the most advanced EUV lithography machines are in short supply. The mass-produced process of domestic lithography machines in the front-end field is 90 nanometers and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the future.

The domestically produced lithography machine moved in by Chinese Enterprises belongs to the back end and is mainly used to meet the demand for chip Packaging.

Nevertheless advanced packaging is still of great significance for domestic chips this is because advanced packaging technology can improve chip performance power consumption and reliability while also reducing chip size and cost.

The use of advanced packaging technology can enhance the market competitiveness of chips attract more customers and partners and promote the development of China’s domestic chip industry therefore doing well in advanced packaging is of great significance for the development of domestic chips.

The frequent restrictions on Chinese Chips by the United States will only accelerate China’s self-sufficiency. China canceled 32 billion chip Imports and Chinese Enterprises moved in the first domestically produced lithography machine which is the best proof some foreign media have stated that Bill Gates is right.

Bill Gates has long said that the United States can never stop China from having powerful chips and restrictions will only make China self-sufficient while the United States will also lose many high-paying jobs.

The fact is indeed as Bill Gates said China’s chip industry shows signs of self-sufficiency while the U.S technology industry laid off 130 000 people from January to may this year with more than 410 000 layoffs nationwide, if the United States does not stop its restrictive measures it will only affect the profits of U.S companies and the number of layoffs will continue to swell.

Last week:

Go China go!

Baby Metal- Catch Me If You Can || Goth Reacts

This chip genius returned to China from the U.S. and created the “Starlight China Core Project!”

In today’s Information age the importance of chips is beyond doubt but as the crystallization of the world’s top technology the technical difficulty of Chip research and development is also very high.

China started late in the field of chips and many core Technologies and underlying Technologies are in the hands of the United States.

If China wants to independently develop chips it must start from the basics in addition to the difficulty of research and development the supply chain of the chip industry is also a problem just because chip manufacturing requires multiple steps such as photolithography etching cleaning and precipitation more than 10 kinds of semiconductor equipment are needed as well as chip design chip packaging and testing and other links.

The US just wants to slow down the development of Chinese Chips by excluding China from the world supply chain it’s just that this move by the United States is undoubtedly an invalid behavior and it will only lead to Market chaos in the semiconductor industry.

In any case if you want to develop Chinese Chips you need to rely on Independent research and development only by mastering the core technology can you avoid being stuck.

Many Enterprises and talents in China have devoted themselves to the field of chips and have made many important progress for the development of chips in China among them Deng Han and his Starlight China chip project are an important part of the history of China’s chip development.

It can even be said that China’s first self-developed chip came from Deng jonghan.

The young genius Deng jonghan left the US and returned to China. Deng Han who was born in 1968 not only founded vimicro group but also is an academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and the commander-in-chief of the Starlight China chip project.

He has contributed a lot to the development of China’s chips and developed China’s first chip with independent property rights.

Since he was a teenager Deng Han has been full of curiosity an exploratory Spirit towards the world after he was admitted to the Department of Earth and space science at the University of Science and Technology of China Deng Han’s Talent was gradually discovered when he was in college Deng Han also pointed out the professor’s thinking deviation in solving problems and because of this he was favored by the professor and joined the project team after Deng junghan entered the University of Barkley he successively obtained a master’s degree in physics a doctorate in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in economics and management after graduation Deng Han founded an integrated circuit company in the Silicon Valley of the United States

Entrepreneurship was a great success and the market value of the company he founded once reached 115 million U.S dollars however at the invitation of chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology Deng Han resolutely gave up his company in the United States and returned to China to engage in chip research and development.

After returning to China Deng Han founded vimicro and started the Starlight China chip project officially entering the field of Chip research and development the Prelude to the rise of China’s chips has begun during the chip research and development process Deng Han’s conditions were very difficult and he could only conduct research and development in the warehouse and once faced the risk of capital chain rupture but in the face of many difficulties Deng jonghan did not give up lightly but faced up to the difficulties and solved one problem after another.

On March 11 2001 under the unremitting efforts of Deng Han and his R D team vimicro launched China’s first chip with independent property rights Ching Guang number one Starlight number one is a multimedia chip and it is also a large-scale integrated circuit chip.

After that vimicro launched the Starlight series chips into the market and successfully listed them in the United States which made the reputation of Chinese Chips and opened the Prelude to the rise of Chinese Chips himself became an academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and a foreign academician of the American Academy of engineering it is not difficult to see from this information that Deng Han has provided a major boost to the rise of China’s chips.

With the development of time many top Chinese technology companies have entered the chip track one after another according to statistics from 2019 to the present the total of 40 000 companies in China have entered the chip related field it can be said that China’s chips are developing flourish and gradually rise with the support of national policies and the large investment of some top companies Chinese Chips have gradually made major breakthroughs in many fields such as huawei’s self-developed Korean chips and EDA industrial software which are also at the advanced level in the world.

Shanghai microelectronics has gradually come to the Forefront of the world and semiconductor Fields such as etching machines and lithography machines and can reach the top five in the world in terms of market share now China’s chip industry can be said to be flourishing and the entire chip industry chain has a Chinese layout but China should always keep in mind that it was Deng Han and his Starlight China chip project that opened the Prelude to the rise of China’s chips.

SQUEEZE – Tempted (By The Fruit Of Another) REACTION

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

I was going to a conference in Las Vegas to attend a huge convention. Hotel rooms were scarce, but I had made my reservations far in advance.

I got to the hotel after midnight after a long flight, and had just unpacked and was about to get ready for bed when the door opened. A weary-eyed man glared at me and showed me his room assignment. Same as mine. We had been double-booked by accident.

The man got on the room phone and started screaming at the assistant manager, demanding that he be given the room. The intruder then gave the phone to me, and the manager asked if I minded being moved. I did, of course, but given the white-hot rage of my accidental roommate, I said gently, “I understand. These things happen. I’ll take another room.”

I repacked my clothes and soon the manager arrived, full of apologies, and took my bag. The man who had “won” the room smiled triumphantly.

And then the manager took me to one of the hotel’s biggest suites, which had four bedrooms, a kitchen stocked with liquor and fruit, and a killer view of Vegas. It was worthy of Sinatra or Elvis, and it was all mine for the week-long stay, at the same price as the standard room I booked, the manager said.

I was dazzled. When I asked the manager why I was being given such a glorious upgrade, he explained that it was the only room left in the hotel. He had to make a quick decision as to who would get it, “and lady,” he said, “you were the nice one.”

The 70’s were a VIBE! 💃🏽🕺🏽| KC and the Sunshine Band – I’m Your Boogie Man [REACTION!]

What have you found on the Internet today that made you smile?

I’ve always had this almost irrational dislike for influencers. They’re just about the most self-obsessed, vain, terrible and entitled crowd of creatures alive on this earth. So whenever one of them gets his or her comeuppance, I’m quite pleased.

Apparently there’s some law where if someone steals just a small amount, you get a warning of a ‘slap on the wrist’ style of punishment. And that’s all they do to you. Whereas if someone steals a larger amount of value, a store can actually press charges and get the thief in serious trouble. Hence the store waited, patiently, as they wrote down all the things the little kleptomaniac was taking. Compiled a nice, neat, comprehensive list of all items stolen over the years…

…and called the cops. Who sent her to jail. These are the same entitled influencers who demand to eat at a discount in restaurants “because they will give a shout out on their channel” and act offended when the bill comes in and they have to pay the full amount. Nothing puts a smile on my face quicker than seeing such a person get arrested.

Rainbow “Gates of Babylon” REACTION & ANALYSIS by Vocal Coach / Opera Singer

Have you ever lost any respect for someone instantly?

Are you ready to hear a story about a friend I had for 32 years and would have done anything for, whom I met when I was 5 years old?

When I was about 5 I was walking around the corner of my street, it was only 3 houses down, to my friend mark’s house which was right after the culdesac immediately after the corner. As the further of the two end houses came into view, in the yard I saw a boy my age getting beat up by a slightly older boy, so I immediately ran to defend the boy. Next thing I knew, I was on my back on the asphalt with the older boy on top of me strangling me and bashing the back of my head against the asphalt. I remember the mother of the boy I tried to save yelling and the kid beating the crap out of me ran off.

next I’m scream crying as I run to my house and my mom sees the blood on the back of my head and we head over to the house of who beat me up and my mom verbally bitch slapped that woman and her kid. Never had any issues with him again.

anyway, the boy I tried to save became my best friend. As time went on, I started to notice that his mother was awful to him, constantly telling him “why can’t you be more like Joey?” and every time I went over there, his mom always made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with Peter Pan peanut butter and a glass of milk, always. I still love that peanut butter.

A short time later, my friend started calling me asking “Joey, can you please come over to my house and ask my mom for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?” my friend did this because his mom would punish him by not feeding him when he got in trouble and my friend knew that his mom would always feed me, and so I would give my friend the sandwich and milk so he could eat.

This is just the beginning of the absolute madness that was this kid’s life.

His mom hated him and he knew it and she constantly told him that she wished he was like me, I was super polite and calm because I had to be or I got my butt whooped at my house. For our entire childhood I was always trying to suggest to my friend how he might want to try behaving because I thought that if he started acting like me, his mom wouldn’t hate him so much… my friend never listened and, in fact, he always did the opposite of what I suggested and he would cause chaos and get in trouble that I would always be there to help him out of.

I was always there for him, failed relationships, finding out that his mom was his adopted mom, when his real mom died from cancer, when he was homeless after becoming a methhead, the birth of his daughter, when the mother of his daughter left them… I was there for every single trauma he suffered, I was there for him…

I had been married 12 years and my son had been showing symptoms of autism and my then wife couldn’t handle that her son had autism so she left our boys and I and for the first time, I desperately needed a friend.

My friend ignored my phone calls for almost two months before he finally answered his phone and agreed to meet me so I could talk to him.

when I get to my friend’s girlfriend’s apartment, he was out of work and living with his girlfriend, I was devastated still and after I walked into the apartment and asked my friend what he has been doing that was so important he couldn’t answer my phone calls…

my friend said “I’m glad your life is falling apart, because now we are even.” He then walked outside on the porch to smoke and closed the glass door behind him.

I was shocked. I looked at his girlfriend who was right there when he said it and I asked “did he just say I’m glad your life is falling apart because now we are even?”

his girlfriend, who was also shocked said “yeah” after staring at me, or through me for a few seconds.

at this moment my friend was on his phone outside and that’s when I realized, that for my entire life, the friend who I was always trying to get back on his feet, the guy who I believed had an awesome potential, the guy I tried to train to become a martial arts instructor at my school but he quit before he became a black belt and he’d been trying to get me to quit, this entire time he had been hoping that my life had gone wrong because he was so envious of what I had… turns out, what my friend was doing on his phone was messaging my soon to be ex wife and trying to hook up with her…

for the entire 32 years I knew him, I never once wished harm or misfortune, in fact, this is the moment I realized that I’ve never once wished ill on anyone, despite the explosive drunken abuse I suffered from my family… I always wished that they would get better and stop destroying their lives and everyone’s lives around them. It was this moment that I have ever felt true hatred towards someone, this was the first time that I felt like if I ever see him again, I will beat his face in until he is mush.

I still wish him the best, I would never wish harm upon someone, but to this day, I know that if I see him, I won’t be able to stop myself…

I hope that answers your question… it was rough writing this, it brought up some seriously painful feelings. I’m getting tears…

Singer Reacts to BABYMETAL – Gimme chocolate!! (OFFICIAL) (ギミチョコ) FIRST TIME

Netanyahu set to visit China next month, likely to annoy Biden

Biden has made clear he won’t invite Israel’s premier in the near future.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit China next month, signaling growing impatience with Washington, as Beijing increasingly throws its weight around in the region.

While there, the premier is slated to meet with President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders. Advanced contacts have been held in recent days between the two leaders’ offices to arrange the visit.

No dates for the trip were given and no plans for a visit have been announced by Jerusalem or Beijing. The Prime Minister’s Office said it had “no comment at present” when contacted. The Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.

Netanyahu is seeking some kind of assurance from Chinese, sort of an unwritten agreement on the similar lines as Russia with which Israel has strategic understanding involving Iran.

Israel does not want China or North Korea sell Nukes to Iran. It is Israel’s only and a prime concern because Israel is known as one bomb country.

But I think Iran should have nukes, this way there would be peace in the middle east. As it is, Israel has several (nukes) warheads of its own. Deterrence is the name of the game.

AC/DC – Highway to Hell – (REACTION!)🤟🏽🔥WE CAN’T BELIEVE IT WAS THEM THE WHOLE TIME‼️

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

Back in 1990, I was a Sales manager at a car dealership and was one of the winners of a sales contest for Sales Managers of all the dealers of that make in the Boston District. The bar was pretty low to win this contest and there was no big payoff for winning because I guess they just wanted to show some recognition and get the Sales Managers together to socialize, build communication, and cooperation between the dealerships which were located all over New England.

So we got to spend one night in a nice hotel in Boston, had a nice meal, and everyone received some recognition during the after dinner ceremonies.

But then came the after dinner fun. They gave us about two hours for a “Vegas Night”. Tables were set up just like in a casino: Blackjack tables, Roulette tables, and one Craps table.

The rules were they gave each of us $200 in chips that we could use to make bets. Whatever amount of chips that we had left at the end would be cashed in for real money.

Now, In the few years previous to that night, I had been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City a few times and found that Craps was my favorite game. I had played it enough and studied it enough that I was very familiar with the odds for every bet on the table and knew how to play the game.

So as soon as I got my $200, I headed for the craps table. Surprisingly, I was the only one who went to the Craps table.

And then, even more surprisingly, the person who was in charge of the tables came over and said to me and the dealers, “Just to make things simpler, we’ll pay out 2 to 1 on all the numbers bets.”

I don’t know why he said that. Maybe the dealers were inexperienced and he was trying to make it easier for them so they wouldn’t have to try to figure out the different odds for the different numbers, or maybe he figured that there was only one player at the table so not much damage could be done.

But as soon as he said that, I knew what he meant . . . and bells went off in my head . . . I knew immediately what I was going to do!

A Numbers bet is where you put a bet on one of the numbers: 4–5–6–8–9–10. You are betting that when the dice are rolled, they are going to add up to the number you bet on before they total 7. If the dice total 7, you lose. Different numbers normally pay different odds.

For instance, the 6 and the 8 have the best odds of coming up, but they normally pay the lowest odds because of that. Normally if you make a $6 bet on the 6 or 8, and you win, you would win $7.

What happened here was they changed the payout on that very same bet to $12. . . . Which drastically changed the odds in my favor. All I had to was make a pass line bet, roll the dice, then keep betting on the 6 and 8. The odds were in my favor!

What I didn’t do was say anything out loud. I didn’t want anyone rethinking that decision to change the odds.

So I started winning right away. But it didn’t look like much at first because I started with just $200. But as the money started coming in, I slowly raised my bets and the money started coming in faster.

After awhile, I was still the only player on the table when one of the other Sales Managers walked up and stood next to me at the table. I had previously talked to this guy a few times on the phone at work but didn’t really know him other than that. And then he decided to be chatty. He was started asking questions like, “Do you know how to play this game? I don’t know anything about it. Can you teach me how to play?”

Well, the last thing I needed right then was someone disturbing my concentration on the game. I knew that I only had a limited amount of time to take advantage of this unexpected loophole.

So I turned to him and said, “Listen, put your chips right up here and do exactly what I tell you to do. Don’t ask any questions. Just do it. I’ll explain it all to you later.”

He was kind of taken aback at that and I could see the confusion on his face while he was contemplating what I had just said . . . but then he said, “Okay”.

So I continued doing what I had been doing and started telling him where to place his bets, how much (how many chips) to bet, and what to say to the dealer when he placed a bet. He caught on pretty quick and followed my instructions very well, so I wasn’t slowed down too much, and he started getting more excited when he saw the money starting to roll in.

When the time was up, almost all of the players who played the other games were broke. They had lost their seed money. Very few players had any money left at all.

We were the big winners!

I won just over $3000 and my new best friend won just over $1500. Needless to say, he was ecstatic!

The funniest part was when other Sales Managers that he knew came over and asked him how he did it. His answer was, “I don’t know! All I did was do what he told me to do!”

It was a fun night!

I am so mad I haven’t heard this tribute until now: AC/DC – Back In Black (Official Video)

Where did the term “money laundering” come from?

From laundromats.

A 1920s laundromat

Back in 1920s, gangsters needed some way of showing their money came from legitimate sources. The solution was to invest into laundromats and show them as highly profitable enterprises. The bookeeping standards of the day made it quite easy to show 127 customers used their facilities in a single night, even though they only had 1 paying customer at the time. I will hazard a guess and say the term “money laundering” probably started as a joke.

The term stuck and now the process of showing illicit profits as coming from legitimate business is called “laundering money”.

I legitly cried😭| FIRST TIME HEARING LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – NESSUN DORMA REACTION

Watching these reactions, and reading the text really underlines THE MESSAGE.

What things should I never do?

Never (ever) touch someone’s laptop screen with your fingertip.
Never do this with someone’s book.

Please use bookmarks. Please.

Never take too much interest in someone else’s life, mind your own business.
Never believe on these types of Instagram quotes, “People having extraordinary creativity tend to have less sleep at night.” You’ll have less capacity to learn, you need deep sleep for deep insights.
Inspiration isn’t imitation. Don’t be a sheep, just because someone else is doing it, doesn’t mean it works for you.
“Never deduce that attraction is love.”
Never do something stupid just to fulfill your desire, know difference between desire and dream.
Don’t speak bitter words when you are angry, regret is unbearable.
Don’t rush. Never. If you’re late for office or college, it will make difference of a few seconds at most. Your life is far more valuable.

WHAT A SHOW!! Mötley Crüe – Home Sweet Home REACTION

What are some unknown psychological tricks?

Here are a few psychological tricks that you may find interesting:

1. The Power of Mirroring: Mirroring someone’s body language, gestures, and tone of voice can create a sense of rapport and connection. It can make the other person feel more comfortable and receptive towards you.

2. The Contrast Principle: When presenting options, strategically place a less desirable option before the one you want the person to choose. By comparison, the preferred choice will appear more attractive.

3. The Zeigarnik Effect: This effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. If you want someone to remember something, provide incomplete information or leave a task unfinished.

4. The Foot-in-the-Door Technique: Start with a small request and once the person agrees, follow up with a larger request. People tend to be more likely to comply with the second request if they have already agreed to the first one.

5. The Anchoring Effect: When making a negotiation or presenting a price, start with a higher number to anchor the person’s perception. Subsequently, any lower numbers will appear more reasonable and favorable.

6. The Halo Effect: People tend to associate positive qualities with someone who possesses one admirable trait. For example, if a person is physically attractive, others may assume they are also intelligent or kind.

7. The Primacy and Recency Effect: People tend to remember the first and last items in a list more accurately than those in the middle. When giving a presentation or conveying important information, place key points at the beginning and end for better retention.

8. The Ben Franklin Effect: Ask someone for a small favor or advice. This can create a sense of investment and liking, as people tend to rationalize their actions by thinking they must like the person they helped.

9. The Scarcity Principle: Highlighting limited availability or scarcity of a product or opportunity can increase its perceived value and desirability. People tend to place higher importance on items that are rare or in short supply.

10. The Power of Framing: The way information is presented or framed can significantly influence perception and decision-making. Presenting the same information in a positive or negative light can elicit different responses.

Use these psychological tricks responsibly and ethically, focusing on building positive relationships and improving communication.

@ Dio “Don’t Talk To Strangers” REACTION & ANALYSIS by Vocal Coach / Opera Singer

“I can’t get enough Ronnie James Dio. I hereby further profess that he is my vocal crush, and we’re digging into your next highest requested song “Don’t Talk To Strangers.” This is by far one of my favorite songs of all time. Its message, the vocal runs and how flawlessly Dio brings out that emotion is insanely captivating. He is a god.”

Can the US become a manufacturing power again, or is that just an unrealistic dream?

At the height of the United States being a “Manufacturing Giant”, there were clusters of industrial centers scattered throughout America. This is a fact that most Americans know, but few others understand. The United States was NEVER a homogenized Manufacturing Colossus. Instead, it was a nation that contained “manufacturing areas”.

A “Manufacturing Area” had the following characteristics…

Easy access to raw materials (Rail, roads, and canal, or ports)
Uninterrupted supply of electricity.
Access to water (to cool the machinery)

As these “Manufacturing Areas” evolved, they developed…

A series of suppliers (small industries) that served the major factories.
Housing for the workers.
A network of outlying communities.

Over time, These “Manufacturing Areas” would come and go as technology advanced. For instance, one of the first “Manufacturing Areas” was the Blackstone Valley in Massachusetts. They were big on Buggy Whips, and Corset Hoops. The canals in the Blackstone Valley delivered the products to the ports up and down the New England coastline for distribution to the population centers.

For our purposes, we will omit Blackstone Valley, and instead concentrate in the most recent clusters of “Manufacturing Areas” in the United States. These clusters are all that remains of the industrial might that the United States once was. These clusters were active from the 1930’s through to the 1970’s, with some migratory egress lasting into the 1990’s to places such as “Silicon Valley” and “Industrial Parks” located in the Southeast states.

At that time, the United States had (perhaps) five major “Manufacturing Areas”, and around twenty or so smaller “Manufacturing Areas”. They are all gone now.

The video tours of these areas are very telling…

Video tour of Pine Bluff AR (Clothing Hub) found HERE

.Video tour of the supporting towns surrounding Pine Bluff found HERE.Video tour of Jackson, MS (Household and commercial goods) found HERE.Video tour of Gary, IN (Automobile, heavy Industry) found HERE.Video tour of Chester PA (General goods, minor industry) found HERE.Video tour of California in 2023 (Western migration of Industry) found HEREVideo tour of Shreveport, LA (Oil, and light manufacturing) found HEREVideo tour of Pennsylvania (Steel and hard Industry) found HEREVideo tour of Kenningston PA (steel and manufacturing) found HEREVideo tour of Pasadena CA (High Tech Hub) found HEREVideo Tour of Steubenville OH (steel, automotive, and household) found HERE

I can provide many other videos. You take a camera and film yourself driving through these “Manufacturing Areas”. There are many of them, and they all look the same. Zombie empty cities. Ruined buildings, decayed infrastructure, crime, drugs, and many, many abandoned shopping carts.

The very few remaining “Manufacturing Areas” in the United States are very well dispersed. They are in these stand alone mini-clusters called “Industrial Parks”. Most American Industrial Parks house from five to up to twenty companies, and typically consist of an office building and a warehouse. Of those that provide any kinds of manufacturing, they tend to be primarily final assembly stations with people who unpack 40′GP shipping containers, re-box foreign-made items, and slap a “Made in the USA” sticker on them.

For the United States to regain ANY kind of major manufacturing role, it must focus on the basics.

Infrastructure. Infrastructure. Infrastructure.
laws and regulations that make it easy to create a supplier base to support manufacturing.
An educational system that encourages talented, and hard-working personnel.
A society that praises merit, fidelity, and an attention to detail.

I argue that of what remains in the United States today, the United States has a long, long way to go towards regaining it’s long lost industrial base. Do not be fooled by charts and figures that say otherwise. Anyone can lie and create bogus nonsensical charts and figures. Go outside yourself and look around.

American industry is dead.

What remains are either “soft industries” such as “Customer Service stations”, “Computer software coding centers”, or a handful of military and high-tech specialists. These types of industry are not providing “much needed” products and services to the United States domestic requirements.

Compared to China…

There is no comparison. China (which is large enough to house five complete United States inside of it) has over 2000 “Manufacturing Areas” supported by an amazing network of perhaps 10,000 smaller communities that provide first and second tier supply. All with everything needed to make, design, ship quality products globally.

So to answer the question; “Can American industry be revived to a point of serious competition against China?”

The answer is YES. But it will require a complete turnover of the American leadership class, a discarding of the American method of governance, a revamp of the American educational system, and a complete rebuilding of America’s infrastructure from the ground up. If the United States were to come to a full and complete screeching halt right now, and focus on this objective, you can see major changes in the “proper direction” with the next twenty years.

Otherwise, forget-about-it.

Ram Jam “Black Betty” Best of Reactions Compilation

Pennsylvania Dutch Brownies

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 (1 ounce) square unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup light molasses
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/8 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 13 x 9-inch metal baking pan; set aside.
In a 4-quart saucepan, melt butter with chocolate over low heat. Remove saucepan from heat. With wire whisk or fork, stir in molasses, then eggs.
With spoon, stir in flour, ginger, cloves, baking soda, salt, 1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon just until blended. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted 2 inches from edge comes out clean.
Meanwhile, in cup, combine remaining 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
Remove pan from oven; immediately sprinkle brownies with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Cool brownies in pan on wire rack at least 2 hours. When cool, cut brownies lengthwise into 3 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 5 pieces. Cut each piece diagonally in half.

Source: Good Housekeeping Christmas Joys – Hearst Books

@ A Masterpiece! Cranberries – Zombie

So many Africans have been “moved”by this song and video. I guess all the wars in Africa really strike home.

U.S./NATO HQ in Kramatorsk Reportedly “Hit” by Russian Missile(s) – Conflicting Claims and Blame

World Hal Turner 28 June 2023

Late yesterday, June 27, 2023, reports began FLOODING out of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, that a Hotel/Restaurant had been brutally hit by “Russian” Missiles, and NUMEROUS American-English Speakers — and troops with American Flag patches — could be heard and seen in the aftermath.

Photos and video proved there was, in fact, a missile strike. Those photos and video also PROVED American troop-type people were hit, some injured, some killed.

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Within an hour, Ukraine publicly claimed that innocent children and “American tourists” were the victims.

“Tourists?” In military uniforms?

In an area 30 or so miles from the active front lines that is being shelled almost daily now, after the loss of Bakhmut??

Then, some damning pictures came out showing the remnants of a missile trail in the sky over the hotel, and worse, missile debris on the ground PROVING the missile was a British Storm Shadow missile. Russians don’t use those . . . .

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This morning, the story has changed quite a bit – TWICE !

First there was a claim that the Ukraine Air Force “accidentally” targeted the hotel. Well, that might certainly be possible and would explain the Storm Shadow missile debris. It would also explain the extensive damage – it could, in fact, have been a Russian missile and then a Ukrainian missile by mistake.

But wait, the story changed yet again.

Word is out this morning that officials are “looking for the people who betrayed the secret meeting taking place, to the Russians.”

Secret meeting?

With Americans and other NATO troops, under arms and in military uniforms?

Inside the war zone of Ukraine?

Pass the peas Marge…

China had banned Google, Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, WhatsApp, Whisper, and pretty much every single major US website. Then made a Chinese knockoff that gives the CCP complete access. Why should anyone defend TikTok?

China has banned nothing in China and in the world.

Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, WhatsApp, Whisper, and pretty much every single major US website refuse to follow the Chinese laws to operate their operations in China, thus they have not been approved by the Chinese laws for these businesses to operate in China.

It is the US who has blocked all the free international media and internet such as the free Russian international media and internet.

As a result, all Americans have been living in their totally isolated, completely censored and lying media. Americans know nothing about the free world, but the US style of democratic nonsense and disinformation.

@ LUCIANO PAVAROTTI sings NESSUN DORMA (Reaction)

The Wagner coup that never was

Today we are reeling from the “coup that wasn’t” that occurred in Russia in Late June 2023.

Wagner rolls back and leave Moscow

In less than 24 hours Wagner have rolled back and left Russia

Prighozin is leaving for BELARUS

Wagner PMC soldiers who didn’t participate in the Mutiny get new MoD contracts

In 24 hours

No Moscow

No Civil War

So like i said ,

Putin was never Prighozins Target

He was BAITED into organizing a march on Russia

He was used by Putin into convincing all hardliners that Shoigu and Gerasimov be eased out and Putin not take the fallout politically

My guess is Surovikin will get overall command

Wagner is part of MoD

Prighozin is regarded traitor by all of Russia

Putin noted which Russians offered resistance and which Russians didn’t and MADE A LIST as a LOYALTY METER

And PUTIN SHOWED THE WEST HOW A POTENTIAL CIVIL WAR CAN BE CHANGED IN A MERE 24 hours

If this was the West, you would have the cities bombed by now

Man of the Hour — LUKASHENKA

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APPLAUSE!!!!

Conveniently there to talk to Prighozin and end the situation

If you tell me the whe thing where Wagner invades , holds a city for 24 hours as people are still rushing to watch the latest movies and malls is logical

It’s not at all logical

Keshto Pat , Ivan Novoselov and Maxim Nesterenko

RESPECT!!!!!

To others especially Indians who believed Putin would be deposed and Prighozin would be moving to Moscow

ITS WHY THOSE 200 YEARS HAPPENED (1757–1947)

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The wackiest thing in history has just unfolded.

12:50 AM EST

So, a few hours ago, I was pretty sure the Russian state was going to utterly collapse, and that the Ukraine would seize Russian territory.

It now appears, by some fantastic twist, that this is actually not going to happen.

I have zero idea how it is possible that Prigozhin had everything lined up to take control of Southern Command, and then was like “ah – nah, I guess I’ll just surrender.”

He could have just been drunk. But he had to have lined this all up with the FSB and the military, and that would have been a very big thing, to do that all in secret, and get that many powerful players on his side.

As of right now, he has stopped the push towards Moscow, and is possibly en route to Belarus.

Just out of nowhere, it was announced that Prigozhin agreed to talks with Lukashenko, President of Belarus, and then hours later it was announced that he was calling the whole thing off.

This is part of the statement from Belarus:

“Evgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of President Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of the armed men of Wagner in Russia and to take further steps to de-escalate tension.” It added that Prigozhin had been offered “an advantageous and acceptable option for resolving the situation, with security guarantees for the Wagner PMC fighters.”

This is still in flux, or whatever, and something could still go wrong, but that is where we are apparently at as of Sunday morning in Russia. Actually, that statement is 12 hours old, at time of writing, but nothing seems to have changed.

Wagner peacefully left the base in Rostov, surrendering control, with the troops going back to the territories of the former Ukraine and Prigozhin going wherever he is going. He should be executed, but I guess he can’t be if he made a deal. I think he will most likely end up dead in the next few months either way.

It really, really, really looked like this was going to turn into a full-on civil war, and the Ukraine war would collapse, and Russia would collapse as a country, breaking into different parts like the US wants it to.

I have no idea how Prigozhin was so competent to organize taking over Southern Command and then just giving up. Something must have went wrong.

The chaos now is over, the borders and airports are back online, the military seems to be totally off the streets in Moscow.

There are going to have to be purges of the FSB and whoever else sided with Prigozhin.

The people who said the whole thing was a staged event are going to claim victory. I don’t really understand what the purpose of faking this would be, but the way it collapsed, and the way none of it made any sense, will allow those theorists to say “see, this was the plan all along!”

How this will affect Russia and the war effort in the longer run, I do not know. I think there should be an increased desire to escalate, and Putin is definitely not going to want to look weak after all of this, so he will probably back a move toward “total war” or as I like to call it “Blitzkrieg.”

Yesterday, I said that Putin’s legitimacy would be gone if it wasn’t solved in 12 hours, and 8 hours after I said that, it was solved. So I do not think he’s lost legitimacy. It looks bad, but not so bad he’d need to resign.

I do think the fact that so many people would back Prigozhin in his insane plan shows that there is a very real desire for Putin to get more aggressive in the Ukraine, and that has to be taken into account.

But wow.

This went from being the worst thing ever to the most confusing thing I’ve seen in my life.

Really, this was truly a weird 36 hours.

What screams “I’m educated, but not very bright”?

I bought an old farm with a barn. The roof of the barn was sagging and the walls were bulging out. I contacted a local contractor to fix it. He was known as the best in the business. He studied it for a while and made the following offer:

“We’ll jack up the entire barn and then reinforce the walls and install some pulleys to draw in the walls and then we can put in support beams from the roof apex down to the ground and then slowly over a week or two, lower the barn back onto the new beams. This will give the roof time to adjust and bend back in shape. It will cost about $50,000.”

I listened and then said:

“What if we pin the walls to the roof joists and then put in beams and screw-jacks along the roof centerline and jack up the roof slowly over time? The rising roof will draw in the sides. Then we can replace the screw jacks with 10×10 beams”. How much would that cost?

The contractor thought about it and said: “Yeah, that would work, too. It’d cost about $3000.”

Reality

Is it safe to visit China as a type 1 diabetic, or should you avoid doing so since Chinese food is so high in carbs?

I think it would be an excellent sign of good character if you can just take a step back and acknowledge that the entirety of what you know about “Chinese food” is either based entirely on the “Chinese food” in your country that has been adapted, sometimes quite extensively – to the point that it is no longer seen as Chinese food in the eyes of Chinese – to suit the tastebuds of the people in your country, OR just a tiny speck on the tiny tip of a Titan-sized iceberg.

I mean, I’ve been eating Chinese food since I’ve been a kid, and yet, I dare not say I know any more than 1% of all the dishes from all the various Chinese cuisines. Sometimes, a friend will mention this or that dish from their hometown, and I would be like “what is that? Never heard of it before…” and it just leaves me with the impression that I will never be able to sample every Chinese dish out there in this lifetime – it would be too tall of an order for one lifetime. Give me two or three lifetimes, then I might be able to give it a shot.

Things like “Chinese like to eat this and this for breakfast” or “Chinese like to eat more vegetables than meat” or “Chinese are very obsessed with meat” don’t hold up well when you’re speaking of 1.5 billion people – just like it wouldn’t work if you say all Americans love eating donuts or Girl Scout cookies. See: countless arguments on Chinese social media whether “savory” or “sweet” tofu pudding is better, or whether glutinous rice dumplings should be “sweet” or “savory”.

There are Chinese who don’t like to eat rice and who don’t even own a rice cooker.
There are Chinese who won’t even touch savory tofu pudding if you paid them to eat it.
There are Chinese who don’t like eating green leafy vegetables.

Generalizations break down very quickly when they encounter reality.

IMHO, the much better attitude to adopt is:

Every cuisine has dishes that have carbs. If you don’t want to eat carbs, don’t order dishes that have carbs. Don’t cook dishes that have carbs. Don’t eat dishes that have carbs. Order, cook, eat all the other dishes that dont have carbs.

I mean, let us imagine if the assumption in the question is true, that Chinese food is indeed “high in carbs”.

If that were indeed true, then Chinese folks who suffer from diabetes would …. what?

Starve?

Or go “I have diabetes now. I think I should change to a Western diet. Let my new Western diet begin. This will mark a new beginning for me. Ho ho ho.”

I know quite a few Chinese peeps with diabetes.
They have neither starved to death, nor changed to a Western-style diet.

To round off this answer, I’ll provide some pictures of home-cooked Chinese meals.
Everything that has carbs, I’ll cross off in red.
By doing this, you’ll see that you still have a lot of other dishes to enjoy.

There’s some tofu in the various dishes, usually paired with meat.
As far as I’m aware, tofu does have a bit of carbs, but it’s generally viewed as a low carb food.

Here’s the lunch my cousin and I prepared two days ago.
Don’t eat the rice.
Don’t eat the dish on the top left, because it has julienned potato strips in it.
I’m not sure whether North Americans or Europeans eat potatoes, but potatoes do have carbs, so that’s why I’ve crossed this dish off.

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Don’t eat the rice.
There are a few small fermented black beans in the meat+veg dish on the right, but hopefully that still counts as low carb.

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Don’t eat the rice.

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Don’t eat the julienned potato strips.
Don’t eat the peanuts.

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Don’t eat the noodles.
Don’t eat the glutinous rice.
Don’t eat the fruits.
Don’t eat the snow fungus dessert and cake.

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You’re good to go.

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You’re good to go.
You can avoid the soy sauce dips easily enough.

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You’re good to go.

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Conclusion:

Just like in any cuisine, when it comes to the various Chinese cuisines, if you don’t want to eat carbs, then order, cook, eat those dishes that do not have carbs.

From my experience the above is the best way to avoid carbs for people who are looking to avoid carbs.

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Why is Britain so set on escalating the war in Ukraine?

Tanks, depleted uranium shells, long-range missiles, F16s: hardly a week goes by without some news of how Britain is upping the ante again.

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The deeper the economic crisis bites, the more desperately the ruling class is throwing everything it can into military confrontation. Only through victory in war will it stand a chance of keeping its failing system alive for another generation. The world’s masses owe it to their children to make sure that such a victory is never achieved.

By Proletarian writers from the Communists (dot) org

The recent announcement that Rishi Sunak’s government would be providing first depleted uranium shells to Ukraine and then Storm Shadow long-range missiles represent two of the latest of examples of the British government’s consistent and active efforts to escalate the war in Ukraine . It is doing so with zero concern for the lives of British workers and even less for those of Ukrainians.

Reckless and criminal escalation

This was demonstrated very clearly when the Ukrainian military stored the aforementioned depleted uranium shells in a large ammunition depot near the town of Khmelnitsky. When Russian armed forces blew up this arms store, a cloud of radiation was dispersed across the town, posing both immediate and long-term health risks to everyone resident or present in the area.

Not for nothing did the Russian foreign ministry warn the Sunak government not to provide such weapons to its Ukrainian proxies. Russian armed forces are not using such weapons in Ukraine themselves, knowing well the health risks they pose.

Russia had previously warned very strongly against the use of such weapons: “If Kiev is supplied with such shells for Nato heavy military equipment, we will consider this as the use of dirty nuclear bombs against Russia with all the ensuing consequences,” a statement said. (Russia warns Britain against supplying Ukraine with depleted uranium shells , Donbass Insider, 22 March 2022)

The cancer epidemics in parts of Serbia and Iraq following Nato’s widespread use of depleted uranium munitions there are just two of the many war crimes perpetrated by British and US forces in their wars of plunder that are carefully ignored by British and US establishment politicians, journalists, lawyers and scientists.

How far across Ukraine and neighbouring countries this radiation and its effects might spread is at this time unknown. Nor can we yet know how Ukraine’s food exports will be affected. In all likelihood, no meaningful effort will be made to find out by our self-identifying ‘defenders of human rights’.

Sanctions war has failed

These latest reckless escalations by British imperialism come hard on the heels of bitter admissions carried in the Spectator and the Telegraph that the “shock and awe” sanctions war that was supposed to “reduce the rouble to rubble”, in the words of US president Joe Biden , has been an abject failure. The aggressive western wagers of this economic war had confidently expected to bring about the collapse of the Russian economy, triggering either a mass uprising by a hungry and unemployed populace or some other political crisis that could result in the long dreamt-of regime change in Moscow.

But, owing to the preparations the Russian government has been making since 2014, the severity of the sanctions regime has been mitigated both by increased state intervention in the Russian economy and by redirecting the country’s trade flows eastwards – in particular to China, Iran and India. The workers and economies that are being destroyed by the sanctions are not those of Russia but of the west, most specifically those of the European Union and Britain, where residents and industry alike have been suddenly cut off from the cheap and reliable flow of Russian oil and gas on which they have depended for decades.

Now, having failed to defeat the Russians either economically or militarily, the imperialists are getting desperate.

The aim of the war in Ukraine, from the perspective of US imperialism, is to destabilise Russia itself and, ultimately, to secure regime change (ie, the installation of a client regime in place of an independent one) and, ideally, the fragmentation of the country. This is all in order that the USA and its junior partners in Europe can seize full, unrestricted control of Russia’s immense natural resources.

With the global overproduction crisis deepening every day, the contradictions of the imperialist economic system are becoming ever more apparent. US imperialism, mired in a mountain of bad debt , has reached the point where it is not only seeing long-term stagnation at home but is also losing control over markets overseas that it has long sought to dominate by means of its economic, technological and military might.

Meanwhile, African nations are increasingly trading with China and turning to Russia for energy and security partnerships, thus further deepening the contradictions faced by US imperialism and forcing it down the road of trying to remove both the Putin-led government in Moscow and the Communist party (CPC) in China. The removal of these two rival centres of power, which are working increasingly closely together, is necessary for US imperialism if it is going to succeed in ‘solving’ its crisis via the ruination of its opponents and the destruction of the opportunities for independent development that they are offering to the oppressed countries via Brics, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO ) etc.

Decline and decay of British imperialism

British imperialism, likewise mired in crisis and tied hand and foot to the US imperialist bandwagon, is equally desperate for these plans to be brought to fruition, hence its reckless escalation of the war in Ukraine by supplying long-range missiles and depleted uranium munitions. The British ruling class has played a subservient role to US imperialism since at least 1956, when it failed to win its war to bring down Abdul Nasser’s anti-imperialist pan-Arabist Egypt .

The decay of British imperialism actually has its origins ever earlier than this. In fact, even at the highest point of the development of British capitalism, the seeds of its own terminal crisis had already been sown. As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels pointed out in Capital Volume 2, there is a tendency inherent within the system for capitalists not only to maximise profitability at all costs but to actually cut out commodity production altogether if they possibly can.

“The process of production appears merely as an unavoidable intermediate link, as a necessary evil for the sake of money-making. All nations with a capitalist mode of production are therefore seized periodically by a feverish attempt to make money without the intervention of the process of production.” (Chapter 1 , 1885)

Marx identified a tendency that would be explored and fleshed out by VI Lenin in his work Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Written in 1916, at the height of the first world war , Lenin’s examination of the development of imperialism included an analysis of the ongoing deindustrialisation of Britain. He showed how the development of imperialism was linked to the declining profitability of commodity production for the home market in Britain in the latter part of the 19th century.

At this point, British capitalists were able to realise far greater profits by exporting their capital to the colonised nations, where resources and land were cheaper and where labour could be exploited in a far more profitable fashion (ie, with even greater brutality). This brought the British ruling class into conflict with other imperialist powers, mainly the newly unified Germany. The competition for markets, resources and hyper-exploitable sources of labour led (ultimately) to the mass slaughter of World War 1.

As a result of the war, however, the British ruling class was much weakened, and it ultimately failed to restore its position as the overwhelmingly dominant power in the world, partly because it had heavily indebted itself to the rising power of US imperialism during the course of the war.

It was only after World War 2 though that the crisis of British imperialism was fully realised. Britain began to lose control of its colonial possessions (starting with India) and faced the reality of having to depend upon US imperialism for economic and military support both for reconstruction at home and for exploitation of the oppressed nations abroad.

A faction within the British ruling class tried to resist this subordination to the USA, but it was decisively defeated in 1956, partly due to the anti-imperialist struggles of the Egyptians and also because the US ruling class would not tolerate what it regarded as its British junior partner operating without its consent. Following the Suez debacle, the British ruling class realised it had little choice but to fall in line behind the USA if it wished to continue to operate in the markets it still dominated abroad, even after being forced to give up direct control of most of its empire.

In order to maintain their profits, Britain’s financiers need to be able to move capital anywhere in the world. They require all barriers to this to be knocked down, and, since WW2, the USA is the only imperialist country with the global economic and military power to be able to do this. The state of British imperialism is one of profound and multiple crises: it has undergone a longer decay and is much more vulnerable than the USA is.

The fortunes of the imperialist powers ultimately rest on convincing the oppressed and developing nations of the world that they have to accept the terms dictated by countries like Britain if they want to escape being put under an economic siege or subjected to military attack.

Anti-imperialist bloc cutting the ground from beneath the imperialists’ feet

Today, the economic fortunes of British imperialism are entirely tied to US economic and military power. The British ruling class has been cutting its own armed forces down for many years now, so it depends ever more heavily upon the USA to facilitate the ability of British finance capital to keep on plundering the world.

The British state may spend a large amount of defence, but it does not maintain the kind of forces that would be capable of taking on the Russian or Chinese armies for more than a few days. What Britain’s armed forces have specialised in since their failure in the Iraq war is in waging wars by proxy, training and directing jihadists in Libya, mercenaries in Yemen and fascists in Ukraine to do the heavy lifting while they remain in the shadows – advising, directing and facilitating.

If Nato’s fascistic Banderite forces in Ukraine lose their war with the Russian Federation, which they show every sign of doing in the near future, this will be a defeat for US imperialism of an even greater magnitude than its humiliating retreat from Afghanistan in 2021. Many nations that are currently dominated by British and US imperialism will see the defeat of the Nato-aligned forces in Ukraine as being a clear sign that the US-led imperialist bloc has been fatally weakened.

This in turn will undermine British imperialism’s ability to continue to exploit countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia . If US imperialism decays or collapses entirely, the British ruling class will be fatally weakened as well, not only in terms of the markets and resources it seeks to control overseas, but also in its ability to contain the class contradictions within Britain society itself.

This is why the British ruling class is desperate to secure the destruction of the Russian and Chinese governments. Because British imperialism needs to ransack huge areas of the world if it is to try and resolve the deep crisis in which it is enmeshed, and the anti-imperialist governments of Russia and China are standing in the way of that goal.

That is how we must understand Sunak’s declaration at the recent G7 meeting in Hiroshima that China is “the biggest challenge of our age to global security and prosperity”.

Of course, Sunak was referring solely to the ‘security and prosperity’ of the class he represents – the class of billionaire owners of capital. All that will come to the majority of the world’s workers from the strengthening of our exploiters is the prolongation of the existence of the system that keeps them immiserated, condemned for another generation and more to the miseries of unemployment, poverty , crisis and war.

Those of us who oppose British capitalism at home must learn this lesson: that there can be no victory over capitalism at home without also destroying British imperialism’s ability to loot abroad. Only with the departure of this parasitic system can the British working class advance in solidarity with the workers of the world to a bright and fulfilling future.

The Poverty In Mississippi Is Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen

Shaker Strawberry Summer Pudding

British Berry Summer Pudding 13 735x491 1 — British Berry Summer Pudding 13 735×491 1

Ingredients

1/2 loaf white bread, sliced
1 quart ripe strawberries
3/4 to 1 cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of the berries)

Instructions

Line a 9-inch square pan with aluminum foil or wax paper.
Remove the crust from the bread.
Mash and sweeten strawberries.
Place the bread slices slices on the bottom of the prepared pan.
Spoon strawberries over the bread and alternate berries and bread until pan is filled. Cover with wax paper slightly smaller than the pan. Chill at least 8 hours or overnight.
To serve, invert on a platter. Top with whipped cream. Scatter fresh berries on top and around edge.

Pay it forward

Waiting in line to pay for groceries while maintaining a 6ft distance, this man cut in line. He didn’t appear to notice what he’d done.

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The person he skipped didn’t say anything, just maintained the proper distance.

When it was time for the man to pay he reached in his back pocket and pulled out a small note pad. He’d forgotten his wallet.

He looked a bit disappointed and embarrassed. The person he skipped stepped up and told the cashier they’d take care of his groceries. (Which only consisted of Milk and Chocolate Chip Cookies.)

He was more than grateful. He kindly thanked them and off the man went.

Upon arrival to the register, the cashier asked: “He cut you off and you paid for his groceries.. Why??”

“They calmly replied with a smile: “I hope that if one day my Dad forgets his wallet, someone will step up and buy his Milk and Cookies”

With all the negativity going on in the world..I thought it would be nice to share this moment.

A little kindness goes a long way. Why not pay it forward?

Shaker Spoon Bread

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal
1 quart (4 cups) sweet milk
3 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

Scald milk and add cornmeal gradually. Cook until thick.
Pour small amount over beaten egg yolks. Return to heat and cook a few minutes longer.
Add butter and fold in beaten egg whites.
Add baking powder and salt.
Pour into greased baking dish and bake at 325 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours, stirring once after the first 15 minutes of baking.

Wagner “COUP” On Putin Ends

https://youtu.be/u6C9urHkJ1k

Why do people explain a link between obesity and poverty by saying that fast food is “all they can afford?” Making rice and beans at home is cheaper and healthier.

In the 1930s, a full decade or more before the advent of fast food, George Orwell put his finger on this problem. His book The Road to Wigan Pier chronicled the lives of the poor and unemployed in Northern England’s distressed mining regions. Orwell described their insufficient diet and brilliantly explicated the psychology underlying the poor’s consumption patterns:

The basis of [the poor’s] diet, therefore, is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea, and potatoes—an appalling diet. Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn’t. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let’s have three [penny’s worth] of chips! Run out and buy us a twopenny ice-cream! Put the kettle on and we’ll all have a nice cup of tea! That is how your mind works when you are at the P.A.C. [public assistance] level. White bread-and-marg and sugared tea don’t nourish you to any extent, but they are nicer (at least most people think so) than brown bread-and-dripping and cold water. Unemployment is an endless misery that has got to be constantly palliated, and especially with tea, the Englishman’s opium. A cup of tea or even an aspirin is much better as a temporary stimulant than a crust of brown bread.

What is the meaning of the term “Karen” in slang? What is it used for, and who coined this term?

A “Karen” is a woman (naturally), white (always), middle-aged (30–55), attractive solely because of her hair, makeup and clothing, blonde (usually), and middle-class or higher. As a customer or citizen, she is demanding, entitled, privileged and impossible to satisfy in any reasonable manner.

Karen wants you to take her expired coupon and, when you won’t, she wants to speak to your supervisor. Karen calls the city to ask them to stop road work in her area from noon to 5 p.m. so her child can have a nap, then calls her city councilor when her request is refused.

It’s use was popularized by African-Americans on Twitter in 2018.

African Americans have had slang terms for such an individual since before the American Civil War, including “Miss Ann”, “Becky”, “Barbecue Becky”, “Cornerstone Caroline” and “Permit Patty”. “Karen” is the type of person who would call the cops on kids running a lemonade stand without a permit.

The first use of “Karen” as a pejorative refers to an ad for the Nintendo Switch from 2016 where the woman on the right was referred to as “antisocial Karen”. Unlike the typical stereotype, she’s a brunette.

main qimg dfe0709f5b4152ea823433cda5b983da

Before the breakout on Twitter, “Karen” was the subject of many memes on Reddit in 2017.

Naturally, white people co-opted the term. The UK paper The Guardian, noting the rash of women calling the police on black people engaged in perfectly legal behaviors like barbecuing in a public park or pointing out that Central Park has a leash requirement for dogs, dubbed 2020 “The Year of Karen”.

Psychologists say the stereotype is the result of a pattern of “weaponizing victimhood” where a group of people who have suffered social discrimination in the past don’t just ask for empathy with their plight but instead use it to claim rights over and above everyone else, including both present and past victims of similar discrimination. Karens are hardly the only group that do this.

Why Africa is angry at the “West”

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSLBRxQov/

Train derails into Yellowstone River sparking fears of hazardous spill

From HERE

A large emergency response has been launched in Montana after a freight train collapsed into the Yellowstone River

Officials have introduced emergency measures amid fears the train was carrying hazardous materials

The toxic spill comes months after another train derailment sparked chaos in East Palestine, Ohio

Montana residents have been warned to conserve water after a freight train potentially carrying hazardous materials collapsed into the Yellowstone River.

A large emergency response has been seen in the area, amid concerns of a toxic spill after the bridge collapsed early on Saturday morning.

It was initially feared oil or petroleum was contained in the cargo train, but the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office said it was later determined they contained asphalt and ‘a second substance that officials are working to confirm’.

Water treatment facilities throughout the area have introduced emergency measures due to the crisis. Despite warnings to conserve water, officials said there is currently no threat to life in the area.

The toxic spill comes months after a cargo train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio sparked mass evacuations as residents were subjected to painful side effects to another hazardous runoff.

A statement re-posted by the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Department on social media confirmed no injuries have been reported in the incident.

‘A total of 8 rail cars are involved and in a great stroke of luck, none contained oil,’ the post said.

‘The cars contained asphalt and a second substance that officials are working to confirm. Both of the substances are described as “slow moving” and have not gone much past the initial scene.

‘The public is asked to stay away from the (scene) to prevent congestion.’

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department also warned locals to avoid water from certain parts of the river.

‘From Indian Point to Buffalo Mirage, avoid water due to possible contact with contaminants,’ the department tweeted.

A multi-agency effort was on the scene Saturday, including Stillwater County Emergency Services, the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office and Columbus Fire & Rescue.

Water treatment facilities in Laurel, Billings and Lockwood shut down their headgates in response to the potentially toxic spill.

The Yellowstone County Disaster and Emergency Services department said irrigation canal companies are also implementing protective measures.

According to the Billings Gazette, the train fell into the water after a bridge it was crossing collapsed under the weight of the carriages.

The outlet claimed the bridge had recently been battered by high water levels as a result of storms in the south-central Montana area.

The potential toxic spill comes months after a similar incident in East Palestine, Ohio, sparked mass evacuations when hazardous chemicals leaked from another train derailment.

Locals reported side effects including eye and throat irritation, and some even claimed pets had died due top the toxic fumes. The chemicals on board the Ohio derailment were not the same as those from Saturday’s incident in Montana.

Putin just dropped a BOMBSHELL & outplayed the Western coup | Redacted w Clayton Morris

Updated 19 October, 2018 – 23:02 Caleb Strom

Pleistocene Epoch: Humans, Welcome to Earth

The Pleistocene epoch is a geologic epoch which began around 2.6 Mya (Million years ago) and came to an end around 11,700 BP (Before Present). It is characterized by lower sea levels than the present epoch and colder temperatures. During much of the Pleistocene, Europe, North America, and Siberia were covered by extensive ice sheets and glaciers. The Pleistocene was an important time because it was when the human genus first evolved.

The flora and fauna today also more or less reached their current form during the Pleistocene. Most Pleistocene animals and Pleistocene plants also exist in the Holocene. Furthermore, the Pleistocene epoch was the last geological epoch in which humans had relatively little impact.

Pleistocene Geology and Climate

The Pleistocene glaciations are among the defining geologic events of the Pleistocene. Much of North America was covered by the Laurentide ice sheet and northern Europe and Siberia were covered by the Eurasian Ice Sheet Complex. The size of the ice sheets resulted in lower sea levels and dryer climates. Britain was a peninsula and the Indonesian islands were connected to the Southeast Asian mainland, for example. There were also glaciers on Mauna Kea of the Hawaiian Islands.

While parts of the world were dryer – such as central Europe, which was mostly covered in tundra, other parts of the world were wetter and greener. The American southwest, for example, contained grassland with numerous lakes. The Sahara Desert was also covered in savannah grassland for many parts of the Pleistocene. Parts of the north-eastern Arabian Peninsula were the site of an enormous oasis. It is even possible that this ancient, wetter environment may have helped inspire stories like the Garden of Eden or have been the original Garden of Eden itself.

Pleistocene Animals

Many of the animals common today were also common in the Pleistocene. Deer, big cats, apes, elephants, and bears could all be found in a Pleistocene landscape. There were also animals that were common which have since gone extinct, such as mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths , and pre-human hominins .

Europe and Asia had significant populations of African fauna. Cave paintings and paleontological finds in Europe reveal that rhinoceroses, lions, and hyenas were all common at that time in southern Europe. The island of Sicily was also inhabited by a dwarf elephant species until surprisingly recent times. Northern Europe was covered in glaciers and inhospitable, while central Europe was tundra. Southern Europe, however, contained forests and was inhabited by numerous species of megafauna, most of which have since died out.

Lions were also much more common in Asia, as were rhinoceroses and elephants. There were even rhinoceroses living on the islands of the Philippines. Apes were also more common. Until about 300,000 BP, Gigantopithecus, possibly the largest ape ever to live, flourished in Asia.

Pleistocene North America is known for its impressive megafauna populations. The more well-known are the woolly mammoths and mastodons. North America was also inhabited by American lions, North American llamas, and giant ground sloths, all of which are extinct today.

The continent of Australia has been separated from Eurasia since the Mesozoic. As a result, Australia has very unusual vegetation and wildlife. Pleistocene Australia was no different. Australia was inhabited by extraordinary creatures such as kangaroos the size of a rhinoceros and other giant marsupial mammals. There were also numerous giant flightless birds such as moas in New Zealand, rheas in South America, and ostriches in Africa and Asia that had to compete with large mammals.

Pleistocene Humans

Another important development on the Pleistocene timeline was the emergence of the human genus: Homo. Humans probably evolved out of bipedal apes, such as the Australopithecines and Ardipithecus Ramidus . These early bipedal apes are classified as hominins. Hominins first evolved near the end of the Miocene epoch (25-5 Mya) in south and east Africa. Other than their upright posture and bipedalism, these hominins were not significantly more human than previous apes.

Their skeletons indicate that they resembled modern apes such as chimpanzees and their use of tools was limited or absent. At the beginning of the Pleistocene, however, a new type of hominin appeared. These hominins were taller, more dependent on upright locomotion, and had larger brains, which allowed them to excel in tool use over any previous hominin. These hominins belong to the genus Homo and hominins in this genus are simply called humans.

The earliest human species was Homo Habilis . The first examples of this species appeared about 2.3 million years ago. They used simple flake tools which were made by taking rocks and striking sharp flakes off other rocks – which could be used as cutting tools. Homo Habilis was more technologically inclined than its hominin predecessors, but it was still closer to earlier and more ape-like hominins than modern humans.

The next earliest human species is Homo Erectus . The first H. Erectus evolved around 2 million years ago and the last of them did not die out until sometime within the last 100,000 years. Archaeological and paleontological evidence suggest that they may have been the first humans to use culture as a wholesale approach to adapt to their environment. They were more advanced tool users and were also much taller than previous hominins, about six feet (1.83 meters) tall. They were also the first humans to leave Africa. By 1 million years ago, H. Erectus had spread to both Europe and Asia, bringing humans for the first time to these regions.

The earliest humans were universally hunter-gatherers. Their use of technology to interact with their environment made them very adaptative – so that humans eventually found their way into every possible environment on the planet: forests, grasslands, deserts, even tundra.

Megafauna Extinctions in the Pleistocene: Accelerated by Humans?

For most of the Pleistocene, humans did not significantly impact their environment. There were no more than a few hundred thousand individuals at a given time and their ability to transform the landscape was limited by primitive technology and limited social organization.

This all changed with the emergence of Homo Sapiens (modern humans) in Africa and Homo Neandertalensis (Neanderthals) in Europe. Anatomically modern humans first evolved in Africa around 200,000-300,000 BP. After the emergence of anatomically modern humans, something happened, perhaps a rewiring of the human brain , that led to the emergence of modern behaviors like art, blade production, long distance trade, and more efficient, organized hunting, among other abilities.

This change in behavior caused humans to have a significantly larger influence on their environment than in previous times. This can be seen in the fate of most megafauna, especially in the New World. Megafauna extinctions occurred around 40,000-50,000 years ago in Australia and around 13,000 years ago in North America. Both occurred shortly after the appearance of humans on these continents.

It has been suggested that the reason for the worldwide extinction of megafauna at that time was overhunting by humans combined with climate change. The climate was constantly changing during the Pleistocene and the megafauna survived these changes. When humans were introduced into the environment, however, these same megafauna populations died out not long afterwards. It is possible that the addition of a powerful predator, like humanity, may have added an extra factor that was just too much for the megafauna to handle while also adapting to climate change, leading to their extinction.

The Human Age: Life after the Pleistocene

As humans become more technologically advanced and more adept at manipulating their environment, they continue to influence it more and more. How much longer human civilization will last is uncertain, but one thing that is known is that humans are likely to leave a mark on this planet which will last for ages to come and it all started in the Pleistocene.

How Homes in Iceland are Different than the USA

[daegonmagus] – Part 31 – Adventures in the Occult: Thoughts on {Not} Being a Freemason

The following is the 31st part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Adventures in the Occult: Thoughts on {Not} Being a Freemason

I came across this site, inscribed on believing on the mind (metallicman (inscribedonthebelievingmind.blog) in which I seem to feature in one of the articles along side Metallicman. Lucky me for being “famous”, I guess. Unfortunately the article makes some assumptions about me that are quite inaccurate, like the (very definitively written) idea I am a Freemason and another retired MAJestic agent. Guys, I don’t care if you want to write articles that feature me but at least fucking verify your information with me beforehand, else it makes your content look like its full of “badly researched” holes and shouldn’t be taken seriously. I wrote to the article’s publisher, Diana Barharona, requesting a polite change to its content, but never received a reply, so in response to it I’d figured I’d clarify a few points.

Firstly, I am not a MAJestic Agent, at least, not that I Know of – I came into contact with Metallicman after having experiences that paralleled with his during his time in MAJestic courtesy of my LDing – I offered to edit his books because I understand the true importance of his content. Secondly I am not, nor ever have been and never will be a Freemason, though I do have masonic blood in both sides of my family; my great uncle was a 33rd degree Mason from the Broome lodge of Western Australia, and on my mother’s side I only have a passing reference of who was actually involved in the organisation, as I never met them before their ultimate expiration from the earth. My connection to the organisation, is, therefore, now reduced to a silver ring that was kept and handed down after said expiration. In regards to my great uncle, I only met him a handful of times as a kid, and only found out about his masonic connection long after I’d started walking down my own metaphysical path.

I never liked the man particularly much; my first memory of him was him pulling his false teeth out and chasing me around the house with them. Which is probably a good thing, considering the unknown persona he carried with him over and through his deathbed; that he exhibited at one point paedophilic tendencies on certain members of the family – not really something anyone should be surprised by given the amount of similar stories arising about Freemasonic happenings.

Of course, his victims never spoke about any of it until they had 6 ft of dirt separating him from them. I only found out about it back in 2019, and was – to put it simply – QUITE FUCKING LIVID, as this is something that goes against the very essence of my being, and considering I still genuinely cared for the family member in question. My only solace is knowing that his dementia did a good job of obliterating his brains cells in the years before he finally kicked the bucket. That and the fact that his indiscretions could be considered at the more “minor” end of the spectrum when it comes to the question of psychological damage such individuals can cause upon their victims. I shudder to think there was more than what was brought forward. Maybe it is my own naievity, maybe it’s a defense mechanism to stop me digging too deep into it and setting me off on a path of grave defilement. Whatever, I guess it explains why I thought it necessary to clarify my position.

In addition to this, I was once approached to join the brotherhood by another old man at a spiritualist circle I used to attend with my mother and SD. As far as I am aware, him and my great uncle had no connection to one another. I politely declined the invitation because at that point I was not interested in submitting the celestial authority that came with the spark that animated my physical being over to a society built upon the idea of a spiritual hierarchy.

Quite frankly, I’d been astral projecting and lucid dreaming for a decade at that point, and had read all about Aleister Crowley and his Argentum Aurum, the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn, Ordo Templi Orientis etc. Call it arrogance – though I call it an unfaltering knowledge of self – the Freemasons seemed to me like just another group of novice Occultists that needed to be handed their divinity piece by piece by climbing through the ranks of the degrees. I preferred to bypass all that shit and reclaim my divinity myself, from the devil himself, if necessary; part of this involved never allowing any other individual or organisation to project false authority over my soul and its progression, as I truly believed that right belonged to my higher self, and my higher self alone.

Still, he sought the need to hand me some pamphlets on the Freemason’s apparent ideologies and how one cannot become a member unless they have an initiate vouch for them, which, I guess, is what he was planning on doing for me. You don’t get random’s making such an offer unless you have demonstrated you at least know a little bit about what it is you are talking about.

This does not mean I didn’t research what I could about them (much of which had already been done by the time I was propositioned to join). You may remember I was a steward of the Hell Fire Club which practiced spiritual alchemy. The only reason I had even bothered joining this Club was because it allowed for self initiation, as the club was not interested in using a similar hierarchal method of initiation to the Freemasons. Plus it had some really rare and hard to obtain books on magic, in a specially bound editions, which, like I have mentioned previously, is what really tickled my fancy.

This all sounds very mysterious, and diabolical, given the English chapter used to meet in the caves of West Wycombe in fancy masks and robes to carry out their rituals (based on Pagan festivities), but in reality my chapter never consisted of more than SD and myself, and all we ever did was sit on a carpet in our own house and throw a coin at a bottle; big fucking whoop. Nothing in comparison to the secret meetings and “architectural marvels” the Freemasons have been known to engage in and construct in the apparent quest to “become better men”. As I mentioned before, I revered knowledge above all personal gain and profit. The Hellfire Club was an interesting avenue into gaining more knowledge of the alchemical process of transmuting the lead of human consciousness into something much more profound and metaphorically “golden”.

But – and there is a but – being a club heavily inspired by Hermetic teachings, which crosses paths with some Freemasonic concepts and ideologies, it was inevitable that it was going to attract initiates of Freemasonry as well as other societies such as those aforementioned.

The Stewards for the other Australian (as well as international) Chapters, for example, are themselves occultists, which belong to such organisations as the Freemasons, the Hermetic Order of the Red Dragon etc etc. You have to also consider that this was in the early days of social media, before there were any real dedicated chat rooms where concepts such as the occult (which simply means “hidden” or “hidden knowledge”) could be freely talked about without ridicule from the spiritually inept who would brandish them as devil worshippers etc (wait until you see what the demonologists talk about, lol).

So you could say that as the international division of the Hellfire Club took off, us members began to realise we had a safe spot to bounce metaphysical concepts and ideas off each other, as each sought to incorporate their own occult knowledge and flavour into their own chapters. I became respected among these other members as I demonstrated knowledge I had picked up on the Kabbalah, Alchemy and the occult in general over many years of study, and likewise I respected them and the knowledge they offered me, a lot of which had to do with Freemasonic processes.

So yes, I had, and still do have access to a network of high ranking 33rd degree Freemasons, who have some influence over the operations of others in other jurisdictions. To give you an idea of this influence, when a potential recruit – also a low ranking Freemasonic initiate – into our HFC chapter tried to rape SD, I was told if I had brought the matter to one I am in contact with, himself a 33rd degree Freemason, immediately after it had happened, they could have ejected and banned this piece of shit from joining any of the Australian divisions – this is what I mean when I say my knowledge of the occult earnt me some “respect”. Am I involved in their evil diabolical scheme to take over the world?. Hence there are things that I know, some deduced from extension of my studies into the occult, and some communicated directly to me by these Freemasons, but at the end of the day I hold no oaths, or am held by no encumberances when it comes to the distribution of “what I know”. And Hence I have seen both the good and bad parts of the brotherhood, so I am loathe to jump on the bandwagon of vilifying them as a whole. The answer, unfortunately for those who’d have a mind to spin my content as being some form of Freemasonic propaganda, is a somewhat stale and rather definite “no”.

This does not mean I know all there is to know about the Freemasons and their goings on behind closed doors – honestly, to me, it’s a confusing mess of shit that varies from Rite to Rite and jurisdiction to jurisdiction, that I have no intention of delving too deeply into – but what I do know is that the Temple of Solomon, and the subsequent Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, which deal with the summoning of “Djinn” or “demons” is a very integral part of the core concepts that are dealt with within {one aspect of} Freemasonry, as can be evidenced from HERE.

Unfortunately for the Freemasonic brotherhood, I also know, from another, exterior source, who was directly brought up under an operation involving Extra Terrestrials – a very big one, dating back before WW2 – that the ideologies around such “demons” or “goetic spirits” were originally distorted by the protectors of the very Temple the Freemasons worship (this goes back beyond Hiram Abif), to lead prying eyes down a false road. What was revealed to me by this source, was that the Freemasonic brotherhood was intentionally set up as a front to hide the true identity of what these goetic spirits actually were/are; interdimensional intelligences that could be communicated with and prepared for possession of a willing host through the Solomonic workings, ie the Greater and Lesser Keys. According to my source, Solomon himself, wasn’t exactly “human”; the original builders of his temple knew of this secret, because it was to be a chamber that provided the necessary atmosphere for that intelligence to acclimatise after it found a willing host. True Masons were those who allegedly knew this secret, and my source claims she was brought up by one of them. Of course, I have no way of verifying any of this, so its up to the reader how much salt they want to sprinkle o n that tasty morsel.

But I can attest to the assertion there is something otherworldly about these books, because I inadvertently summoned one of these entities early one morning and it scared the absolute shit out of me.

And I do not mean via an LD state either. Here, in this physical world, I accidentally brought one of these entities from its realm into ours, after simply reading from the versions of the Greater and Lesser Keys that I owned.

I was around about the age of 20, and I had just received my Hell Fire Club Bound Edition (extremely rare and worth $600 – $1200 respectively) copies of these works in the mail; A copy of Aleister Crowley’s own Goetia – the Lesser Key – , replete with his handwritten notes, and a copy of Sepher Maphtea Shalamoh, one of the oldest known surviving manuscripts of the Greater Key –

Here is a picture of the pages from an identical, non Hellfire Club edition I owned of the Sepher Maphtea Shalamoh. Good luck trying to read it if you don’t know Aramaic Hebrew (I sure as fuck don’t, though if you do I’d be very interested in a helpful translation of the entire thing).

You hear of people in the occult community who try and use these grimoires to obtain money and power and whatever other materialistic shit they can think of; this wasn’t part of my intention. I had them simply because I wanted the knowledge they contained. I was committed to reading them without ever actually trying the rituals contained within.

That very night, or more correctly morning as it was about 3am, I was in my caravan (trailer in American speak) playing xbox with my dog, Abby, sat on the couch next to me whilst SD slept in the bed just over from us. All of a sudden I heard a very deep, guttural roaring sound, deeper and louder than any human could ever manage, followed by a stomping from one end of the caravan to other. I was around 100kg at the time and these footsteps shook the caravan much more than I did even when I was in a pissed off mood. They were very, very heavy, and very dense steps – not the footsteps or noise of any Tom cat or animal one would expect to find in that part of Western Australia. Abby was a fearless dog, and this scared the shit even out of her. Make no mistake, this was a good, old fashioned demon summoning if ever there was one. As soon as it finished, the TV went nuts and just started flicking 666 over and over again despite the remote not being jammed under anything, as it was sitting on the table next to me. For anyone who has studied the occult, and certain people of historical fame, that number is an obvious reference to Master Therion, aka Aleister Crowley. How coincidental I’d been reading his copy of the Goetia only hours prior. Regardless, it was good lesson in taking care next time I read the thing.

So yes, these texts are powerful texts, but I do not recommend fucking with them unless you have balls of steel, and know absolutely what the fuck it is you are doing. And not unless you are intending to be a willing host for an interdimensional consciousness to take up residence in your body; regardless of whether or not this is your intention THIS WHAT THE KEYS INTENDED PURPOSE WAS. They are {allegedly} the original CE5 protocols, and I have a suspicion there are some Freemasons who know this and have incorporated it into the Lodges workings, though I do not think every single Lodge knows about it. Again, maybe that is my own naivety. New age demon worshippers (and yes there a lot of them, facebook now has groups dedicated to the subject – I have watched these spawn into communities from nothing) have no idea what they are fucking around with. Thinking it is a means for quick materialistic manifestations, many of these worshippers will willingly engrave, tattoo, embed the sigils of these interdimensional consciousnesses directly onto their bodies, using blood for ink, using the rituals to “command” these intelligences into doing their bidding etc.

Talk about fucking amateurs.

You see why I always had a thirst for knowledge of just what the fuck it was I was getting myself into before diving right into it? If you want to know how possession works, it is carried out via sleep paralysis; I have experienced this directly, and so has SD – the exact same experience. What happens is the dominant consciousness enters via the ear, in my case, the right one, and you feel your own consciousness distort as it gets squeezed to one small side of your head. You can then feel the invading thought form taking up residence in the greater portion of your head that you no longer occupy. It is not a pleasant experience, which I liken to “mind raping”.

To one who is not lucky enough to even get to sleep paralysis (that is a joke), you will simply wake up and have thoughts that will destroy you if you are unable dissociate yourself from them. In my case, it bent my perception to seeing suicide as a very tempting option, seemingly for no reason, then I remembered the mind worm invader the night previous, shook the thoughts off (repetitively) and they never bothered me again; you must be very savvy as to what constitutes your thoughts, and what are those thoughts from an invading parasite. This was some years after the incident in the caravan so I don’t think the two were related, but still if you see anyone engaging in this level of dumb shittery, high ranking Freemasonic members included, you can bet your bottom dollar they don’t have the faintest idea of what it is they are doing, and are, in all probability going along with something that has been taught at the highest levels, under the idea that a Goetic intelligence is a nefarious spirit to be “commanded to do one’s bidding”. Either that, or they are taking inspiration from Crowley when he deliberately stepped into the circle of the demon Choronzon and let it possess him. Not exactly sure what divine ending they would be expecting from that though.

The only proper way to communicate with such entities is via the hypnogogic/lucid dreaming state, when connected to the higher information stream of the higher self – this importance needs to be emphasized, because when connected to this information stream things cannot lie to you; you can literally trace their whole existence through MWI and analyse every thought and choice they have ever made; if they are deceiving you, it will show in this analysis. If you can muster the discipline to do away with the ritualistic commands of the Greater and Lesser Keys, the type of shit that apparent Masters of the Occult, like Crowley, suggested were necessary, and actually meet them face to face in their own domain with a level of respect, you might find they are willing to reveal to you “forbidden knowledge” of the earth and the greater cosmos; who do you think the “President” of the Unseen 5 that showed me “the fall” was? Wink wink. Of course, if you haven’t prepared your consciousness accordingly, the energetic signature of these spirits will likely be too intense for you to bear (another reason why you need the higher information processing capabilities of the higher self). It is just simply too much information for your consciousness to be able to handle. But it is sure a hell of a lot less intense than standing face to face with the Grand Architect of the universe, what the big G in the middle of the Masonic square and compass represents. Just trust me on that one

“The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain. Their seals therefore represent methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (though the eye).” – Aleister Crowley, The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic in the Goetia.)

And I quote from the previous link:

“If we as masons want to look at this in a philosophical sense we are all seeking to be the wise King Solomon. We must unlock the brass vessel of our own unconscious mind releasing all the aspects of ourselves we care not to let out. Each demon can be seen as an aspect of our personality that we keep hidden from the world. It is the goal of the magician with the aid of angels and magickal weapons to face the dark aspects of him and symbolically slay and expel those forces from our own spiritual nature, thus purifying him. This medieval system of what some would consider “black magick” is simply a way to reflect upon the aspects of our own psyche. If we as individuals wish togain the wisdom of the archetypal king, we should face the shadow of ourselves and the demons that well in the void of our own nightmares.”

So the Freemasons, channeling their inner Carl Jung, believe that the texts allow an unlocking of deep aspects of the psyche which must be vanquished with the help of the “angels”….so what happens if the angels are really demons in disguise and are the very things responsible for those darker aspects of the self arising in the first place?

The Native Americans believed in such a concept they called the Wetiko, which they considered to be a sort of psychic virus that attached itself to the psyche of man and inflated his ego to the point he would put his own selfishness before empathy; Paul Levy does a good write up of this at https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/3472

Can you see where I am going with this? Through the illusion of duality of good and evil “spirits” – ie, angels vs demons – and the failure to understand that one’s own consciousness is originally of the highest attainable divine status, (ie, failure to adhere to a very basic and core concept of the occult) the Freemasons have allowed the submission of their own divine authority over to lesser divine parasitic entities, so that these same entities may “help” liberate them from a problem they {potentially} had a hand in causing in the first place.

To anyone who has read even a small amount of Carl Jung’s work in this area, it could be argued shadow work does not need to involve the help of supposed “angels” or “guides” to be carried out. In fact, repetitive self psychological evaluation was part of my “magickal undertakings”; I use to evaluate myself and my thoughts and try to understand where they had arisen, and what had caused them in my constant effort to “know myself” – again a basic edict of Alchemy. For us lucid dreamers, who can literally enter into the parts of our subconscious mind and “see” the thoughts as they arise, and what the shadow self is actually comprised of, and analyse these completely from an objective viewpoint, the last thing we need is “help”.

So where does this leave me? I already met the “Grand Architect”, who I called the All Being, back in 2016. What could any Freemasonic Lodge offer me if the whole goal of their brotherhood is to eventually bring one’s consciousness into contact with such a being? Seems I must have been quite learned in “High Magick” to achieve this feat without ever bothering to join their organisation.

The supposed “evil” nature of the Goetic spirits does not match to their temperament when met under LD – they can be considered very respectable intelligences in this domain – which suggests to me the Solomonic rituals are actually subverting the communication over to other entities who do not want us contacting these spirits because of the information they {the Goetic spirits} hold. If my source {and assumptions from my experiences and those in my inner circle} is correct and these are indeed inter dimensional intelligences, then the question must be asked: who is summoning what when using such ceremonial methods as the Freemasons and Crowley used?

Let’s continue from that link shall we?

“Before one sincerely attempts to evoke these demons, one should first spend some time invoking the 72 counterpart angels of the Almadel. The Almadel is a very enlightening experience and puts the magician in touch with the aspects of virtue within the psyche of the individual. This should be required for two reasons, one: one should be in touch with their inner strength before they face the demons, and two: the angels of the Almadel have direct control over the demons of the brass vessel. The Almadel is a system of scrying into a crystal ball over an altar made of wax upon which are engraved the Holy names of God. Remember that invocation is to call down a power within your spirit and mind, so you invoke angels to bring them closer. The Magician will evoke demons, to bring from within ones self into manifestation.

After one has made meaningful contact with his own inner angelic forces, he is now mentally and spiritually prepared to venture into the darkness of his own being. This system of High Magick should only be attempted by those who have magickal training, or are learned practitioners of ceremonial magick. This system to the unprepared is VERY DANGEROUS, and can be disastrous for those who approach the subject manner with a light heart or contempt in the mind. A short exert from the Lesser Key of Solomon will show the level of seriousness this system deserves.

Curse you and deprive you from all your offices and places of joy and place and do bind thee in the depths of the bottomless pit, there to remain until the day of judgment; I say into the lake of fire and brimstone… let all the company of heaven curse thee… let the hosts of heaven curse thee, I curse thee into fire unquenchable, and torments unspeakable as thy name and seal is contained in this box, chained and bound up and shall be choked in sulphurus and stinking substance and burnt in this material fire… which is prepared for thee damned and cursed spirits and there to remain until the day of doom and never more remembered of before the face of God which shall come to judge the dead and the world by fire.” (Lesser Key of Solomon, Book 1: Ars Goetia)

The Goetic demons require quite an elaborate array of magical implements such as a magic robe, wand, sword, circle, ring, brass vessel containing the 72 sigils of demons, black mirror within the magick triangle, and a very good memory. These evocations are quite lengthy and the magickal ritual can last quite awhile, especially when in a hypnotic trance which is required. “

What we have a case of is “the bible told us these {demons} were bad, and that these {angels} were good, so we will employ the service of the good guys and not question their motives”. That’s fine if you are of a religious inclination, but I never have been so the core concepts behind such a dualistic method of thinking in Freemasonry simply do not fit with my ideological makeup. The two are not compatible, therefore there is no reason for me to be a part of their Brotherhood.

My first novel, Dreaming Demons, as appalling as it was (first novels are always shit, especially when you are trying to offend as many people as possible with it), attempted to explain this difference in temperament between the Goetic spirits outside of the dualistic concepts of good and evil. It was a 120k word story which featured Astaroth as the main character (though “his” name was written backwards). As I was writing this book, I one day had an urge to switch on the TV, which was strange because I never watched TV in the day time. I specifically remember just randomly stopping typing and walking over to it and flicking it on. So what are the odds, that at that exact moment the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks was on, and the children were discussing “finding the Star of Astaroth? One in several million billion I bet. Astaroth is the 29th spirit of the Goetia and is said to “show people the fall”. His rank, as mentioned by Crowley, was Duke, though other spirits held the rank of President. So when I was shown “the Fall” by the leader of the Unseen 5, I was also shown that his rank is no longer Duke but now rather President – this is why he was taking the form of then president Obama. Does that clarify who this organisation really is? It should be obvious by now that it is the real Ashtar{oth}/ Command – not that fake ass bullshit one finds discussed in new age circles.

In case you weren’t aware, Astaroth was synonymous with The Phoenician goddess Astarte, the Babylonian Ishtar, and the Sumerian Inanna:

The name Astaroth was ultimately derived from that of 2nd millennium BC Phoenician goddess Astarte,[1] an equivalent of the Babylonian Ishtar, and the earlier Sumerian Inanna. She is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the forms Ashtoreth (singular) and Ashtaroth (plural, in reference to multiple statues of it). This latter form was directly transliterated in the early Greek and Latin versions of the Bible, where it was less apparent that it had been a plural feminine in Hebrew. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth

This should give you an idea of just how old the Unseen 5 really is. They have been monitoring humanity from their vantage point in the astral planes since at least the time of Ancient Sumeria.

So, to summarise the question of whether or not I am a Freemason, the answer is no, and the reasons are:

Submission of one’s own celestial authority over to lesser intelligences is the first failing step to what many occult and Hermetic societies strived to achieve. The ranking system of the Freemasons (and many other secret societies for that matter) is a sure fire guaranteed way of diminishing this celestial authority even further, and submits to the idea man is a lesser intelligence that must evolve its way into divinity, rather than already possessing a ticket of entry.

Freemasons believe in the duality of angel vs demon arising from a core religious belief that centres around Christianity. The subjectivity and personal nature of religion provides a weakness for manipulative entities to exploit, in my opinion, hence why I believe all occult practices should be done with an objective mind free from emotion and religious doctrine.

Freemasonry can’t offer anything in the development and understanding of the psyche beyond what Lucid dreaming can offer. Ritual becomes redundant when you can enter into the very part of the mind the ritual seeks to exploit and directly push the buttons that exist therein.

Personal Experience tells me that the Goetic spirits are real interdimensional intelligences that very much differ from being simply deeply repressed aspects of the shadow self, and that they hold some every important information about humans and their {true} cosmological history. Those in my inner circle, through their own experiences, agree with this assessment. This does not fit in with the Freemasonic understanding of these spirits.

I’ve already met the Grand Architect, there is simply nothing the brotherhood can offer me in the form of spiritual liberation.

Jeff Drew and his witty and sarcastic artwork

We are here.

Most can agree the majority of our World Citizens are as unsettled with the present American Administration as are the majority of Americans. This "UNCOOL" Administration comes across as Judgmental, Undisciplined, and Disrespectful. They seem to deny themselves any attempt to "understand" other points of view which in short time will result in others just giving up on them.

The pivot point will happen this year or the next. Not quite sure of the timing. It could be short, brief and quick, or could be a long drawn out nastiness. I do not know.

Don’t believe what you read in Western media when it comes to China

From HERE

Frank Sade Bilaupaine*
Honiara

How many times have you picked up a newspaper or social media platform and read something on a topic you’re familiar with and realized that you’re reading something which isn’t true? Annoyingly, it happens to us all.

When the news reports something we know is untrue and then reports on something we don’t know about, why do we believe that must be true? Well, it’s a real thing and Michael Crichton, the famous doctor, writer, scientist movie maker among many other things, gave it a name – the Gell-Mann Effect.

I’ve said it before and will no doubt say it again, when I arrived in China, I had a very different perspective on what I was seeing to what I thought I knew about China. It really didn’t take me long to understand much of it was wrong; probably about 24 hours.

What I was seeing in real life didn’t matter at that time because my media consumption was telling me China was slowing, China was collapsing, China was a bad place to be and it must have been true because even the BBC, CNN and other western media platforms said so. But… China didn’t collapse when they said it would.

As my years of living in China extended then, I started to notice things: China said it would build a bridge to Hong Kong, they said they would put 15 high speed train stations into the city where I lived, they said they would build a new university and another hospital in downtown and I’ve seen many governments promise to do things like this; but then China actually went and did them all.

In the UK, back in 2013, I read about a high-speed rail link that will be completed by 2045 and, if it ever finishes, it will be a total of 530 kilometers. Most of it is still being planned and much of it is still unapproved by Parliament – it might be finished in 2045… We shall see!

China, while in the process of a reported collapse, has put 4,100 km of new railway lines into operation across China in 2022, including 2,082 km of high-speed tracks.
Australia’s Western Sydney was promised a new Airport in 1946, yet the work finally started in 2022 and it’s scheduled to be completed in 2026. China opens an average of eight new airports a year, while reportedly collapsing.

Why is my news telling me one thing, when my ears and eyes are showing me something completely different?

I also noticed that the standard of living has improved. When I first went o Wuhan city in central China in 2012, almost not many had a car, now almost everyone does. Corruption, pollution, and crime are almost non-existent. Education, health, and the economy have all improved and yet, everything I read in the news from the likes of BBC, CNN and others about China says the opposite.

I witnessed how life in China has improved, it was clear that people in the West were being misinformed about this one topic that I actually know about. But I still wanted to believe the rest of the things I read were true – that was the Gell-Mann Effect.

I started to question the things I don’t know about. Why are Australians sure that China is a threat when China has never uttered a threatening word against Australia?
Why do people think China is waging a trade war on Australia when Australia was the country that had almost 100 items of trade from China blocked before anything happened with Barley, coal, lobsters and wine? Go look it up, it’s true.

What’s going on in Ukraine and why can’t I easily find information from both sides of this conflict?

Why did the US invade Iraq when there were no weapons of mass destruction there but that was their reason for doing so?

It’s simple, we’re being misinformed about almost everything we’re reading, hearing and watching in Western media platforms. From time to time, we know we’re being misinformed but we continue to believe it when we don’t know. That’s the Gell-Mann Effect in action. We want to believe something is true when we want it to be so.

If you want to believe China will collapse soon and you want to believe China is a threat you can read that every single day in your media but think about the logic of that. How can a country that’s been in decline for dozens of years build all that infrastructure. How is a country that has never invaded or attacked another in your lifetime be a threat? Think about this: who is telling you these things?

Remember the expression: “if you don’t read the papers you’re uninformed, if you do, you’re misinformed” and we’re all told it was said by Mark Twain, well, once again, we’re misinformed even about that – there’s no record Mark Twain ever said it but there is a similar quote from Thomas Jefferson who, in an 1807 letter said “nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper” and went on to say that “the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.”

So, this is not new, consider who owns or controls your media. If you believe your government and you believe your news then that’s great for you. But please, read wisely, be critical and don’t believe everything you read – I can’t say for certain about much else, but I can absolutely and certainly say, most of the things you’re reading about China is wrong and not true.

This 75 Year Old Grandpa Visits An Animal Shelter Every Day And Naps With Cats

November 8, 2019

terry lauerman cat nap 2

Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary/Facebook

A 75-year-old man visits a local animal shelter every day so he can enjoy “brushing cats” while often falling asleep on the job and napping with the felines.

Terry Lauerman decided one day to introduce himself to a local Green Bay-area animal sanctuary, telling the folks at Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary Inc. that he likes to brush cats.

According to Elizabeth Feldhausen, the founder of Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary, “He just walked in and started brushing,” noting that he never asked to be a volunteer. “So eventually we told him he was an official volunteer and had him fill out our volunteer form.”

The shelter, which opened in 2016, rescues cats with disabilities that would be at risk of euthanasia at other facilities.

Feldhausen said Lauerman visits the cage-free sanctuary daily and stays for about three hours. After he grooms a cat for a bit, he typically dozes off. “He sleeps for about an hour, then he’ll wake up and switch cats.”

Feldhausen adds: “he is able to get cats that normally don’t like to be touched to jump up on his lap and want to be held and brushed,” she said. “He knows all of their names and all of their personalities.”

Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary/Facebook

‘The Cat Grandpa’ has had a lifelong love for felines.

“I’ve always liked cats and I always had cats when I was kid, and I loved them,” he told the newspaper. “In many ways, I see my old cats in these cats here.”

The group decided to dedicate a Facebook post to him, which has since gone viral.

“We are so lucky to have a human like Terry,” the shelter wrote, alongside a few photos of Lauerman cat napping with felines. “Terry just came along one day and introduced himself. He said he’d like to brush cats. Eventually, it became everyday. He brushes all of the cats, and can tell you about all of their likes and dislikes. He also accidentally falls asleep most days. We don’t mind – Cats need this! Terry is a wonderful volunteer.”

Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary/Facebook

Confessions Of A Prison Corrections Officer

December 5, 2019

What are some of the worst things you’ve seen in prison?

I remember coming onto shift one night and I look over to the eight and on the top tier the inmate had a razor stuck in the foreskin of his penis and finally got it out and cut his sack open and handed his testicales when I finally came up there to relieve the other officer.

What’s the weirdest thing you have found up an Inmate’s butt?

A galaxy note 8. Took him 3 hours to get it out.

How did they get it out?

Medical staff was down there with him getting it out and it was HANDED/RETRIEVED to the Sergeant for evidence and a report

Is prison rape as common as most people think?

Not really. ALOT of them lie about because we treat it with such seriousness and gets another inmate into trouble and into confinement immediatley.

Wouldn’t a prisoner have to be insane to lie about being raped considering the stigma it carries?

They all know it’s a game so really no stigma.

People think it’s a sure thing that child abusers will get taken out once they get to prison. Is that true?

They will most likely get beaten up but rarely killed.

How would the other inmates find out what that person is in for?

When they make phone calls they ask someone on the outside to look it up since it’s all public info especially since they’re a predator.

Aren’t the calls monitored to keep this from happening?

Yeah but they aren’t intercepted at that point in time. Someone reviews that later at night and that’s how they find out about anything dumb they might be trying to do.

How do the sex offenders behave in prison?

In my experience, S.O. inmates behave relatively well for the most part. Usually quiet and playing table games with other S.O. inmates.

Do upstanding/peaceful inmates receive a special treatment?

Kinda in a way yeah. Like me for instance if a inmate is really respectful and genuine about it if he asks me to charge his tablet during the day (they are only supposed to be charged at night) I might do it if I get a chance. I do it to show the other inmates that I can work with them if they are respectful.

Inmates get tablets now? Is there an internet connection too?

Yeah and no it’s based off a kiosk system they hook it up to if they want anything new on it.

What do they do with the tablets? DO they load games and ebooks onto them or something?

Exactly what you said and music

In the podcast ‘Ear Hustle‘ , they talk about racial segregation as just default. The exception, if I remember correctly, being the inmates who play the game DND. Are there programs or efforts to encourage racial integration, or is it just a matter of course?

Really just a matter of course. Now when I say that they are plenty of inmates that don’t care about racial segregation. But whenever it comes to a fight or brawl they will side with their race 99% of the time.

How much incoming mail gets read?

Everything. Multiple times.

What’s the most heartbreaking experience you’ve had?

Having a good friend of mine kill himself because his wife that worked at the same prison was having sexual relations with a couple of inmates.

How was the wife treated? What was her reaction?

She went to jail for a little while and didn’t seem to care.

Do officers get into it with the inmates?

Oh yeah. Shouting matches for the most part.

Worst physical altercation you’ve seen between an officer (maybe yourself) and an inmate?

An inmate beat the dog shit out of an officer out of nowhere cuz he was high on k2. And no the officer is not an asshole.

Have you ever met someone you genuinely believed to be innocent/wrongfully convicted?

Yeah. An inmate is in prison for life because some POS raped his 5 year old daughter and he killed them. He is a very stand up person.

How is the food they give the inmates, do you get the leftovers?

It’s not that bad for the most part. And no I bring my own stuff.

Does your facility sell the whole shabang chips? Have you tried them?

Yeah they do and no I haven’t but the inmates sat they are really good.

How is it as a career? Pay, benefits, environment, rewards, etc?

Depends on the jurisdiction, but overall, likely not bad. State COs start out at like 55k a year, with various ways to bump it up (location pay, hazard pay, and a shitload of overtime available). My state also does this thing where when you retire after 25 years, they take the beat 3 of your last 5 years, average them out, and that’s your annual pension for the rest of your life. And since most COs are in their early 20s when they get hired, they end up with a 70-90k pension for life by 50 years old. State insurance and shit is also pretty good, here.

Environment… well, it’s a prison.

What education is usually required?

High school where I’m at.

What is something that you think the general public does not know or understand about your job, or prison in general?

It’s not as bad or dramatic as people make it. As long as you’re fair and consistent and don’t let them walk over you then you will be fine. Inmates respect the staff that have time in.

What do you think of the US’s way of treating prisoners as well as the standards of the “corrections facility” you are working at?

I think it is very soft. They have 20 channel tv, tablets, endless hours of recreations, all kinds of commissary items. Don’t really seem like punishment. They are just segregated from the world. The standards on paper are great but in reality half the people don’t even follow it.

Isn’t rehabilitation something you want other than punishment?

Of course but ALOT and I mean ALOT of them don’t take advantage of it and it makes me a little biased (which I am admitting) on the subject . But I have seen plenty of inmates get their GED and have the prison give them the tools to succeed and come back 1 year or less under a different or same charge.

If you were given a blank check to reform the prison system what changes would you make and why?

Officers more pay. And more programs and better education for inmates to explore their interests so that when they get out they have all the tools ready to not come back. And better working facilities. We have 4 maintenance civilians that fix something broken all day everyday.

Bhakari

Serve this whole-wheat bread from the Gujarat region of India as you would pita bread. It’s good for dipping, and tastes great all by itself.

Ingredients

2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water

Instructions

Combine the flour, salt, oil, milk, and half the water in a bowl. Mix using a wooden spoon or fingers. Add more water, 1 tablespoon (15 ml) at a time until the dough forms a ball. Knead the dough with lightly oiled hands for 10 minutes. The dough should be fairly firm.
Allow the dough to rest, covered with a dish cloth, for 15 minutes.
Divide the dough into 4 to 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a round 1/4 inch thick.
Heat a flat griddle or large skillet over moderate heat. Cook the dough, one piece at a time, pressing it down occasionally with a spatula, until cooked and lightly browned on the bottom. Turn the dough and repeat. The dough may balloon slightly during cooking.
Repeat with remaining pieces of dough.

Meet Jeff Drew, the Award-Winning Illustrator Behind America’s Witty and Sarcastic Artwork

Jeff Drew, an Albuquerque-based illustrator, has gained national recognition for his exceptional and sharp-witted artwork. He has created cover illustrations for various publications across America, showcasing his stunning visual style.

More: Jeff Drew, Instagram, Shop

Drawing inspiration from 1950s advertising graphics, Jeff produces contemporary illustrations that pack a punch. In addition to his illustration work, he creates event posters, album covers, and product labels for various clients.

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Through his illustrations, Jeff continuously pushes the boundaries while entertaining audiences with his sarcastic sense of humor. His unique and outstanding artwork is a testament to his talent and creativity, and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

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RUSSIA COMMENCES NUCLEAR ATTACK DRILL; NATO WARNS OF ATTACK IF THEY PERCEIVE RUSSIAN ACTUAL ATTACK!

World Hal Turner 19 February 2023

Russia, on Sunday, began large-scale exercises of its strategic nuclear forces, on the eve of Biden’s visit to Europe.

The exercises include large-scale maneuvers for its strategic nuclear forces.

Meanwhile, the White House has told Zelenskyy to prepare for a major Russian offensive now!

There are “no plans” for President Biden to enter Ukraine during his upcoming trip to Poland, NSC spokesman John Kirby said Sunday. HOWEVER . . . .

Biden will address the citizens of Russia and Putin, during his visit to Poland on February 21 according to John Kirby

As of today, Russia has 5977 nuclear warheads; the most in the world. They also have the most advanced nuclear missile technology in the world.

NATO has said if they see activity of Russian nuclear forces that could possibly be preparation to launch a nuclear attack, NATO will attack Russian nuclear forces ( with conventional weapons), it was said.

SARMAT?

Russia President Vladimir Putin is testing his hypersonic “SARMAT” missile and officials in remote districts in eastern Russia have been warned to be ready for a test launch between February 15 and 25

The giant 208-ton hypersonic missile is capable of carrying FIFTEEN individual nuclear warheads including Russia’s new Hypersonic “Glide” Vehicles which cannot be stopped by any missile defense presently on earth.

Unusual Flights

As this story is written at 8:36 PM eastern US time Sunday night, there are unusual flights circling over Poland of RC-135W Rivet Joint (electronic surveillance), and Boeing E-3B Sentry (Airborne early warning and control) aircraft accompanied by KC-135T Stratotanker for refueling.

It’s unusual because they very rarely fly at night over Europe, almost never.

I can also report a nuclear armed submarine has been placed on the ‘highest level’ of combat readiness and that strategic bombers have been moved to a base in Tambov, Russia.

HAL TURNER ANALYSIS

In a normal, rational, world, these Nuclear exercises would send a clear message. But in OUR world, this message will likely be laughed off by Biden. He doesn’t seem to care.

In fact, I think Biden wouldn’t understand a nuke being dropped on his head. In my view, he’s so addled by Dementia, he’s barely conscious.

At this point, I don’t think anything can halt what is coming.

It is not about occupation it is about survival for Russia, NATO has made it clear they intend on crushing them and dividing it up into regions and exploit their natural resources.

Russia is telling them to back the fuck up.

We are closer to WWIII today than we’ve ever been. This time, if nations continue down this road, there will be full blown world war.

Are we ready for that? Rationing? The threat of invasion? Bombings? Military policing? Internment camps? Bread lines? Hunger? Famine? Mass depopulation?

We can barely keep the supply chain going post-Covid. A world war?

Our government needs to let this Ukraine thing go. They, however, will not.

The one thing that bothers me about Biden’s trip to Poland . . . . what if it turns into an “Arch Duke Ferdinand” moment?

What if the US “Deep State” plans to kill Biden while he’s in Poland, and blame Russia?

Kamala Harris becomes President, and off to war we all go.

This week is likely to be historic. I hope you are all prepared as best you can be with emergency food, water, medicine, communications gear, etc.

Bhindi Dopeaza

Ingredients

1 pound okra
2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 teaspoon garlic paste or powder
1/4 teaspoon coriander paste or powder
1/8 teaspoon cumin
3 large tomatoes
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions

Cut the tip and the very bottom from the okra just to clean it, but do not slice.
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.
Add onion and cook for 3 minutes.
Add all ingredients except okra, tomato and cilantro. Cook for 3 minutes.
Add okra, then cook for 6 to 8 minutes.
Garnish with tomato and cilantro.
Serve with rice, naan or pita bread.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BEIJING OFFICE

Solomon Star

Jan12

Editorial Viewpoint

IT is heartening to know the government is working on a new appointment for our diplomatic mission in Beijing, China.

It shows, among other things, the importance the government attaches to our growing relations with the People’s Republic of China, PRC for short. China is a very important strategic partner in development.

Its good intention to help us has been misinterpreted by the so-called Western democracies that have persisted in tarnishing China’s name.

But China’s achievements in fields such as technology, space, medicine outshines these baseless criticisms. Its achievements in these and other fields are nothing short of breathtaking.

Arguably, China is now placed at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution.

You only have to be in any of its many cities to feel what is taking place there.

Almost every industrial country on this planet are thronging to Beijing, the Chinese capital to get a slice of the industrial revolution which China can claim as its trigger.

So, the Solomon Islands-China diplomatic relations cannot be over-emphasized. The government is therefore correct in ensuring we reconnect with Beijing at the earliest opportunity after the devastating loss of our first Ambassador to China, John Moffat Fugui, who died last month.

But connecting with Beijing is one thing choosing the right candidate is quite a different thing altogether.

There are many things we can learn from China. China’s unequalled feat in getting 800 million people over the poverty line in just 30 short years is never heard of.

What is China’s secret and how did China do it? We need to investigate this to find the secret of China’s magic in doing what it did.

To achieve this, the nation should be represented in Beijing not necessarily on party line but with someone who has the interest of the nation at heart first and foremost. Anything less is not even worth considering, let alone discussing.

12 People Reveal What’s It Like To Be Related To A ‘Karen’

July 6, 2020

(art: @yunacunn)

1. My mom is a Karen whose name is actually Karen. Simply put, I haven’t seen her in over a year because I couldn’t take it anymore. Living with her was just an exhausting nightmare.

Karen’s world revolves around Karen. Nobody else’s issues matter. If you tell her that you had a bad day, she’ll give you 20 reasons why her day was worse. You worked 60 hours this week? Well, when she was your age, she would work 80. You’re in the hospital after having major surgery? She has a pinched nerve in her arm, which is somehow worse. Your boyfriend cheated on you? She couldn’t even begin to tell you about all the heartbreak she’s experienced in her life.

She complains left and right about anything and everything. If you’re taking a week break after just getting back from college, she’ll ask why you haven’t gotten a job yet and claim you’re lazy. If you’re out to eat at a restaurant the food is always too cold or too burnt or too salty. You can only ever go to the places SHE wants to go to, because everything else is crap. My entire graduation dinner she complained about how cold the food was.

She THRIVES in getting attention and constantly seeks it, but she has very few ACTUAL friends. Facebook is her lifeblood and she’s always looking to start something on there. She’s the queen of sharing uninformed, misguided, conservative propaganda, which always starts fights in her comments. Also, if a tragedy happens in the family (like the passing of my teenage cousin), she’ll make a big scene on Facebook and expect condolences from anyone and everyone, and makes note of the people who don’t give her what she wants.

Don’t even get me started on the blatant racism. I’ve heard everything from, “watch out for black people on the subway. They’ll try to take your purse” to “It should be illegal for those Muslims to cover their faces. You should be able to see someone’s face.” One of my best friends is black and she once told me, “He’s one of the good ones. They should all be like him.”

2. Was married to a male Karen. Everything, and I mean everything, could set him off.

We were at a local taproom and his iPhone automatically connected to the Wifi. Keep in mind, he had full bars on our cell service. The WiFi was being wonky and wasn’t working. The manager, super nice guy, comes over and asks how we are doing, while he washes some glasses in the dish pit on the other side of the bar. The following conversation ensues, keep in mind, my husband is super irritated at this made up problem because our cell service is working just fine and he can literally just turn off the WiFi:

Husband: Your WiFi is fucking trash.

Manager: I’m sorry. We recently upgraded our internet, and Cox is sending us a new modem. It’s supposed to be here this week.

Husband: If you say you have WiFi, you should make sure it actually works.

Manager: I know. I’m sorry. I’d be happy to restart the modem to see if that helps.

Husband then ignores him and continues to talk under his breath about a made up issue.

This was my life for almost five years. The sense of entitlement was frustrating enough in public, but more so at home. I had apologized to more servers, retail workers, neighbors, and random people in public for him in five years than the rest of my life outside of him.

You know what, now that I’m talking about it, maybe he’s not so much a male Karen. He’s more like a piece of shit.

3. My sister is a Karen. Everyone feels so sorry for her husband. Everything is his fault. He is treated like a slave. She only addresses him by yelling. She constantly insults him. We have no idea why he hasn’t divorced her or flipped out and attacked her. We have all told her to cool it and her response is that he’s just so stupid. I could go on and on but my sister really is a horrible person.

4. My sister AND sister in law are both Karen’s. I will show up to restaurants 15 min early to warn them. I tell them if it’s not done to their liking they WILL hear about it and they will make your shift hell. I’m just there as a warning.

I used to work in restaurants and those people made life hell. I do what I can to help. Generally my drinks are better and we get a free appetizer as soon as those two tornados walk in all hell breaks loose. Not enough ice, table is too cold, it’s too loud, etc. I also tip really big because I DON’T want to be associated with the two tornados.

I live overseas so I only see them 2 weeks out of the year. So it’s manageable. I only put up with their attitude because they could take my nieces and nephews away from me. I pick my battles. I need my nieces and nephews to know I’m always here for them and they can talk to me about anything. I can’t risk our relationship being tampered with, especially since I only see them 2 weeks a year.

5. Not married to a Karen, but married someone with a Karen for a sister. Sister in law is the freaking worst. I hate more than anything going out to dinner with her, listening to her order food and talk to the servers. Holidays are also terrible, she sends out long lists of expected gifts list. She celebrates every holiday and birthday specifically for presents even when it not appropriate.

Funny thing is one time I was away from the dinner table when the bill came and SIL waited for me to return to pay the bill by actually handing it to me. She didn’t give it to her sibling/my SO or pay her half, but expressly handed it to me to pay.

6. My moms a Karen. Literally overreacts to everything. Whenever something doesn’t go her way- you guessed: gotta speak to the manager or whoever is in charge. Sometimes really embarrassing to go out in public with her because she’ll just yell at the service workers for the smallest of things. Also she has a bob cut.

7. 4 years of a toxic relationship though. I broke up with her on Monday, again. We’re kinda fucked financially because of this lockdown so we are just feeling things out for a month before we decide forsure. This cycle is on repeat.

I constantly have to cut her off and speak over her because of the way she treats people. Waiters, sales assistants, gym staff, neighbours , landlords, randoms we meet in bars etc.

Note: we were both waiters at the beginning of our relationship so she has worked in the industry, but still lacks empathy. She blames the waiter if something is out of stock etc.

My second major issue. We are both English second language teachers. She teaches kindergarten, while I teach highschool. Now that we are working from home I hear how she speaks to her students and it’s really opened up another aspect of her personality that I don’t like. She will berate a student for not understanding instead of evaluating her ability to explain. Shitting on 3 year olds in their second language doesn’t fly with me.

A lot of her behaviour stems from a self defence mechanism due to insecurity, but that’s not an excuse. She doesn’t realise how mean she is to people, including myself.

I’m a people pleaser that would rather sacrifice my own comfort than someone else’s. She expects me to be an asshole to people because I’m a biggish guy with tattoos, I don’t exactly look soft. It’s toxic as hell, please help.

8. Not married to one but my mom is absolutely one. I spend most of my time with her in public apologizing to people after she’s walked away. The one and only time it comes in handy is when I’ve bought cars and had her come in during the price negotiation phase – she’s knocked off thousands purely due to how unpleasant she is and how much people want her to just get the hell out of the door.

9. My ex wife is a Karen, in every sense but name. It was always so embarrassing. She was incapable of treating anyone like a human for the most trivial of occurrences. It was hell for me, as a person that’s pretty forgiving and don’t seek out confrontation. So in a 1 word description it was Hell. Lol

10. Engaged to one, she was raised as a princess by here military raised father. However she’s super down to earth but god forbid you work in the service industry and mess something up. She worked at IHOP during college so it humbled her compared to her family. She just writes reviews now (good or bad) and emails corporate to complain. If something is wrong with my food she refuses me to sit there and eat it. Which I hate but I have gotten her better about it (I believe). So maybe she is just a recovering Karen at this point.

11. I’m not married to a Karen but someone in my family decided to make a Karen family and let me just say.. it is freaking hell! I do not go to any social event if said Karen will be there (keeps the peace in my family tbh) nor do I go alone with Karen. She is a nightmare to everyone in her path, from car guards to cashiers, even her friends… No one can be better than her or smarter than her and she’s just freaking exhausting man. The worst part is… Her kids are becoming just like her

12. My mum is a bit of a Karen, and we’re pretty much no contact now so that should tell you everything you need to know. Whenever we’d go out to eat it’s always too cold, they don’t have the brand of sparkling water she likes, they’ve put ice in her drink when she didn’t want it, she always has to make some kind of modification to her order etc. the list goes on.

It got to the point where if we were out shopping and she said she needed to return something I’d just go somewhere else because I couldn’t stand watching her be rude and argue with the staff.

My parents are divorced and I live with my dad now instead. Part of the reason I barely see my mum is because I’d have to meet her in public (go for a coffee or something) and I just can’t deal with the way she behaves in these places so I don’t go.

[daegonmagus] – Part 30 – A Report on the Operational Characteristics of the ET Craft I Piloted

The following is the 30th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Up to date version

This article is in HTML. It is version 1.

A better version of this summary is on PDF, and it corrects some errors and adds some more detail.

I suggest that you read this PDF, downloadable HERE rather than reading this summary…

If it is more convenient to read here in HTML, go ahead…

A Report on the Operational Characteristics of the ET Craft I Piloted, (later TBD) Accompanied by a Video Simulation:

The following report is based on an experience I had on the 27^th June 2022 in which I believe I was successful in having my consciousness merged and attached to what most people would consider an extra terrestrial space craft. Whilst this falls under the category of a Lucid Dreaming/ Astral Projection experience, these forms of nomenclature are, in my opinion, not sufficient in describing the vividness of the experience, which was comparable to the vividness of waking, physical reality. It is for this reason I have decided to write this report including as much detail as possible, so it can hopefully be built upon by other explorers of consciousness. I am confident that there is valuable information here that will give insight into the potential operating parameters of ET spacecraft visiting our planet. I am currently working on an accompanying video simulating what it was like to fly this space craft. The original article I wrote can be found at [daegonmagus] – Part 26 – Lucid Astral Projection – The Consciousness Craft Launch Facility and Something Dwelling in the Red Planet: – Metallicman, albeit, much to my chagrin I had not found much time to properly scrutinize the experience and draft a proper report on my findings when I wrote it. This document is to make up for that, though bear in mind it has been written several months after the fact. I apologise, for not writing this sooner, as life got in the way.

To the layman, and those who have not had Out of Body experiences such as astral projection and lucid dreaming this report might come as a bit outlandish in its claims. It is therefore important to understand some back context derived through many years worth of experimentations in lucid dreaming I myself have conducted over several decades and note some passages from prior works in this field of Ufology that are relevant to what is being discussed here. Hopefully, I can then provide a logical process by which other consciousness explorers may adapt to their own voluntary OBE sessions to achieve similar results. I am confident in my assertions that further investigation into this material will yield results that will make the scientific community pay more attention to astral projection and lucid dreaming. In saying that though I am only one man who is limited to only a very narrow window of knowledge and skillsets which can be used for the purpose of scientifically investigating this matter (specifically electronics and radio propagation theory), therefore I welcome any input and advice from others whose own windows of knowledge and skills can further compliment this research. I have done my best to provide as much information as possible to give a starting point for further investigation, but at the end of the day, much of this model has been derived through my own interpretations of what I was experiencing that may prove to be inaccurate. However, I do not think these inaccuracies warrant this material to a swift shuffling into the dustbin, and am confident that they can be ironed out if enough manpower takes the subject herein seriously enough.

An integral part of the theory being discussed here is the idea that consciousness and the physical body are two completely separate things that interface with one another to provide a singularly functioning biological machine that is capable of perceiving and interacting with the physical world around it. It is important to cast aside Darwinian theory of evolution here, as it does nothing to assess the consciousness components that drive said machine, and assumes, rather incorrectly, that consciousness and body are one combined “thing”, inseparable until at least the expiration of the biological body through death. While the evolutionary model of the biological body through Darwinian theory is likely correct (I have no intention of setting out to prove or disprove it), it fails to provide any rationale to the consciousness component and somewhat considers it as an after thought in the question of human {intelligence} evolution. I therefore argue that if consciousness existed before the body (from the rationale that it is too complex to evolve to its current position through a single incarnation), then it deserves a much more thorough scrutinisation, and its own theory of evolution to be applied.

Based on my own experiments and experiences during my OBEs, consciousness, itself, is a superior technology, far in advance of what humans can consider our greatest technological achievements, of which only very advanced civilizations are able to fully realize (for the sake of the argument we will consider these advanced civilizations as being of extra terrestrial nature, or non human, as the human experience is a direct consequence of their manipulation strategies of this superior technology – something which has been directly communicated to me during OBEs, by representatives of such advanced civilisations). It is an extremely versatile component and energy source, of a quantum construction that is extremely adaptable to its own environment. What do I mean by this? To put it simply, through the voluntary act of initiating an OBE, or more specifically through initiating a conscious transition into the sleeping state (where consistent awareness is carried over and no break in understanding or memory is allowed to interfere before sleep is induced), one can deliberately change the dynamics of their own consciousness and manipulate it at a quantum level, to experience things of an indescribable nature to the layman who is yet to have an OBE.
To the investigators of quantum physics, this equates to a witnessing and understanding of the other side of the quantum domain, where Schrodinger’s cat is both alive and dead at once (metaphorically speaking). Where the particle becomes wave and the seemingly impossible becomes possible.

So now we understand that consciousness is a superior, quantum based technology, we can start to gain an understanding of the relationship between consciousness and body, and the irrelevance of Darwinian theory thus becomes apparent. Indeed, consciousness is an entirely separate thing to the body, and can actually be detached from it voluntarily through advanced lucid dreaming practices. Through years of practice, I became somewhat of an expert at regularly achieving this level of detachment, in which I took the opportunities to experiment with just what exactly is achievable by consciousness whilst in this state, pushing it beyond limits that can be explained through common rationality and logic. This detachment can be felt during the aforementioned conscious transition into the sleeping state, where the “interfaces” that allow movements of the limbs and data to be obtained and processed through the nervous system are felt to “fall away”, in which physical reality then becomes replaced by a quantum reality, and where the act of thought creates a seemingly physical environment to manifest around you (what we commonly equate to being dreamscapes).
It is here that consciousness can be tuned out of resonance with the body and made to adapt to other containers, of both physical and non physical (quantum) nature, simply by the use of tought.

How exactly is this achieved? I once had a lucid dreaming experience which I believe offers valuable insight into this question. In the dream, my physical reality was applied like a holographic overlay over my dream environment as I awoke. This physical picture of my room “grew” in definition the closer I got to waking up until I was completely awake, washing out the dreamscape as it did so. During this holographic overlaying of physical reality, I observed a back and forth “wave like” effect (of the holographic physical reality) that moved back and forth through its wave’s peaks at a rate somewhere around 0.5Hertz.Originally I stated this to be about 4Hz, but after reassessing these waves, I figured it closer to being 0.5Hz, based on my understanding of frequency. I immediately applied my (somewhat limited) expertise in radio modulation to my mode of thinking to try and conceptualise what was happening during this experience. After several years of studying that radio theory more in depth (and comparing it to an experience whereby I remembered my own reincarnation and my consciousness being placed within the fetus of my current incarnation, again courtesy of lucid dreaming), my arriving hypothesis is that the brain emits a carrier wave somewhere down this end of the ELF spectrum, (the exact frequency I suspect which can be determined through the application of standard antenna theory to the neurological/ nervous system pathways assuming they act as complex antenna arrays that are susceptible to drift tuning from the parasitic oscillations derived through the natural inductances, capacitances and resistances inherent within the body’s fats and salts) and that consciousness “rides” on the envelope of this carrier in a similar way to how an audio frequency can be modulated on to an AM carrier wave. It could also be closer to an FM or PM wave, though admittedly I have not bothered trying to conceptualize this operating potential beyond simple imaginings.

An important note is to be made here; the formulas associated with finding wavelengths and frequency are based on the idea of electromagnetic radiation being propagated at the speed of light (minus 5% on earth due to atmospheric influence). Whilst these formulas may provide an explanation of the physical, biological body’s energetic radiation (and thus may determine its carrier wave frequency), it would seem that mode of thought (the consciousness signal that rides upon the carrier) operates much fast than the speed of light, which means that an entirely new set of formulas would likely need to be devised before attempting to calculate these thought component wavelengths/ frequencies. I suspect that this modulation operation is actually achieved through a range of harmonic carriers, rather than one stand alone frequency, and would suggest dream researchers study more in depth, the envelopes between the brainwaves picked up through EEG equipment, rather than the actual waves themselves. In other words, try looking for information where at first glance there doesn’t appear to be any.

In another lucid dreaming experience I was in a hypnogogic state bordering a conscious transition into the sleeping state, and caught a signal from nearby non physical intelligence. This signal I heard coming through like a typical broken radio signal, interlaced with heavy static/ white noise, that almost completely drowned at the audible component of the signal out. Given that in these states of mind, thoughts produce tangible environments, I deliberately used my thoughts to manifest a radio dial in which I was then able to tune out this white noise interference and bring out the fidelity in the audible signal. I understood this immediately as being “not of human or earth origins”, as whatever was speaking spoke in a “clickity clack” dialect that had no familiarity to any language I had ever heard; I had no idea what they were saying.
Almost simultaneously as I tuned into this frequency, I was “teleported” to a sort of large ship (no longer in hypnogogia but on the otherside of transitioning into the sleeping state) filled with a strange liquid where telepathic images were transmitted to me about what these creatures looked like (not describable), as well as gesturing me to enter a strange cylinder device to my side. Upon entering the cylinder, I underwent a calibration process, whereby an understanding of this foreign language immediately happened. The details of that conversation are irrelevant to this report and have been discussed elsewhere in my literature. After having many experiences of contact with non physical “alien” intelligences within these states, I am very confident in my assertion that the operational characteristics of consciousness can be finely tuned whilst consciously aware one is in this state.

So, to summarize, the hypothesis is that the biological human body is simply a vessel that locks consciousness into it through the use of what essentially equates to signal modulation. Through deliberately induced lucid dreaming (or more specifically Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming) one can gain access to the mechanisms that allow them to control and tune their consciousness away from this “capturing” frequency of the human body, in which it can then be primed for habitation within other vessels both of biological and non biological substance.

We now take a look at the testimony of Lt Colonel Philip J Corso (which was relayed in his book The Day After Roswell) in which he states his assumption (from reports he read) that the craft that crashed at Roswell in 1947 seemingly had no operational controls that one would expect to find in conventional aircraft, and that this particular craft was possibly controlled by an extraterrestrial consciousness that was able to be tethered in with it. In the book, Corso mentions how the suits worn by the ETs also somehow allowed control of the craft by emitting an electromagnetic signature that matched in with the craft. Corso’s assumptions are heavily similar to my own determinations of using a carrier frequency to lock consciousness within a biological body; in fact if you substitute the space craft for the human body they are almost identical, and these were hypotheticals I was conceptualizing years before reading his book.

Further, in the Alien Interview (an alleged manuscript of an interview with the alien from the same Roswell Crash) Airl, the alien suggests a very similar mode of piloting their craft by moving their consciousness into it. Regardless of whether or not either of these works are legitimate or not, they present a very workable hypothesis that I believe warrants further investigation, which I used as a basis for experimentation during my own lucid dreams: deliberately using induced OBEs to target and hijack functional ET spacecraft.

Based on my experiences and experiments therein, I can state with 100% surety that Lt Col Corso was correct in his assessment, but that he failed to identify deliberately induced OBEs, such as Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection as a very reliable means in achieving operational control of extra terrestrial vehicles (if you believe the military industrial complex hadn’t already worked this out). I remind the reader of this article that I am very well versed in what constitutes a sub conscious dream, a deliberately constructed (visualised) dream, an astral projection experience, hypnogogia, sleep paralysis and the difference between all of them. What my experience entailed was something completely different; it was a rerouting of my consciousness into an extra terrestrial space vehicle that I wore and experienced in the exact same way I experience the physical body I use to type these words. I was physically present in (physical) outer space whilst operating this vehicle, not simply buzzing around the astral plane (which I have done before and also managed to bump into some kind of flying UFO).. The following is based on notes I was able to take during that flight out of the solar system into incredibly “deep” space, which hoping will one day be taken as validation of the experience, when space exploration technology progresses to a point where a more thorough exploration to the region of space I was in can be carried out.

The Vanquish DM-22 Specifications:

Given my appreciation of the craft in question, and the achievement of the experience, I feel the need to refer to it in specific manner, so that no confusion can be made if this craft is ever witnessed in our local region of space. Thus I came up with the name Vanquish DM-22; Vanquish (because it seemed like the space fairing equivalent of an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, also fitting considering the safety of feeling being able to “vanquish” any offensive attack that came my way), and DM – 22 in reference to my initials and the year I first flew it. Flying this craft was a very big deal for me.

Size and shape were hard to determine, as a) it is hard to determine the outside of a body you are currently inside of (just like we cannot determine the shapes of our own bodies without a mirror, except for those parts we can see), and b) the distance between celestial bodies gave a distorted perception of size, particularly at the speeds I was travelling. In saying that though, I got the feeling of a sort of spinning top as a basic silhouette of shape (through my field of vision and based on what I could “feel”, just like one can “feel” their head is a certain shape without touching it). I am confident the above CAD model is a close representation of its shape, considering. The bottom point of the VDM-22 would be what I consider the standout feature, as I could feel this as being the main “limb” of the VDM-22. Most of the control points (the “nerves” of the craft) seemed to gather at this bottom point.

Based on the hangar length, and that the VDM-22’s width was almost touching each side of the launch “chimney”, then considering my perspective of the chimney whilst inside of it, then once again outside in space, I am guessing the diameter was somewhere around 20m. I consider this to be a less accurate assumption than estimating the shape as I had a limited frame of reference to work off. The movement of celestial bodies past the ship suggested the size was astronomically large, but again at those distances and speeds it becomes almost impossible to tell. Extrapolating from the idea I was able to eventually land on Mars, is suggestive the craft was much smaller than that particular planet. At the same time, using the atmospheric boundary of the same planet during landing also suggests it was bigger than conventional earth shuttles.

The “ears” of the VDM-22 body seemed to be some kind of telepathic transceiver that increased audible range to the point that atmospheric noise could be heard with crystal clear clarity from great distances. Noises very similar to those compiled by NASA on what planets “sound like” could be heard on approach to certain planets, which faded as one moved away from them. According to NASA these particular frequencies (before being manipulated by them so they could be heard by the human ear) sit somewhere within the 800MHz spectrum, suggesting this craft body allows the filtering of signals far beyond the 20kHz limit of the human ear. Through the use of the HUD, zooming in to a neighboring galaxy also allowed one to pin point the audio signals coming from that region of space. Interlaced throughout this white noise, in various star clusters, intelligent voices could be heard quite easily. It appeared that certain planets were also conscious (as if consciousness had taken up residence in them like I was taking up residence in this craft) and exhibited intelligence to the level they were able to seemingly communicate (which took the form of English, assumedly translated through the craft’s “ears”) with other nearby planets and me as I approached them. An apparent Martian intelligence was one such example that seemed quite dominant and “loud” and easily discernible even from deep space. Two way communication with these intelligences could be achieved through first zooming into their region of space and using thought as a transmission medium. This zooming feature allowed identification of planetary bodies to extremely high detail from vast distances over several hundred lightyears away.

It was also apparent that some of these planetary transmissions had been set up as beacons to provide navigational data to similar space craft that would be traversing the area.

I was also able to use a stellarium astronomy software that came with a telescope I bought, called Starry Night 8, to devise a very close simulated representation of some aspects of the experience, and derive from it interesting data in the form of star maps that allowed me to approximate in space I was, as well as speeds I was achieving with this craft. This simulation will be included in the aforementioned video along with animations to better show the process of how to merge ones consciousness with these type of craft.

The speeds of the VDM-22 can be broken down into 3 categories of operation: atmospheric, local space and outer galaxy speeds. Atmospheric was the initial speed upon launching from the facility tunnel perched on the top of an asteroid I tracked using Starry Night 8 to being somewhere near the Pawlowia Asteroid during the time of the experience. I have in my head (and I don’t know why) that the approximate length of the tunnel the VDM-22 was hangared in was between 32 and 36km in length (protruding directly into space). This length was covered in about 10 seconds, which equates to about a 13000km/hr initial “launch” speed and presented the hardest part to navigate, as I was very much aware there was limited clearance between the edges of my craft body and the tunnel walls (within a mere meter). Extreme focus must be given to propel the craft at this speed through such a confined space. I knew if I was out by even small degree, at that distance I would crash into these tunnel walls and the experience would end.

How to Achieve Flight Control of the Vanquish DM-22:

To understand how to gain operational control of the Vanquish DM-22, we must first delve a bit deeper into this idea that one experiences a detachment of the consciousness mechanisms from the interfaces of the human body that allow motor control over the limbs etc which can be directly ported over to a target space craft. I mentioned previously that consciousness whilst out of body (lucid dreaming, not astral projecting, as consciousness is still attached to an energetic body with the latter) is extremely versatile in its ability to adapt to its quantum environment. This should be taken as meaning that consciousness can exhibit an infinite range of movement and form whilst in this state, that does not conform to typical standards related to the physical plane. These mechanisms therefore can be considered as control points with an endless number of ways that they can be arranged. When locked within the body, these control points take the typical bipedal human form, which appears like a tree branch that extends out from the head, down both sides and branches off at the arms or the legs (I highly recommend vigourous study of the Kabbalistic tree of life, as it provides the template of consciousness whilst in human form, according to the students of it). If we consider a MO capped stick figured commonly used a basis for building CGI characters off the movements of real people, this acts as a good mock representation of these control points. We can then start to identify the crucial control points and designate them with specific alphanumeric characters:

What we now have is a rudimentary map of the “quantum body” (my own terminology). This body should in no way be compared to the astral or etheric bodies, as it is really just a ball of energy without any recognizable form – our consciousness in pure consciousness state. What our quantum body map allows us is a means to conceptualise how these control points are reshaped according to the interfaces of whatever vehicle it is being adapted to. In the case of the interstellar craft I was lucky enough to pilot, this shape takes a similar form to the typical sitting lotus position many people use to engage in meditation, if only differing from the position of the hand control points that would equate to resting in the middle of the lap. If one takes our stick figure, arranges it into this position, and then compares it to the typical flying saucer shape, the similarities between the two, should immediately become apparent. This will give an idea of where the consciousness control points will “sit” within the craft that is being piloted.

We can then equate specific gestures that are activated within our biological “meat suit” bodies courtesy of our consciousness stimulating these control points, with actual real time space craft controls. This is the key to controlling these craft. Effectively what you are doing is stimulating these same control points which are now tethered to different parts of the craft in question rather than your biological body. This is how I was able to propel this vehicle at incredible speeds into very deep space.

Through my experience piloting this craft I made the following observations mid flight on how control of the craft through these control points is realized. These determinations were made after going through a “calibration process” or “dance” by which I had to become acquainted with these gestures before I could properly fly the craft.

The shape of the saucer has nothing to do with aero dynamics (which always eluded me due to the idea in the vacuity of space velocity is not effected by drag ); it has to do with the turning motion of consciousness within the craft. In the craft I was in, it was as if there was an invisible central axis running from top to bottom that was the main housing for my consciousness. An action comparable to turning my head to look in a certain direction was achieved by spinning consciousness around this axis in either a clockwise or counter clockwise motion. This allowed a 360 pivot and scouting of one’s entire surroundings without any actual physical movement of the craft being carried out. When propelling forward, turning of the vehicle was achieved by rotating consciousness around this axis, which was almost instantaneous. This allowed tight 90 degree bends to be achieved rather effortlessly mid flight.

As consciousness was spun around this central axis, the control points, which were embedded into walls of the vehicle, also spun with it.
To move through the z axis, the control points of the head are used to what would equate to a looking up or looking down gesture, except that the craft never tilted as our head would do when making such a gesture. It always stayed in the same position relative to how consciousness was viewing (through the x/y axis) from within the central “cockpit”.

To strafe left and right on the x axis we take the triangular arrangement of control points at the top of the forearm, the elbow, and the top of the bicep and push them out to the side, we wish to strafe to, like we are elbowing someone in the ribs. An elbow “jab” would equate to a quick evasive “jump” in that direction, whilst a prolonged “shove” would propel the VDM-22 quite a distance.
A tilt of the craft (ie left or right) was achievable by using this same triangular arrangement of control points and bringing them down to our side (like we are making a chicken flying gesture). This would equate to a “barrel roll” around the y axis on whatever side the control points were on, allowing the ship’s relative plane to be changed.

A forward propelling motion through the y axis equated to taking all control points above the pelvis (from the middle of through the arms and fingers to the head) and pushing them forward, like they comprised a joystick.
Braking was achievable by pulling these same control points back to center.
Reverse was simply the opposite of forward propelling through the x axis using the same control points, or a “lean” back motion.
A detailed HUD map of current location was accessible through simple thought. This is hard to explain but it effectively allowed one to target areas of interest as well as zoom in incredible distances (into neighboring galaxies) in order to pin point travel destinations. It was effectively like switching from 1^st person to third person view, except the craft was not visible during the process. My assumption is that it was some sort of controlled method of projecting consciousness into these regions, not comparable to astral projection.
Targeting of areas of interest were achievable by using the control points equated with the fingers. Rapid, multiple target acquisition could be achieved similarly to playing a piano or typing on a computer keyboard when the HUD was activated (if you could fit it into the crammed space of your lap in the lotus position).

Close scrutiny of the above should allow one to conceptualize a near complete range of movement through all 3 axes and explain the evasion techniques seen by most UFO encounters by pilots. In addition to the above I also had an inkling that the control points of the toes (ie wriggling them) would activate the on board weapons arsenal, which I never bothered testing due to an inner knowing it would be quite devastating (beyond humankind’s worst weapons). This knowledge of having these weapons on board was comparable to the understanding one has male reproductive organs whilst sitting in this (lotus) position; one does not have to “take them out” or “play with them” to know they are there. I suspect it was some kind of laser system, but as I never used it, this is just a guess. I understood that I was a force to be reckoned with, that the composition of my space craft body was virtually indestructible and almost wished for another craft to engage me so I could so test out the defence capabilities of the VDM-22. I felt confidant that I was the biggest fish in the universe, and nothing was going to injure me.

Body Disconnection and Spacecraft Reattachment Process:

Importance must be given to the Hypngogic phase of the OBE, as there is a very small window of opportunity between properly disconnecting consciousness from the body, then attaching it to another usable vessel. Whilst hypnagogia can be considered as a cleavage point of consciousness, where it is “drifting” away from the physical body, but still attached to it, it does not equate to a full separation. Proper separation of consciousness from the body happens very quickly after consciousness inverts from its projected outward state which one experiences from hypnagogia (as well as from sleep paralysis) as a fast “sucking backwards” sensation in which it is pulled away from all hypnogogic imagery (what would happen if Han Solo slammed the millennium falcon in reverse whilst in hyperdrive). This inversion of consciousness is where the physical world becomes supplanted by the quantum one, where the attachment mechanisms of the body fall away and is the crucial point at which consciousness must be quickly tethered to its new container. In the case of my experience, this tethering was achieved by a sort of {non physical} hook that hung from the hallway roof that had the ability to pull my consciousness out of the body I was remote viewing from, and orient it in such a way that it aligned with the space craft cockpit (which was rotated 90 degrees in reference to the ground plane of the facility), and simultaneously merged me into it. It seemed it was by almost sheer luck the timing of this hook hitting me coincided with a conscious transition into the sleeping state, but it is more likely that the hook actually initiated the transition.
My suggestion here is that this hook is probably standard affair in many ET space craft docks, or at least those that exhibit an effortless ability to move their consciousness between different containers. An important take away from this is that hypnogogia can be used to target a specific craft through remote viewing practices.

Interestingly – and I am going to be bold with this statement – our models of neighboring galaxies seem to be somewhat inaccurate. According to this experience, I can say with 100% certainty that the Milky Way is not the largest galaxy in this region of space, and that we have a neighboring twin of roughly the same size that comes off perpendicularly to it.

The Experience:

The experience began as an involuntary remote viewing in hypnagogic trance. If I wanted to I could move my body and get up out of bed, but my consciousness was almost completely “away” and viewing from inside of a body that was walking around the launch facility, which took the form of a typical hospital insofar as layout and design was concerned. I was, evidently, on the very cusp of falling asleep. It is important in this stage of the veiwing, one intentionally refrains from exploring any random thoughts that present themselves, and just let the viewing unfold, as experience tells me that any focus away from the events unfolding in the viewing session has a tendancy to ruin it. I thus watched as this body walked about 50m down a hallway, past what appeared to be a cafeteria lounge, turn right through a door way and then walk down a neighboring hallway back from the direction I had just come. I passed what appeared to be two female reception staff to my left sitting at a table which appeared to have a doorway to outside behind it. The whole effort was quite casual, including the very brief conversation that was had with these reception staff; mine and my escort’s destination was through some blast doors that were located just up ahead. Upon reaching just in front of these blast doors the hook became evident. This was of non physical nature, but I could see it, not through the eyes of the body I was observing through, but through my own consciousness. It looked like a standard length of metal that protruded from the roof, and folded at a 90 angle towards the direction I was coming from – perfectly aligning with the centre of my forehead. The end of the hook seemed to taper into a sharp point.
I had barely had time to react before the head of body I was observing through walked was pierced this hook.
My consciousness immediately underwent the same transition into the sleeping state I have become accustomed to experiencing during my lucid dreams. I entered on into the same void space (written about elsewhere), only that this hook seemed to turn my consciousness 90 degrees upwards as it transitioned; if you picture Han Solo throwing his Millenium Falcon into a sideways back flip as he hits hyper drive in reverse, this is what it felt like; it takes much practice for one to find their bearings through such confusion, and is, in my opinion, the “fun” part of the whole affair. I immediately noticed a cluster of stars coming through what appeared to be a circular hole in this void space. My immediate realization was that this “void space” was some sort of non physical (quantum) hangar; I had just never bothered looking upwards in my other experiences with it. Ie, every time one enters into the sleeping state and into this void space, they are entering into one of these quantum hangars (even if they don’t remember it).

There was a slight period of distortion during the engagement period of my consciousness control points interfacing in within the craft body, similar to how when one first wakes up they are in a daze and their arms and legs are yet to work properly. After several seconds this haze wore off, and I was now completely attached and using this craft as if it was my own body, perceiving the physical, cylindrical, structure of the hanger. The interesting part of this haze period, was that the hangar seemingly went from being in non physical state to becoming solid as the haze wore off, and I could make out, with great vividness, tapered ridges running the entire length of the launch “chimney”. I can remember the roaring sound my thruster exhausts made as it echoed along these tapered ridges, as I propelled the craft forward, towards the opening with the stars, taking care not to move too close to the sides of the launch. This marked the hardest part of the flight; I was aware that any slight movement or twitching of the control interfaces would crash the craft into this chimney, so particular attention was paid to slowly accelerating forward until I was confident I wasn’t going to drift into it. At the same time, I had launch protocols being relayed to me via telepathic means by an unknown party, and I could feel their presence through telepathic means (not describable). A few seconds later I arrived at the opening and shot out of the chimney into space where I could see, in very vivid detail a ring of asteroids circling our sun. These asteroids looked like wet rocks glistening from the rays of light of the sun that were hitting them.

Once in open space, I underwent the calibration process to better get acquainted with the consciousness control points and how they would move the craft. This calibration process was a few minutes of me “dancing” around in space doing barrel rolls and amateur flips as if I was taking a car out to a parking lot to learn how to drive it properly. I am therefore quite sure in my assessment of the above control point manipulation to space craft operation criteria; I had to run myself through it before I could properly control the craft; it was like stretching ones limbs before playing a football game to make sure they work properly. The entire time I was aware of the base launch facility beneath me perched on a small asteroid. The facility appeared somewhat like it was made of brick work (something I found curious given its location in the middle of space) and was probably about fifty by one hundred meters in area, several stories high. The launch tunnel was several tens of kilometers in length.

After a quick tour of this asteroid ring, pin pointing earth, I decided I wanted to get away from these asteroids into a much more open area so I could test this craft’s speed capabilities. I had the inner knowing that this particular craft was the Bugatti Veyron of space (ie, engineered for speed); this understanding was akin to the intimate understanding one has of their own body and it’s capabilities and knowing that a lethargic, heavy weighted body is unlikely to perform as well in a 100m sprint than a more agile one. I just knew, this craft body was designed to be “fast”, and I was itching to see what it could do.

Using starry night software I was then able to simulate a very close representation of the time it took to fly past Jupiter and Saturn (note that in the simulation these planets appear further than I was to them because of lack of control I have over that particular program; in the experience these planets were much bigger, taking up almost all of my viewport, which I assume would mean the speeds to be somewhat faster, as I would have been covering greater distances at the same time). According to starry night 8, this would equate to an approximate acceleration of this craft from a standstill to about 4 Astronomical Units (roughly 598,000,000km) in 2 seconds; 4AU to 250ly/sec (23,652, 000, 000, 000, 000km) within 30 seconds. The region close to the location of the Magellanic clouds was reached within 1 minute of burning with barely any effort, in which I assume I was travelling somewhere near the 250ly/ sec mark. The simulation is a very close representation as to what I witnessed and how planets and stars “floated” past me during the experience. Stoppage from any of these speeds was instantaneous (no coasting or wind down), from the moment the braking control points were stimulated. As one can see, even at initial launch speeds, this craft is capable of flying pretty fast – faster than photonic based light, whilst out of atmosphere, that is for sure. The simulation from finishing the calibration process to entering into the nearby Sagittarius Galaxy can be considered 99% exact to how I experienced it, with a short period of total darkness coming out of the milky way before entering into the next galaxy., taking probably a few more seconds in actuality.

Coming out of the Milky Way, and entering into this darkness, I then turned around (spun my consciousness around the central axis of the craft), which is when I noticed two twin sized galaxies arranged perpendicular to each other. A period of disorientation occurred in which I did not know which exact one it was that I had come from.

In the bottom galaxy, I noticed a large anomalous black hole petrusion taking up about a third of the entire galaxy, spanning from one edge to other, so proceeded to fly over the top of the pancake to get a better view. This black hole I identified as being part of the anomaly I have written about elsewhere (consciousness disassembler I have experienced during prior OBEs). My suspicions are that from our vantage point on earth much of the light from this larger neighboring pancake’s stars is being swallowed by this anomaly which distorts our perception of this galaxy and makes it look much smaller than it really is. I am aware radio emissions are used by astrophysicists to map areas around black holes, but this particular area was somewhat silent around this anomaly (remember, my audible range was several hundred MHz wide, possibly even wider, as opposed to human hearing which peaks at 20kHz), suggesting this anomaly is also capable of swallowing radio frequencies. At the cracks of this anomalous protrusion were what looked like bits of sea foam being brightly illuminated by nearby stars, which I assumed to be left over remnants of other stars that this thing had swallowed after it had spat them out.

Using starry night, and trying to ascertain the relative location of this galaxy from the apparent sizes of galaxies neighboring the Milky Way at different angles, my conclusion is that this close twin is located in the very same region of space that houses the small and large Magellanic Clouds. My suggestion here is that the Magellanic Clouds are actually one larger galaxy which has been.

“cleaved” into two parts through this anomaly, which distorts our perception of them from earth, making them appear as two different clusters. I am hoping that future advances in space exploration will one day provide validation of my experience through the finding of evidence of this supermassive black hole anomaly.

Regardless, after pondering this anomaly for a few moments, and being somewhat concerned of its proximity to earth, I then penetrated out into very, very deep space, to the point I was left floating “in the middle of nowhere”. This would have equated to somewhere near the edge of the cosmic web (the real one, which covers a far greater distance than the known one, judging from what I was witnessing, and comparing to the starry night simulation software).

It was here I tried to establish telepathic communication with the Elder Guardians, who I knew existed very, very far beyond this cosmic web. This was the prime intention of what I wished to achieve with this experience. Up until that point I had been quite active in my exploration around the universe, but it was at this point that I simply just stopped and floated in the middle of no where and the realization hit me that I was an almost unfathomable distance from my physical body back on earth. A curious discovery was made out here; even at that vantage point, I was not able to receive more than a broken transmission that consisted of mainly white noise in between a few “Hello, can you hear me’s”, which suggests to me that there is a barrier that “absorbs” (or more correctly, introduces interference at) even the frequencies associated with telepathic thought transmission somewhere near the edge of the universe.

Shortly after this communication attempt was aborted, the Martian Intelligence spoke directly to me, the amplitude of its “voice” coming through extremely prominently and clear even from this deep region of space. It had evidentally “spotted” my presence flying inside and out of the milky way, and was curious about what I was up to. I had been aware of this intelligence from breaching the outer edges of the milky way, but had not paid much attention to it until it decided to specifically address me. How this was done was hard to explain, but it was like someone shouting at you from a distance, and saying “yes you” when attention was given to the voice. This attention was achieved through the aforementioned “zooming” in to the region of space this intelligence was coming from. The initial thought was that, to a human, this intelligence would have been quite sinister and dangerous, though from the comfort of my space vehicle I thought it’s attempts at coercion to be quite lame, like an adult trying to scare a child who has already called their bluff. I proceeded with extreme caution at its suggestion I come closer to it as it had “something I needed”. Through my targeting apparatus I was then able to run a scan of the planetary body this intelligence was inhabiting, which I identified from its red patterns as being Mars, or a very similar looking planet (galaxy and solar systems were still hard to determine even with this apparatus, unlike my simulation software I did not have the luxury of labels I could use for identification). I was basically operating as a police officer would, going through basic protocols to make sure I was not going to be ambushed.

Once the Mars like planet had been identified, I accelerated forward to it and came within its atmosphere within about 10-20 seconds. Note, that in the simulation, this is covered much quicker on account for the limited way I had to show the targeting of Mars from deep space. However, the part where I look around trying to pin point where this intelligence was coming from is fairly accurate, although actual movement was more robotic. Atmospheric penetration of the Martian like planet was different to that outlined in the simulation, and involved a forward acceleration into a region that was darkened by the lack of sunlight, close to where daylight would have been breaking. This forward acceleration eventually allowed me to get close enough to gently bring my craft body down to almost ground level, in a rocky outcrop with several cliffs surrounding me. There appeared to be a violent dust storm that made visibility of anything but the nearby cliff faces hard to make out. Even upon landing the intelligence still beckoned for me to follow it into this dust storm, which I was very convinced by this point was a trap.

I decided that the wisest move would be to report my findings of this alien intelligence back to the launch facility base on the asteroid near Pawlowia. Shortly after this, my consciousness was disconnected form this space craft body and I awoke in bed, suggesting that this craft may have been left on whatever planet this was I was on.

Determinations from the experience:

ET spacecraft can 100% be “hijacked” through using techniques commonly involved in initiating out of body experiences. Remote viewing practices can be used as an effective means to target these craft.
There is a launch facility for these craft set up in the asteroid belt, which seems to be close to where the asteroid Pawlowia was on the 27^th June 2022.
This facility exhibits human like construction methods (brickwork) and is populated by beings seemingly indistguishable from humans.
These spacecraft have the ability to up scale the bandwidth of frequencies that can be heard during their piloting. There seems to be a common “channel of communication” through this entire bandwidth.
Operation of frequency transmission is different to common methods used on earth; whereas we tend to use a single frequency to modulate the information onto, typical signal transmission from these craft seem to happen simultaneously over this entire frequency range, which has a bandwidth several MHz wide.
The instantaneous transmission speeds through vast distances of space suggest that these transmission are operating beyond those restricted to the speed of light. Instantaneous communication from two different points, many millions of light years apart also suggest a different means of signal propagation, as radio waves are limited to the speed of light (minus 5% under earth atmospheric conditions)
Planetary bodies can seemingly exhibit intelligence at a level that they can be communicated with by not only other planets over great distances, but also by intelligences passing by in some of these space vehicles. My assumption is that this intelligence really comes from an extremely high powered transceiver stationed on these planets by other ET races, in which the planet itself becomes part of the transmission component. I suspect ET races are actually using the planets in some way as an amplification medium of the signals on this telepathy channel.
The most dominant of these transmission stations comes from a planet that either is Mars or looks very similar to it. This transceiver, from whatever its location, can propagate signals out into the edge of the cosmic web instantaneously, with effectively 0 attennuation. Again, this alludes to the idea that these are not typical electromagnetic based radio signals we use on earth, given the obvious bypassing of the inverse square law. The intelligence behind these transmissions is extremely hostile and malicious as far as human standards go, but somewhat inferior when operating from one of these vehicles, suffering from an obvious cowardice.
Some planetary bodies are being used as navigational beacons for these type of space craft. These transmission beacons cover radiuses of several light years, or in the case of the Martian like planet transceiver, several million lightyears, but can be pin pointed from distances very far away from them through directional receiver (audio telescope) capabilities of these craft. This means that sounds from these beacons will not be heard until passing into their broadcasting range, unless these areas are specifically targeted by the craft’s audio telescope zooming capabilities.
Earth propagates a signal that is very noticeable throughout, at least, its own solar system. There is no way it can remain hidden to outside craft of similar capabilities given the loudness of this signal.
The regions inside and outside of the Milky Way are teaming with “intelligent chatter” on this telepathic line. This comes across like being in a crowd of people all speaking at once, until the audio telescope is used and zoomed into a particular sector, where signals in that sector get louder and drown out the crowded noise. In the case of the Martian transceiver, it was essentially like being shouted at by someone on the opposite end of the universe, the loudness of the shout being very obvious.
There is a boundary out past the cosmic web in which signals from this telepathic channel are broken and experience a high level of interference. Estimated distance from earth to this boundary is in the “trillions” of lightyears or more.
There is a neighboring pancake galaxy of similar size to the milky way that comes off perpendicular to it at an approximate distance similar to the Magellanic Clouds. A large part of this galaxy is taken up by a massive anomalous black hole that swallows light and radio frequencies around the site. An ocean of foamy white substance lines the edges of this “crack”. It is also possible this galaxy with the anomaly is the milky way itself. Past experience with this black hole anomaly suggest it exists outside of known time and space, originates from outside of the telepathic signal boundary, and can rip consciousness apart. From those experiences, it seemingly has a direct relationship with the amnesia introduced into our consciousness that prohibit us from retaining memory of past lives.
The universe is spherical, and does not feel a big enough a place to explore when using one of these craft.
Through directional audio telescoping capabilities and relevant speeds of the craft I piloted, exploration into useful areas and galaxies for resource gathering purposes could be carried out extremely easily and efficiently in a very small amount of time. I estimate, that if humans had consistent and unfettered access to this technology, they could accurately map the entire universe within a single year.

It is my belief that it is possible to move consciousness in a similar manner to what is done via lucid dreaming at the moment of death. It is my intention to try and move my consciousness into one of these space craft suits at the expiration of this physical body, in an attempt to provide some form of validation of my claim that techniques used to induce OBEs can be used to hijack and pilot these craft. If I am successful in my endeavors, then I will use this opportunity to provide not only evidence of the existence of these craft, but that my curriculum for piloting them is at least somewhat usable. Therefore, any sightings of a craft similar to the Vanquish DM-22, distinguishable by the pointed “spinning top” bottom, over areas or during events with direct significance to my life, such as properties I owned, burial site of my body, etc, can be taken as a visitation from the same consciousness that piloted the body used to write these very words. I am certain that direct telepathic communication, along the same channel used by this craft, can be made through broadcasted thoughts during hypnagogia or whilst in the void space after a conscious transition into the sleeping state. I recommend using this avenue for any parties interested in trying to contact my consciousness post humously.

A more thorough explanation of visiting schedule will be given to my Ordo Occultum Astrum once it has been worked out.

What is being hidden regarding the Hunter Biden laptop and the Russia and China alliance

This year 2023 is going to be a pivot year.

Things can go really bad, or a managed up-swing that changes the Geo-political situation forever.

I’m looking at an “event” of some sort towards the tail end of this 2023.

Meanwhile, everyone, please continue with your campaigns and living your own lives. Eat WELL.

Please do not get too CAUGHT UP in the “news”, it’s all fake.

And enjoy life a little bit more.

Surprise! Corruption Is Behind Recent Southwest Mass Cancellations

The American way! Don’t you know!

Chicken Lazone

“This recipe comes from the restaurant “Brennan’s” located in New Orleans. No one has to know how simple and quick it is. I posted this recipe exactly as it was in the book, however, if you like a little “heat” please feel free to add some cayenne pepper to taste.”

Ingredients

1 teaspoon salt
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons chili powder
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
¹⁄₄ cup butter, divided
¹⁄₂ cup heavy cream

Directions

Combine the seasonings and coat chicken breasts.
In large saute pan melt half of the butter and cook chicken over medium heat for about 7 to 8 minutes, turning once.
Pour the cream into the skillet and lower the heat.
Simmer for several minutes, stirring until the sauce thickens then add the remaining butter.
When butter is melted place chicken breasts on four plates and top with the sauce.

A Beverly Hillbilly’s Christmas at Hooterville

Its so nice to see these shows again. Loved watching them week to week when I was little. These shows made you forget everything and laugh at anything.

He DOESN’T want you to know this about Hunter Biden laptop story and Ukraine

If you think the laptop is bad, consider how much COORDINATION went into silencing it to ensure a certain candidate got positioned where he is.. It is no simple task to organize a 100% media blackout. Along with inter-agency buffer operations. Whatever entity needed this candidate in, went to extreme lengths, and it sure don’t seem to be because they had America’s “best interests” at heart.

“Suburbia”: The Melancholic and Mythological Artworks by Carlos Barahona Possollo

Degree in Painting, final mark of 18/20, from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Lisbon University. In 1995 Carlos Barahona Possollo accepted an invitation to teach at the Faculty. He had read Architecture at the Technical University of Lisbon from 1986 to 1989.

He was officially commissioned to paint the Portrait of the Portuguese president Cavaco Silva, shown at the Presidents’ Gallery permanent collection in the Museum of the Presidency of the Republic, since 2016. Since 1995 he has been co-operating with the Portuguese Mail in the production of originals for the printing of stamps, notably their commemorative series of the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama’s arrival in India (1996-98), and also with the Portuguese edition of the National Geographic Magazine (first nine issues).

His works can be found in private collections in Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy – most notably, of many in this country, in that of Prince Jonathan Doria- Pamphilj – The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, U S A and Argentina. Also, in public collections such as the Vatican (IOR), The White House, the Bank of Portugal, the Portuguese Museum of Communications, The Setubal Museum, and the Union of Portuguese Speaking Capital Cities.

Christmas With The Addams Family | Full Episode S02E15

Did you notice when the kids realized they had way too many presents, the first thing they thought was to donate them? They really are raising them right.

https://youtu.be/U19Bizv-LQQ

Making the stinkiest chemical known to man

I love this series of a slightly anosmic chemist’s perilous quest to find a smell that moves him.

This is just GREAT!

Artist Challenges Herself To A 100-Day Cat Meme Drawing Challenge

Emily Paquin, aka Catwheezie, is an animation student who challenged herself to draw a cat meme every day for 100 days back on the 13th of June. She is currently on day 75 and it looks like she’s determined to reach that 100!

Emily said that cats were actually the first thing that she ever learned to draw. She says that she always loved funny cat pictures and used to print out similar ones and glue them on her school notebooks.

As for the current 100-day challenge, the artist says that she finds most of the cats for her drawings on Instagram, and says that each one of the drawings takes her 2 to 3 hours to finish. “Usually, I work on several of them at a time so I can make sure I’ll have a new cat to post everyday,” says Emily. “A lot of planning goes into this project.”

Former President of France Admits: Minsk Agreements Were to DECEIVE Russia; Allow Ukraine to build for war

World Hal Turner 30 December 2022

In an interview with the “Kyiv Independent” newspaper, former President of France, Francois Hollande, claimed that the Minsk agreements had brought Russia to diplomatic territory, leaving Kiev’s army time to strengthen. An admission contradicting the peaceful declarations of the time.

While Vladimir Putin was advancing in the Donbass using the pro-Russian separatists ( … ) “we led him to accept the Normandy format and to come to Minsk for the negotiations.” said Hollande.

The former French president aligned himself with Angela Merkel who, December 7 in an interview at “Die Zeit,” claimed that the Minsk agreements had been “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to strengthen militarily for a future confrontation with Moscow.

Officially, these agreements, signed on September 5, 2014 were concluded with the stated objective of restoring peace between Kiev and the Donbass Republics. That conflict left nearly 15,000 ( civilians and soldiers ) dead between 2014 and 2022.

To the question of whether the Minsk negotiations were intended to delay Russian progress in Ukraine, François Hollande replied in the affirmative: « “Yes, Angela Merkel is right on this point. The Minsk agreements stopped the Russian offensive for a time. What was important was how the West would use this respite to prevent any subsequent Russian attempt.”

Holland claims to have enabled the strengthening of the Ukrainian army, a respite that the West and Kiev seem to have taken advantage of: “Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military capabilities. Indeed, the Ukrainian army is completely different from that of 2014. She is better trained and better equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements to have given the Ukrainian army this opportunity” he said.

According to him, the latter also prevented the area controlled by the separatists from expanding. In winter 2015, they were at the gates of Marioupol and had just won two decisive battles, taking over Donetsk airport and the city of Debaltsevo.

Regretting divisions within the EU and German ambiguity, refusing to question the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, François Hollande reports today that he was in favor of maximum sanctions, recalling that he himself had canceled the sale of Mistral ships to Russia in 2014.

In 2022, trust between Moscow and the West disappeared. Strangely, François Hollande, who believes that a lasting solution is necessary for peace in Ukraine, completes his remarks by affirming that “the Minsk agreements can be resuscitated to establish a legal framework already accepted by all the parties.”

Angela Merkel’s confession, however, already provoked a strong reaction from Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 9. Putin said “Trust is almost nonexistent, but after such statements, a question of trust arises: how to negotiate, on what, and if it is possible to negotiate with someone, what are the guarantees?” Putin went on to say “I still hoped that the other stakeholders in this process were sincere with us. It turns out that they also cheated on us. It was only a question of strengthening Ukraine with weapons, by preparing it for hostilities” he added.

Vladimir Putin then estimated that in view of these new facts, Moscow should have, perhaps, had to launch its military operation in Ukraine earlier, stressing that Russia, for its part, hoped to be able to resolve the conflict in the Donbass through the Minsk Agreements.

Hal Turner Analysis and Editorial Opinion

So there you have it: Both Angela Merkel of Germany, and Francois Hollande of France, personally KNEW they were attending the Minsk Negotiations as a ruse, as a deception, for the express purpose of buying time for Ukraine to prepare for . . . . WAR . . . with Russia. The very war which is taking place right now.

Back in February of 2022, when Russia finally sent its troops into Ukraine, both France and Germany, along with the United States, feigned horror that Russia was engaging in battle, when all along, that was the precise goal of Germany, France, and without doubt, the United States and the rest of NATO. Their “shock” at Russia using its military, was phony. They not only knew Russia was going to act militarily, it was THEY who set the entire stage for it!

In my opinion, this was a criminal conspiracy to facilitate war.

Some may argue that both Merkel and Hollande enjoy Sovereign Immunity. They do not. Fraud vitiates everything, and both Merkel and Hollande perpetrated premeditated and willful fraud upon the peoples of Europe, Russia, and America, as the very crux of their meetings in Minsk, Belarus back in 2014.

The fraud perpetrated by Merkel and Hollande has cost the people of the United States, tens-of-billions of dollars in war support for Ukraine, cost Ukraine hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers, cost Russia tens-of-thousands of dead soldiers and countless billions in war costs. The consumers in both Europe and America have had to pay Billions more in increased costs for natural gas, oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel as a result of the Sanctions imposed, over a war, they planned to start!

I want Merkel and Hollande criminally prosecuted at the world court, for Fraud and criminal conspiracy to facilitate war. And if such a prosecution takes place, it will be interesting to find out what role then-U.S.-President Barack Obama played in this fraud. It seems to me that neither France nor Germany would have engaged in such acts without the express approval of the United States.

Merkel, Hollande, and likely Barack Obama, belong in prison for the rest of their lives because the war they deliberately facilitated has killed hundreds of thousands of people, whom they used as pawns for their “sport of kings” — war.

Putin, Xi year end summit. China, Russia De facto alliance

Very happy to learn more of Russian/Chinese alliance to combat the insane neo-cons in the US! The whole world rejoices also. Thank you both and happy New Years as 2022 comes to an end!

This is an important video.

Stolen Elections Have Consequences: Stocks Suffer Worst Year Since 2008

Nation Hal Turner 30 December 2022

Stocks slipped on Friday to end a brutal 2022 with a whimper, as Wall Street wrapped up its worst year since 2008 on a sour note.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 73.55 points, or 0.22%, to close at 33,147.25. The S&P 500 shed 0.25% to end at 3,839.50. The Nasdaq Composite ticked down 0.11% to 10,466.88.

Friday marked the final day of trading in what has been a painful year for stocks. All three of the major averages suffered their worst year since 2008 and snapped a three-year win streak. The Dow fared the best of the indexes in 2022, down about 8.8%. The S&P 500 sank 19.4%, and is more than 20% below its record high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 33.1%.

Sticky inflation and aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve battered growth and technology stocks and weighed on investor sentiment throughout the year. Geopolitical concerns and volatile economic data also kept markets on edge.

“We’ve had everything from Covid problems in China to the invasion of Ukraine. They’ve all been very serious. But for investors, it is what the Fed is doing,” said Art Cashin, director of floor operations for UBS, on CNBC’s “The Exchange.”

As the calendar turns to a new year, some investors think the pain is far from over. They expect the bear market to persist until a recession hits or the Fed pivots. Some also project stocks will hit new lows before rebounding in the second half of 2023.

Lemon Chicken Milanese

“This dish makes a quick, filling meal. Great served with rice or pasta. Enjoy!”

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
salt and pepper
²⁄₃ cup breadcrumbs
¹⁄₃ cup parmesan cheese
¹⁄₄ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 egg, beaten
¹⁄₄ cup all-purpose flour
8 lemon wedges
¹⁄₄ cup vegetable oil

Directions

Season chicken with salt and pepper and set aside. Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.
Pour flour onto a plate and set aside. Do the same with eggs and then with breadcrumb mixture.
Dredge chicken in flour and tap away excess. Dip chicken into egg. Cover chicken with breadcrumbs and press them inches.
Heat oil in frying pan. Fry chicken on the first side for about 2 minutes, flip and fry for another 2 minutes. Repeat until chicken is browned and cooked through. If you’ve pounded the chicken thin enough, cooking time is greatly reduced.
Once chicken is cooked, place on a paper towel-lined plate in order to absorb excess oil.
Serve with a squeeze of lemon and additional lemon wedges.

I Went Back To California. My Home Town Looks Like A War Zone.

A MUST watch!

For those of you not in California, it is 100 times worse than what you are being told. Homelessness is literally INSANE here. Drug problems are WAY out of control.

World War III continues, evidence of micro-nukes, bio-weapons, full spectrum warfare are clear. Interesting things in Korea, Germany, and the Middle East

Stay tuned. All of the subjects mentioned in the title has already been covered within the messy slush-file of MM articles. All intentionally buried within a safe coverage of delicious food, cats, music, and stories of the human condition. Impossible for computer algorithms and troll agents to root out and locate. It’s the MM way, don’t you know. What subjects?

Nordstream pipeline detonations
The Pentagon using the Musk satellites to ram the Chinese space station, and then China taking down all of them with an electromagnetic cannon
The UK launching a micro-nuke in Ukraine and caught red-handed by Russia
Bio-Weapons NATO general captured at a weaponized development facility (Ukraine) performing “gain of function” studies. Also known as “weaponizing the virus”.
China stopping the bio-weapon attempts to induce famine
China capturing and killing off all of the CIA and NED assets
North Korea missile attacks
Disabling an American nuclear sub that was “this close” to being captured outright.
Sinking another one that had to be recovered (F-35 splash into the South China Sea anyone?)
The Trump mega-flotilla that turned around and sailed back home
Covid-19, the tick-virus and the humanized swine-flu virus bio-weapons and the Taiwan “surprise” virus.

And that’s all right off the top of my head. But I’m not trying to keep score. In this “game” of world war III, it’s impossible to keep score and absolutely meaningless. You have to keep in mind the objectives of all parties (as best as we can ascertain) and then observe the elements play out. And as they play out, we migrate to areas that will not be affected by the fallout (both figuratively and literally). Remember, the reason why everyone is so confused as to what is going on is simply because no one can see the full picture. There’s a plan. There’s always a plan. Keep in mind why things appear to be a world run by crazy people…

They might actually be crazy.
The Western “news” is a propaganda arm of the US government.
Actual “news” and events are not being reported on.
Trivial events are blown all out of proportion.
Real secrets are kept secret.
Counter intelligence operations are at full-speed.

So just sit tight. The latest information from the Domain Commander is…

No change to the previous predictions; small to medium bads lie ahead.
Events are playing out within predictable patterns well known and understood by Domain (Historians).
Some humans will experience discomfort, but any areas of conflict and turmoil will be isolated and geographically segmented.

Take care. Be prudent.

Important note

WordPress has “updated” it’s software, and messed up everything MM side. Do not be frustrated, but much of the grammar corrections, formatting, and pictures were deleted or screwed up in this post, and I am too exhausted to repair what amounts to 10,000 words of text.

Self-format if you must.

Apollo 13 | “Houston, We Have a Problem”

Singapore and China sign 19 agreements to boost cooperation

Singapore and China sign 19 agreements to boost cooperation at annual apex meeting

The agreements were signed at the 18th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting, co-chaired by DPM Heng Swee Keat and Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng

China is where the world future lies :

Article HERE

Pelosi Attacker’s Home Had Gay Pride & BLM Flags

Slow Motion Economic Train Wreck; Nearly 40% of small businesses in the US failed to pay rent in October

World Hal Turner 01 November 2022

Small businesses in various states are struggling to pay their rent, a new report shows, with rent delinquency at nearly 40 percent this month. 

The findings, published Tuesday by Boston-based business tracker Alignable, are raising more than eyebrows, as they illustrate the stark effect inflation is having on everyday Americans. 

The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago. 

If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent. 

Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses - almost half of all Americans working in the private sector - were left unable to pay rent in October. 

Compounding concerns is the fact that several states, including New York and California, are well over the already-high national average. 

Offering an explanation for the phenomenon, study author Chuck Casto wrote that small business owners are steadfast, but that their incomes are 'basically being eaten away by inflationary pressures' as grim figures continue to rock financial markets. 

Alignable discerned that one-third of businesses are at risk of closing if revenue does not 'ramp up' significantly in the coming months, as consumers shy away from spending amid fears of an impending recession. As to the reasons for the short funds, poll-takers blamed higher rents, the impact of more than a year of high inflation, steeper-than-usual gas prices, increases in supply chain costs, rising labor expenses and shortages, and reduced consumer spending. 

Worse, about 49 percent of restaurants were unable to pay their rent this month, up from 36, in September, while an identical 49 percent of car dealership and repair shop owners defaulted on their October rent.

Chips Act Won’t Work

It doesn’t make sense for the US to invest billions of dollars to support the manufacturing of semiconductors if they have to be shipped to Asia to be completed.

Bloomberg opinion piece HERE

Interesting story from MoA

Down Time Recently the provider of this Website, Typepad, moved their systems to a new datacenter. It then announced an additional maintenance period to update the system’s architecture. That ended up in a mighty screw-up. For the last days Moon of Alabama was a casualty of it. After a while the Typepad engineers recognized the problems and decided, correctly, to roll everything back to the old version. It took a while, but finally most stuff is working again. There are two maxims in Information Technology. I. Never change a running system. Unfortunately there are circumstances, like growth pain etc, where one HAS to change things. That usually ends up in trouble. Another IT maxim is: II. Never change multiple things at a time. This is where the recent Typepad screw-up happened. Multiple components of the system were changed at the same time and did not interact properly with each other. Been there, done that. Back around 1995, I was working for a large international access provider who’s systems always had growth pains. Everything was well prepared for a down time and a major update of the architecture. A short maintenance period was announced and we proceeded with it. Every element had been tested before. But unbeknown to the software engineers the network providers, those with the physical access lines, had decided to use our announced down time for a change in their systems too. The two changes collided with each other and it took more than 24 hours to even find out what had happened. The roll back, not well planned, created more of a mess. We were down for 72+ hours. We had several million customers at that time. They weren’t happy. Typepad is now back and with it all the blogs that are running on it. I am pretty sure that there are still some bugs that will have to be cleaned up over the next days. But the service has, in general, been good over the many years Moon of Alabama existed and ran on it. It is relatively cheap and relieves me of setting up and administrating my own servers. That’s why I will stick to it. For now.

Posted by b at 6:13 UTC

ST4: The Voyage Home (HMS Bounty Gets the whale)

European Union Gets Nasty Dose of Reality over Natural Gas

World Hal Turner 01 November 2022

The European Union (EU) got hit with a double dose of nasty reality today. When the European Union “Sanctioned” Russian natural gas, they stopped buying it and had to look elsewhere, which sent the price skyrocketing for everyone.

Then The EU decided it would impose a Price Cap on . . . RUSSIAN . . . natural gas, telling all other countries they must not pay over the price cap! Imagine the nerve of the EU trying to tell the entire world what price they MUST pay for someone ELSE’s natural gas?!?!?!

Today, Qatar told Europe it will stop sending natural gas to Europe of they try to impose a price cap on RUSSIAN fuels!

Europe is already in a massive mess over natural gas; it’s not only costing them triple or quadruple what it used to, there are actual shortages.

If Europe alienates Qatar by imposing a price cap on RUSSIAN gas, and thereby gets cut off from Qatar gas – people in Europe might freeze to death this winter for lack of natural gas. Power plants in Europe would have no fuel to generate electric. Europe would be plunged into the dark ages.

Speaking of shortages, GAZPROM announced today that, by their measurements, Ukraine has presently stored 14.6 Billion cubic meters (m³⁾ of natural gas.

But the country needs 19 Billion m³ to get through the winter. Ukraine doesn’t have that much . . . and cannot get it, either.

So it seems at first glance, people in Ukraine, will actually end up freezing to death this winter. So much for Ukraine “winning” it’s war with Russia.

Maybe, if Ukraine surrenders now, they can settle things fast enough so that their people don’t freeze to death?

Or is noble surrender too much to ask from the Zelensky tyrants in Kiev?

This Is Serious! We’re Gonna Crash BIG TIME” – Robert Kiyosaki’s Last WARNING

Interesting, though he’s got a problem with communism. I suppose it’s legacy fear. But check it out.

https://youtu.be/E4ZDEaqYQDs

Russians Hack U.S. “DELTA Command & Control System” – Complete Ukraine Battle Plans Exposed

World Hal Turner 01 November 2022

. The United States “DELTA” Command and Control System is the computer network that the US uses for battle operations. It is constantly updated by military planners and intelligence sources with troop deployment info, weapons stock info, and complete attack plans. Russia has HACKED it; Ukraine’s battle plans totally compromised. Equally important, the DELTA system is also constantly updated with information about the OPPOSING forces, in this case, Russia. Here is what a Russian computer Hacker got access to, with videos proving he got access, and how it is likely to be dispositive of the entire Ukraine war, in Russia’s favor.

Herman And The Bank Robbers

Enjoy. https://youtu.be/f_DDvG-yv4c

Iran Raises “Red Banner of Retaliation” Over Mosque; Saudis on High Alert

World Hal Turner 01 November 2022

Iran has raised the Red Banner of Retaliation over the dome of Jamkaran Mosque in Qom city, which amounts to a declaration of war. What caused the raising of the Red Banner is yet to be said. The last time the Red Banner was raised was when Qassem Suleimani was assassinated in 2020. After that banner was raised, Iran fired missiles which hit a US Base in the region, injuring many US military personnel. Whatever the present issue may be, Saudi Arabia notified its US Military contacts they expect what they call an “imminent” attack against Saudi Arabia by Iran. They are not certain if the attack will be by missiles, or by Iranian Drones. US and Saudi air defenses are now on high alert.

Men in Black: A Series of Tests

Fun. https://youtu.be/qHR8IdyTO1M

New Fudan Report: US-China Chip War

From HERE Securitisation of the US’s Semiconductor Industry Policy”. Its authors are Shen Yi (沈逸) and Mo Fei (莫非). The former is a controversial professor of international politics and the director of the Centre for International Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University. With a following of almost two million on Weibo as well as regular videos and opinion pieces discussing international relations, he has become a well-known public intellectual in China. Shen has previously written about his experience of being interrogated by the FBI and having his US visa revoked back in 2018. The second author, Mo Fei, is a PhD candidate at Fudan University’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs and a research assistant at the aforementioned Centre for International Cyberspace Governance. This report appears to have been written, or at least completed, in September, in other words, prior to the US’s most recent high-tech export controls. The authors, however, were aware that “the Biden administration plans to further strengthen export controls on China in the areas of artificial intelligence and chip manufacturing, and that it was considering establishing a system within the US government that would give it the power to directly block US entities from investing in China and require information disclosure.” The following summary and excerpts should therefore be read keeping this background in mind. On a side note, I may occasionally post special editions such as this one in addition to Sinification’s weekly format if and when I feel that a particular study is noteworthy, topical and too long to share as a thread on Twitter.

Key arguments from this report:

The US is making a strategic mistake in channelling most of its energy into outdoing China in the tech sector. Semiconductors only constitute a small part of the US-China rivalry.
The US’s chip manufacturing capacity lags far behind that of East Asia. The CHIPS Act is unlikely to provide enough funding and incentives to change this.
US allies will not be willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of America’s.
China has the financial firepower, unrivalled capacity for government-industry coordination and absolute determination to accelerate the development of its chip industry, come what may.

On the drivers and dynamics of the US-China chip war:

“China's fundamental national strategy is to strengthen its national power, improve the standard of living of its citizens and enhance its international status through peaceful economic development. The US’s strategy towards China is to 'lock up' China's rise, curtail its international influence and increase its dependence on the US in the international system. Therefore, the essence of the strategic competition between the US and China is a struggle between economic development and domestic governance rather than a traditional hegemonic or military-security struggle.”

“The US, however, has rather simplistically focused on the nature of the strategic competition between the US and China as being a 'technological battle', and then even more simplistically determined that a series of [tech-related] policies will be able to successfully block the strategic challenge posed by China in a relatively short period of time and at a relatively low cost.”

“The US has [now] put anti-China national security concerns ahead of such economic interests as ‘cost’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘market’.”

“Advanced semiconductors have become an outlet for the US to release its security-related anxieties about China and have been turned into a symbol … demonstrating the US’s superior strength and its gradually winning in the context of US-China rivalry. At the same time, in the absence of one single effective ‘tool’ to contain China's technological rise and as one of the very few holds the US [still] has in the economic sphere that can effectively handicap China, any action that can widen the gap between China and the US in advanced semiconductor technology will have the psychological effect of ‘easing the anxiety’ and ‘increasing the smugness’ of US policymakers. Each [US] crackdown on China's advanced semiconductor technology will release the US’s security-related anxiety about China in stages. [But] when new security-related anxieties reach a certain level, it will once again drive the US to take further restrictive measures against [the development of] China’s advanced semiconductor technology.”

“At the [current] stage of the strategic stalemate between the US and China, the US can only add to the semiconductor technology embargo compulsively and frequently to demonstrate that it still has considerable coercive power and strategic advantages over China.”

“But the fact is that advanced semiconductors only constitute a small part of the strategic competition between the US and China.”

On the difficulty for the US to rebuild a chip manufacturing base at home, gain the backing of its allies and shut out China:

“Global economic integration, the formation and consolidation of global supply chains, and China’s deep roots in the global economic system make it almost impossible for the US to replicate its Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union in its strategic competition with China.”

“History repeats itself but never in exactly the same way. The United States today does not have the same strategic capabilities as it did thirty years ago, and China is now already highly integrated into both the new international division of labour and the world’s science and innovation cycle. Even in the area of semiconductors, where the US is in a position of power and China is at a disadvantage, the US is no longer in a position to [simply] remove China from the supply chain of advanced semiconductors. The inherent vulnerability of the Biden administration's chip strategy leaves room for China's semiconductor industry to break out of the US’s siege. More specifically:”

“The Biden administration's semiconductor strategy runs counter to the global semiconductor industry’s development pattern and lacks an adequate domestic semiconductor manufacturing base to support it.”

“US semiconductor manufacturing capabilities lag far behind those of East Asian countries. [This is explained by] the wave of de-industrialisation that began in the late 20th century in the US, coupled with the fact that most American IC companies have opted for a 'Fabless' operating model, focusing on design and outsourcing manufacturing.”

“The US’s heavy reliance on East Asian semiconductor production capacity exacerbates the risk of disruption to the US chip supply chain, while also increasing the US's vulnerability in the context of its strategic competition with China.”

“Now, for national security and geostrategic reasons, the US is planning to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to its shores … However, such a systemic change will be very difficult to achieve with just a single ‘chip bill’.”

“The US’s current approach has seen it use mainly federal funding to invest domestically in high-tech R&D … to train new talent and to attract foreign firms to set up factories in the US. However, … if the US wants to restructure the [current] layout of the global semiconductor industry, US$50+ billion from the federal government will clearly not be enough to solve this issue.”

“In September 2022, the Center for a New American Security released [a report] … which stated that the US CHIPS Act is designed to close the cost gap between producing chips in the US versus in East Asia, but that current financial support and related incentives were still far from sufficient to close the cost gap across the industry.”

“The actual effectiveness of the CHIPS Act may differ quite significantly from the optimistic estimates (in favour of the US) that are now being made in a large number of studies; one cannot exclude a scenario in which the buzz is followed by business as usual.

“Frankly speaking, although we still need to wait for [these measures] to be put into practice … it is arguably the ‘pull’ by the end customer that will prove more important than the ‘push’ by the US government’s industrial policies. If the end-consumer market proves unwilling to pay a premium [for these high-tech products] … the Biden government's semiconductor strategy … will not be able to [fully] restructure the [current] layout of the global semiconductor industry.”

“The US’s influence within its chip alliances is not sufficient to convince its allies to follow the Biden administration's semiconductor strategy on the premise of ‘America First’ and ‘each country has to pay its own way [i.e. with no help from the US]’.”

“[In reality,] the core of the US’s semiconductor strategy, is, on the one hand, to siphon off resources from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and other relevant semiconductor companies to make up for the technological shortcomings in its own semiconductor manufacturing sector. On the other, to convince its allies and partners, using its position of power in the high-tech world, to stop semiconductor technology deals and manufacturing cooperation with China.”

“The Biden administration is [effectively] strengthening itself at the expense of others … thus increasing the vulnerability of the Biden administration's semiconductor strategy. In other words, US allies and partners have their own semiconductor strategies and are not willing to sacrifice their own interests in order to serve the US’s semiconductor strategy.”

“[For example,] South Korea cannot [simply] decouple from China, just for the sake of cooperating with Washington in building up the US’s [new] supply chain, without taking into account the fact that China is South Korea’s largest semiconductor market … South Korea is ambivalent about the ‘CHIP 4’ alliance currently being assembled by the US.”

“Taiwan, on the other hand, still has illusions about [the effectiveness of] its ‘Silicon Shield’ and does not want the US semiconductor industry to develop in the direction of self-sufficiency for national security reasons.”

“There are deep-rooted conflicting currents in the underlying logic of Taiwan's semiconductor strategy with the US. Politically, Taiwan is investing in US factories to curry favour with the US on geopolitical issues. Economically [however], Taiwan's semiconductor industry … does not view the US ‘chip strategy’ favourably.”

“In addition to [the Netherland’s] ASML, the Biden administration has also tried to pressure Nikon, a Japanese DUV equipment manufacturer, to stop exporting such equipment to China, but the Japanese have also refused. This shows that, when it comes to the technological embargo imposed on China, although the ‘public-private’ alliance formed by the US will cooperate with the US’s strategy, there is a limit to such cooperation. This can be explained by two factors: the pull of the Chinese market and a concern for US technological hegemony [among its allies].”

On the US’s tech crackdown on China and the the medium-to-long term prospects for both the US and China:

“The specific technical details involved in the semiconductor industry are complex enough to ensure that [only] a small group of elite politicians in Washington can monopolise the content and future direction of these discussions, thereby making it easier to gain indulgence and support for their contrarian actions both at home and abroad.”

“Take the latest US chip sanctions against China on 1 September as an example … The ban presents a remarkable internal paradox. It was initially intended to create additional barriers to the development of China's high-tech industry. However, it may well end up having the opposite effect. Ironically, in the medium to long term, US pressure is set to ‘force’ China's high-tech industry to develop a more solid industrial base as well as [its own] core technologies. Objectively speaking and from the US’s perspective, this will lead to [the emergence of] a more challenging, comprehensive, and thus more-difficult-to-contain, powerful adversary.”

“In the short term, US tech-related policies targeting China will indeed create a window of opportunity. That is to say, a window during which China will be seeking to fix the adverse consequences caused by the US’s technology crackdown. For the US, this window will mean that the US is given more time to develop itself in a number of key and emerging technologies, including advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence, so as to gain the upper hand over China … But such a turn of events is far from being a given. In other words, in addition to restricting technology exports to China, the US government will also need to implement effective domestic policies to support and guide its efforts in these areas. However, if we look at the US’s performance on related issues since the 1980s, the picture is not particularly promising. Of course, the recently passed CHIPS Act provides some room for imagination. However, … in terms of the type of governance capacity required to steer and organise such large-scale strategic industries, the US government is not currently in a position to provide a convincing answer to observers.”

“In the short term, the most immediate and tangible effects of the Biden administration's tech-crackdown on China will be: (i) to create real obstacles for the development of related industries in China; (ii) to generate a public opinion wave of pro-US and anti-China rhetoric; and (iii) to use ‘hurting the US’s strategic rival’ as political leverage during the upcoming US mid-term elections and the presidential elections two years later.”

“In terms of [economic] weight, the US economy is still the largest in the world, but its lead over the second-placed has narrowed to the point where it is within sight and able to be overtaken. The US still has an overall advantage in terms of cutting-edge technology, but this advantage does not ensure that its use will simply lead to the continued development of its strengths and consolidation of its superiority. It will [probably] not be possible for the US to maintain its overwhelming technological dominance over the rest of the world. In other words, there is a lack of certainty surrounding the US’s ability to make further technological breakthroughs. Its traditional strengths are shrinking or even [already] lost, and its toolbox lacks an obvious ‘magic bullet’ like the US’s containment strategy during the Cold War, which could simply ‘solve the problem once and for all’ vis-à-vis the US’s main strategic rival. In fact, the anxiety that is spreading in Washington's policy-making circles is constantly forcing the US government to look for, and subsequently try out, any type of tool that can produce short-term results. Thus, for policy makers at least, it is a way of justifying domestically that ‘something has already been done’ and avoiding simply looking on [helplessly] at the gradual erosion of the US’s hegemonic powers.”

“The specific condition [to the US’s success] is that the target of such a weapon [export controls] must have a sufficiently weak political will to abandon its intention to develop the industry in question immediately after the US’s strike … [However,] China has both the will and an unmatched capacity for industrial policymaking to drive and guide the development of its own alternative technologies [替代性能力]. Chinese companies and industries have long since begun the production of related products but are [currently] in the uncomfortable position of being constrained by the superior and more mature products of US companies. The subtlety of US bans is that it is the US government, rather than the Chinese government, that has helped these companies to achieve the effective exclusion of their competitors from the [Chinese] market [i.e. this will, according to the authors, allow Chinese companies, in the medium-to-long term, to grow even faster and invest even more in R&D].”

“In terms of China's [overall] development, the development of its technologies, the development of its industries as well as a number of other dimensions, this [i.e. pressures from the US/West] does not really constitute a [catastrophic] threat akin to ‘the sky is falling’. Objectively speaking, the discomfort caused by the bans will be the best possible impetus to stimulate and push forward the upgrading of alternative industries and technological capabilities [in China]. China's [past] experience shows that once this short-term discomfort has been overcome and alternative capabilities and industries have been developed, what will follow is a complete rewriting of the rules of the game by China by virtue of the country’s superior production capacity. The potential outcomes of such a scenario are truly exciting.”

“For [Chinese] policy analysts [政策观察者], it is important to maintain a greater degree of composure, resilience and patience when dealing with US policy decisions, and to analyse more systematically the [potential] discrepancies between policy intentions, policy content and, ultimately, policy effectiveness. For the Chinese government, the more pressing issue is to build [more] effective and refined countermeasures against US [policies], while maintaining the trend of opening up to the outside world and encouraging globalisation, so that the Chinese market and the benefits gained by US companies in China can be used more fully as leverage and, when necessary, a strategic weapon in China's competition with the US. This is a crucial and necessary part of expanding and improving [our] capabilities in the context of China’s rise.”

Zhu hao (祝好), Thomas

he Hangover (2009) – Stun Gun Demonstration Scene

Comeback kid Lula in the eye of a volcano

18439 Views October 31, 2022

by Pepe Escobar, first posted at the Asia Times, and reposted with the author’s permission

Lula wins but his room for maneuver will be limited by powerful forces aligned against his Global South agenda

Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva may be the ultimate 21^st century political comeback kid. At 77, fit and sharp, leading an alliance of 10 political parties, he has just been elected as Brazilian president for what will be a de facto third term after his first two from 2003 to 2010. Lula even staged a comeback-inside-a-comeback, during the extremely fast and tight electronic vote counting, reaching 50.9% against 49.1% to the incumbent, extreme right President Jair Bolsonaro, representing a difference of only two million votes in a country of 215 million people. Lula’s back in office on January 1, 2023. Lula’s first speech was somewhat anti-Lula; noted for his Garcia Marquez-style improvisations and folksy stream of consciousness, he read from a measured, carefully-prepared script.

Lula emphasized the defense of democracy; the fight against hunger; the drive for sustainable development with social inclusion; a “relentless fight against racism, prejudice and discrimination.” He invited international cooperation to preserve the Amazon rainforest and will fight for fair global trade, instead of trade “that condemns our country to be an eternal exporter of raw materials.” Lula, always an exceptional negotiator, managed to win against the formidable state machine apparatus unleashed by Bolsonaro, which saw the distribution of billions of dollars in vote-buying; an avalanche of fake news; outright intimidation and attempts of voter suppression against the poor by rabid Bolsonarists; and countless episodes of political violence. Lula inherits a devastated nation that, much like the US, is completely polarized. From 2003 to 2010 – he rose to power, incidentally, only two months before America’s “shock and awe” against Iraq – it was quite a different story. Lula managed to bring to the table economic prosperity, massive poverty alleviation and an array of social policies. In eight years, he created at least 15 million jobs.

Vicious political persecution ended up canceling him out of the 2018 presidential elections, paving the way for Bolsonaro – a project entertained by the hard-right Brazilian military since 2014. Collusion between Brazil’s Public Ministry and dodgy “justice” stalwarts to persecute and condemn Lula on spurious charges forced him to spend 580 days in jail as a political prisoner as notorious as Julian Assange. Lula ended up being declared not guilty in no less than 26 motions against him by a lawfare machine at the heart of the – deeply corrupt – Car Wash operation. Lula’s Sisyphean task starts now. At least 33 million Brazilians are mired in hunger. Another 115 million are fighting “food insecurity.” No less than 79% of families are hostages to high levels of personal debt. In contrast to the new “pink tide” rolling across Latin America – of which he is now the superstar – internally there’s no pink tide.

On the contrary, he will face a deeply hostile Congress and Senate and even Bolsonarist governors, including in the most powerful state of the federation, Sao Paulo, which concentrates more industrial firepower than many latitudes in the Global North.

Round up the usual suspects

The absolutely key vector is that the international financial system and the “Washington Consensus”, already controlling Bolsonaro’s agenda, have captured Lula’s administration even before it begins. Lula’s vice-president is center-right Geraldo Alckmin, who can be catapulted to power the minute that deeply hostile Congress decides to fabricate some Lula impeachment scheme. It’s not an accident that the neo-liberal The Economist magazine has already “warned” Lula to shift to the center: that is, his government must be run, in practice, by the usual financial suspects. Much will depend on who Lula appoints as his finance minister. The top candidate is Henrique Meirelles, former CEO of FleetBoston, Brazil’s second largest external creditor after CitiGroup. Meirelles has expressed unrestricted support for Lula, for whom he previously worked as central bank chief.

Meirelles is likely to prescribe the exact same economic policies as Bolsonaro’s top economic enforcer, investment banker Paulo Guedes. That happens to be exactly what Meirelles himself created during the rapacious Temer administration, which came to power after the institutional coup against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. And now we get to the real juice. None other than US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland visited Brazil “unofficially” last April. She refused to meet Bolsonaro and praised the Brazilian electoral system (“You have one of the best in the hemisphere, in terms of reliability, in terms of transparency.” ) Afterward, Lula promised the EU a sort of “governance” of the Amazon and had to publicly condemn the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine. All that after he had already praised Biden, in 2021, as “a breath for democracy in the world.” The “reward” for the accumulated performance was a Time magazine cover. All of the above may suggest an incoming, shady pseudo-Left government by the Workers Party – neoliberalism with a human face – infiltrated by all sorts of right-wing vectors, essentially serving the interests of Wall Street and the Democrat-controlled State Department. Key planks: acquisition of key economic assets by the usual globalist suspects, and thus no room for Brazil to exercise real sovereignty. Lula, of course, is too smart to be reduced to the role of mere hostage but his room for maneuver – internally – is extremely slim. Toxic Bolsonarism, now in the opposition, will continue to institutionally prosper dressed up as – fake – “anti-system”, especially in the Senate. Bolsonaro is a self-described “myth” created and packaged by the military, coming out in the open about a month after Dilma’s election victory that propelled her to a second term in late 2014. Bolsonaro himself and countless fanatic supporters flirted with Nazism; unabashedly praised known torturers during the Brazilian military dictatorship; and milked serious fascist leanings lurking in Brazilian society. Bolsonarism is even more insidious because this is a military-concocted movement subservient to hardcore neoliberal globalist elites and comprised of evangelicals and agribusiness tycoons while posing as “anti-globalist.” No wonder the virus contaminated literally half of a dazed and confused nation.

Old China hand

Externally, Lula will play a whole different ball game. Lula is one of the founders of the BRICS in 2006, which evolved out of the Russia-China dialogue. He’s immensely respected by the leaders of the Russia-China strategic partnership, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. He has promised to serve only one term, or up to the end of 2026. But that’s exactly the key stretch in the eye of the volcano, straddling the decade Putin described in his Valdai speech as the most dangerous and important since World War II. The drive towards a multipolar world, institutionally represented by a congregation of bodies from BRICS+ to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to the Eurasia Economic Union, will profit immensely to have Lula on board as arguably the natural leader of the Global South – with a track record to match. Of course, his immediate foreign policy focus will be South America: he already announced that will be the destination of his first presidential visit, most probably Argentina, which is bound to join BRICS+. Then he will visit Washington. He has to. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Informed opinion across the Global South is very much aware that it’s under Obama-Biden that the whole, complex operation to topple Dilma and expel Lula from politics was orchestrated. Brazil will be a lame duck at the upcoming G20 in Bali in mid-November but in 2023 Lula will be back in business side-by-side with Putin and Xi. And that also applies to the next BRICS summit in South Africa, which will consolidate BRICS+, as an array of nations are itching to join, from Argentina and Saudi Arabia to Iran and Turkey. And then there’s the Brazil-China nexus. Brasilia has been Beijing’s key trade partner in Latin America since 2009, absorbing roughly half of China’s investment in the region (and the most of any Latin American investment destination in 2021) and firmly placed as the fifth largest exporter of crude for the Chinese market, second for iron and first for soybeans. The precedents tell the story. Right from the start, in 2003, Lula bet on a strategic partnership with China. He considered his first trip to Beijing in 2004 as his top foreign policy priority. The goodwill in Beijing is unshakeable: Lula is considered an old friend by China – and that political capital will open virtually every red door. In practice, that will mean Lula investing his considerable global clout in strengthening BRICS+ (he already stated BRICS will be at the center of his foreign policy) and the inner workings of South-South geopolitical and geo-economic cooperation. That may even include Lula formally signing up Brazil as a partner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in a way that won’t antagonize the US. Lula, after all, is a master of this craft. Finding a path in the eye of the volcano, internally and externally, will be the definitive political challenge for the comeback kid. Lula has been written off countless times, so underestimating him is a bad bet. Even before starting his third term, he has already performed a major feat: to emancipate a majority of Brazilians from mental slavery. All eyes will be on what the Brazilian military – and its foreign handlers – really want. They have embarked on a very long-term project, control most levers in the power structure, and simply won’t give up. And so the odds may be stacked against an aging neo-Ulysses from northeast Brazil reaching his Ithaca ideal of a fair and sovereign land.

YOU HAVE 6 DAYS LEFT!! ARE YOU READY? | Patrick Humphrey

Really? In six days, eh? It is pretty weird that a Walmart Distribution Center in South Carolina, US. Is usually really busy this time of year. They have not hired anyone in months now. With it being seasonal time also, that is so strange to me!! Also the ones that are working there, are getting NO hours. This has been going on for months, since February. No departments are working full shifts. Check out the video and then monitor the prices at your local grocery store. Let’s watch the clown-show together. https://youtu.be/SXCtROaU-AE

Brandon’s “Usable Nukes” Are the Fast-Track to Jopocalypse

Mike Whitney • October 31, 2022

“The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is, at heart, a terrifying document. It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk.

Citing rising threats from Russia and China, it argues that the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.” Stephen Young, Union of Concerned Scientists

Maybe you’re one of the millions of people who think the US would never use its nuclear weapons unless the threat of a nuclear attack was imminent.

Well, you’d be wrong, because according to the recently-released Nuclear Posture Review, the bar for using nukes has been significantly lowered. The new standard reads like this: (nukes can be used) “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.” “

Defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies”??

That’s a pretty broad net, isn’t it? That could include anything from a serious threat to national security to an ordinary economic competitor. And that loosy-goosy definition appears to be just what the authors were looking for. The hardliners wanted to fundamentally change US nuclear doctrine so the conditions under which nukes could be used was greatly expanded.

The obvious objective of this dramatic policy-shift is to eliminate any obstacle to the free and unfettered use of nuclear weapons. Which is precisely what the neocons have always wanted; a green light to Armageddon.

Now they got what they wanted. Here are a few of the changes in policy that suggest that a full-blown nuclear war is no longer a remote possibility, but an increasingly likely prospect.

1– First-Strike Use: Biden refuses to rule out first-strike use of US nuclear weapons …in reversal of his campaign promise. This is from The Daily Mail:

“… on the campaign trail, Biden had vowed to switch to a ‘sole purpose’ doctrine, which maintains that the US would only use nuclear weapons to respond to another nation’s nuclear attack….

President Joe Biden is abandoning a campaign vow to alter longstanding US nuclear doctrine, and will instead embrace existing policy that reserves America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario, according to multiple reports.” (Daily Mail)

2– Nuclear Escalation: The Biden team has accelerated the deployment of modernized U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons to NATO bases in Europe. (The B61-12 carries a lower yield nuclear warhead than earlier versions but is more accurate and can penetrate below ground.) This is from Reuters:

Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernised U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning.

Amid the Ukraine crisis, Politico reported on Oct. 26 that the United States told a closed NATO meeting this month that it would accelerate the deployment of a modernised version of the B61, the B61-12, with the new weapons arriving at European bases in December, several months earlier than planned.

“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency. (Reuters)

3– ‘Tactical’ means ‘Usable’: Biden’s new regime of low-yield nukes (which can still blow up a city the size of New York.) are called “tactical” weapons because they are designed for use on the battlefield, which is to say, Biden no longer limits the use of nukes for national defense but also supports their use in conventional wars. (like Ukraine?) This is from Aljazeera:

“Tactical nuclear warheads were created to give military commanders more flexibility on the battlefield. In the mid-1950s, as more powerful thermonuclear bombs were being built and tested, military planners thought smaller weapons with a shorter range would be more useful in ‘tactical’ situations,” according to Al Jazeera’s defence analyst Alex Gatopoulos. (Aljazeera)

4– Fasttrack to Nuclear War: Biden’s New Euro-Nukes have lowered the threshold for nuclear war. This is from MSN: Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernized US B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning…

“The United States is modernizing them, increasing their accuracy and reducing the power of the nuclear charge, that is, they turn these weapons into ‘battlefield weapons’, thereby reducing the nuclear threshold,” Grushko said….

… Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Saturday on Telegram that the new B61 bombs had a “strategic significance” as Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons were in storage, yet these U.S. bombs would be just a short flight from Russia’s borders.

“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency. (MSM) 5– Increasing the Reasons for using Nukes: The Nuclear Posture Review abandons Biden’s promise to ensure that US nuclear weapons would be used for the “sole purpose” of deterring or responding to a nuclear attack. Instead, the NPR states that the US will consider the use of nuclear weapons “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”

Sole purpose could significantly reduce the risk of unintended escalation and increase the credibility of more flexible and realistic nonnuclear response options in a range of importance contingencies.” (Federation of American Scientists)

6– More Escalation: The US now reserves the right to use its nukes against non-nuclear weapon countries. This is from an article at Bloomberg News: The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy rejected limits on using nuclear weapons long championed by arms control advocates and in the past by President Joe Biden.

Citing burgeoning threats from China and Russia, the Defense Department said in the document released Thursday that “by the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries.” In response, the US will “maintain a very high bar for nuclear employment” without ruling out using the weapons in retaliation to a non-nuclear strategic threat to the homeland, US forces abroad or allies.” (“Pentagon’s Strategy Won’t Rule Out Nuclear Use Against Non-Nuclear Threats”, Bloomberg) Here’s more from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:

In the Defense Department briefing, this point is elaborated. The NPR, a department official stated, “establishes a strategy that relies on nuclear weapons to deter all forms of strategic attack. This includes nuclear employment of any scale, and it includes high-consequence attacks of a strategic nature that use non-nuclear means.”

The publication of the document was rapidly condemned by arms control experts. “The Biden administration’s unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is, at heart, a terrifying document,” wrote the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

“It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk,” the UCS argued, by claiming that “the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.”…

This marks a significant development from Trump’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, which largely referred to the use of military force to secure economic interests in the negative—asserting that it was China that was doing so. While this was the clear implication of the 2018 document, the definition of “national interests” advanced by the Pentagon’s 2022 document to include “economic prosperity” constitutes an even more open step toward advocating the doctrine that war is an acceptable means to secure economic aims.

A section of the 2022 National Defense Strategy:

These documents, which were not seriously discussed in the US media, make clear the fundamental falsehood that the massive US military buildup this year is a response to “Russian aggression.” In reality, in the thinking of the White House and Pentagon war planners, the massive increases in military spending and plans for war with China are created by “dramatic changes in geopolitics, technology, economics, and our environment.”

These documents make clear that the United States sees the economic rise of China as an existential threat, to be responded to with the threat of military force. The United States sees the subjugation of Russia as a critical stepping stone toward the conflict with China.” (“Pentagon national strategy document targets China”, Andre Damon, World Socialist Web Site) he White House, the Pentagon and the entire US foreign policy establishment now march in lockstep behind the most fanatically-lethal defense policy in the nation’s 246-year history. The National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review and the National Security Strategy all embrace the same reckless warmongering policy that will inevitably lead to mass annihilation and civilizational collapse. The doves and critical thinkers have all been removed from the foreign policy apparatus while the madmen and warhawks drag the world inexorably towards catastrophe. God help us.

War Without End

Honey Garlic Pork Chops

What is wrong with the United States of America?

Philip Giraldi • November 1, 2022

Prussian Major General Carl von Clausewitz famously drew on his own experience in the Napoleonic Wars to examine war as a political phenomenon. In his 1832 book “On War” he provided a frequently quoted pithy summary of war versus peace, writing in terms of politico-military strategy that “War is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” In other words, war-making is a tool provided to statesmen to achieve a nation’s political objectives when all else fails. One can reject the ultimate amorality of Clausewitz’s thinking about war while also recognizing that some nations have historically speaking exploited war-making as a tool for physical expansion and the appropriation of foreigners’ resources. As far back as the Roman Republic, the country’s elected leaders doubled as heads of its consular armies, which were expected to go out each spring to expand the imperium. More recently, Britain notably engaged in almost constant colonial wars over the course of centuries to establish what was to become history’s largest empire. America’s dominant neocons characteristically believe they have inherited the mantle of empire and of the war powers that go hand-in-hand with that attribute, but they have avoided other aspects of the transition in turning the United States into a nation made and empowered by war. First of all, what comes out the other end after one has initiated hostilities with another country is unpredictable. Starting with Korea and continuing with Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as other minor operations in Latin America, Africa and Asia, American war-making has brought nothing but grief on those on the receiving end with little positive to show for the death, destruction and accumulated debt. Also forgotten in the rush to use force is the raison d’etre to have a federal national government at all, which is to bring tangible benefit to the American people. There has been none of that since 9/11 and even before, while Washington’s hard-line stance on what has become a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine promises more pain – perhaps disastrously so – and no real gain. If one has any doubt that going to war has become the principal function of both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, it is only necessary to consider several stories that have appeared in the past several weeks. The first comes from the Republican side, and it includes a possibly positive development. House Minority leader Republican Kevin McCarthy warned two weeks ago that the GOP will not necessarily continue to write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they obtain the House majority in next month’s election, reflecting his party’s growing skepticism about unlimited financial support for the corrupt regime in place in Kiev. McCarthy explained “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check.” America’s uncritical support for Ukraine, which has been a contrivance by the White House and media since the fighting started, has led to a growing number of Republicans, particularly some of those aligned with Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, to challenge the need for massive federal spending abroad at a time of record-high inflation at home. Since Russia launched its invasion in February, Congress has approved tens of billions in emergency security and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, while the Biden administration has shipped billions more worth of weapons and equipment from military inventories, all done with only limited or even no oversight of where the money and weapons are winding up. But, unfortunately, the GOP is far from unified on its approach to Ukraine-Russia. Congressman Liz Cheney demonstrated that her apple did not fall far from her father’s tree, taking some time off from trying to hang Donald Trump to denounce what she refers to as the “Putin wing of the Republican Party.” She put it this way: “You know, the Republican Party is the party of Reagan, the party that essentially won the Cold War. And you look now at what I think is really a growing Putin wing of the Republican Party.” Cheney criticized Fox News for “running propaganda” on the issue and in particular called out Fox host Tucker Carlson as “the biggest propagandist for Putin on that network… You really have to ask yourself, whose side is Fox on in this battle? And how could it be that you have a wing of the Republican Party that thinks that America would be standing with Putin as he conducts that brutal invasion of Ukraine?” Cheney notably did not address the issue of how the war developed in the first place because the US and UK preferred saber rattling to diplomacy with Moscow. Or why the United States feels compelled to tip-toe to the brink of a possible nuclear war over a foreign policy issue that is of no real national interest to the American people. And where did she make her comments? At the McCain Institute in Arizona. Yes, that’s a legacy of Senator John McCain another Republican who never saw a war he couldn’t enthusiastically support. Both President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have confirmed that the US is in with Ukraine until “victory” is obtained, whatever that is supposed to mean, while other Administration officials have indicated that the actual purpose of the fighting is to weaken Russia and remove President Putin. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre glibly spouted the party line when asked about McCarthy’s comments. She thanked congressional leaders for bipartisan work to “support Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s war crimes and atrocities,” adding that “We will continue to work with Congress and continue to monitor those conversations on these efforts and support Ukraine as long as it takes. We are going to keep that promise that we’re making to the brave Ukrainians who are fighting every day, to fight for their freedom and their democracy.” Perhaps more bizarre than Cheney’s comments is the tale of a letter that was prepared by thirty Democratic Party progressives urging US support for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine. The letter was prepared in June but not released until last week before being quickly retracted under pressure on the following day. Pramila Jayapal, who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it was retracted because it “was being conflated with [the] comments” made by McCarthy over his warning about budget cutting for Ukraine. Jayapal referred to the letter as a “distraction,” but what she really meant was that her group had no desire to make common cause with the Republicans over any issue, including war and peace in an escalating conflict that is manifestly pointless. A clueless Jayapal also took pains to contradict the message put out by her own group, emphasizing that there has been no opposition to the administration’s Ukraine policy from Democrats in Congress. She said Democrats “have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people.” She doubled down on the White House message, affirming that the war in Ukraine will only end with diplomacy after “a Ukrainian victory.” So basically, anyone talking sense about Ukraine in Washington is being shut down by forces within the political parties themselves working together with a compliant national media that is mis-representing everything that is taking place on the ground. It is a formula for tragedy as the Biden administration has shown no sign of seeking diplomacy with Russia to end the conflict despite the president’s recent surprising warning that the world is now facing the highest risk of nuclear “Armageddon,” which he, of course, blames on Putin. Given all of that, in my humble opinion a government that is unable or unwilling to take reasonable steps to protect its own citizens while also avoiding a possible nuclear catastrophe that could end up engulfing the entire world is fundamentally evil and has lost all legitimacy. It should recognize that fact before submitting its resignation.

The Twilight Zone – A Most Unusual Camera (clip)

Why does CCP tell their citizens they “will not be enslaved by foreigners” when no foreign nation is interested in doing that?

To the Chinese, it brings back very bad memories to see Western powers sending fleets to China’s coasts, forming alliances against China, working closely with a brutally Sinophobic Japan, speaking of the breakup of China into Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, etc., tolerating racist attacks on Chinese immigrants, trying to embargo China and cut off its access to markets and resources, speaking of the desire to overthrow China’s government (e.g. far-right scumbag Arkansas senator Tom Cotton and scumbag British diplomat Roger Garside, author of China Coup), vilifying and barbarizing China’s culture, political system, history, and even regional cuisines, and proclaiming the superiority of Western belief systems.

Anyone who doesn’t understand why should really just exit any discussion of China because they don’t know anything about China’s history over the past 200 years. All of this is extremely familiar to the Chinese. In fact, it makes up most of China’s historical experience with the West. Major Western (British) diplomats visited China for the first time in 1793. Most of the 200 years after that were quite a miserable time for all Chinese.

This is why the CPC has always refused to restore or reconstruct the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) in Beijing, which was once world-famous, breathtakingly beautiful and something like China’s Pyramids or Hanging Gardens. It was looted and destroyed by the French and British in 1860, and today 47 Western museums exhibit and profit from its treasures. This is all that’s left of the Old Summer Palace, and it’s a depressing sight in the capital city of the world’s second-richest nation; but the dilapidated ruins are a reminder to new generations.

Can you imagine that these charred pillars and scattered stones mark the spot where the emperors of China once lived and governed for 125 years? Not in ancient times, but from 1735 to 1860.

I think the average patriotic Chinese is thinking, You did all of this before, and we were weak and you won. You really want to do this again? Well this time, we’re just as big as you are.

The story of the Old Summer Palace increases the kinship I feel with China as an Egyptian, because my country’s stolen treasures also fill Western museums from Boston to Berlin.

The West has always seen non-Western peoples more of less as barbarians, but I don’t think barbarians are people who practise polygamy, eat dog meat, worship idols, have no written language, or are ruled by an emperor instead of a parliament. Barbarians are people who have to brutalize and plunder every corner of the earth they ever go, simply because they can.

What kind of people make you ashamed to be a human being?

These absolute sacks of shit.

This is the Westboro Baptist Church. A Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. Every day, WBC pickets approximately six locations. They claim to have picketed in all 50 states. What kind of events do they picket? Any events that don’t align with their homophobic, transphobic, anti-Catholic, anti-Orthodox, anti-atheist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, antiziganist, and anti-American views. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have accused them of brainwashing, and the church is often heavily criticized for resembling a cult (which it completely is). Some notable events that they picketed are:

Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of military funerals.
The funeral of Michael Jackson.
The funeral of Ronnie James Dio.
The funeral of Christina Green, a 9 year old victim of the 2011 Tucson Shooting. Luckily, they were unsuccessful because the Arizona legislature passed an emergency bill banning protesters within 300 ft of the memorial.
On October 5, 2011, Margie Phelps (daughter of the church’s founder) tweeted from her iPhone that the church would be picketing Steve Jobs’ funeral. Read that again. She used an iPhone to tell the world that they were going to protest STEVE JOBS’ funeral.
They tried to picket Leonard Nimoy’s funeral, but they couldn’t find it.
They picketed the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
They picketed the funerals of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
They protested the National Holocaust Museum, stating that the Jews are the real Nazis.
They also picketed the 9/11 memorials, with signs that said “Thank God for 9/11,” yet they also demanded that “teh gayz” be punished for causing 9/11.

These slippery little shits use every loophole in the book (or rather, the constitution) to ensure that they can continue their heinous activities.

These parasitic barrels of monkey nuts make me ashamed to not only be American, but a human being. I find some comfort in the parody of the church that was featured in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Oh NO! This is BIGGER than the Snowden leaks, much bigger

This is pretty important. Really. Please watch this video. https://youtu.be/6lSLks0XaAY

They Won’t Be Able To Deny The Cold, Hard Reality Of What Is Happening To The U.S. Economy Much Longer

by Michael They are trying really hard to convince all of us that everything is just fine. But close to one-fifth of the U.S. population is skipping meals because food prices are too high. And nearly 40 percent of our small businesses couldn’t pay rent in October. Our leaders are trying to put a positive spin on things, but the truth is that we are witnessing a tremendous amount of economic suffering all over the United States right now. The core consumer price index just surged to “the highest level since 1982”, and this is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on American families and businesses. This week, I was stunned to learn that a survey that was just released found that 37 percent of all small businesses in the United States could not pay rent last month…

The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago.

If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent.

Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses – almost half of all Americans working in the private sector – were left unable to pay rent in October.

Prior to getting this news, if someone had asked me to guess the percentage of small businesses that are currently unable to pay rent, I would have responded with a figure that was far lower. So often, things turn out to be even worse than I thought they were. If those small businesses continue to be unable to pay rent, they will eventually be forced to shut down. So what will our communities look like if millions of small businesses suddenly close up shop on a permanent basis? Meanwhile, a different survey has discovered that 18 percent of Americans are now skipping meals because food prices have become so crazy…

Over the last 12 months, nearly two in five American households (40%) received food or goods from a food bank (22% for Millennials), and the same amount (17%) stopped buying healthier foods (organic or high-priced healthy foods).

Nearly one in five Americans (18%) say they skipped meals or didn’t buy groceries due to high inflation (including 28% of Gen Z and 23% of millennials).

Skipping meals can be a positive thing, because fasting is actually really good for your health. But most of these Americans are not skipping meals for the health benefits. In addition, the same survey found that many Americans are not taking medications or seeing their doctors because prices have gone up so much…

Many have cancelled or postponed plans in the past 12 months to see a specialist (14%), take a prescribed medication (10%) or get an annual physical (11%) due to high inflation.

If things are this bad already, what will those numbers look like next year at this time when economic conditions are significantly worse? The American people are going to become increasingly frustrated as our standard of living continues to plunge. All of us have to eat, and so many of the products that so many of us buy on a regular basis have gone up dramatically in price…

A year ago, a bag of potato chips at the grocery store cost an average of $5.05. These days, that bag costs $6.05. A dozen eggs that could have been picked up for $1.83 now average $2.90. A two-liter bottle of soda that cost $1.78 will now set you back $2.17.

Sadly, this is just the beginning. Even though the Federal Reserve has declared war on inflation, food prices are going to continue to rise for a variety of reasons. And as the cost of living keeps becoming more oppressive, more American families are going to struggle to make it from month to month. Even now, nearly two-thirds of the entire country is currently living paycheck to paycheck…

As rising prices continue to outpace wage gains, families are finding less cushion in their monthly budget.

As of September, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report — near the 64% historic high hit in March. A year ago, the number of adults who felt strained was closer to 57%.

“Consumers are not able to keep up with the pace that inflation is increasing,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer.

The worse things get, the more we will see people clamoring for the federal government to help them. In fact, one recent survey actually discovered that 63 percent of all U.S. voters are in favor of “inflation stimulus payments”…

A recent poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans are proponents of the federal government sending out inflation stimulus payments.

About 63% of eligible U.S. voters expressed some degree of support for federal inflation relief checks being distributed, the Newsweek poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed. Of those who agreed the federal government should do so, 42% indicated they “strongly agree” while 21% said “agree,” according to the poll.

Sadly, most voters don’t seem to understand that sending out more stimulus checks would create even more inflation. There is always a cost when the government gives out “free money”. If our politicians would have exercised discipline over the past several years, we would not be in the mess that we are in today. But now years of very bad decisions are catching up with us in a major way, and economic conditions are rapidly deteriorating. At this point, the vast majority of the U.S. population can see this. According to one recent Gallup survey, a whopping two-thirds of all Americans believe that economic conditions in this nation are getting worse. So many people are talking about the possibility of a recession in 2023. If all we have is a recession next year, we would be extremely fortunate. Because right now the economy is starting to crack and crumble all around us, and the outlook for the months ahead is exceedingly bleak indeed. .

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

1. 1+1 = 3 if you don’t use the condom.

2. Alcohol increase size of the “SEND” button by 89%.

3. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

4. Sometimes we create our own heartbreaks through expectations.

5. Life is too short to be with the wrong person.

6. Just because you love them, it doesn’t mean they’re right for you.

7. Feelings that come back are feelings that never left.

8. Everything’s not as easy as getting fat.

9. Even a bad day is just 24 hours.

10. It’s not your job to fix people.

Put the meat on the onion to get delicious dinner in 10 minutes # 540

[daegonmagus] – Part 29 – Who are the Unseen 5?

The following is the 29th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Who are the Unseen 5?

It should be noted they are an entirely separate organisation to the Elder Guardians. Whereas the EG first contacted me in 2012, my experience with the Unseen 5 happened on the same night I met the all being/ god (supreme consciousness that connects all others in existence, in which the soul amnesia was discussed) in November 2016. To clear up some confusion, the Unseen 5 are not stationed in the same soul/ consciousness origin point as the EG; they remain inside of the traps in the astral/etheric planes in the orbital pathways of the {astral} earth, approximately half way between the earth and the moon, if it could be equated in astral terms (my interpretation), but have technology that keeps them completely concealed from any and all things traversing those planes

(this was directly told to me).

Whereas the EG are a bunch of old wisened sages that are charged with the up keep of the soul origin point, the Unseen 5 is a military-like intelligence gathering organisation, first and foremost. Their original purpose was to gain information on the non physical entities that have invaded the regions surrounding earth (both physically and non physically) and to act as a protectorate for the earth environment to stop further damage resulting from this invasion (again, directly told to me). They can be considered as the SAS or “special forces” equivalent of the astral plane, as they operate as a small cluster behind enemy lines for recon purposes, and are, as was specifically mentioned to me by their leader, directly responsible for preventing total and complete take over of earth and its surrounding space from this non physical invasion force, several times over. They exist above and separate to any military/ intelligence organisations currently deployed on earth.

Entry (into this inner office) is specifically only for elite lucid dreamers that have mastered control of the dream state, and have, through their own determinations reached a similar understanding of this non physical invasion and how it is being carried out – the idea that our consciousness’s have been dumbed down and placed in bodies with specifically engineered in restrictions, is a big part of such understanding. Astral projectors alone – as far as I am aware – are not approached for initiation, as the test for entry takes place within the dream state; they only present themselves to those who pass such a test.

This does not mean astral projectors are not valued, just that I do not think they will be granted entry into the actual operation “war room” on their astral projection abilities alone; my understanding is that that astral projectors are utilised more as the foot soldier “grunts” of the astral planes, whereas lucid dreamers are reserved for more specialised espionage like roles and tasks that involve “consciousness hacking” (it must be understood that consciousness is the predominant technology that all U5 operations revolve around – LDers are prime candidates to use this technology because the navigational skills required to properly LD directly translate over into the control interfaces of this consciousness technology. Consciousness is still greatly insulated from accessing this technology during a standard AP).

It is important to address the elephant in the room here, that the U5 are interested only in obtaining information objectively and respect that some of us have belief systems that directly contradict their collected intelligence and goals; they simply have no intention of imposing themselves on others and changing their beliefs, but it should be understood that this presents a level of discrimination in exactly who it is they vet for potential recruitment, similar to how the SAS and other special forces organisations only have a very specific criteria for the people they bring into their regiments. This may seem unfair, but we must realise our thoughts on the matter are insignificant, as the role the U5 plays, far transcends our concepts of fairness and any belief systems we may attach our attention to. My advice is a commitment to rigorous self psychological analysis into one’s own thought constructs and why they have taken up such belief systems, and analysis into whether this was something they truly believed in, or if it was something imposed on them by someone else.

Any and all entities that travel in the non physical planes are monitored and scrutinised at a level far, far above the capabilities of physical earth bound intelligence agencies by the U5. This is a fact, as it was, again, directly told to me and I was shown the actual process of how this monitoring is carried out. This scrutinisation includes a complete tracing of all non physical traffic’s points of origin before coming into the non physical planes, and to where it goes after leaving them. A dossier is then compiled on each piece of traffic’s entire (past and future) history which is taken directly from the “akashic records”, or, to be more specific, directly from the energy signature of the consciousness under question – hence the need for LDers to be able to merge their consciousness with and properly navigate into this akashic template.

If you have ever consciously APed/ LDed, or projected consciousness into the astral planes such as is done via remote viewing, you can safely bet your bottom dollar you are known to the U5 and that they have a dossier on your entire life at their fingertips which includes a holographic film reel of your entire time in the astral planes and all activities you were engaged in; seeing the way this archive is accessed and managed, I gotta tell you, is damned impressive. As you can imagine, this is a monumental and seemingly impossible logistical workload for 5 members to carry out, hence the ability to tap into and access higher order information via the higher self is crucial to becoming an operational member within their ranks, again something LDers will have more experience being able to do than typical astral projectors.

Of the 5 members the (non human non physical) leader remains stationed permanently in this orbital office. The remaining four (current incarnates at the time of my initiation) members are appointed a single task each which they are expected to focus on during their time spent within the organisation during their LDs. Together, these tasks comprise a larger operational parameter which directly relates to the waging of inter-dimensional (non physical ) warfare and coordination of “special assets” through unified assault and recon teams into non physical infrastructure that has been identified by the U5 as “high value” targets. While the U5 are not interested in “waking people” up like the EG, their overall goal of stopping the cogs of the reincarnation regime aligns. They are more concerned with unifying and training assets that are already awake to a much higher degree than normal and only bother with LDers who have shown a strong commitment to this end through their own initiative.

It is for this reason both organisations provide each other with valuable information. My task, as it was relayed to me by the U5 leader, involved the recruitment of other potential lucid dreaming candidates / astral projectors, as well as non physical (discarnate) consciousnesses located in different planes, and making the organisation known to the physical (and non physical) earth community, hence my Ordo Occultum Astrum (Order of the Hidden star) is to act as the physical division of this non physical based organisation. Recruitment into this physical division is now open to those with these particular skillsets, and other parties interested din putting a stop to these malicious systems in place within the non physical planes.

As a result of my tasks and responsibilities put to me by their leader, I am the only one currently incarnated on earth that is authorised to mention who they are specifically, what they are capable of, and provide an explanatory overview of their capabilities and the technologies they disclosed to me – this is my area of focus. I appreciate this sounds narcissistic, but it is what it is; to put it simply, I earned my position within their ranks through my own understanding of the advanced capabilities of consciousness during the LD state, picked up over years of pushing and proving myself, and they figured I was the best candidate to translate it into a language that is usable for other LD assets. They asked me to do this, and I obliged, as I understood the extreme importance of it.

Please understand that my curriculum of using LD to establish contact with such non physical intelligences is approved by the U5, the EG and the All Being respectfully, and is something I am extremely honoured to be able to provide. It is to act a handbook or guide to help other LD assets achieve their maximum potential, and all information pertaining to it is to be made available for free, of which this Ordo Occultum Astrum is to act as the only official channel of which to distribute such information. Again I am asking for a great deal of trust from other LD assets that the information I am providing on Lucid Dreaming is legitimate. I am hoping by spending countless hours writing about this so it can be presented to you all for free is a worthy enough feat for that trust.

It is also worth mentioning that until my initiation, the other 4 members were the only other 4 people incarnated on earth (current at 2012) that knew about this organisation- again, this was directly mentioned to me by the leader.

Member numbers were apparently higher in centuries past than they are now, due to some (unknown by me) event that dwindled them down to 5; it seems that the leader wishes to rebuild these numbers in order to ease the logistical workload for each of its members, though this is to come second to building an inter-dimensional strike force.

Quite frankly, he demonstrated to me his disappointment that not enough Lucid Dreamers/ Astral Projectors take their skills seriously, and use them as a means to go on “astral holidays” rather than put them to meaningful use.

If you are in my order, it is because I have identified certain traits and skills within you that I think would provide initiation potential if honed.

However, all initiations remain at the ultimate authority and discretion of the U5 leader – at the end of the day I am just the messenger and have no control over whether or not you will get in.

These are the prequisites for entry into the Unseen 5:

An understanding that dreams can be hijacked and manipulated by third parties external to the consciousness having the dream, and supplanted with holographic scenarios of the third party’s choosing that can take the form of normal or extremely vivid dreams.

The area of effect is the void space (which I have written about elsewhere, including in my auto biography), where thought imagery directly manifests as the dream environment.

This same void space acts as a hub for the routing of all psychic information through a network that connects all other consciousnesses in existence in a hive mind like arrangement.

The holographic imagery employed by the U5 and other non physical factions is injected as a false thought directly onto this communication line, with the intention of creating a “controlled dream”, while the consciousness remains in a docile and unconscious state.

This must be understood as fact and not just a theory. This technology is used to control people through “divine inspiration.” Thus, unless information has come from a direct connection to the akashic template, it is to remain suspect and seen as potentially compromised.

An understanding that all consciousnesses have access to very specific parts of the greater (physical and non physical) universe. These areas are those that each consciousness was supposed to govern at the expectation of source upon their creation.

Therefore, each consciousness acts like a key to a very specific location that cannot be accessed without the authorising energy signature embedded into the governing consciousness. Again, fact, not theory. Certain access points have been breached by unauthorised entities through the manipulation of astral bodies/ energetic bodies.

An understanding consciousness is at a severely reduced and handicapped state when in the body, and that the body is a mechanism engineered specifically to provide this handicap.

The life objective of the candidate must be to unlock this handicap and reach a higher state of awareness, ie the acquisition of all soul memory, aka connection with higher self (hermetic teachings are a wealth of information for this). The ability to see from a third person, objective perspective and view one’s current incarnation as “insignificant” when compared with their soul’s complete history, which spans many of such incarnations, is required, as it defines one of the core values of the Unseen 5.

Therefore emphasis must be placed on what one’s soul achieves through the accumulation of incarnations, and not just materialistically in a single one of them.

Think of it like a computer game; you may think that one cycle is important as you are engaging in it, but after you die, respawn, lose all your accumulations and then progress past where you were up to, that last cycle you played becomes furthest from your mind and seemingly “unimportant”.

A fearless attitude towards projecting into dangerous and unsettling territory during an OBE, with the expectation of torture/ consciousness doping/ consciousness imprisonment and other harsh repercussions if caught. This does not exclude the potentiality of complete disconnection of consciousness from the physical body (ie death) due to it being kept for too long in one of these consciousness prisons.

I am not going to lie, there is some incredibly dangerous shit out there you will be expected to navigate through, though I would suggest the U5 would not approach you if you weren’t ready to face it.

A strong understanding of your worth, and an unfaltering insistence on understanding absolute authority remains with you and you alone, and that such authority is determined by the energetic component that gives animation to your physical and energetic bodies (soul).

This commitment to the self as master authority of your operations will see you disregard any other such false authority that would impose itself upon you and try and claim it out ranks you.

All apparent guides you MUST remain suspect of and only follow their advice if you are 100% sure it aligns with your operations and values, and have an energetic (soul time memory) understanding of.

Nothing is permitted to claim authority over you and your soul’s evolutionary progress – this is not how source operates. Anything having you signing or giving away your authority during an OBE must be immediately refused. This will comprise the main aspect of the holographic dream scenario the U5 will test you with if they have been considering you for potential candidacy.

A high level of service to others sentience, and the commitment to helping others. This is not negotiable; anyone who would try to enter the organisation for their own materialistic gain will be vehemently denied access, as service to others sentience (like the Domain) is part of the core values of the U5.

All service to self entities will simply be ignored for candidacy, but will be scrutinised by the U5 at an even higher level thereafter. Recommended demonstration is sponsorship of another person that needs it for a period of at least 5 years.

This sponsorship will be to the point that you are “on call” to them and ready to drop everything you are doing at a moment’s notice to help them with their predicament.

This doesn’t necessarily mean just giving them money, but actual emotional and psychological support they need. This is based on my own personal values and commitment to SD (mentioned in my autobio) – if it worked for me, then it should work for others.

Just remember, the U5 will know if you fake your sincerity to this. This falls back on the idea holographic technology is used along with other manipulation tactics to trick certain consciousnesses into giving away consent.

I don’t want to know about it if you make it in. You’ll be made aware of your area of focus by the U5 leader. This will likely involve expected secrecy of that position. I am just here to make you aware of them, and that the fact they are very, very real. The exception to this will be if your tasks involve telling me about it or if my legitimacy is ever called into question, in which I am hoping you’ll come to my aid. If your tasks involve remaining quiet about it in such a scenario, well then shit happens, forme I guess.

There will be no need for the physical division, this Ordo Occultum Astrum (Order of the Hidden Star), to receive updates on U5 operations. This is not how they work.

Humans are not on a need to know basis, as much as they might crave the attention of being told how things are progressing. It is like a war general telling a baby about his plans to drop bombs on another country; humans are seen as spiritually infant by the U5’s standards so don’t expect updates like with the supposed Ashtar Command/ Arcturian Council.

Anyone suggesting such updates is to be treated with a high amount of suspicion.

They will only make their operations known to individual members if it is a requirement of their tasks. The only reason you know about them is because it was a requirement of my own.

It would be extremely unwise to try and fuck with the U5.

This is not the FBI and neither is it the CIA. These are the real bogeymen of the astral world in control of technologies that would make those organisations weak at the knees and piss themselves with envy.

Doing so would have dire consequences for your consciousness that is just not conceivable from your current limited state of awareness: remember, you are operating from the perspective of trying to gain something for a single physical existence – the U5 are operating from a much higher perspective that supersedes what you consider as being “important” and the bullshit justifications you would give yourself to feel better about such indiscretions – like, say, petty squabbles between nations. This cannot be overstated. Any moles that might have ideas of playing the typical spy and sabotage shit will eventually regret it.

My (physical) division of this organisation, is not to remain secret. All information relating to its operations is to be made available to anyone who is interested in it.

Members are encouraged to share it with whoever they feel appropriate, though discussions are to be kept strictly within the official channels and not deviate out of them.

All lucid dreamers, astral projectors and remote viewers who have had direct experience with the subjects contained in this article during their own OBEs are welcome.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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[daegonmagus] – Part 28 – Intel Obtained Through A Deliberate LD Recon Operation

The following is the 28th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Daegonmagus Intel Obtained Through A Deliberate LD Recon Operation

11/09/2022

Looks like lucid dreaming is back on the menu, boys. So yeah, I have been putting it in my affirmations to basically regain my lucid dreaming abilities, as I have been going through a several year long dry patch.

I thought I was being a little too optimistic asking for at least one LD a week.

Now I should also mention, I have just finished up my 3 month period of my affirmation campaign, and am on about day 5 of the rest period – too optimistic my arse.

My LDs appear to be coming back, so far weekly and boy, they are a lot more vivid than they used to be.

I first noticed this clarity back at the end of June when I had my little flying fun with the consciousness craft.

Last week it involved stealing another craft out of some compound and using it to drop anti matter bombs on some mining operation setup in a forest.

Last night it was something a bit more important, which I will get to in a moment. I also need to make an amendment here to a past article where I mentioned there seems to be a 10 hour lag between having a thought and it manifesting in the dream state.

Scratch that; I have noticed lately it is more like 7 hours.

This comes from having dreams about multiple subjects I was thinking of that I could pin point back to thinking 7 hours before my usual bed time. So handy hint, try and find that 7 hour point before your sleeping time and use it to run your self through some “am I dreaming scenarios”.

You might surprise yourself.

Anyways, getting back to the LD. Our youngest had woken up around 4:15am, which, of course, woke me up a long with it. After spending some time thinking of the usual shit one thinks of that keeps them from falling asleep at that hour, I decided to try LDing.

After propping my right heel so it sat on top of my left foot and rolling my right ear into the oversized triangular pillow hugging my neck, I immediately I noticed I was somewhat tense (guys get into the habit of recognizing this if you want to master LDing ).

So, I made the effort to relax that tension away, and within moments I had a stream of hypnogogic imagery flowing through my head.

This imagery is the sweet point; you have got to get this to flow like a gentle stream past you without letting it turn into a torrent that takes you into unconscious sleeping.

The hard part is trying not to focus too intently on it. So, doing what I do, and relaxing into the gentle stream of hypnogogic imagery, I once again carried my conscious awareness into the dreaming state.

I was in a place I have been in before, sort of a seedy alleyway type deal.

I was 100% lucid and aware, so I asked a dream character if he realized he was dreaming (remembering a post from a lucid dreaming facebook group where someone did similar), and he sort of stopped and got aggressive threatening to wake me up.

Other dream characters started attacking me, but rather than annihilate them, I just smiled at them and made my abilities very obvious to them and they all stopped and left me to my business, figuring I wasn’t worth the trouble.

The dream started to become distorted and break apart, but I swiftly kept it together by focusing on background objects; I seem to be getting much better at this and can keep the dream stable completely automatically without even thinking about it; this was impressive even for my standards.

I used the broken environment opportunity to picture the consciousness craft facility with the intention to try and fly another consciousness craft.

I was successful in generating the same building, but it was broken from the distortions generated by the run in with the other dream characters.

I seem to be stuck in an area of this facility somewhat reminiscent of a reception waiting area.

I look out the windows, and it is pretty damned obvious I am off world.

The architecture of the buildings outside seems futuristic and many years evolved from our modern standards.

I walk down a small hallway and find a door to my right but it is locked by what appears to be key code entry.

I manifest a card and use it to gain entry.

Within seconds of walking through the door, I had a completely stable dream environment; I was here, in this place, not just dreaming it, there was no doubt about it.

This seemed to be a different part of the same consciousness craft facility, but more open, sort of like a small hangar.

Up in front of me is a curved wall, and behind that another hallway that branches off from the curved wall.

I take the curved hallway and find it takes me to similar doors that led to the consciousness craft hangar; big, thick metal doors that had some sort of red paint outline at their top.

The doors opened, and the similar hooking consciousness thing happens, then I find myself in what seems to be some kind of futuristic space mall.

Up ahead of me was what appeared to a small commercial spaceship rental company in the middle of the mall.

On a small circular stage they had two retro what looked like cars they were showcasing. These looked like standard convertible cadillacs or similar, but they did not have wheels (floated a foot off the ground) and had a single small compartment in the middle towards the front instead of seating.

Upon getting closer, I noticed a tall sign about 8 ft above me plonked right at the edge of the platform.

It was written in a retro 60s style cursive hand like you’d expect to find at old retro diners.

I looked at the sign and could read the name off it as clear as day (if the cursive allowed it);. It wasn’t just a name but a whole sentence alluding to the retroness of these cars being the gimmick that this company was selling; I noted the name Schweigler {something } Schwarz. Schweigler I am 90% sure of, Schwarz was 100%, specifically for RVing later. Middle initial was something like R.

I step onto the platform to get a better look at these convertibles.

Then it suddenly dawns on me. No fucking way; these are commercialized versions of the consciousness craft I flew a few months ago.

Someone, presumably Schweigler and Schwarz, had taken the technology that modulates your consciousness into them for powering.

I get the distinct impression I am in some sort of future world line.

In the compartment in the front is a cylinder sort of object with a spherical or dodecahedron shaped clear crystal in it.

A sales representative comes over, a young woman probably in her early 20s, maybe even her late teens, and goes through the usual sales pitch with me.

She seems human.

I pretend I am a dumb old man who has no idea what he is that I am looking at, but I have already figured out what these things are, and come to the realization I am on an espionage operation and need just a little bit more information from her.

She tells me you place your consciousness inside the crystal, then you are able to power the car.

She asks me if would like to take one for a test drive, to which I play coy telling I’d probably break it. She insists, and before she even gets a chance to tell me how to do it, I am projecting my consciousness into the crystal the same way I’d come accustomed to using the spherical portals.

I can feel all my quanta break apart as it all goes into the crystal, kind of like a very brief hyperdrive from starwars.

I am now consciously tethered to the convertible, so I hover it up off the ground and take off tpwards a space port, no longer paying any attention to the sales representative.

Somehow I wind up in a completely different place; I am now inside this strange building made entirely of centuries old wood that looks severely rotted.

There a people everywhere, just sort of sitting and existing and in a somber state of mind. What the fuck is this place?

I untether my consciousness from the convertible and am again moving around like I have a body.

I do a little exploring, trying to pick up on any conversation threads I can to figure out where this is.

This place is weird and new, and somewhat confusing; it is as if someone built several buildings and walk ways between them out of these same decrepit and rotten wood, then entirely enclosed those walkways with even more rotten wood.

There was no outside, everywhere you walked there was just this wooden roof above you making it quite disorientating as to where exactly you were.

I got the impression there wasn’t anything outside of the wood, not even ground. Thick dust and cobwebs lined every surface, and to get to each building you had to navigate through small flights of steps.

Recon gathered here told me this was a capturing outpost for discarnate consciousness that had died from physical earth bodies.

They were basically been housed here against their will, and had been for up to centuries.

There was no conceivable way to exit this place. I don’t even know how I got here, but It had something to do with that Cadillac convertible. Was this how Schweigler and Schwarz had built their empire?

I did not like this. These souls were desperate.

They had just been dumped here and left to rot along with the wood. I vowed to do something about it. Just then, a demonic voice began speaking to me, taunting me and telling me that he was the one who had put them here. I can’t remember what I told it, but it seemed to anger it to no end. It told me to wait until I expire from my physical body and see what it has in store for me then, to which I told it to go right ahead.

This angered it more, and without warning part of this weird cluster of buildings just got ripped into oblivion and I found myself standing on a verandah overlooking nothing but blue sky, as this voice boomed out at me from the space below.

I told it it had no authority over these people and that they deserved more than to be used as its slaves or pets.

It threw whatever insults and threats in regards to my own soul it could throw at me, to which I stood firmly and told it to fuck right off.

Others started to stand up and stand by my side, as my quashing of it words turned into a speech fit for rallying soldiers.

This demon did not like this one bit. It was if I was breaking its spell that gave it hold over the other souls; they were no longer in somber states, but now had purpose burning in their eyes.

Others were telling it to fuck off along with me.

The demon retreated back into the depths of the sky void, and after that I woke up. I have explicit memory of thousands of these discarnate consciousnesses agreeing to fighting for me against the amnesia/ reincarnation regime.

Questions for Domain Commander:

What is this space port mall place, and is it and the consciousness craft I flew several months back Domain owned and operated, or owned by a third party? Who are Schweigler {something} Schwarz? I suggest this name be paid particular attention to and traced as it is somehow strongly linked to this. Was I operating from a future worldline?

MM comments

When DM was LDing this event, my wife bought a new car. Just a Toyota sedan. It’s a good, simple, reliable hybrid car. Nothing special. But brand new, being a 2022 model.

I did not write or talk about this to anyone. It’s a personal MM moment, and something done out of necessity. Nothing to report on.

Yet…

You have to wonder.

It is entirely possible that DM was picking up on MM physical actions and activities. If so, then that would explain the car dealership, the new “retro” models, and the futuristic mall.

There is no doubt that PSI abilities and LD ability go “hand in hand”.

But don’t hold me to that.

It could be coincidence. But, you all know what I say about coincidence, don’t you?

In any event, it is a tricky world out there. So much going on and we interpret what we see with our experiences. DM is connected to others in his group, whether he realizes it or not, and is connected to MM as well. Again, is probably not realizing it at all.

The combined “chatter” on this PSI “party line” will absolutely influence his LD experiences. And thus what he experiences is colored by the “chatter” on the PSI party line.

This bit of extraneous data should not disparage or confuse his experiences.

Personally, I think that it enhances it.

Like special jet fuel that allows his LD experiences to go further, have better color, and depth and richness. Which is why I say “clean out your closets”, and “make new friends”, and experience more of the world. They supercharge your abilities.

The combination of affirmation campaigns, and MM associations are “turbo charging” DM’s LD experiences.

The only problem that remains is how to improve the sorting and filtering of the input “feed” during these events. What is actual intel, and what in influenced intel? Things need to be filtered better. Somehow. So that while they are turbocharged, they are not overwhelmed by distractions and confusions. Whether PSI or environmental.

All in all; a great LD session.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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Part 11 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 11.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. 

Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

This is part of the Q&A (on-going) effort where questions are provided to me, and then I present them, and then record and interpret the responses.

[11.1a] Question – Death Metal Music

“Now on its face, I feel that this is somewhat insignificant on its own. What I’m referring to here is my love of death metal. However, I feel that this attraction to this music genre actually represents a bunch of missing quanta clusters (meaning to say, this is associated to the relationships and activities I created based on my attraction to heavy metal–so memories of past associations / friendships / compatriots and the stuff I did with them are related to heavy metal, or heavy metal music somehow led to the creation of my relationships and activities with them).

An important part of my history opened up when I realized that the commander was <redacted> (rough analog, of course). I am eager to recall my other associations. Not just because I’d love to remember my dearest friends (of course, who wouldn’t) but because I need to regenerate the quanta I will be forced to leave behind. Memories are essential to this.

My passion for death metal music leaves me with the impression that I developed very important relationships with specific entities. I wonder if some of the volunteers that operated on my non physical body were bandmates from my past side projects or something.

Do I desire to comm with different prior-association entities/individuals? I’d say yes–because this represents a return of my memories, which is a good development.

<redacted> was very happy when I finally made the connection of that ancient Irish legend to my relationship with <redacted>. I do wonder if I’m ready for this yet. I know that the last thing I need is confusion. But I can’t be afraid. Being a worry wart is sooooo <redacted>

Is there significance to the questioner and their attraction to “Death Metal” music?

Questioner is correct. The frequency patterns associated with certain types of music and musical patterns act as keys that unlock "software programs" with are but associative mechanisms of quantum clusters. These particular ones are tied to a emotional / biological component that is shared with deep friendships and relationships between IS-BE entities.

In the case of this particular questioner, the association that the entity has is "spot on". And the ability to uncloak the association shows a gentle unveiling of memory and quantum associations between the questioner, their friendships, relationships and "tribe membership" related to specific tasks, duties, and operational involvements in regards to prior activities.

In this specific case, the operational associations were attuned to the frequencies and patterns associated with "death metal" and that is a comforting association associated with tribe membership and cadre belonging.

There seems to be a strong attachment for hard “death metal” Rock n’ roll, and membership as Domain Military.

It’s not absolute, of course. There are millions of people who love “death metal” and Hard Acid Rock, in certain forms. While there are just a few hundred imprisoned members of the Domain “Lost Battalion”. -MM

[11.1b] Question – Followup

Followup question from 11.1a…

Wow. I guess I want to ask if it’s possible to get specifics, like if this represents some of the relationships I had with my <redacted>, or some of the volunteers that came to operate on me or something. Or maybe I need to read something (a hint, I guess) so I can do a better job of recalling the relevant memory?

Questioner is fully cognizant of the implications of this. Questioner is in contact with some core <internal cadre, family members, close associations> who are part of the task team associated with questioner extraction.

This is also facilitated with questioner mantid (sic) which is acting as a <relay point, transmission tower, injection / host, attribute appliance ?> in this effort. Questioner should not eject the feelings, emotions or thoughts in regards to this form of communication and the information thus provided.

[11.2a ] Question – Original members pre-mod

Pre-Old Empire Earth has been on my mind, and how it’s continued alongside the prison planet mods. And how quanta configurations/species work.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could ask the following:

What happened to the original members of the species modified to be used as inmate suits? Were they all altered/incarcerated or are there still free ones about?

The vast majority of the species present on the worlds that underwent the transformation of pre-Old Empire to Prison Complex were unmodified.

The ONLY ones modified were those that served as the vehicles for inmate containers. In these cases, they were modified as follows...

Inmate "Skin Suits"
[1] Human
[2] Horses
[3] Elephants
[4] Dolphins
[5] Llamas
[6] <a certain selection of minor creatures that are permitted to cohabit with unmodified versions of their species. Too numerous to list here. Feeling and thoughts on this subject is far larger than what  I am able to place here. Listing above is "representative only".>

Higher Energy "skin suits"
[7] Mantid (human)
[8] <not clear> (horses)
[9] <not clear> (elephants)
[10] <not clear> (dolphins)
[11] <not clear> (Llamas)
[12] others

Functionally, all humans (with the exceptions of visitors) are inmates wearing "skin suits".

For other species the issues is quite complex and would be far too confusing to elaborate on at this time. There is only <redacted, as there are too many issues involved in the dissemination of this information, and other "hand holding / learning exercises must be established first before this discussion can continue in meaningful detail.>

[11.2b ] Question – Visitation

Could a pre-prison planet human configuration be getting used by some to experience Earth while avoiding the incarceration loop?

Yes. Occasional human forms visit the prison complex in their natural suits, and are not affected by the influences by the prison complex.

However they too have limitations, and are exposed to dangers in this prison complex that makes the visitation quite dangerous affairs. This is why they rarely visit the complex without accompaniment. Often visitations are in secure locations and under Domain supervisions. (With occasional supervision by approved third parties.)

[11.3 ] Question – High frequency sound

I never thought I would have a question for the Domain commander as most folks here at MM ask pretty relative questions, for the most part. From those Q & A’s I always gain some insight and some valuable intel. With that said, I do have one question.

I continuously hear (in my head) a constant frequency sound much like that of an OSHA sponsored hearing test. Most of the time, the frequency is at a constant high frequency tone. Other times, however, there will be lower tones, usually of short duration (no longer than a minute) as if the sine wave is ramping down to a slower Hz. Much like an electric motor controlled by a frequency inverter.

So, my question is this: Are these frequencies that I’m hearing part of thought monitoring and/or subliminal communication and by whom?

Sounds, as defined by the questioner, are not part of thought monitoring, or subliminal communication.

Questioner is well known. 

Questioner is Domain volunteer. Questioner is modified. Questioner has a Domain support group. Questioner is monitored at various levels. This includes thoughts, and actions. No ill-will is intended, but rather the monitoring is for reasons of Domain usefulness.

Situation is of self. The questioner is hearing the audible frequency of self. This is something that some oriental religions use to "home into" so as to focus on their meditations and "spiritual growth".

Questioner, and numerous readers, have the ability to listen in on their frequencies of self. With practice they can "tune into" the frequencies of higher and lower selves, and even isolate the sounds that they pick up to isolate the various sub-components and harmonics of it. 

These are important skills for consciousness to use to isolate various elements of consciousness from the various non-physical bodies and elements.

There is no danger in tuning into these sounds. The questioner is hearing the various limits and shapes of the frequency profiles of self and is developing a skill set that (inadvertently) came into being after some (of his) non-physical skin suits were modified by Domain.

[11.4] Question – Feedback on Mantid Videos

This is a direct communication between MM and the Commander. I want to know how accurate, or inaccurate I am in the descriptions as to what Mantids are.

They are accurate.

It was a terse answer with no further detail. And perhaps with (a kind of) disgust directed at me that I am questioning my guidance. I wanted some “feedback” on my effort. I was not expecting this. -MM

[11.5 ] Question – Rainbow lines

I have been seeing these pulsating rainbow lines and am wondering what they are? They are very thin like fishing line and form a diamond like pattern of a net. I can only see it when I’m really concentrating on the area around me. A friend said I should bring it up with the commander. Am I catching glimpses of traps?

Thank you for all that you do.

Questioner has a distortion that affects the visual interpretation of physical reality as viewed by the synapses in the brain. This is not of serious concern. 

It is something that sometimes occurs when there is an activation of "higher sensory perception" <trigger chambers?> in the non-physical bodies. This is a sensory overload that results from a data transmission path that is congested or blocked and overwhelms the sensory mechanisms in the biological <caprice, object, body, system> of the individual.

This is nothing to be overly concerned about. 

If questioner desires to enhance this skill-set instead of discounting it as a physical manifestation of a on-going situational input stimulus, then the questioner can do so and discover some non-physical senses would be enhanced though the stimulation.

[11.6] Question – Non-physical effects of nuclear bombs

it was mentioned in AI that Airl’s crew were investigating the effects of nuclear bombs being tested when their ship crashed in Roswell.

There has also been various reports of UFOs buzzing facilities housing nuclear weapons. Apart from the obvious effects of fallout etc affecting the physical world, do these weapons do damage to the non physical worlds as well?

If so what kind of damage can on expect to find in, say, a non physical bubble universe directly “next” (for lack of a better word) to this one if a nuclear weapon is detonated here? What sort of damage did Chernobyl do?

Nuclear weapons are very dangerous. They create great physical and non-physical damage. 

The weapons that were unleashed  in this (geographic region of space) by their wars of conquest (by the Old Empire) created a great loss for many species, and all their spiritual components. 

This region of space was at one time a very lush, rich and prosperous regions of all manner of species of all sizes and shapes. 

However, after their ruinous wars they devastated the land and "salted it" for many, many millions of years.

The physical devastation is clear and well understood by most MM readers. What is not understood is the magnitude of the destruction. It was complete and "primitive" at a level that reduced everything to near primeval states.

The non-physical destruction was horrific. In fact, for a long time, the non-physical regions of this geographic region of space are "danger zones" and normal actions are not possible; it's a ruinous (non-physical) land of dangers, and strange unexpected interactions between thought and physical components. As such, thoughts can create undesirable effects, and all sorts of bad, and undesirable things can happen if sucked into these minefields" of voids.

This is why the Old Empire chose this region (partially) for the prison complex. The nature of the non-physical geography is in itself; very dangerous traps and snares.

[11.7] Question – Feedback on the Heaven Videos

This is a direct communication between MM and the Commander. I want to know how accurate, or inaccurate I am in the descriptions as to what the structure of the main, reality, and heaven universes are.

The videos are effective for the purposes intended. At this point in time, no further detail is needed, were there to be greater detail, we will provide it and you will transcribe it as is your duty.

Sigh. -MM

[11.8] Question -Connection to Domain

Excellent videos on Patreon, thank you; especially the two most recent…just finished the FrsnkensteinnAppliance; Very interesting and compelling things. In my mind I “knew” you had to be from East Brady…..but get dismissing it as my own delusion….it was wonderful to hear you state that in one of the April/May vids. So very synchronistic the way I stumbled onto the MM site….it was about 6 months after I traveled to East Brady for an Uncles funeral; I probably wouldn’t have took a leap of faith if there wasn’t thst potential western PA breadcrumb. Would be interested to know if you have the chance to ask the commander; what is my connection to the Domain? When was it made; ie when was it forged? Or perhaps better stated into a singular question…..How did my connection to the Domain come about and other than me being on “knowledge attainment” path here now what other implications might there be?

Questioner has a prior contract with Domain. (Before this present life-line, in another body, and at another time. -MM)

This is the questioners second try in escaping this prison complex.

Prior life (reincarnation) questioner tried / attempted to pray his way out of the complex. (Image of priest, church, religious setting, much praying. Catholic cross, and religious iconology.) 

This was unsuccessful. 

Upon death, questioner was tricked / manipulated by his mantid self into the warm embrace of (earth time) forgotten loves, associations and friends, and was led back (yet again) into the Heaven pocket universe.

Questioner was contacted by Domain at that point <non-physical> and was working with mantid resources and Domain liaison to create this (present) low-potential escape-way. 

Questioner is further along in escape and departure / egress than what was initially expected. 

Questioner departed from highest probability path by unexpected event chain and is now here in the MM "state of mind".

[11.9] Question – Searching for answers

I have a feeling, a strong feeling that who you were referring to as ” Old Empire” was myself.

I have no memories at all re this but in all honesty it has been my gut feeling since I started this journey with you.

I am rattled and saddened greatly as I fell I quite possibly could have been OE military, it resonates sadly man, so much so I had tears, both of shame and joy when watching the vid,

The offer of a new home made me emotional, very much so.

I also feel I could be the first OE operative ( if it is my reality) in a position to leave but my transition to Domain will not be beer and skittles I would think, I have much shame” in knowing” and others may never accept me, it’s not what or who you are but who you can become yes?

MM I need one more thing mate please, really.

I need to know what I have done, like yourself and your construction parts history, The DC knows for certain and I need to fill that void in my memory. Only if I am worthy of knowing though. I guess reconstruction of my quanta will also take place. If what I feel is correct then I am so so sorry and will have to carry my shame forever.

Love to you man hey, really

Entity was Old Empire as described.

Questioner fled into the "Prison Complex" upon it's unit defeat in the battled of <unclear, confused, garble> (Impression I have is of a space battle in and around our solar system).

Questioner fled into the complex knowing the consequences of such an action.

Questioner, at that time, greatly feared Domain.

His superiors and "news / telecommunication" mediums filled the population with great fears. It was used to control them, and they were terrified of Domain capture and the punishments that they could look forward to.

Questioner felt (at that time) that a life inside the Old Empire Prison complex was more desirable to that of the "Hell" that awaited it under Domain.

Questioner voluntarily entered soul and consciousness segregation and partitioning. It's "mantid(s)" established "camouflage" templates for it to exist within. (Whereas most Old Empire leadership would enter the prison complex and set up templates of luxury, and ornate power, this entity was military, and it's thoughts were in terms of survival, evasion and escape. The templates have all been "average", and nothing that would stand out of the normal.)

Questioner was a military member of "Old Empire".

Was talented and practiced. It was a career militarist, and was not of the same kind of "evil" and corrupt character as the Old Empire Leadership was.

Questioner's shame is misplaced.

Domain have no problems with this prior combatant, and view it as "paid it's price". In fact, many time worse than what the Domain would have done were it not to have fled and escaped as it has. Domain consider this entity to have long "paid it's dues" and wish to welcome it and embrace it as one of it's own.

Domain welcomes it's parolee outside of the Prison Complex that it finds itself in.

Translation: Domain welcomes the questioner to leave the Prison Complex with no ill feelings. Even join Domain if that is the desire of the entity. -MM

[11.10] Question – Seth

I’d like to ask the Commander if they can tell us whether a series of books known as ‘The Seth Material’ is a genuine communication, over many years, between a now deceased human named ‘Jane Roberts’ and a disembodied entity named ‘Seth’, or if it’s (a very clever) hoax.

The reason I ask is that, like most folks on here, I expect, I’m a big seeker after Truth, and the Seth Material entity speaks very much like a member of The Domain– at least in my limited understanding he does. Much of what Airl and the Domain Commander ‘speak of’ is also spoken of by Seth; except he never mentions a Prison Planet. He also speaks of what Metallicman has been reporting about for years now: True nature of reality and the universe; individual paths along the MWI; quantum reality and thoughts as real substance.

If Seth is genuine, I believe these works would be a great resource– lots and lots of helpful detail– for any Metallicman followers, in that Seth also goes into ‘prayer campaigns’– focused thoughts– in a LOT of detail, and the importance of doing good works and directing one’s thinking toward positive outcomes, and much more besides. It’s a fascinating alternative glimpse into true reality and if it’s a hoax, it’s a brilliant one. Seth also has quite the sense of humour as the Domain and Mantids do, too.

Interestingly, Seth also says that ‘revelations’ from his kind ‘are permitted’ about once every 30 years or so to many people around the world and are not really reported on for obvious reasons in this statist society. I thought it was interesting that Metallicman’s works are a generation or so after Seth, and could be a continuation of a process that the Domain knows about– or some inter-dimensional grouping known to the Domain; kind of like what D.M. has referred to.

Lastly, Seth also speaks of the importance of action, rather than thought or reflection as ends in themselves– and that human beings are creatures of action; and need to ‘be active’ in order to live fully, or be complete. A much maligned practice in the world of the metaverse we know inhabit. The Commander also spoke of this action, too. I recall their messages about contemplation/meditation not being of much use as far as escaping the Prison Planet reality– rather, activated and focused thought along with unselfish RUFUS-like behaviour is the way out.

Just a few too many coincidences as far as I’m concerned! Metallicman has provided us with his own unique human insights about his experience, but Seth to me sounds like a true resident of the Never Never. But he has lived numerous lives on Earth– and confirms that we all do.

MM can attest that his mother was a follower of Seth.

Seth is one venue out of many that are busy providing egress paths for people to follow. Questioner must recognize that there are many different kinds of people each one with greatly divergent pasts, knowledge and education.

There is no singular path out of the Prison Complex, but many.

Some paths require multiple incarnations to get to the point of egress. While other paths provide direct means and direct pathways; like superhighways.

Questioner should realize that there is not relative "best" advisor for egress, but rather multiple "roadmaps". It depends on the person, and their method of travel. If one drove a car, then a travel map would be appropriate, while a different kind of map would be necessary were they to travel by helicopter. 

Seth is designed as a multi-stage egress platform / kit for use by certain seekers. MM is a different system, and it is designed for a different kind of person. 

The questioner has altered perceptions to embrace both methodology in their ultimate objectives.

Ah, you are “good to go”. -MM

[11.11a] Question – Law of One

Hi MM, thank you again for your extraordinary dedication to this ongoing communication. I’m not certain where questions are to be posted, so here is mine., background first:

Don Elkins and Carla Ruckert conducted and published a dialog with a spiritual IS-BE group who identified themself as Ra about 40 years ago. It was titled The Law Of One. The concept of sentience sorting into STO and STS polarities, as the main task to be completed in our current series of lifetimes, is presented as a plan assisted by them. This idea, although without any reference to a prison system, has striking similarities to the Commander’s messages.

Is Ra part of the Domain, part of the Mantid group, or neither of them?

The idea or concept of sorting into sentience (STO, STS, others) is a Domain requirement. This is unique to Domain. Domain is the administration control over this regions of physical space. No other group, no matter how powerful, or no matter what pedigree, has that authority.

Sorting is the technique used to determine which consciousnesses can leave the Prison Complex, and which needs to stay. 

[1] Only Domain is able to make that judgement. 

[2] Only Domain is able to take that judgement on an individual consciousness and enable / permit egress out of prison.

[3] Only Domain is able to grant parole to egressed inmates.

[4] Only Domain has a system in place to take the orphaned consciousnesses and reconfigure their quantum makeup to regroup back to their former hive, matrix or other soul forms.

Domain was active in dissemination of this understanding to the human population. We used different vehicles to do so. In this event sequence, the 80/20 rule manifested, of the entirety of contacts that obtained our direction (in various means including walk-ins) only 20% were able to disseminate the message regarding sentience sorting. This group that the questioner has referred to is one such group. And it has been successful in it's task.

Yet why this sentience sorting HAD and NEEDED to occur wasn't always made clear to the audience. This resulted in some misunderstandings, as well as certain manipulations by "bad actors" for reasons of personal profit.

[11.11b] Question – Law of One

Is the idea of spiritual existence organized into density octaves of 7 levels each, which comprise a ‘journey’ of spiritual development back to the creator, valid?

It is a technique used to convey understanding. It is only as accurate as it's utility.

MM provides understanding. It too, is only as accurate as it's utility.

The purpose behind communication of this kind of arcane information is in regards to its utility in understanding. Different peoples understandings will vary from person to person. Thus the utility becomes different.

There are many ways to group the periodic table of elements. Each grouping has it's own utility depending on who is using that table. If the questioner finds the Ra teachings of utility then it is advised to follow it.

I am providing some examples here for the reader to understand what the Commander is talking about. As it is comm with me, and uses my references to communicate.

Here’s the most common table. This is the one that most people think is the “correct one”.

Here’s other tables, in other forms and shapes, depending on the needs of the user. There is not “correct table”.

The Periodic Table of Element Scarcity (2018)

The Periodic Table of Chemical Bonds (2019)

[11.11c] Question – Law of One

If so, can you reconcile/elaborate/integrate this idea of ‘Densities’ with regard to the Domain, Mantids, and MWI?

Thank You!

No.

Well, that was terse. Sheech! – MM

Please do not be taken aback by that abrupt and terse answer.

The imagery that I received was a discrete “package” that pretty much explains that terminology is associated with specific projects or actions. For instance, a “spanner wrench” is associated with automotive repair, while a MRI is associated with a medical procedure.

I got the distinct impression that the term “densities” is a “catch all” phrase used to describe things in a general manner. While the audience (herein) are far more advanced and other terms and systems should be used for more specific questions.

Which, of course, scares me. As I have to define the terms for each specific situation that we will get involved in. Yikes! Sounds like a heck of a lot of work for ol’ MM here.

Also, this is a big question. “Domain, Mantids, and MWI” include EVERYTHING that I (as MM) talk about. The impression that I have is that the readership are too mature and advanced to rely on simplistic terms. Anyways, that is the response that I obtained.

I would suggest some very specific questions related to your thoughts, experiences, or wonderings. Then we can go from there, and try to incorporate the ideas of “densities” with specific contexts.

[11.12] Question – Overwhelming Old Empire systems

I have a question for the Domain:

Earth is one of many prison complexes in operation.
Human populations have been increasing for 10,000+ years, and relatively recently the population has exploded, increasing exponentially.
Thus, earth seems to be a desirable destination for souls/ISBEs or are other prison complexes are closing down and souls need somewhere to be incarcerated – earth being the melting pot of nonconformity.
If this is accurate, then mantid numbers must also be increasing (I assume 1 mantid per human/soul).
If earth/humans are heading towards some cataclysm, per Deagal Forecast and USA actions, then is there a concern that heaven and the brain washing mechanisms can be overwhelmed when people go over to the other side (heaven), and if so what happens.
Can the Domain comment on this and where are all these extra ISBEs, assuming I phrased my question understandably.

Answered carefully with an "alert chill".

First off, the population of humans, dolphins, horses, elephants, etc is an illusion. They are empty containers for the most part (shadow people -MM) The actual inmate population is less than the apparent population of the earth. Not every container has an element of consciousness within it. The only ones of consequence are those that involve your consciousness.

Secondly, the prison population has been growing for many years. However, this growth has slowed down considerably since Domain has acquired control over this sector. The only "new" souls are the constructed ones created in the Heaven pocket universes. These are constructs; much like MM is a construct from elements of Mades Escapleon.

Third point. The Old Empire Prison Complex is under Domain control. It consists of multiple planetary systems. Each one has it's own unique issues, problems, and overall plans established by Domain. None are being phased out. Instead, rather, they are being refurbished as "parole centers" for those sentience's that are not yet ready for release.

Fourth point. Mantid membership is a function of higher energy quanta. This is fixed, but associated with the lower energy consciousness. Since the population is mostly stable in the closed-cell environment, the number of mantids (sic) are stable. This includes the new constructed soul (derived) consciousnesses, as they too must have an associated higher energy (mantid GP and Prime) to function.

Fifth Point. Domain is proceeding towards "small bads" instead of "Large Bads" in regards to the Deagal forecast. The transition stations are well populated and readied for an influx of pockets of consciousness. These will come in arrival grouping of clusters and will not overwhelm the strengthened systems that we have put in place.

Contrary to the impressions that one might have from reading the <inaccurate?> Deagel report, the trend-lines will NOT be sudden, but will be an accumulation of event sequences that will increase the transition period for many humans from life to death. The change in the status quo will be gradual and occur over a period of time. It will not be sudden. It will manifest as a clear increase in the rate of death to a point where it becomes more noticeable than the media reports are to hide it.

I am a believer in the Deagel Report, but apparently the Commander believes things a tad differently.

It did not say that the report was wrong, but rather that the illusion that one might get from reading it will lead one towards erroneous conclusions as to what is actually going on. -MM

[11.13a] Question – an energetic sensation

Something happened to me today that hasn’t happened for awhile and I was wondering if the commander could shed some light on what it is (or you if you know the answer).

Sometimes, usually when i am driving, but can also be when I am just lounging around, I get this energetic sensation.

If you have ever had an operation and had morphine injected intravenously, it kind of feels like the initial part where it goes into your vein, how you get that sort of warm feeling that shoots all around your body. It’s like you can feel it in your blood coursing throughout your body. it is an incredibly potent feeling and makes one feel rather good and invincible; it is hard to not just sit there and veg out on its feeling.

It has a tendency to make you feel quite sleepy.

I have noticed that I get this when i think of specific things to do with my tasks, and some thoughts generate a more potent reaction to others.

Question: is this a “nudging” from a higher source, like the Domain, EG, Mantids etc, and if so who?

Questioner is getting input, or a higher energy nature, that is not generally normal for the standard skin suit. This is a function of his role within an organization that he has committed to, and the higher energy is designed to assist him in his tasks. 

The over all effect of this injection of energy is an awakening of latent (astral travel / LD / PSI / ESP) abilities. The questioner should find some skills arise from disuse in the near future. Perhaps in the late Spring or early Summer. It will depend on the energy partitioning with his partner. As he is the "capacitor" that is used to "charge" the energy streams with his direct partner.

This is an agreed to alteration of his skin suit, and is in agreement with his mantid GP (sic). There is a transfer of certain quanta packages from the mantid cluster and reapportioning to "pockets" / key-ways in the non-physical bodies. 

The direction of this alteration of his non-physical body is the leadership of his parent organization. The participants of this action are his mantid GP (sic) and his partner.

[11.13b] Question – an energetic sensation

Question: Am I correct in assuming that it is nudging me towards a specific thought, and that if take those moment to rest I may receive a download of information.

Yes. The questioner is correct. In this case, the questioner needs to adjust to the alterations and then practice in handling the changes in input.

The questioner needs to heighten awareness for the information discharge.

[11.14] Question – Fractional son

I wanted to ask a question to be included in a future Q and A with the commander but I thought I would run by you in private before I put in on the forum.

I wanted to ask if my oldest son is a member of the lost battalion. What I am not sure of is you need his name or my name?

I also want to make sure that this is an appropriate question, as I know it is a personal question. If it is not appropriate that is absolutely OK and I wont ask .

Questioner's son is a fractional.

Fractional entities are IS-BEs who have been separated into multiple consciousness's and placed into different bodies for the purposes of control and "education" as determined by the mantid Primes (sic).

Questioners son is a fractional with Domain elementals. 

We are monitoring this skin-suit and have a team engaged in the monitoring of the entity in question. All consciousnesses are treated as unique self-aware entities and are thus handled as individuals. 

Questioner cannot answer or relay information for this individual without subjecting it to risk and potential danger. It is the responsibility for the fractional itself to do so.

[11.15] Question

I think I’ve just connected with a lost battalion member.

She emailed me after coming across my site. She says she is another astral warrior and related some very familiar experiences of hers within the astral planes/ lucid dreaming, and being contacted by other non physical beings that randomly showed up (physically) and took her to what sounds like a similar place I went to.

She’s gone through all the astral training both me and <redacted> have gone through, including all the consciousness and timeline stuff.

I am wondering if the Domain are able to do a similar check on like they did with Miri’s baker friend? i plan on sending her your way, but not entirely sure how to proceed. MM, without going into details our conversation, if she is not Domain then, she is definitely some one special.

She said her ethereal name is Ayanna, Soul name is Sfeah, Human name is Tabatha, if that helps.

Target is not Domain.

Target is (indeed) a very special consciousness. This consciousness is on a "fast track" towards egress from this prison planet environment though repeated (previous reincarnation) attempts. They are active in a number (not singular) "escape" groups. The are aggressive and already has a full escape plan in with association with your parent organization.

They have already (step by step) reassembled their <portable / isolated> soul cluster outside of the Heaven pocket universe, and thus are already on their way towards egress independent of Domain assistance.

Questioner is advised to respect this entity and provide assistance as they might request it to be.

[11.16] Question – Fate

You had an interesting story last year about a fellow who was fated to hang (it was his destiny). He was however, granted several wishes by a genie, but however he tried to change his fate, he was still hung.

My question then, can we escape our fate (destiny)?

For example, if we are fated to hang, can we escape the hangman’s noose and live a full enchanted life. Concurrently, nobody (or very few) actually know what their fate is, so how can we escape our fate without knowing what our fate is?

Fate is a function of the gravitational influences on the physical body. It can either be in relative favor, or relative disfavor. On a functional basis it can be viewed as a measure of the relative ease that a consciousness is able to exist within the prison complex environment.

Destiny is a function of the world line template (sic). A consciousness can travel upon the template and alter the events that it may experience. However, all templates are predetermined by the mantid prime / consciousness within the pocket Heaven universe. The consciousness may elect to create a new template from which to occupy, but it requires a strong sense of will and concentrated power of thought. Unless maintained, the consciousness will default to the pre-birth world-line template (sic) and in that event the end of the life will be pre-determined.

The only true and real way to escape this situation of living a fated template life is to exit the "reality universe" and enter the "main universe" while being part of a soul cluster of some type. Once that is accomplished, the idea of purpose in regards to physical experiences enters a completely different kind of understanding.

[11.17] Question – Tibetan Book of the Dead (Thödol)

A question to the Commander about the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Thödol) and its instructions, on which light to follow or not follow after death.

Are these buddhist texts wrong, should you not go into any light (bright or dull) at all, and instead of that stay calm and call the Domain for pickup?

How are these instructions in the Thödöl to be interpreted?

Where do they come from?

For clarifying, from the Tibetan Book of the Dead: HERE

In the first Bardo, the Chikhai Bardo, the deceased will experience the primary clear light at the last breath.

And a second clear light half an hour after the last expiration.

Both lights lead to freedom/liberation the Thödöl says.

But only holy men grab the moment it seems, ordinary people miss it and go into the second bardo after being three days unconscious.

Day 1 of the second bardo, the Chönyid Bardo, around the 4th day after dying: “Then, from the Central Realm, called the Spreading Forth of the Seed, the Bhagavān Vairochana, white in colour, and seated upon a lion-throne, bearing an eight-spoked wheel in his hand, and embraced by the Mother of the Space of Heaven, will manifest himself to thee.

It is the aggregate of matter resolved into its primordial state which is the blue light.

The Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhātu, blue in colour, shining, transparent, glorious, dazzling, from the heart of Vairochana as the Father-Mother, will shoot forth and strike against thee with a light so radiant that thou wilt scarcely be able to look at it.

Along with it, there will also shine a dull white light from the devas, which will strike against thee in thy front.

Thereupon, because of the power of bad karma, the glorious blue light of the Wisdom of the DharmaDhātu will produce in thee fear and terror, and thou wilt [with to] flee from it.

Thou wilt beget a fondness for the dull white light of the devas. At this stage, thou must not be awed by the divine blue light which will appear shining, dazzling, and glorious; and be not startled by it.

That is the light of the Tathagata called the Light of the Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhātu.

Put thy faith in it, believe in it firmly, and pray unto it, thinking in thy mind that it is the light proceeding from the heart of the Bhagavān Vairochana coming to receive thee while in the dangerous ambuscade of the Bardo.

That light is the light of the grace of Vairochana.

Be not fond of the dull white light of the devas. Be not attached [to it]; be not weak.

If thou be attached to it, thou wilt wander into the abodes of the devas and be drawn into the whirl of the Six Lokas.

That is an interruption to obstruct thee on the Path of Liberation.”

This will repeat every day for four days, going through all the colours, e.g the elements dissolving: blue, white, yellow, red, green – there is always a very bright light which leads to a heavenly realm – or a dull light which leads to a hell-realm. If you don’t follow these lights you will wander around in the next bardo (bardo being the state in-between) and be reborn in, on average, 7 weeks after dying according to the Thödöl.

This is deceptive. The observed appearance and manifestation of light that one experiences is a direct function of the resonance of the harmonics of the energy structure of the higher selves (mantid (sic)).

It is true that the appearance can be used as an indicative measure of the terrain that the consciousness must endure, it is not a shared and repeatable action. To experience what is written, the person must be a long-term practitioner (decades of intense practice) of Tibetan religious ritual.

Those that are not, will derive no benefit from the teachings.

The containers (sic) that are defined as the vessels of the quanta (as determined by energy state) are not fixed and rigid, but as always subject to change, manipulation, growth and evolution. This is why higher energy quanta fits within certain lattice patterns. As well as how the consciousness containers adapt to the fixtures that define the containers.

There are sequences of events that one will experience, but those sequences will vary from observer to observer.

There are no rule-books, guides, or teachings that can prepare the deceased consciousness for the event sequence that will manifest before them.

[11.18] Question – Annunaki

Hi. Pretty straight forward question about the prison complex I hope you can ask the Commander MM. Unless you already know the answer yourself of course.

I take it that the human beings in this final form were created probably a couple of hundreds thousands years ago by other beings, some call them Annunaki.

Am I correct that they also previously by other beings had created another race millions of years ago, and they were being set incharge of humans, as caretakers/overwatchers of the human race?

These overwatchers seem in fact pretty much just like prison guards as I understand it. To me they sound a lot like The Old Empire. Are they in fact the Old Empire or are actually the Annunaki themselves OE?

When the Old Empire encountered this region of physical space, it was a prosperous area. There were colonies containing numerous  species though out this region of space, and numerous settlements on the planet Earth.

When they entered this region they took it by force. Many of the inhabitants were killed. Many cities were destroyed. Many inhabitants fled because this entire region was no longer a safe area to live in.

Upon the ruins, the Old Empire constructed multiple prison complexes.

The earliest writings of the ancient Sumerians reflect historical records that were passed down over the generations of the initial construction of this prison complex. They have, over time, became distorted and confused, and the semblance of order, timing and participants lost or misinterpreted.

Further confusing this situation are / has been, repeated attempts at distortions of the past and a sorting of the event trains. Thus, what remains today are but pale distortions of what was once, a very impressive  effort by the Old Empire to construct this Prison Planet Complex into what it is today.

The "overwatchers" and the Annunaki are historical references to what was (in all probability) Old Empire residents involved in work in this region.

[11.19a] Question – Time

I don’t know if this has been asked before. If it was, please disregard. I want to ask the DC as we all know that time is a human-made artificial construct and does not exist as such, why we humans seem to perceive time is “speeding” and going “faster” in this turmoil period; a common quote is “time flies”. When everything is peaceful we humans perceive time as “slow”.

The question is: Is “time” manipulated as “fast” to get the bulk of human beings on Earth moving to specific (troublesome) world-lines?

The experience of "time" is the movement of consciousness through world-lines (sic). It can be speeded up, or slowed, by the consciousness that resides within the physical body. Slowing; things moving in slow motion, relative to the observer, is an example of the consciousness moving slower through the various world-lines. Often it is due to a physical event that the consciousness is experiencing.

[11.19b] Question – Bads

My second and last question: The geo-political situation is apparently converging to full-scale world war. Is this situation changeable towards “small bads” or the “big bad” we don’t want (full nuclear WWIII) is now defined as the most probable outcome?

As of 6 August 2022...

It now (at this point in time) highly probable that "medium bads" will occur.

It is no longer "small bads".

The situation in the Western nations are gyrating out of control, and this is forcing the Eastern nations into actions that they are reluctant to engage in.

Those in the West (i.e. The United States) have [1] this belief that they have some special "God provided" protection. [2] That they have some super secret, special weapons and technology. [3] That much of this technology was reverse engineered from Domain or similar advanced sources. [4] That they can win and destroy the East using these advanced equipment, technology, and abilities.

All of the belief structures are in error.

The "secret weapons" are neither secret, nor wholly functional. The idea that the West will unify under a combined threat level is not realistic. The overall belief that nuclear submarines are undetectable and lie hidden is in error.

They are careering towards a very bad outcome.

We now anticipate "medium bads". Though we are working hard to contain them, there is a near deleterious insanity that has gripped the "leadership" of the West and they believe that the destruction of the world is an acceptable outcome provided that they still rule it.

The vision of the world that they envision is a very bad one and will result in millions of years of global devastation. No reproduction of current sentient life will be able to occur. The prison complex will evolve into a lonely, abandoned husk of waste floating within it's own isolation universe, and abandoned by the Domain to be forgotten and ignored.

Domain will not permit this.

We consider this an emergency.

We have requested other (Domain) resources to assist in this on-going emergency potential. This might necessitate infected mass die-offs in the aggressive (leadership's) population centers on the planet.

We will arrange additional resources to assist in the transition period of the various die-offs so that the existing systems are not overwhelmed. Consciousness's will be directed and funneled into the proper segmentation and sorting avenues. We need to allocate resources to avoid swamping the systems already in place.

We (Domain) learned from our mistakes in the past, and this situation will be tracked to a different vector than what it is on now, though it will not appear to be that way to many of the readership. (Commander is talking about common template tracking and the sub-template structures. -MM)

However, there will be some great hardship in the world. Mostly the collective West.

Great damage and casualties can be avoided, however the realistic probability of this actually manifesting is getting smaller and smaller over time. <redacted>

There will be certain pockets of the West that will be poisoned. And given the resources (Domain resources) it might take a long time before they are cleaned up.

We are working presently to avoid the "medium bads" from manifesting. We are not hopeful.

MM comments…

Where a “medium bad” is a catastrophic nuclear exchange resulting in a one-sided destruction on a planet-wide scale. It is not the total destruction of the world, just a complete destruction of selected parts of it. The image that I have (from the Domain Commander) is of an orange with big black spots on it.

Image provided to me was something that looked a little like this.

[11.19b-1] Question – Medium Bads

For the audience, and to help in my understanding. Please define what a “medium bad” is.

A "big bad" is measured in a billion or more people killed.

A "medium bad" is measured in the hundreds of millions killed.

A "small bad" is measured in one or two millions killed.

The present situation is somewhere between a small and a medium bad. It includes all deaths from war and the (hidden) bio-wars currently in process.

[11.19b-2] Question – Why has things changed?

Why are you talking about “medium bads” instead of “little bads”?

The West are following the recommendations of RAND to the letter. There has been no deviation from the plan as laid out by the United States "think tank". This proceeds to plan throughout the actions of every one of the last five (or six) presidents.

They define victory as the destruction of the East with the West remaining the dominant remaining power.

This necessitates nuclear warfare with America making a first-strike against their enemies. This includes crippling, then looting Russia. This includes suppression of Iran, and strengthening Western access to the mineral resources in the Middle Easts. However, their main target is China.

China, to the leadership and the RAND organization, is viewed as a plump and ripe fruit ready to obtain. It is viewed as weak by the Western leadership. Though, on a specific basis, the Western specialized analysts advise that the leadership impressions and positions are gravely in error.

China is the cultural oasis of Domain in this physical sphere. We cannot permit it's destruction.

We (Domain) can confirm that Western "first strike" plans are in place.

We can confirm that the idea of a normalized "first strike" is in normal day-to-day discourse even though the plans call for a segmentation of the world into geographic regions prior to that event train.

Previous lessons (on other planets) have followed this path and in every case the results have been horrific / catastrophic. We will implement certain changes and that will mitigate the damage somewhat.

[11.19b-3] Question – How will China survive?

The United States is going to destroy China with it’s 6000+ nuclear weapons. I am convinced of this, especially from the last answer. What can be done?

The only way that China can survive is to work with Russia and pre-emptively launch a first strike against the West. 

You know this. Calm down and be objective, you need to focus for clarity of group communication. (I was berated by the commander. -MM)

[11.19b-4] Question – What can MM do?

And what about me? Personally?

You have relocated to a safe place. The greatest risks are undersea nuclear detonations causing tidal waves on major coastal cities. Additionally, there is a belief that Hong Kong can be "turned" and become a vassal state in the West. Your present location (and your future location) are both secure.

Once, the American manufactured SLBMs and ICBMs take out military targets, the primary Western strategy is to use swarms of fighters each carrying nuclear gravity bombs to pummel the Chinese countryside and cities. These are special modifications to the F-35 strike fighter (and standoff bombers such as the B-1, and aging B-52) that is now deployed world-wide. Devastating China completely and eviscerating all of the infrastructure inside of China. Turning it, in effect, into a very large ruin (much like Syria today).

A first strike will eviscerate Chinese defenses, secondary strikes by swarms of fighter bombers will canvas the nation. In short order, after the rubbling of the nation, a subsequent long conventional war will ensue, with the American leadership safe living somewhat normal lives in America.

However, and I caution, this plan, which is well understood inside of certain "leadership" circles, will not manifest.

Because it will not manifest, you and your family will remain safe. However, there will be complexities in your life that will complicate your life to a certain degree. These will be unavoidable, but not overly uncomfortable. You will continue to eat, and provide a useful role in society.

[11.19b-5] Question – Traumatized China

The Nancy Poliski trip has traumatized China. Will China make any dangerous or rash moves out of vengeance? I am concerned as I have never seen China so unified in fury.

China is following a course and strategy that it has laid out years ago. 

The only change in the unfolding events of the last few days is an acceleration of the planning and systems already in the works.

By the time the West starts to implement the segmentation of the world into two halves, the value of the global currency will have changed. The power structures of many "friends" will have changed, and the stances of various allied nations will have changed. China is aware of this.

China will proceed with a <hidden> strategy that they have coordinated with the SEC and Russia. This may or may not include military activity. However, it will include <redacted> and that will devastate the West.

[11.19b-6] Question – The United States

I am assuming that for the scenarios to manifest, that a first-strike effort must be taken by both Russia and China simultaneously. Is this even possible?

I cannot believe that they are talking or discussing this reality.

There is an understanding between Xi Peng and Putin. It is deep, incisive and visceral. 

You need not try to over think the possible scenarios that will manifest these event trains. 

You simply need to accept that nothing lasts forever, and that those that play with fire tend to be scorched.

This was plainly, explicitly and clearly, explained to President Biden by Xi Peng, and he chose to ignore the one singular warning. 

There will be no further warnings.

[11.19b-7] Question – The United States ruin

Please tell me what kind of damage that the USA might experience.

There are too many variables at this point in time. I am unable to assist you.

You can expect massive die-offs. The predicted outcomes (based on non-earth predictive models) suggest a bulk die-off due to starvation, illness, and lack of proper medical care. Deaths due to radiation will be minor, only amounting to a few (handful's of) millions of Americans.

Reconstruction of the United States in whatever form (eventually) develops will be fraught with civil discord, terrible logistics, and a serious lack of medical care. Hygiene will plummet as access to potable water ends, staples such as toothpaste and toilet paper evaporate, and viruses torment the populace.

Plants and farms will struggle as most plants use GMO seeds that require a precise mixture of fertilization, weather, and soil conditions that are only possible with complete mechanized farming technologies. Fruit and vegetables will become increasingly difficult to obtain.

A short and brief "limited" nuclear, or conventional attack on American soil is further erode the social structure, but the government, itself, is very resilient. The United States will continue to operate, in a fashion, even though it will be "toothless".

[11.20] Question – Hypersonic missiles

Last minute question.

I just read a report that a Russian engineer / scientist was arrested to selling secret hypersonic technology to China. Is this true? What is going on?

Commander *snorts* and *laughs*. (An odd enough gesture.) <Chills>

Source is CNN; American disinformation outlet. None of their readership have the ability to verify or deny the "report".

Seeding of articles with disinformation is for purposes unrelated to MM discourse. You can safely ignore the *blather*.

My guess is that CNN disinfo is trying to portray the illusion that Russia is alone and not all that friendly to China. This idea seems to fit into the narrative that Russia and China can somehow be separated from each other. -MM

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[daegonmagus] – Part 27 – The Mantids Finally Showed Up….right before an uninstigated conversation about manifestation through intent.

The following is the 27th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

The Mantids Finally Showed Up….right before an uninstigated conversation about manifestation through intent.

Yep. They finally showed up….in our goddamned fucking house….in our goddamned fucking bedroom….after being a bunch of total fucking jackasses. We’d all just got our flu shots because there is a few flyers going around suggesting that “hey, guys, everyone got caught up in Covid and forgot all about the flu which has now mutated into some horrible chimera amalgamation of all the worst parts of Scott Morrsion, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden probably due to the use of gain of function research, so come and get a free vaccine for it before you turn into pile of useless shit”….and considering it spelt vaccine with a c, and that it wasn’t covid, I figured it would probably be ok. That and the fact our kids get royally sick when they get sick, to the point they are down and out for the count for weeks at a time. So, skipping that whole schpeel (I love all of you whether you are vaxed or not), coincidentally we all came down with blocked noses the day afterwards (I knew we should have got it earlier, just our luck).

Anyway, we have everyone in our room because it easier and cheaper to warm everyone with one heater than several sprawled out through several rooms, and because the chicken bird scared the absolute shit out of our daughter to the point she will not go back in her room at night time.

The problem is, my eldest son has autism, and having a blocked nose when he is trying to sleep might as well be the same as trying to saw ones own leg off with a teaspoon. Unfortunately he got quite bad, and was himself scaring his younger brother and sister, so I had to get him out of the house and take him for a drive at 1 in the morning to calm him down.

We were gone for about 20 minutes, during which he calmed down, we had a little talk about his interests etc, and eventually made our way home. He goes to bed, and everyone finally gets some sleep.

Storme tells me in the morning, when we were out, she saw a group of mantids around his bed, one of them very clearly, as solid as a physical object, the others just barely visible. They way she describes it was that it looked just like a tall praying mantis, but unusually thin (about 3 feet tall and body as thick as her arm, head the size of two fists put together), and when it walked it was really weirdly robotic. She said she saw it scuttle off and then it just faded away into nothing.

Strange right?

Well we all know there has been very bizarre happenings in and around this house; I have heard weird rushing noises like when a low flying aircraft pulls air through a bunch of nearby trees which sets the dog of in an act of investigation. SD has seen things wearing what appears to be the invisibility camouflage Predator uses when he is being hunted by Arnie (the amateurs stepped in a puddle of water and made a very obvious footprint when she caught it, then bailed snapping bunch of twigs in the process.), as well as ships halfway through their own cloaking operation. Then there is the case of the mysterious chicken bird my daughter has seen…

Speaking of which; now that SD has seen the mantids up close and their beaky like nose, snout whatverthefuck she thinks they very much could be the one and the same thing. The movement is very similar between the two.

So anyway, that particular day, we have some guy show up to check out some minor leaks in our roof. He is in the kitchen, and he sees my survival knife on the bench.

“Is that a military knife?” he asks me. It’s a Gerber LMF Infantry 2, so yeah, I guess I could see how he thinks that.

I tell him yeah and ask if he was in the army. “Yeah. I was involved in radiological and biological warfare”…

Well fuck me, this just got interesting.

Naturally I ask him his thoughts on COVID, if he thinks it is a biological weapon etc, and he says “Definitely. It’s the most perfect bioweapon ever made.” We get to talking and after a brief conversation about healthy dietary plans, the conversation veers back toward all this shit going on with COVID, and vaccines (I may have by this point mentioned a certain ex spook friend living in China who is quite adamant the US dropped it on them).

Somehow we get talking about CRISPR and gene splicing, and out of no where he says “you know, like, so what if I want to create a fucking Aryan kid with blonde hair and blue eyes and wings coming out of its back”….Ok, that was some weird shit to say, particularly to someone who just wrote an article on the occult connection of the Nazi’s and the Aryan race, and another one on his workings with four armed angels in the astral planes.

Very strange thing indeed.

Speaking of Nazi’s, we mention SD’s grandmother was born in A Nazi PoW camp (without a belly button, however the fuck that is possible), and had a bunch of experiments done on her where she had to have blood tests done every day….We’ve been talking an hour at this point, and suddenly I find this guy talking about the Nazi bell {alleged} time machine and some story about how they got it to levitate (I didn’t tell him I know someone whose actually seen it).

What in the fuck is going on here? This guy just pops in to fix my roof and is just opening with all this shit that is pretty much everything I have been writing about for the past year; I am not even leading him in this direction – just chucking in a few bits I know when he brings it up – it is all him. I forgot this seems to be something that happens with me when I write; things very definitely do seem to just randomly manifest (hence why I had some idea of affirmation campaigns before I came on across MM).

Write a fictional novel about the Goetic spirit Astaroth and he turns my TV on to a program with Astaroth’s Star in the middle of the day; write a book about a plane falling out of the sky due to the quantum thoughts that really gave them lift being exposed, and a week later flight MH370 goes missing (that one did actually freak me the fuck out).

Speaking of manifestation; after our conversation about Die Glocke, this guy then starts to tell me about how when he was doing radiological and biological warfare, the military brought in some Olympic Athletes. “Me and my colleagues were trying to understand what all the Athletes had in common” he told me. Turns out they had all won gold. Also turns out they had all won gold through rigorous manifestation campaigns, which they committed to quite more aggressively than even MM seems to when he does an Affirmation Campaign.

Apparently there was one woman who would think about gold wherever she went – whenever she’d walk into a room all she saw in her mind’s eye was gold on the wall; gold paintings, golden dinner table, golden dog shit on the carpet made out of gold. Whenever she took a shower… One morning she woke up the day of an Olympic swim, and felt so appalling she was almost ready to throw in the towel and call her swimming career quits. She called her coach who said “just focus on gold”. Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold. GOLD. She ended up competing and guess what she won (I’ll give you a hint, you can spell the first part of Australia with its chemical symbol.)

According to my guy here, the army knew very well about the powers of manifesting when it came to intent. The point he was making was that they sprinkled it in amongst their troops training regimes to make them collectively manifest certain goals.

“Yeah, right” I say, pretending I am one of those guys that thinks it is all bunch of new age hocus pocus bullshit. Little does he know I am 1 and a half months into my own affirmation campaign, which may involve connecting with these very fucking kinds of people (normies bore the shit out me).

He proceeds to tell me about how he has used this concept all his life since he was a little kid, to help manifest his business desires. He tells me a story about how he was doing fly in fly out work, and one day just quit his job as it was affecting his relationship with his new girlfriend, after being in the game for about 5 years. He’s thinking he needs to find a cheap $1000 utility truck and do it up as a means for starting his own business. He’s at the airport coming home, and sees this little old lady looking kind of lost. “Are you alright there , mam?” he asks, and she tells him “well, not really, I am new to Perth and I am bit confused about how to get where I am supposed to be going”.

“Do you need me to call you a taxi, or someone to come get you?” he asks her.
“Actually I would quite appreciate that if you could”. She replies.

He takes her to the waiting lounge where there is a pay phone, and they proceed to wait in the long line that has formed to use it. The old lady strikes up a conversation while they are waiting, asking him what he is doing with himself, that sort of thing.

“Well I have just come out of five year job from the mines, as it was affecting my relationship with my girlfriend, now I need to find something a bit more local”. He offers her some of his qualifications etc as part of the small talk.

Meanwhile a guy standing behind them has been listening to the whole conversation. He interjects.

“Excuse me, buddy, but I am the owner of this company that builds elevators for the commercial sector and a vacancy just came up.” He flicks him a business card and says ”Send me your resume, and we’ll see what we can do” A day later he got the job.

But it doesn’t stop there. The same day, he is talking to his friend who tells him “check out this ad for this utility truck I just came across.” This guy shows him the ad in a paper, or on his phone or whatever, and he looks at it:

“Not bad for $1000, eh? All it needs is a bit of doing up and it make a great work ute”

“Send me the number”he says, without batting an eyelid.…it was the same ute we had now both walked up to and whose trailer he was lying on top quite casually as we talked, which was now going on 2 hours.

I figured fuck it, might as well go all in.

I tell him how my spook guy living in China is an ex Majestic agent who was given the actual process of how this manifestation shit works by the ETs he was involved with, then proceed to tell him about said proper process, 3 months on, and 3 months off then 3 on again yada yada yada. He kind of looks at me, and nods, probably thinking I am a fucking nut job, but kindly suggests he isn’t thinking that.

The conversation about manifesting of desire thing comes full circle:
“So getting back to the vaccine thing. You wipe out the old and the weak, you are left with the young and strong. You then start seeding the concepts you want to see manifested into that generation, and……well, you get the idea.”
He then seems to realize the time and has to shoot off.

Well that was certainly interesting. Almost like a higher force was telling me EXACTLY what is up with the vaccines. Either that or it was just, like, his opinion, man.

Even more interesting is that that night SD and I had a fight and she sees another fucking mantid in the mirror (but not out of it) next to our bed.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

MM Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

[daegonmagus] – Part 26 – Lucid Astral Projection – The Consciousness Craft Launch Facility and Something Dwelling in the Red Planet:

The following is the 26th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benefit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Lucid Astral Projection – The Consciousness Craft Launch Facility and Something Dwelling in the Red Planet:

I’m, fucking back baby. WOOOHOOO.

Last night I woke up around 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I figured I might as well try meditating with a goal to induce an LD. I was playing around with visualisations of a tunnel that would burrow me outside of the Astral Plane bubble surrounding earth. My goal was to try and contact the EG.

This was the first proper wake induced lucid dream I have had in years where I have been able to keep 100% of consciousness during the transition.

As I reached hypnogogia, my dream environment changed into a sort of hospital like facility with lots of corridors. Although it was dark, it had a warmness feeling to it that reminded me of whenever I went to my grandma’s place. As hypngogia set in properly, I found myself walking down this corridor. On the left was some sort of reception desk with a cafeteria behind it. Just up ahead from the reception desk was a door, and that was where I was heading.

There were two female staff at the reception desk, who I said a quick hi to as I walked past. They were the facilitators of whatever was on the other side of the door This all happens in less than a minute.

I approach the door and as I get right to its frame I step over the threshold. Some sort of invisible hook catches me in the middle of the head, and then I realize this is it. This is the transition I have been waiting a very long time to experience properly again.

My consciousness inverts, and I feel that all too familiar feeling of entering the void space, and my consciousness properly disengaging from my body.

But this time something different happens; when the hook hit me, it sort of turned my consciousness upwards as it was transitioning, I feel the hallway beyond the door sort of “capture” me as I do so.

As I plunge into the void space, I realize for the first time ever I am looking upwards into the shaft of the cylindrical like chamber, rather than at the side.

I realize this is a fucking tunnel into outer space; I can see stars from where I am obscured by its edges.

Some thing else is also different; this void space is a lot more clearer than I remember it being.

It is hard to explain, but movement in the void space used to create quite a level of disorientation. Although I could “feel” the depth of this space being quite huge and around me, I could never really “see” it.

Now I can see the stars and they are crystal clear; sparkling like diamonds in front of me, just begging for me to come and claim them.

I oblige, and propel myself forward, with only a small amount of velocity.

Something happens, and I find my momentum picking up until I am soaring through this tunnel hurtling towards the stars; I can even hear the reverberation of this velocity coming off the interior walls of whatever this tunnel thing is.

Suddenly I come out of the tunnel and plunge into outer space like a diver into water.

I realize it is some sort of station set up on an asteroid or something near earth.

I am 100% conscious and aware of my sleeping body. I seem to still be in the solar system, but still quite far from earth, probably a few light years away.

After a quick piloting test of control where I move my consciousness forward, back, left right, up and down I conclude that yes, something is very very different here this time.

It seems a fog has been lifted that usually makes such effortless control tiresome; like a polluted pond has now been cleaned and the water is perfect to swim in. Well, space is my water, and I am itching for a swim.

I propel myself forward and “open up the burners”, so to speak. I am like that guy taking a new mustang out to a straight stretch of road and just fucking gunning it to see how fast it can go before his nerves kick in and make him punch the brakes.

Seems I have a new ‘stang and I want to see what this baby can do.

Fuck me, this awesome.

I am burning fast, and I mean REALLY FUCKING FAST.

If this is what the upgrades entail, then holy shit they were worth it.

Something gives me the impression my consciousness might actually be merged with a space craft of some sort.

I have propelled fast before, but never anywhere even remotely close to this. This is impressive even for my standards.

I am actually using this craft like it is my own fucking body, zipping around like a majestic unicorn that has just popped a bag of Ecstasy before going on an episode of dancing with the stars.

Saturn and Jupiter fly past me in a manner of seconds.

Then come the stars.

This isn’t anything like hyper drive in star wars or star trek. The planets and stars appear as tiny dots that just sail effortlessly past you like bits of dust in a windstorm.

Within about 30 seconds I have journeyed so far out of the solar system that I don’t even know what galaxy I am in.

I am very, very, very far from my physical body at this point.

I remember my goal of trying to establish contact with the EG. As the thought pops into my mind, almost instantaneously I start hearing the voice of the Grand Elder coming through (I haven’t heard this since February 2019), but it is broken and patchy like the tuning is not quite right.

I realize the interference is caused by the distance between me and them.

Although I am far from the solar system I am still even much further from the edge of the universe/ astral bubble.

“Hello. Hello? Can you hear us”.

I hear them say, but it doesn’t seem as though can get anything intelligible from so I give up.

As I am hurtling through space I notice some activity in a certain sector of the galaxy I am in.

There seems to be a tentacle of the anomaly bleeding through, but it is no where near the concern it once was.

It is concerning to see it this close to earth, but at the same time it doesn’t seem as malicious as it once was.

An “Eh, I’ll get to that a different time” thought pops into my head.

As I sail over it, I hear a dark demonic voice trying to lure me in.

I turn to check it out and notice it is coming from a red planet that looks almost identical to Mars off in the local vicinity of where I am (I cannot recall at this point whether I had turned around and journeyed back to our solar system or not, but I think that is the case).

I feel kinda sorry for this voice.

It is trying really hard to put on a show to scare me, but the whole thing just comes off as really lame and like something out of a kids PG movie.

Sort of like a real bad James Earl Jones Darth Vader rendition.

It is my responsibility to check into any malicious forces I find – I guess this is why I was cleared for launch back at the facility, to come and investigate this area of space – so I project towards it.

The red planet suddenly becomes very big in front of me.

I swear this is Mars, judging from its colour and patterns. If not then it must have a twin that is a spitting image.

I enter its atmosphere and realize that there is indeed something malicious going on; the first thing I notice is that a shroud is being used on the surface to plunge it into an astral darkness.

Even from this state, it is impossible to see several feet in front of me.

The voice lingers and tries to lure me in with some cheap promise of finding something I need, but I just tell it to fuck off, figuring it easier to go back and report this to base command and have it taken out remotely.

The main difference was that there was no fear of this entity; I was just observing it from an emotionless state of being.

I wake up, then quickly ride that lucidity train back through the transition before my mind gets too awoken.

Once again, I wind up back at the same launch facility, this time with SD by my side.

We walk the hallways trying to find the launch room, but end up getting lost in the corridors.

We take a wrong turn and end up outside.

There is a nicely manicured garden outside and I notice the buildings themselves are made of bricks and seem quite old.

The dream starts to become broken, but I realize that if you just look up and focus on the bricks, its stops it from falling apart (try this when trying to create a solid dreamscape).

SD attends to other business and I end up going to check out one of the buildings. It seems to be a sort of dormitory for other astral travellers/ lucid dreamers.

I notice a person there who I have been speaking to in recent weeks about their heightened astral projection experiences.

We have a brief chat, and then I make my way over to another room that seems to be mine.

The projection soon ends.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

MM Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

[daegonmagus] – Part 25 – Documenting the Other Worlds – Project Morpheus

The following is the 25th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benifit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you enjoy this article.

-MM

Project Morpheus

Earlier this month, I started a new project which will eventually comprise part of a larger project I have opened up on my site, www.daegonmagus.wix.com/author, for “Documenting the Other Worlds”.

This is actually an offshoot of another project I started a few years ago and never got around to finishing, which sort to put every frequency in the audible spectrum, between 20-20kHz on one track in what I called the “Pandora Chord”. Drawing on some sound engineering experience I picked up over the years, in my latest project, I decided to try and replicate some of the noises SD and I have experienced during some of our lucid dreams.

These vary from bizarre “UFO” type sounding noises, to the perceived change in sound of an aero plane going overhead as consciousness goes through the transition into the sleeping state and beyond into the void space.

I am hoping that these audio tracks will provide at least starting point for understanding what exactly happens to consciousness as it falls asleep, and give others an idea of the sorts of environments us LDers find ourselves having to navigate through. I am confident in my assertions that telepathy can be understood through using a similar model of radio propagation theory, and that the void space experienced during one of these conscious transitions into the sleep state acts as the main terminal by which telepathic information can be decoded and broadcast.

Thus my eventual goal will be to devise apparatus that will allow these sounds to be broadcast through open space in a similar manner, with an effort of contacting nearby entities. Guess I am officially “that” guy now huh?

This project soon evolved into the creation of a track specifically to try and induce a lucid dreaming session, based heavily on the Monroe Institute’s research into inducing OBE’s.

Whereas the Monroe Institute used a 4HZ offset frequency between those frequencies played in the left ear vs those played in the right, I opted to use a 2Hz offset frequency based primarily on the frequency of the physical world being “locking” onto to a dreamscape from a waking LD I once had. I also took some inspiration from Royal Rife and his assertions that lower sideband harmonics of certain frequencies can be used to destroy certain pathogens and viruses, and used a specific combination of frequencies that are spaced exactly an octave (a doubling of frequency) apart in the left ear, whilst introducing the 2 Hz variants of each of those frequencies in the right.

Originally I based these frequencies on the Binary number system of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 etc, but as my recording software’s signal generators only allow a minimum of 20Hz, I was forced with starting at 32Hz. I then applied phasers to these frequencies that adjust themselves through the peak ranges in timings of 2 to 4 Hz, again multiples of these frequencies.

I attempted to record this into a stereo track using an unbalanced mono line, which introduced some digital noise into the track which I realized sounded quite a lot like the tinnitus sound I usually hear during an OBE (which intensifies during an astral projection, right at the moment the astral body separates from the physical), so I left it in.

I then re-recorded the frequency tracks using a balanced line. The resultant track is a combination of what appears to be a Tibetan singing bowl mixed with both the tinnitus and UFO “Whoop Whoop” sounds, with a mechanical like noise overlaid, which I assume is caused by certain collision points of the frequencies during sampling, similar to aliasing. This Mechnical noise is very reminiscent of the type of chthonic noises heard during a sleep paralysis/ LD experience.

The listener is encouraged to try and focus on the other phantom noises that seemingly present themselves.

I then used the track for a total of 15 to 20 minutes each morning and evening before going to bed. After day 3 or 4, I noticed a very strong feeling of dissociation from my surroundings, very similar to that felt when under the influence of marijuana.

This feeling I noticed was more prominent when looking at areas with many patterns of shadow contrasted against light, an example being piles of leaves in a lightly shaded area. The effect I witnessed was that a diamond like wavy “ghost” pattern was perceivable between me and the leaves as a sort of visual noise.

This feeling kept all day and only began to subside after about 3 days after my last dosing of the audio track. In addition this, there was also a prolonged energetic feeling felt deep within the solar plexus, vaguely similar to morphine when it enters the vein.

When I showed this track to my daughter, the first thing she told me was that it was the sound that happens when the chicken bird shows up (see [daegonmagus] – Part 12 – Miscellaneous Experiences: The Curious case of the Mysterious Chicken Bird – Metallicman). This particular entity was once again spotted by SD about a week after stopping listening to the audio, though SD has not heard this track as of yet.

Upon review of the lengths associated with nervous system pathways, and the idea the body acts as a tuned antenna that emits a carrier wave that consciousness attaches to, based on these nervous system pathways, further experimentation will see the offset frequency between left and right ears changed to 3Hz.

For the aeroplane going overhead, I downloaded a sample of an aeroplane off the internet. One should note, this aeroplane sounds a little bit different to what I actually heard, but for demonstration purposes will do. I started by stretching majority of the track out to about twice its normal length (slowing the frequencies involved in the process). I then placed a phaser that polls through the entire range of frequencies every 0.07Hz. The track is thus a close representation, but not exact. My Plan is to simulate other typical noises in a similar fashion to see what they would sound like in the void space.

For the UFO noise I used a simple 128HZ signal, with a 4hz timed phaser. I am very interested in hearing from others who have heard this noise or something similar to it either during an “encounter” or an OBE experience.

I am also interested in hearing from others who experience similar feelings of association or the energy bursts I have felt.

I suspect this combination of phaser arrangement on a specific frequency might have something to do with disrupting consciousness to achieving a “cloaking” effect. I believe the key to unlocking consciousness from the body lies in the way these crafts use these frequencies, particularly during LDs/APs.

Edit, for some reason, this track is proving difficult to record and will be uploaded at another date. Refer to the above inducer test track to get an idea of the “Woo Woo” sound.

The lucid fizz sound is the tinnitus sounding noise mentioned above. I extracted it from the recording with the introduced mechanical noise using some 7 band EQs to filter out the lower frequency components. It is about 90% accurate to what I hear on a regular basis.

Sometime I get random bouts where one of my ears will be overloaded with a high pitched frequency (different to the tinnitus sound), which, more often than not becomes somewhat disorientating. This just so happened to happen about 2 days into using the lucid dreaming test audio.

I made a mental note of the sound and quickly rushed to my computer, which was on and had a signal generator setup. I then scrolled through the frequencies until I got withina close ballpark of this disorientating “Information Download Frequency”, which I found was at 2925 Hz. I believe further investigation of this frequency is warranted.

Any information supplemental to my experiments from the Commander is most welcome.

The audio files

For now, hosted on Google drive.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

MM Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

We are in World War Three

I often remember the embarrassing events in my life. I suppose that all of us have these memories. Mine are deep scars. The memories are just painful. Sorry. And though from time to time, I feel a need to tell my story (s) I find it difficult to do so. The embarrasment is just too severe.

But you know… I learned form them. As we all have.

We are going to continue on our mish mash of articles here today to describe a world in turmoil and one on fire with hidden wars, secretive plans, mind control, bioweapons, and a total luntic-ruled Western society.

We start with Truth

Mistakes in judgement part 1

Chinese media: 2 British fighting for Ukraine captured by Russia

One is widely available on the Saker Website, and Graham Phillips Youtube channel. The other is at the RT.com website, posted as “interview”.

I’ve seen both. The critical question was not asked: Did you kill anyone? As mercenaries, both know that they could be subject to the death penalty and aren’t protected by international prisoner of war law….a bit of an oversight when looking for employment…

They don’t seem to be Azov Nazi types, just soldier of fortune types who didn’t think hard enough about what they were doing in Ukraine. But they don’t seem much stupider than most Western supporters of the coup regime.

Attached text hyperlink and video.

两名在乌克兰被俘英国人出镜向英首相求“人员交换”|乌克兰|英国人|俄罗斯_新浪军事_新浪网

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Article

The entire interview, learn from the horse’s mouth.

https://bdnews24.com/world/2022/04/20/the-messy-middle

The ‘messy middle’

2022-04-20 00:40:46

Ian Prasad Philbrick, The New York Times

No pay Wall here:

If you live in most any Western country, your government’s support for Ukraine, including sending weapons and imposing sanctions on Russia, can give the impression of a united global response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

But that isn’t the case. Most of the world’s 195 countries have not shipped aid to Ukraine or joined in sanctions. A handful have actively supported Russia. Far more occupy the “messy middle,” as Carisa Nietsche of the Centre for a New American Security calls it, taking neither Ukraine’s nor Russia’s side.

“We live (Americans) in a bubble, here in the US and Europe, where we think the very stark moral and geopolitical stakes, and framework of what we’re seeing unfolding, is a universal cause,” Barry Pavel, a senior vice president at the Atlantic Council, told me. “Actually, most of the governments of the world are not with us.”

India and Israel are prominent democracies that ally with the United States on many issues, particularly security. But they rely on Russia for security as well and have avoided arming Ukraine or imposing sanctions on Moscow. “In both cases, the key factor isn’t ideology but national interests,” says my New York Times colleague Max Fisher, who has written about Russia’s invasion.

India is the world’s largest buyer of Russian weapons, seeking to protect itself from Pakistan and China. India joined 34 other countries in abstaining from a United Nations vote that condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And India appears to be rebuffing Western pleas to take a harder line.

Israel coordinates with Russia on Iran, its chief adversary, and in neighboring Syria (with which Russia has a strong relationship). Russian-speaking émigrés from the former Soviet Union also make up a sizable chunk of the Israeli electorate. Israel’s prime minister has avoided directly criticising Putin, and although its government has mediated between Ukraine and Russia, little has come out of the effort.

Several Latin American, Southeast Asian and African countries have made similar choices. Bolivia, Vietnam and almost half of Africa’s 54 countries declined to support the UN resolution condemning Russia. Some rely on Russian military assistance, said Bruce Jones, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Others don’t want to risk jeopardising trade relations with China, which has parroted Russian propaganda about the war.

Those countries “might be more accurately described as disinterested,” Fisher says, unwilling to risk their security or economies “for the sake of a struggle that they see as mostly irrelevant.”

Some countries, citing the West’s history of imperialism and past failures to respect human rights, have justified opposing its response to Ukraine. South Africa’s president blamed NATO for Russia’s invasion, and its UN ambassador criticized the US invasion of Iraq during a debate last month about Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis.

Other countries, including some that voted to condemn Russia’s invasion, accuse the West of acting counterproductively. Brazil’s UN ambassador has suggested that arming Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia risk escalating the war.

“There’s nothing intellectually incoherent between viewing Russia’s actions as outrageous and not necessarily fully siding with the West’s reaction to it,” Jones told me.

Autocratic leaders — including in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua — may also feel threatened by Ukraine’s resistance and the West’s framing of the invasion as a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, experts said. “They’re concerned that this could inspire opposition movements in their own countries,” Nietsche said.

China, with all its economic and military might, has seen the war as a chance to enhance its own geopolitical standing as a counterweight to the United States while still maintaining ties to Russia. The countries recently issued a joint statement proclaiming a friendship with “no limits.” But China has struggled with the delicate balancing act of honoring that commitment without fully endorsing Russia’s invasion: Beijing has denounced Western sanctions but has not appeared to have given Russia weapons or economic aid.

“China’s support for Russia, while very important, is also carefully hedged and measured,” Fisher says.

Four countries — North Korea, Eritrea, Syria and Belarus — outright voted with Russia against the UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is a former Soviet state whose autocratic leader asked Putin to help suppress protests in 2020 and allowed Russia to launch part of its invasion from within Belarus.

Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war on behalf of the Moscow-aligned government there, and Syria is sending fighters who may aid Russian forces in Ukraine.

It’s not unusual for countries to avoid picking sides on big global issues. Several stayed neutral during World War II; dozens sought to remain free of both United States and Soviet influence during the Cold War.

But if the war in Ukraine drags on, Jones said, neutral countries could come under stronger international pressure to condemn Moscow. And for countries with close ties to Russia, even neutrality can be an act of courage.

Mistakes in judgement part 2

The Russian military says it has successfully performed the first test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

President Vladimir Putin said the weapon would make the West “think twice” before harbouring any aggressive intentions against Russia.

(note: Sunzi: the art of war 不战而屈人之兵，crippled the enemy war intention without war is the highest form of war strategy. China often opening released new weapons whenever she perceived a possible US aggression, apparently, putin is doing the same thing. )

The test launch of the Sarmat missile came amid soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and underlined the Kremlin’s emphasis on the country’s nuclear forces.

The RS-28 Sarmat, colloquially known to the West as the “Satan II”, is a Russian liquid-fueled, MIRV-equipped super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) under development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau since 2009. It is intended to replace the R-36M ICBM (SS-18 ‘Satan’) in Russia’s arsenal.

The Sarmat is one of the six new Russian strategic weapons unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018. The RS-28 Sarmat was expected to make its first test flight in 2022, and enter service later this year.

The RS-28 Sarmat is capable of carrying about 10 tons of payload for either up to 10 heavy, or 15 light, MIRV warheads, as well as an unspecified number of Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) or a combination of warheads. It also carries several countermeasures against anti-ballistic missile systems. The Russian ministry of Defense said that the missile is Russia’s response to the U.S. Prompt Global Strike system.

Sarmat has a short boost phase, which shortens the interval when it can be tracked by satellites with infrared sensors, such as the U.S. Space-Based Infrared System, making it more difficult to intercept. It is speculated that the Sarmat could fly a trajectory over the South Pole, completely immune to any current missile defense system, and that it has the Fractional Orbital Bombardment (FOBS) capability.

According to various sources, RS-28’s launch sites are to be equipped with the “Mozyr” active protection system, designed to negate potential adversary’s first strike advantage by kinetically destroying incoming bombs, cruise missiles and ICBM warheads at altitudes of up to 6 km.

Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked today “The missile will provide food for thought for those who try to threaten Russia.”

UPDATE:

Russia SAYS THE TEST WAS SUCCESSFUL.

“All calculated characteristics are confirmed. Training warheads arrived in a given area in Kamchatka” according to the Ministry of Defense.

The agency recalls that the Sarmat is the most powerful missile in the world with the longest range of targets. It will greatly enhance the military power of the country.

Japan approves ban on luxury car exports to Russia

Japan approved Tuesday a ban on exports of luxury cars and other items to Russia as part of economic sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. The Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida revised a relevant ordinance to implement the embargo on April 5 that will also cover jewelry and artworks.

Quick Pepper Steak

Do you want something good, quick and tasty for your family? Try this.

Directions

In a bowl, combine the cornstarch, brown sugar, ginger and garlic powder. Stir in broth until smooth. Add soy sauce and molasses; set aside.
In a nonstick skillet or wok, stir-fry steak in oil for 4-5 minutes; remove and keep warm. Stir-fry peppers, celery and onions until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Stir broth mixture and add to the vegetables. Return meat to the pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Serve over noodles if desired.

Germany says Serbia should align with EU policies if it wants to join bloc | Reuters

It’s from Reuters. It’s hard to tell if this is actual reporting or just another narrative out of the West.

Chinese media: 2 British fighting for Ukraine captured by Russia

Cannot find any report in English. Attached text hyperlink and video.

两名在乌克兰被俘英国人出镜向英首相求“人员交换”|乌克兰|英国人|俄罗斯_新浪军事_新浪网

Mistakes in judgement part 3

Ukraine Claims Russian Phase 2 Has Begun

18 April 2022 by Larry Johnson From HERE

It looks like Ukrainian officials are not blowing smoke on this. During the past 24 hours Russian military operations in the Donbas and in Western Ukraine have increased markedly.

I want to share with you some videos from the Intel Slava Z channel on Telegram. While there always is the possibility these are staged propaganda pieces, they appear legitimate.

First up is the shootdown of a Ukrainian combat jet. Thermal footage shows Ukrainian Su-25 attack jet firing flares, in vain, trying to escape an incoming Russian missile. The jet was shot down on 15th of April by Russian Air Defense units.

The second video shows a Chechen in Mariupol inside one of the buildings at Ilyich plant where elements of the Azov battalion hid. This is probably from Saturday, 16 April. It did not turn out well for the Azov thugs:

Chechens Inspect bodies of AZOV battalion in Ilyich Plant in Mariupol

The Russians are busy on several fronts. Let’s start on the southern coast of Ukraine:

Mariupol is under the control of Russia, only a small element of the AZOV battalion is holed up in the Avostol steel plant with their backs to the sea.
The Russians have secured Berdyansk, which is 60 miles west of Mariupol.
There are explosions in Kherson, which is 220 miles west of Berdyansk.
The night sky over Nikolaev (aka Mykolaiv) is on fire with a barrage of airborne explosives. From Nikolaev it is only 80 miles to Odesa.

At present, Russia is controlling the southern coast of Ukraine with a combination of naval and ground forces. Once Odesa falls (and it will fall), Russia will have completely cut off Ukraine from its southern ports. (There is no commercial activity now because it is a war zone.)

Then there is the action in the west along the border with Poland. Russia is destroying the military equipment that the United States and NATO are sending to Ukraine. Here is a remarkable video showing three weapon collection sites being hit in Lviv (I do not think this is from a video game because even Fox News reported the strikes). According to Intel Slava Z:

Aviation strikes with high-precision missiles at the 124th Joint Logistics Support Center of the Logistics Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Lviv, – Defense Ministry

The logistics center and the large consignments of foreign weapons that were delivered to Ukraine over the past 6 days from the United States and European countries were destroyed.

But center stage for Russian military operations is to the east in Donbas. Popasnaya sits halfway between Luhansk and Kramatorsk (the site of the missile that killed civilians at the train station a week ago). Russian tanks reportedly are bombarding Ukrainian positions:

If the Ukrainian Army still had intact artillery it would be firing counter-battery rounds at the Russian tanks. That is not happening. When you are fighting a comparable force, doctrine dictates that the tanks fire and then move. (Counter battery fire means that the unit being shelled can fire back and hit the position where the shell originated.) I add the caveat that this video could be an elaborate propaganda production, but comments from Zelensky and his toadies indicate the offensive is underway.

There also are press reports that Russian artillery is firing on Ukrainian units around Kharkov (which is a 160 miles northwest of Popasnaya). The limited ability of the Ukrainian forces to respond in kind means the units are hunkered down and taking a brutal beating. If they poke their heads out of their bunkers they are likely to lose their noggin.

Besides physically killing the Ukrainian soldiers, the Russian sustained bombardments are also killing the will to fight among some of the units. Significant numbers are surrendering to Russian units. The first video shows more than 80 Ukrainians who are now under Russian control:

Here is another group of more than 300 Ukrainian soldiers who gave up:

If Ukraine was succeeding on the ground I am sure we would be seeing daily briefings from the Ukrainian generals touting their latest triumph over Russian forces. The absence of such reports is not the product of some clever Ukrainian plot to deceive the Russians into complacency. The inability to maintain robust lines of communication with the front line units and ensure they are fully supplied with ammunition, weapons and food is a death spiral for any military organization.

Recent new reports in the west state that there are limitations on what the United States and NATO can supply. Here is Bloombergs “rosy” picture:

America is following an “arsenal of democracy” strategy in Ukraine: It has avoided direct intervention against the Russian invaders, while working with allies and partners to provide the Kyiv government with money and guns. . . .

Yet as the war reaches a critical stage, with the Russians preparing to consolidate their grip on eastern Ukraine, the arsenal of democracy is being depleted. . . .

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that the West has delivered 60,000 antitank weapons and 25,000 anti-aircraft weapons to Kyiv. The Pentagon is now laying plans to rush additional artillery, coastal defense drones and other materiel to Ukraine. The White House on Wednesday announced a new $800 million package including helicopters and armored personnel carriers. . . .

Pentagon officials say that Kyiv is blowing through a week’s worth of deliveries of antitank munitions every day. It is also running short of usable aircraft as Russian airstrikes and combat losses take their toll. Ammunition has become scarce in Mariupol and other areas.  

This is presenting Western countries with a stark choice between pouring more supplies into Ukraine or husbanding finite capabilities they may need for their own defense.

What the Bloomberg reporter forgot to mention is that Russia is blowing up many of those munitions in western Ukraine even before they can be sent to the front.

In writing this hard truth I am frequently accused of simply passing on Russian propaganda. Not true. If you have the videos of the Ukrainians wreaking havoc on the Russians please let me know. I have not seen it.

And as I noted above, I do not doubt for a minute that U.S. news media would be showing these videos if they existed. This may be a decisive week for the continued existence of organized Ukrainian military operations. The Russian military appears to be following Putin’s directive–demilitarize Ukraine.

Australia among biggest new Cold War economic losers

By Rod Tyers and Yixiao Zhou
If tensions between the Western world and China and Russia led to a split into two separate financial and trading systems, Australia would be among the countries most hurt. Proportionately, the hypothetical negative effect on Australia would be larger than on the world as a whole, due to Australia’s relative affluence and dependence on trade

What To Do When China And Russia Jam GPS?

From American neocon publication “Forbes”…

China’s Orbital Nuclear Bombs Are A Bluff
Covid-19 Gives China And Russia A Strategic Advantage, Says U.S. Army

Ukraine: Greece’s military has seized Russian oil tanker

Zone B exists, thus there is hope, I promise you!

54018 Views January 20, 2021 From HERE

[this column was written for the Unz Review]

Dear friends,

Today it appears that the triumph of our adversaries is total. I want to post this column saying that I don’t believe for one second that this is true. All I want to do today is explain why. Thus, just to make clear to those alternatively gifted, this is not a comprehensive analysis and I will be leaving many things out.

So, here we go:

First, notice how totally paranoid our adversaries are! Depending on how you count and whom you ask, they had 25k to 65k folks in arms “defending” them. Of course, the primary goal of this nonsense is to make it appear as if there was a terrible domestic terrorist force out there, ready to take over DC and open Gulags for minorities. This, in turn, will make it easier to sell a massive crackdown on civil liberties under the guise of “protecting” the (supposed but, in reality, already defunct) “democracy”. But the fact that they had to engage into a witch hunt even to carefully vet every national guardsman (and probably even more people) shows that they are truly afraid. I think that they are wrong, there is no credible domestic terrorist threat in the USA, other than the government itself, of course. But what matters here is not what I think, but what they think, and they seem to have developed a serious case of paranoia.

Second, while I don’t believe in the existence of US domestic terrorists, I do believe that millions of US citizens are convinced that the vote was stolen. These people are understandably disgusted and angry. Many might be desperate or even despondent. Let’s call them the “deplorables” and consider it a badge of honor. Well, these deporables won’t take DC by force, but they will never trust a Dem or GOP politician again, and neither will they ever trust the corporate media. One of the blessings in disguise of this stolen election is that the GOP and Fox News have shown their true faces, and their faces are evil, stupid and ugly. 4 years ago millions of US citizens did not so much vote for Trump as much as they voted against Hillary whom they (correctly) saw as a symbol and metaphor for the entire “deep state”, or “swamp” or “ZOG” or whatever other expression you prefer. These deplorables first trusted Obama (“change we can believe in”) and, later, Trump (MAGA). Now they know that both sides are equally evil and false.

In the past, both factions of the Big Money Party had safety valves (Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Rand Paul, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, etc.). I think that now the two parties are literally standing naked and boy is that an ugly sight!

Third, and this point I primarily address to my readers in the USA and that will force me to make a sidebar primarily directed at them:

…

[Sidebar: the planet can be divided into 2 rough parts: ZONE A full controlled by the AngloZionist Empire (Unipolar United States led and it’s proxy naitons) and, ZONE B, which includes everybody else. The vast majority of US Americans are only really aware of Zone A.

Zone A = The West – USA and it’s proxy nations.
Zone B = The East – Russia / China / India / Africa, South America, Middle East

Why? For the following reasons:

Most US Americans have never traveled outside Zone A.
Those US Americans who have traveled outside Zone A typically did so without speaking the local language, thus cutting themselves off the locals and the local media.
Most US Americans get their news from US-based outlets, often combined with a few from elsewhere in the Anglosphere (UK, AUS).
US media outlets lie even more about what happens in Zone B than they lie about Zone A.
US schools have pretty much stopped teaching history, and when they do, it is all propaganda about the “city on the hill” and all the rest of the imperialist claptrap about how exceptional the US is. As a result, when most US Americans are exposed to factoids about Zone B they are not equipped to understand their meaning or importance.
Most US Americans simply assume that people in Zone B are very similar to those in Zone A. Most US Americans also assume that most governments in Zone B are even more evil than Uncle Shmuel.
Most US Americans also believe in what I call the “immigration fallacy”: the belief that people come to the USA from all over the planet because they prefer the USA to their home country and people. Anybody living in the USA and speaking Spanish knows that totally false this belief is, of course. But few non-Hispanic US Americans ever speak in Spanish to the Hispanics in the USA (FYI – I do). Anglos generally seem to have a hard time with languages…
Sadly, most US Americans are not educated by their parents, their religious leaders, their communities, or their schools. Most US Americans get most of their education from watching TV. Since all the US TV channels offer almost the exact same mix of vulgar entertainment, propaganda and commercials, this “education” resulted in a huge amount of massively dysfunctional families and communities. This addiction to a flickering screen (be it the Idiot Tube or You Tube – same difference) gives them a very short attention span and a limited ability to process large amounts of written information, which is what is needed to be able to analyze a situation]

As a direct consequence of these factors, most US Americans live in a “mental space” where Zone B simply does not exist, and when it is mentioned, it is invariable in the “same old clichés” mode.

Finally, considering all of the above, it is truly a miracle that the deplorables completely ignored a massive brainwashing campaign (waaaay worse than anything the Commies or the Nazis ever came up with!) against “Trump the New Hitler” and still voted for him twice, both in 2016 and 2020! It really goes to show that most US Americans quietly but passionately hate the regime in DC and that they use every opportunity they get to at least to try to change their country and their lives by means of voting. Makes you wonder what these “disobedient” deplorables will do the next time around now that voting became clearly a waste of time, don’t it?]

Now here is the good news: Zone B does exist! In fact, it is huge, rich, truly diverse and it has long figured out that both the AngloZionist Empire and even the USA as we knew them have basically died, all that’s left from it is some residual momentum and many bad habits by ignorant, arrogant and delusional US politicians.

Why is that so important?

Because if we allow the Great Satan (actually a very good and exact expression, I think that it fits the new regime perfectly, I will use it more often) to convince us that reality is all contained in Zone A, we could really fall into despair. Yeah, the USA is screwed, and so is all of the EU.

As for US colonies like AUS or NZ, not only are they screwed (say by siding with the USA against a much, MUCH more powerful China), they also seem to have a morbid desire to outstupid even the USA in terms of crazy laws and insane ideological positions (say on COVID, for example).

But all this in ONLY true inside Zone A. Very few people in Zone B still believe that the USA matters a great deal. Most of them already know otherwise, even if this is never reported by Zone A media.

There is even more good news: neither the (rump) AngloZionist Empire nor the (rump) USA represent any credible threat to most countries in Zone B.

Oh sure, US politicians can call Russia a “gas station masquerading as a country” or a “regional power”, the truth is that the united West has completely failed to break, or even meaningfully hurt Russia, despite 46 sanction packages (that’s just by Trump, not counting the “change we can believe in” crook).

Heck, even COVID only marginally hurt Russia (which, unlike the flag-waving pseudo-patriotic crap spewed by western politicians took COVID seriously, very seriously in fact, as early as March and prepared the country for no less than two major outbreaks, both which happened, and both which Russia successfully dealt with; this is why the EU is now in full COVID-hysteria mode, while Russia does not bother to impose any lockdowns at all!).

Now let’s place two US propaganda items side by side and take a look, ok?

The USA has the most powerful economy on the planet.
Russia is the #1 adversary of the USA (at least according to the Dems, the GOP places China as #1 and Russia only as #2)

Do you see the problem?

If the USA is so powerful, how is it that it failed to crush Russia? What about Iran? Or, in extremis, Venezuela? Yet, even the the last case, the “best” this supposed World Hegemon did was send a few clueless ex-special ops to get caught and give case of hysterical laughter to the entire Latin American continent!

And these folks want to take on China or Russia?!

Peuhleeze!

So here is the other very good news: Zone A presents no real threat to Zone B!!!

Yes, of course, the USA can still nuke China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela or some other country. But let’s look at the consequences of such a strike:

Against Russia: the USA simply vanishes as a country. Completely and forever.
Against China: the USA as a society completely collapses for a very, very, VERY long time.

And then we have…

Against Iran: the USA gets stuck in a major regional war it can only lose with massive geostrategic consequences (still, the new regime might try to pull this one off, never say never, no matter how stupid this idea can seem to you – always remember that the ignoramuses in DC are as delusional as they are ignorant!)
Against North Korea: the USA gets stuck in a major regional war it can only lose with massive geostrategic consequences.
Against Venezuela: the USA gets stuck in a counter-insurgency war it can only lose. The comprador regime in Bogota will not survive such a war and Colombia will also “fall”.
Against any other Zone B country: the US successfully nukes this/these country/countries only to find itself being treated like a pariah by the entire planet (including quite a few US colonies), including the real military powers. NATO and the EU will also collapse is that happens (the US being their cornerstone).

The bottom line is that while the US triad is still fully functional and capable of waging a full-scale nuclear war against any adversary (including Russia and, even more so, China), the truth is that all this triad really achieves is making it impossible for another nuclear power to use nukes against the USA.

Which is not minor or irrelevant, the problem here being that the US nuclear triad provides with exactly zero help when trying to deal with any adversary not using nukes (either because this adversary choose not to use nukes due to the effective deterrence of the US nuclear triad or simply because it has no nukes in the first place).

As I have mentioned in the past, the US submarine force is, along with the nuclear triad, the other truly effective and powerful force which the US can count on in case of war.

However, other than launching large numbers of outdated and, therefore, easily countered cruise missiles there is little this force can do to assist a US ground (or, for that matter) air operation against anything but a very weak adversary.

The problem with so-called “sub-peer” adversaries is that they have relatively few lucrative targets to strike with cruise missiles (think Venezuela here). Most of these subpeer adversaries do not have the air defenses needed to deal with any halfway determined US missile and bomb attack and the US can quickly destroy whatever air defenses such “sub-peer” countries have.

So yes, I admit it.

If tomorrow the USA wants a “short and triumphant war”, say to boost morale or distract from internal problems, they could still attack countries like, say, Antigua and Barbuda or Santa Lucia, but such a farce will hardly would qualify as “brilliant victory” of the “best armed forces in the galaxy”, now would it?

Or maybe would, who knows?

If the united propaganda machine wants to present that as a triumph for US forces, like they did with the Grenada invasion (one of the worst military operation in history!) they can do that, of course.

But that would only serve to further ridicule that propaganda machine since 2021 is not 1983, there are now millions of deplorables out there who will never buy this kind of silly nonsense.

Besides, considering how the joint efforts of the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia (the “Axis of Kindness”) completely failed to deal with the Houthis, my money would not be on any US invasion force in the Caribbean (with the possible exception of a re-invasion of Haiti or the Dominican Republic, but these are already US protectorates, what would be the point?!).

Why does all that matter so much?

Because the Democrats are clearly up to no good.

Next, not only will we see a wave of repression against free speech internally, but the Dems are already making noises about, you guessed it, China and Russia (again!) and, when that inevitably yield exactly zero results, they will turn to “hate on” Iran and Venezuela again.

But even these comparatively weaker countries are now very much capable of making Uncle Shmuel pay an immense price in blood and hell to pay in terms of political blowback on too many fronts to count.

The “power” of a nation (or a coalition of nations) can be measured using very many different type of metrics, but the three most common ones would probably be: economic power, military power and political power. If we use those three to compare Zone A to Zone B, it would be reasonable to posit the following:

Economic power: more more or less equal, with Zone A quickly going down and Zone B quickly rising. Zone A still has A LOT of comprador regimes willing to defend it not only at the UN, but in most international bodies (including non-government ones like the IOC for example, or WADA).
Military power: Zone A very much weaker than Zone B (just think RU+CN+IN for starters!)
Political power: Zone A still stronger, but that is also changing fast. You can say that most world rulers are still serfs for Zone A, but most people worldwide have long switched their support for Zone B countries. The recent triumph of the people of Bolivia over their oppressors is a very telling sign of this trend.

And here is the key factor to keep in mind: there is nothing, absolutely nothing, the Biden/Harris Admin can do to change these trends. It is simply too late and when the initiation of the internal collapse of the USA, these trends will only accelerate.

===>In other words, there is hope!<===

Yes, the bad guys did win, but only over Trump and his clueless pseudo-allies (did they betray him faster than he betrayed them, or was it the other way around?), but they only won one a battle against the deplorables and they have won exactly nothing against Zone B.

The Dems are now busy with vengeance in all its forms.

They also relish in humiliating Trump and those who dared to support him. This is the political equivalent of torturing people in basements, not winning glorious battles. But they don’t realize that, they are too vain, too ideologically hateful, and too cowardly to understand that.

Still, brainwashing, like torture (including mental torture!), is real.

In this case, this is a battle for the minds of the deplorables who now have to be beaten down into a catatonic state of total submission and compliance. The Dems are using lies, their favorite weapon, but their assault is real, nonetheless. And this is the battle which we, those who opposed imperialism, have to fight – the battle for the minds of the people in Zone A: we need to show them that the pseudo-reality of Zone A has no real existence outside the Idiot Box and the vapid rhetoric of US decision makers.

We have to mentally prepare for a sharp increase in the amount and scope of the lies the US propaganda machine will be telling us (if you thought the last 4 years were bad, prepare for much, much worse; good example here).

And, of course, expect LOTS of false flags, especially to demonstrate the reality of the alleged danger coming from the “domestic terrorists”. That will all go down against a background of a full-spectrum attack on free speech, dissent and any form of actual (as opposed to pretend) thought, really.

The irony is, of course, that the coming witch hunt (it will be way worse than Salem or McCarthy) will be waged in the name of diversity and ostensibly against “hate”. In reality, of course, what the regime wants is to crush real diversity because the leaders of the US Nomenklatura absolutely hate everything besides their sorry selves.

Like all ideologues, what these folks want is 1) total power and 2) total uniformity. All those rejecting these modern dogmas will be branded as criminals, terrorists, heretics, racist and, of course, Russian and Chinese agents.

And that is why this regime will also fail.

Conclusion: diversity WILL win. The REAL diversity, of course!

Our planet is wonderfully diverse, especially outside the uniformity sector of Zone A. There IS a Zone B out there, and the leaders of Zone A will be defeated by our real common and shared humanity (and their hatred for us!).

Somewhere between Obama and Trump, the world has moved on, and it is now very busy dealing with the immense challenges and opportunities facing it in Zone B.

And no, neither Russia nor China is busy trying to sabotage or undermine the USA – US leaders are doing that much better job of that than any Russian or Chinese ever could. So why even bother (and nevermind the risks!)?

We cannot predict what will happen next, there are simply too many variables to do that. But what we can do is predict with a great degree of confidence that the new regime in power in DC will do no better than all the other regimes which came to power by means of color revolutions in the past couple of decades.

There is no hope left for the Empire.

As for the USA people, there will be plenty of hope left for them, but only after a long and painful process of collapse and rebirth (both of which are inevitable by now).

The truth is that US is not that unique as empires go.

Sorry, it is just your typical arrogant and narcissistic empire. An empire which will collapse just as all the other arrogant and narcissistic empires in history have collapsed. That being, mostly under their own obscene weight.

And those poor souls who sincerely believe that China (or Russia) want to replace the USA simply don’t understand that these two countries already have been empires, it was a disaster, thank you very much, and they have no desire to repeat their past mistakes.

This desire for non-exceptionalism and normalcy will, with time, also become the object of a large social consensus in the USA.

And, with time, the USA will finally be welcomed into a truly free Zone B or, should I say, a Zone-free world.

The Saker

Mistakes in judgement part 4

1436138696642908160 png 700

Britain’s elite SAS reported back “on the ground” in Kyiv

British Special Air Service (SAS) troops have reportedly been on the ground in Kyiv for the first time since the war with Russia began, Ukrainian commanders have told The Times.

Officers from two Ukrainian battalions stationed in and around the capital said they had undergone military training from serving British special forces, one last week and the other the week before.

Captain Yuriy Myronenko, whose battalion is stationed in Obolon on the northern outskirts of Kyiv, said that military trainers had come to instruct new and returning military recruits to use Next generation Light Anti-tank Weapons( NLAWs) British-supplied anti-tank missiles that were delivered in February as the invasion was beginning.

Since February, the United Kingdom has delivered more than 3,600 NLAWs to Ukraine, with Kyiv requesting more following reports that they had proven highly effective against Russian armour.

The United States announced this week that it would also resume training by American troops, however the Pentagon said explicitly that the training would not be conducted on Ukrainian territory.

German Industry Fears Immediate Russian Gas Ban | OilPrice.com

Moron leadership is a threat not only to world peace but to the wellbeing of its own economy and people.

One way thinking and zero sum mentality resulted in Europe being the most war monger, aggressive continent in human history. EU and NATO is nothing more than a mafia organisation designs to bully the world and smaller European nation member state. Such organisations should be dismantled for the well being of the world.

COVID Moneytrail

This landed on my desk from <redacted> sources. Content is detailed and extensive. I’d suggest downloading it and keeping it in a safe place. It’s heavy with names, dates and activity.

Full PDF

Solomon Islands and China sign security pact, despite Australia and US efforts to intervene

A leader of a tiny nation, stepping out with leadership and bravery.

Expectations and reality

The United States sure has “improved”.

Be the Rufus

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Hawaiian Pork Roast with Pineapple

How about a nice and special meal for the family this Sunday. Try this…

2022 04 20 20 38

2022 04 20 20 38a

Directions

Mix first six ingredients. Cut roast in half; sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat; brown roast on all sides.
Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker. Pour pineapple mixture over top. Cook, covered, until a thermometer inserted in roast reads at least 145°, 3-4 hours.
Remove roast from slow cooker; keep warm. Transfer cooking juices to a saucepan; bring to a boil. Mix cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Return to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, 1-2 minutes. Serve with roast.

Mistakes in judgement part 5

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Americans; Things Are Bad Now, But You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

April 19, 2022 by Michael

At this moment, food prices all over America are at incredibly low levels. I know what many of you must be thinking. You must be thinking that I have lost my mind, because food prices have been rising at a very rapid rate all over the country. But when I say that food prices are at “incredibly low levels”, I am not comparing them to where they were in the past. Rather, I am comparing current prices to where they will be in the future. Yes, things are bad now, but food prices will be much higher a year or two from now.

The global fertilizer crisis certainly isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it is only going to intensify.

The same thing could be said about the war in Ukraine. Peace talks are absolutely dead, and so it looks like fighting between two of the most critical breadbaskets in the world will continue for months to come.

Meanwhile, the bird flu pandemic continues to wipe out millions of chickens and turkeys ~~all over the globe~~ all over the United States.

We have never seen a “perfect storm” quite like this, but of course some of the factors that will be driving up food prices are entirely self-inflicted.

For example, the Chinese government didn’t need to lock down nearly 400 million people in a desperate attempt to prevent the spread of COVID. The past two years have provided ample evidence that such lockdowns are quite foolish, but the Chinese went ahead anyway.

China is participating in the decoupling from the United States, and that includes food, and farming materials.

As a result, there are now hundreds of commercial ships waiting impatiently off the coast of Shanghai.

MAP: Commercial ships waiting offshore after Shanghai strict lockdown pic.twitter.com/m0qST4v92Y
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) April 19, 2022

Those are giant cargo ships that bring stuff across the Pacific Ocean to us.

If the Chinese don’t loosen up, many of our store shelves will become quite empty in the months ahead.

And it isn’t just commercial ships that are sitting idle…

Shanghai is one of the largest manufacturing centers in China, with heavy concentrations of automotive and electronics suppliers. It is home to the largest container port in the world and a major airport that serves inbound and outbound air cargo. Exports produced in Shanghai account for 7.2% of China’s total volume and about 20% of China’s export container throughput moves through the port there, according to the BBVA report.

Most warehouses and plants are closed, nine out of 10 trucks are sidelined, the port and airport have limited function, shipping units are stranded in the wrong places, and freight is piling up.

Needless to say, many of our major retailers simply could not operate without the goods that they import from China.

So we better hope that this potential nightmare gets resolved very soon.

Here in the United States, food prices have been moving higher for months.  Just check out these numbers…

The average price of butter grew 11.9% in the last year. 

Meat has been especially affected by supply chain issues, with 100% meat frankfurters jumping 35.2% since March of 2021 to an average price of $5.18 per pound. 

Ground chuck, pork chops, and whole chicken showed year-over-year price increases of 11.3%, 15%, and 11.7%, respectively.

Those figures may look bad to you, but the truth is that they only represent the very early chapters of this crisis.

Things are going to get much worse, and here in April anecdotal reports seem to indicate that food price increases seem to be accelerating.

Earlier today, my attention was drawn to a thread on a popular Internet forum where people were discussing recent price increases that they had seen at their local stores. The following are a few examples that I pulled out of that thread…

-“$10. for 1 lb. Bacon”

-“5.19 for one pound of land o lakes butter”

-“a 34 oz can of coffee was $6.99 now is $9.99”

-“$1.09 for a single avocado”

-“$2.31 for a head of iceberg lettuce”

-“I shop for my elderly parents they buy Butterscotch Krimpets every week. Were 2.49 a box now 4.49.”

-“I saw 15.99 per pound for ribeye steak at a grocery store in northeast Tennessee.”

-“Paid $12.95 for a pack of raw chicken thighs a few days ago. Normally they are $3.00 – $4.00”

And thanks to the horrifying bird flu pandemic which is sweeping the nation, the price of eggs is going completely nuts…

The losses to egg-laying flocks have led to producers desperately racing to meet market demands for eggs and egg products, with egg prices increasing as a result. The average price of a dozen eggs is now close to $3.00, up from $1.60 at the beginning of the year, according to the USDA’s national egg report.

If you think that these prices are wild, just wait until they double from their current levels.

All over ~~the world~~ the United States, a great battle for food resources has begun. The Chinese saw this coming in advance, and so they have been engaged in the largest stockpiling program that any of us have ever seen. I wrote about this back in December, but back then most people didn’t understand the true significance of that article.

At that time, the amount of food that the Chinese had already accumulated was already extremely impressive…

Less than 20% of the world’s population has managed to stockpile more than half of the globe’s maize and other grains, leading to steep price increases across the planet and dropping more countries into famine.

The hoarding is taking place in China.

Has the U.S. been doing something similar?

Of course not.

When things get really bad in this country, you will be on your own.

So I hope that you have been preparing for that.

Since the war in Ukraine started, nation after nation has started to implement export restrictions, and a global scramble for agricultural commodities has steadily pushed up prices.

Nobody wants to be caught empty-handed when the music stops, and so there is a race to secure precious supplies while it is still possible to do so.

Sadly, the poorest parts of the world will end up suffering the most as the wealthy countries grab what they can. The dramatic spike that we will soon see in global hunger will be absolutely heartbreaking.

But nobody can say that we weren’t warned in advance. This sort of collapse has been coming for a long time, and now it has arrived.

I would encourage you to stockpile food at these “relatively low prices” while you have the opportunity to do so, because they are only going to go higher from here.

Build a Woodworker’s Toolbox

Build a Woodworker’s Toolbox: If you’re a mechanic, finding a toolbox is no problem – there are dozens on the market, from huge roll-around shop cases to small metal boxes. Framers, plumbers and electricians are well served, too, with everything from pickup-truck storage to tool…

Be the Rufus

Mistakes in judgement part 6

Russia says Kiev regime employed 6,824 foreign mercenaries since special operation started – Military & Defense – TASS

Most mercenaries came from Poland, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said

MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov on Sunday said Kiev employed more than 6,800 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries since Russia started its special operation.

"The Kiev nationalist regime has employed a total of 6,824 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries since the start of the special military operation," he said.

Most mercenaries - 1,717 people - came from Poland, about 1,500 from the US, Canada and Romania, the spokesman said. Up to 300 people arrived from the UK and Georgia each while 193 people came from the areas of Syria that are controlled by Turkey, Konashenkov said.

Santa Fe Skillet

As a mother who works full-time, I’m always looking for quick, easy meals to prepare. This is a timeless recipe. —Lorie VanHorn, Waddell, Arizona

Directions

In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; crumble meat; drain. Stir in the pasta, contents of seasoning packet, salsa, water, chili powder, salt and cayenne.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until pasta is tender, about 15 minutes, adding more water if necessary. Stir in tomatoes; sprinkle with olives and cheese. Cover and simmer until heated through, 3-4 minutes. Serve with sour cream if desired.

Duck Duck Go gone with the wind..

“Can we not just have ONE thing that isn’t actively working against us?”

Old Door into Headboard

Restore your old doors into a beautiful DIY headboard. Recondition your old door, like remove the hardware from it, gunk and ugly scratches, and simply add it up with a top mantle. Paint it in your favorite color and install the hardware to fix it as the decorative head of your bed. Full guide and tutorial here infarrantlycreative.

How to decorate your cubicle

1642939112 l0lo8ny6uw — Done with style.

Russia’s military is on full display in Google Maps satellite view

The satellite images may be a boon to open source intelligence analysts.

The ex-deputy of the Rada showed Zelensky’s Russian passport. Screen

Marina Fedorovskikh

April 20, 2022 at 12:23 pm

Former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ilya Kiva showed the Russian passport of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Kiva believes that this should help in initiating a criminal case against him.

“The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation should prosecute and put on the wanted list a citizen of Russia – Zelensky V.A. For his terrorist activities and as a suspect in committing terrorist attacks and killing thousands of citizens of Russia and Ukraine,” he said in his telegram channel.

Kiva also mentioned the possible dual citizenship of the Ukrainian leader. “Zelensky had no right to be admitted to the presidential elections with dual citizenship and his tenure as president is illegal,” the ex-deputy added.

The Investigative Committee of Russia has already begun checking against the Ukrainian president . The reason was the words of the latter about preparing for a war with Russia. Zelensky himself gave the interview to the American television channel CNN. During the conversation, he made a number of controversial statements. thus, Zelensky abandoned his promises about the status of Donbass. Kiev does not want to recognize the DPR and LPR as independent territories in the eastern part of the country in order to put an end to disputes with Russia, Nation News notes . In his opinion, the chances of successful negotiations with Russia are declining “every day,” the Federal News Agency adds .

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special operation on the territory of Ukraine on February 24 . The actions of the Russian troops are aimed at the demilitarization and denazification of the territory, as well as the protection of the civilian population, including those living in the DPR and LPR. The military hit the objects of the military infrastructure, equipment and weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the national battalions with high-precision means.

Why doesn’t this ever happen to me?

White House sells Historic Moments Coin, Honoring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy #31 in series

On Sale!

Greens say China isn’t a threat | Sky News Australia

The Greens do not see China as a threat to Australia and have no reservations over its security pact with the Solomon Islands. The party’s Peace and Disarmament spokesperson Jordon Steele-John told The Australian newspaper the government’s concerns over the Solomon Islands-China deal were racist…

Google shutdown Pro beijing Hong Kong chief executive election candidate 李家超 YouTube election campaign account.

If you are pro-China, just about EVERY American-based social media account will ban you. Read the English at the bottom of the page.

Be the Rufus

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Pretty Chinese girl

Nice video. video 2MB

China’s space station first to be open to all UN member states

China is implementing its first batch of international cooperation programs on board the Tiangong space station, and will hopefully upload those experiments by the end of the year. Foreign astronauts are welcome to Tiangong to make greater contributions to the shared future of mankind, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday.

The Shenzhou-13 crew safely returned to Earth on Saturday after staying 183 days in orbit, doubling the previous record set by Shenzhou-12 to become the country’s longest single-flight space mission.

Wang said that the mission was a breakthrough journey with many highlights and firsts. These achievements suggest that China’s space station has completed its key technology verification stage, laying a solid foundation for the next phase of in-orbit construction.

During their six-month stay, the Shenzhou-13 crew for the first time carried out a radial rendezvous and docking with the space station’s Tianhe core cabin that verified the station’s capability to receive visiting spaceships in different positions.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via The Daily Reckoning,

Be the Rufus

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The Dam Is Finally Cracking

We all sense the global order has cracked. The existing order is breaking down on multiple fronts.

Those who have benefited from this arrangement are doing everything in their power to patch the cracks, while those who chafed under the old order’s chains seek a new order that suits their interests.

The task now is to make sense of this complex inflection point in history. Two statements summarize the transition from the existing global order to the next iteration:

1. Finance dominated resources in the old order. Now the roles will reverse and real-world resources will dominate finance. We can’t “print our way” out of scarcities.

2. Reshuffling currencies and credit will not stop the breakdown of the global order’s “waste is growth” Landfill Economy Model.

Playing financial tricks has extended the life of an unsustainable economic model that glorified “growth” from wasting resources. By expanding credit “money,” the current global order fueled unsustainable consumption driven by unsustainable speculation.

Stop expanding “money” and credit and the global order of “growth” implodes.

Pretty Chinese girl

She is. video 4MB

The Dam Is Finally Cracking

Unfortunately for all those who benefited from soaring wealth and income inequality, the trick of expanding “money” and credit has reached systemic limits. The dam holding all the toxic debt, leverage and fraud is finally cracking.

The dominance of resources over finance leads to a multipolar global order, an order that has the potential to be far more stable and sustainable than the unsustainable, destabilizing “waste is growth” model that depends on financial fraud to maintain the illusion of “growth.”

As I explain in my book Global Crisis, National Renewal, scarcity leads to either social disorder or rationing. This article explains how government’s role will shift from boosting demand (the Keynesian Cargo Cult) to limiting demand in ways that maintain the social contract.

Nations that fail to adapt to the end of financialization and globalization will unravel. Every nation has a choice which path it takes:

Cling on to the doomed existing order of financialization, globalization and the “waste is growth” Landfill Economy or embrace a multipolar world and a degrowth model of doing more with less and incentivizing efficiency and durability rather than the shoddy planned obsolescence of the debt-dependent Landfill Economy.

Free Money Is the Solution

Under various guises, labels and rationalizations, “free money” has now been established as the default policy fix for any problem. Stock market falters? The solution: free money! Economy falters? The solution: free money! Bankers face collapse from ruinously risky bets? The solution: free money! Infrastructure crumbling?

The solution: free money!

Inflation raging? The solution: free money! Ruh-roh. We have a problem free money won’t fix. Instead, free money accelerates the conflagration. Dang, this is inconvenient; the solution to every problem makes this problem worse. Now what do we do?

Despite the apparent surprise of the policy-makers, pundits and apologists, this was common sense. Create trillions of dollars out of thin air and spread the money around indiscriminately (fraudsters and scammers getting more than the honest, of course) after global supply chains were disrupted and shelves were bare, then open the floodgates of speculative gambling in stocks, cryptos, housing, used cars, bat guano, quatloos, etc., and what do you think will happen?

Supply can’t catch up with free-money-boosted demand, prices rise, people instinctively over-order and over-buy, and “don’t fight the Fed” speculative betting begets more betting: the inflation rocket booster ignites, wages soar as workers try to keep pace with rising expenses, speculative bubbles inflate to unprecedented extremes, and all this “wealth without work or productivity” gooses spending and gross domestic product (GDP).

“Once the Bubbles Pop, GDP Crashes and the Ratio Blows Out”

Forty years ago, the total debt-to-GDP ratio was 1.6: debt was $4.8 trillion and GDP was $3 trillion. Then the policy solutions of fiscal “borrow and spend” and Federal Reserve “balance sheet expansion.” a.k.a. free money, became the policy default.

The ratio rose to 2.76 in 2000 and has wobbled around 3.7 for the past decade, a decade that just so happened to see the stock market quadruple and the housing bubble reinflate to new heights as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates near zero as part of the “free money” policy:

If we’re going to borrow tens of trillions of dollars to squander, we need near-zero interest rates to keep costs of borrowing down.

Though no one in a position of power or influence dares admit it, the ratio of debt to GDP hasn’t blown out for one reason: speculative bubbles have pushed GDP higher in a massive, sustained distortion of “wealth effect” and winner take most gains for those who knew how to extract the majority of gains from the bubbles.

Once the bubbles pop, GDP crashes and the ratio blows out. The belief that adding trillions in debt magically adds GDP will be revealed as delusional fantasy.

Two Paths

Completely forgotten in the era of Free money as the solution to all problems is the discipline of frugality, which can best be defined as discipline over spending as a means of building long-term financial stability and general well-being.

Financial discipline (frugality) has been set aside as a needless discomfort: why make difficult tradeoffs and sacrifices when the solution is just to borrow/create more free money? Indeed. Along the same lines, why bother with all the hassles of healthy food and fitness? Just pig out and swallow a couple handfuls of “free” (heh) meds.

Discipline isn’t just about limiting waste. It’s about investing capital and labor wisely to secure future gains in productivity which is the only real source of income and wealth. Creating “money” out of thin air and spreading it around to satisfy every constituency doesn’t increase productivity. It destroys productivity by incentivizing waste – the waste is growth Landfill Economy – and speculative bets on bubbles never popping.

Alas, all bubbles pop, and now that creating free money only makes costs rise faster, there is no solution other than – oh, dear, dear, dear – the unforgiving discipline of frugality and investing for productivity gains rather than for speculative bubble “wealth.”

Which path leads to doom? Free money. Which path leads to revival? Frugality and discipline.

That’s not what everyone wants to hear, but clinging to delusional fantasies of “free wealth” won’t lead to positive outcomes, any more than swallowing handfuls of meds leads to “free health.”

Be the Rufus

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Document reveals $14 billion backlog of US defense transfers to Taiwan

Pandemic-related acquisition issues have sparked a backlog in the U.S. delivering $14.2 billion worth of military equipment to Taiwan that the island has purchased since 2019.

With much of Washington’s attention focused on how to rapidly deploy a steady stream of military aid to Ukraine, some lawmakers are concerned the Taiwan delay is undermining its ability to deter a potential Chinese invasion….

Mistakes in judgement part 7

Mistake or intentional lie?

Good news can actually happen

Russia says it will no longer disclose the names of organizations that use its alternative to the SWIFT payment system

Russia’s central bank will stop disclosing the names of those participating in its alternative to the SWIFT payment system, according to Reuters.

Russia has been touting its alternative payment system — the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), which was set up in 2014.

Most Russian banks, as well as 52 foreign organizations from 12 countries, have access to SPFS, Russian Central Bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said on Monday, per Reuters.

Banks from the Germany, Switzerland, France, Japan, Sweden, Turkey, and Cuba were among those connected to SPFS, according to a March report from Coface, a French credit insurer.

“Until there was such a threat of being cut off from SWIFT, foreign partners weren’t in much of a rush to join, but now we expect their readiness to be greater,” Nabiullina said of SPFS, according to Bloomberg.

The Indian government was considering a Russian proposal to use the SPFS for payments in rubles, Bloomberg reported in March. India has been buying cargoes of cheap Russian oil amid international sanctions and boycotts of products from the energy powerhouse. Russian oil accounted for just 2% of India’s total imports in 2021.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

A Pretty Chinese girl

Very nice. video 3MB

Dogs and cats

Dogs and cats.

Biden Having An Increasingly Difficult Time With G-20 Fissures

Biden made sanction demands on G-20 nations. He hit a BRIC+ wall.

Map of G-20 countries.

G-20 Pressure Failing

The G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. Spain is also invited as a permanent guest.

The Biden administration wants to increase pressure on Russia, but finds increasing resistance to do more.

Brazil, Russia, India, and China widely known as BRICs have not bowed to US pressure. Nor have Mexico, Saudi Arabia, or South Africa.

The 2022 G-20 meets in November but those nations are also at an IMF summit right now.

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen plans to avoid Russian officials at meetings this week, while engaging with countries that haven’t joined in sanctions.

Janet Yellen Faces Challenge to Keep Pressure on Russia, While Addressing Global Consequences

The Wall Street Journal reports Janet Yellen Faces Challenge to Keep Pressure on Russia, While Addressing Global Consequences

Hanging over gatherings of finance ministers from around the world at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week will be Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as the sanctions campaign the U.S. and its allies have waged in response. As those sanctions efforts have brought the U.S. and its allies closer together, they are also laying bare deep differences in the broader Group of 20 major economies, which includes Russia, China and India, as well as European allies.

Ms. Yellen is expected to boycott some G-20 meetings this week that include Russian officials, and she last week warned countries against deepening their economic ties with Russia after the sanctions, singling out China.

In addition, Ms Yellen’s attempts to build support for an international tax agreement that was the focus of international economic diplomacy last year may not gain traction. Agreement on the deal still faces hurdles both in Congress and among European countries.

US Boycott

Yellen will IMF boycott meetings this week that include Russia. But what does that say about the G-20 summit in November. Will the US even go?

On March 22, Biden proposed booting Russia from the G-20. Reuters comments on the difficulty.

"It's impossible to remove Russia from G20" unless Moscow makes such a decision on its own, said an official of a G20 member country in Asia.

"There's simply no procedure to deprive Russia of G20 membership."

With Spain there are 21 G-20 nations so a US boycott would get the group size correct.

Pretty Chinese girl

I guess that I am offending people by posting attractive ladies of China. Tough titties. If you don’t like it … LEAVE.

video 1MB

G-Whatever Meetings Are Useless

These G-7, G-20, G-Whatever meetings have always been useless.

G-Whatever meetings typically fail over agriculture, but with little fanfare.

Failure is again a given, but usually there is no spotlight on that failure. Now there is.

Seven G-20 nations, Brazil, Russia India, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa, refuse to salute US demands.

Sanction Limits

We are at the limits of sanctions and they have failed. There is little else to do.

The sanctions did nothing to deter Russia, they have only increased costs and added to inflation across the board.

Another cute girl of China

She’s young. My guess is 16 years old. I’m sure that when she grows up she’ll be a fine beautiful lady. video

Russian Invasion Pushes Oil Prices to 10-Year High

March 8, 2022

Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude oil prices, rose to $130 a barrel on Tuesday, after the U.S. and U.K. announced a ban on Russian oil imports and the EU said it would cut its dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. marker, rose to around $125 a barrel.

Global oil prices have risen 58% since the beginning of the year, initially amid concerns about inflation. Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, supplying about 7% of global demand. Europe is Russia’s main market for oil and natural gas and bought roughly 25% of its oil from Russia in 2021. Gas prices in the EU have already risen by more than 70% since the last week of February. About 8% of U.S. oil imports came from Russia last year.

The International Energy Agency agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from its members’ strategic reserves, which is equal to the amount of oil the U.S. consumes in three days. Large Western oil companies like BP, ExxonMobil, and Shell have halted operations in Russia. European refiners are also looking elsewhere for supply, in places like Saudi Arabia. To compensate, Russia is trying to sell crude oil to refineries in China and other Asian countries at a discount.

Chinese girl

She has a very beautiful face. I love how the eyes complement her hair. This would be a wonderful face to paint, as the proportions are all there, and the color contrasts are stark. video

Half of US Taxpayers Pay 97% of Income Taxes

April 19, 2022

This week is the deadline for millions of U.S. taxpayers to pay their taxes. According to IRS data on income taxes in 2019, U.S. taxpayers paid $1.6 trillion in income taxes — and 96.9% of the taxes were paid by half of American taxpayers. The top one percent — Americans who earn $546,434 or more — earned one-fifth of all total adjusted gross income and paid 38.8% of all federal income taxes.

The share of income taxes paid by the high-income earners (the 1%) has increased over time. From 2001 to 2019, the 1% share rose from 33% to 38.8%. Over the same time period, their share of adjusted gross income also increased, from 17.4% to 20.1%.

The top 50% of taxpayers paid 97% of all income taxes, while the bottom 50% paid the remaining 3%. The bottom half of taxpayers — who earn below $44,269 a year — paid 3%, or slightly over $48 billion, of all federal individual income taxes. Their share of reported income decreased from 2001 to 2019, from 14.4% to 11.5%.

U.S. Labor Unions Have Highest Level of Support in Over 50 Years

April 18, 2022

Sixty-eight percent of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest level of approval in over 57 years, according to Gallup’s annual Work and Education poll. Americans’ approval of unions has been increasing over the last few years and is now at its highest point in more than half a century.

Gallup has been conducting surveys on labor unions since 1936; this year, Gallup measured the highest level of support since 1965 (71%). On average, more Americans approve of unions than disapprove — 2009 was the only year that approval for unions fell below majority level (48%).

Support for unions is highest among Democrats (90%), union members (86%), younger Americans between the ages of 18-34 (77%), and people with incomes under $40,000 a year (72%). Over half of Independents favor unions (66%), and Republicans are least likely to approve of them (47%).

Despite this approval rating, only 9% of U.S. adults report they are part of a union. Another 8% of U.S. adults say they live with a union member. Union members are more likely to have higher incomes than non-union workers: one in 10 adults with household incomes of $40,000 or more are union members.

Like night and day

Some people argue that wearing makeup is deceptive and a big lie. But I do not. I think that it is like having two different women. One is warm and loving, and the other is cool and tough. video

Ukraine Asks Germany to Stop Importing Russian Gas

April 14, 2022

Ukrainian officials took Germany to task this week for not leveling an energy embargo on Russia, six weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU has leveled sanctions against Russia in response to the conflict, but it has yet to sanction Russian oil and gas, which comprised 45% of the EU’s gas imports last year. Since the start of the conflict, the EU has paid Russia about 20 billion euros ($22 billion) for gas, according to German economic adviser Veronika Grimm.

Germany is one of Russia’s main energy consumers; last year, one-third of its gas imports came from Russia. Other sources estimate that 55% of the country’s gas came from Russia in 2021. Russia also supplied Germany with 34% of its crude oil and 53% of its hard coal last year.

The German government has already implemented a national gas emergency plan that could lead to the rationing of natural gas. Gas is primarily used in industry (36%), by households (31%), and by trade and commerce (13%). Industry will be the first to feel rationing, followed by households, and lastly, hospitals and other public sector institutions.

Beautiful Chinese girl

video 10MB

Macron Wins First Round of French Presidential Elections

April 11, 2022

France’s sitting president Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French presidential elections, with 28% of the vote. However, right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen came in a close second with 23%. Left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon came in third with a surprisingly strong 22% of the vote, but not enough to qualify for the runoff. Since no candidate won the majority of the vote in the first round, the elections will head to a runoff on April 24.

The results from Sunday night set up a repeat of the 2017 runoff between Macron and Le Pen, when Macron won the presidency. But opinion polls show that Le Pen is closer to Macron in this election, with only a few percentage points difference between the two candidates. The two traditional French political parties, the Socialists and the Republicans, got less than 10% of the vote, showing the continuing rise in the popularity of more extreme parties on the left and the right.

The French presidential election results will have a significant impact on European politics, as EU leaders respond to Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine. Macron has backed sanctions against Russia, while Le Pen has raised the impact they have on the rising cost of living.

Pathetic Chinese Apparently Cannot Even THINK, Nevermind Question What’s Being Done to their kids

This is what happens when American writers believe the narrative that Covid is a hoax, and are completely unaware that China is under bioweapon assault. Read this article to see, how ignorance, plus distortions fuel a narrative. - MM

World Hal Turner 20 April 2022 From HERE.

We here in the West have finally come to the realization that the whole “COVID” thing was a gigantic scam. Much ado was made of a virus that turned out to be not much worse than a nasty Flu. COVID has a 99.7% survival rate. It was not and is not a “Pandemic.”

Entire countries were shut down over the fuss about this illness. People were literally locked in their homes. Some businesses were deemed “non-essential” and forced to close on the mere speculation that someone, somewhere, MIGHT spread COVID by visiting those businesses.

The economic destruction from such government over-reach has destroyed countless businesses and ruined the income of many families.

People were encouraged to wear masks when out in public, even though masks are completely, totally, unable to prevent the spread of a virus. The pores on even the finest masks are four microns wide for air to get through the mask. The novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19, is only 0.04 microns in size; one hundred times smaller than the pores on the masks. As such, they are totally incapable of reducing or halting the spread of this virus.

Did those facts matter? No.

Government told people to do it anyway, and most obeyed, like good little drones.

Citizens in western nations, still slightly anchored to the reality of individual liberty, started questioning what was being demanded by government. They started suing in court. Worse for the government, people started ignoring the ridiculous demands by so-called public health officials. Lo and behold, COVID went away.

Not in China.

Look at what the Communist Party government is requiring of school children in that slave-state-nation, and observe how parents do not even question the absurdity:

The people in China, appear to be insane.

…

So says Hal Turner.

Obviously he is unaware of the bioweapon carpetbombing of China because the USA warned China; “You WILL sanction Russia, or face the consequences!”

China said no.

Two days later, all up and down China were major outbreaks of COVID. The worst hit areas were those with the highest percentages of expats. Curious fact.

Jack!

…

Ah, that’s it for now. I hope that you enjoyed this little mix of contemporaneous life. Now go back to what you all have been doing, and remember… always be the Rufus.

Do you want more?

You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.

Articles & Links

https://nakadai.substack.com/p/wefyoung-global-leaders?r=12te6f&utm_source=url&s=r

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
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Part 10 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander April 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 10.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. 

Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

This is part of the Q&A (on-going) effort where questions are provided to me, and then I present them, and then record and interpret the responses.

[10.1] Question – Is this what I signed up for?

I have questions that could turn into a new story for you.

So much of what you wrote about reality, I had concluded on my own. What I had not figured out was how, or if we really communicate with others. or if we are truly alone just surrounded by “Quantum Shadows.”

In the movie “The Ten Commandments” Pharaoh was always saying, “So let it be written, so let it be done.” It occurs to me that is why we (or at least I) am/are living in “1984?”

It is my theory that the Universe puts out things like the Deagle Report to which we can respond, yah or nay. I first heard about Deagle in 2016. Up to this point, I have been saying, nay, not really wanting to return to the Golden Age covered in holographic blood and guts.

But, after reading your article, it occurs to me that maybe Deagle has to happen. Maybe it was what I signed on for and knowing that I won’t die (nobody dies) and have the ability to manifest what I need to observe the event in comfort, why not?

I can pay some for your response. Thanks for your good work.

Questioner has agreed to this role, in this skin-suit, at this time and in this place. This is an intentional decision that was planned in advance. Int he case of the questioner, the decision process was long and many details were worked out on the pre-birth world-line template (sic) with many trial and error forays to perfect the present general population experience.

More than most inmate skin-suits, this questioner has a very fated life and is at this moment learning fromt he fated existence to reconfigure the internal memory banks / garbons / non-physical / quantum structures to achieve his goals.

Goals are such that <redacted. Not for public consumption.> This has to be in complete variance with other forces that are aligned in the non-physical that the consciousness of the questioner is involved in at this time. Questioner is following the track and fated vector as intended, and while there might be apparent periods of hardship or discomfort, the questioner has emerged from those experences at the exact point upon the template (sic) to generate the next phase of operational experience.

Questioner is, if anything, spending too much time worrying / wondering / involved in other opinions from others that haave no bearing (what so ever) on questioners overall objectives and goals.

No matter how convincing the narratives of others might entice, questioner is strongly advised to follow his internal feelings, emotions, and "gut" feelings in matters instead of the mental gyrations that seem to flavor his thought patterns at this time.

[10.2] Question – MWI convergence

Are all possible timelines on the MWI converging on a single possibility? If so, what it the nature of this singularity?

No.

Questioner misunderstands the nature of the "reality" universe. Each travel vector of individual time is a personal one configured specifically for the given consciousness that is assigned by the IS-BE. It is unique and singular.

Every inmate skin-suit creates and assigns a travel vector upon a template (sic) that they occupy alone (with an array of exceptions). Thus there is no singular time vector for the mass of humanity (inmate skin-suits), but rather a ever changing template. This convergence that the questioner is concerned with is actually the state of the highest probability template (sic) that the majority of pre-birth world-line templates converge or are derived from.

In this objective view, the question can be simplified as to how is the main majority-dominant pre-birth world-line template being anchored, and can this anchoring effort be changed or altered.

With this in mind, the answer is positive. It can be changed. And the anchors can be removed and the template(s) (sic) can modulate and fluxiate. As such, they can be reset to one that is not as worrisome and problematic to the questioners' current form.

However, that is not desirable. What is desirable is to keep the current systems and alterations in place with very little change. THis is because The Domain has permitted this template state to exist to achive our overall desired goals. No matter how outlandish, uncomfortable and horrific it might appear, the end goal is in sight and will be realized.

[10.3] Question – Stages of evolution

Is STO sentience the end point in IS-BE “evolution” or is there something of greater utility beyond?

This is a great question and one deserving of thoughtful answer.

SEO sentience is not the end-point of IS-BE evolution. It is an evolutionary step. For humans trapped in skin-suits, the highest stage of IS-BE evolution at this stage is SEO consciousness sentience. But once the IS-BE is freed from the prison complex, a new selection of consciousness sentiences growth vectors present themselves.

All MAJestic members and those of other agencies that work with us, including the volunteers, must be SEO sentience. This is the highest and most preferable forms / states and configurations of operation within Domain. But once the entities / IS-BE / consciousness modulates to Domain roles / societial structures / puzzle pieces / parking places they accept the sentience that naturally derives / arises from their internal on-physical structures. That then determines their place within the Domain society.

Sentience type need and determination is not a linear growth vector towards advantageous heirachy. Rather it is a desired vector path based upon the personality of the IS-BE nature.

[10.4] Question – Fake alien invasion plan

(I’m) not sure if this fits within the topics, so if not MM please feel free to omit it.

But given the way the Ukraine thing is playing out and once the MSM and the American govt is teaching everyone to “fear those dirty Russian Commies”, one cannot help but feel that Werner von Braun’s predictions seem to be unfolding right on schedule.

Of course, he suggested after the Commy card is played (and the situation seems to be the Ace of all Commy threat cards), there will be a false flag alien invasion, courtesy of the US govt.

Question, does the Domain know of any such fake alien invasion plan in the works, or is this a load of BS? If not, then when can we expect to see it come about?

There have been trivial discussions at various times regarding the creation of a fake invation from unknown non-human entities. These discussions were usually tabled and then scrapped. We know of no present plans concerning these kinds of efforts.

In all cases that we are aware of, this senario is not considered in any way to be part of the main primary template (sic).

[10.5] Question – Apollo Missions

I have the same question as Dani about the Apollo missions, and you didn’t answer that part. What about them, were they fake or not? From the text above you imply that they weren’t faked.

Can you explain your position on this please? What was the technology used? How did they cross the Van Allen belt? Otherwise, reading things like this I lose condifence in everything else that you write.

This question was answered.

All physical impedments can be solved through engineered solutions.

It is a simple matter of creation of a radiation barrier within the spacecraft and then computing a trajectory that avoided the thickest, most radioactive part of the belts while traveling as fast as possible. 

If you travel fast enough, the damage that the radiation belts would inflict upon biological bodies can be mitigated. In the case of the NASA Apollo spacecraft, it was discovered that at the speed of the spacecraft, it would take a spacecraft about an hour to pass through the belts. 

The radiation dose received during that amount of time would be, at most, 12  rads and that’s without any protection protection in a spacecraft. 

While the Van Allen belts are lethal, they could really only kill a biological entity  if they were to spend several days in their radioactive vicinity. 

Keep in mind that while it is a true challenge to pass through the belts, they do actually protect earthbound physical life.

It’s the same system used by firemen to rush into a burning building to rescue a person. Wear an insulated suit, and run in and run back out quickly. -MM

[10.6a] Question – Balancing Family and Domain responsibilities

Hi MM

I hope you can include this personal question to the Commander in March. I have been thinking a lot about this and am pretty much all ready to volunteer as an irregular. I have prepared my affirmations and all. There is however this very question about my family that bothers me:

For years I have felt that there is something big I have incarnated for this time. I have felt positive that the time would come when I would be useful for a higher purpose, so to say.

Finding MM and the call from the Domain for assistance sort of made puzzles come together. Perfectly.

However I also know that things are going to change in this world and to humanity over the next years, and I have a strong feeling part of my “mission” here from from my guides were to prepare/help my family for this. My kids also have a very strong feeling about just that.

I am worried that joining as an irregular would be selfish StS act, basically downgrading my responsibility to my family.

Can you tell me please, If I am right in my feelings that I am indeed to join as an irregular and also if I do indeed have a responsibility to my family, how do I balance this? [I hope this was clear MM. An easier question to formulate might simply be: Who am I and why am I here? but I feel some of the meaning is lost]

The questioner need not worry about the issues so stated. There is typically no problems in acceptance of multiple responsibilites. The Questioner is well aware that maintaining work for honest labor does not eliminate the responsibilities of the questioner towards its family.

There are few responsibilities that one can take that replaces other responsibilities. A person typically does not accept gainful employment to put food an the table for his family, yet at the same time allow the work and labors to destroy that same family.

Take note that it does happen from time to time, however this is with Service-to-self sentiences. Not with Service-to-other sentiences.

Consider MM.MM holds multiple responsibilities. There's Domain. Theres MAJestic. Theres' his labor at <redacted>. There is his MM webpage. There is his You-tube channel. There is his Forum. There is his young daughter. There is his old dog. There are his books. There is his forum. There is his daily pod-casts. There is his training of interns. There is his <readacted> company, and there is his other <redacted> company. His meetings with Sales force, factory managers, and the meals and banquets are all part of his reponsibiliies. As well as the responsibilities to his immediate family.

There is no reason why the questioner cannot also manage his life and responsibilies in a similiar manner.

If there is any doubt in the mind of the questioner, then the best course of action for the questioner is NOT to take on any new responsibilities, and focus on the responsibilites that it already possesses. We only accept volunteers who are ready and fully willing to accept new responsibilities.

If there is a hesitation, then the best advised course of action is conservative; placing famial responsibilities first.

We are all different, and we should never compare ourselves to others. Including and most especially myself. I think the Commanders comment was directed at me, and not at the questioner. Still, it was what was transmitted. So I placed it there with the proper context. Just do what you think is best. You are not expected to go beyond your comfort levels. -MM

[10.6b] Question – Automation of pickup

Also for a second question:

When going through the death process I understand many are taken by surprise and are baffled as they approach the tunnel of light. I understand anyone can ask the Domain for assistance, being picked up before entering the tunnel. However I also understand there is a suction effect, either literally or seemingly from your guides pressuring you to enter. Hence I have the feeling (which ofc might be wrong) that stopping, asking for help, and waiting for a pick-up might be easier said than done.

The question is: As a irregular would the pick-up be a more easily achieved, or automated for lack of a better word, than for the general population who might ask the Domain for assistance?

Thank you very much for answering these questions which are very meaningful to me.

As a technical measure the questioner, as well as any other entity so desiring of Domain assistance, must request that said assistance. We do not make assumptions on the needs, desires and thoughts of other entities.

Once there is a formal request, we may or may not take action. In the case of Domain volunteers, we would make a special priority to recover and assist the entities so desirous of assistance, support and transport / teleport.

Whether or not the quesitoner believes in the strength of this vocialzed request is not of importance. There is no urgent or pressing need to do anything once freed from the physical limitations of the skin suit. The entity might (were they so inclined) to just sit down and park themselves where ever they end up upon translation and do nothing. There is no hurry. There is never any hurry, and if there is a feeling of urgent action, the questioner must composes himself and realize that hasty decisions make for undesirable outcomes.

The question regarding the automation of pickup process is difficult to answer. This is because every individual is quite different, and the situations with each are so very unique. There can be no automation of a pickup retreaval procedures and the variables are far too varied between one consciousness and the next.

[10.7] Introduction

Here are some questions following your call – please tell me if they are redundant, I am still reading a lot on your blog but also elsewhere, I am not through yet., and I do forget things too… and I try to find my spare time to relax, meditate and be outside. But there is a lot going on also around here. So if these questions are silly or redundant just throw them in the bin 🙂

So here your callout:

I am now accepting questions under the following topics;

- - Geo-political issues
  - Makeup of the Prison Complex
  - Sentience
  - Self improvement

The same rules apply as before. Just two questions. No multipart questions if you can help yourself. Please, no questions about how you ended up in the Prison Complex.

And my questions (these are 7, then pick for me the most relevant 2):

[10.7a] Question – War battle zones

Is the war fought on other planes too?

All wars, and all battles, occur on different levels (different "planes") orf existence. It does not matter if it is a humans species war between different armies, a war between primates over resources, or a mating war between two animal species. All wars are conducted on multiple levels, with the physical level being the most coarse.

In the case of direct concern to the questioner, the realms of the wars that the questioner is most concerned about will and is occurring on a host of levels. There are many participants. There are many interests. There are many complexities. There are many situations that develop and are dispersed by Domain, as well as potentials that manifest and are then mitigated.

This dimension of multiple war battle zones is an important one to fully grasp. As it might appear that nothing is going on in the physical realms, there could be, instead, substantial changes on other realms. And these other realms have a great deal of influence on the observed physical environs.

Part of the design of the prison complex included a pre-programming series of war and poverty cycles designed to purge and thrash inmate skin suits in accoradance to mantid prime (sic) templates sic).

These preprogammed event cycles are still in place today and right now.

Yes, they can be controlled from the command center within Luna, but the fundamental nature of the systems so constructed mean that alterations and modifications are not possible without the death via suffication of all physical life in the earth environment. Therefore Domain prefer to follow the manipulations alterations at the closer (to the physical) dimensional overlays.

In general in regards to the situation that the Questioner is concerned about, the fighting and battles are multi-dimensional and under the control of Domain. There is no need for concern.

[10.7b] Question – MM volunteers in battle

Are members of MM through the Domain involved on these other planes? Could you give some details? (question probably asked already, something through DM and PL -> then bin)

Yes. There are numerous individuals though MM that are participants int he on-going battles and efforts. 

Not all are participating via Domain directiove. 

Many are on their own (already pre-agreed) efforts. This includes DM, SD, and PL. All are busy in the non-physical realms involved in various actions and activities. Some are performing very dangerous and risky activities. We assist when requested.

Likewise, there are numberous Domain volunteers via MM that are involved in various Domain-specific activities. 

To many, it does not seem that they are doing anything. Though they note (for the most part) rather active and strange dreams. This is fine, as it is a residual pattern shadow of the non-physical activities that they are all participating within.

Specific activities are unique to each person and are not to be announced or broadcast on open channels. As in this case. It is easy to compromise the participants.

[10.7c] Question – Up and down activity

I volunteered as an irregular for the Domain. Soon after I noticed my dream activity going sharp up, but also going sharp down again. Has this to do with the volunteering? Why did it go down again (some other members on the forum also noticed less dream “activity” for the last weeks)

ΛV activity is common in performing Domain activity. This is true in normal human activity. There is nothing wrong, unusual or concerning about it. Tasks are assigned, they are carried out, then there is a period of rest before the next task assignment.

It is the nature of IS-BEs not to be mechanical machines (that seems to be the prevalent belief in contemporaneous human resource circles.) The most desirable environment for a satisfied, fully actuated volunter, is to have a duty cycle of 20% to 30% work, with the rest being down time.

Were we (Domain) to follow an agressive pattern of 100% utilization of resources, the efficiency would drop off substantially and the failure rate would be high. That is unacceptable.

[10.7d] Question – Safety during war

If you don’t have the possibility to move to other countries, and you are not able to care for own supplies, how can you get safe through this coming crisis in the west? What is the advice?

Questioner will be reasonably safe in the latest location. There will be discord and disruption of social constructs, however the questioner should be well supported.

For others, the ability or inability to relocate is mandated by the pre-birth world-line template (sic) that they have accepted in this manifestation. The options are narrowed specifically for the purposes of IS-BE growth as determined by Mantid Prime. Growth through strife is a hallmark of the Mantid Prime operational parameters.

Yet, the entities are both existing upon a template (sic) by Mantid Prime, and also assisting Domain. In this case (a minority of less than 15% of the MM volunteer staff) we have communicated with the entities in question and have staff making safe or easy passage though personal confictions and hardships. 

All Domain volunteers are protected and have support groups.

[10.7e] Question – Movement options

Can you jump for example to another timeline or are these also compromised? Or hold locally a safe haven by strong-mindfulness?

Questioner is fully enabled to navigate the reality universe to the extent of their abilities. There are no restrictions on navigation, only on the physical limitations of the IS-BE skin suit.

The techniques to do so are quite varried. MM (sic) has provided a basic outline and guidance parametrs for all on-board / participating in this activity at this time.

[10.7f] Question

As MM predicted in his last articles, from 2027 on the coming war (if so) will be over in America. Is the same true for other western countries?

The future will have a wide diversity of regional outcomes. However, for the most part, there will be nations and geographical regions that will prosper, and others that will go through strife long after the United States suppresses it's various issues and turmoil.

Africa will engage in an unexpected direction, and the collapse of Africa into "tin horn dictatorships', slavery, civil wars, and other domestic and economic turmoil will not manifest. At least not to the level that seems to be the (opinion of the mass humanity) thoughts of the combined West.

The middle east, also will not (at this stage of analysis, at least) will not erupt into large scale warfare. Instead, our projections show a gradual calm advancment at a steady and consistant level.

The European nations and geography will suffer a number of great hardships. Depending on the switches / tracks / template (sic) switches will reflect what will occur. Currently there are numerous feints of dubious value such as Finland, and Switzerland. The large highpotential hotspots and causes / vectors of conflict are the Pole in Poland, and Germany with the Netherlands and Norway activity. Some European regions (depending on the senario) could realisticly become quite hot and dangerous.

Australia and Japan are expected to undergo undulation and rippling of event sequences. It is prudent to distance oneself from large urban areas in those geographic regions if possible.

[10.7g] Question

Will this also be the ending of the last OE facilities on Earth and the complete freeing of Earth from the OE? (MM, not sure if this was already answered in other sessions, if so -> bin)

That is not forecasted.

While many physical manifestations have been decloaked, there are many such systems. Many of the non-physical systems will lie in hibernation and statis until triggered by a confluence of events that are (at present) not clear.

These events take time, far longer than a human lifespan. While there is no doubt that Domain forces will completely suppress and tame the systems involved in the Prison Complex, that will not be realized for many human lifetimes.

[10.7h] Question

And then some question for you MM, not for the Commander, concerning my father, who according to you was also in a black ops: was he also implanted, what do you think? Because to me it seems there is some amnesia (and not because of his age, but since he was thrown out in the sixties). Anyways, he was not charged as a sex-offender, but it was Europe, not USA.

Tomorrow is my fathers birthday, he will be 94 years old. I cannot be there myself alas. But I will call him of course.

Btw, if I go down I go down, and hope to remember the call for Domain members to pick me up on the other side. In Tibetan Buddhism, the book of death and bardo teachings, they also warn to not go into the light, but to err around in the bardo is also no fun. Maybe I will have a question about that later.

[It is unlikely that your father was implanted. 

When the implantations began, he would have had to be in his 40-50s. He would be considered an elder member of the organization. 

If he was actually implanted, then it would have been because he was high ranking at that time, and at that it would have been with a core one group only (I assume).

Sex offender retirment did not start to occur until the mid 1990s when MAJestic operations started to be phased out / replaced by other "carve outs". 

If he was implanted, and was retired after the mid 1990s then he would have been rounded up and retired via the Sex OFfender registry. -MM]

[10.7i] Question – Soros

btw did you read this one? https://www.theepochtimes.com/soros-worries-about-putin-xi-partnership-hopes-both-leaders-can-be-stopped-before-they-destroy-our-civilization_4339657.html

As always, happy to be in contact with you, wish you the best and keep on going!

[Soros is a locust. 

He profited enormously during the fall of the Soviet Union and participate din the rape and looting of Russia. Russia under Putin has managed to suppress the oligarchs out, and both Putin and Xi Peng see the dangers of these singular powerful individuals. They will not permit it.

Obviously he, as a person in a serious deranged state, believe that whatever a person can seize is a good thing and should not be opposed. He obviously is undable to see the needs and feelings of others. Thus he is a clinical sociopath, or psychopath.

It is a global horror that this person is loose on the world and has control over multiple levers of power.

This old lizard just needs to die, and allow the world to move on. -MM]

[10.8] Question – Big Players

This question of both sides being the same club I have also in my mind for a while now. I have also found this today in one of the articles from above. I think one commentator posted it somewhere.

all the big players are in that club. As they say, its a small club and we are not in it. Would love what the commander has to say in this.

It doesn’t matter in the big picture to be honest. All I care in the next few years is to be safe, healthy and relatively comfortable with my family in a good location. My affirmations will make sure we end in the perfect place. Maybe we are already? 🙂

[Images are clear on this one. Big, clear images of a childhood farm. Narration is crisp. DIrections crystal clear. Almost like this is a previously composed script or video segment. -MM]

Imagine you owned a farm. You had cows, horses, pigs, chickens, and sheep. In the chicken coop is a great commotion. The rooster is crowing loudly and his prized hens are squawking as they are the prized hens of the rooster.

But that does not matter to you; the farmer. Your prized hens are the heathiest layers that have a consistant output in eggs.

In a similiar manner, the often praised "youth leaders" / power leaders do not represent the real powers in regards to the human species, and the roles that will manifest in the next fifty or so years.

[10.9a] Question – An older me

what’s up guys. I usually see this community growing. Had a dream I am/was supposed to be spreading the word about MM and the rest. I have tried but to no luck. There is hope though but the Old empire fear mechanism really works great. I hope it goes through but they fear what they don’t understand. I will(must) try my best. My time is really running out. The fear I know am not alone but still. I will try. I must try.

Sometimes I feel afraid, But being in this place makes me feel some hope.

Ok when I was young, about 10 years old. I was walking in the street playing and minding my own biz. Suddenly some man caught my arm. I was afraid but somehow I just didn’t want to scream. We stared at each other for sometime. Prob about 10 sec. His face imprinted in my mind till this day. Then I was called by my dad. I just left the man standing. It happened so naturally I didn’t even think about shit. Continued the day “normally” and life “normally”.

Since then I thought about the incident many times. And I came to see that The man really looked like me. An older version of me that is. about early 50 or late 40. Something like that.

Question is: Was that an older version of me and if yes (WTF) can u please explain.

This is a common enough event. [Again, the figure is about 15-17% of the GP general population. -MM]

When templates are established for the pre-birth world-line template (sic) it is often necessary to have a much older version of oneself visit the younger self at a specific time and place for memory implantation of a specific nature for future guidance. This is often conducted in lieu of an adequate "sign post" (sic) event.

The procedure is that a holographic manifestation of the entity is created based upon time-track projections and the consciousness is occupied by a fractional consciousness from the individual. It is not actually from the future, being a gollum, but rather a project of what will occur based upon previously evaluated and observed template vectors as negotiated with by the Mantid Primes (sic).

Fractional consciousness is a standard procedure for elemental creation / partitioning of consciousness within inmate skin-suits.

[10.9b] Question – Dream question

Question2: About a week ago I just couldn’t lucid dream at all. If I did I couldn’t remember anything every time I woke up I tried and tried again. There was an issue. Then I saw images of a broken bridge now repaired. like a normal bridge but it repaired itself.

What happened to the bridge and why was it down?

Insight into the interpetations of dreams is beyond the utility / usefulness of this resource.

[I really don't think that the commander can assist you in the interpetation of this particular dream. Sorry. Big apologies. -MM]

[10.10] Question – Perception of changes

I hope you and your family and friends are doing well. My question on MWI-travel is this: Is it possible to perceive the jumping from reality to reality?

Because lately I’ve been having some trick on my eyes. It’s like in the old days they had the movies on rolls , I remember Charlie Chaplin. And often you could perceive the changing pictures. It’s almost the same effect I sometimes get. I tried to count it, because of the around 4 Mhz per second and its about it. Is that possible or am I going nuts?

Questioner is aware. 

It is entirely plausible that a consciousness inhabiting an inmate skin-suit can percieve the changes in slides, world-line transitions and jumps. It is also not an uncommon event. Most human inmates experience a handful of these events throughout their lives, though they (more often than not) are unaware of the signifigance of the events and observed switches.

This is a matter of perception at the time of the transition. This occurs (apparently) randomly, but is actually a "signpost" in the pre-birth world-line template (sic).

[10.11] Question – NASA access to egress portals.

I escaped through two pocket universes last night during an LD and awoke in another doping facility. I suspect the ones in control of the prison bubble are utilising the manifestation abilities of those they plug in (in the 2nd overlay pocket universe i was in ) to manifest the bubble, hence why it is self healing; it is a construct created from hijacked consciousnesses specifically programmed to manifest the prison bubble environment around other consciousnesses (your thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated) .

I am doing the write up for it now.

This facility I was in seemed to also be run by NASA and was located off world…..does the commander know if they have access to the egress portals, because it was definitely their equipment I was looking at?

They had launch pad faciltiies with NASA branding all over them. I think this might have been the main operational centre for the whole prison system; they had investors browsing through their VR product line run by said consciousnesses.

I got here by rejecting a simulation designed to make me hate SD. When the AI running the sim realised I was rejecting it, it talked to me personally trying to convince me it was for my own evolution. I was able to break through the doping long enough to do quite a bit of damage to the facility and wipe out some of it’s personnel. I fact, they tried several times (unsuccessfully) to steer me away from waking up into this pocket universe, which makes me think it is incredibly important to them.

There are organizations (earth side) that operate using "advanced" Domain  technology who's membership are extracted from public physical organizations. It is possible to observe these operations through LD or other forms of scrying.

MAJestic had access to these portals, as did (has) other United States organizations, as well as elements of both Russian, Chinese, British assets.

However, that was not the case in this instance. 

In this instance the questioner was observing an "overlay" and that has elements of a hybrid existence where control elements participate in the above "normal" manipulation of the human sepecies and inmate skin-suits. This overlay has been discussed in previous questions.

[I do not understand this at all. -MM]

Questioner to be advised that branding of logos may or may not have relevance in the observed activities as they may or may not be mind manifestations designed to help in the sorting process for observational assessments.

[I do not understand this at all. -MM]

Questioner described incident is suggestive of a deeper and darker sub-layer of mental activity that would be advised to approach in a most guarded manner.

[10.12] Question – Healing

Hey Team!

Any chance The Domain commander can provide more specific tips and pointers on self-healing, as well as healing others? My daughter has debilitating migraines virtually every day, and all doctors gave up. Her siblings have some other, though more minor, health issues.

I would love to help heal them, but I also know that self-healing usually works best. I trust this topic will be interesting for many others also.

In the case of the questioner, the over reliance on Western medicines will result in the death or her daughter. Other processes are advised.

For some inmate skin-suits, the template defines a period of hardship that includes physical discomfort. This can be thwarted though judicious attention to the entire body system, and finding a holistic solution. 

MM is familiar with the Chinese traditional medicine which would certainly work in this situation, but there are other alternatives as well. The body must be viewed as an entire organism, instead of focusing on a particular sympton or problem.

Questioner is urged to direct treatment from the whole-body observational platform. Then proceed using traditional solutions.

Questioner daughter has areas of "cold" [not temperature, but rather a meausre of physical health - MM] in various parts of her body. This requires a process of "warming up" using traditional methods. This includes diet, skin care, massage, and other techniques usually not found in the West such as smoke therapy and poltice's and teas. 

It is critical and important that the daughter body "temperature" be "leveled".

[10.13a] Question – Ability to remember when a person dies

I have a new question.

I’ll say up front I don’t really have very many others I would wish to rejoin after death. My past cats are a different story. But that brings up the question (actually two):

I wonder about the mental processes and memories from reading sites like this one among those who have just passed away. It would seem that there is a lot of pressure (or incentive) to rejoin loved ones, and this would be on the minds of almost everyone.

Maybe what is read here simply will not be remembered.

So, just after death, would people really be able to remember to call for the Domain instead of “mindlessly” walking into the light?

Yes. Memories are not retained in the human brain. They are external to the physical body. So when a consciousness translates to the non-physical realms, it retains all memories.

This ARTICLE (about Cat Heaven) would be of GREAT VALUE to the questioner. -MM

[10.13b] Question – Malevolent instigations

Are malevolent forces possibly going to push people into the light, maybe by posing as loved ones?

No. Not typically. 

Upon exit from the recycling procedure, most consciousness's are able to re-acquire a portion of forgotten memories, selectively entrusted by Mantid support. That is usually enough, and sufficient for the decision process on what to do next.

There are many exceptions and many cases as no two translation procedures are the same.

[10.14a] Question

What steps can we take to ensure our rescue and not end up like Lawrence Spencer which his life contract ended (steps that do not discharge alarm bells)?

[1] Control your fears.

[2] Realize that there is no rush to do anything. As there is no such thing as time in regards to your IS-BE being.

[3] Understand that your non-physical body is saturated with snares, traps, and chains. The way for you to deal with them is through calmness, and assistance from friendly entities.

[4] Call for Domain assistance and direction. This is true regardless of what ever you might decide to do.

[5] Realize that The Domain is a volunteer organization. You may be part of it, or may not. it is up to each individual IS-BE. You are never committed to any "agreement" with anyone or any organization.

[10.14b] Question

Is Mathilda back with the Domain, or did she recycle back to earth?

[Emotional response. Something went wrong.]

Warning! Do not be like Mathilda. 

Fear responses as a part of the inmate skin-suit were not well established and understood when Mathilda was rescued and recovered. After the initial recovery, she was placed under medical care. At that time, she was the first entity we (the local group) tried to recover. There were many mistakes.

Her imprinting was far stronger than Domain recognized. This resulted in a full fight-and-flight response. She / it kicked up a fury and created substantial damage (as only a Domain figher is able to). There were many casualties and great damages, and then mathilda fled.

As is the core rules with Domain, we obey the wishes of all of our membership / citizenry. Even when they are not of understanding / mind. It / she wished to leave and to flee. She garbled / disjointed / activated / portal creation conducted a "pass-though" and left the universe. 

We know where she is, and what she / it is doing, but we are helpless to assist as we need to be given permission. 

When we rescued her we were unaware of the great and substantive changes to her container [sheath that the consciousness occupies while in a universe -MM] and because of that we were unprepared to the fury and great negative responses when the programmed anti-recovery and extraction systems were activated. This caused great discomfort and upset to everyone involved. This entire episode is of great regret.

Do not be like Mathilda.

[10.14c] Question – Comm with Domain

Has the questioner succeeded in making communication with the commander and their comrades yet?

Yes. Questioner has made contact. 

Contact is not clear and practice is required. 

Advise to listen to thought streams not expect words. Will push messages though clear emotions (for start purposes). 

Questioner must "listen with the heart" as this is the easiest way for us to comm using the limitations placed on us at this time. This also has a dual purpose as in tying / bonding / reestablishing connections. 

This will be necessary upon the translation of vehicles (body to non-physical body) to the non-physical transtition station. 

Questioner non-physical body is specially shackled and while questioner has a great deal of freedom, those "chains" are still present, and the questioner can easily be "yanked back" and propelled into a sub-pocket / (pocket) universe specially prepaired for it. 

Thus it is very important that comm be established as is proceeding, and should be an active endeaver. Not a side effort. 

We comm though images, and emotions to this (specific) questioners fuzzy shape / consciousness / cell / envelope.

[10.14d] Question – Rejoining Domain

Regarding others sho have attempted to rejoiningg The Domain, have there been others, and have they been successful in rejoinging?

Yes. There have been others.

Two have been successfully extracted. They are safe within the Domain, and are in extended treatment programs. There is a system of recovery that we are employing.

Yes, you are certainly concerned about Mathilda. The experiences surrounding her extraction taught us much, and we have developed systems for reintegration of lost Domain members.

[10.14e] Question

Can a person use verbal affirmations to help avoid pitfalls and snares, such as “fear generation”, “trigger events” and “traps”?

Yes. Affirmations work in both the reality universe and the main universe. The affirmatiosn generate thoughts are are even more substantive in the main universe. You can add affirmations to assist your extraction and avoidance of pitfalls upon your translation point.

Affirmations work faster, and with greater efficency once one leaves the reality universe.

[10.15] Question – Cataclysm events 2040s

Very grateful for the answer to my last question on Aus and China- even if it was a bit shocking.

Anyhoo, I was wondering if the Commander has any info on potential cataclysm events in May 2040 and November 2046 along the lines of close encounters with comets or other solar system objects coming a bit too close (aka Nibiru etc).

I would normally not entertain unreferenced material without lots of evidence, but on further study there are tons of prophecies, ancient records of same with end of the world type scenarios around them. However for sure it could be simulation distractions like 2012 was, but the evidence is, on reflection, pretty compelling.

Having said that, there will be so much shit going on around that time, ppl might not notice an ELE , or they might even welcome one 🙂

There are physical events related to galatic forces and planetary issues taht will manifest in the decades of 2030 through 2050. These will present challenges to many species. But the changes will be able to be controlled and mitigated somewhat. 

The questioner need not worry about them.

[10.16] Question – Hard core Domain inmates

What happens to the “hard Core” captured members of the Domain, such as the “Lost Battalion”? I just cannot imagine them accepting being mind erased and set into human or dolphin bodies trying to figure out what is going on. For trillions of years their quanta has been well established, and yet suddently all is erased. I just cannot believe that they also lose their personalities, and reflex actions.

What happens when Hard Core Domain members / fighters do not “agree to the program” in Heaven as assigned by the Mantid Primes?

A secondary, and sometimes even more multiple memory wipes and cleansings.

While none of the Domain has (yet) been dissassembled into base components for uses elsewhere (such as with MM), that has always remained an option. Instead, the recalcitrant prisoners are cycled quickly in multiple consciousnesses with minor percentages of consciousness activation within those physical environs.

While (in the case of MM, and many other humans) the percentages are from 20% to 23% of assigned quanta for a given consciousness and memory /thought generation (32-33% for MM), these recalcitrant Domain members are assigned physical reincarnations of shorter cycles and durations, as well as smaller quanta interaction.

A human majority soul might have two or three human consciousnesses each with 22% participation.

While a recalcitrant member of The Domain might have ten to 15 incarnations in the form of smaller, short lived physical species. These would be rats, mice, rodents, squirrels, wallabies, and snakes. Each one might only possess 3-5% of quanta associated with consciousness.

Thus, the recalcitrant Domain member would have a very difficult time adapting and adjusting to the world-line templates (sic) that the Mantid Primes assigned to it. And in that way, they would well be kept under great control.

They also would be frequently swapped out from one species to another. Thus, they would have a very difficult time reasserting themselves and rebuilding their "self quantum fortresses".

["It would be like hanging on to the side of a mud-cliff face, during a pouring rainstorm. By the time you finally get a grasp on a rock, you slip and fall and die." Image provided by Commander. -MM]

However, numerous Domain members have volunteered to enter and remain inside of the human pocket universe (as well as a few others) and when these Domain members are up for life-planning / review by the mantid Primes, they are assigned full or nearly full quantum participation in their consciousnesses.

This is accomplished though manipulation / lie / betrayal / tricks / and other means.

Thus, when Domain members incarnate (presently, for a number of them) they are able to eject into the general population is fully or nearly fully realized. Meaning: One singular consciousness at near 100% (actually 85% to 95%) consciousness induciton and injection into the physical body hosts.

<redacted> is one such entity.

Though, <readacted> has been entangled with numerous chains / snares / and leech-ons that make escape egress difficult. The fear snares, and the alarms are very predominant. <redacted> is in contact and is aware of the situation.

Over time <readacted> will be able to undergo the firece deprogramming we have ready for it. And <redacted> is aware of the consequences of loss-of-focus in this effort. It is the strength of the Domain bond that will enable <readacted> to push though the [image of sticky tar clutching the entity trying to drive it back to the prison complex environnement] and this strength will enable <redacted> to regain a role within Domain and also to eventually recover all memories.

[Note: The <redacted> refers to an individual that is an MM influencer who is also Domain. This individual knows their role. And MM and <redacted> has dicussed this at length but has not published the dialog and discourse.

In all cases, MM maintains dialog with various individuals all of a unique background.

Some are Domain. many are not, but are of other backgrounds. Many are quite impressive in size, scope and ability. Do not believe that Domain is the biggest and best, but is only one history and saga that we are encountering at this time.-MM]

To be continued…

I have many more questions that are in the process of being answered.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Domain Index” over here…

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[daegonmagus] – Part 24 – Cattle Mutilations, Missing Time, Broken and Misplaced Memories, Ghost and UFO sightings

The following is the 24th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benifit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you injoy this article.

-MM

Part 24 – Cattle Mutilations, Missing Time, Broken and Misplaced Memories, Ghost and UFO sightings; Wooroloo is the Place to be For Paranormal Activity. 5 star Recommend

I’ve been meaning to do an article on this for while. It entails a bizarre event I unwittingly found myself caught up in when I was about 16 years old, that my friend was {apparently} also involved in. Since it happened, this event has left me with some puzzling question. And guess what, SD was also involved with it. This was a good year or so before I had even met her. In fact, this event has had such an effect on me that I wrote a short story about it a few years ago, trying to make light of the weirdness of the situation through the use of dark humour, which can be found on my website at Daegon Magus | Author for anyone who is interested. In all seriousness though, there isn’t really anything humorous about it. Considering the circumstances surrounding the event from both our vantage points, SD and I believe there is a very real possibility this was an alien abduction scene with a level of memory suppression of what actually took place being employed on both of us. Thinking about that and what “may” have happened to me really gives me the heeby jeebies.

To start this story off, I need to explain the town I lived in as a kid. Wooroloo is a semi rural town situated about 55km East of the Perth CBD.

R C.1e81ff4f6417e269b468cb54a5501c68 — Map

It houses an abbatoirs, a cemetery and both a minimum and maximum security prison, and an old tuberculosis clinic-come-hospital all within a few short kilometers of each other. My house was situated on the edge of the thin strip of bushland that insulated these facilities from the town centre. I could quite literally grab my pushbike and tour close to these facilities (with the exception of the maximum security prison) within an hour. I’d heard rumours as a kid that this strip of bushland was haunted; that some guy from one of the prisons hung himself here and would sometimes appear as a ghost to those wandering about.

Speaking of ghosts, my grandmother, who lived on the same block of land as my father (she gifted him the top half for his 21^st birthday, while her house was situated on the bottom half on the otherside of a creek a few hundred metres away) saw the ghost of her late husband, Gordon, my father’s step father, one night; the ghost of Gordon appeared at the foot of her bed and sort of just sat there smiling at her for a little while. She described it as a somewhat pleasant experience.

School was about 3 quarters of kilometre away at the end of our road in the centre of town. It was a pretty small primary school with just over a hundred kids in total in the whole school. Note that I have written previously of having broken memories involving “something” happening with peers from my class that is directly related to my first contact experience with the Elder Guardians, and a recent dream that I suggested was a memory of an abduction involving a squid like looking race of beings with this same class.

The first thing I remembered upon coming into the presence of the Elder Guardians (as my memory was unlocking, but was yet to be fully unlocked) was that what I was experiencing was related to that something happening to myself and about 5 or 6 others that had been mind wiped from us. Although I couldn’t pin point it to more than some strange abduction event, I knew it was very very relevant. These peers of mine, who I no longer talk to have something to do with it, I am sure of it, even if they do not realise any of it.

Getting back to the event in question, unbeknownst to me at the time of this particular experience, SD was living with her boyfriend just down the road from this school, in what she described as being a very haunted house.

In this house, SD told me very weird things used to happen; loud music would randomly start playing from a room they could never quite find or put their finger on as to the tune even though it sounded very familiar. They’d think they found the room it was coming from, only for them to open the door and it would randomly change to coming from another room. Sometimes the rooms would suddenly drop several degrees in temperature for no apparent reason. There was an instance where her boyfriend, Roger, scared the shit out of his little brother because he came out of his room with red eyes after being asleep in there for three days straight (though he thought it was only a night’s worth).

Roger told her that he used to have strange {lucid} “dreams” where weird beings would take him away to scary dream places whenever he fell asleep with his head against a certain wall, though being religious, he never thought to dig deeper into them and experiment with them like I had been doing a lot of up until that point. Later they found out a teenager had hung himself in the back yard, which they figured accounted for all the spooky action at not very far distance.

A little further along down the road from Roger’s place is what is known colloquially by townsfolk as the gravel oval; a big patch of dirt that motor bike riders like my friend Zak like to take their bikes and bush banger cars out to thrash them into oblivion.

OIP C.4SZOopewGTc8UXU3fhJMggHaE8 — Rural terrain near Wooroloo.

One night Roger’s dad was outside having a smoke looking toward this gravel oval (Bailup Park, as it called on google maps) when he noticed about 13 little lights come out of the ground, ascend to a low point in the sky and just start dancing in front of him before all shooting off in different directions. As someone who was apparently fairly sceptical of UFOs and aliens, this was apparently a big game changer for him.

It is important to note here that the gravel oval is not really situated near any cattle grazing property. There is a horse stud up the road, and that is about it. Nothing that would involve any cows though, as most of the larger paddocks are situated on the outskirts of town. There is a small paddock next the gravel oval, but I don’t think the owners ever had cows in it. I could of course be be wrong. Regardless, the most likely place you’d find cattle would be outside of the town centre, like in the paddocks surrounding the abbatoirs, which is 3.8km south east, as the crow flies.

The Event:

This particular night, my friend Nick was having a party. Nick lived quite close to the abbatoirs, only a few hundred metres away on the same road. My other good friend, Matt, had caught the bus home with me, and after spending half an hour so at my house having some food and getting ready, we headed out on foot to Nick’s sometime in the afternoon, probably around 5pm, considering my school bus got back into town from high school at about 4:30. So it was still definitely day time.

Given the road to Nick’s headed back into town, and wrapped around it before heading back towards his house, it was quicker for us to cut through the {haunted} bush as it shaved off a couple of kilometers of walking. After the bush, you’d pop out at the fenceline of a farm owned by the minimum security prison – not exactly something they really approved of if they caught people wandering around it, but I knew a spot where the fence was broken enough to make easy access.

After 100m or so you come to another boundary fence line of the cemetery where my brother was buried. I had this ritual where I’d sit and talk to him for a little while, then kiss my two fingers and rub them on his cross, as a way to say “see you”. We then walked down the road, past his friend Phil’s house, to Nicks which was only a few house past Phil’s.

So anyways, the party kicked off and it got dark.

I had some alcohol that night but not enough to get anything beyond super talkative. It was during the period where I was starting to not find enjoyment in drinking too heavily, and had found what it meant to drink conservatively.

My memories of conversations with people at the party and other very specific details, even to this day, suggest that this was definitely the case. If not, I wouldn’t remember these details. Just trust me on that. I remember it was getting late and I decided to head home as I couldn’t be bothered staying at Nick’s with the inevitable lack of sleeping equipment.

It was a cold night, and I’d done my fair share of using piles of shoes and dog’s beds as matresses. Another testament to my sobriety – when you are drunk these things are not too much of a problem, but when sober they seem quite unappealing for bedding material for some strange reason. Actually, I was quite sober when I slept on a pile of shoes, but that is a story for another time.

So I was looking for Matt to tell him I was planning on heading home. It was somewhere on the other side of midnight, maybe even heading into the early hours of the morning – 1 or 2 am. Something like that. I wanted to try and get home and into bed before the 3am dip in temperature came about, because I wasn’t one for bringing jackets or long pants to these kinds of shindigs. I was kitted out in a standard T shirt and some shorts and my sensitive bits were in danger of inverting due to the cold. Eventually I found Matt and he told me to head off without him as he was having a good conversation with a girl he fancied. He planned on staying at Nicks. Cue MWI slide here.

This is where the memory distortion comes into play, that I don’t think can be completely contributed to my alcohol consumption (as my brother in law tried to suggest) given that I was very definitely sober when I left. I will tell you I was completely alone, on account of Matt wanting to chat up the girl he was talking to. In fact, I remember very specifically I was alone as I headed down the road and back toward the abbatoirs. It was pitch black and I couldn’t see five feet in front of me, which eventuated in me walking into one of the shoulders, slipping on the gravel and scraping my knee on the road.

So I was about half way along the paddock next to Phil’s house (still on the road). We don’t get snow here, so it probably wasn’t exactly life threatening, but being nothing but shorts and T shirt, the cold was really biting at me. It was dead silent too; that really eerily unnerving kind of silence. All of a sudden I heard this sound I figure was about 25 to 50m into that paddock that was RIGHT FUCKING NEXT TO ME.

It was so odd, in that it sounded like a bunch of dangling chains hanging from a fair height, followed by a very mechanical conveyor belt starting up, followed by a cow mooing which melded into a horrible shriek as something cut its head off, followed what sounded like a gushing of A LOT OF FUCKING WATER. Like, more water (or blood) than a cow’s body could hold.

And then, just like that, it all stopped.

Back to nothing but total silence. Neither even the flicker of flame from a candle light to illuminate the area. It all happened in the middle of a field in total darkness. And make no mistake about it, this was quite definitely a cow being brutally murdered by a mechanical machine of some sort.

I am going to be honest, whatever it was, it scared the absolute fucking shit out of me.

I was a stone’s throw away from something out of a Stephen King novel.

After my trip in the ditch I had been walking quite carefully and slowly making sure I had a firm footing so I didn’t trip up again, but upon hearing this, I just fucking bolted into darkness without even thinking about it. There could have been a tree in front of me for all I knew and I would have hit it at full sprint it was that dark.

Holding my arm out, I couldn’t even see it.

There was no moon either, which made it even worse. The question of doubling back to Nick’s or even Phil’s didn’t was a no go, because it meant crossing back past the noise, something I was very definitely not going to do. The only other option was to head towards the cemetery and try and get home. Yeah I know, real horror story kind of shit.

So off I went, back through the cemetery and the prison farm until I eventually made it home unscathed (I think).

The whole way home I tried rationalising what the fuck it was I had just heard, telling myself it was just a late night butchering at the abbatoirs. Only problem with that though was that the abbatoirs had stopped butchering cows several years prior to focus on pigs; they were now called Linley Valley Pork to allude to this fact.

And 1 – 2 in the morning seemed a bit off their usual 9 – 5pm schedule. Not to mention it being an occupational health and safety violation doing it in total darkness. What got me was those damned chains. These sounded like they were hanging from a good height and were a good length. And the conveyor belt….this would have had to have been some big machinery to cart out into the middle of a field, then there is the question of the instant start up; there simply was no hint at a generator or diesel engine you’d expect would be needed for such a piece of machinery.

The whole thing took maybe 5 seconds, which obviously is a lot less than you’d need to start up and shut something with one of these engines down.

If this was some kind of late night cow heist, as my mother in law suggested, it was incredibly daring, dangerous and using some advanced equipment. It’s not like a cow is easy killing even in full day light with a taser to knock it out, let alone in the middle of a field in total darkness. And yeah my brother in law (not SD’s brother, my sister’s boyfriend) worked at this abbatoirs so I have a good idea of what killing a cow to slaughterhouse protocol involves; he went through the whole process with me a number of times.

So I had this strange thing happen, and, figuring I was alone, I didn’t mention it to anybody. Being so close to the abbatoirs (if you call over 600m away close), I just knew people would misconstrue it, say I was drunk (like my brother in law did) and that it was probably just them doing a late night kill. Plus I had no proof of my claims.

Added to that, I genuinely didn’t like talking about it. It was the creepiest shit that had ever happened to me. I kind of put it out of my mind for a few years, until Matt came over one day to catch up. This was long after I had met and married SD and we were living together in the house where I had my first Elder Guardians contact experience. I think this was a few months before that.

Matt was sitting on the couch and out of nowhere says “hey remember that fucked up noise that sounded like a cow getting slaughtered we heard that night coming home from Nick’s?”

It turns out Matt was very definitely with me when it happened, even though I have a very specific memory of him staying at Nick’s and me leaving without him. Apparently he changed his mind soon after and caught me just as I was leaving. Interesting considering I didn’t tell anyone because I knew I had no proof.

And just when you thought this story couldn’t get any more weird and creepy, SD, told us she had heard the exact same thing one night at the gravel oval where Roger’s dad had seen the UFO cluster. We had obviously talked about it a little bit between us, but to Matt this was new news.

SD’s story:

It was a full moon(suggesting it was a completely different night) and was late evening, on the cusp of getting dark, probably around 7pm. Her and Roger decided to go for a walk around town to have a look at the moon.

They thought they were gone for about half an hour, an hour at most, but when they got back, Roger’s dad, sitting out on his porch having his nightly puff, remarked that they had been gone a long time.

Confused, SD said “no, we have only been gone an hour”. Roger’s dad said, “nope, you’ve been gone hours. It’s almost midnight.”

Confused, SD stood there trying to figure out the where the missing time had gone while Roger talked to his dad. They were out there about 15 minutes, when they heard the same noise – according to SD it was the exact same dangling of chains, followed by a conveyor belt starting up, followed by a cow getting slaughtered and a rushing of a large body of water or liquid – coming from where she guessed was the gravel oval (less than 100m away from Roger’s house where his dad had seen those dancing lights).

Errgh this is getting messy, when you consider the obvious dream bond we have together.

What the fuck did we witness?

This is curious because not only is it over 2.5km, as the crow flies, from the gravel oval to where I was when I heard it, but, like I said, there are not many cows around this part of town.

Surely if something was poaching people’s stock, you would have heard about it in such a small town. This was the type of town where one’s dirty laundry was everyone else’s. But, I guess if it was a weird enough situation, it could have intentionally slipped mind when hitting up the local gossip network. I am curious though, if anyone in these areas did have any missing or butchered cattle to report, I’d definitely like to know about it.

Some notes:

The abbatoirs stopped killing cows for quite a number of years before this event even happened. I remember there was a big front page article about it all over the local newspaper.

Given rumours that the abbatoirs was trying to buy out people in the area, one could argue it was a ploy by them to freak the house owners into selling, but then, this doesn’t explain why SD heard it on the other side of town where the abbatoirs would have no claim.

My experience would have taken place somewhere between 400 to 500m away from the main butchering facility of said abbatoirs, in vacant land that was insulated from abbatoirs owned land by several houses. There is no reason for an abbatoirs to be carrying out killings this far away from its building where all the equipment to do a proper job is all set up, or 3km away if you go by SD’s account, or even at this time of night. If it was a cow heist, this was an incredibly stupid part of town to do it from, when you could go further out and nab one from a much larger field further away from houses.

My auntie (who lived in a granny flat next to my grandmother on the same block as my dad’s house) also held a supervisor position at these abbatoirs for a number of years including when I had this experience and sometime afterwards. Both her and my brother in law agree the time of night and way the killing I heard was carried out without light was very far out of the safety protocols of abbatoirs.

From what I know about killing an animal that size, doing it in total darkness through cutting it’s throat is practically suicide. You’d have to be pretty desperate, or on some serious drugs, to even try it. None of it makes any sense, and honestly I think the suggestion it was a heist is quite a lame one, for reasons mentioned above.

Either way you look at it, there is something very strange going on, in a town that seems to have a knack for paranormal shit happening in it. Admittedly I didn’t really come past all that much after Nick’s party. I ended up moving town a year or so later, and didn’t come back for a number of years. All I know is that I have memories of this event that deviate from those of Matt, and both SD and Roger had missing time when they heard their version of it

SD suggested that maybe what we heard was really a carry over hearing event from an abduction; that maybe we all got abducted, something happened on the ship, then we were mind wiped and what we heard was like an echo of when they swapped us into this timeline. I don’t know, but given I have broken memories of other abductions with my class mates, I can’t rule this out altogether. It certainly explains SD’s and Roger’s missing time. As for me, I don’t recall having any missing time, but considering the fact that I was out in the middle of nowhere in total darkness – which was somewhat disorientating as it was – and that when I finally got home, the last thing on my mind was to check the time, it is a possibility I can’t ignore.

There is also the fact I have no memory of Matt being with me, even though he proved he was (he mentioned it before I had brought it up, which is what surprised the shit out of me). I do have this memory of being sort of frozen in place for a few seconds after it happened, but I figured this was just out of the sudden startling nature of the whole thing. Maybe that was when “they” put me back? Who knows?

This town also has a knack for serial arsonists to light he bush surrounding it on fire. When I was 7 I had to evacuate to my other grandma’s place because a fire was raging through town.

During that fire, a firefighter went out and lit another fire down the road. Our neighbours house ended up burning down; I went over there the next day with my dad and my brother (my dad was in the fire brigade) and all that was left was a fridge in the middle of burnt out rubble.

Only this year another arsonist who was part of the same bush fire brigade went around lighting fires IN THE EXACT SAME AREA as the first guy.

And if that isn’t enough coincidence for you, yet another big fire happened last year in the same area I heard the cattle mutilation which burnt down something like 50 houses. This was caused by a guy using an angle grinder in in the middle of 40 degree C summer on dry, dead grass.

I always joke that the aliens must have a stupidity amplifier in operation in town, though SD has had lucid dreams which suggest there is in fact some kind of shrouding equipment connected to the amnesia devices that is located here.

Any information the Domain can provide on this town and what is going on there would be appreciated.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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The calm period before all Hell breaks loose (with a 1980s tribute)

Lately I have been playing around with the You-Tube platform. I have added a few videos and am busy learning video editing and production. I have up loaded three videos so far, and I am learning so much by my myrid of mistakes. Hopefully, I will be able to provide MM readership with a steady flow of videos to suppliment the writings herein. Well. That’s my goal anyways.

We are in a “funny time”. The main stream American media (along wiht the Western media) are still playing the nonsense, but you know… the “worm has turned“. Ah. It’s all different now. The East is now going to rule, while the West slowly fades into the background.

Oh, don’t misunderstand, it’s still a dangerous time, but the verdict is in. A new world order is emerging out of the old, and there’s very few things that the old order can do to change things.

Here, we will continue on the collection of narratives as we document this great period of change, but keep in mind (as dangerous as this time actually is) the future is a foregone conclusion. The only issue at this time is the death count, and the speed at which the collapse of the West will occur.

Escobar: Meet The New, Resource-Based Global Reserve Currency

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

A new reality is being formed:

the unipolar world is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past,

a multipolar one is taking shape.

It was something to behold. Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian President, unrepentant Atlanticist, current deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, decided to go totally unplugged in an outburst matching the combat star turn of Mr. Khinzal that delivered palpable shock and awe all across NATOstan.

Medvedev said “hellish” Western sanctions not only have failed to cripple Russia, but are instead “returning to the West like a boomerang.” Confidence in reserve currencies is “fading like the morning mist”, and ditching the US dollar and the euro is not unrealistic anymore: “The era of regional currencies is coming.”

After all, he added, “no matter if they want it or not, they’ll have to negotiate a new financial order (…) And the decisive voice will then be with those countries that have a strong and advanced economy, healthy public finances and a reliable monetary system.”

Medvedev relayed his succinct analysis even before D Day – as in the deadline this Thursday established by President Putin after which payments for Russian gas by “unfriendly nations” will only be accepted in rubles.

The G7, predictably, had struck a (collective) pose: we won’t pay. “We” means the 4 that are not large Russian gas importers. “We”, moreover, means the Empire of Lies dictating the rules. As for the 3 that will be in dire straits, not only they are major importers but also happen to be WWII losers – Germany, Italy and Japan, still de facto occupied territories. History does have a habit of playing perverted tricks.

Denial didn’t last long. Germany was the first to break – even before industrialists from Ruhr to Bavaria staged a mass revolt. Scholz, the puny Chancellor, called Putin, who had to explain the obvious: payments are being converted into rubles because the EU froze Russia’s foreign exchange reserves – in a crass violation of international law.

With Taoist patience, Putin also expressed hope this would not represent a deterioration in contract terms for European importers. Russian and German experts should sit down together and discuss the new terms.

Moscow is working on a set of documents defining the new deal. Essentially, that spells out no rubles, no gas. Contracts become null and void once you violate trust. The US and the EU broke legally biding agreements with unilateral sanctions and on top of it confiscated foreign reserves of a – nuclear – G20 nation.

The unilateral sanctions made dollars and euros worthless to Russia. Hysteria fits won’t cut it: this will be resolved – but under Russia’s terms. Period. The Foreign Ministry had already warned that refusal to pay for gas in rubles would lead to a serious global crisis of non-payments and serial global-level bankruptcies, a hellish chain reaction of blocked transactions, freezing of collateral assets and closures of credit lines.

What will happen next is partially predictable. EU companies will receive the new set of rules. They will have time to examine the documents and make a decision. Those that say “no” will be automatically excluded from receiving direct Russian gas shipments – all politico-economic consequences included.

There will be some compromise, of course. For instance, quite a few EU nations will accept to use rubles and increase their gas acquisitions so they may resell the surplus to their neighbors and make a profit. And some may also decide to buy gas on the go on energy exchanges.

So Russia is not imposing an ultimatum on anybody. The whole thing will take time – a rolling process. With some sideway action as well. The Duma is contemplating the extension of payment in rubles to other essential products – such as oil, metals, timber, wheat. It will depend on the collective voracity of the EU chihuahuas. Everyone knows that their non-stop hysteria may translate into a colossal rupture of supply chains across the West.

Bye bye oligarchs

While the Atlanticist ruling classes have gone totally berserk but still remain focused on fighting to the last European to extract any remaining, palpable EU wealth, Russia is playing it cool. Moscow has been quite lenient in fact, brandishing the specter of no gas in Spring rather than Winter.

The Russian Central Bank nationalized foreign exchange earnings of all major exporters. There was no default. The ruble keeps rising – and is now back to roughly the same level before Operation Z. Russia remains self-sufficient, food-wise. American hysteria over “isolated” Russia is laughable. Every actor that matters across Eurasia – not to mention the other 4 BRICS and virtually the whole Global South – did not demonize and/or sanction Russia.

As an extra bonus, arguably the last oligarch capable of influence in Moscow, Anatoly Chubais, is gone. Call it another momentous historical trickery: Western sanction hysteria de facto dismembered Russian oligarchy – Putin’s pet project since 2000. What that implies is the strengthening of the Russian state and the consolidation of Russian society.

We still don’t have all the facts, but a case can be made that after years of careful evaluation Putin opted to really go for broke and break the West’s back – using that trifecta (imminent blitzkrieg on Donbass; US bioweapon labs; Ukraine working on nuclear weapons) as the casus belli.

The freezing of foreign reserves had to have been forecasted, especially because the Russian Central Bank had been increasing its reserves of US Treasuries since November last year. Then there’s the serious possibility of Moscow being able to access “secret” offshore foreign reserves – a complex matrix built with Chinese insider help.

The sudden switch from dollars/euros to rubles was hardcore, Olympic-level geoeconomic judo. Putin enticed the collective West to unleash its demented hysteria sanction attack – and turned it against the opponent with a single, swift move.

And here we all are now trying to absorb so many in-synch game-changing developments following the weaponization of dollar assets: rupee-ruble with India, the Saudi petroyuan, co-badged Mir-UnionPay cards issued by Russian banks, the Russia-Iran SWIFT alternative, the EAEU-China project of an independent monetary/financial system.

Not to mention the master coup by the Russian Central Bank, pegging 1 gram of gold to 5,000 rubles – which is already around $60, and climbing.

Coupled with No Rubles No Gas, what we have here is energy de facto pegged to gold.

The EU Chihuahuas and the Japanese colony will need to buy a lot of rubles in gold or buy a lot of gold to have their gas. And it gets better. Russia may re-peg the ruble to gold in the near future. Could go to 2,000 rubles, 1,000 rubles, even 500 rubles for a gram of gold.

Time to be sovereign

The Holy Grail in the evolving discussions about a multipolar world, since the BRICS summits in the 2000s featuring Putin, Hu Jintao and Lula, has always been how to bypass dollar hegemony. It’s now right in front of the whole Global South, as a benign apparition bearing a Cheshire cat’s smile: the golden ruble, or ruble backed by oil, gas, minerals, commodity exports.

The Russian Central Bank, unlike the Fed, does not practice QE and won’t export toxic inflation to the rest of the planet. The Russian Navy not only secures all Russian sea lines, but Russian nuclear-powered submarines are capable of popping up all over the planet unannounced.

Russia is far, far ahead already implementing the concept of “continental naval power”. December 2015, in the Syrian theater, was the strategic game-changer. The Black Sea-based submarine 4th division is the star of the show.

Russian naval fleets may now employ Kalibr missiles across a space comprehending Eastern Europe, West Asia and Central Asia. The Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, linked by the Don-Volga canal, offer a space of maneuver comparable to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf combined. 6,000 km-long. And you don’t even need to access warm waters.

That covers around 30 nations: the traditional Russian sphere of influence; historical borders of the Russian empire; and current political/energy rivalry spheres.

No wonder the Beltway is berserk.

Russia guarantees shipping across Asia, the Arctic and Europe, in tandem with the Eurasia-wide BRI railway network.

And last but not least, don’t mess with a Nuclear Bear.

Essentially, this is what hardcore power politics is all about. Medvedev was not bragging when he said the era of a single reserve currency is over. The advent of a resource-based global reserve currency means, in a nutshell, that 13% of the planet will not dominate the other 87% anymore.

It’s NATOstan vs. Eurasia redux. Cold War 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and even 5.0. It doesn’t matter. All the previous Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations see which way the geopolitical and geo-economic winds are blowing: the time to assert their real sovereignty is at hand as the “rules-based international order” bites the dust.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in China, after meeting several counterparts from across Eurasia, could not have outlined it better:

“A new reality is being formed: the unipolar world is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past, a multipolar one is taking shape. It’s an objective process. It’s unstoppable. In this reality, more than one power will “rule” – it will be necessary to negotiate between all the key states that today have a decisive influence on the world economy and politics. At the same time, realizing their special situation, these countries ensure compliance with the basic principles of the UN Charter, including the fundamental one – the sovereign equality of states. No one on this Earth should be seen as a minor player. Everyone is equal and sovereign.”

Welcome to the birth of the new world system.

Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels (Official Music Video)

Ok. So I’m out of MAJestic on my own and waiting to be called in for “training”. At this time, we (my first wife and I) were living in the nice seaside community of San Louis Obispo in California. It was the middle to late 1980’s. We were living in a broken down van stuck in the end of a church parking lot, and I was working two jobs as a breakfast cook and janitor.

It was at that time that MAJestic tracked me down and called me into the base with work. But before that happened, we were living hand to mouth at the poverty level.

It was a special time. It was Spring and we lived in a “college town”, and the music of that time was unique. One of the songs of that time was “Head over Heels” by Tears for Fears. Here’s the MV of it. Please enjoy my flashback to the past.

What do you think of this flash back in time?

Goldman Sachs warns the dollar is at risk of losing its dominance, and could end up a lesser player like the UK pound

Goldman Sachs has said the US dollar faces a number of risks, and could become a lesser currency like the UK pound.
The US’ tough sanctions on Russia have raised concerns that countries around the world could try to move away from the dollar.
Goldman said the US’ foreign debts mean that foreign investors may become reluctant to hold dollar assets.

Here 1
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Here 2

Do you think that it is too late?

Simple Minds – Alive And Kicking (Live)

This is another one of thes songs of that particular period in time. Fast forward two years later, maybe three, and I am out of MAJestic and I am off trying to start yet again anew. Sheech! And this is the song that is playing all over the radio 24-7…

Homemade Biscuits and Gravy

This recipe will take your taste buds down South, to where good old-fashioned recipes are still king. Our Homemade Biscuits and Gravy recipe is full of so much down-home goodness, you’ll want to eat these homemade biscuits at breakfast AND dinner, which is perfectly all right by us!

What You’ll Need

2 cups pancake and baking mix
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, melted, plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 (16-ounce) package hot pork sausage
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

What to Do

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, stir baking mix, buttermilk, and the 1/2 stick melted butter until soft dough forms. Drop 8 equal spoonfuls of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 14 to 16 minutes, or until golden brown.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt remaining butter; cook 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, or until browned. Add sausage and cook 6 to 8 minutes, or until no pink remains, stirring to crumble sausage. Add flour; mix well. Add Worcestershire sauce, milk, salt, and pepper; mix well. Cook 2 to 4 minutes, or until gravy thickens, stirring constantly.
Cut biscuits in half and spoon sausage mixture evenly on bottom halves. Replace tops and serve.

The captured General in Ukraine is being rewritten

From an influencer, the background wikipedia on the captured American Major General Roger L. Cloutier, that I wrote about HERE, is being rewritten as we speak. Poof! New numbers. New dates. New backgrounds.

White board. That’s what the internet is today. A big white board.

Grow Alum Crystals That Resemble Simulated Diamonds

Alum is found in the spices section of the grocery store. That little jar contains small white crystals that, with a bit of time and effort, grow a big alum crystal that looks a bit like a diamond. It only takes about an hour to grow small alum crystals, but getting a big crystals takes days to weeks.

All you need to grow alum crystals are alum, hot water, and a container. Choose a clear container so you can watch the crystals grow. While not strictly necessary, it helps having a way to tie and suspend a crystal in the liquid. This helps it keep an ideal shape. A coffee filter or paper towel keeps dust out of your project, while still allowing good air circulation.

1/2 cups hot tap water
2-1/2 tablespoons alum
nylon fishing line
pencil, ruler, or knife
2 clean jars
spoon
coffee filter/paper towel

There are actually a few different kinds of alum. The edible one in the grocery store is potassium alum. It grows clear crystals. Other types of alum include sodium, ammonium, selenium, and chrome alum. Chrome alum grows deep purple crystals. If you have access to the other chemicals, feel free to combine them to see what colors you get. But, check the labels for safety information. Some types of alum are non-toxic, but others are irritants and not edible.

Grow the Crystals

1. Pour 1/2 cup of hot tap water into a clean jar.
2. Slowly stir in alum, a little at a time, until it stops dissolving. Don’t add the whole amount; just enough to saturate the water.
3. Loosely cover the jar with a coffee filter or paper towel (to keep dust out) and allow the jar to sit undisturbed overnight.
4. The next day, pour the alum solution from the first jar into the clean jar. You will see small alum crystals at the bottom of the jar. These are ‘seed’ crystals that you will use to grow a big crystal.
5. Tie nylon fishing line around the largest, best-shaped crystal. Tie the other end to a flat object (e.g., popsicle stick, ruler, pencil, butter knife). You will hang the seed crystal by this flat object into the jar far enough so that it will be covered in liquid, but won’t touch the bottom or sides of the jar. It may take a few tries to get the length just right.
6. When you have the right string length, hang the seed crystal in the jar with the alum solution. Cover it with the coffee filter and grow a crystal!

Grow your crystal until you are satisfied with its size. If you see crystals starting to grow on the sides or bottom of your jar, carefully remove your crystal, pour the liquid into the clean jar, and put the crystal in the new jar. Other crystals in the jar will compete with your crystal for alum, so it won’t be able to get as big if you let these crystals grow.

Solving Common Problems

The most common problem people experience growing alum crystals is that crystals not growing. If you don’t see crystal growth within a day or two, there isn’t enough alum in the liquid. Gently heat the liquid over a stove or in the microwave and try adding more alum powder. Crystals only grow if the solution is saturated. This is the point where no more solid dissolves.

Crystal Growing Tips

You can use sewing thread or other string instead of nylon fishing line, but crystals will grow on the entire length of the submerged string. Crystals don’t adhere to nylon, so if you use it, you can get bigger and better crystals.
Alum is an ingredient used to make pickles. It makes them crispy.
Don’t worry if you don’t want to bother with the string! Crystals grow just fine on the bottom of the container. Use a spoon to scrape crystals away from each other so they won’t grow together. The shape of crystals growing on a flat surface differs from the shapes that form when crystals are suspended.

From Hal Turner

I happen to be in the morbidity business; I'm the CEO of a large insurance group... Based on what it is we are seeing, the rates right now are excess mortality of 84% and excess of every kind of disease at 1100%. 

We are expecting a 5000% or so increase in excess mortality for this year (2022). 

An enormous number. 

I don't think that it's by coincidence, by the way, that Moderna has now just received licensure of their emergency use authorization HIV vaccine. So they gave everybody AIDS, and here's your salvation, another vaccine."  

-- Attorney Todd Callender

The video below is Attorney Todd Callender, whose comments are shown above.

When he says “So they gave everybody AIDS . . . ” he’s talking about the mRNA injections given out under the guise of COVID-19.

Quick investigation of the Preliminary USA mortality data for 2021 from the CDC reveals:

Total deaths – 3,447,405
Expected deaths – 2,948,273
Excess deaths – 499,132

0% increase = 1X, 100% increase = 2X, 200% increase = 3X, etc. 5000% increase = 51X.

499,132 X 51 = 25,455,732 excess deaths. That is what Attorney Todd Callendar indicates the USA could see !

Add to that the 2.95 million expected deaths, and the result is:

28,405,732 total deaths for 2022.

At this rate all the injected will be gone by 2025, just as was forecasted by the population reduction charts posted on the Deagel web site for many years.

Deagel.com last original 2025 population forecast (before scrubbing it all) for Germany was 28 million. For the USA, the chart that was “scrubbed” is shown below:

About one third of Germanys population remain unvaxxed. Today’s population is 83 million, so Deagel’s report may be quite accurate.

So the DoD guy who ran the Deagel website † 2021 knew about this “plandemic” since 2015? CIA connections huh?

Deagle has always had the forecast at the year 2025. The numbers may have fluctuated but the date never did.

Qualudes again

Well, is he right? Or is he fear-mongering? It’s hard to say. I am not a doctor, but I can read tables. I guess we will have to wait and see.

In the meantime, let’s go back to 1976. This song topped the Country and Western chart at that time. It’s about a hyptnomic sedative that was very popular at that time for recreational use. Known as the Qualude. I can tell you first hand, that it was an awesome drug.

It made you so very relaxed, but at the same time, so very lively. You just wanted to dance and have a great time. Don’t drive though. You are not safe behind the wheel of anything.

It was banned in the United States.

Pakastan thwarted a United States coup

Pakistan just narrowly thwarted the US’ regime change campaign against Prime Minister Imran Khan that was launched against him as punishment for his independent foreign policy.
.
“Imran Khan claimed that Donald Lu warned the Pakistani envoy to the US, Asad Majeed, that there would be implications if the Pakistan PM survived the no-trust vote in the National Assembly.
PM Khan said that the no-confidence motion against him was a “foreign conspiracy” and he thanked Allah that it failed.”
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Why invest in diplomacy or in projects like BRI ? The return of investment is way way higher if Uncle Sam just perform regime change here and there and if successful, the interests of US will be taken care of by the puppet gov’t in place.

The Nations on Russia’s “Unfriendly List”

Voyage to the bottom of the sea: Terror

A fine throw-back to 1960s television fare. It’s well worth at least a ten minute watch. I lvoe the acting, the costumes, and the premise of a B-grade science fiction movie. Great for laughs.

Doomsday ‘Preppers’ Warn Of Hard Times Ahead As Preparedness Goes Mainstream

Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Food scarcity. Food vouchers. Food riots and flash mobs.

All of that’s coming – and soon, says Texas-based food scientist and “Health Ranger” podcaster Mike Adams, who sees dire events unfolding in America in the short term.

Texas-based food scientist Mike Adams, known online as the “Health Ranger,” sees food shortages and heightened security later in 2022. (Courtesy of Mike Adams)
.

His advice: people need to get prepared now.

“The thing to really watch for is the food inflation,” Adams said.

“My position is we’re going to see food riots in America before the end of this year. We’re going to see flash mobs in grocery stores—especially for meat products.

“Grocery stores are going to respond with increased security and checkpoints. At some point, we’re probably going to see an attempt at price controls and rationing.

“And not on everything—certain types of things. It’s almost certain that the rationing they will attempt to enforce with a vaccine passport app that becomes a food rationing app,” Adams told The Epoch Times.

Adams is not alone in his predictions of hard times coming to America—and the world.

With food production buckling under the weight of runaway inflation, skyrocketing fuel costs, and fertilizer shortages, much of what’s in store is already “built-in.”

What Do You Want From Life?

The tubes was a group that was hitting the audiences when I was graduating out of university. They probably had one hell of a stage show. I don’t actually know, as I never watched them perform. However their album was a real hoot. As this particular song clearly indicates.

Unfertile Ground

In North America two years ago, it cost around $200 an acre to fertilize a 1,000-acre commercial farm, Adams said. Right now, with spring planting, farmers can expect to pay $1,200 to $2,000 an acre.

And consumers will pay for it in higher prices for basic necessities.

“Many farmers are deciding not to plant. In addition, the diesel fuel prices and diesel fuel scarcity is going into their equation whether they should plant,” Adams said.

The upshot, he said, is that fewer farmers are planting, which means less food to go around.

As a food scientist Adams is a big proponent of clean, organically grown food free of heavy metals, which he makes available through the online sale of “Ranger Buckets.” The demand for his products has seen extremely high since the COVID-19 lockdown began in 2020.

Adams said it takes on average six to eight weeks to produce 2,000 buckets, which typically sell out within 30 minutes to three hours.

Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the demand for survival food in the United States has been on the increase among a number of national suppliers.

“The supply chain in the United States continues to crumble. More Americans are realizing it takes four trips to different home improvement stores for parts to make home repairs, instead of all their needs being in one store,” said Lori Hunt at Practical Preppers in South Carolina.

“That is making folks realize this extends to everything: food, books, solar equipment—and considering Ukraine is a source for critical raw materials in the solar industry, this is going to get much worse in the coming months,” she told The Epoch Times.

“Many of our customers are moving toward energy independence, and this is making a greater demand and diminishing supply situation. We are urging our customers to be prepared for a 2–4 month wait to amass all parts needed for their systems. Many installers around the United States are telling us they are experiencing the same.”

Byron Walker, Founder and CEO of Survival Frog in Denver, told the Epoch Times, “We have struggled with supply chain issues and things only appear to be getting worse.”

Allied Marketing Research (AMR) reported that the global incident and emergency market, valued at $75.5 billion in 2017, is projected to reach $423 billion by 2025.

“Factors such as rise in need for safety and security solutions, owing to increase in natural calamities and terrorist attacks, implementation of regulatory policies for public safety, and the necessity for emergency preparedness drive the growth of the global incident and emergency management market,” AMR said on its website.

“In addition, the surge in smart cities is expected to drive the adoption of intelligent evacuation systems and surveillance systems, thereby fueling the incident and emergency management market growth.”

Miami Vice – IN THE AIR TONIGHT | Tribute Video

If you lived though the 1980s then you would really appreciate the television show “Miami Vice”. It defined cool. It was a mix of rock music, detective action, drugs, and fashion. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, was hooked on this show. In this this clip here, you will see so many famous actors when they were young and not yet famous. In hindsight, it’s all pretty silly. But, the video is great and well worth the three minutes to watch.

Price Hikes ‘Here to Stay’

In recent weeks YouTube survival “preppers” such as City Prepping and Alaska Prepper have been sounding the alarm that hard times are just ahead.

Matt the “Magic Prepper,” in North Dakota, said being prepared continues to go mainstream as a “financial and scarcity genre” in view of current global events.

“With food production issues, supply chain problems, a slow economic recovery from the pandemic, and the cascading effects of an overseas conflict, it seems rather clear that shortages, disruptions, and price hikes are here to stay,” Matt told The Epoch Times.

He said the situation in Ukraine has revived interest in preparedness in case of a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack.

“With the conflict creating volatile rhetoric from multiple global superpowers, we find ourselves closer to such an event than any point in recent history,” Matt said. “I operate under the assumption that there is and will likely always be more time to prepare.”

Still, the state of being prepared is “exponentially limited” by the length of time it takes to get prepared, and other factors, he said.

“Every dollar spent today is worth less in value toward preparations than a dollar you would have spent three years ago. Therefore, by waiting to begin, you’ll inherently be able to prepare less and less.

YouTube’s Matt the “Magic Prepper” in North Dakota says it’s not too late to begin preparing for difficult economic times ahead. (Courtesy of Matt the “Magic Prepper”)
.

“This is most obviously apparent when you relate it to items such as ammunition. Stocking up on it now provides you with anywhere from 50 percent [to] 75 percent less ammunition for the same amount spent on it three years ago.

“Even if we find ourselves in the midst of a full-on economic collapse or hot conflict, training and learning skills will likely still be accessible,” he said.

Preparedness also requires the ability to network and communication, having supplies in sufficient quantity, a “hardened” location, and knowledge on how to survive an economic collapse.

“I have suggested to keep moving forward regardless of the events unfolding currently. If things finally fall apart to the point of relying on our preparedness efforts, we will have prepared as best as we could up to that point.

“I am making phone calls, appointments, and plans every day to try and enhance my own personal preparedness,” Matt said.

Given the economic protectionism of halting food exports from countries like Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, the world supply of grain is going to be severely limited, Adams said.

This, he said, will result in the “most extreme food shortages we’ve seen in our lifetime.”

Better Now Than Never

“It will begin about August and continue until the end of the year. A lot of this depends on [President Joe] Biden’s economic decisions on whether he allows U.S. oil companies to finish pipelines and do more drilling. If he does not we are going to see even more shortages throughout 2023.”

Out of chaos, however, Adams foresees a reawakening of freedom and self-reliance in the way we grow and produce food.

“I think this is a red pill moment for the people of the world that they need to be more self-reliant. We need decentralization of food production. I’m a big proponent of decentralization—food grown locally.”

The bad news is that only about 5 percent of people in the United State are prepared. But “the more people prepare, the less they panic when shortages appear,” Adams said.

Star Trek – Missile Alert

And here’s a nice brief section of a 1960s Star Trek show. It’s also a fun watch. Just enjoy the five minute vision of the past.

Its about “Gary 7” and his cat.

Rick Wakeman Journey to the Centre of the Earth Full Album 1974 YouTube

Oh my teenage years. This album brought my father and me together musically. He loved it due ot the classical influences, and I loved it for the blend of rock music. Not to mention the great story line.

Simple Minds – Someone Somewhere In Summertime

Another glimpse to my early years right out from the Navy after MAJestic implantation. Enjoy this look back in time.

Conclusion

Yah. It’s a funny time. Don’t get too worked up with and about it. Things are unfolding to the plans set forth. To us “peons” it seems like everything is going to shit, but if you step back, and look at the big picture, just maybe… just MAYBE the West won’t be able to turn the world into an inferno if these various indicators play out as they appear to.

Hold on but not too tightly.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

The United States is tipping at the edge of a cliff. It’s fall will be soon, sudden, and absolute.

The United States is poised to hit the most horrific economic collapse in history. It will be stunning and absolute. This video discusses that reality. Buckle up.

This guy, Gonzalo Lira has laid it all out.

All of it. From the educational system, to society, to economic, Geo-political, economic, in very easy and clear terms. It’s easy to understand. It makes sense, and it’s probably the best description ever as to the horror that is unfolding before our very eyes today.

MM agrees 100% with his assessment.

Outstanding video.

The Video

Found on You-Tube.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

American general captured in Ukraine leading Nazi’s along with the influences of Robin Trower, pretty girls and chicken fried steak

Lots of stuff going on. Generally, the world feels strange. Like it’s the “calm before the storm”, or that there is some kind of huge under-current going on that we all can feel, but cannot vocalize. Yeah. In all of this unusualness, I am throwing out some articles, thoughts, impressions and stuff that should assist one in treading water during this great period of geopolitical upheaval.

US General

The big news is the capture of an American army general leading the Nazi Asov batallion in Ukraine. Obviously this nation was a NATO outpost in all ways and forms except “official”. We will cover this and the implications that it has for everyone later on in the body of this article.

Music, Girls, China, and other stuff

I mix up content in these articles. If I do not, then the articles and the venure is flagged for interruption, shadow banning, and other internet manipulations. Tired of trolls, add some food-related content to your articles. Watch them flee!

Trolls thwarted by content mixing

I will continue to proceed tracing the changes along with a mish-mash of other subjects. Why you might ask. Well, guys, I can positively affirm that I have 100% success in throwing off the trolls and DDOS attacks, and ‘bots since I have incorporated this methodology.

It breaks apart whatever system is in place. Whether it is a computer algorithm that matches trolls with targets, or whether it just the simple minds of trolls, is unknown. All I know is that it works. And that is just hunky-dory for me.

I hope you enjoy this article. Have fun.

Why US’ ‘sanctions threat’ to India is counter-productive on the China front

Not just against Russia, but it’s China as well. It’s not in India’s best interests.

India says no!
.

Half scale models

Large scale models are simply diabolical. Models of any scale can play with your imagination, but you always know what’s real and what’s fake. When that train, plane, or car model is, say, 14 inches long–normal scale model size, more or less–your mind quickly adapts to the concept because it knows this is a model. And your mind deposits what you’re seeing into its familiar, convenient file folder called “scale models.”

But when the scale is large, your cognition wavers on the real vs. fake question. When your logical mind and eye look at a 1:2 (or 1/2, half) scale model, it will register the model as fake–but not as rapidly as with smaller scale models. It takes a second, and in that second your mind falls into an uncanny valley of questioning.

Half scale models of large objects like tanks, trucks, and cars are not common, as Fred Heim himself admits. Full scale (1:1) is common, but only with small items like guns.

Check this out…

Fred Heim Scale Model

This half-scale Peterbilt truck was Fred Heim’s first large scale model. Frame is aluminum, sides are powder coated mahogany. Since half-sized truck parts are in short supply (as in: non-existent), Heim had to make practically everything by scratch.

Without Heim and the garage acting as measuring devices, this Peterbilt could easily be mistaken for the real thing.

Pretty Chinese girl

Robust with an EMORMOUS and inviting smile. (I tell you over and over. It’s your SMILE that opens up opportunities for you.) What’s not to love? And her outfit is nice, eh? video 5MB

Sanctions against Russia hit a brick wall

A country with huge natural resources and agriculture sector with the military ability to deter the temptation of the United States preemptive strike will be the last man stand in this NATO expansionism saga.

Putin should have realised by now his power to sanction the west is more powerful than western ability to sanction his country.

2022 will be remembered as a historic turning point of the United States losing their notorious sanction power against Russia, and suffered greatly from their victim (Russia) counter sanction policy.

Article.

Meanwhile in Mongolia

Yes. Mongolia is a very nice, if cold area. Nice people, and a beautiful landscape. video 5MB

Meet Nancy Kovack, Forgotten Siren of the Sixties

Nancy Kovack is long retired, no need to act anymore, and firmly married to conductor Zubin Mehta. But in her day, she graced both the big screen and the cathode ray screen with her elegantly sleek looks reminiscent of Honor Blackman.

Nancy Kovack is also the one who got away. With big-star quality looks and acting chops, she was destined for greatness. Instead, she chose a different path.

The first the world saw of Nancy Kovack was in 1955, as the 19-year-old Queen of the Romeo Peach Pie Festival, in Michigan. She was tasked with distributing 50 peach pies around the U.S. to various luminaries. One pie that she delivered went to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

After that, Kovack made the usual round of Sixties-era TV shows: Love, American Style, Bewitched, Mannix, I Spy. If a casting director ever needed a beautiful face and a refined look, Kovack led the way in their Rolodex.

To compound matters–and it’s here where the faint-of-heart should clutch their pearls and avert their gaze–Miss Kovack owned a fantastically voluptuous body.

OIP C. Z4gooKZUxC6zCp8tW5hdwAAAA — Nancy Kovack

Directly or indirectly, it’s Mehta we have to blame for taking Nancy off the screen and out of circulation. After her marriage to him in 1969, her filmography drops off to only five or six more credits before disappearing altogether in 1976.

While it seems crazy that Zubie would cheat on Kovack, cheat he did. In 1991, when Mehta was 55 years old (and Kovack about the same age), Mehta fathered a child in Israel.

An article in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency relates the rumor of “a smattering of illegitimate children from various affairs.” Mehta admits to just that one boy.

Now 86, Nancy Kovack-Mehta and her husband Zubin Mehta live in Los Angeles, where he is Conductor Emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

OIP C.BaifpEhATM 4afjY6lOy QHaEc — Nancy Kovack

No choice but to pay in rubber, rmb or gold.

Meanwhile on the geopolitical scene we have the USA sanctioning the entire globe (except for itself and its toadies).

There are few options. Not many choices. German politician warns that boycotting Russian gas could lead to mass poverty.

The right mentality is a win-win mentality. The world should move away from the United States desire to control and make easy money from being a parasites to all none western nations resources, labours, and low end economy (allowed by the crusaders) .

Everybody needs to learn to work hard, study hard and trade with each other from a win win, mutual prosperity economic model.

Life is not that difficult if capitalism with Western characteristics that allow 0.1% to control the livelihood of the 99.9% are destroyed.

Basic human rights such as housing, public transport, water, electricity, Internet, food, Medicare etc should become affordable that ensure every citizen with a job are able to enjoy.

The aging, and young, and the sick and handicap should be taken care of.

Notorious Capitalism with looting DNA is coming to an end.

-A Chinese perspective from <redacted>

Article.

A nice Chinese girl

She’s been making the rounds on Douxing. She’s very popular becuase of her fish-shaped body and nice eyes and smile. video. 6.4MB

The East is going Chinese OS; the West “hunkers down”…

Google continues to sanction, Russia begins to test Harmony system, Huawei HarmonyOS ushered in a good opportunity for development – iNEWS

When a door is shut by the United States, the other door is opened. The United States are in the process of sanctioning the world into self isolation.

More...

Chinese girl with beautiful eyes

They are nice, don’t you think? video 3MB

Springtime as painted by a few unknown Russian Painters

This next one really appeals to me…

And this one … well, you can just smell the fresh spring air…

Robin Trower “Too Rolling Stoned”

Robin Trower is a blues guitarist who came into the public light in the 1970s. He’s still going strong and has many followers.

Trower is 75 and still touring. And still playin' smokin' guitar. One of the greats, and under appreciated. His original bass man James Dewar had such a great voice. Sadly he's gone. You have to check out several of his other tracks. Bridge of Sighs is so good. (Most people have no idea what the song is about.) And of course Day of the Eagle.

-Zabbo Daborba

I (MM, don’t you know) was introduced to him back in 1976 when I smoked a joint of “Thai-stick” in the High School parking lot with a friend. We got high, and my first exposure to Robin Trower was the song “Too Rolling Stoned”. I’ve been a fan ever since.

Honestly, I really don’t listen to him very much these days. As I prefer Chinese pop music, and American Country and Western music. But that’s just me.

Anyways, here’s two You-tube videos of the song “Too Rolling Stoned”.

All the theory in the world doesn’t prevent you from being schooled by one of the great masters... Robin is about the most underrated rock guitarists ever.

-Eddie

The first is the entire song observed by a music critic. He is now a Robin Trower fan. The look on his face, as he jams to the music is priceless.

The second, is a breakdown of his musical style (of the exact same song in a different video clip). Very interesting. You do not need to know the technical details to appreciate what he has to say. This study is done by someone who has never listened to Robin Trower before. Indeed, it seems like Michael has just turned into a fan, and Robin Trower is growing a fan base just by being alive.

Michael, Welcome to the land of Trower. 

I'm 62 years old and a guitar player. I'm self-taught and first picked up the guitar and started teaching myself from cheat books and 45 records when I was around 8 years old. 

my first live performance was 1966/67 in front of my class in 4th grade with two other friends. 

I've played in cover bands all my life. Still do. 

I've covered Trower on and off over the years since the mid-'70s when I first heard him myself. 

I learned his "Day of the Eagle" classic hit from a 33rpm album (Live from Winterland} around 1974/75. Watching and learning from guitarist is just part of my DNA. 

I love watching you and learning, watching you unpack "Too Rolling Stone" from Trower on video was a treat for me, Trower in the wild no less, (Live), this has truly made my day. 

Your expressions in this video at times are priceless. 

You kind of started with a mild approach towards the whole "Trower" thing at the beginning, and I giggled at that. and as you listened and dissected not only the song but his body movements, the Wha Wha approach, then Robin hits what I call his Jazz "Drop dead chords", modulates up a half step, then the typical shifting of gears into "Trower mode" I call it, and drops the tempo of the song to a slow blues groove that he's typically and noted for. 

Such phrasings are his signature style, the look on your face and reaction was better than that first cup of coffee I was drinking for this morning. 

I said out loud with a big belly laugh, "Welcome to the land of Trower teacher". my wife wanted to know who the heck I was talking to. hahha. 

I say all this as someone who has done the same thing while learning Trower songs, only without YouTube video's which are worth their weight in gold themselves. 

Starting and stopping a song on a vinyl record over and over is something you just have had to live through to get. 

Anyway. Thank you for staying with us and continuing in sharing your passion which is also our passion. and for exploring Robin Trower. I hope you look into other great songs of his like: "Day of the Eagle" or Bridge of Sighs". any of his tunes are worthy of time.

- Charles Harshbarger

What do you think of Robin Trowers blues?

Vietnam girls drinking beer during a factory lunch

A common enough scene all over South-East Asia. It’s nice to see people enjoying freedom, instead of that pretend socially-acceptable corporate-system freedom™ that is so prevalent in the West. video 5MB

Why Propaganda is Vital In Upholding The Illusion of a Democracy

Cynthia Chung

“Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and the trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, the wrong the right. In a country where opinion has sway, to seize upon it, is to seize upon power. As it is a rule of humanity that the upright and well-intentioned are comparatively passive, while the designing, dishonest, and selfish are the most untiring in their efforts, the danger of public opinion’s getting a false direction is four-fold, since few men think for themselves.”

-James Fenimore Cooper

Democracy is something that has been completely taken for granted here in the West. There is an ongoing triumph over past laurels, without paying heed to the road we have strayed from.

We criticize others for failing to uphold a standard we consider ourselves the leaders of, but democracy is not something simply “acquired” and subsequently “retained,” it is not a “possession.” This is because a system of democracy is at every moment of its existence defined by the character of its citizenry. Democracy only exists if it is upheld, and if a citizenry fails to do so, it renders itself defenseless to an ever-creeping tyranny.

For such a “creeping tyranny,” control is conditional to whether the citizenry is satisfied with an ever-growing “illusion of democracy.” Such a construct needs to give its subjects the impression that they have “free choice” in what shapes their future and their way of life, including: who will be their “friends” and who will be their “foes.”

And thus, War has always depended on a reliable system to spread its propaganda.

The Arthashastra written by Chankya (350-283 BCE) who was chief advisor to the Emperor Chandragupta (the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire) discusses propaganda and how to disperse and apply it in warfare. It is one of the oldest accounts of the essentialism of propaganda in warfare.

Propaganda is vital in times of war because it is absolutely imperative that the people, who often need to make the greatest sacrifices and suffer the most, believe that such a war is justified.

Security

As such, they will believe that such a war will provide them security. To the degree that they believe this to be true, the greater the degree of sacrifice and suffering they are willing to submit themselves for said “promised security”.

Enemy is not human

It is crucial that when the people look at the “enemy” they see something sub-human, for if they recognise that said “enemy” has in fact humanity, the jig is up so to speak.

And thus we are bombarded day after day, hour after hour of reminders as to why the “enemy” is not human like us, not compassionate like us, not patient, just and wise like us.

No doubt, war has been a necessary response when tyranny has formed an army to fight for its cause, but I would put forth that most wars have been rather unnecessary and downright manipulated for the design of a small group of people.

During WWI, on Dec 25th 1914, something rather unexpected occurred and a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front took place between the French/British soldiers and the German soldiers. Some even ventured into “no man’s land”, given its name since none left it alive, to mingle with the “enemy” and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps. A game of football took place as well. It is said that these truces were not unique to the Christmas period but that they were much more widespread during the holiday season.

These fraternisations would understandably make it quite difficult to return to combat against one another…for no apparently good reason. Some units needed to be relocated since they had developed friendships with the opposing side and now refused to fight them.

The lesson was quickly learned and propaganda was heavily pumped down the throats of the Allied countries, and by the course of just a few years, they no longer viewed the Germans as human.

American infrastructure

This is not one isolated incident. It’s everywhere. The money is being used in wars, and in the wallets of the wealthy. Not on the American citizenry. video 1MB

A beautiful girl in Hong Kong

Beautiful girls are everywhere. I have to tell you that I really like how clean and crisp that this girl looks as she hangs out in Mong Kok. video 5MB

The Battle For Your Mind

“Politicians, Priests, and psychiatrists often face the same problem: how to find the most rapid and permanent means of changing a man’s belief…The problem of the doctor and his nervously ill patient, and that of the religious leader who sets out to gain and hold new converts, has now become the problem of whole groups of nations, who wish not only to confirm certain political beliefs within their boundaries, but to proselytize the outside world.”

– William Sargant “Battle of the Mind”

Mass propaganda is the very reason why in this so-called “age of information”, we are more confused and divided from each other than ever…

It had been commonly thought in the past, and not without basis, that tyranny could only exist on the condition that the people were kept illiterate and ignorant of their oppression. To recognise that one was “oppressed” meant they must first have an idea of what was “freedom”, and if one were allowed the “privilege” to learn how to read, this discovery was inevitable.

If education of the masses could turn the majority of a population literate, it was thought that the higher ideas, the sort of “dangerous ideas” that Mustapha Mond for instance expresses in “The Brave New World”, would quickly organise the masses and revolution against their “controllers” would be inevitable. In other words, knowledge is freedom, and you cannot enslave those who learn how to “think”.

However, it hasn’t exactly played out that way has it?

The greater majority of us are free to read whatever we wish to, in terms of the once “forbidden books”, such as those listed by The Index Librorum Prohibitorum. We can read any of the writings that were banned in “The Brave New World”, notably the works of Shakespeare which were named as absolutely dangerous forms of “knowledge”.

We are now very much free to “educate” ourselves on the very “ideas” that were recognised by tyrants of the past as the “antidote” to a life of slavery. And yet, today, there is a fear of that very thing, that to “know” will label you an outcast from a “healthy” society. That the simple desire to know is the beginning of rebellion.

It is recognised, albeit superficially, that who controls the past, controls the present and thereby the future. George Orwell’s book “1984”, hammers this as the essential feature that allows the Big Brother apparatus to maintain absolute control over fear, perception and loyalty to the Party cause, and yet despite its popularity, there still remains today a lack of interest in actually informing oneself about the past.

What does it matter anyway, if the past is controlled and rewritten to suit the present? As the Big Brother interrogator O’Brien states to Winston, “We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not? [And thus, are free to rewrite it as we choose…]”

Of course, we are not in the same situation as Winston…we are much better off. We can study and learn about the “past” if we so desire, unfortunately, it is a choice that many take for granted. And thus, by our failure to ask the right questions and seek the appropriate answers, we find ourselves increasingly in the unsettling position of a Winston…we are enslaved by the very lack of our own will.

In Orwell’s “1984”, there are three main super states in the world: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia that are in one combination or another constantly at war with each other and have been so for the last 25 years.

In the case of Winston, he has only known Oceania (the British commonwealths and U.S.), he knows essentially nothing of either Eurasia or Eastasia, except that sometimes Oceania is at war with Eurasia and sometimes it is at war with Eastasia. In fact, even this memory, that the enemy is not constant, is not something Winston is supposed to recollect or acknowledge. Just by doing this very thing, he is committing a “thoughtcrime”.

Winston’s experience begs the questions, if one were born into a fascist, totalitarian state would they know it? Of course, the state itself would not describe itself as such. How would you be able to compare your “freedom” with the “oppression” of the enemy, when all you were given was what the state chose to give to you?

How do you know that what has come to shape your convictions, your beliefs, your fears really belong to you, and were not placed there by another?

We are all very sensitive to this unsettling question because ironically, that has also been placed in us. It was what started this whole business of “mind control”, you see, it had to be done…for our “protection”.

Chinese girl inside of her apartment

Yeah. This is all pretty typical. The homes are clean cool, spotless. If they have pets, they might keep them locked up in their cages for a while while the owners are busy doing other things. And dancing in the living room is normal. video 4MB

Warfare in the 21st Century

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the pinnacle of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the pinnacle of skill.

– Sun Tzu

There are many different forms of warfare, but namely there is warfare that exists in the physical domain of aggression vs defense and warfare that exists in the mental domain of ideas.

The majority of tyrants from the ancient times to present day, have always had a network of powerful people behind them (whether they were aware of it or not) that opened up a path for them to sit on the throne so to speak. For example, we now know that there was a very direct support of Hitler coming from the Bank of England amongst other very influential institutions. That is, Hitler did not arise to power ‘naturally’ or by his mere merit.

The desperation of that economic environment in Germany was predictably formulated as a direct consequence of the Treaty of Versailles which was essentially a death sentence to the German people. And Hitler who had started to make a small name for himself was selected and endorsed as the ‘face’ of what had already been decided would be the fate of Germany.

Wars have almost always been the result of funding and organising from powerful groups with geopolitical interests, often of empire, who create an environment of disinformation and desperation amongst the people through economic and military warfare along with color revolutions.

However, once there was the creation of nuclear bombs, geopolitical warfare was changed forever.

Though we still use much of the same old strategies today, war is ever more located on the plane of ideas, and along with this the ever increasing focus on the manipulation of information and the populace’s perspective of who is good and who is bad.

The war that needs to be fought against the present tyranny is thus increasingly a mental war. In the case of the populace, all together they hold more power than they realise. The real crisis of today’s western thinking is that the people have forgotten how to think. Attention spans have gone down drastically along with a functional vocabulary. People are becoming more and more dominated by image based messages rather than content that requires more than a 10 minute attention span. Articles in the news keep getting shorter and shorter because people seemingly cannot be bothered with too much reading. Along with the serious decline in reading in replacement for quick entertainment (more successful than any book burning in history), people no longer bother to work for a comprehensive viewpoint. Information becomes an annoying barrage of ad campaigns, each yelling louder and more frequently than the other.

The solutions to our problems such as the oncoming economic collapse (in case you haven’t noticed we are doing everything the same as pre-2008), have their solutions in what Russia and China are presenting.

The initiation of war has almost always been presented as a false ‘necessity’, that is in response to the dominating geopolitical ‘balance’, which is basically meant to service the present system of empire, and the erroneous belief in zero sum game.

However, the idea that humans exist in a zero sum game, doomed to battle forever over a diminishing return of resources, was disproven time and again in modern history through the application of successful principles of national political economy. Notable examples of which include Colbert’s dirigisme of France’s 17th century (later revived during the presidency of Charles De Gaulle), the Hamiltonian system of America as exemplified by Abraham Lincoln’s Greenbacks, FDR’s New Deal, and JFK’s space program as well as its most recent expression of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

This system understands that fast money is parasitical and acts in direct opposition to the long-term investments required for projects that will revolutionise a nation’s infrastructure, including science-driver programs.

That debt for such long-term projects is not qualitatively the same as the present debt we see accruing today, and that debt towards investing for the future will always yield a higher return than the cost over time. This is why debt towards long-term investment on infrastructure and science driver projects, such as space exploration, will always be sustainable with a massive return quantitatively and qualitatively. Whereas, the gambling of fast money will very predictably lead to a collapse as was clearly indicated by the 2008 financial crisis, and which insanely has yet to be addressed with a serious bank reform.

The higher battle ground is being fought on the plane of ideas and which proposed ‘new system’ will replace the current collapsing one we are presently in. On the one side the hegemonic rule of a one world government who thinks that they can use force and oppression to rule and on the other side a multi-polar system of cooperating nation states committed to progress that will offer a real qualitative return for the future.

Little girl wants a father

Her mother is a single mom. She doesn’t have a father. She wants a photo with this stranger on the bus as she thinks that this is what her father must look like. video 5MB

Chinese girl getting ready to cook

Pretty girl. Food. Cooking…. Sheech! Oh so sexy. video 2MB

Speaking of cooking and food, let’s talk about some Chicken Fried Steak. Personally, I love it with two over-easy eggs and rye toast (with a freshly brewed cup of coffee) don’t you know…

Chicken Fried Steak with Creamy Gravy Recipe

OIP C.5VIa C10K LWGRBB 9mNvwHaJV — Chicken Fried Steak

Steaks are a familiar dish on the dining table. Some people prefer their steaks roasted, and others prefer it prepared inside the oven like the classic oven-baked steak and potatoes. However, to some, steaks are a traditional culinary staple. The Southerners in America have a secret recipe, the chicken fried steak recipe. In this Southern cuisine, the steaks are deep-fried in a pan and served with creamy gravy.

But why is it called chicken fried steak when there’s no chicken? Well, the steak is cooked in a similar way to fried chicken, hence the dish’s name. This dish is made with a piece of tender beef steak that’s breaded with eggs, pan-fried, then topped with some creamy gravy.

There is nothing like this steak. People love serving it, and everyone loves to eat it! The best chicken fried steak is the one that’s cooked to golden perfection and topped with the most flavorful and creamy gravy. Using this recipe, the only difficult thing that comes is deciding whether to prepare it for lunch or dinner.

Skip the usual roasted steak. Prepare a fried steak that’s topped with creamy and flavorful gravy instead.

Ingredients

For Steaks:

4 steaks (¼ lb each), pre-tenderized, preferably cube steaks
1½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cayenne
2 eggs beaten
½ cup milk
oil for frying

For Gravy:

3 tbsp pan drippings
3 tbsp all purpose flour
⅓ cup whipping cream
1¾ cups milk
salt and pepper

To Serve:

2 sunny side-up eggs
¾ cup mixed vegetables of your choice

To Garnish:

2 tsp parsley chopped

Instructions

Steaks

Use a meat mallet, rubber mallet, or rolling pin to flatten and thin out the steaks until they are less than ¼ inches thick. Season each steak with a pinch of salt.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees F.
Put a wire rack over a baking sheet, and set it aside. Prepare two shallow baking dishes.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. In another bowl, mix the salt, garlic powder, cayenne, and flour.
Dredge the steak in the flour mix one by one. Using your hands, press each side of the steak onto the flour mix.
Shake off the excess and dip the steak in the egg wash, coating every side. Repeat the process until all sides are well covered and coated. Set aside.
In a large pan, pour oil until it reaches ¼ inches deep for frying. Heat the oil until the oil sizzles when flour is dropped into it.
Lay the prepared steak one by one into the oil and cover the steak with oil. Fry for about 2 minutes until the edges turn golden brown.
When done, remove the steaks using a slotted spatula, and place them on the wire rack in the oven to keep warm.
Strain off any excess oil to get the drippings.

Gravy

Turn off the heat in the pan and pour out all but 3 tablespoons of oil and fat from the pan.
Whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour and stir constantly on medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the mixture turns light brown.
Slowly add the cream and milk, whisking continuously until the desired consistency is reached.
Season the gravy with a pinch of salt and pepper. Adjust accordingly.
Serve over the steak with eggs and mixed vegetables. Garnish.

OIP C.06OTBIt5OPyoYBHDqtfk1wHaHI — Chicken Fried Steak

The Art of Doublethink

“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”

George Orwell’s “1984” (Big Brother Mantra)

A truly immersive system of propaganda, which necessarily will be full of contradictions to the truth, absolutely requires that its subjects are compliant with “doublethink,” that is, the ability to accept two contradictory thoughts in your mind without acknowledging that they are in fact opposites.

Orwell identifies this under two forms of “doublethink”, which are “crimestop” and “blackwhite”. “Crimestop” meaning the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of a dangerous thought.

Orwell further states

“It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop in short, means protective stupidity.”

“Blackwhite”, is the act of contradiction of plain facts, applied to an opponent. And when applied to the Party, it is the willingness to say black is white when the Party discipline demands it so.

As Orwell describes it

“it means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past…The alteration of the past is necessary for two reasons…The subsidiary reason is that…he must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut off from foreign countries, because it is necessary for him to believe that he is better off… [the precautionary reason] by far the more important reason for the readjustment of the past is the need to safeguard the infallibility of the Party.”

Orwell continues

“The splitting of the intelligence which the Party requires of its members, and which is more easily achieved in an atmosphere of war, is now almost universal, but the higher up the ranks one goes, the more marked it becomes. It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy are strongest.”

That is, it is the Inner Party members who are the most indoctrinated, the best at inducing “mind control” or “doublethink” on themselves, and at the same time believe that it is the best and right thing to do.

Orwell describes “doublethink” thus:

“The process has to be conscious , or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence guilt…To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink.”

What many fail to grasp when reading “1984” is that Orwell is not only the character Winston, he is also the character O’Brien. He is the Outer Party member-turned-revolutionary, and he is the Inner Party disciplinarian.

He is simultaneously the tormentor-programmer as well as the tormented-programmed.

Winston eventually breaks and releases the one thing that kept him human, his love and loyalty to Julia. In the end, an announcement is made that Oceania is ever nearer to winning the war and Winston looks up at a large poster of Big Brother and cries gin-filled tears of joy and relief, for he had finally come to love Big Brother.

He had become O’Brien.

Chinese girl in a Japanese sushi restaurant

These restaurants are very popular in China. Asian people do love their seafood. And China is no exception. You can see the little sushi dishes going round and round on the railroad tracks behind her. If you ever decide to go, might I suggest the warm saki with it. Yum! video 3MB

Thailand / Cambodia lunch time

A great view of a normal day in the rural inland areas outside of China and in the more impovershed South East Asian nations. The United States wants to give billions of dollars to the rulers of these nations to build American miltiary bases, and start importing all sort of weapons there.

These nations said “No!”.

Instead, the nations elected to go with China who are building trains, roads, hospitals, clinics, and setting up industry in these remote and tranquil rural areas. Sure, the Western propaganda is promoting the idea of “you’ll be sorry” for building those hopsitals, high speed trains, roads, tunnels, bridges, social and community centers, and communication infrastructure. But you know, it sure beats having the wealthy get wealthier while the people live in poverty next to American bases ready to shoot up villages, sheep and cabbage patches.

video 17MB

So Who is the Said “Enemy”?

The enemy is our lesser selves.

Our most base fears, desires and obsessions. The voice that whispers in our ears telling us not to believe in anything genuine or honest, that the world we live in will ultimately destroy itself and thus it is all about looking out for number one. That it is our fate to be the playthings of higher powers.

This is the voice of a prisoner of Plato’s cave, neck shackled and looking at only shadows on a wall. This is not reality. This is the voice of someone who has been enslaved for most of their life. The voice of someone who has become so disempowered that they wholly accept whatever ugly condition is imposed upon them and will even work to defend it as necessary.

There is a way out of all of this, but you will have to become an optimist in order to see the solution.

“We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Chinese girl on the street

Thin. Leggy with a nice Guicci purse. Very typical. video 3MB

Rural girls on a boat somewhere on the Laos-China border

It’s poor right now, but these times are changing. The Chinese BRI are bringing money, health and education to millions of people in South East Asia. video

China 1973

As strange as it seems, this is how many Americans and their leadership believe what China is today.

Yeah. It’s strange. But there you have it. Look at the pictures from fifty years ago, and you can easily see that this is the image that the Main Stram Media are busy promoting as to what China is. video 5MB

Rainbow – L. A. Connection (Live) HD

When I was attending university, I took a heavy course load. Seriously, 21 credits of all technical subjects is rough. Aerospace-Mechanical Engineering. And while my friends would half-heartedly attend class, and then party on, I would tromp through the Syracuse snow to go to class, and then study in the Law Library until it closed at 2am.

I had a grueling schedule. Up at six in the morning. Then, 200 push-ups, and a three-mile run, then to the house where I lived. Then it’s a nice Northern European breakfast of toast and coffee, followed by a bus ride to the campus where I would attend school. (When I wasn’t riding my motorcycle, that is.)

And even at that, I had my failures. For instance, I completely failed my “mechanics of deformable bodies” class and had to take it two times. Though, on the second time, I aced the class.

It’s called life.

You move forward, and fall on your face. Then you get up. You dust yourself off, and then try again.

If you are thick-headed like MM here, you might have to go through twenty or thirty times before you get it right.

Anyway, it was stressful. Aside from my weight-lifting, and drinking with my close group of friends, I didn’t really have much in the way of escape. I think all of us fall into this routine cycle from time to time. We work towards a goal, and we sacrifice other things to make it there. It doesn’t matter what it is, really. We push ourselves. And, you know, it’s stressful.

This video is one of the songs that I used to listen to, and do push-ups to, when I was a student attending university. I hope you enjoy my little snapshot into my life at that time.

Warning, it’s 70s era hard rock and the video is of 1970s quality. Just imagine me doing push-ups to this music, getting ready to be a Naval Aviator in a few months. Totally motivated. I had a nice body when I was in my early 20’s. I should have been using it in more sexual persuits, but at that time, I was a goal-oriented fellow, and sex with pretty girls was not on the agenda.

I missed out on a lot of fun. I’ll tell you what.

Again. Such is life.

Girl in white halter

She’s made a big impression on Douxing. Partly becuase of her following and partly for her fish shaped body. video 3MB

Be the Rufus

The answer to help you go through this period of change is to always be the Rufus. video 243MB

Western society controls us by fear

Its fear of change. It’s fear of the unknown. It’s fear of what others think. It’s fear of rejection. Don’t be afraid. Make your move. If they don’t like it, let them howl.

video 9MB

Chinese Military Swarm Drones

It’s pretty cool and the Chinese have mass produced these machines. video 2MB

NUMEROUS REPORTS: U.S. Army General CAPTURED in Mariupol with AZOV Nazis!

World Hal Turner 04 April 2022

Numerous reports are now circulating claiming that United States Army Major General Roger L. Cloutier has been CAPTURED by Russian forces in or around Mariupol, Ukraine where, the reports claim, he was helping the AZOV Battalion which is Ukraine’s official NAZI unit.

2022 04 05 20 14 — US Army General captured leading Nazis against Russians in Ukraine.

According to Wikipedia, Major General Roger L. Cloutier:

Roger L. Cloutier Jr. is a United States Army lieutenant general who serves as the Commander of the Allied Land Command. Previously, he served as the Commander of the United States Army Africa.

Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) formerly Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe (LANDSOUTHEAST) is the standing headquarters for NATO land forces which may be assigned as necessary. The Commander LANDCOM is the prime land warfare advisor to the Alliance. When directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, it provides the core of the headquarters responsible for the conduct of land operations. The command is based at Şirinyer (Buca), İzmir in Turkey.

Email to the Pentagon sent several HOURS ago, has gone unanswered which, from a media perspective, is very unusual. If this report was false, the Pentagon would deny it immediately. They have NOT denied it. But no official answer has come from the Pentagon either way as of 6:10 PM EDT Monday.

UPDATE 10:49 PM EDT, TUESDAY APRIL 5 —

I received an email tonight after my radio show, telling me that the Wikipedia page for General Roger L. Cloutier has been changed to say he DIED on March 28. The images below were sent to me with that email:

And…

MM Notes

Everything that the Russians have dealt with in Ukraine, and all the systems that they are encountering is now present in Taiwan. Taiwan is a carbon copy of Ukraine.

All of this is going to create some very NASTY lashback from Asia.

Do not be afraid of change!

All the Western news is so filled with fear, and of course, here on MM, I also point out the various directions where the world can turn. But know this;

The primary driver for the world collapse are elites in the West (United States).
Their plans negate the influence of the collective East because their egos cannot admit that they are large, powerful, and smart.
This is dangerous as all their actions are now hurting the West, and we are just now collectively “watching the boat fill with water” in real time.
The East are lead with merit driven leaders who are determined and serious.
The East also has the backing of The Domain.
While there could be WMB detonations (keep in mind that The Domain did NOT stop any of the multiple bioweapon attacks), it will be geographically limited. It will not go full-on MAD.
The Deagal Report of the remote viewing of 2025 is approaching 100% validity.
The impression that I am getting from The Commander, is that in ten years, we all will collectively look back on this time and say “Phew! We just narrowly missed THE BIG ONE.” That’s the impression that I have, but I can be wrong.
And I want to tell everyone, the glimpses that I have of the future are not distopian.

It’s more like this… video 14MB.

It will be a new start and a new beginning.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Why the Western leadership are making amazingly bad decisions

You just cannot deny it. The collective West (led by the United States) are making the absolute worst decisions possible, and observers (outside the manipulative “news” media) are absolutely horrified.

This guy, Gonzalo Lira has laid it all out.

MM agrees 100% with his assessment.

Outstanding video.

The Video

Found on You-Tube.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

A heavy dose of situation reports on geopolitics with Rufus actions, food and pretty girls

Why do we seek answers? I don’t really know, but so many people want to understand the world how it really works, and when I tell them exactly what is the situation, they go behind a curtain and throw up. They really don’t want the truth. They want reassurance. They want confirmation that the people, and the belief structures that they believe are valid and factual.

I think that this is a function of human nature. We want to believe in things that show order, control and reason. And when we do not see those things, we get frightened and afraid.

Here’s just take a slow stroll though the “news” and comments / opinions as it is presented to us today. There are a lot of things going on, and I am trying to unpack them in a way that shows meaning and substance. I hope that you all parreciate it.

Warning: This article is heavy with embeds. It's worth your while to watch each and every one. If the embed does not appear, you can click on the link above the embed to open the video in a new tab.

The Rise of the East, and the Decline of the West

During the pandemic, senior Communist Party officials conceived a new political slogan: dōngshēng xījiàng, meaning the rise of the east and the descent of the west. 

The reasoning behind it included China’s belief that it has had “systemic advantages” in tackling the coronavirus, as well as a long-held belief that the country’s state-backed technological advancement will soon put it in a position to overturn the Western world order.

It is in this lens that China’s strategic alignment with Russia was born. 

Putin’s last trip out of Russia before the war was to Beijing, where he attended the Winter Olympics and signed what the Chinese call a “no-limits” partnership agreement with Xi. 

The agreement between the two men declared an intention to challenge the Western order, based on democracy, freedoms and human rights. 

It was quickly denounced by European officials.

But who cares. It’s a United Asia, and the rest of the weeny-eurolizards can howl.

Full Article

The Big, big, BIG news…

Remember, today is Friday, April 1st 2022.

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD SYSTEM

This is the end result of an accelerated historical process having lasted 4 years after [1] Russia announced to the world her new weapons on Thursday March 1st 2018, [2] China created the Petroyuan at the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday March 26, 2018. And [3] Russia and China together formed a United Asia on February 4, 2022.

US Navy Surveillance Plane Crashes Off Virginia Coast

Strange happenings in the USA. Sure there are near-routine crashes of American military planes often enough, that they hardly get a peep from MM. But this one is different.

It’s a surveillance plane. That was flying on American domestic soil.

You can read about it here…

Mystery crash

But the thing that I want to point out, is something that I stated two weeks ago with the highly unusual crash of the Chinese domestic airliner that killed 132 people on board.

"It appears that this was the immidiate and direct consequences for China not obeying the Biden threat not to support Russia in sanctions. 

If China believes that the United States are at fault in this instance...

... you can expect an equal response; a tit-for-tat response, within the next six months." 

-MM

Shenzhen, China ferry port

This is what the inside of the Shenzhen ferry port (Shekou) looks like. Like all of China, it’s clean and nice. State of art and brand new. It costs about one fifth of the cost of a United States F-35 fighter jet. video 60MB

Hollywood seems to be falling apart

Well, it does.

Bruce Willis steps away from acting after years of struggle; Chris Rock tells cheering fans that he’s “still processing” but to expect some jokes soon; and did Will Smith refused to leave the Oscars? All in today’s Movie News Rundown, which you can sign up for here.

You can’t say that it was immune.

Going crazy!

US ‘Chips Alliance’ scheme will exacerbate global chip crunch – Global Times

The US government has been touting a so-called Chips Alliance proposal to chip manufacturing powerhouses in the Asia-Pacific region – South Korea, Japan and the island of Taiwan – in apparent attempt to kick the Chinese mainland out of the global chip supply chain. But South Korean government and chip manufacturers may find the scheme hard to accept, South Korean news outlets reported on Monday.

Washington’s latest political coercion will burden South Korean semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, because they have significant business operations in the Chinese mainland. As it is impossible to separate the supply chain and various trade and tariff issues, the South Korean government may be put in a tough situation if the US forces it to take sides, reports said.

The US has long attempted to corral Japan, South Korea and the island of Taiwan with various attempts to build a US-led semiconductor supply chain alliance excluding the Chinese mainland. Yet, South Korea’s concerns show that a harder push from the US on the “Chips Alliance” scheme will likely encounter significant pushback. Rather than cementing US semiconductor dominance, such moves could further exacerbate the global chip shortage, which will eventually bite back on US companies.

An increasing gallery of evidence is pointing to the US’ political disruption that were designed to stifle China’s chip sector is one of the major causes of the global chip shortage that could be traced back to the first half of 2020 and has rattled a slew of industries.

Against the backdrop of tight chip production capacity and soaring demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, former US President Donald Trump’s arbitrary sanctions on major Chinese tech giants like Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) have dealt at least two heavy blows to the global chip industry chain, according to some reports.

An auto component maker admitted that after it was banned to deal with SMIC amid Trump administration’s last frenzy against Chinese companies, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) couldn’t at once fill the demand gap SMIC left, said an RFI report.

The US’ chip hegemony has endangered the global chip industrial chain, prompting criticism from companies from all over the world. Since the Trump era, the US government has tried all possible means to obstruct chip makers to import Dutch company ASML’s EUV lithography equipment – a complicated machine that US policymakers view as a key lever to strangle China’s progress in the semiconductor sector. The US’ relentless political interference has overwhelmed global businesses.

Last November, US President Joe Biden’s administration obstructed SK Hynix’s plan to import the advanced equipment to its chip factory in East China’s Jiangsu Province, according to Reuters. In response to the US’ arbitrary ban, ASML CEO Peter Wennink said export controls against China will not only fail to halt its technological progress but also hurt the US economy. But Biden has apparently chosen to tone deaf to such warnings.

While US politicians are busy concocting its CHIPS Act and splitting the global semiconductor sector to stifle China’s chip development, it apparently didn’t pay much attention to the collateral damage forced upon its own economy. Because chips are one of the core components of almost every consumer goods from mobile phones to cars, the impact of chip supply shortages on the US economy is comprehensive and huge.

Data shows that the global chip supply crisis’ impacts on the US auto industry have led to skyrocketing vehicle prices – which in turn drove one-third of all of the painful inflation Americans saw in 2021, according to a US media report.

In a recent letter to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the US Chamber of Commerce said the semiconductor industry is global in nature and reliant on open markets and supply chains that span the world. In this inseparable global chip industry chain, China is obviously playing an increasingly important role. While the US share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has declined from 37 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2020, Chinese mainland’s chip production capacity has reached 15 percent of the global capacity, surpassing the US and ranking the third.

Given Asian economies’ complementary strengths when it comes to semiconductors, the US’ attempt to exclude the Chinese mainland from the global chip supply chain is unrealistic and counterproductive. If the Biden administration continues to recklessly impose the “Chips Alliance” proposal on regional economies, it will encounter backfire from economic laws and severer economic impacts from a worse chip supply shortage.

By Jonas E. Alexis, Assistant Editor

Newest psychedelic drug — is sound? How people are using binaural beats to get high

Uh oh. Perhaps the USA is going to ban it, or turn Hemi-sync into a for-profit or NSA manipulated medium.

“We’re starting to see digital experiences defined as drugs, but they could also be seen as complementary practices alongside drug use,” the study author adds. “Maybe a drug doesn’t have to be a substance you consume, it could be to do with how an activity affects your brain.”

Despite binaural beat listeners typically being younger people, the study says it’s unlikely these clips will act as a gateway drug to other substances.

“In the survey, we found most people who listen were already using ingestible substances,” Barratt continues. “But that doesn’t discount the need for more research, particularly to document and negate possible harms.”

On a positive note, audio clips like these could find a purpose in the medical world as a new therapy option.

“Evidence is mounting but it’s still unclear, which is why more research is needed into any possible side effects,” the researcher concludes.

The study is published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

Hemi-sync danger

US veteran who volunteered to fight for Ukraine describes ‘suicide mission’

Not surprised. No “plinking” of Commies fromt he comfort of American helocopters. Don’t you know.

The Georgians apparently learned that Hoeft and company had drawn a line in the sand, and were incensed.

“A Ukrainian soldier came up to us while we were having, like one of our little meetings, and he was like, ‘Hey, the Georgians know you’re not going… they’re pissed,’” Hoeft said. The Ukrainian told them that the Georgians were “threatening to shoot you in the back.”

As The Grayzone previously reported, the ratline of armaments from the West to Ukraine has amounted to “one of the largest and fastest arms transfers in history.” Yet, Hoeft was not the only foreign volunteer to describe his role in Ukraine as cannon fodder.

“I think most of the Western equipment is going directly to the Ukrainian military,” Hoeft told The Grayzone. “They want to keep the casualties of their people to a minimum. So if you have a bunch of foreigners that come to volunteer, send them first.”

Once he and his group were told that the Georgians had plans to execute them and pass off the killings as combat-related, they hurriedly gathered their gear, hid in the back of an ambulance and headed straight for Lviv. Before long, they were crossing back over the Polish border.

On their way out of the country, Hoeft said he and “two or three” were approached by “a couple of British guys that were doing other things,” Hoeft said.

Hoeft was reluctant to divulge exactly what the Brits were up to. “They took us to a secure location and they gave us contacts to, you know, American special forces guys,” was all he would say.

Hoeft recalled the British fighters warning them about a foreign legion tent near the border crossing that was full of fighters turning back anyone attempting to cross with military gear.

“They’re basically sending them back and they’re taking their passports and sending them back,” the Brits told him.

Now that Hoeft is back in the United States, he says he is determined to warn other American veterans considering taking the trip to Ukraine that this conflict is dramatically different than the more familiar counter-insurgencies of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The last time maybe we got into something this bad could have been Vietnam, but we even had air support then,” he said. ”You don’t have air support [in Ukraine], you don’t have the superiority of the artillery. You know, Russia’s the one with the rockets, they’re the ones with the cruise missiles, they’re the ones with the jets flying overhead, drones, all that. And I just think everyone needs to carefully think about every possible scenario.”

“I just want to make sure that everyone takes that into account and knows that, hey, you’re not a Ukrainian soldier, you are a foreign fighter,” Hoeft emphasized. “They’re going to probably use you first.”

Sad. Very sad.

GreyZone

Why?

Some things defy explaination.

Chinese school and teacher placing a demand on the students

This would never happen in the United States. No one really cares. Not so in China. Teacher failure is students failure is national failure is Han Race failure. video 5MB

Are the White Boys Willing to Die in Defense of the Gay Disco?

E. Michael Jones • March 29, 2022

As if determined to lend credence those who claim he is suffering from dementia, President Biden logged on to his Twitter account and opined:

Putin has the gall to claim that he is de-Nazifying Ukraine. This lie isn’t just cynical; it’s obscene. President Zelensky was democratically elected. He is Jewish; his father’s family was wiped out in the Nazi Holocaust.

Biden is giving expression to what could be called the a priori school of foreign policy, according to which he can deduce a statement about reality from abstract principles.

So, there can be no Nazis in Ukraine because its president is Jewish.

Another member of this school of foreign policy is Catholic neocon pundit George Weigel, who said much the same thing, dismissing any references to actual Nazis in Ukrainian army units like the Azov Brigade as chimeras evoked by conspiracy theories.

One of the most puzzling features of the current war in the Ukraine is the alliance between Jews and Nazis which makes up its current government.

More...

Shenzhen, China subway station

MM showing the readership what it’s like in China. According to ZeroHedge, everyone in China is starving under Famine, and that it is a dark and dingy place where everyone yearns for freedom™ and democracy™. Nope. This is what it is like. Pssst. Don’t tell anyone that you see this. You will be targeted as a non-compliant free-thinker, and the thought-crime police will come after you. video 60MB

Rufus Heroic action

When the time comes, what are you going to do? Be a spectator, or take action. Your actions determine your sentience. Service-to-yourself, or service-for-others. And please don’t be a NPC service-to-another. Your actions, in this life, are a reflection of who you are. It’s binary. White or black. There is no gray area. video 2MB

Black man sucker-punches Chinese grandmother

It’s in America. It’s called freedom™. video 3MB

Norway offers more help for Ukraine

Adding the oil to the fire. Eh?

Norways help

Norway Grapples With Potential Windfall From Ukraine War

Speaking of Norway…

“There are times when it’s not fun to make money,” said Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland in an interview with television channel TV2 earlier in March. “And given the situation, this is one of them.”

Norway produces about 2% of the global market’s crude oil, and, as the supplier of 20% to 25% of Europe’s natural gas, it is the second largest exporter to the region after Russia. Since 1996, the country has invested the revenues from the petroleum industry into its Government Pension Fund, a sovereign wealth fund designed, “to shield the Norwegian economy from ups and downs in the oil revenues,” Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said in an interview with TIME over email. “It serves as a financial tool and a long-term saving plan for current and future generations.” Although its value recently decreased because of market volatility brought on by the crisis, it is still worth about $1.3 trillion—or $227,000 per citizen.

Norway seems to be “virtue signalling” to the EU that it stands with NATO, eh?

[maxbutton id="30" url="https://time.com/6161024/norway-gas-windfall-ukraine-war/" text="Norway makes money" ]

How China works

Facial scanning is mature thoughout China. It’s been implemented about six years ago, and many places use it. Modern systems peer though face masks and identify you immediately. Pretty cool tech. video 6MB

[video width="720" height="1280" mp4="https://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/how-facial-scanning-works-in-china.mp4"][/video]

Chinese girl

video. Here is a Chinese girl in a white bikini. You will notice that the pool is part of her housing complex. This is normal in China. All homes pretty much come with a pool. Also, stop getting on my case for busty girls. I happen to like all women in all sizes and shapes, and I like this girl especially. I think that it is the smile that really does it for me. A smile is your most effective and powerful aspect of your personality. Use it wisely. video 4MB

[video width="540" height="960" mp4="https://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/girl-white-bikini.mp4"][/video]

Proposal for an alternative “Are you a Robot?” question…

It’s well, curious.

[caption id="attachment_72444" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Are you a Robot?[/caption]

How the rest of the world views Asia and America

Not so flattering. video 15MB

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/chinese-adventure-movie-3.mp4"][/video]

Russia: The New World Order has come to an end

"The Americans are no longer the masters of planet Earth."

March 30, 2022

From HERE.

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has recently made a devastating statement about the so-called “unipolar world.” That world, he said, “has come to an end.”

He added that “the Americans are no longer the masters of planet Earth.”[1] Medvedev also talked about “the hypocritical white-toothed smiles of politicians and diplomats who said one thing and did something completely different.”[2]

With respect to Russia being a European country, Medvedev said:“In terms of its geography and history, Russia is a European country. Also, we’re European in terms of our cultural identity, because a good part of our population represents the European civilization, which is closely linked to the Christian civilization. But we also have a lot of people that belong to the Muslim faith, as well as to Russia’s other major religions: Buddhism and Judaism.”[3] These questions and answers are from an interview that Russia Today conducted with Medvedev:

Q: Obviously, we’re not talking about geography here. Today, many Russians, including the country’s top officials – if you listen to what they are saying – feel that we setting ourselves up against Europe, as its opposite.

A: No, it’s them who are setting themselves up against us, trying to distinguish themselves from us. They don’t have a monopoly on ‘Europeanness’. The European civilization developed steadily all across the continent. Sure, we are not, in that sense, successors to the Roman Empire, unlike a number of other European countries that belong to the Germanic language group. We have our own history, but our history is just as European as theirs. So, when they say to us that we are no longer considered European, that sounds ridiculous, frankly. That’s all I have to say about our identity. That’s no reason to make any judgments – you asked me a question, and I told you that we are even more ‘European’ than they are. That’s all.

Q: The scale of anti-Russian sentiment in this situation is staggering. It’s like all of Europe, even the countries we believed were our friends and partners, are united in their deep hatred for our country, and it’s manifesting at every level.

And now Europeans, who always claimed they were so tolerant and committed to the principles of democracy, say such terrible things about Russia and Russians, about our leaders. Not to mention Biden – I don’t think we’ve ever heard any rhetoric like that from a top official of his caliber. On the other hand, if we take Poland, maybe Biden is not so bad after all.

And if I may ask a question about Poland, if we could move on for a moment from discussing the main issue – what’s your assessment of Warsaw’s position in this situation? Because it feels like Poland is not only aspiring to play a key role here, but also to have Lvov and the western parts of Ukraine as some kind of protectorate. I understand that this is two questions in one, so may ask you both?

A: The rhetoric is definitely very sharp. It’s no doubt defined by current events, and all the political forces in Europe are trying to use this situation to their advantage and achieve their own goals in terms of domestic policy. Every country has something to deal with, be it elections or a crisis, or the need to create a coalition. And so they need a target or an enemy.

In this case, Russia is the designated enemy, so I’m not surprised by the rhetoric. You’re right, though, when you say that sometimes it defies comprehension, or, as they say, goes beyond good and evil.

At an everyday level we also see this Russophobic rhetoric manifesting, although I would say it differs case by case. It also has to do with new communication methods, such as social media platforms, because the patterns that were less common before can now take root instantly.

Russophobic rhetoric is nothing new, though. Recently I quoted Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev, who talked about how the West ganged up on Russia 150 years ago and did everything in their power to turn us into outcasts and pariahs. Tyutchev noted that this witch hunt lasted for 30 years.

I can’t help but see certain similarities between those times and modern Russia. Russia in its current form is just over 30 years old, and for these 30 years we’ve been blamed for everything, especially in the last 20 years or so. They said we’ve picked up everything from the USSR, including its ideology, even though that’s not true, and they criticize us for this and that. So the Russophobic rhetoric we’re seeing from the West now is nothing new.

From time to time, we hear absolutely astonishing remarks, but we’re polite and we never get personal. No one points out that there are some people who exhibit clear signs of dementia or old-age senility. No one talks about grandpas who lose their balance while climbing the stairs to board a plane or forget which way their office is and go straight into the bushes. No one points this out, because we’re polite and we refrain from mentioning these things. But all that boils down to ethics and good manners.

As for Poland, I did have to speak on the subject recently because of the role Poland is trying to take on now.

Poland is more than just a loyal liege subject of the United States of America that seeks to prove its loyalty every step of the way, to show that it’s the United States’ rock and main ally in Europe. In essence – in this way or another – Poland has been trying to win back hundreds of years rather than decades of its failed attempts to restore the former glory of Rzeсzpоspolita. And if it can’t do that, then to at least remind the world of the fact that Poland used to be a very serious power both in Europe and globally, almost an empire in the making. Today, the country’s elite is represented by the Law and Justice party with Mr. Kaczyński at its helm, and they have been on a pro-American and aggressively anti-Russian path for the past ten years.

I can recall a different time – when Poland and Russia actively tried to restore their relationship, especially in the wake of the tragic death of the Polish president, and it looked quite doable because there were no impassable obstacles between us. But once the opposition party I just mentioned rose to power, the country’s vector changed dramatically, it became wildly rusophobic. I cannot call it anything but political imbecility since there’s nothing more to it.

They are trying to consolidate the voters that are very anti-Russian, and it’s no secret that Poland has quite a number of such people, as there are historical reasons for that, so they’re trying to take advantage of that and put their finger in Ukraine’s affairs. Especially since Poland is now hosting a fairly large number of refugees from Ukraine, and Poland is trying to use that for its own benefit.

They are adopting some measures that do not only aim to support the refugees (because naturally one can only want to help them) but also to find yet another way to punish Russia. They are proposing some new schemes, even amending the Constitution in order to be able to confiscate Russia’s property. Yesterday, they expelled a large number of Russian diplomats.

I don’t really understand what they’re trying to achieve with all that, because if Russia were to expel a matching number of diplomats, Poland would have to close down its entire embassy. Is that good? At the end of the day, it’s up to each sovereign state to decide whether to maintain diplomatic relations or not. But this kind of policy is utterly destructive.

I’d like to recap that Polish authorities are simply trying to prove their utmost loyalty to the United States and get more points for it by way of financial and economic support, as well as to get more political support domestically.

This is all sad, and it’s not going to end well. Quite naturally, they can expect a symmetrical reaction to their actions or counter-measures dictated by international law. We will simply end up in a situation where we stop talking to each other completely. Is it good for Poland? I don’t know, it’s Poland’s decision at the end of the day.

When will the Ukraine conflict end?

Q: Of course, we are not at the General Staff, and I am not a representative of the Ministry of Defense, but I will tell you honestly, my friends and acquaintances constantly ask how long the offensive will last. But as I said, we are not on Frunzenskaya Embankment, but the Security Council of the Russian Federation is here. Can I ask you what you personally think about the course of the operation and how much it actually meets the goals that were announced.

A: The operation took place primarily because the goals that the Russian state set for itself were not achieved through diplomacy. The President said this at the start.

The course of the operation, the plans for its implementation are determined by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. According to the Constitution, it is the President. The President gave his assessments. The operation is progressing according to plan. This plan was prepared and approved by the Supreme Commander. Therefore, I will not give any additional assessments now, it seems to me that this is a completely exhaustive assessment that was given by the President.

But it is obvious that the operation will continue until the goals set by the President of the country are achieved. These goals concern the future of Ukraine; the status of Ukraine as a neutral state, a state that does not pursue an anti-Russian policy, a state that is not militarized, and a state that should be our normal neighbour.

Therefore, until the results of the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine are achieved, the operation must continue – as it was conceived by the President of the country, as it was decided.

The US thinks it’s above the law

Q: The US has taken similar actions on a multiple of occasions in the past and in the regions that are in no way part of their immediate interests. These countries are not their neighbours or a threat to the US. Take Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan. But the US’s military action has never resulted in such a massive and consolidated response from the West.

No one responded to a bombed wedding party in Afghanistan by shutting down European clothes shops in the US. There were no other repercussions, either. Why? Why are we witnessing such a powerful response to Russia’s moves that you say are fully justified in terms of our security?

A: Now this is not going to sound as an insight, but clearly the US believes it is a nation outside international law, above everyone else.

Following the collapse of the USSR and an end to the bipolar world order based on the standoff between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the US saw itself as the winner and the sole beneficiary of the Soviet Union’s demise.

While in reality the Soviet Union broke up not because of NATO’s activities, but for internal reasons. And that’s why they behave accordingly: they believe they cannot be brought to justice, but they have the right to judge everyone, they are the ultimate decision-makers, they have the right to do whatever they want.

There are a number of drivers behind this behaviour. First of all, economically the US is a very strong country. Secondly, it issues the main reserve currency with vengeance, continuing to pile up its domestic debt. In fact, it is the whole world that is the US’s creditor. The entire world could be struggling, plunging into crises, while the Americans are printing dollars.

That is why they now feel completely unpunished in this respect as well. Exactly for that reason the US’s actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam a few decades ago, have never come under any legal scrutiny by the international community.

However, at the time of the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union was still alive, pushing for quite heavy debates at multilateral platforms. The Soviet Union, as you know, was helping Vietnam back then. The US pursued its policy for a long time.

We all remember the way it ended. Mind you, Vietnam is thousands of kilometers away from the US. Now, it’s a fact few people remember, even in this country, because it was a long time ago, but my Vietnamese friends said the US intervention in Vietnam throughout much of the 1960s killed over one million Vietnamese.

Just think about it. Over a million! Take a look at the map and see for yourself where the US is and where Vietnam is. Still, the US went in, and over a million people died as a result.

Even then it was never widely condemned although we had the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union in place.

And after the Soviet Union disappeared from the world map, along with the Warsaw Pact, the US got absolutely out of control.

They think they can do whatever they want. Yugoslavia is a case in point. We saw utter disregard for international law, the use of the armed forces and weapons by a number of countries including depleted uranium ammunition.

Was there any uproar? No. They realized they could go ahead, concocted a justification, and got away with it. Today, some European leaders admit “Well, yes, maybe they overreacted a little”. But it does not go beyond that.

Again, the US behaves this way around the world because they think there is no longer any competition. But they are wrong. Life does not stand still, prompting new developments in international relations and new countries emerging as strong powerhouses.

It means new centers of gravity in international relations are being shaped. Take the People’s Republic of China, India, and the Russian Federation.

The unipolar world is over. The US is no longer the master of planet Earth.

Russians who left are welcome to return, but not traitors

Q: You must be aware that some Russians packed their belongings and left the country immediately after the special operation started in the Donbass. Do you think they will return, or is it a one-way ticket?

A:How should I know?

Q: What can you say to those people who decided to leave Russia?

A: Every man is the architect of his own fortune. It’s their right to make such decisions. Some people have left for the time being, as I understand. Others have left for good, fearing that the current situation may affect their lives in the future. It’s their decision. I won’t comment or criticize these people.

It’s obvious, for me personally, that a significant part of these people will return to Russia eventually. This military operation affects everyone’s psychological state, you see. People keep thinking about it. I believe this may have been one of the reasons, for some people. But that’s it.

I believe what is more important for the country is, for example, the way programmers treat current events. These businesses are international, and now they have ended up being cut off from everything – payment systems, banking operations, major foreign customers. For them the consequences are really harsh. And I can understand their motives, why they are trying to find a better place under the sun.

The government has prepared a number of proposals to this end, and the President has already signed a decree. Let’s hope that we will succeed in mitigating the negative consequences for IT specialists and keep them in the country. Let’s hope that most of them will stay in Russia. This is a real problem. And I am really sorry for these people, on a personal level, because they are in a dire situation. And although it wasn’t us who introduced these limitations, but we still have to think how to make things better for these people.

Western sanctions are uniting, not dividing Russians

Q: And if we talk about entrepreneurs, about big businessmen, do they have support amid the military offensive? Taking into account the fact that now, a huge number of measures are being taken against them. Their houses, vehicles, yachts and everything else have been taken from them. How do you feel about this, taking into account the fact that the West used to say that private property should be honored. And, in general, is it normal to block accounts and populate houses with refugees – this would be unpleasant to anyone.

A: If we talk about business, this is also a part of our society, including big business – they are, as they say, guilty without any guilt.

Let’s ask ourselves a question: in general, at least someone from this big business is – to some extent – capable of influencing a small fraction, one iota, on the position of the country’s leadership. I can tell you right away: no, no way. Because we have different tasks.

Anyone who manages the state, first of all, focuses on the interests of the whole country, on the interests of the people of Russia. One who manages his own business (this is a very important task), only does this.

Therefore, the calculations that, by limiting Russian business, they will somehow influence the authorities, are absolutely meaningless, they are simply stupid. They are also trying to influence the sectors of the economy that are behind this big business. And these are hundreds of thousands, millions of our people.

In fact, with these sanctions, the Western world is trying to influence the citizens of our country, to hurt them. And, of course, try to incite them to turn against the course of the state’s leadership, against the course of the President, in the hope that in the end, it will result in some kind of trouble, some problems for the authorities.

But it seems to me that the people who generate these decisions absolutely do not understand our mentality, they do not understand the attitude of the Russian people in the broadest sense of the word. They do not understand the incentives that when such pressure is applied (and this pressure is not on large entrepreneurs, not on big business, this is pressure on anyone and everyone), society is consolidated.

Even those who were hard done by in some way or believed that they received little support, or some wrong decisions were made, in this situation says: “Well, yes, yes, they probably made a mistake in something. But in general, in this situation, I will stand for the state”.

This, it seems to me, they are absolutely unable to understand, just as they were not able to understand 70 years ago, and 100 years ago, and during various kinds of armed campaigns that were carried out, including against our country. This kind of restrictions and deprivations – only unite people, consolidate people, but do not divide them. And this is their main miscalculation, this is the weak spot of these stupid sanctions.

The death penalty doesn’t have to come back

Q: Let’s recall that the Council of Europe tried to impose restrictions on Russia for many years. You said recently that there is not much holding us back now, particularly on the issue of the death penalty. Russia has renounced capital punishment by acceding to a number of the Council of Europe’s conventions. Since this is an important issue for our nation, here is my question: how probable is a return to the death penalty? Does Russia need it?

A: This is a very complex issue. It depends on the worldview in general. It’s a philosophical and moral dilemma. There are divergent views on the death penalty. And it is natural, it has always been the case.

There is one thing I know for sure. The Russian Constitutional Court was definitely swayed in some of its rulings by this country’s participation in the Council of Europe’s conventions. These conventions are no longer binding for us.

Nevertheless, there are legal guidelines provided by the Constitutional Court on this issue. And this is a completely sovereign decision, not a direct outcome of our membership in the Council of Europe. There is an obvious implicit connection, though.

Today, there are no restrictions in this regard. However, it is still a very thorny issue. There is not only a legal side to it but also a moral one. Even the basic, canonical sources of religions provide opposing answers to this question.

The religious view on this issue is one of the basic arguments surrounding the debate on the death penalty in any country. Europe abandoned capital punishment at some point. So did we.

Unlike the US, China, and a number of other countries. They still keep it as punishment for those who have committed particularly grave crimes, first of all, murder.

Again, today international provisions are no longer binding, but there are domestic legal provisions set out by the Constitutional Court. They reflect the current crime rate.

If it does not get out of control, I believe this legal posture could remain the same.

But legal postures are not eternal either. A shift in our society could force a revision of the legal posture. The decisions of the Constitutional Court are not sacred writ, they may change.

We’ve seen it throughout Russia’s history. The Soviet Union abolished the death penalty after the war. But it did not last long, and the death penalty was restored pretty fast. This was due to a spike in violent crimes, including murders.

I don’t know how it will pan out going forward.

Russians will remember the West’s hatred forever

Q: Mr. Medvedev, do you think a lot about the pressure that Russian nationals now have to deal with abroad? Often, they face real danger.

I saw a video online showing what happened to the Russian Embassy in Ireland – I lived there for a bit as a kid, my father was posted there – and it was covered in spray paint and a driver crashed his car into the gates. It’s just unimaginable. Something like this could happen to any Russian national abroad. Meanwhile, the UN says that a ceasefire in Ukraine would bring the levels of Russophobia down. What’s your take on that position and does this connection make sense?

A: I wouldn’t call it the UN position. The UN is an international organization comprised of more than 200 nation-states. If we’re talking about what the UN officials said, well, that may be so.

Let me openly say that recently the UN governing bodies, and Secretary-General Guterres as well, have made several statements that I would call questionable from the point of view of international law. The UN should be above conflicts instead of taking sides. Of course, the levels of Russophobia these days are through the roof, as we’ve already discussed. These are manifested in the form of attacks on the Russian people and pressure exerted on our diplomatic missions.

What is there to say on the subject? If we take diplomatic missions, the responsibility lies with the country where the diplomatic mission is located. This is the host country’s task. As soon as the host country becomes indifferent to the fate of an embassy, diplomatic ties are usually either suspended or severed. So the incident in Dublin that you mentioned is fully Ireland’s responsibility. They just have to take proper steps in response.

It happens to ordinary people, too – I see it and read about it, it’s clear from the online and social media content where they criticize Russia a lot. I guess it’s to do with current events. Some genuinely feel that way, some are doing it for the hype or because everyone else does it. It’s their own personal choice. Sooner or later the tide will subside, that’s how it works. But the memories will remain.

We will remember it, too, including the Russian people who got stuck abroad while on vacation or on a business trip. It will be etched in everyone’s memory. They say they don’t want Russians there, and it’s only natural that our people who happened to be abroad at the time will remember that. I doubt that they will think higher of Europeans now than they used to.

What about the hospitality, tolerance, and neutrality that you spoke of? All of it evaporated instantly, which means it never existed in the first place. It means there was no culture and no values. It was just a façade, and now all the filth has come to the surface, which we see in the behavior of every person spewing Russophobic ideas.

We will remember it too. We won’t forget anyone who did it – in their official capacity or just in personal interactions. These days, everything is recorded. We all have a digital footprint. That’s something everyone should remember when they write nasty things about Russia, our policies or our people. It will be engraved in our people’s collective memory forever. And I’m not exaggerating here.

International sports behaving in the ‘worst possible way’

Q: Let’s talk about something else. You mentioned IT specialists who have been gravely affected and who will get assistance, but I want to ask you about our athletes. What’s happening to them is unprecedented: they are not allowed to compete or they are forced to do so under a neutral flag, they are pressured into signing petitions and making statements.

We all know that in some sports, an athlete’s career is fleeting. Won’t Russia end up on the sidelines of international sports? Competition is very important – it’s crucial for athletes to go up against talented opponents. Now it seems that the doping scandal was just a trial run.

A: Correct. Elena, Ilya, you’re right too. First, let me say that of course, it’s tough on our athletes – same as on our IT specialists. But for the latter, the challenges started fairly recently, when our ‘friends’ started trying to restrict us in every way and erect an iron curtain when it comes to finances and law. For athletes, the situation has been dire since 2014.

You’re right, our athletes train hard, but they are not allowed to compete. If they are, they have to basically compete anonymously – no Russian flag, no Russian anthem. They are forced to distance themselves from their country, saying that they only represent themselves. This is cynical and amoral, and don’t even get me started on the IOC decision regarding our Paralympic team. It’s simply incomprehensible. It’s monstrous and disgraceful.

So our main goal is to support parathletes, to make sure they feel involved in social life on par with everyone else. But they get told, “No, your government is awful and so we don’t care about you.” That goes against any moral code. I think that the IOC behaved in the worst way possible here.

Yes, it all started eight years ago with the doping scandal. We admitted that we had a doping problem in our country, we are at fault here. But saying that Russia, I mean Russian coaches and athletes were the only ones to use doping is outrageous and cynical. Other countries did it too, but it’s Russia that everyone turned on. The objective that our ‘friends’, from the Anglo-Saxon world predominantly, set was to push Russia out of international competitive sports.

What for? Again, that was to stir resentment within Russia and incite people to do something about it. So our athletes have been suffering since 2014. We will continue to support them in every way and to organize as many competitions domestically as we can. We will seek to defend their rights in all organizations, even though that’s a huge challenge these days.

These decisions were made by specific people in the IOC, the EU, the US, and the UK, which is not part of the EU anymore. It’s clear that certain people are behind these decisions, and those deprived of competitive sports will channel their bitterness in their direction.

Moscow’s rules on using nuclear weapons

Q: President Putin has often insisted that Russia only acts to defend itself against the hostile actions of the West. And in a recent interview, you said that our country has enough ‘might’ to put our enemies in their place. This implies that Russia has considered some kind of retaliation in the event of aggression. What exactly did you mean by that, Mr. Medvedev?

A: We both know exactly what I meant. Russia is not your average country – it’s a permanent member of the UN Security Council. And, as a side-note, let me say that all the ill-conceived plans to try and remove us from the Security Council are completely groundless. This would go against the UN Charter and the entirety of international law, for that matter. We are talking about the whims of individual states. This is my first point.

And my second point is, Russia is a nuclear power with the largest stockpile of strategic nuclear weapons on the planet. Naturally, no one is threatening anyone, but you mentioned the remarks made by President Putin… A few weeks ago, our country’s nuclear deterrence forces were put on high alert. It was a simple message so that any country that tries to interfere with Russia’s foreign policy would know what to expect. They heard us and said they wouldn’t try anything.

I certainly hope this has helped cool down some of the hotter heads in Poland and other US satellites. Still, they do occasionally come up with ridiculous ideas like closing the airspace over Ukraine. Luckily, there are cool-headed and reasonable analysts at the Pentagon and elsewhere who say this is absolutely out of the question as it would lead to a direct military confrontation with Russia.

I think this will be enough, for now. Although we do have a special document on nuclear deterrence which states explicitly the circumstances under which the Russian Federation has the right to use nuclear weapons. There are several such conditions, let me remind you what they are.

First is the launch of ballistic nuclear missiles to attack Russian territory. Second is the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction by an adversary against Russian territory or its allies. The third has to do with an attack on critical infrastructure resulting in the crippling of our nuclear deterrence forces. And, finally, the fourth is when an act of aggression is committed against the Russian Federation or its allies – whether with nuclear or conventional weapons – which threatens the very existence of the state.

All these conditions are listed in the document which was approved by the President’s executive order. This testifies to our determination to uphold the independence and sovereignty of Russia. Let no one have even the slightest reason to doubt that we are capable of giving a proper response to any attack or encroachment on our country, its independence, or its policies.

But keep in mind that I am saying all this because you asked the question. Obviously, our position is that however complicated, any situation must be approached using diplomatic tools. And in the case of Ukraine, negotiations remain the most constructive and reasonable course of action. We realize that diplomacy does not always result in success, but this is still the right way to go.

The US had ‘more brains’ during the Cuban Missile Crisis

Q: You just mentioned something that terrifies everyone on the planet – the prospect of a nuclear war. Another scary prospect is the military confrontation between Russia and NATO. In many ways, these two scenarios are similar – in fact, they may be one and the same. Do you believe there is a risk of such a war breaking out? Would you compare the current situation to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world also seemed like it was teetering on edge? Back then, we referred to this standoff as the ‘Cold War’. What would you call the current state of relations between Russia and the collective West?

A: Nobody wants war. Nuclear war is a threat to the very existence of human civilization. In this sense, those analysts who say, perhaps somewhat cynically, that the invention of nuclear weapons has prevented a huge number of conflicts in the 20th and 21st centuries, are right. This is true.

So obviously there is always a threat. As a former commander-in-chief, I am well aware of its scale. Our people know that NATO’s nuclear weapons target facilities in this country and our warheads are aimed at targets in Europe and the US. But that is life. We must always keep this in mind and act in a responsible manner. As simple as that.

As for the Cuban Missile Crisis, for obvious reasons, I don’t have any personal memories, I only know about it from history books. But I had a chance to talk to one of the witnesses, Fidel Castro.

Today, we live in another reality, in a different world. There is no Soviet Union, no Warsaw Pact, many illusions are gone.

A lot of things are not in place anymore, but the lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis sank in pretty well back then. It had a sobering effect on everyone, including the leadership of the US, NATO, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact.

The world was living through a Cold War then but right now the situation is somehow worse, in my view. Back then our opponents did not try to bring the situation in the Soviet Union to a boiling point so aggressively.

True, their actions may have been disguised, but no sanctions were imposed on entire industries or agriculture, let alone personal sanctions.

It never occurred to anybody to impose sanctions on Brezhnev, Podgorny, and Kosygin. They understood, of course, that it made no sense, just as they do now, but at least they had the brains not to do it then.

Now everyone is in an awkward position. They have imposed sanctions, but it is still necessary to communicate if only to prevent all sorts of undesirable consequences, including such terrible ones as, say, a conflict between Russia and NATO. It’s like everyone is under sanctions, everyone is on some kind of list.

I signed the well-known START III, or Start Treaty, with President Obama. That treaty was extended by President Putin and President Biden. Why make it so embarrassing? The treaties were signed, but it was done by individuals who are on the sanctions list. If the Russian leadership were irresponsible in this regard, you could probably say: “If that’s the way you treat us, then that’s it, goodbye.”

There is a legal doctrine known as clausula rebus sic stantibus, which means that international treaties are valid as long as the circumstances that gave rise to them exist. Those circumstances have disappeared. You are not treating us as counterparts anymore. The persons who signed the treaty are on your sanctions list. Maybe it’s time to pull out of it? I am just trying to point out that these sanctions do not make any sense, they are absurd.

This was not the case during the Cold War. And it’s a reality now. The relationship between the Russian Federation and the West, the US-led Anglo-Saxon civilization in the broad sense of the word, is probably in a worse state than in the 1960s and 1970s. There is no doubt about that.

Fixing up Yalta for new world order talks

Q: Now, about the talks with Ukraine… how would you assess the progress? It appears that some arrangements are still possible. How will these agreements be guaranteed? Will the West need to bear some kind of responsibility in this regard? Once the special operation is over, given all the factors, would we need a new Yalta Conference to formalize the new world order, which, as you say, has ceased to be unipolar?

A: It’s an unrewarding task to comment on negotiations, and it’s wrong. Talks need silence. And it’s not without reason that the sides are negotiating via videoconference, almost daily, and not in the face-to-face format that requires more time. That is why I won’t comment on the talks. I don’t want to create problems for the negotiators or give ground to excessive hopes or emotional responses that such comments on my part could generate.

The goal of these talks is clear – to solidify the results which the Russian special operation pursues, in particular the neutral status of Ukraine, its demilitarization, and the repeal of the laws driven by Nazi ideology that were introduced by the Ukrainian government. Whatever they say about these laws, they effectively divide the people by their national identity. Some are called people of the right nationality, others are practically excluded. And there are also a number of other goals Russia is seeking to achieve.

Ukraine is pursuing its own goals, of course, and hopes to achieve them in the course of the talks. They include, primarily, retaining its sovereignty and securing further development of the country.

As for the guarantees that the negotiated terms will be implemented, there are two types. Firstly, there are guarantees provided by the signatories of the agreements. In the long run, those who will sign the documents, have the authority and responsibility to see to their implementation. And secondly, there are guarantees related to various international mechanisms. I will not overstate their importance here, of course, because there are a lot of agreements that were signed but not implemented. But, in any case, this is better than legal uncertainty or repeated attempts by Ukraine to weave its way into NATO in order to create a direct threat at Russia’s borders. In that respect, an agreement and the legal guarantees it provides are way better than no agreement. And this is the way to resolve the conflict.

You mentioned Yalta. I can only say that we will be happy to welcome foreign delegations in the Russian city of Yalta for talks. The palace that was used in the past for this purpose is not in ideal state, but it can still be used to accommodate guests.

An attack on their own economic values

Q: Mr. Medvedev, one does not need to be Fidel Castro to…

A: Fidel Castro can’t be replaced, he was unique.

Q: …to talk about the events of 1998. Let me share my observations with you. Even people who were born after 1998 keep asking me as a journalist – they seem to think that I am competent to answer this question…

A: But you are competent. Journalists know everything. They know more than politicians.

Q: Thank you. So they keep asking me if we are going back to 1998. And they mention the default. We have avoided the default scenario for now, as we were allowed to make payments on our sovereign debt. But still?

A: Do you remember 1998, personally?

Q: I remember that the ruble depreciated four times against the US dollar.

A: I see. Yes, it’s a memory that is not easily forgotten.

You cannot step into the same river twice. I was not related to state governance back in 1998 and saw everything through the lens of a common citizen, a businessman if you like. But the Russian state and society were much less protected back then.

But I remember 2008 and 2009 very well when I personally had to tackle the financial crisis. I also have an excellent recollection of 2014 and all the years that followed, when I had to address the issues as the chairman of the Russian government.

Every crisis is unique, in its way. In 2008, we created G20. They want to remove Russia from G20 now. But I remember how it was born right in front of me. The decision to create G20 was collective. First President Bush participated, then Barack Obama. Everyone was delighted that representatives from so many different countries were sitting at the same table – Russia, the US, China, India. G20 was a format that was born from consensus, based on unanimity. And now they suggest removing us from G20. No, guys, you can’t do that!

You asked us to join G7, to be the eighth-member state. That’s right. But it’s different. G7 is your private club and if don’t want us to be part of it, we will go. And we did, we were “ushered out”. But this club is not important any longer. G20 is a different story. It was G20 that helped us out of the 2008 financial crisis.

Why am I talking about this right now? Because the situation we are in is different. Back then, all of us were trying to overcome the global financial crisis, caused by the financial bubble in the United States of America. Our common goal was to stand against it. And we achieved that goal, by the way.

With varying degrees of success, we pulled the Russian and global economy out of that crisis in a relatively short period of time. What’s happening now, however, is an economic war that the West declared against Russia – to quote a French minister. They declared an economic war against Russia. And they are trying to wage this war without rules.

Why? You asked, but I didn’t get a chance to answer. What’s written on the banners of any capitalist society, any market economy? Utter respect for private property rights! This is sacred! The world may perish, but justice will prevail. Everything may perish, but the private property will remain.

And what are they doing? They are blocking the assets of our financial institutions, even the Central Bank. They are even talking about confiscating these assets, i.e. nationalizing them. Listen, this is a real war without rules. What will be the consequences of this war? Destruction of the whole global economic order. This is an attack on the economic values of our planet – ironically, these values were first formed in Europe and the United States of America, in our country, and later, at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, in Asian countries as well. Now we see how the founding principles of the market economy are being rejected. What can we say then? If they don’t value these principles, let them do whatever they plan to do, but, naturally, this will force Russia to respond with symmetric measures.

But, on the other hand, this new challenge and the reaction that must follow could be very effective. I’ve said it many times before, and this is true – had sanctions not been imposed on Russia in 2014, we would’ve had a worse situation in our agriculture right now. Everybody understands it well. We stopped their imports, and now our food security is at a very high level.

I hope that even in this situation, our colleagues in the government will be able to find adequate solutions that would foster the development of our industry, including aircraft engineering, the automotive industry, and key sectors like microelectronics and IT. We will have to deal with these issues anyway. Yes, it will be harder now, but, on the other hand, there is no one else we can count on. This time we will have to do everything ourselves.

Rubles for oil was a ‘pretty obvious’ move

Q: Let’s move to a very important issue. Ironically, the West says they will cut us off everything, but they can’t cut themselves off from our gas and oil, simply because it would backfire, they would freeze. They will now try to use less energy and come up with new proposals. Nevertheless, they have so far refrained from sanctions against our oil and gas.

But going forward they say they would like to stop using gas and oil from Russia. How realistic is it? Should we just sit and wait for that to happen, or rather take some action? The Russian president announced a move to the Russian rouble as the settlement currency. How will it work out? What will it look like in practice?

A: Well, let them buy it as long as they want. No one wants to lose money, right? This is all bravado and chest-beating.

Well, it could work for the US since they have an array of suppliers, they are isolated from Europe, they are not so dependent on our deliveries.

The US has banned our oil, though it hasn’t gone that well. The Americans will keep reminding President Biden about the price of a gallon. Ukraine is very far away and gasoline prices somewhere in the Midwest are at a record high right now. Inflation is 10 percent. It’s a mind-blowing number for the US.

So this decision will haunt the US administration. Its consumers will say a big ‘thank you’ for what their government is doing to their domestic economy as a side effect of attempts to sway the Russians.

Overall, I’m philosophical about it. It’s our natural wealth, it’s our gas and oil. We have to trade it with Europeans, with Asia. Generally, there has been a global energy shift every 50-70 years. I do not know what will be the main energy source in 2050 – hydrogen or any other technology. I simply do not know. So we have to prepare for that as well.

But right now, this is a significant part of our income, and we have to get the full compensation for it. Certainly, we are looking at Asian markets in the current environment, and are figuring out ways to diversify our supplies.

Our European friends appear to be in a big hurry to give up oil and gas supplies from Russia. But in reality, it is a very challenging task. 40 percent of their gas supplies come from Russia. Russian oil accounts for about one-third of their imports.

But in any case, it is up to them. If they want to get rid of it, they will. The only question is, when. That’s something that we also need to respond to.

As for President Putin’s decision to switch to rouble settlements, I think it is a pretty obvious move. They shut down the correspondent accounts for our commercial banks, made settlements in dollars and euros impossible, and disconnected the banks on the sanctions list from SWIFT, at least some of them. What did they think we were going to do?

The only legal tender in the Russian Federation is the rouble. So it’s a simple offer: since there is no other way, you have to pay in roubles. So let them find a way to pay.

Anyway, consultations are underway. We’ll see how it works out. But it was a very intuitive decision.

Q: What about Nord Stream? The Americans are rushing to bury it…

A: They are rushing.

Q: They call it “a hunk of metal”, using some peculiar words to describe it. Do you think this project still has some potential? And if we talk about the infrastructure, how long will it stay in shape without being used or serviced, without pumping gas?

A: I am not an expert on the subject, I can’t assess the durability of the Nord Stream infrastructure. I am sure it’s durable, but I don’t know the degree – we are not talking about months, obviously. As far as large-scale economic projects go, I tend to be optimistic – despite our current circumstances and the emotionally charged context that we are dealing with when passions run high.

The thing is, there are certain laws that can’t be ignored, even if our friends are trying to violate them right now. There have been significant financial investments, this is a very important and beneficial project, profitable for all partners. Conflicts come and go, but the economy and money stay.

I think the Nord Stream 2 project has a good future. It will happen if our partners decide to start using their heads at some point and remember that they have taxpayers and voters to answer to, that there are certain social obligations that they have to fulfill. Their responsibility is not simply to hurt Russia but to solve key problems in their economy. They need to think about helping their own people, making sure that their taxpayers’ utility bills are not through the roof.

And I have to say this. What happened right after they made their decision concerning Nord Stream 2? What we said would happen. Utility bills went up to unprecedented levels. As high as two thousand euros in some instances.

Let me remind you that just recently, a few years ago, we talked about pipeline gas, not the spot market. However, anything over 400-500 dollars or euros seemed like an outrageous price. And now we see these numbers. Is it a good situation? Of course not. That’s why I tend to be cautiously optimistic when we talk about this.

Capitalism means they’ll come back

Q: Do you think we’ll see Western companies returning to Russia at some point, I mean those companies that are withdrawing or suspending their operation in Russia now?

A: Of course, we will. It’s only a question of when they will return and what it’ll cost them in terms of losses. You see, Russia is a fairly large market, some say a premium market. So if they are willing to lose a share of their income, it’s up to them. We can do without them, but the thing is they don’t want to lose it, they keep telling us that they’re waiting and hoping for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. And they keep asking us not to take over or appoint external management to or nationalize their operations because they want to return.

I think one of the press secretaries, either of the United States or another country, said that the administration had nothing to do with this decision made by major businesses – that it was solely their own decision, their civic position, that they put their heads in that noose of their own will. They wanted to give up this market – I say they need to read Karl Marx. Marx explains very well that capital will never forego a chance to increase profit.

This means that unless they were under tremendous pressure from their own governments, I mean the governments of the West, none of these companies would ever even think of giving up Russia as a market. This was a political decision. And political decisions have an expiry date. The economy is, on the other hand, perpetual.

The US is the real ‘rogue state’

Q: So, the sanctions have been applied to put pressure on every sector of our economy. It feels as if now, in contrast to the situation when the Soviet Union put up the Iron Curtain to shut itself off from the West of its own will, Russia is being forced to put that curtain up and become some sort of a new North Korea. It’s like people don’t want it, no one wants it, but the big powerful machine is already working, and someone is pushing the buttons. I’m saying it’s like North Korea because North Korea was buried under the sanctions, or it’s like Cuba where people still drive cars made in the 1960s. So maybe someone wants Russians to start going through scrap metal and repairing old ZAZ “Zaporozhets” cars to drive them…

A: What a shame that I sold mine. I used to own a Zhiguli car from the 80s. I guess I could use it now.

Q: That was probably the idea. So what do you think – as a worst-case scenario – could this kind of thing happen in Russia?

A: I think everyone understands that it can’t. Even though in the course of this interview I did question the intellectual abilities of the people who come up with all these sanctions against Russia, I must say there are different people there, and some realize very well what’s going on.

You see, all of them understand that, with all due and utmost respect to our friends in Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Russia is no Cuba and no North Korea. Russia is Russia, the world’s largest country, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a huge economy, and nuclear power, which is why all these ideas that Russia can be curbed like Cuba or North Korea once were and that it could just be kept that way don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s impossible. It’s just utterly impossible. Even if some in the political circles and elites of the West would want it that way.

Yes, there are obviously challenges and we’ll have to overcome them. Unfortunately, they exist both at the governmental and everyday levels. Still, it’s nothing new for us, and it’s not catastrophic. It pales in comparison to the hardships that our country had to go through in the 20th century. I tell you what – it’s not even in the same league as the problems we faced during the coronavirus pandemic.

Back then, we really felt uneasy from time to time, because we had no idea how this virus would behave, regardless of where it came from. Could it kill off most of humanity, like in some sci-fi books? So back then things were much tenser, I’d say. The tragedy of course is that the virus caused so many deaths.

But this is a different story, and there can be no illusions here. They are trying to put us into the ‘rogue nation’ or ‘rogue country’ category. As for its etymology, I think it was Reagan who came up with the term. The Russian translation for it is ‘outcast’, but ‘rogue’ is actually closer in meaning to ‘outlaw’.

In fact, it’s the US that’s the rogue nation here. It’s not because we don’t like Americans. It’s because the US is constantly launching wars of conquest across the world. They are the outcast and the outlaw.

[1] “‘The unipolar world has come to an end,’ Russia’s former president says,” Russia Today, March 24, 2022.

[2] Ibid.

[3] “Post-Cold War world order is over, former Russian president says (FULL INTERVIEW),” Russia Today, March 26, 2022.

British “news” reports that China will use Facebook Metaverse to recruit for communism

Funny. As Facebook and Metaverse are BANNED in China. Where do they get such mind-rot bullshit?

Chinese authorities are set to build a Communist education school in virtual reality in a bid to get top party officials into VR.

According to Chinese virtual reality firm Mengke VR, the CCCP's metaverse will run history lectures and courses, host meetings and virtual events, and even let people explore virtual exhibits.

You'll be able to put down the videogames for something better, as Beijing's metaverse will include fun-filled courses such as "The Great New Era - Major Achievements of the Party and the Country Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China" and "The Code of Leadership of the Communist Party of China".

[maxbutton id="30" url="https://www.dailystar.co.uk/tech/news/beijing-building-communist-party-training-26582069" text="China Facebook?" ]

State Department will soon allow ‘X’ passport gender markers

Americans will be able to mark their gender as “X” on their passports instead of “M” or “F” starting next month, the State Department announced Thursday.

The “X” gender marker would identify passport holders who have an “unspecified or another gender identity,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement announcing the change, adding that the option will be available for other forms of documentation next year. 

Non-binary, intersex and other gender non-conforming Americans will be able to use the “X” gender marker on their passports starting April 11. Americans who wish to change their gender on their passports will not need to provide any documentation to do so. 

“The Department is setting a precedent as the first federal government agency to offer the X gender marker on an identity document,” said Blinken, who called the move a “milestone” in efforts to “better serve all US citizens.

But this might not be accepted as a valid gender to visit a host of other nations.

[maxbutton id="30" url="https://nypost.com/2022/03/31/state-department-will-soon-allow-x-passport-gender-markers/" text="To better serve you..." ]

Why Alibaba is being broken up

China does not play. You cannot grow a big company to compete with the government. It’s not going to happen inside of China. video 5MB

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Coming soon to the United States near you.

It’s a gloomy prediction.

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Welcome to China

Yes. It is like this. video 2MB

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Rufus driver and the Rufus that saves her

Be the Rufus. Nothing else even comes close. video 4MB

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Rufus Grandmother stops an abduction

There is no excuse worthy of stopping someone from helping others. NONE. You are either a service-to-others sentience Rufus or you are a selfish slimeball who love paper and bling-bling more. video 2MB

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How Mariupol will become a key hub of Eurasian integration

19377 Views March 30, 2022

By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and cross posted with The Cradle

Mariupol was battered by Ukraine’s right-wing Azov battalion well before Moscow launched its military ops. In Russian hands, this strategic steelworks port can transform into a hub of Eurasian connectivity.

Mariupol, the strategic Sea of Azov port, remains in the eye of the storm in Ukraine.

The NATO narrative is that Azovstal – one of Europe’s biggest iron and steel works – was nearly destroyed by the Russian Army and its allied Donetsk forces who “lay siege” to Mariupol.

The true story is that the neo-Nazi Azov batallion took scores of Mariupol civilians as human shields since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, and retreated to Azovstal as a last stand. After an ultimatum delivered last week, they are now being completely exterminated by the Russian and Donetsk forces and Chechen Spetsnaz.

Azovstal, part of the Metinvest group controlled by Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, is indeed one of the biggest metallurgic plants in Europe, self-described as a “high-performance integrated metallurgical enterprise that produces coke and sinter, steel as well as high-quality rolled products, bars and shapes.”

Amidst a flurry of testimonials detailing the horrors inflicted by the Azov neo-Nazis on Mariupol’s civilian population, a way more auspicious, invisible story bodes well for the immediate future.

Russia is the world’s fifth largest steel producer, apart from holding huge iron and coal deposits. Mariupol – a steel Mecca – used to source coal from Donbass, but under de facto neo-Nazi rule since the 2014 Maidan events, was turned into an importer. Iron, for instance, started to be supplied from Krivbas in Ukraine, over 200 kilometers away.

After Donetsk solidifies itself as an independent republic or, via referendum, chooses to become part of the Russian Federation, this situation is bound to change.

Azovstal is invested in a broad product line of very useful stuff: structural steel, rail for railroads, hardened steel for chains, mining equipment, rolled steel used in factory apparatus, trucks and railroad cars. Parts of the factory complex are quite modern while some, decades old, are badly in need of upgrading, which Russian industry can certainly provide.

Strategically, this is a huge complex, right at the Sea of Azov, which is now, for all practical purposes, incorporated into the Donetsk People’s Republic, and close to the Black Sea. That implies a short trip to the Eastern Mediterranean, including many potential customers in West Asia. And crossing Suez and reaching the Indian Ocean, are customers all across South and Southeast Asia.

So the Donetsk People’s Republic, possibly part of the future Novorossiya, and even part of Russia, will be in control of a lot of steel-making capacity for southern Europe, West Asia, and beyond.

One of the inevitable consequences is that it will be able to supply a real freight railroad construction boom in Russia, China and the Central Asian ‘stans.’ Railroad construction happens to be the privileged connectivity mode for Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And, crucially, of the increasingly turbo-charged International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

So, mid-term, Mariupol should expect to become one of the key hubs of a boom in north-south routes – INSTC across Russia and linking with the ‘stans’ – as well as major BRI upgrades east-west and sub-BRI corridors.

Interlocked Eurasia

The INSTC’s main players are Russia, Iran and India – which are now, post-NATO sanctions, in advanced interconnection mode, complete with devising mechanisms to bypass the US dollar in their trade. Azerbaijan is another important INSTC player, yet more volatile because it privileges Turkey’s connectivity designs in the Caucasus.

The INSTC network will also be progressively interconnecting with Pakistan – and that means the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key BRI hub, which is slowly but surely expanding to Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s impromptu visit to Kabul late last week was to advance the incorporation of Afghanistan to the New Silk Roads.

All that is happening as Moscow – extremely close to New Delhi – is simultaneously expanding trade relations with Islamabad. All three, crucially, are Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members.

So the grand North-South design spells out fluent connectivity from the Russian mainland to the Caucasus (Azerbaijan), to West Asia (Iran) all the way to South Asia (India and Pakistan). None of these key players have demonized or sanctioned Russia despite ongoing US pressures to do so.

Strategically, that represents the Russian multipolar concept of Greater Eurasian Partnership in action in terms of trade and connectivity – in parallel and complimentary with BRI because India, eager to install a rupee-ruble mechanism to buy energy, in this case is an absolutely crucial Russia partner, matching China’s reported $400 billion strategic deal with Iran. In practice, the Greater Eurasia Partnership will facilitate smoother connectivity between Russia, Iran, Pakistan and India.

The NATO universe, meanwhile, is congenitally incapable of even recognizing the complexity of the alignment, not to mention analyze its implications. What we have is the interlocking of BRI, INTSC and the Greater Eurasia Partnership on the ground – all notions that are regarded as anathema in the Washington Beltway.

All that of course is being designed amidst a game-changing geoeconomic moment, as Russia, starting this Thursday, will only accept payment for its gas in rubles from “unfriendly” nations.

Parallel to the Greater Eurasia Partnership, BRI, since it was launched in 2013, is also progressively weaving a complex, integrated Eurasian network of partnerships: financial/economic, connectivity, physical infrastructure building, economic/trade corridors. BRI’s role as a co-shaper of institutions of global governance, including normative foundations, has also been crucial, much to the despair of the NATO alliance.

Time to de-westernize

Yet only now the Global South, especially, will start to observe the full spectrum of the China-Russia play across the Eurasian sphere. Moscow and Beijing are deeply involved in a joint drive to de-westernize globalist governance, if not shatter it altogether.

Russia from now on will be even more meticulous in its institution-building, coalescing the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – a Eurasian military alliance of select post-Soviet states – in a geopolitical context of irreversible institutional and normative divide between Russia and the West.

At the same time, the Greater Eurasia Partnership will be solidifying Russia as the ultimate Eurasian bridge, creating a common space across Eurasia which could even ignore vassalized Europe.

Meanwhile in real life, BRI, as much as the INSTC, will be increasingly plugged into the Black Sea (hello, Mariupol). And BRI itself may even be prone to re-evaluation in its emphasis of linking western China to western Europe’s shrinking industrial base.

There will be no point in privileging the northern BRI corridors – China-Mongolia-Russia via the Trans-Siberian, and the Eurasian land bridge via Kazakhstan – when you have Europe descending into medieval dementia.

BRI’s renewed focus will be on gaining access to irreplaceable commodities – and that means Russia – as well as securing essential supplies for Chinese production. Commodity-rich nations, such as Kazakhstan and many players in Africa, shall become the top future markets for China.

In a pre-Covid loop across Central Asia, one constantly heard that China builds plants and high-speed railways while Europe at best writes white papers. It can always get worse.

The EU as occupied American territory is now descending, fast, from center of global power to the status of inconsequential peripheral player, a mere struggling market in the far periphery of China’s “community of shared destiny.”

Rufus emergency handled well

Great video. Seriously. 7MB

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Rufus daughter

How would you be able to stand up to this fine example of Rufus action? video 2MB

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U.S. Death Toll Rises To 14.6 Million As The New Bird Flu Plague Spreads Like Wildfire All Over The United States

March 28, 2022 by Michael

In the United States ~~and all across the world,~~ millions upon millions of chickens and turkeys are dying as a result of an absolutely horrifying new bird flu plague. Considering the fact that global food supplies have become extremely tight and even Joe Biden is admitting that food shortages are looming, this is definitely something that we don’t need right now. The very first confirmed case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial flock in the U.S. was confirmed on February 8th, and in less than two months it has spread to facilities all over the nation. Sadly, we have just learned that it has now even reached the top turkey-producing state in the entire country…

For the first time, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in Minnesota, the top turkey-producing state in the nation, said agricultural officials over the weekend. Some 14.6 million birds in domestic flocks have died of HPAI or in culling of infected herds to reduce the spread of the viral disease this year.

To me, that death toll is extremely alarming.

In less than two months, over 14 million chickens and turkeys in the United States have already been wiped out by this plague.

If things are this bad already, what will the total death toll look like six months from now?

One expert that was interviewed by NBC News says that he is anticipating an “explosion” of new cases in the weeks ahead…

The measures may do little to stop the spread of the virus, according to Henry Niman, a virologist and biochemist in Pittsburgh who has been tracking the bird flu’s spread. He is expecting an “explosion” of bird flu cases in birds in the coming weeks.

“This outbreak I think is likely going to be bigger than 2015,” he said, noting that the disease is already widespread in other regions of the world, such as Europe and Canada.

If he is correct, we are potentially facing a true national catastrophe.

Of course it isn’t just the U.S. that is dealing with this. In Canada, HPAI has now been confirmed in southern Ontario…

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says bird flu has been found at a poultry farm in southern Ontario.

The agency says the farm is under a strict quarantine, and the CFIA is establishing movement controls and recommending higher biosecurity at nearby farms.

Europe and Asia are being hit really hard as well. Canda and Europe are being hit.

For example, a new outbreak was just detected at a large facility in Bulgaria…

An outbreak of bird flu on a Bulgarian farm with over 177,000 laying hens has forced authorities to begin slaughtering the remaining flock, the country’s food safety agency said on Monday.

The outbreak in the town of Asenovgrad is the sixth industrial farm hit by the highly pathogenic avian influenza type A in southern Bulgaria since December.

As you read this article, you may be wondering what this plague is going to do to the price of chicken and the price of turkey.

Needless to say, we are headed into unprecedented territory. Just look at what happened to the price of chicken wings in just one week…

Chicken wings averaged $3.82 per pound according to the USDA’s National Retail report last week, compared to $2.99 the week prior and $2.54 last year.

Normally, Americans eat an enormous amount of chicken and an enormous amount of turkey.

But now that we are facing potential shortages and much higher prices, both chicken and turkey may soon be considered “luxury meats”.

For our entire lives, most of us have been able to take extremely cheap meat for granted. It was always there in the grocery stores whenever we wanted it, and before the last couple of years I don’t remember ever hearing about any shortages.

But now everything is changing.

At first, U.S. consumers were willing to absorb higher prices as inflation began to ravage our economy, but now we are starting to witness a shift…

U.S. households have until recently mostly absorbed higher prices on everything from coffee to chicken to clothes, helping companies maintain fat profit margins despite higher input. But that doesn’t mean consumers were happy about paying more for the same goods, which is why the University of Michigan’s sentiment index has steadily deteriorated to the lowest since 2011.

A trip to the grocery store is becoming increasingly painful for most Americans.

If you have been lately, than you know exactly what I am talking about.

But the food inflation that we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

Let’s just hope that this new bird flu plague stays only in birds. According to the official CDC website, the death rate for H5N1 in humans can be extremely high…

More than 700 human infections with Asian HPAI H5N1 viruses have been reported to WHO from primarily 15 countries in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, Europe and the Near East since November 2003. Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt have reported the highest number of human HPAI Asian H5N1 cases to date.

The first report of a human infection with Asian H5N1 in the Americas was in Canada on January 8, 2014 and occurred in a traveler recently returning from China. Although human infections with this virus are rare, approximately 60% of the cases have died.

The good news is that authorities are telling us that it is “unlikely” that a strain will emerge that can spread widely among humans.

But I think that it is interesting to note that the CDC has already “produced a candidate vaccine virus as a precaution”…

But H5N1 has a very high mortality rate, and the longer and larger the wave of outbreaks, the higher the chances it could mutate into a strain that is more infectious to humans. So US health officials are closely monitoring the situation.

The CDC has also produced a candidate vaccine virus as a precaution.

Needless to say, this new bird flu plague that is killing millions of chickens and turkeys is only one piece of the puzzle.

The truth is that we are in the midst of a “perfect storm” which just continues to increase in size and scope.

I recently heard from a farmer that told me that many in his industry are scared to death of this bird flu.

Once it is detected at a facility, all of the birds must be put down.

If that happens, that can be financially catastrophic for a farm.

I am going to keep a very close eye on this story, because this is really big.

Of course so many big things are happening right now, and I expect global events to accelerate even more throughout the rest of 2022.

Something interesting has happened

There is this strange faith in the United States government. Why and how? video 3MB

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Rufus Community

We must work together to make the world a better place. We just simply can no longer think ME-me-me. We have to participate in community and help others. The world needs us. Are you ready? video 1MB

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What does China teach?

It teaches many things. You all might be surprised in how the Chinese school kids learn patriotic songs. Sure as Hell beats diversity training, trans-gen LGBT freedom, and ebonics.

Video 1 – 14MB

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video 2 – 20MB

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Video 3 – 17MB

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What do you think? It’s all pretty wild huh!!!! [wpdiscuz-feedback id="pl6e487x2j" question="Do you think that this is cool or silly?" opened="0"]

Fighting Time

Posted on March 30, 2022

One of the puzzles from the Great War is how the leaders on both sides allowed themselves to get drawn into the war. There are plenty of reasons why each country would want war, including the infamous one that caused a certain Austrian fellow to coin the term “the big lie.” The problem with all of the reasons is they made little sense in light of the obvious costs of war. As a result, the Great War is a great example of how events can tale on a life of their own.

The remarkable thing about that war is that once it settled into trench warfare no one realized the hopelessness of it. One can understand how the initial events would spiral into a global conflict. That is not a new phenomenon. Similarly, you can see how the initial moves in the war made a lot of sense to the leaders on both sides. This was the first industrial war, so they had a lot to learn. New weapons needed new tactics but few people realized that at the start of the war.

The great puzzle of the war is that the sides did not see the hopelessness of the situation once in settled into a stalemate. Both sides were losing tens of thousands of men with each attack, only to gain a few yards of ground. The Battle of the Marne and the subsequent race to the sea made sense. The losses were high, but both sides had hope for quick victory. Two years later the French and Germans lost over a million men at Verdun and the winner got nothing for their trouble.

A century on and we are getting some fresh insight into why the Western leaders in the Great War were incapable of seeing things clearly. The war in Ukraine is proving to be nothing like Western planners imagined. They assumed the Ukrainians would stall the Russians into a stalemate of urban warfare. The world would rally to the sanctions regime and it would quickly be a question of how long the Russians could suffer the economic consequences of the sanctions.

After just one month it is clear this is not happening. The Russians did not fight like the NATO planners imagined. Instead of rushing to Kiev, they pinned the Ukrainian army in the north, using classic maneuver tactics. Meanwhile their main army is systematically destroying the Ukrainian army in the south and east. It also appears the Russians were well prepared for the Ukrainian tactic of digging into urban areas. It is now just a matter of time before the Ukrainian army in the east is lost.

That is just one miscalculation by the West, but it should be concerning. The Russians are not doing anything novel in Ukraine. They are using classic tactics that have been used in Europe since Napoleon. Further, they are following a doctrine they evolved in the Second Chechen war. That was a doctrine Vladimir Putin created as the guy running that war for Russia. It seems that no one in the west bothered to study the man they claim is the new Hitler.

That is only one small part of the miscalculation. The decision to cutoff the Russian central bank appears to have been a massive blunder. The Russians, faced with the threat of their dollar and Euro assets being seized by Western banks have told the West they must pay for goods in rubles. Otherwise, they are forced to send product to the West but not be paid for it. Alternatively, they would have to make concessions in order to get their assets unfrozen by the West.

Why anyone in the West thought this was a good idea is a mystery. It turns out that the Biden administration did not consult with the Federal Reserve. Europe appears to have just followed along without questioning the policy. Now that Russia has countered their move, Europe is in a terrible position. They either support the ruble with massive purchases or they face an imminent shortage of natural gas. That means rationing of energy products could happen as soon as next month.

Of course, the words “shortage” and “rationing” will trigger the natural response, which is hording and price gouging. That will also mean a political response. The German political elite appear to be embracing their inner Marie Antoinette by telling the Germans to wear a sweater as they shiver in the dark. Presumably, they will tell the people to eat bugs when the food shortages hit this summer. Maybe German TV will start celebrating the Turnip Winter as a way to motivate the public.

In fairness, we have to no idea how the Russians and Chinese are viewing this thing as Western media refuses to cover that aspect. We should assume the lack of food riots and social unrest in Russia means they are not teetering on collapse. This was the prediction at the start of this war. The best and brightest in the American managerial elite predicted the Russians would have collapsed by now. They also assumed China would be wavering in their support at this stage.

The point is, we are seeing in real time how supposedly clever political leaders can stagger from one blunder to the next. Unlike the Great War, this war has one side that seems to have updated its thinking since the last century. The Russians are planning for tomorrow, while the West is planning for 1985. The Biden people actually thought his speech in Poland would be his Brandenburg Gate moment. That is the most terrifying event of this crisis so far.

There we see the best parallel to the Great War. The men moving pieces on the board were men of a prior age. They were trying to fight the old wars. Similarly, the political leaders were operating in a 19th century mindset. The trouble was they were armed with 20th century weaponry. Today, the West is led by 20th century men desperate to maintain 20th century arrangements. Their opponent is not Russian, China or the new world order, but the passage of time.

Chinese girl

video. She’s walking in a tight outfit. I really am not fond of the two blue pockets on her ass, but the rest of the outfit looks nice. This is what China is like. Nice new buildings and clean and spacious public areas, all filled with attractive people without tattoos and piercings. Video 5MB

A very attractive bigger gal

I think that she is just perfect. But some like the thinner and more fragile appearing women. I find a fine robust woman quite attractive. video 4MB

Chinese take out

This is a video of DIY take-out wraps. video 4MB

Girl in a pink top

She’s very typical. Nice look. video 1MB

Grandma’s Tomato Aspic

Grandma’s Tomato Aspic is a recipe you probably either love or hate. The last time that I had this was in the 1960s. It died a death well before the time when I would be able to appreciate the food.

This recipe was very popular during the 1950s along with meat aspics, in which cooks aimed to show off their culinary creativity by placing various foods, mainly savory, in a gelatin casing.

Later on, fruit aspics became staples at potlucks and luncheons. This tomato aspic will bring you back to this unique food era and evoke some nostalgia in your home. Bring this savory aspic to a potluck and see if it causes a stir among the younger generation.

Preparation Time25 min

Chilling Time4 hr

Ingredients

1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes, undrained
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
salt and pepper
1/2 lemon (juice)
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 small stalk celery with leaves, finely chopped
sour cream for garnish

Girl in a Wet Market

It’s pretty typical. And she and the Wet market can be seen all over China. It’s almost the entire template found everywhere. video 3MB

Girl in grey inside of a car

I think she is cute, and I really do love her top. Video 18MB

MM eating some local food

This is in a small mom-and-pop restaurant local to where I live in Zhuhai, China. This is what local food is like. Of course, if you read American (Western) media such as the great disinfo site ZeroHedge, you would believe that everyone in China is starving, and it’s a big famine. No. LOL. You have to be a fucking idiot to believe that pack of nonsense. Here’s what the meals are like in the poor sections of China. video 40MB

Fishing in China

It’s like this. Man, he has a live one. video 9MB

Believe in yourself

You can do it. Believe in yourself. Let the rest of the world HOWL! video 13MB

Be the Rufus

Are you worthy of living on this earth? Do not laugh. Well, are you? You have to up your game, and being fat, slovenly and expecting handouts is no longer tolerable. Be the Rufus and help others. video 21MB

Another Cute Chinese Girl

I like her. She’s cute, attractive, and fun. Nice outfit too. video 2MB

Chinese girl

video. Soft pink sweater. Nice thick long black hair. Beautiful eyes. Yup. I’ts China. 2MB

Rufus defends the weak

Yes that’s what a Rufus does. video 2MB

Rufus rescues those in need.

Yes, that’s how it is done. A Rufus is not a spectator. A Rufus is a participant. video. 5MB

Rufus Australia

No time to waste. Take control over the situation and help out those in need. video 5MB

The Day After (1983) film – less in 8 minutes

Let’s keep in mid of the madness that is the United States today. Watch this eight minute summary of the 1983 movie that inspired Ronald Reagan to make peace with Russia.

A Final note…

When the shit hits the fan, your will need to be a Rufus. Are you up for the task? Or are you going to be a selfish evil fuck? video 7MB

Do you want more?

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How Ukraine and Taiwan are similar and why both are being used as pawns to destroy Asia

It’s just not feasible to have a government, or any large institution, that is so totally based on lies as the current Western system to last very long. 

Right now, the West is running on fumes. 

A machine was built by serious people, and it is now being managed by unhinged lunatics, morons, and unrepentant fiends. 

They are crashing the ship. 

-The UNZ

No. Ukraine and Taiwan are not really identical. They are two different situations. But there actually is a similarity between the two. And that similarity is the United States.

The US involvement in both is identical.
The systems employed by the control and manipulation are identical.
Color revolutions took control of both at the same time, identically.
The ruling government is owned and controlled by the United States with the same, identical systems.
And both are used to “suppress” the giant nation next to them identically.

This is obvious.

Now, I am not going to go through all the background, others have. Instead, I am presenting a fine video for your review, and then we will go from there.

Yeah, unhinged America is torching what took a century to build: the global economy, global finance, international trade, international relations, international law, et al. There is no coming back from where things are now. Best case scenario is total clusterfuck. Worst is thermonuclear war and end of Western civilization. I’m better on the latter. 

-Anonymous

First the video

He’s right.

There are many, many, MANY similarities between what is going on in Taiwan and Ukraine. So let’s cut the bullshit.

The systems used to engage Russia are identical to the systems that will be used to engage China.

So, yes, the United States will cross a Chinese RED LINE and start a war

It’s not if. It’s when.

Putin looks clinical and professional.
Kim looks unsure.
And Xi should be avoided at all costs.

-<redacted>

Remember…

The United States (and it’s proxy nations) are proceeding in their plans to “suppress” Russia and then “pivot to Asia” to “suppress” China.

The United States (leading the West) are still following the same tired-old “take over the world” script written decades ago, and implementing the plans set forth. (Follow the links for the RAND plans to initiate war. When you read them, you will discover that the US government has been following them exactly, word for word, precisely to the letter.)

Russia suppression via a RED LINE tripwire event (Ukraine), and a false flag for involvement. The RAND operational plan for war via Ukraine.

Then, a “pivot to Asia” with a …

China suppression via a RED LINE tripwire event (Taiwan), and a false flag for involvement. The RAND operational plan for war via Taiwan.

These plans have been telegraphed, and well understood by the Russian and Chinese leadership. And since the United States is following that old script, they are easy to anticipate and handle.

And they will use Japan and Australia to make it happen. How do we know? Well, the RAND report on how to suppress China clearly makes this point.

Australia’s defense spending tops $500b

That’s a lot of money. Money that could end all poverty in Australia and cut the prices of food, gas and rent by 35% for everyone! But no. It’s going towards American-manufactured weapons and weapons systems. Sheech!

Dominic Giannini

More than half a trillion dollars will go towards Australia's defence forces by the end of the decade to combat "a period of profound uncertainty and disruption", according to the 2022/23 budget papers.

Almost half of the $575 billion spend will be pumped into defence capabilities, including $38 billion to boost the workforce by 18,500 personnel, $50 billion for frigates and destroyers, and $10 billion for naval infrastructure.

There is also $6.4 billion for Collins class submarines, $3.5 billion for up to 75 Abrams tanks and armoured vehicles and $1 billion for howitzers and resupply vehicles…

AUS Defense

But the “news” is being wishy-washy on everything. There’s “no proof” don’t you know. It’s all opinion and alleged. Everything is suspect. Nothing is real, and it’s an onslaught of lies that work to avoid the simple truth of matters, and disguise them in vague terms.

Consider Russia.

Is the United States at war with Russia?

Easy question. Easy answer.

Yes it is.

It is also at war with China. Call it economic war, hybrid-war, cyber-war, social war, color-revolution war, proxy war… but a war is a war. Stop pretending that it isn’t. You all should be ashamed. Really, really ashamed of yourselves.

A war, is a war.

Stop pretending that it is not.

Finian Cunningham

March 23, 2022

The Pentagon has admitted it is providing the Ukrainian military with “actionable intelligence” in combat operations against Russian forces. If that is confirmed then the United States is at war with Russia. The implications are grave for two nuclear powers.

The admission came last week during congressional testimony by Ronald Moultrie, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. He was speaking to the House Armed Services Committee, proudly telling Congress members how the Pentagon was helping the Ukrainian military fight Russian forces: “We are making a difference in accurate, actionable, and timely intel.”

That indicates the Americans are involved in providing information to the Ukrainians for lethal targeting of Russian troops.

It is an incredibly sensitive admission. Only two weeks before Moultrie’s testimony, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee had reportedly sought to downplay any such informational exchange between American and Ukrainian forces. “We are providing some intelligence” to Ukraine, but we’re “not providing the kind of real-time targeting,” said Representative Adam Smith who chairs the committee. The downplaying is understandable because such intelligence-sharing implies that the U.S. is a direct participant in the conflict.

One possible area where the Pentagon is “making a difference” is the reported high number of senior Russian commanders who have been killed on the battlefield. Since the Russian intervention in Ukraine on February 24, it is claimed in Western media reports that up to six top-ranking officers have been killed.

The latest reported victim was the deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Andrey Paliy. The governor of Sevastopol, Crimea, was quoted by Reuters as acknowledging the death of the naval chief on Sunday. He was apparently killed during the battle for the port city of Mariupol.

War is war!

Yes, The United States is at war. It is fighting both Russia and China right now, and the battles are a raging all over. But, in this article, I want to discuss the idea that all three nations fight wars differently.

United States

It follows plans made by think-tanks. it employs figurehead puppets to seduce the people, while the actual decisions ae mde behind closed doors in corporate offices, and smoking private rooms.

In action, the United States acts as a crazed lunatic, and uses mass resources to destroy everything. It is like a plague of locusts. Destroy everything, then come in and take what you want, and salt the earth beahind.

Russia

While Russia might be strong, powerful and nuclear, they are careful and humane.They have the power to destroy the world fifteen times over, but refrain from doing so. They still hope that some day, they will be respected in the East. So they try to be proper, kind and modest. But, if they are backed in a corner, they will be absolutely ruthless. They are like hard-core bikers on meth.

China

China, on the other hand…

… are lethal and nasty. Merit driven. Work together as one singular organism, and utilize cutting edge technology in massive numbers. They are like a cat after a rat. It’ll be over in seconds.

Why?

Well, the Chinese don’t think like Europeans, Westerners, or Russians. They are different.

It was some twenty years after the end of the Vietnam war that a security conference was held between leading military figures from both America and Vietnam. Following the conference a U.S. Air Force General approached a Vietnamese General.

The American had been a fighter pilot captain during the conflict, the Vietnamese general had been a Colonel in the N.V.A. The American asked (paraphrasing): “You have to tell me, we knew your Army was continually crossing the Mekong, we flew sorties up and down the river and could never find your bridges.” “I know,” said the Vietnamese, “we built them three feet under water.”

In that instant the American understood why America lost the war. His “Road to Damascus” moment was informed by how the different combatants approached problems. Had that been an American problem, how an Army crosses a wide, deep and fast flowing river, they would have solved the problem differently. They would have built a suspension bridge, they would have had bases on either side to protect it. They would have had Bowling alleys and Burger Kings and would have been flying in Bob Hope to entertain the troops. Why? Because they could, when you have resources they become the answer to every problem. The Vietnamese didn’t have resources, so they were resourceful.

And that, as the American realized, was why the Vietnamese won, and America lost.

The general may have learned a lesson, but if he told anyone, no one listened. Many of the same mistakes were repeated in Afghanistan, with the same results. Resources are not the answer to every problem. As with Americas war on drugs, war on crime, war on poverty, all resources do is obscure the underlying problem and present false, ineffective solutions.

-Strategic Culture

Chinese girl – Fish body

The Chinese idea of beauty is to have a body like a fish. Also known as an “S” shape. This woman shows it off. video 1MB

Quick summary before we move on…

Both Russia and China have formed a new nation. It is a united Asia. They share trade, technology and intelligence.

Both Russia and China are being attacked by the United States.

It is on a host of levels and avenues, and as much as possible, proxy nations and entities are being used to disguise the United States from culpibility. That’s the situation. The entire world knows this, it’s just that (for some reason) it’s taboo to speak the truth.

I argue that World War III is being fought right now.
I argue that it has been going on, at least since 2008.
I argue that China and Russia are aware of this.
I also argue that they have waited until after their 4FEB22 agreement to take the necessary actions…

So what is next?

Offensive actions.

We’ve been on the road to perdition for a long time, but we came to a peak on that highway in 2019 and the path has been straight down since, with our chariot of fire accelerating at breakneck speed towards its final destination with catastrophe and ruin. 

The rise and fall of the American Empire will be far more rapid than the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. 

With the inept and reckless leadership in place presently, I only hope we still have a nation after they successfully provoke World War 3.

-Burning Platform

Both China and Russia, are not “punching bags”. They can only take so much bullshit before they decide to “turn the tables” and go on the offensive.

No. I am not really talking about Ukraine. That’s a military-technical measure that occurred on the border of Russia. What I am talking about is offensive actions against the source of the conflict.

The source of the conflict is the United States.

And it has to be within a near-by timetable. It cannot be delayed. The United States is building a large number of Aircraft Carriers, building and setting up a Pacific-NATO known as the QUAD, and the longer this action is delayed, the greater the rist of a massive, and horrific Mutual Assured Destruction fiasco.

Both Russia and China have to be smart; be timely, and be proactive in their actions.

Bioweapons labs in the Ukraine

Russia has lost all of it’s biological weapons, research and systems upon the fall of the Soviet Union. The ONLY nation that maintains the technology, the labs, and the systems to inject them into societies is the Untied States.

And they have hundreds of these labs, and bases all around the world.

During the invasion of the Ukraine, the Russians have been able to capture, and secure a large number of the labs and study them…

Igor Kirillov, Head of the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, explained this week the results of the analysis of documents found in Ukrainian military biolabs:

The U.S. funded biolabs in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov and Kharkov, awarding $32 million, in order to “study” pathogens of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis and hantaviruses. Their use can be disguised as natural disease outbreaks.
Six families of viruses (including coronaviruses) and three types of pathogenic bacteria (causative agents of plague, brucellosis and leptospirosis) have been identified as having characteristics suitable for infecting humans from animals. Research has even been carried out on the transmission of diseases through bats.
There are a number of documents confirming the transfer of biological samples taken in Ukraine to the territory of third countries, including Germany, Great Britain and Georgia.
The transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza by wild birds was studied at the Kharkiv Institute of Veterinary Medicine.
The transfer of 5,000 blood serum samples taken from Ukrainian residents to the Pentagon-supported Richard Lugar Center in Tbilisi, Georgia, was confirmed.
Another 773 assays were transferred to the United Kingdom, while an agreement was signed to transfer “unlimited quantities” of infectious supplies to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany’s leading animal disease center.

The findings of these biolabs cannot be ignored.

Ukraine as one of the satellite states of the United States served as a space for biological weapons to start gaining ground in the new forms of warfare against Russia (and the world, looking at it in perspective).

It is suspicious that the Ukrainian-US biolabs are located along the perimeter of the Russian border, considering that these facilities were also reported to have used samples from people of different ethnicities living in the Russian Federation and other Eurasian countries. It should be considered to be an attack vector, and very nefarious one at that.

If you were a responsible leader, you would recognize the reality of this threat vector. Obtain the materials and technology, and add it to your arsenal of weaponary.

History of using Bioweapons to “suppress” China, Russia and Iran.

I have covered this elsewhere. I have discussed this on multible levels, and in various media. Including video interviews, television, radio, and my articles on MM.

The United States waged biowarfare on China starting (maybe longer, but I did not go that far back) in 2017. This was by direction of John Bolton, and under the permission of President Donald Trump.

There were eight bioweapons (min) that were used against livestock. The goal was to create a famine inside of China. They were dispersed in a selection of ways and means, with the use of drones to contaminate and infect the widely spread out pig farms of great interest. As the drone componentry had tooling marks indicative of United States or UK manufacture.

Sloppy. Very sloppy guys.

When these did not work, three bioweapons were used to “suppress” the Chinese people. The first was COVID on CNY. I suppose you could argue that it was the “crown jewel”. As the “B strain” that hit China was particuliarly lethal and really caused a mess. While the “A strain” was released inside the United States and it’s allies six months early so that those nations would obtain “herd immunity”.

The other two bioweapons were really very bad.

They were two really nasty lethal viruses that both caused your internal organs to liquify and forced the compromised to vomit them out, or shit them out. The first was a mutiated tick virus with HIV inserts that broke out in Beijing; a city that has no ticks what so ever. And the second a modification of a swine flu but was airborne, also had HIV inserts, and high transmissibility.

But of course, China was at DEFCON 1.

China found the bioweapons, tracked them to their sources, and went full lock-down. And as soon as they were discovered, well…

…Donald Trump was evacuated, and the USA went to DEFCON 1. As the “news” said, “as a precaution” and “the President had contacted coronavirus.”

When nothing happened by China, three days later, Donald Trump left from his bunker, and declared that he was “cured” or coronavirus within three days. And nothing was presented to the public in the “news” media.

But China… heh, heh…

…China does things on it’s own timetable, and at it’s own pace for it’s own advantage. And they never forget.

They MIGHT forgive, but they will not forget.

Lethal Chicken virus

And right now, things are still in process. The United States is all in alarm and proceeding in their attacks against China, and Russia. It’s active. It’s full-spectrum. It’s everything (except the kitchen sink) full spectrum (minus overt kintetic fighting USA to Asia) and very active on all levels.

So, if you watch the Western “news” you won’t be aware of any of this. (There’s) Thousands of articles investigating every single nuiance about how Russia is losing the war in the Ukraine, the effect of how great the sanctions against Russia are, and how evil and villainous China is.

But NOTHING about China and Russia making offensive moves against the “bright and shiny house on the Hill”; Washington DC and the United States.

But there is some UNRELATED NEWS.

News about chickens. News about Turkeys. News about Pigeons.

Odd news. Seemingly unimportant news.

From the CDC…

March 7, 2022—To date, highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses (“H5N1 bird flu viruses”) have been detected in U.S. wild birds in 14 states  and in commercial and backyard poultry in 13 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspective Service (APHIS). 

Based on available epidemiologic and virologic information about these viruses, CDC believes that the risk to the general public’s health from current H5N1 bird flu viruses is low, however some people may have job-related or recreational exposures to birds that put them at higher risk of infection. 

CDC is watching this situation closely and taking routine preparedness and prevention measures in case this virus changes to pose a greater human health risk.

Right now, the H5N1 bird flu situation is primarily an animal health issue. The U.S. Department of Interior and USDA APHIS are the lead federal agencies for this situation. 

They are respectively responsible for outbreak investigation and control of bird flu in wild birds and in domestic birds (poultry). USDA has publicly posted the genetic sequences of several of the recently detected U.S. H5N1 bird flu viruses. These viruses are from clade 2.3.4.4b, which is the most common H5N1 bird flu virus worldwide at this time. Comparing information about these newer viruses to previously circulating H5N1 bird flu viruses helps inform the human health risk assessment.

Background on H5N1

Ancestors of the H5N1 bird flu viruses infecting wild birds and poultry in the U.S. beginning in 2021 first emerged in southern China in 1996 and caused large poultry outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997, which resulted in 18 human infections. 

The bird outbreak was controlled, but H5N1 bird flu viruses re-surfaced in 2003 to spread widely in birds throughout Asia, and later in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, causing poultry outbreaks and sporadic human infections. 

Related H5N1 bird flu viruses were even found in wild birds and poultry in the U.S. and Canada during 2014 and 2015, causing large poultry outbreaks, but then they disappeared. Since 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) external icon, has received reports from 19 countries of more than 860 human infections with H5N1 bird flu viruses, with about 53 percent of those resulting in death. CDC has spent many years studying the properties of H5N1 viruses over the years.

Once detected in polutry, the entire farm must be killed off. There is no way to stop the virus. Once infected, the entire population becomes infected and dies.

It has a very high rate of transmissibly. It is quick and infects the entire bird population within days.

The outbreak is in 13 states within the United States. The CDC says that there is nothing to be concerned about.

The death rate for those unfortunate humans who have contacted this virus is 53%

Roughly 53% of people diagnosed with H5N1 and 50% of people diagnosed with H7N9 have died.

-Avian Flu

Daegal report review

I do not know what lies in the future. But I do know that the future has been remote viewed. And the results were presented in The Deagal Report.

The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collects data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.

It’s a work of “love” from some retired intelligence assets, and like most of us ex-spooks, it’s hosted outside of the United States. Just like MM here. We have VERY good reasons to do so. Reasons that are far too complex to get involved in right this moment. But we DO KNOW what we are doing. Never doubt that.

Deagel is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.

If so, then it must be assumed that its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.

Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.

Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?

However, in light of recent events, we are obliged to consider a possible connection between the projected massive reduction in the population of certain countries, forecast by Deagel, and other trends going on right now.

Trends?

What trends?

Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.

And so on and so forth…

And then, theres the nuclear angle

Russia is on full nuclear alert. China is on full nuclear alert, and the United States is moving it’s nuclear weapons all around Asia. Just like it was depicted in the movie Threads (2.5 minutes)

”]

The Deagel scenario

The Deagel corporation was asked to explain the thinking behind its strange set of population and output figures. While we cannot take its response at face value, it nonetheless paints a picture that is very similar to the world we now see. And this is not an exaggeration at all.

Consider…

[1] A fake American GDP

In short, they argued that the US government has greatly over-stated the real level of US GDP. This means the country will be fatally exposed when the next economic crisis strikes. And an economic crisis is striking.

How can the GDP be so high that a full 61% of Americans are so poor that they do not pay Federal Income Taxes? 

It defies rational understanding.

[2] A Pandemic Scenario

They also take into account a “pandemic scenario” – their term – caused by Ebola or a similar pathogen. This, they say, would cause an exceptionally high death rate, placing extreme pressure on healthcare providers across America and greatly reducing economic output.

[3] A financial crisis with the US Dollar

This pandemic could quickly spiral out of control and create an international financial crisis:

“The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending Ponzi schemes such as the Stock Exchange and the pension funds.”

Trying to figure it out…

They try to explain the predicted dramatic fall in the population of the US by reference to a massive outward migration of millions of Americans seeking economic relief in other countries, but this is unconvincing.

They seem to concede this themselves when they add a further explanatory factor – widespread suicide in response to economic distress. But this too is unsatisfactory.

Their primary reason for predicting a colossal drop in the population of the US by 2025 – a fall of up to 70 percent – is the scale and severity of the alleged pandemic.

As they put it,

“the death toll will be horrible.”

Map

Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.

Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!

Timing

By all accounts, historically, the massive drop in population at this time is validated by the “Fourth Turning” predictions. The date and timing all agree with the Strauss and Howe model for America.

This model is United States centrist, and acknowledges that different societies and different cultures have different “turnings” and generational changes.

Casualty Figures

The casualty figures are gargantuan. And they are all centered around the Western block.

- - United States
  - Europe / NATO
  - QUAD (minus India that opted out)

What a coincidence!

This 2012 remote viewing would associate such an enormous death toll with a bi-polar world, and that the East (Asia) would be unscathed, while the West (The USA) would have massive casualties.

It’s an American centered fiasco

- - USA Leadership = 70% drop in population
  - Europe / NATO = 50 – 70% drop in population
  - QUAD = 20 – 35% drop in population

Based on historical precedents, and the Deagel predictions, these kinds of numbers and figures can only be associated with an American centered disaster. Not really a global one. Because if it was a global disaster, then the causality figures would be more uniform.

Europe

The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:

Aside from massive devistation in Europe, you have to admit… the numbers are horrific. They are pretty darn specific. Don’t you know.

In 2020, Deagel revised their assessment of the 2012 forecast. They did not change the data nor the results. They reviewed the possible causes as things developed…

Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast

BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:

In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically.

This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.

Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.

After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:

[1] The Western world success model has been built over societies with no resilience that can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt.
[2] The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”

The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.

It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable.

The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.

The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – has been the major driver in the 2012 forecast along with a confluence of crisis with a devastating outcome.

As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.

The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people.

Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader.

The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago.

So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.

It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide.

The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.

The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors.

But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.

The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue.

Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.

Not everybody has to die.

Migration can also play a positive role in this.

The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.

Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.

If they remain tied to the former World Order they will go down along with the Western powers. However, they won’t experience the same kind of brutal decline that the Western powers will experience so brazenly. This is partially because they are poorer and (obviously) not diverse enough. Instead they are stronger than the Western powers because they are actually quite homogeneous. This is their advantage. And that they are used to deal with some sort of hardship. Though, not precisely the one that is coming.

If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources.

We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.

With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.)

If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.

There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.

However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one.

The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.

The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.

Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.

Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry.

Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.

Western Europe (not to mention the United States) was never interested in the development of Russia or forming anything other than a master slave relationship with Russia providing raw materials and toeing the line of the West.

It was clear then and today is a fact.

Russia has been preparing for a major war since 2008 and China has been increasing her military capabilities for the last 20 years. Today China is not a second tier power compared with the United States. Both in military and economic terms China is at the same level and in some specific areas are far ahead.

In the domain of high-tech 5G has been a success in the commercial realm but the Type 055 destroyer is also another breakthrough with the US gaining a similar capability (DDG 51 Flight IIII) by mid of this decade (more likely by 2030).

Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lockdown in China.

Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.

Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.

The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.

[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war.

[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.

The sneaky first strike would involve all Russian missile strategic forces branches (bombers and ground-based missiles) at the different stages of such attack that would be strategic translation of what was seen in Syria in November 2015.

There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.

Western intelligence had no clue.

The irony is that since the end of the Cold War the United States has been maneuvering through NATO to achieve a position to be able to execute a first strike (nuclear) over Russia and now it seems that the first strike may still occur but the country finished would be the United States.

Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given.

This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.

That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.

At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.

We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris.

Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.

Going to war might seem a quick and easy solution to restore the lost hegemony to finally find them into a France 1940 moment. Back then France did not have nuclear weapons to turn a defeat into a victory. The West might try that swap because the unpleasant prospect of not being Mars and Venus but rather a bully and his dirty bitch running away in fear while the rest of the world is laughing at them.

If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.

The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war.

It does not matter.

A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.

Spinach and Cheese Stromboli

Need something that’s classically Italian? Try a Spinach and Cheese Stromboli. Refrigerated pizza dough is our shortcut to making this tasty meal in less than 15 minutes. It’s a quick and easy vegetarian stromboli recipe that’s guaranteed to fill you up. We’re sure you’ll agree, this simple Italian dinner is unquestionably tasty.

What You’ll Need

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (13.8-ounce) package refrigerated pizza dough

What to Do

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add spinach and garlic and sauté 3 to 5 minutes, or until garlic is golden. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, combine ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, the oregano, and salt. Add spinach mixture and stir until well blended.
Unroll pizza dough and with your fingertips or the heel of your hand, spread dough out to a 10- x 15-inch rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise to make two 5- x 15-inch rectangles. Spread half the spinach mixture onto each piece of dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge. Fold each piece of dough over and pinch the edges to seal securely. Place on prepared baking sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Statements of prediction

Including remote viewing into the calculus, and taking into account all the knowns…

The American leadership class does not contain diplomatic professionals. Instead there are unskilled political donors who are making life and death decisions.
The mRNA vaccination is a real mystery, and there HAS to be a reason behind using it instead of the traditional “Dead Host” vaccination.
The approved 2021 Federal budget includes an enormous military funding outlay that is obviously in preparation for a major war.
The American government, and their media are all talking about an upcoming major war with China.
American military is retreating from Afghanistan, and four bases in Korea, while making QUAD arrangements with Australia and Japan.
Red Line violations with Russia provoking a war in Ukraine.
Red Line posturing with China concerning Taiwan.
The end of the USD.
Sanction-crazy United States and threatening the entire world with “consequences”.
A unified Asian block to include Russia, China, India and Iran.

All of this is very disturbing, and considered alone would be cause enough to suggest that a major war is just on the horizon.

But…

America (The United States) is crumbling from rot from within…

Racial hate.
Proliferation of firearms, and the establishment of armed groups.
Balkanization.
Economic bubbles.
Social bubbles.
The wealth gap is enormous.
Infrastructure funding is too late.
Rules, regulations and laws are all off the charts.

Couple that with a failed bio-weapons attack on China, and the fiasco which was the Trump neocon administration, followed by the bumbling Biden administration… and hard-core neocon Religious extremists, and industry interests desiring of conflict, war and strife (all for various reasons), and you have a poisonous stew.

The “Genie is out of the bottle”, and I do not think that the looming “mountains” on the horizon can be avoided. The inertia associated with the clustering of world-lines is way too strong. So my guess (and I hope that I am wrong) is that the United States will sleep-walk into a war with Asia, and then before it happens, Asia will strike preemptively.

No matter what the details are, the remote viewing forecast is quite clear.

The United States Military Empire is going to start another major war. It is intended to be a distraction from the domestic failures, and regardless as to how much money President Biden is plowing into the economy, it’s not going to make any difference.

America is toast.

Burnt to a crisp; blackened, burned toast.

And it’s only a matter of time…

And then when the moron, presses the button, flicks the switch, or twists the knob, all Hell will break loose.

Engage Russia in warfare via proxy.
Engage China in warfare via proxy.

All in all, the USA will suffer horribly, and the combination of everything else will only turn a fiasco into an Hellish nightmare.

Ooey-Gooey Bacon Grilled Cheese

A classic grilled cheese sandwich is good, but a grilled cheese sandwich that’s made with three different kinds of cheeses, and a creamy, bacony dip is even better. This Ooey-Gooey Bacon Grilled Cheese is going to blow you away with its incredible taste. Once you’ve had a taste of it this way, you’ll find it hard to go back to the old way!

What You’ll Need

1/2 cup refrigerated cheddar and bacon dip
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
8 slices homestyle white bread
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened

Senario Flush Out

It appears, assuming that…

Degal remote viewing is correct (and it appears to be)
The USA continues on the Ukraine proxy attack. (Certainly appears that way.)
The USA continues with the Taiwan proxy attacks… (All evidence confirm…)

Then, we can expect a confluence of a number of calamity vectors. Economic, Medical and Military.

Economic

Economic; Loss of USD as a global currency.
Economic; Deshrouding of the fake GDP towards it’s actual value.
Economic; Collapse of the Western trade / logistic systems. (I hope not.)
Economic; Sanction blowback. (The US cannot sanction the world.)
Economic; Energy strangulation. (And the domino effect…)

Medical

Bioweapon / pandemic effects. (Not just Covid.)
Lack of serious quarantine and containment procedures. (It’s binary.)
A decrease in the access to medicines (because of trade / sanctions).
Overwhelmed medical care facilities. (Largest contributor.)

Military

Nuclear strikes. (Actual or threat vectors.)
Shipping blockages. (Part of the USA plan, but sanctions can enable.)
Regional conflicts and revolutions.

I argue that we are looking at the confluence of these three vectors and they center like a target reticle cross-hair on the United States and it’s allies. All of them can contribute synergistically towards a regional catastrophic result.

But… Keep in mind.

You can control YOUR reality. And maybe this mountain of turmoil is sitting off somewhere on your world-line template, you can still navigate around it. Remember, after all, for all the turmoil and strife during World War II, Canada, South America, and Africa was relatively left alone.

Maybe you don’t want to move to Greenland, Patagonia, or Zambia. But you don’t really need to. All you need to do is control your little bit of reality. And if you do that, then everything will work out just fine.

Some final thoughts

Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012. 

They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic. 
They PREDICTED an Australian military alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.
They PREDICTED a bio-polar world separated into East and West.

All of which came true by 2020.

Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.

They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.

There will be [1] a massive die off of people in America, and Australia. The rest of the world will fare much better. And, most importantly, a [2] bio-weapon or pandemic figured predominantly in their calculus.

In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemic that would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die-off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.

In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad (being in the United States, and getting the “safe” bioweapon), and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war with bio-weapons used simultaneously.

Whether there is a nuclear event, or a bio-weapon event, no matter who caused it, or who instigated it, America will be absolutely and totally devastated. A 70% kill off implies that America would indeed be thrown back to the bronze age.

My advice?

You cannot change what is going to happen. It is pretty much set in stone. The only thing that you can do is to save yourself.

Flee the United States as fast as you can.

Go to a nation with a safer rating on the Deagel scale.

Consider fleeing any nation that is allied with the United States as well. The UK, and those European nations that are part of NATO perform very poorly. Though you will probably have an easier time of it than being the United States, it will still be a very rough life in those places.

It will be a scene out of the movie “Threads“, and you all should get a copy of this movie and watch it right now.

Threads Nuclear Detonation Scene

And when you watch it, keep in mind that what it portrays is EXACTLY what Deagal predicts will happen to America and it’s allies. Watch it and realize that you have two to three short years to save yourself and your family.

A final comment

Everyone is aware that nuclear war is horrible and undesirable. However, the American leadership are making ZERO efforts to deescalate tensions in the Ukraine. Instead they are throwing weapons there. They are making ZERO efforts to deescalate tensions around Taiwan.

Russia and China have formed a major block. THEY DO NOT PLAY.

I cannot predict the future.

But others have.

This is what they predicted… 10 minute video. It is well worth viewing.

Do you want more?

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Russia and China has become one nation

Not reported that way in the West, eh? But, yeah. That’s exactly what has happened.

This article is VERY IMPORTANT.

I am configuring it using my MM "huge smorgasbord technique". Thus, it includes food, girls, and other things. It's fun, interesting, and it absolutely stops Trolls and 'Bots.  You will find these little green comment boxes throughout the article, and I welcome you all to comment using them. Because if you wait until the end of the article, you will have forgotten much of the various, diverse content provided.

The comment boxes look like this...

…

Warning: A lot of videos here. To watch them either reload the embedded video (most are under one minute long) or click on the link above the video. They are well worth the time to watch.

I came across this excellent TASS article summarizing the 4 February 2022 Russia/China Joint Declaration. It’s a helpful reminder, on just how far-reaching the Declaration is and the principles it’s based upon.

These are some the many, many key paragraphs, although there are more:

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China. We have been talking a great deal about strategic interaction. This is a real embodiment of this interaction," Maslov said.

Given the rejection by the West of everything Russian and Chinese, it actually seems probable that the Declaration went unread by American “high officials”, meaning Blinken, Austin and Sullivan, since they already had formalized their escalation plans.

The American “leadership” are still following their check-lists and scripts.

But the reality is something very different. Russia and China have unified. They are as one singular nation, and they coordinate as one singular nation.

It’s not just a treaty. It is the de facto union of Russia and China together.

It is the formation of a new POWER BLOCK.

It is equivalent to when the 13 American states formed the “United States” of America in 1776. It is equivalent to when the European Union was formed, and NATO was created. It is really, really BIG news.

Yet…

The entire West is pretending, or unaware, of the reality. They still are treating Asia as separate nations. They think there’s Russia. They deal deal with Russia. Then once dealt with, they “pivot” to China. Then they deal with China. Then once, Russia and China are done with, they take on India. Then, once India is finished, the “mop up” with Iran.

That’s the plan.

And it relies on a world that does not exist any longer.

Let’s look at how important this unification of Asia is. We will do so through the lens of history.

The formation of the United States

The 13 colonies were the group of colonies that rebelled against Great Britain, fought in the Revolutionary War, and founded the United States of America. Here’s the 13 colonies list:

- - Connecticut
  - Delaware
  - Georgia
  - Maryland
  - Massachusetts Bay
  - New Hampshire
  - New Jersey
  - New York
  - North Carolina
  - Pennsylvania
  - Rhode Island
  - South Carolina
  - Virginia

In late 1774, a group of Patriot leaders at the Continental Congress meeting set up their own government to resist Great Britain, and, on April 19, 1775, the first battles of the Revolutionary War were fought at Lexington and Concord. During the war, each of the 13 colonies formed a Provincial Congress to lead them, now that they no longer accepted the laws of Great Britain.

On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies declared themselves free and independent states at the Second Continental Congress by signing the Declaration of Independence. This document unified the thirteen colonies into one nation known as “The United States of America”.

In many ways, this is exactly what has just occurred in Asia.

There are two nations;

- - Russia
  - China

On February 4, 2022, a very signifigant document was signed that unified the two nations into one solid singular nation. The treaty and agreements are tighter and stronger, and more substantive that the US Constitution that binds the United States together. The agreement if far stronger than the EU that bonds Europe together. It is a new kind of agreement. Better. Stronger. More detailed, than anything ever seen on this planet previously.

Russia-China Partnership Agreement

On February 4, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have signed a joint statement in Beijing before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony held in China.

This statement was accepted as a bold declaration of the “New World Order” and the partnership between the two states without any limitations.

The statement can be divided into four parts:

- - the manifest on the new world order,
  - Grand Eurasian Partnership,
  - the United States (US) aggression, and
  - cooperation against US aggression.

It should be noted that it is much more than just an inclusive agreement and it will change the balance of power in world politics.

The content of the contract can be summarized as in the following:

About the New World Order, the sides believed that a new period has started in international relations, and global society demands a new international order based on development in a multi-polar world. Also, the sides suggested that multi-lateral ties have been quite significant in foreign policy and aimed at developing global governance. In addition to that, they offered a powerful United Nations is needed to provide multi-polar in international relations. In addition to that, the G20 format was supported instead of G7 since it is much more inclusive. Also, China and Russia believed that they played and will play an active role in the WTO.
On Grand Eurasian Partnership, the sides have declared that the relations between the two countries are much stronger than it was in the Cold War Period. Also, China’s continuing economic and political project is known as the “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI). In the statement, it was claimed that following the BRI, a new Grand Eurasian Partnership would be established, contributing to cultural, economic, political, and historical relations of the region.
Russa and China against NATO. China and Russia have declared that they are against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as it approached the Black Sea region and started to try to contain Russia in the latest Ukraine-Russia conflict. The sides believe that NATO is following the mentality of the Cold War period; however, as mentioned before, the world order is changing, as they suggested. Besides NATO, the sides indicated that the policies of the US in the India-Pacific region are dangerous and threatening the peace-building attempts in the Asia-Pacific region. They claimed that Russia and China are concerned about the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom (AUKUS), which provides for deeper cooperation between its members in areas involving strategic stability, in particular their decision to initiate collaboration in the field of nuclear-powered submarines.
Against the United States. On the other hand, the most crucial element of the joint declaration was the alliance against the US. The sides declared that the US could escalate the colorful revolutions in the region and stand against that. Also, the sides have put their views on contrasting against terrorism, that they will not let politicization of terrorism, and using terrorism as a tool of interrupting the domestic politics of any country. The two countries highlighted that they would stand against the sanctions of the US by struggling with economic inequality.

Responses

Some responses were given after the declaration of that Joint Statement.

United States. It says (paraphrasing) “It’s a trivial attempt to circumvent our power and influence.” The US officials stated that, with the Joint Statement, that it was of no real consequence. They said that, China’s Xi Jinping could not protect Russia from sanctions. That, in their mind, was the sole purpose of the agreement.

Australia. The Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne criticized the Agreement. Australia stated,

“The joint statement lays out a vision of the world that differs from Australia’s and our allies’ and partners’, and I’m convinced it includes all of our Quad partners.”

Also, in an interview with the ABC on Wednesday, she claimed that the tight security situation at the Russia-Ukraine border did not overshadow the importance the US places on the Indo-Pacific region. Further, Russia and China have slammed the United States’ Indo-Pacific Strategy, rejecting the establishment of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region. She said Australia is very worried about the Russian military build-up along the Ukraine border and called for a reciprocal conversation to de-escalate the situation.

United Kingdom. The chair of the UK’s parliamentary defense committee, Tobias Ellwood, also claimed that “Russia provides oil, gas and military hardware. China, in return, provides advanced technology,” he wrote, adding that:

“Today, we are seeing the birth of a potent anti-democratic alliance. It is on track to see the world shear into two spheres of competing influence. And we have let it happen.”

Which has me scratching my head. has this Bozo Tobias Ellwood actually read the document. It actually clearly states…

"The sides believe that democracy is a means of citizens' participation in the government of their country with the view to improving the well-being of population and implementing the principle of popular government."

Joint statement by Russia, China formalizes bilateral alliance — analyst

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

In their joint statement two countries described the principles they would rely on in developing global cooperation, Alexey Maslov notes

MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. The joint statement Russia and China adopted on Friday outlines the principles of new global cooperation and formalizes their bilateral alliance, the director of the Moscow State University’s Asia and Africa Institute, expert of the discussion club Valdai, Alexey Maslov, told TASS on Friday.

“This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China. We have been talking a great deal about strategic interaction. This is a real embodiment of this interaction,” Maslov said.

He stressed that in their joint statement Russia and China described the principles they would rely on in developing global cooperation.

“These principles are absolutely not new ones,” he remarked. “In fact, the statement heralds a return to the original UN principles that were laid down back in the 1940s and 1950s.”

The expert believes that the document is a clear sign the countries “share common values, a common understanding of democracy and the idea of the national nature of this democracy, pool together many international projects, the EAEU and the One Belt-One Road and also discuss interaction in the Arctic.”

Maslov stressed that the security issues mentioned in the statement were the most important of all. “A whole list of new types of security was determined there, including cybersecurity, on which the countries will cooperate,” he said.

The analyst stressed that the countries respected each other’s positions. “China does not threaten the interests of Russia and avoids intervention in Russian affairs. Likewise, Russia does not meddle in China’s affairs,” Maslov said.

New era of international relations

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

Maslov explained that the “new era” of cooperation was characterized by the need to restore trust in the broadest sense: in world trade, in the military field, in the economy and so on.

“The countries propose if not a program, then at least a declaration of principles a future world is to be based on,” he added.

The expert stressed that this statement “formalizes polarization of forces, and not a confrontation,” because the countries merely declare the principles they rely upon. Maslov stated that other countries were free to join in.

“If some other countries, not necessarily Western ones, for instance, countries in Southeast Asia are prepared for joining the statement or beginning discussions, they will find that this declaration as such is not a closed one for the simple reason other countries may pledge to adhere to the same principles,” he stated.

Maslov sees no risk this statement might cause an escalation of tensions in relations with the West, because it concerns an absolutely parallel process.

“In this respect the document will by no means trigger an escalation. On the contrary, it will rather show that the issue has another side to it. At least, the fact that Russia and China adhere to a different stance,” Maslov concluded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday arrived in Beijing and held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. This is Putin’s first visit to China since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Russian-Chinese summit level negotiations ended with the adoption of a joint statement on international relations that were entering a new era and on global sustainable development…

…

This massive document outlines a framework for unity between Russia and China. It does the EXACT SAME THING as what the document which unified the thirteen colonies into one nation known as “The United States of America”.

Old-Fashioned Patty Melts

Sure everyone has eaten a thousand hamburgers, but how many patty melts have you eaten?

2022 03 28 09 18 — Patty Melt done properly.

Everything about these Old-Fashioned Patty Melts is perfect, from the beef patty smothered in cheesy, oniony goodness, to the toasted and buttery rye bread. This sandwich is sure to have you saying “Ooh, it’s so GOUDA!”

What You’ll Need

2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 small onion, thinly sliced
3/4 pound ground beef
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
4 slices rye bread
4 slices Gouda cheese
1/4 cup Thousand Island salad dressing

What to Do

In a large skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter; saute onion 6 to 8 minutes, or until it starts to brown. Remove to a bowl and cover.
Shape beef into 2 oval patties; sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
In the same skillet over medium heat, cook patties 5 to 7 minutes per side, or until no longer pink in center. Remove from skillet and keep warm.
Spread remaining butter over one side of each slice of bread. Place in skillet buttered side down, and toast until lightly browned.
To assemble a sandwich, place a slice of cheese on a piece of toast, top with a beef patty, half the onion slices, and half the salad dressing. Top with another slice of cheese and piece of toast; repeat with second sandwich, then serve immediately.

Notes

We love some coleslaw as a go-along to this delicious sandwich, so why not make your own by whipping up a batch of some delicious Country Coleslaw!

Read this. This is the actual document and translated…

Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development

February 4, 2022

Background

At the invitation of President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin visited China on 4 February 2022. The Heads of State held talks in Beijing and took part in the opening ceremony of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games.

The Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, hereinafter referred to as the sides, state as follows.

The Statement on the New Union

Today, the world is going through momentous changes, and humanity is entering a new era of rapid development and profound transformation.

It sees the development of such processes and phenomena as

multipolarity,
economic globalization,
the advent of information society,
cultural diversity,
transformation of the global governance architecture
and world order;
- there is increasing interrelation and interdependence between the States;
- a trend has emerged towards redistribution of power in the world;
- and the international community is showing a growing demand for the leadership aiming at peaceful and gradual development.

At the same time, as the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection continues, the international and regional security situation is complicating and the number of global challenges and threats is growing from day to day.

Some actors representing but the minority (on the international scale) continue to advocate unilateral approaches to addressing international issues and resort to force;

they interfere in the internal affairs of other states,
infringing their legitimate rights and interests,
and incite contradictions, differences and confrontation,
thus hampering the development and progress of mankind, against the opposition from the international community.

The sides call on all States to pursue well-being for all and, with these ends, to

build dialogue and mutual trust,
strengthen mutual understanding,
champion such universal human values as
- peace,
- development,
- equality,
- justice,
- democracy and freedom,
- respect the rights of peoples to independently determine the development paths of their countries
- and the sovereignty and the security and development interests of States,
  - to protect the United Nations-driven international architecture
  - and the international law-based world order,
  - seek genuine multipolarity with the United Nations
  - and its Security Council playing a central and coordinating role,
  - promote more democratic international relations,
  - and ensure peace, stability and sustainable development across the world.

I

The sides share the understanding that democracy is a universal human value, rather than a privilege of a limited number of States, and that its promotion and protection is a common responsibility of the entire world community.

The sides believe that democracy is a means of citizens’ participation in the government of their country with the view to improving the well-being of population and implementing the principle of popular government.

Democracy is exercised in all spheres of public life as part of a nation-wide process and reflects the interests of all the people, its will, guarantees its rights, meets its needs and protects its interests.

There is no one-size-fits-all template to guide countries in establishing democracy.

A nation can choose such forms and methods of implementing democracy that would best suit its particular state, based on

- - - its social and political system,
    - its historical background,
    - traditions and unique cultural characteristics.
    - It is only up to the people of the country to decide whether their State is a democratic one.

The sides note that Russia and China as world powers with rich cultural and historical heritage have long-standing traditions of democracy, which rely on

- - - thousand-years of experience of development,
    - broad popular support and
    - consideration of the needs and interests of citizens.

Russia and China guarantee their people the right to take part through various means and in various forms in the administration of the State and public life in accordance with the law.

The people of both countries are certain of the way they have chosen and respect the democratic systems and traditions of other States.

The sides note that democratic principles are implemented at the global level, as well as in administration of State.

Certain States’ attempts to impose their own ”democratic standards“ on other countries,

- - to monopolize the right to assess the level of compliance with democratic criteria,
  - to draw dividing lines based on the grounds of ideology,
    - including by establishing exclusive blocs and alliances of convenience,

prove to be nothing but flouting of democracy and go against the spirit and true values of democracy.

Such attempts at hegemony pose serious threats to global and regional peace and stability and undermine the stability of the world order.

The sides believe that the advocacy of democracy and human rights must not be used to put pressure on other countries.

- - They oppose the abuse of democratic values and interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states under the pretext of protecting democracy and human rights, and any attempts to incite divisions and confrontation in the world.
  - The sides call on the international community to respect cultural and civilizational diversity and the rights of peoples of different countries to self-determination.
  - They stand ready to work together with all the interested partners to promote genuine democracy.

The sides note that the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set noble goals in the area of universal human rights, set forth fundamental principles, which all the States must comply with and observe in deeds.

At the same time, as every nation has its own unique national features, history, culture, social system and level of social and economic development, universal nature of human rights should be seen through the prism of the real situation in every particular country, and human rights should be protected in accordance with the specific situation in each country and the needs of its population.

Promotion and protection of human rights is a shared responsibility of the international community.

The states should equally prioritize all categories of human rights and promote them in a systemic manner.

The international human rights cooperation should be carried out as a dialogue between the equals involving all countries.

All States must have equal access to the right to development. Interaction and cooperation on human rights matters should be based on the principle of equality of all countries and mutual respect for the sake of strengthening the international human rights architecture.

II

The sides believe that peace, development and cooperation lie at the core of the modern international system.

Development is a key driver in ensuring the prosperity of the nations.

The ongoing pandemic of the new coronavirus infection poses a serious challenge to the fulfilment of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It is vital to enhance partnership relations for the sake of global development and make sure that the new stage of global development is defined by balance, harmony and inclusiveness.

The sides are seeking to advance their work to link the development plans for the Eurasian Economic Union and the Belt and Road Initiative with a view to intensifying practical cooperation between the EAEU and China in various areas and promoting greater interconnectedness between the Asia Pacific and Eurasian regions.

The sides reaffirm their focus on building the Greater Eurasian Partnership in parallel and in coordination with the Belt and Road construction to foster the development of regional associations as well as bilateral and multilateral integration processes for the benefit of the peoples on the Eurasian continent.

The sides agreed to continue consistently intensifying practical cooperation for the sustainable development of the Arctic.

The sides will strengthen cooperation within multilateral mechanisms, including the United Nations, and encourage the international community to prioritize development issues in the global macro-policy coordination.

They call on the developed countries to implement in good faith their formal commitments on

- - development assistance,
  - provide more resources to developing countries,
  - address the uneven development of States,
  - work to offset such imbalances within States, and advance global and international development cooperation.

The Russian side confirms its readiness to continue working on the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, including participation in the activities of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative under the UN auspices.

In order to accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the sides call on the international community to take practical steps in key areas of

- - cooperation such as poverty reduction,
  - food security,
  - vaccines and epidemics control,
  - financing for development,
  - climate change,
  - sustainable development,
  - including green development,
  - industrialization,
  - digital economy, and
  - infrastructure connectivity.

The sides call on the international community to

- - create open, equal, fair and non-discriminatory conditions for scientific and technological development,
  - to step up practical implementation of scientific and technological advances in order to identify new drivers of economic growth.

The sides call upon all countries to strengthen cooperation in

- - sustainable transport,
  - actively build contacts and share knowledge in the construction of transport facilities,
  - including smart transport and sustainable transport,
  - development and use of Arctic routes,
  - as well as to develop other areas to support global post-epidemic recovery.

The sides are taking serious action and making an important contribution to the fight against climate change.

Jointly celebrating the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, they reaffirm their commitment to this Convention as well as to the goals, principles and provisions of the Paris Agreement, including the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

The sides work together to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, remain committed to fulfilling the obligations they have undertaken and expect that developed countries will actually ensure the annual provision of $100 billion of climate finance to developing states. The sides oppose setting up new barriers in international trade under the pretext of fighting climate change.

The sides strongly support the development of international cooperation and exchanges in the field of biological diversity, actively participating in the relevant global governance process, and intend to jointly promote the harmonious development of humankind and nature as well as green transformation to ensure sustainable global development.

The Heads of State positively assess the effective interaction between Russia and China in the bilateral and multilateral formats focusing on

- - the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,
  - protection of life and health of the population of the two countries and the peoples of the world.
  - They will further increase cooperation in the development and manufacture of vaccines against the new coronavirus infection,
  - as well as medical drugs for its treatment,
  - and enhance collaboration in public health and modern medicine.

The sides plan to strengthen coordination on epidemiological measures to ensure strong protection of health, safety and order in contacts between citizens of the two countries.

The sides have commended the work of the competent authorities and regions of the two countries on implementing quarantine measures in the border areas and ensuring the stable operation of the border crossing points, and intend to consider establishing a joint mechanism for epidemic control and prevention in the border areas to jointly plan anti-epidemic measures to be taken at the border checkpoints, share information, build infrastructure and improve the efficiency of customs clearance of goods.

The sides emphasize that ascertaining the origin of the new coronavirus infection is a matter of science.

Research on this topic must be based on global knowledge, and that requires cooperation among scientists from all over the world.

The sides oppose politicization of this issue. The Russian side welcomes the work carried out jointly by China and WHO to identify the source of the new coronavirus infection and supports the China – WHO joint report on the matter. The sides call on the global community to jointly promote a serious scientific approach to the study of the coronavirus origin.

The Russian side supports a successful hosting by the Chinese side of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2022.

The sides highly appreciate the level of bilateral cooperation in sports and the Olympic movement and express their readiness to contribute to its further progressive development.

III

The sides are gravely concerned about serious international security challenges and believe that the fates of all nations are interconnected.

No State can or should ensure its own security separately from the security of the rest of the world and at the expense of the security of other States. The international community should actively engage in global governance to ensure universal, comprehensive, indivisible and lasting security.

The sides reaffirm their strong mutual support for the protection

- - of their core interests,
  - state sovereignty and territorial integrity,
  - and oppose interference by external forces in their internal affairs.

The Russian side reaffirms its support for the One-China principle, confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.

Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to

- - undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions,
  - intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext,
  - oppose colour revolutions, and
  - will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas.

The sides condemn terrorism in all its manifestations, promote the idea of creating a single global anti-terrorism front, with the United Nations playing a central role, advocate stronger political coordination and constructive engagement in multilateral counterterrorism efforts.

The sides oppose politicization of the issues of combating terrorism and their use as instruments of policy of double standards, condemn the practice of interference in the internal affairs of other States for geopolitical purposes through the use of terrorist and extremist groups as well as under the guise of combating international terrorism and extremism.

The sides believe that certain States, military and political alliances and coalitions seek to obtain, directly or indirectly, unilateral military advantages to the detriment of the security of others, including

- - by employing unfair competition practices,
  - intensify geopolitical rivalry,
  - fuel antagonism and confrontation, and
  - seriously undermine the international security order and global strategic stability.

The sides oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized cold war approaches, to respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries, the diversity of their civilizational, cultural and historical backgrounds, and to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards the peaceful development of other States.

The sides stand against the formation of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region and remain highly vigilant about the negative impact of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy on peace and stability in the region. Russia and China have made consistent efforts to build an equitable, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) that is not directed against third countries and that promotes peace, stability and prosperity.

The sides welcome the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapons States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races.

And believe that all nuclear-weapons States should abandon the cold war mentality and zero-sum games, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their national security policies, withdraw nuclear weapons deployed abroad, eliminate the unrestricted development of global anti-ballistic missile defense (ABM) system, and take effective steps to reduce the risks of nuclear wars and any armed conflicts between countries with military nuclear capabilities.

The sides reaffirm that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is the cornerstone of the international disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation system, an important part of the post-war international security system, and plays an indispensable role in world peace and development. The international community should promote the balanced implementation of the three pillars of the Treaty and work together to protect the credibility, effectiveness and the universal nature of the instrument.

The sides are seriously concerned about the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom (AUKUS), which provides for deeper cooperation between its members in areas involving strategic stability, in particular their decision to initiate cooperation in the field of nuclear-powered submarines.

Russia and China believe that such actions are

- - contrary to the objectives of security and sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific region,
  - increase the danger of an arms race in the region, and
  - pose serious risks of nuclear proliferation.

The sides strongly condemn such moves and call on AUKUS participants to fulfil their nuclear and missile non-proliferation commitments in good faith and to work together to safeguard peace, stability, and development in the region.

Japan’s plans to release nuclear contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean and the potential environmental impact of such actions are of deep concern to the sides.

The sides emphasize that the disposal of nuclear contaminated water should be handled with responsibility and carried out in a proper manner based on arrangements between the Japanese side and neighbouring States, other interested parties, and relevant international agencies while ensuring transparency, scientific reasoning, and in accordance with international law.

The sides believe that

- - the U.S. withdrawal from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles,
  - the acceleration of research and the development of intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-based missiles
  - and the desire to deploy them in the Asia-Pacific and European regions,
  - as well as their transfer to the allies,

…entail an increase in tension and distrust, increase risks to international and regional security, lead to the weakening of international non-proliferation and arms control system, undermining global strategic stability.

The sides call on the United States to respond positively to the Russian initiative and abandon its plans to deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-based missiles in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

The sides will continue to maintain contacts and strengthen coordination on this issue.

The Chinese side is sympathetic to and supports the proposals put forward by the Russian Federation to create long-term legally binding security guarantees in Europe.

The sides note that the denunciation by the United States of a number of important international arms control agreements has an extremely negative impact on international and regional security and stability.

The sides express concern over the advancement of U.S. plans to develop global missile defence and deploy its elements in various regions of the world, combined with capacity building of high-precision non-nuclear weapons for disarming strikes and other strategic objectives.

The sides stress the importance of the peaceful uses of outer space, strongly support the central role of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in promoting international cooperation, maintaining and developing international space law and regulation in the field of space activities. Russia and China will continue to increase cooperation on such matters of mutual interest as the long-term sustainability of space activities and the development and use of space resources.

The sides oppose attempts by some States to turn outer space into an arena of armed confrontation and reiterate their intention to make all necessary efforts to prevent the weaponization of space and an arms race in outer space. They will counteract activities aimed at achieving military superiority in space and using it for combat operations.

The sides affirm the need for the early launch of negotiations to conclude a legally binding multilateral instrument based on the Russian-Chinese draft treaty on the prevention of placement of weapons in outer space and the use or threat of force against space objects that would provide fundamental and reliable guarantees against an arms race and the weaponization of outer space.

Russia and China emphasize that appropriate transparency and confidence-building measures, including an international initiative/political commitment not to be the first to place weapons in space, can also contribute to the goal of preventing an arms race in outer space, but such measures should complement and not substitute the effective legally binding regime governing space activities.

The sides reaffirm their belief that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC) is an essential pillar of international peace and security. Russia and China underscore their determination to preserve the credibility and effectiveness of the Convention.

The sides affirm the need to fully respect and further strengthen the BWC, including by institutionalizing it, strengthening its mechanisms, and adopting a legally binding Protocol to the Convention with an effective verification mechanism, as well as through regular consultation and cooperation in addressing any issues related to the implementation of the Convention.

The sides emphasize that domestic and foreign bioweapons activities by the United States and its allies raise serious concerns and questions for the international community regarding their compliance with the BWC.

The sides share the view that such activities pose a serious threat to the national security of the Russian Federation and China and are detrimental to the security of the respective regions.

The sides call on the U.S. and its allies to act in an open, transparent, and responsible manner by properly reporting on their military biological activities conducted overseas and on their national territory, and by supporting the resumption of negotiations on a legally binding BWC Protocol with an effective verification mechanism.

The sides, reaffirming their commitment to the goal of a world free of chemical weapons, call upon all parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention to work together to uphold its credibility and effectiveness.

Russia and China are deeply concerned about the politicization of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and call on all of its members to strengthen solidarity and cooperation and protect the tradition of consensual decision-making.

Russia and China insist that the United States, as the sole State Party to the Convention that has not yet completed the process of eliminating chemical weapons, accelerate the elimination of its stockpiles of chemical weapons.

The sides emphasize the importance of balancing the non-proliferation obligations of states with the interests of legitimate international cooperation in the use of advanced technology and related materials and equipment for peaceful purposes.

The sides note the resolution entitled ”Promoting international Cooperation on Peaceful Uses in the Context of International Security“ adopted at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on the initiative of China and co‑sponsored by Russia, and look forward to its consistent implementation in accordance with the goals set forth therein.

The sides attach great importance to the issues of governance in the field of artificial intelligence. The sides are ready to strengthen dialogue and contacts on artificial intelligence.

The sides reiterate their readiness to deepen cooperation in the field of international information security and to contribute to building an open, secure, sustainable and accessible ICT environment.

The sides emphasize that the principles of the non-use of force, respect for national sovereignty and fundamental human rights and freedoms, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other States, as enshrined in the UN Charter, are applicable to the information space.

Russia and China reaffirm the key role of the UN in responding to threats to international information security and express their support for the Organization in developing new norms of conduct of states in this area.

The sides welcome the implementation of the global negotiation process on international information security within a single mechanism and support in this context the work of the UN Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) 2021–2025 (OEWG) and express their willingness to speak with one voice within it.

The sides consider it necessary to consolidate the efforts of the international community to develop new norms of responsible behaviour of States, including legal ones, as well as a universal international legal instrument regulating the activities of States in the field of ICT.

The sides believe that the Global Initiative on Data Security, proposed by the Chinese side and supported, in principle, by the Russian side, provides a basis for the Working Group to discuss and elaborate responses to data security threats and other threats to international information security.

The sides reiterate their support of United Nations General Assembly resolutions 74/247 and 75/282, support the work of the relevant Ad Hoc Committee of Governmental Experts, facilitate the negotiations within the United Nations for the elaboration of an international convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes.

The sides encourage constructive participation of all sides in the negotiations in order to agree as soon as possible on a credible, universal, and comprehensive convention and provide it to the United Nations General Assembly at its 78^th session in strict compliance with resolution 75/282. For these purposes, Russia and China have presented a joint draft convention as a basis for negotiations.

The sides support the internationalization of Internet governance, advocate equal rights to its governance, believe that any attempts to limit their sovereign right to regulate national segments of the Internet and ensure their security are unacceptable, are interested in greater participation of the International Telecommunication Union in addressing these issues.

The sides intend to deepen bilateral cooperation in international information security on the basis of the relevant 2015 intergovernmental agreement. To this end, the sides have agreed to adopt in the near future a plan for cooperation between Russia and China in this area.

IV

The sides underline that Russia and China, as world powers and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, intend to

- - firmly adhere to moral principles and accept their responsibility,
  - strongly advocate the international system with the central coordinating role of the United Nations in international affairs,
  - defend the world order based on international law,
  - including the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
  - advance multipolarity and
  - promote the democratization of international relations, together create an even more prospering, stable, and just world, jointly build international relations of a new type.

The Russian side notes the significance of the concept of constructing a ”community of common destiny for mankind“ proposed by the Chinese side to ensure greater solidarity of the international community and consolidation of efforts in responding to common challenges.

The Chinese side notes the significance of the efforts taken by the Russian side to establish a just multipolar system of international relations.

The sides intend to strongly uphold the outcomes of the Second World War and the existing post-war world order, defend the authority of the United Nations and justice in international relations, resist attempts to deny, distort, and falsify the history of the Second World War.

In order to prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of the world war, the sides will strongly condemn actions aimed at denying the responsibility for atrocities of Nazi aggressors, militarist invaders, and their accomplices, besmirch and tarnish the honour of the victorious countries.

The sides call for the establishment of a new kind of relationships between world powers on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.

They reaffirm that the new inter-State relations between Russia and China are superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era.

Friendship between the two States has no limits.

There are no ”forbidden“ areas of cooperation, strengthening of bilateral strategic cooperation is neither aimed against third countries nor affected by the changing international environment and circumstantial changes in third countries.

The sides reiterate the need for consolidation, not division of the international community, the need for cooperation, not confrontation.

The sides oppose the return of international relations to the state of confrontation between major powers, when the weak fall prey to the strong.

The sides intend to resist attempts to substitute universally recognized formats and mechanisms that are consistent with international law for rules elaborated in private by certain nations or blocs of nations, and are against addressing international problems indirectly and without consensus, oppose power politics, bullying, unilateral sanctions, and extraterritorial application of jurisdiction, as well as the abuse of export control policies, and support trade facilitation in line with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The sides reaffirmed their intention to strengthen foreign policy coordination, pursue true multilateralism, strengthen cooperation on multilateral platforms, defend common interests, support the international and regional balance of power, and improve global governance.

The sides support and defend the multilateral trade system based on the central role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), take an active part in the WTO reform, opposing unilateral approaches and protectionism. The sides are ready to strengthen dialogue between partners and coordinate positions on trade and economic issues of common concern, contribute to ensuring the sustainable and stable operation of global and regional value chains, promote a more open, inclusive, transparent, non-discriminatory system of international trade and economic rules.

The sides support the G20 format as an important forum for discussing international economic cooperation issues and anti-crisis response measures, jointly promote the invigorated spirit of solidarity and cooperation within the G20, support the leading role of the association in such areas as the international fight against epidemics, world economic recovery, inclusive sustainable development, improving the global economic governance system in a fair and rational manner to collectively address global challenges.

The sides support the deepened strategic partnership within BRICS, promote the expanded cooperation in three main areas: politics and security, economy and finance, and humanitarian exchanges.

In particular, Russia and China intend to encourage interaction in the fields of

- - public health,
  - digital economy,
  - science,
  - innovation and technology,
  - including artificial intelligence technologies,
  - as well as the increased coordination between BRICS countries on international platforms.

The sides strive to further strengthen the BRICS Plus/Outreach format as an effective mechanism of dialogue with regional integration associations and organizations of developing countries and States with emerging markets.

The Russian side will fully support the Chinese side chairing the association in 2022, and assist in the fruitful holding of the XIV BRICS summit.

Russia and China aim to comprehensively strengthen the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and further enhance its role in shaping a polycentric world order based on the universally recognized principles of international law, multilateralism, equal, joint, indivisible, comprehensive and sustainable security.

They consider it important to consistently implement the agreements on improved mechanisms to counter challenges and threats to the security of SCO member states and, in the context of addressing this task, advocate expanded functionality of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.

The sides will contribute to imparting a new quality and dynamics to the economic interaction between the SCO member States in the fields of

- - trade,
  - manufacturing,
  - transport,
  - energy,
  - finance,
  - investment,
  - agriculture,
  - customs,
  - telecommunications,
  - innovation and
  - other areas of mutual interest, including through the use of advanced, resource-saving, energy efficient and ”green“ technologies.

The sides note the fruitful interaction within the SCO under the 2009 Agreement between the Governments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member States on cooperation in the field of international information security, as well as within the specialized Group of Experts. In this context, they welcome the adoption of the SCO Joint Action Plan on Ensuring International Information Security for 2022–2023 by the Council of Heads of State of SCO Member States on September 17, 2021 in Dushanbe.

Russia and China proceed from the ever-increasing importance of cultural and humanitarian cooperation for the progressive development of the SCO. In order to strengthen mutual understanding between the people of the SCO member States, they will continue to effectively foster interaction in such areas as cultural ties, education, science and technology, healthcare, environmental protection, tourism, people-to-people contacts, sports.

Russia and China will continue to work to strengthen the role of APEC as the leading platform for multilateral dialogue on economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

The sides intend to step up coordinated action to successfully implement the ”Putrajaya guidelines for the development of APEC until 2040“ with a focus on creating a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment in the region. Particular emphasis will be placed on the fight against the novel coronavirus infection pandemic and economic recovery, digitalization of a wide range of different spheres of life, economic growth in remote territories and the establishment of interaction between APEC and other regional multilateral associations with a similar agenda.

The sides intend to develop cooperation within the ”Russia-India-China“ format, as well as to

- - strengthen interaction on such venues as the East Asia Summit,
  - ASEAN Regional Forum on Security,
  - Meeting of Defense Ministers of the ASEAN Member States and Dialogue Partners.

Russia and China support ASEAN’s central role in developing cooperation in East Asia, continue to increase coordination on deepened cooperation with ASEAN, and jointly promote cooperation in the areas of public health, sustainable development, combating terrorism and countering transnational crime.

The sides intend to continue to work in the interest of a strengthened role of ASEAN as a key element of the regional architecture.

…

It’s very straight-forward. This document lays out the actions and behaviors of the two nations (Russia and China), their interaction with the rest of the work, how the two nations interact with each other, and areas where they will jointly work together.

It is, a de facto. constitution for a unified Asia.

Now, let’s see how this document was presented to Americans. My guess is that they are far too stupid to understand what is going on.

My guess is that they will interject the article with boilerplate negatives, distortions of the text, and gloss over the actual content and meaning behind it.
They will also include disparaging comments, and attempt to detrail the content.

Russia and China Unveil a Pact Against America and the West

In a sweeping long-term agreement, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the two most powerful autocrats, challenge the current political and military order.

By Robin Wright

February 7, 2022

In their matching mauve ties, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping last week declared a “new era” in the global order and, at least in the short term, endorsed their respective territorial ambitions in Ukraine and Taiwan. The world’s two most powerful autocrats unveiled a sweeping long-term agreement that also challenges the United States as a global power, NATO as a cornerstone of international security, and liberal democracy as a model for the world. “Friendship between the two States has no limits,” they vowed in the communiqué, released after the two leaders met on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics. “There are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”

Agreements between Moscow and Beijing, including the Treaty of Friendship of 2001, have traditionally been laden with lofty, if vague, rhetoric that faded into forgotten history. But the new and detailed five-thousand-word agreement is more than a collection of the usual tropes, Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, at the Wilson Center, in Washington, told me.

Although it falls short of a formal alliance, like NATO, the agreement reflects a more elaborate show of solidarity than anytime in the past. “This is a pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder against America and the West, ideologically as well as militarily,” Daly said. “This statement might be looked back on as the beginning of Cold War Two.” The timing and clarity of the communiqué—amid tensions on Russia’s border with Europe and China’s aggression around Taiwan—will “give historians the kind of specific event that they often focus on.”

Beyond security, the declaration also pledged collaboration on space, climate change, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. Politically, the document claimed that there is “no one-size-fits-all” type of democracy, and heralded both forms of authoritarian rule in Moscow and Beijing as successful democracies. “It’s a pretty striking step closer to an alliance and shows that they’re very much aligned in their vision of the world order in the twenty-first century,” Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, told me.

Putin described the broader strategic partnership with China as “unprecedented.”

Xi said that their joint strategy would have a “far-reaching influence on China, Russia, and the world.”

U.S. experts described the lengthy statement, which was riddled with false and accusatory language, as startling. “I’ve never seen a joint statement from both leaders using this kind of language.

They’ve joined forces,” Angela Stent, a Russia expert who served at the National Intelligence Council and wrote “Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest,” told me.

She described the communiqué as “quite Orwellian” and called it an “inflection point” in which Russia and China are challenging the balance of power that has defined the global order since the Cold War ended, three decades ago. “We could be at the beginning of a new era as the Russian relationship with the West deteriorates and China’s does as well.”

The agreement puts Washington and its key allies “in a terrible bind,” she added. “The fact is, whatever we do to counter what Russia is doing only reinforces its reliance on China.”

The joint statement is, at least for the moment, a diplomatic boon for Putin amid his showdown with the United States and Europe over Ukraine. For the first time in any of Russia’s recent aggressions, Putin has won the open support of China’s leader. China did not back Russia’s war in Georgia in 2008, or its invasion of Ukraine in 2014, nor has it recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Now Moscow and Beijing, which both have the ability to veto any resolution at the United Nations, have declared their opposition to further enlargement of NATO and to the formation of other regional security alliances. “Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose colour revolutions, and will increase cooperation,” the often unwieldy statement declared. “This is where they pledge their troth,” Daly said.

Washington had been pressuring Beijing, including in a call last month between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in an attempt to keep China neutral or out of the Ukraine crisis. Now, at least on paper and in public voice, it has budged, Andrew Weiss, a former National Security Council official who is currently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me. “Russia now has China as an endorser of the egregious and inflammatory position that Putin has staked out on Ukraine.”

Hints of China’s shift have been emerging in the past two weeks, as the Ukraine crisis began spilling over onto already tense U.S.-China relations. President Biden’s foreign policy had hoped to steer relations with Beijing toward stable and manageable competition.

Instead, China, which is normally discreet in its diplomacy, is visibly pushing back.

After his conversation with Blinken last month, the Chinese foreign minister said publicly that Russia’s security concern about NATO expansion is legitimate and must be addressed. The Biden Administration countered last week with an admonition. The State Department warned that the West has “an array of tools” to deploy against foreign companies—including in China—that help Russia evade punitive sanctions.

In the new agreement, Russia, in turn, reaffirmed its support for Beijing’s One China policy that Taiwan is “an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence.” The joint communiqué also supported Beijing’s ruthless crackdown on dissidents in Hong Kong in the past two years. The bold assertions in the joint statement follow deepening military ties between the two nations in the past decade, Weiss noted. Russia and China have conducted dozens of joint exercises and war games that have involved as many as ten thousand troops to hone tactical and operational capabilities.

Russian officials have boasted that the growing defense partnership was designed to warn the United States and NATO not to pressure Moscow. The naval operations have included mock seizures of islands, patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, and surface-to-air missile targeting.

Last summer, Putin and Xi both witnessed military exercises in China. In October, they held joint naval exercises off Russia’s far-eastern coast. “The frequency, complexity, and geographic scope has steadily increased, reflecting the growth in the overall bilateral defense relationship,” the U.S. Naval Institute reported last year. As two nuclear-armed countries that span Europe and Asia, the more muscular alignment between Russia and China could be a game changer militarily and diplomatically. “They want this to be as threatening as a formal alliance to the West, but don’t want to formally commit to mutual defense,” Daly said. “They don’t have to. The spectre of their mutual aid will serve as a deterrent.”

The joint announcement reflects a shift in the balance of power between Russia and China as well. “The Russians for the longest time were condescending in their view of China as an uninteresting rural society,” Weiss said. “Now China looks at Russia and says, ‘What are you good for?’

China’s ambitions do not run through Moscow.” China has become “canny” in exploiting Russia’s neediness, he said. “It uses Russia as a cat’s paw to disrupt the U.S. pivot to Asia. The fact that we have to keep coming back to Putin, as the neighborhood bully, is beneficial to China.”

Putin was the highest-profile leader to show up for the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The U.S. and other major powers opted not to send high-profile delegations, to protest China’s human-rights abuses, particularly against its Uyghur minority. Russia had received a two-year ban from officially sending teams to the Olympics after conducting a years-long, state-sponsored doping scheme. Russian athletes—who are not supposed to carry their nation’s flag, wear the Russian insignia, or play the national anthem—instead compete as part of the Russian Olympic Committee. After his meeting with Xi, Putin applauded the team during the opening ceremony’s Parade of Nations on Friday. But his visit clearly had another purpose.

The question now is how far Russia and China will take their agreement. “Words are one thing,” Vershbow, the former Ambassador, said. “We still have to see if the statement will translate into greater tangible Chinese support for Russia’s aggressive behavior—or whether they’ll say, ‘We’re with you, good luck,’ and then turn the other way.” The Chinese have different and sometimes more pragmatic interests in their relations with the U.S. and Europe, which are vital to their economy. “They don’t want to burn all bridges for the sake of a relationship with Russia.”

Oh, fine and dandy, but…

Let’s stop playing around.

The United States set up identical conditions for war in both Ukraine and Taiwan simultaneously.
This began in 2014 under President Obama.
This action was planned long before that. Perhaps as early as 2004.
The USA set up pro-United States governments in 2014 by NED sponsored activity.
The USA has since poured billions of dollars in weapons to those areas.
And has established bioweapons labs in both areas.
Both governments possess a hatred of their larger neighbor.
And both will try to provoke their neighbor according to the RAND directions.

The United States WILL create a contexual reason to drag China into a terrible and long-duration conventional war on the border of China identically to what has occurred in Ukraine.

So stop pretending.

Right now Russia is in complete control of the Ukraine situation, no matter what the Western “news” says, and a “false flag” event is scheduled to drag the USA and NATO into the conflict. With NATO being a light-weight serrogate for the USA battle forces.

Then the USA will “pivot to Asia” and take out China.

So the conflict in Taiwan will be similiar.

It is planned to be a long drawn out conventional war, and a “false flag” will be a justification for invasion by Japanese, Australian and United States forces.

…

Now, I’m not too swift a Geo-Political strategist. However, if I can see this, then you can well expect that China and Russia see this as well.

Do you think that they have plans, and are aware of the big and larger plans that are in place and the systems that are set in motion?

And with that understood, please keep in mind that…

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

With this understood, now let’s see what is going on today.

The United States demands that China sever economic ties with Russia or else!

Now, consider the reality about the domestic situation inside of America right now…

From here “Joe Biden warns Xi Jinping of ‘consequences’ if China backs Russia“

A White House account of the call on Friday said that the US president “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians”.

A senior administration official said there would be consequences “not just for China’s relationship with the United States, but for the wider world”, but would not give more details on whether Biden had gone into specifics on possible sanctions, other than to point out what had happened to Russia as an example.

There was nothing specific. Just warnings of “serious consequences” if China and Russia maintain their close relationship.

Obviously, the United States is acting like a pentulant child that is hold his ears and shutting his eyes and screaming as he tries to force the world to go away.

It appears that the United States does not recognize the agreement just forged last month between Russia and China.

Just a reminder to the reader that you now understand thngs far better than the American “leadership” does;

"This declaration formalizes the de facto established union of Russia and China."-Maslov

China is READY

China and Russia are BOTH aware what is going on. They know that the United States plans to destroy both nations and then pick over the carcass like vultures. It’s very clear. It’s very plain. So let’s stop playing games. Let’s stop pretending.

The United States and its allies are getting ready to go full-spectrum war when they are ready to “pivot to Asia”.

It will begin [1] with crossing one of China’s “RED LINES”, just like the USA did with Ukraine. [2] China will react, then [3] a “False Flag” will be tripped, and (of course, to plan, [4] the United States will use it as an excuse to engage in a full war on Chinese soil. Becuase, after all, Taiwan is de facto Chinese soil. No matter what propagandized narrative the West wishes to create.

But… you know…

China is ready.

Video 1 – China knows that America wants a war. – Adults

The pretext will be Taiwan. Just like it was with Ukraine. And China considers it an American invasion of it’s land. They will fight to the death, and employ great weapons of mass, mass, destruction.

You all had wish you were not on the recieving side of this onslaught of rage. I can tell you, and so can other expats inside of China, the Chinese are very quiet and studious, but when they get angry… when they get angry… they will unleash a rage that is indescribable. They will unleash… slaughter.

video 10MB

Video 2 -First grade military training – 5 / 6 year olds

Inside of China, very first grade, and many Kindergardens begin their day with roll-call, and reporting. Such as this. video 5 MB

Video 3 – Elementary school training – 9 year olds

Hey! Do you notice that these are not cheap AK-47 clones. They do not exist in China. REAL GUNS exist in China.

These are real deal full-auto Chinese military weapons. These are fourth grade kids. Nope. They probably couldn’t take on American SEALs or Green Berets. But that is not the point. The point is everyone in China is trained to fight. It is the law. And they are merit driven and they work together as one. Everyone in a town or villiage acts as a fully managed army unit. Let that soak in. All 1.4 billion of them.

That’s 1,400,000,000,000,000 people.

How many military forces do you think that the United States can throw together to invade China? 60,000? 90,000? Even including Japan and Australia? Watch the video. This is all over China. video 31MB

Video 4 – EVERYONE in China has combat training – 17 year olds

Oh, you don’t beleive me, eh? What, you think that this is basic training, huh? No. It isn’t. It’s High School drills. High School drills. Let that sink in.

While the United States has “pepe rallies”, diversity training, ebonics, and soft subjects like fund-raising, China teaches basics, drills and trains over and over and over. They train with real weapons with real live ammo. video a must watch. Know the context. Filmed at their High School complex. video 11MB

Video 5 – Middle School exercises. 14 year old kids

Every Summer, the middle school students go on training exercises. Some resemble “Boot Camp”, while others are “actual maneuvres” and “War Games”. Here’s one such event.

Sure, they cannot take an American Green Beret one-on-one or an SAS fighter. But what about 20-to-1, or 200-to-1, or maybe 2000-to-1. How do you think the United States invasion of Taiwan will work out?

video 11MB

Video 6 – Middle school (14 year old) target practice

Using real government issued weapons, and ammo. Tell me about the firearm training that the United States, the UK, or Australia provides in middle school. I would like to hear it.

Video 6MB

Video 7 – China hasn’t forgotten, and they haven’t forgiven.

All of China remembers the “great humiliation” inflicted on them by Europe and America, and they well remember the atrocities of Japan, as this video clearly show.

I can tell you truthfully, if Japan engages China, Japan will become radioactive waste.

video 3MB

Video 8 – What the start of world war III might look like

You know, Hollywood has been glorifying war for decades. And China is always considered an enemy and an easy target. Ever watch the latest “Red Dawn” remake?

Here we see a mashup with Hollywood movies, and Chinese movies trying to suggest what the start of world war III looks like when the United States places a Naval Battle Group between the mainland and Taiwan.

video 50MB

Americans Are In So Much Trouble

March 27, 2022 by Michael

What we are witnessing is truly the beginning of the end. In recent months I have focused a lot on the economic implosion that is now taking place, but what we are facing is so much broader than that.

Our society is literally falling to pieces all around us, and now World War 3 has begun. Many regard the war that has erupted on the other side of the globe as just a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, but the truth is that it is really a proxy war between the United States and Russia. And since neither side seems much interested in diplomacy at this point, this proxy war could eventually become a shooting war between the two greatest nuclear powers on the entire planet.

Before the war started, events were already starting to accelerate substantially. Inflation was out of control, a new energy crisis had flared up, and global food supplies were getting tighter and tighter. But now we are truly in unprecedented territory. If you doubt this, just look at what is happening to the price of fertilizer.

That chart should chill you to the core, because it clearly tells us that food shortages are coming.

In fact, even Joe Biden is now publicly admitting that food shortages are coming. On his show the other night, Tucker Carlson broke this down in a way that only Tucker Carlson can…

Before the war, some fertilizers had doubled in price and some had tripled in price.

In the video that you just watched, we are told that some fertilizer prices are now four to five times higher than they were a year ago.

Here in the western world, most farmers will simply bite the bullet and pay the higher prices. In turn, we will pay higher prices for food at the grocery store.

But in poorer parts of the globe, many farmers will use a whole lot less fertilizer or none at all. As a result, global food production will be way down in the months ahead.

To turn this crisis around, what we really need is for the proxy war in Ukraine to end. Unfortunately, both sides just continue to escalate matters instead.

For example, on Saturday Joe Biden shocked the entire world when he stated that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”…

President Joe Biden on Saturday said Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” ratcheting up international pressure and further uniting NATO allies against Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

“A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people’s love for liberty,” Biden said at the end of a sweeping speech in Poland. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.”

That was a call for regime change in Russia.

Russian leaders were already paranoid about western intentions before, and now their paranoia is going to be off the charts.

Biden administration officials are trying to walk back Biden’s comments, but the damage has already been done.

Meanwhile, we just learned that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have not spoken at all since February 15th…

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have not spoken since February 15, over a week before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the State Department told Antiwar.com on Friday.

Earlier this week The Washington Post cited US officials who said Blinken hasn’t attempted to speak with Lavrov since the start of the conflict. When asked to confirm the story, a State Department spokesperson said, “We can confirm that the last time Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke was on February 15.”

Even during the darkest days of the Cuban missile crisis, U.S. officials always kept talking to the Russians.

So this is something that should alarm all of us greatly.

On top of everything else, Joe Biden just told U.S. troops in Poland that they will see what conditions in Ukraine are like “when you’re there”…

According to The Associated Press, Biden’s remarks were given in front of U.S. troops who “had been sent near Poland’s border [with Ukraine] to assist with the humanitarian emergency and to bolster the U.S. military presence on the eastern flank of NATO.” The words, “and you’re gonna see when you’re there,” were spoken right after the president mentioned the bravery of Ukrainian citizens. Later, the White House once again told reporters that U.S. troops would not be deployed to fight in the war in Ukraine.

Every time Biden opens his mouth, he makes things even worse.

If he isn’t careful, he could drag the entire world into a global war. Earlier today, I was horrified to learn that Biden has decided to reaffirm “America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario” at such a tense moment…

President Joe Biden is abandoning a campaign vow to alter longstanding US nuclear doctrine, and will instead embrace existing policy that reserves America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario, according to multiple reports.

As Russian forces continue their bloody assault on Ukraine, Biden is under pressure from NATO allies not to abandon the right to use nuclear weapons to deter conventional attacks.

Many had thought that the war in Ukraine would help to unite America and would provide a boost to Biden’s extremely poor approval ratings.

And in the initial days of the war, that seemed to happen.

But now Biden’s approval ratings are falling once again…

President Joe Biden’s job approval ratings keep falling in his second year in the White House, with just 40% of Americans approving of the job that he is doing, a new NBC News survey finds.

That is the lowest rating Biden has seen in his presidency.

We were warned that 2022 would be a very troubled year, and we are still in the very early chapters.

If the Biden administration continues with all of this insanity, things are going to get a whole lot worse. I really like how Gerald Celente summarized matters during his recent interview with Greg Hunter…

“We are headed for an economic calamity the likes of which we have never seen in our lifetime. They are getting our minds off it with the war in Ukraine. . . . You know, I wrote in the magazine in the beginning of the year, we said that the Covid war would wind down by late March and mid-April. It’s winding down. . . . So, now, as we said in the magazine, we went from the Covid war to the Ukraine war, and now to world war. We are headed to World War III. . . . There is not a peep about a cease-fire. Biden is only bragging about more weapons being sent in. Biden says we are going to defeat the Russians. We are not backing down. No one is talking about a cease-fire, and no one is talking about peace. If we don’t unite for peace, we are all going to die in war.”

A thermonuclear war with Russia would be more horrible than most people could possibly imagine, and our leaders should be doing all that they can to prevent that from happening.

But right now Biden administration officials apparently don’t even see any point in talking with the Russians.

We are steamrolling down a road that leads to nuclear war, and meanwhile the global economy is starting to implode at frightening speed.

If you are still delusional enough to believe that everything will work out “just fine” somehow, then I really feel sorry for you.

Taiwan

Keep in mind again…

Taiwan is part of China. China thinks so, The UN thinks so, and even Taiwan thinks so.

But that does not matter.

The Untied States NEEDS a war and is going to have one. They are going to “pull a Ukraine” on China, and they are almost ready. And you know what? Just like Russia, China is going to move befor the United States can “make its move”. It’s probably going to be undercover, and hidden, but I’m not sure.

One thing that we are learning right now is that the “government” of the Ukraine is just a robot entity. It is a bought-for, and paid-for actor that the Untied State put in charge of things so that it could move it’s military, and it’s forces, and it’s systems onto the border of Russia. It is NOT an independent, democratically elected, goverment. It is a proxy puppet; bought and owned by the United States.

We have to assume that that exact thing is going on in Taiwan.

There is no “government in Taiwan”. There are instead American robots who do whatever Washington DC tells them to do.

So stop all the nonsense and fact the facts.

And China knows this.

Maybe not exactly as I have described, but yeah, they get the picture. In fact, I would arge that they understand the nuiances far better than MM here.

Of course, you would NEVER hear about this in the Western “news” media. China has a military force that is peer-capable, and lethal. And if you are Japanese or a cocky Australian American-lover they will decapitate you. The Chinese DO NOT PLAY.

video 2MB

More Chinese youth

The Chinese have two things that are found nowhere else in the world; [1] Social unity. They work in groups together as one organism, and [2] They are merit-dren and always do their best.

If you take those two things, and then organize it towards military action. From an early age, then the formation of military actions; defensive actions all become automatic. That is China.

Video – More Chinese elementary schools students video 8MB

Video – Rifle disipline.

Taught with “training weapons”. Lighter, and firing a low recoil projectile instead of a full cartridge. Second and third grade students. China. video 6MB

Video -They fight for family. They fight for survival.

Unlike the American and British “soy-boys” that went to the Ukraine to plink at Russians, and ran home crying after one simple missile barriage, the youth of China are disiplined, and prepared. They will fight to the death. All for their family; their parents and their friends. video 4MB

Video – Chinese youth training

Resembles American Green Beret and SEAL training. Yeah. They get it starting in first grade.

video 2MB

Video -Why am I so fixiated on Chinese Youth?

Because the flat slobs in the West, in their easy-chairs, coffered hair, riding their nice cars, and making royal decrees like some kind of bloted evil and corrupt spoiled brat are planning on causing hardship, hurt, turmoil to THESE PEOPLE. And I am here to tell you that is will not work. Instead, it will make them very, very, VERY angry.

There is a reason why China is considered THE DRAGON. And no, it’s not just public relations. China will slice you up and spit you all out. Do not poke the dragon. video 7MB

Video – But it’s the military that China has that is peer capable and lethal

You do not want to fuck with them. All state of the art. Peer capable, or better than what the United States fields, and they love, just love their AI-guided missiles and rockets. Do NOT FUCK with them. video 3MB

Video – 2MB

Video – 3MB

Now keep in mind that if it comes down to the Chinese having to use these systems, they will do so with their enemies cites in radioactive rubble. The Chinese do not play around. They are lethal and they will go after enemies with everything they have.

You don’t want to poke the dragon.

Why does the United States want to anger the dragon?

Why?

Because the American “leadership” are psychopaths. They have no understanding of the world, and ideological monsters that are following a dangerous script that will eventually result in the absolute shredding of the Untied States, and a tumble into poverty for all the the West. video 7MB

Ok. Enough of this. Let’s calm down a tad.

Cute Chinese Girl

I think that she is pretty. Nice girl with an umbrella. Video 2MB

Fake UFO video

It’s fun to check out UFO videos. You find them all over the internet, and many are very interesting, but most have no context and thus provide zero information.

The following video is filmed near the “fisher girl” statue here in Zhuhai next to my house where I live. It takes me about seven minutes to walk to it from my front door.

I can positively tell you all that it is a fake.

video 1MB

Let’s talk about food.

Old-Fashioned Roast Beef

2022 03 28 09 20 — Yummy roast beef sandwich.

Nothing beats Old-Fashioned Roast Beef the way mama used to make it!

With this roast beef recipe you can bet there’ll be lots of good eatin’. Just remember to let it rest, slice it thinly across the grain, and finish it off with the pan drippings – that’s what makes it absolutely perfect. Oh, and add some potatoes and gravy.

What You’ll Need

1 (4-pound) beef bottom round roast
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

R.90f580e455ca44c8d4965c4077a28773 — A beef bottom round roast.

What to Do

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place roasting rack in large roasting pan and coat with cooking spray. Place roast on rack, fat side up.
In small bowl, combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Rub spice mixture over entire roast, covering completely.
Roast 30 minutes. Reduce oven to 300 degrees and continue roasting beef 70 to 75 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 135 degrees for medium-rare, or until desired doneness beyond that. Let stand 15 to 20 minutes before slicing.

Notes

To make a tasty sauce for your roast beef, just add 1 cup beef broth to roasting pan and heat over high heat, scraping the bottom to loosen any brown bits.

And sandwiches…

Open Faced Reuben Sandwiches

2022 03 28 09 25 — It’s an awfully delicious sandwich.

Ever find yourself wondering how to make a Reuben sandwich with some style? Some of the biggest and best delis serve their Reubens open-faced, just like in this recipe that we got from a deli in Central New York. We loved these Open Faced Reuben Sandwiches and we had to pass along the recipe for you to enjoy! There’s something about this sandwich that just makes your mouth water.

What You’ll Need

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
8 slices rye bread
1 pound sliced deli corned beef
2 (14-ounce) cans sauerkraut, rinsed and well drained
8 slices (6 ounces) Swiss cheese

What to Do

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; mix well.
Arrange the bread on two baking sheets. Spread dressing mixture on each slice. Top each with corned beef, sauerkraut, and a slice of Swiss cheese.
Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until heated through, and the cheese is melted. Place 2 pieces on each plate and serve open-faced.

Test Kitchen Tips

You might want to use only half of the Thousand Island dressing on the sandwiches before baking them. Then just top each slice with a dollop of dressing before serving. Our mouths are already watering!

China is a major force

If you are in the West, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in the lies and bullshit about China.

China is advanced, a manufacturing powerhouse, run on merit and disipline. They are successful and they “ain’t stopping for shit”. If you take them on, they WILL FUCKING SLAUGHTER YOU.

Remember that word.

Slaughter.

The rest of the world appears lazy in comparison. Chinese are hard drivers. video 4MB

China military. Don’t be so sure that they would be an easy nation to conquer. video 4MB

And this fool, in Hong Kong, obviously influenced by the Pro-Democracy NED “color revolution” decided to harass the Chinese guards. The Chinese DON’T PLAY. Down and drawn in 1.5 seconds. video 3MB

China is fighting to exist. Just like Russia. And if you think , and believe that they are not taking the THREATs from the United States seriously, you are deluded. It’s no mistake that they have a mass production of hyper-velocity nuclear missiles all with the United States targets plastered on them.

Listen up. video 25MB

Wrap up

Oh, you think that I am kidding? Oh, you think that I am being alarmist? Look at this quote out of the Kremlin directly from President Putin…

PUTIN: 

"I am now instructing our 4 combat regions that if USA and NATO dare to provoke us (around the Black Sea) and try to hit us with even ONE guided missile then you must hit them back as hard as possible. 

Hit them fiercely until they kneel down for mercy. 

If they retaliate, I command you to use nuclear weapons to hit their countries. 

No need to think about the consequences. 

I will be solely responsible. 

Your duty is just to hit them hard until they kneel down begging for mercy. 

Once the war has started I expect you to subdue Europe within 5 days. 

No need to think... just take over the 8 capitals of Europe. 

From now on our Air, Land and Navy armed forces are on full alert. 

I want the world to know who is the leader of the world. 

What is USA... I am telling them they will be trembling in front of us. 

They have been belittling and making fun of many countries but don't they dare to try us. 

Go to hell. 

My view is that if the Russians have to live under USA's mercy then what good is there left in this world!!"

-Kremlin

[This link is blocked in the usa, france, hungary, serbia, moldova, switzerland, and singapore. Heck, even the russian language website is blocked.]

In June 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree stating,

“The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies… 

...and also in the case of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is put under threat.”

Clearly, the United States has pushed Russia to a state where they beleive this is the case.

Clearly, though not reported in the Western media, both Russia and China are at a high state of military readiness.

Russia is at the highest state; DEFCON 1. (Open Warfare)
China is at second highest state DEFCON 2. (Full readiness; no open warfare).
USA is at DEFCON 3. (Alert for orders.)

No American pre-emptive nuclear strikes are possible without immediate unleashing of MAD upon the entirety of the West.

Out of necessity, Russia and China have banded together and created a new nation. It’s a United Asia. Other nations are drifiting towards it. For now, you can consider it to be similiar to the USA, or the EU in unity.

Presently, the comprehensive document is only between Russia and China. However, Iran is interested in generating similiar agreements, and India is working towards joining the block as well.

- - That’s 70% of the world’s population.
  - 85% of the world’s manufacturing.
  - 65-70% of the world’s energy resources.

All of the rest of the nations in Asia are moving towards this group.

It’s a new nation.

And the Untied States (and it’s proxy nations) are pretending that this is not the case. They are pretending that they can treat China separately from Russia, India from Russia, Iran from China, and so on and so forth.

They cannot face the reality; the truth.

So, without plans and “expert” guidance from RAND, the United States (leading the West) are still following the same tired-old “take over the world” script written decades ago, and implementing the plans set forth. (Follow the links for the RAND plans to initiate war. When you read them, you will discover that the US government has been following them to the letter.)

Russia suppression via a RED LINE tripwire event (Ukraine), and a false flag for involvement. The RAND operational plan for war via Ukraine.

Then, a “pivot to Asia” with a …

China suppression via a RED LINE tripwire event (Taiwan), and a false flag for involvement. The RAND operational plan for war via Taiwan.

These plans have been telegraphed, and well understood by the Russian and Chinese leadership. And since the United States is following that old script, they are easy to anticipate and handle.

However, the unifed Russia and China block was unexpected, and it doesn not fit in with the plan. So the way that the United States has decided to handle this issue is to IGNORE IT and pretend that this reality does not exist.

They will continue their assaults and probing actions.

Now it’s Russia. Russia has issued strike orders, and telegraphed them to the West, but you know, eventually they will engage China, and when that happens, China WILL ENGAGE THEM RIGHT BACK. Unlike Russia, China will not telegraph any warning.

It will be on American soil, by the way. It will not be so nice.

It will be a slaughter.

Goodnight from MM

View from my home. Goodnight. video 3MB

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[daegonmagus] – Part 23 – Briefing For the Domain Commander: Intel Gathered During LD Escape From Simulation Out of Two Pocket Universes to the Main Programming Hub

The following is the 23nd part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

Lately he has been conducting lucid dreaming (LD) to map out the subconscious / non-physical realms that surround us. His writings are very interesting, but describe things way beyond my understanding. Never the less, many MM readers find great value in his experiences, and writings, and one can easily see benifit in reading his writings. 

I hope that you injoy this article.

-MM

Part 23 – Briefing For the Domain Commander: Intel Gathered During LD Escape From Simulation Out of Two Pocket Universes to the Main Programming Hub

{daegonmagus}

26/03/2022

I was put into a dream simulation that seemed designed to completely break my spirit.

This scenario featured SD who seemed to very troubled by her own hallucinations.

It began some building we had been staying in on what I was led to believe was a holiday. This building was nothing special, just a bunch of dingy rooms with a sort of open hallway that ran next to them. I was “awoken” into the dream by SD, but not lucid.

This was the start of the simulation.

SD seemed deeply troubled by something. I asked her what was up and she replied that she had stayed with another couple while I was still asleep. Confused by what she meant, I got up and tried talking to her, but she came more erratic in her behaviour, and made less sense. It was like she was on drugs, talking non sensical bullshit, seemingly glitching and going off track every sentence. I started to really worry about her mental health, and suggested we go for a walk. During it became evident that SD was suffering from severe mental stigma and seemed to be hallucinating quite heavily. It seemed her every action was designed to cause me as much anguish and heartache as possible.

She took me to the edge of town where this couple she stayed with were living in a makeshift humpy in what appeared to be a children’s playground; it was literally just a few pieces of wood smacked together on a some sand to make a rather unstable frame that they draped a sheet over. Sd explained she had been sleeping with them, and wanted to join their family and live in this humpy of theirs. The situation had very cult like vibes and I realised that SD was very clearly not her usual self. She was arguing with me, accusing me of thins that were not true and attacking my character at the hands of these frauds.

I was now starting to feel deep sorrow at the depth of my core, but I knew SD wasn’t herself and was damned if I was going to let her stay with these people. I managed to convince her to come with me, and we walked back to our house which was located a few kilometres away in a set of units that had been tightly bunched together. The whole way SD abused me, but I bit my tongue and told myself she didn’t really mean it. But the abuse just got worse and worse. It was really starting to cut through my soul, wanting nothing but for her to be better, yet being told I was the cause of all such anguish.

Then all of a sudden something snapped, spurred on by my anguish. I realised it was a simulation and I began to reject it. A very strong voice that may or may not have been mine, came through telling me that this was definitely the case, and it started to all make sense. What happened next was like the AI in control of the simulation realised I had cottoned onto its game and began talking to me, trying to convince me that it was necessary for my development.

Again I refused to believe it. When that didn’t work, it manifested agents (pretty much agent smiths/MIB)to come and collect me, but again I refused to let them. Even though I was not lucid, I was starting to realise my power. I could wave my hand and they would simply just disappear. Not only that, I was starting to see the pocket universe outside of this simulation as an overlay on the top of my surroundings that would sort of glitch in and out.

The AI seemed to realise it had a big problem on its hands and sent down a space shuttle to meet me. I was now interacting with both the simulation and the outer pocket universe as I walked. In the simulation, the walk way was a cave, but in the outer pocket universe I was walking down a sort of walkway or bridge far up in the sky, where this space ship styled shuttle landed to try and collect me. Once again I told them I reject there simulation, brought my hand down and their ship exploded in front of me. I had properly awoken in the outer pocket universe and had full control over my lucid dreaming abilities, despite the consciousness doping blockages put in place.

I was still heavily doped, but I could cut through it with sheer willpower. I was aware of the simulation I’d just come from, and now also aware of my earth body back here.

So walked up the landing which seemed to be floating in mid air above the clouds. At higher level was an arrangement of very modern looking buildings stretching for several acres.

I entered a building closest to the bridge I had just come from. This building was not entirely enclosed and had several walls missing; it seemed to be some sort of building where newly arriving guests were entering. In this building, was set up a variety of Virtual Reality screens arranged around tables which had other doped up and comatose bodies on. Some of the screens had a real time image of the reality they were experiencing.

realised this was a fucking product display room; the guests were clientele that would walk around to these VR systems and express their awe at the technology. It reminded of a phone shop where you go in and browse from the various laid out models at your own leisure. They were the investors of this project, and there was from between 30 to 50 of them now gathering in the foyer of this building where a bunch of chairs were laid out. It seemed they were waiting for the project admins to give some sort of presentation.

I walked in, and upon realising what this place was, becoming sickened by it, started executing as many of these investors as I could. I was like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator; I’d simply just point from person to person with my hand and they would be instantaneously vapourised. It was kind of weird; if you have ever been very drunk and had to try and act sobre this is kind of what it felt like being under the consciousness doping agent. I’d have periods where I would just stop and sort of zone out, and I would have to use a tonne of conviction and sheer willpower to bring my awareness back to my surroundings. I would have looked like a malfunctioning robot to anyone watching me.

It took a few moments for them to realise that one of their projects had woken up and was quite fucking pissed at what they had going on here. Through my bouts of coherency, I’d unleash chaos. Once they did, everyone started running out of the building and evacuating the area to their nearby space craft or vehicles or whatever they had been arriving in just outside. Guards were sent in to try and subdue me, but I wouldn’t let them; there is a good reason they keep us all doped, because once we regain access to our proper LD power we become somewhat unstoppable. I think they were hitting me with doping agents like darts, which is what was making my consciousness flitter in and out, but the best they could manage was only a few seconds, then id snap out of the daze and hit them back.

After taking out the guards, I walked to over to the VR systems and was able to create a kinetic bomb explosion by clenching my fist and focusing. It was like I was drawing in unseen energy that I would go off like a stick of TNT (is this an ISBE technique the Commander is familiar with?) I destroyed as many of these systems as I could find, maybe ten of them, maybe more then walked back outside. I wanted to get an indicator of where this place was, or who was in charge of it.

In front of me was the descending bridge where I’d come from the simulation, to my left was just a drop off into the sky, with a small port for the investors shuttles right on the edge, and to my right was a large dirt clearing the size of a small football oval which appeared to have some sort of scaffolding setup smack bang in the middle of it. Beyond the clearing were some more R&D buildings that were much bigger than the small product display room I’d just come from. This cluster of buildings was of a higher elevation to the display/ presentation room probably 10 to 20m higher, and was about 250m away. At this point I had become probably about 80 percent lucid, so I was piloting this body with a good understanding of my earth body that existed somewhere below the dream simulation that I’d come from. Once the guards were gone and I was out of the building, I no longer had to worry about my consciousness trying to go back to the simulation world.

I walked over the ridgline to the clearing and noticed the scaffolding appeared to be some sort of a rocket launch facility, but instead of the typical straight up design of conventional rockets, the scaffolding setup seemed to take the form of a T shape shuttle/ craft, as if the shuttle had wings protruding out each side for a few metres. What was odd was that instead of being located near the middle, the wings protruded from quire near the front end of the shuttle, behind what looked like a cockpit of heavily tinted glass.

At the end of the wings, were what I assumed were thrusters taking the form of tear drops. I specifically remember a tail section mounted close to the ground that was very typical of a tail found on a glider; it reminded me of the one found on a US military Predator drone given its seemingly “upside down” arrangement (if you took a predator drone and move the wings so they were just behind the tip of the shuttle and fattened the body so it resembled more of a rocket/ missile, then added jet turbines to the tip of each wing, this would be very close to what it looked like; same white colour). My impression was that unlike the investor shuttles, which were for local travel within the atmosphere of this world, this craft was specifically for higher altitude penetration.

I navigated so I was directly under the scaffolding holding up the right wing and looked up. Right there I saw what was unmistakably the NASA logo. I could see this clear as day; the blue circular background with the word NASA outlined in white, the little stripe of red; it was 100 percent the same logo and I could see and interpret it clear as day. I am certain I did not randomly generate this image. I noted that I had achieved my objective, and as I did a launch alarm sounded from the building that had been arranged obviously to monitor any launches.
Very soon after this everything went white and I woke up. I assume they took the opportunity to use the shuttle thrusters to melt me while they had a chance.

End Notes:

The simulation layer seemed to act as a buffer between the outer pocket universe and this physical reality. The way in which the AI was trying to create a scenario that would elicit an specific emotional response is typical of what the leader of the Unseen 5 told me, as well as what the Grand Elder told me during my last encounter with him in a similar consciousness doping facility.

SD has had a dream with a similar AI trying to evoke similar emotions towards me in which the AI tried to spin a similar story of helping her evolution when she resisted it. We have had some synchronised dreams over the last few weeks which suggest similar emotion evoking simulations running.

There was several circumstances prior to my going to sleep which may have aided in having this experience. The first was that it was right after contacting my handler and asking for possible nuclear attack locations (this handler presented itself to me in adream a week or so ago)

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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The Third Expedition by Ray Bradbury (with thoughts on the tunnel of light)

Imagine that you died. And there, as you are leaving your body, you are welcomed with long dead friends, and relatives. They welcome you, and it is a joyous time. They take you by the hand and lead you towards the bright tunnel of light.

Would you go with them?

This is a story that ponders that question.

…

Without a doubt one of the Bradbury stories that has made the biggest impression on me. It’s about strategy.

And horror.

The story is taken from Bradbury’s amazing The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories strung together to tell the story of what happens when human beings try to colonize Mars.

In this particular tale, an expedition from Earth to Mars encounters a town that seems eerily, yet comfortingly, familiar to them. It’s even populated by long-lost relatives and family.

But, of course, it doesn’t have a happy ending.

The Third Expedition by Ray Bradbury

The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and

the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent

gulfs of space. It was a new ship; it had fire in its body and

men in its metal cells, and it moved with a clean silence,

fiery and warm. In it were seventeen men, induding a captain.

The crowd at the Ohio field had shouted and waved their hands

up into the sunlight, and the rocket had bloomed out great

flowers of heat and color and run away into space on the

_third_ voyage to Mars!

Now it was decelerating with metal efficiency in the

upper Martian atmospheres. It was still a thing of beauty

and strength. It had moved in the midnight waters of space like

a pale sea leviathan; it had passed the ancient moon and thrown

itself onward into one nothingness following another. The men

within it had been battered, thrown about, sickened, made well

again, each in his turn. One man had died, but now the

remaining sixteen, with their eyes clear in their heads and

their faces pressed to the thick glass ports, watched Mars

swing up under them.

“Mars!” cried Navigator Lustig.

“Good old Mars!” said Samuel Hinkston, archaeologist.

“Well,” said Captain John Black.

The rocket landed on a lawn of green grass. Outside, upon

this lawn, stood an iron deer. Further up on the green stood

a tall brown Victorian house, quiet in the sunlight, all

covered with scrolls and rococo, its windows made of blue and

pink and yellow and green colored glass. Upon the porch were

hairy geraniums and an old swing which was hooked into the

porch ceiling and which now swung back and forth, back and

forth, in a little breeze. At the summit of the house was a

cupola with diamond leaded-glass windows and a dunce-cap roof!

Through the front window you could see a piece of music

titled “Beautiful Ohio” sitting on the music rest.

Around the rocket in four directions spread the little

town, green and motionless in the Martian spring. There were

white houses and red brick ones, and tall elm trees blowing in

the wind, and tall maples and horse chestnuts. And church

steeples with golden bells silent in them.

The rocket men looked out and saw this. Then they looked

at one another and then they looked out again. They held to

each other’s elbows, suddenly unable to breathe, it seemed,

Their faces grew pale.

“I’ll be damned,” whispered Lustig, rubbing his face with

his numb fingers. “I’ll be damned.”

“It just can’t be,” said Samuel Hinkston.

“Lord,” said Captain John Black.

There was a call from the chemist. “Sir, the atmosphere

is thin for breathing. But there’s enough oxygen. It’s safe.”

“Then we’ll go out,” said Lustig.

“Hold on,” said Captain John Black. “How do we know what

this is?”

“It’s a small town with thin but breathable air in it,

sir.”

“And it’s a small town the like of Earth towns,” said

Hinkston, the archaeologist “Incredible. It can’t be, but it

_is_.”

Captain John Black looked at him idly. “Do you think that

the civilizations of two planets can progress at the same rate

and evolve in the same way, Hinkston?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so, sir.”

Captain Black stood by the port. “Look out there.

The geraniums. A specialized plant. That specific variety has

only been known on Earth for fifty years. Think of the

thousands of years it takes to evolve plants. Then tell me if

it is logical that the Martians should have: one, leaded-glass

windows; two, cupolas; three, porch swings; four, an instrument

that looks like a piano and probably is a piano; and five, if

you look closely through this telescopic lens here, is it

logical that a Martian composer would have published a piece

of music titled, strangely enough, ‘Beautiful Ohio’? All of

which means that we have an Ohio River on Mars!”

“Captain Williams, of course!” cried Hinkston,

“What?”

“Captain Williams and his crew of three men! Or Nathaniel

York and his partner. That would explain it!”

“That would explain absolutely nothing. As far as we’ve

been able to figure, the York expedition exploded the day

it reached Mars, killing York and his partner. As for Williams

and his three men, their ship exploded the second day after

their arrival. At least the pulsations from their radios ceased

at that time, so we figure that if the men were alive after

that they’d have contacted us. And anyway, the York expedition

was only a year ago, while Captain Williams and his men landed

here some time during last August. Theorizing that they are

still alive, could they, even with the help of a brilliant

Martian race, have built such a town as this and _aged_ it in

so short a time? Look at that town out there; why, it’s been

standing here for the last seventy years. Look at the wood on

the porch newel; look at the trees, a century old, all of them!

No, this isn’t York’s work or Williams’. It’s something else.

I don’t like it. And I’m not leaving the ship until I know what

it is.”

“For that matter,” said Lustig, nodding, “Williams and his

men, as well as York, landed on the _opposite_ side of Mars.

We were very careful to land on _this_ side.”

“An excellent point. Just in case a hostile local tribe

of Martians killed off York and Williams, we have instructions

to land in a further region, to forestall a recurrence of such

a disaster. So here we are, as far as we know, in a land

that Williams and York never saw.”

“Damn it,” said Hinkston, “I want to get out into this

town, sir, with your permission. It may be there are similar

thought patterns, civilization graphs on every planet in our

sun system. We may be on the threshold of the greatest

psychological and metaphysical discovery of our age!”

“I’m willing to wait a moment,” said Captain John Black.

“It may be, sir, that we’re looking upon a phenomenon

that, for the first time, would absolutely prove the existence

of God, sir.”

“There are many people who are of good faith without such

proof, Mr. Hinkston.”

“I’m one myself, sir. But certainly a town like this could

not occur without divine intervention. The _detail_. It fills

me with such feelings that I don’t know whether to laugh or

cry.”

“Do neither, then, until we know what we’re up against.”

“Up against?” Lustig broke in. “Against nothing, Captain.

It’s a good, quiet green town, a lot like the old-fashioned one

I was born in. I like the looks of it.”

“When were you born, Lustig?”

“Nineteen-fifty, sir.”

“And you, Hinkston?”

“Nineteen fifty-five, sir. Grinnell, Iowa. And this looks

like home to me.”

“Hinkston, Lustig, I could be either of your fathers. I’m

just eighty years old. Born in 1920 in Illinois, and through

the grace of God and a science that, in the last fifty years,

knows how to make _some_ old men young again, here I am on

Mars, not any more tired than the rest of you, but infinitely

more suspicious. This town out here looks very peaceful and

cool, and so much like Green Bluff, Illinois, that it frightens

me. It’s too _much_ like Green Bluff.” He turned to the

radioman. “Radio Earth. Tell them we’ve landed. That’s all.

Tell them we’ll radio a full report tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

Captain Black looked out the rocket port with his face

that should have been the face of a man eighty but seemed like

the face of a man in his fortieth year. “Tell you what we’ll

do, Lustig; you and I and Hinkston’ll look the town over. The

other men’ll stay aboard. If anything happens they can get the

hell out. A loss of three men’s better than a whole ship.

If something bad happens, our crew can warn the next rocket.

That’s Captain Wilder’s rocket, I think, due to be ready to

take off next Christmas. if there’s something hostile about

Mars we certainly want the next rocket to be well armed.”

“So are we. We’ve got a regular arsenal with us.”

“Tell the men to stand by the guns then. Come on,

Lustig, Hinkston.”

The three men walked together down through the levels of

the ship.

It was a beautiful spring day. A robin sat on a blossoming

apple tree and sang continuously. Showers of petal snow sifted

down when the wind touched the green branches, and the blossom

scent drifted upon the air. Somewhere in the town someone

was playing the piano and the music came and went, came and

went, softly, drowsily. The song was “Beautiful Dreamer.”

Somewhere else a phonograph, scratchy and faded, was hissing

out a record of “Roamin’ in the Gloamin’,” sung by Harry

Lauder.

The three men stood outside the ship. They sucked and

gasped at the thin, thin air and moved slowly so as not to

tire themselves.

Now the phonograph record being played was:

“_Oh, give me a June night

The moonlight and you_ . . .”

Lustig began to tremble. Samuel Hinkston did likewise.

The sky was serene and quiet, and somewhere a stream of

water ran through the cool caverns and tree shadings of a

ravine. Somewhere a horse and wagon trotted and rolled by,

bumping.

“Sir,” said Samuel Hinkston, “it must be, it _has_ to be,

that rocket travel to Mars began in the years before the first

World War!”

“No.”

“How else can you explain these houses, the iron deer,

the pianos, the music?” Hinkston took the captain’s elbow

persuasively and looked into the captain’s face. “Say that

there were people in the year 1905 who hated war and got

together with some scientists in secret and built a rocket and

came out here to Mars–”

“No, no, Hinkston.”

“Why not? The world was a different world in 1905; they

could have kept it a secret much more easily.”

“But a complex thing like a rocket, no, you couldn’t keep

it secret.”

“And they came up here to live, and naturally the houses

they built were similar to Earth houses because they brought

the culture with them.”

“And they’ve lived here all these years?” said the

captain.

“In peace and quiet, yes. Maybe they made a few trips,

enough to bring enough people here for one small town, and

then stopped for fear of being discovered. That’s why this town

seems so old-fashioned. I don’t see a thing, myself, older than

the year 1927, do you? Or maybe, sir, rocket travel is older

than we think. Perhaps it started in some part of the world

centuries ago and was kept secret by the small number of men

who came to Mars with only occasional visits to Earth over

the centuries.”

“You make it sound almost reasonable.”

“It has to be. We’ve the proof here before us; all we have

to do is find some people and verify it.”

Their boots were deadened of all sound in the thick green

grass. It smelled from a fresh mowing. In spite of himself,

Captain John Black felt a great peace come over him. It had

been thirty years since he had been in a small town, and the

buzzing of spring bees on the air lulled and quieted him, and

the fresh look of things was a balm to the soul.

They set foot upon the porch. Hollow echoes sounded from

under the boards as they walked to the screen door. Inside they

could see a bead curtain hung across the hall entry, and a

crystal chandelier and a Maxfield Parrish painting framed on

one wall over a comfortable Morris chair. The house smelled

old, and of the attic, and infinitely comfortable. You could

hear the tinkle of ice in a lemonade pitcher. In a distant

kitchen, because of the heat of the day, someone was preparing

a cold lunch. Someone was humming under her breath, high and

sweet.

Captain John Black rang the bell.

Footsteps, dainty and thin, came along the hall, and

a kind-faced lady of some forty years, dressed in a sort of

dress you might expect in the year 1909, peered out at them.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Beg your pardon,” said Captain Black uncertainly. “But

we’re looking for–that is, could you help us–” He stopped.

She looked out at him with dark, wondering eyes.

“If you’re selling something–” she began.

“No, wait!” he cried. “What town is this?”

She looked him up and down. “What do you mean, what town

is it? How could you be in a town and not know the name?”

The captain looked as if he wanted to go sit under a shady

apple tree. “We’re strangers here. We want to know how this

town got here and how you got here.”

“Are you census takers?”

“No.”

“Everyone knows,” she said, “this town was built in 1868.

Is this a game?”

“No, not a game!” cried the captain. “We’re from Earth.”

“Out of the _ground_, do you mean?” she wondered.

“No, we came from the third planet, Earth, in a ship. And

we’ve landed here on the fourth planet, Mars–”

“This,” explained the woman, as if she were addressing

a child, “is Green Bluff, Illinois, on the continent of

America, surrounded by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, on a

place called the world, or, sometimes, the Earth. Go away

now. Goodby.”

She trotted down the hall, running her fingers through

the beaded curtains.

The three men looked at one another.

“Let’s knock the screen door in,” said Lustig.

“We can’t do that. This is private property. Good God!”

They went to sit down on the porch step.

“Did it ever strike you, Hinkston, that perhaps we

got ourselves somehow, in some way, off track, and by accident

came back and landed on Earth?”

“How could we have done that?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know. Oh God, let me think.”

Hinkston said, “But we checked every mile of the way.

Our chronometers said so many miles. We went past the Moon and

out into space, and here we are. I’m _positive_ we’re on Mars.”

Lustig said, “But suppose, by accident, in space, in time,

we got lost in the dimensions and landed on an Earth that is

thirty or forty years ago.”

“Oh, go away, Lustig!”

Lustig went to the door, rang the bell, and called into

the cool dim rooms: “What year is this?”

“Nineteen twenty-six, of course,” said the lady, sitting

in a rocking chair, taking a sip of her lemonade.

“Did you hear that?” Lustig turned wildly to the others.

“Nineteen twenty-six! We _have_ gone back in time! This _is_

Earth!”

Lustig sat down, and the three men let the wonder and

terror of the thought afflict them. Their hands stirred

fitfully on their knees. The captain said, “I didn’t ask for

a thing like this. It scares the hell out of me. How can a

thing like this happen? I wish we’d brought Einstein with us.”

“Will anyone in this town believe us?” said Hinkston. “Are

we playing with something dangerous? Time, I mean. Shouldn’t

we just take off and go home?”

“No. Not until we try another house.”

They walked three houses down to a little white cottage

under an oak tree. “I like to be as logical as I can be,” said

the captain. “And I don’t believe we’ve put our finger on it

yet. Suppose, Hinkston, as you originally suggested, that

rocket travel occurred years ago? And when the Earth people

lived here a number of years they began to get homesick for

Earth. First a mild neurosis about it, then a full-fledged

psychosis. Then threatened insanity. What would you do as

a psychiatrist if faced with such a problem?”

Hinkston thought “Well, I think I’d rearrange the

civilization on Mars so it resembled Earth more and more each

day. If there was any way of reproducing every plant, every

road, and every lake, and even an ocean, I’d do so. Then by

some vast crowd hypnosis I’d convince everyone in a town this

size that this really _was_ Earth, not Mars at all.”

“Good enough, Hinkston. I think we’re on the right track

now. That woman in that house back there just _thinks_ she’s

living on Earth. It protects her sanity. She and all the others

in this town are the patients of the greatest experiment

in migration and hypnosis you will ever lay eyes on in your

life.”

“That’s _it_, sir!” cried Lustig.

“Right!” said Hinkston.

“Well.” The captain sighed. “Now we’ve got somewhere. I

feel better. It’s all a bit more logical. That talk about time

and going back and forth and traveling through time turns

my stomach upside down. But _this_ way–” The captain smiled.

“Well, well, it looks as if we’ll be fairly popular here.”

“Or will we?” said Lustig. “After all, like the Pilgrims,

these people came here to escape Earth. Maybe they won’t be

too happy to see us. Maybe they’ll try to drive us out or kill

us.”

“We have superior weapons. This next house now. Up we go.”

But they had hardly crossed the lawn when Lustig stopped

and looked off across the town, down the quiet, dreaming

afternoon street. “Sir,” he said.

“What is it, Lustig?”

“Oh, sir, _sir_, what I _see_–” said Lustig, and he began

to cry. His fingers came up, twisting and shaking, and his face

was all wonder and joy and incredulity. He sounded as if at

any moment he might go quite insane with happiness. He looked

down the street and began to run, stumbling awkwardly, falling,

picking himself up, and running on. “Look, look!”

“Don’t let him get away!” The captain broke into a run.

Now Lustig was running swiftly, shouting. He turned into

a yard halfway down the shady street and leaped up upon the

porch of a large green house with an iron rooster on the roof.

He was beating at the door, hollering and crying, when

Hinkston and the captain ran up behind him. They were all

gasping and wheezing, exhausted from their run in the thin

air. “Grandma! Grandpa!” cried Lustig.

Two old people stood in the doorway.

“David!” their voices piped, and they rushed out to

embrace and pat him on the back and move around him. “David,

oh, David, it’s been so many years! How you’ve grown, boy; how

big you are, boy. Oh, David boy, how are you?”

“Grandma, Grandpa!” sobbed David Lustig. “You look fine,

fine!” He held them, turned them, kissed them, hugged them,

cried on them, held them out again, blinking at the little

old people. The sun was in the sky, the wind blew, the grass

was green, the screen door stood wide.

“Come in, boy, come in. There’s iced tea for you, fresh,

lots of it!”

“I’ve got friends here.” Lustig turned and waved at the

captain and Hinkston frantically, laughing. “Captain, come on

up.”

“Howdy,” said the old people. “Come in. Any friends of

David’s are our friends too. Don’t stand there!”

In the living room of the old house it was cool, and

a grandfather clock ticked high and long and bronzed in one

corner. There were soft pillows on large couches and walls

filled with books and a rug cut in a thick rose pattern, and

iced tea in the hand, sweating, and cool on the thirsty tongue.

“Here’s to our health.” Grandma tipped her glass to

her porcelain teeth.

“How long you been here, Grandma?” said Lustig.

“Ever since we died,” she said tartly.

“Ever since you what?” Captain John Black set down his

glass.

“Oh yes.” Lustig nodded. “They’ve been dead thirty years.”

“And you sit there calmly!” shouted the captain.

“Tush.” The old woman winked glitteringly. “Who are you

to question what happens? Here we are. What’s life, anyway? Who

does what for why and where? All we know is here we are, alive

again, and no questions asked. A second chance.” She toddled

over and held out her thin wrist. “Feel.” The captain felt.

“Solid, ain’t it?” she asked. He nodded. “Well, then,” she

said triumphantly, “why go around questioning?”

“Well,” said the captain, “it’s simply that we never

thought we’d find a thing like this on Mars.”

“And now you’ve found it. I dare say there’s lots on every

planet that’ll show you God’s infinite ways.”

“Is this Heaven?” asked Hinkston.

“Nonsense, no. It’s a world and we get a second chance.

Nobody told us why. But then nobody told us why we were on

Earth, either. That other Earth, I mean. The one you came from.

How do we know there wasn’t _another_ before _that_ one?”

“A good question,” said the captain.

Lustig kept smiling at his grandparents. “Gosh, it’s good

to see you. Gosh, it’s good.”

The captain stood up and slapped his hand on his leg in

a casual fashion. “We’ve got to be going. Thank you for the

drinks.”

“You’ll be back, of course,” said the old people. “For

supper tonight?”

“We’ll try to make it, thanks. There’s so much to be done.

My men are waiting for me back at the rocket and–”

He stopped. He looked toward the door, startled.

Far away in the sunlight there was a sound of voices,

a shouting and a great hello.

“What’s that?” asked Hinkston,

“We’ll soon find out.” And Captain John Black was out the

front door abruptly, running across the green lawn into the

street of the Martian town.

He stood looking at the rocket. The ports were open and

his crew was streaming out, waving their hands. A crowd of

people had gathered, and in and through and among these people

the members of the crew were hurrying, talking, laughing,

shaking hands. People did little dances. People swarmed. The

rocket lay empty and abandoned.

A brass band exploded in the sunlight, flinging off a gay

tune from upraised tubas and trumpets. There was a bang of

drums and a shrill of fifes. Little girls with golden hair

jumped up and down. Little boys shouted, “Hooray!” Fat men

passed around ten-cent cigars. The town mayor made a speech.

Then each member of the crew, with a mother on one arm, a

father or sister on the other, was spirited off down the street

into little cottages or big mansions.

“Stop!” cried Captain Black.

The doors slammed shut.

The heat rose in the clear spring sky, and all was silent.

The brass band banged off around a corner, leaving the rocket

to shine and dazzle alone in the sunlight

“Abandoned!” said the captain. “They abandoned the ship,

they did! I’ll have their skins, by God! They had orders!”

“Sir,” said Lustig, “don’t be too hard on them. Those were

all old relatives and friends.”

“That’s no exuse!”

“Think how they felt, Captain, seeing familiar faces

outside the ship!”

“They had their orders, damn it!”

“But how would you have felt, Captain?”

“I would have obeyed orders–” The captain’s mouth

remained open.

Striding along the sidewalk under the Martian sun, tall,

smiling, eyes amazingly clear and blue, came a young man of

some twenty-six years. “John!” the man called out, and broke

into a trot.

“What?” Captain John Black swayed.

“John, you old son of a bitch!”

The man ran up and gripped his hand and slapped him on

the back.

“It’s you,” said Captain Black.

“Of course, who’d you _think_ it was?”

“Edward!” The captain appealed now to Lustig and Hinkston,

holding the stranger’s hand. “This is my brother Edward. Ed,

meet my men, Lustig, Hinkston! My brother!”

They tugged at each other’s hands and arms and then

finally embraced.

“Ed!”

“John, you bum, you!”

“You’re looking fine, Ed, but, Ed, what _is_ this? You

haven’t changed over the years. You died, I remember, when you

were twenty-six and I was nineteen. Good God, so many years

ago, and here you are and, Lord, what goes on?”

“Mom’s waiting,” said Edward Black, grinning.

“Mom?”

“And Dad too.”

“Dad?” The captain almost fell as if he had been hit by

a mighty weapon. He walked stiffly and without co.ordination.

“Mom and Dad alive? Where?”

“At the old house on Oak Knoll Avenue.”

“The old house.” The captain stared in delighted amaze.

“Did you hear that, Lustig, Hinkston?”

Hinkston was gone. He had seen his own house down the

street and was running for it. Lustig was laughing. “You

see, Captain, what happened to everyone on the rocket? They

couldn’t help themselves.”

“Yes. Yes.” The captain shut his eyes. “When I open my

eyes you’ll be gone.” He blinked. “You’re still there. God, Ed,

but you look _fine!_”

“Come on, lunch’s waiting. I told Mom.”

Lustig said, “Sir, I’ll be with my grandfolks if you need

me.”

“What? Oh, fine, Lustig. Later, then.”

Edward seized his arm and marched him. “There’s the

house. Remember it?”

“Hell! Bet I can beat you to the front porch!”

They ran. The trees roared over Captain Black’s head; the

earth roared under his feet. He saw the golden figure of Edward

Black pull ahead of him in the amazing dream of reality. He saw

the house rush forward, the screen door swing wide. “Beat you!”

cried Edward. “I’m an old man,” panted the captain, “and you’re

still young. But then, you _always_ beat me, I remember!”

In the doorway, Mom, pink, plump, and bright. Behind

her, pepper-gray, Dad, his pipe in his hand.

“Mom, Dad!”

He ran up the steps like a child to meet them.

It was a fine long afternoon. They finished a late lunch

and they sat in the parlor and he told them all about his

rocket and they nodded and smiled upon him and Mother was just

the same and Dad bit the end off a cigar and lighted

it thoughtfully in his old fashion. There was a big turkey

dinner at night and time flowing on. When the drumsticks were

sucked clean and lay brittle upon the plates, the captain

leaned back and exhaled his deep satisfaction, Night was in all

the trees and coloring the sky, and the lamps were halos of

pink light in the gentle house. From all the other houses down

the street came sounds of music, pianos playing, doors slammng.

Mom put a record on the victrola, and she and Captain John

Black had a dance. She was wearing the same perfume he

remembered from the summer when she and Dad had been killed in

the train accident. She was very real in his arms as they

danced lightly to the music. “It’s not every day,” she said,

“you get a second chance to live.”

“I’ll wake in the morning,” said the captain. “And I’ll be

in my rocket, in space, and all this will be gone.”

“No, don’t think that,” she cried softly. “Don’t question.

God’s good to us. Let’s be happy.”

“Sorry, Mom.”

The record ended in a circular hissing.

“You’re tired, Son.” Dad pointed with his pipe. “Your

old bedroom’s waiting for you, brass bed and all.”

“But I should report my men in.”

“Why?”

“Why? Well, I don’t know. No reason, I guess. No, none at

all. They’re all eating or in bed. A good night’s sleep won’t

hurt them.”

“Good night, Son.” Mom kissed his cheek. “It’s good to

have you home.”

“It’s good to _be_ home.”

He left the land of cigar smoke and perfume and books

and gentle light and ascended the stairs, talking, talking

with Edward. Edward pushed a door open, and there was the

yellow brass bed and the old semaphore banners from college and

a very musty raccoon coat which he stroked with muted

affection. “It’s too much,” said the captain. “I’m numb and

I’m tired. Too much has happened today. I feel as if I’d been

out in a pounding rain for forty-eight hours without an

umbrella or a coat. I’m soaked to the skin with emotion.”

Edward slapped wide the snowy linens and flounced the

pillows. He slid the window up and let the night-blooming

jasmine float in. There was moonlight and the sound of distant

dancing and whispering.

“So this is Mars,” said the captain, undressing.

“This is it.” Edward undressed in idle, leisurely moves,

drawing his shirt off over his head, revealing golden shoulders

and the good muscular neck.

The lights were out; they were in bed, side by side, as in

the days how many decades ago? The captain lolled and was

flourished by the scent of jasmine pushing the lace curtains

out upon the dark air of the room. Among the trees, upon a

lawn, someone had cranked up a portable phonograph and now it

was playing softly, “Always.”

The thought of Marilyn came to his mind.

“Is Marilyn here?”

His brother, lying straight out in the moonlight from

the window, waited and then said, “Yes. She’s out of town.

But she’ll be here in the morning.”

The captain shut his eyes. “I want to see Marilyn very

much.”

The room was square and quiet except for their breathing.

“Good night, Ed.”

A pause. “Good night, John.”

He lay peacefully, letting his thoughts float. For the

first time the stress of the day was moved aside; he could

think logically now, It had all been emotion. The bands

playing, the familiar faces. But now . . .

How? he wondered. How was all this made? And why? For

what purpose? Out of the goodness of some divine intervention?

Was God, then, really that thoughtful of his children? How and

why and what for?

He considered the various theories advanced in the first

heat of the afternoon by Hinkston and Lustig. He let all kinds

of new theories drop in lazy pebbles down through his mind,

turning, throwing out dull flashes of light. Mom. Dad. Edward.

Mars. Earth. Mars. Martians.

Who had lived here a thousand years ago on Mars? Martians?

Or had this always been the way it was today?

Martians. He repeated the word idly, inwardly.

He laughed out loud almost. He had the most ridiculous

theory quite suddenly. It gave him a kind of chill. It was

really nothing to consider, of course. Highly improbable.

Silly. Forget it. Ridiculous.

But, he thought, just _suppose_ . . . Just suppose, now,

that there were Martians living on Mars and they saw our ship

coming and saw us inside our ship and hated us, Suppose, now,

just for the hell of it, that they wanted to destroy us,

as invaders, as unwanted ones, and they wanted to do it in a

very clever way, so that we would be taken off guard. Well,

what would the best weapon be that a Martian could use against

Earth Men with atomic weapons?

The answer was interesting. Telepathy, hypnosis, memory,

and imagination.

Suppose all of these houses aren’t real at all, this bed

not real, but only figments of my own imagination, given

substance by telepathy and hypnosis through the Martians,

thought Captain John Black. Suppose these houses are really

some _other_ shape, a Martian shape, but, by playing on my

desires and wants, these Martians have made this seem like my

old home town, my old house, to lull me out of my suspicions.

What better way to fool a man, using his own mother and father

as bait?

And this town, so old, from the year 1926, long before

_any_ of my men were born. From a year when I was six years old

and there _were_ records of Harry Lauder, and Maxfield Parrish

paintings _still_ hanging, and bead curtains, and “Beautiful

Ohio,” and turn-of-the-century architecture. What if the

Martians took the memories of a town _exclusively_ from _my_

mind? They say childhood memories are the clearest. And after

they built the town from my mind, they populated it with

the most-loved people from all the minds of the people on

the rocket!

And suppose those two people in the next room, asleep, are

not my mother and father at all, But two Martians, incredibly

brilliant, with the ability to keep me under this dreaming

hypnosis all of the time.

And that brass band today? What a startlingly wonderful

plan it would be. First, fool Lustig, then Hinkston, then

gather a crowd; and all the men in the rocket, seeing mothers,

aunts, uncles, sweethearts, dead ten, twenty wears ago,

naturally, disregarding orders, rush out and abandon ship. What

more natural? What more unsuspecting? What more simple? A

man doesn’t ask too many questions when his mother is soddenly

brought back to life; he’s much too happy. And here we all

are tonight, in various houses, in various beds, with no

weapons to protect us, and the rocket lies in the moonlight,

empty. And wouldn’t it be horrible and terrifying to discover

that all of this was part of some great clever plan by the

Martians to divide and conquer us, and kill us? Sometime during

the night, perhaps, my brother here on this bed will change

form, melt, shift, and become another thing, a terrible thing,

a Martian. It would be very simple for him just to turn over in

bed and put a knife into my heart. And in all those other

houses down the street, a dozen other brothers or fathers

suddenly melting away and taking knives and doing things to

the unsuspecting, sleeping men of Earth. . . .

His hands were shaking under the covers. His body was

cold. Suddenly it was not a theory. Suddenly he was very

afraid.

He lifted himself in bed and listened. The night was very

quiet The music had stopped. The wind had died. His brother

lay sleeping beside him.

Carefully he lifted the covers, rolled them back. He

slipped from bed and was walking softly across the room when

his brother’s voice said, “Where are you going?”

“What?”

His brother’s voice was quite cold. “I said, where do you

think you’re going?”

“For a drink of water.”

“But you’re not thirsty.”

“Yes, yes, I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

Captain John Black broke and ran across the room. He

screamed. He screamed twice.

He never reached the door.

In the morning the brass band played a mournful dirge.

From every house in the street came little solemn processions

bearing long boxes, and along the sun-filled street, weeping,

came the grandmas and mothers and sisters and brothers and

uncles and fathers, walking to the churchyard, where there were

new holes freshly dug and new tombstones installed. Sixteen

holes in all, and sixteen tombstones.

The mayor made a little sad speech, his face sometimes

looking like the mayor, sometimes looking like something else.

Mother and Father Black were there, with Brother Edward,

and they cried, their faces melting now from a familiar face

into something else.

Grandpa and Grandma Lustig were there, weeping, their

faces shifting like wax, shimmering as all things shimmer on a

hot day.

The coffins were lowered. Someone murmured about “the

unexpected and sudden deaths of sixteen fine men during the

night–”

Earth pounded down on the coffin lids.

The brass band, playing “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,”

marched and slammed back into town, and everyone took the day

off.

The End

Conclusion

And this is only the beginning.

Who knows what greatness, and strange mysteries lie in the future ahead of you?

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Ray Bradbury Index here…

Ray Bradbury

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

The USA Is Committing Suicide

This is the year. It’s happening. It’s peaking.

This guy, Gonzalo Lira has laid it all out. All of it. Economic, Geo-political, economic, in very easy and clear terms. This video of his (in two parts – sorry about that) really tells you what is going on and why, and talks about what is going to happen.

MM agrees 100% with his assessment.

Outstanding video.

It’s in two parts due to some technical issues, but I have to tell youse guys, it’s brilliant. Man, oh man, does it set you up for a real understanding of what is going on in the Geo-Political scene right now.

Please watch both videos.

Hopefully they will stay up before the MSM takes them down. Outstanding. You need to watch both of these videos. Watch it to the very end. The best part is in the second video at 45:00:00 min to the end.

Part 1

Part 2

Wow.

Outstanding

Pay attention to what is happening with Sanctions and Taiwan. You will start to realize the full extent what is going on.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/552236-michael-hudson-sanctions-ukraine/

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Grasshopper Pie, Body Snatchers, Prank Gifts, Vaxx, Nanobots, crashing planes, CIA and their Nazi Operations, American collapse and treasure. Just another day at MM land.

Meanwhile, by every single fact we are able to observe, the decadent leaders of the West are acting as though Russia and China are Iraq and Libya. 

It appears that they genuinely believe they can use brute force and threats of brute force to come out on top in this conflict. 

(It’s also worth mentioning that the West, due to the ultra-low moral character of its leaders and the utter lack of any unifying ideal beyond anal sex, has lost the ability to cooperate cohesively as a single body in the way that the Chinese do.)

-UNZ

What do all these things have in common? They all are attributes of a period of time that is going though change. Some people might refer to it as an unravelling, while others might consider it the “second coming”. I think that it’s darn uncomfortable, and bothersome. It’s a period of change and it is nearing it’s peak.

Sheech!

I need a drink.

What? I’m already drinking. Oh, well. Color me silly.

This article has a bunch of videos. Most are small, but depending on your internet connection, they may or may not load. Just click on the link and watch them open up in another window. Most are really quick.

Strange stuff guys…

Strange and unusual things going on.

In China, a passenger aircraft took a highly unusual nose dive. Engines went full throttle, and the plane dove straight into the ground. It’s almost like the plane decided to commit suicide by ramming itself into the ground at full speed.

It’s not normal airplane behavior.

Don’t you know.

The unusual nature of this crash has everyone scratching their heads, and MM is no exception. Since this is Boeing plane that openly admits that the plane’s computer can override the pilot and fly itself…

So, and I do mean it … the software can take the input, decide the pilot is in error, and take over…

… so why have a pilot then?

Hum?

…

It is very concerning.

The opinions sent to me privately are running near 100% that the United States government / CIA are somehow involved in this fiasco. I would not be surprised if this is the case, but the truth is that I really do not know.

But…

You do know that we are going to flush out this issue.

Right here.

Right now.

MM style.

What I do know is that this entire event has shaken the Chinese people to the core. No one. And I do mean NO ONE wants to fly. Airline prices are now less than $5 USD to fly round-trip to Beijing from Zhuahi. It’s insane.

Just like the crash of the Hindenburg completely ended commercial travel by dirigible, it seems that this even will seriously impact commercial aviation inside of China. There will be far greater use of the High Speed Trains, and far less use of domestic air transport.

I predict.

The Hindenburg

From HERE.

OIP C.HGh92 PZ8EPokgFswjQ2UAAAAA — The Hindenburg bursts into flames.

In 1936, the future looked bright for rigid airships, the hydrogen-filled, lighter-than-air behemoths also known as dirigibles or zeppelins.

The Hindenburg, Nazi Germany’s pride and joy, spent one glorious season ferrying passengers across the Atlantic in its luxurious belly. The following year, the airship era screeched to a spectacular halt when the Hindenburg burst into flames while landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The disaster claimed the lives of 36 people and received an unprecedented amount of media coverage.

The Hindenburg was a 245-metre- (804-foot-) long airship of conventional zeppelin design that was launched at Friedrichshafen, Germany, in March 1936. It had a maximum speed of 135 km (84 miles) per hour and a cruising speed of 126 km (78 miles) per hour. Though it was designed to be filled with helium gas, the airship was filled with highly flammable hydrogen owing to export restrictions by the United States against Nazi Germany. In 1936 the Hindenburg inaugurated commercial air service across the North Atlantic by carrying 1,002 passengers on 10 scheduled round trips between Germany and the United States.

On May 6, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, N.J., on the first of its scheduled 1937 trans-Atlantic crossings, the Hindenburg burst into flames and was completely destroyed. Thirty-six of the 97 persons aboard were killed.

The fire was officially attributed to a discharge of atmospheric electricity in the vicinity of a hydrogen gas leak from the airship, though it was speculated that the dirigible was the victim of an anti-Nazi act of sabotage.

The Hindenburg disaster marked the end of the use of rigid airships in commercial air transportation.

Forever.

Grasshopper Pie

A staple among southern desserts in the 1950s and 1960s, this creamy mint pie sports an Oreo crust, all of which makes it strange that it hasn’t remained as popular as it once was.

R C.01674ef1a89c56b727dd1a684b109531 1 — Grasshopper Pie

This American retro dessert was inspired by the popular 1950’s chocolate-mint cocktail, and it was a favorite of Southern hostesses in the 1950s and 1960s. Originally, grasshopper pie always had a crust of either cookies or graham cracker crumbs, but today it is most often made with a base of Oreos, desiccated coconut, and butter, while the gelatine-set cream filling mainly consists of heavy cream flavored with crème de menthe—a sweet, mint-flavored liqueur—and melted marshmallows.

Grasshopper pie is usually so named because of its green color, though modern recipes may omit coloring the pie green. It was likely invented in the 1950s in the United States, and may have been inspired by a drink called the grasshopper developed at about the same time. It is a chiffon pie usually made with a cookie crust.

There is an earlier grasshopper pie type dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. Some versions of this pie from the Philippines used real grasshoppers. These insects are eaten in many cultures, and they can be used in various desserts, where they may be sugared and baked, providing a crunchy, and to some very appetizing, confection. The 1950s grasshopper pie bears little resemblance to versions produced that have insects as a primary ingredient.

Chiffon pies in the 1950s were often a combination of whipping cream, gelatin, sugar, eggs, and flavoring. In the case of the grasshopper pie, common flavoring used was alcohol in the form of crème de menthe, and sometimes other alcohols like crème de cacao.

For teetotalers, mint flavoring could be achieved by using mint extracts instead, though these might still contain a tiny amount of alcohol. Green food coloring was a frequent addition to give the pie a light green color.

Most often the cookie crust is made with chocolate wafers, so that the pie has a chocolate and mint flavor. The crust is baked for few moments and then chilled. When the chiffon is prepared, usually over a double boiler, it is chilled and then spooned over the crust. The pie tends to be served cold and many love its refreshing mint taste.

There may be very large differences between classic recipes for grasshopper pie and modern ones. Since gelatin can be somewhat annoying to work with, many people now prepare the pie by melting marshmallows and blending them with milk or whipping cream, and sometimes cream cheese. Green food coloring can be optional, and when not used the pie could be called “mint patty pie” instead. Some people may prefer using a graham cracker crust, and other recipes advocate the use of specific cookies like Oreos®.

In the US, grasshopper pie tends to be most popular in the South, but other parts of the country enjoy it too. The pie rose in popularity especially up until the 1970s, but it is now served with less frequency. Many ice cream stores capitalized on the flavor of this pie by producing their own version with mint or mint chocolate chip ice cream and a cookie crust. Some ice cream stores are particularly known for their grasshopper pie variants.

-Delighted Cooking

The pie is traditionally served well chilled, topped with dollops of whipped cream, and decorated with dark chocolate shavings.

Grasshopper Pie

Nice Robust Chinese girl

In American terms, we would refer to this “body shape
or “Body build” as “built like a Brick House”. It’s generally a nice compliment for a fine robust woman. In this case, a Chinese woman. video. 5MB

Lavrov’s History Lesson – Germany’s Downfall – Russian Forces Develop Routine

Great writeup on MoA. b is cooking at his best.

Th Saker has reproduced the transcript of a talk Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov has given three days ago. It is quite long with a Q&A at the end but it is a very good history lesson on how we got to the point that Russia felt it had to intervene in the Ukraine.

Here are just a few graphs of it. I recommend to read it all of it:

This meeting takes place against the backdrop of events now occurring in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken at length about the origins of this crisis. I would like to briefly reiterate: this is not about Ukraine. This is the end-result of a policy that the West has carried out since the early 1990s. It was clear back then that Russia was not going to be docile and that it was going to have a say in international matters. This is not because Russia wants to be a bully. Russia has its history, its tradition, its own understanding of the history of its peoples and a vision on how it can ensure its security and interests in this world.

This became clear in the late 1990s-early 2000s. The West has repeatedly attempted to stall the independent and autonomous development of Russia. This is rather unfortunate. From the start of President Vladimir Putin’s “rule” in the early 2000s, we were open to the idea of working with the West in various ways, even in a form similar to that of an alliance, as the President has said. Sadly, we were unable to do this. We repeatedly suggested that we should conclude treaties and base our security on equal rights, rejecting the idea of strengthening one’s security at the expense of another.

Neither were we able to promote economic cooperation. The European Union, which back then showed some signs of independent decision-making, has now devolved toward being completely dependent on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the US. The story of Nord Stream 2 was the highlight of this change. Even Germany, which defended its interests in the project to the very end, was persuaded that the “project was not in its interests.” Germany and its people were told what their interests were by people on the other side of the Atlantic. Many other international areas were blocked despite our commitment to close cooperation on an equal basis.

Germany’s traitorous role towards Russia, especially under chancellor Angela Merkel, is laid out throughout the piece. The current chancellor Olaf Scholz, never a smart man, capitulated to U.S. demands to sanction Russia and thereby committed Germany to economic suicide.

That spells death for Germany’s machine industry. It is said to see my country come down like this.

Hey Olaf, when the U.S. illegally invaded Iraq for absolutely no good reason how many sanctions did Germany apply to it?

Russia has at least cited sound and understandable, if not fully legal, reasons for its current acts. It was by the way you, Olaf, and your predecessor who have let it come to this. Why didn’t you write a letter to Putin that declared that Germany will veto NATO membership for the Ukraine. That might have solved the whole problem.

—There is some talk that Russia has screwed up its campaign and some even hope that it might be losing the war. That’s nuts.

Back when I was a military officer we ran yearly large scale ‘free running’ maneuvers. Over nearly four weeks my tank company had to switch positions several times a day and march and ‘fight’ in between. The first week was cumbersome with lots of errors made by everyone. The second week was worse. Everyone was sleep deprived and folks screamed at each other. We had several accidents and twice parts of the company missed turns and got lost at night. During the third week things became gradually better and more routine. The drivers knew where to put their tanks without much command. The camouflaging done by the loaders and gunners was fast. The food that found its way to us was still hot and maintenance was done in no time. In the fourth week it was all pure fun.

The reason behind it was that people needed to learn by doing. Before the maneuvers everyone had been ‘fully trained’. But a few days on the training range do not give the experience one needs in the real world. Driving and ‘fighting’ through real villages and cities, real camouflaging against an ‘enemy’ airforce, real dueling in the open landscape day after day are different than training range time.

Russia’s forces are now in their routine mode. They will now grind down what is left of the Ukrainian forces.

According to the Pentagon the Russian airforce yesterday flew 300 sorties over Ukraine, mostly at night. That are 50% more per day than last week. That means 300 Ukrainian weapon factories, ammunition depots, convoys and fighting position get destroyed every day, day after day. How long will it take until there are no more targets?

Andrew Milburn, a former Marine colonel, is in the Ukraine from where he reports for Task and Purpose:

The Russians are already adapting, and by doing so are narrowing the Ukrainians’ tactical edge. The one-sided culling of Russian armored columns that characterized the opening days of the war, and kept YouTube subscribers around the world happy, are a thing of the past. The Russians now lead their formations with electronic attack, drones, lasers and good-old-fashioned reconnaissance by fire. They are using cruise missiles and saboteur teams to target logistics routes, manufacturing plants, and training bases in western Ukraine. Realizing that the Ukrainians lack thermal sights for their stinger missile launchers, the Russians have switched all air operations to after dark. It may be for this same reason that Russian cruise missile strikes in western and southern Ukraine have also been at nighttime.

The Russians have learned to play to their strengths. While Ukrainian soldiers mock their Russian counterparts, they are deeply respectful of Russian artillery, an asset that the Russians are using more frequently to compensate for their infantry’s deficiencies. Several snipers I spoke with recently agreed that the Russians’ indirect fire capability was the most concerning — a result of sheer reckless mass rather than technical skill. They told some hair-raising stories to illustrate their point, and one amusing one: Ukrainian soldiers defending Kyiv commute to the battle in their own vehicles. After a recent three-day insertion, the sniper teams returned to their extraction site to find their cars all flattened by Russian artillery – a contingency apparently not covered by their insurance plans.

Overconfidence may obscure for the Ukrainians one salient fact about this conflict: Time is not on their side.

Posted by b on March 22, 2022 at 17:55 UTC | Permalink

Hilarious Prank Gift Packages To Surprise Your Friends This Christmas

How will you wrap your Christmas presents this year? Will you buy some expensive wrapping paper and then silently weep in the corner when you realize you have no idea what you’re doing? Or just give up entirely and pay someone else to do it? Lucky for you, one company out there is aiming to make gift wrapping a little more fun.

Pranko-O is a Minneapolis-based company that creates hilarious prank gifts, called Prank Packs. A fart filter or an earwax candle might sound insane at first but don’t worry – that’s where the ‘prank’ part of Prank Pack comes in. The products, sadly, don’t exist and are just gag boxes. But imagine your partner’s reaction when they were hoping to get a Pandora necklace for Christmas but receive a cheese printer instead – priceless!

Here’s a few for some inspiration. This is a Cheese printer. Surprise your friends!

2022 03 23 11 26 — Cheese Printer. You’ll be amazed how you were ever able to live without one!

Here’s another. It’s a “must” for every pet owner.

2022 03 23 11 28 — It’s a “must” for every pet owner.

And yet another. Fun for kids of all ages!

2022 03 23 11 29 — Fun for kids of all ages four and older.

Confirmed: Nazis are the proxy army of the US imperialists against Russia in Ukraine

From HERE.

Couldn’t be said more clearly.

The former US secretary of defense and CIA director, Leon Panetta, admitted openly that

 “We are engaged in a conflict here. It's a proxy war with Russia, whether we say so or not ...”.

Referring to the Ukrainian forces, the US imperialist warhawk claimed that

"These are good fighters, they are small-unit operations, they are working well ...".

The description “small-unit operations” fits to proxy forces – mercenaries, rather than an organized national army.

As we mentioned in our previous article, for eight years, the NATO criminals and the “free” and “democratic” West, were provoking Russia by arming and training the far-right and neo-nazi militia groups who also infiltrated in the Ukrainian army and operate in East Ukraine against Russian populations. Which is something similar with what happened in the long-suffering Syria by the US proxy war against Assad. Only there, the US imperialists armed and trained some so-called “moderate rebels”, with most of the arms ending in the hands of ISIS islamofascists who spread chaos and destruction.

Panetta’s statements are essentially an official admission by the US side that this is the case.

This also explains why the Russians are so obsessed with Mariupol, which appears that it suffered most from the war in Ukraine so far. It seems that they won’t retreat from their demand to Ukraine to surrender the besieged city. Not only because of its critical strategic importance, but mostly because it’s the base of the Azov Battalion, which is essentially the major US proxy Nazi force in the Ukrainian soil.

Indeed: [emphasis added]

In March 2015 Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced that the Azov Regiment would be among the first units to be trained by United States Army troops in their Operation Fearless Guardian training mission. 

US training however was withdrawn on 12 June 2015, as the US House of Representatives passed an amendment blocking any aid (including arms and training) to the battalion due to its neo-Nazi background. 

However, the amendment was later removed in November 2015, with The Nation reporting that the "House Defense Appropriations Committee came under pressure from the Pentagon to remove the Conyers-Yoho amendment from the text of the bill."

Azov published a media release on its website on 20 November 2017 stating that it had met with a foreign delegation of officers from the United States Armed Forces and Canadian Armed Forces on 16 November. 

Writing for Jacobin, Branko Marcetic says that members of Azov have been pictured meeting with U.S. military and NATO officials.

This is a particularly revealing information because it proves beyond doubt that the US imperialist apparatus was very well aware of the nazi nature of the Azov Battalion. And did everything to overcome any political actions that were aiming to block any aid to its members.

Recall that new information – coming from the elite section of the US think tank apparatus – proved that the US imperialists wanted to drag Russia into a war with Ukraine since at least 2019.

Everything we wrote back in 2014 turns out to be right:

What was left to do, for the moment, is to challenge Putin in order to drag Russia in an endless attrition war in East Ukraine and this explains to a degree Putin's hesitation to act like he did in Crimea. Against Russian army, of course, the West will not risk to put an organized military force, but only teams of mercenaries of private armies, as already did. It is certain, however, that, despite that the global economic oligarchy has lost valuable time because of its wrong moves, it will not give up its plans for Russia easily ...

Mapping proxy wars of the last decades around the globe we also wrote back in 2015 that the Ukraine conflict is a proxy war against Russia by the West, next to the Russian borders. Behind the color revolutions, one can always find US financed organizations. The Western allies would not dare to face directly the Russian army. In the Ukraine conflict one could find private armies of mercenaries. The most stupid action by the Western puppets was to support neo-nazis against the local Russian populations. This was something that exposed their real intention, which is to encircle Russia through puppet regimes who would permit the Western military presence in their territories.

By aiding the nazis in Ukraine, the US and the West generally, lost their last remnants of their alleged “superiority” on matters related with democracy, human rights, or, international law. West’s moral bankruptcy and cultural decline are now irreversible and mark the beginning of the end of its global domination.

CIA use Nazi forces

A fine Chinese woman in red

In China, red is considered a lucky and happy color. I like this woman in this outfit. She is pleasing to the eye and I am sure that she would be fun to be with. video 2MB

Strange coincidences

I offer up this following graph. It shows an association between belief in the mainstream media (the United States government narrative) and number of mRNA injections.

The more mRNA injections you have, the more that you believe whatever the MSM (Main Stream Media) says.

graph1 — Relationship between the official government narrative and mRNA injections.

Look over the results.

It is errie.

It could be a coincidence. It might be. But, you know, there are secrets, and secrets, and the United States is run by very selfish, sick, evil people. Something is up. But what?

What is going on?

I don’t know…

It reminds me of the old 1950s movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

R C.e97a6b2612b25bd7d6b19e158edbd3db — Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Imagine that you and everyone else are normal. You go to work, and you play. You go drive your car, and listen to the radio.

There’s a pandemic. Everyone must get these “special” injections.

Not a vaccine, mind you. But something “new” and “special”. And so you plan on getting one, but your entire community beats you to it. Everyone is injected with the “special” formulation but you, and so when you finally go into town to get your injection, you notice something different.

Everything is the same.

Yet everything is different.

You have a difficult time trying to describe what is do different. They all look the same. They act the same. They all have absolute perfect memories. But something is missing…

…you just cannot pin it down; you just cannot put your finger on it…

Well…

Everyone is mad. They are angry. When you bring up certain subject, you know that the person you are talking to will fly into a rage. There are simply things that you just cannot talk about.

Face masks.
Racial issues.
Russia
China.
Vacinations.

You think “everyone is so polarized”. But it’s strange. People were never so polarized. Not before. Now they are just really upset and really on a “hair trigger”.

The movie

In 1956 the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” came out.

14fa9398 0015 4efd a55f ccb26a25206a 1.0785af4f06e38d1fb48e81fee1cced2e — Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The narrative’s premise is most interesting.

A peaceful town is imperceptibly taken over by an alien force: Giant plant pods, products of atomic mutation, turn themselves into replicas of people. The pods turn human beings into faceless, emotionless automatons, incapable of any feeling, be it anger or love.

Once again, the image used is that of an initially normal and ordinary town, suddenly thrown out of balance.

“At first glance, everything looked the same,” the narrator says, “It wasn’t. Something evil had taken possession of the town.” The rest of the film explores that “something.”

Called back to Santa Mira from a medical conference, Doctor Miles Bonnel (Kevin McCarthy) is greeted at the train station by his nervous nurse, Sally. Looking through his clinic’s window, everything “looks” the same:

Wally Everhard is talking someone into buying insurance, Bill Bittner is taking his secretary to launch. Yet something strange is going on. In the back of his mind, Miles senses a warning bell: “Sick people who couldn’t wait to see me, suddenly were perfectly all right.”

A general practitioner, Miles believes that, “the trouble is inside you!” thus recommending that she sees a psychiatrist.

The first “solution” to the problem is psychiatric help, with the film acknowledging the increasing popularity of psychiatry in the 1950s.

R C.285170c1c90097c1d5030f17958da129 — “At first glance, everything looked the same,” the narrator says, “It wasn’t. Something evil had taken possession of the town.”

Miles rationalizes his advice to Wilma by saying, “you don’t have to be losing your mind to need psychiatric help.” But Wilma is firm: “It’s a waste of time, there’s nothing wrong with me.”

Like many other films of the decade, Invasion deals with three issues: [1] the definition of normal and abnormal behavior; [2] the legitimate authority to label behaviors as abnormal or deviant; and [3] the negative effects of conformity, apathy, and complacency.

The film suggests that the town’s experts and professionals are not to be trusted. The police force, an agency entrusted with the legitimate use of physical force, can’t solve the problem. In fact, when Jack’s clone is found, they refuse to call the police, because cops tend to rely too much on logic and dry laws.

Miles represents the center of the moral center.

2022 03 23 17 31 — “At first glance, everything looked the same,” the narrator says, “It wasn’t. Something evil had taken possession of the town.”

He is a professional, but a general practitioner, not a specialist, thus able to see the problem overall, in its entirety.

Even so, Miles proves that his common sense and critical faculties as a responsible individual are more important than his narrow professional skills. Thus, when Jack first describes the problem he says: “Would you be able to forget that you’re a doctor for a while” .

For the duration of the film, Miles “forgets” his occupation.

The movie advocates independent judgment, common sense, intuition, and self-reliance, and shows suspicious toward anyone in a position of power or professional expertise.

Invasion, like Capra’s movies of the Depression era, singles out the role of an exceptional individual, a charismatic leader, in preventing society from dehumanization, from gradual transformation into an aggregate of unfeeling robots.

Sleep is the metaphor used to convey mass complacency and conformity.

The pods take over human beings when they are not alert, when they are (literally or figuratively) asleep, thus passive.

Escaping from town, Miles gives Becky and himself a large dose of pills to stay awake. “We can’t close our eyes all night,” he tells her, because “we may wake up changed.” “Sooner or later,”

Kauffman tells Miles, “You’ll have to go to sleep,” i.e. you’ll have to conform and join the majority.

But Kauffman also reassures him that as soon as he falls asleep, the pods will “absorb your minds, your memories, and you’re reborn into an untroubled world.”

The new world will be without love, ambition, grief, or any emotions, “Life will be much simpler and better.”

Indeed, during their escape, chased by every member in town, Becky can’t stay awake any longer and she falls asleep. “I went to sleep and it happened,” says Becky. “A moment of sleep,” narrates Miles, and “their bodies were now hosts harboring alien forms of life.”

Santa Mira is a typical small town; there is nothing special or distinctive about I; what happened in Santa Mira couldand would–happen in other towns. In most sci-fi films, the disaster first occurs on a local level before spreads all over the country.

The catastrophe begins in a small town, then moves to bigger regional centers, and finally inflicts the entire nation.

Attempting to get assistance, Miles first calls the F.B.I. in Los Angeles, but there is no answer. His call to the governor in Sacramento also fails; the circuits are busy in both places.

Invasion differs from other sci-fi features because there is no immediate confirmation of the hero’s report of the “strange” phenomenon by other witnesses; the conflict is between one individual and the entire community.

Invasion shows that the authorities, both scientific and political, are neither trustworthy nor competent.

Other films went out of their way to reassured audiences that they were “in good hands,” that politicians (or the military) and scientists would come to the rescue when needed. In contrast, Invasion’s ending is so tentative and abrupt that it provides no such reaffirmation, instead urging its viewers to be always alert.

kevin mccarthy2 — “At first glance, everything looked the same,” the narrator says, “It wasn’t. Something evil had taken possession of the town.”

Puckering fish look

For some reason, the Chinese women like to make these puckering fish expressions, as they view them as being very cute. I don’t know about that. Really. I just like a nice big smile, myself. video. 3MB

Sanctions

Western production depends on China no less, than on Russia. And once again, on the tip of my tongue there is a Russian proverb with a deep meaning – what is good for a Russian is death for a German.

And what will happen to the West, when Russia imposes her own retaliatory sanctions?

Consider this article…

Immediately (in several European capitals), they realized that those sanctions, (introduced by them), would return to them like a boomerang and more than once

The words of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the reverse effect of sanctions against Russia can be called a sensation. It seems that the West is beginning to see clearly and see what damage they inflict on the economies of their countries with their own sanctions.

After the successes of the first days on the sanctions fronts, when Western countries managed to bring down the Russian stock market and the ruble exchange rate, a process of sobering up begins in European capitals and there is an acute desire to return the situation back.

By the way, the fall of the market and the collapse of the ruble did not become catastrophic for Russia . There was no default – Russia regularly pays its bills, and the ruble is slowly, but still winning back its positions.

A funny situation can happen with the stock market. Against the backdrop of a fall in the price of shares of Russian companies, Western investors began to actively sell them for next to nothing. Now the most interesting question is:

Who bought them?

Some European experts suggest that Russian business and the Russian government took advantage of the situation and bought almost everything for next to nothing. In other words, Russian companies have become Russian again. Forever at the bottom, the shares will not be and sooner or later they will go up, but they will no longer bring dividends to Western investors. And they will no longer have levers of influence on the Russian economy.

Chancellor Scholz , of course, did not talk about these deep processes. He spoke about the need to prepare and impose sanctions very carefully. The reverse effect of them should be surmountable for Western economies. But so far everything is working out exactly the opposite.

The imposed sanctions blew up the market and the prices of absolutely everything flew up.

Inflation all over Europe

Everyone knows the situation with gas – at some point it rose in price to a completely unthinkable 3,800 dollars. Now, thanks to the efforts of Gazprom, it has been brought down to an acceptable $1,050.

Oil prices rose, followed by gasoline and all fuel in general.
Steel and cast iron, building materials. Nickel. Aluminum. Products of the petrochemical industry and fertilizers.
Wheat and all food products.

The list can be continued, but this is quite enough to understand what kind of “return line” has flown through the European economy.

French President Macron is already talking about the introduction of food checks in the country for the poorest. In the Czech Republic, wheat and flour more than doubled in price.

In Italy and Spain, pasta and vegetable oil disappeared from the shelves, and in Lithuania, salt and soda.

And all this at a record level of inflation. In some European countries it has already exceeded 10%.

The West was sure that by depriving Russia of income from the export of energy resources and raw materials, they would bring it to her knees, but it turned out that Russia’s participation in almost any area is so significant that it immediately affects the economies of Europe and the United States.

Britain

Britain banned the import of products, incl. food, from Russia. In addition to raising prices for communal and gasoline, the British can part with their national dish – fish and chips, in other words – potatoes with fish.

For British Prime Minister Johnson, it came as an unpleasant surprise that most of the fish eaten in Britain is Russian. Iceland and Norway will not be able to provide even half of the amount that Russia was selling.

Britain urgently needs to find new routes for the supply of fish, otherwise unrest cannot be avoided and this is not a joke. For the British , fish and chips is more than food, it is part of the culture, it is their genetic code.

That is why such a heated debate broke out in the European Union today on the issue of an embargo on the import of Russian oil. Everyone is worried about the consequences of this step. Will this be another nail in the coffin of the European economy?

Russia’s retaliatory measures

But even more Europeans should worry about Russia’s retaliatory measures. Nothing is known about them yet, and this is scary. Retaliatory sanctions can set the European economy back several decades, and the EU is very unwilling to do so.

Reverse Sanctions

Cute Chinese girl

I really like the Chinese girls. They are sweet, cute and they take care of themselves. Here’s a nice cute girl. video 4MB

Beef Stroganoff

Let’s talk about food.

Good. Healthy. Delicious. Food.

The story goes that this beef, noodles, and cream sauce dish exploded in America after U.S. servicemen, stationed in the dish’s homeland of Russia, brought it home after World War II.

Meat. MEAT. I love it, I really do.

My recent visits to my Vegetarian Restaurant, aside, I love and yearn for meat. Good tasty meat. Beef. Mutton. Pork. Chicken. Turkey. Meat!

I grew up in the heart of the United States. Pittsburgh. The land of steel, coal. beer and perogies. There, the basic food groups consisted of potatoes, cream of [insert mushroom, chicken, or celery here] soup, butter (or Land-O-Lakes margarine), tall cold glasses of milk with every meal and…meat.

I had a recent craving for beef stroganoff.

Although I ate this dish frequently as a child, I had yet to make it myself. The beef stroganoff of my youth was a retro reflection of my Polish-American-Irish upbringing – a nostalgic combination of ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, condensed beef broth, and low-fat sour cream.

Although I (of course) I could have gone out and had my fill of some delicious steak, turtle or mutton, I wasn’t really feeling that desire. I wanted to create something myself. I wanted a taste from my childhood, and you just aren’t goign to get that inside of China. No matter how hard you try.

I wanted comfort food, and I figured that beef stroganoff would foot the bill.

This is comfort food at its finest.

2022 03 23 16 55 — Get your beef in some sputtering, aromatic, delicious SALTED butter. Work quickly – you’re just browning and the thinness of the meat doesn’t require much time in the pan. Set beef aside. Sauté your onions and garlic in the same pan.

After making a few (regional) tweaks to the Simply Recipes version, I came up with a winner. Gather up some easy basics: butter, beef, onions, garlic, mushrooms, sour cream (be sure to read my footnote on the sour cream!). If you have tarragon, nutmeg, and Worcestershire sauce on hand, even better.

Beef Stroganoff

Meanwhile in America

Draft is a prelude for an invasion force

Why would the United States decide to institute a draft? Well, it seems that there are decisions being made and systems put in place right now. If you are an American under 35 years of age, you should be concerned.

US Draft

Here’s what I have been eating

Some home movies. Actually not in my home, in various eating establishments in China. Oh, China is supposed to be in famine right now! OMG. My bad. Sorry to break the narrative.

Video 1 – Dongbei salad. 43MB

Video 2 – Sichuan beef and mushrooms. 63MB

Video 3 – Gung Pao Ji Deng 82MB

Some intel to share…

A while back I recieved some intel from one of my spook-ish sources. Good or bad, right or wrong, I just filed it away for “a rainy day” (It’s a play on an American idiom. It means, it’s valuable and interesting, but you don’t need it now. You save it for later.)

…

It’s how I run my life.

Good or bad, right or wrong. I just take all input, and consider it. File it, and move forward. Always move forward. You just cannot drop everything and take action on some other’s time-tables. That would be like running around, from tree to tree, pissing indiscriminately.

So I took the information. Filed it both securely in my email folders, and on my hard disk. And forgot about it.

It does not mean that I agree or disagree with it. It just means that there is nothing that I can do with the information at the time that I recieved it. So I put it aside. And, instead, work on things that I can do something about.

…

Month pass by.

…

After seeing that graph that connects mRNA with thoughts and political agreement with the United States government, it triggered my memory. There was something about this dialog that really seemed to connect to the events that I was witnessing.

The (archived) intel that I was informed on was directly related to this association.

The message suggested that there were vault 7 algorithms and frequencies that worked together in association with various ingredients in the <redacted> portion of the mRNA injection “stew”.

mRNA nanobots + Vault 7 + MSM “news” = Easily manipulated serf / slave

These associations would then “hand shake” with embedded subsonic frequences transmitted along “news” messages, of all sorts. Thus making the injected person, who is exposed to the “news” messages believe them without any critical thought.

Sounds far-fetched.

Perhaps…

I filed it away, as it was something worthy of further study.

And then I saw the graph, and I sought to revisit my communication on this subject. So, like the good and investigative fellow I am, I went to dig it out of my archives.

And it’s gone.

I mean, as in GONE.

The darnest thing!

All records gone. All archives gone. All backups gone. It’s a full spectrum erase. Oh, the folder is there. But it’s empty. Even the screen shots that I took and put in a special folder… it’s gone as well.

What the fuck?

It could be a slide. I could be forgetting things. It could be an accident. I don’t know…

… what a coincidence.

It’s a nagging pain in the ass, that’s what.

Some more fun gag gift boxes…

I found this one funny. Perfect for getting your children to eat. Child refuses to eat? Just plop them down and watch them eat their hearts out. Children cry for more!

Oh, and Daddy won’t mind…

2022 03 23 11 32 — Perfect for getting your children to eat. Child refuses to eat? Just plop them down and watch them eat their hearts out. Children cry for more!

This one is unique. Everyone wants their home to fill with the aroma of sizzling bacon. Now it can be an everyday affair.

“Breakfast fresh scent”.

2022 03 23 11 34 — Everyone wants their home to fill with the aroma of sizzling bacon. Now it can be an everyday affair.

Who thinks up these things? “Millions of satisfied customers.”

Do you want to shake up your company? Hold a meeting where you announce that the company is going to save money by stop buying toilet paper. Instead, they will install these rotowipe devices in all the stalls. Make the announcment “dead pan” and watch the reactions.

2022 03 23 11 35 — “Millions of satisfied customers.”

A Huge Cleavage

A huge cleavage is developing between the East and West in tandem with the Ukraine ops. The US State Dept. just sanctioned some Chinese officials due to "human rights". China didn't take well to it at all. Meanwhile, India is not going along with the Western sanctions on Russia and got threatened with sanctions earlier but the US has since backed off that threat.

Victoria Nuland is in India today trying again to coerce India into getting on board the sanctions train. I dont't think it will work.

Also, it seems that China and India are making renewed efforts to bury the hatchet regarding tbeir border duspute. It really seems like a great re-alignment happening, especially taking into account all the other countries not taking part in the anti-Russia sanctions.

Russsia essentially said "fuck it" in deciding to launch into Ukraine. If the West keeps it up, China will arrive at the same point.

Interesting times.

-Woogs

Speaking of “huge cleavage”; here’s a nice Chinese girl with an impressive chest… video 1MB

Russian Foreign Minister

Here’s the entire question being used against Lavrov:

"Why was the military operation launched now and not eight years ago? At that time, a pro-Russian “anti-Maidan” movement emerged in Odessa and Kharkov, which installed the Russian flag on top of the Kharkov regional administration without firing a shot. The city supported Russia. Now these people are hiding from shelling."

I find it impossible to verify the veracity of the question. I know in Odessa the police didn’t do anything to stop the Nazis from their killing and burning. I imagine a similar performance happened in Kharkov. Russia acted to save its strategic asset, Crimea, but clearly wasn’t prepared to intervene further.

Lavrov’s initial sentence is very honest:

"A lot of factors influence developments at each specific historical moment."

I’ve read both the English and Russian transcripts, and what I see by reading between the lines is commiseration by Lavrov with the questioner, not any attempt to mislead. Lavrov says They took advantage of our nature:

"We must have trusted them because of some naivety and kindness of heart, which is something Russians are known for.

"I have no doubt that lessons will be learned."

And if you’ve watched Lavrov while speaking his recent denunciations of the West, that Russia will never again put its trust in any part of the West, you’ll see the resolve that Russia will not get fooled again as it’s now taking everything into its own hands.

IMO, some part of all Russians, especially Putin, Lavrov, Shoigu, and other leaders, was burned and died with those in Odessa and in Donbass. They pled and pled and pled some more with the Western pukes to obey the fucking law put forth in UNSCR 2022–the Minsk Agreements.

But inaction and outright refusal followed by the breaking of it all by the fucking West. And now all the rest that was uncovered with the military operation!!

I’ll bet the fucking national debt that Putin, Lavrov, et al wish they would’ve done more in 2014 but felt they couldn’t.

The Syria intervention helped to provide some solace. But it’s very clear to Russia now that the Outlaw US Empire is the #1 predator state on the planet and must be neutralized somehow without resorting to nuclear weapons.

Yes, that’s how fucking serious this is.

Lavrov knows that gravity of the situation. It’s fucking existential!

And it’s that fact the West badly wants to cover up. And just as importantly, it’s that fact that we must try to expose and broadcast.

– karlof1

Steak au Poivre

I’m probably going to catch some flac for this, but for me – it isn’t off the BBQ. No, no, no. MY perfect steak is done on a stove top (gasp!). Classically considered a French bistro dish, Steak au Poivre is my perfect way to indulge. If you’re a meat lover, this post is for you.

I think a part of what appeals to me so much about this recipe is its simplicity. The steak is seasoned with two ingredients: salt and peppercorns. It might sound crazy to coat two steaks with 2 whole tablespoons of peppercorns, but when they aren’t finely ground the spice is much more subtle. Dressing the meat this way also lets it shine through. This is beef at its best.

2022 03 23 18 55 — What appeals to me so much about this recipe is its simplicity.

Using a cast iron pan is my second secret. These pans retain heat well and are practically non-stick. Cooking the steaks on high heat, turning ~once per minute creates an even, golden crust with no burning. Depending on the thickness of your steak, you’re looking for a total of 3-4 minutes per side for rare.

If there is a side of fat on your steak, render it down for a couple minutes by propping the steak up.

In the final minutes, we add some butter for extra flavour and to start providing the base for a delicious Cognac pan sauce. When the steaks are cooked to your liking, remove to a cutting board and tent with foil. You’ll be left with something closely resembling this:

2022 03 23 18 57 — In the final minutes…

Up last is to create a rich cognac pan sauce that sends this over the top. In your pan, we will add shallot, (more butter), Cognac, cream, thyme and parsley. After cooking and reducing the sauce, we pour it over the sliced steak. When I have this for dinner, steak is all I need. There is something ridiculous & awesome about eating just steak for dinner, I hope you try it!

Meanwhile in China

It’s a thing. Partly due to Coronavirus. Partly due to the plans for Space, and bases on the Moon and Mars. Cute. Odd. video 23MB

Digging up the e-mail

I was able to retrieve the email concerning the connection between mRNA “vaxx” and the United States government.

Now, I do not endorse the content of this e-mail. I just provide it in it’s raw form for others to muse over. Please take it as it is. It is raw information that could be from anyone.

Anyone at all.

I am using anonymous email because this is above top secret information. 

You are correct that the vaccines will kill an estimated 70% of the US population due to prion disease.  This is being done to avoid world problems and reconstruct world society as described by the World Economic Forum (ocean acidification, food shortages, food poisoning and job replacement by artificial intelligence).

However, what is not currently known is that the chemtrails contain a mixture of advanced nanobots along with complexed radioactive materials (germanium, indium, etc) and a shielding material that releases hard to detect bursts of radioactivity (2 sec) on the back of the spine, femoral heads, pelvis, ribs and under the chin when exposed to nanorouter EMF.  

The nanorouters are powered by electric fields and local utility companies have conspired to alter their current to emit very high EMF and magnetic fields periodically to kill and injure through direct exposure to this radiation plus the activated chemtrail dust.  

The US government has contracted stalking activities to private companies such as Replica.ai (Lucas in San francisco) and has artificial intelligence monitoring large numbers of people through Patriot Act hacked cell phone sim cards, cameras, hacked routers and PCs.  

However, they have the ability to do additional spying due to the nanobot infestation.  Nanobots around the occipital lobe allow them to steal passwords and watch vision.  They also can do voice to skull transmission of voices, start terrifying abnormal dream sequences when initiating sleep, blank memories and control people through trance to commit suicide etc.  Low intelligence and highly opinionated people are extremely susceptible and literally zone out and lose their memory while they are being manipulated.

The nanobots also have a slew of programmed harassments that can be extremely disabling-hyperurination due to stimulated hormone secretion, waking people up from sleep due to external nanobots, depression, anxiety stimulation, simulated Mernier's disease where the room shakes up and down. If they are active you'll get tinnitus.  All of the symptoms stop once you are out of Wifi range.

The nanobots are magnetized and they are being used to shake housing structures apart.  All over the US buildings are having roof collapses due to smartmeter arson from power companies plus shaking by hidden resonance frequency generators which is known as the world hum.  The nanobot programs reduce the intensity of the humming so it sounds like typical noise but it is not.  The building shaking can be measured on a linear accelerometer (Physics Accelerator Toolbox app).

The chemtrail dust is how they plan to kill uncooperative unvaccinated people.  Planed flyovers seed beds and clothing with the dust and then it is activated and the person is slowly irradiated.  Due to the short half-life of the materials it is very hard to detect however a small EMF/magnetic field detector can be used to scan the areas.  As this is dust, vaccuuming and spongebathing it off is very effective before or during activation.

Resistors are also being targeted using the vircator microwave satellite targeting program as described at targetedjustice.com. It is very hard to shield requiring 12 layers of aluminum foil at the highest setting.  Pointing an emf detector in the area of strongest magnetic field will show you where the satellites are. Active vircators will show high EMF up to 106 V/m.

The buffered radioactive nanobot dust is being sprayed all over the world and is being used along with NSA hacked servers to control political leaders without their knowledge.  

This most likely is why Vladimir Putin has now invaded Ukraine. An invasion of Ukraine will most likely lead to an EMP strike that will damage the European illuminati.  Agents I have spoke with claim that the USA is currently controlled by the US branch of the New World Order/Illuminati and they seek to damage the European branch with the EMP attack.

The nanobots are also converting prions all over the world due to NSA hacking.

You are a targeted individual and can expect all of these attacks.  You need to take appropriate precautions to shield your equipment from hacking as well as from nanobot visual access (band of 10 layers of foil around the occiput with a strap works well.  The irradiation can cause bone marrow edema syndrome, severe abdominal pain, skin burning and back pain.

We are in a bit of a tricky situation on this one.  It probably is too late to stop the prion disease and we do need to have the European illuminati, religion and black antisocial behavior weakened however I have concerns about the excessive targeting as anyone who knows about their plans is having hits put out on them (including me) and the competency of the people running this thing.  Take appropriate precautions.

Covering beds with a plastic sheet until used to shield from the dust and shielding from vircator also is important.

Given the scope of this thing I doubt there is anything anyone can do.  The US Federal government is completely taken over, people are mind controlled and the population is being attacked with weapons we have never seen before.  Also, if we don't allow it to happen we suffer all the world problems that the WEF describes.  If we do then we will most likely be slaves to elite billionaires and forced to live in a controlled society.

<redacted>

Indeed it is far-out stuff.

It’s well beyond my understanding.

But…

It is the ONLY content that I have / possess that answers the strange graphic association posted above. Take it, and use it as you see fit. Personally, it’s way, way above my head. And I have no ideas; no clue how accurate or valid it actually is.

When I asked a person whom I greatly respect on the content of this, the response was thoughtful…

Whoever sent you that - just please PLEASE listen to the content of what the implications are for China - Xi is a WEF placement. This is NOT Unknown. It’s literally on the WEF website. He pissed off the WEF and now he is going to be removed. China has been under attack since I have been warning you. It has. A company called Blackrock - in THIS fucking world line is the muscle of the WEF.

Want to know why we did Afghanistan so quickly? BLACKROCK provided allll of the security force in Afghanistan since 2017. We drew down troops but they never left. They changed uniforms and got paid a TON of cash. Look it up. So Blackrock decides to pull alllll of the security forces outside Kabul that it paid - as a message.

Think about that - about 85% of security force outside of Kabul - gone. Like that. And all that kept the Taliban from overrunning the country was a small force. So - Biden left rather than get slaughtered.

But to my point - The WEF has a stake in a securities trading firm called Blackrock that hired mercenaries - tens of thousands of combat veterans that you see fighting in Ukraine.

Look it up.

I cannot speak about the specifics of ANY of that - at all - but I’m telling you - you hit paydirt.

And we ARE pulling out when the fight gets bloody.

Blackrock is on Chinas doorstep. And I am telling you - nothing can prevent what they are doing. THAT I know from actual friend that is IN Blackrock. As a mercenary.

This all is online. If you can’t access it through China ask someone to look it up. Also look up “Blackrock woke”. It’s fun.

And if that is AI that created that email - fucking bravo. THAT is a programmer I want to hang out with.

And feel free to post my shit - just please keep the name out of it. But I know some of your people that emailed me and I gave them my thoughts. Ask how accurate so far.

Again - I wish you all peace and happiness there - because our lights are going out soon.

Much love - <redacted>

Have you ever gotten the idea that you are somehow way over your head? Yeah. I get that all the time. It’s not that I believe everything. I listen. I learn. I drink. I move forward, and I adapt.

Everyone needs to learn, and adapt as situations permit.

Each and everytime I chat with the Domain Commander, on comm, it’s just a window into how much I really don’t know. WHile I know much, there is still so much more to learn.

Sometimes I just feel like I am a little ball in one of those old pin-ball machines. I’m just being batted around like crazy.

Take what is provided and move forward.

Always move forward.

And while you are at it; eat well.

video 3MB

Crab Rangoon

Although this fried crab dumpling fits in among postwar tiki culture and is often purported to be of southeast Asian provenance, it was very likely invented in America.

OIP C.dKAUGkBEnA7cVfxeWd1PmAHaLH — Crab Rangoon

It’s easy to make. Delicious to eat, and fun to try.

Crab Rangoon

The United States Blinked

The United States is reposturing itself. This is occuring soon after the warning from China on a package of 2nd stage sanctions regarding Russia and Taiwan.

USA Backs down

Did you know that China bought none of the extra $200 billion of US exports in Trump’s trade deal. Imagine that.

No Buys

The US-China trade: Washington’s review of US$300 billion in tariffs cannot be ‘half-hearted’. You either do it and suffer the consequences or abandon it completely.

Review

“But what about the costs?” Ah. The Total Cost of U.S. Tariffs.

Costs

From a neocon publication. The longer Trump’s China tariffs are in place, the greater the harm to America.

Clock ticking

Be the Rufus

If everyone did small, little things the world would be so much nicer, and so much better. video 6MB

Downfall of the USD

From one of my feeds…

The best way to accelerate the downfall of the empire is to attack its Dollar Hegemony (not the same as attacking America).

I said that in my Quora posts "Trade War between China and America" and "Who will win the trade war" early 2018 at the beginning of Trump's "war by any means except guns" -- euphemistically termed trade war -- against China.

Without the Dollar hegemony, America may have to act like a more normal country. Less unilateral sanctioning, less bullying, less acting like the Mafia, less war crimes, less color revolutions, less media lies, less war budgets, less war-mongering, less bases around the world, less profligate printing of money, less plundering of other countries, etc.

Bullied countries will have alternatives. For protection, they will have Russia and for trade they will have China. All previous vassals of America, including European countries are welcome. Then we will have some peace.

Acting like a more normal country in a more balanced world is actually good for the powerless people of America.

They may learn to demand for guaranteed basic housing, food, healthcare, and education rather than asking for more shit-paying soul-crushing slave-wage jobs or one-time checks that eventually go to the coffers of the 1% money-changers and MIC, giving those miscreants more power to ravage America and the world, meanwhile the national debt of Americans increases to generate the checks and the rest of the world suffers inflation, which is of course borne by the common masses of the world.

Capitalism won't solve the problems.

The fall of the empire may help people think differently or see more clearly how some countries with so many people and so little resources can live gainfully, peacefully, and happily together in a diverse yet harmonious society.

I'll share a passage from my book under chapter title "The Dragon's Dream":

"Where is this paradise? Is it on earth or is it only in his dreams (the dreamer's name means tattoo-dragon)? Where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all the children are happy and beloved. Where brothers and sisters neither slaughter each other, nor enslave one another, nor tell lies to everyone from morning till night, where the children love and help each other, share everything and take care of one another, and all of them live peaceful, fruitful, and happy lives.

Where is this place?

Is it China?"

Does this sound familiar? It comes from a Coen brothers movie, with a couple of changes and replacing Idaho with China.

-<redacted>

Power reshuffling

China says Russia is an ‘important’ G20 member. It cannot simply be expelled by others, no matter what they might want. In short, Beijing has spoken up for Russia, describing it an “important” global member after the possibility of a major move against Vladimir Putin.

Reshuffle

Unfriendly Lists

Both Russia and China, and probably India (soon), have generated an “Unfriendly nation list”. These lists catagorize nations in accordance to their behaviors and put them into catagories.

Close relationship
Friendly
Neutral
Unfriendly
Enemy

These are not meaningless lists. They will be used to determine policy. And the policy that Asia uses against other nations is determined by where it sits upon these lists.

Today, President Putin made his first move in a chess game with the West. Gas will be sold to unfriendly countries only for rubles.

Putin wants ‘unfriendly countries’ to pay rubles for gas – ABC News

Pay in rubles

Volunteers

In China, people; ordinary people, volunteer to help others. It is their nature to be the Rufus. They don’t ask for payment. They don’t ask for anything. They help others as it is their nature. Volunteers going to remote villiages to help others. Everyone being the Rufus. video 12MB

Cute Chinese girl

Yet another beauty. video 3MB

Chem-Trails

For the longest time I have dismissed the idea about “chem-trails” as just crazy “tin foil hat” conspiracy bullshit. Chem-trails are just water vapor at high altitude, don’t you know.

For the longest time. I believed this.

Then, I moved to China. It’s calm. It’s peaceful. It’s pleasant. It’s like walking slowly into a body-temperature pool of water.

And, do you know what?

There’s no “chem-trails”. None. As in zero.

So, maybe (I figured) that it was because that China has these stringent air pollution standards on all fuel. Except, well.. just how does that actually affect water vapor emissions? No clear answers.

But one thing is for certain; there are no vapor trails from aircraft of any kind, at any place, within China.

MM car ride in an industrial factory section of Guangzhou. video 43MB

None.

N-O-N-E.

Why? Why are there no Chemtrails in China? MM video 23MB

The Problem with the Nano-bots mRNA Vaxx and Vault 7

Ok, then. Let’s do a simple “sanity check”.

The big problem with this concept is that the American / Western “leadership” must be totally isolated from the effects of this control mechanism. How can you possibly isolate the leadership from Chem-trails, audio playing on the radio, media on television and movies, and the social networks on the internet.

Heck! They are addicted to them!

So, and the sanity check is clear, as brilliant and complex the system is, it will affect everyone within that society. No one will be immune. Sure, you might need to place yourself into isolation, but eventually, one way or the other, you WILL feel the influence of these systems. No one is immune.

The “leadership” might find a way to pretend getting an mRNA injection, but it’s a cut-throat world at the top. There can be all sorts of ways to place tiny nano-bots inside of your enemy to turn them into your pawn.

So, really…

No matter how hard they try, they will live within the very same, exact “echo box” that they subject their citizenry to. They will live inside an “echo chamber” of lies; lie that they ordered others to create.

Here’s a response to the lies on MSM. video 22MB

And now they are in an echo box of lies.

They are boxed in, and they believe the lies. They actually believe them.

And as leaders, they will make decisions based on those lies, and the entire nation;

They will start to say things that will sound crazy, and act in ways that will seem strange and crazy. They will act so very convinced of the strangest and most outlandish narratives.

And in doing so…

…by the leadership…

…the entire system will evenually be destroyed. Leadership needs REAL intel to make decisions upon. There is no excuse. You eaither have real intel (good and most especially bad) or you don’t. And history is clear. Bad intel results in very bad results.

We call those results; fiascos.

How can anyone possibly have a leadership that…

Does not take the mRNA Vaxx injection.
Does not read, watch or enjoy American media, social networks or media.

It cannot occur.

Maybe at some time, some radicals believed that it was possible. Maybe back in the 1960s, or 1970s they might have believed this. But in todays society. It is impossible.

Simply Impossible.

Perhaps, the reason why there is such an accelerated failure at all levels in the West is becuase the “leadership” has themselves been affected by their very own poison.

I shake my head.

How can they be so stupid?

Please ponder this thought.

Let’s take a break from this to let your mind relax. New subject. New thoughts.

Chinese respect

Boy locks himself in his bedroom. The fire station is called and they go to the house to break him out…video 2MB

Here’s yet some more gag boxes…

Now here’s a jigsaw puzzle that is suitable for the whole family. Just set aside a card table and get at it. It’s a true challenge.

Plants cry for more! Amaze your friends!

Environmentially safe!

The latest in animal entertainment!

2022 03 23 11 39 — The latest in animal entertainment!

The world needs more people skipping

If you cannot dance, try skipping. Smile. Skip as you walk down the street, and say nice things to people. While the rest of the world is on a roller coaster to Hell, you can stop that descent. Skip as you walk. video 15MB

Take care of yourself

We all might not look like this 20-something Chinese woman, but we can certainly smile and be great; we can do great things. Stop waiting. Start doing. video 3MB

Suppose you are a leader in the West

Just imagine that you are a leader of one of the major Western nations. And you best scientists come running to you; scientist that you believe and trust. And they tell you that the situation is DIRE for mankind. They tell you, convincingly that human population grown and energy depletion is unsustainable and that a major disaster lies ahead…

…and they offer senarios and solutions.

And the best one, whatever it might be, is one when a great mass of humanity dies off.

And you, as a leader believe them.

Perhaps you are an independent thinker. Perhaps you are a massive follower of social media and use twitter all the time, and are heavily influenced by Vault 7. What ever.

You believe them. In your heart; you believe them.

And their solution is to kill off 80% of the human population. ..

Insane. Unheard of. But, they present it in a clear and defined manner…

Intentionally cull the human race to 20% of it’s size … or…
Lose 100% of the human species and everyone dies.

What would you choose?

Truth or fiction

It does not matter if there’s such a real thing as “climate change”. What actually does matter is what the “leadership” believes. Because if they inherently believe that the world is going “to Hell in a handbasket”, they have the power, and ability, and the willingness to perform some really drastic actions.

Actions, mind you, that will affect you and your families directly.

Let’s eat.

Chicken Pot Pie

Likely another cost-cutting holdover of the Great Depression and World War II, this savory chicken and vegetable pie is now mostly found only in the grocery store freezer aisle. Don’t go there.

Make up your own. It tastes better. It lasts longer. It’s easy to make, and great and easy to reheat in the microwave. Chicken Pot Pie, why didn’t we think about this sooner?

Chicken Pot Pie

A strange thing about that plane crash

(If) the software of the plane took over the controls from the pilot… and we con’t know that this is what happened, but if it did… why in God’s Name did it decide to aim the plane straight towards the ground at full throttle?

How the plane behaved. video. 2MB

No self-respecting engineer, or software designer would allow that kind of radical action. None.

So, we are left with two POSSIBLE causes…

The sensors to the plane indicated that a nose dive at full-throttle was needed. Which suggests a very complicated mash-up of sensors.
Someone used software to hyjack the plane and intentionally decided to ram it straight into the ground.

Who would be so evil?

Man gets word that his entire family were on the plane and died. video 16MB

And here’s what’s left of the plane. video 4MB

The black box fight recorder has been recovered. I believe investigators are considering that sabotage is involved.

Talking about evil and the United States, let’s interrupt this train of thought to explore more gag boxes…

Here’s some more gag boxes…

Have your pet treat you as a king!

2022 03 23 11 40 — Have your pet treat you as a king!

Take a nap anywhere and at anytime.

2022 03 23 11 42 — Take a nap anywhere and at anytime.

And what about the Ukraine?

Unlike the theoretical secret deals between the West and the Chinese (or Russia), the deals between China and Russia are very much visible and are largely committed to paper.

The West started this conflict, of course. I don’t know when they realized Russia was going to move into the Ukraine, but they had ample opportunity to prevent it by simply agreeing to the previous status quo. They appear to believe that they can create a protracted conflict in the Ukraine like they did when Russia invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s. 

That shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation. 

Ukraine has historically been a part of Russia. There is not really any such thing as a “Ukrainian identity” outside of being a vassal state. In the west of the country, they tend to feel closer to Poland, and there is some bad blood all around with regards to the USSR. But none of this is in any way similar to fanatical Islam. The US has backed neo-Nazism as a kind of “Ukrainian ISIS,” but you can’t rally a country around cartoonish neo-Nazism (particularly while the entire leadership of the country is Jewish).

The idea of using neo-Nazis as rebels against a Russian occupation or a Russia-backed government in the Ukraine is nonsensical, and reeks of the kind of stupid thinking that led to America’s Afghan debacle. The US government pays people to lie to them, and when people tell the truth, they get fired and end up on obscure livestream interviews answering superchats. These liars are telling the decision-makers that the Ukraine is Afghanistan and a protracted conflict can be used to drain Russia, which will ultimately result in the collapse of the Putin government.

The fact that they have no idea what they’re doing is blatant in the fact that they are sanctioning the entire Russian race. Putin’s support is going up rapidly among the people, many of whom didn’t like his policies before but now feel compelled to rally around him since they are being attacked personally for their race by the West.

-UNZ

Perfect for the busy man on the move!

2022 03 23 11 43 — Perfect for the busy man on the move!

So what are we looking at here?

Well, as far as I can figure out, we have the following situations all moving ahead at this time…

The United States is pushing the world towards war.
- They are crossing both China’s, and Russia’s red lines to provoke them.
- They believe the myth of “American greatness”.
- They believe that America has liberty and freedom.
- They believe that a uni-polar world is necessary and there are no alternatives.
The American leadership are acting strangely.
- President Biden seems to be senile with dementia.
- Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be a “ding-bat, dunderhead”.
- The US Senate are mostly radical neocon war-hawks.
The Coronavirus pandemic was strange.
- All Western nations insisted in mRNA injections.
- All Eastern nations treated it as a bio-weapon and used dead-host vaccines.
- Western nations are all now “open”, while Eastern nations remain closed.
Full-scale on-going “hybrid-warfare” against the East by the West.
- Military engagements, sanctions, trade restrictions on Russia.
- Strange unusual events inside of China. All centering around American products, food, livestock, or systems.
A strong difference in the West vs. East societies.
- Everyone in the West seem angry, agitated, and frustrated.
- Thos in the East are calm, relaxed, happy.
- No contrails in the East.
- Hyper-inflation hitting the West.
- Up-tick in some inflationary measures in the East.

But what does it all mean?

It’s not like I can just immediately agree that all Americans (and those in the west) have nano-bots, and chem-trail poisonings, and all the rest. I see strange behaviors, but I do not see any evidence that the cause is some kind of mad-scientist stew of frequency manipulation, vault 7, nano-bots, MSM algorithms, and the rest.

I have no proof.

And even if I did, I really wouldn’t know what to do about / with it.

So, in the interests of all…

We have to approach the strangeness, not with theories that suggest causes and answers but rather empirical study.

Empirical study

Empirical research is research using empirical evidence. You see evidence. You study it. You come to conclusions about it. You do not come up with theories on the causes. You just put all of the observations into one singular box.

It’s important that you put ALL of the observations in that box. Omitting one singular element can give you distorted or skiewed conclusions. So you collect all the observations…

An American-built plane had a highly unusual crash inside of China.
The plane possessed software that can override the pilot commands.
The plane is of the same make and model that had similiar crashes before.
“Conspiracy kooks” believe that this type of plane can be hyjacked remotely.
The crash came immediately after two warnings to Xi Peng (Blinkedin, and Biden) that there would be immediate consequences if China did not Sanction Russia.
It’s been one week now since the warnings. No other “immediate consequences” occurred (that the public is aware of).

You see, empirical study a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Here’s another example.

There are contrails all over the West.
There are no contrials in the East.

And…

Everyone in the West are agitated, upset, angry and frustrated.
Everyone in the East seems to be calm, realxed and comfortable.

And…

While there are exceptions, the vast bulk of injections in the West are mRNA.
There are no mRNA injections in China, and few in Russia.

Empiricism values some research more than other kinds.

A measure of “happiness” is relative.
While a measure of inflation is measurable.

Empirical evidence (the record of one’s direct observations or experiences) can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively. And from that, you can suggest what is going on…

Until MM mixed different subjects in the articles (food, girls, China, history), there was a near constant stream of Trolls, and hacking attemps on the site.
When the mixed subjects were introducted, Troll and DDOS attacks dropped to zero.

As well as come up with theories as to why it is going on…

Trolls and hacks use some <unknown method> to select the websites to harrass.
By mixing content within articles, the <unknown method> is bypassed, and the articles are no longer harassed or attacked.

About China

An interesing quote…

We are clearly facing down a world ruled by the Chinese. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that. But most of the discomfort comes from the idea that the Chinese are somehow going to rule us in the same fashion that the US has ruled the world since World War II. 

They have no such plans for us. The Chinese have a vision of conquering the world through commerce, rather than war, threats of war, and geopolitical maneuvering.

We started out on the issue of the economic dominance of the US, and that economic dominance is indeed the key to everything. However, US economic dominance was entirely a result of US military might. The reigning US philosophy for global economic dominance has been: “we will literally bomb you.” 

Conversely, the Chinese philosophy has been: “we will sell you high quality products at reasonable prices.”

When the Mongols consistently raided them, stealing their women and wealth on horseback and riding off with the booty, they said “cannot allow.” Instead of mounting an army to crush the Mongols, they built a gigantic wall, and told the Mongols that if they wanted Chinese products, they would have to buy them at the wall.

It is precisely the same logic as a Chinese immigrant family setting up a store in an all black neighborhood and covering the counter, cash register, and expensive items with bulletproof glass.

China has always been, fundamentally, a merchant empire, and that hasn’t changed. If it were not for the belligerence of the West, they wouldn’t have bothered to build up a large military at all. Historically, virtually every war the Chinese have fought has been a civil war, as they don’t look at the rest of the world as enemies or friends, but rather customers and potential customers.

-UNZ

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie

Although pumpkin pie and cheesecake have obviously remained popular, this hybrid, a Kraft classic, has fallen out of favor.

This variation on pumpkin pie comes from actress and writer Mae West. It appears in a 1933 community cookbook published by the Assistance League of Southern California, alongside contributions from several other Hollywood stars such as Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer, Constance Bennet, Marion Davies, and Cary Grant.

Unfortunately, Mae West doesn’t give us much information beyond the actual recipe. The pie is titled “Pumpkin Pie Robert,” but it’s unclear what the name “Robert” refers to – it could be the name of a person who gave her the recipe, or perhaps even the name of a place the recipe came from.

Mae West includes brandy in her recipe, which is pushing the boundaries just a little, since the cookbook was published in 1933 and Prohibition wasn’t repealed until the end of that year. She is far from the only contributor to this cookbook to do so, however, and finding alcohol in recipes from the Prohibition years isn’t at all uncommon.

The strangest ingredient in this recipe to me is the Nippy cheese called for in the topping. I wasn’t able to find out exactly what Nippy cheese is, although it looks like it was some type of cheese spread originally made by Kraft. It was apparently not the same as cream cheese, since Kraft made that too, but for lack of a better substitute I decided to go with cream cheese. Any kind of flavored cheese spread honestly sounds like it would be disgusting when combined with whipped cream, so I’m hoping that the original Nippy cheese was something neutrally-flavored.

Oh that Mae…

Pumpkin Pie Robert:

1 1/2 cups pumpkin
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt (reduced from original)
2 eggs
2 cups milk
2 oz/4 tbsp brandy
2 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream

Beat the eggs until light, then add the sugar, spices, and salt and beat until mixed.
Scald the milk, then slowly add milk to the egg mixture while whisking constantly.
Stir in the pumpkin and brandy.
Line a pie pan with pastry (no recipe for pie crust is given in the book, so use your favorite recipe or store-bought).
Pour in the filling. With a 9-inch pie pan, I ended up with some extra filling; the recipe is probably intended for a larger or deeper pan.
Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 325 degrees and bake for another 30-40 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Topping: whip the cream until stiff. Mash the cream cheese with a fork, then stir into the cream. Once the pie is cold, use a piping bag to decorate it with the cream cheese mixture.

Like many pies, this one is definitely at its best the day after its made. When I tried it on day 1, the flavors were much too strong, with the brandy in particular overwhelming everything else. The flavors melded much better the second day, although it was still a strongly-flavored pie. I did end up reducing the salt, since 1 teaspoon seemed much too salty to me.

2022 03 24 09 55 — A nice fun pie. Goes great with coffee.

I liked the cream-cheese topping, but I think I am more of a whipped cream purist. I also wonder whether cream cheese was a good substitute for Nippy cheese, or if the original cheese was something more savory. There are people who put cheddar cheese on apple pies, although I’ve never heard of it used on a pumpkin pie. Was Mae West a cheese-on-dessert-pie person? (I am very firmly not a cheese-on-dessert-pie person – but cream cheese is ok).

Overall, my verdict is that this was a decent pumpkin pie, but it just wasn’t quite to my taste. Sorry, Mae West, but Amelia Simmons’ Pumpkin Pie is still the top historic pumpkin pie for me!

Here’s some more fun gag boxes…

Perfect during these days of Coronavirus.

2022 03 23 11 44 — Perfect during these days of Coronavirus.

For ages two and older.

2022 03 23 11 45 — For ages two and older.

Now with musical Accompaniment. Choose your own theme song.

2022 03 23 11 46 — Now with musical Accompaniment. Choose your own theme song.

A unique, one in a lifetime gift.

2022 03 23 11 48 — A unique, one in a lifetime gift.

.

China is still under lockdown

Do not believe the lies that China is reconsidering it’s hard Coronavirus restrictions. Maybe the West has relaxed it’s stance dealing with the “pandemic”, but China has not.

China is still under DEFCON 2; they still accuse the USA of launching bioweapons against it, and they are VERY VERY concerned about the biolweapons labs in Ukraine. They will stay at DEFCON 2 until there is no longer any threat of bioweapon attack from the West.

Here’s a viewo of some of the many many volunteers fighting on this front. video 7MB

Renegade interviews Michael Hudson: Sanctions, the blowback

5860 Views March 23, 2022

Ross [00:00:29] Welcome to Renegade Inc. Whatever the outcome in Ukraine, one thing is for sure the economic reverberations will be felt by everyone for years to come as the world divides between the West and a rapidly reshaping Eurasia.

Ross [00:00:49] Michael Hudson, always a pleasure to have you on the programme, welcome to Renegade Inc.

Michael Hudson [00:00:53] Thank you for inviting me.

Ross [00:00:55] Michael, sanctions, sanctions, sanctions is all we hear now. We’re sanctioning people. The West sanction people back to the Stone Age. What are the unintended consequences of sanctions?

Michael Hudson [00:01:05] Well, one is to serve very much like a protective tariff on the sanctioned country. For instance, when America made sanctions on European trade with Russia, Lithuania dutifully stopped exporting cheese to Russia. Well, the result is that Russia set up its own cheese’s sector, and now it’s self-sufficient in cheese. If you sanction a country, you force it to become more self-reliant and across the board, from agriculture to dairy products to technology, Russia is forced to become more self-reliant and at the same time to depend much more on trade with China for the things that it is still not self-reliant in. So America is bringing about exactly the opposite of what it intended. It’s hopeless to somehow isolate Russia and then be able to go after China without Russia. And instead, what it’s doing is integrating the Eurasian core, Russia and China, exactly the policy that Henry Kissinger warned against going all the way back to Mackinder a century ago that said, Eurasia is the world island, Russia and China could be the whole world centre. That’s what the fight is all about. Well, American sanctions are driving Russia and China together, and America has gone to China and said, Please don’t support Russia. It most recently, on Monday, March 14, Jake Sullivan came out and told China, we will sanction countries that break our sanctions against Russia. And basically, China said, fine. You know, we’ll just break off all the trade between East and West now and the East, Eurasia is pretty much self-sufficient. The West is not self-sufficient since it began to industrialise, and it’s heavily dependent on Russia for not only oil and gas, but palladium and many raw materials. So the sanctions are ending up driving a wedge between the European countries.

Ross [00:03:31] Don’t people who apply these sanctions think this through? Are they so short-sighted they don’t understand that these sanctions are going to build further capacity within Russia, push Russia further towards China, make that economic alliance concrete and, ultimately, you’re not going to be able to keep the lights on in in Europe? All the while underestimating the fact that from a food security point of view – take the U.K., for instance, a net importer of food – not appreciating the fact that, for instance, Russia/Ukraine, they create twenty five percent, a quarter, of all wheat annually. The estimation this year is one hundred and two million tonnes Russia and Ukraine, wheat. Don’t people realise that there’s going to be a massive knock on effect?

Michael Hudson [00:04:23] Yes, they do realise it. Yes, they’ve thought it all through. I worked with these people for more than 50 years.

Ross [00:04:31] Who are these people?

Michael Hudson [00:04:32] The neocons, basically, the people who are in charge of U.S. foreign policy? Victoria Nuland and her husband, Robert Kagan, the people that President Biden has appointed all around him, from Blinken to Sullivan and right down the line. They are basically urging people around the New American Century. They’re the people who said America can run the whole world and create its own reality. And yes, they know that this is going to cause enormous problems for Germany. They know that not only will it block the energy that Germany and Italy and other countries in Europe need through their oil and gas, but also it’ll block the use of gas for fertiliser, upping their fertiliser production and decreasing their food production. They look at this and they say, How can America gain from all of this? There’s always a way of gaining what something looks to be bad. Well, one way they’ll gain is oil prices are going way up. And that benefits the United States whose foreign policy is based very largely on oil and gas. The oil industry controls most of the world’s oil trade, and that explains a lot of the US diplomacy. This is a fight to lock the world energy trade into control by U.S. companies, excluding not only Iran and Venezuela, but also excluding Russia.

Ross [00:06:16] So as Europe pushes towards more and more green and renewable energy and this for the Americans they must think it’s a dreadful scenario insofar as they can’t sell the oil as Europe becomes or wants to become more self-sufficient. So ultimately, and Britain net zero, whatever that means. But but going down the renewables path, going down the solar path takes America’s dependency or dependency on America out the game, doesn’t it?

Michael Hudson [00:06:49] This is exactly the point that the European public has not realised. While most of the European public wants to prevent global warming and prevent carbon into the atmosphere, U.S. foreign policy is based on increasing, and even accelerating, global warming, accelerating carbon emissions because that’s the oil trade. Suppose that Europe got its way. Suppose if the Greens got what they wanted and Germany and Europe were completely dependent on solar energy panels, on wind energy and to some extent, on nuclear power, perhaps? Well, if they were completely self-sufficient in energy without oil or gas or coal, America would lose the primary lever. It has over the ability to turn off the power and electricity and oil of any country that didn’t follow U.S. diplomatic direction.

Ross [00:07:48] So when we take your analysis here and we think about how the sanctions are going to build capacity, push Russia and China together, when we start to look at sort of piggy in the middle, if you like the EU, when we’re thinking about America, the EU has had a sort of abusive relationship with the Americans for quite some time now, hasn’t it?

Michael Hudson [00:08:06] Well, that’s that’s true in the sense that EU foreign policy has basically been turned over to NATO. So instead of European voters and politicians making their policy, they’ve relinquished European foreign policy to NATO, which is really an arm of the US military. So yes, Europe has had a decent relationship with the United States diplomatically by saying yes, yes, please or yes, thank you by not being independent. Of course, if it were independent, the relationship would not be so friendly and decent.

Ross [00:08:46] So for countries that are net importers of food, need to keep the lights on, need heating and need cheap oil. How does this pan out? What does it look like for the UK? What does it look like for the EU?

Michael Hudson [00:08:59] Well, Vice President, Kamala Harris the other day said to Americans, Yes, life is going to be much more expensive. Our oil prices are going up and squeezing families. But think of the poor Ukrainian babies that we’re saving. So take it on the chin for the Ukrainian babies. So basically the United States is presenting horror stories of the Ukraine and saying, if you don’t willingly suffer now by isolating Russia, then Russia is going to roll over you with tanks just like it rolled over Central Europe after World War Two. I mean, it’s waving the flag of Russian aggression, as if Russia or any country in today’s world has an army that’s able to invade any other industrial nation. All military can do today of any country is bomb and kill other populations and industrial centres. No nation is able to occupy or rollover any industrial country. And the United States keeps trying to promote this mythology that we’re still in the world of 1945. And that world ended really with the Vietnam War when the military draft ended. And no country is able to have a military draft to raise the army with necessary to fight to invade. Russia can’t do it any more than Europe or the United States could do it. So all the United States can do is wave warnings about how awful Russia is and somehow convince Europe to follow the US position. But most of all, it doesn’t really have to. Europe doesn’t really have a voice, and this is what the complaint by Putin and Foreign Secretary Lavrov have been saying. They say that Europe is just following the United States and it doesn’t matter what the European people want or what European politicians want. The United States is so deeply in control that they really don’t have much of a choice.

Ross [00:11:15] When does the consumer start to feel this? When does the European or British consumer start to feel the pinch when these sanctions are enacted? And what does that look like?

Michael Hudson [00:11:25] Well, it depends on how fast the sanctions work. The United States said Well, in another year and a half, we’ll be able to provide Europe with liquefied natural gas. Well, the problem is, first of all, they’re not the ports to handle the liquefied natural gas to go into Europe. Secondly, there are not enough ships and tankers to carry all of this gas to Europe. So unless there are very warm winters, Europe is not going to have a very easy time for the next few years. And that’s only for oil and gas. It’s dependent on raw materials that Russia produces. For instance, palladium is necessary for catalytic converters. Titanium is necessary to make the screws that are especially used on aeroplanes that are strong enough not to buckle and break when winds go up and down and when they’re full. Russia even produces the neon and the crypton that are necessary for making some kind of electronic uses and also for many components that go into computers and information technology. There’s a whole range of exports that Europe is highly dependent on, and the United States has provided Putin with a whole list of these exports, saying, Well, OK, we’re going to fight against Europe buying your oil and gas but you can certainly sell us your heavy oil that we need since we’re not buying it from Venezuela. We certainly need the following list of critical materials that we need, like helium and crypton. These are our pressure points. Please don’t press on them. Well, you can imagine what Putin and his advisers are saying. Thank you for giving us this list of the pressure points that you’re exempting from the trade sanctions. I think if you really want a break in the unilateral, unipolar world, I think we should break now and see whether you really want to get along without trading.

Ross [00:13:51] Michael Hudson, welcome back, second half, Renegade Inc. Wonderful to have you. In that first half we followed the money, if you like. We talked about sanctions and the unintended consequences. I just want to pull back a little further if we can and just talk about the sort of tectonic shifts that are going on in the world. I spoke to somebody from Russia recently and what he said was very straightforward. He said, now what we have to do is begin to learn to live without the West. Do you think that that sentiment is proliferating across Russia now? Is that the mindset?

Michael Hudson [00:14:22] Well, if you read President Putin’s speeches, that’s exactly what’s happening. And Secretary Lavrov has voiced exactly the same feeling. There’s almost a disgust with the West and a feeling from Putin, Lavrov and the other Russian spokesmen, how could we everhave hoped to have an integration with Europe after 1991? Europe really was not on our side at all, and we didn’t realise that Europe is really part of the U.S. diplomatic sphere. It’s like all of Europe is now backing the attack on Russia. The best to do is reorient our economy towards China, Asia and Eurasia and become our own self-sufficient, independent centre

Ross [00:15:15] De-dollarisation and the amassing of plenty of gold by both the Russians and the Chinese. Just talk us through that.

Michael Hudson [00:15:21] Well, Ross, you asked in the first half of this interview how has American sanctions worked against it? I should have mentioned what you just mentioned, the dollar. The United States just grabbed all of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, just as England a few months ago grabbed all of Venezuela’s gold that was held in the Bank of England when Venezuela tried to spend this gold on buying medical supplies to cope with the COVID virus. So basically, the United States have said, if any foreign country holds its reserves in the United States or accounts in U.S. banks. If a country in the global south tries to pay its foreign debt by holding its reserves in US banks in order to be the paying agent on the interest on its foreign debt. And if that foreign country does something we don’t like, like trade with Russia or permit more labour unionisation or try to become independent in food, we’re just going to do what we did to Venezuela, what we did to Iran when we grabbed its foreign exchange reserves or what we did to Russia. And that means that other countries all of a sudden see what they thought was their flight to security, what they thought was their most secure savings, their holdings in U.S. banks, US treasury bill, all of a sudden, is holding them hostage and is a high risk. Even the Financial Times of London has been writing about this, saying, how can the United States that was getting a free ride off the dollar standard for the last 50 years, ever since 1971, when foreign countries held dollars instead of gold and basically holding dollars means you buy U.S. Treasury bonds to finance the US budget deficit and the balance of payments deficit. How can the United States kill the goose that’s giving it the free ride? Well, the answer is that other countries can only move into gold and there’s an alternative to the dollar because that’s something that all the countries of the world have agreed upon is an asset, not a liability. If you hold any foreign currency, that currency is a liability of a foreign country, and if you hold gold, it’s a pure asset. There’s no country that can cancel it, the Americans can’t cancel Russia’s gold supply that’s held in Russia, although it can grab Russian gold supply if it were to hold it in the New York Federal Reserve Bank or the Bank of England. So other countries are not only moving to gold, Germany is bringing its gold back from New York, the Federal Reserve, in aeroplanes back to Germany, so it’ll have its own gold just in case German politicians would do something the United States didn’t like and the United States would simply grab Germany’s gold. The United States sanctions, and it’s especially it’s grabbing on foreign reserve, has started a war that is dividing the world between the West and Eurasia.

Ross [00:18:40] A technical part to all of this because let’s face it, it is an information war and it’s also an economic war. Is it the FIRE sector that you point out – the financial, insurance and real estate sector. Is it that they want to continue the exorbitant privilege of credit creation, because ultimately, if you think about gold, there’s no counterparty risk. Gold is gold and it has been for millennia. Far from being a barbarous relic, by the way now, people are starting to realise the intrinsic value, especially as crypto falls apart. Can you just talk a little bit about this, the FIRE sector wanting the exorbitant privilege of creating credit?

Michael Hudson [00:19:19] This is really what the new world division and global fracture is all about. You’re right, Ross. If you look at after World War One, the American fight against Soviet communism, was basically a fight of industrial capitalism against the threat of socialism. But after 1991, and especially in the last two decades, America deindustrialised. So the fight is not by industrial capitalism against countries pushing their labour up. It’s a fight of neoliberalism against industrial capitalism or socialism abroad. It’s against industrial capitalism evolving into socialism. It’s a belief that, well, now that America’s be industrialised, how is it going to control the world economy? Well, it’ll control it through a financial means by being the creditor and foreign countries debt payments to America will enable it to make its military payments abroad and finance its trade deficit. But also, America’s purchase of key natural resources will give it natural resources when its purchase of takeover of real estate is going to essentially make the United States the landlord class and monopoly class, that mediaeval Europe had to hold the rest of the population in serfdom. That basically is the American strategy of neoliberalism fighting against countries that reject privatisation and financialization of their economy, and specifically financialization under the control of U.S. banks, U.S. private capital and allied satellite banks and capital from England or France or Germany. This is exactly the fight. Will banking and finance control the world economy or will other countries try to build up their own economies through labour and tangible capital formation?

Ross [00:21:27] Where do you stand on that? And I’m only asking you to predict the future, Michael. How do you think this plays out? Because the way you’ve depicted it is the rent seekers, the neoliberal rent seekers on one hand, and there are value creators on the other. And by the way, those two things don’t sit very well together, as we know. How does that play out?

Michael Hudson [00:21:51] Even though the United States is the largest debtor economy in the world, it’s a creditor vis-a-vis the global south and other countries and it uses its creditor position to take over their natural resources, real estate, oil and gas, mineral rights and public utilities and natural monopolies and that are being privatised in government infrastructure. It’s becoming basically the landlord monopoly class of the entire world. That’s the U.S. strategy, and that’s the key to why the world is fracturing globally. And in the past, the global south countries were unable to fight against this tendency in the 70s and 80s with the Vendome conference on. But now that China and Russia threatened to be a self-sufficient core in Eurasia, this is the great threat to the American dream of becoming a landlord and financier of the world.

Ross [00:22:50] How do you think this pans out?

Michael Hudson [00:22:52] Well, the question is whether the United States is if we can control the world, who wants to live in a world like that, let’s blow it up. The question is whether the United States will actually go to war. The only lever that it has left is to drop bombs and to destroy and make the world look like Ukraine. So from the U.S. point of view, Europe’s future and Eurasia’s future is the Ukraine. Look at what we will do to you if you don’t follow our policy. America has just moved al Qaeda very heavily in the Ukraine to sort of repeat in Ukraine and Europe what it was doing in Syria and Libya. And the United States says this is what we can do. What are you going to do about it? Do you really want to fight. But the rest of the world, certainly China and Russia says, Well, we’re ready to fight. So there is no telling what you. And it comes down to personalities. Putin has said, well, do we really want to live in a world without Russia? If the United States is to attack us, we might as well end the world. The United States says, Do we really want to live in a world that we can’t control? If we’re not completely in control, we feel very insecure and we’re going to blow up the world. So you have this countervailing position in a world where all the arms control has been dismantled by the United States in the last few years. The United States has withdrawn from all of the agreements that Russia and China have tried to promote. And Europe is standing by and apparently is willing to be the sacrificial lamb in all of this as Ukraine is being the sacrificial lamb. So the United States and Russia say, let’s fight to the last European. And Russia initially didn’t want that because it was hoping that Europe and Russia would have a mutual gain in trade and investment relationships. But now it doesn’t feel that way. And there may be a proxy war between the United States over the European economy, not necessarily bombing Europe, but trade sanctions, energy sanctions, the kind of disruption that Europe is going to be seeing in the next year is if it loses Russian oil and gas and minerals and also, I think Chinese exports.

Ross [00:25:25] Is there a moment where cooler heads prevail and suddenly the West and other places realise that they’re dependent from a food security point of view, from an energy security point of view that we are dependent? And is there a moment at that point that you can thaw a frozen conflict by saying, actually, if we both meet, we just take a step toward each other, actually, we can do something in a collaborative way? Now I get what you’ve said throughout the rest of the programme, and I give this a percentage possibility of about three percent, but isn’t there a strategy to say, actually, we’ve had all the grandstanding, we’ve had all the brinksmanship, we should now sit around the table and try and work something out?

Michael Hudson [00:26:03] I don’t see any cooler heads in the United States. The surprising thing is that here it’s the right wing channel, the Republican Fox Channel, is the only channel that’s taking the anti-war stand and is saying we shouldn’t be at war in Ukraine. It’s the only channel that’s talking about here is how Russia sees the world. Do we really want to take a one sided perspective or do we want to see the actual dynamics at work? So it was the Republicans and the right wing that is now primarily against the NATO war in the Ukraine. The left wing seems to be all for it, but the left wing of the Democratic Party is in office and I don’t see any cooler heads in the Democratic Party at all. And I’ve known many of these people for many decades, and they are willing to go to war for a death. There are still back in the world of World War Two when the fight was against the Nazis and anti-Semitism. They’re still living in a kind of mythology world, not in the real world. And the thought that the world can come to an end either doesn’t have a reality to them or as Herman Cain said, Well, somebody is going to survive.

Ross [00:27:29] Michael Hudson always a pleasure, a great insight. And, you know, it’s just refreshing to hear. Thank you very much for your time.

Michael Hudson [00:27:38] Well, thank you very much for having me, Ross.

Chinese Girl

Such a cute girl. video 3MB

More Sanctions On Russia Will Destroy Europe

From MoA.

On February 21 Russia announced that it would recognize the Donbas republics. A day later it did so. The ‘west’ immediately announced sanctions which in fact had been prepared in advance. On February 24 Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine.

The Russian ruble immediately took a big hit. It has since recovered a bit.

oday’s news will bring the ruble to a new heights.

Kommersant reports (machine translation):

Putin instructed to convert gas contracts with unfriendly countries into rubles

President Vladimir Putin instructed to issue a directive to Gazprom to convert contracts into rubles for unfriendly countries. In his opinion, supplying Russian goods to the EU, the USA and receiving payment in dollars and euros "does not make any sense for us." Against this background, the ruble moved to growth on the Moscow Exchange.

“Both the US and the EU have basically defaulted on their obligations to Russia. And now everyone in the world knows that obligations in dollars and euros may not be fulfilled. <...> It is quite obvious that in this regard, it makes no sense for us to supply our goods to both the EU and the USA and receive payment in dollars, euros and a number of other currencies. Therefore, I have decided to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to transfer payments for our natural gas supplied to unfriendly countries to Russian rubles,” Mr. Putin said at a meeting with the government.

The President instructed the Central Bank and the government to determine within a week the order of operations for the purchase of rubles on the domestic market by buyers of Russian gas. He claims that Russia will continue to supply gas "in accordance with the volumes and according to the pricing principles concluded in the contracts."

The dollar exchange rate on the Moscow Exchange fell below 100 rubles. for the first time since March 3rd. As of 15:37, the US currency is trading at 101.55 rubles. (-2 rubles). The euro exchange rate fell by 2.85 rubles to 111.65 rubles. The maximum dollar fell to 94.99 rubles, the euro - to 109.7 rubles.

The European Union, the United States, Great Britain and a number of other countries have imposed sanctions against Russia in response to the military operation in Ukraine, which has been carried out since February 24 on the orders of Mr. Putin. One of the measures was the freezing of about half of the Central Bank's gold and foreign exchange reserves ($300 billion).

To pay in ruble one first has to buy rubles. With higher demand for rubles and no change in supplies the price for the Russian currency will go up. As Russia is selling hydrocarbons and other resources for billions of dollars per day the ruble is likely to soon reach record heights.

On February 28 another round of sanctions hit Russia. The part of the Russian central bank reserves that were stored in the ‘west’ were frozen. The central bank immediately pushed its interest rate from 9% to 20% to prevent a flight from the ruble. This helped to lessen the damage but made credit expensive and has hit the future growth potential in Russia.

But with a high new rubles demand from the outside of Russia the central bank will soon be able to lower its interest rate to more normal levels. Credit conditions will ease and investment in Russia, to replace products that had so far been imported, will rise again.

Today’s move to demand rubles for hydrocarbons is only on of the many steps Russia can, and likely will take, to retaliate for sanctions from the ‘west’.

As I wrote previously:

All energy consumption in the U.S. and EU will now come at a premium price. This will push the EU and the U.S. into a recession. As Russia will increase the prices for exports of goods in which it has market power - gas, oil, wheat, potassium, titanium, aluminum, palladium, neon etc - the rise in inflation all around the world will become significant.

Meanwhile the New York Times writes:

As he heads to Europe, President Biden will press U.S. allies to help impose even more aggressive sanctions on Russia.

Biden demands that Europe suicides itself while he is protecting the U.S. industry. I hope that some people in the European capitals are still able to think clear enough to recognize the racket the U.S. is trying to run here:

Together with the economic devastation that U.S. and European sanctions on Russia are causing in their own economies this will end in regime-changes in several European countries. The U.S. is of course again protecting itself from as much as it can at the cost of others.

Tony Wood asks:

The question remains, why did all those who for so long foretold this war do so little to stop it, and so much to hasten the disaster Russia has now set in motion?

Indeed. Why didn’t the government of Germany guarantee in writing that it would veto any additional NATO membership? It would have solved at least half of the problem. Why didn’t any other NATO government do so?

And what are they doing now? Where are their initiatives for peace?

Wake up. Otherwise this will end in disaster. Not for Russia but for the rest of Europe.

Kids and cats

Ah. This is funny. Poor kitties, but they know that the big stupid humans can’t be helped. video 124MB

AGAIN! Reference to NUKES!

Nation Hal Turner 23 March 2022

NATO'S STOLTENBERG SAYS ANY USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL CHANGE NATURE OF CONFLICT, RUSSIA MUST UNDERSTAND THAT IT CAN NEVER WIN A NUCLEAR WAR.

UPDATE 5:10 PM EDT —

NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg said that NATO has plans in place to protect all allies from nuclear threat, and that there should be no doubt about its readiness.

MORE:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned of a “direct clash” between Moscow and NATO forces if peacekeepers from the military alliance are deployed to Ukraine.

Lavrov made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking to students and staff at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in response to Polish proposals for a NATO and international “peace mission.”

“Our Polish colleagues have already stated that there will be a NATO summit now, we need to send peacekeepers. I hope they understand what is at stake,” Lavrov said, according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

STILL MORE:

Russian lawmaker Alexei Zhuravlyov on state TV threatens nuclear strike on Warsaw, Poland and NATO forces or any peacekeeping contingent that might try to enter Ukraine.

Hal Turner Editorial Opinion

This issue has been surfacing far too frequently of late, and there’s a very good reason for it: The West has attacked Russia economically over the Ukraine situation, and has done it so badly that Russia is in actual danger of collapsing as a country.

The West seems to think that Russia’s only option is to sit back and take the sanctions, or change its behavior with Ukraine to abide what NATO and the west wants.

The Russian’s don’t see it that way.

The West PROMISED Russia, after the fall of the Soviet Union, that they would “not move one inch eastward from the Re-unified East-West Germany” (1997). Yet NATO did precisely that in the ensuing years, to the point were NATO nations are now directly bordering Russia.

Those NATO nations have NATO troops rotating in and out of them. The West lies about it by saying they’re only there “temporarily” when in fact, as thousands leave after a few months duty, thousands more come to replace them. The result: An ever-present NATO conventional force.

Then too, there’s the missiles. US Missile Defense systems . . . now in several of the former Soviet Block nations, all aimed directly at Russia.

Ukraine was simply the latest Domino to fall in the long line of NATO expansion. The reason NATO wanted Ukraine has to do with its proximity to Moscow and to Russia’s Strategic Nuclear missile silos. If American missile defenses can be placed on Ukraine soil, they will have a flight time of only 5 minutes to Moscow, and less than ten minutes to Russia’s nuclear silos. Russia cannot defend against missiles that are so close and can travel so far and fast.

Worse, the technology of missiles has evolved and now, the very same “conventional” missiles claimed to be “defensive” can be re-fitted with OFFENSIVE NUCLEAR WARHEADS within an hour. And the re-fit can be done while the missiles remain in their launchers, so no one would know the missiles had been converted from conventional to nuclear.

These facts pose an existential threat to Russia, the very same way that Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba posed an existential threat to the USA under President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

What did Kennedy do? He told the Soviets either those missiles had to go, or . . . . the US would invade Cuba to destroy those missiles. (Gee, the exact same cause for invasion that is now seeing Russia inside Ukraine!)

Yet no one screeched to President Kennedy about Cuba being a sovereign country that could align itself however they liked. No one even questioned Kennedy’s decision that either those missiles go, or Cuba gets invaded. The reason no one questioned it is because every RATIONAL person knew Kennedy was right.

Well, guess what? Today, with the situation in Ukraine, Russian President Putin is . . . . right. He is doing in Ukraine what then-US-President Kennedy was preparing to do with Cuba. It’s no different.

NUKES

Russia knows – and has said publicly – that its conventional military forces cannot compete against the collective force of NATO. But Russia ALSO said (publicly) that they have the largest nuclear arsenal, and their hypersonic missile technology is far superior to all of NATO.

So the Russians, from the start, have made clear they fully understood what they were getting themselves into with Ukraine and the possibility of NATO involvement. Russia would be forced to use nukes. Period.

They knew this. They still know it.

NATO knows it too.

So why then, is NATO’s nitwit, Jens Stoltenberg saying today “ANY USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL CHANGE NATURE OF CONFLICT, RUSSIA MUST UNDERSTAND THAT IT CAN NEVER WIN A NUCLEAR WAR.” ?????

One possibility is that Stoltenberg knows that NATO has actual plans to get involved. The latest iteration of those plans is for NATO countries to “enter” Ukraine as a “Peace keeping force.” Russia has made it explicitly clear that if NATO tries such a move, Russia will engage NATO Troops in battle. War will be the result.

Period End.

And since it is already established that Russia cannot win against NATO conventional forces, Russia would have to “go nuclear.” Stoltenberg and the west think Russia wouldn’t dare.

Stoltenberg and the West are wrong.

Russia would.

They’ve said it publicly.

Several times.

The soyboys of the West think they can talk their way out of anything they do. This time, they cannot.

The message from Russia seems to me to be very simple: NATO cannot have Ukraine as a member. Period.

American missile defenses cannot be placed on the territory of former Soviet Block nations. Period.

If my assessment of this Russian Position is correct, then either NATO accepts that these facts are real and stops what it has been doing since 1997 by adding former Soviet Bloc Nations and withdraws NATO troops and missiles from those nations, or NATO refuses to take “no” for an answer, enters Ukraine, and it is World War 3, with nuclear weapons, VERY VERY SOON.

Those appear to me to be the facts.

That no mass-media outlets in the West are bothering to report them to the general public, will leave their citizens blissfully ignorant, until the bright, white, flashes start.

Thankfully, YOU are not being left blissfully ignorant. YOU have chosen to avail yourself of this web site and radio show and as such, YOU know what’s really going on. We are being marched directly into a (NUCLEAR) World War 3.

MAYOR OF KYIV: "WORLD WAR III HAS ALREADY BEGUN AND UKRAINE IS THE BEGINNING"

Hal Turner

A very fine and cute Chinese girl

She is very, very fine. Really nice build and look at that fantastic smile! My goodness, I could just eat her up, I’ll tell you what! video 3MB

Dream griddle and alarm clock.

Wake up on the right side of bed!

2022 03 23 11 50 — Wake up on the right side of bed!

Joe Biden Speech

Interesting stuff…

“We’re at an inflection point [in] not just the world economy [but] the world that occurs every three or four generations,” the president said.

“[A general told me that] 60 million people died between 1900 and 1946 and since then we’ve established a liberal world order, and it hasn’t happened in a long while.”

“Now is the time when things are shifting and there’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it. We’ve got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it.”

Here’s what Russia thinks…

Biden says US must lead ‘new world order’

The 46th president highlighted the role Washington would have among the “free” states.US President Joe Biden raised eyebrows on Monday after he claimed a “new world order” would soon be established and that it was up to the United States to lead it.

During a speech at Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting, Biden claimed the world was at “an inflection point” which “occurs every three or four generations” and that it was up to the US to determine the outcome.

“As one of the top military people said to me in a security meeting the other day, 60 million people died between 1900 and 1946, and since then we’ve established a liberal world order and that hadn’t happened in a long while,” the president said.

The comment raised eyebrows in both the US and around the world and resulted in ‘New World Order’ becoming one of Twitter’s trending topics on Monday.

The term ‘new world order’ has historically been used to refer to an era of great global change and has been used by politicians such as former US President George H. W. Bush, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

For decades, however, the phrase has also been the subject of a major conspiracy theory which alleges a secret, elitist plot to form an oppressive global government.

Politicians and government officials have previously received criticism for using the term – most recently Dr. Kerry Chant, the chief health officer of the Australian state of New South Wales.

“We will be looking at what contact tracing looks like in the new world order,” said Chant during a September Covid-19 press conference, prompting the term to trend on social media.

Journalists and other social media users criticized Chant for using the term, with former journalist Chris Urquhart writing that “government officials would be well advised to avoid phrases like ‘the new world order’ when they’re talking at press conferences about massive limitations on people’s freedoms.”

Some comments…

A Rufus has understanding

If you are not making the world a better place, you are contributing to it’s destruction. For God’s sake, be good, and kind. If you cannot. Then be neutral. But do not make others sad or hurtful. video 8MB

While the United States goes into hyper-inflation, China is stable

I really like how one prominent economics professor recently made this point…

“They’re flying blind, and are too little, too late,” Steve Hanke says in disbelief, an Applied Economics professor of John Hopkins University. “It’s utter rubbish and nonsense” that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell sees supply chain issues as a root cause for inflation, he tells me, as we decipher the Federal Reserve’s latest official statements on the shape of the U.S. economy.

“The money supply in excess causes inflation, and the Federal Reserve appears to be almost clueless,” 

Hanke shares with me as we discuss last week’s conversation between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

“Obviously the Chinese know this,” which is why their inflation rating is less than 1%, the former Senior Economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers articulates to me.

Inflation is always destructive.

I can confirm that while prices have been rising inside of China, it is in no way resembling the kinds of inflation that is being seen in America, Europe or the rest of the West. The reason is simple. China has been managing the flow of USD for payments for decades. THis managment is intentional and it insulates China from inflationary effects of the USD due to poor management of debt by the United States.

United States Inflation Rate – February 2022

United States Inflation Rate Annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 7.9% in February of 2022, the highest since January of 1982, matching market expectations. Energy remained the biggest contributor (25.6% vs 27% in January), with gasoline prices surging 38% (40% in January).

What happens when your QR goes orange

Everyone must take regular swab tests, and be up to date on their injections. IF you are not, your status goes from green to orange. This video shows what happens when you try to go though a tollbooth with an orange QR code in China. video 3MB

Three-Cheese Fondue

I got this easy recipe from my daughter, who lives in France. It’s become my go-to fondue, and I make it often for our family.

—Betty A. Mangas, Toledo, Ohio

What are you waiting for?

OIP C.Wqb p2vQCQp XFqMScXmtwHaC9 — Three Cheese Fondue.

Crib Dribbler.

Perfect for hot soups, milkshakes, and energy drinks.

2022 03 23 11 51 — Perfect for hot soups, milkshakes, and energy drinks.

Europe’s LARGEST Natural Gas Storage Facility: EMPTY

The largest natural gas storage facility in northern Europe is now EMPTY of gas.

The facility, run by (Russia’s) GAZPROM, dropped like a rock once Europe instituted economic sanctions against Russia.

With this largest facility now empty, industry will have to shut down for lack of fuel for heating and generation of electric.

With the largest storage facility now empty, the draw-down from all the smaller facilities will speed up by orders of magnitude, emptying them with ten days to two weeks.

What will Europe do when it has no gas to generate electric or to heat buildings?

Of course, all of this trouble has to do with Europe sticking its nose into the affairs of Russia-Ukraine.

Now that Europe is demonstrably running out of natural gas, watch for things between Russia-Ukraine-NATO to get VERY VERY VERY much worse, very fast.

Grandma Davidson’s Baked Apple Pudding

My savvy grandmother whipped up recipes like this homey cinnamon-scented apple pudding in the Depression years. Many of us still make them today. 

—Holly Sharp, Warren, Ontario

OIP C.H6y ITWayCXZdV3FGauGMgHaE8 — Grandma Davidson’s Baked Apple Pudding

China is FAST

So President Biden thinks that it will be easy to compete against China. Americans think that it will be no problem, because America is exceptional, and great? This echo chamber in the Untied States that gives this illustion that China is dark, dingy, dirty and backwards, while America is so wonderful is a lie. It amazes me. Becuase this is what China is like… video 21MB

Chinese weddings

The Chinese have heart. Real, honest to goodness heart. video 22MB

China rebukes US as ‘world’s biggest human rights violator’

Beijing has promised “countermeasures” if Washington doesn’t revoke sanctions over Uyghurs

Beijing has promised to respond in kind unless the US revokes the blacklisting of Chinese officials it said were guilty of human rights violations.

Speaking at a regular press conference on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused the US of “smearing China, oppressing Chinese officials for no reason, violating international law… and grossly interfering in China’s domestic affairs.”

Wang said Beijing will respond with “reciprocal countermeasures” if the US does not immediately revoke its sanctions.

The statement came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused the Chinese government of committing “genocide and crimes against humanity” against the Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority living predominately in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Region. He added that Washington has blacklisted Chinese officials who it said were guilty of human rights violations.

Wang responded in kind, calling the US “the biggest human rights violator in the world,” whose historical treatment of Native Americans “constitutes de facto genocide.” He also criticized Washington for the “long-lasting systemic racial discrimination” of black Americans.

Multiple global human rights groups have long accused China of oppressing the Uyghurs and forcing them to work in labor camps. Beijing has denied the allegations, insisting that the Uyghurs are studying in vocational education and training centers as part of state integration and deradicalization programs.

Blankeez

Now available in classroom sized versions.

2022 03 23 11 53 — Now available in classroom sizes.

Creamy Chicken Vol-au-Vent

My friends and I have been getting together for "ladies lunches" for years. These vol-au-vents are the perfect no-fuss fancy food; they look complicated, but are actually simple and fun to make. Whenever I think of good friends and good company, I think of these savory pastries. 

—Shauna Havey, Roy, Utah

R C.e0845439e71aa3ecaa9cdc05201923a9 — Creamy Chicken Vol-au-Vent.

China can build

OMG! It’s insane how fast and efficiently that China can build things. You all just wait and see what happens when China and Russia build their Moon and Mars cities. video 23MB

A 737 crashed in China.

A Boeing 737 carrying 132 people crashed early Monday in China. Although Boeing’s 737 has faced extraordinarily high-profile safety concerns over the past three years, the plane that crashed Monday was a different version of the aircraft than the embattled 737 Max that shook Boeing to its core.

The cause of Monday’s crash has yet to be determined. The plane had been in service since 2015. The flight, operated by China Eastern Airlines, was flying from the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming to Guangzhou when it crashed.

It’s crash profile; being a full-throttle nose-dive directly to the ground is highly unusual.

Evidence suggests any of the following;

Intentional Pilot (and co-pilot) action to destroy the plane.
Software override of the pilot commands.
Remote operation of the software to override the pilot.

The manufacturer of the aircraft has had problems with the software. Other crashes of similiar planes has been the result of software overrides of the pilot.

We do not know (as of yet) the real cause for this crash. But one thing seems clear, somehow the plane overrode the directions of the pilot. It put the plane in a nose dive straight towards the ground and set the engines on full-throttle, full speed, as it plunged towards the ground.

Why it did so, is unknown.

Yet, the United States government black operations regarding taking control of the software should NOT be ruled out.

This reminds me of HAL in the 1969 movie; “2001; A Space odyssey”.

2001 A Space odyssey

So, Boeing makes aircraft that can override the pilot. Brilliant! Why do you need pilots? How about having full robotic planes?

Maybe it’s because no one will fly in them.

…

Isn’t technology wonderful. Remember when fully automatic self-driving cars were crashing left and right? Yeah, I do. Well, somehow Boeing things that this would be a good thing to implement in passenger planes. Who would doubt it?

Anyways, I have to ask the moronic question of the day…

 "Well, with fully robotic planes, then why still have pilots, when the airplane can override the pilot?"

Well, perhaps its because you keep the illusion of human control, when the truth is that the software is in full control…

… as well as the “authorized” owner of that software who can control the plane and tell it to do whatever he/it wants. Like the United States. Hum?

Let’s talk about HAL. Specifically what it did.

HAL

From the 1969 movie…

HAL is a computer system. And it is built into the Discovery One spacecraft, and is in charge of maintaining all mechanical and life support systems on board.

HAL also has several “eyes” placed periodically around the spacecraft.

About three weeks into the flight, Hal picks up a fault in the AE-35 unit, the system responsible for keeping the satellite dish antenna aligned with the Earth, and states that it will go one-hundred percent failure within 72 hours.

He suggests that they go EVA and replace the faulty unit with a new one.

Dr. David Bowman goes out and retrieves the unit. But when he brings it back and runs it through diagnostics, they can find no problem with the AE-35.

They radio Mission Control about the problem, and Mission Control says that Hal is in error predicting the fault.

This is a bit of a surprise, as the 9000 series has a perfect operational record.

Noting that this kind of thing has always been because of human error when it has occurred before, Hal suggests that they go out and “replace the malfunctioning unit and allow it to fail.

Then it should be a simple matter to track down the problem.”

But by this time, both Dr. Frank Poole and Bowman are becoming suspicious of Hal’s behaviour. They climb into one of the EVA pods, out of earshot of Hal. Poole states that he has “a bad feeling about him”. Bowman and Poole suggest disconnecting Hal if he is wrong about predicting the fault.

R C.25cf6710ad420a18f09f9b92eabce85e — Bowman and Poole suggest disconnecting Hal if he is wrong about predicting the fault.

Unbeknownst to them, Hal read their lips through the window of the spacepod.

Translating their lip motions, Hal learns of their plans for his disconnection; according to Clarke, “he (will) be deprived of all his inputs, and thrown into an unimaginable state of unconsciousness. To Hal, this (is) the equivalent of death. For he (has) never slept, and therefore he (does) not know that one (can) wake again.”

Poole goes out to replace the supposedly malfunctioning AE-35 unit.

As he drifts through space to the satellite dish, Hal takes control of the pod and rams it into Poole, disconnecting his oxygen hose and venting the air in his suit, killing him.

Bowman, obviously distraught by the loss of his friend, goes out to retrieve Poole’s body.

However, while Bowman is out on his excursion, Hal shuts off the life support systems on the three astronauts in hibernation, which kills them all.

After Bowman returns to the Discovery I, Hal denies him reentry into the pod bay. So Bowman has to maneuver the pod over to the emergency airlock. Unfortunately, in his haste to retrieve his friend, Bowman had not bothered to don the helmet of his life-support suit because he had not believed he would need it, making it very difficult to enter the emergency airlock, as he would have to travel through the vacuum of space in order to do so.

This, however, does not stop Bowman.

Risking the hazards of explosive decompression, he eventually gets inside, grabs a space helmet, and goes to Hal’s logic memory center to erase his memory.

There he pulls out the memory tablets that control Hal’s higher functions.

OIP C.z1to2Lu sHRrOgNxhg0wlQHaD4 — Disconnecting HAL.

As his memory degrades, Hal begins to give off information programmed very early in his life, such as the date he became operational. When all his logic is gone, he begins to sing the song “Daisy Bell.”

His final act of consciousness is to play a briefing that Dr. Heywood R. Floyd pre-recorded about the Tycho Monolith before their departure, and the real purpose of the Discovery One’s mission. As well that the insane idea that the owner / designers of HAL programmed it to lie.

Now…

Please consider that any systems; any devices; any mechanisms designed by man should NEVER have the capability to override human input.

This is well descried by the move, with the HAL computer system, and it seriously seems to be the case with all these Boeing aircraft crashes.

I can POSITIVELY tell you that one singular event resulting is one singular death would ABSOLUTELY stop the adoption of that system in other industires. It doesn’t matter what industry it is. Ceiling fans. Clothes irons. Motorcycles. Chainsaws. Rifles. One fatality, and the system is gone and will NEVER be revisited.

But somehow these systems in airplanes and automobiles are exceptions. At least in American products.

One cannot help thinking, especially if you ARE an American, that the United States is involved and WANTS the ability of the software to override the driver / pilot in the vehicle.

If you accept that notion…

…then many of the software related “accidents” of planes and automobiles with these systems are used as mechanisms of control by the United States “leadership”.

…

Remember boys and girls…

… REAL secrets are secret.

Every evidence is that this is exactly what is happening. While there might be some debate on the nuiances of implementation, the technologies and the systems involved, one thing is unmistakable…

The seriously ODD behaviors of the United States government is best explained by this exact senario.

…

Think about it.

Break.

Animal death and spirits visiting

All this talk about plunging planes, nuclear weapons, bio-weapons and everything all initiated by the Untied States government is disturbing to me. They obviously have never experienced sorry and grief.

They are not NORMAL people.

There is something wrong with them.

Here’s how normal animals act…video 34MB

Bathe and Brew

Perfect for the jet-set on the go!

2022 03 23 11 55 — Perfect for the jet-set on the go!

Funny and fun cats

Here are some really great examples of how much fun you can have with your cat friends. video 100MB

Amazing Cats

Cats areally are amazing. Just some great cat adventures. They are truly very special creatures. video 16MB

Happy times

Treasure the times that you have. Make them happy and share them with your friends. Cat love video 18MB

We all need each other now

Now, more than any other time in our lives, we need others. Make friends. SHare your time. Appreciate what you have. Make your life a good one. Be a Rufus. Show friendship. Show love. Show care. video 90MB

Be the Rufus

Take part in society. Stop being a spectator, and stop thinking that everything is someone else’s problem. The future depends on YOU. Take an active role in it. In every way, every day. Be the best you can be and help others. make the world a better place to live in. I believe in your. video 11MB

Make those around you smile

You will bring happiness to your environment. Smile. Say good things. Even if they are lies. Make your environment better. It’s quantum physics 101. video 120MB

Conclusions

I cannot say that one thing or the other is happening, and the causes and reasons for them. Later, I will ask the Domain Commander for some insight. However, right now, I know nothing.

Sure there might be all sorts of reasons for the observed behaviors, the strange actions by the USA and the West, and all the craziness. There’s really no way to really know the actual causes. So don’t worry about it. And believe me, as much as I want to know, the fact is, I don’t NEED to know.

I don’t know anything about chem-trails, nano-bots, or anything like that. I do know that everyone in the United States and the West are acting really, really weird. It’s like they are all having some kind of mass insanity.

After 30 years of glue sniffing euphoria, the US is now crashing. 

And when it realizes it is cutting off its limbs to keep its jaundiced organs alive, it will have to make major, and costly, changes in living arrangements. 

Mass transit in lieu of suburban sprawl. No more bloated military. A return to local industry and farming. Far more labor intensive cooperatives that actually do things and make stuff. Regional cultural and quasi-sufficiency. The end to industrial entertainment and woke academia. A resurgence of a proletariat based religion of hard work and respect. A return to classical literature and art. 

Oh, how to pay for it all on NO budget?

America is in shambles, but the leadership doesn’t realize it yet. It’s like a family living off maxed-out credit, the family is stunned then the credit cards no longer work at the register.

That’s where the USA, and the EU are at right now.

Oh, they still have their shopping list, and two shopping carts filled with expensive steaks, groceries and all sorts of pricy items. But the cashier is there looking impatient, stamping her foot, and ready to call her manager. Oh, you have to pay in cash. She says.

Soon, very soon, the situation will accelerate to something bad.

It’s just really, really fucked up.

FUTURE

Evidence strongly suggests that the remote viewing of the 2025 by the Deagal Report is correct. It also validates the theory of Generational Turnings and the rise and fall of nations.

You will see many more strange things occur in the future.

We are not anywhere near the peak inflection point. But it is moving forward and I hope to be out of it’s way. I hope you all are as well.

BASIC PREP

Hyper-inflation is starting to hit the West. Be prudent.

Make sure that you have a garden, and a larder with lots of basics. Rice. Flour. Canned goods. Powdered milk.

Remember that one Burger King extra value meal is the same price as a massive bag of rice. Remember that one Starbucks coffee is the same prices as a massive bag of flour; and make sure that you have the tools to strain out the flour.

Learn to fish.

Own a bicycle, and use it. If you use it to ride to work one day a week, you will cut your commute expenses by 20%.

Have a solar panel to charge your phone with.

ADVANCED PREP

Have a good supply of your medicines, and lots of antibiodics. Set up a medical kit. Tell your doctor that you are equipping a sailboat for a long sea cruse, and give him a list of medicines for the first aid box. Get the prescriptions and fill it out.

It’s never too late to start. Do not plan on trying to go to the woods and forests. Those places will be crowded with the unprepaired. Your best solution is to “bug out in place”. Be mobile within your well-established community.

If you think that you can survive being alone, I’ve got news for you; that’s a fiction. Survivors are those that band together into groups. There’s strength in community. Read your history.

FUNDAMENTALS

For God’s sakes, turn off that bullshit “news”. It’s all screeching lies.

Have a skill, asset, ability, or feature that you can provide to your community that is beneficial to the community.

If you don’t have one. Get one. Learn, make, create or establish. Volunteer. Network locally.

Handiman skills.
Welding, plumbing, machining, autorepair.
Medical.
Farming, fishing, harvesting, growing.

It doesn’t mean that you will need to endure a post-nuclear fiasco. But in whatever changes that might hit your own individual communities, you will have the skills, networking and abilites to make you locally valuable.

Don’t believe me?

Ask PL. He’s doing this, and is very busy. Maybe too busy for MM here, but it’s the future. Participate. Make a difference. Smile. Socialize. stick to the fundamental basics.

Don’t get caught up in what you cannot change. It’s stressful, don’t you know.

Don’t get all wrapped up in the causes or the reasons, or the people behind the curtains. They won’t be revealed until the history books are written.

Be kind, calm and adaptable. Do your verbal affirmations. Be the Rufus. I beleive in you all.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

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[daegonmagus] – Part 22 – Operation Rainbird – A Contingency Plan for a Transcontinental Clandestine Communications Network in Case of Major SHTF & Grid Down

The following is the 22nd part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 22 – Operation Rainbird – A Contingency Plan for a Transcontinental Clandestine Communications Network in Case of Major SHTF & Grid Down

This is an idea I have had bouncing around for awhile now. Whilst I would have preferred to talk to other operators in the prepping/ survivalist communities beforehand to flatten out some of the problems, my concern with the Ukraine situation is that we are edging ever the more closer to a scenario where more conventional communications avenues may become knocked out.

Added to this is the rumours that America will be experiencing a blackout of this very nature in the next 36 hours (I know, usually these rumours turn out to be BS), so I figured I’d bite the bullet and write down the necessary protocols for dispersal to anyone who wants them. That way the kinks can be worked out a later date and broadcast of the Rainbird Network.

What is Rainbird?

Operation Rainbird is a contingency plan to provide a functional clandestine communications network in the event of a downed grid system that knocks out more conventional communication infrastructure, such as mobile phones and internet in more than one country. As the events unfolding in Ukraine steer us closer and closer toward global nuclear warfare, we cannot be sure that these conventional communications systems will continue to remain in place, particularly when taking out the internet for an entire nation is as easy as cutting a few undersea cables.

Even without nuclear warfare, such communications networks may still become targets for attack through malicious means such as cyberwarfare or EMP attacks (which can also occur through the detonation of nuclear weapons) rendering them useless for prolonged periods of time, particularly if supply chain issues make immediate repair of this infrastructure impossible.

The question we need to ask ourselves is “are we really ready to be cut off from the world in this manner, and have our network reduced to that of our immediate localities?” In the event of any war, whether nuclear or not, it makes sense to be able to stay as up to date as possible especially in regards to geopolitical situations unfolding in the rest of the world. Operation Rainbird is to provide coordination of this radio infrastructure so that at least key information can be relayed over as wide an area of the earth as possible were this downed grid scenario to take place.

The ultimate goal of Operation Rainbird is to have a member committed to its implementation in as many countries and states/provinces as possible who is not shy about utilising any foreign contacts (particularly those within the survival and prepping communities, as they will be more likely to appreciate the value of such a network) to disperse the protocols as far as possible.

While the main goal of Operation Rainbird is to provide a continuous bridge of international communication between its members, its concept is simple and requires no radio operation skill of those responsible for its implementation, as well as no commitment to purchase any expensive equipment; members will be given a simple set of instructions pertaining to calling frequency and scheduled operating times and modes they are expected to write down which can then be passed on to a more proficient radio operator when the opportunity presents itself.

Given that amateur radio is a hobby enjoyed by people all over the world, there is potential infrastructure on every continent, in many neighbourhood’s that could theoretically provide such a communications bridge if only its use could somehow be coordinated. On the other hand, if you are radio operator, often times trying to make contact with someone else even from a local area can be hit and miss, if you don’t know when they will likely be online.

This is where the members of operation Rainbird come into play; Operation Rainbird member’s tasks will be to convince these radio operators to operate their radios according to the Rainbird schedule to pass along any important information about local events etc that may have implications for the broad range of listeners.

These radio operators would then be in a better position to pass the message along a chain of other Rainbird operators, knowing that there will be great deal of them listening in different parts of the world at the specific times outlined in the schedule. The name Rainbird comes from the idea that Rainbirds “sing to their friends when it becomes too dark to see, so they know what the other is doing”.

All that would be required of non operator members of Operation Rainbird will be to keep an eye out for potential amateur radio equipment in their area, which is usually identifiable by the large antenna towers in an operator’s back yard. If the tower is big enough to be seen over several blocks, it will likely be functional for the frequencies Rainbird will use.

It is recommended Rainbird members briefly study some images of such setups whilst they still have access to the internet to get a general idea of what to look for, as well as study potential radio clubs in their area in case no other local operators can be found. It could be that they have driven past an amateur radio operator’s house a million times and never even realised it. For those who wish to get more in depth, I recommend purchasing the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) handbook and keeping it in a safe place, as it will provide a crash course lesson in radio theory from beginning concepts in electronics all the way up to advanced radio theory.

Each member should be aware that as Rainbird utilises open communication channels, there is no way to safeguard any of the information coming through. It should be regarded as an unsecure channel only to be initiated as a last resort for the purpose of urgent message passing to other nations/ states/provinces, as use of these frequencies is generally banned from all except those who have the appropriate licenses in place, and can be met with heavy fines. In other words, Rainbird members vow not to implement Operation Rainbird unless they are certain their conventional communications infrastructure will be down for a prolonged period as this may actually prove to be detrimental to Rainbird’s cause. There is, however, no punishment simply for listening, regardless of whether or not you have a license.

An example of a real world situation where radio helped in mitigate the confusion surrounding a disaster involving a whole community of people was during the 2019 bushfires of NSW, Australia. The fires, which were estimated to have burned 5.3 million hectares, wreaked havoc upon the NSW forests and covered much of the coast all the way to the State of Victoria.

As the Fires pushed their way south, residents near the town of Mallacoota fled to the beaches to escape where they became trapped for a period of several weeks.

With communications and power infrastructure down, those 1000 or so trapped in and around Mallacoota were no longer able to get information about their situation out to friends and family, and for five days they had no access to fuel or food unless they were smart enough to take out cash before hand.

Several satellite phones had to be airdropped into the area with instructions for anyone who found them to call a specific headquarters. Although amateur radio came into play during these bushfires, had a system like Rainbird been in place, the coordination of information from people within the disaster zone could have mitigated even more confusion to those viewing events from the outside. While a in a natural disaster resources such as satellite phones may be available, in a war time scenario this may not prove possible for various reasons, such as the area being too hot for air drops, or satellites that provide the back bone for such systems being taken out.

In addition to this, many emergency response groups would only be suited for catering to their local community. In such scenarios the affected victims would be left fending for themselves, unless they had a way to coordinate to their own communications effort.

The general protocols for Rainbird, which are hereto suggested to be written down and safe guarded by the reader are thus:

The determined frequency of Operation Rainbird will be on the HF band of 7Mhz/40 metres. This band has been chosen for its ability to provide intercontinental communications, or at the very least interstate communications, at the same time utilising an antenna length that is practical in case of its inclusion as a piece of wire in portable emergency communication kits.

More specifically, 7.2Mhz will be used as the optimal frequency as it sits roughly in the middle of the common amateur radio range of 7.000Mhz to 7.300MHz, and lies outside of the morse code portion. In the case of pile up (too many operators on the same frequency) is recommended to vary this frequency up or down the spectrum by 10Mhz increments.

The operation mode of Rainbird is to be Single Side Band (SSB) AM as it allows for a much lower power consumption vs other methods, to suit those operators with minimal powering resources for their radios.

The operational schedule is to coincide with specific phases of the moon. As the moon is a natural constant that can be easily seen by anyone no matter of their location on earth, it can be used as a medium of synchronisation regardless of if one is in possession of a watch or calendar, which may become displaced in a real crisis situation.

Furthermore, a moon’s phase can be broken down into easily identifiable portions that are roughly one week apart, that will allow further opportunity to make a communication if the first attempt is missed. Therefore, where power resources for communication is limited, the day and night of a full moon should be made first priority for contact, followed by the new moon, and then by the half moon’s between each.

This will give first a monthly, then fortnightly, then weekly opportunity for contact through operators who are synched to the same moon cycle. Where power is not a crucial factor for determination of how often an operator may be online, it is suggested to also include the day and nights immediately before and after these phases of the moon in case other Rainbird operators have slightly miscalculated them (ie thought it was a full moon when the actual full moon was a day later).

DOMAIN47 is to be used as the common callsign to put a call out for all potential Rainbird Operators that might be listening but not in a position to communicate back. A standard message guiding civilians to a safer location would include something along the lines of “Callout to all Rainbird Operators utilising DOMAIN47 callsign, this is {operator’s callsign}.

Message to be passed along to {targeted area/ people of communication}; location {town/suburb of state/ province and country} has been cut off from all supply and exit due to {reason}. Multiple civilians now fleeing area, as situation becomes dire. Please advise on closest known safe haven, to escape effects of {disaster}”.

Or perhaps medical expertise is required: “Callout to all Rainbird operators identifying under callsign DOMAIN47. This is {operator callsign}. Immediate assistance required for a casualty due to {disaster} which caused {injury}. Access to doctor is not currently possible. Requesting assistance from any medical experts in the vicinity of {location} or at the very least an on air guide to conduct {medical procedure}. ”

Whilst Rainbird is aimed at providing an intercontinental communications bridge, it is suggested Rainbird members have their own handheld CB/VHF/UHF radios for local communications. This way they would be able to rapidly share any information coming through their nominated operator with those in their immediate vicinity with minimal lag time.

While there is no requirement for those wish to come online as Rainbird participants during a crisis situation, by emailing me your intention to join at daegonmagus@protonmail.com of your general location, I will be able to compile a map of potential reach of the network and hopefully refine its protocols further before a major SHTF event.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

MM Articles & Links

By Bill Roggio For Dailymail.Com

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More updates on the changing of the Geo-Political scene

I just spoke this morning with a Russian friend in Moscow. He is more optimistic about the future of Russia than I have ever heard him to be in the past. 

He says good riddance to all the U.S. companies, and sees this as a real opportunity for Russia to further develop their economy and restore their culture from Western cultural imperialism. 

The devaluation of the Ruble has little effect on the economy except for imported goods. 

Since 2014 Russia has been becoming self-sufficient. 

The lower Ruble will protect home industries and be a defacto tariff against imports. 

He and others are talking about a welcome return to an economy similar of the Soviet Union. 

I hope he is right because for the past 20 years that I have been going to Russia I saw a troubling trend to neoliberalism and austerity. 

Many Russians did to and were not happy about it. 

It cost Putin a lot of lost popularity including from my friend who I spoke to today. My wife and I are hearing similar stories from others inside Russia.

-David

Good news if you are Russian. Good news if you are Chinese. Bad news if you are part of the collapsing United States Empire. But you would never know this by reading the daily “news” feeds.

By gosh! The propiganda is thick.

Really. It’s thick like tar.

I need waders to trudge through the muck. It is think, stinky and relentless. And then interspersed in all the grime are the oily “experts” who have a thing or two to say about everything. You pretty much can tell from which basket of USD they are paid from. How can you sort everything out? Well, this article is my attempt.

I’m a simple guy and I look at things simply. So let’s look at the big-picture overview.

Major Geo-political realignments happen every 70 to 85 years.
This one is on time and on schedule.

It’s always the same template; the same pattern. Oh, there might be some new twists; mostly technology, but it’s pretty much a well understood process.

In this Geopolitical shake-up it’s a new beast of sorts. It has a new “twist” to the old template. And this new feature is critical to understanding what is going on.

Russia is not alone. It is not “isolated”.
China is not alone.
Russia and China have created a unified block; an “Asia”.
And now, India has joined this block officially (and distanced themselves from QUAD).

Asia = Russia + China + India.

So, what are we witnessing? What is all the “hubbub” on the Internet and in the “news” all about? Is it about Ukraine?

No. It’s not. It’s about something else.

Keep your focus.

It’s all about a much larger Geo-Political realignment. And the wars, color revolutions, strife, inflation, battles, wars, revolutions, and all the rest are just confusion and smoke during this period of change.

Keep focused.

The former global leader; The United States is collapsing.
A united Asia is rising (Russia plus China with India).
Normal expected death thrashing by the USA is in process.

The death throes are at all levels. This includes International as well as domestic. Big changes at all levels.

But, people say, “it seems so spontaneous and out of control”. To which I argue. “No it isn’t”.

Instead the collapse is being managed.

The collapse of the West is being MANAGED.

It is being managed by Russia and China, with some help by our friends (wink – wink).

None of this managment is being written about. None of it can be seen, as the dying empire has flooded all “news” with complex and detailed lies, and nonsense. And if you get caught up in the lies, and fabrications you will read about the failure of Russia to take over the Ukraine, and how Putin is on the way out, and how China is going to collapse any day now, and so on and so forth.

It’s just noise. Tune it out.

In this article, I will take some hand-picked articles to help direct the reader through the swampy muck of lies. Each article has strengths and weaknesses, and I will do my best to help describe what’s going on through them.

In these articles, read them not for the specific points that they are trying to point out, but rather for how they fit within the much larger picture. Keep in mind that larger picture.

The death of the existing world power results in…

High inflation resulting in money becoming worthless (within the dying empire).
A retraction of actual military action, but an uptick in military threatenings.
A change in the dominant global reserve currency.
Economic, social, and other “bubbles” all popping in the dying empire.
A confused state of Geo-political alignments as the empire dies.

We begin with some excellent stuff from MoA. In this article, “b” argues that the dying United States empire is impotent. That both Russia and China (Asia) have played the Geopolitical chess game, and has the empire “boxed in”. No matter what it does, it will make losing (no-win) moves…

[1] To Punish Russia The ‘Liberal Order’ Attempts To Suicide Itself

Two days ago we looked at why Russia is doing what it does:

Russia understood Zelensky's remark in Munich as a threat by Ukraine to acquire nuclear weapons. It already has the expertise, materials and means to do that.

A fascist controlled government with nukes on Russia's border? This is not about Putin at all. No Russian government of any kind could ever condone that.

I believe that this credible threat, together with the artillery preparations for a new war on Donbas, was what convinced Russia's government to intervene by force.

The ‘west’ had failed to understand Russia’s need to act. It has failed to make the necessary commitments, and accept Russia’s reasonable demands, to avoid the struggle. In consequence it will now fall apart. The knee-jerk reaction to Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine will, as Alastair Crooke writes, lead to the end of the ‘liberal order’:

So Biden, finally, has his foreign policy ‘success’: Europe is walling itself off from Russia, China, and the emerging integrated Asian market. It has sanctioned itself from ‘dependency’ on Russian natural gas (without prospect of any immediate alternatives) and it has thrown itself in with the Biden project. Next up, the EU pivot to sanctioning China?

Will this last? It seems improbable. German industry has a long history for staging its own mercantile interests before wider geo-political ambitions – before, even, EU interests. And in Germany, the business class effectively is the political class and needs competitively-priced energy.

Whilst the rest of the world shows little or no enthusiasm to join with sanctions on Russia (China has ruled out sanctions on Russia), Europe is in hysteria. This will not fade quickly. The new ‘Iron Curtain’ erected in Brussels may last years.

But what of the unintended consequences to last Saturday’s ‘sanctions Blitzkrieg’: the ‘unknowable unknowns’ in Rumsfeld’s famous mantra? The unprecedented switch-off affecting a key part of the Globalist system did not download into a neutral, inert context – It developed into an emotionally hyper-charged atmosphere of Russophobia.

Now reality comes back to bite the inept minions who attempt to rule over us.

Europe can not sustain this, Russia can:

In sum, the changes set out by von der Leyen and the EU, with surging crude oil costs, could potentially tip global markets into crisis, and set off spiraling inflation. Cost inflation created by energy costs spiraling higher and food disruptions are not so easily susceptible to monetary remedies. If the daily drama of the war in Ukraine starts to fade from public view, and inflation persists, the political cost of von der Leyen’s Saturday drama is likely to be European-wide recession.

“Since well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europeans have been struggling under the weight of runaway energy bills”, OilPrice.com notes. In Germany, for some, one month’s energy costs the same as they used to pay for a whole year; in the UK the government has raised the price cap for energy bills by a whopping 54%, and in Italy a recent 40% domestic energy cost hike could now nearly double.

The New York Times describes this impact on local businesses and industries as nothing short of “frightening”, as all kinds of small businesses across Europe (prior to last week’s events) have been forced to cease their operations as energy costs outweigh profits. Large industries have not been immune to sticker shock either. “Almost two-thirds of the 28,000 companies surveyed by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry this month rated energy prices as one of their biggest business risks … For those in the industrial sector, the figure was as high as 85 percent.”

And it is not only Europe. Energy prices are based on global markets. As are the prices for many other minerals and metals which have suddenly become rare:

The U.S. will be hit just as much as Europe. Early today oil prices in Europe hit $139 per barrel, well above last week’s market close. They will increase further. Gasoline prices in the U.S. will soon hit $6-7-8 per gallon.

The attempt by the U.S. to rush towards a new Iran deal to get Iranian oil flooding the markets has failed. Russia, together with Iran, has successfully blocked that move. Sanctions on Russia mean that Iran can not export its enriched uranium to Russia to be turned into nuclear fuel. No Iranian export of enriched uranium means no JCPOA deal. Secretary of State Blinken has failed to understand that. The supposedly ready to be signed return to the nuclear deal is now in jeopardy.

Some U.S. refineries at the south coast are designed to only process heavy oil variants. Since 2019 the U.S. has blockaded heavy oil imports from Venezuela and replaced them with imports of heavy Ural variants from Russia. It has now send too officials to Caracas to try to get Venezuela’s oil flowing again. That would of course require to lift all sanctions off Venezuela and to return all confiscated companies and the gold that is owned by that country. It is not going to happen anytime soon.

High end German cars are build with aluminum from Russia. Boeing needs Russian titanium to build planes. These manufacturers will soon start to lay off people. All this while food, heating and mobility costs will increase dramatically. A deep recession combined with strong inflation will rip social cohesion apart. I do expect strong anger in the streets of Europe and the U.S. There will be riots and in consequence a strong political move to the right. The mid-term elections will destroy the Russophobic Democrats.

Michael Hudson notes the immense strategic damage the U.S. has done to itself:

The recent escalation of U.S. sanctions blocking Europe, Asia and other countries from trade and investment with Russia, Iran and China has imposed enormous opportunity costs – the cost of lost opportunities – on U.S. allies. And the recent confiscation of the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Russia, along the targeted grabbing of bank accounts of wealthy foreigners (hoping to win their hearts and minds, along with recovery of their sequestered accounts), has ended the idea that dollar holdings or those in its sterling and euro NATO satellites are a safe investment haven when world economic conditions become shaky.

So I am somewhat chagrined as I watch the speed at which this U.S.-centered financialized system has de-dollarized over the span of just a year or two. The basic theme of my Super Imperialism has been how, for the past fifty years, the U.S. Treasury-bill standard has channeled foreign savings to U.S. financial markets and banks, giving dollar diplomacy a free ride. I thought that de-dollarization would be led by China and Russia moving to take control of their economies to avoid the kind of financial polarization that is imposing austerity on the United States. But U.S. officials are forcing them to overcome whatever hesitancy they had to de-dollarize.

This will not just happen with China or Russia but the whole world will over the next years turn away from the dollarized U.S. system:

Nobody thought that the postwar 1945-2020 world order would give way this fast. A truly new international economic order is emerging, although it is not yet clear just what form it will take. But “prodding the Bear” with the U.S./NATO confrontation with Russia has passed critical-mass level. It no longer is just about Ukraine. That is merely the trigger, a catalyst for driving much of the world away from the US/NATO orbit.

The next showdown may come within Europe itself as nationalist politicians seek to lead a break-away from the over-reaching U.S. power-grab over its European and other Allies to keep them dependent on U.S.-based trade and investment. The price of their continuing obedience is to impose cost-inflation on their industry while relinquishing their democratic electoral politics to subordination to America’s NATO proconsuls.

These consequences cannot really be deemed “unintended.”

All the consequences of the ‘west’s’ reaction to Russia’s move were foreseeable. It is pure recklessness and stupidity that have allowed them to take place. The ‘west’ will now get punished for the bad movie it has launched.

Too bad that I don’t speak Russian … It is now the place to be.

Jimmy Salford @1Fubar - 7:06 UTC · Mar 6, 2022

Russia has already been cut off from CNN, Pornhub and Facebook. The US is now working on depriving Russians of MacDonalds and CocaCola. If they keep going with these sanctions, Russians will soon be among the healthiest, well adjusted and best informed people on the planet.

…

Next up is this piece from the UK tabloid “Dailymail.com”.

Now this tabloid is all gung-ho about how great the West is, and all of that. They have written tons of articles that are a just lies. And that includes starvation in Shenzhen, slave trade in Xinjiang and all the rest. fun reading science fiction, but not actual reporting.

This here is it’s the first “reasonable” article that isn’t full of lies and fantasies. The comments in the article are interesting, and the vast bulk of it’s readership must welcome a more “level-headed” viewpoint.

Read this article, and note the idea that Russia is managing a threat vector from the West. Not tht an evil Putin dictator is going to invade Europe. What is so surprising is that this article is from the shrill-mills of the UK.

[2] Putin is NOT crazy and the Russian invasion is NOT failing.

The West’s delusions about this war – and its failure to understand the enemy – will prevent it from saving Ukraine, writes military analyst BILL ROGGIO

Published: 15:20 GMT, 2 March 2022 | Updated: 11:17 GMT, 3 March 2022

Wishful thinking has the upper hand in the battle to shape Western perceptions of the war in Ukraine.

Sympathy for the outnumbered and outgunned defenders of Kyiv has led to the exaggeration of Russian setbacks, misunderstanding of Russian strategy, and even baseless claims from amateur psychoanalysts that Putin has lost his mind.

A more sober analysis shows that Russia may have sought a knockout blow, but always had well-laid plans for follow-on assaults if its initial moves proved insufficient.

The world has underestimated Putin before and those mistakes have led, in part, to this tragedy in Ukraine.

We must be clear-eyed now that the war is underway.

Yet even the professionals at the Pentagon are letting sympathy cloud their judgement.

Just two days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Department of Defense briefers were quick to claim that failing to take Kyiv in the opening days of the war amounted to a serious setback.

DoD briefers implied that Russia’s offensive was well behind schedule or had even failed because the capital had not fallen.

But U.S. leaders should have learned to restrain their hopes after their catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Once again, U.S. and Western officials are falling into the trap of failing to understand the enemy and his objectives.

Allegedly, Putin believed that the Ukrainian government would collapse once Russian troops crossed the frontier and pushed to Kyiv, and that the operation has failed because the Ukrainian government remains in place.

Putin certainly hoped for a swift victory, but he clearly was not relying on his opening salvo as the only plan for success.

Rather, the Russian military was prepared to take the country by force if a swift decapitation strike fell short.

This kind of plan should be familiar to Americans who remember the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In the first hours of the war, the U.S. Air Force launched its ‘shock and awe’ campaign in an attempt to kill Saddam Hussein and other key leaders and bring down the government. Saddam survived, but the U.S. military was fully prepared to follow up with a ground assault.

A look at the Russian military offensive demonstrates there was a plan for a full-scale invasion, which Russia is now executing.

Conventional, mechanized warfare is a time and resource consuming enterprise, and an operation of this scope isn’t cobbled together in days.

The Russian offensive is taking place on four separate fronts. On a fifth front, in eastern Ukraine, which Putin declared independent last week, Russian forces are tying down Ukrainian troops that are needed elsewhere.

The bulk of the Russian forces are advancing southward from Belarus to Kyiv.

Russian advance forces, including air, mobile and reconnaissance troops, have been engaged with Ukrainian troops outside of Kyiv since the start of the war.

A massive column of Russian troops, estimated at over 40 miles long, is just 20 miles north of Kyiv, and is likely assembling to surround the capital.

If Russian forces can take Kyiv and push southward to link up with forces on the Crimean front, thus splitting Ukraine in two, it would be a major blow to the Zelensky government.

What matters more than a handful of setbacks is that Russian forces have pushed 70 miles into contested terrain in less than a week and are on the outskirts of the capital.

This is not a sign of a disorganized, poorly assembled, and failed offensive.

The southward push from Belarus to Kyiv is supported by another Russian column, launched from the east in the vicinity of Kursk.

If this column can link up with Russian troops near Kyiv, it will envelop Ukrainian forces in most of Chernihiv and Sumy provinces, depriving the Ukrainian military of much needed soldiers and war material needed elsewhere, and cutting off the government from two northern provinces.

Further east, Russian forces have launched a broad offensive aimed at Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, which is now under siege.

In the south, Russian forces, supported by amphibious assaults from the Sea of Azov, have poured into Ukraine from Crimea.

On this front, Russian forces have branched out along two main axes, one northwest along the Pivdennyi Buh River, and another northeast along the coast and inland towards the Donbas region, which Russia declared independent shortly before the invasion.

If Russian columns from either southern front can link up with forces further north, they would cut off many Ukrainian troops from reinforcement—one of the two columns has already advanced roughly 160 miles.

Russian generals have often chosen to bypass towns and cities that are putting up stiff opposition and isolating them to deal with later.

There are reports that Russian forces have escalated attacks on civilians, particularly in Kharkiv.

At the moment, the artillery and rocket attacks there have been limited, perhaps to send a message to the citizens as a warning of what may come.

Putin appears to want to take Ukraine intact, but will not hesitate to increase the level of brutality if needed.

The systematic nature of the Russian assault is at odds with speculation that Putin has lost control of his senses.

Nobody knows for sure, but Putin’s actions appear to be that of a cold and calculating adversary.

Dismissing his decision to invade Ukraine as a form of madness is effectively an excuse to ignore Putin’s likely motivations and future actions.

Strategically, Putin’s advance on Ukraine began well over a decade ago, when he invaded and Balkanized Georgia by recognizing the Kremlin’s puppet regimes in the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In 2014, Putin occupied and annexed the strategic Ukrainian region of Crimea, which served as a launchpad for the current invasion.

Putin paid little price for either action.

The United States and Europe imposed limited sanctions but continued to engage with him on the Iranian nuclear deal and other top issues.

Today, Putin has calculated that taking Ukraine by force is in his and Russia’s interest.

He no doubt anticipated that the West would impose diplomatic and economic sanctions, which U.S. and European leaders threatened beforehand.

Putin may have miscalculated Ukrainian resistance and the intensity of the West’s opposition, but it doesn’t mean he is crazy, or didn’t consider the possibilities and chose to invade regardless.

It remains to be seen if Putin’s plan will succeed or fail, but what is clear is that there was a plan to invade Ukraine in force, and that plan has been executed since day one.

Ukrainian troops are putting up a valiant fight facing long odds and difficult conditions. Russia holds most if not all of the advantages.

It can, and has, attacked Ukraine from three different directions. The Russian military holds a decided advantage in manpower, as well as air, naval and armor superiority.

It has vast resources to draw on. While Ukraine has the support of much of the international community, which is providing weapons, Ukraine is fighting alone.

Believing Russia’s assault is going poorly may make us feel better but is at odds with the facts.

We cannot help Ukraine if we cannot be honest about its predicament.

…

I suppose that the author is trying to say to his fellow journalists;

"look, guys, our propaganda must be subtle. Not so obviously false, and easily disproved. Tone it down some"...

Next up is this item. Here, we see that all the “news” onslaught is just that. Nonsense, and that the truth is that very little that the United States, and NATO does has any effect on Russia.

It’s like a screaming child having a tantrum, and the adult closes the door and locks it. Meanwhile the child has a fit. Louder and louder it cries. But the adults, go eat a nice dinner, drink some wine. Sing, dance and have sex. And the child still has the tantrum oblivious to the reality going on…

[3] Russians don’t care what American opinions are

Source: https://expert.ru/

It would be childish to assume that ‘when we are beaten, we get stronger.’ Although we have indeed strengthened our national sovereignty in the economic sphere under the influence of American sanctions, but not to such an extent that we do not pay attention to them at all. The damage from sanctions, of course, is there and it is significantly enhanced by the passive policy of the monetary authorities.

Permanent intimidation of Russia with new ‘sanctions from hell’ has long ceased to excite Russian public opinion. I remember how in 2014, like others in the first list subjected to US sanctions, I was interviewed and we all assured journalists that we were proud of such recognition of our services to Russia. Since then, the number of individuals and legal entities sanctioned by the United States and its satellites has increased many times and has not had any noticeable impact on our country. On the contrary, the retaliatory measures introduced by our Government in terms of restricting food imports from these countries significantly contributed to the growth of domestic agricultural production, which has almost completely replaced the import of poultry and meat.

Defense and energy industry enterprises have learned to circumvent these sanctions by refusing to use the dollar, and at the same time American banks, in favour of national currencies and banks of partner countries. The next step is the development of digital currency instruments that can be used without resorting to the services of banks which are afraid of falling under sanctions. The Russian people are following with interest the return to the country of the capital exported by the oligarchs and themselves, who are afraid of confiscation and arrest in NATO countries.

American sanctions have affected not so much Russia as third countries which have been subjected to pressure from Washington. First of all, our European neighbours, who have curtailed most of the cooperation projects in the scientific, technical and energy spheres. They also affected Chinese commercial banks operating in the dollar zone, which preferred to stop servicing Russian customers. Russia’s trade turnover with the EU and the United States has naturally decreased, while with China it has grown. In the period 2014-2020, in monetary terms, Russia’s trade turnover with China increased by 17.8% from $88.4 billion to $104.1 billion. The share of APEC [Asia Pacific Economic Conference] and SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation] countries in the external trade turnover of the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union] increased during this period from 29.6% to 36.4% and from 16.3% to 24.1%, respectively. The share of the EU in the external trade turnover of the EAEU, on the contrary, decreased from 46.2% in 2015 to 36.7% in 2020. Trade turnover with the United States during the period under review decreased by 18.1% from $29.1 billion to $23.9 billion.

In fact, with the help of sanctions, the United States is trying to oust Russian goods from the markets of its satellites, replacing its own. This was most clearly manifested in the European natural gas market, where the US share has increased sharply, although it has not yet been possible to displace Russia in the European natural gas market.

The main result of the US-European sanctions was a change in the geographical structure of Russian foreign economic relations in favor of China, the expansion of cooperation with which fully compensates for the curtailment of trade and economic relations with the EU. European consumers have to switch to more expensive American energy carriers, and their producers simply lose the Russian market. The total losses of the EU from anti-Russian sanctions are estimated at $ 250 billion.

Another important result of the US sanctions was the fall in the share of the dollar in international settlements. For Russia, as for other countries which have been subjected to US sanctions, the dollar has become a toxic currency. By tracing all dollar transactions, the US punitive authorities can block payments, freeze, or even confiscate assets at any time. For 8 years after the sanctions were imposed, the dollar’s share in international settlements decreased by 13.5 percentage points (from 60.2% in 2014 to 46.7% in 2020).

Sanctions have become a powerful incentive for the transition to settlements in national currencies and the development of national payment systems. Thus, in the mutual trade of the EAEU states, the share of the dollar decreased by more than 6 percentage points (from 26.3% in 2014 to 20.0% at the end of 2020).

I remember how ten years ago, when considering the risks to the Russian banking system at the National Banking Council, I asked the then head of the Central Bank: ‘Is the risk of disconnecting Russian banks from the international SWIFT banking transmission system being considered, as Western partners did in relation to Iran?’

To which I received the answer: ‘We cannot consider the risk of an atomic bomb hitting the Bank of Russia.’

However, the management of the Central Bank has taken measures — today Russia has its own system for transmitting electronic messages between banks — the Bank of Russia’s Financial Message Transmission System (SPFS), as well as its own payment system for Mir bank cards, which is interfaced with the Chinese Union Pay system and can be used for cross-border payments and transfers.

Both of them are open to foreign partners and are already widely used not only in domestic, but also in international settlements.

Disabling SWIFT is no longer seen as a large-scale threat — it will benefit the development of our payment and financial information systems.

However, it would be childish to assume that ‘when we are beaten, we get stronger.’ Although we have indeed strengthened our national sovereignty in the economic sphere under the influence of American sanctions, but not to such an extent that we do not pay attention to them at all. The damage from sanctions, of course, is there and it is significantly enhanced by the passive policy of the monetary authorities.

Since 2014, when, with the connivance of the regulator, currency speculators brought down the ruble exchange rate by manipulating the market, the latter has been used by sanctions as a fail-safe fuse of macroeconomic stability. At the same time, it was in 2014, on the eve of the already announced US sanctions, that the Bank of Russia switched to a free-floating exchange rate regime.

And only after that, the United States introduced their sanctions, being sure that speculators would multiply their negative effect.

When the ruble fell by almost half, Obama was pleased to say that ‘the Russian economy is torn to shreds.’ As a result of this manipulation of the Russian currency market, ruble incomes and savings depreciated, and speculators received over 35 billion rubles.in profit. But this happened not because of sanctions, but rather because of the complicity of the Bank of Russia, which left the exchange rate formation at the mercy of international speculators on the recommendation of Washington financial organizations.

Only very naive people can believe in the formation of an equilibrium ruble exchange rate in the free-float mode. The Bank of Russia’s exclusion of itself from ruble exchange rate regulation means that international currency speculators are engaged in this. On the rocking of the ruble exchange rate, which has become one of the most unstable currencies in the world with a threefold provision of foreign exchange reserves, international speculators receive multibillion dollar profits, and Russians, the depreciation of their ruble savings and income together with bursts of inflation. At the same time, the investment climate is hopelessly deteriorating — the instability of the ruble exchange rate creates uncertainty about the main parameters of investment projects using imported equipment and export-oriented products.

Thus, the damage caused by US financial sanctions is inextricably linked to the monetary policy of the Bank of Russia which is the ideal one for them. Its essence boils down to a tight binding of the ruble issue to export earnings, and the ruble exchange rate to the dollar. In fact, an artificial shortage of money is being created in the economy, and the strict policy of the Central Bank leads to an increase in the cost of lending, which kills business activity and hinders the development of infrastructure in the country.

Sanctions restrictions have caused an extremely high demand for corporate financing in the domestic market. Against the background of a relatively low key rate and access to cheaper funding, large banks consistently keep a net interest margin above the average market level, 5.4% to 6%; whereas for the largest banks in China, the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan, the net interest margin ranges from 0.8% to 2.3%.

However, these windfalls are not directed to financing infrastructure projects, but to the acquisition of disparate non-core businesses that are combined into ecosystems. Most of these businesses remain unprofitable even at the EBITDA [earnings] level. Despite this, billions of rubles are still spent on their development.

These figures are quite comparable to the volume of investments in a major infrastructure project in the real sector of the economy, which can bring both job growth and contribution to the development of the economy. But such projects (as well as filling the budget) are still left to the raw materials companies, while the largest financial corporations prefer to direct their income to the creation of chimeras.

In fact, it was the connivance of the Central Bank which led to the fact that Russia and its industry were drained of blood and unable to develop.

If the Central Bank fulfilled its constitutional duty to ensure the stability of the ruble — and it has all the possibilities for this due to the threefold surplus of the currency reserves of the monetary base — then financial sanctions would be nothing to us. They could even be turned, as in other sectors of the economy, to the benefit of the banking sector, if the Central Bank replaced the loans withdrawn by Western partners with its own special refinancing instruments. This would increase the capacity of the Russian credit and banking system by more than 10 trillion rubles.

Also, it would fully compensate for the outflow of foreign financing of investments, preventing a decline in investment and economic activity without any inflationary consequences. Thus, it would be possible to avoid a long period of decline in real incomes of the population caused solely by the peculiarities of the monetary policy pursued in Russia, which ensured the effectiveness of sanctions in the monetary and financial sphere.

Assessing the consequences of anti-Russian sanctions, it is impossible to ignore the consequences of severing economic ties with Ukraine. The mutual abolition of the free trade regime and the imposition of an embargo on a wide range of goods led to the rupture of cooperative ties that ensured the reproduction of many types of high-tech products. Blocking the work of Russian banks led to the depreciation of multibillion-dollar Russian investments. The refusal of the Ukrainian authorities to service the debt to Russia caused several billion dollars’ more losses. In total, their volume is estimated at about $100 billion for each of the parties. This is really significant and in many ways irreparable real damage, which we ourselves have aggravated with retaliatory sanctions.

To date, the outcome of the economic consequences of anti-Russian sanctions is as follows. Ukraine suffered the biggest losses relative to GDP, in absolute terms — the European Union. Russian losses of potential GDP, since 2014, amount to about 50 trillion rubles. But only 10% of them can be explained by sanctions, while 80% of them were the result of monetary policy. The United States benefits from anti-Russian sanctions, replacing the export of Russian hydrocarbons to the EU, as well as China; replacing the import of European goods by Russia. We could completely offset the negative consequences of financial sanctions if the Bank of Russia fulfilled its constitutional duty to ensure a stable ruble exchange rate, and not the recommendations of Washington financial organizations.

Consider the threats of American and European Russophobes against the new ‘sanctions from hell’. It has already been mentioned above that the threat of disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT system, widely discussed in the media today, although it will interfere with international settlements at first, will benefit the Russian banking and payment system in the medium term.

The threat to ban transactions with Russian bonds will also benefit us, since their issue in a budget surplus is nothing more than a source of profit for foreign speculators.

And their profitability is overestimated three times in relation to the market assessment of their riskiness. The termination of the self-serving [самоедской] policy of the monetary authorities, who are borrowing money which is objectively unnecessary to the budget at exorbitant prices, will allow us to save billions of dollars. If the sanctioneers try to prohibit the purchase of the foreign currency bonds of Russian corporations, then it will be possible to compensate for the missing financing for the purchase of imported equipment by buying them out at the expense of part of the excess foreign exchange reserves. If foreign loans are cut off to them, then the risk of their default will fall on the European and American banks themselves.

There is also a potential risk of seizure of Russian state assets. But we can respond to this symmetrically by imposing an embargo on servicing debt obligations to Western creditors and also arresting their assets. The losses of the parties will be approximately equal.

There remains, in fact, one threat – to take away foreign assets from Russian oligarchs. For all its popularity among the common people, this will stimulate the return of capital exported from the country, which will also have a positive effect for the Russian economy.

At the same time, we need to protect ourselves as much as possible from the expected escalation of US-European sanctions.

The most vulnerable place for our economy is its excessive offshoring.

Up to half of the assets of the Russian industry belong to non-residents. There are more than a trillion dollars of capital exported from the country abroad, half of which is involved in the reproduction of the Russian economy.

The simultaneous freezing of these assets can really dramatically worsen the situation of a number of strategically important enterprises dependent on the external market.

The Americans showed how this is done using the example of Rusal, establishing their control over it under the threat of stopping foreign trade activities. We could respond to this by nationalizing at least the giant hydroelectric power plants transferred to this corporation for a song and on dubious grounds, on the operation of which the lion’s share of its profits is based. But for some reason, they did not protect this one of the structural branches of our economy from the raider seizure by the US Treasury.

…

So, then Russia is cautious, aware and has plans in place. The harsh slap of American sanctions fell like a wisp of a feather on a pillow. Now, let’s see how it will actually happen.

Next up… what REALLY going to happen…

[4] Follow the money: how Russia will bypass western economic warfare

The US and EU are over-reaching on Russian sanctions. The end result could be the de-dollarization of the global economy and massive commodity shortages worldwide.

By Pepe Escobar

March 01 2022

So a congregation of NATO’s top brass ensconced in their echo chambers target the Russian Central Bank with sanctions and expect what?

Cookies?

What they got instead was Russia’s deterrence forces bumped up to “a special regime of duty” – which means the Northern and Pacific fleets, the Long-Range Aviation Command, strategic bombers and the entire Russian nuclear apparatus on maximum alert.

One Pentagon general very quickly did the basic math on that, and mere minutes later, a Ukrainian delegation was dispatched to conduct negotiations with Russia in an undisclosed location in Gomel, Belarus.

BOOM!

Expecting to lay economic warfare with Russia's Central Bank, Russia responded with the full force of hard, physical nuclear weaponary. Oh, so you want to play "hard ball" eh? You want to deal with us? You want to see what the flash or light, and hard gooey blood on your chest looks like? Do you?

Meanwhile, in the vassal realms, the German government was busy “setting limits to warmongers like Putin” – quite a rich undertaking considering that Berlin never set any such limits for the western warmongers who bombed Yugoslavia, invaded Iraq, or destroyed Libya in complete violation of international law.

While openly proclaiming their desire to “stop the development of Russian industry,” damage its economy, and “ruin Russia” – echoing American edicts on Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Cuba, Venezuela and others in the Global South – the Germans could not possibly recognize a new categorical imperative.

They were finally liberated from their WWII culpability complex by none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Germany is finally free to support and weaponize neo-Nazis out in the open all over again – now of the Ukrainian Azov battalion variety.

To get the hang of how these NATO sanctions will “ruin Russia,” I asked for the succinct analysis of one of the most competent economic minds on the planet, Michael Hudson, author, among others, of a revised edition of the must-read Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire.

Hudson remarked how he is

 “simply numbed over the near-atomic escalation of the US.”

On the confiscation of Russian foreign reserves and cut-off from SWIFT, the main point is “it will take some time for Russia to put in a new system, with China.

The result will end dollarization for good, as countries threatened with ‘democracy™’ or displaying diplomatic independence will be afraid to use US banks.”

This, Hudson says, leads us to “the great question: whether Europe and the Dollar Bloc can buy Russian raw materials – cobalt, palladium, etc, and whether China will join Russia in a minerals boycott.”

Hudson is adamant that “Russia’s Central Bank, of course, has foreign bank assets in order to intervene in exchange markets to defend its currency from fluctuations.

The ruble has plunged.

There will be new exchange rates.

Yet it’s up to Russia to decide whether to sell its wheat to West Asia, that needs it; or to stop selling gas to Europe via Ukraine, now that the US can grab it.”

About the possible introduction of a new Russia-China payment system bypassing SWIFT, and combining the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) with the Chinese CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System), Hudson has no doubts “the Russian-China system will be implemented.

The Global South will seek to join and at the same time keep SWIFT – moving their reserves into the new system.”

I’m going to de-dollarize myself

So the US itself, in another massive strategic blunder, will speed up de-dollarization. As the managing director of Bocom International Hong Hao told the Global Times, with energy trade between Europe and Russia de-dollarized, “that will be the beginning of the disintegration of dollar hegemony.”

It’s a refrain the US administration was quietly hearing last week from some of its own largest multinational banks, including notables like JPMorgan and Citigroup.

A Bloomberg article sums up their collective fears:

“Booting Russia from the critical global system – which handles 42 million messages a day and serves as a lifeline to some of the world’s biggest financial institutions – could backfire, sending inflation higher, pushing Russia closer to China, and shielding financial transactions from scrutiny by the west. It might also encourage the development of a SWIFT alternative that could eventually damage the supremacy of the US dollar.”

Those with IQs over 50 in the European Union (EU) must have understood that Russia simply could not be totally excluded from SWIFT, but maybe only a few of its banks: after all, European traders depend on Russian energy.

From Moscow’s point of view, that’s a minor issue. A number of Russian banks are already connected to China’s CIPS system. For instance, if someone wants to buy Russian oil and gas with CIPS, payment must be in the Chinese yuan currency. CIPS is independent of SWIFT.

Additionally, Moscow already linked its SPFS payment system not only to China but also to India and member nations of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). SPFS already links to approximately 400 banks.

With more Russian companies using SPFS and CIPS, even before they merge, and other maneuvers to bypass SWIFT, such as barter trade – largely used by sanctioned Iran – and agent banks, Russia could make up for at least 50 percent in trade losses.

The key fact is that the flight from the US-dominated western financial system is now irreversible across Eurasia – and that will proceed in tandem with the internationalization of the yuan.

Russia has its own bag of tricks

Meanwhile, we’re not even talking yet about Russian retaliation for these sanctions. Former President Dmitry Medvedev already gave a hint: everything, from exiting all nuclear arms deals with the US to freezing the assets of western companies in Russia, is on the table.

So what does the “Empire of Lies” want? (Putin terminology, on Monday’s meeting in Moscow to discuss the response to sanctions.)

In an essay published this morning, deliciously titled America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century: the MIC, OGAM and FIRE conquer NATO, Michael Hudson makes a series of crucial points, starting with how

“NATO has become Europe’s foreign policy-making body, even to the point of dominating domestic economic interests.”

He outlines the three oligarchies in control of US foreign policy:

First is the military-industrial complex, which Ray McGovern memorably coined as MICIMATT (military industrial Congressional intelligence media academia think tank). Hudson defines their economy base as

“monopoly rent, obtained above all from its arms sales to NATO, to West Asian oil exporters and to other countries with a balance-of-payments surplus.”

Second is the oil and gas sector, joined by mining (OGAM). Their aim is

“to maximize the price of energy and raw materials so as to maximize natural resource rent. Monopolizing the Dollar Area’s oil market and isolating it from Russian oil and gas has been a major US priority for over a year now, as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany threatened to link the western European and Russian economies together.”

Third is the “symbiotic” Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector, which Hudson defines as

“the counterpart to Europe’s old post-feudal landed aristocracy living by land rents.”

As he describes these three rentier sectors that completely dominate post-industrial finance capitalism at the heart of the western system, Hudson notes how

“Wall Street always has been closely merged with the oil and gas industry (namely, the Citigroup and Chase Manhattan banking conglomerates).”

Hudson shows how

“the most pressing US strategic aim of NATO confrontation with Russia is soaring oil and gas prices. In addition to creating profits and stock market gains for US companies, higher energy prices will take much of the steam out of the German economy.”

He warns how food prices will rise “headed by wheat.” (Russia and Ukraine account for 25 percent of world wheat exports.)

From a Global South perspective, that’s a disaster:

“This will squeeze many West Asian and Global South food-deficient countries, worsening their balance of payments and threatening foreign debt defaults.”

As for blocking Russian raw materials exports,

“this threatens to cause breaks in supply chains for key materials, including cobalt, palladium, nickel, aluminum.”

And that leads us, once again, to the heart of the matter:

“The long-term dream of the US new Cold Warriors is to break up Russia, or at least to restore its managerial kleptocracy seeking to cash in their privatizations in western stock markets.”

That’s not going to happen.

Hudson clearly sees how

“the most enormous unintended consequence of US foreign policy has been to drive Russia and China together, along with Iran, Central Asia and countries along the Belt and Road initiative.”

Let’s confiscate some technology

Now compare all of the above with the perspective of a central European business tycoon with vast interests, east and west, and who treasures his discretion.

In an email exchange, the business tycoon posed serious questions about the Russian Central Bank support for its national currency, the ruble,

“which according to US planning is being destroyed by the west through sanctions and currency wolf packs who are exposing themselves by selling rubles short. There is really almost no amount of money that can beat the dollar manipulators against the ruble. A 20 percent interest rate will kill the Russian economy unnecessarily.”

The businessman argues that the chief effect of the rate hike

“would be to support imports that should not be imported. The fall of the ruble is thus favorable to Russia in terms of self-sufficiency. As import prices rise, these goods should start to be produced domestically. I would just let the ruble fall to find its own level which will for a while be lower than natural forces would permit as the US will be driving it lower through sanctions and short selling manipulation in this form of economic war against Russia.”

But that seems to tell only part of the story.

Arguably, the lethal weapon in Russia’s arsenal of responses has been identified by the head of the Center for Economic Research of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO), Vasily Koltashov: the key is to confiscate technology – as in Russia ceasing to recognize US rights to patents.

In what he qualifies as “liberating American intellectual property,”

Koltashov calls for passing a Russian law on

“friendly and unfriendly states. If a country turns out to be on the unfriendly list, then we can start copying its technologies in pharmaceuticals, industry, manufacturing, electronics, medicine. It can be anything – from simple details to chemical compositions.”

This would require amendments to the Russian constitution.

Koltashov maintains that

“one of the foundations of success of American industry was copying of foreign patents for inventions.”

Now, Russia could use

“China’s extensive know-how with its latest technological production processes for copying western products: the release of American intellectual property will cause damage to the United States to the amount of $10 trillion, only in the first stage. It will be a disaster for them.”

As it stands, the strategic stupidity of the EU beggars belief.

China is ready to grab all Russian natural resources – with Europe left as a pitiful hostage of the oceans and of wild speculators. It looks like a total EU-Russia split is ahead – with little trade left and zero diplomacy.

Now listen to the sound of champagne popping all across the MICIMATT.

…

And you all must see how this collapse of the USD will fit into the big picture with what is happening inside of the United States right now…

[5] WILL THERE BE A 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?

“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” ― George Orwell

The smell of tyranny is in the air.

The level of propaganda, disinformation, and mistruth has reached astounding heights, as the ruling oligarchy/Deep State/globalist cabal are thrashing about violently because their frauds are being exposed on a daily basis.

This shift to the tyranny of force has massive implications for everyone on the planet.

When every quote from Orwell’s 1984 applies every day to everything swirling around us, you begin to realize we are in the midst of a dystopian nightmare which gets more ghoulish by the day.

The last two years have been a fraud of epic proportions, conducted by a cadre of evil money titans, their financial, media, and medical apparatchiks, with the objective of tearing down our existing social and economic structure…

…and “resetting” the world where they own everything and you own nothing, eat bugs, and provide the slave labor needed to keep society functioning.

Of course, this will be after they dispose of tens of millions of useless eaters through their Covid/Vaxx scheme, global war, and mass starvation.

The past two weeks have denoted a remarkable transformation in the pushing of the fraudulent fearmongering narrative about a relatively non-lethal flu…

vaccine mandates,
masking and shaming those with the common sense to rely on their immune systems,
to trying to provoke a world war over a border dispute with absolutely no relevance or strategic value to our country, other than to further enrich the military industrial complex and
the parasites and leeches in government, finance, media and war making industry who live for and love war.

The shift has been effortless because the ruling Party, over the last two years, learned they could make the willfully ignorant and indoctrinated masses believe the most absurd story-lines with broadcast propaganda, social media influencing, and using highly compensated “experts” to lie, obfuscate, and say whatever they were paid to say.

And just like that, the pandemic was over and a war the U.S. and NATO provoked has shifted the focus of the willfully ignorant to a new boogeyman – Vladimir Putin (aka the unhinged madman Hitler reincarnation).

Again, the plotline is eerily reminiscent of Orwell’s Two Minutes of Hate.

The members of the Party participated in a public setting to watch the enemy of the state (Emmanuel Goldstein) on a film screen and loudly express their hate for the enemy du jour.

I can’t help but recognize the similarities to the last six years here in our very own dystopian empire of lies and propaganda.

From 2016 through 2020 the face of Trump was on that screen, with the hatred of Hillary, her Deep State coup co-conspirators, the fake news media outlets, and the brain-dead liberal sycophants reaching historic levels of vitriol.

Once Trump was eradicated, the Covid virus became the enemy on the screen, but the masses were infused with fear and incited to hate those who refused to fear this Fauci created flu.

“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretense was always unnecessary. 

A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. A

nd yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.” 

– Orwell – 1984

The Party needed a human face to hate.

Once they began to rollout their Big Pharma clot shots, after falsifying their safety trial data and suppressing proven safe therapeutics like ivermectin and hydroxychloquine, the face of hate became everyone who refused to be the research in this despicable medical experiment which has been an epic failure thus far, with the long-term deadly consequences only beginning to be revealed.

The un-vaxxed (aka pure bloods) have been treated like dirt, hated, de-platformed, banned, fired, and ridiculed.

The two minutes of hate has extended for a year.

But our overlords have decided the time has come to change the channel of hate towards Putin, Russia, Alex Ovechkin, Russian vodka, Russian dressing and anyone who points out the U.S. and their NATO lapdogs have provoked this conflict by surrounding Russia with military bases and missiles.

A simple map shows why Putin felt it necessary to make a stand and confront his adversaries with a punch in the mouth.

NATOExpansion1997 — NATO signed a treaty with Russia pledging NO WESTWARD expansion. They violated it 14 times, as the map clearly shows.

Thus far the sanctions are toothless because neither Europe nor the U.S. can stomach the pain of being cut-off from Russian gas and oil.

So, for the time being they will settle for their media mouthpieces conducting two minutes of hate on a grand scale until someone does something stupid and hell on earth is unleashed across the globe.

The timing of this Ukraine conflict has been impeccable for Biden, his Covidian Cultists, their hapless discredited media lapdogs, and all the authoritarian state and local politicians whose destruction of lives and businesses has been complete.

Now that everything the “conspiracy theorists” have been saying for two years has been proven right, these soulless goblins must distract from their criminal acts by using their power of media propaganda to lead the same clueless low IQ saps who believed their bullshit about masks, lockdowns, social distancing, vaccines, and vaccine mandates into believing we should go to war with Russia over an historical border dispute 5,000 miles from our shores.

The same dumbasses riding alone in the car with a mask on are the ones calling for the banning of Russia vodka as a patriotic gesture to support those brave neo-Nazi Ukrainians.

I find it endlessly amusing to see Maddow and the rest of the MSNBC left wing loonies supporting people they would classify as red neck white supremacist Trump supporters if they lived in the U.S.

They wear their hypocrisy and imbecility proudly, while foaming at the mouth at whoever they are paid to attack.

It’s as plain as the vacant look on Biden’s face during a press conference that Biden, his handlers, and his pollsters decided two weeks ago to Wag the Dog, scrap the covid farce, rally the country around the flag, and pretend their policies have not unleashed raging inflation, destroyed our economy, shattered the lives of millions, and unleashed an ongoing and long-term death sentence for the millions of trusting souls who believed their safe & effective narrative – injecting themselves with a DNA altering experimental drug which has already killed and maimed millions.

Amazingly, even though Covid cases have plummeted, they are still at the same levels as November 2021 – when mandatory masking, vaccine mandates, and heavy restrictions were in full effect, with Biden and his cronies committing un-Constitutional acts, in coordination with mega-corporations and mass media, to force supposedly free Americans to participate in their warped failed experiment.

It’s funny that Walensky and her corrupt CDC cohorts now are sure it is safe to go maskless, even though, according to their own statistics, covid deaths are now 65% higher than they were in November 2021.

If I recall, senile Joe was warning us about the dark winter ahead for the unvaccinated.

Another bogus narrative proven false.

After witnessing his brilliant prediction, I’m a little worried about his judgement on matters of nuclear war.

Fauci told us to trust the science, and he was the science.

But now he is completely on-board with rolling back everything he said was essential for society to function just a month ago.

His profile is being quickly diminished.

He has proven to be a Big Pharma hack, who sold his soul to Satan, and will go down in history as a sociopath mass murder.

Let’s face it, this was never about medical science, but political science.

Masks have never worked. Social distancing was a farce.
Lockdowns did not stop the virus.
The vaccines have failed on an epic scale.
The vaccines are killing and maiming people.
Vaccine mandates and passports are nothing more than a control and punishment mechanism.

The critical thinking resisters have been proven right on every front. Even the gullible masses began to realize they were lied to and manipulated for political purposes.

This is where political science overrode the faux medical science sold by Fauci and his Big Pharma puppeteers.

The polls show Biden and his party of far-left wingnuts are going to experience YUGE losses in the November midterms.

And just like that, Democrat governors and mayors are lifting mask mandates and vaccine mandates faster than the Biden vote count increase at 3:00 am.

They are reversing everything they never had the authority to implement in the first place.

They want you to forget how they destroyed the lives of millions, bankrupting hundreds of thousands of small businesses, demolishing our civil liberties, and permanently wrecking the lives of our children.

Their plan is to switch the narrative to Russia hate and expect the ignorant masses to forget what they have done and how they severely damaged the social fabric of our society.

They have supreme confidence in the foolishness and witlessness of the suckers who swallowed their scamdemic scheme, and after a week of observing the complete transformation of the fearful mask/mandate brigade to the “I Hate Putin” army, it appears the Bernays’ propaganda machine is running like a finely tuned fake news propagator for the globalist new world order cabal.

Orwell’s observation that every war needs to be sold as self-defense against a homicidal maniac has been duly noted by those pulling the strings of society, as they have enlisted Vladimir Putin to be that “homicidal maniac” in their ongoing quest to destroy the world and reinvent and reset it as a techno-gulag.

Once they can force everyone into a cashless society, we will all be wearing digital slave chains, enabling them to control our behavior by cutting us off from the ability to conduct commerce, eat, or have opinions contrary to the government narrative.

Does the daily ebb and flow of one crisis after another, requiring greater government control of every aspect of our existence, have a Truman Show feel to you?

The usurpation of our civil liberties, human rights, freedoms, and liberties had been gradual and almost undetectable to the indoctrinated sheep who have been distracted by their iGadgets, counting their likes and followers on social media, professional sports bread and circuses, and the filth that passes for Hollywood entertainment over the last couple decades.

The last two years have seen a precipitous acceleration in the lawless disregard for any and all Constitutional rights, bodily rights, and human rights.

The illegal and heavy-handed enforcement of lockdowns and vaccine mandates reveals a desperation in the actions of our globalist oligarch controllers.

The question is whether this acceleration is part of the master plan, or an acknowledgement the endgame is approaching, and they need to gamble it all in an effort to reconfigure and reset the world to make it great for oligarchs and hell on earth for the rest of us.

I’m convinced Orwell and Huxley were the two most prescient minds of the 20th Century when it came to understanding the human condition and how power-seeking psychopaths would always rise to the top of society and inflict their psychosis upon the masses.

The mass formation psychosis (aka madness of crowds), which has overtaken a large swath of the population over the last two years, did not happen naturally, but was purposely initiated by propagandists who know how to manipulate the minds of the already willfully ignorant masses using mass media, social media, and parading of paid “experts” and “influencers” to sell their narrative.

The power of groupthink is overwhelming when it is driven by fear, hatred, and the power of psychopaths like Fauci willing to lie, mislead and cover-up facts that do not support the narrative. Huxley’s description of “herd poisoning” perfectly fits how the mindless, frantic, lunacy of the Covidian Cult overrode all of the critical thinking rational non-sheep in a stampede of idiocy, engineered by those pulling the strings of society.

“Groups are capable of being as moral and intelligent as the individuals who form them; a crowd is chaotic, has no purpose of its own and is capable of anything except intelligent action and realistic thinking. 

Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice. 

Their suggestibility is increased to the point where they cease to have any judgment or will of their own. 

They become very excitable, they lose all sense of individual or collective responsibility, they are subject to sudden accesses of rage, enthusiasm and panic. 

In a word, a man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose of some powerful intoxicant. 

He is a victim of what I have called “herd-poisoning.” Like alcohol, herd-poison is an active, extraverted drug. 

The crowd-intoxicated individual escapes from responsibility, intelligence and morality into a kind of frantic, animal mindlessness.” – Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

The same men who engineered the covid plandemic hysteria, are now making a segue directly into provoking a World War 3 scenario and urging the Covidian Cultists to rally around the Ukrainian flag and their brave patriot army to fight off the evil psychopath despot of Russia.

It doesn’t matter that a week ago these dupes couldn’t find Ukraine on a map, had never seen their flag, didn’t know the comedian president of Ukraine’s name, and had no idea about the CIA coup that overthrew the actual president of Ukraine in 2014.

Animal mindlessness is their specialty.

And those trying to cause global destruction in order to build back better are wallowing in the apparent success of their plan thus far.

Global disorder and chaos are proceeding with reckless abandon, as an already teetering, debt saturated, global economy was in danger of spinning out of control with raging inflation, rapidly decelerating GDP, and stock markets which peaked in early January and had begun to fall.

Now you add the first real war in Europe in 77 years into the mix and you have a combustible environment threatening to blow our modern world back to the stone age.

The world continues to spiral towards the bloody climax that mark all Fourth Turnings.

What happens between now and then is guaranteed to be tumultuous, try men’s souls, test the mettle of freedom minded patriots, push the world to the brink, and clearly demarcate the frontier between good and evil.

Current events related to this confusing conflict in the Ukraine may seem confined for now, but as the sanctions and countermeasures are inflicted by all sides, the unintended consequences will begin to rear their ugly head.

The current heads of state and their trusted advisors are not intellectually competent, morally superior, or capable of analyzing the long-term impact of their emotionally driven actions, which will lead to a much broader conflict and disastrous consequences for the citizens of this world, who are nothing more than pawns in this global game of chess being played by shadowy oligarchs attempting to checkmate our freedoms, livelihoods, and ability to live our lives free from their authoritarian mandates.

Everything we’ve been put through over the last two years has been pre-planned by Schwab, Soros, Gates, the Davos World Economic Forum crowd, and their acolytes positioned in governments across the world.

They have been testing how far they could push their citizens before getting pushback. Lockdowns, masks, vaccines, electronic vaccine passports, social credit scoring, and conspiring with Big Pharma, Big Media, and Big Corporations to force a fake vaccine into the veins of hundreds of millions has all been part of the plan.

Trudeau’s totalitarian crackdown on peaceful protestors, declaring dictatorial emergency powers, stealing their donated funds, freezing their bank accounts, beating them, imprisoning them, seizing their property, and trying to ruin their lives by publicly releasing their names and addresses, was just another test run by one of Schwab’s young global leader graduates.

The same has been done in New Zealand and Australia. These actions are a prelude to what comes next. Orwell was right.

Once they have seized power, they have no plans of relinquishing it and the object of power is power.

The next chapter in this dystopian Truman Show is how this conflict in the Ukraine will be used to further the aims of Schwab’s Great Reset.

You can be absolutely sure it will be used to further restrict our freedoms, rights, and free speech.

Anyone not participating in the daily two minutes of hate will be declared a Russian asset.

Anyone not toeing the anti-Russia narrative will be penalized financially, just as they were for not getting the jab.

Joe Biden was a low IQ angry gaffe machine as senator and vice president. He is now a dementia ridden husk, who can barely read what his handlers tell him to say on his teleprompter.

His weakness has led to emboldening Putin in pushing back against the US and NATO placing missiles on his border, by attacking Ukraine.

Economic sanctions are acts of war.
Cyber-attacks are acts of war.
Sending arms to participants in a conflict are acts of war.
It was economic sanctions which led to the rise of Hitler.
It was oil sanctions by FDR that created the desperation of Japan’s leadership, leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
If this conflict drags on, the measures and countermeasures are likely ignite a wider conflagration.

With real inflation already at 15%, GDP at 0.0%, oil now up 20% in the last two weeks, the Fed backed into a corner and about to end QE and raise rates, and the supply chain in a shambles, these economic sanctions are going to create havoc and extreme economic pain for billions across the globe.

Incompetent leaders, with mediocre minds, who have been installed because they will do as they are told by the globalist puppeteers, are steering the world into World War 3.

At this point virtually no one believes we will not have a presidential election in 2024.

Candidates are positioning themselves, pundits are calculating odds, pollsters are taking the temperature of the populace, and the media is spinning their web of lies.

But there are multiple scenarios which could result in no presidential election in 2024. With inflation already at 40-year highs, these accelerating levels of sanctions will surely give inflation a further boost, making it impossible for Powell and his cronies to pretend it is transitory.

They will be increasing rates and withdrawing liquidity as we enter recession, making the chances of a depression the highest in decades. This will absolutely cause the stock market and housing market to crash.

A large swath of the population is already outraged and irate at being abused and victimized by their leaders for the last two years and told it was for the common good.

Trucker convoys are converging on DC. to voice their displeasure. Seeing their 401ks vaporized once again and going back underwater on their recent mortgages will not be accepted without a violent reaction.

Civil unrest has been purposely generated by the controllers over the last few years but is poised to go kinetic in the near future.

The party that weaponized the flu to complete the coup they started in 2016 against a duly elected president and stole the 2020 election through mail-in ballot fraud and voting machine rigging, is not going to willingly relinquish power by losing the 2022 mid-terms and 2024 presidential election.

Will they roll-out the next variant in the fall, just in time to force mail-in voting once again, so they can steal enough seats to retain power? Seems unlikely.

If the GOP takes Congress in November, that essentially leaves Biden with executive orders to force his left-wing agenda down our throats.

An attempt at using illegal means to enforce his agenda could meet violent resistance.

They have already gated off their Swamp and posted the military to protect the vermin crawling around the halls of Congress.

They have already thrown the selfie-insurrectionists into their dungeons with no due process for their “crimes”.

What makes you think Biden and his Obama handlers will not use some excuse or false flag to declare martial law and suspend the elections?

The more likely scenario will be driven by war scenarios. As already documented, with inflation raging across the globe, the supply chain disintegrating, the world retreating into competing camps, a declining American empire desperately trying to fend off China, and a nuclear power run by a ruthless, serious, intelligent, “Russia First” dictator, the chances of the current level of global disorder to spiral out of control are high.

Politicians, when confronted with domestic issues they cannot solve by PR and throwing money at it, need a foreign confrontation to distract the masses from their failures.

Biden and his bevy of like-minded EU political hacks have gladly jumped on the anti-Russia bandwagon like a pack of rabid wolves.

Watching corporations and the media likewise go on the attack is eerily reminiscent of their extreme reaction to the un-vaxxed.

Covid has disappeared from the daily lexicon just in time for Biden’s State of the Union and the fast-approaching November elections.

Revisionist history is in process by the left-wing media. It was Trump’s fault.

Someone somewhere is bound to do something stupid, whether it be a dictator, president, prime minister, general, assassin, soldier, or just a pissed off parent, which sets off the fuse for the bloody portion of this Fourth Turning.

Once this war goes global and countries choose sides, anything can happen, and it will. Picture the domino scene in V for Vendetta.

Once it starts it can’t be contained until there are clear victors and clear winners. The difference between this Fourth Turning and previous Fourth Turnings is the ability of several countries to initiate thermonuclear war which would end life as we know it.

Even use of tactical nukes, EMPs, or cyber-attacks taking down crucial systems could transform our modern world into the 3^rd world.

So, a global conflict could also create an atmosphere where our ruling junta couldn’t possibly allow Donald Trump to be re-elected president.

This, of course, would lead to civil war in the streets. It’s almost as if an orange fireball rising up above the Swamp would be preferable.

Just remember, the current scenario was placed into motion by Schwab, Soros, Gates, and the Great Reset billionaire cabal. If we get out of this alive, you know who to hang from the lampposts.

“Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

…

So, we now know that the United States is ripe for revolution or Civil War. It’s ready. It’s ripe, and it’s amazing to me that it hasn’t yet ignited.

All five articles so far has absolutely indicated clearly that the United States, as well as it’s “allies” are in late-stage collapse. It’s looking like any day now a switch will be flicked and a new day will begin…

Next up…

Alastair Crooke from HERE.

March 12, 2022

Ukraine may be many things … but a ‘gospel of democracy’?

We all know that the western media’s Ukraine coverage has been highly charged, playing on western feelings of sympathy for (some) underdog ‘victims’, and directing feelings towards a moral outrage that insists – even demands – retribution and punishment for the perceived perpetrators.

David Brooks in the New York Times elevates this feeling of guilt to higher planes:

“The creed of liberalism is getting a second wind [and has] reminded us not only what it looks like to believe in democracy, the liberal order and national honour; but also to act bravely on behalf of these things. They’ve reminded us how the setbacks [may] have caused us to doubt and be passive about the gospel of democracy. But despite all our failings, the gospel is still glowingly true”.

Ukraine may be many things … but a ‘gospel of democracy’?

Every serious crisis, of course, is also an opportunity for mythopoesis – especially at a time of anomie, when a dispirited less than half of a society believes that their country is not invested in them and “that the economic and political systems (and the people who run them), are stacked against [them] – no matter what you do”.

The Anglo-American Establishment has proved adept at intuiting: that owing to such anomie and erosion of our ‘sacred canopy’, a ‘noble lie’ can be used to give a rules-based order a last gasp.

Its’ inherent power can be harnessed to generate the outrage as casus belli for global liberalism.

After all, what better unifying force than the ‘grand American project’ of war to energise one’s desire for a reappropriated national significance.

The West has taken dominance of the ‘information space’ to new heights: consolidating the media; tightening its hold on information; marginalising the few investigative journalists that remain; and nullifying scepticism as examples of appeasement, or of “Putinism”.

Freedom of online thought is disallowed; selective broadcast perspectives are removed or allowed (for example, pro neo-Nazi sympathies and politically-charged violence against Russians and Russia); and a monopoly over truth is established.

So that when caught in falsehoods, any errant intrusion simply is algorithmically ‘disappeared’.

There is no doubt that the West has refined this mode of battle-scape to the highest degree, but its very success also diffuses its own pathogens throughout the western capillaries.

Once set in motion, it possesses all the addictive power of online gaming.

Write the script for a new scenario; direct its production; and then stage it on video.

Many may disbelieve the resulting piece, but there is nothing for them to do, except to watch it in mute, frustrated silence.

Game over.

You have ‘won’.

Except you don’t.

This game generates its own momentum.

There is always another, at hand, to trump the last player’s taunt at Putin; to hail the victim’s new act of selfless bravery; to speculate about yet more foul deeds planned against him.

And so the demand for retribution and punishment is invested with unstoppable momentum. The logic to its structure makes it almost impossible for any political leader to stand against the swelling tide.

That’s where we are: Three realities that are so severed from each other that they do not touch at any point.

There is the reality of PsyOps that bears almost no resemblance to the reality of the military situation on the ground.

- - “News” of the Ukraine conflict = PsyOps
  - Actual events and battles in the conflict.

Indeed, they manifest as polar inversions of each other. PsyOps: A heroic resistance versus a failing, demoralised and hobbled Russian army.

Whereas the reality is that “Putin is NOT crazy and the Russian invasion is NOT failing”.

Then there is the clashing realities of a Europe and U.S. conjoined in ‘an economic, moral enterprise of social power and fighting morale’ (albeit at certain self-sacrifice/self-flagellation to themselves) to punish Russia.

And the other reality that a ‘world at war’ – whether kinetic or financial – will be a disaster for Europe (and America).

War is inflationary.

War is contractionary (and inflationary too).

Everything – oil, gas, metals – the lot – are going up vertically, and the whole production chain for food is under pressure from every side.

But this situation clearly is less disastrous for a super food and commodity supplier like Russia.

The third set of severed realities are, on the one hand, the contextless, exclusive focus on the Ukraine events, which effaces this moment of global political and economic inflection, and – on the other – the elephant-in-the room which is the Russia-China mega project to force a withdrawal and containment of the entire ‘rules-based’ hegemonic order.

There are other severed realities out there (such as the one about Russia isolated and shunned versus the reality that much of the planet does not support U.S. and European punitive sanctions) – but never mind that.

The point here is not just what happens when these realities collide, but what happens when one or other ‘reality’ that already holds a hyper emotional, moralising charge is forced into full consciousness as having been WRONG?

This is the pathogen inherent in taking the battle-scape of information dominance to an extreme: It begs the question: in what way will emotions turn if all the hype falls flat, and the ‘bad guy’ wins the game?

Will people turn against their present leaderships, or opt to double-down, demanding more ‘war’ as instincts rebel against any the realisation of failure inflicted upon settled quasi-religious convictions?

The outcome to this psychic dilemma may determine whether we are heading to escalation and extended war, or not.

U.S. intelligence officials claimed on Tuesday that Putin is ‘desperate’ to end the conflict over Ukraine, with some privately suggesting he could even set off a tactical nuclear weapon in a Ukrainian city to get the job done.

Fuelled by his disappointments, Putin could resort to using a small nuke:

“You know, Russian doctrine holds that you escalate to de-escalate, and so I think the risk would rise, according to the doctrine,” 

-CIA Director, and former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow

There it is … the next stage of escalation.

This now is being attributed to Putin, but the point is that it has been put ‘out there’ very publicly by the CIA.

Is this ground preparation?

An escalation to this level is likely not on the cards, so long, and only so long, as the option of sticking Russia into a Ukrainian quagmire remains firmly on the cards.

If the PsyOps narrative – on which so much hangs – doesn’t stand up to the ground reality, the public will demand answers.

Why were they led up “the Primrose Path”?

The setback to the ‘sacred canopy’ would be immense.

Biological labs have been found in Ukraine that reportedly have a U.S. connection:

When asked about them, Victoria Nuland surprisingly admitted their existence, but said “she’s worried Russia might get them and that she’s 100% sure if there is a biological attack – it’s Russia”.

On Thursday, the UK media led with the headline, “Putin plotting chemical weapons attack in Ukraine”.

Plainly, the fear factor is being ramped to sustain a long-term insurgency/quagmire strategy for Russia in western Ukraine. It is, as David Brooks hinted, the last gasp in the defence of the liberal world order.

Can all this hype – small nukes, bio and chemical weapons – really take us to war? James Carden, in his piece says it can – and has. He quotes one instance:

“In a private letter written in 1918, the recently deposed German chancellor admitted that in the run-up to the Great War, “there were special circumstances that militated in favour of war, including those in which Germany in 1870-71 entered the circle of great powers” and became “the object of vengeful envy on the part of the other Great Powers, largely though not entirely by her own fault.”

“Yet Bethmann saw another crucial factor at work: that of public opinion. “How else,” he asked, “[to] explain the senseless and impassioned zeal which allowed countries like Italy, Rumania, and even America, not originally involved in the war, no rest until they too had immersed themselves in the bloodbath? Surely this is the immediate, tangible expression of a general disposition toward war in the world.”

Against the prospect that Putin may achieve his aims, short of general war, how might Europe and America react? They might react very differently.

Firstly, we must recall that one object of this ‘war fever’ always was to bind Europe to the U.S., and into NATO, and to prevent Russia-China co-opting Europe into the Great Asian Heartland economic integration project – thus leaving the U.S. as an isolated maritime ‘island’, strategically speaking.

The hardcore Neo-cons have had positive results: Nordstream 2 is cancelled – leaving Europe without a cheap secure source of energy.

From the outset, the European project was conceived as a marriage of Russian resources to European manufacturing capacity.

This option is now over.

The EU has fully bound itself into the ‘fever’, and into U.S. sphere.

And it has erected an ‘iron curtain’ against Russia (and by extension China).

It has ‘sanctioned itself’ into a high-cost energy and commodity paradigm and made itself a captive market for the U.S. energy majors and American technology.

The EU has been fond of imagining itself as a liberal imperium.

But that surely is gone now.

Its’ Davos-style ‘re-set’, designed to steal a march on America, is defunct.

The four key ‘transitions’ on which Brussels was depending to lift its reach from the national-level, to the global supra-national level, are defunct: Global ‘green pass’ health regulations, Climate, automation and monetary regulatory frameworks – for one reason or another – have failed and are off the agenda.

The EU was counting on these transitions as the peg to print a huge amount of money.

They need it in order to liquefy an over-indebted system. Absent this peg, they are mulling a (highly inflationary) slush fund (ostensibly for defence and Russian energy substitution), financed by euro-bonds. (It will be interesting to see whether the so-called ‘frugal four’ EU states buy into this ploy for mutualised debt).

Yet inflation – already high and accelerating – is at the root of the crisis Brussels is facing. There is little to be done about this in light of the sanctions which the EU has enacted on Russia – with prices of everything going up vertically.

And as for the other lacuna, there’s no way Europe can find 200 billion cubic meters of gas anywhere else to replace Russia, be it in Algeria, Qatar or Turkmenistan – not to mention the EU’s lack of necessary LNG terminals.

Europeans face a bleak future of soaring prices and economic contraction. For now, they can offer little political dissent to the controlling élites. The frameworks for genuine (as opposed to token) opposition in Europe, largely have been dismantled in the zeal of Brussels to suppress ‘populism’. EU citizens will bear the prospect in sullen anger (until the pain becomes unbearable).

‘Populism’ in the U.S. however, is not dead. Some 30 GOP Congressmen have opted to retire at the coming midterms.

We may well witness an upsurge in the American populist sentiment in November.

The point here, is that American populism traditionally is fiscally conservative.

And it seems that Wall Street is shifting in that direction too: i.e. they may be getting ready to ditch Biden, and to support more fiscal rigour.

This potentially is huge. This week the Federal Reserve head said that whilst a part of the record U.S. inflation may be put down to Fed responsibility, Congress however was responsible too.

This translates roughly as ‘stop the Big Spend, Biden!’.

The Fed needs the space to raise interest rates. The head of Citibank spoke in a similar vein.

Will Wall Street swap horses (they backed Biden at the last election), and thus magnify the margin to the likely Republican majority in Congress? If so, with a big enough majority – anything may (politically) become possible. Republican conservatism traditionally (i.e. before the flirt with neo-con hawks) is highly cautious of foreign adventurism.

‘Whether it be BLM, Coronavirus, or now Ukraine, every single issue is talked about in apocalyptic terms and with gargantuan fear. But, as for all these frights:

“The deplorables are done”’. (paraphrased)

…

Next up…

[7] The Great Decoupling: How Western Sanctions Are Pushing Moscow East

Scott Ritter. From Energy Intelligence

By seeking an economic divorce from Russia, US President Joe Biden and his European allies ignored the time-tested saying, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” In doing so, they have enabled the complete economic decoupling of Russia from the West. The resulting Russian economic union with China will transform global geopolitical reality, to the detriment of those who sought these sanctions in the first place.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has had a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with the US and the West. In the dire economic reality of post-Soviet Russia, many in the West believed the Soviet ghost could best be exorcised through a crash program of democratization, which would accompany the transformation of the ruined, centrally controlled Soviet economy into a vibrant free market built along Western capitalist lines.

The result was a disaster.

Post-Soviet Russia President Boris Yeltsin proved unsuited for the task, and what passed for democracy in Russia was quickly quashed in October 1993, when Yeltsin ordered the Russian Army to open fire on the Russian legislature. The strangulation of democracy was completed when Yeltsin won re-election in 1996 in a heavily tainted contest.

Rise of the Oligarchs

The Russian economy, meanwhile, had been taken over by Western carpetbaggers looking for a quick profit and unethical Russian entrepreneurs, who shaped domestic laws and policies that enabled them to acquire former state enterprises at rock-bottom prices.

The resulting oligarch class of billionaires began an incestuous relationship with their Western benefactors, trading access to Russian resources for help in transferring billions of dollars to offshore shelters, in the form of prime real estate, bank accounts out of reach of Russian authority, and prestige investments such as sports teams.

Left in the wake of this unscrupulous acquisition of wealth were average Russian citizens, who got only the meloch (loose change) of Russia’s experiment in capitalism, the stores and services that constitute the trappings of an ostensibly better life. Russia struggled, but survived. And the end of the 1990s, as Yeltsin turned over the sickly body of post-Soviet Russia to his hand-picked successor, Vladimir Putin, there was a class of people in Russia who had tied their fortune and livelihood to the promise of Western-style capitalism.

Putin undoubtedly saw the promise of a Russian economy guided by the principles of capitalism. But he faced the reality that, under Yeltsin, Russia had sold itself to outside interests which, in concert with an increasingly corrupt oligarch class, was throttling Russia’s economic potential. Putin also brought to the Russian presidency a strongly held belief that Russia needed to restore its position as a great power — not fully elevated to the status of the former Soviet Union, but at least equal to other world powers as part of a multilateral approach to global geopolitics.

All Except Russia

Putin’s efforts put him at odds with the US and Western Europe, which had taken advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites to create a new European security framework that sought to unify all of Europe under a single economic, political and military umbrella — all of Europe, that is, except Russia.

Russia’s role in this great transformation was to remain militarily weak and politically compliant. Putin’s efforts at restoring Russia as a great power threw a wrench into this plan, and Russia found itself increasingly viewed as a threat by both the US and Europe. Putin’s suppression of the oligarchs, where he allowed them to retain their wealth and assets in exchange for their retreat from politics, weakened Western access to and control of Russian domestic affairs.

Moreover, Russian pushback against the expansion of Nato into Eastern Europe, when combined with the US-initiated termination of some core Cold War arms control treaty relationships, transformed Russia from a political nuisance into a geopolitical rival.

Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014 opened the door to US-led economic sanctions designed to punish Russia for its actions. These sanctions, when coupled with similar US sanctioning of Iran, forced Russia to confront the reality that the era of unconstrained economic association with the West was ending.

Pivoting East

Russia, together with China, began looking for alternatives to the US dollar-dominated model of global economic interaction. In doing so, they began to find common cause in crafting a geopolitical alternative to the US-led “rules-based international order,” which had dominated the global political and economic scaffolding constructed at the end of World War II.

Any Russian pivot to the East, however, was constrained by the reality that the Russian economy remained inextricably intertwined with the West. Not only was the Russian oligarchs’ wealth squirreled away in offshore shelters, but there was an entire class of Russian citizens whose daily livelihood was woven into the fabric of an economy that had absorbed Western businesses and practices. Any attempt at a divorce from the West would transform what had been a largely pro-Western Russian middle class into a politically active constituency that, if coupled to a hobbled but still powerful oligarch class, could challenge Putin’s hold on power.

Strategic Error

But Biden and his European allies decided to drop their “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” approach in favor of the opposite.

The mistake was to believe that bringing enough pain to bear on the Russian people would prompt a political backlash that could lead to Putin’s removal from power. But for this pain to bring meaningful domestic political change, Russia would need to retain some economic connectivity with the West. Otherwise, the pain would be intense, but short-lived.

Left to his own devices, Putin would never have been able to divorce Russia from the West, and thus insulate Russian society — and, by extension, his ability to govern — from Western sanctions. Here, the US and Europe are doing Putin a huge favor, with current sweeping sanctions giving him the ability to separate Russia from its economic association with the West without the politically fatal consequences of being seen to do this on his own volition.

Thanks to the US-led sanctions, Putin will now be able to neuter the Russian oligarch class for good. The sanctions have likewise politically neutralized that portion of the Russian middle class that was economically married to Western businesses, goods, services — and mystique.

Putin has been granted his divorce without so far paying any meaningful political price. While the US and Europe may claim that Putin brought this on by invading Ukraine, to the Russian people, US and European actions led to the divorce. The demonization of everything Russia-related by many in the West only helps the Russian government deflect blame from itself, and onto the West. The West made it personal.

“I assure you,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the press on Mar. 10, “we will overcome adversity, and we will do everything to no longer depend on the West in any strategic sectors of our life that are of decisive importance for our people.” Russia, Lavrov said, “will no longer depend on any Western companies.”

As Lavrov delivered his remarks, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitri Medvedev announced that the government was considering the possibility of nationalizing or bankrupting the property of foreign companies leaving Russia. The decoupling has begun.

…

What we have here are just a few of the many, many articles describing this particular snapshot in time.

What we can see from all these writings is that all the elements for late-stage collapse of the dominant United States empire are in place, and that the rising Asia (Russia, India and China combined) are more than capable in displacing it.

During the inflexion point, anything can happen…

American hyper-inflation
American civil war
Numerous wars throughout the globe
A major war, maybe nuclear or bioweapon
Change of the reserve currency
Mass famine, discord or die-offs

Note that during this period of inflexion and change, you want to stay FAR away from the strife, and be in a place where you can handle the changes adroitly. You might want to stay in a safe location in the receeding empire, or move to the growing empire. You could also move to a safe isolated third nation well out of the fray.

But what nation?

Use history as a guide.

During the last period of change, when the European Empires (a collective group) was displaced by the United States, we learned that…

The collapsing world power (Europe) was completely destroyed and in ruins
- All of Germany, France, Italy, and all of Eastern Europe.
- Much of the UKs overseas colonies; India, Africa.
- France was a mess.
- Poland was in rubble.
- Western Europe, Hungary and all the rest absolutey rubbled.
The rising world power (The United States) remained intact
The emerging powers (Russia, China) were broken and in turmoil

In this current bout of change, we should take note that…

The collapsing world power = Is now the United States.
The rising world power = Is Asia (Russia, India and China together)
The emerging powers = Korea, Japan, Australia, Pakastan, Brazil will experience change, and possible turmoil.

Take note of history and plan accordingly.

Go to either a Rising World Power, or one of the Emerging Powers.
Try to bail out and leave the Collapsing World Power.

Remember that during a cycle-based change…

The collapsing world power becomes absolutely destroyed, and in ruins.
The rising world power is unscathed and left intact.
The emerging powers undergo social, economic, military, and structural change. A well prepaired family can adjust to the opportunites afforded in this changing environment and profit from them.

The destruction comes in many forms…

“In two weeks, China, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan will reveal an independent international monetary and financial system. It will be based on a new international currency, calculated from an index of national currencies of the participating countries and international commodity prices” 

-Sputnik News, Mar. 14, 2022.

Along with the new currency, Russia and China will also reveal their Unfriendly Nation Lists.

Andrei hits it on the head.

From HERE.

The reports about the Russians losing a million tanks, soldiers, missiles and men are gradually being replaced with more sober assessments and the maps produced by western outlets are gradually starting to look more or less similar to the maps produced by the various “Putin propaganda outlets”.

I see two things coming next:

The much announced “Russian atrocity” false flag (several have failed over the past few days, including one chemical one which was thwarted when the wind blew in the “wrong” direction – that is away from the targeted town.
Poland will try to convince the USA to allow it to hide behind Uncle Shmuel’s back and conduct a “peacekeeping operation” to create a mini-Banderastan in western Ukraine.

Now there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the USA want three things:

A war lasting as long as possible
As many civilian victims as possible
To flood the Ukraine with weapons to then direct a “stay-behind” insurgency

I am not at all convinced that the USA will go along with the Polish plan. Why? Because I believe that a Russian Iskander strike INSIDE POLAND (similar to the ones we saw in Iavorovo, the ammo dump in Kiev and in Novaia Liubomirka) is a quasi-certitude (remember: Russia IS ready to fight both NATO and the US together!). BTW – the one in Iavorovo blew up a huge ammo dump which was buried under 60 meters of rock. I have no explanation for how that was achieved. Does anybody?

Bottom line is that if the Polaks organize another little “peacekeeping training camp” and think that the Russians won’t dare to strike a NATO country they are quite wrong. They are probably too dumb/delusional to realize that, but the folks at the US DoD probably do and don’t need this. Why, well precisely because NATO member or not, Article 5 or not, nobody will come to aid the Polaks against the wrath of the entire Russian military, the manpower and resources needed a not there anyway…

Unless the Russians and the US Americans agree to a partition of the Ukraine. Not likely, but always possible. It is going to almost certainly happen anyway, the only way to prevent that is Russian tanks at the Polish border, and not just for a quick visit, but to create something like the 201 base in Tajikistan.

Anyway, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this is all still in the future.

…

What about the events on the front line?

I won’t into details here but I will offer a few bullet points

Very heavy combats near Avdeevka and Mariupol.
Combat pretty much everywhere the line of contact, which result in slow positional warfare with artillery exchanges and very careful mopping up building by building and even room by room.
On average Russian forces advance between 5 and 20 kilometers per day, which is rather fast against a defense in depth prepared for years.
The key cities of Kiev and Odessa are almost completely blocked, but not fully surrounded yet.
The Black Sea fleet basically controls the entire Ukie coast and all of the Black Sea itself.
The Black Sea fleet also prevents any resupply of Odessa from Romania.
Russia has full air superiority over the entire Ukie airspace
The Ukies are STILL firing both Tochka-U and Grad/Smrech missiles in the general direction of liberated cities just to create as many casualties as possible, but the Russians have become very skilled at not only shooting down these missiles (the destruction ratio has gone up very sharply) but also a destroying the key Ukrainian ammo dumps were they hide those missiles (this is what happened with the big building in downtown Kiev which the Russians totally vaporized with one perfectly aimed Iskander missile. If you have not seen this amazing video, you can quickly re-watch it here:

Lordy! That is an AMAZING FUCKING Video!

And here is a video of what the Ukies were hiding under this commercial building (photo from a local resident since disappeared by the Ukie SBU:

And, finally, I want to share something very important with you: the Ukronazi forces cannot resupply or rotate themselves. Why?

Because moving around when the air is full of Mi-24/35s, Mi-28Ns, and Ka-52s in “free hunting” mode requires a type of courage very few people have.
Because most roads are carefully monitored by multi-sensor Russian reconnaissance/intelligence capabilities
Because more big roads (you cannot use small dirt roads to resupply or rotate effectively) are either already physically controlled by the Russians or are “shot through”, which in Russian indicate that while Russian soldiers have reached each other and hugged they can shoot at any location from these roads from any side.

So it does not matter how motivated the Ukrainians are. Even with we assume 100% of the Ukrainians are well trained, well-armed and would rather die than retreat or surrender, they still need many TONS of stuff (food, ammo, water, MRE, medicine, batteries, petroleum, diesel, lubricants, oil and many more things!) EVERY DAY. Just to give you an idea, read this pretty decent discussion of some aspects of logistics by the US military.

So once the Ukies are blocked by Russians, it is essentially over for them. Anybody with a basic understanding of modern warfare can confirm that to you.

Add to this in the very first day Russia destroyed all the Ukie communication centers and capabilities in the first few hours of the operation, and you will see that while the Ukrainian side has “brigades” and “battalions” these are all undermanned and, crucially, cannot cooperate with each other. In other words, they cannot jointly maneuver to support each other.

To put it in the simplest terms, the Ukrainians are not able to conduct any operations, and that is why all their so-called “counter-attacks” always fail and mostly never even materialized. At best, they can destroy a Russian checkpoint, blow up a truck or even shoot down a helicopter, but none of that solves their real problem which is that they are now mostly reduced to WWI type of warfare against a 21st-century ultra-modern military which has the total control of the situation.

PS: found a very decent map of the situation on Telegram (the place to go for good info!).

The most important video of this article

All of these articles lead up to the final purpose of this article.

It is to calm the reader to see that everything that is going on is [1] being managed and [2] following a well-known and well-established process.

Do not freak out. No matter what bullshit is present in the “news” onslaught.

The following is an exceptionally well done video that explains a theory of Geo-political cycles. This in many ways resembles the Fourth Turning theory of generational changes. It is presented simply, and brilliantly.

I personally believe that true information can be conveyed by others in simple terms, and this video is one excellent example of this.

Now, this video differs from my personal view. In that it claimed that the UK was the single dominant nation displaced by the United States in the 1940s. They view this by reserve currency only. Where I claim that it was the totality of Europe (Germany, the UK, France, Poland, and all the rest) that were displaced by the United States. Reserve currency is but one aspect of the totality of issues involved in change. But aside from this difference, it’s never the less a great video.

Here we end this article with this great video. Please watch it.

You will be glad that you did.

Video here on You-Tube.

Do you want more?

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Plunging aircraft, apple cakes, treasury printing presses on overdrive, Rufus , ‘Ol Remus, GPS, and the Bi-atch of Ukraine.

Finally, signs over the weekend that US getting frustrated with Chinese offering countries who wish to be neutral, a robust alternative to the Western sanctions regime. 

After a meaninglessly polite agree-to-disagree meeting with Xi and Biden, Chinese ambassador was thoroughly disrespected on CNN yesterday. 

I'm keeping eyes open for moves by US State Dept etc to play some of its options in the department of strategic destabilization of countries adjacent to China, and/or neutral countries. 

- PTB

The obvious plan is for the United States to unify itself; a collapsing nation, by a unifying major war.

Initially, it was thought that a long, drawn out conventional war against Russia was possible, and then while Russia is preoccupied and “bled to death”, a second one could then be “pivoted” towards a war against China.

The hot flash zones are well known.

These are the RED LINES. For Russia, And the RED LINES for China.

For Russia, it is nuclear weapons and NATO in Ukraine.
For China, it is outside involvment, independence, or nuclear weapons in Taiwan.

For the United States to initiate these long, drawn out wars, it needs to [1] cross those RED LINES, and then [2] manage the conflict on its own terms.

It’s pretty obvious. Not reported in the West, but really quite obvious.

So far, it appears that things are moving ahead according to plan.

This article collects a long series of events and reports regarding both China and Russia at this (frozen) moment of time. Most of these reports and narratives have been submerged under the enormous and spellbinding American psyops machine that has been saturating the airwaves for months now.

Here, we are going to pick though the bits and pieces (twigs and thissles) in that big gushing flood of disinformation just spewing forth from the mighty American propaganda machine.

To begin, we provide the Chinese viewpoint of why America wants China to join with it in sanctioning Russia (over the Ukraine invasion)…

Why the USA wants China to sanction Russia

This is the official point of view of the Chinese government.

And here is a comment on the above tweet from the Chinese Government. It flushes it out using better English and parses the nuiances in clear language.

Today’s Mythmaking

The Z Man

A recurring theme in the American telling of history is that the bad guys do bad things for no reason at all. The general plot is that things were going along just fine and then all of a sudden, for no reason at all, the bad guys started doing bad things. Inevitably, the good guys, which will always be the Americans, were forced to break away from minding their own business to save the world from badness.

The Great War was probably the first run at this form of mythmaking. According to legend, America was trying hard to stay out of the war in Europe, then for no reason at all those very bad Germans started preying on American ships. Finally, those evil Germans sunk a perfectly innocent passenger ship called the Lusitania. The fact that it was stuffed with munitions is conveniently omitted from the tale.

Of course, the Second World War is the full expression of this myth. In the Pacific, the great yellow menace decided out of the blue to attack Hawaii. America was at peace and for no reason at all the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor. In Europe, America’s peace plan created by Woodrow Wilson was working perfectly, but then for no reason at all those very bad Germans declared war on the world.

“According to the myth, America has been minding its own business and for no reason at all the Russians launched this bloody war against innocent civilians.”

The important elements of the story are always the same. America is the innocent bystander, doing its best to mind its own business. The villain is not just the aggressor, but they have no justification for their actions. Whatever reasons they have are dismissed as irrational or evil. The final element is that America must reluctantly swing into action to save the world from the bad guys.

This sort of stuff makes sense after success. The winners get to tell the story of their victory and that always means mythmaking. The only example we have of the winner declaring themselves the villain and the loser being cast as the morally superior party is colonialism. In America that means the natives are the innocents and the paleface is the bad guy. This tale, however, is not written by the actual victors in the fight, but the winners in the 20th-century culture war.

This now-standard form of American mythmaking is not just a post hoc justification, but a justification for future action. The crusades against Islam were framed the same way by the neocons running foreign policy. Instead of mythmaking to explain past action, it is mythmaking to justify one of their schemes. American must reluctantly attack some country, in order to avoid being forced to do it later.

In their booklet The War Over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission, Bill Kristol and Larry Kagan used this exact framing to argue for the invasion of Iraq in the second Bush administration. Preemption is the claim that it is morally justified to attack another country if it can be argued that the target country could one day be a threat to American interests or the interests of American allies.

It is fair to say the entire crusade against Islam was framed as a reaction by America to actors suddenly doing things for no reason at all. Saudi terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center for no reason at all, so America reluctantly attacked and occupied Afghanistan. Saddam could possibly have thought about getting nukes for no reason at all, so America invaded Iraq and deposed the ruling regime. The same narrative was ready for Iran, but the clock ran out on the Bush administration.

Now we are seeing the same arguments with regards to Ukraine. America is being dragged into this conflict against its will because Russia, for no reason at all, has invaded the sacred lands of Ukraine. Members of Congress are being marched out in front of the cameras by their neocon handlers to tell us that we have no choice but to risk nuclear annihilation over Ukraine.

Of course, there is never any mention of the endless meddling by Washington or the meddling in other former Soviet republics on the Russian border. According to the myth, America has been minding its own business and for no reason at all the Russians launched this bloody war against innocent civilians. Even if they have a reason, it is Russian disinformation and only Putin puppets believe it.

It is clear from the massive public-relations campaign put on by the American media that they were sure the old myth of America would work again. Everyone dutifully started chanting “Keev” and donned the colors of Ukraine. The big social media platforms swung into action to suppress dissent. Everyone assumed this was going to work and the public would rush to support a war with Russia.

The fact that this has not happened, despite the enormous bombardment from the mass media, suggests the myth of America as reluctant warrior has run out of road. Most Americans are willing to accept Ukraine as the victim and Russia as the aggressor, but they draw the line at acting on it. Even the mouth breathers who consume conservative talk radio have started to question the flag-waving.

At the end of the Cold War, the hope was that America could go back to being a normal country again, instead of the savior of the world. Instead, it was a generation of pointless wars of choice cooked up by neoconservative nutters with an ancient grudge against humanity. Like a drug-resistant virus, they have infested the foreign-policy establishment, leading to one disaster after another.

Their final act may very well be destroying America’s image of itself as a positive force in the world. That will be a difficult thing for people to accept, especially the older generations, but it will be a small price to pay if it means the removal of this carbuncle from the face of the country. If humiliation in Ukraine means America turns back to normalcy, then the end of that myth will be worth it.

It is time for the United States Empire to die

“Our media is filled with silly lies, like Russians not having access to information from outside their country. Because that’s believable in the internet age. Or that the Russian military does evil things for no reason, like blowing up hospitals and theaters full of children (though these atrocities miraculously never leave any evidence behind, like bodies). Then why are civilian casualties from more than three weeks of heavy fighting so low? By all accounts, much lower than Russian military casualties? Isn’t that pretty compelling evidence that they’re tiptoeing through Ukraine being extraordinarily careful to not cause civilian casualties?

Well, ackshullllly that’s only because they’re too weak to use the means necessary to win! Oh, I see. That famous Russian weakness again. First off, it’s interesting that we see goodness as weakness and are proud of it. And yes, that is a true statement. Our first month in Iraq inflicted 4-7 thousand civilian deaths and that’s probably undercounted. It’s also interesting that we tell lies that obviously contradict each other and see no problem with this.

Try to have a memory span longer than a goldfish.

Remember Day 3 of the operation when a bunch of Russian armored vehicles parked near Kiev and American “experts” declared they were out of fuel? Because as we all know, Russia is famous for not having enough oil. I’m sure their tanks running out of fuel within 75 miles of their own border is a plausible thing that could happen and not total nonsense.”

It is time.

“Russia & China, Together at Last”: Historian Al McCoy Predicts Ukraine War to Birth New World Order

YouTube. Pretty good.

Presiden Biden WARNS Xi Peng that there will be CONSEQUENCES if China provides material support to Russia. The meeting between Biden and Xi Peng was an effort by Biden to break-up the relationship between Russia and China which is catastrophically shaking up the United States led current world order. It failed. As Xi Peng will continue to stand strong with it’s next door neighbor, and not help the United States; it’s enemy.

.

America has something to say…

You-tube

The last seconds of China Eastern Airlines MU5735 were caught on a CCTV camera.

Everyone is dead. This is a near vertical dive. The plain aimed for the ground and slammed into it at full speed. It’s a very unusual crash. Color me suspicious.

Crash Video

From MM comment section;

This article below states that the crash has aviation experts puzzled because the crash “profile” was very unusual with the angle of descent essentially plunging straight down.

Was this crash an accident; another Boeing 737Max demonstrating that it is a dangerous plane; or even terrorism?

I find it curious that this crash happened after the recent attempts by America to pressure China to distance itself from Russia over the Ukraine issue.

Coincidence?

Aviation Experts Baffled By Crash Of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735

From MM’s email…

I am sure you have seen the video by now of the Chinese plane dropping at a perfect perpendicular angle to the horizon out of the sky? Wondering your thoughts about this. Seems highly suspicious given America's little pep talk with China that ended with them having an even bigger bruised ego. Surely this is an act of war on America's part. I have never seen a plane head for the ground like that. Usually they are still upright/upside down, aren't they?

Crash of China passenger plane ‘very puzzling’

"It's unheard of that such a modern passenger plane would take such a vertical plunge and crash."

You-tube. Descent to crash is less than two minutes.

The plane crash resembles the Nazi Ukrainian symbol

It is of a bird flying straight down to the ground.

6d4bab5f9b7432df89ac668c6265e587 — Ukrainian bird symbol.

Here is the aftermath of #MU5735 #crash of the #b737-800. The size of the impact is consistent with the last ADS-B data the aircraft sent – the aircraft was in a straight nosedive. We will have to wait for FDR/CVR data to know what caused the accident.pic.twitter.com/MaJoIao8B9
— The 737 Handbook (@737handbook) March 21, 2022

OIP C.p2CdwPpUf8oN i38ZajmwQHaE7 — Ukrainian flag with the bird symbol.

Strange vertical speed value during the horizontal flight.#B1791 #MU5735 #B737 #ChinaEastern #crash pic.twitter.com/gNanhEDUDx

— 🇦‌🇻‌🇮‌🇦‌🇸‌🇪‌🇷‌🇻‌🇪‌🇷‌ (@aviaserver) March 21, 2022

Why is everyone on my feeds suspecious of the plane crash?

Chinese passenger plane goes straight into the ground like a missile:
Experts: "We've never seen a plane do THAT before!"

Reminds me of MH370 ... never seen a plane do THAT before either.

Reminds me of MH17 ... another plane doing odd things.

Just around the time Uncle Sam is turning up the pressure on China ... Coincidence?

In the meantime:

Blinken: "Bend the knee, chinaman!"
Boris: "Bend the knee, chinaman!"

-Arch Bungle | Mar 22 2022 5:58 utc

What does the Chinese government think?

I don’t know.

Within the next six months keep your eyes open for another plane mishap. Only this time in the United States, or in one of the “five eye nations”.

If one happens, there’s a 90% chance it’s part of the on-going tit-for-tat fight and response actions between the USA and China.

I strongly urge American readers to MM not to take any airplane trips in the coming Spring or Summer.

Russia’s New Buk-M3 Air Defense Missile System Now Appears To Be In Ukraine

Russia no doubt hopes the latest iteration of the Buk surface-to-air missile system helps turn the tables against the Ukrainian Air Force.

By Thomas Newdick March 21, 2022

There are signs the Kremlin is now willing to throw new and high-end surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) into the fray, including the 9K317M Buk-M3, known as the Viking in its export form, the latest iteration of the self-propelled, medium-range Buk system.

R C.339cc2a7cea34f1516af6c01f2ef5035 — 9K317M Buk-M3.

As for the latest Buk-M3, this system is significantly different enough from its predecessors to warrant a new U.S. Department of Defense designation — SA-27. In service since around 2016, the Buk-M3 employs new 9M317M missiles and electronic components to provide much-improved capabilities compared with the older Buk systems. According to the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) manual, it “outperforms even the old S-300P long-range air defense system” — the SAM that’s known in the West as the SA-10 Grumble.

Buk-M3

Now for some delicious food; Porcupine Meatballs

It’s a true “blast from the past”. Simple and delicious. Beef meatballs with rice, simmered in tomato soup. Not really something that you might give to guests, but a great easy meal that mixes up normally available ingredients for something unique and different for the household.

It’s really great for a fast meal on a busy schedule. Oh, and guess what? It goes great with beer.

Ingredients

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup of water
1.5 pounds of ground beef
1 cup of uncooked (instant) rice
I tablespoon of minced onion.
1 teaspoon of salt
1 dash of ground black pepper.

Directions

Step 1

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the tomato soup and the water. Mix thoroughly and set aside.
Step 2

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, instant rice, onion, salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of the soup mixture. Mix thoroughly, and shape into 1 inch balls.
Step 3

Place meatballs in a large skillet over medium heat. Pour in the remaining soup mixture and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until meatballs are thoroughly browned and rice is cooked.

Information/Propaganda/Psyops Theatre

On the Information/Propaganda/Psyops Theatre, today’s Global Times editorial provides a little comic relief:

"The above lies are well concocted, but without any evidence. Certainly, the problem of no evidence may be a bit of overthinking, because when does Washington need to provide evidence to smear others? Isn't it always following the logic of 'if I say so, it has to be so?' If you must ask for any 'evidence, it will again hold up a tiny vial of white powder, or produce a video of the White Helmets being instructed to pose...

"Of course, what's behind it is Washington's hegemony and ambition. Kurt Campbell, the NSC's Indo-Pacific policy coordinator, 'took the initiative' to say at the end of February that the US will keep its focus on the 'Indo-Pacific region' despite the Ukraine crisis. In order to maintain the US' hegemonic self-interests, fabricating lies has become a 'necessary means' for Washington. In the words of Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, 'The US, as usual, lies to try to achieve its political goals'....

"When looking back at his past as CIA director, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo once said publicly, 'We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses.' So how does the US lie and deceive people? It is easier for Washington and the US media to quote 'anonymous officials' to spread lies as shocking 'exclusive news.' The cooperation between US propaganda machines and diplomatic and intelligence services has greatly increased the deceptiveness of those lies. Moreover, the US' alliance system and hegemony in public opinion can make sure that even though Washington is a habitual liar, it can obtain a certain amount of assentation and support. This has become the bases for the US to play politics as it wants.

"While US media maliciously falsifies the truth, Washington deliberately pretends to know nothing. These two to some extent have even formed an integral production, supply and distribution chain of fake news. This is unprofessional, immoral, and irresponsible, and will only further discredit the US in front of the world. As some comments pointed out, whenever people see the news reports that include sentences like 'anonymous officials revealed…' and 'US intelligence agencies claimed…,' they should in their minds replace everything in those sentences with 'They may be lying.'" [I'd say they're probably lying or They're lying again.]

And as if more proof was required, we again see China seconding Russia’s reasoning and explanations of what it’s doing:

"Right now, when the military conflict in Ukraine is getting increasingly serious under Washington's provocation, and when the energy and refugee crises become more and more severe in Europe, the US' smear campaign will only unmask it as the initiator. More and more people will see the true face of the US - an 'empire of lies.'" [All emphasis mine]

How many millions within the Empire agree? Polling suggests that just 30% of the public see media as credible giving us 70% who think otherwise or about 230 million, and since media is the main messenger of the Empire of Lies, we might assume that same number agrees.

But even if that number is only 50 million, I’d say the lies aren’t sinking in as hoped. Of course, this whole paragraph will be controversial as opinion polling within the Outlaw US Empire of Lies has its own credibility problems.

Phil understands

Yes he does.

Republican Congressman Tiffany maps out aggression towards China

One step at a time.

GettyImages 1213959790 — Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.)

An amendment under the new Consolidated Appropriations Act has banned the creation or use of maps by the Department of State and its foreign operations that depict Taiwan as part of China.

The Appropriations Act, which provides appropriations to federal agencies for the 2022 fiscal year, is a 3000-page piece of legislation that proposed $1.5 trillion spending, including military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

This amendment was introduced by Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and other Republican representatives, first in the House bill passed on State Department and related foreign service funding in July 2021, then again for the Consolidated Appropriations Act. This is sneaky because it would be unwise to vote against such an enormous spending bill due to one amendment.

This amendment undermines the fundamental principle of Sino-American relations by violating the longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity and unofficial relations with Taiwan enshrined in the Shanghai Communique, a diplomatic document signed by Beijing and Washington.

Further, Tiffany said “Beijing’s bogus argument that Taiwan is part of Communist China” should be abandoned, and that the bill would “require honest maps that stop perpetuating the ‘One China’ lie.”

What it is like to fight the Chinese

Oh, you think that Russia is tough? The Chinese have heart. They have history, and if you FUCK with them they WILL FUCK you right back. Know your history. Movie dramatization of true events. video 6MB

Patrick Lawrence

Patrick Armstrong may have closed down but Patrick Lawrence is still firing on all cylinders:

“..When those purporting to serve as America’s statesmen and stateswomen think calling other world leaders names is properly part of the diplomatic repertoire — a prominent part, I’ll add — we are left with only one conclusion: The U.S. has no one capable of sailing its ship of state, no one in a position of influence worthy of the title “diplomat.”

“…Simply stated, power obviates the need for serious statecraft. The powerful nation has no need of diplomacy. A figure such as George Kennan was the exception proving the rule, and he was an exception because he saw the need to understand how the world looked to the Soviet Union. Henry Kissinger proved the rule: For all his claim to diplomatic skill, Hank K. was a wielder of American power with a calculating mind, nothing more.

“The rest follows naturally: Antony Blinken is not a serious diplomat. Samantha Power is not a serious diplomat. As a diplomat (and various other things), Hillary “He’s Hitler” Clinton is a walking calamity. Biden, who’s spent his career selling snake oil off the back of a buckwagon, is not a statesman of any kind, serious or otherwise….”

“The lineup of secretaries of state and senior diplomats prior to the attacks in New York and Washington is other than brilliant, but it was by and large accepted that talking to one’s adversaries was at least as important (and often more so) as talking to one’s friends. It was the Bush II regime, with all its kooky ideologues in positions they never should have gotten near, that declared: “We don’t negotiate with our enemies.”

“This pronouncement was advanced, if you recall, as if it were a sound, baseline rule of wise statesmanship. There were corollaries. Diplomatic contacts with those deemed enemies would “give them credibility.”….The all-but-stated assertion is America would not any longer take interest in other people and their perspectives. The American way of defining the world was the only acceptable way. Nothing else need be considered. …”

“…Diplomacy is an essential skill in the century swiftly taking shape around us. But every time Biden or another American “leader” hurls one of their playground insults at the leader of another nation, (Putin as the Beelzebub du jour) they are reminding us: There will be no diplomacy emanating from Washington because they have no idea how to conduct it.
“Power and coercion are all they know.”

P. Lawrence
.

For Americans war is normal

This is dangerous. As Americans are really not ready to take on a REAL peer competator. And forget what the American “news” says. Russia is not running out of bullets, stalled or suffering massive defeats. video 8MB

I know it is a chicken and egg question.

I found this on one of my feeds. Interesting.

As a matter of interest, I have noticed a similar correlation of pro and anti war/ hate Russia opinion between the vaxxed and unvaxxed as the Canadian poll below demonstrates. My observations are anecdotal.

The question remains are vaxxed people inherently more likely to be receptive to government/MSM propaganda or do they become docile and deliberately ignorant sheep because of their vaxxed status? 

"How Covid vaccination status might predict views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Canadian poll)"...

"How vaccination status might predict views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine New poll indicates that “vaccine refusers are much more sympathetic to Russia.” 

Unvaccinated Canadians are about 12 times more likely than those who received three doses to believe Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was justified, according to a new survey by national polling firm EKOS.

The poll found 26 per cent of those who identified as unvaccinated agreed the Russian invasion is justified, with another 35 per cent not offering an opinion. This compared to only two per cent of surveyed Canadians who said they had three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and who supported the attack, and four per cent who offered no view..."

Free Republic

The U.S. attempt to destroy the e-yuan

Great stuff from Richard Turrin.

China’s digital yuan is in the US’s crosshairs in what is likely to be the first of many proposed laws against its use!

It’s clear that the US has no love for China’s new digital yuan (e-CNY) central bank digital currency, and now a group of nine Republican senators has come up with the first Act that attempts to limit its use while stopping short of an outright ban.

The e-CNY is in the glaring hot spotlight for its ability to potentially evade sanctions imposed on Russia and sadly not for its gold medal performance at the Olympics. It is essential to clarify that China made no attempt to use the digital yuan to evade sanctions and is unlikely to do so with its new currency still undergoing domestic trials. Still, the e-CNY is deemed a potential threat to US interests, resulting in the new Act.

Senator Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) statement clarifies the concern: “China’s Digital Yuan allows the CCP to collect personal data on their own citizens and foreign users alike.” “This bill holds China accountable as they introduce their new digital currency.”

The stated goal of the Act
From the Senator’s summary:
• Require the Department of State to issue a warning on the Digital Yuan.
• Require the Secretary of Commerce to report to relevant Congressional committees on the Blockchain- Base Service Network and provide recommendations related to the report.
• Require the Secretary of Commerce to report on trade enforcement actions with respect to the digital yuan.
• Require United States Trade Representative to report on the effect of the digital yuan on trade and investment agreements.
• Require Office of Management and Budget to develop standards and guidelines for agencies that transfer, store, or use digital yuan.
• Require that any foreign government that receives assistance through the Foreign Military Financing Program to disclose if the government uses digital yuan as a settlement or reserve currency.

U.S. targets planes inside of Russia

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday moved to effectively ground 100 airplanes that have recently flown to Russia and are believed to violate U.S. export controls, including a plane used by Russian businessman Roman Abramovich.

USA says...

‘Unfair fight’: Foreign legion volunteers flee Ukraine after Russian missile strike on training base

Foreigners who travelled to Ukraine to fight against the Russians have fled the country after a devastating missile strike on their training base.

Unfair fight!

Chinese girl

Many girls in China tend to be of thin build and nice chests. Here she is displaying a nice cleavage. video 2MB

U.S. warns servicing or refueling some Russian-owned planes may violate trade restrictions.

Export controls introduced in late February prohibit exporting aircraft that were made in the U.S. or use some U.S. parts to Russia, effectively grounding some international flights, the Commerce Department said.

Perhaps the world should boycott anything linked to America. Otherwise, products you paid for will not belong to you.

You OBEY us!

Chinese girl

She’s in a car looking really adorable. video 1.4MB

Update on the military situation in the Ukraine

There’s a lot of bullshit out there. The massive, MASSIVE psyops is so full of lies and distortions it’s mind-boggling. Just today, I saw an article on my LinkedIN feed discussing how Russia was bogged down in Ukraine, and used a map showing the first day of action. It’s now one month later. Sheech!

The Ukraine situation is Russia following though on it’s 2014 displeasure in the USA violation of it’s treaties, as well as the non-ultimatum of January 2022. There’s many parties involved in this issue, but the psyops only tell one side of the story, and it is a stack of cards with very little actual content.

Here’s a summary from the Russian daily briefing. More sensible, and certainly more accurate.

Russia Briefing

China’s Foreign Ministry issues dire warning to QUAD as it toughens stand on Taiwan | English News

China is WARNING the USA and the West. Listen up! Things are going on that isn’t really being well reported in the West. video on You-tube.

This video underscores a very important point…

The QUAD is composed of;

The USA
Japan
Australia
India

And India is specifically making public statements that they are not in the QUAD as a “Pacific NATO” to counter China. They are NOT a treaty ally.

I think India has told the US to FUCK off. 

I have been watching debates on an Indian talk show, Republic World. 

The latest one is called: India delivers diplomatic masterclass amid Russia-Ukraine-West tightrope. You can look it up on YouTube. 

India WILL NEVER abandon Russia, so strong is the mutual trust between the two nations. 

In fact, this war, as many pointed out, will bring Russia and Asia a whole lot closer. 

-Peter Schmidt

President Zelensky Phones Taiwan’s Leader Tsai Ing-wen

This is cute and funny.

by John V. Walsh / March 20th, 2022 From HERE.

Tsai: Hello Volodya. I hope you do not mind my calling you that.

Zelensky: (Sobs, wordless.)

Tsai: What is it Volodya? Calm down.

Zelensky: (Sobbing continues.) We have been left alone to defend our state. Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid.*

Tsai: But the Americans have given you weapons, rifles. The Germans even gave you helmets — right away — and now they are promising more. And they also sent military advisors “little green men”– I think that is what they call them when they are Russian.

Zelensky: We are facing tanks and missiles. I am afraid what we have is pretty small potatoes. As the American politician Ron Paul said, it seems the Americans are ready to fight Russia – down to the last Ukrainian (more sobbing).

Tsai: But Volodya, you got to address the U.S. Congress and plea for help – certainly that shows support.

Zelensky: Support? The script that the Americans handed me centered on a No Fly Zone, in other words, a call for WWIII, nuclear war. I looked like a madman! (More sobbing.)

Tsai: I did not think that made you look like a madman. I admire someone who is willing to risk nuclear war for our beliefs. That shows real spine, real guts. And those Congress people applauded you. If you looked mad, would that not make them all insane too. Surely you cannot believe that.

But I know how you feel about those scripts. The Americans stuff one in my face every now and then with the “advice” that it would be good to read it. I feel I am getting an offer I cannot refuse as they say in the American movies.

But you do not have to accept the script – you are safe in hiding in Ukraine.

Zelensky: I cannot comment on where I am – if you understand what I mean.

And I do not know what kind of company you are keeping, Tsai, but most people are appalled and frightened by the prospect of nuclear war. My stance allowed Biden to look sane by turning thumbs down. I was the fall guy.

Tsai: Look Volodya. You have to get hold of yourself. The U.S. has managed to get the whole world behind you. Just like the US has got the whole world behind me. Not to worry.

Zelensky: Are you serious, Tsai? You know that not only China but also India has refused to join US sanctions on Russia – that is 35% of the world’s population right there. China is the number one economy in the world by PPP-GDP and India number three as you surely know. So two of the big three are not backing sanctions. Also refusing are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico. That is over half the world’s population! And there are many more refusenik nations including the 40 countries not in that list on which the US has sanctions – I have lost count.

And NATO is showing cracks. Macron and others are talking to Putin all the time. Sweden has refused to join NATO, saying that would be “destabilizing.”

The world is changing, Tsai.

Exactly how many countries are behind you, Tsai? You better check — carefully. I wish I had. (More sobbing.)

Tsai: (Now looks very worried) Good point, Volodya.

Zelensky: And now Germany is rearming under the influence of the crazy German Greens, the most hawkish of the Parties in the governing coalition. That of course is a dream come true for the neocons – having Germany fight Russia. Two principal competitors of the U.S. fighting one another. It will destroy Ukraine and the rest of Europe. As I have said in the past, this war will engulf Europe.

Tsai: (Now a bit shaken.) But why did you not stop all this as soon as you were elected. You ran as a peace candidate.

Zelensky: (Even more upset). I could not. The Americans would not permit it, and Russia is well aware of this as Lavrov has made clear. And America’s Neo-Nazi friends like the Azov Battalion fiercely oppose it – and together they have enough clout to stop an elected President – or even depose him as we saw back in 2014. I am keenly aware of that as is any President until the U.S. grip on this country is broken and it is “de-nazified,” if I may borrow a term.

So here I am presiding over the unnecessary destruction of my beloved country, unable to agree to the simple terms of peace that the Minsk accords established.

My place in history is not going to be a glorious one.

Tsai: But at least you have the Ukrainian people united behind you. Here on Taiwan there is considerable pro-Mainland sentiment.

Zelensky: United? I have had to ban a dozen political parties, including the main opposition one. I have had to bring all TV under control of one platform. And I have had to declare martial law. Do you think everyone here is happy that instead of implementing the Minsk accords we have brought ourselves to this point?

My advice to you, Tsai, is do not allow Taiwan to become the Ukraine of East Asia, because right now that is the plan the Americans have for you.

I have to go now. I am being called. I am not even supposed to make calls like this.

(Nervously) Keep this call between us. Good-bye.

Tsai: (Shaken) Good bye Volodya.

(Hangs up, summons her assistant.) I need to place another call. Please get President Xi on the line. He has wanted to talk. Tell him I want to discuss the One Country, Two Systems Policy.

And tell him it is the Governor of Taiwan Province calling.

* These are the exact words that Zelensky used in a midnight speech to Ukraine on February 25.

Chinese girl reminds me of goldfinger

Nice. Love the outfit. video 2.4MB

Apple Cake

After so many decades of eating at chain restaurants, and fast food places, and then just simply making simple and quick meals, Americans have forgotten what AMERICAN FOOD actually is. Sad. So Sad.

Apple Cake

Current trajectory of World War III

Here’s an audio from Rense. It’s an American opinion. It’s interesting.

Tunnel Of Fudge

Given its name, there’s no confusion about what it is. The only confusion is as to why we stopped making this.

2022 03 22 10 41 — Tunnel of fudge cake.

Recipe out this way…

Tunnel o' Fudge

Caitlin Johnstone : It’s Not Okay For Grown Adults To Think This Way About Ukraine

Cute. But accurate.

❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the US is pouring weapons into a foreign nation to defend freedom and democracy. It isn’t.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe serious military conflicts consist of Good Guys fighting Bad Guys like a children’s cartoon show. That’s a fantasy that most people grow out of when they turn eleven.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the same western media institutions who’ve lied about every war are now telling the truth about this one. Liars cannot stop lying. This is learned, by most people, by the time they are seventeen years old.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe we’re seeing an unprecedented wave of censorship because the European Union, Silicon Valley megacorporations, and TV service providers want to protect everyone from “disinformation”. They instead want to protect their franchise. You are their commodity.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe Ukraine is just a scrappy little underdog acting completely independently of the dictates of the largest power structure on this planet. That a fun childhood nursery rhyme and makes a great Hollywood movie, but in the real world, nope it just doesn’t work that way.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the globe-spanning power structure centralized around the United States is merely a passive witness to this war and not a key player in creating its emergence. It’s known as cognitive dissonance, and is a mental illness.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe that governments who’d have every incentive to lie to the public about what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine are simply choosing not to do so. It’s called “denial”, and it is common feature of many mental illnesses.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the politicians who’ve demonstrated ice cold indifference to their own citizens dying of poverty and disease care passionately about the plight of the Ukrainian people. The politicians have demonstrated psychopathic personalities. It is a mental illness to randomly disassociate behaviors with habitual serial criminals.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the most powerful and murderous government in the world is orchestrating the economic collapse of a nation it has long targeted for destruction in order to defend Ukrainians. It’s called wishful thinking, and most adults grow out of this in their 20’s.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe the “anti-war” position is to support pouring weapons into a foreign country and cold war brinkmanship that could lead to World War 3 while shouting down anyone who advocates de-escalation, diplomacy and detente.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe anything which doesn’t align with what the TV tells you about this war is “Russian propaganda”.
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It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and believe anyone who disputes the TV narrative about this war is defending Putin or thinks he is awesome. Adults do not behave like they still are in kindergarden.
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It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and accuse people who disagree with you of working for a foreign government. It’s lazy. Ignorant, and slothful.
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It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and find it strange and outlandish when someone criticises the most powerful empire that has ever existed for its role in starting a war. The United States is the largest military empire in the history of the world. You cannot associate peace with Military Empires. You associate war with Military Empires. To deny that fact is a sign of being in possession of a serious mental illness.
❖
It’s not okay to be a grown adult in 2022 and be fine with only knowing one side of the story. It will cause you to made very bad decisions, and eventually contribute to getting you into very bad situations.

Be an adult

Fake News

Fabrications are rife during wars. The say, and no doubt it has validity, that the first victim of war is the truth. Here is a translation from RIA Novosti in Moscow, of some of the fake stories we in the west have been spinning.

Fake News

The United States is considering disconnecting Russia from GPS

Just like they did to China. So China built their own system.

Russia can use China’s or their own GLONASS. There are many work-arounds on this issue.

Disconnect GPS

MM riding home in my neighborhood

Video from the other day. This is what it is like near my house. video 30MB

Capture of the “Bitch of Ukraine”

About the nazi “Taira” #14, her name is Yulia Paevskaya, and there is this Free Yulia and/or Free Taira campaign in the Nazi sections of Ukraine.

In Ukraine, Yulia is a well-known personality, she actively spoke on the Maidan and participated in military operations in the Donbass in the ranks of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment. During 8 years 14000 people died in Dobass.

Capture

Russia caught her March 16 as she was trying to get out of Mariupol with a medical team, here’s a video after her capture (must watch)

Fein innocence

.
caption:

"Captured Commander of the medical service of Azov is watching a report about the consequences of a strike on Donetsk.

She pretend now that she got no idea"

Scott Ritter comments “The trial will be interesting”

Secretive American Stocks Of Soviet Air Defense Systems Are Headed To Ukraine: Report

The US has captured, snatched, or otherwise acquired various Russian-made air defense systems over the years, and now they could fight in Ukraine.

By Joseph Trevithick March 21, 2022

The U.S. government is sending Soviet-era air defense systems in its possession to Ukraine, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. These systems will reportedly come from stocks of foreign materiel that elements of the U.S. military and Intelligence Community have obtained in various ways over the years for intelligence analysis and training purposes. The possibility that these so-called foreign materiel exploitation, or FME, programs could offer a useful source of additional air defense capabilities that Ukraine badly needs is exactly what that The War Zone laid out just recently.

The Journal‘s piece did say that the U.S. government has already shipped a number of systems to Ukraine that had been in storage at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo planes reportedly picked them up at an unspecified airfield in the Huntsville area. The story notes that Redstone is home to the Army’s Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), but it also hosts the Defense Intelligence Agency‘s (DIA) Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC), which has an FME role. DIA serves as the focal point for the Department of Defense’s entire FME enterprise, as well.

The U.S. military has been very active in delivering and otherwise facilitating the shipment of military aid to Ukraine, even before Russia launched its invasion. This includes various air defense systems, especially different types of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). In addition, American officials have made clear that there is a heavy emphasis on sending weapons and equipment that Ukrainian forces are already familiar with, an idea The War Zone had earlier explained the merits of. The core idea behind that philosophy is that this will make it faster and easier for Ukraine’s military to actively put what it receives to use in combat. Ukraine’s ground-based air defenses have been essential in preventing Russian forces from gaining air superiority over the country after more than three weeks of fighting.

Beyond all this, it’s still unclear what systems specifically may ultimately be transferred to Ukraine. The SA-8 Gecko is the only specific system that the Journal‘s sources named as being among the planned deliveries to Ukrainian forces. The SA-8, also known by the Russian nomenclature 9K33 Osa, is a wheeled short-range surface-to-air missile system. DIA’s MSIC is known to have at least one example of this system in its inventory.

OIP C.OaRqKLexrCVsyfXsIjue3AHaE6 — The SA-8.

Skullduggery

So, the United States is planning to cross the Chinese Red Lines in the future…

Thousands of Marines deployed to Australia in preparation for a possible war with CHINA

Monday, March 21, 2022 by: Ramon Tomey

(Natural News) Members of the U.S. Marine Corps have been deployed to Australia in preparation for China potentially invading Taiwan. The Marines will be helping their counterparts in the Australian Defense Force (ADF) to ensure preparedness for any crisis or conflict in the region.

According to 100PercentFedUp.com, a rotational force of approximately 2,200 Marines will be based in Australia’s Northern Territory until September 2022. One thousand Marines had earlier arrived in Darwin, the Australian state’s capital, to train alongside the ADF. The contingent of Marines forms

“part of an ongoing U.S. initiative in the Indo-Pacific region to prepare for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan in coming years.”

Colonel Marcus Constable, commanding officer of ADF Northern Command, reiterated the importance of the relationship between the U.S. and Australia.

“It is a key way we increase regional cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific. Together, we conduct a comprehensive range of training activities including humanitarian assistance, security operations and high-end live-fire exercises,”

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said conflict with China “shouldn’t be discounted,” warning that the communist country may move to invade Taiwan while the world is focused on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He emphasized that Australian forces would come to the aid of the U.S. should the latter help defend the island nation.

“It would be inconceivable that we wouldn’t support the U.S. in an action if the U.S. chose to take that action. I think we should be very frank and honest about that [and] look at all of the facts and circumstances without pre-committing. [Maybe] there are circumstances where we wouldn’t take up that option, [but] I can’t conceive of those circumstances.”

War Prep!

Ol’ Remus Revisited

Posted on March 20, 2022 by bustednuckles

I am not the only one who misses Ol’ Remus. Remus posted some of my SHTF posts for me and brought a lot of people to MM. But it’s more than that. he was a good, genuine guy.

Here’s what my ‘buddy Phil at bustedknuckles has to say about him…

I remember when I first stumbled on The Woodpile Report, realizing that what I had found was an absolute treasure.

As future posts confirmed, I was spot on with my gut feeling.

Ol’ Remus himself was a treasure.

Filled with wisdom gathered over his many years and blessed with an insight that I have so far, been unable to find duplicated anywhere else.

Even after extensively searching.

I also realized after a few posts that what I had found was also very likely to have a limited window of new inputs. Also due to his advancing age.

Unfortunately I was correct in my assessment there, our reluctant mentor will have been gone two years here shortly.

Very, very fortunately, someone else realized what a treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge he left behind and they immediately set about gathering up into a repository, as much as they could possibly glean from what he did leave behind. Unfortunately, Ol’ Remus didn’t archive his posts.

Occasionally I get a hankering for a touch of that and off I go, searching for that font of knowledge, stashed away still on the internet.

Every time, I am very happy to see it is still there. Some day it might not be. I may try to find the time to download it all and save it on a removable hard drive for safe keeping.

I found this old post a few minutes ago, re-read it and found that it is just as applicable today as it was when he first pecked it out and shared it with us’. So I copied it and I am pasting it here, along with a link to the site that still has many of his old posts.

Simply titled, Woodpile Reports.

THE COMING UNPLEASANTNESS – OL’ REMUS

from HERE

THE COMING UNPLEASANTNESS – OL’ REMUS

This is another post from Ol’ Remus at The Woodpile Report. I like his style of writing quite a bit, and agree with him entirely. 

He is forecasting catastrophe – and how could it be otherwise?

And yet I get the US Trust “Investment Strategy Overview” newsletter in the mail, and, of course, it is completely in opposition to Ol’ Remus – it’s bullish! 

Apparently, we are only 5 years into a bull market of 20 years! Major advances in technology are coming! Progress towards US energy independence! A manufacturing renaissance! The imbalances of the past cycle are correcting themselves! Etc.

How does one reconcile these two views?

What an absolutely bizarre time we live in, when there is such a massive disconnect between the mass media hypnosis and reality. Every day is another chapter in Cognitive Dissonance…

HERE

The Coming Unpleasantness

The guilty are sneaking away unpunished, nobody’s fixing anything, there’s an orderly-so-far devaluation of the dollar going on, the Treasury has fallen into the hands of counterfeiters and the election process has gone third-world.

The home folks are broke, or nearly so, and unemployed, or about to be.

Suddenly they understand DCisn’t on their side and now they’re debating whether DC is run by the criminally insane or the merely criminal.

Oh yeah, this will end well.

According to a new study by the Russell Sage Foundation, the inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. 

Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36% decline… it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical American household has been getting poorer, too.

-Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com

Now the people who warned of 2008 are saying the market is running out of Greater Fools.

They say few retail investors are in equities that don’t have to be—meaning the funds, the 401ks and IRAs, the insurance companies, the compulsive gamblers. And those that don’t hate the market fear the market.

They say it’s a gas leak looking for detonation.

They say the event will arrive before the warning does.

There are usually no warnings that trouble is coming because everyone at the top of the financial food chain are highly incentivized to keep quiet about problems…

Just about every CEO from every major bank spent much of 2008 claiming that all was well…

As former banker Jean-Claude Juncker put it, “When it becomes serious, you have to lie.”

-Phoenix Capital Research at zerohedge.com

In early 2008 I noted a fairly serious decrease in online “revenue per impression” in the advertising space. 

This was not reflected in so-called “official” reports from various online ad firms, but I saw it quite-clearly across data I had available to me. 

What followed, of course, was quite clear in the markets. I am seeing the same pattern develop now.

-Karl Denninger at market-ticker.org

Due diligence and fundamentals count for nothing because the arithmetic makes no sense, successful investing amounts to insider information and front running the Fed.

The oscillations are wild and coming closer together.

But still it goes up.

One day it won’t.

The crash will be 2008 on afterburner because no one trusts anybody, no one honors anything, no one believes anything.

The flash-crash will look stately by comparison.

It’ll be like being pushed out of a tree in the dark—pain and terror every inch of the way.

Another horrific stock market crash is coming, and the next bust will be “unlike any other” we have seen.

We have never had this before.

It’s going to be very painful for investors.

-Jeremy Grantham, GMO, via moneynews.com

Warren Buffett’s “best single measure of where valuations stand,” comparing the market value of UScompanies to the gross national product before inflation, is flashing near record bubble red. 

Still we are sure, you’ll be able to exit before everyone else when this ends.

-Tyler Durden and Bloomberg at zerohedge.com

The most reliable valuation measures have never been higher except in the advance to the 2000 peak (and for some measures the 1929 and 2007 peaks), but they have started to treat these prior pre-crash peaks as objectives to be attained… 

Make no mistake—this is an equity bubble, and a highly advanced one. On the most historically reliable measures, it is easily beyond 1972 and 1987, beyond 1929 and 2007, and is now within about 15% of the 2000 extreme.


-John Hussman at hussmanfunds.com

We have no right to be surprised by a severe and imminent stock market crash.

-Mark Spitznagel via moneynews.com

The market isn’t the economy, true enough, but a couple dozen trillion dollars isn’t exactly budget-dust.

The citizenry would see a yawning crater where their 401ks and IRAs used to be.

They’d notice when their checking account is gone but their debt isn’t, and when the ATM doesn’t recognize their account number, or when their bank is an empty storefront and their car loan has been sold to Vinnie, or when their insurance company doesn’t answer the phone.

As always, people don’t go nuclear until reality invites itself into their living room and defecates on the carpet.

That’s when things get interesting—when people notice, when they have to face what was formerly unthinkable and their only fallback is what good people they are.

Those who drove the financial bus off a cliff know the controls still work fine—the brakes and accelerator and steering wheel, all of ’em, but when the rubber isn’t on the road the effect just ain’t the same.

But all that “driving” stuff keeps the passengers from panicking.

We’ve seen the grandest larceny in all history.

Now, after we’ve been cleaned out, we know the wacko conspiracy guys were right.

In fact we’re worse than cleaned out, the place has been turned into a debtor’s prison from sea to shining sea.

Some would have us believe things are turning around—the market’s up and the trend is your friend.

Trend?

Trend?!

The market made gains after the Crash of 1929 too, genuine record recoveries.

“Prosperity is just around the corner” referred to those 1930-1931 upticks, not to the unstoppable plunge that followed.

As they say, it’s not the fall, it’s the sudden stop.

The fall itself can be surprisingly profitable.

But what a fall it was.

By July of 1932 the Dow had dropped from its high of 367 down to 41.

Ten years later, in April of 1942, it touched 100 or so, and that was after foreign panic-money poured in from a Europe at war.

The highs of 1929 weren’t seen again until the 1950s.

That’s a trend.

There’s always been fraud, but sometime in the recent past the market buckled in a fundamental way and the fraud poured in.

Proven reforms painfully enacted over decades were swept away.

Fundamentals no longer counted.

Creative finance counted.

Bubbles and deceit counted.

It became a criminal enterprise top to bottom.

Accounting firms and regulatory agencies went over to the dark side en masse.

As Mark Twain said, every profession is a conspiracy against the common man.

Finally the retail investor did something sensible—he ran for his life.

The players left are those who have to stay; the funds, the retirement accounts, the insurance companies, et al, and HFT piranhas are eating them alive at millions of tiny nibbles a second.

What used to be an investor’s clearing house has become a betting parlor on the Federal Reserve’s next move.

The market goes up on tiny volume and bad news, and way up on very bad news and nearly no volume.

They know dark horizons light up the printing presses.

Meanwhile, the banks don’t know what they own, or don’t know what it’s worth, but they do know they’re insolvent and so does everybody else.

So DC gives money to the banks and then pays the banks to lend it back to them.

It’s IOUs paid with IOUs and they can’t write ’em fast enough.

The bottoming is not completely done.

In fact, it has barely even gotten underway yet.

We keep propping up losers.

The result is we still need to see a repudiation of debt at a massive scale and until that happens, the Long Wave bottom won’t be here.

We’re just dancing on the front end of real economic collapse.

-George Ure at urbansurvival.com

What to do.

The demand for collateral will be ferocious when the debacle starts. Treat debt like any other roadside bomb.

Staying current isn’t enough.

Any collaterized debt is too much debt.

You can’t know which exit is the last exit.

The grace period with the trillion-dollar price tag is ending and it’s ending badly.

This disaster has been bought off for decades.

When it happens it’ll go down fast.

Exactly how and when can be sorta-kinda foreseen but not actually known.

A cascade can start from anywhere.

But this much can be said: the collateral chaos will hit the system like a weapons-grade laxative. Everything that’s been contained, covered up and denied will come spewing out looking for daddy.

It’ll take weeks, not months to come apart.

Maybe days.

Get as independent as you can while you can. There are parts of this game where the only winning move is to not play.

Doesn’t mean you have to go all Rambo and head off to some mountain valley, although that’s one way.

But it does mean putting stuff by so you can get by.

“Stuff” means food stored long-term and the wherewithal to get or grow more, uninterruptible for-sure potable water, an off-the-grid heating system, meds and medical supplies, clothing for hard times and hard work and being out in life-threatening weather because you have to be, the means to defend hearth and hoard, batteries and a way to recharge them, cash and real money—meaning gold and silver—all the things you already know but haven’t done.

Knowing isn’t doing, doing is doing.

FDR‘s bailout of the Federal government also went so far as to also issue Executive Order 6814 “Requiring the delivery of all silver to the United States for coinage.”

And what was that worth at the time?

In terms of present dollars, that works out to about $22.77 per ounce. Given that silver is trading below current dollar equivalents of the Depression confiscation prices and gold is still trading at 3.44-times Depression confiscation prices, my personal bias may be inferred.

-George Ure at peoplenomics.com

Plan B.

If you’re in a city, have a viable destination and two or three tried and proven ways to get there.

Practice and take notes.

Again, only doing is doing.

Plan as if your life depends on it.

Take a hike, go the hard way through the hills and woods, you’ll discover how long an unpaved mile can be.

Make a squirrel dinner, yes they’re cute, but there may come a day when only one of you is going to live. Besides, they’re yummy.

Mankind acquired these tastes over geological epochs, you’ve not lost them, merely misplaced them.

Everything seems obvious and predictable in retrospect.

This stuff is pretty obvious and predictable now. And there are always better reasons to not do something than to do it.

You know most people won’t get serious until after it was absolutely necessary. Too late.

They’ll fail, mostly.

Worse, they’ll needlessly fail at the easy part of the learning curve.

Prepared is prepared, you are or you aren’t. Do what you can. And as always, stay away from crowds.

…

The man could see what was coming from a mile away.

What he didn’t get to see, Thank God, was the Covid Hoax and The Fed dumping several TRILLION more FRN’s into the market and The Bubble having had at least two more years of expansion.

Afterburners indeed.

It is now virtually on our doorsteps.

That makes posting this again very timely.

God rest your soul sir.

I am grateful at this point that you aren’t here to see what is about to unfold on a completely unsuspecting general public.

An interesting statement

Regarding the briefing of the MOD submitted by <redacted> I found one section to be quite interesting:

"Due to hypersonic speed and ultra-high kinetic energy, the warhead of Kinzhal missile complex destroyed a protected underground arsenal located in a mountainous area, built in Soviet times to store special ammunition and missiles.

The destruction of a large fuel depot in Konstantinovka by Kinzhal hypersonic missile was due to its invisibility and invulnerability to any means of enemy air and missile defence.

Combat use of Kynzhal aviation missile system confirmed its effectiveness in destroying highly protected special enemy assets. The strikes on the military infrastructure of Ukraine by this missile system will continue within the special military operation.

I would like to emphasize that Kinzhal system is used with a conventional warhead. Although experts are well aware of the capabilities of this weapon, not only in terms of range, but also in terms of the type of charge."

This seems to be a rather clear message that “we can put a nuclear warhead on this any time we want and deliver in less than 10 minutes to any NATO base in Europe”. Or wherever else they might choose.

Cheesecake Cookies

Now here’s a great cookie. Why doesn’t anyone make these anymore?

Cheesecake Cookie

China is about HEART

No wonder that so many in the money-money-money West cannot understand China. They think with their minds. Not with their hearts. This is China, and this is why China will lead the world to a new and better existence. video 58MB

Stand up for others

Don’t be a spectator. Participate in life. Protect the week, and do your part to make the world a better place. You don’t know when the calling will be, or how you will be tested, but you will be. And when that test of who you are arrives… well be the person that would make your grandmother PROUD. video 68MB

Cleaning lady gives Hard Boiled eggs to students

She doesn’t have to. She wants to. There’s a big difference, when you are a Rufus. video. 4MB

4MB.

Be the Rufus

You do not know when the calling will strike, but it’s up to you to participate in your community. participate. Help others. Pick up trash. Help dogs and cats. Be kind. Smile. Say good things. Be the Rufus, and let the rest of the world howl! video 5MB

Conclusion

We are in World War III.

The agressor is the United States. Eventually all these American “pushes and shoves” will result in an Asian shotgun being pulled out. Something bigger, deadlier, and more colorful than the military-technical measures that Putin is using.

There will be blasts, blood, entails, crying and sobbing.

Asia does not want this, but it is clear that preemptive action, at some time, will be necessary. You all should be happy that MM is not making Geo-Political decisions. Everything would be resolved by now. It would be a mess, but things would be resolved.

Don’t you know.

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
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Part 9 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander April 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 9.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. 

Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

This is part of the Q&A (on-going) effort where questions are provided to me, and then I present them, and then record and interpret the responses.

[9.1] Question -Shadows from peripheral vision

A new question:

This started a couple of years ago. When alone, say sitting in a car in a quiet, deserted area at night (using wifi, etc.), I will see out of the corner of my eye or reflected in a mirror what looks like a person approaching the car. When I look directly, no one is there and no one is around. This has become more noticeable as time has gone on, and now it’s a regular occurrence, once or twice a week. It’s a bit unnerving and gives me a sense of foreboding (bad). I’m getting older, but I don’t think I’m losing it…yet.

Seeing these same things might be happening to others, but they are probably afraid to admit it.

Is this my imagination, something to do with the Domain, or something else entirely, such as something trying to communicate something? If it’s not my imagination, then what is going on, and is it good or bad?

The reality universe is not as it appears. There are multiple layers of realities that all are superimposed upon each other. Further, these realities are a function of consciousness navigation. An aware consciousness, or one that is in possession [garbled, not clear, cannot make out] can also see glimpses of other realities that are superimposed.

Often there is also a very important aspect to the reality that MM has not covered, but we will initiate that understanding here. There is a reality overlay that lies on top over the reality with various "controllers" that the mantids (sic) utilize to configure the reality upon and with. This involves many technologies that human inmates are familiar with. Including books, papers, radio, and all the rest. Under certain circumstances, the inmate can be made aware of what is going on in this parallel environment, and can even travel to it (with pass keys) through the non-physical environments.

To the unsecure, it might appear strange. SD has experienced this. Headphones, ear phones and other audio systems can latch on to feeds (not really a proper term) and translate the input to what is actually happening. While others such as the questioner can see events and "shadows". A glimpse here or there.

This might manifest like a beautiful woman walking in your living room carrying something. When you turn your back for a moment, a person is in your kitchen. You might notice someone in the back seat of your car.

These overlays can sometimes be caught on film. The internet is rife with these images of spirits and ghosts and all the rest of strange items captured on film, but they are, but momentary snapshots of a control overlay upon the reality universe.

This control overlay is part of the non-physical reality, but not exact to it exactly. As such, there are many entities that enter this overlay and exist there, much to the chagrin of the current monitoring inhabitants.

MM is constantly under observation through this overlay. Not by The Domain, but by handlers associated with the secondary systems employed as part of the MAJestic operational and retirement protocol. Because of that, he has listened in (understanding as sound, but not physically hearing) communication and discussions on his actions during retirement and prison. Many others, most notably members of the Lost Battalion, are also under this control venue.

[9.2] Question – Sense of humor

Does the members of the Domain have a sense of humor? Do they play practical jokes, tell funny stories? Perform tricks and jokes on their friends?

[Immediately after asking this question, I was tickled relentlessly. It was weird to feel tickled, but not feel any fingers on my physical body. It was actually a kind of crazy, far-out feeling. Not bad. I even chuckled. -MM]

[9.3] Question – How far back does my involvement go?

MM question.

No, you are not a member of the lost battalion. You are Domain, simply (as you recognize) the implantation of the EBP. However, your question regards the skepticism of your past involvement. As for you in the skin suit, you have no recollections and the information from the past life regression reading seems to indicate other physical reincarnation involvements. All of this confuses the questioner.

You ask, how can you be Mades Escpaleon, and some other humans skin suit when you fell and believe that you are Domain? Obviously the EBP has had an influence in your life, and of course for over forty years you have been part of us though this methodology and system.

As we have described, souls are like Lego bricks. You can take parts and move them around to fit various purposes. You are one such pile of Lego bricks. You came to us and were assembled in the Heaven of the Prison Complex from elements that date back hundreds of thousands of years. You were not from somewhere else. You were pristine. You were assembled. Maybe like Frankenstein. You are a construct. 

That does not make you evil or bad like in the fictional story, but it makes you unique. You were built out of components, assigned a specific task. Implanted with an EBP and now performing your duties. You are now part of us. You are Domain.

[9.4] Question – No, it does not fit.

How can I be a Frankenstein-style construct when I was Mades Escapleon?

You are constructed from the components; the soul components of what was once Mades Escapleon. Particularly bad individuals, or soul constructs that are particularly bad or incorrigible are disassembled by the Mantid Primes, broken down into base components, and then reconstituted into usable elements. These elements are then used in the construction of new entities. That is your history.

You were constructed from what once was Mades Escapleon, set forth and began your cycles of life and death through cycling reincarnation, and are thus a rather pure soul. We (elements of The Domain) agents then took you and made agreements with you to set up your experience in this lifetime to be Domain.

Life is an erector set, eh?

[9.5] Question – Soul as lego bricks.

I can understand how souls are constructed as components, and how these components resemble Lego bricks. But where I am confused is in the various types of physical and non-physical realities, and how does the Lego block visualization work?

In other words, are their different “Lego bricks” for the physical body? An entirely different set for the Asral body? The casual body? And so on and so forth? How does it work?

Physical and non-physical bodies are not separate entities. They are all part of each other. It is similiar to that of a water-line that separates the top of an iceberg from the submerged part. In the case of human inmates, you can only sense the physical portion of your identity withint he reality universe. It's a matter of sensing. Not a matter of construction.

This iceberg is made up of all sorts of componentry. Some are hard and densely packed snow. Others are pure ice, and still others are water that constantly ebbs and flows as a result of temperature changes and solar influences.

This is the same with the inmate skin suit. Thse various components can be likened to as Lego bricks. They come in different shapes and sizes. They fit together differently and they can be rearranged at well to fit together in new and unusual ways to meet the needs of the IS-BE so involved.

Consciousness require set configurations. If you can imagine Lego blocks, then you might believe that consciousness would need five red color Lego blocks, all connected to a definite arrangment of yellows, blue and green Legos. They all would form a series of shapes that a master of "Lego Blocks" would understand.

Other Legos may be added, or changed, built around, or attached directly or near by this consciousness Lego-construction. That does not matter. As the entity would still have a consciousness, though it might end up with different forms, shapes, the ability to think in certain ways and all the rest.

You need to stop thinking in terms of various spiritual bodies; astral, casual, mental, etc. That is a human technique that can help the mind classify certain understandings regarding exploration of self techniques, but that is not helpful in your case.

You must recognize that your inmate skin-suit is a vast construction of elements; Lego brick like structures. Much of it you cannot see, sense or understand. You can only see the part that lies above the "waterline". Not which lies below.

When The Domain altered your (and the bodies of the volunteers) we rearranged certain "Legos", we repalaced some, swapped others out, and removed yet others. This was, as you well know, to facilitate our mutual needs as we are all working on the same identical goals, and are on a vector path of similiarity.

There is but one set of "Lego Blocks".  Your ability to sense the individual "blocks" is a function of where the "water line" is relative to your iceberg.

[9.6] Question – Death of Larry Spencer

Here is a confirmation that Lawrence R Spencer the editor of Alien Interview has left his earthy body. I have attached lrs’s obituary FYI. I only found out about it this morning.

Perhaps you could word a question to the commander about his passing if you feel it is appropriate.

It would be great to know that he has been rescued and with the def/domain as per his wishes.

lrs passed on 19 jan 2022, he posted his last post which he said would be his last on his personal Facebook account on 13 jan 2022, so he was aware he was soon leaving.

Cheers and hope my other question about visits from ‘def personnel’ is still in the pipe.

[When the answers arrived, I could not beleive them, as I was uncomfortable with them. So I asked a second time. Same answers. I then waited, and did something else, and asked a third time. The results were consistant. -MM]

Upon Lawrence Spencer's death we followed the standard death sequence and transitioned to the non-physical realms smoothly and effortlessly. He did not stay near his physical body, but immediately transitioned towards loved ones from previous incarnations that he was attracted to. It was a joyous time, and they led him into the "tunnel of light" where he moved away from the reality universe into the Heaven pocket universe.

He did not seek out The Domain, think of any Domain members, nor called out to us in any way shape or form. As is our standard protocol, we allowed the entity to progress as they desire. His greatest desire was a reunion with loved ones, and at that he was met and welcomed.

If any entity transpires and wishes for help or assistance from The Domain, they must physically call out to us, think and image us and request our assistance. We will not do anything, we will stand down, unless specifically engaged.

[9.7] Question – Trump / Biolabs / China

Latest from Real Raw News (https://realrawnews.com/2022/03/trump-promises-a-reckoning/)

On Saturday evening, shortly after Trump concluded a “Save America” rally in Florence, South Carolina, he told his “inner circle” that the United States would soon experience a “very big reckoning” similar to what is occurring in Ukraine.

Trump said it was almost time for the reckoning, a time the nation will be made aware of what’s really going on and the actions he has taken to once and for all wage war against the Deep State cabal, both in the U.S. and abroad.

While it may seem hard to believe, he’s been working alongside Putin and Xi Jinping to rid the world of not only the bioweapon labs but the infestation of child pedo rings that have literally swamped the world.

China says that the U.S. has set up biolabs in Taiwan, too, and that’s one reason they’ve shown interest in retaking it,” our source said.

…

I must ask the Commander what is the Commander thoughts on this if any?

Former President Trump is a wise man. He is not appreciated as such due to his unique and bellicose behavior. He has made many mistakes, and is wrong on many issues, but he is first and foremost sincere. Any entity reading this must be aware of that fact.

His interpetation concerning Geo-political events is correct. As harsh and difficult it is to understand, he has an awareness on these matters, honed though decades of learning and experience.

The readers must realize that having ability differs from using your abilities. This entity is conflicted and is in a difficult situation that makes the realization of his intentions impossible, or at the very best, difficult to interpet.

End. Silence.

[9.8] Question – Invisibility

There is talk that as far back as world war II (1940s) there were operatives using a “Cloak of Invisibility” which can be turned on and off at will.

Also, don’t know how open you are to this but there are overlapping dimensions here on earth.

Many of us can see, either clearly or blurry, into them.

The first sign that that ability is developing is that you see movement in your peripheral vision. Well developed peripheral vision sees the form moving…it isn’t always a person….and until this kind of vision enhancement develops, turning to look at it full on, usually results in the form disappearing.

…

Question; Does the Domain have any casual insight that we can provide to the questioner to help understand what is going on?

This technology exists and is available upon the various human inmates within the Prison Complex. MM (myself) has an article regarding this. This technology or understandings come from various sources. Some of it is indeed reverse engineered, while others are derived organically from creative and curious inmates.

This technology is used by extraterrestials that wish to walk amoung humans on various projects and efforts. It is also available to certain clandestine government entities within the various national organizations are vying for elements of supremecy in the Geo-political arena.

Depending on the system in use, the human inmate can (on occasion) sense the user (of the technology) presense. This might result in visual distortions, burred vision, or just a "feeling" that someone or something is in the room.

[9.9a] Question – DEF crew

I have had what I did consider interaction with DEF crew who visited me more than once, but you mention in MM’s dialogue that there are no other communication channels open, so have I been compromised by OE infiltrators?

Difficult to say. More information is required. Please elaborate on the senarios and incidents regarding the events. 

Please [1] go into detail in your [2] physical, and [3] emotional reactions at the time, and any [4] attributes that can help shed a light on the incidents of concern.

We can backtrack from the incident as targeted by memory generation, then investigate what actually happened based on your perceptions. There is a wide host of things that could be going on regarding your thoughts and perceptions regarding this.

[9.9b] Question – Firewalling Inmate skin-suit

If I have been compromised, are there any suggestions as to how to plug the hole/s and firewall them?

The inmate skin suit is designed as a vehicle of control. It has missing defense mechanisms, holes that allow intentional and undesirable access, corruption of "normal" thought processes, and a host of other distortions that make is an undesirable vehicle.

Volunteers to The Domain recieve a tune up / patch up / operation / surgical procedure on their non-physical bodies that help close some of the entry ways for other entities to toy with / get involved / influence / alter a given specific inmate.

Inmates who do not wish to join the Domain can perform DIY activities that will greatly alter the influences of other entites on their actions, beings, emotions and thoughts. This involves consciousness centering and purification (Hemisync -MM), eating and sleeping well, exercising, and control / isolation from the massive psyops efforts out of all electronic media. Increasing oxygination of cells is an imporant attribute that will greatly aid the questioner in regards to control.

[9.10a] Question – Chinese military action

Given the ludicrous decision by the Australian government to give China the middle finger vis-a-vis AUSUK, how serious should we take the threat of Chinese military action (nuclear or otherwise) against Australia in the next 5 years?

The Chinese are a peaceful race. They will not initiate any overt kenetic military action preemptively unless it fits within and regarding a direct and pending military threat vector.

At this time, the threat vector is established as originating from the United States and is planned for implemenation before the end of 2025.This is subject to change, as the Geo-political events regarding Russia, NATO, Ukraine is highly volatile. 

A psyops blanket has been placed upone China and the Pacific to forestall any Chinese actions at this time, but that is of no consequence, as the Chinese do not react to outside influences. Instead they establish long duration goals and follow a well thought out and methodical achievement path with action-items, and goal-clusters.

China will, however, initiate a major operation if one of their RED LINES is violated, and there is talk (in public) about doing so. 

If a RED LINE is breached, China will induce a full-scale war, and will manage the entire Pacific. There will not be a "build up" or a reactionary process. It will be sudden, swift, and colossal.

All threat vectors in Japan, Korea, and Australia will be eliminated. As well, as achieving it's own policy positions and movements.

[9.10b] Question – Australia and World War 3

I live in Queensland – are there parts of Australia more vulnerable than others – the west coast has only one major city (Perth) and is far from the other major urban centres – theoretically is it safer for Aussies and their families to migrate there?

Were China to react to wide violation of it's RED LINES, the resultng trigger response will be colossal and massive in implementation. China has identifed the actual source of the Threat Vector as the United States. This point of view will not vaporize. The Untied States is considered as a volitile trading partner that will, and can, make very bad decisions.

China will seize Taiwan in a manner that is intended to prevent third-parties from involvement.

Obviously, the issue is how the global agressor is going to be able to cross those RED LINES and yet stay immune from retaliation. The real risk, of course, if these third parties get involved like they are with the Ukraine issue. If that does occur, then the action vectors are clear and precision manifesting.

The Domain are working to prevent this senario.

The future is not clear, with many variables present. A large number of the potential futures does include a massive and comple destructive war. The aspects involving China is clear and straight-forward.

China will do what it can to avoid war. However if third parties are involved, then China will implement full-range war on a massive scale. This is 0-60 in a nano-second. This is because the enemy expections are for a long drawn-out pacific war on the order of decades. The best strategy for China is to alter the "playbook".

Local regional targets will be destoyed by conventional munitions. Targets of military strategic targets at / in partner nations will be destoyed by medium size tactical nuclear warheads.

As such, China will firstly secure the South Pacific Sea. This will include all United States bases in the region. This includes the QUAD, and all majority military operations in Australia.

Perth will be hit. Probably with cluster nuclear weapons all targeting the American, and British facilities there.

All United States carrier flotillas will be sunk.

All military bases that are suspected of housing nuclear weapons of systems will be destroyed. Additionally, all American facilities thoughout the Pacific will be destroyed, or neutralized, depending on the situation.

Guam, Diego Garcia, Hawaii, and ports in the American cities of Los Angles, San Francisco, San Diego will all be destroyed.

This action of hitting the American mainland will immediate start a domino cascade of actions, and this will require China, and it's allies to destroy as many American cities as possible. This is the fearful worst case senario. It is something that we do not want to occur.

Moreover, The Domain is working to prevent this. Our success in this matter is not able to be measured at this time.

[9.11a] Question – Domain membership telepathy

Mathilda MacElroy in Alien Interview was able to communicate telepathetically with Airl because they were both members of The Domain. Does that mean that all members of The Domain, whether or not they are in a skin-suit are also able to communicate telepathetically?

To communicate telepathically within The Domain we have to have a "secure channel". This is a reciever "Lego Block", and a transmitter "Lego Block". In the case of MM, we installed a EBP within his physical and non-physical bodies. This was a transmitter / reciever "Lego Block".

Human inmate skinsuits do not have these "Lego Blocks". However, all members of The Domain are more than their physical and non-physical bodies. They have interdimensional components. The magnitude of these components, as well as abilities depend on their occupation and class within The Domain society.

All members of The Domain have these interdimensional "Lego blocks". They are not able to be removed by any action or activity within a given universe. Thus, these elemets provide members of The Domain with a skill set of abilities that transends any universe that they are part of.

In the case of Mathilda MacElroy we were able to locate her, and installed an EBP for communication with her.

Questioner is able to comm with us. But will do so not using an EBP. Comm must be though the trans-universe "Lego blocks". Being Domain, the questioner can image us, and must work towards placing a call. We will respond back when a connection is made. Questioner will doubt it is actually happening.

When the questioner is doubting the responses, then it is a validation that the comm line is actually open.

The system will appear to an outside force (Mantid Primes) to be "magic", but that is not the case at all. The Domian via our trans-universe "Lego Blocks" can tunnel out through the universe for comm purposes. The problem is the lack of knowledge and skills in how to do so.

Questioner knows what to do.

End comm.

I am very curious about Mathilda MacElroy. It is my understanding that she just randomly was at the base at the time of the Roswell crash, and taht she was the only one that was able to communicate. So when did the EBP get installed?

Before the crash? Mind blown.
After the crash, and during the period of interrogation when she was in lock-down at the base.

[9.11b] Question – Preventative skinsuits?

Can modifications, snares or alterations to the inmate skin-suits alter, intercept, scramble or prevent such communication?

Inmate skin-suits are specifically designed to prevent instainous telepathic communication. It is their functional design. And purpose.

Questioner need not be concerned. Questioner can comm with us, and though this methodology establish a [image of a bull-rope] line from which The Domain / we [image of tugging on the rope] pull questioner back home.

[9.11c] Question – How shall the questioner initiate comm?

Just for clarification, how should the questioner “image making the call”? This is difficult as the questioner does not want to use “little grey men” type-1 steriotypical skin-suit imagry to make the communication.

There are three techniques for an IS-BE to communicate with The Domain. They are;

[1] Be a member of The Domain and use trans-universe "Lego Blocks".
[2] EBP
[3] Reconfigure a skin-suit "Lego Blocks" to generate ESP comm ability.

[1] Domain Member using trans-universe "Lego Blocks"
All members of the Domain can communicate using this method. They can do so while in completely different universes. That is the case with our agents who volunteered in the earth "Heaven" micro-universe.

For a Domain member to comm using this technique they have to use their memories / feelings / sense of oneness with the Domain to send a message.

They must appear at a emotional level to charge though the barriers and force a comm. They must connect with their fellow patriots, fellow comrades. Not through some kind of photographic image, facsimile, or representation. It must be a connect driven by a feeling of being part of our big Domain family.

They will make a connection depending on various issues (not beneficial to get into right now -MM). Once a connection is open, the member is to communicate and not allow their mind to translate. Comm is through feelings, and thought generation. Inmate is to listen to urges, feelings, the kinds of thoughts that are generated, and instanteous autonomous body movements. Not through words. Inmate is not to expect comm though speech, words or discussion.

[2] EBP technique
The EBP method requires a physical probe and system to be implemented into the physical skin-suit of the inmate. Even then, the conditions must be ripe for both the implanted inmate, and the Domain officer to communicate. MM was unsccessful in communicating using two-way communication for many decades until a pathway was forged.

[3] ESP technique
If the consciousness wishes to comm with The Domain, but are not confident that they actually are Domain, then the best methodology is though technique [3] above. The consciousness would work on ESP skill enhancement, specifically telepathy. Practice and concentration, in itself would actually rearrange the "Lego blocks" into forms that would provide comm ability.

ESP comm ability is a learned process. Anyone within a skin-suit can cultivate this skill; this ability. Over time, the inmate will develop an ability that it can use to communicate with others. There are many such programs in the earth physical sphere already. The inmate need only apply themself and practice.

Then, once the inmate has reached a point where they can initate comm with The Domain, they can open up a communication channel.

The problem is that this technique requires a transmitter and a reciever. The inmate must have a preset message that must be sent, and a specific target to send it to. Then they have to be open and receptive for a response from that target.

[9.12] Question – Fake alien invasion plan

I’m not sure if this fits within the topics, so if not MM please feel free to omit it. But given the way the Ukraine thing is playing out and once the MSM and the American govt is teaching everyone to “fear those dirty Russian Commies”, one cannot help but feel that Werner von Braun’s predictions seem to be unfolding right on schedule.

Of course, he suggested after the Commy card is played (and the situation seems to be the Ace of all Commy threat cards), there will be a false flag alien invasion, courtesy of the US govt.

Question, does the Domain know of any such fake alien invasion plan in the works, or is this a load of BS? If not, then when can we expect to see it come about?

In the 1980s there were discussions in using the idea of extraterrestrials invading the earth as a venue to gather nations together towards a common good. This idea and concept continued under discussion at various levels, but eventually it was discarded and abandoned. There were many reasons for this decision.

Primairly, the "leadership" in charge of the major global powers no longer had a desire to unify the world. Instead, they wanted a world fractured into a class system of owners and servants / slaves. Under this plan, the idea was to have a united West living and existing as feudal rulers, while the rest of the world would serve and service them.

The climax of such a plan is just now reaching fruituation.In a short period of time, a tripping point will be reached and a global caste system run by STS entites, serviced by STA entites will manifest in mankind. STO entites would disappear.

The Domain is engaged in preventing this reality from manifesting. Yet, the future is not set in stone and not easy to plan for. Anything can happen.

[9.13] Question – Names used by the Domain

In Alien Interview, you provided a name that the transcriber used to refer to you as. What kinds of names does the Doamin use in day to day discourse, and do you have a list of names for the members of the Lost Battalion?

{Initially when I tried asking this question I got a bunch of weird results. A lot of noise and jibberish. It sounded like, oh I don't know. Swishing. Then the thought came to me that the Domain membership does not have the need for names like humans do. They simply think of a fellow Domain member and they are connected automatically. -MM]

The strong impression that I have is the “name” provided tot he transcriber in Alien Interview was for personal use and has no bearing or value outside of it. It’s sort of like a “burner phone”.

It is clear to me that the Domain has no need for names, labels or other identifiers when dealing with other IS-BE entities.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Domain Index” over here…

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When an American conservative warns against a war with Russia, you all had best pay attention.

The State Department is trying to get us into a war and the Pentagon is trying to keep us out. 

- Ron Paul

War sucks. I’m not going to be nice about it. It honestly, and really sucks. People get hurt and die. Innocents are maimed. Bad things happen. The wealthy that create the conditions for war flee, and the poor that work for them are sacrificed on the alter of ideology. What ever it might be.

There is nothing valiant about war.

Wars are fought by young men precisely because they don’t know any better. They cannot imagine themselves spending the rest of their lives in a retirement home without arms or legs. Or having their homes blown to bits and pieces.

And most especially for Americans. As well as for Candians, Australians and Britions. They cannot imagine it’s THEIR famies dying, and their neighborhoods being blown to smithereens and destroyed. Safe and isolated. That’s the way it’s always been.

Right?

And ideology… well, that’s the medium on how you can control others.

In the United States, the ideology is democracy. In Syria the ideology is in religion. In the Ukraine, the ideology is pure Nazism. Ideology gets people killed. Or worse. Don’t you know.

I’m really not a fan of ideologs. I know that from time to time I have moved about the political spectrum, but when you get my age, you just no longer can zip back from one point of view to the other. It makes you dizzy.

So you just are happy with simple things.

Simple things, like a beloved cat. A pet dog that is happy as can be to see you. A fine book, and a glass of nice tasty wine. A delicious steak, hamburger, or tasty thick soup. A roaring fire on a cold snowy night. A warm dry bedroom while it pours rain outside…

Simple things.

You know, my social media feeds are all clogged up with the mindless hordes that reguritates the NSA talking points. You don’t have to get too involved in the termonology. It’s all the same and predictable.

The callouts are the same “stooge for Putin”, “Russia is evil”, “crushing democracy in Ukraine”. Sigh.

You can easily replace the word “Russia” with “5G radiation”, and the meaning would be the same.

Replace it with “China”, and the meaning would be the same.

It could be “vaxx”, or “Swine Flue”, or “Y2K” it’s all the same.

If you do not agree with the United States official narrative, you are a traitor!

That’s exactly how all this works. Whatever the government says, must must agree with it. When the Trump administration was at war with China over technology, it was all about “evil Huawei”, and “arrest the evil CEO”, and “5G radiation destroys brain cells”.

I try to tell them that they are victims of Vault 7. But they are oblivious. Vault 7 is what is going on. Vault 7. If you don’t know what this is, then you are in a truly sad state indeed.

It’s not just controling your opinions. These algorithms control your thoughts.

As such they alter your body chemistry.

Once altered, you will NEED to take medicine to maintain your sanity, and your health. Your body chemistry changes. You start experiencing problems. You get anxiety. You suffer aches and pains. You get eating disorders, and start having helth problems with your liver, your kidnes, your stomach, and your heart.

Ask any one who is regurigating the American narrative if they are taking medicine. Any medicine, for any reason. Just ask.

So far, I have found 100% of the people who I asked say “yes” in the affirmative. America has become; seriously, a nation of zombies.

It’s stuff to think about.

Once I started to carefully vet what I read and watch, my life has really, substantially calmed down. That’s a fact.

Anyways. I tire of arguing with NPCs. So I penned this article. It winds the clock back in time to one month before the invasion of the Ukraine. By reading it, you can easily see how and why the war in the Ukraine started.

And NO, it’s not “Putin’s fault”.

It was planned to occur. And the planners were the United States Senate. And it’s all well known, and well understood. All you need to do is watch the historical archives from CSPAN.

I mean, come on, it’s all very damning.

They tell you right then and there. “America needs to start a war elsewhere. Not on American soil. And the Ukraine is the best place to have that war.”

This clip is from 2014.

This is an absolutely great article by Paul Craig Roberts. He’s a major conservative voice in American politics. He’s pretty good, and I have been following him for a long time. He tends to discuss American domestic issues with detailed and thoughtful analysis, and takes a hard, critical look at American international issues.

This article was written one month before Russia invaded Ukraine. And during that time, in January 2022, the big news was about how the United States refused to take Russia seriously. This is that article. It’s truly poignant now, as we see what an absolute clusterfuck the United States has created for itself. And because of the enormity of that fuck-up, this article is even more valuable.

I am presenting it here, right now, to help us all have a better contextual understanding on what the Hell is going on in the Ukraine and in the Geo-Political circles.

Does Russia Understand She Is Dealing with Lunatics?

Paul Craig Roberts • January 9, 2022

In advance of the January 10 meeting, Secretary of State Blinken and NATO functionary Stoltenberg stupidly reduced Russia’s Options to Two: Surrender or Use Force.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/blinken-stoltenberg-unleash-unprecedented-diktat-ultimatum-russia-following-nato-fm-meeting/5766645

If these idiotic accusations were not enough, Blinken accused Putin of intending to restore the Soviet Union. It is impossible to understand how a person this stupid was confirmed by the US Senate as Secretary of State.

The last thing the Kremlin wants is all the problems of all of these countries. All the Kremlin wants is that they be independent countries, not US puppet states armed against Russia.

https://www.rt.com/russia/545516-russia-us-ukraine-ussr/

My take on the situation is that from foolish statements such as the above by Blinken and Stoltenberg and other ill-considered remarks from the White House and media, the Kremlin has concluded prior to Monday’s meeting (January 10) that Washington will not take seriously Russia’s security concerns.

I think the Russians have come to the conclusion that the West will not take them seriously until the Kremlin demonstrates forceful action.

The Russians are just giving diplomacy one last chance before they destroy the military installations that the US has built in Ukraine.

I came across this report from pravda.ru dated about a month ago (November 26) that Russian nuclear submarines were urgently sent to sea in a state of combat readiness.

This does not mean that the Kremlin is preparing a nuclear strike.

It is meant to forestall any stupid Washington response to Russian removal of perceived threats, just as the Israelis do routinely in their attacks on Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese territory.

https://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/149739-russian_submarine/

As I have reported on occasion, the Russians have had their fill of Washington and are not going to take anymore.

The Russians have concluded that only decisive action on their part has any chance of sobering up Washington from its hubris and restoring a sense of responsibility in Washington at least equal to the sense of responsibility that kept a lid on Cold War tensions. If Washington is unable to recover a sense of responsibility, the possibility of Armageddon will again hang over our heads.

My concern is that there is no one in the Biden regime or the decimated officer ranks of the US military that has five cents worth of intelligence.

The people with their hands on US foreign policy are Russophobes with delusions of American omnipotence.

Moreover, they believe their own propaganda, which prevents them from understanding the Russian view.

I don’t know if the Kremlin is capable of imagining a government as lunatic as the American one.

If the Kremlin does not understand they they are dealing with lunatics, the situation could quickly get out of hand.

And he was correct… absolutely correct.

One month later, Russia invaded the Ukraine, preventing a Ukrainian assault on the LDR and the DDR.

And the Western press were all ready with a flood of anti-Russian “news”, and sanctions, and all the rest. It was all perfectly timed and implemented.

And what became of it?

Well, let’s see what ol’ Fred has to say…

Snapshot

March 10, 2022 From HERE

By Fred Reed

Everybody and his goat are talking about the Ukraine. Why not me? You might ask, But Fred, what do you know about it? To which I would respond, Look, this is journalism. You don’t need to know anything, just wing it, preferably using words you can spell. Admittedly this is more of a limitation than it used to be. Anyway, here goes:

Why did Russia invade the Ukraine?

Contrary to American media, the invasion was not unprovoked. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, America has been pushing NATO, which is a US sepoy operation, ever closer to Russian borders in what, to anyone who took fifth-grade geography, is an obvious program of military encirclement. Of the five countries other than Russia littoral to the Black Sea, three, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, are now in NATO. America has been moving toward bringing in the Ukraine and Georgia. After Georgia would have come Azerbaijan, putting American forces on the Caspian with access to Iran and Kazakhstan. This is calculated aggression over the long term, obvious to the—what? Ten percent? Fifteen percent?—of Americans who know what the Caucasus is.

Putin has said, over and over, that Russia could not allow hostile military forces on its border any more than the US would allow Chinese military bases in Mexico and China or missile forces in Cuba. Washington kept pushing. Russia said, no more. In short, America brought on the war.

Among people who follow such things, there are two ways of looking at the invasion. First, that Washington thought Putin was bluffing, and he wasn’t. Second, that America intentionally forced Russia to choose between allowing NATO into the Ukraine, a major success for Washington’s world empire; or fighting, also a success for Washington as it would cause the results it has caused.

From the latter understanding, America pulled off, at least at first glance, an astonishing geopolitical victory over Russia. Nordstream II blocked, crippling sanctions placed on Russia, many of its banks kicked out of SWIFT, economic integration of Europe and Asia slowed or reversed, Germany to spend 113 billion on rearming (largely meaning buying American costume-jewelry weaponry), Europe forced to buy expensive American LNG, and Europe made dependent on America for energy. All this in a few days without loss of a single American soldier. This presumably at least in part engineered by Virginia Newland who, though she looks like a fireplug with leprosy, seems effectively Machiavellian.

Next victim, China.

Divide and conquer. Or at least that’s the theory. At the same time reinstate the JCPOA and use economic baubles to try to pry Iran away from Beijing.

Here we need some context. Everything Washington does internationally aims at maintaining America’s largely military near-hegemony over the world. This involves several elements:

First, military dominance.

This includes the many hundreds of bases around the world, naval supremacy, and the huge military expenditure. Thy latter will be maintained at any cost to domestic needs, and apparently it is going to be increased.

Second, control of the world’s supply of energy.

Washington is trying to starve Venezuela, with its vast reserves of petroleum, into submission. Submission means letting American-dominated oil majors exploit the country’s oil. Washington is doing the same with Iran and its enormous reserves. It has troops in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has confiscated Syria’s oil lands, crushed Libya, and so on. Keeping the European vassals from buying more Russian gas through Nordstream II is part of this energy control and an important part.

Third, and crucial, keep the EU from coalescing into a vast continent-spanning trade zone.

This is exactly what China contemplates in its BRI, Belt and Road initiative. This is too much subject for a few paragraphs, but some thoughts: China is a manufacturing juggernaut in explosive growth. Economic power is the basis of all power. China has the advantage of inner lines of communication: it can build rail, fiber optics, highway,s and pipelines in Asia, where America has little access. China has money because it has a for-profit economy, and America doesn’t. The pull of China’s gigantic market and manufactures was beginning to loosen America’s control of Europe. Eurasian integration had to be stopped.

Fourth, the dollar.

Washington controls the dollar, the IMF, SWIFT, and in general the international financial system. It uses this control brutally as a weapon to impose sanctions, crippling the economies of such countries as Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, and now Russia. Seeing this intimidates other countries. Washington may have gone too often to this well. Having made England, its chief bootlicker, confiscate Venezuela’s gold reserves, and now freezing Russia’s reserves, Washington has served notice that no country is secure from this treatment. Here I speculate freely, but this may prove America’s worst mistake since 1619 as it may greatly accelerate the search for other payment systems—CIPS from China, SPFS from Russia, and the upcoming digital yuan. Washington, methinks, is betting the farm.

So much for the world…

Meanwhile, America seems to be sinking into irreversible decadence that must eventually—I would say soon—affect its international position. As the world’s economic and, laggingly, technological center of gravity moves east to Asia, an internally collapsing America will be less able to maintain the empire.

Consider:

[1] Printing of money out of nothing.

Washington’s printing of money, equivalent to the debasing of the coinage characteristic of failing societies, has resulted in high inflation and a potentially catastrophic national debt. This will cause political perturbation as voters seek to find which of the two essentially identical parties will not behave like the other one. Unrest will grow. Trust abroad in the dollar will decrease.

[2] Enormous Trade Deficit.

America suffers from a massive and growing trade deficit, largely with China, about which nothing can be done, certainly not soon, because America no longer makes things it needs. Manufacturing cannot be brought back, excep perhaps in niche markets like semiconductors, because the US no longer has the necessary engineers and trained work force, and American labor costs more than Chinese, so reshoring would increase inflation. The importation of cheap Chinese products keeps inflation down,.

[3] Wall Street / Military seizing all the money.

The heavy flow of national wealth into Wall Street and the military in addition to offshoring has led to real poverty in Appalachia, the Rust Belt, and the rural Deep South. This has produced some 100,000 opioid deaths annually in despairing populations. Simultaneously large and growing homeless aggregations appear in LA, Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, St. Louis, on and on, estimated at 60,000 in LA and 50,000 in New York, making the subways dangerous. Bush world conditions presumably do not make for political stability, as neither does the governmental inattention to them.

[4] Massive Crime

Crime is out of control, not a sign of a healthy polity. Some 700 homicides annually in Chicago, 300 in Baltimore, and similar numbers elsewhere are now routine, almost all of the killers and killed being black. To countries like Japan and South Korea this must seem barbaric. The situation is not First World.

[5] Racial Problems

America’s racial problem is grave. The southern border is open, the southwestern states either majority Latino or soon to be. This is not as bad as it could be as the races seem to get along, but it imposes heavy economic and other costs. At the same time across the country cities have huge black ghettos with appalling semiliteracy, no prospects for the young, all of this apparently irremediable. Racial attacks on whites and Asians grow in number and so, almost everywhere, do racial killings, mostly by blacks. Governments at all levels fear blacks who they know will burn cities if provoked, which leads tax bases to flee from cities, making things worse.

This adds to potentially explosive resentment. There is a substantial White Nationalist movement, that wants no non-whites in America (a bit late for this), Republican Chambers of Commerce, that want more illegal Latinos for the cheap labor but won’t say so, and the high-tech sector, which wants more East Asian and Indian immigrants on which America, with a failing educational system, increasingly depends.

The Overall Prognosis is Poor

Overall, government is weak, unable to prevent crime, riots, and looting.

Washington does not control, but is controlled, being a storefront operation for special interests.

Elections do not change policy but only the division of the spoils.

Presidents perform their three essential duties, protecting Wall Street, Israel, and the military budget, but not much else.

Schooling is being dumbed down in stark contrast with China.

Excellence everywhere is discouraged in the name of equity. Native white talent dwindles in the elite schools, from high-end high schools through CalTech, as Asian majorities predominate.

Measures of talent, such as SATs and Medcats, are dropped or downplayed. English grammar and arithmetic are dropped as racist.

None of this seems likely to improve America’s future competitiveness.

Finally, the media are controlled.

This allows Washington freedom of action abroad as enough of the public will believe anything they are told by television (The Russians are coming, the Chinese are coming, the Iranians are coming, the Guatemalans….)

Internally censorship may keep the lid on, for now anyway, by keeping enough of the population from knowing what is going on.

By preventing discussion of problems, or their mention, it assures that nothing will be done.

I suspect this is having the effect of winding a spring.

Where is all of this leading?

Biden is playing as if this were 1960 and the US enjoyed rock solid military and economic superiority and the population were firmly behind him.

This is the world he remembers, being an aging cold warrior. He seems to believe that he consequently can do what he pleases with no repercussions for America. This may be true, or true enough. Perhaps he believes that Russia will collapse in domestic rebellion or simply surrender to the US.

It is not how I would bet.

But—and this is sheer speculation—it is not clear what would happen if Russia cut off gas and petroleum and wheat and such things as neon gas from Europe.

The West is accustomed to bombing remote countries, not to going without.

Would Russia collapse under privation before Europe decided it wanted to trade with Moscow after all?

If Biden and the hawks decide to play hardball with China, they may realize that America is an economic dependency of Beijing. If—again, very hypothetically—China cut off all trade with America, the US economy would die instantly.

Almost everything on American shelves is made in China.

An American public already very unhappy would explode, which it is on the point of doing for various reasons.

Reflect on the Floyd riots.

China would be hurt, but it has other markets and a nationalistic population more united than the American.

Them’s my thoughts, probably worth what you pay for them.

Speaking of China…

Declining empires and their ‘forever wars’? “As the US and NATO struggle to deal with the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has issued a warning to the Biden administration not to repeat the mistakes made in Europe by attempting to create a Pacific version of NATO to contain and constrain China.

He’s talking about the QUAD.

He’s talking about AUKUS.

Calling such plans “perverse actions” that “run counter to the common aspiration of the region for peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes,” Wang declared that if they were implemented by the US, “they are doomed to fail.”
– https://lnkd.in/eAJKmwJG

More excerpts:

◉ The Chinese concerns are not imaginary, but rather drawn from a direct reading of the guidance published by the Biden administration in the Spring of 2021.

◉ A plain reading of that text clearly shows that the US was pursuing a NATO-like alliance in the Pacific solely focused on the issue of “holding China to account.”

It is in this light that one must view partnerships such as the “QUAD”, a military partnership between the US, Japan, India, and Australia, and the newly constituted AUKUS alliance composed of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the US.

Both the QUAD, and AUKUS organizations exist solely to coordinate a military response to China’s presence in the Pacific region.

◉ “Wang also criticized the US for expanding its ties, including military cooperation and weapons sales, with Taiwan.

◉ Such policies, Wang warned, “not only push Taiwan into a precarious situation, but will also bring unbearable consequences for the US side,”

◉ Wang clearly stated, “Taiwan will eventually return to the embrace of the motherland.”

◉ Many experts and observers were surprised by Russia’s decision to intervene militarily in Ukraine. When it comes to China’s readiness to go to war over Taiwan, there should be no such uncertainty.

◉ “The Russian side reaffirms its support for the One-China principle, confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan,” it reads.

The fact that Russia signed on to such a statement knowing full well that China had committed to the use of military force to defend its claims regarding Taiwan underscores the seriousness of the Russian-Sino joint statement.

◉ China knows that any military action against Taiwan would bring with it economic retaliation on the part of the US and its allies.

◉ Like Russia, however, China holds significant cards in its hand, and any Western effort to punish it with economic sanctions would bring about a response which could cripple the economies of those targeted.

◉China has already developed an anti-sanction law, that automatically goes into action once a sanction is imposed. It was specifically written with the United States in mind.

Moreover, any military action against Taiwan would, in and of itself, have dire economic consequences for the United States, especially in the field of semiconductor manufacturing.

Any military conflict involving Taiwan would have a crippling impact on the American military electronics market, dependent as it is on the computer chips produced by Taiwan.

This is simply becuase ALL of the American military and high-technology IC chips have been outsourced to Taiwan. It is the sole and only source of supply for American military integrated electronics.

How will a war in Taiwan affect the global consumer market? The effect would be negligible. The vast majority of IC chips are already produced in the Chinese mainland.

What about the USD?

The movement to de-dollarize will be unstoppable and one of the lasting impacts of this war, not just rogue states, but US allies will also join in.

This must-read article in Foreign Affairs is a sobering read on de-dollarization as is this supporting article on sanctions in Quartz (https://bit.ly/3pN9Rfb)

When I started writing about de-dollarization almost three years ago I was widely considered a “Cassandra.”

I now have good company believing this, but admit that I take no joy in writing about a process artificially accelerated by the inhumanity of war.

So here’s what is at risk, from FA:

“These punitive sanctions may also backfire in another way. Biden’s flexing of American economic muscle will only embolden Russia and other US rivals, notably China, to deprive the US of the very power that makes sanctions so devastating.”

“Russia and China will expedite initiatives to “de-dollarize” their economies, building alternative financial institutions and structures that both protect themselves from sanctions and threaten the US dollar’s status as the world’s dominant currency.”

What is driving this is sanction fatigue, from Quartz:

“[Sanctions are] economic warfare at an unprecedented level. It’s true that, over the past decade, the global use of sanctions has exploded to the point of making them routine.”

With sanctions now “routine” nations are questioning their commitment to the dollar. It isn’t because they bear ill-will toward America but see reducing dollar dependence as “risk management.” They also see it as a way to bolster the use of their own currencies so are creating CBDCs.

Pushing the issue will be the global impact on food and energy prices from the unprecedented size of Russian sanctions (Quartz):

“But most of the time, [sanctions] are much narrower—aimed at certain individuals, institutions, or industries—or applied over a much longer timeline, or against a much smaller economy, as in the case of Iran. The speed, scale, and sweeping nature of the Russian sanctions make them the equivalent of an economic blitzkrieg.”

Now a stunning admission from the FA:

“Deteriorating U.S.-Chinese relations incentivize Beijing to join with Moscow in building a -credible- global financial system that excludes the US. Such a system will attract countries under US sanctions. It would even appeal to major US allies who hope to promote their own currencies to the detriment of the dollar.”

And that is the part that is inevitable, this new bi-polar financial system will appeal to US allies!

It should not be seen as a litmus test of friend or foe but instead “whose money offers the better deal?”

The US cannot reverse this change, and it will lead to a weakening of its global standing.

And so it is happening

And there’s many others.

The collapse of the USD as a “reserve currency” is nearing the end. It is collapsing vry fast. And will collapse even faster once the hyper inflation of the $30 trillion dollar bubble manifests, on top of the sanctions.

This will spell out many changes to the lifestyles of those that live in the West, and the nations that maintain trade and use of the USD.

The lifestyle of those in the West is about to change…

Now, you cannot say that you have been warned. But, Jeeze! You were. You all should have listened to Mr. Putin when he said “if you put your fucking nukes on my border, I will be forced to use military-technical measures”.

Sheech!

So when you are paying your $54 / gallon of gas to drive to the fast food resturant to buy your $200 hamburger (minus cheese), don’t go a calling me a “Putin Puppet”. You all brought this fiasco upon yourselves. Suck it up with a big toothy smile, your wishes came true, you mindless oafs.

The true and real actual United States GDP is about to come crashing down, and Americans will start living like trailer park trash in the rural hills of Kentucky. And that’s just the way it is.

I stand by my belief that theres more things down the pipe. Never forget about who you are all dealing with…

Illustrations depicting society life by Stephan Schmitz 55 New Pics 60f1374e7f90e 700 — America vs China.

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[daegonmagus] – Part 21 – How SD and I both dreamt Joe Biden is planning on assassinating someone close to the Ukrainian Conundrum

The following is the 21st part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

-MM

Part 21 – How SD and I both dreamt Joe Biden is planning on assassinating someone close to the Ukrainian Conundrum

SD and I have been having our usual synch dreams again. In the past 2 weeks we have had 2 that both seem to have an alarming number of parallel elements. I won’t go into the details of the first one as they seem somewhat irrelevant at this point in time, but it seems we are a having the same dream in which certain elements are being distorted to create confusion. SD suggested that perhaps something is tampering with our memories, and I have to agree that it certainly seems this way. This is an ongoing (recurring) dream I will get to later when I have more on it.

As for the second dream; I originally posted this up on the dream share forum. At the same time I sent MM an email with a copy and pasted version of the synched dream, to which he asked me to write it up for publication, as he considered it extremely important.….so here we are.

Combined dream that SD and I both had the night before yesterday:

I was minding my own business, I guess on some kind of holiday in this really strange town I have been to before. Nothing special just buildings and dirt….not really any where I would choose to go if I was given a coherrent choice in the matter. I take note here that I seem to have had dreams of an old school friend I no longer see. Someone appears. I can’t remember who or what, but I don’t think it is completely human. It tells me I am needed on a special assignment – The President of the USA – the one and the same Joe Biden is having a meeting and I am to go to it at once. It is important I be there, but for what reason it is not yet given. I finish my drinks or whatever it is I am doing, and agree to it. I get up and stand near my handler, and the next thing I know I am being whisked away Harry Potter port key style to a completely different place (I suppose the equivalent of a different country in the dream world). I have a vivid memory of it being like swirling, spiralling sensation where my surroundings just turn into a blurr of light, before I go through an all too familiar void of burgundy/ brownish/ goldish colour.

I am now standing in front of what appears to be a hotel room plonked on a block of land that seems eerily similar to a house i rented a few years ago. It is by no means a flash hotel by any stretch, but not shabby either; just a bland plain inconspicuous thing where you would go to dodgy shit under the radar of scrutinization. I knock on the door, my handler standing next to me – I want to say he is wearing a hooded robe for some reason (this may be a confusion of another dream in this same house a few weeks back where a robed figure stabbed in the hand with a small needle like device which made me wake up)– and one of Joe’s representatives, a secretary or something opens the door and invites us in saying “oh good you are here. We have been expecting you. ” The interior of the appartment is a very similar layout to my old house, almost identical; a sort of kitchen to the right, some rooms to the left (which is where it is different as this veers off into onto a patio that seemingly leads to the other apartments) and a small dining room straight ahead overlooking the city where Joe and about 40 other people are engaged in what seems like friendly, but important banter. This house was weird in that it is sort of a circular arrangement in which you can get back to the kitchen from this same area – this is the familiarity that struck me.

Joe stands up and gives them a little speech, the content of which i can’t remember, but it is almost certainly to do with the Ukraine crisis and “those pesky Russian bastards, that seem to be throwing them at every turn”. I stand by the door as my handler disappears either somewhere into the crowd or back out the door – I am not sure if anyone else can see him/her/it, but get the feeling they can’t. As I am standing there i have a very faint understanding that SD is in the crowd, but for what reason I don’t know; I only figure it is related to why I am here. I spot her, but am unphazed by it, just simply figuring she is doing her thing, and trust her with it.

Joe finishes his speech and then walks around shaking everyone’s hand, he spots me standing there with my arms crossed, observing him. He makes eye contact with me, then quickly finishes up his conversation with his guest, not breaking the eye contact, so he can make his way over to me. He approaches me and, first thing I notice is that he is treating me with a measure of respect not given to his other guests. He offers his hand, but I don’t bother uncrossing my arms, to which Joe claps me on the shoulder and leans in so only I can hear him. There is no awkwardness to me refusing his hand, this is just the way I roll and Joe knows that. The offer was more of a subconscious formality more than anything. Straight off the bat he starts talking about a “hit squad”. I can’t remember if i am part of the squad or if Joe wants me to track one down, but again it centers on all the shit coming out of Ukraine; The word assassination/ assassin pops up numerous times, like, a -fucking – lot. I don’t speak, just stand there and listen to what Joe has to say. Essentially there is someone over there (Ukraine) causing America big problems, and they (the party present) are sick and fucking tired of it. Joe wants who ever this guy is assassinated, and he wants me to organise the whole thing at the same time giving him insulation from it all. I suddenly have an understanding that I am well connected within the criminal underworld – but not your average run of the mill Mafia type deal, but something much worse – and that such a task would be a piece of cake. I nod in silence, then leave the premises.

SD’s version: like me, hers begins with her on a sort of vacation, but it is a lot more fragmented. She is met by her handler, to which similar things about her being needed for an important assignment are spoken, before she is whisked off to a similar apartment/ hotel room. She is now standing in a crowd of people, and again Joe Biden is giving a speech in front of them. She looks over and sees me at some point and remembers that there was something do with assassin’s and a hit squad being spoken of. Again, she had some sort of involvement in it, like she needed to help go find them or something.

Man these synched dreams have become so common between us that it really isn’t even a shock to us anymore. We just start picking each other for details and offer each other suggestions of what we think is going on. Both SD I agreed it seemed like our consciousnesses were being used to RV a certain scenario. I had MM ask the Commander if this was could possibly be happening. I’ll leave it up to him whether to publish what he told me.

But wait, there’s more, and it ties in with MMs response to this dream. When Putin first went into Ukraine, I had yet another dream in which SD’s astral self was telling me the Ukraine thing was all connected with things that are going on in the non physical planes. It was suggested there was a faction vying for the totality of the non physical realm as well another vying for both the physical and non physical planes (of course, I am never told who these factions actually are). SD’s handlers wanted her to reveal this to me as they wanted me to join them but were apprehensive about whether I would freak out about it or not. Much to their surprise, my response was “well, what the fuck are we waiting for”. There was also something mentioned about potassium iodide and honey comb being extremely important.

A strange stargate like portal opened up in front of me which I jumped into. The next thing I know I am in the back of what appears to be a long truck being used as an operations control room in some street, which could have very easily been Ukraine (it was clearly very more “astral like” than the physical Ukraine though). I was standing next to this other guy and over to our left was – I kid you not – an angel with four arms typing away at a computer. This was a beautiful creature. It had greyish semi translucent skin, very similar to the texture of a dolphin and (I think) was bald with intensely blue eyes, and stood about 8 ft tall. It was very robotic the way it moved, similar to Arnold Schwarnegger in the terminator movies, expressionless face, never blinking.

Suddenly our soldiers outside of the truck bring in another downed angel on a stretcher, again with four arms. They bring the stretcher right up to us where all the medical equipment is located. Straight away we know this one had been corrupted and was in need of some intensive “cleaning” and purging of all the corruption our enemies had done to it. I tell this guy next to me “yeah we kind of accidentally found out potassium iodide and honey comb knocks them out cold, like chloroform on humans” (well this is getting weird). Grace – the angel at the computer; “her” name was Grace, can you fucking believe it – realises there is a potential threat behind her, abruptly gets up out of her chair – her wings are fucking enormous; she stretches them when asserting dominance – and stomps over to this other {darkened} angel. Without warning she cracks her in the face with all five arms, and with lightning speed draws a semi auto handgun from somewhere and starts offloading it into this angel’s face at point blank range. The other angel starts stirring from sleep; meanwhile me and the other guy are just sitting here laughing our arses off at this {apparently} very normal angel greeting. The last thing I remember is the darker angel getting up off the bed before returning the greeting to Grace and the whole truck becoming smashed to pieces. Bikie brawls got nothing on Angel fights, apparently.

So I tell SD about this dream, and her response is “ahh, so you’ve finally met the angel ones”. Apparently she has had quite a lot of lucid dreams with them (none with four arms though), even an strange abduction experience with some, and her description matches Grace’s character; expressionless robots, with wings that fold up in their back when not in use, almost like vinyl type feathers. According to SD they were made so certain consciousness from the completely} non physical realm have a vehicle by which to enter and view the {not completely} non physical realm for very short periods of time (those ones can’t just come here like others can).

Certainly was an interesting dream that one. As was the Joe Biden hit squad dream.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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Russia has found the smoking gun as to why Westerners are ordered to take mRNA injections

And it happened in Ukraine. Yeah. No shit.

Let me explain.

Americans and Westerners (The United States, the EU, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Korea = the collective “West”) have been mandated to take an mRNA “vaccination” to fight Coronavirus. This, most people know.

What they don’t know is this…

The mRNA is not a vaccination. It’s an injection of a content-secret chemical.
Russia, China, and the rest of the world use traditional “dead host” vaccines.
Both Russia and China accused the USA of unleashing Coronavirus on the world.
They claim that it is a bioweapon. One of 11 total. (8 against livestock, 3 against people.)

If the reader is aware of those four points, then good for you. If you are unaware, then you REALLY need to change your “news” sources.

Now, that being said, many in the (collective) West are openly critical of these mRNA “vaccinations”. They don’t understand why they need to take it for a chest cold weaker than the seasonal flu. As such, many refuse to take it, with Americans being the most agressive about this.

To force compliance, the West have set up systems where you MUST get this mRNA injection or be “black listed”. Being “black listed” has many negative attributes, such as loss of job, income, ability to bank, financial investments and others too numerous to list.

When pressed, they (the government) argue that “the rest of the world is doing this, so we must as well”.

Not true.

Only the collective West is doing this.

Not the East.

China and Russia are very serious about this, true, but they use “dead-host” (actual) vaccines. They do not use mRNA injections becuase the studies have shown severe side effects within the injected population over time.

In fact, (unreported in the West), China is still at DEFCON 2 right now and has been at that point since 2020 when they accused the United States for unleasing the three bioweapons attacks against their civilian population.

Good luck visiting and arriving in China.

It’s still locked down. You have to apply for a visa under the “special authorizations” clause, and then endure two weeks in a quarantine hotel (with daily multiple swabs) and another two weeks at your destination under lock-down. That’s a total of four weeks under lock-down. Obviously, there aren’t many people visiting China right now.

Remember the Winter Olympics? The entire area was one big “clean room”.

So here you have the situation.

Polorized Globe

The earth is now divided into two haves.

On one side you have the “The First World”, also known as the “Collective West”. It consists of the United States led unipolar order. The nations are the United States and all of it’s toadies; it’s “allies”.

On the other side, you have a China-led order. With Russia, all of Africa, the Middle East, and most of South America.

The West vs. the East.

2022 03 10 10 06 — The “West” in blue. The “East” in gray.

One side wants it all

This shouldn’t be news to anyone. The collective West demands a unipolar global order led by the United States; one that can make the rules as it moves forward, and break and ignore the rules it doesn’t like.

The East wants a world of equals working together as needed per the UN charter. They beleive that much can be gained for the bulk of humanity if everyone participates in wealth generating activities. Not just the super wealthy.

Again, this shouldn’t be news to anyone.

If you are not aware of this, then I posit that you have been living under a rock, and your “news” sources are pathetic.

How can the USA take it all, once and for all?

The West wants it all, but they are impotent.

The United States might have the largest military in the world, and bases everywhere, but they have major liabilities. Culturially, socially, physically, and substantively on every level, the West is approaching “senile, old age, riddled with dementia”.

For the last fifty years, it lost every war that it fought (with the notible exceptions of Grenada, and Panama), all the time while fighting multiple wars all over the globe. Right now it is involved in eight simultaneous hot kinetic wars, and numerous “color revolutions”. It’s been a busy, busy nation.

But the rest of the world has risen. It’s awake. And it’s aware.

Don’t piss it off.

Any war with a major Eastern nation will be collective. Meaning, if you fight China, the rest of the world will engage you. If you fight Russia, the rest of the world will engage you. As we are just now starting to witness.

Uh oh.

Nuclear weapons are out. Well for now, at least.

Yes. America (and it’s surrogates) has an enormous nuclear arsenal. But the delivery systems have been rendered obsolete by the Eastern block. Not only does the East have very advanced hyper-velocity missiles, but they have AI, internal ability to evade, plot course changes, and stealth.

In addition, all of Asia has the ability to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles on any form or shape. America and Europe does not have this. They never saw the need. They are exceptional, the shining house on the hill; the nations where everyone wants to become part of. Don’t you know!

So, if nuclear destruction is out of the calculus, then what’s left?

Biowarfare

Now, it is well documented that the United States under Trump / John Bolton / Mike Pompeo launched a two-phase bioweapons assault on the East in 2019.

Again, if you are unaware of this, I have to shake you up with the “Rule number one of being a spook”. Look for what is NOT being reported in the “news”.

So, yeah. China was intentionally “suppressed”. It’s all part of that “hybrid-warfare” onslaught package. Don’t you know.

And it was genius.

It truly was.

The “lite” version, the one that only caused a sore thoat was given to Americans and Europeans in June 2019. This was to innoculate the population with the COVID-19A “safe” virus. You know “herd immunity”. And it has worked.

While the nasty bad momba-jamba COVID-19B rampaged though Iran and China in December that year.

China went DEFCON 1, and full lockdown and suppressed the bioweapon attack. Irans, had some real serious dings and lost most of it’s leadership.

I argue that the attack failed. Then when the modified strains started to circle the globe, and hit the USA, everyone started running the “wear a mask” gambit, and hurry up and get inoculated…

But…

Something just doesn’t add up.

The United States Bioweapon facilities

The United States is the ONLY nation developing bioweapons in the world. In fact, it has held this role for at least fourty years since the fall of the former Soviet Union.

Yet, why all the many, many, many bioweapons facilities?

There’s over 330+ of them, and they are all over the globe. Why?

Let, me spell it out to you all. Why so many development labs all regionally located thoughtout the world? These are top secret facilities. Why are there so many, and why so regional?

Think about it.

Well, let’s “cut to the chase”. All you need to do is look at a map of human DNA variations by geographical region to see the answer.

They have been developing DNA targeting viruses to target specific geographical population clusters.

And it has been going on for a long time.

But, you know, there’s no way to know for certain. The facities are all locked down, with up-most secrecy. No one is ever going to discover what the United States government is up to.

Russian invasion of the Ukraine

Then the invasion of the Ukraine occured, and the Russians seized some of these bioweapons facilities, and their findings were truly worrisome.

From the Greenvillepost. Constantly being taken down…

U.S. Nailed to the Wall on Illicit Biological Weapons Labs in Ukraine

For the world to survive and have peace, US generals have to kick the imperialist addiction, and the ruling political classes of the US and EU thoroughly renovated.

March 9, 2022

A couple of days ago, when I presented a summary of the dramatic information and warnings conveyed in the latest televised briefing by the spokesman for the Russian military, Igor Konoshenkov, I received back from some readers the comment that this was all just Russian propaganda, similar to the kind of propaganda we hear regularly coming from the Pentagon and State Department. 

The allegations of biological weapons banned under international convention being produced in experimental laboratories in Kharkiv and other Ukrainian towns under programs paid for and supervised by Americans had to be fake news, these skeptics and cynics maintained. 

The same had to be true of Konoshenkov’s asserting that the Ukrainians were working on dirty nuclear bombs at their Zaporozhye nuclear power stations, which had just been captured by Russian forces.

However, yesterday the story about biological weapons labs received convincing confirmation from the U.S. State Department, when Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, said publicly before microphones that the USA fears that its biological labs in Ukraine will “fall into the wrong hands.”

That is a very convoluted admission that the Russians’ allegations are perfectly true.

The U.S. is battening down the hatches against the coming storm of international indignation, at the same time trying to divert attention away from itself by suggesting that the Russians might do something dastardly with what they find.

Enter China

American evasion and attempted dissimulation were stymied however when, also yesterday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded an explanation from the United States.

He demanded what exactly Americans have been doing not only in their Ukrainian labs, which were situated in cities across the Ukraine from Kharkiv to Lviv, but also in a further 130 such labs spread out across the world.

Intense Chinese concern is understandable since one such laboratory was in Wuhan, the point of origin of Covid19.

The subtext is that the U.S. Chiefs of Staff have taken with the utmost seriousness the warnings of retaliation from Konoshenkov, against NATO, Article 5 or no Article 5 pledges of ‘one for all and all for one.’

Meanwhile, the general public in the United States is clueless because virtually nothing about this appeared in major media.

Remember the MM spook rule #1; 
"Look for what is NOT being reported".

Leaks from these labs – Intentional or unintentional?

Still on the subject of biological weapons being prepared in Ukraine under United States funding and guidance, Russian experts were on television this morning explaining how leaks from these labs have been monitored over the past few years.

In one such case, 450 Ukrainian civilians were said to have died from biological agents that contaminated their residential block.

This number, you will note, is higher than the total number of civilian deaths in the ongoing “barbaric” Russian in Ukraine.

As reported in The Financial times (characterization as “barbaric” by Andrew Bacevich, Chairman of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a self-described American think tank for peace).

The Russians are now examining whether outbreaks of swine flu and avian flu that caused havoc with their livestock in farming areas close to the Ukrainian border may not have been artificially induced by saboteurs coming from Ukraine.

Work on viruses transmissible from animals to humans was also reportedly being done in the Ukrainian facilities.

And nuclear weapons too?

Let us now turn to the question of Ukraine’s program to produce nuclear weapons, which Konoshenkov also mentioned in his briefing. Today Russian news is saying that they possess more than just documentary proof of such development, which contravenes the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which Ukraine is a signatory. The Russians now claim to have found sample “baby bombs” which will prove beyond doubt the nuclear ambitions of Kiev for which the United States was a guiding force.

All of the foregoing points to what may be expected when the Russians finish their demilitarization and denazification campaign in Ukraine in the next several weeks.

They may well convene an international tribunal to try the Ukrainians who were responsible for the illicit programs involving weapons of mass destruction.

We may expect the Chinese to join them in running the tribunal, as well as other closely interested countries.

It is also reasonable to expect that this tribunal will identify and seek to extradite their American handlers.

This may be difficult, because Moscow has already said today that the Americans on the ground in Ukraine overseeing the biological weapons laboratories all carried diplomatic passports.

However, the Russians, like the Americans, can be very resourceful in cases like this.

Well U.S. Biolabs in Ukraine must be true because Twitter suspended @::::war::::clandestine account. Someone out there got post on video. Here it is. pic.twitter.com/S5418JOQbj
— Secret Squirel (@cbcool2532) February 24, 2022

Geo-Political “games”

Finally, before closing today’s bulletin of latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war at the political level, I direct attention to the question of Poland’s turning over its fleet of Soviet-era MIG jet fighters to Ukraine, which has been a hot issue on Western news these past few days.

The Poles had been in discussions over this possibility with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, and Blinken seemed to be approving.

For the Poles, the proposed “donation” to support Ukraine would be a godsend. They would get rid of their fleet of old Soviet planes and would receive in exchange from the United States F-16 fighters, thereby better integrating Poland into the standard equipment of NATO fully at the charge of Uncle Sam.

Let us assume the transaction would come to half a billion to one billion dollars to the benefit of Warsaw and to the cost of U.S. taxpayers.

Is it any wonder that several other former Warsaw Pact countries, now NATO member states yesterday said they too were ready to help the comrades in Ukraine by turning their old MIGs over to Kiev and taking in exchange United States fighter planes.

Warsaw announced yesterday that it intended to fly its MIGs to the Ramstein airbase in southwestern Germany for the hand-over.

This news release apparently took the U.S Government by surprise.

At her testimony before the Senate a little later in the day, Victoria Nuland said she had no pre-warning of the announcement and would not comment till she got back to her office and studied the matter further.

This announcement was indeed remarkable.

Ramstein is the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe and also of the NATO Allied Air Command.

If the MIGs had simply been transferred to Ukrainian pilots on Polish territory and then flown into combat in Ukraine, then they would bring down on the dispatching airport in Poland the instant retribution that General Konoshenkov stated explicitly two days ago.

Russia would bomb Poland.

By sending the planes to Ramstein for the hand-over to the Ukrainians, the Russian response, cruise or hypersonic missile attack, would go instead against the United States airbase.

Russia would bomb the United States.

Dear promoters of Poland as the defense shield of Europe in Washington: pay close attention to what your friends would do to you.

However, none of this will come to pass, as we may conclude by today’s announcement from the Pentagon that the deal is unacceptable and is outside the competence of Poland to offer.

Today the Pentagon spokesmen say plainly that the issue at hand concerns all of NATO and can be taken only by NATO collectively, not by one member, Poland.

This is a nice formally correct explanation from the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, the general public in the United States is clueless because virtually nothing about this appeared in major media.

When the war started, President Putin was hopeful to come to a quick understanding with the leading officers of the Ukrainian armed forces regarding capitulation and regime change.

However, in a matter of days it became clear that the Ukrainian military has been thoroughly infiltrated by radical nationalists and is unable to act in the interests of the nation independently.

It now appears that this type of analysis would be better applied to the United States of America.

Only the senior generals in the Pentagon have their eyes and ears wide open to the Russian capabilities and intentions.

The political classes, both Democrats and Republicans on The Hill, are lost in their own virtual world of unlimited United States power.

That alone explains the potentially suicidal demand from Democrats yesterday that Biden now impose a ‘no-fly zone’ over Ukraine.

It may be that the war will end when the Pentagon generals and their Russian counterparts sit down and talk about revising the European architecture of security, leaving Blinken and his associates to look on through the windows.

A real possibility.

But what about the mRNA vaccines?

Let’s back track right now and look at some bullet points…

The USA is the sole nation running bioweapons development.
The USA is leading the “West” and needs to destroy the “East” to achieve dominance.
The USA has located bioweapons falicilites all over the globe and evidence in Ukraine suggests viruses that target regional populations by DNA.

And we know, from published mRNA data (far too detailed to present here)…

Content of the mRNA “stew” injected into Westerners is secret.
This is not “corporate confidential”, but rather “government military secret”.
All of the collective West must get the injections.

Putting the first group of bullet-points with the second group of bullet-points we see an association.

The plan

It appears (as the most obvious conclusion possible) that [1] the United States plans (in some way) to release regionally-targeted bioweapons globally, and [2] use it’s mRNA injection protocols to protect itself.

As different bioweapons are released, booster updates will be given to the civilian population to protect them from the bioweapons.

It’s pretty fucking evil.

Yikes! It’s a new way to fight wars

Yes it is.

What had happened is that when Russia invaded the Ukraine they were able to seize these facilities. And they were able to identify what they were doing and why. And one of the most obvious tasks was to develop bioweapons for United States use that was released to civilian populations locally. Then cover up the release as an “accident”. All as a cover for the development of regional DNA-targetted bioweapons.

And the way for the United States to protect itself is to inject it’s people with a cure. This would be a mRNA “milkshake”.

And given what we know of the global situation…

Deagal Report (remote viewing) suggests massive dieoff by 2025.
Fourth Turning (Historical extrapolation) suggests a new type of war peaking around 2024.

It appears that the Russian invasion came just in the “nick of time”. Perhaps all the rotten chain of events could be thwarted in some way.

An hour before the Apocalypse. Growing evidence that Russia’s special operation saved much of the world

In Ukraine, under the leadership of the United States, a real biological weapon was developed

Alexander GRISHIN

The Russian Defense Ministry has published a new document on the intentions of the leadership and directly the military command of Ukraine in relation to the Donbass. This is the original secret order of the Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine Mykola (Nikolay) Balan, signed by him on January 22, 2022. Once again – not copies, but the original document with all the authentic signatures of those responsible.

What is special about this document?

This is not yet an order to attack the Donbass (the time will come, and such will appear at our disposal), but an order on the preparation and combat coordination of a separate battalion-tactical group of the 4th operational brigade of the National Guard to carry out combat (special) tasks in the so-called operation Joint forces in the Donbass region.

Coordination exercises were held in the Lviv region at the Yavoriv training ground, the very one where most of the Javelins and other modern weapons transferred from the USA to the Armed Forces of Ukraine were stored.

The exercises were supposed to pass according to the “NATO standards” program and prepare the fighters of the group psychologically, physically, teach them combat tactics and skills in handling foreign weapons. Further, this BTG was to operate as part of the 80th separate airborne assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. From the name of which it is already clear what tasks this connection performs. At the same time, a separate paragraph of the order forbade sending those National Guardsmen who would show “unsatisfactory results of psychological testing” to perform tasks in the Donbass. “Psychological stability” is a very important indicator for punishers,

All preparations for solving the tasks set by the command were ordered to be completed by February 28th. We throw in another week to transfer the group directly to combat positions in the Donbass, a couple of days to line up, as they say, battle formations, and we get the start of an active offensive after receiving a combat order from the command today or tomorrow.

By all logic, by all accounts, the military-political special operation launched by Russia on February 24 to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine averted a new tragedy in Donbass. Let’s face it, it’s much bigger than anything he’s done before. Ukraine was preparing for this.

But besides this, as it turned out, there were other reasons for precisely such actions of Moscow, which we are now observing.

“WHY WILL BATTLE VIRUSES?”

Dmitry Peskov – about biological laboratories in Ukraine: “Measures are being taken. You will know about the results in a timely manner”

Official China asked when the US would give clarifications on the 336 biological laboratories that Washington manages and finances around the world. However, rather, not Washington, but the Pentagon, the US Department of Defense. 30 of them are in Ukraine.

From the documents cited earlier by the same Russian Ministry of Defense, it became clear that in Ukraine, under the leadership of the United States , a real biological weapon was being developed .

In the order received from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the leadership of the laboratories was ordered to destroy all research materials and the viruses themselves and other pathogens as early as the day the Russian special operation began.

The next day, February 25, they all reported on the work done and the irretrievable destruction of the pathogens of diphtheria, salmonellosis, anthrax, ulcers, plague and other deadly diseases.

Despite a chorus of ridicule from Russian liberals about this report by the Russian Defense Ministry, the veracity of this information was confirmed not by anyone, but by the United States itself.

"There are biological research laboratories in Ukraine. At the moment, we are concerned that the Russian military may be trying to take control of them, was forced to admit at a hearing in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland (the same one who gladly handed out cookies and buns on the Maidan in Kyiv). - We are working with the Ukrainian side to ensure that biological research materials do not fall into the hands of Russian forces."

This in itself is a recognition that they did not develop flu drops there. After all, if everything is harmless, then why destroy the samples and strive so hard that they “do not fall into the hands of the Russians.”

By the way, the Americans were very interested in the Bayraktara drones in terms of whether it is technically possible to spray aerosols from them during the flight, which is also confirmed, this time by other documents.

"They probably just wanted to help the Ukrainians with fertilizers during the farming season." 

- The head of the troops of the RKhBZ of Russia on military biological programs in Ukraine

If for someone this is not enough. Then here’s something even scarier.

“WHO SAID ‘DIRTY’ BOMB? I SWEAR CLEAN I WASHED IT MYSELF”

Let’s remember that at a security conference in Munich this year, Zelensky said that in case of refusal of assistance to ensure the security of Ukraine, Kyiv could withdraw from the Budapest Memorandum.

Which approves the non-nuclear status of Ukraine.

No, Ukrainian politicians have repeatedly spoken about the need to revive the nuclear program in the country, but such a promise was made by the current head of state for the first time.

Keep in mind that the Ukraine, since the CIA backed "color revolution" in 2014 is a wholly owned and controlled serrogate state, with a puppet leader. -MM

And this, judging by a whole range of evidence, was neither a bluff nor an empty threat. As follows from a number of reliable sources, the SVR and the GRU have documented evidence that such a program has already been implemented. Moreover, two types of charges were developed: plutonium and uranium.

The key role in the project was assigned to the National Center “Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology”, which had an experimental base, in principle, for obtaining weapons-grade plutonium from spent reactor thermal assemblies. The work was also carried out in the zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where the increased radiation background hid their work. Both the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv and the Institute of Organic Chemistry were involved in the work on the project.

Documents from Kyiv and Kharkov are still waiting to be made available, but Zaporizhzhya NPP personnel have already confirmed that such work was carried out at the plant, and IAEA inspectors from among the recruited local personnel did not reflect them in their reports.

According to various estimates, a nuclear explosive device could be created in Ukraine within a period of several months to a couple of years. Ukraine also has carriers that would allow the charge to be carried, if not to Moscow and St. Petersburg, but to at least Belgorod, Kursk, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, albeit in very limited quantities.

As for the so-called “Dirty” bomb , which is used to infect the area through the explosion of a conventional munition, Ukraine already has such a possibility, given the presence of a giant repository of spent nuclear fuel and waste in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant zone. Precisely to prevent such sabotage, which can be compared with the terrorist attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (where the Americans supplied plutonium), units of the National Guard were introduced, which, by the way, are on duty there together with the National Guard of Ukraine.

In general, both the GRU and the SVR do not eat their bread in vain, since information about all this was brought to the attention of the President of Russia in a timely manner.

Probably, it may even seem like some kind of blasphemy now, but in a good way, the world should be grateful to Russia for the fact that it launched its military operation so on time. Imagine the detonation of a nuclear warhead on the territory of Russia and what the consequences of this would be.

Conclusion

And there you have it. There is a grand scheme of massive depopulation / war initiated by the United States via bioweapons globally.

If you believe the World Economic Forum, 80% of the population of the globe must be killed off to initiate a new “utopia”. One that is led by an American unipolar world-order.

The idea is to have the globe ruled with Service-to-self entities, and serviced by servie-to-another (NPC) entities. The service-for-others sentience will be killed off.

They plan to do this within the next two years.

There is a “bump in the road with both Russia and China” not wanting to have anything to do with it. But no matter. The United States is on “autopilot”. The systems are in place and the plan is in process.

How this will evolve over time is anyone’s guess.

But at least there’s a lone voice in Ireland speaking out…

Do you want more?

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Part 8 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander march 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 8.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. 

Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

This is part of the Q&A (on-going) effort where questions are provided to me, and then I present them, and then record and interpet the responses.

[8.1] Question – Comprehending life

Sorry again for effing up my question for part 7 March 2022. Here is the detailed background. I had to send on this separate more anonymous email.

When I was a kid in around 1984-1987 my mother shared a story with me that one of her co-workers confided to her. Her co-workers name was MJ and they worked together for a short time in an admin office at the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant located in the borough of Shippingport,PA on the Ohio River.

MJ told her about the time she, her husband and family were driving home one early one night when they saw a ufo hovering off to the side of the road, they stopped the car and stared at the object.

It had 3 portals along the side and they were able to see a figure with a large head, large eyes and kind of a squished in face. One of the family exited the car to look closer and the object flew away.

This story has stuck with since I was a small kid, about age 8-10. It planted the initial seed in me on my quest to understand the ufo enigma. It has been a lifelong quest for truth since hearing that story which is 100% sincere. Just after I heard this story was when the book Communion was published by Whitley Streiber and was displayed in Walden bookstore in the beaver valley mall and other bookstores.

Upon first seeing the cover of the book (a depiction of a grey alien) I was both terrified and awed simultaneously. This further cemented my desire to know all there was to know about the UFO enigma. I watched every single ufo

Television program, and began to read every single ufo book or magazine that existed in the local library or bookstores I could get my hands on, this then led to every single website i could find decades later.

I also experienced a couple odd occurrences at night, one was in the summer of 1986 while taking a family road trip to Enid, OK to visit relatives. We got lost at night driving somewhere near the Ozarks and experienced “lost time”. Another couple times I experienced a presence trying to drag me (or suction me ) out of bed at night. I vividly remember 1-2 instances as a teenager and also one within the last year.

I have always felt I have some unique purpose here to do something; I have only with the last 5 yrs to really openly begin to explore this in in real terms, I trained a little in remote viewing, I explored spirituality and I trained as a medium and a psychic. I also meditated and engaged In deep prayer.

It was May 2020 when “found” the MM website and began to unwrap its beautifully wrapped contents and devour the bounty of information and slowly sip the unique western pa connection of it.

I thought/felt I finally stumbled into something that provided a deeper understanding not with the ufo enigma but my second truth quest in life(what is it all about) and what is “disjointed” with me as a person and how can i fix/repair myself so I can fully serve and help others to the fullest with my time left here.

I hope this helps to better understand my question What did I experience as a child that i only now have the wisdom to begin to comprehend”

If this helps to clarify then asking again would be appreciated, if I still don’t get it and am missing something then I understand so no worries. Thanks again for your mm content and trying.

The Domain conduct periodic operations within the Prison Complex confines. These are periodically observed by inmate skin-suits. However, questioner mothers co-workers did not observe a vehicle of The Domain. That was a vehicle of <redacted> and they are the assets that investigate nuclear systems, and operations upon the Earth physical sphere.

Questioners experience of "missing time" is similiar to that of MM when he was upgraded in 1985. These are events that take place to perform biological investigation, monitoring, and observation. Questioner was  examined, and returned with no ill effects. This was also conducted by <redacted> but is part of an over all structured process in which multiple "species" take place with.

Questioner is on a pre-birth world-line template (sic) that was established for this role of a searcher for precisely the purposes of the acquision of knowledge for eventual realease from this Prison Complex. Thus, while it might appear to be random, it is not. Questioner is running a fated existence for precisely the reasons as previously stated.

Questioner must now accept this reality and recognize that it is in a school at this time with the ultimate goal of release on parole from the complex. Every effort the questioner is involved in should be directed to this goal.

[8.2] Question – Why not destroy IS-BE entities?

Please direct me if this has been already addressed.

Question: Rather than work so seemingly wide-spread (on this earth), and time consuming, and given that the entities in meat-suits are immortal… why not just terminate their (the really bad guys) existence here? Are not these Old Empire parasites easy enough to identify?

One cannot destroy an IS-BE. You may apparently "erase" it's memories, but though techniques in development, they will be able to be recovered. You may cut it up; divide it and scatter it's peieces else where, but in so doing, you will create many of the same entities. Instead of one, you now have thousands. 

You may place it in a confinement area. Such as a Bubble Universe, But it will eventually leave that confinement area.

Thus the solution of the "Old Empire" manifested; a bubble universe with a system of strife and reward on a never-ending wheel that keeps an intentionally ignorant IS-BE from returning to it's parent universes.

The "Old Empire" thought process was valid, but was thwarted by internal corruptions and problems in implementation and selfish persuits. It had eveolved into a kind of play-ground for torture, viscerial pleasures, idealized control and other vices. It has spun wildly out of control and is now evolved into something wholly different from its initial intent.

The Domain is active in stabilizing this environment, but there are bigger, more pressing galatic issues at hand and the resources are limited. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can at this moment, and the questioner must recognize that and not be overly influenced by problematic IS-BE entities he is trapped with.

[8.3] Question – Shadow people

Hi all – serious newbie here.

I have been through a large portion of the site and I think I have a newbie’s grasp of MWI and affirmation campaigns. I started my first 3 month campaign last week and looking forward to some results in 6-9 months time.

My question is around shadow people who seem to be characters in our world line who have a segment of their consciousness present but are not the full shilling so to speak. Could someone help me understand what that means in terms of daily life and how these shadow people affect your campaigns and, if they are just shadows of their real selves, how do we treat them and consider them in our lives?

Specifically:

our families and loved ones – how are they not their full selves when we interact with them? Are they sharing their world lines with us and if so, to what extent?
if we impact their lives, to what extent does that impact their own unique world line?
my gut instinct is that these are real people as much as I am and every decision I make has to include them if I care about them
what part of them am I interacting with if they are but shadows?
how does entaglement fit into all this?
are we in turn just shadow people to them in their world line and how does my decision making impact them?

Likely I am missing some important understanding here and would be very grateful to have that shown to me if someone can take the time.

[I, MM, can answer the questions regarding what shadow people are, and how they interact. That is not a Domain Commander question. the following answer is from MM not from the Domain Commander. If he / it / she interjects, I will take note. -MM]

A “shadow person” is everyone. Including yourself. You are a shadow person (from the point of view of another). In say ten trillion world-lines, there is a you in that world line. They, all ten trillion of them, are all shadows of you.

But you are on THIS world line. So obviously something is different here and now. What is it?

The difference is that your consciousness has chosen THIS world line to reside upon. Not the one where you are riding a giant turtle, or the one where you are a starving person in Africa, or one where you are a rich person in Dubai. Your consciousness occupies this “shadow body”.

And once your consciousness is in this body, you are no longer a “shadow person”. Understand?

It’s not just that though. Everyone else; every other consciousness is the same. They all have untold number of “shadow bodies”.

And since there are nearly unlimited world-lines, and billions of inhabitants, the odds are small (small not impossible) that you are sharing a world-line with another consciousness. So the reality is that your consciousness is in a world-line alone, and everyone else are just “shadow bodies” with very little consciousness actuation.

That does not mean that you cannot fall in love, interact and be with them. It’s simply a matter of where their consciousness interacts. In funcationality, attraction moves consciousnesses to share similiar world-lines.

Cats, for one, move in and out of feline bodies at will. And they will be present on your world-liens with you. Same as those deeply in love. It’s all about entanglement associated with emotion.

[8.4a] Question – Removal of biological item

Could I please ask the following questions of the Commander if at all possible.

Would the Commander have any knowledge of an item unknown to myself that was removed from behind my kneecap by a surgeon DR Bryan Bomberg (who also worked for the USAF) during the mid 90’s in the USA (Rout Hospital).

Numerous extraterrestrial entities monitor inmates and other biological forms within the Prison Complex for their own purposes. The Domain does so, and we have eextradited this activity to third-party resources. The questioner is not part of any Domain monitoring or tracking activity.

The <redacted> prefer to place tracking items in the joints of the physical extremeties. When they do so, very little modification of the non-physical bodies occur.

The reasons behind why there might have been an item placed in the location as described would be for information collection purposes. These are often passive devices for group behavior monitoring.

The removal of the physical component of that item would most assuridly stop that collection of data.

There should be no concern for worry or concern. Removal of any extraterially implanted item removes the inmate from further visits by those entities and places the traced element off the monitoring board.

[8.4b] Question – knowledge past and future

Would the Commander have any knowledge of my past both physical and that of a ISBE and the future for myself and my daughter if possible. No hurry as I understand others are before me. Thank you very much for the chance to ask the above.

The Domain can, if necessary, monitor the past, present and future of inmates within the Prison Complex confines. We do so by establishing a physical connection and non-physical modifications. This is known as the EBP (sic).

Without that, we are limited in what we can do. We can only observe the state of the present IS-BE in whatever situation it is presently involved in. As such, we can advise the hills and valleys (sic) of the present template(s) (sic) involved.

In a practical matter, this issue is best handled by the associated mantid aligned with the inmate entity. They have full knowledge and understandings of the entire situation and issues regarding the entity in question. The questioner themself must ask their mantid in prayer / contemplation, the mantid will be aware of the question and will respond. The questioner is not to question whether the answer is true / valid / factual or not. The questioner is to take the raw data as provide data and accept it.

The mind has the ability to alter acquired intel. This response is a funtion of template(sic) and must be suppresed. The way to do so is with consciousness centering techniques. [Hemi-synic, etc. -MM]

[8.5] Question – Domain influence on leadership

Are any members of The Domain occupying the bodies of any contemporaneous leaders at this moment of time?

Yes and No. 

[Image of a person sliced into slices like sliced bread, all of which is transparent.  These slices go from the top of the head downward. Of the 200 or so slices, only a few slices are influenced. And I see it as a moving series of colors that seem to pulse in a rhythm like that of ocean tides. I take and understand it to mean that there is a quantum participation "on/off" switch or "dial" that they can use to influence a given leader with.]

How about Xi Peng (China) in regards to this influence?

[Again the image of the clear sliced transparent humanoid. The color influence represents perhaps 15% to 20% of the slices.]

How about Alexander Putin (Russia) in regards to this influence?

[Image is of a big (black) hand firmly snugly holding Putin, and a very clear image of a confident and smiling Putin face. 

He's looking at me, with head tilted, with a "cat ate the canary" smile, and looking at me with a "what do you think?" expression.

It's exactly like he's the person that I am EBP communicating with!]

How about Joe Biden (United States) in regards to this influence?

Joe Biden is not a controllable asset / entity / clay at this time. 

Other influences and structural changes in his make up make manipulation / transverse operations / suppression / actuation dangerous. The skin-suit is comprimized and the IS-BE operation for the suit is abused.

How about any of the leaders in Europe in regards to this influence?

Null. 

Individuals are being observed with occasional walk-ins and walk-throughs as an as-needed basis. Their behaviors cannot be manipulated with any degree of confidence in outcome determination.

[8.6] Question – Request in affirmation help

If I remember correctly, the Commander said that Old Empire guys recycle directly without memory-wipe and without life review so they are hard to catch.

And I asked some time ago, if it would be of help to have an affirmation so the domain can catch them or recognize them (like their lost battalion members)… It hasn’t been answered yet.

[This question is not really appropiate for The Commander. The knowledge on how the MWI works within the Reality universe falls under MM pervue. That being said, there really isn't any problems with that. I can add an affirmation for you, and direct you some guidance. However, I do have a direct message from The Commander regarding this. -MM]

Questioner is advised that de-cloaking inmates (most especially imprisoned members of The Domain) will trigger catastrophic event sequences which will iniate immediate recyling into another skin-suit. Only the most docile and "conditioned" members of The Domain are permitted "normal" General Population switching.

Quantum alarms are set off when thoughts related to a member of The Domain is recognized. It is thus critical that only the individual IS-BE inmate, and The Domain or one of our proxies be aware of who these individuals are, what they are doing and how they are acting.

The Domain is aware of the status and location of all members of the Lost Battalion. No further assistance is necessary in locating them. However, affirmation (sic) and consciousness manipulative techniques would be helpful in creating templates (sic) that are favorable toward inmate egress from this domicile.

[8.7a] Question – Historic global destructive events?

MM: I know I’m back on this subject again, but I just want some clarification – if possible.

The Commander said that there is a physical earth (also physical solar system and “universe”). He also said that yes, our collective consciousness constructs this matrix earth. He also indicated that this matrix earth, this Prison Planet of recycling ISBEs has been in place for a VERY long time. Back in the day, I’m talking tens of thousands of years at least, I can only presume that whatever form the ISBEs took, they too were subject to the memory wipe, and matrix-earth “building”.

This matrix earth had historic global destructive events – the results can be seen in ice-core data, geologic data and other credible methods. These records indicate that such massive population ending events are NOT rare, and are in fact cyclic – perhaps every 10,000 years or so. Repeating… EXPECTED.

Are those measurable scars, a result of collective belief that destructive events occurred – the “experts” through the ages “said so”, and the local entities agreed (ba-bing – they appear); or, are those scars upon the physical earth?

Thoughts can manifest physical events. This is true within the main universe, as well as in the reality universe (Prison Planet). However, both universe operate under a set of rules / laws / programming physical behaviors. Both are similiar as the reality universe is a pocket universe that resides inside the main universe. You can consider it as a "functionality reduced" universe.

Newtonian laws operate within known physical space and is predictable (to a degree) as determined by earth-bound scientists. Thus, many of the earth-wide changes follow predictable patterns.

This situation is what most earth-bound inmates must deal with. Tectonic plates movements, volcanoes that result from internal pressure differentials, planetary orbit reconfigurations, and the behaviors of various species along with weather, and gravity changes are all part and parcel of this Prison Planet environment.

However, there is the unseen nature of this environment that must be considered. The templates (sic) that the humans learn upon / experience [rehabilitation structure] are affected by thought. Since thoughts control brain selection [world-line selection to different brains in different world-lines. -MM] it can thus choose it's environment. [templates via slides. -MM]

Groups of people, all of different abilities and skill sets, can switch to different templates (sic) which then define different physical conditions. They do not actually change the "rules of physics" so much as that they alter the template (sic) that they reside upon.

[8.7b] Question – Scars from physical activity?

If those scars are a result of physical activity, it seems to me that they may have occurred as a result of Solar Activity, or Galactic Activity, or, I suppose, Galactic to Solar… is this true?

The Prison Complex micro universe was created upon the ruins of once mightly civilizations that were destroyed when the "Old Empire" secured and acquired this section of geographical space. many of the physical scars are reminants of the great disruptions from those times.

Since the creation of the micro universe, the normal laws of physics were not suspeded. The normal turmpil associated with this secion of the universe has continued unabated.

The Prison Complex was created upon the ruins of planets, and the physical turmoil, whether solar, galactic, or non-physical is considered to be a necessary compoenent in the punishment of IS-BE entities marooned here.

[8.7c] Question – When can we expect the next sequence of events?

This whole scheme was designed by a skilled ISBE, corrupted by The Old Empire, and overtaken by The Domain. A very intelligent collection presumably. I could see withholding such information as to somewhat protect, and control the resident general population, but we here at MM are NOT the norm. Tell me please Commander, when will the next extra-terrestrially sourced cataclysmic event take place and affect the physical earth… or are such events now blocked by The Domain?

There are upcoming physical events that will have a profound influence on the human life in the earth sphere environment. Questioner is concerned about the dates, times, locations, causes and types.

The earth sphere is expected to enter a period of geologic upheaval in mid 2030's into the 2040's. The specific dates, and times are dependent upon mass thought cluster influences. They are not entirely independent; Note that this is true even with the predictable behaviors of physical law influences.

The reality universe is one that is custom-tailored to the specific inmate IS-BE. This is established by the Mantid Primes that works with the entity to improve (sic) itself. They utilize a generalized default template (sic) for the vast bulk of the inmate community in General Population, with special ones specifically tailored to more agressive IS-BEs such as The Domain Lost Battalion membership, and so one. The only way out of those pre-conditions is to become docile. Once that occurs, the template reverts to the general default template (sic).

This general default template (sic) established the primary physical interactions and histories that the consciousness must endure. There are preprogrammed events on that map. These include both physical events (as observed by earth physical "laws"), and thought-generated events. The second (thought-generated events) are the reason for anchoring world-line behaviors.

Currently mass manipulation of huge populations is being conducted by (Western News) media. This is resulting in abnormal thoughts (vault 7) and will result in horrific consequences. The event trends will reach a peak, worse than presently experienced, within the next two years. This wil then "simmer down" and a new reality will manifest in the late 2020's, early 2030's time frame. By 2030, most IS-BE inmates (people) will be able to say "Phew! I'm glad that is over."

But that is where the physical disruptions of 2030 through 2040 (depending on the modifications of the template(s) will begin to manifest. THe questioner should realize that the entire Prison Planet Complex is a series of one problematic event after the other in a long series of problematic events.

[8.8a] Question – Characteristics of dream attributes

Yesterday I had a dream. Apparently there is an organization named Midnight in 1997, plus these guys came with a crow in the middle of the night on the roof of my crib. (speak about an entrance) It would seem to me that they are pretty bad “people”. I asked what they wanted with me saying that I didn’t have anything of value but they said that someone has to do crime. They don’t look like good people I did not like them one bit. Luckily there was someone to help me fend of these guys.

In these dreams I am usually never alone. This I noticed. There is always someone I don’t know, who helps me. Though things are not always black and white. From my point of view.

Upon review I realized that theere is always something wrong with the right side of people or things, like someone tries to break your right hand fingers or someone has a scar on the right side. Some stuff like that. But it is always on the right side.

Question I would like to ask : So what’s up with the right side of things and who were those guys?

Human skin-suits are controlled by a brain. The consciousnesses activates the brain. Depending on the kind of thoughts and physical actions that the consciousness is involved in, as well as the noise / physical environment / surroundings, the consciousness will "sit" or activate various sections of the brain, being left-handed, right-handed or other.

Observations within the dream suggest an assault team of entities that possess a similiar seating of the consciousness to the physical skin-suits.

This is almost always associated with organizations, species, or collectives.

These entities are a carryover from previous incarnations that were dragged into this present incarnation by direction of the Mantid Primes for the purpose of "improving" the questioner though hardship and strife. They are constructs.

The questioner is fighting / dealing / in combat with a group of entities that are assulting him. This is a large cluster of entities that are part of an organizational matrix.

They are assigned to influence the questioner, in thoughts, actions, and intent / motivations.

Questioner need not fear this organization. The Domain has assigned elements to mitigate the disruptions and assaults. We have also modified questioners non-physical bodies for better resiliency. There are numerous event cycles that the questioner must endure. But we can positively confirm that once the questioner passes throough this period (longer than the questioner would like) the "other side" would be substantially better.

By the time the questioner exits the chrysalis the organization will no longer be latched on to his non-physical bodies, and the wishes, dreams and desires of the questioner will manifest. Some will be very welcome surprises, as the questioner will be surprised at the massive changes and unexpected magnitude of them.

We advise following the plan (that the questioner is well aware of what actions he needs to take).

[8.8b] Question – Advice on life

And, I would like some little advice on life. Is everything really going according to plan?

Over the last few weeks I have accepted my fate. I would not write this unless I had to. If you do have the time please look into this matter. Do not feel too obliged to answer . At your own time and pace.

The questioner is advised that everything is on track and to plan. 

The fears and situational context is worrisome to the questioner. However the questioner is advised not to deviate, but rather follow the plan, conduct his necessary actions and never lose faith in his abilities nor our ability to support him. 

Questioner is not alone. He is never alone. We are monitoring him and we are fully advised about his current situation.

[8.9] Question – When will World War III begin?

What is the specific date for the start of World War III?

Most future historians will attribute the start of "World War III" (also known as the fracturing of the global order) as 2008 with the collapse of the "too big to fail" banking cartel.

[Just within 12 hours of writing this, a friendly stranger said "out of the blue"...The initial timeline should probably include the 2008 Nato conference in Bucharest that stated Ukraine and Georgia would eventually join Nato.-MM]

Others will attribute the start with the first kinetic actions against China in 2014, while others will associate the President Trump "Hybrid War" against China in the 2017 time period.

The questioner's question concerns the first kinetic military actions in this period of time.

For years, the Western Powers have been conducting covert warfare, which often resulted in suppressed reporting of the events. These events included the attempted coups in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, as well as the revolts in Tibet China, Xinjiang China, and Hong Kong China.

The first major well published kinetic response to the Western nations assaults occurred in the first week of March 2022 in the Ukraine.

The questioner's actual question revolves around a "trigger event" such as the first nuclear detonations of "World War III". In truth, the first use of WMDs during "World War III" was the use of coordinated multi-viral biological weapon attacks to suppress China in 2017 through 2020 by the United States.

Other WMD use included the Western nations destruction of the BRI egress port in Beirut in 4AUG20. This was a thermobaric weapon [possible nuclear -MM] that destroyed the port completely. Other initial battles included the destruction of VTOL Naval carriers of both China and the United States, and the destruction of numerous American submarines in the South China Sea. ["Tit-for-tat" warfare. -MM]

The future for this world-line template (sic) is indeterminate. There are numerous futures that could manifest. These include very BIG bads. The possibility of this manifesting still remains high.

The Domain are in the process of steering the chain of events to small bads.

The Questioner will be well advised that he is in the midst of a major global war that manifested as a result of global realignments.

The knowledge of when or where, or to what magnitude the kinetic fighting might manifest will not make any difference in questioners life. Prudent preperation for the worst should be in place irregardless to any predictions that we can provide.

[8.10] Question – The Moon

I have a question for the Domain, please:

Would they be able to share with us who placed the Moon in its current orbit, where it came from and when was it put there? (Or offer us a little history of that period of Earth’s history, instead?)

I know this isn’t related directly to Domain Operations and irregular assistance from us, but I’m curious now that moves are being made to dismantle the Old New World Order and replace it with a New New World Order aimed at an eventual win-win for everybody regardless of race, colour or creed, as stated by both Putin and Xi in recent years.

Thus I think it wold be beneficial if humans could start at least to gain an appreciation of our true history instead of the layers and layers of lies that have been placed over our true origins; especially since more and more people became literate, affluent and started to ask these questions during the 17th and 18th centuries right through until today– but were always rebuffed with a stream of horseshit from intellectual authorities, so called, whenever they tried to access some Real Truth.

A taboo subject even until this day, also. But then again, anyone daring to question the western horseshit narrative was also taboo until China and Russia got their collective rocks on earlier this week and began action! So fuck taboos, pardoning my French, and here’s to a little bit of context as we move forward towards something better at last– it’s been too long in coming. No doubt there will be some major setbacks along the way as psychopaths don’t like losing, but we’ll get there eventually; and some extra background in addition to what Arl has already kindly revealed– as to who we are and where we came from– would really help.

Shout out to Arl if she’s reading this, btw!

The moon was placed in orbit around the earth during early regional occupany of society clusters prior to the establishment of the "Old Empire". It's use was as an "ark" from which the species could disembark and establish colonies on the planetary surface. This took millions of years, and those colonies were short lived. [Realitively speaking. -MM]

Subsequent species set up colonies on the earth, as well as native intelligences arose in the process.

None of these intelligences, and tool-making societies realized that the moon possessed a void.

During "Old Empire" expansion and the resulting wars, the planetary surface communities were destroyed, and the earth (as well as many other adjacient planetary systems) were evicerated, and had to reestablish themselves. At that time, the "Old Empire" decided to construct the Prison Complex in this general vincinity. It was during the planning for the construction system that the moon was discovered to be hollow.

Teams went in and identifed an environment with atmosphere, light, heat, and abandoned structures. They purged the atmosphere and modified it for the dominant "Old Empire" species, then they set up a command and control operations center there for the Earth Prison Planet.

When The Domain conquered the "Old Empire" in this sector we took over the facility, and now monitor it's operation, leaving many of the (former "Old Empire") workers and inhabitants in place.

Oh, and by the way. Arl says "Hi!". [ Ok, yes. This is a hard chill response. It's real, in other words. -MM]

[8.11] Question

How do I avoid Mantid Prime tracking and influences?

Members of the Domain that have a "woke" consciousness need not be concerned with mantid prime interference in thoughts and desires. Questioner is to remain confidential. Migrate actions in show careful steps so as not to arose suspecion or opposition that could alert snares. Upon termination of this life contract, questioner is to call for pickup and await retrieval.

Then, questioner will enter a situation that they will not understand, but they are to follow our guidance and processing. Fear manifestations are programmed and will be present. Questioner is not to invoke defense responses as the recovery team are / will be of former comrades (whether recognized or not) and recovery steps will be initiated.

You are well missed. We will being you home. It will happen! Do not lose faith. [Ultra strong emotional push. Goose bumps. Smashing hard clamor of emotion. I even have tears coming out of my eyes. Jeeze! -MM]

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

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[daegonmagus] – Part 20 – SD’s Premonition of an Imminent Nuclear Attack set for 28th February 2022

The following is the 19th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

-MM

Part 20 – SD’s Premonition of an Imminent Nuclear Attack set for 28^th February 2022

Let’s get a few things straight, right off the bat; I am not here to fear monger people with this article. I ummed and arred about whether I should bother typing it, and after considering things I believe it warrants putting down on virtual paper, given the current situation unfolding in Ukraine. We all know how delicate this situation is. We all saw it coming. What concerns me is that SD and I have had our fair share of “dreams” – both lucid and not – that allude to the very real kicking off of WW3. These premonitions, as I guess you could call them have, quite readily shaped both of our ideals on survivalism. From nukes going off in out neighborhood, through the unleashing of the “black dragon” in China, to the Covid vaccine toilet paper shortage, we have had a myriad of premonition like dreams between us that upon reflection many years later seem to be at the very least metaphorically describing things unfolding around us. Other times they have been pinpoint accurate, like the closing off regional borders in our state, and placing of military personnel in the exact same places we had the border closure dreams (in both of our dreams beyond the borders were represented by a void of total nothingness.)

Here’s the concerning part, and I hope to fuck it is a complete miss on my part. I must apologize for not getting out sooner; the Ukraine shit has been unfolding so fast I have been trying to keep up with it all.

Back at the start of February SD tells me “the 22^nd is when shit is going to go down”. Ok, so to put this into context, like I said our dreams have shaped our survivalism ideals, and have solidified the idea that all out nuclear war is at this stage, more likely a “when” than it is an “if”.

So when she says the 22^nd is when shit is going to down, assume that automatically translates as some sort of SHTF event leading to WW3.

I press her on what it will be, but she tells me she doesn’t know, only that someone or something suggested to her the 22^nd or “possibly even the 23^rd for us when you take into account different time zones”. She just can’t get out of her head the 22^nd/23^rd February 22.

That day rolls around and what happens….well, we all know the answer to that question. Putin decides enough is enough and drives his army into Ukraine.

But that is not all.

The night of Putin’s grand entrance, SD has another dream. She is literally woken up by her own voice shouting at her “THE 28th”.

Then, whilst in the hypnogogic/ sleep paralysis state, she is suddenly in the middle of a city, with modern western style skyscrapers, and a big bomb is going off. And I mean BIG.

She specifically mentions this thing has a mushroom cloud, and the explosion seems to “cut the tops off the buildings” before the shockwave breaks all the windows and hits her.

It is so vivid she can smell and taste all the sulphur and metal.

The next day, again she is in hypnogogia and she has a follow up dream to the blast; a woman is standing at a podium either addressing the bomb or announcing her country’s intent to become involved.

This woman, SD says, her clothing makes her looks like she could be chubby, blonde hair put up in a bun behind her head, 40 to 50 years old, wearing a business suit style jacket.

SD end’s up looking up female women in power to try and see if she can find anyone resembling her. She comes across what she said was an “exact match” but the fucking phone loses the page before she can figure out who it is.

She looks up secretaries of defense of European countries and says the at both the Czechoslovakian and Belgian secretaries of defense look very similar to the woman she saw giving the address.

Something else that concerns me is a dream I had back on November 25^th which suggested a military was prepping for a major nuclear exchange. I went back through the dream share thread and found my write up on it:

“I was some kind of special forces military guy. Not sure what division, but I am fairly sure I wasn’t a SEAL. The people around me seem to be wearing American Military camos but they could have just as easily been Russian.

It was night time and I was on this long straight road that seemed to run for miles through fields of either dead yellow grass, wheat or some other type of crop.

There are multiple military bases every couple of kilometres along this road. I pass one in particular, and it has a big metal cylindrical missile thing sticking out of the ground in a clearing on the other side of the fence that hugged the road. it didn’t look like a typical missile – it was more like a giant tin can with a flat top and it’s protrusion from its silo wasn’t very high – only a little bit taller than me.

To begin with I was walking.

I receive a call from my superior officer. He tells me that I need to assemble all the military personnel from the nearby {standard} bases to the silos that are scattered around the area. My orders are to go to each silo and personally give the orders to their commanding officers to prime the nuclear warheads, and to their lower ranking personnel that we are preparing for a test launch.

The real reason he tells me is different; we are either preparing for a pre-emptive strike on our enemies, or preparing for a retaliation attack for some other shit “we” have planned, I can’t specifically remember.

IT could have even been that America was the enemy.

I hop in my jeep and drive down this road; there are ALOT of these silos surrounded by a whole farm’s worth of vacant land. I watch as hundreds upon hundreds of these silo doors open and out pop these giant tin cans, ready for me to give the launch signal. Satisified I make my way up the road to continue with the rest.

This didn’t feel like a standard dream looked similar to this but without the fins. Google image caption reads “US nukes stored in Netherlands”:

just checked my fb and get this – i have a fucking friend request from a woman named “{first name} Littleboy”…. holy shit that’s not good

The edges were sharper just like a tin can. They didn’t really look like a typical bomb/ missile shape – certainly not very aerodynamic. Though I do remember thinking of them as “littleboys” at some points in the dream and when I woke up.

Hence why I figured it was America – i am very much aware of the littleboy and fat man bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima/Nagasaki – fuck come to think of it a couple of them may have even been called Minutemans by some of the military staff. Whatever was going on, someone was arming practically their entire {ground based} nuclear arsenal for war.

Maybe the littleboy thing was for me to pay attention to the synchronicity.”

I sure as fuck hope me and SD are wrong on this one, but in case we aren’t, if you live in Europe, I suggest taking a spontaneous camping trip a few miles away from your house for a few days. Stay safe and let’s weather out whatever shit may unfold from here on out.

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Part 7 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander march 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 7.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. 

Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

This is part of the Q&A (on-going) effort where questions are provided to me, and then I present them, and then record and interpet the responses.

Personally, I think girls, cats, and food are far more interesting. But, that's me, don't you know.

[7.1a] Question – Was I “Old Empire”?

Yes. Hello guys. How have you all been?

I hope all of you have been much better than me. Recently I had a dream. I think it was a memory from the past. It looked medieval. In a medieval building, we were a few people. I think I was the leader or something similar. Too much to mention so little time.

My question is Was I in the Old empire or where did I come from?

Questioner was a member of the "Old Empire". Dream was <garble> <confusing text stream> <impression I have is of something like travel / visit / memory / or memory rewind in real time / experience.> This kind of event is not uncommon to human inmate skin-suits. This is a carryover aspect of soul / consciousness / quantum reconfiguring when the entity is placed within the Prison Planet complex ans is assigned a skin-suit for general population utilization.

Questioner was punished for repeat violations of multiple minor infractions. Judge sentencing was mercurial and arbitrary. Questioner, however did not take the opportunites afforded to it to escape from the sentencing situation and refused to budge upon its standing in the community thinking it was immune from harsh judgements. Obviously it was wrong.

The dream itself is not signifigant. What is signifigant is that there are fractional elements int he quanta that can access the memories prior to the "Old Empire" mind wipe event sequence.

Questioner is experiencing changes at this time and while they are uncomfortable, they are important as they allow the consciousness of the questioner to relive the "Old Empire" sentencing and incarceration process. It was tramatic for the questioner in that embodiment, and this period of time is helping to reawake the questioner and engoge the quanta with energy to assist in full awakening.

Questioner is to be advised that everything is proceeding as planned, and not to worry too much about the discomfort. The questioner will be much improved and better after this period of discomfort.

[7.1b] Question – Transporter Use

Question number 2 is :

Why can’t the Domain build a teleporter and zoom their personnel off this fuck place to a galaxy/planet far far away and start rehabilitation then?

Questioner asks a valid question. The answer is that The Domain can do so. We have numerous teleportation (sic) facilities on the Earth Planetary environment within the Prison Complex.

Questioner must understand that the physical body skin-suit that the IS-BE possesses is not sustainable outside of the Prison Complex. It is a custom made envelope for this prison complex only. Were the Domain to do so, the result would be a rapid period of mental, emotional "melt down" (of the physical body) followed by a freeing of the IS-BE consciousness that would immediately be ejected from (what ever environment it was teleported to) to an injection back within the non-physical realms of the Prison Complex environment.

The teleporter (sic) is useful for moving physical doll-bodies, and non-inmate skin-suits in and out fo the prison complex. "Through the wire" so to speak. But it can only be used inside the prison complex bubble universe for the inmates imprisoned within the skin-suits.

On a practical basis, this means that the inmates can travel within the earth solar system, and to numbers other solar systems that also lie within the bubble universe that the "Old Empire" prison has constructed. There are numerous such solar systems. Five are populated with inmates in various physical forms. As well as other solar systems that lie within the bubble universe, but that have no prison population present.

[7.2a] Question – A “cold dark” sea.

MM a few questions that I have been meaning to ask the Commander, though I needed to provide the necessary back context before doing so. They are concerning if true.

Question 1:
During my phone interview with Linda Moulton Howe about a year ago she mentioned a “cold dark sea” as being a term passed onto a CIA agent by a Majestic agent, which had something to do with vast area space of space that surrounds us and is different to normal space in that it “ebbs and flows”. Question: is the cold dark sea (in this context) a real thing understood by Majestic, and if so why should we be concerned about it? is it the same as the anomaly thing i saw during my experience with the Elder Guardians or something different?

Questioner is correct. There is a region of physical space that lies outside of the micro-bubble universe. This is different from the physical space that lies otuside of the solar system. And should be confused by it's apparent similarity. This region is typical to that of all universes. It is normal.

It is an area of tides, vortexes, winds, and pressure fluctuations. The quanta components that inhabit this region is not easy for skin-suits to understand as they represent a condition that lies outside of the given universe so constructed.

However, in the case of the prison complex; bubble micro-universe it is a different situation. The prison complex micro-universe is a bubble that lies inside of the main universe. Thus, the region directly adjacient to the prison complex barrier is an interface threshold to the main universe.

This interface threshold is neither part of the micro bubble universe, nor part of the main universe that it was spawned from. It is something else.

Entities crossing through from the main universe into the prison complex bubble universe would experience numerous changes in environment as they move though this region.

From the main universe would be a transition from calm and entering into a regions of gentile turmoil that would increase slightly until the outside bubble universe barrier is met.

This is a membrane much like the difference bteween oil and water, and once the entity crosses it, there is a discordance of thought and memory as the high intensity elecromagnetic environment causes disruption to the IS-BE.

Then once the membrane is crossed, there is a gentle easing of the transitionary changes of the interior of the bubble universe; prison complex environment.

[7.2b] Question – smuggled weapons

Question 2:
During that same interview, Linda mentioned that her contacts have suggested that the US military has successfully smuggled “weapons” into the astral planes, for the purpose of fighting “demons that exist there” that have a “monopoly on our souls”.

This aligns with something i have been told by another source, though this source mentioned these were nuclear weapons that were “smuggled”, and are being used to “negotiate” with {strong arm} these non physical beings.

From the answers to my my past questions, it seems that these “demons” are quite possibly the Goetic spirits of Solomon or those mentioned in the respective Q&A, and the US military doesn’t really understand the implications of what they are doing, or who it is they are messing with (thinking they are just lowly demons rather than opposers of the OE regime).

I have to admit, this is kind of hard to get my head around, but we know that MM’s physical body was able to be transported into a plane, so it at least seems plausible.

Question, does the Domain know of any such undertakings, and what would the implications of having a nuclear weapon go off in those planes be compared with here in the physical. Worse, not as bad, etc?

This intel is incorrect. The information is distorted and abused (?).  The MAJestic organization cannot utilize teleportation technology without Domain overview and permissions. We do not allow any service-to-self behaviors or the teleportation of any dangerous mechanisms in any realm by inmate skin-suits.

What about non-MAJestic entities? Can they do so?

Of the nuclear powers / nations / organizations that possess nuclear or otherwise dangerous weapons, their access (of all entities within their respective "secret" organizations) have culled and restricted access to teleportation devices. We would never permit or allow that to occur. We can read the thoughts and tides that manifest prior to entry access and take appropiate action.

While this subject was briefly discussed in some cases, we have easily distracted the thought patterns to other venues and in other directions. Nothing ever came of such thoughts and actions.

Ok, so there are no nuclear weapons smuggled into the teleportation mechanisms as The Domain controls that venue. But what of other creatures, other micro universes, and other groups that might not be part of the The Domain sphere of influence?

Yes. There are independent groups that operate upon their own issues, plans and directives. They all have varying levels of influence, capability and ability. The questioner is part of one such organization. Yes, not all of them work with The Domain, but most recognize our leadership role in this micor universe.

There are no nuclear devices, or similiar devices (to it or equivalent to it) that have been placed upon the non-physical environs within the Prison Complex spreciifed from the Earth-centric sphere of influence. However, there are corrupted devices that are planted / implanetd / modified and capable of great horrific damage if activated.

We are aware of those mechanisms and devices. These systems cannot be easily deactivated as they are inherent with the construction of this particular micro universe and tulize advanced technologies. Our allies <image of giant slug like engineers> the "oompaloompas", have been working on these systems for some time. We are confident that detonation / activation / energize / implosion will not be possible at this time, and full inert deactivation will occur in the future.

What would happen if they are not deactivated, and detonated?

The micro bubble universe and it's spawned "heaven" universes would all be destroyed. All IS_BE entities trapped within these universes would be left in a rubbled state with a long, long time to recover. Even if they could recover, they would be lost.

[7.3] Question – Connections with offspring

Hi MM and forum members,

I have a question if possible,

What is our real connection to our biological offspring (our children), due to imprisonment, amnesia and the recycling of our souls back into physical form via “a mission profile” and the light are our biological children connected to us in the non physical realm as “part of us/me”, the concept of protecting my child is very very strong in myself, it’s my life and my motivation. I understand maternal instincts are strong in us but are we only “custodians” of another young developing soul. I hope this makes sense

Thank you so very much for this chance to ask this question.

Questioner is concerned about the relationship factors of consciousness / soul cluster in regards to reincarnated cycling back and forth between the Heaven micro universe and the general population "punishment" (reality) universe.

Questioner has two groups of friends / family / associations. Each group is a special case.

First Case

The first case is the primary questioned concern. This has to do with the cycled soul cluster that shares tthe heaven micro universe, and the recycled reincarnated reality universe. 

For the vast numbers of humanity / and other species this recycling involves gourps of people that take on various roles with reincarnated familes. 

This is much like what the "Old Empire" did in the main universe except that the memory erasure was never so final and absolute. 

In this case, the likelihood that members of the questionsers' family from the heaven micro universe is whith him now is strong and high. 

In fact, this is a common situation with notible exceptions such as MM and imprisoned Domain IS-BE entities. These entities often find themselves in reincarnated lives (sic) alone with no preconceived relationships that carry over from previous incarnations. 

In fact, that is one of the big "tell tales" that help us locate members of the Domain "Lost Battalion". The lack of quantum connections can be observed and measured with the proper training and awareness. 

Thus many of the Domain "Lost Battalion" find themselves in host familes upon reincarnation that appear faraway or aloof, or not in agreement with their thoughts and viewpoitns. While this is in part a normal part of all inmate skin-suit experiences for perhaps 20% of the general population, those of the "Lost Battalion" find this situation to extreme and absolute.

They do not "fit in" with their inhereted host families, and they might feel like they do not belong. Like they were adopted from another family or something similiar. Being without these quantum connections has retarded the interpersonnel family relationships to some degree. The members of the "Lost Battalion" realize this, even if they cannot verbalize it.

This results in certain attachments that manifest when searching for a mate.

In the case of the questioner, this is not the case. They have family members, younger members, and older members that thay have had many, many cycled reincarnated experiences with. 

In this present incarnation, the answer to the question (unstated, but observed) that in the immediate family are members of long, long quantum entanglments and substantive relationships from heaven (sic) and previous lives and reincarnations.

Second Case

The second case concerns the relationships with those prior to incarceration by the "Old Empire". These relationships are much older, longer and more substantive than any that the questioner is associated with regarding his immediate incarnation relaionships.

For the vast bulk of inmates these relationships are completely severed and cannot be fully reestablished until there is an ability to recover the entities prior memories. 

While the former friends and families will realize who the questioner is and what is going on with it, they will not maintain the same relationships that were present prior to jailing and incarceration. They will have changed, and the questioner has changed. 

Even with full recovery of memories, everything has changed.

[7.4] Question – About questioners past

Please consider the following as a question for the DC.

“What did I experience as a child that i only now have the wisdom to begin to comprehend”?

I hope this isn’t too vague. Tried to distill the issue to the simplest question. Hopeful an answer provides a launchpad to a more direct STO path/career for years ahead.

Additional context:

I suspect the experience involves type 1 greys or similar; could be a single experience or event; timeframe circa 75-86.

Questioner has not provided enough information for presentation by MM (sic). Communication consists of a transmitter and a reciever. Additionally, both have to be tuned to the same frequencies, and transmit in the same language.

[1] If the transmitter is from RCA, and the reciever is from Magnavox, there is the possibility in garbled communications.

[2] Further, if they are not communicating on the same frequency, or one is sending in AM, while the other is recieving in FM, there would be no communication.

[3] Further to that, of the sender speaks French and the reciever only understands Japanese, and the message is in Islandic, no communication is possible.

Transmitter (MM) knows nothing about the issue, the questioner, and the situation. Yet the questioner is expected that somehow there is this magical transference of information. There cannot be any transmission of information if no information is provided.

So the transmitter submits an empty message. And thus, respectfully the
Reciever collects that empty message, and interpets it as useless.

The questioner needs to fully appreciate the magniture of his folly. An eleven year span of time is presented devoid of coordinates, references or data. Somehow the transmitter is to acquire geolocation data, history, packaged information and submit it for review and response.

Of course nothing can be provided.

Questioner is to collect his thoughts and generate a multi-paragraph presentation describing reasons for the request, his personal history regarding any incidents referred to, and why it is considered to be of importance. The presenter (MM) will then have enough information to generate an image that we can read.

This is what all the other questioners do. The questioner must provide enough information to provide thick and accurate responses.

The Commander was nice and polite, but I am not. So I am going to give all readers a very strong lecture right now.

If the subject matter is too embarrassing then do not submit it. If you find it too much of a hassle to provide a minimum of contextual background then please do not waste my time.

You all need to provide details and background when presenting a question, and you must understand it fully. Then you must present it to me so that I can understand it.

Explain what this means, can you provide the necessary details so that the events of 1967 can be understood.

The Domain Commander is not a magical being. There are limitations. This entire situation utilizes a physically implanted EBP for goodness sakes. And the Commander accesses answers via various means. Do not treat him / it / she as some kind of supernational being. It isn’t.

I spend roughly three hours on every question all told. And it’s a very tying and difficult procedure and very uncomfortable. I’m doing this for fucking free God damn it. Do not take me for granted. -MM

[7.5a] Question – future of Asia

My question for the Domain is: how do they see Japan, the Koreas and Taiwan fitting into a brighter Asian future given what we now know thanks to the Commander/MMan’s Q&A?

Projections of the Asian geographical region is overall positive and free of the attempts to militarize it to a point of open overt and violent physical warfare.

Within a hundred years will be new "understandings" regarding Korea and South-Western Russian Federation. These will be economically stable and free of conflict. This may or may not result in formal geographical boundaries.

Japan is expected to break away from the relationship with the United States and will diverge in their own cultural vector. It will be inward directed and mercantile. It will resume its cultural uniqueness and participate in a growning regional economy. However, it will not be a signifigant one.

Taiwan will unify peacefully with the mainland Chinese. It will be conducted in multiple stages, and for most of the world it will be innocuous and transparent actions of no concern or overt worry. There will be opposition domestically to this action in pockets, but they will be isolated and eaisly suppressed. China will be observed and percieved as a grand national society that most Taiwanese would want to be part of. As this perception increases in popularily, the ease of reunification increase proportionally. 

Of course, these are only projections and the future can never be predicted with absolute certainity.

[7.5a] Question – East Asia immediate concerns

Are they (Taiwan, Japan and Korea) predicted to work with China or go down with the Western Ship? (Deagel does forecast significant population drops in all 3 regions, so perhaps that answers my question!)

Deagal forecasts are predictions based on remote viewing and statistical projections. They are not without fault, and the template (sic) can change rapidly.

The long term trends for the region so specified by the questioner is overall positive. However, there are worrisome elements in the immediate short-term future. We (The Domain) project a strong possibility of disruptive elements that may ignite some events that have the potential for great catastrophic loss of life.

Trendlines and global alignments are a "tightrope" that need to be mitigated through shrewd actions and careful planning. As long as the respective "leadership" in those regions "off shore" their Geo-political  counselling to any of the major Western powers, then catastrophic results will become a certainty.

However, this is not the actual case. Internally, and in confidentiality, there are strong and influential elements that recognize national stability being of upmost importance. They will assure a transitional posture away from the West as a matter of national survival.

Having much experience of East Asia and living here again now, it always strikes me how there are a lot more similarities than differences between these great nations across a broad spectrum, and the US model was never a good fit having been superimposed upon Korea and Japan in particular since WW2.

There are many positive things going on in Korea, but having socialised a bit this past week with some reasonably well connected Koreans (businessy types and the medical profession– old high school acquaintances of my wife’s, mostly), it’s clear after some gentle probing that most people still think that “the Virus escaped from the Wuhan Lab” and that “it’s all Chinas fault.”

Now, having said that, most of these folks are NPCs, anyway, (whereas Korean leadership and elites are most definitely clued in and quite sentient, obviously! I’m just referring in this case to a random subset known to me personally) and IMHO know shit from shinola about the wider world, but they DO represent blue/white collar Korean society in general– homogeneous; consensus thinking, etc. And they are ALL pro mRNA rollout and feel that the side effects are stastically minor. In fact, many of them have shares in a Korean biotech firm that on the directions of the President is setting up a Korean version of the MRNA jab for manufacture and they’re all looking forward to making lots of money in future.

Depressing stuff, I know.

mRNA booster rollout is also being “offered” to young children soon and the only places open for business to the unvaxxed are grocery and some other outlets. Most businesses are fast becoming vaxxed only and there’s no resistance. They’re even rolling out a vaxx cert for schoolkids under 16 next month in order to pressure parents who won’t consent to mRNA inoculation for them or their children.

No Chinese or Russian traditional vaccines are available or even talked about. They are full on mRNA in Korea and looking forward to making lots of money producing their own version now that airline stocks have gone tits down.

All in all kind of a depressing picture, that’s why I’m curious about the future as clearly Korea and Japan are places of great innovative potential. Taiwan, too. And could really work with China and each other once the malevolent US controlled socio- political apparatus is dismantled.

Thanks, Mr Man. Let’s hope the Year of the Tiger lives up to its reputation.

Social classes in Korea will follow leadership guidance. The leadership will adopt an array of different policies and change direction on a number of subjects. However, there will firstly be some events that will contribute to a change in their thinking and attitude. 

The questioner need not worry about the details, just know that there arepressures and vectors that strongly suggest a future that does not match what currently exists.

[7.6a] Question – Flushing out details

I conducted a private, personal comm reading for this questioner. The discussion that follows has been redacted and simplified to fit this venue. All confidential material has been omitted. -MM

…

MM, I read the latest answers and I am really excited!

It took me a while to digest, and I sincerely thank you and the commander for taking the time to answer my questions! Also, the revelation about a new (Domain sponsored interface) organization in China…wow!

I understand that you have a regular life to live, and there are other questions already in the pipeline. I do have some questions, which are NOT urgent at all. But I do think the answers to them are very important not just for me but for others regarding these “learning clusters” (whenever you can get to them, of course).

Question 1;

The commander’s last answer to my questions about joining the Domain full time after I complete my sentence in this current meat suit only solidified/confirmed my decision that joining the Domain full time without doing another incarnation round is the absolutely 1000% correct path for my IS-BE.

Based from the commander’s response, I wound up creating my dysfunctional quantum entanglements while taking this “soul improvement course” for centuries with other IS-BEs, only to find out now that all I did was dig myself deeper into some sort of quantum hole (like quicksand or something).

So my take is, (no offense to the Mantids, I’m not arguing with them, and arguing isn’t going to help me anyway) that clearly the curriculum is ineffective and inappropriate for the correct development of my IS-BE.

It may have been fine for some other IS-BE’s, but I am quite unhappy with the dysfunctional results and believe that a change of scenery (join the Domain full time and train) would be a better choice for becoming the best IS-BE I can be.

Am I justified in thinking that the “self improvement” curriculum that they are making inmate IS-BE’s attend (for centuries in my case) is in SERIOUS need of reform?

That perhaps, if the results are overwhelmingly negative or dysfunctional for certain types of IS-BEs, that it’s the curriculum that needs real modification?

Am I justified in thinking that relying on the same mechanism to neutralize unstable quantum entanglements (reincarnation and “studying” with the same IS-BE’s that you cultivated fucked up relationships with for the next few centuries) is a fool’s errand?

Kind of like using the same skin cream that keeps on giving you acne, but somehow hoping that it will work for you this time?

The educational / reform program that originates out of the "Heaven" bubble universe is part of an elaborate system to reconfigure garbons (sic) and swales (sic) to "reform" IS-BE entities into a different type of form and shape. Once that shape is complete the entities whill not be able to fit into the "Old Empire" environment even if they were ever to escape from the Prison Planet complex.

There are numerous issues regarding this system.

[1] Firstly, the initial intention was to create an intentional reform mechanism that will allow inmates so processed to be rehabilitated and changed into a form that is no longer dangerous and threatening to the "Old Empire".

[2] This origional system was intended to change the very shape and nature of the IS-BE so altered, and then remove them from the Prison Complex and then reinject them elsewhere in a distant area far away from the "Old EMpire". The initial plan consisted of millions of years of retraining, and alteration. It was not initially established as a final solution for really bad criminal elements.

[3] However, as the leadership of the "Old Empire" changed, so did the direction, function and features of the Prison Complex. They changed the structure of the reeducation program, and made it so that there would never (truly and actually) be a period of parole and release. In so doing, the Prison Complex became a "black hole" from which criminals would enter and never leave.

[4] Mantid Prime directives changed over time internally of their own volition, and the program was changed with differnt processes, course studies and intentions.

[5] General population Mantid directives, upon working with us at The Domain, has thus changed, and interactions regarding the training and rehabilitation schedule and programs are no longer in synchronization. This is a Domain directive. As the Mantid Prime plans call for much more bloodshed, violence and horrific events than what The Domain finds acceptable.

[6] Other groups, some well-meaning, others self-serving, have each individually and in groups have altered, modified, changed and otherwise seriously altered the rehabilitation educational program.

The results of all these changes is a bastardized / hybrid program of little value to any IS-BE. The questioner is advised to elect not to participate in it, and upon translation (death); call for pickup and the next-steps that we have in place for this questioner.

[7.6b] Question – Karma

I remember Airl’s words on how kindness begets kindness, and how cruelty begets cruelty. That keeps on ringing in my brain.

I absolutely agree with the commander’s wisdom on kind behaviours. It brought me back on the subject of karma.

While I agree that it exists, I have severe misgivings on its effectiveness as a “corrective” or “justice” mechanism.

While I am certainly not anti-punishment and I absolurtely understand that some people/entities only understand the “stick” rather than the carrot, I know first hand that suffering and cruelty in general (not always) begets only more suffering and cruelty (especially if the person/entity recieving the cruelty has no memory of what happened in the past and they truly believe themselves to be the victim, so they lash out in reaction…thus extending the negative cycle instead of becoming a better sentience…sort of like an abused kid who grows up to abuse others because that’s all he/she knew, and those others they abused “spread” their negativity and abuse others too because that’s all they knew, and so forth…).

My thesis is that karma is a reinforcement mechanism (for good or bad) and I undretsand the commander’s excellent advice to use kindness as a way to start and maintain positive cycles.

I have a suspicion that entities can be “tricked” or bamboozled into accumulating negative karma because of the memory wipe/”electrocuting the bejesus out of them” technique.

They think they are doing the right thing, only to realize that they actually committed a crime and really hurt people (like useful idiot or NGO volunteer).

Am I right to have these suspicions, since Earth is a prison planet?

Are many entities who were political prisoners/artists/whatnot from other planets “corrupted” this way so that they would be purposely saddled/handicapped with negative karma?

Is it fair to say that you can also cause an otherwise decent entity to become “infected” with this negativivity through their experience, and in turn they will infect others with this negativity (giving your measles to everyone within your range of contact)?

Am I justified in thinking that negative karma is “infectuous” and that we must come up with a mechanism to prevent in from ensnaring others?

Also, it seems that the Old Empire have some technology that “enhances” this negative karmic infectivity. Is this a decent suspicion or am I the victim of an overactive imagination?

I will be giving you a donation soon once I get more money in (not that you asked). We really appreciate everything you do (even the resident curmudgeon (you know who he is) was pretty stoked with your last article.

Ha! Like I said, while I believe the lastest questions I am asking have significance and importance on the nature of the prison system here on Earth and how some entities wind up saddled with big karmic disturbances, it’s certainly not an emergency and can be answered in a leisurely pace.

Questioner is correct. Again, the purposes, systems, and devices of the Prison Complex have been subverted to other uses and purposes. many of which are to benefit others of a Service-to-Self sentience, and to profit from.

[1] There are entities that use the Prison Complex for entertainment purposes, and have created never-ending bouts of recurring terror and events for their own personal amusement.

[2] There are entities that feed of the emotions (so generated) by difficult times and use that to build up their own quanta alignments. In this way, the human inmates are utilized as a farmed animal or creature to generate quantum alignments taht can be extracted through harvesting. Then the IS-BE entity must endure it over and over again without ever getting off or out of the program. It's similiar to reliving a movie scene over and over and over again.

[3] The new directives of Mantid Primes encourage the creation of inadvertant quantum (karma) attachments to solidify group clusters as part of their revised goals for the human species within the Heaven micro universe.

[4] When the Prison Complex was first established, it was believed at that time, that if an IS-BE entity would endure similiar event sequences for millions of lifetime reincarnations that it would grow tired of that exerience and never want to inflect those pains and terrors on others.

[5] Service-to-self entities that work with their mantid primes can construct lifetime experience that create these event vectors for their own personal amusement, growth, or pleasure.

The questioner realizes that all interactions at all levels create attachments. Some are good and some are bad realative to the reincarnation cycle process. This is a fundamental understanding associated with the questioners role as a <redacted> prior to capture, and memory erasure. All fellow entities procured along with the questioner have this understanding, and are equally frustrated being thrown into the general population in such a manner where their carefully cultivated lives (billions of years worth) have be subverted, altered and damaged.

[7.7a] Question – Who was I?

MM — Firstly, I’d like to thank you for your continuous efforts on these matters. To me, they deeply resonate with my world view and for that I sincerely thank you. I have to apologise in advance for a lengthy request… though I feel it’s necessary in order to posit my questions below.

I’ve been very lucky to be blessed with an exceptionally strong, caring and loving family, who collectively without exception promoted and instilled in me the concept of unconditional love. Such concepts have largely been driven by my parents who have read a significant amount of literature throughout their lives regarding the non-physical world, as they call it.

While I did not always believe in this throughout my teenager years, I (for a while now) deeply feel this is true to me (I just know it’s true); that if everyone adopted these teachings, society would be so much of a better place — I am also an extremely rational person, who I believe is open to any kind of experience as a way of learning: this includes the darkness and other negatively-characterised aspects of life, simply because one cannot know love (for example) without knowing the opposite.

Just know that I’m aware that life is not a system of duality but rather an infinite spectrum of opposite sets of experiences.

I think of it as an infinite ruler with a zero in the middle—the way I see it, in the physical world, life is often seen as a scene of duality where a positive experience (+1, +2 and so on) has a corresponding negative experience (-1, -2 and so on) whereas in reality there are an infinite number of numbers (or experiences) in between those natural numbers.

As such, I do not have hatred towards the Old Empire because I realise that that was the path such IS-BEs chose for their own progression.

I’m still human after all (for now) but I realise that each consciousness is free to choose their own path. I hope this is clear to MM, the Domain, and the readership.

Having said this, I have a very strong, deep and fiery feeling that I do not belong here.

I often discuss with my father how schizophrenic the current world is, how much unnecessary pain etc. is caused by manipulation, herd mentality and the way we’ve been conditioned to think, without realising that all we need to do is to live in the moment, and that our choices to us and towards others really encompass all that matters.

We can only experience life via our five senses, therefore one must realise that there is an incomprehensibly (to the human mind, that is) high number of ways one can experience reality, with much of it being driven by thoughts, personal idiosyncrasies and synchronicity.

We are all different, yet we are all one (I feel that we are all derived from the same source, whether we call it god, belief in oneself, or some higher entity as we, humans, try to perceive it—“consciousness seems to be the universe experiencing itself”).

I wish I could put into words how much I want to write, though the above is merely a way of explaining my world view to finally ask the question I’ve always wanted to know:

Who am I / who was I before my time in the prison system complex?

…

I have repeatedly asked the MM readership to stop asking these kinds of questions. The Commander has been very clear that the knowledge of what people were pior to their incarceration does more harm than help for the IS-BE entity.

Never the less, I did ask and posit this question.

Keep in mind that often the answers are often very distasteful, and personally I, as MM, do not like the images and thoughts that are presented to me. Remember, not everyone was caught up in a political sweep or discharged accidentially. Some were very, very bad entities that had to be put into prison.

Questioner is sincere, but is likely not expecting the answers that will presented to him. Often times the thoughts generated by knowledge can have a detremental effect on lives of the questioner. Human skin-suits should not ask questions that they might not be ready to accept the answers to.

Let it be well understood that the questioner was not a human, meaning that the human skin-suit was not the preferred physical form that the entity utilized. The region where the questioner lived (prior to incarceration) was associated with planets and environs that did not favor human archetypes. It was a completely different biosphere.

The entity was practitioner of technological magic that created modifications of injectible advertisements into the thought streams of other creatures for personal profit and occupation.

<Image of a pot-bellied satyr like creature.> (This seems to be a dominant shape form or vehicle for many "Old Domain" creatures. -MM)

(I am getting many images / thoughts of hyper-sexuality, manipulation of the thoughts of others, brutal "mind rape" resulting in physical actions of a distasteful nature.-MM)

Questioner was involved in multiple offenses, of a repeating nature that occurred over long swaths of time, various geographical areas, and a great deal of sadness, suffering and disruption of local families, children, and great heart-rendering anguish.

Questioner has been on a planned evolutionary egress from this life and is unable to return back to it. When the time comes to exit the Prison Complex, there will be a need for extra special attention. This will be for the cultivation and retention of prior memories, the questioner will need to undergo extra special rehabilitation so that the events leading up to the incarceration will not be counter-productive.

[7.7b] Question – Domain assistance

My second point, is that I truly want everyone in this prison system complex to be freed from it, where possible.

However, I realised from reading MM’s notes that this may be not always be possible.

Therefore, even though I do feel some guilt by asking the Domain to kindly assist me and my core family to remove us from the prison upon our deaths in the physical world, I sincerely hope this is possible so we can reunite with our true clans/societies/clusters (I feel such an intense love and connection with my parents, especially, that I’m inclined to believe we belong to the same clusters).

Could the Domain assist me and my core family in order to remove us from the prison after our physical deaths?

Yes. The Domain will assist all irregulars. 

This will be conducted on an individual basis and each IS-BE will be handled differently based up their own backgound and needs.

To volunteer, one must be a service-to-others sentience, and be willing to abide to the changes that the Domain will make to their non-physical bodies. For many entities this will be terrifying as the "Old Empire" fear-inducement mechanisms will be activated. 

Additionally, the volunteers must agree to the rules and laws of the Domain, and agree to follow operational directives.

This is conducted on an entity to entity basis. The questioner cannot speak or make arrangements for his family unit, no matter how well intentioned.

I performed a follow-up question on this subject later on in this article. It’s question [7.10]. -MM

[7.7c] Question – Responsibilites of membership

Finally, this will lead to my final point. Synchronicities in this world are real — I find so many answers everyday in MM’s notes to questions that I find myself having.

In fact, reading MM has finally established my core belief in this life, meaning that I now know that I was right in the feeling that there is so much more than physical experiences.

While I’ve made my silent goal to improve this world as much as I can (even if those steps that I take towards this goal may be small in scope), I’d like to strongly help the Domain:

While my desire to help is real, I do not know which clans/societies/clusters I was a part of before my stay in the prison system complex.

Therefore, I’d like to learn more about my prior clusters and the responsibilities of being a productive member of the Domain before deciding to join the Domain, as one may realise that they’d like to re-join their existing societies.

As such, what are the responsibilities of being a member of the Domain?

The Domain has very set and structured roles and responsibilities. This falls within a very organized and laid out set of defined social classes.

When someone wishes to join the Domain, they are reviewed on a personal individual basis. This is to determine in what way they would best fit within the Domain society and social structure. 

Not every entity can fit into it. 

But if the entity is so inclined, and is willing to obey the rules and laws and their social class then we would be very happy to invite the IS-BE entity to join the Domain, knowing full well that they can leave at any time.

Upon review, the IS-BE entity would be presented with a firm understanding of the expectations of Domain membership. From that point, and agreement, an evaluation period will begin and the entire process is an individual one that includes elements that are outside the range of understanding of the earth-bound IS-BE skin-suits at this time.

[7.7d] Question – Life path

Lastly, because I realise the effort of MM in providing his readership with feedback from the Domain, I wanted to ask one final point, if possible:

I struggle with balancing my mental health with the extreme stress that my job in finance puts on me. However, I endure this effort because I’m hoping that the job I chose will provide with enough capital for me to finally be “free” of the ‘rat race’ in order to finally dedicate my entire and full attention to creating experiences, to improve this world, and to, above all, help others.

As such, all I want to ask is for any feedback and/or recommendation that the Domain might have with regards to the life path that I am currently in. I feel so lost at times with this matter…

Would the Domain kindly provide feedback or any recommendations with regards to my current life path?

Life path decisons are a personal matter that is best determined by the individual.

The questioner has embarked on a life-path as established in his pre-birth world-line template (sic). It was his decision prior to being born, and he has followed it as was his objective.

This plan was formulated as part of a series of reincarnation events regarding a cycling structre of key soul IS-BE entities that the Questioner is part of. This cluster are all working together on a project that was put in place by themselves with direct guidance from their local mantid primes.

THe questioner is advised that the positive aspects of his current life are providing good and benifical improvements as has been his wishes. Even the distasteful elements of his life have a role. The questioner is obeying his jointly predicted performance vectors and should not deviate from it.

The relationships that the questioner currntly have are valuable and needs to be cultivated to make them healthier and stronger. Right now the questioner is balancing various elements in his life, we advise more emphisis placed on direct interpersonal relationship improvment over any fiancial or physical gain. 

It is a core lesson of this particular incarnation.

[7.8a] Question – “Old Empire” activities

Domain Commander, is there a connection to the media activities and Astronomical discoveries in exercises directly controlled by the old empire?

The "Old Empire" does not exist any more. It was conquered by The Domain and broken up into regional entities. All of the regional entities are under manitoring authority and watched closely.

[7.8b] Question – Interpretation of results

Could have the measurement and interpretation of the results 89.10.11.12.13….. Dimensional is it your reality?

Transmitter (MM) does not understand the question. Please rephrase with substantive explaination and detail.

[7.9a] Question – Interest in biology

I have some niggling questions for the commander. They’re important, yet not urgent. Important in the sense that I feel it solidifies my purpose and identity, which is of course essential to the way I interact with others. So, if you can ask him/her/it when your schedule allows, I would really appreciate it:

I have an enduring fascination with bacteria and viruses, and with the concept of developmental biology and epigenetics. I used to fantasise all the time that I was a scientist of this type doing research and making discoveries (in addition to my fantasies of being an amazing warrior). Now, I understand that it’s better to remember what I was rather than be told what I was. I have a strong attraction to this science. Could you tell me if this is strongly related to what I used to do before my prison stint?

Questioner was a <redacted>. Part of the skill sets in this role is intel gathering. It is cultivated and automatic and inherent in the nature of the IS-BE quantum makeup and structure. You can consider it to be a "sniffer" organ. It operates like a pre-cog ESP skill.

It is one of the skillsets that make a <redacted> and their co-<redacted> so capable and potent. Questioner has the inate ability to predetermine actions and activities relative to harm, damage or violence.

Questioner is in an inmate skin-suit. Yet, still has a quantum IS-BE make up that is a constructed arrangment that is not erased, only the memories are. Not the actual construction of being.

Therefore, the inherent tools / utilities / weapons / and systems of the <redacted> form are intact. Only the memories on how to use them are erased and no longer accessible.

In this instance, the questioner is getting elements of intel from its internal "organs" and doesn't know where they come from, or why they are appearing to the questioner.

The questioner is picking up and interpeting the elements for a subsequent round of global-wide bioweapon release by certain national elements that are increasingly finding themselves at a disadvantage, and they desire to provide advantage in their favor that they can control. They believe, erroniously, that their forced injections of a military syrup would protect their chosen populations during this next up-coming event sequence.

All evidence points otherwise.

The questioner has accurately "picked up" the intel signs associated with this, and this intel is of a serious nature to the <redacted> physical form.

The Chinese are aware of this plot and that is the reason why they implement draconian anti-virus measures at all levels.

[7.9b] Question – Memory recovery

What can I do to recover my memory faster?

I understand that technically there is no rush, but I also don’t want to take longer than I have to. I am not being impatient, but I just want to put it out there that I WILL invest the time and effort to accelerate my recovery from amnesia if I can be given some guidance in how to do this.

The questioner is not able to recover erased memories at this stage of its life. It cannot be accomplished while the inmate is within the physical confines of the prison complex micro universe.

Due to the nature of this questioner's situation, any effort towards memory recovery would be monitored, and prevented by those entities that surround the quester as family members, friends and others. This is an inherent part of the control mechanism for this particular inmate.

[7.9c] Question – disabling snares and traps

I feel that my sensitivity to the non-physical world is severely dulled. My hunch is that this is due to the special snares and tracking included in this skin suit. What can I do to disable these annoying snares? Are affirmations (in the next campaign, since I just finished a campaign at the end of January) a good enough remedy?

Questioner has various alterations to the non-physical skin-suit due to the nature of it being a <redacted> and part of the <redacted> when captured, and stripped of memory. 

This physical skin suit is not a typical general purpose skin-suit used by most inmates but rather a specially constructed attire that is used for those inmates that have a high propensity towards escape. There are many unique features in the non-physical suit attributes.

The questioner already has had multiple non-physical operations. Others are planned. Some cannot be implemented at this time. 

The questioner is expected to be patient and realize that the intel senses are working properly and its interpetations of events and situations are correct.

The questions is <redacted> and thus we will do everything in our power to ease the transition back to the <redacted>.

[7.9d] Question – clone?

Commander, you don’t know how overjoyed I was (and really surprised) that I am <redacted>. Well, you can read my thoughts so of course you know, but anyway…

But I initially dismissed that I must be from <redacted> because my current template isn’t that horrible. I’m not living in Afghanistan as a bacha bazi boy, for example.

So is it safe for me to know…am I a daughter or mother (or both)?

In the forum, MM revealed that 2 and 13/16 Domain members are getting plucked/freed, and in another message you had said that soldiers can clone their quanta. So what about me?

So (ever since) I wondered about myself. Am I like the Domain soldiers?

Am I the clone or the original?

Ever since I read the “Alien Interviews”, I had thought about how much I liked the Domain ethos and organization and wondered if it was possible for me to join full time.

But I never thought to ask until December 2021 (and got <redacted>–like 100 Xmases).

Questioner is <redacted> and thus has a <redacted> elemental segmented soul structure. 

This is not what many human skin-suits understand the soul of an IS-BE to be, as actually there are many types of constructs, and in The Domain we use specific pre-determined archetypes to establish social class membership and participation ability.

It is not only The Domain, but other societies do this as well, as well as numerous species that naturally segment for one reason or the other.

The questioner is multi-segmented with autonomous actuation at various points within the Prison Complex. This should not confuse the questioner as it is completely normal, and expected.

[7.9e] Question – Politics

I also have a strong affinity and attraction to politics and philosophy. You could say I LOVE politics. Were these subjects strongly related to what I used to do before my imprisonment?

Questioner has training and previous administrative functions requiring diplomacy and protocol. There is a natural affinity for these kinds of events and situations which is magnified by the intel-gathering "organ" that the questioner possesses.

Questioner had a role in interspecies communication regarding local inhabitants in the <redacted>. 

This was a political / administrative function as part of their posting at the <redacted>. Additionally, long before that particular capture event, the entity had successive training in other areas of inter-species interaction and liaison.

[7.9f] Question – Enemies

Are the IS-BEs that currently occupy the bodies of my biological family my enemies?

Now I understand why I always felt that they are not my people, and that they belong to another group of IS-BEs.

Or are they parasites that signed some kind of “prison guard” agreement when they agreed to be biologically related to me in this birth template?

I ask this because I have been contemplating off and on about cutting them off permanently in the future once I get all my stuff and paperwork straightened out and completely transferred.

One thing I have noticed in my biological family, I always felt that I am being “harvested” or “watched over”.

The harvesting part is pretty straightforward, since free labor was extracted out of me during my adolescence and young adulthood.

My interactions with them, I believe, had always been mainly distractions and energy draining, which is why I suspect that they are actually a group of parasites. Their values are also almost completely opposed to mine.

They want you to be dependent so you can’t leave.

I’m not here to curse them or wish them ill, but if they are supposed to be my prison guards in this template then I need to know.

Keep in mind, my father made his money doing predatory lending and pawn shops (parasitic finance) and I was made to work in a check cashing place (another type of parasitic finance business).

I just need clarity on who they really are, so I can have full faith in any action I decide to take (nothing hurtful or offensive, but my intention is to sever all interactions in the future permanently–in the physical and non-physical world).

My bio father had admitted that he knew I always wanted to do or be something “great” or special”, but he just wanted me to be “normal”.

Obviously he admitted to his role in suppressing me, so already I feel like I would be the biggest idiot to even feel any positive emotion for someone who wanted me to be a sheep. Also, I feel that any continued interaction with these people in the future will result in stolen energy from me. Am I being paranoid?

Those surrounding the questioner are not enemies.

They are "fences" that are used to corral the questioner into certain behaviors, certain occupations, certain geographic regions, and certain elements fo control.

The GP mantids advise that the questioner is considered to be one of the more doctile <redacted> and thus is permitted more freedom of movement than the fellow <redacted> that were captured with.

This was facilitated by <redacted> who volunteered to enter the micro universe "Heaven" and recruit lost soul <redacted> for extraction.

That group of entities established the pre-birth world-line template (sic) that the questioner currently enjoys and utilizes.

However, due to the rules and restrictions inherent in the mantid prime directives, certain corralling elements had to be incorporated into the pre-birth world-line template. That is what the questioner is experiencing.

They have a role, that they are unaware of, that steers you in certain directions.

Some of them do so as part of your recovery and eventual extraction. That was set up by the Domain volunteers located in the "Heaven" micro universe, while other do so as part of predetermined mantid prime directives. Their role then is to set you on a path of certain pain and discomfort to make the death sequence and reaturn back to the Heaven micro universe more appealing.

You cannot tell the difference, and neither can they. It is an explict effort of the undercover volunteers to make the corralling effort transparent ot the mantid primes so as to prevent an emergency recovery back to "Heaven" and probable entanglement and chaining towards more restrictive management.

Questioner to be advised that they are programmed in their behaviors and this is established upon your pre-birth world-line template (sic).

You will find and discover advisement from your mantid as they are (fully on board) with The Domain in your extration. As well as the fact that you have a team / crew / operatives working with you on the non-physical, and that you possess skillsets of great power and ability that you have forgotten how to operate.

Have patience, you will be fully extracted upon your death. Just make sure to call for assistance and ask for our help. This is a requirement for all entities within the Prison Complex irrgardless of who they are or what their background is. This includes MM.

[7.9g] Question – Saving

My husband once said (but he forgot) that he just needed to be saved.

I feel that somehow, I made a promise to him that I was taking him to a better place (where I really come from), and that’s why he’s in my current template. I feel like I said this before we both entered this world line, and I feel strongly about this (no dreams, or anything, but very strong emotions in me when I think about it).

Questioner is permitted to have projects, pets, friends, and hobbies while existing as an inmate skin-suit. There are no rule violations in this matter.

[7.10] Question – Mechanism

What is the mechanism or procedure when we die? Will we automatically know what to do, or what will happen? How do we handle our death when we exit the physical body?

One the entity dies, and gets their bearings on where they are and what is going on, they must direct their thoughts to [1] calling to The Domain and [2] yelling for help and "pick up". Do not stop until we arrive. Do not get distracted, and do not be led astray by any events or memories.

We will NOT do anything unless explicit permission is asked. That is our firm rule. This is true even though we many have elements and assets surrounding the entity at that particular time.

We will then come and assist in recovery to the next steps for that particular individual.

MM is instructed to place a photo here.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Domain index” over here…

Articles & Links

Aleister Crowley – Wikipedia

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
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You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
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[daegonmagus] – Part 19 – Aleister Crowley and his Thelemic Order of NASA….or was it MI6?

The following is the 19th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

-MM

Part 19 – Aleister Crowley and his Thelemic Order of NASA… or was it M16?

“NASA are the most authoritative organisation on space and would never lie to us or keep secrets when it comes to the discovery of ETs!” Right…..anybody in the crowd? ……Anybody? This is a paraphrasing of a recent conversation with my brother in law in regards to the idea of Simulation Theory, and that we are living in a holographic world. So yeah, ok, he didn’t specifically mention ETs, I may have exaggerated that part, but when I brought up the quantum physics double slit experiment etc (real basic stuff, for I am no quantum phycisist) and the idea of astral projectors/ lucid dreamers being the witnesses of the other side of the quantum coin – the guys that see the world in wave form rather than particle form – you’d be amazed at how quickly the conversation turned towards NASA, and their recent announcement of a fucking meteor that could “potentially” wipe out earth, which is what was apparently really concerning him (I would have thought being trapped in a simulation would be a more concerning affair, but you know, that’s just me). Or you know, that his grandmother was born in a Nazi PoW camp, and he just seemingly overlooked the whole Operation Paperclip thing.

But yeah I am used to it. It is the usual deflection tactic when I hit upon a subject that get’s too deep for him. Cut me off mid sentence and trail off onto some shit that doesn’t even relate to anything I am talking about. Try and make himself sound smart because he read a few articles on the old innernet. Never mind I know a guy who is a qualified astrophysicist that would suggest it is a load of bullshit not worth worrying about {wink wink}. My brother in law always seems to have that one friend in a similar field of expertise that he has conveniently broached this exact subject with before and rattles off some half arsed excuse as to why I should believe this friend’s word over the experts I have spoken to. The experts whose first hand experiences I use as a basis for formulating my opinions on such matters. Not that I get more than two fucking words out before I am scoffed at with condescension when I use the small breaks between his egotism to try and explain why NASA is the last organisation on earth I would bother believing.

Mind you, this is a guy who is 31 years old and still lives with his mother, has never bothered trying to find his own place, turned down an opportunity at a plumbing apprenticeship when he was fresh out school (and now wonders why his life sucks) and thinks it is perfectly acceptable to use people with down syndrome as a means to joke about Robert Downey Jr’s mental capacity simply because he works with them (this is where the conversation ultimately headed). He seems to have some ever evolving qualification that varies quite substantially in respect to its field whenever he brings it up. One moment it’s a diploma in warehousing, the next it’s a certificate in carer services when he realises I actually managed an electronics factory and have real world experience with warehousing that trumps his theoretical knowledge any day……Next he’ll be telling me he got a fucking PhD in astrophysics in the 3 months I didn’t see him. Yeah, a real armchair researcher if ever there was one. But hey, I have to admit, I found it pretty impressive that he could at least entertain the idea of a simulation. A year ago that conversation would have been completely off the table.

Remind you of anyone? Seems to be the entire fucking UFO community whenever someone mentions something remotely out of the mainstream approved narrative. Like the guys on reddit that got the reddit admins to send me a message saying they were concerned for my mental health when I tried telling them my research suggests non physical entities are contacting people in the occult community (research which I have presented here in past articles that proves I am not the only one having these strange experiences, and that they are in fact fairly common in the occult community). This one is for you guys, if you have attention spans to read beyond three words (I know a lot of you found four of them to be too much to handle). Oh and while we are on the subject of PhD’s and arm chair research I should point out I have do in fact have a PhD…..in googling shit, seeing as it seems to be the accepted form expertise these days. But unlike my contemporaries, the crux of my argument is freely available on Wikipedia for those who do actually know how to research, not that I am expecting any of the reddit experts to be in amongst that crowd. Shall I continue?

Let’s get back to that statement “NASA are the most authoritative organisation on space and would never lie to us or keep secrets when it comes to the discovery of ETs!” Ok, so, the least you could do is get to know the parent organisation that you are basing your whole argument around before arguing with me on why I should bother to listen to them. If not, you might find yourself embarrassed at the idea it is pretty much like saying “the Freemasons are the most transparent society on the planet”. Or at the idea that “you’re a fucking nutcase” is as equally applicable to the founder of NASA as it is to yours truly. We will delve into this, but before we do, let’s dig into some of my arm chair research on a well known figure, and how it relates to the idea that if people were being contacted by non physical entities through means such as astral projection and lucid dreaming, NASA would be THE LAST FUCKING ORGANISATION ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET THAT WOULD BOTHER TELLING YOU ABOUT IT. Are you ready to take the words of L Ron Hubbard and Scientology just as serious as NASA? Something tells me that no, you are not, which highlights the fact you are too mentally immature to be having this conversation, and that your arm chair research is just a façade for “I can’t be fucked actually researching anything, before offering my opinion on it”.

Allow me to shit all over that egotistical ignorance you think is real world knowledge:

Edward Alexander Crowley was born on the 12^th of October 1875, to pair of wealthy fundamentalist Christians of the Plymouth Brethren faith. His father, originally a Quaker, and also an Edward, was an engineer, and owned a family brewing business – Crowley’s Alton ales – which had allowed him an early retirement before his son’s birth. At the age of 11, Edward Alexander inherited a third of this wealth after his father died of tongue cancer. He soon began rejecting the religious views held by his parents, indulging in acts considered by them as morally indecent such as smoking, masturbating and having sex with prostitutes (in which he contracted gonorrhoea and syphilis – talk about a good time).

Such rebellion included a change of name from Edward to Aleister, when he attended the Trinity college in Cambridge to study Philosophy. This behaviour and rejection of the Christian faith would lead Edward’s mother, Emily, to eventually start calling him “the Beast”, which Crowley would later revel in and wear as a badge of honour. Later on in his life, Crowley would expound upon this title to include the number 666, which came from a derivation of the Hebrew alphabet known as Gematria – it had nothing to do with Satanism and the devil, as many people like to suggest. In Gematria, each Hebrew letter is assigned a numerical value and words are compared with other words of equal value. Crowley’s 666 came from the comparison of the word Therion – Greek for “wild beast” – with his own name, of which had an equal value. It was because of this that Crowley would eventually come to be known as Master Therion to his many students. Another name he was known by was Pedurabo.

Crowley believed he was the reincarnation of the well known magician and practitioner of alchemy, Eliphas Levi (amongst other notable figures from history) – who has been dubbed as the man who coined the term “the occult” – partly due to the magician dying in the same year he was born. I vaguely remember another self proclaimed occultist talking about their own reincarnation, [daegonmagus] – Part 2 – Contact with the Elder Guardians (metallicman.com), Not that that is relevant or anything….

Continuing on the down the Wikipedia entry on Crowley we come to learn a few interesting things some of which may or may not actually be true, and some which have a back trail of evidence to suggest they are legitimate claims. We learn about how Crowley joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn before seemingly tearing it apart, how he became friends with Theodore Ruess and was invited to join the Ordo Templi Orientis, or how he created his own Order of the Silver Star – the Argentum Astrum. Then there are the tales of him going out into the Egyptian desert with his wife Rose and engaging in conversation with a non physical intelligence he called Aiwass, whose message he wrote down and became the “Book of the Law” of what would go on to become his Thelemic religion. We read about the time him and his associate Neuberg went out into a desert and summoned the demon of the abyss, Choronzon, which Crowley allegedly deliberately let possess him. Some things about his later life drug addictions with coke and heroin. What we don’t read about is Crowley’s other exploits like providing commentary for the Goetia, aka the Lesser Key of Solomon the King:

Did you spot the NASA connection? If not, don’t worry; well get to it later. Just note, it is buried behind a link somewhere at the bottom of the page.

In that entry, we also learn about a “fictional” book Crowley wrote called Moonchild – the same book of Crowley’s I found in my grandmother’s library in her abandoned house. What isn’t mentioned is that Moonchild is a book about a bunch of occultists who are trying to incarnate the soul of a demon into the vessel of a new born human child. I started reading it at some point during the third decade of my life but gave up after a few pages as I found Crowley’s writing to be very poor and unimaginative. What can I say: I have standards.

“Moonchild is a novel written by the British occultist Aleister Crowley in 1917. Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians, over an unborn child. It was first published by Mandrake Press in 1929 and its recent edition is published by Weiser.

In this work, numerous acquaintances of Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a villain named Arthwaite, and the unseen head of the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member. "A.B." is theosophist Annie Besant. Among Crowley's friends and allies Allen Bennett appears as Mahatera Phang, Leila Waddell as Sister Cybele, the dancer Isadora Duncan appears as Lavinia King, and her companion Mary D'Este (mother of Preston Sturges, and who helped Crowley write his magnum opus Magick: Book 4 under her magical name 'Soror Virakam') appears as Lisa la Giuffria. Cyril Grey is Crowley himself, while Simon Iff is either an idealized version of an older and wiser Crowley or his friend Allen Bennett.

Plot summary

A year or so before the beginning of World War I, a young woman named Lisa la Giuffria is seduced by a white magician, Cyril Grey, and persuaded into helping him in a magical battle with a black magician and his black lodge. Grey is attempting to save and improve the human race and condition by impregnating the girl with the soul of an ethereal being — the moonchild. To achieve this, she will have to be kept in a secluded environment, and many preparatory magical rituals will be carried out. The black magician Douglas is bent on destroying Grey's plan. However, Grey's ultimate motives may not be what they appear. The moonchild rituals are carried out in southern Italy, but the occult organizations are based in Paris and England. At the end of the book, the war breaks out, and the white magicians support the Allies, while the black magicians support the Central Powers.” - Moonchild (novel) - Wikipedia

For the MM audience who have a brain and can put two and two together here, read between the lines of what I am trying to tell you; Spencer also claimed the Alien Interview was a work of “fiction”. Comparing the two works brings a whole new level of meaning and contemplation to just what the fuck it was these secret societies were getting up to at the turning of the 20^th century.

Getting back to the Wikipedia entry on Crowley, one of the more “absurd” claims is that he was in fact working for the British Government’s MI6 department helping them spy on the Germans, who apparently got him to spy on the British Government, which was supposedly suspected by American Intelligence….or something. This particular claim, even just stopping at a connection to the British government, is hard to substantiate as there appears to be only one verifiable source for its origin; a professor of History from the university of Idaho:

“Dr. Richard B. Spence is a Professor of History at the University of Idaho where he has taught since 1986. His specialties include Russian, military, espionage and occult history. One of his most popular courses at UI deals with the role of conspiracies and secret societies in history.”

….as it apparently says on his linked in page.

This guy seems to make a valid argument against Spence’s research, suggesting it is a stretch at best, and is more circumstantial rather than being based on real facts: Was Aleister Crowley a Spy? ‘Secret Agent 666’ Review – John le Bon

Doesn’t matter though, the guy is a professor, and going by skeptic logic this means he must be telling the truth…..Ok yeah, I am not that facetious. But hey since we are talking about the ol innernet and mainstream sources of information that we should trust (like NASA), here is a link to a Guardian newspaper report suggesting Ian Fleming based the Blofeld character in his James Bond series off Crowley:

Beyond belief | Books | The Guardian

In case you didn’t bother reading it, that article suggests rather matter of factl-y that Crowley was Fleming’s go to guy when it came to interrogating Occultist Nazi Rudolph Hess. It even mentions – albeit very vaguely – the NASA connection Crowley had through Jack Parsons:

“Yet the hysterical press accounts of sex, drugs and sacrifice at his Abbey of Thelema, in Sicily in the early 1920s, remain the core of the myth of Crowley as evil incarnate. It was an image, along with his famously hypnotic stare, that led Bond author Ian Fleming to model Blofeld on Crowley. They met when Fleming worked in British intelligence during the war. That a man so publicly reviled could still penetrate the corridors of power is a prime example of his unlikely reach. Crowley was Fleming's first choice for interrogating Rudolf Hess when the occult-obsessed Nazi was captured in Scotland after a bizarre astrological sting.

It was also Crowley who gave Churchill his famous victory sign, a magickal gesture to counteract the Nazi's use of the swastika. Indeed, his hand appears in many unexpected places - there is even a story that he aligned Stamford Bridge and gave Chelsea its team colours - but his hidden influence was not restricted to the British war effort or the Premiere League. In the 1940s, one of his closest followers was a young Californian adept, Jack Parsons, one of the founding fathers of the American space programme. His work at the fledgling Jet Propulsion Laboratories lay the groundwork for the Apollo moon missions.”

Funny, Jack Parson is mentioned back in the Aleister Crowley Wikipedia link, in the same sentence as another well known figure, this time with a little more confidence of fact:

“L. Ron Hubbard, the American founder of Scientology, was involved in Thelema in the early 1940s (with Jack Parsons), and it has been argued that Crowley's ideas influenced some of Hubbard's work.” - Aleister Crowley - Wikipedia

Crowley’s entry also suggests he had an affinity for Nazism:

“Pasi described Crowley's affinity to the extreme ideologies of Nazism and Marxism–Leninism, which aimed to violently overturn society: "What Crowley liked about Nazism and communism, or at least what made him curious about them, was the anti-Christian position and the revolutionary and socially subversive implications of these two movements. In their subversive powers, he saw the possibility of an annihilation of old religious traditions, and the creation of a void that Thelema, subsequently, would be able to fill. Crowley described democracy as an "imbecile and nauseating cult of weakness",^[267] and commented that The Book of the Law proclaimed that "there is the master and there is the slave; the noble and the serf; the 'lone wolf' and the herd””

I guess one could take that last sentence either way. Regardless, we are starting to head into some very concerning territory in regards to the Nazi’s and Crowley/ Occultism. Let’s strengthen that connection:

“Crowley was now living largely off contributions supplied by the O.T.O.'s Agape Lodge in California, led by rocket scientist John Whiteside "Jack" Parsons.^[194] Crowley was intrigued by the rise of Nazism in Germany, and influenced by his friend Martha Küntzel believed that Adolf Hitler might convert to Thelema; when the Nazis abolished the German O.T.O. and imprisoned Germer, who fled to the US, Crowley then lambasted Hitler as a black magician.”

So uh Hitler was a prime candidate for Thelema huh…..and the guy who founded Nasa’s JPL was a fucking Thelemite as well?

“John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons;^{[nb 1]} October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant,^[1] and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets.

Or should I say a pin up boy for the OTO:

Smith wrote to Crowley saying that Parsons was "a really excellent man ... He has an excellent mind and much better intellect than myself ... JP is going to be very valuable".^[64] Wolfe wrote to German O.T.O. representative Karl Germer that Parsons was "an A1 man ... Crowleyesque in attainment as a matter of fact", and mooted Parsons as a potential successor to Crowley as Outer Head of the Order.^[65] Crowley concurred with such assessments, informing Smith that Parsons "is the most valued member of the whole Order, with no exception!"^[62]” - Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) - Wikipedia

And its not as if Thelema was just a passing hobby for Jack either; Wikipedia suggests he was devoting his entire pay checks into the organisation, and was wholeheartedly committed to its concepts. Not only that, Parsons was at one point palsy with the founder of Scientology who was also a Fellow Thelemite:

“Science fiction writer and U.S. Navy officer L. Ron Hubbard soon moved into the Parsonage; he and Parsons became close friends. Parsons wrote to Crowley that although Hubbard had "no formal training in Magick he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduce he is direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. ... He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles.”

And in case you weren’t aware of what Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology religion was about, allow me to fill that gap in knowledge. Bear in mind this was from a guy whose own son said his father believed himself to be the embodiment of “Satan”;

“Scientology followers believe that a human is an immortal, spiritual being (Thetan) that is resident in a physical body. The Thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is observed in advanced (and – within the movement – secret) Scientology texts that lives preceding the Thetan's arrival on Earth were lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Scientology doctrine states that any Scientologist undergoing "auditing" will eventually come across and recount a common series of events.^[26] Part of these events include reference to an extraterrestrial life-form called Xenu. The secret Scientology texts say this was a ruler of a confederation of planets 70 million years ago, who brought billions of alien beings to Earth and then killed them with thermonuclear weapons. Despite being kept secret from most followers, this forms the central mythological framework of Scientology's ostensible soteriology – attainment of a status referred to by Scientologists as "clear". These aspects have become the subject of popular ridicule.

I bet they have.

And while we are on the subject of Parson’s friends, MM would be interested to know the following:

“In New York he met with Karl Germer, the head of the O.T.O. in North America and in Washington, D.C. he met Poet Laureate Joseph Auslander, donating some of Crowley's poetry books to the Library of Congress.^[81] He also became a regular at the Mañana Literary Society, which met in Laurel Canyon at the home of Parsons' friend Robert A. Heinlein and included science fiction writers including Cleve Cartmill, Jack Williamson, and Anthony Boucher.”

Now to understand this Parson’s/ Hubbard connection properly, we need to go back to Crowley and his Thelemic Order. What in the actual fuck is Thelema anyway? Well, we mentioned that Crowley, whilst in Cairo with his wife Rose, went out into the desert and received a message from a non physical entity. Rose apparently wasn’t into occultism, and couldn’t give two shits about Crowley’s undertakings…..that was until she went into a trance and this non physical being, who Crowley called Aiwass, began speaking through her, laying down the {book of the} law. Crowley transcribed it and it became his Holy Books of Thelema that basically dictated what the whole order was about. For those who have not read the books, you are not missing out on much. A lot of it seems to be a mix of incoherent babble that Crowley himself even suggests he doesn’t know what the fuck it means. In amongst this collection of seemingly random gibberish is the infamous RPSTOVAL code, that Crowley suggests will be “expounded upon by someone in the distant future”, and who his followers like to try and decipher using Gematria:

4 6 3 8 a b k 2 4 a l g m o r 3 y x 24 89 r p s t o v a l

For anyone interested here is Crowley’s Book of the Law. The Book Of The Law : Aleister Crowley : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. Note there are some striking similarities with his philosophy and things that MM has said in regards to consciousness, or Airl’s view of the universe:

Now, to get to the UFO/ Thelema connection, we need to delve a bit deeper into some things that are not mentioned on Wikipedia, and are just as hard to confirm as Spence’s suggestion Crowley was an MI6 spy.

Fourteen years after his contact with Aiwass, Crowley supposedly was contacted by another entity during what is known as the Amalantrah working with his executor and somewhat heir to his magical prowess, Kenneth Grant. What actually took place must be left to speculation given that the surviving records of the working are fragmented at best, but what seems clear is that Crowley drew a picture which had something to do with this working, which he titled LAM. I briefly touched on this entity in my article https://metallicman.com/daegonmagus-part-18-a-look-at-non-physical-contact-through-participants-external-to-metallicman/ when I told you the Tool drummer had his own clothing line featuring the image.

While some, like this guy from LAM I AM | Aleister Crowley 2012 (ac2012.com), suggest it is an obscure self portrait of Crowley, others have suggested, quite assuredly that Crowley and Grant were trying to open a portal in space between two stars. The myth is that they were successful which led to Lam – an interdimensional entity – popping through to say hello. Apparently many occultists have had weird experiences with UFOs and similar contact after trying to recreate the ritual:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=vice+lam+crowley&cvid=9f44a886c91549659f1b81c4c4339ae9&aqs=edge..69i57j69i64.4653j0j1&pglt=43&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=ACTS

What can be agreed on, is that Lam appears on the front page of Voice of the Silence by Theosophical Society founder, Madam Helena Blavatsky. If you haven’t already read my article first mentioning Lam, I suggest you do so, as it alludes to the idea that Blavatsky was given a hybridisation schedule by the non physical entities she was in contact with (which seems to have very likely made its way into the hands of the Nazi’s, but more on that later.)

Getting back to Lam, The {modern day} OTO have even gone so far as to have their members document any experiences resulting from their workings with the Amalantrah ritual, so it seems to have some substance:

“Crowley gave the drawing to Kenneth Grant in May 1945, following an astral working in which they were both involved. Since then it has become apparent that Lam is in fact a trans-mundane or extra-terrestrial entity, with whom several groups of magicians have established contact, most notably Michael Bertiaux in the 1960s, and agroup of OTO initiates in the 1970s. Much remains unclear, however, hence the need for further investigation of this entity” – Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis — Kenneth Grant — LAM (parareligion.ch)

Remember how I told you my friend Severin, who was contacted by an elusive figure and given information on the merge of the astral and physical planes? To my knowledge, Severin never bothered with the Amalantrah ritual, but the coincidence is a bit hard to ignore, given he was in the OTO.

So for the skeptics, at the very least you have to admit this sounds fucking insane right? No matter what way you look at it. Who in their right mind would believe such a load of fucking tripe?

Well, your NASA JPL founder for one:

“The Babalon Working was a series of magic ceremonies or rituals performed from January to March 1946 by author, pioneer rocket-fuel scientist and occultist Jack Parsons and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.^[1] This ritual was essentially designed to manifest an individual incarnation of the archetypal divine feminine called Babalon. The project was based on the ideas of Aleister Crowley, and his description of a similar project in his 1917 novel Moonchild.” - Babalon Working - Wikipedia

And from Parson’s entry:

“Parsons and Sara were in an open relationship encouraged by the O.T.O.'s polyandrous sexual ethics, and she became enamored with Hubbard; Parsons, despite attempting to repress his passions, became intensely jealous.^[109] Motivated to find a new partner through occult means, Parsons began to devote his energies to conducting black magic, causing concern among fellow O.T.O. members who believed that it was invoking troublesome spirits into the Parsonage; Jane Wolfe wrote to Crowley that "our own Jack is enamored with Witchcraft, the houmfort, voodoo. From the start he always wanted to evoke something—no matter what, I am inclined to think, as long as he got a result." He told the residents that he was imbuing statues in the house with a magical energy in order to sell them to fellow occultists.^[110] Parsons reported paranormal events in the house resulting from the rituals; including poltergeist activity, sightings of orbs and ghostly apparitions, alchemical (sylphic) effect on the weather, and disembodied voices. Pendle suggested that Parsons was particularly susceptible to these interpretations and attributed the voices to a prank by Hubbard and Sara.^[110] One ritual allegedly brought screaming banshees to the windows of the Parsonage, an incident that disturbed Forman for the rest of his life.^[111] In December 1945 Parsons began a series of rituals based on Enochian magic during which he masturbated onto magical tablets, accompanied by Sergei Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto. Describing this magical operation as the Babalon Working, he hoped to bring about the incarnation of Thelemite goddess Babalon onto Earth. He allowed Hubbard to take part as his "scribe", believing that he was particularly sensitive to detecting magical phenomena.^[112] As described by Richard Metzger, "Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement" while Hubbard "scanned the astral plane for signs and visions."^[113]

Their final ritual took place in the Mojave Desert in late February 1946, during which Parsons abruptly decided that his undertaking was complete. On returning to the Parsonage he discovered that Marjorie Cameron—an unemployed illustrator and former Navy WAVE—had come to visit. Believing her to be the "elemental" woman and manifestation of Babalon that he had invoked, in early March Parsons began performing sex magic rituals with Cameron, who acted as his "Scarlet Woman", while Hubbard continued to participate as the amanuensis. Unlike the rest of the household, Cameron knew nothing at first of Parsons' magical intentions: "I didn't know anything about the O.T.O., I didn't know that they had invoked me, I didn't know anything, but the whole house knew it. Everybody was watching to see what was going on."^[114] Despite this ignorance and her skepticism about Parsons' magic, Cameron reported her sighting of a UFO to Parsons, who secretly recorded the sighting as a materialization of Babalon.

And some more on the Babalon working, and contact by non physical entities in general:

Inspired by Crowley's novel Moonchild (1917), Parsons and Hubbard aimed to magically fertilize a "magical child" through immaculate conception, which when born to a woman somewhere on Earth nine months following the working's completion would become the Thelemic messiah embodying Babalon.^[116][117] To quote Metzger, the purpose of the Babalon Working was "a daring attempt to shatter the boundaries of space and time" facilitating, according to Parsons, the emergence of Thelema's Æon of Horus.^[113] When Cameron departed for a trip to New York, Parsons retreated to the desert, where he believed that a preternatural entity psychographically provided him with Liber 49, which represented a fourth part of Crowley's The Book of the Law, the primary sacred text of Thelema, as well as part of a new sacred text he called the Book of Babalon.^[118] Crowley was bewildered and concerned by the endeavor, complaining to Germer of being "fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts!" Believing the Babalon Working was accomplished, Parsons sold the Parsonage to developers for $25,000 under the condition that he and Cameron could continue to live in the coach house, and he appointed Roy Leffingwell to head the Agape Lodge, which would now have to meet elsewhere for its rituals”

Unable to pursue his scientific career, without his wife and devoid of friendship, Parsons decided to return to occultism and embarked on sexually based magical operations with prostitutes. He was intent, informally following the ritualistic practice of Thelemite organization the A∴A∴, on performing "the Crossing of the Abyss", attaining union with the universal consciousness, or "All" as understood in the context of the Great Work, and becoming the "Master of the Temple".^[133] Following his apparent success in doing so, Parsons recounted having an out-of-body experience invoked by Babalon, who astrally transported him to the biblical City of Chorazin, an experience he referred to as a "Black Pilgrimage". Accompanying Parsons' "Oath of the Abyss" was his own "Oath of the AntiChrist", which was witnessed by Wilfred Talbot Smith. In this oath, Parsons professed to embody an entity named Belarion Armillus Al Dajjal, the Antichrist "who am come to fulfill the law of the Beast 666 [Aleister Crowley]".^[133] Viewing these oaths as the completion of the Babalon Working, Parsons wrote an illeist autobiography titled Analysis by a Master of the Temple and an occult text titled The Book of AntiChrist. In the latter work, Parsons (writing as Belarion) prophesied that within nine years Babalon would manifest on Earth and supersede the dominance of the Abrahamic religions.^[134]

I thought self proclaimed embodiment of Satan Hubbard was bad. I might be “crazy”, but I sure as fuck aren’t “trying to summon the whore of Babylon into a newborn child crazy”. This guy was a fucking nutjob (if you go by common society’s standards), yet still displayed more intelligence than those reddit skeptics and my own god damned brother in law. You know, he’s kinda got a lot of rocket research behind him to back that theory up. Did anyone make him undergo a psychological evaluation while he worked at NASA, I wonder?

I mean Jack wasn’t exactly stupid was he, nutjob or not? He was, after all the American version of Werner Von Braun, and it could be argued it was because of him we got to the moon (he was actually involved in developing rocket systems for that very purpose). His discoveries in rocket propulsion were the foundation by which the whole of NASA was built upon. So why the fuck was he messing around with a book written by Crowley if it was just a piece of fiction and incorporating its content into his rituals? You have to admit, it seems a little shady to trust in an organisation whose founder was engaging in such ludicrous practices with his bestie, Mr Hubbard. Let’s face the fact, NASA has got dodgy fucking cult written all over it. You can’t call me a nutcase for saying I was contacted by non physical entities, and then turn around and tell me Jack wasn’t one either. But hey, let’s not stop the logical thought train there. Let’s dig a bit deeper into this.

I mentioned Werner von Braun, and in case you didn’t get the memo, here was another rocket scientist that had some things to say when it came to aliens. And who Jack Parsons at one point spoke to on the phone for many hours. At least this guy didn’t seem to be running around California blowing shit up and having sex with anything that walked in an effort to create a demon child. But to really understand what the hell is going on here, you need to understand the suggestion that the Nazi’s were heavily invested in occult concepts:

In his book, Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies, John Michael Greer, a self proclaimed druid and Freemason (and not to be confused with Ufologist Dr Steven Greer) suggests that the Nazi party was born out of a secret society of occultists that believed in the racist ideologies of Ariosophy (an offshoot of Theosophy, surprise surprise); the Thule society. This society was named after Thule; a mythical island that first appeared in classical Greek and Roman writings somewhere North of Britain, which eventually became to be believed as the homeland of the Aryan master race in the proto-Nazi occult movement. In fact, Greer has some very interesting things to say on the transformation of Thule, and how its occult ideologies played an integral role in the formation of the Nazi party:

“THULE
Originally ultima Thule, “furthest Thule” in Latin, Thule first appeared in classical Greek and Roman writings as a name for a distant island somewhere north of Britain. The Greek voyager Pytheas of Massalia claimed that he sailed there, and his description of the northern seas has enough accurate details to make the claim plausible; it is likely Pytheas sailed as far as the Orkneys, or possibly even Iceland. In the nineteenth century the name Thule was recycled for a hypothetical lost continent somewhere in the far north. In this form it found its way into proto-Nazi occult movements in central Europe as the lost Arctic homeland of the Aryans, identical to Arktogäa and Hyperborea. See lost continents.

THULE SOCIETY
The National Socialist movement in early twentieth-century Germany emerged out of a complex underground of secret societies, occult traditions, and racist ideologies that historians have just begun to uncover. One crucial piece of the puzzle was an organization known as the Thule-Gesellschaft or Thule Society. Named after the legendary lost continent of Thule, believed by German racists of the time to be the original homeland of the Aryan peoples, the Thule Society posed as a private organization for the study of Germanic folklore. In reality, it was the Munich lodge of an occult secret society, the Germanenorden, whose distinctive blend of racist occultism and right-wing politics defined the central commitments of the Nazi party. See Germanenorden.

The Thule Society was the creation of Rudolf von Sebottendorf, a German-Turkish adventurer who joined the Germanenorden in 1917 and immediately set to work organizing a Munich lodge for the order. His efforts paid off handsomely, increasing membership in Bavaria from 200 to more than 1500 by the autumn of 1918. He rented rooms for the society in the posh Hotel des Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich, and succeeded in attracting members of the Bavarian aristocracy into the organization. He also encouraged two Thule members, Karl Harrer and Anton Drexler, to organize a political circlep for the Munich working class, in the hope of drawing them away from communism.

When the German imperial government collapsed in 1918, a socialist coalition seized power in Bavaria, but was then supplanted by a hardline communist faction headed by Russian exiles. Munich descended into open war, and pitched gun battles, assassinations, and summary executions by firing squad became frequent events. The Thule Society hurled itself into the struggle, networking with other conservative groups and raising a sizeable private army, the Kampfbund Thule, for the final struggle that ended the Bavarian Socialist Republic in May 1919. By that time the political circle headed by Drexler and Harrer had already transformed itself into a political party, the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party, DAP). Small and poorly organized, the DAP floundered for most of 1919 as most Thule members turned their attention elsewhere. In September of that year, however, the DAP gained a new recruit, an Austrian war veteran named Adolf Hitler. Not long after joining, Hitler convinced the other party members to change the organization’s name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP) – a name newspapers and the German public quickly shortened to “Nazi.” See Hitler, Adolf; National Socialism.

As the fledgling party grew explosively, driven by Hitler’s powerful oratory and impressive political skills, Thule Society members gave it vital support and direction. Thule initiate Ernst Röhm, a tough army veteran with a taste for brawling, brought many members of the Kampfbund Thule into the
Sturm-Abteilung (Storm Troop, SA) or Brownshirts, the Nazi party’s private army of street thugs. Another Thule member, Rudolf Hess, used his connections throughout the occult community in France and Germany to win support for Hitler, becoming the future Führer’s right-hand man in the process. Other members introduced Hitler to wealthy conservatives in Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany, and brought him into contact with the writer and occultist Dietrich Eckart, who became Hitler’s mentor. By 1925 or a little later, the Thule Society had been completely absorbed into the growing Nazi party, and nearly all its membership, activities, and plans became part of the Nazi system. The occult aspects it had inherited from the Germanenorden ended up becoming part of the SS onceHeinrich Himmler took over that organization in 1929. See SS (Schutzstaffel).

Further reading: Goodrick-Clarke 1992” - The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies The Ultimate A-Z - John Michael Greer.pdf | DocDroid

But let’s not stop there. Delving even deeper still into the Nazi’s and their occult connection in Greer’s book we find that Crowley wasn’t the only occultist who believed the “lunatic” prospect that he was the reincarnation of someone:

“Perhaps the most serious of Nazi occultists, Himmler believed himself to be the reincarnation of the medieval German king Heinrich I. Under his leadership the SS became an occult secret society with immense influence throughout German society, and the SS headquarters at the medieval castle of Wewelsburg became the center of the Third Reich’s occult dimension as Himmler implemented many of the old ONT programs on a colossal scale. See SS (Schutzstaffel).“

Interesting. Here’s some excerpts I picked up from Israel Regardie’s (Crowley’s Secretary) book, The Golden Dawn, which deals with the whole curriculum of that order. It certainly seems to strengthen the Nazi connection to the occult. From here The Complete Golden Dawn System Of Magic – Israel Regardie.pdf | DocDroid:

The fylfot cross shows us the swastika as being an astrological symbol that combines the forces of 12 months of the zodiac with the four elements, the sun at its centre. It is part of the third lecture of Golden Dawn Curriculum, the first two being preparations for the candidate for their Alchemical undertakings. In other words, this association of the swastika with the zodiac and elements was embedded into the curriculum and would have been taught to every single initiate of the Golden Dawn when Crowley was head of it, and likely the OTO and the Argentum Astrum, considering Crowley’s involvement with those organisations. Interesting when you consider a Greek Neo Nazi political party just pops up out of nowhere some 100ish years later calling themselves the Golden Dawn: Golden Dawn (Greece) – Wikipedia

From that same book, on page 460, in a chapter to do with Clairvoyance:
“The guide having made his appearance, he is to be tested by every means at the Seer's disposal. First of all, it is well to assume the Sign of the Grade to which that element is referred. In this instance, the Sign of the Zelator should be made, by physically as well as astrally raising the right arm to an angle of forty-five degrees. The guide should answer this with the same Sign or another which is unrnistakeable proof that he belongs to the element and has been sent to act as guide. If there is deception, these signs will cause him distress, or at once the vision will break up, or the false guide will disappear. He should also be asked clearly and deliberately whether he comes to act as guide in the name of the appropriate Deity Name. If all this strikes the Seer as satisfactory, and his doubts settled, let him follow the guide to wherever he is being led, carefully noting whither he goes, and asking questions about the element or whatever he sees”

I found a photo where a few of these elements seem to combine:

So yeah I guess it’s just more coincidences in a string of bizarre coincidences right?

At least they made good rocket propulsion systems, like that other occultist we have been talking about. Which brings me back to Nazi rocket scientist Werner Von Braun. Von Braun was one of the pioneers who worked on the V2 rocket system and was brought to America to work for NASA along with many other Nazi Scientists under Operation Paperclip:

“Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) was a German-American aerospace engineer^[3] and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany and a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.^[4]

While in his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and co-developed the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war, he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip.^[5] He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1 in 1958.

In 1960, his group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V super heavy-lift l,aunch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.^[6][7] In 1967, von Braun was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1975, he received the National Medal of Science. He advocated a human mission to Mars.” - Wernher von Braun - Wikipedia

Atleast we get the idea the Von Braun was quite a respectable man that only joined the Nazi’s so he could continue his life’s work in regards to rocket research. No mention of Carol Rosin of Fairchild Industries or Lt Colonel Philip J Corso though. Of course, those elements connect Von Braun to ETs, and we can’t have that to tarnish NASA’s image now can we? Allow me to elaborate:

Philip J Corso was a Lieutenant Colonel who worked for General Arthur Trudeau during Eisenhower’s presidency, and had an office at the Pentagon dealing with technological advancements that could be put to military use. In WW2 Corso fought Rommel in Africa, and was charged with rounding up the remnants of the Gestapo in Italy after the war ended. So you could say his resume was quite impressive, and he was quite respectable in regards to his military achievements. Certainly not someone who would feel the need to jump on the UFO bandwagon and bullshit us all with stories of ETs right? Uh, well that’s exactly what Corso did, if you consider his biography bullshit, which most arm chair researchers seem to do.

In his book The Day After Roswell Corso details how he was put in charge of distributing technology recovered FROM THE 1947 ROSWELL CRASH into already established R&D programs in an effort to conceal it and keep it out of the hands of those pesky Russians that had infiltrated the CIA. Things like night vision goggles, fibre optics, kevlar, lasers and integrated circuits, Corso claimed all came from the spacecraft that crashed in the New Mexico desert. He even mentions he saw one of the bodies of the crew. A few months after the books release, Corso died of a heart attack.

Corso suggests he went around to military contractors Fairchild (among others), where he dropped this retrieved tech into the hands of their supervisors with an intent to back engineer it. One of the men who he was in constant contact with to try and gain an understanding of how said tech would work was, you guessed it, Werner von Braun. Von Braun actually became the Vice President of that very same company Corso suggested he dropped some ET tech into the hands of:

“After leaving NASA, von Braun moved to the Washington, D.C. area and became Vice President for Engineering and Development at the aerospace company Fairchild Industries in Germantown, Maryland, on 1 July 1972.”^[124]  - Wernher von Braun - Wikipedia

But Corso is just bullshitting right? He was just a senile old man who was struggling to find purpose after his impressive military career, and so decided to spin us a story of fiction about aliens crashing into the desert. It isn’t like there is any other proof that backs up Corso’s claim or anything.

Well, the Wikipedia entry on the date surrounding the Bi Polar Junction Transistor seems to very much align with what Corso told us:

“The bipolar point-contact transistor was invented in December 1947^[10] at the Bell Telephone Laboratories by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain under the direction of William Shockley. The junction version known as the bipolar junction transistor (BJT), invented by Shockley in 1948,^[11] was for three decades the device of choice in the design of discrete and integrated circuits. Nowadays, the use of the BJT has declined in favor of CMOS technology in the design of digital integrated circuits. The incidental low performance BJTs inherent in CMOS ICs, however, are often utilized as bandgap voltage reference, silicon bandgap temperature sensor and to handle electrostatic discharge.” - Bipolar junction transistor - Wikipedia

For those who do not understand the history of technology, it took somewhere between 100 and 150 years to go from the discovery of electricity, to the amplification of analog signals using Thermionic valves. This was at the hands of a myriad of different scientists experimenting with the valve, some of which were Thomas Edison and Tesla. One could say quite a lot of development went into perfecting the valve, and it went through an evolution of change as more and more grids were added to suppress the inherent electrical noise. It found its use in everything from industrial control systems to guitar amplifiers. Then all of a sudden, in December 1947 up pops the transistor, seemingly because someone decided doping germanium with silicone would achieve the same result as what was effectively a light bulb with a few bits of metal inside of it. And this team of a handful of scientists just happened to pull it off a mere months after the Roswell Crash? Yeah uh ok, I guess this make sense……if you are apt at just ignoring anything that presents as an inconvenience to an argument you have no expertise in, like my brother in law does. Skeptics, find me the fucking article that tells me what prompted these guys to try doping germanium with silicone when the whole premise of the thermionic valve had been based on controlling grid electrons in a vacuum through a completely conductive element.

Now, Corso doesn’t actually mention he dropped a BJT into the hands of Fairchild. What he does mention is that he came into the possession of the alien tech something like a decade after the crash, after it was presented to him by Trudeau. It had been sitting in a cabinet in this office, which Corso took over when he moved into the Pentagon, for practically that whole time, simply because Trudeau didn’t know what to do with it. What is more, it didn’t originate with Trudeau. There was a hazy period of a few years immediately proceeding the crash where it is unknown what became of this technology, when it was in the hands of General Twinning (suggested as being an original MJ12 members). What Corso says is that he dropped an integrated circuit into Fairchild’s lap, and, as anyone with a little background in electronics knows, you can’t make an IC without a BJT. Well, at least you couldn’t back in the early 60s when IC’s were invented and supplied globally by that very same Fairchild company (the first to do so). Funny how no one ever thought to try and wire a few million thermionic valves together to achieve the same thing before the concept arrived at Fairchild.

According to Corso, it was Von Braun (very much aware it was ET tech) who suggested he take the IC to the guys over at Bell Labs who had been playing around with the concept of doping silicone with the BJT, suggesting that in that hazy period before the tech fell into his hands, someone had already undertaken an effort to reverse engineer part of it. Given our history of electronics development, it makes no sense that it would take us 100+ years to develop the thermionic valve, to have the concept of doping germanium with silicone pop up overnight and render that whole component almost completely useless. It certainly makes no sense, that in just over a decade later we figured out how to wire millions of these components together to create what would go onto to become the backbone of the computer, without any prior concept of mass manipulation of said valves. The only logical conclusion, in my opinion, is that which is presented to us by Corso. You know people are still allowed those things right? Opinions. Unlike my brother in law, mine is based on knowledge I spent 4 years sitting an apprenticeship for in my efforts to attain a trade level qualification in electronics. At least show me some evidence of a similar background if you want to bother arguing with me on this issue.

Corso also tells us that the who Strategic Defence Initiative was established under the pretence there was an extra terrestrial threat that America needed protection from, and that NASA even knew about ET interactions, which the organisation had actively engaged in covering up. Another reason why I don’t trust them.

So anyway, getting back to Von Braun and Fairchild; Carol Rosin was the first woman to become CEO of Fairchild Industries. Fairchild industries was an offshoot of the military contracted Fairchild Aircraft, and came about after Shockley, the supervisor who worked on the BJT, quit Bell Labs and tried opening his own company to continue to develop it. After some trouble with money, Sherman Fairchild picked it up and gave it a fresh make over, absorbing all the research on the BJT in the process. Now, Rosin ended up becoming a spokesperson for Von Braun after she became CEO. Here’s a little bit of background on her:

“Carol Rosin (born March 29, 1944) is the Founder of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, and also works as a speaker, author, educator, child psychologist^[^dubious^–^discuss^], futurist, and military strategist.^[1] She was also the first female executive of an aerospace company, working as a corporate manager of Fairchild Industries. She is executive director of the Peace and Emergency Action Coalition for Earth, P.E.A.C.E. Inc. and the I.D.E.A Foundation, as well as a world peace ambassador for the International Association of Educators for World Peace.^[2]

Biography[edit]

Born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1944 and a graduate of the University of Delaware, Rosin was the first woman to work as an Aerospace executive at Fairchild Industries and is a leader and the original political architect in the movement to stop Anti-satellite weapons and the Strategic Defense Initiative.^[3] In her time at Fairchild, Rosin served as the spokesperson for Dr. Wernher Von Braun, with whom she created the film and educational program "It's Your Turn" to expand the diversity of people working in science fields.^[4] The program won many awards, including the Aviation Writers Award and the Science Teachers Gold Medal.^[5] Rosin helped create medical and educational training programs with ATS-6 satellites in the United States, including the first two-way audio and visual national and international satellite educational programs in over 20 countries.^[6]

Published works and media[edit]

Start of the Sirius Disclosure Project in 2001 at the National press Club, as witness.

Movies That Shook the World (Documentary) Herself, 2005^[7]

UFO: The Greatest Story Ever Denied II - Moon Rising (Video Documentary) Herself, 2009

```
Sirius (Documentary) Herself, 2013
```

For the Children (Book, I.D.E.A Foundation for the Benefit of Humanity) Co-Author, 2014 ISBN 9781530161393

The Carol Rosin Show (American Freedom Radio) Host, 2016-^[8]

Unacknowledged (Documentary) Herself, 2017

20th Anniversary of the Disclosure Project as herself, 2021”

Well well, well not another UFO connection to Von Braun and Fairchild. It gets even better when you consider what Rosin says in regards to what Von Braun allegedly told her on his death bed in the 70s:

DR Carol Rosin von Braun ‘The Extra-Terrestrial Threat’ ET UFO UAV – YouTube

In case you can’t watch youtube, here is a run down:

Von Braun suggested NASA was planning to weaponise space by using the idea of certain threats against the people to gain approval for such weaponization.

Von Braun believed communists would be the first threat identified by the United States, followed by terrorists, followed by third world radicals, followed by asteroids (maybe my brother in law was right to be concerned, lol) which would eventually culminate in a hoaxed alien invasion. Bear in mind this was in the 70s.

Rosin suggested Von Braun gave her the task of de-weaponising space to which she started her own organisation, the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, which was in direct opposition to that very same initiative Corso mentioned was setup to “stop the malevolent ETs from invading earth”, and suggested NASA was covering up. Rosin came to the ultimate conclusion her mission was futile. In a separate video she suggests she walked in on a NASA meeting in the 70s that appeared to be the setup to the invasion of Iraq schpeel, in which people like Sudam Hussein had already been identified as the new enemy. When she asked what the fuck it was all about, the room went silent.

Here’s another article on her talking about what Von Braun told her.

THE HOAX ALIEN INVASION: HOW WERNHER VON BRAUN REVEALED NASA’S PLAN TO WEAPONIZE SPACE – UFO Digest

Consider where we are some 50 years later, and Von Braun’s predictions seem strikingly on point. We have the commie card with the cold war, the terrorist card with ….well fuck, just about anyone who seems to have a stash of oil America feels like it can profit off. We have a space force (team America fuck yeah song springs to mind)…

How Trump’s Space Force Would Help Protect Earth from Future Asteroid Threats | Space

And, from the actual official Space Force Strategic Overview:

“Although U.S. space systems have historically been technologically superior, China and Russia have embarked on major efforts to develop counter-space capabilities in order to destroy or disrupt U.S. and allied space capabilities in a crisis or conflict. They are also rapidly developing advanced space capabilities to enhance the lethality of their military operations, increasing the likelihood that U.S. and coalition forces will need to defeat the space capabilities of adversary forces in order to prevail in a potential conflict, to protect lives, and to secure the interests of the United States and its allies and partners. In short, space has become a warfighting domain.” - UNITED-STATES-SPACE-FORCE-STRATEGIC-OVERVIEW.PDF (defense.gov)

And since we are talking about Trump and his space force here to save us from doom from above can someone please explain this video to me?

Trump Trackdown – YouTube

The video is about a conman named Trump who convinces a small town that they are under threat from meteors about to fall on their heads. Trump’s suggestion is to build a wall around the town and purchase his magical umbrellas as the only means to keep them safe from the meteors. When one of the townspeople tries telling his community he is fraud, Trump decides to add a tax to his umbrellas which gets higher with every word that man speaks. He even puts on a little barrel explosion show, to make it look one of the meteors hit the ground right next to them. Note the white robes with the very basic astrological symbols. I’d be curious to know if his little ritual was taken straight out of a Golden Dawn or OTO book. From a series called Trackdown FROM FUCKING 1958. Yeah, yeah I know, just coincidence right?

How about Von Braun predicting “an Elon would take us to Mars” even further back in 1953? Didn’t you hear? It’s been the talk of the space community for the past week.

“Pioneering aerospace engineer and science-fiction writer Wernher von Braun may have predicted Elon Musk’s plan to colonize other worlds nearly 70 years ago when he described a man named “Elon” ruling over Mars.

Von Braun created the character “Elon” in his 1952 science fiction novel “Project Mars” — a space fantasy about a mission to Mars, according to a report.

The book’s predictions came to light a few years ago, but began trending on social media last week

Von Braun, one of the most important scientists in the development of rocket technology, describes a Martian government led by ten men, who worked under a leader “elected by universal suffrage for five years under the name or title of Elon.” -  German engineer predicted 'Elon' would conquer Mars in 1952 novel (nypost.com)

Seems Von Braun was well respected enough for NASA to post a bio of him on their webpage:

Biography of Wernher Von Braun | NASA

Yet Parsons wasn’t for some reason, even though Von Braun suggested Parsonshad more right to the title of “Ftaher of Rocketry” than he did:

jack parsons – NASA Search Results

…..even though people in the aerospace game nicknamed the JPL the “Jack Parsons Labratory” after his seemingly sketchy death (sketchy as in some believe it was assassination, and other friends of Parson’s an attempt to create a homunculous – WTF).

“The same month JPL held an open access event to mark the 32nd anniversary of its foundation—which featured a "nativity scene" of mannequins reconstructing the November 1936 photograph of the GALCIT Group—and erected a monument commemorating their first rocket test on Halloween 1936.^[25] Among the aerospace industry, JPL was nicknamed as standing for "Jack Parsons' Laboratory" or "Jack Parsons Lives".” - Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) - Wikipedia

But I suppose that is understandable when rumour has it one of your organisation’s founders was fucking about with astral projection and trying to summon the soul of an etherical being into an unborn fetus. It’s not like astral projection was considered a usable asset to the US government or anything. Oh wait a minute:

ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF GATEWAY PROCESS (cia.gov)

It’s almost like with all this rhetoric on Russia and China the US govt is going all out with the Commie bastard narrative once again huh? What is the bet the aliens will show up on the White House lawn in the next decade? My money is on the Nordics, which the Starseed agenda has seemingly been set up to be super accepting of.

Never mind that they are blonde haired and blue eyed; the same fucking eye and hair colours the Nazi’s were trying to make the dominant breed in their obsession with creating the Aryan Master race.

Do any of the followers of these channelers actually know where the Ashtar Command come from? I’ll give you a hint, all roads seem to lead back to the Theosophical society. The same society whose concepts on the Aryan race would go on to influence the Ariosophists that would in turn influence Hitler and the SS. Am I the only one concerned by this? Here’s an idea, what if the gameplan changed from Von Braun’s alien invasion, to strategic assimilation of the Nordics into general population. An already set up UFO religion would make a good pawn by which to carry out such assimilation, would it not?

But let’s do what skeptics like my brother in law do best and just ignore that for the time being as it doesn’t concern us right now. Don’t worry, I will definitely get to it in another article though.

Back to Parson’s and the idea he was trying to create a moonchild. Depending on what account of the story you read you might come across the one that suggests Crowley wasn’t particularly impressed with his and Hubbard’s efforts. {Allegedly} Crowley chastised them for opening the portal but lacking the magical skillset required to close it, which led to a tear in the fabric of space just sitting there waiting to let into our dimension whatever felt the need to come here….

….Like a black hole like anomaly perhaps?

“I was also told that I had been part of a “hive consciousness” that had tracked this amnesia to a black hole anomaly.

This black hole anomaly existed at the edge of this physical universe and was where the device causing the amnesia was being hidden.”

Except mine was at least 40 thousand years old.

So now you have myself, SD and Severin, playing around with occult concepts such as astral projection and lucid dreaming and we wound up claiming contact with non physical entities just like Parsons claimed. Lol, we are EXACTLY the type of people that NASA would employ to develop their rocket systems, as backed by history…….LOL

Connect……the……dots!!!

All evidence is suggestive Secret Societies such as The Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, the OTO etc were in possession of some very powerful secrets, and were conducting experiments specifically trying to contact non physical entities, which may have been met with some success. I have mentioned my suspicions that Blavatsky was given the Hybridisation schedule of the Aryans, which Hitler (whose salute seemed to be a check to make sure non physical entities were in fact friends) seemingly became the one to try and bring to fruition. Was rocket propulsion tech a gift from some of these non physical entities? If so, then what was exchanged for it. The opportunity to create a conduit by which to grant access to a physical body perhaps?

From Alien Interview:

“The recently despoiled German totalitarian state on Earth was similar to the "Old Empire", but not nearly as brutal, and about ten thousand times less powerful. Many of the ISBEs on Earth are here because they are violently opposed to totalitarian government, or because they were so psychotically vicious that they could not be controlled by "Old Empire" government.”

From the Commander:

There are numerous organizations that you refer to as "robed elders".

Each one has a niche role in this Prison Environment.

…
[4] Some were established by physical occult organizations from within the Prison population and has taken on a life of their own. These kinds of organizations are many. Some were created by accident. And some were created on purpose. One of the most famous (and prolific) occult leaders in your modern era was a man named Aleister Crowley and he was very active in creating some of these organizations in the non-physical worlds. Some spawned others, and some fractured and grew. 

- Answers from The Domain from questions generated 24SEP21 (metallicman.com)

.....these organizations in the non-physical worlds. Some spawned others, and some fractured and grew.                                    

- Answers from The Domain from questions generated 24SEP21 (metallicman.com)

Oh, and you know that Krishnamurti guy the Theosophists thought were their Matraya, and who we found out in one of my recent articles was brought in to interview Airl during the Roswell Crash (assuming it was Jiddu and not Uppaluri)? Turns out Parsons went along to some of his lectures:

“Parsons had also attended lectures on Theosophy by philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti with his first wife Helen, but disliked the belief system's sentiment of "the good and the true".^[178] During rocket tests, Parsons often recited Crowley's poem "Hymn to Pan" as a good luck charm.^[168] He took to addressing Crowley as his "Most Beloved Father" and signed off to him as "thy son, John"                      -           

Jack Parsons (rocket engineer) - Wikipedia

Taking what we now know through alien interview and MM, I would also suggest that there was more weight to Parson’s attempt at creating a moonchild than one would first think. Crowley alludes to the idea that a magical war was being fought between black and white magicians; was this really a prediction of WW2? At the very least, Hubbard seemed to know something; his concept of Thetan’s are too heavily coincidental with Airl’s concept of an IS-BE. One could argue that if Spencer was a Scientologist then he could have just been rehashing some of Hubbard’s concepts, but then this doesn’t explain why my experiences paralleled the Alien Interview so closely. I always thought Scientology was a load of bullshit to make money of rich celebrities. Maybe that wasn’t it’s original intention.

Could it be that another entity made its way into the moonchild, than what was actually intended by Parson’s or Hubbard? Like an Old Empire agent, and this agent propagated its agenda through the occult community until they eventually reached Hitler? What if Crowley and Blavatsky got it all wrong; what if the ones they were contacted by were not as benevolent as they made themselves out to be?

SD’s experiences suggest that she has past life memories of the Nazi’s carrying out similar operations to deliberately incarnate the Aryan’s/ Nordics into newly developing fetuses. I guess that is just another coincidence right?

So we know Parsons was at one point well regarded by the OTO. But who exactly were they? Well, they were an Order established by a suspected German police agent and Freemason Theodore Ruess, Freemasonry student Carl Kellner, and associate of Blavatsky’s and Chairman of the Theosophical Society Adya board of control Franz Hartmann (considered one of the most important Theosophical writers of his time). Does this really surprise you?

“Originally {the OTO }was intended to be modeled after and associated with European Freemasonry,^[2] such as Masonic Templar organizations, but under the leadership of Aleister Crowley, O.T.O. was reorganized around Crowley's Thelema as its central religious principle. One of the major features and core teachings of the organization is its practice of sex magic.^[1]” - Ordo Templi Orientis - Wikipedia

So you could say, in a some ways Freemason’s were sympathetic to all the shit Jack was getting up to whilst in the OTO and a follower of Crowley’s. I mean, they might not have approved of him trying to put the soul of an etheric being in a child, or even believed it, but they would have at least shared belief in the same alchemical aspects of the Kabbalah. This is, after all the main driving concept behind both groups. And if you think the Masons weren’t messing around with trying to summon spirits, think again:

From The Midnight Freemasons: The Magick of King Solomon, which claims the site as being for “Master Masons to talk about topics of Masonic Interest”.

“The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain. Their seals therefore represent methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (though the eye)." (Aleister Crowley, The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic in the Goetia.)

If we as masons want to look at this in a philosophical sense we are all seeking to be the wise King Solomon. We must unlock the brass vessel of our own unconscious mind releasing all the aspects of ourselves we care not to let out. Each demon can be seen as an aspect of our personality that we keep hidden from the world. It is the goal of the magician with the aid of angels and magickal weapons to face the dark aspects of him and symbolically slay and expel those forces from our own spiritual nature, thus purifying him. This medieval system of what some would consider “black magick” is simply a way to reflect upon the aspects of our own psyche. If we as individuals wish to gain the wisdom of the archetypal king, we should face the shadow of ourselves and the demons that well in the void of our own nightmares.

Before one sincerely attempts to evoke these demons, one should first spend some time invoking the 72 counterpart angels of the Almadel. The Almadel is a very enlightening experience and puts the magician in touch with the aspects of virtue within the psyche of the individual. This should be required for two reasons, one: one should be in touch with their inner strength before they face the demons, and two: the angels of the Almadel have direct control over the demons of the brass vessel. The Almadel is a system of scrying into a crystal ball over a altar made of wax upon which are engraved the Holy names of God. Remember that invocation is to call down a power within your spirit and mind, so you invoke angels to bring them closer. The Magician will evoke demons, to to bring from within ones self into manifestation. “

Oh you mean like Jung’s Analytical Psychology?

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. - Carl Jung”

Masonic tradition was literally based on summoning the “demons” of Solomon, which were argued to really only be about unlocking hidden aspects of the mind. This presents an awkward conversation when you consider just how many astronauts, trained under NASA, are Freemasons:

Masonic Astronauts | Freemason Information

So now we know not only was NASA’s JPL founded by a guy who thought it possible and necessary to try and cram the soul of an etheric being into an unborn fetus, but that a large portion of NASA personnel are part of an organisation that studies summoning angels and demons as part of their craft. Not only that, they believe the Jewish system of “(Qabalah) . . . formed an important part of the Masonic traditions, and undoubtedly contains the nearest approach to a direct revelation of the ancient canonical secrets of the old world;’ (1) – Masonry and the Cabala (masoncode.com)

You sure these guys would tell you if they found something? Majority of them won’t even tell you half the shit I just laid down.

This connection to Solomon must be taken note of; not only did I have the Greater and Lesser Keys (the real versions) in my possession when I had my experiences, which also happened when I was intensively studying the Kabbalah, but my research is indicative that those who are being contacted within the occult community – people like Severin and SD etc–, and being told about the reincarnation traps have a better-than-average understanding of these texts. Consider them as the oldest methods of Steven Greer’s CE5. They are not just interpretations of some philosophical theories. My research suggests they are legitimate documents that detail the process by which to prepare a physical body for the inhabitation of an interdimensional consciousness, and this is backed by abductees I have spoken to. Let’s just say I am spilling a bit of a secret here. According to my own research, what is being revealed appears to be the genuine account of Earth’s history, just like is suggested by the Freemasons. You cannot tell me that is not worth investigation.

So there it is, the complete and unabridged version of why I think NASA are not worth taking seriously when it comes to, well, pretty much anything. If they really truly wanted to understand things about the cosmos, then it would have done them well to listen to the concepts of Parsons and how he thought quantum physics could describe Thelemic magic…..who is to say they didn’t?

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Part 6 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander February 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 6.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. 

Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

THis is part of the Q&A (on-going) effort where questions are provided to me, and then I present them, and then record and interpet the responses.

Personally, I think girls, cats, and food are far more interesting. But, that's me, don't you know.

[6.1] Question – Recycling

What is the difference between recyling in the Earth Prison Environment, and in the rest of the “Main Universe”?

IS-BE skin suits in the reality (bubble) universe undergo a process of swapping quantum consciousness densities between the reality (bubble) universe and the individual (spawned) bubble micro universes that are known as "Heaven".

This process is faciated through a number of factors. This includes a lack of memories (amnesia), as well as a lack of support or guidance to direct the consciousness to other paths during translation out of the skin-suit and into the non-physical realms.

Without support, direction, or knowledge the ignorant will be convinced to enter into a recycling process. This process includes memory "erasure" in different forms. The most common is the complete memory erasure segment known as the "tunnel of light" but there are other processes. These other processes differ and act like an erasure (not really erasure, but more like suppression enabling access to selected memories while in "heaven") then reenter the assigned "Heaven" associated with the IS-BE physical body skin-suit.

The "tunnel of light" is the primary amnesia mechanism. It is not the only one. Depending on the consciousness of the given IS-BE and their particular composition (garbons, swales, associations, backgrounds and histories) there are other processes that are involved.

Such as how DM uses LD to transport to the <garbled> planet of the "Old Empire". Such is how you entered <garbled, not redacted> and this enabled you to retain some minor thought snippets.

The "Lost Battalion" has been assigned for agressive memory erasure, chains, skin-suit snares, traps and alterations, and other binding efforts of a very complex nature that is beyond the understanding of this vehicle (myself MM) to understand.

This entire process within the physical reality is to shuttle and shuffle the IS-BE though a wash, and repeat cycling from "Heaven" to the general population in the "Physical Reality" and back again. It is a treadmill with no exit, only the promises of one. The key to this entire process working falls into two main catagories.

[1] Memory erasure.
[2] Prevention of independent action, or help upon translation out of the skin suit.

All Doman perrsonnel and agents (whether formal or informal) will be met upon translation as long as they call for our assistance. This must occur to obtain it. It is not automatic, and passive actions will not be beneficial to the entity. We will then help the entity avoid the memory erasure traps in all their many forms.

All this should be well understood by those who are participating alongside MM in this journey.

The "main" universe is something completely different. It operates differently and is structurally different.

Once the IS-BE occupies the "main" universe, there are no "Heavens" to cycle to and from. The "main reality" universe contains all elements that are present in both the physical reality and the various associative "Heavens".

Biological bodies are born, live and die in the "Main" universe similiar to that experienced within the Prison Complex. Except that there are no amnesia mechanisms. Instead the memories upon birth (of a living entity) are in the process of forming, and adapting to the "main" universe environments, so they have to learn and grow. But it is not as severe as in the "physical" reality universe.

So, living within the "main" universe is one much like a snake that sheds it's skin periodically. The snake still lives and retains all it's memories, but when it acquires a new skin there is a period of adapting to it, toughing it, and nurturing it. The memories do not disappear when it sheds the coarse body elements.

Life thus is not birth to death such as in the Prison Complex, but rather, live as a coarse entity, live as a finer entity, and then repeat as one desires.

Thus you have a situation where there are coarse socities and civilizations that resemble the old empire that have large non-physical components that coexist within the same geographic confines.

This is further actuated by the fact that thoughts have a greater ability to modify and mitigate changes in the coarser elements of the society. It is a place where magic can actually work and operate. They coexist and intermingle.

In the "main" universe, the societies (depending on the culture and type) form long duration interpersonal relationships, friends and families that last for many, many generations. The individuals often just swap roles, but often keep their various positions if that is their preference. Thus that is one of the reasons why the "Old Empire" maintained a royal governance class that over time become very corrupted and impotent within their own individulistic cultural and society bubble.

Another way to look at what a life cycle resembles in the "Main" universe is to consider the washing machine. When the clothes are dirty and caked with the dust and smoke of work in the factories, the wife places it in the open top of the washing machine. She rubs on some Fels-Neptha on the dirty parts and let it run. Then when she is finished she drains the tub, and puts the clothes through the wringer where all the water is squeezed out, and then she places it in the basket to hang on the clothes line.

The clothes is like the IS-BE. Life in the "main" universe gets dirty and tiring, but the death translation is the washing cycle. The clothes remains intact and is ready for the next incarnation. And the consciousness remembers all.

Felines are the embodiment of how things work in the "main" universe.

[6.2a] Question – Crowley

I have a few questions for the commander the answers of which will help with a few articles i am working on:

Questions for the Commander;

The commander mentioned that Aleister Crowley was in contact with some Agents of the Old Empire. My suspicians had led me to a similar conclusions.

For reasons I won’t go into at this time, I have been led to believe that King Solomon was in fact a malevolent ET intelligence and that his spirit summoning magic was solely to prepare willing hosts for the eventual possession by other non physical intelligences.

Solomon was said to have “imprisoned” 72 consciousnesses in a brazen vessel which he threw into a lake.

It is well documented that Crowley was in contact with these 72 Goetic spirits, some of which have links to the Sumerian Annunaki (example Astaroth being Ishtar).

From my research, it would seem members of this group of 72 have been reaching out to certain people and trying to explain similar things in regards to the amnesia etc.

From everything the Commander has said about the Old Empire utilising magic, and what Airl said about the Domain being mistaken as the Annunaki, it seems to me that Solomon was an Old Empire Agent and that the 72 were Domain personnel.

So my question is, [1] was Solomon Old Empire and [2] are the Goetia Domain, or similar group opposed to the Old Empire’s regime?

This is a very large topic.

Question 6.2a part [1] Was Solomon a member of the Old Empire?

The Goetic Spirits are IS-BE entities that are powerful, and are specifically imprisoned in a special holding micro universe. This is the rough equivalent of "The Hole" in contemporaneous earth-side prisons. They have proven to be immune from the same kinds of systems that effectively imprison most other IS-BE entities.

There are more than 72 entities in the micro universe (that Crowley referred to).

The belief that Solomon was an "Old Empire" agent is strongly inferred, but is not confirmed. The creation of a micro universe within the Prison Complex is a formidable task for someone who does not know or understand how the "reality" universe operates, thus it is entirely plausable that Solomon was a major architect of more than just the special micro holding universe, but rather a key architect of the entire complex.

Some of the Domain who are members of the "Lost Battalion" are imprisoned in the special holding micro universe. These are very capable entities.

This micro universe still exists and still operates. We have not been able (at this date and time) to extract any entities from it.

Question 6.2a part [2] are the Goetia Domain, or similar group opposed to the Old Empire’s regime?

There are many groups, societies, entities, and organizaitons that have been opposed to the "Old Empire". Many consist of peoples, societies, structures, and other forms that have been eviscerated when the "Old Empire" took over their communities.

One must be aware that the "Old Empire" had more enemies than friends.

There are complete communities that represent sections or portions of absorbed civilizations that harbor an intense dislike of the "Old Empire" and anything associated with it. They, in many cases, experienced very nasty wars, to include thermonuclar devistation and mass enslavment. In many cases these have gone into hiding; gone underground, and surface to monitor and conduct all matter of non-physical harassment.

What the questioner refers to as the "Goetia Domain" is not what is commonly assumed (through this entity [MM here] knowledge and understanding [which might be completely erronous]), but rather is representative of something more diffuse and greater than a singular group tied together with physical associations.

As discussed previously (this refers to a comm channel that I opened and a set of personal questions directed to a questioner who questioned if they were a member of the "Lost Battalion") there are certain elements that quantum IS-BE consciousnesses can envelope and migrate. This includes partitioning of attributes, garbons, swales, and personalities. The soldiers of the Domain use these techniques to communicate and perform structured evasive activity and also enable custom skill sets on a as needed basis. The groups (again, the "Goetia Domain") utilize some of these abilities to conduct surreptitious activities for their benefit and that makes them especially elusive.

Like the questioners core (primary) organization, along with SD, these activities that are performed are conducted in advanced manenrs using techniques that you (myself; MM) cannot comprehend. As they are beyond your limited rendering of understanding.

One can recognize that while their activities are often enshrouded, their intentions are clear and supportive of the nullification of the Prison COmplex.

[6.2b] Question – Prep advice

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I realise I am in the unique position of being one of the only ones within this prison system of having memory of the reincarnation process, and the electro shock torture one undergoes to induce the amnesia.

I am confident, due to my LD undertakings, that I will be able to resist much of what the OE may throw at me should i go back through the process.

It is for this reason I am planning to deliberately re enter the reincarnation trap at the time of my death to try and gain more intelligence for the Domain and the EG.

I am wondering if there is anything in particular the Domain want me to try and target for recon/ deconstruction purposes, so I can better prepare myself during this life (through meditation etc) to “remember” those targets when the time comes. The Domain have my permission to monitor me, during the process, assuming it is even possible.

The questioner is already being under monitoring, and has a team of Domain specialists working alongside him.

Due to the liasion complications, anything that the questioner proceds with must be preapproved by his superiors. We (The Domain) are a hobby / interest / side-venture / important element / side-show in regards to his core tasks, and we should always be considered of secondary importance.

We advise the questioner obtain permissions first before proceeding in this direction as it could very well "go South" and not turn out well for the questioner. And also due to his alignment with the greater force of SD, he must clear everythign with that entity first as they are a paired ensemble (frequency not music). 

If permission is obtained, and all elements are in agreement, then we would be happy to open up (a new binder) project in this regard. The questioner would know whether or not the premission set / kit is provided and will will read the responses in the non-physical realms for compliance and "next steps".

We will then guide and nudge the next steps for easy unraveling and implementation by the questioner physical skin-suit activity generation process.

[6.3a] Question – Values ingrained in life

Greetings Domain Commander, I have two questions:

What values ingrained in our current civilization should we banish or gradually come to a civilization that is more in tune with ISBEs and environmental creatures, as it seems the old empire still controls the directive.

Yes. the Prison Planet universe (reality universe) is a bubble spawned universe that resides within the "main" universe, and it contains many control mechanisms. These control mechanisms, and better yet, techiques (of control) are often at great variance with the desires and needs of the IS-BE entities so imprisoned.

It is set up intentionally to be this invironment to control those inmates inside of it.

As time (apparently) progresses or moves forward, we (the Domain) will continue to dissanble the systems in place. The Domain is not alone in this effort and other organizations are working to this end as well.

Additionally, all IS-BE consciousnesses must take the personal initative to acccept new behaviros and change the "rules of the game" so fostered in this "general population" within the Prison Complex. Enormous strides and advances have been accomplished in this great effort so far.

Core to this effort revolves around what you have questioned. You asked what values in the current civilization(s) should be banished or thwarted to enable the IS-BEs more atonomy and an ability to break free from the shackles that imprison them? And this is what the entire transformative effots (via MM here) is all about. 

While every civilization has it's advantages and disadvantages, we are currently working with the human civilizations on the Earth in regards to the changes regarding...

[1] Financial Transactions. (A love of money; greed.) the accumulation of which is without limit and the generation of artificial power tied to it. This must end.

[2] Community and society. Humans (in their manifestation as skin-suits) are never the less IS-BEs trapped in an artifical constuct. Freed from the body, most IS_BE's migrate toward other IS_BEs that they have achieved long duration bonds with. This manifests in a skin-suit society of community, and the "Olde Empire" control mechanism is one that fosters isolation, independence and control by fear. They way to break this control mechanism is through personal interaction with others.

[3] Participation with kindness and concern. MM refers to this as "Rufus behaviors". It's a direct participation with the society without expectation of reward or benefit.

[4] Emotional replacments. "Olde Empire" replacment swaps of emotion generation mechanisms have been geared towards the control of others. These are fear generation mechanisms used to repel, and vice generation mechanisms used to attract. The manipulation of these control mechansims must end. In the current earth, electromechanila radio frequency mechanisms are used to artifically induce these manipulative behaviors. The best way to regain control of this is to avoid those seductive systems all together.

[6.3b] Question – Our actions driven what?

Q2 Should your actions be driven more by the psychological mind or more by peaceful disobedience.

The drivers for action is an individual determative factor. It can only be determined by the IS-BE consciousness as it resides within it's own skin-suit and upon it's current template (sic). This is a fixed determinate.

The questioner is advised not to consider others in this issue. Only to consider itsef as an imprisoned entity within a fixed physical body. Actions are thus variant. They change on a daily basis, and one just simply cannot originate a "one size fits all" answer or solution to rapidly evolving situations.

By trusting on the internal "feelings" or (delta) changes in emotional makeup when confronted with a problem (or decisions process), the solutions will be superior. Reliance on the mind, which is an "Olde Empire" device is a mistake. It is used to control, and set the entity IS-BE firmly upon the pre-birth world-line template (sic).

A free roaming / ranging IS-BE entity is not controlled nor imprisoned by the physical mind, but instead uses it to process things. It's a tool, not a mechanism to recieve instructions.

Stop obeying the mind, rather tune in to your inner self for guidance.

Questioner is advised to contact his mantid and arrance a helpful audience to achieve these alterations / revisions.

Thank you for your answers, I feel almost since my childhood like a camouflaged jaguar who has taken too many naps. I hope alliances have been formed, we are divided. Thank you for your answers and your compation, I hope one day to thank you ISBE to ISBE.

[6.4] Question – Distance measurement

I came across this question on a thread which is entirely unrelated to the Domain thing, and thought it was a rather a good one. I thought i’d ask you given your credentials in astrophysics.

The question:

“Can someone explain it , simply. How can astrophysicists tell the difference between something that is 4 light years away(like 24 trillion miles or whatever it is) vs something that is 1 million light years away. Like after our solar system, how can any distance truly be measured? I don’t doubt them, I’m genuinely curious how they do it and wanna know in easy layman’s terms, if possible”

Think of human skin-suits as living inside a small glass fish-bowl. The only thing that they understand is what they can observe.

Naturally, they have created different techniques and systems for the measurement of physical distances between objects that they observe. The scientific basis for these measurements are as sound and capable as is possible using the limitations of time and space as understood by the human skin-suits.

However, there are assumptions that are being used that are in error.

[1] That the speed of light is constant and not variable. In the "main" universe, the speed of light can be variable and is a function of regional perception of the IS-BE entities within that particular cluster. Their presence, and particuliarly their mass alter the behavior of frequences, and one of those frequences is the visible light band.

[2] Non-stationary observer structures. The astrophysicists base their observations from what they observe. This is a point in a geographic region of physical space with is an isolated micro-universe that sits within a larger one. The "shell" of this universe is not hard like an egg, but rather more like a thick membrane. And like thick glass bends light, the membrane itself can alter the observation of light. As the surface of the membrane is not one hundred percent uniform, nor smooth, but rather undulating and curvy.

The answerer (MM here) can provide an insight in the methodology used by the astrophysicists. It is as valid as possible, but unfortunately provides a slightly / changed / alternative impression of science and the operation of physics within the main universe. The reality bubble universe has slightly different physical rules.

I have my assumptions but eager to here from the perspective of a professional in this field. Plus I know you are quite into talking about space, so figured it might give you a break from the Domain questions/ other stresses that undoubtedly surround you at the best of times. All good if you aren’t up for answering it if it requires too much technical speak.

[6.5] Question – How can I improve myself?

Hi, mm

m’y names IS <redacted>. i’m a french IS be Indian in this incarnation but deracinated cause i dont speak my mother langage wich IS gudjrati because i grew up in France and m’y famille didn’t spoke me enough Indian anyway

i’m trying to survive to those political criminals and their pawns that runs the World and to expand m’y concsiousness i like to listen to your Q-A cause it’s resonate with me

i really appreciate the fact that you exist greatfull someone made me discrover you (Pam 2/3 r.a.n.d a french youtuber who does a wonderfull work in traduction and exopolitics consciouness!)

thanks you again for being you

sorry i go Black to Sts selfish nonesense and i Ask m’y question :

I’m affraid i’m the worst recrue ever and to be honnest that’s what i feel when i observe myself, i’m aware that i dont do my best i feel like i do not help a lot for the Lost bataillon so Can i have an advice to improve myself ?

I have the feeling my martial abilities are related to past lives and i would like to know if they know something about that or am i just a fearfull bastard full if New age craps on my head ? I wouldn’t be surprise,

if they know something please tell me .

Sorry for that selfish nonesense .

wish you the best where you are and to your compagny…

Questioner needs to focus. There is a strong need to communicate ideas in a simple and effective manner irregardless of the language barriers.

For this questioner we advise that the process be one of short sentences, followed by an abnormally long pause. This allows the listener to absorb the information transmitted and understand it. The questioner should slow their communication to permit their ideas and concepts to be understood by others.

Communication is a fundamental priority in regards to all creatures regarding their manifestion.

The questioner will find that there are unmentioned elements in their incarnation that will be resolved with an improved means of communication. This includes all elements of communication in all areas of the questioner's life.

Say things in short sentences.
WHen the questioner pronounces the words, provide a stress on the key object, subject or point in the sentence.
Have an abnormally long rest period after the sentence is spoken.

This is important and should not be discounted. The questioner must practice this technique and implement it.

This is an unusual answer, and I do not know what the basis for this was. It simply might have been due to my interpetation of the inquiry. In any event, it was presented very clearly to me.

Instead of saying…

I went to the store, and I saw a dog. The dog was brown and white. He was barking and raising a fuss, and I saw a pretty girl walk by.

It should be stated as…

I went to the store.
(pause)

I saw a dog. 
(pause)

The dog was brown and white. 
(pause)

He was barking.
(pause)

He was raising a fuss.
(pause)

I saw a pretty girl walk by.
(pause)

[6.7a] Question – Is this about me?

Are you still accepting questions for the Commander? If so, I have some, if not it’s also ok:

I found your website a week ago, so I am completely new to this group. However since I found it I have been reading as much as I can. Then I found this possibility to ask questions to “the Commander”, and I feel a strong urge to ask, though I am still not through the basics described on your website.

It’s all very interesting!

So of course, the obvious question first, do I belong to this group, how is my connection to it, what is my role?

In Winter 2010/2011 I woke up one night because of some buzzing sound next to my head. There was a small sizzling light orb sitting on the side of my bed making that sound (very strange indeed!).

As it noticed I was awake it asked me something like “Do you want to help spread the light?”.

I was so disturbed and sleepy and stupid stupid I did not say yes (or no), but I asked if it really meant me, and if I would be capable to do that at all…..

Just doubting myself very much.

And then I fell asleep again.

Never had any contact after that anymore (at least I think so).

So basically I ask this question again, and what that light orb was about.

Questioner is here because the MM message resonates with the IS-BE derived consciousness. When frequences attract they resonate. This can be measured. The level of attractiveness to events, people and situations is a function of the magniture of the frequency amplitude during resonance occurrence.

The questioner belongs here.

Regarding the "orb of light"; manifestation of appearance varies from interpetation and skill level on an individual IS-BE to individual IS-BE basis. The questioner should not question their impressions. That is like a person eating a lamb cutlet and questioning whether it is ice cream.

The questioner is advised to accept things as they are, and to interpet them to the best of their ability. Then, accept the interpetations and move forward from there.

[6.7b] Question –

Then the next one, more general, concerning the Deagel list:

Why is the forecasted depopulation in the Netherlands so small (2% from 2020 to 2025 plus that the PPP stays relatively high), where neighbouring countries like Germany and the UK have a massive depopulation forecasted, and even the decrease in Belgium is substantial?

In NL they also apply the mRNA jabs and there are no dead-virus vaccines available. A nuclear bomb on German cities would also affect the Netherlands.

Thank you for all your work!

The Deagel forecast is derived from remote viewing efforts coupled with data extraction and extrapulation techniques. It is based on a fixed shared world-line template (sic). As such it is constantly changing. When the numbers were obtained, the future was a "snapshot" that was recorded and elaborated upon.

The remote viewing process did not elaborate on the causes for the data, only that the data would manifest as presented.

Daegal wrote in 2020 that they believed that a combination or confluence of events might well result in the data sets that they recorded. But whether or not this is correct is difficult to quantify. 

No one has the answer regarding a changing template (sic), certainly anyone can come up with a myrid of possible senarios. 

The questioner must realize that Deagal was manipulating data sets and then remote viewing for accuracy adjustments. They were not visualizing actual events, just trends and comparing them to historical extrapulations.

[6.8 a-e] Question – Are there other disclosures out there?

I asked this question in response to reading something found by GuyFromAfrica on the Internet archive HERE.

[a] Are there other disclosures out there?

Yes. The messages are being broadcast using different venues. This is intentional. They are not your concern.

[b] How accurate / effective are they?

That should not be your concern either. There are different levels of accuracy depending on the receptive audience consiousness.

Those with a religious interest will obtain information and direction from sources that resonate with them, while those who have a fear-induced being will obtain directions and information from venues that will resonate from them differently.

There is no absolute answer or information transmittal. It is all custom tailored to the audience, thus the Domain provides a wide high bandwith coverage, with low energy for the greater mass of general population inmates. As well as tight bandwith for high energy populations through MM.

[c] Then what is so special about myself?

It is your ego that drives you to believe that you are special. It is true that you are unique and that you have special skills and abilities, but your functionality derives from your tasking. That is your value.

Is a steak better than a pork chop? Aside from prices, it's all a matter of personal need, taste and desire. You, in this manner provide a special role; a unique role. But it is not the only one doing so.

You will continue in your role until you translate and your role will then alter as events transpire. There is a role for you post-translation. That you can rest assured of, just as there are roles for <redacted>, DK, <readacted>, DM (with caveats), and ML's rehabilitation process.

[d] Can you elaborate on the post-translation procedure?

No. There is no need for anyone to worry or be concerned about it at this time. It is an individual process that varies from IS-BE to IS-BE.

[e] Is there a general format, process, or procedure for this?

No. Everyone is different, and there is greater variety in IS-BE consciousnesses than what appears in the human skin-suit within the Prison Complex. 

This greater variety is enormous, and it is similiar to comparing a telephone on a bare tabletop (MM) with that of a steam-shovel in a garbage dump (DK), and to a battleship / aircraft carrier plowing though stormy seas (ML). 

Everyone is not just different, they are REALLY different.

The impression I got from The Commander in regards to ML is this mecha-godzilla / battleship / aircraft carrier hybrid thingy. Wow! -MM

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

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Sitrep on the emerging actions of World War III

Well, I have covered this issue on all sorts of articles, each one highly detailed and laid out clearly. What makes this (particular) article different is that we are now watching and observing overt actions, as opposed to covert actions.

Yes, The USA has been carpet bombing China with bioweapons since 2017, but the American mainstream media turned that war effort hidden. It turned it covert.

Now, with each overt action, we see an increase of pressure of a retaliatory nature. This response is against the enormous United States military empire, and its surrogates.

So here, in this article, we are going to cover the first dramatic weapon exchanges in February 2022.

It's biological weapons vs Scalar / directed energy weapons.

No. I’m not going to cover the (supposed) any day now… “war in the Ukraine”. LOL. That’s for the mindless sheeple to believe.

No. We are instead going to talk about real covert and overt activities. Not the manufactured narrative that is there for the sole purposes of population control / fear manipulation and entertainment.

But first a review of the American war plan arrangements using biological weapons.

America’s Bioweapon grand strategy

Here’s the grand scheme…

- - Suppress foe-nations.
  - Then take advantage of seeded discord using NED assets.
  - Generate “regime change”.
  - Absorb the nations into the unipolar arrangement by proxy.

Functionally, it works like this…

Spread out an array of bioweapons of different classes, globally. While the individual nations are busy trying to develop vaccines, inoculate friendly-nations with mRNA injections.

The advantage of an mRNA injection is that it can be easily and quickly configured “on the fly” for whatever biological entity that is thrown at it.

However, it’s not working as planned…

Back-up military actions are put into place.

Trade delay tactics. These include an ad hoc arrangment of various “incidents” to create a “perfect storm” or situation whereas trade comes to a standstill. Strikes, blockages in canals, pricing, inflation, pandemic rules, price of gas, all of these manipulations are intentionally trying to slow down the American economy (and the economies of its serrogates) to stretch out and lengthen the time to fully implement the grand strategy.

Military encirclement tactics. These include nuclear weapons placed all around the Russian/China landmass. Everything related to American foreign “diplomacy” has been related to this effort in one form or the other.

Suppression tactics. This goes by the terms “friendly hybrid-war”. It’s not. It’s just a full on economic, legal, economic, and social war.

And now, who actually is running this shit-show?

The impression that I have is that Biden and the media are just following a script, and the writers (of the script) are either dead or in a nursing home. It’s on autopilot.

Everything is on auto-piolt. No one, sitting at the helm of any organization would behave like what we are witnessing in Western politics.

It’s all bullshit. Whether it is true or not, or whether it is yet another person trying to jump onto the “war with the Ukraine”, “war over Taiwan”, “war to save Hong Kong democracy”, a “religious war over Tibet”, or a “war to free the oppressed Uighur Muslims” bandwagon, is unknown.

Here we are going to look at an interview with the exact people who are in control of the mess that America is today. This is the person who has orchistrated all this on-going warfare. While not the only individual, his role in it cannot be denied.

He even admits to it on video. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He doesn’t give a fuck.

George Soros

Maybe not an “American”, though he sure as fuck controls most American l”leadership”, as well as British, and European “leaders”.

This guy truly would have been the *ideal* actor to play the role of Satan in any movie. Instead, he chose to play the role of Satan in real life. Check him out, this is truly priceless!

You-tube Video

Now, let’s talk about the incidents of an overt war. Of course, it’s not at all being reported as a hot war. Don’t you know.

[1] Israel tries to bomb a Russian Base

I covered this incident HERE.

Now Israel has been warned. They have been sternly advised, and every warning was presented to them. But like the arrogant fucking son-of-bitches that they are, they decided (after their Beirut detonation of the port on the Southern tier of the BRI) to bomb some Russian bases. Bad move.

I covered the Beirut explosion HERE.

We don’t know all the details. As this is not only a war event, but the “news” media is completely silent about this. You have to read Russian media.

Prior history suggests a well planned strike by Israel, and if they followed standing operating protocol, then multiple aircraft were involved.

Prior history, and examples with both China and Russia, suggest a complete disabling of all missiles, avionics, and engine systems of all planes hit by the directed energy beam weaponry.

At the least we can expect the loss of multiple aircraft, munitions and lives by Israel.

[2] American submarine disabled and trapped undersea

Well, I guess the warning wasn’t adequate. I covered that warning HERE.

Oh, you don’t know what I am talking about? Well, I am talking about that well reported covert recovery of an F-35C that crashed in the South China Sea, don’t you know.

You all do realize that “covert” actions are NEVER “well reported” in all the media.

So here’s the cover story…

A Naval Aviator launches from a carrier and suddenly ejects. “Leaked” stories, and “leaked” photos, support the narrative that the “top secret” plane must be recovered as quickly as possible.

Which is a cover story for all those submarine rescue craft that were hurriedly steaming to the “crash zone”.

We don’t know which submarine it is, or what the damage is. My guess is that it’s a complete write-off. The Chinese gave one warning shot. And then, they play “hard ball”.

Obviously, this cannot be reported to Americans. It will have negative political ramifications.

[3] Third time Elon Musk tries to ram the Chinese space station

Well, I guess he didn’t heed the warning from China. I covered that warning HERE. Well, China placed formal complaints, and they also warned SpaceX and the United States government that this kind of behavior was dangerous and threatening, and they will no longer tolerate it.

And the arrogant sons-of-bitches ignored the warning. And tried a third time.

Whoops!

Look at how pretty all those Musk SpaceX satellites fall to the ground. Like hundreds of tiny falling stars.

From HERE. Translated by machine and cleaned up and edited by MM.

49 new satellites and 40 scrapped, Musk throws garbage into space?

It has influenced the Chinese space station! The Foreign Ministry responded, and NASA also spoke out…

2022-02-11 08:02 Daily economic news

Recently, Musk’s “Starlink Satellite” stall has been in trouble.

According to CCTV News, on February 10, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian presided over a regular press conference.

A reporter asked:

According to reports, in a note sent to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs on January 28, the US side denied China's claim that the Starlink satellites had twice endangered the safety of the Chinese space station.

They said that the activities of the Starlink satellites did not meet the threshold of the established emergency collision avoidance standards.

Thus, no emergency notice was required. 

The US note also said that before sending a note to the United Nations, China did not contact the relevant US departments to express concerns about the danger caused by the Starlink satellite. 

What is China's response?

Zhao Lijian said:

China followed the treaty as prescribed. 

China's notification to the United Nations of the dangerous approach of the Starlink satellite to the Chinese space station and the threat to the safety of astronauts in orbit is to fulfill its international obligations under article 5 of the Outer Space Treaty. 

In the relevant collision avoidance incident, the US Starlink satellites are in a continuous orbital maneuvering state, and the maneuvering strategy and intention are unknown. 

Chinese astronauts in orbit face real and urgent security threats. 

China has had to adopt preventive collision avoidance controls. 

After the collision avoidance incident, the Chinese authorities repeatedly tried to contact the US side by email, but they did not receive any replies. 

Presently, the US side uses the so-called "lower limit of the emergency collision standard" to shirk responsibility and divert attention.

This is not a responsible attitude that a space power should have.

Additionally, the US side has no right to unilaterally set a "lower limit of the emergency collision standard" outside of any UN approved international treaty.

Zhao Lijian then pointed out…

That article 9 of the Outer Space Treaty stipulates that the exploration and use of outer space by all States parties shall be based on the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance.

That all activities of the State parties in outer space shall properly accommodate the equal interests of other States parties.

China has registered the relevant information on the space station with the United Nations and published the number of orbital roots of the Chinese space station on its website.

Proceeding from safeguarding the safety of Chinese astronauts and space stations, China is willing to establish a long-term communication mechanism with the United States and hopes that the United States will take practical measures to avoid the recurrence of such incidents.

China also hopes that all countries will jointly respect the international system of outer space based on international law and work together to safeguard the life safety of astronauts in orbit and the safe and stable operation of space facilities.

Ok, then.

So what is going on?

Well, the public narrative is that;

A statement on its official website on the evening of the 8th local time, saying that due to the impact of the geomagnetic storm, as many as 40 of the company's latest deployment of 49 "Starlink" satellites will be scrapped.

SpaceX said in a statement that on Feb. 3, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 Starchain satellites at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket sends the satellites into a predetermined orbit, with a perigee altitude of about 210 kilometers, and each satellite achieves a controlled flight.

However, the satellites were severely affected by geomagnetic storms the day after launch. The storm caused an increase in the density of the atmosphere at the low deployment altitude where the satellite was located. Airborne GPS shows that atmospheric resistance at this altitude is 50% higher than when launched. SpaceX said in a statement that the StarLink team controlled the satellite into safe mode, taking "flanking flight" to minimize drag and avoid the storm. Preliminary analysis shows that up to 40 satellites "will re-enter or have re-entered" the Earth's atmosphere due to increased resistance during low-altitude flights, which prevent satellites from deviating from safe mode for orbital lifting operations.

Geomagnetic storms took out 49 satellites. Yes. 49 satellites suddenly became inoperable all at once, and tumbled out of control and fell to the earth in a firey mess.

Hum.

Really?

Humans have been putting up satellites into space since sputnik in 1957. And this is the FIRST time any of them fell from orbit due to Geomagnetic storms.

According to reference news, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics physicist Jonathan McDowell said on the 9th (February 2022) local time that this event is considered to be the largest satellite collective loss caused by a single geomagnetic event.

I would add that it is the ONLY event. Ever.

…

Coincidences?

According to Wikipedia, A coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances that have no apparent causal connection with one another. The perception of remarkable coincidences may lead to supernatural, occult, or paranormal claims. Or it may lead to belief in fatalism, which is a doctrine that events will happen in the exact manner of a predetermined plan. In general, the perception of coincidence, for lack of more sophisticated explanations, can serve as link to folk psychology and philosophy.

But if you spent any time even remotely connected to the ONI or MAJ, or perhaps the CIA, you would realize that there is NO SUCH THING as coincidence.

Period.

So, you don’t have to believe me. You can believe the “news”. A war in the Ukraine is going to happen any day now, and it is going to be a long drawn out conventional battle over the ruins of the Ukraine.

Or you can believe me.

World War III is not being televised. It is not being reported, and what is reported is not what is actually going on.

Buckle up. More is in the making.

Do you want more?

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video. My home in China. 11MB

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The parable of the three houses

Instead of splitting Russia from China, the U.S. has unintentionally done its best to push them into a deeper alliance. It was the most severe strategic error the U.S. could make.-b

I just received a comment from a reader that said that I was “butt hurt” and hated the United States. Well, maybe I am, but I don’t hate the USA.

Instead, I simply tried to explain that I just see the bigger picture and I don’t like what I am seeing.

What I am seeing is all the makings for World War III, and the American citizenry are all actively participating in it.

Like zombies. Just going ahead allowing the rot to get worse, letting the buildings fall down, and reelecting the psychopathic to boss them into submission.

So I am going to create a parable.

It’s the parable of the three houses.

The Three Houses

Once up a time there were three houses in a town. They were all well known throughout the town as they were the biggest and largest homes in the community.

Oh, certainly there were many homes in the town. Nearly 200. But most of the homes were much smaller and inconsequential. Some were opulent, like Frans. Some were poor like little Bang A Desh. Some were complex like the house of Mex, and some were trying to fix things up like Zimmy Bob’s.

The biggest of the three was owned by a big, burly, bearded man who went by the name “Big Russ”. He was a big lumberjack and had this enormous bear for a pet.

The other two homes were roughly the same size, but one had many more children. That home was always lively and active. The kids were always playing and talking, laughing and singing.

That home was owned by a very short, quiet man named “Mr. Lee”. He was a quiet, studious man, who always spoke soft and gently. His hobby was making things, and he was always welcoming others to trade with him. When he wasn’t making things, he was always practicing his martial arts in the peace of his backyard garden.

And the last of the homes was one that sat on top of the biggest hill in the town. It was perhaps the richest of all the homes. Everyone, for years, would look up at the home and want to live there. As it was a truly exceptional home; a mansion really.

That home was owned by a man whom everyone called “Uncle Sam”.

Some History

Now, Uncle Sam, being so tall, strong and incredibly handsome, usually got his way in everything that he did. For years, he has been able to strut around the town without confrontation.

He was so accustomed to getting a “free pass” in everything that he did that he started to brazenly offend the rest of the good townspeople.

He would go inside the other homes, raid their refrigerators, take things that he wanted and sleep with the daughters. No one liked that behavior (with a few exceptions), but no one was able to do anything about it.

And over the years, being so accustomed to being the biggest and baddest person in the town, “Uncle Sam” started to believe that it was the natural order of things. He started to believe that he was able to do this because “God favored him, his lifestyle, and his arrogance”.

He believed that he was the exception to all the rules.

He believed that he could define the rules for all the other houses in the community to obey, and that he would have his own rules; his own “exceptions”.

He started to tell this to everyone.

“I am exceptional” he said.

“I have a big shining house on the hill,” he said.

The other two big houses

Now, Uncle Sam had, from time to time, visited the homes of both Big Russ and Mr. Lee. But, he wasn’t ever welcomed, and over the years they have been getting rather antagonized, and infuriated with his actions and activities.

Realizing that, Uncle Sam pretty much stayed away from those two big homes.

Instead, he preferred to frequent the smaller homes in the less affluent section of the town. This included the homes on Mid-East Avenue, and South-Am Road.

As well as all the homes of the Stan Clan.Uncle Sam has really been active there.

Which included him having to be forcefully removed from both Aff Gan, and Kaz Is’s homes.

But, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t want to go visit Big Russ and Mr. Lee from time to time. But the thing is, that when he visited, his table manners were atrocious. His body odor was foul, and his behaviors were rude and distasteful.

What ever he once was, what he is today is something different. Today, he’s a wife beater, a child molester, an alcoholic drunkard, who has a passion for shoplifting, petty crimes, and rape. When he’s not practicing arson, getting into drunk brawls, or taking “a dump” in other’s yards, he’s out having sex with their dogs.

No one really wants to have much to do with him, because as everyone knows, once you let him in your life you won’t ever be able to get rid of him.

As of late…

The children of Uncle Sam has been busy raising all sorts of ruckus. And what’s more, they have been all over the town doing so.

Mr. Lee complained about it.

He told Uncle Sam to take his children, and get out of his backyard. He told him to get off his front porch. He told him to stop peeking into his windows. He told him to stop sabotaging his car, pouring salt in his garden, and pulling up his tulips. He told him to get his dogs and chain them up. He no longer wanted to hear them barking day and night, digging up his bushes, and having his children race around and around the home in loud muffler-less motorcycles.

Big Russ complained about it as well.

He told Uncle Sam to get off his porch, stay out of his backyard. He told him that he no longer wanted those children to set fires to the neighboring yards, stealing the lawn ornaments, and playing their rock-and-roll music at all hours of the day and night.

Uncle Sam heard both of their complaints.

He thought about them.

And said “no”.

The reactions…

Well, Big Russ told Uncle Sam that there would be repercussions. But, took no overt and obvious action.

He sent his children out (in secret) to the yard of Uncle Sam. Then, he sat back and smiled. No firecrackers. No noise-makers. No barking dogs. No loud motorcycles. No. Those children all silently, and sternly, went off to the house armed with dangerously lethal ten-gage shotguns.

No “fun and games”.

And Mr. Lee, always kind and quiet, smiled and sat on his porch with an 8-gage shotgun (which, is a very large gun, don’t you know).

His children, and were told to stay in the house and practice their martial arts, cleaning their long-guns, and reading up on the book “the art of war”.

But Uncle Sam, seemingly an idiot, doubled down.

“Do as I say” he roared!

“You WILL obey me! You will listen to me, and you will pay homage and tribute to me!”

And he sent his children, and his toadies over to the house of Mr. Lee. And, now, almost all of his children are going around and around the house of Mr. Lee. They are revving their engines and making as much noise as they can possibly create. Poor Mr. Lee is really getting “rattled up” with his windows shaking, and the dishes falling on the floor. His tulips all decimated, and his gates town and broken.

And, well Uncle Sam has also started to send his other remaining children to camp out on the porch of Big Russ. There they are lighting campfires on the “welcome mat” and tossing firecrackers at all hours of the day and night. Giggling, sticking out their tongues and making rude sounds and laughing.

It was noisy for years.

Really years.

And then Mr. Lee and Big Russ held a party.

It was a big party and it was held in the dead of Winter. Everyone was invited except Uncle Sam and his “toadies”.

And at the meeting, they announced that the entire town cannot grow and live in peace as long as there is a big bully in town, and that all of the townspeople must gather together and start committing to their promises, agreements, and rules. And that they would take the lead.

Everyone in the party agreed. The welcomed the inclusiveness of it, and their equal participation in it. And of course, they too hated the rude behaviors and the bullying behaviors of Uncle Sam.

The entire town rejoiced in a defined, sensible plan for dealing with the town bully and his toadies.

Now, let me ask the reader a question…

Looking at the big picture…

What action should Uncle Sam take to defuse a tense, potentially catastrophic event train?

I would suggest, sending his kids back home. Paddling them until their butts are red and sore, and selling off all those motorcycles, barking dogs, and firecrackers.

Then apologizing in public to the community.

If you were Big Russ, what action do you think you should take?

Would it be against the children on the porch; a continuous game of "whack a mole", or would it be against Uncle Sam himself?

If you were Mr. Lee, what action do you think you should take?

Would you wait until more children arrive and get louder and badder? Or would you lay down systems to disable those motorcycles? Or would you burn down the gas stations, so the motorcycles couldn't get any more gas?

Do you think that making an announcement at that party was a goo thing to do?

Words without action are meaningless. This is a solid framework that requires tasking. Is the rest of the town up to handle the challenge?

And that is how things are.

And MM here is just trying NOT to pick sides so much as I just want the entire town to live together in peace and harmony.

I live in the house with Mr. Lee. It’s a pleasant, peaceful, kind and calm place. I want to keep it that way. Don’t you?

MM Special Message

Life is fleeting.

Please, please make the best of what you have RIGHT NOW. Maybe there are evil psychopathic people, idiots and nasty malcontents. But you are in control of your bubble of reality. You can affect your own life.

You can make the world a better place. Please do so.

Video 7MB

Show care and concern to those around you.

Especially your family.

Really.

Do you really spend enough time with those that you love? Do you have a family that spends happy and sad times together? Is your life rich with pets, friends and savory food?

Video 7MB

Spend time with family, friends, or just have fun…

Likten to me.

I know it’s so easy to get caught up with work, needs, goals, objectives and all the rest. I, too, spend a lot of my time scrubbing dog shit off the floor, changing baby diapers, and fielding calls at midnight to Salesmen in Canada and the United States, but you all must start spending more “quality time” (such an overused expression)… more “fun time”.

Here are some ideas for your inspiration…

Dancing… video 5.6MB

Or maybe something like this. This is in Africa.

Video 10.4MB

Play a video game in full immersive simulation. video 6.3MB

You do know that the technology is really advanced in China these days. Like this. Video 2MB

We must be more than ourselves…

Yeah. Having fun is what relaxes us and adds the taste and spice to our lives. It’s really important, and terribly underutilized. Instead, it has been replaced by media, and social networking. I think that we should always look at the bigger picture.

Like what?

Food.

Tasty long cooking food (not the fast food). Delicious. Food. Like your grandmother used to make. Food. Like baked fish, city chicken, scalloped potatoes, corned beef and cabbage and Beef Stroganoff. Food. Stuff that are difficult to get in restaurants. Stuff that your wife and family members can experiment with and make signature dishes that feed and nurture.

And then relax.

Chat over the food. Talk about your day. About her day. About your friends. About what needs to be done. About hope. Dreams. Plans.

Conversation.

Not television.

Don’t wait for others to make it happen. It’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. Act in control of YOUR life. Stop waiting for others to do things… to agree on things… to endless debate things. Just do it.

You be the guiding light.

You.

YOU.

Start carving out a place in the table of life, and YOU start inviting others to share in your little piece of Heaven.

GOod friends. Good family. Good food and drink.

You start it. You make it happen.

It will happen.

So will a nice, safe, secure home. Cozy, warm. Dry. Tastefully decorated. Your wife is in charge of everything domestic.

She’s the boss.

Like on an aircraft carrier. There is a Captain, and then there is the XO. She’s the Executive Officer, and you are the Captain. Be the Captain; steer that ship to a fine safe harbor and prosper there.

I’m giving you all the keys, don’t you know.

You will get, also, because of your lower stress and improved organization, a group of friends where you BELONG. You will get participation in life. Pets. A cat or two. Maybe a dog.

You will be invited places. You will have good walks. Good times. Great conversation, and people who make special occasions becuse…

…well…

…because (insert lame excuse here).

You will get other things as well.

A hobby. A pleasure or two.

And care about our surroundings.

Watch out for the kids, and the pets that run in front of us from time to time.

video 3MB

And just kind of live life.

Why not live life?

Watch good movies, enjoy art. Touch sculptures.

Have a hot fudge sundae.

Visit historical places. Enjoy the day on the beach or a snowy mountain hike. Play with your pets, or friends. Just start getting engaged in discussions about all sorts of interesting and curious things.

Sit on the porch with an inviting porch light on. Invite neighbors over for a game of checkers, or cards. Have beer available, or iced tea.

Check out interesting things and discuss them.

video 2MB

Please know that you can make your life in a real paradise on the earth.

You really can. You just have to manufacture it.

You run your prayer affirmation campaigns and implement them in accordance to your fate forecasts. You follow the guidelines on being a Rufus, and participating in the community.

You get your home life in order. You divide responsibilities. Stop trying to run the whole world and carry it on your shoulders. Stop that egotistical nonsense.

Share the responsibilities.

The wife is in charge of all finances and all domestic, you (if you are a man) are in charge of earning money and fixing things. You earn it. She spends it. It’s the natural order of things.

You give her all the money you make, and she hands back a living allowance. Things are much calmer and better that way.

No worries.

I tell you (men) that once you do this, you will forever never have to worry about food, bills, or disputes EVER again. She will take care of everything. You won’t have those worries. Never again.

You will eat WELL. Really, really well. You will have a larder, and a freezer full of premade meals, and canned goods.

Your stress level will go WAY down. There is nothing like daily meals of good fine delicious food, good conversation and an evening of winding down in cool soft relaxation.

And you will be able to focus on your job.

And your life will really start to look like this…

video 8MB

And really, isn’t that what you want?

Do you want more?

Articles & Links

Jiddu Krishnamurti – Wikipedia

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

[daegonmagus] – Part 18 – A Look At Non Physical Contact Through Participants External to Metallicman

The following is the 18th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

-MM

Part 18 – A Look At Non-Physical Contact Through Participants External to Metallicman

This article is a continuation on themes first presented in my last article, [daegonmagus] – Part 17 – SD’s Experience With More Consciousness Facilities Courtesy of A Shamanistic Recipe For Lucid Dreaming (metallicman.com).

In that article I gave a description of SD’s LD experience of a {yet another} consciousness facility, the beliefs of the Wandjina Wunggurr people of North Western Australia, and the idea that at some point in the long distant past the astral and physical planes were merged into one big reality soup.

I suggest reading it first if you haven’t already.

Now, getting to this article; there are some pretty interesting stories out there if you know where to look. More specifically, though, the occult community has some real gems if you are persistent enough and have a knack to filter through all the bullshit that has a tendency to come up.

For the past 10 years, I have been combing these groups searching for anything that could be remotely related to anything the Elder Guardians and the Unseen 5 told me.

More specifically the astral projection, lucid dreaming, demonology, remote viewing and just general spiritual communities were areas I started conducting my research.

When I get a hit, what I like to do is lay out the person’s experience – completely free of judgement – and tease out all the similar themes and, if there are enough of them, add the person and talk to them to get a more in depth understanding of their experience/s.

So when I come across something like the below message, you can betcha bottom dollar it draws my interest, and thus goes in my research basket.

This was something I stumbled upon the other day on a group for astral projection by a guy named Ophiuchus13:

“Hi. I just want to share with you all my Deep Meditation Experience. -January 6, 2022. There is a trap after life.

I encountered a white lizard beings. I saw an many small spaceship & was about to going inside the big mothership.

I see some soul light beings are fall in line & they going inside the mother ship too. When i scan the inside the lizard alien mothership i saw the soul light beings are imprisoned inside the electric prison cage.

Their divine self (consciousness) is inside the big looking glass jar.

That is why they being manipulated to go inside the alien ship.

I fight with the white lizard alien & crash all spaceship using the thunderbolts & lava. -January 2, 2022.

I saw a white spirit, he's/her body was tied while the flame is burning to him/her. she's/he's indeed eternal or immortal and yet he/she was suffering so i save him/her. After a few moments i saw a vision of a dark crystal ball and it was holding by the white ruler in his hand.

his head face is a lion.

i scan the crystal ball thru my inner eye. the dark crystal ball is the physical universe. where in so many spark of light was inside the black crystal ball.

i tried to destroy the ball but it was really hard but i made it to make it crack so while spark of lighmt will gradually get away.

i saw the companion of the lion head rulers most of them are white tnt obo. they tell me that im ranking #4 for being interloper.

their realms are light but i dont feel any divine feelings to them and their realms. -October 30, 2021.

(3 AM+) I entered the White Crystal Portal, which was super long and brilliant. At the end of it. I am outside the universe as in total darkness but there are stars that are very numerous.

I also see a lot of White Box/White Container.

I approached it, I saw so many souls in a White Box, they were standing and lined up.

I felt when I saw that they were in a deep state of hallucination.

The feeling that they thought they were in Heaven but they did not know that they were in a White Box that was crowded.

I decided to broke the box, by releasing some power on my weapon.

After i broke the white box with full of souls or light beings, the souls have been set freed in the white box and they are going in different directions like star dust in the universe.

Later on, an Angel of Light with 9 Wings appeared to me, but I didn't feel any holiness in him.

He said "why am I interfering", I said via telepathically that his/her doing wrong.

Because he gave hallucinations to light beings or souls and confined them in a white box.

He replied to me "Don't let me interfere".

Later I released massive thunder bolts or lightning in many white boxes. I can see that the boxes were broken and the souls were freed, estimated they were in 57K that i helped the souls that have disappeared in box & going different directions floated and flew.in

Then a white Angel with 9 wings got mad at me.

They tied my hands with a white chain but I broke the white chain. They were angry because I'm interfering there works. Until they did nothing to me, they also failed to stop me from freeing the souls trapped in the light portal box.”

Yeah I know, I know; MM is not particular fond of the Reptilian schpeel, but I have a rule when it comes to comparing these sorts of stories with others, and that is to ignore any labels or information identifying race, motivations and anything that could be the result of deliberately implanted distortion into the mind of the experiencer (given the manipulation tactics I have encountered through my experiences, I simply do not trust these images – I cannot rule out that these non physical beings project false images to mask their identities).

What I take note of is the core aspects of the experience, and what I am interested in here is the guy effectively conducted a remote viewing session through meditation and saw parts of the amnesia traps we encounter after death.
So I got to talking with him in a private chat, and he revealed some more information: These beings are cloning his astral bodies using the akashic records as a template to alter the code for the purpose of having him not interfere in their plans.

Hold up, I seem to remember someone else saying something similar about {zombie} clones and using the akashic records to change astral body make up – oh yeah, that someone was me back in my part 2 – [daegonmagus] – Part 2 – Contact with the Elder Guardians (metallicman.com).

Remember how I said the amnesia operated as a sort of code that manipulated a person’s higher energetic bodies so that they would blindly enter into the reincarnation/soul burning chamber after death (which I fucking remember as being what took place right before being thrown into this useless meatsuit)? Well this conversation certainly turned interesting. But I guess it’s just a coincidence and it was something our minds just conjured up after watching a few too many matrix movies right? {Insert laughing face skeptics like to use as a measure of the supposed intelligence they possess to talk about such subjects, rather than actually contribute any meaningful dialogue XD XD XD XD}.

But let’s not end it there.

This is just one of many other stories I have come across that when taken individually comes across as nothing more than the ravings of a mad man, but when combined with the experiences of others start to point at a higher truth slowly being revealed to us.

The Watchers Covid Message

Take for instance this little nugget that was given to an occultist, Severin Aequus, (now a contact that I engage in respectful banter with about occult subjects) just as the whole COVID thing was gaining traction back at the beginning of 2020 (and yeah I have known about it this whole time but refrained from mentioning it, because I like to get an idea of people’s viewpoints on subjects before something can bias it towards one end or another):

“The Watchers' COVID-19 Message:

Note: This essay is rather long because there is a need for it to be exhaustive and thorough with regard to the conditions and interpretation of the message. But in order to appease those of you without a lot of time to devote to this, I've included the word "Note:" before any paragraph which is not essential to understanding the message itself.

I've spent much of my time over the last few weeks puzzling over what caused the dramatic shift in consciousness that most people appear to have experienced within the last couple of months.

A few people, myself included, were unaffected by whatever this influence was. So from our perspective it appears that the world has gone insane. That's not to say that anyone is wrong in terms of their views and/or opinions on how the world should respond to pandemics. It's just that they are inconsistent with the way that we, as a society, have dealt with similar epidemics in the past. If you feel like an outsider watching the world conduct the largest cosplay event ever conceived, then you know which group you're in.

On the other hand, if you feel that the world is acting perfectly rationally and consistently, then you are among the majority in the former group. The only thing that seems to differentiate why a person went one way or the other seems to be related to how well-developed their sense of empathy is. Essentially, the capacity for empathy appears to be awakening within everyone. Thus, those who seem unaffected are actually the ones who already had a functioning sense of empathy.

Affected?

Affected by what?

I received a message on May 5, 2020 from a set of intelligences I call "The Watchers". They are also known by some as "The Secret Chiefs", "The Masters" and many other names according to spiritual and/or cultural tradition. I have been in contact with them intermittently for the last 20 years.

Over that time, I have received 3 communications from them, including this one. As a matter of convention, all text which comes directly from the message will appear in ALL CAPS. The rest can be assumed to be just my personal commentary, opinion, or conjecture.

Note: For those who do not know me, it may be worth pointing out that I am not the type to seek out these sorts of experiences. Quite the contrary. I'm a scientist who has a knack for making "paranormal" things suddenly stop happening just by being in the room. While I have had some success with developing certain types of telepathic and spiritual mediumship abilities, I simply find it to be more practical for daily life to leave those things turned off. So in order for any kind of spiritual intelligence to get my attention, it must be loud and bold.

In this particular case, one of the Watchers appeared to my girlfriend while in normal waking consciousness to express his frustration that I could not hear him/them. Hopefully, that provides some helpful background material about the character and practices of your messenger. Note: I cannot provide an exact transcript of the message because they do not speak in language. They are inherently telepathic and can turn on the latent telepathic abilities in humans in order to "hear" them.

The first time they "spoke" to me we had to go through a calibration process because they were trying to send information much more quickly than I was able to receive it, much less actually process or understand it. Even at the slowed rate, it's still much too fast to make any use of on the spot. So they leave me with it and I spend the next week sorting through it all and actually comprehending what is in there.

For this reason, I often refer to it as an information download. Regarding intent and provenance, I can attest that these beings are not malicious at all. However, I wouldn't exactly call them benevolent either. Their perspective is too far removed from our own for us to be able to fairly assess their integrity or motivations. But who else could have brought about such radical and sudden shift in consciousness?

No one in human history has even come close to effecting such radical change on a global scale before and there's no reason to assume that one person or a small cabal are capable of it now. THEY ARE CONDUCTING A MAGICAL OPERATION ON A GLOBAL SCALE TO AFFECT A CHANGE IN THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF HUMANITY.

To set the proper context, I have received no knowledge of anything regarding the COVID-19 virus, it's origins, or anything else of a medical nature. That's not what any of this is about. I will say that I feel it's most likely that The Watchers took advantage of a convenient opportunity to piggy-back their operation onto a suitably scary event as opposed to them actually manifesting the virus. But I can't say for sure and the answer is probably irrelevant anyway. The point is that the virus is a means to an end. THIS EMOTIONAL EVENT IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO TRIGGER THE INTENDED SHIFT IN CONSCIOUSNESS.

A shift in consciousness is evidenced by the outpouring of compassion that people are demonstrating for those most susceptible to dying as a result of being infected with COVID-19. When over 80,000 people died from the 2018 flu, it was barely a footnote in most news broadcasts. So, on one hand, our behavior is radically inconsistent. But on the other, we're demonstrating compassion and empathy on a level never before seen. It may even be that some of us have begun to conceive of humanity as one… a monad.

While the worst-case scenario for the virus, in terms of lethality, seems to have been avoided, humanity's reaction to it is unprecedented. In the short term - speaking from an American perspective - we are likely to see several social changes in the form of new government programs. Universal (aka. Single Payer) Healthcare and Basic Minimum Income seem like obvious pieces of legislation to pass in the very near future. The fact that I can write such a sentence is shocking considering that it was unfathomable to most Americans before this crisis.

That further goes to show that this is having precisely the kind of impact that The Watchers intended for us. While the implementation of various social welfare programs is a great thing, that is just incidental progress along the way to something much bigger. THE ACTUAL STATED GOAL OF THE OPERATION IS TO MERGE THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES OF EXISTENCE. In other words, the 'creatures' and other characters that can presently only be seen through normal waking eyes by the most gifted and practiced seers or mediums will eventually become plainly visible to everyone.

As I have begun to slowly promulgate this message, I have received messages from dozens of people from all over the world reporting that their ability to perceive "the other side" has become dramatically stronger in recent months. In an attempt to confirm the validity of the message I received, I contacted a couple of friends of mine who are particularly gifted seers to inquire about anything special going on that day or if they had received any messages. What they revealed confirmed my suspicions that what I received was a genuine communication intended for broadcast.

However, to be certain I waited a week before writing the first draft of this post in order to observe whether the message remained as crisp in my memory as it did the day of, as would be expected of a genuine communication. It has.

Note: I don't have their permission to reveal their names… or necessarily their support to reveal this message at all. So I'll have to make annoyingly frequent use of pronouns to keep this accounting of events anonymous. Before I get into the details of their experiences, it's worth noting that the appearance of such messages differs from one person to the next because we each perceive reality through the lenses of our knowledge and experience.

So it stands to reason that no two people will perceive the same thing in exactly the same way. This holds true for physical objects as well (e.g. "Isn't this painting beautiful?"). Their version of the message came across within the context of their own symbols and cosmology, which happens to be Wiccan. They described it as a "tearing down of the veil between this world and the next".

One of them said that they used to have a little old black and white TV with poor reception in their head that they could watch and sometimes glean information from. Starting about a month ago, their TV is now in 4K Theater Surround Mode! They've been having trouble getting overwhelmed with all of the information they're now receiving. They both mentioned that "soon everyone will have the second sight".

Note: I don't know what "soon" exactly means, however. I find it highly unlikely that any such shift in awareness in anything we might consider a "soon" time span would cause anything short of massive panic and destructive behavior. The only way that a change that dramatic can be accomplished without sending the word spiraling into madness must be very slow and methodical. So from The Watchers' perspective, this shift may be coming "soon". But on our time scale, think in terms of 2-3 generations (40-60 years) at least.

If you've been wondering WHEN THIS VIRUS STUFF WILL PASS AND THINGS RETURN TO "NORMAL", THE ANSWER IS NEVER. Sure, the virus will pass. But IT WAS JUST A CATALYST FOR A FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT IN HUMAN AWARENESS. Even without some bigger goal in mind, just the psychological effect of us having to justify our behavior will result in long-term consequences for the rest of our natural lives. Fortunately for you, this message provides all you need to justify your sudden change in attitude and behavior, so that's one less thing to wrestle with later in life.

This leaves us with one big lingering question: Why? To put it quite simply, they expressed that THEY ARE TIRED OF WATCHING US GO THROUGH EXTINCTION EVENTS. THERE'S SIMPLY NOTHING LEFT FOR THE WATCHERS TO LEARN FROM THOSE EVENTS. Hold up… The clear implication of that statement is that without intervention, we were headed toward an imminent self-imposed mass extinction event and this shift in the collective consciousness was necessary to avoid that fate. They didn't specify the nature of this event. But we could certainly devise a short list of likely candidates.

But does it matter if it's been averted? Maybe. They weren't completely clear as to whether the event was conclusively diverted or if it was merely postponed or if they just suspect that this change will be enough to avert the crisis when it comes. Of course, this also begs the question of what these previous extinction events were. It's conceivable that this Earth has seen multiple humanoid experiments in its 4.5 billion-year history, especially since we've only been here for 100,00 or so. The only thing we can say about that is that they must not have reached our level of technological "advancement" because we aren't going around picking up pieces of ancient styrofoam everywhere. ( For more information, see this article from Popular Mechanics: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a32743456/rapid-mass-extinction/).

Another possibility is that they are referring to micro-extinctions on the level of civilizations, such as the Mayans. Other more "out there" possibilities include the idea that there could be many humanoid experiments being conducted right now on different planets. Or they could be referring to an abstract idea of timelines intersecting across n-dimensional space-time. But they didn't specify, so you're free to take your pick or add your own idea. This brings us to a close.

Please note that the message is what it is. I can provide very little other than what has been included here. Thus, each person must decide for themselves whether it is something they are willing and able to accept or not. Also, if you have received any related messages or have anything to add to this narrative, please share your experience in the comments”

Wow! I have to admit, I am impressed with Severin’s writing, and even more so with his ability to keep an objective perspective when dealing with his own {seemingly crazy, going by society’s standards} experiences.

Like me, Severin has his own experiments going when it comes to astral projection (he’s even got a you tube channel up at that talks about that subject a bit more in depth if anyone is interested: Scientific Illuminism Institute – YouTube) Seems to be a rarity in this day and age when dealing with messages communicated in the non physical domain.

Again, when we start peeling back some of the core aspects of Severin’s experience, we find some similarities with the “secret chiefs” and my Elder Guardians, the idea that both groups don’t want to see us go extinct on account of being a bunch of dumb apes (for the umpteenth time, according to Severin’s Watcher), and that there is room for improvement when it comes to our cognitive processing abilities.

Then there is the idea that these Watchers are slowly expanding people’s consciousness to effectively be able to see what astral projectors see when they are off galavanting around the astral planes…. Which reminds me (taken from my part 3):

“{The Unseen 5 Leader} mentioned that the organization’s numbers used to be quite significantly higher; the recent (past 1000 years) decline in its numbers meant that the 5 of them were under a substantial logistics workload, even when operating from this higher state of consciousness. {The Unseen 5 Leader} was the only full time operator, after all. Thus an additional task of mine included making their presence known to those with astral projection/ lucid dreaming abilities.

{The Unseen 5 Leader} was concerned people with these skills didn’t take them as seriously as I did. He made a point of telling me the astral planes weren’t there just for people to go buzzing around on a holiday away from physical reality. They were the frontlines of a very real non physical war where the weapon of choice was being targeted directly at human consciousness.”

Severin told me that since posting this on the on that particular astral projection group that he has had it confirmed by more than a dozen other people who have had similar contact experiences, and suggests “there’s definitely some meat on those bones”. He also suggested there is a definite ET element to this, but suggests “people don’t realise they are travelling astrally, not physically”.

So the “Watchers” (take note of this terminology; I have found it a common terminology used by other abductees who understand the ET/ Astral relationship, along with “the Others”) are planning on merging the non physical and physical planes eh?

And yeah, I could see how if you’d never astral projected before that this might come across as total bullshit and insanity. But if more than one person are saying the same thing, then it’s a good bet that argument goes out the window. In case you missed my last article, my wife, SD, was also given similar information.

That article also points to some more consistency in this narrative from the perspective of two ancient cultures. Here’s a piece I didn’t add that gives a bit of back story to her experiences.

“Again I was walking the dog behind the oval at the mud pits, and there was a man just standing at the top of this small ridgeline with a German shepherd. The most off putting thing was that wherever they looked, it was at the same time like both of them were synchronized robots or something; when the man would turn his head the dog would turn it as well like they were one entity.

Charlie was going about his business and then when we got to that bit where they were – you had to go up and over this little cliff and down into a gully – he just stopped, his heckles went up and he walked backwards out of the gulley when he saw them. I turned around and followed Charlie (the dog) because it was just strange and creepy.

That was the first time I physically saw that guy, and that is when the weird dreams started; they were of that person or dude, or whatever he was telling me weird things about different times and places; that was how I formerly met him.
He had a scar down one side of his face that he apparently got in some war. I ended up calling him Vince after a TV show with a similar looking guy. The things he would talk about seemed like they were in reference to astral worlds.

Vince would tell me things to do with a flood and the Fae race. He reminded me that my soul was not a typical person soul – this had been revealed to me by the creatures around my bed.

He explained there are four different types of human so to speak. Ones that have souls from the beings from before (when the astral and physical planes were one thing); some are the typical ape descendant, one is a hybrid race that comes from what I assumed at the time he meant as being dinosaurs, and the other one is similar to what I now know to be the Nordic type.

He said they were the four types of human that live on the planet currently, and there will come a time in my life where people will find out about it, and that it is important to remember which one I am, because there will be a lot of bullshit and people will try to tell me that I am something that I am not, and to remember that having a Witch’s power is very significant. It was because of him I found out about the astral war; he told me all about it.

What he told me was that the astral war has been going on for quite some time; pretty much there is the equivalent of what biblical orientated people would assume are angels and demons but they aren’t. They are the same race split in two, one half is fighting for the merge of the astral and physical worlds to come back, one is fighting against it to keep it separated.

My people/ race were originally very powerful because of their magical abilities but then another race came into it and decided that because of their science they were superior.

The human races are new because the science race is one of the ones who do all the manipulative things to everyone through technology. They have also used their tech to create certain types of people.

The problem is those types of beings don’t have the ability to create soul energy from nothing, whereas the people who were my people were able to create soul energy.

The gist I got, was that there are some beings who have souls and who can have children who have souls and then there are some who cannot: the ones who don’t have souls, want one because when their life ends they are gone. So they are trying to pretty much steal and take the magic part of the DNA that creates souls; there is apparently a section of DNA – a tiny piece – that dictates whether or not someone has a soul complex or not.

So that is what the war is literally over, the ones who don’t have the souls enslaved the people who do, and forced them into camps raped them , did experiments on them and tortured them for thousands of years. 

The factions in the astral that are now trying to fix the problem are trying to wake up the whole physical realm to this other thing that is going on, because at the moment they are the only realm that knows that there is more than just themselves; they are trying to wake up people in the physical plane to the fact that there is another 12 planes of existence (13 altogether). 

Half of the issue is that these four races on earth are all from different factions and the DNA from some of them has the ability to open the veils and join the astral with the physical – they are the keys. 

The problem is that the ones that have been pretty much making dummy people to try and figure out how to make a soul have very conveniently built into their people this weird obsession with energy so they can be manipulated by it; so they can and will hinder, hurt and kill those who are the keys trying to access that. 

Apparently the keys are given a guard so when they unlock the key part of themselves they are therefore guarded continuously from then on, because they become more vulnerable physically when they are spiritually awoken. Vince allegedly was my first guard before the physical one came (DM).

Rather than rehash the whole transcription that I did include in that article, lets just take some key paragraphs:

“Firstly the Fae (faery) beings were on earth. At the same time there were various types of humans (Neanderthal included) and at that time, the physical and astral realms were tethered to each other and you could walk through each easily like walking over a bridge or through a door; there was no need to fall asleep to detach the consciousness from the physical body because on earth they could manipulate the matter body to become light body and astral body at will. 

We will never get out if the merge doesn't happen. The amnesia will never go away if it doesn't happen. We will be stuck in an infinite reincarnation loop if it doesn’t happen.

But the ones who separated the matter from the astral and their allies are doing everything to try and not let that happen. Some human officials know about this and are trying to stop the re-opening. Abrahamic religion is the enemy of all who want to be free of this trap.”

Do I really need to spell out the very obvious connections for you? This is quickly turning into some sort of weird love triangle between seemingly random folk (consider SD and me as one person) except replace word “love” with “occult information downloads”.

These three people alone seem to have a better idea of what’s going when it comes to the ET agenda than do the entire fucking community that has been established to “investigate” UFOs over the past 3 quarters of a century.

Yet they won’t be taken seriously because of a wall of ignorance when it comes to what occultism actually is.

But yeah I know ….laughing smiley faces and all that from the skeptic community.

Oh yeah speaking of skeptics, SD and I have a friend who, until very recently was a skeptic to anything ET or UFO related. Thinking it was all a load of complete bullshit her whole life kind of skeptic.

That was, of course until she started committing herself to daily meditation practices and then started seeing random light beings hanging around her yard – literally standing in the back yard just casually going about their business.

Now she believes she is in communication with her real mother and her dead friend, seemingly overnight, a real double whammy. Sounds like she got a dose of that astral sight Severin Mentioned.

There are various other stories with striking similarities I have come across over the years that I either don’t have permission to reproduce here or was too short sighted to bother copying down.

Point is, they are there if your initiative extends beyond lifting a finger and clicking on a laughing face emoticon. What we can distill from these stories is that higher order information in regards to earth’s history is being given to these people who have a background in either astral projection, lucid dreaming, or transcendental meditation, in pretty much the exact same way myself and SD having being accessing similar information, or by similar non physical entities. The occult theme is a very strong connector of these stories.

We know from the Domain commander and my Grand Elder Guardian that lucid dreamers are considered extremely valuable assets because they can act as conduits for these non physicals to contact the physical world, as well as detach consciousness and move about through the greater universe:

“A person with the ability to conduct “lucid dreaming” has a special and unique skill set that enables them to be a mission critical asset. However, this kind of asset should not be meaninglessly squandered, but rather should be briefed on a specific target and then act in coordination with other unified forces to achieve a very specific outcome” Answers from The Domain from questions generated 18SEP21 (metallicman.com)

“Apparently, according to these Elders, anyone who demonstrated these abilities were held in high regard by them, as it allowed them the opportunity to communicate with those back on the physical plane without it being compromised by external forces.”
[daegonmagus] - Part 1 - Exploration of the Non-Physical Reality (metallicman.com)

Tool

And then there’s these lyrics from the band Tool, who just so happen to be a bunch of Occultists (the drummer’s dad was a Freemason) and Lucid dreamers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zRLakTHcX0) who me and SD have both met in numerous LDs (The singer Maynard, was actually getting annoyed at her for “not yet becoming lucid enough to talk to him in one of them”).

They are mentioned in a past brief article on MM. And let me just state I have also used LD to create a simulation of a Tool concert one night after going to a, you guessed it, Tool concert; it was fucking incredible I watched the whole thing from about a 25m above the crowd on top of a skyscraper. Anyways this song came out in the middle of 2019, several months before COVID was even a splinter in the minds of us all and is titled “Fear Innoculum”. It is off the album of the same name (not mentioned in that MM article):

Immunity, long Overdue. Contagion, I exhale you
Naïve, I opened up to you, venom and mania.
Now Contagion, I exhale you.

The Deceiver says, “You belong to me. You don’t wanna breathe the light of the others.
Fear the light. Fear the breath. Fear the others for eternity.”
But I hear them now. Inhale the clarity. I hear the venom in what you say.

Inoculated.
Bless this immunity.

Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.

Enumerate all that I’m to do. Calculating steps away from you.
My own mitosis, growing through division from mania.

Exhale. Expel. Recast my tale. Weave my allegorical elegy.

Forfeit all control, you Poison, you Spectacle.
Exorcise the Spectacle. Exorcise the malady.
Exorcize the disparate poison for eternity.

Purge me and Evacuate the Venom & the Fear that binds me.
Your veil now, lift away.

I see you running.

Deceiver, chased away. A Long time coming.

It almost seems as though Tool {might have} been given some information about COVID prior to it happening through lucid dreaming and downloading some of that higher order information. Then there are their songs on that same album about a “Tempest” coming to fuck with the establishment, how we are spiritual “Pneuma”/ soul based entities bound to flesh that need to “wake up”, being too old to fight and laying down arms, stirring us from our slumber to call us to “arms and order”, culling the voices in our head that whisper us into psychopathy and having psychopathic tendencies against one another…..read the lyrics and tell me it’s not all one big fucking metaphor for this entire Metallicman site. The Tool Page: Fear Inoculum Lyrics (down.net)

But of course, Maynard (the singer/ lyricist) suggests he was just “very well informed” and not really predicting anything. And yeah I mean I get it. The last thing you want to do when you are a big rock star is go around admitting you believe in interdimensional entities contacting people through lucid dreaming, just in case people start thinking your fucking nuts and your fan base starts diminishing. Like the guy I talked to on a Tool fan group who couldn’t grasp the concept of the lyric “I sold my soul to make a record, dipshit” and the sigil of the Goetic spirit Astaroth that appears on that very disc (remember this it; will become relevant in a future articles).

Doesn’t mean you can’t imply it though.

Here’s the track Faaip de Oiad off their Lateralus Album. faip de oaid tool – Bing video

It is not actually a proper song, but a remix of a call to Coast to Coast radio station back in 1997 from an apparent ex Area 51 employee who began telling Art Bell that ETs were “extra dimensional entities” that had infiltrated various levels of the US government, military and space (NASA) sectors.

This government and this military apparently knew about “coming chaotic events” and could have been moving people to safer locations but were choosing not to in order to allow better control over the survivors.

The call apparently got cut off half way through, and the station went down, if I recall correctly.

The are those who suggest it was real, and those who suggested it was a hoax that touched on some shit the US government {at the time} didn’t want people knowing about, hence the reason for the apparent media blackout that happened half way through it.

Is it just another coincidence that Tool tacked this on to the end of an album about alchemy and spiritual evolution through concepts established by Carl Jung, who was also an apparent lucid dreamer?

Then there is their song Rosetta Stoned off their 10 000 days album which seems to be a piss take of a seemingly normal guy’s interaction with “almond shaped eyed ETs” that told him a bunch of important stuff he forgot to write down; it actually sounds a lot like what my experiences would have become, if you replace the almond eyes with long beards and took my dream journal away from next to my bed. It’s not like Myself and MM deal with our experiences through well placed humour or anything….

And Danny Carey, the drummer launching his Crowley inspired “Lam ET” clothing line. If you don’t know who or what the fuck a Lam is, don’t worry, we will get into it a bit further down. It’s a bit of a “grey” area, wink wink.

Faaip De Oad is apparently an Enochian word – remember that Angelic language I told you about that was transcribed by Edward Kelly as his associate John Dee sat in trance and allegedly communicated with the angel Enoch?

Occult societies such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn also dedicated much time and meditation to this language – Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley’s secretary, includes a whole section about the Enochian calls and the “watchtowers” in his book, The Golden Dawn (let’s not get this confused with the Greek Neo Nazi Political party, which came long after) that Crowley and the order were using at the beginning of the 20^th century.

And this isn’t just a passing reference; this was part of the actual curriculum Golden Dawn initiates were expected to study once they reached the higher ranks of the order on their quest to become Magisters Templi (Masters of the Temple) which was only achievable upon death. There are {allegedly} entire planes one can access through astral projection by using these calls, in which one experiences a rush of energy and possible contact with other wordly beings.

Crowley allegedly got so good at using them that he was able to access almost all of these planes pretty much at will. I, personally, have never bothered with them. I have been doing similar since I was 8 years old; why over complicate something I already knew?

After the Golden Dawn disbanded, Crowley would then go on to run the Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Oriental Temple/ OTO), where again much of these occult philosophies would take root.

While a whole article can be written about Crowley and his antics and the secret societies he was part of (and yeah, it’s coming) the important thing to note here is that Severin is a former member of the OTO.

This strengthens what the leader of the Unseen 5 told me back in November 2016; that those with astral projection and lucid dreaming capabilities are being prepared for 1^st contact by these non physical organisations.

It seems to me that the astral based Unseen 5 organisation I was initiated into are the ones in control of this whole operation, and are {possibly} responsible for seeding the curriculums of these Hermetic Societies into the minds of their members back as far as they can be traced (Ancient Egypt and Thoth/ Hermes).

Damn, we are covering a lot of ground here.

Let’s cover some more:

Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society again strengthens this occult/ non physical based contact connection. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was Blavatsky who actually suggested the idea of the Ascended Masters/ Great White Brotherhood that I was studying around the time I was contacted by the Elder Guardians. Blavatsky literally wrote the book on “secret initiatory knowledge” – The Secret Doctrine – and claimed these traditions were passed along to her by a group of highly enlightened yogi’s, which she called the Mahatmas, that were living in Tibet. This concept of Secret Masters (or chiefs as Severin calls them) was further expanded upon by CW Leadbeater, who continued on the society after Blavatsky’s death. If you have ever read up on Saint Germain or Jesus being an Ascended Master/ part of the GWB then you can take comfort in the fact that Blavatsky, an Occultist whose notoriety rivalled that of Crowley, was touting these ideas the same time Jack the Ripper was running around London killing prostitutes.

Speaking of Blavatsky and Jack of Whitechapel; Who did Aleister Crowley Say was Jack the Ripper? | Mysterium Academy…

That article raises some very good points, though I would have suggested Crowley was the killer based on some similarities I found with his hand writing and the letters left by old Jack, even if he was only a teenager at the time (I am actually writing a fictional book about this if I ever find the time to finish it).

Regardless of whether Crowley was correct in his assumptions or not, Blavatsky had something to say when it came to the 7 root races of earth that she obtained through “astral clairvoyance”. I find it interesting what she said about the 1^st and 6^th Root Race:

‘The first root race (Polarian)

The first root race was “ethereal”, i.e. they were composed of etheric matter. They reproduced by dividing like an amoeba. Earth was still cooling at that time. The first mountain to arise out of the stormy primeval ocean was Mount Meru.” – Root race – Wikipedia

Kind of like what the Wandjina Wunggurr peoples of North Western Australia said about the Wandjina spirits eh, before painting pictures of them all over the fucking desert, that looked a just little bit like the Greys. Similar to this non physical entity that apparently contacted Crowley, after he conducted a ritual to “create a portal between the stars to let it in”, I suppose. Crowley thought Lam to be the spirit of a dead Tibetan Monk:

It gets interesting when you read Blavatsky’s {somewhat racially bias} entry on the 5^th root race:

The fifth root race (Aryan)

Early beginnings of the Aryan root race

Blavatsky asserted humanity is now in the fifth or Aryan root race, which Theosophists believe to have emerged from the previous fourth root race (Atlantean root race) beginning about 100,000 years ago in Atlantis. (According to Powell, when Madame Blavatsky stated the Aryan root race was 1,000,000 years old, she meant that the souls of the people that later physically incarnated as the first Aryans about 100,000 years ago began to incarnate in the bodies of Atlanteans 1,000,000 years ago.^[13] However, another way of interpreting this is that Nature began to create the Aryan race before the final cataclysms.) Theosophists believe the Aryan root race was physically progenerated by the Vaivasvatu Manu, one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. The present-day ethnic group most closely related to the new race is the Kabyle. The small band of only 9,000 people constituting the then small Aryan root race migrated out of Atlantis in 79,797 BC. The bards of the new white root-race poetically referred to the new race as being moon-colored.^[19] A small group of these Aryan migrants from Atlantis split from the main body of migrants and went south to the shore of an inland sea in what was then a verdant and lush Sahara where they founded the “City of the Sun”. The main body of migrants continued onwards to an island called the “white island” in the middle of what was then an inland sea in what is now the Gobi desert, where they established the “City of the Bridge”.^[20] (The “City of the Bridge” was constructed directly below the etheric city called Shamballa where Theosophists believe the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara, dwells; thus, the ongoing evolution of the Aryan root race has been divinely guided by the being Theosophists call “The Lord of the World”.)

The esoteric name of the whole of the present land surface of Earth, i.e. the World Island, the Americas, the Australian continent and Antarctica taken as a whole is Krauncha.^[8]

Blavatsky connects physical race with spiritual attributes constantly throughout her works:

The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the South Sea Islanders, is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African tribes, to the same intellectual level as the Aryans, the Semites, and the Turanians so called. The ‘sacred spark’ is missing in them and it is they who are the only inferior races on the globe, now happily – owing to the wise adjustment of nature which ever works in that direction – fast dying out. Verily mankind is ‘of one blood,’ but not of the same essence. We are the hot-house, artificially quickened plants in nature, having in us a spark, which in them is latent.”^[21] … Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship died out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (Chinamen, African Negroes, &c.) gradually brought the worship back. The Vedas countenance no idols; all the modern Hindu writings do.^[22]

Generally speaking, a large percentage of the people who live in the time of the period of the fifth root race are part of the fifth root race. However Blavatsky also opines that some Semitic peoples have become “degenerate in spirituality”. She asserted that some peoples descended from the Lemurians are “semi-animal creatures”. These latter include “the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians.” There are also “considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks — e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc.”^[23] All these aforementioned groups mentioned by Blavatsky, except the Borneians, are part of what in the late 19th and most of the 20th century was called the Australoid race (except for the Bushmen, part of the Capoid race), both of which races, as noted above, were believed by traditional Theosophists to have been descended from the Lemurians

In case you didn’t get it, those underlined parts are very synonymous with what Airl said and which I highlighted in the article about the Wandjina spirits:

“These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta [ii] (Footnote) and Lemuria [iii] (Footnote). Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary “polar shift”, [iv] (Footnote) many thousands of years before the current “prison” population started to arrive. Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia (it’s ok I rarely bother with footnotes either).” – Alien Interview

Bet you didn’t realise the Theosophical society were also indirectly involved in Airl’s interrogation at Roswell, long after Blavatsky turned to bones and dust, huh?

“Over the next several days a psychic research scientist from back East was flown to the base to interview the alien. Her name was Gertrude something or other. I don’t recall the last name. On another occasion an Indian clairvoyant named Krishnamurti came to the base to try to communicate with the alien. Neither one was successful at getting the alien to communicate anything. I was personally not able to communicate telepathically with either of these people either, although I did think that Krishnamurti was a very kind and intelligent gentleman. ” – Alien Interview

Krishnamurti went on to become a Jesus like figure known as Matraya to the Theosophical society, which is even included in Spencer’s foot notes (#33) in Alien Interview. Krishnamurti ended up rejecting the Theosophist claim he was the “world teacher” much to their dissatisfaction, to which Leadbeater basically said the “Messiah came and it was a total fucking failure”:

Alien Interview – 02 (bibliotecapleyades.net)

What Spencer didn’t include in that footnote was that there was another Krishnamurti (unrelated) of Indian descent who was also associated with the Theosophical society during the same period and who fits the criteria of a clairvoyant much more than Jiddu.

This particular Krishnamurti even had experience training with yogi’s in Tibet over seven summers.

Seriously, read about his philosophy on thought and tell me it doesn’t sound similar to my meditation of the stillness of the mind found in my 1^st lucid dreaming lesson. He seems like a more likely candidate to try and get the ET to talk than someone who was a “dim-witted child with a cool aura”:

“I have no teaching. There is nothing to preserve. Teaching implies something that can be used to bring about change. Sorry, there is no teaching here, just disjointed, disconnected sentences. What is there is only your interpretation, nothing else. For this reason there is not now nor will there ever be any kind of copyright for whatever I am saying. I have no claims.^[23]

I am forced by the nature of your listening to always negate the first statement with another statement. Then the second statement is negated by a third and so on. My aim is not some comfy dialectical thesis but the total negation of everything that can be expressed.”

- U. G. Krishnamurti - Wikipedia

And…

”Once you start catching these thoughts, try experimenting with neutralising them with their polar opposites.

When there is a “gnawing feeling” that you should react a certain way, take a breath and just observe it passively.

The human mind has a myriad of triggers that professionals have learnt how to push and prod. Unfortunately for you, they don’t stop being pushed just when an advertisement has run its course through your head.

This is how you learn how to deactivate them. By doing so you will be teaching yourself to be less prone to manipulation whilst in the void space.
You will strengthen your psychological disposition towards dealing with whatever the dream state throws at you. This is a big part of what occult philosophy is about.”
-[daegonmagus] - Part 8 - Lucid Dreaming Lesson 1: The Lucid Void Space and The Three Meditations (metallicman.com)

If you think this rabbit hole is getting weird, then allow me to point you in the direction of the Aetherius society, headed by self proclaimed yoga master George King.

The Aetherius society was an offshoot based primarily on the Theosophical societies beliefs, established in the mid 1950s by King.

Whilst the Theosophical society didn’t come right out and say the non physical entities they were involved with were ETs, (until much later, any way) the Aetherius Society did.

In fact, the whole fucking premise behind it was that King came into contact with non physical extra terrestrial intelligences that he called the Cosmic Masters during his marathon yoga sessions.

It is, for all intents and purposes these days considered a UFO religion. I came across them after trying to figure out who the Unseen 5 were. Essentially King and another 4 Adepts were responsible for entering into the astral planes and evicting an alien presence that dwelt there that was fucking with humanity without their knowledge, what they equated to as being “Satan” (I wondered if the Aetherius Society and the Unseen 5 were the one and the same given they had a very similar modus operandi and a very similar headcount).

Now I have to admit, if it wasn’t for my own interactions with the Unseen 5, this story would have seemed somewhat ridiculous.

Where it gets even weirder is that there is a declassified FBI document about Nikola Tesla being originally from Venus, where King is featured. For some reason, the FBI never slapped a big red BOGUS sticker all over it like they did with every page of the Majestic 12 documents.

Nikola Tesla Part 03 of 03 (fbi.gov)

While the document seems to be the very real investigation into plans for Tesla’s death ray being stolen by his nephew after his death and dropped into the hands of the Soviets, it also briefly mentions George King in several paragraphs, who seems to have predicted with pin point accuracy where and when UFOs were going to land all over America.

This was included as a part of a magazine issue of the “Cosmic Voice”, which seemingly was important to the Tesla investigation because of reports A woman named Margaret Storme (lol), was using a radio type machine invented by Tesla in 1938 for “Interplanetery communication purposes”.

Also because the Magazine suggested King was told by the non physical intelligences he was in contact with that Tesla was from Venus.

I can’t find any subsequent information on any sightings happening on those dates King suggested America would be visited by UFOs, though the bit on Tesla reminds me of what Airl said:

“A few officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force have taken it upon themselves to provide technology to Earth during their off duty time.  These officers leave their “doll” at the space station and, as an IS-BE, assume or take over a biological body on Earth.  In some cases an officer can remain on duty while they inhabit and control other bodies at the same time.

This is a very dangerous and adventurous undertaking.

It requires a very able IS-BE to accomplish such a mission, and return to base successfully. One officer who did this recently, while continuing to attend to his official duties, was known on Earth as the electronics inventor, Nicola Tesla. “

and…

Here’s another paragraph of King suggesting the aliens had protocols in place to make sure we pay off our debts through diseases and epidemics. Can’t imagine that any of that is applicable in this day and age:

In fact George King seems to pop up quite a bit in this document. I specifically remember two agents mentioning him and the “good fight almost being won”. Whether or not it is bullshit and he was a fraud I’ll leave to the reader to judge.

Blavatsky at least has other people who have validated much of her information. Like Alice Bailey, Benjamin Crème and Rudolph Steiner to mention a few.

Speaking of Steiner this is a quote of something he said almost a hundred years ago. :

“ In the future, we will eliminate the soul with medicine. Under the pretext of a ‘healthy point of view’, there will be a vaccine by which the human body will be treated as soon as possible directly at birth, so that the human being cannot develop the thought of the existence of soul and Spirit.
To materialistic doctors, will be entrusted with the task of removing the soul of humanity. As today, people are vaccine against this disease or disease, so in the future, children will be vaccinated with a substance that can be produced precisely in such a way that people, thanks to this vaccination, will be immune to being subjected to the “madness” of spiritual life. He would be extremely smart, but he would not develop a conscience, and that is the true goal of some materialistic circles.
With such a vaccine, you can easily make the etheric body loose in the physical body. Once the etheric body is detached, the relationship between the universe and the etheric body would become extremely unstable, and man would become an automaton, for the physical body of man must be polished on this Earth by spiritual will. So, the vaccine becomes a kind of arymanique force; man can no longer get rid of a given materialistic feeling. He becomes materialistic of constitution and can no longer rise to the spiritual “.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925);”

Oh and by the way, in case you were wondering, that George Van Tassel guy in that Cosmic Voice paragraph of the FBI document is where that mysterious Ashtar Command group that has been {supposedly} contacting starseeds and pirating British radio stations originated from:

Ashtar (extraterrestrial being) – Wikipedi
Southern Television broadcast interruption – Wikipedia

The point I am trying to make here is that there is heavy evidence to suggest occultists practicing the arts of astral projection and/ or lucid dreaming have potentially been contacted by non physical entities and given information on an alternate history of our earth for at least the past 140ish years. Actually I can go one better than that.

To summarise:

My assumption is that any ancient culture that incorporated dreaming into its belief structure would have at some point made contact with non physical entities such as I did, assuming they likely developed advanced lucid dreaming practices.

I would suggest that the dreaming cultures are no longer the prime targets for the non physical entities, due to the invasions of white man into their territories and the assimilation of their beliefs into those of the invading parties (this has also happened with Theosophy in recent years –). Occultists with a background in astral projection and lucid dreaming seem like the next obvious choice for contact, due to them being “natural shamans.” And according to the Unseen 5, they are.

It seems logical that if an alternate history is being presented to modern day occultists, then a more complex version of that history was, in all probability, given to these cultures. It also seems logical that any secret societies that had astral projection/ lucid dreaming practices embedded into their curriculum, were likely contact hotspots. The question then becomes what is the agenda of the contacting entities?

The common underlying themes being presented to modern day occultists that is comparable with these ancient cultures is the idea of the astral and non physical worlds being “merged” together, and the idea of the matrix soul prison.

Blavatsky’s knowledge seems to present this history in the form of an agenda to create specific races of people and the expected schedule of evolution, ie one of these non physical race’s hybridisation/ breeding programs. When looked at in this context, SD’s and my experiences of the same programs, and the idea that astral bodies are being modified to either suppress or support this outcome becomes apparent.

There is also evidence to suggest knowledge of viruses being used by these non physicals to deliberately “steer” humanity one way or the other being handed down “for karmic neutralising purposes” in the words of King, or to “better enslave us” in the words of Steiner (my experiences suggest Steiner is more on point with this).

Much of this is corroborated by Airl, the Commander, and the operations of MAJestic.

The Unseen 5 seem to be the ones in control of this whole occultist contact operation, going by what was told to me by their leader, and the responsibilities given to me by “him”. Theosophy hints at who exactly this organisation could be, which I will start digging int in a later article.

From my conversation with the leader of the Unseen 5, my understanding is that there are certain consciousnesses being primed for reincarnation whose astral bodies have been manipulated specifically to allow them greater access to their past life memories that will begin to pop up in great numbers in the general population.

These people will be a collection of Nikola Tesla like consciousnesses that will be able to connect with and bring forth higher information more easily. I would package this in with what Severin termed as “astral sight”.

I predict there will be those, like mine and SD’s friend who will begin seeing into the astral realms on a regular basis, and there will be those that will establish new technologies on account of connecting with their Higher Selves/ beings that exist therein; the Tesla’s of the new world.

Even Crowley seemed to be aware of a similar operation in what he deemed as the New Aeon, or the “Coming of the Age of Aquarius”.

Severin and I have similar also timeframes for the effects of this project to start becoming noticeable within human population – 2 to 3 generations from now.

As I was never initiated into any of these physical based organisations – and achieved contact with my non physical handlers solely through my own private studies – I am not bound by any oaths of secrecy or allegiance to them, hence I can talk about my understanding of them and this agenda freely.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I am correct in my assumptions here either; making the Unseen 5 and their agenda known to “magicians”, and acting in a recruiting capacity for them was what I was ultimately tasked with – it didn’t actually involve anything to do these secret societies, such as the Theosophical Society or the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn even though the curriculum of said societies is what I was studying.

This is all research I have conducted after trying to understand who they are – I welcome any feedback from people who have a greater understanding of these subjects.

I am covering a lot of ground here so for now I think this will do.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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[daegonmagus] – Part 17 – SD’s Experience With More Consciousness Facilities Courtesy of A Shamanistic Recipe For Lucid Dreaming

The following is the 17th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

-MM

Part 16 –SD’s Experience With More Consciousness Facilities Courtesy of A Shamanistic Recipe For Lucid Dreaming

Ok, it is late and I am tired, and this article was only supposed to be a brief couple of thousands words. Then all of a sudden I found it blowing out to much more than that, taking me several days, most of which I seemed possessed by this frustrative force that was itching to speak through me. So yeah, uh, apologies for the title.

So here’s basically what happened a few days ago. I was sitting there minding my own business, probably drinking a coffee or eating whatever left over remnants in the fridge could have remotely constituted food, when SD walks in putting on her best authoritative voice.

“I am making you something that you are going to drink that will help you talk to your ancestors through astral projection”.

Uh…um, ok.

Turns out she’d been reading this new book she bought herself for Christmas “The Poison Path Herbal” which she tells me is quite good read. It’s apparently got everything from healing poisons (because I guess all medicines are poisons in the right dosages) to poisons for initiating shamanic like visions.

And these aren’t recipes using everyday ingredients you can find around the house either; some of them call for using things like nightshades, and hembane etc as the active “hallucinogenic” ingredient. If you don’t know what these are I suggest steering right the way clear of them (and no I am not talking about tomatoes or fucking blueberries here either).

Handy hint; apparently foxglove can be used as a heart suppressant at 0.2mg. At 0.3mg, however it’ll caused your heart to stop working altogether. So yeah, small margin of error. Best not to fuck about with any of it.

Now back to me.

An opportunity to ingest some unknown poison to hopefully hallucinate myself into an LD; where do I sign up?

Ok no it wasn’t really like that; SD has a very good understanding and respect of trees and plants, to the point that she talks to them. So when she decides to use them for Shamanic purposes, it is a safe bet she has done her research thoroughly before getting me involved with her antics.

Turns out it was only some mild ingredients she had in mind; a tincture of wormwood and mugwort steeped in water for a good few hours – nothing as toxic as hembane or datura, or fox glove thank fuck.

The idea was to drink it half an hour before bed, go to sleep, in which it would hopefully do its mind expansion job and induce an out of body experience.

Woohay. Or in the words of Professor Frink from the Simpsons: you put the wormwood in the tea, mix it with the mugwort, carry the 2, and the DWIVEN.

I guess I must have built up a tolerance to wormwood in my absinthe drinking days, because – aside from the green fairy’s serenading me to sleep (I joke) – nothing really happened. I had some vague dream about passing an old friend, in my home town but that was about it.

Nothing spectacular.

SD on the other hand, after having only a small sip of the tincture (I sculled the whole lot) told me the next morning it very much seemed to have worked for her.

She had a vivid dream in which she eventually became lucid in that seemed to involve more of the consciousness brainwashing facilities. It was, essentially another dream where higher order information {eventually} came through.

SD and I have this thing going on that whenever one of us has one of these experiences with higher order information, we share it with the other as soon as we get a chance.

So when she comes and says, “I had some interesting shit going on last night” the first thing I do is grab my computer and transcribe her word for word as she goes through what happened.

Usually I can type at lightning speed when I need to, but alas sometimes I miss the tangents she goes off on as she remembers things during the recall.

As a result, some things get missed out, some things get repeated, but generally speaking I am able to capture the body of her experience word for word.

Here’s a transcript of her “shamanic” experience. There is some interesting things in it.

The transcript

“It started off as a normal dream, not lucid, because I was under the influence of some drug.

To begin with, at the very very beginning of the dream, it was just like we were in this town. I was with some other women, (you weren’t there DM) .

And they (our captors), were women, the equivalent of nuns.

They told us the place we were at was a school, but it wasn’t.

The area was equivalent to a couple of fields with dry grass and trees, nothing beyond that – it was really obvious it was a “black void” – yet they told us there was more beyond it.

Some of the others couldn’t see there was nothing beyond, if they were told there was something there they would see it.

It is like everyone was travelling, but in reality it wasn’t more than a field’s worth of travel, the nuns just told everyone we’d been travelling for days and everyone went with it.

Something happened to one of the people, so that the women had to do something; we had to then go to “the airport terminal”.

I remember saying I was “homesick“.

And one of the others said she was homesick too. I am not sure if it was a man or woman; it was like it was either or and didn’t matter in that place.

I remember not being the same as them but they were trying to make me into one of them. So anyway we went through a portal that was in one of the houses at that field place.

A mirror.

And we ended up at the airport.

And it was exactly the same as an airport here – like the layout and everything – but instead of walking onto an aeroplane you walked into a portal in which you could see what was on the otherside.

The portals were just screens, like the movie theatre.

It was the same shit but an airport. The ones we were using were not being used to brain wash people, though there were screens playing stuff to brainwash like the theatre in different areas.

It all depended on the area you were in and who the person was, where they came from etc. There were different portals for different regions of the world, Australia, America etc.

All of the American ones you had to watch a little movie before you went through the screen and that was the brain washing thing.

While they were watching others would come in and give them a bunch of medicine to make them forget….that was the amnesia shit; the amnesia engine was not a machine but a collective of people who go around dosing people with an amnesiac like drug.

All of the checkpoints up until the Australia one you had to see this TV screen and have this medicine.

So, basically just getting to the Australian one you had to be dosed several times. But at the actual portals in the Australian region you didn’t have to be sat down and dosed; you just went in.

The whole Aussie section was pretty quiet and didn’t have guards.

It was like the race of beings that were controlling that section were afraid of the {non physical} beings that lived in the Australian area. They were the same ones dosing everyone and had blue eyes and pale blonde hair, not tall and tanned – not sure if they were Nordics.

I was walking to a portal and began speaking Noongar (Australian Aboriginal Language local to a region of WA) to another guy who was also captured.

I don’t remember who he was, but he also had blonde hair and blue eyes. I don’t think he was a bad one.

All the other captors did not know how to translate this language at all.

One of the guards was trying to explain that this was a language that cannot be translated, as it is too ancient.

When we got to the Australian section it was pretty much empty, no people busy doing shit like in a normal airport. It was pretty quiet, with only a couple of guards standing next to a couple of portals; no drugs or movie theatre things, barely any people.

The guards were taller than regular people, and all wore hooded masks and kit like from my (previous) covid premonition.

When I got to a portal that looked like a mirror that was looking into a mirror like at a local café, I said” oh yeah I gotta go in this one”.

The guy I was with was the only other person with me, because the others seemed to not follow into the Aussie section; they just wouldn’t come in.

One of the nuns said ”no no, there’s things in there we can’t go near it”.

And I remember one of the nuns saying “you are brave going back there” like they really desperately wanted me to stay with them.

So I got to the portal and the dude I was with who was talking Noongar, he said, “oh I am not going in that one, I am going in a different one”.

Where’s that take you, I said “Mundaring”, (local town) and he replied he didn’t know it.

He went in his which I am pretty sure was in the Pilbara (North Western Australia).

The gist I got was that Australian Aboriginals are an ancient race that have been here before anything else and cannot be manipulated by any of the races who came here afterwards.

We were captives, so it was unlikely any of the captives were Aboriginals, as they needed to manipulate us in order to capture us.

Then I remember turning back to say something to the other people…it’s like the guards and I knew each other and the guard kind of said they are gone you are safe to go through right one.

To begin with I went into area I was knowing led to a portal, but I didn’t specifically go to the right one while they were watching; I was intentionally keeping it a secret.

And because WA is huge there are plenty of portals for it.

There was another thing with WA, they had wings/ terminals for each state, and there was much less traffic in WA and a lot less other beings willing to go there.

So not only is it isolated globally but also non physically.

I got the gist of the spirit beings that live here, created the Aboriginals which is why it is such a big deal they are beyond the knowledge of the captors.

So basically I jumped in the mirror and woke up, it was probably of a couple of seconds of random dream.

I was aware that that is what happens when you jump through the portals.

I was lucid from the moment I stepped through into the Western Australian section where they could not follow me anymore.

In the WA section there wasn’t any of those brain washing screens.

The second the drugs wear off you get this trickle of information that comes through and if someone says even the slightest thing to jolt your memory the trickles becomes a large flow of memories.

The amnesia thing is not here, it is there where they are keeping everyone; here (physical reality/earth) is the place that people have either chosen to come or been put in by others in an attempt to remember something or regain a part of themselves.

And then this little addendum based on many of her other LD experiences;

Addendum

This [Australian ] realm has things in it that fucks them (our captors) up. There are ISBE things but not all of them have souls.

Only those that have souls can go into earth bodies, the rest have to make their physical bodies in a lab like a robot.

Only the earth body things, can come here into the physical earth realm.

Non souls are trying to wipe out those with souls; they are drugging all the ones with souls and info and ancient knowledge and real truth etc of what actually happened in the beginning with all of the dream time stuff (Aboriginal Creation Myth), when the physical and non physical planes were merged.

All of the ones with souls are captives because of the ones who don’t have souls that want the greater access to everything.

There (airport terminal) is the simulation, here (physical earth) is real, is seen as extremely volatile and dangerous as the general toxic air part that can degrade parts of a persons consciousness.

But it is also the safest place for us captives to go to get away from the captors as they won’t come here.”

A further elaboration…

Well this just got interesting.

Maybe it is the reason SD and I are able to lucid dream and astral project more successfully than people in other parts of the world.

Because we are protected by a bunch of non physical spirits that created our Native people.

This reminds me of something Airl said in the Alien Interview:

“IS-BEs have been dumped on Earth from all over the galaxy, adjoining galaxies, and from planetary systems all over the "Old Empire", like Sirius, Aldebaron, the Pleiades, Orion, Draconis, and countless others. 

There are ISBEs on Earth from unnamed races, civilizations, cultural backgrounds, and planetary environments. 

Each of the various IS-BE populations have their own languages, belief systems, moral values, religious beliefs, training and unknown and untold histories. 

These IS-BEs are mixed together with earlier inhabitants of Earth who came from another star system more than 400,000 years ago to establish the civilizations of Atlanta and Lemuria. 

Those civilizations vanished beneath the tidal waves caused by a planetary "polar shift", many thousands of years before the current "prison" population started to arrive. 

Apparently, the IS-BEs from those star systems were the source of the original, oriental races of Earth, beginning in Australia.”

Then there was this article I stumbled across: (which I subsequently couldn’t access due to it “not being available in my area” for the first couple of tries):

“New research has revealed fascinating details about Aboriginal Australians and Pacific Islanders, who according to experts, carry the genetic material of an unknown human species.

The new research suggests people from Papua New Guinea and northeast Australia have traces of DNA belonging to an unidentified, extinct human species.

Apparently, there is still much that geneticists and scientists do not understand about this crucial moment in human history, and it seems that research on the subject is raising more questions than answers.

In 2016, researchers at Harvard Medical School published the findings of a comprehensive study of the human genome of all areas of the world and discovered something astounding about the Australian aboriginal population.

They appear to have genetic markers that indicate they are descendants of a yet unidentified human species.

“We’re missing a population, or we’re misunderstanding something about the relationships,” Ryan Bohlender, a statistical geneticist at the University of Texas, told Tina Hesman Saey at Science News.

Bohlender and his colleagues have been researching the amount of extinct hominid DNA that modern humans still carry today. To the surprise of many, they say they’ve found discrepancies in previous studies that suggest our mingling with Neanderthals and Denisovans isn’t the entire evolutionary story.

“Who this unknown group is we don’t know.”

It’s believed that between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, our ancestors migrated out of Africa, making contact with other hominid species inhabiting the Eurasian landmass. Experts believe that this contact left a mark on our species that is still present today.

“Our main goal is to understand how our race got to the point where it is, but in order to do that, we must first study the DNA of the ancient tribes,” explained Mallick Swapan, leading scientist of the study, and an expert who has been studying the origins of the human genome for most of his career.

He explained that the new study gathered the genetic data of 142 different human populations scattered around the world that was underrepresented in large-scale studies so far.

According to Swapan, the most incredible revelation of this new study is that the genetic code of the Australian Aborigines shows that they carry the DNA markers that indicate the ancient crossbred with an unknown “human” species.

Although it was initially suspected that unusual DNA markers might indicate that Aboriginal ancestors interbred with the elusive ancient species known as Denisovans, this hypothesis turned out to be incorrect.

After the analysis, scientists discovered that DNA markers were distinct from Denisovan markers, leading them to the conclusion that they had found traces of an entirely new form of ancient human species.

It is known that the native peoples of Australia are descendants of the first people who came to the continent from Africa about 50,000 years ago.

It has been assumed that aborigines were isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years and therefore scientists thought that their genetic code would be relatively homogeneous.

Surprisingly, this turned out not to be the case.

“The genetic signatures of an Australian Aboriginal from eastern Australia and Western Australia are as different as those of a person from Europe and an Asian person,” Swapan said.

The incredible diversity in the genetic code of the native peoples of Australia, in addition to the peculiar genetic marker that indicates that they interbred with an unknown human species in the past, indicates that there is still much more to discover about the ancient history of humanity.” - Australian Aboriginal people carry the DNA of an unknown human relative - Ancient Code (ancient-code.com)

Interesting. Let’s dig into this a little bit deeper.

Now, I am in no ways an expert when it comes to Aboriginal culture, but what I do know is that their ideologies are based around what they call the “Dreamtime”.

From the little I have read, according to Aboriginal Creation Myth, the Dreamtime was a period before physical reality came into existence.

It was a sort of vacuous nothingness containing the past present and future all at once that never ended.

The Aboriginals believed that the [non physical] spirits that existed in the Dream Time were the ones that created practically everything in this physical plane; the Aboriginal peoples themselves, the lands, rivers, rocks, plants, and animals were all said to have been a product of these spirits.

I seem to remember Airl taking about the Domain in a very similar context;

Airl explained that IS-BEs have been around since before the beginning of the universe.

The reason they are called "immortal", is because a "spirit" is not born and cannot die, but exists in a personally postulated perception of "is - will be".

She was careful to explain that every spirit is not the same.

Each is completely unique in identity, power, awareness and ability.

The difference between an IS-BE like Airl and most of the IS-BEs inhabiting bodies on Earth, is that Airl can enter and depart from her "doll" at will.

She can perceive at selective depths through matter. Airl and other officers of The Domain can communicate telepathically. Since an IS-BE is not a physical universe entity it has no location in space or time. An IS-BE is literally, "immaterial".

They can span great distances of space instantly.

They can experience sensations, more intensely than a biological body, without the use of physical sensory mechanisms.

An IS-BE can exclude pain from their perception. Airl can also remember her "identity", so to speak, all the way back into the dim mists of time, for trillions of years!

Time is a difficult factor to measure as it depends on the subjective memory of IS-BEs and there has been no uniform record of events throughout the physical universe since it began.

As on Earth, there are many different time measurement systems, defined by various cultures, which use cycles of motion, and points of origin to establish age and duration.

The physical universe itself is formed from the convergence and amalgamation of many other individual universes, each one of which were created by an IS-BE or group of IS-BEs.

The collision of these illusory universes commingled and coalesced and were solidified to form a mutually created universe.

Because it is agreed that energy and forms can be created, but not destroyed, this creative process has continued to form an ever-expanding universe of nearly infinite physical proportions. Before the formation of the physical universe there was a vast period during which universes were not solid, but wholly illusionary.

You might say that the universe was a universe of magical illusions which were made to appear and vanish at the will of the magician. In every case, the "magician" was one or more IS-BEs.

Many IS-BEs on Earth can still recall vague images from that period. Tales of magic, sorcery and enchantment, fairy tales and mythology speak of such things, although in very crude terms.”

- Alien Interview

Furthermore, it was said that these spirits, or ancestors, played a big part in the selection of sacred sites and how the people were to behave to one another, how food was to be distributed and the rites and rituals of the various tribes etc.

It was also said that during the Dreamtime, certain spirits were able to shapeshift into different animals.

These particular stories seem to change from tribe to tribe, but a common reference can be found in the Myth of the Great Rainbow Serpent, which was said to be one of the Dreamtime Spirits that came from within the earth to create the rivers and gorges as it weaved its way through the featureless landscape.

One of my kid’s favourite bed time books is the version of the Rainbow Serpent named Goorialla, as narrated by Dick Roughsey.

While most stories dealing with the Rainbow Serpent have an element attributing it to water – (rainbows formed from water fall sprays and rituals around water where rainbow like shells and stones are used).

Some researchers have suggested that these myths allude to a possible comet or meteor that fell to the ground, the “rainbow serpent” part being the comets tail.

Interestingly, the tribe from the Great Sandy Desert region of North Western Australia suggests a similar thing with their story of the Rainbow Serpent; that a star fell to earth and created the Wolfe Creek Crater, which the Serpent then took up residence in.

Sometimes this particular rendition includes a story about a hunter who chased a dingo into the crater only to get lost in a tunnel created by the serpent never to be found again, though the remains of the dingo were eventually found “spat out” after being eaten by the Rainbow Serpent.

For the tribe local to our region – the Noongar people – it is suggested the Rainbow Serpent pushed rocks and boulders around to create the trails of Mount Matilda, and was responsible for carving out the channel of the Avon River.

As a side note, the Avon River runs through a beautiful stretch of land called the Avon Valley.

There is an annual competition that is held along this river usually at the end of winter called the Avon Descent, which sees various boating competitors – people in kayaks, canoes and different speed boats etc – race down the river over a period of 2 or 3 days.

Given the rolling green hills in the middle of farmland pastures, the Avon Valley has become a haven for hot air ballooning and sky diving.

It is quite a “dreamy” place to go for a leisurely Saturday drive.

Speaking of dreamy, and getting back to the point of the article, the Aboriginal’s description of the dreamtime sounds a lot like what one can experience whilst lucid dreaming; a timeless void of nothingness where non physical “spirits” seem to hang out.

What is more, when we look at the importance of the Dream Time within Aboriginal culture, and compare it with other tribal cultures such as those of the Native Americans, we can start to see a theme emerging in regards to how important dreaming still is within these cultures.

Both groups would have their appointed Elders and Shamans who would employ the use of various plants and substances to help aid in their dream visions in a similar manner to what SD did prior to hers.

The Wandjina Paintings of North Western Australia

Now, while we are on the subject of the dreamtime and ideas about interactions with the [non physical] progenitors to the Australian Aboriginals, let’s take a look at some art by the Wanjina Wunggurr tribe of the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet explored this place myself, as it is a 32 hr drive (and that’s straight, with no rest stops) North East of where I currently am, and most of that is bland, boring desert that is usually hotter than Hell in the summer, or too busy being blasted by hurricanes and floods in the other seasons.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t on my to do list though, assuming the local Aboriginals would even allow me into such a sacred site in the first place.

Apparently the Gibb River Road is really a Gem to behold when doing the “Big Lap”.

The paintings themselves are located in the mountainous region of the Kimberley, scattered throughout various caves, in quite hard to reach country.

They were first discovered by white man in 1883, when a man named George Grey stumbled across them after searching for inland water at the behest of the British Crown.

After losing a flock of sheep and a few dogs, Grey and company took refuge in one of the caves, presumably to escape the harsh elements, where they found some very curious images that had been painted high up – some almost 6 metres – on the walls of one of the many caves in the area.

According to Wikipedia, these paintings are between 3800 to 4000 years old, based on the broad stroke way they have been painted.

The paintings themselves depict a group of white, seemingly bald, mouthless, and earless beings with what appeared to be semi circular halos arranged on their heads. Oh, did I mention they had big black eyes:

Next…

Firstly, I should point out that these paintings are scattered about an area expanding through 200,000 square kilometres of the Kimberley.

As a result, there are three tribes that have an intimate connection with them and the myths surrounding them; the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbal tribes.

These three tribes make up a cultural bloc referred to as the Wanjina Wunggurr, in which a fourth tribe – the Ngardi – are sometimes included.

According to the descendants of these tribes, the Wandjina were supernatural spirits that existed in the Dreamtime and created the physical world in a similar manner to the Rainbow Serpent.

In fact, some of the paintings include the Rainbow Serpent alongside the Wandjina spirits.

The depiction of the Wandjina without mouths is suggested to be either because the Wanjina were so powerful they didn’t need mouths to communicate, or because, due to their ability to make it rain, had they had mouths, the rains would never stop.

“The shared culture is based on the dreamtime mythology and law whose creators are the Wan[d]jina and Wunggurr “spirits”; the ancestors of these peoples.

The Wandjina paintings have common colours of black, red and yellow on a white background. The spirits are depicted alone or in groups, vertically or horizontally depending on the dimensions of the rock, and are sometimes depicted with figures and objects like the Rainbow Serpent or yams. Common composition is with large upper bodies and heads that may show eyes and nose, but typically no mouth. Two explanations have been given for this: they are so powerful they do not require speech and if they had mouths, the rain would never cease. Around the heads of Wandjina are lines or blocks of color, depicting lighting coming out of transparent helmets.[2]

Today, the paintings are still believed to possess these powers and therefore are to be approached and treated respectfully. Each site and painting has a name. Indigenous people of the Mowanjum community repaint the images to ensure the continuity of the Wandjina's presence.[8] Annual repainting in December or January also ensures the arrival of the monsoon rains, according to Mowanjum belief.”  - Wikipedia

Some of these paintings have been repainted so many times they are 40 layers deep. That’s atleast 400 years worth of tradition being kept up by the descendants of those who hold the original Wandjina story.

Well this is getting interesting now isn’t it?

An author named Erik Von Daniken certainly seemed to think so when he made the connection that the Wanjina spirits kinda looked a little bit those Greys everyone in the UFO community liked to talk about, and offered it as proof of the Ancient astronaut theory. I guess it didn’t help that the Wanjina Wunggurr people also suggested these beings as coming from the sky, causing the rains and floods, painting the pictures themselves before leaving via the same avenue. Or that the white guy that discovered them was also named Grey.

But of course, people with a degree in archaeology or anthropology, that took them only four years to get, know more than the descendants of the oldest known lineage on earth who have managed to pass down stories of their culture unchanged over thousands of years. 

Take for example these guys from the University of Michigan’s Pesuodarchaeology class, fakearchaeology.com. 

According to their site the project’s mission is to “explore how and why these [pseudo-archaeological] ideas emerged and took root in popular culture, public consciousness, and on the fringe of rational scholarly inquiry. 

More importantly, the Fake Archaeology Wiki explores the impact they have on our rational and scientific understanding of the past and human culture.” 

You can go on the Wikipedia styled page and read all their debunking of various things, one of which is the idea the Wandjina were anything other than a metaphor for weather, as depicted by a bunch of primitive savages that couldn’t tell the difference between some rain and a supernatural being:


“Deconstructing the Pseudoarchaeological Narrative

The Weather and the Wandjina

The pseudoarchaeological narrative of the origin of the Wandjina Petroglyphs revolves around one major theme: the scientific ignorance of early human civilizations. 

The proposition that the Wandjina were actually aliens visiting from a far away galaxy can be deconstructed by looking at documented archaeological evidence and cultural context. 

Supporters of the ancient alien belief have established that the mythical powers of the Wandjina, which included abilities such as calling forth torrential rains, flooding, lightning and cyclones, were actually extremely advanced scientific weapons possessed by the travelers. 

Research into the topic has revealed that the connection between Wandjina and the weather, specifically rain, developed after a period of intense drought that affected the region nearly 4,000 years ago. [8] 

Evidence from a study done by researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia indicates that the mega-drought spanned at least 1200 years. 

“Records shows the Kimberley region of northwest Australia underwent rapid environmental change in the mid-Holocene starting around 6300 yrs. B.P. when it transitioned from a tropical humid climate with intense summer monsoon to a much drier climate. 

This new climate regime was associated with increased anticyclonic circulation over central and northern Australia allowing a significant increase in dust transport from central Australia to the Kimberley” [8] 

The study also indicates that this period of intense dryness was “enhanced through positive feedbacks triggered by change in land surface condition and increased aerosol loading of the atmosphere leading to a weakening or failure of monsoon rains”. [8] 

The end of the mega-drought was between 3,800 and 4,000 B.P. which also lines up with the emergence of the Wandjina style of petroglyphs. 

The Aboriginal peoples’ reverence for the divine power of rain is an understandable progression in belief after a period of such extreme weather. 

The concept that the elements were controlled by mythical beings is a common theme that can be seen in different belief systems across the globe (Norse, Greek, Mayan, etc.). 

Given the native people of Kimberley’s understanding of the natural phenomenon and the limited information available, it would make sense for a group of individuals, who had struggled to survive in such hard conditions, to see the increase in rainfall as a divine gift and in turn begin to worship or revere these spiritual beings as saviors. 

This logical leap is understandable given the human understanding of weather and climate at the time and does not indicate any intervention by extraterrestrial visitors.”

You know its funny though, I couldn’t find any entries on Noah or the flood, Moses parting the Red Sea, shroud of Turin, Ark of the Covenant, Jesus Christ, God, Angels, or anything else the bible (and its associated thumpers) like to tell us with unrelenting certainty was supposed to have taken place in the last few thousand years.

I guess we should just blindly trust the wisdom of a 2 thousand year old book written by various authors spanning over several periods of time, over the word of a {atleast} 50 000 year old tribe of people claiming they had a direct connection to creators of the physical plane through the dreamtime huh?

I am sorry, but if you are going to use your unfettered wisdom to “look into the things shape the beliefs of certain cultures”, then …

…I expect you to be looking into the religious beliefs that shape a society to the point our governments give their proponents big tax breaks to build temples of worship, for said beliefs, at the expense of people who don’t even believe in them.

But then again, I guess I can forgive the University of a state whose population is made up of 70% people who are orientated to believing in Christian Ideologies, majority of them being Roman Catholic.

This isn’t to suggest I don’t like people of these religions, moreso that there is an obvious perceptual bias when it comes to reading shit from debunking sites such as fakearchaelogy.com directed at ancient cultures and their belief systems.

It’s not like I am going to lose much sleep over a bunch of people who live on a different fucking continent to the people it apparently has an expert knowledge of. At least they got the name right, I suppose.

And while we are on the subject, I guess these “expert” anthropolgists didn’t see any value in extending their research into to what spurred these Christian Missionaries into contacting the “oldest continuing tribe on earth” and preaching to them that their traditional beliefs were “evil and akin to devil worship”:

God is a Wandjina - Compass - ABC Religion & Ethics (seriously watch the video and try not to throw up at how carelessly “well meaners” tried to eradicate the Wandjina beliefs, simply because “they knew better”)

Guess it had to do with that “age” thing huh? So now we have the oldest continuing tribe on earth – which according to Airl, extends back 400 000 years who had something to say about the creators, and even drew some fucking pictures of them all over the Kimberley now tainted by the seemingly infant (in comparison) ideologies of a few missionaries that only dates back a little over a two thousand years.

And no one has thought to bring the mentality and psychological disposition of these missionaries into question during their anthropological studies, though they are quite happy investing in researchers to debunk those traditional, work of the devil beliefs?

I’d certainly be interested in a study into the “human” behaviour of those missionaries. Anyone else?

I call bullshit. #fakeanthropology

After all, it’s not like white people have a history of stepping on Aboriginal culture for the sake of their own greed or anything……oh wait a minute: Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal caves - BBC News. 

Because I am sure Rio Tinto just “accidentally” walked into that site and “accidentally” packed it with a few tons of explosives before “accidentally” going through all Health and Safety checks, before “accidentally” pressing the detonator trigger right 😉? 

Fourty five thousand years of Aboriginal history gone quicker than you can say “cultural purging”.

The whole mentality that the Aboriginals were a bunch of dumb savages in need of some good old fashioned European cultur-ization (as is the narrative we are taught in school) in the form of raping, pillaging and plundering as evidenced by the Stolen Generation (watch The Rabbit Proof Fence) has since been challenged and smashed to pieces by Bruce Pascoe in his book Dark Emu. 

In it Pascoe quotes the journal entries of many Australian Settlers that alludes to a thriving civilisation that was in some ways even more advanced than them. 

Stories of intricate fish trapping networks, irrigation systems, the careful cultivation of yam crops, an intimate understanding of the land and its geological structure and the deliberate “engineering” of the soil over many generations to achieve an optimal fertility (which was subsequently destroyed by us dumb arse white men within the span of a few years due to the sheep and plant diseases we brought with us).

These are just a few examples mentioned by Pascoe that show the Australian Aboriginals were a lot more advanced than white man gave them credit for, and suggests an obvious bias put in place to justify the invasion; the “savages” needed a lesson in what constitutes society.

Such bigotry shows through in the writings of these settlers who, rather than dish out credit for one of the intricate fish traps which had the ability to throw a fish in the air when caught, suggests the tribes so mentioned were in need of useless artefacts that they had no need for (which the settlers had become dependant on and could not envision life without).

And what did Pascoe get for his efforts? Our Minister for Home Affairs investigating him for fraud, and “scientists” debunking his claims of course:

Peter Dutton’s office referred complaint accusing Bruce Pascoe of falsely claiming to be Indigenous to AFP | Peter Dutton | The Guardian

And…

Why Is ‘Dark Emu’ By Bruce Pascoe Being Debunked? (junkee.com)

And…

Forensic critique of Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu presents a different view (smh.com.au)

You know it is a load of bullshit when the Sky News Murdoch media puppet Andrew Bolt is on board with the smear campaign. If you look close enough, you can almost see Murdoch’s arm protruding out the back of him.

Andrew Bolt exposes Bruce Pascoe’s bullshit! – News (morningmail.org)

Unfortunately for bolt and his {Gestapo} media and political connections, Pascoe didn’t take the bait and seek compensation. Instead he stood up in front of a bunch of people and offered Bolt this roasting:

https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/andrew-bolts-disappointment/

I get it though. Kind of hard to expand your pedophile cult’s foothold with Dark Emu’s shadow looming over you, and threatening to call bullshit on your whole parade:

Hillsong Church: Rape victim ‘shocked’ by PM’s friendship with his rapist’s son | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Not that the Australian Federal Police ever bothered to give that cult a “forensic critique“.

But I digress.

Now getting back to the Wandjina Wunggurr, we are missing one important thing when it comes to aliens, and that is hidden in its terminology.

If we dig a bit deeper into this Wandjina thing, we can find the idea that Grey (the white explorer who stumbled upon the paintings in 1838) sparked a bit of controversy by implying the paintings were perhaps depictions of alien peoples not coming from the stars, but from the lands abound over the ocean.

It is suggested that this may have been a result of Grey copying them and instilling his own bias through his European art style.

Take a look at this article by the ABC and tell me it is not a cleverly constructed piece of double speak targeting anyone making the Wandjina/ Alien connection.

“Aboriginal art depicting Wandjina figure that sparked aliens theory to be reclaimed by traditional owners

By Erin Parke

Posted Mon 5 Dec 2016 at 6:09amMonday 5 Dec 2016 at 6:09am, updated Mon 5 Dec 2016 at 6:17amMonday 5 Dec 2016 at 6:17am

George Grey’s 1838 drawings of the Wandjina cave caused speculation about the paintings’ origins.(Supplied)

Aboriginal families in Western Australia’s north are finding ways to reclaim a sacred image that sparked rumours of Arab voyages and aliens during the early days of British exploration.

The large, looming Wandjina are spirit figures drawn on thousands of cliffs and cave walls in the Western Kimberley, and came to national prominence when they featured in the Sydney Olympic opening ceremony.

Worrora woman Leah Umbagai said they were considered sacred by three tribes in the area.

“The Wandjina is a supreme being that created the country, gave us the laws of the land, and we have to obey and follow it,” she said.

“The Wandjina is not just a big picture on the wall, it’s the trees, it’s the rocks, it’s the water, it’s the seasons, it’s everything … it lets us Wandjina people know who we are, and how to live our life.”

But the history of white contact with the Wandjina is marred by misunderstanding and wild theories that remain deeply hurtful to the Worrora, Ngarinyin and Wununbul tribes to this day.

British explorer seeking ‘inland sea’ stumbles upon artwork

In 1837, explorer George Grey embarked on a bold but misguided mission to penetrate north-western Australia.

It was thought a large, inland sea might exist in central Australia, and the British government and the Royal Geographical Society sponsored Grey and his team to explore what is now the Kimberley region.

Author Mike Donaldson has written extensively on Kimberley rock art and its discovery by settlers.

“Grey and his men came straight from England and South Africa to the Kimberley, and to cut a long story short, they struggled to get inland, they had a mob of sheep that all died, their dogs died, and they were attacked by Aboriginal people at one point,” he said.

“But then somewhere along the line they just came across these Wandjina pictures on a cave.”

Grey sketched several of the Wandjina in his journal, complete with big rounds heads, halo-like head-pieces, large eyes, slim nose and no mouth.

The images caused quite a stir when they were published back in Great Britain.

“They were totally unlike anything that people had reported from Aboriginal rock art in Australia before,” Donaldson said.

“They thought they could not have been done by Aboriginal people.

“They thought they must have been done by shipwrecked sailors, or some other culture of people that visited here.”

He said one of the figures appeared to be wearing a full gown, and what Grey interpreted as writing on the headband, which people thought could be Arabic or Chinese.

“But it wasn’t anything of the sort, it was an older painting showing through, where the painting was wearing away a bit,” he said.

Pictures fuel Australian ‘alien’ landing theory

The misunderstanding fuelled theories Asiatic or Middle Eastern people at one time occupied the Australian continent, and set the scene for an even more offensive proposition — that the Wandjina were drawings of aliens that visited prior to white settlement.

The theory emerged in the 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, which was written by Swiss author Erich von Daniken, and detailed examples of ancient civilisations that could be evidence of alien life form.

Donaldson said the theory never gained much traction.

“It was just ignorance on von Daniken’s part, the kind of ignorance that goes back to the people who initially, 100 years ago, thought that Aboriginal people were not so sophisticated enough to do those paintings,” he said.

“Of course we soon learnt that they were very sophisticated, and could paint all these wonderful things … so that’s just one guy’s crazy story, that thought they were space men or something.”

Traditional owners hope to educate public

It is a source of ongoing frustration for traditional owners like Ms Umbagai, who until recently managed the Mowanjum Art Centre.

“A lot of the people that come into the art centre, they ask so many questions, and yes I suppose there have been UFO sightings in America and all of that, but it just really saddens me that they say things about it,” she said.

“It’s like people are making fun, or think we’re making things up, and it’s hurtful for us.”

Efforts are underway to reclaim the image, including high-tech 3D imaging used to create a life-size Wandjina cave at the Mowanjum Art centre, so local Aboriginal children and tourists can learn about the importance of the rain-making spirit figure.

Families are finding ways to revisit the remote bush caves where the Wandjina live, to care for the sites and touch up the paintings.

It takes several days’ driving or an expensive helicopter charter to reach many of them, but native title agreements, marine parks and remote ranger programs are making the trips more possible.

Ms Umbagai has been able to visit the caves that featured in Grey’s journal more than 175 years ago.

“When I’m out there, I’m just so at home. Because I’m at artist, I love sketching everything I come across, so I’ll just sit there are draw them myself,” she said.

“But just looking at the paintings and knowing that our old people used to walk this area and sit here, and knowing this is what they left for us … it’s very special.”

…

Wow. If that constitutes journalism, then I am in the wrong business. It’s one thing to peel through page after page and present it as information in an effort to actually inform people of the point you are trying to make.

It’s another thing completely to omit that very point and twist all scrutiny in a different direction in an effort of deflection.

Let me ask a few questions and see if you can answer them: what was the narrative Ms Umbagai was upset with again?

Was it the suggestion that the paintings of the Wandjina were depictions of some white European settlers who came before those in recorded history, or was it more so at the idea that Danikan suggested the Wandjina were ancient astronauts?

One minute they are talking about Arabic and Asian visitors, the next they are talking about space aliens, wrapping it up with a vague explanation of some UFO visitors from America making fun of the paintings without providing any context to understand which it is Ms Umbagai is even talking about.

It’s even worse when you try to get an actual Aboriginal account of the myth from the internet; everything about the Wandjina seems to be written from the vicarious perspective of a {presumably} white person.

This is understandable, given many Aboriginal tribes exhibit a somewhat distrust for sharing such stories with those outside their clan.

In fact, SD has a friend who is an honorary member of a local clan.

It took her four years at university learning about their culture and several years worth of contact building, interacting with the tribe she is an honorary member of before she could even be considered.

As a result of her hard work, she is allowed to attend meetings held by the Elders.

Yet, even she is met with exclusion when it comes to the more “important” secrets of the clan. But yeah, I suppose those anthropologists over at fakearchaeology don’t give a shit about her opinion.

So when it comes to knowing the real story behind the Wandjina, it is likely it has remained as a true secret shared only among the Wanjina Wunggurr.

However, what we can take from Ms Umbagai’s brief statement is this: “It’s like people are making fun, or think we’re making things up, and it’s hurtful for us”.

This suggests to me that the story of the Wandjina, at least to the Wandjina Wunggurr descendants, is taken to be meant in a very literal sense, and if one distorts it from its literal meaning it becomes offensive to the tribe continuing on the story. In other words, it suggests that they firmly believe the Dreamtime was a real, non physical place that existed before the physical plane, and that their people “witnessed” when this physical plane was created. Of course, those with Wanjina Wunggurr blood are welcome to tell me if I am wrong in this assumption.

If I am not totally of the mark with the above statement, this suggests that the Wandjina Wunggurr people were at some point non physical based, for that is the only way they would be able to witness the physical world coming into existence.

I guess being someone who has astral projected and lucid dreamed many, many times, it is alot easier for me to conceptualising existence from a pure consciousness state sans a body, than most.

So what if it wasn’t space where the Wandjina originally came from, but from the astral/ dreaming realms; the same realms that I was told were important communication conduits for non physical entities to interact with physical ones by the Elder Guardians?

The same realms I understand as being important for the evolution of human consciousness.

The same realms that can be accessed for higher order information about the cosmos and our origins through the mastery of Lucid Dreaming?

Again I find it funny fakearchaelogy.com never bothered to debunk the Ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh while they were at it, given it seems to point to a very similar – albeit brief – creation narrative as that of the Wandjina, except with some names thrown in.

“The main source of information about the Sumerian creation myth is the prologue to the epic poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld (ETCSL 1.8.1.4),[53] which briefly describes the process of creation: originally, there was only Nammu, the primeval sea.[54] 

Then, Nammu gave birth to An, the sky, and Ki, the earth.[54] 

An and Ki mated with each other, causing Ki to give birth to Enlil.[54] 

Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky.[55] 

Enlil marries his mother, Ki, and from this union all the plant and animal life on earth is produced.

In the Sumerian version of the flood story (ETCSL 1.7.4), the causes of the flood are unclear because the portion of the tablet recording the beginning of the story has been destroyed.[66] Somehow, a mortal known as Ziusudra manages to survive the flood, likely through the help of the god Enki.[67] The tablet begins in the middle of the description of the flood.[67] The flood lasts for seven days and seven nights before it subsides.[68] 

Then, Utu, the god of the Sun, emerges.[68] Ziusudra opens a window in the side of the boat and falls down prostrate before the god.[68] Next, he sacrifices an ox and a sheep in honor of Utu.[68] At this point, the text breaks off again.[68] When it picks back up, Enlil and An are in the midst of declaring Ziusudra immortal as an honor for having managed to survive the flood. The remaining portion of the tablet after this point is destroyed.[68]

In the later Akkadian version of the flood story, recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil actually causes the flood,[69] seeking to annihilate every living thing on earth because the humans, who are vastly overpopulated, make too much noise and prevent him from sleeping.[70] In this version of the story, the hero is Utnapishtim,[71] who is warned ahead of time by Ea, the Babylonian equivalent of Enki, that the flood is coming.[72] 

The flood lasts for seven days; when it ends, Ishtar, who had mourned the destruction of humanity,[73] promises Utnapishtim that Enlil will never cause a flood again.[74] 

When Enlil sees that Utnapishtim and his family have survived, he is outraged,[75] but his son Ninurta speaks up in favor of humanity, arguing that, instead of causing floods, Enlil should simply ensure that humans never become overpopulated by reducing their numbers using wild animals and famines.[76] 

Enlil goes into the boat; Utnapishtim and his wife bow before him.[76] Enlil, now appeased, grants Utnapishtim immortality as a reward for his loyalty to the gods.” -Wikipedia. Epic Of Gilgamesh

SD’s experiences in connecting with her higher intelligence seems to tie both the Epic of Gilgamesh in with the Wandjina legend perfectly, and explain that whole flood thing most information of which was apparently lost.

This is a summary of information she gleaned from a lucid dream in which she was able to connect with her Higher Intelligence, which was included in my autobiography:

“Firstly the Fae (faery) beings were on earth. At the same time there were various types of humans (Neanderthal included) and at that time, the physical and astral realms were tethered to each other and you could walk through each easily like walking over a bridge or through a door; there was no need to fall asleep to detach the consciousness from the physical body because on earth they could manipulate the matter body to become light body and astral body at will.

Many alien races negotiated permission with the intelligent and powerful humanoid Fae beings, to be on earth to experiment with types of “human”.

Each alien race was appointed an ancient human to manipulate their DNA and try to create a being that could change from astral to light being and back to matter body without the need for technology or sleep, as was the norm for many beings on earth at the time.

An ascended race (the angel beings) covertly came to earth and experimented with all creatures including the other alien’s experiments.

They didn’t gain permission to be in the realm let alone do these experiments. What they did was basically like grabbing the united universal treaties and tearing them to pieces.

They are an ascended race so it was considered even more of even more a no no; they were supposed to remain as a neutral party to oversee these experiments, not partake in them.

So when they were done, they flooded the world to get rid of the evidence.

Some of the ascended race found out what these rebel factions did and went in to try and fix what they could.

They saved as many creatures and humans and Fae that were trapped and aliens as they could and put them on their ships until the flooding ceased.

While there were no active Fae on the matter plane to hold the magic at the sacred places, the gates/portals/bridges between realms collapsed.

The beings put the creatures and aliens back on earth but all were trapped as there was not a clear way back out to the other planes and worlds any more.

Some star seeds are incarnated “fallen angels” that fell to save Earth from the rebel faction and are now stuck incarnating in matter bodies until enough magic knowledge is accumulated through the build-up of DNA of the practically wiped out intelligent humanoid Fae race – the original people of this planet earth.

That knowledge and magic is needed to reopen the sacred points.

The witches are the Fae beings in question; the original witches are not just a religion but the original inhabitants of earth – but the world has been misused and misguided for centuries to hide and confuse the truth so that everyone believes they are evil and even culling witches has occurred through history to try to keep the numbers low to keep the re merge from occurring.

This is because the rebel faction are high ranking beings and the leaders know what they did and possibly condoned it. The information is being hushed so that particular race won’t suffer the consequence of them meddling in the experiments.

It will mean a much more severe war, as the mediators to all universal courts and rulings are the same race of rebels that messed around and flooded the place to try cover their tracks.

Can you imagine what will happen if all the races find out that the high court leaders and mediators are actually covertly stealing scientific research and trying to manipulate experiments to benefit them?!

Absolute chaos.

So now on earth, we are stuck in reincarnation cycling round and round and the “amnesia” is a result of the sudden severing of the two “world’s” matter and astral, on this base level/plane.

All of this has a butterfly effect consequence on the other base world’s causing chaos and war through the universe.

That’s the current astral war; everyone is blaming everyone else and trying to gain access to the next level/ plane too have the magic that’s been harvested from earth herself in an attempt to get things going again.

But it’s the witches that need to do it through their personal gate keeping magic.

If there’s not enough of them living how they need to live – not like society dictates but how they legit need to exist, properly connected to the earth – then it won’t happen.

Not to mention all that know what actually happened are trying to cover it up and poison as much of the population as possible in case the DNA of the old Fae – the witches …

… pops up in an incarnation of say – one of the fallen angel types-…

…thus allowing for the knowledge to be “read” and brought forward …

…- as these beings (fallen angel) were of the ascended race so they have the ability to keep a fair bit of knowledge.

Knowledge that the human mind is usually unequipped to handle (often resulting in the human body or mind becoming weak or confused or ill.. etc.. as too much over stimulation becomes a burden to the human vessel over time).

Hold up didn’t Airl mention the Domain were the Annunaki?…

“On land, The Domain Search Party members were referred to as "Annunaki" by the Sumerians, and "Nephilim", in the Bible. Of course, their true mission and activities were never disclosed to homo sapiens. Their activities have been purposefully disguised. Therefore, the human stories and legends about the Annunaki, and the other members of The Domain Search Party have not been understood and were badly misinterpreted.” 

- Alien Interview

….and the Annunaki are the very gods mentioned in the Ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, right?

So, could it be the Wandjina came into contact with the Domain or a civilization utilising similar doll bodies through lucid dreaming and were given similar information to Matilda McElroy when she interviewed Airl after the 1947 Roswell Crash?

Or could it be they just simply tapped into higher order information about the same flood that caused the separation of the astral and physical planes that both SD and the Ancient Sumerians seemed to be talking about. Who knows, maybe the three are all just coincidences right?

Let’s look a few points I have been trying to get across since the beginning of my articles, and I quote myself from said articles:

“The “Grand Elder” – as I called him – told me there was a sort of spiritual amnesia affecting mankind.”
“He said that the human brain had been deliberately engineered to cut them off from this state of [higher] awareness that I was now experiencing.”

“The reason, he said, that I had been summoned before them, was because of my abilities at lucid dreaming. Apparently what I had learned through years of experimentation was considered so advanced by them, that very few people on earth possessed these same abilities; the amount of others who apparently possessed these abilities could be counted on one hand. 

Apparently, according to these Elders, anyone who demonstrated these abilities were held in high regard by them, as it allowed them the opportunity to communicate with those back on the physical plane without it being compromised by external forces.” 

- Part 1: Contact with the Elder Guardians

“I cannot stress how important Lucid dreaming really is for the evolution of human consciousness.”

Part 15 – LD Lesson 4: Advanced LD Practices and Potentialities

And then there was this in regards to a Native American like tribe on a different planet (in case you didn’t get the subtleties, I was implying that they may have been the progenitors to the Native American culture):

“I had somehow found myself on another planet watching a tribal Elder of a humanoid race of people talking to his tribe. I was completely lucid, in that I could remember my body being asleep back in my bed on earth. These people, although completely alien to any human species on earth, had a very Native American vibe to them. All of a sudden the Elder realized I was there, observing them.” – Part 1: Contact with the Elder Guardians

And finally, we have a few clues as to who SD is directly from the Domain Commander himself:

“[SD] was / is an IS-BE of extraordinary (with a great emphasis on the word – MM) ability. Were she to be in our society, she would easily fit within powerful leadership roles.

[SD] was / is a past regarding trans-stable dimensional elder / tribal leader of a community of other trans-dimensional trans-universe IS-BE's that occupy communities that lie outside of the Domain, and the Master Universe. 

- Metallicman, EBP Q&A with the Commander from The Domain a November 2021 episode

Phew. I apologise for laying down so many quotes all at once, but I felt it necessary to highlight the obvious, consistent themes, so we can get a better idea of just what the fuck SD’s experiences mean.

From what I can determine, SD seems to be gaining, through lucid dreaming, information about a history of the earth that predates what even the Domain have on record. Like, a real ancient fucking history. Close to the creation of the physical world type ancient. And these experiences are directly related to stories interwoven in Aboriginal culture as well as being seemingly related to the myths of the Annunaki. Not only that, she is giving us a base line of what needs to happen to get out of the reincarnation cycle. The physical and non physical planes must be re merged, through the use of certain *keys* who have had their astral bodies tampered with.

Given my own experiences with LD, I posit that any ancient culture that invested time in dreaming to the point it became part of their main belief system, was likely in contact with non physical entities and had access to similar information. It seems logical to me that without the distractions of convenience that plague a modern society, a culture cultivating such an understanding of the dream world, would be far ahead in regards to cosmological knowledge and knowledge of our origins. Especially if left to their own devises and that understanding was allowed to thrive within their community unimpeded.

Given this deduction, I would similarly suggest that both the Native Australian and Native American tribes, amongst others would have been sought for contact by similar entities that sought me out due to my LD abilities. After all I was only playing around with consciousness via LD over a mere decade. Imagine the sort of intelligence that could have been revealed to a people that practically worshipped dreams for thousands of years before white man came and told them it was nothing but devil worship.

Now, whether or not the Wandjina were interdimensional entities that visited the Wanjina Wunggurr people can only really be left to speculation, but I find it curious their story is a mirror reflection of things Airl told us. And that their paintings depict a similar image to the doll bodies the Domain use (Skinny Bob). Regardless, I will take the word of an Elder, or even descendant of these tribes over that of a bunch of fake archaeology students any day. If the Wanjina Wunggurr people come and tell me I am wrong in my assumptions, then I will graciously accept it.

What I find interesting, and what should be taken away from all this is that SD’s experience allude to a similar sort of spirit presiding over the non physical planes in this same region that provides a degree of protection from other {non physical} entities that have a much more malevolent agenda. Note that her experiences suggest there are various dream portals littered about, that each continent is regulated, and that a tribe in close geographical proximity to the Wandjina are from such an ancient lineage and as a result that no meddling non physical entities are able to understand their original language. The idea that the astral and the physical planes must merge, is something that I find very interesting, because, as you will see in the next article, SD is not the only one I know of who has said this.

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[daegonmagus] – Part 16 – Adventures in the Occult: Some Thoughts on The Hellfire Club

The following is the 16th part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

This particular read is truly enjoyable. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

-MM

Part 16 –Adventures in the Occult: Some Thoughts on The Hellfire Club

Ever thought about joining the Hellfire Club? Don’t have any clue about what the “hell” – pun intended – it actually is?

Allow me to explain:

The Hell Fire Club was the name of several clubs that were operating out of England in the 18^th century, exclusively for high society “debauchees” or persons of apparent “quality” who wished to take part in socially perceived immoral acts. In other words, it was a club for politicians and other well connected “gentlemen” that wanted to waste their {usually inherited} money on gambling, drinking and having sex. Other things said to be engaged in in the club were poetry, philosophy, and the ridicule of religion, as it was of a time when blasphemy of the church was catching on.

The clubs were rumoured to have distant ties to an elite society known only as The Order of the Second Circle. Don’t ask me who those guys were, because I honestly have no fucking clue. The actual activities and membership, though, have long been lost to time. The first official club was established by the Duke of Wharton in London in 1718, though the most notorious of the clubs was one established by a man named Sir Francis Dashwood who met irregularly from 1749 to 1766 in England. Originally, Dashwood’s club wasn’t actually known as a Hell Fire Club – this name came later on. His club seemed to have gone through change of name every time there was a change of location of the Club’s get togethers; Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wycombe, Order of Knights of West Wycombe, The Order of the Friars of St Francis of Wycombe, Monks or Friars of Medmenham, or, `more recently, The Priory of The Knights of St Francis were a few of the names the club as known as.

Dashwood’s club was aimed at partaking in Pagan rituals in salutation of Greek and Roman gods, particularly those of wine (Bacchus and Dionysus etc). In fact, Dashwood apparently had many statues of similar Greek and Roman gods adorning his gardens of Medmenham Abbey. In addition to the Pagan rituals, Dashwood’s club was said to hold mock rituals, distribute items of pornographic nature amongst its members and engage in much “drinking” and “wenching”.

Whereas Wharton’s club was apparently more of a satirical joke meant to shock the outside world, with claims that the president of the club was the Devil himself, though the worship of such deities was not undertaken with the club. The members, did however call themselves “devils” in allusion to their often frowned upon behaviour. An interesting fact of Wharton’s club was that both men and women were admitted as equals, which was practically unheard of for other clubs of the time. Dashwood allowed female members into his clubs which were called nuns. Of course, his club seems to be the one that attracted legends of Black mass and demon and Satan worship, though whether any of that took place is speculation at best. Here’s a fun fact, Aleister Crowley got his infamous “do what thou wilt” line for his Thelemic order from an inscription above one of Dashwood’s doors at Medmenham Abbey.

Also worthy of note is that Dashwood eventually moved his club out of Medmenham into some chalk caves in West Wycombe when the owners of the estate sought to have renovations carried out. These caves ended up being where the meetings were held until the club’s eventual demise, which basically came about due to one of the members becoming involved in a political scandal. This was never something I was told upon becoming involved with the club, but is all readily available on Wikipedia for the curious reader.

What you won’t come across, however is a written record of the rise and rapid fall of the Hell Fire Club as it pertains to the modern era. The bit that I had a {semi} active involvement in breaking out of England and into the international domain. I feel it is necessary to write about as a lot of members and non members alike got right royally screwed over, and still are being screwed. This is some recognition of their efforts out of my own well of respect.
So, consider this an offer of some unfettered wisdom from someone who was actively involved in expanding its chapters internationally, because there was and still is a very active effort on the founder’s part to bury the work us international Stewards put into that expansion.

The Hell Fire Club I am a Steward of is an evolution of Dashwood’s Club. Though when I joined it was very far from being a Club for getting together and having orgies. I was around 19 or 20 when I stumbled across it.

Let’s back up a bit to my high school years. We all know I was into some very “fringe” concepts with my lucid dreaming and astral projection practices while I was at school. I studied the occult in the library when I was supposed to be doing research for science which, to be honest, I found quite boring. I wasn’t that I wasn’t good at it, it is just that I absorbed information at quite rapid pace from only a few glances through the work, so the concept of doing homework or extended study was quite lost on me. I’d prefer to use the time to learn in other areas that I knew a public schooling system was never going to bother teaching me. So yeah, conspiracies regarding the illuminati, the deep state, the freemasons, and reptilian shapeshifters etc were all things I had racked up hours of study on even at the age of fifteen. Though I didn’t necessarily believe in most of them, I was however somewhat of a walking encyclopedia when it came to the occult, astral projection, lucid dreaming, psychic happenings and other metaphysical subjects. To me all this was far more interesting to talk about than how to work out the speed of an apple falling from a tree or whatever they taught in general physics classes. Yawn.

And this presented a bit of a problem, because I was one of the only people in the entire school that had such an understanding of the metaphysical. It’s all well and good for those that have no first hand experience in these arts, but when you have been spending a good chunk of your youth flying around in the astral planes or fighting demons in lucidity, it’s hard not to find every day life quite bland. I yearned for others to talk to about this “crazy” world I knew too much about, and sometimes even indulged my straight edged friends a little too liberally to be met with nothing but blank stares. There was one other guy I use to practice healing and psychic shielding with – a guy named Blake – but he ended up running off to join some cult almost as soon as school had finished in an effort to “stay spiritual”. He was even kind enough to {rather forcefully} invite me in to it and try to get me to stay {by not letting me fucking leave}. So there went my Hogwarts connection.

Regardless, my studies continued well past school. I started collecting the oldest manuscripts of any given occult subject I could find, figuring information would be more “pure” if it came directly from the source before its true meaning could be lost in translation and transliteration. If a book was a few hundred years old and had something to do with “magic” I simply had to have it, regardless of the cost. And it wasn’t that I wanted to specifically practice said magic either; I simply wanted to broaden my knowledge in those areas. Because, as any wise person should know, knowledge is power.

So I was looking for books. Old books, antique books, and books with evident occult connections, and this was how I stumbled upon the Hellfire Club. You see, the club’s Steward was a Master Book binder, and he somehow managed to secure rights to republish out of print occult works; some really fucking nice and old {and powerful} manuscripts. Things like photocopies of diaries from 15^th century alchemists, original workings of the Golden Dawn, some stuff on Freemasonry, other stuff on Crowley, Copies of Solomonic manuscripts dating back to the 1500s etc. These editions were bound “exclusively for the Hell Fire Club”, though that didn’t mean you had to be a member to purchase them. What can I say, I was instantly hooked. Some of these editions came bound in a standard cloth form, and others – the more exotic and rare – came leather bound with hand tooled emblems and insignia pressed and then gilded into the fronts. The collection would have made any practicing occultist weep, mainly due to the price tags. It wasn’t uncommon to find these books valued at over $500 a pop, some even in the thousands.

I admit, a few titles really caught my attention, and my curiosity was piqued as the web site stated they were taking on new members. Although no history was given as to the association with the Hell Fire Clubs of the past, a brief summary of the club and its values were given, which aligned with my studies into alchemy. Essentially, the whole point of the club was to better its members through applying alchemical concepts to one’s meditations as a basis to initiate a spiritual shift in consciousness. This is how it was pitched anyway, or something along those lines. One may recall I was never big on joining any occult organisation that had a ranking system in place, and this is where the HFC tickled my fancy over other organisations such as the Freemasons, the Ordo Templi Orientis and Crowley’s Argentum Astrum etc. Upon initiation into the HFC, all members were considered equal as everyone else. The Stewards, who were there solely to keep the various Chapter on course would be rotated on a yearly basis so as to keep up with this equality. Plus, because of the way the Club was structured, self initiation was not only possible but highly encouraged (I think this was really to help expand internationally more than anything).

So I sent the English Steward, Eamonn, an email stating I was interested in joining. We got to talking and he evidently became impressed with my thirst for occult knowledge, to compliment what little I already knew. He asked me if I wanted to help bring the Club to Australia and create my own Chapter, to which I was quite apprehensive at first, though he assured me he would give me any help I needed and that he could provide (it ended up being quite a dismal amount of help indeed). After some back and forth, he eventually convinced me to start my own Chapter in Western Australia, and with that I established my Chapter of Dragon Flame (an intentional anagram of “A Pagan force meld forth”), under his direct instruction, then he put me in contact with the Stewards of the other States.

Remember, this was before Facebook really took off, so to begin with the plan was to coordinate everything through a Yahoo group, but nothing ever eventuated from it. It wasn’t until the other Stewards finally joined facebook that I was able to communicate with them much more freely, and found solace I hadn’t found since my conversations with Blake (not including those discussions I had had with SD). These were occultists – real occultists – that had been involved in Hermetic societies for most of their life, some even being high ranking Mason’s. Others had even created their own Hermetic Orders that borrowed heavily from Godlen Dawn literature. Needless to say, I got along very well with them, and became rather respected given my understanding of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and how it pertained to alchemy, and my occult knowledge in general. If you ever wanted a lesson in occult matters – astral projection, magic, lucid dreaming etc then this was the group to be in. Some of them were even contacted by non physical “Masters” just as I was about to be. It was repository of information that you would never find in any school or public library.

Thus I was very much in the Hell Fire Club’s “inner circle”, and this was a direct evolution of Francis Dashwood’s Club; Eamon was in possession of some of the original paperwork used by Dashwood and his associates, and even went so far as to conduct the Clubs meetings in the same chalk caves of West Wycombe, which became known as the “Hellfire Caves”. Whatever the club once was in regards to its debauch behaviour, it had become reworked into something which legitimately focused on inner reflection and the development of the spiritual self, thanks to the work and vision Eamonn put into it. This was evident in the other members I have since become quite good friends with (one of the Stewards even sent me a bottle of pure Myrr oil when he heard my hand had been cut open – quite an expensive and sacred oil to gift out to someone you’ve never met).

I even had a few astral projection and lucid dreaming experiences that were directly related to the Club, and a somewhat mystical experience that hinted at the “overthrowing of the armour king to make way for the king of fire” (which I took to mean the rule of the military industrial complex to make way for the rule of the spirit). Though, I never had the opportunity to partake in any orgies. How unfortunate.

SD, being Pagan and into much of the same ideologies and concepts as me joined as a founding member of my own Chapter, though for a time we floundered as there was absolutely no interest by anyone in our State. We initiated another member only to find he was more interested in serving his own carnal pleasures than he was for spiritual development (turned out the guy was a fucking serial rapist and had deep connections within the OTO, Freemasons and was a part of pretty much every Pagan meetup group in our area, so there went the idea of expansion), and that put us off to the point that our Chapter became a somewhat private affair for our own spiritual development. We conducted a few rituals based off of the ideologies of the Club, but I found it more beneficial to rework these into my own concepts on Alchemy that I was now fully invested in, and contemplate them in silent meditation. I believe these concepts and meditations were what led to my eventual contact with the Elder Guardians in 2012 when coupled with my LD practices.

In regards to the activities of Eamon and the other members, they continued with their regular meetups, but for me and SD, it was a several year period of stagnation. Of course, I still remained in close contact with the other Stewards and Eamonn, and engaged in regular chats with them all both privately and publicly on the Club’s Facebook pages. By this stage I had invested a few thousand dollars in some of Eamonn’s books which constituted my “occult library” (there was some good, rare books in this library). Eamonn had also commissioned me to help on some of his upcoming works, knowing that I was rather handy when it came to using photoshop for touching up “noisy” images. It seemed his work on gaining an international foothold was paying off as he now had established connections (and thus Chapters) within the USA and throughout Europe as well as in almost every State of Australia. SD and I were added to the “Hellfire Star Chamber” along with the other Stewards to discuss drafting of the proper charters for each Chapter and other such necessities that would move it full steam ahead. I guess Eamonn envisioned it growing as big as Freemasonry or something.

With things seemingly moving along nicely, I was inspired to revisit my Chapter of Dragon Flame and begin structuring it into something more usable and in line with the Hell Fire Club’s Goals. I began drafting my own charter with an idea to properly promote it amongst the limited occult societies in my area. I wrote poems and verse that I posted amongst the Stewards in the Starfire Chamber that even Eamonn himself suggested were good enough to be used for all of the Chapter both, original and international. Whether those poems and verse arse still in use is a mystery to me, though if they are then technically they are being used out of copyright, not that I really give a shit.

The Charter

Here is a {somewhat incomplete} charter I wrote for my Chapter of Dragon Flame. As you can see, there is nothing inherently sinister within it, and it was based heavily on the chapter papers Eamonn wrote, bound and distributed to the Hell Fire Club’s Members: The whole purpose of my club was utilise HFC rituals as a form of unlocking the higher self within the candidate. I wanted people to experience that “god mode” form of consciousness that I had experienced during my times with Elder Guardians.

THE CLUB’S INTENTION: To bring one into a new perception of oneself by symbolic means.

Elements needed to effectively be in chapter:

Membership cards/coins must be made for the initiation of guests, and any spares used to decorate the decanter/bottle on the occasion of guest initiation plus an extra gold coin.
A blue and red coloured robe
A beaked mask (one per member)
A Bishop’s/ Wizard’s hat/ mitre reserved for the appointed Abbot’s duties
A floor/ table cloth printed/embroidered with a zodiac or stars. If none is available then the Major Arcana of a Tarot set arranged in three rings (12-7-3) or a set of 12v zodiacal cards from Uranias Mirror can be used.
Six Candlesticks (representing the four niches/ doves and two paths in the caves) to signify the Towers of the Abbey of Theleme in (Rabelais Book 2), named after the winds in the classical world: Arctice, Calaer, Anatole, Mesembrine, Hesperia, Cryere.
A lamp/ globe/ bowl suspended from the ceiling above the floor cloth, preferably one that may contain a lighted taper/ candle.
A bottle/ decanter of wine/ mead in which the coin is to be cast during the guests initiation ceremony as well as a chalice or goblet for drinking of said wine.
Pentagram and Hexagram Sketches as well as the Stewards Jewel and a set of Platonic Solid Models to signify the two keys. The letters T.R.I.N.C. must be available, preferably so that they can be rearranged as is done in the ceremony of the second key.
Any available object that can act as a tribute to Francis Dashwood, whether it be a portrait of him, an object from the club or an empty chair reserved for the presence of the founder.
A scroll bearing the poem called ‘The 108 Steps” to be laid at the bottom of the floor cloth

Membership Cards: Exist to aid all persons involved in the club and available only through properly appointed Stewards of each Chapter. To be completed and issued to successful applicants on an individual basis only. In early days coins or token were used in place of the cards, engraved or marked by/ for the individual. The coin/token/ card should be regarded as the sole guarantee that the lessons of the Chapter have been relayed by a Steward in an appropriate manner, and that the persons connection is a true one.

A record should be kept by the Stewards of the names of those in which a card is issued, and allow other chapters to request information regarding membership status in order that visiting members from other areas are properly received, though it should be noted that the right to a membership card does not necessarily guarantee admittance to another chapter. Politeness holds sway and all members wishing to visit another chapter should either wait to be invited or contact an appropriate Steward to arrange asocial meeting in advance.

PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS:

The floor cloth is to be aligned so that the doves point to the principle points of the compass; the main door of this room should open towards the first path of the inner temple.
The lamp is to be hung in the centre of the room above the floor cloth. The only light in the room should emanate from this lamp alone.
Around the internal space is to be a representation of a celestial zodiac, depicted through the Major Arcana (Trumps) of the Tarot deck, which are placed in exact alignment of the zodiac at the solstices in a series of 3 – 7 – 12.
At the extremities around the cloth behind the doves are placed four candlesticks to represent the four niches.
In the centre of the floor cloth is to be placed the bottle/decanter with the members coins strewn about next to it.
At the bottom of the floor cloth should be laid the poem ‘The 108 Steps” with a gold coin placed atop it.
On the opposite side of the scroll, where the rings of the Major Arcana align, is to be placed a pentagram with the Letters T.R.I.N.C. enclosed in its outer spaces along with a platonic solid at one edge and the Stewards Jewel at the other edge.

The four Doves or degrees: The object of the members of the Hell Fire Club is to better oneself spiritually by meditating and applying one’s mind to the occult symbology of alchemy guided on by an appointed Steward. Although there are no formal degrees in the sense of rank, one must first progress through a series of four non-linear states along the journey to their inner self.

Guests are invited to attend Chapter meetings by a member of the HFC whereby they can partake in the first of many rituals of casting a coin at the decanter and taking a drink of its contents. Once this first rite of passage has been completed the Guest may then apply for membership whereby they become a member if accepted by the club. Guests and preparations of what they may see or experience are the sole responsibilities of the inviting member. Watch Words for guests are Friendliness and Discretion.
Members are guests that have completed the first rite of passage and on applying for membership, have been approved by an appointed Steward. A successful applicant may then apply to the Steward of their Chapter for advice on the deeper interpretation of the symbols associated with the club. The privilege of inviting Guests to the chapter meetings is restricted to members alone, and for practical reasons is kept to one Guest per member per meeting. Watch words for members are Sincerity and Application.
A Steward is essentially any person whose membership has passed from the level of the inner desire for experience to the outward manifestation of that in literature, mathematics, public speaking, art, business or any other engagement. They guide the Club as one would a ship, relating from memory the legends, traditions and symbols and assist others in taking their first steps on the road to inner discovery. There is usually only one Steward in Chapter at once, the position being revoted upon by members every year. Watch words are Hospitality and Self Sacrifice.
A Prior/ Prioress is someone who has walked the inner road of themselves and has effectively returned to the beginning. It is the prior’s/ prioress’s duty to continue the seed of the club, and only they are able to begin a new chapter of their own. Watch Words for priors are Work and Silence.

The office of the abbot: The Abbot’s role lies outside of the four degrees and is not a level attained in the club by application of oneself. Instead it is an annually elected role, enabling all members of the club to exert an influence upon its development. The Abbot, whilst appearing to be of merriment and even disorder, is vital to the Harmony and well being of the club. It is in fact an evolutionary force.

The hell fire club greeting: The Steward welcomes all of those who have made it to Chapter using the LAQS motto and gives a brief explanation of any themes they have thought relevant for after ritual.

Layout of the 12 rituals of the hfc:

The Ritual Of Fire – to be completed in the sign of Gemini (ideally in the last 10 degrees of the sign, ie 11^th – 20^th of June )
Ritual Of Air – to be completed in the sign of Cancer during midwinter (ideally at the very start of the sign on the 21^st of June.
Ritual II

Possible Set Up:

A permanent pentagram (circle) set up with four “pillars” representing the niches of TARO (north, south, east and west), and another two representing the “gate” or “entrance” to the circle, with rocks filling the spaces to symbolise the cave.
An empty chair for the presence of Dashwood.
The candles representing the Guest to be lit from the candle of the T niche.

Ritual of Fire:

Aim:

To make the Guest subconsciously aware of the fact that they are element of fire, which is associated with the tetrahedron

- To be facilitated by the building and lighting of a fire by the Guest

To subconsciously open the path of Cancer for the Guest
- To be facilitated by the alignment of Cancer (Chariot) with the element of Fire (Judgement) on the floor cloth and the recitation of the passage explaining as such.
To connect the Guest with the archetypal energies of Francis Dashwood and the original Hell Fire Club both consciously and sub consciously
- To be facilitated by the empty chair, and recitation of a brief speech acknowledging Francis Dashwood
To connect the Guest with the archetypal energies of the Abbey Of Theleme
- To be facilitated by explaining the four niches of T.A.R.O. and the square that they comprise
To make the Guest subconsciously aware that by throwing the coin they are taking the first step in the transmutation of fire into air.
- To be facilitated by the recitation of the poem of the guest.
To symbolically cast aside the material constraints society has placed upon the Guest
- To be facilitated by the casting of a coin at the decanter
To make the Guest aware of the essential relationship of themselves
- To be facilitated by the drinking of the wine.

Papers to be given:

Introductory papers on the club, what it’s about, it’s goal etc.
An explanation of Archetypal energies
An introduction on Alchemy
An introduction The Kabalistic Tree of Life
An explanation of the Abbey of Theleme

Items needed for next meeting:

The symbology behind the ritual of the guest is to be the quintessential starting point of the HFC: CODF. I feel it important that this ritual be designed so that the initiate, after freeing themself of their materialistic constraints by throwing the coin at the decanter, be able to connect with the archetypes of Francis Dashwood himself and the rest of his members. I am still unsure how the latter can be acted out in ritual, perhaps more thorough research into his character will prove useful. It may also be worth looking making a rite that mimics certain aspects of the positioning of the original caves when laying out the elements of the club.

The location of this ritual should be carried out in a location bearing similar attributes to that of the river of Styx in the caves of West Wycombe, or another underground place used, perhaps a sacred well, burial ground or even a consecrated space in a room dedicated to the purpose. I propose to use the clearing behind our house in MH for the job as there is a nearby creek which resembles the aforementioned river, and a secret spot which may act as the inner temple “hidden” by undergrowth.

Originally I proposed to have the Guest build and light a fire, so that they are physically and mentally becoming the element of the tetrahedron, but Storme has suggested this may be in efficient as not everyone is competent at building fires, so we made the decision that a candle should be lit instead, for each Guests, which can then be blown out at the next Chapter meting during the ritual of Air (obviously the candle will have to be re lit, as it cannot burn between Chapters)

The ritual is started by other members taking up position around the floor cloth, and the HFC greeting cited. The member who invited the Guest shall then give a brief introduction of them and what attributes led them to give an invitation, to which an appointed Steward will quote the poem:

Recitation of the Gate of Cancer:

Behold thee

In the position of Gemini you dwell

Study its composition

For its passing is nigh

But with it comes the opening of Cancer’s gate,

And thus the Chariot you shall ride across Zodiac of yourself.

So mote it be

Poem of the Guest

O guest whoso dares to seek our secret keys,

For the benefit of no other

And no other shall thee seek to please

In order that you will discover

That you and you alone are the sun

Rising in Cancer

To traverse the ocean of the one

So that you may find the answer

That lies deep within our inner temple

Capricorn will show you the way

If only thought of our secret be made ample

When the Devil is yours to slay

And the Corinthian book be melted down

So that the seven alchemical metals are found

But first we ask that you seek our jewel

Lest thee should yourself become the fool

Casting aside want of wealth

Be received by us in benevolence and health

Throw now your coin at the bottle of TRINC

And in the name of Dashwood drink

Study the lines in this poem you ought

As you dare O Guest to set Wealth at naught.

A coin is thrown at the bottle/ decanter in the centre of the floor cloth by the Guest/s, as they envision their shackles being released, to signify their willingness to sacrifice the materialistic profanities which pose a hindrance to their own spiritual progression. Mention is given by the Steward to the ‘TRINC’ sound made as the coin hits the bottle and its’ similarity to the word ‘trokken’ meaning to drink. The Guest/s then drinks of the wine within the decanter, which is passed around to each member to signify the equality of the members of the club. Once the Guest/s has sipped upon the wine, the Steward tells them they have freed themselves of the limitations of materialism, and that for a new perspective to take place within the individuals mind, one must in time first come to the realisation of death as the next passage to wisdom. The ritual is finished by the Steward quoting:

“We have shown you whence the path to the inner self lies, it is now your decision whether or not to walk it. If you do, then may this club and its members, being both of flesh and of spirit, provide the necessary guidance, acting as a vessel for your journey across the ocean of the zodiac.”

Afterwards a relevant theme designed to expand the mind and open the psyche may be discussed between all in chapter including any Guests.

At the end of Chapter the Guest/s is asked to meditate upon everything revealed to them in chapter in their own time, and keep a record of any changes that may occur in their consciousness whether it be manifested physically around them or astrally in their dreams, and that when they feel ready they may apply for full membership. They are to be given a paper which highlights the goal of the club as well as explains what an archetype is and how it applies to the symbology behind the HFC.

Ritual Of AIR:

Aim:

To receive the Guest as a new Member of the HFC
- To be facilitated by the giving of a membership card and a gold coin (as opposed to the silver one thrown at the decanter.)
To make the new Member subconsciously aware that they have transmuted the first of the elements into the second

- To be facilitated by the extinguishing of the flame first created by the Guest with air from their breath and the alignment of the element Air (Fool) on the floor cloth to the planetary and zodiacal rings (120 degrees), and the recitation of the first transmutation.

To subconsciously establish the floor cloth as the universe
- To be facilitated by the movement of the outer ring of the 12 zodiacal cards by 30 degrees (one zodiacal card) anti-clockwise and the movement of the inner ring of 7 planetary cards by 51.42 degrees (one planetary card) anti-clockwise
To subconsciously establish that the 3 rings of the 22 cards Major Arcana as being the outward projections of the inner temple lamp.
- To be facilitated by the moving of the decanter from the top of the floor cloth (between the Pentagram and Stewards Jewel) to its centre (in the middle of the inner ring of the elemental cards) and the recitation of the lamps description from “The Oracle Of The Bottle”
To subconsciously establish the square of opposition
- To be facilitated by the recitation of the meaning of T.A.R.O. and how it represents the four niches of the Abbey of Theleme
To subconsciously establish the Steward’s Jewel as being an anchor in the ocean of universe
- To be facilitated by the action of rowing the new member around the floor cloth by the Steward whereby they stop at Cancer
To consciously establish the Tree of Life as being a map of the Tarot and a
- To be facilitated by reciting the symbolism of the double suns of the Stewards’ Jewel, and how they relate to the twin paths of Cancer and Capricorn, and how it is a hexagram.

The Temple Lamp – Oracle of the Bottle:

Behold the most admirable lamp of our Oracle

That dispenses so large a light over our temple

Though we lay underground

We can still see as clearly as day

It dangles from a ring of massy gold,

as thick as any clenched fist

Three chains most curiously wrought

Hung below it

And in a triangle supported a round plate of fine gold

Four holes, each of which an empty ball was fastened

Hollow within

And open at the top

One amethyst

Another carbuncle

The third opal

The last anthracites

All full of burning water

Five times distilled in a serpentine lymbeck

Inconsumptible nonetheless

In each was a flaming wick

The First Transmutation

We have received your pledge to enter our temple and discover the mysteries that lie therein. Extinguish, now the flame of the tetrahedron with the breath of your being, and take up your new place amongst the airs of the octahedron….

I now beseech unto you the honour of a being a full member of the Hell Fire Club [to which the coin and card are given], and reveal unto you the secret of the pillars of the Abbey of Theleme, signified by the four doves placed upon our floor cloth. T A R O, together these pillars signify the four cardinal directions, the 4 dimensions of the cube of space, as well as the four elements of our club, and together with secrets yet to be revealed unto thee, they shall serve as the basis of your self transformation.

Join us, now as we navigate the vessel of ourselves through the ocean of the zodiac, seeking to take up anchor at the secret pathway hidden behind the devil.

[The Steward rows around the room, stopping at the alignment of Cancer ]

To aid you in your voyage we give unto thee, willingly, the gift of our jewel. Do not tarry long in its mysteries, for like the pillars they are many. For now may it serve solely as your own anchor, which you will cast upon the Gate of Cancer.

[The Steward gives the jewel to the new member who throws it at the Chariot card.]

Rejoice, for I now declare the path of Cancer open, and inform ye that you are indeed on the right course.

A coin and membership card is to be presented to any new members.

Papers to be given:

- The Stewards Jewel
- The Hebrew Alphabet & Gematria

Ritual III: the four doves.

After membership has been granted to a guest they are then allowed to partake in the first ritual which is designed to explain the significance the four doves bear to the four elements, and the colour of each element described. Members should be made aware that these four doves comprise what is called the square of opposition.

The ritual must encompass each element being made known, lighting a candle for fire, incense for air etc. A common circle casting may suffice, whereby meditation is focused upon the physical appearance of the Caves at West Wycombe, followed by the meditation of the newly opened pathway of cancer. Perhaps a ritual encompassing the sailing or entering of a boat to signify the opening of the pathway.

FURTHER STUDY: The writings of Francois Rabelais (Gargantua & Pantagruel), designs and positions of the various caves, grottoes, monuments and the great Mausoleum atop the hill at West Wycombe – England, Kabalistic Tree of Life, Platonic Solids, Corinthian Brass, Egyptian Mythology, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife Of Love In A Dream) by Francesco Colonna, Cube of Space, Egyptian scheme of the Zodiac with decans, Square of opposition, Charles Johnstone’s “Crysal” aka “Adventures Of A Guinea”, Ars Combinatoria by Ramon Llull

…

And then the shit hit the proverbial fan. No sooner had the Starfire Chamber been assembled, than it was being torn apart by the very man who had spent over a decade bringing its international standing to fruition; Eamonn.

What started as a warning towards one of the members of his English chapter, for inappropriate behaviour towards other members, soon turned into a clash between his Chapter and the international ones. Regardless of whatever behaviour this individual displayed (which she has since shown remorse for), Eamonn used it as a pawn to get everyone involved and start taking sides. It was real petty schoolyard politics bullshit on his end, and quite frankly I was stunned he’d stooped so low.

I guess it was because this individual had made quite good friends with some of the international Stewards, so when they refused to depose her from the Club, Eamonn got annoyed. He gave everyone an ultimatum: side with him and continue on under his official establishment, or take the side of the person in question and lose any connection we once had with his chapter. Honestly, it was too much drama for my liking, and I preferred not to get involved, though I had noted similar drama in the past when it came to Eamonn.

There was one particular guy who had been affiliated with the club and helped establish it in America who began selling unofficial HFC branded insignia for big money against the wishes of Eamonn. In the same email he had dished out to members, it mentioned that not only was this guy a fraud but he was also a convicted pedophile and that Eamonn and the Club would have nothing else to do with him, which I thought at the time was fair enough. Though after this school yard politics tactic, I began to wonder just how much of that schpeel was actually true. It seemed to me Eamonn had a tendency to over exaggerate someone’s indiscretions if they pissed him off.

I was also aware that Eamon had been pushing the envelope when it came to the publishing rights he was given for some of the books he was making a high margin on; when it was mentioned by the owner of that copyright Eamonn was printing more than the agreed amount of copies, his reply was for them to “eat shit” – of course, I never told him I knew about that particular interview, and had given him the benefit of the doubt about it being a business misunderstanding. I guess I was being naïve.

There was also one other thing that was making me question Eamonn’s integrity, and that was the way I had caught him lying about sending me free copies of his latest work, which had been agreed by both of us as fair payment for my photoshopping work on them.

The son of a bitch fucking pressed me for weeks to give up my lunch breaks managing an electronics factory to get these out by the deadline. And a fair portion of what should have been my R&R time after work. In the end I couldn’t have given a shit about whether or not I received the works, but to be lied to about them and then to have Eamonn cease all communication with me because of it really stung me.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one he scammed; on a facebook group for rare occult works I found a community of disgruntled customers that had been waiting years – yes actual fucking years, like 2 or 3– for books from him they had spent a good deal of money on. After a brief read of their comments the total amount owed was easily over $20k. I like to believe that Eamonn just fell behind in his orders and that these guys eventually got their books, as I never pinned him for one who would intentionally deceive people for money, but regardless, there was talk of getting the police involved after he didn’t bother to reply to their emails. And talk from others who suggested it was common practice for Eamonn to go through stages of seeming professionalism only to finish it off with such fraudulent actions. Oh yeah, and he was on the fucking group.

So it was safe to say Eamonn, who seemed to be embodying the spirit of Aleister Crowley a little too literally, was fast burning the bridges he had established within the occult community, and getting quite a negative name for himself.

In the end the Stewards of the international Chapters decided he was too much of a liability and flipped him the metaphorical bird. We became our own separate entity completely disenfranchised from Eamonn and his chapter and whatever bullshit went with it, and Eamonn started refusing he ever had any involvement with any of us, even though it was his idea to expand internationally in the first place. Even though the whole club had been established on his ideologies. He said his fuck you’s and we said them right back.

How do I know he flat out refuses we had anything to do with his Club? Because a friend within the {American} OTO bought books from him and received a flyer asking him to join the HFC, to which Eamonn dismissed any connection to the international chapters, saying we had nothing whatsoever to do with his club and never had to begin with….Here’s the thing though, I still have the original emails proving otherwise. Whoopsie. In the words of the wise man who runs the site these words are posted on, don’t piss on someone’s leg and tell them it’s raining.

Consider it some recompense for the people still yet to receive their books:

…

…

So there you have it; the true modern day history of the HFC.

For what it is worth, despite all the drama, I’d be lying if I said the club did not have a profound impact on me. Despite Eamonn’s shortcomings, he did lead me down the road of Alchemy I otherwise never would have set foot on and inadvertently gave me some auxiliary tools to unlock my higher self.

If you are interested in such things, then I sincerely recommend seeking out a Steward of the International Chapters, that are no longer affiliated with him. Sure you might get there with his Chapter, but that all depends on whether or not he actually sends you the books you pay for.

Like I said, I hope he just fell behind with his orders and has since completed them, but I honestly stopped bothering reading into anything he was up to a few years ago, so that is research the reader will have to invest their own time in. It was sad to see a community with such potential succumb to such childish bickering.

In regards to Eamonn, I don’t hate him; I always looked up to him for spiritual guidance.

Who knows, maybe life caught up with him and he saw the need to make a quick buck to pay for a debt or two he’d gotten himself into. I just hope for his sake he hasn’t dug himself a hole he is unable to get out of.

I like to believe that spark that made him want to expand his Club internationally for the spiritual betterment of the people is still alive and smouldering somewhere deep inside him.

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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Part 5 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander January 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 5.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

Personally, I think girls, cats, and food are far more interesting. But, that's me, don't you know.

[13] Question – Can humans overcome a cosmic event

I am still stuck on this… maybe you can just straighten me out without bothering The Commander.

There is a shared Earth Template, correct?
We ALL contribute to manifest this Earth with our collective thoughts – a sort of average; correct?
There would be no physical earth unless we humans will it so; correct?
There are our individual Pre-birth Templates; correct?
We purportedly set these before being incarnated into this meat-suit; correct?

As to whether or not we are assisted in these designs or ordered, is debatable – in my opinion – I think that some are ORDERED, like me, and are difficult if not impossible to alter while a human.

Now then, I say the world as we know it will end shortly in a cataclysmic event; you pick: Human-based Thermonuclear Devastation, or Cosmically induced Geophysical Surface Destruction. For either of these to be realized, many, many humans who have contributed to this [current] manifest earth must share that belief/thought.

Is THAT correct?

So, IF we humans came together, in thought, could we overcome even a Cosmic Event, and Save The Earth, so to speak?

I am asking if there are controls in place, entities in place, that would disallow the Earth’s destruction even if the vast majority willed it so. Does the Cosmos trump The Old Empire, so to speak. Sorry, but I thought that The Commander skirted this issue earlier.

Yes. You are correct in every statement. However, things are not all that simple and the "devil is in the details" as is often said.

The mini-universe known as the MWI (or the "reality universe") is a bubble universe that contains the stars and solar systems of the "Main Universe". Within this mini-universe are it's own laws, and rules and organizational parameters that are similar to the "Main Universe", but differ in many ways.

For instance, The "Reality Universe" limits or suppresses the power of thought to a far greater degree from that of the "Main Universe". If a IS-BE is thinking in the "Main Universe" the thoughts would create fast and easy manifestations due to the parameters and rules of the "Main Universe". But those rules and systems are suppressed or absent in the "Reality Universe".

It's not only that [1] there is memory amnesia, and [2] a containment field, but [3] there is a complete suppression of IS-BE actuation of thoughts.

Along with these modifications, replacement rules and laws of the "Reality Universe" and the DNA make up of the "skin suits" of the inmates (on both the physical and the non-physical realities) are such that periodic social purging of planetary and human life occurs. This is programmed into the Prison Complex intentionally.

Once the Domain took over this region of space and the Prison Complex, a number of systems stopped working, others took on a life of their own, and as we have recently flushed-out, certain entities have (for their own purposes) took over various functions and systems.

Thus the intended operation of the "Reality Universe" is broken. It operates differently than what was originally intended.

Nor is it defaulting to the parent "Main Universe". The only way there is any access to that state of being is through gated portals and transit bubble systems. (LD and OBE are special cases of hybrid bubble-systems that transit through portal systems.)

So presently, the worst aspects of the "Reality Universe" is manifesting.

The thoughts of IS-BE entities in skin-suits are being manipulated by selfish and malevolent entities to act as some kind of thought amplifier for personal gain. This is successfully altering the shared templates (sic.) because the main original "Reality Universe" systems are not fully functional and damaged in various ways.

To answer the question as to if well intentioned groups of skin-suits, acting and conjoined together can alter the fabric of the MWI in the "Reality Universe" at this present time, the answer is yes. However, if other larger groups are doing the same thing in a countering manner than the effect is the sum total or both, and the longest most powerful group would have the greatest apparent manifestation of results.

If...

5 skin-suits think about peace and tranquility.
50 skin-suits think of crime, destruction and pillage.

Then, the highest probability of manifestation will be via the largest concentration of thoughts (all things being the same).

The way to get around this apparent limitation is to localize; geographically your range of effect. In short, you create a bubble of influence to your immediate region. That enables a moderate work around to this situation.

Thus, if...

5 skin-suits think about peace and tranquility located in a small community,

While...

50 skin-suits think of crime, destruction and pillage in the entire nation.

Then...

There is a reasonable, and higher than normal, chance that the bubble of influence will be created by the five IS-BE skins suits, and will coexist with the influences of the 50 that are diluted over a wider geographic area.

That is the primary advised "work around" system to overcome the onslaught of vault 7 manipulation media techniques for mind control efforts. The well intentioned and alert inmate will note that it is easy to create such a positive environment by constructing positive thoughts all around them in many, many ways. It is no accident that MM has been promoting this methodology to all irregulars and lurkers.

[14] Question – Domain Military Strategy

Is China’s military doctrine spiritual brothers with the Domain? I mean do they wage actual total war, take no prisoners stuff like Genghis Khan? I mean totally peaceful but when they decide that the world is better without you, then you really better just run.

I see the Domain as really peaceful but perhaps they can be absolutely brutal towards their enemies if there were no possibility of rehab?

It’s something like the white, red, and black tents of Genghis Khan. You only want to see the white tents and surrender. By the time you get to the red tents, all the men would have to die. Black tents, well men, women, and children die. No animal left. Even the stones are gone. You will pray for a kind death when the black tents come up.
The white tents come up first. There is a short period of time. Refuse the white and the red tents come up. Then your choice is to let the men all do to their deaths. Or face a real Final Solution where everything is destroyed. You do not want the black tents.

I don’t know if you can draw the same conclusions as I do. But they scare the heck out of me. I think the Domain is low key trying to tell us something through MM. Our host himself may not even know it so by implication no one in knows.

…

MM comments: I had a VERY STRONG urge, almost like my entire arms and legs were filled with termites to write / pen the following article. Funny that you should mention Genghis Khan.

How the United States will be able to stop the rise of China

What I can say is that The Domain is “Yin and Yang“. I have been having such strong thoughts about China’s military doctrine and the military ruthlessness of Genghis Khan. You do know that the vast bulk of the military sappers under Genghis Khan were from the captured Chinese territories.

I would say that they are being peaceful now. Very, very peaceful. But if the time comes, they unleash Hell on Earth at a level of ferocity that is beyond comprehension.

But let’s ask the question…

There will be no mercy.

The Earth is a Prison Planet, and a war (whether programmed as part of the "Old Empire", or intentionally set in place by "old Empire" embeds) makes no difference. It is a "Prison Riot" and will not be allowed. 

We will use every power, every technology, every "trick in the book" to re-balance things and correct the imbalance. We are the caretakers of this region of space. We take that role seriously.

I am curious. Like how?

The Domain is very capable.

(Images of scenes of soldiers vomiting at their battle stations... Images of gun barrels warping. ... Images of radios, video monitors and equipment going dead.)

(Images of scenes from the Star Trek series showing "the Borg" teleport onto a ship and take it over... Images of Wizards and Warlocks casting magic spells and people melting... )

(...Images of a Domain soldier "walking into" one of the bodies of a general and ordering his military to destroy each other... Images of a 1950's movie showing flying saucers disintegrate entire buildings... )

(Images of voice overs and soldiers following the insane orders... Images of ballistic missile codes being changed...)

(...Images of a political leader sleeping in bed beside his wife and the wife starts tearing at him with her fingernails like a wild cat blood everywhere... Images of people on the New York City streets walking and then collapsing dead all at once like some kind of science fiction movie...)

(...Images of soldiers shooting each other from the movies scene in "Jacobs Ladder... Image from the movie "Scanners" where the guys head explodes.)

Scanner’s movie gif…

So, The Domain would do all the work. The Domain would do all the fighting. Not China, nor Russia…?

No. We are a garrison force. We are not equipped for a full military invasion. Were we to conduct a full invasion, the entire planet would be purged.

Instead, a war would occur on human terms, but The Domain would make sure that China (which is a Domain asset) be protected. The Domain would direct the strategy, make sure that various systems work and severely retard and handicap those who have attacked us. We can guarantee that there would be a very quick and lethal encounter against any that would assault The Domain or it's elements.

Already systems are in place to suppress the desire to generate a major conflict against China. Within a year or two, a conflict will be the last thing in the minds of the United States leadership. Everyone will notice that something is amiss by the end of this year (2022), and it will be quite obvious by the end of the next (2023). Most sensible humans would come to the conclusion that a war would be ill advised.

You will write about it tomorrow. 

(I will post it tomorrow. Posted and found HERE. -MM)

However, none of this guarantees anything. There are massive forces that need to be tamed / suppressed in this regard.

Can you please elaborate on your statement that “nothing is guaranteed”.

We are anchoring and manipulating the constraints of the social compacts inherent in the human communities that occupy the General Population in the "Reality Universe". It is desirable that there be "small bads" instead of "big bads" in the changes that are manifesting.

We work on various systems and in various levels. Our projections are on track, but experience has indicated time and time again that things tend not to follow the ideal trend line no matter how carefully and well-intentioned it is positioned. To this end, we provide a wider scope and flexibly in manifested outcomes.Imagine

[15a] Question – Cat concerns

Ugh, I’m really warring with myself about asking another question, but I do need a little guidance since the Commander knows so much about cats.

So how can I best support my eldest cat, after what I think was a stroke on Christmas Eve? She seems so lost now.

MM Comments – This answer was answered by PL on the forum. He offered some good strong medical suggestions and advice. In general, the Domain Commander is an extraterrestrial IS-BE with a great deal of experience and knowledge. However, as much as we might desire help and compassion, I don’t know just how helpful his / it’s help would actually be.

Question posted…

Your little buddy is fine. The physical body is distressed, but the consciousness is fine.

There is an event associated with this situation that is key to your template (sic.).  Do not be distressed about it. All is proceeding as it should.

Comfort your little buddy, take care of him. Provide him comfort, care, kindness and warmth. You know what is going on. Do not doubt your intuition.

(One day later, added the following. -MM)

Physical body or not, his consciousness will migrate around yours. You two both have a strong quantum connection and the associations over time (years?) have been very good, strong and positive ones (for the most part) and you two pals /buddies / friends will continue regardless of the state and conditions of either of your two physical bodies.

You and your buddy are IS-BE. You are not your skin-suits. Your relationship goes deeper and far beyond what you sense right now. Do not be concerned or too emotional over the changes. Your pal does not sense the physical distress like you assume. It's processed differently for him.

[15b] Question – Karmic / quantum entanglements

And my second question, after learning about the karmic/quantum ties we may have with those close to us–I’d appreciate some advice for my situation, particularly with T.

I feel like every place I’ve looked for answers has given me bad information, and I’m not even sure what to say in my Intentions. This could impact my role as an Irregular so it’s important.

Are there any suggestions that can be provided to the questioner about this issue?

Human skin suits, inside of the "reality universe" collect quantum associations much more aggressively than IS-BE entities that exist in the "Main Universe" outside.

This quanta collects like dust on a window.

In the normal course of life, the inmate skin-suit needs to periodically cleanse itself. Shake off "the dust", and refresh. This is done through contemplation, fresh air, isolation and restricting dietary input, noise, and avoidance of stimulus in all forms.

Unfortunately many inmates are unaware of this most fundamental need for the day to day maintenance of the skin-suit. And thus they collect all sorts of dust-like quanta.

Some are neutral, and some are good, and some are bad. The determine of the beneficial value of the quanta entanglements are subjective to the entities so involved.

The discharge and shedding of the quanta and the resultant entanglements are uneven. With some inmates giving off more of one type of (specific) quanta than others. Not just in type, but also in volume and in quantity.

It is comparable to being in a room with one other person. The window and the door are closed, and the other person is smoking. This is the normal situation. Every now and then, the non-smoking person must exit the room and wash their face and breathe some fresh air.

However, some people are not smoking a cigarette. They chain smoke cigars, and are very comfortable in the room full of deep blue smoke. But the other people in the room are getting ill and turning a shade of green. Every time they try to open the door to obtain a normal opportunity to breathe some fresh air and wash their face, their actions are interrupted.

In the case of the questioner; inmate T, this inmate is shedding quanta at a prodigious rate. Those closest to them are exposed to a higher than normal level of quanta saturation and this affects their performance in life, interactions, thoughts and emotional responses.

The questioner has the physical need to cleanse themselves, go on retreats, or just have much more quiet personal time to themselves. They need to clean and refresh themselves. This is a fundamental requirement for the basic maintenance of the inmate skin-suit.

This is not a one week sabbatical once a year. This should be a weekly occurrence. Like an automobile that needs gasoline every week, an oil change every month, and air in the tires, and water in the radiator, the inmate has the responsibility to maintain his skin-suit.

Once that maintenance occurs, the questioner will realize whatever next steps are necessary in regards to the personal interactions with T. It is up to the questioner to determine these steps. However they must make those decisions in quiet isolation and away from any other influence of any type.

The fundamental needs of the questioner must be permitted. If they are being denied, then the relationship (in whatever form it is in) is toxic and either must change or be severed. No inmate, let alone an irregular, should be denied the basic operational maintenance of the physical inmate skin-suit.

[16a] Question – Power of Language

So, I have a two-parter. It’s sort of emerging as my “thing” of deeper interest.

What power does language have? Specifically, beyond the ability of advocacy, persuasion and other such arts, is there any weight behind the words we use that extends beyond the physical? I’m sort of thinking of the old stories of spells and suchlike, but in a more general sense. Or a specific sense. Honestly, I don’t know what I don’t know here. Any guidance on this point would be greatly appreciated, as the power of words greatly interests me.

What power does language have?

Language is the bridge that connects (non-physical reality universe) thought via verbalization (physical movement) in the (physical reality universe).

Depending on the social and societal constructs, the language will differ, and that will influence the "flavors" of the thought manifestation.

Thus, a person thinking in French will have a different kind or type of manifestation than one speaking in English. This holds true to dialects and enclaves such as urban English, Austria influenced German, or a Chinese dialect.

Thought generation comes from the IS-BE consciousness in the non-physical realms.

Language is how the brain translate those thoughts in the physical reality.

Manifestation of thoughts, thus must go through the gateway of the mind. 

This is why the manifestation of thought in the MWI pocket universe (the Reality Universe which is the Prison Complex) differs from that of the Main Universe. The inmate skin-suits process thoughts via the brain differently that unmodified humans in the Main Universe.

[16b] Question – Specific affirmation phrasing

As a follow up – does the intent behind the words we chose to use matter as much as specific phrasing, such as with manifestation campaigns? I know MM has written at length about the importance of being specific, but there’s also been some warnings about being too specific and avoiding the “Hollywood effect”.

There is constantly an obfuscation of meaning, a twisting and distortion of facts that puts doublespeak to shame presented in many mainstream narratives. I suppose I’m just curious if everything is just as it appears to be at face value, or if there’s something deeper beyond these prison suit shells at work.

Does the intent behind the words we chose to use matter as much as specific phrasing, such as with manifestation campaigns?

Asked of the Commander…

The mechanism for thought manifestation comes from the use of language in the brain. When a consciousness is processing that thought; known as "generating that thought" (which is actually NOT the same thing) it is the actual verbalization that generates the physical manifestation.

What the person vocalizes is what manifests.

MM comments…

I have no problem with that, however, what you are thinking at the time you are verbalizing the affirmations "color", alter and modify those affirmations.

Let's suppose you had a verbal affirmation that says...

"I have young and youthful skin, and feel like a teenager".

If left alone you will have nice youthful skin, and probably a few zits and maybe start to act a little childish.

However, let's suppose that every-time you read that verbal affirmation you remember a lost teenage crush or a bad relationship or a date that went really wrong. You cannot control that thought. It just pops into your head automatically.

What you might find is that along with smoother skin, you will also start to have relationship troubles that are remarkably similar to that which you experienced as a youth.

So actually, it is not only what you vocalize, but the thoughts that you carry with you as you vocalize those intentions.

[17a] Question – Bug Zapper

The tunnel of light aka bug zapper: Currently, the system is you die and leave your body, then you are instructed to go into the bug zapper, which shocks the crap out of your consciousness, effectively wiping out your memory (99.95% effective on most IS-BEs, it seems).

Is this a correct appraisal of the system?

Yes.

[17b] Question – Purpose of mind erasure

Then, ONCE your memory is erased, you undergo counseling with a guide who allows you access to memories of your past lives. (I believe the commander mentioned that you are allowed “controlled access” to your memories by the Mantids during your counseling session in planning your pre-birth template–if I remember wrong please correct me).

A 3rd party “allows” you to see your memories after your bug zapper treatment. This means that you are not recalling your memories on your own, but it is presented to you.

If the presented memories are edited in any way (a dropped frame here or there, a cleverly edited event in your life), there is no way you would know it since you got zapped first to erase your memory.

I’m not saying that the memories you are viewing during this session is definitely edited, but there’s no way you could confirm that it wasn’t either, given your post-zapping condition.

In any case, why the need to make you go through the bug zapper before you view your memories in the counseling session? Why can’t you keep your memories so you can skip the viewing portion and go straight to negotiation/planning for your next reincarnation?

What is the purpose of the mind erasure, and then drip-feed of selective memories?

The original purpose was to create a situation where the IS-BE would be inclined to assist in the creation of their next pre-birth world-line template(sic.).

Imagine that the IS-BE was a Domain Soldier with a long history of aggressive, intelligent behaviors. Once in the Prison Complex the goal would be not only [1] to erase the past of the IS-BE but also to [2] reconfigure the quanta that comprises what he / she / it is.

The primary baseline default mapping of the new design for the IS-BE entity is to create a passive, obedient, and submissive entity that is very remorseful and regretful towards any foray into the physical realms.

The memories thus presented to this "blank slate" IS-BE would be those that would [1] convince the entity to return back to the General Population out of a need for growth and learning. 

[2] It would convince the entity that it would have to suffer through perils, rapes, hardships, trials, discomfort to thus experience intentional events designed to make a submissive, frightened, and obedient entity. 

[3] The entity would be convinced that eventually at some point in time they would be "perfected" though all the learning, schooling and teachings, and that with just a few more experiences all would end and that they would migrate to a higher state of being. 

[4] This point in time; this goal will always be pushed further out. It will be close but unobtainable.Thus convincing the entity for yet one more reincarnation of suffering, pain, and horrors.

these goals and achievements can only be realized through selective manipulation of past histories to an entity suffering from Amnesia.

This reminds me of the movie “Overboard“, where Kurt Russel tricks (wealthy bitch) amnesic Goldie Hawn that she is his wife and must serve him and his family of misfits. The movie is cute, and nice. But the reality that is described here by the Domain Commander is an absolute horror.

Overboard. Goldie Hawn has to endure great injustices by the children of Kurt Russel.

[17c] Question – Inhumane actions

It has been established that the IS-BE had been counseled and agreed to the birth line template he/she will reincarnate into.

However, the IS-BE enters into this agreement after it has been zapped. True, they viewed their memories, but through a 3rd party platform with no guarantees that everything has been shown (some information is given, we can assume that this is most likely incomplete).

In fact, it is established that someone/thing else decides “how much to show”, since your core memory sets are not with you.

It is fair to assume that they can choose to show a highly edited version of your past and that’s all you will have to go on, too bad.

(not applicable to DM and his wife SD, as it seems like they are from another group of IS-BE's that are undertaking a mission, and they already know how to access their memories without going through a 3rd party).

Based on this limited information, you make the agreement to enter a prebirth template.

Do we allow minors or those with compromised faculties to enter contracts and agreements? How about if you are dazed and disoriented by pain killing drugs in the hospital? Are you allowed to write a will in that state? WE know what people are like after they go through electroshock therapy…are IS-BE’s in any state to agree to ANYTHING after getting zapped?

If you do not have your core memory sets because a 3rd party is holding them for you, then by definition you have “limited faculties” (i.e. retarded, drooling infant, just fell off the turnip truck). There is no way in hell you could be honestly described as “dealing with a full deck of cards”.

Is this correct?

Yes. The system is designed to take advantage of the limited memories and reduced reasoning power of the IS-BE to move them forward and through the processing system. It is intentional.

Firstly, IS-BE's are dangerous. They are weaker when they inhabit a physical form with in the Main Universe. 

Secondly, one of the initial reasons for the creation of a containment field and a pocket "reality" universe is to create a region where the thoughts of an IS-BE are retarded and limited.

Thirdly, by creating a condition where the powers of thought are reduced, and the erasure of memories so that the IS-BE is unaware of the power of thoughts, you have a situation where the IS-BE would voluntarily enter an inmate skin-suit.

Fourthly, by shuffling the inmate back and forth between the "reality" pocket universe, and the "Heaven" micro universe it can be controlled and reprogrammed at will. It's an endless mobius strip.

[17d] Question – Editing of histories.

The karmic imbalances that need correcting: So, we have established that the IS-BE agreed to be injected into a birth template that have some specific challenges/torture experiences in them to redress the sins from a previous life.

This new life will be a corrective for this fuck-up IS-BE’s, so eventually the karmic imbalance will be neutralised, right?

I believe this is the intent (yeah right).

Well if the fucked up “corrective” life the IS-BE is currently experiencing now was “agreed upon”, then that means that the previous life that generated the karmic problems that you are busy correcting now was “counseled and agreed upon” too.

If you’re not allowed off the prebirth template plantation now, what makes you think you were allowed to leave it then?

Oh what, you were able to somehow defy the prebirth template in the past in order to commit unauthorized sins that you are being required (or rather convinced/manipulated) to pay for now?

It has been established (so far) that the prebirth template (unless you are a renegade spirit who didn’t go into the tunnel of light and grabbed the next available body instead) is meticulously planned, with plenty of funneling and redirecting mechanisms to keep you on the agreed upon path.

Question–why on earth would you agree to commit fucked up crimes in one life that you know you would be guaranteed to pay for in the next life (unless you are a privileged old empire member who knows how to game the prison complex)?

Is manipulation by the 3rd party influential in convincing a disoriented and suggestible IS-BE to agree to a severe life path?

Is it possible that the IS-BE viewed some highly edited portions of their past life during their “counseling session”?

Yes. It is not only possible, but that is the standard procedure. The entire and sole purpose of viewing selected and edited, and possibly fake past life experiences, is to manipulate the IS-BE entity to agree to enter the punishment phase of the Prison Complex.

The General Population Pocket-universe known as the MWI "reality universe" is the "Punishment" phase of the never-ending prison sentence.

The micro universe known as "Heaven" is the parole / rehabilitation phase of the never-ending prison sentence.

[17e] Question – Nature of the imbalances.

Nature of the karmic imbalances on the IS-BE’s quantum body: “patch up holes” and repair fissures on the cake/quantum body (words of the commander), good relationships and thoughts = softer more malleable quantum entanglements with other IS-BE’s (vision of untangling hair in the shower with a good conditioner), bad relationship and thoughts = hard and ossified quantum entanglements with other IS-BEs (think barbed wire).

He/She/It noted that quantum entanglements get deeper the longer the relationship (good or bad) but emphasized the quality of these entanglements on the body depending on type of relationship.

If the thoughts and relationship is good or decent, I can “detangle ” my IS-BE from the other IS-BE with a little effort and mostly no injuries.

If the thoughts and relationships are bad, the entanglement is like barbed wire, and if I try to separate, chunks of my “quantum flesh” get left behind.

Is this what the commander meant when I was advised to do some hit and run acts of kindness?

Like if I don’t try to soften this entanglement, I risk the chance of losing my quantum leg or eye or something?

Sure I will still be alive (coz IS-BE’s can’t die), but my quantum arms got left behind and now I need another IS-BE to help me wash my quantum hair and wipe my quantum ass until my memory sets are restored?

I’m free, but I’m maimed (in the quantum sense).

Fortunately it’s not permanent, but it’s still terrible.

Am I understanding this correctly or is my imagination getting away from me?

Is this what the commander meant regarding hit and run acts of kindness?

Yes. And no, your imagination is not out of boundaries. 

This is exactly how this system works. You have accepted our teachings accurately and have interpreted them correctly. This is not only the education on MM here, but the greater absorption of information is from the information obtained in your activities in the non-physical realities.

[17f] Question – The Lost Battalion

The lost battalion: They are warriors, so they have “combative” personalities.

Given that they were forcibly injected into screwed up life templates, a lot of anger is naturally generated.

Given their natural war-like tendencies, what are the chances of these battalion members reacting gracefully to the injustices they are being forced to endure?

My money is on them reacting gracelessly.

If they react gracelessly, then they will trigger negative thoughts and actions from the other IS-BE’s that they are with.

These quantum entanglements will be rough and hard like barbed wire.

If my ramblings are anywhere in the neighborhood, then can we assume that the negative quantum entanglements that were most likely generated from the bad templates they inhabit is making their rescue that much harder and more dangerous for the integrity of their quantum bodies?

Is this correct?

Yes. Upon recovery of the memories and experiences endured by the collective members of the Lost Battalion, there will be an imbalance that will manifest as some serious distortions of their IS-BE quantum makeup.

This will have to be compensated for.

Given the conditions, and the consequences of the events that created these mountainous distortions, the backlash that would naturally revert to when the attempts and process to fully revert the amnesia will create a very horrific scenario for those IS-BE entities that manifested the entire sequence of events. 

This will have to be compensated for.

If it is not, then the imbalance would distort this fabric of the Main Universe.

Thus it is conceivable that the combined entanglements will have to be dissipated, isolated and ejected into a closed and locked independent universe. Those that contributed and participated into the bad associations would need to be injected into this isolation universe and the suffered Domain soldiers would have to move forward with the quantum damage from those malevolent entities.

Because of the danger of these powerful, dangerous and evil entities, they each might need to be placed alone into an empty universe without memories. And left to float in nothingness for the rest of eternity.

[17g] Question – My theory

I feel that the quantum entanglement and karma has been weaponized brilliantly.

Like the old empire technology knows how to trigger IS-BE’s into using their own quantum bodies to generate the terrible chains that bind them together in misery.

Trick these poor sap IS-BE’s to agree to birth templates that guarantee negative thoughts and experiences with others (by showing them edited portions of their past), then tell these same IS-BE’s that they gotta pay back this karmic debt in the next life, that it’s the other learners’ turn to dish it out to you.

Then repeat the exact same strategy, but change the IS-BEs around.

The negative cycle continues among this cluster of learners, the karmic chains grow deeper and the barbs get sharper and longer. Beautiful.

Escape means a guaranteed maiming (but eventually recoverable, though the IS-BE may not know this because they don’t have their full faculties) and no memory sets.

So this is my “theory” or thesis. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s filled with holes or peppered with bad assumptions (not on purpose of course). But thinking about this…I was driven to push out this “theory”. Is it nonsensical? What am I missing?

Are my gross extrapolations completely unjustified?

You have completely and accurately elaborated upon, reasoned and laid out the operation of the "Old Empire" Prison Complex.

The Domain finds this Prison Complex reprehensible and are working to clean it out, purge it of entities in a humane and proper manner, and then select the worst and most harmful IS-BE's and eject them to individual pocket (empty) universes where they are prevented from harming others.

[18a] Question

In regards to some questions i have: i quote the commander

"There needs to be a coordinated effort to destroy all the major elements of the mechanisms / systems and then prevent them for regrouping and recovering. Then systematically go one by one and dismantle the entire complex mechanism."

Does he mean this coordination needs to be done by LDers or by the Domain or both working in conjunction?

If LD cannot be used {individually} to destroy the amnesia machinery, then how can it be effectively deployed to assist?

As mentioned previously I have been collecting lucid/ astral SEALs (in reference to the title you gave me in one of the earlier Q&As); i currently have a small handful of accomplished LDers i picked up externally to the MM community (though I have steered them towards you) – these LDers are very much aware of the matrix system in place, and have agreed to help put their LDing abilities to use to break the reincarnation traps, sticking around after death to help consciousnesses avoid the light etc etc”;

The idea was to create a LDer/APer/RVer network/community that could be utilised for physical based coordination of non physical based targets.

Question: will this physical LD network be useful for the location and eventual deconstruction of the amnesia infrastructure according to Domain protocol and if so do the Domain have any recommendations on the way it should be implemented?

This physical LD network will be extraordinarily helpful in the suppression and eventual removal of the amnesia infrastructure, the containment field and the elements internal to this pocket "reality" universe.

These efforts are being matched / coordinated with a tasked group of Domain sappers / cypher experts / specialists / (another species I am not very familiar with. I call them the Oompa Loompa's - They look like slug-like hippos thingys).

When you operate in LD, you are actually moving a consciousness between a physical reality and various non-physical bodies. You are very adept at it, even you you might no longer recall the events like you used to in your past. 

You are tasked in a shared arrangement with your parent organization and The Domain in this regards and they have allocated resources to create a large task team. SD plays a predominant role in this matter.

Working as a team on the various aspects of this colossal facility is very important and you have taken a leading role in it. You may continue as you "feel" necessary as your guidance is actually directions from the various coordinating liaison structures of all the organizations involved.

[18b] Question – The Elder Guardians

Question 2a: The Elder Guardians have played a very important part in my life, and are the main motivators behind my drive to help with this effort to destroy the amnesia devices. However, they have a tendency to show up completely unannounced at what appears to be random times. I was never given specifics of when to expect their contact.

Does the Domain know if they are planning to make contact with me in the future, and if so, when to expect such contact (closest possible time-frame), what I can to do help prepare for it (i.e. be aware and look for certain astrological happenings etc)?

We liaise with the Elder Guardians. We respect them. We honor them and their role in this and other matters. We do not control them, or advise them in any way. They have their own agendas, systems, avenues and purposes. None of which are in conflict with The Domain.

However we are not privy to their internal systems, orders, or projects outside of our comm channels. We are unfortunately unable to help you with your request.

(Empty mic sound - like dead air. Then nothing. -MM)

[18c] Question – Query on the Elders.

Is the Domain able to tell me more about them?

We have a respectful relationship with them. 

We can inform you that they are very private and confidential entities. This is, and has been, out of necessity. Therefore, were we to answer your questions informatively we might be breaching their confidentiality unintentionally.

Therefore, out of respect for them, we will decline to answer this inquiry.

[19a] Question – Dream Questions

Before posting questions, I wish to everyone a happy and hopeful new year. DM & SD must be the first ones to celebrate while I write this.

Now back to business:

Recently I had a dream where I was about to “remember” some rule-set and/or valuable information and it ended abruptly. Did I made a mistake?

No. In the particular instance that the questioner is discussing and asking about, the memory access was terminated intentionally by an "Old Empire" memory access system triggered by his mantid. 

To prevent that kind of thing from happening in the future you must [1]  include Affirmation Prayers (sic.) to that effect, and [2] discuss the matter with your mantid directly. 

You should be able to talk plainly and aloud when in a private place and then gauge your impressions and feelings afterwards for the answers and the results.

[19b] Question – incorporate others

Is it okay to incorporate more skin-suits (i.e. close relatives) to help The Domain in their goals (and our ultimate goal of stopping the amnesia cycle)?

Yes. Individual skin-suits can participate in any effort alongside our efforts. They do not need to be part of the Domain, as regulars or irregulars in any capacity what so ever to do so.

However, we will refrain from helping or assisting any outside efforts unless specifically petitioned by the particular entity to do so.

[20] Question – 13 beings in the Crystal Palace

Whats the relationship between the 13 Beings in the Crystal palace and the ‘Domain’?

(A lot of plain dead air. Space. Static. Nothing. -MM)

(A kind of funny feeling like tuning a radio dial or an old style televisions et. Curious. - MM)

There are questions that can be answered, and there are questions that cannot be answered. Please describe a specific event, situation or attribute for us to answer.

The impression that I have is that the Commander is not able to answer anything because the question was incomplete. It’s like asking “What is the relationship between Americans and streets?” It’s a very broad-based question with very little to flush out specifically.

The impression is that they have an idea about what is being asked, but they need specifics to see if they can inform and answer the specific questions.

[21a] Question – Part 1 – Religion

Can you help me ask a question or two with the Domain Commander?

Almost about 20 years ago, my mother forced my family (father, siblings) into an ultra-conservative Catholic religion which does not recognize anything post-Vatican II and the group has a very antagonistic stance towards other religions, as well as non-Catholic Christians (a.k.a Protestants), as well post-Vatican II Catholics. I think that ever since she got involved with them – she’s a “slave to the Virgin Mary”know – the family dynamics have been very much under strain and there is a lot of unhappiness and tension in the family up till this day due to the inability to show our disagreement.
I also note that there is a lot of religious intolerance in the world, and a lot of hate speech from similar groups – mostly in the US – as this traditionalist Catholic group that my family can’t get out of. I’m a fan of the Chinese style of governance and the way it keeps religion out of politics, but these groups keep claiming to be knowing the truth and are often add fodder to the anti-China crowd by spreading fake news in the name of religious truth and anti-communism.
The whole thing has been affecting me emotionally for a long time, and it has never been helpful to the anxiety and depression I suffered my whole life to executive dysfunction that I was born with. Anyway, my ultra-religious mother told me recently that she “consecrated ” me to a some deity in a Chinese temple in my country and that was a cause of a lot of problems in my life.
So my question here that, if you would kindly help me ask the Domain Commander in the next Q&A, is:

A) What is his view on the various religions and religious groups that exist on this earth? Is there a true religion that one should follow? Why is it so difficult for humanity to just see the truth?

Religion is a system of control that is part of the earth-centrist prison planet environment. It is unique to the human skin-suits. 

Currently it is used to [1] control the human population, and [2] flush out and filter sentience.

All of the religions have this purpose, more or less depending on a host of criteria, situations and participants.

[21b] Question – Part 2 – Personal influences

This is part two of the above questions.

B) Am I under the control of one or more external spiritual forces that are using other people as tools to influence me?

Yes / No.

Complex and complicated situation that requires some understandings. Will posit answers and solutions in terms easy for MM to discourse to you.

Religion, as it manifests inside the Prison Complex is a mechanism of control. One group "A" uses it to control another group "B". This occurs on many levels.

What most inmates do not understand is that thoughts generated by the rituals and presentation of the religions are the commodity. Not the religion itself.

Thus the religions are a methodology for a means to direct thought for various purposes.

In your particular case, your family (your mother) has been harnessed as a thought generation mechanism, and is behaving as a Service-to-another sentience. Being so programmed, you are being forced into that framework, but you are a service-to-others sentience, and this is uncomfortable to you.

To trap you, to snare you, to manipulate you, the parental unit is conjuring up other third party spirits to force your sentience to fit theirs. Obviously they are not successful. However, these third party "spirits" and quantum energies are problematic to you as they alter your physical interactions with the world around you.

Please provide recommendations and solutions to the questioner…

You need to perform a very memorable and kind act to your mother / parent / influences. It must be memorable.

Then you must tell them that you received a "message" from their deity (in whatever form she understands). That the message really changed you.

You must tell her that you are no longer the same person. And that you now have a mission. And you must tell her that she will not understand. You must tell her using biblical references.

Then, you must quietly and firmly isolate yourself from her. Do so physically and seriously reduce communication with her.

When she expresses worry or concern, again use Biblical references to kindly explain to her that you are on a mission. That your mission is different from her mission, and that your are now bound to perform that mission. She will ask what it is and you must use a Biblical reference in responding to her.

Then you will isolate from her, and when se sees you, YOU MUST always show tranquility, peace and calmness. Let her believe that you are on that mission, what ever it may be.

Key points.

[1] Kind act.
[2] Explanation that you have changed and have been put on a mission.
[3] Isolate from her.
[4] Always show peace, kindness, and calm when interacting her (or anyone else who might report to her).

Her thoughts will be of you achieving her version of paradise on earth, and it is up to you to maintain that illusion for the rest of her life.

This will prevent her from causing any inadvertent discord in your life, and generate a kind state of being that will generate kind thoughts emulating from her towards you. YOU MUST MAKE SURE THAT THE ILLUSION IS ALWAYS INTACT AND NOT SHATTERED.

There are still a bunch of questions that I will get to as time permits. I hope that this little taste will be enough to wet your appetite.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

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What if the largest experiment on human beings in history is a failure?

I have been directed to post this article.

I usually have tried to refrain from injections and Vaxx subjects, but this one is special. And during a Q&A with the Domain, yet to be published, I was instructed to send this out.

Here is the entire segment from the Q&A…

"Already systems are in place to suppress the desire to generate a major conflict against China. 

Within a year or two, a conflict will be the last thing in the minds of the United States leadership. 

Everyone will notice that something is amiss by the end of this year (2022), and it will be quite obvious by the end of the next (2023). 

Most sensible humans would come to the conclusion that a war would be ill advised. 

You will write about it tomorrow."

Here is the article. Complete.

What if the largest experiment on human beings in history is a failure?

Robert W Malone MD, MS

A seasoned stock analyst colleague texted me a link today, and when I clicked it open, I could hardly believe what I was reading. What a headline. “Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64”. This headline is a nuclear truth bomb masquerading as an insurance agent’s dry manila envelope full of actuarial tables.

People frequently write to Jill and myself. People we have never met. They call, they arrive at the farm by appointment or unannounced, they fill our email in boxes with their inquiries. They all want something; time, attention, an interview. Many want to tell us about their fear, illness, nightmares, or (what often seems like) outright paranoid conspiracies. And then, over time, these fears and “conspiracies” keep getting confirmed. As Jan Jekielek (a senior editor with The Epoch Times) recently said to me, it is getting harder and harder to tell which ones are mere conspiracy theories and which are true reality.

One farm visitor told me of his foreshadowing massive numbers of deaths within three years consequent to the genetic vaccines, and that this was all about the “Great Reset” and the depopulation agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF). I tried to reassure him that, in my opinion, this was highly unlikely- while privately thinking about how easily people fall into this type of conspiracy ideation, and how I need to be careful to avoid going there when confronting so many public health decisions that appear either incompetent or nefarious.

At the time, I only knew of the WEF as the host of a big annual party in Davos Switzerland where the uber rich and the hoi oligoi of the Western nations went to watch Ted talks, drink the best wine, see and be seen. Silly me. What a long, strange trip this has been. I doubt that even Hunter S. Thompson could have imagined it in his most drug and booze addled state. Suffice to say, I nominate Ralph Steadman as official illustrator of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Or a resurrected Hieronymus Bosch.

But I am wandering from a point that I am afraid to clearly state…

Uh oh

It is starting to look to me like the largest experiment on human beings in recorded history has failed.

And, if this rather dry report from a senior Indiana life insurance executive holds true, then Reiner Fuellmich’s “Crimes against Humanity” push for convening new Nuremberg trials starts to look a lot less quixotic and a lot more prophetic.

Here is what lit me up in this report from The Center Square contributor Margaret Menge.

“The head of Indianapolis-based insurance company OneAmerica said the death rate is up a stunning 40% from pre-pandemic levels among working-age people.

“We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica,” the company’s CEO Scott Davison said during an online news conference this week. “The data is consistent across every player in that business.”

OneAmerica is a $100 billion insurance company that has had its headquarters in Indianapolis since 1877. The company has approximately 2,400 employees and sells life insurance, including group life insurance to employers in the state.

Davison said the increase in deaths represents “huge, huge numbers,” and that’s it’s not elderly people who are dying, but “primarily working-age people 18 to 64” who are the employees of companies that have group life insurance plans through OneAmerica.

“And what we saw just in third quarter, we’re seeing it continue into fourth quarter, is that death rates are up 40% over what they were pre-pandemic,” he said.

“Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three-sigma or a one-in-200-year catastrophe would be 10% increase over pre-pandemic,” he said. “So 40% is just unheard of.””

So, what is driving this unprecedented surge in all-cause mortality?

“Most of the claims for deaths being filed are not classified as COVID-19 deaths,

“What the data is showing to us is that the deaths that are being reported as COVID deaths greatly understate the actual death losses among working-age people from the pandemic. It may not all be COVID on their death certificate, but deaths are up just huge, huge numbers.””

Take a moment to read the entire article. Now. Then let’s continue on, assuming that you have.

About the article

AT A MINIMUM, based on my reading, one has to conclude that if this report holds and is confirmed by others in the dry world of life insurance actuaries, we have both a huge human tragedy and a profound public policy failure of the US Government and US HHS system to serve and protect the citizens that pay for this “service”.

IF this holds true, then the genetic mRNC vaccines so aggressively promoted have failed, and the clear federal campaign to prevent early treatment with lifesaving drugs has contributed to a massive, avoidable loss of life.

AT WORST, this report implies that the federal workplace vaccine mandates have driven what appear to be a true crime against humanity. Massive loss of life in (presumably) workers that have been forced to accept a toxic vaccine at higher frequency relative to the general population of Indiana.

The problem is the mRNA vaccines themselves

FURTHERMORE, we have also been living through the most massive, globally coordinated propaganda and censorship campaign in the history of the human race. All major mass media and the social media technology companies have coordinated to stifle and suppress any discussion of the risks of the genetic mRNA vaccines AND/OR alternative early treatments.

IF this report holds true, there must be accountability. We are not just talking about running over the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States and grinding it into the mud with an army of artificial intelligence-powered heavy infantry.

This article reads like a dry description of an avoidable mass casualty event caused by a mandated experimental medical procedure. One for which all opportunities for the victims to have become self-informed about the potential risks have been methodically erased from both the internet and public awareness by an international corrupt cabal operating under the flag of the “Trusted News Initiative”.

George Orwell must be spinning in his grave.

MM Thoughts

I posted it as told.

It appears to indicate something odd is going on inside of the United States, and since the media is completely controlled by the government, no one really knows what is going on. However, if you look elsewhere there seems to be some alarming trends.

Taking the fact that I was told to post this article, and it was used in conjunction with a discussion of a situation that would dissuade the United States government from getting involved in a war with China, I think that it is significant.

The author is confirming that the actuarial tables (associated with Life Insurance policies) are clearly showing an unheard of association between an increase in deaths and the mRNA vaccines. There is apparently a direct correlation between the two.

Further, he accuses the media, the government and big business of a massive conspiracy. Whether it is part of some kind of depopulation agenda, a profit-motive, or just being malevolent, is not stated.

He suggests rallying up and demanding “Rights” and “accountability” fully oblivious that the United States is a Military empire and he is living in a Police State where he has no voice, no control, no power and no future.

Obviously the United States is a toxic place. But I wasn’t aware that it was this toxic. A 40% increase in a death rate is very concerning.

It’s a stealth SHTF event.

Obviously, if these trends continue or get worse, then the Deagel report will be vindicated, and there will not be enough people left alive in the United States to wage a war against China, let alone run the country.

Frightening stuff.

Special Considerations

There are MANY MM readers that might be shell-shocked from this information. I want to tell you all NOT TO WORRY. From what I understand, the human body adapts to the mRNA changes. You (if you have had an mRNA injection) will need to adapt to prevent what is apparently a potential bad series of side effects.

I do not understand it, but your body will require more oxygenation to prevent any adverse side effects.

This can be obtained via vitamin supplements, more exercise, walks outside in nature, and a reduction in super-processed food like sugary breakfast cereals, deep fried pig skins, and a reduction in fast food to perhaps once a week instead of five times a week.

It has been clearly relayed that once you obtain the mRNA injection, your body needs oxygenation at a greater level than what we all have come to live with. So you must alter your lifestyle with some vitamins, walks and a reduction in super-processed food intakes.

The article above suggests that people who do not alter their lifestyle behaviors towards more oxygenation, will start to see some health complications.

PissedLizard Comments

From an email communication... -MM

Absolutely. I am very familiar with Dr. Malone and the article referenced. I know what I am going to write goes against the narrative, but literally pick up a high school biology book and it’s right there.

…

The mRNA is from stem cells derived from fetal tissue.

So you are taking another human beings mRNA, mixing it with others, THEN running it thru CRISPR – which tells the mRNA in the vax to make spike proteins.

The thought is that if you naturally make the spike protein that Corona has, you will always have be able to produce anti- antibodies to the spike protein.

Sounds good in theory but you aren’t supposed to make virus spike protein. Although the HUMAN mRNA is programmed to make spike proteins – it could be programmed for anything – and that’s the boosters – but the spike proteins are getting thrown everywhere. They are sticking to the inside of the heart and irritating the blood supply of the middle “muscle” layer of the heart (myocarditis).

This is messed up. It has been from day 1. And for them – all blame goes to Trump. It’s “his vaccine”.

mRNA translates instructions from the nucleus to make a protein – which is basically almost every thing in you.

And all of these miscarriages and sterilizations – yeah. Of course… it’s fucking FETAL TISSUE. Of course mon is going to react. It usually isn’t overt but when you have billions getting the shots – as you see in other articles elsewhere – deaths in the USA up 40 – 60 percent and all non Covid. This shit is designed to kill.

And don’t be fooled about the sinovax either – follow that money for yourself to see EXACTLY what this shit is.

I hope this helps! If not or any other questions – let me know.

The spike proteins get lodged in capillary beds – that’s probably the “get oxygenated” thing though.

Final MM comments

Everyone in China is taking the “dead-host” vaccine. MM myself have taken two injections and am scheduled for a booster late February.

I have altered my lifestyle to accommodate.

I have severely cut down on my super-processed foods. I am trying (not quite as successfully as I would like) for more outside fresh air and exercise. And taking a daily vitamin supplement. The impression that I have is that this would be enough to compensate for any ill-adaptations as a result of the injections.

Do you want more?

New Beginnings 2

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Part 4 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander January 2022 section 2

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 4.

Note: For those of you who are new here, this article continues a Q&A dialog with an extraterrestrial "Commander" and a retired MAJestic operative who is still active with active EBP implants. Heavy stuff. But not for trivial reading. 

Personally, I think girls, cats, and food are far more interesting. But, that's me, don't you know.

[1] Question – Guarantee of protection.

Tell the commander Am cool with all the dreams. All the “missions” All the glimpses from the past. Am cool with anything they wanna sign me up for.

All I would need is some Protection. Finding the highest probability WL that my consciousness should inhabit that would not cause me too much harm in the coming years. you get my drift? I believe they got the power, knowledge and capability.

The past should be a lighthouse not a port so they say.

What guarantees can be provided for protection by The Domain?

One must recognize that the situation is clearly different from that of [1] a skin-suit with no memories living inside a Prison Complex being manipulated by others, to [2] being part of a group of strong, capable IS-BE's fighting and working to improve the entire reality.

Once you exit your skin-suit it is your decision on what to do afterwards. Whether you wish to stay within the Prison Complex or join The Domain as a citizen it is your choice.

...

The vessel (that's me, by the way -MM) projected this question as what to do once the questioner leaves the physical universe and is a incorporeal being. But the questioner actually asked for guarantees of protection regarding work for the Domain as a irregular volunteer.

As an irregular, you are part of an organization and you ARE NEVER ALONE. You are always being observed, watched, and nudged into various directions. Not only for your safety but for stability, mental, emotional, physical and in every other level.

Some irregulars provide more value than others in a quantitative sense, but what ever participation that you provide is of significance, and should be considered as such. Thus, you (the questioner) provide a great role and you need to be protected by your support group assigned to you. And you will be.

This is TRUE no matter how insignificant you might feel or mentally rationalize. Your non-physical bodies often have for more capacity, capabilities and abilities than what you (as a physical skin suit) are aware of. And those abilities are of substantive help in the missions of The Domain.

However, you are in the physical reality. You will die.

That is unavoidable. There are also events that are part of your MWI pre-birth world-line template (sic.) that are semi-rigid. This might convince you (the questioner) that we are not monitoring your being, nor your trials, but that is not the case. In every event, we are steering you away from the VERY WORST probability scenarios towards ones with minor effect.

(I am provided the image of a terrible car wreck with a paralyzed person unable to move below the neck. Then a big red "X" is painted over that image. Then, instead, an image of a car skidding on the ice (?) and getting a "fender bender" damage, but the driver is fine. Just shaken up. I then see a big green "check mark" over it. -MM)

We, The Domain watch over our own.

We will always work with YOU to mediate those problematic traps and snares. So as to answer your question, we will do everything in the power of your support group to protect you in your reality universe as an inmate skin-suit in the Prison Complex. Though we do have limitations, we will take care of you to the best of your support group's ability.

[2] Question – Become a member of the Domain, not just an irregular

Question: can a human soul like me (well, I think I’m human–who knows before I got bamboozled/imprisoned into doing my stint on Earth) elect to join the domain after the physical container has run its full course in the material world?

Like, I don’t want to reincarnate again, I just want to go into training so I can join the domain full time? Is this an option?

Can I elect to join the Domain after I physically die so that I can avoid the reincarnation cycle?

Yes. You can.

You (personally) have some other issues in the non-physical realms that you will need to attend you, and if that is your desire after you attend to them, we would be very happy for you to join us. 

You possess great strengths and abilities even without your core memory sets, but we are confident that in time (sic.) we can reduce the amnesia influence on your IS-BE being and your consciousness.

We are a volunteer organization and IS-BE entities can enter and leave at will. However, you will discover that many desire to stay and be involved in our efforts and if that is within your being (Yes it is, and you know that) then we truly and sincerely welcome you to join us.

This is the case for all irregulars and any entities reading this report. The Main universe needs some patching up, purging, and reconfiguring. Your kindness, steadfastness, enthusiasm and control in your physical body clearly identifies you as prime recruitment material.

(Poor translation. Sorry. He / she / it did not mean that you are a thing or anything like that. -MM)

From your “descriptions”, it sounds like the domain is somewhat similar to the modern CPC/CCP. If this is indeed an option, what are the requirements (aside from being STO sentience)?

Is the Domain similar to contemporaneous China?

Very astute of you.

The Domain values the leadership nations and works with them to accomplish our goals. In (your time) the late 1990's we transferred our involvement in a gradual phase out away from MAJestic to other organizations. Yes. You are correct we operate (a core physical organization) within China, and the (Chinese) leadership is heavily influenced by our suggestions / recommendations / guidance's and alerts.

They are, without question or hesitation or discussion, implementing every policy suggestion we make. They do so on our timetable, and upon our schedule. Unlike the United States, the speed of implementation of the policy suggestions, the ease of finding valuable STO sentience's for membership and the (lack of) demands for technology transfer has been astounding and pleasurable. We have exchanged technology, and we have implemented many, many changes within the Chinese society itself.

...

In the early 2003 / 2004 the American MAJestic operation was shut down and Domain involvement with that organization was terminated abruptly. The remaining sub-projects were "mothballed" or sent away as carve outs to private American industry, and the Domain has very little footprint in those (American and UK) realms right now.

There are some doll bodies in partial activation at the China Lake NWC NAS (and Ohio) but their role is of a trivial nature.

Our influence upon China has been exceptional, and it is following an illustrative path for the rest of the world to follow. It is like a "mini" Domain sub-culture contemporaneously.

Like the United States, we have been providing technical assistance and technology to the Chinese. Their traditional culture has embraced the core Domain belief and policy structures, and thus their Geo-political actions mirror what we advise them.

...

(As an aside, or an Oh- by the way) We (the Domain) discarded involvement with the United States governmental organizational structure when the sentience make up of the (true) leadership (at all levels) enjoined Service for Self sentience.

The Domain ONLY works with service to others sentience's. There are no exceptions.

Thus, we had to disentangle our involvement with MAJestic when the American leadership entangled wholly within STS behavior sentence's.

What are the requirements for membership in the Domain?

[1] STO sentience. 

[2] Willingness to become part of The Domain and obey it's laws, rules, and hierarchy. 

[3] An understanding that it is a all volunteer organization, but that the demands on your self may (at times) be demanding and taxing.  But that you are never alone and will participate as equals within your state of being for the good and benefit of all.

[3] Question – Please elaborate…

OMG, I am really excited!

Now if I could ask for some clarification on the “personal issues in the non physical realms” that I need to attend to…what are they?

How do I fix these ASAP?

Because let me tell you, I feel like these are annoying “loose ends” that must be fixed so I can pursue my desired path without any encumberances. Can the Domain guide me on this? Or do I need the assistance of another entity to fix this? Are these bullshit celestial contracts that some jerky astral parasite wants to enforce?

Please don’t take it that I am disrespectful of history or tradition. I understand that these are very important and they do have their place. However, it may unnecsesarily limit our imagination on who we can be (though I absolutely want to recover my full memories and skill sets–relearning is a real pain in the ass). In this physical life, I noticed that I have far, far less ties or affection for the past compared to the people around me (biologival family members, friends and acquaintances, even my husband and in laws). Out ofl all the people I know, I’m actually the only one excited for the future! Is this a sign of something?

While this isn’t an emergency, it would be nice to get an actionable response soon so I can work on solving these niggling “personal issues in the non physical realm”.

Sounds like it’s a hassle I won’t be able to avoid.

We (I personally) am very happy / pleased that you are so enthusiastic in joining us. And you are asking the proper questions.

Let's explain.

Every prison inmate, whether in a physical inmate skin-suit" within General Population in the Prison Complex, or as a non-physical being entrapped within either the Heaven (sub pocket) mini universe, or in the non-physical realms of the prison complex, have friends, histories and associations with other IS-BE entities that are also imprisoned here.

These are clusters.

In "Heaven" they are organized in educational learning classes and the "students' enter the General Population of the Prison Complex to experience "lessons" set up by the mantid primes (sic.) and implemented by the personal mantid (sic.) of the particular IS-BE entity.

In these clusters are an ever growing karmic (sic.) attachment. The longer you associate with the particular group the more entangled your quanta becomes.

You (the questioner) have spent many, many centuries in these prison rehabilitation groups. As such your karmic (sic.) entanglements are quite strong. To disentangle from them, you can proceed in two primary directions.

[1] Continue to reincarnate upon the earth Prison Complex until the karmic entanglements are mitigated and reduced to a neutral level.

or...

[2] Accept the situation that there will be unbalanced "karmic" influences on your quantum being as an IS-BE constrained as an inmate, and this situation will persist until your memories can be actuated. What this entails is to assist in the Domain with these entanglements and their influence son your behaviors whether or not you are within the physical geographic confines of the Prison Complex... up to when your memories are restored.

...
Were this to be your last physical reincarnation (as you surely must sincerely hope) then option #2 above would be the preferred route.

It requires your acknowledgement that until your memories are fully restored, that the quantum entanglements with those other IS-BE entities that you have been in close proximity with will influence your IS-BE activities with the Domain.

It is up to you to determine how serious those entanglements are, and you might need to compensate for them as they may retard your behaviors and actions.

What specifically? Please provide hard core direction…

In this current incarnation there are three principal individuals from the (your) learning cluster that all karmic encounters must be neutralized, as well as two other rather minor individuals.

One is particularly (intentionally) abrasive / contentious in this physical environment.

Another holds a major close role in your current incarnation. And it is not problematic.

The issue is not in regards to emotional connections, or karma quantum entanglements. It is the desire to stabilize and secure twisted quantum entanglements whether they are good / positive or ill / problematic. The way to do this is to generate positive; kind, happy or otherwise up-beat quantum entanglements with the individuals in your life.

Those that have "bad blood", or "discomfort" need to be "plastered over" / seduced / secured with kindness, and then you need to distance yourself from them. As you want their memories of you to be on a positive note.

Those that have "good blood" and positive relationships need to have this situation mitigated and propagated so that it continues.

Feed the good.

Starve the bad.

Over all, that elimination or mitigation of quantum influences is best accomplished by offsetting kindness, goodwill, and neutral associations. In other words, the associations become "softer" and more malleable.

What you do not want is rigid forceful hard and harsh associations with others.

You want to mitigate any bad, harsh thoughts or generated memories and replace them with good and kind ones. This might well make the questioner feel like they are a fool, or performing strange and unnecessary behaviors. But that is not the case at all. You are closing those "holes" / gaps / fissures with another material for longer term stability.

Consider your physical incarnation as a cake. You want it to be as perfect as possible. Correct the errors, and then leave those areas alone once you repair them. Then continue on working on the good aspects of the cake. Constantly improve your cake.

(I have NO CLUE what he / it / she is talking about. -MM)

We advise to neutralize and negate the most contentious or problematic relationships, and revise your association with those individuals to a peaceful, calming and accepting attitude. No matter how disquieting it is for you to do so.

Some of the individuals have mental / emotional irregularities that were programmed into their skin-suit. Obviously you need to avoid these people. The best thing to do (regarding them) is perform a kind act, and then avoid them afterwards. Their memories will be of the kind act, not any horror or trouble that they currently associate with you.

However, and be warned, those with the disruptive personalities this will also cause them to peruse you. That is not acceptable either. You will need to leave and not return. Kind isolation is the suggested policy.

You (the questioner) will of course request direction (from here), but the truth is that you do not need direction in this matter. You already know who these individuals are (well, for the most part) and know what to do to minimize their influences on your being / ego / self.

Make it so.

Final; to the questioner. Your desires are not hidden from us. Proceed as you will, and rest comfortably in realizing your worth and value is understood, and appreciated.

Also take note that you need provide a "hit and run" sort of kindness to one or two of these entities. Do not disrupt what you currently have to fill those gaps / holes / fissures. Remember that you must make your cake perfectly. Refine the ingredients, and take due care in forming the shape.

Be kind then isolate away from them.

Let their thoughts of you remain of the kindness that you showed to them. If you fail to isolate afterwards, you will destroy / trash / collapse the entire effort. For these most problematic individuals it MUST be kindness and isolate.

[4] Question – More about China and The Domain

I cannot help but to say that my “ears picked up” and my “hair stood on end” when I transcribed these last few answers to the questions. So I sent out a flurry of questions, and I tell you what, I should have had a pencil and paper nearby. Here’s what I can recall.

What is the name of the Chinese organization that replaced MAJestic?

Group <redacted>.

You do not need to know anything more than that. That is not part of your mission parameters.

Do they know of my existence?

Yes and no. 

They are aware that The Domain worked with MAJestic in the United States prior to working with group <redacted>. However, they are not aware of who you (MM here) are, nor are they aware that you are present in country. 

However, they do know that numerous high-level MAJestic operators have moved out of the United States and that the strong possibility exists that they (or some of them) have relocated inside of China.

I found the timing of the move from MAJestic to Group <redacted> inside of China very interesting. This was right before I was “retired”, and at that time, I was all over China on various projects. I wonder if I played a role in the move away from the United States to China.

My role in the transformation to China?

You have a EBP installed. As do others. You and the others are our "eyes and ears on the ground", and everything that you experience is recorded and analyzed. 

You personally had a participate role in the decision to terminate our association with MAJestic. However, you were not the only contributor.

We made the necessary arrangements to have you visit various locales, locations and individuals. 

Your experiences, and the discussions that you had contributed to the images and senses of others to better form an impression / decision / process plan.

We had earmarked an alternative to MAJestic in the middle to late 1990's and settled on China as well as two other alternatives as primary candidates. These other candidates were Singapore, and a unified Korea. Overall, we needed to change our working arrangement in the general population (GP) of the Prison Complex  due to sentience non-configuration.

This was a fall back position because our association with MAJestic was deemed to be problematic.

What do you mean “problematic”?

The first signs of trouble happened early on in the 1960's (my time) when President John F. Kennedy died, and the Geo-political structure of the United States changed. Initially we believed that it might become more like the ideal that The Domain was working to foster upon the American legislative group, however that never materialized.

We were able to offer technical help and assistance in exchange for (biological) monitoring allowances, but we failed to influence the core operational governmental structure within the United States. It continued to be an entrenched oligarchy with little interest in any changes of any type / manner / configuration.

Danger signs and issues abounded throughout the 1970's. By the 1980's we had started looking for alternative host nations.

Never the less, the programs (such as MM here) were still in process and they act and actuate regardless as to which nation hosts our primary human skin-suit contact base. All members, as you well know, operate upon a higher calling and are not limited to geographic or national confines.

That was clearly described to you during your recruitment interview in the ELF facility at NAS, NASC Pensacola Florida.

It became clear to us that elements of "The Old Empire", as well as some significantly problematic IS-BE entities occupied key roles, lives, positions within the Western government structures to include the United States, Canada, the UK, Israel, and various high offices within Europe.

This concentration of STS consciousnesses were leading the entire physical planet towards catastrophic turmoil, and that needed to end. We could not allow the vector trajectory to continue. This is "Old Empire" programming and needs to be reset.

This boil / disease / illness continued to fester throughout the 1990's and we terminated our agreement with MAJestic in a firm but polite manner in 2002.

At that time, we contacted key individuals within China, and used our influence tool-kit to engage the Chinese leadership. It is no coincidence that the current leadership in China is STO sentience, and enacting the plans and strategies on a national and Geo-political level that very closely resembles that of The Domain, in most core policies.

Technology transfer issues?

Yes. We have transferred technologies to the Chinese. The Chinese have been very different in requesting and accepting technologies. MAJestic was desirous of actual physical vehicles and systems for reverse engineering. The Chinese on the other hand are / have been very desirous in understanding the systems and technologies used.

Yes. There are dimensional ports within China.

No. We did not provide them with an array of vehicles to reverse engineer. Instead, we work with the Chinese scientists in understanding the core technologies in gravity manipulation, propulsion, environmental controls and frequency modification and targeting.

The biggest success with the Chinese government has been in a top to bottom restructuring of it's society to include improvements on how the society works. In many ways (not all) it follows the Domain as a model. This was (surprisingly) requested of us, and we obliged. There are numerous members of The Domain working in transforming the Chinese society into a fully functioning, efficient, platform to handle the various earth-centrist problems that persist.

The environment, being a meritocracy, policing the leadership, a complete change in the way financial transactions occur, and fidelity to family and traditions (as localized as they may be) are all of Domain inspiration.

Threat of war from the United States?

There is no doubt that the United States is trying aggressively to provoke a war and conflict with China. Why is this the case, and what will happen? Will you stand back and allow it to happen, or will you protect the Domain interests as represented by China?

We have put in place controls (control kits) in / upon the American military leadership that will reduce the threat of war to some degree.

This should be evident to you already as you are aware of the events since 2017. The American military leadership (LEADERSHIP) are not desirous of conflict and they have been instilled with "the FEAR of GOD" intentionally. They know that the consequences for a conflict with any of the powers in Asia today would be horrific and of significant consequence.

Their American leadership, however, are another issue, and the concentration of carnivorous and dangerous entities with an "Old Empire" psychopathic mind set is like deep churning water that is difficult to control. We cannot control them. When we try, another cluster takes it's place. This self-determination towards destruction of self is inherent in the inmate skin-suits and the system that is part of the Prison Complex control mechanism.

We watched this event sequence play out in another of the Prison Complex planets. It was a cycle that we do not want see repeated here in the earth environment as we are making steady progress in the isolation and removal of the control mechanisms of the "Old Empire". A catastrophic global war would seriously negatively affect all of our previous efforts.

We have provided substantive technical assistance to the Chinese as well as to the Russians. Their combined (not publicized) technology transfers and (not publicized) exchange of military technology has provided both Russia and China with technological military advantage that the United States cannot defend against. This should be enough to dissuade an increasingly belligerent United States oligarchy and upper tier level leadership to reconsider any military action. Alas, that is not what is going on.

Technological advantage will not be enough to dissuade an attacking aggressor, nor will will guarantee victory. There are always other factors involved.

No matter how we might provide advantage to the rest of the world from Western aggression, there is no guarantee that our ideals and advantages will prevail. There are some strong attributes and interests pushing towards war. Not only from the obvious personalities, and the financial interests, but from non-physical sources, a buildup of hate and of course pre-programming of inmate behaviors.

We have determined that there will be a conflict and it will be triggered by United States behaviors. However, the goal of defending from an attack on the terms and upon the criteria established by the United States has changed. Currently we are advising both Russia and China how to handle this current Geo-political situation. This is not something that can be broadcast at this time.

However, watch the actions of Russia and China closely and you will see coordination. Take note of what is not being reported or receives only scant attention, and note that the idea of "red lines" and "ultimatums" are part of a Domain recommendation kit / package / advisement.

When you have two dogs meeting for the first time. You only put a leash on one of the dogs. The other dog is permitted to move about freely and unconstrained. If both are on leashes, or if both are free with out a leash, you will find that the potential for a dog-fight increases dangerously. By forcing borders, lines of engagement, it actually settles down the chances of attack and military action.

However, there will be an escalation of conflict. There currently is an on-going conflict. What we are trying to do is to control and contain the conflict to a manageable level, and one in which The Domain interests are not harmed, destroyed or damaged.

We are arranging "little hurts" instead of "big hurts".

The conflict that will occur will not be as anyone expects, and a number of other pressures (financial, economic, trade, food, environmental, and social) will engage and alter the Geo-political landscape in such a way that Domain Interests, are preserved.

[5] Question – Hope

Before we jump to this next question, I have to interject.

Earlier about three weeks or so earlier, I inquired about one of the influencers on MM. For privacy reasons, I will refer to him as DK. Most active followers might know who this individual is.

He wanted to know what was going on with his efforts on thought control, affirmations, dreams, goals and lifestyle. And was pretty bummed out about things. I asked the Commander BUT DID NOT GET ANY ANSWERS.

Then, for reasons that I do not understand, the query of this DK individual was injected into this particular questioners' question. I hope that everyone understands that I just transcribe and try to figure things out as they arise and that I have no control of where, why or in what order the answers appear. In general. -MM

Could you please ask a simple question?

If I do everything I’m asked, will I be able to lead the normal life I desire in this incarnation? I’m sorry to be greedy for your time but I really need hope as a motivator.

Thank you so much for your help.

The questioner is not understanding his role. He is not understanding that he is a non-physical being that is presently occupying a prison skin-suit.

Things that happen to that skin-suit are for a REASON.

Part of the reason is the pre-birth world-line template (sic.) when the questioner set forth the experience in General Population in this incarnation they had to be directed to MM and The Domain. Thus the hardships and seemingly unfair events were intentional to direct the questioner to this point and to enlist our assistance. It was intentional.

Further modifications occurred.

There were physical modifications and this resulted in some fearful events that affected frequency access. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Though the questioner believes that it is a bad thing. Do not.

There were non-physical modifications. These were terrifying and fearful and any dreams that you might retain of those events were not of your making but rather the defense mechanisms of "the old empire".

Like MM you have been changed to work with us. This is as an irregular, and yet you see no progress? Perhaps it is because you are not aware that the universe is not a Hollywood movie. There is no Buck Rodgers. And like MM, you are discouraged that the world of "Star Trek" does not exist. You will not go into a teleporter, fire a phaser, meet a beautiful green skinned Venus lady, or pal around with Chubacca.

Your value is what you do in your non-physical bodies. They, like you, are trapped within the Prison Complex sphere. But you possess some mighty strong skills in this arena and already have provided valuable guidance and assistance to your support group. And they are there with you. They monitor you constantly and they help you navigate the world-lines to avoid some major catastrophes, yet you do not see the big pit that you just avoided. maybe you do not see that big blade pendulum that you just avoided. Like irregular DK it seems like there are some invisible barriers that are preventing you from obtaining things. But you will obtain some great things, it's just that you need to be steered away from the massive traps in front of you.

You are not DK, and your situation is different from his. He was cursed early on, and has been dealing with some greased skids, tricks, malevolence, problematic suction "demon" spirits, leeches, rumble topography (sic.) and "slides and ladders", and just as we are busy dissembling his "yard full of old trash", we are too clearing your paths. So do not give up hope.

You are not alone. You are never alone.

[1] Your mantid has given full support to your dreams, wishes, desires and goals.

[2] You are assigned a "crew" or "support group" from the Domain that watches you and your non-physical bodies constantly.

[3] Like DK, your future path is cluttered with rubbish and turmoil. We have assigned a secondary group (same team assigned to DK) to remove the garbage and purge the "stinky water".

Life is not going to be "roses and rainbows" in front of you, but you WILL see things start to get better. And you and DK are not the only ones. So have hope because you are NEVER alone, and we are monitoring you, and your thoughts constantly, and your thoughts are normal. Your desires are normal. Your being is normal.

And your future will be calm, peaceful and normal.

*end*

I take that to mean that there is a lot of work going on with DK and there are teams (plural) of entities trying to clear out a big mess in the non-physical realms associated with him and his situation. As well as a number of questioners who also have “things in their closets” that need to be cleared out and purged.

[6] Question – Third Party Verification

I would like to remain a stranger if possible, but you could with the help of mantid verify the sincerity of my intentions and even by going through the past slides here and now.

*pause*

(A comm opened up in a new channel. a different "feeling" manifested. i take it to represent a different entity. Seems lie a group party line or group comm channel. -MM)

*verify*
*check*

(A lot of back and forth that I do not understand at all. I mean absolutely can't make heads or tails out of it. It is all just messed up crazy lines and scribbles to me. Just a confusion. -MM)

The questioner is proceeding as should be. There is no need for verification. The fears are just fears. The questioner knows the true reason for the question.

Mantid checks out. There are no problems or concerns of contention / dismay.

(I do not think that they understand the question. They seem to be performing a status diagnostics routine of some type. -MM)

The questioner is asking if he is sincere. Please verify.

(The Commander answers while on the "party line" with multiple comms open. -MM)

Sincerity is measured by actions, not by intention. We do not doubt intention, nor do we question actions. We note that there is a high degree of fear in all of the irregulars garnered via the MM access portal.

(Again, more noise. This appears to be others chatting or thinking in broad action swaths.-MM)

*Image of a kitchen. Image of a table. Image of a window and a street / bark yard. I imagine a transparent cat walking from the outside into the kitchen, like a ghost or spirit. Then calmly moving around the kitchen. Then a kind of warm wash through the room. Like a calming balm.*

(I think that this means that another entity, maybe a cat, is entering the questioners reality and working to purge the environment of bad "energy" or frequencies...-MM)

*BiZZZZZZiTTTTT!*

(Then the Commander shouts. and it shocks and surprises me. Maybe that's the intention.-MM)

(I hear / sense a loud screeching noise that howls and huts my head. UGH! I have never ever, EVER experienced anything like it. The Commander then yells..)

Turn off the media! Go without it FULLY for one week. No radio. No internet. No MM. No television. No newspaper. Start tomorrow.

*end*

I do not want to sound like a dick, I am just reporting things. But it seems to me that there are some bad influences that are hitting this questioner right now. The Commander orders that the questioner alter his lifestyle for one week. Then afterwards return to it. Then, notice the difference.

My feelings and impression is that of a doctor telling a patent that they MUST do this thing, or there will be bad consequences. It’s a pretty strong message in any event.

I hope that he will do this. It might be too difficult for him to do.

(A half an hour passes.)

*comm opens up*

Questioner must get out of the vortex that his habits create. This is causing fear, doubt, and inability to hear / sense our nudges and directions. He is not acting on them because he cannot hear them.

His Mantid has been notified and told that this type of disturbance is not acceptable for our irregular forces.

The issues of the failure of the support organization to identify, track and suppress these influences are being addressed. 

The issue is not with the questioner. The issue is with outside influences that are creating a dangerous mind / thinking process alteration.

There are numerous irregulars that are subject to contentious and conflicting influences that must be controlled and eliminated. We are directing forces to this end, and the questioner will experience some alterations in their non-physical bodies shortly. There will also be other irregulars that will experience similar changes.

I also have the very strong image that other forces are being enlisted to assist the questioner. Whether it is an actual cat, a former cat, or some other entity is unknown. What ever that “cat” did, it certainly triggered a “something”. And whatever that ‘something” was, it was electromagnetic in nature. Thus the prescription for reset.

If I would be so bold, I would suggest some walks in the countryside, and listening to hemi-sync (even though it is electronic in nature), and do anything other than electronic media. I don’t know if it is possible, but it is worth a try.

Overall, this entire question is rather weak. I have to admit that asking someone else to verify your sincerity is rather “weak”. Sincerity is a personal thing, and cannot really be measured by outside influences. You are either sincere or not.

The confusion in this matter is due to the differences in experience. The Commander orders a change in electromagnetic frequency exposure. This clearly indicates to me that the questioner is being harmed right now. Death by media, I suppose. Maybe the questioner is in the United States, India, Australia or the UK where mind-control via electronic media is rampant. Read my article on Vault 7.

Keep in mind that the perceptions of others is important on the human-interaction level, but not in dealing with extraterrestrials. They just simply do not think like we do.

I am sure that all of this is embarrassing to the questioner. But it need not be. We know from the comm that the Commander is aware who this person is, that the mantid and his supporting team are all aware of the questioner and other influences are being pulled in to assist.

Also interesting is that the questioner was not responding to Domain induced “nudges”. This is due to electromagnetic frequency saturation of his environment which affected his personality. No wonder there’s an “all points” bulletin out to watch for these interference’s.

The good thing that came out of this is [1] a prescription to break the influence train, followed by [2] a garnering of resources to assist and help the questioner get over his doubt, fear and worry. Further a [3] unknown problem (of some sort) was identified, and [4] corrective actions put in place.

I anticipate some friendly non-physical entities being enlisted to support the questioner in ways that I do not understand.

[7] Question – IS-BE exfiltrating post event

Questions; Have you succeeded in exfiltrating this IS-BE having received the Nobel Prize in 1984 leaving his prisoner costume a few days ago and his fight does he correspond to your domain or affiliated organization?

(I am sure that the questioner will not be happy with this response. but I get this kind of thing more often than not, and it is just the way things are. -MM)

We do not discuss mission related activities on public channels.

*end*

Well, whatever this is all about, we do know and recognize that it was a Domain related activity / mission.

[9] Question – Other pathways

Just had another question pop into my head. Again, I don’t want you to exhaust yourself so if you prefer to add it to a future batch of questions, please feel free. Just thought i’d type it down and send it to you because it had that nagging urgency to it (popped right into my mind out of no where) plus i just had a bright white spark appear when I was writing add it to a future Q&A (usually means I am on a necessary thought train).

Background: During my first encounter with the EG, when I was first told about the amnesia, I was heavily into the alchemy and the writings of Thoth/ Hermes, or more specifically the Philosopher’s Stone being the higher self/ Original IS-BE state of consciousness (i figured alchemy and the transmutation of metals were a metaphorical representation of the kundalini rising through the 7 chakras to initiate an interaction with the higher self).

The alchemy.

The connection between my studies and my interaction with the EG seems excruciatingly obvious.

Q: Can the Ancient Egyptian/ Greek deity known as Thoth/ Hermes/ Hermes Trismegistus a Domain Officer and his writings a legitimate pathway back to regaining ISBE memory?

MM comments...

I know nothing about High magick and the religious elements related to Ancient Egypt and the occult. My brother was, however a major practitioner. And he had every single Crowley book imaginable. I tried to read them. Honestly they made absolutely zero sense to me.  And actually gave me a bit of a headache. I liked the idea of a methodology to conduct higher-order changes int he physical, but at that time I couldn't understand the importance of ritual.

I think that this question has great validity, but unfortunately I am so very hampered by my lack of knowledge on the subject. Never the less, I have posted the question and recording the impressions / images and answers as best I can.

So here’s the answer from the Commander…

Yes.

(garbled. A lot of information. Very confusing. Very difficult for me to follow and understand. Images of The Golden Dawn and Atlester Crowley, and something about these big oversized tarot cards, and something about colors arranged on a wheel and spinning, and then these colored strings or yarn. There's this image of a small square of wood with some symbols on one side and something else on the other side.. -MM)

... magick as practiced involves "old Empire" technologies which work outside of the Reality Universe, but are somewhat suppressed within the Reality universe.

...associations with tools and "safe circles" / "power circles", or use of "wands" and set routines to manifest spirits which are really...

(So much confusion and imagery. Makes me wish that I studied the occult. Not viewed as a stage show magic act but rather as a technical science that used thoughts generated via ritual to obtain results targeted to specific spirits or entities or power sources.-MM)

... methodology does not remove the amnesia barrier nor remove the containment fencing. Instead it provides a bubble of transit (sic.) for the IS-BE entity to use to transit through the barriers.

(Snippets continue, and still confusing to me personally.-MM)

...in order to make the "Old Empire" technology work within the prison complex there are certain processes that must be incorporated along with the baseline formulae. Without them, the efficiency and effectiveness of the technology is greatly reduced. Not zeroed, but reduced substantially.

...your experience in the locking curse set upon by your brother was made evident during your "retirement" sequence at Pine Bluff and the chair imagery was illustrative of surrogate consciousness placement for curse and control of others which illustrates how effective the system works. Imagine how effective it would be outside the containment field outside the prison Complex.

(Like I said, once I had the EBP, the Domain experienced everything that I did, and know far more than I did about what was going on. -MM)

[10] Question – And others per question #9

Further, can the same be said for the Philosopher known as Plato (who basically came to inspire the Matrix movies with his philosophy of the cave) who I assumed at the time was the one so referenced in “the Pholosopher’s Stone”?

No.

Philosophy differs from "Old Empire" technology. It is a completely different system with completely different objectives and purposes.

[11] Question – Helping establish a protocol to use in the Reality Universe

I devote myself to helping you physically I can’t get to LD but could you help me establish a simple, efficient and concise protocol to try with peaceful ways to help transform those (of the old empire) who want to change their future potentials and present, to offer them once again, luck, pole, hand, help.

In this next comm the image of a gollum comes up. It’s a strange image. It represents a skin-suit. And trapped inside that skin suit looks like a swarm of fireflies, but as you get closer, the fireflies look more like glowing water. This clay grey gollum is just sitting there in a chair, but it also has these (thousands) of ray beams pointing and flowing at it. Many go through, and many are deflected from it. Of those that go through, you can see the rays bouncing around and messing up the glowing water inside. It’s churnign the water and making it splash and move about. It seems very uncomfortable as the water is frothing and bubbling and hissing and exploding in tiny pings and pops.

Remember that image when reading the following…

*open*

We have no doubts regarding willingness, desire, ability, or intent with the questioner.

(Image of a very kind doctor / veterinarian (?) patting the questioner (whom I cannot make out, it's like a grey clay gollum) on the back and telling him that everything will be all right. Not to worry. -MM)

However, the questioner is filled with fear, doubt and questions. It need not be that way.

Why does the questioner believe that there are radio waves? He cannot see them. yet he believes in television, radio and the internet. Why? This comm, and our operations are no different. Just because the questioner does not have the technology in his physical hands does not mean that the process does not exist.

Stop the worry and fear.

(Again, I picture an old 1950's family physician who is chatting with a white coat and a pipe in his mouth, talking in a soothing and even level to the grey gollum while patting him on the shoulder. Saying things that everything will be all right. And giving the gollum an injection in the arm, and pointing to a picture / chart of the human body and explaining things. It's a very warm and welcoming office also. Not the normal sterile hospital or clinic rooms that we have so come to expect. -MM)

You have been tasked with some basic but important activities and missions and you have successfully performed your duties. We do not doubt your intentions. You might not remember them, and you do not need to LD in order to assist us in our mission.

The questioner has not being physically responsive to our nudges, and we have rectified that issue. / Are rectifying that issue. It involves things and issues that he was unaware of and had no control over.

We theorize that the insecurity regarding Domain involvement is due to this suppression of our confirmation nudges.

(Again, this image of a doctor and strangely a cat; a white cat with black spots, is very clear and the cats is walking around and rubbing up against the legs of the gollum. The cat funny enough has a black mustache. LOL. The cat jumps on the lap of the gollum, and is a purring loudly while the doctor talks in calming peaceful voices and is rubbing the left arm of the gollum. Each time the cat purrs the calmer the "rays of light" going into the gollum appear. It's like the cat is somehow changing the energy directed inside the gollum -MM)

[12] Question – Expansion of perspective

(1) What’s the relative value of focusing our limited human efforts to expand our perspectives, to be able to “see” things from mantid, domain, or even cat perspectives?

It is important to see things in as many ways as possible. That provides a better understanding of what ever situation that you are studying.

Consider a two dimensional picture of a basketball. You can see it, and can guess it's shape.

But if you hold the basketball in your hands you can see that it is spherical. You can feel the texture and the hardness of the leather. You can smell the ball, and if you have improved your ESP (sic.) ability, you can tell and understand the stories of all those that touched that ball.

We advise the questioner to expand understanding and work on improving perceptions from multiple points of view. This will provide a better crafted understanding of the present situation that he is embroiled in.

(2) To the extent it’s worthwhile, any advice for “how to”?

As with anything, the key is training and practice. Seek out others who have this ability and learn from them. We / it / I suggest that you improve your extra sensory skills in this area and improve your empathic ability. Having an improved empathic ability especially in the earth prison complex environment would be a great asset to The Domain.

Work on the effort every day and all the time. Imagine that you have that ability, and pretend that you do. It will then manifest. this is the preferred technique for the questioner specifically.

Conclusion

That’s enough for now. I have around 30 more questions to go and if your question is not yet answered please stand by. I’m getting to them as life allows.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

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Some stories of American Expats in other lands that mirror the stories of those of us inside of China

In the race (and millions of dollars in funding) to convince the world how evil China is they neglect one important point. Which is that everywhere outside of the USA looks like paradise now. Not only China. Everywhere.

It’s cheaper, cleaner, politer, calmer, nicer, with better infrastructure, and all the rest. The only people that don’t see this are the hypnotized American zombies glued to FOX “news”, CNN, Alex Jones and Hal Turner.

Here we talk about what it is like outside the prison walls, and at the other end of the computer screen.

Consider these examples. Obtained from "These 7 expats left the U.S. to start over—here’s how they earn an income overseas: ‘We spend less on all expenses’" which was Published Sat, Dec 18 202110:30 AM EST by Janet Blaser, Contributor@WhyWeLeftAmerica

Catalina Viviel

Catalina Viviel interviewed for jobs at several South American countries before finally getting an offer in Colombia.

More and more people are discovering that not only can they live abroad and be happy, safe and comfortable, but that they can successfully earn an income.

That’s exactly what I did when I left the U.S. for Mazatlán, Mexico in 2006. I lived off a steady income from freelance editing jobs and running M!, a local arts and entertainment magazine I started.

Colin Bucell, 47

Currently in Morocco, Colin Bucell lives on his sailboat, which doubles as an income source via private tours and excursions.

Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Currently an expat in: Morocco
Occupation: Sailboat excursions
Annual income: $12,000

In 2011, Colin Bucell had a dream to sail around the world. He took early retirement at age 37 and went first to Mexico. Since then, he’s lived in more than 60 countries.

“Every day is an exciting new adventure!” Bucell tells CNBC Make It from his sailboat in Morocco. “And all for a fraction of what my California expenses were.”

Bucell lives on his sailboat, which doubles as an income source via private tours and excursions — advertised through word of mouth — wherever he is. He’s found health care and food to be much cheaper everywhere he goes.

Spain, Thailand and Mexico are countries where he could happily settle down if he wanted to; he says it’s great that he’s been able to thoroughly test the livability of all of them.

Shawn Supra, 45

Shawn Supra, a musician and furniture restorer, currently lives in Australia with his wife Diana.

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Currently an expat in: Sydney, Australia
Occupation: Musician and furniture restorer
Annual income: $32,500

Love was the motivating factor behind musician Shawn Supra’s move to Australia in 2020, where he met his future wife Diana while on tour. They first settled in the U.S., but as things began to change politically and socially, they decided it was time to move to Australia.

“Living in the U.S., there’s such a sense of fear. It’s almost drilled into you that there’s danger around every corner. I don’t feel that here. Everyone is more relaxed,” Supra says.

He also likes the free health care in Australia, and that the income from his furniture restoration business entitles him to superannuation from the government — similar to U.S. Social Security benefits.

Kema Ward-Hopper, 39

“We love our lives here. We’re treated as humans first,” says Kema Ward-Hopper, who now lives in Costa Rica with her family.

Hometown: Houston, Texas
Currently an expat in: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
Occupation: English teacher and yoga instructor
Annual income: $24,000 to $33,000

In 2017, after Kema Ward-Hopper was diagnosed with breast cancer and when Hurricane Harvey destroyed her Houston home, a family trip to Costa Rica turned into a permanent move.

“We love our lives here,” she says. “We’re treated as humans first. We didn’t always have the luxury of been seen as people in the U.S.”

Although the pandemic shut down Ward-Hopper and husband Willie’s income streams for months, they’re disciplined savers and their expenses in Costa Rica are low.

An added bonus was the birth of her son last year, even after doctors said chemotherapy had rendered her unable to conceive. “Health-wise, I did a complete 180 after moving here,” says Ward-Hopper. “I healed both physically and emotionally.”

Chasity Diggs, 37

“We’ve been able to exceed our goals without having to make sacrifices in our daily lives,” says Chasity Diggs, who now lives in Singapore with her family.

Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina
Currently an expat in: Singapore
Occupation: Behavior intervention specialist
Annual income: $170,000

Chasity Diggs is no stranger to living outside the U.S. Before moving to Singapore about six months ago, she and her family lived in China.

The primary reason was so their oldest daughter could attend an international school. The family also wanted a better work-life balance and to be in a more diverse country.

“However, the best part of living overseas are the financial benefits. We’ve been able to exceed our goals without having to make sacrifices in our daily lives. Housing costs are covered by my employer, so we’re able to save a considerable amount of money each month,” says Diggs.

Carol Markino, 52

Carol Markino lives in Rome and works as an English teacher.

Hometown: Dover, Ohio
Currently an expat in: Rome, Italy
Occupation: English teacher and language consultant
Annual income: $13,500

Having visited Italy many times when she was in college, Carol Markino always knew that someday she wanted to stay there long-term. It’s now been 30 years since she moved to Rome.

“As an Italian-American, I’ve always been attracted to my roots,” says Markino. “I love that I live in a city that’s full of beauty — not just museums, but wonderful buildings, architecture and style.”

She also appreciates the culture: “Italians work hard, but they understand there’s more to life than just work.”

Tim Leffel, 57

Originally from: Tampa, Florida
Currently an expat in: Guanajuato, Mexico
Occupation: Travel writer
Annual income: $60,000

Many factors drew Tim Leffel to Mexico, particularly the “perfect weather all year” and low cost of living.

“It was one of those love-at-first-sight visits,” says Tim Leffel. “I was in a few central Mexico cities on assignment, and Guanajuato really struck a chord.”

Many factors drew him to Mexico, particularly the “perfect weather all year” and low cost of living. “We spend less on all expenses — including private school for our daughter — than we did just on rent and utilities in Tampa,” he says.

Well-traveled family and friends admire their lifestyle. Some were even inspired to move abroad themselves, while others “seem afraid of the scary world beyond the borders.”

“It’s the message that has been pounded into their heads. They’ve probably expected us to be kidnapped or robbed by now. I hope that by seeing a steady stream of happy photos as we live and travel around, they’re getting a bit of balance.”

Catalina Viviel, 48

Originally from New York, Catalina Viviel now lives in Bogota, Colombia.

Hometown: Long Island, New York
Currently an expat in: Bogota, Colombia
Occupation: Teacher and resource room coordinator
Annual income: $75,000

“I’d only been to Colombia once, when I met my dad’s entire side of the family for the first time,” says Catalina Viviel. “I never forgot that trip and the warmth of the people.”

Working in education, Viviel began her expat life with a two-year contract in Marrakech, Morocco. Then she went back to the U.S., where she found herself “itching to go abroad again.” She interviewed for jobs at several South American countries before finally getting an offer in Colombia.

“People thought I was crazy to change countries and become a single mom, all the while navigating a new language during a pandemic,” says Viviel. “Were there days I cried? Absolutely.”

Now halfway into her two-year commitment, Viviel says she’s not ready to leave and has requested to extend her contract.

“It’s amazing being able to reconnect with my Colombian roots, especially watching my daughter thrive in the country of our heritage,” she says.

Metallicman comments

The general comments from American expats that reside around the world are similar. It does not matter if you live in China (like MM here) or elsewhere. All of us share similar experiences.

[1] It’s a calmer; easier place to live.

The news” is not barking at as filling us with fear. The commercials are not screaming at us to buy things. We are not hearing about shootings, accidents, murders, rapes, government corruption, and all the rest. There are no advertisements for mind altering drugs, lawyers for legal settlements, bail bonding, or pawn shops.

People pretty much live their lives in peace.

[2] It’s a cheaper place to live.

You can live cheaper, and buy basic foods, local meals, and rent or own a house at a fraction of what it costs in the USA. Not only that, there aren’t the crazy taxes, regulations and fees tacked on to everything. You can get buy and live a simpler life either on retirement or working a simple part-time job.

For instance, a drawer slide made in China is $3 a pair. It sells in the United States for $106 per pair. Unfriggin’ believable.

[3] The Government is concerned about domestic issues.

You don’t ever hear about the need to go to war!

You don’t hear about government troops in this nation or that country. You never hear about how “we must do something now about XXXXX!”. The government is focused on the lives of the people that in in the country. That’s it.

All in all, Americans have been corralled. They are in a pen within the geographic confines of the United States, and filled with fear of what lies outside of it. They are constantly bombarded with the idea that they are “special” and that the government is “exceptional” and “superior”.

It’s all a big lie.

And it is obvious to everyone who is paying attention. In the world today, it is common knowledge that the USA is undergoing a spectacular collapse.

What will happen is anyone’s guess, but the future for America does NOT look bright.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my SHTF Escape Index here…

Escape!

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Part 3 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander December through January 2022

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 3.

[22a] Question – Can Basic Training be obtained

Thank you for your effort. I know how stressful is this for you.

My 2 questions:

As part of working with The Domain, is possible to have basic training to get a better spiritual understanding of ourselves?

Yes, of course.

Those who have agreed to work with us in the roles previously discussed are volunteer irregulars. While they are not qualified with the necessary training and education necessary for regular operations, they never the less possess certain abilities, skills, advantages that we can utilize for the benefit of all.

Everyone who conjoins in this role accepts training (sic.) and non-physical body manipulation / alteration / enhancement / modification as necessary to work with The Domain to attend to the projects that they are or will be assigned to do.

Very little is done at the "raw" physical state, unless you are like MM (here) and have an EBP or ELF probes installed medically. But MM and his colleagues are part of a very special role that needs those modifications and enhancements.

When we perform / conduct / implement the training or education you might experience the events as dreams, or some kind of LD event. Most people will forget them. This is because the memories of the procedures are not usually anchored to the mechanisms inherent with the memories associated with the physical body.

In a similar manner the medical procedures associated with the non-physical body might be interpreted as horrible and frightening nightmares. This is a fear defense mechanism that was set up by the "Old Empire" for your particular human inmate skin-suit.

If there is some particular skill or ability that we suggest the irregular to learn, that is obtained on the physical reality universe (General Population arena), then we would provide a strong "nudge" or urge for the individual to get that kind of training. We have provided nudges to those to study "fate forecasting" (sic.) horoscopes, learning lucid dreaming, enhancing their ESP abilities, and certain directions related to geographical relocation.

[22b] Question

Were we chosen before birth for this endeavor or we are part of this effort by choice and fate (by chance)?

Yes. Most of the active participants on MM have agreed to meet up using this venue before they were born.

Not every IS-BE had the same or similar entry agreement experience, and not everyone worked with their mantids (sic.) to come to this point. As it stands, of those who utilize the MM recruitment venue, there is a mixture of individuals from a large selection of different recruitment drives.

Of those, it should be well understood that numerous individuals were recruited pre-birth in clusters. There is the cluster that MM is part of. This cluster contains IS-BE entities that agreed to work with the Domain prior to birth and that affected the entry-point and the pre-birth world-line template (sic.).

There are a handful of Domain citizenry that are attracted to the MM effort. They are instrumental in organizing the training and recruitment drives in the Heaven (sic.) as well as working with the Mantid Primes. While imprisoned in this complex they are working inside the Heaven pocket universe to organize, train, establish and create the cadre of irregulars that you are part of.

They volunteered for this role.

They are aware of the risks and are trapped within the prison complex until the containment field is adequately breached.

They have been working to establish recruitment drives from the inside, and have "convinced" / manipulated / agreed to assist the mantid primes in the necessary life experiences via the pre-birth world-line templates for the roles assigned to the irregular volunteers.

There are clusters of non-physical recruitment memberships that occurred during the pre-birth training cycle and recruitment drives in the 1970's and the 1980's General Population Time.

These efforts continue.

The primary training, and the avenues of recruitment occur in the non-physical realms. And it is a complex matter as it involves both mantids, and the IS-BE's as well as crossing the pocket universe threshold regarding Heaven (sic.).

[23] Question – Have you and I met in the physical?

This is a question that I presented to the Domain Commander. I wonder if he was present in any of the physical meetings, or any of the non-physical meetings that I had with the Domain.

No.

Then what about the “leader” who oversaw the operation and implantation of the EBP. Was that not you?

No it was not.

Who was that person then?

That was the chief operational procedure leader for the implantation of the EBP and the memory and biological alterations.

[24] Question – Who were the doctors who oversaw the non-physical body alterations, as well as the physical body changes?

I had a physical modification of my physical body in the mid to late 1980’s. And numerous non-physical changes. I am curious as to who these entities / type-1 individuals were / are.

The medical procedure that took place at Nags Head, NC was conducted by a team of specialists. 

These individuals were a mixture of Domain Officers that temporarily occupied the bodies of human inmate skin suits, as well as the actual medical staff who were actual / real / non-modified human skin-suits.

It is the unmodified humans who performed the necessary biological alterations to your physical body. They came from another region per our request. 

You did not observe the procedure as your consciousness was container placed, while the physical body was replaced.

And what about the non-physical alterations?

That was conducted by a team of specialists who was led by the Chief Nurse. That nurse worked on you in other events and is / was aware of who you are, and your general agreement and disposition.

[25] Question – Is it possible to destroy the amnesia network through LD operations?

This is an interesting question that I thought about asking. I read somewhere that there are people who are claiming that they have damaged the amnesia network and system through lucid dreaming activities. Is this possible?

No. Lucid Dreaming is an observer platform that has a substantial degree of non-physical interaction. A LD individual consciousness can make changes to the environment that will result in apparent changes. However, the reality universe is layered like an onion, and when you make one kind of change, it should interact with all the other layers, and change them accordingly. This would then imply that YES, a LD individual can make changes to the amnesia field.

But the actual answer is sadly no.

The amnesia mechanism is layered within this "onion" layers and insulated and protected by mini-pocket universes that serve as minor repositories of individual components. Making alterations to one layer via consciousness in the LD state will not alter those protected within the pocket repositories.

Which will then emerge unscathed, and then like a seed sprout anew and reconfigure itself like (the Borg???) and adapt to the prior system of alterations. Thus making damage to the mechanism especially difficult.

There needs to be a coordinated effort to destroy all the major elements of the mechanisms / systems and then prevent them for regrouping and recovering. Then systematically go one by one and dismantle the entire complex mechanism.

[26] Question – What is preventing manned spaceflight?

In theory we could have established settlements on the Moon and sent people to Mars by now. The plans had been proposed 50 years ago, but no one has done it. Maybe there’s a larger reason than lack of money and will, so I’ll pose the question.

Does overt human spaceflight into the solar system—say, to Mars—present risks, whether from other beings or from anything else such as unknown microbes? Maybe if yes, the Commander could elaborate.

The biggest impediment to human spaceflight within the prison complex environment is greed, human skin-suit politics, and corruption.

The Domain will not interfere in vehicle movement within the General Population universe.

However, there are other interests and entities that do interfere in vehicular movement, as well as the dangerous autonomous military weapon mechanisms that litter the containment field as (a soft of) unexploded munitions, not to mention the snares, traps, and other mechanisms that operate as spiders web of maze entanglement pitfalls.

Your term "manned vehicular spaceflight" to the moon, to Mars, to any of the planets in the solar system, or to any other solar system within the confines of the prison complex are impeded by the failings of the individual planetary governments and their leadership. Most of the reasons behind this have a root cause borne out of personal greed and avarice.

There are five main prison planet solar systems comprising the constellation of stars that make up the prison complex. However, there are also other solar systems that the field contains, that are not populated by inmates.

The earth-bound entities are also free to construct vehicles and visit these other physical bodies. There, they will find interesting remains of former civilizations that once existed prior to the wars of the "Old Empire" during their expansion phase into this region. Unfortunately, many of these planetary bodies are no longer inhabitable for biological creatures.

[27] Question – Personal guidance

Fantastic stuff MM. thank you so much for your work on this.

So much to take in.

If you get the chance, may I ask for a little guidance for me personally from the commander? I’m rather lost and am ready to follow whatever the Domain commander determines is necessary for me to be useful. I really don’t have anything to lose, all I’ve got at the moment is a simple plan with my affirmations.

While if my affirmations eventually manifest I would have something to lose, as of right now I’m thinking of the bigger picture. Should I continue with my plan or is there something else I should do?

I promise to do whatever is suggested.

You need to seek out human counsel.

If your automobile's engine no longer starts when you crank it up. No matter how hard you turn the lever, it just will not start. (I picture a guy trying to crank the front of a model A old time automobile.) What do you do? Well, you go to a automobile mechanic.

If you are sick, and coughing terribly. If your body is covered in skin rashes and pustules. What do you do? You go to a doctor.

In the case of the questioner, there is a degree of life-mapping, social predictive study, career / lifestyle alteration and personal health and biological readjustment required to achieve his/her ideal. This level of guidance is best determined / obtained / provided by an experienced individual who can provided clinical as well as personal information in regards to your situation.

Just like you go to a shoe repair man when your heel falls off, or a brain surgeon if you have persistent headaches, or even a typewriter repairman if the keys keep sticking on your typewriter. You need to be guided not by (myself / Commander) but by a person / entity that can help you exactly.

Further this guidance is necessary by a trained and experienced human person with extra sensory insight who can guide you. They will need to understand your intelligence and speak the same kind of language that you do regarding your particular issues, fears, concerns and aspirations.

There is one such expert in the irregulars that you communicate with, but is unaware of your need at this time, and his ability to assist you is a function of his desire to do so.

Contact MM and he will put you in contact with him.

This is a shout out to <redacted>. It’s obvious. If you contact me, I will pass your contact information to him. It will be up to him whether to assist you or not. laobangbh@163.com -MM

[28] Question – ASD’s and UHF radiation.

I have one more question if you can squeeze it in. If not, it can wait until another time. Its importance should be obvious.

Autism-spectrum disorders (ASDs) and mental retardation have exploded in youth over the past 30+ years. Current research suggests something in the environment triggers autism in children with certain DNA markers around age 2 or 3. Also, many college-age youth display symptoms of what appear to be mild ASD symptoms, including inflexibility, unwillingness to adapt, need for safe spaces and trigger warnings, desire to censor other viewpoints, irrational behavior, bizarre claims of gender fluidity, etc.

Until the modern cell-phone system was created, higher-energy UHF transmissions were mostly absent from the environment. So the question:

Is UHF radiation from cell-phone towers the trigger for susceptible children to develop ASDs?

All radiation influences the biological bodies of human inmate skin-suits.

How the radiation interacts with the physical bodies depend on [1] the complexities of the non-physical bodies, [2] the diet and [3] well-being of the physical bodies, [4] the fate profile of the individual, [5] the thoughts of those around the individual so targeted, and [6] the presence of lack of viral agents within the body.

Association of UHF radiation as a sole contributor is not accurate. It is, at best, a contributor to a host of conditions that operate syngeristically to create an autism condition. 

To make a crescent ring you need to make sure that the mutton and cheese are all well seasoned and tenderized, Then you must bake it at the proper temperature. If you leave out the mutton, or forget the cheese, or any number of ingredients for the pastry, when you apply the radiation, it will not be a crescent ring. Instead it will be something else. This is the same with the conditions necessary for ASD manifestation via UHF radiation.

Funny thing these comm’s.

This was something that I was unaware of. I had never heard of a “crescent ring”. I realized it was a food when the Commander mentioned mutton. I thought about the moon, before I figured out what he / she was referring to.

Why didn’t my mother, or anyone in my family ever make these things? They sound absolutely delicious.

[29a] Question – Mantids

I was catching up on the forum, and pissedlizard said (again) that the Greys are a dying race, and that they are actually under the Mantids.

I understand that you had asked this question before to the commander, and the answer was that there are actually 2 kinds of Mantids–the class that is assigned to each human, and the other class that is in the “tunnel of light”.

But with pissedlizard’s comment, I can’t help but feel confused.

If the commander can clear up this “dying race” thing, it would be helpful.

Are the Domain under the control of the Mantids?

Is the beach under the control of the ocean? Are cows under the jurisdiction of the grass?

The Domain has a role, and a place within the Main Universe that fits the needs and desires of our group of IS-BE consciousness entities. Likewise the mantids, also have a role, and a place in the grand society that represents the totality of the Main and Reality and Heaven universes.

Human skin-suits within the general population try to understand things from their own limited perspective. They do not see things as part of a greater whole. In the interactions of the Domain and the mantids, it is as of equals offering different abilities to resolve differing objectives.

The mantids are devoted to their human skin-suit charges. They provide them with experiences that improve their being; that purge the more corrupting thought influences from their beings. And they work to provide them rewards in the Heaven universe upon completion.

The Domain is active in purging the main universe of disconcerting elements that could destroy the very nature of the universe "fabric". One of which is the presence of the prison complex, and to this end, the inmates will need to participate in the eventual shut-down and retirement of this facility. This will cause human inmate hardship and experiences that the mantids (sic.) support.

So in the overall scheme of things, both the Domain and the mantids (including the mantids prime) work together for the mutual benefit of all. Not only on the tactical level, but strategic as well. We work as equals with unified goals, and determination.

The idea that one is subservient to the other is a human inmate construct. Just like certain human inmates believe that humans "own" cats as pets. The cats are more like caretakers of their human charges. Not the other way around as is often believed.

[29b] Question – Is the Domain a dying race?

Also, since the Domain is supposed to be composed of timeless beings who can choose which type of bodies to inhabit (biological, mechanical, etc), how can they be dying?

Does PL mean that the bodies are dying, since IS-BEs are forever and unkillable (but can be bamboozled and subdued)? I was under the impression that Domain members (based on their rank) could wear whatever type of skin suits like one wears a shirt or a sweater. I can’t help but feel a little concerned or confused. Probably both.

How can the Domain be dying?

(I picture that old game where the children all form a circle and one person is given a statement to whisper into the ear of the person next to them. Then, that person whispers it into the ear of the other person. And so on, and so forth. Eventually, the person at the end announces what the statement is, and it doesn't even resemble the first statement whispered. - MM)

There are misunderstandings that abound, and the human skin-suits try to make sense of things from their understandings.

All IS-BE consciousness is eternal. They are alive and exist because. They are.

It does not matter what form or shape they are in. Whether it is a human skin-suit, a mantid (sic.), a member of the Domain, a member of the "Old Empire". Every consciousness is eternal.

Species come and go in certain geographic regions. They evolve into other things.

Nations, societies, and communities come and go. They evolve into other things.

The consciousnesses that are part of The Domain are eternal beings. We like you IS-BE consciousnesses trapped within your inmate skin-suits are also eternal beings. As are the mantids (sic.) that maintain your skin-suit existence in this prison planet general population; they too are eternal beings.

The mantids (sic.) will eventually evolve into another form, and migrate to another universe, where they will exist in another state. This does not imply that they die, nor does it imply that they leave. They just simply grow and evolve.

Human skin-suits will also grow and evolve. You will all migrate to new states, new realities, new universe and new conditions. It is your nature as an eternal being.

Cats are eternal beings and they too will grow, evolve and move about the ALL as per their desires.

Members of the Domain are no different. Eventually we will complete our current task in the MAIN universe and grow and evolve. We will no longer hold the apparent roles that we hold currently as well will be quite different. We are not a dying race, as much as we are a maturing and growing and evolving cluster of IS-BE entities.

Same as you. Same as the mantids(sic.) and the same as your cat feline friends.

[29c] Question – bacteriophage and virophage technology

Also, is it possible for the Commander to give his/her/its thoughts on bacteriophage and virophage technology for treating pathogenic bacterial or viral infections?

(I can only talk and ask questions that I can understand. Then when I receive answers, I must be able to understand them. This stuff is over my head. I am so very sorry. -MM)

*garble" Images of DNA strands. With spiky things moving about. The terms / words / thoughts of "invasion" / reduction / suppression / collapse seem to be associated with it all. And then I see a removal of entire strings of DNA pulled out of what looks like a glob of "Play Doh".

(Sorry. the terminated the comm. I will read up on this subject and ask again at a later time. -MM)

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Part 2 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander in December 2021

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This is part 2.

[15] Question – Training our deference’s

MESSAGE OF UNIVERS WE QUE CAN Train with our Deference and we will go into the future reformer the future will be Deference sought with you?

Can we train so that we can be assistance to the Domain?

(This was very odd. I picture a smiling kind fellow. Who told me the following, like a kind elderly gentleman talking to a beloved son. -MM)

You need only vocalize your intentions and desires. We will work with you in the non-physical. You need do nothing else. Just be the best that you can be. Be kind. Be helpful.

(The, I was specifically instructed to translate this into french. I mean PUSHED. With goose pimples on my arms. Both my left and right arms. And a chill up and down my back. To translate what I just transcribed. So I did so using Bing translate. -MM)

Vous n’avez qu’à exprimer vos intentions et vos désirs. Nous travaillerons avec vous dans le non-physique. Vous n’avez rien d’autre à faire. Soyez simplement le meilleur que vous puissiez être. Soyez gentil. Soyez utile.

[16] Question – Mantid Primes

As regards the Prime Mantids, however, I do have one question. Can the Domain shed any light on happenings within their society? I am assuming they have leaders and factions.

The dominant nation in the world is going through a catastrophic change that is a normal event in the bigger scheme of things. It appears to be unusual and dangerous, but in reality, it is a cyclic event that is programmed within the prison general population system.

Everyone who has worked on their pre-birth world-line template (sic.) prior to injection to this MWI reality universe, agreed to endure the changes and alterations that would occur at this time.

Obviously the mantid primes were involved in the layout and creation of this template.

(I get the strong impression that The Domain does not want to talk about the Mantids. And I know that I have great restrictions on what I can say about them. -MM)

Now there is a relationship between the MWI reality universe and the pocket "Heaven" universe. They are not completely isolated. There is a degree of interaction at numerous levels. Thus changes in the reality universe will instigate changes in the "Heaven" pocket universe.

These influences are neither trivial nor isolated, but fundamental to the nature of the fabric of "Heaven". Given that the MWI reality universe consists of all scenarios of events, from world war III to a pastoral life of no conflict, the aggregate whole based upon the dominant consciousness participation in the MWI reality universe will have the greatest effect upon "Heaven".

The mantid primes understand this. There is no influence, good or bad, that alters their lifestyle or way of life.

Their life is totally alien to anything that humans can comprehend, thus one need not worry too much abut the changes in human life as it affects very little in the lives of the mantids. Whether mantid primes, or mantids in general population.

Specifically, mantid society is alien to human society and there is very little in the way of commonality.

*Final*

In general there are some primary limitations that I have regarding discussions about the mantids. I am sorry about that.

[17] Question – Nuclear Weapons

If I may add, the explosion attached below is most definitely not a hundred truckloads of conventional munitions. Trust me on that. waaayyy to much heat in the fireball– and that’s hundreds of metres in diameter. And hundreds of metres high. Conventionals cannot do that. Impossible.

This tech may or may not have existed in the 1940s– Airl did say they were investigating ‘atomic detonations’ on Earth back then, though– but it sure as shit exists now.

Notice the first explosion– definitely conventional and standard tactics– as in Beirut– to get everybody to duck and ensure no cameras are rolling for the second nuclear detonation a few seconds later. (This tactic is frequently used by ‘our favourite ally’ in the Middle East. Has been for years. But conventionals do not leave a crater in solid rock unless it’s a penetrator/bunker buster.)

The whole ‘nuclear weapons don’t exist’ shpiel has been spread by the same crew who spread the ‘viruses are fake and don’t exist’ trope, too. Divide and conquer technique– military grade psyops now being used on the general population (and illegally used, too)– but as old as the hills and super effective.

Definitely looking forward to the Domain’s answer on that, though.

Do nuclear weapons actually exist?

Nuclear weapons exist. Just like nuclear power plants exist. They are powerful and terrible weapons.

The weapons that were detonated in 1945 against the Japanese were tiny weapons. We have been monitoring this technology and the current earth technology level is horrific in ability, and terrifying in scope.

The damage that these weapons create goes far beyond the explosive damage. The radiation that results alters the biological cycles of all living creatures, and influences the non-physical realms as well.

We have intentionally disabled ICBM weapons in their launch cradles, and disconnected the command and control centers from accessing the missile control functions. This was sufficient, back in the 1960's and 1970's to persuade both the Russian and the American military that launching these weapons would have dire consequences that we would control. Not them.

Unfortunately, the current American leadership is unaware of the consequences of a nuclear strike.Just like they have been unaware of the consequences of a bio-weapon strike.

This entire region of geographic space was devastated by a massive series of nuclear wars, and the "Old Empire" led in many of the areas of destruction. Which is perhaps (one of the many reasons) why the "Old Empire" selected this region for the Prison Complex.

There is this connection of belief that pervades both the "Old Empire" and the Western leadership that possession of powerful weapons makes one powerful. That is not the case. It makes one dangerous. And the reality is that dangerous creatures are eventually subdued by an equally horrific measure.

One of the great lies is that those bombed Japanese cities are now thriving urban areas free of radiation. That is not true. But that is of no concern, the weapons currently stockpiled are much larger, and much more dangerous. Use of them could easily eviscerate all life on earth. -MM

Second comm (out of the blue). (Roughly about three weeks after this first initial comm above.) I don’t know where to place it. So I am placing it here. I do not know if it is relevant, or not.

*Open*

At the end of World War II, the Office of Strategic Services operated a clandestine operation to minimize and downplay the amount of radiation at the detonation sites. This was intentional and the reasons were related for American civilian population's acceptance of the weapons in the military arsenal. 

*end*

[18] Question – Set in stone?

I have one more sneaky one, too, if I may.

Given what the Domain have told us directly– and Metallicman has been telling us for years– that ‘the future’ is never set in stone and is actually subject to many variables in the MWI (in the Reality Universe, at least)…

…are the Deagel Forecasts wrt. certain countries/regions population reduction forecasts correct? Or, are they misinformation in, say, the same way the the 2nd Alien Interview book was?

Reason I ask is, as most of us here in MMan Land are, I’m sure, getting on with our lives and intentions regardless of the wider geopolitical shitshow underway, it would be beneficial for us to be aware that something like this is a strong possibility/incoming, and perhaps take a good look at what our current priorities are, and weigh up whether or not these priorities require adjustment at the very least, or a complete revision IF the forecasts are correct/expected as a matter of expediency. (It would be a historical first, after all– at least if the history we’re told about is correct, that is.)

I also recall that the Domain said directly ‘Heaven is being expanded’ to cope with the expected inflow. So perhaps this has been answered already, because the means through which this Deagel figure is attained may well be the expected kinetic events (that Metallicman and the Domain) forecasted in a recent Q&A session.

Either way, I think it would be beneficial to know if the Deagel Forecasts in themselves are roughly accurate in terms of actual figures, or was the Domain referring to another extinction event the details of which must remain– for obvious reasons– veiled, for now.

That last part is a question many of us wouldn’t want an answer for anyway, I’d say. And I’m not looking for that answer here– just the one above in bold.

Is the Deagel Forecasts with the specified countries/regions population reduction forecasts correct? Or, are they misinformation in, say, the same way the the 2nd Alien Interview book was?

(This message came up immediately. -MM)

This must be answered carefully so that there is no misinterpretation.

(Followed by the data narrative. -MM)

The Deagel Forecast is not misinformation.

The Deagel Forecast was based on two things. [1] It is based on a series of historical trends, and [2] supported in such a way to help explain horrific remote viewing results.

(Then an image of a old history movie. You know the type. Black and white. Grainy picture. 1920's style. -MM)

The Deagel Forecast came into being when numerous independent remote viewers reported the same disturbing result profile. They remote viewed a massive "die off" in the Western nations.

(Repeated, to me, like a narrative. Where the announcer describes the background of the old 1920's style movie. -MM)

The initial remote viewing, as well as the subsequent RV sessions, was of such a concern that substantive efforts were taken to explain what caused the event sequence.

[1] Different teams. They used different teams of trained viewers, to remote view 2025. Repeated remote viewing of the target dates in great detail occurred. Different teams were used. Different target areas were observed. Different profiles were compiled. The results all pointed to the same result; a massive human die off by / in 2025.

[2] Viewed the lead up events. Also remote viewed were the lead up events that resulted in those results. This was used to anticipate what was the primary driver behind the catastrophe of 2025. All that they could determine was...

(Then a series of "cut scenes". I think The Commander was playing with me somehow. -MM)

[2A] A global pandemic.

(Like those world war II era black and white movies showing how the evil forces were taking over the world. These big wide arrows moving over the globe and expanding until the entire globe was blackened. -MM)

[2B] Hostilities and attacks against Asia in wide full spectrum.

(Again, there are cut scenes of fighting. Military movements, and a map showing fighting all over Asia. From Russia to Japan and all over the nations of the middle east and South East Asia. -MM)

[2C] Generalized collapsing and failures at all levels of the American / UK and Western government and society.

(The "newsreel" presentation continues. Like scenes from the American 1920's stock market crash. Twirling and spinning headlines on news papers. Pictures of scandals, and greedy pot-bellied men in top hats, and gaiters smoking cigars.-MM)

[3] Paid for-profit individuals laboriously remote viewed the details of the globe in 2025. They "nit picked" apart the details that they found. This was to search for clues.

(Images and sounds of industry. News papers running in printing presses. Investigators typing away and reading books. Secretaries with their hair in buns carrying documents to smoky boardrooms, etc. -MM)

[3A] They first used this information to promote financial gain in the stock market and other financial venues.

(Images of dollars falling from the sky. Roaring 20's dances, and a lot of easy money and absurd amounts of wealth. -MM)

[3B] They then cross indexed the results with historical trends, and based much of their comparisons on intelligent studies, historical event trends, and their own intuition.

[3C] All of the lead-ups to the 2025 was suggestive of either a pandemic or a bio-weapon discharge, all complicated by horrific mismanagement and the introduction of some "wild card" event that they could not identify.

(A big question mark, overlays this man who is trying to figure things out. -MM)

[4] Historical examples, however, could not justify the enormous percentages of death observed. Thus they revised their forecast to suggest that there was a combination of catastrophic events that "pushed" the stress and strains of civilization to break down as they observed. This "wild card" is the great unknown is is not publicly identified.

[5] Their revised forecast added the speculations of nuclear war, collapse of society, and deadly viral strains to simultaneously work together synergistically.

(Images of ants carrying things in a long train on a sidewalk. -MM)

[6] The future, as it exists today, has not changed. All indicators point to a massive "die off" brought about by an American discharged Bio-Weapon, and the failure of the Western nations to vaccinate against it. Instead they opted for other means of control, and those other means were not successful.

(Image of a 1950 car dead at the side of the road with steam coming from it's hood. -MM)

Presently, the "wild card" appears to be the inoculation methodology employed by the Western nations. It is a new technology that seems / appears to have other unforeseen consequences.

(All the images change. There is this kind of 1940's movie in color showing the great progress of science and development in California (?) and many happy people going to work int he factories there. -MM)

Of course, the future is never fixed. The world-line templates (sic.) that the vast bulk of humanity will experience is being brought to this cliff. However, it need not occur. There are also scenarios where the pandemic subsides, and where a change in government leadership and opinion prevent war of any type, and where the world pulls together and resolves the vector direction that it is heading towards.

(The entire narrative and tone changes. -MM)

The future is being determined by the mass thoughts and actions of the dominant society at this time. Right now, it is quite clear that the dominant Western media, power leaders, and population are pushing the collapse of human society by their thoughts and actions. The human skin-suits in general population are acting like a herd of wild buffalo. They are running faster and faster to that cliff. And they refuse to stop and take note of what is going on.

This herd collapse is a mechanism of the "Old Empire" and is being aggravated by the Western leadership.

Unless the situation changes drastically, the collapse of the Western nations lies ahead. It will be caused by the release of an American Bio-weapon on the globe, and severely aggravated by forced injections that will not vaccinate the population from it. Instead they will permit the virus to mutate. As it mutates, further injections will be required. With each injection will welcome a host of other problems as a result of the juvenile injection concoction.

There is every indication that it is the combination of [1] permitted viral adaptation in humans hosts, and [2] an increased litany of side effects with the injection methodology that will together unleash the "wild card" that will evoke the specter of the remote viewing terrain.

Sometimes I wonder if there are different entities chatting on the comm. Sometimes the answers or discussions are so different from each other. It makes me confused and (sometimes) questioning my sanity.-MM

[19] Question – More nuclear questions

Given the recent MM posting (What happened after Alien Interview that helped to set up MAJestic), and the stated precursors therein (big “bombs”), I would like to ask one more question.

I am fairly certain that we all gather our information from a number of sources, and a trust [of those sources] is built upon a comparative analysis of sorts [of that information].

I have it from some very educated, intelligent, and trusted, [multiple] sources that all the purported nuclear testing events, or displays, were likely faked… and similarly, the two most famous explosions over, in, and around Japan. There are some technical reasons given (unorthodox physics by some), as well as geopolitical and the usual fear-mongering and video fuckery (before, after and during). However, surprising to me, the wide-spread blast and burn (at least for those two biggies) can be accounted for by unbelievably immense quantities of [pre-arranged] conventional explosives. Easy to do, even by puny humans.

If, and that is a big IF to me, you allow for off-worlders “assisting” in the development, deployment and detonation of said devices, then my above question is moot.

Were the devices purportedly detonated above Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear in design and effect?

Hiroshima was destroyed by a singular bomb weighing around 9000 pounds. Almost everything up to about one mile from the point of detonation was completely destroyed. The point of detonation was a clear circular radius easily viewable on the flat terrain. 

The only exceptions were for a small number (about 50) of heavily reinforced concrete buildings, most of which were specially designed to withstand earthquake shock.

These were not collapsed by the blast; most of these buildings had their interiors completely gutted, and all windows, doors, sashes, and frames ripped out. 

The 9000 pound singular bomb created the equivalent of 20,000 tons of conventional munitions worth of damage.

In Nagasaki, nearly everything within 1/2 mile of the explosion was destroyed, including heavy structures. All Japanese homes were destroyed within 1 1/2 miles from the point of detonation.

Whether or not this is nuclear in design or effect is a specious argument. 

We detected a radiation discharge and investigated it. There is no question that human skin-suits have the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons. As they have the ability to manufacture nuclear power stations.

Creation of a nuclear weapon is far easier than the design and creation of a nuclear power station. This is why the nuclear bombs came first in 1945, and the nuclear power stations came later in 1954.

The world is flooded with distractive news and commentary designed to disorient the population. This includes whether humans have traveled to the moon and landed on it, whether or not a plane flew into the world trade center towers, whether Elvis Presley is alive, that the earth is flat and not a sphere, or that nuclear weapons don't actually exist. 

Believing any of these distractions are dangerous because it has no bearing on your lives. It's a distraction that serves to decrease the popular validity of a publication, website or article. The moment any venue embraces the outlandish and the extreme it's validity decreases exponentially.

MM is under assault by various influences to clutter up the dialog with the outrageous and the outlandish.

(What followed was some specific directions to me personally. I will not post them here. Please expect me to aggressively police the comments, requests and content of submissions from now on. -MM)

I dug up the following. It is a chart of the radiation readings from Japan in 1945.

[20] Question – My anger and the cornfield

In 2021, a visitor to MM visited and then immediately trashed the disclosure effort. In my anger about being so maligned, I went and tried to perma-ban him and then sent him to the cornfield. Not so successful. He was using TOR, and frame hopping.

So, I went a step further, and condemned him to a fixed recycling over an over on a very nasty pre-birth world-line template.

I feel awful about it. Really awful. Most especially because I am doing what the “Old Empire” did. Right? Please tell me if I was out of line, and whether I should be a kinder and gentler Rufus. Because right now I feel like shit.

Was I out of line?

The actions that one takes within this bubble universe is one of cause and effect. there really is no such thing as a "right" or a "wrong". But rather how we interact with others in the environment presented to us. This affects our growth, stability and value.

When you "send someone to the cornfield" (sic.) you are no different than a school child that punches a bully for stealing their food. You are no different from a cat that claws you up when you try to hurt it. You are no different from a innocent pedestrian who shoots the man robbing him.

Your only difference is that you have a greater and more powerful skill set, and this individual has never encountered this level of power before.

In truth, this individual has a large ego and somehow believes that they have an "inside line" to us. They don't. If we wanted them to communicate with us, we would have established an EBP link.

The collection of interest from this person to others has value, but it's only of slight significance. (A wash over of calmness. Like I am being petted and calmed down.)

They have a role. Not as great or important as your role, or the role of others in your clique / group / community. We chose you and you agreed to work with us. Your team / community that you have managed to pull together and assemble are all part of a small battalion that are doing great things for us. (Again, another wash over of calmness.)

You are not in competition with this individual. So stop believing that one is better than the other. You have a very important role, and they have a different role. Both roles are important. Your role is more like a five star hotel with exclusive guests. Their role is more like packaged fast food for the masses. Both roles have their place. Neither role is better or worse than the other.

Your concern about sending them to the cornfield should not be of concern. You have to break some eggs to make strudel. They were out of line to malign you. You were warned about this by your Commander Rasmussen at NAS, NASC Pensacola, Fla. This is what you were told to expect, and while it angers you, it is part of the territory that surrounds you and which you agreed to accept. Critics abound everywhere. Never the less, they were wrong and an equally harsh reaction is called for.

If you try to stand in front of a steam locomotive, there will be a reaction and it will be a real mess. And that is what this person did. Like a child playing with matches, he is unaware of the dangers and the great power that he holds in his hands.

Your rage is not human. Your rage in this event is artificially induced, and being a person with some extraordinary skills, you naturally used them. (The incredible hulk.) And the consequences will be longer lasting. No, you did not send him to purgatory forever, no matter what you seem to think. We will pull him out when it is time. He needs to understand humility first.

And you are the one teaching them that.

Just like in the movie “Back to the future”…

Then, I drank a couple of bottles of wine. Went to bed. Slept.

…

Then, today, as I got up and going through my feeds, my emails and all of that, I opened up my browser. You know, I have my morning routine.

Cup of coffee. Sun rises at dawn. Listen to the morning birds.

And out of the blue. THIS picture shows up on my feed…

Never the less…

I experience remorse, and so I took the dangerous and time consuming effort to recall my horrible actions. I do not believe that person needed to incur my wrath. They are a searcher like myself. And being human, they have egos and feelings just like I have. And being human they make mistakes just like I do. And I made a mistake sending them to the cornfield.

That mistake has been undone. But the sour taste in my mouth will continue for a long time afterwards.

Don’t be like me.

Give everyone a chance, and show them some understanding. Some compassion, and give them a little break.

[21] Question

Hi MM

After reading Part 1 of the comms with Domain Commander (on the new Huawei Pad), it has answered my worry of the mRNA vaccines & what if my loved ones took it. At least now I know that it can be mitigated somewhat by good diet & exercise. My 79 yr old dad took Pfizer & 79 yr old mum took Sinovac (but recently took Pfizer booster). Wife & I both took Sinovac but wife just took Pfizer booster despite my advice. For me, am trying to get Sinovac booster & bypass the Government appointed Pfizer booster.

My question to the Commander is am asking for guidance on how to proceed in my life from now on. In my early life, I was very helpful to others, eagerly providing help to friends (mostly advice & lending an ear) but many new “friends” took advantage of me. It was like vampires sucking the good energy out of you & gave back the bad energy in return. I end up being emotionally drained & depressed. It came to the point that now I only help those that I’m close to only. I still try as much to be Rufus towards others in other ways so as not to be drained of my good energy.

My life has been average, neither extravagant nor in poverty. Very blessed with parents who took good care of myself & my siblings. Had the privileged opportunity to study in London & experience living in a foreign country for a number of years. This shaped my young adult thinking, my working culture & gave me opportunities to expand my career back home till early 2000s. Then difficult times came but I took it as a life lesson & behind every cloud is a silver lining, my now wife came into my life during this down time. She is my anchor, balances me & able to tolerate my specific way of doing things.

Today, I no longer wish that high flying corporate career but at the same time, am not that financially sound, enough to get by. I worry about my retirement with my wife as we dont have social security here in this part of the world & frankly am fed up with the current employer I’m with.

Our 5 cats are like our children & we dote on them. In fact the youngest one is sleeping next to me as I’m typing this. We suspect that this youngest one is the incarnation of our first cat. I’ve always known that people & pets comes into our life for a reason and that these 5 cats has had past lives link to both my wife & I. The strong affinity and bond with them tells me that we have met before (& the facts that they chose us rather than we choose them).

I am a worrier & often think too deeply (hence the hair loss.. hahaha) about what ifs. I worry about the future & all that is happening is really making my worry meter shoot up. My parents, my wife, my extended family, my cats, my friends ….

Somehow, I believe that although I’ve not vocally mentioned volunteering to assist the Domain, in some way, I can feel my lifepath is somehow in a very small way assisting them.

So, going back to my asking the Commander for guidance on how to proceed in my life from now on. Really need guidance to lift some of the worries.

Actually, another question is that if somebody as insignificant as myself ask for Domain retrieval after death, does the Domain hear our plea ? (as going into the tunnel of light doesnt not seem to be a prospect that I now wish to follow).

Cant remember how I found MM blog but I just cant stop reading & keep coming back. Truly Appreciate all that you’re doing to help us MM readers & the world. It must be a great burden on you but you amaze me on how you carry it all through. Your blog is is visited at least twice a day but I worry that the Western powers will pull the plug as you’re not singing their narrative. Time to consider shifting to a Chinese server where you know you’ll be protected. My regards to your lovely family & please give a big hug to your little daughter.

Thanks again for helping us. Cant say it enough. For me, it helps to center my life & affirmed what been deducing all this time, that the shift is happening but resistance is strong.

Regards

First comm injection…

You need to focus on centering your consciousness within it's brain cradle so that you can optimize it's utility. Your family will be fine provided that you avoid the poisoned vectors of fear mongering activities. 

Your ideas and thoughts regarding your cats are accurate, and that (of course) means that they will generate a calm and kind environment to surround you. 

Fear is the great hurtle that lies before you, but you and you family have practical and substantive thoughts regarding this matter. Follow them and do not second guess them. They will all work out fine. 

Of course, the trials and failures of life is to be expected, but the overall forward time vector for you and your family is better than most, and certainly far better than your fears promise / provide for you.

Follow up comm. (Roughly three weeks later.)

*comm opened*

Following the advice provided graciously to you (above and presented immediately to the questioner above. -MM) has been exemplary. Thank you. (smile)

Taming your fears, no matter how loudly they clamor at you; nor how shrilling they appear to by those around you that you love, it is important to stay focused. Ignore the noise. The fear is noise. It is distracting and upsetting your good works, and positive steady directions.

Do not forget this.

Use the guidelines of that as the cat. They have a far better appraisal  of the situation at hand. And are not to be ignored, because they create the calming comforting environment that enables you to accomplish the goals and tasks that you affirm (sic.).

Soon, this (next) year (maybe months) you will "break through" an invisible barrier, and much will become clearer, calmer and more stable. Shake off the fears as that is preventing the manifestation of the MWI (sic.) track path.

*end*

Sorry. I haven’t a clue as to what all this is about. I just transcribed and cleaned it up. -MM

[Bonus] My cherished beliefs

You know, when a comm channel opens up it can be anywhere. In the elevator, for instance. Walking down the sidewalk. Or at the checkout in a store. And one of the features about this is that when you are aware that a comm opens up, that you listen to it, and then move on with your life. Many times forgetting about the communication transfer. Such was this next bout…

I was musing about my attitude regarding The Domain and the mantids. And wondering why I am not permitted to say anything about them, or deal with them in any substantive way.

Mantids (sic.) are the most important species (race) beings in the human inmate suit right now. They are the "behind the scenes" movers / shakers /lever makers. To question their role in your life is to question your own self. 

If a choice must be made between The Domain or the mantids (sic.) you must always obey your inner mantid directives and directions. 

We (The Domain) lie outside of that bonded interconnection.

<redacted>

We (The Domain) are mission directed. The mantids (sic.) are consciousness focused. Obviously that is more important to your individual growth and eventual release from the prison planet environment than anything else.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

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[daegonmagus] – Part 15 – LD Lesson 4: Advanced LD Practices and Potentialities

The following is the fifteenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 15 – LD Lesson 4: Advanced LD Practices and Potentialities

I hope you’ve been practicing because now we get into the good stuff. Comparing this article to my past ones will be like comparing aged scotch whiskey. It will be like shelving that 12 year old blended crap and cracking open a 21 year old single malt instead. Except rather than take a few savouring sips, we are going to devour the whole bottle.

Just don’t do what I did and leave it in an oak cask in the middle of 40+ degree Celsius summer only to find it had all evaporated before I’d even had my second sampling. For those who do not know, distillers take this evaporation into account when ageing their scotch and call it the “Angel’s Share”. Well the angels certainly got their fair share of that batch, $250 fucking dollars worth of it.

Speaking of angels, there is a very well known story in occult circles about Dr John Dee and his communication with the “angel” Enoch. As the story goes, Dee, an accomplished scryer, was able to communicate with Enoch through the use of a crystal ball and black mirror. Enoch purportedly relayed an Angelic alphabet to Dee who in turn relayed it to his associate Edward Kelly. Kelly transcribed the complete alphabet along with the proper method of contacting the angels through the use of a complex system of tablets. Israel Regardie (Aleister Crowley’s secretary) has an excellent write up of the correct use of the tablets in his book “Golden Dawn” which deals with the magical systems of that same Order.

Whilst this subject deserves its own separate article, be aware that my LD methodologies can be used to contact similar non physical entities (for the sake of brevity I lump all angels/demons/ghosts/inter-dimensional ETs in the same boat under this title). Though Dee never specifically used LD or AP for his scrying sessions (that I am aware of), these avenues certainly can be used for these purposes. In fact, I am so sure in my assertions that I will even go as far as to say that these avenues will produce results far better and far in excess than what is capable with conventional channeling processes whilst “awake”, going by mine and SDs experiences alone.

Remote viewing, telepathy, communication with non physical entities, projection into other worlds etc are all very real possibilities from this non physical vantage point. Men of common sciences will suggest they are just imbalances in brain chemistry or what have you, but once you experience them you will realise just how wrong these apparent “experts” are. Do yourself a favour and replace words such as “black mirror” and “crystal ball” with words such as “void space” and “sleep paralysis” whenever reading such occult recipes for communication with non physical entities.

So what makes LD so much better for these practices than channeling techniques carried out whilst conscious within the physical body? Trick question, and if you need to ask I suggest re-reading through my prior articles on the subject. LD is the practice of disengaging consciousness from the physical vessel. PERIOD. Non negotiable! Return all arguments to sender! We may call it a form of dreaming, or a type of OBE, but when you strip the technicalities away, this is what it really boils down to. It is the change of our conscious perception of reality, and for those who feel the need to argue this point, then all I can say is that you aren’t LDing properly. As MM would put it, it is your consciousness going from particle form to wave form. What you witness in LD is, quite bluntly, the other side of the Quantum physics coin. Read that, again.

How can one define reality when one is completely, irrevocably, 100% conscious, yet there is no longer a physical world in front of them? In LD you have a complete understanding on how it is your consciousness can create reality; there is no longer mystery in this regard. And these “expert” “dream scientists” are trying to measure it all with EEGs and other equipment that can only measure the particle domain? It is beyond laughable. As a qualified electronics technician with an advanced licence in radio I can tell you no breakthroughs are ever going to come through such dream research avenues which rely solely on such equipment.

It’s like using a wrench to measure voltage in an electronic circuit; the two are not compatible. But it is rather cute watching how much effort they put into it all. Kinda like watching a baby put a square block into a circular shaped hole. If only they would listen {sigh}. In case any of them are: If LD dream scientists are serious about their research then I suggest looking into experimenting with the concepts I am providing here. You will win a noble peace prize Laureate. Read up on MMs Our Universe material and play around with the range of extremely low frequencies he mentions. It all corroborates my experiences perfectly.

Hell, I’ll even draft your experiments up for you if you ask me nicely enough. Such scientists need to understand that once consciousness reaches the transition point, linear time becomes an irrelevant factor. The entire LD experience could take place within the time it takes the microcontroller in the EEG equipment clock to register a single digital step. That digital step is what draws all those nice little lines of data you guys like to rely on. Time is not the same in LD as it is in physical reality!!! LD/AP are not just fluctuations in brain chemicals/ speeds (though these do play a role); they are a conscious witnessing of quantum reality. Adapt your experiments accordingly, else you look like fucking amateurs to those of us who know what we are talking about.

So, anyways, in answering the above question:
By detaching consciousness and becoming lucid in this manner, you are disengaging from all the sensory inputs that shapes your physical world. Not just the 5 sensors, but all those sensors you don’t even realise you rely upon, such as subconscious “programs”, like breathing and heartbeat, that keep your body running. They are good for keeping your physical body alive, but one has to realise that these sensors, when tuned to the physical body, create a thick layer of M Band noise (what I previously called sub conscious distortion in past articles.) You will not realise just how encumbering this M Band Noise is until you consciously experience a transition into the sleeping state; at this juncture, the compression of consciousness state that you have been trapped in your whole life becomes immediately apparent.

Think of it like if you were born into a box that is much too small for your body in that it has to remain hunched over all the time. As the box is closed, the only reality you know of is that within the box. Hence you never realised you are encumbered. It is not until someone opens the box, and you can finally stretch out into the new reality outside of it that you realise just how limited you were in practically all of your abilities. This is a very crude rendition of a thought experiment called the “cave” by the well known philosopher Plato, I suggest everyone reads (it was what the story line of the Matrix movies was based on – and yeah I am the guy that exited the cave if you haven’t already figured it out). The point is, at the transition point you shed this M Band Noise baggage. It feels like someone just lifted a million tonne weight (or gravity itself) off of you, and you can – for want of a better word – “stretch” yourself in ways that you never could before. This is how you know you’ve reached the Void Space. In a general sense, the M Band noise begins to thin out the deeper one goes into sleep paralysis/ hypnogogia. Remember this, as it can be used to your advantage.

The reduction of this M Band noise layer is why LD is such an effective avenue for non physical entity communication. It is why it is so effective for “connecting” with other consciousness via telepathy. It is why it is so effective for remote viewing. Sure, there is still an inherent layer of M Band noise to cut through, but it is a lot thinner and a lot less troublesome from this vantage point. With enough practice it’s like cutting through butter. You learn to ignore what is irrelevant and focus on what is relevant. You learn to focus on what is new, what is different, what is out of place in this quantum world you are experiencing, and that is where you should be {carefully} probing for higher order information.

You’d be surprised of what is out there willing to “talk” or show you things. A point should be made though, that just because a non physical entity might say something, doesn’t always mean that it is the truth. Discernment is ultimately your own responsibility. And there is no reason you can’t be sending out “pings” for others to locate you. Ok yeah there is reason and we will say that reason is safety, but honestly, it isn’t something I really ever gave a shit about. (The movie “Baby’s Day Out” comes to mind, where this innocent baby wanders off from its parents to explore the fascinating world around it, seemingly ignorant of all the dangers unfolding right behind it and the predators that are trying to capture it to use it as a ransom. That pretty sums up my teenage LD years. )

But in these years I learnt some things; if you truly know yourself and what you are, there is nothing to be afraid of whilst in LD. I always operated on the mentality that no matter what evil presented itself to me to try and scare me, I was bigger and badder and meaner than it could ever be, and this is what I “projected” out with my pings. An unwavering sense of self is the crucial mentality one needs to be operating from in this state of consciousness. Never, ever, take notice of those words that were designed to break you from other, much weaker souls. If you allow them to carry on into the LD/AP domain, they will present as a weakened point of your being that may be exploited by other entities that are more sure of themselves. You simply cannot be weak minded when entering this place; wield your sense of self like a bright illuminating torch that makes others recoil in fear of being burnt and use that light to navigate.

Remember, you don’t actually have to accept that candy from the stranger at the park, just like you don’t have to accept their words as bearing anything on who you are. To put it simply, fuck their opinion. You are a god, you just don’t remember it yet. Hopefully you will soon.

Hidden Knowledge:

There is a wealth of information about who we are and our real histories that has been kept locked away from us in the non physical world; many occultists know this, yet very few are able to access such information. Consider this article the key to unlocking many of the mysteries that have been spoken about in occult circles for the past few centuries, when properly applied to them.

Understand my authority on this subject to make such bold claims does not come from an egotistical opinion generated on this plane of physical manifestation. Rather, it comes from the fact that I earnt my place to talk about them in such a manner as relayed to me by those who watch over this world in the non physical when they spoke to me of the importance of LD as the prime communication channel into the non physical planes. I don’t care if you have 10 million hits on youtube in reference to your LD clasess; if you haven’t clued onto this fact yet or experienced a flow of this information into your mind then either your LD abilities are no where near as good as you claim them to be or you are a disinfo agent paid to redirect knowledge from this profound truth; I will never ask a dime for any of it. I cannot stress how important Lucid dreaming really is for the evolution of human consciousness. This is something that is well overdue for reaching the mainstream. Don’t let the dream scientists wither it away to being nothing more than some fluctuations of dopamine. I have a feeling many Elders from indigenous tribes will agree with me, not that I am affiliated with any. The whole point of these articles is that I write them in the hope someone will pick them up and properly experiment with them further. Honestly, I’d rather be writing fantasy and sci fiction with the time I invest in them (seriously, I’ve got 5 half completed novels five times the size of this article sitting on my computer waiting for some TLC).

If properly applied, there is potential within these words to make the reader become more powerful than a god. Or, to put it simply, to remember yourself as an Immortal consciousness; your IS-BE heritage. Once you experience your consciousness operating from the seat of the Higher Self, you will never again consider the physical world as base line reality; I guarantee that much. What I am giving you here is real occult {hidden} power.

But first, let’s talk a little about potentiality of Lucid Dreaming.

The Higher Self:

I want you to do yourself a favour and take all that new age bullshit you’ve learnt on the Higher Self being some vague inner voice of yours that gives your physical self direction and throw it out the goddamned fucking window. Whilst this might be an auxiliary function, practically all of the shit you read about on this topic on the internet is NOT what I am talking about here. The exception to this rule is that Eastern based philosophy tends to show a greater understanding of this truth than anything Western based. However, if the poster of the article in question is not drilling home the point the Higher Self is both the origin and destination point for us, then relegate it to the trash.

The Higher Self, – the thing I experienced during my contact sessions with the EG and U5 – is quite literally an alien way of processing information. It is the mind that exists at the closest point of your soul’s/spirit’s/ non physical body’s creation, before it was manipulated, severely handicapped and thrown into a boring flesh suit, and told it must appease the profit prophets. No words will ever be sufficient to explain what it really is. It is an unfathomable function of the mind that every single person should be capable of connecting to if only they worshipped it more than they did money. Consider it like entering a god mode cheat for old DOS based computer games that give you “powers of the developers” to bend the rules of the game. The Higher Self is the god mode that allows you to exit this physical reality (Plato’s Cave) and explore everything from the outside. It allows you to view the entire created physical and non physical planes and their “light codes” as if you were the developer that worked on them. Does that sound like a more suitable end point for humanity than an endless cycle of work, die, reincarnate and repeat?

I have written in past articles that if you combined all the super geniuses of the Earth – all the Einsteins, Von Neumans, Schrodingers, Teslas – into a single being, their abilities would be only a very small fraction of what the Higher Self is capable of. I really am not exaggerating this. The reason is that while you are piloting your flesh suit, your mind has been limited in its operating functions (deliberately, if we go by what the EG told me, and what the Domain has told us). I like to think of it like comparing the processors of an old 1990s model computer to the modern equivalent. Your mind whilst locked in the physical body is like an old Pentium model operating in the MHz spectrum, whilst the Higher Self is equivalent to something running 4 or 5 Ghz. Well, actually it is more like something running in the ZettaHertz spectrum and beyond, but since we are a long way off from having that kind of processing power, I am stuck with equating it to only a 1000 times more. Humour me, will you, and just realise I am talking about a magnitude of operation trillions of times more powerful than the processing abilities you are using to read this very text.

I would have the readership remember back to those days when we thought a 500MHz processor was the pinnacle of our {computer} evolution, and that anything better was out of reach. Yeah, well that is the difference between your Earth mind processing capabilities versus something operating close their Higher Self, like, say, a non physical entity. We only think our Earth minds are the be all and end all to evolution because it is the only thing we know. How can I drill the point across more that it really isn’t? Hence the importance of connecting with this Higher Intelligence. Consider me the investor that is trying to build the research base to make those ZettaHertz processors a reality. It will take time, but we need to start somewhere and make gradual progress before we can expect results.

Allow me to explain this whole concept using another, more fitting analogy. In digital communications we have two choices when it comes to communicating data; that of serial or parallel programming practices. In serial data transfer each bit is placed on a single wire and processed one by one through each consecutive clock pulse from the processor. Parallel data transfer differs in that we have much more wires to place more bits on, thus more information can be processed for the same clock pulse.

This is the main functional difference between the higher mind and your limited Earth based one. Think of your Earth mind as having a single wire for information transfer; you must process thoughts in a serial like fashion before you can arrive at a conclusion to whatever it is you are thinking about, which more often than not is a choice that leads to some kind of action being taken, and thus more thoughts that add to the serial processing train.
Now consider the higher mind as being a parallel data bus with 100 more wires (we only need 64 to be ~18.5 quintillion times more powerful, as capability doubles with every bit added).

For every thought you have, you have a plethora of other thoughts that arise from it which must be processed by your brain one by one. For example, you might ask yourself “what should I eat for breakfast”, this would lead to a choice between bacon and eggs or toast with butter. Then you remember the bacon was tasting a bit funky last time you ate it so go with option 2. Only problem is you don’t have any bread left, so you decide to go the shop and buy some. On your way out the door you come across a neighbour and you engage in some friendly banter about your new car, which reminds you you need to fill up the gas tank etc etc, which leads to a million other thought trains about how much money is in your bank account, how you will allocate whatever funds you have to paying certain bills etc.

We don’t even realise it, but in the span of a few minutes we could have a hundred different thoughts that have arisen from other random thoughts in this manner; our mind just processes them automatically one by one without us even really realising it.

This is not at all how the higher mind functions. There are no “thought trains” as to how we have become accustomed to experiencing whilst in a physical body. This is because the moment a thought arises, all conclusions to that thought are simultaneously reached. Thus there is no “problem reaction solution”; whenever a problem is encountered, the solution to that problem is automatically calculated at the same time. So if you are a quantum physicist trying to understand a certain mystery regarding entanglement whilst in the physical body, if you were able to port this problem to a conscious interaction to the Higher Self (via lucid dreaming/ astral projection etc), it would automatically be solved the moment you thought it up. But, the more amazing thing is, is that it does not present as a problem but rather a memory that you already know the answer to. It is more like doing a quick revision of a subject you are already an expert in and saying to yourself “duh, I already knew this”. The only “problem”, is that the amount of information relating to your original thought you wanted solved would have so many variables attached to it that it would simply be impossible for you to retain it all coming back into the limited consciousness state of operation in the physical body. You cannot process these variables whilst confined to the human mind, as the human mind has been carefully engineered to filter them all out. The best you could do would be to remember a very small percentage of what is relayed to you. Believe me, it s incredibly frustrating and saddening to be able to operate from this state of awareness, and come back into the body only to know you will lose it all. You can actually feel the retardation effects of the M Band layer as you pass through it back into the body. Depressing is an understatement.

While I was operating from this higher state of awareness, my mind was on overdrive carrying out calculations that, had I retained the information when waking back up, could have led to the construction of my very own interstellar capable space craft. I am not joking – from this higher state such calculations were as easy as adding 1+1 together. On the other hand, the processing time for a human brain to make these same calculations I remember realising would equate to “billions of years” if it was the only thought it ever utilised. To someone who has never connected to it, the Higher Self is unfathomable.

Alien Psychology

Let’s try thinking of this at a different angle shall we. An alien space craft crashes somewhere on Earth; let’s just say Roswell for shits and giggles. One of the crew is taken out and contained in a room at some random military base. Let’s use a completely random, imagined name and call this base Fort Worth. We will apply further randomness to the name of the alien and call it Airl shall we?

So here is Airl, contained in a cell at Fort Worth, and in come a bunch of military brass to interview this entity about its weapons arsenal, where it is from in the universe etc. The military brass are really more of a “military lead” when it comes to their consciousness processing abilities; they think they are “hard” and structurally useful but in fact they are really quite soft and malleable. They don’t realise that Airl’s consciousness processes information in a completely different way to them. At best they might have an inkling it is superior, but, as they have never been exposed to this paralleling processing of information, they don’t really understand how it works. So they pitch the question “what are your weapons capabilities?”

Immediately Airl (who we will assume is operating from the same state of awareness I was able to connect to) would understand every possible outcome arising from every possible way that question would be answered. Airl would be able to conceive of every fork in the MWI from that moment on, all the way up into infinity and beyond. There is no need for the mind to process the question, observe body language etc as all future variables become instantaneously available. All that would be needed would be for Airl’s ultimate goal (it could 5000 years from that point in time for all we know) to be located within this web of possibility, and the necessary actions to take would automatically be carried out one by one. The entire butterfly effect from start to finish would be calculated before your mind could even formulate the word “what”. Take a moment to think about the implications this would present, because there is a shit tonne of them.

Thus an understanding of the proper functioning state of the physical and non physical universe is possible from this state of higher consciousness. This is what I was able to “see” and experience whilst I was connected to my higher self – I just cannot accurately describe it because my earth mind is too limited in its capabilities. Unfortunately, I lost all the {exceedingly complex} formulas and mathematics the moment I crossed the transition state/ M Band noise layer into the physical plane and waking reality.

What I can tell you is that the physical and non physical planes exist as a sort of mesh or fabric that binds one another together through intersecting junctions that are more non physical based than they are physical. This is hard to conceptualise considering we are accustomed to only seeing in 2 dimensions (despite living in a 3D world we can only see that world as a mixture of 2 dimensional surfaces; we do not actually see in 3 dimensions, for to do so would mean we see all angles of any given object at once, which is entirely possible from the Higher Self). The CIA Project Gateway paper (for the complete version go to Found: Page 25 of the CIA’s Gateway Report on Astral Projection (vice.com) ) description of the “holographic universe” is the closest I have seen any one else come to describing what I experienced, apart from ol’ MM here. It is sort of like looking at an xray of a solid object, except you can see the solidarity of the object as well as its transparency at the same time. It is strange because we can usually only conceptualise things as being physical or non physical, yet you exist in a third state beyond them. You can zoom in and out of this mesh fabric at will like a camera in a video game. It is different to just zooming out of and seeing a galaxy behind you, because you are seeing the actual fabric of how multiple instances of that same galaxy exist in their physical and non physical forms from a timeless state.

You can see that entire “photo reel” of that galaxy as it is drawn through what we know as time, and you can see how it all fits together with every other galaxy in every other plane. You can see the heartbeat of the true universe. Do you really think your tiny earth brain is capable of understanding such magnificence? Understand what I am telling you here; a connection with the higher self allows you to view the entire fucking MWI as if it is a map you can throw on a table. This should give you an idea of what you can look forward to when “assimilating” into a civilisation such as the Domain.

While I was connected I was able to comprehend the totality of the entire past, present and future at once; I was able to understand the consequence of every thought and action and each separate future that would be generated as a result from those thought and actions in every single physical and non physical plane. One thing I did remember was that this level of understanding is a necessary prerequisite for proper unaided consciousness time travel.

I needed to understand these things not because creating a fucking time travelling Delorean was necessary. I needed to access this information in order to rewrite the astral/soul templates of those in attendance. It was far more important than travelling to the edge of the physical universe. This was far more important than becoming the next Doc Brown; that come slater in our evolutionary cycle. The altar in the middle of the Elder Guardians courtyard allowed one to literally “jack in” to this fabric and become one with it.

Understand that this is what I mean when I say “accessing the akashic records”; it implies the actual merging of one’s consciousness with the fabric of all of creation specifically so information can be downloaded directly from source. It is not some vague thing one can just randomly tap into while their consciousness is engaged within the physical vessel to “better” their immediate lives. It can only be accessed from complete and proper disconnection of consciousness from the physical body, and through experience gained from navigating through the non physical planes. You don’t gain access to that altar unless you prove you know what the fuck you are doing when engaged in non physical navigation. You certainly don’t gain access to it if you consider your current incarnation more important than the sum totality of your soul’s entire existence. Only those able to extend their thinking of what matters beyond a single lifetime can access it.

Now I have down played my whole presence at this courtyard somewhat because quite frankly it feels too narcissistic to talk about, but if I am entirely honest, a lot of people were making a lot of fuss about me being there. This merging of the akashic with one’s consciousness was apparently not something everyone could achieve, and only those with accomplished LD skillsets really had the ability to do it effectively. You absolutely MUST have a proper understanding of how to navigate {the MWI} or you can very easily become lost within it – even the EG, who were of a non physical based nature lacked the other {physical understanding} half of the coin. Hence why I was summoned and practically put in charge of this whole operation. I was literally just left to “plug myself” in to the akashic records and left to my own devises by the Grand Elder to try and figure out a way to counter the amnesia mechanism embedded in astral/soul DNA so we don’t have to put up with this unneeded reincarnation schpeel any longer. His role was specifically to reawaken me to this task that I had been involved with the for the past 10 thousand to 40 thousand years.

So when I tell you the underlying function of what astral body/ soul DNA rewriting entails, this isn’t just hazarding a guess at wtf was going on; this is me giving you the actual process of what is involved as the only one out of over 20 000+ others in attendance that could do it. That included the entirety of the Elder Guardians; not even they had the ability to do what I was able to do due to my LD skillset. Not one of them dared going near that altar (aside from the Grand Elder who did only so he could talk to me), yet I was allowed to parade around it like it was my own little toy to play with. I cannot begin to explain how incredibly humbling that felt. I had access to the whole fabric of the “universe” at my fingertips. Hence when I tell you Lucid Dreaming is important for the “evolution” of human consciousness, you’d better be paying some attention. It literally gives you access to the assembly programming language of the fabric of reality and the collective (as well as individual) consciousness. Isaac CARET much?

And yet I am stuck going through the red tape put in place by psychological and scientific “experts” who have absolutely no idea wtf they are talking about when it comes to telling us what dreams actually are, or doing when it comes to experimenting with LD/AP. It is beyond maddening trying to get this message through that information vacuum. Anyways….

The Process I Used for Astral Body/ Soul Amnesia Recorrection:
Whilst plugged into the altar I was able to make a mini, replica version of the akashic records/ MWI accurate to about 90% of the original. I intentionally left out a few things for reasons described below. When I talk about the “scroll”, one needs to understand that the material this “scroll” was made out of was that very mesh fabric discussed above. If you were to zoom into this “paper”, you wouldn’t find pieces mashed tree pulp; you would find microcosmic representations of entire MWI realities linked via their non physical {quantum} pathways. Remember, I was operating from a vantage point outside of the entire MWI.

Because I had access to raw MWI source code, I then began tracing the akashic signature of everyone in attendance. These signatures equated to their presence as overlayed in the total MWI. In other words, I accessed data pertaining to their soul’s total existence from beginning to end. These signatures were then plugged into the “cloned” MWI by tethering parts of them to it. This meant that what I was effectively doing was creating a hub where I could gather the consciousnesses of those 20 000+ that were in attendance and “virtually” plug them in to the akashic records like I was plugged in – though all navigational control was ultimately at my discretion because of the bits I left out when I cloned it (I cannot overstate how incredibly fucking cool this was to do; mummy, when I grow up I want to be a consciousness programmer). I gave them a virtual MWI and cut off access to the bits that would fuck them up if used improperly.

Once attached, I located each and every part of these consciousness that had become corrupt through the amnesia codes embedded within their higher energetic bodies. I then wrote a sort of software patch and spliced it into the beginning of the amnesia code for each consciousness. What this patch would do would initiate an akashic/MWI reset every time the amnesia code was about to be activated, specifically so a route around the amnesia would eventuate. Essentially I was using the amnesia activators to activate a very specific “recovery of memory” pathway through each consciousness’s MWI instead of a pre-programmed pathway that led through amnesia territory. Does this sound familiar? It should, MM has described similar programming practices by the ETs he was associated with.

I pulled out all data relating to any other consciousness those in attendance had come into contact with (over their soul’s entire lifetime) and embedded similar activation strings within their own MWIs. The idea was to create a sort of anti virus that would actually function like a virus and “infect” as many consciousnesses as possible with the cure to their corrupted higher energetic bodies. Those in attendance would be set for immediate memory recovery within their current incarnation to help with their tasks, whilst their associations were looking at 2 or 3 reincarnation cycles before the effects would begin to kick in. It was estimated that the code I wrote would reach its peak potentiality of memory activation in somewhere between 3 to 5 generations from {then} present day (2012). This is an averaged taking into account the changing MWI variables and various outcomes.

I then instructed the entire assembly of Elder Guardians to protect this “scroll”, to which they obliged. Anyone seeking complete memory recovery would be allowed access to it provided they were of pure (STO) sentience. STS sentiences, or those who would use it to gain power over others would be vehemently denied access. In other words, don’t bother trying if you have a tendency to shit on others to get what you want; you will never be allowed access to this altar by MY personal authority and very bad things will happen to you if you try. Bad things, like you automatically volunteer to be an anomaly guinea pig so I can watch the process of how your consciousness is disassembled after I throw you into it. Go work for a bank or government if that is your mentality; what we are discussing here far transcends the single, physical life these people consider as being important over all else.

Thus, the only way to gain access to this scroll is to hold in very high regard the macrocosmic aspects of all souls/consciousnesses and their entire MWI trajectory as being more important than what any single physical life has to offer (those words in red I had no control over – word decided to do this automatically – maybe its trying to tell me something). Unless you are prepared to spend this life assisting other consciousnesses in being “unlocked” to their higher state, you will unfortunately have to wait another 2 or 3 incarnation cycles before being unlocked yourself. This should give you an idea as to the type of people those 20 000+ consciousnesses in attendance were. They were not simply people coming here to spread some vague bullshit about love and light or apparent channelings from Ashtar command (that is not to say those people don’t have their own thing going on, some of them probably quite legit); they were incredibly advanced consciousnesses that had a very good understanding of the higher (unseen) aspects of reality that deliberately chose to enter the Earth domain at risk of losing such understandings. And they did this in order to extract others who were part of OUR greater {non physical} community. Believe me, don’t believe me, it makes no difference. My writings will find their way to them in due course.

I know of one other that was involved in similar astral body/ soul DNA rewriting and their life story would blow you out of the fucking water. Hopefully they write a book on it, as it brings a new perspective of this entire operation and how truly far reaching it is.

Am I getting my point across yet? If we go by what Steven Greer tells us, put 2 and 2 together when it comes to the Gateway Project and Project Stargate, then the Military Industrial Complex has already cottoned on to this super information highway many, many years ago. And if you want to know the real reason I was initiated into the Unseen 5, it is because they {the U5} were well aware of the sequestering of this knowledge to the Deep Black libraries of the MIC, and wanted to circumvent it altogether. I was directed to make what I know about LD/AP public in an effort to take it off those MIC Deep Black Shelves, so more practitioners of these arts can better prepare themselves for contact. This was the main task I was given by their leader, apart from making their presence known to you and the pre requisites for initiation. Do you think that it is a mere coincidence those in control of MAJ felt the same way about having MM release his disclosure at the same point of time?

So now we have got that necessity of where LD can potentially take you out of the way, let’s go into some advanced techniques achievable via LD based on mine and SDs experiences.

Outward Projection Via the Portals:

In past articles I discussed how one can summon the spherical portals and use them as coordinate vectors into other planes and worlds. I also talked about how consciousness can be expanded outwardly. Combining the two together, the spherical portals can provide two way access into these other worlds. Whereas an inward projection will take you to a more “dense” world, an outward projection will take you a less dense one (further from matter based reality). The further you penetrate into these less denser layers/ worlds, the closer you get to being able to contact those outside the bubble, ie the Elder Guardians (the Unseen 5 are deliberately stationed within the bubble close to its edge in order to properly monitor everything). To achieve this outward projection the process begins the same as an inner projection; you summon the portal to just in front of your vision, but instead of visualising the world you want to go to, you visualise the world you are already in. In other words, you have to condense your surroundings into this ball, then project out of it. Think of it like a giant invisible hand picking you up and carrying you out into space at an incredibly fast speed. All of a sudden the environment you were engaged in has become condensed to the spherical shape of the earth. A similar visualisation can be structured to reach this outcome.

Communication With Non Local, Non Physical Entities via Sleep Paralysis:

Sleep paralysis/ the hypnogogic state can be used to interact with non physical entities. SD and I have found that at times you can hear their “chatter” and at other times you have to ping out an intention to interact with whatever may be hanging around to which they just kind of show up. The best times for doing this seem to be when you are in a sleep paralysis state, but not being consumed by the negative feeling illusions that are at times too overwhelming. When I talked to the clickity clacker ETs it was from the void space after I had just sort of became lucid whilst there (a DILD rather than A WILD). What happened was I became aware of a faint radio-like broadcast whilst floating around in this state that was very noticeably not human.

It was very much like when you have a radio that is just out of tune from a station so you get the broadcast through a wall of white noise. What you have to then do is focus into the {M band} noise, visualise that you are turning a radio dial which changes your own body’s resonance, to tune into the broadcast. I can’t really accurately describe how this was done, only that I did it quite automatically as if I had done it many times before. Once I locked onto the broadcast something weird happened; the clickity clack dialogue became vivid and understandably alien to any dialect we have on earth. It was as if I was just sort of sucked out of the M band layer into a very clear state of consciousness (very typical of what it was like whenever the EG or U5 were contacting me).

I went from floating in this indescribable confusing mess to free floating in a ship filled with a strange liquid I figured was some kind of intergalactic consciousness quarantine zone that doubled as a medical room. I was then telepathically directed over to a cylindrical cubicle via imagery which also showed the non physical “shape” of these beings, and once I stood inside of it, the clickity clack language was automatically translated into something I could understand (English). When I say shape, it was really more of a blob that these things took. Not describable within the confines of human language. You wanna know what we talked about? Human beings having the potential of being incredibly powerful creatures, but their dumb arsery mixing with such power being the primary concern of why creatures such as the clickity clackers steered very well clear of them. And hence why there was a room filled with non physical liquid and several light years worth of space between me and them. The clickity clackers had no problem telepathically implying that the human race were like a bunch of infants with one hand on a box of matches and the other on a stick of dynamite, and were quite happy to treat me with similar caution. Non physical entities being “scared to death of the human race” seems to be a common conversation point for a lot of the entities in these planes.

SD has also had experiences in this same state and from the sleep paralysis/ hypnogogic state where she has pinged out “if anything out there wants to talk, say hello” only to have something reply. The something ended up being a non physical entity that appeared before her twice in the span of a week. The second time, with her agreement, it pulled her astral body out of her physical and gave her a tour of some of the planes in close approximation to the physical world. At the same time she was able to connect to a similar higher consciousness information stream; the beings actually helped in that regard – their presence seems to initiate it. One of these was what appeared to be a sentience/ soul sorting facility which was carried out by a giant machine like device that had the face of a Balinese god.

For those working with angels (and demons ), both forms can be contacted via this same sleep paralysis avenue. A lot of these particular beings hold information on our world and our history that has never and will never make its way to our history books, though many occultists use them for temporary and materialistic gain, which is a real shame. The presence of one of these particular entities is undeniable; there is a massive rush of energy that vibrates through your whole being whenever one of them is around. It is a completely different feeling than when contacted by those who exist outside of the non physical bubble surrounding earth, such as the Elder Guardians and the Unseen 5. It is also hard to gauge what exactly their intentions are. For those who follow the myths surrounding King Solomon and the 72 “fallen angels”, the myths of John Dee and the Angel Enoch, the magic of Metatron etc, this state of sleep paralysis is the avenue by which you make contact with all of them (I suspect King Solomon was an Agent of the Old Empire, for reasons I won’t go into). But I really don’t recommend it if you don’t know what you are doing. They can be quite intimidating on even the best of days, not that I intentionally ever set about to contact them; all my dealings with them were purely by accident. The point I am trying to make with including them here is to suggest just how powerful this telephone line into the non physical planes can be. There is some incredibly powerful shit residing in here, I am just trying to make you aware that some of it can be beneficial to your escape. The question you need to ask is what price you are willing to pay for information seemingly beneficial to your plans.
If you want to ping the Domain, or any other non physical based entity, then I suggest doing it from this state of consciousness. Though I would not know how to tell them apart from other non physical entities that dwell here. Maybe get an official signature off them via MM’s EBP?

Dream Hijacking:

Now, I need to mention here that I was only able to achieve this feat once. It is not exactly something that can be done very easily. The reason for this is because it requires an intense amount of unwavering focus of a target. This not a task for a novice: you need to be exceptionally good at visualisation and focus. Out of all the things one can do whilst in LD, this seems to be the hardest to actually pull off. I suggest that beforehand, I one must plan accordingly as to what dreamscape they should use and any conversation points they wish to bring up whilst engaged in the shared dream, and the process “simulated” over and over again until the LDer is confident they can move from one transition to the next. Even stalling for a millisecond in LD can have drastic consequences on the success of the session. Your thoughts and actions must flow and operate like a well oiled machine.

To begin with, you go to bed or lay yourself down to rest to initiate an LD in standard manner, but from the moment you close your eyes, you visualise the target whose dream you wish to “hijack”. This person must be visualised in as explicit detail as possible. You need to try and picture what they look like, hear what they sound like and smell what they smell like if possible. You must not let any other thought intrude, including the idea of hijacking their dream. This whole point of the visualisation is to provide coordinates for your consciousness to lock onto within the M Band layer of noise. You must carry this visualisation of them through the hypnogogic/ sleep paralysis state and transition on into the void space, and must never allow it to become broken or polluted with other thoughts. Once in the void space you must immediately set about creating the dreamscape by which they will experience. At the same time, you must also hold the visualisation of their being right in front of you as you create the dreamscape around them. Once the dream scape has been created, and remains locked in place, you then focus on talking to them. At this point you should be both engaged in the same dream. I suggest using bland dreamscapes with a degree of familiarity for the both of you to begin with, as I would expect sudden and fantastic dreamscapes may potentially shock them awake.
As one can expect, this method can also be used for remote viewing practices. You Just target an object rather than a person.

Communicating With Dead Entities:

The {apparent} dead entities I was communicating with that led to my Project Edison article were also contacted via the sleep paralysis/ hypnogogic state. I have also used this same state to contact my deceased brother, though that particular experience was too fraught with distortions to accurately tell whether or not it was a proper contact session. With Project Edison, I am 95% sure it was a proper contact session (as opposed to the clickity clackers which were a 100% surety, and the EG/U5 which were a 10000% surety). Basically all I did was callout to any entities that we living considered dead that were hanging around and asked if anyone was interested trying to establish a stable communication line between each other (something that could be used by us physical living entities without having to resort to initiating lucid dreaming or sleep paralysis like I was doing). I was met by of about 4 or 5 of these entities, all who were at one point living on the same planet earth we inhabit, all of which had at least a passive interest in technology. One, possibly two of these entities were some sort of electrical engineer whilst incarnated here, from around the era of Edison and Tesla, though no names were ever given. As nothing really eventuated from this all I can really tell you is there are at least this group of dead entities that seem enthusiastic about creating this communication bridge and who have a fair understanding of how exactly it could be carried out. Tell them I said hi if you end up contacting them.

Predicting Lotto:

I want to start of with a disclaimer that if you win any substantial amount using this method then please donate a fair portion of it to those in need of it. And buy me a house….or maybe just a beer will do fine. Play around with it and see what you can get; at the very least it is a good way to practice your environment simulation skills.

This was essentially an experiment in trying to remote view lotto numbers. Using this method I was only able to ever get 4 out of 6 lotto numbers correctly. The problem I had was trying to remember all 6 numbers after going back through the M band noise layer into the physical world. Lucid dreaming is strange in that you can have perfect clarity of memory whilst engaged in the LD, then lose 90% of it after coming back through threshold into waking reality. Even the simplest of memories become incredibly hard to remember. Now I need to note here that the lotto ticket I was using was a multiple “game” ticket that allowed 18 different combinations of the 6 numbers. Majority of the combinations I used contained the base 4 numbers I could remember plus variants of the two I couldn’t but suspected were the right ones. The rest of the combinations had one or two of the numbers I remembered changed. I was able to win about $15 dollars over three consecutive months each time because of the base four numbers I had remembered; the winning tickets always had these base 4 numbers; if I could have retained memory of those last 2, I would be sitting on something like $30 million right now. I suggest the LDer experiment with these methods and see what they can get. If a group syndicate was able to carry out this same experiment simultaneously then I would imagine those last two numbers would be easier to obtain.

Now, there are two variants of the experiment I utilised, the first seemed to be the more promising.

The first objective was to create the target coordinates for the experiment. Remember, we are dealing with a time and place that needed to be pinpointed to extreme accuracy; we first need to single out the date and time in which the lotto draw is to take place, as well as the country and exact location etc. Prior to the experiment I’d go down to my local newsagent and take note of their advertisement for the next big lotto draw and it’s date and note the location of their newspaper stand, layout of the store, what the Asian guy behind the counter looked like etc. The idea was to commit as much detail of the place to memory.

Then I’d wait for the next chance of LDing to try out the experiment, which was usually a few days later. What I did was enter the void space as per the usual method (either tennis match scenario, or passing through sleep paralysis, likely the latter as it was always done early in the morning). Then at the dream creation stage I would purposefully recreate the environment I planned on buying my lotto ticket from. I’d manifest the entire street the newsagent was on and walk down it. I’d look at the advertisement with the same big lotto win and its date, then I’d make my way over to the newspaper stand out front. I’d make a point of looking down at the page and finding the exact date of its publication (which I made to be the day of the lotto draw); this was all to set up the proper coordinates for my remote viewing target. I’d then go in, weave through the layout of the magazine shelves, and buy a ticket from the Asian guy whose face I would recreate as close as I could to how I remembered it, making sure it was a single game (single combination of numbers). I’d then take a good few minutes just staring at the numbers and committing them to memory as best as I could. I would then exit the session, wake up and immediately write down what I could remember of the numbers.

Over the weeks before the lotto draw I’d play around varying the simulation. Sometimes I would make the dream reflect the newspapers showing it was the day after the lotto draw, and I would check my ticket at the machine only for it to tell me I’d won the jackpot, then look at the numbers on the winning ticket. Again, I’d wake up and record these numbers down. No matter what I did, I could only ever get 4 numbers with over 90% surety. On the day of the draw I’d go down and buy a ticket from the same store and put in all the numbers from the various sessions. Over the years I started varying the entire simulation to reflect the actual draw as to how I would see it on TV; I’d watch the barrel of numbers shoot out each number of the draw. Again, I could only ever get 4 numbers, so I eventually gave up and devoted my LD sessions to things I thought more necessary.

While we are on the subject of lotto prediction in the non physical planes though, I do know a guy whose friend was able to utilise what very much sounded like the void space to win multiple millions 3 separate times. This guy was my old electronics lecturer from my college years who I tracked down about a decade later to talk about where he thought technology was taking us. During our conversation, to my amazement, he brought up the idea of our reality being a simulation and the idea of a linked consciousness he called the human gestile concept that could be communicated with at bed time. Ron would go to bed, and sort of pray to this linked consciousness and ask it certain profound questions in which he swore it would give him answers. He passed this concept onto his friend who used it (it was never mentioned how) to win. Most of those winnings were donated to others that needed it more than him, and it was suggested to Ron that his friend thought had he not been so generous with the distribution of his winnings, he figured he never would have been “allowed” to win them.

I haven’t been able to get back there to verify Ron’s claims since talking to him. But….knowing what I know about the void space being a similar hub that links to other’s consciousnesses together I have a very good idea of how one would go about using it for this purpose. You commit to a conscious transition into its depths so that you are not overwhelmed with the subconscious distortions/ M band noise, then you’d send out the thought for obtaining the numbers for a certain lotto draw you know is coming up. From my conversation with Ron, he implied that you don’t even need to be “asleep” to probe this gestile consciousness “thing” for answers. I was under the impression he was basically doing it during theta state right before sleep paralysis whilst still being awake. Can’t hurt to try right?

Remote Viewing via the Void Space:

Animals make great Remote Viewing targets. Especially ones that roam. They don’t even need to be pets, but pets provide good ways to verify results. Sometimes when I am feeling adventurous, I will try and remote view from a bird, or other random wild animal, like a wolf – I have a thing for wolves. Cats are also good, because they are pretty much the parkour experts of the animal kingdom, and thus fun to view from. Usually these sessions are done whilst still conscious, from Theta state if possible. I will try and picture what the world looks like through eyes of the animal then within a few moments I become that animal and it is like watching a movie playout as I fly/ run across the landscape (which is often in a completely different country). If you have been building your visualisation skills enough, you can port this practice over to the Void Space. When I remote viewed from the off world intelligence back when I was around the age of 14/15, it was from using the void space to conduct one of these RV sessions. I was interested in projecting into various parts of the galaxy to see if I could find anything of relevance. After deliberately accessing the void space, I visualised just a general memory of what all the stars looked like, picked one and focused on it. Before I knew it I was hovering next to a being that seemed very much like it was an progenitor of Native American culture. I’ve explained how that session went in past articles. This is probably the easiest thing to use the Void Space for.

Hive Dreaming:

Vainenmoinen suggested the creation of an LD “pub” where {theoretically} each participant would enter the LD stage and meet up in a predetermined locale. Whilst I have achieved this with SD, I have not done it as a group. I would imagine there would be some difficulties to overcome, most notably the distortions/M Band noise of each participant preventing proper synchronisation occurring. I do know that SDs old music lecturer was doing this very thing with astral projection on a regular basis with a regular group of people. Apparently she stopped doing it when the group {of about 5 or 6} projected into a plane that was off limits and a member was killed by some entity that didn’t approve of them being there.

At that very moment in the physical plane their astral projection coordinator realised this member was in distress and tried to wake them all up, but not before this guy died of what the coroners suggested was a heart attack. Such a danger, however, need not be approached, in my opinion. If the dream environment creation is left to the main “hijacker” then (assuming they know what they are doing) I hypothesise that other participants could then synch into the dreamscape. By providing a 3D model of the dreamscape location before hand, I would imagine this would help with synchronisation efforts.

The key would be for the model and predetermined location to be rather bland in composition so that those not as proficient at visualisation are also able to better synch into it. In saying that though, the main hijacker would have to have a check at hand for the others to “find” within the dreamscape to better prove they were there. Maybe a simple image or something on the table that is the first thing they should look at when arriving at the location. There is also the option of seeking out the Island Beach, as this seems to be a pre-created destination that has been experienced by other lucid dreamers. It could be considered a safe haven, so long as you don’t venture to close to the fence (either stay on the far side of the island or go into the temples via the burrows in the forest.)

Methods of Projecting back and forth through the MWI (Consciousness Time Travel):

When I was about 19, I was having a few regular interactions with what appeared to be a Tibetan Monk of sorts during my LDs who was giving me some pointers on how to effectively use consciousness to go back and forward in time (what we’d call a back and forth MWI slide). This was a really strange period, because (according to SD) I would sit bolt upright in the middle of the night, say random shit like “the Monk says the key is that I must smoke the tree sap” then just go back into an incredibly deep sleep like nothing had happened. These sorts of episodes were a regular occurrence. I’d have them probably once a fortnight.

I remember during one LD the Monk emphasized that there were 12 or 13 “words” that could be chanted via mediation to prepare consciousness in this manner. I only ever remembered one of them – “Djock” with a stressed emphasis on the “ck” sound. I was also given certain symbols during these meditations, which were supposedly further aids. Admittedly I have used these aids during meditation and had LDs following them that are suggestive of some form of time travel. Like one where I was given an alternate history of how my father could have met my mother and the resultant future that would have stemmed from it. This involved being in a time chamber where a portal appeared and showed me this outcome like I was watching a movie. Apparently that outcome would have led to a much better life for me. Oh well, shit happens I guess.

There was also something to do with a book existing in 2 instances of time that had been edited to achieve the world line I am currently living out. I basically saw the before and after of the book. I believe this place was linked to other places I have visited in LD. My training at the time travel towers also started around this same time.

Simulations for Memory Recall:

LD can be used for accurate memory recall. When I was about 17, and fresh out of school, I ended up scoring a job working for a local tree lopping company. As it turned out, one of the guys I was working with regularly was the brother of a girl that I went to school with. I knew this girl by association only; I never really hung around her group of friends, but some of my friends were friends with hers. So when I was at school I had a passing knowledge of her. She was at a few of the same parties I went to, but I never so much as said more than hi to her during my whole time at school.

Anyway this brother of hers, he was talking about her in passive tense, and I realised he had the same last name, so there was enough there for me to make that very faint connection. Only problem was, I couldn’t for the life of me remember her first name. I could picture her face easily enough, but her name just completely evaded me. This annoyed the shit out of me, because it had only been a season since I had been at school, so there was no real reason for this memory blank. Yet it persisted all week. I’d see this guy and then think “what the fuck is his sister’s name?”, and I just couldn’t shake that thought all day.

Of course, I didn’t say anything to him; he’d made it seem like I should have known her, so I didn’t bring it up in fear of the awkwardness of the situation. So I figured I try my hand at using LD to remember it. One night, after becoming lucid half way through a dream, I thought of this girl, and how I didn’t remember her name. I simulated one of the parties we would have been at during school, then I let it play out, hoping I’d trick my sub consciousness into giving it away. And it actually did. The weird thing was though, it did so by attaching a completely random name to her face. So in the LD, I introduced myself to her, and likewise she introduced herself back. “Hi I’m Elise”, she said. I immediately woke up and my mind screamed at me “HER FUCKING NAME IS MEGAN, IDIOT”.

Maybe it needed that incorrect bit of data to compute the real value, I honestly don’t know. The funny thing is, now something like 16 years later, I can recall her name as easily as my own, despite not seeing her since high school. So yeah, the void space can definitely be used for suppressed memory recall. What you do is enter it and create a dream simulation centred around the thing you wish to remember, and use what every snippets of information about the scenario you can rember to create the simulation. You can also “feed in” certain thoughts to make certain lifestyle choices as a sort of sub conscious mind hack. It’s pretty much self hypnotism.

Using the Void Space for Healing:

When I had my fingers cut open (the gruesome details of which can be found in my autobio), I again used lucid dreaming to heal them with a decent measure of success. These weren’t your average wounds either. All four fingers on my left hand, discounting my thumb, were cut at or near the joint where they meet the hand, through to the bone. This included 4 four tendons, an artery, and a few nerves here and there on the palm side. In fact, the cuts were so bad, if it hadn’t been for my bones keeping them attached, my fingers would have come off almost completely. The surgeons even contemplated amputating my ring finger because the damage was so extensive (thankfully they didn’t).
This amount of damage was apparently unheard of for my Occupational Therapists. Usually the people they saw had one or two fingers damaged at most. Not 4 fifths of a whole hand. After my operation, I had stitches zig zagging up my fingers all the way to their tips. I counted about 62 of them of the outside, and the surgeons claimed I had another 10 or so holding my tendons together. They said it was like stitching 2 pieces of spaghetti together. The whole thing was classed as a catastrophic injury with a slim chance of me being able to gain much function back in them by the OTs.

Regardless, I had a voice in the back of my head telling me I needed to try lucid dreaming ASAP. So the night after I got home from hospital I set to work entering the void space and doing some healing visualisations. I’d go into my hand at a cellular level and pictures all the tendons and everything fusing back together, send little electrical bursts around them to make sure the information was going through etc.

The next night, I was lying in bed and I could feel everything – and I mean everything – fusing back together. I could actually feel the tendons and nerves repairing themselves. It was a very strange but comforting feeling. I ended up making a remarkable recovery. Six months after the incident, I walked into the OTs office and she told me I had regained about 98% function in my fingers. I was able to straighten them almost completely. Apart from a few tiny things like not being able to bend the last knuckle of my ring finger, I had a perfect functioning hand. My OT (who had the same name as my wife) couldn’t believe it. I just shrugged and told her I knew the secrets to healing. She laughed and said “oh, you do not” thinking I was joking.

Unfortunately, a few months later my hand took a blow that was too much for it and undid all that hard work. At least now I know if I suffer another bad injury how to aid in the healing process. The main thing is that you need to be quick. Don’t put off the LD healing simulation if you can help it. And don’t expect to just be able to do one session and the rest will work itself out. Keep up with whatever strict regime your OT suggests, and use LD to nudge your body in the right direction.

A Theoretical Process of Using Consciousness to Hijack An ET Space Craft
Again, I haven’t tested this out. But let’s quickly run through some past revelations I have dropped in this article and expand upon them a little shall we? My experience with the clickity clackers and hijacking SD’s dreamscape suggests that one can alter their consciousness operating frequency to “tune” into the consciousness frequency of others. My experiences using remote viewing via the Void Space suggests that some form of navigational control can be obtained whilst in this state. Airl (as well as Colonel Philip Corso in his The Day After Roswell book) suggests that the type of craft they utilise are tuned to the frequency of their pilot’s thought signatures. Airl also suggests that somewhere on earth are the consciousnesses of 3000 Domain personnel. I think it is safe to assume that at least some of those Domain operatives were possible space craft pilots, don’t you? So hypothetically, speaking, if one of these Domain pilots was able to enter the void space through the LD state, and “tune” into their ship like I tuned into the clickity clackers, then operate it using Remote Viewing practices…..You get the point. It might be nothing – the thought of a guy with an overly active imagination – but I sure as hell would prefer to experiment down this avenue rather than develop an ever repeating new Iphone model, wouldn’t you? This is the sort of shit astral projectors lucid dreamers should be focusing their attention on, again in my humble opinion.

The process I would use would be: Focus on the space craft in question upon going to sleep as is done for dream hijacking, carry this visualisation over and into Sleep Paralysis/ hypnogogia state and poll for frequency pings, tune into those pings until locked on, then enter the Void Space, create a simulated “dream environment” for the craft and go from there (I am assuming your piloting skills might be a bit rusty after just waking up from a couple of thousand year slumber). You could even use remote viewing via the Void Space to try and target a ship for hijacking prior to the experiment. Just a suggestion. Now, if I was to bump into such a craft when astral projecting, what does this tell you? The astral planes can be utilised as an inter dimensional space craft highway! So, what if instead of focusing on a physical craft, you focus on a non physical one instead? How do you know half of the lights people see in the sky aren’t just someone incredibly well accomplished at astral projection (ie the Project Stargate operatives that went Deep Black) and are piloting one of these very vehicles? “Excuse me sir, we have a problem…..the pilot of the alien space craft we just shot down is the Dalai Lama”. Perhaps I’ll expand on this and break it out into another one of my psionics projects.

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[daegonmagus] – Part 14 – Domain HQ and Amnesia Mechanism Remote Viewing Session 17th Dec 2021

The following is the fourteenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 14 – Domain HQ and Amnesia Mechanism Remote Viewing Session 17^th Dec 2021

I have been doing some remote viewing every now and then when I get some spare time.

Today was one of the rarer opportunities I got to give it a go.

The last time I tried was several weeks ago. In that particular session I was trying to find the Domain base of operations stationed in the asteroid belt that Airl mentioned in Alien Interview.

I ended viewing a chunk of rock – an asteroid – with a very specific shape.

When I went to zoom into it I saw the silhouette of two Grey faces appeared as a sort of yellowish hue in front of the rock, and wave.

The hand that waved was very different to ours with four extremely long fingers.

A few days later I stumbled across MMs article regarding the greys he has worked with and the handprint of one of them.

That particular hand print exactly matched the hand that waved to me.

I also viewed some sort of room on what appeared to be a ship.

There was a flight of about 6 or 7 triangular shaped stairs that led to a platform with some sort of machinery on it.

Emanating from the tops of these stairs was a soft blue light.

I got the impression it was some sort of “engine” room or something.

Today’s Session:

I deliberately set about targeting physical locations that had something to do with the amnesia mechanisms.

The thought was inspired by an in5D article I read a few days ago that stated that the force screens can be turned off if someone was able to locate their physical “switch” and just flick it off .

I was immediately taken to a building, possibly in a section of America’s tech zone (Silicone Valley etc).

This building wasn’t anything huge; just a few stories high with the usual glass windows, very square – typical 80s architecture.

In front of the door was a logo; an upturned crescent moon with the name Andrew S. Lipia.

I have no doubt about Andrew and Lipia, the S standed for something like Sipil or Sibil.

It faded as I stopped to have SD write it down.

There was also possibly Dr before it, suggesting the building was made out to be psychologist practice.

The strange thing was, as this building came across my vision, I felt something – a hand – clap me on the back as if to say “well done”.

It was such a hard clap, that it actually jolted me as if I was right there in front of the building and got pushed forward from it.

Something told me this building had “secret” underground access to what I was looking for.

After this I tried locating the same asteroid I viewed in last weeks session.

I managed to get hone into a disc shaped building on the underside of the rock.

This disc had a square shaped cavity inside of it that “attached” to a similar shaped hole that had been bored into the asteroid to make efficient exit and entry to the disc.

The disc itself was a conventional saucer shape with a sharp “seam” where the top and bottom halves met similar to a clam shell.

After this I decided to try viewing the moon.

I Had been spotting it through my telescope the past few nights and had a few craters I wished to check out.

So, using the birds eye viewing landscape I had seen through my scope I was able to visualise going onto the moons surface and viewing it from there.

My attention turned towards the sky.

There was some kind of round object that was moving towards me at a rather fast speed.

It would have been about half the size of what we see the moon as when looking at it from earth.

Whatever it was had a trail of lightning blue streaks coming off from behind it; this is what had caught my attention.

The round shape of this thing was set as a shadow the blocked out the centre part of this blue light.

I then tried viewing this object. I managed to get up close and view it from behind where the blue light trail was emanating from a distance of maybe a kilometre.

The object seemed to be another asteroid that was being propelled forward by a hexagonal array of thrusters.

These thrusters were what was causing the blue light.

MM Comments

Well done. For certain.

There’s a lot here. But there are connections that seem to point at certain directions.

I did ask the Domain Commander about this.

SAT 18DEC21 9:48am

His response…

*null*

We do not discuss operational activities publicly. 

*end*

And that, is that.

We can individually report what we ourselves can experience, however in regards to The Domain and their thoughts and comments regarding missions or activities, it is off-limits.

Sorry that I cannot provide more information.-MM

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

MM Articles & Links

https://original.antiwar.com/natylie_baldwin/2021/12/06/us-government-threatens-writers-with-heavy-fines-if-they-continue-to-write-for-sanctioned-russian-outlet/

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Nuclear armed B-2 bombers with escort wings to be based inside of Australia to “counter” China for American “democracy”

It’s a never ending onslaught of war preparation, war provocation, and war stockpiling being generated out of the United States. There is ZERO talk about deescalation. I tire of all of this. It seems like the United States is driving the world to war and they aren’t stopping for shit.

There’s no real need for this.

China is minding their own business. Not harming anyone. Sure they make all the products, and are making them better, cheaper and faster than the bloat-ware that is found in the USA. But that is not a reason to kill them. It is a reason to copy them.

Sheech!

And every evil deed is Chinas fault. And China is doing this and that - it’s fucking bad news. My buddy - this past weekend emails me an article about the Chinese military doing something - the article was 7 years old. No matter. It makes China look bad - plaster it all over the news and blame China.

When the media - in America - and THIS I know to be true - because I fucking SEEN it - as soon as our media starts showing how the shelves are bare here - because they blame China - but what’s going to happen is right when it gets bad - they are going to show bare shelves here and stocked shelves in China. It’s to anger everyone - I say this specifically because the mass rage that is coming towards Asians is coming - fast. It’s the quickest way to take out an internal threat. Let the CITIZENS do it. -PL

And Russia; what’s the beef with them? It’s not like there are Russian and Chinese aircraft carriers in Boston Harbor are there?

Biden - in HIS infinite wisdom - decides he is going to play Russian Roulette - WITH RUSSIA - they named a suicidal game after the Russians! Again, the irony. So NOW - and let me be very clear - VERY. clear. The average person - people I know throughout the country - and I ask - alllllll know - the ONLY reason we are about to start lobbing nukes at ANYONE is because we all know the money laundering the Biden’s Clinton’s and Obama’s have been doing in Ukraine. It’s been their evil little washing machine AND AMERICA KNOWS IT. So now - people are even more antsy. -PL

Why all this bullshit?

To distract from the reality?

American reality

The thing is - to me - I am amazed by the psychology of it all. And the stupidity - holy shit dude - it’s like everyone is slowly becoming retarded. Like mad cow or something. -PL

video 38.6MB

First; who are the evil Russian communists?

They are people just like you and I. But the United States wants to engage in a war to distract Americans, and Russia and China are the enemies chosen for this event. Here’s modern Russia. Video 8MB

Canada Goose

Canada Goose puts spotlight on double standards against Chinese consumers

Canada Goose is feeling the wrath of Chinese consumers after their physical flagship store in Shanghai refused to refund a customer.

She tried to return a jacket the same day she bought it because the embroidering of the logo had an extra arc in the sun. The store refused, citing the company’s return policy for China: “No refunds.”

Netizens quickly pointed out that they have a 30-day return policy for Canada, US and UK. Now Canada Goose is under fire for their double standard.

With all this bad press, Canada Goose decided to refund the customer. But not before sparking a major discussion about brands discriminating against Chinese consumers.

Now LV and Gucci have also become targets as consumers quickly pointed out they have the same difference in return policies across countries.

You’re sick of me saying it but here it is again: The Chinese are the smartest consumers on the planet. They’ll find any discrepancies you have in your offers. And they have high standards.

Doing business here is not cheap. You need to account for dealing with the returns process. Cutting corners will get you in trouble.

What do you think? Are the companies justified in having different return policies for each country, or is this discrimination?

…

Now, let’s check out this little jewel;

Cockroach robot armies!

You betya!

…

Yikes!

Ok. Let’s see about the first amendment; “Freedom of Speech”. Does it still exist in America today? Nope. Not in the least…

US Government Threatens Writers With Heavy Fines if They Continue To Write for Sanctioned Russian Outlet

Freedom of the press - American style.

Natylie BaldwinDecember 07, 2021

Establishment institutions usually start their implementation of censorship and the throttling of press freedom by going after individuals and outlets that are small and/or not well liked by a cross-section of the public. The obscurity or general unpalatable nature of the target ensures the success of setting the precedent.

Most Americans have probably never heard of Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF) and many would be unsympathetic once they learn that the U.S. government claims it is a think tank and journal associated with Russian military intelligence, although no evidence is offered to back up this assertion, and SCF denies it has ties to the Russian government.

But years of anti-Russia sentiment in the political sphere and in most American media ensures that the claim alone will suffice to tar any Americans associated with Strategic Culture Foundation with a black brush.

I have confirmed that two American writers for SCF have received letters from the US Treasury Department in recent weeks warning them of fines of over $300,000 if they continue to write for the journal.

These threats are in response to alleged Russian interference in the 2020 US election and part of the US government’s enforcement of Executive Order 13848 signed by President Donald Trump in September of 2018 which sought to ascertain foreign interference in any future elections in the US and to punish those deemed guilty.

Threats to US elections included not only tampering with actual voting and its supporting infrastructure but “covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation.”

According to the Treasury Department’s April 15, 2021 press release in connection with the designation of SCF and other Russian entities to be sanctioned pursuant to the executive order, the US government stated its intent to target those they see as Russia’s enablers on behalf of its alleged program to interfere in US elections:

"Treasury will target Russian leaders, officials, intelligence services, and their proxies that attempt to interfere in the US electoral process or subvert US democracy," said Secretary Janet L. Yellen. "This is the start of a new US campaign against Russian malign behavior." (emphasis added)

The release also accuses SCF specifically, without evidence, of being directed by Russian military intelligence and that its articles spread “disinformation” – which appears to mean opinion and analysis that the US government doesn’t like:

The Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF) is an online journal registered in Russia that is directed by the SVR and closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SCF is controlled by the SVR’s Directorate MS (Active Measures) and created false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning US officials involved in the 2020 US presidential election. It publishes conspiracy theorists, giving them a broader platform to spread disinformation, while trying to obscure the Russian origins of the journal so that readers may be more likely to trust the sourcing…

…Treasury designated…the Strategic Culture Foundation pursuant to E.O. 13848 for having engaged in foreign interference in the US 2020 presidential election.

The ordeal started for the two American writers in July of 2020 when they each received a visit at their home from FBI agents inquiring about SCF and its connections to Russia. Daniel Lazare, an author and journalist told Finian Cunningham recently that the agents wanted to know about alleged links of SCF to Russian intelligence:

"I replied that I wasn’t interested because I regard the entire avenue of inquiry as bogus and a product of the anti-Moscow hysteria that’s running rampant in Washington. So the agents left. Everything was polite and low-keyed, and the entire exchange took no more than four or five minutes."

Similarly, Michael Averko, who had written for SCF since 2015, stated that two FBI agents came to his home in July of 2020 and asked about SCF ties to the Russian government. They told him at the time that he wasn’t in any trouble and didn’t have to answer their questions, but Averko was hesitant to say much, recalling what had happened to Michael Flynn:

"The only question I answered was on whether the SCF has any ties to Russian military intelligence. I answered by saying I can’t say for sure and doubt it. I added that my impression is that the SCF comprises politically interested Russians, who want to be involved with the issues they cover."

It wasn’t until November of this year that Lazare and Averko both received letters dated October 15, 2021 from the Treasury Department, delivered personally by the FBI. The letters advised that they were in violation of sanctions against SCF per executive order 13848 and were potentially subject to fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars if they did not stop contributing articles to SCF:

"[P]ursuant to Executive Order 13848 of September 12, 2018…all property and interests in property of SCF that are subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them…[E]ach violation… is subject to a statutory maximum civil monetary penalty of up to the greater of $311,562 or twice the value of the underlying transaction."

When asked whether he thought this would set a troubling precedent for Americans who write for foreign media outlets, Lazare said he believed it would:

"Absolutely. Why not ban RT, formerly known as Russia Today? If the government is pissed off against Emmanuel Macron, why not go after Agence France-Presse? The US complains when Russia harasses western news outlets, yet it’s guilty of precisely the same activities at home. As far as I’m concerned, threatening US journalists with fines for writing for a Russian press outlet is a flagrant assault on freedom of the press."

Averko was a bit more circumspect and thinks the government believes because SCF is a relatively small outlet, it can more easily get away with sanctioning it:

"The SCF and its US based American writers are (in the overall comparative scheme of things) small potatoes and an easier target to beat up on."

Both writers say they know of other US contributors to the outlet who have received the same letter and are intimidated. Lazare stated:

"While I have no particular concerns in my own case, other journalists are so frightened that they’ve not only stopped writing, but don’t even want to speak about their experience with other reporters. No one wants to mess with the federal government because they know the feds can make your life a misery if they’re so motivated. So they’ve clammed up. If you’ve ever wondered what “chilling effect” means, this is it."

While US officials may be unlikely to go after major foreign media, it’s very possible this could be a precedent to go after smaller outlets with unsubstantiated accusations of foreign interference and spreading of “disinformation.”

Lazare is in the process of seeking legal advice about the government threats. Averko said he was considering it and believes it would probably be best for all SCF contributors who received the letter to work together on any possible legal claim, though he’s aware of at least one who is unwilling to do so.

This is another example of the US undermining its own purported democratic values, which it touts to the rest of the world, in order to punish those who associate with the latest bogeyman country while providing no evidence that this outlet is even guilty of what they assert. After WMD’s and Russiagate, it would be foolish to take US government claims at face value as we are again being asked to do.

Natylie Baldwin is the author of The View from Moscow: Understanding Russia and U.S.-Russia Relations, available on Amazon. Her writing has appeared in various publications including Consortium News, RT, OpEd News, The Globe Post, Antiwar.com, The New York Journal of Books, and Dissident Voice.

…

Let’s dive in and begin this discussion with this subject; Nuclear armed B-2 bombers with escort wings to be based inside of Australia to “counter” China.

Scheech! How about a role reversal;

 "Mexico and Canada to base Chinese and Russian nuclear stealth aircraft to counter America."

Wouldn’t you think that would be enough to start a war, eh?

OK. First up. A lamb to the slaughter. The USA is turning Australia into a battle zone and a sacrificial lamb for “American interests”. Whoo woo!

From here: https://www.the-sun.com/news/4175667/us-stealth-bombers-fighter-jets-australia-china-north-korea/

GEARING UP

US sends B2 stealth bombers & fleet of fighter jets to Australia as military threats from China & North Korea grow

Lauren Fruen

12:40 ET, Nov 30 2021
Updated: 14:56 ET, Nov 30 2021

THE US will send B2 stealth bombers and a fleet of fighter jets to Australia amid a growing military threat from China and North Korea.

Military resources will also be bolstered in Guam with bases there upgraded, according to a new Pentagon review.

The report says the changes are necessary to…

 “deter potential Chinese military aggression and threats from North Korea”.

It also suggests new B2 stealth bombers and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets could soon be deployed.

The review looks to a growing focus on the Indo-Pacific region “to enable improved warfighting readiness and increased activities.”

RISING TENSIONS

Mara Karlin, deputy undersecretary for policy at the US’s Department of Defence, said: “In Australia, you’ll see new rotational fighter and bomber aircraft deployments.

"You’ll see ground forces training and increased logistics cooperation, and more broadly across the Indo-Pacific, you’ll see a range of infrastructure improvements, in Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Australia."

The Biden administration has focused its attention on countering China as it bolsters its own military amid rising tensions over Taiwan.

Taiwan broke away from China in 1949 but the Chinese ~~ruling party~~ government regards the island as a “renegade state” and has repeatedly vowed to take it back by force if necessary by 2050.

Any invasion would represent a serious escalation of hostilities and could drag in the US through its pact to defend Taiwan.

SUCKED INTO CONFLICT

Washington’s regional allies such as South Korea, Japan and Australia could also be sucked into a conflict as would Nato forces such as the UK because the US is a member of the alliance.

Vice Adm. Karl Thomas said this week that it is important to put on a united front to “other nations that might be more aggressive and authoritarian” when probed on Russia and China.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in September that the nuclear arms race has the globe teetering “unacceptably close” to mass atomic destruction.

In October the US formed a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain to counter China.

China reacted angrily, accusing the US and its English-speaking partners of embarking on a project that will destabilize the Pacific to the detriment of global security.

…

And what about Taiwan having all the IC manufacturing capability?

Nope. China is getting it.

Foxconn new factory in Qingdao using 46 made by China lithography machines to produce chip (decoupling from the US and Europe technology)

Foxconn has laid a new milestone for both its semiconductor business and China’s semiconductor ambition. Together with China’s Rongkong Group, a state-owned enterprise, Foxconn has invested in an advanced chip packaging facility in China’s costal city Qingdao. Through two intermediaries, Foxconn has a combined 27.5% share in the new facility, while Rongkong Group has a 46.85% share. Volume production will start in December, and by 2025 the plant is scheduled to reach its full capacity of 360,000 wafers per year.

Currently, Foxconn has two chip packaging businesses under its wing. The first of them is ShunSin Technoogy, and the other is Foxconn’s own semiconductor division which oversights the Qingdao-based packaging facility.

Notably, the packaging facility also serves China’s semiconductor industrial policy by using the country’s domestically produced lithography machines. The new packaging facility has reportedly purchased 46 lithography machines from SMEE to support advanced packaging technologies such as Flip Chip, Fan-In WLP, Fan-Out WLP, and 2.5D/3D.

Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Co. (SMEE), founded in 2002, is expected by the Chinese government to be its answer to ASML, the Dutch lithography machine maker that has dominated the lithography market. Earlier, SMEE only produces 90nm lithography machines. However, SMEE once announced that it would deliver China’s first 28nm lithography machines between 2021 and 2022. Even Huawei has indirectly cooperated with SMEE to solve the EUV chokepoint that has been derailing…

https://techtaiwan.com/20210729/foxconns-new-chip-facility-what-does-it-mean-for-chinese-semiconductor-policy/

American military nuclear forces 101

Infographic…

And who are all these terrible bombs and planes going to kill and destroy?

People like you and me. And some very pretty innocent girls. All for American “freedom” and “democracy”! Video 1.1MB

And what is specifically the plan to “Defend Taiwan from Chinese aggression”?

You can’t make this stuff up.

The following paper illustrates the kinds of options U.S. war planners are toying with when strategizing on how to “defend Taiwan”.

Recommendations that appear in the winter issue of Parameters, a quarterly publication from the U.S. Army War College include:

[1] The United States should lay plans for a targeted scorched-earth strategy that would render Taiwan unattractive to China by utterly destroying its most valuable industrial infrastructure, including destroying facilities belonging to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

[2] Fomenting social unrest by destroying Taiwan’s economy and arming insurgents for long-term guerrilla warfare on the island.

In other words, U.S. war planners think the best way to “defend Taiwan” is to raze it to the ground.

Deterring China from invading Taiwan.

Just do great things…

Sigh. Remember…

Do your best. Be kind. Be fair. Try to work with people, and help people. You are not in a race to make the most money. You are in a situation called “life” and that means participation in your community.

Hate – Hate – Hate spews forth from American “news”

And the anti-China propaganda is really thick and heavy too. Check out this nonsense…

HIDDEN STRIKE

China feared to be hiding missiles in shipping containers for Trojan Horse-style plan to launch attack ANYWHERE in world

Tariq Tahir

8:25 ET, Dec 6 2021
Updated: 12:34 ET, Dec 6 2021

CHINA has been secretly developing Trojan Horse-style missiles hidden in shipping containers that can be unleashed on enemy ports, experts warn.

Oh, it's those pesky "experts" again. -MM

Military analysts believe the country’s huge fleet of freighters and fishing vessels could be turned into warships with the use of the secretive container missiles.

Disguised as a regular shipping containers, they can be sneaked on board a vessel to blend in seamlessly with the hundreds of others on board.

The sheer number of container ships in the world makes them harder to pinpoint than warships in the event of war.

Each ship could hide hundreds of dangerous ICBM nuclear missiles…

Like the fabled Trojan Horse, the missiles would be quietly smuggled into or near an enemy port on a civilian vessel before being unleashed in a surprise attack.

Rick Fisher, senior fellow in Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, told The Sun Online while Chinese have not officially confirmed they have the missiles – it is likely they have them.

And the it was warned in a study by Stockton Center for International Law that the weapons could violate naval laws.

Meanwhile, retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence chief, previously said a containerized anti-ship missile would add a significant threat to the US Navy.

It comes amid a new wave of tensions between the US and China as the Communist giant challenges Washington’s status as the world’s top superpower.

China is known to be aggressively developing its military and is squaring up to the US – expanding its reach around the world, such as in Africa.

A mock-up of the missiles first appeared at an arms fair in 2016 and since then there has been speculation since they may now be in service with China’s armed forces.

Mr Fisher believes the weapon fits with the Beijing’s military strategy and likely would be used as an offensive capability against their enemies – potentially being smuggled into foreign ports anywhere in the world.

Mr Fisher told The Sun Online “Chinese strategic preferences for surprise would strongly argue for acquisition” of the missiles.

These would be fitted to “nondescript small Chinese ships in order to mount surprise missile raids against shore defences to assist follow on amphibious or airborne invasion forces”.

Fisher said shipping container missile launchers can be smuggled through ports or via highway ports of entry

They could then be stored for years in a climate-controlled building within range of US military bases, and taken out when needed for military operations.

Mr Fisher said the containerised missiles would “offer China’s leadership a wide array of options”.

Washington would be in chaos, would not know against whom to retaliate
-Jick Fisher

This includes

“using larger container ships, thousands of fishing ships or stored containers in ports, to undertake military or terror mission strikes in a manner that can be denied if desired”.

“The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is fully capable of using containerized missiles to sow chaos when desired,” he insisted.

For example Chinese missile launching containers could be stored near the Port of Seattle.

The Chinese would wait for the day they can launch an electromagnetic pulse warhead-armed missiles over the nearby nuclear ballistic missile submarine base Fisher said.

"The EMP blast might take out electronics on the [submarines] and all over the base without having to launch a nuclear missile from China,” he said.

“Washington would be in chaos, would not know against whom to retaliate, and perhaps China uses American distraction to begin its real objective, the military conquest of Taiwan."

According to US officials, the weapons deployed in the containers are an advanced anti-ship missile called the YJ-18C, which is a version of the Russian Club-K weapon.

The missiles fit into a standard 8 feet wide by 8.5 feet high by 20 feet or 40 feet long standard shipping container.

An online animation showing how the Club-K can be fitted into a container shows how the top comes off to reveal the missile with the front making away for the guidance system.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the missile has speed of up to Mach 3 – three times the speed of sound or 2,300mph.

While not in the league of China’s hypersonic missiles, which can reach speeds of Mach 10, analysts believe they can still pack a punch.

So far the only record of missile being fired from a container ship is a picture of a test carried out by Israel.

A large number Chinese container ships enter US ports on the west and east coast making them well within range of the vast majority of the US fleet.

"If this capability is confirmed, it will require a completely new screening regime for all PRC flagged commercial ships bound for U.S. ports," Fanell said.

The Stockton Center’s study concluded that loading weapons on civilian vessels clandestinely could violate international law.

It wrote:

"Failure to comply with the law of armed conflict by surreptitiously incorporating merchant vessels into China’s warfighting/war-sustaining effort endangers civilian seafarers and puts all civilian ships at risk that may be operating in the area of hostilities."

POWER GAME

China is perceived as directly challenging the West for status as the world attempts to recover from the pandemic.

Beijing is making moves to establish a foothold in the Atlantic Ocean with a new series of naval bases on the west coast of Africa.

The country’s first overseas naval base was built years ago in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and it is steadily increasing its capacity.

And for some time, many have thought that China was working to establish a naval base in Tanzania, a country on Africa’s eastern coast that has a strong, long-standing military relationship with Beijing.

Meanwhile, China is also seen to have taken the lead in the next stage of the global arms race as it flew a nuke-capable missile around the world.

Hypersonic missiles are a game changer because unlike ballistic missiles, which fly into space before returning on steep trajectories, they zoom in on targets at lower altitudes.

China – followed closely by Russia – were already regarded as having the most potent hypersonic missile arsenals pouring billions into them but others had been seen as catching up.

But the shocking revelations of their missile test back in August has sent shockwaves through Western intelligence who fear they actually underestimated Beijing.

US intelligence and military officials were reportedly left stunned after China launched a rocket in space carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle which circled the globe before before speeding towards its target.

Just who are these evil communists that must be killed?

You know for “The American way” of “freedom” and “democracy”! Video 1MB

And now the USA is equipping all the F-16’s and F-35 fighter jets with the ability to drop nuclear bombs. Are they out of their fucking minds????

…

Well, you know, YES they ARE.

China and Russia BOTH treat any weapon system that can deliver nuclear munitions as de facto launching those missiles.

A good look at what America wants to destroy and kill

Soak up the reality. The United States is trying to get everyone to hate – hate – hate so that these people shown in this video will be killed. All for the greedy psychopaths to continue to rule. video 18MB

U.S. assembled the first B61-12 nuclear bomb for F-35A and F-15E

By Boyko Nikolov On Dec 4, 2021

WASHINGTON – In the United States last month, November 23, the assembly of the first serial guided thermonuclear bomb B61-12 Life Extension Program [LEP] was completed. This was announced on December 2, by the US National Nuclear Security Administration, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

Last week, #NNSA successfully completed the B61-12 First Production Unit @PantexPlant. This is a huge milestone for stockpile modernization and demonstrates our Nation’s commitment to #nuclear deterrence. pic.twitter.com/90ojHPw6cH

— NNSA Administrator (@NNSAHruby) December 2, 2021

According to the report, the B61-12 bomb modernization project lasted more than nine years – such a long period was required for the design, development, qualification, and production of components.

Full-scale mass production of these bombs is scheduled to begin in May 2022. In total, the program is expected to produce more than four hundred bombs by the end of 2026. In total, the project should cost about $ 12 billion.

According to the US National Nuclear Security Administration, the modernization will keep the bomb in operation for another 20 years and “will continue to ensure the safety and effectiveness of weapons.”

It is known that B61-12 should replace other tactical versions of this bomb [-3, -4, and -7] and will probably be stored at US and NATO bases in Europe. The main carriers of this bomb will be F-35A and F-15E fighters.

What is a B61-12 thermonuclear bomb?

The B61-12 thermonuclear bomb belongs to the B61 family. B61 is the main thermonuclear gravitational bomb of the United States, actively developed amid the Cold War with the Eastern blog close to the USSR.

According to the characteristics known to the general public, B61 has the possibility of a complete explosion, ie. a full range of ignition and delivery options, whether by air or ground. The B61 is capable of reaching supersonic flight speeds. The dimensions of the thermonuclear bomb are 3.56 m long, 33 cm in diameter, and a total weight of about 320 kg. Military experts say that depending on the B61 version, the weight can vary.

The latest modification of the B61 is the B61 Mod 12 or B61-12. One of the tests of the B61 Mod 12 at the very beginning of its development showed that this thermonuclear bomb can penetrate underground and reach an equivalent ability to explode on the surface of weapons from 750 kilotons to 1.25 megatons.

Experts say that “underground penetration” was not planned, but it is good news, as B61 Mod 12 could become a successful replacement for B61 Mod 11, whose main function is underground penetration. The B61 Mod 11 is expected to be decommissioned by the end of 2030.

***

So who are these bombs going to kill?

Well, one thing that is omitted PURPOSEFULLY in American media is showing any humanity with the targeted enemies. there are no pictures that show Russians or Chinese people being human. Just these evil narratives, ugly narratives, and fear mongering dangerous narratives. Not here on MM. We are being blunt. These are the people that your government is trying to kill. video. 4MB

Why? Why kill the nice, cute and hard working people of the world?

For this “freedom”, “liberty”, and “democracy”? Are you out of your FUCKING MIND? video 29MB

So, who are these bombs, missiles and war machines going to protect?

Are they going to protect you from the “red menace”? Nope. It is just a way to maintain the status quo and keep the evil greedy in positions of incredible wealth and power. video 14.3MB

Sigh. Here’s Phobos.

Hell, you have to leave the earth to escape this madness.

And let’s not forget about the moon.

China sends lunar rover to probe object on far side of moon

https://lnkd.in/gYurS23Z

My goodness.

Question: what is the longest time US roller exploring the moon or Mars?

Dose this mean that China roller is more advanced than the USA:

China’s Yutu 2 rover discovered the curious cube on the horizon in the Von Kármán crater in November. The solar-powered rover, which first landed on the moon almost three years ago, has now been tasked to spend the next two to three months investigating the object.

https://www.9news.com.au/world/chinese-rover-yutu-2-spots-mystery-house-on-the-moon/b3fcc9b4-d14e-4382-986f-af883b4f1952

America Today

Sigh. Be kind.

“Over the summer while working a DUI shift, I stopped out at a local gas station to grab a drink. While waiting in line, the lady in line ahead of me offered to purchase my drink. I kindly declined the offer and stated I’d get it but thanked her. The kind lady then politely grabbed the drink out of my hand and set it on the counter to purchase.

It’s it very common in my city for a citizen to purchase food or drinks for police officers. These kind acts do not go unnoticed and I feel blessed to work for a community that proudly supports law enforcement. Building community relationships goes a long way.”

Rufus

With all the bad news being thrown at you, how about some good news to offset it all and find stability in your heart; your mind and your soul? video

Sigh. Make a difference!

Sometimes following in your father’s footsteps can lead you to the most beautiful corners of the world .

Why the CIA is so frustrated with China…

Here’s what the Chinese AI social credit scoring system works. No wonder the CIA and the NED are all upset. Their agent saboteurs cannot do anything. Which is why all the CIA agents in Hong Kong were found, rounded up and either deported or are spending long prison terms in China. video 24MB

Rufus tales

Be the Rufus like this bus driver that gives up his coat to warm up a high school girl on his bus. Video 12MB

Yu Beng Village(雨崩村), Deqing, Yunnan Province, China

China is big. It looks a lot like Switzerland in many places.

AI! I am getting off track…

So what is my point? News out the “West” is fear-hate-fear-hate.

But is that really helping you?

I say that instead, it is making you ill. It is hurting you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and all the rest. Know that there is a great life here for all of us to live and the answer lies in community. Whether world war III occurs, or the United States and the rest of the world just melts down, or the Prison Planet restructures itself is of no consequence…

…if you always do your best, work as part of a community of others, and do great things. Be the best you can be and be the Rufus that would make your grandmother proud.

Be that kind of person. Be that kind of Rufus.

video 22MB

A Final message for MM readership

Trust your gut instincts…

In 1981, a clairvoyant contacted British Rail to warn depot employees that she’d been having a recurring vision of a fatal train crash. In her vision, one of their blue engines hauling oil tankers crashed with devastating consequences. 

She also saw that the train number was 47216.

Managers took the warning seriously, as they were aware that the clairvoyant had assisted police on several occasions. They applied to have the number of the particular train changed to 47299.

In December 1983, the 47299 train was hauling an oil train when it collided with a DMU at Wrawby Junction. One person died, and it was concluded that a combination of equipment failure and human error was to blame.^[6]
.
Afterward, the accident was referred to as an “amazing coincidence.”

Do you want more?

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Why isn’t Russia and China responding directly to America’s hybrid wars, clandestine wars, and military provocations?

A top US general gave a stark warning about the risk of deteriorating ties with the two giant states. 

Vice Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General John E. Hyten told a think-tank meeting that conflict could easily spiral out of control. 

“We never fought the Soviet Union,” he said. “As for the great powers, our goal is to never go to war with China and Russia.” 

According to Hyten, such an event would “destroy the world and the global economy. It will be bad for everyone, and we have to ensure that we do not go down that path.”

And so everyone is asking these questions.

Why is the United States so fucking hell-bent on creating a major war? And, why isn’t Russia and China responding directly to America’s hybrid wars, clandestine wars, and military provocations?

The Greenville Post suggests…

An excellent read, by the way.

Observing the mounting provocations by Washington and its NATO puppet, many people in Russia (and abroad) think that Putin's response to the West has been weak, misguided and inordinately accommodationist, a form—in their eyes—of appeasement.

They argue—as does Paul Craig Roberts—that Washington needs to be confronted far more clearly and decisively, with force if necessary, the way one confronts a depraved bully with a long list of crimes to its name.

I have a great deal of sympathy for this point of view, as do many people who don't like seeing an arch-criminal get away with his ever-expanding reign of terror and intimidation.

But, folks, this is a soup with some flies in it, and we need to pay more attention.

While in a non-nuclear world that kind of thinking—giving a bully what he deserves— makes perfect sense, in a nuclearised world the cost/advantage calculus is far more complicated and the right response almost impossible to pin down.

For it is certain that, at this point, an all-out nuclear war between the great powers, a war, mind you, precipitated by the United States and its vassals, besides its unprecedented horrors, is a war guaranteed to have no winners.

This is not the kind of decision that any rational leader would like to make.

So what is Putin or Xi to do?

They face a ruling class that appears to be either technically insane or terminally cynical. Inhabiting a huge bubble of hypocrisy of their own making, drenched in the supremacist myths of US exceptionalism, US elites flail about the world impervious to reality or morality, while wiping their plutocratic asses in the UN charter governing the civilised behaviour of all nations.

Under such circumstances, hubris may blind them to the great risks inherent in their constant warmongering.

But are they really blind and indifferent to the horrific costs, or—as Kissinger and Nixon once supposedly admitted—this is just a bluff to keep the enemy off balance?

Clearly, the Russians and the Chinese, led by rational and competent people, don't want to be forced to find out.

A war between the great nuclear powers is a war with no winners in which the totality of the human race stands to be wiped out.

They know war up, close, and personal in a way that is simply alien to most Americans, and seemingly forgotten by the idiotised vassal nations in what passes for a free Europe.

Well, Russia and China haven't forgotten.

The Soviet Union lost more than 27 million people in WW2, and thousands of towns and cities, plus almost 70% of its hard-won infrastructure and industrial base in her struggle to overcome the Nazi assault.

China chalked up almost 30 million lives in casualties, an enormous figure even in a nation of over one billion inhabitants.

In their eyes, it probably makes sense not to provoke the bully into a fight.

Plus, there are powerful historical reasons for avoiding a shooting war as long as possible. As demonstrated by the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact, avoiding war while growing stronger with each passing day is not a bad strategy when confronting a monstrous war machine led by deluded and unstable people.

The USSR, despite its many problems, was a much stronger and more resilient nation in 1941 than in 1939. Those two years allowed her to safeguard and reposition the assets she needed to survive the Nazi attack, and she did. (See for ex. OPERATION BARBAROSSA: MYTHS AND REALITY).

The same can be said for the truly vertiginous development of Russia's modern military in slightly over a decade: the Russia of 2008 (when it had to subdue a NATO-prodded Georgia into some stupid adventurism) and that of today can't be compared from a military standpoint.

Military-naval analyst Andrei Martyanov agrees: "Russia and her Armed Forces of 2021 and of 2008 are separated not just by 13 years, but by two generations of weapon systems and C4ISR."

Let that sink in for a minute.

In sheer speed and effectiveness, Russia's capacity for strategic development is second to none in the world, and is not to be matched or surpassed by the Pentagon in the foreseeable future, no matter how many trillions it wastes on such pursuit.

It's actually a systemic and cultural question not subject to a quick resolution. Ditto with China. Could that be the reason why Putin can afford to look "weak" and calm and non-confrontational toward Washington, despite a non-stop cascade of provocations and vituperations?

Keep these things in mind as you read Paul Craig Roberts' persuasive indictment of the Kremlin posture. —PG

Paul Craig Robert thoughts on this matter…

I can't see Putin trusting any US agreement.

When Russi/Putin acts, it is sudden, swift, and WITHOUT WARNING

So why the PR, the meetings with Biden, Lavrov's diplomatic whirlwind??

Methinks it is to get domestic opinion firmly on his side, a rooted we-back-you-at-any-cost kind of grim determination. Polls show he is half way there. What's the magic #?? 66%?? I would think it in that range.

If this is the case, we have a grim scenario awaiting us in February.

-Les7

While US Whore Media and Whore “scientists” dependent on Fauci-controlled NIH and Big Pharma grants whip up fear over a relatively harmless “Omicron variant,” a real dangerous situation that I have anticipated for seven years is raising its deadly head.

The arrogant fools in Washington lost in their own hubris have been practicing nuclear attacks on Russia within 20 kilometers of Russia’s borders.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Washington’s operation Global Thunder rehearsed launching nuclear weapons against Russia from both western and eastern directions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Washington was not taking seriously Moscow’s warning not to cross Russia’s red lines.

Putin is correct. But it is the Kremlin’s fault.

The only decisive action the Kremlin has taken in response to intense provocations from Washington and NATO was the Kremlin’s decision to accept the overwhelming vote of the people in Crimea to be reincorporated into Russia where the territory had resided for 300 years. The Kremlin’s alternative was to lose Russia’s Black Sea navy base.

In a strategic blunder of the first magnitude, the Kremlin refused the same plea from the Russian people in the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, territories that also had been part of Russia for centuries. By refusing to honor the vote of the Donbass Russians to again be a part of Russia, the Kremlin subjected them to war and destruction by the Ukrainian army and various neo-nazi Ukrainian militias. If the Kremlin had accepted the vote of the Donbass Russians to be returned to Russia, the conflict would have ended as Ukraine would not destroy itself by attacking Russian territory. Without the ongoing conflict, Washington would have been unable to continue its machinations against Russia in Ukraine.

In an effort to salvage the situation, the Kremlin put together the “Minsk Agreement,” which Western powers were to support, but didn’t. Thus, the conflict has continued to smolder since 2014, providing Washington with 7 years to use anti-Russian propaganda to define the narrative.

The Kremlin’s passivity and attempt to rely on agreements with the US and NATO to resolve a Ukrainian situation that Washington most certainly does not want resolved has convinced Washington and NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg that there is no fight in Russia, thus producing the situation that I have feared: Washington has concluded that Russia’s red lines are merely rhetoric.

Many other Kremlin failures have contributed to this dangerous outcome. The Kremlin still permits Israel to attack Syrian territory when one telephone call from Putin is sufficient to halt the attacks. The Kremlin still permits the occupation of a small part of Syria by US troops and CIA Arab mercenaries hostile to the Syrian state. The Kremlin receives massive insults to the Russian president and still refers to those insulting Russia as “our Western partners.”

These are not responses that create the impression that there is any force behind the Kremlin’s red line.

The Kremlin has also failed miserably in anticipating Washington’s moves, indicating an incompetent intelligence service or a willing disbelief in the Kremlin of Russian intelligence reports. Despite its obviousness, the Kremlin failed to anticipate the invasion of South Ossetia in 2008 by a US and Israeli-trained and equipped Georgian army. Putin was at the summer Olympics in Beijing. The Kremlin failed to anticipate Washington’s obvious overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine and the replacement of a Russia-friendly regime with a neo-nazi regime. Putin was at the Sochi Olympics.

Washington simply will not take seriously a government incapable of paying attention to what is happening to its interests in its own backyard.

One might think that the Kremlin would learn by experience, but apparently not. With reports that half of the Ukrainian army is in the Donbass region threatening the Russian inhabitants, US Secretary of State Blinken threatens Russia with “serious consequences” if Russia protects the Donbass Russians.

Imagine, a cipher like Blinken, a person of no ability or accomplishments, a representative of a second-rate military power that discriminates against its own white troops, issuing threats to the world’s dominant military force.

This is hubris run amuck, hubris encouraged by years of Kremlin low-key response to major provocations.

As I have warned, the low-key Russian response, despite its good intention, encourages more provocations, and sooner or later Washington will go too far and cross a red line that will force a Russian military response. My fear of nuclear war is the reason for my warning that Russia needs to put a strong foot down in order to stop the progression of provocations that can only end in war.

Why has the Kremlin been so meek in response to insults and provocations? I have no inside information. The speculations are that (1) the Kremlin wants the Donbass Russians to remain in Ukraine in order to water down the influence of anti-Russian attitudes in Western Ukraine; (2) the Kremlin did not want to confirm Washington’s propaganda that Russia was rebuilding the Soviet Empire by reabsorbing the Donbass Russians in addition to Crimea; (3) westernized Russian intellectuals have more confidence in the West than in their government; (4) the Atlanticist Integrationists desire to be part of the West than to be allied with China; (5) the Kremlin thinks that by continuing to be low-key and open to cooperation with the West all difficulties will be resolved; (6) Russia knows the horrors of war and wants to avoid war at all costs; (7) Russian billionaire oligarchs want the West as a haven for their stolen wealth.

All of these are sound reasons as far as they go.

The problem is that all of these reasons ignore that Russia is Washington’s enemy of choice. Russia is the enemy that justifies the $1,000 billion annual budget of the US military/security complex. Russia is the enemy that strengthens Washington’s hold on NATO and Washington’s European empire. Russia is the enemy that keeps the Washington-abused American population loyal to the government that is destroying American liberty. Russia is the enemy that can be blamed, along with China, for every failure of Washington. How can the Kremlin forget that the hostility of the American Elite to Russia is so overwhelming that President Trump was confronted with a CIA/FBI/Justice Department orchestrated “Russiagate” for simply stating that he intended to restore normal relations with Russia?

Normal relations with Russia are impermissible to the extent that a President of the United States was removed from office in a stolen election after trumped-up “Russiagate” and “Impeachgate” attempts failed. To complete the lesson to all future presidents that normal relations with Russia are impermissible, Trump supporters are being prosecuted for attending a rally in support of Trump, a rally now known as “the Trump Insurrection.” Six hundred innocent people are held in prison in violation of habeas corpus and First Amendment rights. Not even the US Constitution can protect them.

And this is a government that the Kremlin thinks it can reach an accommodation with!

God help the Russians and all of us as Washington’s provocations continue their march to war.

In a visit to Beijing in March, Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that “the US has declared its mission is to limit the technological development opportunities of both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China.”

Tarik in the Vineyard for the Saker Blog comments…

Putin claimed that ties between Moscow and Beijing “have reached the highest level in history,” while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted both countries “have always been the pillars of peace and stability in the world.” According to him, “the more unstable and turbulent the world is, the more decisive cooperation between China and Russia will become.”

Why Russia didn’t shoot anything down yet?

If Russia shot down a NATO bomber or ship flying or sailing where it shouldn’t be (or even a US one), who would dare respond in kind?

It begs the next question: Why Russia didn’t shoot anything down yet?

Things need to be put in perspective. So here is a third question: Why is the West and the US in particular, so dead set on confronting Russia and China at every corner, short of direct military attack?

It is not because they want to cut Russian gas to Europe (it would terminally break the EU economy and destroy its ability to store increasing dollar reserves), or repatriate jobs from China (systemically incompatible with dollar hegemony) , or even prevent the implementation of the BRI per se (because the matter of fact is that potentially it could become a huge new, and very much needed pit for excess dollars to find their home; if only it were done the “right” way).

When Kissinger invited China into the western world economy, it was understood that it would eternally accumulate dollar trade surpluses, and over time, become another EU or Japan.

In the case of the EU, the US had NATO, and for Japan they had their military bases to make sure these two would dutifully stockpile every dollar that comes their way. But nothing of the sort existed for China.

To make a story short; in the early nineties they took over the largest stash of natural resources that is Russia. With that in hand they thought they now held China on a tight leash.

Late nineties the Asian economic crisis hit; Beijing was livid. 2000 Putin takes over Russia’s natural resources, unleashing China.

The later enters a global buying spree of natural resources through its huge accumulated dollar reserves. Commodities’ prices shoot up, interest rates follow suit and triggers the subprime implosion and all its aftermath.

For all practical purpose, intentional or not, this was an unofficial war declaration. No doubt every central banker on the planet worth his salt understood a new player entered town. It meant business, and was to be reckoned with. US responds with an “epidemic” of color revolution everywhere China was laying the ground work for what was to become the BRI, and dramatically increases the pressure on Russia to force it back into the US$ fold.

Neither China nor Russia blinked. Instead the former announced to the world the official launch of BRI, and the latter openly challenged US military supremacy in Syria, and soon after started in earnest the distribution of S400s (almost as good as the atomic bomb, in diplomatic terms) to the world.

For those holding reservations about the above interpretation of events, please consider: the price of gold went from under 300 US$/ounce in the late 90’s to 1900 US$ by the end of the first decade, bear in mind that this in a market hated by all. To this day less than 1% of global private wealth is held in gold.

In 5000 years of history never did this ratio fall below 5%, even under the most exuberant times. Who was buying? While the western bullion banks acted as “sellers of last resort” with unlimited fictitious supplies on the Futures market to keep the price under cap, so did Beijing act as “buyer of last resort” on the spot market with unlimited dollar supplies from their trade surpluses, thus uncapping the price. The relevance of this is apparent when juxtaposed to the BRI project.

It is estimated tens of thousands tons of gold were disappeared in China; that enters the border but never show up; neither in retails nor official reserves records, but instead just somehow vanish in thin air. At the minimum it shows they’re preparing for a post dollar economy. Then again the BRI makes no secret that it intends to make use of local currencies worldwide.

There are two ways only to have any currency accepted. Either it is backed by the most powerful military, or alternatively it is referenced to gold. Anything else (eg. Petrodollar, Eurodollar…) is military backing under the guise of… and the BRI has also admitted its preferred option for trade account settlements.

Such monetary arrangement (no matter the exact actual architecture) would in short order annihilate any form of western prevalence and privilege on the global scene.

In itself it would just be an ego bruise, but when added to the staggering debt levels, it translates to guaranteed decades of servitude. That my friends is the crux of the matter, the unfathomable horror the west is facing. It is what keeps their elite awake at night, while the population imperfectly senses a looming day of reckoning whether under the traits of a yellow slit eyed giant dragon, a monstrous growling bear, a flood of melted ice, or an amorphous unforgiving pestilence, when instead they should really fear Shylock’s lurking specter and past due pounds of flesh.

Now that the real motive for the Big Boys’ quarrels has been defined, how would a war with Russia or China, even if only through a proxy (Ukraine or whatever) fit in this equation.

First of all the West or the US today is not comparable to say Napoleon’s France or Hitler’s Germany which “benefited” from industrial and military supremacy. It is those specific advantages that allowed them the privilege to make fools of themselves.

Without them, neither Napoleon nor Hitler would have ever thought of heading East. And I might add, nor would have the US embarked on the last 50 years of hegemonic delusions.

Today the latter has lost both trump cards, and with them, one might presume, the luxury to fantasize a swift military solution.

This leaves us with only a proxy war scenario. If realized, that option can only yield very short lived dividends that could never alter the natural course of the empire’s demise.

After all once the Ukrainian army is spent, that card is gone. In fact the Ukraine holds value as long as the status quo last, once the situation is resolved (which ever way that may be) it looses any bargaining stock.

The same holds true for the JCPOA, Syria, North Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar, Ethiopia, and so many others. And what bargaining may I be referring to? Well hold on tight: the West pushes for terms of a new partitioning of the world, while Russia and China expect its terms of surrender.

Sure, until say around 2018, all these pressure points were meant to force China and Russia reconsider the dollar’s role in the BRI and related projects. But then in March of that faithful year (if I remember well) Putin casually announced a panoply of hyper-sonic toys. If the subprime event was a “Wazari”, March 2018 was the “Ipon Seonage”, or basically a “checkmate”.

No doubt every general worth his salt must have raised an eyebrow or two, and every central banker realized the dollar was now naked, with neither gold nor the most powerful military on the planet to enforce it.

All the while Putin was giving his speech, the list of nations that were rejoining the BRI since its official launch and their commitment, were about to dramatically increase.

The practical effect was a gradual and ongoing abandonment of dollars in cross border regional settlement of trades, particularly in South-East Asia were the doomed currency is now considered almost a dirty word among regional players.

Consequently local currencies reserves are displacing US$, which are increasingly being spent on the acquisition of raw materials on the international market for infrastructure projects.

If it sounds like “déjà vu” it’s because it is.

The resulting inflationary pressure on the commodities’ market would again spill over to the interest rate market, triggering the September 2919 REPO event. Because of its brevity, I suppose, few realize how defining that moment was to what came next.

First the Fed met the burst from 0% to 10% on the overnight REPO rate with a 700+ billion US$ barrage within a matter of days to literally drown those darn, messy, uncooperative interest rates. Ever since that market requires a monthly 120 billion allowance just so banks may trust each other and perpetuate the myth of solvency. As the global economy stopped accumulating, or even off-loaded dollar reserves, the greenback’s velocity increased and soon will feel like hot potatoes. A rarely mentioned consequence of this phenomenon (at least I never came across it anywhere), is the severe restriction it imposes on newly printed dollar deployment outside US financial markets, lest it turns the already established price inflation into hyperinflation. Thus it renders the dollar useless as a tool for influencing foreign actors. Those loose dollars must be neutralized. A few months later COVID strikes in China.

Was it just one more sorry attempt to oblige China to reverse its “dollar policy” or whatever favorite narrative one may subscribe, isn’t as relevant as Beijing’s response was remarkable.

There were several instances in the last 20 years when China had to suffer some suspicious biological outbreaks, yet none of the measures taken ever even registered in import/export figures, GDP, or in any other major economic indicator.

Now suddenly under the pretext of one insipid flu-like germ, precisely when the West is shown at its most fragile financially, they decide to entirely shut down one major world industrial production hub.

Again, regardless of one’s view on that epidemic, there’s not a point in the entire space/time continuum where Xi and his team didn’t foresee the consequences of such measures, both on their economy and those of the West respectively.

The West was totally taken off-guard; no point in calling China, the damage was already done, trillions would be needed to absorb the shock, and thus they took the path of least resistance.

They doubled down on the COVID song, proactively shut down their economies to force unanimous political support for direct monetary support of the economy and markets. That the pandemic narrative also served as convenient cover for population movement control, was an extra bonus in an environment ripe for social unrest.

A few months later China unlocks and its economic indicators quickly resume to pre-pandemic levels, all while the US and Europe were still mired in frozen economies.

This showed the world economy did not depend any longer on Western lead. In fact the world can now perfectly do without the West all together.

Now it may still be early to assess with any certainty how the game is being played at this very moment, but based on the evidence over the last 2 to 3 years, here is a proposition which hopefully might offer an answer to our starting questions.

The earlier Putin “checkmate” referred specifically to global dollar dominance. Preserving regional dominion for a little while longer however seems still possible, at least in the minds of the western elites.

However such a region must be isolated from areas that do not submit to the dollar “order” (or whatever new cryptocurrency denomination they may come up with to implement their reset), since direct competition would instantly reveal the currency fraud that it is.

Hence the necessary world partition. In this new context, those pressure points whose main purpose was originally directed against China and Russia, can easily be repurposed to mainly close the ranks in the “salvageable” portion of the world.

That explains nicely the increased hysteria surrounding those sour points; not as means to strike fear in the hearts of Russians and Chinese (which is a ridiculous proposition when considering the ground facts), but to dig it as deeply as possible into their vassals’ hearts instead, with what military and economic might they still muster.

Then in order to preserve their currency’s “credibility”, at least within the remaining sphere of dominion, they need a replacement for the loss of those Central “dollar sinkhole” Banks and respective economies that are escaping to the multi-polar world.

So they “repurposed” (or just upgraded, I’m not sure which) a favorite of theirs: Global Warming, from an obstacle to the BRI momentum, to a black hole for infinite currency issuance.

The basic idea, apart from its green energy infrastructure component which at least is comprehensible to the mind, is to, through the carbon credit market, “financialize” various ecosystems’ contribution to decarbonization. Shares would be available for “investments”.

It’s not clear who or how the book value of these shares would be calculated, but one can be excused for assuming that value will prove as flexible as a COVID infection count.

I suppose the underlying logic goes something like this: ecosystems remove CO2 from the atmosphere, which saves our lives.

Since we can all agree that our lives are infinitely precious, no amount of investments can possibly realize the full valuation of those shares. Et voilàààà, the inflationary dilemma once and for all, forever and ever, eternally and for perpetuity finally solved!

Is it delusional? Of course it is. But as some real wise man said: People rarely think what they must, instead they tend to think what they need to think, when they need to think it.

Obviously the “Grand absurdity” in which their “Great Reset” is being implemented is the sure sign of their impending capitulation. Hence Russia and China patiently awaiting their acceptable terms, which probably means unconditional rendition.

The piper will be paid.

It doesn’t mean they want to destroy, humiliate, or otherwise submit to the West. It’s about facing responsibilities, and within this frame, figure out a convenient, or win-win agreement.

In such an environment a war makes little sense because there is no military threat against western leadership, only military containment.

In typical “Go” fashion, US and NATO bases that were previously seen as power projections enveloping the world, can increasingly be viewed as the boundaries of a shrinking space.

Funny thing is, Russia and China did try really hard to avoid this sorry state; the downright self-inflicted humiliation the West is facing.

Ever since the 1997 Asian crisis, Beijing tried real hard to convince the US to a strategy to solve the Dollar’s paradox in world trades.

During the first decade of the century as preparation for the BRI, they started heavily investing in global natural resources extraction.

Aside from the obvious practical reasons (BRI would require humongous amounts of resources), there was also a financial/monetary aspect.

The commodities sector was suffering from decades of under investments due to price suppression schemes by the usual suspects, in line with the gold price policies.

The idea then was to increase production so that the manipulative Future’s shorts could be gradually unloaded without triggering the typical inflationary bomb and the ensuing interest rate response, and thus freeing the Western banks from exposure at no loss.

At which point international dollar reserves could gradually be unloaded unto an increasing supply of commodities to the BRI, with also minimal (or at least manageable) inflationary disturbance.

Of course it implied a parallel incremental retirement of international dollars to a level commensurate to the US’ economy true size, probably through a series of devaluations against mainly gold. That was China’s plan. Not a bad empire retirement plan when considering where the West stands now.

Just as funny, had the US been agreeable to China’s and Russia’s proposal, better yet had they taken the lead after the USSR collapsed, to “resize” the dollar, neither of the Bear nor the Dragon would have developed their armed forces, instead dedicating their resources strictly to the economy.

The US could have retained Military supremacy and acted as a true policing force of the world, with all the benefits and honors attached to this function, and the eternal gratitude and support of all.

What a monumental waste those last thirty years indeed.

Okay, maybe all wouldn’t have been as rosy, so let’s just say it could have been a great opportunity for a beautiful dream…

MM answers

And kids, this is how World Wars gets started....

However, my fear is that the US and Israel will double down and not go quietly. Instead of upsetting the table and waking away when losing; they will flip the table over and rip open their shirt to reveal a suicide vest....

-A.L.

There are two possible reasons why the United States is acting like such a dick-head bully and Asia is failing to engage…

[1] America is dying. Let it die. When a person is dying, you allow him to go through the death thrall and stay out of the fray. America will be dead soon enough. There’s no rush to do anything. Russia and China know this and see this. They are watching in real time. Obviously they are guarded and concerned, but their projections obviously show a complete national collapse within the decades, if not much sooner.

[2] Asia is ready to put an end to it all. The death thralls of the empire is getting dangerous. But neither Russia or China will allow these matters to destroy them. If things become unmanageable, they will take the first steps, on their timetable in accordance with their rules. Both Russia and China are ready to take down the Untied States is such a way that the USA will not be able to launch a retaliatory strike. The complexity of such a mission is enormous, and so they are spending the time to make sure that retaliation would be impossible.

To a lesser extent are some other explanations. But I (personally) do not believe that they are valid.

[3] Wishful thinking. Both Russia and China independently believe that the ruling leadership of America will come to their senses and stop all this war-mongering nonsense. Just one or two more elections and it will all be over and change.

[4] Incompetence in Russian and Chinese leadership. Both the Russians and the Chinese are not competent, and have determined that the best actions are ones in which America is permitted to define the rules of engagement and the behaviors during conflict.

What is obvious is that both Russia and China have the ability, the technology and the capability to hurt the United States substantially. But they are not making any overt mores in this regard. The reasoning behind this is many, but I really see the options as I described coming to the forefront.

We will find out soon enough.

And so … the very next day after I wrote those comments…

Ukraine – Russia Makes Serious Demands, Warns Of ‘Confrontation’

From MoA…

Following unfounded U.S. claims of an imminent Russian invasion of the Ukraine U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin have held a virtual summit. Little has been released about its real content but the Russian follow up shows that the issues they talked about were deadly serious.

On December 10 the Russian Foreign Ministry published a statement that not only sounds like an ultimatum but seems to be meant as one:

We note US President Joseph Biden’s readiness expressed at the December 7, 2021 talks with President Vladimir Putin to establish a serious dialogue on issues related to ensuring the security of the Russian Federation. Such a dialogue is urgently needed today when the relations between Russia and the collective West continue to decay and have approached a critical line. At the same time, numerous loose interpretations of our position have emerged in recent days. In this connection we feel it is necessary to once again clarify the following.

Escalating a confrontation with our country is absolutely unacceptable. As a pretext, the West is using the situation in Ukraine, where it embarked on encouraging Russophobia and justifying the actions of the Kiev regime to undermine the Minsk agreements and prepare for a military scenario in Donbass.

Instead of reigning in their Ukrainian protégés, NATO countries are pushing Kiev towards aggressive steps. There can be no alternative interpretation of the increasing number of unplanned exercises by the United States and its allies in the Black Sea. NATO members’ aircraft, including strategic bombers, regularly make provocative flights and dangerous manoeuvres in close proximity to Russia’s borders. The militarisation of Ukraine’s territory and pumping it with weapons are ongoing.

The course has been chosen of drawing Ukraine into NATO, which is fraught with the deployment of strike missile systems there with a minimal flight time to Central Russia, and other destabilising weapons. Such irresponsible behaviour creates grave military risks for all parties involved, up to and including a large-scale conflict in Europe.

All the NATO action mentioned above directly endangers Russia’s security. It has to cease. Some of the steps taken must be reversed and Russia will have to be given guarantees that certain measures will not be taken. The statement includes this list of demands:

No more NATO expansion towards Russia’s borders. Retraction of the 2008 NATO invitation to Ukraine and Georgia.
Legally binding guarantee that no strike systems which could target Moscow will be deployed in countries next to Russia.
No NATO or equivalent (UK, U.S., Pl.) ‘exercises’ near Russian borders.
NATO ships, planes to keep certain distances from Russian borders.
Regular military-to-military talks.
No intermediate-range nukes in Europe.

That the above is not a “pretty please” wishlist has since been emphasized by several Russian authorities:

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Monday warned of confrontation should the United States and NATO fail to give Russia security guarantees concerning its eastern expansion, the RIA news agency reported.

President Vladimir Putin has demanded legally binding security guarantees that NATO will not expand further east or place its weapons close to Russian territory; Washington has repeatedly said no country can veto Ukraine's NATO hopes.

The confrontation Ryabkov talks about would not be verbal if Russia’s red lines get crossed:

We have openly pointed out that there are red lines which we will not allow anyone to cross, and we also have certain requirements, which have been formulated exceedingly clearly.

Russia can of course veto the Ukraine’s entry into NATO. It can destroy the Ukrainian military, take the regions of Ukraine where a majority speaks Russian and create a new sovereign state from them.

The remaining agricultural Banderastan would be left for Poland and Romania to feast on. This would give Russia the strategic depth it needs and it would limit the NATO friendly coastline in the Black Sea to the south western parts.

A Russian attack on the Ukraine is however what western weapon producers and their adjunct think tanks, ‘experts’ and political hawks, mainly in the U.S., deeply wish for. It would isolate Russia, increase the U.S. role in Europe, justify increasing military budgets and end the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and other Russian export routes.

And that is the reason why Russia will not attack and use alternative measures.

Unless, of course, …

In a phone call with Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson Putin repeated the demands and explained his reasoning:

Like other Western leaders, Boris Johnson expressed concern about Russia’s alleged large-scale troop movements near the Ukrainian border. In this regard, Vladimir Putin provided in-depth and principled assessments of the current situation in Ukraine.

Specific examples of Kiev's destructive course on derailing the Minsk agreements, which are the only viable path towards resolving the internal Ukraine crisis, were given. It was also pointed out that the Ukrainian authorities are purposefully aggravating the situation on the line of contact and are using heavy weapons and attack drones, which are prohibited by the Minsk Package of Measures in the conflict zone. Ukraine’s policy of discrimination against Russian-speaking people was pointed out as well.

It was emphasised that all this is happening amid the active military “exploration” of Ukraine’s territory by NATO, something that poses a direct threat to Russia’s security.

With this in mind, Vladimir Putin stated the need to immediately begin talks in order to develop clear international legal agreements that can preclude NATO’s further eastward advance and the deployment of weapons that pose a threat to Russia in neighbouring states, primarily Ukraine. Russia will present draft documents to this end.

The NATO countries which push for further moves against Russia, mostly the Baltic 3 and Poland, see all their dreams endangered. They will resist any move towards a fulfillment of Russia’s demands. They are however not the ones that count.

It is the U.S., Germany and France that Russia is counting on to get some senses. The upcoming winter, which is predicted to be somewhat harsh, is a good opportunity to apply a little pressure to Europe and to show that it is Russia, not the U.S., which provides Europe energy security. The new Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer understands that:

In an interview published on Tuesday in the German newspaper Die Welt, Nehammer, who was elected chancellor earlier this month, was asked if the Austrian government will continue to support Nord Stream 2. He replied, “Of course,” adding that he expects the pipeline to begin operating soon.

“I don’t consider it necessary to connect Nord Stream 2 with Russia’s behavior in Ukraine,” he went on, referencing a recent political standoff between Moscow and Kiev. “The EU can only hurt itself by doing so. Nord Stream 2 doesn’t only serve Russia’s interests – Germany, Austria, and other EU countries will profit from it. Nord Stream 2 is a European project, which shouldn’t be used as a tool to pressure Moscow.”

This winter Russia will use its market power to press for a fulfillment of its demands. Russia has stopped to provide natural gas to the European spot markets. It continues to deliver in full to customers who have long term contracts. This will squeeze Poland and a few others who depend on the spot market in times of peak demand. Russia hopes that those countries learn that their excessive hostility towards it can have serious consequences.

As Russia has no direct tool to squeeze the U.S. it will need a different strategy to push Biden to change course. The current main foreign policy concern in the U.S. is China. Russia is therefore coordinating its strategy with it:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss "aggressive" language from the U.S. and NATO during their virtual meeting later this week, according to the Kremlin.

"The situation in international affairs, especially on the European continent, is very, very tense right now and requires discussion between allies," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to a Reuters report. "We see very, very aggressive rhetoric on the NATO and U.S. side, and this requires discussion between us and the Chinese."

Notice Peskov’s use of the word “allies”. This is, as far as I know, new. There is no formal treaty between Russia and China that makes them ‘allies’ so the use of the word is highly significant.

This is a concern for an Asia pundit who fears that any Russian move on Ukraine would be accompanied by a Chinese move on Taiwan. To prevent that she urges the U.S. to end the endless confrontation with Russia and to concentrate on the far east.

We can only hope that Biden understands such reasoning, finally shuts up the Russia hawks and ends the conflict with Moscow.

Otherwise we will all be in for some interesting times.

Yes. The USA is marching straight towards war!

And it’s going to be horrific. Imagine DEMANDING Russia do this, and DEMANDING China do that. These demands will be met with extreme force. And I do mean EXTREME.

All of this reminds me of the scenes from the UK movie about the build-up to Nuclear war called “Threads”.

Never a More Unsettling Strategic Landscape

From HERE.

It is the first time that others are dictating to the West rather than being instructed on how to conform to American red lines.

There was an almost audible sigh of relief echoing around western corridors. Though there were no breakthroughs in the Team Biden-Putin virtual meeting, the talks not surprisingly, were heavily focussed on the matter of immediate concern: Ukraine – amid widespread fears that the Ukrainian volcano might irrupt at any moment.

At the meeting: Agreed was the proposal to initiate ‘lower-level’ government-to-government discussion of Russia’s red lines and any halt to NATO expansion eastwards. Jake Sullivan, however, spilt a little cold water over that when he firmly emphasised that the U.S. had given no commitments on either issue. Biden (as advertised in advance), warned of strong economic and other measures should Russia intervene in Ukraine.

What was more notable however, was that the U.S. is ‘only’ threatening to sanction Russia, or to move more troops into the region, as opposed to posing explicit western and NATO militarily intervention in Ukraine. In earlier statements, Biden and other U.S. officials have been vague about what Washington’s response to a Russian invasion would be: warning repeatedly of ‘consequences’, even as it re-committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty.

So, should we all begin to breathe again? Actually, no. In fact, the immediacy of the Ukraine issue was always something of a red-herring: Russia has no desire to wade into the thick, cloying mud of a regional quagmire, however much some in the West would ‘love it’. And the Kiev forces are tired, bedraggled and demoralised from sitting in cold trenches along the Contact Line for months. They have little appetite to take on the Donbass militias (unless aided from the outside).

Nothing was resolved about what to do about the wider dark dystopia that is Ukraine – in all its various manifestations. President Putin raised the Minsk Accord, but nobody, it seems, was biting; the fishing line remained limp. Nor was anything agreed about what to do with the accumulating debris of what once was called U.S.-Russian ‘diplomatic relations’. The latter term (diplomatic relations) is now but a poor joke.

Celebration therefore, is not in order. The viscerally anti-Putin factions in U.S. and Kiev are furious: A U.S. Republican Senator, Roger Wicker has warned that in any stand-off over Ukraine, “I would not rule out military action. I think we start making a mistake when we take options off the table, so I would hope the president keeps that option on the table”. Asked what military action against Russia would comprise, Wicker said it could mean “that we stand off, with our ships in the Black Sea – and we rain destruction on Russian military capability”, adding that the U.S. also shouldn’t “rule out first-use nuclear action” against Russia.

So Ukraine festers on. If we are now to have a lull, then it is just that – ‘a lull’. The ‘hawks’ in U.S. and Europe have not raised the white flag: Ukraine is too good a weapon for their needs, to be tossed lightly aside.

This focus on the Ukraine crisis however, is to ‘see the trees, yet miss the wood’: We have three – not one – ticking landmines, ready to ignite. Three ‘fronts’: Each are distinct, yet closely inter-related, and are now threaded by unknown levels of strategic aims and synchronicity: Ukraine, Taiwan, and the faltering JCPOA Accord – which is now sparking untold angst in Tel Aviv.

The wood not seen for these three trees lies with the unresolved issue of European security architecture; Middle East security architecture; and indeed, of global security architecture. The existing rules-based order has passed its sell-by date: It provides neither security, nor does it reflect the reality of today’s Great Power balances. It has become a pathogen. Simply put, it is too fossilised in the post-WW2 lietkultur.

In a recent CNN interview, Fareed Zakaria, asked Jake Sullivan, Biden’s Security Adviser:

So what is it, after all your ‘tough talk’, that you have been able to agree with China; what has been negotiated? ‘

Wrong question’ was Sullivan’s sharp retort. “Wrong metric”, he said flatly: Don’t ask about bilateral agreements – ask about what else we have secured. The right way to think about this, he said, is:

“Have we set the terms of an effective competition where the U.S. is in a position to defend its values and advance its interests – not just in the Indo-Pacific, but around the world…”.

“We want to create the circumstance in which two major powers will operate in an international system for the foreseeable future – and we want the terms of that system to be favorable to American interests and values: It is rather, a favorable disposition in which the U.S. and its allies can shape the international rules of the road on the sorts of issues that are fundamentally going to matter to the people of our country [America] and to the people everywhere … “.

It is this maximalist lietkultur which is leading us to a point where these three explosive issues together risk a fundamental convulsion of the global order.

You have to go back a long way to find a moment when our world was as vulnerable to a sudden change in fortunes – what Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Telegraph terms, “The West’s nightmare: a war on three fronts”.

What is going on?

Well, it is certainly something very far-reaching.

And why the U.S. insistence on such an absolute stance for the global order – according to which other Great Powers get no right to set their own security red lines?

Well, it is because … the ‘four horsemen’ of the Great Transitions:

The Pandemic – leading into a global health regulatory system;
the Climate Emergency – leading to a global CO2 regime of credits and debits;
the tech and AI revolution – leading us into a global era of automation and ‘bots’ (and job losses); and fourthly,
the Transition from classical economics to that of global Modern Monetary Theory that requires a global re-set of the world’s mountain of debt that will never be repaid.

Sullivan’s vision of the ‘foreseeable future’ is essentially conceived around this ‘higher order’ project: The preservation of global ‘rules of the road’, framed to reflect U.S. and allied interests’, as the base from which the clutch of ‘transitions’ – health, climate change, managerial and monetary technocracy – can be levered from the national parliamentary prerogative, up to a supra-national level of business and tech managerial collectives of ‘expertise’ (devoid of accountability to national parliamentary oversight).

Separated in this way into such spheres as health precautions, climate recovery, fostering tech ‘miracles’, and money issuance severed from taxation – they sound non-ideological, and somehow almost utopian.

It was well understood that all these transitions would overturn long-standing human ways of life that are ancient and deeply rooted, and inevitably would trigger dissidence – which is why new forms of social ‘discipline’, and the usurpation of control from national accountability, to the supranational plane, is so important. It certainly isn’t making people “happy”, (as per Davos).

Hmmm! … the ideological underbelly to this ‘higher order’ re-set may be obscured from view, as non-partisan, but it is he who decides the international standards, the protocols, the metrics, and the rules for these transitions, who is Sovereign – as Carl Schmitt once noted.

Sullivan at least has the integrity to be frank about the unseen ideology to the re-set:

“We want the terms of that system to be favourable to American interests and values: It is rather, a favourable disposition in which the U.S. and its allies can shape the international rules of the road on the sorts of issues that are fundamentally going to matter to the people of our country [America] and to the people everywhere …”.

We are talking here of something which clearly goes well beyond the scope of the Biden summits with Xi and Putin, and the Vienna JCPOA talks.

President Putin has warned that any encroachment of NATO infrastructure or forces into Ukraine would not be permitted.

And that Russia would decisively act to prevent it.

Similarly, Iran has stated explicitly that any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities will not be tolerated. It would result in the Iranian destruction of Israeli vital infrastructure across the full territory.

And Iran’ and Russia’s stance is identical with that of China in respect to Taiwan: President Xi made that plain in the virtual summit that he held with Biden on 15 November.

Xi warned that any move by Taiwan to secede is not permitted, and would be met by a military response.

In Vienna, Iran simply stated its ‘red lines’:

No discussion of Iran’s ballistic missiles;
no discussion of Iran’s regional role; and
no freezing of enrichment – as long as the mechanism for lifting sanctions and ensuring their non-recurrence is not agreed upon – effectively calling for a return to the original framework of the 2015 accord.

Iran demands binding guarantees that sanctions will not arbitrarily be re-imposed; that trade normalisation will not be informally hobbled again contrary to the terms of the accord, as happened under Obama (the U.S. Treasury Department pursued its own anti-trade policy, at variance with that of the White House); and that all sanctions must be lifted.

What should be noted here is the context: Note that the Iranian position is almost identical in content to that enunciated by Russia, vis à vis the U.S., in respect to Ukraine: Putin’s demand to Washington is that Russian interests and ‘red lines’ be formally acknowledged and accepted; that legally binding agreements be made in respect to Russia’s security in eastern Europe; and the absolute demand for no further NATO encroachment to the East, and a veto on any NATO infrastructure exported to Ukraine.

This is very new – in geo-politics, co-incidences of this nature don’t just spontaneously happen.

It is evident that the three powers are strategically co-ordinated, politically and likely militarily, too.

Western states are stunned: It is the first time that others are dictating to them – setting out their red lines – rather than being instructed on how to conform to American red lines.

They are disconcerted, and unsure what to do next.

And, as Anatol Lieven astutely notes, some actions would have grave strategic consequences:

“quite apart from the global economic damage that would result from a war in Ukraine, and the ways in which China would take advantage of such a crisis, the West has a very strong reason indeed to avoid a new war: the West would lose”.

Lieven continues:

“This would also risk becoming a world war; for it is virtually certain that China would exploit a war between the United States and Russia, thereby threatening the United States with the risk of two wars simultaneously – and defeat in both”.

For now, the U.S. and its allies repeat the usual bromides about ‘all options being on the table’; of crippling sanctions, and of an international coalition being formed to pressure and oppose such non-compliance.

For, without competitor compliance (or these states’ effective political isolation and condemnation), the higher project of raising these seemingly ‘non-ideological’ transitions to a supra-national sphere whose standards, protocols, etcetera (‘terms of the system’ in Sullivan’s words) will not be achieved.

It will not prove possible to upload a ‘Washington Consensus’ software update when these three states simply refuse Sullivan’s ‘rules’.

A strategic reset however will not come easily.

The west is embedded in meme-warfare, which makes a strategic order partition all the harder.

Any compromise on the narrative that Russia cannot have its own red lines; cannot dictate whether not Ukraine joins NATO; nor determine where NATO sites its missiles and nukes, risks Biden being seen as weak.

Republicans already pre-emptively have blamed what they call Biden’s ‘weakness’ for having encouraged ‘dangerous adventurism’ from Moscow.

Then again, perhaps these two summits – together with Iran’s stance in Vienna – represent the beginning of the end to the West’s Rules-Based Order, and a countdown to a new geo-strategic balance between the two axis – and ultimately therefore, to peace or war.

Meanwhile…

US bans UAE from hosting Chinese navy

So the UAE is not a sovereign nation? It is a vassal state under the thumb of America? From HERE.

During a conference call on 15 November 2021, President Joe Biden assured his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that his country was not seeking war with China, but only loyal competition. As for China, it rejects any form of rivalry and aims to establish “win-win” relations.

However, according to the Wall Street Journal, back in September the CIA had spotted construction activity for what appeared to be a Chinese naval military facility in Abu Dhabi.

That same month, National Security Secretary Jake Sullivan together with his Coordinator for the Greater Middle East, Brett McGurk, were dispatched to the Emirates.

The two American men presented Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (“MBZ”) with satellite photos, ordering him to stop the construction immediately or face “consequences”.

China currently boasts the most powerful navy in the world, outdistancing the United States. She built a naval base in Djibouti in 2017 to grapple (efficiently) with the threat of Somali pirates, then signed a secret agreement in 2019 to establish a base in Cambodia. In addition, she set up civilian naval bases in Pakistan and Sri Lanka which could quickly be repurposed for military use.

The United Arab Emirates are home to a large US naval base and, in order to safeguard their independence, also host a French base.

…

And the UAE response?

UAE threatens to pull out of massive military deal with US

From HERE.

The United Arab Emirates has reportedly threatened to quit a $23-billion military deal with the US over Washington’s tough requirements meant to shield the weapons against what the Americans call “Chinese espionage.”

The deal was made during former US president Donald Trump’s twilight days in office. On paper, it enables the Emirates to acquire American-made F-35 aircraft, Reaper drones, and other advanced munitions.

On Tuesday, however, The Wall Street Journal cited an Emirati official as saying,

“The UAE has informed the US that it will suspend discussions to acquire the F-35.”

“Technical requirements, sovereign operational restrictions, and the cost/benefit analysis led to the reassessment,”

The source added.

The Journal considered the development to be equal to

“a significant shake-up between two longtime allies.”

It tried to attribute the Emirati snub to Abu Dhabi’s partnership with Beijing and the latter’s growing influence in the region.

“The collapse of the deal would fuel perceptions within the Middle East and elsewhere that America’s decades-long role as security provider of choice in the region is diminishing,”

It wrote.

Among other things, the paper said, the US has long been concerned about Abu Dhabi’s economic ties with Beijing and its involvement with the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co.

Huawei provides the Emirates with its communications infrastructure. US officials and members of Congress allege, though, that the company is a national-security threat. The company and the Chinese government have denied such allegations.

An important comment

As one who played “duck, cover & kiss your sweet a*s good-bye” in my fourth grade grammar school during the Cuban/Turkish Missile Crisis, I still think that a repeat of such a memorable event is more probable than a European conflict.

The reasons are as follows:

1) As pointed out by many in this drinking establishment, the Russian leadership is pretty miffed that the Americans get to hide behind an ocean and Europe while the latter plays “Russian Roulette” with the crispness of Eurasia region. Methinks the Russians would prefer the Americans get to feel the heat for a change. At the same time, strategically, its better PR with the locals to threaten the Americans rather than their European cannon fodder.

2) The Russians have already given an indirect threat of moving mobile missile launchers into the Western Hemisphere. Read below in Sputnik. In that article the authors claimed that the Chinese have the capability of moving mobile launchers anywhere in the world inside shipping containers. This article was published the same day as Blinken’s assertion that Russia has no right to drawing red lines, and was picked up by Global Security, the Sun, and others.

Overlooked is a reference in Wikipedia, posted by who knows who, which describes just that with the the Club K Kalibr cruise missile. The article was posted a number of years ago, and is complete with a photo in a container launching platform and a reference to a 2011 showing at the MAKS 2011 Air Show. I’m sure US intelligence is aware of this fact, as it was also covered in navyrecognition.com in 2019. As I stated in the open thread when I first posted it, the Neo-cons are not that bright and need to be hit over the head emotionally to have that “ah-ha” experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3M-54_Kalibr

3) One of the biggest televised events in the original stand-off was the blockade of Cuba by the US Navy. This is interesting in two respects. First, that maneuver is much more difficult due to much better aircraft transport and smaller rockets, and secondly it will be seen as hypocritical to a possible blockade by the Chinese of Taiwan and American stated “Freedom of Self Defense”, and “Freedom of Navigation”. It therefore underlines the notion of “spheres of influence” at a visceral level.

It’s getting to be a very, very interesting world.

-Michael.j

Putting all the pieces together…

Now I know it's serious.

-Keith Granger

[1] America has established who their allies are. (With the “Summit for democracy”.)

[2] It has promised financial outlays for their version of “democracy” to all the nations that will side with them. (Just look at the financial budgets out of Washington DC.)

[3] It is really pushing towards war with the nations that are not part of their coalition. (Russia, China, Iran, and any other nation that shows any kind of independence.) They are making bold demands, and pushing, pushing, and pushing for a response. They do not expect anything other than a localized strike, where they can then retaliate with the full force of their military currently in place.

To me, it is obvious. The United States has determined to wage war. Not just against China but against the entire rest of the world, and is now trying to determine who it’s friends and enemies are.

They are pushing for their “enemies” to “make the first move”. Then they will act, with systems already put in place and ready to launch.

No wonder China is building nuke swarm hyper-velocity missiles like there’s no tomorrow.

Maybe it’s because maybe there isn’t going to be one.

We will all be in for gruesome times. No need to play with words here.

-Pnyx

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New Beginnings 2

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Part 1 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander in December 2021

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This group concentrates on a number specifically asked by top influencers, lurkers, and participants on the MM website. In this instance I took my time to get and obtain answers to the various questions, and devoted time and effort to acquire the most accurate and useful information possible.

This group was compiled and answered in December 2021. There are two parts to this session. This is part 1. Part 2 follows.

The truth be told, I had to spread this Q&A out, and many times it was extremely difficult for me to read the actual answers as my physical life was chaotic, noisy, demanding and discordant at the time that I received the answers. I need quiet, peace and calm. But with house construction all around, a two year old, and the demands of life, work, industry and circumstance, it’s just been difficult.

All of these questions are exactly as posted to me, either by email, comments, or in the forum.

Keep in mind that I also needed to differentiate between “noise”, my “internal thoughts” and “The Commander”. What I do not EVER want to happen is my own personal thoughts, and ideas override what the Commander is telling me.

So in this particular instance, and throughout this article, I have asked to “increase the gain” and “open up the volume”, even though it is more uncomfortable for me personally, so that I can obtain the best quality responses free of any personal opinions or thoughts.

[1] Question: Close Encounter 5 Protocol

“Some are familiar with Dr. Steven Greer’s “Close Encounter 5” protocol through his film and interviews. Is this a useful or productive activity? Is there reason to be cautious, or other qualifications to consider?”

From HERE;

The Close Encounters-5 (CE-5) protocol or “human to alien contact process” uses meditation as a baseline skill to accomplish the communication. As a seasoned Buddhist monastic, I have good experience with preparatory things to not do while getting ready for a serious meditation session. Since many CE-5 group events are scheduled events, I tend to look at them like little mini-meditation retreats. 

Prepping for a meditation event should start 48 to 72 hours prior to the event. This preparatory work is mostly related to food and beverage intake. At least 48 hours in advance of a retreat meditation session, cut most, if not all, intake of alcoholic beverages, caffeinated drinks and soda pop. Alcohol is a depressant, Caffeine is a stimulant. And soda is gassy. These beverages have an impact on meditative practice. 

Now let’s put some wisdom on the table about this. A cup of coffee in the morning is one thing, and so is a small glass of table wine with dinner. But multiple cups of coffee at work followed by super-sized, high-sugar, high-caffeinated soda is another. Nothing impacts meditation worse than caffeine jitters or soda-induced gas movement within the body.

Experience has taught us that certain foods aren’t conducive to good meditative practice, either. Cauliflower, onions and garlic can cause gassy responses that are unsettling in meditation, if not noisy. Spicy sausage, pepperoni and pizza are certainly not advised during the same day of an evening meditative CE-5 event. 

On the day of a CE-5 event, give yourself plenty of time for a leisurely drive to the event. Arrive early, then give yourself a chance to “cool down” after the agitations from highway driving. Take a settling walk at the CE-5 site and relax.

It’s also important NOT to engage in any recreational drugs or alcohol prior to meditation. You are only setting yourself up for failure or at least a seriously diminished experience. CE-5 protocols forbid such practices at the events. 

While we’re on the subject of mind-altering substances, they have no place in the meditative experience. Anyone who tells you that some substance will enhance your meditative experience is lying to you. 

The objective at a CE-5 event is to quiet your mind and shift your consciousness in such a way that your reality is expanded and you establish a common ground where it’s possible to consciously communicate with extraterrestrials.

“The objective of the “C5 Protocol” seems to be summoning and communicating with transdimensional/ET entities through group focused meditation, with the goal of hastening sentience alignment.”

So what is the specific question?

Can meditation techniques be used to contact extraterrestrial entities?

Yes. They can be used. However, they do not have to be used.

When we contacted you (MM) you were not in a meditative state. We simply blasted through whatever consciousness walls that were acquired over your human life. We still contact you now, just like we are doing today. Or course that is by EBP (sic.) and direct. However the system process remains the same.

This questioner is focused not on extraterrestrial / non-physical form comm channels, but rather the skin-suit human initiating contact with an unknown entity; sending out a beacon or signal so that something / someone / some other entity would answer it and open up lines of communication.

To that I can offer some advisement's.

[1] How often does the MM readership / humans / people in general enjoy watching commercials, hanging on and listening to telephone advertisements, or read the Berma-shave ads? Do people really read the fine print on a Lydia Pinkham bottle? Most, when confronted with unwanted solicitations, turn them off and ignore them. The same is true for mental telepathy. It's just M-band (sic.) noise that needs to be filtered out. Any well intentioned skin -suit will need to understand that any signal that they send out will just be interpreted as background noise.

[2] To communicate, you need two consciousnesses. One to transmit and send, and the other to receive. unless you specify who is the recipient of the comm channel, the "message" will just bounce around without going going anywhere. You need a very specific target to send to.

[3] General group "messages" can result in responses. This is simply due to the large number of participants increase the depth and color / image complexity of the message, and other species can notice the message. It is like driving a black Model-T automobile, and then a fancy white Packard zooms by on the road. You notice it because it stands out.

[4] There's many threats and hazards outside of the physical general population area of the Prison Complex. You do not want to invite any of these entities into your life, but you do take that risk when trying to open up a comm channel without a target.

In general, meditation and fasting, good healthy lifestyle and diet, as well as consciousness centering are important physical practices for every skin-suit to partake in. Whether or not they are important in one's ability to communicate with strangers is a personal matter that varies from individual to individual.

[2] Question – mRNA vaccines

May I ask about the Western vaccines and what’s in store for us? It’s more than a little worrying considering the Deagel figures are correlating with the vaccine roll-out so well. So many friends and family have had their MRNA shots here and the hive-mind willful ignorance is fast approaching mandatory injections. Even my twelve year old nephew has had it.

I’ve had two AZ jabs. That’s not MRNA but still produces the full “Spike Protein.” I’m supposed to get a Pfizer “booster” shot and dodging that will become more difficult soon.

So the questions I’d like to ask are:

What timescale is involved with the vaccines going wrong?

I calmed myself down and opened up a comm channel. I intentionally forced myself to receive and not to interject anything into this most important discussion. The comm opened up at 14:59 Thursday afternoon.

The entire premise of the mRNA "vaccine" protocol, as it has been promoted, is in error. There needs to be some other alterations in the chemical mixture injected that will mitigate the bad or more worrisome effects.

This mRNA injection is not a vaccine. It is an injection that is designed to alter the population / society control by the governments that use this methodology.

The concept is that this injection will require as-needed boosters to act as a shield to all manner of foreign substances, germs and viruses. This is not only attractive from that point of view, but that it will also become a predominant revenue stream to the producers of that injection formula.

The governments that promote and use this injection scheme do so with no intention of vaccinating anyone. What they want is a platform to easily control, and defend the population with, when they create dangerous viral weapons to launch against the rest of the world.

The nations favor this methodology as they can include other chemicals and substances at will that would be useful for them to maintaining crowd control, and to manipulate the population. Already there has been developed systems that resonate with the injected mRNA resultant mutations that create harmonics that allow the government to change the actions and thoughts of the injected populations.

They can thus calm, anger, upset, or create any kind of emotional reactions in the population that they control simply by having the population so injected, and then pulsing frequencies at them through social media.

This system is fraught with difficulties, and none of these were addressed during the rollout phase. And today some of the side effects are being noticed. This includes the biggest culprit with is known as the "spike protein", but others that alter the cell structures in a negative vector downward trend. The enthalpic result is early organ failures, particularly of the critical priority organs such as liver, heart, kidneys and lungs.

The damage is being noticed with alarm throughout the nations using this type of injection. However, they have mandated that there shouldn't be any reporting of the danger, and the damages and deaths that have resulted so far.

Unless there is a direct change in the policy positions of the various governments involved, then you can expect an increase in hospitalizations and deaths. None of which will be recorded as due to the mRNA injection, but rather to other causes.

Due to the number of people so injected, there should be an increase in deaths directly attributed to the mRNA alterations through 2022, into 2023.

By late 2023, the deaths should be obvious to all, and catastrophic emergency steps would most likely take place by the governments involved, with peak damage manifesting in the 2024 time period.

This forecast can be changed and vectored to other outcomes provided that a different world-line anchoring program is in planning and in process of being implemented. Unfortunately, we (The Domain) and MAJestic (in whatever incarnation it is today) is not operating such a program.

There is another option, where immediate rectification injections occur and take place that would minimize the adverse effects of the spike protein alterations. There is action in this regard, but we have no information whether it will be implemented by the government so involved. Our supposition is that the results will be tabled and not acted upon for political concerns.

Prior histories suggest that a "black market" for these modification mRNA injections open up, and would be able to be procured by individuals with the proper currency of value at that time.But whether that will happen in this case is unknown.

The specific answer to the question is that deaths as a result of the mRNA injections are taking place presently. They will increase in scope and magnitude. By late 2023 it will be obvious that there is a major problem, and that at that time the actions of an increasingly unstable government leadership is difficult to predict.

Is it just the mRNA vaccines that are affected or all Western vaccines?

Only the mRNA injections are so compromised.

The problem associated with the increase in causality figures have to do with an unanticipated side effect related to spike protein utility. This is only associated with the mRNA injections.

Alteration of the spike protein though methodology not associated with mRNA changes should not be a concern. The problem is intentional mRNA alterations. Not the spike protein itself.

With the other injections operate in other ways, and all have their own issues, as do the "dead host" vaccines, the primary worry and concern is with the mRNA injections that alter DNA.

If anyone has taken the mRNA injection, the best thing to do is to maintain good health and healthy behaviors. This become more critical as this will help mitigate any potential problems created by the spike protein.

Further, exercise, always needed, should become a priority. Not just for good health but to enrich cell wall maintenance with fine oxidization. The problem with this side effect is that people continue to indulge in unhealthy behavior when they should start eating better, performing a minimum of exercise and controlling their thoughts.

Exercise with fresh air is best. This would be a nice walk in the woods or forests, a bicycle ride along a river or a lake, or even a icy swim (Russian style) in a frozen lake.

If you have taken an mRNA injection you will seriously need to change your diet. Processed foods will need to be eliminated from your diet.

Both exercise and diet will not, alone, prevent the catastrophic side effects of an errant mRNA initiated spike protein, but they will allow your body to heal if and when the consequences of a errant spike protein becomes apparent.

And this patent fell into my lap…

[3] Question – Current role and background.

As I read more and more of MMs material I come across many of what I can only describe as synchronicities in life and experiences.

I wonder about my experiences in LD that shadow his experiences in the non physical planes, the similar way I was (seemingly) trained through LD. this includes the sudden urge to join the air-force and the seemingly bizarre way my mind sometimes works where a maddening urge to do something will drive me in a particular direction to the point I cannot not focus on it. Further, the idea I am entangled within the life of SD (and everything that was stated about her last Q&A) and I have to wonder;

Am I simply a consciousness experimenter who got caught up in something much, much bigger than he was ever anticipating to get caught up in or am I something/ someone else entirely? Who is Trick or Trip?

You are something else entirely.

You are not an average person / NPC / shadow person (sic.) / follower / rabble / crowd member. The role you are living out right now was planned for prior to your birth in great detail, and coordinated with both MM and SD.

SD is part of something completely different from that of MM, and you are part of that situation / condition / arrangement / reality / segment.

I cannot divulge your relationship with SD except to say that it is significant and that you have and hold a major role in her many (and multiple) lives and her on going objectives. This includes repeating reincarnated experiences, and journeys in and out of the general population segments of the prison complex.

Because you straddle the mission parameters with both MM and SD, you have a dichotomy of reactions with includes some that are not fully actuated to your own ideals. This is a consequence of understandings and experiences that broach both worlds and being the interface between them causes you some personal discomfort. You are aware of this but do not vocalize it for fear of the loss of face / consequences / fear / misunderstanding. But it is quite reasonable given your unbridled power inherent in the abilities that you have actuated at pre-birth.

You should not worry or be concerned with who you are or what your role is. You have, yourself, mapped out this life (of yours) in great detail, and you are following it adroitly. In fact, you are not straying off your mapped out (I picture a pumpkin colored thick dotted line) route through the MWI (sic.) as most others tend to do.

You have / possess great discipline in the regard to your mission parameters and a great deal of control over your actuated and unrealized abilities (purposefully suppressed for this particular life). The fact that you agreed to this role , and SD adapted her life to accommodate your desires speaks well of your plans, intentions and value.

Your role is not accidental. Nor it is trivial. Nor it is a developed vector that adapted to changing concerns and environs. It is planned and fated by you working in conjunction with your leadership. Your leadership, is not who you (in this physical manifestation) associate with, but something else. Who that is is not directly obvious to you at this time, and should be of no concern to you.

Most IS-BE inmates in the prison skin-suits come from a great and diverse background that stands apart in stack contrast to the baseline "average" inmate. In your case it is clear that you are part of a team working on multi-dimensional fracturing and disassembly of pocket universes associated with this prison complex. This benefits The Domain and so a shared relationship was forged which included your voluntary participation.

All that you are doing now has great value and is significant.

Many of the advantages of your efforts will be realized within a sixty to seventy-five year period hence. You are but laying the fundamental groundwork for your follow up efforts later on. This is all part of your agreed upon strategy and why you have been gifted / granted / authorized / adapted to the skill sets that you currently enjoy and have utilized.

On a personal note, SD should be doing better now. It's not just your fears at the time, but we took care of some matters with her other body(s) that should make things slightly / a bit / somewhat easier for her from now on. Of course, we did so with her approvals, as well as both of your leadership. If your physical body / state / being is uncomfortable with this, we will stop this kind of protective alterations. You need only vocalize it.

Your physical health is fine. You need not worry or concern yourself with the fears that are manifesting.

However, you should get more fresh air (The term "fresh air" seems to be a very important theme right now) on outside walks, and watch your food intake. Maintenance of diet is important for everyone in your family right now.

You will also see a degree of clarity in your LD efforts and that will become a measure of your physical health.

[4] Question – Life prior to imprisonment

I would like to ask a personal question as well because I hope that the answer might unlock past memories and help me get closer to my purpose in this life:

Who and where was I before life in this prison environment and how did I end up here?

It would really feed my curiosity to receive a short reading from my file in the Domain archive if there is one. I understand if you choose not to ask it because it is too irrelevant to everyone else.

Thanks for going through these exhausting communication sessions with the commander! They are very insightful packed with food for thought!

(Tuning in like that of an old shortwave radio for some reason. Like crackling noise and drift. Curious. I guess it is the Commander's way of telling me that he is accessing a computer files or records. Really odd. Quaint. Like how someone uses an old fashioned telephone bell on their brand new cell phone. -MM)

You lived in the "Old Empire". You had spent many life-times and reincarnations in the "Old Empire", and your life predated it's arrival when it came into being and conquered the worlds that you had come to refer to as your "home".

You had preferred a singular species, rather than jump for species to species as is sometimes the case. You held roles in multiple sexes. All three of the dominant sexual orientations appear to have been your preference. With no specific preference one way or the other. You are uncomfortable on the earth as it is far brighter and more electromagnetically charged environment than what you have become accustomed to.

I know that you are especially curious about your appearance, your home(s) and friends that you left behind.

Your species trivially resembled a satyr of the Greek mythology. Only that you were were far shorter than what is depicted in paintings and illustrations. The male form possessed a rather long and always rigid penis, and the female form was without horns. The third / incubated / hosting / transitional form had a tail (?) with a large belly (?). All forms had hooves and hairy legs as depicted in ancient Greek art.

Your homes were of the "Old Empire" standard model and truly resembled "old medieval style". As was true to your species, when in the male form you cavorted with members of the other sexes and indulged in many parties and recreational pursuits. And yes, you have many friends that still exist inside the "Old Empires" that miss you and would like to see you again. Often in the female form you raised rabbits. It was a great love of yours. And these rabbits are of the same identical form as what are present on the earth today.

You were incarcerated because you had broke a series of major laws of the "Old Empire" and had previous lives that had also committed serious crimes as well. The judicial group within the "Old Empire" judged you as an incorrigible entity, and sentenced you to banishment for multiple lives.

You were to have stayed banished, but you chose not to do so.

You believed that you could exist on the outer fringes of the "old empire" and not be noticed. Apparently you chose to incarnate in your old form, and you simply maintained your old behaviors in defiance of the "Old Empire" judicial rulings.

And when you reappeared in the "Old Empire" in a new incarnation, they arrested you and sent to to the penal colony on earth. This was in the early years of the Prison Complex. In those early years you maintained your satyr-like appearance, and you did not wear a prison skin-suit. Human skin-suits did not appear for many years later.

You were one of the first batches of inmates to the prison environment.

Your crimes were a mixture of unsanctioned <redacted> / physical murder, identity switching / ,redacted> / body swapping / unapproved soul extraction, assault, manipulative fraud / deception, torture without (reasonable) breaks (?), and substantive (?) tax evasion.

(I get the image of a short Harry Mudd [from the early Star Trek television series] with horns and goat legs standing in front of what looks like a collection of real life muppets "in the flesh".)

You have spent a very long time in the Prison Complex, and it took you a long time to adjust to your conditions.

Over the centuries your IS-BE consciousness has changed, and the mantid primes have been easing up on the punishment sections of your general population visits and allow you longer "rests" in "Heaven". They would welcome / suggest / offer parole for your IS-BE being under monitoring. However, that option is no longer available as the entire parole system was destroyed by us (The Domain) during our conquest of this region.

On the positive side note, you have demonstrated fine compassionate yearnings and behaviors and are worthy of release. Upon your death, all you need to is call out for Domain pickup and we will work with you on your next steps post incarnation. Our plans are such that we do not want to release you back into the prison General Population but rather work on your rehabilitation so that you can continue on the path that you have elected to follow.

We do not recommend a return to the "Old Empire" to you, nor do we recommend that you try to relive your lives in that body and within that society. It is time for a new life and a new start for you. In your case your past is toxic and without it you have a very bright future ahead of you.

And I thought that Mades Escapleon was bad. Sorry, guy. Maybe it’s best not to know of our past, eh? -MM

[5] Question – MM Members & connections

An idea that I’ve had lately… it seems several of us have connections to each other that go deeper than just some random meeting of people on the internet. It’s like… meeting someone you knew from childhood 20+ years later.

Sure their appearance has changed but on that first look you know they’re familiar and don’t know why.

It feels like that.

Would the Domain have any recommendations on how to explore that connection?

For many mm participants everyone is reliving associations that they have purposely mapped into their pre-birth world-line template (sic.). Many skin-suits think only of the physical, and while they can conceptualize life in the non-physical they cannot take this reality into account with their day to day lives.

Everything that the skin-suit experiences in the General Population has been fated to happen by the Pre-birth world-line template (sic.). You can thus easily conclude that this meet-up and community has been fated to occur and is following a schedule and implementation as previously agreed to.

To explore the connections between all mm followers and new associations, all one needs to do is to add affirmation questions in your campaigns (sic.) to answer those questions.

There are some individuals that have continuing relationships that go back many multiple lifetimes, while others not so much. But that does not matter in the confluence of the exchange of thoughts and ideas that synergistically work together to obtain the desired end result.

The relationships that you are building here is neither accidental or trivial. Everyone that comes here and stays do so because it resonates to them. This frequency resonance is intentional, and artificially induced to create the forged alliances and joint support network that all enjoy.

I can tell you that numerous members that you interact with have been invited to join in this effort by you personally and their agreement to work with you on and during this incarnation is very significant and your appreciation of it is what you are experiencing.

[6] Question – Amelioration of mRNA side effects

I’d like to add something too, please.

I want no part of the mRNA experiment and will never consent no matter what (I would take the Sino versions or Sputnik without hesitation but they’re not available where we are now as we’re in a client state. It is out of the frying pan and into the pan for us.

However, if people close to us are being pressured into taking an mRNA shot against their will because their job or prospects depend on it (and will literally be fired/not hired, and likely impoverished or unable to pay mortgages or socially shunned if they refuse)…

Are the effects of these experimental inoculations something (or of a nature) that can be ameliorated or negated by adding an intention to my campaigns expressly aimed at preserving and protecting their health if they do consent?

Or would it be better to support them in their refusal by including intentions that they’ll be provided for if they lost their job/can’t get a job?

My wife has had to turn down a number of fantastic opportunities in Korea because she won’t consent to an mRNA inoculation and I feel terrible about this.

Other friends of ours are being pressured at work and threatened with their jobs, too.

For us, the financial aspect thankfully is not a big deal, but my wife is highly skilled and empathetic by nature and the thoughts of her having to sit at home as these opportunities pass her by upsets me even though she’d never consent without both of us agreeing that she should.

And how could any husband agree to something that could harm his wife if not now, but perhaps after the 8th or 9th fucking booster– something I’ve been reliably informed is the plan in an unending cycle of pharmaceutical tyranny unless these monsters are stopped dead in their tracks.

(Something I also feel strongly will happen going by what the Domain and notable others have said, and am thus prepared to wait it out until it happens.)

There’s also the added worry that my wife is of a delicate constitution, and has suffered with a number of minor, thankfully, but uncomfortable ailments since her mid-40s.

I’d be very concerned about her health under a continuous toxic load as the mRNA clearly is.

I’d rather take our chances with whatever pathogen these ghouls are going to release next. Our creators gave us a pretty good auto-immune system. I’m banking on that and the usual reasonable precautions.

I’ve never really been sick or– miraculously– injured in adulthood.

Apart from a few scrapes and close shaves, but am also very aware many others haven’t been so fortunate. And are very vulnerable to pathogens.

If the above is a bit mealy for the Domain disregard it, Mr Man. Or just simplify it whatever way you choose.

Summary: can intentions alone ameliorate the effects of the mRNA shot on our loved ones if they consent?

Yes. Intention campaigns (sic.) are a very powerful tool. And yes they can absolutely work to prevent the bad effects of an mRNA injection.

They can also prevent the bad side effects of the mRNA altered spike protein initiation.

Look at how the <redacted>. You cannot deny that happened. (No. I cannot deny that. I was very specific in my affirmations, and they occurred very specifically.)

And (also addressed to MM) looking down the list of your green highlighted victory campaigns (I maintain a list of prior affirmations that came true.) there should be no question at all that there can be complete avoidance of catastrophic events. You know and understand this to be the absolute truth.

However, you have to also adapt to the reality that there is a juvenile mRNA alteration within your body. You will need to adjust your lifestyle to avoid triggering a malevolent biological reaction.

Think of it as a gunshot wound. You healed up but the lead slug is still in your body. It has the potential to kill you, but is lying there dormant. By being healthy, watching your actions, exercise and diet, you can determine if and when (if ever) the slug will dislodge and cause your trouble. It is like that.

The most important / key change to lifestyle is fresh air and moderate walking or exercise around in the fresh oxygen environment.

In addition, your diet will have to severely reduce the amount and number of processed and super-processed foods. It is not a matter of weight gain, in so much as it is a matter of the ability for your body to handle and adjust to a weakening of cell walls.

Good food, lots of oxygen and hydration will benefit you substantially. As well as centered and strong positive thoughts. Avoid media pummeling of upsetting and disturbing news.

(Further, once you get the mRNA injection, you will forever need to maintain "being safe from mRNA malevolence" in all of your subsequent campaigns. -MM)

Or would it be better to wait and focus on a “healthy, content and provided for without allowing oneself to be pressured into taking part in a dangerous and illegal mass experiment against one’s will” intention?

This is an option. It is up to the individual person to make the necessary decision in this regard. We cannot, and will not, make decisions for the individual consciousness. The decision is up to them and them alone.

There are always alternative solutions that are not obvious, but worthy of investigation. Rather than thinking in terms of black or white, consider a borderline solution.

If a job requires a vaccination, but does not specify what type, then take the one that you believe is the safest and then accept the job position. If that "safer" version is not available in your area, research, and you will discover that there can be other solutions that need only a detour and an extra allotment of time to implement.

And if the above sounds selfish, it’s not meant to be. I’ll include every single person– and especially the MM Crew– who has been pressured by traitors and NPCs into “consenting”. There WILL be justice eventually. I’m positive in a Pissed Lizard kind of positive about that.

(And thanks for remembering me in your intentions, PL. And your kind words wrt the vaxx. Please include my wife and her friends too as you and everybody else here are in ours.)

I cant wait for the day these scumbags will get their just desserts. But I’m a patient guy.

[7] Question – Desirous of confirmation

#1 Should we continue ? I would not interfere in the plan that brings us together . #2 What is my role apart from being rufus $3 oula c is under construction, to form reinforcements # 4 I’m sorry didn’t send me to the cornfield #5 I want a strong and contaminated inking from the old Empire

Please allay the fears and concerns of this questioner.

(I can only transmit what I understand, and receive what I am able to translate. In this case, I am asking the Domain Commander to ping the source, Identify the concerns and respond back to me. I do not know if it will work, but I am asking and transmitting anyways. -MM)

What you are doing and acting and behaving is exemplary. I do not advise changing anything. You must start trusting your inner feelings, instead of your thoughts and worries. You need to adjust and center your consciousness. Use the techniques provided by MM to do this. Operate using all the tools provided by him, and do not question your actions or activities. Focus on the activity one day at a time. You need to realize that steady simple progress will take you to your goals and objectives faster than fear distorted reactionary measures.

(I will not send you to the cornfield. Do not live a life in fear. -MM)

From the movie “Strictly Ballroom“…

And the image…

And so we continue…

Your association with the "Old Empire" was catastrophic. They seized you, arrested you, and sentenced you to eternity in the Prison Complex. 

In your case it was a very harsh sentence that needn't have occurred.

You were "railroaded" into prison so that others might steal from you, and profit from you.Your closest family, loved ones, and your dearest business partners conspired to destroy you for financial gain. Then when the judicial system started to process you, they were bribed and convinced to give you the harshest sentence possible.

When the time came for you to get justice, the situation was not in your favor and you were judged in a very harsh manner on pretend charges, doctored and false transcripts, and stood alone with no support or assistance.

All of the charges against you that sent you to the prison complex are all false. But you have endured this situation for centuries.

We do not advise you to have any memory recovery of those bad events UNTIL you have obtained the necessary amnesia recovery efforts to prevent the harsh and hurtful events from damaging your psyche and ego irreversibly.

[8] Question – judicial corruption of sentience.

So, first of all, as always MM, Thank you for this opportunity, and for the effort you put into it.

So, some context for my question: I am a Lawyer in the UK. At my current level, and in my current role in the criminal law, it appears most people are service to others – they do it because of some inexorable calling.

The criminal justice system in my country has naturally evolved over a very long time to be as fair and balanced as it could have been in the circumstances.

However, since 2012 especially, this has been corrupted from the Parliamentary level, access to justice has been destroyed, and the presumption of innocence is long since gone.

Efforts are made every day to pierce the independence of the judiciary, and once that goes, the whole system goes.

I love my role, for various reasons, but also because I get the opportunity to hold the state to account before it exerts its power on an individual.

The change seems to be sort of an “antibody response” to the judiciary holding parliament to account and being an unyielding line between the state and the individual. (Of course, this may be me romanticising my countries legal system, there is some bias here!)

The disinformation campaigns in particular from the government and the news to undermine the system is extremely effective in getting public support for changes that seriously harm the publics rights and freedoms, and remove the ring-fence of the states powers.

When this is done incrementally using the rule of law, then its extremely difficult to fight back against. See also – COVID fear campaign.

So, my question is such – when working in a system that is being pressured or changed from a service to others to a service for another (at best) or a service to self (at worst), is it still possible to both “play the game” AND try to make positive changes without being corrupted by it?

I’m not entirely sure where I lie, I hope I’m StO, but my talents and interests are best expressed in a role that has a dramatic impact in the lives of others, and I enjoy the “game” of it.

This, to me, seems StS. I suppose rewording it for the implied question: I’m pretty sure I’m going back for another round, but is it possible to fight back against corruption from inside without being fully damned by it, or am I just trying to justify my own narcissism?

I’ve tried to be as broad-strokes as possible, providing the context for my question without drowning you in meaningless detail.

It still possible to both “play the game” AND try to make positive changes without being corrupted by it?

Yes. You are a capable person. You can do both.

You (personally) are a transitional sentience. You are well on the way to being STO, as that is your original calling. You need not worry about enjoyment of vices, pleasures of the physical, or respect and power. Those are natural human responses and desires.

Power does corrupt. It is a natural law because it affects the way ego handles physical decision making efforts. However, by staying true to the idea of helping others, you remain a STO sentence, even if you enjoy the power, the control and the vices that go along with the position.

Many IS-BE's enter the physical realms, and undergo the amnesia intentionally so that they can enjoy the pleasures of beauty. This is seductive and is a lure that other IS-BE's can use to control others. There is nothing wrong about enjoying pleasures of the physical and the ego. However, sentience concerns the desired end effects of one's actions.

It does not matter if a police dog enjoys eating a nice steak bone after catching a robber. And it should not matter if you enjoy the power, prestige, respect and perks of your position if you serve true and real justice no matter how corrupted the organization is becoming or has become.

Your biggest concern is that the system itself does not change your fundamental sentience.

When you stop your role in managing justice on a one to one basis and instead look to selfish profit goals, then you are riding the slippery slope towards STS behaviors. That is ill advised. Never sacrifice your occupation for personal profit. That would have a disastrous domino effect on your future incarnations (if any - depending on your sentience).

*FINAL*

This question was explored in the movie “TheDevil’sAdvocate”. Most especially in the final scene. -MM

[9] Question – Are we losing sight of our objectives?

Are we getting caught up in this momentum? discover and share a practical model or some kind of schematic standard that is consistent with your fundamental principles? Suggestions to help in the way of symbolic language and our s narchs and values put forward?

There is nothing wrong about desire and enthusiasm. 

Your objective is to help us (The Domain) to rescue the trapped IS-BE entitles, and then to release the prisoners in the Prison Complex under a rehabilitation program that will permit them to reacquire their memories and allow them to continue their existence in peace.

As long as steps are taken in that direction, it is of no concern what the size of those steps may be.

[10] Question – Indications of “Old Empire” behaviors

…As an example, from the above email we can gather clues. The Old Empire still runs the show.

There is an inner core (or many inner cores spread through out the world. They cast votes in those cliques. Etc etc..

So we see glimpses into their little world on occasion.

Then the media shuts the door. I am leaning towards the probability that the whole of the western elite are compromised. (Once you put on those glasses from They Live, every weird thing makes sense. But you need to put on those glasses to make any sense of our weird world.)

They live. Put on the glasses to see things as they really are.

In fact the dominant culture in many parts of the world is Old Empire in flavor.

And that culture is anti empathy and anti human in its nature.

MM had a Rufus article that struck me. A video by one woman who observed that people cared for stray cats and dogs in America but they don’t even acknowledge their homeless. BUT if you try a Old Empire Larp, then it’s perfectly natural.

Is the difference in treatment of pets to fellow humans an indicator of “Old Empire” behaviors.

Yes it is. I will elaborate later when you (MM) are not so tired and stressed.

---update---

When The Domain took over the physical territory of "The Old Empire', many in the leadership roles escaped. The vast bulk of them hid inside of the Prison Complexes with "special passes" which allowed them to enter and leave at will without being tethered to the entire prison containment system.

These individuals have since taken over various operational aspects of the Prison System, and created sub-pocket universes and environs from which they operate in relative comfort. One of which is the (so called) rape centers that seem to plague the egress and access routes towards the pocket universes of "Heaven".

Many of these IS-BE entities are now wholly corrupted and operating at a very low level of empathy. This is strong STS behaviorism and are easily identified. They resemble a termite colony when you observe a (galactic) overview.

Yes. To answer your question. In general, any resemblance of "Old Empire" behaviors is a guaranteed enclave of selfish and dangerous incorrigible IS-BE within the complex and their "Old Empire" handlers. they cannot disguise their behaviors for long. They can put up a good front and use deceptions to hide their true nature, but over time, their baseline behaviors manifest.

Members of the "Old Empire" had pets. They, like human skin-suits, possess a great deal of fondness for their pets and honor and treat them well. But the population of leadership that has run the "Old Empire" do not represent the mass population that they govern. When they would take a pet, it would be for purposes of presentation and image. Not out of a love or a relationship. Thus there must be a distinction made between the leadership, and upper tiers of society, in the "Old Empire" and that of the common folk.

The questioner would be surprised to note that there are cats in the "Old Empire" and they behave and act just like the cats do within the Prison Complex. The same goes for other pets that have found niches within the "Old Empire" societal structure.

When a member of the elite exited the "Old Empire" and hid away in the Prison Complex, they carried with them their identities, their "golden passes", their retinues, and their behaviors. In so doing, they were able to corrupt so many features and controls of the Prison Complex. And they corrupted it in such a way that they would live fine comfortable lives.

There is not a direct correlation between modern Western governmental leadership and "Old Empire" leadership-in-exile, but there is enough of an overlap to come to the conclusion that many of the powerful people in the earth world today, are from the "Old Empire" power cabal.

[11] Question – Vaxx influence on memories of past incarnations

I will pose a question on the vaccines , but in the name of Opsec, I will leave it here. For your discretion to inform us the response, that is entirely in your hands.

To me, the vaccine rollout is so insistent that it must serve a higher purpose. I do not believe that it is used to cover financial matters. I do not even believe now that it is for depopulation, and in fact I think the Deagel Report is disinformation.

This role playing was triggered when you mentioned that you got to your past lives by hypnosis. So I thought I would counterfeit some knockoff lol.

Does the vaccine have any effect on the ability to recall past lives or on the relationship between the mantid and his/her ward?

Everything in the physical reality universe has, to some degree, influence on the amnesia system of memory suppression.

The mRNA injection is not designed specifically to prevent memory recall. It has other purposes related to physical government control. It possesses side effects not sufficiently mapped out and thought out. This will cause some problems for the communities so injected.

As far as we can determine, any effect on amnesia either "good" or "bad" (from the point of view of an imprisoned IS-BE) is indeterminate. Certainly, other substances can be added by the government that can then be injected into a person to...

[1] Make them more docile.
[2] Make them easier to manipulate.
[3] Make them conform or not conform to laws, rules and behaviors.
[4] Alter their biology.
[5] Act as a "key" to define "membership" in and out of communities.
[6] Use as a protective biological agent, and then release a deadly pathogen to harm those not protected.

And, which is the point that you brought up...

[7] Control access to memories.
[8] Control religious and philosophical belief structures.
[9] Tighten or loosen the relationship between the mantid and their assigned ward.

You have correctly identified the risks inherent in this government mandate. However, you need not be concerned NOW, at this time, about the impact on your non-physical bodies, consciousness or memory access.

[12] Question – Who am I?

Geez, MM, Id be a fool to miss this opportunity but I guess we are all at the point of where we stand in this effort of helping. While knowing can be a distraction in itself, knowing could also be one step closer to giving confidence in our abilities. So for my question would be: Who Am I in regards to the Domain? What role do I play in helping “Free the Lost Battalion” and the imprisoned IS-BEs? Thank you, my friend. Good luck.

Who is the questioner in regards to the Domain? What role do they play in helping “Free the Lost Battalion” and the imprisoned IS-BEs?

The questioner is a contact, initially of a trivial nature, that has come in contact with the Domain in this venue at this time. There is a willingness to participate and contribute, and a desire to do good and great things.

There is no doubt that this individual is a contributor who is desirous of working with The Domain in the resolution of the release of the imprisoned Domain members, as well as the hope / desire / wish to also be released from the situation that they find themselves in.

They seek understanding though contribution.

We acknowledge this and offer a "seat at the table". In many ways this IS-BE is an enthusiastic "raw recruit" that holds great promise and even greater benefit to the society as a while. They have a slight "feeling" that this is the case, but we are vocalizing that it actually is the exact situation.

As an individual, mission objectives and planning details are beyond the scope of their participation / understanding / contribution assets but that does not mean that they are meaningless. They hold a significant role, it is just that they do not understand how that role fits into the larger picture, and they want and desire clarity.

This individual is a "walk in", and was not part of the initial pre-birth discussions for localized group membership and participation. Location here is more than just random, but is unintentional. We have scanned this IS-BE credentials / background / thought vectors / non-physical profile and determined that they are a fine recruit.

Which is not what they want to hear. The questioner desires details.

They yearn for a grander scheme of things that they fit into like part of a bigger picture. But their "larger pictures" is far more complex than your average skin-suit.

When they ended up here, they did not come from the "Old Empire", they were a discarded drop-off. And they arrived with background / baggage / powers / abilities and complexities that earn them a prominent seat "at the table".

Their Top Hat is pronounced and of fine manufacture. (I do not understand that reference. -MM)

Unlike most other MM cadre's this IS-BE consciousness did not experience pre-birth training for the role. So we are working on this effort now simultaneously with their non-physical bodies. Which is why they seem to have some odd and unusual dreams.

In the future the role that this entity will play will be as significant as <redacted> and <redacted>. This questioner need not worry or be concerned of the details. All is in good hands and under control.

[13] Question – Space Exploration

I would like to know two things (for now):

What physical locations have human beings “traveled” to off this earth?
- Moon
- Mars
- Other
What means of transportation did they use?
- Ship (what type of propulsion)
- Portal of some sort (what type of construct)

Of course I’d also like to know if humans actually accomplished any of this, or was it all a result of off-world assistance.

Human prison inmate skin-suits have traveled to the Moon, Mars, and Ganymede. The only public acknowledgement is the United States Apollo moon missions, where numerous skin-suits landed and walked on the moon. MM was on the moon and had medical procedures there. Many MAJestic operatives have visited the facilities on and in the moon and worked with MAJestic there. Some of which are in guarded spaces; pocket universes for protections.

Oxia Palus <redacted>.

Numerous MAJestic operatives have also visited facilities on Mars and Ganymede. But these were for special functions and for special purposes. There is a special training barracks and facility underground in Mars for the training of female MAJestic operatives. Also <redacted>. Obviously they are not told where they are, but they can easily discern that it is a secure place on a different planet.

The vast bulk of transport is via dimensional portal. There are occasional trips using vehicles, but that is used rarely. There really isn't much need for skin-suit participation on these machines. As also the environmental controls need to be adapted for human skin-suit use. Sometimes the humans participate in biological sampling and monitoring as a MAJestic requirement. It is however, always an observer role. Human skin -suits never perform medical procedures on other human skin-suits.

Vehicles are our standard local system craft, often of the mid-size. You will recall on <redacted>. <redacted>. (Sorry. Guys. -MM)

We have never moved an inmate within their skin-suit outside of the Prison Complex walls. We have moved these humans to various stations, facilities and vehicular craft working inside of the complex walls. For the most part, we perform what ever necessary biological modifications are required on their non-physical bodies in a form of "catch and release".

MAJestic operations has sometimes required the placement of humans at certain facilities for an extended length of time.<redacted>

Size comparisons of various selected planets and moons.

[14] Question – Rhesus blood group and Faeries

First up:

The Rh blood group system is a human blood group system. It contains proteins on the surface of red blood cells. After the ABO blood group system, it is the most likely to be involved in transfusion reactions. 

The Rh blood group system consists of 49 defined blood group antigens, among which the five antigens D, C, c, E, and e are the most important. 

There is no d antigen. Rh(D) status of an individual is normally described with a positive or negative suffix after the ABO type (e.g., someone who is A Positive has the A antigen and the Rh(D) antigen, whereas someone who is A Negative lacks the Rh(D) antigen). 

The terms Rh factor, Rh positive, and Rh negative refer to the Rh(D) antigen only. Antibodies to Rh antigens can be involved in hemolytic transfusion reactions and antibodies to the Rh(D) and Rh antigens confer significant risk of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. 

-Wikipedia

Some people consider this type of blood an indicator of having Alien DNA. I know nothing at all about this. What I do know is that it is a rare blood type, and that my father possessed this blood type. He was also a member of Mensa. So what this questioner is asking is whether the presence of Rh blood is an indicator of extraterrestrial DNA.

May I ask about the rhesus negative blood group – a small percentage compared with other blood groups on the earth, what are their origins?

There are different types of human skin-suits. Many of the differences are subtle.

Special human skin-suit attire was often constructed for unique purposes at different periods in earth's history. Usually for the purposes of creating specialized clusters of inmates for social experimentation, reasons of safety, propagation success (and amusements).

However, in this case it was for the purposes of human - feline bonding. This skin suit protected the humans and permitted the human - feline bonding to occur without problem.

The earth-bound felines carried a parasite. And the resulting parasitic infection ended up killing immune-deficient humanoids at the time.

This skin-suit was developed as a natural defense of the local parasitic infection.

This such skin-suit is one that has an Rh blood group. This skin-suit was specifically designed to grant immunity against a localized food borne parasite.

This parasite was problematic in the geographical area now known as Europe near the Pyrenees mountain group. This occurred approximately 60,000 years ago and started to manifest when human skin-suits started to interact with cats as companions. The cats would carry and incubate this parasite and it would be discharged by it's feces. Then the close proximity of children and adults to the feces would have the humanoids who interacted with these cats get sick.

Over the centuries, the bloodline migrated world-wide and is now present throughout the world.

Individuals with this genetic type of blood tend to have some similar traits that make them stand out from other human skin-suits. However, that is coincidental, and not intentional by design.

(An oh-by-the-way "off hand" comment... -MM)

This type of skin-suit is sought after by IS-BE's who are desirous of a life-time adventure involving intelligence, speculations and the creative side of science. IS-BE's that utilize this skin-suit gravitate towards science and STEM related subjects naturally and that simplifies early childhood development for fate mapping exercises in the MWI (sic.).

This is what #Neanderthals really looked like, by scientific illustrator Tom Bjorklund of Finland. Accurate, painted as if they were a lot like us, loved flowers, children and fell in love. They lived over much of Europe, from 400,000 years ago unto 30,000 years ago.

Actually, this was hard for me to translate, and receive. I had to perform multiple calming exercises and focus.

The sidhe/faery – what is their connection with the domain?

The sidhe are native non-physical inhabitants of the British Island grouping. They have similar cousins all over the earth. These non-physical beings have a vibrant life on the earth and in similar domains. They are not part of the Prison Complex. And they have unique abilities that their human skin-suit friends might leverage upon.

(At this point I am told to look at a map. So I went to Bing and did a map search

I found many fictional maps. There wasn’t any real non-fictional maps available except on. Here is the screen shot…

What does this mean? The comm line opened up again and the dialog continued.

Migration of faerie populations moved upland over the centuries, however, their base civilization centers remained in place regardless as to the physical changes that occurred on the earth. As glaciers came and went, and water raised and fell, and as human population came and went, the faerie civilization stayed in place. They did not disappear as is commonly assumed.

Being primarily a non-physical entity, they are not subject to the physical environs that humans are subject to. Once their homes and residences were above water, now many are under water. It is of no concern to them.

They also do not experience time like humans do.

They have a vibrant and lush life, though they prefer to migrate towards wooded areas devoid of the harsh and active thought of inmate human prisoners. This is why they are irregularly encountered.

The Domain are aware of their existence, and there is a mutual level of respect. However, there is no formal interaction in any way whether good or bad, relatively.

Actually, I have a “feeling” that this answer did not really cover the question or answer what that this questioner was asking. So I rephrased the question. I hope the questioner does not mind.

What significance are the Faeries of the British Isles have / interact with the Domain or any other extraterrestrial influences now or in the past?

When the earth was being configured as a Prison Planet, the "Old Empire" had to deal with the problem that the Earth was inhabited with sentient intelligence's that did not their world to be occupied by the refuse of the galaxy. 

The primary and dominant sentences at that time were [1] a number of humanoid colonies on the planet, [2] intelligent non-tool making species such as dolphins, [3] primitive humanoid forms of limited tool-making ability, and [4] extensive and elaborate non-physical species. The Faerie realm and society was the largest, and best established. 

They did not accept the changes to the earth environment and a war took place. After a period of time, the major habitations of the faeries were destroyed, and the "Old Empire" took over the earth and it's surrounding geographical regions and created the prison complex that exists today.

Because the skin-suits are contaminated by inmate skin suit modifications, the faerie population tend to avoid human contact. This was not the case prior to the interjection of the "Old Empire" policy plannings. From the point of view of the faeries, they endured a massive interstellar war, and this group of "Old Empire" administrators was just another in a long line of interlopers. 

What they did not expect was that a containment field would be set up that would isolate their society from the rest of the faerie societies throughout the galaxy. They are very bitter about this situation.

Final notes

This is part one. I have part 2 in process, and will release it when I am completed. All in all, I think that there are some great answers, and some perplexing attributes that need to be pondered upon.

I think that we all need to be careful about what we ask for. We might not like the result. I certainly didn’t (Mades Escapileon). But then again, I have absolutely zero recall of any life under that purported name.

This might seem like an easy enough task. It isn’t, and is very tiring and stressful to me personally. Many times I had to search for words to explain concepts that were alien to me. I truly hope that the information is of help to the questioners who participated. If your questions are not here, please wait. I have more questions in part 2 to follow. -MM

Do you want more?

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[daegonmagus] – Part 13 – PROJECT: EDISON

The following is the thirteenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 13 – Project Edison

This article is by no means finalized.

On the 29th of November 2017 , whilst under lucidity, I petitioned several unknown inter dimensional entities to establish a means of communication between both the physical world and the world of the dead.

An assembly was held in the astral realm (Sleep Paralysis/ hypnogogia) which consisted of myself, and at least three other entities, one of who was a spirit who had lived in this world before passing on to that one.

The object of this meeting was discuss what could be used as possible interfacing devices between these two worlds that would provide an effective and efficient means of communication.

Several ideas were discussed involving the use of biological material taken from a living host, whose cells could die off and decay possibly providing a link between the worlds if they could be located via the other entities.

Another solution was to find a willing living being whose death was inevitable and prepare them with talismans, so that memory of the talisman could also be taken with them upon their departure of this plane.

During this meeting there were several abrupt interruptions and as such, much of the content was lost to my memory, though I specifically remember telling one of the entities that “if their idea worked, then it would lead to an incineration of the boundaries between realms”.

It was also suggested that different vibrating frequencies be investigated by both parties so that a coinciding frequency can be used to “tap into” each other’s communications.

What I got from this is that these beings seem to be as enthusiastic as I am in making inter dimensional contact possible.

Further discussion has been agreed by all parties involved.

HYPOTHESIS:

It has been suggested that a single frequency could be chosen by which communication exchange from both the physical world and the world of the dead could take place.

The reason a standard frequency must be chosen is due to the fact that the dead entities, are (allegedly) composed of pure frequency, unlike living people whose composition is made from atoms.

The problem with current channelling techniques used to communicate with dead entities is that there is no specific way to measure the frequency by which the medium is tuning into to make this contact.

If a single frequency could be decided by occupants of both worlds as a standard form of communication, then hypothetically that frequency could be tuned into by the living entity using standard radio apparatus whilst at the same time manipulated by the dead entity in such a way that it can be detected via the apparatus.

I suggest future meetings with such enthusiastic non physical entities via lucid dreaming to further discuss how this could be implemented.

MM comment

So many interesting aspects here. I so wish that we all can collaborate together to flush all of this out.

The use of defining frequencies to stop the segmentation of memory partitioning is a hopeful hypothesis, and needs to be “flushed out”. What are all of your thoughts on this?

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[daegonmagus] – Part 12 – Miscellaneous Experiences: The Curious case of the Mysterious Chicken Bird

The following is the twelfth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 12 – Miscellaneous Experiences: The Curious case of the Mysterious Chicken Bird

Yeah, yeah I know….I am supposed to be teaching you guys about LD so we can all meet in the non physical planes and kick some Old Empire ass before sitting down to smoke a fat Cuban, or whatever the equivalent is over there. But, I’ve got get this thing off my chest, because, well, it has been weird even for me. Plus it involves my family, so….

A week or so ago I posted on one of the forum threads about a strange little chicken bird that decided to visit my daughter in her room at 2am and scare the living shit out of her and my wife, before seemingly disappearing into “fat” air. And yes, that is a Simpsons reference.

Well, allow me to give you an update, the chicken bird came back, and it has been here before that visit with my daughter…apparently.

I tried talking about this on a site apparently all for paranormal stories and got labelled batshit crazy, an attention seeker yada yada yada. So I figured I’d do an article about it and put it up on here, my safe zone.

Like MM, I’ve got better shit to do than write about my experiences and have douschebags call me crazy.

Like MM, its that incessant voice in the back of my head that tells me it is necessary so people know there most definitely is a connection with lucid dreaming and ETs.

Maybe afterwards I’ll curl up into the fetal position and spoon the computer with MM open whilst eating directly out of a Milo tin with a soup ladle as I try to suppress all the psychological damage those people’s opinions did to me. I haven’t decided yet. That’s sarcasm by the way. But just in case she is reading, fuck you Maria. I can handle being called nuts, I can handle being called a liar, I can handle being called an attention seeker but if you are going to bring my family into it, then, seriously, fuck you. You government approved robotic troll.

The least you can do is read my autobiography before jumping to such conclusions.

For those who don’t know, Milo is a chocolate malt drink we get here in Oz.

As a kid, the common rule is that you fill up a tumbler glass with the chocolatey maltey goodness and pour about an inch worth of milk at the top, then high tail it the fuck out of the kitchen before a parent walks in and catches you in the middle of your diabolical scheme.

The punishment for being caught is usually pretty serious; your mum doesn’t buy Milo next time she gets the groceries.

Don’t even get me started on what happens when you steal dad’s salami that has been sitting in the back of the fridge untouched for 2 weeks.

Anyway back to the weirdness, and I want to back up a bit, because strange things have been happening here since even before this Chicken bird showed up.

For anyone familiar with my story, you may have noted such strange happenings have been following me and my wife, SD, our whole lives. Usually these are seemingly random events dispersed over many months. These last few weeks have been an exception. The year itself has been particularly interesting for me. Scratch that; for us.

You may recall back in Jan I had what appeared to be a doppelganger banging on my door and calling out to my wife and daughter when I was out with my son.

What happened was that my wife went to open the door and let this thing in, then noticed that despite it wearing my exact usual clothing, it was sporting a different haircut to what I went out the door with about 10 minutes prior.

She said “fuck that”, locked the door and then watched it walk behind the curtain and seemingly disappear. We have a dog fence surrounding that side of the house that would have slowed its departure somewhat, but nope, this thing was gone as soon as she pulled the curtain back. This was soon after something had been calling out to my daughter in my voice; my daughter said “dad’s home” and went to go find me before my wife stopped her, thankfully. I suspect this thing, whatever the fuck it was, had a hand – pun intended – in almost getting me killed some 8 years ago.

This caused me to finally pull my finger out of my butt, risk hearing a noise that sounded very much like Maria’s opinion, and write about all the things I experienced in LD before this thing got me killed.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride ever since.

Oh and in case I forgot to mention, our house has weird things happening in it all the time. Like shadow people walking around that you catch out of the corner of your eye, or – like what happened to me last night – random heavy weights weighing more than my 100kg body mass just randomly deciding “jump on me” and wake me up. Waking up after strange LD sessions with helicopters directly over our house.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks before MM’s comms channel opened up with the Domain Commander. My wife had a lucid dream/ astral projection experience she and a bunch of others were working in a lab section of a ship with several tall, extremely muscly blue eye blonde beings who were making some kind of medicine to cure some sort of sickness. Don’t be fooled though, these guys weren’t Nordics – they had short hair. The next day she caught a glimpse of their ship hovering high above our house.

A week later she caught yet another glimpse of something parked in our driveway before a bunch of honeycombed shaped mirrors appeared around it and cloaked it into oblivion. Unlike the shadow people, she assured me this was a proper physical sighting and not just one born from channeling into the non physical.

She saw this thing in our goddamned fucking driveway.

So I decided to set up a hunting camera facing not 2m away from where she said it was. Not that I caught much apart from some random digital noise.

Then, a few days later came Mr chicken bird.

Our 2 year old son was incredibly sick with diarrhoea and power spewing all night. Our 4 year old daughter had been worried about him so we let her sleep in our room. We put her in his cot and had him in our bed, where he usually sleeps anyway.

Our 2 year old woke everyone up at 2am screaming from his sickness.

My daughter, after being woken up started getting silly and wouldn’t go back to sleep, so I took her into her own room and gave her some cuddles while my wife nursed our son. I couldn’t stay too long because our boy was just too sick, so after a couple minutes I went back to our room, whilst my daughter was still wide awake.

Not 2 minutes later, we hear her saying “get out of here you naughty little thing”. She says something similar to our eldest boy when he harasses her when they play, so we thought he had woken up and gone in her room and was annoying her.

My wife gave our sick son to me and went to investigate.

Our daughter’s room is right next to ours to the right as you come out our door. As soon as she reached the door to my daughter’s room, I heard her say “what the fuck”. The next thing I know she is pulling my daughter into our room and trying to get our eldest son (still asleep) out of his bed and into our room in a mad panic.

As she got to the door she noticed our daughter with tears streaming her face, standing on her bed trying to get away from something that was standing next to the bed using it to balance, and walking very slowly towards her – both my wife and daughter saw this.

My wife said it was hard to make out in the dim lighting of the room, but it was very definitely a physical “thing” with wings about 3ft tall. Our daughter said it looked like a black and white chicken bird. She said she saw a “plane” drop it off outside her window before it came in the house. It took us quite awhile to calm her down (she ended up sleeping in our bed).

As if this wasn’t enough the son of a bitch showed up again a few nights ago around the same time of night; my wife got up to go to the toilet and said this same thing just appeared in the doorway walking towards her like it had done to my daughter, using its wings to try and balance.

She stared at it for a good while as she sat on the toilet before getting up and walking straight through it, to which it just dissipated.

She didn’t feel anything as she did so. She said it’s beak reminded her of those medieval plague doctors that used to wear those bird masks back in the renaissance period.

Plague doctor from Renaissance period.

So now, several weeks have passed and our girl won’t sleep back in her room. She is that terrified of the chicken bird, she won’t even go in there to play. What the fuck is this thing?

Note the correlation to medicine on the ship SD was on, and the plague doctor who used to put herbs in the mask to rid themselves of the smell of the dead they worked near.

The medicine SD was working on with the short haired blonde guys was also herbal/ natural based. Are the things visiting my family responsible for the depictions of the Plague doctors?

Then some more weird shit happened.

I set up a portable stretcher in our room so my daughter wouldn’t have to sleep in the cot that is much too small for her. She woke up in the middle of the night, again absolutely terrified and comes and crawls into our bed. The thing that scared her?

She saw a bunch of monster “people” appear before her and start talking to her in a strange language.

The description she gave of these people was exactly the same as a bunch of beings that used to harass my wife when she was about the same age. Bald, red eyes etc etc. This was a repetitive experience. They are apparently extremely loud when they talk.

And again, just last night she told us more about them. There are children ones and a “daddy” one. The daddy one usually isn’t there because he has to go to work “stealing other children”. She has seen these loud beings get dropped off along with the chicken bird and “snake looking people” from the same plane.

It gets even better.

So we are sitting in the loungeroom the other night, and out of no where my eldest son says that he has seen the chicken bird before in his sleep. He says that he saw a plane come into the loungeroom, drop it off and then leave through the back door (same one my doppelganger tried to get in through.).

I remember quite awhile ago he had a dream that some beings had taken him out of bed into a waiting spaceship in the driveway, then took him to the moon where they made him touch something silver that turned him silver (hello again Matrix Movie) and made him extremely cold at the same time.

They turned him into a literal fucking Metallicboy, and this was before I had even made the acquaintance of the Metallicman.

It is hard to tell if his were lucid dreams or standard ones, given that kids can’t properly externalise what the fuck is happening to them whilst in these states, though I assume it was an LD judging from his ability to recall it so vividly. My daughter’s seem like a bunch of Lucid Dreams interwoven with physical contact of the chicken bird, backed up by my wife seeing it.

Somewhere in all this cacophony of weirdness I myself had a lucid dream about standing out in the driveway and watching a ship come in to collect me.

The place I was standing would have been right next to where my wife saw her ship and my daughter said the chicken bird ship landed.

In fact it would have been the corner of a right angle if you dotted them out on a map. It was right in the exact spot my son said they took him to the moon. The entirety of our experiences would have been within a 15m radius of each other. That’s four different people from one family who have seen ships, either physical or non physical, in pretty much the exact same spot.

I can’t help but think about my abduction dream – refer to my Part 5 – from my mother in law’s house a few years back which is literally less than 5km away as the crow flies from us.

I was there the other day and took a video of how I remembered that dream experience unfolding (except I came out the door and not from around the side of the house).

When I point to the sky, just imagine a very angular shaped ship coming out of a cloud to the right and sucking me up into a circular arrangement at the bottom followed by a very confusing and disorientated wake up session.

The thing that gets me is that that experience felt like a future occurrence; it was too vivid to be just a standard dream.

I initially wrote it off because in the dream my car (which I no longer own) was very vividly parked in my mother in law’s spot under the garage.

Then I remembered my mother in law was the one I sold that particular car to. So if I randomly go missing it’s a good bet I woke up back in 2016 lol.

Joking aside, SD is under instruction to inform MM if I do indeed go missing one day whilst at my mother in law’s house; that is just a precaution I feel is necessary to take considering the Domain Commanders recent confirmation on our LD experiences. Maybe it will never happen – I honestly have no clue what to expect.

What I do know is that something weird is going on in our household, and it amplified the moment

MM’s comms channel opened up (this is in no way me laying blame on MM for it). Is it the Domain, is it someone else? I have no fucking idea, but it is definitely related if you want my honest opinion.

I showed this to my daughter who said the eyes and beaked looked fairly similar. My wife said if you take away the hat body, pickaxe etc, it looked similar. My son said the one he saw was different, more like a chicken that made a high pitched squeaking noise.

MM comment

Jeeze! Louise!

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EBP Q&A with the Commander from The Domain a November 2021 episode

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and so I wanted to celebrate somewhat. You know turkey is rather difficult to come by in China, so I decided to go and get some chicken. I had my mind on a big family bucket of chicken at KFC. I had been thinking about it all day. Then at the last minute around 7pm, the wife says, “KFC is too far away, and I don’t feel like going out. Let’s go to the local restaurant outside our place and get some chicken there.”

Now, I had a bad feeling about it. I kept on imagining some of the worst chicken meals that I had in China, but I shrugged my shoulders and “went with the flow”. I did this, even realizing…

“…I have a bad feeling about this…”

It was horrible.

Steamed chicken. Nice thick globs of yellow fat (the size of your thumb) on bloody red chicken meat. Skin a yellow-white thick layer of fat. I ate a few bites and left the chicken sit there.

Even my Chinese wife, who is used to these kinds of “dishes” was aghast. She wouldn’t touch it either. The other dishes were a mistake as well. We ordered ten scallops, but they made oysters instead, so I ate ten oysters, some rice and wilted vegetables for Thanksgiving dinner.

It was pathetic.

I went home subdued. Didn’t say much. Put the kid to bed, and turned in.

The misses, knows that it was terrible, and tried to make up for it by making me a nice cup of coffee today this morning. It’s one of those unspoken things that people in a relationship do with each other when words cannot suffice.

The bitter memory of such a horrible event will stick to my mind for years now, and we will never… and I do mean NEVER… go back to that pathetic restaurant ever again.

Why did I want to eat chicken (as a substitute for turkey) on this particular day?

Well, because it is an American holiday of friendship, and sharing. And today, like the nation it represents, are a horrible distortion of what it used to be. I don’t think that I will ever celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday ever again, it is crossed out and erased from my calendars.

Blech!

Given what I know now, in America, Thanksgiving and “Black Friday” will turn into grand distortions of what they used to be.

Much like that horrible, bloody, greasy, fat laden piece of “road-kill” that I endured for dinner.

Ok. I hope that your holiday is much better than mine was.

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. This group of questions took place in November 2021. It consists of various questions that influencers asked, and that we asked over time. I compiled the questions and then submitted to the Commander via my EBP for answers.

Tell me more about the rest of the prison complex

This is a question that I want to ask. So I placed it up front here.

I have long understood that our solar system is but one system in a constellation of five (give or take) other solar systems that combined form (what I refer to as) a “sentience nursery”. Most discussions on the “Prison Planet” concept revolve around the idea that since we are earth humans that we should only be concerned about our planet and not the entire prison system.

So I went and grabbed a 52º “white wine” and started a typing. (Alcohol has no effect on the comm channel. I use it because it mitigates the bad effects of the biological impacts during the chat.)

Time is 23:48 Saturday night. My daughter is finally asleep.

[1] Is the “Prison Complex” like that of the ADC (spread out), or a cluster in one large geographic area?

The prison complex is a set geographical area with this region of space. It is unlike the ADC with had prisons spread out throughout the state. This geographical region, in it's entirety is enveloped in a "bubble" field or interdimensional / universe /containment field / mechanism.

This bubble contains five plus one solar systems. Thus there are six solar systems that contain prison environments. One of them is "your" solar system.

The five others are geographically located within close proximity of your solar system, and all lie within an ellipsoid of which your solar system is part of. Your solar system is not at the center of the ellipsoid containment area. It is actually off to one of the extreme edges of the containment field.

Within this containment field are also some other solar systems that are "empty" / devoid of active prison utility. Any lives, creatures or inhabitants on those planets are not part of the prison skin-suit system.

The ellipsoid containment field is at an angle to the galactic plane, and is tilted to fit the requisite solarsystems involved.

The dimensional map of the neighborhood of stars and their respective solar systems. However, I am unable to place the bubble or draw it on the map at this time. As the reader can see, there are all sorts of ways that a person can draw up a area of space to encompass six solar systems with our Sun off to one of the edges. -MM

The Alpha Centauri solar system is also part of the prison complex.

[2] Are all the other solar systems in the same state as the earth prison complex?

I asked this question, not realizing just how broad based it was. I was reprimanded for the generalities involved. Never the less here’s the answer.

This is a general question statement. So a general overview is in order as the answer.

All of the solar systems are administered as one single entity from one unified central complex. Each one has it's own administrative center. For the earth solar system, the administrative center is in the earth's moon.

The main prison complex administration center (for the entire multi-system complex) was destroyed by The Domain, roughly 1200 (earth) years ago. When that happened, administrative control reverted to the individual solar system administrative centers. Each one handled the situation differently.

The solar systems act as puzzle pieces or cells to the unified whole. This is true for the "tunnel of light" to go to the "Heavens", the containment fields, and the mini-pocket universes that are all involved in the individual solar systems. Each solar system has their own unique and independently maintained and controlled systems. They work together as a whole.

If the containment field near the earth solar system were to be destroyed and effectively shut down, the containment field of the nearest other prison solar system would expand to take over and compensate for the loss. Thus the entire system is a maze of complexities and self-repairing actions.

All of the solar systems, and their planets within the prison complex are still operational in one form or the other. All are now operating under the local control of The Domain, and all are being unraveled / untangled / investigated so that the entire system can be under full Domain control for the eventual shut down of the field and the rehabilitation of the inmates entrapped inside.

The inmates occupy different (species) skin-suits depending on the planetary environments involved, and thus the individual physical situations vary substantially from planet to planet.

[3] Are there any lost members of the Domain in other solar systems of the prison complex?

Yes. The largest lost contingent is associated with the earth, but there are some smaller groups or individuals who are lost in other planets of the prison complex. We know where all of them are and we are tracking them (as best we can) given the current restrictions on our capabilities at this time.

For The Domain, geographic location is not the kind of problem that it is for human physical skin-suits. To us, the location is all in the same consciousness area, while for you it seems like they are scattered all over the galaxy.

The earth lost a military garrison. While the XXXXXX lost a scientific research base, and YYYYY lost a number of vehicles and crafts including their crews. There are also a few individual IS-BE's that got caught in the field that are in need of rescue.

[4] Do the other solar systems have human skin-suits and other similar animal forms for inmates?

No. The other solar systems do not use human skin-suits. The inmates occupy other (some are humanoid) forms. 

The remaining administrators, of course maintain their "old empire" forms and they are imprisoned within their command and administrative bunkers under our control. 

Mades Escapleon was the administrator for your solar system, and is (as you know) an inmate within the general population. You are the only one that escaped in such a manner. 

The rest fled the prison complex completely and disappeared in or outside of the "old Empire". We have not been able to find any of them and their whereabouts are unknown. You are our only viable tie to the administration aspects of the prison complex. And unfortunately, your human prison skin-suit has the many inherent retardation's making memory access and utility very difficult.

[5] Are the heaven(s) that exist in these other solar systems the same as the heaven(s) that are accessible from our solar system?

Heavens are species dependent. 

Where there are same species on different planets within the Prison Complex, they will share the same "Heaven" pocket-universe. 

All of the "Heavens" utilize a "tunnel of light" for memory erasure and reprogramming.

The "Heavens" are unique to the prison complex, and do not actually exist in the Master Universe as inmates would understand. The IS-BE's that live and operate outside of the prison complex live and die in a completely different state of understanding and reality that is far beyond anything that inmate humans can understand. The "Heavens" that exist within the Master Universe are simply a part of the Master Universe mechanics / mechanism /architecture.

It is a different state within the same confines.

In the Prison Complex, "Heavens" provide an opportunity for the IS-BE to rest and learn from it's experiences in the physical realm. This is not necessary in the Master Universe. Thus, the only "Heavens" that exist are those associated with the Prison Complex.

From our point of view, "Heavens" are sub-pocket universes that are specific constructions for specific purposes and utility.

[6] Are there mantids in other planets of the prison complex?

There are other species that perform the same role as the Mantids do in the earth prison enclave. It should not be a concern to inmate human archetype skin-suits. 

All of these other species were designed and bread for that specific role, and all follow the basic template of being a caretaker for another species.

In every instance, they assist the consciousness to endure hardship and then reward them with a stint in "Heaven".

[7] Does you; “our”, Domain Commander liaison work with the rest of the prison complex, or is specifically assigned to our solar system alone?

I am in charge of the entire geographic region that includes the Prison Complex of multiple star systems.

I have multiple projects and roles proceeding throughout this region. The resolution of the Prison Complex issue and the recovery of the lost battalion are issues that are prioritized as significant and have abbreviated windows of opportunity for resolution.

A Question – Was I altered?

From a MM influencer who asked…

Hope you are well!

I hesitated about writing this report because I can't remember the most crucial part of the dream-- the mission itself. But this dream also brought up a recurring question I've had for the Domain and our roles as volunteers in the war against imprisonment.

I'm still in my break from my intention campaign but have been recently learning (relearning?) how to meditate and reawakening my lucid dreaming and precognitive abilities.

So occasionally when I'm falling asleep, especially if I'm dead tired, I'll have disturbing "mini-nightmares" that I'll wake myself from, but that will keep occurring each time I try to sleep unless I physically switch position.

These little dreams will be of grotesque images, snapshots of bad things happening to friends or family; basically anything that will bug me, and it's almost like something's being sadistic and messing with me because it's hard enough to get comfortable with my chronic back pain.

Last night my position was so comfortable and I was so tired that when I woke myself from the 3rd mini-nightmare (each only lasting a few minutes),

I was like screw it; I'm donning the armor I used to use to battle the demon in my sleep paralysis and I'm taking these nightmares dead on because I need to sleep and I'm not changing positions.

So mentally I donned my Armor of Love (a gift from my Guardian Angel/Mantid, whatever), and my Sword of Truth and I visualize charging off on my horse even as the tingling in my arms and legs signals the transition into sleep paralysis.

Now my transitions into lucid dreaming are generally quick and seamless--I don't have any sense of contracting into the pineal gland or anything else; it's more like moving through different veils. Anyways it takes me mere seconds to slay the little pesky scamp that's been messing with me, and then here I am in the dream landscape, lucid and aware that I can do whatever I want in the dream creation, which hasn't happened in years. So naturally I decide to go flying, because it's also been years since I did that.

Flying in dreams can be funny sometimes because it seems like something there are certain rules you have to follow to gain altitude or control movements, such as making swimming motions or focusing really hard. This time it was easy to take off to a comfortable altitude where I could see the landscape, but I had this little string tethering me to the earth like a balloon. I decided to just accept it as something like an Astral tether, and as soon as I did that it went away.

Then I was able to concentrate on the land below me-- it wasn't local because everything was green (and I live in the desert). It looked like China or Japan, with rice paddies and low forested foothills.

Now here I began to move from more lucid and aware to less lucid, so when I awoke the details became less clear.

In the dream I mentally heard someone calling for me, and it was someone I knew but hadn't connected with for years. I flew down into a little house, thinking I know this entire family; I've helped them before. I was trying to remember their names and was having difficulty, which bugged me.

I spoke with a middle-aged man, and I want to say his name was Mr. Miyomi--Japanese. He told me that my last mission where I'd taken out a sentry was incomplete--either I hadn't neutralized the second target or there was a new target. This came with a very strong sense of deja veux and I thought about how I used to go on these missions all the time when I was younger.

I said, sure, I'll handle it.

There was no sense of danger really; when I lucid dream like this I'm very powerful, because I can control reality in different ways, including having abilities like martial arts, and of course no physical ailments or pain.

I headed off flying-- I flew past the first objective which was a sentry tower of some kind. Rather like a prison watch tower, but not quite-- more like the wooden fire watch towers used in California for monitoring forest fires--rather open at the top, not glassed in.

I had the sense of a human-like figure lying broken at the base or underneath the tower from the previous mission. Human-shaped but not human. Maybe a robot, or NPC.

I can't remember the next part. I think it was another tower, with a similar sentry figure, but that's all I know. (I don't think it even saw me coming or was aware of me before it was dispatched). I have vague images of forested hills and mountains-- maybe northern Japan like Hokkaido? Not bamboo forests but more a mixture of pine and deciduous. Anyways I was successful and when I reported back to Mr. Miyomi he was pleased.

Embarrassedly I told him I had forgotten his name and asked what it was. He laughed and shook his head and said it wasn't important. Then he said I needed to get going because there's a storm coming.

This storm...it's a recurring feature in my dreams.

Sometimes it's a tornado, but more often it's more like a hurricane, but less wet--it's mostly gale force winds and lightning. I flew away from the storm front towards a city of glass towers, and before the storm got too close I landed and went inside some double glass doors to something like a large indoor mall complete with garden.

That ended the lucid dream.

Here's my question. Since voicing my intention to help the Domain and allowing a Domain officer to contact me and make whatever alterations are necessary, unlike other followers, I haven't had any visits or sleep paralysis episodes that I can remember.

And yet last week you were told all volunteers had been altered. So was my memory of that erased? Or it occurred to me that maybe I was altered when I was younger, when I was having all those episodes, since I've had many, many dreams since then of doing espionage, or taking part in rescues of different kinds. You were selected years and years back for the work you are doing now.

Were any of us?

Thanks, and have a great day. Sorry if this was overly long.

I cannot confirm or deny that I was (myself) previously selected for the MAJestic and the Domain while I was in another state. But I will try to ask the Domain Commander for his input in this question….

All volunteers that are part of The Domain have been altered. This alteration differs from one IS-BE inmate to another.

In the case of this questioner, their alterations occurred at a very young age when they were a child.

Alterations come in different forms or "kits". Some inmates have tasks that makes alterations problematic for them. Others need the alterations to conduct their mission objectives.

Fundamentally, the ability to Lucid Dream or conduct OBE does not directly correlate with a Domain "kit" modification. However, everyone who has a Domain "kit" modification has the ability to LD and OBE with practice. 

Many of the restrictive controls on the inmate skin suits are removed by the presence of an installed "kit".

A question by DM

I am very sorry about this news from DM. Of course, I took care of this request as a top priority…

I am wondering if I can ask the Commander a bit of a personal question in regards to [my wife]. This comes as a recent doctor's appointment has revealed some very bad news - it looks very much like she might have uterine cancer.

The shit thing is the hospitals over here won't do anything about it because they are Catholic owned and don't believe in taking out "young" women's uteruses, despite the obvious growths that are present and despite them supposed to be working in the public's interest.

Her health has been deteriorating these past months and it has me quite concerned, particularly what happens to her "afterwards".

Given the recent question regarding the baker, I feel similar about her. I know she is important in some regard - I have chased her through multiple worlds in LD for fucks sake, and share memories of past lives with her - but I still do not quite understand what exactly that importance is.

It seems very much like her {non physical} "father" is an admin of one of the consciousness schools and that she is quite a valuable asset.

I am worried if she does die that she might get recycled through the reincarnation mechanisms and that connection will become lost.

So my question would be "Who is [my wife] (not her real name) really and is she on the Domain's radar if she does end up dying.

Why have I been chasing her through all these lives? I feel the answers to these will also help with the puzzle of who I am immensely.

I hate to ask this of you, as i know it fucks with you quite badly, but it is something has been bugging for quite some time. All good if you are not up for asking it.

It is my honor.

I logged in the question, and I needed to “tune in” on a couple of levels. I was having static / drift and some noise that I needed to sort out. I know that this doesn’t make sense, but I needed to “tune in” on the comm for a clear answer.

First up; in the event of an early physical death…

[Your wife] is under our observation. If it is her choice we can conduct a retrieval upon her physical death. She need only think about contacting us and we will assist her is whatever she wants to occur.

Your fears about losing your relationship at the time of transition are unfounded. She is a very capable person and will be under full control of her various bodies upon her physical demise.

I / we suggest that she pings us when she is desirous of action. We will accommodate her requests.

Next question. Who is [my wife] in the wider scope of things…

To understand this answer you need to realize that all IS-BE's are not the same. IS-BE's come in different shapes, sizes, colors and flavors (figuratively -MM). In the Domain, we have a society of classes that enables the IS-BE to choose their role depending on their IS-BE construction. Some end up in the military ranks, others end up in leadership ranks. Still others end up in scientific pursuits, and so on and so forth.

[Your wife] was / is an IS-BE of extraordinary (with a great emphasis on the word - MM) ability. Were she to be in our society, she would easily fit within powerful leadership roles.

[Your wife] was / is a past regarding trans-stable dimensional elder / tribal leader of a community of other trans-dimensional trans-universe IS-BE's that occupy communities that lie outside of the Domain, and the Master Universe. 

She volunteered for her role on the earth. She is performing her objectives, and will depart the physical skin suit when it is time to do so. It will appear (to you) that everything is out of your hands, but the reality is that she is in control.

In a like way, you figure predominantly in her pre-birth operational calculus. 

We (The Domain) stand ready to assist her in what ever capability she requests. Her mission in the Prison Complex involves the unmasking / de-tethering of the mini-pocket universes (Heavens) from the base line Reality Universe that all the general population skin-suits inhabit.

Mantid comm channels

MM,

something strange happened (actually it happened twice). But before I say anything, I would like to know...how do Mantids usually communicate with their charges who make specific requests of them? I have a hunch, but I would like a little bit more info before I draw any conclusions. 

On Tues, Nov 16, I included a request to my Mantid Guardian in my daily affirmations, which was badly worded. 

So I say my affirmations, and later that day my mouse (or my mac) starting acting funny. Like it was just moving on its own, doing a right click here, etc. 

At first I thought I just touched a bad button, but I realized it was moving by itself! I panic, I unplug my mouse. have I been hacked? Then I notice that there is a screenshot I took from August 29, 2019 that I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that I had deleted already. 

That spooked the hell out of me and I quickly put it in the trash. The next day, I followed instructions from an article that shows how to check if I have been hacked. It shows I was the only user. 

Anyway, Nov 22--yesterday, I rewrote the request to my Mantid per your suggestion. So I say the reworded request in my affirmations, and then later---the same thing happened! 

But this time, no spooky screenshots appeared (that had been previously deleted) on my home screen. I don't feel fear or panic, but I do want to be absolutely sure it was my Mantid. If it isn't, if you could please give me some advice/thoughts on what probably actually happened.

I can probably answer this one myself. But I submitted it to the Commander, and got a very highly charged answer.

Mantids are very "tuned in" to their assigned human charge. They know exactly the proper way to communicate and work with them as they traverse the MWI within the Reality Universe. The pre-birth world-line template (sic.) establishes the tell-tales (sic.), and way points that the IS-BE is to be made aware of.

When necessary, the Mantid can create physical events manifest. The easiest is anything that is electrical in nature. Computers, radios, electronic fobs and other devices are easily manipulated for attention grabbing sources.

If the mantid is doing this, then it is because they are not seeing a registration of understanding that points or actions were confirmed, and so they default to physical manipulation.

It is their way of SHOUTING at you in a physical manner to tell you that they are monitoring you and that YES AN EVENT OR THOUGHT has manifested. It is their way of saying STOP BEING SUCH A DUNDER-HEAD. This is actually going on. Stop over thinking things. 

(I get the impression of a mantid holding a toy shovel, like what is used by kids to play in sand, and hitting a person sitting at the computer with it. While it's wacky mouth is mungling "pay attention." It's actually a funny comical scene. -MM)

This seems to be pretty clear.

From my understanding the mantids will try to perform physical actions if you do not respond to non-physical “hunches”. And yes, using a computer, or some kind of electrical device is their preferred avenue of comm. They will try to send a message that you will understand then then gauge your understanding to see if you got the message. They can read your thoughts. So they will measure your reactions to the physical events they initiate. More or less.

Misinterpretations of dreams

The following is about trying to understand our dreams and to use those understandings to provide guidance and feedback.

I had a dream last night that I wrote down. Keep in mind that this dream occurred after I made adjustments to the request I gave to my mantid guardian (I reworded it) and the adjustments i made to improving precognition and ESP based on your last message. 

While I stressed clarity and complete understanding in my affirmations, I am worried that I am misinterpreting things again. 

Here is the dream:

Nov 23, 2021 Tuesday morning:

Technically, this dream occurred earlier today—

I never see myself, but I was involved or participating in the scene/event in my dream.

I was with a group of young Caucasian men, we were all dressed in plain raggedy clothing, it seems. The kind of clothing you might see in a Mad Max scene, or perhaps the kind of clothing you would see in a poor medieval village, except the clothing style is not overly medieval. Does that description even make sense?

Whatever the scene was, it didn’t seem like a prosperous place full of hope. Seemed rather poor actually.

Anyway, I didn’t see (or maybe the word is “notice”) any females in our group. I assume I am female in this dream, but I didn’t even see myself.

Anyway, I am involved romantically with another young man in the group, who is handsome, had olive skin (think Caucasian person with a tan), had long wavy/curly dark brown hair that he tied back in a low ponytail.

We as an entire group traveled through the streets in some kind of ramshackle vehicle or wagon or cart of some sort.

We were laughing and having a good time though.

There was one sequence where I was lying in bed with the young man I was involved with and holding his face, and he was holding mine. There were other people sitting on the bed while we were there.

I thought, sheez, we must be really living rough.

All this sharing of living space must mean that we are all dirt poor or something. …..

Some things happened that I forgot.

Then see a blond young man who is in our group (note, he has hooded eyelids, his eyes are small and long), talking to an older woman. She is maybe in her 50’s. (Note, it seems like all the people in my dream so far are caucasian—

I am currently in a meat suit that is mainly “Han Chinese” in genetic makeup and have a predominantly Han Chinese phenotype and appearance in the face, though my body shape is considered more typically Western European—I am of mixed genetic heritage but face and hair is Han dominant).

She must be somebody’s mom.

The blond man talks about traveling to all these cities (all Western European cities) and explains that “there’s nothing there”.

So I ask him, “Have you been to Hong Kong?” He smiles and responds, “No, but I have been to Hamburg. Does that count?”

My take is that in this dream sequence, I must have been inside a Caucasian/European meat suit (or something with those physical characteristics).

The people I saw in this sequence aren’t anyone I would know in real life—in fact all their faces are completely new to me.

Then I start seeing a scene where a young fellow, who looks to be a pale skinned Han Chinese looking fellow with shoulder length black hair, had been killed.

It looked like some kind of gangland style hit or something. I saw an image of a burly looking man, most likely European, getting killed by someone unknown.

I see an image of a blond female, kind of icy looking. I say, “this icy blond shanked this dude. She is avenging the death of that long haired Han Chinese looking fellow, she must have really loved him. She was stone cold serious in getting her revenge since she needed to kill the perp herself. However, she doesn’t want anyone to know it’s her.”

I get images of people coming after her, and her trying to get away.

I believe I woke up right there. I recounted everything I could remember. I could not get a clear image of the blond female’s face, just enough to know she’s a blonde female.

I got a clearer image of the Han Chinese looking fellow who died, he was quite handsome.

I drifted back to sleep real quick and I witnessed something inside a building.

I was not participating this time. I was just watching. I don’t know where this place is, except it looks like I am viewing a section within a building, which had secured doors.

The lighting was yellow.

There were 3 people (all males) wearing dark blue jumpsuits. They seem to be working there, or at least they were “running” things or “took control” of the security apparatus (cameras, machines and stuff) there.

One man was behind a security door and you could see him because there was a glass wall separating his from the other room. It looked like a glass counter, and he was sitting on a chair.

He was yelling out, it seems like he’s giving instructions or information to someone. This man looked like this guy (a model I saw on a Springfield website while I was Xmas shopping):

Very similar face, but the face in my dream/flash sequence looked older, thinner, and “leathery”/weathered. Maybe he seemed ornery.

Then I woke up. It initially didn’t feel like a dream, it felt more like I was just thinking, but why would I think this? I can connect the face to some earlier Xmas shopping I did because it looks similar, but that’s it. I did watch the family movie “Clifford” earlier, and I tried to watch the movie Shang Chi.

I couldn’t finish Shang Chi because it was soo cheesy. I don’t know what I’m missing.

That’s it for now.

*********************************

My aplogies for the long message MM. I do hope things will be clearer after a few days. I don't know what I would expect your response to be, but I do know I want to hear the truth...no matter how mangled or indecipherable it may be.

If you think it's unimportant or a mountain out of a molehill, it's fine too. Really, I feel like I need another perspective so I have a better understanding. I feel like I must be missing something.

Thank you for everything,

And yes, the mantids can send messages and data into your dreams. It is quite easy; I understand.

Now what is actually going on is something else entirely. So what I did was read this once, and then settled in to reread, parse, and then query to the Commander and get his take on this matter. I made a cup of coffee, got settled in and started recording.

When human meat suits experience dreams they are observing unsorted imagery that they are attuned to for a host of reasons. Part of it is actual observations of thought paths and vectors associated with one of the non-physical bodies. Part of it might be physical images that you have observed in your physical life. Part of it might be tell-tales and signposts that you have established. Part of it might be friends and associates that are trying to communicate to you and the only way that they can leave a message is when your mind has slowed down.

The inmate skin suit has a mind that works much harder, and much more aggressively than what the human archetypes allows. This is an intentional design of the "old empire" to limit communication and thought control via the entrapped consciousness.

For you to determine what is going on you need to write down your dreams and then review them every week. You will notice trends.

One of the most important trends are reoccurring themes. You might find that you are dreaming of a school, or a certain place for three nights in a row. Or something equally similar. These dreams that reoccur over multiple nights in a row are a characteristic of activities that take place involving the non-physical bodies.

Their apparent day is much longer than what human meat-suits experience on the earth. Garble / rush of information. Three days of the same kinds of dream elements indicate activities on the non-physical of significant duration and importance. Other activities of extreme clarity and uniqueness also the same / qualifiers.

The human archetype as intended operates or was designed to operate with a day equal to 72 / 73 hour length. The earth physical reality in the general population, and the rapid cycling of the mind necessitates the inmate meat suit to require more sleep and rest times, and thus the physical body must endure the 24 hour rotational schedule of the earth. This hyper / aggressive rapid mind acceleration also has abbreviated the human lifespan for a human meat-suit.

I had to get up and take care of some personal issues. Then when I sat down, I tried to recover the rest where I left off. You know, now as time moves forward, I am getting better and better in this comm channel transcription.

I put on some Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Michael Bublé Christmas music on random rotation and lit up the tree and decorations, got a nice cup of coffee and sat down again. I’d put on the old 1970’s album “Blues for baby Jesus” if I could ever find it again. Ah. Some things are not that easy to obtain. You can see that I am such an old fashioned guy, eh?

Anyways, I tried to recover and continue…

(Difficulty registering.)

Some dreams are tapped memories of previous lives and incarnations in different places, and in different roles. Most are related to the Prison Complex as the specific memories of the "Old Empire" are intentionally suppressed and access is restricted by your mantid. (sic.)

Never the less, it is possible to access memories of experiences that predates prison life. This requires approval from your mantid and an effort on you behalf that indicates purpose. 

(I suggest that you add specific affirmations to this affect if you wish to proceed in this direction.-MM)

OK. I am going to call it quits for now. And we can continue a new Q&A at a later date. This really takes a lot out of me personally. Take care guys. Oh, and never forget…

Be the Rufus

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[daegonmagus] – Part 11 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 3; Techniques for Inducing Effective LDs

The following is the eleventh part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 11 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 3 Techniques for Inducing Effective LDs

In this lesson we are going to get into some techniques myself and SD have used numerous times to induce LD with a great measure of success. These techniques are entirely my own; I am yet to see them being used anywhere else.

The methodologies came about entirely by accident and through observations of my environment {both mental and physical} either immediately from waking up from an LD or taking note of certain things before one was initiated that I would remember afterwards.

Some of these techniques are particularly effective at inducing a WILD even from a heavily fatigued state of mind. In fact, they seem to work better from this state.

Before I begin though, a quick word on the “cheats”:

Drugs and Alcohol

Many people suggest explicit substances such as drugs and alcohol can have a

negative effect on ones ability to LD. While I was never big on anything harsher than marijuana, I cannot specifically remember ever having an LD experience whilst under the influence of such a substance.

I am generally skeptical when it comes to using drugs to initiate an LD.

This is mainly because I believe they distort the mind too much to make becoming lucid whilst in the dream state feasible. I have had friends who have used LSD and DMT to try and initiate an astral projection.

I sincerely advise against it.

All it seems to have done for these people is given them a fast tracked ticket to the mental health ward of their local hospital. Though, I suspect the LD/AP thing was really more of an excuse to justify their addiction to these substances.

If one has not taken the psychological preparation necessary, then they are leaving themselves open to all sorts of trouble.

This is of course, my own opinion.

Alcohol, is different for me. Whilst I have never had an LD under its immediate influence I have had many LDs during the hangover recovery phase the day after a major bender.

I have actually used alcohol to deliberately try to induce an LD in this manner.

Though it seems to work better when I haven’t had LD as an intention. Be warned though, the level of alcohol needed to put you in a state of such dissociation from the body could be considered lethal by many people’s standards. It is also for this reason, I really don’t recommend it as a feasible avenue to LD.

However, if you are planning on indulging in it quite liberally, I see no reason why you can’t give LD a try when you are lying half comatose in bed with a blanket of regret over you to keep you warm, as you tell yourself “never again”.

You might as well try and get something out of the annihilation of brain cells.

I have noticed it is particularly easy to tune into non physical chatter whilst in bed and still reeling from a particularly bad hangover. I am not trained in psychology, so I will skip going into my opinions on why this would be.

Non Physical Chatter:

Whilst we are on the subject, I feel the need to mention some things I have noticed in regards to non physical chatter.

Whilst not necessarily LD related I believe they are worth experimenting with.

The most noticeable is the way pressure is applied to the head when one is about to fall asleep.

I have found that there is a correlation with me lying in such a position that most pressure from my pillow presses on the top, middle right part of my head, and having strange “visions”.

A common theme is what appears to be a very vivid movie real of an unfamiliar cartoon.

It is in a similar style to the old Felix the cat cartoons. A similar cartoon has been mentioned by members of the occult/LD community, and by SD.

I have also noticed that if I fall asleep lying down with my head on my propped up elbow, then there is potential for audible chatter that is clearly not related to my own thought train.

There seems to be a grey area of conscious awareness where this chatter is at its most extreme.

An effective method to “catching it” is to count up to 5 minutes; when the mind is preoccupied with focusing on the counting, it is incredibly easy to notice when the chatter appears because it completely derails the counting.

“The Emerther are scared to death for many reasons that lead back to the human race”, “Japan has nothing at the edge of their chasm”, “Please be careful” are examples of the things I have heard whilst in this grey area. It seems to correspond to the M Band noise mentioned by Bruce Moen.

Diet and Exercise.

I have been asked if there is a correlation with diet and LD, and honestly I can’t say I have really noticed anything to be that beneficial.

This is not to say there isn’t an eating plan you should try, more so that I just never bothered looking too deep into this aspect.

By all means if you find someone who suggests something an eating regime specifically to induce LD, then give it a try and get back to me on how it went for you.

In saying this though, my most intense period of lucid dreaming was when I was working out on a regular basis with a goal of getting fit enough to join the Defense Force.

At the same time I was also eating quite healthily, so it is hard for me to tell if my heightened level of lucid awareness of the dream state was because of the exercise, the diet, or both.

It could have been a result of the location for all I know.

I can’t give a definite in this regard. What I do know is that my diet and exercise regime is no where near as healthy as it was, and my lucid dreaming ventures have taken a nose dive.

Hopefully I’ll start getting back into it when my youngest is a little bit older. I am curious to see if my forays into lucidity start to come back a bit stronger under a healthier lifestyle.

What I did noticed with two rather potent LD experiences that happened only a few nights apart is that I had some sort of spicy chicken dish followed by a dose of sugar.

There appeared to be no correlation in “healthiness” with these foods; one was a lean Thai curry with a portion of cake for dessert, the other was standard hot and spicy KFC followed by a typical sugary drink from that food chain.

I suspect it has to do with the chemical change from the chili/ sugar content that is registered via the subconscious mind whilst in the dream state. I suggest exploring this avenue further and experimenting with it if you are game enough.

Thought Placement:

Many DILD techniques involve the use of “reality checks” to help stimulate the sub consciousness mind into becoming lucid.

These basically consist of a series of checks you do each day whilst awake which hopefully carry over to the dreaming domain and allow you to come to the realisation you are lucid. “Am I awake, am I asleep?” that sort of thing. Similar to me throwing my bass guitar in the pool.

In the movie Inception, Leornado DiCaprio employs the use of a spinning top as a reality check. He spins the top and if he is awake it eventually slows down and falls over due to the lack of centrifugal force.

The tell that he is still dreaming is that it continues to keep spinning unencumbered by the lack of physics.

I recommend watching this movie.

It not only is a good representation of LD in general, but also highlights the importance of being psychologically ready before undertaking extensive voyages into the Lucid planes.

In the movie, DiCaprio’s wife ends up killing herself because she believes she is still dreaming and needs to wake up, despite DiCaprio insisting she is already awake and back in the physical reality.

Another thing Inception portrays really well is the layering depths of dreams one may delve into and how time becomes distorted in these other “dream worlds”.

When you get good at LD, it is easy to get carried away and start going deeper and deeper into a dream within a dream within a dream.

You must learn and employ your safeguards so you know how to properly get back from such a maze.

This may sound somewhat silly, but believe me, I have been trapped in lucidity for “years” only to wake up to find a single night has passed; it can really fuck you up if you are not prepared for it.

Another thing to be aware of is that it can be quite depressing visiting an LD Utopia only to have to wake back up into this physical plane.

Expect a readjustment period of at least a few days.

Thought Placement for DILDs

Through my observations I have found that there is a correlating timeframe that thoughts can be used to stimulate the sub consciousness in the dream state.

This came about by having dreams with elements that I could pin point back to a very specific time of having that thought element during the day time.

It appears that around 10 to 10 and a half hours, and half an hour before going to sleep (not just going to bed) are prime times for instilling thoughts about doing reality checks and lucid dreaming.

Of course, this means having a strict bed time schedule and understanding how long it actually takes you to get to sleep once in bed.

The Dream Blanket

I have a book written by a guy with Native American blood that talks about the shamanic practice of “shapeshifting”. The Art of Shapeshifting by Ted Andrews.

It is essentially about using dances that mimic certain animals and special talismans for remote viewing and lucid dreaming purposes.

While I never got into the dances, one of the talismans I found curious was a blanket that you drape across you every time you are consciously trying to LD.

The theory by the author is that every time you have a LD you subconsciously imbue this blanket with dream energy, which eventually makes it easier to lucid dream, as you connect with this energy when fall asleep.

The dream blanket is considered so sacred by him that he suggests locking it up within a special chest and not letting it come into contact with other artifacts lest it becomes tainted by their energy.

It must only ever be used for Lucid Dreaming.

I tried using a piece of expensive silk fabric for this purpose but it was not clear if it had any profound effect.

In saying that, I have noticed it takes awhile to build up “LD momentum” if the blankets are changed from ones I have been using during periods with many LDs. Purple and blue colored linen seems to work the best.

The Pillows:

Did you end up buying a triangular {right angle} shaped pillow? If not, don’t worry too much about it.

Some regular pillows that are quite “puffy” with a good puff to density ratio will do just fine.

Try to avoid ones that are so puffy that your head falls right through them though.

The reason triangular pillows are good is that they wrap around the entirety of your neck and give you’re the head the support it is going to need when undertaking the main LD inducing technique, the hanged man pose.

You can get by without it, but I have found one side of my neck quickly gets quite fatigued without this support base from the pillows.

If you are using standard rectangular pillows, their arrangement will be crucial to whether or not the technique works, and it may take quite a few adjustments to get them “right”.

I hope you have been practicing the stillness of the body meditation, because you are going to need it for the next part:

Onto the techniques

The Hanged Man Pose:

Over the many years I was engaging in LD, I started noticing “commonalities” between when I would have an LD and the arrangement of my body when waking up.

The most notable of such commonalities was a particular pose I usually {not always} found myself in immediately upon waking from my LDs.

Curious, I began experimenting with this pose.

I would take a few minutes after awaking into to it to study it in depth without moving, then try to recreate it whenever I’d go to bed to try and initiate an LD.

More often than not it would work for both DILDs and WILDs.

In fact some of the most vivid LDs I have had have been from using this very pose. I explained it to SD and she began using it, and reported that it works quite well for her.

As far as I am concerned, this is the secret to initiating an LD.

The pose itself is quite easy to get into.

The difficulty, however, comes when trying to remain in it without moving. Hence why the practice of the stillness of the body is crucial to mastering it. And hence why pillow arrangement is crucial to its correct use.

Five minutes after getting into this pose I guarantee every ounce of your being will be telling you to move into a more comfortable position; It is an incredibly uncomfortable position to be in.

It is not as if you are going to be doing yoga or anything.

It is more that you will be stretching certain muscles and placing weight on your body in a way that you are not used to.

You need to just suck it up and lie there if you want it to work properly.

Hopefully, after a few weeks you will automatically start taking up this position as you sleep.

So how do we get into the pose?

Well, there is a reason I call it the Hanged Man pose, and this is because it is similar to the Hanged Man in the Tarot deck.

Traditionally, this card depicts a man hanging upside down with his arms at his side and his leg bent at such an angle so that it touches the knee of the opposing leg.

While I have used this exact pose, for LD, I prefer to alter it slightly.

Rather than have the leg bent at a 90 degree angle, simply place the heel of your right foot on top of your left when you are laying down.

If you find this too uncomfortable you can alter it so that your feet are to the side of each other.

The crucial thing, though is that the two must be touching.

The arms can either relax at your side or be placed upon your sternum; that latter seems to work better.

Keeping your back flat to the plane of your mattress, you then need to bend your head to the right so that your right ear is completely covered by your pillow.

Aim to create a “seal” around your whole ear so that no air can escape.

Again, I have found the triangular pillow makes this easier to achieve.

I am not sure why this works so well. I suspect it has something to do with unbalancing the inner ear or something to do with redirecting the flow of energy through the body, which are picked up in dreamtime.

One thing I know for certain though, is that it gets results. Provided you can keep it up.

The Tennis Match Scenario:

This will consciously carry you from an awakened state through the transition into the dream state and on into the Void Space if done correctly, regardless of your fatigue level.

In fact, most of the WILDs I have had have been from utilizing this technique, or a slight variant of it.

Consider it a cheat code to getting into the void space.

To understand why it works you need to understand the way consciousness “collapses” back in towards the pineal gland as you enter the dream state.

This is a complete inversion of the consciousness you use whilst engaging in physical reality whilst awake.

If you are successful with this technique, you will experience this inversion.

It works particularly well when you are fatigued to the point of being in danger of falling asleep within minutes of your head touching the pillow, which is why I like it.

I used it quite a lot when I was working a full time job as an assembler in an electronics factory.

I was getting up at 4:30am and getting home at 6pm, completely exhausted, and yet it still worked.

So if this sounds like your sort of lifestyle, I recommend trying it.

You start by visualising a tennis match between you and an opponent.

It has to be a first person view on your part. You need to visualize this as if you are actually there, playing tennis, with the net in front of you and the racket being held in your hand.

It can’t be from a third person viewpoint.

Pretend it is your opponent’s turn to serve.

I find it easier to visualize slow serves that gradually build in pace, but if you are too fatigued just go right on to the fast serves. You need about 5 seconds worth of unbroken, vivid visualization of your opponent smashing the ball as hard as they possibly can.

Repeat the visualization with the ball flying past your head.

After every 4^th or fifth hit, make the ball hit square in the middle of your nose.

Hopefully, in your fatigued state, your mind will automatically keep replaying the scenario, and eventually start believing it is real.

The goal is to have it react with a surge of adrenaline as the ball hits your nose, thinking there is a very real possibility of your nose being broken.

This surge of adrenaline, I have found, is just enough to awaken you back into a conscious understanding that you are almost asleep.

At the same time, your consciousness “locks” onto the ball, and is projected back in towards the pineal gland the same way it collapses into the dream state.

Because the adrenaline has made you lucid, you consciously witness that transition before the adrenaline disappears.

The speed of which consciousness enters into this transition is what I term as “the velocity of consciousness”.

From my experiences, this velocity can be anywhere between the speed of a properly served tennis ball to that of a bullet.

I suggest experimenting with different scenarios that involve different speeds, to see if you can find something that works better for you.

A variant of this technique I found also works well is by imagining a fast orbiting satellite near a planet that you “spin” off its trajectory and have it hit you.

In my case, it was a dodecahedron spinning about a tetrahedron; both are heavily related to occult philosophy. They are platonic solids.

The Velocity of Consciousness and the Void Space.

The speed at which your consciousness inverts and falls back through pineal gland will dictate how deep one falls into the void space.

I mentioned in the previous lesson that distortions will come into play and that these distortions will dictate how successful your lucid dream will be.

With a high velocity of consciousness, one risks penetrating too “deep” into the void space where the distortions are at their most extreme.

The tennis match/ orbiting satellite visualization seems to instill consciousness with a velocity so that It can reach a shallower level of the void space.

Coming from sleep paralysis on the other hand, the distortions can be anywhere from mild to extreme.

These distortions will last only whilst in the void space, but they have the potential of completely destroying the lucid dream.

The reason for this is because it takes an incredible amount of visualization willpower to be able to create a dream; all focus must be put towards this end.

If the mind is busy dealing with using it’s visualization resources trying to neutralize these distortions, then proper dreamscape visualization cannot take place.

Unfortunately I have no remedy for when these distortions are at their maximum.

I have rarely been able to make it past this stage when they are, and the times I have, my dreamscapes have been a random mess of corrupted data.

Even the most basic of dreamscapes become impossible to visualize, and movement within them becomes even harder.

Don’t feel disheartened if these distortions ruin your LD. This happened to me more times than I can count. Perseverance is the only way through

Dream Creation From the Void Space:

Dreams created from the void space are not standard dreams, and neither are they typical LDs.

When done properly, one can exhibit almost total control over what appears in the dreamscape, and can use this for exploration of the non physical worlds.

Many experts will suggest this is astral projection, other experts will claim that LD cannot be used for such traveling or that it is really just a trick of the mind and you are not really “traveling”. My personal experiences suggest differently on both accounts.

To create a dreamscape to this extent you MUST take control of the distortions before the intent to create a dream even comes up whilst you are in the void space.

The reason for this is that to create a proper dreamscape takes an immense amount of will power and conscious focus.

If majority of that focus is spent dealing with the distortions after the dream has been created, your dream will not be stable and will “fall apart,” waking you up in the process.

Strong visualization practices to counter the distortions are the only thing I know that works, hence why you don’t want the distortions to be anything other than weak.

Once confidence of dominations over the distortions has been gained, there is a certain trick to being able to create a stable dreamscape.

Remember, you need to be able to think of all of this on the fly – you won’t have time to try and process and remember it all from scratch, so I suggest running through the process multiple times so it becomes automatic.

Rather than start surrounding yourself with items you wish to be present in the immediate environment, I have found it more beneficial to visualize the extremities of the particular scenario – if your eyes were functioning in this state, it would be equivalent of creating the objects you can see at the horizon.

The next trick is to switch your attention from this horizon onto the area encompassing a few meters around you without letting it collapse.

This is where the level of the void space you are in comes in to play; if you are too deep into it, close to the depths of the basement, you will be met with distortions in your visualisations which will “attack” them and ultimately collapse the environment around you, resulting in you waking up back in the physical world.

It takes great practice to be able to create a dream environment like this, then switch to populating it with whatever objects or people, smells etc, you desire without it collapsing, but it can be done to the point one can experience the same sensations they feel utilizing a physical body, such as smell, touch, taste etc.

This is something I was doing consistently in my youth, almost 3 times a week.

The number one rule is that once created, no conscious thought can be allowed to be given to the structure of this environment, as this will also cause it to collapse; you have to just create it, and “know” it is around you and move straight into and interact from within it; if you find yourself focusing on one particular thing during the creation stage, you need to quickly find something else and use that to anchor your dreamscape, and you keep doing this until it becomes stable.

You can then manifest a dream body if you wish, or continue to operate without one.

Once stable, the dreamscape can be interacted with just like any physical environment (but more profoundly).

This is the art of applying velocity to consciousness; once a dreamscape has been created, consciousness can move about in it simply by picking a point and focusing on it, much like with astral projection.

Time and space become irrelevant factors, as one is immediately “teleported” to the point of imagination, hence why the control of one’s imagination is such an important factor.

Just as the infant must learn to use its legs to walk through its physical environment, so too must one learn to use the points around them to move within their lucid environment.

By having an idea beforehand of what sort of dream environment one wants to build, and an object that can be summoned and moved away from the area closest to you after your horizon has been established, one can smooth out the whole process and evade the distortions before they begin to present themselves.

I have been known to “free fall” in the void for long periods of time – hours in fact – whilst I decided what dream I wanted to create, or simply for relaxation/meditation purposes.

I have also been known to switch dreamscapes as easily as one walks through a door, jumping from world to world as if I was walking into different rooms.

All this can be done via the portals when one becomes skilled at visualization practices.

Summoning the Portals:

Once you are certain your dream is stable – ie you can move about it within it fairly easily without having to think too hard to keep it in place – the portals can summoned to allow for travel to other non physical locations.

I really do not know how I learnt this; it was just something I “knew” how to do quite effortlessly whilst in an LD. A memory of sorts.

The portals themselves are quite small, and spherical shaped, about the size of a tennis ball.

They are, on first summoning of them, a pearlescent white color.

If you consider your vision straight ahead as being a flat plane at 0 degrees, the portals are off set above your vision at about a 6 degree angle from your eyes, and several feet away.

They exist in your close range top peripheral in other words, right on the edge of your focusing range.

The means for using them is this; you summon them in their pearlescent white form, then you “attach” an environment to them so they become a mini “world” display of the environment you wish to travel to.

They act as a means to contain very specific visual coordinates of a non physical location that will not be subject to the distortions in your immediate environment.

Once they have been summoned, and your visual coordinates have appeared on their surface, you then project or “jump” into them by contracting your consciousness (remember I said consciousness in a non physical state can contract and expand?).

You then come out at the location in question.

Though the portals can be used as a means to travel to one’s own self designed dreamscapes, there are other locations that I have accessed multiple times without any need to create them using the same portals; when accessed, it is as if they automatically materialize in one’s own void space without any visualisation input.

The amount of time I have spent in these particular places equates to a great deal more than someone who goes on regular holidays.

Many of them have their own portals in certain places that access other parts of the other “worlds”, so that, ultra dimensionally, they are all, in some way, linked together.

The portals can allow two way access by using the expansion of consciousness method rather than the contraction method, but I will cover this in the next lesson.

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More Q&A with the Commander from The Domain with personal questions from top MM influencers

I had to spread this Q&A out, and many times it was extremely difficult for me to read the actual answers as my physical life was chaotic, noisy, demanding and discordant at the time that I received the answers.

All of these questions are exactly as posted to me, either by email, comments, or in the forum.

I also needed to differentiate between “noise”, my “internal thoughts” and “The Commander”. What I do not EVER want to happen is my own personal thoughts, and ideas override what the Commander is telling me. So in this particular instance, and throughout this article, I have asked to “increase the gain” and “open up the volume”, even though it is more uncomfortable for me personally, so that I can obtain the best quality responses free of any personal opinions or thoughts.

What is the life of a “typical” citizen of The Domain like?

I wonder if it is appropriate to ask the Commander what the life of a typical Domain citizen is like. Are they born into particular bodies?

Domain citizens live very differently than anything that an imprisoned earth human would understand.

Fundamentally, all citizens of The Domain are non-corporeal entities. We "live our lives" is a state that you would consider to be trans-dimensional in a "spirit form". This state is a state that humans will have a very difficult time understanding. We live in a timeless state of existence, however, we inject our consciousnesses in the Master Universe to experience time.

The Master Universe experiences time just like the Reality Universe does, as does the spawned pocket universes that you refer to as Heavens.

In our "normal" state, we form communities, societies and collectives. We have communication, interactions, form bonds, relationships and clusters not unlike families that you experience. We have non-physical areas where our communities exist. These areas are very similar to what is experienced in your "Heavens". There are structures, venues, environments that we exist in and interact in.

All the members of The Domain participate in society.

We all have roles based on our abilities. Our abilities define our social roles within The Domain society. Some are engineers, some are administrators. Some are historians, some are social engineers. There are many roles. As we have discussed in other communications, such as military soldiers, and pilots.

As members of The Domain we cycle in and out of the Master Universe like you human inmates would cycle to and from work. However, it is at a much longer duty cycle that you could comprehend.

My current cycle involves administrative, management and leadership roles in this particular geographic region of physical space, or which the Prison Complex is but one of my responsibilities.

In this role, I can inject myself into "doll bodies", "skin suits", or take over bodies as needed.

All members of The Domain have this ability. However, the type of bodies that can be occupied is a function of ability and skill set. And since this is stratified by rank hierarchy, one can see that occupational societal position determines one's ability to inject consciousness for an IS-BE.

There is a great deal of freedom of a Domain IS-BE. But all that freedom is tempered by the restrictions due to their responsibility as the caretakers and stewards of the Master Universe.

The only prohibitions on an individual member of the Domain is their agreed upon responsibilities and rules of behavior. When they agree to play a role in The Domain society, they also agree to behavior limitations corresponding to that social role. Unlike those rules, laws and regulations that humans experience, ours are finer, and reasonable.

Do the citizens of The Domain grow up in different cultures?

Do they grow up in different cultures?

Many of the citizens of The Domain have come from previous backgrounds, interesting cultures, and skin suits of many different creatures and their many, many different societies. Once they decide to join the Domain, they do so realizing that they will accept a lifestyle where they will spend the bulk of their time in the non-corporeal form, with periodic injections into other forms for work-related purposes, enjoyment and pleasure, and exploration and adventure.

It is a lifestyle that is alien to earth human inmates.

Most all of the members of The Domain have full and complete access to all of their memories which date back trillions of years. This provides a wisdom and an understanding that is alien to the earth human condition.

The Domain spans most of the Master Universe. Additionally, it radiates elsewhere to other regions / realities / environments / universes that are beyond human understanding.

This should be obvious to the questioner that the great diversity and variety of experiences held between the various IS-BE's within The Domain is extensive, comprehensive, and serves as a great repository of resources that we mutually draw upon to resolve our mutual goals.

All of the IS-BE's within The Domain has experienced "lifetimes" in corporeal bodies within societies and roles of many different types and understandings.

Concerning the “typical” citizen of The Domain, what is their attitude concerning work, and play?

What is their attitude towards work and play etc…you know the “mundane” stuff that I think would help us understand more about them?

Work is play for many members of The Domain. 

We find what our interests are, and then our society envelopes those that match interests with our mutual needs. Those that are aggressive, and militaristic in nature, find a role in the military. Those that are contemplative and studious find a role in research and discovery.

As an IS-BE we can easily choose a life of carefree wandering. Those that are part of The Domain do so of our own choosing. We seek to provide benefit to all, and in that action find personal rewards. These rewards serve as our enjoyments and pleasures.

Of course, we often occupy various skin suits for vacations, past-time pleasures, and other purposes. These are either part of an established society, or contrived as part of an artificial "playground". Of course, many of us go on various adventures to other universes and realms. Some are gone for a very long time before they return to the primary group cluster.

Personal question: “Was the questioner a comedian or a humorist” in a former incarnation?

I do have one question for the Domain. All the other “heavy” questions, the other readers have beat me to it (mRNA vaccines, possible WW3, etc).

It’s a small and quite unimportant question (on the larger scheme of things), but it’s somewhat important to me in piecing together my full identity (I’m not going to die or anything, but I really would love to know).

If the commander would be kind enough to reveal this trifle, I would be extremely grateful. If you could ask the Commander: was I a comedian or humorist in a previous incarnation?

It’s a serious question, and I promise it’s not “busy work” or me “getting my rocks off”. I do understand that you have a lot on your plate, as does the Commander.

Have a great day, and I hope you are able to iron out the wrinkles in your website. It’s a very valuable place for information, and it would be a tragedy to lose it.

Everything is recorded in this Master Universe. It is available to anyone who can read the data. The same is true for all the pocket universes that are spawned from this Master Universe. These include the Prison Complex (universe) and it's sub-pocket universes; the various Heaven universes.

This is true for all universes. Whether this one, or another one. All one needs to know is how to read the experience, and memory data. Since time does not exist in the means that contemporaneous human inmates understand, an IS-BE can freeze events from any segment of time, from any segment of the MWI (within the reality universe) and observe it.

Unfortunately, most inmate human skin suits are unable to access their past memories irregardless of their histories. This is a factor regarding purposeful amnesia.

The system is designed so that access of memories is controlled and metered out on a as-needed basis. For the most part, the Mantids (sic.) control access to these memories. Yet, the access to these memories are not all that difficult. There are numerous methods that a consciousness can utilize to obtain access to these memories that bypass the Mantid (sic.) policing and allocation measurements.

[1] The first method is though guided hypnosis for past life regression. It is very effective, and it works quite well.Locate a skilled past life regressionist to accomplish this task. Not every one is skilled, and not everyone is appropriately skilled for your particular needs.

[2] The second method is via MM affirmation campaign technique (sic.). Here, you place affirmations asking for guidance and events that will inform you of who you were in the past.

[3] A third method is to communicate with your assigned Mantid (sic) and ask them to allow you to view your previous lives while you are still in the corporeal body. This can be done through prayer / affirmations, and those that are skilled, through LD and OBE. They tend to be rather accommodating in this regard, provided that it does not interrupt their over riding objectives.

It is obvious that there is a connection with your previous incarnations based upon the the question issued. You should not doubt yourself. Obviously there IS A CONNECTION, but what it is specifically we (The Domain) and I (The Commander) cannot elaborate on. This limitation is based on the limitations imposed on us by our roles within the Domain hierarchy, our skill-sets, and the intentional memory access locks / tumblrs / restraints imposed by the Mantid (sic.) in charge of your histories.

However, there are some points / guidance / recommendations / suggestions that I (The Commander) can advise the questioner on.

(As follows)

[1] Nothing is unsupported. Histories always influences current activities, lives and personalities. This is because time does not actually exist. It just seems that it does.

[2] If you believe that you have a certain history, there is a great likelihood that it is an actual reality that you participated within.

[3] You should never question your intuition. In fact, your intuition / gut feelings / urges are a far better gauge of your situation than anything that your brain and reasoning might tell you.

Thus, it is obvious to us (The Commander and others in the particular locale during the Q&A) that the questioner was indeed a comic or someone of creative humorous intent.

Next Question….

I don’t know how you know I am in need of answers.

I am worried by the upcoming war. I am living a good but fragile life, i.e. I have a full-time job. With it, I am able to support my close family and my relatives living in Venezuela. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to pay the bank credit for the apartment and basically I will become homeless here. I may be laid off as consequence of war. If that happens I will be forced to go back to my country with my family.

I have 3 personal questions for the Domain Commander, if you may and when your possibilities allow:

Personal question:” Will the questioner keep his job and continue living here in Costa Rica despite war and the catastrophe caused by it?”

The response…

The MWI in the Reality Universe that the Prison Complex is part of is constantly undulating and changing. However, there are areas of calm and stability. In regards to the geographical region that is Costa Rica, it is (though most scenarios) a stable region. While not an oasis, it will not be as greatly affected as the turmoil that might be presented to you in the various media outlets. Do not allow fear to cause you to react. Our readings show stability, with slowly encroaching elements of change.

Inflation, worries, various elements of instability, that are successfully suppressed manifest in most probable scenarios. For most people, and yourself, you can consider yourself to be in a "life raft" while the rest of the world undergoes turmoil.

There will be inflation. The price of goods will increase. There will be changes. But none of the changes should be physically dangerous to you or your family. There MAY be contentious political changes, but your ability to react to them, though your role in your immediate community will enable you to successfully navigate though the changes.

Do not fear. You are going to be doing far better than most others (on the planet) through this period of contentious change.

This does not mean that you will be completely comfortable, nor does this mean that you will be able to profit though the changes. What this means is that there are some scenarios, depending on the changing trends, where you could profit, or where you could just survive. But in every event, you and your family will be safe. (Emphasis on the word "safe".) No matter what turmoil might rage around you.

(Commander request:) Please reaffirm your desire to work with The Domain on all these efforts.

(There is no attached requirement do this, and they will do what ever is necessary to maintain this manifestation with this request. It is just a request on their part. And to this, I must add, do not fear the dreams or feeling that you might have once you do so. The impression that I get is that there is an attached extra monitoring effort involved, and some added reassurance on your part might be necessary to implement this action. -MM)

Personal Question; ” Who is the questioner fundamentally?”

Quick answer, but a great deep question. To engage this level of question I have to intervene. I informed the Commander that this is a deeply personal question that will determine the outcome of future interactions with the rest of society. -MM

(pause)

You are (today) a member of the Domain. But, your substantive history is checkered.

You entered the "Old Empire" from another universe, and quickly found yourself engulfed in uncomfortable situations. 

After a short period of time, you ended up meeting the wrong people, getting into bad situations, and making enemies that you had no intention of making. 

In short order, you were arrested, confined and sentenced, and soon ended up in this Prison Complex.

As best as I / we can determine, you lived a rather stable life in your other previous universe, and was a productive and viable member of society there. Your histories are "good" in that regard. 

When you entered this universe, you had the dysfunction of ending up in a clamorous dangerous empire; the "Old Empire" and thus being wholly unprepared for the encounters you met, you were quickly arrested, incarcerated, and sentenced. We  (I) see great confusion as you were thrown into this Prison Complex. 

Your situation is a real complete tragedy.

We / I offer our sympathies.

Personal Question; “Is the questioner doing a good job for the Domain so far?”

I seldom remember my dreams, but in the last one I didn’t run. I faced an adversary and defeated him. There were a lot of people with me, just as described by the DC in your last post.

Besides, as the Domain needs assets with LD – OBE – Astral Projection, I want to recommend my mother to help them. I haven’t talked with her regarding this because she is brainwashed by Christianity. She is extremely good and she knows how to travel to future events (MWI slides? – mostly catastrophic events). Her name is <redacted>. She lives in Charallave, Venezuela.

Please tell the DC there is a small area in Canaima, Venezuela that has little or no gravity and big magnetic activity. Maybe this is an “Old Empire” device. This area is hard to locate and it is deep in the jungle. I can’t confirm its existence but I had read of this for years.

I am terrified and those fears are consuming me. There is no hurry. Please help me when you can.

Your fears are consuming you. Stop.

(Alright) Listen to me / us; (Really aggressive stance. -MM) 

You are not unprotected. Do your affirmations (sic.) and follow the guidance's of your instincts / gut feelings. Watch your dreams. We will not abandon any of our voluntary corps. You are now part of The Domain. 

And we expect you to understand that membership has responsibilities, but also benefits.

Benefits: We ask for you to assist us, and you are doing quite well; splendidly (actually). 

Yet you have doubts. Do you believe that we would abandon you? 

We will not.

(Again aggressive emphasis on the word "NOT".)

There are all sorts of things going on. Your mother is an IS-BE that we can help, but she must ask for it. We cannot provide help or assistance without a formal request FROM HER. 

You know what you need to do.

Do not fear the changes. What you need to understand is what your role is in this life that you live. Recognize that you are part of something bigger, and we will NEVER (emphasis) N-E-V-E-R abandon our people who work with us. 

Do your best. You will be fine.

Are other “prison guard” consciousnesses assigned as “family members” and “friends” to ensure that tabs are being kept on the members of the Lost Battalion?

I now have some serious questions for the Commander. Also for you.

I believe the commander had mentioned that the Lost Battalion members were purposely injected into “punishment/torture” style pre-birth templates. I was wondering, are other “prison guard” consciousnesses assigned as “family members” and “friends” to ensure that tabs are being kept on the members of the Lost Battalion, and to ensure that they stay on the “torture” path?

I was wondering if perhaps fucked up family relations with people who are clearly unlike you was an “Old Empire” type of system meant to keep the inmates from truly trusting and working with one another, since the damage is done at an intimate level.

And that of course, the “prison guards” are programmed well enough to not recall their true purpose.

Also, it seems that some malevolent family members want to “stay” in one’s life, even though it’s clear that the person wants to sever ties. Is this a result of some astral contract they signed elsewhere perhaps, that they must fulfill their duty of causing misery or trouble to others or otherwise they will be made to pay a price for contract violation/ineffectual servitude/service failure?

I’m sorry if this sounds “out there”, but I always wondered what compelled them to chase the person who is clearly rejecting them (for good reason), when they could be focusing on their own affairs and living well without crossing paths with the person who rejected them ever again.

(Lots of information thrown at me at once.)

Yes. No. Maybe. Probably.

Probably. It is a serious probability, but not as you assume.

Shadow people (sic.) can be constructs in a world-line that fit the pre-birth world-line template used to control though direction and manifestation.

Mantid Prime's control your pre-birth world-line templates, and they can place directing and funneling utilities; people, places and events to corral your thoughts and actions into pre-determined outcomes.

Yes. The probability is high (bolded to reflect the communication emphasis. -MM) that this is the case. 

However, if this is the actual case, you need to ask your Mantid (sic.) handler to determine the actual situation. This can be obtained by asking them directly via prayer or personal affirmation. You must address them directly. They will recognize the request if done in this manner.

Personal Question: Did the questioner accidentally curse MM in some manner unintentionally?

I was a little concerned that I accidentally hurt or cursed you in my last lucid dream. That was why I was a little shocked that you said your tooth popped out.

In the teeth falling out dream I had, I saw your face. The whole time I was pleased with myself for remembering to feel my teeth with my tongue, but now I’m a little worried that you got hurt in the process of my mini LD event. I sincerely hope I’m not some kind of jinx on you.

(I answer this personally;) 

Nope it is only a coincidence, though you might have some insight in what is going on in my life, but you cannot change anything that I personally do not want and allow to change.

(Never the less, I asked this to the Commander. Who responded...)

No. Observations though dreaming has very little relevance on the physical lives that individual consciousness live. It is similar to watching television or listening to a radio while there are all kinds of distractions and noise going on. 

In this particular case, you were "attuned" / aware / connected to MM (sic.) during the dream state, and you were able to "tune in" / observe / track / aware of events in his life. 

This ability is advanced, and a characteristic of great latent abilities that you possess. You should work on expanding these abilities and improving them. 

This kind and level of awareness is a precious thing that would benefit you in many areas of your personal life, as well as be a great asset to The Domain in the future.

So relax. All is good.

Good “asset” in the future, eh? Well, I’d take it as a complement, anyways.

I just need my teeth fixed, my bedroom floor repaired from the water damage, the study room windows repaired, and those floors, wiring, and windows all repaired. And I need to stop my damn old dog from peeing and crapping all over the place. I swear he has sprung a leak. But it’s not your fault. You are just an observer of the chaos. -MM

You are like that girl from the movie “Push” (2009). She can see the future as the MWI changes, and she writes her impressions on in this little book she carries around. It’s a great little movie. Takes place in Hong Kong. Very atmospheric and a little Film Noir.

Scene from Push…

Follow up scene from Push…

I strongly believe that all MM participants, lurkers, or followers all have some very powerful latent abilities. Unfortunately many are unaware of what we can do. I view this comment from the Domain Commander as a strong affirmation that you are yourself a true treasure.

What is the percentage of the earth prison population wearing “human prison skin suits”?

Is it possible to ask the Commander how much of the Earth prison population that is currently occupying human prison skins are actually not “human” archetypes (kind of like the original you, before the “adjustments”)?

This is an very easy question. The answer is a sizable percentage. 

Everyone who is a prisoner in the prison complex wears a inmate skin suit. And those that do, actually a large percentage are not human-preferential entities.

There is a small percentage of human entities in the Old Empire. Thus most of the old empire prisoners have now been adapted to the human biological skin suit.

IS-BE's from elsewhere have had to adapt to the prison attire within this Prison Complex, whether they were of a (difficult to translate) form, aquatic, from a high gravity desert world or whatever.

The human form is the dominant prison skin suit attire in this complex on / in / about the earth physical environment. Other forms include donkeys, dolphins, elephants, and a few others. The second most populous skin suit form is monkey.

Questions for The Commander on the write up “[daegonmagus] – Part 11 -Combined LD Asset Penetration Into Amnesia Infrastructure”?

Keep in mind that LD and OBE can be entirely unnerving experiences, and it takes time and lucidity to understand it when we return to our prison skin suits.

From DM…

While it rehashes a few things I have already talked about, I think it contains some info the Commander will consider as being quite valuable.

It is valuable. The information provided is a treasure trove of great intel and has already set things in motion towards new projects and operations. -DOMAIN

I am very interested to hear yours and his opinions of it, particularly the first impression you get from him “absorbing” it.

The size of the documentation is large and difficult to repeat all the notations without overloading our channel (he's talking about me. -MM), there is a great deal of things that relate to other processes and systems that we were aware of, but this information has provided us with other perceptions that has since spawned other investigative venues. -DOMAIN

Be warned, it is about 12k worth of words, so might take you a good amount of time to go through. There will be further documentation in the coming weeks in regards to my opinions on how LD assets can be effectively used to tackle this amnesia problem.

I also have a few questions for the Commander, but as there is already a couple of question in the document I will hold off asking them for your sake.

Is the Domain absolutely sure that the Old Empire has been eradicated in this sector of the physical/ non physical universe?

Because intelligence gained from this experience alone suggests they are still very, very active. Going by Airl’s description of the Old Empire and everything the Grand Elder told me as well as what I experienced, I am apt to believe this was the Old Empire and not just a wannabe mimicking faction.

At first glance, it seems a group of inmates have taken over the control mechanisms and are trying to develop escape bodies.

Fundamentally, the pocket universe(s) known as "Heaven" are running automatically and autonomously. They are operating as if they are still part of the "Old Empire". We have not been able to change this situation as the "tunnel of light" / amnesia mechanism used to access it is too great of a threat for us to attempt a crossover.

However, the over all pocket universe that spawned these "Heavens"; the reality universe is open to us. Though we tread carefully in this environment. There are many traps and snares.

We have free, uninhibited movement within this "reality universe" (pocket universe), but that does not mean that every single element of the "Old Empire" has been eliminated. Your efforts appear to indicate otherwise. We have long suspected that there are very special (the Commander slows down and tries to simplify some complex thoughts right now) mini pocket sub universe enclosures / structures / rooms / chambers / areas which can lie hidden in plain sight from which the "old Empire" mechanisms and operations can originate from. This seems to be the case. Which is why the destruction of the amnesia equipment is so problematic. The "Old Empire" has used the advanced techniques associated with free roaming IS-BE's to the physical environment and created all sorts of hidden mechanisms that need to be identified and rooted out one by one.

This is one of the reasons why the Prison Complex is so dangerous.

Many of these sub-structures are in the universe but lie outside of it. The closest way to imagine this is with a one way mirror. You look at the mirror, you see nothing unusual. But on the other side of the mirror lies a complete room with people and equipment in it. These mini pocket universes seem to populate this entire prison complex like grape clusters on a vine. They are apparently everywhere, and they operate in many different ways. Some are traps. Some are snares. Some are disguised machinery. Some are barracks. Some are just "broom closets". Some are uncompleted, while others are disused. And some open up to others that open up to still others creating this kind of large endless maze to entrap the IS-BE in.

What seems obvious now is that these mini-pocket universes / chambers hold refuge centers; think "foxholes", and "military bunkers" from which elements of the "Old Empire" military retreated to during the final days of our conquest of this particular region of the solar system. These IS-BE citizens of the "Old Empire" are military units for the most part, and they seem to have taken over various elements of the machinery of the "Old Empire" Prison Complex for their own purposes. Which units are doing what is unknown. In any event all indications are that some still occupy this region, and some still maintain a presence but have gone rogue.

We do not believe that the "Old Empire" prison system is functioning as a healthy complex as it was designed. But rather it is in a complex state of disarray with many factions and elements working in ad-hoc methodology to operate it for their own personal purposes. This includes inmates trying to escape, previous military members of the "Old Empire" trapped here, the actual prison guards and administrators trapped here and so on and so forth.

The entire administrative complex is inside a massive void inside the moon, and it's still staffed with former "Old Empire" administrative staff that now work for The Domain. They maintain the primary and core systems so that a total collapse and all the turmoil that would result could and will be avoided.

To summarize, it appears that elements of the amnesia systems of the Prison Complex are still operational because elements of the "Old Empire" are operating the equipment within mini pocket universes that are very difficult to detect.

What about Psaigreen?

Does The Domain know of any correlation between Lucid Dreamer’s bypassing of the prebirth template arrangement upon death? Any information the Domain can supply on that particular group (the Psaigreen) would be much appreciated.

From DM Part 4;

He mentioned this had something to do with Psaigreen – like this was the name of my group – which were the ones responsible for the meat flipping brainwashing programs.

According to him, what was actually going on was that we were being trained the art of snapping peoples’ necks with our legs, but the Psaigreen had brainwashed us into believing it was bovine pelvises so we wouldn’t realize what we were doing. It was like a failsafe to confuse the shit out of us if we ever started remembering any of this.

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT” I said as some very deeply repressed past life memories started flooding back to me. And I mean DEEEEEP. There was just that knowing that these were legitimate memories of something I had long forgotten. At the mention of the Psaigreen, I realized these were all things I knew. This was a memory from a very, very long time ago.
Many, many  lifetimes ago.

According to this comment, the term “Psaigreen” refers to the group who is wholly responsible for the amnesia, and reincarnation system that is a fundamental operation in this Prison Complex.

The Domain Commander’s response…

Obviously there is group still operating the amnesia mechanisms and machinery.

They may, or may not, be associated with the group "Psaigreen". At this stage the intel is suggestive of an association, but that is not conclusive.

This is an avenue worthy of further exploration.

We suggest further research in this area, and directed goals. The most valued / valuable intelligence would be to collect answers to these questions...

[1] Where is Psaigreen located physically in the reality universe?
[2] What systems do the Psaigreen use?
[3] Is there any Mantid (sic.) interaction with the Psaigreen?
[4] The entities that mentioned Psaigreen might have more information, what are their stories?
[5] What are the sourcing / targeting / location images used to identify Psaigreen members, systems, or operations?

(The impression that I have is that the Commander is treating this as third hand information that may or may not be valuable. But that all valuable leads appear in this format. Thus it is important to investigate. 

I also get the impression that the investigation may be dangerous, and that caution is advised. But you realize that right? -MM)

I would like to try to map out the Psaigreen data in some way. As well as make an overview of Portal Room 7 and the various chambers, as some soft of illustration or rough map. -MM

Any information regarding Portal Room 7?

My memories of utilizing portal room 7 are quite vivid, however. I know a lot of other things went on here which I cannot remember; unfortunately the only recording of these experiences I had was on a laptop that got stolen.

There is no such thing as coincidences. MM

This laptop had crucial information about intelligence I gathered here. If the Domain are serious about dismantling the amnesia/ hypnosis machinery, I would suggest directing a large portion of whatever resources they have allocated for this operation into finding this theater as it will give them not only direct access to many of the other locations, but also a very good idea of the different hypnosis regimes used.

There is evidence that "Portal Room 7" has some clues that would be worth further investigation. All evidence points to this area as a hub or staging area. These are common throughout the "Old Empire". Some are larger and more active than the impression that we have here, which is suggestive of a specialized or restricted area.

Most certainly this area is worthy of investigation. What is most interesting is the other rooms / chambers /portals that you did not go though. Why, and what was focusing your attention on Portal Room 7? Very interesting. We must always look at what is hidden to find answers that lie in front of us.

(Scene from the movie "Push" comes to mind, where the PSI abilities hides a building, so they look for what is missing. -MM)

This region / scoped /investigated slightly / know of /aware of, but needs further investigation. All evidence points to a "front door" / active portal /main transport hub for entrance to and from the Prison Complex (earth solar system side) to the "Old Empire". It is thus a very critical area for our attention.

A scene from the movie “Push”…

And another scene from that same movie…

In the movie “Push” numerous people use their skills for personal gain.

Any information regarding the medieval village?

I added this question after the Domain Commander commented immediately to me while I was reading the passage concerning the “medieval village” in part 10 of the DM series. In that comment the Commander said…

"Instead of thinking that this is a "Medieval village", perhaps you should consider it to be a typical community located on one of the planets of the "Old Empire". The descriptions seem to match with what is currently presently found there. The only difference is that most of the current "Old Empire" communities have a far wider variety of creatures that inhabit the area, not just humans."

Which obtained a favorable comment from DM…

This is what I was sort of implying and glad the Commander picked up on it.

There are a variety of beings that inhabit the Medieval village – as well as the other worlds we have both been to – that differ considerably from the human template. Many of these would fit more appropriately with the idea of what we commonly refer to as being a “demon”, or something along those lines. They are incredibly “weird” to interact with and have a completely different way of doing things, including ideologies, the way they talk, the way they do things etc. These are the more common types we have both experienced.

However, the place where the consciousness programming facility was located was more aligned with Airl’s description of an Old Empire setup – the two were completely different places in regards to architecture and social/ community styled setups – I only ever saw humans here, apart from whatever it was that was behind the viewing window in the programming facility.

So I would like to ask for a confirmation on what this Medieval village is. And the Domain Commander answered…

Buy all indications, this is a facility located on one of the planets of the "Old Empire". The descriptions given indicate typical "Old Domain" architecture. Some statements, however, give rise to a specific region within the "Old Empire", thus placing it spatially and geographically for targeting purposes. It does not lie within the main community clusters / hubs of civilization.

An investigation of the specific region in and around the "Medieval village" will enable more accurate location targeting and would enable us to pinpoint the actual location avoiding transparency screens / distortion fields / pocket-rooms / and other tricks used to hide these structures from The Domain.

(This tells me that while The Domain may have conquered the "Old Empire", and has subdued it, many elements of that government, that society and those individuals still exist and operate the system. And that they are intentionally hidden from The Domain by techniques that I do not understand. -MM)

Is nuclear war nearly inevitable?

If nuclear war is nearly inevitable and will destroy much of the US, should we who live in the US simply assume there’s no future and prepare to die?

No. Thoughts and consciousness anchor world-line templates (sic.) these are constantly in flux and the situation changes as the flow of time advances with in this physical reality universe. 

At any given moment, it might appear that war is inevitable, and then a moment later the situation can change. 

The substantial modifier for this is the mass concentration of thoughts made by huge numbers of people. As long as great clusters of people believe that war will occur, they will make it occur. Thus the danger of mass media controlled by dangerous individuals.

As it stands currently, there is a strong probability of an abortive military war of great destruction, during a very short period of time that will be thwarted by an early advanced horror that will cease all further actions towards it.

What is the Universe?

Is the universe basically as we see it, full of stars, galaxies, and so forth, or is it mostly an illusion for our benefit?

What human inmates observe is what exists. There are stars, galaxies and so forth. 

However, the distances are an illusion. Time is an illusion. The interactions between them are more complex that what is observed. Thought generation and manifestation is much more substantial, significant, and manifested far sooner than anything experienced within the Prison Complex Reality MWI universe.

So that when a person leaves the reality pocket universe; the Prison Complex, the "outside" Master Universe behaves and acts much differently that what is assumed by inmate observers.

Consider a fish in a fish bowl. It sees the living room, and everything in it. And it assumes that the things it sees is also under water, with a gravel floor under the illusion of carpet, and that the bright light from the windows are the same as the light in the top of it's aquarium. But that is not the true reality. A fish in the aquarium cannot travel outside the aquarium by swimming. It cannot feed on the carpet. And it will hurt it's eyes when looking at the sunlight from the window.

The Master Universe is fundamentally different from the Reality Universe that human skin suit inmates assume. It follows similar but very different rules than what is inside the MWI.

(The impression that I get is that thoughts generated outside of our Reality Universe are much stronger, outside in the Master Universe. Thus making it much easier to create, build, and travel. -MM)

Limits on the mega-wealthy…

Will there be limits placed on the power of the elites, billionaires, corporations, and governments in the near future without a devastating war?

There are many future scenarios. It is too broad and large a topic to answer comprehensively.

However, what we can affirm is that all civilizations eventually reach the point that the earth is going through now, and during this period of inflection two things tend to happen. Either the world is engulfed by a long, and terrible destructive war where the survivors take centuries to recover, or the wealthy few rot from the inside, and collapse, and the nations "go to seed", eventually rebirthing a new more global civilization of a far better constitution.

Because of the limitations in this pocket-universe and the various influences a rarer, third option seems to be manifesting. In China, the mega-wealthy are being culled and limits are being placed on their actions and behaviors. This goes hand in hand with the economic prosperity of the Chinese nation. And other nations are taking note.

Singapore seems to be leading the ASEAN, while Africa is starting to embrace this model. There is movement throughout Asia in regards to this, though the Americas are very reluctant to change.

It is highly possible that eventually the entire earth might embrace a governance model that is similar to that of the Chinese model. If so, then the world will become a much more peaceful place.

However, there are dangerous forces that do not want to see this happening and are desirous of a all-or-nothing destructive end. Either one group of oligarchs rule, or the entire world shall burn.

At this period of time, all is in flux. It is difficult to say what will occur, though we (The Domain) are working to resolving this matter with expedience towards a more peaceful conclusion.

FTL Travel

Is Einstein right and faster-than-light speeds are not achievable, or does the Domain have ways around that limit?

Apparent FTL travel is achievable, and this is accomplished using many, many techniques. The Master Universe operates differently than the Reality Universe that the Prison Complex is part of.

Many of the technologies in use take advantage of these other characteristics to enable physical mobility. This is a trait of emerging space-faring civilizations.

However, in the Master Universe, the primary transport method relies on teleportation mechanisms, and of these it would resemble science fiction or fantasy to an inmate human skin suit. It would look like magic, or drawing pentagrams or runes on the floor, chanting strange words while in some kind of a trance, and would appear to be very barbaric. However, these techniques actually work because the manifestation of thoughts are not suppressed like they are in the Reality (pocket) universe that the Prison Complex actually is.

(The very strong image of Robert Heinleins' story "Glory Road" comes to mind.-MM)

An illustration from the cover of Robert Heinlein’s novel “Glory Road”…

An illustration from a comic version of the book “Glory Road”…

A question from a retired spook

Life in MM-land is always colorful.

We are never fully retired. We are just blessed with “windows” of peace. Yet there are all sorts of things going on. Some of us, those that have been involved in the more nasty aspects of life, tend to continue a watchful eye for our own protections. Thus this next question from a black spook who worked for a different American alphabet agency than myself. He / she / it is retired and living in a far away land as an expat like MM.

…

“As I told you previously, <redacted> is dead. The circumstances are extremely murky, we have no idea how a 50-year-old healthy <redacted> dies without any symptoms of anything. The autopsy will take at least a month. But the facts are: I was supposed to go walking <redacted> but cancelled at the last minute and <redacted> died.

I have been a bit worried about my exposure to the outside world lately. I have become complacent and sometimes ignore proper procedures. After all, it has been <redacted> years with no attempts on my life, not even a threat.

I have maintained video surveillance around my home, though. I have also built a rudimentary trap for uninvited visitors. For some arcane reason, <redacted> is split in two, with two addresses. Both sides have a house. The road that goes by our houses is a cul-de-sac, nobody should be driving on that road. My address is the second house, but we live in the first one. I have a live camera feed outside the fake home as well as on the road leading to our ranch.

A couple of nights ago I woke up to the proximity alarm I had set up by the road. Somebody was driving towards us. Nobody has any business of coming here unless I invite them. I sure as hell wasn’t waiting for the company at 2:30 am. I saw a dark sedan on our road. I followed it on my monitor as it drove past my real home to the fake address. They parked the car some 50 yards before my fake home. Two guys came out of the car and started walking. They went around the house before stopping at the front door. One of the guys knelt and picked the lock. That isn’t so hard, as locks here in the middle of nowhere are built to stop animals, not assassins.

I switched to the indoor cam only to see that I should have changed the batteries. The foyer cam was working. It has a sensitive mike, I could hear them searching the house and coming back to the foyer. One of the men took out a phone. The audio is good but not that good. It sounded like whoever was on the other end of the call was doing most of the talking anyway.

The men walked back to their car and made an u-turn and gunned the engine. I was waiting for them outside, hidden, to have a better look at the car, plates and these charming dudes. The license plate was <redacted>, but it was a <redacted>, so no help there. But I had some luck.

I’m not sure if I told you, but at some point in my recovery I learned (or remembered) how to spot a natural Homo Sapiens Sapiens from meatsuits. I call them NPC’s (non-player-characters). That is probably not quite accurate, because those suits are definitely under intelligent control. ‘Non-Soul-Characters’ would be closer to the truth.

First I noticed the difference between a wooden flagpole and a living tree. When you can see that difference, it opens up a totally new way of looking at things. It’s a bit like being able to see magnetism, but not quite.

Anyway, those two guys were very obvious NPC’s.

That raises a few unpleasant questions:

– Does the Spetsbureau 13 hire non-terrestrials to do their Mokroye Delo nowadays? Does Spetsbureau even exist any more?

– How about the Company? If so, what have I done to deserve their wrath this late in the game? After the hit on my sister, I thought it was just housecleaning before The Big Event, but this is something else.

– If not VSENT/KGB/AFB/CIA/DIA, does the ‘Old Republic’ operate on this level, and do it so openly?

– Is there somebody else that wishes to see me dead?

We bailed that same night. I have only killed once in my career, and I did not want to raise that tally. I left the cam’s running, but it’s been quiet since.

So, MM, any insight you might offer? I hate to ask you, but could you ask the Commander about factions that want me/us gone? My death is a trivial matter, our life expectancy after service isn’t too great anyway. But I do care about collaterals, for them, I’m fully committed to taking on all comers. Irrespective of gender, race or creed.

I know this reads like a goddamn spy novel, but I want you to have as vivid a picture as possible. These days it’s hard to say what points are relevant and what not.

In OBE and LD I always seem to end up stuck in that huge mall when I try to ferret out Prison back doors or Amnesia operations. The place is crawling with NPC’s and mannequins. There is something I can’t crack, I can feel it! Getting pretty frustrating. Anyway, happy to have somebody I can vent for a change…

Keep your eyes open & head down, and always use the periscope!

…

My response…

I consider this an urgency so I just bored though the shit, went to a quiet place where I wouldn’t be disturbed, and made contact.

This is the response.

:::::
Not the Domain. We have no local assignments on the Earth at this time.

Not one of our agencies / cooperative operations / subservient groups either. These are all monitored strictly.

Suggest it to be a third party associated with one of the local earth government factions. High probability this.

You (not me) are to be considered compromised. However, there is no clear cause to abort current life and evade. Evidence suggests a recon operation. Make sure all sensors and systems are functional. A gun without bullets is a rock. A camera without batteries is a stone.

This action suggests something else. They are trying to "beat the bushes" and "flush something / someone / perhaps you out. Do not do anything out of the ordinary. As they are monitoring for changes in lifestyle patterns.

Also do not be alarmed. They are obviously a threat vector, but not a lethal one. A lethal vector will follow if there is unusual movement on your part. Continue your life. Maintain x-ray status. Make no unusual or out of the ordinary actions.

If something does happen, we will have a Domain agent available for retrieval.
:::::

Mu response…

So, as I see it, it’s some third party that is trying to flush you out. It is unknown who it is. Continue to lie low. Do nothing unusual, and watch your six. I can confirm that you are on The Domain radar right now.

Remember that nothing occurs in isolation. There are other tasks, other teams, other groups that all work together in a coordinated effort. One team tries to flush you out, another team obtains data, while a third team performs the objective. I want to remind you to maintain your vigilance. But do nothing out of the ordinary.

Final Comments

Never a dull moment in MM land.

We need to recognize that there are all sorts of things going on, but the things that are most important isn’t what The Domain commander says, the fears that the media throw at you, or the amount of money in your paycheck.

What is most important is what you do with your time on a personal basis.

Make your life matter.

All this other stuff is interesting, but please keep focused at what is right in front of you, who is sitting next to you, and the beautiful day that you are blessed with.

Don’t be like this…

Make YOUR life matter.

There is only one of you. And I can tell you that all of who you are, and all of your personal experiences is what makes you valuable. So don’t ignore them. Treat yourself as special and go forth and do great things.

Even the simplest acts of kindness are significant. make the world a better place. You can do this. Yes, YOU. Just be kind, and good, and smile.

And two final words…

[1] Help others and do not worry if it will be profitable to you sometime in the future. Just help others. Do it without expectations. Just do it, and then move on with your life…

[2] Never give up. Never, ever give up. You just keep plugging away at it. You just keep going. One step after the other. And you don’t care what others are doing or howling at you. You just focus and keep on…keeping on. Never give up.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

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[daegonmagus] – Part 10 – Combined LD Asset Penetration Into Amnesia Infrastructure

The following is the tenth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Below is a briefing document which equates to about 7 years worth of LD espionage into amnesia compounds by both myself and my wife, SD.

While it rehashes a few things I have already talked about, I think it contains some info the Commander will consider as being quite valuable.

I am very interested to hear yours and his opinions of it, particularly the first impression you get from him “absorbing” it.

I also have a few questions for the Commander, but as there is already a couple of question in the document I will hold off asking them for your sake.

Part 10 – Combined LD Asset Penetration Into Amnesia Infrastructure

This is a briefing document to be relayed to the Domain Commander via Metallic Man outlining about 7 years worth of recon work into various locations by two very accomplished LD Assets – DM and SD – carried out between the years 2008 to 2015 to aid in the identification of potential abusers of the amnesia prison system infrastructure as well as the possibility of hijacked consciousness templates.

This is not a singular experience; majority of the locations mentioned in this document have been repetitively observed and experienced numerous times during Lucid Dreaming by both DM and SD over this 7 year period as well as other LD assets.

This is a unique opportunity for the Domain and MM readers to gain an understanding of these non physical locations from 2 separate sources that have been able to openly discuss these experiences on a regular basis free from the constraints of societal bias and vilification to verify them.

This document is to function as an addendum to a personal request by the Domain Commander for me, DM, to undertake lucid espionage into such compounds, as relayed to me via ex-MAJestic Agent MM in a personal email.

Given that a fair understanding of my background in LD has been given to the MM readership, I must point out that SD is at a very similar level of experience in LD to me – if not better – and has experimented with it almost as much as me.

Note that SD has been able to view a similar consciousness sorting mechanism as described by MM through utilizing her LD skillset. Also note that while I have agreed to help the Domain in their effort of identifying the amnesia machinery, my loyalty is ultimately to the Elder Guardians and their approved alliances first and foremost.

This is understood. -MM

My willingness to help the Domain comes from the idea that the goals of these two organizations are aligned; to put a stop to the amnesia machinery which will ultimately allow the extraction of members of each organization who have become trapped in the “earth prison”.

Anyone involved in such an effort is to be considered a friend by me for at least the duration of this project.

Just as the Domain are responsible for the 3000 members of their lost battalion, I am responsible for the 20k+ consciousnesses that came here at the direction of the Elder Guardians for a similar retrieval operation.

Therefore the Domain have my permission to alter my non-physical body to whatever extent they deem necessary provided it is to benefit this same goal and provided I am allowed to retain 100% awareness of the process, regardless of how painful or uncomfortable it may prove to be.

However, the Domain must not in any shape or form alter any aspect of my body {physical or non physical} that has already been altered by The Elder Guardians or their alliances without prior consent from that same organization.

This is understood and agreed to. -MM

This is to ensure that I am still able to carry out my lucid obligations to the Elder Guardians and the aforementioned consciousnesses I am responsible for. Ultimately the Elder Guardians have right of authority when it comes to any aspect of my physical/ non physical self.

I am optimistic in my belief that such a disagreement of circumstance will be extremely unlikely, given that our goals are so aligned.

However if I am wrong, in this assumption the Domain are of course welcome to approach me directly should they feel the need to persuade me otherwise.

There is an understanding that shared alliances can be mutually beneficial to all involved as long as we all agree to work within the agreed to frameworks. For instance, I agreed to a life-line involvement in MAJestic, not realizing that I would be working with The Domain. Then, I needed to reaffirm my agreements with them in order to proceed with them. -MM

I am putting in a formal request to the Commander that the Domain keep me updated on any missions carried out into these non-physical locations by either them or their associates, via MM if he so allows it, or personally if that is a more appropriate course of action for them.

This is understood and agreed to. -MM

I am also requesting any aid the Domain may be able to provide to either myself or SD that would prevent both physical and non physical forces impeding us in our operations to further gather intelligence via lucid dreaming and astral projection based avenues.

I believe this a fair compensation for the information contained in this report, though I will let MM have the final decision in whether it is or not. If he disagrees I won’t argue.

From what I understand, they will remain neutral for the most part, but will assist (if they are able to do so) if asked by one of the irregular assets directly (though the means I have provided.) -MM

If, however, the Domain are able to provide such assistance I will be able to more effectively devise an offensive stratagem into these targets.

It is my intention to penetrate deeper into these facilities when opportunity allows for it regardless of the dangers present therein. Understand this is a lifelong goal of mine that I have held since long before even stumbling across MM.

It is not my intention to disrespect the Domain or offend them in any way shape or form. Like MM, I take these assignments seriously and the terms I have laid out are solely to protect aspects of this operation I know to be on track to dismantling the amnesia mechanisms.

In saying that, I am committed to combining resources and using my LD skillset to tackle the amnesia problem whenever possible.

This is understood and agreed to. They will provide "reasonable" assistance provided the request is "reasonable". They will NOT make a judgement on the need or utility. Instead, in this venue "reasonable" refers to their ability to do so, given the specific circumstances involved. If that makes sense. 

To put it in my own words, they will help if they are able to, and will not judge if whether or not you need it or not. They have limitations. -MM

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The Experiences:

Reality brainwashing is a very heavy theme present within many of these combined LD experiences, and is suggestive that the amnesia prison system has indeed been taken over or is still in operation and in some parts functional at the very least.

The Amnesia operation is either still in operation, or has been taken over by other interests. -MM

Over the years both myself and SD have been able to gain a detailed understanding of how these non physical locations are linked via a substantial network of egress portals and consciousness mazes, which are seemingly buried in layer upon layer of non physical “realities”, or planes exhibiting a different density to our physical one.

The conclusion we have both come to is that this system is designed to disorientate many consciousnesses during sleep/ death and control them to a very, very high degree through an MK Ultra type arrangement.

We have also gained an understanding of how consciousness doping agents are seemingly being used to keep a consciousness docile, submissive and under control whilst in these non physical facilities.

My experiences with the Elder Guardians suggest this is done en masse to the population of earth whenever they go to sleep, and again highlights this consciousness brainwashing theme that suggests the prison system is still in operation.

Given what we have experienced first hand, it is unlikely any consciousness would be able to resist this domination without some form of assistance, as the doping agents appear to be administered immediately upon entering the non physical environment.

"...it is unlikely any consciousness would be able to resist this domination without some form of assistance..."

Any efforts at “evading the light”, in my opinion, would have to include some kind of therapy to be administered during physical life to help break through that consciousness doping I assume is also undertaken upon death. I will submit a plan to MM later on I have to help rectify this particular problem.

"...Any efforts at “evading the light”, in my opinion, would have to include some kind of therapy to be administered during physical life..."

The volcano island I infiltrated which was recently mentioned in the LD task callout by MM was only one of what appear to be many places where such reality brainwashing/ false memory implantation, breeding programs, consciousness doping, and torture is taking place, according to mine and SD’s many recon assignments.

Many of these facilities take the form of “schools” – and are called this by their administrators – that are heavily guarded by armed soldiers that exhibit a very Nazi SS Officer/ authoritarian like behavior.

They call the act of undergoing brainwashing to “go and study”.

These schools exist within multiple different planes; it is exceedingly difficult trying to pin point them to a specific one.

The general theme is that if you get caught conducting lucid espionage into any of these locations, with complete memory of the physical world, you get targeted for either…

a) ejection from these locations by these guards or
b) capture whereby a specialized form of torture tailored specifically to make you forget them is administered.

This torture involves the use of electrocution and being probed with sharp objects, sometimes the former being administered through the latter.

It is strictly forbidden to talk about any of the other non physical worlds whilst in these reality brainwashing schools, and anyone doing so is immediately reprimanded and hushed by these guards.

This includes those in which past life memories begin to surface.

Those who are not part of the administration are treated like typical prison inmates and segregated into small groups based on gender and age.

Given that myself and SD were able to relate our LD experiences to each other on an almost day to day basis, we have been successful in retrieving memory of such scenarios that otherwise would have been left erased.

One of us will begin with a description of the experience, which will trigger a flood of memories for the other, who will then finish the scenario with an exact description of what took place.

Hence it is unlikely, in my opinion, that we are just implanting false memories within one another. It is my assumption that we are recalling parts of each other’s lucid dreams that we have both been active in.

It has been very evident to the both of us that the administrators of these locations do not want us aware of them or bringing such information back to the physical world.

We have experienced many failsafe mechanisms to make sure this doesn’t happen, including [1] amnesia “street lights” (designed to keep certain sections and blocked from access), [2] swarms of entities that “scrub” particular locations to keep out non authorized “visitors”, as well as [3] being chased through multiple worlds by entities resembling “suits” or “MIB” (specifically to stop one of us helping the other regain our memories).

I have yet another LD Asset {#3} part of my contacts who has also been chased by the MIB during LD.

SD and I have been fortunate in that we were able to evade and escape most of these efforts to some degree due to our LD skillsets.

Unfortunately for the administrators of these locations we also both started building up a tolerance to the consciousness doping agents being used on us, which I believe was in part due to help from our handlers.

We started regaining a level of control of our consciousness whilst doped, which allowed us both to view the processes of what takes place under the “care” of the prison administration.

It should be noted that the assignments undertaken by us and mentioned in these documents were extremely psychologically demanding; these were extremely distressing situations we found ourselves in that tested us to the very limits of our mental resolve, even with an awareness of our physical bodies and a higher awareness of the non physical planes.

At no point should anyone ever try to replicate any of these experiences whilst in LD without proper psychological preparation.

(In our case) We had help!

It should also be noted that SD has undergone the same astral body tampering the night after the Domain Commander first opened up a comms channel with MM (the same night I underwent mine – it was the exact same procedure; it felt like something was being “welded” into our astral bodies).

She also has a history of interaction with other non physical entities whilst in LD, and has been able to operate from a similar state of higher consciousness as I have previously mentioned.

Her forays give a bigger picture of the block put in place to control consciousness at death.

Given the nature of our assignments, it seems that some of these locations are home to non physical refugees trying to escape capture of some sort, presumably by the earth prison administration.

They inhabit worlds that could be considered less than third world by today’s standards.

According to what has been told to SD by some of these refugees, the displacement of them is due to a large scale non physical war that happened many thousands of {earth} years ago.

The premise of this war centers around the idea that those in charge of these facilities are trying to create “astral super soldiers” by taking the best attributes of certain “races” and splicing them into a single being.

This astral splicing is what I refer to as the “breeding programs”, as it corresponds with SDs experiences in the rape camps, again of which there appear to be many of these camps in active operation ruled by guards that exhibit a very similar behavior to that of the Nazi’s.

My own experiences suggest something similar and that there are special assets who can operate outside of temporal tracing apparatus; ie chrononauts that can slip through the non physical planes without being monitored by even the most technological advanced species.

I suspect these are what I call “suits” or MIB and specifically target anyone who exhibits high navigational control of the non physical planes via LD? AP. If they catch you, you instantly wake up back in the physical world.

In the context of MM terminology this would equate to those who can initiate an MWI slide at will without having to worry about sticking to certain pre birth/ master templates; they are ghosts that leave no footprint of their non physical travels behind.

I suspect whoever made them is the same faction who has taken control of the earth prison.

I also suspect these “suits” have something to do with the Psaigreen. Any information the Domain can supply on that particular group (the Psaigreen) would be much appreciated.

It is on the list -MM

The methods of astral body tampering used to create these super soldiers SD and I have witnessed so far are:
.

Similar non physical body splicing techniques employed by the Domain but without the intent to escape the prison
Forced sexual interactions between heavily doped male and female captives. Males are injected with a secondary drug that amplifies their primal instincts to the point that they become incredibly violent and aggressive.
The removal and implantation of foetuses within the womb of pregnant and non pregnant women.

The idea in all cases is to create hybridized offspring with DNA containing the best non physical traits so that access to certain non physical areas may be obtained.

It appears astral body DNA acts as a key to certain non physical areas.

The Main Facilities:

While the locations mentioned in this document are numerous, there are several facilities that stand out to me as being important to keeping up with the consciousness brainwashing agenda that I suggest the Domain pay particular close attention to.

The most notable for me is the facility I was able to gain an understanding of during my last experience with the Elder Guardians.

This was a facility run by a military faction at the ultimate direction of an ET Commander (possible Mantid or Mantid Prime – 10% surety) with human operators, specifically for programming and preparing consciousnesses for the Earth prison experience after they go to sleep in the physical plane.

Facility operated by (possible) Mantid Primes with human operator staff. -MM

According to the information given to me by the Grand Elder and what I experienced:

The physical eyes are used by the operators of the facility to gain real time data of what consciousness is experiencing whilst engaging in the physical “reality.” This data is then used to smooth out any bugs in the program they expect the consciousness to follow.
When a consciousness memory cache approaches full, the programmers issue a command to “send it to sleep” in the physical plane. Eventually the consciousness gives in and goes to sleep.
At the same time it is heavily doped with the doping agent to keep it in a very zombie like state.
Whilst under the influence of this anesthetic, the consciousness will be transported into another non physical body that is kept within, I assume, a holding room in some kind of clear gel like substance, completely naked.
This body will then wake up, still completely under the influence of the anesthetic, and still in a zombie like daze with two guards at the ready.
These two guards escort this body containing the doped consciousness through a thick, sideways opening steel door and lead it down a metallic hallway about 30m in length.
As they are walking, a 3D holographic environment is broadcast around the consciousness. Spatially, the room is no longer two walls separated by a distance of a few meters, but an entire landscape dependent upon what the programmers desire the consciousness to experience. The doped body is then led through several extremely traumatic scenarios designed to keep it from recognizing where it is and to keep it holding onto the idea that the Earth based physical reality is the only one. The trauma part of the simulation is completely erased from memory. I am unsure if this simulation takes place entirely in the mind of the subject, or if the hallway itself aids in this holographic environment. I assume at the very least that the hallway communicates directly with the consciousness in question via wireless means.
The doped body is led back out of the simulation. After it is switched off, the two guards then lead it to an alcove next to the door at the other end of the hallway that acts as a decontamination chamber. The naked body is then showered and scrubbed free of the gel substance before being led through the second door, still naked.
A team of consciousness programmers – between 10 to 20 – analyses the reality dataset of the consciousness in question using a room full of computers. This is a monumental task with several days worth of downtime while new programming is coded to allow for consistent integration back within the physical reality. I suggest watching the series Westworld as it is an extremely accurate portrayal of what I experienced (I had an LD of the first episode a few years before it came out).
8.a) During this downtime period the doped body is kept under the influence of the anesthetic and is very closely monitored by the two guards who become its personal handlers. It is allowed out of the facility to be used for slave labor until the coding for the fresh programming is complete, whereby it is brought back in.
8.b) Special cases where the dataset reveals inconsistencies detrimental to the consciousness containment operation are examined on a case by case basis, by the 2IC Human Commander. In my case I wasn’t allowed out of the facility, but was instead led straight to another room containing a chair with an egress portal into a physical reality that was in its very first stages of design. This physical reality construct was called the “Test Rig” by the Human Commander, and I was brought here because the Commander noticed I had been talking to someone (the Grand Elder) “off record”, ie without it being logged in my dataset.
The doped body is usually then led back through the metal hallway and made to undergo another trauma simulation before being led directly back to the holding cell where it is put to sleep and consciousness is then transported back into the physical plane body in preparation for “waking up”. I was directly told/shown this by the Grand Elder.

Very similar to what I witnessed in the consciousness programming facility. Instead of a map the large screen showed raw consciousness programming code data as well as real time video of what my eyes were seeing, and body vitals etc. All the shit you’d expect to find in a hospital room was somehow implemented into this main screen. Bear in mind I was mainly looking straight on towards the other wall after being decontaminated; everything to the left of me was sighted in my peripheral, so the angles may not have been so sharp. I have a vague recollection of the screen being curved.

Original image provided by DM was unable to be extracted, so I substituted this image instead. They are both very similar. I do not know why I was having such a difficult time extracting the original image. -MM

Notes:

The programmers of this facility hold information on how non physical bodies can be programmed to interact with multiple physical reality constructs. I suspect the human Commander also has access to other similar facilities.

There are about 10 computer terminals in this facility that are used specifically for these programming purposes. These computers are able to directly interface with consciousness and hold extremely valuable data.

The ET Commander is kept insulated by the human operators by a viewing window that separates the main programming room from the ET’s own personal space.

I do not know if other ET’s were present in this room as it was a very quick glimpse gained in my peripheral vision whilst under heavy doping.

It could also be a bullshit memory.

I would assume that this ET Commander is in charge of programming the physical realities whereas the humans focus solely on consciousnesses coming in and out of the constructs, but do not quote me on this.

My conscious awareness kicked in after coming through the door that led to what I assume was the body holding room, in the middle of a trauma simulation so my recollection of the hallway is foggy and confusing.

I have no actual recollection of the holding room.

I assume the doors I came through were connected to an elevator, but I cannot be sure.

There is also the question of entrance to the facility; I do not remember seeing any possible access ways in the main control room, which is why I suspect that an elevator system was at the opposite end of the simulation hallway.

If that were the case I would assume up would lead to ground level and down would lead to the holding room.

Otherwise perhaps the entrance to the facility was underneath where I was walking, which explains why I never saw it.

The facility itself was located in a world that seemed to be a direct quote of Airl’s description of an Old Empire establishment with allusions to Ancient Egypt throughout the city:

“Anyone who is not willing or able to submit to mindless economic, political and religious servitude as a tax-paying worker in the class system of the "Old Empire" are "untouchable" and sentenced to receive memory wipe-out and permanent imprisonment on Earth.”

These are the exact sorts of people who were being subjected to the Earth construct via this facility.

Others included those who were openly opposed to the Totalitarian regime of those politicians who were in power.

Question for the Domain Commander: Are they absolutely sure that the Old Empire has been eradicated in this sector of the physical/ non physical universe? Because intelligence gained from this experience alone suggests they are still very, very active. Going by Airl’s description of the Old Empire and everything the Grand Elder told me as well as what I experienced, I am apt to believe this was the Old Empire and not just a wannabe mimicking faction.

I will inquire. Initial response is that it appears that there is something going on that differs from the initial intent. This needs to be investigated further. 

It is easy to jump to conclusions, and assume that it is "Old Empire" operations still under the control of Mantid Prime, or that some (pro Domain) Mantids are working with "free" humans in constructing escape bodies for general population egress. Many questions remain unanswered.-MM

A very big effort on the human Commander and his programmer’s part was put into making sure I did not remember any of what took place in this facility.

The only reason I remember any of it was because the Grand Elder kicked me awake when the drugs started taking me.

He was telling me to take notice of the things I have mentioned in this document. You owe this section of this report to his insistence on making me pay attention.

Please tell him thank you from me. -MM

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The Test Rig:

The server containing the Earth based physical reality appears to be contained within the Test Rig which is itself a VR construct within the consciousness programming facility .

This is in the form of a large “brain” that is made of Ethernet like cables.

These cables are able to extract consciousness data through what I equated at the time as being inductive coupling ( I am a qualified electronics tech, trust me on this assertion); they are wound as tight coils that pick up the magnetism coming off conscious thoughts contained within the server and direct this energy back to the military controller’s mainframe in the form of real time {analogue} data.

Think of this like joining an online gaming server; each player must log on to the main server through their various consoles.

The AI brain in this case is responsible for the load out environment the players all synch into; their consciousness require their own consoles in order to “play” and are thus kept off site, somewhere else.

My guess is in the holding rooms or back in the programming facility with the Human and ET Commanders.

This server brain is housed within a building surrounded by large glass windows on its ground floor on the cusp of what appears to be a university campus.

There are freshly manicured lawns and gardens in the center of various multi story brick buildings.

Through awareness of self, I was able to destroy majority of this campus.

The tell tale sign of this building is the logical fallacy of the platform one has to furs reach via the stairs to use the lift, instead of just having it pop out on the ground floor.

The brain itself was large enough to need an entire room and 1^st story platform built around it.

Below this building is a compound that holds the bodies in the Test Rig that are still asleep and engaged in the Earth construct; I watched as two of them came out of the lift still in a dazed state, one of which was SD.

Unlike others who have to be plugged back into the construct to get back to their Earth bodies, I came back of my volition by summoning my own portals via LD – this meant I bypassed the programming/ trauma simulation stage altogether and is why I remember it so well.

I can walk the Domain through the whole process from the programming facility, into the Test rig portal, out the front gates of the accommodation section, through the university campus and into the Brain server building easier than I can get up to take a leak in the middle of the night; My memory of it is photographic.

The Test Rig reality construct is where the human Commander plans on migrating all consciousnesses from the physical Earth construct when it is complete.

Although no ETA was given, this was the entire reason for the development of the Test Rig.

I overheard the Commander talking to his programmers about it.

Not only overheard; he was standing right in front of me when he said it, and assumed that I was too doped to remember any of it.

I wasn’t.

I was 100% aware of everything going on around me courtesy of the Grand Elder.

This is probably the most solid intel you will get off me.

Domain Commander take notice; there is another prison construct specifically being prepared for when the Earth prison goes offline which already has some value asset’s consciousnesses uploaded to it.

They are aware that the Earth Prison is part of a much larger Prison Complex that involves multiple solar systems. Though this intel about a backup facility being constructed is new intel. -MM

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SD’s Experiences of the Non Physical body holding facilities:

Although this was not a shared experience with SD, she has awoken to very similar experiences of manipulation whilst doped, and has described similar egress portal setups like the Test Rig.

Her experiences of these facilities are much more persistent than mine.

The main difference is that in her experiences these egress portals are coupled to standard “hospital” like beds, whereas with mine they are coupled to something more akin to an upright dentistry chair.

SD has had many experiences of these facilities of which she is of the belief that there are at least 3 separate ones in operation.

One of these facilities is found within the Medieval Village world which can be accessed via the portal network found in the burrow tombs of the Island World.

SD’s recon assignments suggest that one of the main operating facilities can be accessed via astral projection from a lucid dreaming state, after moving through a substance/ plane that feels like “thick honey”.

On the other side of this thick honey bubble is one of these brainwashing facilities set out similar to a hospital rather than a military war room.

Immediately upon entering this area, guards will hunt down any unauthorized entity and eject them back into in the Earth construct.

I have also been taken to a similar hospital by black ops soldiers in a helicopter during a combined lucid dream with SD.

This particular hospital backs onto an ocean.

About a kilometer up the beach are various café’s and restaurants and an old style town nearby Brainwashing School I retrieved SD from moments prior to my initiation into the Unseen 5 (Combined LD Experience).

The retrieval of Nina Bejowski, as mentioned in my part 3 was also experienced by SD in one of her LDs (she was Nina).

In the experience I had to retrieve her from one of the brain washing schools whilst being hunted by “suits” who exhibited abilities that again suggested world line tampering in an effort to keep our consciousnesses contained.

Whilst I do not remember the layout of that particular facility, SD does.

Note her apparent “father” appears to be in control of at least one of these facilities (the one beyond the honey substance), and was present in this particular school telling her she needed to study.

Portal Theatre:

The most substantial location visited by both myself and SD is the portal theater.

The reason this location stands out is because it appears to be an egress portal hub that connects most of the non physical locations mentioned in this document.

I have personally undertaken many, many infiltration assignments into this complex, as has SD.

There are at least 7 – but potentially more – different egress portals; one in each of the theater rooms that come off the main hall, each leading to a very specific non physical location.

These locations do not change, despite coming here at different times of the year; room number 7 (or 8?) on the right side of the hallway will always take you the “Ancient Marketplace”, for example. I know this because this is the room I always took, and was the place I always came out after traveling through the portal in this theater room.

My assignments never bothered with any of the other rooms, as far as I can remember.

The rooms themselves look like standard movie theaters, though instead of a large projector screen they have spherical portals – about the size of a weather balloon – that float about 6 or so meters from the floor, roughly halfway to the roof.

The portals seemed to be contained in some sort of liquid substance and protected by an invisible “maze like” barrier; you cannot directly access them (well, the one in room 7 any way) without first navigating through this maze.

You “swim” up into the maze until you get to a point where your consciousness is sucked into it, and you come out into an alternate world on the other side, in my case, the Ancient Marketplace.

The band Primus has a live gig DVD called Hallucinogenetics with spherical TV screens on its cover that are very similar to what the spherical portals in the theater room look like.

Please refer to the picture at the top of this article. -MM

SD is confident in her assertions that these portals are used for reality brainwashing; she has witnessed consciousnesses being forced to “watch” things on the portals (which can function like spherical TVs) equating to false memories before being pushed through them, and has memories of it being done to her.

This is essentially the exact same process carried out in the other facilities.

I have broken memories of similar things being undertaken, though they are no where near as vivid as SDs memories of this place.

My most vivid memories are that I come to the Portal Theater from another place, usually the Island, am escorted down the hallway to room 7, in which I project into the portal and come out in the Ancient Marketplace.

I then have to find another portal in the Ancient Marketplace which brings me out into “The Village”, which can also be accessed via the Island Burrow Tombs.

For me, entry into the Ancient Marketplace portal always felt “necessary”; whether this is a result of being forced to think that or whether it was an intention placed there by my handlers using me as an infiltration asset, I am not sure.

Travel into this place always brought me out into the foyer in front of the hallway, in which I have a hazy memory of being led down the hallway.

There is no such thing as coincidences. MM

The Island:

This island is similar to the Volcano Island in my last Domain assignment.

I am not sure if it is the same one.

I have no recollection of there ever being a volcano/ slave set up.

I believe it is a different place entirely, going by the memories of it that I have. It seems to be quite neutral ground.

For the most part, whenever I am here it is rather benign and doesn’t seem to hold any negative operations of any sort.

It has not only been confirmed by SD but also by a third LD asset {#3}.

LD egress always brings me out into a dense forest, or at its edge on the shoreline.

This forest has a myriad of pathways that twist and turn through it.

The sky is always purplish maroon, like it is stuck in evening twilight. In the middle of the forest are certain trees reminiscent of Morton Bay Fig trees with huge roots at their base, but more palm tree like at the top.

Underneath these roots are what appear to be animal burrows leading further underground.

They are barely wide enough to fit me in them.

Upon going into these burrows one soon comes out into a tomb lined with precision cut bricks.

This appears to be a sort of small chamber coming off the main room.

As you go out into that main room, to the right is a ramp leading to a much higher level (suggesting temporal displacement from the outside of the island, as it should surely break through its surface, but doesn’t).

To the left is a sunken level by a few feet containing a sarcophagus, and in that sarcophagus is a portal that leads to the Portal Theater or the Medieval Village depending on how it is used.

There is a stairway or ramp to the right of the sarcophagus (when viewed front on ) that I believe leads to another portal.

It is likely this portal is the one that leads to the Village.

I am recalling things from over 10 years ago, so correct memory of it all is hazy.

To one side of the island is a fenced off beach, and on the other side of this fence is a military like naval shipyard.

This shipyard consists of what appears to be a very large shipping container like building.

The shipping container is slightly back from the shoreline and has a concrete path the width of a road next to it that leads out into the water just in front of it, in the form of a jetty.

Back at the shipping container is a crane like device that is used for working on the {aquatic/space} ships here.

Further left there is something hidden in the water next to the concrete jetty; it is either a squid like monster or a similar looking space ship.

This same monster ship/ thing has been corroborated by LD asset #4, who is in “agreement with the consciousness evolution plan“ based on his own experiences in LD.

This is a VERY important ship; New tech that could do some cool {non physical} shit that very few people {both physical and non physical} know about.

SD suggests just back from the shipyard, on the other side of the fence we have a house, and that she has memories of me working in the shipyard at the very point where the ship is docked.

This explains why I remember it with no actual memory of stumbling upon it; it is just something I “know” whenever I come here, like knowing you own a certain type of car.

According to her, there is another section of forest on this side of the island with more burrow portals she has also undertaken.

The fence line itself protrudes from the shoreline close to the shipping container on its right hand side (when facing the ocean) several hundred meters back into sand dunes.

The sand here is quite a deep yellow color, and very coarse.

The fence itself is very high, probably about 10 or even more meters, made of typical chain link.

.

Notes:

Given the Island is a somewhat neutral place with seemingly minimum life activity and that it has egress portals that lead directly to some of the consciousness programming facilities, I suggest it be used as a “safe” insertion zone for any offensive efforts targeting these facilities.

Although there may some intermittent activity on the coastline the closer one comes to the shipping container, the forest from the middle towards the other end of the beach can be considered quite safe (at least it could be the last time I was there.)

This place is my second home; I frequented it a lot in my youth; it is probably the most tame place out of everything I experienced.

Gentle request by me to the Domain: PLEASE DO NOT FUCK IT UP.

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Ancient Marketplace:

The main identifier for us is a road the width of the great wall of China, maybe even wider that curves up toward the sky in font of you.

As you move along this road, gravity changes so that you always feel like you are just walking through one axis, not two; it feels like you are walking on a flat surface.

There is always a festival here of some sort; my assignment thus entailed coming out of the portal, then walking the curve to its peak, through the crowd of festival goers whereby something strange would change their mood and see them running out of sheer terror.

This was a constant, repetitive scenario that I experienced for over a year, almost every week directly coming out of some very heavy “work” in the portal theater.

Something very weird was going here; whatever it was has been blocked from my memory.

It involved “timeline resetting”.

Very curious. -MM

Many of my assignments here involved an underground tomb (much smaller and cramped than the one at the island) set back from where one “appears” here a good way, which had yet another portal in it.

There was always some very strange things going on in this particular tomb as well, and I never really liked being here.

It was always very cramped, the passages being only 3 or so feet square.

Whilst lucid, I don’t like being confined to spaces where I cannot turn around easily; this tomb was very much like that.

Going into these confined places, you are just asking to be captured by something.

It feel likes you are a rabbit purposely walking headlong into a trap designed specifically for that creature.

You have to fight every ounce of your being screaming at you to turn around and get out.

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The Village:

The portal in the Ancient Marketplace tombs brings one out into an old medieval type village SD and I have {again} both been to.

"Instead of thinking that this is a "Medieval village", perhaps you should consider it to be a typical community located on one of the planets of the "Old Empire". The descriptions seem to match with what is currently presently found there. The only difference is that most of the current "Old Empire" communities have a far wider variety of creatures that inhabit the area, not just humans." (Note from the Commander.) -MM

It has also been corroborated by LD Asset #5 who has also been here.

There is a cluster of old derelict buildings where people dwell.

This is a place that is constantly undergoing a “timeline reset”.

It is a nice old town which is ruined by the trash these inhabitants leave everywhere.

This cluster is where the “mind mazes” start.

There is a building complex several stories high that has a bituminous road next to it that somehow slants from the bottom to its very roof.

A pink watery like substance covers the ground everywhere that seems to reset ones consciousness if it is touched, in which they then exhibit a high dose of amnesia.

The main townsite is set a level above this water, by several feet.

It feels like a nearby river has flooded the area and has covered everything surrounding the village at this low point with knee high water.

There is a sort of circuit through town one is led to taking upon arriving here.

In my assignments I knew an invisible “something” was resetting the timelines, but I couldn’t catch it.

It wasn’t until I did the circuit in reverse (reversal of time), back through the building that I was able to “see it” and finally put a stop to the resets.

It was not something I can describe with earth language. I believe this thing, whatever it was, was tampering with the MWI in this location as well as the Ancient Marketplace.

Over the watery substance, joining the buildings, are these glass like tunnel walkways.

Littered about are several shipping containers in the pink water that lead to different locations; the only way out of this area is to project consciousness onto the shipping containers and use them in a sort of leap frog manner.

None of the inhabitants here possess such abilities.

SD has recollections of the watery substance and the idea the village in general is linked to the consciousness mazes.

She has met her dead cousin here several times, who has told her that the watery substance disallows the dead to interact with the physical world; the physical world exists somewhere far beyond it, and SD’s cousin has very specifically mentioned the inhabitants of that world “know about us“ who are still alive here in the physical world.

The inhabitants of this world seem to hold a certain level of disgust for anyone who can project here from the physical world; several times they have mentioned such disapproval to SD’s cousin, who simply told them she was “special”.

Think of this like a rich man turning his nose down towards a homeless man: the discarnate consciousnesses of this world fucking hate us LDers like we risk bringing a plague unto them.

Again, the notion that this community is part of the existing "Old Empire" that is desirous of shunning felons from their community. -MM

One of the buildings near the road that slants to the top of the building complex is set out in the form of an old hospital building.

This is where SD has awoken several times under the influence of the consciousness doping agent.

In these cases she has been lucid enough to remember her body back on earth, and to realize that something is not quite right.

Unable to gain control of her lucid body, she is then walked through the complex by several guards who do not realize that the consciousness doping agent hasn’t completely knocked her out.

She has accidentally acted too “coherent” and lucid to which a guard has then poked with a sort of cattle prod to keep her dazed, though she has still been able to retain memory of the event.

There is an elevator they take her to which leads to a higher floor of the building, and upon coming out of this elevator one enters a room with many beds crammed into it.

Attached to each bed is a sort of screen used for reality brainwashing and to instil false memories.

The process is that the hospital patients are lined up, single file, in which they are administered with a heavy dose of more of the consciousness doping agent then “strapped” into these beds to undergo “study”.

SD’s description of the brainwashing process is very similar to what I experienced with the Human Commander.

So this facility is at the "old medieval village"? -MM

In other instances, SD has appeared in the town, met her cousin and walked with her to the hospital building where she has intended to go into it to “retrieve” someone {possibly me}.

In these particular experiences, several other people, including SD’s cousin, have been aghast at the idea of going “back” into this hospital as everyone here knows what it is used for, including her dead cousin.

As a sidenote SD has also met her cousin {the same one} in a waiting place that seemed to function as a sort of astral quarantine for the newly deceased to wait whilst being processed before they are allowed to pass through to such worlds.

SD mentioned this as being a sort of field free floating in the middle of nothingness or space.

SD’s cousin was met by another long deceased family member that acted as a mentor reminding her of participation in past lives (possible mantid).

Again, SD was met with great disgust by the other deceased who were awaiting processing, as they (current earth incarnations) are apparently not supposed to venture into such places.

This makes sense. If the "old medieval village" is a facility on an existing "Old Empire" planet, then The Domain should be able to identify it, find it, and render it inert. I would suggest some questions to ask to the commander about this subject to flush out the details. -MM

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A Glimpse into Death:

SD and I have a combined experience in which we were both killed at gunpoint, along with many of our friends in one location (a house in what appeared to be a European place) and both “awoke” in a completely different reality where we were incarcerated in a sort of prison.

I can remember quite vividly that this was an instantaneous “switching” of realities.

After the bullet entered my head, my consciousness detached from that body, dropped through the earth and entered a portal before coming out quite a distance above the already established (middle aged) body in the prison compound.

My consciousness then “fell” from the sky into this body at great speed in which I gained complete control of it.

I retained complete memory of the world I had just died in and everything that had happened with us all being killed.

SD didn’t undergo this complete transition; as she was shot, she blacked out before awakening in a room full of our friends from the house who no longer seemed to recognize her, with complete memory of the previous world.

One minute she was there in the house, then everything went black as she was shot, before waking up.

This is where the guards became hostile when she tried telling these people they had all just been killed.

She was reprimanded then taken to a separate torture room for being too “rowdy”.

I was in a different part of the compound to SD, but again I was surrounded by friends from the world I’d just come from who no longer recognized me.

When I proceeded to remind them of their deaths, they were quite shocked and terrified as the memories started coming back.

After asking where SD was, they told me she had been reprimanded by the guards for not abiding by their rules.

The part of this compound I was in was an outside area very close to bushland. It reminded me of where I went to high school.

This outside area had been divided into certain sections by invisible walls or barriers that seemed to be arranged in circles and squares.

The entrances to these areas were blocked by guards. One would have to walk up several steps over something that reminded me of a nearby pipeline.

You could, at times, be standing right next to someone and they would be in a completely different section.

When I got here, SD was in one of these other areas that I had to navigate through.

Her experience started in a separate small room similar to one of our old classrooms.

After being reprimanded by the guards, she was then led down a hallway next to a grassy section to another room where she was electrocuted and tortured via sharp apparatus in which she would then black out and wake up back in the physical world.

She has multiple memories of being in this torture room, suggesting she has been here more than once.

We have identified a possible insertion point in SD’s childhood where we believe her consciousness may have been migrated “here” similar to how mine fell into my body, after she woke up with no memory around the age of 4.

She remembers waking up at her grandma’s house with no memory of any of her family.

SD suggested that the only family member she even vaguely recognized in the slightest was her brother.

These memories didn’t return for some time; she had to live with an “unknown” family for almost a year, and pretend she knew them.

To me, this is proof that pre-birth templates are being bypassed in certain cases.

I would suggest these cases relate to the level of lucid control one is able to exhibit whilst in the dream state.

It is my opinion that if you get good at LD, you no longer get a template but are just flicked into another already established body upon death anywhere in the MWI.

Good theory and makes sense. This should also be investigated further. -MM

Question for the Domain Commander: do they know of any correlation between Lucid Dreamer’s an bypassing of the prebirth template arrangement upon death?

I will ask. -MM

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Singular Assignments:

These assignments were only experienced by myself, but are relevant to this document.

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The Consciousness Doping Facility:

The assignment task was to gather intelligence on a consciousness doping agent and what it was being used for.

It was carried out around 2005.

The infiltration team consisted of myself and two other males.

We were all in our late 30s/early 40s.

I am not sure if this was entirely a non physical event or not.

It is a possible memory of a past life lived during 1970s era based on the appearance of the other two team mates and weapons/ technology carried by us.

This was a “special forces” military operation and one of my first lucid assignments when I was still in high school around the age of 15/16.

The consciousness doping facility was located deep in the middle of a harsh desert reminiscent of Southern USA.

It was a military compound that was heavily guarded by armed soldiers.

It very well could have been Nevada, from what I have seen of it on the internet etc.

I remember I could feel the intense heat radiating from the sun.

The only way in was via a supply train track that cut through the desert for many, many miles.

The memory begins several kilometers away from the compound, far enough out to keep a low profile.

We had evidently followed the train track from the opposite direction, now we were stopping to discuss “the plan”.

Intelligence suggested a doping agent was being used here, but that is all we knew.

The plan was that one of us would fake a capture while the other two used the commotion caused by the capture to gain entry covertly.

We knew there was a high probability anyone being captured would be taken into the compound and administered with the drug we were trying to gain information on.

The idea was to get doped and try to keep tabs on what one could expect to experience whilst under the influence of it, as the other two figured out a way to exfiltrate out of the compound.

I volunteered for the doping.

The train came and all three of us were able to board it as it had to slow down for a security check or something; my memory of this part is hazy as very soon after that I was captured and everything went black.

I came to in a small concrete room in the compound, strapped to a chair but yet still almost completely out of it courtesy of the drug.

In front of me was a large standard projector screen and next to me was a trolley full of metallic surgical looking tools; you get the idea. I don’t know if there was anyone in the room with me or not.

I think there was.

The next thing I know my team mates had busted through the locked door. One of them rummaged through all the cupboards and the tray of tools while the other unstrapped me.

They helped me to my feet and I think they must have put me on a gurney and wheeled me out.

Somehow we were able to escape.

My memory is hazy but I think they pretended I was dead and that they were part of the clean up crew.

I have a vague recollection of being debriefed afterwards by my handlers.

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The Super Soldier Program:

The assignment task was to gather intelligence on why an “enemy” faction was altering characteristics of non physical bodies. It was carried out around 2008 – 2009 by myself with my handlers monitoring the entire event using my eyes as “cameras”.

It took the form of a double layered lucid dream. In other words, a lucid dream within a lucid dream.

Luckily, I had thought to email myself a copy of my dream journal since losing my laptop. Note, that this was several months before my encounter with the All Being and the Unseen 5 and hints at my thoughts on all this at the point in time:

15/05/2016

This morning had a dream where I appeared to be sleeping (dream within a dream). I awoke (in the dream) to my body under going immense torture as something was electrocuting me. It was as if whoever it was that was doing the torture had stuck metal probes deep into my {pectoral} muscles and were administering the electricity directly into my blood stream. I remember the pain was so bad that it seemed so real, and I thought I had indeed awoken, as SD was lying next to me asleep in bed.

The electricity was coming in bouts of several minutes, and each time they stopped I remember falling back asleep (dream within a dream). When I was in this dream within a dream I remember talking to somebody about these apparent Super Soldiers that had been made, or were currently in development. I was told that what makes these soldiers so important is their ability to travel through time and that they had a very specific activation sequence that required several sequences of events to occur in a precise order {ie a sequence of MWI slides}.

The person telling me this likened these super soldiers to a send and receive email program (I think he was talking about the overall way these soldiers are activated) whereby a packet of information contains within it a sort of code specifically aimed at activating these beings, which they embed their activation status into the reply message. Once the original program receives this reply message, it scans it then activates a global code that sends all these soldiers to certain points in time simultaneously.

The most important part of these soldiers that makes them different to other time travelers/ chrononaughts is that they have been engineered so that when sent through time, no residual energy signature is erased from the timeline, making them untraceable.
I was told this has a lot to do with DNA and DNA memory, but somehow the engineers were able embed an external memory feature which makes the soldiers remember their tasks despite it no longer existing in the timeline (this is a major contradiction to time travel theory as it has been relayed to me, and as such what it means is that technically these super soldiers are not actually time travelers as they are not traveling through time, but more so circumnavigating it altogether.)

The person telling me this referred to these super soldiers as T1000s, Terminator reference. But I got the feeling they were a type of cyborg or trans-human.

I’m not entirely sure if this was “bad side” tech or “good side tech” and neither am I sure of the side the side that was electrocuting me, but I think the good guys were in the dream and the bad were doing the electrocuting, which would seem it’s possible the bad side were trying to pry this info from me.

If this is the case then it is possible such a mission has been compromised, but I don’t think this is the case as the torturing beings seemed to be getting angry that I wasn’t giving them desirable information.

What I think is that part of the activation sequence for these super soldiers is embedded in being tortured by the enemy, so that in order to keep secrecy from their own enemies they do not “know” anything until the faction in control of them triggers them, which is precisely when they are needed to time travel back to the beginning (like in my zombie dream).

It is even possible the good side, or whoever was telling me about the super soldiers, was purposefully electrocuting me because they knew it would activate me.

This dream reminded me of another one I had years ago here I was asleep (dream within a dream) on my parents bed and then had a wire wrapped around my neck which electrocuted me. I can recall having similar dreams over the years but I can’t recall much from them.

Is sleeping nothing more than a means of uploading information to 4^th dimensional beings? That would make our fleshy bodies nothing more than a 3d reality monitoring program. If so, what are we monitoring? Sleeping should be a meditation point. Also these super soldier beings seemed to not be some sort of cybernetic hybrid, but the 4^th dimensional equivalent. They essentially have parts of the time space fabric written into their DNA, but are a separate entity to it. This means they can always change their creation programming at will. Does this mean they are above the 4^th dimensional (5D) or not? Also needs meditating on.

I have also been “given” keys and phrases by my handlers specifically to initiate consciousness time travel whilst in an LD. Note the date, again this was a few months before my All Being/ Unseen 5 interaction:

21/05/2016

This morning I meditated (about 8:30 am) to open my chakras using the usual method of ROYGBIVW for Base, Naval, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye then Crown. After opening them I was given a very strong image of the Rune Othila at 12:30pm. I meditated on this Rune with A asleep next to me so that I would have projecting the Rune into the space that he was occupying. I remember feeling as though this Rune needed to be traced from the bottom left ending in the bottom right corner, and also realized that it is actually a 2D representation of the 3D way code is generated, ascending about 45 degrees at each angle. After keeping a consistent trace of about 2-3Hz I remember several numbers appearing below it that seemed like a code to unlock a safe. I am not sure exactly how many numbers there were, but I can remember the most vivid ones being 609, in red, within a square for each digit.

I started tracing Othila with these numbers at the bottom then the next thing I knew I was remote viewing from a DNA memory of long ago of a tribal woman in the midst of the forest with an orb dangling above and in front of her. She seemed to be somehow channeling power from this orb which appeared as lightning entering her hand, which she was holding up.

The next image I got was a flight of stone steps that appeared to be in the same forest. I remember thinking that the Othila rune must be used to stimulate memory or DNA memory in general, so on realizing this I asked if it could make me remember my time traveling key I was given years ago by a Tibetan monk {during meditation}, but threw out by accident. I was suddenly aware of another being I was talking to who was asking if my wife knew about this, to which I replied she didn’t. Randomly I was given another symbol which seemed to activate some portal/ stargate and then when I was not expecting it I was shown my time traveling key with a brief flash. At that moment SD came in to take photos of Aiden, and we could see a blob of energy on my side of the bed.

Consciousness Mazes:

Both SD and I have experienced the consciousness mazes multiple times, though hers have been from an outside perspective of it whilst mine were from within it.

I surmise they are solely for “entertainment purposes”.

They take the form of strange games or mini worlds one has to progress through to find a portal which takes them to the next level.

They are extremely confusing and often times have “cheat areas” that allow access to the next levels in other levels; you can progress through several levels only to run into a block whereby you have to revert to the lower levels and probe them for the hidden areas which allow access pass blocks at the higher levels.

Access to these hidden areas is gained by going against the commonly laid out “pathway”.

The catch is, every time you change a level, you lose all memory of what you are doing, and the crux of the game seems centered around trying to continuously regain this consciousness awareness that you are in this game and remembering the levels you have progressed through in order to find the hidden areas.

It seems that other “players” are collected as you progress through the levels.

I will start off alone in Level 1 and run into these players throughout the levels, then by level 4 there is a group of about 5-8 of us.

Of this group I know that they are all presently incarnated on earth and we have history in different “worlds” together; we all know each other in the non-physical planes and have been meeting in these games quite frequently.

I suspect these mazes are around 12 to 13 levels deep, but I have only ever made it to level 8.

According to SD there is no end to them.

The first couple of levels up to probably level 3 I have experienced numerous times in the exact same way.

There is an epiphany moment when you realize the correct way of navigating them.

After level 3, memory of the game becomes exceedingly difficult to regain to the point where the only way to progress is to work as a team and extract “clues” of the previous environments from each of the players.

In almost all instances, I am the one who initiates the first memory of prior levels which kick starts off others memories and from this we can develop a plan of how to tackle the current level.

The game itself is psychologically taxing; by level 4 cracks start to develop in the psychological disposition of the other players, and by level 6 people are proclaiming their inability to deal with it any longer and their willingness to just give up and go back to living in physical reality free from the memory of the games (think Cipher in the Matrix).

Another problem is that the players and their decisions affect progression through each level; it is as if a code is written into the way the scenario unfolds and only allowing it to unfold in the correct manner will unlock the portals.

The progression through each level for me is always the same.

I operate from a completely lucid perspective the whole time (upon regaining memory anyway).

The highest level I have reached is Level 8, whereby I have been convinced I am breaking my way out of a coma and that my real body is actually strapped to a chair somewhere in some kind of MK Ultra like torture chamber; I can almost see the room the chair is in – it appears to be the same room where I volunteered to be captured and doped.

Much of the training I underwent at the “Time Travel Towers” was specifically in preparation for these mind mazes; I have memory of completing that training and coming to this exact realization.

It is connected to the Portal Theater and my assignments in the other worlds, I am sure of it, though I cannot remember the specifics of this connection beyond level 1 starting at the Village.

I suspect what I am doing in these games is unraveling the brainwashing put in place at the Portal Theater.

The order of the levels, according to my memory of them, are as follows.

Level 1: Village Walkways

You start at the bottom of the building with the bituminous road next to it that goes to its roof.

There is a time limit.

I get the feeling something is chasing me and I have to be continuously on my toes. One has to try and figure out what is going on whilst constantly remaining vigilant about the environment and how to avoid the many traps and tricks lying about to ensnare them.

From my fragmented memory of the Ancient Marketplace, a similar thing is happening there.

If you get “caught” it is all over and you end up back in physical reality {possibly in a MWI slide}.

The goal of this game is hard to explain; it is like you have to progress through the glass walkways by projecting your consciousness into them, complete a circuit around the circumference of the village using these tunnels, before returning to the bottom start point.

This “opens up” a location that can be seen from one of the glass walkways that projects you into level 2.

Depending on where you move within the level, it completely changes the environment around you. If you consider the peak point of the bituminous road as pointing North, its valley pointing South, one must head off through the walkways heading East, then back around, in which they come back out at the roof of the building.

One must then follow the stairs down through the 3 or so building levels to reach the level above ground.

There is then a platform at the South East section of the building several meters away on a sort of embankment.

The only way to reach this platform is through projecting over it as it is not connected by a walkway.

This projection mechanism is one of the secrets to playing this whole game. It takes much training in learning how to use it properly, otherwise you just fall into the pink water that surrounds the area.

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Level 2: Castle Room Pit

This is one of the smaller environments.

You come out in what appears to be a very grand hallway in a castle of some sort.

There are the typical stone bricks that line the walls and floor and other banners etc suggesting it is indeed a castle.

The room is quite large probably 100x1000m squared, maybe even more.

Behind you is a solid wall and the portal leading back to the Village.

In front of you is a chasm 10 or so meters deep, and filling this chasm is molten lava.

This chasm stretches from side wall to side wall and extends for more than half the room; the only method of crossing it is via consciousness projection.

From memory the key has something to do with the walls; there is a set of invisible platforms you have to project over and use as stepping stones to get to the other side.

On the other side of the pit is a door and through this door is a portal leading to level 3.

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Level 3:

I cannot remember this level.

Level 4: River Embankment with Pods

We come out at a river mouth, at the waters edge.

Behind us the bank rises to a high wall that blocks any access back in that direction.

There is a small mud flap piece of ground that we are able to take shelter on.

The river extends out around us in every direction. On the bank in front of us there are several pod like things that are necessary to get to the other side of the river banks.

These pods must contain two people to operate.

The operational parameters are also linked via a hive mind arrangement; all players must be present in these pods in two man teams or they simply will not move.

By this stage, one of the men in the group is starting to lose it.

After being dragged through 3 levels of these consciousness mazes, being mind wiped and regaining his memory each time he decides it is simply too much for him.

He expresses his wishes to just give up and go back to physical reality.

This presents a problem to everyone else; we need his consciousness in one of the pods for them all to operate properly and get us across the river to the portal on the other side.

Some of the group try and tell him to calm down and help comfort him, telling him we just need to get to the other side of the river then we can think about his decision a little more.

It is evident they are all motivated by the need to cross the river, and that his psychological well being is the last thing they are concerned about.

Reluctantly he agrees and gets in one of the pods with one of the other group members.

The pods become operational and carry us to the other side, then we enter the portal to the Time Chamber.

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Level 5: Time Chamber

This is a strange room.

It is like a metallic platform you stand on that is surrounded by some sort of water, possibly from the river.

It sort of feel likes it is an enclosed room more than an open area like the river embankment though.

Three beings materialize in front of us, several feet in the air and in front hovering above the water.

They are extremely malevolent entities and start engaging us, but we have no where to run.

From memory, the guy who started losing it in the previous level gets hit and wiped out from the game.

Something happens, my memory of which is vague, but I believe it involves us meeting these entities attacks with full force, and a portal opens up right where they had been after they dematerialise.

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Level 6: Metallic Donut Room

This room is a circular hallway that has a single door leading into the middle of the donut, which is an outside area covered in grass probably 5m in diameter.

It is extremely small – if you ran around this hallway it would take you less than a minute to get back to the beginning.

It is cramped and can fit probably two people abreast rather uncomfortably.

There are guards clad fully in some kind of armor that reminds me of star wars storm troopers, but of a different color possibly grey or brown or something.

They have photon guns and they are chasing us around this hallway.

We are all unarmed and somehow have to stop these guards from shooting us.

Given the shape of the room and its size, it is practically impossible to strategize against these guards that outnumber us about 5 to one.

We try weaving in and out of the door into the center of the donut, not really with any plan in mind all to no avail.

One by one these guards shoot us with their photon guns, and one by one each of the group members disappear.

I make it to the donut center before being zapped. A portal appears and I pop out back at level 3

Everyone is mind wiped. I have the vaguest recollection of the various levels.

I begin comparing these broken memories with memories of the levels before.

Suddenly I remember we had just made it to level 8 and everything in between comes flooding back to me.

I relay this to the group and restore their memories, now they are just psychologically cut up as the first guy.

But now we are able to start taking notice of various things we weren’t able to the first time.

We find a cheat area which gains us access to level 4 once again, though I cannot remember anything about it.

Another mind wipe, another remembering process.

Another chance for the guy to start losing his shit and want to go back to the physical world.

The others try to stop him, again motivated by needing to get across the river.

This time I stop.

I show compassion for him.

I listen to his plea and just tell him to do what he needs to do and not to worry about us.

He heads back, feeling better that he doesn’t need to feel shamed about not making it or guilty he let the team down.

This is the second cheat access point – this time a portal opens up on our side of the river and we enter it, no longer needing the pods.

The portal brings us into a hidden room in one of the donut shaped hallway’s walls.

Lying at our feet are what appear to be a bunch of hand grenades and a button.

The button opens a temporal one way fissure in the wall and we can see the armored guards in the center courtyard on the grass through first the fissure and then the opened door, waiting for us to appear.

A portal appears, in the hallway and the past instance of ourselves appear.

Without thinking, I pick up a grenade and lob it at the guards who are now moving into tactical positions to take out our past selves.

As the grenade explodes time freezes all around the donut shaped room, except for the one we are hiding in.

We step through the fissure and are able to move around in the donut shaped room whilst everything remains frozen in place.

We take the guards guns and shoot them all.

This opens up yet another portal in this hidden room which gives us a vantage point into the time chamber of the previous level.

From this vantage point we are able to see the wraiths or entities or whatever they are waiting for us.

We are behind them.

We lob another time grenade through the portal which renders them inert, and makes another portal appear in the middle of the time chamber.

.

Level 7: Cavern Scaffolding

This is a very small cave with some sort of walkway that takes you from chamber to chamber via these steel doors.

Whenever you go through the steel doors something happens to disorientate your consciousness.

This is a fairly straight forward level.

You basically just walk the walk way through a few different chambers over some rocks to a waiting portal to level 8.

The problem is though, that heavy amnesia distortions begin hitting you every couple of minutes which detract most of the group from remembering what it is that they are doing.

I am barely coherent when I make it through the portal.

.

Level 8: Sex world

I don’t remember any of the group making it here.

The amnesiac drugs are in full effect and it is practically impossible to hang on to any kind sense of lucid awareness.

It’s like being dosed with a heavy general anesthetic after just downing a bottle of vodka.

I am not really with it, very impressionable, and this problem is compounded by the fact none of the group are around me to bounce the memories of the other levels off of.

This is not a pleasant place.

Sex acts are committed openly and on display for the public to see by people of all ages.

It is as normal as going to the shop to buy some milk.

It is practically all anyone does here.

It is incredibly seedy and fills one with a very nauseating feeling.

A post apocalyptic nightmare if ever there was one The portal brings you out on what should be a busy city street, but there is no traffic.

You have to walk down this street and into a building on the left hand side of the road. It reminds me of a derelict sort of broadway.

This building has a stairwell that you take to a high floor.

As you come out on this floor there are “things” going on in the background next to a door involving various people who inhabit this world.

The door is the goal, but as soon as you come off the stairs someone approaches you and propositions you.

I never made it past this point given my doped state.

Whoever it is does whatever they do to me and then I wake back up in physical reality, feeling like a piece of discarded trash – At least they seemed like they were my age.

They take the appearance of a female, but honestly I am not entirely sure that is really what they are.

I don’t even think they classify as being human.

These sorts of doped up run ins are common for me when on assignment. Ergh.

I’d prefer to be tortured any day. If the Domain have the ability to trace my astral seed, undoubtedly it would lead them to some key places.

I am sure that they can, but that might require a EBP and some further work on you. Your value is without a EBP. -MM

.

Auxiliary Projects.

In addition to the above I am aware of two separate projects that are tied in with both mine and SDs lucid assignments.

As I only have a vicarious understanding of them I am not at liberty to go into them in depth.

I am leaving this as a footnote as I am aware these auxiliary projects are directly tied to astral body manipulation for escaping the earth prison in case I am given permission to talk about them in the future.

What I will say is that one of the projects is related to Antarctica and the other to 13 gates or “keys”.

Any information the Domain can supply on these projects I will happily pass on to their respective operators.

I will submit another document to MM outlining what I believe to be an effective utilization of LD assets at a later date.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 11 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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More Q&A with the Commander as we discuss my fears concerning a war between the USA and China

Here we continue with periodic questions that I ask the Domain Commander for clarification on. Many are very personal and selfish. But that is my personal choice, and my prerogative. Those that are far too personal, I retract out. I have also added questions from others. I hope that the questions and the answers make sense to those reading this.

Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission

I asked whether this book was a continuation of “Alien Interview” or something else. When I asked, the Commander told me to read the book and then ask again. I now know why. I can only communicate on things that I have been exposed to.

So I read the book. And now I am going to ask the question a second time.

Q: Is the book “Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission” an accurate follow up document to “Alien Interview”, or is it something else?

It is a fiction. You may / should discard everything written within it. The information provided are falsehoods intended as distractions.

Whenever there is something good (from the perspective of freeing IS-BEs from the Prison Complex), quanta "antibodies" (this is the best way that I can translate the thought cluster) attack the message and distort it.

This is what happened with the teachings in India. This is what happened with the teachings of "the gospel" and this is what happened with the "New Age" movement.

These "quantum antibodies" attack the message and distort it, and good and well meaning individuals find themselves being directed towards other paths and other ideas.

For instance, the earliest books of the Bible discussed reincarnation. These works were either lost, forgotten, or ignored intentionally over time, and a new idea came into being which was one singular God that acted as a parent to people. That there was no recycling of souls in and out of general population. But rather, a one shot effort, to live in this environment and then go to Heaven as a reward.

These "quantum antibodies" attack the physical brain process. They alter how thoughts are generated, and thus they alter the outcome of data transfer on the physical realm.

The first work "Alien Interview" is 100% accurate. This second work is a complete fiction. Ignore it. 

There is nothing in it of value, no matter how certain sections might appeal to the readers understandings.

We will now to to a personal question by MM here. And being so personal, we talk about things that are very human, but that people never want to share with others. But me, well, I don’t care. I’m not Jesus. I’m an average guy. Just like you are.

Rage

Again, this is a personal question.

Some background. All the events that I have experienced did not go away. I keep and maintain the memories of them. From being led to the slaughter in Arkansas, to being swindled over and over. To being swindled, attacked, tricked, and just treated poorly. To being mistreated time and time again. It just hurts.

And on numerous times, day to day events, will trigger those memories.

The result is this explosion of rage. No matter who I am with, or what I am doing, I will start to react. My body starts to pulse, and my muscles get hard and steely. My skin is filled with millions of tight little goose-bumps. My pupils dilate, and my breathing changes.

I have noticed that the best thing that I can do is either lift weights, or drink alcohol. Eventually the rage subsides. I can tell you that my ability to perform dead lifts increase exponentially during this time, and my blood pressure, instead of going through the roof, actually decreases.

I am still able to suppress the rage. No one can tell, though my wife would watch my pupils dilate, and my body start to shake and my breathing become shallow and deep.

And she asks me what is going on.

Yes. I can control it.

But Lordy, this just cannot be normal.

And to tell youse guys the truth, I fear that were I to be in a dangerous situation and the rage is triggered that I might do something lethal and gruesome. I don’t want that to happen. So I want to ask the Domain Commander what is actually going on.

Q: Why do I periodically go into these “structured rage” behaviors?

You are NOT a normal human being.

When our agency / MAJestic installed the ELF probes, they / we / us also transformed your personality. We compartmentalized you. You know that. During your MAJestic retirement sequence in ADC Pine Bluff, you confronted various personalities that are part of you.

You are aware of the scientist, the Naval officer, and so on and so forth. However, there are other personalities that you are not aware of. Let it be well understood that it is intentionally by design. These other personalities are not anything that you want to know about, or be associated with.

Thus they are not part of your shutdown sequence. They are permanently hardwired to your personality.

You have [1] Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde, you have [2] The Wolfman (actually, the image is of a half-man, half-sabertooth tiger). You have [3] Mr. Dracula / The Mummy (image is confused and overlaid over each other.), and you have [4] The Incredible Hulk. None of these alter personalities are muted. They are all active.

They are always intended to be active. That makes you dangerous, and why you needed to be sent to prison. That is one of the reasons why they (MAJestic) cannot allow people like yourselves to be walking the (American) streets freely. You are a loaded gun with no "safety switch".

When you start to have memory triggers, event triggers, or code triggers, one of the personalities will manifest. Your "normal" personality will fade into the background and the new personality will dominate.

Most of the manifested personalities (you have experienced) this year has been of "The Incredible Hulk", and you have done a very fine job of suppressing that character personality. We are personally proud of you.

No one is harmed. At worst, your wife looks at your strange. That's it. It has been triggered by memories while you are under a lot of stress. This is normal for humans, however in your case there is a personalty change has been intentionally engineered and triggered.

There's other triggers as well.

Over the last six years the Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde personality were occasionally triggered. You don't remember those events because afterwards your memories are suppressed. But if you look back, you will see these periods of *blank*. That is when this personality was triggered.

This is due to the fact that you live next to the Zhuhai heliport. And some of the aircraft use an electrical signal emitter that triggers your personality change. Luckily, for you, the "go code" signal is never emitted. So all that happens is that you go into a "stand by for orders" mode. Then when nothing happens, you "wake up" and forget about the entire incident.

For you to turn off these programs you will have to go through the entire Pine Bluff deactivation procedure all over again. We advise you not to do that. We further advise you NEVER (emphasis) return to the United States. All scenarios where you return is problematic for you personally.

Do not listen to DZ (my brother). He's a "strange cat" with other purposes and intentions for your return.

The reasons are obvious.

However, you need to remember that many of your latent personalities can be triggered by radio frequencies at various frequencies, amplitudes, patterns and pulses. The United States has substantially changed since you were there last. The spectrum of presently emitted radiation would trigger some very lethal responses from you.

Fucking lovely. Sheech!

Oh for Pete’s sake!

First I’m some kind of troll like bureaucrat named Mades Escapleon, and now I find out that I am a cross mix of of the bad characters from all the B-grade horror movies of the 1960’s. And to top it off, I’m a gun without a safety switch.

Sheech! Can’t I ever get a break?

I guess match.com is out of the question for me. (This was a joke.)

A need to sleep

I have a question for the Domain, if you are willing. I know it taxes you to use the probes for communication, and am thankful for your disclosures.

Q: “Is the human need for sleep engineered into them?”

It is noteworthy that in the Alien Interviews, Aryl didn’t need sleep. Our Earthly scientists haven’t found a compelling reason why we should need it. It also seems like the perfect time to mess around or play with an IS-BE’s memories. Many creatures need sleep on Earth, and it seems odd.

Most animals are designed to require sleep. This is an intentional design parameter. Initially when we first created biological creatures we used the mechanism of sleep to allow the IS-BE to depart from the physical body and continue their lives unrestrained from the physical limitations.

This system has worked fine for trillions of years.

However, when the Prison Complex was established, new prison "attire" skin suits were designed. The need for sleep remains present in the physical body, however the ability to use this period or state to egress to the non-physical is not really possible for the vast bulk of imprisoned humanity. It's "closed over" and sealed for most of humanity. Instead of being able to leave the physical realm, most humans (and inmate mammals) unwind and dream randomly.

There are precious few people who are able to egress during this time. And they do so in different techniques and with different limitations depending on their personal situation and skill set. Some Lucid Dream (as promoted on MM), while some conduct OBE (out of the body experiences), and there are other forms as well.

The people who can do this are valuable to us, and we are very pleased that numerous people have volunteered to help us with this ability.

You, and your readership, are not aware that many of your readers now have (potential) LD access. We removed many of the blockage elements that were restricting them when they joined The Domain (or the auxiliaries). Though they might remember horrible fear induced dreams of operations, procedures, strange entities, and all sort of bad things. These fears manifested as an "antibody" when we were removing Prison Complex blockages and other systems.

Now they might experience dreams of battles, or horrible or very, very strange experiences. These "new" dreams are quite different than the kinds of dreams that they experienced prior to working with us.

They need not worry. They are performing mission taskings. I (The Commander) would like to communicate that when there is a dream with a dog, or a pack of similar animals, or with "day to day" others, that the LD "sleeper" is working as part of a team (with others).

We never allow our assets, or auxiliary resources, to work without support, guidance or backup. the reality is very dangerous. And we cannot risk anything happening to those who are part of us / join us / assist us / work with us.

Some of the team members are IS-BE Domain officers. Every mission or tasking is supervised by a Domain Officer. Though many actions also utilize Domain members of the non-officer class. But in every case, none of your volunteered readerships is tasked on Domain related tasks alone.

Others in your dreams. That is the "tell tail". Look for strange shaggy dogs, monkeys, grey images, odd places with odd people or things or perhaps someone or thing showing how to do something, or something similar no matter how silly it appears. You are always part of something larger with a support team.

Dreams are a complex subject that gives the physical brain feedback to the events that transpire. Though since many of the events are strange and alien, the closest approximation formed in the dreams tend to be very strange, odd and unusual.

Speaking of Jesus

A further question, if you could ask it. The domain will understand it’s relevance to me specifically, what is the role of the life of Jesus in the Earth prison complex?

I’d really like to know.

Q: What is the role of the life of Jesus in the Earth prison complex?

Jesus and the Christian religion is an engineered social control. The truth about it does not resemble anything like you have been told, or like you have assumed. Over the centuries the control of this religion has been taken over by various factions.

There have been both repeated incursions by good, just, well-intentioned IS-BE's as well as evil, selfish and dangerous entities over the centuries.

Some made long standing changes to the religion that really assisted in the control of the Prison Planet. While others enabled enlightening others that helps break away from the snares and traps.

To the questioner; it should not matter (to you) how the Christian religion came into being, or whether Jesus was an actual person or not. What should matter is whether or not you are realizing your intended purposes that you had agreed to do and in so doing, following the guidance's of the great works that the entire religion is founded upon.

Christianity is a vehicle. Like an automobile. It can take you places, but it can also cause great hurt and suffering if the wrong person is driving the car. You are, by the way, a great driver. Perhaps one of the finest. But if you worry too much about who invented the engine, or the color of the trim on the running boards, or whether you need to crank the engine to start the vehicle, or if it has an electric starter, you will take away from all the great travels and adventures that you can have on the road.

We can go into great detail on the great politics behind the creation and structuring of this religion. We can parse / investigate / study / breakdown the various saints, and key figures of the religion. Not to mention Jesus himself.

It is easy to believe that The Domain created this religion. But we did not. At least not like others have written about or implied. We have, however, contributed towards it's direction and guidance, and equally have been thwarted by selfish and evil, malevolent entities just as often.

Keep in mind that at the time of the appearance of Jesus, The Domain was busy engaging in massive space battles inside this solar system. The creation of evasion techniques for the skin-suits in general population of this Prison Planet was a very low priority at that time. Though, there were minor efforts to direct the organizational aspects of the dogma.

What was discussed in the "Alien Interview" was structured for the audience at that time. As there are truths and understandings, but often the real purposes and purposes are often occluded and confused though a handicapping of the true and actual situation. This is true with all the Q&A that we participate in.

If you discovered that Jesus was a real person who was caught up in the tumultuous events of the time, or that he was actually a romantic figurehead used by greedy people at that time, does not matter. Knowing either "history" is a dangerous illusion and would derail your current great journey. I do not desire that.

The car the you are driving right now is a perfected symphony. You do not need to know anything more than that. You need to focus on your driving skills and making it to your destination. So what if your fender has a few dings? So what if the muffler is a little noisy? Who cares is the seat has a spring poking out of it. This religion is serving a purpose and you are the result of it. You are, to be honest, magnificent.

I will emphasize this; do not take your eyes off the road.

Personally, I haven’t a clue as to what the fuck he is talking about, and I really do not think that he answered the question. Which was “Who is Jesus”？

I do not know why he got so derailed on it. I do not know why he failed to answer the question. I also do not know why he was so guarded, evasive or circumambulating about it.

So I asked again. “What is the role of Jesus in the Prison Complex?”

Q: What is the role of the life of Jesus in the Earth prison complex?

There are two key points.

[1] Jesus is a figurehead in a religion that has often been used as a trap to help keep the general population inmates stuck in the prison complex. The religion itself has been used as a distracting means, as well as a snare. It has also been used to divert IS-BE's away from their true nature.

[2] It has also been instrumental in the sorting of service to other sentience's that will enable a great many IS-BE's to leave this prison complex.

Taking the dichotomy of this issue, we can see that by following the directives listed in the biography of Jesus found in the "New Testament" will allow the trapped inmate behavioral goals, that will establish a Service-to-Others sentience, and thus be processed out of the complex quickly and efficiently.

However, paying "lip service" to the Christian religion is a distraction and a trap. It will cause the IS-BE to entrench further into the physical reality trap that is the Prison Complex.

Ah. Don’t be a televangelist. Eh?

Then a finality to the subject matter; *end*.

What do you mean “I am not human”?

Earlier in the Q&A there was a statement made that I am not human. This is obviously false. As I look, act and think like a human, and live in a human society. Not to mention that I enjoy pizza, wine and pretty girls. So perhaps, I misinterpreted the comm.

Q: Please expand on the reasoning behind the statement that “I am not human”.

You are not human.

You are neither a pure human archetype, nor an inmate "skin suit". You are a hybrid creation with elements of both, as well as constructions intended for utility by the Domain.

(Image of a PPT presentation showing a "free and normal" human archetype. Followed by it being "changed" into a different kind of human; an inmate "skin suit". Then, changes to it with ELF, EPB and then a number of operations. The resulting figure on the PPT looks like neither the first Human archetype, nor the inmate "skin suit".)

All of the members in your MAJestic sub-project are hybrid creations. Some, like yourself, have further refinements. While others are slightly retarded / backwards / not up to date /contemporaneous with the update software / coding / medical procedures / system enhancements.

Additionally, all volunteers to The Domain (through MM here) that have agreed to work with us have also become hybrid creatures. They are no longer "inmate" human (appearing) skin suits. They have had one significant alteration to their inmate "skin suits". Some have had two or more. The severity of the changes is equated to their current dream states, feelings / emotions / perceptions.

(I think that it means that the odder your experiences are; your feelings are; your dreams are; the more changes to your "skin suit".)

In your case, you were altered for your role in our surrogate agency / utility /division (I think he means MAJestic) and then further altered with the addition of the EBP. So you have at least three layers of alterations. Certainly you might not appreciate the alterations, but we believe that they are necessary for the successful role that you play.

Stop assuming that you are the same as everyone else. YOU ARE NOT. (It felt like he was stressing things to me like my old DI in the Navy.)

Locating a member of the “Lost Battalion”

Email sent to me:

This time I write to you in matters of the lost Domain Members and in kind of a personal as well. It's not me, I guess?

No, could you ask your Domain Contact, if my pastry chef-teacher is/was a lost Member?

I'm asking, because at the end of a really really weird and messy day over a bowl of soup my husband and I were talking about your Q&A and somehow I said that "If there is someone I've met, it would be him" and we instantly got goosebumps, adrenalin shot and I started sobbing.

At this second I can feel the tears rising again. Sorry, this guy meant a hell of a lot to me and I just want to know... if they know?

I responded with this…

I will do so. 

One thing though. You need to send out "pings". The EBP allows communication from the Commander to me and back. That's it. Unless there's a location beacon, the Commander cannot do anything. All he will know is that I read and email from a follower that refers to another person also unknown.

To send out a "ping"; For the next couple of nights before you go to sleep, just say the phrase "I am pinging the Domain Commander in assistance of a question to Metallicman". 

Say it out loud. And forget about it. The more often you do this, the easier it will be to locate you and the person who you are speaking of.

This was on 29OCT21.

On 2NOV21 I received this email…

I was pinging the last nights before sleeping, and I think they came right after the first ping (friday night). Do you know if they got what they need? 

They were nice, but I freaked out. I really do apologize for that! 

I expected them to come, and I know what you say is the truth, but I still need time to let it all sink in. Sorry this also very wild babbling...

I hope they can help my Chef!!!

I did obtain a “message” glitch / signal / initial response concerning the “ping”. In “real time”. And it was all very clear, and it was very startling.

Which was…

Follow / track / surprise / smile / happy / unexpected

This was (apparently) shortly after the first (Friday night?) ping. Then in rapid succession. Say five minutes later.

Accompanying "goosebumps". Unexpected and unknown. Not lost battalion member. 

Lost Domain member, unaccounted for. 

Not member of the Lost Battalion. Will investigate.

Strong emotional feelings. Nearly quake / shake. Big emotional attachment in the comm channel. This is apparently a very BIG deal in The Domain above. The impression that I have is that this is a long lost IS-BE and no one knows what happened to it.

He/she/it just disappeared.

And also that it’s an important person at that.

Impression is that it was assumed they entered a different universe. Now they see that somehow it was “sucked” into the Prison Complex somehow. Very much excitement.

Very, very much!

Follow up question sent up-pipe through my EBP comm to the Commander.

Q: Can you please provide me an update on this particular effort?

This is a very important, and surprising turn of events. This entity is a very important IS-BE associated with (The Domain parent organization) / sponsor organization? / upper-tier oversight operations? / a major role participant.

(I get the impression of someone very highly revered and important; like Jesus or Buddha or some other being only far more capable and important than we can understand. Also that there is an organization that is higher, larger, older and more important than the Domain. )

I have alerted my superiors about this matter. We have set a series of events in motion. This discovery is very important and makes the need to resolve this prison planet environment ever so urgent. Obviously the presence of (garbled name. cannot make out) shows how important this area (geographic area of space) is, and greater efforts are needed to extract valuable entities from this region.

(Image of a 3D image of the Milky Way galaxy, and a rippling like the image is on a rubber sheet. then a very heavy metal ball dropped on that sheet, making a deep dark black-hole like indentation.)

(I also have the impression that this entity is part of something that spawned the Domain, and that this person has been missing of a long, long time. The impression that I have is that this person was assumed to be elsewhere, doing other things, and the fact that this person is here now in this prison planet environment is something very important.)

Commander Message to the person who "pinged"; "Thank you. Do not worry. Things are going to be just fine from now on. We have this matter (in / on hand)"

And I will add; thank you for being a Rufus.

Being scammed by others

From a communication…

I have been debating with myself for some time to ask you the following - either dismiss this entirely or continue to read.

I almost feel like this is the old "Ann Landers' advice column in the newspaper.

Recently, I was scammed out of quite a bit of dollars. Two things I would like: 1) get my money back, and 2) get these criminals in a position where life is hell for them.

I have included getting my loot back as one intention, but am hesitant to waste my time and effort to fuck the fuckers who fucked me (I apologize for the language, but that is how I feel).

What would be best (besides getting $'s back) is if these criminals can make amends not only to me, but also to others who they have fucked, and rehabilitate themselves.

There is decency in everyone, or so I believe, perhaps naively. Any advice or suggestions?

A baseball bat could do wonders with life altering perspectives.

Posted late Monday evening at 10:30pm. Answer is as follows.

Encountering others who are evil, bad, or problematic is the norm in this prison environment. It occurs on all levels. From the micro to the macro. Many people just accept the crimes as the normal way of living life. However, periodically one such crime hits us and forces us to attend to it. And obviously we do not like it.

There are numerous things that you can do, and obviously you are considering them. Your questions is which action would benefit your the most as an inmate in this prison environment.

Consider a contemporaneous prison environment. One inmate scams another inmate. The options are [1] ask politely for the items, [2] “shank" them and kill them yourself. [3] Align or employ an inter-prison organization (gang) and ask them to recover your lost possessions, and obtain retribution, all at a cost. Or, [4] Ask the prison authorities for justice.

What we suggest is counter intuitive.

You are to isolate yourself from those bad and problematic individuals. Then (following MM advisement's in MWI control) (sic.) The solution is to control your MWI.

[1] Add affirmations that extract justice for the crime; meaning that you get your lost wealth returned in what ever way is possible, and that those that conducted the ill deeds suffer consequences for it.

[2] Modify the result to include time for "pain and suffering: with may be considered 10% to 25% of root value.

Finally {3] isolation from any consequences of this request, with an understanding that the affirmation will manifest in a time window appropriate with and in alignment with, all your other / previous affirmations. (sic.)

Take no other action.

When it "feels" right, you may delete the affirmations from your periodic campaigns (sic.)

Stop thinking about the event(s). The thoughts will prevent the initiation and manifestation of your affirmation campaign. So forget about it all. Just know that the results WILL manifest.

I can affirm that this is the best advice. -MM

Food

Finally, on food.

One thing I enjoy is a real good loaf of bread and good expensive cheese.

Me too. -MM

If the wife permits, perhaps some good wine.

Me too. But my wife always approves of wine. Her only problem is the price. Wine prices are all trending upwards. -MM

That is enjoyable.

The western diet is full of toxins; anything that is pre-made, or comes in a ready to eat bag is not good for you (but perhaps very tasty).

Wise potato chips. Sigh. French fries with lots of salt. Lays "American style" chips with onion dip. -MM

40% of Americans will come down with some sort of cancer in their lifetime – good god, something is wrong with the environment and food source.

Absolutely. -MM

Good food,/diet has to be prepared from raw ingredients. Anything else will not be healthy.

There have been many case studies demonstrating that native foods are good and healthy, people do not get sick or need a doctor.

Once western food/diets have been introduced, health declines rapidly and doctor visits and sicknesses increase dramatically.

Healthy food comes from healthy natural soil, and not that found in chemical agriculture.

Creamy potato soup for super today, with only cream and cheese coming from the store.

…

Posted Monday in the evening. I had to phrase it as a question…

Q: With all the criminal elements jam-packed on the earth planetary environment today, what is the best and most worthwhile food suggestions you (The Domain) might have for a healthy long life?

We participated in the development of the human archetype. We designed humans to have a diet consisting of all the plants and animals that are provided on the worlds that they inhabit. The inmate "skin suits" have not deviated from this nutritional need.

Fruits and Vegitables

Fundamentally, eat a substantial quantity of your diet in fresh produce. This includes both fruits and vegetables. If you are not eating salads (whether precooked for five minutes or not) you are doing something wrong. There should be at least two salad majority meals in your diet every week.

(Chicken salad, cob salad, Caesar salad with beef or another meat, tuna salad, etc. Keep the amount of sugary dressings to a minimum. Olive oil and vinegar are the healthiest. -MM)

Removal of Toxins

For all inmates in general population, note that it is important to lightly steam or cook the vegetables first before you make a salad.

[1] Soak the vegetables in a bath of (a small / tiny amount of bleach) for 20 minutes. Then rinse off. (One cap lid of bleach for a sink basin of water.)

[2] Cook or heat the vegetables before you add them to the salad. For tomatoes, let them sit in hot water for one to five. And so on and so forth. Lettuce can be lightly steamed for a few seconds before eating. This requirement is not a designed-in requirement for the human body archetype. It is a need that human inmate "skin suits" must do in the earth environment, because it is now a toxic environment. By lightly heating, steaming or cooking the vegetables you will help remove growth hormones, pesticides and GMO additions not yet integrated into the food element.

Sea Food

Eat fish. Cooked any way. Steamed is the healthiest, but the difference between pan fried and grilled is minuscule.

Staples

Maintain a staple of rice, potatoes or breads to supplement that diet. It does not matter which is involved or whether you need to prepare it a certain way. You need to make sure every meal consists of one such staple. This is important to aid in the digestion of the foods you eat.

(Some societies such as American and European rely on breads as the staple. Others rely on potatoes. And many Asian cultures rely on rice. -MM)

Do not follow fads

There are many foods that can be a part of your diet that are generally not considered healthy by current popular culture. Cheese can be a significant part of your diet. As well as tofu. (no problems / complications / or other fears) In both instances, stick with the healthiest versions of those items. For cheese, stick with the light colored cheeses.

Protein priorities

For sources of protein, look towards nuts, eggs, meat, fowl, or fish. None of which is processed. If you cannot do that then, pre-frozen items can be used. Fresh food, obtained locally is the best. Canned, processed, or with additives for long-term storage are the worst.

General guidelines

Avoid ALL processed food.
No sugar laden breakfast cereals. You can make your own oatmeal.
Avoid all canned, or prepackaged or precooked food.

Home made food
Most meals should be made by your family, at home, using fresh ingredients that you select yourself. When cooking, make sure they are all cleaned, and then take your time will generally low temperature cooking over long periods of time. Quick meals are to be avoided as should be the use of microwaves and "instant foods".

Restaurants

Restaurant food should be for special occasions. Fast food should be avoided. If you cannot sit down and enjoy a meal, then something is seriously wrong with your lifestyle. When you do go to a restaurant, you should select the restaurant carefully and balance, [1] price, [2] environment, [3] food selection, and [4] companionship. Do NOT ever use only one criteria in restaurant selection.

Prohibitions
Avoid all GMO food.
Avoid all food with injected hormones
Avoid large quantities of sugar.
Avoid large quantities of salt.
Avoid reusing oil. (No fried foods from restaurants.)

No/few/occasional potato chips.
No/few/occasional deep fried anything.
No/few/occasional sodas.
No/few/occasional candy.
No/few/occasional cakes.

Alcohol

An occasional coffee or tea is acceptable, but the questioner should limit the intake of beverages to one a day. This can be a singular coffee, a singular tea or one carefully selected soft drink. No more.

You may drink wine in moderation. Red wine is the preferred drink. A man alone should have no more than one bottle of wine a sitting. A woman, half that amount. A couple should be able to drink two bottles of wine without problems. In all cases, it should be kept under three bottles a sitting. Otherwise it will cause problems.

Beer and hard liquor are to be avoided. Please kindly refrain from smoking.

Medicines
Ask your doctor to consolidate your medicines. You want to take the least number of types of medicines as possible. Eventually reaching a point where no medicines are necessary.

Hydration

Drink a lot of water. You can add lemon slices, or other berries to the drink as you see fit. Warm to room temperature water is best.

Meal Size

Avoid all those mega-portion sizes offered by American chain stores or restaurants.

Speed of Consumption

Never rush when you eat. A meal should take from one to two hours to eat. Any meal that you consume under 15 minutes is not healthy. No matter what you eat, the time to consume the meal has a great deal of influence on how the food is digested. A work lunch under one hour is unacceptable. Humans, whether inmate skin suits, or pristine archetypes need to eat slowly and easily.

Cooking Methodology

Humans were designed to eat certain kinds of food, prepared in certain kind of ways. Steamed is the best. Fried in oil is the least desirable.

When we constructed the human archetype it was designed to use the food items and elements that the human body would cohabit with. In the toxic stew of what the earth is today, very careful attention must be given to what is consumed; how it is prepared, and how it is eaten. These are not minor subjects. These are very important elements that must be incorporated in one's lifestyle.

Um. I’m in trouble. Sigh.

But I do agree. This is a point that has been pestering me all these decades. 。。

[1] Stop drinking soft drinks and beer. Drink wine instead.
[2] Stop eating potato chips. Eat potatoes and onions fried with some salt instead.
[3] Stop eating hamburgers. Eat pork chops, steak or mutton instead.
[4] Nothing fake. Use real butter.
[5] Nothing fake. Eat real fresh bread. Nothing supermarket packaged.
[6] No candy.
[7] Cakes should be a rare item.
[8] Eat fruit. At least have some bananas in the house.

Oh, and please, never eat alone. Eat with friend and family. And make it special. Noting makes me feel like a king than when I am eating a fine meal with a lady that is all beautiful and who has the proper amount of foundation on, wearing a most comfortable dress, and is just engaged in chatting with me. Ugh!!!

Manifesting signal

Ok, this was sent to me. I tried to figure it out, but I am not very clear on it.

Ultimately, the end-goal is to circumvent the malevolent (alterations to) / (control of) our internal systems, thereby allowing access beyond the Prison Aspect of our being. Correct? Like DM’s lucidity, right? What is the manifesting “signal” that makes me physically what I am? I would like to change THAT. Surely that is prohibited by the Prison Construct, right?

Q: What is the manifesting frequency / signal that makes “me” who I am?

(garbled / a lot of information. Confused. A bunch of slides of things thrown at me in rapid succession.)

(Too much information and confusing. I simplified as...) The human inmate "skin suit" can be considered to be a very complex frequency. 

Yes, once you are able to control this frequency then you can change various aspects of it for egress out of the prison complex.

This is one of the techniques that we use when (MM volunteers) others join our effort. We alter their inmate "skin suits" at different ways and means.

(Images of things, and actions. I do not understand.)

However, we are all influenced by our environment. Thus we are all influenced by the thoughts around us. ("M-band noise" from the Monroe report.) this alters the frequency interactions / (garbled) of our very being. It's like trying to dig a hole in sand, the deeper you go, the more sand falls in.

This "manifesting signal" is how we are able to track inmates in the prison complex, find others outside of the reality universe, and perform alterations in the reality, (not clear) or in the surrounding universe. But it is not a simple thing. It is very complex.

By changing the signal, you change your soul / IS-BE structure / consciousness / manifestation interaction with the universe that is being co-inhabited with. Thus it is a very dangerous thing to do. You have to know what you are doing and why.

It’s like making a cake. You can change from two eggs to three, or one spoon of sugar to three spoons. But when you change the flour to rice powder, the end result might be something quite different. – MM

Reiki

I tell everyone, this is all very tiring and difficult for me to do. I really hate these long winded multiple part questions. What’s the matter? Doesn’t anyone read my guidelines? Some one setups a fake email and asks me unrelated questions with no personal impact on their own day to day lives? I am not a television trivia show.

No more multiple part questions. The next person who asks a multi-part question will be banned.

I was thinking about Reiki, some “dark” questions appeared:

Question 1; Is this interaction with “energy” related to the consciousness? With the “soul” or the “spirit”?

Question 2: Is Reiki just another control method set in place by the “Old Empire”?

Question 3: Is this useful only in the prison complex?

Question 4: Is this “energy” or Qi (Chi) able to interact with garbons or other low-level components of the non-physical?

Question 5: Is there a real correlation between physical feelings and spiritual feelings?

Question 6: A soul or consciousness is able to “get sick” beyond the physical environment?

Question 7: The most important one: Why we humans know so little about the relationships between soul, consciousness and body?

We are just in the same spot we have been for thousands of years because of amnesia and control.

I want to know how to put a consciousness in a container, at least theoretically. This is real technology and knowledge.

I am sorry for all of this. This Reiki information is not useful, it may be classified as quackery.

Phew! If I answered all these questions, I would be busy for months. I am only going to answer one question. I am going to ask the last one; the “important” one.

Q; Why we humans know so little about the relationships between soul, consciousness and body?

*null*

It’s a refusal to answer.

I do not know why.

I suspect that it has to do with the questioner as the questions are “busy work” and will serve no one. However, I do not know if that is actually the case. It is possible that these questions are from someone who wants to fuck around with me. It might be the same person that did so previously.

In any event. The Commandeer refuses to answer. That is an absolute.

To the questioner; you know the answer. So why ask me?

Petrified about World War III

The interchange in this next dialog is a little bit strange, so I made it conversational so it would be much easier to read. The content, and the impressions are the same, it's just that multiple card desk items have been rearranged sequentially for ease of understanding. 

Referring to stacking, cards, and things like that are interpretations of multiple comm channels opening up and information overload being parsed through filters. I also use borrowed terms ;like Robert Monroe's "M band" with is a flood of background chatter that acts as a noise that needs to be filtered or organized.-MM

The warnings from my brother, and other intelligence sources indicate that things are moving forward towards a war and I am seemingly right on ground zero. Further events are taking place that add credence to his statements. Such as an Iranian tanker full of oil was turned back from entering Shanghai by a naval vessel. There’s provocation upon provocation and I don’t trust anything I read any longer.

I am starting to question my own chatter, and sensing equipment. (Skill sets, add on software and EBP stuff that I know how to use. I just simplify this equipment kit to “sensors” in this recorded dialog transcript. Though in the conversation we discussed specific parts and elements of this kit. -MM)

I would like some clear information on what is going on, of course – in reference to myself, but any other information that could be provided to MM readership would be appreciated.

Q: What are my chances of survival if the United States decides to start a war with China? And how does this influence other MM readers?

You have the tools to know what is going on and why. You are being insecure because your feedback from those you love and trust are giving you bad intel. You must remember your skills and put them to use. There is no one on the planet at this time that has better skills in this area than you do, and that includes all of your colleagues in the subprogram (MAJestic).

The quantum changes (M band noise) has reached a directed frenzy. This goal is for a major war and conflict of long duration under specified operational parameters that will not occur. The best way to stop this train of events is to create a series of deep-dive slides, and that has become impossible to do at the present time.

The systems / mechanisms / techniques / personnel are all off-line. Organized dives (sic.) are not possible at this time.

The MWI (sic.) will evolve according to the pre-programmed event sequence. You cannot stop it. There are far too many variables and far too may interested parties / evil intent / pre-programmed mantid prime world-lines (sec.) that are moving with these issues.

You ARE in the safest location possible given the great diversity of possible outcomes at this time. Do not doubt that.

Further, note that The Domain will only risk consciousness swapping / jump in body / take over a body / operational cloning if the result has a strong probable result. At this time it resembles your experiences in Corpus Christi December 1983 (major world-line template cluster realignment. We avoided world war III with the Russians at that time.). Things are much more serious however, and there are too many thought clusters with too many varying outcomes to predict the most probable results.

We do not want a radioactive result. We are working to prevent this scenario from occurring. However, the most probable event sequence will be one that includes nuclear detonations.

However, there is a very high probability that most of China and the South Pacific will be spared from most of the damage.

Of course all of this is fluid, and there are many forces / interests / non-physical / physical / mantid / evil that has set systems in motion for conflagration.

All of our predictive anticipation programs show damage and dangers to the United States, and their allies. They are generating too many m-band / thought profiles / group consciousness vectors / world-line slides in favor of a major war.

With the preventative measures that we have set up, all these thought vectors will redirect to the source; the United States and the people of the United States.

For example; The United States attacked China with a bio-weapon. The effect is that China survived, but the United States is now under bio-weapon rampage.

This "boomerang effect" is the result of (garbled / not clear /difficult to explain) and this give and take / attribute /resulting /configuration is to be expected in this current war situation.

The mRNA inoculations are not a vaccine. It's a preventative measure for the next major attack. You know this. However, rest assured that it will not work as intended, and the predictive vector trends show clearly a very disastrous outcome.

Use your skills and answer the following yourself...

Q: What is the best scenario given your viewing of the MWI / world-line undulations?

Well. as best I can figure it would be no war, no nuclear or further biological exchanges, and a return to normalcy with the United States government replaced with something different that would deal with the needs of the American people and not get involved in War.

Q: What is your likelihood of that occurring. Quick answer. NOW!

Zero.

Q: What is the worst scenario given what you see in the MWI and undulations on world-lines (sic.)? Use your skills. Fast answer. NOW!

MAD mutually assured nuclear destruction where America launches a full scale nuclear first strike, and China and Russia retaliate from their ruined nations. Additionally, North Korea destroys South Korea and attacks Japan. Pakistan attacks India, Russia destroys the European Union and the entire Middle East goes to war.

Q: What is the highest probability scenario based upon your sensory perceptions; ignoring the (M-band noise) / chatter that is clogging up your sensor feeds? 

Monitor your senses, on the count 3. 2. 1. Now!

(Noise chatter. So much M-band noise. Confusion. Misdirection. lines strained.) Searching. Searching.

Not bumpkus.

Some clarity.

China does not do anything overt. The United States grows impatient, and thus creates a “false flag” to set things in motion. (Nothing actually happens, so the USA creates a false event as an excuse to implement one of their multiple plans.) The Russian and the Chinese are waiting for this moment to arrive. Waiting on viable intel.

Then they will launch a first strike nuclear salvo (just right) before the United States can do anything that it plans.

They will do this at any point that the probability of success is over 85%. (The higher the probability of success, the sooner the Chinese event sequence will manifest. The trigger threshold will be 85%.)

Q: Using what you know, from all of your sensors, what is going on. Write it down, and do not edit for clarity. Do not scrub away what does not make sense. Put the raw feed down, and do not clean it up. Do it now.

Here goes.

America is planning multiple strike attacks and will implement the first viable one as the situation matures. The first strike nuclear hit destroying multiple main Chinese cities at once, and then fabricating a reason is amazing high on the probability scale. It is disturbing that it is being considered at this time, but the drivers are emotionally driven M-band folk with no scruples.

Meanwhile the Russian and the Chinese have already put into place a first strike plan and are getting systems in place to prevent the United States from launching nuclear strike counter attacks. This is the “counter plan”. This situation is at 72% readiness. So the Chinese and the Russians are feverishly trying to work to get things in place before the USA is ready to start a major conflict.

The United States is trying to prod and goad the Chinese into action, and will keep on pushing until something happens, then once the event occurs, a series of well planned attacks will take place. Everything is in place this week. This is the primary (American) approved plan. It will go nuclear the moment the Chinese react to provocations. They will fabricate an excuse if this timeline is delayed too long.

(Phew! I’m amazed that I was able to type so fast and quickly.)

That is what I sense. How accurate is it? Please scan and confirm my interpretations.

Interpretations are correct. You did not include the actions in Europe. Nor did you include the Israel connections and the things going on regarding with Iran, Pakistan, and Australia.

But if you are weighing in data feeds based on M-noise chatter, then it is obvious that your intel is as good as we can get.

As you can sense the entire issue with Australia is floundering and there is a dynamic that can swing to any extreme. Right now it looks like it will "die on the vine", but there are issues and events that could keep it aggressive alive and there is great concern that if the direction heads that way, that the worst case scenario can be realized.

For Australia, it is the key unknown at this time. If the entire Morrison leadership effort collapses and there is a reverse in policy , the best scenario may be realized. So Australia is the dominant player in the unfolding of the current events train.

Pakistan is moderating the India *wild card* and for now it appears that this situation is under control and free from problems.

Europe is a wildcard, and the situation is changing daily. The United States is aggressively using every "trick in the book" to make the EU join in a war, but they are very reluctant to do so. Firstly because they don't want to upset China who remains their largest trading partner, but also they fear Russian retaliation because they know that Russia and China now operate as one. This was shown in Chinese support of all the political and diplomatic spats that Russia has had with Europe.

Q: Will you be able to take over a body and stop a “button being pushed”?

We can, but we will not. Not in this instance, and not at this time.

Q: Elaborate why.

All obstacles to the (counter) plan must be disabled.

Q: Even if it means that the earth will become a radioactive mess?

Yes. It is preferable that we prevent the ruin and destruction of the earth at this time, but there are too many variables involved, and far too many situations that all taken together render our ability to prevent a worst case scenario from occurring.

Heaven (sic.) are expanding their entry systems to handle a large influx of IS-BE's into the environment and anticipate a heavy work load, but you knew that already didn't you?

I then went to sleep around 11:00pm.

At 2:45am I woke up after tossing and turning and all kinds of undecipherable things from the commander. Not dreams. Just messages going on and on and waking me up from a non-dream sleep.

Finally I was able to get this little bit that started to unravel a long garbled message train. (Don’t ask me to explain.)

...In absolute terms you were poisoned. Just like the scene from Breaking Bad. Ricin was used to interrupt things so that activities and event trains were prevented. 

You were provided with a physical body cold that serves to interrupt your ability to reset and initiate slides for anchoring events (sic.) 

Or to say it bluntly, you were deactivated temporarily so that a selection of critical events would not be interrupted.

It is true that I just got a seemingly bad cold suddenly yesterday. (Physical illness.) And when I have physical illnesses, many of my abilities are either no longer functional, or are interrupted to the point of dysfunction.

Something is going on now, and it must not be interrupted by me, nor am I permitted to influence it in any way.

Q: Who or what is neutering my abilities at this time, and why?

(Why) the mantids (sic.), of course.

Oh, my goodness, what a “can of worms” is now opened. Uh oh.

Q: Please elaborate

The "greater good" must be permitted to occur at this time so that a much worse sequence of events (in the future) can be prevented.

So, I recon, that if we allow a little bad now, it will act as a safety value to prevent a greater bad event in the future?

Q: Continue and elaborate please.

Yes. That is correct.

Your abilities and those of  a few others are now disabled so that nothing will interrupt a critical sequence of events from occurring. This sequence of events will (mostly) be transparent. (I won't be reading about them in any "news feeds", but will involve some very bad things, black operations and deaths.)

For now, you and your MM colleagues will be safe.

This sequence of events will set in place a "rocky" event train (sic.), and that some pre-planned events might require further disabling of your latent abilities. You need to avoid M-block thoughts, and influences to you. Be calm and don't get so "caught up" in the craziness that will start to manifest in the next few weeks.

The next few weeks?

Maybe things have been prevented, or set off to the side somehow, and a calmer, saner result might manifest. Perhaps?

Yes. More like sliding onto a different railroad track.

OK. I am going back to bed. I will continue all this in the morning.

…

Morning arrived. Still sick. Wife and kid woke me up early. Need to give our old dog his medicine first thing at the crack of dawn. Sigh.

All channels are quiet.

Do you want more?

You can find many more videos in my “Extraterrestrial Species index” over here…

Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Full reprint of the book titled “Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission”

This is the full reprint of the book titled “Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission”. There is an interesting story behind this book. It is considered a science fiction story, while the first book “Alien Interview” is not. I do not know what to think. However, it is really easy to discount the idea that there is a follow up book whenever the first book became popular. There is that “for profit motive” don’t you know.

Thus we have this write up;

A Science Fiction story based on the best selling book ALIEN INTERVIEW. 

"There are several obvious reasons that The Domain, and other space civilizations do not land on Earth or make their presence known. It takes a very brave IS-BE to come down through the atmosphere and land on Earth, because it is a prison planet, with a very uncontrolled, psychotic population. And, no IS-BE is entirely proof against the risk of entrapment, as with the members of The Domain Expeditionary Force who were captured in the Himalayas 8,200 years ago." 

-- excerpt from the book ALIEN INTERVIEW, edited by Lawrence R. Spencer

MM comments

I parsed the book “Alien Interview” and found it valid, real and actual. I then parsed it in great detail, and in so doing, found many answers that “clicked” or aligned with prior events, knowledge, and experiences that I have had. There is no question that the first book “Alien Interview” is valid.

I do not know about the second book.

When I read the opinions of others, I find myself questioning everything. Such as this book review here…

Fiction or Valid Disclosure?

This is true. The first book; "Alien Interview" is the narrative of the transcribing nurse that was involved in the interview of the acquired Commander of a downed extraterrestrial spacecraft. It includes her narrative, and the full transcript of the interview. According tot he first book, she is dead. So, what is the source information for the second book?

-MM

In this book, Spencer puts his name on the cover as “by Lawrence R. Spencer” which leaves it open to suspect. There is an email address inside the book that Mr. Spencer claims the documents have come from. I wrote to this email address in the book on several occasions and received no reply. I did not receive an undelivered email notification so I assume someone got it. I am sure I am not the only person to write to the mysterious email address shown in the book.
.
This opens the book up to great controversy and it has been put down by various reviewers on the internet, claiming that the author, Lawrence Spencer, wrote this book and its prequel “Alien Interview” as a kind of religious agenda, or rather, “anti-religious” agenda.

However, instead of the transcription style of the first book, this book comes together as a take-a-long manual for someone in the process of trying to get their pre-earth memory back.
.
I was met with some very violent reactions from certain people when I tried to talk about this book and the original book, “Alien Interview”. It appears that the material appears so far fetched that it strikes anything from fear to ridicule in others who do not have any courage to stretch beyond their own belief system and self imposed science or religious paradigms.
.
For anyone who wants to stretch their consciousness outside the limited box-thinking paradigm of our present reality, and for anyone who has had some kind of ET experience, whether it be abduction, observation, or for anyone who is wanting to learn something amazing of a possible pre-earth existence, this is a great eye opening book.
.
I suggest the “Alien Interview” book be read first in order to keep this book in its rightful context.

The files

A MM contributor took the time to photograph the entire contents of the book and send it for me to read. These photos are below for your enjoyment.

I have read the total book in this format, and here are my impressions…

MM Comments after reading the book

Let me repeat what the book says…

This book is in no way factual.  Nor is it intended to represent any factual information. This book is a contrivance of the imagination of the author.  This book is a work of fiction only. It is not to be interpreted otherwise by the reader.

MM readership take note. This is a fiction. Nothing more.

Do you want more?

I have more articles in my Index titled “The Domain” here…

MM Articles & Links

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

Why the idea for America to invade Australia makes a lot of sense, and should be taken seriously

It all began so innocently…

You know, I am having a cup of coffee, a plate of buttered crunch baguette beside me (with a side of cut up tomatoes with salt) and just going through my emails, my comments, the forum, and the normal round of sites that I just skim though. Then I hit LinkedIN.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

There was a very lively discussion about America invading Australia. Invade? Australia? WTF? I thought that it must have been a joke. So did everyone else. The comment thread was long, silly, humorous and to the point. To quote one such commenter…

“America is off their trolly.”

And then nothing.

Yes. these people are seriously off their trolleys.

Well, I will tell you that this little announcement SHOULD be taken seriously.

Though I do not (as of this time) recognize it as a fluke, a misunderstanding, a “flag” proposal, or a “fair warning”, I do need to explore the mechanism behind this statement.

This mechanism is frightening.

America 101

“You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they’re people just like you. You’re wrong. Dead wrong.” 

— They Live

When you recognize what America actually is, then how the internal domestic politics and statements play out becomes much clearer. So let’s forget the standard Hollywood ideas about America being the great wonderful nation that protects others and look at what it REALLY is.

For starters

America is an Oligarchy.

In fact, a study conducted by Princeton and Northwestern University concluded that the U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens. Instead, the study found that the government is ruled by the rich and powerful, or the so-called “economic elite.” Moreover, the researchers concluded that policies enacted by this governmental elite nearly always favor special interests and lobbying groups.

In other words, we are being ruled by an oligarchy disguised as a democracy, and arguably on our way towards fascism—a form of government where private corporate interests rule, money calls the shots, and the people are seen as mere subjects to be controlled.

Not only do you have to be rich—or beholden to the rich—to get elected these days, but getting elected is also a surefire way to get rich. As CBS News reports, “Once in office, members of Congress enjoy access to connections and information they can use to increase their wealth, in ways that are unparalleled in the private sector. And once politicians leave office, their connections allow them to profit even further.”

America is also a Military Empire. The largest in the world, and the largest in history.
This Empire is supported by an enormous Military-Industrial industrial complex. Every Senator, and Representative has large military factories within their districts that employ voters. As long as the voters are employed, they get to stay in office.

Clearly, we are now ruled by an oligarchic elite of governmental and corporate interests.

We have moved into “corporatism” (favored by Benito Mussolini), which is a halfway point on the road to full-blown fascism.

Corporatism is where the few moneyed interests—not elected by the citizenry—rule over the many. In this way, it is not a democracy or a republican form of government, which is what the American government was established to be. It is a top-down form of government and one which has a terrifying history typified by the developments that occurred in totalitarian regimes of the past: police states where everyone is watched and spied on, rounded up for minor infractions by government agents, placed under police control, and placed in detention (a.k.a. concentration) camps.

This arrangment is so embedded in American society that “peace” will equate to “economic depression”. If you stop buying military hardware, the economy just simply cannot recover. A collapse is imminent. The people “take to the streets” and in America they are armed and dangerous.
Therefore, the United States can only exist as long it is constantly fighting wars all over the globe.

No wars = No United States.

Situational awareness

Lately, and over time, an entire series of “bubbles” have been created. The collapse of any singular one of them would create a chain-effect that would rage through America like a firestorm on a dry August wheat field. So something HAS to be done. It cannot be put off.

There are only two solutions available.

Disassemble the Military-Industrial industry and convert the production output to other purposes. Somehow. Using systems not yet in place. Using staff that are unskilled, and finding markets for new products that do not exist.

Or,

Start a HUGE war that would be able to feed the coffers of the multitudes of industries that exist for warfare.

Given what amounts to the stupidest leadership in history, the United States government leadership has earmarked either Russia or China for a war.

For the last fifteen years, there was a tug and forth between various political interests. One side wanted a war with Russia. The other side wanted a war with China.

And for the last five years it has become obviously apparent that China was set up as the enemy du jour.

The general secretary of NATO has told the Financial Times that there's a new foe in town. After decades of sparring with the Soviet Union, and Russia, the bloc is firmly setting its sights on a different standoff – with China.

Putting aside the diplomatic niceties, his pitch is simple: NATO should turn its attention to Beijing. To put it more bluntly than Stoltenberg did, the US’ European partners should follow Washington into a new, openly-declared Cold War in East Asia.

The pitch belies the fact President Joe Biden is offering NATO members a deal they are not supposed to refuse. Either you help us in our new Cold War against China on which we have decided alone, or we will no longer help you feel safe from Russia. As Stoltenberg puts it, for America, NATO is “not something they do to be nice to Europe.” Instead, he reminds us, for Washington, allies must fit their national interests.

In other words, now that the endless 'wars on terror’ are winding down, the US has identified its new geopolitical enemy number one, Beijing. The Pentagon and the attached military-industrial complex – as president Eisenhower once called it – must be kept in business after all.

-RT

And so it is currently.

But uh oh!

However, within the last five months or so, the American military leadership have been busy trying to “bitch slap” the neocons inside of Washington DC, K-street with the fundamental understanding that were a war with China to occur, America would lose.

And lose badly.

And the entire nation would be destroyed, rubbled, and the leadership would all be dead. Dead. DEAD.

In fact, there isn’t a single war simulation, not one, that has the USA the victor or even a close draw. Each and every simulation for the last 18 years has had the United States defeated in a war with China.

So now what?

There STILL needs to be a war.

But it has to be something that will keep the Military-Industrial industries still alive and working. A war with either China or Russia, or any of their allies would not do that. The war would come to American shores, and it would be very hard on the voters which is a big “no no” in a “democracy”.

So what options are available?

Go to war with a small defenseless small nation that is not aligned with anyone. Think Vatican City, Palau, or Portugal.
Go to war with a nation that is aligned with either Russia or China. Like Mongolia, or North Korea.
Go to war with one of the more prosperous of American allies. Like France, Canada, Mexico, or Japan.

It is obvious what the answer is. It is to go to war with one of America’s allies. That’s the most logical and reasonable solution.

A war with a small third world banana republic would not meet the needs of the enormous military industrial complex.
A war with a surrogate or ally of either Russia or China would be equivalent to conducting war with them directly.

So the solution is to turn on one of America’s allies.

Which American proxy nation?

To select the nation, we have to relook and revisit the criteria required.

The target nation must be formidable enough to provide a challenge.
However, it must be weak enough so that the United States would be in full control from start to finish.
It must provide good “optics”.
It must be large enough so that immense quantities of war material can be used.
It must have some kind of native population that the US propaganda machine can use to fabricate an excuse of “saving people”.
It must have nearby large American bases from which to send huge quantities of manpower and material for logistical support.
It must be new and novel.

And apparently, the K-street crew, decided that Australia is the best alternative available.

Why?

Well. Let’s break it all down.

The target nation must be formidable enough to provide a challenge.

Americans tire of endless wars blowing up mud huts, shooting defenseless donkeys, and strafing cabbage patches. They no longer want to see this. They want a shooting war that resembles a made-for-Hollywood war. They want to see bad guys with guns, tanks, and see real buildings; relatable buildings destroyed and smashed into tiny broken pieces. They want to see shiny stainless steel and glass skyscrapers exploding under a volley of Hellfire™ missiles. They want to see the large civic structures; the Opera Houses, and the bridges full of holes, collapse and rusted wrecks.

Australia is perfect.

House to house fighting in Melbourne is relatable, has great sensational value, and in many ways would resemble Southern California. The ruins of Sydney with proud American troops marching though the streets with willing and smiling Australian women running into their arms for liberation would be well televised and appear “just” and “right” to the dumbed down American masses.

And the Australians, at least those not yet disarmed, would put up a fight. It would be a losing battle of course, but it would be relatable. You can almost hear the bullets at the Starbucks in Brisbane, or the McDonald’s on fire in Perth. You can just see proud American gunships strafing the lorries on the motorways.

However, it must be weak enough so that the United States would be in full control from start to finish.

Australia has a weak government, a corrupt election system, a government where crime and corruption lead from the top, and for-profit individuals at every level. That should be obvious from watching the clown-show that the Morrison administration has been running. As well as the (so called) representative congress that just approves all Morrison dictates like kingly pronouncements from God himself.

America would then initiate and script a “colorful” war within Australia and prod the Australian “actors” on what to do and what to say. The American people would eat it all up and love every minute of it. America would be winning again! American exceptionalism at it’s best!

They would announce that “Australians will fight to their dying last breath for the warm sandy beaches and the happy shelas”. Perfect.

Additionally, the military is weak, using (and following) American military doctrine. It would be easily consumed by the mighty American military forces. Of course, scripted battles would be the norm, and the Australian forces must be able to fight to a point where a long and protracted war can occur.

It must provide good “optics”.

This is all about salvaging the American economy while preventing a very disheartened American populace from rising up and burning Washington DC to the ground. The optics must be more than just good. They must be great!

From the coastal cities, to the outback, to small desert towns to quiet fishing hamlets, the great diversity of scenery and the fact that the Australians speak a strange accented English would make television ratings soar. It would be exotic, yet very familiar.

Red skinned, and tan skinned, Australians wearing bush hats and shouldering FNAL rifles as the scurry from the gleaming American killer drones would make great television. The Facebook feeds would show all the action in colorful bloody gore, and that would attract more views. American flag bumper stickers would reappear on the cars, and Churches throughout America would be taking donations “for the cause”.

It must be large enough so that immense quantities of war material can be used.

Australia is a large nation.

Maps would be presented on the mainstream media showing pincer movements in red and blue arrows. There could be all sorts of interesting CGI effects, and displays of the latest in American military technology. Barrack Obama would come out of retirement and opine how racially divided Australia has always been and that it is the time; a long overdue one, where the “white man” gets his due.

Tons and tons of munitions can be thrown on such cities as Adelaide, or Hobart, and they would just take it in. After all, it would be the “Yanks” doing it. Their long time buddies. As they say I’ll be right, and fair dinkum.

Australia has the proper mixture of rural desolation, scenic beauty, and urban life that would make a glorious war for freedom™ and democracy™ worthwhile.

Americans are needed inside of Australia to show them what Freedom and Democracy is all about.

It must have some kind of native population that the US propaganda machine can use to fabricate an excuse of “saving people”.

Certainly there are the local inhabitants. And the Americans, being so insanely dumbed down, can be told anything and they would believe it. Look how easily they fell for the Uighur “concentration and rape camps”, or the “dangers of 5G radiation”. Look how much they fear vaccinations, using the cell phones near gasoline pumps and cell phone towers.

It is so easy to construct a narrative about saving people in Australia. Just toss in some words about “concentration camps”, “forced sterilization”, and “racial discrimination”.

It would be so simplistically easy to hammer down the idea that America must save the native inhabitants of Australia NOW NOW NOW!!!!

It must have nearby large American bases from which to send huge quantities of manpower and material for logistical support.

Australia is perfect. under the guise of a military build-up to “counter China”, enormous quantities of war material could be flown direct into Australia without a sound. By the time a “go plan” is launched, ten American battle divisions can be fully amassed and positioned within Australia for the war to start.

It is so easy to transport tons of American military equipment to Australia without any government oversight.

Keep in mind that the United States military presence inside of Australia is quite large. Here’s from a fan located in Darwin…

...There is something you can do to prevent war between the US and China, by helping us remove the US military bases from the NT of Australia. These bases are key infrastructure, part and parcel of the 2015 Rand report recommendations for such a war.

Contrary to popular belief, the Gulkula civilian aerospace facility in Arnhem Land is in fact run by the US military and Raytheon, with Lockheed Martin probably still involved. Their presence is camouflaged with NASA.

I read the internal report before it was taken down in 2017.

I also read the NT Government reference to US military expansion there in the Budget review committee documents, so this is absolutely certain.

The installation is for nuclear-armed missiles.There are several secret US bases in the NT, as well as the six knowns... submarine, heavy air, fighter air, Five Eyes, and spy satellite centres x 2, and 3500 US Marines to man a warehouse full of tanks.

Obviously, here to contain local rebellion.What keeps the US here is Rupert Murdoch's control of the media.

Particularly the NT News (News Corp), but he also controls the ABC through his associates, Ross Garnaut and Frank Lowy. Garnaut, by the way, is a key world economist, controls Australia's climate change agenda, and is a permanent member of the Trilateral Commission.

He is a pivotal element in US control of Australia and has recently released a major paper recommending an end to taxation for American corporations in Australia, under the guise of more efficient taxation...

It must be new and novel.

Obviously, it would be unexpected. Unique and exotic to the American and global readership. Any images of Australia that now persists in the United States today are all colored by the images of Barry Humphries and Paul Hogan.

This unique imagery, when coupled with the current contemporaneous military culture would make a nice juxtaposition which would be perfect for an enemy to attack.

While a war is going on, it could last ten, twenty to fifty years, and the American Military-Industrial establishment can continue to saturate the entire nation under constant warfare without any equivalent destruction of American cities.

Not only that but the actions of the Morrison government has effectively isolated Australia from the rest of the world. Russia and China would loathe to come to their aid.

The same can be said for the peace-loving New Zealand people.

Japan would stand down. Korea would stand down. India would do nothing. There would be come “rubber stamp” squeals and protests from the UK, but nothing of substance.

It’s all a “perfect storm” waiting to happen.

Why do I say all this?

I think all of this is pure evil.

I believe that it is despicable.

I think that it is horrible.

But whether it is war! War! War! with China, or War! War! War! with Australia they are both the same.

The SAME!

War is horrible and anyone desirous of war should be locked up in a mental institution for the rest of their life.

Oh, it’s so easy to “get on the bandwagon” and say “we must fight a war with China” (Here’s looking at you you Australian war-mongers) It’s another thing completely different when you are facing the enormous military might of the Untied States.

Australia has minerals that America desperately needs. It has coal. It has food. It has a major geographical location that America can exploit. By conducting a war with Australia, the eventual collapse of the United States can be delayed for up to 75 years. Isn’t that worth fighting for?

To save American exceptionalism!

To preserve the American rules based order!

So what if a handful of Australians are sacrificed on the alter of democracy? It’s not like they would matter to the needy in New York. Some real perspective is needed right now. And on the grand scale of things, it’s obvious that those in Washington DC are more important than anyone in that overly hot, but sunny land, down under.

What are Australia’s options

Not many, I am afraid.

Continue on the path that the Morrison government has laid out and be attacked by the United States in three to five years.
Get a new government in. Break all treaties with American military interests, and give the United States a reason to attack.
Get a new government in. Phase out American interests, and team up and form protective treaties with China.

That’s it.

From the American neocon point of view.

Troops and material inside of Australia offers all kinds of options and flexibility.

Australia can be sacrificed if the USA provokes a war with China.
If there isn’t a war with China, then America can have a war with Australia.

Win. Win.

In both cases, American industrial and social re-engineering agents can remake Australia into a “little America”. It could be granted citizenship and statehood. The nation could be afforded all the Rights that Americans already possess, as well as the great pride of being an exceptional society; a city on the bright and shiny hill.

Then, soon afterwards, the mandatory taxes, fees, and regulations can be implemented and collected from Australians. The take home income of Australians can be taxed at a minimum of an additional 30%, and the fine judicial and policing systems can displace the paltry ones that now exist.

Australians will be able to use “real” units like feet, inches and miles. they would be driving on the correct side of the road, and they will be celebrating Christmas properly with big hot turkeys and heavy mashed potatoes instead of prawns, shrimp and vegimite. Not to mention that it would be an American flag that would be flying in the breeze, and American language they would be speaking, as well as American food that they will be eating, and…

…most importantly, appreciating the real standards of real American beauty on women.

Keep in mind who Candace Owens is

This is NOT some “news” media commentator. She is a LEADER in the neocon faction of the Republican political party.

She has direct top contacts with the Military-Industrial Complex, and she is / was / has the eyes and ears of all the influential decision makers inside of America.

If she is promoting this, you can be assured that THIS DECISION HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE and that the public announcement is a “tell tail” to gauge the intensity of the anti-Australia propaganda campaign that will naturally follow.

Buckle up Australians, whether you will be the next Syria or Afghanistan is up to you this coming election cycle.

MM estimation on the outcome of this crazy turn of events.

MM readers are aware of our extraordinarily high prediction ratings of future Geo-Political events. Right now, it’s running in the mid 80’s in percentage of success.

I’d hate to destroy that streak placing my bets on such an “out of the blue”, “out of left field” crazed political bullshit being floated off K-street. But you know, weirder things have happened.

Here’s my likelihood estimations of success;

90% chance that this discussion is active in the neocon offices in Washington DC.
45% chance that resources are being put in place to study it as a fall-back position instead of attacking China.
65% chance that there are SAP programs studying the feasibility avenues of this plan.
51% chance that the oligarchy has tentatively given a “green light” go-ahead for further research.
15% chance that generals have been briefed.
80% chance that the top active generals know that this option is on the table for consideration.
98% chance that the CIA is involved presently.

How all this will go is unknown.

My guess that this becoming reality is far stronger than what the general public thinks or believes.

And for you Australians that are furious at reading this, relax. I think the entire idea is just bat-shit crazy. Don’t start screaming at me. I agree with you that this is insanity, and it is mean and uncalled for.

In fact, after Trump’s tantrums and Biden’s Great Rout of Kabul, even the most doctrinaire European Atlanticist must face the facts: America is not a reliable hegemon, neither with respect to its domestic order (it might well turn from being an oligarchy with democratic rest features into an oligarchy with growing authoritarian features) nor regarding its commitments and behavior abroad.

-RT

However, you need to know just how fucked up America is today, and if you dance with the devil, you had best expect to be date-raped by it.

Do you want more?

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Why Chinese society is like the book or movie of “Starship Troopers”

This article is based on a comment that was on one of my forums. In it, the person suggested that what he has read about China, from MM, reminds him of the society as depicted within the science fiction story “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein. I have to admit that this is a profound observation. And I agree with him. Here, we will dissect this observation and add some of my personal comments to it.

The book

The book is well worth the read. I have it available in glorious and easy to read HTML here…

Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers Comparisons

Starship Troopers is perhaps the best-known novel of science fiction master Robert A. Heinlein. Unlike many science fiction novels, the longevity of Starship Troopers’ reputation has at least as much to do with controversies over its themes as the quality of the writing and storytelling.

I am afraid there is no getting around using the f-word here—there is significant debate as to whether Starship Troopers, which glorifies martial virtues and a highly authoritarian political constitution, is fascist.

This debate is muddied by the 1997 movie based on the book, which the filmmakers intentionally used as an artistic opportunity to engage in a reductio ad absurdum of militaristic culture.

Putting the movie aside, I want to explore the political economy of the novel itself.

My claim is simple: Starship Troopers is not fascist. Instead, it is an exploration of certain sociopolitical truths that, if ignored, doom a civilization to self-parody by the hemorrhaging of civic virtue.

The novel, told from the perspective of infantryman Juan “Johnnie” Rico, primarily depicts the transformation of a civilian into a soldier. But it is also a commentary on the qualities of a political structure that result in a durable social order.

The novel is set centuries into the future, where earth is part of a polity called the Terran Federation, a spacefaring civilization that extends humanity throughout the galaxy.

In this civilization, all high school students are required to take a course titled “History and Moral Philosophy,” which must be taught by a veteran of the armed services. Johnnie’s teacher, retired Lt. Col. Dubois, recounts to his students how the “twentieth century democracies” gradually experienced a breakdown in domestic law and order.

This occurred as these polities continued to grant more and more rights to their citizens, but did not impose accompanying responsibilities.

One result was a spike in crime, such that public spaces were no longer safe at nighttime and many were not safe during the day.

Later in the novel, we learn that international military disaster accompanied domestic political disorder.

A vaguely described war—between the “Chinese Hegemony” and an alliance of the United States, Britain, and Russia on the other—so exhausts the Western polities that they lose the ability to even maintain order within the armed services.

With the breakdown in social order, veterans of this war eventually take the law into their own hands. They form gangs to police their towns and cities, imposing martial law without any civilian oversight—of which it is unclear there could be any, given the previously mentioned political atrophy.

At first, this is unmistakably nothing more than vigilante justice.

But through sheer force, they are capable of maintaining a rudimentary peace. The order of martial law is a low form of order; no great civilization can flourish with a boot on its neck.

But eventually, not through any formal grant of legitimacy via democratic processes but a gradual acceptance of the new ad hoc regime, regularity returns to the social world.

On-the-spot justice gives way to regular procedures for ascertaining guilt and assigning punishment to perceived criminals.

As these practices become institutions, civilization shifts from one sociopolitical equilibrium to another.

With regularity comes justified expectations of future behavior by the new government, and along with it the rule of law, and the return of some semblance of democratic and parliamentary governance.

The chief difference is that society is now quasi-Spartan: only those with a military background can participate in the governance of the polity; key civilian positions are reserved by law for veterans; and those who do not perform at least two years of federal service cannot exercise “sovereign franchise.” That is, they cannot vote.

At various points in the novel, this narrative is referred to in order to point out two important truths about governance.

These truths are explored through the interplay of Johnnie’s character development and his eventual comprehension of his society’s governance structures.

The first of these truths has to do with the nature of sovereignty.

In the real world, we tend to view sovereignty in ethical terms. We answer “Who rules?” by asking, “Who ought to rule?” This is how we continue to affirm democratic legitimacy even though it is obvious that the will of the people has little to do with how modern Western polities are actually governed.

In contrast, the characters in Starship Troopers have no truck with romantic theories of governance that have no basis in reality.

At its root, sovereignty is power, which means force.

The quasi-military government of Starship Troopers exists because the founders of the Terran Federation, back when they were little more than a vigilante mob, were willing to impose themselves on others.

As it became clear that nobody could oppose them, they became the new de facto government, and eventually the new de jure government. The essential truth of sovereignty, in terms of who actually rules, is that sovereignty is inevitable and, in a higher sense, arbitrary.

Why do veterans govern the Terran Federation?

The only possible answer is because they can.

To be clear: This is not a claim that social order requires violence. It is the claim, as historically robust a truth as can be found, is that someone, somewhere, will wield the sword.

To the extent that our political constitutions can be founded on “reflection and choice,” our choice is not power versus self-governance.

Instead, it is responsible versus irresponsible power.

Now we see why so many worry about the glorification of fascism in Starship Troopers. Heinlein had the audacity to explore a world where Sparta works, and is durable.

Understandably, this puts our Western (American) Athenian sensibilities on Red Alert.

The novel’s justifications for franchise restrictions, perhaps the ultimate blasphemy in our egalitarian-democratic age, highlight a second sociopolitical truth:

Any society that decouples rights and responsibilities thereby enables irresponsible power.

…

Eventually, Johnnie is recognized as officer-caliber material.

He is sent to the Terran Federal Service’s equivalent of officer candidate school, which if anything is more grueling than basic training, both physically and mentally.

Chapter 12 of the novel illustrates the intimate link between rights, responsibilities, and a well-governed society in the form of a dialogue between a grizzled officer-instructor and a naïve cadet.

The instructor asks the cadet for “a reason—not historical nor theoretical but practical,” for limiting the franchise to discharged veterans.

The cadet goes through several incorrect explanations—that veterans are higher-quality beings, “picked men,” or that they are “more disciplined”—before he, along with Johnnie and the reader, are enlightened.

The instructor begins by wryly asserting,

“I handed you a trick question. The practical reason for continuing our system [of limited franchise] is the same as the practical reason for continuing anything: it works satisfactorily.”

This is a repeated emphasis on the fundamentals of sovereignty.

The instructor then goes through the restrictions on voting, or the exercise of political power more generally that have existed throughout history, and in what respect the restrictions of the Terran Federation differ.

The answer:

“Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage…. 

He may fail in wisdom, he may lapse in civic virtue. 

But his average performance is enormously better than that of any other class of rulers in history.”

The instructor takes a realistic, and hence grim, view of political power—again, remember the truth of sovereignty!—when he continues,

“To vote is to wield authority; it is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives…the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax.  

Whether it is exerted by ten or by ten billion, political authority is force.”

Next the instructor singles out Johnnie to complete the narrative. He asks what the necessary complement to authority is, and Cadet Rico answers “Responsibility.”

This pleases the instructor, who finishes explaining why the political system of the Terran Federation has been both successful and stable:

Authority and responsibility must be equal—else a balancing takes place as surely as current flows between points of unequal potential. 

To permit irresponsible authority is to sow disaster; to hold a man responsible for anything he does not control is to behave with blind idiocy. 

The unlimited democracies [of the twentieth century] were unstable because their citizens were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority…. 

No attempt was made to determine whether a voter was socially responsible to the extent of his literally unlimited authority. 

If he voted the impossible, the disastrous possible happened instead—and responsibility was then forced on him willy-nilly and destroyed both him and his foundationless temple (emphasis added).

There you have it: The stark recognition that the right to vote is the right to rule, and that the right to rule without the responsibility of bearing the consequences of one’s decisions is a recipe for infantilism writ large.

One may dispute whether this specific form of civic virtue is the safest foundation on which a limited franchise rests.

But the key point, that there is such a thing as better and worse voters, and that empowering the latter is a sure path to gradual erosion of social cooperation, is sound.

It’s also one we desperately need to hear today.

And now, the inevitable caveats. There is some truth to the claim that, on its own, Starship Troopers is a dangerous form of social commentary.

Martial glorification is an inherently slippery slope, as any historian of Wilhelmine Germany can attest.

Furthermore, the kind of mind sympathetic to highly hierarchical governance is at risk of mistakenly thinking a whole society can be run like a barracks.

These impulses must be tempered by exposure to insightful commentary on what happens when power is, despite everybody’s best intentions, exercised irresponsibly, an unfortunately all-too-common occurrence. But all of these caveats do not diminish the wisdom that Starship Troopers conveys, all the more remarkable for being a work of fiction.

If we are unwilling to find a way to structure our political institutions such that rights are firmly coupled with responsibility, we will continue to see a ballooning of the former and an erosion of the latter.

The result will not be pretty, and we will deserve it.

But is China really like this?

As someone who has lived 40 years in America from birth, and then an additional 20+ years inside of China, I am positively affirm that Chinese society is very, very similar to the society that was depicted in the book.

Similar.

No, it’s not the evil “Communist regime” that the onslaught of anti-China Western propaganda spews daily in your “news” feeds.

It’s something else entirely.

But China is not Sparta. Nor is it like the Western “democracies”. It is a new social system that has never been seen before on the world. And the closest illustration of what it is, by far, is through the book “Starship Troopers”.

The tenants of the society depicted within the book

Let’s break down some of the core points in the book and how they manifest within China.

And I am going to tell you all, right off the bat, that this is information that you will not find in the American or “Western” press or “news”. They (the media) all are well-funded propaganda mills that actually believe their echo-chamber nonsense.

We will look at these tenants listed in the movie;

Only those with a military background can participate in governance.
At all levels discipline is required for success.
Sovereignty is power, which means rule by force.
Responsible versus irresponsible power.
Rights and responsibilities are intertwined.

Only those with a military background can participate in the governance of the society.

Well, let’s begin with the understanding that not all things military resembles marching armies.

In America we have the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, The Civilian Conservation Corps, and The Peace Corps. What all these organizations possess is that the participants are volunteers that risk their lives, devote their time and careers, towards the betterment of society.

Coast Guard = Working to protect society.
Civilian Conservation Corps = Working to protect societies environment.
Peace Corps = Working to support other societies for the good of all.

So if we use this model and expand “the military” to include “organizations that support the growth and maintenance of society” you can say…

Yes. Absolutely!

In China if you want to vote in the “democratic process” you must be a member of the “Party”, and to be a member, you must contribute and participate.

Service grants citizenship.

Those that do not participate; that do not excel in school; that do not help and volunteer, and those that do not join The Pioneers when in elementary, middle and high schools cannot participate in government within China. Period.

In China, not everyone can vote.

It is a meritocracy. The ability to vote requires that you, throughout your life, contribute to the good of society and do what ever is needed at any time of the day or night.

If the government asks you to help rebuild a dam, then you leave you job and do so. If the government asks you to build a hospital over night, then you do so. You don’t complain. You do it.

That is participation. That is a society that only allows contributors to participate in governance.

At all levels discipline is required for success.

Discipline is taught at a young age. And from Kindergarten on up, the students obtain daily discipline training, education on civic society, military behaviors and pure military field rife and combat training.

Here’s some videos that I collected. Some are training films. Some are recruitment films. Some are just studies. Some are personal videos. All in all a good mix. It will give you all a great idea about the Chinese military capability.

Discipline – Elementary Echool Soldiers

Young Pioneers and elementary children going through mandatory military training.

Starship troopers child soldier — Starship Troopers

Some of the films have children in it going through training. These are the elementary-school Pioneers (the Chinese cub scouts). Everyone in China gets full military training. Those older kids, are in middle school. They are the ones wearing blue slacks with the white line training and shooting AK-74’s.

You will see closeups of the various electronic weapons systems, and the state of the art Chinese SEAL and Special Forces troops as well. You will see some videos about how Japan came into China and killed off so many innocent civilians. And note that now that every civilian can fire a gun, and fight, that is never going to happen ever again.

You can download the Video Archive HERE.101MB.

Discipline – Middle School Soldiers

It starts off with some more middle school assault weapon training.

Next is the elementary school pioneers who undergo physical obstacle course training. Notice that they do it while carrying a full military rifle. Also note that it’s both boys and girls. No one gets a pass. VIDEO.

The third video is the reservists. China has an active military and the reserves that meet every few weeks. VIDEO.

Reservists practice and drill over and over and over and over.

Training, training, training.

Fourth video is for the young Pioneers. For inspiration and training. Very, very interesting. If you don’t watch any of these videos here, you MUST at least watch this one.

China will NEVER allow a repeat of the “Rape of Nanjing”.

Watch this video.

It’s all your fault that all the people are being rounded up in the city.

So many interesting videos. Watch them all in this massive collection. You can download the Video Archive HERE. 257MB.

Discipline – The “Kitchen Sink”

Here’s another group. HERE. 381MB

Of course there are all sorts of interesting things in these videos.

Discipline – Learn about Chinese Society

Here we have some first grade students demonstrating their skills in front of the rest of the school in assembly. Note that all students not only learn English, but also get weekly lessons in military warfare, strategy, and operations. VIDEO.

And here are how a Pioneers assembly looks like. These are all first grade students around 6 years old. VIDEO.

Discipline. Merit. Training.

Sovereignty is power, which means rule by force.

Ah. This is the common anti-China narrative. But the reality is that China does not rule by force. Instead, they rule by compliance.

In China, everyone is expected to comply with the law. The entire nation is wired up with AI monitored video, audio and systems, and boy oh boy is that driving the American CIA bonkers! China knows who is doing what, where and why. It’s sort of like that Tom Cruse movie where you can follow a person’s movements from when they wake up in the morning throughout the day. That is China today.

It is invasive?

No, not really, with 1.6 billion people there is no way for people to monitored gulag style. Instead, AI monitors and flags dangerous behaviors. A social credit scorecard is used to connect individual behaviors to society hierarchy. If you are a dick, a bad person, a skank, you will be low on the hierarchy. But if you are good, helpful and volunteer, you will go up higher. It’s all merit driven.

And that is a great thing.

Responsible versus irresponsible power.

In Washington, DC, a tribunal of nine men and women spoke with one voice to affirm that the government and its henchmen can literally get away with murder and not be held accountable for their wrongdoing.

-John Whitehead

One of the core tenants of the book “Starship Trooper” was that only the responsible would be in the position of power to govern. that really riled up the sensibilities of many a free wheeling, casual, “good time Charlie” lover. And responsibility comes with wisdom, experience, effort and merit. You are not just “responsible” at birth. It is a learned behavior.

If you are not to be responsible, you become irresponsible. Not just to yourself, but to those around you. You need discipline, behavioral training, and coaching.

While the book refers to this trait on a personal level, the key point is that it applies throughout society. There is a real problem when you live in a family with an irresponsible parent. The entire household becomes dysfunctional.

Its even worse when an irresponsible person takes over the reins of government. And that must be prevented.

[1] At the system level

The system must screen for dangerous people.

Honor guards attend a flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square in 2017.

The system that brings in leadership, and directors must be solid, substantive, rugged and robust. It must be such that all the problematic personalities; the greedy, the psychopathic, the sociopath, the narcissistic and the evil be forever barred from positions of power and control. This system is inherent inside the operation of the Chinese communist party. It is very, very difficult to join, and the requirements to do so are maintained by service-to-others (SEO) committees.

[2] At the operation level

The leadership must constantly be policed.

This is the bane of most societies and only in the last ten years has this changed in China. China has set up the “Corruption Police” and they have made “earth shattering” changes to all levels of government. The days of graft, vice, abuse of power are all gone. (Well, in the process of going away. There are always hold outs.) This “Corruption Police” are an elite group of SEO officers and agents that root out corruption at every level and work to functionally make the Chinese society a well-run meritocracy.

Rights and responsibilities are intertwined.

America talks and talks about Rights. There are no Rights in America. Every single (so called immutable Rights) now come with exceptions. And there are so many of these exceptions that they render the Rights useless.

While in China, the Rights of the people are maintained, policed and enforced. No wonder the Chinese have a 95% approval rate for their government.

But inside the ruined has-been nation of America, the story is quite different. With only a mere 15% of the population trusting the United States government, with a margin of error around 15%. Which means that somewhere between 0% and 30% of the United States citizenry trust the American government.

John White head said it best…

“We can zip our lips and bind our hands and shut our eyes.

In other words, we can continue to exist in a state of denial. Yet there is no denying the ugly, hard truths that become more evident with every passing day.

The government is not our friend. Nor does it work for “we the people.”
Our so-called government representatives do not actually represent us, the citizenry. We are now ruled by an oligarchic elite of governmental and corporate interests whose main interest is in perpetuating power and control.
Republicans and Democrats like to act as if there’s a huge difference between them and their policies. However, they are not sworn enemies so much as they are partners in crime, united in a common goal, which is to maintain the status quo.
The lesser of two evils is still evil.
Some years ago, a newspaper headline asked the question: “What’s the difference between a politician and a psychopath?” The answer, then and now, remains the same: None. There is virtually no difference between psychopaths and politicians.
More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the U.S. government has become a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to protect us
The government knows exactly which buttons to push in order to manipulate the populace and gain the public’s cooperation and compliance.
If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.
America’s shadow government—which is comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes right now and operates beyond the reach of the Constitution with no real accountability to the citizenry—is the real reason why “we the people” have no control over our government.
You no longer have to be poor, black or guilty to be treated like a criminal in America. All that is required is that you belong to the suspect class—that is, the citizenry—of the American police state. As a de facto member of this so-called criminal class, every U.S. citizen is now guilty until proven innocent.
“We the people” are no longer shielded by the rule of law. By gradually whittling away at our freedoms—free speech, assembly, due process, privacy, etc.—the government has, in effect, liberated itself from its contractual agreement to respect our constitutional rights while resetting the calendar back to a time when we had no Bill of Rights to protect us from the long arm of the government.
Private property means nothing if the government can take your home, car or money under the flimsiest of pretexts, whether it be asset forfeiture schemes, eminent domain or overdue property taxes. Likewise, private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family.
We now find ourselves caught in the crosshairs of a showdown between the rights of the individual and the so-called “emergency” state, and “we the people” are losing.
All of those freedoms we cherish—the ones enshrined in the Constitution, the ones that affirm our right to free speech and assembly, due process, privacy, bodily integrity, the right to not have police seize our property without a warrant, or search and detain us without probable cause—amount to nothing when the government and its agents are allowed to disregard those prohibitions on government overreach at will.
If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off.
Our freedoms—especially the Fourth Amendment—continue to be choked out by a prevailing view among government bureaucrats that they have the right to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation.
Forced vaccinations, forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans continue to be reminded that we have no control over what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials.
Finally, freedom is never free. There is always a price—always a sacrifice—that must be made in order to safeguard one’s freedoms.

We cannot remain silent in the face of the government’s ongoing overreaches, power grabs, and crimes against humanity.

Evil disguised as bureaucracy is still evil. Indeed, this is what Hannah Arendt referred to as the banality of evil.”

But this is not the case in China.

In China if you want a Right, you must earn it, and then show responsibility for it. If you do not, then it will be withheld from you. On the day to day, practical level, this manifests as the Social Credit Scoring system.

To give a good example of this, consider the laws that require parents to be responsible for the bad things their children do. China’s parliament will consider legislation to punish parents if their young children exhibit “very bad behavior” or commit crimes.

Yeah it is the parents’ responsibility to take care of their children, whether the child is good or bad depends on the parents, educate the child in the path he should follow, and even when he is older he will not depart from it.

it’s called RESPONSIBILITY.

Conclusion

But China is Communist! They scream!

China says it’s a Social Democracy based on traditional Communist Values. While America calls itself an exceptional democratic republic.

He says. She says. Who cares?

China today is something that cannot be easily explained in tight, narrow, traditional political definitions. While America is simple. It is a classic oligarchy ruled military empire.

The BRFLS Second Grade Chinese Young Pioneers Initiation Ceremony

Part of the problem with trying to solve or fix a problem is defining what the problem is. America is broke. It is broken, smashed, and a walking cluster fuck. That’s a fact Jack. If you cannot see it, then you must be mentally ill.

Meanwhile, China is the absolute opposite of it.

There are many, many similarities between the Chinese society and that of the society as depicted within the book “Starship Troopers” by Robert A Heinlein.

On a whole, I believe that China is doing things right.

They should be applauded for it. This system raised over a billion people out of poverty. This system has created a great “level playing field” for the vast bulk of Chinese society to have a moderate successful life, and this system is rocking the world with scientific discoveries, help, and innovation.

China is taking the world by the hand gently and moving it forward. I for one applaud it, and you should too. Do not fear that the billionaires can only become thousandaires, or that “‘ma freedoms to a vote in a democracy” would be restricted. Those are fears intentionally generated to make you fear what the world is becoming.

Do not fear.

Instead…

Look at what America has become. When you are ruled by the psychopathic in society, the society becomes ill, distressed and dysfunctional.

Here is America today…

The cities are inhabited by zombies. They really are. Video.

Well, not all the cities are inhabited by zombies.

You have a bunch of people walking around in “freedom”, “doing their own thing”. Such as this fine upstanding “pillar of the community” here. VIDEO.

There is no alternative. China is the future.

China is the future!

Just like in the movie “Starship Troopers”…

Do you want more?

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[daegonmagus] – Part 9 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 2: Explanation of the Various Stages of Sleep

The following is the ninth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

This particular article is not part of the direct set of articles that are autobiographical in scope and content.

Instead, this article concerns a lesson on how to conduct “Lucid Dreaming” (as a prelude to “Astral Travel”).

Part 9 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 2: Explanation of the Various Stages of Sleep

In the first lesson we learnt about the three meditations necessary in order to prepare one mentally for entering the dreaming domain. These meditations focused on negating thought, stilling the mind, and the categorisation of thought upon the reception of higher order information that may come through during a lucid dreaming session. This next lesson will build upon those meditations and deal with some strange concepts but it is necessary for the student to grasp as solid an understanding as possible of them.

Consider this like reading a map before going on a journey. If you don’t read the map before hand, you are likely to become lost along the way. But just like you can never really comprehend the totality of terrain layout on the map, you can never really comprehend the terrain of the lucid world, despite how much preparation you put into it. You can prepare for your journey all you want, but you will never know when that tyre is suddenly going to catch a flat. Would you rather have had the forethought to include a wrench or find yourself stuck up shit creek without a paddle? It could go smoothly, or it could go badly depending on how much practicing of the three meditations you have undertaken.

So, by now, you should be getting good with your visualisation practices. You should be able to go into your mind and get “lost” in the movie you find yourself playing of the oranges and bananas. You should be able to “daydream” this movie out for a good few seconds and have perfect definition of it in your mind’s eye. And you should be able to have this amount of clarity with whatever scenario you wish. If not, then keep practicing.

Now, consciousness follows a fairly standard pathway as it enters the dreaming state. This pathway, according to my experiences, is generally as follows:

1. The body shuts down and goes into a stasis state
2. Consciousness “inverts” and travels back in towards the pineal gland
3. The frequency of one’s consciousness reduces by about an octave (1 half), as it undergoes
the transition into the sleeping state and completely disengages form the physical body.
4. One now exists as a pure conscious thought form; perception switches from 3D
based physical objects to 4D based energy signatures and images. You literally “see” what is in your sub consciousness.
5. Images stored within the subconsciousness are “attached” to consciousness and a new
holographic 3.5D environment forms around it
6. The dream ends. Physical reality is overlaid on top of the holographic dream at a rate of
around 0.5Hz, until consciousness locks back into the body, in which physical reality
solidifies.

Most Lucid dreaming techniques – well those I have come across, anyway – are geared toward becoming consciously aware during the dream state after sub conscious imagery has already had some say in how the dream will be formed. This is known as Dream Induced Lucid Dreaming (DILD), and is considered the best method for beginners to practice lucid dreaming. With the DILD method, you are unconscious until number 5, where you regain limited control of the dream upon becoming lucid. As the subconscious distortions have been the dominant means for the holographic dream environment to materialise by, this environment will become “anchored” in and quite hard to change through visualisation. You can usually only change certain things within the environment, but never the environment itself.

My goal, however, is to keep you conscious through the whole transition period into the void space so you can “clear” out these sub conscious distortions and replace them with your own visualisations. This is more along the lines of what is known as Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD). This is recommended for those who are more skilled at LD, as it takes a degree of dedication to be able to carry out a WILD session effectively. Though I have come across many speaking of this method of inducing lucid dreams, I am yet to come across anyone talking on the importance of regaining control of the void space and clearing out the distractions present within it to create a stable dreamscape. Thus one may consider my techniques an extremely advanced version of the WILD technique. There is a degree of mental discipline that must first be reached before one can expect results. We will build upon these concepts in later lessons.

Given this mud map of what we can expect consciousness to do, we can break it further down into the phases it passes through as it makes its way into the dream state. In doing this we can start to gain an idea of what to expect so we can better prepare ourselves as we move through each phase. One should be aware though, that these phases vary quite significantly from one to another, and there will be some adjustment of comfortability as one progresses through each one.

This is where I tell you to hold on to your hats, because the things experienced in this domain are unlike anything you will ever experience in waking reality. Also, it should be born in mind that astral projection can be achieved from more than one of these phases, though the success of the projection will also vary depending on which phase. The phases, in order one can expect to experience them , are:

Relaxation Level 3/ Theta State
Sleep Paralysis/ Hypnagogic Phase
Consciousness Inversion/ Transition Phase
Detachment phase
Void space phase
Dream creation Phase
Non physical travel phase (if desired)
Auric projection (extremely advanced practice, aided by non physical entities when one is ready; this is where your 4D lucid train ride terminates in 5D reality)

When you close your eyes at bed time you have two potential pathways you can take into never never land. You can either succumb to fatigue and go through the phases unconsciously, in which case your best bet would be a DILD, or you can remain conscious and enter into either Theta State, Sleep Paralysis or straight into the Void Space. Astral projection can take place in all three of these phases, though I have found personally that it is best achieved whilst in Theta State.

Theta State and Astral Projection:

Theta state is not always necessary for lucid dreaming. You can actually bypass it all together quite easily and still have a WILD. If astral projection is a goal, however, then entering Theta state is probably the best place to initiate such and OBE. When working with the Monroe Institute’s techniques for inducing Astral Projection, they mention that one must first enter this state of what they call level 3 relaxation.

So what is it? I want you to think of diving into the comfiest bed you have ever been in. You’ve got fluffy pillows all around you, a big brand new duck down doona covering you and best of all it is a King Size bed that you’ve got all to yourself. You can lie here naked completely by yourself and just spread out as much as you want without an annoying spouse taking up half of your chilling room. Or even worse – kids. Imagine just being absorbed into the bed and its linen. That feeling of pure bliss that makes you feel all warm inside just knowing you are going to get a good nights sleep. Well, that is relaxation level 2. To get to relaxation level 3, you need to go deeper than that.

How do you do this if you are completely relaxed? Well, you aren’t really as relaxed as you think you are. All the muscles you are lying on currently hold some amount of tension in them as they hold your body up. When you get comfy you don’t really notice this tension, but it is there, I guarantee you. To get to Theta State, you have to relieve this tension, but at the same time keep yourself awake whilst doing so. The trick is to take slow, deep breaths and “feel” that tension leave you on your long exhales. Personally for me it takes about half an hour to an hour to properly get into this state, sometimes even longer. Sometimes I will enter this state briefly then go straight into sleep paralysis or the void space without even getting a chance to astral project. It all depends on your fatigue levels.

Once you get to this state, your body will begin to feel light. There might be a high pitched tinnitus like sound in your head. For me it sounds like when you open a soda bottle and hold your ear right up to it and can hear all those small bubbles popping and “grinding” together. If you want to properly astral project, you have to focus on this sound and nothing else. You cannot allow your mind to get distracted following the wandering thoughts that will appear; these will carry you into an unconscious sleep state. They will appear as strong thoughts which catch your attention and then quickly diminish into incoherent unconsciousness as the trail of thought becomes harder to remember. Again slow, deep breathing helps. You focus on the sound and try to “listen” to your breaths whenever your mind starts wandering.

Your fingers act like antennas that can pick up subtle energies around you. Try to listen to them if you can. Try and pull these energies from the atmosphere and push them from your head to your toes and back again. There is also the possibility of seeing pulsating waves of energy through your vision, or of feeling a vast space out in front of you. I have had a lot of moments where it feels like gravity is distorting around me, like I am spinning on a giant wheel and the centrifugal force pinning to me to the bed keeps changing directions. Personally I have found it too be quite therapeutic just lying in it and taking it in. These may lead to some excited emotions, but it is important to keep that excitement at bay, or it will ruin the projection.

If all goes well the soda bubble noise should get more and more intense until you feel something happen. This something is hard to describe but it is a very prominent feeling that you are “coming” out of your body. The process can be aided by visualising standing at the end of your bed or rolling out of your body, but personally I have found it easier to just keep focusing on the soda bubble noise. Eventually you should hear a loud pop and your astral body will just float out of the physical.

The experience will be surreal. It will be extraordinary, and exhilarating, and it will feel absolutely definitely 100% real – until you wake up, in which it will feel like it was just a dream. But there will be time to take it all in later. The first thing that one should worry about is putting some distance between their astral body and their physical one. The reason is that the physical body acts like a magnet and will snap the astral body back into it if it stays too close for too long. Aim for a couple of rooms distance, and remember that just thinking of a place will take you to it; to get back to the physical body one just thinks about it and they automatically appear back there. Surprisingly, navigation seems to come quite naturally and easily during astral projection. Well, it did for me anyway.

Now that we have got astral projection out of the way, we can get into effective Lucid Dreaming concepts and practices, where navigation is much, much more difficult to control. In future articles we will go into techniques I use to control the dreamscape, but for now let’s start with your awareness of the physical plane:

Projection of Consciousness During the Transition.

Your consciousness projects out from your eyes in a sort of hemispherical fashion until it hits the horizon. This is the only way you can consciously perceive anything whilst you are awake. Thus this projection is uni directional; it cannot go any other way (not with your eyes open any way). What happens is that you project your consciousness out through the eyes and then the light entering into your eyes from the boundaries of this projection your brain picks up and processes as reality. My experiences suggest that consciousness projection during astral projection follows a similar pathway; out in front of you to an object separated by “astral space”. You perceive the non physical environment around you like you perceive the physical world whilst you are awake.

Conscious perception in the dream state, however, is completely different to conscious perception in both the physical and astral planes. It is omni directional; it has more than one way to go than just out the eyes towards a horizon. It can go both inwardly and outwardly, but for arguments sake we will say it can both contract and expand. When you are awake, and consciously observing something, your consciousness is effectively “locked” into a state of infinite, inward projection/ contraction and is never allowed a chance to expand. It is like squeezing a stress ball then freezing it so the fibres never have a chance to return back to their spherical state. They remain locked to the curvature impression of your fingers. Consciousness is not really going “outward” – sure its going out of the eyes – but more so “inward” to a more dense state. This is a confusing concept and may seem counterintuitive, so I suggest meditating on it to get your head around it. Think of it like the science experiment where you suck all the air out of a soda can and the tin crinkles into a ball. You just don’t realise this because of the block put in place by your physical brain.

When you enter the sleep state, your consciousness expands back “outwardly” to its original, spherical state. It inverts and goes back through the eyes in towards the pineal gland; you can actually feel this during a conscious transition into the sleeping state. You can feel the moment consciousness stops trying to condense and changes direction to expansion. It is a fucking incredible experience and better than any sex or drug that you will ever come across.

Consciousness can therefore be thought of as a sphere that has two extremes of possibility; maximum compression and maximum expansion. If we consider the edges of the universe to be maximum expansion, and an atom to be maximum compression, this becomes our 4^th dimensional range of travel potential for our consciousness when disconnected from our body. It is a bit more complicated than that, but for now this concept will do. What happens during the transition into the sleep state is that your consciousness “inverts” right at the transition point. It goes from a locked inward projection to a moving outward projection.
This is important to learn because it becomes the fundamental aspect behind how you travel in and out of different planes of different densities.

From what I have experienced, physical universes are sort of “stacked” inside one another separated by a 4^th dimensional distance of consciousness “space”. Picture the atom existing in the middle of an entire universe; the atom is solid, yet it exists in a sphere of empty space. If you expand your consciousness outwardly to the edges of that space, you become yet another atom existing in yet another vast, spherical space and on ad infinitum.

This is what is meant by “as above, as below”, or “micro and macrocosm”. Consciousness is mercurial in the sense that it can slip through this 4^th dimensional space between physical and non physical worlds like water through a crack simply by compressing and expanding. No matter which way you go, you eventually arrive back at the same point, just like if you head in one direction on the earth. To properly master lucid dreaming, you have to learn to become “slippery” when the time calls for it, and “solid” when it doesn’t. Astral travel is thus simply just your consciousness slipping back into the plane of your astral body. It is merely a station along the many that can be taken by the train that is lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming is therefore a completely different thing and should not be confused with astral projection. It is an existence of pure consciousness detached from any type of body, but it allows the potential to “jump” into those bodies like you are putting on a suit. It allows the potential of astral projection as well as many other things. Visualisation allows one to choose the suit they wish to put on. The void space is akin to your wardrobe space, and each plane of “reality” is like a suit hanging up within that wardrobe. Most people believe this physical reality is the only suit they can wear. They never get the option of choice.

However if you learn how to control the mercurial state of consciousness whilst in the void space – ie, solidify yourself as you slide through the 4D consciousness space – you can wear whichever suit you damn well please. Well, within reason. It is entirely possible to move out of the physical body, slip into another physical/nonphysical one and live out that experience just like you would in this physical world, before slipping out of it and back into your physical body. I have done this many times before, often times for weeks on end in the span of single earth nights. Some of these other worlds I have visited have also been corroborated by other lucid dreamers. This poses the question of what these bodies are really doing when you are in them utilising an unconscious state of awareness. So where do we draw the line when it comes to reality if you can be aware of all these places but not actively engaged in them?

Therefore, there is a degree of “psychological hardening” one must come into before undertaking these sorts of journeys. You have to be able to adapt to the many different environments you may find yourself in. And boy there are many, with many weird, indescribable things going on. My advice is that you always remember to focus on the ”absolute now” and not try and dwell too much on other places. By all means record them and think of them objectively, but try not to get too hung up on what is going on “over there”. If you think our world is depressing and hard to deal with, there are many that are much worse in the non physical planes. You need to learn to cope with what you experience without dwelling on it, or it’ll drive you insane.

But none of this can be consciously witnessed if one does not first learn to control their void space. And to control the void space one must enter into it through a conscious transition into the dream state – ie a WILD. This can be done in one of two ways; by direct access, or via Sleep Paralysis. Sleep Paralysis seems to be the easiest way to get into the void space. Unfortunately, it is also the most unpleasant.

The Sleep Paralysis Phase:

Let’s pick up where we left off from in the first lesson in regards to lying still where the arms and legs start to become numb. I mentioned this is the stage immediately preceding sleep paralysis. If you continue through this numbness without moving or initiating an OBE, eventually your whole body will become completely paralysed and you will not be able to move. What this feels like is that gravity has been turned up by about a few billion and you just can’t move anything no matter how hard you try. Except for the eyes. You might notice they move too easily about and that it takes some effort to get them to stay in a particular place.

Contrary to most belief, you can actually be completely aware of your surroundings as if you were completely awake when in Sleep Paralysis. I have had many instances where I have woken up, looked around and thought I was good enough to get out of bed, only to accidentally pull my astral body out due to me still being in sleep paralysis. This is the key to astral projection whilst in this state; you have to try and roll or pull yourself out, but the paralysis makes it extremely difficult to do. Awareness of one’s surroundings is, therefore, not a good indicator of whether or not one is in SP. It should also be understood that there is a very fine, and often times blurry, line regarding when one actually enters Sleep Paralysis. Often that blur can cross over from the Theta State; one minute you are relaxed and the next something very strange seems to be going on. Generally, Sleep Paralysis induced in the morning after a night full of sleep will be easier to deal with than one induced upon going to sleep

Now I need to mention here that the sleep paralysis stage is not particularly pleasant. To be brutally honest, it’s probably one of the most terrifying things you will ever experience, and this is coming from someone who was almost executed at knife point. It will feel like your soul is being pulled in every direction at once. Your voice will be choked to a faint cry no matter how hard you try to yell. You will hear the most chthonic noises imaginable – unlike anything you have ever heard before – and get the most unsettling feelings that make the hairs stand on the back of your neck. It is also not uncommon to see strange beings of various sorts ranging from “demons” to “aliens” standing at the bed. Random scenarios will play out in your head suggesting your impending doom, and voices will whisper things to you that will make you think you are crazy. I have had instances where I was absolutely sure someone had broken into the house and was seconds away from killing me and my family in my sleep. I have had another instance where death materialised around me and hit me with its scythe. Aliens, demons, the whole shebang there to come and eat my soul for breakfast. If you are lucky you will hear the most perfect music you have ever heard, but this only ever seems to be after you have become well acquainted with the Sleep Paralysis stage.

All I can tell you is that if you are big on horror movies and haven’t been putting in your visualisation hours, you are going to have a really fucking wild ride. Visualising unicorns farting rainbows is going to do absolutely nothing for you at this point. But despite this, you must always remember IT IS ALL A LOAD OF BULLSHIT. A wall of illusions put in place to make you really not want to go through with detaching your consciousness from your physical body. It’s like seeing one of those horror movies for the first time as a kid – it is important you take a step back and realise none of it is going to hurt you. It isn’t real. You have to learn to just “relax” and let it play the fuck out around you. This is easier said than done, and I get that not everyone will be able to do it. Hell, it even still gets the best of me at times and I have to exit the session, and I have been doing this for 23 years. So don’t feel bad if you can’t bring yourself to go through with it.

The way to exit a session in this manner is that you shake your head from side to side, like you are saying no. It will be hard because of the paralysis, but you only need 2 shakes and you’ll be fully awake. This is your get out of hell card, use it if you need to.

If you do learn to relax, however, you will gain access to the most powerful part of the human mind that is directly connected to all other consciousnesses in existence; the void space. This is where the fun and magic really begins. This is where you really earn your “wings”.

The Transition Into Void Space:

If you are successful in relaxing properly whilst under sleep paralysis, then the illusion should just all of a sudden fall away from around you. All the chaos around, including those terrifying thoughts just completely leave you. It will be then that you will feel your consciousness invert as it makes the transition into the sleep state. It’s like Han Solo hitting that hyperdrive button on the millennium falcon; you go through a tunnel of….well, I can’t really describe it – blurry 4^th dimensional “shit”. This will be very brief and over in a couple of seconds, and on the other side of it you will feel your consciousness completely detach from the physical body in a completely different way to when it does via astral projection.

You then enter into the void space. It sort of feels like diving into an ocean of pure “bliss”. If you thought astral projection was exciting, this is the most exhilarating feeling you will ever experience, hands down, period, full stop. It is like this weight that you never knew was there has suddenly been lifted and you can finally “stretch out” in ways you never could have even imagined before. You are uncaged. Godlike. It feels like you are left falling into an infinite hole, which is where I assume one really is when having a classic “falling dream”. Although it can be unsettling at first, when you get good, it can provide an effective means of relaxation. I used to enter here and just “kick back” and wallow in the falling sensation for hours. It is the ultimate sensory deprivation tank.

If you made it this far then congratulations, as you are now existing as a pure conscious thought form where the hassle of mundanities such as money and debt are going to be the furthest from your mind. Physical reality is no where to be seen, though you still have 100% awareness of it down to every minute detail.

After making a conscious transition into the void space, you no longer see 3D objects out to a physical horizon. You see pure archetypal energy forms that combine with whatever is in your subconsciousness from a 4^th dimensional perspective. These images take the form of distortions that differ in intensity depending on how “deep” you enter it. Think of it like a bubble. At the edge of this bubble the distortions are at their most extreme, but towards the middle you are insulated by a level of consciousness space.

This consciousness space I have somewhat mapped to being 12 layers deep, based on my difficulty in vanquishing the distortions using my own visualization practices. Though, this should be thought of as an analogue gauge rather than actual physically separated layers. The depth you penetrate into this void space seems to be determined by the velocity of your consciousness at the transition point into the sleeping state. This velocity is a product of fatigue of the mind during this transition. If you are too fatigued, your velocity penetrates too deeply into the bubble and you hit the edge. You become swarmed by these distortions which more often than not, leads to a random dream. This is why most people do not realise they are dreaming, in my opinion.

Without conscious awareness and strong visualisation, these distortions become very hard to vanquish, even when one is aware of them. If you penetrate at a lower velocity, you are more likely to reach the centre of the bubble. This is where the distortions are at their lowest. So you could say level 0 = waking reality, whilst level 12 = complete distortion/ unconscious dream. If you can remain conscious and make it into this part of the void space, you can create your own reality suit through the use of visualisation, which you then just hop into. The reality then just appears around you. It is equivalent to the white room in the matrix where a rack of guns appear out of nowhere before Neo. The void space is thus the “load out” screen your consciousness enters into before you load out this physical reality. It is the very first point one enters into in the dreaming state, but most people are too fatigued to realise, and pass through to it’s distortion maxima – level 12 or what I call the “basement”. Thus they become engulfed in their own subconsciousness hypnotism.

If you do manage to a) consciously enter the void space, and b) vanquish the sub conscious distortions, however, you then have an opportunity to witness this dream creation as it takes place.

Dream Creation Phase:

After accessing the void space, you then have the ability to imagine up your own dream environments. We will go into an effective process for doing so later on, but for now one should understand that this is where the idea of being a “slippery” or “solidified” consciousness comes into play. When in the void space you are formless and slippery – 4^th dimensional in nature, or as MM would say in wave form – but after you create a dreamscape and move into it you become more “solidified”, or particle like. You create the 3.5D holographic dream environment and become a 3.5D entity within it. I say 3.5D because it is somewhere where between like our physical 3D reality and the 4D of consciousness space. When the dream has been created via conscious implantation of thought rather than sub conscious implantation, it becomes much easier to control. Travel is undertaken when dream creation has been mastered.

The Waking up Phase:

Provided your lucid dream goes all well, you might be lucky enough to witness the transition back into the physical plane. What seems to happen – well, what I have witnessed anyway – is that the physical reality is sort of overlayed as a very faint image over the holographic dream in a wavy like manner. This wave is about 0.5Hz; very, very slow and noticeable. With each back and forth movement of the wave, the physical reality overlay gets more vivid whilst the dream starts to become faint. After 10 – 20 seconds, physical reality has completely replaced the dream and becomes “locked” into place. Words cannot express how depressed one feels upon the realisation they are once again trapped in such a sate. It should be cautioned here, that lucid dreaming is extremely addictive.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 10 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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Dangerous assumptions that compound bad mistakes

Lately I have been musing about the mandatory mRNA vaccinations that are now required all over the West. What was considered radical just a few months ago has been normalized by a massive propaganda campaign and mandated by executive order an law.

While I don’t want to join the fray and armies of the anti-Vaxx people, I do want to throw some of my opinions into this mix.

As you all know, I live in China and everyone is getting their vaccination injections. It’s free, and no one is raising any concern. The reason is, of course, that [1] everyone trusts the Chinese government, and [2] the vaccine is based on a “dead host” which is the well known, well documented, “tried and true” method of inoculating people from virus strains. And, of course, [3] the Coronavirus is a rapidly mutating bio-weapon thrown at China in 2019 CNY by Trump / Bolton. Being in China, you see how serious all of this is.

Now, I do not know why America and the rest of the West are so adamant in everyone getting an “experimental” mRNA vaccination instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine. It seems all to “hush hush”. And I have long learned never to trust the United States government. So it is worrisome.

When the USA government makes a law, drums up a media narrative for it, and then suppresses alternative viewpoints, every alarm bell should be going off in your head.

I have speculated that all of this is because they want to “piggy back” some other system with the vaccine. Maybe [1] an inoculation about a bio-weapon that the USA has yet to launch. Or perhaps [2], a way of countering radiation from a nuclear war. Or, [3] even such things as mind control and tracking nano-chips are in the list of “anything is possible”. But the truth is I, and no-one else knows.

But that is not what this article is about. This is about something else.

The need for mRNA booster injections

By most accounts, this mRNA vaccine is part of a system of never-ending yearly or quarterly injections. These injections will suppress whatever mutation of Coronavirus might arise, as well as perhaps other systems that emerge over time. And on paper it might look ok.

[1] The stockholders in big-pharma would be happy to have a captive audience that needs to pay for yearly or quarterly booster injections or suffer government mandated obsolesce.

[2] With everything taking these yearly (or quarterly) boosters, it will become normal and expected. Just like the American Federal Income Tax forms are every April. And once the ~~cattle~~ people become accustomed to it, changes can be made to the ingredients, and alterations can be made for other purposes.

But let me suggest a downside.

The Big Assumptions

There are assumptions made, and these assumption assume a very steady-state non-changing reality. And that simply is not true. History tells us otherwise.

The big assumptions are…

That the (various) government will enforce mandatory booster injections.
That the factories can easily adapt to a changing viral environment and create boosters based on the mRNA models faster and better than the “dead host” model.
That people will comply with getting the boosters.

So far, all of these assumptions are given in every discussion about the benefits of the mRNA vaccination.

That the mRNA boosters, working with mass inoculations will create a herd immunity against any virus strains that the government deems threatening.
That the government can pay for the boosters, the R&D, and all the support systems necessary.

These two points are always assumed, and taken as “givens”. But they shouldn’t really be.

That over time, people will elect to pay for the boosters out of their own pockets.

This assumption is based on the Federal Income Tax model; also known as the “boiling frog technique” to manage sheeple compliance.

That the companies will always have factories to produce these boosters without interruption….

The last point is what I find frightening

No one is talking about this.

And they SHOULD.

Stocks plummeted this week.

Investors are terrified.

And Morgan Stanley just announced that a “20% drop in the S&P 500” could happen any moment.

If you're a student of history, you likely recognize the signs.

And it's time to prepare for a market moment that could define your wealth for the next decade.

A small group of U.S. investors are in line to receive advance notice of the exact day of the next market crash.

Regards,



Keith Kaplan
CEO, TradeSmith

I get these doom and gloom email notices all the time. After a while you shut them off. I mean you can only take the bullshit so long.

But you know…

The USA national debt is fucking enormous. That’s what happens when you make and earn money from nothing. It has become a big mountain of nothing. Yah. It’s hollow inside, but everyone is living off this mountain, and it will pop. It really will. Nothing lasts forever.

But there are other things going on as well.

Suppose that America has finally done “it”. Whether they “false flag” an event, launch a provocation, or just implement a full on nuclear WMD on China,, the results will be the same. They will royally piss off both Russia and China, and a full-scale WMD holocaust will be unleashed in the United States.

It will not be pretty.

We will have cites destroyed. Electrical systems destroyed. EMP bursts that render all computers, and internet, not to mentions all vehicles into slag. And in the middle of this, when starvation begins to beset the land, and crime is rampant and it’s every man for himself…

… how in God’s name are the booster injections going to be made, distributed and paid for?

How?

And when those people in a SHTF situation, hiding in their houses, and trying to figure out how get some food…

…suddenly find themselves with a really bad chest cold. Not a flu. Not a Coronavirus, but a Covid Zelda variant.

What then?

People!

War is not something that you watch on television or check your news feed over. It’s not going to be fought in a “far away” land like the South China Sea, or Australia. Or Japan, or Korea.

Everyone inside the United States will experience it.

Just like they are experiencing the blow-back from the John Bolton / Donald Trump launch of three bio-weapons WMD on the busiest holiday in China. Who’s fucking laughing now, dipshits?

If the USA instigates a war, whether it is with China or Russia, the battlefield will be on American soil.

Not in Taiwan.

Not in the South China Sea.

Not on Australian soil

It will be in America…

Oh. Some battles will be on, near and on the territories of the USA proxies, but both Russia and China are not, NOT stupid. They are not going to waste their times and effort on the pawns. They will go after the Kings and Queens and will attempt a very quick checkmate.

How many destroyed cities will it takes before the USA surrenders?

One? Five? ten?

Twenty?

Forty?

Fifty?

I’m betting that it will be around 35.

And with America a blaze in a nuclear winter… So tell me, what’s going to happen to those who need mRNA boosters? Are they going to run off to the local hospitals for a booster?

And just where are the boosters going to be made with the vast majority of the pharmacy supply sources inside the biggest cities? And even if a city was spared, how are the medicines going to be made without power, electricity and every single computer system fired into slag?

Of course, it’s important (for the oligarchy) that you do not see the entire picture…

Back in 2012, living in China, I was also such a (western) “News” addict. 
I then did an experiment:

During > 2 months, I deliberately didn’t watch western TV, didn’t went to any western news website, didn’t listened to western radio stations.

I only watched Chinese TV (various TV stations) only read Chinese newspapers and Chinese online news sources

What a revelation ! What a relief that was !   What a peaceful, healthy life !

-[Redacted]

Right? So there is a major media push to keep the “rabble” (that’s me and you, bub) in line. Don’t question anything. If you do, you will be censored. You know… for “a matter of national security”. And so on and so forth.

Let me tell you a few things about the media…

See below. All credit to the author who shall remain anonymous. You know who you are, don't you? It's a great piece.

Here is a thought- provoking dialogue between the gorgeous Li JingJing & the awesome Vijay Prashad. I would like also to name Michel Collon, a French-speaking Belgian reporter & geopolitical analyst having written on the 5 principles of war propaganda.

Coined by others, not by me, an acronym to remember them easily : M.E.D.I.A.

MONOPOLIZE

“M” as in MONOPOLIZE THE DEBATE.

This can be done by saturating the media landscape (written, cable TV, online) with presstitutes.

Also by restricting the allowed topics and last but not least, by restricting the range of permissible or legit answers (You all know the Overton window) Here some structural factors of the human nature help tremendously the manipulators.

Stages 1 & 2 of the Maslow Pyramid are basic needs (survival) and physical safety.

The third stage being psychological safety or to state things clearly, the need to belong to a group but not only that, to a group perceived as shining, desirable & prestigious…

To free oneself relatively from this emotional need, at least to the extent to be capable to have a space between that need and the awareness of other’ people own gratifying images of themselves, if I still want to use Maslow’s concept, it would be the work on one’s one mind called self-realization, a quite unpopular task.

Most people believe what they want (consciously/subconsciously/unconsciously) to believe to preserve their belonging to a prestigious group (or so they think…)

So in the West, it’s always much much easier for the governments to promote a narrative with at its core the key message being ” it’s China/Russia/Iran/the Other’s fault ”

The bigger (China/Russia/Iran) the boogeyman is, the better…

ENSNARE

“E” as in ENSNARE.

ENSNARE the people’s minds with irrelevant fantasies, thus avoiding to tackle seriously what is at stake economically, diplomatically, militarily or geopolitically in a given event or situation, at home or abroad.

The dumbing down process going on during the last 50 years and keeping on is facilitating this diversion tactic (red herrings galore).

You are most probably familiar with Charlotte Yserbit’s work.

For me, the uber Structural Red Herring in the West the last 50 years has been the displacement of the focus from socio-economic struggles to so-called woke issues (what in French is called the opposition between the two concepts of “social”,understand real socio-economic struggles and “sociétal”, understand woke)

One amusing survey that can be done is to ask 100 French citizens what they think of ” Mai 68″ first and then ask what is their understanding of a color revolution and last what about “Mai 68” as a color revolution ?

I bet most of them would be flabbergasted to learn that “Mai 68” was a color revolution set to get rid of Charles de Gaulle and to strengthen the Anglo-American Establishment’s grip on France. “Mai 68” & “June 89″ (2 decades later in Beijing) were essentially of the same nature if the ” color revolution ” concept is used, Ho! Ho! Ho !…

Let”s remind that the US ambassador to France was in the streets with the students in 1968 as James Lilley, US ambassador to China & CIA agent, was in the streets with the students in 1989…

The vital difference is that “Mai 68” succeeded beyond expectations & “June 89″ failed miserably on the essential goal of regime change but is successful as a smearing operation against China, as we are reminded on June 4 each year with the China-bashing in relation to the so-called ” Tian An Men Massacre ”

Concerning the process of dumbing down, another name to remember is Eugene Michael Jones, alive & in his seventies.

His 1992 book is a masterpiece of philosophy, psychology and politics : Modern degenerates, modernity as rationalization for sexual misbehavior.

His 2000 book is the natural completion of the 1992’s one : Libido Dominandi, sexual liberation & political control.

His intellectual adventure began when he lost his teaching position in the 70s because he stated at work that he is against abortion, he was utterly flummoxed since he taught in a Catholic school for girls…

This personal mishap has awaken his curiosity, investigative endeavor & meditation since then.

DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE.

“D” as in DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE.

DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE the Other in all dimensions : ugly physical appearance, defective psychological construct, spiritual emptiness is the norm obviously, rigid or primitive social organization, twisted historical development, warped anthropological foundations, evil religious practices…

The Other cannot be motivated by good intentions, all words uttered must be scrutinized because ignorance or perfidy must be expected.

All actions are driven by greed and fear, needless to say since Truth, Goodness and Beauty are not granted to the Other.

Some people definitely need a mirror, not only for the Body but also for the Mind & the Soul.

INVERSION

“I” as in INVERSION.

INVERSION of identity between the aggressor & the victim of the. aggression. Examples are numerous but I simply mention the category of false flag operations, an egregious chapter by itself.

ABSENCE

“A” as in ABSENCE.

ABSENCE of a quality historical understanding offered to the public in order to truly contextualize the event or the situation, at home or abroad.

A sound chronology of the events is either absent or the chronology presented is biased, oriented by a specific agenda.

Conclusion

The trouble is, in Australia, i listen to news while driving, listen to radio news while custom made frames, and I have no alternative news sources beyond Australian fake news.

whenever I internet search China development news, even in Chinese language, the news that appear at the first page are usually BBC Chinese, CNN Chinese, DW Chinese, Epoch Times Chinese.... 

Dam! 

(All the Western propaganda outlets printed in the Chinese language.)

Yes, CCTV news focus on China developments and policies, full of positive energy. They make me happy. 

The Chinese Gov don't talk about poor people as lazy, they talk about how to give them a vision, incentive, conditions, and motivate them to work hard to help themselves out of poverty. 

The Hong Kong TVB recently visited 10 poorest region across China, and was touched by how much the government quietly doing so much for those remote region residents. 

The title of the documentary series is 无穷之路，the road to no poverty. Below is chapter 1:

https://youtu.be/dcF_WB--P0U
You no need to know the language, just see how remote these villages located, and what the government did to improve their lives and you will understand they are wealthier than the working poor in America who can afford to pay rent and become homeless. 

-[Redacted]

Sometimes I hate being right.

If you have something that works (the traditional “dead host” vaccination methodology) but instead [1] elect to move forward with untested, unproved, unestablished technology.

Then [2] you mandate forced compliance.

Coupled with [3] forbidding anyone from using the traditional methods for vaccination, that should set off every alert in you head.

And knowing what I do about China and Russia, they already probably know the TRUE and REAL reason why the mRNA vaccination is being so aggressively promoted inside the USA today. And if I were them, and I knew that the United States is building up towards a massive world war against us, I would figure out a way to use this mRNA system against the aggressors.

It’s called logic.

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Sitrep. How actually close we are to World War III? Not enough time to grab a coke before it all goes kabloomy!

I have written about this many times before, and I tire of rehashing the basics to people who have been kept in the dark living like mushrooms for most of their lives. But this article, and in this article, I want to discuss the differences between the political nincompoops that are driving America towards war, and the generals that will have to fight it for them. Followed by the sitrep realities of fucking around with China.

It’s a battle between the “pinky in the air” political neocon moron-coops…

Bloomberg OWNS most Americans and has a zillion little mechanisms to extract your wealth.

… and the tanned-leather, chew on nails, or die, military.

I argue that when President Trump was in office he tried unsuccessfully to create a “false flag” provocation against China. And as a result he fired the general Mark Esper he tasked to initiate the provocation.

Shortly afterwards, he turned to his other generals and asked them point blank if they would obey his orders if he asked them to provoke China, or Russia. And there’s all sort of articles about that. Just look up the controversy regarding General Miley.

Firstly, Let’s talk about what the differences are between a political neocon and a career general.

A political neocon

Neoconservatism is a political movement born in the United States during the 1960s among “war-hawks” who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party.

They were also upset with the “New Left” and counterculture of the 1960s, particularly the Vietnam protests.

Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society.

Neoconservatives advocate the promotion of American-style democracy and forced American interventionism in international affairs.

This includes such buzz words as “peace through strength”. They are known for their rabid hatred of anything regarding Socialism, Marxism or Communism, and many believe that the creation of wars are necessary to maintain American global leadership.

In short, they believe that they are the best, and that their systems are the best, and that they have the right to destroy anyone else who challenges their systems, no matter what or who they are.

The Military

The military is a merit driven hierarchical organization. This is true in every nation, and in every country. In America they are subservient and report to the President of the United States. Who is, I should remind you all, a political figurehead.

But the military, are not political tools. No matter what the politicians believe. They are a merit driven organization, and they are the ones putting their lives on the line.

And every day things are closer and closer, nose to nose, neocon to the actual generals. Such as this…

“US has already lost #AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief”

An astounding headline as cracks appear in the façade of America’s AI supremacy. Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon’s first chief software officer says things may not be as rosy as reported.

Mr. Chaillan recently resigned from his job at the Pentagon in protest to the slow pace of technological change in the Pentagon and his statement is a shocker: 

“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” he said, adding there was “good reason to be angry”.

Just to ensure that you don’t consider Mr. Chaillan a malcontent, here’s what the US National Security Commission on AI headed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in March:

 “China is already an AI peer, and it is more technically advanced in some applications. Within the next decade, China could surpass the US as the world’s AI superpower.”

The sky is not falling and AI will not be the sole determining factor in the fate of nations. So there’s no need to be upset.

What you must take away from this is that those who tell you that “everything is fine and that there is nothing to worry about” are perhaps less forthcoming than you may think.

This pertains not just to AI, but to automated ports, smart cities, chip development, #5G and a host of other technologies. And as I have warned repeatedly, #CBDCs. Each of these technologies represents a slow imperceptible dripping away of the US's technological lead.

For each of these technologies, we have all read articles by pundits who simply shrug their shoulders and say that it doesn’t matter and that the US’s technological supremacy is secure. Smug in a belief that the US’s open society has a natural advantage and that it is inconceivable that China might overtake the US.

A mere three days ago I used this astounding quote from an article by David P. Goldman who had this to say to these pundits:

"These are self-consoling illusions of a lazy elite that has allowed America’s manufacturing, technological and education advantages to erode over the past 20 years – an elite that has nothing to say about reversing the decline."

To which my comments from a mere three days ago seems prophetic and worthy of repeat: 

And the problem is that he’s right. The elites that are telling you not to worry because the US is miles ahead in Chips and AI, or that China is going to fail are flat out wrong.

They are falling back on prejudices about China from another era, or are so caught up in loathing of China’s political system that they fail to see what’s happening.

When it comes to tech the US is bringing a knife to a gunfight.


-Richard Turrin

US has already lost AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief

Consider this general;

1 October 1990 – Air Force General and VP candidate Curtis E. LeMay died at March Air Force Base, California, at age 83. General Curtis Emerson Lemay was the “Father of the Strategic Air Command.” When he took over as its commander in 1948, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed and untrained B-29 groups left over from World War II. 

Less than half its aircraft were operational and the crews were next to worthless. He ordered a mock bombing raid on Dayton, Ohio, and most of the bombers missed their targets by one to two miles. 

That was unacceptable. 

He subjected his men to vigorous training and long hours of hard work, but fought for additional pay and better housing to make their demanding lives more tolerable. He obtained vast fleets of new bombers, established a vast aerial refueling system, started many new units and bases, began missile development, and established a strict command and control system. When he left the command in 1957 to assume his new job as Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, SAC was the most powerful military force the world had ever seen. 

But that was only one of his many accomplishments. He was the outstanding air combat leader of World War II. He developed the bombardment tactics and strategies that left Nazi Germany in rubble. He was transferred to the Pacific theater, where he took over command of the B-29’s and led the air war against Japan. 

He incinerated every major Japanese city and oversaw the dropping of the atomic bombs. He believed that, “if you are going to use military force, then you ought to use overwhelming military force. 

Use too much and deliberately use too much.. you’ll save lives, not only your own, but the enemy’s too". But he could be a humanitarian, and after the war he organized he famous Berlin Air Lift.

He often demonstrated his courage by personally leading his bombers on the dangerous missions, including what many regard as the most dangerous mission ever flown – the attack on Regensberg, Germany. The Army Air Forces lost half of the 1,000 planes launched that day, which has gone down in Air Force history as “Black Thursday.” 

If his crews weren’t flying missions, then they were subjected to his relentless training.They called him “Iron Ass” because he demanded so much, but they respected him immensely. A popular story that was widely circulated in SAC is that he approached a fully-fueled bomber with his ever-present cigar stuck firmly between his lips. A guard asked him to put it out, as it might blow up the aircraft. Lemay replied, “It wouldn’t dare.” 

He is buried in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery at Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Air Force General and VP candidate Curtis E. LeMay

Generals who are up front and who will have THEIR ASS on the front lines take a far different world view than the coddled wealthy political appointees who think that they are better than everyone else.’

General – I’d die for my Country, but this leader is a moron. My job is to protect the country. War is an avenue of last resort. But this is not a last resort situation.
Political Neocon – I have a plan, and since I am smarter, wealthier, and better than everyone else, and I have God, history, and “greatness” on my side, I just cannot possibly be wrong. It’s inconceivable!

Never the less, the political elite in America are sleepwalking towards Armageddon.

The following is brilliant, and the author is so in tune with my feelings and beliefs on this issue that I must reprint these entire two articles. Just brilliant! The author is Chris Faure. He is exceptional.

From HERE, and then from HERE.

Sitrep: China. Is. Dead. Serious.

11100 Views October 04, 2021 42 Comments

By Chris Faure for the Saker Blog

China will not be conquered again, even if every last Chinese has to join the fight.

In the past four days, China has sent first 28, then 29 fighters and bombers near Taiwan. (Taiwan itself reports different numbers). Then, the US announced on Sunday that this is provocative. So, China called the statement irresponsible and sent a massive number of 59 fighters and bombers near Taiwan in a ‘take that!’ move.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1235639.shtml

But first, why would China militarily get involved in Taiwan, as it is their own territory under the 1992 Consensus for “one-China”? Taiwan is clearly China’s internal affair. What are their red lines?

Taiwan declaring a flash independence (they cannot really because they are umbilically connected to the mainland)
Internal turmoil inside Taiwan as we saw in Hong Kong
Taiwan may make a non-legal military alliance with another country
And any violation of the 1992 consensus.

None of these conditions are currently present, but we will need expert advice on the 1992 consensus. I do not know de jure how close Taiwan is to that red line. De facto the Taiwan announcement that they are preparing for war is completely provocative.

Currently China is not threatening.

She is using her air force to deliver very strong warnings that the conditions are approaching red lines.

Lets look at Global Times. Bear in mind that the Global Times is not a bullhorn for Chinese people. It is for the dissemination of information to western people. That is its function. ‘

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1235638.shtml

The Take Aways are:

– Time to warn Taiwan secessionists and their fomenters: war is real:

“The secessionist forces on the island will never be allowed to secede Taiwan from China under whatever names or by whatever means...

... and, the island will not be allowed to act as an outpost of the US’ strategic containment against China. “

“The strategic collusion between the US and Japan and the DPP authorities is becoming more audacious...

... and the situation across the Taiwan Straits has almost lost any room for maneuver teetering on the edge of a face-off, creating a sense of urgency that the war maybe triggered at any time.”

Sunday, further Global times writing appeared, by a GT voice, warning the EU (GT voice should indicate to us that this is unified among the Chinese people).

EU warned not to play with fire on Taiwan question.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1235387.shtml

The Take Aways are:

– China will reconsider the European trade agreement.

“If the EU simply wants to develop normal economic and trade relations with the Taiwan island, its unusual emphasis on the latter’s role in its Indo-Pacific strategy should be viewed with suspicion. 

Some European politicians may think that playing the “Taiwan card” will draw more attention and could help pressure the mainland to make more concessions. 

But confusing the right and the wrong on China’s bottom line is a dead end.

The Chinese mainland’s position on the Taiwan question remains clear and resolute. 

All exchanges with the island must be handled in strict accordance with the one-China principle. They cannot exceed the scope of normal nonofficial cooperation and exchange.”

So, this is where we stand in this face-off and more analysis will follow.

Escalation? Continuation of “Sitrep : China. Is. Dead. Serious.”

8688 Views October 05, 2021 59 Comments

by Chris Faure for the Saker Blog

Continuation of “Sitrep : China. Is. Dead. Serious.”

Let’s take a look at what China overcame in our near history.

The NED and similar organizations’ sponsored “Color Revolutions” in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang all collapsed. We can also be sure that this escalation that we see now is not really about Taiwan. Taiwan is playing its role, like the dissidents in Hong Kong did.
The Trump Trade War collapsed and his focus on tariffs is now taking a tremendous toll on the US West Coast Ports.
The western propaganda war on China is collapsing because of the efforts of blogs like The Saker Blog and many others that took up writing about this.
The economic war is collapsing. For this, we have to follow Michael Hudson who details the butt-hurt Soros types who cannot make China dance to their tune. China has done massive work so that they do not have monopolies and internal destabilization by ‘too big to fail types’.
The return of Meng Wanzhou as a figure of national pride, which was a very delicate operation if one follows all of the plane routes during the sensitive exchange. Meng was exchanged for two worthless Canadian spies. There is another theory and this is that Canada tumbled to pay back the US for not including them in AUKUS.
The idea that the Chinese are not soldiers. They are that now because they have to be. * More about this following.

Let’s see what China gained in our near history

The pride, persistence, and trust of the citizens.
Major developments in space, like their own space station (slated to be a launching platform for? For what really? I do not know but the west has declared space a warfighting domain.) Most nations are welcome to come and hook up their own module, but the western world is not. This is a little payback for not allowing Chinese astronauts on the international space station.
A top US general, Milley, is so fearful of China that he called his counterpart in the late days of the Trump administration and told them that the US will not attack. (General Miley called to deliver a madman message–we have a madman at the helm and he may send nukes your way, so don’t do anything to give him an excuse. The poor general also had to deliver a contradicting message–at the same time, America is not falling apart; everything is hunky-dory and the well-oiled machine is running smoothly. ) (I know this has been taken out of perspective by almost everyone, but I am thankful, no matter that he may be a sniveling idiot. He did the rest of the world a favor).
China is in the process of destroying the dollar hegemony slowly but surely with Russia already having done its part and divesting from the dollar in their sovereign wealth fund. This deserves an analysis all by itself. Needless to say, China is launching its digital Renminbi, or Digital Currency Electronic Payment, commonly referred to as E-CNY, a central bank digital currency issued by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China. It is the first digital currency to be issued by a major economy. The digital RMB is legal tender and has equivalent value with other forms of CNY, such as bills and coins.
The fight against a virus called Covid.
China is now exceeding the US in almost all economic metrics, although they still refer to themselves as the 2^nd major economy.

And at this stage, China makes major military flights near Taiwan.

A few statements:

China has no interest in military action against Taiwan
Taiwan has no real desire for military action against China (it would be somewhat like swatting a fly for China and will be over in an hour whichever method China chooses).
Here is Taiwanese Foreign Minister warning that his country is preparing for war with China. He asks Australia for help and Australia’s 60 minutes distributes the war propaganda.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-04/taiwan-preparing-for-war-with-china/100511294.
Is the US interested in a war against China over Taiwan? We simply do not know.

What do we know?

Taiwan is a smaller copy of the economic miracle of China and there is no question of its economic success and high tech ability. But China mainland purchases over 40% of Taiwan’s production in both high-tech and agricultural products.

By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/think-tanks-taiwan-cash-funding-push-war-china/276799/

It is then easy to conclude that with this revolving door, the US decided that Taiwan is an easy ingress to their hope for regime change in China itself (stated publicly by Mike Pompeo) and the AUKUS deal started the new range of increased provocations: It looks like any of the old color revolution tactics or initiatives, just now with an added threat.

This one, could end up in a hot war with both Russia and China.

Taiwan will not have a referendum for independence, because independence is not a done deal for the Taiwanese people. The ruling class fears that such a referendum will not be successful.

We all know the ‘call to democracy’ and we all know that this is invoked over and over by hegemonic powers to justify their own excesses. Well today, Taiwan’s Tsai is invoking ‘a call to democracy’ via an article in Foreign Affairs Magazine.

China is not impressed as she knows as well as you and I, what that really means.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1235658.shtml

China’s interest is peace and security in the region, which is now being called Indo-Pacific. Martyanov says this terminology is hegemon speak, and I’m inclined to agree with him.

It used to be Asia Pacific.

I so hope someone can draw me the borders (even a dash line) where the Indo pacific and the Asia Pacific exists. Wikipedia, instead of being obscurantist as usual, this time gives the plot away.

The term first appeared in academic use in oceanography and geopolitics. Scholarship has shown that the “Indo-Pacific” concept circulated in Weimar Germany, and spread to interwar Japan. German political oceanographers envisioned an “Indo-Pacific” comprising anticolonial India and republican China, as German allies, against “Euro-America”.

[2] Since 2010s, the term “Indo-Pacific” has been increasingly used in geopolitical discourse. It also has “symbiotic link” with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or “Quad”, an informal grouping of in the region, comprising Australia, Japan, India, and the United States. It has been argued that the concept may lead to a change in popular “mental maps” of how the world is understood in strategic terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pacific

Martyanov says that the US has clear dominance in submarine capability and he also says that escalation is something that is very hard to predict. Here we see escalation toward war, with the US using probably the only card that they have to play, trying to kick off an ocean-wide domination conflict on the shipping lanes of communications, with probably the only weapon that they have left, submarines to try and consolidate at least something of US economy and influence across the world.

Right here the issue of escalation becomes complex.

Russia will not stand out of this and what happens when the Zircons start flying? How soon until Japan, Australia and Taiwan are demolished? We will leave this here for professional analysts to opine.

With that as a backdrop, let’s return to China, specifically the general belief that the Chinese are not born soldiers.

That is true, yet the difference is that they prefer to solve problems non-kinetically. (Which is 100% fine with me!) But, they have other abilities, one of which is that they do not give up. The Saker has often said that morale is the greatest weapon of a military force. In this case, I would add to that: preparedness. Again Martyanov said that this thinking on the dominance of sea-lanes is not new. Well, China knows that as well, and they have prepared.

Every school child and university student in China now goes through military training. For the school kids, it is part of the initiative by the Chinese leaders to relieve the school kids from absurd requirements for STEM learning and to get them outside to take part in healthy play and strengthen them physically.

Every city has a local militia and they are armed to the teeth and drill and practice continually. This alone is estimated at 1 million feet on the ground (from Chinese sources).

If kinetic action breaks out in their own backyard, they have the numbers and home team advantage.

Following are some comments from our China correspondents. I don’t have the necessary 2 sources plus another for these, but I put them here to give you an idea of the chat.

China is known to be able to set together production lines very quickly. In these comments, this one is comical and says that…

China is mass producing nuclear warheads like they crank out paper lanterns. The only thing on earth that is faster is the US money machine.

It may be a comical comment, but the underlying issue here is that the average Chinese person has no doubt that China will, and is able to build whatever is necessary, any war materiel of any kind, to withstand kinetic action.

Is this meaningful in discussing this escalation? I would say yes.

More comments:

If you think a war against China (and Russia – we have to call in Russia at this stage) will be a perpetual war, kindly think again. This is not a win or a lose – it is total destruction of the one that fires the first shot or shoots the first missile or positions the first submarine to destabilize sea-lanes.

Here's a hint; Destabilization of the sea shipping lanes will, by it's self create a near (if not total) collapse of the economies of the Western nations. Which, is, by the way, why the United States cannot fight a war with China.

This represents the average Chinese and their chat and it is not the type of barroom soldier chat. These are ordinary people.

China is a merit nation and very serious.

One can expect precision and ruthlessness.

You may want to believe that the Chinese are not born warriors or you may want to believe that they cannot innovate. You can believe what you want, but take a look at these comments:

They do not believe in surgical strikes should anyone attack them. They believe in pounding the source of the attack and whatever is around it, into oblivion. They have their own history as a template.

This is a point that I have been trying to pound into the brain-dead West for years now. So many article praising American precision munitions and "surgical strikes" are meaningless. 

China does not play. 

They will see an guy running in a field and cluster nuke that field into radioactive glass. They just don't give a fuck. Caprice?

Btw, does this remind you of the Russians, who said that any strike on Russia will not only take out the strike, but also the platform where the strike comes from? The interaction between Russia and China militarily has grown tremendously as well, but again, this is another analysis.

I expect full-on military readiness as the Chinese military has been on a readiness footing for about a year now.

An outstanding question is how unified Asia is around China. Again we come up against Martyanov’s principle of escalation and this is really difficult to predict.

There is the old saying that goes like this:

Do not march on Moscow!.

We need to add one.

Do not militarily threaten Baba Beijing!.

It does not matter how for how long, they do not count their own possible dead, but they will stay the course.

Can we hope for level heads in Washington DC? Realism tells us that we have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

China is doing that.

Oh, but what about Russia; the bear?

You all think that Russia will sit this one out? Are you fucking delusional? Maybe you haven’t noticed by the Chinese and Russian military cross-trains together. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but both military’s have their leadership in both HQ command centers. Maybe you haven’t’ noticed but immediately after the Australian submarine nuclear basing deal, the Russians and the Chinese held very long and serious “emergency” meetings of their top military leaders.

You haven’t noticed.

I’ll bet that you watch FOX “news”. CNN “news” or The Drudge Report “news”.

China and Russia are the pissed off nerds that are building “death rays” in their basements. China and Russia are the shunned, betrayed, and kicked upon wimps that stood tall while they were abused year after year. China and Russia are not going to play “ball”. No sure-ee. They are going to fucking devastate the playing field and what ever remains will be turned into mulch and used to fertilize their septic tanks.

Do you fucking think that Japan doesn’t know this? You should study some God damn history. Japan tries anything, anything, and it’ll be a radioactive series of ocean filled craters. Craters, mind you, that will have navigation warnings (in Chinese) for future shipping hazards.

Taiwan (and Japan) are islands.

Islands.

Islands, with densely populated zones and densely concentrated industrial zones. 

Which means that if China or Russia are ever attacked by, or from, these islands all they need to do is lob just a few well aimed missiles at a few critical nodes to create not only total chaos, but also cripple the WORLD high tech industry (this is also true for the ROK, by the way, were one specific facility can be easily destroyed and create total chaos worldwide.

Which means that those who in the Anglosphere think of their Japanese or Taiwanese “allies” as canon fodder are kidding themselves. Just 24 hours after any attack on the DPRK, the PRC or Russia the world economy will violently crash just from the sheer panic induced by such missile strikes.
As for the people living on Taiwan, the ROK or Japan, they will deal with such industrial pollution and chaos that warfighting will be the last thing on their minds.

And, if they don’t fully surrender at that point, both Russia and China can turn their small islands into wastelands.

By the way, the US force planners all know that. 

This was first taught to me by a *very* experienced US force planner in a class he called “why Japan cannot fight any war”. I am just adding the ROK and Taiwan to the list.

Finally, I think that most people in the region, at least in the ROK and Taiwan are aware of that.

-Anonymous

Do you have any idea how quickly South Korea will exit any alliance with the United States? Or haven’t you looked at a God damn map lately?

Korea is an a very, VERY bad location if it wants to support anti-China and anti-Russia activities.

America, Britain, and Australia has never experienced the receiving end of conquest. And it will be fucking nasty. Nasty.

People talk about “going medieval on your asses“.

Bullshit.

China and Russia are going to go ‘Bronze age on your asses.”.

How about being forbidden to speak English. Being forbidden to have children. How about being forbidden to drive a car, ride a bicycle or suffer the penalty of death? How about being forbidden to wear shoes. How about slave markets, and not being able to use currency or have access to a bank?

Yeah. Conquest is like that.

What? You think that it can’t happen?

YOU ALL HAVE IDIOTS IN CHARGE OF YOUR WESTERN NATIONS. Get God-damn serious (for a change) and face the reality.

You, yes you, need to start changing things before all Hell breaks out.

China forgives, but never forgets. You all better stop kicking Asia, or it is going to unleash bloody fucking fury on your asses. Just remember you DO NOT WANT TO BE ON PAYBACK side…

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The United States is a nation of a million tiny hands in your wallet. This is why it is an Neo-feudal oligarchy

I have often commented that American (today) is a land of a million tiny hands in your wallet. Being an American you don’t realize just how bad it is until you step outside of America and see what other nations are like. And there you see that there is something seriously wrong when the basic necessities of life, many which are basically pretty cheap, are taxed, regulated, and siphoned from by others who use it as a model to extract money.

Indeed, today, everything in America is a money-generating mechanism.

From removing public water fountains, and replacing it with water / soda vending machines, to requiring a person register with the county (or city) to be able to cut someone’s hair. To updating your driver license, to updating your vehicle license, to getting a pet license, to paying a fee to use an ATM. It’s all, every bit of it, a money-generating mechanism for the top 0.001% in society.

Why do you need to pay for a fishing license? Why do you need to renew your license plate? Why do you need to pay for a study on the lifestyles of migrant sparrows in your county?

Why? Why? Why?

Why? Because it is a way to generate money.

Not for you. Not for your family. Not even for your community. It’s for others, in far away towns, cities, and communities to get wealthy from.

Which is why I, and many others, refer to Americans as “debit serfs”.

Well, actually the serfs from the Middle ages had it much, much better than American do today. At a top tax of 10%. No fees. Nor regulations. No laws except those regarding a victim. And a full 100 days off a year in holidays, and a four day work week. A six hour long work day. Yeah. They had it much better than Americans do today.

Anyways, today we have two worlds;

A uni-polar world where the United States 0.001% oligarchy rules.
A multi-polar world where individual nations manage either societies as they see fit.

The United States is having a complete fit, and is literally fit to be tied, and is willing to destroy the rest of the world if that is what it takes to be the massive God-over-all. Have your read the George Soros tantrum articles? The Bloomberg articles? Jeeze!

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is moving on regardless.

Here is a most fantastic article that describes my vision of “America being the land of a million tiny hands in your wallet”. It’s brilliant. I only with that I was as good of a word-smith as these folk. I do hope that you enjoy it.

The article is below. All credit, yada, yada, yada.

China’s Fortune Cookie Crumbles

Michael Hudson • September 27, 2021

• 4,200 Words • 27 Comments

Ross Welcome to Renegade Inc. With China’s increasing wealth, Western investors want some of the action. One of those investors is a bullish gentleman called George Soros. However, the Chinese are acutely aware that with Western investment comes inequality. So as Beijing begins to rethink how to do proper economic growth, we ask, will China learn from Western mistakes?

Ross Michael Hudson, always great to have you back on Renegade Inc.

Michael Hudson It’s good to be back here. Thanks for having me.

Ross Michael, we join you at a time where a lot of people think the unipolar world could have maintained its supremacy. Turns out it hasn’t. Multipolar world is here to stay. You of late have been quite vocal about George Soros, no less. Mr. Soros has been casting aspersions about various things, but one of them is talking about the Chinese economy and why Black Rock, amongst others, should be allowed to invest there, because ultimately it’s going to undo American interests. Can you unpack that for us because it seems very complicated?

Michael Hudson Well, George Soros’ dream is that China would do what Yeltsin did to Russia – that it would privatise the economy, really carve it up and let US investors buy control of the most profitable heights. In that way, the foreign investors would be able to sort of get the profits of Chinese industry, Chinese labour, and it would become the darling stock market of the world, just like Russia’s stock market was the leading booming stock market of 1994-96. China would be run to benefit US investment bankers. Soros is furious that China is not following the neoliberal policy that the United States is following. It’s following a socialist policy wanting to keep its economic surplus at home to benefit its own citizens, not American financial investors. For Soros, this is a clash of civilisations. His proposed strategy is to stifle the Chinese economy by putting sanctions against it, to stop investing in it so as to force it to do to itself what Yeltsin did to Russia.

Ross Let’s hear it in his words. He says: ‘The BlackRock initiative imperils the national security interests of the US and other democracies because the money invested in China will help prop up President Xi’s regime, which is repressive at home and aggressive abroad. Congress should pass legislation empowering the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit the flow of funds to China. The effort ought to enjoy bipartisan support’. He’s not mincing his words, is he?

Michael Hudson He thinks that China actually needs American dollars to build its factories and invest. He thinks that somehow China’s balance of payments is going to fall apart without the US market, without US investors telling President Xi what to do. The Chinese government won’t have a clue as to what to invest in and how to let the ‘free market’, meaning George Soros and BlackRock and other companies, operate. So he’s living in a dream world where other people need us. It’s like a guy who doesn’t realise his girlfriend doesn’t need him anymore.

Ross There seems to me to be a distinction here that the Chinese are acutely aware of, and it’s between the classical economists and the neoclassical economists. The classical economists have understood the idea of unearned wealth, unearned income. The neoclassical economists actively chase unearned wealth, unearned income, because that is central to their playbook. Can you just expand on those two ideas? And is it the case that that’s why you talk about a clash of civilisations?

Michael Hudson Well, you put your finger on it, Ross. People think that China’s advantage is its abundant, low priced labour force, or the government building infrastructure. But what’s guiding this is an understanding of the kind of economics that goes back even beyond Marx, to Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill and the other classical economists. They realise that there’s a difference between earning income and creating wealth by employing labour to produce goods, to sell at a profit and then reinvest these profits and more capital formation, in contrast to simply buying a rent-yielding property, buying land and letting it rise in price without the landlord doing anything, buying a monopoly and just raising the price – charging monopoly prices like the US pharmaceutical companies are doing. China understands the difference between earned income and unearned income, between productive investment and unproductive investment.

In the United States, if they do recognise this difference, they realise that via unearned income you can make wealth by parasitically much quicker than you can actually create real wealth. It’s cheaper to be a parasite than a host. And so most of the financial strategy of Wall Street involves how to get something for nothing. How can we get a free lunch? Well, to do that as a major policy, we have to begin by telling people what Milton Friedman said: There is no such thing as a free lunch. But the whole of Wall Street is looking for a free lunch. They’re looking to grab Chinese assets on the cheap, like Soros has grabbed post-Soviet assets. They’re looking for monopoly rights. They’re looking for lending money and letting China do the work, to pay the interest to the Americans that are going to be providing it with money that the Federal Reserve ends up creating on its computers, or that George Soros already has saved largely by how he got the free lunch from the Bank of England betting against that and driving Sterling down.

Ross Some people call it the free world. Others call it a democracy. Others, for America, call it an advanced oligarchy. Do you think that the Chinese have looked at America and the wider West, understood that privatising all that rent has ultimately led to societal decline?

Michael Hudson They’re beginning to look at it that way. Most Chinese Marxists focused on Volume 1 of Capital, which is about employers hiring workers and putting them to work and making a profit off the mark-up. Only in the last couple of years have Volumes 2 and Volume 3 of Capital moved into central discussion in China. And it’s Volumes 2 and 3 that talk about economic rent. And so China has come to realise tha the United States is not an industrial economy. We’re not going to understand what’s happening in the United States, in England or Europe by looking only at what Marx wrote in Volume 1 of Capital, because they’re not making money industrially anymore. They’re making money by being a rentier economy, by landlordism, by monopolies and by bank credit, which Marx discussed in Volume 2 and 3.

So they’re now broadening the discussion. For the first time, you’re having, especially in the last month, China asking, “Do we want to let Chinese investors make money, financially, by buying housing, becoming absentee landlords and hoping that there is going to be a housing price inflation like you have in the United States? Or, do we want to keep housing low priced and not to bid it up by credit creation and finance?” They’re now realising that to keep China’s cost of living low, you have to keep the price of housing low. That means that you don’t want housing to become a commodity, an investment vehicle for absentee owners and landlords to make money. You want housing to be for Chinese people to live in. That means low-priced housing, not debt-leveraged housing as they’re seeing in the United States.

Ross I know somebody who works on the life boat on the Thames and they get a view each night that no one else would ever get. And they go up and down the Thames and they see all these high rises, which are oversupply of property, real estate. And there isn’t one light on in any of them. The reason, foreign investors, predominately the Chinese, have come bought them, clingfilmed the whole place, locked the door and then they chip off back to China – sit and wait, basically allow that land value to go up and cash out 10 years later. You can see what that does to local communities, schools, shops, infrastructure, services and all the rest of it – this absenteeism. Do you think that those foreign investors, the leadership in Beijing, has seen this model around the world and thought, yep, fine, we can do it over there, and yet we need to repatriate some money because of some of the liquidity issues that we’ve got over here. But we’re not having that as a central business model or a central economic model to our economies? Do you think that that light has gone on?

Michael Hudson Well, they’ve been discussing this regarding Hong Kong for the last 10 years. Hong Kong is the typical example of multi, multi-billionaires in real estate. They think that a socialist economy is not one that gets rich by creating absentee landlords. There’s been a large outflow of Chinese investment to the West. You have it in New York City on the west side, all very dark apartments with no lights on at night because they’re absentee-owned. Thorstein Veblen in 1923 wrote a book, Absentee Ownership, saying that housing should really be for living, not a speculative vehicle. But in America, real estate is all about civic development. It’s about how to increase real estate prices and create a bubble for speculators to find someone to flip the property to. I’m not sure it’s going to happen much longer and in London now that Brexit has occurred. But I think that what China is trying to do is asking how to create a domestic economy where Chinese people make money productively. They can not only afford a house of their own, but if they invest, they can invest in making China richer, not in buying income-yielding, rent-yielding, assets in America, England or Europe.

Ross Do you think that the pictures that we’ve recently seen on social media of the huge tower blocks that haven’t been finished, residential, that haven’t been finished for eight years and now they’ve just put semtex under them and raised the whole thing to the ground? Do you think that’s a real world example of the scar tissue, if you like, that private debt creates and in another sense, a Minsky moment? Blowing all these things up means that you get rid of all of that oversupply, which means that that inventory isn’t in the market and isn’t their to be flipped and speculated on.

Michael Hudson These are buildings where they wanted to pre-plan for what they thought was going to be a rural exodus, but the rural exodus didn’t occur into these cities. Right now, China is focusing, I think for the first time in quite a few years, much more on rural development. China is primarily a still a rural economy, a village economy. Most people don’t realise that. When you think of China, you think of Shanghai and Shenzhen and Beijing and even Wuhan. But the fact is that much of China’s rural and there can’t really be a rural exodus to the cities because you have a kind of passport plan in China. In order to live in Beijing, you have to have a permit to live in Beijing so the city won’t become even more overcrowded than it is now. They’re having to re-focus development much more on the rural areas that have not kept pace with the heavy industrial factory areas that have occurred. So they wanted to do a lot of building, not only to employ labour and to do construction, but to think just in case they needed this housing for the rural exodus, they needed it in place. Now they realise, OK, we’re not following that particular central planning idea.

Central planning really is very hard. It’s very hard to build whole small cities in advance with nobody there. It’s much easier to wait until they’re actually economic forces leading you to develop. So in that sense, China’s becoming more market oriented in its planning. But at the same time, it shapes the market, increasingly, to create domestic prosperity and earning opportunities, not unearned rent-extracting opportunities, but productive earning opportunities. This is an ongoing process of re-evaluating, restructuring, fixing up and improving the economy.

Ross Michael Hudson, welcome back. Great to have you for the second half.

Michael Hudson Thanks.

Ross Michael, we said right at the top of this programme that there is, let’s say, a tug of war between the unipolar and the multipolar. China have looked at the West and they must conclude now, the Russians also, must conclude, that the Western economic model is fatally flawed. In many ways, what you’ve got in America is an advanced oligarchy. Across Europe, you’ve got a zombie banking system. And basically the model for the last certainly 30, 40 years has been to extract as much rent as possible and pass it off as an economic miracle. To avoid all that, this fork in the road has crystallised. What do you think will be the decisions coming out of Beijing when they look at the economy in a more holistic way and they realise that they want to better the lot of the average Chinese citizen?

Michael Hudson Well, as I pointed out, their concept of the economy realises the distinction between earned income and unearned income, between rent and profits. It wants to make profits, not economic rents. And it also sees that the United States is trying to prevent it from going along this socialist road, and that’s really the new Cold War. You mentioned unipolar versus multipolar. It’s actually not so much that China, Russia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, along with Kazakhstan and Iran and now the other groups are pulling away. It’s the United States that’s trying to force them to follow the US neoliberal model by imposing sanctions and special penalties and military threats, not to mention ISIS terrorism. The United States is driving Europe, Asia and now Africa as well, into a unified, consolidated unit outside of itself. It’s very self-destructive. It thinks like George Soros, that if we stop investing in Asia and other countries, that will force them to knuckle under to the US. But what it’s doing is it’s driving them altogether into the Belt and Road Initiative.

What China’s doing is creating a precondition for a profitable industrial economy over a large area to benefit from. It’s participants are going to need transportation. You’re going to need ports. You’re going to need roads. You’re going to need pipelines and is focusing on the interconnections, on the infrastructure.

America doesn’t build infrastructure these days unless it’s monopolised. This is the political fight going on in the United States now. President Biden has a infrastructure plan that he’s scaled down from six and a half trillion to three and a half trillion. And essentially the bulk of the Democratic and Republican Party said if we can’t privatise infrastructure and make it a rent-extracting monopoly, we’re not going to do it, and we’re going to block the government from doing it.

So in the United States, they’re going to have high priced infrastructure, high-priced health care and high-priced education while China is going to have low-priced transportation, low-cost infrastructure, free education, public health care.

And you’re going to have a very high-cost United States unable to compete with the rest of the world.

All it can do is make military threats or financial threats. If it tries to impose sanctions as it’s imposed on Russia, China and other countries, these are going to serve as protective tariffs for foreign countries.

When President Trump put sanctions on agricultural exports to Russia, it was a windfall for Russia. They developed their own agriculture and Russia is now the largest grain exporter in the world. Senator McCain characterised Russia as a gas station of atom bombs, but it’s a gas station with the largest farm sector in the world, and is developing an industrial integration with China and the rest of Asia. It’s a Eurasian world island as Mackinder called it a century ago, and it is becoming the economic focus of the world, leaving the United States as the high cost economy with no visible means of support, because we’re not doing our own industry anymore. We’re not competing with China. We’re letting China do all of the industry, and all of a sudden we’re dependent on it. This does not bode good for prosperity in the United States or Europe and other areas that are satellites of the US economy.

Ross What is the probability of the West going, hang on, we have taken a detour here, we need to do something differently?

Michael Hudson I’d say maybe between one and two percent. In order to understand that you’re taking a wrong detour, you have to understand what the right path is, and why China’s doing it right. They can’t acknowledge that, because that’s called socialism. And when everyone points out that instead of having health care absorbing 18 percent of the American GDP, you could provide public health care and lower the cost of living in the United States. That’s a precondition for making labour more competitive.

Well, the employers are going to argue that if you make health care public, then you’re going to lose the ability to lock-in labour to its employers. Right now in the United States, especially during the pandemic, if you work for an employer for a living, you’re afraid of being fired because you lose your health insurance and that is a threat of bankruptcy.

If you complain about your job, you might be fired. That’s a danger. So having private health care paid for by the employers locks labour into dependency. They’re afraid to ask for higher wages. They’re afraid to ask for pensions. Privatized employer-based health care has become part of the class war here, and it is succeeding in impoverishing labour. Same thing with privatized education costs financed on credit at fairly high interest rates, without any bankruptcy recourse to wipe them out..

President Biden promised that he was going to wipe out student debt. If you have students paying 40 to 50 thousand dollars a year to have a college education and a college diploma is a precondition for getting a job like a union card used to be, then you’re going to have that added to the cost of living. When you have all of these privatised – education, health care, not to mention housing and other factors – when you have all these rent-extracting exploitative sectors you cannot be a competitive economy. You can only get money by conquering and exploiting other countries, by owning their own rent-extracting sectors and monopoly-profit sectors.

But there’s no one to conquer anymore. America couldn’t even conquer Afghanistan. Every economy for the last 5,000 years has two parts. There’s the real economy of producing and consuming and paying taxes and government services. And then there’s the debt and financial overhead.

All economies operate on credit. The problem is that credit cost money, and creditor claims accumulate at compound interest. if you look at the compound interest for anybody’s savings – take the wealth of the One Percent and all the trillions of dollars they have – if you leave your money to accumulate compound interest, it grows exponentially. But economies don’t grow exponentially.

They grow in an S-curve, and sometimes there’s an interruption. Sometimes there’s a disease like Covid. Sometimes there’s bad weather and a environmental disaster or there’s a war. And once there’s an interruption, what do you do with the fact that the finance sector grows faster?

Well, this goes way back to Babylonia. It occurred in Greece and Rome. Ultimately the tendency is for the financial sector to take over and to use the financial returns to take over real estate. And so there’s a symbiosis between real estate and finance. That’s occurred in every economy for the last 2,000 years since Greece and Rome.

It certainly characterises where most money and most wealth is made today.

In the universities, you take a course and they say, well, you accumulate wealth by saving up the wages and saving up the profits you made. But that’s not how the wealthy classes got money. That’s not how the One Percent have made money. They have made money either by taking property from the public domain by privatisation, or it’s made today by the central banks, lowering interest rates, flooding the market with credit, enough credit to push up real estate prices 20 percent in the United States in the last year. Housing prices have gone way up to unaffordable levels, pushing up education prices – and education is priced at whatever a bank or the government will lend you to pay with a student loan. It’s all financialization.

It turns out that what people thought was industrial capitalism has turned out to be finance capitalism instead.

So what China is doing is saying that it’s not going to let our industrial capitalism evolve into finance capitalism. It’s going to evolve into socialism, because they’re a socialist government.

Ross Just say the Chinese, the penny’s dropped and they’ve understood how badly wrong the West got it. What does the Chinese economy, and as importantly, society look like 10, 20 years from today?

Michael Hudson It’ll be a more balanced, less polarised economy. It will still let people make fortunes, but not gigantic fortunes large enough for an independent oligarchy to develop, to become a rival to government and try to replace government. In the West, you’ve had a financial oligarchy evolve and take over planning from elected government. So we don’t have democracy now.

It means a free market where you leave everything to Wall Street as your central planner.

So China is going to leave its planning spontaneously to individuals to innovate, to develop, where America is becoming, and England, are centrally planned economies planned by Wall Street, not to create prosperity, but to create rent-extracting opportunities for Wall Street stocks and bonds and absentee real estate.

So you’re going to have a rentier economy – let’s call it neofeudalism – while the rest of the world goes forward into what industrial capitalism was meant to be a century ago before it was sidetracked in the West.

Much of Eurasia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will evolve into socialism, as most expected would happen in the West a century ago.

Ross You talk about Super Decadence. Is the irony lost on you that one of your politicians recently attended a 35,000 dollar gala event dressed in an expensive dress with the words ‘tax the rich’ embroidered all over the back of it?

Michael Hudson That perception of inequality has become so popular that you can almost make fun of it. There’s something called neurolinguistic programming, that says that if you have a problem, a headache or something, if you can imagine your headache or your problem being very far away and then expanding and expanding and finally, poof, it all dissolves and goes away.

They think that they can say “Tax the rich” and just make it into a phrase that’s so popular, it doesn’t really mean tax the rich any more.

It means that you accept inequality, but realize that it’s just become part of the system – and wouldn’t it be nice if there were a parallel universe in which we could indeed tax the rich. But of course, that’s just a nice fantasy.

Ross Michael, always entertaining. Always a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time.

Michael Hudson It’s wonderful to be here, Ross. Thanks for having me on your show.

POSTSCRIPT:

Right after this interview, China did on its own just what George Soros was asking U.S. money managers to do: Stop lending money to China. So China itself made an about-face and turned down the BlackRock’s plans to buy a large Chinese real estate company, and it did not pay foreign holders of its Evergrande bonds on September 23.

Diplomatically, China had expected Wall Street firms to lobby to stop America’s anti-China policy. And indeed, many Wall Street executives did point out to the U.S. government that China offered many opportunities for America to make money, and urged not to treat it as an enemy. But the military-industrial complex (MIC) has its own agenda, along with the neocon and neoliberal advocates of unique U.S. unilateralism.

I think that ever since China’s officials met in Alaska with Mr. Blinken earlier this year, they see the handwriting on the wall, as have Russia and other SCO members. The’ve accepted that the world economy is fracturing between the U.S.-centered “free world” (central planning by Wall Street and unilateral diplomacy from Washington) and the multilateralizing rest of the world.

Conclusions

Cut out the different terms, and you discover that these fellows are talking about something that I have noticed for a long, long time. And this is one of the primary reasons why you feel so free once you step outside of the American gulag-state.

Granted, the way that I speak and talk will just be considered too “colonial” for these kinds of people, but the fact still remains, no matter what you call it.

America is a nation that does not make anything.

Instead, it is a nation of the oligarchy that act as leeches, feeding of the most basic needs of the American people.

And as the people get sick and tired of this situation, and they start to revolt and fight back, the oligarchy has but one remaining trick… distraction. And the distraction is a major war with a major power.

They chose China.

Way back in 2004 – 2005 as they believed that it was the weaker of the two (China and Russia) And they are still playing that game, still following though the plans, even though things have changed substantially in China since then.

The one to tame this monster of a beast, my gut feeling is, will not be China. It will be Russia. And that is for another discussion at another time.

…

For all that talk about how great America is, just pales in comparison to China. And that is simply because NOW (at this time… subject to change, of course) that the Chinese government serves the people. And the United States does not.

And, rather than go one and on about it, and angering my American friends, here’s a comparison…

If you go down the list you can easy see how true it is.

Regulations. Well, in America you had best comply with a EPA study to see if your local spangled wombat spider isn’t going to be affected when you add a pool to your back yard. That will cost money. Who will get the money? Well, it’s “the regulators”. How do you become a state regulator? Come on, boys and girls, you know that you can apply all you want but only the select few get state jobs.They are the friends of those already in power. Don’t believe me? Apply for a state job that pays a decent wage.

Laws. Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. There’s two sets in America. One for us, and one for the wealthy. That’s it. Argument over.

Domestic Policy. In America nothing is done domestically unless some oligarch can profit from it. That’s the way it is Jack, and the 7 trillion dollars that President Biden is proposing isn’t going anywhere except into the wallets of the wealthy.

Let’s compare…

Infrastructure

Here’s Chinese infrastructure…VIDEO

Transportation

Here’s China’s HST that are friggin’ everywhere!…VIDEO

Here’s an American Amtrak train proudly displaying the colors of it’s financial sponsor…

Fireworks

Here’s an example that China is about BIG CHANGES on a massive scale…VIDEO

And American Fireworks to bring in 2021…

Innovation

Here’s everyday China. VIDEO.

Here’s everyday America.

People.

Here’s China. And here is WHY everything in China is so darn MASSIVE about everything…VIDEO

Here’s America… VIDEO.

And Evergrande

No such thing as too “big to fail”…

… and there is no such thing as “criminal billionaires will automatically be spared for wrong doing” in china:

Evergrande may survive, but for its executives expect a fate worse than debt.

China may yet manage to avoid a catastrophe with the collapse of property giant Evergrande – but its executives will feel Beijing’s wrath.

Richard Holden, The Conversation

October 1, 2021 – 8:59AM

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/evergrande-may-survive-but-for-its-executives-expect-a-fate-worse-than-debt/news-story/4ceae41d8762d43f4b81e07ab4835b1d

This is the difference between a people’s government and a billionaires democracy.

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[daegonmagus] – Part 8 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 1: The Lucid Void Space and The Three Meditations

The following is the eighth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

This particular article is not part of the direct set of articles that are autobiographical in scope and content.

Instead, this article concerns a lesson on how to conduct “Lucid Dreaming” (as a prelude to “Astral Travel”).

Part 8 – Lucid Dreaming Lesson 1: The Lucid Void Space and The Three Meditations

This is part of series of articles in lucid dreaming based off my own experiences and experiments in that area.

What I am attempting to externalise here is something that cannot be described accurately with words, as they need to be experienced to properly understand them.

So others involved in lucid dreaming might have different interpretations. These articles will eventually become the curriculum for my Ordo Occultum Astrum.

It is my goal to provide a proper curriculum for not just lucid dreaming, but strengthening the psyche to better deal with everything one may be exposed to in the dream state.

These articles where part of the task given to me by the leader of the Unseen 5 in which I was to provide the framework to allow others to tap into the power that lucid dreaming can offer.

I don’t want anything in return except for them to be studied from an objective perspective and developed further as I believe humanity can greatly benefit from them.

I would be grateful if you document your experiences and tell me about them, but it is in no way an obligation.

So what is lucid dreaming anyway?

If you are part of any lucid dreaming/ astral projection communities, the “experts” may tell you it is simply the ability to become conscious when you are dreaming.

And that’s about it.

They might tell you can do some cool things like fly around, but in a general sense they don’t seem to offer anything that would seem appealing to those who are not into the subject of the metaphysical.

Depending on which groups you are part of you might be lucky enough to get some tips and tricks on how to trick your mind into realising it is sleeping.

These techniques consist of reality checks and other thought disciplines that will apparently embed your sub consciousness with certain things to make it become conscious during a dream.

While I am not saying that these techniques are complete bullshit, I am going to tell you I am yet to come across anyone on any of these groups speaking of lucid dreaming at a level anywhere near what I know about and have been experimenting with for the past 2 decades.

What I know about lucid dreaming should make the whole world sit up straight, turn their heads and PAY SOME FUCKING ATTENTION.

Anyone who has been following this blog so far knows that I have made some pretty far out claims in regards to what can be achieved whilst lucid. You will inevitably stumble across experts with a lot to tell you on the subject for some sort of recompense.

I am not saying these people are wrong in their assertions or fraudsters out to make a quick buck.

After all, everyone needs to earn a living right? Some of them may actually be beneficial aids to supplement what I have to say.

I honestly don’t have the time or resources to go through them all and tell you what is bullshit and what isn’t.

All I can offer is my own two cents, and my two cents is that lucid dreaming is much, much, MUCH more than just realizing you are dreaming.

Sure this is one aspect of it, but I would relegate such a skill down towards the novice end of the spectrum.

Even if you could consistently “wake yourself up” in the dream state into this knowing, if that is all you could do you would still be missing out on A LOT of what lucid dreaming has to offer.

It is my firm belief that lucid dreaming is the very solution to humanity’s existential crisis.

It is my belief that it is our very evolution point, but unfortunately that this evolution will also take a collective effort. So consider this my part in that effort.

It is far more exciting, in my opinion, to remain conscious whilst undergoing the transition into the sleeping state.

This way you have much better control of dream creation and have access to one of the most important aspects of the mind; what Carl Jung (also a lucid dreamer) called the collective unconscious and what I call the “void space”.

I will state this plainly; all lucid dreaming activities should be carried out with the goal to access and control this void space as much as possible. I cannot over emphasize this.

Why?

Well, according to my experiments, experiences and what was told to me by the leader of the Unseen 5 this void space is directly connected to every consciousness in existence {presided over by the “god consciousness” of the divine creator} and it is being hijacked by non physical entities to keep you “dumb”. I am not meaning to be derogative here.

What I mean is that the average person cannot effectively access their void space and control it because the power it would afford them is too great in the eyes of these non physical hijackers.

This power is a reconnection to what is known as the higher self. And no I am not throwing that term out loosely to woo you with new age speak.

Neither am I implying some sort of epiphany one comes to after spending a few hours meditating on a beach somewhere after doing a bit of yoga.

It is an actual state of awareness far, far, FAR above what you use on a regular basis that can be reached through the art of lucid dreaming. It also takes years of discipline to get there.

Just how powerful is this higher state of awareness I hear you ask?

Well, if you could combine the processing power of every single entity on earth and have them focus on one goal, you would be getting close…..to about 0.000000001 percent of what the higher self is capable of.

For the sake of simplicity, consider it the normal mode of operation for the mind of an advanced ET species.

The same type that know how to build intergalactic space craft capable of bending space time type of advanced.

Excited yet? Good, lets get back to the void space.

I mentioned that the void space is an important part of the consciousness makeup. You can use it to not only create your own dreams, but also to hijack others dreams and tune into telepathic thought processes with seemingly no limit to distance, if my experiences are anything to by.

It is the communication highway of all physical and non physical entities that extend into the 5^th dimension.

Think of it like a google translator app that can automatically translate the dialect of non Earth language speaking ETs.

This and much, much more.

It is my intention to supply you with everything I know on accessing and controlling this void space to allow for the communication of “higher” information to trickle down into this dense physical plane.

This was what my task within the Unseen 5 ultimately boils down to, and is what I believe will result in a proper “evolution of human consciousness”.

So you can say I am taking these articles quite seriously. And you get it all for the super low price of absolutely free.

My authority in this subject comes from the fact that I was ordained as master of lucid dreaming by the Elder Guardians – who I assume were the Ascended Masters.

Take it or leave it, I really don’t care.

But understand that I am apparently one of less than a dozen others currently alive on earth that hold such a level of understanding of what is really achievable whilst in this void space. I developed my abilities to the point that two separate non physical “factions” were able to communicate to me because of it. And they both want me to tell you about it.

I can tell you I have communicated with other non-physical and “dead” entities using it.

I have also used it to remote view through the eyes of an ET entity in a completely different star system to ours. I have used it to “tune” into a conversation with non physical entities and to heal a catastrophic injury to my hand.

You get the picture yet?

All the things you read on psychics, clairvoyants, remote viewers and scryers and the things they are able to do can be traced back to this void space and its ability to act as an ultra dimensional information receiver.

They just figured out how to “bleed” that information into the physical world, even though most of them probably won’t be able to tell you how. I can describe the whole process to you.

If you will allow me.

Undoubtedly most will call it all bullshit, but how many I wonder will commit themselves to my meditation regime before doing so?

But tapping into all this is further along the spectrum toward the more advanced end. Just like you cannot expect to be able to play a full concerto at your very first piano lesson, one cannot expect to control their void space upon its first access.

Make no doubt about it, this is some very advanced stuff; you need to be intent in the idea it will take you a long time before you get to this level of control. If you think this way, it will actually take a lot less time.

This is something I figured out when learning how to play bass back when I was 13 years old.

A lot of it is trial and error. So I am going to take this in baby steps. I am going to build you up bit by bit so your efforts in lucid dreaming may not be wasted when you finally get there.

I am going to teach you how to master the dream state through the awakened one.

Before we begin I feel we must go through the usual disclaimer. There are obviously dangers inherent in lucid dreaming.

My experiences are suggestive of this, as are the words of the Domain Commander on the subject.

I am not going to tell you it is perfectly safe.

What I am going to say is that I wasn’t in a particular good frame of mind when I met these dangers. This is important because your thoughts and emotions during lucidity have a direct bearing on what you will experience.

You will need to learn to control both if you want penetrate through the dream barrier into other non physical realms.

As you will come to learn, your thoughts and emotions will be the very controller by which you navigate the dream world. If you are too focused on all the shit Hollywood pumps out in the form of “entertainment” you will have a very difficult and likely bad time.

I am not telling you not to watch your favourite movies, just try not to cling on their content too much. Neither am I going to guarantee this will work for everyone. Remember, this is knowledge I gained through years of experiments.

When I first started out, I never had so much as a book to guide me on my ways. I had to fly blind, so to speak, the whole damned way.

If you come across a more efficient way in your own experiments, by all means use it. Just let me know so I can include it in my documentation on this subject. I want this to be an enjoyable experience for everyone , and the easier something is the more enjoyable it is.

The bad shit won’t come until you are able to vanquish it, if you follow everything I lay out before you.

If I do my job properly, it should be like swatting an annoying fly out of your way.

It will be like that startled reaction you get from seeing a poisonous spider, then realising you can just empty a can of Raid on it. No big deal.

Now, for those who are not familiar with either, lucid dreaming crosses the boundary of astral projection.

This boundary is often blurry, so is something I will discuss further along.

Just note that astral projection can be achieved through various states along the lucid dreaming line. In both instances you detach your consciousness from your body and can use it to explore the non-physical planes.

To simplify things, consider lucid dreaming as being a 4^th dimensional hub in which astral projection is but a single branch of possibility coming off that hub {I just got a low pitched ringing in my left ear when writing that}.

Other possibilities include auric projections, which are about a million times more fantastic than astral projections and exist in the 5^th dimensional domain. Looking at it this way, you can think of lucid dreaming as a sort of 4^th dimensional bridge into the 5^th dimension.

An Auric projection is one where you break through the barrier put in place by non physical entities that contains you in a “sleeping state”.

Let that sink in for a while; your entire unconscious dream experience is nothing but a cleverly crafted containment zone to disorientate your consciousness so it doesn’t leave a predetermined 4^th dimensional boundary.

The haze of a standard dream state is {seemingly} due to a consciousness doping agent put in place to stop you from waking up into a higher order of reality.

This is all to stop you from realising your soul’s true potential; that you existed in your state of higher awareness before you did incarnated in a physical body. According to mine and my wife’s experiences anyway.

The more you learn to control your dreams the more you develop a resistance to the effects of this containment zone.

You may start remembering things that are uncomfortable.

You may start remembering things that are painful.

But I guarantee that on the other side of that barrier you will come into contact with your higher self and proper “soul memory”.

You will remember yourself as an IS-BE all the way back into the dim mists of time.

You will then realise that all those painful and uncomfortable memories are nothing but illusions. It’s like waking up from a dream and realising it has no actual bearing on who you are now in this present moment. Only the dream is this physical reality you are engaged in.

Before we can get here though, we need to start off with some basics, and that is what this article will be about.

It might be boring.

It might be tedious.

It might be something you relegate to being complete bullshit.

You might think it all has nothing to do with lucid dreaming, but all I am asking is that you trust me. It is my goal to build you back into the strong consciousness that you are, so that you are impervious to these non physical manipulations of your void space.

So, first thing is first.

Go out and buy yourself a blank journal, a working pen, and a triangular pillow. The journal will be used for you to start recording your dreams.

Not just lucid dreams either. Everything you experience whilst in the dream state, you are going to write down in as much detail as you can remember.

Those bits that dangle just out of reach of your memory, you are going to try and force yourself to remember. You are going to keep this journal beside your bed, within arms reach.

If a dream experience is so intense it wakes you up in the middle of the night, you are going to reach for your journal and record all it all down right then and there.

You are NOT going to wait for the morning to do it, because much of the information in your dreams will be lost by the time you properly wake up. You can use a digital journal if you want, but I suggest also having a backup physical copy as well just in case.

There is nothing worse than having a detailed write up of your experiences disappear when the computer it is written on gets stolen or breaks.

Believe me.

This act of dream recording will train your subconsciousness to pay attention to your dreams. Hopefully, after a month or so, you will start to come to the sudden realisation you are dreaming.

One example I remember vividly had to do with my bass guitar. This was a beautiful 5 string bass my father bought me for my 14^th birthday.

The body had a nice red coloured wood that was separated by a “rainbow” of different laminates for the neck that ran through all the way to the bridge.

It was a neck through rather than the common bolt on variety. This thing was my pride and joy and I used to “slap” {a funk technique} it into oblivion every time I picked it up.

It’s sound was a perfect mix of tininess for slap and low end hum for the more progressive grooves I’d play. One night I was dreaming I was walking past a swimming pool, and this thing was just lying on the ground next to it.

Without thinking I just randomly picked it upand threw it into the middle of the swimming pool. It was just so spontaneous it made me stop and pay attention.

As it sunk to the bottom of the pool, I thought to myself, “Hang on a minute, I would never do this to my bass. This must be a dream”. It was enough to snap me out of the hypnosis that I was dreaming.

I cannot remember exactly what I did after that, but I know it involved creating a much better and more exciting dream of my own choosing. Aim for this same spontaneity to snap you “awake” in the dream state, but control your excitement or it will completely wake you up.

Try experimenting with things that have a sentimental value and spontaneous thoughts that equate to something you would never do to such an artefact.

Throw that wedding ring into Mount Doom, shave your head completely bald. Think of doing something outrageous that will make you stop and think WTF.

Triangular pillows are pillows that form a not quite 90 degree corner. Apparently a lot of old people use them. I scored mine off my grandfather after he passed away from lung cancer when I was 9.

I get that everyone has their own sleeping comforts. Certain mattress preferences. One pillow, two pillow preferences etc. You might not like triangular pillows.

They might be something you consider as being uncomfortable.

I am sorry to tell you that there is a certain degree of uncomfortable you will need to get used to if you want to properly lucid dream. This is one of them. Ok so maybe they are not essential, but I believe they will help significantly.

The reason for this is based on my own observations and positions I would wake up in immediately after a lucid dream.

These positions I would then experiment with to induce lucidity and they actually worked.

The triangular pillow, I have found, allows your head to rest in the exact “right” position which would be a space gap if you tried putting two standard pillows together.

Did I mention it is going to be uncomfortable? It will take some time to build up getting used to this lucid dreaming pose. But more on that later.

Also have a sheet or blanket that you only use for lucid dreaming. Use it every time you are going to consciously try, and put it away when you are not.

This tip comes from a Native American who suggests you will be imbuing such a blanket with specific “dream energy” that will build up and ultimately help induce it.

So now you’ve got your pillow and journal, you are all set to go to sleep and try and wake up in the dream right?

Wrong.

Whilst other self proclaimed experts will tell you to go right ahead, I am going to bore you with some other things first. Remember I have a responsibility to build your skills slowly. This includes preparing you mentally for what you might experience.

Allow me to take a bit of a detour and tell you about what I call my Leverian Theology.

The Leverian Theology is a system of thought I developed back when I was studying both electronics and occult subjects side by side.

I began noticing certain similarities in both curriculums which led me to believe that “no thoughts are entirely belonging to the mind that thought them”.

It was my belief that all thoughts were derivations of higher celestial mechanics that had in parts been “remembered” by the consciousness developing them.

All inventions, I supposed came about by the inventor sub consciously accessing a non physical energy matrix {the void space/ collective unconscious} and tapping into cosmological mechanics that were already there to begin with.

Thus I assumed that by taking current technological models, and following them from finish to start, one could develop a functional model by which to unravel and understand complex cosmological concepts.

While the actual model is not important, what is important is that one has a way to categorise their thoughts, especially when it comes to lucid dreaming and meditation.

The reason is that when you receive higher information, it doesn’t always come in the form you would expect.

It doesn’t tend to come through all at once either. If you wish to master lucid dreaming, you need to have a system by which to sort your thoughts.

You can then figure out the overall function of one piece of information in relation to the rest.

When more information starts coming in, you can bring up this overall function rather than trying to go back and remember the whole other experiences in totality.

In my case, my Leverian Theology acted as a sort of filing system to deal with the information I was receiving. This is the true secret to being able to properly develop advanced lucid dreaming and meditation abilities.

Again I am yet to come across anyone bothering to mention such a significant aspect. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, only that I specifically haven’t found them.

The categorisation of thought is one of the most crucial aspects to meditation and lucid dreaming, in my opinion. Later, we are going to delve into a very well known system of thought categorisation called the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

This will deal with the alchemical aspects of mental preparation on reconnecting with the higher self.

But while we are on the subject of meditation, let’s talk about the meditative practices needed to achieve proper lucid awareness of the dream state.

I am going to give you three meditations I suggest practicing.

You might have your own meditations that work for you. By all means, continue to use them. The three meditations I am going to give, however, are specifically for lucid dreaming purposes.

They are designed to build specific disciplines required to properly induce lucidity, based on my own observations. Essentially what you are going to be doing is learning how to remain “still”, both physically and mentally. This is not a lightweight task.

What you effectively need to be doing is becoming your own psychoanalyst. You need to learn how to “catch” your thoughts as they arise, observe them objectively and trace their origins.

If you are one who meditates regularly, then there is no need to dedicate even more time to these.

Just include them as part of your already established regime. For those who are not big on meditating much, try doing them at night when you are in bed with your eyes closed.

The First Meditation, Visualisation:

The first step to gaining control of your void space is to practice visualisation. When I was a kid I had this weird scenario that would pop up from time to time.

It ended up becoming somewhat of a visualisation practice because it drove me fucking crazy. I’d just randomly have this thought of someone running on a roof and jumping off onto a car bonnet {what you guys in America call the hood}. It wasn’t even a very big height either.

Like a couple of metres at most. The thing was though, my brain would distort the physics of the scenario. Every time this person would land on the bonnet, they would crush it and the car would pivot like they were jumping on a see saw.

It was reminiscent of how the Hulk would crush something by jumping on it from a low height.

The reason it drove me crazy was because I knew it was an impossibility. And it totally fucked with the movie in my head of this guy doing cool parkour tricks.

I don’t know why this thought would appear – maybe it was something I saw on a cartoon or something – but it was consistent enough for me to remember it more than a decade later.

Now, the problem I was having is that I could not visualise this person not crushing the car and following a more proper path as defined by physics.

It took me quite a long time before I was able to counter this silly little scenario that would often pop up as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep. I actually felt a great sense of relief when I could watch that guy run along the roof, jump on the car and continue in his act of parkour.

It is silly I know, but I am sure everyone can relate to similar scenarios that consume their thoughts at the best of times. It also gives us a good idea of what to expect whilst in the dream state. It gives us a very real glimpse into how hard the void space can be to control.

When you are lucid and operating in the void space, you do not see the things the same as you see in physical reality.

There is no physical horizon for you to set your sights upon.

Instead you are swarmed by imagery that lays dormant in your sub consciousness.

If you focus on any of this imagery it has a tendency to become more vivid and solidify in the form of a dream or a disruption.

Hence why if you cannot learn to control this imagery, you will not be able to regain proper control of your void space. Period.

So what I want you to do is to include this visualisation practice in your meditations: picture a single orange resting in a bowl on your kitchen counter. Now imagine you can see the orange in explicit detail.

I want to you mentally zoom up close to it and really see the texture of the skin. Now try moving to the opposite side and picture some sort of blemish.

As you get good at holding a vivid, high definition picture of the orange in your mind, try adding more fruit to the bowl. Start scanning through all of them like you are watching a movie. Once you get good, experiment with different scenarios taking place.

If you are sore, mentally try to zoom in to where your ailment is, going through biological layer after layer and shining white light on a single atom.

Imagine this light reflects off every other atom in a chain reaction until you are bathed in a cloud of light.

This is a healing technique supposedly used by St Germaine by the way – I can tell you it works if your visualisation practices are strong enough.

The idea is to train your mind to be able to conjure up its own images, and not rely on whatever media left an impression on your sub consciousness.

You can’t let that scenario equivalent to mine with the guy doing Hulk parkour with its altered physics win.

The Meditation of Silence of Thought:

The next meditation is designed to “un-hypnotise” you.

What’s that you say?

You aren’t hypnotised? Sorry to tell you but you live in a world full of advertising. Turn on the TV or go for a quick drive and tell me you are not being blasted by an advertisement every 5 seconds.

If you live in a rural community I might believe you.

How long before you make your way past one though? Let’s cut the bullshit and tell it for what it is. All advertising is brainwashing, and all brainwashing is forced hypnotism.

Still don’t believe me?

Do me a favour and next time you get an urge for a Big Mac and cheese or a Bud light ask yourself why you got it.

Don’t just ask yourself, trace the thought and pin point exactly what it was that made you think you wanted one. Not just the easy answer of “I was hungry”.

I want you to trace the whole pathway of your thought and why it was you chose a Big Mac and cheese over a Subway 6 inch. Was choice even involved in the equation?

You’ll probably find that you can’t pin point the exact moment that thought took hold. It was just sort of there in the back of your mind, then when your hunger instinct kicked in the thought took charge of “you”.

Now start doing it with all of your thoughts. I want you to catch every single thought you have, remove yourself to a third person perspective and start analysing them objectively.

I want you to ask yourself why it is you like that certain brand of car over all others.

Why you like that certain football team out of all the rest.

Why you find people that wear body piercings and tattoos distasteful. All those thoughts that are heavily ingrained into you and have the potential to make you choose one thing over another.

All those things that have the potential to make you make serious life choices.

Anything which will lead you to have a heavy emotive reaction to a situation. Everything. You are no longer allowed to just react to situations on autopilot.

Though when you inevitably do, I want you to ask yourself why you reacted that way. Do these thoughts belong to you, or are they a part of a family or social “tradition” that has been handed down to you through cultural biasing. You will be surprised how many thoughts are not actually “yours”.

Once you start catching these thoughts, try experimenting with neutralising them with their polar opposites.

When there is a “gnawing feeling” that you should react a certain way, take a breath and just observe it passively.

The human mind has a myriad of triggers that professionals have learnt how to push and prod. Unfortunately for you, they don’t stop being pushed just when an advertisement has run its course through your head.

This is how you learn how to deactivate them. By doing so you will be teaching yourself to be less prone to manipulation whilst in the void space.

You will strengthen your psychological disposition towards dealing with whatever the dream state throws at you. This is a big part of what occult philosophy is about.

This meditation will then extend into vanquishing the inner monologue in your head. That voice and imagery inside your head at bed time that tends to trail off and lead you down a road of sheer randomness.

Effective lucid dreaming and astral projection comes from finding a way to completely vanquish those thoughts.

When you lie there in bed try focusing on the sound of your breathing and nothing else. It takes some practice but eventually you should be able to notice those distracting thoughts as they arise and refocus on your breathing.

To strengthen this thought vanquishing practice, do yourself a favour and next time you attend a speaking session with someone at a podium in front of a crowd, just sit and observe.

Try to remain in one position and take in your whole surroundings without moving your eyes or your head. Watch how people react to the speaker and try and pin point those reactions that are subconscious ones. Keep your eyes open for as long as possible without blinking.

If done properly this should put you in a trance like state, and your surroundings will become extremely vivid.

Pay attention to your thoughts and take note of any that seem to “scream” at you from seemingly nowhere. What you are doing is tuning into the void space whilst in an awakened state, and preparing yourself for the next meditation.

The Meditation of Stillness of the Body:

This is where things begin to get uncomfortable. And I mean that literally. This meditation builds upon the still position used to induce a trance like state. It is, in my opinion, the most important practice one must master if they want to be able to remain conscious through the transition into the sleeping state. One should try going to bed before they reach a noticeable state of fatigue.

To begin with you are going to take up a comfortable position, and you are going to lie there for as long as possible unmoving. The idea is to build up the length of time you can remain unmoving.

Keep trying for just a little bit longer every time you practice it.

The key is not move even through every annoying itch and twitch your body goes through. Your goal should be to build up to being able to lie unmoving for at least an hour or more.

The annoyingness at the situation should actually benefit you by keeping you awake. If you can keep yourself awake, you will begin to notice that after awhile, everything starts to become “numb”.

For me, my arms are usually the first the go. This is the preliminary stage to sleep paralysis, or what is known as the hypnagogic state in astral projection circles (the line between the two is very blurry).

The numbness is your consciousness preparing to disengage from the body. It is from here you can either induce an astral projection or conscious transition into the void space. but not before going through sleep paralysis.

Alas these are subjects which require a whole article themselves, so for now just keep practicing these meditations as they will prepare you for the next phase where the fun really starts to begin. After a month you should start being better prepared for these next stages of lucid dreaming.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 9 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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On journey home, Meng says “without strong motherland, no freedom today”

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Update on the various events in China and what it means to the rest of the world. None which is being correctly reported on by American media.

Americans have no idea what it would actually be like to have a real war. Most of them don’t even know that China has surpassed the US economically. Most Americans literally think a war with China would be similar to a war with Afghanistan or Iraq – something you watch on television that has no direct effect on your life, other than maybe causing gasoline prices to fluctuate.

This article is a collection of insightful articles, musings, and tidbits that most (not all) of my fellow Americans are completely unaware of occurring.

We will start with a big news item, and then approach it from the point of view of what is not being reported…

Meng Wanzhou

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou arrives in China after more than 1,000 days under house arrest in Canada, following a deal with U.S. prosecutors to end a fraud case against her.

https://lnkd.in/drDFZUhr

Love China and China will love you. Millions and millions of people all over China watching live the return to freedom from Canada of the Huawei Boss. We were watching live in the local pub here in Dongguan. More exciting than watching a corrupt European football game. Very bad news for Canada as far as the average Chinese person is concerned. 

- Peter Weston

Yes. Big news in China.

Three Videos of just HOW BIG this is.

Everyone knows what happened. The United States Military Empire kidnapped a leading Chinese Industry leader on trumped up charges. Then after three years of no proof, they released her.

Why is this big news?

Imagine if China did the same thing to Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

Video 1

This is the announcement on Chinese media.

Video 2

Everyone in China is happy. It’s a big, big deal here.

Video 3

This is Shenzhen welcoming her home.

Can anyone tell me how this event has been reported in their individual nations? I am curious.

An always accurate MoA commentary on this event…

Yup. I do love MoA.

Now, imagine if the Chinese had behave like a bunch of Washington DC weak-wristed yes-men, who were only in their positions due to political graft.

Most likely, they would be uselessly fighting on the American and Canadian courts as we speak, and Meng would probably rot for at least some 15 years in prison.

Luckily, the Chinese are communists, so they don’t delve into bullshit. They saw her prison for what it really was – a political stunt – and counter-attacked accordingly, by arresting two of Canada’s ruling elite (i.e. the Canadian capitalist class) members.

The Release Of Meng Wanzhou’s Is A Small But Decisive Victory For China

The U.S. has given in to the Chinese demand to end its hostage holding of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou:

A plane believed to be carrying Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou took off from the Vancouver airport on Friday, marking a new stage in a legal saga that ensnared Canada — and two of its citizens — in a dispute between the U.S. and Chinese governments.

A B.C. court decided on Friday that the extradition case against Meng would be dropped after the Huawei chief financial officer reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. government.Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, the two Canadian citizens who were detained in China just days after Meng's arrest in Vancouver, are now on their way back Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed on Friday evening.

The U.S. had accused Meng Wanzhou of misleading the opium dealer bank HSBC about Huawei’s relation with a local entity in Iran. This, the U.S. claimed, had led to breach by HSBC of its unilateral sanctions against Iran.

This was a constructed crime with the only evidence being some wording on one page of a longer power point slideshow which Meng Wanzhou surely had not edited herself.

The deferred prosecution agreement seems to admit that:

As part of her arrangement with U.S. prosecutors, Meng pleaded not guilty in a court Friday to multiple fraud charges.

The Huawei chief financial officer entered the plea during a virtual appearance in a New York courtroom. She was charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud more than two and a half years ago. 

...

The agreed statement of facts from Friday's U.S. court appearance said that Meng told a global financial institution that a company operating in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions was a "local partner" of Huawei when in fact it was a subsidiary of Huawei.

The deferred prosecution agreement does not included any admission of wrongdoing, just an agreement on the facts.

The whole case was constructed and the arrest arranged by John Bolton when he was National Security Advisor under then President Donald Trump:

The Trudeau adviser said Mr. Bolton and other like-minded officials in the U.S. government were well aware of the significance of the arrest they were asking Canada to make. The adviser and a senior national-security official say they are convinced the U.S. picked Canada to arrest Ms. Meng – and did so in a last-minute rush – because they believed the Justice Department and the RCMP would honor the extradition request.

Trump then used Meng Wanzhou as bargaining chip in his trade fight with China:

Trump has linked resolution of the U.S. government’s dealings with Huawei to a potential trade agreement with China. He has said he would consider Huawei’s role in a trade deal at the final stage of negotiations, the court application says. 

...

“Prejudice to the fairness of these proceedings is made out by the president’s repeated assertions that (Meng’s) liberty is effectively a bargaining chip in what he sees as the biggest trade deal ever.”

The case gave Canada a lot of headaches as China had arrested two of its spies just days after Canada had followed the U.S. request to arrest Meng Wanzhou. Canada has denied that Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were spying for its services. However, Canada’s main spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, welcomed the release of its boys:

During a July visit to China U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman had been given two lists of issues that China demanded to be solved before it was willing to cooperate further with the U.S.:

In the List of U.S. Wrongdoings that Must Stop, China urged the United States to unconditionally revoke the visa restrictions over Communist Party of China (CPC) members and their families, revoke sanctions on Chinese leaders, officials and government agencies, and remove visa restrictions on Chinese students.

China also urged the United States to stop suppressing Chinese enterprises, stop harassing Chinese students, stop suppressing the Confucius Institutes, revoke the registration of Chinese media outlets as "foreign agents" or "foreign missions", and revoke the extradition request for Meng Wanzhou.

China sees the end of the Meng Wanzhou issue as a victory:

The high-profile case of Meng, which has become a political dilemma significantly affecting the global geopolitical landscape, has been settled through both legal channels and political wrestling, experts said, noting that China, the US and Canada have seen the best scenario with much compromise made by the Biden administration in resolving the matter. It also helped pave the way for the positive interaction between the world's largest economies in the near future amid strained China-US relations.

It was also one mistake of the US administration that has been corrected in line with the request of China, as China put forward two lists to the US during the bilateral talks in Tianjin in July, including the List of US Wrongdoings that Must Stop which urged the US to release Meng, showing that Beijing's US policies began taking effect and remaining mistakes of the US have to be corrected.

Commentator Pepe Escobar however, does not believe that the release of Meng Wanzhou will change much if anything:

Pepe Escobar @RealPepeEscobar - 11:49 UTC · Sep 25, 2021

MENG WANZHOU
- political kidnapping masked as criminal prosecution
- part of the demonization of Huawei
- near 3-year illegal detention
- fake charges
- “Justice” Dept. had to drop extradition request
- Hybrid War continues

While I agree that U.S. aggression against China will continue I do see this as a Chinese victory. China has disabled one of the weapons that U.S. had used against it.

From now on no country will risk to follow a U.S. requests to arrest a Chinese citizen:

The swiftness of the apparent deal also stands as a warning to leaders in other countries that the Chinese government can be boldly transactional with foreign nationals, said Donald C. Clarke, a law professor specializing in China at George Washington University’s Law School.

“They’re not even making a pretense of a pretense that this was anything but a straight hostage situation,” he said of the two Canadians, who stood trial on spying charges. 

Mr. Spavor was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison, and Mr. Kovrig was waiting for a verdict in his case after trial in March.

“In a sense, China has strengthened its bargaining position in future negotiations like this,” Professor Clarke said. “They’re saying, if you give them what they want, they will deliver as agreed.”

The U.S. had, via Canada, taken Meng Wanzhou as a hostage.

China replicated that by taking two Canadian citizens as hostages, thereby putting the pressure on the weaker power involved.

It also stopped imports of Canadian canola and pork. No government will want to repeat the experience of the Canadian one.

It worked and the people of Chinese are happy with the result:

The sentiment of patriotism prevailed at the scene. After the short speech, Meng waved to the crowds holding Chinese flags to welcome her at the airport, with a big smile, while singing a song for the motherland together with people at the scene.

People were still singing after Meng rode the bus to undergo epidemic prevention inspection at the request of Chinese Customs.

Groups of people, who wore protective suits, held flowers and welcome banners as they waited on the parking apron at the airport, as Chinese port cities have adopted strict epidemic prevention measures against COVID-19. Local media reports said earlier that Meng was expected to follow the 14 plus 7 days of quarantine following her arrival.

So this is indeed a victory but in a minor battle and in a war that is likely to see much bigger ones.

Other thoughts…

How did China know that the two Canadians were spies? Could it be that CIA incompetence exposed them and others? Seems very likely.

Keep in mind that China managed to roll up an entire CIA network of spies some years ago (ca. 2011), no doubt by methods such as that (and probably by using double agents like the Venezuelans did to fool the US into thinking their military would support Guido).

Eighteen ‘sources’ were reportedly neutralized in that one Chinese operation. Of course we don’t, and won’t, know the truth but it sounds like it was a pretty disastrous outcome for the CIA.

Do you think that there were other “round ups” that occurred but were not reported?

What happens to Western Spooks that go to China?

Concerning China's abilities at keeping track of Five Eyes spooks, what part of the imperial color revolution in Hong Kong was missing? What do we normally see in an American regime change operation after the US State Department's NGOs succeed in building protests that was lacking in Hong Kong?

Of course, the snipers.

So where are the snipers that the CIA trained up to spark the protests into a raging conflagration?

Obvious answer: At the bottom of Victoria Harbor wearing concrete boots. 

This was unlikely to have been done by Chinese intelligence themselves but rather by the Triads after some negotiations with mainland authorities. While the Triads are not allied with the Communists, they are part of the second system in that "One country, two systems" deal and have a deep interest in maintaining the status quo. The empire's color revolution seriously jeopardized that status quo and had to be neutralized.

Posted by: William Gruff | Sep 25 2021 21:22 utc | 36

…

In other news, this is excerpt from CGTN…

French writer exposes U.S. global hegemony

Updated 22:59, 25-Sep-2021
CGTN

The number of companies and entrepreneurs that have fallen victim to the U.S. global hegemony is unknown but Marc Lassus, founder of Gemplus, a manufacturer of smart cards (including SIM cards) is one of them.

After witnessing the Frenchman’s business making waves with users in the billions, the U.S. took control of the company and drove Lassus away, Chinese newspaper the Global Times has reported. Lassus said that their goal was, through the CIA and NSA, to spy on the whole world.

Lassus has told his story in a recently published book, “The Chip Trap.” During an interview with the Global Times, he shared his thoughts on Canada’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.

"Meng Wanzhou's detention in Canada is just a pure scandal, as well as their request for extradition to the U.S," he said.

Huawei has a very significant technological advantage in 5G infrastructure and to some extent in fiber optics, their presence in Africa is also very strong and it is too late to beat them, Lassus said. Therefore, the U.S. used brutal and “cowboy” approaches to hinder Huawei’s business expansion.

He added that Meng’s case reminded him of his own experience. He was almost arrested on similar, trumped-up “charges” during a private trip to Cuba but he miraculously escaped imprisonment in the U.S.

"The move from the Trump administration to Biden's will not change much the U.S. policies," he noted.

He also mentioned that the U.S. claim that it values free markets is “pure hypocrisy.” They use any possible means to suppress other countries’ high-tech companies from being successful in international markets, such as Huawei, ZTE and places pressure on chip manufacturers such as Samsung.

Lassus said he was optimistic about the cooperation between China and Europe, which is entering into a new era with ties becoming more strategic, more complex but more promising.

"It is very clear now China should put more effort and investment than ever to develop key technologies in the semiconductor industry such as key equipment, materials and design tools, and so on. Especially when the U.S. is trying to ban any exchange between world-leading companies and China," he said.

Yes, and so China is doing so. How are the billions in new investments in the IC / AI / IoT technology corridor HK, Zhuhai, and Guangzhou being reported in your nations?

The long arm of U.S. jurisdiction dates backs to over a decade ago when the world’s biggest power felt threatened by the rapid ascent of other economies. Now the possibility of losing technological advantage haunts Washington, which has resorted to bending the law to gain a competitive edge. Bribery, fraud, and violating sanctions are commonly used pretexts for the U.S. to strike down any individual, entity or country that it feels threatened by.

Frederic Pierucci, an executive of Alstom, a French power and transportation conglomerate, was arrested by the FBI when his plane arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on April 14, 2013. He was charged with bribing Indonesian officials to win a power plant contract.

Coincidentally or not, the arrest of Pierucci, then president of the French power titan’s boiler subsidiary, ran parallel to the largest business acquisition by the American General Electric (GE) of its French rival Alstom’s energy business.

Lassus said it was only after January 2019 when Frederic Pierucci published his book “Le Piege Americain,” also known as “The American Trap,” that he felt free, credible, and publicly protected to come out with his story.

“Pierucci’s book relates the U.S. aggression, through General Electric, to take control of ALSTOM, a French company. Pierucci has been put for two years in jail in the US! A real scandal,” Lassus said.

An interesting comment that I read…

The comment goes…

Two things I would like to add here.

One, this is embarrassing as a Canadian. We don't have ANY politician who saw through this. NONE.

Many internationalist Canadians saw through this within the first 3-7 days, but none were in government, and none were even (audible) in Parliament.

This is utter international relations incompetence.

As we learned from the immigration lawyers for the defense, this case was rigged from the very start - the arrest should not have happened;

The signs for a different than advertised goal by the FBI were overt;

The RCMP should not have been allowed to enter into it with the border guard;

The Prime Minister and Justice Minister should have been reachable instead of 'on their weekend';

Etc, etc...

Beyond that, if the President of the USA then makes a statement politicizing the arrest, the Prime Minister of Canada has no right to hide behind "Executive vs Justice" power, As the extradition agreement explicitly states that the PM can intervene through the Justice Minister to avert political abuses of the extradition agreement.

So this is totally on Trudeau's incompetence and cowardice.

Two, this US subversion of Huawei will not work because XXXXXXX has understated, hugely, the Chinese distance created from the stone-age USA in current day digital progress.

I was shocked as a Canadian European, coming into Chicago and Ohio in 2000 and discovering how far behind the USA was in simcard and digital technology.

It caught up, but barely.

Now, China is too far ahead and is running much faster than the US is or has the capacity to.

China has already won - this Huawei case is just a little side cake - because they have all the infrastructure and are way beyond 5G - they are building the next universe and America can't even have the data points to dream about it.

As a Canadian expat he is seeing what I have seen. But I am in technology, R&D and manufacturing. I can tell you that the USA is behind, but no one wants to listen to MM.

Do you agree with me that China is much more advanced in technology, or the Western narrative that soon, say in 2025, China will surpass the USA?

And this interesting rebuttal…

In Canada’s defense — the authorities here were dealing with John Bolton, a known a**h@le who believes in breaking eggs to make omelettes.

Interviews with Canadian ultra political insider, Peter Donolo on BNN Bloomberg (just BNN back then maybe?) expressed concern about who would replace the just fired National Security Advisor.

So Canada’s political class protested through the media (which is how you gotta do it with the neocons, just ask Russia) about John Bolton’s appointment.

Somewhere I picked up that Canada was threatened with having US troops at the Vancouver airport if Canada refused to act in the interests of American security.

The Michaels are 5th columnists.

They don’t work for CSIS, Canada, the Canadian political class or any other Canadian national interest or institution.

Their arrest was quite possibly arranged behind-the-scenes between China and Canada to get Bolton fired as well as the other results b mentions. And a very important piece of this is the Canadian Ambassador to China, Dominic Barton.

Check out this man’s resume.

His appointment could have been at the request of China, quite possibly, another Canadian concession (although Trudeau wanted him in that role previously, but he declined).

Here’s an interesting note (not by me) on how the flight route that was used to bring Meng back to China (Google Translated from Russian):

“And by the way, about the small details of today’s event, the evacuation of Meng Wangzhou from Canadian captivity.

Look how they dragged her from Vancouver to China, you can shoot an action movie (I think the Chinese will easily shoot it).

[1] Vancouver is close to the United States, so the board briskly went along the line “as far away as possible from the main territory of the United States and from Alaska” vertically upward, aiming directly at the North Pole.

[2] Over the Arctic, he made the shortest possible route to the Russian air defense zone and went further south through Siberia and Mongolia.

[3] The standard version of the route (see the second picture), through the Pacific Ocean, where the American control points and, in general, there are enough opportunities to do something bad, was not used, although it was announced in advance that this is how Air China would fly back.

On the question of when they soberly assess the situation and understand that agreements with Canada and international law are one thing, but the Arctic region, where the Northern Sea Route is, is completely different and, somehow, under the wing of Shoigu and friends, it is calmer and safer.”

Original post with pictures: https://vk.com/wall288925483_789259

Do you think that the Chinese were being overly cautious, or rather that the over-the-pole flight path was the most economical one to take?

All this is very interesting, but let’s not forget one thing…

Naughty China citizen Meng was charged with breaking a United States law while she was inside of China.

US Justice Dept, Jan 28, 2019
Meng is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud.

“As charged in the indictment, Huawei and its Chief Financial Officer broke U.S. law and have engaged in a fraudulent financial scheme that is detrimental to the security of the United States,” said Secretary Nielsen.

“They willfully conducted millions of dollars in transactions that were in direct violation of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, and such behavior will not be tolerated." . . .here

The US hasn't given up trying to convince China citizens to obey US laws.
US Justice Dept, Sep 24, 2021

Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei Technologies, admitted today that she failed to tell the truth about Huawei’s operations in Iran, and as a result the financial institution continued to do business with Huawei in violation of U.S. law. Our prosecution team continues to prepare for trial against Huawei, and we look forward to proving our case against the company in court.” . . .here

United States laws only work within United States territory. Just like Chinese laws only work within China, and South African laws only work in South Africa.

Obviously the idiots in Washington DC do not respect other people’s (geographic) space.

What’s with this issue? Why don’t Americans understand that once you leave the USA, there are different laws, rules, regulations, culture and society and the USA cannot violate the national sovereignty of others in other nations?

And this interesting response…

Ms Meng ‘the Merciless’ was monstered by ‘(inter)National Interests’.

Who the fuck have the US the right to arrest people in foreign countries? For breaking the unilateral US sanction on another country??

That is not simple Exceptionalism...

...it’s is gross Overeach.

It can only be dumb superiority complex and racism to have thought that they can talk loud and carry a big stick to keep the savages subdued.

That Canadians have meekly re-elected the controlled scion of ones of the Empires CEO’s who was brought up by the Fascists of the West and the Money is pure pathetic Stockholm syndrome exhibited by voters in the west over the last 50 years.

We deserve all we get!

Canadians did to Meng what Sweden did to Assange and what the Decimate Empire is doing to the World in clueing as I say their own subjects as is happening daily now to the U.K. subjects because of BrexShit.

Chaotic scenes at petrol stations!

...In one of the richest countries in the World.

The MSM are fully controlled Mockingbird operatives. Independent journalism is muted and inprisoned, like Craig Murray is.

I’ll link to my post on the open thread that addresses why the Empire and Eva cornered rat and it’s Masters are morbidly stuck in their death throes as China changes human history on planet Earth with a competent partner in Russia and their SCO.

‘Are we getting it yet barflies?
Posted by: D.G. | Sep 23 2021 17:31 utc | 171 ‘

And another comment…

The Hauwei angst in the west is because China has ‘leapfrogged’ the Western modernity with nextgen tech and AI in their daily commercial environment.

The west having legacy ageing tech infrastructure and systems that hasn’t been squeezed of the last drop of payback/profit from it!

That’s how they have always rolled.

Capturing IP rights and shelving innovation.

They couldn’t do that with 5G and plus.

Or with AI in public services.

Which makes them natural predators of similar organizations in the west by virtue of the WTO ‘open to competition’ rules. Which were designed under the assumption they only would work in one direction.

It is that simple. Expect no mercy but be willing to accept that They will not act like we would and will not stoop to such savage western expectations.

Posted by: D.G | Sep 25 2021 20:23 utc | 27

What about the UN?

The UN Charter, in its Preamble, set an objective:

"to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained".

Ever since, the development of, and respect for international law has been a key part of the work of the Organization.

This work is carried out in many ways – by courts, tribunals, multilateral treaties – and by the Security Council, which can approve peacekeeping missions, impose sanctions, or authorize the use of force when there is a threat to international peace and security, if it deems this necessary. These powers are given to it by the UN Charter, which is considered an international treaty. As such, it is an instrument of international law, and UN Member States are bound by it. . .here

China has been clear about the US ‘rules-based international order’ i.e. US laws, which go against the UN Charter.

Mar 18, 2021

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, and welcome. On behalf of National Security Advisor Sullivan and myself, I want to welcome Director Yang and State Councilor Wang to Alaska, and to thank you very much for making the journey to be with us.

I just returned myself from meetings with Secretary of Defense Austin and our counterparts in Japan and the Republic of Korea, two of our nation’s closest allies. They were very interested in the discussions that we’ll have here today and tomorrow because the issues that we’ll raise are relevant not only to China and the United States, but to others across the region and indeed around the world. Our administration is committed to leading with diplomacy to advance the interests of the United States and to strengthen the rules-based international order.

That system is not an abstraction. It helps countries resolve differences peacefully, coordinate multilateral efforts effectively, and participate in global commerce with the assurance that everyone is following the same rules. The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in which might makes right and winners take all, and that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us. Today, we’ll have an opportunity to discuss key priorities, both domestic and global, so that China can better understand our administration’s intentions and approach.

Director Yang responded–

What China and the international community follow or uphold is the United Nations-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, not what is advocated by a small number of countries of the so-called “rules-based” international order. 

And the United States has its style – United States-style democracy – and China has the Chinese-style democracy. 

It is not just up to the American people, but also the people of the world to evaluate how the United States has done in advancing its own democracy. 

In China’s case, after decades of reform and opening up, we have come a long way in various fields. 

In particular, we have engaged in tireless efforts to contribute to the peace and development of the world, and to upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. . .here

So it’s a showdown between the USA and the UN. China and Russia and the rest of the world (minus the UK, and Australia) want to stand with the UN. The USA wants to be God over all. Is this an exaggeration?

And China plays down the line.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Tianjin, China July 25-26 2021 and was presented a list of US “wrongdoings that must stop”, also mentioning specifically Meng Wanzhou

China puts forward two lists during talks with visiting U.S. deputy secretary of state

In the List of U.S. Wrongdoings that Must Stop, China urged the United States to unconditionally revoke the visa restrictions over Communist Party of China (CPC) members and their families, revoke sanctions on Chinese leaders, officials and government agencies, and remove visa restrictions on Chinese students.

China also urged the United States to stop suppressing Chinese enterprises, stop harassing Chinese students, stop suppressing the Confucius Institutes, revoke the registration of Chinese media outlets as "foreign agents" or "foreign missions", and revoke the extradition request for Meng Wanzhou.

Meng’s release is creating waves.

Chinese citizens are giving unprecedented support to the government.
Overseas Chinese are ever more united behind China.
Even those anti-communist and brainwashed Chinese in Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere are quietly admitting the positive result – because they understand that they could be the target of arrest by America in future if this turns out the wrong way.
It is giving a tough-love lesson to the serially abused vassal states, e.g. Japan (Toshiba), France (Alstom), Germany (Siemens) and countless others. I don’t know what are their politicians and executives thinking right now: shame, regret, impotent, admiration or some combination of these?
It has delivered a bloody punch to the war-mongers and anti-China neocons, who are licking their wound.

And finally,

It is giving hope to the rest of developing countries. Countries who treasures their independence and dignity needs to grow a spine and learn to grab a stick.

But that is not the only thing going on…

Eurasia Takes Shape: How the SCO Just Flipped the World Order

The SEO. It’s going to become a really big deal in the next few years. Pay attention.

SEO = Russia + China + Iran + India

As a rudderless West watched on, the 20th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was laser-focused on two key deliverables: shaping up Afghanistan and kicking off a full-spectrum Eurasian integration.

Pepe Escobar

The two defining moments of the historic 20^th anniversary Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan had to come from the keynote speeches of – who else – the leaders of the Russia-China strategic partnership.

Xi Jinping:

“Today we will launch procedures to admit Iran as a full member of the SCO.”

Vladimir Putin:

“I would like to highlight the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed today between the SCO Secretariat and the Eurasian Economic Commission. 

It is clearly designed to further Russia’s idea of establishing a Greater Eurasia Partnership covering the SCO, the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union), ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI).”

In short, over the weekend, Iran was enshrined in its rightful, prime Eurasian role, and all Eurasian integration paths converged toward a new global geopolitical – and geoeconomic – paradigm, with a sonic boom bound to echo for the rest of the century.

That was the killer one-two punch immediately following the Atlantic alliance’s ignominious imperial retreat from Afghanistan.

Right as the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, the redoubtable Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, told his Iranian colleague Admiral Ali Shamkhani that “the Islamic Republic will become a full member of the SCO.”

Dushanbe revealed itself as the ultimate diplomatic crossover. President Xi firmly rejected any “condescending lecturing” and emphasized development paths and governance models compatible with national conditions. Just like Putin, he stressed the complementary focus of BRI and the EAEU, and in fact summarized a true multilateralist Manifesto for the Global South.

Right on point, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan noted that the SCO should advance “the development of a regional macro-economy.” This is reflected in the SCO’s drive to start using local currencies for trade, bypassing the US dollar.

The SEO is an enormous geopolitical force. Not only in geography, but populaiton, and in manufacturing and technology competance. What is going in in the news in the MM readership’s nations about this subject? How is it being reported on the “news”?

Watch that quadrilateral

Dushanbe was not just a bed of roses. Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon, a staunch, secular Muslim and former member of the Communist Party of the USSR – in power for no less than 29 years, reelected for the 5^th time in 2020 with 90 percent of the vote – right off the bat denounced the “medieval sharia” of Taliban 2.0 and said they had already “abandoned their previous promise to form an inclusive government.”

Rahmon, who has never been caught smiling on camera, was already in power when the Taliban conquered Kabul in 1996. He was bound to publicly support his Tajik cousins against the “expansion of extremist ideology” in Afghanistan – which in fact worries all SCO member-states when it comes to smashing dodgy jihadi outfits of the ISIS-K mold .

The meat of the matter in Dushanbe was in the bilaterals – and one quadrilateral.

Take the bilateral between Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese FM Wang Yi. Jaishankar said that China should not view “its relations with India through the lens of a third country,” and took pains to stress that India “does not subscribe to any clash of civilizations theory.”

Ouch! Could the “third country” (he referenced) be the United States?

That was quite a tough sell considering that the first in-person Quad summit takes place this week in Washington, DC, hosted by that “third country” which is now knee deep in clash-of-civilizations mode against China.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was on a bilateral roll, meeting the presidents of Iran, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The official Pakistani diplomatic position is that Afghanistan should not be abandoned, but engaged.

That position added nuance to what Russian Special Presidential Envoy for SCO Affairs Bakhtiyer Khakimov had explained about Kabul’s absence at the SCO table: “At this stage, all member states have an understanding that there are no reasons for an invitation until there is a legitimate, generally recognized government in Afghanistan.”

And that, arguably, leads us to the key SCO meeting: a quadrilateral with the Foreign Ministers of Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi affirmed: “We are monitoring whether all the groups are included in the government or not.” The heart of the matter is that, from now on, Islamabad coordinates the SCO strategy on Afghanistan, and will broker Taliban negotiations with senior Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara leaders. This will eventually lead the way towards an inclusive government regionally recognized by SCO member-nations.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was warmly received by all – especially after his forceful keynote speech, an Axis of Resistance classic. His bilateral with Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko revolved around a discussion on “sanctions confrontation.” According to Lukashenko: “If the sanctions did any harm to Belarus, Iran, other countries, it was only because we ourselves are to blame for this. We were not always negotiable, we did not always find the path we had to take under the pressure of sanctions.”

Considering Tehran is fully briefed on Islamabad’s SCO role in terms of Afghanistan, there will be no need to deploy the Fatemiyoun brigade – informally known as the Afghan Hezbollah – to defend the Hazaras. Fatemiyoun was formed in 2012 and was instrumental in Syria in the fight against Daesh, especially in Palmyra. But if ISIS-K does not go away, that’s a completely different story.

Particular important for SCO members Iran and India will be the future of Chabahar port. That remains India’s crypto-Silk Road gambit to connect it to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The geoeconomic success of Chabahar more than ever depends on a stable Afghanistan – and this is where Tehran’s interests fully converge with Russia-China’s SCO drive.

What the 2021 SCO Dushanbe Declaration spelled out about Afghanistan is quite revealing:

1. Afghanistan should be an independent, neutral, united, democratic and peaceful state, free of terrorism, war and drugs.

2. It is critical to have an inclusive government in Afghanistan, with representatives from all ethnic, religious and political groups of Afghan society.

3. SCO member states, emphasizing the significance of the many years of hospitality and effective assistance provided by regional and neighboring countries to Afghan refugees, consider it important for the international community to make active efforts to facilitate their dignified, safe and sustainable return to their homeland.

As much as it may sound like an impossible dream, this is the unified message of Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan and the Central Asian “stans.” One hopes that Pakistani PM Imran Khan is up to the task and ready for his SCO close-up.

Oh, I think that it’s going to work out. What does the MM readership think will happen?

Oh, have you noticed…

The Chinese and the Russians have been devoting all sorts of energy moving around all their ICBM’s all over the place. You never saw this in the USA, and very rarely in Russia and China, though you heard about it. But now a days, it’s very common with ICBM fleets moving all over China and Russia. Imagine that.

I wonder why…?

VIDEO.

The Zhuhai Airshow…

Big stuff in my home town.

Song Zhonping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday that switching to Chinese engines means the J-20 is now completely domestically made, and this will significantly contribute to the mass production and the performance boost of the aircraft.

American neocon publications are calling the J-20 as a “cheap knock off “. Do you think this is so, or what are your thoughts on the J-20?

That troubled Western peninsula

The New Silk Roads were officially launched eight years ago by Xi Jinping, first in Astana – now Nur-Sultan – and then in Jakarta.

This is how it was reported at the time.

The announcement came close to a SCO summit – then in Bishkek. The SCO, widely dismissed in Washington and Brussels as a mere talk shop, was already surpassing its original mandate of fighting the “three evil forces” – terrorism, separatism and extremism – and encompassing politics and geoeconomics.

In 2013, there was a Xi-Putin-Rouhani trilateral. Beijing expressed full support for Iran’s peaceful nuclear program (remember, this was two years before the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the JCPOA).




Despite many experts dismissing it at the time, there was indeed a common China-Russia-Iran front on Syria (Axis of Resistance in action). Xinjiang was being promoted as the key hub for the Eurasian Land Bridge. Pipelineistan was at the heart of the Chinese strategy – from Kazakhstan oil to Turkmenistan gas. Some people may even remember when Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, was waxing lyrical about an American-propelled New Silk Road.

Now compare it to Xi’s Multilateralism Manifesto in Dushanbe eight years later, reminiscing on how the SCO “has proved to be an excellent example of multilateralism in the 21^stcentury,” and “has played an important role in enhancing the voice of developing countries.”

The strategic importance of this SCO summit taking place right after the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok cannot be overstated enough. The EEF focuses of course on the Russian Far East – and essentially advances interconnectivity between Russia and Asia. It is an absolutely key hub of Russia’s Greater Eurasian Partnership.

A cornucopia of deals is on the horizon – expanding from the Far East to the Arctic and the development of the Northern Sea Route, and involving everything from precious metals and green energy to digital sovereignty flowing through logistics corridors between Asia and Europe via Russia.

As Putin hinted in his keynote speech, this is what the Greater Eurasia Partnership is all about: the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), BRI, India’s initiative, ASEAN, and now the SCO, developing in a harmonized network, crucially operated by “sovereign decision-making centers.”

So if the BRI proposes a very Taoist “community of shared future for human kind,” the Russian project, conceptually, proposes a dialogue of civilizations (already evoked by the Khatami years in Iran) and sovereign economic-political projects. They are, indeed, complementary.

Glenn Diesen, Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway and an editor at the Russia in Global Affairs journal, is among the very few top scholars who are analyzing this process in depth. His latest book remarkably tells the whole story in its title: Europe as the Western Peninsula of Greater Eurasia: Geoeconomic Regions in a Multipolar World. It’s not clear whether Eurocrats in Brussels – slaves of Atlanticism and incapable of grasping the potential of Greater Eurasia – will end up exercising real strategic autonomy.

Diesen evokes in detail the parallels between the Russian and the Chinese strategies. He notes how China “is pursuing a three-pillared geoeconomic initiative by developing technological leadership via its China 2025 plan, new transportation corridors via its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, and establishing new financial instruments such as banks, payment systems and the internationalization of the yuan. Russia is similarly pursuing technological sovereignty, both in the digital sphere and beyond, as well as new transportation corridors such as the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic, and, primarily, new financial instruments.”

The whole Global South, stunned by the accelerated collapse of the western Empire and its unilateral “rules-based order…

… now seems to be ready to embrace the new groove, fully displayed in Dushanbe: a multipolar Greater Eurasia of sovereign equals.

Interesting chat on my morning feed…

America controls both the currency (USD, the international reserve currency) and conduit (SWIFT) for international trade. This is their global imperial power.

They can print paper (out of nothing) to buy the world’s limited and precious resources while the rest of the world must earn or borrow the paper. They also decide who can or cannot trade. In addition, they control all the banks and financial institutes doing international business.

America can strangle and impose oppressive fines, indict and hijack, as well as corrupt and incite regime change, to turn any intransigent player into a whimpering idiot. They control the world’s media and the narrative. America can do no wrong and you’re all assholes living in hellholes.

Most importantly, America can print paper to build the greatest military force to control your mineral resources and trade routes, meanwhile pacifying and civilizing sundry barbaric people of defenseless countries. And guess who is paying for this monstrosity? If you think it’s the American taxpayers, you’d be wrong. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

The ruling class in America creates a ton of money from thin air which becomes debt that the rest of the enslaved world must buy. That debt becomes a debt of the American people which they can never repay, therefore they become debt slaves, quietly complying to their master’s orders.

And the money created eventually ends up in the coffers of the 1% American military industrial financial warmongering scammers. Since the rest of the enslaved world ends up being holders of American debt that pays almost no interest, of a currency that is being printed at exponential rate, and paying interest that is also printed out of thin air, you the victims are paying for the oppressive weapons of the American monstrosity.

Capische?

By the way, America did not invent this beautiful scheme. After kicking the Persians out of Greece in 479 BCE, Athens was the liberating hero beloved even by their perennial enemy, the Spartans. Then Athens formed the Delian League to fight the Persians.

Everyone must pay the League and send their sons to fight. The treasury of the League soon ended up in Athens, and used to enrich Athenians. Member cities desiring to leave the League were sacked, their men slaughtered, their women enslaved, and their sons castrated.

Athens at the head of the League became an imperial power even crueler than the Persians. In less than a generation, Athens turned from being the most admired Greek city state into the most hated. Eventually, it led to war with the Spartans, who allied with the Persians to destroy Athens. That's what happens to empires.

The question of setting up an international currency for trading is theoretically fine, and the SDR of the IMF serves that purpose to some extent, but at the end of the day, America still controls the IMF and SDR is but an accounting tool. Power and trust are what cause a promissory note to be used as a token of wealth for trading between countries.

Nixon actually defaulted and robbed the world blind. It’s a well known history which you can read up on your own (Google Nixon gold default). America and its dollar still has power, but trust is badly eroded. There is no good alternative at the moment that can challenge the USD, but China’s RMB is gaining, slowly and steadily.

The digital RMB is dangerous for the US dollar hegemony because people can pay anywhere in the world just by using a smartphone, and the transaction is done instantaneously, without the need for clearing through banks, without any bank fees, and certainly does not need clearing through any American system, completely kicking America out of the loop.

No more American clearing.

No more SWIFT.

No more waiting for days going through the international banking system.

And most importantly…

No more American unilateral sanctions.

Besides, RMBs are appreciating because of China’s growing economic power, which by the way, is based on production and innovation rather than running the printers, persistent lying, and highway robbery.

Below is an article about what happens if America defaults on its treasury bills. I suggest that China shouldn’t have to worry about its 1 trillion dollar reserve. America won’t let China buy anything valuable with it anyways. Anything of value China wants to buy is against America’s “national security”.

America will eventually have to pay up, as the T-bills in China’s reserve is only a small portion in the whole pot.

In any case, the collapse of the USD hegemony is much more valuable to China and the rest of the world than empty American paper promises, which by now should be badly discounted.

If you trust habitual liars, then it’s your problem.

The fall of the USD hegemony means that America can no longer print its way out of problems and let the rest of the world bail them out. They’ll have a hard time printing trillions for their military adventures.

Every trip to the South China Sea must be balanced against servicing their debt.

Their bases all around the world may have to figure out a way to generate an income, maybe by selling military shirts and boots, all made in China, of course.

Do you think that this is being overstated? Do you believe that somehow America will steer it’s financial ship into a safe harbor and regain control of it’s economic abilities?

And this is what those inside of Australia think of the Morrison submarine deal…

As three former prime ministers in Paul Keating, Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd have already pointed out, AUKUS puts Australians in greater danger, renders Australia a vassal to foreign power and antagonises our neighbours in the region.

Depending on how you count them, there are probably already four US bases in operation now:

Pine Gap near Alice Springs, Northern Territory,
Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt, north of the town of Exmouth, Western Australia,
Robertson Barracks in Darwin, Northern Territory,
Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station near Geraldton, WA.

However, the US military already has access to all major Australian Defence Force (ADF) training areas, northern Australian RAAF airfields, port facilities in Darwin and Fremantle, and probably future access too to an expanded Stirling naval base in Perth.

Under AUKUS, this may just be the beginning. It was largely ignored during the AUKUS media blitz and the dramatic cuckolding of the French but Peter Dutton had this to say at his press conference on September 16,

Unveiling plans for new facilities on Australian soil for US naval, air, and ground forces would entail “combined logistics, sustainment, and capability for maintenance to support our enhanced activities, including … for our submarines and surface combatants”. That is on top of “rotational deployments of all types of US military aircraft to Australia”.

If the plan is to shred Australia’s sovereignty and make us a target for China, he is succeeding with aplomb. We are about to be swamped by US military.

Do you think that China would invade Australia and attack the American military there? Or what do you think China would do to deal with this threat?

Oh, and worth a view…

“We made SARS. And we patented it on 19/4/2002, before there was any alleged outbreak in Asia”:

David E. Martin testifies at the German Corona Inquiry Committee July 9th, 2021. AV+transcript. China Rising Radio Sinoland 210907

https://chinarising.puntopress.com/2021/09/07/we-made-sars-and-we-patented-it-on-19-4-2002-before-there-was-any-alleged-outbreak-in-asia-david-e-martin-testifies-at-the-german-corona-inquiry-committee-july-9th-2021-avtran/

Oh, Very few international companies returned back to America…

The “Trump Trade War” did not bear any fruit. None of the companies returned back to America.

https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2021/09/26/us-china-trade-war-did-not-bring-american-firms-home-research-finds

A little story by “PM”

"In Spring of 2000, I took my newly wedded mainland-Chinese wife to North America to visit the rest of the extended family. 

We spent a week in Las Vegas so that my wife could experience a bit of American decadence. 

One day, we walked into the Vegas Saks Department Store to browse on jewelry. An aged sales-lady immediately walked over and struck up a conversation. 

My wife didn't speak a word of English, but I spoke like a native Canadian. The sales-lady asked us where we were from. I could have said we were from Hong Kong. I certainly could have said we were Canadians. 

Unlike a lot of people who declared themselves Hong Konger or Taiwanese when traveling in the West, I said we were from China, and just by being confident in our own skin (I used to travel to Vegas every year for conventions and knew every nook and cranny), demonstrated that we were not ashamed to be Chinese. 

Aftermath: the old lady said if we were interested in anything, be sure to ask for her, as she had the authority to give Chinese tourists a discount. Nudge nudge wink wink. It was a revelation. I knew Chinese shoppers loved haggling, but I didn't know you could haggle at Saks."

Greenback’s crisis-opportunity

This article / comment is from a anti-China writer who views the e-RMB as a “pipe dream” and that the USD will regain it’s role as the leading and only global reserve currency.

Even bigger questions hang over the global financial system.

The efforts by China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other major economies to de-dollarize world trade is a work in progress, at best. The same goes for developing Asia, which spent the years since the region’s 1997-98 financial crisis pledging to wean economies off the dollar.

Try as export-driven economies may, the dollar and US Treasuries are still the linchpin of the global trading system. Yet the political shenanigans on display in Washington could change that – and quickly.

The “empire is crumbling” and the dollar is “slowly losing its sheen,” says Peter Koenig at Renmin University of China. Slowly, but surely, he says, the dollar “is losing its weight in the international financial market.”

Technological change is accelerating the timeline, particularly as China outpaces the US in the race to bring a central bank-issued digital currency to market, says strategist Dante Alighieri Disparte at financial services firm Circle.

“With the explosive proliferation of cryptocurrencies, including China’s introduction of a digital renminbi, it is not surprising to hear panicked warnings about the looming decline of the dollar,” Disparte says.

It’s not the whole story, of course. If Biden’s Washington plays its cards right, Disparte notes, the dollar could end up being the “prime beneficiary of today’s market developments.”

Yet the dollar is at the mercy of politics and politics can be highly toxic. If the current squabbling in Washington devastates trust in the core asset of the global financial system, current obsessing over China Evergrande will become a mere side show.

Do you think that he is correct, that the USD will regain it’s strength and global standing?

Oh. Jackie Ma. What have you done?

Jack Ma bought or invested in more than 30 media outlets, set up a university for the super rich (only those who owe a business worth $30m are qualify to enrolled as students, he is using such strategy to form a 1% gangster circle thinking he could one day control the media, economy, and government. But his link to Wall Street has been exposed in the process of Xi full scale anti corruption campaign.

His money laundering Alibaba Alipay is not put under control, his rich ganger University was shut down, his media empire is in the process of dismantling.

His corrupt friends who Jack up property prices, manipulated stock market is gone one by one….

No capitalist can bully a real people government serving the interest of the people.

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3150002/alibaba-sell-stake-chinese-tv-network-estimated-us350-million-loss

Taiwan unification

China’s reunification with Taiwan might perhaps happen sooner than expected – The Greanville Post

https://www.greanvillepost.com/2021/09/25/chinas-reunification-with-taiwan-might-perhaps-happen-sooner-than-expected/

Here’s a joke

There is a joke I heard in Chinese Internet:

US: We need to start a war to destroy China.
(Looks around all countries. Pause, silence… Then everyone replies at the same time)
Japan: You go first.
Korea: You go first.
India: You go first.
ASEAN: You go first.
Australia: I go first.

A comment

Herbert R. Tarlek, Jr. says:

September 24, 2021 at 5:16 pm GMT • 1.7 days ago

The U.S. would get its ass kicked in a war with China, which is precisely why I support one.

This is no longer my country. Not only is it no longer my country, its government has become my oppressor. We are now a photonegative of our former self, a Soviet Union of the 21st century.

I took not a little joy in seeing this government humiliated in Afghanistan, and my response to a war lost to China will be the same.

Cashless in China

No one uses cash any more in China. Oh we see it from time to time, but for most of us it’s a simple swipe of a QR code. That’s it. Bank visits are rare. ATM visits are unheard of. We’ve all adopted to it, and guess what? No fees to transfer money in any way shape or form.

No wonder the US Banking system is going into convulsions.

But…

Cash, cold hard cash, will never disappear. Cash will never be obsolete and we should all hope it will be with us for many years to come.

The need for payment that works with no-signal or no-electricity won’t go away no matter how digitally sophisticated we believe ourselves to be. 

Anyone living in hurricane or typhoon-prone areas, where storms can send society back to the Stone Age, understand this better than most. 

The passage below is from Cashless, Chapter 19, The case against CBDCs: The Illusion of Privacy  

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency went so far as to advise all residents to keep “cash in small denominations” at home in case of emergencies. The idea that a power cut, cyberattack, or major technology disruption would cripple the nation because of residents’ reliance on digital payment is a real concern. 

Anyone in the UK who had a credit card attached to WireCard payment systems experienced this firsthand when the company failed, and cards went offline for forty-eight hours. Saying that digital system failures can’t happen or will never happen seems foolish. 

So for the record, cash will be with us for some time to come. It provides a simple analog solution to payment in an increasingly digital world. To say that it has no place in our future [or has lapsed into obsolescence] is to deny the fragility of our digital systems, which, time and time again, fail spectacularly. 

Their failures are reminders of how new we are to this digital revolution and that cash, which has been around for millennia, will still be an integral part of our modernized financial system.

I would go as far as to say that hearing the call to completely eliminate cash should make readers, even the most “cashless,” become wary.

And about those Australian nuclear submarines…

Zarathustra says:

September 24, 2021 at 9:45 pm GMT • 1.5 days ago

Submarines

Idiotic stupidity.

US Propaganda is saying that the submarines will have nuclear power and missiles with conventional payload. How nice. Chinese can relax. I did never see in my live such a retarded statement. So what is this statement? Gentleman’s agreement?

So submarines can be built with nuclear power and loaded with conventional missiles. But if submarines are built with such a space dimension that they can store nuclear missiles and loading mechanism that can handle nuclear missiles, and firing tubes that can accept nuclear missiles.

Than what is worth the US statement.

Do American think that Chinese are retarded?

By the time those submarines will be built the Chinese can built four times more powerful countermeasures.

And then there is Afghanistan

Empire of chickenhawks: Why America’s chaotic departure from Afghanistan was actually perfect

We screwed up 20 years of pointless war. We didn’t win. We lost. Why wouldn’t we screw up the final exit?

By Lucian K. Truscott IV

Published September 25, 2021 8:00AM (EDT)

The biggest fallacy about our exit from Afghanistan is that there was a “good” way for us to get out. There is no good way to lose a war. With defeat comes humiliation. We were humiliated in the way we pulled out of Kabul — and we should have been, because we believed the lies we had been told right up to the last moment.

The lies we heard at the end of our war in Afghanistan wereas the same ones we were told, and were only too happy to believe, for 20 long years: that everything was going swimmingly. Remember earlier in the summer when the headlines were about how the Taliban controlled a large percentage of the territory in Afghanistan, but the Afghan government and its supposed army still controlled the provincial capitals and Kabul, and that was where the power was.

What a total crock of shit. Everyone was shocked — shocked — when the headlines started to come. Aug. 9, from the AP: “Taliban press on, take two more provincial capitals.” That story was a doozie. “On Monday they [the Taliban] controlled five of the country’s 34 provincial capitals.” It didn’t really matter which two capitals the Taliban had taken. You had to read way down in the story to discover they were Aybak, capital of Samangan province, and Sar-e-Pul, capital of Sar-e-Pul province. Where the hell were they? Who had even heard of them?

That was Monday. By Wednesday, Aug. 11, here was the headline in Al Jazeera: “Timeline: Afghanistan provincial capitals captured by the Taliban.” How many, you might ask? In two days, the count had ballooned from five capitals to 18. Eighteen. Later that day, both Al Jazeera and Reuters were reporting that U.S. intelligence sources were saying that Kabul could “fall to Taliban within 90 days.”

Surprise! Three days later, the evacuation of Kabul began. On Sept. 1, two weeks later, CBS News headlined: “This is the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan” with an eerie night-vision video capture of Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, headed up the ramp of a C-17 cargo jet wearing full combat gear including bulletproof vest and helmet with night-vision goggles attached, carrying his M-4 automatic rifle.

How did Afghanistan collapse so quickly to Taliban control? Because “we” — the U.S. military and its NATO allies — never controlled it to begin with. Nor did our puppets in the so-called Afghan government. The idea that we ever did, that we ever “controlled” or even had our finger on the pulse of the “graveyard of empires” was a lie.

You know who told us that lie? Every government from George W. Bush on, and every general ever put in charge of that doomed mission. Every single one of them reported that all was well, that the Afghan army was 300,000 strong, that the Taliban was on the run, that the Afghan air force was taking over from the missions flown by American warplanes, that the Afghans had their own helicopters now. And that the Afghan president, whether it was Ashraf Ghani or Hamid Karzai, was firmly in charge back in Kabul.

And you know who went along with that fiction? The United States Congress, which voted for 20 years to spend the $2 trillion we pissed away over there, and each of the presidents — yes, including Barack Obama and Donald Trump — who approved every increase of troops, every troop withdrawal, every “surge” that was advertised as the solution to end all solutions, the thing that would finally put the Taliban on the run.

Remember all the Taliban commanders we were told were killed?

A drone strike took out this one!

Another drone strike took out that one!

Wow! We had to be winning if the Taliban was losing so many important leaders!

And then there were the keyboard commandos back in Washington and New York, and the neocons from the Council on Foreign Relations, and the growing chorus of retired generals — among them all of the commanders of our Afghanistan mission — who were all over the op-ed pages and cable news assuring us that All Was Well, as they racked up the megabucks sitting on the boards of defense contractors selling all the military shit that was winning the war for us.

"The eight generals who commanded American forces in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2018 have gone on to serve on more than 20 corporate boards,"

the Washington Post reported on Sept. 4, three days after we exited from Kabul with our tail between our legs.

There was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who oversaw the big “surge” of 2009 that was the answer-to-end-all-answers to every problem we were having over there. He has been “a board member or adviser for at least 10 companies since 2010, according to corporate filings and news releases,” the Post reported. There was Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., who commanded allied forces in 2013 and 2014, who went on to serve on the board of Lockheed Martin, the gigantic defense contractor. There was Gen. John R. Allen, commander in Afghanistan before Dunford, who is the president of the Brookings Institution, which has received $1.5 million over three years from Northrop Grumman, according to the Post. And Gen. David Petraeus, who preceded Allen and now sits on the board of KKR, a private equity firm in New York with many investments in the defense industry.

All of these gentlemen — and let’s take a moment to note they are all men, not a female commander among them — reported back to us from their command posts in Afghanistan how well things were going over there, how we were all over the Taliban, how the Afghan government was successfully “standing up” its well-equipped, well-trained army to defend the country from the Taliban. And then they went on cable TV and continued their lies when they got back to the U.S. and retired from the Army, because that’s what generals today do. They sit on corporate boards, they give incredibly well-paid speeches, they go on TV and they rake in the Big Bucks because they were so successful in Afghanistan … and in Iraq, too. Remember Petraeus and his “surge” in 2007? Boy, were we ever surging, huh? I remember Newsweek published a cover image of Petraeus in 2004 wearing in his combat fatigues, standing on a tarmac with a Blackhawk helicopter behind him, with the headline: “Can this man save Iraq?” The story, believe it or not, was about how Petraeus was taking over the training of the Iraqi army, and that was what was going to “save Iraq.” Don’t you think we should have concluded, when the “surge” became necessary in 2007, that Petraeus had utterly failed in his mission to train the Iraqi army and “save Iraq” back in 2004?

The words “crock of shit” again come to mind, but they are far, far from adequate. These presidents, and these members of Congress, and these generals, and these war-happy pundits, ran a great big gigantic con on the citizens of this country who were paying the taxes which — someday, perhaps — will pay for the $2 trillion we pissed away over in Afghanistan, and the trillions we pissed away in Iraq, too. They lied over and over and over again that with just another troop surge, or another troop withdrawal (because suddenly everything was hunky-dory) and of course just another infusion of billions and billions of dollars and the lost of a couple thousand more American lives we could “win” in Afghanistan and “win” in Iraq.

Over there, they laughed at us. The Afghans and the Iraqis who took the money, took all the equipment we gave them, took 20 years of our politics and our “prestige” as a nation, and the whole time they were laughing their heads off, because they knew what we didn’t know. None of it was working. None of it would ever work. And one day we would be headed out of both countries with our tails between our legs, because that’s what you do when you lose.

That’s why our frantic, chaotic exit from Kabul was perfect, because it perfectly capped off 20 years of lies about what was really going on over there, 20 years of frantic, chaotic thrashing around and throwing money and the bodies of young American men and women at a problem that could never be solved. It was an enormous delusion that we, the United States of America, could march into those countries thousands of miles away from our shores and — if we spent enough money and invented and fielded enough “mine resistant vehicles” and fired enough missiles from enough drones at enough “Taliban commanders” — could somehow emerge from those quagmires victorious.

We couldn’t, and we didn’t, and when that American major general, all kitted-out in the combat gear we spent 20 years dressing our soldiers in, scampered up the ramp of that cargo jet to steal away from the Kabul airport in the middle of the night, it was the absolute perfect ending to the perfect disaster the war in Afghanistan had always been. We were humiliated in front of the entire world, as we should have been. The way we left Afghanistan “did damage to our credibility and to our reputation,” the famous Gen. Petraeus told CBS when it was all over.

Yeah, it did, Dave, and it should have. Maybe now the geniuses who got us into those godforsaken disastrous wars and kept us there will think twice before they do it again.

Except, wait. That was supposed to have been the great “lesson of Vietnam.” Never mind.

American debt is looming large…

the US federal government’s rivers of borrowed money running dry and in urgent need of replenishing. The other is a major Chinese property developer which has run into financial trouble, because the company veered off the road by squandering too much on making electric cars and sponsoring a football club.

As US federal debt default looms, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is facing her biggest test in her eight-month tenure to convince reluctant Republican lawmakers to agree to raise the US’ national debt limit, which is currently set at $28.5 trillion. The stakes are high, because if Yellen’s effort fails, the US financial system will collapse.

Yellen has called Republican leaders to convey the economic danger which lays ahead, bluntly warning that the Treasury Department’s ability to stave off default is limited, and the failure to lift the debt cap by late October would be “catastrophic” for the country and the world.

Six former US treasury secretaries last week sent a letter to top US lawmakers, warning them a default would roil financial markets and blunt economic growth. According to US media reports, Yellen last week also warned the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions about the very real risk of a default. She has spoken to chief executives of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, briefing them the likely disastrous impact a federal default will produce.

To make things worse, both Democrats and Republicans in the US are at each other’s throats now over US President Joe Biden’s new $3.5 trillion spending bill, which proposes heavy tax raises on rich families and corporations, and has met fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers. Whether they will compromise on the debt limit, by making a last-minute deal with the White House to reduce Biden’s giant spending plan remains to be seen.

Market analysts say if the US government defaults on its colossal debt, a financial system crisis of a magnitude larger than the 2008-09 debacle could occur, which is estimated to lead to an evaporation of $15 trillion in wealth and loss of 6 million jobs in the US. The capital market is now on tenterhooks facing a potential financial time bomb.

Do you think that the USA will raise the debt ceiling, or will default? There is a third option, that China and Russsia would “bail out the USA”. What do you think will happen?

Consequences.

Ever since President Trump was elected it was millions of dollars in a hate-hate-hate China narrative. And this has resulted in all sorts of violence, bad will, and Congressional action. What is not being reported is how the Chinese feel about America and Japan today.

Here is a Chinese car with pro-Japan and Pro-America stickers and wording. VIDEO.

Video.

How AP, Reuters And SCMP Propagandize Their Readers Against China

From MoA

A typical ‘western’ anti-China propaganda claim is that China is using its military aggressively. ‘Western’ news agencies do this on a regular base when they report of Chinese air maneuvers around Taiwan.

Oh my goodness!

Drudge report reporting this “news” to the American people.

This report by the South China Morning Post, based on AP and Reuters items, is a perfect example for that:

25 Chinese warplanes enter Taiwan’s air defence zone

Taiwan’s air force scrambled again on Friday to warn away 25 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, according to the defence ministry in Taipei.Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China’s air force, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

The latest PLA air force mission involved 18 J-16 and four Su-30 fighters plus two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine aircraft, the Taiwan ministry said.

It said Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the PLA aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.

The Chinese aircraft all flew in an area close to the Pratas, with the two bombers flying closest to the atoll, according to a map that the ministry issued.

I do not believe that China would fly its bombers and jets into Taiwan’s “air defense zone” because that is the geographic area where Taiwan would actually shoot to take them down.

So I checked with the news agency reports the SCMP story is based on. AP headlines:

China sends 25 fighter planes toward Taiwan on National Day

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China sent 25 fighter jets toward self-ruled Taiwan in a large display of force on China’s National Day Friday.The People’s Liberation Army flew 18 J-16 fighter jets as well as two H-6 bombers, among other planes. Taiwan deployed air patrol forces in response and tracked the Chinese aircraft on its air defense systems, the island’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

China has sent planes toward the island it claims as part of its territory on a near daily basis in the last couple of years, stepping up military harassment with drills.

No “air defense zone” there but one extra point for “military harassment”. Reuters is less subtle:

China marks national day with mass air incursion near Taiwan

TAIPEI, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s air force scrambled again on Friday to warn away 25 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, the defence ministry in Taipei said, the same day as China marked its national day, the founding of the People’s Republic of China.Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

The latest Chinese mission involved 18 J-16 and four Su-30 fighters plus two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine aircraft, the Taiwan ministry said.

So the “air defense zone” claims comes from Reuters. It is however 100% fake news. Neither did the Chinese airforce fly into the “air defense zone” of Taiwan nor did Taiwan claim that it did.

Here is the original news item from the Ministry of Defense of Taiwan. The headline and first line say it all:

Air activities in the southwestern ADIZ of R.O.C.

Air activities in the southwestern ADIZ of R.O.C.

…There is no “air defense zone” (ADZ) in there. Instead there is Taiwan’s ADIZ, or “Air Defense Identification Zone”, into which Chinese planes ‘intruded’.

What is an ADIZ one might ask:

An air defense identification zone (ADIZ) is airspace over land or water in which the identification, location, and control of civil aircraft is performed in the interest of national security. They may extend beyond a country's territory to give the country more time to respond to possibly hostile aircraft. The concept of an ADIZ is not defined in any international treaty and is not regulated by any international body..

Some countries unilateral declare an ADIZ around this or that territory. They ask any plane entering it to identify itself. As ADIZ are unilateral ‘pretty please’ requests with no binding power they are regularly ignored

Taiwan’s ADIZ is quite ridiculous as it covers parts of mainland China:

Taiwan has an ADIZ that covers most of the Taiwan Strait, part of the Chinese province of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi and part of the East China Sea and adjacent airspace. Most of the ADIZ of Taiwan is built on its exclusive economic zone. Taiwan’s ADIZ was designed and created by the United States Armed Forces (USAF) after World War II.

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry Military News Updates claim that Chinese ‘violations’ of its ADIZ happen each and every day.

The Reuters fake news piece also says that the Chinese planes flew near to Pratas Island (Dongsha) which China as well as Taiwan both claim as their territory.

In fact mainland China is nearer to Pratas than Taiwan is.

The Twitter account of Taiwan’s Defense Ministry just posted this map of the alleged ‘violations’ which perfectly shows how ridiculous such claims are:

The AP report is misleading as it implies a special meaning to something that happens regularly. The Reuters piece is obviously fake news as it claims that Taiwan’s defense ministry said something which it did not say. The SCMP deserves to be criticized too as any reporter and editor covering such news should know the difference between an ADZ and an ADIZ and should have recognized that the “air defense zone” claim in the Reuters piece is obviously bollocks.

That said all three fulfill their intended purpose. They propagandize those who read them against China by depicting normal military training of China’s armed forces as aggression against its neighbors.

Posted by b on October 1, 2021 at 16:52 UTC | Permalink

It’s just another example of just how the anti-China narrative is being pushed, and pushed and pushed relentlessly. Nothing good can happen from this. I believe that the American and the Australians, and the Brits are now all worked up into a frothy fury against China and will support a war. Do you agree with me on this, or do you have other thoughts?

How things are being handled…

Curious. This next article…

Huawei CFO gets hero’s welcome; Canadians land quietly

The tallest building in Shenzhen lit up with scrolling slogan “Welcome Home, Meng Wanzhou” across its facade.

The two Canadians freed by Beijing returned to their homeland with less fanfare Huawei CFO gets hero’s welcome; Canadians land quietly | National Post

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/huawei-cfo-gets-heros-welcome-canadians-land-quietly

Fact Sheet: U.S. Interference in Hong Kong Affairs and Support for Anti-China, Destabilizing Forces”

As published on Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China's website. /fmprc.gov.cn

Editor’s note: Grenville Cross is a senior counsel and professor of law, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR. The article reflects the author’s opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In recent years, China’s achievements have surpassed all expectations, and the United States has become increasingly paranoid. It realizes its post-war hegemony can no longer be taken for granted, and that its star is slowly fading. Ever since the UK-based Center for Economics and Business Research reported in December 2020 that China will overtake the U.S. to become the world’s largest economy by 2028, five years earlier than previously forecast, it has been panic stations in Washington D.C.

The U.S., however, faces massive problems, and they are getting worse. It is burdened with a huge national debt, standing at $28.4 billion in August, about $1.7 billion more than a year earlier. Its foreign policy is a shambles, with the Afghanistan debacle being but the latest example, and even its closest allies are appalled by its incompetence and duplicity. Indeed, after the AUKUS deal between the U.S., Australia and the UK was sprung on an unsuspecting world on September 15, France, which was cheated out of a submarine contract, denounced it as a “stab in the back”, and, for the first time ever, withdrew its ambassador from Washington D.C.

Instead, however, of taking a long, hard look at itself, the previous and present U.S. administrations have resorted to scapegoating China, hoping to deflect attention away from their own woes. Although most of its problems are of its own making, the U.S. has sought to blame China not only for its own ills but also those of the world, thereby laying the groundwork for hostile interventions. It has decided that one of the ways of dealing with China is by fomenting internal dissent and spreading misinformation about it, just as it has done in its efforts to weaken Russia.

On June 9, 2019, when the protest movement in Hong Kong and its armed wing declared war on society, ostensibly over the SAR government’s fugitive surrender bill, the U.S. saw its chance. Although the proposals would have facilitated the return of criminal fugitives to 177 jurisdictions, subject to court oversight, and were entirely reasonable, the U.S., to inflame tensions, demonized them, and provided every encouragement to the protesters.

Indeed, on August 6, 2019, at the height of the violence in Hong Kong, the U.S. Consul General’s political counselor, Julie Eadeh, met covertly with protest leaders, including Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, at a local hotel, presumably to share U.S. views on the insurrection and provide ongoing advice.

Again, after Brian Leung Kai-ping, one of the rioters who trashed the Legislative Council complex on July 1, 2019, causing damage estimated at HK$50 million ($6.4 million), fled the city, he was not only welcomed to the U.S., but also invited to the Congress as an honored guest.

Instead of denouncing the rioters who were bringing death and destruction to Hong Kong streets, the then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo endorsed the protest movement’s demands, supported their anti-police agenda, and sought to blame the government for the insurrection.

Even when the protest movement targeted the rule of law by firebombing the courts and threatening the judges, Pompeo and his cronies continued to lionize the protest leaders, and to whitewash their excesses. It was, by any yardstick, partisanship of the worst sort, and represented a new low in U.S. foreign policy.

Even when anti-China legislators, linked to the protest movement, sabotaged the work of the Legislative Council, preventing the passage of legislation for nearly seven months in 2019-20, the U.S. condemned the initiatives taken to get things back on track. Even though it would never have tolerated obstructionism of this type at home, it expected the authorities to allow it in Hong Kong, although the name of its game was, of course, mischief-making.

But with the exclusion of legislators bent on mayhem, and their replacement with responsible citizens committed to the well-being of Hong Kong and the national good, the city now has the prospect of effective governance.

Working through front organizations, the U.S. provided multifaceted support to the protest movement and its allies throughout the insurrection. They included various U.S.-based entities, including the National Endowment for Democracy, always generous with its cash when opponents of the Hong Kong SAR government came knocking, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

It has also now come to light that various other U.S.-backed groups were complicit in the uprising, including the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies, which, despite their fancy names, all had sinister agendas. Although many of them operated in the shadows, this cannot be said of the U.S. Strategic Competition Act 2021, which allocated $10 million for the promotion of “democracy in Hong Kong”, a euphemism for stirring up trouble.

Once, however, the National Security Law was enacted, it provided the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) government with the tools it required to save the city’s way of life and capitalist system, and put an end to undercover operations by foreign powers. The U.S., however, responded by imposing sanctions on the city, revoking its favorable trade status, and suspending the agreement on surrender of fugitive offenders with the HKSAR.

Not once, however, did the U.S. explain how it thought damaging Hong Kong like this would in any way benefit its people, which was revelatory. Perhaps more than anything else, its inability to justify its actions highlighted not only its determination to undermine China by ruining Hong Kong, but also its willingness to throw a long-standing friend under the bus, just as it has now done to France, which also made the mistake of trusting it.

The U.S. attempts to destabilize Hong Kong are a disgrace, as well as a betrayal. The lengths to which it was prepared to go to hurt China beggar belief, and they have now been chronicled for all to see by the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On September 24, it issued a Fact Sheet entitled “U.S. Interference in Hong Kong Affairs and Support for Anti-China Destabilizing Forces”, which is highly detailed and a real eye-opener. It exposes cynical, comprehensive and intensive efforts by a global bullyboy to ruin one of the world’s most successful cities, and is essential reading for anybody wishing to know the depths to which the U.S. is prepared to sink.

Quite clearly, if the evidence contained in the Fact Sheet were to be presented in a court of law responsible for trying the U.S. for willful depredations against Hong Kong and its people, the only possible verdict would be “guilty as charged.” This, alas, will never happen, but great comfort can nonetheless be derived from the city’s survival, against all the odds.

Although, at one point, China’s adversaries thought they could bring Hong Kong to its knees and destroy the “one country, two systems” policy, they have, after the nation rallied round, been decisively thwarted. Indeed, with the Central Government’s steadfast support, the city has emerged from its experiences stronger than ever, and can now face its future with renewed confidence.

Fact listing

It’s a long list. You can skim over and refer to it later…

List of facts about U.S. intervention in Hong Kong affairs and support of anti-China forces in Hong Kong

2021-09-24

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/wjbxw_673019/t1909400.shtml

List of facts about U.S. intervention in Hong Kong affairs and support of anti-China forces in Hong Kong

2021-09-24

　　1. Concocting Hong Kong-related bills, discrediting China’s Hong Kong policy, interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs, and wantonly interfering in China’s internal affairs.

　　1. On November 27, 2019, the then-U.S. President Trump signed the “Hong Kong” concocted by the U.S. Congress in order to show his support for the anti-China and Hong Kong forces and obstruct the efforts of the Chinese Central Government and the Hong Kong SAR government to stop violence, curb chaos, and restore order. The Human Rights and Democracy Act” and the “Prohibition of Export of Related Ammunitions to Hong Kong Police”. The relevant bill slanders the Chinese central government for undermining Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, authorizes the US President to impose sanctions against relevant Chinese officials such as denying entry and freezing assets in the US, and requires the US Secretary of State to submit an annual report on Hong Kong affairs and prohibit the US from exporting tear gas and pepper spray to Hong Kong. , Rubber bullets and stun guns and other police equipment.

　　2. On July 14, 2020, the then US President Trump signed the “Hong Kong Autonomy Act.” The law requires sanctions against so-called foreign individuals or entities related to China’s breach of Hong Kong-related obligations, as well as foreign financial institutions that conduct important transactions with related individuals or entities, and supports so-called “persecuted” Hong Kong residents to enter the United States. On the same day, Trump signed No. 13936 “Presidential Executive Order on the Normalization of Hong Kong”, which determined that the situation in Hong Kong constitutes a threat to the security, foreign policy and economy of the United States, and accordingly declared a national emergency, including the suspension and cancellation of special grants to Hong Kong. Preferential treatment, authorization to impose sanctions on Hong Kong entities and individuals, etc.

　　3. On February 18, 2021, Meeks, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, proposed the so-called “resolution condemning China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for continuing to violate the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people”, slandering the Chinese central government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government for upholding the rule of law. The case was approved by the House of Representatives on April 19.

　　4. The U.S. Congress is reviewing several negative Hong Kong bills, including: On January 25 and February 8, 2021, U.S. Republican Representative Curtis and U.S. Senator Rubio proposed “Hong Kong” in the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively. The Safe Harbor Act requires the U.S. government to provide refugee status to “Hong Kong independence” elements involved in the Hong Kong riots; on March 18, 2021, Republican Senator Rubio proposed the so-called “condemnation of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party for repressing Hong Kong. Including the arrest of democrats and repeated violations of the “Sino-British Joint Declaration” and Hong Kong Basic Law resolutions”; on June 24, 2021, Republican Senator Sass proposed the “Hong Kong Democratic Congress Gold Medal Bill”, clamoring to Li Zhiying , Luo Weiguang, Zhang Jianhong, Zhou Daquan, Chen Peimin, Zhang Zhiwei, Yang Qingqi and other Hong Kong “Apple Daily” executives and all staff members of the newspaper awarded the American Association Gold Medal; June 30, 2021, Democratic Congressman Malinowski Introduced the “Hong Kong People’s Freedom and Choice Act of 2021”, which requires the provision of asylum for anti-China chaos in Hong Kong, criminals and criminals, and provide them with convenient access to the United States; on June 30, 2021, Republican Representative Perry proposed “Hong Kong The Freedom Act requires that the US President be authorized to recognize the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as an “independent country.”

　　2. Flagrantly imposing sanctions in an attempt to obstruct the smooth implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law and the relevant decisions of the National People’s Congress of China in Hong Kong.

　　1. On May 29, 2020, the then US President Trump announced the cancellation of Hong Kong’s special status and Hong Kong’s commercial preferential measures.

　　2. On June 29, 2020, the then U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo announced that the export of U.S. defense equipment to Hong Kong will now be banned, and the export of U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong will be restricted.

　　3. On June 29, 2020, the then US Secretary of Commerce Ross issued a statement officially abolishing the special trade treatment for Hong Kong, prohibiting the sale of dual-use high-tech equipment to Hong Kong, and will continue to evaluate the cancellation of other special treatments in Hong Kong.

　　4. On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the termination of the Hong Kong export license exception treatment and prohibits the export of defense equipment and sensitive technology to Hong Kong.

　　5. On August 7, 2020, the U.S. government announced sanctions against 11 officials of the Chinese Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on the grounds of enforcing the Hong Kong National Security Law and undermining Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.

　　6. On August 11, 2020, the US Department of Homeland Security announced that from September 25, Hong Kong exports to the United States must indicate the origin of “China” and prohibit the use of the “Made in Hong Kong” label.

　　7. On August 19, 2020, the US State Department announced the suspension or termination of the three bilateral agreements signed with Hong Kong, including the transfer of fugitive offenders, the transfer of sentenced persons, and the exemption of international shipping profits tax.

　　8. On October 14, 2020, the U.S. State Department submitted its first Hong Kong-related report to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the requirements of the “Hong Kong Autonomy Act.” The financial institutions related to the above-mentioned persons impose sanctions.

　　9. On November 9, 2020, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against four officials of the Chinese Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on the grounds that they threatened Hong Kong’s peace, security, and high degree of autonomy.

　　10. On December 7, 2020, the US State Department imposed sanctions on 14 vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China on the grounds that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China enacted the Hong Kong National Security Law and disqualified four opposition members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council.

　　11. On January 15, 2021, the then US Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement on the grounds that the Hong Kong police arrested 55 so-called democrats and imposed sanctions on 6 officials of the Chinese Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

　　12. On March 16, 2021, the US State Department updated the “Hong Kong Autonomy Law” report, and announced the update of the list of Hong Kong-related sanctions and additional financial services based on the relevant decisions adopted by the National People’s Congress to improve the Hong Kong election system and the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law. Sanctions.

　　13. On July 7, 2021, the White House issued the so-called “Notice on the Continuing Implementation of the National Emergency Concerning Hong Kong”, announcing the extension of the so-called “national emergency declared in response to the situation in Hong Kong” and extending the US sanctions against Hong Kong for one year.

　　14. On July 16, 2021, the US State Department, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Treasury fabricated the so-called “Hong Kong Business Warning” and discredited Hong Kong’s business environment on the grounds that the SAR implemented the Hong Kong National Security Law and the suspension of the “Apple Daily”. , Vilified the development of Hong Kong and the prospects of “one country, two systems”, and announced sanctions on seven officials of the Liaison Office of the Central Committee of Hong Kong. US Secretary of State Blincoln also issued a so-called statement on the first anniversary of the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, slandering the National Security Law and attacking the Chinese government’s policy towards Hong Kong.

　　3. Slander and slander the affairs of the Special Administrative Region, arbitrarily discuss the enforcement actions of the Hong Kong police, and undermine the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong.

　　1. On February 25, 2019, the then U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong, Tang Weikang, publicly expressed in an interview his concern about the SAR government’s proposed revision of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, claiming that the amendment may affect the implementation of the bilateral agreement between the United States and Hong Kong.

　　2. On March 21, 2019, the U.S. State Department issued the “2019 Hong Kong Policy and Law Report”, claiming that the freedom of speech in Hong Kong has been eroded and that the Chinese government has increased its intervention in Hong Kong affairs, causing damage to Hong Kong in many ways.

　　3. On May 7, 2019, the US Congress “US-China Economic and Security Evaluation Committee” issued a report that slandered the SAR government’s amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and “eroded Hong Kong’s autonomy”, which constituted a serious threat to the national security of the United States and the economic interests of the United States in Hong Kong. risk.

　　4. On May 16, 2019, the U.S. State Department issued a statement falsely claiming that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance threatened the rule of law in Hong Kong and was concerned about this.

　　5. On June 19, 2019, when Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi spoke at the Christian Science Monitor’s breakfast meeting, he ignored the various extreme atrocities committed by anti-China and Hong Kong elements, claiming that “2 million people took to the streets to oppose the amendment. The Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, isn’t that a beautiful landscape?”, openly condoned and encouraged anti-China chaos in Hong Kong to use illegal and violent means to confront the central government and the SAR government.

　　6. On July 26, 2019, Engel, then chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, falsely claimed that the Hong Kong police used violence in handling demonstrations, which damaged Hong Kong’s international reputation in governance and justice.

　　7. On September 17, 2019, the United States “Congress-Executive China Committee” held a hearing on the situation in Hong Kong, beautifying the anti-revision violent demonstrations, discrediting the SAR government’s handling of the Hong Kong police, falsely claiming that it undermined the “one country, two systems” and Hong Kong autonomy.

　　8. On September 28, 2019, the US “Congress-Executive China Committee” issued a statement on the fifth anniversary of Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central”, discrediting “One Country, Two Systems” and the central government’s policy towards Hong Kong.

　　9. On October 7, 2019, the then-U.S. President Trump stated that he hoped that the Hong Kong protest issue would be resolved humanely. The people of Hong Kong were great. They waved the American flag and more than 2 million people participated in the protest. Nothing like this has ever happened before.

　　10. On October 24, 2019, the then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered an anti-China speech at the Wilson Center, a think-tank in Washington. He repeatedly mentioned Hong Kong’s “regulation turmoil”, claiming that “Hong Kong is a living example, showing how China would embrace freedom. What will happen”.

　　11. On November 21, 2019, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Pelosi made a public speech after the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” was passed and reviewed, claiming that “China’s commitment to Hong Kong’s complete autonomy has been broken” and deliberately distorting “One Country, Two Systems” , Confusion of right and wrong.

　　12. On December 10, 2019, the US Consul General in Hong Kong, Smith, wrote an article in Ming Pao in Hong Kong, threatening that “the United States has consistently committed to human rights in Hong Kong”, claiming that “the United States’ enactment of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act demonstrates the universal value of the United States. The commitment of the United States reflects the United States’ concern about Beijing’s erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.”

　　13. On May 22, 2020, the then U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement on the “Decision on Establishing and Improving the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Legal System and Implementation Mechanism for Maintaining National Security” by the National People’s Congress of China, slandering the Hong Kong National Security Law as “ Impose” and “undermine Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.”

　　14. On May 27, 2020, the then U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo once again issued a statement on the imminent review and approval of the Hong Kong National Security Law by the National People’s Congress of China, arguing that the United States hopes that Hong Kong, as a “fortress of freedom”, can become a model for “authoritarian” China, and to The U.S. Congress “confirmed” that Hong Kong should no longer enjoy the treatment granted to it by U.S. law before July 1997.

　　15. On May 28, 2020, the U.S. State Department submitted the “2020 Hong Kong Policy Law Report” to Congress, confirming that Hong Kong cannot continue to enjoy the special treatment provided by U.S. law.

　　16. On June 30, 2020, the then U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement falsely claiming that the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law undermined “One Country, Two Systems” and violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the commitments made in Hong Kong’s Basic Law.

　　17. On July 1, 2020, the Speaker of the U.S. Congress, Pelosi, after passing the “Hong Kong Autonomy Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives, falsely claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Act is a “cruel and comprehensive suppression of Hong Kong, undermining Hong Kong’s freedom, and marking’one country, two systems.” ‘Death’.

　　18. On July 6, 2020, US Consul General Smith in Hong Kong falsely claimed that Hong Kong’s national security law erode the basic human rights and freedoms of Hong Kong people and create an atmosphere of self-censorship, which is a tragedy in Hong Kong.

　　19. On July 14, 2020, the then US Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement supporting the so-called “primary election” illegally held by the Hong Kong opposition.

　　20. On July 23, 2020, the then US Secretary of State Pompeo delivered the so-called “Communist China and the Future of the Free World” anti-China speech, maliciously attacking the leadership of the Communist Party of China and China’s political system, spreading the China threat theory, and slandering the so-called strengthening of the Communist Party of China The control of Hong Kong has beautified Luo Guancong and other anti-China chaos in Hong Kong into democracy fighters.

　　21. On July 31, 2020, the then White House spokesperson McNerney stated that the United States opposed the Hong Kong SAR government’s disqualification of opposition candidates.

Fact Sheet: U.S. Interference in Hong Kong Affairs and Support for Anti-China, Destabilizing Forces

2021/09/24

I. Enacting Hong Kong-related Acts, vilifying China’s policy on Hong Kong, meddling in Hong Kong affairs, and wantonly interfering in China’s internal affairs

1. On 27 November 2019, in collusion with those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong and obstruct efforts of China’s central government and the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to stop violence and restore law and order, then U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law two bills passed by the U.S. Congress, i.e. the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 and the Act to prohibit the commercial export of covered munitions items to the Hong Kong Police Force. These bills accuse China’s central government of undermining the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong, authorize the U.S. President to impose sanctions such as inadmissibility to the United States and asset blocking against relevant Chinese officials, require the U.S. Secretary of State to submit a report regarding Hong Kong affairs on a yearly basis, and prohibit U.S. exports of police equipment, such as tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and stun guns, to Hong Kong.

2. On 14 July 2020, then U.S. President Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which requires the imposition of sanctions with respect to the foreign individuals or entities involved in the so-called erosion of certain obligations of China with respect to Hong Kong and foreign financial institutions that conduct significant transactions with those individuals or entities. It also supported permanent residents of Hong Kong who have been “persecuted” to enter the United States. On the same day, Trump signed the President’s Executive Order 13936 on Hong Kong Normalization, which determined that the situation with respect to Hong Kong constitutes a threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States. He declared a national emergency on that basis, which included measures to suspend or eliminate the different and preferential treatment for Hong Kong, and to authorize sanctions against entities and individuals with respect to Hong Kong.

3. On 18 February 2021, Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution condemning the so-called “continued violation of rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region”, which slandered the efforts made by China’s central government and the HKSAR government to uphold the rule of law, maintain order and stability and protect the life, property and safety of Hong Kong residents. The resolution was adopted by the House on 19 April.

4. The U.S. Congress is considering several other ill-intentioned bills regarding Hong Kong:

On 25 January and 8 February 2021, Republican Representative John Curtis and Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act in the House and the Senate respectively, requiring the U.S. government to designate refugee status to individuals espousing “Hong Kong independence” and participating in the riots in Hong Kong.

On 18 March 2021, Senator Rubio introduced a resolution condemning the so-called “crackdown by the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, including the arrests of pro-democracy activists and repeated violations of the obligations of that Government undertaken in the Sino-British Declaration of 1984 and the Hong Kong Basic Law”.

On 24 June 2021, Republican Senator Ben Sasse introduced the Democracy in Hong Kong Congressional Gold Medal Act on conferring the Congressional Gold Medal to Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Ryan Law Wai-kwong, Cheung Kim-hung, Royston Chow Tat-kuen, Chan Pui-man, Cheung Chi-wai, Yeung Ching-kee and all the executives and staff of Apple Daily, a newspaper in Hong Kong.

On 30 June 2021, Republican Representative Tom Malinowski introduced the Hong Kong People’s Freedom and Choice Act of 2021, calling for providing protected status to those who oppose China and provoke instability as well as law breakers and offenders in Hong Kong and for enhancing protocols to facilitate their travels to the United States.

On 30 June 2021, Republican Representative Scott Perry introduced the Hong Kong Freedom Act, calling for authorizing the U.S. President to recognize the HKSAR as “a separate, independent country”.

II. Imposing sanctions in an attempt to obstruct the implementation in Hong Kong of the Hong Kong National Security Law and relevant decisions of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC)

1. On 29 May 2020, then U.S. President Trump announced revocation of the special status and preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong.

2. On 29 June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the immediate end of exports of U.S. defense equipment to Hong Kong and restrictions on exports of U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong.

3. On 29 June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross issued a statement, officially revoking Hong Kong’s special status in trade, banning exports of dual-use high-tech products to Hong Kong, and stating that further actions to eliminate differential treatment for Hong Kong were also being evaluated.

4. On 30 June 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the suspension of license exceptions for exports to Hong Kong, banning exports of U.S.-origin defense equipment and sensitive technologies to Hong Kong.

5. On 7 August 2020, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on 11 officials of China’s central government and the HKSAR government on the ground of enforcing the Hong Kong National Security Law and undermining Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.

6. On 11 August 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that after 25 September 2020, imported goods produced in Hong Kong may no longer be marked to indicate “Hong Kong” as their origin, but must be marked to indicate “China”.

7. On 19 August 2020, the U.S. Department of State announced the suspension or termination of three bilateral agreements with Hong Kong covering the surrender of fugitive offenders, the transfer of sentenced persons, and reciprocal tax exemptions on income derived from the international operation of ships.

8. On 14 October 2020, the U.S. Department of State submitted its first report to Congress pursuant to the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, listing 10 officials of China’s central government and the HKSAR government as “persons undermining the autonomy of Hong Kong” and threatening to impose sanctions on financial institutions related to these individuals.

9. On 9 November 2020, the U.S. Department of State announced sanctions on four officials of China’s central government and the HKSAR government for “threatening the peace, security and autonomy of Hong Kong”.

10. On 7 December 2020, the U.S. Department of State imposed sanctions on 14 Vice Chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the NPC of China on the ground of the NPC Standing Committee formulating the Hong Kong National Security Law and disqualifying four opposition members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.

11. On 15 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement, announcing sanctions on six officials of China’s central government and the HKSAR government for arresting 55 so-called “pro-democracy politicians and activists” by Hong Kong police.

12. On 16 March 2021, the U.S. Department of State updated its Hong Kong Autonomy Act report, announcing an updated list of sanctioned individuals and additional financial sanctions following the NPC’s decision to improve the electoral system of Hong Kong and implement the Hong Kong National Security Law.

13. On 7 July 2021, the White House issued a Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Hong Kong, announcing the continuation of the so-called national emergency declared with respect to the Hong Kong situation, and extended U.S. sanctions on Hong Kong for one year.

14. On 16 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Treasury jointly issued a so-called “Hong Kong Business Advisory” on the ground of enforcing the Hong Kong National Security Law and closing of Apple Daily, in an attempt to cast doubt over Hong Kong’s business environment as well as the development of Hong Kong and the prospects of One Country, Two Systems in Hong Kong. In addition, new sanctions were announced on seven officials of the central government’s liaison office in the HKSAR. On the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement “marking one year of Hong Kong’s national security law”, in which he made groundless attacks on the Hong Kong National Security Law and the Chinese government’s policy on Hong Kong.

III. Making unfounded charges against HKSAR affairs and law enforcement actions taken by Hong Kong police in an attempt to undermine Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability

1. On 25 February 2019, then U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Kurt Tong expressed in an interview his concerns about the HKSAR government’s plan to introduce amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, saying that an amendment could have some impact on the implementation of the bilateral arrangements between the United States and Hong Kong.

2. On 21 March 2019, the U.S. Department of State released 2019 Hong Kong Policy Act Report alleging that freedom of expression in Hong Kong was facing setbacks, and that the increased intervention by China’s central government in Hong Kong affairs had “adversely impacted Hong Kong in multiple areas”.

3. On 7 May 2019, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission of U.S. Congress issued a report, alleging that the HKSAR government’s proposed extradition bill would “erode Hong Kong’s autonomy” and create serious risks for U.S. national security and economic interests in Hong Kong.

4. On 16 May 2019, the U.S. State Department issued a statement, alleging that the HKSAR government’s proposed amendments to the Fugitive Ordinance would threaten Hong Kong’s rule of law and expressing concerns about it.

5. On 19 June 2019, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed a breakfast meeting hosted by The Christian Science Monitor in which she turned a blind eye to the extremist and violent acts committed by those who were opposed to China and attempted to destabilize Hong Kong and claimed that “the demonstration by some two million people against the extradition bill” was “a beautiful sight to behold”. She thus openly urged rioters to take illegal and violent actions against the central government and the HKSAR government.

6. On 26 July 2019, then Chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel issued an unfounded statement about the so-called “police brutality in response to protests in Hong Kong”, alleging that “it has tarnished Hong Kong’s international reputation for good governance and fair administration of justice”.

7. On 17 September 2019, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on Hong Kong. At the hearing, the violent demonstrations against the extradition bill was whitewashed while the response of the HKSAR government and police was attacked as undermining One Country, Two Systems and Hong Kong’s autonomy.

8. On 28 September 2019, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China made a statement on the fifth anniversary of the so-called “Umbrella Movement protests”, in an attempt to vilify One Country, Two Systems and the central government’s policy on Hong Kong.

9. On 7 October 2019, then U.S. President Donald Trump said that “we just want to see a humane solution” in Hong Kong. He talked about the “great people over there” and said “they are flying the American flag”, “I saw two million people. I’ve never seen anything like it”.

10. On 24 October 2019, then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered an anti-China speech at the Wilson Center, in which he mentioned the turbulence over the amendment bill in Hong Kong several times. He alleged that “Hong Kong is a living example of what can happen when China embraces liberty”.

11. On 21 November 2019, in her remarks made after the passing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deliberately misrepresented One Country, Two Systems, alleging that China has broken the promise of high degree of autonomy.

12. On 10 December 2019, U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong Hanscom Smith wrote an article for Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, asserting that “human rights are universal, which is why the United States stands with Hong Kong”. He claimed that the adoption of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act by the United States reflected its commitment to universal values and its concern over Beijing’s measures that erode Hong Kong’s autonomy.

13. On 22 May 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the adoption of the NPC Decision on Establishing and Improving the Legal Systems and Enforcement Mechanisms for Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in which he made unfounded accusations that the National Security Law was “imposed” on Hong Kong and would “undermine Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy”.

14. On 27 May 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued another statement on the Hong Kong National Security Law to be deliberated and adopted by the NPC in which he claimed that the United States once hoped that Hong Kong, “as a bastion of liberty”, would provide a model for “authoritarian” China. He also stated that he would certify to Congress that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under U.S. law in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997.

15. On 28 May 2020, the U.S. State Department submitted to Congress the 2020 Hong Kong Policy Act Report and certified that Hong Kong did not continue to warrant differential treatment under U.S. law.

16. On 30 June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a statement, asserting that the Hong Kong National Security Law undermines One Country, Two Systems, and violates commitments made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of the HKSAR.

17. On 1 July 2020, following the adoption of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act by the U.S. House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi alleged that the Hong Kong National Security Law was “a brutal, sweeping crackdown against the people of Hong Kong, intended to destroy the freedoms they were promised” and it “signals the death of the One Country, Two Systems principle”.

18. On 6 July 2020, U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong Hanscom Smith asserted in an interview that using the Hong Kong National Security Law to erode fundamental freedoms and create an atmosphere of self-censorship is a tragedy for Hong Kong.

19. On 14 July 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement in support of the so-called “primary election” organized by the opposition in Hong Kong.

20. On 23 July 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an anti-China speech titled “Communist China and the Free World’s Future”. In the speech, he attacked the leadership of the CPC and China’s political system, fabricated the so-called “China threat”, accused the CPC of “tightening its grip on Hong Kong” and called Nathan Law Kwun-chung and other individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong as fighters for democracy.

21. On 31 July 2020, then White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated the United States’ opposition to the HKSAR government’s decision to disqualify opposition candidates.

22. On 7 August 2020, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong issued a statement, blatantly smearing and attacking the Hong Kong National Security Law and alleging that it was “never about security, but rather, was intended to silence democracy advocates”.

23. On 11 September 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked China in a statement on a case of illegal border crossing made by 12 Hong Kong residents in an attempt to meddle in China’s judicial sovereignty.

24. On 11 November 2020, then Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Robert O’Brien asserted that China’s actions disqualifying the opposition legislators from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration and that the United States will identify and sanction those responsible for extinguishing Hong Kong’s freedom.

25. On 12 November 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the disqualification of four opposition legislators. He accused the lawful decision of the NPC of being an “onslaught against Hong Kong’s freedoms” and clamored for “holding accountable the people responsible for eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms”.

26. On 6 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the Hong Kong police’s lawful arrest of 53 opposition members who were suspected of violating the Hong Kong National Security law. He called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of those people and threatened further sanctions.

27. On 14 January 2021, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China released its so-called “2020 Annual Report”, alleging that the One country, Two systems framework has been dismantled. The Commission called for providing shelters for offenders from Hong Kong based on U.S. domestic laws and blatantly exerted pressure on the HKSAR government against its law-based administration.

28. On 11 March 2021, the Spokesperson of the U.S. State Department made unwarranted charges against the passage of the NPC’s Decision on Improving the Electoral System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, asserting that the decision was a continuing assault on democratic institutions and a direct attack on Hong Kong’s democratic processes.

29. On 11 March 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on the passage of the NPC’s Decision on Improving the Electoral System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in which he asserted that it was a direct attack on the autonomy, freedoms and democratic processes of Hong Kong.

30. On 30 March 2021, the U.S. State Department released a 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, vilifying the Hong Kong National Security Law and attacking law-based administration by the HKSAR government and law enforcement carried out by Hong Kong police.

31. On 31 March 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the 2021 Hong Kong Policy Act Report, accusing China of undermining the autonomy and rights and freedoms in Hong Kong and stating that Hong Kong would no longer receive the differential treatment previously accorded to it under U.S. laws.

32. On 1 April 2021, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith, in media interviews and articles published on newspapers such as the South China Morning Post and Ming Pao, vilified the major steps China had taken to improve HKSAR’s electoral system and to formulate and implement the Hong Kong National Security Law. He alleged that changes to the electoral system would render Hong Kong’s election results meaningless, and threatened to impose U.S. sanctions in an attempt to embolden those who are opposed to China and attempted to destabilize Hong Kong.

33. On 16 April 2021, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted that the arrest of Martin Lee and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong was “another sign of Beijing’s assault on the rule of law” and felt “saddened and disturbed”.

34. On 17 April 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that sentencing for politically-motivated charges “are unacceptable” and called for the “release” of those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

35. On 7 May 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that “the United States stands with the people of Hong Kong”. He called for rejecting the sentencing of those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong and their immediate release.

36. On 27 May 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a press statement on the State Department website, unwarrantedly accusing the Chinese government of undermining the democratic institutions of Hong Kong and calling for all individuals arrested under the Hong Kong National Security Law to be released and their charges dropped.

37. On 3 June 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a press statement on the State Department website, claiming that “the United States will stand with” the people of China who demand that their government respect “universal human rights”, and he called those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong “brave activists”.

38. On 4 June 2021, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong lit up electric candles inside its the office window in support of the so-called candlelight vigil staged by those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

39. On 5 June 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong were inspiring and called for the immediate release of those arrested.

40. On 11 June 2021, in an interview with Reuters, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith alleged that the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law had created an “atmosphere of coercion” threatening both Hong Kong’s freedoms and its standing as an international business hub.

41. On 21 June 2021, at a press briefing, the spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, under the pretext of media freedom, accused the HKSAR government of using the Hong Kong National Security Law to suppress independent media and stifle freedom of expression.

42. On 24 June 2021, in a statement released on the White House website, U.S. President Joe Biden, using media freedom as a pretext, called Apple Daily’s closure “a sad day for media freedom” and a signal of “intensified repression by Beijing”.

43. On 29 June 2021, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a roundtable on the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, making unwarranted charges against human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong.

44. On 30 June 2021, at the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, in disregard of facts, openly attacked the legislation, alleging that it curtails Hong Kong’s freedom of expression.

45. On 1 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the so-called “2021 Trafficking in Persons Report”. In the part on China, the report denigrated Hong Kong’s successful efforts to combat human trafficking, and demonized the Hong Kong National Security Law.

46. On 13 July 2021, the spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State unwarrantedly accused China of continuing to undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and business environment, and called for international attention.

47. On 21 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the so-called Investment Climate Statements. In the part on Hong Kong, the Statements played up the so-called security risks of the Hong Kong National Security Law and defamed Hong Kong’s business environment.

48. On 2 August 2021, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong posted “Bearing Witness” on its website, listing individuals who have been held accountable in accordance with law for opposing China and attempting to destabilize Hong Kong. The list contains such information as their names, the dates of their arrests, the dates they were charged, charges made against them, and their conviction dates.

IV. Shielding and supporting those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong, providing platforms for them to advocate “Hong Kong independence” and spread political disinformation, and justifying the acts of those lawbreakers by twisting facts and misleading the public.

1. On 17 March 2019, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong arranged for a delegation of the U.S.-China Working Group of the U.S. House of Representatives to meet with Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Martin Lee Chu-ming and Joshua Wong Chi-fung and others. These people told the media afterwards that they discussed with the U.S. side issues such as the HKSAR government’s disqualification of opposition candidates from the Legislative Council election, the proposed amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, and Hong Kong’s political development.

2. From 19 to 26 March 2019, Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, Charles Mok Nai-kwong and several others visited the United States, where they met with U.S. officials including then Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, then principal policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State Miles Yu, and then Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs of the U.S. Department of Defense Randall Schriver. They also met with officials from the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Anson Chan and others urged the U.S. administration to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and pleaded for U.S. support for the anti-amendment bill movement launched by the opposition. The U.S. side arranged for them to give speeches at such institutions as the McCain Institute at Arizona State University and the Heritage Foundation. This provided a platform and support for Anson Chan and others to preach “Hong Kong independence” and spread political disinformation.

3. From 13 to 17 May 2019, six people, namely Martin Lee Chu-ming, Lee Cheuk-yan, Mak Yin-ting, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, James To Kun-sun and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, visited the United States and met with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then White House National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Matt Pottinger and others. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China arranged for them to attend a so-called hearing on Hong Kong and ask the HKSAR government to withdraw the draft amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.

4. On 14 May 2019, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy held a seminar on the proposed amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance by the HKSAR government, discussing the so-called “new threats to civil society and the rule of law in Hong Kong”. The Endowment arranged for Martin Lee Chu-ming and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize to attend the seminar. Participants of the seminar called for taking immediate action to stop what they described as the “evil law”.

5. From 7 to 11 July 2019, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who is opposed to China and attempts to destabilize Hong Kong, visited the United States and met with then Vice President Mike Pence, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then National Security Advisor John Bolton, then Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell and others. Jimmy Lai lobbied for U.S. intervention in Hong Kong affairs, and discussed with the U.S. side developments in Hong Kong surrounding the amendment bill and the so-called “autonomous status of Hong Kong”, for which he received positive response from the U.S. side.

6. On 6 August 2019, Hong Kong media reported that Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and other leading figures of Demosistõ, an organization for “Hong Kong independence”, met with officials of the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and called on the U.S. side to adopt a Hong Kong human rights and democracy act as soon as possible and impose sanctions on Hong Kong.

7. On 17 September 2019, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China arranged for Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Dennis Ho Wan-see, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang and others to attend a hearing under the so-called title of “Hong Kong’s Summer of Discontent and U.S. Policy Responses”. This provided a platform and support for Wong, Ho, Law and Cheung to advocate “Hong Kong independence”, spread political disinformation and smear the central government of China and the HKSAR government.

8. On 17 September 2019, U.S. Senator Todd Yang attended a press conference held on Capitol Hill to inaugurate the so-called Hong Kong Democracy Council, an organization supporting “Hong Kong independence”.

9. From 12 to 13 October 2019, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz visited Hong Kong and met with Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, Charles Mok Nai-kwong, Bonnie Leung Wing-man and other leading figures among those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. Cruz appeared at a protest site dressed in black and told the media that he did not see any violence. He accused the Hong Kong police, who had been enforcing the law with great restraint, of violent suppression.

10. From 22 to 26 October 2019, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Martin Lee Chu-ming and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong visited the United States and met with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, then Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Jim McGovern and several members of Congress.

11. On 4 February 2020, at the invitation of U.S. senator Rick Scott, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, who is opposed to China and attempts to destabilize Hong Kong, attended the U.S. President’s State of the Union address.

12. On 5 March 2020, then U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Jonathan Fritz and U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith met with Charles Mok Nai-kwong and some others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

13. On 21 March 2020, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith met with Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang and Fergus Leung Fong-wai, among others, and accepted a so-called petition from Wong. Wong urged the United States to impose sanctions on HKSAR government officials and members of the Hong Kong police by invoking the U.S. Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

14. On 18 April 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement making groundless accusations against Hong Kong police’s arrest of individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

15. On 27 May 2020, U.S. Senator Joshua Hawley met with Joshua Wong Chi-fung and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

16. On 1 July 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing and arranged for Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Lee Cheuk-yan and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong to attend the hearing via video link, providing a platform for them to vilify the Hong Kong National Security Law and the central government’s policy on Hong Kong.

17. On 21 July 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a one-on-one meeting in London with Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a “Hong Kong independence” advocate who had fled to the UK, in a move to embolden Law. Law smeared China’s central government and the HKSAR government, and called on the United States to exert more pressure on China.

18. On 10 August 2020, then National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien issued a statement claiming that the U.S. side is “deeply troubled by the arrest of pro-democracy advocates” including Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and calling on Beijing to repeal the Hong Kong National Security Law.

19. On 16 December 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary arranged for Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a “Hong Kong independence” advocate, to attend a hearing via video link. Law claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Law restricted Hong Kong people’s freedom of expression and right to protest, and urged the United States to grant asylum to more Hong Kong people.

20. On 6 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement expressing so-called concern over the arrest of more than 50 individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

21. On 15 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued another statement making irresponsible comments about the HKSAR government’s arrest made in accordance with the law of individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong, including an American lawyer. He called on China to immediately release individuals sanctioned under the Hong Kong National Security Law and drop charges against them.

22. On 31 January 2021, nine U.S. senators and house representatives including Jim McGovern, Marco Rubio and Jeff Merkley wrote a joint letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee nominating the so-called “pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong” for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

23. On 28 February 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted a tweet to “condemn the detention of and charges filed against pan-democratic candidates in Hong Kong’s elections” by the HKSAR government.

24. On 16 April 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement making unwarranted accusations against China over the sentencing of Martin Lee Chu-ming, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and other individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

25. On 8 July 2021, Joshua Huck, Chief of the Economic and Political Section of the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, attended as an observer an HK court trial of individuals suspected of illegally planning, organizing and carrying out the “35 +” and “10 steps to mutual destruction” plan. When interviewed by the media, he claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Law is about suppressing the freedom of Hong Kong people and sought to glorify and justify individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong.

V. Colluding with some countries to exert pressure, and teaming up with allies to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and make irresponsible comments by such means as joint statements.

1. On 27 May 2020, the United States Mission to the United Nations issued a statement calling for a UN Security Council meeting on Hong Kong. The statement claimed that Hong Kong is “a matter of urgent global concern that implicates international peace and security”.

2. On 28 May 2020, foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada issued a joint statement on Hong Kong, attacking the Hong Kong National Security Law to be adopted by China’s NPC.

3. On 17 June 2020, foreign ministers of the United States and other G7 countries and the High Representative of the European Union issued a joint statement on Hong Kong. In an attempt to put pressure on China, the statement claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Law would undermine One country, Two Systems and Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, and urged the Chinese government to reconsider the relevant decision.

4. On 9 August 2020, foreign ministers of the United States and other Five Eyes countries issued a joint statement on Hong Kong, slandering the central government’s policy on Hong Kong and urging China’s NPC to revoke the disqualification of the four opposition members of the Legislative Council.

5. On 18 November 2020, foreign ministers of the United States and other Five Eyes countries issued a joint statement on Hong Kong, attacking the decision of the Standing Committee of the NPC on the qualification of members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council and China’s policy on Hong Kong.

6. On 9 January 2021, foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada issued a joint statement on Hong Kong. The statement expressed so-called serious concern on the arrest of 55 individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong by Hong Kong police in accordance with law, and accused the Hong Kong National Security Law of being a clear breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, undermining the One Country, Two Systems framework, and curtailing the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.

7. On 12 March 2021, foreign ministers of the United States and other G7 countries and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a joint statement on Hong Kong. The statement claimed that the changes made by the Chinese government to Hong Kong’s electoral system were aimed at eliminating dissent in Hong Kong and would undermine Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.

8. On 5 May 2021, the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting attended by the United States and other relevant countries issued a joint statement which smeared the Chinese government’s policy on Hong Kong, distorted the policy of One Country, Two Systems, made irresponsible comments on the internal affairs of the HKSAR, and supported those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. The United States also proposed at the meeting the setting up of an international group called “friends of Hong Kong”, in an attempt to get other Western countries on board to interfere in Hong Kong affairs.

9. On 13 June 2021, the G7 Summit issued a communiqué which made groundless comments on Hong Kong and called on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.

10. From 21 June to 14 July 2021, during the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the United States and 43 other countries signed a joint statement against China initiated by Canada, expressing “concern” over “human rights abuses” in Hong Kong.

On 1 July, the United States led a side event on the one-year anniversary of the Hong Kong National Security Law which slandered the Hong Kong National Security Law and the rule of law in Hong Kong. Twenty governments and nine non-governmental organizations were asked to attend it.

11. On 10 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State website published a joint statement made by 21 countries including the United States and some European countries, all being members of the so-called Media Freedom Coalition, expressing “strong concerns” about the closure of Apple Daily and the arrest of those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. The statement also made groundless accusations against the law enforcement efforts of the HKSAR government, the Hong Kong National Security Law, and the central government’s policy on Hong Kong.

Where is the world heading to?

People are starting to recognize that within 18 months from now, a nuclear armed Australia will be the "tip of the speak" to militarily confrontation with China. 

Thus (supposedly) sparing New York City, Washington DC, and Los Angles from nuclear destruction...

From the Times of Israel.

China-US nuclear line up on collusion course.

In the Middle East, dictatorial regimes and terrorist militias about to breathe a sigh of relief as the United States and its allies withdraw from Afghanistan and perhaps soon from Iraq.

There is a perception in the region that it is believed that for more than two centuries, first Britain and then the United States were a bone stuck in the throat of the region.

Throughout the twentieth century and the first two decades of the twenty-first century, they kept brought nothing but war, violence, and the fragmentation of nations on the map, for the Middle East. The war and conflict only achievement of the great powers, especially in the oil and energy sector in this region.

Now the table is turned.

With the first energy revolution, the United States became depleted of Middle Eastern oil by acquiring shale oil, and now, by moving to clean energy, seeks its geopolitical priorities no longer in the Middle East but in the Indo-Pacific region.

Leading oil historian Daniel Yergin delves deeply into these geopolitical changes in the post-oil world in his new book, The New Map, published September 14 2021 in New York. He says that just as the map of the world changed after the First World War at the beginning of the twentieth century, so in the twenty-first century there will be a new map of the world.

The world has been waiting for years for a strategic and geopolitical confrontation between China and the United States.

A confrontation that took place inevitably, but in any case, and for any reason, the leaders of the two countries pushed it back.

Thursday, September 16, 2021 marked another historic day for the world. On this day, the leaders of the three countries of Australia, Britain and the United States suddenly appeared on world television and announced a security defense agreement and a tripartite core.

A statement that shook the world.

China, in its first response, threatened Australia with a nuclear attack.

The Chinese do NOT bluff, and if they say something, you all had best LISTEN. Or do you think that they are liars and bluff and bluster all the time with hollow and empty threats?

The Global Times, the English-language organ of the Chinese Communist Party, immediately reacted to the statement and attacked the treaty with the most naked words. A treaty that introduced new acronyms to world political literature. AUKUS is the acronym for this new treaty, which according to Politico is the newest and ugliest acronym for America.

The three-way security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States will equip Australia with eight nuclear-powered submarines over eighteen months, as well as providing Australia with many artificial intelligence technologies, costumes, defense, and security facilities.

In other words, while the United States has either withdrawn or is withdrawing from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria, it is now conducting a nuclear and security camp in the Pacific against China. What Reuters has interpreted as a new Cold War that is affecting the geopolitics of the world.

The American camp in the Pacific has greatly hurt Europe, and especially France. So much so that France called it a stab in the back, and France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called it a barbaric, one-sided, and unpredictable decision in an interview with Radio France, reminiscent of Trump’s actions. Le Drian, who could not hide his anger, added: “I am angry and bitter. This is not done between allies.”

But why is France so angry?

There are two reasons for France’s anger: First, France was previously set to sell submarines to Australia under a $ 40 billion deal, but has now been barred from a lucrative deal.

But another important reason is that in the first major transatlantic security treaty, not only France but also Europe was ignored. The ignorance that Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called painful in a statement published by The Wall Street Journal.

What can be seen from what happened on Thursday in the world geopolitical scene, is that, the United States has not tolerated China’s growing progress and has finally resorted to a military alignment in its nuclear nature.

The US turning its back on this new approach is understandable to its Middle East allies; But why it ousted its European allies, especially France, in the first transatlantic treaty is a question that the future will answer.

Nope. They are not pausing to think. They are ramping up for a war against China.

Idiots.

And China is ready.

Then there’s this…
.
According to former MI6 deputy director Nigel Inkster, Xi Jinping is losing patience, and China is “edging closer” to confrontation with the US over Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Taiwan declared an unprecedented US$9 billion increase in military spending the day before to meet China’s threat — a development that will not go over well in Beijing.

There is also danger that the highly controversial AUKUS defence treaty between the UK, the US, and Australia may drag Britain into a battle with China over Taiwan.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, called the AUKUS pact an example of a “obsolete cold war zero-sum thinking.”

“On a scale of one to 10, how likely is it that we’ll see a military clash between America and China over this issue?” LBC host Matt Frei questioned Inkster.

“Right now, we’re up to eight,” Inkster replied.

…

“The best-case scenario is that both China and the United States realize they are on an equal footing militarily, with neither having a significant edge.

“This acknowledgement could help to keep the peace, even if it is shattered. That is our only ray of hope.”

“We may be approaching a tipping point when the Chinese party-state believes that peaceful reunification with Taiwan is not possible,” Inkster added.

As Inkster spoke, across the pond at the Air, Space & Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Air Combat Command’s Gen. Mark D. Kelly told attendees that China must be challenged, Air Force magazine reported.

The “cold, hard realities” are that the Air Force was superbly prepared and trained to defeat a peer adversary — Russia — 30 years ago, then achieved a highly lopsided victory in Iraq, Kelly said.

But in the last 20 years, USAF was optimized for combat in a “permissive environment” that didn’t test the force. During that same time, China was focused completely on “the high-end fight, and fighting us.”

…

China’s force structure and systems are “designed to inflict more casualties in the first 30 hours of combat than we’ve endured over the last 30 years in the Middle East,” Kelly said.

No shit. What have I been saying?

China does not believe in "surgical strikes" within strictly defined target battle zones.

they believe in all-out brutal, devistating, absolute destructive war that does not descriminate and smashes things and breaks them relentlessly.

As the United States Air Force inventory has aged and diminished, the balance with China has tilted more toward Beijing, he added.

Kelly said Russia has been able to annex Crimea and China has claimed parts of the South China Sea “without firing a shot” because contesting those situations has become harder thanks to adversary air defenses.

To regain the advantage — “to be a resolute world power ”— the US, through its Air Force, has to be able to penetrate “highly contested sovereign [airspace],” Kelly asserted.

Nigel Inkster has worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) since 2007. He is the former Director of Future Conflict and Cyber Security and currently a Special Adviser at IISS. His research portfolio at IISS has included transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organized crime, cyber security, intelligence and security and the evolving character of conflict.

Source: Brinkwire.com, Air Force magazine, CyberStability.org, Wikipedia

Scandal in Taiwan

I wonder how this is being reported in the United States?

Current Taiwan president has a fake PhD and fake PhD thesis. After a UK court earlier this year ruled that the university should released all documents on Tsai Ing-wen’s, we now see a press conference re the investigation.

Will she be trial for teaching in a Taiwan University with the fake PhD? And step down as president by lying to the voters?

Scholars on the island open Tsai Ing-wen’s thesis door to the final trial press conference and choke on falsified papers

https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2021-09-10-scholars-on-the-island-open-tsai-ing-wen%E2%80%99s-thesis-door-to-the-final-trial-press-conference-and-choke-on-falsified-papers.Byg5FEF_ft.html

A full length video of the final trial press conference :

https://youtu.be/QkoF2Ba44pc

Never Forget…

VideoHere…

Video.

Do you think that he is right? That China would respond, or that they would try to retreat a little to save face?

New Report Documents the Deadly Impact and Global Condemnation of US Sanctions

A coalition of North American human rights organizations has released a report on the impact and consequences of US sanctions. The report is based on wide-ranging research and interviews with citizens in countries which are suffering under US sanctions.

The report reveals a reality which western media rarely or never reports.

One finding is that US sanctions hurt the poor, have resulted in thousands of deaths and “humanitarian exemptions” do not work. Another finding is that more than 70% of the world nations officially condemn US sanctions as violating international law and the UN Charter.

A free PDF copy of the report can be downloaded from…

www.sanctionskill.org/impact/.

A Russian hostage now?

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-gas-novatek-gyetvay-arrest/31478978.html

A top official at Russian natural gas producer Novatek who was arrested in the United States last week on tax charges says he is innocent and will “vigorously” fight the case.

“On Thursday I was indicted for baseless tax charges that I already settled through a voluntary program, and pleaded not guilty. I will vigorously fight these charges and will continue to discuss gas topics as normal,” Mark Gyetvay, the deputy chairman of Novatek’s management board, said in a tweet on September 26.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on September 23 that Gyetvay had been arrested on tax charges related to $93 million hidden in offshore accounts. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Gyetvay, who holds passports from both the United States and Russia, was released on a $80 million bond by a Florida judge, according to court filings.

As an American citizen, Gyetvay is required to pay U.S. taxes on his worldwide income even if he spends most of the year in Russia.

The 64-year old has been the face of Novatek to the Western investment community for more than a decade, conducting the quarterly earnings conference calls with stock and bond investors as well as speaking at industry conferences.

Novatek is Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer and analysts say its phenomenal rise from a bit player in the early 2000s to a $79 billion company today — not far behind BP’s $89 billion market value — is due in large part to the company’s connections to the Kremlin.

Gennady Timchenko, a key Novatek shareholder, is considered a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their friendship goes back to the early 1990s.

The United States has been seeking to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian energy over the years, including blocking the launch of Nord Stream 2, a pipeline designed to carry natural gas directly to Germany via Baltic Sea.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will reroute gas currently transiting Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of as much as $2 billion in revenue. The United States has called it a political project aimed at hurting Russia’s smaller neighbor.

The project was completed earlier this month and is now awaiting certification by German and European authorities, a process that could take several months.

In the meantime, European gas prices have surged to a record high amid a supply crunch. Washington is now accusing Russia of withholding additional natural gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine in order to pressure authorities to certify Nord Stream 2.

“Another laugher!!!” Gyetvay said in a tweet two days before his arrest after a U.S. official expressed concern that Russia was not sending enough gas to Europe. “Who tried to impose relentless sanctions while promoting [U.S. liquefied natural gas to Europe?] Reality — we need ALL gas. Period.”

What comes around goes around

Call it Karma or what have you, but when you have had centuries of taking, taking, taking… sooner or later that becomes who you are. And unless you replenish the “closed system” (Those who understand the concept of a “Prison Planet” understand.) this activity will manifest in your life; in your community, and in your people.

This is America downtown. VIDEO.

The United States wants all QUAD members to have nuclear weapons.

The QUAD consists of the US, Australia, India and Japan.

Up until two weeks ago, only the USA and India had nuclear weapons, then arrangements were made to place nuclear weapons systems in Australia. Now the United States is pushing for Japan to have nuclear weapons systems.

A ton-load of articles out of the United States neocons…

Surprise: Japan Could Quickly Build Nuclear Weapons …

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/surprise...

How Japan Could Go Nuclear | Foreign Affairs

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2019...

What if Japan Became a Nuclear Weapons …

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/what-if-japan-became-nuclear-weapons...

Japan rejects nuclear ban treaty; survivors to keep …

https://apnews.com/d6f84ab7f40837e523605fdf1b562dc5

Imagine This: Japan Builds Nuclear Weapons | The National …

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/imagine...

Even if it doesn’t want them, Japan should get nukes to …

https://www.thepopcan.net/post/even-if-it-doesn-t...

How Japan Could Go Nuclear | Foreign Affairs

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2019...

China’s Nuclear Threat Against Japan: Hybrid Warfare And …

https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinas-nuclear...

Aug 07, 2021 · The U.S. should consider all options, including negotiations with Japan to deploy land-based nuclear medium or intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Japanese territory. The offer of U.S.-controlled missiles will act to prevent Japan from deciding to build its own nuclear weapon capability in response to the Chinese threat, thus preventing ... 

-China’s Nuclear Threat Against Japan: Hybrid Warfare

Are these people fucking nuts or what?

And the BRI

Tom Fowdy exposes further Western propaganda, this time about China’s BRI:

“A new ‘study’ has concluded that Beijing’s huge worldwide investment programme is ‘losing momentum’ as debts mount. But a closer inspection of the facts tells a different story.

“Western mainstream media yesterday began posting in tandem a purported ‘study’ from which Reuters spun its own headline: ‘China’s Belt and Road plans losing momentum as opposition, debt mount – study’.

"The study, as noted in the report, was sponsored by the US government through the surrogate of its own international relief [and Color Revolution sponsoring] agency, USAID, and proceeded to present the usual cliches that China was maliciously saddling nations in “hidden debt,” encouraging corruption and promulgating environmental damage in participating countries, and claimed that opposition to the investment programme was mounting."

Fowdy is good at digging, but in this case he didn’t need to expend much effort:

"It is strange that large scale emphasis on that [forced labor] has disappeared, and now the agenda is being turned toward trashing the Belt and Road Initiative. But we knew this was coming. When the US Senate prepared its ‘strategic competition’ bill earlier this year, it notably earmarked $300 million in funding to deliberately spread 'negative news' regarding 'the impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative' throughout the world. To no surprise whatsoever, this is what the newly published BRI ‘study’ is doing, and it's a sign of things to come."

Fowdy then tells us some of the lies being used to discredit. He follows that with facts, a category of information Western media doesn’t appear to use in its reports anymore:

“Here’s a flavor of what they aren’t telling you. A study from Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, found that, as of 2019, over $516 billion worth of BRI projects had been completed with a cancellation rate of just 0.3%. It counted 2,631 different projects across the world, in more than 120 countries.

“To name but a few examples of BRI successes:

China finished a metro system in Lahore, Pakistan, last year,
opened a 1000MW nuclear power plant in the same country in May,
is building Africa’s largest building in Egypt,
as well as the largest building in South Asia (the Lotus Tower in Colombo, Sri Lanka),
and is on the verge of finishing the China-Laos High Speed Railway.
Multiple direct transcontinental railway routes through China to Europe have also been opened.

“The study by Refinitiv, which is headquartered in the UK, also proceeded to pour cold water over the idea of a ‘debt trap’ for participating countries, noting that a review of 40 cases of China’s external debt renegotiations painted a different picture. The BRI is not being imposed, it is not dogmatic and nor is it monolithic, and it is more flexible and pragmatic than it’s given credit for.” [My Emphasis]

In other words, the BRI is essentially the opposite of the Washington Consensus’s Structural Adjustment Programs which impose development crippling austerity and serve to enrich the global 1%. Fowdy closes by exposing the utter bankruptcy of the Outlaw US Empire’s attempts to counter the long overdue development of the Global South:

“The idea that developing countries blindly and naively accept one-sided terms, jump into self-penalizing agreements, and thus don’t know ‘what their best interests are’, is insulting. It is promoting, as usual, the idea of ‘Western saviorism’, one that has been used as a justification for colonialism and domination for centuries. There is a staggering lack of historical self-awareness and sensitivity in those who advocate such claims.”

In about 30 years, the Global South will be on par with many Western nations, while surpassing those destroyed by Neoliberalism. And ya know, there really aren’t very many Western Nations, and very few of them are actually independent.

David BK Tan chimes in on the “collapse” of China…

I am seeing a lot of inaccurate articles on the western media championing the “demise” of the Chinese economy.

Besides the erroneous comparison of Evergrande to Lehman Brothers (see my post https://bit.ly/3uyUDvq) , I am also seeing articles referring to the current debt plight of Evergrande as China’s “Heisei Bubble” moment. Heisei (平成) era is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito from 8 Jan 1989 until his abdication on 30 Apr 2019. The Japanese would call it Heisei bubble (平成バブル & バブル (baburu) is actually a loanword from English & hence it sounds like bubble) since the burst of its asset price bubble happened during the 平成 era .

Actually you do not need to have a PhD in economics to understand that China is not having a “Heisei Bubble” moment. What you need is to look at “First Principles” of economics to understand their differences.

If you have studied mathematics/physics in school, you might remember “First Principles” which are like axioms. So if you have no economics background, you can treat the common economics principles like axioms without the need to understand them in details & use such principles for investigative purpose. Actually such “First Principles” approach is useful in general as it helps you to probe further in a new area to gain some understanding.

The First Principle that you would need in this case is :

GDP of a country =C+I+G+(X−M) where
C=Consumer spending on goods and services
I=Investment spending on business capital goods
G=Government spending on public goods and services
X=Exports
M=Imports

You also need to know some common facts on #Japan in the 80s like its exports were very strong & thus it contributed strongly to its GDP. Its strong exports in the 80s resulted in the poor sales of local products in the US & so we had the US-Japan trade wars in the 80s which affected its trade.

So if we look at trade (% of GDP) vs GDP figures for Japan since mid- 80s, you find that its trade plunged but GDP abnormally increased. Since trade was a impt contribution to its GDP, this suggests that there would be anomalies like over-consumption/over-investment or even both. So if you are interested in the cause, you might probe further. But suffice to say, you know for China to have a “Heisei Bubble” moment, its trade must plunge like Japan’s since China is also an export-oriented economy. I have attached the second image displaying China’s trade as % of GDP vs its GDP & you will realise that its plunge in trade happened after 2006 which was due to Great Financial Crisis but its trade has been decelerating since then which is in tandem with the decelerating GDP growth.

In a nutshell, #China does not have the anomaly of Japan’s Heisei moment with over-consumption/over-investment etc since the GDP was falling in accordance with the fall in trade since 2007.

US War Plans with China Taking Shape

From HERE.

The US and its allies continue beating the drums of war in regards to China, but how serious is this? Will it really lead to war, or is it merely posturing meant to give the US the most favorable position on the other side of a fully ascendant China?

A critical inflection point identified by US war planners for years is approaching, where China’s economic and military might will irreversibly surpass the US and the center of global power will likewise irreversibly shift from West to East creating a global balance of power unseen for centuries. A closing window of opportunity estimated to close between 2025 and 2030 allows the US to carry out a limited war with China, resulting in a favorable outcome for Washington. Beyond that, the US will find itself outmatched and any attempt to curb China’s rise rendered futile.

The propaganda war, and the war itself this propaganda aims to justify and rally support for, is unmistakable, particularly for those who have witnessed similar buildups ahead of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, or US-led military interventions in nations like Libya and Syria from 2011 onward.

A recent 60 Minutes Australia segment titled, “War with China: Are we closer than we think?,” presented an amalgamation of this ongoing propaganda used to vilify the Chinese government, dehumanize the Chinese people, and create sufficient anger, fear, paranoia, distrust, and hatred in hearts and minds across the planet to justify what would be for the 21st century, an unprecedented war.

For the United States, a war with China would be the first of its kind, a war with a peer or near-peer competitor armed with nuclear weapons.

Yet US war planners are fairly confident that the conflict could be confined to East Asia, remain conventional, and see a favorable outcome for the US that would secure its primacy over Asia for decades to come.

A victory for the US would not be military in nature, but rather hinge on “nonmilitary factors,” and focus on disrupting and setting back China’s economy and thus the power propelling China past the United States at the moment.

The 2016 US War Plan Coming to Life

These conclusions were laid out in a 2016 RAND Corporation document titled, “War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable,” commissioned by the Office of the Undersecretary of the Army and carried out by the RAND Arroyo Center’s Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program. The report notes that the RAND Arroyo Center is part of the RAND Corporation and is a federally-funded research and development center sponsored by the United States Army.

The report notes that America’s military advantage is in decline vis-a-vis China, but also lays out several current realities that would favor the US should hostilities unfold.

It states on page 9 of the PDF document:

We postulate that a war would be regional and conventional. It would be waged mainly by ships on and beneath the sea, by aircraft and missiles of many sorts, and in space (against satellites) and cyberspace (against computer systems). We assume that fighting would start and remain in East Asia, where potential Sino-USflash points and nearly all Chinese forces are located.

The RAND document admits that China’s forces are concentrated in Chinese territory and that virtually all flash points that could trigger a conflict are likewise located in the region. This implies that US forces would need to be more or less right up to China’s shores and regional claims, and insist on interfering in regional disputes or intervene in matters between Taiwan and mainland China.

The Nuclear Question

Many assume any war between China and the United States would escalate into a nuclear exchange. However, this is unlikely except under the most extreme conditions.

Regarding nuclear and conventional warfare, the RAND document makes a compelling argument, stating:

It is unlikely that nuclear weapons would be used: Even in an intensely violent conventional conflict, neither side would regard its losses as so serious, its prospects so dire, or the stakes so vital that it would run the risk of devastating nuclear retaliation by using nuclear weapons first. We also assume that China would not attack the US homeland, except via cyberspace, given its minimal capability to do so with conventional weapons. In contrast, US nonnuclear attacks against military targets in China could be extensive.

The report studies a window of opportunity that began in 2015 and stretches to 2025. Current developments seem to indicate the US may see this window extend as far as 2030, including the recent announcement of the “AUKUS” alliance where US-UK-built Australian nuclear-powered submarines would be coming online and ready to participate in such a conflict around the early 2030’s.

US May Trade Heavy Military Losses for China’s Economic Ruination

Under a section titled, “The Importance of Nonmilitary Factors,” the RAND report notes:

The prospect of a military standoff means that war could eventually be decided by nonmilitary factors. These should favor the United States now and in the future. Although war would harm both economies, damage to China’s could be catastrophic and lasting: on the order of a 25–35 percent reduction in Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) in a yearlong war, compared with a reduction in US GDP on the order of 5–10 percent. Even a mild conflict, unless ended promptly, could weaken China’s economy. A long and severe war could ravage China’s economy, stall its hard-earned development, and cause widespread hardship and dislocation.

Considering the current shape of US-Chinese relations, the emphasis on economics and trade, and the persistent, even desperate attempts by the US to not only inflict as much damage on China’s economy ahead of a potential conflict as possible, but also its attempts to “decouple” from China’s economy as fast as possible could be interpreted as tying off a limb before amputation.

Preparations Already Underway to Exploit China’s Economic Damage

The report notes the follow-on effects of the economic damage such a conflict would inflict on China. It would open the door for already on-going US machinations to undermine China’s social and political stability to expand and do tremendous damage, perhaps even threatening the cohesion of Chinese society.

It states specifically:

Such economic damage could in turn aggravate political turmoil and embolden separatists in China. Although the regime and its security forces presumably could withstand such challenges, doing so might necessitate increased oppressiveness, tax the capacity, and undermine the legitimacy of the Chinese regime in the midst of a very difficult war. In contrast, US domestic partisan skirmishing could handicap the war effort but not endanger societal stability, much less the survival of the state, no matter how long and harsh the conflict, so long as it remains conventional. Escalating cyberwarfare, while injurious to both sides, could worsen China’s economic problems and impede the government’s ability to control a restive population.

The mention of “separatists in China” is particularly important. These groups, often made up of armed extremists, are supported by an extensive international network funded by the US government itself.

Separatism in China’s Xinjiang and Tibetan regions is openly supported by the US government and has been sponsored by Washington for decades. The US National Endowment for Democracy’s official website lists its programs for Xinjiang, China as, “Xinjiang/East Turkestan,” “East Turkestan” being the separatist name for Xinjiang. The organizations listed, including the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the World Uyghur Congress openly admit on their respective websites that they view Xinjiang – contrary to international law – as “occupied” by China rather than a territory of China.

In a move that could very likely be a warning of just how close to a US-provoked conflict with China we may be, the US State Department de-listed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in 2020 claiming it had not been active for over a decade.

Yet by the US’ own admission US military forces struck ETIM targets in Afghanistan as recently as 2018, and just this year ETIM representatives gave an interview with US-based Newsweek magazine.

ETIM is still listed by a number of nations as well as the UN itself as a terrorist organization.

Economic turmoil, armed insurrection, and socio-political instability are factors the US has openly attempted to impose on China for decades and is still placing pieces on the gameboard toward this objective. If a conflict were to break out, those pieces would clearly already be in place to maximize Washington’s ability to exploit economic damage inflicted by the conflict.

Targeting China’s Trade Lanes at Sea

The RAND paper notes specifically the impact on Chinese trade a conventional conflict confined to East Asia would have. The report notes:

…while the United States has sophisticated sensors to distinguish military from nonmilitary targets, during war it will focus on finding and tracking the former; moreover, Chinese ISR is less sophisticated and discriminating, especially at a distance. This suggests very hazardous airspace and sea space, perhaps ranging from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea. Assuming that non-Chinese commercial enterprises would rather lose revenue than ships or planes, the United States would not need to use force to stop trade to and from China.16 China would lose a substantial amount of trade that would be required to transit the war zone. The United States expressly threatening commercial shipping would be provocative, hazardous, and largely unnecessary. So we posit no US blockade, as such.

Of course, the US has a variety of tools at its disposal that it regularly uses upon the international stage to impede free commerce. It is an irony since Washington often accuses Beijing of “threatening” such commerce in regions like the South China Sea while Washington is actually impeding it on a global scale.

NPR in its 2020 article, “US Seizes Iranian Fuel From 4 Tankers Bound For Venezuela,” would note:

According to The Associated Press, quoting unnamed USofficials, no military force was used in the seizure of the cargo, and none of the ships was physically impounded. Instead, US officials threatened ship owners, insurers and captains with sanctions to force them to hand over their cargo, the AP reported.

Because of America’s still formidable grip over international media, it would be extremely easy to sink vessels engaged in commerce and blame it on China or claim it was accidental. A total blockade would not be necessary to deter the majority of commerce in the region, only a few examples would be needed for the self-preservation of shipping companies to de facto cut off trade.

Another concerning warning sign was the Pentagon restructuring an entire branch of the US armed forces, the US Marine Corps, to specifically fight a single nation (China), in a very specific region (East Asia), with very specific tactics (shutting down straits used for commercial shipping).

Defense News in a 2020 article titled, “Here’s the US Marine Corps’ plan for sinking Chinese ships with drone missile launchers,” would claim:

The US Marine Corps is getting into the ship-killing business, and a new project in development is aimed at making their dreams of harrying the People’s Liberation Army Navy a reality.

The article also noted:

Marine Corps requirements and development chief Lt. Gen. Eric Smith told reporters last year during the Expeditionary Warfare Conference that the Marines want to fight on ground of their choosing and then maneuver before forces can concentrate against them.

“They are mobile and small, they are not looking to grab a piece of ground and sit on it,” Smith said of his Marine units. “I’m not looking to block a strait permanently. I’m looking to maneuver. The German concept is ‘Schwerpunkt,’ which is applying the appropriate amount of pressure and force at the time and place of your choosing to get maximum effect.”

The US Marine Corps has already decommissioned all of their main battle tanks as part of this restructuring which took less than a year – signifying the urgency of US preparations.

The US taking ships out in busy commerce straits and creating an environment that would cripple trade between China and the rest of the world would have a heavy impact on China’s economy.

On page 67 of the PDF document, RAND includes a graphic depiction of China’s projected GDP losses versus the US, giving us a compelling motive for the US to wage a war it knows it will suffer heavy military losses amidst, but emerge economically stronger than a China that will otherwise, barring such a conflict, surpass the US within this window of opportunity.

China Knows, But Can China Beat the Clock?

It is very obvious that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an attempt for China to diversify away from Asia-Pacific trade routes the US is clearly making preparations to attack and disrupt.

Pipelines running through Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and through Myanmar to Kunming in Yunnan Province would help move hydrocarbons bound for China from the Middle East without passing through waters the US could disrupt in the conflict it is clearly preparing for.

However, these alternative routes are already under attack.

US-sponsored separatists operating in Pakistan’s southwest province of Baluchistan regularly attack and kill Chinese engineers and the infrastructure itself.

Protests organized by US-sponsored opposition groups target Gwadar Port, CPEC’s terminal.

Just this year alone, France 24 would report in April a bombing targeting a hotel the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan was staying at but who luckily wasn’t at the hotel at the time of the bombing. In July, the BBC reported that 9 Chinese engineers working on CPEC projects were killed in a targeted attack. And according to Reuters, in August, 2 children were killed during a suicide bombing targeting Chinese engineers in Baluchistan.

US-backed opposition groups have been attacking Chinese investments in Myanmar since the military ousted the US client regime headed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NDL). CNN would report in March, just a month after the military took over, that the opposition was lighting Chinese factories ablaze.

US government-funded Myanmar opposition media outlet, The Irrawaddy, published an article in May titled, “Deadly Attack on Pipeline Station Spotlights China’s High Stakes in Myanmar,” claiming:

The importance of the project was highlighted in February when Chinese officials held an emergency meeting with Myanmar officials, at which they urged the military regime to tighten security measures for the pipelines. They said the project is a crucial part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Myanmar and insisted that “any damage to the pipelines would cause huge losses for both countries.” The request came amid growing anti-China sentiment in Myanmar, where protesters—angered by Beijing’s blocking of the UN Security Council (UNSC)’s efforts to take action against the coup leaders—have threatened to blow up the pipelines.

The article concludes by quoting a Swedish journalist claiming:

It would come as no surprise if attacks were carried out against, for instance, the pipelines, he said. “And attitudes will not change unless the Chinese government stops its support for the Myanmar military. That should be a real concern.”

Xinjiang, China, also serves as a critical juncture for China’s BRI and we can clearly see the US promoting separatism there. The recent “Uyghur Tribunal” organized by the abovementioned US-funded World Uyghur Congress aims at further undermining Beijing’s efforts to counter US-sponsored armed separatism in Xinjiang by placing additional international pressure on China for implementing necessary security measures to prevent it.

The continued US-sponsored attacks on China’s BRI, the US-led military build-up along China’s coasts, and the propaganda war the US is waging to control the narratives surrounding both, represents a race against time for both Washington and Beijing.

For Washington, it is attempting to create the conditions in which RAND predictions of China’s economic devastation following a conventional conflict confined to East Asia can be transformed into reality.

For Beijing, it is attempting to run out the clock and assume the economic, military, and political power it needs to fully deter any such conflict, and assume its position as the largest, most powerful economy on Earth.

All things being equal, China has the world’s largest population – a population that is hardworking and well-educated. China’s educational institutions are producing millions more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates than the US per year. China’s massive trade networks ensure its economy has plenty of resources. It should become the largest economy. And only a war of aggression, chosen to be waged by Washington will stop this from coming to pass.

US foreign policy in the 21st century has demonstrated in action the true nature of its foreign policy versus what Washington’s politicians say with words from behind podiums or its media says in front of cameras about a “rules-based international order.”

The only rule we can see demonstrably upheld is “might makes right.”

Only time will tell whether or not the US “makes right” its smaller nation with its smaller economy clinging to primacy over China for decades to come before it no longer has the “might” to do so.

MM thoughts on this “article”…

There’s some pretty fucking huge assumptions being made. They are going to get people killed.

Any war with China will be nuclear.
It will not be fought against China alone. It will be forght against the SEO (Russia and all the other nations.)
The window of “opportunity” will not be in 2025 – 2030. It was in 2004 to 2009. It has long passed by.
If Chinese citizens, cities or geography is attacked, and destoyed so will be the fate of American citizens, cities and geography.
It will not be a long drawn out conventional war on or near China. It will be international, and vicious. And it will be devistating, and over in a short period of time.
Internal Chinese dissidant groups, all funded by the USA, have mostly been rooted out and eliminated if not violently crushed.

What are your thoughts after reading this particular bilge out of America and promoted in Australia?

Other thoughts…

re: A closing window of opportunity estimated to close between 2025 and 2030 allows the US to carry out a limited war with China . . .blah blah

That piece of garbage was written by Brian Berletic, “who is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer.” In no way could the US “carry out” (whatever that means — it’s not a professional military term) a limited war with China.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 1 2021 18:44 utc | 12

If the US warmongers want to provoke a war with China, I would say go to it. The US will lose. And in doing it will discover their mistake. You can’t defeat China’s economic dominance by military action.

Posted by: Laguerre | Oct 1 2021 18:59 utc | 15

I saw the article as a (mistaken) claim that the should take advantage of a window of opportunity and attack China.

US War Plans with China Taking Shape . . .China’s massive trade networks ensure its economy has plenty of resources. It should become the largest economy. And only a war of aggression, chosen to be waged by Washington will stop this from coming to pass.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 1 2021 19:10 utc | 17

China is not waiting for economic dominance over Taiwan to push the unification envelope. China simply don’t care about taking up governance over people who are brainwashed to be hostile to them. Only that China, in principle, would not give up sovereignty over the territory called Taiwan. The present situation is fine with them.

China’s economy has exceeded USA’s long ago–IMF and World Bank said 2014, but my understanding is 2010 or earlier. Just that the way GDP is calculated, the USA’s mode of non-productive sectors are given weights that is not deserved. How does the legal sector produced 10% of what people in the USA consume? How does a business consultant’s 1 hour of free-wheeling opinion voicing produce $1,000 worth of goods and services? USA’s 21+ $T of GDP is Lucy In The Sky, a hallucination.

Taiwan people are just plain stupid, brainwashed, and clinching to what they consider as the last straw. They know it’s a straw, but they don’t know that this straw is still effective only because China doesn’t give a damn about them.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 1 2021 19:37 utc | 26

War with China;

There is a sort of conceptual mistake when talking about US “capabilities” and warmongering. It is not the Military who want a “sort of” war, but the military-industrial complex, who need credible enemies.
IT is the Oligarchic owners of defense industries who want continued hostilities. As long as they can make cash. (Or rather, relieve the sheeple of their woolly coats – “for their own good”).

Most Generals go throught the “revolving doors” of industry-think*tank-Military, sometimes Political etc. So they are on both sides at the same time, they are not separate identities.

The Industry needs to be able to produce the “ultimate military rabbit out of the hat projects”, lots of them, at an enviable cost-overrun. ….. and to get rid of most of the product rapidly afterwards, to enable “replacement”.

For this they need “threats” agogo. Built in obsolescence and fruitful and intimate connections and relations with budgetteers.
*

Talking about budgets, NATO for 2021 defense spending;
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/how-much-nato-countries-spend-defense

US defense spending $811 billion. Not including other “secret” or “war” budgets. (The Afghanistan spending was concealed as War budget, and was independent from the standard defense budget. This will need “replacing” with another “war” situation for budget purposes)
The other NATO countries => $363 billion
Total $1.2 trillion per year. (Known)
(Turkey is the ONLY NATO country which has reduced it’s defense spending by 4%)
*

So we come back to China, Russia, NKorea, Iran as “credible” threats, even if they are not. As well as the others; Venezuela, Cuba etc. as walk-on bit-players to keep the propaganda tirade on the boil.

Whether there is a war with China or not, it must be profitable. The propaganda (as per b’s post) is only marketing for pre-emptive expenditure on the whole militarized industry. Advertising exageration?

Posted by: Stonebird | Oct 1 2021 20:50 utc | 34

Here’s a live display of shipping activity in east Asia. The US will block this and not pay a heavy price for doing so? The two dozen US military bases in Japan and half a dozen in South Korea won’t be leveled? Plus all US Navy surface ships at sea?

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 1 2021 19:51 utc | 28

Wow the Pacific Fleet is going to be busy!

I guess they’ll be inspecting every ship that goes through the Straits of Malacca. They’ll need to keep an eye on Suez and Panama too incase someone tries to sneak through.

Posted by: dh | Oct 1 2021 20:23 utc | 32

Thank you for the link to marine traffic. My immediate thought from that first glimpse was ah! that’s why China and its neighbours are busy building terrestrial rail and road systems. Equally obvious why Reuters an other liars are forever pumping the fear china, fear debt bondage mantra.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 1 2021 21:45 utc | 39

There will be war between the empire and China. It is the Thucydides trap, and there is no way out of it. In fact, the first shots of that war have already been fired with the empire using biological WMDs against China. The only questions about the war are when does the shooting start and how bad does it have to get before the empire concedes… assuming the empire is quickly convinced that defeat is inevitable and so doesn’t escalate to nuclear weapons.

There has been discussion about the empire marshaling its gimps on the front line; trying to get Japan and Australia and not-so-Great Britain to take point in the fight. I am of mixed opinion as to whether this is good or bad. On the one hand it helps legitimize the empire’s aggression and makes the forces arrayed against China seem stronger. As well, if a country like Australia is the first to take a punch from China for the empire the optics will be bad. It would look like China being a bully and kicking America’s yappy pet chihuahua. Furthermore, I am quite fond of Japan and the Japanese people and I’d rather not see them hurt again.

On the other hand, if combat operations start directly between the US and China then it is a forgone conclusion that the Chinese will pull their punches, at least in the beginning. The US, for its part, will go right for the kill from the very start. This means that China will take a terrible beating while they come to realize that the fight is serious and will not be gentlemanly. If the fight starts with Japan this will not be an issue. Japan has a karmic debt to China and the Chinese will not pull their punches in a fight with them. China will come down on Japan like an avalanche and deal Japan a very swift and decisive defeat. This decisiveness is crucial as it will help convince the empire that further aggression is futile and thereby help prevent escalation by the empire. While it would pain me to see that happen to Japan , it is one of the best outcomes that prevents things from spiraling to Armageddon.

Of course, the prefect outcome would be for Britain to take the lead in the fight and get instantly and utterly crushed, as the British also have a deep karmic debt that the Chinese wouldn’t hesitate to collect on. That would have the same benefit of interrupting the empire’s escalation, but would spare the Japanese and possibly even teach the British some humility (yeah, lots of luck with that last, right?).

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 1 2021 21:52 utc | 40

I have to agree with you on Thucydides Trap. Interesting that you consider Covid as the first salvo the Empire fired. Actually China suspected SARS was the first salvo. That’s one reason they put effort into researching corona virus and means of containing such viral spread. Unlike Russia, they won’t openly accuse the Empire of biological warfare without possession of the smoking gun, but they will be very alert to future implantation of biological kinks coming from Empire’s direction.

Meanwhile, you’re also right that the Empire has been maneuvering to goat their lackeys to serve as canon fodders against China, even with some success. India is a prominent example. They would love for Japan to go head-on against China–the more Japanese casualties, the better narrative to build global mobilization of forces against China. Interesting that you sentimentally like Japanese and abhors the idea of them getting hurt. I guess you’re not informed of the extent of evil the Japanese had done around a century ago. Have you heard of the Nanjing Massacre, the 3-totality strategy (total plunder, total burning, total killing) in sweeping villages to ensure Chinese resistances would get no refurbishments, Project 731-germ warfare??? In fact, it was Project 731’s research dossier that started Fort Detrick lab. I suppose you consider that to be 75-100 years old past, and one should forgive and forget. Well, I can’t. Especially not when today’s Japan can’t even come clean and admit to what they have done. I don’t see a reborn Japan.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 1 2021 22:45 utc | 43

Today, the Outlaw US Empire is a Neoliberal Oligarchy while China’s a Social-Democratic nation–when both are objectively examined. Geoeconomically, the Empire’s dependent on China, not the other way round. As was overtly made very clear at the Alaska meeting, the Outlaw US Empire cannot deal with China from a position of strength either geopolitically or geoeconomically.

As I wrote a few days ago to zero objections, China and the Eurasian Bloc coalescing around it when seen in relation to the Outlaw US Empire differs little than how Yamamoto saw the dynamic between Japan and the USA prior to Pearl Harbor–Japan was sure to lose no matter what it did.

And yet again, several members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have publicly stated that they want no war with either Russia or China. They’re what Martyanov calls realists who understand the genuine balance of power no longer favors the Outlaw US Empire even when NATO is added.

Biden and the Ds just as Trump and the Rs desperately need his version of MAGA–Build Back Better–to become reality. But with the USA geoeconomically dependent on China, how is it ever going to accomplish that if it starts a war with its primary supplier if the funds ever get allocated?! Yes, the Merchants of Death constantly need an existential threat to justify their existence, and that’s the special interest fueling the war talk that the generals refute.

Then, IMO, this new set of polling results must be added to the equation–public sentiment for war against some other nation not named Congress doesn’t exist:

“Arguably more disturbing were the implications for the ‘other’ party if secession did not occur. A sizable majority of both Trump and Biden voters agreed with the statement that ‘if our society so wants, it is the duty of every true citizen to help eliminate the evil that poisons our country from within.'”

That ought to scare just a few Neoliberal grifters as the public agrees without knowing that it does on the very source of the problem being domestic. Soon, both sides will know they agree, and 2022 elections are going to see lots of fireworks.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 1 2021 23:22 utc | 47

"On the contrary, no-ones talking of a land invasion of China, just the blocking of the SLOC which would have a catastrophic effect on China’s economy."

Now hold on a second.

Given that the U.S. and most countries in the world are heavily dependent on China for manufactured goods (both finished and unfinished), what would be the effect of cutting off Chinese commercial shipping on the world’s economy?

Well, I’ll tell you, it would be a depression followed by mass outrage that the U.S. government could have deliberately brought such a catastrophe down upon everyone’s heads.

Are U.S. foreign and economic planners that stupid? They definitely are stupid, but I doubt that the actual owners (George Carlin’s word) of the country would stand for it.

Posted by: Rob | Oct 2 2021 0:20 utc | 49

“A closing window of opportunity estimated to close between 2025 and 2030 allows the US to carry out a limited war with China, resulting in a favorable outcome for Washington. Beyond that, the US will find itself outmatched and any attempt to curb China’s rise rendered futile.”

This is chilling.

In light of this, the current coercive and zealous covid vaccination program in the Anglosphere can also be seen as drills preparing for possible biological warfare.

If the US mainland and Australia are relatively protected in the eventuality of this conventional war with China, biological warfare (regardless of who initiates it) creates vulnerability.

It all makes sense now: why California is mandating vaccination for school children when their risk of dying from covid is 2 per million infected.

Posted by: Moses | Oct 2 2021 1:22 utc | 53

Taiwan is part of China. Both governments’ (Beijing and Taipei) Constitutions states that fact.

So, there are no issues, problems or arguments on any of these: ADZ, ADIZ or any other matters. PRC airplanes can fly or land anywhere, including Taipei, period.

This is what the press stenographers are distracting you from.

This is the real news of our times, not the drivel pumped out by and then rerun by its handmaidens of deceit.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 2 2021 2:03 utc | 60

This is not 1944 where you can float troop transports across the Pacific to attack an enemy. We live in an age of satellites and hyper sonic weapons. If there is a war it will be a series of short furious naval battles in which the holders of land in the area will be the victors. Will Korea and Japan join? At their great peril maybe.

While the media coverage is bullshit China is boiling the frog in water slowly with Taiwan being the frog. I am sure China has though about the suppression of enemy air defenses like the US has done effectively with the Wild Weasel. I am sure China has the capacity to take out a good portion of Taiwan’s radar and air defense system. They can systematically destroy their naval bases along with their communication infrastructure and military bases without a boot on the ground. Taiwan can do little in return.

If China decided to act it would be over rather quickly with a loss of prestige on the world stage. I am sure they have thought about that as well. The US is in no position do do anything other than bitch and moan. Taiwan will have to cut some sort of deal with China at some point or China will act I do believe. When that will happen is anyones guess.

Posted by: circumspect | Oct 2 2021 6:42 utc | 73

While I fully agree to your conclusion that the US can’t sensibly do anything when China decides to forcefully reunite Taiwan with the mainland, I do not see that China is boiling the frog.

China has not tightened any tensions, neither towards Taiwan, not in the SCS or ECS. The “nine dash line” is a naval border claimed by the ROC and Jiang Jieshi (Chiang kai Shek) in 1944 at earliest, and at that time, neither of FUKUS challenged that claim. That as an aside.

As to Taiwan, China has tried since decades to go a long and patient way towards unification, by strengthening ties between the territory and the motherland. Taiwan companies are heavily invested in mainland China (and vice versa where not sabotaged by the DPP administration), between 1 and 2 million Taiwan inhabitants live permanently or for long periods in mainland China, there are some hundred thousand marriages.

China has made clear that the one country, two systems situation can go on for long as long as there is no secession attempt. In that case China will act swiftly.

Hu Xijin in the Global Times described the outlines of such a forceful unification when commenting US weapon sales to Taiwan. Once China would act, there would be powerful satiation attacks by missiles, air force, and naval firepower destroying all major airports, military targets on land, military naval installations, and naval forces of Taiwan. After that a full force landing on Taiwan and all its islands would follow.

There is no reasonibly thinkable possible outcome where the attacking side could be repelled or defeated. And there is no way how a naval attack of the US, AUKUS, Quad or whomever could succeed. And it is very doubtful that even the most radical forces in the US would wage a nuclear war over Taiwan.

As to Taiwan, it is their side who is stirring up the conflicts by buying “recognition” by some Baltic SS Shitholes like Lithuania who are living on EU pockets so don’t have much to lose. Ukraine rowed back when receiving a warning from Beijing. The DPP clowns should just stop their separatist provocations. A Chinese proverb says “the rat that gnaws the tiger’s tail invites destruction”.

Posted by: aquadraht | Oct 2 2021 7:57 utc | 76

karlof1 @47: "The Thucydides Trap was again debunked... The antagonists are supposed to be copycat rivals to each other, but that wasn't the case with Athens or Sparta then..."

And yet the Peloponnesian War happened anyway. The details of personality are not relevant as personality is not what causes war. A rising power inevitably displaces the existing power, and the existing power resists the loss of its dominance. This basic pattern is unavoidable.

"...the Outlaw US Empire cannot deal with China from a position of strength either geopolitically or geoeconomically..."

Absolutely correct. So what tools does that leave in the “Outlaw US Empire’s” arsenal to defend its hegemony? Or do you imagine the empire will give China a sportsman-like handshake, say “Well, it was a nice run but you win. It’s your turn to show the world direction now. I’ll just retire to tending my garden.”? Laughable balderdash!

"...relation to the Outlaw US Empire differs little than how Yamamoto saw the dynamic between Japan and the USA prior to Pearl Harbor..."

Absolutely! Many of the generals and admirals know what they are up against, but Japan ended up at war with the USA anyway. Admiral Yamamoto’s realization that war would be an enormous mistake changed exactly what?

There will be war. Xi knows it, and the Chinese people in general know it.

That is why they are investing significant chunks of their resources preparing for it. China’s military is specifically designed to defeat the empire and any of the empire’s vassals that get pushed into the fight.

The war is not “if” but “when”.

The Chinese know that they are under biological weapons attack, but as Oriental Voice @43 points out they are not squealing about it as a western nation would.

Delays to the overt war still work to China’s advantage: The empire gets weaker and China gets stronger. The greater that strength disparity the more China can control the course of the war and steer that war away from doing lasting damage to humanity.

"A sizable majority of both Trump and Biden voters agreed with the statement that 'if our society so wants, it is the duty of every true citizen to help eliminate the evil that poisons our country from within."

Precisely so. And what is the tried and true method to distract a population from internal issues? Why, external war of course.

It amazes me to see bright people who are fully aware of much of the crazy shit the empire has done over the last couple decades still trying to project the empire’s future behavior based upon the assumption that it will be rational.

The empire has not been rational and it will not become rational while it remains an empire. In fact the empire will become more irrational with every passing day as its end draws nearer.

Everything karlof1 @47 says points towards war. How can someone as bright and knowledgeable as karlof1 think these things mean peace is on the verge of breaking out?

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 2 2021 12:14 utc | 80

For those trying to dismiss the post by “Down South @8 (I’m looking at you Don Bacon @57), here is a link to the original report by the RAND Corporation that the analysis is based upon: War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable.

This is from the RAND Corporation. That is the closest thing the empire has to a brain. What is notable, despite the recognition in the report that the empire’s days of uncontested dominance are waning, the report paints an overly optimistic picture for the empire.

Being chilled is entirely called for.

There will be war.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 2 2021 12:51 utc | 82

In regards to the prospect of war with china, while I am sympathetic to gruff’s perspective, I think it still simplifies the situathon. thr US side is not monolithix while MICIMATT has institutionally mobilized all the psyops effortsz, and the Pentagon has moved to ‘pivot to asia’ since Obama, there are nevertheless the Mark Milleys that understand that there is no way for the US to win in the Asia Pacific theater against china. they wouls not only lose the war but also bleed global prestige.

That said, when the institutional gears are grinding as they are, so called strategic thinking ceases to be rational or even strategic. trying to predict what an irrational institution will do makes little sense.

Secondly, the us is already at war with china, hybrid war. it’s not as if we need to wait for some trigger event — it is already ongoing! Hong Kong color revolution, whose failure is now abundantly clear. the ongoing xinjiang campaign. and let’s not forget that china depleted a staggering amount of its US reserves in 2015 in order to fight off US orchestrated capital flight so it could harvest Chinese assets in the cheap, like they did in the asian financial crisis.

That’s not much talked about at MOC, but I’ve heard Chinese analysts speak of that financial warfare as a watershed moment. watershed because its failure precipitated more desperate and maniacal measures afterwards. keep in mind that was before the hong Kong and Xinjiang psyops.

As for biological warfare, regardless of one’s view on the origins of covid, there was a spate of agricultural pests in the trump era that devastated Chinese food production. everything is being tried.

So, war js ongoing. to instead await and analyze and predict some trigger military event like Taiwan is to miss the forest for the trees. if what’s been happening doesn’t count as aggression on par with warfare, then that is already to have internalized empire propaganda that things like sanctions are not acts of war.

Posted by: mastameta | Oct 2 2021 14:07 utc | 86

The Anglo’s started WW1 to maintain their global hegemony. They started WW2 for the same purpose. Yet somehow people believe it is too far fetch that they would start a war with China to maintain the same hegemony they fought 2 WWs over?

Read the RAND report. They know they will suffer heavy military casualties and their economy will collapse by 10% but all that will be worth it if they can inflict heavy damage on China’s economy in the region of a 30-35% collapse.

What do you think the purpose of all this China bashing coverage in the media is about that b highlights? It is to prepare the populace for the coming conflict with China.

Posted by: Down South | Oct 2 2021 14:19 utc | 87

mastameta @85: "trying to predict what an irrational institution will do makes little sense."

A cornered animal is irrational, but it is easy to predict what it will do.

"secondly, the us is already at war with china, hybrid war."

Yes, of course, but the war will go overt and kinetic. That is the only path available to the cornered dog of an empire. The growling and snarling threats, the urinating on the carpet, nothing else it does opens a path back to power for the empire.

"... china depleted a staggering amount of its US reserves in 2015... "

This is policy, like that in Russia, to reduce exposure to the US dollar. To the empire that in itself is an act of war.

Yes, the war is currently on already, but it remains somewhat covert. When I talk about war starting above I am referring to overt military conflict.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 2 2021 15:15 utc | 90

Any experienced warfare guy will say the same, the most important element of any war is logistics. And that is the US’s main downfall in any war with China. The US does not have the capability to supply the fighting elements with the ammunition, food, repair parts etc that they would require to conduct a war on the other side of the vast Pacific Ocean which covers about one-third of the earth’s surface.

And where would those forces be? The Marine Corps plan is to move Marines from one small island to another on small ships, and then have these Marines to place indirect fire on China targets. I don’t see anyone volunteering for that ridiculous scenario. But hey, it keeps dollars in the Pentagon budget.

Another problem for the US is that both China and Russia have fielded versions of hypersonic weapons that can travel faster than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5 is about 3,806 mph) and potentially hold U.S. capital and logistical ships at risk. These missiles have a range of up to a thousand miles. The US has no defense against them and aircraft-carrier launched planes don’t have sufficient range to rectify the problem.

So it would be a maritime-based war with US major warships not able to get anywhere close to the Asian mainland, which means no war at all.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 2 2021 20:12 utc | 103

"...the most important element of any war is logistics."

Absolutely so. Fancy weapons and great troop morale get you nowhere if you cannot get them to the theater of operations along with lunch. The notion that the US can land ground forces on the Chinese mainland to occupy and annex China is absurd. That’s the “Risk” board game version of geopolitics.

But the empire doesn’t need to annex China. The empire just needs to economically set China back a couple decades. There is a faction within the empire who believe this is doable in part with a naval blockade.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 2 2021 21:42 utc | 109

Gabriel Collins did a very good report for the US Naval War College Review on the practicality of a maritime oil blockade of China – even in 2018 he was not too optimistic, “A Maritime Oil Blockade Against China—Tactically Tempting but Strategically Flawed”. China would also have access to Russia, Central Asia, ASEAN etc. for food and other supplies, and would have inevitably created large stockpiles before any conflict.

https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1735&context=nwc-review

"The scenarios also highlight the reality that, within historically realistic response parameters, China very feasibly could adapt to conflict conditions and withstand a blockade for a longer period than an outside power realistically could sustain the operation. At the most fundamental level, a blockader would find itself increasingly isolated on the world stage, which would complicate its ability politically, economically, and militarily to continue its campaign."

"The significant long-term reduction in revenue to major oil and commodity exporters as a result of decreasing oil-demand volumes and depressed prices could exert profound internal political effects and trigger new conflicts and in- flame existing ones across the Middle East and parts of Africa. Sufficiently serious regional contingencies could divert U.S. military resources from the Asian theater, particularly if the United States found itself politically and diplomatically isolated on the world stage. This could undermine the sustainability of a distant energy blockade against China."

Posted by: Roger | Oct 2 2021 22:00 utc | 111

China doesn’t need to invade Taiwan, the two entities are already close enough on everything that counts, trade, inward investments, tourism, cultural exchanges, the lot.

China’s power is anchored in making things and selling them on every world market, by the turn of the century around a third of her GDP was coupled with exports, by 2019 this ratio was down to 15%, it must have gone up during the months of covid as the Chinese economy was the only one resuming working.

For the Americans to disrupt the sea lines from the Chinese ports would be counterproductive unless they were to find a substitute for the stuff manufactured in China for the US market, some 80% of US imports from China are on behalf of US brand names, Apple is but the one most visible example.

Despite of the warmongering China still enjoys the the Permanent Normal Trade Relations Partner status (PNTR) google for what the partner status offers, China was granted it by Bush at the time of her joining WTO. If the Americans were serious about disrupting China’s trade hence the country’s economy they would withdraw the PNTR status, they haven’t, which tells you they are stuck until they figure where else to source what comes from China.

Posted by: Baron | Oct 2 2021 23:15 utc | 115

“an established power will generally try to prevent a rising power to become so powerful that it could challenge the established power.”

I think this is a good description of the Thucydides Trap. I don’t believe the theory should be taken any more literal then that and it isn’t supposed to be some deterministic scientific comment were causality is linear an absolute. It also doesn’t require a shooting war to hold true.

Given the current situation, and The Empire’s multi-pronged attempt to harm China, I think it is fair to say the Thucydides Trap has already been sprung.

…

Having said that, I don’t think a shooting war is inevitable. I also think a blockade isn’t likely as that would almost absolutely lead to a shooting war.

People forget China has a lot of oil and other resources. Enough oil and gas to last five years without imports. They are also well connected to Russia, Central Asia and South East Asia, so even a successful naval blockade could be gotten around.

I disagree China wouldn’t invade if forced into this position. They’d take Taiwan quickly and it would be impossible to prevent them from taking South Korea, which would lead to many thousand American POW’s and KIA. They’d also have total control of the areas within the first Island chain which would provide a lot of strategic avenues.

Not to mention a blockade wouldn’t slow down their industrial production, instead it would push their industry into war-time hyper production giving China unlimited missiles to strike at everything from Gaum on in.

That isn’t to say The Desperate Empire might not try a blockade or find a way to stumble into a stupid war…it is to say it would turn out very badly for The Empire and hasten their demise rather then slow down China’s rise.

Posted by: Haassaan | Oct 2 2021 23:19 utc | 116

In fact, in case of a war between the US and China the GIs would even lack the pants to shit into as they are manufactured in China.

Posted by: aquadraht | Oct 2 2021 23:38 utc | 118

Given the current situation, and The Empire's multi-pronged attempt to harm China, I think it is fair to say the Thucydides Trap has already been sprung.

This is clear to me as well.

Having said that, I don't think a shooting war is inevitable.

Agreed. But I don’t think the possibility of a shooting war is remote either.

I also think a blockade isn't likely as that would almost absolutely lead to a shooting war.

I disagree with this. Merely the threat of attack will cause shipping rates to skyrocket. That ends China’s manufacturing advantage and ME oil supply.

China can adjust … but how quickly?

I disagree China wouldn't invade if forced into this position. They'd take Taiwan quickly ...

When I said China wouldn’t invade, I was responding to Don Bacon’s comment about the importance of logistics. There wouldn’t be logistics necessary for a battle for Taiwan because China can take Taiwan before such logistics become a factor.

And I don’t think South Korea would fall quite so quickly or easily as you believe.

China provides a governance model that may inspire the Western public to demand real change. So we see propaganda attacks against China. And rising tensions help to vitiate that propaganda.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 3 2021 0:33 utc | 119

I also think a blockade isn’t likely as that would almost absolutely lead to a shooting war.

“I disagree with this. Merely the threat of attack will cause shipping rates to skyrocket. That ends China’s manufacturing advantage and ME oil supply.

China can adjust ... but how quickly?"

Yes, but isn’t that what a blockade would do? The very purpose of the blockade is to prevent China from shipping to harm their industry.

I’d argue that once a blockade is in place, China has no choice but to hit with everything they have short of nukes. They aren’t going to wait around while their economy and industrial production is stifled…they will make the USA pay the price, and then some…and that is completely within their capabilities.

It looks to me like China is prepared for war, they would be able to switch to war production mode almost immediately. It would be the West that would be slow to adjust.

In the event of war, China does not need ME oil, they have enough domestic oil to wage a multi-year war.

South Korea wouldn’t fall easily, neither would Taiwan for that matter, but they would fall, there is no way to reinforce either once the shooting starts. Tens of thousands of casualties on both sides within a short amount of time.

To continue fighting USA would need a draft. Given current social conditions in The States how do you think a draft would play out?

Posted by: Haassaan | Oct 3 2021 0:57 utc | 122

Thank you Roger @ 111 and Baron @ 115 for trying to inject a dose of reality into this notion of a USN or even AUKUS enforced blockade of China.

Gruff @ 109 re: "a faction within the empire who believe this is doable with a naval blockade...."

First, blockade is an act of war, and the Chinese would be well within their rights to attack and sink any ship trying to enforce any such blockade whether in their own territorial or international waters. So there’s a high probability that any attempt to actually enforce a blockade would lead to a real hot war in East Asia. And, once again, this blockade would be completely illegal since there would be absolutely no UNSC approval for any such action.

Second, with the lengthy supply chains required to support such an effort even from Pearl Harbour, the US probably will have to utilise it’s most forward military bases in the region which means both South Korea and especially Japan which is home to over a dozen major bases that are locations for key Indo-Pacific assets of the USN, USAF and USMC. If these bases or rather their units actually launch military attacks against China then the countries that house those bases would themselves be open to direct military retaliation from China.

Both S Korea and Japan rely on shipping lanes well within the range of the Chinese conventional missile arsenal. The Chinese could respond with their own form of a blockade, shutting down the Japanese and S Korean SLOCs in a week or two by sinking (or threatening to sink) tankers and container ships in the Sea of Japan. The Japanese and SK economies require vast volumes of imported energy and other raw goods resources and are just as vulnerable as China is to a maritime blockade. So if the US wants to play the blockade game then China has options and can respond in kind with similar types of action against not only two major US allies but two of the largest economies in the world.

Third, on top of the above, nobody mentions the huge, and I mean huge, amount of trade between the countries of ASEAN ie SE Asia and China. Indonesia alone has I believe almost $50-60 billions of trade with China per annum. Add in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore etc. and you’re talking at least a couple of hundred billion pa. Are these countries going to sit back and allow the US and its Anglo Saxon poodles to destroy their economies? Nope, didn’t think so.

Finally, everyone really should read the books by Andrei Martyanov to understand the new realities, that the next war in the Pacific won’t be won by some USMC “island hopping” strategy or another round of Midways and Coral Seas. It’s going to be won by the country that can launch salvo after salvo of conventional anti ship and anti air and other conventional missiles. Think about it – there’s lots of numbers thrown around on the internet re the Iranian and Hezbollah guided missile arsenals, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 etc. That’s Iran and Hezbollah working under the most stringent sanctions in the world.

So how many advanced anti-ship missiles do you think the manufacturing powerhouse that is China has stored away for a rainy day? Bear in mind, some of those missiles have been in mass production for several years now. 40,000? 50,000? More? And, yes, there’s some question re the actual operational efficacy of Chinese anti-ship missile targeting. Still, assuming they get their targeting systems right (maybe with a little help from Shoigu et al!) how long do you think the USN and its allies will last when the Chinese fire salvoes of a 100, 200, 500, or even 1000 Anti-Ship missiles per day for a week or even two?

Posted by: thermobarbaric | Oct 3 2021 1:30 utc | 125

Yes, I mentioned naval blockade as one example of the empire escalating to overt warfare against China in addition to its current covert war. Yes, realistically such efforts by the empire cannot succeed beyond a temporary and relatively brief suppression of China’s GDP. But next year it will be even harder for the empire to dent China’s economic growth, and the year after harder still.

Are you so foolish as to think the empire will give up without a fight?

It doesn’t matter that it is a bad idea. The empire is out of alternatives to war.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 3 2021 1:43 utc | 126

"In a few years, another country with a nuclear submarine fleet will appear in the world – Australia. What kind of submarines will this country receive from its allies, what kind of combat capabilities do they provide, and according to what scenario can they be used to contain China’s military power?

Everything is learned by comparison. What are the eight multi-purpose nuclear submarines that Australia will receive (not to be confused with submarines armed with ballistic missiles)? Let’s compare them with other fleets.

First, take the example of China, against which (at least, so they say) everything is being planned. Now China has only nine multi-purpose nuclear submarines, with low stealth. Three of them are Project 091; these are old and noisy vessels that have almost no combat value. The remaining six are Project 093, more modern boats, which, however, are inferior to modern American and British ones. In fact, only these six have a real combat value, and it is this number that should be taken into account.

...Here is just one of many examples. Geographically, Australia can completely block the connection between China and the Indian Ocean: there is a direct exit there and this is not controlled by China in any way. China only has the Strait of Malacca, which with its new submarines Australia will be able to block from the Indian Ocean. Or go past Australia itself, with the same submarines and its aircraft. There is no other road by which a large amount of oil can be supplied to China.

... It is worth recognizing that the world is on the verge of war. Australia’s agreement with the United States and Britain says exactly this. An ordinary world war with tens of millions of dead, as one option, or with hundreds of millions; after all, no one has canceled nuclear weapons. Such a war is almost inevitable.

Moreover, knowing what deadlines the ‘partners’ set for themselves, you can roughly understand the time for which they are preparing the ‘hot phase’. And looking at how other countries are preparing for the next world war, it’s time for us to take a critical, honest and non-biased look at how we are preparing for it.”

https://anti-empire.com/the-first-russian-strategic-assessment-of-the-australia-uk-us-usuka-submarine-pact/

Posted by: daffyDuct | Oct 3 2021 1:48 utc | 127

The increased cost of trade would spur industry in the West

Factories will just pop up everywhere? No.

 As China becomes more like USA

Never happen. Chinese are what they are, and it isn’t becoming more like Americans. It has to do with 5,000 years of culture, Confucianism, Taoism etc. So Chinese have a whole different way of looking at matters, such as working together toward a better life (which they have largely accomplished) w/o the petty political combative self-aggrandisement “democracy” so dominant in the USA.

Chinese do this under a qualified up-through-the-ranks leader, and not having to accept an elected weirdo as in the US.

The fact that Chinese are different from Americans, and will never be like them, has been a deep disappointment in Washington, but that’s the way it is and the way it will be.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 3 2021 3:31 utc | 136

Below is from Xinhuanet

BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- For years, the unspoken truth about Western media is that their veneer of objectivity has come off a long time ago. While touting themselves as the epitome of trustworthiness and honesty, some media practitioners in the West have no qualms about propagating lies against China.

As the coordinated anti-China smear campaign is gaining steam, more intrepid journalists with a conscience are calling it out despite the tremendous pressure to silence them.

In one of the most excoriating rebukes against Western media's manipulation of the public opinion against China, Javier Garcia, head of the office of the EFE News Agency of Spain in Beijing, announced earlier this week that he would soon leave journalism, as the flagrant information manipulation by Western media "has taken a good dose of my enthusiasm for this profession."

The departure of journalists like Garcia is a giant loss to the industry, which is in dire need of introspection. For those who choose to stay and disagree with the highly biased and distorted reporting on China, they are usually confronted with a monolithic propaganda structure in the West to ignore, silence and discredit them.

The past few years have seen a lot of deplorable cases where anyone who dared to maintain objective and impartial positions on China were accused of being on the payroll of the Chinese government or even worse.

While they are working arduously to suppress impartial information and hoping it to pay off, some media in the West, especially in the United States, should expect that the chickens will come home to roost, as their own political order is at risk.

Even James Murdoch, son of right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch who owns FOX News, castigated U.S. media for amplifying disinformation that successfully sowed falsehoods.

"Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years," he told the Financial Times shortly after the U.S. Congress riot in early January.

For those Western media who are still slandering China's peaceful development, it is time for them to think twice.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 3 2021 6:15 utc | 139

One important note on something that is getting zero coverage in the “news”…

Big news in aerospace circles, and all over China is the great diversity of the new state-of-the-art military weapons that are being shown in my town (where I live). Zhuhai. It’s all very awesome. Some of the aircraft are real surprises, and it might take the USA decades to play catch up. VIDEO.

I am interested in hearing what the readers read in their local news about these systems being made and mass-produced in China. Can you please enlightening me.

The First Russian Strategic Assessment of the Australia-UK-US (USUKA) Submarine Pact

A serious Russian strategic assessment of the UK-USA-Australia decision to start basing nuclear armed nuclear submarines in Australia 18 months from now…

Unlike diesel-electrics, nuclear subs can contribute to the US blockade of China from the Pacific and in the Malacca

John Helmer 26 Sep 21

Following last week’s meeting in Washington of Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the Australian defence minister and their US counterparts, a strategic military and basing agreement was announced between Australia, the UK and US (AUKUS). This is being reinforced with summit meetings in Washington this week.

The declared target of their war-making preparations is China.

Australian strategy against Russia in the Pacific region follows in lockstep with the US. But for the time being the Russian enemy, and Russian submarine and surface fleet operations in the Indo-Pacific region, are not being discussed by Australian officials in public; at least not to the extent when President Vladimir Putin last visited Australia in November 2014 with a nuclear-powered, nuclear armed naval escort.

Ahead of schemes for strategic warmaking in the Pacific, the US, the UK and Australia are also engaged in proxy war operations. These have accelerated recently in Myanmar, where Russia and China are allied in support of the military government of General Min Aung Hlaing. Next, from both sides, state bribery, subversion, putsch-making, and other special operations are likely to accelerate in the Pacific islands from Fiji to Papua-New Guinea.

For the moment, the initial reaction to AUKUS from the Russian Foreign Ministry has been as close to uncritical as the ministry can be.” Spokesman Maria Zakharova said last Thursday:

“We noted the plans, announced by Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines as part of an ‘enhanced trilateral security partnership’ agreed yesterday by the United States, Great Britain and Australia. We proceed from the premise that being a non-nuclear power and fulfilling in good faith the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Australia will honour its commitments under this document, as well as the IAEA Safeguards Agreements along with its Additional Protocol. We hope that Canberra ensures the necessary level of cooperation with the IAEA in order to rule out any proliferation-related risks.”

The first detailed technical and strategic assessment of the AUKUS scheme has followed this week in Vzglyad, the leading strategy publication reflecting the Russian General Staff and GRU assessments. A translation from the Russian article by Alexander Timokhin follows.

In a few years, another country with a nuclear submarine fleet will appear in the world  – Australia. What kind of submarines will this country receive from its allies, what kind of combat capabilities do they provide, and according to what scenario can they be used to contain China’s military power?

Everything is learned by comparison. What are the eight multi-purpose nuclear submarines that Australia will receive (not to be confused with submarines armed with ballistic missiles)? Let’s compare them with other fleets.

First, take the example of China, against which (at least, so they say) everything is being planned. Now China has only nine multi-purpose nuclear submarines, with low stealth. Three of them are Project 091; these are old and noisy vessels  that have almost no combat value. The remaining six are Project 093, more modern boats, which, however, are inferior to modern American and British ones. In fact, only these six have a real combat value, and it is this number that should be taken into account.

I must say that the Chinese have made tremendous progress if we start from their initial level. Their submarines are already armed with good torpedoes and means of countering enemy torpedoes. But they are still very far from British ‘Astutes’ or American ‘Virginias’.

Theoretically, the ‘Virginia’ of the latest modification (the block, as the Americans say) will be able to be used when delivering a high-precision massive non-nuclear strike on Chinese territory. In this case, the Australians will be able to increase the American salvo. In the future, when the Americans finish their hypersonic missile program for the Navy, this strike may also be very fast.

It will be a separate story if the Americans again trample on international norms of behaviour and deploy nuclear weapons on Australian submarines before the war. Then, using cruise or hypersonic missiles, Australia will be able to cause China (and not only it) simply monstrous damage. And just ordinary Tomahawks with their fast, surprise launch can cause considerable damage to the side attacked – and the tactical and technical characteristics of the ‘Virginia’ will allow you to secretly approach even a well-guarded shore and deliver a sudden and unexpected blow.

Naturally, this is true if Australia builds ‘Virginias’ with vertical missile launch installations, and not ‘Astutes’, which can only use Tomahawks through torpedo tubes. There is no answer to this question yet.

In the event of a war more or less close to a classic naval war, these submarines will create an additional threat to China, and China will be required to allocate additional forces to this threat, which it will need very much in a war with the United States and Britain, even without Australia.

The Chinese are taking care of their fleet and developing it. They have anti-submarine surface forces and anti-submarine aviation, but when performing combat tasks outside the combat radius of their base (coastal in colloquial language) aviation, the problem of combating enemy submarine forces will become quite acute for China. Chinese surface ships will be subjected to air strikes by Australian based and American carrier-based aircraft; anti-submarine aircraft will not be able to work without cover; in fact, all tasks will have to be solved by Chinese nuclear submarines. They do not reach the western (that is, the future Australian) level yet, and they will be forced to act against heterogeneous enemy forces (submarines, anti-submarine aircraft, surface ships) without support.

How will China respond?

China has hope – there are new multi-purpose nuclear submarines being created, designated in the foreign press as Type 095, and in China itself 09-V. According to visual assessment of images of the boat, it is clear that China is trying to introduce a large number of technical solutions that increase the stealth of the submarine and the range of detection for its underwater targets. It is clearly visible that the boat is being created specifically for combat.

But what success the Chinese will have is an open question, and most importantly, even these boats will not see superiority in quality; ideally there will be approximate parity. At the same time, if the current pace of updating the submarine forces in China continues, then China will be inferior to the Americans and the British in numbers even without Australia, and even more so with it. These new boats are still in the planning stage — China has not built any of them yet. And another hostile nuclear submarine fleet will definitely require the Chinese to invest very quickly and very seriously in expanding their production; that requires time, money, and resources.

Can China ignore this threat? No.

Here is just one of many examples. Geographically, Australia can completely block the connection between China and the Indian Ocean: there is a direct exit there and this is not controlled by China in any way. China only has the Strait of Malacca, which with its new submarines Australia will be able to block from the Indian Ocean. Or go past Australia itself, with the same submarines and its aircraft. There is no other road by which a large amount of oil can be supplied to China.

Australia would never have had these opportunities in this form if it had continued its work on the purchase of non-nuclear submarines from France.

A non-nuclear (in fact the same diesel-electric) submarine is not capable, for example, of going under water at a high speed, as the ‘Virginias’ and ‘Astutes’ can, and secretly, without a critical increase in noise.

A non-nuclear boat needs to deliver fuel to the combat service area, an atomic one does not need to – a nuclear submarine is not tied to nearby bases or to fuel, and it can operate disproportionately more freely than a diesel-electric one, even with an air-independent power plant.

In combat, a nuclear submarine also has a lot of advantages, up to the possibility of sometimes getting away from the enemy’s torpedo by running. For a hypothetical Australian-French non-nuclear submarine, this would be impossible. The hydroacoustic complex on the ‘Virginias’ is generally difficult to compare with something, and this is the range of target detection and the range of shooting at it.

Now China, in addition to measures to counter the submarine fleet of the United States and Great Britain, will also have to take into account Australia, which wants to get a nuclear submarine more powerful than anything that China has at present.

What does the battlefield look like in numbers? If we start from how many of the ‘Virginias’ are already built and under construction to go into service by 2036, when the Australians want to get their eight submarines, then we can assume that there will be about 20 units. And they will not be able to throw everything at China; some of the submarines will be needed in case of emergency operations against Russia.

Thus, an additional eight Australian submarines will increase the number of units opposing China by at least a third, compared only with American submarines. This is even more than the British will be able to give for the war with China. China will have to increase both the submarine and other fleet forces by a comparable number.

In general, for China, these eight additional enemy submarines are a fresh handful of bones in the throat. That’s about what the Americans planned to do with the British. That’s what eight nuclear submarines are.

This is what caused the reaction of the Chinese to the news. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the transfer of nuclear submarine construction technologies to Australia harms the nuclear non-proliferation regime and ‘exacerbates the arms race’, as well as the fact that the United States and Great Britain ‘extremely irresponsibly’ apply double standards. These admonitions, of course, will not have any effect.

And what does this mean for Russia? If Australia wants to have eight multi-purpose submarines by 2036, then by that year we will ideally have four Yasen-class vessels in the Pacific Ocean – the ‘Novosibirsk’, ‘Krasnoyarsk’, ‘Vladivostok’ and, presumably, the ‘Perm’.

Is for the future boat of the project 545 with the code-name ‘Laika’, the form in which the ‘Laika’ was presented to the president in December 2019 indicates the deliberate obsolescence of the project. And most importantly – it is extremely doubtful that these boats will be in service by the mid-thirties. This is another example of how many there will turn out to be — eight nuclear submarines in one theatre of military operations.

However, the western ‘partners’ may have difficulties in implementing these wonderful plans.

Is everything so simple?

There is one aspect in all of this that can complicate everything. The production of as many as eight nuclear submarines, stuffed with high-tech systems to the brim, is not an easy matter. If we assume that the Australians will build some kind of ready-made project, for example the ‘Virginia’, then in any event they will up to 14 years for the construction of eight nuclear submarines if they start next year. This is an ultra-fast pace for eight units; the Americans themselves take five years to build one ‘Virginia’ from the popint of laying the keel to delivery to the Navy.

Is it possible for the Australians to meet the deadlines? Yes, but only in an “expansive’ way – laying more submarines a year than the Americans. And this requires, firstly, shipyards in sufficient quantity to build submarines; secondly, workers and engineers; and thirdly, the supply of components from the United States, which can become the bottleneck of the project because of the existing crisis in American shipbuilding. Does Australia have all this in the right amount? The allies will not be able to help them there; they do not have enough themselves.

And if the Australians build some kind of British project – either the ‘Astute’ or, as is now rumoured in Britain, the future project of a British multi-purpose submarine, which should replace the ‘Astutes’, then nothing will work out. Britain is barely coping with the construction of its submarines by itself, including the part played by related companies. In the case of the ‘Astutes’, some of the related parties are from France engaged by by the Anglo-Saxons. On the other hand, the British can in this way compensate for the losses of the French from the broken Australian contract for non-nuclear submarines. Still, the problem of timing will also arise in this case.

The Australians seem to understand this. On Sunday, September 19, the Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said that Australia will not wait until its nuclear submarines are built, but will buy or lease British or American ones.

This is quite possible. However, not with British submarines, but more likely with American ones, although such a scheme would not lead to the desired increase in anti–Chinese forces; there would still be as many submarines against China, just some of the flags would change. But, firstly, by the time the construction of their series is completed (even if not all and with a delay), the Australians will already have experience working with nuclear submarines, and secondly, the United States now has problems with repairing its submarines (they do not pull, as they say), and renting some of their ships to Australia for the Americans will in fact mean their salvation as combat units, even under a foreign flag.

In general, it is possible to make Australia a country with a nuclear submarine fleet quickly. Moreover, the authors of this initiative have an extremely serious reason for all this. Such gigantic investments and sharp political turns are not carried out just like that. The hegemony of the Anglo-Saxons in the world is seriously shaken, both because of their own internal weakness, and because of the growth of China, and the sabotage of their system of power by Russia. It is quite obvious they will not give up their power over humanity and the benefits resulting from this in a favourable fashion.

It is worth recognizing that the world is on the verge of war. Australia’s agreement with the United States and Britain says exactly this. An ordinary world war with tens of millions of dead, as one option, or with hundreds of millions; after all, no one has canceled nuclear weapons. Such a war is almost inevitable.

Big, huge changes, in the near future (a tentative list)

by Andrei for the Saker blog

Truly, tectonic changes are happening before our eyes, and today I just want to list some of them but without going to deep into specific analyses, that I plan to do later in the coming weeks. But just looking at this list is impressive enough, at least for me. So, here we go:

The Anglos are circling the wagons:

The planned sale of US/UK SSNs to Australia is nothing short of a HUGE game changer. It is also just the tip of a big iceberg:

The US seems to have de-facto given up on Europe, not only because the UK left or because the EU is crashing and unmanageable anyway, but because the political grip the US had on the continent is now clearly slipping: NATO is a paper tiger, the “new Europeans” have outlived their utility and Russia has basically successfully diffused the threat from the West by her titanic effort to develop capabilities which make an attack on Russia suicidal for any country, including the USA, whether nukes are involved or not.
By screwing over France, the US has jettisoned a pretty useless ally which had a short hysterical fit, but is already going back to its usual groveling and begging (BTW – those who think that de Gaulle was the last French patriot capable of telling Uncle Shmuel to “take a hike” are wrong, Mitterrand was the last one, but that is a topic for another day).
Of course, in political/PR terms, the US will continue to declare itself committed to NATO and the EU, but the “body language” (actions) of the US directly contradicts this notion.
For all its immense progress since the 80s and 90s, China still has two major technological weak points: aircraft engines and SSNs. It just so happens that these are also two real US strong points. By deploying 8 more SSNs near China, the US is very intelligently maximizing the use of its best assets and hurting China were it will hurt the most. This does come with some very real risks, however, which I will discuss below.

The BRICS is close to becoming useless:

Brazil is currently run by the US and Israel. South Africa is in a deep crisis. As for India, it is doing what it has been doing for decades: trying to play all sides while trying to weaken China. So it sure looks like the BRICS are becoming the “BRICS” which really leaves us with “only” the “RC” alliance which actually has a real name: the Chinese call it the “Strategic comprehensive partnership of coordination for the new era”.

Again, I don’t think that anybody will formally dissolve what was a rather informal alliance to begin with, but de-facto the BRICS seems to be loosing much of its former glamour and illusions. As for Russia and China, they are not going to “save” the former BRICS members out of some sense of sympathy especially not against their own will: let them save themselves, or at least try. Then, maybe.

Also, let’s be honest here, BRICS was an economic concept which was mostly an alliance of weak(er) countries against the big economic and military powers of the North and West.

As for the Russian-Chinese alliance (let’s call it that, even though formally that is not what this is), it is, by itself, already more powerful than BRICS and even more powerful that the united West (US+NATO+EU+etc.).

The SCO is changing (thanks to Uncle Shmuel), fast

If Biden was a secret “Putin agent” (“KGB agent” is the preferred term in the US, at least by those who do not seem to realize that the KGB was disbanded thirty years ago) he could not have done “better” than what he did in Afghanistan. Now, thanks to this galactic faceplant, the small(er) guys in the SCO (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) are now getting seriously concerned about what will happen next. Even better, the (very powerful) Iran will officially become a SCO member this month! Again, neither Russia not China “need” the SCO for their defense, but it sure makes things easier for them. Speaking of Afghanistan, Pakistan is already a SCO member, as is India.

It is important to note that the SCO will not become an “Asian NATO” or an “anti-NATO” or anything similar. Again, why would Russia, China and other want to follow a failed model? They have repeated ad nauseam that their alliances are of unions of (truly!) sovereign states and that this union will not impede on this sovereignty in any ways (besides, neither Russia not China need to limit the others SCO members sovereignty to begin with).

The EU is slowly committing economic and political suicide

Initially, France had a major hissy fit, but is probably not doing the only thing France should do after what happened: leave NATO and slam the door on it, very loudly. De Gaulle or Mitterrand would have done so immediately, but Macron? Being the ultimate spineless fake that he is, it would be miraculous if he did anything meaningful (other than brutally repressing all the riots in France).

At this time of writing the result of the elections in Germany are too close to call, but even if NS2 is allowed to function, the level of russophobic hysteria in Europe is so extreme that the following will almost certainly happen: the EU will continue with its rhetoric until the prices go even further up, at which point they will turn to the only country which the EU desperately need to survive: the much hated and feared Russia. Don’t quote me on that, but last week I remember the following prices for 1000 cubic meters of gas in Europe (just under 1000 dollars), the Ukraine (1600 dollars) and Belarus (120 dollars). I might have memorized this wrong (I was traveling), and this might have changed, but the bottom line is this: only Russia can’t give the EU the energy it needs, and she has exactly ZERO reasons to make those russophobic prostitutes any favors (other than symbolic). And even if my memory played a trick on me, what is certain that the prices for energy are soaring, the EU reserves are very low, and the temperatures falling. Welcome to the real world 🙂

I won’t even go into the “multiculturalism” “inclusivity” “positivity” and other Woke nonsense which most of the EU countries have accepted as dogmas (even Switzerland caved in).

The US is like an aircraft breaking apart in mid-air

As most of you know, I have decided to stay away from internal US politics (for many different reasons). So I will just use a metaphor: the US is like an aircraft which, due to pilot incompetence and infighting, is breaking apart in mid-air with its passengers still arguing about who should be the next pilot as that could make any difference. Some passengers will continue to argue until the hit the ground. Others are engage in “mid-air fistfights” apparently believing that if they succeed in beating the crap out of the other guy, they will somehow prevent gravity from doing what it does.

The reality is much simpler: a system that is not viable AND which cannot reform itself (too busy with self-worshiping and blaming others for everything) can only do one thing: collapse and, probably, even break-apart. Only after that can the US, or whatever the successor state(s) will be called, rebuilt itself into something totally different from the US which died chocking on its own arrogance this year (like all the other empires in history, by the way, the latest one being the Soviet one).

The Russian elections

The results are in and they are yet another galactic faceplant for the AngloZionist Empire. The main Kremlin Party took a hit, the Communists did very well, Zhirinovski’s LDPR lost a lot and a new (moderately pro-Kremlin) party made it in for the first time. Considering the many billions of dollars the West has spent on trying to create a Belarus-like crisis in Russia (Navalnyi, Petrov, Boshirov & Co.), this is yet another truly gigantic failure for the West.

If anything, the rise of the KPRF shows that a lot of people are fed up with two things: 1) what they see as a tepid, if not outright weak, Russian foreign policy towards the West and 2) with the liberal (economically speaking) policies of Putin and his entourage.

Absolutely NOBODY in Russia wants “better relations” or any kind of “dialog” with the rabidly russophobic West. And to the extend that Russia and the USA simply *have* to talk to each other (being nuclear superpowers) they, of course, will.

But the EU as such is of zero interest to Russia. And if Russia needs to get something done (like what anyway?), she will talk to the US, not its EU underlings. For all its problems, the US still matters. But the clowns of the EU?

[Sidebar: the word “Communist” usually elicits a knee-jerk reaction from brainwashed US Americans.  But for the rest of them, let me just say that while I don’t think the KPRF is what Russia needs and while I have nothing good to say about Ziuganov or most of the KPRF leadership, I will say that KPRF does not mean Gulags, hammers and sickles smashing Ukie babies, Russian tanks in downtown Warsaw or any such nonsense.  There are several “Communist” parties in Russia, and none of them are even remotely similar to the kind of party the bad old CPSU was.  So while US politicians feel very witty to speak of the CCP-virus and that kind of nonsense (Ted Cruz is officially my “favorite idiot” in Congress now), this is so far detached from any reality that I won’t even bother explaining it here.]

The COVID pandemic

Wow, just wow. Where do I even begin??? Biden’s speech on this topic was hateful declaration of war on all those who don’t fully accept the “official” White House line. The fact that many (most?) of those who do not accept the official party line DO accept an even dumber version of events does not make it right to force them into choosing between their beliefs and, say, their job, or their right to move around.

Again, after listening to Biden I kept wondering if he was a “Putin agent” as his actions are only accelerating the breakup of the “US aircraft” I mentioned above. You can say many things about COVID-dissidents, but you can’t deny them two things: 1) a sincere belief in their ideas and 2) an equally sincere belief that their core freedoms, values and rights are trampled upon by pathological liars and crooks (aka politicians + BigPharma).

They will resist and, yes, violently if needed. Because for them it is a both a matter of personal human dignity and even survival!

At least, and so far, the US still has a powerful Constitution which will make it very hard for the current nutcases in the White House to do what they apparently want to do (force 80M US Americans to obey “or else”).

Furthermore, Federal courts cannot be simply ignored.

Also, US states still have a lot of power.

Finally, most US Americans still hold dear the ideals of freedom, liberty, small government, privacy, etc. But EU countries have no such protections from governmental abuse: true, in the US these are all rights are weakened by the day if not the hour, but at least they have not been *officially* abrogated (yet?).

If you want to see how bad things can get without such rights, just look at the pandemic freak show in Canada, Australia or New Zealand!

Finally, and irrespective of its actual origin (I am still on the fence on that), the COVID pandemic wiped all the make-up and has showed the entire world the true face of the West and its rulers: weak, ignorant, arrogant, hypocritical cowards whose only true concern is to cover their butts and “grab whatever can be grabbed” before the inevitable and final explosion (nuclear, economic or social).

Now back the the Aussie SSNs

The sale/lease of these SSNs is not only a danger for China, but also one for Russia.

Simply put, Russia cannot and will not allow the Anglos to strangle China like they did with Japan before WWII.

The good news is this: the latest Russian SSNs/SSGNs are at least as good as the latest Seawolf/Virginia class, if not better. Ditto for ASW capabilities.

What Russia does lack is the needed numbers (and Anglo submarine fleets are much lager, even “just” the USN alone) and funds, both of which China has (or can have).

From the Kremlin’s point of view, the Anglos are trying to create an “Asian NATO”, something which neither China nor Russia will allow.

The Chinese already informed the Aussies that they are now a legitimate target for nuclear strikes (apparently, Australia wants to become the “Poland of the Pacific”), while the Russians only made general comments of disapproval.

But take this to the bank: the Russian General Staff and the Chinese (who both probably saw this coming for a while) will jointly deploy the resources needed to counter this latest “brilliant idea” of the Anglos.

In purely military terms, there are many different options to deal with this threat, which ones China and Russia will chose will become apparent fairly soon because it is far better to do something prevent that delivery from actually happening than to deal with eight more advanced attack submarines.

By the way, the Russians are also semi-deploying/semi-testing an advanced SSK, the Lada-class, which has both very advanced capabilities and, apparently, still many problems. SSKs are not capable of threatening SSNs in open (blue) waters, but in shallower (green/brown) waters such as straits or littorals, they can represent a very real threat, if only by “freeing up” the SNNs to go and hunt into the deep (blue) waters. Also, the main threat for subs comes from the air, and here, again, China and Russia have some very attractive options.

Conclusion: interesting times for sure…

Like the Chinese curse says, we are living in very interesting times.

The quick collapse of the Empire and the US is, of course, inherently very dangerous for our planet.

But it is also a golden opportunity for Zone B nations to finally kick the Anglos out and regain their sovereignty.

True, the US still has a lot of momentum, just like a falling airliner would, but the fact remains that 1) they ran from Afghanistan and 2) they are circling their Anglo wagons shows that somebody somewhere does “get it” and even understood that in spite of the huge political humiliation both of these development represent for narcissistic politicians and their followers, this was a price which absolutely HAD to be paid to (try) to survive.

In my article (infamous) analysis ” Will Afghanistan turn out to be US imperialism’s “Last Gleaming”?” (it triggered even more hysterics and insults than usual, at least on the Unz review comments section) I wrote this: “the British Empire had the means of its foreign policies. The US does not.”

This is now changing.

Yes, what the Anglos (aka 5 eyes) are doing is a retreat. But it is a *smart* one. They are cutting off all the “useless imperial weights” and going for the “smaller but stronger” option.

We might not like it, I certainly don’t, but I have to admit that this is pretty smart and even probably the only option left for the AngloZionist Empire.

At the very least, it is now clear that the Anglos have no allies, and never had them.

What they had where colonial coolies who imagined themselves as part of some “community of civilized, democratic and peace-loving, nations”. These coolies are now left in limbo.

So, who will be the next one to show Uncle Shmuel to the door? My guess is the Republic of Korea. And, frankly, since the DPRK is not a country the Empire can take on, and since China will only increase its (already major) influence on both the DPRK and the ROK, the US might as well pack and leave (maybe for Australia or occupied Japan?).

Okay, end of this overview of developments.

Latest Developments in China (US Products)

Not reported in the English media is that all Chinese factories that are making products for the United States are now “power off” for much of the week. Supposedly this is part of the “Climate control agreement” that Biden and Xi Peng agreed upon.

What it functionally means is that factories (in China) that make American products must stop working for a set period of time per week depending on the percentage of American products that they export. The rule sort of goes like this…

- - <16% = One day no work.
  - 30% = Two days no work.
  - 45% = Three days no work.
  - 60% = Four days no work.
  - 75% = Five days no work.
  - 100% = No work allowed.

Keep in mind that in China every factory works a six day week.

Since exports to the United States make up around 10% of the total exports out of China, there will be some discomfort with this ruling.

Oh, and by the way…

Over the weekend, a major (retired) Senior CCP member wrote a strong worded letter to XIPeng that the situation with the United States is so serious that normal military use policies must be reconsidered. In specific, he advised that the “no use of military until attacked” be scrapped in favor of a “first strike – preventative posture” against openly belligerent and hostile forces.

This has been making it’s way though the Chinese social media and the overwhelming opinion that this is something that needs to be done immediately.

The Battle at Lake Changjin

China takes a page out of the West’s playbook in war movie production. The Battle at Lake Changjin about the Korean War (1950-53) deals with Chinese troops exploits during what’s known in China as the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

It’s this observer’s mind-set that echoes that of the West:

"In view of the long-lasting China-US strategic rivalry, China needs more films themed on the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which is helpful to enhance China's cohesion and confidence, said Song Luzheng, an international relations researcher at the China Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai."

Oh, the film is a huge success, smashing all Chinese box office records.

Yes, the waking of the Dragon will be seen as a huge mistake by the West that ushered in its downfall.

Looks to be an OUTSTANDING MOVIE. It’s a true story. We see personal sacrifice. Bravery. Compassion and fierce loyality to the Chinese nation.

Check out this one minute video summary clip… VIDEO

This part of the war come with a touching story.

A few dozen PLA soldiers on the front line froze to death in a position of combat readiness. They dared not move simply becuse doing so would expose their position and alert the American forces.

Their self sacrifice enabled the sudden strike against the well armed American forces in the middle of the night.

The PLA foot soldiers fought the American tanks, fighter jets and other lethal weapons with strategy, self sacrifice and human will, and eventually forced the 16 most powerful and wealthy Western nation forces (at that time) back more than 500km from the Chinese border, and forced them to begin to hold peace talks.

(An interesting note: Mao famously said in the beginning of the Korean war: we will let them decide how long to fight this war, we will fight till we win)

This is an example of peace with the West can only be achieved by fighting back hard. This is like the Afghanistan foot soldiers taking 20 years to defeat the same group of Western barbarians and forced them to leave their holy motherland .

Do you think that this movie will be permitted to play in the USA, the UK or Austalia or do you think that those nations will bank it for “national security”?

CHINA RECONSIDERS…

From The Sun…

The global appeal for peace comes as a top Chinese diplomat warned his country to re-examine their promise to only use nukes in retaliation, in response to the new alliances forming in the region.

Beijing’s former ambassador to the UN, Sha Zukang said China must make the first nuclear strike against the US if Joe Biden continues to defend Taiwan.

He said:

"The unconditional no first use is not suitable . . . unless China-US negotiations agree that neither side would use [nuclear weapons] first, or the US will no longer take any passive measures to undermine the effectiveness of China’s strategic forces. 

The strategic pressure on China is intensifying as (the US) has built new military alliances and as it increases its military presence in our neighbourhood."

The threat came ahead of a meeting between the US, India, Japan and Australia – dubbed the Quad, in Washington, host by Joe Biden.

During a meeting of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association in Beijing last week he said:

"The policy not to be the first to use nuclear weapons unconditionally has given China the moral high ground internationally. But for some time in the future, the US will see China as its main competitor and even its enemy. Can this policy be re- examined and fine-tuned?"

Final Comment

Do you all have a headache? I sure do. All of this bullshit is because a group of assholes in Washington DC have this deleterious fantasy of enslaving the world, and they are so fucking cock-sure that they can do it.

Enough of this craziness.

Time to relax.

Here’s a nice gif. It’s getting close to that time of the year.

When the weather started to get damp and cold, I would bring my kitties in and they would sit in front of the nice wood store and stare at it for hours.

Do you want more?

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[daegonmagus] – Part 7 – PROJECT ALPHA

The following is the seventh part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

This particular article is not part of the direct set of articles that are autobiographical in scope and content.

Instead, this article concerns a project, or an idea that needs to be worked on and “flushed out”. I present it here in it’s rough state for others to consider and ponder.

Part 7 – PROJECT: ALPHA

As explained by daegonmagus…

This is an experimental project I wrote up a few years back which explains telepathy using basic radio engineering principles. 

Not sure if you want to put it up as an article, it is somewhat incomplete, but it resonates strongly with what the Domain Commander told you about tech that can be used to unlock the non physical body. 

I am certain the void space of lucidity can be used to properly tune the body to pick up these telepathic frequencies. I will go into another article on that when I've got the time.

This article is by no means finalized. This is just a rough draft for MM readership to consider and absorb.

HYPOTHESIS:

There potentially exists an invisible energy field that surrounds the human aura in the region of the head which seems to be susceptible to fluctuations in electromagnetic/ magnetic fields.

It is presumed that if a strong enough field enters this energy’s boundaries at a specific frequency of resonance, then the subject may be able to achieve astral projection and/ or lucid dreaming more easily than if they did not experience this auric distortion.

Such propositions are based on alleged unorthodox happenings from numerous sources such as the Philadelphia Experiment, the Gibb’s device – more commonly known as the Hyper Dimensional Resonator or HDR -, radionics devices and the authors own experience involving a method by which to render people and objects light insofar as their mass weight is concerned, as well as other documentation concerned with the Schuman resonance.

The goal of the project is to use electronic engineering and radio communication methodologies, as well as components, such as the bifilar and caduceus coils, to develop devices that will specifically target a range of frequencies to try and induce such states of mind.

OVERVIEW:

General radio theory dictates that all that is needed for the wireless transmission of electromagnetic energy is for a conductor of a required length to be electrified by an energy source at a frequency dictated by that very length.

Without delving to deeply into the complexities of this science, extensive studies into this phenomena have proven that another frequency can be attached to the frequency by which this conductor’s energy propagates, thus allowing for the transference of analogue or digital information to be sent from one location to another via the space between them, to be received by a similar apparatus.

Two important understandings must be made from this general theory – that all conductors are potential transmitters, and that all conductors are potential receivers.

All that is left for this “communication” to be intelligible is the filtering out of parasitic frequencies, known as noise, and the derivation of circuits that will allow control over which frequencies are to be used in transmission and how they shall be deciphered – which is the art of radio engineering. As a result, oscillators are used as a means to “tune” transmission and reception to a desired frequency, and many different methods have been established to create these components including the use of Resistor/Capacitor or Inductor/ Capacitor networks, and applying electrical signals to various crystal substrates such as quartz which in turn allows for them to resonate.

Keeping these things in mind it is also important to understand the implications this field of science poses to the human body (or any biological body for that matter), for the human body is really nothing more than a complex electrical circuit itself, consisting of a maze of nervous pathways that are constantly pulsating with energy, as well as conductive fluids, mass resistances and salts that together when combined could potentially establish perfect environments for these oscillations to take place thus allowing for the transmission or reception of some uncontrolled energy, especially in a being whose stature mimics that of a Marconi antenna (upright) when awake, and that of a Yagi antenna (parallel to the ground) when they are asleep.

There have been multiple accounts of people reporting they have heard radio broadcasts in their head after dental procedures, a similar set of experiences of which the author can attest to, though they were caused by an unfortunate susceptibility to perforated eardrums as a child and nothing to do with the former.

It is by reason and logic then I theorise that the subjects in these cases were somehow modifying the electrical characteristics of their bodies in such a way as to provide a direct deciphering of certain radio signals at their ears or the nerves close to them.

If unrecognized or unintentional oscillation of the body’s chemical composition is what is really occurring in these cases, then it is not altogether unreasonable to assume that the body could also be emitting a set of frequencies of its own, given its remarkable ability to act as if it has a constant battery feeding it energy. The above scrutinization offers the following possibilities, depending on where the areas of the most prominent oscillations are occurring;

If oscillation is localized to circulatory system pathways, by using electromagnetic wave propagation theory where frequency = 3×10⁸/ wavelength, (assuming the wavelength of a circulatory system to be 60000 miles in length) the potential frequency of oscillations would most likely sit somewhere around 3Hz.
If oscillation is localized to nervous system pathways, by using EM wave propagation theory and assuming the wavelength of a nervous system is 40 miles in length the frequency would be 4.66kHz.
If oscillation localized to grey matter nerve lengths, by using EM wave propagation theory and assuming the wavelength of a myelinated nerve fibre is 150 – 180000km long, the frequency would be between 1.6 and 2Hz.

I note these finding as extremely interesting, as one experience I had involved the stable awakening from a lucid dream whereby the physical world was transposed over the dream one in a wavy like manner at a rate somewhere near these extremely low frequencies (ELFs), which was to provide a basis for further investigation.

Also to be noted is another incidence where I fell into a lucid dream just as a plane went overhead, and witnessed the transition of the frequency of the plane being slowed to less than half of its original value, whereby some sort of up-scaling phasing effect was introduced.

If one were to study methods of astral projection on the other hand, majority of the techniques seem to involve the lowering or raising of the subjects energy frequency to a level that will initiate this projection.

Devices have even reportedly been used whereby they have brought about such projections almost effortlessly, by using insulated electric currents to alter the energy field near the head.

Some documentations of astral projection also point to a type of magnetism that will pull the astral body back into its physical if care is not taken to rid oneself of its effect immediately upon projection.

My own experiences in this area have led me to believe one hears a high pitched frequency shortly before projection, which sounds extremely similar to the immediate fizzing sound of when a bottle of soft drink is opened.

If I were to take a wild guess I would say this noise sits in the kHz range possibly between 4kHz and 10kHz.

All this is suggestive that there are frequencies at work which together create some sort of complex sinusoidal wave form (ie two or more sinusoidal waves multiplied or “mixed” together) that provides a locking mechanism for the astral consciousness within the physical.

The chemical change one’s body undergoes when falling asleep further strengthens my assumptions as to this being the case, as it would bring about a substantial change in systems of oscillation.

I have also noted many dietary coincidences in a lot of my lucid dreams that seem to point to sugar and the nutrients in chilli chicken dishes having a profound effect. It is therefore my intent to try to manipulate these frequencies to see if the astral body, or lucid consciousness can be unlocked from the physical counterpart resulting in a more effortless experience..

Another important consideration is the technique used to make the mass of people and objects much lighter than usual, whereby hands are placed over the head / top by a group of people each positioned so they are not touching. For those who have not experienced this technique first hand, I can attest to the strange feeling that occurs when more and more hands are placed.

It is as if some form of dense energy is being sucked away and you start to become lighter. This suggests to me that the head is best place to start energetic manipulation experiments. I would assume the radiation pattern to be like that of a toroid, the head being the centre of the parabola.

APPARATUS:

Purpose built frequency generators that can be tuned in increments of 10s of Hertz. Given these frequencies are likely to be extremely low, RC oscillators seem like the only choice available, which is unfortunate as these devices are not considered stable. 555 timers provide an easy way to implement this type oscillator and only require a few external components, whose values can be varied to alter the frequency. Where higher frequencies are being controlled, I suggest using a crystal type oscillator and tuning via an inductor/capacitor network.

Bifilar pancake coils seem to be a good candidate for the vertical transmission of energy that will penetrate a few centimetres. It is likely that a more complex circuit will need to be developed in order to transmit energy around the whole head.

The human body is thought to generate around 100 watts of power, and if my suppositions of it being a transmitter are correct, this would mean that a telepathic thought could quite easily be broadcast over the world if the body can be tuned to efficiently propagate it, considering that this can be done using only a few milliwatts with morse code modulation techniques .

My supposition is that the void space entered after one remains conscious through the sleep paralysis stage during the transition into the sleeping state, can be used as the medium by which to “tune” the body to a more efficient propagation frequency.

This basis for my assumption on this is that I was able to use it to tune into the dialect of a non physical species and then communicate with them whilst in this state. I believe they were located very far from Earth.

They spoke in a clickity clack language that was completely alien to anything we have on earth. After going through the tuning process, we were then able to share a commonality of understanding and they spoke directly to me.

AREAS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
Modulating thought frequencies on bodily produced carrier waves (Telepathy)

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 8 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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Breaking down the casualty figures of the 2025 ‘Deagel’ Forecast in terms of what is going on today

I have been thinking a lot of the Deagel Forecast for 2025 lately. More so, much more so than before. The reason being the new Australia-USA nuclear “submarine” agreement forged earlier this month. And you know, of course I am thinking about this. This singular deal does many, many dangerous things. But perhaps the most dangerous is makes it far easier for a major nuclear conflict with China. And since I live in China, that pisses the Hell out of me.

It’s a major assertive military aggression on the part of the United States.

As well as pointing out the obvious; that Australia is not a “democracy”. After all, a democracy would have the legislature making those decisions, not the Head of State. So in truth, Australia is but a “tin horn” dictatorship, bought sold, and owned by the United States. It’s pretty brazen, but then again, these fucking jokers don’t really give a damn any longer about what people think.

And to confirm how brain-dead the Australian citizenry is, they are not even noticing that the decisions on tariffs, embargoes, trade with China, military alignments with the United States are not going through the proper channels. It’s all being done in “smoky” back-rooms with “shadowy figures”, and the only time that any citizen finds out about it is after the fact.

Yup.

Third-world, banana republic, dictatorship. That’s Australia today.

For those of you who are unaware, Australia has agreed to build bases, staffed by American military, to service American (and British) nuclear submarines until (or well past) 2040 when the Australian versions of those submarines will be manufactured.

The reason is the same old, same old, “secure international maritime law”, “uphold human rights”, and secure “global democratic values”, maintain the American “rules based order”. (As opposed to the UN maritime law.)

Bla. Bla. Bla.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

The thing is ALL American nuclear submarines carry nuclear missiles. Both the SLBM’s for targeted destruction of cities, and nuclear torpedoes for the destruction of submarines and entire fleets.

Though, any thinking person might stop and wonder what does placing nuclear ICBM’s off the Chinese coast have to do with “upholding human rights”, “free navigational passage” or “democratic values”.

And the reason is, that it doesn’t.

Bla. Bla. Bla.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

It’s placing very serious offensive weapons off the coast of China.

And the real reason is…?

…

So that the fishing rights of Vietnamese fishermen next to Indonesian waters will be policed, and secured? Is that what we are supposed to believe?

…

Bla. Bla. Bla.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

This move has shocked the world. Though not so much the dumbed-down Americans who say…

"Oh, well. It's way off somewhere at the other end of the world. Who cares. We have more important things to worry about like Trans injecting booster Vaxx. And being forced to wear masks! 'Merica! 'Merica! 'Merica!"

But don’t worry. The Chinese Leadership got the telegraphed message loud and clear.

From The Sun…

The global appeal for peace comes as a top Chinese diplomat warned his country to re-examine their promise to only use nukes in retaliation, in response to the new alliances forming in the region.

Beijing’s former ambassador to the UN, Sha Zukang said China must make the first nuclear strike against the US if Joe Biden continues to defend Taiwan.

He said:

"The unconditional no first use is not suitable . . . 

...unless China-US negotiations agree that neither side would use [nuclear weapons] first...

..., or the US will no longer take any passive measures to undermine the effectiveness of China’s strategic forces. 

The strategic pressure on China is intensifying as (the US) has built new military alliances and as it increases its military presence in our neighborhood."

The threat came ahead of a meeting between the US, India, Japan and Australia – dubbed the Quad, in Washington, host by Joe Biden.

During a meeting of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association in Beijing last week he said:

"The policy not to be the first to use nuclear weapons unconditionally has given China the moral high ground internationally. 

But for some time in the future, the US will see China as its main competitor and even its enemy. 

Can this policy be re- examined and fine-tuned?"

It has already happened.

Right after the announcement, all the SEO generals met in Russia for “discussions”.

First off, SEO stands for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And it is the de facto unified Asia. And yes. Right after the announcement about the new ICBM submarine deal, all the SEO military chiefs called a meeting to discuss things.

And right now, this is what it looks like…

(The big news, not well reported in “the West”, is how Iran just joined the SCO (this month). This is big news. This is a unified Asia.)

From HERE.

SCO chiefs of general staff meeting held in Russia

General Li Zuocheng (2nd L, front), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, attends the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)

ORENBURG, Russia, Sept. 24 — The Chiefs of General Staff of the armed forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states held a meeting at the Donguz training range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23. General Li Zuocheng, member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, attended the meeting.

The Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise held by the armed forces of the SCO member states is also going on at the Donguz training range.

Chiefs of General Staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states including General Li Zuocheng (3rd L, front), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, observe the Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)

Since its establishment in 2001, by upholding the banner of “Shanghai spirit” of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development, the SCO has played an important role in promoting regional development, security and stability in the past two decades.

Participants of the meeting exchanged views on the current international and regional situations, security challenges and further cooperation of military security.

General Valery Gerasimov, chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, awards the medal of “Friendship and Cooperation” to representatives of the Chinese participating troops with outstanding performance in the SCO Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise at the Donguz training range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)

They also expressed concern about the new risks in the situation of Afghanistan posed by the hasty withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, and signed jointly the minutes of the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the SCO member states.

In addition, participants of the meeting observed the Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise and all agreed that this exercise has improved the coordination capacity of the militaries of the SCO members in fighting against the international terrorist forces.

On the same day, Chinese General Li Zuocheng met with Russia’s Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov in a separate closed door meeting. Photo below…

General Li Zuocheng (3rd L), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, meets with General Valery Gerasimov (3rd R), chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. General Li is in Orenburg to attend the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)

You all think that this is nothing and that it is going to “blow over”?

Hardly. But there’s not a peep in the Western press about any of this.

But like I’ve been saying all along, the cattle don’t need to know what the farmer is planning on having for dinner.

Let’s get into some details why the Russians and Chinese are mobilizing their military forces.

American Nuclear Submarines to be serviced in Australia

The United States submarine force consists of four operational classes – Ohio, Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia – all of which are nuclear-powered.

[1] The 14 Ohio-class SSBNs serve as the sea-based leg of the U.S. strategic triad. [2] An additional four Ohio-class submarines are configured as SSGNs that possess both strike and Special Forces insertion capabilities. The three classes of U.S. attack submarines — Virginia, Seawolf and Los Angeles – are tasked with engaging and destroying enemy vessels; supporting on-shore operations and carrier groups; and carrying out surveillance.

Capabilities at a Glance

Total Submarines in Fleet: 70

Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBNs): 14
Special forces / Black Ops Submarines (SSGNs): 4
Nuclear-Powered attack submarines (SSNs): 52

British Submarines to be serviced in Australia

The UK have four nuclear powered submarines that will be cruising off the Chinese coast. They will be the four Vanguard-class submarines: Vanguard (commissioned in 1993), Victorious (1995), Vigilant (1996) and Vengeance (1999).

All carry American nuclear SLBMs.

The United Kingdom has deployed Vanguard-class submarines with American manufactured Trident II nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) leased from the United States under arrangements negotiated with the Reagan administration in 1982.

So what?

Imagine if Russia started parking it’s nuclear submarines in Cuba, and if China started parking it’s nuclear submarines in Vancouver, BC. What if China started placing nuclear armed ICBM’s in Indonesia and Tasmania targeting “freedom of maritime passage” in Australia?

It’s a BIG FUCKING DEAL.

Which makes me want to take another look at the Deagel Report.

Boiler-plate Introduction

Who is the Deagel Report, what is it?

It is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.

Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.

Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?

Trends?

What trends?

Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
A fake American GDP.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.

But mostly the latest decisions by the Untied States to create a QUAD alliance, armed with nuclear weapons, and threaten China, or if that fails, to launch a “first strike” nuclear salvo against China to destroy it once and for all.

For “democracy” and “freedom“.

Don’t you know.

The Deagel scenario

World-wide bio-weapon pandemic
Massive domestic discord
Financial collapse preceded by inflation
Broken American government systems on all levels.
The United States trying to distract domestic discord through war

They updated their report last year (exactly last year 25SEP20) to compensate for the changes in the Geo-political environment since President Obama in 2012. This is what they said…

Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast

BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:

In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically. This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.

Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.

After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:

- The Western world (success model) has been built over societies with no resilience. They can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt. They are weak to the point of a decapitated cripple.
- The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”

The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.

It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable. The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.

Collapse of the USD Financial Banking System

Progressive Multiculturalism failures

As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.

Coronavirus Pandemic

The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people. Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader. The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago. So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.

Economic crisis due to forced lock-downs

It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide. The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.

The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors. But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.

Life-Support Systems

The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue. Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.

The Predictions

Not everybody has to die. Migration (out from America, the West, etc.) can also play a positive role in this.

Second and Third World Nations

The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.

Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.

If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources. We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.

American Election Consequences

With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.) If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.

There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.

Geo-Political Changes

However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one. The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.

The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.

Russia and China are a united Asia.

Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.

The European Union is on it’s own.

Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry. Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.

It was clear then and today is a fact.

Preparations for war

Chinese Technology is state of the art.

Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lock down in China.

Potential for open war hostilities

Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.

Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.

The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.

[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war. Most likely initiated by the United States, with a nuclear retaliatory salvo of impressive destructive magnitude.

[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian (with possibly China) sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.

Massive failures in Western Intelligence Agencies

There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.

Western intelligence had no clue.

Brainwashed Moral Superiority

Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given. This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.

That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.

At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.

We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris. Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.

Why go to war?

If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.

The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war. It does not matter. The West will completely collapse. It is fragile. It will be unable to recover from even the slightest societal disruption.

A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.

He Concludes…

This website is non-profit, built on spare time and we provide our information and services AS IS without further explanations and/or guarantees. We are not linked to any government. Take into account that the forecast is nothing more than a game of numbers whether flawed or correct based upon some speculative assumptions. - Friday, September 25th, 2020

So much for the introductory portion. Now the meat of this article…

Realize the following truths, before we proceed.

China possesses skilled leadership.
Russia and China are aligned militarily.
The United States government is a cluster fuck.
America is balkanized, isolated, and it’s every man for himself.
Handguns, and weapons are all over America.
COVID is raging inside of America.

If you think it is bad now, imagine what happens when a roll of toilet paper costs $20, A hamburger cost $100, no one is getting cost-of-living increases, there’s hardly any gasoline. And a new round of COVID is forcing everyone into lock-downs again. And the police start to selectively deploy.

The shootings will not be televised.

And in the midst of all this unreported turmoil will be the grand American military strategy. That is to “suppress China”, that far-away nation. To “project” a American rules “based order” on the Chinese coast. So that the miserable ‘Mericans can blame their frustration on those evil vile Communists. Instead of on their government.

The Good News

The good news is that the war will be short lived. Over very quickly. In fact, it might as well happen, million of people die, and then be over before anything is actually reported. Countries might break up after a few short meetings and that will be that.

With banks gone, communication down, any balkanized nations will go tribal in hours. And people, the USA is very balkanized. Or haven’t you been watching the videos out of America today? Crime is open and brazen. Shootings are the norm.

The bad news…

…well.

People are going to die. Entire societies will be disrupted. nation-states will collapse, restructure and reform. There will be internal discord, and SHTF on a local level will emerge in the worst hit areas.

Most Western nations will become a Hellish fiasco of “zombie movie” proportions.

The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:

That’s pretty darn specific. Don’t you know. And the top nations are the most “Western” nations in society, governance, and banking.

So what is driving this entire event sequence?

The AUKUS

The new security alliance of Australia, Great Britain and the USA, named AUKUS, is now about which arms companies can expand their business. Britain’s nuclear submarines are being built under the direction of Europe’s largest arms company, BAE Systems, with Rolls-Royce providing the propulsion. 

-Archyde

The sole purpose of the AUKUS is to…

Unite the military systems of the USA, the UK and Australia.
Provide bases, fuel depots and maintenance facilities for nuclear submarines.
Provide nuclear basing and deployment options for second-strike nuclear SLBM systems.

The members of the AUKUS and their Deagel casualty figures.

Here’s the 2025 Deagel casualty figures for the three “mighty” members of AUKUS.

Keep in mind that the American Civil War which devastated the Southern States had a 6-8% of the population killed.

Since the casualty figures include Australia, which has been (up until four years ago) neutral, we can assume that China would be involved.

And, since Great Britain (UK) would be so seriously destroyed, we must assume that Russia would be involved.

These two facts point to the realization that both Russia and China would fight in a World War III scenario, and that given the current Geo-political alignments at this time that they would fight on the same side for the same interests.

Changes in South America

Population will increase in many nations in South America. Which is very strange. Deagel predicts that this might be due to migration way from the heavily populated Northern American nations Southward. With Brazil being one of the target destinations…

But then…

We have Argentina that also has a decrease in population. The decrease is around 7%.

The Members of the unified Shanghai Cooperation Organization and their Deagel Casualty figures…

From what I can gather, most of the SEO nations fare pretty well, all things considered.

All have projected population decreases under 2%, with both India and Pakistan having growth in population.

My guess is that Asia doesn’t play.

A complete breakdown

The data was taken down from Deagel when the website hit the blogosphere, and that is the kind of publicity that no one wants. Like MM, they do not host advertisements or anything like that. The site is a grey-web site like MM. It is not a for-profit venue.

Never the less, here is the complete tabulated data in a nice convenient PDF for you to download. You all can thank me later.

A look on the bright side?

How can there be a “bright side” to any of this? Well, you see, perhaps we are all looking at this wrong. We are making the assumption that the nations themselves will not geographically change.

What if, in 2025, the United States says (after the elections of 2024) to Hell with the Federal government and the nation crumbles apart. It could very well resemble something like this…

In this scenario, the United States breaks up into four separate nation-states. An only one of them remains “The United States”. That simple Geo-political change produces the exact same results as described above.

The four new nation states…

Map

Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.

Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!

An American centered fiasco

Keep in mind that the largest drop in population are in “Western nations”, and those that have adopted American governance suffered the worst causality figures.

For instance, here is Israel…

The closer the nation is aligned with the United States, the more damage or death toll that is has.

What’s the gig?

There are all sorts of people slicing and dicing these figures. Here’s one that claims that 2025 will be a war on Christians. That it’s the Vaxx that’s going to kill all the Christians off, and that it is a master plan by those devious Chinese to steal our precious freedoms and liberties all for Communism!

(sigh)

That it must be due to religion, as that is what the Book of Revelation says, and therefore the “Four horsemen” are going to spring out from deep inside of China and unleash their terrors to the world.

I exaggerate. Sure. But it’s not that far off.

Well, if that is so, then if you read the book of revelation, then you know that the real believers will be spared, and the condemned will be the ones who will end up suffering. There will be this thing called the rapture and the unworthy will perish in what will become Hell on Earth. Where will that Hell be?

The United States.

Let’s look at the unified Asia…

The charts truly show that it is the Chinese and the Russians that will be spared. Not those in the West. So please give me a break.

What ever your personal beliefs, I do not think that any of this has anything to do with religion, philosophy or social behavior. It has to do with the collapse of the United States Empire, and the desire of the ruling oligarchy to hold on while it goes down the tubes.

(Sigh)

Never the less…

They do point out something interesting. That there is a direct correlation between the nations that are giving mRNA vaccinations, and those that do not.

The ones that insist on mRNA vaccinations…

The ones that give “dead host” traditional vaccinations…

And this is their conclusion…

That the Deagel projections have a strategic military purpose and should
be taken seriously;
That the sharp division between Table A+B and Table C has a strategic
military purpose;
That the worldwide Covid vaccine program is a cover to deliver a fatal or
harmful vaccine to the population of a selected list of countries (those
in Table A+B);
That the countries in Table C will become the new axis of the world
economy, centered on the Belt & Road Initiative, which has been under
development for at least 20 years;
That the vaccines produced by the Big Four are especially dangerous and
should be avoided. (We are not suggesting that the other 17 are safe.)

So maybe they are making a good POINT.

Comment from Memory Loss

This came in this morning just before I published this article…

MM, looks like there is starting to be speculation about the mRNA vaccines. And you got the military aspect correct. 

20% of the pfizer vaccine contains material which is redacted on the list of ingredients. The redactions fall under b(4) which appears to be code for state of the art military stuff.

So it looks like the ungodly haste is to complete the installation of a state of the art military system into the general population. The US is getting ready for use of nuclear weapons in a strike against China it would seem. Your theory of genetic modifications for subjects to survive a nuclear war is looks really plausible.

The US is getting ready for use of nuclear weapons in a strike against China it would seem. Now why would they do that?

(P.S: I am speculating that the thoughts you have been having recently may actually be glimpses into possible future time lines. If you understand my references to Swedenborg previously, you might get my drift. So it looks like we may have to enlist as irregulars ASAP lol, )

https://www.archives.gov/declassification/iscap/redaction-codes.html

Meanwhile new discussions are going on between the US military and the Australian military

From HERE.

As leaders from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States unveiled their new trilateral security partnership for advanced defense-tech sharing on Wednesday, it was also revealed that the first initiative of the endeavor would be the delivery of Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarine fleet.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison returned to his Canberra podium Thursday afternoon to divulge that the country should expect more than just a costly nuclear submarine fleet within the next several years.

"[W]e will be enhancing our long-range strike capability including hawk and tomahawk cruise missiles and extended missile range for our capabilities," Morrison said, highlighting the goal of a "stable and secure region."

The acquisition of Australia’s new capabilities will come as part of the country’s 2024 structure plan, and the missiles will be fitted on Australia’s Collins-class submarine fleet.

As for the nuclear submarine fleet, Morrison projected that the country should have a portion of the submarines “in the water” before 2030.

“When it comes to the delivery of this program, I indicated that we anticipate being able to commence build this year and the first of those submarines would be in the water, we believe, before the end of next decade and all partners will be working to ensure that that is achieved at a date as soon as is possible to achieve,” he said.

Morrison rejected claims that Australia “wasted” some $2.4 billion that was already funneled to France’s Naval Group as part of a $90 billion submarine contract — a deal that was rendered defunct following Wednesday’s announcement.

"We’ve invested $2.4 billion in the attack class program and I say all of that investment, I believe, has further built our capability," he proclaimed, "and that is consistent with the decision that was taken back in 2016 for all the right reasons to protect Australia’s national security interests and has served that purpose."

The French defense contractor notably expressed “deep disappointment” in response to the AUKUS nuclear submarine initiative on Wednesday.

The Australian prime minister went on to issue a public apology to Naval Group, the French government and French President Emmanuel Macron.

President Biden delivers remark on National Security at the White House

"There is few if any other country around the world that understands the importance of the Pacific and has been as committed to the Pacific as France," he said.

"We share a deep passion for our Pacific family and a deep commitment to them, and I look forward and I hope to see us continue once we move past what is obviously a very difficult and disappointing decision for France."

China also took issue with the AUKUS announcement, which was viewed as another example of the participating nations’ “Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice,” according to a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

"There’s an open invitation for President Xi to discuss other matters," Morrison said to a reporter asking about potential economic trade sanctions from China. "That has always been there. Australia is open to discuss issues important to the Indo-Pacific."

Morrison also stressed to the global community that Australia is not looking to become a nuclear power, or superpower, through AUKUS.

“This is about propulsion. This is not about acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said, pledging continued adherence to obligations under the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

US President Joe Biden previously clarified that Australia’s submarine fleet would be powered by nuclear reactors, but “conventionally-armed” when it comes to weaponry.

Comments from the article…

It’s not just that…

The United States is on a buying ordering spree of large conventional weapons and munitions designed to borrow deep into the earth and destroy things, huge systems to take out entire cities, and a massive construction program for missiles.

But the USA only wants peace…

US Air Force Orders GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators Through 2026

The Boeing Corp., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $70,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. This contract provides for the procurement via delivery order of GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator carriage and release equipment. The location of performance is Saint Charles, Missouri, and work is expected to be completed by April 30, 2026. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 3011 (production) funds in the amount of $18,025,770 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8681-19-D-0008).

US Air Force to Repair Minuteman III nuclear ICBM Missiles Guidance System Through 2039

The Boeing Co., Newark, Ohio, has been awarded a $1,620,707,490 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for missile guidance repair. This contract will repair the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) missile guidance set. Work will be performed in Newark, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 27, 2039. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $32,486,160 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA821421D0003).

Etc. Etc. Etc.

The Deagel Forecast is removed from the website.

On 4/20/21, Deagel.com, a military intelligence agency, has deleted their mysterious 2025 forecast spreadsheet that predicted a major collapse of the western countries.

The forecast used to exist at [link to deagel.com (secure)] and now that page just redirects to the home page. This forecast was on their website since 2014.

The spreadsheet predicted a major drop in the US population from 332 million in 2019 to only 99 million in 2025 (-70%).

I find it an interesting coincidence that this deletion was made within 24 hours of every American over the age of 16 qualifying for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

You all do know what I think about coincidences...

-MM

Do not get caught up.

The world seems to be going into a tail spin. But it is just an illusion. It’s not. It’s just that the potential futures are frightening. Do not get caught up. VIDEO.

Some final thoughts

I really hope that this does not come to pass. I really want all this nonsense to go away and not happen. Seriously I really do.

Those that predict the future are often wrong. Sometimes frighteningly so.

However, if the Deagel forecast is based on remote viewed data with an extrapolation of current events, it really does look like it’s going to happen.

Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012. 

They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic. 
They PREDICTED an Australian alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.

All of which came true by 2020.

Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.

They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.

In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemic that would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.

In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad, and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war and bio-weapons used simultaneously.

My advice?

Take your loved ones out for a nice meal. Right now. Enjoy the time that you have with them. Whether or not this will happen, the fact is that it’s not happening right now.

You are.

And what ever your situation, rich, poor, work tomorrow, day off, tired, or bored, do something special now. Live life, and don’t live in fear of an uncertain future.

Just call up your grandparent.
Or call your mom. Say hi.

Too much work, eh?

I dare you. I double-dog dare you. Call them right now.

Just say “Hi. I was thinking of you and just wanted to call. I hope that it is not a bad time.”

You will make their day.

And…

…if you are old (like me) and your parents and grandparents are gone, then call up a brother, sister or cousin. Talk about a television show you used to watch, a movie, a music band, a shared memory and say that you were thinking about them.

It will be a trip down “memory lane”.

But…

…if you have no family, and you don’t want to call up a friend or two to go out and grab a beer…just because. Then take your loved one to a movie. It doesn’t matter what the movie is. Just go.

Go. Let them choose the movie. It doesn’t matter what it is. Don’t quibble. Their choice. Their night out. You just make it happen.

You will be a better person for it.

So enjoy the moment now.

If you watched the movie Idiocracity, you’d get the joke.

Spend time with your loved ones.

Time will pass you by… do something TODAY.

Make a difference.

And always, be the Rufus.

Do you want more?

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[daegonmagus] – Part 6 – Astral Assignment 1 – The Consciousness Prison

The following is the sixth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 6 – Astral Assignment 1 – The Consciousness Prison

Daegonmagus Astral Assignment 1 – The Consciousness Prison.

This article relates to what I call my “astral assignments”. These differ from my mystical experiences with the Elder Guardians and the Unseen 5. Although I was not connected to a higher state of conscious awareness, I was still completely lucid in these assignments. I know that they were simply not just fabrications of my mind whilst in the dream state. Usually I would be “abducted” out of my dreamscapes of my own devising and just wind up carrying out one of these assignments.

This assignment marks the first time I realised my astral body was being utilised as an infiltration agent into “strange bases”. It is the first real memory I have that something incredibly weird was going on in the non physical planes. This was the experience that led me to believe there was some sort of Astral War being carried out in these planes that I was directly involved in. It happened around the time I was able to remote view from an off world intelligence and inhabit its body. I would have been about 14 or 15, so by then I had developed some quite advanced consciousness projection techniques. I believe it was those very techniques which marked my candidacy for this assignment.

I am actually relieved I have a comfortable place to talk about this. Anywhere else and I would surely be labelled as insane. I have been holding on to this memory for the about 15 years, probably a bit more.

Now, if you’ve been a part of any UFO or remote viewing related communities you may have come across people claiming places like area 51 containing “5^th dimensional security setups”. These security setups allegedly can stop you from astral projecting or remote viewing these bases. One of the accounts I have read of this happening to someone during a remote viewing session is that they “had to have an intense battle with their mind before they could get back to their physical body”. While I cannot vouch for the particular “areas” in question, I can tell you with 100% surety that these systems DO exist. This is not something I will budge in my beliefs over; I experienced one (technically two- read Part 5) of these things. I have first hand experience of how they operate and how to escape from them. When you read Airl’s statement about the electronic screens that trap consciousness, this is what I am talking about. Airl describes them almost exactly how I experienced them. In fact the one she speaks about being on Mars that her Domain officer found could very well be the same one I speak about in this article. I always thought it was the moon, but then again I never saw the surface.

The intention of this article is not scare anyone, but provide a briefing into this particular facility I was in; what it looks like, the layout, where the consciousness prison is located etc. It is my plan to provide a framework of the techniques I used to escape in case anyone ever finds themselves unfortunate enough to be caught in one in my future articles on lucid dreaming.

The assignment:

I had consciously entered into the dream state and was halfway engaged in a dream construct of my own devising. Whatever the construct was, I cannot remember it. There was a sudden blankness, and all of a sudden my surroundings changed (this is a frequent occurrence with me in and LD – the precluding circumstances to my assignments were always wiped from me).

I was now in the middle of a large, underground cavernous area which I just knew was off world {in relation to earth}. There was this strange sort of bluish hue like some sort of artificial light was illuminating the whole cavern. It wasn’t like how we know illumination works from light sources. This was like there was like a blue wash over everything; if you can imagine looking through a pair of sun glasses with a blue tint to them, this is what it was like. Everything was being filtered through this blue hue. Even though it seemed to be night time, the blue hue made everything visible.

I was smack bang in the middle of this cavern. Underneath my feet the rocks were very jagged and littered everywhere. I was in amongst a crowd of bipedal type humanoids, though they were not human.

This crowd I estimate to be 10 to 20 thousand in number. They were all out tending to the rocks as if they were crops.

I was blending in with them which makes me believe that I had “taken over” one of their bodies. This would explain the blue hue; I suspect it was a sort of natural night vision their eyes had. I specifically remember standing back and observing them with my arms crossed, suggesting I was in fact in a physical body.

At one end of this cavern was a “mouth” the size of an aircraft hangar that led to a darker cave tunnel. To the back was the dwellings of these people which looked like square houses made of rock similar to Middle Eastern design. The whole cavern area was fairly flat, considering, and was a few acres in diameter wall to wall. Towards the tunnel mouth end was a large boulder.

At the other end of the cavern clearing was a cluster of square shaped buildings laid out in a similar manner to a city, but much smaller. They were similar in design to buildings of the Middle East. They were piled on top of each other in a sort of Favela type arrangement. In front of them was a wall of rock that had been left untouched that blocked the city off from the rocky outcrops that lay between them and the cavern tunnel on the far wall. This wall did not reach the roof – the buildings were higher than it – and had a single break in it that led into the maze of buildings.

Even 16 years later I have a vivid image of this cavern base. I can mentally zoom up and above the dwellings as if I am flying a drone with a camera on it. I have a photographic memory of the whole place and the layout of it. My insertion point was to a “raised” sort of area to the right of the front gate (the break in the rock wall) so I could sort of see into the complex. I was there, there is no question in my mind about this; it was no hallucination, or just “a dream”. Neither was it terrestrial. I am sure of this.

Each cluster was separated by a thin road or path, 2 or 3 meters wide that was made out of typical whitish grey concrete, which was intersected at right angles by other roads every 50 or so meters. As you go through the break in the rock wall, there are the dwellings to your immediate left hugging the wall back that way, and to the right it is if the wall just extends backwards. In other words you can turn left(after going past a block of dwellings), but not right. The pathway through the buildings from the break in the wall would thus be straight, left, straight before the intersections come into play. This proceeds in this manner all the way to the wall behind the dwellings.

There were elements that were surprisingly human such as the concrete pathway and roller doors embedded into some of the buildings. There were approximately 5 times the amount of people to dwellings. The consciousness prison was located in what appeared to be a standard sized garage or carport underneath one of the buildings right near the break in the rock wall. If you were to head straight through the rock wall and turn left, the consciousness prison would be on your right, right on the corner.

This cubic dwelling network was about an acre or 2 at most in area, and extended all the way to the back wall of the cavern, as if the dwellings had been “carved” out of existing rock. If you think of magma that has been laser carved to precision into a cube, this is what the dwellings sort of looked like, except yellowish; the rock they had come from had first been melted/liquefied then “precision cut”. Each dwelling had square shaped holes which I took for windows, though no glass was present in them, and were about 5 meters squared in size, on average, maybe a bit bigger, with multiple stories. They were of a very modern design. It was like a mini city.

All of a sudden a being appeared at the mouth of the cavern and stood on the boulder that was in front of it. I am not sure if “he” appeared out of thin air or if “he” came from the tunnel behind , but everyone began flocking to this being curious as to what he had to say. They appeared to know who he was.

I remember realizing I was here on a reconnaissance mission specifically to gain information on this being and what was going on in this place. I approached him, confident that I could camouflage and conceal myself as one of the other “people”.

The “Clone God” (this was my name for him), from memory, at first looked like he had white hair but the closer I got I realized it was actually made of a rice like substance that gave him a short haired appearance, like a number 3 crew cut. He grinned a very disconcerting smile that was extremely fake and just felt plain wrong, like he was suffering from a very bad case of Botox poisoning in his face. I remember it reminded me of a typical celebrity smile, but laced with psychopathic substance unlike anything you could ever imagine. Behind his stare there was a blankness to him that was just wrong; you could feel the lack of empathy emanating from within him.

He was wearing some kind of robes, like he was a cult leader or something. Very Charlie Manson-esc.

I watched as the “people” flocked to him in awe, then he opened his mouth, but instead of talking something happened whereby the townspeople turned into exact replicas of him. There would have been enough people to fill up a Metallica concert. I am pretty sure at one point he took off his robe, and I noticed he had no signs of genitalia, as he was naked, with very pale white skin.

I realized – in one of the few times I felt fear during these assignments – that my cover was blown, and this thing was toying with me. The mass conversion of townspeople to clones was specifically for my “entertainment”. I could sense this as he just stood smiling and looking around with eyes wide open like he was a robot. I think at one point I could feel myself being “cloned”, and may have even possibly undergone a timeline reset to the moment before he cloned me.

The smile remained exactly the same the whole time on not only him, but every one of his clones, it never wavered for a second. If you think of a massive crowd of people with this same smile, all turning their heads in perfect unison , eyes wide open without ever blinking, this is what I was smack bang in the middle of, and why I remember it so intensely. It was one of the weirdest and most uncomfortable positions I have ever been in (Storme relayed a similar account of synchronous head turning with a mysterious being Vince and his dog).

This was very reminiscent of the scene in the Matrix where Agent Smith continually replicated himself, then tried doing it to Neo. I hadn’t watched this movie in quite a number of years and I am quite certain I wasn’t being influenced by it, which makes me question the similarities.

After the reset I ran to the cluster of buildings, down an alley and eventually took refuge in what appeared to be a garage with a roller door. I was planning on aborting the mission and exfiltrating out. I did not realize the part of the concrete floor was a hologram, and I fell straight through it. Usually in lucid dreams when something like this would happen I would just manifest myself an exit, or “fly out”, but I soon realized there was a sort of an invisible force field that wouldn’t let me do it. Both the Domain Commander and Airl describe this force field in the exact way to how I experienced it. It is like an electronic net that you can’t get past no matter how skilled at consciousness projection you are.

It prevented me from summoning the portals (what I used to travel the non physical planes), in which I had to manually try and project inwardly and outwardly. Every time I did it was just bounce me back into the center of the room which was about 3 meters squared in area.

I was also still 100% lucid, and realized that this room was preventing me from getting back into my body back on earth. I couldn’t manifest any of the weaponry I’d usually be able to in practically all of my other LDs, or anything that I could use. My consciousness was completely bound to this room and its altered quantum rules. To make matters worse I had an army of “beings” converging on me to try and “collect my consciousness”. I had to evade them by bouncing around this 3×3 room and at the same time try and think up a way to get out.

I realized this place was a sort of lab or asylum as it had the typical layout of many rooms and hallways (these rooms didn’t have doors) with the same sort of white tiles on the walls.

The alarms went off and then I was captured and thrown into one of these rooms (the room I fell into was sort of like the “pre-containment” area. I could see through the floor hologram as if it only appeared as a floor on one side and on the other was not there). It’s hard to explain but basically these rooms lacked almost any means to navigate correctly.

When you are acting as purely conscious thought form there are certain techniques you use to project your consciousness to a specific place, which pulls you to that point. A very basic outline is that you think of something and then it appears, but this is what was wrong with this asylum; it didn’t allow for such things to happen, at least not very easily.

It disallowed me the ability to recreate my dreamscape at will, something I had become very, very good at. It was a room that interfered with visualization and imagination techniques and was purposefully built to contain a consciousness by distorting them in a similar, but more intense, manner to the sub conscious distortions in the void space I’d learnt how to overcome. I could see how a wandering consciousness untrained in such projection techniques could quite easily get caught here and never be able to return to its body. It was quite horrible and terrifying.

I remember the only thing in the room was a picture or map or something hanging on the wall, and I realized I could somehow use this as a portal to phase in and out of that particular dimension by accessing the energy signature attached to it. The phasing allowed me just enough quantum relocation to progress to another room with a one way window (a wall to the being on the inside and an examination window to the people on the outside).

Again I had to figure out a way to get through it, which involved some sort of bouncing of my consciousness back and forth between rooms. It’s like you scan the room and try and find a quantum entangled particle to relocate through. A fourth dimensional point in the past that you can use to “tunnel” through the force field before it was created. That’s the best way I can describe it. It is extremely hard to do and tested me to the very limits of my lucid abilities.

This maze of rooms went on for some time before I eventually found the exit. I was evading many guards as they chased me through the complex trying to contain me: they did not want me to leave. I had ALOT of beings chasing me around this place. Me getting out of the containment room was evidently a very big deal for them. The alarms are something I can remember quite vividly as well.

I finally made it to what seemed to be a sort of elevator shaft that I was able to exfiltrate out of via consciousness projection techniques I had taught myself.

This whole experience was a test to the very limits of my escape and evade techniques I had been using on various other world entities for a number of years since I first began Lucid Dreaming. It was a test to my ability to be able to keep my conscious at a level needed to survive. Basically, if you get captured and an entity messes with this ability to stay “conscious” in the dream world, it can become very, very difficult to actually wake back up in the physical body. The most important thing is that you cannot allow yourself to freak out. All attention and effort must go to remaining conscious despite the heavy distortions that are trying to knock you out. I knew if I got knocked out, it would be game over.

It’s weird. It’s like when something grabs you, you feel your energy being sucked away by it, and with it your consciousness as well. The dreamscape becomes hazy and you dwindle mentally into an uncomfortable sort of insanity. The more powerful the entity the quicker you become depleted. The further you move away from them, the more you regain consciousness and your sanity. Had I not had even a few years’ worth of lucid dreaming experience behind me I am absolutely certain I would not have been able to get back to my body. Through my experience in advanced visualization practices I was able to break through this haziness just long enough to escape. I suspect this sort of capturing accounts for a lot of deaths with unexplainable causes, after going to sleep and never waking up. This was a real experience. I am damned sure of it.

Conclusion

So I can relate to everything the Commander said in regards to how dangerous these sorts of complexes are. You don’t want to ever find yourself caught in one.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 7 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

You can visit the daegonmagus Index here…

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You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
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[daegonmagus] – Part 5 – Miscellaneous Experiences – Alien Abduction Dreams

The following is the fifth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 5 – Miscellaneous Experiences – Alien Abduction Dreams

Daegonmagus Miscellaneous Experiences – Alien Abduction Dreams

A digression from my mystical experiences.

Around the time of my Initiation into the Unseen 5 I started having abduction dreams. In some of these I was lucid, in others I wasn’t. Some of them dealt with hybridisation breeding programs, and others dealt with just general abduction scenarios. One{lucid one} in particular dealt with a consciousness prison exactly as Airl had described them in Alien Interview. This wasn’t the first time I had been contained in one of these prisons – I will go into that in another article. In both incidents I had been fairly (90+%) lucid.

Of these dreams, three in particular stood out. I have a very vivid memory of these three “dreams”.

The first was a standard {non lucid} dream. Our bed had just broken so we were temporarily sleeping on just a mattress on the floor. I remember going to sleep just before sunset. It was still light outside.

I dreamt I was walking out the front door of Storme’s mother’s place one evening after dinner to get something out of my car. The car was situated about 50 metres away under a car port that ran perpendicular to the house. To get there you had to walk down the veranda and up a few steps, before going through a gate and stepping over a piece of grass that lay between the gate and fence. I can still remember the vividness of the dream, and how I was preoccupied with the random thoughts I would usually have whenever I would go and get something – usually my phone or thongs (sandals) – from the car.

I got to the fence, opened it, but as I was closing the latch in place a large, unmoving object drew my attention to the sky. There right above and in front of me, half hidden by clouds was a spaceship that I remembered thinking looked a lot like the one out of the Halo games I used to play as a kid.

The ship itself was covered in strange symbols. It was that big and close that I could see them as clear as day. It appeared to have a large hole underneath it that protruded back into the ship.

As I stood and watched, a ring of blue light like the flame of a butane torch illuminated the circular shaped hole. My last thought was “oh shit” as I realized it was about to “pull me in”. I blacked out and woke up in my bed. Storme’s mother’s house was 50km away.

I woke up completely dazed and confused about where the hell I was; I actually woke up screaming “where am I and what the fuck just happened” as it took me a good few minutes to remember that we were in our house.

The last time I woke up like this was when I was 7 and I had to stay at my grandmother’s place as a large bushfire ravaged our town and burnt down our neighbors house. Despite all the shit I had experienced through lucid dreaming, this was just not something I did – ever. Even when remembering the electrocution and soul torture I never woke up in this state of panic and disorientation. It was if I had forgotten a whole years’ worth of time spent at this house.
Something about it felt really off. It felt as though I had just been plucked from one timeline and placed back in the past. It was like that dream was actually a future event that I had been “reset” from. MMs articles on the MWI are the first I have come across that provide an explanation for that feeling.

The second one happened about a year after my initiation into the Unseen 5.

I need to digress here to give an understanding of my mind set during this abduction where I was much more lucid than the first. It is relevant, particularly when talking about manipulating our “souls.”

I had been reading up on the free man movement; the idea that people are sovereign entities that have been tricked into working for a corporation that poses as a government. While I won’t say I completely believed in it, I was curious about testing out some of the theories. And crazy enough to actually go through with it.

To cut a long story short, let’s just say I pissed off the bank who I had a loan out on my car with and a few cops. Although the bank gave me a $250 credit on my account for my efforts, the cops played a little more hard ball. I was fined for not paying my car registration – which was actually because I couldn’t afford it. Rather than pay the fine within the 30 day limit, I decided to take it to court because, well, I wanted to know what the court system process was like.

After the incident with my hand, I witnessed first hand how cops failed in their duties to protect their citizens. I witnessed first hand how the justice system was more interested in upholding its laws than getting justice for victims of crime. So when the opportunity came to sit on the other side of the judge and be made out to be a terrible person simply for being poor, I obliged. It was a lesson worth learning and it ended up costing me about $350 (which I paid off in $10 instalments).

The logic of fining someone even more money for not being able to afford to pay for their car registration in the first place told me everything I needed to know about the moral code of these “judges”. These guys worked for the same slave gods the Grand Elder warned me about, I was sure of it. I mean, nothing spells slavery more than being fined for being too poor. It’s not like anyone ever bothered to check my vehicle to make sure it was still roadworthy after paying the registration. That was, according to the policy on the form, the whole point of the registration. Apparently.

So there I sat there in court, watching the judge dish out punishments for the many people who were called up before me. A lot of them had similar offenses related to poverty. Some were just plain idiots.

Suddenly something dawned on me; I was in what seemed to be a re-enactment of a ceremony I had read about in my books on Ancient Egypt.

The ceremony I am speaking about is the weighing of the heart ceremony. For those who are not familiar with it, this ceremony is said to take place after death, and is undertaken by each soul trying to make passage into the after life. It was considered one of the most important beliefs in Ancient Egyptian culture.

What happens is that the heart of the soul is weighed against the feather of Maat. If the soul is pure, the feather outweighs the heart and Maat grants passage into the after life. If the soul has committed “sins” during its physical life, it becomes weighted down and causes an imbalance in the scales of Maat. The soul of the impure are then said to be cast down into the underworld where they are eaten by the deity Ammit; a cross between a crocodile and human (cue the Reptilian conspiracies). During the ceremony, it is said that Thoth transcribes the whole process, whilst Anubis stands guard at the entrance to the ceremony to stop souls from escaping the trial.

There I sat in court watching as the judge re-enacted the role of Maat and handed out punishment after punishment. I watched as the man next to him re-enacted the role of Thoth as he typed the proceedings of the court out on his computer. And I watched how the Bailiff re enacted the role of Anubis as he stood guard at the door. Though they were not present in the less “important” courts like I was in, I was aware the Supreme Courts liked to show off their scales {of Maat}. And didn’t judges like to write their sentences down using a quill pen {feather of Maat}? It was all so obvious to me what was going on. Were these guys even conscious to the fact they were engaging in an Ancient Egyptian Ritual? Or did they just go along with because that was the way the proceedings were taught to them in law school?

Either I was bat shit crazy or I had stumbled upon a secret which the free man movement had been trying to convey but failed to point out properly; all court systems were re-enactments of the weighing of the heart ceremony and the “guilty” were being tried as “dead entities”. Suddenly the whole “fictitious” title on your birth certificate thing thing made a whole lot more sense. Apparently a “person” is defined in the bible as a “non living entity”, according to those in the free man movement. I found that rather interesting.

The point of whether the concept was real or just a machination of my own delusions is irrelevant. The relevant part is that it got me thinking; how many people in the world actually bother to declare that their soul is not for sale?

How many people in the world actually thought about their soul as much as they thought about something they did on a regular basis like brushing their teeth?

There was, after all, some sort of animating principle behind every person’s existence. Some sort of invisible spark that gave life to them and filled them with enough energy to power their heartbeat for an entire lifetime. How many people recognized this undeniable characteristic about themselves and actually made the mental thought that it wasn’t for sale or was not allowed to be used for any other purpose other than what its divine creator intended?

Conversely, how many people unwillingly gave their energy away through the allowance of unseen parasites. If they were unaware they had an astral body existing in a plane filled with all sorts of traveling entities, then it was only logical to assume they were sitting ducks just waiting for something to come along and “harvest from them”.

Moreover, if an astral parasite was attached to an individual and you signed a contract written by that individual to allow him and his “associates” any sort of power over you, could the parasite not technically be an associate of his, allowing your power to be given in not just the physical plane, but the non-physical as well?

Like I said, my thoughts and operations were not just those bound to this physical domain. As an Electronics Technician I had been trained to look at a complete system, not just one small part of it. This was the same train of thought I applied to the universe and its unseen aspects. You could say I was eager to understand how the non-physical planes affected the physical.

So I created a prayer or a spell or whatever you want to call it, specifically aimed at reclaiming my soul and nullifying any celestial contracts I had unwillingly entered it into through my own ignorance. If I had given away my power unconsciously through contracts, I wanted to consciously regain it. All of it.

I wrote this in the body of a professional like contract email and sent it off to my father. I figured as he was the one who entered me into such a contract whilst being my legal guardian when he signed my birth certificate, he was the best person to send it to. He was very straight edged and one of the biggest sceptics you’ll ever meet, who thinks astral projection/ lucid dreaming is a load of nonsense. He told me later he thought I’d definitely fallen off the sanity boat. Not that I really gave a shit. Our had been pretty rocky any way. I couldn’t say that his opinion on anything I did was something I held in high regard.

I sent the email, ate dinner, had a shower and then went to bed. As I sat there and closed my eyes, something felt different. I felt liberated. I felt some kind of invisible weight had been lifted. I could “perceive a spherical “space” in front of my eyelids whenever I would close them. I hadn’t been able to perceive this space for quite a few years; it was something I used to be able to see when I was deep into my meditation regime. After having kids, it slowly disappeared and was replaced by a boring veil that had no depth to it.

So there I lay, playing around with this space and the feeling of distorted gravity it brought with it. It felt like I was strapped to the bed and was being spun gently through the Z axis. It was something I always enjoyed whenever it would happen. Call me weird, I know. I ended up falling sleep in what was a non conscious transition into the sleeping state.

Interestingly, that very night I “appeared” {in the dream} half lying in the water and shore of a swamp covered in reeds. Some of these reeds had been arranged over the top of me in what appeared to be an effort to conceal me.

To begin with I was in a daze. I was flittering in and out of consciousness like I had been drugged with the same substance that had been used on me many years ago during the experiences in my youth before becoming completely lucid. I realized someone had draped a tarp or something across me as there was something really bad and strange going on up ahead. It was as if they had tried to hide me in amongst the reeds of this swamp as best they could.

There were these lights or something high up in the sky. They were scanning the area exactly like how prison lights scanned for an escaped convict.

Mistakenly, I ripped this tarp off me in my confusion, drawing the attention of whatever was up ahead. Suddenly I was surrounded by a blue or green light and the next thing I knew I was being pulled upwards along with all the water from the swamp and others who had been hiding.

This swamp was the equivalent to a few football fields in size and the whole thing was being sucked upwards towards the sky. I only remember a handful of other people being sucked up. The lights were too bright to make out any kind of ship, but it seemed like a very obvious thing that is what this was. Judging from the size of the lake that was being sucked up, the ship would have been HUGE.

I blacked out and came to in a metallic looking room on a bed where a medical procedure was taking place. Then I found myself being aggressively pushed into another room by the same beings that operated on me – their faces becoming a blur in the haze what was my drugged consciousness.

I remember seeing a smooth metallic door slide open to my right before I was pushed into a room that was totally dark and devoid of any light whatsoever. This is where I started to become lucid. It is then that something strange happened; I began to glitch in and out of the dimension I was in into another one.

This happened repeatedly every couple of hundred milliseconds, and every new dimension was completely different to any of the ones before it. It is hard to describe but if you have a slide show of different environments and quickly flick through it, this is what was happening to my reality around me. I was being “dimension spun” in an effort to torture and disorientate my consciousness.

There was an overlay reality placed in front of me that I could not interact with. It was a reality where my wife – now pregnant with our second child – and my boy were going to get ice cream. It was like that reality was put there to remind me where I’d come from while I got spun through a myriad of different ones. At this point I was pretty much completely lucid.

In the overlay reality my boy asked where I was and when I would be coming home, with a saddened look on his face, to which my wife – assuming I had abandoned them – told him I would not be coming back. It was like I was slightly out of phase with them; I could see them, but they could not see me. I was supposed to be meeting them here at the ice creamery. I tried yelling and screaming at them as loud as I could and reaching out to them, but my hand would just sink right through theirs, even though I was standing right next to them.

It was excruciatingly obvious what this was; this was a direct threat telling me to be “good” or I would be taken away from my family, though at the time I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be seeing them again. A deep depression welled inside of me despite this never once ever happening any other times I had been lucid. Lucidity was my place of happiness and freedom; it had never been used against me in this manner before, except for the prior incident in the consciousness prison and the torture scenarios. This dimension spinning was a new experience (it happened before the cult of Psaigreen experience).

The dimension spinning went on for a very long time, and I was at one point locked in the basement of an old derelict house. There wasn’t anything in here except a few dusty cobwebs and a rotten frame of a bed. The bed didn’t even have a mattress on it.

The spinning eventually stopped, and I tried projecting my consciousness out of the basement using every lucid dreaming and astral projection trick I had in me, but nothing would work. It appeared they had learnt from their mistakes when they tried to contain my consciousness in the off world facility when I was 15 or 16. You may have heard stories of remote viewers trying to view restricted areas and having to “battle with their own mind” to get back into their body. This is an incredibly accurate analogy of what I had to go through. Once you get trapped in them, it is very difficult to get back to your body.

My consciousness would come to be trapped in this new prison for what equated to at least an entire “year” worth of earth time.

There is a scene in the movie “Inception” where an Asian man is trapped in the dream for years. Leornado Di Caprio finds him in the lucid world, wakes him up and it turns out he has only been a sleep for a single night. This is a very accurate portrayal of how things work in the lucid dreaming world. This was the longest my consciousness had ever been in a state of lucidity without coming back to the physical world for a breather. It was beyond fucking maddening. I say that a lot, I know.

From memory I believe I was let out of that basement and flicked over to an alternate world. This world was some sort of recreation of a nearby town (in this physical plane) with a completely different layout. It was below even third world poor; houses were in shit state and there was rubbish absolutely everywhere. This was where I “lived” for a year or so outside the timeline of our current physical reality. I have a whole reel of memories of having to walk past this seedy apartment every day to escape the gangs that were parading around town.

For all I knew, my consciousness had been thrown in here and left to rot, meanwhile my body back in my bed on earth would have been lucky to have been seeing the first rays from the next day’s sun coming through the window. It was just like the Asian man in Inception.

I eventually did something, and was able to peel my consciousness away from this prison world and found myself in the back of what appeared to be a transport truck or train carriage with other people in it. I can’t actually remember how I got out. It may have even been that they put me in that world and mind wiped me, then I eventually remembered my body back here and projected back to it.

I started talking to an old woman who sat next to me, and mentioned the swamp, and the dimension spinning. She told me “they” – being our captors – called it the “Wet Room”, and it was where “they” sent the ones who did not play ball with their agenda. In other words the Wet Room was the experience of ultra-dimensional shifting I had undergone. It was the other world I had been left in for a year. It was a torture device reserved specifically for those who did not agree to have their souls guided by the astral parasites they were in control of.

Apparently if you intentionally declared your soul’s sovereignty and nullified all astral contracts it had unwittingly been tricked into partaking in, then you could expect the Extra Terrestrial Gestapo to pay you a visit in your dreams for your troubles. Apparently the free man movement had metaphysical aspects to it that not even they realized.

Good luck with thinking nothing but happy thoughts during your stay in the Wet Room. Maybe my mind was just too damned good at creating hallucinations through dopamine fluctuations. Whatever it was, it lined up perfectly with why Obama V2.0 had me undergo a test to see whether I would hypnotically give consent away in this matter.

It actually took me a good day or two to get my head around the fact I’d been gone a whole year in the span of a night’s sleep. I had to sort of readjust to the idea I was back “here”.

The third abduction dream happened just before Christmas 2020.

It was more a standard dream than it was a lucid experience, so take it with a grain of salt. In saying that though, it did bring with it a feeling suggestive that it was in fact a memory. It contained elements going back to my first mystical lucid experience where I remembered myself and my class had been involved in some sort of traumatic event that none of us could actually remember the details of:

Myself and my classmates were standing in a in a weird circular room, sort of like a massive warehouse. We were all just standing there a dozen or so of us, not knowing what to do and all looking completely terrified. There was a man with us, and another adult, possibly another man who I believe were our teacher and bus driver as one of the orange buses we used to go on excursions with was parked in the room with us. I would have been about 12; I recognized my classmates.

The walls of the room were metallic, and surrounding us were these guard things that I think were wearing typical human clothing, but somehow their faces were concealed.

There was something in front of us that had our attention so most of us were too focused on that to even notice them. Some sort of smaller craft or something had just landed in the circular room. I remember all of us were hysterical, crying and shaking but not wanting to move too much in case the things attacked us.

We were all sort of looking at each other for some kind of comfort, hoping one of us was going to be brave enough to tell us that everything was going to be ok, but we all knew it wasn’t. There was just something so wrong about the atmosphere and the way we had been dragged here off the bus. It was reminiscent of all the old war videos of Nazi’s rounding up Jewish prisoners I had seen. There was no telepathic communication with us by these beings whatsoever. Everything about it was just so terrifying.

The teacher and the bus driver were as white as ghosts and just stood there to the side of us kids. We were just so cut up that they weren’t even trying to protect us. It was like they were trying to back away and distance themselves from us kids who all been lined up in the middle of this warehouse. They were at the point of fainting.

All the attention was specifically on us kids; lights were focused on us, the guards were surrounding us, as if a group of 11/12 year olds were really a threat to the many of entities in that room or the weapons they carried. The adults were just sort of left at the back and side where the bus was with a single guard. It was obvious they (the adults) were not the centre of attention, and that suited them fine. Neither of them were going to bring such attention to themselves by talking or moving.

Suddenly, I think a door opened on the craft in front of us, and out came these beings wearing the same sort of clothing. It was like a robe but there was no conceivable humanoid body underneath it. It was like it was floating in mid-air, and the robe would float with it, the draft of the air blowing it upwards, like the Dementor’s out of Harry Potter.

All of us stood transfixed at these beings in terror, as they shed their clothing. These were unlike any stereotypical bipedal type alien I have ever seen. They had these smooth tentacle like things on their face where their mouth should have been and large beady eyes; they looked more like cephalopods or like a cuttle fish or octopus or something, but with a mass of tentacles where their body should have been. Like a human nervous system. They reminded me of interpretations I’ve seen on the internet of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulu; but there was no body; just masses of tentacles all bunched and knotted together.

It was like watching a horror movie; as soon as these things shed their robes they came at us with much speed and made a sort of hissing sound. All we could do was recoil as they jumped on us and their face tentacles wrapped around our faces. It was then that I woke up.

My friend, who would have been part of this same class, whose birthday was also the same day I had my first contact with the Elder Guardians, also became incredibly paranoid about reptilians a few years after that {EG} experience. I got the impression he had experienced or remembered something, but he would not tell me what.

Was this just a dream or a memory of an actual event? It certainly felt real. Out of all of them, the Wet Room experience was the one I am most sure about. Because I was lucid through the dimension spinning, I am apt to believe it more than the other two. Being “away” for a year certainly left its impression on me.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 5 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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[daegonmagus] – Part 4 – The Cult of Psaigreen and the Simulation Revelations

The following is the fourth part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 4 – The Cult of Psaigreen and the Simulation Revelations

Complete Awareness

In the Auric Projections/ Mystical Experiences I have talked about so far, lucid awareness of my surroundings had been carried on into the dreamscape from waking reality. In other words, I had been completely conscious from the moment I laid my head down on my pillow, through the transition into the sleeping state, through the connection to my higher self and on to the end of each experience, back through the transition into the waking world.

When I mention I was 100% lucid, this is what I mean.

There was simply no confusion as to me being “asleep”. Comparing this to the “normal sleeping person” – or even common lucid dreamer – there was no “break” in my conscious awareness as I fell asleep. I progressed through each stage the same way you progress from and experience one minute to the next. Although given time is not linear in the dream state, it was a little bit different to this.

I had total comprehension of my body back in its bed on earth, and the usual memories of everything I had done that particular day. If you can imagine having the awareness you have of your physical surroundings right now as you sleep, this is what I had of my 4D environment.

Dreaming for me – majority of the time – was this extension of conscious awareness into the non physical “dream world”. It was something I had trained myself to do over a period of many years. It is something I believe that anyone can learn to do if they practice enough.

My Initiation into the “unseen 5”

My initiation into the Unseen 5 was the last mystical experience where this continuity of consciousness was present. In the next two experiences, my awareness of self came after I had been unconsciously engaged in the dream for some time. I had basically fallen asleep without realizing it, then became coherent at some point later on.

This is what most people refer to as lucid dreaming, according to the communities dealing with that subject I am part of. From what I’ve read on those groups, the continuation of consciousness seems to be rarely discussed.

This is important in the context of what had been told to me regarding holographic projections into the dreamscape and how consciousness was being manipulated at this level.

I was always suspect of any information being given to me when I had had this break in consciousness.

While my higher awareness eventually kicked in, I always considered these experiences as being “less accurate” to the ones where I was able to retain 100% lucid awareness through the progression of the experience. I could not completely rule out that I was being manipulated, simply because I had no recollection between falling asleep and becoming conscious in the dream. This was despite that “holy shit” moment you get when you remember deeply repressed memories. Conversely I could not rule out that I wasn’t being manipulated either.

Regardless, I am including these experiences because I did eventually get to a higher state of conscious awareness compared to majority of my other lucid dreams.

Training

Now, I mentioned with past lucid dreams I had undergone what appeared to be some sort of training at the “time travel towers”. We were essentially being taught how to recognise when our timelines had undergone a reset. We were also being taught how to remember certain things from a future timeline after it had been reset; ie remember things from a future that was no longer a possibility. All in all there were about 30 of us divided into 2 teams.

What I did not mention is that this “training” bled over into many other lucid dreams and was a very big part of the astral assignments I was involved in in the years prior to my first contact with the EG.

In many of the worlds I was travelling to, this time line reset theme was a key component. Majority of these assignments involved investigating the cause of these resets.

The recent Loki series was a very accurate – and somewhat eerie – portrayal of my assignments in these worlds whilst being near 100% lucid. I was like the TVA, but instead of chasing murderers I was chasing an unknown entity that was “hiding beyond the resets”.

It was weird. It was confusing. It was something I never bothered talking about with anyone – with the exception of Storme – for obvious reasons.

A training assignment

This drove me fucking crazy for a good few years, because I honestly didn’t know what it was I was looking for. All I knew was that it had taken up residence in the Ancient Market Village and had an affinity for resetting it back to the same point, over and over again.

On a lot of these assignments I’d be accompanied by my colleague Lyra. She had black hair and was incredibly thin. She’d come and collect me from whatever lucid dream I was engaged in, we’d summon our portals, and I’d end up in the Ancient Market Village or some other random world doing some sort of “mission” with her.

I’d wake up not knowing if I was in reality A or reality B.

Imagine trying to tell this all to a psychologist and not come off as a complete fucking nutjob. There wasn’t some hidden meaning to these dreams; I was completely lucid in every damned one of them.

So you could say I had a very good understanding of how consciousness interacts with the MWI even back around 2010, though I didn’t specifically call it this. Even if I didn’t really understand the same way, I understood that consciousness could “travel through time” whilst in lucidity. Whilst detached from the physical body.

Personal Experiments

Some of my experiments began to focus on this concept, whereby I’d induce lucidity specifically to try and pick winning lotto numbers. I’d go through the conscious transition into the dream state, create a “virtual construct” of the newsagency where I planned to buy my lotto ticket from. I’d make sure to visualize a newspaper or other advertisement with the specific date of an upcoming draw.

I’d then concentrate on the numbers that would be printed on the ticket the cashier would hand me, and repeat them over and over in my head before deliberately waking myself up.

Other times I’d focus on the draw itself, and memorize the numbers as they popped out of the lotto barrel. Upon waking I’d record them down immediately. Despite conducting this experiment numerous times, I was never able to pick more than 4 out of the 6 numbers needed.

This was mainly due to me not being able to memorize all of them sufficiently. The barrier between being lucid and being awake always messed with this ability to remember things in the lucid domain.

Then these experiences {with the time line resets} just sort of died down whilst everything with the Elder Guardians was going on. I’d still have them on the odd occasion, but no where near as frequently.

The time reset theme brought up again.

In February 2019, 3 years after my initiation into the Unseen 5 and 5 years after my last contact experience with the Grand Elder, the time reset theme was brought up once again.

I was engaged in a dream. This time non lucid.

I was in a cave. My “team” consisted of myself, another man and a woman. We were tracking some kind of Artificially Intelligent computer system that had the ability to “reset” out of the timeline.

Our team operated from a hive consciousness that connected all of us; you could literally feel the thoughts and emotions of the other members as they had them.

It was a very strange and confusing operating parameter in which one of us would remember snippets {thanks to our training} which the others would use to “kick-start” their own memories; exactly the same way the Grand Elder had opened me up to the higher consciousness, but on a smaller scale.

So here we were, in this cave, about to open the door to what we knew was a server room housing the “brains” of this rogue AI.

But as we did, the timeline was reset and all of a sudden the server infrastructure had completely vanished.

My understanding was that through quantum entanglement, the AI had somehow figured out how to plot out past entangled particles in such a way that it could manipulate the past into redirecting the present. That was my interpretation; I could be entirely wrong.

This thing, data wise, was huge; it was capable of processing data in orders of magnitude higher than any computer system we knew of; it had been developed specifically to monitor consciousness from the higher planes.

The main concern our team had with this AI engine, was that it understood how to create entire physical “worlds” from the ground up.

It could literally program the growing of a seed into a flower and the blowing of wind over water to make waves crash on open shores.

But it was out of control…

It was out of control, creating physical reality after physical reality wherever it chose fit (this is the exact concept behind the Gnostic belief of the Demiurge controlled by the false god Yaldabaoth. Again I did not come into this concept until after this experience.

So after the AI initiated this timeline reset, we found ourselves in the same cavern. But instead of it housing the server, this time there was some sort of a laboratory in front of us with rows of vials containing either some kind of poisonous gas or a virus. Glass like screens lined this lab’s walls, giving a view of a subterranean place I have visited, many, many times during my adventures in lucid dreaming (the Subterranean Cavern).

On a desk next to the vial was this remote controlled alien tech that looked like a dragon fly with a head like the Nemesis guy out of the resident evil movies. It was actually memory of this dragon fly that led me back to Isaac CARET and eventually on to MM.

The woman in our team reached out and picked up one of the dragonfly objects. I was holding one of the vials and observing it. All of a sudden there was a massive explosion and we were all thrown backwards into the wall that I had previously smashed open. The wall was now completely filled in.

I picked up the broken vial lying on the ground next to me, and put my mouth around it. I was trying stop whatever was in it from leaking into the atmosphere; it was a highly toxic substance. Like a poisonous gas, or – say – an extremely contagious virus.

Strangeness

Something really weird was going on; it was like I was now flashing in and out of two separate timelines. I could see the subterranean river system I had visited on numerous occasions through the glass; in one reality flash there were the barracks and other strange buildings built with a metallic like alloy over the water on futuristic styled bridges. In the other flash, these metallic buildings had been replaced with primitive looking mud brick huts that looked like giant termite mounds. People were coming out of the buildings in both versions of reality and were running around in absolute terror; it was chaos.

This flashing in and out of 2 separate realities was something I had experienced about a year after my Unseen 5 initiation in an abduction dream in my “Wet Room” experience. I will go into that in another article.

I watched the woman as she acted in a strange robotic manner whilst she flew these remote controlled dragonfly things around. She would hover them above the people’s heads in which little claws would come down and grab at their hair which resulted in them being “purged” into a similar robot (reminiscent of my reincarnation dream).

I remember thinking the dragonflies were responsible for giving people amnesia.

I stumbled around in a sense of confusion, whilst in one timeline (the one in which the woman was remotely piloting the dragonflies with the metallic buildings) there was some sort of war going on. In the other timeline with the mud brick houses (the timeline that was more on par with what I had experienced in other lucid dreams of the subterranean cavern) there were drills being carried out that were leading up to some kind of similar war.

The flashes between realities got faster and more intense. Then everything and everyone just “disappeared”. I found myself standing on what appeared to be a frozen lake in this same cavern which had a massive crack in it suggesting it had been hit by something heavy.

I was all alone.

The team shows up

That is when the rest of the “team” showed up from a small tunnel behind me and I heard the leader say “see, I told you he was Thor.” Pretty funny considering the whole Thor being Loki’s brother thing. Strangely, I never was a fan of the Marvel franchise dealing with those characters. I never bothered watching it. I had a basic understanding of Norse mythology, but that was about it. The Thor thing was completely left field for me.

This is where I started to regain some sort of control of the dream and start becoming lucid, though there was never the same connection to the higher state of awareness. Only a very faint one.

At this the timeline switching began to even out and I was locked into the one with the barracks made of out the strange metallic substance. I turned, saw the crew standing before me and tried to attack them with whatever weapon was next to me.

I was fucked up. Like really fucked up.

The reality flashing (what I call dimension spinning) had really done a number on me. I remembered my two other team members, but also realized they were now from a timeline that no longer existed. I felt like I’d just been MK Ultra-ed to the extreme.

I have never done LSD, but I imagined this was what the come down of doing it must feel like. The leader said some kind of hypnotic suggestion and I found myself being “deactivated”.

I ended up just dropping my weapon on the floor mid swing and stood there looking at them. It was like shutting down a robot. After a moment I sort of snapped out of the MK Ultra style daze and I was back to my normal self.

Sort of.

I had the sudden realization that the leader – whose name was either Mat or Mac – had been put in the team specifically to provide mentoring and remembrance purposes to the rest of my team who were nowhere to be found. He was the go to guy when we couldn’t remember parts of our mission due to the timeline resets. Sort of like an army psychologist that would make sure consciousnesses wouldn’t go too crazy from all the resetting.

Mentally exhausting

I want to point out here that this whole resetting thing really was very mentally taxing. Even being completely lucid at the training towers, these scenarios we were being put in would test us to our very limits. Having to experience this for the second time in an uncontrolled setting was unbelievably brutal, second only to the soul electrocution torture.

It takes a day or so to readjust from it.

Apparently – according to Mac – the AI had gotten wind of the operation to reawaken divine consciousness and had devised a means to sabotage its efforts by abducting those from the barracks and instilling them with “sleeper cell programming”. This programming could be remotely activated when needed. The cells were then sent back into the ranks of our soldiers and remained dormant until activation.

Each member of my team had at some point been taken, programmed and made to administer the soul shock torture upon others before their reincarnation. What I had just come out the other side of was that sleeper cell programming being activated in all three of us which resulted in us fucking up the timelines and my team mates being permanently erased from “Akashic history”. Again this is my interpretation based on what Mac was telling me, not a direct quote.

A member of the “other side”

I had apparently been a very highly ranking member of this sleeper cell operation for the other side. I had become a double agent through the corruption regime of those in control of the AI, who I assumed were the same Slave Gods.

At some point I defected over to Mac’s side and they used me to gain intelligence on this sleeper cell operation. Much of the torture via electrocution and dimension spinning was what this was about.

I was being bounced back and forth between these two factions like a ping pong ball. Mac’s team would administer electrocution to embed certain codes into me which would then be activated by – you guessed it – even more electrocution from the AI side.

It was really delightful. Not.

Cue the Milabs investigators. I got fun when I’d be 3 layers deep in several dreams simultaneously and be tortured in each one.

Thor, and the names of other gods and deities were supposedly activation words for the sleeper cell programming. Mac told me I had, in more than one life, killed him because of this programming. He just joked about it rather casually like it was no big deal, showing me precisely where I had stabbed him in the back in other past life’s.

Deactivation

After being “deactivated”, I was left to wander around the barracks to try and stimulate my memories of what was going on and who I was in this place. It was a rehabilitation effort to get me back to proper form so I could continue to carry out my obligations under the amnesia correction operation.

I walked around for a little while watching other “soldiers” carry out their astral training. There was a woman I remember talking to, but what she looked like or what it was about, is hazy.

All I can remember is that the conversation turned into a heated argument (this is where Storme’s dream crossed with mine; she was the woman I was having the argument with, though it had been “blanked” from me). There is a whole other section here which features the wonderful Miss Lyra in Storme’s crossover point.

I got up and stormed off, making my way back towards the barracks.

This woman began chasing me in which some more strangeness happened. I found reality flashing between this subterranean cavern barracks and what appeared to be a large empty warehouse with bovine pelvises and thigh bones lining the floor. There were so many of them that you could not see the ground under the meat. I felt the urge to jump from each and snap them into small pieces with my legs and feet. I was conditioned to feel as though I was not allowed to leave this warehouse “reality” until every single one had been broken. There were millions upon millions of them.

I was really starting to hate this goddamned fucking dimension spinning. It was unbelievably brutal and disconcerting. It left me completely astrally and lucidly disorientated. In my last experience with it, I had been left in it a little too long for my own good. More on that at a later date.

I needed assistance

The meat flipping got so bad that I could barely walk. That’s when I decided to hit up Mac to tell me what the hell was going on. I somehow stumbled my way to his quarters through the flickering of the different realities. Mac’s quarters were a cylindrical sort of tower that was smack bang in the middle of the bridge and at the edge of the other shorter mud hut “dwellings”.

Behind his quarters was a sort of pipe like network that went up to another level high in the sky. I had used these pipes in other lucid expeditions to project my consciousness into. They acted as a means to deliver consciousness to a very specific point within the whole barracks. They reminded me of an air pipe you send messages in canisters through.

My urge to “flip meat” was so bad that I felt like I was going insane from it.

I called out to Mac from the bottom of the tower. He came down a flight of metal framed steps to meet me. I asked what the hell was going on with this meat flipping business.

Mac replied by saying “Oh, you mean the military training dreams?” then proceeded to casually tell me about a knife I used to carry with me called the “Psaicut”. I would hold it up to my eye and shout its’ name to “petrify” – paralyse – my enemies.

Real Clockwork Orange sort of shit.

He mentioned this had something to do with Psaigreen – like this was the name of my group – which were the ones responsible for the meat flipping brainwashing programs.

According to him, what was actually going on was that we were being trained the art of snapping peoples’ necks with our legs, but the Psaigreen had brainwashed us into believing it was bovine pelvises so we wouldn’t realize what we were doing. It was like a failsafe to confuse the shit out of us if we ever started remembering any of this.

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT” I said as some very deeply repressed past life memories started flooding back to me. And I mean DEEEEEP. There was just that knowing that these were legitimate memories of something I had long forgotten. At the mention of the Psaigreen, I realised these were all things I knew. This was a memory from a very, very long time ago.

Many, many lifetimes ago.

Yet another controlled awakening

At this same time I went through another controlled awakening. The dream just started slowly washing away like waves on a calm ocean. I was awake in bed feeling sick to my stomach like I was going to throw up (I had never had this feeling before from a dream). The memory of my time in the Psaigreen really kicked the shit out me. Even more so than the dimension spinning.

I remember thinking “I am in a goddamned Dr Who episode”. I was so conflicted by it all I didn’t even want to tell Storme because it was so crazy. Why did I keep having these bizarre experiences? Well, obviously it was because I was doing things inside my own head that most people considered were not possible. The ironic part was that I wouldn’t find out she had the same {part of} dream until a couple of years later.

In Storme’s account she recalls a cavern in identical detail to the one I was in. The large river. The weird mud huts on its banks. The barracks built over the water with a tall tower in the middle. The consciousness pipe maze. The mess hall. Our accounts of this place are literally identical.

Her dream started with her meeting with a Major – ie Mac – in one of the mud houses and being told to wait for me. When I eventually arrived she had to brief me on the fact that the one I called Lyra (again an identical description of my Lyra) was an AI that had been corrupted. As a result they were planning to reboot her, which meant she would lose all her memory of our operations together.

Apparently I wouldn’t listen. I hated AIs – I was apparently very rAIcist (one had just wiped my friends out of existence) – but at the same time had some weird lust for this Lyra woman (who Storme and her crew called Aimee’s). I ended up walking off in anger. Storme decided to follow me and found me acting really bizarre. This would have been exactly when I started having the weird impulses to flip meat.

In her version of the dream, it was her who walked me back to Mac’s quarters in the middle of the barracks. The assumption we both got from it all was that my sleeper programming was activated when she tried telling me Lyra was an AI. They were a common model of AI used on these sorts of assignments, but were human in every way conceivable.

Take what you want of this. It certainly is a really bizarre combined experience to have with somebody.

About a week later – during the super moon – I had my final contact experience with the Elder Guardians. This contact came in the form of either the Grand Elder himself or another from his group that looked very similar.

The “real world”?

I was in the “real world” which was a place similar to The Capital in the hunger games. There were stone, Egyptian like houses with television type screens hovering in the air. In the distance could be seen a great pyramid and a large river in front of it. This river separated the upper and middle class from the lower slaves. The slaves were situated on the opposite side of the river further downstream. The upper and middle class “dwellings” had been built into the river to keep water on that side fresh. Waste water would go into the lower class side upstream. The lower class then had a purifying plant setup right on their side of the river bank.

Crossing the river was a slightly arched cobblestone bridge that terminated in a triangular courtyard on the water. Off this courtyard came a smaller bridge that connected to the other bank.

I was in a spherical shaped building on the upper class side.

It seemed to be a political chamber, and had an a joining library. I was a middle class man; some sort of cleric working for the library administration. Only the upper class were allowed to be politicians. It was all to do with status. You were either a politician, a politician’s pet, or a slave tasked with the upkeep of the city. There was no other job positions.

At the top of the political sphere building there were stone walkways coming out and crossing over to where the upper class dwelt. The middle class men were expected to use the walkways on the ground.

It was as if someone had taken Ancient Egypt and used it as base of inspiration for a city set 1000 or so years in the future; it was both Ancient and futuristic at once. Weirdly, the most far out tech was the hovering screens which seemed to utilise some form of anti gravity.

There was some kind of massive election going on.

The cabal (the malevolent faction responsible for cutting off humanity’s connection with their higher minds) were very clearly the ones who were currently in power. This election was a big deal, as it affected every race in the universe, and only happened very rarely – thousands of years apart. It was evident that the Cabal had manipulated their reign of power so as to gain an unfair advantage in this election. This would see them retain their seat of power over the Earth and its affairs.

It was all about the control of Earth.

“The Governments of Earth were a direct mimicry of Cabal social orders, and were a key component in how they had maintained their control. The whole concept of government {on Earth} had come from the most dominant alien race in the Cabal. Allegedly.”

This is a direct passage from my dream journal entry recorded the day after this experience, 2 years before I even heard of Alien Interview. Note the similarity to Airl’s assertions.

Much of this information I picked up on due to having to send memos back and forth between politicians.

Voting to get and retain power

Everyone in the “The Capital” were very well aware that the Cabal were using deceptive tactics to make people on earth “vote” them back into power, but very few people understood exactly how this was being carried out. The influence of the Cabal was so great that it had spread into the “real world” (that Egyptian like world), where information of this nature was also being suppressed by the people living there. Sound familiar?

It was a very similar situation like our mainstream media, where the Cabal controlled everything we read and watched. However, there were times when information would slip through the cracks and trickle down to the common folk. It was a totalitarian dictatorship taken to the extreme.

What was known amongst us was that there was an active force of Elders from other races that were opposed to the Cabal’s way of dealing with things, and were actively trying to break the hold that they had gained upon everyone on earth and in the real world.

At this point I was not 100% lucid but had flittering moments of lucidity coming through.

A prominent guerrilla (like) group

There was a prominent guerrilla like group that the Elders belonged to, and every so often they were able to broadcast a message on the television screens. This was clearly an effort of tremendous hacking capabilities. Whenever one of these broadcasts appeared, every single person stopped what they were doing to listen to them (the TV’s were set out so that not a single person could escape the constant propaganda being delivered to them on an hourly basis courtesy of the Cabal). The word of the Elders was considered of paramount importance over everything else by the slaves and middle class men and women.

I was in the political chambers when the broadcast came on. It started with the usual address to the people from the Elders.

It stated bluntly that they were actively deconstructing the Cabal network in and around Earth, and that great progress had been made.

As it went on, I made my way out into the triangle courtyard where the nearest TV was.

Some specifics of these operations were mentioned. This was surprising to everyone as it was normal for the Elders to keep such things secret. It was the greatest announcement these people had ever witnessed, because it was the first time they had acknowledgment of being in the Elders’ thoughts. It was a broadcast that confirmed many things that until then had only been rumored to have occurred.

As I watched the broadcast the Elder mentioned that there were people that had been sent to Earth – or the false world – to act as representatives for their group. These people had been tasked with delivering information on the main device the Cabal had in operation that was keeping them in power. They then proceeded to run a very long scrolling list of who those representatives were.

It was evident that they had embedded some sort of code in that list. My eyes scrolled with the names and I began to target out my name and mentally zoom into it. I could read it as clearly as day. This is something that has never been easy in my dreams, even the lucid ones, and I realized it said Daegon Magus.

The thought went through my head that it was my author pseudonym but it was missing my middle nickname; it was very specifically a target to activate me, or – more correctly – deprogram me. I had been thinking of changing it to a different name (in the physical world), but this experience dissuaded me.

The name sort of popped out of the screen and hovered in mid-air, and the letters rearranged themselves. As they did my surroundings dissolved into atoms, then the name along with it. I was now somewhere between the fabric of that reality speaking directly with the Grand Elder. Or a similar Elder. At this point I was once again functioning from the level of my higher mind and was completely lucid and consciously aware of what was going on; this had been the first time the Elder had pulled me out of a “standard dream” to communicate with me, rather than a lucid one.

These guys had some really neat tricks up their sleeves.

The Elder spoke of a word which was like a conjunction of Uranus, Saturn and Mercury or some other planets in our solar system, which when said sounded like 3 people were speaking it at once. Each version, however, would be slightly different. When read, it looked as though some of the letters had been doubled – something like Urraanniiuusatecry or Urraanniiuussaatteeccrryy. I don’t know if this was the name of my people, of the Elder’s people or if it was the name of the Elder himself, but it was a very, very important word that I was made to remember.

I was also shown a very vivid image of another elitist name and how they had embedded some kind of programming formula by rearranging its letters. Exactly the same as what had been done with mine. Essentially these were cyphers, that, if meditating on, rearranging them in the proper sequence could apparently lead to dissolution of the illusion in one’s own consciousness. What you do is pull the letters out and move them to a different place in the name, like you are making an anagram. It has to be a very specific order, and the vowels are the letters that are removed while the consonants remain in place. That is if my memory serves me correctly. The occult magical system of deconstructing “abracadabra” is similar to how these ciphers were meant to work. Again, that is my interpretation.

Half way through this encounter I was disturbed by Storme who I knew had spoken to me back in the Egyptian like “real world”. I was able to shift my consciousness from the atomic plane to the real world plane without effort.

I realised I was now in some kind of study room reading a book.

Storme had come in, and noticed the blank look on my face as I stared at a page without movement. She asked what I was doing in a very confused tone. I snapped out of my daze to tell her “its ok, I am receiving some very important information from an Elder regarding the election”. I then looked back at the page in my book and the letters began rearranging themselves in the same way as the ciphers. Again, everything disintegrated and I was back in the atomic plane where the Elder was waiting for me.

Are Earth Humans in a Consciousness Simulation?

I asked very specifically if we {back on Earth} were in a consciousness simulation.

The Elder confirmed to me that yes, every single person on Earth was trapped in a false reality that had been constructed by the Alien factions present within the Cabal. It had been designed so that consent of these people was unwillingly being given as to mark their votes for the Cabal remaining in office.

All contracts signed within the physical reality apparently equated to a vote for the Cabal to remain in office. The third parties mentioned in such contracts were in reference to non physical entities that were in control of the higher energetic bodies. Contracts were literally binding us to the physical reality, through quantum loopholes according to the Elder.

The Elder explained that when Earth bodies come out of physical reality during their sleep, they are hijacked as they do so. They are then taken to special facilities in the “real world”. They are processed and implemented with fresh programming to keep their physical life story consistent.

After that they are either thrown back into the VR machine or let free in a restricted part of the “real world” where their labor is used for the upkeep of the city. This is under the heavily brainwashed idea that the city would crumble if they didn’t volunteer to help. This keeps them obliged to depend on the Cabal and offer them consent in exchange for security. This was the blueprint upon which the entire VR machine was written.

The Elder told me the guerrilla force openly opposing the Cabal were successfully deconstructing parts of this virtual reality machine and the sleep trapping mechanisms being deployed by the Cabal. He told me they were preparing the people of Earth for a transition to another “buffer” reality which appears similar to this false one, but is not under the control of the Cabal.

They apparently could not come here openly and do this because there were “things preventing them from doing so”. He explained these things as a sort of invisible force field around earth. Again hitting on some strong coincidences with Airl. So basically all operations supporting this agenda had to be carried out in planes external to the physical one.

The way he described it was that it was essentially a rehab for Earthians to detox them from all the VR dependencies they had come to rely on due to the Cabal’s manipulation of their free will.

Once properly detoxed the plan was to switch the VR engine off altogether, in which the Earthians would be allowed to return to the real world. It would no longer be restricted or under the control of the Cabal.

Any factions associated with the Cabal would never again be allowed to sit for the election. A new purpose for Earth would then come into motion where the newly elected council would take office.

I was then taken to a scenario that was apparently used immediately after sleep hijacking takes place and immediately before insertion of a subject back into the VR world. Again this was related to what the Obama V2.0 had told me about the holographic tech. Like in my other experiences, I could still hear the Elder’s voice telepathically in my head, telling me to take notes of certain things.

Mentally, I was completely coherent and lucid by this stage.

Entangled in a false reality

It was explained to me by the Elder that usually the subject is not allowed to view this scenario taking place. It is designed to trigger the sub consciousness in a very specific way to keep them entangled in the false reality and think it was real.

I was in this really seedy city type place walking down a sort of road or a back alley at night time. To begin with a dog in a nearby yard came running up to a fence that bordered the road barking at me quite aggressively. As I walked by it more and more dogs would come out, each a little bit more vicious than the last, and the group getting bigger each time. I was content in the fact that the fence was there protecting me from them. I turned a corner and found that once again more dogs were waiting for me, but this time there was no fence and they were in the middle of the road. They would run up to me, go to bite me then something would happen and I would be missing time. I would be in a completely different part of the city facing an even bigger threat. I got to the end of the scenario which took place in some sort of abandoned abattoirs where something horrible (that I can’t remember but I am sure had to do with dismembering my body) happened.

At this point the scenario froze and the Elder’s voice pierced my thoughts.

It was explained to me that this scenario was designed to gradually build up a subjects fear response by subtly ramping up the threat factor being posed to them. This is then used to condition them toward a certain reaction when they start to become aware of the illusion of the VR world.

I was told this scenario could go on for a long time depending on their personality and how hard it was to kick in their fear instinct. It was shown to me that by kicking in the fight or flight reflex, the subject immediately forgets all ideas of the illusion and commits to locking themselves back in to the virtual reality while they deal with taking care of the threat.

They keep you busy dealing with “scary” illusions so you don’t cotton on to them being exactly that. Illusions. I had grown accustomed to using my mind without its body, so these illusions didn’t phase me quite as much. What were they going to do? Dimension spin me again? I was that annoying dog that kept getting out of whatever fence you kept putting up around it regardless of how many different worlds you made me experience in the span of a whole second.

The Elder made me walk back through the scenario from finish to start, as this was how it was done by the Cabal. I suddenly realized I was watching myself in third person. I came across a group of thugs, and although not feeling scared, I decided to fight them, knowing that I could beat them easily. As I did, the Elder Guardian’s voice in my head said “No. That’s how they want you to react”. So I stopped what I was doing and calmly walked back to the end of the road, then came back around and went straight past, ignoring them.

I eventually got to the groups of rabid dogs. Instead of running from them I just barked and snarled back at them. The results were instantaneous. The dogs went from being massive vicious Rottweilers and Doberman’s to shrinking to very scared little Chihuahua’s that went hightailing it down the road not understanding what was going on. It exposed to me a flaw in the programming design, that if you fight it without physical aggression, and it instead challenge its dominance it does not know how to respond. If you believe you are much scarier than the illusion, the illusion no longer works.

I got back to the start of the scenario and something happened.

I blacked out.

I blacked out and came to in a sort of decontamination chamber belonging to the Cabal’s military. This was a very long hallway which I assumed was where the holographic scenario was being broadcast. I was totally butt naked.

It was creepy how similar this was to the Matrix. Only I wasn’t waking up in a pod like Neo. And the things greeting me weren’t machines. Or aliens. They were real, human people, dressed in military uniforms.

Physically, I could not move my body the way I wanted to. Something else was in control of it and was piloting it remotely. It felt similar to sleep paralysis. I couldn’t talk. All I could do was watch through my eyes as two guards escorted me through the decontamination chamber.

They quickly washed me down, and pressed a button and the door next to the shower section opened. This thing was like what you see in military bunkers; it was almost square shaped, several feet thick and made of solid steel. It slid open from both sides.

I was walked out of the decontamination chamber into a room that looked like a standard operations control room, with people typing things on computers that had been arranged around a big screen.

To my immediate right was a wall, and to my left was a rail the otherside of which dropped down to a sunken level. This is where the computers were set up. 5 meters in front of me were steps that led down to that level. The opposite wall was about 10 or so meters away, which had another massive steel door embedded into the wall to my immediate right. I still have a photographic memory of this place.

They notice an anomaly

One of the programmers collected my data (everything I had perceived in this physical reality) and upon noticing an anomaly with it showed the Commander, asking him if they should refresh my programming and send me back in or not. Sometime during all of this the Grand Elder’s voice kept coming through telling me to take note of certain things and of the Alien beings that were in control of the facility; I caught a glimpse of one of them through a viewing window that had another room on the other side. The viewing window was to my immediate left in the back wall of the sunken level; the same side of the door I’d just come through.

This was the only time I ever saw an alien during my mystical experiences, but I cannot remember what it looked like. If I had to hazard guess, I would say mantid, solely because the only thing I remember about it was that it had some sort of dark armour like skin. An exoskeleton. It’s like the rest of its image has been blocked.

All I can remember of it was that its hand was interacting with some sort of control panel in the other room. That other room appeared to be completely insulated from this one, like they were trying to keep that being and the humans separate. I think the Commander was the only one who was allowed to go near it.

It became apparent that the Commander – who was human – was the one piloting me.

He took one look at the dataset and replied

“No, something is wrong. He has been doing something or talking to someone off record and I want to find out who or what it is”.

He ordered me to walk over to what looked like a rack full of movies and video games to which my arm automatically began pulling out “The Lord of the Rings”.

I had no idea what this meant but, the Commander smiled and said

“Ahh is that what he has been doing? In that case we’ll drop this one into the test rig”.

The Elder’s voice reassured me everything was ok. He told me this was expected and that something had been hidden in the dataset to bring that outcome to fruition. He was speaking directly to me, right in front of these guys and they couldn’t register it. This was despite them monitoring every aspect of my mind. It was like the Elder had the ability to put me into a bubble where mine and his thoughts couldn’t be read by the programmers.

I was whisked into yet another room where some sort of device lay set up, hanging from the roof, with lots of tubes and wires coming out of it. I was made to stand in the middle right underneath this thing on a sort of platform.

A similar spherical portal to the ones I had summoned during lucid dreaming appeared in front of me.

And now another world.

Once again everything went dark, and then I “awoke” in another world that was a very close replica of the real world, but with a sort of village in its center. It was being contained by heavily armed Cabal guards that roamed its borders. I remember looking out of a deck of some sort of apartment or pub at the sky and poles and thinking

“Fucking hell this is so obviously fake. How did I ever think this was real?”

Immediately two things became obvious; the guards were “asleep” and the people they were keeping contained were awake; i.e. the people knew it was a VR world, but the guards didn’t. I remember seeing some old man who looked like a local celebrity – Scotty – and I couldn’t work out why with all these awakened people no one was doing anything.

“I said, you know this is a false reality don’t you?”

Scotty looked at me very hesitantly and said “yeah so?”

I suddenly remembered that everyone was imbued with a power associated with one of the four elements, and that if awakened they could summon that element to aid them. Apparently when combined properly with those of other elements they are quite powerful. This was knowledge the Cabal had successfully suppressed, but I don’t know how I knew it. It was just something my higher mind knew. I only remembered it once I was thrown into the test rig.

I summoned wind – my element – and turned to Scotty…

“So why don’t you help me so we can get out?”

Scotty looked at me with a very worrying look and said “no”, then huddled off.

So escape…

I figured at that point that people here were too oppressed to be of any help, so I started summoning tornadoes and cyclones to tear apart the buildings. This was just the standard sort of things I always did in Lucid Dreams; I’d just summon whatever I needed whenever I needed it.

The exception to this was when I was stuck in a consciousness prison, as they disallowed me this ability. Alarms went off and guards came running. I just casually walked past them, and they stopped in confusion as it seemed they couldn’t see me. This was despite me being right in front of them.

I ended up walking to a place that would have been out of bounds, if it weren’t for my destructive efforts. Somewhere along the lines I got the gist that this VR was a new “model” the military were working on implementing and was in its testing phase. Hopefully I caused them a bit of a headache with my antics. You could sort of see the boundaries of blankness where they hadn’t uploaded any environment data.

I think the making of this place was in direct retaliation to the Elder attacks on their system.

Well… I am at a university….

I ended up at what appeared to be a university building. This was the impression I got anyway. It had nicely manicured gardens and big glass windows that reached the roof which was only a couple of stories high.

Inside the foyer there was what appeared to be a sculpture of a brain made out of Ethernet cables instead of grey matter. Upon looking at the cables I realized they were coiled like old telephone cords and each terminated somewhere on the sculpture in a typical network hub.

There were thousands upon thousands of connections (this thing took up an entire room and was 2 storeys high) which all had blinking yellow and red lights at their ends. Something told me this was the VR server where every ones consciousness is downloaded while they are in the physical reality. I had this understanding that it was through the coiling of the wires that they were able to control consciousness similar to what we know as inductive coupling. The coils read the magnetism carried off via our thoughts.

I was about to destroy the whole thing when I came to the understanding it would be detrimental to those consciousness’s still attached to it. I decided to leave it and walk for the stairs.

As I reached the top a glass door slid open and out stumbled two people, dazed like zombies, one of which I knew to be Storme and the other of who I knew in the “real world”. I asked them “are you awake” – my code phrase for “are you lucidly aware” – and they both shook their heads robotically. I said to myself “looks like I am going back in”. I summoned an inward projection portal and projected into it. At this point I woke up in this physical reality back in bed.

This concluded my mystical experiences, but certainly not the paranormal ones.

Am I crazy?

At this point, I would have checked myself into the nearest mental asylum if it hadn’t been for Elon Musk and the other Silicone Valley giants jumping on board the whole simulation theory idea.

Nick Bostrom’s philosophical paper on that whole concept is something I seriously recommend reading to help expand ones consciousness. It can be found here; The Simulation Argument (simulation-argument.com)

Then there was this I ended up stumbling upon:

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/erin-valenti-death-family-searches-for-answers-2019-12?r=US&IR=T

In the video version I watched, it was reported Erin was actually the CEO of a company who were developing brain implant chips similar to Musk’s.

None of this compared to any of the confirmation I would ultimately get.

Then collapse!

My lucid dreaming capabilities ended up taking a nose dive, shortly after the Unseen 5 experience. I chalked this down to having a kid and no longer being in the well rested state of mind that I know is crucial for it. I was actually quite surprised with these last two experiences.

They were the first proper lucid dreams I had had in quite some time.

As you can imagine, the mystical experiences drove me crazy. I ended up trolling around the internet trying to find someone – anyone – with anything even remotely similar to talk to. I was lucky that I at least had Storme to talk to about it all. Who knows where I’d be if I didn’t.

I dropped a compressed version of this story on a few UFO and Starseed groups and others for occult subjects such as astral projection and lucid dreaming.

I was met with either “I call bullshit, astral projection is not relevant to ETs” from the UFO/ occult crowds, or “I am an alien from Pleiades because a psychic told me so” from the Starseed groups.

Although the Starseed groups seemed promising, I noticed a lot of information on there that was downright false that people were lapping up.

Two years later (this year), it all started coming to a head.

I was phoned by a very prominent ET researcher in America who linked my experiences to the Majestic 12. The information she gave me in that interview apparently came directly from her source within the CIA. This source had been told things by an MAJ Agent himself. I will include a report of that interview in another article. I wanted to include her in my autobiography, but she was apprehensive about it and asked me specifically not to mention her. Hence I have omitted her name.

I was contacted by another who was part of a similar consciousness operation and grew up under the ice in Antartica. She only reached out to me because she could relate to my experience where I “wrote the scroll.” This person I have been in constant contact with since making her acquaintance. I was talking to her on almost a daily basis for a good few months about everything she has experienced.

She has some very interesting things to say which parallel a lot of what MM has written in some of his articles. I hope one day she is able to share her experiences as I have done with mine.

In the same week I met this person I was put on to the Alien Interview document by someone else and my jaw hit the floor. The amount of things I experienced that Airl described was insane.

This was before Isaac CARET had even put me on the path of MM. If you find that {Isaac CARET} article of MM’s, I even mentioned the Alien Interview in one of my comments (I incorrectly misnamed Lawrence Spencer as Paul Spencer) before it was on MM’s radar.

So you can say I was pretty damned excited when MM did an 8 part breakdown of it and confirmed it as being what spawned MAJ.

I had been thinking of doing my own breakdown of it in regards to how it ties in with my lucid dreaming experiences since January before MM did his in June. Mine will be up once I have written more articles to provide some back context to it.

And of course there is MM himself. He was honestly the first person I had seen who was explaining things I already knew about in very similar ways to how I knew them. Reading his accounts it was uncanny how similar our thoughts were on many subjects. You may have noticed me subtly implying these parallels throughout my articles.

What MM calls “prayer affirmation campaigns” I had a very similar concept going on which I called “manifestation”.

Occultism was all about the idea one could elicit change in their environment through will power alone, after all; this was something I had an unfaltering belief in since I was a kid. I never once thought it was a load of bullshit. Back in 2019 I was conducting experiments in determining the timespan between intention and manifestation.

I had a success one day in which I was able to pin point the manifestation as being exactly 10 hours after the intention. I can tell you that custom number plates on cars are a good way to manifest “messages” because of the subconscious energy people all put into driving.

When MM says “combined focus of a goal amplifies the affirmation campaign”, you won’t find a better place where everyone’s attention is focused on the same thing than on the road.

In my experiments I was trying to use the information in random custom numberplates to “tell me” when my manifestation worked.

It also works by sending emails to yourself.

What do you think I was doing going nuts trying to find these 20 000 other souls I was supposed to be in charge of? Sending the Elder Guardians messages via my own email address specifically to reconnect with people that were part of it, of course. I didn’t have as clear a focus, but somewhere deep inside me, something just knew it would work. Part of my affirmation/ manifestation campaign was to be put into more specific information in regards to how it all worked. MM was the literal jackpot of my manifestation efforts (thankyou MM).

The Rufus thing I totally dig as well.

I’m the type of guy who doesn’t fling homeless people whatever spare change is in my wallet; I go and buy them a proper meal and sit down and talk with them for as long as they will allow me. I don’t do this for any reason other than because I know how much it sucks to be lonely.

Given my wife was homeless, I also have a vicarious understanding of how much it sucks to have nowhere to go. It’s easy to fling change and pass them by.

Everyone wants to be heard, but not everyone wants to listen. Be the one that wants to.

Always look for an opportunity to help someone. If the opportunity jumps out at you and catches you off guard, take it at once. The ones watching in the outer planes – like the EG and U5 – will notice, even if nobody in the physical does.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 5 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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[daegonmagus] – Part 3 – Conversation with the All Being and Initiation Into the Unseen 5

The following is the third part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 3 – Conversation with the All Being and Initiation Into the Unseen 5

In Part 2 I explained how I had yet another contact experience with the Grand Elder where I remembered my reincarnation. This was in a house that seemed to have a lot of paranormal activity going on. I also mentioned I had a rather traumatic experience where I was left crippled in my left hand, though I intentionally left out specific details.

As I was in hospital that very night, I heard some chaotic chatter in my head. My wife heard the same chatter about 50 kilometres away. These voices were telling her that “this was not supposed to happen”. I don’t know if this meant I was supposed to die that night, or not be put in that situation altogether. As you will see, it had a repercussive effect on the path my life was going to take.

We remained in this house a few more months after my hand was cut open, whilst we looked for somewhere else to rent. The neighbours had moved out and skipped town – according to the police. The thought of them knowing where we were was not exactly something we were enthusiastic about.

About a month before we moved, I was going to bed one night when I saw a random portal open up in front of my eyes. I was in bed with my eyes closed. Ever since I was little, I would see golden energy pulses whenever I’d close them. These energy pulses were particularly strong this night after a meditation I had done a few hours previous. They were so strong that I couldn’t sleep.

All of a sudden my eyes automatically opened. They were drawn to a point on the roof, which I couldn’t even make out due to the darkness of the room. Out of no where the portal appeared as a purple double lined spiral. It slowly started spinning. It lasted for a few seconds before disappearing. I had seen an image of the exact same spiral a few years prior on the news. It was identical to the one that appeared over Trøndelag, Norway in 2009, except it had no blue light coming off it to the side.

Just another paranormal experience in the string of them that made up my life.

Somehow I thought the Australian Defense Force would have a hard time telling me this was just a failed missile launch. This was the official narrative the military in Norway gave for their spiral. This is the only time I have ever “seen” something whilst being completely present in this physical reality. My wife was building up a much better catalogue.

We ended up moving out just before New Years Eve 2014 . We scored a house on the other side of the hills not far from where my wife’s mother lived. Her (my mother in law’s ) friend was moving to Melbourne, so we got the house, along with her cat to look after. It was only supposed to be a temporary affair until she could fly the cat over on it’s separate plane. It ended up living with us the entire 6 months we lived here, and somehow got along with our male cat the whole time.

The owner – Nickie – was heavily into conspiracies about Reptilians. She turned lesbian after seeing her boyfriend shapeshift into one, one night. I am not sure who sounded more crazy; her and her conspiracies, or me talking about my experiences with the Elder Guardians and everything they told me.

Regardless, life at this house was good for awhile. We were able to get even more involved in astral projection and lucid dreaming. I had one astral projection experience where I was flying around a dark void. I crashed into something else that was buzzing around. I ended up exiting the session thinking I’d pissed off whatever it was. This place was devoid of all light, so I couldn’t see what exactly it was. It certainly felt heavy and bounced me back with enough force to make me feel like I’d hit a tree in my car.

When it came to astral projection, I wasn’t very good at it. Whereas with lucid dreaming I had much experience behind me, with astral projection I’d only managed to do it a handful of times. So when I found myself in this void, the idea that I’d have to adhere to a set of flying rules was lost on me. I thought I was alone traveling through it to a destination several light years away. Call it a lesson in astral travel etiquette.

After I exited the session, I managed to re-project into it shortly after. This time I had a very strong feeling that something – or several somethings – was watching me. It seemed I had caused a ruckus by crashing into whatever it was and failing to leave my insurance details (I joke). So rather than proceed, again I exited the session.

It was around this time I decided I needed to join the air force. No, like, I really needed to.

Reading MMs account of how he was drawn back to China Lake, this was exactly what it was like. I just all of a sudden got this random urge to join the military. An itch I couldn’t scratch. I had made a promise to myself in the past that if my life went to shit then I would try and join the defense force but this was different. This was like, I was ready to just up and leave Storme (my wife) – the only family I really had – for a family that didn’t even exist yet.

I was delusional. I told myself she would be ok with all the trauma behind her, while I went off and did 6 weeks training in Kapooka, NSW. I actually tried convincing myself I could juggle a military career and life as a full time carer at the same time.

I saw a friend from high school one day when I was at a doctor’s appointment. He had just finished a tour of Afghanistan and gave me the low down on the fitness levels required to get into the ADF. I was setting my sights on this idea, and I wouldn’t take my eyes off the prize. Not to mention I now had a severe medical handicap in my left hand. I told myself I could some how fake the medical examination; I was just that keen on getting in. It was sheer madness on my end.

I got into shape, and booked myself in for the performance fitness assessment. A few months passed, I got a job managing an electronics factory, then the big day came of the PFA.

Being only 24, I was still one of the oldest guys there by a good few years. Most of the recruits looked like they were fresh out of senior year of high school. One guy hadn’t even finished with his war on acne before he decided to fight one against a foreign enemy. He sat waiting for the interview that would see him become a junior officer in the army, shaking uncontrollably from nerves like he had a bad case of Parkinson’s. I just wanted to tell him to lighten up and relax.

Whilst everyone sat chatting with each as if it was some kind of friendly get together, I sat in silence, with my back straight observing the whole place. From the moment I walked in the door, I knew we were being monitored and judged on our character – I don’t even know how I knew this.

I did the PFA on the allocated computer – it reminded me of the IQ tests I had taken at school – then went and sat back in the foyer and waited to be called in. I had opted for roles that were either to do with electronics warfare or signals intelligence gathering. I already had a qualification in electrotechnology and computer systems so something in that domain seemed like an obvious choice. I just simply wasn’t interested in entering as a standard foot soldier – what we call grunts.

I wanted to do something exciting. Maybe it was all those James Bond and other spy movies I watched as a kid. Maybe it was all that shit on Majestic I’d read about in my brief moments away from watching Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan fight those pesky Russians. All whilst working for the same government department that Aleister Crowley apparently worked for. Whatever, there was something about a top secret badge that really did it for me. Not that I ever expected to get in on the ET agenda loop.

Speaking of, which, a woman called me in wearing naval camos with the words “ Spec Ops” and “Top Secret” written above the breast pockets. She handed me a print out of all the roles I would be suited for based on my results. She congratulated me, telling me I had aced the PFA and done the best anyone could do. As a result, I could take a pick out of pretty much any role I wanted. I looked at the list and noticed it not only had the four signals intelligence and electronics warfare operator positions I had ticked but a plethora of other positions as well.

My eyes rolled over the word “Commando” and widened. She must have noticed and told me I would be well suited to that role. She told me her husband was Special Forces and that he thought it was a good role.

I had found a standard exercise regime of the SASR on the internet and figured I’d probably die if I had to do that amount of exercise so I passed up the offer.

Entering straight into a Sergeant role in Signals Intelligence in the Airforce was more than enough for me.

Still, I found it somewhat comical that a guy who claimed he was a 40 000 year old space elf helping fight some astral boogey men with the help of the Ascended Masters was considered mentally fit enough to be a Commando. I found it even funnier I had done so well on the PFA; maybe I wasn’t as batshit crazy as I first thought (sorry Nickie.)

She bid me farewell, I went and sat the medical and then was told I would receive a letter in the mail telling me if I made the cut or not. Somewhere in the three week period of waiting for this letter to arrive, my interest in joining the military just sort of fizzled out. I think the reality hit that my hand was just too badly damaged to get in. Sure enough, this is exactly what the letter mentioned. Good thing “this wasn’t supposed to happen” I suppose. I was a lover, not a fighter. I didn’t really want to go and kill people. The world had enough of those types as it was without the militaries.

I was upset – all for about 5 minutes – then I just got over it and got on with managing my boss’s factory. I chalked it down to needing to know I had at least some form of intellect still bouncing around upstairs.

Again, my wife was having her own experiences in the metaphysical domain at Nickie’s house. When it came to astral projection, she was getting really good at it. She started being able to remote view on a daily basis, and lucid dream almost as much as me.

There was one instance where a 17 year old boy came to her in a dream. When she asked who it was, the boy said “I am your son”. When she replied “I don’t have a son” he said “you will.” Apparently I taught him how to {consciousness} time travel, and he used that ability to come and say hi to her. That same week I had a dream I was cuddling a non existent son on the couch. A month or so later we found out she was pregnant, and lo and behold, it ended up being a boy. More of that crazy paranormal stuff.

The next year ended up being an opportunity for the universe to kick us in the metaphorical balls every chance it got. This was a really difficult time for both of us. The things we were being faced with on a regular basis were psychologically demanding to the extreme. It was one big test of both mine and Storme’s character and sense of self worth. Even up until then we had been through ALOT.

We got burgled – for the second time – one day whilst we were out. The thieves took off with our TV, a few clothes, my gaming console, and an old laptop that had a few years worth of music production on it, as well as a half written novel. This laptop I was using as a dream journal and had many of my experiences in lucidity recorded on it. There went all the detailed information I’d written down about my mystical experiences.

As a result I have been forced to remember most of this off the top of my head. Readers may notice some slight inconsistencies as a result, and for this I apologize.

Somehow, these thieves missed a room containing a few thousand dollars worth of musical equipment and opted for things that would have netted them a few hundred dollars at most. And this was the lesser of the evils that was following us everywhere we went. I remember thinking that particular day – just before we got home to find our house ransacked – about forgiving the guys who cut my hand open. The PTSD from that incident wasn’t doing me any favors, so I told myself just to let it all go. This was my reward for thinking such things.

It seemed the universe was tempting me into embracing a hatred mentality for all these people that were messing with us. It wanted me to retaliate. It wanted me to seek revenge, but I wasn’t like that. I understood that it was all part of this amnesia thing. I understood these people were being driven by a dark occult force that was in control of their souls. This is how I saw it anyway. Sure I may have used social media to warn others about all these people – I may have even cursed them and sent my fair share of “fuck you’s” off in the direction – but I never sought them out to get them back for everything they put us through; I only wanted my laptop back. Hell, I would have even paid them for it. The documentation on my mystical experiences was worth more than gold to me. The other people messing with us were a lot harder to forgive. Still I never retaliated, despite finding out where they lived. This was a real lesson in “letting it all go”.

Added to all this was the court case with the assailants that crippled me. It was going nowhere. I found out the hard way the justice system is one big joke. I found out the hard way it cared more about people breaking its laws than it did about getting justice for its victims. This added an immense amount of stress that wasn’t needed.

Storme was starting to suffer from a myriad of health conditions that meant she needed help with our new born son.

I was getting royally screwed at work doing the roles of several people and barely getting paid for one. So in the end I just threw in the towel and stayed home full time to look after the both of them. The big joke was that I got paid just as much on social security payments as I did managing an entire electronics factory and the staff that worked in it. I got kind and sick of my boss coming back from his bimonthly trip to America, and going on about his expensive “toys”, whilst I barely made enough to cover rent.

We had long since left Nickie’s and were onto something like our 8^th {rental} house in 6 years. Did I mention Storme had Polish Gypsy blood in her veins? Stalkers, anonymous people leaving us strange phone calls, people trying to kill me, people trying to assault Storme; these were all reasons we uprooted our lives every 6 months. It was unbelievably brutal, and it followed us no matter how much we just wanted to live normal lives and escape the negativity.

Somewhere in all this I came across the Starseed agenda. This was a community of people who believed they were aliens inhabiting human bodies and were here to help with the evolution of human consciousness. They were essentially new age Indigo children. I found this interesting; up until then I hadn’t associated any of my mystical experiences as being related to aliens. Even my experience remote viewing from an off world intelligence I’d sort of conveniently “forgotten” for the sake of trying to be “normal”.

Although most of the things I was reading of this Starseed thing were completely inaccurate as to what I had been told by the Grand Elder, I won’t deny it made me question whether it was all related. Cutting people’s consciousness off from a higher state of awareness and trapping them in a body sure did sound a lot like a tactic from an alien race’s war book, I supposed. Not that I was well versed in alien warfare strategies or anything.

So I started meditating on what I knew and came up with hypothetical thought experiments about this whole thing being related to aliens. Admittedly, I had tried burying everything with the Elder Guardians, but there was always this gnawing feeling deep down that it seemed important. Something about being responsible for 20 000 souls was an enormous weight. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t take it lightly.

After my brief period of work, this gnawing feeling got the better of me. I started really thinking about it all on a regular basis. I started researching a bit more into it. It drove me fucking crazy.

So yeah, by the time I had my next experience, I was pretty damn sure this had something to do with aliens. I had done a complete 180 on things I had told myself were a complete load of bullshit back in my youth when I was flicking through conspiracy theories to compliment my occult studies. I can’t remember my exact thoughts, but the amnesia thing was a big part of it.

I need to emphasize this point; my mystical experiences completely changed my life. And not necessarily for the better. Every ounce of my being wanted to remain skeptical and to evaluate them objectively. Spiritual amnesia affecting mankind? Surely this was some kind of MK Ultra mind control thing to make me think I’d experienced something holy? Something divine? I was in a catch 22; I could either believe it was all real or begin chasing a trail of ever the more conspiracies to try and convince myself it wasn’t. It was easier to just give in and go with the first. I was fast becoming that crazy UFO guy you steer well away from at the supermarket. Not that I ever bothered voicing these experiences to anyone but Storme.

Then it got even more real.

The night of November 16, 2016, I was once again engaged in a lucid dream. Once again I was abducted out of it, and once again I was operating from a higher state of awareness. But this time, the Grand Elder wasn’t there. This particular night I had three separate experiences one after the other; I’d wake up from one, then straight away fall back into another one.

I mentioned in Part 2 that Storme and myself had many instances of synchronised dreams and experiences. The first two were synchronised in the manner.

I was inside what appeared to be a pyramid chamber. This pyramid was made of a yellow stone – like that of the celestial courtyard where I met the EG – and was quite large. It was between 50 to 100m to the opposite wall. The wall to my left had a part of it missing, and I seem to remember thinking this connected to some sort of rail system from one of the other worlds I had frequently visited whilst lucid.

The top part of the pyramid was closed off, like there was a capstone in the way; you could not see the apex as the walls stopped at this square section of roof. I believe it was from the higher information coming in, that I knew that this capstone was an office. I knew that there was “someone” or “something” in this office waiting for me. I proceeded to project my consciousness in such a way as to try and reach it. The problem was, that this pyramid, because of its slanted angles, would reflect my consciousness back towards its base.

I cannot really explain this adequately enough to someone who is not familiar with operating as a pure conscious thoughtform whilst lucid. There are certain tricks you learn to move about whilst in this state. It is not the same as moving a physical body through vacant physical space; it is a whole other ball game. You are moving through a plane dictated by 4 dimensions, instead of only 3. “Climbing” the pyramid from the inside was just extremely hard to do because of this slanting/ rebounding effect.

I eventually managed to reach the top. There was a platform that led from one side of the pyramid right into its center into the capstone office where a door stood. I went along this platform and as I got to the door, it opened and I found myself engulfed by a brilliant white/ yellow light. It was so bright that it was almost even too intense for the higher state of awareness I was operating from.

I realized the light was coming from a being, who stood with its back turned to me. I slowly made my way through the door towards this entity. It turned around smiling at me and I realized I was standing in the presence of the divine creator. I understood immediately that this being was the start of creation of all life and consciousness in the entire cosmos. I could feel this connection as I approached it; it was like I became one with everything in existence the closer I got to it. It was fucking incredible.

Although I am not religious, the being that was standing in front of me was what could be considered “God”. As I feel that word has become too polluted with ill intent over the years by the charlatans that use it for profit. It is not a name I would ever call this omnipotent being simply out of respect for it; I referred to it as the All Being.

As I approached it, my higher mind was going off the charts. So much information was coming through it was almost completely overwhelming me, as the direct telepathic connection to this being strengthened. The benevolence it radiated was beyond anything imaginable on earth.

The reader must be aware that I was 100% lucid and again able to recollect all of my earth memories as well as many of those of celestial heritage. I was constantly pondering thoughts of ET involvement and the idea the Hermetic and Ascended Masters were all part of the same thing, which revolved around this spiritual amnesia. The astral war was the thing I wanted to know more about above anything else.

So you could say my intention upon coming into the office of the All Being was to flatten out as much of the information I had been given on the spiritual amnesia as possible; that is the sole reason I was here. I simply wasn’t interested in asking God to gift me a house (as much as I needed one) or a pony or the usual other things kids are taught to bother a divine being with. There was simply no thoughts pertaining to the mundanity of the physical plane like we as humans find ourselves caught up in on a regular basis. It was all about my celestial operations; ie my role within the cosmos and who I – or rather my soul – really was.

The All being welcomed me and said that it was glad I had finally arrived. It said it had been expecting me for quite some time. My arrival had been delayed by forces outside of my control.

I asked who I was, and the All Being told me. Then I asked specifically to be given more information on the astral war. The All Being replied by telling me that I would have the answers to that question soon enough, but that there was more important things to deal with first.

I was then teleported to a chamber below the pyramid. I remember realizing it was a direct mirror copy of the inside of the pyramid; It was an inverted pyramid and I was at it’s bottom. The All Being took on a “lesser form”; I can’t really explain this. It was like a younger, less intense and more material form. A higher version of Storme was there and she was teaching me this guttural roar. It was sort of like a word spoken from the very depths of your throat rather than rolled off the tongue. Every time I mispronounced this word, my throat burned with an intense pain.

Usually whilst lucid I would be impervious to such pain unless I was being tortured, but this pain was very real. With each mispronunciation the pain amplified by an order of magnitude in the millions. I mispronounced the word 3 times before it became too excruciating and I woke up from it. This whole scene was the crossover point of my wife’s experience; she remembers teaching “someone” this word in a similar pyramid with the inverted chamber whilst under a similar higher state of awareness. The lesser All Being was apparently her “father”.

After waking up, I immediately went back into lucidity and was met with the same potency of higher awareness. This had never happened before. Usually when I’d wake up, this would be the end of the experience.

I was now reliving a memory of a past life with Storme. In this particular dream her name was Nina Bejowski, or Bejewski – something of either Polish or Russian heritage. She had no recollection of being anyone but this particular version of herself. We were in what appeared to be some sort of European type place, with cobblestone roads and small apartment buildings. It reminded me of Italy.

Nina was in what appeared to be a school classroom.

I tried reminding her of past lives we’d experienced together, but she wouldn’t believe me and kept telling me to go away. What made it all the more frustrating was that I was being chased by these suits – what I figured were the Men In Black. It was always a game of me reaching Nina before they did. They would catch me just as I’d reach her, then all of a sudden I’d find I’d be reset back to an earlier point in time. I’d remember the reset (which I wasn’t supposed to) and just keep coming back like some sort of annoying puppy.

This happened over and over again so many times that I lost count. It was weird; it was like in my mission, it was imperative I got to Nina and extracted her from the school, and in the MIB’s mission it was imperative that they stopped me.

I finally got her to see reason. She agreed to follow me on the basis that the place she was in wasn’t doing her any favors, but she was still incredibly weary of me.

The last memory I have of the school was walking down a hallway with Nina/ Storme trying to keep a low profile so the MIB didn’t see us. This whole event was yet another synchronized lucid dream of Storme’s. From her perspective, the school she was in was being used for consciousness brainwashing. We have had many synchronized experiences that are very similar to this one.

I woke up, said my “holy shit’s”, at the revelation of this memory, then went straight back into lucidity where this higher state of consciousness once again washed over me.

Nina and I were now on either a train or a bus heading over a bridge that went to a small Island. There was about 20-30 people on this bus. Somehow I just knew that they were all people who had something to do with extra terrestrials; there were military generals with stars lining their green coats. Lab scientists and physicists etc. Ordinary people that most people would think were batshit crazy such as abductees. They all had either first hand knowledge working with ETs/ ET tech or had first hand experience with ETs through things like abduction/ visitation.

This was evidently a collection of all the “top brass” people in the world that were considered authorities on the subject of ET involvement. We were heading to a conference on ETs specifically to try and piece together everyone’s experiences to get to the bottom of the ET agenda unfolding on Earth. No one person in this group had a complete understanding of the bigger picture, hence the reason for the conference. It was as if this was a realized point, even by the higher up military generals. This was just all things I knew thanks to my higher self.

The bus arrived at the island and we all got off. We were lined up (by more military men and women) against a brick wall to our right. I am 90% sure that this was the base of the Statue of Liberty. From the photos and movies I have seen, this wall looked exactly like the base part of the Statue, though I never saw anymore of it, as I was too busy looking at the {already established} military presence to look up. I was too busy taking mental notes of what was going on to admire the scenery. Note the metaphorical reference to freedom.

These military officials that were already on the island started handing out documents for all of us to sign. These were apparently a list of all the past indiscretions we had engaged in whilst on Earth. Mine seemed to be the biggest of the bunch and took on a form of an A4 stack of paper several inches thick. The emphasis was on making us feel guilty for all the things we had done.

I watched as the military generals and scientists signed it all without question, many of them didn’t even bother to check it was all legitimate. They just signed off their papers like a bunch of robots who were used to such bureaucratic procedures without giving it any thought.

I took one look at the apparent misnomer’s I was guilty of; majority of them revolved around illegally downloading music- not exactly something I thought aliens really gave two shits about. I threw it back at the one who tried to hand it to me. She told me the only way to make it into the conference was to take responsibility for these indiscretions and sign the papers.

I understood that this was an attempt to coerce me into signing a contract for something whilst in this higher state of awareness. It was an attempt to get me to agree to something in a state of coherency far above that used by my mammalian brain. Compare it to someone trying to get you to sign something when you are drunk vs when you are sober; it is far more likely to be taken as a binding contract if you were consciously coherent when signing than if you were drunk. I stood firm in my unwillingness to sign, despite whatever excuses where thrown my way. The military generals and scientists just looked at me like I was a complete fool.

Suddenly, my surroundings dissolved and I was standing in what appeared to be the White House. I was being greeted by someone who appeared to be {then} President Obama. I need to point out here that I had an instant understanding that this was not Obama himself. It was a form this being was taking to show me his rank within this “place”. He wanted me to know that rank was President. He was the top dog in charge; there was no doubt about it. This was something that was being telepathically transmitted to me in the form of a knowing thought. At the same time I also knew this “entity” was of extra terrestrial/ inter dimensional origin; like the Grand Elder, it didn’t originate on earth. I am sure of that.

Obama v2.0 congratulated me and told me I had come to the “complete and total understanding of the alien agenda unfolding on Earth”. I appreciate how narcissistic this sounds, but these were his exact words and are the very reason I kept a lot of this to myself for almost a decade; it just sounds so goddamned crazy even despite everything I’ve already spoken about.

Obama told me the scenario back at the Statue of Liberty was a test, and I had just passed it with flying colors. Just like I thought, it was to see if I was willing enough to sign away my consent whilst operating from a higher state of awareness closer to the originating point of my “soul”. My refusal to do so is what ultimately granted me access to this office of his.

What followed was a discussion with Obama V2.0 that I think is, in some ways, even more important than what the Grand Elder told me regarding the amnesia. He told me that this office of his was tasked with monitoring the interdimensional traffic coming into and out of Earth and it’s surrounding non physical planes. Well, this was getting interesting.

According to him, this organization monitored every single thing that passing through the Earth domain – which extended out into space either to the moon or beyond it, and into several non physical planes that were “stacked” on top of it. Whether it could be considered an angel, demon, alien, or ghost, this organization monitored every aspect of it, including where it came from, where it was going and what it was doing whilst it was here.

He told me this organization of his existed solely within the astral planes; there was simply no physical counterpart to it. You cannot access it from the physical plane. Access was restricted to those who could navigate these non physical planes. It was a truly secret organization.

The alien agenda unfolding on earth, was apparently very concerning and posed a real threat to “human kind’s existence”. This organization was keeping that presence in check. These were things that were very specifically told to me. It operated above and away from any governmental agency back on Earth.

I was also told that every single person – or rather consciousness – is monitored whilst traveling in the non physical planes – this included lucid dreaming as well – and are vetted for potential recruitment into this organization. They apparently had their eye on me for quite some time because of the responsibilities given to me by the Elder Guardians and because of everything I had been doing in lucidity since I was 8. My whole life had been a recruitment test for entering into their ranks. All the shit I went through – and boy was there a lot – and my unwillingness to retaliate for it, earnt me this {apparently} prestigious position. All the times I told the apparent higher celestial authorities “fuck you” and reclaimed my soul’s sovereignty had set me up for entry. You simply don’t get here by shitting all over your fellow brother and sisters. Compassion, empathy and a true understanding of who you are and unfaltering loyalty to that were some of the very admission criteria (take note of what MM has been telling you in regards to this).

I was told that the Statue of Liberty scenario was a holographic projection that they induce into the dreamscapes of these potential candidates whilst they sleep; if the candidate passes the test, they end up there, in that office (which I suspect may have actually been a form of ship which in itself was taking on yet another holographic projection). However, if the candidate fails, they wake up and think they just had a bizarre, albeit very vivid dream. The subtleness is so in genius that no one never even realizes how close they were to entering into this organization. Obama V2.0 only presents himself to those who pass. Needless to say, I felt rather honored to have made it in and to be speaking to him.

This holographic projection technology apparently operated on the exact same principles as my experiment in hijacking my wife’s consciousness; I had inadvertently taught myself these exact principles through experimentation, 7 years prior, by the time I had reached 19 years of age, even though I had only successfully carried it out once. This had been the other half of my ticket into this organization; they didn’t have to explain these concepts to me, because I already understood them first hand.

This was all being explained to me in the context of the amnesia; Obama V2.0 knew I knew all about it and had meditated quite a lot on what it meant. I was being briefed directly in relation to how it all pertained to this amnesia. Take a moment to let that sink in. Things that had been revealed to me in completely separate experiences I had over 4 years prior were the main aspect behind this briefing. It was extremely important.

Obama V2.0 then told me he was going to introduce me to the rest of the organization and led me down a hall way which terminated at a large double wooden door. This was going to be everyone on earth that knew what was going on in regards to the ET agenda. Not just people who had a passing knowledge of some of their tech, or those who had been abducted and relayed a little bit of info; this was going to be all those that were currently incarnated on earth that were in the proper “know”.

As I was led down the hallway, I started to get excited. I started fantasizing about knocking heads with people like the Majestic 12 and all those with Cosmic clearances; all those sorts of people you read about who apparently “know things”. I made a mental note to grab as much info off these people as possible and bring it back here to the physical plane when I woke up.
I was expecting to walk into a room full of people engaged in banter about everything ET related free from patriotic obligations. I was expecting it to be quite chaotic.

We got to the door, and Obama V2.0 pushed one of the sides open, beckoning for me to go first. I obliged. I was now in what appeared to be a very large conference room. Again it reminded me of the rooms they used to depict the White House in shows about that building. It was just so completely different to any of the architecture I’ve come across here in Australia. I’ve never been to America, but it definitely felt American, or like it was a really old building (our buildings here are relatively modern compared to those of America and most other countries).

As I walked through the door, my jaw dropped wide open. There in front of me were the entire administration staff of this organization; 4 other people standing, staring at me with neutral looks on their faces, not saying a word.

Are you fucking kidding me? The people who all understood the ET agenda in its entirety and were stopping it from wiping out humanity could be counted on one hand. What was rather comical was that not one of them were wearing a military uniform. Not one of them was wearing a scientist lab coat either. The four people that comprised this entire astral organization were dressed as everyday average Joes. .

So when MM speaks of being the Rufus, and helping out your fellow brother and sisters, just know I can relate to this 100%. You never what beans they have to spill. You never know what they are really part of.

I was told, by Obama all 4 of these people were currently incarnated on earth. Of these four, 3 were women, 2 of whom I recognized from many prior lifetimes and from the Elder Gathering in 2012, and one was a male that I did not recognize.

A quick digression. Now before you ask, I am aware that being in a state of pure consciousness as I was, physical things like clothing are not able to be taken here. So how do I know that is what these guys actually looked like? It is hard to explain but when lucid like this, you are operating from a 4^th dimensional perspective rather than a 3D one.

You don’t see objects like you do in the physical plane, you sense energy signatures. You pick up on these energy signatures, and you can sort of trace them to a commonly used “image” that their consciousness associates with as being “them”. It takes a great deal of practice in learning how to perceive in this fashion. Think of it like teaching a child language through the use of basic symbols like a tree. Now replace the word “TREE” with a photo of a tree, and the basic image of the tree with an energy signature. If I wanted to “read” one of these energy signatures I’d interact with it and the image of a tree would be conjured up in my higher memory.

People unknowingly carry with them a wealth of subconsciousness information that can be accessed in this fashion; this is what the consciousness manipulation strategies I was being briefed on was all about and is something I became very proficient at “reading” during my youth. It is also how I “knew” the Elder Guardians and Obama V2.0 were not of terrestrial origin.

When one is operating from this higher state of awareness, one is able to read this “raw” form of energy signature. Nothing can pretend to be something else, because the entire information, including its intent to change form is accessed by the higher mind all at once. Hence why the meeting with the All Being was so intense; these same energy signatures were emanating from it like it was strong smelling perfume. Rather than have one image attached to them, they were images of everything – and I really do mean everything – in existence. These are important concepts to consider when I tell you who I think Obama V2.0 really was. But that is for a whole other article.

I was allowed a very brief opportunity to get to know these people – literally like a minute. I shook hands with the guy, and the woman I hadn’t yet met, and hugged the other two who I recognized. They seemed pretty happy I’d finally made it here. I called this collective the Unseen 5.

Then Obama V2.0 called me back over.

We spoke of my role within the organization. Given I had such a good understanding of how dreamscapes can be hijacked in this manner, I was to provide detailed instruction to Earth time incarnates on how it is carried out. I was effectively tasked with documenting everything I know about lucid dreaming and dispersing it free of charge to anyone who wanted to read it. The idea would be to strengthen the communication conduit it allowed between physical and non physical entities such as Obama V2.0 and the Elder Guardians.

What was more, Obama V2.0 mentioned that the organizations numbers used to be quite significantly higher; the recent (past 1000 years) decline in its numbers meant that the 5 of them were under a substantial logistics workload, even when operating from this higher state of consciousness. Obama V2.0 was the only full time operator, after all. Thus an additional task of mine included making their presence known to those with astral projection/ lucid dreaming abilities.

Obama V2.0 was concerned people with these skills didn’t take them as seriously as I did. He made a point of telling me the astral planes weren’t there just for people to go buzzing around on a holiday away from physical reality. They were the frontlines of a very real non physical war where the weapon of choice was being targeted directly at human consciousness.

I was to act as a sort of recruiter for them.

Sigh. This was getting to be a monumental responsibility. As if my obligations to the Elder Guardians weren’t enough. All because I thought it was a good idea to experiment with lucid dreaming.

After this Obama V2.0 once again beckoned for me to follow him into another room coming off the side of the chamber we were in. This room was quite a measure smaller, and had what looked like a ring of bricks in the middle of it. It looked sort of like an outdoor fire pit.

We walked over to these bricks and stood in front of them. Once again he briefed me on what was about to happen; this was a holographic projector and I was about to be shown something with it. I was about to be shown what {apparently} really happened at “the Fall of Man from the Garden of Eden” spoken about in biblical circles.

If I was being entirely honest, this was not something I was expecting, nor really cared about. I just wasn’t interested in biblical stories. They were things I’d thrown in that basket where I threw all the other things I thought were bullshit and utter nonsense. Like I said, I wasn’t religious.

I read the new testament once when I was a kid (13) after it being forced upon me by my school and that was about it. I ended up throwing it in the fire after having weird {non lucid} dreams about it. That would be the beginning of my rebellion against organized religion. I was about as far from being a soldier of God as one could possibly be, and yet I’d just had a conversation with what I liken to being the “Divine Creator”. I was the type of guy who shaved off my long hair when a boss at work said I looked like Jesus. I was a real enigma, that was for sure.

That is not to say I couldn’t respect people who believed in it all. I am definitely all for people believing in whatever they want to believe in. I just wasn’t big on people trying to “convert” me.

It seemed important that I experienced this projection though, so I listened to my briefing without complaint.

Obama V2.0 told me it was – again – very heavily linked with the spiritual amnesia, and told me to take notes of certain things that were going on in it. It was, according to him, where the amnesia first started. Those who are devoutly devoted to believing in the story of Adam and Eve may wish to skip the next part; this deviates from that tale quite considerably.

Obama V.20 got me to stand in the middle of this ring of bricks. They came about halfway up my shins.

What followed was the same dissolving of my surroundings like when I first entered the office of the Unseen 5. I was now standing completely in the middle of a flat landing on top of a mountain in a plane that was a mixture of physical and non physical substance. In front of me there were these bipedal ape like humans. They stood up like humans, and walked and acted like humans, but they were covered in fur from head to toe. Protruding from their teeth were very large fangs. They were the same things I had seen manning the light canons in my last experience with the Grand Elder.

Similar to the Indian god Hanuman.

I wasn’t just watching this thing play out; I was 100% completely there. I was experiencing the fall as if I was actually there living it. I could move around and interact with the environment, yet these beings could not see me. It was like how I’d manifested my own dreams in lucidity but much more surreal and vivid. This was a device that could create holographic virtual reality constructs like the one Obama V2.0 used for my test, only that the vividness contrast setting had been set on high. It was evidently a demonstration in the sort of tech these guys had at there disposal. If it hadn’t been for my awareness of my sleeping body back on earth, I could have very easily mistaken this for being “reality”.

I could hear Obama V2.0’s voice telepathically coming through into my head. He was explaining that these entities were symbolic of an entire race of beings; where I was seeing only 3 beings, this was really a representation of 3 entire separate races. Again, the complexity was deliberately being reduced so I could bring the information of it back here into the physical plane. Like the light canon circuit track, I was supposed to share it. If it wasn’t reduced in this manner, I wouldn’t be able to interpret it with my extremely limited earth mind once I “came back”. Obama V2.0 wanted this known on Earth.

These beings were standing around an altar in the middle of the landing. The landing itself was surrounded by a circular wall of rock. Behind me there was an opening in this wall at the edge of the mountain. This opening led to a staircase that wrapped back down behind the wall into green pasture fields below. It was an incredibly beautiful sight and reminded me of a photo I’d seen of a mountain village in Switzerland, except without the village. It truly was a utopian “garden paradise”. It was strange in that it was like these mountain ranges and the valley below them had just been cut away from the planet and left to free float in space.

Far below this vantage point, down in the fields below were even more of these similar beast races going about their business.

I got the impression – either from my higher self or from Obama V2.0 – that these races were responsible for the creation of what we know as the physical universe. Or at the very least, the part of it where Earth is located. They coexisted in complete harmony and peace.

My attention turned back towards the 3 races in front of me. One of them was extremely excited and hopping around. It pulled a cloth bag seemingly out of no where. Then it beckoned for the others to join it. It tipped the bag upside down over the altar. Out fell3 perfectly cut rectangular pieces of emerald about the size of dominos. These emerald stones each had strange glyphs carved within them. I did not recognize the glyphs as belonging to any civilization on Earth.

The excited race had one of the others pick up the stones. As soon as its hand touched it, a sudden blank look came across its face. It lost all cognitive ability and was just staring blankly straight ahead.

The excited race started laughing. The whole affair reminded me of school children playing a practical joke on their friend. After a moment, the one who brought the stones said some sort of incantation, and the feeble minded race snapped out of its daze. It shook its head in confusion and sort of looked around wondering what hell had just happened.

The third race looked on with curiosity. The presenter of the stones suggested they gather up the rest of the races in the valley below. It wanted to play a trick on them. The two others agreed.

The holographic scene changed. I was now looking at these races as they lined up on the steps behind the wall. One of the three trickster races stood at the gap in the wall that would allow them entry into the landing space of the altar. It was as if it was the door man guarding the entry into a nightclub. It was done in such a way so that no one behind the wall could see what was going on at the altar. They had been told there was something exciting they should see, but not told what it was.

The line was enormous. It wrapped down the steps of the mountain all the way into the valley below. This was how many races there were in this place; many thousands of them.

One by one, a race was called from the front of the line into the clearing. One by one they were led to the altar and told to pick up the stones. I watched as every single one of these races was turned into a feeble minded creature that could do no more than stare into the distance and drool incessantly. The angels/ demons/ beasts – whatever you wanted to call them – responsible for “building” our “domain” had just all been turned into what was essentially infants. What I was watching was the erasure of their higher consciousness. They just sort of bumbled around with no purpose, bumping into each other. They were completely oblivious towards anything, including the rock wall they were walking into. They had been turned into total idiots.

After all the races – with the exception of the three tricksters – had lost their higher memories and the tricksters had had their laugh, the one who presented the stones decided it was enough of the game. It said its incantation to try and wake them all up, but nothing happened. This trickster race panicked and ended up tripping over a rock near the altar. Its hand landed on the emerald stones, rendering it feeble minded as well.

I was watching the race who had watched on in curiosity; the only one who hadn’t been subjected to the amnesia stones. You could see its eyes light up as it realized the power that lie in front of it. It grabbed the hand of the last the race – the one the presenter had first demonstrated on – and forced its hand upon the stones. What remained was a single dominant race with its higher, celestial memories in tact. It could command the others like puppets and they wouldn’t even noticed. They wouldn’t even realize they were higher beings.

What happened next was incredibly strange.

As I stood staring at this last race, it suddenly started sniffing the air around it. I could see its nostrils flare as it did so. Even though this was a holographic scenario, it could smell me. I am absolutely certain of it. It turned around and stared directly into my eyes. It was the most evil look I have ever witnessed. It seemed possessed by something. Unlike the other races that still retained there divine spark, this thing didn’t have one. It was soulless.

Shortly thereafter, I began what I call a “controlled wake up”. These wake ups are not like when you are just asleep and then are suddenly awake. It is as if the physical reality becomes super imposed over the dreamscape. The physical reality slowly starts getting more “solid” as the dreamscape “thins” out. After about 20 seconds physical reality completely consumes the field of vision and the dreamscape is completely gone. I have had these sorts of controlled awakenings many times after coming out of a lucid dream. There is always this sort of waviness to the whole thing. It feels like you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

As I went through this controlled awakening, the voice of the All Being came through telepathically to me. It said that as I wake up, the downfall of humanity would begin. I took this to mean the futile practices of humanity which would allow for consciousness to wake up from the amnesia en masse.

As if this all wasn’t enough, the abduction dreams would begin to happen, before my final contact with the Grand elder.

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 4 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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[daegonmagus] – Part 2 – Contact with the Elder Guardians

The following is the second part from a series of articles describing the adventure that a follower who goes by the handle "daegonmagus" has experienced since reading MM. They are very interesting and fascinating. I hope that you all learn from his journey and maybe learn a thing or two as he relates his unique experiences to the readership here. 

-MM

Part 2 – Contact with the Elder Guardians

In the last part I talked about my first contact experience with a group of Elders resembling the Ascended Masters whilst lucid dreaming back in 2012.

I mentioned (in this last article) how these Elders told me [1] about a “spiritual amnesia” that was affecting mankind and cutting them off from a higher state of conscious awareness.

I also mentioned (in the article) how the [2] physical human brain had apparently been deliberately engineered to help with this dumbing down of consciousness.

It was during this experience that I was able to tap into this higher state of conscious awareness – what I refer to as the higher self or higher intellect.

The higher self (or higher intellect)

This higher self equates to a processing power orders of magnitude far above what we (normally) use whilst contained within the physical body.

It lets you see through physical and non physical realities like they are glass.

Different States of being

It is important to note here, that I use the connection with this higher state of mind to differentiate between [A] a lucid dream/ astral projection and [B] a mystical experience.

When I mention a mystical experience – or what I call an Auric projection – it means that I have been under this superior state of conscious awareness whilst lucid.

It is a completely different experience to what both astral projection and lucid dreaming entail.

Whilst in this state, there is a constant flux of information coming in and being perceived of higher reality aspects; only a very small percentage of it can ever be remembered upon waking up.

This information also contains soul-time memories, and is not limited to a single physical incarnation.

There is always a catch 22 dilemma when functioning from this state; you know the information coming in is important, but you are also aware you will forget most of it when awakening back into your physical body.

Thus one is forced to try and focus on specific elements to try and remember them when waking up.

It is beyond frustrating.

My mystical experiences

All in all I had 5 or so “mystical experiences” in which I was connected to this higher state of awareness. It was over a 7 year period, many of which the Grand Elder appeared in.

This is not including my “second contact” experience.

This “second contact experience” occurred as a recurring lucid dream.

In this recurring lucid dream, I was also connected to this state of awareness and being bombarded by information.

So (all told), including these recurring dreams, the amount of mystical experiences I had whilst connected to the higher self would easily be over 20 events.

Hijacking of dreamscape

In part one I briefly touched upon the idea that I was playing around with consciousness and conducting experiments with it whilst lucid dreaming.

It was apparently because I had developed advanced abilities in this area that the Ascended Masters were able to contact me; at least that is what they told me.

One of these experiments related to “hijacking” my wife’s dreamscape and implanting a dream scenario of my devising.

What I didn’t talk about, is that around this same time, my wife was also having her own contact experiences with both physical and non physical entities.

Wife’s Contact Experiences

These entities took on a myriad of different forms from [1] “angels” and [2] “demons” to [3] ETs wearing strange space suits.

I did not realize it at the time but they had been “visiting” my wife since she was a little kid.

She had only vaguely mentioned very few of these experiences in fear of me thinking she was crazy.

In actual fact she had had enough experiences to fill a whole volume. I did not get much of the specifics of these experiences until very recently (this year).

What I find curious is that when she was little, one of the angelic types suggested to her the same thing about the human brain; it had been deliberately created to hold consciousness at a lesser level.

In many of these visitations, she was also under the influence of a similar higher state of conscious awareness. Her description of this state of awareness matches my experience of it.

Having “synchronized” dreams and experiences.

I am not sure if it was because of my hijacking experiment or not, but thereafter my wife and I also began having “synchronized” dreams and experiences.

These related to visiting the same places whilst lucid (she was just as proficient at lucid dreaming and astral projecting as me, if not better).

Often times we would describe to each other a place we’d been to or a lucid dream we’d just had only to have the other finish the sentence with an exact description of the scenario.

Many of these synchronised dreams related to “waking up” and trying to retrieve each other from “sleep facilities”.

Consciousness brainwashing facilities

These “sleep facilities” were unique. In them, it appeared consciousness brainwashing was being undertaken, or (a cleansing of) memories of things we did in past lives or other worlds.

One of these synchronicities was a scenario where we were both killed in one world, and “woke up” in another. Other memories included being trained in remembering “timeline resets”.

Out of all of my mystical experiences, a great deal of them were synchronised in this manner.

One of the “worlds” we were both visiting prior to my first contact experience with the Elder Guardians, was this place that was very reminiscent of a movie theater.

We’d always pop out in a hallway that had various ‘theater” rooms coming off it. These rooms would be lined with chairs, in typical theater fashion, except that instead of a screen there was a spherical shaped portal floating in mid air.

Though I have no specific recollection of them being used for consciousness brainwashing, my wife remembers this place as being used for exactly that.

Whenever I would enter the portal in the theater room, it would take me to a completely different world.

My wife was also able to describe this same world in exact detail.

In this other world there is this weird road that sort of curves upwards into the sky. It sort of looks like what the great Wall Of China would look like if you bent it upwards; the gravity changes as you move along the road so you are always on it.

There appears to be some sort of ancient market festival going on and something to do with timeline resets.

I was having lucid dreams about both the portal theater and the market festival place almost weekly for a whole year; they were, evidently, astral assignments my handlers were sending me to.

There were also instances of being “attacked” whilst lucid that, fortunately for us, we were able to corroborate as both of us had experienced similar things happening.

Such things included weird entities entering our heads and pushing our consciousness to one side, distorting it in the process.

Others included typical succubus expeditions, timeline slips and things that aren’t even describable with human words.

At one point I had something extremely heavy – about 100kg – sit on me and crush my chest to the point I couldn’t breathe.

Majority of these strange occurrences would happen whilst in the sleep paralysis/ hypnogogic state.

Strange occurrences

My wife spoke of one astral projection experience where she went into our roof and found a strange creature living there guarding an ancient dusty box.

This creature was humanoid, had no face and pounced around like a cat. It would not let her anywhere near the box. It wanted to play with her, like a kitten would.

We had “ghosts” moving stuff in many of the houses we moved into.

Our life was one big paranormal experience that for us just became normality.

The weirdest example is a doppelganger version of myself that both my wife and daughter saw and heard that appeared when I was out with my son.

I believe such a doppelganger almost got me executed, but for the sake of brevity I will skip over that whole ordeal.

What I will mention was that this particular incident happened only a few short months after my recurring mystical dreams.

These eventually culminated in me remembering my own reincarnation at the guidance of the voice of the Grand Elder and the torture my soul had undergone moments prior to becoming incarnated in this current body – what I call “soul burning”.

Strange Lucid Dreams

The lucid dreams themselves were strange; they started as me appearing in an apocalyptic purgatorial like place.

There were broken decrepit houses every where one looked.

A single path that led seemingly into nowhere was the only thing besides the houses. There as what appeared to be another version of myself waiting for me along this road.

As I approached it I realized it was a zombie; it was me but it was devoid of all emotion, and as it noticed me it began to give chase.

The information that was coming in from my higher consciousness and through the voice of the Grand Elder told me how this was a part of my higher energetic body.

That body had been damaged by the spiritual amnesia;

It was effectively, a corrupted part of my soul from a higher, non physical plane;
It was an unseen baggage that I would always carry with me.

For about a year this dream would start from the exact same point and slowly progress.

It was like watching the same movie from the start over and over, but each time watching a little bit more before turning it off.

My zombie would chase me and eventually catch me and I would wake up as soon as it touched me.

Eventually my time line resetting memories would start kicking in, and I would be back at the start of the dream with 2 zombies chasing me instead of one upon a zombie touching me.

It would progress in this fashion, with the number of zombies doubling every time I got reset.

It got to the point where I had thousands upon thousands of zombified versions of my energetic body chasing me.

After about a year of having these dreams on a monthly, sometime fortnightly basis, I started to realize it was the period between a zombie touching me and “resetting” that the Grand Elder was trying to get me to remember; whenever I had one of these dreams, my focus would go entirely on trying to figure out what was happening in between the resets.

The amount of information coming through each and every time I had one of these experiences was intense.

I was constantly comparing everything that was happening with the physical world my body was asleep in…

…whilst listening to the Grand Elder’s voice telling me to pay attention to certain details.

They were simply not normal dreams or even normal lucid dreams.

He was guiding me through this experience each and every time I had it like I was back at college opening a textbook and continuing study of a subject from a previous week.

Each experience thus was a continuation of the “lessons” from the previous one.

The Grand Elder would not let up in what he was trying to show/ teach me.

A force controlling the zombified energetic bodies

Because of my connection to my higher mind, I could feel that some kind of external force was controlling these zombified energetic bodies. It was an incredibly strong telepathic connection.

I could sense the raw hatred of this external force coming through; I simply knew it was not part of the zombie’s make up.

It was pure evil and I knew whatever it was, was the same Slave God the Grand Elder had told me was responsible for the Ancient Egyptian slave trade and the spiritual amnesia.

This purgatorial domain I was in it evidently owned and controlled.

In the last experience I was being chased by thousands of these zombies when all of a sudden I realized this hatred emotion I could use to my advantage.

I started taunting these zombies as they gave chase which angered the controller immensely.

Like it’s hatred, I could feel this anger surging through.

I went out of my way to bring this anger to a level where the Slave God would lose control of the situation.

Then I just stopped running and turned around, deliberately allowing the zombies to catch me.

My plan had worked.

The next thing I knew I was being taken to a sort of operating room and was being strapped to a bed.

The zombified versions of my energetic bodies all stood around me, as I was hooked up to a strange piece of apparatus.

Torture!

What followed was the most excruciating torture I have ever experienced in either lucid dreaming or physical reality.

It was unbelievably intense that it literally felt like my very soul was on fire.

It felt like I was being electrocuted with incredibly high current as well as being cut to pieces and set on fire all at once.

I called it Soul Burning.

At the same time this was all carried out there was things being done that I can only describe as a brainwashing regime courtesy of the same apparatus that was torturing me.

It was like it had the ability to instill my very being with false memories.

I could feel things being spliced into my soul that I knew should not have been there.

The controller was so angered by my insolence, that he made the zombies increase the savageness of their “purging” me into one of them.

They ripped and tore at my soul so brutally that I could feel it coming to pieces.

It was a similar feeling to what projecting into the anomaly had done to my consciousness, except that it wouldn’t disintegrate my higher mind.

What was worse was that I suddenly remembered every other time this had happened to me.

Fourty thousand years worth of lifetimes that ended with this same torture all came flooding back to me.

Each one amplified the pain by a million.

Because I was operating from my higher mind I could feel every single one of these tortures as if they were all happening at the same time.

The Grand Elder had warned me it was going to be an uncomfortable memory, but I did not care.

The knowledge of my soul’s history was more important to me than comfort.

My commitment had been to remember whatever was necessary and bring it back here into the physical plane at all costs.

After the soul burning session finished, the zombies all left, courtesy of the controller and I found myself lying alone on the bed in this hellish operating room.

Finished and exhausted

I was completely, 100% lucid and could remember everything that had just happened as well as that somewhere back on Earth my body was asleep in its bed.

My consciousness was completely detached from it.

Whatever it was that had carried out this torture on me had failed to properly administer the amnesia, and I realized this was exactly what the Grand Elder wanted me to see.

I was, however, mentally and emotionally spent from everything that had just transpired.

With my last ounce of energy I deliberately projected my consciousness away from that purgatorial realm into space – I didn’t even have enough energy to get back to my body I was that exhausted.

So I just floated in space for what seemed like a minute, looking at some nearby stars.

There was a suddenly change in my environment as my perceptive field went from that of the universe to a wall of skin that clung to me and enclosed me within it.

That is when I realized I was free floating in a placenta as a fetus.

I even kicked out and could feel the resistance of the skin in my foot as I did so.

This placenta provided a great soothing comfort for me after the whole soul burning ordeal; it was incredibly inviting and felt as though it was healing me as I floated within it.

Shortly after this I awoke back in my bed.

I was certain this was a memory of the moments prior to me being incarnated into this current body.

The Grand Elder plucks me out…

Several months later I was again abducted out of another lucid dream by the Grand Elder.

This time he showed himself to me like he did at the 2012 gathering in the celestial courtyard; it was the very same being, I am 100% sure of this.

He told me that the ordeal in the purgatorial realm was necessary for me to remember before this second meeting with him could be undertaken.

He was teaching me a higher knowledge about consciousness and how it was being affected by the amnesia.

Like the reincarnation dreams this was yet another Auric experience and the information coming through was with a potency that the Earth mind is just not capable of processing.

Again I was taken to a point on the outskirts of a universe in a different, non physical plane.

There was this sort of racing circuit laid out; it was similar to a formula one track just floating randomly in space.

There were these canon like things blotted about around the track randomly that were shooting light far out into the universe. Guarding these canons were these hairy, bipedal, monkey like beasts.

The Grand Elder told me my mind had been deliberately sped up so that I could comprehend this light, which I was perceiving as if it was being slowed down.

The beasts could apparently not see me because their minds were operating at a lower frequency; I was moving faster than the light, they weren’t.

I was also told by the Grand Elder I was seeing these canons in this manner so I could more easily remember them back here in the physical plane.

The actual devices cannot be comprehended by the limited human mind.

This light was not the same as light that we know of on earth.

It was of a much higher frequency and, according to the Grand Elder was responsible for the creation of physical and non physical universes.

We watched as the beasts pointed the canons upwards and fired light pulses out into the vast empty space that surrounded us.

The pulses would fly through space until they collided with the pulses from other canons, whereby whole galaxies would just appear out of no where from the collision.

Suddenly I could see a myriad of stars that had formed because of these collisions. This was happening in every direction we looked. These whole galaxies were extremely small from our vantage point.

There was probably about 20 or so canons placed strategically on this circuit track.

Whenever one of the beasts would fire their canon, you could see the light pulse move around the track before coming out of it.

It was strange in that it looked like a racing track but functioned more like an electronic circuit. You could see the light enter various components before reaching the canons.

Another lesson

What followed was the Grand Elder giving me yet another lesson in consciousness and how it was being affected by the amnesia.

Apparently the Slave Gods had somehow hijacked this light here, right as it came from the source before it could even create the first non physical universes.

The way it was explained to me was that they had embedded “codes” that would affect consciousness in a similar manner to how we vary digital pulses using Pulse Width Modulation.

This effectively meant a consciousness – any consciousness – could be used as a carrier of information that was not part of the “divine” creator’s purpose.

Consciousness could be controlled remotely in this “place” by changing the PWM codes.

This was the whole point of the circuit track we were watching.

The beasts were there to ensure consciousness was being kept in a dumbed down state, and creating the “realities” where those consciousnesses could be trapped.

After this, the Grand Elder took me below the circuit track. We were now in the middle of what appeared to be an electronics manufacturing factory.

The divine light would drop out of the track above us and on to a conveyor belt that was lined with cell phones and similar technology.

It would go into the phones, the phones would be picked up by even more of these beasts, packaged and sent off for shipment.

It was an extremely bizarre affair and, to begin with, I didn’t quite understand what I was looking at.

The Grand Elder told me that the consciousness manipulation technology I had just witnessed was directly connected (at a quantum level) to technologies currently being used around the world.

The actual connection was never explained to me. I was just made to take note that there was a connection.

Shortly after this the dream ended.

Back to the physical world

About 3 months later is when I was very nearly killed by my own neighbors.

My hand was cut open and I was left permanently disabled in my left hand as a result.

As I lay in a hospital bed that very night waiting for surgery, I could hear a crowd of voices in my head all speaking incredibly fast.

The languages they spoke in were not any languages native to Earth.

This was new to me.

These voices were so loud and fast that I thought I was going crazy.

I thought my mind had been broken by the whole ordeal, and that this was going to be my life from then on out.

Unbeknownst to me, about 50kms away at her mother’s house, my wife was also hearing similar voices that same night.

Whereas I could not make out anything mine were saying, hers were screaming “THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!” over and over again.

This was apparently directly in relation to me being almost being killed and having my hand cut open. The idea it could have all been instigated by my doppelganger didn’t enter my mind until this year.

And yet, the crazy train didn’t stop there…

Ah. this is enough for now. There's a lot of "meat" to absorb here. Soak it in. Enjoy it, and soon enough part 3 will be posted. Best Regards. -MM

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Fallout from the American rout in Afghanistan in August 2021, and now it’s a whole new “ballgame”

I dedicate this article to "Nick" who asked what will the Middle East look like when China replaces the United States as the dominant nation.

I want to take a moment and acknowledge that there is a lot of historical events going on right now. (Sigh.) They have been covered through the various “news” outlets over and over all with various “spins” and opinions. I am sure that you are all getting tired of this. Especially for youse Americans who are (probably) just exhausted by it all.

Yes, the pre-planned Clusterfuck in Kabul, or Bay of Pigs 2.0, or whatever shook the world as victims of 20 years of lies and death reasserted a modicum of control over their situation. The outrage and howling from the CIA-controlled media and the Establishment over Biden's correct decision is hilarious.

Posted by: gottlieb | Aug 22 2021 14:11 utc | 1

It’s been a very crazy week.

Personally, I’ve been a tad busy, but then you have the US failure in Afghanistan. But… is it really a failure, or just a regrouping?

The long-term optimism of China is great but the US does not care about that.  The US has not been number one at anything for a long time;  not education, literacy, healthcare, internet speed, and all the things called "human development".  At the turn of the century the U.S. ranked about 18 on the UN Human Development Index adjusted for equality.  Today it is 28.  

Yet if you ask the average American what country is the best in the world, he will say the US.  The people do not even realize how far they have fallen compared to the rest of the world.  That shows how good the US propaganda system is.  The US is #1 at propaganda.  #1 in military spending too, although the technology of the weapons is declining.  #1 in obesity.  #1 in junk culture.  Yes, bread and circus to keep the masses happy works.

The U.S. does not care about the development of the people.  It does not care about cooperation.  

The U.S. does not care about winning wars.  Wars are the end in itself.  It is how the wealth of the people is transferred upwards.  That is why during the "War OF Terror" the U.S. has been steadily declining "when adjusted for equality" from 18 to 28. 

The U.S. has not "lost" in Afghanistan, because it had nothing to lose.  Nor has the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan.  

It has just been a pivot.  

CIA special activities, special forces and mercenaries are "stay behinds".  They will now regroup the mujahideen and create a civil war that will last for another 20 years.  They will also intensify direction of the mujahideen to former Russian republics, Chechnya, Xinjiang, Myanmar, Thailand, and anywhere else they can get a foothold for regime change and to attack the BRI.

The US takes China and Russia's kindness as weakness.  It will take what kindness is offered and then stab the giver in the back.  The US will use whatever sabotage it can against the BRI.  

America is not interested in cooperation.  

The battlefield of propaganda has been well prepared for the American people.  They believe the US has many aggressive enemies, and all (illegal) US wars (of aggression) are defensive.  The vast majority believe anything from the CIA's Mighty Wurlitzer.

Regards,

[name withheld]

This (mid-August 2021) was a week where the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan overshadowed everything else. That is okay as huge consequences will flow from these events. The future history books (or what ever they will use) will record these events as one of the most significant dates and contributing events that will eventually lead up to the start of the “New Beginning” of the new global order.

And it will, as this comment foreshadows…

When will other occupied suzerainties ask Imperialist forces to leave? 

The Taliban has been fighting the Imperial forces since their occupation started. However, people in Germany, Japan, South Korea,… that have been occupied by the Imperialists over many decades do nothing. Aren’t they democracy? What does it tell about these SUZERAINTIES? What percentage of their transactions are in Imperialist’s currencies? Are you okay with imperialism? Imperialists go back!

Name a democracy that isn’t a suzerainty.

Will Afghanistan’s fiasco create any wave of change?

Posted by: Max | Aug 22 2021 14:23 utc | 3

Hey! What the heck is a “suzerainty”? That’s a new word for me.

"a position of control by a sovereign or state over another state that is internally autonomous."

So, a nation can be under the control of another nation, while still having it’s own domestic laws, rules and culture. So Japan, would be under the control of the United States as a vassal state, but is still allowed to keep Japanese culture, society, laws and rules domestically. However, internationally, it must obey and do what ever the United States says.

The USA tells Japan to join the QUAD. They join the QUAD. The USA tells them to buy USA debt. They buy USA debt. But if the girls want to wear kimonos, watch strange television, and have a giant penis festival, that’s just fine.

So Japan is a suzerainty of the United States.

Hey! You learn something every day.

So it has got me to thinking. You know. I start to ponder things, and wonder about things. So, I wonder what the difference between a suzerainty and a “vassal state” is?

Vassal state

State
A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. 

Vassal states were common among the Empires of the Near East, dating back to the era of the Egyptian, Hittite and Mitanni conflict, as well as Ancient China. 

The use of vassal states continued through the middle ages, with the last Empire to use such states being the Ottoman Empire. 

The relationships between vassal rulers and empires was dependent on the policies and agreements of each empire. 

While payment of tribute and military service is common amongst vassal states, the degree of independence and benefits given to vassal states varied. Today, more common terms are puppet state, protectorate, client state, associated state or satellite state.

-Wikipedia

So, to me it appears that as a Vassal State, the controlling Empire can also dictate domestic behaviors, society and laws as it deems necessary. While a suzerainty is permitted domestic autonomy.

We can thus think that a “suzerainty” is a subset of a “vassal state”.

Interesting stuff.

It puts the entire perspective of what the world really looks like and operates into a much greater perspective. And most certainly what the United States actually is in the greater scheme of things.

To the world at large, the United States is a big massive, bad bully. That if not “tamed” by the rest of the world, it will end up consuming it and destroying it. As stated in this video. Funny how this section was never shown on American media…

Some haggling seems to continue today but the outcome is assured.

Trump has something to say…

Yada, yada, yada.

Now for the “meat”…

Big warning; long read.

And as my articles tend to be long, expect this one to be encyclopedic. To fully understand what is transpiring in this far-away mountainous area you need to know some history. And Jeeze! There’s a lot of history.

By the time you are 25% done reading, you should be moe informed than a full 90% of the people around you. At 50%, that number jumps to 95%, and at the end of this article, you will be more informed than 99.99999% of those around you.

Such a responsibility!

Do you want this level of understanding?

We will avoid all the great pilliages of the Genghis Khan and the Persions and all the rest, and we will start when the UK British Empire decided to annex the region as a Vassal State.

Then we will explore how the Soviet Union Empire decided to annex the region as a Vassal State.

And finally, we will explore how the United States Military Empire decided to annes the region as a Vassal State.

Long read. As I said.

So first, some history…

The usual disclaimers apply. Content edited for this venue all credit to the original authors, etc.

Britain’s first war in Afghanistan: what happened and why?

HistoryEXTRA

Britain’s first war in Afghanistan took place in the Victorian era, beginning in 1839. Historian William Dalrymple explores the conflict in conversation with Rob Attar, in a piece first published in 2013, and discusses what parallels can be drawn with the fighting in recent years

The First Anglo-Afghan War: what happened?

Concerned that Russia was expanding its influence in the region, Britain invaded Afghanistan in 1839, ousting ruler Dost Mohammad and replacing him with Shah Shuja, who had been king from 1803–10.

Insurrections later broke out, compelling the British garrison to flee Kabul. Believing they had been promised safe passage, a large contingent of British and Indian forces attempted a retreat in January 1842, but were ambushed by Afghan troops, leading to the deaths of around 18,000 soldiers. Abandoned in Kabul, Shah Shuja was killed.

British forces managed to recapture Kabul later that year and elsewhere laid waste to the countryside but eventually decided to pull out of the country altogether. Dost Mohammad returned to Kabul in 1843 and his dynasty would remain in power until the 1970s.

William Dalrymple, author of Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, discusses the First Anglo-Afghan War in conversation with Rob Attar

How does your book change our understanding of the First Anglo-Afghan War?

It is one of those old chestnuts that’s already got a shelf-and-a-half of books written about it. So it seemed the only point of dedicating four years to this was to try to completely rewrite the story, obviously with a view to seeing it in the light of what is going on now, but more specifically trying to cover both sides of the story, which has never been done before. To date, not one book on the war has used a single Afghan source. Everything we have is entirely from the British side.

I did several trips to Afghanistan to search out more sources and by the end I had nine full-length Afghan accounts of the war. What emerged from them was that the war had a completely different dramatis personae and a more fractured regional make-up than the British seemed to be aware of. They saw an undifferentiated wall of bigoted bearded Afghans coming towards them but in reality the resistance was divided by tribe, ethnic group and language.

My most exciting find was the autobiography of Shah Shuja. He had been written off by the British and Afghan nationalists as a weak and hopeless guy, but I think he was wonderful. He was a poet, civilised and immensely likeable. He just didn’t have military luck ever in his career.

Astonishingly he was from the same sub-tribe, the Popalzai, as current Afghan president Hamid Karzai. We’ve put the same guy in twice! And he was brought down by the Ghilzai who today make up the foot soldiers of the Taliban. This is the same tribal war, continuing under slightly different flags, 170 years later.

Has your research changed your view of the First Anglo-Afghan War’s origins?

The account I give is subtly, but not completely, changed from previous versions. The basic reason for the British invasion was a blown-up fear of Russian intervention and here there are parallels, oddly enough, with the war in Iraq, with a ‘dodgy dossier’. A group of hawks manipulated intelligence to exaggerate a threat that didn’t exist in reality as substantially as they thought it did.

There was this episode when a young great gamer, Sir Henry Rawlinson, was riding through Persia to join the Shah of Persia’s camp in the north-west of the country. One night Rawlinson found himself in the very dodgy borderlands between Persia and Afghanistan and, just as dawn was breaking, he witnessed a party of horsemen coming down the valley towards him. He saw that they were Russian Cossacks heading in the direction of the Afghan border. He headed them off at the top of the pass and found them eating their breakfast.

There was a young Russian officer who refused to talk to him in Russian, Persian or French but agreed to chat in Jagatai Turkish. He told Rawlinson he was on his way to the Persian camp so Rawlinson rode straight there to see the Shah. The Shah said that the Russians were nothing to do with him but were going to open diplomatic relations with Dost Mohammad in Kabul.

This was the yellowcake of its day [in 2002, it was claimed that Saddam Hussein had been trying to obtain yellowcake uranium to develop weapons of mass destruction]. For 30 years hawks had been worrying about Russia moving towards Afghanistan and there was this whole literature already in London about Russia taking Afghanistan then sweeping down the Khyber and expelling the British from India. There was no evidence for this at all until this chance discovery.

There was this new governor general, Lord Auckland, who had inherited a group of belligerently hawkish and Russophobic advisors, led by the hopeless William Macnaghten. They ignored the advice of the one British official in India who really knew Afghanistan, Alexander Burnes. He was sending despatches saying that Dost Mohammad wanted to ally with the British rather than the Russians, but they didn’t listen and advised Auckland to oust Dost Mohammad and bring in what they described as the ‘ousted legitimate ruler’ Shah Shuja.

How did the British fare in the early military operations?

The war followed the same trajectory as the current conflict. Everyone warned that it would be catastrophically difficult, but in fact they conquered the country almost instantly with minimal casualties. Then you had, as happened in 2001, the government crowing that they’d seen off the naysayers and it was going to be easy.

For the first year it did seem to be so.

The Afghans were very friendly and their noblemen went hunting, did amateur theatricals and played cricket with the British. But slowly it began to unravel, from Helmand, working northwards. There was more and more resistance until the British found themselves surrounded in Kabul without any control of the countryside around it. Again, it was exactly the same as the situation today.

Where did this resistance come from?

Here my interpretation is different from that of the British. They assumed that the Afghans were rising up against Shah Shuja as much as themselves but it’s quite clear that a lot of the resistance was from irritated royalists who wanted Shah Shuja to shed his allegiance to the British. They thought the British were abusing agreements he’d made with them, which was indeed the case.

The initial idea had been that Shah Shuja would be given rule and the British would just help him enforce it, but, rather like with the tensions between Karzai and the British and Americans, increasingly the British got irritated with their own puppet and tried to bully him or take unilateral action. Macnaghten and Burnes gradually despaired of ever running Shah Shuja effectively and just took control of Afghanistan themselves.

What we get very clearly from Afghan sources is the motivations of individual leaders, which were all quite different. Abdullah Khan Achakzai was a young aristocrat whose girlfriend was seduced by Burnes, so for him it was a personal slight. He made a wonderful speech the night before the rebellion saying: “We have to put a stop right here and now, otherwise these English will ride the donkey of their desires into the field of stupidity, to the point of having us all arrested and deported into foreign imprisonment.”

Aminullah Khan Logari was a self-made man who had worked his way up for over 60 years of service. He was treated very peremptorily by a young British official who threw him off his lands. It was people such as Logari and Achakzai who kicked the whole thing off. They called everyone to arms and, within a few days, 50,000 had gathered in Kabul to fight the British.

Did the British just retreat then?

There were two quite substantial battles that they lost through their incompetence and then they retreated. It was during the retreat under the promise of safekeeping that they got shot down. The East India Company at the time still used the Brown Bess musket, which was great in a flat European field like Waterloo but couldn’t fire long distances or uphill. The Afghans had these clumsy big jezails that took an hour to load but nonetheless could fire a mile downhill and were perfect for mountain warfare.

How did the British allow this catastrophe to happen?

It was quite fantastically incompetent British leadership. As well as Burnes and Macnaghten, who were always at each other’s necks, there was this gout-ridden old general called William Elphinstone who hadn’t seen action since the battle of Waterloo and was an invalid. On the first morning of the revolt he tried to get on his horse, which fell on top of him and he was more or less out of the action from there. By their own indecision and hopelessness the British lost the war very quickly. They lost all their food and ammunition within about 48 hours and it was only a matter of time before they had to retreat.

Was it a political or military decision to pull out of the country altogether?

Retreat was inevitable once they’d lost their food and ammunition, so that was a military decision. The Kabul garrison was wiped out but there were others surviving in Jalalabad and Kandahar. They were reinforced and the following spring they returned and laid waste to southern Afghanistan.

This army of retribution committed war crimes on a grand scale, raping and murdering women and children.

After that, the decision to pull out was an economic one and this is also true of the later conflicts. Resistance can be defeated but only at huge cost, because the country is so diffused and the geography makes it so difficult. Plus there is no way of defraying the cost of the occupation. If you invade Iraq you can take the oil, or in the Punjab you can tax the rich, fertile land, but the entire tax revenue of Afghanistan never paid then and doesn’t pay now even a fraction of the cost of occupation.

How might your book inform policy makers today?

I do think there’s a huge amount to be learned from the Afghan version of events. It gives a precision into understanding the resistance, which has been lacking to date.

The story of the First Anglo-Afghan War provides clear warnings about the dangers of being trapped in Kabul, surrounded and with no allies, having fallen out with the people you put into power.

The problem is that each generation fails to learn these lessons.

George Lawrence was one of the troops taken hostage during the retreat and so survived to write his memoirs. He saw history repeating itself in the 1870s with the Second Anglo-Afghan War and he roused himself to write a letter to The Times. He said:

“A new generation has arisen, which instead of profiting from the solemn lessons of the past, is willing and eager to embroil us in the affairs of that turbulent and unhappy country… The disaster of the retreat from Kabul should stand forever as a warning to the statesmen of the future not to repeat the policies that bore such butter fruit in 1839–42.”

He wasn’t listened to in 1870, and this is now the fourth lost Afghan war.

William Dalrymple is an award-winning writer and historian based in India. His books include The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company (Bloomsbury, 2019), Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond, co-authored with Anita Anand (Bloomsbury, 2017) and Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan (Bloomsbury, 2014) 

This article was first published in the February 2013 issue of BBC History Magazine

So what the heck is going on?

Lessons of the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan

After Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988-89, the regime it was defending there fell. This experience contributes to present fears that, if America withdraws from Afghanistan, the regime it is defending will also fall. A closer look at Soviet and Russian actions between 1988 and 1992, though, suggests that this need not have been the result then — and that it need not be the result of an American withdrawal now either.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 to prop up the Marxist regime that had come to power the previous year but which appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

Unlike the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, however, Soviet forces encountered prolonged resistance that they were unable to defeat.

In order to promote his goals of domestic reform and improving Moscow’s relations with the West, Gorbachev withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan (which he had termed a “bleeding wound”) between May 1988 and February 1989.

At the time, it was widely predicted that the Marxist regime Moscow had been supporting in Afghanistan would fall within a few months — or even weeks — of the final departure of Soviet forces.

The regime of President Najibullah, however, survived until April 1992, over three years after the Soviet withdrawal.

Several factors contributed to the regime’s longevity, including the continuation of Soviet military and economic assistance, the mistakes made by some of the mujahideen (the Afghan forces that had fought against the Soviet occupation) as well as their Pakistani supporters, divisions among the various mujahideen groups, and the Najibullah regime’s successful exploitation of these problems.

After the downfall of Gorbachev and of the Soviet Union itself in December 1991, though, Moscow’s assistance to Najibullah ended.

Without this assistance, Najibullah was unable to continue effectively exploiting the weaknesses of his adversaries. Instead, they were able to exploit his, and so his regime fell. This paper will examine how Moscow’s actions helped Najibullah survive but then contributed to his downfall, as well as how Moscow’s actions affected the other factors influencing the fortunes of the Afghan Marxist regime.

1989-91: Soviet Support for Kabul Continues

Although the Soviet troop presence in Afghanistan ended in February 1989, large-scale Soviet military and economic assistance to its Marxist protégés there continued.

As Soviet troops withdrew, they left behind literally all their matériel except for the vehicles needed to transport them back over the border. In addition, as Soviet forces withdrew from Eastern Europe following the downfall of communist regimes there in late 1989, some of this weaponry was transferred to Afghanistan.

From early 1989 to late 1991, Soviet assistance to Kabul reportedly amounted to $300 million per month. Perhaps this is not a large figure by today’s standards, but it was a much greater amount than the mujahideen were receiving after the Soviet withdrawal, and was a considerable financial burden on the economically beleaguered USSR.

Weaponry that Moscow supplied to Kabul included MiG- 27 fighter jets (the Afghan Marxist regime had an air force with some 200 aircraft plus helicopters). In addition, as Zalmay Khalilzad (whom President George W. Bush appointed as special presidential envoy for Afghanistan and then U.S. ambassador to Kabul) noted in 1991,

Moscow has provided more than thirteen hundred Scud-B missiles, hundreds of shorter range Frogs, several hundred tanks, and sixteen hundred five-ton trucks. To keep Kabul supplied, the Soviets launched the biggest air supply effort in its history, sending some twenty-five or more IL-76 transport planes to Kabul each day for much of 1989 (Khalilzad 1991, 82-83).

Indeed, all this was reportedly more than the Marxist regime could effectively use. To help them, though, Moscow left behind about 300 advisers, some of whom reportedly participated in the firing of the Scud missiles at mujahideen targets. (In addition to a regular army of 55,000 men, the Kabul regime also had the support of a 10,000-strong presidential guard and various militias, including an especially effective one raised and led by the ethnic Uzbek leader, General Abdul Rashid Dostum.)

When the Soviets withdrew, much of the anti-foreign-presence motivation for many Afghans to fight with the mujahideen disappeared.

Indeed, some mujahideen groups themselves appeared tainted for being so very close to Pakistan. Soviet assistance also allowed Kabul to effectively compete with Pakistan and the various mujahideen groups based there in paying off local commanders and tribal leaders inside Afghanistan.

While Pakistan tied its support to various mujahideen groups not only to whether or not they fought against Kabul but whether they did so in the manner specified by the ISI, Kabul gave support to various groups just in exchange for not fighting against it. As Khalilzad noted at the time, “Najib’s offer is more attractive than ISI’s; while ISI wants it clients to fight and risk their lives, Najib is willing to pay if the commanders agree not to fight” (Khalilzad 1991, 81).

Further, the groups Pakistan supported were not always effective. In March 1989, some 15,000 Pakistani-backed mujahideen forces attacked the town of Jalalabad. Their unwillingness to accept prisoners, though, meant that the defending government forces had strong motivation to fight on. Although the mujahideen laid siege to the town, the Kabul government was able to resupply and reinforce its garrison by air, launch a counterattack, and break the siege by mid-May 1989. This was a major humiliation for Pakistan and its allies.

In addition to military assistance, though, Moscow provided Kabul with key economic assistance. As mujahideen forces approached Kabul and interrupted the supply of food and other consumer goods into the city, the Soviets airlifted these commodities to the Afghan capital.

At Moscow’s urging, the Kabul regime attempted to broaden the basis of its support by downplaying its Marxist nature, appointing non-Marxists to visible positions and trying to appeal to nationalism.

According to contemporary accounts, though, these efforts were not particularly successful, as the Marxist regime — especially President Najibullah — was extremely unpopular with the Afghan population. Indeed, while outwardly broadening the base of the regime, it appears that Najibullah actually narrowed it by increasing reliance on his hard-core supporters.

But while Najibullah and his regime lacked popular support, the mujahideen themselves frequently provided Afghans with strong incentive either to support the Marxist regime or to see it as the lesser of two evils. The mujahideen’s efforts to impose an economic blockade on Kabul as well as their periodically shelling it did nothing to endear them to the citizens of the capital.

Even worse, when the mujahideen captured the town of Khost in March 1991, they not only looted it but killed all the government forces they had captured instead of holding them prisoner. This action not only created fear in other towns; it also made clear to irresolute government forces that defecting to the mujahideen was probably not an option for them.

Mujahideen groups also fought among themselves, and this was something that the Marxist government was able to exploit. As was noted in the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Strategic Survey 1989-1990,

…by early 1990, although the mujahideen continued to control the bulk of the countryside, most of them had in effect ceased being mujahideen, in the sense that they were no longer fighting against the central government, but were instead attempting to work out compromises with Kabul which would ensure their local power, particularly against their former fellow comrades in arms. 

Most local commanders had reverted to the traditional relationship between local powers and a weak central state that has shaped Afghan history since the eighteenth century. 

The central state is seen less as an enemy than as a referee which can help to promote the interests of the local group. 

This development was expected to play a decisive role after the collapse of the Najibullah regime, not before. 

That it has come into play so soon is a result of the unexpected adroitness of the regime, aided by the ineffectiveness of US-Pakistan policies (IISS 1990, 160).

At the time, Khalilzad seemed to suggest that the Afghan Marxist regime might even come out on top in the ongoing conflict, when he noted that the Kabul regime “…is likely to increase its efforts to reach out to make deals with commanders and the supporters of the former king at the expense of the majority of the Peshawar-based leadership. Should it succeed, it can reduce the fighting in the country” (Khalilzad 1991, 84).

1992: Russian Support Ends

But, of course, the Afghan Marxist regime did fall in April 1992. Once again, Russian actions appear to have played a key role in bringing this about.

Shortly after the failed August 1991 coup attempt in Moscow and under very different political circumstances, Moscow and Washington agreed to stop aiding their respective Afghan allies as of January 1, 1992.

Not only did Moscow end its arms supply to Kabul, but it also stopped providing it with food and fuel. By contrast, although Pakistan had agreed to stop aiding the mujahideen, Saudi aid to them via Pakistan continued.

Shortly after this in February 1992, Najibullah (a Pushtun) apparently tried to bolster his authority over the Uzbek militia chieftain Dostum by appointing a fellow Pushtun as a commander in the northwestern Uzbek heartland.

But if this was his intention, it backfired in April 1992, when Dostum defected from the government and joined forces with long-time anti-Soviet Tajik mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud (whose relationship with both Pakistan and the Pushtun mujahideen groups it supported was adversarial). Non-Pushtun forces from the north and Pushtun forces from the south then rushed to capture Kabul, with the Marxist regime splitting along ethnic lines and either joining forces or making deals with their ethnic kin.

Najibullah resigned and sought sanctuary inside the UN compound in Kabul after his attempt to reach the airport was blocked (by his erstwhile ally Dostum, according to some).

The Islamic State of Afghanistan was declared, but the mujahideen remained divided.

After a short, sharp battle for control of Kabul, the Dostum-Massoud alliance prevailed over their Pushtun opponents, for the time being. Russia appeared to play no role in these events.

Conclusions from the Russian Experience

Six observations can be made about the events described here:

First, even after the withdrawal of Soviet forces was completed in February 1989, Soviet military and economic assistance enabled an unpopular regime to remain in power in Afghanistan — at least, in the major population centers — for over three years.

Second, despite continuing to receive significant aid from Pakistan and other nations, the mujahideen were unable to overthrow the Afghan Marxist regime so long as that regime was receiving significant aid from the Soviet Union.

Third, opposition to the Afghan Marxist regime appeared to decline after Soviet troops withdrew. Further, while they had not performed effectively during the period of Soviet occupation, the effectiveness of Afghan government forces increased significantly after the Soviet withdrawal.

Fourth, after Soviet assistance to Kabul ended at the beginning of 1992, the Afghan Marxist regime’s strength declined rapidly.

Fifth, the collapse of the regime in April 1992, though, was not due just (or perhaps even mainly) to the actions of the Pakistani-backed Pushtun mujahideen. Indeed, the immediate downfall of the regime was precipitated by the defection of the previously pro-regime Uzbek militia leader, Dostum, to the side of the non-Pushtun opposition to the regime.

Sixth, as the collapse of the regime approached, the most salient division in Afghanistan was not Marxist vs. Islamist, but Pushtun vs. non-Pushtun.

History, of course, is not destined to repeat itself. These six observations from the 1989-92 period, however, may have salience for the present as well as the short- and medium-term future. They suggest the following:

First, even after the withdrawal of ISAF forces is completed by the end of 2014, American and allied military and economic assistance to the current less-than-popular Karzai government may enable it to remain in power in the major population centers.

Second, the Taliban are not destined to return to power, despite the likelihood that they will continue to receive Pakistani assistance so long as the Kabul government continues to receive significant aid from America and its coalition partners.

Third, opposition to the Karzai government may actually decline after the American and coalition withdrawal. Once they are responsible for their own survival, the effectiveness of Afghan government forces may quickly increase.

Fourth, if American and allied support for it ends, the Kabul government’s strength is highly likely to decline rapidly.

Fifth, under these circumstances, ethnic divisions within the Kabul government leadership are likely to become exacerbated. It is highly likely that the non-Pushtun officer corps would seek to oust the Pushtun president, Hamid Karzai, and his entourage.

Sixth, even if (indeed, especially if) the Taliban manage to seize control of Kabul once again, the most salient division within Afghanistan is once again likely to be Pushtun vs. non-Pushtun.

Well that was pretty dry and scholarly…

And yeah. That’s what it was.

Real events are colorful, painful, full of joy and sadness. They are visceral. Here’s a far better explanation…

Afghanistan: The Soviet Union’s War in Vietnam

When the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan in December 1979, it set the stage for a decade-long quagmire, similar to the American War in Vietnam.

By William Stroock

In late 1979, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was torn apart by a civil war pitting the weak Communist government of Hafizullah Amin against several moderate and fundamentalist Muslim rebel armies.

The war had been brought about by Amin’s incompetence and corruption, his vicious program of political repression, the massacre of entire village populations, and a ham-handed agrarian “reform” program that disenfranchised tribal leaders.

He followed the very exactly same mistakes as the Americans and the South Vietnamese did back in the 1960's.

Fearing that Amin would be defeated and replaced by a government of Muslim fundamentalists or—even worse—pro-American intellectuals, the Soviet Union launched an invasion on Christmas Eve aimed at removing Amin and replacing him with a more reliable strongman.

To pave the way for the invasion, Soviet advisers with the Afghan Army tricked their clients into incapacitating themselves.

In one case, the Soviets told an Afghan armored unit that new tanks were about to be delivered but that, due to shortages, the gas in the old tanks would have to be siphoned out. The Afghans obligingly siphoned gas out of their tanks, rendering them useless.

In another instance, Soviet advisers told an Afghan unit to turn over all their ammunition for inspection, something that likewise was done without question.

Sneaky. Very sneaky.

A Former Prime Minister Declares Himself President

By the time the first Soviet transport planes landed at Kabul airport carrying elements of the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, the Afghan Army was largely incapable of fighting back.

On December 27, the Soviet 5th Motorized Rifle Division rolled across the borders toward Herat, Shindahd, and Kandahar, while the 108th Motorized Rifle Division drove on Kabul.

The 201st Motorized Rifle Division advanced toward Kunduz.

That same day, Soviet troops captured the Kabul radio station and attacked the presidential palace, killing Amin.

December 27, 2019

By Frud Bezhan

KABUL — Afghanistan’s communist President Hafizullah Amin was lying unconscious in his bed.

A KGB agent who had infiltrated Amin’s staff as a cook had poisoned the president and his ministers during lunch at the Tajbeg presidential palace in Kabul.

It was December 27, 1979.

Two Soviet doctors, unaware of the KGB plot, worked desperately to revive Amin at the palace. His ministers were rushed to a military hospital.

“The doctors put tubes through his nose and mouth to pump his stomach,” Faqir Mohammad Faqir, the interior minister, who had rushed to the palace, tells RFE/RL. “When his stomach was cleaned out, the doctors took him to the bathroom. For 30 minutes they poured cold water over him.”

After four long hours, Amin gradually regained consciousness. Still groggy, he muttered to Faqir, one of his most trusted men, to go to the nearby Defense Ministry building.

A few hours later, the Afghan president was lying in bed in his underpants when scores of KGB special forces stormed the presidential palace, killing Amin and his family members amid fierce clashes. Soviet forces also seized key government buildings and military installations in Kabul in a coordinated attack.

Moscow considered Amin, who had studied in the United States, an unpredictable ally. Some in the Kremlin suspected he had attempted to forge links with Washington. Meanwhile, his penchant for using brutal methods to crush his rivals fueled growing opposition to communist rule in Afghanistan.

Moscow installed Babrak Karmal, a rival communist leader, as president the next day. Thousands of Soviet troops and hundreds of planes and tanks crossed into Afghanistan in the following days.

The invasion was the start of a devastating, decade-long Soviet occupation that would set Afghanistan on a path for decades of conflict.

“The Soviet invasion was the worst day for Afghans,” says the 86-year-old Faqir as he trudges through the empty halls of the Tajbeg Palace, which is now being reconstructed. “It was the darkest day,” he adds. “The most miserable day for Afghans. The misery that started that day continues until today.”

‘So Much Firing’

When Faqir arrived at the Defense Ministry, army chief Yaqub Khan was at a meeting with several Soviet military advisers in his office.

After greeting the guests, Faqir turned to sit down on a couch, when there was a burst of gunfire. He dashed to an adjacent room to take cover.

“After a few moments, Yaqub Khan entered the room and fell on the bed,” Faqir says. “He had been shot twice and seriously wounded.”

Minutes later, Khan died.

Drenched in Khan’s blood, Faqir grabbed his handgun and aimed it at the door.

“There was so much firing that you couldn’t hear anything,” Faqir says, retelling the story as he slowly trudges through the National Museum, which back then housed the Defense Ministry. “The [Soviets] were throwing hand grenades, firing rockets, and using Kalashnikovs.”

‘They Look Like Russians’

Khan’s secretary, Dawlat Waziri, was sitting at his desk at the Defense Ministry building when the shooting erupted.

“I got up, grabbed my Kalashnikov, and I opened the window,” says Waziri, who was then 26 years old. “I saw that there was gunfire coming from down there, so I fired a few rounds.”

Waziri says the attackers were wearing “yellow uniforms and woolen hats.” “I thought to myself, ‘They look like Russians,'” he says.

He then stormed into Khan’s office where, he says, he saw a Soviet translator shoot his boss.

Waziri rushed out the door and into the hallway. He spotted a Soviet soldier and dashed to take cover. “Before I could fire, he fired at me,” he says. “A bullet struck my wrist. I dropped my Kalashnikov. Then another bullet struck me in the stomach and one in my right leg.”

Waziri stumbled into a nearby room. A grenade landed nearby, smashing the door and setting it on fire.

He was cornered.

“I thought for a second, ‘Why did the Russians fire at me?'” Waziri recalls. “Just then, they were about to throw a second grenade. So, I opened the window and jumped out.”

Waziri broke his legs and shattered his hip in the jump from the second floor.

He passed out.

‘Shots Were Fired’

Before the attack, hundreds of Soviet paratroopers — members of the Soviet Army’s Muslim Battalion — and KGB special forces had surrounded the palace, taking cover in the heavy snow.

The KGB forces stormed the palace while the Soviet troops provided a ring of security around the building.

“Our job was to neutralize any reinforcements that came to Amin’s aid,” Vytas Luksys, a former Soviet paratrooper from Lithuania, tells RFE/RL.

“It was dark,” recalls Luksys in the capital, Vilnius. “There wasn’t much time to think about what was happening where. We had to focus on carrying out our orders. We heard that shots were fired, but we couldn’t pay much attention to it.”

The KGB special forces, most of them in sportswear or plainclothes, went floor to floor battling the Presidential Guard and members of Amin’s family.

No reinforcements came to Amin’s help, much to Luksys’s relief. “I don’t know how I would have fared,” he says. “We had very little experience with night-vision devices, guns, and machine guns.”

Within hours, the battle was over. Over 200 Afghans were killed and over 1,000 surrendered. Declassified KGB files said over 100 Soviet personnel were also killed in the fierce clashes.

Amin is believed to have died of gunshot wounds.

All his male relatives at the Tajbeg Palace were either killed in the clashes or executed. His wife, daughter, and grandchildren were sent to prison.

‘It Was Better To Die’

Faqir had been holed up inside one of Khan’s personal rooms for seven hours when he heard a colleague’s voice. “He said, ‘If anyone is in the room he should put down his weapon and come out,'” he says. “He was my friend, so I decided to come out.”

When Faqir came out he was handcuffed by Soviet troops. “That was when I realized that the Soviets had attacked us,” he says. “I shouldn’t have left the room. I didn’t want to surrender. It would have been better to die.”

Soviet forces whisked Faqir away to their military headquarters. He was sentenced to death and transferred to Pul-e Charkhi, the notorious prison outside Kabul where Amin was alleged to have sent thousands to their deaths.

Waziri, meanwhile, woke up in an operating room in the hospital the day after the invasion.

“I was piled up along with the dead bodies,” Waziri says. “When they realized I was still alive, they took me to the operating room in the hospital.” He would be in the hospital for 13 months recovering from his wounds.

Afterward, Waziri served as an officer in the Soviet-backed Afghan army.

Luksys visited the Tajbeg Palace the next morning to find scenes of destruction. “It was a big beautiful palace that had been turned into a mess,” he says. “There were beautiful carpets. Furniture, tables, intricate stucco, very pretty chandeliers.”

“There was blood, but no dead bodies by that time,” Luksys recalls.

After the storming of the palace, Soviet forces wrapped the bodies of Amin and his family members in carpets and buried them in unmarked graves.

Their bodies have never been found.

‘Biggest Betrayal’

The element of surprise was key to the Soviet Union’s lightning seizure of Kabul.

The Soviet decision to topple Amin was a shock, including to the Kabul regime, which had forged close ties with Moscow since communists seized power after a bloody coup in 1978.

“The Soviets committed the biggest betrayal,” Faqir says. “We had a brotherly relationship. We had no idea that the Russians would attack us.”

Faqir was released from prison in 1989 after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, having served 10 years and three months.

Luksys served two years in the Soviet Army before leaving in 1981.

Military Quagmire

The events of December 27, 1979 would have a lasting effect, unleashing a four-decade war that has yet to end.

The Soviet Army soon got bogged down in a costly military quagmire against the mujahedin, the U.S.-backed Islamist rebels.

The Soviet Union pulled its troops out of Afghanistan in 1989 after an estimated 2 million Afghans and at least 15,000 Soviet soldiers had been killed. Millions of other Afghans were displaced, living mainly as refugees in Pakistan and Iran.

The mujahedin toppled the communist regime from power in 1992. But within months, a devastating civil war erupted among the warring mujahedin factions, paving the way for the rise of the Taliban.

By then, the Soviet Union no longer existed.

In a radio address broadcast from the Soviet Union, former prime minister Babrak Karmal, who had been handpicked by Soviet authorities, declared himself president.

The DRA army had an impressive strength on paper, numbering 13 infantry divisions and 22 independent brigades.

There were also 40 separate regiments.

This force was composed of at least 70 percent conscripts, including thousands of men who had been rounded up by government press-gangs and forced to serve in the army.

What few volunteers there were usually became junior and noncommissioned officers. Despite the press gangs and financial incentives to volunteer, DRA army units were badly under strength, sometimes by as much as 40 percent.

The army was decimated by desertions and riddled with mujahideen spies. Supplementing the army was the KHAD, or secret police, numbering 100,000 men.

Hope for Stabilizing the Region Was Failing

Soviet planners had hoped that the invasion and coup would stabilize the situation enough for the DRA army to take control.

In fact, their strong-armed tactics devastated morale in the Afghan Army and led to further desertions and defections.

Even worse, enraged mujahideen took to the field and engaged Soviet forces in open battle outside Kandahar, in Jalalabad, and along the Salang highway.

After the Soviets’ massive firepower overwhelmed them, the mujahideen retreated into the mountains along the Afghan border and switched to guerrilla-style tactics.

The Soviets followed.

The Red Army deliberately waged war on Afghan civilians and drove them over the border into Pakistan. By doing so, they hoped to deny the mujahideen local support and a native population to hide among.

In 1980, the Soviets mounted a large-scale offensive into the Kunar Valley that resulted in the expulsion of nearly all of the valley’s 150,000 residents.

A similar offensive was undertaken to the south in the Sultani Valley. Supporting these Soviet attacks were clearing operations south of Kabul and around Kandahar that destroyed dozens of villages. Similar operations were launched throughout the country in 1981, but with little long-term success.

Guerrilla Attacks and Civilian Casualties

In the face of the Soviet onslaught, mujahideen forces retreated into the mountains or melted into a population made friendly by repeated Soviet and Afghan Army atrocities.

When the mujahideen did come out and fight, they subjected Soviet forces to a constant stream of guerrilla attacks.

DRA troops were no match for the mujahideen. In daring assaults in April and September of 1981, the mujahideen temporarily seized Kandahar from DRA forces and left only after the Soviet Air Force bombed them.

Compounding anti-Soviet sentiment brought about by the Red Army’s complete disregard for Afghan civilian casualties was the brutality of the common Soviet soldiers, who regularly took out their frustration on the Afghan populace.

An Afghan farmer passing through a Soviet roadblock could count upon his valuables being stolen and his wife being raped. Mounted Soviet troops seemed to take great joy in shooting at Afghans along the road. Soviet advisers, officers, and NCOs treated their Afghan proxies with contempt.

The frustration of the Soviet fighting man was easy to understand.

Soviet soldiers were conscripts who often received only three weeks of basic training before being sent to savage Afghanistan.

Once there, a new recruit was bullied by veteran soldiers and brutal NCOs. Soldiers were badly paid, ill fed and clothed, and lived in tents.

Many soldiers found relief from their situation in the form of the opium or locally produced alcohol. Hungry conscripts sometimes traded their weapons to the Afghans for food. Fevers and infections caused by unsanitary camp conditions decimated thousands of Soviet recruits.

Hills Swarming With Mujahideen

Despite the Soviets’ various campaigns of annihilation, the hills outside the major Afghan cities were swarming with mujahideen.

Soviet army units were confined to their bases and traveled only on the main roads.

Traveling at night in anything other than a large convoy was suicidal.

The Soviets, like their American counterparts in Vietnam, were heavily reliant on helicopters for movement through the hostile countryside. Also mirroring the American approach in Southeast Asia, the Soviets used only a bare fraction of their military might, refusing to delegate more men and material than were absolutely necessary.

They even went so far as to call the 40th Army in Afghanistan a “limited contingent of forces.”

By 1981, the mujahideen numbered as many as 150,000 fighters organized into seven main Sunni Islam parties.

Three Islamic fundamentalist organizations had roots reaching back to the 1960s, and a fourth group formed in 1982 to serve as an umbrella organization and raise money for the cause throughout the Islamic world. There were also three “moderate” parties.

These were formed after the 1978 coup, and although not as radical as the other four groups, they were still Muslim organizations. There were also three smaller Shiite groups with ties to Iran.

Excellent Fighters, but Poor Soldiers

The average mujahideen fighter was an illiterate farmer or herder. Although they were excellent fighters, mujahideen tended to be poor soldiers.

They disliked field craft, were reluctant to crawl even when under fire, and were often unwilling to conduct sabotage missions, as these were not seen as glorious and honorable.

They were terrified of Soviet land mines, which often maimed rather than killed—the former being considered a fate worse than death.

Mujahideen saw firearms as a status symbol, and most were excellent shots. They took great pride in their centuries of tribal warfare and raiding, and consequently they believed that they had little to learn from Pakistani and Western advisers about how to fight a modern superpower.

In 1982, the closest thing the mujahideen had to a central command was the Afghan Bureau of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI.

Led by General Mohammed Yousaf, the Afghan Bureau operated numerous training camps in the border area, provided advisers from the Pakistani Army, and funneled supplies to the mujahideen.

These were provided by the American Central Intelligence Agency, which bought weapons from sellers all over the world, including China, Egypt, and, ironically, Israel, which sold equipment it had captured during the various Arab-Israeli wars.

The Afghan Bureau also tried to coordinate mujahideen attacks. This inevitably led to conflicts.

Afghan leaders were interested in disrupting Soviet supply lines and sabotaging infrastructure, while mujahideen commanders wanted to engage Soviet troops in open combat.

Still, some highly valuable and successful attacks were carried out. In one bold raid, mujahideen fighters loyal to Ahmad Shah Massoud fought their way onto Bagram Air Base, attacked Soviet barracks packed with sleeping troops, and hit the airstrip, destroying 23 aircraft.

They then retreated to their bases in the nearby Panjshir Valley.

Ahmad Shah Massoud

In the aftermath of the airport raid, the Soviets launched a massive counteroffensive against the Panjshir Valley designed to destroy mujahideen forces and install permanent DRA army garrisons there.

The Panjshir Valley juts out from the Hindu Kush, pointing like a dagger at Kabul and Bagram Air Base.

The Salang highway, the road over which 90 percent of the Soviets’ supplies were carried, went right past the valley entrance.

Running through the valley is the Panjshir River. The banks were dotted with villages, farms, and vineyards. Dozens of canyons were home to small, isolated villages. At the beginning of the war, some 100,000 people of Tadjik origin resided there.

The valley was also home to the mujahideen’s most feared commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Born in 1953 in Herat, Massoud was part of Afghanistan’s minuscule educated class, having attended the French-run Lycee Istaqlal and the Russian Polytechnique Institute (both located in Kabul) where he studied engineering.

Massoud was an accomplished athlete, voracious reader, and spoke French, Pashto, and Dari.

During his time in Kabul, he became politically active, joining the Jamiat-e Islami party.

When Mohammad Daoud seized power in 1974, Massoud fled to Pakistan, where he underwent military training and studied the art of war, particularly the campaigns of Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, and North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap.

He returned to Afghanistan in 1978 and began operations in the Panjshir Valley, quickly gaining a cadre of tough, loyal followers who waged a guerrilla war against DRA forces.By 1980, Massoud controlled the entire valley.

The Ambitious “Panjshir V”

Massoud’s rebel army was a pan-Afghan force numbering more than 3,000 Tadjiks, Pashtuns, Turkmen, and Uzbek fighters.

He divided the valley into 25 field commands, each defended by a small unit called a sabbet.

These were supplemented by a number of moutariks, or mobile companies. Each moutarik numbered about 75 men and was subdivided into platoons of three.

Moutarik fighters received extra rations and a welfare benefit for their families back home. Each unit had in its arsenal three machine guns, three RPG-7 grenade launchers, one mortar, and a ZPU-2 antiaircraft gun.

Panjshir V, as the Soviet operation was called, was ambitious.

At the valley entrance, the Soviets deployed the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, the 66th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, one regiment from the 108th Division, one regiment from 201st Division, the 345th Parachute regiment, and elements of the 866th and 181st Separate Motorized Rifle Regiments.

There were also significant DRA forces, four infantry regiments, and parts of the 37th Commando Brigade.

Under the Soviet plan, heliborne troops from the 103rd Guards Airborne Division would seize villages and hilltops throughout the valley and pin down mujahideen fighters.

At the same time, Soviet/Afghan motorized forces would advance along both banks of the Panjshir River. In this way, the Soviets hoped to bring Massoud’s army to battle and destroy it in detail.

To mislead Massoud as to the actual target, a diversionary attack would be launched against the Ghorband district to the north.

The Panjshir V campaign began on May 15, 1982. The diversionary attack against Ghorband succeeded in fooling Massoud, who sent significant reinforcements to the Ghorband district in Parwan Province.

The next night, several Soviet reconnaissance companies advanced to the valley’s entrance; lead elements of 108th Division advanced a short way into the valley.

On the morning of May 17, the Soviets unleashed a massive aerial and artillery strike up and down the Panjshir Valley.

Then Soviet heliborne troops landed at key high points.

Even though Massoud was surprised by the move, his forces, armed with numerous ZPU-2 antiaircraft guns, managed to shoot down two helicopters and damage several others.

There was also severe fighting for control of the landing zones, but the Soviets had put dozens of gunships in the air, and the mujahideen were outgunned and had to withdraw.

In all, the six Soviet battalions were inserted.

In the meantime, elements of the 108th Division slowly advanced up the valley along a battalion-wide front.

The vanguard encountered a never-ending stream of man-made obstacles and land mines that had to be cleared by engineers and sappers deployed up front.

The mujahideen engaged the lead forces, sparking fierce and lopsided clashes as Soviet firepower and close air support were brought to bear.

There were dozens of small engagements as well, as Soviet forces cleared out the numerous canyons running out from the valley. In contrast to the pounding they were giving Soviet troops, the mujahideen left DRA troops largely alone.

This encouraged defections, so many that the Soviets had to pull several DRA units out of the valley.

In an effort to trap mujahideen forces engaging elements of the 108th Division on the second day of the advance, one Soviet and one Afghan battalion landed at the village of Mata, halfway up the valley.

Mujahideen forces there were quickly overcome, allowing the combined Soviet/DRA force to occupy the heights above the village.

The next day, a similar force landed at Astana, and on the 22nd two Soviet and two Afghan battalions landed at Evim, 60 miles inside the valley at an important crossroad through which the mujahideen received supplies and reinforcements.

The Evim operation was the scene of particularly heavy fighting as Massoud did not want a large enemy force on the ground so far up the valley. After sundown, several moutariksconverged on the landing zone and launched a determined assault on Soviet/DRA forces there.

The assaults were repelled with heavy losses.

Although impressive on paper, the landings did not prevent mujahideen forces from continuing to move at will throughout the valley. They knew the terrain too well and could move at night.

Nor did the heliborne insertions keep the mujahideen from withdrawing before a Soviet advance.

Massoud’s moutarikshad ample warning, as any Soviet attack was preceded by an artillery barrage lasting up to half an hour.

After the barrage, the moutarikswould pull back to a prepared position farther up the valley while a small rear guard sniped at the advancing column. Such tactics resulted in a steady trickle of Soviet casualties and vehicle losses and ensured that the moutarikssurvived to repeat the process.

The battle for Evim marked the end of Panjshir V. On May 25, Soviet forces began a gradual withdrawal to Bagram, completing it three days later.

Control of the valley was handed over to DRA units, but their bases were gradually overrun by the mujahideen. The Soviets returned to the valley in September and, after another impressive show of force, once again left DRA forces in control.

By the end of the year, however, Massoud’s forces regained effective control of the valley. In all, Panjshir V cost the Soviets 2,000 casualties, 17 tanks, and a dozen aircraft. DRA losses totaled 1,200, including numerous defectors. The mujahideen lost 180 fighters.

The civilian toll was much greater.

In 1983, Massoud signed a truce with the Soviets. By agreeing to a cease-fire, Massoud allowed his forces a chance to rest and re-arm. Other mujahideen commanders were furious, since the unilateral truce freed up Soviet forces for operations against them.

The Soviets returned to the Panjshir Valley in 1984. Informers in Kabul tipped the ISI, who informed Massoud and sent emergency supplies to him.

The Soviet offensive began on April 20 with a massive high-altitude bombardment by TU-16 bombers.

This was supported by SU-24 medium bombers that struck individual targets. After the air strikes, which did little more than bounce the rubble and announce the coming attack, the 108th Motor Rifle Division, along with the 8th and 20th Afghan Infantry Divisions, moved into the valley.

They advanced in typical Soviet fashion, with a long artillery barrage preceding every movement.

As the divisions made their way up the valley, airborne battalions landed behind villages and other suspected mujahideen strongpoints. The raids netted few prisoners—Massoud’s fighters simply avoided the valley floor and sniped at the ponderous Soviet column from surrounding hilltops.

Under such conditions, it took the 108th MRD eight days to advance 50 miles to the village of Khenj.

In the second part of the operation, several Soviet airborne battalions helicoptered into the valley’s side canyons in an attempt to cut off the mujahideen line of retreat.

In one instance, a Soviet battalion landed at the village of Dash-i-Ravat, 13 miles beyond the main advance. On a hilltop deep inside mujahideen territory, the battalion was badly exposed. Several moutariks converged on the landing area and inflicted heavy casualties on the isolated paratroopers.

By May 7, the Soviets felt that they had accomplished all of their objectives and gradually began withdrawing, again leaving DRA garrisons at various spots along the valley. These were highly vulnerable, and troops had to be resupplied by air.

In June 1985, Massoud’s forces attacked the DRA base at Peshghor. In a dawn attack, they penetrated the base’s minefield and stormed the defenses under cover of a rocket and mortar barrage. Afghan resistance collapsed. Massoud captured more than 400 prisoners, including five DRA colonels from Kabul.

When Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union in 1986, he announced plans for a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he famously called “a bleeding wound.” Such a withdrawal required the DRA army to take the lead against the mujahideen.

The Ministry of Defense decided to launch an operation aimed at destroying the massive mujahideen facility at Zhawar Kili. Although planned by the Soviets, the assault would be a largely DRA operation, with the 7th, 8th, 14th, and 25th Infantry Divisions, the 38th Commando Brigade, and the Soviet 666th Air Assault Regiment in support. The attack was commanded by Afghan General Mohammed Delavar.

Zhawar was the center of mujahideen activity in Paktika Province; through it flowed 20 percent of the mujahideen supplies.

It was the site of an 11-cave storage facility housing a barracks, hospital, mosque, and electrical power plant. Zhawar fell under the purview of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a mujahideen commander loyal to the fundamentalist Hezb-Islami party.

Haqqani was regarded as a competent and brave leader, a favorite of the ISI and the United States.

As such, he received millions of dollars in military aid, including the much-vaunted Stinger missiles. Haqqani had stationed at Zhawar a permanent regiment of 500 fighters supported by nine ZSU-1 and ZSU-2 antiaircraft guns, a dozen M-12 multiple rocket launchers and two T-55 tanks.

Stationed north and east of Zhawar was a quartet of mujahideen units belonging to other parties. The complex lay south of Khost at the end of a canyon, a few miles from the Pakistani border.

The main route to Zhawar was through the Manay Kandow Pass, whose entrance was dominated by the mountainous Dharwi Ghar.

Atop Dhawri Ghar was a cave protected by a large overhang.

The DRA assault began on April 2. After a massive artillery barrage, a half dozen MI-8 helicopters landed a battalion of the 38th Commando Brigade east of Zhawar, unknowingly inside Pakistan.

The battalion quickly came under heavy attack by the mujahideen, and Delavar decided to insert the rest of the brigade into the fight.

Dozens of helicopters flew over the battlefield and landed Afghan commands on the heights east of Zhawar.

The mujahideen shot down three helicopters and destroyed several more on the ground. Haqqani’s fighters attacked the landing zones, over-running four. He also brought in reinforcements from Pakistan.

The combined force enveloped and pounded the trapped commandos, killing dozens and capturing nearly 600.

In the meantime, Soviet bombers pounded the cave complexes, collapsing the entrances to a pair and trapping more than 150 mujahideen, including Haqqani who, although badly wounded, managed to escape.

For three days DRA forces, the 7th Infantry Division in the west and the 8th Infantry Division in the east, tried and failed to blast their way through the mujahideen positions.

After suffering heavy casualties and exhausting their ammunition, the two divisions pulled back. In their place, the 14th and 25th Infantry Divisions moved up and attacked mujahideen fighters holding Manay Kandow Pass.

This attack, too, went nowhere as mujahideen inside the caves were invulnerable to air and artillery strikes.

After 10 days of fruitless efforts, Delavar called off the attack.

While artillery and aircraft pounded the region, the DRA resupplied and reinforced its exhausted units. Delavar was sacked.

The offensive was restarted on April 17 with a two-pronged assault; the 25th Infantry Division advanced on the east while the 14th Infantry Division moved on the west.

Like its predecessor, the 25th Infantry Division encountered heavy resistance. DRA commanders finally decided to forgo the standard massive artillery preparation in favor of a snap attack that took the mujahideen by surprise and swept them from the mountain. DRA forces pushed out to the east and outflanked the remaining mujahideen facing them. Haqqani was wounded again, and rumors that he had been killed demoralized the mujahideen.

With no one to rally the mujahideen forces, Zhawar fell later that day. DRA troops and Soviet advisers rigged the complex with explosives and destroyed the extensive stores.

That night, the head of the Hezb-Islami party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, launched a counterattack, but patrols approaching Zhawar found the base abandoned. The battle had cost the mujahideen 100 dead, as well as the vast stores at Zhawar.

The DRA lost 1,500 dead or wounded, 500 prisoners, and 13 aircraft.

The base at Zhawar was back in mujahideen hands 48 hours after the DRA abandoned it.

By the beginning of 1989, the situation in Afghanistan had changed radically. The influx of American-supplied Stinger missiles had given the mujahideen a powerful weapon with which to counter Soviet/Afghan airpower.

In Pakistan, President Zia ul-Haq and the head of the ISI had been killed in a plane crash.

That February, the last Soviet forces withdrew from the country.

The seven mujahideen parties formed an interim government in waiting. The alliance was eager to go on the offensive; its leadership felt that a large show of force would bring about the final collapse of the Communist regime.

Their target was Jalalabad, at the foot of the Hindu Kush. Connecting it to the Khyber Pass to the east and Kabul 33 miles to the west, Highway 1 ran right through the city. A few miles east was the Kunar River; the Samarkel Ridge commanded the highway.

By taking the city, the mujahideen alliance hoped to demoralize the DRA and grab a swath of the country that they would declare “Free Afghanistan.” From there, they planned to go for the jugular and attack Kabul. The operation was carried out with the full approval of the new head of the ISI, General Hamid Gul. The DRA had plenty of time to prepare for the attack.

Stationed in Jalalabad were the 11th Infantry Division and the 1st Border Brigade. The government had filled the ranks with replacements and stockpiled supplies in the city. The DRA units manned a formidable ring of defenses including concrete bunkers, minefields, and barbed wire.

Some 7,000 mujahideen gathered for the assault, with contributions from all seven of the major parties and an eighth group of well-equipped Arab jihadi led by a rich Saudi calling himself Abu Abdullah.

His real name was Osama bin Laden.

Other important contingents were personally led by Massoud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Like Massoud, Hekmatyar had attended school in Kabul, where he studied engineering.

In the mid-1970s, he founded the Hezb-Islami party, which sought to establish an Islamic caliphate in Afghanistan in the mold of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, whom he greatly admired. Hekmatyar was virulently anti-Soviet, but also anti-American. Seeking to consolidate power, he had also waged war on other mujahideen parties. He was a bitter rival of Massoud.

The campaign began in early March 1989 with a mujahideen assault on Samarkel Ridge. Supported by a massive rocket and mortar barrage, the mujahideen took the ridge after three days of fighting.

The mujahideen then fought their way into the village of Samarkel on the ridge’s western slope. The next target was Jalalabad airfield, which they attacked on March 8.

There, the mujahideen went up against a battalion of crack DRA troops who held their ground in the face of several determined assaults. Advancing behind a line of T-55 tanks captured at Samarkel, the mujahideen finally managed to take the airport, but the DRA counterattacked later that day and retook it.

Four days into the battle for the airport, a battalion of DRA Special Guards was flown in from Kabul. The frontal assaults continued until late March, with the mujahideen suffering more than 1,400 casualties. DRA forces lost 1,000.

Tired of seeing their fighters impaled on the defenses of Jalalabad, mujahideen commanders decided to starve the city into submission. Unfortunately for them, the siege was not airtight.

Some commanders along the highway allowed convoys to slip through in exchange for a portion of the supplies. And since the DRA still held the airport, the Soviets were able to resupply government forces from the air.

Mujahideen commanders also had difficulty coordinating attacks, with many unwilling to make the first move for fear their men would bear the brunt of the fighting. What attacks were carried out were badly exposed to Soviet high-level bombing and Scud missile attacks.

By July, the mujahideen siege had collapsed. On July 6, the DRA launched a counterattack aimed of Samarkel Ridge, which they took two days later. In defeat, the rivalry between Massoud and Hekmatyar slipped into outright war, with the two parties fighting each other throughout the rest of the year.

The Communist regime in Kabul managed to stay in power until 1992, falling only after the Soviet Union itself broke up.

A fractious mujahideen coalition led by the Jamaat-i-Islami failed to bring peace and was ousted by the Taliban in 1996. For the next five years, the Afghan resistance called the Northern Alliance was led by Massoud.

He was assassinated on September 9, 2001—two days before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Haqqani became a minister in the Taliban government and, on September 29 he was appointed commander of Taliban forces.

He fights on today out of Waziristan, having survived several American attempts to kill him. Hekmatyar still leads the Hezb-Islami party, which is closely allied with the exiled Taliban. He too has survived numerous assassination attempts.

Despite losing nearly 15,000 troops in a decade-long incursion, Soviet commanders never grasped the concept that, in order to defeat an insurgency, they first must win the loyalty of the civilian population. Their oafish tactics had the opposite effect.

By forcing millions into refugee camps in Pakistan, they created a limitless pool of angry youth from which the mujahideen could recruit more troops. The war could never have been won so long as Pakistan remained a mujahideen safe haven. American and NATO forces in Afghanistan today confront exactly the same problem, and like their Soviet predecessors two decades ago, they have to date devised no workable solutions.

The ravaged nation remains a bleeding wound in the seemingly endless war on terror.

Lessons for Leaders: What Afghanistan Taught Russian and Soviet Strategists

February 28, 2019

Simon Saradzhyan

Introduction

Thirty years ago this month, Gen. Boris Gromov became the last serviceman of the Soviet 40th Army to cross the Friendship bridge from Afghanistan into Uzbekistan, heralding the end of a Soviet military intervention that had lasted nearly a decade.

That intervention, which began in December 1979 (with 30 military advisors and some guards remaining beyond February 1989), did not only fail to firmly anchor Afghanistan to the so-called socialist camp, as the Soviet Politburo had hoped, but contributed to the demise of the USSR by imposing formidable human, financial, economic, political and reputational costs on the already declining empire; needless to say, it caused numerous casualties and widespread grievances among Afghans as well.

Debates continue to this day about the full array of national-level, organizational-level and personal-level factors that led the Communist Party leadership—including General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and a handful of other Politburo members—to adopt a resolution on Dec. 12, 1979, authorizing the deployment of a “limited contingent of Soviet troops” to Afghanistan.

However, even with that debate unfinished, the Soviet experience in Afghanistan offers plenty of lessons to explore—some of which can, perhaps, be applied by the U.S. and its allies as Washington leans toward ending its own military campaign in this war-plagued Central Asian country.

The following is a selection of military-political lessons gleaned mostly from the recollections of Soviet strategists who were involved in making and executing the fateful decision to send troops to Afghanistan, as well as from writings by some of post-Soviet Russia’s prominent military analysts.

Where possible, the author made an effort to relay these strategists’ analysis of the failures and successes of the intervention because he felt that such assessments, based on first-hand experience, are not always given their due in English-language literature on the subject.

The lessons listed below, which are discussed in greater detail in subsequent sections of this research paper, are lined up in the order in which they would have come up—starting with the Soviet leadership’s decision to consider sending a large contingent of troops into Afghanistan, moving onto its management of the actual intervention and, finally, onto its decision to withdraw the troops and beyond. All of these lessons are meant for consideration by nations’ military-political leadership.

Lesson 1:

Before making final decisions on issues of fundamental importance, such as military intervention, determine what national interests are at stake, what options exist for advancing or defending those interests and what costs and benefits each of these options would generate, both direct and indirect; and do not let leaders’ personal ambitions impact the ultimate decision.

Lesson 2:

Ensure a sufficiently broad and comprehensive inter-agency process of reviewing potential decisions to use force, factoring in the views of all key stakeholders in general and those to be tasked with implementing the decisions in particular.

Lesson 3:

Examine aspects of a country’s history relevant to your planned undertaking.

Lesson 4:

Once the decision to send troops has been made, formulate the goals of the intervention and communicate them clearly to the agencies involved in implementation; also, shape your messaging to other key stakeholders likely to influence the outcome of the intervention.

Lesson 5:

If you do decide to go in, develop an exit plan in advance.

Lesson 6:

Once in, ensure effective inter-agency coordination and cooperation.

Lesson 7:

Rather than try to mold your local allies in your own image, empower them, encouraging self-reliance, and pay attention to indigenous traditions.

Lesson 8:

You cannot succeed in a military intervention unless the side on whose behalf you intervene is willing to fight for your joint cause.

Lesson 9:

Talk to moderates on the opposite side.

Lesson 10:

When leaving, leave…

Lesson 11:

…but before you leave, secure enforceable guarantees that POWs and MIAs are found and brought home, and give the returning soldiers proper welcome and care.

Lesson 12:

…also before you leave, secure firm and enforceable agreements that would not only meet your own minimum requirements for a negotiated settlement, but also those of your local allies, because the end of an intervention by itself cannot end hostilities.

Lesson 13:

Even after you leave, prevent mission creep.

Lesson 14:

Last but not least: Be willing to learn the lessons.

Only some of these lessons were inferred as the intervention unfolded, while most were drawn years after the withdrawal of the Soviet 40th Army—which made up the bulk of the so-called limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, or OKSVA—on Feb. 15, 1989.

Of course, such hindsight could not have changed anything in the intervention.

We should also bear in mind that “where you stand depends on where you sit”: As some of the passages below demonstrate, some of the “lesson learners” tend to cast their own and their comrades-in-arms’ actions in a favorable light while criticizing the conduct of their peers from other agencies.

Despite the occasional bias, these lessons could still prove useful to policymakers faced with the stark dilemmas of a possible military intervention.

In particular, some of the entries at the end of the list could, perhaps, prove instructive for the U.S. leadership as it contemplates whether or how to end its own intervention in Afghanistan.

Finally, those in charge of applying these lessons should keep in mind historian Ernest May’s procedure for ensuring against amateurism in drawing historical analogies, as described by Graham Allison and Niall Ferguson in their Applied History Manifesto: “Put the analogy as the headline on a sheet of paper; draw a straight line down the middle of the page; write ‘similar’ at the top of one column and ‘different’ at the top of the other; and then set to work.

If you are unable to list at least three points of similarity and three of difference, then you should consult a historian.”

And here is yet another group of lessons...

The Lessons (in far greater detail…)

Lesson 1:

Before making final decisions on issues of fundamental importance, such as military intervention, determine what national interests are at stake, what options exist for advancing or defending those interests and what costs and benefits each of these options would generate, both direct and indirect; and do not let leaders’ personal ambitions impact the ultimate decision.

Winston Churchill once famously observed that the key to Soviet decision-making is “national interest.”

If Churchill was right, then anyone with access to transcripts of Politburo meetings from 1979 should expect to find some kind of discussion on the Soviet national interests at stake in Afghanistan, as well as opportunities for advancing these interests with an intervention.

In reality, the author’s review of transcripts of the Soviet leadership’s deliberations on Afghanistan revealed that while Politburo members did discuss some of the Soviet national interests that were at stake, they failed to take stock of potential, direct and indirect, costs and benefits that their country would encounter if they decided to advance those interests by means of a full-fledged military intervention in Afghanistan.

A failure to grasp that the costs of such an intervention would significantly outweigh the benefits led the Soviet leadership to make an erroneous decision on Dec. 12, 1979, in favor of sending troops en masse into Afghanistan. In addition to horrendous human costs on all sides of the conflict, that decision cost the Soviet Union’s stagnating economy dearly through a combination of such factors as Western sanctions and expenditures needed to sustain the intervention. Moreover, in the decade after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Afghanistan turned into a hotbed of instability.

This did not only spill over to affect post-Soviet Russia’s Central Asian allies, but also gave a home base to al-Qaeda, which in turn supported the insurgency in Russia’s own North Caucasus. In the end, therefore, the intervention undermined rather than advanced such Soviet interests as having neutral or friendly neighbors and sustainable development of the Soviet economy.

The author’s review of Soviet deliberations on Afghanistan prior to Dec. 12, 1979, reveals a variety of justifications for intervention put forward by different members of the country’s leadership—including ones that concern Soviet national interests such as ensuring the survival of Moscow’s allies and having friendly neighbors. Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov and some other Politburo members, for instance, pointed out the need to bolster the rule of the pro-Moscow People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)—which had come to power in an April 1978 coup—and save it from being overthrown by opposition forces.

The coup, which the Soviets preferred to call the “April Revolution,” had resulted in the ouster of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and his eventual succession by PDPA General Secretary Nur Muhammad Taraki; by the fall of 1979, however, Taraki had been assassinated at the behest of his rival and party colleague Hafizullah Amin, who took over as PDPA leader and president of what became the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA).

This power grab gave Politburo members new cause for concern: One of the arguments they considered in favor of intervention was the perceived need to prevent Amin from initiating a rapprochement with the West, which they saw as a possibility, according to a secret Central Committee memo signed by several Politburo members—including Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, KGB chairman Yuri Andropov and Ustinov, the defense minister—as well as Boris Ponomaryov, chief of the Central Committee’s International Department.

In his 1995 book about the intervention, “The Tragedy and Valor of Afghanistan,” Gen. Alexander Lyakhovsky wrote that Andropov and Ustinov told a meeting of select Politburo members in Brezhnev’s study on Dec. 8, 1979, that they feared Amin’s interest in mending fences with Washington could eventually allow the U.S. to deploy medium-range nuclear-armed missiles in Afghanistan to target the Soviets’ Baikonur cosmodrome, among other facilities. (More generally, Lyakhovsky, who served in Afghanistan in 1987-1989, blamed the decision to intervene on what he saw as a strategic disinformation campaign pursued by the U.S. and its allies, among other things.)

The Soviet leadership also feared that, if allowed to establish a presence in Afghanistan, the U.S. would be able to collect telemetry during launches of newly designed Russian missiles, since most of the main testing ranges were located in southern parts of the Soviet Union, according to a 1999 article by Gen. Valentin Varennikov, who was not a Politburo member but was intimately involved in planning and carrying out the intervention as deputy chief of the Soviet General Staff.

Some of the post-factum analysis of the intervention also made references to the Soviet Union’s geopolitical interest in keeping Afghanistan anchored to the Cold War-era “socialist camp” of countries. For instance, Gen. Ivan Pavlovsky, who had commanded Soviet ground troops as deputy defense minister in 1967-1980, believed that several key factors played a role in the decision to send in troops, including the possible strengthening of American positions on the Eurasian continent, the deterioration of Soviet relations with China, China’s rapprochement with the U.S. and a dramatic increase in the influence of Islamic fundamentalism within Afghanistan. Varennikov wrote in his memoirs, entitled “The Unrepeatable,” that the Soviet leadership’s decision hinged on “the calculation that the presence of our troops in Afghanistan would cool the hot heads of Amin’s supporters, and even those of the opposition forces, and … would prevent possible encroachments by the Americans and stabilize the situation.”

General of the Army¹ Makhmut Gareyev, the chief Soviet military advisor to the Afghan army after the withdrawal, wrote in a 1994 article called “Why and How We Went Into Afghanistan” that he saw the USSR’s “geopolitical interests” in general as the main driver of the decision to intervene. Among those interests he singled out the Soviet Union’s need to have loyal or at least neutral neighbors to ensure the security of the country’s frontier regions, particularly in the south.

It should be noted that in addition to the need to defend the aforementioned interests, various other justifications for the intervention were offered in the course of discussions by the Politburo.

Not all of them look plausible. For instance, one rationale cited during the Dec. 8 meeting of five Politburo members in Brezhnev’s study was the need to prevent Iraq from getting access to Afghanistan’s uranium deposits, which Baghdad could have then used to build nuclear weapons.

That concern was raised by Ustinov and Andropov, according to Lyakhovsky’s aforementioned book.

Another justification cited by the duo was the need to disrupt what they saw as U.S.-supported efforts by Turkey to build a new Ottoman empire that would incorporate the Soviet Union’s Central Asian republics, according to the book.

The top Soviet decision makers in the Central Committee’s Politburo did see some downsides to an intervention too, including the reversal of Soviet-U.S. détente and the inevitable damage to the USSR’s reputation in the world as a whole. Less than nine months before the intervention, when the Afghan government had asked Moscow for help against an uprising in Herat, Gromyko, the foreign minister, allegedly told fellow Politburo members that the Soviet army would be branded “an aggressor” if it were sent into Afghanistan and that it would have to “first and foremost fight the Afghan people,” according to a transcript of the March 18, 1979, deliberations by Politburo members cited in Lyakhovsky’s book. Gromyko warned that Brezhnev’s summits with American and French leaders would have to be cancelled.

According to the same source, Andropov agreed it would be wrong to send troops. “We can only prop up the [April 27, 1978] revolution in Afghanistan with our bayonets, but this is completely unacceptable for us” and “we cannot run such a risk,” Andropov said as almost 9,000 DRA soldiers mutinied against Taraki’s regime.

The Politburo meeting concluded with the consensus that troops should not be sent, but that the Soviet Union will expand military aid to Taraki’s regime.

However, the issues raised at this and other Politburo meetings represented just a fraction of the costs that the Soviet Union could incur. In the end, in its decision-making process, the Politburo neither took full stock of the exact interests at stake nor produced a comprehensive review of all the potential, direct and indirect, costs and benefits of sending troops into Afghanistan.

This flew in the face of warnings from some of the Soviet Union’s top military strategists—warnings that the Politburo ultimately ignored. One senior Soviet military officer said to have comprehensively assessed the costs of a campaign before it began was the commander of Soviet Ground Forces, Ivan Pavlovsky. Pavlovsky inspected the state of affairs in Afghanistan in August-November 1979 and concluded that Soviet troops should not be sent there.

In a 1999 article for the aforementioned Rodina journal Pavlovsky recalled citing seven reasons not to intervene militarily in a report he sent to Ustinov upon his return from the 1979 trip to Afghanistan.

These included: his perception that the April 27, 1978, socialist “revolution” did not enjoy significant popular support; the lack of a working class and mass belief in Islam; widespread possession of arms; porous, ill-guarded borders that would allow the U.S. and its allies to ship in arms; an inevitable popular backlash against such an intervention; and the resulting deterioration in relations with the U.S. and NATO.

Anatoly Chernyaev, who was a senior international affairs analyst at the Central Committee when the decision to intervene was made, was quick to point out that it could not have possibly generated a net benefit for the Soviet Union. “Have we really acted only for the sake of revolutionary philanthropy? The argument that we had to do so to secure the border is ridiculous,” he wrote on Dec. 30, 1979, three days after Soviet commandos stormed Amin’s residence outside Kabul in an operation code-named Storm-333 to kill him and bring Babrak Karmal to power, as Moscow’s troops poured across the Soviet-Afghan border. In Chernyaev’s view, the Soviet Union could have reaped “political and prestige dividends” if only it had chosen to prop up socialist factions in Afghanistan without a large-scale military intervention. Beyond seeing no benefits from the intervention, Chernyaev—who went on to become assistant for international affairs to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary who ended the intervention—saw serious costs too.

In a diary entry dated Nov. 1, 1980, he lamented that the intervention cost “several million [in cash] every day, and … the blood of our soldiers also every day.” The head of the Moscow-based Institute of the Economy of the Global Socialist System, Oleg Bogomolov, made similar points in a memo sent to the Central Committee at about the same time as Chernyaev recorded his thoughts.

“With the sending of troops to Afghanistan our policy … has crossed the permissible boundaries of confrontation in the third world,” Bogomolov wrote in the 1980 memo. “The benefits of this action turned out to be insignificant in comparison with the damage that was inflicted on our interests.” The costs, as seen by the authors, included: the emergence of a hotbed of instability on the “southern flank of the USSR”; generating dissent among the Soviet Union’s allies regarding the intervention; burying any prospects for normalizing Soviet-Chinese relations; facilitating consolidation within the anti-Soviet coalition of states that “girded the USSR from West to East”; stalling Soviet-U.S. detente; and strengthening the West’s technological and economic sanctions against Moscow (something Russian President Vladimir Putin may find all too familiar in the wake of his intervention in Ukraine).

The author of the 1980 memo and other informed sources have also pointed out the “economic burden” the invasion placed on the Soviet economy—and it was no small burden, indeed. As of the late 1970s, Soviet aid accounted for half of all foreign aid to the DRA, according to Vladimir Toporkov, a KGB officer who advised Afghanistan’s security establishment in the 1980s and went on to become a general in post-Soviet Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

By his calculations, the overall costs, including both aid and funding for Soviet military operations in Afghanistan, totaled the equivalent of $50 billion in 1979-1989.

That sum by itself was “neither catastrophic nor painful” for the Soviet economy, according to Toporkov.² However, if one were to count not only direct but also indirect costs, such as Western sanctions imposed on the USSR over its Afghanistan campaign, these were a significant destabilizing factor, for the Soviet Union, according to Toporkov’s study, “The Influence of the Afghan Factor on Economic Processes in the Soviet Union in 1989-1992,” published by the Russian Defense Ministry’s Military-Historical Journal in 2004.

Like Toporkov, generals Gareyev and Lyakhovsky also waited for the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan to end before publicly weighing its pros and cons, with both of them concluding that its costs had outweighed the benefits.

Gareyev, who retired shortly after his time as chief Soviet military advisor to the DRA army, wrote in his 1994 article that the primary cost of the campaign was that “the Soviet Union found itself in international isolation,” its relations with the U.S., NATO and China deteriorating.

He also wrote in a 1996 book called “My Last War” that “the protracted war in Afghanistan and the need for continued support of the regime in Kabul generated huge financial and material costs, undermining the already limping economy” of the USSR and sapping its military strength. “The decision of the Soviet leadership to stage an armed intervention into Afghan affairs ended up generating more minuses than pluses,” he wrote in the 1994 article, published in the Russian Defense Ministry’s Oriyentir journal.

Lyakhovsky, for his part, believed that one of the costs vastly underestimated by the Soviet leadership was how strong local resistance to the intervention would be: “Scant regard toward the Afghans played an important role too. Ustinov, for example, thought that some of the rebels would instantly lay down arms, while the rest would flee as soon as the Soviet troops appeared in Afghanistan,” he wrote in a 1999 Rodina article called “How the Decision to Send Troops to Afghanistan Was Made.”

“In practice, however, underestimating the adversary cost the USSR dearly. The same thing happened in Chechnya in 1994,” Lyakhovsky wrote, referring to Russia’s first war with separatist Chechnya.

In addition to failing to fully anticipate the costs and benefits that the Soviet Union would encounter if it were to try advancing its interests in Afghanistan by means of military intervention, some Soviet leaders let their personal ambitions influence the fateful decisions they made on their country’s behalf. For instance, Varennikov wrote of “our leaders’ ambitions” in his 1999 article, headlined “Those on Top Wanted Glory, the Military Opposed the War.”

When listing reasons for the intervention, he referred specifically to Ustinov’s personal ambitions: “It was difficult to call Dmitry Fyodorovich an outstanding political leader. However, at one point I sensed how he began to want to try on the laurels of a strategist and a victor.” While Ustinov’s personal feelings may indeed have been a contributing factor, they were not as decisive as Brezhnev’s. In his diary Chernyaev bluntly blamed the intervention on Brezhnev’s desire to take revenge on Amin. Chernyaev wrote in his dairy on Feb. 5, 1980, that some of Brezhnev’s confidants must have managed to “play on” the Soviet leader’s “demential indignation” over Amin’s decision to have Taraki ousted and then killed. That Brezhnev was agitated by Taraki’s murder is also confirmed by his personal physician, Yevgeny Chazov. “In spite of the decline of his ability for critical perception, he took that event much to heart,” Chazov recalled in his book, “Health and Power: Memoirs of a Kremlin Doctor.” According to him, Brezhnev was most infuriated with the way Amin undermined the Soviet leader’s personal credibility by killing Taraki whom Brezhnev had hosted and publicly promised support to a month earlier. “What will they say in other countries? How can one trust Brezhnev’s word if his assurances of support and protection remain just words,” Chazov quoted Brezhnev as saying. Gareyev, in his post-factum analysis, also wrote that Taraki’s murder on Oct. 9, 1979, had “pushed Brezhnev toward that step” of sending in troops.

After the killing “there was no longer any carefully considered analysis of the situation” by Soviet decision makers and “much was being done in haste,” according to Gareyev’s 1994 article. Lyakhovsky, in his 1999 article in the Russian government’s Rodina journal, also said that Brezhnev’s view on military intervention in Afghanistan changed after Taraki’s murder.

Lesson 2:

Ensure a sufficiently broad and comprehensive inter-agency process of reviewing potential decisions to use force, factoring in the views of all key stakeholders in general and those to be tasked with implementing the decisions in particular.

One reason the Soviet leadership erred in its decision to send a military contingent to Afghanistan was that the decision-making circle was very narrow. Had the political leaders included the country’s top military strategists, the decision could have been the opposite. According to one authoritative account by then First Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kornienko, “a narrow group” that consisted of only five of more than a dozen Politburo members at the time “made the final political decision” to send troops. Those were Brezhnev, Andropov, Ustinov, Gromyko and Mikhail Suslov. Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, also a Politburo member, was absent from the meeting, according to Kornienko’s recollection of the events, which he published as part of his memoirs, “Cold War: Testimony of a Participant.”³

According to Kornienko’s account, the hand-written, two-paragraph resolution passed by this small group on Dec. 12, 1979, was “formalized retroactively” with signatures from the remaining Politburo members. “Thus, not even all the members of the Politburo made the fateful decision,” according to Kornienko, whose recollection is corroborated in Lyakhovsky’s book.

Notably, even though the decision was adopted only by a handful of Politburo members, its signatories framed it as a resolution of the entire Central Committee, even though most of its members had not been consulted before it was made; other high-level officials were likewise kept out of the loop.

Chernyaev was equally dismayed by the narrowness of the decision-making: “I think that in the history of Russia, even under Stalin, there has not yet been such a period when such important actions were undertaken without a hint of the slightest coordination with anyone, [without any] advice, discussion, careful consideration, even if only in a very narrow circle,” he wrote in his diary in December 1979. It is notable that despite their key positions, both Chernyaev and other senior officials in the Central Committee staff were kept in the dark not only about the exact reasons for the decision to send in troops but also about who actually initiated that decision. It was only in 1985 that one of Chernyaev’s colleagues told him Kornienko had claimed in a casual chat that it was, in Kornienko’s view, his boss, Foreign Minister Gromyko, who had convinced Brezhnev to send in troops.

In addition to being too narrow, the circle of decision makers also suffered from a lack of reliable information.

The fact “that the information was distorted did not allow the country’s top leadership to understand the processes taking place in Afghanistan and prevent fatal mistakes,” Gareyev wrote in his book.

As Col. Nikolai Vasilyev, a military historian, explained in his own 2014 article on the lessons of the Soviet military intervention: “Many leaders, including members of the Politburo, adapted themselves to the opinion of L. I. Brezhnev. The intelligence and other agencies were required to confirm the ‘sagacity of the leader,’ and the information and recommendations of analysts and experts that did not fit into the pre-planned framework were thrown away.” The quality of information fed to the Politburo’s top brass did not improve even after Soviet troops were deployed and learning about the situation in Afghanistan first-hand. “Most likely, the General [Secretary] doesn’t even know what is happening around us.

Briefings from Afghanistan are prepped for him so that they’re full of ‘complete normalization.’ As for information from the West, it’s probably ‘at the level of Pravda’ [the Central Committee newspaper], since he’s long been kept in ‘spare-him mode.’ So he’s not even aware of what he’s done,” Chernyaev wrote in his dairy on Feb. 9, 1980. As important, Chernyaev believes the ageing Brezhnev could not have drawn sound conclusions from the information even if it had not been distorted to please him because of the extent to which his mental capabilities had deteriorated. In a Sept. 29, 1982, diary entry Chernyaev describes how Brezhnev, in Baku to laud the performance of Soviet Azerbaijan, had become so senile by the third year of the Soviet campaign that, 10 minutes into a televised speech, he did not realize he was reading the wrong text even after it explicitly referred to “Afghanistan” instead of “Azerbaijan.”

Even when accurate information on Afghanistan did make it to the top decision makers, they often rejected it as they suffered from cognitive bias, dismissing dissenting views even when they were presented by key stakeholders who would be tasked with executing the decisions.

Top Soviet military commanders felt particularly slighted by their exclusion from the decision-making process. As Vasilyev, the military historian, lamented in his article, published by the Defense Ministry’s Military-Historical Journal, “The Special Commission of the Politburo for Afghanistan, headed by Foreign Minister A. A. Gromyko, in effect replaced the Council of Defense of the USSR and, in part, its working body, the General Staff.

… Among them [the commission members] there were no professionals of military strategy.” Chief of the Soviet General Staff Nikolai Ogarkov, his first deputy Sergei Akhromeyev and Varennikov, a deputy of Ogarkov’s, had been asked to present their thoughts about sending troops sometime before the pared-down Politburo meeting Dec. 12. The trio argued that a Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan would be “impossible and inconceivable, first and foremost from the political standpoint,” according to Chernyaev’s diary. Rather than heed their advice, Ustinov, the Soviet defense minister and a Politburo member, dismissed their arguments, telling them “not to discuss [orders]” and to present a detailed plan of the operation.

Ogarkov, it should be noted, objected to the intervention on more than one occasion. When summoned to the Politburo on Dec. 8, 1979, Ogarkov called on its members to reject Gromyko and Andropov’s arguments in favor of reversing the Soviet leadership’s previous position, which had been to refrain from sending troops. He repeated his calls again the following day in Brezhnev’s presence, warning that “we will turn all of eastern Islamism against ourselves and lose politically across the world,” only to be shut down by Andropov: “You were invited not to have your opinion heard, but to write down the Politburo’s directives and organize their implementation.”

That conflict, according to Varennikov, led to a dramatic deterioration in Ogarkov’s relations with Andropov; Ogarkov lost his post after Andropov succeeded Brezhnev as general secretary. One senior Soviet commander who lost his post even before the campaign had begun, possibly over his opposition to the intervention, was the aforementioned commander of Soviet Ground Forces, Pavlovsky. As described above, after his travels in Afghanistan in summer-fall of 1979, Pavlovsky claims he pleaded with the Soviet military-political leadership not to send a contingent, but his advice was not heeded; shortly afterwards he was relieved from his post.

In his 1994 article Gareyev criticized the Soviet political leadership for ignoring Ogarkov’s views and telling him to stick to military planning. “As life has repeatedly proved, political decisions prove viable and grounded only when they take into account all aspects, including foreign policy, economic, ideological and military-strategic considerations,” he wrote, adding: “The General Staff cannot determine policies, but they must actively participate in crafting military aspects of this policy and ignoring these aspects can lead to major political failures.”

Interestingly, while telling the General Staff to stick to military planning, the Politburo would not even heed the staff’s advice on such a key element of that planning as the personnel strength of the intervening force. Ogarkov had responded to the political leadership’s order to develop an intervention plan with a proposal for deploying 30-35 divisions, but his request was shot down, according to Gareyev’s recollections of the events, which he shared with University of Kansas history professor Jacob Kipp in 1996 and also put on paper for his other book on the subject, entitled “Afghan Suffering.”⁴ However, the Politburo authorized only 75,000-80,000 servicemen, according to Lyakhovsky’s book (at the time, a typical Soviet infantry division had 13,000 servicemen).⁵

Lesson 3:

Examine aspects of a country’s history relevant to your planned undertaking.

There’s a joke that says Americans learn about the history of other countries by invading them. The Soviets, you could say, merely recalled what they had already learned about Afghanistan’s history by invading it. Had the Soviet leadership factored in the way that Afghan tribes’ intense and enduring dislike for outside powers and their local clients had foiled previous empires’ attempts to anchor the country, that may have influenced Moscow’s final analysis about sending in troops and helped to save them from a costly mistake.

None of the transcripts of Politburo discussions about intervening in Afghanistan contains any significant discussion of Afghan history. Analyzing how Afghans had fought off various past encroachments, by the British Empire among others, would have perhaps made Soviet leaders more averse to using force to accomplish anything there. The absence of such discussions is especially ironic given that one of Soviet ideology’s most revered figures warned how “unruly” Afghans could be: None other than Friedrich Engels observed between the first and second of the three Anglo-Afghan wars that Afghans’ “indomitable hatred of rule, and their love of individual independence, … prevents their becoming a powerful nation; but this very irregularity and uncertainty of action makes them dangerous neighbors … [for whom] war is an excitement.” The Politburo members could have also examined how Joseph Stalin staged an abortive military intervention in Afghanistan in an effort to prop up Amanulla Khan, the sovereign from 1919 to 1929 who signed the 1921 Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty, but then had to abdicate his throne in a revolt. In 1929 Stalin sent 1,000 Red Army soldiers into Afghanistan disguised as Afghan soldiers to operate jointly with some of Khan’s loyalists, according to Lyakhovsky’s book and a 1999 article in Rodina by Pavel Aptekar. The joint Soviet-Afghan unit took Mazar-i-Sharif in April 1929, but Stalin then had to recall his troops after learning that Khan had fled to India.

Some Soviet officers came to the same conclusions as Engels, but only after being sent to Afghanistan to take part in the 1979-1989 intervention. “It was impossible to defeat those Afghan bearded men and their sons, with whom we then had to fight. They were ready to fight their whole lives, and they had nothing to lose from it because they had nothing to their name, just like now. This is a proud, freedom-loving people. They have nothing but their faith and the desire to live the way they want and consider to be right,” KGB officer Vladimir Garkavy, who completed multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan in 1979-1984, wrote in his book. Gromov also cited history in his 1999 Rodina article on Afghanistan. “Any interference from the outside is deemed to fail in a country where tribes have struggled against each other for centuries and where nationalism is extremely developed,” he wrote in his book, which contains more useful insights on the intervention than a New York Times op-ed he co-wrote with Dmitry Rogozin; entitled “Russian Advice on Afghanistan,” that January 2010 piece is essentially a wish list Moscow had at the time for U.S. conduct in Afghanistan.

Lesson 4:

Once the decision to send troops has been made, formulate the goals of the intervention and communicate them clearly to the agencies involved in implementation; also, shape your messaging to other key stakeholders likely to influence the outcome of the intervention.

The Soviet leadership’s marching orders for its military contingent, OKSVA, were anything but clear—with the exception of the secret order to immediately replace Amin with Karmal. The fact that the Soviet leadership failed to define what would constitute the ultimate long-term success once the initial goal of regime change had been achieved made it difficult for both that leadership and commanders on the ground to understand, once Amin was removed, whether the Soviet intervention was succeeding, failing or stagnating, other than by measuring how much territory the DRA regime controlled at any time. In the absence of a well-defined mission, Soviet commanders oscillated between merely providing support to DRA forces and actually leading combat engagements, while some of the military advisors pressed for a troop surge that could expand the mission to sealing Afghanistan’s borders. In addition to failing to clearly communicate their goals to their own troops, Soviet leaders also failed to communicate their goals in Afghanistan to the international community as a whole, making it easier for the U.S. to win support in its efforts to isolate and punish the USSR over the intervention.

The lack of a clear long-term mission was evident in the key documents kicking off the Soviet intervention, both on the political and the military side. The two-paragraph Politburo resolution initiating the troop deployment, entitled “Concerning the Situation in ‘A,’” stated neither the reasons for the campaign nor its goals. The military directive to execute the Politburo’s decision, issued jointly by the Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Force on Dec. 24, 1979, gave only a vague idea of why troops were being sent into Afghanistan, proclaiming it was to “give international aid to the friendly Afghan people and also to create favorable conditions to interdict possible anti-Afghan actions from neighboring countries.” (Defense Ministry newspapers such as Red Star didn’t provide “any sensible explanation” either, according to Gareyev’s 1994 article.) In his book, Gareyev recalled that Directive 312/12/001, signed by Ustinov and Ogarkov, stated that Soviet troops were being sent into Afghanistan for “fulfillment of international duty.” “What that duty constituted was to be decided by each commander and soldier themselves,” Gareyev wrote. According to one website maintained by Soviet veterans of the Afghan war, the directive did not provide for Soviet troops’ participation in combat. That created ambiguity in its interpretation, even though the 40th Army did get involved in fighting almost immediately. For instance, Marshal Sergei Sokolov, the deputy defense minister in charge of the ministry’s Operational Group in Afghanistan in 1980, told Soviet military advisors there in January of that year that “special attention should be paid to the inadmissibility of Soviet troops’ involvement in the armed struggle against the rebels; their [the troops’] functions are completely different.” Several days later, however, the same commander, under pressure from Afghan allies, sanctioned the use of “one or two units of Soviet troops” to oust the mujahedeen from an artillery depot, according to Gareyev’s 1994 article. In addition, while Sokolov’s boss, Ustinov, also under pressure from the Afghan leadership, “demanded that Soviet troops engage in active combat operations,” General Staff chief Ogarkov, opposed to the intervention from the outset, tried to restrain the troops’ involvement in large-scale military operations, according to Gareyev. Gromov, commander of the 40th Army, which made up the bulk of OKSVA, described in his book how he prioritized minimizing Soviet casualties and criticized Kabul for constantly pleading with Moscow to have his troops step up operations while trying to find ways to prevent using its own troops. Gareyev—who commanded no units in Afghanistan and, therefore, bore no personal responsibility for casualties—appears to have criticized what he saw as the 40th Army commanders’ passiveness, writing in his book that some of their most important combat operations “were undertaken only at the request of the Afghan leadership and under pressure from the Soviet leadership.”

(In the end, a decision to limit involvement in combat operations appears to have prevailed among the Soviet top brass: At some point as many as 70 percent of the 40th Army’s forces were tasked with ensuring transportation of humanitarian supplies and 60 percent of its activities were geared toward peacekeeping and nation-building, such as helping to build infrastructure and training the DRA army, according to Gromov’s estimates.)

The Soviet military’s top brass also appears not to have spelled out rules of engagement when sending in the troops. “The inadmissibility of the use of weapons against the civilian population is stipulated by international legal norms, but what about the ‘civilian’ armed with an automatic rifle or a grenade launcher? Wait till he shoots?” asked Gareyev in his book. He also recalled: “As strange as it may sound, from the very beginning of the introduction of troops and until the end of their stay in Afghanistan there was no clear line on whether our troops in this country should fight or not.”

As a result, some Soviet commanders displayed “covert resistance to attempts to force the troops to fight,” Gareyev wrote. The Soviet political leadership’s lack of a “clear goal” and a “definite plan of action” had a direct impact on military operations. In fact, in Gareyev’s view, the Soviet leadership continued to have neither “a definite political, strategic plan nor an integral concept of the use of troops in Afghanistan from the very beginning and in essence until the end” of the campaign.

Lyakhovsky concurred in his book that Soviet leaders had failed to spell out to the troops what they would be doing in Afghanistan, lamenting in his book that “the political leadership of the USSR formulated the strategic goals of the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan in a vague and unclear way,” except, again, for the goal of replacing Amin with Karmal, which was not made public. According to Gromov, however, the 40th Army did at least have clear initial goals. The first was to keep the “April Revolution from dying,” he wrote in reference to the April 1979 coup d’état that had brought the Moscow-friendly PDPA to power. The second goal was to prevent external aggression. The 40th Army “handled that [first] task brilliantly,” but then the PDPA’s leadership managed “craftily to drag the 40th Army into a large-scale guerilla war,” Gromov wrote.

While criticizing the Soviet political leadership for failing to formulate and communicate clear goals for the campaign in Afghanistan, Gareyev and other officers involved in the campaign had their own ideas on what these goals should be. In Gareyev’s view, which he shared with Ogarkov in December 1979, the Soviet military contingent should have been tasked with sealing Afghanistan’s borders and establishing control over all major settlements, communications and other infrastructure, arguing that the Soviet command should send 40 rather than four divisions to accomplish these goals.

Lev Rokhlin, who commanded infantry regiments in Afghanistan and then fought in Chechnya, concurred with Gareyev’s view that the Afghan borders had to be sealed, but also thought OKSVA should have refrained from siding with any of the warring parties in the country, according to a 1999 article of his in Rodina, “I Was Not Afraid to Fight.” It should also be noted that the Soviet command did task 50,000 soldiers with securing Afghanistan’s borders as of 1986, according to Akhromeyev, Ogarkov’s first deputy at the General Staff, but that number was insufficient to stop the inflow of arms and rebels. In general, it is doubtful that such a goal would have been achievable. If the experience of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and Russia’s own experience in Chechnya during the two campaigns there are any guide, a complete sealing of borders would have proved problematic, at best.

That’s why, perhaps, Vladimir Kryuchkov, who served as deputy chairman of the KGB during most of the intervention before heading up the agency in 1988, believed the mission should have been limited to a special operation to replace Amin with Karmal. “I remain convinced that a short special operation” to effect regime change “would have been the best outcome,” Kryuchkov was quoted as saying in a 1999 issue of Rodina.

In addition to failing to clearly communicate their goals to their own troops, Soviet leaders also failed in their communications with allies, foes and the international community on the issue. For instance, while official Soviet statements cited the Soviet-Afghan Friendship treaties of 1921 and 1978 as giving legal grounds for the intervention, portrayed by the Soviet propaganda machine as “international aid to the friendly Afghan people,” the Politburo decision makers did not even bother to have their Dec. 12, 1979, resolution approved by the Soviet parliament, though such a move may have somewhat increased the “official” credibility of their decision in the eyes of their allies. Lyakhovsky noted this problem in his 2005 book: “The then leadership of the CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union] did not consider it necessary to submit this question for discussion by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was simply announced as ‘international assistance’—end of story.”

Lyakhovsky’s boss, Varennikov, thought it was wrong not to reach out to the international community on the decision to send troops into Afghanistan. “What was the main mistake that our leadership made after making a decision to deploy troops? That we did not announce it.

We should have preempted the Americans and others by announcing it to the whole world: The leadership of Afghanistan repeatedly asked us for military assistance,” Vasilyev quotes Varennikov as saying. Moreover, the propaganda dimension of the Soviets’ efforts vis-à-vis the Afghan public did not become a priority until the sixth year of the campaign. It was in 1985 that the Soviet military-political leadership made the decision to “organize special propaganda in relation to the population and opposition of Afghanistan” and that was done in response to an increase in Western “information influence” there, according to a 2003 article on the “informational and psychological struggle” in Afghanistan by Col. Yuri Serooky in the Russian General Staff journal Military Thought.

To be fair, it is unclear whether such propaganda could have made much of a difference in the battle for Afghan hearts and minds even if launched on Day 1 of the intervention. After all, it would have been very difficult to make Afghans forget whose troops had poured into the president’s palace and killed Amin in the Storm-333 operation—no matter that Afghan leaders, including both Taraki and Amin himself, had asked the Soviets some 20 times to send in troops, according to Gareyev’s 1994 article and Lyakhovsky’s 1999 article.

Lesson 5:

If you do decide to go in, develop an exit plan in advance.

It should also be noted that the Soviet military had no exit plan when going in. The first draft of such a plan was developed only in 1980, according to Gareyev’s book, which cites Yuri Drozdov, the former chief of the KGB’s so-called “Illegals Program.” According to Varennikov’s 1999 article, however, it was not until 1983 that Soviet commanders submitted a proposal for withdrawing troops for consideration by the country’s political leadership. Of course, the development of an exit plan in advance could not have influenced the outcome of the intervention. In the end, Gromov, the last commander of the 40th Army, had many months to plan the withdrawal and executed it both leaving months’ worth of supplies for the remaining DRA forces and minimizing losses among OKSVA personnel during the withdrawal itself. However, had the intervention gone wrong in the early stages of the campaign (e.g., if Afghan rebels had inflicted massive losses on the advancing troops or a significant unexpected event had emerged, such as a major military conflict elsewhere), then a hasty, unplanned withdrawal could have cost a lot of lives.

Also, while the military component of the exit was well planned and executed, the diplomatic component fell short. As discussed further down, the Soviets failed to secure either assurances for the return of their own POWs and MIAs or the effective enforcement of other signatories’ obligations on ending aid to the rebels. The latter accelerated the fall of the PDPA regime, bringing instability to the disintegrating Soviet empire’s southern frontiers.

Lesson 6:

Once in, ensure effective inter-agency coordination and cooperation.

Both the preparation and the execution of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan revealed that inter-agency coordination and cooperation was inadequate. That by itself could not have decided the outcome of the campaign, but inter-agency rivalry did limit the OKSVA command’s situational awareness, causing a range of problems, including the diminished effectiveness of combat planning and operations.

Initial coordination was so ineffective that key figures were kept in the dark about their colleagues’ plans even within a single agency. For instance, the chief Soviet military advisor in Afghanistan, Gen. Saltan Magomedov, had no idea that commandoes of the General Staff’s Main Intelligence Directorate would storm Amin’s palace, in cooperation with KGB commandos and other forces, to replace him with Karmal. When Ustinov called this star-studded advisor in December 1979 sometime prior to the attack and asked to be briefed on “readiness for Operation Storm-333,” Magomedov did not know what his superior was talking about, according to Gareyev’s book. When Magomedov admitted this, Ustinov suggested he contact the KGB representative in Kabul. When Magomedov did that, he got “hints, not … the necessary information,” Gareyev wrote.

Moreover, according to Gareyev’s 1994 article, Soviet military advisors in Afghanistan learned that Soviet troops had entered the country from foreign radio broadcasts.

Cooperation across agencies was equally if not more problematic. Both Gromov and Gareyev listed multiple instances when Defense Ministry and KGB personnel would fail to coordinate their actions in Afghanistan. Being army generals, both blamed the lack of cooperation on the KGB, particularly when it came to interactions with the General Staff’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU. KGB agents in Afghanistan would sometimes refuse to share intelligence they had collected directly with the Soviet armed forces’ commanders there, sending it to superiors at KGB headquarters in Moscow instead. “As a result, we [40th Army Command] would learn about actions supposedly planned by the mujahedeen from Moscow,” Gromov wrote.

“Such situations arose with depressing consistency and created certain tensions between military intelligence [GRU] officers and their colleagues from the State Security Committee [KGB],” Gromov wrote.

It was only in 1985, six years after the campaign began, that inter-agency intelligence coordination meetings began to take place at 40th Army headquarters so that representatives of the GRU, KGB, Interior Ministry and Foreign Ministry could jointly examine and analyze intelligence, according to Gromov.

Lesson 7:

Rather than try to mold your local allies in your own image, empower them, encouraging self-reliance, and pay attention to indigenous traditions.

As stated above, the Soviet Union spent the equivalent of billions of dollars arming and training DRA forces, including Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and security troops.

The results proved to be far from either lasting or sufficient, however. DRA troops proved unable either to hold on to territorial gains made by the Soviet 40th Army or to withstand rebel offensives after Moscow withdrew the army and then discontinued aid.

The implosion of the DRA forces—which proved to be no match for the rebels in skills, tactics or morale—brought instability to the southern frontiers of the Soviet empire.

One of the senior Soviet officials to criticize the quality of DRA forces’ training by their Soviet advisors was Leonid Shebarshin, then a general in the KGB’s foreign intelligence branch.

While some Soviet military commanders sought to portray their efforts to train the Afghans as adequate, blaming poor results on the Afghans’ ineptitude, Shebarshin offered searing criticism of the trainers themselves in his memoirs. “What was the source of the [Soviet commanders’] distrust of the [Afghan] ally? How did it happen that two thousand advisers, including colonels and generals, failed to create a single fully combat-capable and reliable unit in the Afghan army?

How did it happen that the tactics of the Afghan army’s actions are not based on modern realities but on the hopelessly outdated experience of war in the open spaces of Russia?” wrote Shebarshin, who spent more than a decade in the region, conducting more than 20 trips to Afghanistan and eventually becoming chief of KGB operations in the Middle East.

In Shebarshin’s view, one reason the training of Afghan troops proved to be ineffective was that the Soviet commanders never learned how to delegate powers to their trainees: “We did teach something to Afghans, no doubt.

But mainly we ordered them around and commanded them, ‘stitching them on’ to our operations, imposing our decisions, while loudly shouting about the weak fighting capacity of the ally.”

Gareyev agreed with Shebarshin’s assessment on the lack of Soviet commanders’ trust in their Afghan allies, but blamed it in his book on KGB operatives.

Whether it was the lack of trust that adversely affected soldiers’ conduct, or the other way around, is unclear. What is clear, however, from all the Soviet commanders whose writings and statements were reviewed for this article, is that this conduct was subpar.

Rather than try to press their Afghan allies into some Marxist-Leninist mold, the Soviets should have encouraged the PDPA leadership to revert to indigenous traditions of power sharing to ensure national reconciliation and subsequent self-reliance. As Gromov wrote in his book, “A puppet-string mentality grew so strong among Afghans that they could no longer act independently, without the help of the Soviets.”

Chernyaev was even starker in his assessment of the Afghan leadership’s overdependence on the Soviets for making crucial decisions: “Karmalism is the dogmatism of Marxism-Leninism plus parasitism in relation to the USSR,” he wrote on Aug. 28, 1987, in his diary.

As Gareyev wrote: “In the early 1980s, in relation to Afghanistan, the most realistic thing was [for Soviet-policymakers] to avoid striving for the creation of a similar, obedient and unconditionally socialist state, but to support more moderate forces that enjoyed the support of the majority of the population and to push for reconciliation of the parties from the very beginning.” Gromov struck a similar note. “It is impossible to make country like Afghanistan, with its completely different way of life, with different religion, low level of development, a country that lives in its fourteenth century according to its calendar, similar to the Soviet Union. It would be a real absurdity,” Gromov wrote.

Lesson 8:

You cannot succeed in a military intervention unless the side on whose behalf you intervene is willing to fight for your joint cause.

No amount of training and empowering your local allies will help an intervention succeed unless those allies are actually willing to fight for your joint cause. The Soviets intervened to bring Karmal’s PDPA faction to power, going as far as assassinating a president to make way for their protégé. But the PDPA lacked a sufficient number of loyalists willing to fight for that cause, and many of the tens of thousands of men conscripted into the Moscow-aligned Afghan forces preferred to either avoid battle or outright desert when given orders to fight opposition forces.

Gromov vented repeatedly in his book about Afghan civil and military authorities’ failure to hold on to territorial gains made by Soviet forces, implying that differing priorities played a part. “The local Afghan leadership, despite its pro-Soviet sentiment, was not interested in having us conduct combat operations with maximum efficiency. Only a few of them [Afghan officials] tried to consolidate their power and govern in the provinces that we had ‘cleared.’ Obviously, they understood that sooner or later the war would end and there would be no one to face the music but them,” Gromov wrote of his first tour of duty, which ended in 1982 with him commanding an infantry division. His second tour of duty, which he began in 1985 as the General Staff’s representative in Afghanistan, was not marked by significant changes. Gromov called the situation he returned to that year “a dead end”: “One and a half months after our battalions returned to [their] military camps, we were again forced to conduct operations” in the same areas, he wrote in his book. “Our experience has shown that the results we achieved during our combat operations are not then utilized by the Afghans.

About one and a half to two months after completion of an operation everything would go back to square one: Mujahedeen would again take the districts from which we had knocked them out; they would restore their old bases with weapons and ammunition, coming very close to our sites again and resume shelling and attacks.

The question is: What did we fight for so long, sacrificing our guys in the mountains? It was necessary to stop,” Gromov wrote in 1985. Akhromeyev, first deputy chief of the General Staff, lamented the same problem at around the same time: “There is not a single piece of land left in this country that a Soviet soldier has not taken, yet most of the territory is in the hands of the rebels,” he told a Politburo meeting chaired by Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, on Nov. 13, 1986. “We control Kabul and the provincial centers, but we cannot establish authority in the conquered territory. We lost the fight for the Afghan people,” Akhromeyev said. Indeed, as of 1986, only 8,000 of some 31,000-35,000 villages were under Afghan government control, according to estimates by Mohammad Najibullah, who succeeded Karmal as PDPA head in May 1986, which he shared with Soviet diplomat Yuly Vorontsov in October of that year, according to Gromov’s book. As of 1989, the authorities’ controlled only 18 percent of the country’s territory, according to Gromov.

Gromov confirmed his impressions of Afghan soldiers’ and administrators’ conduct during his third and final tour of duty in 1987-1989 when he was commanding the 40th Army. “A time will soon come when revolutionary leaders will be left alone with their problems. They will be left one on one with the opposition. Only in this way can I explain the numerous instances of treason and betrayal by the Afghan military, which we encountered wherever we went,” he wrote in his 1994 book “Limited Contingent.”

Some of the officers from Afghanistan’s Ministry of State Security were no more enthusiastic about standing up to the mujahedeen than their Soviet Defense Ministry counterparts or civilian administrators, according to Gromov.

In his book he described how Soviet forces would “mop up” areas, detaining suspected mujahedeen and passing them on to the Afghans, only to encounter the same suspects again during the next mopping-up operation three or four months later. It was most likely that Afghan security agents would simply let these suspects go without investigating them or prosecuting them in court, Gromov surmised.

Not only were Afghan authorities and troops far from committed to the Soviet cause, they sometimes actively sabotaged it. Gromov complained that opposition field commanders like Ahmad Shah Massoud had “broad networks of informants in the Afghan army and government,” making it difficult to keep combat plans secret. Moreover, Afghan soldiers kept deserting to the opposition forces, taking their arms with them, including even howitzers and heavy armored vehicles. Equipment transfers by government troops “constituted a formidable source of arms and ammunition for the rebels,” Gromov wrote. Thousands would desert from the Afghan ministries of defense, security and internal affairs. According to one Russian account, a 1993 memoir called “Pursuing the Lion of Panjshir,” the number of deserters totaled 34,000 in 1983 alone. Even some DRA Air Force pilots would desert, reportedly flying their Soviet warplanes and helicopters to Pakistan, while some of those who stayed on would deliberately drop their bombs away from the designated targets, according to Gromov, who claims to have “documented a multiplicity of such instances.” He also wrote that some of the DRA servicemen tasked with observing enemy positions and providing targeting data would supply coordinates of locations where their personal enemies lived rather than mujahedeen.

Desertion from DRA forces became particularly widespread in the late 1980s as it became clear that OKSVA would be leaving. Of the 370 Afghan tank crewmembers trained in the city of Termez in Soviet Uzbekistan in 1989 and used to form a new tank brigade, only 127 made it to Kabul, according to Gareyev; the rest deserted, with several trainees fleeing during every night-time stopover en route.

Even when faced with an existential threat to the regime, some DRA commanders could not stop theft of military stocks or prevent desertions among their soldiers. When departing Soviet troops left three months’ worth of supplies for the DRA army, including almost 1,000 armored vehicles, 3,000 other vehicles and 14,400 assault rifles, many of these supplies did not reach the designated recipient because they were either stolen and sold to insurgents or seized by insurgents by force, according to Gareyev.

Gromov described how entire military camps that his withdrawing army had outfitted with everything from security perimeters to slippers next to beds would be looted by corrupt DRA commanders and their subordinates within days of being handed over and the goods then sold in local private shops.

Lesson 9:

Talk to moderates on the opposite side.

In theory, the Soviets were bound by their ideological dogmas to offer unconditional support for the PDPA only. In reality, while supporting Afghanistan’s ruling socialist regime, Soviet commanders did not refrain from reaching out to some of the moderate leaders among the mujahedeen, even though they espoused such “hostile ideologies” as political Islam and Pashtun nationalism. Such outreach proved to be important not only in reducing combat losses, but also in creating opportunities for reconciliation, which ultimately remained unused.

The Soviets likewise managed to establish direct contacts between commanders and chiefs of staff of Soviet units and “a multiplicity of [rebel] field commanders,” using Soviet military intelligence agents as liaisons, according to Gromov.

Gromov dedicated quite a few pages in his book to describing his contacts with such leaders, including Massoud, whose stronghold was in the Panjshir valley. “We were particularly interested in individual gangs’ attitudes toward the Afghan state authorities and the Soviet troops,” he wrote. Gromov noted that some of the field commanders would deal with OKSVA top brass, but would refuse to deal with official Afghan authorities. “Apparently, the mujahedeen believed they would benefit more from dealing with the Russians.

In addition, constant cooperation with the command of the Soviet troops gave them certain guarantees that this or that grouping would not be destroyed in the near future,” he wrote.

Those field commanders who cooperated with OKSVA would even sometimes receive medicines and food from the Soviet contingent, according to Gromov.

Overall, however, this cooptation fell short, mostly due to ideological dogmas. “Having bet on PDPA members and ignoring the Afghan elites established over the centuries, the Soviet leaders made themselves hostage to all these Tarakis, Amins, Karmals, Najibs [short for Najibullahs] and the like. This they understood much later, however,” Vasilyev, the military historian, wrote.

However, not all of this outreach was a waste. The contacts between Gromov and Massoud may have contributed to the latter’s desire to take a cooperative stance toward post-Soviet Russia.

Once the DRA regime fell apart and the Taliban rose to power, Massoud became one of the leaders of the so-called Northern Alliance, which post-Soviet Moscow supported in its effort to prevent an expansion of the Taliban’s influence into Central Asia in the 1990s.

Lesson 10:

When leaving, leave…

When describing how he engineered the withdrawal of the 40th Army in his book, Gromov does not cite the popular Russian adage “when leaving, leave,” sometimes attributed to Cicero.

However, the description itself proves that he persistently tried to do just that despite pressure from DRA rulers.

Had Gromov not been so persistent, Najibullah may have succeeded in persuading Moscow to keep the troops in-country, and the result of that “success” would have been only delaying the fall of his regime at the cost of more OKSVA casualties.

Moreover, had the Soviet soldiers stayed for three more years, they would have found the state they had sworn to defend vanish in December 1991.

Even as it was, the subsequent process of dividing Soviet units among the 15 newly independent republics proved to be chaotic and antagonistic at times, which would have seriously affected both the supplies and the morale of OKSVA had the contingent still been deployed.

Come 1992, and even the largest of the ex-Soviet republics, Russia, would have lacked the resources possessed by the USSR in 1989 to smoothly and securely withdraw the 40th army had post-Soviet Moscow claimed it for its own. In reality, when 1992 came, there were only seven “Soviet” military advisors left in Afghanistan and they all left the country in April of that year.

In his book Gromov describes multiple instances when Najibullah and some of the Soviet leaders kept coming up with options that would commit Soviet troops to stay in Afghanistan even after the announcement about withdrawal.

In 1988 “the government of Afghanistan made truly ‘heroic’ efforts to stop the 40th Army from leaving at any cost,” Gromov recalled in his book.

To do so, the Afghan Defense Ministry made repeated attempts to draw OKSVA into “large-scale combat,” while DRA diplomats argued that the withdrawal should be suspended because Pakistan was failing to fulfill its commitments under the 1988 Geneva Accords.

In one instance, also in 1988, Najibullah said that he would agree to the withdrawal of the 40th Army, but asked that Soviet volunteers guard Kabul’s airport and the Hairatan-Kabul highway, which would have required a 12,000-strong division, according to Gromov’s book.

A secret Central Committee memo of Jan. 23, 1989, described several options for providing military support to the DRA after the withdrawal, including one similar to what Najibullah asked for—to leave a 12,000-man division to guard the highway so that the Soviets could continue shipping aid. Another option was to ask the U.N. to deploy peacekeepers and keep Soviet troops in until they arrive.

A third option was to withdraw OKSVA, but have Soviet military units guard convoys with aid. The fourth option was to “withdraw almost all Soviet troops,” but leave some units behind so they could guard key parts of the Hairatan-Kabul highway. The fifth and final option was to withdraw all troops, but have the Soviet military send in ammunition and other supplies to fully equip and maintain Afghan government units guarding the highway.

Ultimately, the Soviet leadership rightly concluded that keeping in regular troops was not an option and withdrew all personnel except advisors, who at one point totaled 2,000, according to an interview Gareyev gave the Rodina journal in 1999.

The Soviet departure did not suffice to end the civil war, as some may have hoped based on the mujahedeen’s stated goal of driving out the Soviets; however, subsequent events proved that the Soviets’ Afghan allies could hold onto power even without Soviet soldiers and, therefore, without significant Soviet casualties, as long as Moscow continued to materially support the government.

Lesson 11:

…but before you leave, secure enforceable guarantees that POWs and MIAs are found and brought home, and give the returning soldiers proper welcome and care.

Describing how the last battalion of the 40th Army crossed into Termez under his command on Feb. 15, 1989, Gromov wrote how ordinary people embraced the returning soldiers heartily, but how also “not a single commander in Moscow even thought about how to organize greeting” them. “Were we supposed to greet ourselves? The attempt to overlook the withdrawal of the 40th Army from Afghanistan became another instance of tactlessness by those who worked in the Kremlin… They could have at least sent someone from the huge government staff or the Defense Ministry to meet us in Termez. It’s not every day we complete the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan,” Gromov wrote. He also wrote that some of the Soviet citizens welcoming home his last battalion were relatives of Soviet soldiers who had been killed in Afghanistan.

“Some of them, having received official notices and even having buried their loved ones, still hoped: What if he was alive, what if he would come out now?” Gromov wrote. Overall, 15,051 Soviet servicemen were killed in Afghanistan, according to a 2001 study edited by Col. Gen. Grigory Krivosheyev. As for Afghans, some 800,000-1,500,000 of them died during the intervention, according to one scholarly estimate.

Of those who did return, many suffered from post-traumatic disorders that often went untreated, while also encountering public disapproval from those with anti-war sentiments, much as Vietnam veterans initially did in the U.S.

The author of this paper encountered one such veteran in 1999. The former sniper, broad-shouldered, had served in a Soviet commando unit in Afghanistan and said the only means of relaxation his commanders had provided was an aquarium.

He also said his complaints about what he later realized to be a post-traumatic stress disorder were dismissed by commanders with phrases like: “What psychological stress?

Have you seen the size of your arms?” (meaning, presumably, that his physical fitness precluded any medical conditions).

According to a book by KGB officer Vladimir Garkavy, who completed multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan, “despondency, apathy and despair have become the companions of many veterans.” Garkavy wrote that some 500 veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan committed suicide in 2007 alone.

In addition to failing to organize a proper welcome to the returning troops or ensure adequate treatment of their war-induced disorders, the Soviet authorities also did not bother to include a clause on the return of Soviet MIAs in any of the so-called Geneva Accords,⁶ which were signed in 1988 and included three Afghan-Pakistan bilateral agreements on ending the war and a declaration on international guarantees signed by the U.S. and Soviet Union and meant to cut off U.S. and Soviet aid to the warring sides.

At the time, Gorbachev and his foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, “who concluded these treaties, seemed to be concerned only about convincing the public that they were not personally involved in the deployment of Soviet troops to Afghanistan and to disclaim responsibility for it.

Soviet soldiers and officers who were in captivity … were of little interest to them,” Lyakhovsky wrote in his book. According to Varennikov’s 1999 article, he and other Soviet commanders pleaded with Shevardnadze during a 1987 meeting to include clauses on reciprocal closure of rebel bases in Afghanistan and he agreed to push for them, but none made it into the accords.

Gromov also wrote in his book that the leadership of the 40th Army and Soviet Defense Ministry “insisted” the Soviet government insert a clause on the return of Soviet POWs and MIAs into the accords because “we had no moral right to leave Afghanistan until we liberated our soldiers or at least ascertained their fates.”

However, these demands were disregarded. According to the Krivosheyev study, 417 Soviet soldiers went missing or were taken captive in Afghanistan during the intervention, with 130 of them later found and returned home, leaving 287 MIAs and POWs as of Jan. 1, 1999; by 2013 the list had been whittled down to 263 people, according to a Moscow-based veterans’ organization.

Lesson 12:

…also before you leave, secure firm and enforceable agreements that would not only meet your own minimum requirements for a negotiated settlement, but also those of your local allies, because the end of an intervention by itself cannot end hostilities.

Had the Soviet Union managed to secure enforceable commitments from other external powers involved in the conflict to discontinue aid to the Afghan rebels in exchange for doing so itself, it might have at the very least delayed the fall of the friendly regime in Kabul. Moreover, that could have created a stalemate that would have made some of the warring factions more inclined to achieve national reconciliation. This, in turn, could have led to the emergence of a regime that would have been neutral toward Moscow rather than hostile like the Taliban. The latter ultimately gained the upper hand in Afghanistan in the 1990s before being ousted from power by a U.S.-led coalition and, at the time of this writing, was negotiating a power-sharing agreement with Washington.

Gareyev, Gromov and Kryuchkov all pointed out in their books and interviews that the Soviet withdrawal may have robbed the mujahedeen of one of their rhetorical casus belli, but it did not and could not have ended hostilities, as the rebels strove to finish off Najibullah’s regime. Yet the new Soviet leadership (Gorbachev and his team) was so keen to withdraw from Afghanistan that a POW/MIA clause was not the only one they forgot to insert into the Geneva Accords: While the U.S.-Soviet declaration obliged both countries to cut aid to warring factions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other sponsors of the Afghan mujahedeen either were not bound by the accords or ignored them, continuing to supply aid and rightly calculating that the Soviets were in no mood to enforce agreements as their country grew weaker.

Gromov wrote that Pakistan was failing to abide by the accords even as the Soviets honored their obligations: “We knew that the government of Pakistan did not really fulfill most of the clauses of the signed agreements. As before, insurgent bases operated on the territory of that country, [and] weapons were continuously flowing from there,” he wrote in his book. Gromov refrained from evaluating Pakistan’s failure to honor its commitments, but Gareyev was blunt in his criticism of the Soviet leadership’s failure to make Islamabad comply: “Neither the Soviet nor the Russian foreign ministries did anything to achieve the implementation of the Geneva Accords by the United States and Pakistan…

[While] the Soviet troops left, all the military bases and training centers of the mujahedeen in Pakistan remained. Soviet military aid to the Republic of Afghanistan was stopped, but the supply of weapons and ammunition to the mujahedeen continued,” he wrote.

“Why did we need long and expensive negotiations with the Americans and Pakistanis and the Geneva Accords if only one side abided by them and the other was not going to do anything? It would have been easier to withdraw the Soviet troops unilaterally and resolve the issue without any diplomatic games,” Gareyev wrote. Former KGB officer Garkavy struck a similar note in his book. He criticizes the Soviet leadership for committing to end assistance to Afghanistan in exchange for a U.S. commitment to end assistance to the mujahedeen because such reciprocity did nothing to stop aid that the Afghan rebels were getting from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Kuwait.

In addition to trying to obtain enforceable guarantees from external stakeholders, the Soviets could have also done more to press their own client into reconciliation when still providing the DRA with substantial aid because such aid could be used as leverage. As Gareyev wrote, “there were no tangible results in the implementation of the policy of national reconciliation. The concept of political settlement in Afghanistan put forward by the Afghan leadership was perceived by many [PDPA] party leaders as a loss of its current leading role in governing the country and, for many members of the leadership, as having to leave the government positions they held.”

Lesson 13:

Even after you leave, prevent mission creep.

Even when the bulk of the troops have been withdrawn and only a small contingent of military advisors are left behind to help the ally retain positions, it is important to continue avoiding mission creep. Otherwise, leaders of the (no longer) intervening power may find themselves in the same predicament as Al Pacino’s character in “Godfather III” when he exclaimed: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” According to Gareyev, such mission creep nearly occurred again after the 40th Army was withdrawn with only 30 Soviet advisors and some guards left behind. The general recalled in his book how Dmitry Yazov, the-then defense minister, told him—when dispatching him to Afghanistan in 1989 to act as the chief Soviet military advisor after the 40th Army’s withdrawal—that his task was to make sure Najibullah’s regime survives for at least three or four months; if it did, Yazov argued, then maybe a political resolution of the conflict could be attained in that time.

But, seeing Najibullah’s regime last for a year after the OKSVA withdrawal, some top officials in the KGB and Foreign Ministry began to assert that Najibullah’s troops and their Soviet advisors had been on the defensive long enough and should now initiate “decisive, offensive actions in all directions,” Gareyev wrote. He also wrote that he had had a hard time convincing some leaders in Moscow to refrain from such “adventurist aspirations” that “could only lead to the most negative consequences.” It is easy to see how, if DRA forces would have gone on a major offensive, they could have suffered a disastrous defeat, strengthening the case made by Najibullah and some of his supporters in Moscow – who tried to prevent withdrawal of OKSVA – from brining the troops back in.

Lesson 14:

Last but not least: Be willing to learn the lessons.

Last but not least, strategists of an intervening power need to be willing to infer and internalize lessons that the intervention has generated. Otherwise, they will be more likely to repeat mistakes and less likely to replicate some of the intervention’s successes.

An estimated 620,000 Soviet soldiers and officers were rotated in and out of Afghanistan during the 10-year campaign. (The author of this paper still remembers, as an adolescent, the sinking feeling upon seeing his father, Soviet Air Force Lt. Colonel Karen Saradzhyan, pack for another komandirovka to Afghanistan at the time.)

However, while the rank-and-file learned to fight in the country’s rugged mountains because it was a matter of survival, not all of their commanders did. Members of the military-political leadership need to be willing to learn the lessons that present themselves during a campaign—that is the final lesson inferred for this paper from Soviet commanders’ and officials’ recollections of the country’s intervention in Afghanistan.

According to Gromov, in the summer of 1981, with the intervention well into its second year, the Soviet Defense Ministry decided to send the commanders of several military districts to Afghanistan for several days to learn the lessons learned there by the OKSVA. Many of the dispatched high commanders and their staff officers showed no real interest, however, thinking the lessons would be of little use to them because the local war was local whereas they had been preparing for a major international conflict with NATO. Ironically, though his book came out in 1994 when Russians troops were fighting an anti-insurgency campaign in the mountains of Chechnya, which was in some ways similar to Afghanistan, Gromov did not draw such a parallel. Rather than focus on lessons, some of the commanders spent much of their time in Afghanistan examining whether barracks were tidy, “whether the soldiers’ beds were made and there were slippers next to the nightstands,” Gromov wrote.

When these visiting commanders did venture out to combat areas, they were asking why there is no loudspeaker communication between the commander and his artillery unit. “By and large, no one got interested in the experience we acquired. It was simply ignored and it was not integrated into education. Apparently, they believed it was better to keep silent about the war in Afghanistan.

I think the reason the war was initiated should not affect whether the invaluable combat experience [accumulated over its course] is studied or not,” Gromov wrote. Soviet advisors likewise did not apply the inferable lessons when shaping the Afghan military they were advising. “How did it happen that the structure of the Afghan armed forces was created exactly according to our model and the experience of a nine-year war did not yield any changes in that structure,” KGB general Shebarshin wrote in his book after more than 20 tours of duty in Afghanistan.

Finally, a year and a half after ascending to the post of general secretary in March 1985, Gorbachev too faulted the Soviet military top brass for failing to infer and learn some lessons from the Afghan war. “In Afghanistan, we have been fighting for six years,” Gorbachev told a Nov. 13, 1986, meeting of the Politburo. “If you do not change the approaches, then we will be fighting there for another 20-30 years.

This would cast a shadow on our ability to influence the development of events. I must also tell our military that they are learning poorly from this war. … In general, we have not found the keys to solving this problem. Are we going to fight endlessly, as testimony that our troops are not able to deal with the situation? We need this process completed soon,” he said.

Thoughts and summy of the 14 lessons.

As demonstrated above, the Soviet leadership made a number of mistakes, first [1] when contemplating whether to intervene in Afghanistan, then [2] during the intervention and, finally, [3] when withdrawing the troops.

Some of these mistakes were particularly costly, such as the failure to take full stock either of the hierarchy of vital national interests at stake in Afghanistan or of the costs and benefits of intervention. Had the leaders in Moscow paid attention to the full array of potential costs presented to them, they may have avoided the fateful error of sending troops en masse across the Soviet-Afghan border.

The Soviet leadership also erred in failing to clearly formulate the troops’ mission beyond regime change, creating confusion and debates among top commanders about what it is they were supposed to achieve in Afghanistan once Amin was replaced with Karmal and how.

Whatever the mission, the Soviet military operations would have probably dealt greater setbacks to the armed Afghan opposition at lower costs to the Soviet troops if the various Soviet government agencies had fostered effective coordination of their activities from the very beginning—including, first and foremost, the sharing of intelligence on the ground.

The Soviets eventually learned the importance of such sharing and corrected the mistake.

However, even such coordination, or better training of DRA forces by their mentors, could not have led to a decisive defeat of the opposition forces as long as many of the DRA forces remained unwilling to fight.

Therefore, it was a matter of time before the Soviets realized that their only option was to leave. That was the right decision, which was made in spite of pressure from the DRA ruling elite. However, while leaving was the right move and its military component (the actual withdrawal of troops) was executed well, the diplomatic and political aspects of that maneuver were not without flaw. Not only did the Soviet government fail to secure guarantees for the return of POWs and MIAs, but it also failed to secure enforceable commitments from other external powers involved in the conflict to discontinue aid to the Afghan rebels in what could have at the very least delayed the fall of Najibullah’s regime.

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was not what bankrupted the Soviet Union or led to its collapse, contrary to U.S. President Donald Trump’s January 2019 take on Soviet Russia’s experiences in Afghanistan, which he offered as he argued in favor of a U.S. troop withdrawal from the country. Rather, as Yegor Gaidar convincingly demonstrated, a combination of structural economic and other factors played the lead role in the demise of the Soviet empire. However, that intervention, which caused horrendous hardship for many Afghans, did contribute to the demise by imposing formidable human, financial, economic, political and reputational costs on the Soviet Union, despite the fact that Soviet leaders did eventually realize some of the mistakes they had made in Afghanistan and sought to correct them.

Not all erroneous decisions can be reversed and some of them can have disastrous consequences.

Therefore, if faced with a situation that passes May’s test for historical analogies to the Soviet predicament vis-à-vis Afghanistan, Western leaders would do well to learn from those mistakes, rather than make their own, even if some senior Russian legislators are now planning to convince their compatriots that the Soviet intervention was the right thing to do.

And so… now we have the American debacle…

And this here it kind of sums things up from the point of view of American “allies” and other neocons throughout the American military empire. They are not happy…

…and emotion is clouding their judgement.

Yeah. It’s a mess.

What is HELL is America and the UK doing there in the first place?

Well, here’s some clear and true points well stated…

And let’s not forget what he said in his younger days as the President of Singapore. This next video has to be one of the very best video clips that I have ever seen in my life. Check it out…

And now, since you all know a little bit of history, and a little bit about the UK and RUssian experience, you should be well equipped to read this great article…

Nasrallah: Afghanistan is worst debacle in US history, Biden hopes for civil war

1051 Views August 22, 2021 5 Comments

Resistance News Unfiltered

Speech by Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, on August 17, 2021, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 9th night of Ashura, two days before the martyrdom of Imam Hussein.

Transcript:

[…] My last point is Afghanistan, which I quickly mentioned before. What is happening in Afghanistan right now is an emergency situation that is grabbing the attention of the whole world. Inside the United States, this is the main event all are talking about, and of course everyone blames each other, just like in Lebanon, people are all the same: the Republican Party blames the Democrat Party, blames Biden, and describes the scene as a humiliation for the United States, (a proof of) weakness, helplessness, failure, historic defeat, shame, disgrace, etc. If we want to faithfully describe (the political situation in the United States), we can say that they are tearing each other apart. The same goes for the position of European countries, of the leaders of certain European countries [United Kingdom, France, Germany…], who speak with very strong and very negative words to assess the situation in Afghanistan.

Suppressed crocodile tears: that’s all British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has to offer all his Afghan allies that the Royal Army won’t evacuate.#Afghanistan https://t.co/HbIh7DR9ay
— Le Cri des Peuples (@cridespeuples2) August 21, 2021

It is indeed a striking and vitally important spectacle, filled with lessons to be learned, and we all must…

It is not something that one or two speeches is enough to describe, for the situation continues to develop, and deserves everyone to watch it carefully and think about it seriously, very seriously.

This should not simply be of interest to (pseudo-)experts (in) strategic (issues), who are very numerous today, ma sha Allah, experts, analysts, no: all men and women (must feel) that what is currently happening in Afghanistan (is their concern), and all that has been said so far remains little in the face of the importance and consequences of what is happening in Afghanistan, at the historical, strategic, ideological, cultural, political, psychological and moral levels.

And those who must be the most assiduous in the reading (and the interpretation) of this (considerable) event to draw the strategic and historical consequences from it are the peoples of this region. Yes, the people of the Middle East must be the first to care about what is happening. Because what is happening in Afghanistan is a very big and even masterful lesson.

The images that you see and have all seen on TV screens speak for themselves… and all the media around the world (follow and broadcast what is happening), because however strong the censorship system of the United States may be, (it is powerless to prevent the mass distribution of these images).

On the subject of social networks and the Internet, which the United States has opened up and spread around the world to instrumentalize them in color revolutions here and there, they find themselves caught in their own trap, because even inside of the United States, the government of Biden can certainly influence such newspapers or such television channels (to dissuade them from broadcasting these humiliating images), but how could it prevent millions and tens of millions of users of social networks who disseminate and share these images?

And glory to God, these are exactly the same images as in Vietnam!

As in Saigon, the (American nationals) climbed stairs to access a helicopter on a roof (and escape), we see exactly the same thing happening at Kabul airport! It’s extraordinary ! A real photocopy! Can we believe that this is just a coincidence?

PHOTO 1: US diplomat evacuate US from embassy via helicopter as the #Taliban enter #Kabul from all sides. #Afghanistan (2021)

PHOTO 2: US diplomat evacuate US from embassy via helicopter as the PAVN & Viet Cong capture of Saigon, Vietnam (1975) pic.twitter.com/YamWmzjOay

— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) August 15, 2021

Either way, the images of Afghanistan and the fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the very movement that the United States fought for 20 years and expelled (from power), before handing the country over to them on a silver platter…

The Taliban flag flies over Kabul airport.

I have already mentioned Afghanistan in my previous speech [cf. below], and today Biden took the floor to try to defend himself…

I said before that instead of rushing to achieve the withdrawal of his troops, as long as the American forces were present , and since the Afghan forces (formed by the USA) have 300,000 to 400,000 members —between soldiers and police forces— he should have cut a deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban, in favor of the formation of a transitional government, which would have avoided everything that happened, allowing the United States to withdraw with dignity.

Why didn’t he do this?

Because he couldn’t bear to stay any longer (in Afghanistan). Honestly! It was not out of respect that Biden did not do this.

And don’t take my word for it, listen to what Biden himself said! Listen to Biden, listen to his Secretary of State and his National Security Advisor… Because now they are forced to explain themselves to the American people…

They do not explain themselves to the peoples of the world, but to the American people who is amazed at these humiliating images of defeat and failure.

Listen to his explanations, and you will understand the American point of view.

I’m not going to make you a (full) TV report, but I hope everyone will listen carefully to what Biden said yesterday, today, and what American (authorities) will say in the days to come.

Give seriously some time to their statements, as this will give a good understanding of the historical and strategic consequences of the (humiliating) defeat and (monumental) failure of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan. It is a matter of concern to us as peoples of the region, and gives us lessons that we can use for our present and our future.

I’m going to stop on two points (of Biden’s speech).

In his speech today, he said

“We have spent over a trillion dollars, that is over a thousand billion dollars! They spent a trillion dollars in Afghanistan! And they left crestfallen, empty-handed, with Honaïn’s shoes as the saying goes, humiliated, defeated, ashamed, in disgrace. And this according to the admission of their own media, and Western media. What does this prove?

That they have failed (miserably), that they have been routed, that they are helpless, ignorant and stupid.

Biden himself said that the US did not foresee that the Afghan government and forces would collapse so quickly, and was surprised that they neither fought nor resisted. The Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor said the same thing. What does this indicate?

People imagine the United States to be a demigod, omniscient, analyzing and mastering everything at their fingertips, knowledgeable about everything, able to plan everything through its state-of-the-art study and planning centers with top notch skill and technology, with huge & infaillible plans, etc.

But the reality is far from all that!

In our region, the United States is ignorant, unable to understand anything!

For decades, they have been repeating the same mistakes, deploying the same experiments and the same calculations doomed to failure!

This is one of the lessons to be learned!

Biden says it is not the fault of the United States, but the fault of the Afghan forces who did not fight. But my dear, these Afghan forces, you left them without air force, because the air force is in your hands, (and you did not allow them to develop it), while claiming that you spent a trillion dollars .

This is the first point.

Second, these Afghan forces were led by your generals, who prepared doomed (war) plans for them! What (war) plans did you concoct, what (military) advice did you provide to these Afghan forces?

Third, what did Biden want (ultimately)? What does his confession reveal? Because he did not know how to hold his tongue, too entangled in his defense (awkward, and he unmasked himself).

He wanted a civil war!

He wanted the Afghan forces to wage war on the Taliban, a war between hundreds of thousands (of fighters) against hundreds of thousands (of fighters), and he would just have to sit down and enjoy the spectacle. bloody in Afghanistan.

Civil war, bloodbath… BHL’s wildest dream for #Afghanistan
“It’s good for Israel” https://t.co/cKg7aC3YyR
— Le Cri des Peuples (@cridespeuples2) August 21, 2021

Whereas if he had humanity, and cared (for the well-being) of people as he claims, he would have presided over an agreement and a settlement of the conflict before withdrawing from Afghanistan.

(This contempt for the lives of Afghans) is an ethical and moral downfall of the American administration!

This moral degradation is emphasized even by leading politicians and commentators in the United States and elsewhere.

This is why Biden says today that he wanted a political solution (between the Afghan government and the Taliban), but that Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan President, did not want it. You see? Biden pins the blame on him, and claims to be faultless!

These words reminded me of those verses of the Qur’an which speak of the devil:

“[And Satan will say when the matter is decided: “It was God Who gave you a promise of truth: I too promised but I failed in my promise to you. I had no authority over you except to call you but ye listened to me.] Then reproach not me but reproach your own souls. » [Quran, 14, 22]

(The damned) are invited not to impute to the devil (their bad actions which will lead them to Hell), but to only blame themselves!

What were the American administrations doing with all the those tax dollars in Afghanistan? pic.twitter.com/winabg5GEn
— Syrian Girl  (@Partisangirl) August 16, 2021

It was you (pro-US Afghans) who put yourselves at the service of the Americans, who listened to them and obeyed them, who placed your hopes in them and bet on them, but they got to the point where they told you (quite simply) fare well, « Bye-bye » [Nasrallah says it in English].

And what kind of « Bye-bye » are we talking about?

What is happening at Kabul airport is incredible, it is heartbreaking and sad. Because in the end (these Afghans who want to flee) are human beings. We have all seen this (American military) plane advance with dozens of people around it, without worrying about them, without the pilot stopping, while he could have run over them!

AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT

Kabul airport on the morning Of August 16, 2021#HORRIFIC
 SHOCKING video shows Afghans HANGING ONTO AMERICAN AIRCRAFT'S UNDERCARRIAGE as it takes off!#Afghanistan #Kabul #AfghanistanCrisis #Taliban #USA pic.twitter.com/WR1v1niXK4
— The RAGEX (@theragex) August 16, 2021

SHOCKING video shows Afghans HANGING ONTO AMERICAN AIRCRAFT’S UNDERCARRIAGE as it takes off!#Afghanistan #Kabul #AfghanistanCrisis #Taliban #USA pic.twitter.com/WR1v1niXK4

And he saw that people had clung to the plane, but took off anyway! Whether they fall and crash (horribly to the ground) or not, that’s not his problem!

Desperate Afghans trying to flee the Taliban hanging on to US military plane to get out of Kabul and fall to their deaths. Low flying US Apache helicopters chasing Afghan civilians off the runway with their rotor blades. But Julian Assange is the criminal? pic.twitter.com/RPT1o48MqL
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) August 16, 2021

This is the United States! What I’m telling you is all over the media, I’m not inventing anything! They embarked police dogs, but did not embark the Afghans who collaborated with them!

U.S. military dogs being evacuated from Afghanistan on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/fxfIA49zEq
— Phillip Walter Wellman (@pwwellman) August 16, 2021

They embarked equipment which costs only money, but did not embark human beings, who are human beings, men, with human rights! Such is the United States, (this is their true face)!

Everything that is happening in Afghanistan, even if in Lebanon we are absorbed by our daily problems, I hope that we will pay attention to it and will consider it as the pivotal moment that it is, because for 50 or 60 years, there was nothing like it.

And this will have a great impact on international policies, international relations, international alliances. And today, those who observe and comment on these events most attentively are the Israelis!

If the US stopped supporting Israel tomorrow, Tel Aviv would fall faster that Kabul.

— Syrian Girl  (@Partisangirl) August 16, 2021

Because when Biden said, and this is a message to all of America’s allies in the region (including Israel), when Biden was defending himself, he said something very, very, very, very, very, very, very… (repeat it until you lose your breath) important, and I hope America’s “friends” in Lebanon and the region will read this very carefully.

Biden said

“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war in the place of anyone else.“

If anyone expects the Americans to come and fight for them, this is what Biden says!

Listen up Taiwan.

Listen up Australia.

Listen up South Korea.

Listen up Europe.

And in order not to fight for anyone else, he is ready to endure a historic and humiliating defeat in Afghanistan! When we talk about Lebanon or whatever, in comparison, it is only an (insignificant) detail (in the eyes of the Americans).

At least 40 people have died since Monday in a stampede and shooting in Kabul International Airport, TOLOnews TV channel reported – citing a Taliban commander who is inside the airport.
According to him, the people died after “foreign troops opened fire” as well as a stampede

— ASB News / MILITARY (@ASBMilitary) August 17, 2021

In conclusion, in what is happening in Afghanistan, are very big and very important lessons, and we must take advantage of them and act accordingly, at the cultural, ideological & emotional levels, at the level of our choices, of our hopes, of our our reading (of events), of our alliances, of our infrastructure, at the economic, political, military, security levels, etc.

This was my conclusion during my last speech, when I said that we must only rely on God and on ourselves!

We must not wait for the United States, nor their training, nor their advice, nor their support, nor their false promises, nor their plots! We do not want their good nor their evil.

Of course no good can come from them. The good resides in our people, in our (Arab-Muslim) Community, in our region, in the Arab-Muslim peoples. It is on them that we must rely. Because we have all these possibilities and capacities.

This is so sweet.
The Iranian interpreter got emotional when Sayyed Nasrullah said Iran never abandones its allies, biggest evidence being the dismembered hand of martyr Qassem Soleimani in Iraq where he was assassinated beside his ally and friend Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis https://t.co/m1nRrXbkkA
— Marwa Osman || د. مروة عثمان (@Marwa__Osman) August 20, 2021

I am done on this subject.

I will meet you tomorrow, for the 10th night (of the month of Muharram, the eve of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein), the night of the last meeting, and of the big fare well.

Peace be upon you, O my master Aba ‘Abdillah al-Hussein, and on the souls who dwell in your court! On you, from me, the Peace of God, forever, as long as I exist and as long as night and day last! May God not make this the last time I am visiting you! Peace be upon Hussein, upon ‘Ali son of Hussein, upon the children of Hussein and upon the companions of Hussein!

Peace be upon you, as well as the Mercy of God and His blessings.

The Taliban has a sense of humor:

Ultimate insult? Taliban fighters mock iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo, posing in seized US military gear

Fox News was all over the place with this photo, probably to try to induce the USA to go back to Afghanistan.

That won’t happen, because the USA was militarily defeated, there was never any withdrawal/pullout.

They have every reason, however, to be very, very angry…

Too much denial:

CBS accused of eco-overreach after claiming CLIMATE CHANGE ‘helped strengthen’ Taliban

I’ve never seen the American people so inconsolable before. If their mothers had died tragically, it wouldn’t be that much grief. Didn’t imagine a defeat in godforsaken Afghanistan would be so devastating.

And then we have this…

Follow the money.

“A Big Money Funneling Operation” — Afghanistan Vet Reflects On Withdrawal Of US Forces (Michael Tracey, July 13, 2021)

Has the Dollar Empire given up the dream of a global empire?

Haven’t seen strong signals to conclude “yes.”

What is the national hierarchy in the Financial Empire?
The Financial Empire is a global debt based financial system administered by the City of London and Wall Street, and enabled by NATO & Six Eyes (Five Eyes [USA+UK+Aus+Can+NZ] + Israel)?

The Global Financial Empire’s hierarchical structure looks like the following:

Core: SIX Eyes – English Union, huge debt generators, negative trade balance (U$A, UK)
Conquered: EU/Germany,.., Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea – Debt distributors, positive trade balance (supporting the US$)
Capital Rich: Russia, China, Brazil, Africa, Iran, ME – (Resource/Asset rich)
Circumference countries: ROW

The U$A is the top management layer, CEO/CFO. It has a board seat. Why is it creating lots of IOUs?

Please look at the Dollar Empire’s key players in the treasury bond market.
Who are the sophisticated investors that are buying NEGATIVE “real” yields?
Who bought the $5 Trillion piled on the Monstrous U$A National Debt in 15 Months?

The Financial Titanic (Dollar Empire) is taking water (Debt) at an exponential rate. This is UNSUSTAINABLE. Are Americans sleeping or having fun while music is playing?

The average age of a global reserve currency is 94 years (80-110). It is said the US$ started on its reserve trajectory in 1921.

When will this Financial Titanic break?

Something to ponder about while you read over the next article.

Here's another article.

Despair in the Empire of Graveyards

Or Gilbert and Sullivan Come to Afghanistan, Depending on Your Perspective

Fred Reed • August 19, 2021

• 2,500 Words • 256 Comments

Forty-six years ago in a previous comedy I was in Saigon, recently having been evacuated from Phnom Penh in an Air America—CIA—Caribou carrying, in addition to me, several ARVN junior officers and perhaps a dozen BUFEs (Big Ugly Fucking Elephants, the ceramic pachyderms much beloved of GIs).

America had already embarked on its currently standard policy of forcing small countries into wars and then leaving them in the lurch.

In Cambodia this led to the reign of Pol Pot, the ghastly torture operation at Toul Sleng, and a million or so dead. In the unending fight for democracy, casualties are inevitable.

At the time Saigon was tense because Ban Me Thuot had fallen and the NVA roared down Route One toward Saigon.

To anyone with the brains of a doorknob, the American adventure in Vietnam was coming to an end, but the embassy was studiedly unconcerned.

Embassies do not have the brains of a doorknob, but are keenly aware of public relations. Acknowledging the inescapable is not their way.

As usual, Washington would rather lie than breathe, and did.

As in Cambodia, so in Nam, and so later in Afghanistan.

Apparently a genius at State realized that a lot of gringo expats lived in Nam—the number six thousand comes to mind, but may be wrong—and that six thousand hostages taken when Saigon fell would be bad PR.

So the embassy in Kabul—Saigon, I meant to say, Saigon—quietly announced that expats could fly out on military aircraft from Ton Son Nhut.

They didn’t, or at least many didn’t. The NVA continued its rush toward Saigon.

The expats didn’t fly out because they had Vietnamese wives and families and were not going to leave them, period. These wives may not have had the trappings of pieces of paper and stamps and maybe snippets of ribbon. These things do not seem important in Asian war zones. But the expats regarded them as wives. Period. The family went, or nobody did. Period.

The embassy didn’t understand this because embassies are staffed by people from Princeton with names like Derek who wear pink shirts and don’t know where they are. The ambassador is usually a political appointee being rewarded for campaign contributions and probably doesn’t speak the language as few gringos spikka da Pushto or Vietnamese or Farsi or Khmer. For example, nobody at all in the embassy in Cambodia spoke Khmer.

The rank and file of State are better suited to a high-end Rotarian barbecue than a Third World city teeming with strange people in funny clothes eating God knows what horrible things in winding frightening alleys.

And so the State people could not understand why an American would marry one “of them,” as in the embassy I once heard a gringa put it. It was a good question. Why would a man marry a pretty, sleek, smart, self-reliant woman who wanted family and children? It was a great mystery.

The Taliban—NVA, I mean–NVA kept coming closer. A PR disaster loomed.

Meanwhile the PR apparatus insisted that the sky wasn’t really falling even as it did and no, no, no the US had not gotten its sit-down royally kicked by a ratpack of rice-propelled paddy maggots, as GIs described the opposition.

Many in government seemed to believe this. This was an early instance, to be repeated in another part of Asia, of inventing a fairyland world and then trying to move into it.

Finally State faced reality, a novel concept. It allowed quietly that expats and their families could fly out, military. It was getting late, but better than nothing.

The comedic value of this goat rope grew, becoming more amusing by the hour. I was trying to get a young Vietnamese woman out as she had worked for the embassy and we suspected things might not go well with her under the NVA.

Call her Linda. Linda and I took the bus to Tan Son Nhut. The Viet gate guards gave her a hard time, envying her for getting out while they could not, but we got in.

I was going to tell the State people that we were married but that while I was in Can Tho, by then in VC hands, see, the marriage papers had slipped from my carrying case.

This was obvious bullshit, but I guessed that if I made a huge issue of it they would bend rather than get in a megillah with a reporter, no matter how unimportant.

We found ourselves in a long line of expats with their families leading to the door of a Quonset hut, inside of which a State official was checking papers. Some of the expats had around them what appeared to be small villages of in-laws, brothers of wives, sisters, everything but the family dog.

An official with a bull horn told us to write down all their names and the relationships on clipboards being passed around. Tran Thi Tuyet Lan, sister, for example.

Then a genius at the embassy or Foggy Bottom realized that something resembling a third of Viet Nam was about to come out, listed as in-laws.

Policy changed, at least in Washington which was as usual blankly ignorant of reality on the ground. At Tan Son Nhut this meant telling men that they had to leave parts of their families behind, which they weren’t going to do.

This would not look good above the fold in the Washington Post. Dozens of Americans taken captive because the State Department would not let their families out.” All was confusion because the US had spent years telling itself that the disaster couldn’t happen. What to do?

American ingenuity kicked in. At the Quonset hut the guy with the bullhorn announced, “From now on, all mothers-in-law are mothers, all brothers-in-law are brothers. Change your forms.” All along the line, magic markers went through “in-law.”

This meant that some women had two mothers, but this under the circumstances seemed a minor biological quibble.

The guy with the bull horn was at most three feet from the guy in the Quonset hut who was certifying papers as valid. He solemnly looked at the papers with their strike-through’s, , certified them as correct, and that was that. A field expedient.

Hours and hours went by. Night came. Tempers frayed. Nobody seemed to have planned how actually to get these people out. Nobody seemed to have planned anything. Finally a 130 howled in.

This was the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a four-engine turboprop cargo bird and a magnificent plane. It taxied over. The engines did not shut down. The prop wash was strong and hot.

The tail ramp dropped.

The waiting mob were rushed aboard without ceremony. There were no seats in the dark cavern of the fuselage. That would have required planning, which no one in Washington had thought of. The air reeked of burned aviation kerosene. We squatted on the cargo deck while an Air Force guy with a bullhorn warned, “Keep the kids’ hands out of the expansion slots, you’ll lose them.”

The real-world Air Force didn’t have people named Derek in pink shirts and if you told it all rules off, get the job done, it did. Ramp up, fast taxi, takeoff run, tight corkscrewing climb with the engines running at power I didn’t know they had.

The NVA and VC were now very close due to incompetent planning (have I mentioned incompetent planning?) and might have SAM-7s so it wasn’t a good idea to fly over territory they now controlled. Cutting and running from a stupid war run by generals as clueless as they were careerist, with Saigon spinning below, seen through open doors amid tightly packed peasants going they had little idea where.

Days later when we got to San Fran on a chartered airliner, hundreds of refugees were dumped into the main concourse, no immigrations, customs, or paperwork.

And now we have done it all over again in Kabul, complete with helicopters over the embassy and a panicked evacuation undertaken way too late and sudden concern for turncoat Afghans who made the mistake of working for the US. There is talk of importing 20,000 Afghan refugees to America. I find it amusing that many conservatives, who thought the war was peaches because it was about democracy and niceness and American values, now object to importing people their dimwitted enthusiasms put in line to be killed. Use and discard. Countries and people.

There was the now-traditional underestimation of the speed of the insurgent advance, the predictable deprecation of the “good” Afghans for not fighting with sufficient enthusiasm for the Empire: If they didn’t care enough to defend their country, Biden would say with earnest cluelessness, what could we do?”

So why did this happen? Why another rush to the exit as the world laughs? Which the world is doing. In a sentence, because if you do something stupid and it doesn’t work, it probably won’t work when you do it again.

The psychological explanation is slightly more complex. Vietnam is a good example. America invaded a country of another race, utterly different culture, practicing religions GIs had never heard of, speaking a language virtually no Americans spoke, a country exceedingly sick of being invaded by foreigners, most of them white. in Afghanistan the designated evil was terrorism, in in Viet Nam communism, but the choice of evils doesn’t matter. You have to tell the rubes at home something noble sounding.

Then the Americans did as they always do, training the ARVN, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, to fight the communists to impose democracy, which the Viets had not asked them to do. But when you ask some Viets (Bodes, Laos, Iraqis, Afghans) to fight other Viets (Bodes, etc.) to kill their own people for the benefit of the invaders, they are not greatly charmed.

With a predictability that makes sunrise seem chancy, they desert, fight lackadaisically, with officers charging the US pay for soldiers who do not exist, and probably go over to the other side en masse when the collapse comes. Which latter the Afghan army just did. Duh, as the kids say.

The speed of the Taliban advance took Americans by surprise because officers are liars and had been hiding the deplorable state of the “Afghan” army, its numbers, morale, degree of training, and phenomenal rates of desertion.

Often the American officer corps thinks that if it can just have a little more time, they can win, so lying is a part of the war effort.

Biden bought into this, announcing that the Afghan army vastly outnumbered the Taliban and was better armed and trained and the insurgents couldn’t possibly do what they proceeded to do.

Another reason is that the American style of war recruits its enemies. Soldiers are not the Boy Scout defenders of civilization that so many like to imagine. They kill a lot of civilians, many tens of thousands in the bombing of cities such as Baghdad and Hanoi.

Ground troops come to detest the natives whom they designate gooks, zipperheads, sand niggers, camel jockeys, and the like.

They commit war crimes that, when discovered, are called “isolated incidents,” when in fact they are common.

Fragmentation bombs produce such things as a little girl crying with her belly torn open and intestines falling out while her mother goes stark raving bugfuck mad watching her daughter bleed to death and she can do nothing about it.

But it is for democracy and American values, and anyway the ragheads breed like flies, and besides, CNN won’t air it.

Today drone strikes hit weddings and other gatherings.

When you kill people in a village, the young men join the insurgents, wanting revenge. When a few thousands were killed in Nine-Eleven, Americans exploded in rage. Three thousand is a small fraction of the numbers killed in, say, the attack on Baghdad.

The Iraqi soldiers killed in a hopeless attempt to defeat the Americans were sons, fathers, husbands, brothers of other Iraqis. How much love do we think it engendered in Iraqis? This seems not to occur to Washington.

Militaries at bottom are amoral. Afghans know of the torture operations at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Americans seem to dismiss such things as minor. They are not. Afghans seeing Moslems lying in pools of blood at Abu Ghraib, or being paraded around naked in hoods, are going to want to kill someone. Guess who.

American wars last a long time because no one has an incentive to end them. American casualties are low, especially now with the killing mostly done from the air against peasants with no defenses.

No important American ever gets killed. American wars are all class wars, with the dying being done by blue-collar suckers from Kansas or the deep South, not by Bush II, Hillary, the other Clinton, Bolton, Bannon, Obama, Blinken, Biden, Cheney, Kamala, Trump, and the rest of those not required to fight.

The US public has little idea of what goes on in its wars because the corporate media hide them. the Pentagon having learned that the media are their worst enemy, not the Taliban.

It would not surprise me if one unfettered camera crew, filming the corpses and mutilated children and devastation, could force an end to such a war.

Americans are not heartless but calculatedly uninformed. Wars are also extremely profitable for those who provide the bombs, fuel, vehicles, and so on. If the US loses a war, the contracts stop, and equally if it wins.

Keeping it going for decades provides a steady revenue stream.

What’s not to like?

Finally, or as much as I am going to worry about, there is the 1955 Syndrome, the engrained belief that America is all powerful.

This is arrogance and self-delusion. In the Pentagon you encounter a mandatory can-do attitude a belief that the US military is indomitable, the best trained, armed, and led force in this or any nearby galaxy.

In one sense this is necessary: You can’t tell the Marines that they are mediocre light infantry or sailors that their aircraft are rapidly obsolescing, their ships sitting ducks in a changing military world, and that the whole military enterprise is rotted by social engineering, profiteering, and careerism.

But look around: The US has failed to intimidate North Korea, chase the Chinese out of its islands in the South China Sea, retrieve the Crimea from Russia, can’t intimidate Iran, just got run out of Afghanistan, remains mired in Iraq and Syria, failed to block Nordstream II despite a desperate effort, and couldn’t keep Turkey from buying the S-400.

The Pentagon plans for the wars it wants to fight, not the wars it does fight. The most dangerous weapons of the modern world are not nukes, but the Ak-47, the RPG, and the IED. Figure it out.

And now the US comes home, leaving Afghanistan in ruins for decades. Use and discard.

Here's another note, collected over the week...

Dear [redacted]

” China will not initiate trouble but is not afraid of trouble “

” Willing to talk ? The door is wide open !

Want to fight ? We will entertain you ! “

Absolutely, Chua !

In a nutshell, that’s my life philosophy !

Or as President Xi Jinping said

准备打仗打胜仗

Zhun3 Bei4 Da3 Zhang4 Da3 Sheng4 Zhang4

Be ready to fight victoriously !

And then we have this little blub that also came to the MM mailbox...

From [redacted]

Peace can sometimes only be achieved via well armed and the readiness in hit back.

The reason US and NATO dare not attack Russia is because they are well armed with nuclear weapons, and putin has made it clear that “don’t F with a nation with nuclear weapons.” putin also warn US, “if there is any missile fly toward Russia, Russia will regard it as nuclear attack, and will immediately response with nuclear missiles. ” this is why no one dare to bomb the Russian (including their military bases in Syria.)

When trump visited Beijing before starting the trade war, China offer trump $235b worth of deal. Guest what happen next?

Trump think that China is afraid of US, and thinking he can demand more from China. He has instead begin his first stage of trade war and announce to move on to the 2nd stage within months. He then claim that trade war is easy to win.

What trump didn’t expect is that China hit back.

China never stab on anyone on the back. China has made it clear all the times, “China will not initiate trouble and are not afraid of trouble”

China also make it clear: ” willing to talk? The door is wide open! Want to fight? We will entertain you.”

So, China simply respond to a situation initiated by the crusaders Nd not stabbing on people back. We should not expect China simply stood there fir people to bomb.

In Australia, China has issue numerous warning before hitting back.

China outline a 14 grievance created by Australia.

In Chinese history, they rather build wall, marrying princess, and initial a tribute system to keep peace, but if someone push too hard thinking they are in the position of strength, they will eventually be crushed .

This is not back stabbing. This is a last resort to keep peace.

The defeat of the crusaders in the Korean war allow China to enjoy the next 50 years of relative peace with the crusaders.

Today, the armed with AK47 Taliban successfully chase away the crusaders simply because they fight back.

Only when the crusaders are defeated, the Afghanistan people can then rebuilt their nation and looking forward to a better future with China belt and road.

Asia will again become the world most peaceful and wealthy region before the end of 21st century when China successfully chase away the trouble maker from the region.

The crusaders can also enjoy peace and prosperity if they change their mindset and get rid of their corrupt, low quality fake democratic political system. They need to control property price, nationalised industry that provide basic needs to the people like water, electricity, mining, health, pension fund, education, public transport etc like what China do.

Wealth redistribution from Wall Street to allow the 99% also doing well. This will automatically make a nation strong, a society in harmony.

Cheers

[redacted]

I have to tell you that there has been a lot of messages, articles, comments and thoughts flowing back and forth all week. Here's another...

American Howl !

8988 Views August 20, 2021 110 Comments

By Larchmonter445 for The Saker Blog

Whether you supported the 20-year war in Afghanistan or not, if you are American, you paid for it. Two Trillion Dollars. Your personal tax tab is 7 thousand dollars.

If you sent a relative or friend into this horror in South Asia, you paid an emotional price also.

If your relative or friend lost his or her life, you paid again, most grievously.

If you are one who returned, PTSD is taking a toll on your life. You pay every night and day, psychologically.

If you came back with traumatic wounds, you pay each moment as you try to rehabilitate and recover.

And with all these payments and losses you sit in front of a TV or monitor and watch the most feckless, incompetent leadership on the face of the Earth. You see total disorder, amateur thinking, and disgraceful performance of State Dept. and US Military. The top command and elected officials, the top counselors and advisers, each and every one clueless, ignorant, flummoxed by reality. They know nothing and can do nothing. Yet, they lead the country.

If you are fond of NATO, the alliance just took a huge hit.

So, the 75 years of unity and the 20 years of joint operations in Afghan are tossed away unilaterally. NATO is fracturing.

They know Biden is a fraud and the US is aimless.

You finally hear from the President of the United States, the reasoning that was the policy and follow through. It makes no sense. The old man is irrational.

Day after day this continuing catastrophe you see the same imbeciles prove over and over that they don’t know how to think, organize, lead or inspire.

Admiral John Kirby spokesman for the Defense Dept., Ned Price spokesman for State Dept., Jan Psaki spokeswoman for the WH, all of them know nothing, have no facts to report, seem bewildered by simple questions.

Listening to Jake Sullivan, NSC explains, is more naïveté and kindergarten-level thinking.

Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin are a quiniela of incompetence, both are lost in Critical Race Theory and too busy to win a war, command an evacuation, secure billions of dollars in lethal weaponry or answer a simple question with believable facts. Two Four-Star Dumb and Dumbers.

These dolts cut off the US government pipeline for the citizens caught inside Afghanistan, their lifeline to the State Dept. and consular staff has gone just when they need them.

These jackasses sent off all the resources their citizens needed for evacuation.

They inadvertently point blame to the Clown-in-Chief Biden, who reflexively blames Trump for the policy Biden created.

Then the inept US military took six days to bring in 7000 troops to work security at the airport. These troops, they told us, were pre-positioned and ready to go. Another massive failure of military logistical performance.

There are more days of this until the artificial deadline on the 31st. The odds are there will be 20-30,000 Americans and Afghanis who worked for and with our military left behind. This is totally unacceptable. They will become hostages to Taliban authorities.

The only good result of this debacle is it hurts Biden politically and makes a change in the Congress much more likely in 2022.

Biden’s Kabul is worse than Ford’s Saigon and Carter’s Tehran. And it is far from over.

As a citizen, you are embarrassed, ashamed, insulted, depressed, left helpless, enraged, and damn angry at the juvenile operational disaster in plain sight at Kabul airport.

Biden and Harris should be impeached. The entire NSC staff should be fired. The JCS chief and the JCS staff and the SOD should be fired. The State Dept. from top-down to consular staff should be fired.

It is their turn to pay for this national embarrassment, geopolitical disaster, and human tragedy.

And then we have this article...

A Saigon moment looms in Kabul

13065 Views August 13, 2021 95 Comments

August 12, 2021 will go down as the day the Taliban avenged America’s invasion and struck the blow that brought down its man in Kabul

by Pepe Escobar, first posted at Asia Times

August 12, 2021. History will register it as the day the Taliban, nearly 20 years after 9/11 and the subsequent toppling of their 1996-2001 reign by American bombing, struck the decisive blow against the central government in Kabul.

In a coordinated blitzkrieg, the Taliban all but captured three crucial hubs: Ghazni and Kandahar in the center, and Herat in the west. They had already captured most of the north. As it stands, the Taliban control 14 (italics mine) provincial capitals and counting.

First thing in the morning, they took Ghazni, which is situated around 140 kilometers from Kabul. The repaved highway is in good condition. Not only are the Taliban moving closer and closer to Kabul: for all practical purposes they now control the nation’s top artery, Highway 1 from Kabul to Kandahar via Ghazni.

That in itself is a strategic game-changer. It will allow the Taliban to encircle and besiege Kabul simultaneously from north and south, in a pincer movement.

Kandahar fell by nightfall after the Taliban managed to breach the security belt around the city, attacking from several directions.

In Ghazni, provincial governor Daoud Laghmani cut a deal, fled and then was arrested. In Kandahar, provincial governor Rohullah Khanzada – who belongs to the powerful Popolzai tribe – left with only a few bodyguards.

He opted to engage in an elaborate deal, convincing the Taliban to allow the remaining military to retreat to Kandahar airport and be evacuated by helicopter. All their equipment, heavy weapons and ammunition should be transferred to the Taliban.

Afghan Special Forces represented the cream of the crop in Kandahar. Yet they were only protecting a few select locations. Now their next mission may be to protect Kabul. The final deal between the governor and the Taliban should be struck soon. Kandahar has indeed fallen.

In Herat, the Taliban attacked from the east while notorious former warlord Ismail Khan, leading his militia, put up a tremendous fight from the west. The Taliban progressively conquered the police HQ, “liberated” prison inmates and laid siege to the governor’s office.

Game over: Herat has also fallen with the Taliban now controlling the whole of Western Afghanistan, all the way to the borders with Iran.

Tet Offensive, remixed

Military analysts will have a ball deconstructing this Taliban equivalent to the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Satellite intel may have been instrumental: it’s as if the whole battlefield progress had been coordinated from above.

Yet there are some quite prosaic reasons for the success of the onslaught apart from strategic acumen: corruption in the Afghan National Army (ANA); total disconnect between Kabul and battlefield commanders; lack of American air support; the deep political divide in Kabul itself.

In parallel, the Taliban had been secretly reaching out for months, through tribal connections and family ties, offering a deal: don’t fight us and you will be spared.

Add to it a deep sense of betrayal by the West felt by those connected with the Kabul government, mixed with fear of Taliban revenge against collaborationists.

A very sad subplot, from now on, concerns civilian helplessness – felt by those who consider themselves trapped in cities that are now controlled by the Taliban. Those that made it before the onslaught are the new Afghan IDPs, such as the ones who set up a refugee camp in the Sara-e-Shamali park in Kabul.

A new generation of IDPs in Afghanistan.

Rumors were swirling in Kabul that Washington had suggested to President Ashraf Ghani to resign, clearing the way for a ceasefire and the establishment of a transitional government.

On the record, what’s established is that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin promised Ghani to “remain invested” in Afghan security.

Reports indicate the Pentagon plans to redeploy 3,000 troops and Marines to Afghanistan and another 4,000 to the region to evacuate the US Embassy and US citizens in Kabul.

The alleged offer to Ghani actually originated in Doha – and came from Ghani’s people, as I confirmed with diplomatic sources.

The Kabul delegation, led by Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of something called the High Council for National Reconciliation, via Qatar mediation, offered the Taliban a power-sharing deal as long as they stop the onslaught. There’s been no mention of Ghani resigning, which is the Taliban’s number one condition for any negotiation.

The extended troika in Doha is working overtime. The US lines up immovable object Zalmay Khalilzad, widely mocked in the 2000s as “Bush’s Afghan.” The Pakistanis have special envoy Muhammad Sadiq and ambassador to Kabul Mansoor Khan.

The Russians have the Kremlin’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov. And the Chinese have a new Afghan envoy, Xiao Yong.

Russia-China-Pakistan are negotiating with a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) frame of mind: all three are permanent members. They emphasize a transition government, power-sharing, and recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political force.

Diplomats are already hinting that if the Taliban topple Ghani in Kabul, by whatever means, they will be recognized by Beijing as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan – something that will set up yet another incendiary geopolitical front in the confrontation against Washington.

As it stands, Beijing is just encouraging the Taliban to strike a peace agreement with Kabul.

The Pashtunistan riddle

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has minced no words as he stepped into the fray. He confirmed the Taliban leadership told him there’s no negotiation with Ghani in power – even as he tried to persuade them to reach for a peace deal.

Khan accused Washington of regarding Pakistan as “useful” only when it comes to pressing Islamabad to use its influence over the Taliban to broker a deal – without considering the “mess” the Americans left behind.

Khan once again said he “made it very clear” there will be no US military bases in Pakistan.

This is a very good analysis of how hard it is for Khan and Islamabad to explain Pakistan’s complex involvement with Afghanistan to the West and also the Global South.

The key issues are quite clear:

1. Pakistan wants a power-sharing deal and is doing what it can in Doha, along the extended troika, to reach it.

2. A Taliban takeover will lead to a new influx of refugees and may encourage jihadis of the al-Qaeda, TTP and ISIS-Khorasan kind to destabilize Pakistan.

3. It was the US that legitimized the Taliban by striking an agreement with them during the Donald Trump administration.

4. And because of the messy withdrawal, the Americans reduced their leverage – and Pakistan’s – over the Taliban.

The problem is Islamabad simply does not manage to get these messages across.

And then there are some bewildering decisions. Take the AfPak border between Chaman (in Pakistan’s Balochistan) and Spin Boldak (in Afghanistan).

The Pakistanis closed their side of the border. Every day tens of thousands of people, overwhelmingly Pashtun and Baloch, from both sides cross back and forth alongside a mega-convoy of trucks transporting merchandise from the port of Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan. To shut down such a vital commercial border is an unsustainable proposition.

All of the above leads to arguably the ultimate problem: what to do about Pashtunistan?

The absolute heart of the matter when it comes to Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan and Afghan interference in the Pakistani tribal areas is the completely artificial, British Empire-designed Durand Line.

Islamabad’s definitive nightmare is another partition. Pashtuns are the largest tribe in the world and they live on both sides of the (artificial) border. Islamabad simply cannot admit a nationalist entity ruling Afghanistan because that will eventually foment a Pashtun insurrection in Pakistan.

And that explains why Islamabad prefers the Taliban compared to an Afghan nationalist government. Ideologically, conservative Pakistan is not that dissimilar from the Taliban positioning. And in foreign policy terms, the Taliban in power perfectly fit the unmovable “strategic depth” doctrine that opposes Pakistan to India.

In contrast, Afghanistan’s position is clear-cut. The Durand Line divides Pashtuns on both sides of an artificial border. So any nationalist government in Kabul will never abandon its desire for a larger, united Pashtunistan.

As the Taliban are de facto a collection of warlord militias, Islamabad has learned by experience how to deal with them. Virtually every warlord – and militia – in Afghanistan is Islamic.

Even the current Kabul arrangement is based on Islamic law and seeks advice from an Ulema council. Very few in the West know that Sharia law is the predominant trend in the current Afghan constitution.

Closing the circle, ultimately all members of the Kabul government, the military, as well as a great deal of civil society come from the same conservative tribal framework that gave birth to the Taliban.

Apart from the military onslaught, the Taliban seem to be winning the domestic PR battle because of a simple equation: they portray Ghani as a NATO and US puppet, the lackey of foreign invaders.

And to make that distinction in the graveyard of empires has always been a winning proposition.

And then we have this article...

The War Comes Home

Gregory Hood • August 20, 2021

A nation is made of race, ethnicity, culture, and identity. Ernst Renan called it a “daily plebiscite.” He said a nation needs a “common will in the present,” and the wish to perform great deeds in the future. Identity is a feeling, but feelings, emotions, personalities and beliefs come from the blood. We don’t create ourselves, and we can’t be other than what we are. Polities are temporary, but peoples endure.

I remember September 11, 2001. I never knew what people meant by “blood running cold” until I looked at New York City from my favorite hill and saw the smoking ruin where the Trade Center had been. I felt a deeply personal insult.

An abstraction called “America” hadn’t been attacked. This was something real. “Freedom” wasn’t under attack. It was my city, my people, my country that these savages had assaulted. American unity was awesome. President George W. Bush could have asked for anything from the country. The grief and righteous anger could have changed the world.

Now these feelings seem absurd and embarrassing. Patriotism is at a record low, even among conservatives. It’s hard to define what “America” means, or if it even exists.

Part of this is because the response to the attacks had nothing to do with defending America. President Bush could have stopped immigration, worked to defend the Christian faith he supposedly holds, and renewed patriotism. He did none of these things. Multiculturalism and anti-white preferences are far stronger today. Rather than seizing the moment to push assimilation and patriotism in schools, they teach Critical Race Theory and other anti-white ideas. Islam, once a marginal force in American life, has joined homosexuality and black identity as one of our national totems.

In 2001, the attackers entered the country legally through holes in our immigration laws. The holes are still there and immigration is worse than ever. The Muslim population of the United States has grown continuously, despite support for a total ban on Muslim immigration. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, was a black nationalist who once argued for ending the Union — and no black congressmen ever said that was wrong. We fought in Afghanistan and Iraq to bring “democracy” to foreigners, who rightly hated us for trying to turn them into something they were not. The Iraq War’s most lasting consequence, and the greatest impact of the so-called Christian Right, may have been to destroy what was left of Christianity in Iraq. A SEAL team eventually killed Osama bin Laden. Crowds cheered, but that seems hollow now.

What was the purpose of the wars? If they were to “spread democracy,” they failed. If they were to defend the “American way of life,” they failed. The America of 2021 is a nightmare to a patriot from 2001. It’s bad enough that today’s “American way of life” is imposed on us, let alone on foreigners. If the War on Terror was supposed to keep us “safe,” that also failed. America seems far more besieged than before 2001, despite trillions spent and intrusive surveillance. America even faces the possibility of real defeat in a conventional war against great powers. If our government took foreign terrorism seriously, we would not have a porous border.

What happened over the last 20 years is something deeper. Thousands of Americans are still in Afghanistan, and the defense secretary said the world’s sole superpower has “no capability” to go outside the Kabul airport to get them out. “There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this [Afghan proxy] army and this government in 11 days,” said General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Incredibly, he didn’t resign. President Biden bizarrely defended himself by saying that the scenes of desperate people fleeing the country and falling off airplanes were from “four, five days ago.”

We had to leave Afghanistan, but it’s astonishing that we had no plan to protect Americans, secure weapons, or even protect the airport. Those in charge pay no price for failure.

After September 11, Americans thought American power had been roused and we would smite our enemies. Instead, we sacrificed thousands of young men to bring “democracy” to foreigners. Iraqi and Afghani cooperation (or collaboration) went no farther than a paycheck. Many Americans even died at the hands of their supposed “allies” in “green on blue” attacks, which killed more than 150 coalition troops by 2020.

Now we have a supposed “obligation” to bring in Afghans. How many “green on blue” attacks will we get in the homeland? President George W. Bush (in)famously defended the wars by saying that “we will fight them over there so we do not have to face them in the United States of America.” Now, it appears we fought Afghans “there” so we could bring Afghans “here.” If an estimated 99 percent of Afghans want to make Sharia the basis of law, it’s hard to claim we are bringing “pro-American” Afghans here. The ones who come will learn in no time to complain about “white supremacy.”

The United States could have pulled out of Afghanistan in late 2001 after removing the Taliban and still continued the hunt for Bin Laden, who was in Pakistan. The US could have declared victory after it killed Bin Laden. Instead, the country spent trillions trying to turn Afghanistan into a liberal democracy. This included propping up a miserably corrupt government, promoting female politicians who never visited their constituencies, spending more than $780 million on “gender programs,” celebrating “Pride Month,” and, most infamously, punishing American soldiers who tried to stop child abuse by Afghan allies. And we were supposed to be fighting for the “good guys?”

There isn’t even an “Afghanistan.” It is a patchwork of tribes. Rather than working with the tribes, the United States tried to impose an artificial “national” government. The United States rejected the idea of re-establishing the Afghan monarchy, which had the support of most tribes. Instead, America imposed Hamid Karzai. The ungrateful stooge now blames the USA and NATO for his country’s collapse. Old ethnic and tribal patterns have re-emerged.

The Taliban is mostly Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group. Just as in 2001, the old “Northern Alliance” is coming together in Panjshir, led by the son of the legendary commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, a Tajik. Afghanistan’s tribal society may make it almost impossible for foreigners to conquer, but it also makes it almost impossible to unify. Turning tribal groups into Afghans is hard enough. America should never have tried to turn them into proto-Americans.

Indeed, we can’t even turn refugees into Americans. And they certainly won’t be grateful. The most prominent “refugee” in American life is Rep. Ilhan Omar. She said September 11 was nothing more than “some people did something,” and brags, “This is not going to be the country of white people.” Tucker Carlson says she’s proof our country is “not very good at resettling refugees.” The Hmong, another group of American “allies” imported after Vietnam, have been a disaster for America and a burden on social services.

America itself is turning into a tribal society. Pat Buchanan explains:

The more diverse we have become, it seems, the less united we have become, even about public manifestations of patriotism — the American flag, the national anthem, the pledge of allegiance. Nor do our history, holidays and heroes unite us as once they did.

Whites are second-class citizens. The “American” government discriminates against us, “American” schools shame our children, the government hands out contracts by race, and anti-white mobs tear down our history. Media and academia have successfully broken many whites to the point they have a negative bias against their own group. “American” law enforcement is selective. Corporate America funds Black Lives Matter and other anti-white movements. If this were happening to any other group, many Republicans would say it justified military intervention in the name of human rights.

Is the system that rules us worth defending? No. If that makes me a “traitor,” I would say only that there is nothing to betray. Our rulers have already betrayed us.

The Afghan and Iraqi wars did nothing to protect this country. They made things worse. Every servicemen sent was sacrificed by a government that doesn’t deserve them. Soldiers deserve respect, but their commanders and politicians deserve scorn. I have yet to hear one veteran say the wars were worth it. Even the legendary Pat Tillman came to oppose the Afghanistan War — before he was accidentally killed by his own comrades. “Were all our sacrifices wasted?” heartbroken veterans ask. Yes.

Reporters brag about getting the military to purge white soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who had a racial consciousness. Perhaps we should thank them. Eighty-five percent of those who died in Afghanistan were white. Their government clearly doesn’t appreciate them. Afghanistan was not worth one life, nor are the interests of politicians and financiers.

The military teaches Critical Race Theory. General Mark Milley was telling Congress less than two months ago why we had to study “white rage.” He should have been studying intelligence reports on the Taliban.

Patriots must not die for the interests of those who despise them. If China moves on Taiwan, let journalists, defense contractors, and affirmative action pets do the fighting. The Global American Empire’s interests are not ours.

After September 11, it was common for liberals to mock the idea of a “War on Terror,” How do you fight an idea? No one is mocking the fight against “hate.” If those in power want to wage war, it may be against us.

President Biden’s “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” is designed to spy on white advocates and censor us. The Patriot Act and other national security laws pushed through after September 11, 2001 are now used against American citizens. If the FBI decides you are under investigation, it can seize your assets, and there is nothing you can do. The United States government has lost all moral authority to call Russia or China authoritarian. Even the Taliban is mocking Facebook (which is under increasing pressure by the federal government to censor content) for hypocrisy on free speech.

Even liberal news outlets are now doubting the supposed “militia” plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. It appears the FBI was encouraging the plot, not thwarting it. (An FBI agent involved in the investigation was just arrested for assault.) Shun anyone who ever talks about violence. He’s probably a government employee looking to justify his paycheck.

PayPal and the ADL are teaming up to investigate the financial transactions of users to fight “racism.” When a system mouthpiece, Jimmy Fallon, mentioned that whites were a declining share of the population, the audience applauded, which even Mr. Fallon found bizarre. And there was the widespread celebration at the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was a misguided victim.

When I see the scenes of retreat and shame in Afghanistan, I feel humiliation, but also schadenfreude. This strips naked the fools who have been sending soldiers to die. I long for the America that was, and mourn for the brave men who died for a government that doesn’t deserve them. And yet there is a certain satisfaction in the ruling class’s humiliating defeat.

The Jewish publication Tablet, marveling at the desire of the American elite to destroy its own country, says:

 [T]here are no institutional elites left to ask whether it’s a good idea to purge the combat ranks of the U.S. military by targeting “white supremacism.” America’s all-volunteer military is 43% minority, but the majority of its combat units are made up of white males. So why purge them? To make America vulnerable to foreign adversaries? Maybe the elites are more fearful of the domestic cohort still armed with a powerful group solidarity — i.e., patriotism — and most likely to defend what the elites are determined to destroy.

It’s frightening to see American leadership pulling America apart at the seams. And it’s shocking to see our constitutional order ripped to shreds as the establishment undercuts property rights, imposes capricious public health regulations, mandates experimental medical treatments, and holds political prisoners.

This author is right. The elite wants to unmake the middle class and sees patriotic white men as the real threat. This leaves us with a tragic choice between our people and “our” government. On September 12, 2001, I’d have attacked someone who even suggested there was a distinction. Today, I find myself a man without a country. I don’t discount the possibility of a solution within the system. We must obey the law, pay our taxes, and fight to reclaim our rights. But there may be no electoral solution. Our future may be South Africa.

We should talk openly of secession That is how this country began. Those who rule us don’t value the Founders, but we do.

Two decades after September 11, America’s rulers are disgraced, humiliated, and unaccountable. What legitimacy do they have besides their courts and their guns? We must build alternative institutions that can win the loyalty of our people. We must provide for them in the dark times that are coming.

As we turn our backs on the Regime, we do not turn our backs on America. America can survive the degenerate ruling class on the Potomac. If the last few weeks have taught us anything, it’s that a strong tribe can outlast a failing empire.

We are the nation. America is ours and always will be. Renan had an “abridged hymn of every fatherland” that quoted from a Spartan song: “We are what you were, we will be what you are.” If we can get enough whites to believe that, anything is possible. The empire is dying; let the nation be reborn.

The years ahead will be dark, but we should rejoice. We live at arguably the most important time in our people’s history. America, Western Civilization, and the white race can survive only as one. It’s up to us.

Had, enough? Here's another...

Oh, did you see this?

Biden forfeits his Afghan victory by defending his Deep State advisors

10025 Views August 18, 2021 46 Comments

By Michael Hudson, first posted at Unz Review and Expanded for The Saker Blog

President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping for at America’s forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Biden’s own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday that the Taliban was over a month away from being able to enter Kabul. Instead of saying that the massive public support for the Taliban replacing the United States showed the incompetent hubris of U.S. intelligence agencies – which itself would have justified Biden’s agreement to complete the withdrawal with all haste – he doubled down on his defense of the Deep State and its mythology.

The effect was to show how drastic his own misconceptions are, and how he will continue to defend neocon adventurism. What seemed for an hour or so as a public relations recovery is turning into a denouement of how U.S. fantasy is still trying to threaten Asia and the Near East.

By throwing all his weight behind the propaganda that has guided U.S. policy since George W. Bush decided to invade after 9/11, Biden blew his greatest chance to burst the myths that led to his own bad decisions to trust U.S. military and state officials (and their campaign contributors).

His first pretense was that we invaded Afghanistan to retaliate against “its” attack on America on 9/11. This is the founding lie of U.S. presence in the Near East. Afghanistan did not attack us. Saudi Arabia did.

Biden tried to confuse the issue by saying that “we” went into Afghanistan to deal with (assassinate) Osama Bin Laden – and after this “victory,” we then then decided to stay on and “build democracy,” a euphemism for creating a U.S. client state. (Any such state is called a “democracy,” which means simply pro-American in today’s diplomatic vocabulary.)

Hardly anyone asks how the U.S. ever got in. Jimmy Carter was suckered by the Polish Russia-hater Brzezinski and created Al Qaeda to act as America’s foreign legion, subsequently expanded to include ISIS and other terrorist armies against countries where U.S. diplomacy seeks regime change. Carter’s alternative to Soviet Communism was Wahabi fanaticism, solidifying America’s alliance with Saudi Arabia. Carter memorably said that at least these Muslims believed in God, just like Christians. But the Wahabi fundamentalism army was sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which paid for arming Al Qaeda to fight against Sunni Moslems and, early on, the Russian-backed Afghan government.

What is so typical of America’s aggressive Cold War mindset is that it could have much more easily (and at much lower cost) won Afghanistan by honey, by having so much more to offer economically than did Russia. Documents released from Soviet archives show that:

None of the Soviet documents list terrorists going into the USSR as a concern in 1979. The Soviet worry was the incompetence and worse of their Afghan Communist clients, the declining Soviet influence (much less control) in the country, and the possibility of Afghanistan going over to the Americans.

Soviet Politburo documents that first became available in the 1990s show the real Soviet fear was that the head of the Afghan Communist regime, Hafizullah Amin, was about to go over to the Americans. (Egyptian president Anwar Sadat famously flipped in 1972, ejected thousands of Soviet advisers, and became the second largest recipient, after Israel, of U.S. foreign aid.)^[1]

This policy predates President Carter, of course.

It was endemic in America’s Cold War force-oriented strategy since the 1950s.

Over 60 years ago, for instance, I sat in on a meeting with Fidel Castro’s representatives trying to get support from the Democratic Party and Kennedy for their overthrow of the Batista regime.

Imagining that it was the Republicans and the Dulles brothers that were the hardliners, they expected that the incoming Democratic Party diplomacy would find their self-interest in giving economic support to help Cuba’s economy recover from the corrupt dictatorship.

My father warned them that the Democrats would be just as force-oriented.

On my visits to Cuba, it was obvious that the population and even many government officials would have welcomed a deal whereby the loosened their Castroite economic policy in exchange for U.S. aid.

The United States has never tried to use this tactic in the Caribbean or Latin America, any more than it has done in Afghanistan.

That is the neocon mentality:

“Do it by force, don’t give any other country a choice.”

A “market-based” tradeoff of aid for economic policy acquiescence is not U.S. policy. Offering a carrot still leaves the choice to America’s designated adversary.

The only way to make sure that a country will obey is to confront it with brute force.

That is the mentality behind U.S. support for Maidan and the neo-Nazi Bandaristas opposing Russia instead of simply trying to help reform Ukraine.

And so it has gone in Afghanistan. After Carter, George W. Bush and Barack Obama funded Al Qaeda (largely with the gold looted from destroying Libya) to fight for U.S. geopolitical aims and oil in Iraq and Syria.

The Taliban for its part fought against Al Quaeda.

The real U.S. fear therefore is not that they may back America’s Wahabi foreign legion, but that they will make a deal with Russia, China and Syria to serve as a trade link from Iran westward.

Biden’s second myth was to blame the victim by claiming that the Afghan army would not fight for “their country,” despite his assurances by the proxies whom the U.S. installed that they would use U.S. money to build the economy.

He also said that the army did not fight, which became obvious over the weekend.

The police force also did not fight. Nobody fought the Taliban to “defend their country,” because the U.S. occupation regime was not “their country.” Again and again, Biden repeated that the United States could not save a country that would not “defend itself.” But the “itself” was the corrupt regime that was simply pocketing U.S. “aid” money.

The situation was much like what was expressed in the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto finding themselves surrounded by Indians. “What are we going to do, Tonto,” asked the Lone Ranger.

“What do you mean, ‘We,’ white man?” Tonto replied.

That was the reply of the Afghan army to U.S. demands that they fight for the corrupt occupation force that they had installed.

Their aim is to survive in a new country, while in Doha the Taliban leadership negotiates with China, Russia and even the United States to achieve a modus vivendi.

So all that Biden’s message meant to most Americans was that we would not waste any more lives and money fighting wars for an ungrateful population that wanted the U.S. to do all the fighting for it.

President Biden could have come out and washed away the blame by saying: “Just before the weekend, I was told by my army generals and national security advisors that it would take months for the Taliban to conquer Afghanistan, and certainly to take control of Kabul, which supposedly would be a bloody fight.”

He could have announced that he is removing the incompetent leadership engrained for many years, and creating a more reality-based group.

But of course, he could not do that, because the group is the unreality-based neocon Deep State.

He was not about to explain how

“It’s obvious that I and Congress have been misinformed, and that the intelligence agencies had no clue about the country that they were reporting on for the last two decades.”

He could have acknowledged that the Afghans welcomed the Taliban into Kabul without a fight.

The army stood aside, and the police stood aside.

There seemed to be a party celebrating the American withdrawal.

Restaurants and markets were open, and Kabul seemed to be enjoying normal life – except for the turmoil at the airport.

Suppose that Biden had said the following:

“Given this acquiescence in support for the Taliban, I was obviously correct in withdrawing the American occupation forces. 

Contrary to what Congress and the Executive Branch was told, there was no support by the Afghans for the Americans. 

I now realize that to the Afghan population, the government officials that America installed simply took the money we gave them...

... and put it into their own bank accounts...

... instead of paying the army, police and other parts of civic society.”

Instead, President Biden spoke about having made four trips to Afghanistan and how much he knew and trusted the proxies that U.S. agencies had installed.

That made him seem gullible.

Even Donald Trump said publicly that he didn’t trust the briefings that he was given, and wanted to spend money at home, into the hands of his own campaign contributors instead of abroad.

Biden could have picked up on this point by saying,

“At least there’s a silver lining: We won’t be spending any more than the $3 trillion that we’ve already sunk over there. 

We can now afford to use the money to build up domestic U.S. infrastructure instead.”

But instead President Biden doubled down on what his neocon advisors had told him, and what they were repeating on the TV news channels all day: The Afghan army had refused to fight “for their country,” meaning the U.S.-supported occupation force, as if this was really Afghan self-government.

The media are showing pictures of the Afghan palace and one of the warlord’s office.

I did a double-take, because the plush, wretched-excess furnishings looked just like Obama’s $12 million McMansion furnishings in Martha’s Vineyard.

Obama officials are being trotted out by the news spinners.

On MSNBC, John Brennan warned Andrea Mitchell at noon that the Taliban might now back Al Qaeda in new destabilization and even use Afghanistan to mount new attacks on the United States.

The message was almost word for word what Americans were told in 1964:

“If we don’t fight the Vietcong in their country, we’ll have to fight them over here.”

As if any country has an armed force large enough to conquer any industrial nation in today’s world.

The whole cast of America’s “humanitarian bombing” squad was there, including its harridan arm, the Democratic Party’s front organizations created to co-opt feminists to urging that Afghanistan be bombed until it treats women better.

One can only imagine how the image of Samantha Power, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, Susan and Condoleezza Rice, not to mention Indira Gandhi and Golda Maier, will make the Taliban want to create its own generation of ambitious educated women like these.

President Biden might have protected himself from Republican criticism by reminding his TV audience that Donald Trump had urged withdrawal from Afghanistan already last spring –and now, in retrospect, that the Deep State was wrong to advise against this but that Donald was right.

That is what his order for withdrawal was acknowledging, after all. This might have detoothed at least some Trumpian criticism.

Instead, Mr. Brennan and the generals trotted in front of the TV cameras criticized Biden for not prolonging the occupation until the fall, when cold weather would deter the Taliban from fighting.

Brennan stated on Andrea Mitchell’s newscast that Biden should have taken a ploy out of his “The Art of Breaking the Deal” by breaking the former president’s promise to withdraw last spring.

Delay, delay, delay.

That is always the stance of grabitizers refusing to see the resistance building up, hoping to take what they can get for as long as they can – with the “they” being the military-industrial complex, the suppliers of mercenary forces and other recipients of the money that Mr. Biden curiously says that we spent “in Afghanistan.”

The reality is that not much of the notorious $3 trillion actually was spent in Afghanistan.

It was spent on Raytheon, Boeing and other military hardware suppliers, on the mercenary forces, and placed in the accounts of the Afghan proxies for the U.S….

…maneuvering to use Afghanistan…

…to destabilize Central Asia on Russia’s southern flank and western China.

It looks like most of the world will quickly recognize the Afghan government, leaving the U.S., Israel, Britain, India and perhaps Samoa isolated as a recalcitrant block living like the post-World War I royal families still clinging to their titles of dukes, princes and other vestiges of a world that had passed.

Biden’s political mistake was to blame the victim and depict the Taliban victory as a defeat of a cowardly army not willing to fight for its paymasters.

He seems to imagine that the army actually had been paid, provided with food, clothing and weapons in recent months simply because U.S. officials gave their local proconsuls and supporters cash for this purpose.

I understand that there is no real accounting of just what the $3 trillion U.S. cost was actually spent on, who got it the shrink-wrapped bundles of hundred-dollar bills passed down through America’s occupation bureaucracy.

(I bet the serial numbers were not recorded. Imagine if that were done and the U.S. could announce these C-notes demonetized!)

The U.S. is now (20 years after the time it should have begun) trying to formulate a Plan B.

Its strategists probably hope to achieve in Afghanistan what occurred after the Americans left Saigon: An economic free-for-all that U.S. companies can co-opt by offering business opportunities.

On the other hand, there are reports that Afghanistan may sue the United States for reparations for the illegal occupation and destruction still going on as the country is being bombed in Biden’s flurry of B-52 anger.

Such a claim, of course, would open the floodgates for similar suits by Iraq and Syria – and the Hague in Holland has shown itself to be a NATO kangaroo court.

But I would expect Afghanistan’s new friends in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to back such a suit in a new international court, if only to block any hopes by U.S. companies of achieving by financial leverage what the State Department, CIA and Pentagon could not achieve militarily.

In any case, Biden’s parting shot of nasty bombing of Taliban centers can only convince the new leadership to solidify its negotiations with its nearest regional neighbors with their promise to help save Afghanistan from any American, British or NATO attempt to try and come back in and “restore democracy.”

The world has seen enough of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s “rules based order”.

And President Biden’s pretended history on whose mythology U.S. policy will continue to be based.

Add: It is not an accident that the politicians backed by the United States are so corrupt, ruling corrupt bureaucracies that increasingly alienate local populations.

There is a deliberate thought-out reason why American diplomats choose to work with such opportunistic grabitizers as clients whom they place in control.

It is precisely such people whom the U.S. sponsors can trust.

Suppose that you have some truly democratic idealists whose aim is to develop their country.

The problem is that such individuals cannot be trusted to follow U.S. diplomatic aims.

They may act on their own – and go their own way, independently of U.S. direction.

That is a risk that U.S. diplomats never choose to take.

The result is much like corporate bureaucracy, where opportunistic CEOs choose yes-men (or yes-women if they seek protective coloration by posturing as more woke). Such subordinates will support the boss in his own maneuvering, not serve the welfare of the firm.

That is why Boeing preferred financial managers to engineers, whose logic might not be that of the increasingly financialized company.

The aim of U.S. “aid” is not to help the country – or even to help “America” – but to help U.S. arms exporters, contractors, big engineering firms, and neocon ideologues in the CIA and State Department, along with ambitious generals in the military seeking a path to promotion and retirement on the board of directors of the military-industrial complex.

All this was expressed crisply by Zbigniew Brzezinski in famous advice for U.S. hegemonic strategy on the Eurasian continent:

Its aim should be…

“to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and keep the barbarians from coming together.”

What kind of local leader indeed could one expect to implement such policy?

Here's yet another. Man! I am intentionally whipping a dead horse. But by the time this is all over, you all won't want to hear anything else about this section of the world...

White Flagged America

Linh Dinh • August 21, 2021

When Ichiro played in the Major Leagues, he was always hounded by a mob of Japanese journalists and photographers, starting with the first day of Spring Training.

Sick of this, he told an interviewer he wished they would just disappear.

“From your life?”

“No, from this earth.”

The USA, though, is not being pestered but deformed, debilitated and, well, frankly destroyed by a host of people, many of whom you may not have heard of, so let’s us:

Imagine there’s no George Soros,
No Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch or Klaus Schwab, too.
No Jeff Zucker, Mark Zuckerberg, Arthur Sulzberger,
Jonathan Greenblatt, Larry Fink, David Solomon,
Robert Iger, Charles Scharf, Jamie Dimon,
Steve Schwarzman, Jeremy Zimmer, Len Blavatnik,
Andy Slavitt, Jeffrey Zients, Anthony Fauci,
Jessica Rosenworcel, Janet Yellen, Gary Gensler,
Betsy Berns Korn, Mort Fridman or, what the hell,
Nancy Pelosi also, mostly because she’s so icky.

Even more than most lists, it’s highly incomplete, but you get the idea.

Or maybe not. It’s too eclectic, you say, if not confusing.

What do they have in common?

They are all social engineers, out to remake America in ways that have nothing to do, at least initially, with the wishes of its majority…

… so there goes your democracy.

And that's the way it is, Jack!

As new norms are relentlessly propagandized, legalized then imposed, most Americans will learn to embrace their newly cowed, castrated selves.

Many clearly have.

When I tried to indict a cynical and sinister Uncle Sam in my last article, one who has wrecked not just dozens of foreign countries, but America itself, several readers took offense, not at Sammy, the Jew-jerked puppet, but me!

Clearly, they identify with the steel boots that are pinned on their faces, so fine, let them embrace their increasingly wretched fate, but what about others? What about their children?

Due to their parents’ nauseating cowardice, American kids are inheriting hell.

Notice I didn’t bother to list Biden, not because he’s already dead, but because American politicians are merely cabana boys and girls for their social engineering paymasters.

From president on down, they decide absolutely nothing.

Truly moronic…

… Americans keep waiting for the next election to vote in their savior…

… or they vote for an “independent” candidate as a symbolic gesture.

By merely voting, however, they endorse a system that’s openly destroying them.

With voting machines that can’t be audited, American presidential elections are designed to be rigged, with one of two vetted candidates allowed to win to keep the intramural bickering and catfight lurching along, to distract the dummies from seeing what’s going on.

(The last American politician with any integrity was Cynthia McKinney, and they’ve chased her all the way to Bangladesh. Once disappeared, she’s never mentioned by any former colleague, such is their collective cowardice.)

In any case, you don’t want to turn a clown like Obama or Trump, say, into a martyr or, God forbid, national hero, to be worshipped for centuries.

Not that America is likely to last another decade, especially since most of its “patriots” are curled up, with their eyes shut tight, as waves of degeneracy, idiocy and infamy lap over them.

As their family graves are routinely crapped on by their ruling wardens, these pant-soiling patriots keep muttering, “Please don’t fire, deplatform or cancel me, massa! I’ll do whatever you say. I’ve never whispered one bad word about you, not even online. I’ve only used my internet privilege to spit at Afghan refugees and Mexican dishwashers, but no, no, no, I’m no racist! Black lives matter! Please give me the blackest flip-flop to french kiss!”

Conditioned by Hollywood to enjoy others being chopped or blown up, many Americans are getting a kick out of the current terror and panic in Afghanistan.

Some justify this sick schadenfreude by saying these Afghans are collaborators who fully deserve their punishment or even death, but guess which country has provided the most collaborators, by far, to the evil empire?

America, of course.

To the millions who have fought for war profiteers and Jews, you must add all the employees of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics and Raytheon, etc., as well as all the academics who go along with the perverted, mostly Jewish-led social engineering agenda, and the journalists who spew nonsense and lies daily, on and on, so that, really, about the only innocent Americans are the little kids, those who will inherit a hellish, denatured reality as constructed by their clueless or spineless parents, not to mention an astronomical mountain of debts, as brought into being by a Jewish-dominated banking system.

Many Americans are also laughing at the quick collapse of the Afghan Army, but 66,000 of them did die fighting the Taliban and other opposition groups (who themselves suffered 51,191 deaths). 117,191 Afghan men, then, laid down their lives over conflicting versions of Afghanistan.

Do prove me wrong, but the only country that’s going down without any fight whatsoever is the United States of America.

But, but, but America has just created the largest military budget in history to "counter" China. Obviously a grand World War III is planned. What then? Can America destroy China?

China, Russia conclude joint military exercise

Updated 12:54, 14-Aug-2021

CGTN

A five-day joint military exercise between China and Russia, named ZAPAD/INTERACTION-2021, concluded Friday in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

A four-phase exercise was held on Friday morning and attended by more than 10,000 service personnel and main battle armaments, including aircraft, artillery and armored vehicles of various models.

Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu observed the exercise and held talks later in the day.

Wei said that the Chinese and Russian armed forces have supported each other in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating the high-level development of relations between the two militaries.

The two militaries should enhance strategic coordination and comprehensive and practical cooperation, so as to make greater contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, and safeguarding world peace and stability, Wei said.

Russia is willing to enhance strategic communication with China, deepen cooperation in areas such as counterterrorism and work together to safeguard regional peace and stability, Shoigu said.

The two ministers also observed the signing of cooperation documents.

They announced the conclusion of the exercise in the afternoon of the day.

The exercise was the first joint military exercise held in China since the COVID-19 outbreak.

And then we have this piece...

How Russia-China are stage-managing the Taliban

13135 Views August 18, 2021 60 Comments

By Pepe Escobar: The Saker Blog and cross-posted at the Unz Review.

The first Taliban press conference after this weekend’s Saigon moment geopolitical earthquake, conducted by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was in itself a game-changer.

The contrast could not be starker with those rambling pressers at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad after 9/11 and before the start of the American bombing – proving this is an entirely new political animal.

Yet some things never change. English translations remain atrocious.

Here is a good summary of the key Taliban statements, and

here (in Russian) is a very detailed roundup.

These are the key takeaways.

– No problem for women to get education all the way to college, and to continue to work. They just need to wear the hijab (like in Qatar or Iran). No need to wear a burqa. The Taliban insists, “all women’s rights will be guaranteed within the limits of Islamic law.”

– The Islamic Emirate “does not threaten anyone” and will not treat anyone as enemies. Crucially, revenge – an essential plank of the Pashtunwali code – will be abandoned, and that’s unprecedented. There will be a general amnesty – including people who worked for the former NATO-aligned system. Translators, for instance, won’t be harassed, and don’t need to leave the country.

– Security of foreign embassies and international organizations “is a priority.” Taliban special security forces will protect both those leaving Afghanistan and those who remain.

– A strong inclusive Islamic government will be formed. “Inclusive” is code for the participation of women and Shi’ites.

– Foreign media will continue to work undisturbed. The Taliban government will allow public criticism and debate. But “freedom of speech in Afghanistan must be in line with Islamic values.”

– The Islamic Emirate of Taliban wants recognition from the “international community” – code for NATO. The overwhelming majority of Eurasia and the Global South will recognize it anyway. It’s essential to note, for example, the closer integration of the expanding SCO – Iran is about to become a full member, Afghanistan is an observer – with ASEAN: the absolute majority of Asia will not shun the Taliban.

For the record, they also stated that the Taliban took all of Afghanistan in only 11 days: that’s pretty accurate. They stressed “very good relations with Pakistan, Russia and China.” Yet the Taliban don’t have formal allies and are not part of any military-political bloc. They definitely “won’t allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for international terrorists”. That’s code for ISIS/Daesh.

On the key issue of opium/heroin: the Taliban will ban their production. So, for all practical purposes, the CIA heroin rat line is dead.

As eyebrow raising as these statements may be, the Taliban did not even get into detail on economic/infrastructure development deals – as they will need a lot of new industries, new jobs and improved Eurasian-wide trade relations. That will be announced later.

The go-to Russian guy

Sharp US observers are remarking, half in jest, that the Taliban in only one sitting answered more real questions from US media than POTUS since January.

What this first press conference reveals is how the Taliban are fast absorbing essential P.R. and media lessons from Moscow and Beijing, emphasizing ethnic harmony, the role of women, the role of diplomacy, and deftly defusing in a single move all the hysteria raging across NATOstan.

The next bombshell step in the P.R. wars will be to cut off the lethal, evidence-free Taliban-9/11 connection; afterwards the “terrorist organization” label will disappear, and the Taliban as a political movement will be fully legitimized.

Moscow and Beijing are meticulously stage-managing the Taliban reinsertion in regional and global geopolitics. This means that ultimately the SCO is stage-managing the whole process, applying a consensus reached after a series of ministerial and leaders meetings, leading to a very important summit next month in Dushanbe.

The key player the Taliban are talking to is Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special presidential envoy for Afghanistan. In yet another debunking of NATOstan narrative, Kabulov confirmed, for instance, “we see no direct threat to our allies in Central Asia. There are no facts proving otherwise.”

The Beltway will be stunned to learn that Zabulov has also revealed, “we have long been in talks with the Taliban on the prospects for development after their capture of power and they have repeatedly confirmed that they have no extraterritorial ambition, they learned the lessons of 2000.” These contacts were established “over the past 7 years.”

Zabulov reveals plenty of nuggets when it comes to Taliban diplomacy: “If we compare the negotiability of colleagues and partners, the Taliban have long seemed to me much more negotiable than the puppet Kabul government. We proceed from the premise that the agreements must be implemented. So far, with regard to the security of the embassy and the security of our allies in Central Asia, the Taliban have respected the agreements.”

Faithful to its adherence to international law, and not the “rules-based international order”, Moscow is always keen to emphasize the responsibility of the UN Security Council: “We must make sure that the new government is ready to behave conditionally, as we say, in a civilized manner. That’s when this point of view becomes common to all, then the procedure [of removing the qualification of the Taliban as a terrorist organization] will begin.”

So while the US/EU/NATO flee Kabul in spasms of self-inflicted panic, Moscow practices – what else – diplomacy. Zabulov: “That we have prepared the ground for a conversation with the new government in Afghanistan in advance is an asset of Russian foreign policy.”

Dmitry Zhirnov, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan, is working overtime with the Taliban. He met a senior Taliban security official yesterday. The meeting was “positive, constructive…The Taliban movement has the most friendly; the best policy towards Russia… He arrived alone in one vehicle, with no guards.”

Both Moscow and Beijing have no illusions that the West is already deploying Hybrid War tactics to discredit and destabilize a government that isn’t even formed and hasn’t even started working. No wonder Chinese media is describing Washington as a “strategic rogue.”

What matters is that Russia-China are way ahead of the curve, cultivating parallel inside tracks of diplomatic dialogue with the Taliban. It’s always crucial to remember that Russia harbors 20 million Muslims, and China at least 35 million. These will be called to support the immense project of Afghan reconstruction – and full Eurasia reintegration.

The Chinese saw it coming

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saw it coming weeks ago. And that explains the meeting in Tianjin in late July, when he hosted a high-level Taliban delegation, led by Mullah Baradar, de facto conferring them total political legitimacy. Beijing already knew the Saigon moment was inevitable. Thus the statement stressing China expected to “play an important role in the process of peaceful reconciliation and reconstruction in Afghanistan”.

What this means in practice is China will be a partner of Afghanistan on infrastructure investment, via Pakistan, incorporating it into an expanded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) bound to diversify connectivity channels with Central Asia. The New Silk Road corridor from Xinjiang to the port of Gwadar in the Arabian Sea will branch out: the first graphic illustration is Chinese construction of the ultra-strategic Peshawar-Kabul highway.

The Chinese are also building a major road across the geologically spectacular, deserted Wakhan corridor from western Xinjiang all the way to Badakhshan province, which incidentally, is now under total Taliban control.

The trade off is quite straightforward: the Taliban should allow no safe haven for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), and no interference in Xinjiang.

The overall trade/security combo looks like a certified win-win. And we’re not even talking about future deals allowing China to exploit Afghanistan’s immense mineral wealth.

Once again, the Big Picture reads like the Russia-China double helix, connected to all the “stans” as well as Pakistan, drawing a comprehensive game plan/road map for Afghanistan. In their multiple contacts with both Russians and Chinese, the Taliban seem to have totally understood how to profit from their role in the New Great Game.

The extended New Axis of Evil

Imperial Hybrid War tactics to counteract the scenario are inevitable. Take the first proclamation of a Northern Alliance “resistance”, in theory led by Ahmad Masoud, the son of the legendary Lion of the Panjshir killed by al-Qaeda two days before 9/11.

I met Masoud father – an icon. Afghan insider info on Masoud son is not exactly flattering. Yet he’s already a darling of woke Europeans, complete with a glamour pose for AFP, an impromptu visit in the Panjshir by professional philosopher swindler Bernard-Henri Levy, and the release of a manifesto of sorts published in several European newspapers, exhibiting all the catchphrases: “tyranny”, “slavery”, “vendetta”, “martyred nation”, “Kabul screams”, “nation in chains”, etc.

The whole set up smells like a “son of Shah” [of Iran] gambit. Masoud son and his mini-militia are completely surrounded in the Panjshir mountains and can’t be de facto effective even when it comes to regimenting the under 25s, two-thirds of the Afghan population, whose main worry is to find real jobs in a nascent real economy.

Woke NATOstan “analyses” of Taliban Afghanistan don’t even qualify as irrelevant, insisting that Afghanistan is not strategic and even lost its tactical importance for NATO. It’s a sorry spectacle illustrating how Europe is hopelessly behind the curve, drenched in trademark neo-colonialism of the White Man’s Burden variety as it dismisses a land dominated by clans and tribes.

Expect China to be one of the first powers to formally recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, alongside Turkey and, later on, Russia. I have already alluded to the coming of a New Axis of Evil: Pakistan-Taliban-China. The axis will inevitably be extended to Russia-Iran. So what? Ask Mullah Baradar: he couldn’t care less.

Now, let's focus on China, as China will play a major role in this region.

Sitrep : Here comes China : Military Drills, Extortion, the ‘Religious Freedom Balkanization’ Plan for China

8177 Views August 07, 2021 16 Comments

The main news of the day is the Biden administration’s effort to sell 40 155mm M109A6 Medium Self-Propelled Howitzer artillery systems, 1,698 precision guidance kits for munitions, spares, training, ground stations and upgrades for previous generation of howitzers, to the island of Taiwan in a deal worth up to $750 million. China is, to say the least, livid.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230698.shtml

Military Drills:

US ‘large-scale’ military exercises cannot scare China, Russia

The US has begun two “large-scale” military exercises. The first is a joint Indo-Pacific military exercise led by the US Indo-Pacific Command with the participation of Japan, Australia and the UK. The other is the “Large-Scale Exercise 2021” held by US Navy around the world and is reportedly the largest naval exercise since 1981. A US military scholar told media that it is intended to demonstrate to China and Russia that US naval forces can simultaneously meet challenges in the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, South China Sea and East China Sea.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230616.shtml

More Military Drills:

Chinese, Russian militaries to hold joint drill in NW China

YINCHUAN — A joint military exercise by the Chinese and Russian armies will be held from Aug. 9 to 13 at a training base of the People’s Liberation Army in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

The exercise, named ZAPAD/INTERACTION-2021, is the first joint military exercise held inside China since the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the exercise’s leading group.

http://www.chinadailyglobal.com/a/202108/06/WS610c8415a310efa1bd667010.html

And more, an ongoing military drill from Friday to Tuesday

A large section of waters from Hainan to the Paracels has been cordoned off by China’s maritime authorities from Friday

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3144111/south-china-sea-are-carrier-killer-missiles-being-primed-pla

While we are right at the end of the Tokyo Olympics, the force is strong for canceling or otherwise interfering with the upcoming Beijing 2022 Games.

This is what Radio Free Asia (and people should recognize that for what it is), reports, and this is clearly within the human rights wars.

2021-07-27 — The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday said it had to “remain neutral” on global political issues in response to a request from the U.S. Congressional commission that asked it to postpone and relocate the 2022 Beijing Winter Games if China does not end its human rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The reply came in response to a letter that the bipartisan U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) sent to IOC president Thomas Bach. The commission made the letter public on July 23.”

Despite these efforts to do something to China, anything, before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese are keeping cool: “Off the field, observers noted that the success of the Tokyo Olympics under huge pressure is a desperately needed inspiration for the world. Tokyo’s experience in carrying out a major international event under such circumstances sets an example for next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics, experts said. ”

United States blackmail.

And then during the time of writing, the news broke. Part of the Xinjiang story, is pure hard blackmail: the US-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) blackmailed, bribed, and extorted a Chinese company and its US cooperative partner for $300,000 by threatening to hype up fabricated “forced labor” issues related to China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230759.shtml

The complete Xinjian story of forced labor, a genocide (with no dead people), prison camps et al is falling apart like an overripe watermelon that just smashed itself falling off the watermelon buggy and is not fit for eating any longer.

A MUST READ report…

While we are on the topic of extortion, Alex Rubinstein did some undercover work.

He says:

“Using a friend’s company on my application and adopting a fake persona, I attended a three-day summit on religious freedom where leading figures in the Democratic Party including Nancy Pelosi, USAID Director Samantha Power and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ...

...joined up with anti-gay Evangelicals, 
...a slew of shady NGOs and 
...multiple bonafide cults to ratchet up pressure against China.”:

From this ‘Davos of Religious Freedom’, we see top democrats, top republicans, the Christian far right, some clear cults, NGO’s with no history, and just about every anti-China organization in the world right across the spectrum.

The objective? Balkanization under the guise of religious freedom as the new front in the new China cold war.

This report is incredibly detailed and would need some time to read through.

It is however recommended to understand the vast array of forces aligned in the new cold war against China.

https://realalexrubi.substack.com/p/top-democrats-unite-with-christian

More anti-China planning

And the 2nd part is out, titled: A Cult, a Fake Gov’t & US-funded NGOs Hold Panels Panning China…

https://realalexrubi.substack.com/p/cult-fake-govt-ngos

How the CIA infultrates China

And this is how medical philanthropy US to China actually operates:

https://saker.community/2021/08/02/tarnished-american-philanthropy-in-china/

So, what is happening in China?

Simply said, strong strong words.

The recent visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, despite the usual initial nice and welcoming words apparently did not go down well. “A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the talks were in-depth, frank, and beneficial to the relationship between the two countries.”

Days later the story changed materially. “We will no longer make unilateral efforts to maintain the public opinion atmosphere in China-US relations. Using illegal sanctions as a pretext, the US, aided by Canada, has effectively kidnapped a high-ranking Chinese corporate official, Meng Wanzhou, and is still threatening her with possible imprisonment. No other nation behaves so brazenly in defiance of international norms.

“The basis for such changes is that Chinese society has become fed up with the bossy US and we hold no more illusion that China and the US would substantially improve ties in the foreseeable future.

The Chinese public strongly supports the government to safeguard national dignity in its ties with the US and firmly push back the various provocations from the US.

In the face of the malicious China containment and confrontational policy adopted by the two recent US administrations, the Chinese people are willing to form a united front, together bear the consequences of not yielding to the US, and win for the country’s future through struggles.

In other words, Chinese society would unconditionally support whatever tough counterattacks the Chinese government would launch in the face of US-initiated conflicts in all directions toward China.

The US should abandon forever the idea of changing China’s system and policies through sanctions, containment, and intimidation.

We hope US allies in the Asia-Pacific, especially Japan and Australia, can weigh the situation.

They should not act as accomplices of the US’ China containment policy and place themselves at the forefront of confronting China, or they are betting their own future.”

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1229704.shtml

And this is the message that is still prevailing in China and internal to her people.

Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou was in the dock in a Canadian court this last week but at the time of writing, I have not seen any reports.

Chinese Technology is amazing…

Check out this video…

Further details:

Far more world leaders visit China than America: “If leadership diplomacy was an Olympic sport, Beijing beats Washington to the gold medal.”

In 2019, 79 foreign leaders visited China, while only 27 called on the United States.

More world leaders have visited China than the United States in every year since 2013. Many US allies visited China more often than the United States, including those of South Korea, Germany, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and New Zealand.

South East Asian issues

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said ties with Southeast Asia are a priority for China and called for “multilateralism with Asian characteristics”, as the country seeks to counter US moves in the region.

“China has always made Asean its priority for diplomacy in the region … and firmly supports Asean’s central role in regional cooperation,” Wang said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry readout on Thursday.

“Both sides should conduct frequent communication on all levels, and continue with mutual understanding and support for each other’s core interests.”

Strong arming failures

US drops visa fraud charge against Chinese researcher accused of hiding ties to Chinese military.

Days before trial was expected to start, US prosecutors ask judge to dismiss charge against cancer researcher Tang Juan.

Imagine that!

Federal agents said Tang allegedly sought refuge at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after they interviewed her at her home.

More strong arming failures

The US dropped cases against five Chinese researchers accused of hiding ties to the Chinese military.

The China Initiative has raised concern about racial profiling of Asians, however, and led to calls for investigation into the DOJ’s conduct.

Judges had already dismissed parts of two cases after it was revealed FBI agents hadn’t properly informed them of their rights against self-incrimination.

Trying to regulate into oblivion

U.S.-listed Chinese firms must disclose Chinese government interference risks. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that Chinese companies listed on U.S. markets must disclose the risks of the Chinese government interfering in their business as part of their reporting obligations.

No overseas coal projects.

For the first time since 2013, China funded no overseas coal projects in H1. Last month, ICBC announced that it would begin to phase out coal project financing, and pulled out of a major $3 billion coal power plant project in Zimbabwe.

Then Beijing published fresh guidelines encouraging overseas enterprises to invest in greener projects and dump environmentally risky ones.

http://thesaker.is/russia-china-advance-asian-roadmap-for-afghanistan/

Sitrep: Here Comes China: Giant Pandas, Elephants and Decoupling

8163 Views July 18, 2021 12 Comments

Selections from Godfree Roberts’ extensive weekly newsletter: Here Comes China. You can get it here: https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe 

Further selections and editorial and geopolitical commentary by Amarynth.

Geopolitical moves:

Most of the geopolitical space was taken up by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soon Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, moved in, boots ‘n all, with SCO.

North Korea and China

A geopolitical story of note is the confirmed friendship between Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un pledging to strengthen their friendly relations as they exchanged messages on the 60th anniversary of a bilateral landmark defense treaty.

Under the 1961 agreement, China and North Korea must automatically defend each other when one of them is attacked. Xi said he is ready to work with Kim to “take bilateral friendly cooperation to a new level and deliver more benefits to the two countries and two peoples.”

Huawei Kidnapping

Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case suffered a major blow.

A Canadian judge ruled that HSBC documents showing that US authorities had made selective, misleading and “outright false” claims about the Huawei CFO could play no part in the case.

[Ed: Under Hong Kong’s controversial extradition law one had to commit a crime. Under Canadian law one can be extradited if they “may” have committed a crime].

Taiwan to be toast

On Taiwan, the Chinese have put down their red lines and a warning: “We advise the US and the island of Taiwan not to misjudge the situation and not to underestimate our determination and will to punish their provocation. They must be prepared to face a sudden blow.”

Hey! Look what’s coming to Africa!

Well, I heard that President Biden is going to throw some more billions of dollars for more High Speed Train development in the United States. I am sure that the lawyers, the accountants, and the bankers are all very excited about the money. But look at what is going up in Africa…

Made by America? Nope. Made by China.

Two good-feel-good stories:

Pandas

Wild Giant pandas are no longer endangered, but they are still vulnerable with a population outside captivity of 1,800.

Authorities have expanded their habitats and replanted bamboo forests to feed them.

The number of Siberian tigers, Amur leopards, Asian elephants, and crested ibis has also “visibly increased” as a result of conservation efforts.

Elephants

And those wandering elephants are still wandering. Excepting western reporting considers this story as: “Cuddly elephants are the latest propaganda weapon in President Xi Jinping’s propaganda offensive to present a more ‘lovable’ global image of China.

The elephants are just one manifestation of Beijing’s decade-long obsession with boosting what it calls its ‘discourse power.’” Sydney Morning Herald.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0bf8y-Qbo0

I’ve seen western reporting say things like: Marauding and destructive elephant herd in China demolishes the countryside. So, now we know, even good-feel-good stories out of China are weaponized.

(Could we imminently expect a headline saying .. marauding Chinese elephants EAT pandas in JinJiang? Xi Jingping personally responsible for giving the order. For those who find themselves temporarily without a sense of humor, this is meant as humor although it illustrates the media from the west that will use anything and everything to continue the media war).

Business:

It is hard to choose what to put first from this growing Chinese juggernaut. Let’s start with banks:

The world’s top banks are Chinese: ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China hold the top four positions for the fourth year in a row. ICBC has been at the top of the table for nine consecutive years.

Its Tier 1 capital has grown to $439.9bn, the highest individual bank total on record and a $59.7bn increase YoY.

Capital levels continue to grow significantly, up 18.6% YoY compared to the global average of 12.7%. They now account for 30% of global aggregate Tier 1 capital in the Top 1000 compared with 11% in 2011 and 5% in 2001.

Chinese GDP a growing

GDP grew 18.3% in Q1 and 12.7% in H1 YoY. Urban unemployment is 5%, and 6.98 million new urban jobs, 63.5 percent of the annual target, were created in the first half. Per capita disposable income increased 12.6% YoY.

Chinese exports are up, up, up!

Exports up 32.2% in June, from 27.9% in May, YoY. Imports increased by 36.7% y/y last month, down from 51.1% y/y growth in May. The trade surplus was $51.5 billion in June, and to $45.5 billion in May.

China trade with Europe

January – May, Chinese trade with Germany, $92.8 billion, grew 36% YoY and France $32.9 billion rose 44%. China has proposed cooperating with Germany and France for Africa’s development and aims to reopen investment deal with EU.

Six new projects

Six new projects broke ground at Gwadar Port, a flagship of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC): a fertilizer factory, an animal vaccine factory, a lubricant factory and an exhibition center.

A 300MW imported coal power plant has been in construction since 2019 and the Power Purchase Agreement was signed earlier this year.

Didi Ride-share

Beijing’s investigation of Didi jolted global markets and tech startups canceled overseas IPOs. Keep, backed by SoftBank, Alibaba-backed medical data solutions provider, and Ximalaya, the podcast app, all canceled IPOs, admitting that regulators had discouraged them from listing overseas.

The Financial Times says the “debacle signals [the] end of [a] steady stream of New York listings for Chinese companies.”

Wall-street hurting

China’s Tech Crackdown Hits Wall Street’s Wallet. U.S. listings of Chinese companies have accounted for nearly 8 percent of Goldman Sachs’s underwriting fees so far this year, and over 12% of underwriting revenue over the previous five years. Didi Chuxing is just the tip of the iceberg.

Remember, the Chinese work together as one singular organism

You try to hurt it, and all Hell will break loose, the people in the United States and the West have absolutely no concept or idea of what they are going up against. It’s like those cocky Space Marines in Aliens II (the movie) and then were FUCKING slaughtered in three minutes.

The Chinese are not what everyone thinks.

Compliance in China

A Global Times op-ed explains that Chinese tech companies are moving from an era of “barbaric growth” to an “era of compliance,” in which internet companies learn to observe domestic laws and regulations. China has long held restrictions on foreign investment but a loophole, called a VIE, allowed companies to bypass those rules. Chinese internet companies “should now step out of the gray area and move toward normalized corporate governance.

Decoupling from the “West”

China seems intent on decoupling its companies from Western markets. The Economist. Nearly $2 trillion in shareholder wealth is on the line.

IPOs under investigation

How Chinese clampdown targets offshore listings: China’s securities regulator is setting up a team to review plans by Chinese companies for initial public offerings (IPOs) abroad, including those using a corporate structure that Beijing says has led to abuse.

US continues to blacklist

In a separate act of decoupling, the U.S. Commerce Department today added 14 Chinese entities to its growing economic blacklist over their participation in “China’s campaign of repression, mass detention, and high technology surveillance” in Xinjiang. The companies include AI and other tech firms based in Xinjiang, Beijing, and Chengdu.

More YoY

Couriers delivered 49 billion pieces in H1, up 46% YoY, and added an average of 2 billion pieces of express delivery per month, with business volume approaching 10 billion in a single month, constantly hitting new record highs.

TikTok

TikTok will stop requiring employees to work an extra day every two weeks, following a similar move by its local rival Kuaishou. Under the arrangement, workers were paid double their regular daily rate when working on weekends and triple during legal holidays, a bonus that some young professionals preferred to better work-life balance.

Electric Vehicles

Two of China’s three best-selling electric vehicles in June were Shanghai-built Tesla models, shining a light on the U.S. automaker’s popularity in the world’s largest auto market despite recent setbacks there like a regulatory probe into the safety of its autopilot system.”

Battery swapping centers

China is embarking on a building spree for battery swapping centers, as the nation’s network of swapping centers numbered 716 at the end of June, nearly three times the amount at the end of last year.

Shanghai Microelectronics

Shanghai Microelectronics sells its 600/20 flagship lithography machine for 90 nm chips. By Q4, it will offer machines for 28 nm, replacements for ASML’s 1980Di machine and next year will offer 14 nm. machines. “China has world-class EDA(Electronic design automation) startups–companies with worldwide customers.”

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/07/18/662478/Chinese-FM-arrives-in-Syria,-meets-officials-signs-agreements

China Space……

For the SpaceONauts – China’s space sector is getting too big and too busy to report on in this Sitrep and magazine format and I’m sure there are media focused on the sector. Just a little while ago, we have this reusable suborbital spacecraft with its successful first launch. It leaves earth horizontally, and returns vertically, like an airplane.

China and Syria signs rebuilding and BRI investments

Until a little while ago, at the time of writing, this was a rumor. Now it is fact.

Chinese FM arrives in Syria, meets officials and signs agreements

China to help rebuild the Ukraine

There is another similar type of rumor, very small in the press as yet, that China is now active in the Ukraine in terms of rebuilding and perhaps farming contracts. This is very small currently but keep your eyes open.

On these two items, one has to remember the ‘double helix’ of China and Russia.

This is but a fraction of what I gleaned from the Here Comes China newsletter. Godfree has some delicious longer reads in his newsletter: https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe

And if all this isn't enough, then let's start talking about America and how it fits with the changing global situation...

Lesser Evil Politics Assure Greater Evil Economics

By Frank Scott

A new American president is presenting a program for renewal of human values in the marketplace unheard of since the 1930s but still projecting American military domination and environmental destruction far beyond the awareness of most Americans.

Continued insistence that Russia and China are major global threats to everyone and not just American monopoly capitalists resonate not only in the cosmic void between the ears of our mentally disabled foreign policy experts but echo in the minds of innocent Americans since that’s all they get from major, and all too often minor media.

The charge that China is conducting genocide on its Islamic people coming from the butchers of hundreds of thousands of Islamic people in the middle east would be a dreadful sick joke if not so incredibly evil, but poor souls condemned to network media remain stuck in a misinformation chamber amplifying our ruling power’s message day in and day out.

The fact that growing majorities have little or no faith in government or media is a hopeful sign but until we totally clean out the sewage system much of corporate news has become, the stench that wafts up remains a carrier of the information pandemic.

While alleged economic threats from China actually do offer market competition to the empire ( and market competition is supposed to be good, according to the theology preached by the priest-rabbi-therapists of the church of capital ) and China is under the control of communists who at least try, not always with success, to force it to work for the common good and not just the minority of Chinese capitalists, why and how and to whom is that a threat?

Only to America where majorities exist in numbers of those in debt but never those who vote nationally.

This is called “our” democracy by many wishful thinkers still unaware that the political process is owned and operated by the wealthiest minority, which spends billions to maintain political control by purchase and rental of candidates and office holders.

Citizens innocently proclaiming this hustle as “our” democracy are like past slaves referring to “our” plantation.

If they were the minority house negroes of the time they could afford such fantasy but the overwhelming majority who toiled in the fields and suffered the most brutal treatment had no such luxury.

And as if the treatment of these two powerful nations didn’t show enough imperial idiocy, that of a nearly helpless tiny nation currently, as usual, under assault, is greater indication of lunacy bordering on stark raving insanity.

After 60 years of a murderous attempted strangulation of the Cuban political economy, that tiny nation survives with the support of the overwhelming majority of governments on earth.

Recently at the United Nations 184 countries voted to end the filthy American embargo with only Murder Inc. headquartered in the USA and Israel still, as always out of step with the overwhelming majority while spouting humanitarian rhetoric and practicing murderous brutality.

This still finds well meaning people waving flags and quoting bibles and constitutions as though these fabled symbols clean up the reality of degenerate social practice as hypocritical as a rapist claiming victims only to assure they do not suffer sexual frustration.

The anti-Cuban lobby, second only to that of Israel in its control of American foreign policy, was originally a creature of the Cuban upper classes who escaped to Miami from the revolution that was working to spread education, jobs, health care and other necessities of life to the greatest number of people who had long been denied by American partnership with Cuban ruling power.

They loom large in the current scenario of an alleged uprising against the terror and horror of millions of people eating, going to school and getting health care despite the ugly embargo and other violent attempts to smother the island of 11 million so that capital might again profit from gambling and drugs, as it did before 1960.

Meanwhile, another bloody lie in Afghanistan has ended with the Taliban, the group we were allegedly protecting poor afghans from, has taken over the government of their own country.

This after billions have been spent and hundreds of thousands murdered in pursuit of profits while good people here have been fed stories about emancipating women and educating afghans to the joys of democracy like ours, where hundreds of thousands of Americans live in the street while we spend trillions to kill people and billions to care for pets.

And far beyond wretched national policies looms the global curse of what private profit industrial and war marketing are doing to the environment shared by humanity and not just one or anther national identity group often claiming super status with a special connection to deities ranging from Santa Claus to the Easter bunny for all they are worth in the material world.

Words about democracy are not balanced by deeds of mass murder, oppression and absolute support for rich minority rule that assures continued profit making from exploitation of workers whether they clean toilets, drive buses, pilot airplanes or walk dogs.

Like the sex workers who use their private parts to create private profits for their entrepreneurial pimps, those who create, package and deliver the consumer goods that are the foundation of the economy are doing it for the benefit of owners and investors rather than their own which would be far better served if they owned and ran the businesses they form the foundation for while others get rich on their labor.

Facing horrible news at what the future of humanity looks like under the environmental stress called climate change, more people than ever are working to end foul methods of economics that assure disaster for humanity but trying to do so while maintaining market rules of private profit assures further destruction or worse, simply throwing people out of work they do only to survive and thus destroy hope of survival.

The future must be to keep people alive by assuring the public good before any pursuit of private profit. We do not need professional economists to explain that capitalism is the only answer to social problems all the while collecting fat salaries and investment opportunities while society fails more quickly under their rule.

In truth, if workers are doing dirty work that affords them salaries so they can pay their rent, mortgages and other life supports, but it costs society billions to have to clean up the mess they create, we would all best be served by paying them to not go to work.

We’d be saving the billions we’d have to spend to clean up the mess they created in service to private profiteers and assure their survival by using those mammoth savings to help them learn and get better jobs for them and everyone else, that serve all of us and not simply minority investors.

As the world grows more threatened and conditions become more dangerous with the USA holding several hundred military bases in foreign countries and surrounding Russia and China with troops and war ships, immediate action must be taken to both confront environmental conditions that threaten us all and war like preparations that are profitable to a criminal minority while threatening the planet and all its people.

In short, we need global democratic communism before anti-social capitalism destroys us all.

email: fpscott@gmail.com Frank Scott writes  political commentary and satire which appears online at the blog Legalienate  http://legalienate.blogspot.com)

Let’s not forget the Amazing HST that has revolutionized China, and is now changing all of Asia…

Now, let’s move on to the biggest project of the century; the BRI…

The Belt and Road Initative

From my mail box by [redacted].

Here we focus on making people understand that the Belt & Road Initiative is the Endeavor of the Century.

And it’s not a small task with the pervasive anti-China propaganda.

Why ? because the BRI will decrease poverty, will open perspectives, will connect lands & seas, will create bonds between nations, will provoke many occasions to work together and learn from each other personally, will boost education (technical & philosophical).

Yes, capitalists & upper class people (Americans, Chinese, Russians, Iranians, Europeans, Japanese, Indians, Pakistanis, Koreans, Africans, Latin Americans, Down Under-ians etc.) will profit more, so what ?! They got the money and the organization ! Let’s be realistic !

A bit of Real Politik, please, as Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin said to Angela Merkel at the occasion of her valedictory visit to him. If this project, which is supposed to be finished in 2049, (for the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China) can achieve only 50 % of its potential, the World will not be a paradise but it will be a much much better place because true, physical development will be possible for so many people on Earth. Imagine it as a Marshall Plan to the square.

True development means first and foremost public utilities and infrastructures (clean water, power grids, roads & bridges, schools buildings etc.). I think it was Lenin who said that the Bolshevik Revolution is the power of the Soviets plus the electrification of Russia.

According to an article by MK Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat, the total amount of money injected in the BRI projects to now is in the order of 4 trillions, with a “t” !

Imagine the 2.2 trillions wasted in Afghanistan and the 5.7 trillions lost in Irak channeled to infrastructural, health & educational (all levels) improvements in the USA !

China became Europe’s first commercial partner this year with exchanges worth almost one trillion, with a “t”.

Speaking of Europe, Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Finance minister can testify to the unexpected and respectful Chinese interventions in the so-called Greek crisis within the framework of the Belt & Road Initiative.

It is obvious that we need to be aware of the ecological dimension and many industrial projects were utterly careless for our natural environment but the Climate Change narrative and Green narrative are fabrications to brainwash in order not to allow true and respectful of nature development. Watch Professor William Happer’s video or for those speaking French, François Gervais’s videos.

As Vijay Prashad said rightly, in the mind of the Crusaders, most of the Planet are pools of slaves and microscopic pockets of house niggers/ching-chongs/wogs/snow white house niggers (if you want a nicer, politically correct ,acceptable & respectful expression:compradore bourgeoisie) for them to use & abuse so they can live the high life. Of course, a global project for true and solid development like the Belt & Road Initiative

(development of the mind & true industrialization)

is absolutely anathema to them.

What is happening now in the West is the slow ( maybe not so slow) motion of the plutocrats to crush the offspring of the middle class created post 1945 because even the crumbs they “gave” your parents cannot be “given” to you anymore since new poles of power re-emerged, depriving them (relatively for now but the tendency will increase with time) of guaranteed long term slave laborers and cheap natural resources so they want to “give” even less here because in THEIR SYSTEM, the profits are less.

In technical words, that’s the system of empire or the British system (aka closed paradigm) the eternal foe of the open paradigm or the American System of Physical Economy (and true development) by Henry Charles Carey (1793-1879) who was also the economic adviser to President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

I want to remind everyone of Jeff’s 6 E s describing the PBC’s (Psychopathic Barbarian Crusaders) usual modus operandi : Extortion, Extraction, Expropriation, Enslavement, Evangelization & Extermination.

I would like to remind everyone a conversation between Roman historian Tacitus (56-c.120) and his father-in-law, the general Agricola (40-93). Agricola was at the time of the chat governor of the province of Britain, he was looking in the direction of Ireland and confided to his son-in-law his wish to conquer it.

Tacitus replied it would be a loss for the empire since those barbarians are not even fit to be trained as slaves. Agricola said that Tacitus was naive because to leave a pocket of freedom is a danger for Rome, it would give a small hope to the subjugated people. The English oligarchy learned from the “right” people !

Exploitation & Intimidation form an eternal pair.

But in an open paradigm, that mentality of false scarcity for justifying oligarchical control will not be accepted.

For those who can’t stand Lyndon Larouche (1922-2019), be informed that he was a genius and a philosopher king, without a crown like Confucius (551 BCE-479 BCE) and Plato (427 BCE- 347 BCE). The mere fact that the oligarchy felt the need to fabricate a sordid story of stolen documents to convict him to years of hard labor speaks volumes.

He also predicted the 2008 crisis years in advance, not a small feat since most of the garden variety economists were clueless, I don’t even think they were bought off, I would grant them too much brain by adhering to such a hypothesis… Larouche might sound a little bit granddiloquent in certain speeches but it was the natural expression of a man confident in the quality of his mind because he truly developed it.

Last but not least, he insisted on exposing the epistemological warfare, denouncing the dionysian sex, drug and rock’nd roll “culture”, skillfully and surreptitiously downgrading the possibilities of the human mind, making people easier to corral.

The Frankfurt school, the ‘societal’ changes, the ‘ecological’ battles were all used as red herrings to the true socio-economic struggles. Mai 68 in France was a color revolution to get rid of Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), try to explain that to a Parigot bobo completely brainwashed by the contemporary doxa !

His analysis of Universal History is outstanding. Webster Tarpley, a brilliant historian having writtten ” 9-11, terror made in USA ” has been part of his organization.

For those having difficulties to watch “The Revival of the American System with Chinese Characteristics”, I suggest 12 sessions of 5 minutes. I’m not being sarcastic, sometimes simplistic means can give great results…

To recapitulate, if you are not filthily rich or do not wield formidable power (meaning you don’t have money to give or positions to offer) but are willing to devote some time in order to be useful for the cause of an advanced & refined mankind :

FOCUS ON PROMOTING THE BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE AND TRY TO EDUCATE AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE ON EPISTEMOLOGICAL WARFARE

Which is (the worst form of slavery is the mental form, please remember Plato’s allegory of the Cave and don’t forget one of the six E s is Evangelization) because both are powerful multi-generational (not only do we need to understand Real Politik but also that a great Endeavor will take the efforts of many people over more than one generation) tools to escape the clutch of the imperial aka British system.

And a message for all thos neocons who wants World War III with China & Russia…

Things are not going to happen as you think.

Never forget that the Chinese are super patriotic

If you try to hurt the Chinese now, they will SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT.

Of course, there is no one at the helm in the United States these days. What ever professional diplomatic corps that used to exist has been sacked and replaced with toadies who are just political donors. And they have no concept of the shit-load of trouble that they are walking into.

It absolutely reminds me of the Hungarian and Polish leadership that tried to take on Genghis Khan and his hordes of blood-thirsty killers.

Here’s a Chinese preschool.

Now, a few years older. Here’s a video of Chinese “cub scouts” (Optional in Elementary School)…

Next a video of Chinese Middle School Students (Mandatory. Everyone in China get’s this training.). When a kid is in middle school, they must attend Summer training at different levels. They make up the basis for the conscript army.

Chinese mandatory Middle School Training.

Next a video of some Chinese Para-Military. There are all sorts of para-military forces embedded within China. This group is a regulatory arm of the Corruption Police. Of course, they are all trained in the warrior arts.

Next video shows some of what China’s professional warrior class can do. China is hardly a “peasant army fielding old AK-47 clones”.

And of course, everyone knows that China is no match for America’s professional military with it’s “Warrior Culture”, massive numbers of high-technology weapons, and the “never-give-up-Rambo spirit!

Anyways, here’s some topical links.

Topical Links

August 16 – Afghanistan – Chaos Pictures Increase Fallout From U.S. Defeat
America leaves Afghanistan, and the regional geopolitics take over
AB INITIO: AFGHANISTAN – Patrick Armstrong
Video: Disaster at Kabul Airport One, two

sayed salahuddin @sayedsalahuddin - 11:59 UTC · 22 Aug 2021

Almost all parts of Afghanistan enjoying peace for a week now after over 42 years of war, but Kabul airport has become the most violent part.

August 17, 2021 – Afghanistan – Taliban Press Conference Notes
Transcript of Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul – Al Jazeerah
The Taleban’s rise to power: As the US prepared for peace, the Taleban prepared for war – AAN – Recommended Longread
Afghanistan – What Will Happen Next? A Provisional Government And A New Constitution.
The Ides of August – Sarah Chayes
Reflections on Events in Afghanistan – 5. Putin: Taliban is the reality
Afghanistan Faces Economic Shock as Sanctions Replace Foreign Aid
August 20 – Britain Wants A Rerun Of The War On Afghanistan
August 20 – Afghanistan – The New ‘Northern Alliance’ Resistance Has Already Fallen Apart

Conclusion!

We went from the history behind Afghanistan and the various military empires that tried to conquer it, to the gnashing of the teeth and wailing of the American cheerleaders who are in shock and pain.

Then, we started to review how this obscure nation fit in with the global power play and that means the “collective West” and Asia. Where “Asia” is China, Iran and China together.

Then, if that isn’t enough…

…we see that China continues to grow.

And even though the “news” about China is all doom and gloom…

… no one in the “West” has any idea of what a force China is right now, and how insurmountable a united Asia is against the fat, weak, corrupt United States and it’s vassals.

There is no question that for the twenty years that the United States has been in Afghanistan not one American leader read any history…

… not one American diplomat or military general or expert had any idea about what was actually going on in that section of the globe.

And since Afghanistan was such an enormous drain in money, resources, and “news”, once can only imagine the poverty of United States ability in other Geo-political arenas.

The best thing for the United States to do right now is to die quietly in a hole somewhere and allow the rest of the world to carry on.

Provocative?

Yes, I suppose, but it is accurate.

We know that with the enormous outlay of military funding that the United States fully plans to engage China in a serious war. And they plan to do it not only in the South China Sea, but on Chinese soil. This will not work out the way that everyone plans.

As I have said before, China is a serious, serious nation, that does not play.

Video of the future of Africa with Chinese help.

Read my Deagel reports, if you don’t know what I am talking about. Right there is everything that you need to know about the future of the world. And what you can do about your little part of it.

Do you want more?

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